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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/16930 | Capote's In Cold Blood: new evidence
February 9, 2013 6:05 AM Subscribe
posted by BibiRose (15 comments total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
Did Capote ever actually call In Cold Blood a "non-fiction novel" or was that tag hung on it later by others?
posted by jfuller at 6:25 AM on February 9, 2013
That's a good question. It never occurred to me to take In Cold Blood as factual to the extent that I would find "revelations" of this level to be shocking.
posted by Bookhouse at 6:28 AM on February 9, 2013 [2 favorites]
I am surprised that this is supposed to be shocking- I had thought everyone understood that it was a novel, however based on fact and endless interviews with the people involved it was.
posted by winna at 7:04 AM on February 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
Hmm, but in continuing to look, I found this interview he did with George Plimpton in 1966.
With the nonfiction novel I suppose the temptation to fictionalize events, or a line of dialogue, for example, must at times be overwhelming. With "In Cold Blood" was there any invention of this sort to speak of--I was thinking specifically of the dog you described trotting along the road at the end of the section on Perry and Dick, and then later you introduce the next section on the two with Dick swerving to hit the dog. Was there actually a dog at that exact point in the narrative, or were you using this habit of Dick's as a fiction device to bridge the two sections?
No. There was a dog, and it was precisely as described. One doesn't spend almost six years on a book, the point of which is factual accuracy, and then give way to minor distortions. People are so suspicious. They ask, "How can you reconstruct the conversation of a dead girl, Nancy Clutter, without fictionalizing?" If they read the book carefully, they can see readily enough how it's done. It's a silly question. Each time Nancy appears in the narrative, there are witnesses to what she is saying and doing--phone calls, conversations, being overheard. When she walks the horse up from the river in the twilight, the hired man is a witness and talked to her then. The last time we see her, in her bedroom, Perry and Dick themselves were the witnesses, and told me what she had said. What is reported of her, even in the narrative form, is as accurate as many hours of questioning, over and over again, can make it. All of it is reconstructed from the evidence of witnesses which is implicit in the title of the first section of the book "The Last to See Them Alive."
posted by winna at 7:18 AM on February 9, 2013 [2 favorites]
It is funny how standards have changed such that writing a book like In Cold Blood, to the extent that it is based at all on factual information, would be virtually impossible now. For prosecutors to grant the media that kind of access flies in the face of most ethical rules, as far as I can tell. In some ways, that only cements the book's place as something special, even if Capote's and/or Dewey's behavior in producing it was sneaky or manipulative.
posted by likeatoaster at 7:36 AM on February 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
I also found that they exhumed the killers from this case to test their DNA against a cold case from 1959 in Florida.
As far as Capote's claim of dedication to total factual accuracy, here's an overview of some of the five thousand changes made in the serialized version published in The New Yorker versus the version published by Random House. Some are trivial, some are substantial. He may have claimed all sorts of things - he may even have believed them. But his claim to accuracy has never been part of why it's still read. It's a beautifully written book, whether he'd made it all up or not changed the position of a dog on the road as the two killers drove to the farm where the Clutters lived.
I'm posting too much, but memory and the question of what is truth in writing has always interested me. I will stop.
posted by winna at 7:42 AM on February 9, 2013
I spoke to someone who witnessed Capote's arrival in Lawrence, Kansas from the point of view of the municipal establishment. They wanted so badly to exclude and dislike him, but they found it to be impossible not to love him. Prosecutors will likely grant that kind of access again, when another Capote comes along, if that ever happens.
posted by StickyCarpet at 8:09 AM on February 9, 2013
I've always viewed In Cold Blood as a kind of fictional true crime novel. It sits in an ill-defined and uncomfortable space. But it is not any less pleasurable to read. So the story is that writers stretch the truth and make it more beautiful with their own words. This is NOT news to me.
posted by Fizz at 8:33 AM on February 9, 2013
I remember reading In Cold Blood as a kid. I loved it so much I tried to find other "true crime" books like it and was sorely disappointed. I was too young at the time to realize I'd basically started from the top and it was all downhill from there.
Even at that age though I knew not to trust it as 100% true. I read biographies of Capote after reading it and it was pretty clear he was a bit of a fabulist.
posted by schroedinger at 9:52 AM on February 9, 2013 [1 favorite]
From the WSJ article: Mr. Capote's defenders note that the rules of non-fiction-book writing, including the footnoting of source material, hardened only after Mr. Capote helped pioneer the genre. This is very valid, to me. There really weren't any rules when Capote wrote the book, so you can't say he broke them.
But I also think this was quite an unusual moment in terms of how the writing interacted with the events as they took place. That seems to be a fairly obvious phenomenon now, but it was only in 1990 that Janet Malcolm came out with The Journalist and the Murderer. Fatal Vision, the book she criticizes, claimed to be completely factual. But its author, Joe McGinniss, inserted himself into the case and thus affected it, and I think you can say the same for Capote. You could even draw parallels between the ways each author befriended a defendant.
I think In Cold Blood is an incredibly powerful book, among other things, in the way it treats the death penalty. It doesn't read as being a tract on that subject, or even really pro or con, but me, it shows how monstrous legal death in the state of Kansas was at that time. Even though the men put to death were, in a way, poster boys for the penalty-- which in a strange way, makes it a stronger statement. I think there are a lot of paradoxes in this book, which is what makes it so endlessly fascinating.
posted by BibiRose at 10:00 AM on February 9, 2013 [3 favorites]
I'll just leave this here.
posted by mindwarp at 10:20 AM on February 9, 2013 [2 favorites]
When I read the book, I could see that Capote clearly liked Smith far more than Hickock, and guessed that the book had to be distorted in other ways. Capote screwed up the pacing of the trial to put Smith in a better light, though mistelling the actual events of the investigation is a bigger thing.
posted by Jehan at 10:40 AM on February 9, 2013
The inaccuracies may be no big surprise to anyone, but the fact that the Kansas Bureau of Investigation is displaying the book in a glass case in the lobby of their headquarters while the Topeka AG sues to suppress decades-old documents that make them look bad ... that seems like a story.
posted by crayz at 10:40 AM on February 9, 2013 [2 favorites]
Well, yes and no. Saying "it's all factual" when you know that it isn't was just as much a lie back then as it is now.
posted by yoink at 1:03 PM on February 9, 2013
I was expecting a much larger change than this. Not that making up an entire scene without including even a little bit of the truth is a good thing, but knowing how unreliable Capote was in every other matter of his life makes me feel like any of it could be fake.
But it's still a beautifully-written and fascinating book. I read a lot of true crime before I read In Cold Blood, and it was only afterwards that I could see what they were trying (and usually failing) to achieve. I think Dave Cullen's Columbine comes close. In my opinion, the best true crime writers are long-form journalists, with short-form journalists being the worst (patchy, disjointed and often terrible at indicating the order of events) and everyone else in-between. In Cold Blood is one of those trope-makers that are quite different from the pattern that followed.
mindwarp, I'm not quite sure what WSB is saying about the book in that letter/curse (I blame the justified text, so hard to read! what's wrong with left-aligned text, Letters of Note?). Is it that Capote shouldn't have entered into the debate about the amount of sympathy given to murderers vs victims? Or that he picked the side of the victims? I'm quite curious.
posted by harriet vane at 1:11 AM on February 12, 2013
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Old 09-23-2011, 03:38 AM #39
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IMO, the main issues with the UI isn't any lacking beauty/animations (and please don't add any in case it slows down the program even more), it's the inconsitency. Let me explain:
By default, Calibre users mostly use/see the main toolbar and the context menu. However, I've found that there are several overlapping functions that appear in both the main toolbar and context menu, leading to confusion and waste of space. Every time I install Calibre I have to manually reconfigure the UI to my liking (I now don't even use the context menu). I wish there was a way to backup/transfer the UI settings to a new installation so I don't have to adjust/remember where all my UI preferences are.
Furthermore, is there an easier way to move/adjust the UI elements besides within the Preferences menu (preferably drag-n-drop, like Google Chrome, which is an epitome of UI design)? It's very tedious to have to use the Up/Down/Left/Right arrows to move the icons around within the toolbar and context menu.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/16970 | Quake II: Quad Damage (Windows)
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17012 | Lyrics to Fuc-wid-us
by Crooked I
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[edit]Song titleFuc-wid-us
[edit]Artist nameCrooked I
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Ya really don't Wanna FuckWit Us and that's whats up
We keep them pistols in the stash no matter what
Ya really don't Wanna Clash With Us
Ya really don't want our gats to bust
Too all my gangstas grab your straps off the shelf
Niggaz is murderin in them streets, please protect yourslf
Listen! These Niggaz out here talking about me every day
But if they come at me Ima have to blow them Niggaz away (BLAAAOW)
Tuck in your gat, Nigga you ain't thuggin, your nuthin but rats
Stuck in trap, Nigga run up get a slug in your back
Killin you Niggaz over oil like President Bush
The shern oil jacked the shit hit the ghetto and push
One, Two, Three, Fuck with us and you'll be R.I.P
So if ya don't want ya heartbeat to stop
Then walk away before my gun pop
Leave me alone, pack chrome, gat long, back no, cat go, leave a Niggaz back
blown, Soon as he act grown
Nigga my gat crack bones, Cats won't last long singin ya last song, A Nigga
wont even make it back home
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Ya really don't wanna fuck with us and that's whats up
We keep them pistols in the stash no matter what
Ya really don't Wanna Clash With Us
Ya really don't want our gats to bust
Up against the West Coast Nigga that squeezed the most triggas
And Fucked the most Bitches and touched the most riches
The four is on switches, the Benzes is so vicious
We stay ghetto for life...MY Nigga
Crooked Ain't Real? You Confusing me my Nigga
How you double cross me? You used to be my Nigga
Niggaz cry rivers, soon as we fly triggas, Five hit you, that's how lead
poison travel inside livers
Tie you to a bumper, drag you by your adam's apple
And laugh as your skin unravels as you travel across gravel
So Why You Wanna Fuck Wit Me? I keep a Ak, a P-90 and Desert E
I pop up quick, Be where you thought I never Be
from outta nowhere I giver your Coogi sweater three
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17014 | Aquarion EVOL: (Sub) Love Index Skyrockets
(Sub) Love Index Skyrockets
Amata wakes up at the Neo-DEAVA academy where Element pilots are trained. The staff has all kinds of tests set up for him, but the real fun begins when he falls down a hole and helps a new friend tunnel under the wall separating the boys from the girls.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17084 | JFK, Lewis, Huxley: Calculating comfort purchased by sacrificing transcendence
The New York TimesNovember 28, 2013
In effect, both Huxley and Lewis looked at a utilitarian’s paradise – a world where all material needs are met, pleasure is maximized and pain eliminated – and pointed out what we might be giving up to get there: the entire vertical dimension in human life, the quest for the sublime and the transcendent, for romance and honor, beauty and truth.
Two passages from their work illustrate this point – that comfort purchased by sacrificing transcendence might not be worth the cost. The first comes from Lewis’ Narnia novel “The Silver Chair,” in which a character named Puddleglum confronts a queen who has confined the heroes in an underground kingdom and lulled them with the insistence that the underground world is all there is – that ideas like the sun and sky are dangerous wishful thinking, undermining their immediate contentment.
The second comes from the end of “Brave New World,” when a so-called “Savage” raised outside the dystopia confronts its presiding “Controller,” Mustapha Mond. The Savage lists everything that has been purged in the name of pleasure and order: historical memory, art and literature, religion and philosophy, the tragic sense. And Mond responds that “these things are symptoms of political inefficiency” and that the comforts of modern civilization depend on excluding them.
But in many ways the impulses driving the Kennedy nostalgists are the same ones animating Lewis’ Puddleglum and Huxley’s Savage – the desire for grace and beauty, for icons and heroes, for a high-stakes dimension to human affairs that a consumerist, materialist civilization can flatten and exclude.
And one can believe JFK is a poor vessel for these desires, and presidential politics the wrong place to satisfy them, without wishing they would disappear.
But it’s a much greater mistake, the two writers who entered eternity with JFK would argue, to seek a brave new world with no heights or depths, no room for divinity or heroism anymore.
The New York Times
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17088 | Gary’s Georgian gem and Wayne’s arty kitchen
Over supper, I asked my wife to complete the following sentence: "A collection of Clarice Cliff ceramics, worth an estimated £40,000, will be sold at Woolley and Wallis in Salisbury on March 9, the property of Mr . . ."
Mrs Davies likes Clarice Cliff, likes her art-deco style, and also her story, how she started work in Stoke-on-Trent aged 13 in 1912 painting gold lines on plates, rising to become the most eminent, distinctive pottery designer of the 1920s and 1930s.
My wife has only three Clarice Cliff pieces, the last of which, a bowl, I paid £80 for at a Cockermouth auction a year ago. I do spoil her.
Is it someone I know? She asked. Not quite, pet, I replied. But a household name, I added, at least in our house. Oh do get on with it. OK, the answer is, tarran tarran, Jimmy Greaves.
That is surprising, she said. Which it is, though one must take care not to be patronising when it comes to our football heroes. I remember being really surprised when Mike England, the Welsh centre-half for Spurs in the 1970s, invited me to a party at his house. I assumed it would be a mock-Tudor semi on a new estate, the sort Chivers and Peters and the other stars lived in, but it turned out to be a most unusual, architect-designed house. There was a uniformed butler serving champagne and one of the other guests was Olivia Newton John.
Behind his back in the Spurs dressing room, England was known as "Brains", suggesting he didn't have any and was a bit slow, which shows that even colleagues can have the wrong image. He went on to manage the Wales team and became a successful businessman, running nursing homes, last time I heard.
About 20 years ago, I went to interview Gary Lineker at his home, expecting something modern and flash, and blow me, it was a Georgian gem in St John's Wood, filled with choice antiques and paintings.
Four years ago I went several times to Wayne Rooney's mansion in Cheshire. From the outside, it did look nouveau riche and over the top, but inside it was ever so tasteful, with a nice knight-in-armour statue in the hall and a streamlined, arty kitchen - all in grey. I think grey was the smart colour that year. I'm sure he hadn't chosen a grey kitchen himself, but had chosen a top interior designer who chose it, which is the stage before having good taste.
Why do we expect that footballers will have no taste in anything? Because we are prejudiced, lumping them all together. Secondly, by the nature of their job, we know that from the age of eight they have been thumped over the head and forced to concentrate on only one aspect of their being, discouraged from any outside interests.
Thirdly, their colleagues are even more prejudiced, mocking anything that might appear girly or arty.
Money talks
For the past ten years, all Prem players have been millionaires, living in exclusive estates, able to hire top designers, buy real paintings, stocking their wine cellars with the best wines, only travelling first class, buying villas in the sun, sending their kids to fee-paying schools. Behaving like any other first-generation, made-good, quick-rich gits.
The children of this present generation will doubtless take on middle-class tastes - if not their accents. Hard to believe from his voice that Frank Lampard, being a second-generation footballer, went to a public school.
Can't wait to see how the Beckham boys turn out. Probably huntin' and fishin' types, wearing Barbours, living like young aristos, going on countryside demos, drinking their inheritance away. Oh, I do hope so.
Apparently, Jimmy Greaves became interested in pottery as a young player after he'd been on some football tour of Holland and bought a piece of Delftware for his mum. From my huge knowledge of collecting - with 20 different collections, haunting all the fairs - the vast majority of pottery collectors are female. No wonder Jimmy has kept it quiet all these years. It's one thing to have taste - but not girly taste. l |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17103 | The Science Year-in-Review
From mad cow, SARS and the flu, to dark energy and the Columbia shuttle disaster — what were the big science stories of 2003? We'll look back at the science stories that made headlines.
K.C. Cole
*Author, Mind Over Matter: Conversations with the Cosmos (2003, Harcourt)
*Science Correspondent, Los Angeles Times
John Rennie
*Editor-in-Chief, Scientific American
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17136 | Early al Qaeda plans targeted 10 US sites
WASHINGTON - Al Qaeda originally planned to crash hijacked planes into 10 targets in the United States and carry out simultaneous attacks in southeast Asia, says the panel investigating the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
The commission today issued a report saying that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, believed to be the main planner of the Sept. 11 attacks which killed nearly 3000 people, had originally drawn up a more-extensive scheme in which he would also pilot a hijacked airplane.
Al Qaeda had drawn up a list of targets that originally included the sites hit on Sept. 11 (the World Trade Centre twin towers and the Pentagon) plus the White House, the US Capitol, CIA and FBI headquarters, nuclear power plants and the tallest buildings in California and Washington state.
The commission gathered its information in part from written reports of interrogation of al Qaeda captives, including Mohammed and Ramzi bin al Shaibah, another suspected Sept. 11 plotter.
According to the commission report, the plot was launched in 1999 when al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden approved a proposal by Mohammed -- who is referred to in the report as KSM -- to use aircraft as weapons.
Mohammed had originally hoped to pilot one of 10 airplanes to be involved in the attacks. But instead of crashing the plane, he would have killed every adult male on board then landed at a US airport to make a speech denouncing US policies in the Middle East.
The al Qaeda leadership rejected the proposal as too ambitious. When bin Laden approved the plan it was split into two parts -- one in which hijackers would commandeer flights and crash them into US targets, and another in which operatives would hijack US airplanes in Southeast Asia and explode them in mid-air.
By mid-2000, bin Laden decided to cancel the southeast Asia part of the hijack plot because he believed it would be too difficult to synchronise operations on opposite sides of the globe.
Al Qaeda had also intended to use up to 26 hijackers for the Sept. 11 plot, as opposed to the 19 who actually participated in hijacking the four commercial aircraft.
"Even as late as the summer of 2001, KSM wanted to send as many operatives as possible to the United States in order to increase the chances for successful attacks," the report said.
It gave details of 10 candidate hijackers who were slated to be part of the attacks but were pulled out because they failed to get US visas, faced pressure from their family or had trouble with immigration or security officials.
September 11 Commission:
Staff Statement 16: Outline of the 9/11 Plot [PDF]
Herald Feature: September 11
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17156 | Sunday 16 Mar
OKG Newsletter
Topic: george faught
Rep. Boren’s retirement makes future hazy for state voice in Congress
GOP vows ‘we can do better’ than Boren
Alex Ewald
Thursday, June 9, 2011
‘Right of return’
Supporters gathered in OKC to affirm Israel’s religious and political status.
Clifton Adcock
The bearded man in the overalls and red shirt stood before the crowd, dwarfed by the large stairway and stone columns behind him.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011 |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17194 |
Permalink for comment 351706
Comment by rain
by rain on Wed 4th Mar 2009 21:21 UTC
Member since:
No LED-display on the 24" iMac? I the new Cinema display was an indication that it would happen.
The current panel is good, but the backlight is so horribly uneven. A cheap dell display will be more uniform.
Reply Score: 1 |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17195 |
Permalink for comment 385871
Small improvements
by ParanoidAndroid on Thu 24th Sep 2009 09:11 UTC
Member since:
The improvements seem nice but scarce so isn't this more a bug fix release instead of a new version?
Reply Score: 2 |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17196 |
Permalink for comment 542588
by broken_symlink on Thu 15th Nov 2012 04:16 UTC
Member since:
You know I've been having a lot of trouble with chrome on galaxy tab 7.7, whereas on my galaxy s2 i've had no problems with it. Today I realized that the problem might be swype. I use swype on my tab, but on my phone I don't. A lot of times when chrome locks up on my tab its when i'm typing something in. Thom, do you use swype with chrome?
Reply Score: 2 |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17197 |
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RE[4]: Comment by mtzmtulivu
by sorpigal on Thu 26th Aug 2010 17:33 UTC in reply to "RE[3]: Comment by mtzmtulivu"
Member since:
Linear is not 'easy' - linear is hard. Nonlinear is harder, but linear is not trivial! You have a large, unknown set of things to run which must be run in a particular order. What order? If you know you have a good order and want to insert a new item to run, where in the sequence does it go? Can you *safely* alter the order by inserting this new item and can you be sure that doing so does not break anything?
For simple things it's pretty easy to just "drop it in" and hope it will be fine, but there are many non-simple things. Does your ldap daemon need to be started before your remote filesystems are mounted? What if your /home is mounted via nfs and all users are stored in ldap? How do you know which order to load things in and how do you re-order it when it changes? Even in a purely linear situation this is not simple. If thinks work well today it's because of luck and careful engineering over many years.
It's a management nightmare which only becomes worse over time. Designing a system that works on purpose, instead of accidentally, is a worthwhile effort and a tricky problem.
Being faster is nice, sure, but that's not really a problem that needs to be solved, it's just a nice side effect. Once we can figure out sequencing properly we can get parallelism "for free" and thus some speedups. But no, it's not a goal.
Reply Parent Score: 3
RE[5]: Comment by mtzmtulivu
by snadrus on Mon 30th Aug 2010 14:53 in reply to "RE[4]: Comment by mtzmtulivu"
snadrus Member since:
That's why I think SystemD has a chance, because if you messed up on ordering you will get a process waiting for the Kernel to complete the socket/port/pipe/filesystem connection. In the current topology, you get a hidden failure.
Reply Parent Score: 1 |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17248 | Cell-phone technology may be advancing at a breakneck pace, but voice mail is stuck in the early 1980s. For example, you can deal with only one message at a time, can't save anything for longer than a month, and it's just plain time-consuming. I mean, let's face it, there has to be a better way then having to stop what you're doing, dial in, cycle through your messages, and laboriously search to find the voice mail you want. Well, now there is. SimulScribe impressed me early on with its accurate, visual transcription of voice-mail messages. I liked it enough to award it four stars in our February 2007 review. That service keeps getting better. Improvements include being able to upload a custom greeting and to choose among WAV, GSM, and MP3 file formats for your messages. Now SimulScribe has launched a companion product, SimulSays. If you have a BlackBerry Pearl or BlackBerry 8800, you'll want to at least try it, even if you're not a SimulScribe subscriber. That's because SimulSays lets you view, listen to, and delete voice-mail messages. It also archives them for as long as you want.
Read the full review: SimulSays (beta) |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17250 | Definition of:import filter
import filter
The software routine in an application that reads a non-native file format. The program may detect the file type and use the appropriate import filter automatically, while other programs require the user to identify the file type before selecting the file. Contrast with export filter. See export. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17262 | Beefy Boxes and Bandwidth Generously Provided by pair Networks RobOMonk
There's more than one way to do things
Comment on
don't forget to mention the valuable M-x cperl-check-syntax which also depends on mode compile. Also very useful: M-x cperl-perldoc which is context sensitive.
In case you want to pipe your buffer contents to an external perlprogram and have the output replace the sent content try to mark a region and go C-u M-! perlprogramm.
To run your program you might also try M-x executable-interpret. I seem to have bound a key to that eons ago, but didn't use it. I will give it a try during the next days ;-)
Regards... stefan k
you begin bashing the string with a +42 regexp of confusion
In reply to Re: Emacs: Submit a Perl Script by stefan k
in thread Emacs: Submit a Perl Script by mpettis
and: <code> code here </code>
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Perl: the Markov chain saw
Re^3: Argv problem
by QM (Vicar)
on Mar 04, 2013 at 09:02 UTC ( #1021610=note: print w/ replies, xml ) Need Help??
in reply to Re^2: Argv problem
in thread Argv problem
It's probably a bad idea to let the user enter a visible password. That said, suggest that the user quote the password or escape special characters, noting that in some shells, some characters are ridiculously difficult to quote correctly.
Also search here and elsewhere. A quick search turned up Inputting a password w/o having it displayed on screen, which may help.
Quantum Mechanics: The dreams stuff is made of
Comment on Re^3: Argv problem
Re^4: Argv problem
by Anonymous Monk on Mar 04, 2013 at 09:35 UTC
What is the cmd interpreting & as?
& means "run the preceding command in the background". So, for example,
./myprogram username lsrkj&etk
will attempt to first run the command ./myprogram username lsrkj as a background process and then, while that's running, also run the command etk in the foreground (probably producing the error "etk: command not found").
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Don't ask to ask, just ask
Re^2: A bad shuffle
by Anonymous Monk
on Mar 21, 2005 at 10:04 UTC ( #441161=note: print w/ replies, xml ) Need Help??
in reply to Re: A bad shuffle
in thread A bad shuffle
Considering that shuffle and random_perm are called without arguments, and are hence shuffling empty lists, your benchmark doesn't show anything interesting. If you change the @_ in both subs to @cards, I get the following results:
Rate random_perm shuffle
random_perm 6796/s -- -32%
shuffle 9955/s 46% --
It may appear that shuffle is faster. But look what happens when we shuffle 52000 cards instead of 52:
s/iter shuffle random_perm
shuffle 1.02 -- -85%
random_perm 0.158 550% --
It's well known that a shuffle based on splice doesn't scale, due to its quadratic behaviour.
Never use a splice based shuffle. For every millisecond you will gain if you shuffle a small list you'll pay a second when shuffling a large list.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17354 | Brave Girl Eating
For families who struggle with anorexia.
5 New Year's Resolutions Worth Making
This New Year's, here are 5 resolutions actually worth making.
The New Year has arrived, and with it the annual onslaught of weight-loss resolutions. For all those who are once more vowing to squeeze into that size 0 skirt or 32 waist pants by March, I have a modest proposal:
Ditch the diet and focus instead on true health, the kind that goes beyond the number on the scale. Real health is not just physical but mental, emotional, and spiritual—the kind of health that reflects what you do rather than what you look like. Studies contradict one another, or are inconclusive. Medical research isn't always great at distinguishing correlation—two things that happen at roughly the same time—from cause and effect. Much of what we think we know about health turns out to be inconclusive or just plain wrong.
But don't despair; there are ways to increase your well-being. Here are five ideas for improving your real health this year. A votre sante!
1. Find some kind of exercise you love, and do it most days. Exercise helps with depression, anxiety, high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis, and a slew of other health problems. Our bodies are meant to move. Whether it's a brisk walk, African dance, or training for a triathlon, if it makes you feel good, you're more likely to keep doing it.
2. Add foods to your diet. More than 90 percent of weight-loss diets fail in the long run, thanks to the human body's persistent appetite for equilibrium. And we all know that deprivation inevitably leads to overindulgence. So don't deny yourself the foods you love; instead, broaden your diet. Add in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, but don't eat out of a sense of duty: Studies show that our bodies make more efficient use of the nutrients in foods we like than in foods we dislike.
3. Accept that people come in all shapes, sizes, and weights. This is a radical suggestion in our appearance-centric culture. But consider the facts: Diets don't work. Genetics play a starring role in determining body type. And you can't tell someone's true state of health by looking at him or her. Thin people may smoke, eat poorly, and fail to exercise; heavy people may eat nothing but raw foods and walk five miles a day. Studies by Ancel Keys, Ethan Sims, and other researchers show that metabolism is far more complex than "calories in, calories out." And it turns out that being overweight or mildly obese (per the BMI charts) is associated with lower death rates, especially as we age.
4. Aspire to self-love, not self-loathing. The harder we work at getting thinner, the heavier we've gotten. Maybe it's time for a new strategy. According to Peter Muennig, an assistant professor of health policy and management at Columbia University, many of the ailments associated with being overweight may actually come from stress and stigma rather than avoirdupois. In other words, walking around berating yourself for being fat in a culture that values thinness—or being berated by others—may be far worse for your health than being fat. Remember what your mother used to say: If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. Now apply this to yourself as well as others.
5. Understand that we're all going to die someday. So much of the advice around health seems to imply that if you eat perfectly, exercise, and do everything "right," you'll live forever. Which makes the stakes impossibly high. So forgive yourself your lapses. Focus on living well. And know that no matter how attentive you are to your well-being, sooner or later the warranty will expire. It's a surprisingly liberating feeling.
Harriet Brown teaches magazine journalism at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Her latest book is Brave Girl Eating: A Family's Struggle with Anorexia.
Harriet Brown is an assistant professor of magazine journalism at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.
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[–]Brandon0 0 points1 point ago
I buy them on occasion. I'm a developer tag typically outsources my design. I can save clients a chunk of movie by going with the premade template that I have experience with. Don't have to worry about it meshing with their image because its just an backend system. |
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[–]AWildWebDev 1 point2 points ago
Much like there a lot of programming languages there's a lot out there to develop for the web but it doesn't mean that for the basics they're not all pretty similar. PHP will do this job, as would Ruby. It could probably be done in javascript. Essentially it comes down to picking a language you want to use in the future, at least in my opinion. You may also want to see which you just seem to enjoy using more.
I'd probably look at Ruby on Rails or PHP for this myself. If you've never ventured into either, you've got a lot of learning to do before you could create something like this but with a programming background it shouldn't be too hard. There's plenty of information out there about both PHP and Ruby and the frameworks that go with them, so go crazy.
Whether you want to use a framework is up to you, there's been a lot of discussion about the pros and cons of frameworks on /r/webdev over the last week so have a look through some of that if you're wondering if you should be using one.
One final thing - avoid godaddy where you can. They don't have a particularly great reputation. Have a look at other hosts or consider managing your own server space with services like digitalocean.
Best of luck!
[–]pettycoatboat[S] 0 points1 point ago
Thanks for the response, really helpful. My only question would be: do I have to host my own server to run something like php? The windows and mac installation seem to say things like "choose your HTTP (web) server", when I just want to be hosted on an online server and run php scripts through it.
[–]AWildWebDev 1 point2 points ago
Not sure I understand so I'll give a quick overview of local and online servers. In order for others to view your sites, you'll need some server space and a domain name that points to it. As PHP is (probably) the most common server side language, it's usually shipped with the packages that web hosts offer. So if you hop over to hostgator, bluehost, etc and pay for the basic package you should see that it comes with PHP version X.X.X. Buy a domain, point it to your host (they'll usually have tutorials about how to do this) and you're set.
You can also work with PHP locally (this is how people develop sites BEFORE they push them live). To do this, the easiest way is to download either the MAMP (for Mac) or XAMP (for Windows) stacks. What this basically does is turns your computer into a temporary web server so that when you go to 'localhost' you'll see your script running. There are plenty of tutorials about getting this up and running. This is obviously only local to your machine, though, so others will not be able to use what you're working on.
If you have any questions feel free to PM me.
[–]pettycoatboat[S] 0 points1 point ago
Thankyou again. Very helpful. I've got php up and running and an SQL database going with access going between the two. Nothing makes sense but I'm sure it will all eventually fall into place! |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17418 | reddit's stories are created by its users
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Reddit - what's the one thing that you cannot believe other people find so difficult to do? by lo0bylooin AskReddit
[–]kcpppppp 0 points1 point ago
Use a computer. Apparently, they're too complicated. They had to make operating systems more user friendly. I sigh at humankind.
The first thing anyone from Domino's said to my father and I was, "You need to stop taking pictures. You will be sued if you publish those images online." by GrandRabiesin WTF
[–]kcpppppp -1 points0 points ago
You need to stop crashing vans into me. You will be sued for delayed pizza. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17427 | Last updated on March 15, 2014 at 21:56 EDT
Oceania Ecozone
Oceania is one of Earth’s eight ecozones. It is the smallest ecosystem found on the planet. Oceania is unique as it is the only ecosystem that does not include any continental land mass. This bioregion includes the Pacific Ocean islands of Micronesia, Fijian Islands, and most of Polynesia (except for New Zealand). This is also the youngest ecozone. While the other ecozones include fragments of ancient continents and land masses, Oceania is composed of volcanic islands and coral atolls that arose from the sea in recent times, as late as the Pleistocene. These islands were created by either volcanic activity or the collision of tectonic plates that helped push the islands upward.
The climate of Oceania’s islands is tropical to subtropical. The climate ranges from humid to dry (seasonally). Wetter regions of islands are covered by tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, while the drier regions are covered with dry broadleaf forests and tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands. The higher volcanoes of Hawaii (Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa), are home to some very rare tropical mountain grasslands and shrublands.
The flora and fauna of Oceania reached the isolated islands around the times of the last ice age when sea levels were lower and many islands weren’t as isolated as they are today. Once these plant and animal families reached the islands, they adapted to life there and flourished. Multiple species may have evolved from a common ancestor, and then each species adapted to a different ecological area. Adaptations include gigantism, dwarfism, and loss of flight in some birds. While the whole of Oceania has many endemic species, Hawaii itself has one of the most diverse range of endemic plant species in the world.
Many of the plants that are found on the islands of Oceania have arrived by riding the wind. Many plants such as ferns, mosses, and some flowering plants rely on tiny spores or seeds that can remain airborne over long distances. Some New Zealand plants spread to Oceania through the wind. Some plants, such as coconut palms and mangroves produce seeds that can float on salty water for a long time and eventually washed up on distant shores, which is why coconut trees are widespread and common among the islands of Oceania. Birds carry seeds of the fruits of plants in their digestive system and this another way that plants spread. Most scientists agree that the flora of Oceania is derived mainly from Malesia, Indonesia, Philippines, and New Guinea, with some Australia and a few South American species present.
For most land animals, dispersal across the ocean is impossible. Because of this, Oceania has very few indigenous land animals compared to other ecozones. Most animals were entirely absent from these islands until humans brought them. Birds are the most common animals found in Oceania. These include seabirds and some land birds whose ancestors may have been displaced by storms and eventually adapted to life in this new place. Some islands have indigenous lizards (geckos and skinks), whose ancestors probably arrived on floating debris and vegetation washed out to sea by storms. With the exception of bats, there are very few indigenous mammal species in Oceania.
Many plant and animal species were introduced to Oceania by humans. This occurred in two main stages. First, Malayo-Polynesian settlers brought pigs, dogs, chickens and rats to many of the islands which had spread across the whole of Oceania about 1000 years ago. Since the 17th century, European settlers introduced cats, cattle, horses, sheep, goats, and other smaller mammal species (including the brown rat) to Oceania. The arrival of introduced species, over-hunting, and deforestation, have severely altered the ecology of Oceania’s islands and pushed many species to extinction or near extinction.
Many bird species evolved and adapted to laying their eggs directly on the ground due to the absence of natural predators. This made them vulnerable to introduced predators such as cats, dogs, mongooses, and rats. Human settlement has disrupted the ecosystem and has also led to more extinctions of indigenous species. Easter Island shows evidence of an ecosystem collapse that was caused by humans several hundred years ago. This collapse contributed to a 99% decline in the human population of the island. Once lushly forested, Easter Island is now mostly windswept grasslands. Guam’s native bird and lizard populations were wiped out over the last 60 years by the introduction of the Brown tree snake.
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Oceania Ecozone |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17428 | Last updated on March 15, 2014 at 21:56 EDT
Barnes & Noble Nook
A Wi-Fi only version released in June 2010 and the Nook color using LCD in November 2010. The second generation Nook was released in June 2011, and in February 2012 an upgrade was released to the Wi-Fi only version. On April 30, 2012, Barnes & Noble partnered with Microsoft for the collage and business Nook. In October 2012, Nook became available in the UK.
There are four generations of the Nook. The original called Nook (discontinued), the Nook Simple Touch, the Nook Color, and the Nook Tablet, The Nook comes in three models, the Nook with a 6-inch screen and 2 GB storage. The Nook HD comes with a 7-inch screen and either 8 GB or 16 GB of storage. The Nook HD + comes with a 9-inch screen and either 16 GB or 32 GB of storage.
All models have Wi-Fi, a micro-USB connector, and a micro-SD slot for a memory card. Also, it has parental controls with just-for-kids apps. It has high speed web-browsing, e-mail, and calendar sync. It supports a variety of file formats for audio, video, images, and other formats.
Barnes & Noble released free Nook reading apps that are available to use on other devices including PCs, Android, iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and Nook Kids for iPad.
Nook Study is an application designed for PC use only.
Other apps available for the Nook include games like Angry Birds, Netflix, and Twitter, plus thousands more. Movies and TV shows can be downloaded or streamed for a rental fee or purchase. Millions of books and magazines are available to choose from, and free unlimited Nook content storage on Nook Cloud.
Included accessories are a power adapter and a rechargeable battery. Available accessories include, covers, power kits, pens, HDTV adapters, car chargers, screen glare kits, SanDisk Cards from 2GB to 16GB, stands, and cables.
Image Caption: Original Barnes & Noble Nook. Credit: Andrew MaGill/Wikipedia (CC BY 2.0)
Barnes 038 Noble Nook |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17448 | A Ban On Chanel No. 5? What You Should Know Before You Spray
chanel Like the once-dangerous Brazilian Blowout and allegedly illegal neon nail polish, there is a new beauty product facing serious heat — and this time, it might be you, your mother, and your grandmother who say good-bye to the iconic, luxury item. According to research presented by a European advisory committee, there have been 100 allergens identified in the Chanel No. 5 perfume formula that could cause health issues for the massive number of devoted fans who spritz it on. The committee's solution: a ban on Chanel's most famous fragrance.
But don't pry the bottle from our hands just yet (seriously, don't). A member of the French perfumer's society told Telegraph UK that the kinds of allergens found in the fragrance (as well as other perfumes that may have failed to list all the allergens on their labels) are simply the cause of the natural ingredients used. "The more you use natural ingredients, the more there is a risk of allergies. Lemon, jasmine, and bergamot all contain allergenics," Sylvie Jourdet said.
Sounds harmless, right? Perhaps. While we would prefer our beauty products to contain only pure, non-toxic ingredients, that standard "natural" label can be quite the ambiguous umbrella term that so often leaves us with more questions than answers.
Of course, the safety of the consumer should always be a main concern for brands; however, this recent news makes us wonder if a total ban on the Chanel scent is the correct solution. The European Commission is currently working on new fragrance regulations to be decided by early 2014. Hopefully, these changes will include a better way to let customers know what they're actually spraying on, besides the familiar old smell they love.
What's your take on this discovery? Will you keep using the signature scent or will you play it safe and say sayonara? (Telegraph UK)
Photo: Courtesy of Chanel |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17495 | http://assets-s3.rollingstone.com/assets/images/album_review/drake-nothing-was-the-same-artwork-2-1379604607.jpg Nothing Was the Same
Nothing Was the Same
Young Money/Cash Money/Republic
Rolling Stone: star rating
Community: star rating
5 4 0
September 19, 2013
Earlier this fall, Drake released a moody, downtempo jam called "Wu-Tang Forever," hoping to build anticipation for his third LP. Instead, a sizable contingent of rap traditionalists were outraged. That's because "Wu-Tang Forever," despite featuring a ghostly snippet of the Wu-Tang Clan's 1997 single "It's Yourz," sounds nothing like the Clan – it's a heartfelt requiem for a girl he used to know. "I just love when I'm with you," the Toronto star sighs, in a rueful tone that's hard to imagine coming from Raekwon or ODB, or any other mainstream MC in the past 20 years, for that matter.
"Wu-Tang Forever" might be the Drake-iest track ever, but Nothing Was the Same is full of runners-up. There's never been a hip-hop star quite like him – his taste in beats runs to gloomy synths rather than dusty samples, and passive-aggressively burning his exes (or himself) is his favorite way of bragging. This approach helped sell 2 million copies of his last album, 2011's Take Care, and he's not about to mess with the formula. A more accurate title for this album might have been Everything Was Pretty Much the Same: It's a brilliant summation of all the things you already love about Drake – unless you find him totally annoying, in which case it probably won't change your mind.
As usual, Drake is full of doubts and regrets, though maybe a little less so than before. On the catchy lead single, "Started From the Bottom," he celebrates his success so insistently you can't help but cheer him on – even if you know in the back of your mind that "the bottom," in his case, was the set of the popular Canadian soap opera Degrassi: The Next Generation. Elsewhere, on the bittersweet piano ballad "From Time," he settles a score with a long-gone flame: "She started telling me how I'll never be as big as Trey Songz/Boy, was she wrong!" But just a few bars later, he's switched to kicking himself over an ancient breakup with a Hooters waitress named Courtney: "Girl, I felt like we had it all planned out, I guess I fucked up the vision/Learning the true consequences of my selfish decisions." Yep, still Drake.
His secret weapon has always been a keen ear for off-beat, vibe-y sounds. Longtime partner Noah "40" Shebib handles most of the production here, layering backmasked instruments that flutter like iridescent seaweed on the ocean floor. It's the perfect backdrop for Drake's quiet-storm raps, which he delivers in his signature suave singsong. The more melodic his flow, the slicker he sounds, allowing him to get away with some truly corny lines ("Girl, you know I've seen you naked"). He's most charming of all when he breaks into a full-on croon for "Hold On, We're Going Home" – an R&B air kiss so Eighties it should come with pastel leg warmers.
Drake reveals so much of himself on Nothing Was the Same that it's easy to poke holes in his tortured-player persona: After a while, his confessions start to sound like sneaky boasts about all the beautiful hearts he's broken. And maybe he wants you to see that contradiction. After all, hiding his flaws has never been Drake's style – they're the whole point.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17498 | Home Tutorialhelp Allcomments Jsp File Upload Uploadingmultiplefiles
User Comments for the tutorial:
Uploading Multiple Files Using Jsp
file upload
I am so glad to state that this tutuorial is extemely useful for the beginner. I request you to please give some details as to how to show those uploaded files as a list in the web page .
in this program iam geting null as a file. Why it is?
Nice Codes, but why do we need "Submit" button
These are good coding examples... but why we need this 'submit file' button. Isn't it restricting this program to upload only three files at a time. We have a "onChange" property of input type 'file', can't we make, on opening the file, jsp automati
Nice tutorial
This is really nice for newcomers.... Thansk roseindia...
plz help
this jsp is not wrkin...its givin an error in da line 18th.. i.e. items=upload.parseRequest(request); plz help me with this.. im in a serious need regards apurvi
Java Software Engineer
Well joshiashutosh! the following code may helpful to you for showing the list of all uploaded files, <% String directory = request.getRealPath("uploadedFiles"); try{ File file = new File(directory); File[] content = file.listFiles(); for (int
parseRequest() error
Both Commons.IO and Commons.FileUpload packages are required for this example to work.
I'm worry, that it happened
Please help me because method parseRequest() throw exception in this program. org.apache.jasper.JasperException: Exception in JSP: /multifileupload.jsp:23 20: out.print("<br>upload="+upload); 21: List items = null; 22: try {
Regarding Multiple file uploads
Can anyone tell me that how can i the following packages in the above code ..... %@ page import="java.util.List" %> <%@ page import="java.util.Iterator" %> <%@ page import="java.io.File" %> <%@ page import="org.apache.commons.fileuploa
hi i m prateek i want to upload single file to multiple system means distributed uploading please help me
Thank you very much
Hi RoseIndia, Thank you very much for your multiple file upload live example.. It works great. Thankyou very much.
thank you!
hello ! rose thank you for your example program ! you know im now work excillent!u
Good tutorial, but it does not work using IE7
file will not get stored in corresponding folder.help me out for this issue.what is isMultipart?
unable to compile class for JSP
hi... i've tried to run your code, but there is an error said 'unable to compile class for JSP'. I used eclipse in linux redhat 5. I also already import commons-fileupload.jar and commons-io.jar..but it still doesnt work. can you help me?
And the solution is to split the path and get just the filename and then pass it to context path.
Very useful
Tks, it's was very useful and easy to learn for me
I don't know why but its strange..I am getting error java.io.FileNotFoundException: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\NetBeansProjects\Portal\build\web\uploadedFiles\C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\untitled.bmp (The
Uploading Employee Profile with image
Hello, how do I fix the bug in Internet Explorer to perform upload?
pleasemhelp me
deaqr roseindia, this file upload is not workingonIE please help me to figure this out. thank you.
hi every one
Thank you very much for your multiple file upload live example.. It works great. but i got some problem, for the first time when i try to save my file, it is not saved, when i try for 2nd and 3rd etc.. my file is uploaded correctly... pls an
Hii,, Please, can you help me ? before i compile this code the red line under this code lines appeare <%@ pageimport="org.apache.commons.fileupload.servlet.ServletFileUpload"%> <%@ pageimport="org.apache.commons.fileupload.disk.DiskFileItemFac
uploading file using jsp
i am getting so many errors in upload_file_multipale.jsp.the errors are ServletFileUpload class can't find.how can solve it.do i need to write any bean program for that.upload_file_multipale.html and upload_file_multipale.jsp can upload the files or
RE:Uploading Multiple Files Using Jsp
when i run the jsp codes i get a the error ...11:34:11,781 ERROR [STDERR] java.io.FileNotFoundException: C:\jboss-4.2.2.GA\ser ver\default\.\deploy\techsite.war\uploadedFiles\C:\Users\Ayodeji\Desktop\dd.txt (The filename, directory name, or volume
want to know
Is this code only work for tocat server ?
hi i need a help. when i run the above code "ServletFileUpload.isMultipartContent(request)" always returns false. Any solutions, why???
org.apache.commons.fileupload.servlet.ServletFileUpload; org.apache.commons.fileupload.disk.DiskFileItemFactory; org.apache.commons.fileupload.FileUpload; for import these three package, which jar file/apis requried,nd which site it available to
Want to know the path where it stores the files
hi.. I have tried your code. able to run it. I am not able to see the files which i have uploaded. Can you help me to get the path where exactly it store the uploaded files. I am using WAS7 as application server.
Excellent Example
hey I'm new to java. This example is very Good. it's running Successfully. Thanks for providing this example.
Accessing javascript variable in jsp
Hi. I am primary student in jsp. Sample code works fine for uploading any data. Then, can you detail this example in one jsp file. I want to know how i can redirect the jsp page with the uploading info. How can i access same jsp page with uploa
implemention of file uploading in one jsp file
hi, sir i read your tutorial well, the work is very fine. and then can you solve my problem? my problem is followed as: in the first picture, when i click the browse button to read the excel or any text file, i want to display the text file
i have problem with the output path
i cant c the outpath plz any one replay on me
It does'nt work
what are the jar files need to run this coding?
please help
please tell.... how many jar files to be import?
Path not displayed
the output of this program is only displayed "Your files uploaded".... if any jar files are needed to display the paths, please say what are those jar file....
error trying this example
Hi there, I've tried this example.It looks great but i'm having exception. Is there anyone that could help me with this. I really need help.I'm using Eclipse to deploy this example. Thank you
Hi All, The error is in this part. String itemName = item.getName(); Instead use the following code.. String filename = item.getName(); if (filename.indexOf ("\\")!= -1) { int slash = filename
Multiple file Upload
The above code does nothing, except a blank screen
The example-multiple file upload doesn't work.
The example-multiple file upload doesn't work. PLS check it out.
Thank you
This is one of the very useful tips and I was looking out for this exactly. With some initial difficulties in where to locate the apache libraries, it worked perfectly at last. Thanks very much.
Uploading Multiple Files Using Jsp
you did not provide org.apache.commons.fileupload.servlet.ServletFileUpload & org.apache.commons.fileupload.disk.DiskFileItemFactory & org.apache.commons.fileupload.* these file should be present in download zip file
I have added commons-fileupload1.2.2 jar file and library. Sir i am getting following error, help me plz org.apache.jasper.JasperException: Unable to compile class for JSP: An error occurred at line: 9 in the generated java file Only a type
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17527 | Global Warming's videos (3)
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17551 | View Full Version : 10 Favorite Autobots and Decepticons
El Chuxter
11-05-2007, 11:58 AM
Again, base it on whatever you want. (Mine are all G1, by the way.)
1) Grimlock: Preferably the comic version, where he was the coldest-blooded and most ruthless of all Autobot warriors, and who frequently clashed with Prime (despite their being characterized as old friends).
2) Optimus Prime: I don't think this needs any explanation. Optimus Prime is the hero.
3) Jazz: The infatuation with Earth culture made Jazz the coolest of the first-generation Autobots. That, and his toy was probably the best overall.
4) Bumblebee/Gold Bug: It's hard not to like Bumblebee, unless he's turned into a mute Camaro.
5) Nightbeat: A later character, but who was sort of the "private eye" of the Autobots. In later stories, he became more important as several important mysteries came up at once.
6) Fortress Maximus: Prime's closest equal in terms of personality, though maybe even more pacifistic. Binary bonded to Spike Witwicky, to boot.
7) Hot Rod: Prior to becoming Rodimus Prime, he's a great everyman character in the movie. In the comics (old and new), he's a rash young warrior who is one of the best, but tends to bite off more than he can chew.
8) Ratchet: Next to Prime and Grimlock, possibly the most important character in the comic. His frequent underdog run-ins with Megatron were some of the best storytelling in the series.
9) Cliffjumper: Bumblebee with a 'tude, voiced by Casey Kasem.
10) Kup: Moreso in the comics where he's an older warrior who's been battle-hardened until he's almost as cold as Grimlock. In the movie, he's a little annoying.
1) Bludgeon: A martial-arts mystic who has a pretender shell to resemble an undead samurai. It doesn't even matter that the character is cool. He wins it just on concept alone.
2) Starscream: Easily the deepest Decepticon, if not Transformer, in the series. It's no accident that everyone remembers him.
3) Megatron: An unstoppable juggernaut of evil (he even turns into a Nazi pistol!), only vulnerable to his own insanity and megalomania. The perfect counterpart to Prime.
4) Ravage: Silent, cunning, heartless, and brilliantly intelligent. If all Decepticons were like him, they'd have won this war millions of years ago.
5) Scorponok: A generic Megatron surrogate, until he binary bonds with an alien human who turns out to have a conscience and who takes over his personality. His death scene at the hands (err, feet) of Unicron is brilliant.
6) Thunderwing: The only Decepticon to ever hold the Matrix. He's here mainly because a vampire Decepticon who doesn't look stupid (ahem, Bomb Burst) is almost as cool an idea as the undead samurai.
7) Shockwave: The cold, calculating foil to Megatron. Where Starscream is mostly talk, Shockwave is all action. And he has the patience to wait a few million years for a given scheme of treachery to come to fruition.
8) Soundwave: The best thing about Soundwave is that, although he's almost perfect at hiding his thoughts, he's clearly fiercely loyal to Megatron but wouldn't think twice about betraying any other Decepticon. Well, except for his tapes.
9) Ramjet: A crazy plane who likes to ram stuff. For the kid in all of us.
10) Ratbat: The accountant leader (for a while) who runs the earthbound Decepticons with ruthless efficiency. If one of his schemes hadn't been a carwash that brainwashed people, he could've scored higher.
11-05-2007, 12:57 PM
In no particular order...
Hot Rod
Omega Supreme
11-05-2007, 08:27 PM
Optimus Prime with Flames
Bumblebee as Camaro
Jazz (as voiced by the non-Urkel guy from Family Matters)
Megatron the Gun
Megatron the Generic (from the live action film)
The Triceratops toy
The Pteradactyl toy
The Brontosaurus toy
The Insecticon toy I had, it was a beetle type thing with pinchers
The Police Car that screams about eBay users and auction numbers
11-05-2007, 10:09 PM
What about the leaking lubricant transformer?
11-05-2007, 11:25 PM
What about the leaking lubricant transformer?
I already covered that under the Mute Yellow CamaroCon...
I forgot to add the DewBot to my Decepticons list.
11-05-2007, 11:57 PM
What about the leaking lubricant transformer?
I remember when Ironside said that in one of the first season episodes.
11-08-2007, 11:52 AM
um... ironHIDE?
11-08-2007, 05:15 PM
Excuse my brainfart. :razz:
11-08-2007, 07:39 PM
Brainfart was a cool transformer.
Oh wait, that's Michael Bay's role...
figrin bran
11-11-2007, 09:22 PM
What about Maximals and Predacons?
11-23-2007, 07:45 PM
not sure if I have 10 favorites of each but I will list the ones that I liked:
1.) Optimus Prime - can't have a collection with the bad bot himself
2.) Sunstreaker - this was the very first transformer I got so it holds a special place in my heart
3.) Bumblebee - one of the staples of Transformers
4.) Rodimus Prime - after they killed off Prime he filled the gap
5.) Grimlock - just loved the lovable lug
1.) Megatron - where else could you have a cool toy that looked like a real gun
2.) Starscream - couldn't have Megatron without this guy to kick around
3.) Soundwave - no explanation needed.
4.) Bruticus - true this is really 5 in 1 but still a great baddie all around
5.) Shockwave - another cool transformer |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17554 |
1. Password Usability Perils to Avoid
Just about any web application you can think of requires some form of password authentication for registered users, and passwords can be an endless source of frustration if no thought is given to their usability. In this article, Neil looks at a number of common password pitfalls that you should avoid when building your sites.
2. Beware of Opening Links in a New Window
Opening links in a new window is bad news, usability-wise. In this practical how-to, Neil reveals why, and explains best practice procedures for linking to new windows when there’s no alternative. |
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Server configuration
I am the webmaster of a high-traffic web site that serves 115 Apache requests and 600-700 MySQL queries per second. Right now, as I have analyzed costs, it would be cheaper for me to buy and own a server and colocate it, rather than rely on a hosting company.
As I have been browsing Dell, as a webmaster, I am lost in a wide array of hardware configuration options. Managing servers I am ok with, but hardware is another thing. My questions are as follows:
• For example, on the PowerEdge R710 model, what should "guide" me in making a decision on the processor? Ultimately, in condensed dummy terms, what's the END result of the difference between a 2.93 GHz E5570 Xeon vs a 2.26 GHz E5520 Xeon? I noticed that the 2.93 GHz costs about $1000 more. What?! Why?
• Does a larger CPU cache make a significant difference in performance? When will I see the performance differences of a 4M cache processor vs an 8M cache processor? Able to handle heavier loads at peak times?
• For processors, what exactly is "max mem" (i.e. 1066 MHz max mem)? What significant difference does it have on END result performance? When I talk about END result performance, I am talking about the hardware's impact on front-end processes that a LAMP server runs (i.e. Apache, MySQL). Faster? More efficient?
• RAM: Single ranked or dual ranked? Which is generally better for high-traffic web servers? Do recommendations between the two options change with different processors?
• RAM: UDIMM or RDIMM? Which is generally better for high-traffic web servers? Do recommendations between the two options change with different processors?
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My first question of you is whether you're capable of monitoring and "fixing" problems 7/24/365? IMHO, unless you have that experience (and staff to monitor constantly), you're better off buying those services from a hosting company.
To answer your specific questions, I'll have to leave those to some of the hosts which frequent these forum boards.
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Most of these options might do with some consideration and thought if you were doing something that's actually compute intensive (3d rendering for example), however you're not -- you can fuss over if the latest DDR3 will give you a speed boost for weeks, but the point becomes kinda moot when with some reasonably simple software tweaks you could handle 15%+ more visitors.
Also remember: if you're providing your own equipment you're also the one that will be fixing it. Drive dies? Stops powering on? PSU goes? Time for a trip upto the colo facility to fix it - all while your site is offline.
Compare that to having DC staff on-site 24/7 with hardware spares and vendor contracts etc.
Anyway, on with the questions:
1. Go with whatever offers the most cores within your price range.
2. Larger cpu cache will make a small difference, but web serving & lightweight database stuff won't stress it enough to see it.
3. 1066mhz is the ram refresh rate, doesn't matter.
4. Doesn't matter.
5. Doesn't matter.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17560 | Miss. reports its first human case of West Nile virus this year
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17601 | Can you name the NCIS Season Endings?
created by hawksdd
• Answers do not have to be guessed in order
• Source: Wikipedia
• This quiz has not been verified by Sporcle
SeasonEpisode TitleWhat Occured
1Kate is kidnapped by Ari Haswari, who tries to convince her to disclose which helicopter is Marine One
2The team discovers that Ari is back in the country trying to kill Gibbs, and Kate is assigned to protect him. Kate gets shot in her vest, but when she gets up, Ari shoots her in the head.
3Gibbs has amnesia and tries to remember who everyone else is in order to stop a terrorist attack. After the bomb explodes, Gibbs retires.
4Tony and Jeanne get taken hostage in the morgue of the hospital and Jeanne stabs their captor. The ending shows them getting into a limo for Jeanne's 'surprise,' which turns out to be her father, La Grenouille.
5Gibbs and the team try to find Jenny's killer, culminating in Franks shooting the killer. Acting Director Vance then reassigns the team, and Gibbs receives 3 new team members.
6Rivkin dies after being shot by Tony, and Ziva blames Tony for it. The team travels to Tel Aviv to talk to Mossad's Director, Eli David (Ziva's father) and Tony is cleared. The episode ends with Ziva deciding to stay in Israel with her father.
7A continuation of 'Borderland' and 'Patriot Down,' Gibbs is held captive by Paloma Reynosa, the daughter of the drug dealer he killed in Mexico 20 years ago. She releases him after threatening to kill everyone he loves, and the episode ends with Paloma walking into Gibbs' father's store.
8After learning the identity of P2P and his motives, Barrett, Kort and Jimmy Palmer are kidnapped. Gibbs and Vance take out P2P, and DiNozzo is given a new assignment.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17619 | Printed 2014/03/15 10:50PM
SQL University – Teach Your Children Well
By Jen McCown, 2011/03/10
“If you had a daughter, would you really encourage her to get into IT?” … “Yes, if she loved it.”
- My Name Is Jes, and I’m a WIT, Jes Borland
“Let the kids (your kids, any kid) know there are more career options than teacher, doctor, lawyer, fireman, police office and astronaut. Don’t force feed it to them, but lay a foundation. It may not seem like it, but they will remember when they are older: I know I did.”
- We Could Be Heroines…. Not Just For One Day, Julie Smith
“What I do care about is making sure that every single person, boy or girl, never experiences any barrier to the life they want, be it as a database developer, stay at home mom, or Wonder Woman. If we can accomplish that, it’ll all work itself out naturally.”
-Sometimes Saying Yes is All About Not Saying No, Audrey Hammonds
Sean and I have a daughter and two sons. In addition to the standard Parent Curriculum lessons- things like laundry, hygiene, confidence, and all that jazz – we teach them other life skills that we consider essential for the kids:
This is day 4 of SQL University Women in Technology week, and this is my SQL blog, so we’re going to talk about…my kids! And how we’re teaching them about technology.
Yes, absolutely. I’ll encourage all three kids to get into IT, to the point that they’re interested. Why? Because this field is awesome. Here are some of the reasons for the awesomeness, more or less as explained to our children:
It’s a job that you do sitting down, inside a building. We’ve had jobs standing up and/or outside for hours on end…these are not fun jobs after approximately age 23. I’m being perfectly serious here (as the over 23 crowd probably have realized).
There are tech jobs - and I’m only exaggerating very slightly here – absolutely everywhere. I could walk into Hibbert’s Gore, Maine (population: 1) and sell somebody tech support. This makes it a lot easier to get a job (or change jobs) than in, say, the parks and recreation sector. Ask me how I know.
There are – and again, I’m only exaggerating slightly – approximately 100 gazillion different kinds of IT jobs. Cross join computers, networks, software, storage, and a few dozen other things with design, build, install, support, test, troubleshoot, and optimize….and now add all the different brands on top, and then multiply again by the number of ways different businesses use all of the above to further their particular money making (or philanthropic) venture. In short: If you have any inclination towards techie stuff, it’s hard to get bored.
It pays well! Some kinds of positions pay better than others, certainly. But this is definitely a field that you can do well in, with a bit of studying and strategizing. This is the kind of gig that will let you have a decent house and car, and still travel and retire before you’re too old to enjoy it.
To review: Technology is fun, it’s cool. It’s lucrative and flexible. It doesn’t ruin your knees or blacken your lungs (and hey, carpal tunnel treatments are getting better every year!) There are a thousand different directions to go while still remaining on the IT map.
Lay a Foundation
We’re huge computer nerds. We’re counting up, and we have (at a conservative estimate) 15 working computers in the house, and 13 of them are ours. It’s fairly natural that the kids have more than a passing familiarity with technology. We make sure to build on that every so often, especially when there’s a ready opportunity. We’ve shown the kids PC internals, enlisted their aid in upgrades and part replacements, involved them in computer discussions.
At an early age, we make sure that the kids get their hands on one of the hand-me-down laptops. They get amazingly adept at the keyboard and mouse / touchpad in no time, especially with the incentive of games, MS Paint, word processors,, and YouTube. I gave our 5 year a simple password so he can log into his computer,and gave the 3 year old a few bookmarks on the favorites bar; he can’t read yet, but he knows P is for Peanut Butter Jelly Time. Sean started some deeper computer lessons - including web search and navigation, email, typing, and HTML - with our oldest (the girl) when she was 7 or 8. These are things they’ll need to know even if they never want to code the simplest web page. Any zookeeper, musician, artist, museum curator will need to know this at a minimum.
We don’t necessarily want them to get into technology over any other career. But even if they all turn out to be doctors in a backwater part of the world, they’ll be intelligent users who can take advantage of the tech that they need.
To review: Hands on is the way to learn computers, especially as a kid.
Never a Barrier to the Life They Want
We LOVE technology, and we’re very vocally enthusiastic about it. I’ve had a number of conversations with our oldest along the lines of “technology is so wicked cool, and it’s new in my lifetime….” We let her have a whack with a sledgehammer at the server we destroyed on air New Year’s Eve. We’ve taken her to user group meetings and SQL Saturdays. And most recently, I’ve been running some of my session material by her, to clarify the way I explain certain concepts.
As these kids get older, we’re showing them what we do, and with any luck, showing them that it’s something we enjoy. That’s the lesson: You can find the thing you want to do. A career doesn’t have to be a daily exercise in headdesk.
We learned, through lesson and example, to be strong and innovative. I found a career that interests me and pays the bills…I hope my kids will do the same, in whatever field they choose.
Teach your children well.
-Jen McCown,
P.S. No assignment today. If you’d like to write, comment or post the link back here so we can read up on your thoughts!
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A new class of “bioactive” glass can act like an intelligent system-it not only senses its environment but reacts chemically and physically to it.
At Southern Illinois University, Bakul C. Dave (pronounced Da-vey) has formed a transparent glassy material from an organically modified silica gel solution. Mixed with water at room temperature, the sol-gel solution hardens in about five minutes into a solid yet elastic transparent gel.
The sol-gel glass is honeycombed with microscopic pores that can absorb biomolecules such as proteins or enzymes and release them in response to environmental stimuli. This property could bring closer a smart drug-delivery vehicle able to regulate dosages to maintain proper therapeutic levels.
Swell Glass
Conventional glass, created by melting silica at high temperature, contains very little water. Sol-gel glass is 20 percent water by weight. The combination of porosity and high water content makes the sol-gel glass a flexible sensor and reactor.
In lab experiments the sol-gel glass swells, shrinks or bends under conditions of changing temperature or acidity, yet reverts back to its original shape when the environment moderates. It also responds to changes in salt or electric field.
Additionally, the glass can react to a variety of chemical stimuli, including proteins and other biomolecules. The glass’s sensitivity, including the choice of target molecule, is controlled by modifications to the silica gel solution.
As the sol-gel glass changes shape, it can absorb or expel biomolecules through its interconnected system of micropores, which also enlarge or shrink. The glass itself is bio-inert, or biocompatible, meaning that it preserves the integrity of biomolecules built into or absorbed into the sol-gel pores. This biocompatibility also means that its use as a pill or implant should not trigger infection or rejection by the body.
Pump or Sponge
Dave’s research team is investigating the sol-gel’s potential as an environmentally regulated drug delivery vehicle. Unlike time-release capsules, whose action is continuous, a sol-gel insulin pump, for example, would mimic the natural response of the pancreas, modulating the amount of insulin it releases in proportion to the fluctuating concentration of glucose in the blood.
Dave’s team has begun to test this approach with sol-gel implants in mice. At expected levels of dosage, the insulin in the one-millimeter implant could last for several years, he says.
In a lab, the bioactive glass could find further uses as a protein sponge or separator, soaking up a specific target molecule from a biological soup. Later the process could be reversed to wring out the separated protein.
Other potential applications include microfluidics and thin films. It might be possible, says Dave, to shape the porous material into tiny channels, valves and reservoirs that open and close by changing shape rather than mechanical action.
Or, as a thin film or coating, the sol-gel glass could function as a sensor, communicating environmental conditions to an underlying material or substrate, allowing pressure within a pipe, or the speed of an engine, to be adjusted as needed.
To Dave, the chief aim of his sol-gel research is the breadth of applications it could open up. “We can effectively convert any chemical or physical signal into a carefully modulated response,” he says.
Honey, I Shrunk the Sample
Like so many scientific developments, Dave’s sensitive glass was discovered almost by accident. Sol-gels have been around for many years and have even been blended with organic and biomolecular materials. In 1997, Dave’s group was working on organic sol-gels for photochemistry applications when a graduate student accidentally left a bright light on a sample. To everyone’s surprise, the sample shrank under the light.
Today, Dave is refining the silica solution’s ability to precisely sense and react to specific environmental stimuli after it solidifies into sol-gel glass. He is also beginning to investigate applications on the nano frontier, where particles of the sol-gel glass could be used for molecule-specific delivery or absorption of drugs and other therapeutic substances.
If he’s successful, we might eventually see sol-gel nanoparticles being used to clean organs or tissues by removing or neutralizing harmful proteins or bacteria.
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No one would confuse cyber-lawyer Lawrence Lessig with Homer Simpson – symbol for all that is dumb about America. But Lessig, a professor of law at Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA, has spent a good deal of time lately trying to figure out how to resolve a “doh!” moment of his own: realizing that the various intellectual property licenses that he helped design over recent years to encourage the sharing of intellectual property – a movement collectively known as “copyleft,” in contrast to copyright – may actually prevent it.
The problem is that the copyleft licenses, like the “free software” licenses from which they’re drawn, require that derivative works be licensed under identical terms. And those terms differ from license to license. So the collections (or “mash-ups”) of free text, audio, and video that Lessig and others have championed as the vanguard of a new “free culture” can’t combine works created under different licenses – even if all of the licenses are meant to encourage wide sharing. For example, text from Wikipedia, which uses a license called the Free Documentation License (FDL), could not be used as narration in a documentary film designed to be shared under a Creative Commons license.
In 2001, Lessig was one of the founders of Creative Commons, which was started to create flexible versions of copyright that would make it easier to share elements of creative works, such as text, video, and audio. The idea came out of the free software movement spearheaded by former MIT computer scientist Richard Stallman, who developed the free GNU operating system. Under Stallman’s definition, software is free if it can be modified and distributed freely. The best-known example of free software is Linux, a version of GNU that includes a core or “kernel” written by Linus Torvalds and his followers.
People who want to share their creative works under more flexible terms than those allowed with traditional copyright can now choose from six main versions of the Creative Commons license, ranging from the permissive “attribution only” license, which allows anyone to use your creation for any purpose, as long as you receive credit for it, to the “attribution noncommercial no derivative” license, which allows reuse, but not modifications or commercial use. Creative Commons also has several niche licenses covering things like audio sampling.
Although Creative Commons does not track how many writers, artists, and others are using its licenses, it does count “linkbacks” to its site – many of which come from the sites of writers, publishers, or artists using the group’s licenses. There are now 45 million such linkbacks, up more than tenfold from a year ago.
But the Creative Commons licenses are not the only copyleft licenses in widespread use. The FDL, used by Wikipedia and written by Stallman’s Free Software Foundation, differs from the Creative Commons not only in language but also in intent; it was designed primarily to protect manuals accompanying free software, and applies mainly to textual information.
Like the Creative Commons license, it requires that derivative works be distributed under the same terms – which can be burdensome even if one isn’t doing a mash-up. “If we had a photo on the site and you wanted to use it to make a postcard, you’d have to put the license on the back, and it runs eight pages,” says Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia and chair of the board of Wikimedia in St. Petersburg, FL.
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“We see this as the next logical step in the growth of the Internet as a whole,” says Michael Rowe, manager of 3-D Internet and intraverse (an in-house virtual world) for IBM. Rowe says that today’s walled-garden situation hinders the development of the Internet by making it exceedingly difficult to offer virtual goods and services in more than one location. For example, he says, someone who wants to create a virtual storefront in several virtual worlds now has to design and build the store separately for each world, using radically different processes. Standards for a 3-D Internet, on the other hand, might allow the shopkeeper to provide links that people could use to reach the store from any virtual world, in much the same way that people can now use a domain name, such as, to point to popular shopping sites.
To make the virtual-world experience as rich as possible, Rowe says, developers need to find ways to consistently render objects–including avatars, which people use to represent themselves in virtual worlds–across several worlds. For example, he says, someone who has built a car in MTV’s Virtual Pimp My Ride might want to take it into Linden Lab’s Second Life to show it off. In order for the car to remain the same in both worlds, its underlying programming must make sense to both systems. Adopting 3-D Internet standards, Rowe says, will allow developers to solve these types of problems and open their borders to one another.
But the issue goes deeper than virtual cars and shopping malls. Jaron Lanier, interdisciplinary scholar in residence at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology at the University of California, Berkeley, and a virtual-reality pioneer, says that the search for a 3-D Internet is important for humanity. “Human cognition was designed to function in 3-D, and our computation eventually has to have a 3-D interface to maximize the matchup with the human brain as it evolved,” he says. People will need to find a way to combine a concrete, 3-D spatial understanding with the connective power of the 2-D Internet, Lanier says.
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Credit: Multiverse (left); Forterra (avatar); Linden Labs (right)
Tagged: Web, IBM, virtual worlds, Second Life, Linden Lab
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Kudos to Cory Doctorow for his Boing Boing post about an Australian group that wants to charge students and educators a viewing tax each time a student goes to the Web to do research.
Here’s how this would work, according to an article at
The Copyright Agency (CA) already does a random sampling of school photocopies each year, and assesses a royalty charge that is paid, in a lump sum, to the CA – which then distributes the money to authors and the like. Now the CA wants to extend its financial reach to the Web, which has, one might expect, reduced the number of photocopies that teachers make. (As a former secondary and collegiate teacher, I can say that I almost never made use of photocopies.)
It’s hard to fault rights groups that collect royalties for wanting to make sure their clients are getting paid; however, as Cory points out, who in the world puts up information on the Web with the expectation that it won’t be viewed? The inherent power of the Web and the Internet is that they allow people to gain exposure. My guess – and this is simply from covering this area for some time, and by no means represents a scientific analysis – is that the real push for this comes from the agency, not the creators themselves (who often see very little of that money).
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One of the more interesting runners in the race to build scalable quantum computers is the idea of using point-like defects in a diamond lattice that have been filled with a nitrogen atom. The nitrogen interloper provides an extra electron which can be used to generate photons or to store quantum information.
The big advantage of these so-called nitrogen vacancies is that they’re easy to see (because they can be made to emit photons) which means they can be relatively easily addressed. They are also well isolated from many types of environmental interference and so can store qubits for relatively long periods of up to several hundred microseconds.
But the problem is how to make them en masse. Until now, the fastest way was to fire nitrogen atoms one by one through an aperture into a thin layer of diamond. That makes for slow going if you need hundreds of thousands of them in a single layer.
Now David Toyli at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and few buddies have demonstrated a much faster technique. Their approach is to cover the diamond with a thin layer of resist, through which they then blast an array of holes using electron beam lithography.
In the next step, they then bombard the many-holed resist with accelerated nitrogen ions. So any nitrogen ions that pass through the holes created by the electron beams end up burying themselves in the diamond layer, creating a nitrogen vacancy under each hole.
Toyli and co have carried out a proof-of-principle experiment to create a micrometer scale 60 x 60 array of nitrogen vacancies in a thin layer of diamond. They say that this creates nitrogen vacancies at a rate of 1000 per second, orders of magnitude faster than the current technique.
The team say they can see these vacancies by making them photoluminesce and have even used them to store qubits and measured how long they remain coherent. In these first experiments, the coherence times are relatively poor, just a few microseconds rather than the few hundred that are known to be possible. The team says this can be improved with better control over the number of nitrogen ions that end up being implanted under each hole in the resist. In this experiment, some 30 ions ended up in a volume of diamond normally expected to carry only on ion.
Overall, this looks like an interesting step forward. An array of nitrogen vacancies that are easily addressable and coherent for hundreds of microseconds is a ready-made quantum register of the kind that quantum computer scientists have been crying out for.
Which means that the odds have suddenly improved of nitrogen vacancy technology winning this race and making scalable quantum computers possible for the first time.
Ref: Chip-Scale Nanofabrication Of Single Spins And Spin Arrays In Diamond
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17701 | Enterprise Software optimize
Installation guide for eGroupware on Ubuntu Server
Jack Wallen walks you through the process of installing eGroupware on Ubuntu Server, step-by-step with illustrations.
One of the biggest demands for server installation is the groupware suite. There are plenty of them available. From Exchange to Zimbra (and everything in between), you will find groupware suites of all types, sizes, functionality, and reliability. One of those suites that I have found to be a bit better than most is eGroupware. Although eGroupware is not the easiest to install, it doesn't come close to the complexity of installing Zimbra. And eGroupware has all of the features users and administrators would expect of a powerful groupware suite (and more!):
• Calendar
• Email
• Contacts
• Documents
• Project management
• Time sheet
• File manager
• Wiki
• News
• Polls
All of this is packed within a very user-friendly interface. But, as I said, the installation isn't the easiest. It's time-consuming and requires that numerous dependencies be resolved before the installation can be completed. The good news is that most of the dependencies will be spelled out for you during the installation process.
Below, I'll walk you through the installation process with illustrations of the screens you will encounter.
eGroupware installation steps
The installation outlined in this article assumes the base operating system is a clean Ubuntu Server 9.04 installation with networking up and running. And, because of the nature of this base operating system, the initial installation will be done from the command line. I will also refer to the example IP address for this server.
First, download the latest, stable version of eGroupware found at eGroupware Sourceforge. There are two files you will want to get:
• eGroupware
• eGroupware-egw-pear
Since this is a headless machine, you will need to download those files using wget. Issue the commands:
sudo cd /var/www
sudo wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/egroupware/egroupware/eGroupware-1.6.002/ eGroupware-1.6.002.tar.gz
sudo wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/egroupware/egroupware/eGroupware-1.6.002/ eGroupware-egw-pear-1.6.002.tar.gz
You may have to modify the above commands, depending upon the release. As you can see the current, stable release (as of this writing) is 1.6.002.
Once you have downloaded those two files you will need to unpack the files. First unpack the eGroupware file with the command:
sudo tar xvzf eGroupware-1.6.002.tar.gz
Now unpack the egw-pear file with the command:
sudo tar xvzf eGroupware-egw-pear-1.6.002.tar.gz
The second command will unpack the egw-pear as a sub-directory into the egroupware directory.
Now it's time to install the dependencies. The first thing you will need to do is install 4 php-based applications. To do this, issue the following command:
sudo apt-get install php-pear php5-imap php5-ldap php-gd
You will now need to make a few modifications to your php.ini file. Open up the file /etc/php5/apache/php.ini. There are a few changes to be made to this file. The first change is to set display_errors to off. This entry should be around line 334. The line is:
This needs to be changed to:
The next line to look for is the memory_limit line. This line should be located around line 270. By default the memory is set to 16M. This needs to be upped. The line will look like:
memory_limit = 16M
How much you up the memory limit will depend upon how much memory your system has and how much you want to limit php to. Change that line to suit your needs.
Now you need to enable file uploads. This is done with the file_uploads line of php.ini. This should be found around line 558. This line will look like:
file_upload = Off
Change this line to On.
One final change. The mbstring.func_overload must be set to 7. This line is found near line 1197 and looks like:
;mbstring.func_overload = 0
Change that to:
mbstring.func_overload = 7
Notice the removal of the semicolon (;) character.
Now save the php.ini file and restart Apache for the changes to take effect. Now it's time to point your browser to the eGroupware setup file. This is done with the address (edit to suit your needs):
The above link will direct you immediately to the Setup page (see Figure A). On this page you select your language and run the installation tests.
Figure A
Click to enlarge.
You can opt to skip the tests, but this is not advisable.
When you click the link to run the installation tests, you will see everything that is ready and not ready for your installation. You will see checks by everything that tests OK, lightning bolts by every warning, and Xs for everything that failed the test. You can install with warnings but not failures. You might see numerous warnings. Make sure you read all of those, because one of the warnings could be regarding a particular feature you want. Figure B shows a portion of the test results from my installation.
Figure B
Click to enlarge.
As you can see, there were some php.ini issues that had to be taken care of. Those Xs will keep the installation from continuing.
Go through this list until you have no more Xs, and then make sure all of the features you need no longer have warnings.
NOTE: Each time you make a change in a configuration, you will need to click the "Click here to re-run the installation tests" link at the bottom of the test page.
When you have managed to finish your configurations, you can then click the "Continue to the Header Admin" link at the bottom of the test page. This new page (see Figure C) sets up a header.inc.php for your eGroupware installation.
Figure C
Click to enlarge.
On this page you will deal with a number of configuration options. This page is really the heart of the installation.
On the Header Setup page you will configure such options as:
• Server root
• Header Admin/Admin password
• Database
• Database user/password
• Database port
• Database host
Once you have gone through this page, click the Write button at the bottom of the page in order to write the configuration file. If this write is successful, you will be informed with a Continue button on the next page. Click that button and you will then find yourself at the login page (see Figure D). You can log in as either of two user types: admin or header admin. Log in as your standard Administrator and you are ready to begin the installation process in earnest.
Figure D
Click to enlarge.
You will have created these users in the previous setup screen.
As you can see (Figure E) there are six steps. The first step is to install applications.
Figure E
Click to enlarge.
You can either install all the applications or install from a previous backup.
Click on the Install button to install all of the necessary applications associated with eGroupware. After you click this you will hopefully see no errors. When this page is returned to you, click the Recheck my installation button, which will then allow you to move on to Step 2.
Step 2 requires the creation of a backup and a files directory. By default these will not exist. Once you have completed Step 1, a new button will have appeared in your Setup window (see Figure F). This button will take you to a screen where you need to enter the full path for the files and backup directories.
Figure F
Click to enlarge.
Click the Edit Current Configuration button to take care of Step 2.
I do not recommend using the default values that are located in /var/lib/egroupware/default. Instead create these directories in your /var/ directory with the commands:
sudo mkdir /var/files
sudo mkdir /var/backup
You will also need to make sure both the backup and files directories are writable by the server. Do this with the command:
sudo chmod -R o+w /var/backup
Once you have created these directories you will need to configure the Path information window to reflect them (see Figure G below).
Figure G
Click to enlarge.
Since this is a fresh installation, you won't have to worry about losing any saved files.
There are numerous other configurations that can be taken care of in this screen. Here you will take care of:
• Host information (hostname, ftp server, proxy server information)
• Mailserver setttings
• Authentication settings
• LDAP settings (if needed)
• CAS settings (if needed)
• Active Directory settings (if needed)
The only REQUIRED configuration from above is the Host information and the Mailserver settings. Once you have all of that complete you are ready to finish the setup.
The last step is the admin account. When you are back in the Setup page, click the Create admin account button and fill in the necessary information for your administrative account. You can also give the administrator access to all installed applications as well as create three demo accounts for the system. Once you have saved that account information, your eGroupware installation is ready to use!
All you have to do now is log into, and you are ready to go. You can see (in Figure H) eGroupware really is a full-featured groupware account.
Figure H
Click to enlarge.
Remember that the address to get to your installation will depend upon your IP address scheme or your domain name.
The first place you will probably want to visit is the Admin page. There are many administrative tasks that can be dealt with there.
Final thoughts
I hope you enjoy your installation of eGroupware. You will probably find that it not only meets your needs but exceeds them far beyond what you normally expect from a groupware suite.
Thank you for the beautiful post. I spent the last couple of days trying to put EGW to work. I got version 1.6.003 on an Ubuntu 10.04 pc. I fresh installed pretty much everything, from Apache down to EGW. I believe I have done my best to configure all as they should be. When I try to log in, I get all the time: Your session could not be verified. Of course I am using the correct credentials as I have specified them. As far as I can see there are a lot of people stuck on this and it is quite disappointing. Any suggestions would be highly appreciated. Regards
i i am C.Naveen Kumar.I installed Egroupware .I am getting some errors in the applications of eGroupware,especially in Tracking System and File Upload what to do................... ---------------------------------------- 1 )Error in Tracking system we are adding a new bug after filling all the mandatory details it is not getting error and shown in the tracking system.When we specify the Assigned To field to any particular user we are getting these two errors. Please check it out and give me reply as early as possible Warning: require_once(Net/IMAP.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in C:\xampp\htdocs\egroupware\emailadmin\inc\class.defaultimap.inc.php on line 14 Fatal error: require_once() [function.require]: Failed opening required 'Net/IMAP.php' (include_path='C:\xampp\htdocs\egroupware/egw-pear;.;C:\xampp\php\pear\') in C:\xampp\htdocs\egroupware\emailadmin\inc\class.defaultimap.inc.php on line 14 2 ) In attachment links tab we are browsing and attaching a file for that it is showing some error .we are not aware of how to rectify the error The error is Array Warning: copy(links://default/apps/tracker/22/rlz.dll) [function.copy]: failed to open stream: "links_stream_wrapper::stream_open" call failed in C:\xampp\htdocs\egroupware\phpgwapi\inc\class.egw_link.inc.php on line 750 3 ) In the file manager application, while uploading a file also we are getting errors Array Warning: fopen(sqlfs://default/home/naveen/header.inc.php) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: "sqlfs_stream_wrapper::stream_open" call failed in C:\xampp\htdocs\egroupware\phpgwapi\inc\class.vfs_stream_wrapper.inc.php on line 182 Warning: copy(vfs://default/home/naveen/header.inc.php) [function.copy]: failed to open stream: "vfs_stream_wrapper::stream_open" call failed in C:\xampp\htdocs\egroupware\filemanager\inc\class.filemanager_ui.inc.php on line 136 Please Give me a detailed information or give me some supported links so that i can rectify the errors. Please reply me as early as possible.
Anybody get it working with Active Directory for single sign on?
Everything seems ok , until i go and continue to the header Admin page, it says down the bottom : "cannot create the header.inc.php due to file permission restriction . instead download or view the file. " *there is no 'write' button according to Your guide BUT neither 'download nor View' button works. they dont response when i click them . and every time i click continue it takes back me to the " Run installation tests" page. I am really stuck on it. any step by step help would be really appreciated. Thanks
This is the kind of constructive articles we need to see more frequently at TR. Enough of bashing on any OS and wasting people's time. Bring up the solutions to the problems and let users decide which way to go. Bravo! Thanks!!!
Excellent article, Jack. Thanks. I have a question. My colleague and I support about 15 different office, all located in different countries. Each is asking for collaboration, calendaring, doc mgmt software. Is it possible to set up an eGroupware server such that each office can access it BUT only has rights to calendaring, docs, etc. to THEIR specific office?
Just a couple of questions. I am following your guide which looks to be very well written. It mentions a plain base install. To me this is not adding any packages during the install at all. So I loaded Ubuntu 9.04 server in a virtual box. Did not select any additional packages. Ran into two problems. 1. /var/www did not exist since I did not choose to install lamp (or apache for that matter) 2. php-gd does not exist... I am guessing it should be php5-gd ? Not trying to pick at the guide. I wish more people would write guides in plain english. I just want to make sure I am doing this correctly. ================ Edit ================ Started install over, chose LAMP install. Changed php-gd to php5-gd and all went brilliantly. Well done sir ! Now to check this out. Thank you again for bringing this to my attention as well as the write up.
You need to change the permission for the egroupware root directory. Do as the following: suppose your egroupware root directory is /var/www/egroupware and the apache user is "www-data" Then execute the command: chown www-data:www-data -R /var/www/egroupware And then that will be ok.
you will most likely have to alter the permissions. you could, from the command line, create the file and give it the correct permissions. so, from the directory you need header.inc.php in issue these commands: touch header.inc.php chmod 644 header.inc.php then go back and you should be able to write to the file.
you would create a group for each office and then create a calendar for each group such that only that group could read that calendar. and then add users to the groups. i have not tested this, but i believe that should do the trick.
Hi, I use Citadel.org mailserver and would like to connect egroupware to Citadel. I can do this with no problems in Thunderbird, but nothing is working for egroupware? Is there a tuturial somewhere that shows what needs to go where? I thought it was straight-forward, but I'm missing something. Thanks!
Thank you for the suggestion. I appreciate your response. Maybe we can give this a try. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17714 | User Avatar Image
Evil Dead IV... Is Officially Happening
posted by Davies on - last edited - Viewed by 366 users
Yes, you read that thread title correctly; a fourth Evil Dead was announced recently and has now been confirmed by the B-Movie legend Bruce Campbell, who portrayed the tortured by Deadites (and abused by Sam Raimi) 'Ash' in the first three Evil Dead films.
Bruce Campbell, the legendary B-movie actor best known for his role in the 'Evil Dead' franchise, has confirmed he is to return for a fourth instalment of the cult horror classic. Campbell, who famously played 'Ash' in Sam Raimi's 'The Evil Dead', 'Evil Dead II' and 'Army of Darkness', confirmed the news via Twitter.
Campbell's confirmation came after one fan of the movies tweeted, "I won't believe in a new Evil Dead film until I see it. Or at least not until [Bruce Campbell] tells me to believe in it". Within an hour, the actor had responded in the affirmative, saying, "Believe in the remake, dawg!" adding, "The project is real. In the works. Cool as hell. Scary as hell".
It is reported Raimi will write and produce the new movie, but will not direct - his long-time associate Fede Alvarez will instead get behind the camera. Although the franchise only grossed a total of $19.8 million at the box-office, its influence on contemporary horror writers and directors is monumental. -
I know of one fourmite who will be very excited by this news but what do the rest of you think?
Personally, I'm highly curious to see what comes of this development. The Evil Dead movies were some of my most watched VHS tapes during my childhood (I have fairly liberal parents) and I can remember eagerly browsing the shelves of my local indie video store, in the hope of spotting Evil Dead IV in the days of pre-Internet. Now many moons later, it's hard to believe that it's finally happening.
I hope for a return to the horror roots of the series, as opposed to the slap-stick shenanigans of the third entry "Army of Darkness" (aka The Medieval Dead). Although I would like for some of the over the top comedy of Evil Dead II to remain. Something of an inbetween of the first and second films would be my preference. Whatever may end up on screen, it's going to be a lot of fun watching Bruce return to his iconic role*.
* Those three so-so video games don't count.
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(Photo illustration by Cinders McLeod/The Globe and Mail)
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Why we want what we want: A new book looks to explain it all Add to ...
"The enjoyment we get from something derives from what we think that thing is. ... For a painting, it matters who the artist was; for a story, it matters whether it is truth or fiction; for a steak, we care about what sort of animal it came from; for sex, we are strongly affected by who we think our sexual partner really is."
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In How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like , Yale psychologist Paul Bloom looks at how things gratify us, from sex, food and art, to celebrity memorabilia and our own imaginations.
Drawing on research in neuroscience, child development and behavioural economics, Prof. Bloom argues that while human sexual desires used to be driven by evolution, many today have little to do with survival or reproduction. He spoke with The Globe and Mail from New Haven, Conn.
You write that pleasure is rooted in essentialism. What do you mean by that?
The argument that I make in my book concerning sexuality and romance is that what arouses us isn't just superficial. We don't merely respond to certain sights, smells and sensations. Rather, a lot of our response is dictated by who we think we're responding to. Essentialism has an adaptive benefit. It pays off, from an evolutionary point of view, to care about invisible aspects of people, to fall in love with specific individuals.
What about the places where pleasure veers off evolutionary course, like fetishes? You write about foot and high heel shoe fetishists. You say we aren't sexually aroused by trees but there is objectum sexuality disorder, with people falling for roller coasters and the Eiffel Tower. How do you explain that in terms of pleasure?
If anybody tells you they know what's going on in fetishes, they're lying to you. Nobody has the foggiest idea. People tell their cockamamie behaviourist stories, which is that someone is approaching sexual release and his eyes happen to fall upon a woman's shoe. But why a shoe? Why not an alarm clock, or a lamp?
You preface a discussion on pleasure and sexual fetishes such as foot fetishes with a turkey study conducted in the 1950s, in which male turkeys were aroused by a lifelike model of a female turkey. The researchers began taking the replica apart, eventually leaving only the head behind, but the turkeys were still trying to mount the head.
Male turkeys are just turkeys. They can be aroused by very minimal stimuli.
"People can be turkeys," you write. "We can be transfixed by a body part while being indifferent to the person who comes with it."
That's the way fetishes are stupid. They're stupid because they're like the male turkey trying to mount the head. You're triggered by something, like a foot or something, without access to all the richness and complexity of normal desire.
What about pornography, which is far more widespread than foot fetishes? You point out that even animals look at porn, describing experiments with rhesus monkeys who gave up their fruit juice to look at photos of female monkey hindquarters.
Monkey porn.
Why do humans get pleasure from pornographic images?
The story of pornography is an accident. We've grown smart enough that we can fool ourselves into thinking we're looking at real world things. [Pornography]works by exploiting the fact that to some extent, we're indifferent to the difference between reality and fiction.
You quote psychologist Geoffrey Miller, who argued that the human penis evolved to be longer, thicker and more flexible than the penises of other primates so that men can give women more sexual pleasure, and that women are drawn to men who can give them that. You also point out that women don't have to orgasm to get pregnant. So what is the evolutionary benefit of that particular pleasure?
It's a huge debate - and I'm agnostic. One view is that it's an adaptation, that [female]orgasm helps the intake of sperm or facilitates pair bonding between males and females. If the female receives a rush of pleasure, she becomes more attached to the male and all sorts of good things arise from it. The other view is that it's an accident, that the female clitoris is just a homologue of a male penis.
You argue that our minds and sexuality are "not rationally calibrated to modern times." You point out society's unrelenting focus on virginity with people like Natalie Dylan, who tried to auction off her virginity.
For men, virginity matters a lot and there's an evolutionary rationale for that. The man can be confident that any children arising from sexual contact are his. From a genetic point of view, the worst possible fate for a man is to devote his life to raising children that do not contain his genetic material. That's from the natural selection point of view. ... Humans are smart enough to create social systems where the genes don't really matter, but our biology and our minds have not evolved to be that smart. A lot of our desires are calibrated from our evolutionary past and they don't make sense, but that doesn't make them go away.
At the same time, you write that the mind is ultimately much more than a "Machiavellian schemer" or "data cruncher:" it's also an "entertainment centre, shaped by the forces of sexual selection to give pleasure to others."
What some evolutionary theorists argue, somewhat convincingly, is that a lot of what goes on when there are forces of evolution at play is that we be entertaining to one another. This is because we select each other as mates, as friends. They could please you by being pretty, funny and clever, so we've evolved to be pretty and funny and clever.
Does it take some of the pleasure out of pleasure to dissect it like this?
People always wonder that. There's a quote from Keats about the rainbow being less pretty once it was explained, but I don't think so. A theory of why you like art or sex or food doesn't make the pleasure go away. If anything, it has the chance of enhancing it because once you know how something works, you can exploit that knowledge for your own pleasurable benefit.
This interview has been condensed and edited.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17777 | Microsoft Surface: how the software giant got Apple envy
Microsoft's new Surface tablet launch reveals the extent to which the company is apeing its greatest rival
• The Guardian,
• Jump to comments ()
Steve Ballmer
Look familiar? Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer unveils the Surface tablet in true Apple style. Photograph: Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press
A last-minute invitation giving journalists and analysts just four days' warning; a US West Coast unveiling of "a major product" touted as "something you won't want to miss"; a presentation of an own-brand device by the company's chief executive, touting its design aesthetic and magnesium-sintered parts in exploded view. You could easily have mistaken Monday night's unveiling of Microsoft's Surface tablet range for an Apple event – though you would never mistake Microsoft's bombastic Steve Ballmer for a charismatic Apple executive.
Yes, Microsoft is getting into the iPad space; after sitting on the sidelines for years, it has now started running after the fastest-growing sector of the computing market with its Surface.
The fascinating thing about the announcement, though, was how dramatically it shows the Apple-ification of Microsoft. The company that brought the world Windows, and got rich on it, has for years had serious Apple envy. When Bill Gates was still working full-time at the company, he would fume during visits to London at Apple's Regent Street store, opened in late 2004. "We need to have those!" he would complain, to the despair of his minions, who would forbear from pointing out that Microsoft didn't really make things like Apple did; it made software. Apart from the Xbox, a Microsoft store at that time would have been a showcase of lots of boxes of software, and a few mice and keyboards. The laptops and desktops on which Windows ran were all made by other companies, such as Dell or HP.
And that was a good arrangement for Microsoft: software is wonderfully profitable, because once you've made one copy, the next billion or so cost nothing to copy. It made Microsoft the most valuable company in the world by the end of 1999.
Yet now Microsoft is not just snubbing those companies that made it rich by making PCs that ran Windows; it's positively apeing Apple, making something the same size as an iPad, putting its own name to it, deciding the price, and selling it through its own stores, both physical and online. (Gates will be happy.)
But is this just some bizarre financial bromance? Or something deeper? "Why would Microsoft hedge against what it has, the most brilliant business model of the 20th century?" muses Horace Dediu, a former Nokia executive who now runs the Asymco consultancy. "Because," he answers, "it doesn't work any more."
He says that's because of the rise of mobility – the fact that increasingly we use smartphones and tablets to work anywhere and any time, where just 10 years ago we would have had to sit in front of a desktop, or unfold a laptop. Now iPads are used to create art or hold flight manuals for pilots; meanwhile, nearly a million Google Android smartphones are being activated every day.
Mobility is big. Smartphones have been outselling PCs since autumn 2010; and though the tablet business is only two years old, a total of 108m are expected to ship this year (against about 400m PCs); the research company IDC upped its forecast ahead of Microsoft's announcement. IDC has consistently lowered its forecast for future PC sales while it keeps pushing it up for tablets.
"The rate of growth in these platforms is almost vertical," says Dediu. "Microsoft's for Windows is pretty much flat."
Google is following the same path: it has bought Motorola Mobility, the US smartphone and tablet maker, and later this month is expected to announce an own-brand 7in tablet. (Larry Page et al won't be pleased at Microsoft stealing their thunder; Ballmer, who hates Google, will be delighted; it might also explain the last-minute nature of the announcement.)
The Appleification of Microsoft is happening because the company has got no choice. The smartphone and tablet pose what Benedict Evans, an analyst at Enders Analysis, calls "an existential threat" to Microsoft: if it can't get a credible foothold there, then its growth just stops. So far it hasn't managed it in smartphones. Tablets suddenly look like a necessary product.
Of course, this adventure could go horribly wrong. Think of the Zune – a Ballmer-ordered product (he literally snapped his fingers in a top-level meeting and said: "We need one of those!") that came far too late in 2006 to compete with the iPod, which had already passed its glory days; Apple already had its eyes then on the iPhone, which has supplanted and far exceeded it for profitability. Zune never went anywhere (literally; it was never sold outside North America) and was quietly killed last year.
Then again, the Xbox 360 games console has done well, cementing the company's position in millions of living rooms around the world. Except when you look at the numbers: total sales are put at 67.2m since 2005. Next year is expected to see a new generation – the Xbox 720 – for which a leaked internal document forecasts 100m sales in 10 years. Dediu laughs: "A hundred million? That's equivalent to a hundred days' of Android activations. And that's their ambition for 10 years?"
Nobody's expecting that Microsoft is going to stop Dell or HP selling Windows computers – or that they're going to stop doing so immediately. But the signs of strain are there already. Last summer, HP said it would quit the PC business because the margins are razor-thin (it dumped its chief executive and recanted); Dell keeps trying to push into services, and makes nothing on consumer PC sales.
But in making the first big move into the Windows tablet market, Microsoft has shown that it realises the need for reinvention. The old Microsoft would have let a thousand PC makers build tablets – big, small, great, awful, pricey, cheap. The new one will control the apps that run on the Surface, via an online store, will decide the price and the models. It's a long time since 2004, when an ebullient Ballmer came to London and told an audience of journalists (then prodding him about the iPod): "With great respect to Apple, there's no way anything gets to critical mass with Apple, because Apple just doesn't have the volumes."
Even then, the iPod was outselling Microsoft's then mobile offering, Windows Mobile. If you can't beat them, join them – and ideally, steal their clothes too.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17779 | When Boris Met Dave
Urgh, the young Boris and Dave are horrid. We can't let them run the country, can we, asks Sam Wollaston
• The Guardian,
• Jump to comments ()
Oxford University, the mid 80s, good times! Oh, the pranks, the drinking and the student politics. And all the different cliques – the trendies, the rahs, the Brideshead set, the sloanes pretending to be non-sloanes, the non-sloanes pretending to be sloanes, even the whites pretending to be non-whites. Seriously. "Everyone was trying to pretend they were black," remembers Rachel Johnson. "You know, we listened to James Brown, we spoke in patois, or mockney, it was ridiculous, really."
Oh go on, Rachel, do your patois for us now, will you? Or your mockney. Or just be James Brown, please, for us: One two three four, get up, get on up, stay on the scene yah, like a sex machine . . . no?
Anyway, it all sounds horrendous: lots of horrid young people trying to decide who to be, and getting it very wrong. The same as any other university, really, but extra-ghastly because of the extra poshness of the Oxford toffs. Toffiest of all were the members of the Bullingdon, a dining club made up mainly of old Etonians who galloped around town on horses that weren't there, braying and throwing pot plants through windows. "They did all the right things, like getting heinously drunk on very expensive champagne and trashing expensive restaurants, which seemed to me the epitome of the Oxford life," says James Delingpole.
James never made it into the Bullingdon, though for a moment he thought he had. "I remember one night, erm, lying in bed and hearing this stomping up the stairs and this sort of waff-waff-waff of these chaps talking in upper-class voices. They came closer and closer and I thought for one fantastic moment that they had come to trash my room and make me a Buller member." Sadly, they hadn't; they went on up the stairs to initiate Radek Sikorski, now foreign minister of Poland.
Poor James. He wasn't really Buller material, to be honest – too middle-class, too middle-England. "It was laughable that someone of James's background affected to be a son of the Tory squirearchy," says Rachel Johnson.
So why do we care about any of these ridiculous people? Because of Rachel's brother, Boris, and because the floppy-haired young man who used to go out with her friend Alice (among others; quite a lot of others, it seems) is now leader of the Conservative party.
When Boris Met Dave (More4) is pretty silly, really. The hammy drama scenes – Cameron grooving out to Sade with his tennis-racket guitar in his room, Boris boffing about the place and having conversations with statues (Pericles, Churchill) – are neither funny nor convincing. Both portrayals are poor, and the script is as stiff as an Eton collar. There's a bit of archive footage from the famous public school – black-and-white, and grainy. I'm not sure why, because Dave and Boris were there in the 80s, not the 20s.
More revealing and entertaining are the talking heads that pop up to provide the docu part of the show. Best of all is Neil Sherlock, a funny little man who once beat Boris in a student election, calculating his election strategy using a little black book full of figures. Neil's now an accountant in Godalming, and wouldn't you know it.
The others are biographers and fellow alumni: sister Rachel, an ex-girlfriend of Dave's called Francesca, the hapless Delingpole. No one remembers much about Dave, really. James says he was "a good egg, he was not out-there cool, he was not . . . you know, um, well, he wasn't out-there cool." Then he adds that "he always managed to pull attractive birds, which I envied him for". A good egg, not out-there cool, able to pull: I think those are all the qualities you need to run a country.
Then there's the Polish dude who had his room trashed by Boris; the inevitable Toby Young, who also co-wrote and co-produced; US pollster and political consultant Frank Luntz. They're all Frank Luntz, to be honest, in a mockney rhyming kind of way (Rachel "Get up offa that thing" Johnson will understand). But I like toffs who operate in a different universe from everyone else: they're amusing and entertaining. How the hell did one of them come to run the capital, though? And another get to be on the verge of running the country? Quick, stop it, before it's too late.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17911 |
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Summerland Visitors Guide
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Romero Canyon Loop
Romero Canyon Loop
The trail starts out in the trees, but after 2 miles it becomes completely exposed the rest of the way to the top of the ridge. Bring plenty of water and sun protection. Once above the tree line, this... |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17927 | Mondays 9:00 PM on SyFy
Boys, boys, penises down. You need Josh, ya psycho. You need his blood.
I guess I was meant to die with my head bashed in.
Josh? Oh my gosh! Boy butt! Boy butt!
I'm the ghost of Christmas Suck it!
It's like there's no version of myself that doesn't mess everything up.
Not the only difference is instead of two monsters, there's three. What?!
I'm from the future.
Displaying quotes 1 - 9 of 72 in total |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17929 | Mondays 8:00 PM on ABC Family
I don't want to be your friend. I thought I did, but it hurts too much to be with you but not be with you.
You are not in my body. You do not know how I feel. And if you really think I am not trying hard enough, then you really are not my friend.
Natalie: That's the whole problem, hearies calling the shots.
Bay: Um, okay, I'll start. Natalie Pierce is a bully.
Natalie: Bay Kennish is a poser.
Noah: Where's a volleyball when you need one, huh?
Bay: You heard about that?
Displaying all 4 quotes |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17930 | Tuesdays 9:00 PM on ABC Family
You and me. We're everything.
Ethan [to Emma]
Rebecca: Who else would be so protective of the secret of the twins that they would kill for it?
Sutton: Well, you.
You need to be honest with him and yourself, before somebody gets hurt.
The safest thing you could do right now is stay out of it. This is a murder investigation.
Displaying all 6 quotes |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17948 | Last June, Best Buy was engulfed in a leadership crisis.
With damage intensifying, Best Buy's board made an extreme decision: It decided to pay its top executives $500,000 apiece to remain at the troubled electronics retailer, along with up to $2 million in stock. More than 100 other Best Buy executives reportedly got smaller retention packages -- and job performance wasn't a factor in getting the money.
If you think being an executive at Best Buy sounds lucrative, check out the rewards of leaving the company. Amid turmoil at the top, some were paid to stay.
Then paid to leave.
Brian Dunn (former CEO)
Dunn resigned in April, 2012, with a farewell package worth $5.5 million.
G. Mike Mikan III (interim CEO)
Mikan served as interim CEO for 4 months in 2012, earning more than $3 million.
Hubert Joly (current CEO)
The Carlson Cos. executive was hired by Best Buy in August, getting a three-year package worth $32 million.
Stephen Gillett (former EVP and president of Best Buy digital)
Gillett was hired in March, 2012, resigning nine months later. His new employer is covering the $2.5 million he forfeited from Best Buy.
Michael Vitelli (president of U.S. retail operations)
In June, Vitelli was awarded $500,000 plus stock if he stayed. Four months later, he was dismissed. His farewell package is worth $3.4 million.
James Muehlbauer (former CFO)
In June, Muehlbauer was awarded $500,000 plus stock if he stayed. Four months later, he was dismissed. His farewell package is worth $3.4 million.
Richard Schulze (Founder and former chairman)
A billionaire, Schulze resigned from the company in June. Now he wants to buy it back. If he succeeds, a new flurry of golden parachutes await.
"The concern was, a senior group of executives would be receiving any number of recruiting calls, and would be wondering whether it was going to be worth their while to wait around to see who the new CEO was going to be," said one source familiar with the board's thinking.
That June decision still has repercussions at Richfield-based Best Buy. Despite its financial struggles, Best Buy this week will give multimillion-dollar farewell packages to two executives -- the same people paid to stay seven months earlier.
With the company already rebuked for lavish executive pay, the decision to award scores of large bonuses -- with no job performance requirement -- was guaranteed to be controversial. One compensation consultant reportedly quit in protest over the decision.
"That's why they're called continuity awards, making sure your business is run while you're searching for a new CEO, and yet allow a new CEO to pick his or her own team," said Matt Furman, Best Buy's chief communications officer.
He knows the compensation decisions have their critics.
"Those critiques were offered by people who weren't in the board room and didn't have all the facts," Furman said.
June's continuity awards are one in a series of controversial pay decisions at Best Buy. A year of unmatched turnover in the executive ranks has left Best Buy responsible for golden parachutes, severance deals and make-whole payments -- even as its stock price has cratered and the company lost money the past year.
"They don't lose very often," said Charles Elson, a corporate governance expert at the University of Delaware. "It's embarrassing. You need to change direction."
If Best Buy's board changed direction, it's not clear how. Elson understands the reasons. Retention awards are used by corporate boards "when a company becomes unstable and you're worried that talent will move somewhere else. Nothing would be worse than if everyone walked out the door, so perhaps that's what their justification is."
But, Elson added, "It does look unusual to pay a lot to retain people, then afterward, say 'Thank you and goodbye'."
Meanwhile, Best Buy hired a new CEO in August. Hubert Joly came with useful credentials as a bit of a turnaround whiz. Best Buy's Christmas season sales were stronger than analysts had expected, which helped allay some worries.
Still, the company isn't paying only Joly's Best Buy salary. According to its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Best Buy is also paying $20 million to cover potential compensation Joly forfeited when he left his job at Carlson Cos. last summer.
The chronology surprises some analysts.
"I'm trying to pull up another example where the succession plan was so badly handled, where it cost them oodles of money," said Paul Hodgson, an independent corporate governance analyst formerly with GMI Ratings and now a columnist at "Much of this can be laid at the door of the board."
Instead, Hodgson added, "They had to fire the CEO, they paid him a generous termination package, even though the shareholders objected to it. And then they tie down executives with retention packages, and structure it in a way that there's no way out of it. ... Then they vote for a brand new executive team ... which is usually 60 percent more expensive than promoting somebody from within.
"And then having done that, the new CEO wrong-footed them again, saying, 'I don't want them, I want my own team'."
Like many companies, Best Buy bases its executive pay on its "peers" -- and for fiscal 2012, the company considered its peers to be bluest of America's blue-chip companies, including Apple, Amazon, Disney, Wal-Mart and Costco.
Measured by its $50 billion annual revenue, Best Buy is in that league. Trouble was, every one of those chosen "peers" has outperformed Best Buy.
Institutional Shareholder Services, an advisory service for large institutions, last June criticized Best Buy's practice of awarding executives big chunks of stock, simply because earlier stock options were underwater.
That just rewards failure, ISS argued: "The company's success should be required for the awards to vest."
Looming in the background is the drama surrounding Richard Schulze, Best Buy's founder, longtime board chairman and largest shareholder, who supported Dunn, the disgraced CEO, and had brought him up through the ranks.
Schulze resigned from the board in June.
The Schulze threat is one reason Best Buy's board locked down its executives last June, despite the cost. The June deals included non-compete clauses. So did Dunn's.
Best Buy's Furman wouldn't comment on Schulze's actions, but did defend the package for former CEO Dunn.
"That decision was made by the board, with the best interests of the company and the shareholders in mind," Furman said. "It was endorsed subsequently with the board's outside compensation consultant ... (and contained) a non-compete and non-disclosure for an extended period of time, given Brian's position with the company."
An exodus of executive talent from Best Buy also shaped the board's actions, as the electronics retailer in 2012 faced a steady stream of high-level departures, involving both newcomers and long-timers.
Gillett forfeited $2.5 million by leaving so early, SEC documents indicate. But his new employer, Symantec, an anti-virus software firm, agreed to pay him an extra $2.5 million "in order for Mr. Gillett to help defray the cost to repay certain obligations" to Best Buy.
In corporate circles, such make-whole payments are "very common, but don't make a lot of sense," argues Hodgson. "The whole point of awarding somebody long-term incentives is, they only earn them if they deliver the performance and they're there for the long term."
Ultimately, the board of directors and Best Buy's compensation committee were responsible for the pay decisions. That includes the top names at Best Buy.
Until June, Schulze was chairman of Best Buy's board. And members of its compensation committee included G. "Mike" Mikan III, who served as interim CEO (and was paid at least $3 million over four months) and Hatim Tyabji, now chairman.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17971 | Subscribe English
look up any word, like drinking watermelon:
A co-worker or boss who is the combination of a micromanager and a jerk at the same time.
My two bosses just handed me a stack of papers due on his desk by the end of the day and expects hourly updates on my progress. They both are micromanajerks and need to relax!
by Frumpy Frank April 07, 2011
4 0 |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17972 | Subscribe English
look up any word, like drinking watermelon:
1) Internet derivation of opps.
2) ops accompanies an accident, mistake, error, or mishap. It also can be used to mean "that sucks"
Ops I died.
That Sucks, ops.
by Dr. Delete July 25, 2004
134 103
ops, meaning the people that have Operation Privileges on a blogTV show. Thei have the power to kick people that are rude out, give other people Operation Privileges and write over head text.
The ops just kicked Jimmy12345 for rudeness!
by Icegirl September 08, 2008
62 33
The new Oxycontin pills that have an OP on them instead of the original OC. These new OP's can't be crushed, meaning that they cant be snorted, smoked or melted down for injection. They can still be split into halves or quarters though. They stopped making the original kind due to so many people crushing them and using them in ways which were not intended.
I know some people that still have a supply of the original kind left, but the prices have been jacked up tremendously.
Here in So Cal, an original now costs a dollar per milligram, whereas the new OP's cost 50 cents a milligram. Basically, 80 bucks for an 80mg of OC and 40 for a 80mg of OP.
I really hate these new OP's. I miss snorting lines of that shit and my nose has been starving lately.
by Brando420 October 19, 2010
27 17
Other People's Shit
It's a term used mostly at work that explains the work (S***) that other people make you do even though it's their work
John: Hey Dee? Could you mail these faxes off?
by kkamira53 January 12, 2011
33 30
Other Peaple's cigarettes;begged or borrowed cigarettes.
John only smokes OP's
by masoud.p August 25, 2007
17 14
Originally short for opportunity when referring to pulling a girl.
"Take your ops"
an op can generally be referred to as a hot girl
"that girls is a op" - that girl is hot
"did you take op last night" - Did you score last night
Bman " you coming to the party tonight?"
Mark " any ops coming?"
Bman "ahh I don't know any op's"
Mark " Fizz... Lets go creeping in town instead"
by bung5 August 12, 2011
3 4
Old Persons Syndrome - a state of being which the afflicted are prone to senior citizen moments. This may include the following: complaining about things that do not matter and will not benefit anyone involved, taking several minutes to count change out of a change purse so it's "easier" on the cashier to ring out, forgetting to give the cashier coupons you had, then making them go through the whole process all over again just to ring them in again, complaining about a piece of technology that they cannot figure out, complaining about and/or denouncing new technology or ways of doing things that make life easier, and several other indicators.
Symptoms may also include constant grumpiness, random moments of cognitive clarity that dissipate as random as they appear, asking questions about some thing that is clearly self explanatory, and constantly showing you things that you've already known for years now.
1. "Why's John bitching about every thing and anything on such a nice day?"
"Oh just ignore him. He has OPS."
2. "I can't get this cordless computer to use the interemnet!"
"It's wireless, you just have to connect to the router. You don't need a cord anymore."
"I liked it better the other way when you didn't have to jump through hoops just to get on the world wide web so just plug it back in!"
"It's better this you can use the laptop all over the house and not just upstairs on the old computer."
"Who said I wanted it in my lap! I like it better on the table!"
"Sigh...Dad you're only 45 and you already have OPS."
3. The following is a real life encounter with a person with severe, non-drug induced OPS:
(Customer walks into a sub shop and walks up to the order line and just starts looking around)
Food Handler "...May I help you?"
"What is this place?"
"....It's Good Subs..."
"What's that?"
".......a restaurant?"
"What's a rashawalt?"
"What?...A restaurant...would you like some thing?"
"What do you sell?"
"What kind?"
"....all the kinds that are on the menu up there...or we can make whatever you want..."
"Ok I'll take one."
" of what?"
"....What kind???"
"What kind would I like?"
"I fucking quit..."
by CaliKing August 15, 2011
16 20 |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17980 | The Las Vegas Shopping Diva Experience
If you'd rather win via retail therapy than at a slot machine, Vegas is your spot. There's a shopping op in every price range. Get your Gucci, Prada and Jimmy Choo fix at chi-chi Crystals at CityCenter. A faux desert rainstorm entertains at The Miracle Mile Shops at the Planet Hollywood Resort, as do talking Roman statues at The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace. Check out the goods at the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop seen on reality TV's Pawn Stars. Or haul an empty suitcase to the two Las Vegas Premium Outlets and bring home bargains. We'll show you where to score a find. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17989 | Research the climate of your college destination to get an idea of what clothing to pack for the U.S. and what to leave behind.
What International Students Should Expect About U.S. Weather
From snow to desert heat, international students should research and prepare for the weather at their U.S. college.
For international students who now know where they are attending college this fall, it’s time to start the fun of researching your new home.
Start researching your school's location to give you some basic ideas of the things you should be packing to bring to the U.S., and be aware that America is home to some really diverse weather.
For any international students who want a better idea of what to expect from the weather in the states where their schools are located, is a great general resource for checking up on the temperatures and weather in different states. is another useful site that could give a more detailed look at the weather in your school's state. When you’re doing your research and thinking of how you’re going to manage your luggage weight, pack light but pack smart.
[Learn how to find the right U.S. college location for you.]
Below is an overview of the four large American regions and some of the weather you can expect from each. Use it to inform some of the suitcase choices you will soon be making, but look more closely at each region too – these areas can be very large.
The West (states including California, Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona): As a general rule, sun shines on California and the Southwest, but international students heading to a school in California should also be prepared for the occasional earthquake. The international house at University of California—Berkeley is built near a fault line, although I never felt the effects of that while I was studying at the school.
Generally the temperatures are cooler further north and in the mountains, with snow in areas like Tahoe, and hotter in the south, growing more desert-like as you head inland from the coast. Places like Los Angeles are prone to the occasional wildfire.
If you’re going to school in California or the Southwest there is little point in packing any heavy-duty cold clothes; keep everything fairly lightweight and easily weather adaptable.
Those headed to the Pacific Northwest and colleges near the Rocky Mountains, however, should pack for cooler weather, including rain and snow gear. Montana, in particular, can get extremely cold.
[Check out the best U.S. colleges for winter lovers.]
The Midwest (states including Ohio, Illinois, Minnesota, Kansas): Expect a big mix of weather in these states. These are some places where you actually get a seasonal cycle.
It can be temperate in the spring, hot in the summer and cold in winter. Positioned inland from the oceans, the climates in these states can often be very different.
Tornadoes are one type of extreme weather to expect in the Midwest, much of which falls in what residents refer to as Tornado Alley. Along with the Northeast, the Midwest was hit by a polar vortex in January, so this is one of the places students should incorporate some snow gear into your suitcase, especially if they want to indulge in some winter sports at the end of the fall semester.
The South (states including Texas, Mississippi, Florida): The South can be an intense region to live and study in. Coastal towns like New Orleans and Miami are particularly vulnerable to hurricanes – although international students heading there shouldn’t be worried. A classmate of mine was trapped indoors by Hurricane Isaac for nearly two weeks but emerged unscathed.
If the hurricanes pass you by, expect it to be hot, humid and feel incredibly sticky in the fall and equally hot but much more prone to heavy rain in the summer. The southernmost point of Florida is technically deemed a tropical climate.
Students should pack lightweight clothes and an umbrella for the bursts of heavy rainfall that often come flooding through. One international alumnus from the University of Miami recommends wearing sunscreen to avoid the sunburn on those lazy beach days.
[Get more advice on what to pack for studying in the U.S.]
The Northeast (states including New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts): In this part of the U.S., the weather can go from one extreme to the next, with hot and sunny summers and bitterly cold winters.
This is the region that bore the brunt of the polar vortex through the end of 2013 and into 2014, and temperatures can fall well below freezing in most winters, so international students should make sure they have a sturdy coat in their suitcase or plan to buy one while there.
With visas and plane tickets to think about, the weather might seem like the least of your worries right now; but doing your research now could save you time and money in a few months’ time. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/17998 | Powerful pecs
Strong chest muscles look good and feel good
<p>The move: San Diego firefighter Bruce Pollett performs a pectoralis stretch while lying supine on a foam roller.</p>
PEC AND SHOULDER STRETCH <p>The move: San Diego firefighter Bruce Pollett performs a pectoralis stretch while lying supine on a foam roller.</p> — File Photo
A well-developed chest does more than just look good.
Strong pectoralis muscles, the large muscles at the front of the chest that attach to the upper arm and shoulder, help you put some “oomph” into daily activities. Although you push a wheelchair, shopping cart, baby stroller or lawn mower with your arms, it’s actually your chest that’s doing most of the work.
Contrary to what some believe, chest exercises aren’t just for vein-popping, body-building guys. Anyone can benefit from a regular chest workout, including women. Strong pecs not only help defy gravity, but they also make the most of what God gave you.
Weak or tight chest muscles can sabotage your posture. When your chest is tight, a common plight for desk workers hovered over computers, your shoulders pull forward making you appear rounded and hunched. Tight chest muscles often translate into weak back muscles. Because chest muscles aren’t used often in daily activities, it’s important to do specific
exercises to strengthen and stretch them because they can atrophy.
To help you develop a strong chest, we offer some previously published favorite exercises from the weekly Firehouse Fitness column:
The move: San Diego firefighter and paramedic Mark Tomasello demonstrates an upper-body strengthening exercise performed with dumbbells.
Works on: Chest and triceps strength, shoulder stability and coordination.
Level of difficulty: Advanced
Precautions: Caution must be used with any pre-existing upper extremity conditions that limit arm motion. A bench that can change angles is optimal, but a flat bench may be used.
Setup: With dumbbells in each hand, lie back on the incline bench. Press the weights up toward the ceiling and hold them directly above your head.
Steps: Using a five count, slowly lower one dumbbell toward the body until the elbow bends to 90 degrees. Return the arm to an extended position. Alternate arms and repeat.
Repetitions: Perform three sets of 10 repetitions on each arm.
Options: Increase the weight of the dumbbells, and/or change the angle of the incline bench. A more advanced technique is to slowly lower the weight as before, but on the return motion, raise the weight explosively to develop power. Take care with this last option; it can produce muscle soreness and has a higher potential for injury. Consult with a certified trainer before trying this option.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18018 | Breaking news
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1. DSB
I guess it’s kinda expected, but it really is a new low point for Codemasters.
Those guys need to sit down and think about what they’re doing.
They have all the qualifications needed for a great racing game, and instead they’re doing garbage like that, yet again narrated by 14 year old American skaters.
Fuck right off. Dirt 3 was the last one for me.
#1 2 years ago
2. Dimaco
After Dirt 1 (which was to some extent a true rally game, and probably the best of the series) this series has inexorably gone down… too bad it doesn’t look like Milestone has the economic means to build a high profile rally game..
#2 2 years ago |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18024 | The Gropes of Wrath
The NYPD loves touching black men—writer Nicholas Powers on being a stop-and-frisk virgin
For black men, being stopped and frisked by the police is a rite of passage. But I've never been touched by a cop. I'm a virgin.
Knowing this, I play a risky game of tease by trying not to look safe. Instead of a corporate fade cut, four-foot-long dreads flap around me. Yet somehow I've eluded this state-sanctioned groping. A stop-and-frisk is hands feeling up and down your body, fingering pockets and cupping armpits. It's a physical act poorly translated by statistics.
The New York Civil Liberties Union analyzed police data and reported that half a million of us were stopped and frisked by the NYPD in 2006, but only 50,000 were issued summonses or arrested. Of that half million, 85.7 percent were black or Latino. The NYPD is fondling our bodies.
It made me look at the men in my life. Who's been touched? I ask my roommate Ese Ovueraye if he's a virgin. "My first time," he recalls, "I was buying loosies from the bodega. When I left, two cops rushed me. The female cop warned me her partner had a gun. I was like, 'What are you going to do, shoot me?' "
I imagine police handprints on Ese's arms, shoulders, and thighs. Can you feel safe in your body after someone handles it against your will? I ask Ese why no cop has ever stopped me. He smiles. "Take off your glasses and wear a hoodie. You'll get all the love you want."
I call Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League and a former mayor of New Orleans, and ask if he's ever been frisked. He remembers driving home after a football game 30 years ago. Police lights flash in the mirror. He and his friend pull over. The cop orders them out and frisks them. "I felt violated," Morial says. As he drove home, the question rang in his head: What was that for? We weren't doing anything. "I never told my parents," he said. "I didn't want them to think I had done something wrong."
"Policing is not just the police," Morial adds, "but the relationship with the community. If people don't trust you, if they don't show up to juries, if no one offers information, then police can't solve crimes." He says stop-and-frisks create fear and resentment. I hummed agreement, remembering last summer and the "Stop Snitchin' " T-shirts young men wore like a shield.
Morial says that growing up, school was a safe haven. I feel him, having gone from high school to college to graduate school to learn new dialects of English. I realized quickly that black men have to be multi-lingual, to speak hard-heeled English and sneaker-soft slang. If you are ambitious, you radiate the signal that you are not dangerous. Sometimes it's a choice made so long ago it's now unconscious. Sometimes it's a choice we remake every day, not knowing if it's right.
Wendell Pierce is a black actor who plays Detective William"Bunk" Moreland on the HBO series The Wire. I met him in New Orleans and call him to ask if he's ever been frisked. "Not frisked," he says, "but some close encounters."
Pierce was at Penn Station in Baltimore in 1986. After a dispute with a cabbie, the taxi lurched at him, running over his bags. He yelled for help and witnesses called the police. A white officer asked Pierce to "calm down." "Officer," Pierce tried to explain, "this guy tried to run me over!" The cop baited him, "So what you want to do?" Pierce didn't get it: "I want to press charges." The cop fingered his gun, stood nose to nose. "Now, what you going to do?" Pierce felt the unspoken threat. "Oh, now I get it-—I'm on the next train to New York." The cop backed up. "Now you get it." The irony, Pierce says, "is now I play a Baltimore detective on TV."
I call ex–Black Panther and current city councilman Charles Barron and ask if he's ever been frisked. "I won't allow it," he asserts. "If a cop tries to stop-and-frisk me and I haven't committed a crime, we're going to rumble." Barron admits he's not a good example, being a city councilman, and before that a political celebrity. Still, the irony. One of the most militant voices in New York is a virgin.
Yet Barron spent 45 days in jail for a 1987 protest, so maybe he's a Virgin In Name Only. Often he rides around East New York providing a knightly service, policing the police. "If I see someone's pulled over, I get out of my car and tell the cop they're violating constitutional rights." Barron sees stop-and-frisks as racist: "We have a right to move freely. Being a black man in the 'hood is not probable cause." Barron doesn't mince words about which side he's on. "If I see brothers on the corner in hip-hop clothing," he says, "and on the other corner rookie white cops with guns, I'm walking by the brothers."
"There is a conspiracy of silence in black communities," says Bill Fletcher, former president of TransAfrica Forum. "People want to say, 'I want the cops here—because we are more often victimized by crime.' But we don't, because when it's said aloud it gets folded in with a right-wing attack on black men."
Of course, I ask him the question. "My first time, I was in college. A man in a leather jacket came up to me and screamed, 'Up against the wall! You fit the description!' I was freaking out. I was an activist and rationally prepared for being stopped, but not emotionally."
He sees profiling trickle down within black neighborhoods. Men who are bitter and hungry, and who don't have the money to settle the question of their manhood, target the weakest among us. His words make me look at myself. Not only has no police officer ever touched me, neither has any criminal. Hassled for money, yes, but never mugged.
"It's all related," says Noel Leader, co-founder of 100 Black Men in Law Enforcement Who Care. "I am a black man and a black police officer, and I can tell you the ramifications of being humiliated are that you feel powerless." He remembers walking home from a shift at McDonald's in 1975. The job was to help his mom out so she wouldn't have to pay for his clothing. Two cops drove up and shoved him against the wall. He stood there, hearing them laugh. As he waited on the wall, the officers drove away—with no apology. "I cried as I walked home," he says. "Police humiliation adds to anger, and the men take it out on their wives, kids, or next person who comes along."
Every brother I know has a story. Even at SUNY Old Westbury where I work, the school president, Reverend Calvin Butts, has been caught out there. "I was 17 years old," he says. "On a date with my girlfriend in Greenwich Village. Was carrying a cane, you know, trying to be cool. A police officer stopped me, takes my cane, and begins yelling at me."
He sighs as if deflating an old memory, "I felt chumped. My girl standing there looking at me. And you know the point of it is to embarrass you. I wanted to explode." How long, I ask, before the rage faded? "The anger never left," he says. "It's why I can still tell you about it today."
He has more stories—everyone I ask has more. I'm just not able to hear them. They remind me of how available our bodies are to any cop who's bored or angry. Someday that body will be mine. My precious virginity will be taken and it won't be a choice.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18039 | Skip to content, or skip to search.
‘Ugly Betty’: Has ABC Heard Our Pleas?
Who are those people standing next to Harold?
Last week we were about to give up on Betty completely. ABC must have heard our pleas — did they hire new writers and stylists? The show was freaking brilliant (for what it is). Betty has finally gotten the guts to go to the writing class where her professor calls her “Clappy” (which later morphs into “Crappy”). We’ve never been hotter for a teacher in our lives. And yes, this was the big Dawson episode, with James Van Der Beek playing a coked-up bigot (haven’t we seen this somewhere?). But really, shouldn’t the ads have played up the return of Harold? As in Harold and Kumar? (As in John Cho, if you're bothering to keep track of real names.) And did we mention there’s a stuffed bear with glowing red eyes that calls Betty a “lying bitch”? (From our notes: “Are we high?”) But enough with the lovefest. Herewith, the crimes against fashion.
A little black can go a long way.
Betty’s writing class is full of tortured writers who of course wear nothing but black. Oh silly, stylists, when will you learn? As firm believers in dark colors, even we know that too much can make you look like Lydia from Beetlejuice. Then again, there was Marc, suspiciously toned down this episode — dapper even, in a black vest and pants.
A little bit of boobs can go a long way.
Seriously, can we count the lady lumps? Hilda’s returned after being kept under wraps last week. Alexis had hers in a plunging, unbuttoned button-up — minus a bra. We get that she’s supposed to be a guy in a girl’s body, but even dudes know about support. The jiggle factor was just painful.
A little runny mascara … you get the idea.
What woman in her right mind wears non-waterproof mascara? Oh, right, Alexis is a guy inside. How clever, ABC! So of course he/she wears the runny stuff and cries just a bit and all of the sudden looks like Robert Smith. That’s not quite how it works, but hey, who are we to disagree?
And now, our nugget of joy. This week it has to go to Professor Barrett: “If you have nothing to write, try killing yourself.” On it! —Amina Akhtar
Photo: Courtesy of ABC |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18046 | D.C. Arts & Entertainment Calendar
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18060 | I have a form with a <textarea> and a <button>. I would like users to be able to select (highlight) all text in the textarea by clicking the button. I know this is possible with <input type="button"> but I can't seem to get it to work with a button tag. Could someone help me out please?
this is what i have so far:
<textarea id="messageBody" style="width:100%;height:200px;border:1px solid #999;" wrap="off"></textarea>
<button onClick="javascript:this.form.frm.focus();this.form.frm.select();" style="background-image:url('images/gradiant_2.png');" class="buttonstylessm">Select All</button>
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18065 | Skip to content
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Got bedroom troubles? Waning sexual desire or erection problems are very common. Maybe you've been tempted to try ginseng, ginkgo, and similar supplements. There's no lack of products out there.
What are these supplements? Do they live up to their promises? Are there any studies showing they work? Do they have bad side effects? Are they worth the cash? Is a romantic bath for two a better solution?
Getting Sex Supplement Advice
For advice on women's supplements, we turned to Hilda Hutcherson, MD, clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Columbia University Medical Center, and author of the book Sex and Pleasure: A Woman's Guide to Getting the Sex You Want and Need and Deserve.
The supplements are generally harmless, she tells WebMD. She has found that herbal oils and supplements do seem to help some women having trouble with sexual desire and vaginal dryness. Yet she always advises talking to your doctor before taking any supplements -- as some have dangerous side effects.
We also spoke with Christopher Saigal, MD, assistant professor of urology at UCLA School of Medicine, about men's supplements -- mostly for erectile dysfunction (ED). He's got an open mind about supplements that mimic Viagra, but he's also got definite opinions.
If you're buying an off-the-shelf supplement, the quality is worth questioning, Saigal says. "There is so much fraud in this industry," Saigal tells WebMD. "Go to a site that evaluates the contents, like One evaluation of ginseng showed that half the brands had contaminants like pesticides. So buyer beware. Look for high-quality products."
Sexual Desire, Supplements…and the Science
Ginseng: There are several types of ginseng, two of which are Siberian ginseng, which is occasionally used as an aphrodisiac, and red Korean or Asian ginseng, which is used in Chinese traditional medicine and has slightly more research behind it, Saigal says.
"Ginseng, like a lot of herbs, is thought to work by helping the body make more nitric oxide -- as does Viagra," he says. "A couple of good studies showed some effect from ginseng, so people can look at this as an alternative to Viagra. But it's not going to be as effective as Viagra or Levitra or Cialis."
Ginseng appears to help women, too, says Hutcherson. "Ginseng gives people energy and may improve mood, and you need energy and endurance for sex, right?"
Black Cohosh: In the past, black cohosh has been used to treat arthritis and muscle pain and was traditionally used for “female” complaints. Today, it is marketed to treat hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal dryness, premenstrual syndrome, and other menopausal symptoms.
"Black cohosh has estrogen-like properties, and increases blood flow to the pelvis -- which increases arousal and response to sexual stimulation," Hutcherson says. "More blood flow means more lubrication, and that's good for sex." The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is funding studies of black cohosh as a treatment for menopausal symptoms.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18066 | The Grid Articles
When They Turn On The Grid, Neutrality Matters
· 7
The future, probably without the flying cars, the one you see in the movies with holograms, with instant and ubiquitous informational access and unbelievable computer processing capabilities, isn’t too far off. It won’t be built on the current Internet, though. The Internet is totally 20th Century. The red button on the Grid will be pushed this summer, and will change everything—again. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18086 | Accounts Receivable: An Unlikely Source of Cash
By Thursday Bram on 2 April 2010 (Updated 25 April 2010) 0 comments
Photo: hillwoman2
Your accounts receivable are obviously worth money: just as soon as a client or customer gets around to paying his invoice, you'll have money in your hands. But in the meanwhile, those invoices are just worth the paper they're printed on. You can't spend the money that they promise you until you actually receive payment. That doesn't mean that accounts receivable can't be a source of cash in the short-term, however.
Using Accounts Receivable for Cash
Because banks and other lenders consider your company's accounts receivable to be an asset, you can use them to take out an asset-based loan with your accounts receivable as collateral. Alex Kwechansky's background in public accounting and business reorganizations has put him on both sides of the table during this sort of loan. He describes a loan based on accounts receivable:
This loan uses the company's customers themselves as the debtors. Thus, the borrower is secondarily responsible to pay the lender. This works either by having the receivables formally secured with actual notice sent to the customers or (with better, established borrowers) being trusted to immediately repay the lender as funds are collected. As funds are collected, the access to new funds becomes conditionally available. Audits are occasionally performed to check for compliance.
With this sort of loan, you generally can borrow between 75 and 80 percent of the value of your invoices, although with the various fees and paperwork that go along with the loan, it's easy to wind up without much of the original amount of an invoice left over.
Another alternative is to work with a factor to sell your accounts receivable outright. Kwechansky says:
Less financially stable companies can use other lenders, generally called factors, to actually buy the account receivable and to collect the funds directly. They pay a reduced amount for the receivable but the borrower gets upfront cash and no collection delays or collection costs. They can also choose to sell one invoice at a time as they need cash than to be tied to an all in A/R commitment. Both of these accounts receivable loans have their downsides but, from my experience, they are less complicated and less encumbering than going to a bank.
Taking Out a Loan
In order to apply for and receive an asset-based loan, you can expect to hand plenty of paperwork over to a lender. Much of the list is the same if you are considering factoring your accounts receivable. That paperwork will include financial statements and tax returns for the business, so that a lender can establish the stability of the business. Depending on your business structure, you may also be asked to provide personal financial records for the owner as well.
You'll also need to hand over the paperwork on your accounts receivable, including a customer list and agings reports for either a loan or factoring. For a loan, you'll be asked for information about your inventory (not just what you already have on hand but your raw materials and how long you expect it to take to move your inventory) and your accounts payable details. Such information is necessary to establish your ability to pay back a loan.
It's important to remember that just because you apply for a loan of a certain amount, it's up to the lender to decide how much credit to extend. While some lenders will offer a loan of up to 80 percent of your accounts receivable, they may reduce the amount they make available based on the stability of your company. Some banks may also take your inventory into account when calculating a loan.
Once you've received an asset-based loan, you should expect that your lender will establish some sort of reporting requirement to insure that you are collecting your accounts receivable in a timely manner, as well as keeping your financial situation otherwise in order. Just like with a credit card, lenders can reduce the amount available to you to borrow based on a change in your business finances — that sort of situation requires you to immediately make payments to get the balance of your loan down to an acceptable level.
The Drawbacks to Loans
Marc Bowers is the co-founder of the Grun Company, which manufactures erosion control equipment. The company depends on factoring its accounts receivables for survival, but the situation isn't entirely perfect:
Factoring is expensive. It is the equivalent of working for free; you pass a lot of margin through to the factoring agent. It has made a difference in our ability to function because it is one of our very few, and very austere, sources of production funding. If we weren't factoring right now, then we wouldn't be producing anything to sell and we would be dead in the water. Period.
There can be issues along the way when you use your accounts receivable as collateral, as well. Everything from simple paperwork issues to problems with a lender can pop up, depending on who you work with. Kwechansky routinely conducts business fraud investigations. He notes that the audits that some lenders perform can actually cause problems with a loan, even when the borrower's books are in order:
These audits are generally performed long after the fact and can create more problems than they solve. Lenders have a habit of hiring the cheapest auditor. Often you get what you pay for.
Using your accounts receivable in order to get cash is not the best fit for every business. It is more commonly seen in businesses based on manufacturing, because the need for capital to continue production is a situation that requires capital even if invoices aren't immediately paid. But just because that is the most common situation doesn't mean that your business should or shouldn't consider the option. Instead, it means that you'll need to run the numbers for yourself and see what the benefits or drawbacks are in your individual situation.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18099 | 100,028pages on
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Revision as of 21:24, June 20, 2011 by Lorelady (Talk | contribs)
For old demigods, see Ancient guardian.
Ancients, souls of the forests
Faction/AffiliationAlliance, Sentinels
Character classesHealer, Druid of the wild, Shaman
Racial capitalGrove of the Ancients (presumed)
Racial leader(s)Circle of Ancients (presumed)
Racial mountNot applicable
HomeworldAzeroth, Outland
Primary language(s)Very slow (presumed) Darnassian
Secondary language(s)Common
Average heightVaries
Organization(s)Solitary (1), Grove (2-5)
The mighty tree has a massive face shaped in its trunk, with wise, deep-set eyes. It mowes with gigantic root-like feet, and two great branches end in huge bark-skinned hands.[1]
Ancients are demigod-like trees.[2] They are some of the most important creatures in night elf society. They resemble sapient trees, but their wisdom and insight are almost unparalleled. Many of them are thousands of years old. They assist their night elf allies with guidance, education (particularly in the druidic arts), and protection — they are large and powerful, and are protectors of the forest. They are large enough to carry night elves, and some are so enormous that a few night elves make their homes in them. The wisps act in unison with the night elves and serve to strengthen the demigod-like trees known as the Ancients.[3]
Most ancients resemble deciduous trees that live in temperate climates, such as oaks and maples. A few evergreen ancients also exist. No reliable reports of tropical ancients have yet surfaced, but the night elves claim that they can exist — and if a colony of night elves moves to the tropics and brings along the appropriate druidic magic, tropical ancients may indeed grace Azeroth's surface. Ancients speak Darnassian, though a few also speak Common. Their voices sound like ancient trees creaking in the wind.
Ancients are traditionally friends of night elves and good-hearted, but the recent Third War makes them suspicious of non-night elves. They give outsiders a chance to prove their good intentions; but if roused to anger ancients are implacable foes.
Some ancients patrol their territories, but most spend their time standing still, virtually indistinguishable from normal trees. An ancient may watch intruders, perhaps moving in secret to dog their path. If the outsiders do nothing to harm the forest or nature's balance, the ancient leaves them alone. If the outsiders appear to share the same ideals as the ancient (destroying corrupted creatures or protecting trees from other intruders, for example), the ancient reveals itself and lends assistance. If outsiders abuse the land, the ancient rumbles to a fury and attacks with swings of its arms.[4]
Giant, sentient trees that sometimes serve as advisors and protectors of the night elves as NPCs, but also wander the lands as hostile monsters. They lack apparent independent construction of settlements, but are otherwise highly intelligent. They can also root into the ground to become more of a tree. The WoW ancients do not seem to utilize this ability.
Male and female figures alike with hooded faces fought in the War of the Ancients. The little flesh that could be seen was made of oak bark.[5]
Additional info
• Classifying ancients:
• Some ancients are classified by WoW Icon 16x16 World of Warcraft as being of the elemental creature type (as are most plant creatures in-game), others are giants, and still others are uncategorized. It is not clear why, as no distinct difference between the kinds of ancients can be brought to light. Several treants also have the term "ancient" in their name, but these are much smaller and weaker than regular ancients.[citation needed]
• In the The RPG Icon 16x36 RPG, which has a different classification system altogether, ancients are not elementals but instead are large ambulatory plants.
• Ancients are also native to Outland. There once was a grove of ancients in the Blades Edge Mountains, its name forgotten. They lived there in ancient times before the destruction of Outland. Mosswood the Ancient is one of the last of these ancients.[6][7]
Corrupted ancient as seen in Warcraft III.
Types or subraces of ancients
Greater ancients
Lesser ancients
1. ^ Manual of Monsters, pg. 14
2. ^ Warcraft III manual, pg. ??
3. ^ Warcraft III manual, pg. 119
4. ^ Alliance Player's Guide, pg. 194-195
5. ^ The Sundering , pg. 186
6. ^ Neutral 15 [67] From the Ashes
7. ^ Neutral 15 [67] Little Embers
8. ^ Official alliance mini-icon Onu <Ancient of Lore>, Neutral 15 Hastat the Ancient, Neutral 15 Stoma the Ancient, Neutral 15 Vartrus the Ancient
9. ^ Neutral 15 Ashyen <Ancient of Lore>
10. ^ Combat 15 Warp Splinter
11. ^ Official alliance mini-icon Gnarl <Ancient of War>
12. ^ Neutral 15 Keleth <Ancient of War>
13. ^ Official alliance mini-icon Sylvanaar Ancient Protector
14. ^ Combat 15 Corrupted Lothalor Ancient
15. ^ Neutral 15 Lothalor Ancient
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18103 | MACRO dismount
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Revision as of 05:37, January 2, 2009 by DrDoom (Talk | contribs)
Slash commands
Dismounts your character
Aliases Edit
Arguments Edit
Notes Edit
This will not exit your character from a vehicle, so it is assumed (not tested yet) that it does not work for mounts that use the vehicle interface such as the Traveller's Tundra Mammoth, the Flying Carpet, the Chopper, etc... Patch 3.0.8 will make those mounts not vehicles anymore, so it should work after then.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18106 |
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Old 02-01-2013, 11:54 AM #2832 (permalink)
Join Date: Dec 2011
Posts: 1,111
Expectnomercy316 101 - 250Expectnomercy316 101 - 250
Default Re: Hip Hop Discussion Thread
Just done listening to Ice Cube's Kill at Will. Fucking masterpeice, Cube was going crazy. Can't stop listening to Jackin' for Beats and Dead Homiez. How the hell can you make a classic with just 7 tracks! I gotta admit,i was one of the guys who couldn't listen to songs without good beats and whole album. But after Amerikkka's most wanted i became huge fan!!! I Just wanna listen to a rap album now lol! any suggestions!?!
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18108 | Langone on Jobs: You Need to be Able to Count
Ken Langone, who co-founded Home Depot, assesses the Occupy movement and the dangers of economic inequality.
Stop bitching about where you are, do something about it... I define them as babies in adult bodies. I don't think they know what they want to be when they grow up. |
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18192 |
Free exchange
Heated debate
See article
Readers' comments
su sophia
The author prefers to refer the disadvantages of climate change, and he said it. However, there are different attitudes stand in different stance. In my point of view, it is not that bad, and I think there are more advantages over disadvantages.
First, as it is said by the author, climate change is really a disaster for those countries in lower lands and people live there, and brings financial loss to them. But, from another aspect, I can see benefits. Migration brings development opportunity to those emigrated people’s destinations.
Second, it is absolutely great for those boreal and sub-arctic areas. The warmer climate will make winter warmer and make people comfortable and the land in higher latitude more suitable for crops, fruits and vegetables to grow and improve their yields. For example, Russia has large tracts of lands in cold areas which can not plant food, but with the more and warmer climate, the land will become good land for crops.
Third, it is good for inland areas and desert areas. Warmer climate make the air be humid and bring rainfalls to those arid regions, which contributes to improving desert circumstance and increasing vegetation coverage, and reduce desert’s bad effect on human beings. Also, it increases crops’ outputs in arid areas and helps to solve hunger.
Forth, the immigration caused by climate change promoting cultural exchange and cultural flourishing. Whatever the immigration within a country or among countries, they are both devote to mutual understanding and economy cooperation and cultural transfer and finally make the world a more harmonious and peaceful big family.
Fifth, people’s behavior did have impact on climate change. Since climate becoming warmer is a trend, so, people should try their best to not to speed the warmer process to let nature to be natural. Market failure is inherent, so every country should take its own responsibility of building a good environment for the big family. And government’s intervention is necessary to avoid market failure.
In conclusion, everything has two sides; we should balance it and avoid extreme.
Climate issues are big questions to all over the world, although there are boundary between two counties, they all share one piece of sky. Nowadays, some developed countries transferred some environment unfriendly and some heavily polluting industries to developed countries or less developed countries. They just try their best to protect their country from polluted, they have not been realized it will kill themselves at the same time. Because all the people share the air in this world, the air is flowing.
The thesis statement of this article is "The costs of climate change can be mitigated if economic activity moves in response". This is very important, we should develop economic with a suitable way, do not just want make money and regerdless of everything. And use some clean and renewable energy. Because many things in this world is limited.
The Schaeffler Company has begun the manufacture of solar panels and other parts for green building. Do you think that people will pay the added costs for green materials?
Zhang Shujiao
The article shows that the cost of climate change can be mitigated by moving the location of economic activities. That is to say, people can move around as they like in response to climate changes. In my point of view, it is not a good idea.
As we all know, the amount of people a place can hold is limited, the large scale of migration to one place will damage the ecological environment more seriously. with one place destroyed, people move to another place. People continue with the vicious cycle, more and more lands will be destroyed, which goes against the theory of sustainable development. This kind of behavior is also selfish, which shows no responsibility for the next generation.
Moreover, People will pay higher price of climate change by doing so. It can not solve problems fundamentally, but exacerbate climate deterioration. Climate change is caused by irrational human behavior. The way is to justify behavior of human beings toward the environment, but not change from one place to another.
The earth is a whole. All the decisions should be responsible for the environment and conform to sustainable development concept.
I don’t think it is a good solution that the cost of climate change can be mitigated by emigration. No doubt, it is an irresponsible action for all mankind if we purely use the emigration to solve the adverse effects of climate change.
First, this suggestion can’t solve the basic problems. If those people who live in low latitudes move to higher latitudes and the people who live in costal areas move toward inland regions with the climate warming, in that way, some day people would have nowhere to go. Moreover, the whole world faces with various crises besides the climate problems. The population problem is also very important. When we give up some cities, the global situation will become more serious.
Second, human beings have to accept responsibility or the punishment or consequences for what we have done. We should try to figure out solutions to improve this problem instead of escaping from responsibility.
Since the Kyoto Protocol came into force, climate change has aroused worldwide concerns. Low-carbon lifestyle has become the goal we all seek. Although it is time consuming and high cost, at least for now, achieving low-carbon lifestyle is the only solution.
An under reported fact...There's been NO global temperature increase in more than TWENTY years! THERE IS NO GLOBAL WARMING...nananananana!..THERE IS NO GLOBAL WARMING!!!
So, Europe would be richer if we built a strong Southern border, quit with the greenery and freely burnt all Russia's gas & oil.
Not only in the short run - but we'd also have higher agricultural productivity and a better climate up here as the Earth warmed, more fish and more ocean trade routes.
... while the US & Australia, of all developed countries, would suffer most.
Any explanations for why behaviours and national interests are inversed?
Jukka Kautto
We pretend not see the elephant in the room, once the primary cause for all environmental problems is the rampaging population growth and that fact is refused by our brains crammed with illusive political and religious mambo jumbo of our self importance on the Earth. Consequently we choose only to treat the symptoms, while the world´s population become tripled during one life time and now the void between futile actions and the negative human impact is steadily widening. This is like the US economy, where the federal debt accumulates 21 faster than GDP and you are predestined to a rendez-vous with the brick wall.
This model is based on rather simplistic assumptions of how climate change will play out. The rational assumption is that land productivity will shift towards the poles, and shorelines will shift inward. If those were the only two impacts of climate change - sure, people & cities would just relocate inward and upward.
However - although there is no doubt truth in both of those assumptions, they by no means offer a complete picture of the potential affects of climate change.
There really are too many variables for us to accurately predict what will happen with any certainty.
Sure - financial managers, computer programmers, and electrical engineers could all move North, and resume their activities with no great change in productivity. But it is unlikely, for instance, that a 'clean shift' of agricultural land towards the poles will result in equivalent levels of production.
The article brings up a good point at the end. Poorer families moving to areas with affordable housing in disaster-prone areas could lead to a humanitarian crises. We saw the tragedy of Katrina - and Hurricane Sandy wasn't particularly pleasant either.
Hopefully policy changes will protect citizens from the destruction we are bringing upon ourselves and the true environmental changes will move slowly enough to give us time to catch up.
My impression is that these models wash over the fact that if they reflect reality and you contrast it with reality, history is the four horsemen.
This is what you get assuming classical equations of flow, than say something probably more realistic like quantum or nonlinear behavior, random, chaotic, messy.
On a pure definition, the Earth is experiencing climate change indeed, at least one way or another. But the 'climate change' being discussed and brought up by international organizations might have different meaning. They imply global warming induced by human and animal activities, and this is the cause for such a heated debate and much concern worldwide.
Science is no longer science but has been hijacked by politic. As such, its founding has been treated as unquestionnable and the ultimate truth. Any skeptics are treated as heretic, brought to mind the 'infidel' of Muslim.
I did not know human knowledge has reached the zenith of this universe that they have perfected the science to capture all things flawlessly. Their memo must still be in my Junk box.
Have someone watched the documentary on PBS about Magnetic field, polarization and solar activities, and the estonished foundings and correlation to the Mother Nature's activities? This is few years back and about the researches of few universities and one of the scientists wrote a code modelling the earth movement and Nature behavior in parallel to any change in magnetic field. The research incorporated the archeology study. Has this been part of the study, part of any discussion prior to the sweeping conclusion?
Yet, the flawless science of the perfect human beings, such as Al Gore leading the movement followed by our exemplary politicians and a worthy and effective UN, has studied enough to conclude otherwise.
So now is just the required actions needed to limit human activities that cause the climate change. One of which is carbon credit. Can someone explain how that helps reduce the carbon emission when it is just a license to emit? Creating and Paying a whole new bunch of bureaucrats an emission fee suddenly makes it ok, and the world is better already.
There are actually people believing in the politicians, UN and other international organizations. When just looking at the current political, economic crisis worldwide and how effective they have been it is enough to disband these incompetent.
My name is Stupid, last name Gullible and I have my questions I have doubts. You believe in them wholeheartedly, I like to know your name too.
I see two main problems with this.
First, that minor activity that uses 90% of land, agriculture, is the basis that allows us to have everything else. You are not going to move major cereal growing areas, and no, southern Russia is already prone to droughts and wildfires.
Second, there's no way that developed countries will ever willingly let tens of millions of Africans and Indians inside their borders. What is being proposed would dwarf the current levels of immigration.
I think it is much mroe likely that developed countries will keep doing what they have done for decades: whatch people in poor countries die. Since poor countries will suffer worse and suffer first, my prediction is apathy and delay. Pretending that the damage can be so easily avoided does not help.
paulo freire in reply to Papageno000
No, wealthy countries won't sit and watch people in poor countries die because those countries are pulling themselves out of poverty. Just see their rate of growth in the last few decades, much better than the developed world, despite global warming. Since in all likelihood they will be much wealthier in the future, they will also be much better equipped to deal with natural disasters, global warming or no global warming.
hmy_ in reply to Papageno000
Maybe, but the rich countries aren't holding the poor countries back or forcing them to remain poor in any way. Actually, it's the exact opposite.
It's easy to target the US and Europe, but as we've seen over the last two decades with China, if a poor country gets its act together, it can join the rich world.
Western carbon emissions through conspicuous consumption are hardly the primary causes of global warming and ultimately, everything goes back to overpopulation.
And overpopulation is not a problem in the rich world.
A little bit more on the Himalayan glaciers:
One Prof Jonathan Bamber, a Bristol University glaciologist, stated that “The very unexpected result was the negligible mass loss from high mountain Asia, which is not significantly different from zero.”
Would Sense Seeker now withdraw his very irritating accusation that I am knowingly presenting lies without evidence? Perhaps a bit much to hope for, but it ought to be an automatic response from a gentleman.
Sense Seeker in reply to Macumazan
Yes, the truth can be annoying. But if you did not lie, you certainly did misrepresent the facts.
You wrote: "we learn today that Himalayan glaciers have actually been INCREASING in volume". That is not supported by either of the sources you refer to.
Your quote from The Guardian shows that there was actually a loss, although it was near zero. Likewise, The Times of India reports that "good spells of snowfall in last three years have changed the trend with glaciers almost growing to their original size".
I trust you will gentlemanly admit you were in error.
Rob S in reply to Macumazan
Your point illustrates a debating tactic used by supporters of AGW. Whenever there is anecdotal evidence of the impact of global warming, such as the hurricane. they seize on that event as confirmation of their beliefs. Contrary evidence? They throw the speaker out of the meeting and assert that global warming refers to "climate, not weather".
Sierkovitz in reply to Rob S
There are overeager, trigger happy ignorami on both sides. Difference - in the agw sceptic team, the ignorami are just repeating arguments of their scientific leaders. The ignorant agw proponents - misrepresent what their scientific base says.
Sense Seeker might like to read the "Times of India" on the Himalayan glaciers:
Let us hope that Sense Seeker does not dismiss empirical data from Indian scientists as "lies" as he abuses other correspondents such as myself. (He rather makes a habit of it and certainly has displayed continuing abusive form.) He ought to appreciate that rational discussion is not helped by calling people liars.
On the Greenland icesheets, I did not say that Greenland is not losing ice, and would rather prefer that Sense Seeker have the decency to actually read what I wrote. One reads his words "...you give no evidence for your statements, and that is because you know full well that none exists." I now have provided evidence on the glaciers. One can only ask (as I have on many other occasions) that he desist from attributing base motives to his opponents, though it is sadly only too typical of ideologists. I repeat that global temperatures have NOT been rising for 16 years. Sense Seeker writes "clearly, the temperature is still rising." I have asked him on many occasions previously to provide the gradient of the relevant temperature figures fer the 16 year period. He has not complied. He writes "In contrast, I gave links that back up every statement I wrote." OK then, could we have a reference please, that denies we have been experiencing a temperature increase hiatus these past 16 years and gives us a figure for the gradient? Please use satellite data.
Sense Seeker in reply to Macumazan
Well, here's your gradient: http://www.woodfortrees.org/plot/wti/from:1996/plot/wti/from:1996/trend
Although of course you could easily have read it from the NASA website I referred to earlier: http://climate.nasa.gov/key_indicators#globalTemp. Both are based on satillite data, as per your request.
You, in contrast, now repeat that global temperatures have NOT been rising for 16 years, but you give no evidence. And never have.
To think you may be lying is perhaps even the most charitable explanation for your repeatedly posting claims that have been proven untrue.
Macumazan in reply to Sense Seeker
The NASA graph in fact shows a decline over the last 13 years. Sense Seeker might like to try placing the tip of his cursor on the upper bound of the 1998 figure (0.56 degrees) and then on the upper bound of the (latest) 2011 figure (0.51 degrees). He will then find himself able to reason as follows:
gradient = Rise/Run
= (0.51 - 0.56)/(2011 - 1998)
= -0.05/13
That is to say, the slope is negative on his own figures, for the 13 years to 2011. One would hope that he might now take the matter up with NASA if he thinks its graph is incorrect and not bother us anymore with his endless unsupported alarmism.
Sierkovitz in reply to Macumazan
Are you serious? Trendlines are not made by comparing terminal values and concluding based on that. If you'd actully put the data from 1998-2011 into any spreadsheet and took an effort to superimpose a generic trendline on those data you'd see that even though the first data point is a bit of an outlier (1998 was exceptionally warm) and the last data point is slightly on the low side, the trend is still rising - by 0.01C per annum.
Sense Seeker in reply to Rob S
Right, so you imagine that in a debate, truth doesn't matter and you can select and misrepresent the evidence in order to argue a point?
We'll read your future postings in that knowledge, Rob.
Macumazan in reply to Macumazan
Sense Seeker was asked for the gradient, and on finally providing a link to the data that in fact demonstrated the gradient to be NEGATIVE, now switches to the "trendline". At least one of his peas has finally been nailed, anyway, and we can now look forward to it not featuring in Sense Seeker's shell game anymore. On the trendline, the NASA data is given to hundredths of a degree, which is simply preposterous in global figures from pre-satellite days when weather stations used mercury thermometers. Without error bars, the exercise is meaningless, since the purported temperature rise could well lie (and almost certainly does lie) within the margin of error for the data. The earth has undoubtedly been warmer in the past, before anthropegenic CO2 emissions were a factor, and this, as many competent paleo-climatologists believe, as recently as Roman times or even when the Vikings colonised Greenland. That is to say, there is nothing "unprecendented" about modern temperatures and they are not yet outside of historical limits. If we can now continue without ad hominem accusations from Sense Seeker of his opponents "lying", we might now be able to begin an intelligent discussion.
Sense Seeker in reply to Macumazan
Macumazan, I am getting sick and tired of your distortions but I'll try to remain polite.
The gradient in the 16-year data that I sent (not to mention the record over the past 100 years) was POSITIVE. That changed after YOU, in contravention of the relevant rules in statistics, removed the earlier years and simply compared 2011 with 1998. That year, 1998, is a clear outlier and we know that it was due to an exceptionally strong EL Nino.
Of all the denialist claims, the one that goes 'the world is not warming' is by far the stupidest.
Rob S in reply to Sense Seeker
My comment was directed at YOU, SS. You were the person who used the fallacious argument that 2 extreme points on a scatter plot are the only data to be used to calculate the slope. Are you too dumb to know any better, or just using a rhetorical trick?
Rob S in reply to Sense Seeker
The rules of statistical analysis are quite rigorous, SS. First, they require that you use ALL the data, and not reject any as"outliers" unless they exceed specific statistical limits. Second, the results are assigned quantitative levels of significance. To conclude that the slope is "positive" the value has to exceed some standard, usually 2 sigma.
Has the world been warming using these standards.
A. T. Worth in reply to Sense Seeker
So Rob S is definitely correct here. You generally cannot exclude a data point as an outlier unless it's in the first or fourth quartile or you have reason to believe that it differs in some significant qualitative respect, like faulty data collection. Unless you think that the 1998 was collected improperly or that that it falls significantly beyond the first or fourth quartile markers, you cannot just discount it.
Sense Seeker in reply to A. T. Worth
Dear Worth,
Rob S is correct in what he writes about the rules of statistics, but wrong in accusing me of breaking those rules. (That was Macumazan, but that's a fellow denier and according to Rob this is a debate and therefore truth doesn't matter - unless you can make use of it to win a point. See above at Dec 7th, 19:44.)
Of course you can't simply exclude inconvenient data points. And of course I didn't exclude 1998.
Macumazan claimed 'no warming over the past 16 years'. I showed him the graphs over 1996-2012, which show clear warming. Not only did he then shorten the period to 1998-2011, but he also ignored all the in between years.
And you will agree that to select the start or endpoint of a time series *because* it is an outlier, is cheating.
I also hope that you will agree that if you look at the entire dataset (in this case since 1978), there is no evidence that the warming trend has stopped: http://www.woodfortrees.org/plot/wti/from:1900/plot/wti/from:1900/trend .
Macumazan in reply to Sierkovitz
What Sierkovitz weites is simply false. If the HadleyCentre/CRU figures of monthly mean global temperature anomalies from 1997 are used and a least-squares linear regression done on the data, the line of best fit (whose gradient is the RISE/RUN of start and end points OF THE LEAST-SQUARES-LINE-OF-BEST-FIT) fall within the error bars for the data. That is to say, there has been NO statistically significant warming trend whatsoever for 16 years.
Sense Seeker in reply to Macumazan
IF that was all the data we had, you would be correct in a technical sense. But only if you use an alpha level of 0.05. And it is against the rules to take an arbitrary short period of time: the maximum time you can go back until you find that the warming IS significant. Because why start at 1997?
SINCE we have data from before 1997, we have to include those in the analysis. If you look at the entire record over the past century, it is equally true that the trend over the past 16 years is not significantly different from that in the decades before. Therefore, the claim 'Global Warming Stopped 16 Years Ago' is false.
Only such cherry-picking of data, using arbitrary cut-offs, can support the deniers' claims. REAL statisticians have checked the data and concluded that mainstream science us right: our planet is warming. For example, Google 'muller BEST project'.
Sierkovitz in reply to A. T. Worth
Noone excludes anything. The point is: picking any dataset that shows minimal value of all the collection of possible datasets is just cheating. Moreover, to get a good impression of the actual trend, it is better to have your averages normalised to take the El Niño and La Niña into account. Then the trend becomes even more apparent.
A. T. Worth in reply to Sense Seeker
An alpha of 0.05, if I recall my last stat class correctly, is pretty much the standard so we cannot really fault Macumazan for using it. The time cutoff does seem odd, but I'm really not familiar enough with climate science to do much more than pontificate at this point, so I'm going to have to bow out. Unless we start talking at least-squares again...
Sense Seeker in reply to A. T. Worth
The cutoff is indeed odd. It takes a minimum number of data points to reach statistical significance. Looking back in time, there is ALWAYS a point in the temperature series after which the warming is no longer statistically significant.
Deniers will always claim that warming stopped after that date.
Rob S in reply to Sierkovitz
A statistically calculated slope also has a standard deviation in the value. Is the standard deviation small enough to quote the slope to 2 decimal places? If not, the slope is 0.0 C/annum
One gets somewhat tired of Sense Seeker's endless warnings when there has been no net warming for 16 years and when we learn today that Himalayan glaciers have actually been INCREASING in volume. Forget the bloody models and look at the empirical reality. That's how science is supposed to work. What Pachauri and Gore and the alarmists wrote is simply wrong. What Sense Seeker has been warning of, hasn't happened. We do not face the Greenland ice sheet vanishing, the Maldives being engulfed, mass extinctions, mass epidemics, catastrophic weather etc. Sooner or later, reality ought to intrude upon his evangelical prognostications. The END is not nigh.
Sense Seeker in reply to Macumazan
One gets somewhat tired of that endlessly repeated 'Global warming stopped 16 years ago' lie. The MET office officially denied any such thing and clearly, the temperature is still rising.
Greenland is losing ice, and so is Antarctica.
Face it, Macumazan, you give no evidence for your statements, and that is because you know full well that none exists. In contrast, I gave links that back up every statement I wrote.
Let's make a deal: you stop spreading lies, and I'll stop debunking them.
There is no consensus on global warming, if there was then we wouldn't have so much debate, or attempt at debate. Frankly the true believers in global warming generally refuse to debate the subject.
Also, since when are we looking to The World Bank as an authority on global warming? I thought the IPCC was the recognized authority?
Sense Seeker in reply to francisbjohn
Among scientists, there is clear consensus on the basics of global warming.
The debate you talk about is entirely outside of science. It's in blogs, 'think tanks', on TV, radio and journals, but not in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. Only with the help of complicit media can the deniers get their anti-scientific rubbish out. It's a phoney debate organised by vested interests.
At this moment, 20,000 scientists are at the meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in San Francisco. Here is a message from one of those scientists, who also has something to say about deniers and their use of 'open letters' in non-scientific media.
Peter the Cat in reply to francisbjohn
There may not be a consensus on the causes of global warming, or on the actions that need to be taken to mitigate against it. I don't think that anyone can seriously ignore the evidence that it is happening, see 1.6 billion data at http://berkeleyearth.org/results-summary/
The World Bank as, well, a world bank, would not be doing its duty if it did not explore what the economic impact of global warming might be. The IPCC is compromised by the politics surrounding it. My understanding, and I may well be wrong, is that the politicians have consistently watered down the the scientists findings. What is certain is that IPCC AR4 2007 grossly underestimated the rise in sea level for the years 1993>2011.
francisbjohn in reply to Sense Seeker
The views of SCIENTISTS on global warming is unimportant because most don't study the climate. Now climatologists, their opinions are more important and overall they're split. The consensus you speak of is a political consensus cooked up by people who want to exploit the idea of global warming for an agenda.
Sense Seeker in reply to francisbjohn
Francis, you totally have the wrong end of the stick here, I am afraid. But at least you won't fall for 'open letters' in business journals, assuming you are consistent in your opinions.
Climatologists are scientists and they are split about 97% convinced of AGW vs 3% unconvinced. The more they published in climate science, the more convinced they tend to be. For proof, see here. If you have better evidence, I am all ear.
Rob S in reply to Sense Seeker
Climatologists are uniformly in agreement on several points:
1. Theoretical calculations of warming trends evoking the direct effect of CO2 only explain a small fraction of the warming. There must be another effect. And it must be man-made.
2. They have hypothesized that water vapor in the major culprit, but have no data or theoretical models to support this hypothesis.
3. Despite claims of increases in extreme weather events, the most extensive quantitative study of extreme events shows NO upward trends over the last 100 years. Theur models that predict this increase are in error.
4. There has been an abatement in global warming with a trend over the last 16 years that is insignificantly different from zero. But a 15 year trend does not tell us anything about the overall trend. When this trend was only 10 years long, then 15 years would be significant, but now the bar has been raised to 20 years.
5. If there is no AGW to worry about, thousands of climatologists would have to look for gainful employment.
embb in reply to Rob S
Just add to point 4 that in the said period humanity emitted the trifling 30% of our total emissions. So, the point is not only that there no was temp increase but that there was no temp increase while CO2 emissions skyrocketed. If this does not falsify the AGW theory nothing will. Because it is a cult not science.
Oh yeah! First comment!
Emitting less CO2 != less hurricane
Emitting less CO2 != less tsunami
Emitting less CO2 != less earthquake
So, why emitting less CO2?
paulo freire in reply to Sex-master
This is an utterly ridiculous comment, but I once saw an advert for a book in the Scientific American Book club that made dire warnings against the consequences of global warming, which included, among others, earthquakes and tsunamis! I am a bit of an agnostic regarding the question of whether people are causing the planet to warm up, although I don't have any problems accepting it in principle. But the fact that such stupid statements find themselves within such a respected book catalog tells me that many alarmist statements are accepted by too many people without reflection.
Sense Seeker in reply to paulo freire
When I first heard about the claim that global warming could cause earthquakes I dismissed it as a denialist hoax to ridicule climate science. But it wassn't.
The idea is that continents are floating on the magma below, and if the kilometers thick ice sheets of Greenland, Antarctica and elsewhere melt away, those areas will lose weight and rise.
"The last ice age came to an end between 12,000 to 15,000 years ago and the ice sheets that once covered central Europe shrank dramatically," [said prof Pyle of Oxford University's earth sciences department]. "The impact on the continent's geology can by measured by the jump in volcanic activity that occurred at this time."
Seems all rather speculative, for the moment. On the other hand, if an earth sciences prof from Oxford takes this seriously, there must be something to it.
kxbxo in reply to Sense Seeker
Sense Seeker:
It isn't all that speculative.
Hudson Bay has been shrinking for exactly this reason since the end of the last ice age. It is sometimes termed "spring back", and is the result of the removal of the weight of the glaciers from the Laurentian shield
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18208 | Make WordPress Core
Opened 7 years ago
Closed 7 years ago
#3787 closed defect (bug) (fixed)
comments.php template validation broken
Reported by: tandilboy Owned by: rob1n
Milestone: 2.2 Priority: normal
Severity: normal Version: 2.1
Component: Template Keywords: has-patch commit
Focuses: Cc:
w3c validator shows this error
Error Line 122 column 13: syntax of attribute value does not conform to declared value.
<li class="" id="comment-1869">
The value of an attribute contained something that is not allowed by the specified syntax for that type of attribute. For instance, the “selected” attribute must be either minimized as “selected” or spelled out in full as “selected="selected"”; the variant “selected=""” is not allowed.
Attachments (3)
3787.diff (1.1 KB) - added by rob1n 7 years ago.
3787.2.diff (1.1 KB) - added by rob1n 7 years ago.
3787.3.diff (1.1 KB) - added by rob1n 7 years ago.
Download all attachments as: .zip
Change History (8)
rob1n7 years ago
comment:1 rob1n7 years ago
• Keywords has-patch commit added
• Owner changed from anonymous to rob1n
• Status changed from new to assigned
Patch 3787.diff does a simple hack, works as advertised.
Validation was screwed up because on the non-highlighted comments (every other), class="" was the class attribute, and apparently empty attributes aren't valid.
comment:2 rob1n7 years ago
• Milestone changed from 2.1.1 to 2.2
rob1n7 years ago
comment:3 rob1n7 years ago
Added a new patch which uses ryan's idea of cleaner coding.
rob1n7 years ago
comment:4 rob1n7 years ago
Latest patch incorporates MarkJaquith's recommendation of making the code even more compact.
comment:5 ryan7 years ago
• Resolution set to fixed
• Status changed from assigned to closed
(In [4922]) Don't emit empty class. Props rob1n. fixes #3787
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18231 | From Wikibooks, open books for an open world
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This is a complete step-by-step guide on how to run your own pywikibot on Wikimedia projects, from your Mac, hopefully more easy and readable than the original one.
Downloading MacPython[edit]
Apple provides an installation of Python with every Mac OS X installation, by default. You don’t need to install Python, but you might want to update it. Here are the instructions.
First of all, you need to download Python, the application that reads the scripts and does something with them. Download MacPython from here, choosing “Python 2.5.2 for Macintosh OS X”. Open the downloaded dmg file and install it. In Applications in Finder you should now find a folder named “MacPython 2.5”. Nothing else needs to be done here, close Finder.
NOTE: A new application will be installed on your Mac, with the name “IDLE”. It’s just difficult and confusing, and nothing worth spending time on trying to use.
Downloading SVN[edit]
Many Wikimedia projects require that you always should run the latest version of the Pywikipedia framework. The easiest option is to use SVN. This is no harder than running the bot itself.
If you are using 10.5 or below, download “My Subversion-1.5.5 Package” from this page. Open the Subversion-1.5.5 package, and complete the installation. Now, everything is all set to download the scripts.
Downloading the scripts[edit]
Open Terminal, you can find it by searching for it in Spotlight. Now, copy-paste the following into Terminal, and press enter/return:
svn checkout pywikipedia
A folder will be created in the “home” folder (look in the left column in the Finder for the house icon and your username), with the name “pywikipedia”, in which all the scripts will be when the downloading is finished. You can see when it’s finished by looking for the following in the last line in Terminal:
This text is equal to the one appearing when you open Terminal (it is called prompt).
You need to configure your bot before you can use it. For this purpose we’ll use pico, a simple and straight TUI text editor. Go in Terminal and cd to your pywikipedia directory, e.g.:
cd pywikipedia
Then type pico Follow the instructions below; when you’re done press CTRL-O to write the file on disk and CTRL-X to quit the editor.
mylang = 'xx'
“xx” is the main language you want your bot to work on, equivalent to the language code of the Wikimedia project in which the bot’s going to run.
If the bot’s main wiki is Wikipedia, go right to the Username(s) section. If the bot’s main wiki is for instance Wikibooks, add this line to
family = 'wikibooks'
NOTE: Running bots on Wiktionary is more complicated than on the other projects, and is not recommended for beginners. This will not be described further in this guide. If you’re running your bot on Commons, both mylang and family are to be set to “commons”.
Now, you’ll define the desired username(s) of the bot. Don’t register the bot on the wikis yet. You can do this by using the following:
usernames['FAMILY']['MYLANG'] = u'ExampleBot'
“MYLANG” is the same as you defined in the mylang option, and the same with “FAMILY”. If you’re running the bot on Wikipedia, the family option is not defined, but should be “wikipedia” in the above line (se examples below). The line can be defined as many times as you like (only one per wiki), for each of your bots on different WM wikis. The default will be what’s defined in mylang, except when running interwiki; the bot will edit on all the wikis defined in
It’s recommended that you change the encoding to UTF-8. Especially if you are editing a wiki with non-ASCII characters, this is important, if you don’t change the encoding, you’ll end up with “?”s all over the place. For example, the Spanish name María will render like Mar?a. Add this line to
console_encoding = 'utf-8'
API login[edit]
Because of some problems with SUL bots, the bot must log in via API. Add this line to
use_api_login = True
Now, by using Save as, save the file in the “pywikipedia” folder. Then, close TextEdit. examples[edit]
EksempelBot on no.wikipedia[edit]
mylang = 'no'
usernames['wikipedia']['no'] = u'EksempelBot'
console_encoding = 'utf-8'
use_api_login = True
ExampleBot on Commons[edit]
mylang = 'commons'
family = 'commons'
usernames['commons']['commons'] = u'ExampleBot'
console_encoding = 'utf-8'
use_api_login = True
mylang = 'de'
usernames['wikipedia']['de'] = u'BeispielBot'
usernames['wikibooks']['de'] = u'BeispielBot'
console_encoding = 'utf-8'
use_api_login = True
Registering the username on the wanted wikis[edit]
It is recommended that you are registered on the wikis where you want to run your bot. Then, when you’re logged into your own user account, write “Special:Userlogin” in the search box, then, choose to register an account. Now fill out the required fields on the page and continue. If the account creation is successful, you should now be able to run the bot.
With SUL it’s easy to run bots on several wikis. If you’ve created the bot account recently, the account is already merged.
If you created it some time ago and it’s not merged, or if it was created some time ago on other wikis, you’ll have to merge it in Special:MergeAccount. Now, when logging in, the other accounts will automatically be registered as you enter the same password for all wikis.
Bot flag and test edits[edit]
Don’t forget to apply for bot flag/permission to run the bot! On en.wikipedia and he.wikipedia (there may be more), you have to apply before you make test edits. On other wikis you can apply and make test edits right away. When you make test edits, use the argument -pt:15, which tells the bot to wait 15 seconds between each edit (4 edits/min), so the recent changes list doesn’t get flooded with the bot’s edits.
Navigating to the right folder[edit]
To run the scripts, you first need to navigate to the folder in which the scripts are. Write the following in Terminal:
cd /Users/USER_NAME/pywikipedia
“USER_NAME” is the home text to the right of the house icon in Finder.
The above can be unnecessarily boring to write each time you want to use the bot. Terminal saves every command you use, and you can use old commands by pressing arrow up. With one press on the arrow up button, you see the last command used. Most likely, the command you see is not the right one; simply keep pressing arrow up until you see the right one. Then, press enter/return. Now, you can start running the bot. When you’re running a script followed by another when the first one is done, you don’t have to use the navigation command once again; only if you close Terminal.
Logging in[edit]
Now, you need to log into the bot accounts on the wiki(s), by typing the following into Terminal:
Terminal will ask for the password. Type the password you used when you registered the bot’s username.
If you have accounts on multiple wikis, use -all
Type in the passwords, as above.
Logging in is only necessary once, the bot stays logged in.
Running the scripts[edit]
After navigating to the right folder, you can now select scripts, by writing:
To see an overview of some scripts with description pages, look here.
Arguments are written by using a dash: - and then the name of the argument, -pt:15 for instance. Many scripts require arguments, for example
python -start:! -autonomous
As default, the bot will run interwiki from the main language and project, and correct them on all registered wikis. The -start and -autonomous arguments says that it’ll check all pages on the wiki and add/modify interwikis. It will not remove anything, and it will give up when discovering conflicts, see
Global arguments[edit]
All scripts recognize the following arguments:
Shows the script’s help text
Selects the language you want to work on. Overrides the mylang option in user-config.
Selects the family you want to work on. Overrides the family option in user-config.
Enable the logfile, using “xyz” as the filename.
Disable the logfile (if it's enabled by default).
-putthrottle:nn or short -pt:nn
Set the minimum time (in seconds) the bot will wait between saving pages. The default value is zero.
To update your scripts, simply write the following into Terminal:
svn update pywikipedia
When it’s done, it will say “At revision XXXX” (“XXXX” depending on the latest revision). If you have modified some of the scripts, don’t worry, your modifications will be merged with the changes made by updating.
If you have experience using Automator, you can do the Shell process in a workflow and save it to your desktop or on your dock, so you can reach it more easily. It’s a good idea to secondary click on it, then, while pressing Alt/Option, hold the cursor over Always open in, then choose Automator runner.
You might want to go through the script text before you run it, because for some languages the script may be bot specific. Secondary-click on it, hold the cursor on Open in, then choose Other, scroll down and double-click on TextEdit. However, this is not mandatory, and not recommended for beginners, but if you have to; be careful when editing the scripts!
If you want to revert your changes to a script, simply run the following:
svn revert
If a script suddenly doesn’t work, and produces the output SyntaxError: invalid syntax, you have encountered an SVN conflict.
Revert the script as described above. Then try to run it. If it works, run the following in Terminal:
svn resolved
You can now try to make the same edits again, if desired. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18232 | From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
6to4 is especially relevant during the initial phases of deployment to full, native IPv6 connectivity, since IPv6 is not required on nodes between the host and the destination. However, it is intended only as a transition mechanism and is not meant to be used permanently.
6to4 may be used by an individual host, or by a local IPv6 network. When used by a host, it must have a global IPv4 address connected, and the host is responsible for encapsulation of outgoing IPv6 packets and decapsulation of incoming 6to4 packets. If the host is configured to forward packets for other clients, often a local network, it is then a router.
Most IPv6 networks use autoconfiguration, which requires the last 64 bits for the host. The first 64 bits are the IPv6 prefix. The first 16 bits of the prefix are always 2002:, the next 32 bits are the IPv4 address, and the last 16 bits of the prefix are available for addressing multiple IPv6 subnets behind the same 6to4 router. Since the IPv6 hosts using autoconfiguration already have determined the unique 64 bit host portion of their address, they must simply wait for a Router Advertisement indicating the first 64 bits of prefix to have a complete IPv6 address. A 6to4 router will know to send an encapsulated packet directly over IPv4 if the first 16 bits are 2002, using the next 32 as the destination, or otherwise send the packet to a well-known relay server, which has access to native IPv6.
6to4 does not facilitate interoperation between IPv4-only hosts and IPv6-only hosts. 6to4 is simply a transparent mechanism used as a transport layer between IPv6 nodes.
Due to the high levels of misconfigured hosts and poor performance observed, an advisory about how 6to4 should be deployed was published in August 2011.[1]
How 6to4 works[edit]
6to4 performs three functions:
• Encapsulates IPv6 packets inside IPv4 packets for transmission over an IPv4 network using 6in4.
• Routes traffic between 6to4 and "native" IPv6 networks.
Address block allocation[edit]
6to4 address
For any 32-bit global IPv4 address that is assigned to a host, a 48-bit 6to4 IPv6 prefix can be constructed for use by that host (and if applicable the network behind it) by appending the IPv4 address to 2002::/16.
For example the global IPv4 address has the corresponding 6to4 prefix 2002:c000:0204::/48. This gives a prefix length of 48 bits, which leaves room for a 16-bit subnet field and 64 bit host addresses within the subnets.
Any IPv6 address that begins with the 2002::/16 prefix (in other words, any address with the first two octets of 2002 hexadecimal) is known as a 6to4 address, as opposed to a native IPv6 address which does not use transition technologies.
Note that using a reserved IPv4 address, such as those provided by RFC 1918, is undefined, since these networks are disallowed from being routed on the public Internet. For example, using as the router's WAN address would be invalid since a return packet would not be able to determine the destination IPv4 address of the actual sender.
Encapsulation and transmission[edit]
6to4 embeds an IPv6 packet in the payload portion of an IPv4 packet with protocol type 41. To send an IPv6 packet over an IPv4 network to a 6to4 destination address, an IPv4 header with protocol type 41 is prepended to the IPv6 packet. The IPv4 destination address for the prepended packet header is derived from the IPv6 destination address of the inner packet (which is in the format of a 6to4 address), by extracting the 32 bits immediately following the IPv6 destination address's 2002::/16 prefix. The IPv4 source address in the prepended packet header is the IPv4 address of the host or router which is sending the packet over IPv4. The resulting IPv4 packet is then routed to its IPv4 destination address just like any other IPv4 packet.
Routing between 6to4 and native IPv6[edit]
To allow hosts and networks using 6to4 addresses to exchange traffic with hosts using "native" IPv6 addresses, "relay routers" have been established. A relay router connects to an IPv4 network and an IPv6 network. 6to4 packets arriving on an IPv4 interface will have their IPv6 payloads routed to the IPv6 network, while packets arriving on the IPv6 interface with a destination address prefix of 2002::/16 will be encapsulated and forwarded over the IPv4 network.
There is a difference between a "relay router" and a "border router" (also known as a "6to4 border router"). A 6to4 border router is an IPv6 router supporting a 6to4 pseudo-interface. It is normally the border router between an IPv6 site and a wide-area IPv4 network, where the IPv6 site uses 2002::/16 co-related to the IPv4 address used later on. On the other hand, a "relay router" is a 6to4 router configured to support transit routing between 6to4 addresses and pure native IPv6 addresses.
To allow a 6to4 host to communicate with the native IPv6 Internet, it must have its IPv6 default gateway set to a 6to4 address which contains the IPv4 address of a 6to4 relay router. To avoid the need for users to set this up manually, the anycast address of has been allocated for the purpose of sending packets to a 6to4 relay router. Note that when wrapped in 6to4 with the subnet and hosts fields set to zero this IPv4 address ( becomes the IPv6 address 2002:c058:6301::. To ensure BGP routing propagation, a short prefix of has been allocated for routes pointed at 6to4 relay routers that use this anycast IP address. Providers willing to provide 6to4 service to their clients or peers should advertise the anycast prefix like any other IP prefix, and route the prefix to their 6to4 relay.
Packets from the IPv6 Internet to 6to4 systems must be sent to a 6to4 relay router by normal IPv6 routing methods. The specification states that such relay routers must only advertise 2002::/16 and not subdivisions of it to prevent IPv4 routes polluting the routing tables of IPv6 routers. From here they can then be sent over the IPv4 Internet to the destination.
For a 6to4 host to have fast and reliable connectivity with a host natively using the IPv6 Internet, both the 6to4 host and the native IPv6 host must have a route to a fast, reliable and correctly configured relay server. The 6to4 host's ISP can ensure that outgoing packets go to such a relay, but they have no control over the relay used for the responses from the native IPv6 host. A variant called IPv6 rapid deployment ("6rd") uses the same basic principles as 6to4 but uses a relay operated by the 6rd user's ISP for traffic in both directions. To achieve this an address block allocated by the user's ISP is used instead of 2002::/16.
Reverse DNS delegation[edit]
When a site using 6to4 has a fixed global IPv4 address, its 6to4 IPv6 prefix is also fixed. It is then possible to request reverse DNS delegation for an individual 6to4 48-bits prefix inside the DNS zone from the Number Resource Organization at [1] . The process is entirely automatic.
Security considerations[edit]
According to RFC 3964, 6to4 routers and relays should ensure that:
• either or both the source and destination addresses of any encapsulated packet is within the 6to4 IPv6 prefix 2002::/16,
• if the source IPv6 address is a 6to4 IPv6 address, its corresponding 6to4 router IPv4 address matches the IPv4 source address in the IPv4 encapsulation header,
• similarly, if the destination IPv6 address is a 6to4 IPv6 address, its corresponding 6to4 router IPv4 address matches the IPv4 destination address in the IPv4 encapsulation header,
• any embedded 6to4 router IPv4 address is global unicast.
6to4 relays[edit]
Websites and lists[edit]
Other hosts[edit]
• swi6netCE1.switch.ch @ 2001:620:0:c000::1
• Comcast operates 6to4 relays as part of their IPv6 trials.[2] The 6to4 relays were turned up on August 17, 2010. These 6to4 relays are available via the standard 6to4 Anycast IP address which according to RFC 3068 is Devices attempting to use 6to4 within the Comcast network should automatically discover and utilize these 6to4 relays, without end user intervention or configuration.
See also[edit]
• B. Carpenter & K. Moore. Connection of IPv6 Domains via IPv4 Clouds. RFC 3056, February 2001.
• R. Gilligan & E. Nordmark. Transition Mechanisms for IPv6 Hosts and Routers. RFC 2893, August 2000.
• C. Huitema. An Anycast Prefix for 6to4 Relay Routers. RFC 3068, June 2001.
• P. Savola & C. Patel. Security Considerations for 6to4. RFC 3964, December 2004.
1. ^ RFC 6343 - Advisory Guidelines for 6to4 Deployment
2. ^ "Comcast's IPv6 Information Center".
External links[edit] |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18233 | Athabasca University
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Athabasca University
AthabascaU COA.jpg
Motto Learning for Life[1]
Established 1970
Type Public
President Frits Pannekoek
Students 38,464[2]
Undergraduates 34,921[2]
Postgraduates 3,543[2]
Location Athabasca, Alberta, Canada
Campus Rural and urban
Faculty & Staff 1,382[2]
Colours Blue And Orange
Nickname AU
Affiliations AUCC, ACU, CVU, UArctic, CBIE, CUP, CAGS.
Athabasca University is a Canadian university in Athabasca, Alberta. It is an accredited research institution that also offers distance education courses and programs. Courses are offered primarily in English with some French offerings. Each year, around 32,000 students attend the university.[3] It offers opportunities for professionals to finish undergraduate, graduate and certificate programs. Canadian athletes, politicians and broadcasters have chosen Athabasca to complete their studies due to the flexibility in the university's schedule. In 2004, Athabasca's Executive MBA was rated in the top 75 by the Financial Times, the only executive MBA on the list that is delivered entirely online.[4][5] The enabling legislation is the Post-secondary Learning Act [6]
The university was created by the Alberta government in 1970. It was part of the expansion of the higher educational system at that time: the University of Alberta had long been established, the University of Calgary was created after legislation had been changed, and an order in council created the University of Lethbridge.[5]
In 1967, the Manning government announced its intention to establish a fourth University, but it was later delayed by two to three years. The University of Alberta wanted to expand rather than see another University open in Edmonton to compete with it. One proposal favoured establishing a Christian university instead of a secular one to cope with rising enrollment. One early suggestion for an alternative was an "Alberta Academy" that would take credits students had earned at multiple Universities and evaluate them for transfer, and perhaps even award a degree. A Department of Education ad hoc group favoured the establishment of a fourth University.[5]
A group of University of Alberta graduates, including Preston Manning, influenced the development of an independent fourth University. In 1970 Grant MacEwan, the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, established the University by an order in council. The name for the new university was a challenge, as it was not desired to associate the new university in a primarily rural province with a city that already had a University. Athabasca Hall, a student residence at the University of Alberta, was scheduled for demolition, so the name was appropriated for the new university.[5]
While the school is a traditional research university, it is also known for its distance programs. This began in 1972 when a pilot project was developed. After being considered a success, the university was granted a permanent, self-governing status in 1978. After growing too big for its location, Athabasca University moved 145 kilometres (90 mi) north from Edmonton to the town of Athabasca, Alberta in 1984, where it is now established. The university also has satellite centers in Calgary and Edmonton.[7]
Front entrance.
The initial mandate for the University dictated that it be primarily undergraduate in scope. Developing new procedures in curriculum was part of the mandate for the University. The initial Governing Authority of the University had eight members, and a broad range of powers to set up the new University. July 2–3, 1970 they met for the first time, and Carl W. Clement was the first chairman. It was expected by the government of the day that by 1979 the University would have 10,000 students. September 1, 1973 was set as the target date to open.[5]
First president[edit]
In April 1971 Tim Byrne was appointed President of the new university, and he assumed office in June that year.[5]
The administration chose the University of California, Santa Cruz as its model, deciding that the individual colleges should serve as the basic planning units for the new university, which would be organized as a federation of colleges.[5] Each of the colleges of the new university was to have 650 students with corresponding lecture and office space, and a learning approach that would have students learning in small tutorials instead of large lectures. Research within the new university was to be limited to a specified region starting around the city of Edmonton. One criticism was that the university was trying to do too much.[5]
The government of Peter Lougheed in 1971 brought a change, which included a cabinet portfolio specifically for post secondary education. The newly elected Conservative government was opposed to building a new University in Edmonton, but architectural plans were permitted to continue. A proposal was made to the government to test the new model for three to five years, and if that succeeded, they would become a fully independent university. This happened under the chairmanship of Merrill Wolfe. The proposal was accepted by the government.[5]
The new Deputy Minister of Advanced Education stated in the summer of 1972 that there was a demand for lifelong continuing education. there was also need for an "Alberta Academy" which would evaluate University courses that were taken at multiple institutions. The academy would then award a degree. A second proposal came from the University to also serve part-time students, and it would not affect the other traditional Universities already established, or the new approach of Athabasca University. An open door policy was part of this proposal, removing admission requirements.[5]
In 1972 a new order in council was issued to include only the new pilot project of distance education.[5] November 17, 2009 a revised mandate was approved by the Minister of Advanced Education and Technology. AU's mission and mandate statement are on the Athabasca University website.
First course[edit]
Study manual/guides from AU courses
Trial and error characterised the pilot period, as there was no similar model to follow for the mandate the university were given. In 1973 the university began to advertise for students to help with course development. "World Ecology" was the first course, and was the core of the pilot project. In-house production of the learning packages was important to the staff, so the university developed its own printing process.[5]
Contrary to much current belief, Athabasca University was not modelled after the Open University, but was developed in its present form during the pilot project. AU became aware of what the Open University was doing when, during the final year of the project. A representative went to Milton Keynes to discover any methods its staff might have devised to speed up production.[5]
In 1975, plans came together to reach out to students through field services tutors and regional learning centres. In 1976, the first 24 part-time telephone tutors were appointed. The tutor role was to facilitate learning, not teach the course. Tutors are assigned blocks of between 20 and 40 students each. An unlisted toll-free number is provided to contact the tutor with. All tutors have at least a Masters degree.[5]
An early test project for a learning resource centre had books and tapes relevant to the courses available at branches of public libraries throughout the province. Although the libraries were keen on the idea, learners preferred to remain in their homes to learn. By 1975, the median age was between 35 and 40, and there were 725 students. A minority of students had only completed grade 9.[5]
Inviting students to register in a course and then forcing them to wait an unconscionable length of time for delivery of units was obviously not a way to establish a reputation as a reliable institution.[5]
In 1975 at the end of the pilot project, an agency was appointed to evaluate the overall success. A recommendation was made to the government that the University be made a permanent member of the university system. It was to remain an open university. Under the chairmanship of Edward Checkland, the University gained permanency.[5]
In 1976 W. A. Samuel Smith took over as president and the university's permanency was established through an act of the Alberta Legislature.[5]
The first collaboration the university embarked on was with Keyano College, eventually leading to the opening of a regional learning office in Fort McMurray, Alberta; North Island College in 1976 took on the challenge of delivering many courses from the university in its many campuses.[5]
In the mid-seventies, two young Canadians, one of whom was the son of a prominent Edmonton family, were indicted in an English court for attempting to smuggle drugs into the country. They were each sentenced to a lengthy prison term and incarcerated in one of England's most infamous prisons. Each registered in one of Athabasca University's first three courses, becoming the first two in a long list of prison inmates to join its student body.[5]
In 1985 an agreement was reached with the Correctional Service of Canada for the payment of tuition and program delivery fees related to federal inmates taking courses through the University.[5]
Distance education[edit]
Water fountain at the University
The Athabasca University Centre for Distance Education has programs which are geared to continuing education using modern communications technology and have attracted students from around the world, using on-line study programs and a special dedicated website for that purpose.[8] It is home to North America's first online Doctor of Education in Distance Education program, and offers a Masters of Distance Education degree, and a Graduate Diploma in Distance Education. It has ten core faculty members and contracts additional sessional faculty. Athabasca University supports the publication of the International Review of Open and Distance Education which is indexed in Social Sciences Citation Index (ISI), and which is arguably the most well known and most frequently cited scholarly journal in the field of distance and open education [9]
Select memberships[edit]
AU is Canada's only exclusively open university, and Maclean's Magazine called it Canada's fastest growing university.[12] 50% of AU's students are between the ages of 25 and 44, and admissions are year round. AU hosts to 3 Canada Research Chairs.[13] 260,000 students have taken courses since the University was founded.[14]
AU spends over $2 million per year on research.[14] The university has four Canada Research Chairs and one NSERC/Xerox/Markin/ICORE Research Chair. The Athabasca University Research Centre is the primary centre at the university, along with the Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute and the Centre for World Indigenous Knowledge and Research.
Notable faculty
• Joseph Pivato, Professor, Literature, published eight books on ethnic minority writing in Canada
• D. Kinshuk, Professor, NSEARC/iCore/Xerox/Markin Industrial Research Chair, Computing and Information Systems, IEEE editor and very active research publisher
• Jeffrey Vallance, Assistant Professor of Nursing, Health Solutions Population Health Investigator, and Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) New Investigator
AU is also a participating member of the WestGrid Research Network.
Scholarships and bursaries[edit]
In 2004, Athabasca's Executive MBA program was rated 74[17] by the Financial Times, the only executive MBA on the list that is delivered entirely online. The MBA has since fallen from the FT rankings, and doesn't show up in the 2009 FT rankings for MBA.[4] In 2005 38% of the students in the MBA program were female.[18]
For a number of years, AU was not included in the annual rankings by Macleans Magazine,[19] because of its "special mission."[20]
In October 2008, Athabasca was named one of Alberta's Top Employers by Mediacorp Canada Inc., which was announced by the Calgary Herald[21] and the Edmonton Journal.[22][23]
Delivery models[edit]
AU's classes are taught in several ways:
• Grouped study: Offered primarily to students physically in Alberta, this method allows students to get together with other students in the same course, and study in a manner similar to that of a regular university. Students studying in this method have up to 4 months to complete their course. Courses start in September and January.[24]
Notable people[edit]
Some notable people have studied through Athabasca University, including Alberta politician Debby Carlson,[25] Olympic bobsleigh racer Christian Farstad,[26] Alberta Premier Ralph Klein, professional hockey player Alyn McCauley,[27] and cross-country skier Milaine Thériault.[28] AU serves over 38,000 students (over 7,900 full-load equivalents)and offers over 900 courses in more than 50 undergraduate and graduate programs in a range of arts, science and professional disciplines.[29]
E Lab[edit]
The e lab was directed and launched by Dr. Evelyn Ellerman, who teaches the Communication Studies Progamme at the Athabasca University. The E Lab was originally intended solely for the communications studies program, however, has now been extended on a larger scale, for the whole university. There are various different sections that make up the e lab, to enable the students to learn, create, connect, share and research all in one place. The tool cupboard contains online resources, tutorials and tools, which is always accessible for the staff and students. Workshops are for users to become familiar with online technologies to facilitate easy guidance through self-directed study and improve or develop existing skills. E lab's online resources section offers some existing projects enabling the students to develop upon their education during University courses. The e lab's e-portfolio enables anyone associated with the university, whether students or staff, to keep a record of achievements and ideas etc. A further branch to the e lab, is the Visualization & Data Analysis. This allows students to create data visualizations. The Connect part of the e lab, allows users the ability to connect to other students using social media and share work with other people. The landing is the users own space where they can communicate with other people, share files or discuss topics with other people. The showcase and the e-portfolio are ways that the users can share their work and projects. The e lab also gives the students the opportunity to partake in a research project to support what they learn at University, developing the overall experience.[30]
In May 2004 the Premier of Alberta, Ralph Klein, brought public attention to the university due to allegations that he had plagiarized a paper that he submitted for a communication studies course he took from the school. While speaking before the provincial legislature, he held up a copy of the paper to provide evidence on his views about former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet. Afterwards, there was public criticism that portions of five pages of the 13-page paper had been copied from the Internet without proper citations to the sources.[31] The university investigated the matter and told the news media that Klein's instructor had noted the mistake when grading the paper and offered guidance for correcting it. A university spokesman described the failure to properly cite sources as a "relatively minor error, undisputed by [the] student, easily corrected, and not an ongoing or repeated problem."[32]
In 2012, it was revealed that Athabasca University was one of the institutions of higher education involved in illegal donations to the provincial Progressive Conservative party. The university spent $10,675 on Conservative fundraising events, including golf tournaments and dinners.[33]
Student representation[edit]
Undergraduate students[edit]
The Lieutenant Governor in council establishes and incorporates a students' association to be known as "The Students' Association of Athabasca University" to provide for the administration of students' affairs and the promotion of the general welfare of students consistent with the purposes of Athabasca University.
AUSU has established several clubs for students. Clubs currently sponsored by AUSU include the AU Health Sciences Society, La Société Française d'AU, the AU Literature Club, AU Business Students’ Association, AU Science Students' Society, AU Sports Club, and the AU Student Moms' Club. Student media at Athabasca University is provided by the official publication The Voice Magazine. Previously published on paper, the magazine since 2001 is published exclusively online in HTML and PDF format.
Graduate students[edit]
See also[edit]
Further reading[edit]
1. ^ "Coat of Arms: Athabasca University". Athabasca University. Retrieved 27 October 2013.
2. ^ a b c d "Athabasca University Business Plan 2010-14". Athabasca University. Retrieved 2010-07-19.
3. ^ "About Athabasca University". Athabasca University. Archived from the original on 25 August 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-09.
4. ^ a b "EMBA rankings 2009". Retrieved 2009-09-11.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Byrne, T.C. (1989). Athabasca University The Evolution of Distance Education. Calgary, Alberta: University of Calgary Press. p. 135. ISBN 0-919813-51-8.
6. ^ Post-secondary Learning Act
7. ^ "History of Athabasca University". Athabasca University. Archived from the original on 19 September 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-09.
8. ^ "Athabasca University". Canadian Business Schools. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-09.
9. ^ Zawacki--Richter, Olaf; Terry Anderson, Nazime Tuncay (2010). "The Growing Impact of Open Access Distance Education Journals: A Bibliometric Analysis". Journal of Distance Education 24 (3).
11. ^ "Database of Institutions Accredited By Recognized U.S. Accrediting Organizations". Council for Higher Education Accreditation. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-09.
16. ^ Aboriginal Bursaries Search Tool
17. ^
19. ^ "Universities drop out of Maclean's survey". The Gateway. Retrieved 2007-09-16. [dead link]
20. ^ "Time again for Maclean's rankings". University Affairs. Archived from the original on 2007-11-03. Retrieved 2007-09-16.
23. ^ "Reasons for Selection, 2009 Alberta's Top Employers competition".
25. ^ "Centre for Innovative Management Update". Athabasca University. Retrieved 2007-08-22.
29. ^ "Athabasca University at a Glance".
30. ^ staticred, 2012. Athabasca University e-Lab Launch November 2, 2012. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 26 March 2013]
31. ^ "Klein accused of lifting info for school essay". May 14, 2004. Retrieved 2007-09-09.
32. ^ Klein cleared of plagiarism by his university, Canadian Press, May 28, 2004 (on website; accessed November 4, 2007)
33. ^ "Alberta colleges, universities made illegal donations to Tories". 2012-03-21. Retrieved 2012-03-21.
External links[edit]
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18234 | Rif Dimashq clashes (November 2011–March 2012)
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Rif Dimashq clashes (November 2011-March-2012)
Part of the Syrian civil war
Date 3 November 2011 – March 2012
Location Rif Dimashq province, Syria
• Damascus centre under government control
• Protests largely suppressed in the city
SyrianNationalCoalitionOfficialLogo.svg Syrian National Coalition
Syria Syrian government
Foreign Militants:
Commanders and leaders
Lt. Col. Khaled Hammud[2] Brig.Gen. Maher al-Assad
Brig.Gen. Mohammed al-Awwad [3]
Brig.Gen. Hassan al-Ibrahim [4]
Brig.Gen. Rajeh Mahmoud [5]
Units involved
Unknown 1st Army Corps:
3rd Armoured Division
7th Mechanized Division
Republican Guard
• 101 Security Regiment
• 102 Security Regiment
Unknown 50,000 soldiers and policemen
Casualties and losses
at least 1,000+ killed at least 880+ killed
Few hundred protesters and civilians killed[6]
The Rif Dimashq clashes were a series of unrests and armed clashes in and around Damascus, the capital of Syria, since November 2011 till a stalemate in March 2012. The violence was part of the wider Syrian civil war. Large pro-government and anti-government protests have taken place in the suburbs and center of Damascus, with the situation escalating when members of the Free Syrian Army started attacking military targets in November.
It is claimed that in January 2012, parts of rural Damascus and the Damascus suburbs started to fall under opposition control. On 27 January 2012, the Syrian Army launched a military operation which retook the Damascus suburbs and the town of Zabadni with the offensive ending on 11 February. However, fighting still continued, when on 15 February when FSA fighters where seen on the streets of a district in the Damascus centre, trying to recruit and mingling with opposition protesters. A few anti-government protests were still ongoing even after the army offensive.
On 12 March 2012, major clashes were reported in central Damascus between the FSA and Loyalist army for the first time. By April 2012 a fragile cease-fire was brokered by the UN peace envoy Kofi Annan. However, following the cease fire collapse, by July 2012, rebels irrupted again into most Damascus suburbs and rural areas around the city, launching the Battle of Damascus, also known as Operation Volcano.
2011 unrests and clashes[edit]
Large anti-government protests were shot at by "Shabiba", killing 23 protesters in a single day.[7] More were killed in October and November.[8][9][10][11] Ten more protesters were killed around Damascus, including a 14-year-old boy.[12]
Fourteen were killed in house-to-house raids and in protests in Damascus suburbs, and an activist in the eastern Damascus suburb of Harasta, who gave his name as Assem, said three deserters were killed after they abandoned military units which fired live ammunition at a demonstration of 1,500–2,000 people in the al-Zar neighbourhood. "Security police could not put down the demonstration. The eight soldiers defected when Republican Guards and the Fourth Armoured Division were sent in," he said.[13]
November 2011[edit]
On 16 November 2011, according to opposition sources, Syrian army deserters attacked a military intelligence office in Harasta, a suburb of the capital Damascus, killing six soldiers and wounding more than 20. "The Syrian Free Army struck with rockets and RPGs" said Omar Idlibi, the Beirut-based spokesperson for the opposition Syrian Local Co-ordination Committees. It was also said that all the army defectors involved returned after the attack.[14][15] All other attacks targeted military checkpoints in the suburbs of Douma, Qaboun and Arabeen and Saqba, killing three soldiers.[9][16][17] A Russian official said that the outbreak of fighting in Damascus "looks like a civil war."[18]
On 20 November 2011, a loud explosion was reported to have occurred in the heart of Damascus, the Syrian capital, amid reports of a grenade attack on offices of the ruling Baath Party, the boldest attack by army defectors at the time.[19][20] The Free Syrian Army later claimed responsibility for the attack, saying they fired two rocket-propelled grenades at the building.[21]
December 2011[edit]
In December 2011, Al Jazeera published an article; that protesters in the suburbs of Damascus did gather every evening to make their support for the Free Syrian Army known.[22] Seeing though that this disinformation did not bring anyone on the streets, the article was later changed into.[clarification needed][23]
On 4 December 2011, the SANA news agency reported that a funeral procession was held on Sunday[when?] for 13 soldiers who were killed. It claimed that killed while they were in the line of duty in Damascus countryside.[24]
On 9 December 2011, two children, aged 10 and 12, were among others killed by Syrian security forces on Friday in Homs and on the outskirts of Damascus, rights groups said.[25] On 13 December, another person died.[26]
On 23 December 2011, Syrian state TV claimed that two explosions at security bases in Damascus were caused by suicide bombers; a number of military personnel and civilians were killed.[27] At least 44 people were reported killed and 55 others wounded.[28] State television claimed that "several soldiers and a large number of civilians" had been killed in the bombings although an exact figure was hard to ascertain.[29]
On 29 December 2011, Syrian security forces opened fire on tens of thousands protesting outside a mosque in a Damascus suburb called Douma, close to a municipal building that members of the Arab League monitoring mission were believed to be visiting. At least four protesters died. Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of his one-man British-based "Syrian Observatory for Human Rights", said about 20,000 people were protesting outside the Grand Mosque in Douma when troops opened fire. Cars belonging to the Arab League monitors were seen in front of a municipal building close to the mosque, he said. Abdul-Rahman and other activists said the monitors were barred by security officials from entering Douma following the killings, after the situation deteriorated.[30]
2012 unrests and clashes[edit]
January 2012[edit]
On 4 January 2012, another killing in order to mute pro-government public voices took place, as a journalist and a host on state-owned Radio Damascus and an editor with the state-owned daily Al-Thawra, was shot in the head by unidentified gunmen on Friday in his home in the Damascus suburb of Darya. State television reported that the journalist was targeted by "armed terrorist groups."[31]
On 6 January 2012, SANA claimed that another suicide bomber killed at least 26 when a police building or intelligence building was attacked, however, the opposition pointed the finger at the Government, saying "this is a plot staged by the government to deter thousands of people that were planning to converge on that same spot to call for the international community to step in and enforce a no-fly zone and enforce also a dramatic end to the regime". Later SANA reported the death of General Mohammed Abdul-Hamid al-Awwad, claiming he was "assassinated" while he was headed for work in the al-Ghoutta area of Damascus. His driver, who was injured, said that "As we were heading to the Brigadier General's military unit, we saw a taxi on the right of the road…it overtook us and then blocked our way. Four gunmen started shooting at us. Brigadier al-Awwad was shot in the head and I was also injured."[3]
On 7 January 2012, 14 protesters were said to have died though a roadside bomb blast and anti-government protests on the same day.[32]
On 12 January 2012, an army bus was attacked in the area of the Damascus countryside with another roadside bomb and gunfire, killing four soldiers and wounding eight.[33] Six more soldiers (including a colonel) were killed in battles around the province, according to the Syrian government.[34][35]
On 19 January 2012, a Syrian security officer was killed after the bombing of his car in al-Tadhamun neighborhood in Damascus.[36]
On 22 January 2012, amidst a battle in the surbub of Douma two officers and a soldier of the Syrian Army and a deserter was killed in the Talfita area.[37]
Rural Damascus came under rebel control. At the police hospital in Harasta, the staff said most of rural Damascus was not controlled by the government forces and gunmen were kidnapping and killing those affiliated with the government in those areas. "Any car plate that belongs to the government cannot drive inside Harasta, we as doctors cannot go, they hijacked one of our cars a week ago," said a doctor.[38]
According to the Syrian Government, Brigadier General Hassan Abdullah al-Ibrahim and a First Lieutenant were killed when their car was fired on in the Damascus countryside.[4]
Syrian Army offensive[edit]
On 27 January 2012, the Syrian army stormed Douma.[39]
On 28 January 2012, seven more soldiers died around Damascus amidst the offensive. They were ambushed.[40] Later SANA reported that the bus was ambushed near Douma, and it was carrying army officers, in which seven of the officers died.[41]
On 29 January 2012, the Syrian army launched an offensive, trying to retake some of the Damascus suburbs from rebel control. Amateur video appeared to show tanks rolling in to Al-Ghouta and Zamalka to the east. Al-Ghouta is historically known for being a hub of dissent against the Assad government, and the crackdown appeared to be an attempt "to avoid any Tahrir Square-style mass movements,".[42] According to activists, 14 civilians and 5 opposition fighters were killed in shelling of neighbourhoods. 2,000 pro-assad forces and 50 tanks and armoured vehicles took part in the offensive.[43] However, they met fierce resistance and six government soldiers, including two officers, were killed and six wounded in the opposition controlled suburb of Sahnaya when their bus was blown up by a remote-controlled bomb.[44] Some activists claimed that the fighting in Damascus was not unusual, and there wasn't any tanks in the city,[45] while others said that it was "the worst fighting around the capital in the 10-month uprising."[46] Clashes were also reported near Damascus airport, leading to its closure. "It’s urban war. There are bodies in the street," one activist, speaking from Kfar Batna told Reuters.[47] Other Damascus suburbs that have come under fire from heavy artillery and mortar rounds from government forces include Douma, Saaba, Arbin and Hamuriyeh, activists said. "The more the regime uses the army, the more soldiers defect," Ahmed al-Khatib, a local rebel council member on the Damascus outskirts, told the AFP news agency. A spokesperson for the rebel FSA, which at the time, had 40,000 men and whose leadership was in Turkey, said that the fighting came a day after "a large wave of defections," with 50 officers and soldiers turning their back on Assad.[48] At least two generals and other "high-ranking officers" reportedly defected to the opposition.[49]
After two days of clashes, oppositions and FSA sources confirmed that the Syrian army gained back control of some of the eastern suburbs of Damascus from the rebels and started to make house to house checks and arrests. Hamouriyeh was taken by the Syrian government, as was Kfar Batna by the end of the clashes. FSA and government forces still fought in the suburb of Saqba, according to an activist.[50][51][52] However, the Free Syrian army regained control of at least one suburb, Douma, and destroyed one tank and also killing three government snipers.[53] Another 11 soldiers had been killed in the government offensive on the Al-Ghouta suburb, as well as six civilians.[54]
On 30 January 2012, the fighting subsided as Syrian army extanded their control in Ghouta. The military also advanced through Saqba. An activist said that the FSA moved out of the suburbs and that the Syrian army arrested 200 opposition members in Hammourya. The death toll given by activists was 19 civilians and 6 FSA fighters, while the overall number of those killed in the previous three days, since the fighting in the area started, was 100.[50][55] After the fighting, the Free Syrian Army withdrew to unidentified positions within 10 kilometers of Damascus.[56]
On 31 January 2012, the Syrian army continued to advance in order to crush the last FSA pockets.[57] The army fired into the air, as they advanced with tanks even beyond the positions from where the FSA withdrew. Activists told that the suburbs were on unannounced curfew while others were allowed to flee. The army was conducting arrests on suspected people in the district of Irbin.[58] In some instances, curfews were defied by some citizens, who put up a large opposition flag in the centre of Damascus.[59]
February 2012[edit]
On 1 February 2012, the Syrian army extended their cleaning operations, with more troops moving into the mountainous area of Qalamoun, north of Damascus. Further north, the troops which took the control of Rankous, started to extand their control into farmland surrounding the city. In the eastern suburbs of Mesraba, activist reported that army snipers were positioned and that tanks were in the streets.[5] In fighting in Wadi Barada, located north-west of Damascus in the Rif Damashk governorate, the Local Committee of Coordination initially reported that 12 people, including six FSA fighter, were killed.[60] Four of those died during a tank bombardment by the military in an attempt to flush out the Free Syrian Army units operating in the area. A rebel spokesman put the death toll at 15.[61] Later, the death toll of FSA fighters in the area was raised to 14 by the activist group. The opposition activist group also wrongly stated that the government poisoned the water supply of Wadi Barada, however, there was no independent confirmation and no other media reported the claim. One other FSA fighter was reportedly killed in fighting in the suburb of Moadhamieh.[62] The town of Deir Kanoun and Ein al Fija were also under army assaults according to the London based SOHR.[63] Syria's state news agency SANA said a general, Rajeh Mahmoud, was killed along with three other soldiers on the outskirts of Damascus.[5]
In Saqba, a working-class eastern suburb city of Damascus, had in-midst a peaceful anti-government demonstrations shortly fallen into control of a dozen armed and masked fighters from the Free Syria Army (FSA).[64] FSA also tried to resist against retaking by the Syrian army, but was later purged. And the fighting had stopped after the soldiers cleared the area street by street. Checkpoints were manned at main intersections and FSA fighters had either fled or been killed or wounded in the fighting. Damages were visible in the streets. Bodies of killed civilians where found severely mutilated, some had their hands bound. A resident told that he saw tanks firing into shops and talked about Iranian and Hezbollah involvement while there was no other evidence of that. Some others vowed to continue to protest once the soldiers would have left. Another resident blamed the FSA for provoking a fight they could not win and said that ordinary people were paying the price of the fighting, fearing more fighting in the future.[65]
A Lebanese source close to the Syrian government said that the offensive had the goal to cleanse from rebels all the areas near the capital and to set up a security zone. An opposition activist named Ayman Idlibi told that the Syrian army was preparing a massive attack on the city of Zabadani, a city located north of Wadi Barada and west of Rankus.[66]
On 2 February 2012, it was confirmed that the Syrian Army had retaken Douma, with its streets mostly deserted, a few days earlier. Army defectors and most families had fled into the Damascus countryside.[67]
On 9 February 2012, seven soldiers were buried after being killed in fighting in the Damascus suburbs and other areas.[68]
On 10 February 2012, the FSA in a poor district of Damascus city engaged loyalist forces in a firefight. Members of the Free Syrian Army fought for four hours with armoured backed troops who entered al-Qaboun neighbourhood in the north of the capital according to witnesses, it was not immediately known how many people were killed but several FSA fighters were wounded.[69]
On 11 February 2012, more fighting was reported when SANA reported that three gunmen shot dead another army general. SANA said that General Issa al-Khouli was shot in the morning as he left his home in the Damascus neighborhood of Rukn-Eddine. He was the director of a military hospital in Damascus.[70] The Revolution Leadership Council, an anti-Assad group in Damascus, alleged that the government had carried out the killing itself.[71] Meanwhile fighting was reported in the suburb of Douma, while a video was posted online reportedly showing a tank firing its guns in the streets of Douma.[72] More fighting in Douma was reported when soldiers stormed the Grand Mosque and detained a number of people who were inside. In the al-Qaboun clashes the day before, it was said that an activist in the area was shot dead by government forces.[73]
On 12 February 2012, a video was posted on the internet reportedly showing a Syrian military anti-aircraft vehicle being used in the streets of Douma with pictures of Bashar al-Assad pasted on the front next to the guns, and the vehicle appears to be firing directly at buildings.[74] On 14 February, Syrian press agency told that the security forces discovered an insurgent hiding place and confiscated weapons, bomb making kits and military suits.[75] Also, an activist group reported the death of 3 insurgents.[76] On 15 February, elite Syrian troops launched a large operation in the Barzeh suburb to locate insurgents hiding place, with around 1,000 troops deployed.[77]
On 15 February 2012, with clashes ongoing, FSA were seen on the streets of Damascus.[78]
On 18 February 2012, a military hideout was discovered in Douma as reported by state media, with the security forces finding 6 Kalashnikov assault rifles, 3 sniper rifles, 2 RPGs, 2 Turkish guns, a Turkish shotgun.[79] On the same day at least two protesters were reportedly killed in a bigger protest and funeral march for 3 protesters slained in the recent days before. In the central district of Mezzeh, near the Syrian Presidential Palace, the anti-government demonstration reportedly attracted tens of thousands of pro-democary protesters. Security forces then confronted them with gunfire and tear gas,[80] which was said to have killed and injured protesters.[81] The number of dead was risen to 3,[82] The number of protesters was estimated up to 30,000.[83]
On 19 February 2012, the area was calm, even though the opposition called for an even bigger "day of defiance" following the protests a day before. As no one turned up, the opposition then claimed that protests could not go on due to security forces being deployed in some districts of central Damascus. The streets of Mezzeh became largely empty, and people groups on the street were controlled on sight with some arrests. Students protests at local schools did occur however.[84][85]
March 2012[edit]
On 3 March 2012, the head of the Free Syrian Army, Riad al-Asaad, told al-Jazeera that FSA members had taken control of arms depots in Reef Damascus. He also stated that "the FSA killed more than 100 army troops in Reef Damascus." However, this was not confirmed by any media or the opposition groups responsible for tracking fatalities in the conflict as the sheer number would be counter-productive.[86] Riad al-Asaad's statement was made after a claim by another FSA leader that 100 soldiers were killed or wounded when the FSA seized a control of the bases. This FSA leader had said the report was preliminary, before it was confirmed by the commander of the FSA.[87] Two rebels and seven people harbouring them were killed by the Syrian Army in Duma, an activist stated for the news agencies.[88] On 10 March, two soldiers and three rebels were killed in a clash in the town of Daryaa, the London activist group reported.[89]
On 11 March 2012, London based S.O.H.R. reported that 19 soldiers were killed in Idlib and Damascus countryside,[90] 7 of them were reported dead in idlib, meaning the remaining 12 were killed outside Damascus.[91] The following day, 3 rebels were killed in the areas.
On 13 March 2012, SANA claimed a colonel was "assassinated" in the Damascus countryside. He was shot while heading to his military unit, causing his instant death.[92]
On 12 March 2012, major clashes were reported in central Damascus between the FSA and Loyalist army for the first time. Battles erupted in the Rukn Al-Din area in central Damascus. Gunshots were heard throughout the city, according to witnesses.[93]
On 16 March 2012, Heavy fighting was reported in several Damascus suburbs, with the FSA fighting loyalist forces in those areas.[94] Three soldiers were reported killed.[95] This came before a car bombing, the third in Damascus which was claimed to have killed 27 people and wounded another 140. Among the dead were members of the security forces, as the bombs targeted an air force intelligence base and a criminal security centre.[96]
On 18 March 2012, heavy street fighting ensued in Damascus, with the main district of Mezze being the battleground between the FSA and the military. The district is home to many security installations and residents reported hearing heavy machine gun and rocket-propelled grenade fire through the night. State controlled media claimed two rebels and one member of the security forces were killed in the fighting. "These clashes were the most violent and the closest to the security force headquarters in Damascus since the outbreak of the Syrian revolution," said Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. He said 18 government soldiers were wounded in the shooting.[97] Details of the fighting emerged later. According to the Sunday Times, the fighting ended with a senior Sunni general, who had made it clear that he wished to defect to the FSA, and his family being escorted from their home under the protection of the rebels. The leader of this force said that 3 units of the FSA had launched an attack on Mezze at zero hour to secure the defecting general. Mezze is said to be home to Syria’s wealthy elite and is the capital’s most secure neighborhood, with embassies, armed guards and gated compounds. Two units of 10 men each where sent to secure the general, while a third larger unit assaulted Mezze Villas west, an area of Mezze where the house of Assef Shawkat, the brother-in-law of President Bashar al-Assad and deputy head of the armed forces, is situated. Witnesses described heavy machine gunfire and RPG's being fired in the pre-dawn assault. A commander of the FSA said "We wanted to show the regime we are capable of launching operations in the middle of their home, just a few [miles] from the presidential palace. People think nothing is happening in Damascus, but it is boiling.". By the end, the army sent in armed helicopters to subdue the clashes, killing 7 opposition fighters, according to the FSA.[98] Also, 80 elements of the security forces including pro-government militia were reportedly killed and 200 wounded during the clashes. The deputy commander of the Free Syrian Army also said that two military tanks were destroyed during the operation.[99][100]
On 20 March 2012, the Free Syria Army in Douma released an army general they had detained in return for several prisoners and the bodies of those killed recently by security forces.[101]
On 21 March 2012, Assad's forces shelled the suburbs of Harasta and Irbin.[102]
On 24 March 2012, after 8 protesters were wounded in a protest in Damascus, "very violent" clashes broke out in the Damascus area. Activists reported that explosions and small arms fire could be heard across a large part of Damascus province and in districts of the city itself, as anti-government protests were staged in Douma and Artuz close to the capital. The Observatory for human rights reported snipers and heavy armour in Douma.[103]
On 26 March 2012, three soldiers were killed as a military bus was attacked in Harasta.[104]
On 27 March 2012, The chief of the Air force intelligence branch in Syria was reportedly killed, according to opposition forces in an attack in Damascus. The chief, Col Iyad Mando was considered to be the head of one of the most powerful bodies of the state.[105][106]
On 30 March 2012, the FSA captured an air force general in Damascus.[107] Also, in the suburbs of Harasta and Irbin opposition fighters were said to have fired RPG's at military buildings, killing at least one soldier.[108]
May 2012[edit]
On 6 April 2012, the army invaded Douma and killed a civilian, serious fighting evolved after this in Douma.[109]
Cease-Fire (from 14 April until 1 June 2012)[edit]
Sporadic incidents occurred in Damascus and in Rif Damascus Governorate during the cease-fire. Following the collapse of the cease-fire due to continued attacks by independent opposition Rebel groups, the area became the scene of the Summer 2012 Damascus clashes.
On 18 April 2012, the government claimed that an army officer, a Lieutenant colonel, had been shot dead in Douma.[110]
On 21 April 2012, an officer, a first Lieutenant was allegedly shot dead in the Damascus countryside.[111]
On 25 April 2012, 3 military officers were killed in Damascus, according to the opposition and government in the area.[112]
On 28 April 2012, after a suicide bombing rocked Damascus, State media claimed 11 security forces and civilians had died. SOHR reported that 2 of the deaths were civilians, meaning 9 security forces were killed.[113]
On 28 April 2012, the S.O.H.R. claimed that Syrian Army killed 10 rebels in the Damascus region.[114] These deaths were reported after a Syrian opposition group reported that hundreds of soldiers defected from the Syrian armed forces on Sunday in the outskirts of Damascus and Lattakia. This though could not be verified.
On 29 April 2012, state media reported that 2 Syrian border guards of the army had been killed in fighting in the Damascus countryside.[115]
On 30 April 2012, Brigadier General Shaker Tayjon was killed by a bomb blast in the Damascus countryside according to state media. Another officer, a Lieutenant Colonel was allegedly killed by a separate bomb.[116] Also, A director of a military hospital told Sky News that 10 to 15 dead soldiers were arriving every day and the same number were being treated for injuries sustained in the fighting. These figures only included incidents in the capital and southern Syria. In the hospital, a dead soldier who had been killed in Douma was brought in and a wounded army general who had lost his leg was shown.[117]
May 2012[edit]
On 2 May 2012, In Harasta, near Damascus, six members of the security forces were killed during clashes with armed opposition, according to S.O.H.R.[118]
On 3 May 2012, 7 soldiers and 1 rebel were killed.[119]
On 9 May 2012, 7 members of a pro-government militia called the Shabiha were killed when their bus was destroyed with rocket-propelled grenades on the edge of Irbin, a Damascus suburb. An activist said that army tanks began to shell the suburb afterwards.[120]
On 13 May 2012, an Army Colonel and other officers were reported killed.[121]
On 24 May 2012, a Lieutenant Colonel was shot and killed according to the Syrian government. 5 Police officers and 4 workers were also allegedly killed during the course of the day in a battle.[122]
June 2012[edit]
End of Cease-Fire on 1 June 2012)[edit]
On 1 June 2012, Following the ongoing killing of Army personnel, the Army restarted their cleansing operations, killing 5 people during raids in the town of Daraya outside the capital Damascus, the London based SOHR reported. They stormed the town which is a center for the armed opposition with tanks and fired shells at its western districts, the SOHR said. Local activists said the five killed were civilians, adding that one of them was an activist and "regime forces burnt his body completely after they killed him."[123]
On 2 June 2012, 8 soldiers were killed on the outskirts of Damascus by the FSA.[124]
On 9 June 2012, in Damascus, residents spoke about a night of shooting and explosions in the worst violence Syria's capital has seen since the uprising against President Bashar al Assad's government began 15 months ago.[125] The nearly 12 hours of fighting in Damascus suggested a new boldness among armed rebels, who previously kept a low profile in the capital.[125]
On 10 June 2012, three police officers were killed when a bomb exploded, destroying their vehicle.[126] Also, around 600 Syrian Free Army fighters simultaneously attacked Government targets and Syrian army targets from five directions around the capital, in the biggest and most organised attack on damascus at the time. One source reported that several Russians working with the Syrian Government were killed and others wounded.[127]
On early June rebels attacked Shabiha buses brought to quell protests in Qaboun, killing 20 Shabiha men and prompting forces from the nearby Airforce Intelligence compound to fire anti-aircraft guns and heavy mortar rounds into the district, according to opposition campaigners.[citation needed] YouTube footage released by opposition activists also showed army trucks and soldiers in combat gear inside the Abbasid Football Stadium in the city, which has become a base for troops and Shabiha men confronting the opposition neighbourhoods of Jobar, Zamalka and Irbin just to the east.[128]
On 16 June 2012, three opposition fighters were allegdly killed in Duma and a large number of others arrested when authorities raided their hideouts, SANA, state TV media, reported.[129]
On 17 June 2012, the Syrian military once again attacked Damascus suburbs. Seven civilians, including three women, were killed in shelling of Douma, an oppostion stronghold. Five civilian men were killed in Saqaba, the London based SOHR said, adding some of them had been "slaughtered" with knives. SOHR called for independent investigation as "This kind of killing has become common in recent weeks." In the suburb of Irbin a man and his wife and child were hit by an artillery shell fired by the Syrian army.[130]
The Syrian government claimed they killed a man who had participated rigging car bombs in Damascus.[131]
Widespread clashes were reported in Douma and Harasta with one general of the Syrian army and a police captain being killed by the FSA.[132] The dead Lieutenant General Ghassan Khalil Abu al-Dhahab was shot and killed in Douma.[133]
On 21 June 2012, according to the toll compiled by the London-based organization, 30 civilians were killed in the opposition bastion of Douma by the Syrian army.[134]
On 25 June 2012, 11 soldiers were captured by the FSA in Damascus.[135]
On 26 June 2012, rebels reportedly blew up an artillery piece at the entrance to Qudsaya, Damascus suburb, with clashes taking place in both Qudsaya and al-Hama, about 8 kilometers from the center of Damascus. Army also stormed the neighbourhood of Barzeh amid fierce fighting. The SOHR group reported that the government had massacred residents in al-Hama, and at least 14 people were reported killed.[136]
On 27 June 2012, a pro-Government media station was attacked, killing seven people, four from the security services and three journalists while 13 rebels were killed near Douma according to the Syrian government.[137][138]
On 29 June 2012 the latest development came as an activist reported a "massacre" in the Damascus suburb of Douma, about 15 km (9 miles) outside the capital Damascus. Heavy shelling was evident as the military tried to enter the suburb. 51 People were reportedly killed, including 10 who tried to flee the suburb but were stopped at a checkpoint by militiamen and executed.[139]
Resident of the city meanwhile said to press that city of Douma, on suburbs of Damascus, had become effectively ghost city, with most of its 200,000 population forced to flee as a result of rebel seizing with consequent army shelling. He also reported hearing for more than a week explosions from shelling in Harasta suburb, what resulted in collapse of ordinary life in Damascus. Security forces enforced unofficial curfew after 7 or 8pm when Shabiha militias arrest anyone wandering around the streets.[140]
On 29 June 2012, the Syrian Army continued its crackdown against the rebels in Douma, killing scores of rebels and arresting number of others. They claimed that 3 rebel deaths were confirmed.[141]
On 30 June 2012, it was reported that the military had regained control of Douma after a 10-day military offensive. Loyalists battled to control the ring of suburbs and settlements in the surrounding countryside. The army launches frequent offensives into the suburbs only to see them slip back into rebel control after they leave. Human rights groups said that conditions in Douma are miserable, with dead bodies in the streets. There is a lack of food, electricity and running water.[142] The army was accused of damaging hospitals that treated the wounded in Douma and carrying out waves of mass arrests and also execution of Rebels.[142]
On 30 June 2012, in Douma, the Syrian army said that they seized 3 rebels weapons stores and a Rebel explosive factory used for terror attacks, where dozens of rebels were killed while many others were arrested.[143] SANA reported that dozens of rebels were killed while many others were arrested.[144]
Also residents reported that the army, after weeks of intensive shelling, finally managed to push its way into former rebel-controlled Douma City center and was sweeping streets in search of rebel fighters who according to other resident withdrew from city night before, after 10-day government offensive. Residents also reported decaying dead bodies lying on streets and arrest of hundreds of citizens[145] to check on their implication with the rebels. Most where later released.
An ITV reporter filmed a Syrian military funeral for the deaths of soldiers during the siege of Douma. 42 soldiers were killed in the siege of Douma, most of them in the last day and a half when the Syrian army entered Douma after having shelled the city for days.[146] Over 200 people were killed overall, with at least 25 women being raped by the Syrian Army in front of their families.[147] One particular case that was documented by Women Under Siege was the case of a young woman whose apartment building was entered by the elite republican guard, and all residents taken out. They executed 8 male residents and brutallty raped the young woman.[148]
July 2012[edit]
On 1 July 2012, it was reported that 85 people had been killed by a car bomb in an attack on an anti-government demonstration, that started out as a funeral for a previous protester that had been killed by government soldiers. The car bomb had targeted the funeral march.[149] Video footage appeared on the internet showing the explosions and aftermath.[150][151] An initial false report by the UK based SOHR said that it was the government that killed at least 30 civilian protesters in this attack.
On 2 July 2012, ITV News correspondent managed to get to the Irbeen suburb of Damascus with help of FSA fighters and confirmed that this and several other suburbs, including Zamalka, are completely out of government control with local rebel fighters patrolling on the streets openly. It was also falsedly reported that fighting in Douma was still ongoing.[146][152]
On 10 July 2012, 2 soldiers were killed when their military supply vehicle was destroyed in southern Damascus.[153]
On 11 July 2012, there was heavy fighting in the Damascus neighourhood of Zabdin, were members of the FSA attacked a missile base, prompting the defection of at least 27 soldiers there. Clashes, raids and shelling also continued in Irbeen, Douma, Zamalka and Kafarsoussah.[154]
On 12 July 2012, Syrian army for the first time shelled areas of Damascus. Artillery fired several shells towards orchards in Kfar Souseh district where FSA was reportedly hiding. There was also clashes in New Artouz suburb, some 15 km from Damascus.[155]
On 14 July 2012, reportedly a major escalation in Damascus took place from 14–15 July, when a coordinated attack by multiple rebel forces was engaged upon Damascus neighbourhoods.
On 15 July 2012, fierce fighting was reported in some quarters of central Damascus as the army moved in to dislodge rebels. The rebels fighting were the ones who were crushed in Douma and other suburbs and fled to Damascus itself. Fighting also closed the road leading from central Damascus to airport.[156][157]
On 16 July 2012, for a second day, heavy clashes in the southern Midan and Tadhamon districts of Damascus raged[158] with the military managing to surround the rebel forces in the area and sending tanks and other armored vehicles into the neighborhoods. The rebels called the clashes a raid by them against the capital,[159] while the government called it a 48-hour military operation to clear the area of any opposition forces. There were also indications that the government knew about the planned rebel raid and acted on the information.[160]
On 17 July 2012, shooting was reported in one of the main central streets and machine-gun fire was reported in nearby Sabaa Bahrat Square, site of the Central Bank of Syria, which was the scene of several major pro-government demonstrations.[161] Fighting was ongoing in the southern Midan and Kfar Sousa districts and the northern Barzeh and Qabun districts.[162] There were contradictions among the rebels themselves on the nature of the conflict.
One FSA commander claimed that the Battle for "liberation" of Damascus had begun,[163] with another dubbing it Operation Damascus Volcano.[162]
But Tarek, the rebel spokesman in Damascus, dismissed the claims, stating the clashes were still only skirmishes. He also said the FSA didn't start the battle, which would be in line with earlier reports that the military made a preemptive strike on the opposition forces, after learning of their plan for the attack on the capital.[164]
On 18 July 2012, a bombing target the National security headquarters with Assad's most senior generals, known collectivley as the "crisis cell", were meeting. 4 were killed; Defense minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy head of armed forces Assef Shawkat, General Hasan Turkmani and National security chief Hisham Ikhtiyar.[165]
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External links[edit] |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18236 | Waggle dance
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The waggle dance - the direction the bee moves in relation to the hive indicates direction; if it moves vertically upwards the direction to the source is directly towards the Sun, the duration of the waggle part of the dance signifies the distance.
Video demonstrating the waggle dance of the honeybee
Waggle dance is a term used in beekeeping and ethology for a particular figure-eight dance of the honey bee. By performing this dance, successful foragers can share, with other members of the colony, information about the direction and distance to patches of flowers yielding nectar and pollen, to water sources, or to new housing locations.[1][2] A waggle dance with a very short waggle run used to be characterized as a distinct (round) recruitment dance (see below). Austrian ethologist and Nobel laureate Karl von Frisch was one of the first who translated the meaning of the waggle dance.[3]
Figure-Eight-Shaped Waggle Dance of the Honeybee (Apis mellifera). A waggle run oriented 45° to the right of ‘up’ on the vertical comb (A) indicates a food source 45° to the right of the direction of the sun outside the hive (B). The abdomen of the dancer appears blurred because of the rapid motion from side to side.
A waggle dance consists of one to 100 or more circuits, each of which consists of two phases: the waggle phase and the return phase. A worker bee's waggle dance involves running through a small figure-eight pattern: a waggle run (aka waggle phase) followed by a turn to the right to circle back to the starting point (aka return phase), another waggle run, followed by a turn and circle to the left, and so on in a regular alternation between right and left turns after waggle runs. Waggle-dancing bees produce and release two alkanes, tricosane and pentacosane, and two alkenes, (Z)-9-tricosene and (Z)-9-pentacosene, onto their abdomens and into the air.[4]
The direction and duration of waggle runs are closely correlated with the direction and distance of the resource being advertised by the dancing bee. For cavity-nesting honey bees, flowers that are located directly in line with the sun are represented by waggle runs in an upward direction on the vertical combs, and any angle to the right or left of the sun is coded by a corresponding angle to the right or left of the upward direction. The distance between hive and recruitment target is encoded in the duration of the waggle runs.[1] The farther the target, the longer the waggle phase. The more excited the bee is about the location, the more rapidly it will waggle, so it will grab the attention of the observing bees, and try to convince them. If multiple bees are doing the waggle dance, it's a competition to convince the observing bees to follow their lead, and competing bees may even disrupt other bees' dances or fight each other off.
Waggle dancing bees that have been in the nest for an extended time adjust the angles of their dances to accommodate the changing direction of the sun. Therefore, bees that follow the waggle run of the dance are still correctly led to the food source even though its angle relative to the sun has changed.
The consumption of ethanol by foraging bees has been shown to reduce waggle dance activity and increase occurrence of the tremble dance.[5]
Kevin Abbott and Reuven Dukas of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada discovered that if a dead Apis mellifera bee is placed on a flower, bees performed far fewer waggle dances upon returning to the hive. The scientists explain that the bees associate the dead bee with the presence of a predator at the food source. The reduction of the dance repetition frequency, therefore, indicates that the dancing bees perform and communicate a form of risk/benefit analysis.[6][7]
Though first decoded by Karl von Frisch, dancing behavior in bees had been observed and described multiple times prior. Around 100 years before Frisch's discovery, Nicholas Unhoch described dancing behavior of bees as being an indulgence “in certain pleasures and jollity”.[3] He did, however, admit ignorance as to the purpose of the dancing. 35 years prior to Unhoch's observations, Ernst Spitzner observed bees dancing and interpreted it as transmitting forage resource odors to other nestmates.[3] Even Aristotle, in addition to describing flower constancy behavior, suspected that some form of communication occurred between foragers within a nest:
"On each trip the bee does not fly from a flower of one kind to a flower of another, but flies from one violet, say, to another violet, and never meddles with another flower until it has got back to the hive; on reaching the hive they throw off their load, and each bee on her return is followed by three or four companions. What it is that they gather is hard to see, and how they do it has not been observed".[8]
Jürgen Tautz also writes about it in his book "The Buzz about Bees":
Page 112: Many elements of the communication used to recruit miniswarms to feeding sites are also observed in "true" swarming behavior. Miniswarms of foragers are not placed under the same selection pressure as are true swarms, because the fate of the entire colony is not at stake. A truly swarming colony has to be quickly led to a new home, or it will perish. The behavior used to recruit to food sources possibly developed from the "true" swarming behavior.
Tautz,J.: The Buzz about Bees - Biology of a Superorganism (photos by H. R. Heilmann) Springer Heidelberg & Berlin, 2008
Honeybees accumulate an electric charge during flying and when their body parts are moved or rubbed together. Bees emit constant and modulated electric fields during the waggle dance. Both low- and high-frequency components emitted by dancing bees induce passive antennal movements in stationary bees according to Faraday's Law. The electrically charged flagellum of mechanoreceptor cells are moved by electric fields and more strongly so if sound and electric fields interact. Recordings from axons of the Johnston's organ indicate its sensitivity to electric fields. Therefore, it has been suggested that electric fields emanating from the surface charge of bees stimulate mechanoreceptors and may play a role in social communication during the waggle dance.[9]
Workers of Apis mellifera carnica on honeycomb.
The Dance Language vs. The Waggle Dance[edit]
As defined by von Frisch, Tanzsprache (German for "dance language") is the information about direction, distance, and quality of a resource (such as food or nesting sites) contained within the waggle dance.[10] Though von Frisch insisted on the direct connection between the Tanzsprache and the performance of the waggle dance, recent criticism holds that potential foragers need not correctly translate the dance language from the waggle dance to successfully forage.[10] In an experiment on the honeybee Apis mellifera, most individuals who thoroughly followed a waggle dance ignored the resource direction and location information. Instead, 93% of the foragers returned to foraging areas they had previous knowledge of.[10]
Bees that follow a waggle dance can successfully forage without decoding the dance language information in several ways:[11]
• Dance follower may use olfactory information from the dancer and find either the same resource or a different one with a similar scent.
• Following a dance may simply trigger foraging behavior. A forager may then search randomly for resources.
• Following a dance may reactivate private knowledge of a resource. After reactivation, the forager may return to the known resource.
• Using information communicated in the waggle dance is more useful to foragers when private information about resources is lacking.
Is Dance Language a Language?[edit]
The use of the word “language” may lead to misrepresentations of the waggle dance. The Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure proposed a system of language a sign is made up two chief components. The signifier is the physical or phonetic representation of a sign. The signified is the conceptual component.[12] If the dance language followed the Saussurian dyadic model of semiotics, the signifier would be the waggle dance and the signified would be the location of the foraging resource. Though the dance language may or may not follow this sort of pattern, it is not considered to be a language with syntactical grammar or a set of symbols.[11]
Efficiency and Adaptation[edit]
The waggle dance may be less efficient than once thought. Some bees observe over 50 waggle runs without successfully foraging, while others will forage successfully after observing 5 runs.[11]
The waggle dance may be adaptive in some environments and not in others. In temperate habitats, honey bee colonies routinely perform the waggle dance, but can still successfully forage when the dance is experimentally obscured. In tropical habitats, honey bee foraging is severely impaired if waggle dancing is prevented. This is thought to be due to the patchiness of resources in tropical environment versus the homogeneity of resources in temperate environments. In the tropics, food resources can come in the form of flowering trees which are rich in nectar but are scattered sparsely and bloom only briefly. Thus, in tropical zones information about forage location might be more valuable than in temperate zones.[13]
Ancestors to modern honeybees most likely performed excitatory movements to encourage other nestmates to forage. These excitatory movements include shaking, zig-zagging, buzzing and crashing into nestmates. Similar behavior is observed in other Hymenoptera including stingless bees, wasps, bumblebees and ants.[11]
The waggle dance is thought to have evolved to aid in communicating information about a new nest site, rather than spatial information about foraging sites.[11]
Observations have suggested that different species of honeybees have different "dialects" of the waggle dance, each species or subspecies dance varying by curve or duration.[14][15] A recent study demonstrated that a mixed colony of Asiatic honeybees (Apis cerana cerana) and European honeybees (Apis mellifera ligustica) were gradually able to understand one another's 'dialects' of waggle dance.[16]
Applications to operations research[edit]
In line with recent work in swarm intelligence research involving optimization algorithms inspired by the behavior of social insects (including bees, ants and termites), and vertebrates such as fish and birds, there has recently been research on using bee waggle dance behavior for efficient fault-tolerant routing.[17] From the abstract of Wedde, Farooq, and Zhang (2004):[18]
Another bee-inspired stigmergic computational technique called bee colony optimization is employed in Internet Server Optimization.[19][20]
The Zigbee RF protocol is named after the waggle dance.
See also[edit]
1. ^ a b Riley, J.; Greggers, U.; Smith, A.; Reynolds, D.; Menzel, R. (2005). "The flight paths of honeybees recruited by the waggle dance". Nature 435 (7039): 205–207. Bibcode:2005Natur.435..205R. doi:10.1038/nature03526. PMID 15889092. edit
2. ^ Seeley T.D., Visscher P.K., Passino K.M. (2006). "Group decision making in honey bee swarms". American Scientist 94: 220–229. doi:10.1511/2006.3.220.
3. ^ a b c Frisch, Karl von. (1967) The Dance Language and Orientation of Bees. Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
4. ^ Thom, C.; Gilley, D.; Hooper, J.; Esch, H. (2007). "The scent of the waggle dance". PLoS Biology 5 (9): e228. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0050228. PMC 1994260. PMID 17713987. edit
5. ^ Bozic, J.; Abramson, C.; Bedencic, M. (2006). "Reduced ability of ethanol drinkers for social communication in honeybees (Apis mellifera carnica Poll.)". Alcohol (Fayetteville, N.Y.) 38 (3): 179–183. doi:10.1016/j.alcohol.2006.01.005. PMID 16905444. edit
6. ^ Walker, Matt (31 July 2009). "Honeybees warn of Risky Flowers". BBC Earth News. Retrieved 18 January 2010
7. ^ Abbott, K. R.; Dukas, R. (2009). "Honeybees consider flower danger in their waggle dance". Animal Behaviour 78 (3): 633. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2009.05.029. edit
8. ^ Aristotle, Historia animalium, IX, 40, Becker 624b; modified from the translation by D.W. Thompson in The Works of Aristotle, Clarendon, Oxford, 1910.
9. ^ Greggers, Uwe; Koch G, Schmidt V, Dürr A, Floriou-Servou A, Piepenbrock D, Göpfert MC, Menzel R, (March 2013). "Reception and learning of electric fields". Proceedings of the Royal Society B. doi:10.1098/rspb.2013.0528.
10. ^ a b c Grüter, C.; Balbuena, M.; Farina, W. (2008). "Informational conflicts created by the waggle dance". Proceedings. Biological sciences / the Royal Society 275 (1640): 1321–1327. doi:10.1098/rspb.2008.0186. PMC 2602683. PMID 18331980. edit
11. ^ a b c d e Grüter, C. .; Farina, W. . (2009). "The honeybee waggle dance: can we follow the steps?". Trends in ecology & evolution (Personal edition) 24 (5): 242–247. doi:10.1016/j.tree.2008.12.007. PMID 19307042. edit
13. ^ Dornhaus, A.; Chittka, L. (2004). "Why do honey bees dance?". Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 55 (4): 395. doi:10.1007/s00265-003-0726-9. edit
14. ^ Gould; Towne (1989). "On the Evolution of the Dance Language: Response to Dyer and Seeley". American Naturalist (The American Society of Naturalists) 134 (1): 156–159. doi:10.1086/284972. JSTOR 2462282. edit
15. ^ Dyer; Seeley (1991). "Dance Dialects and Foraging Range in Three Asian Honey Bee Species". Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology (Springer) 28 (4): 227–233. doi:10.1007/BF00175094. JSTOR 4600541. edit
16. ^ Su, S.; Cai, F.; Si, A.; Zhang, S.; Tautz, J.; Chen, S.; Giurfa, M. (2008). "East learns from West: Asiatic honeybees can understand dance language of European honeybees". In Giurfa, Martin. PLoS ONE 3 (6): e2365. Bibcode:2008PLoSO...3.2365S. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002365. PMC 2391287. PMID 18523550. edit
18. ^ Wedde, H. F.; Farooq, M.; Pannenbaecker, T.; Vogel, B.; Mueller, C.; Meth, J.; Jeruschkat, R. (2005). "BeeAdHoc". Proceedings of the 2005 conference on Genetic and evolutionary computation - GECCO '05. p. 153. doi:10.1145/1068009.1068034. ISBN 1595930108. edit
19. ^ Nakrani, S.; Tovey, C. (2004). "On Honey Bees and Dynamic Server Allocation in Internet Hosting Centers". Adaptive Behavior 12 (3–4): 223. doi:10.1177/105971230401200308. edit
Further reading[edit]
External links[edit] |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18237 | Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to: navigation, search
The following documentation is located at Template:catlangcode/documentation. [edit]
This template is a template wrapper around the format_categories function in Module:utilities. It adds one or more categories to an entry, using the provided language code to generate a sort key specific to the language. If the namespace of the current page is not meant to contain entries (it's not the main namespace or Appendix) then the template does not categorize, so it's safe to use on any page and in any template.
The two templates {{catlangname}} and {{catlangcode}} are specialized versions of {{categorize}}. They work the same way, and have the same parameters. However:
• {{catlangname}} will add the language name before all the names that are provided. This creates a "lexical" or "part-of-speech-like" category, whose name is based on the format Category:(language name) (category name).
• {{catlangcode}} will add the language code and a colon : before all the names. This creates a "topical" category, whose name is based on the format Category:(language code):(category name).
The template accepts the following parameters:
The language code (see Wiktionary:Languages). This is required.
2=, 3=...
One or more categories. There is no limit to how many you can specify. Empty values will be skipped.
Provides a custom sort key. This will override the automatically generated sort key.
• {{categorize|en|Cockney rhyming slang}} adds:
Category:Cockney rhyming slang
• {{catlangname|en|nouns}} adds:
Category:English nouns
• {{catlangname|pt|suffixes}} adds:
Category:Portuguese suffixes
• {{catlangcode|en|Biology}} adds:
• {{catlangcode|pt|Biology}} adds:
See also[edit] |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18243 | Skip to content
This repository
branch: master
Octocat-spinner-32 MKiCloudSync.h Updated license
Octocat-spinner-32 MKiCloudSync.m Updated license
Octocat-spinner-32 README.mdown Updated license
What is this?
A clean and simple class to sync NSUserDefaults to iCloud.
How to use?
1. Drag the two classes and #import the header file in your Application Delegate
2. Call [MKiCloudSync start];
3. There is no Step 3.
Read the blog post for more
// Copyright (C) 2011-2020 by Steinlogic
// Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy // of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal // in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights // to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell // copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is // furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: // // The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in // all copies or substantial portions of the Software. // // THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR // IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, // FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE // AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER // LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, // OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN // THE SOFTWARE.
// As a side note, you might also consider // 1) tweeting about this mentioning @mugunthkumar // 2) A paypal donation to
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This repository
Subversion checkout URL
You can clone with HTTPS or Subversion.
Download ZIP
In this hands-on Lab, you will learn how to deploy a simple ASP.NET MVC3 Web application to a Web server hosted in Windows Azure, using SQL Server and configuring load balancing.
branch: master
Introduction to Windows Azure Virtual Machines
Hands-on Lab
Hands-on labs are sets of step-by-step guides that are designed to help you learn how to use key Windows Azure services and features. Each Lab provides instructions to guide you through the process of developing a complete application.
In this hands-on lab, you will learn how to deploy a simple ASP.NET MVC 4 Web application to a Web server hosted in Windows Azure, using SQL Server and configuring load balancing.
Note: You can download the latest build of the Windows Azure Training Kit which includes a tested version of this HOL from here:
Visit our GitHub Homepage for more information about the Windows Azure Training Kit.
Repository Structure
In the root folder of this repository you will find the Hands-On Lab (HOL) document, Before beginning with the HOL exercises, make sure you have followed all the required steps indicated at the setup section of the HOL document.
In the Source folder you will find the source code of each of the exercises, as well as the assets and setup scripts. Throughout the HOL you will be instructed to open and explore the different solutions from the source folder. It is typically comprised of the following subfolders:
• Assets: This folder contains files that are used throughout the exercises.
• Exercise Name: Each exercise that requires a programming solution has its own code folder.
• Begin: The begin solution is the initial incomplete solution that you will finish by following the steps of the corresponding exercise.
• End: The end solution is the final result you will achieve at the end of an exercise.
• Setup: This folder contains the dependency files and the setup scripts necessary to initialize specific configurations of the lab, being its execution is required in the majority of the Hands-on Labs.
Get Started
In order to run the solutions of the exercises provided by this lab you will first need configure your environment and install any necessary prerequisites such as runtimes, components, or libraries. For your ease, you can download and run the dependency checker here to automatically check and install all the requirements. Each lab also includes setup instructions for getting started.
Contributing to the Repository
If you find any issues or opportunities for improving this hands-on lab, fix them! Feel free to contribute to this project by forking this repository and make changes to the content. Once you've made your changes, share them back with the community by sending a pull request. Please see GitHub section How to send pull requests and the Windows Azure Contribution Guidelines for more information about contributing to projects.
Reporting Issues
If you find any issues with this hands-on lab that you can't fix, feel free to report them in the issues section of this repository.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18245 | Skip to content
This repository
A Python/Django-based Captive Portal System for LAN Parties. (Linux)
branch: master
tollgate README
tollgate - A captive portal software for Linux for LAN parties.
Copyright 2008-2014 Michael Farrell
Version 3.0.2+.
Welcome to tollgate. This is a captive portal system for Linux, designed for operating LAN parties. A lot of the concepts in the software are specific to how a LAN party operates, however you could use it for a sharehouse if you wanted, or something else.
It was originally called portal2. It managed the StreetGeek and SAGA internet connection for about two years, before I discontinued my involvement with the event. It's name was changed before public release due to the release of a video game of the same name about the same time (April 2011).
It consists of two parts, connected via dbus:
• A frontend system, which does most of the heavy lifting, including managing users and quota. It is a Django website.
• A backend system. This is only there to insulate the frontend from running programs as root directly. It also abstracts calls to the firewall, and maintains the list of unmetered and blacklisted hosts.
This software isn't based on any existing captive portal solution - it's entirely from-scratch. At the time that development started (2008) there wasn't any freely available software that did what we wanted, so I wrote one.
Full documentation for the project is located in the docs folder and may be generated with Sphinx.
Alternatively, it is available online at:
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This list is for information sharing among the women of Full Circle Temple in Portland, Oregon. Appropriate topics for this list include events and issues of community interest, networking among community members, and general topics related to women and spirituality.For topics specifically related to Temple Council (the decision-making circle for the Temple), see the Yahoo group fullcircletemple_pdx_council.
Though we may disagree at times, we agree to treat each other with civility and respect. Off-topic posts, inflammatory arguments, name-calling, or threats (as determined by the list moderators) are not appropriate. Those who engage in these behaviors will be warned. Repeated behavior will result in being banned from the list.To prevent spam (mass commercial mailings), the first post from each new member must be approved by a list moderator. Spam will be deleted and its author banned without warning.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18288 |
Re: OT: Re: Sponsor's responsibilities
On Sun, Sep 17, 2000 at 11:04:52PM -0700, Steve Bowman wrote:
> Taking these items together, how about making up a really ew word that is
> really Debianspeak? You could have debee and deber :-) OTOH, the best
> _word_ I've seen so far (that is, one that can be found in an (English)
> dictionary) is protege. Sponsee isn't bad. Or you could have mentor
> and mented :) (say it a few times, mented, mented, mented, demented).
> Any foreign words (to us English speakers) that capture this concept?
Oooh, I like this. The mentor advises the mented, checking over
and uploading packages for him until he is accepted into the project
and can do so on his own. At that point, he is no longer mented; he
is demented, just like the rest of us :)
PGP key and fingerprint available on finger; encrypted mail welcomed.
Attachment: pgpb5jKnGUwny.pgp
Description: PGP signature
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18304 | Python parsing iTunes XML/COM
John Machin sjmachin at
Thu Jul 31 10:43:58 CEST 2008
On Jul 31, 12:58 am, william tanksley <wtanksle... at> wrote:
> Thank you for the response. Here's some more info, including a little
> that you didn't ask me for but which might be useful.
> John Machin <sjmac... at> wrote:
> > william tanksley <wtanksle... at> wrote:
> > > To ask another way: how do I convert from a file:// URL to a local
> > > path in a standard way, so that filepaths from two different sources
> > > will work the same way in a dictionary?
> > > The problems occur when the filenames have non-ascii characters in
> > > them -- I suspect that the URLs are having some encoding placed on
> > > them that Python's decoder doesn't know about.
> > # track_id = url2pathname(urlparse(track_id).path)
> > print repr(track_id)
> > parse_result = urlparse(track_id).path
> > print repr(parse_result)
> > track_id_replacement = url2pathname(parse_result)
> > print repr(track_id_replacement)
> The "important" value here is track_id_replacement; it contains the
> data that's throwing me. It appears that some UTF-8 characters are
> being read as multiple bytes by ElementTree rather than being decoded
> into Unicode.
Appearances can be deceptive. You present no evidence.
> Could this be a bug in ElementTree's Unicode support?
It could, yes, but the probability is extremely low.
> If
> so, can I work around it?
> Here's one example. The others are similar -- they have the same
> things that look like problems to me.
> "Buffett Time - Annual Shareholders\xc2\xa0L.mp3"
> Note some problems here:
> 1. This isn't Unicode; it's missing the u"" (I printed using repr).
> 2. It's got the UTF-8 bytes there in the middle.
> I tried doing track_id.encode("utf-8"), but it doesn't seem to make
> any difference at all.
> Of course, my ultimate goal is to compare the track_id to the track_id
> I get from iTunes' COM interface, including hashing to the same value
> for dict lookups.
> > and copy/paste the results into your next posting.
> In addition to the above results,
*WHAT* results? I don't see any repr() output, just your
interpretation of what you think you saw!
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General Laws
Section 8. Every corporation doing business under this chapter shall be subject to general laws governing street railway companies in respect to the future issue of stocks and bonds, consolidation, leases, revocation of permits and locations; and shall also be subject to the same regulation and supervision, and shall file with the department the same reports and information required of street railway companies, so far as such regulation, supervision and requirements are applicable to corporations doing business under this chapter and are consistent with its provisions.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18306 | Take the 2-minute tour ×
A left module M over a ring is finitely presented iff the functor Hom(M,_) preserves filtered inductive limit. Meanwhile, if M is finitely generated, then for every filtered system { N_i } of left modules the morphism lim Hom(M,N_i) --> Hom(M,lim N_i) is injective.
Is there a theory of modules satisfying that necessary condition? If every ideal of a commutative ring satisfies the necessary condition, how much of the theory of noetherian rings survives?
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18308 | Ghost Ship
Inedible organic material tries to kill you.
The party traveled back from the ship to see If Kaylen had recovered. On the way back, Phaedra collapsed. Mourn picked her up and said that they could let her rest at his… establishment, though some dickering about fees for services or something happened, because the drow lost interest in taking care of her, and Igtherez ended up carrying her instead.
The monk noticed that Phaedra was still holding onto the Starshard, and tried to take it away from her. A mild jolt of electricity indicated that something was going on, though he wasn’t sure what, but Phaedra’s vitals seemed to be okay, so he let it be.
While this was going on a mysterious figure followed the group through town, trying to suss out what they were doing and why. Haut kept his distance from the party, but they were so very different from everyone else that it was impossible not to notice them and their activities.
Kaylen had recovered, and rejoined the party. Shortly after this, as the party was trying to figure out what to do, someone pointed out that the Starshard had returned. Joyous bedlam ensued as the hapless, gullible townsfolk attributed this momentous occasion to Nox the Box. Nox took umbrage to this idolatry, and annihilated the nearest peasant.
Terrified bedlam ensued. Orphan added to it, summoning members of her band and using enthrall to force the people to stop and listen to her message of Nox worship, because her plan was that they would make Nox a god and then go get her army, and something something something; she wasn’t exactly clear about it past that. Mourn was upset about the disturbance; these were his customers and workers that were getting killed and harassed, so he had some words with Orphan and even struck her, but she hardly noticed. Hitting Orphan’s was almost like hitting an armored fighter.
During (or perhaps at the end) all of this, Igtherez ran off with Phaedra, back to the ship. Haut followed him. Igtherez boarded the ship, overcoming his distaste of it to make mental contact. He then found a suitable place to set up his instant fortress and took her into the adamantine building. He attempted to make mental contact with the Starshard. It seemed to be running a diagnostic of some kind, but seemed all right. He got an odd message about “a large quantity of edible organic material” in the portal room, and a question about cleaning it up. He then remembered that the Moonspeaker’s corpse had been left under a pile of rocks. Having nothing that he could do about it, he left Phaedra in the fortress. While this was happening, Haut boarded the ship, and used a relic that he had stolen from Farlarghan to get a better idea of this wondrous vessel that he was in. One room in particular, a chamber at the rough center of the chip called “Elder Brain” drew his attention.
Igtherez ran into Haut, and the two of them made cautious contact. After speaking to each other about the current situation, hat revealed that he could probably do something about the dead Moonspeaker if he had access to Phaedra. Haut gently laid hands on Phaedra, drawing out the spell he needed, and shortly afterward, true resurrected At’Mal Uamii.
The three of them returned to town, which immediately erupted in more bedlam. Some of it was attributed to Nox, who fervently denied it. The Moonspeaker spoke, and explained what had happened to her, and that the peoples of the islands needed to end this senseless violence against the colonists, for it was not their fault. She also explained the true nature of the Moon That Fell, and advocated a movement of taking greater responsibility for their actions and to widen their perspective. Nox fumed a little bit about the fact that she was preaching essentially what he had been telling them for weeks, except for the “destroy technology and run around the woods naked” part.
The general consensus, including Mourn and Orphan (who got really, really high in the meantime) was that they should go do things, like the cats had told them. Nox did not believe them, but felt that the party needed to go away. Haut didn’t really know what was going on, aside from what he had known coming in (he had no idea what the party’s purpose was, only that there had been disturbances on this world), but someone gave him the short version.
He was so shocked by the gravity of the situation that he dropped to his knees and prayed.
His prayer was answered, by a cat-shaped hole in reality. Mourn stared into the abyss. The abyss stared back. It was a singularly unpleasant experience.
This cat-which-was-not-a-cat explained that it was freer to speak, for the other Cats were bound by the fact that they existed. By putting aside the thing that he was, Haut had allowed this cat-which-was-not-a-cat to come and speak to them. It answered their questions as best as it could, explaining that “The One Who Set All In Motion” forbade it from explaining some things.
Nox was still unconvinced. So the cat-which-was-not-a-cat showed them.
The cat also showed them what had happened up to now- The Mists had brought 4 champions to The End of Time to steal Time from Time itself, but one of them was betrayed by another, and caught. The other three, a grotesquely obese male man-sized figure, a matronly halfling-sized figure in a dress, and a long, lithe feminine creature, the height of human, but the build suggested an elf, escaped. The Aspects of Oxia Gensh made a deal with Then, Now, and Soon, The Rat had been first to sacrifice its divinity in exchange for another year, and Manriki, Dogar and Aria had fought Dulok KillAll and saved a Moment, but it was not enough.
Finally, the party was convinced, at least a little bit. The party wanted to know if anyone else was working on fixing this problem. The cat-which-was-not-a-cat replied that others were doing what they could.
Orphan knew who they should look for to get some straight answers- a wizard called Lulubeans. He talked a lot and wore some fancy clothes, but he probably knew what was going on. Mourn reasoned that it was probably the elf wizard Luvanar, and suggested that when they found him, they let Mourn do the talking, as he would be more receptive to talking with an elf. Orphan suggested that they start looking for Luvanar in Haven, because she knew people there who might know where he was if he wasn’t there.
Igtherez had a tete-a-tete with the ship (more correctly, the ship used her body to speak through her) and found that the ship was flight ready, though not all of the systems were ready. Igtherez showed the ship his memories (the ship would have accessed Phaedra’s memories, but Igtherez forbade it), and indicated where they were, as well as where they needed to go, and suddenly they were flying. It took a few days, during which some exploring and stuff happened.
During the first few days, not much happened, Mourn stole a dagger from Haut and Nox almost beat him to death for brandishing a weapon. Blood drinking happened, but Orphan didn’t like the way that it felt when Mourn drained her life force. Finally, Haut decided to go exploring and wandered into a nest of undead illithids and their just as undead human thralls.
I don’t remember all the details, but somehow through the judicious use of quickened teleports, the party was brought back together before anyone could get killed, though it was close from time to time as mind blasts rang out, stunning Orphan and Kaylen, but in the end, the party prevailed over the living dead as the ship continued to fly through the upper atmosphere toward Haven.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18309 | Shared publicly -
It's an elegant weapon. But is the age civilized enough?
RK Wesley's profile photoHudson Child's profile photoNetz Hog's profile photoLiz S's profile photo
against a smith & wesson peacemaker?
There was a real lightsaber, a Japanese (?) company produced an actual one but LucasArts had them drop the project due to infringements. I think it was perhaps two years back.
this is something for romantic geeks.
sometimes it's like practicality overtook technicality ;)
Liz S
so awesome. i was wondering if anyone would ever make real ones.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18322 | Micah Denounces Israel's Leaders
1Listen, you rulers of Israel! You are supposed to be concerned about justice, 2yet you hate what is good and you love what is evil. You skin my people alive and tear the flesh off their bones. 3You eat my people up. You strip off their skin, break their bones, and chop them up like meat for the pot. 4The time is coming when you will cry out to the Lord, but he will not answer you. He will not listen to your prayers, for you have done evil.
5My people are deceived by prophets who promise peace to those who pay them, but threaten war for those who don't. To these prophets the Lord says, 6“Prophets, your day is almost over; the sun is going down on you. Because you mislead my people, you will have no more prophetic visions, and you will not be able to predict anything.” 7Those who predict the future will be disgraced by their failure. They will all be humiliated because God does not answer them.
8But as for me, the Lord fills me with his spirit and power, and gives me a sense of justice and the courage to tell the people of Israel what their sins are. 9Listen to me, you rulers of Israel, you that hate justice and turn right into wrong. 10You are building God's city, Jerusalem, on a foundation of murder and injustice. 11The city's rulers govern for bribes, the priests interpret the Law for pay, the prophets give their revelations for money — and they all claim that the Lord is with them. “No harm will come to us,” they say. “The Lord is with us.”
12 # Jer 26.18 And so, because of you, Zion will be ploughed like a field, Jerusalem will become a pile of ruins, and the Temple hill will become a forest.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18323 | Asa’s Religious Reforms
1Then the Spirit of God came upon Azariah son of Oded, 2and he went out to meet King Asa as he was returning from the battle. “Listen to me, Asa!” he shouted. “Listen, all you people of Judah and Benjamin! The Lord will stay with you as long as you stay with him! Whenever you seek him, you will find him. But if you abandon him, he will abandon you. 3For a long time Israel was without the true God, without a priest to teach them, and without the Law to instruct them. 4But whenever they were in trouble and turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, and sought him out, they found him.
5“During those dark times, it was not safe to travel. Problems troubled the people of every land. 6Nation fought against nation, and city against city, for God was troubling them with every kind of problem. 7But as for you, be strong and courageous, for your work will be rewarded.”
8When Asa heard this message from Azariah the prophet,# As in Syriac version and Latin Vulgate (see also 15:1); Hebrew reads from Oded the prophet. he took courage and removed all the detestable idols from the land of Judah and Benjamin and in the towns he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim. And he repaired the altar of the Lord, which stood in front of the entry room of the Lord’s Temple.
9Then Asa called together all the people of Judah and Benjamin, along with the people of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who had settled among them. For many from Israel had moved to Judah during Asa’s reign when they saw that the Lord his God was with him. 10The people gathered at Jerusalem in late spring,# Hebrew in the third month. This month of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar usually occurs within the months of May and June. during the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign.
11On that day they sacrificed to the Lord 700 cattle and 7,000 sheep and goats from the plunder they had taken in the battle. 12Then they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, with all their heart and soul. 13They agreed that anyone who refused to seek the Lord, the God of Israel, would be put to death—whether young or old, man or woman. 14They shouted out their oath of loyalty to the Lord with trumpets blaring and rams’ horns sounding. 15All in Judah were happy about this covenant, for they had entered into it with all their heart. They earnestly sought after God, and they found him. And the Lord gave them rest from their enemies on every side.
16King Asa even deposed his grandmother# Hebrew his mother. Maacah from her position as queen mother because she had made an obscene Asherah pole. He cut down her obscene pole, broke it up, and burned it in the Kidron Valley. 17Although the pagan shrines were not removed from Israel, Asa’s heart remained completely faithful throughout his life. 18He brought into the Temple of God the silver and gold and the various items that he and his father had dedicated.
19So there was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s reign.
두번째 번역본에서 참고 구절을 로딩합니다.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18334 | Pledge to buy my furry kids food from China!
This pledge closed 3 months ago
Far too many times chinese made treats & foods have killed pets & been recalled. Until stores STOP selling them, I understand you can't boycott all the stores so please READ where the food came from before risking your fur-baby's life.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18354 | Disclaimer: I do not own any Harry Potter characters. The plot, however, is mine.
This is the sequel to Harry Potter and the Keeper of Power and Don't Fall Away. You don't have to read them though, to understand this one. Although, by all means, go read them if you want to.
Harry had been having the most wonderful summer that he could ever remember. Of course, not having to spend it with the Dursley's was a great help. Dumbledore had made sure that Harry never had to return there, after what his uncle had did to him. He still couldn't believe he had broken his arm. It was even more of a shock that Mr. Weasley had come to retrieve him. Now he was living with them.
Ron and Ginny were both sitting at the kitchen table when he finally dragged himself out of bed and downstairs. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were both standing by the sink, talking about something quietly. He quickly sat down beside Ron and helped himself to some french toast.
"Hey Harry." said Ron between bites of french toast.
"Hi Ron." He replied and started shoveling food into his mouth. He was so hungry. As he ate, he realized that his stomach felt kind of queasy. He slowed down in his eating, and took a drink of his milk. That seemed to help a little, but then as he started to eat again, the urge to throw up became even greater. He put his fork down on his plate and sat back in his chair, trying to overcome the feeling.
"Harry Potter, you've hardly touched your plate. Really now, you're going to starve if you don't eat more." said Mrs. Weasley, giving Harry a reproving stare.
"I'm not hungry." He said, pushing the plate of french toast away from himself. He thought if he looked at food for one more second, he wouldn't last much longer.
"Harry, you should eat. You're going to hurt mum's feelings." whispered Ron, who knew his mom had made this breakfast especially for Harry, because it was one of his favorites.
Now he felt bad. But he knew that he couldn't eat it without throwing up. How would that make Mrs. Weasley feel, that he threw up her cooking. But one look into her eyes made him want to crawl under a rock and die. He had hurt her feelings, but she was trying desperately not to show it.
"Really, its not that I don't like it Mrs. Weasley, it's just that I don't feel very well." He hated admitting this, for the exact thing that was about to happen.
Immediately, Molly was at his side, checking his forehead for a fever.
"You're warm. You should probably lie down." She grasped him firmly by the arm and pulled him into the living room. "Here, lie down on the couch." When Harry hesitated, she gently pushed him onto it. "Lie down, you need to rest."
"I really don't think this is necessary." Said Harry, as Molly was throwing a quilt over his body. He hadn't realized he was chilled until he was covered up, now he felt warmer. He unconsciously pulled the covers up to his chin. Mrs. Weasley had noticed this and bent down to tuck him in.
"There. Now why don't you try and get some rest, we'll be in the kitchen if you need us." She dimmed the lights on her way out and then he sat quietly by himself in the living room. Soon, sleep claimed him.
"He never gets sick." said Ginny, who had finished her breakfast and was now helping her mother with the dishes.
"I know, this is too odd." said Ron, who was currently sitting at the kitchen table, doing absolutely nothing to help his mother and sister in their chores. Something he favored above all else.
"It's just a slight cold, it's probably just a twenty-four hour flu that muggle children are always getting. Don't worry so much." Mrs. Weasley had finished the dishes and was now sitting at the table with Ron. "Now, why don't you two go outside for a while, de-gnome the garden, or make yourselves useful somehow, I don't want you waking up Harry." She stood up from the table and went upstairs to make the beds.
"How about a quick game of exploding snap?" asked Ginny, bored out of her mind. Ron agreed and they took the game outside and far away from the house. They didn't want their mother to have a tantrum if they woke up Harry.
After about an hours worth of playing exploding snap, they finally decided to go and see if their friend had woken up yet. If not, they fully intended to inconspicuously wake him up, while keeping a careful lookout for their mother, they weren't especially keen on getting their heads chewed off today. As they entered the house, they noticed that their mother was no where to be seen. This eased their minds, and they slowly walked into the living room where Harry was still lying asleep on the couch. Ron snuck up beside him on the couch, all the while telling Ginny to keep an eye out for their mother. Decided that he looked well enough, he started poking him in the side.
"Harry, wakie, wakie. Come on sleepy head, wake up!" he whispered out to his friend, who just rolled over on his side. Ron rolled his eyes at his sister, who started giggling.
"Try harder!" she whispered, still being the look out.
He started to shake Harry a little harder, causing him to roll onto his back again. His eyelids fluttered and Ron was sure he was waking up. He smiled up at Ginny, pointing his finger at Harry to indicate he was waking up. Ginny started to smile, but the grin was wiped quickly from her face. She suddenly looked extremely terrified. "Ron, look at his eyes!" she gasped.
Ron turned around so fast that he jarred his neck, and nearly fell back on his bum in surprise. Harry's eyes were wide open, but they were glowing white, so bright that Ron had trouble looking at him. This wasn't the first time this had happened. In their fifth year, Harry had visions that caused this to happen to his eyes, but it also caused difficulty breathing. However, this time Harry was breathing just fine, his eyes were just shinning.
"Go get mum! Now!" Ron was getting really worried, he kept trying to wake Harry up, but he wouldn't. Ron could hear Ginny in the distance yelling for their mother. Then he heard his mother getting on to Ginny for disturbing Harry's peace. He heard Ginny break into Molly's tirade and then heard thundering footsteps come flying down the stairs. Molly came running into the living room, Ginny right behind her, and knelt down beside Ron. She gasped in surprise, for this was the first time she had ever seen this kind of reaction to Harry.
"What's happened to his eyes?" she asked. She too started to shake him, but he wouldn't come out of his deep sleep. "Come on Harry, now isn't the time to startle us like this. Please wake up!" Molly Weasley was in a near panic. She brought her hand up to her mouth and took in a deep breath.
Ron suddenly shot up from his spot on the floor. "I've got an idea." He said, and ran up the steps. Molly looked questioningly at Ginny, but she too had no clue what Ron's idea was.
Ron nearly burst the door down in his hurry to get into his room that he and Harry were sharing. He quickly flung himself down beside Harry's bed, threw the covers up and out of his way so he could reach underneath the bed. He dragged out Harry's trunk and tried to open it. But nothing could be easy at a time like this, it was locked. Disregarding rules, he grabbed his wand and whispered "Alohamora." The trunk's lid popped open and Ron starting throwing things haphazardly out of it. He found what he was looking for, grabbed it, and ran down the stairs at break neck speed.
Molly was still trying unsuccessfully to wake up Harry when Ron came back into the room. He sat back down beside his mother and uncovered the object he had in his hands. It was a staff. The Staff of Egis to be precise. This staff contained knowledge, strength, and power. Harry had acquired it when Prudence Grinnelfield, a renowned sorceress, came to Hogwarts, bearing the Staff. It had bonded with Harry when Voldemort had attacked Hogwarts, and nearly killed them all. The Staff had saved Harry's life, by absorbing the Avada Kedavra curse and sending it back to Voldemort, effectively ending Voldemort's reign of terror. Or so they thought. It was also because of the Staff of Egis that Harry had the deadly visions. Ron hoped that bringing the Staff to his friend would somehow help him. Hope was the operative word.
Molly knew immediately what the Staff was, and nodded her approval to Ron. He took Harry's hand and placed the Staff in it. There was an instant change in his condition, although for better or worse, they weren't sure. Now Harry's entire body was glowing, a bright red color, that was engulfing the entire room.
A/N So, what do you think? Is it good so far? Would you like to hear more of my plot? I can assure you it will get better, with more excitement. Plus more Harry drama, come on you know you love it. I'm so mean to the poor kid. He's abused, now he's sick, what next? Review to find out! Please! With cherry's on top? I'll shut up now. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18356 | Disclaimer/Author's Note – See Chapter One
Chapter Nine – The Long Overdue Conversation
He watched her walk out of sight and his heart sank. He had truly thought that tonight would be the night. That he would finally be able to take the risk he had longed to take. But, as ever, when faced with the prospect of getting everything he had ever wanted, he choked. Why did Sara always have this effect on him? Why, when he had so much he needed to say to her, he could never actually say any of it? And why did he feel the need to sit here and rationalise, instead of going after what he wanted?
Without pausing to think any more about it, Grissom threw some cash on the table for the bill, grabbed his jacket and followed her. Sara had walked quickly and he didn't catch up with her until she was at her car.
'Sara. Wait.'
Sara paused at her car door. 'I don't want to hear it, Grissom. You've disappointed me for the last time.'
Don't think, he told himself. Just spit it out.
'Damn it Sara! You expect too much of me. Why do you feel the need to place me on this pedestal, only to be surprised when I topple off?'
'What? I don't…'
'Come on, Sara. What else can you call it? Why else do you get so upset when I show my human failings? I screw up, just like everyone else at some point or another. I have a tendency to choke up when you confront me about… about our personal relationship. I don't always say what needs to be said. But that doesn't mean that I don't care about you.'
Not trusting herself to turn around, she waited.
Grissom sighed. 'It's never been about you not being worth the risk.'
He paused. When he didn't continue, Sara spoke up.
'So, what is it about, then?'
'There's just so much at stake,' he told her quietly. 'For both of us. And it frightens me. I'm scared of how much I might hurt you,' he took a breath before continuing; 'and of how much you might hurt me.'
Sara turned. Her eyes were bright with emotion. She didn't say a word, afraid that saying something now might break the spell. Grissom opening up to her was something she had never imagined she'd experience. She wanted to see how much more he might reveal.
'Do you know how many people in the lab have suggested that I am unfeeling?' he asked her. She shook her head lightly in response. 'Everyone. More or less. Even Greg has said it at one time or another. But when you say it… that's the only time it actually hurts.'
'I'm sorry,' she whispered.
'No,' he said, 'it's true. Well, the way I act most of the time, you'd be forgiven for thinking it. I have to be like that. I don't know why. I don't know how to be open with my feelings like the rest of you. I… I don't have the vocabulary. But I do feel things.'
'I know, Grissom. We all know that. It's just… sometimes you hide your feelings too well.'
'Have you any idea how many first dates I've been on in my life?' he surprised her by changing the subject so rapidly. 'I worked it out once. At least 10 times more than the number of second dates I've had…'
Sara didn't reply, but continued to watch him, now with a mildly confused expression on her face as he went on.
'Only one in ten becomes a second date. And of those, hardly any become a third. None, in fact, in the last 5 years.' He paused, running a hand through his thick, greying hair. 'I've put it down to a number of factors over the years. The job, mostly. Getting called away half-way through dinner to collect bugs at a murder scene does not impress most ladies. Then there's the fact that I'm not the most social creature in the world.'
'We have that in common,' Sara retorted quietly.
'I'm really bad at this, Sara,' he told her. 'I'm not used to opening up, sharing my feelings. And that's what relationships are, right? Sharing feelings. I don't even share my feelings with myself half the time.'
He moved beside her, leaning his back against the car so they were standing side by side.
'On some level, I've always known there was an attraction between us. If I'm completely honest with myself, it was probably a contributing factor in asking you to come to Las Vegas in the first place. But I never allowed myself to think about it, for the most part. Too many complications. The age difference. The fact that I'm your supervisor. I suppressed everything I felt for you, until the Debbie Marlin case.'
Sara nodded gently. 'You avoided me the whole time were we working on that case,' she said. 'I always wondered why.'
'I had to, Sara,' he replied, a hint of pain in his voice from the memory. 'Every time I looked at her, I saw you. And that made me shrivel up inside. The idea of losing you…' he trailed off, unable to verbalise the pain he felt at that time. 'When I interviewed Dr. Lurie, and figured out why he killed her, I… I think I kind of knew how he felt. In a way.'
He glanced at her. Sara was staring at him intently, taking in his every word. He had to look away before he could continue.
'It was my worst nightmare of how things would go if anything ever happened between us.'
'You thought you would kill me?' Sara asked in a slightly sceptical voice. 'Grissom, uptight you may be, but I don't think you're really the homicidal type.'
He glanced sideways at her again and shot her a chastising look.
'Not the murder, Sara,' he told her, 'the events that led to it. Debbie broke Lurie's heart…'
'By leaving him for a younger man,' Sara finished the statement, finally realising.
Grissom silently assented.
'Gris, do you know how many dates I've been on since I moved here?'
Grissom though about it. He didn't know and told her as much.
'Very few,' Sara told him. 'I've only been involved with one person since I moved here, four plus years ago. Do you know why that is?'
'Is it something to do with the fact that you max out on overtime every month?' Grissom shot her one of his half-smiles.
Sara smiled back. 'That's one reason. But the main reason is there's only one man I'm actually interested in becoming involved with.'
Grissom was silent.
'This is usually the point where you clear your throat, get awkward, I tell you to forget I said anything, and you come up with an excuse to change the subject or leave the room,' she teased him gently.
Grissom reached out and took her hand.
'Don't expect too much of me, Sara,' he told her, giving her hand a gentle squeeze. 'I grew up with the expectation that all relationships fail. I'm worried that I won't be able to change that conditioning.'
'Grissom,' Sara took his hand in both of hers. 'Nothing comes with a guarantee. But… unless we want to end up totally alone, we eventually have to let our guards down and take a risk.'
He drew her to him then, wrapping his arms around her in a tender embrace. She buried her face in his neck, taking in the wonderful scent that was Grissom.
'I just need some time,' he muttered into her hair, his voice full of emotion. 'I don't want to mess this up. You're too important to me.'
They lost track of how long they held each other, but it felt like the most natural thing in the world to them both. When they reluctantly drew apart, Grissom tucked a strand of Sara's hair behind her ear and smiled.
'So, this weekend, how about I pick you up, take you out to dinner? Maybe out by Lake Mead? Somewhere special for our first date.'
Sara's brows knit in confusion. 'Uh, Grissom? Wasn't this our first date?'
Grissom smiled and shook his head. 'Oh no. Our first date is going to be perfect.' |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18357 | Author's Note: This fic is dedicated to my sister who, even though she acts like she's less perverted than me, came up with the best jokes in this fic.
Ronin Special #1
What Might Have Been
By: Ghost of the Dawn
Chapter 1: Cye- Part 1
Robyn stirred as the morning light slowly filtered into the room and over to the bed where she was slumbering. She yawned and stretched as she drifted back into consciousness. It was so warm and comfortable, she could stay there all morning. Robyn popped open one eye when she suddenly decided this didn't feel like every other morning. Something felt off; and perhaps that something had to do with the extra weight that was on her stomach.
If she hadn't been so concerned about other things, Robyn may have noticed the silk nightie she was wearing despite the fact that she didn't own such a thing. But what caught her entire attention right away was the bushel of rusty brown hair resting on her abdomen. Robyn looked at it curiously. She recognized the top of that head. But what was he doing in her room and sleeping on her bed? Did something happen? Her memory of anything before that morning suddenly became distant and hazy.
"Cye?" she asked, still a bit groggy from sleep. She shook his bare (Why wasn't Cye wearing a shirt?) shoulder in hopes of waking him. Somehow, she was sure as soon as she could get Cye to talk to her and refresh her memory about what was going on, everything would make sense again.
Once shaken, Cye lifted his head and turned it to look at Robyn with half closed eye lids.
"Cye?" Robyn asked again.
He smiled at her, his hair all in disarray.
"Morning," he said in a sleepy voice as he moved up towards her and kissed her on the mouth.
Robyn's eyes shot open to twice their size. It wasn't just a little peck on the lips either. It was a full mouth to mouth, soul shattering kiss. Robyn was frozen in abject shock as Cye pulled away and buried his face in the curve of her neck with one arm around her. It was then that Robyn realized with a wild blush that Cye wasn't wearing anything at all.
"Excuse me!" was the only thing Robyn could think to blurt out as she frantically wiggled out of his arms and dashed for the bathroom.
She slammed the door and locked it behind her, panting as if she had narrowly escaped being run over by a semi. What the hell was going on? She leaned heavily against the sink, trying with all her power to recall what happened the night before. There was no party that she could recall and she couldn't remember getting boozed up, either. Robyn couldn't remember anything for that matter. How on earth did she end up in this situation?
After finally taking a look at herself in the mirror, the previous question was left for a more pressing one. What in creation was she wearing? It was a silky pink night gown that hardly went down to her thighs and was practically see-through. Next she noticed with a sinking feeling in her gut that she wasn't wearing any underwear.
Robyn suddenly felt sick to her stomach as her world seemed like it was spinning out of control. What had she done last night? And why, for the life of her, couldn't she remember it?
She spun around like a cornered animal when there was a timid knock on the bathroom door.
"Honey?" came Cye's slightly muffled voice. "Are you okay in there?"
Robyn stared at the door like the grim reaper itself was going to come out of it. What did he just call her? Since when did he think he could start calling her stupid pet names? That was the kind of thing married people did.
Robyn's blood seemed to drain away from her head when she slowly glanced down at her hand to see a perfectly crafted diamond ring sitting on her finger. She held back the scream as best she could. It came out sounding like a range of strangled squeaks. She couldn't stop herself from just staring at her upheld hand in horror. What was she going to do?
"Robyn?" Cye asked again.
Robyn began to panic. That Cye out there wasn't the Cye she knew. This wasn't her house and she wasn't married to him or anybody. This had to be a joke, right? A very, very sick joke. And she needed to get to the bottom of it now before she had a break down.
Grabbing a bathrobe, she wrapped it protectively around her person before easing the door open. Cye was still right there. Though Robyn noticed, with a bit of relief, that he had managed to get some pants on between then and now. The still shirtless young man blinked at her curiously.
"Um...Robyn?" he wondered. "Why are you wearing my bathrobe?"
The color instantly rushed to Robyn's cheeks though she didn't remove the oversized, blue robe and, instead, quickly brushed past him into the bedroom. Cye just turned and continued to blink cluelessly.
"Is something wrong?"
"Yeah something's wrong!" Robyn suddenly snapped at him as she paced around a safe distance away. "I woke up in a strange house, unable to remember anything of how I got here! I'm wearing practically nothing and you're--well, look at you! What the hell happened to us?"
"Robyn, calm down," Cye said as he moved towards her.
"You stay away from me!" Robyn screamed as she backed up against the wall.
Cye stopped in his tracks, though reluctantly.
"Robyn, please," he coaxed. "Whatever's wrong, we can fix it together. It's not good for you to be like this in your condition."
Cye flinched at the loud words. "You know what I mean," he said, trying to stay calm himself. "Being so hysterical isn't good for...the baby."
A pile of bricks could have fallen on her right there and Robyn wouldn't have felt any different.
"" she squeaked.
Her whole body suddenly felt very light and then everything went black.
Robyn's eyebrow twitched and she felt something cold and wet on her forehead. She slowly opened her eyes to see the same vision that was a cross between a good dream and a nightmare. And she was somehow caught in the middle of it with no way to wake up.
"Robyn?" Cye asked as he removed the cold cloth from her head.
Robyn's first reaction was to make sure she was covered after the horrible memory of seeing herself in that nightmare of a nightie flashed in her mind. Good. She was in bed with the covers pulled all the way up to her neck. She was minus the bathrobe again which made her want to give Cye a piece of her mind about exposing women when they were unconscious. But when she looked up into his face, she lost all her indignance.
"Robyn, are you going to be alright?"
There was so much emotion in his eyes. Robyn had never seen that expression on his face before. How was she supposed to answer him? It was time to play it low key. Give him a response that will settle him down and get him to back off long enough for her to get her head on straight and figure out what was going on.
"Yeah, Cye," Robyn breathed out. She tried to smile calmly, though inside she was still panicking "I'll be fine, I just..." Just what, girl? Think! "...I guess I'm still just a bit overwhelmed about..." She couldn't say the last words, it was still too weird.
"Yes, the baby," Cye smiled in understanding, an even stranger look came over his face then. What was he thinking about? "It's still unbelievable since we only found out about it yesterday. And with our um...celebration last night," his cheeks started to go red. "I guess you may have over exerted yourself. Though I suppose a lot of that's my fault." He scratched the back of his neck with a sheepish grin.
All the color drained from Robyn's face. Was he insinuating what she thought he was insinuating? Just the thought of him with her--them doing certain things together the night before made her whole body feel weak all over again.
Cye must have noticed.
"Are you sure you'll be okay?" he asked, his face a mask of worry once more.
"Yeah, I think I just need some rest," Robyn forced herself to smile some assurance. And a really good psychologist.
Cye smiled at her again and leaned over to brush some hair from her face and kiss her forehead. Robyn forced herself to stay still and take it. Though sweet and gentle, the loving gesture was still too weird.
"I have to go to work soon. You stay here and rest all you need. I'll leave some breakfast in the kitchen in case you get hungry, how does that sound?"
"T-That's fine." Robyn gritted her teeth together. If he didn't start giving her more personal space, she was going to start wigging out.
Thankfully, Cye got up and left her bedside. He walked over to the closet and flipped through his shirts. Though Robyn tried to fight it, she couldn't help but watch him as he dressed. It strangely intrigued her to watch him do such a thing so casually with her in plain sight. Her eyes roamed all by themselves over the light skin hugging the well chiseled back before the shirt material covered it. As Cye buttoned up his shirt, he glanced back at her. Robyn quickly averted her eyes, but it was too late. She could tell by the grin on his face that he had caught her looking at him.
The smile didn't go away as he came to sit on the edge of the bed and put on his shoes and socks. Robyn's cheeks continued to burn as she tried to look at anything else but him. She glanced back to see Cye watching her with that same stupid look plastered on his face. How she now wanted to wipe it right off.
"What?" she demanded, giving Cye her usual I-DARE-you-to-make-a-comment look.
The usual Cye, HER Cye would have let it drop right there and moved on. But this one definitely wasn't the same. Instead, he rested a hand on her thigh over the covers.
"I would have thought you'd had enough after all that we did last night."
That was almost too much. Robyn bit off the scream that was threatening to erupt by biting on her lip. She reflexively pulled the covers over her head and prayed to God that this stranger Cye didn't come in after her.
She waiting with heart thumping wildy as she felt him remove his weight from the bed. Robyn thought she even heard a chuckle as he moved out of the room and into what was most likely the kitchen. She could hear pots and pans clattering off in another part of this house that wasn't hers. She stayed under the unfamiliar covers as if they would somehow protect her from the insanity that existed on the outside.
"Pleaselethimleave. Pleaselethimleave. Pleaselethimleave," Robyn breathed over and over to herself in a mantra as her heart reverberated in her ears.
Her breath caught in her throat as she heard him moving around the house again. She wondered if she could fake being asleep if he came back into the bedroom. Luckily for her, the next thing she heard was a door opening and shutting. The anticipation rose until, finally, she heard a car drive away.
Instantly, Robyn was up and out of bed. She rushed to shut the bedroom door, even though she was alone in the house now. She had a sudden urge for very protected privacy at the moment. Next, she dashed for the closet and quickly exchanged the skimpy article of clothing for some real underwear. Today she made sure to dress herself in pants and a large sweater. She still felt so exposed somehow. She also needed a scarf and a hat, too. Perhaps a really big coat as well.
Robyn paused for a moment to look at herself in the mirror. She still looked the same, but these clothes weren't hers and this room she had never been in. Trying to control her breathing, Robyn coaxed herself into getting a grip on the situation. She needed to calm down and assess what was going on. And to do that, Robyn decided, she had to get out of this strange house.
After carefully checking each room for any more unwanted surprises, Robyn fled out the front door and sprinted down the walk. She paused several yards away and turned to look at the house from afar. It was small and quant with grass growing around it. A few trees scattered here and there. A meadow spread out behind it and after that, of course, was the sea. Robyn wasn't surprised with that. This kind of place seemed to suit Cye. But HER and Cye?
Robyn made a wide arc around the house to get to the back; as if she were afraid that if she got too close she would be pulled back into even more strange events. Once in the meadow, she let herself slow her pace as she tried once again to recall memories of the night before. But there wasn't any. She remembered her past as a whole, but not yesterday. What was yesterday anyway?
She remembered the others--Kento, Ryo, Rowen, Sage. They had all graduated high school together. Now it was the summer before everyone went off their separate ways. Before nothing would be the same again.
The meadow shied away as Robyn stepped onto the sandy beach surrounding the ocean. The ring still on her hand glinted in the sun and she studied it curiously. The thing fit on her finger, but it wasn't hers. She was just a high school graduate, unsure of what to do with the rest of her life. She couldn't get married yet! And Cye had said something about a baby. Robyn felt her stomach worriedly. It felt the same to her. There couldn't be a fetus in there. Perhaps he was having a baby with someone else, but not her. It was a scientific impossibility. Unless she was destined to be the second virgin mother in all of Earth's history and Robyn highly doubted that.
So what was she supposed to do now? Should she try to explain things to him? He would think she was crazy! And what if she didn't say anything and she remained in this life forever? Cye would soon notice she wasn't really pregnant. Robyn gasped as a thought came to her. Would he want to try again? Robyn's whole being filled with a strange kind of fear at the thought of doing such a thing. Sure, she loved Cye, but not like THAT. She had never even been with a man before and now she had to act like she had been married to one? Impossible!
In a sudden flood of anger, Robyn snatched off the ring and was ready to throw it to the churning, foaming sea. But then she paused and looked at the ring again. No, she would not be there forever, she decided. She was merely holding the place of the person who's life this was, and when they got back, they would want their ring back, too. Yes, she would keep it, and she would live this pretend life--for now.
It was a couple hours of pacing and worriedly waiting by the seaside later. Robyn didn't like the idea, but she knew she would eventually have to go back to the house. She didn't even know where she was. Was this still Japan? It could almost be any place by the seashore. The insistent grumbling of her empty stomach finally forced Robyn back towards the house.
Slowly, she snuck inside the back door. She eased it open and tiptoed inside, listening for any sound which may indicate if other strangers lived here as well. Once again, Robyn searched the house and found it was indeed still empty. Once that was decided, she moved back into the kitchen to see what was for breakfast. Some cold pancakes were in the microwave and Robyn heated them back up and ate them in a flash. All that panicking made her hungry.
Once those were polished off, Robyn put down her fork and just sat at the table. The silence of the empty house floated all around her like a thick cloud. What was she supposed to do now? Cye had gone to his work and left her at home. Did that mean she was supposed to stay home all day? What was Cye's job anyway? Did Robyn have any responsibilities, too? Was she supposed to be anywhere later? Or was she meant to tend the house until Cye got back? What time would he get back? Was she supposed to have dinner ready for him when he returned like in the tv shows?
There were far too many questions and it was making Robyn's head spin. But something had to be done. She would go crazy if she just sat there asking questions she didn't know the answer to. So Robyn got up and decided the first thing to do was to clean up the kitchen. Easy enough task as she had cleaned up several times at the Mouri's house before. Doing something familiar made her calm down a bit. It would have almost been fun if this game of house hadn't been so real.
After that was finished, Robyn decided it was time to search the house again--this time for answers instead of occupants. It wasn't a very big house; only one level and very few rooms. Robyn shied away from the master bedroom, the memories of that morning were still too weird to cope with. Down the hall was a separate bathroom and also what looked like a study room. There was a desk inside and a computer. The place looked pretty cluttered with books and papers and other odds and ends everywhere.
Robyn snuck in as if it were a place forbidden to her. She was careful not to rustle even a single piece of paper as she sat in the worn desk chair and looked around. What was this room used for? She guessed it was full primarily of Cye's things. Probably used in relation with the job he did--whatever that was. With that thought, Robyn decided it was best to leave this room and not snoop. Perhaps it was a place where Cye went for privacy and she wasn't allowed to be there. Plus, there were still other places for her to search.
After leaving the office room, practically all that was left in the small house were a few utility closets and the living room. Robyn felt better looking through this room. She didn't have to worry about nosing around into something too private that she might get in trouble for later. Besides, Robyn suddenly then realized, in a way, this stuff was hers anyway, so why should she worry about being caught going through her own things? It just still felt weird and that's all there was to it. But she had to know. She had to find some kind of information about what this place was and, hopefully, what she was doing there.
There was a single photo album tucked away in the bookshelf. Robyn figured that would be helpful to look through. She opened it and right on the first page was a picture she probably should have expected, but was still very surprised to see. It was their wedding photo; and it almost took Robyn's breath away. It was just him and her and it was beautiful. She looked beautiful. Even at her age, Robyn never wondered about what she would look like in a certain kind of white dress. But now she could plainly see it.
How strange it was to look at. Almost like gazing at your reflection and not recognizing who you saw in the mirror. It was a vision far beyond her imagination. This happy, beautiful couple she saw standing in each other's arms was not a couple she knew. These two in the picture were strangers. She was not the one in the picture. This was not her life which she saw here and this was not her house which she was now sitting in. And she turned the pages and viewed other wedding photos--cutting the cake, dancing together, looking so joyful and fulfilled--Robyn found herself swallowed in the alluring thought of keeping such a wonderful life. Would it really be so bad here? Robyn lightly traced the smiling image of Cye as she let her imagination test the possibilities. Could she really stay and accept this as her reality?
Outside, Robyn heard a vehicle pull up and she quickly slapped the photo album shut and shoved it back where she found it That sound outside could mean that Cye or one of the other guys or anyone in the world had just arrived outside the door. And what was worse, she was alone. Everyone in this world was a stranger to her and anyone in this world could be out there on the porch.
The doorbell rang and Robyn's heart picked up. It wasn't Cye. He wouldn't ring at his own house. Who could it possibly be? Should she answer it? Whether or not she felt she should, Robyn's body moved on its own towards the door. Her hands were shaking and her breathing had stopped as she reached for it.
Courage Robyn, you can do this.
She bit her lip and threw it open revealing the most awesome and fearful form of...a delivery man?
"Hello, how are you today?" the man in uniform greeted politely as he handed Robyn a square, heavy package.
Still too shocked to respond, Robyn didn't. She only managed to put the package down when a clip board was put in her face.
"Sign this please."
With heart slowing and hands still trembling, Robyn took it and the pen extended to her.
"Just on that line there."
Sign her name? She could do that. She knew her name. Robyn Mc--no wait. It was Mouri now, wasn't it? Robyn quickly caught herself and turned the C of her last name into an O and finished off her new married name. Robyn Mouri. It sounded so alien to her.
"Thank you and have a good day."
Robyn nodded as she blankly closed the door again. She leaned against it dumbly as she heard the delivery man drive off. She almost felt numb from her previous fright and it was over something so stupid. How would she survive in such a place if she kept freaking out over every little thing?
The day passed faster than Robyn would have liked it to. So many questions were burning in her head. She knew Cye would surely be back sometime that night; as husbands usually do. But what time? And what would he expect of her when he got back? Was she supposed to have dinner ready or the house cleaned or anything like that? Robyn sincerely hoped she wasn't expected to meet him anywhere.
It was about four in the afternoon when Robyn heard the door open and someone walked in. Luckily, too early for dinner, so she didn't have to worry about that. Now all she had to do was act like a wife and try to figure out what her duties were and what was expected of her. And to do that, for now, she was going to play it safe and play it sick.
"Still not feeling well?" Cye asked as he found Robyn lying on the couch.
"Mmm, on and off," Robyn said, trying to sound sick. Though she really didn't feel like she was lying too much in this case. "I've just been a bit tired today." And scared out of my mind!
"I suppose that's expected," Cye replied, referring to the thing Robyn did not want to think about. "I have papers to go over and then I'll make dinner for us, alright?"
Robyn managed a thank you before letting out a heavy breath. So far so good. But how long would she be able to keep this up? Cye and her other self were married. It would only be a matter of time before he realized she wasn't his real wife. Then what would she tell him?
When dinner came, the two ate silently, sitting across from each other at the small table. Robyn chewed on her food in puzzlement. The food tasted like Cye's. She knew his cooking well and this was his. Why was the rest of him not as familiar as this? Robyn looked up, a bit worried when she realized she had been quiet all through the meal. Would this Cye find that suspicious? Fortunately for her, he seemed to have other things on his mind as well.
Robyn took this time to study his face. It was serious as he had a far off expression. Robyn was used to that. But there was something else. He looked a bit older, that was for sure. There was no way this Cye was still in high school. But more than that, there was a certain maturity to him now. And also, a sense of calm and, perhaps, contentment about him. A peacefulness that she had never seen in him before.
Robyn was caught off guard when Cye suddenly looked up at her.
"Oh," Robyn gasped. "Um...I was thinking that I'll clear the table if you need more time to work on your papers." Papers, right? He said he needed to work on some papers?
Cye smiled at her. "That would be great, thanks."
He got up. But to Robyn's frustration, he didn't leave. Instead, he walked over and placed his hand on hers. Quickly and casually, he bent down and kissed her on the cheek. Robyn's skin was burning where his lips touched as her heart was doing flip flops. Her eyes were wide as Cye walked off, unaware of the personal calamity he had just caused. Robyn was beside herself. She never would have thought something like that would feel so...intimate. It made Robyn feel guilty. This moment wasn't for her; it was for someone else. Why weren't they here to experience it? Why was it given to her?
It took several more minutes for Robyn to calm down again. Good to her word, Robyn got up and cleared the table. But even as she worked, she could not get her mind completely off that kiss. Every time her thoughts drifted back to it she could feel her cheeks go warm again. This made Robyn frustrated.
'What's wrong with me?' she wondered. That was hardly anything like what had happened and what had been implied earlier. So why was this little peck on the cheek bothering her so?
'Because,' her inner voice told her. 'This one was meant for you. He may have thought you were someone else this morning. But that kiss was given because of something you said right then. It was for you and no one else.'
Thus, Robyn blushed again. This made her even madder. This really wasn't right. Why was she here? Who dared to mess up her life and play with her emotions so? There had to be a cause for this, there HAD to be. But what WAS it?
Robyn felt herself grow tired again. With fatigue came frustration. She had no control over this. What was she supposed to do? How could Cye possibly begin to understand if she told him who she really was? Then again, how could she possibly continue living this lie? Robyn felt trapped with very little options.
Ultimately, she did manage to make one decision. That is that she would let things remain as they were for the rest of the day. She had, after all, woken up to this strange world, perhaps the next morning would let her wake up to her own. It was a long shot, but she decided to give it a try.
But with that came a new problem. Robyn's final worry was that Cye might want a repeat of whatever he and his real wife had done the night before. Though she was sure she could come up with enough excuses not to, she still dreaded the very suggestion of it.
It was a little after ten thirty. Cye was still in his study room and Robyn felt she had dawdled around long enough, pretending she had things to do. It was now time to retire for the night. Slowly, she made her way back to that room she had been avoiding all day. The room where it all started. Robyn had to keep reminding herself that it was just a room and it wouldn't attack her as she crept in. It still felt like someone else's place to her and that she was intruding here most of all.
Forcing herself to somewhat get over it, Robyn started going through the drawers, looking for something suitable to wear for pajamas. She easily found herself a nice pair of pajamas that she assumed to be this world's Robyn's. They were cute pink and white flannels. Robyn opted to get dressed in the bathroom, not caring if Cye came in and found that odd. She would rather have his suspicion than have him seeing her dress.
After changing and brushing her teeth with what she hoped was her toothbrush, Robyn tossed her day's clothes in the hamper and crawled into bed. For a moment she sat there, still sitting in the light and looking the place over. She felt very lost and small just then. Like a child sleeping over at a stranger's house. Suddenly, Robyn was very homesick. But there was nothing that could be done about it. Regretfully, Robyn turned off the light and snuggled under the blankets, hoping for a bit of comfort. The stillness of the house then filled her ears as she lay in the darkness, trying to forget what was around her and just go to sleep.
She almost succeeded, too. How nice it would have been if she had fallen asleep before the "significant other" came to bed. But it was not to be. Before Robyn could completely dose off, she felt someone else enter the room. Cye was very quiet and didn't even bother turning on the lights as he came in. Though Robyn had her back to him and pretended to be asleep, her eyes were wide open as she heard him undress. She felt her cheeks grow warm again as her mind automatically began to picture what was going on behind her. She shook herself as she felt Cye get in bed next to her.
"Are you cold?" Cye asked, referring to the winter pajamas she was wearing.
Robyn had a choice then; either pretend to be asleep or answer.
"A little," she heard herself say.
When Cye moved a bit closer, Robyn suddenly realized her mistake in saying that. Her heart began thudding in her chest; so much so that it was echoing in her ears. She didn't know what to do as Cye came up behind her, resting his chest against her back. He loosely draped an arm over her so he could lightly touch her hand. And that was it.
He made no further move from there aside from letting out a heavy breath and then seeming to settle in and let sleep take him. Robyn hoped he couldn't feel how tense she was at the moment though she was screaming at her muscles to loosen up lest he notice. After her panic subsided, Robyn began to feel another sensation take over. One she wasn't used to.
Here, like this, in this young man's arms she felt safe. Robyn had not been prepared for this. His body was so warm and his breathing and the rhythm of his heart was soothing somehow. Sure, this wasn't her Cye, but it was still Cye. And the universal truth about Cye was that he was always there for her; to protect her. Cye would never hurt her no matter what world he or she were from.
So now here in the darkness, Robyn began to feel herself relax. As she did this, a pang of guilt hit her. Was it right to do this? Could she really accept being in bed with someone else's husband and let herself sleep peacefully? She would have to. It wasn't long until Robyn was fast asleep, feeling very warm and protected.
Robyn woke to the obnoxious ringing of a clock alarm. It wasn't familiar, but it sure was annoying. She cracked an eye open, trying to find it. Her vision tried to focus as she saw the noisy thing staring at her from the bedside stand in front of her face. Robyn was about to reach for it when an arm, a much longer and stronger arm, came from behind her and turned it off.
Robyn was fully awake now. Her eyes were huge as they stared at that clock like it was the death of her.
"Ugh...time to get up," Cye's scratchy voice said behind her.
Robyn was stalk still in bed as the arm moved back out of her vision and she felt the larger body beside her get up.
"I'll start making breakfast if you want to hop in the shower," Cye called as he headed out of the bedroom.
Robyn was beside herself all over again.
'OH CRAP!' She panicked to herself. 'I'm still here! Why is it still like this? Why haven't I gone home yet? Why– wait, did he just say 'shower'?'
Her mind went numb. It was normal for people to shower. But did she dare to do that here? Robyn swallowed. What if Cye insisted on joining her or came in while she was showering. What if she ended up seeing him...NAKED? Robyn's face shot beet red at the thought of it.
"Robyn, you might want to hurry up," Cye called back into the room. "It's Thursday, remember? We're running late if I have to drop you off before I go to work."
Robyn blinked, her past panic attack almost forgotten. Drop her off? Where? Why? Did she have a job, too? Well, she supposed she would learn soon enough.
With a heavy sigh, Robyn pulled herself out of bed. She took a bit of comfort at the fact that Cye didn't seem too interested in the fact that she was going to take a shower. Still, she took a change of clothes in with her and locked the door as extra precautions. She was sure no one would fault her for being over cautious in a situation like this.
Even with the door locked, Robyn did not waste any more time than she had to without clothing in this house. She was as quick as possible at getting clean and then getting dressed. Once covered, she bravely set out into the bedroom again and then out into the kitchen.
"Time to trade off," Cye called merrily as he passed her on the way in.
Robyn curiously watched him head back into the bedroom and wondered what he was talking about. She soon put the pieces together when she saw Cye's dirty breakfast plate and then heard the shower running. Robyn couldn't almost help but smile a bit. That was kind of cute. She wondered if they took turns eating breakfast and showering every morning.
When Robyn was almost finished eating breakfast, she heard Cye's voice call out to her.
"Robyn, do you remember where my robe is? The one you were wearing yesterday morning."
Robyn almost choked on her food as she remembered yesterday. Being in that...that pink slip of cloth. It was embarrassing all over again.
She jumped as her name was said by someone standing in the doorway. She hadn't notice him come up behind her.
"Did you hear me?"
Robyn turned around and cried out, averting her eyes in shock. A dripping wet Cye was standing in the doorway.
'Ah! I'm so glad he's wearing a towel,' Robyn thought. ''s just a towel. He's hardly wearing anything!'
"I asked if you've seen it," Cye tried again, sounding a bit more impatient.
Robyn tried to do anything else but look at the wet, half naked (and quite attractive) man standing in the doorway. His hair hanging in his eyes, beads of water dripping down his chest....Stop it! I have to think! Say something!
"Uh...I don't know. I think you had it last," Robyn floundered. You took it off me when I passed out, you pervert!
"Oh yes, I remember," Cye announced and left the room.
Robyn breathed out heavily when he left, trying to get her heart to stop pounding so hard.
The rest of the morning was spent with Robyn trying to not make a total idiot of herself in Cye's presence. As he hurried about the place, trying to get ready himself, she tried hard not to look at him or bring up a mental picture of what she had seen previously. Even after living in his house for almost a year, she had never seen THAT much of Cye Mouri before. It raised a sort of excitement in her that she had never experienced before; and it was confusing.
After getting ready, Cye had ordered her into the car, which Robyn did obediently. She buckled herself in while Cye got in the driver's seat. He had opened and closed the door for her, how cute was that?
Robyn shook herself as she found she was blushing again. What on Earth was wrong with her? Was she going insane along with the rest of this crazy world? She shouldn't be worrying about such things, there was something far more important going on now. Like where Cye would be taking her.
She watched with a feeling of dread as they drove away from the seaside and more into the city. The buildings grew larger and taller as Robyn felt her fate closing around her. Where was she going? And what was she expected to do there? What if she was going to a job or something and she screwed up because she had no idea how to do it? She would look like a total moron. Not to mention a lunatic when she would try to explain why she was messing everything up. Could it be any worse than that?
Robyn's thoughts of impending doom were interrupted when the car suddenly stopped next to a curbside.
"Well, here it is," Cye announced. "I'll be back here at three to pick you up."
Robyn just starred out the window. Where was she supposed to go from there? Cye wasn't even giving her any hints as to why he was leaving her at this particular place. For a moment, Robyn was considering not getting out of the car.
"Have fun," Cye continued, leaning forward.
Robyn narrowed her eyes. She knew what he was thinking; but she was not having any of it after he pulled that stunt with the towel earlier.
"See ya later," she called, evacuating the vehicle and pretending not to notice he was expecting a good-bye kiss.
She shut the door behind her, leaving the stranger she was supposedly married to inside. Unfortunately, Cye seemed to have automatic windows. She sighed as she heard the passenger window roll down. He has MORE to say?
"Tell Mary Anne I said hi," Cye called before he drove off.
Robyn blinked, not turning around as the car went around the corner and out of sight.
Who the hell was Mary Anne?
"Yoo-hoo! Robyn!"
Robyn turned around at the sound of her name. There, a few yards down the sidewalk, a young woman about her age waved at her. She was thin and blonde and stuck out as horribly as Robyn did among the regular Japanese citizens walking around the place.
Robyn gingerly waved back as the very happy woman approached her.
"Hey girl!" the woman who was most likely Mary Anne said as she hugged Robyn. "It's so good to see you. I know I just saw you last week, but I wish we got to see more of each other. Let's go have some fun!"
Robyn just laughed uneasily and let the blonde woman drag her off down the street.
Mary Anne seemed like an okay girl to Robyn. For some reason, she was less on edge around her. Robyn wondered if it was because she didn't know this person from her previous reality and thus, didn't have any expectations of her. The two went window shopping down the streets, stopping at whatever stores met their fancy. Mary Anne always made small talk, giving Robyn very little to go on as to what sort of person she really was. But this was also good for her. This woman wasn't asking any personal questions her way that she may not be able to answer.
A few hours later, the two stopped to each lunch at a little street corner café. This is where Mary Anne finally dropped the bomb on her.
"So Robyn," she said over her cooling soup. "How does it feel to almost be a mom?"
Robyn's world crashed around her all over again. She had almost forgotten about that. In this strange world, she was supposedly pregnant with Cye's baby.
The blonde woman instantly picked up on her reaction and smiled.
"Scary, huh?"
"A bit," Robyn managed with a weak smile. Scared out of my wits, thanks!
"Don't worry hon," Mary Anne replied as she put her hand on Robyn's. "I'm sure you'll do fine. And I'll be there for you, too."
Robyn's smile grew a bit more confident. "Thanks," she said sincerely. This was the first time she didn't feel completely alone since she got here. It was nice to know someone was in her corner.
"So," Mary Anne said, her smile growing a bit devious. "What did you and Cye do last night to celebrate the good news?"
Robyn's face went pale. Judging from what she woke up to the other morning, she could guess what was done to celebrate. The more she thought about it, the more her face grew warm.
"I see," the blonde woman smirked. "He brings you flowers, puts the lights down low. You slip into something comfortable...and then..."
Robyn's face must have been bright red with the mental images that were bombarding her senses at the moment. She fought hard to get those thoughts out of her head.
"Well that..." she coughed, trying to compose herself. "That's not any of your business what we did."
Mary Anne's grin quickly fell. "Aw Robyn, you're no fun. You never let me in on the juicy parts."
Robyn breathed out. At least she was supposedly still in character for her counterpart.
"You really are lucky, though," Mary Anne sighed. "I can never get my husband to do anything romantic these days."
Robyn raised her eyebrows. Having a married friend was also new to her.
"When he gets home, all he does is plop himself in front of the tv and ask when dinner's ready. What do I gotta do to get some attention, stop feeding the man and walk in dressed as a pot pie?"
Robyn giggled. It was a funny thought.
"Seriously, hon," Mary Anne then said. "You should be grateful for what you've got. There's women out there who would kill for the kind of guy you have. I personally know a few who are more than a bit jealous. Don't let him go, huh? That one's a keeper."
Robyn nodded quietly. She was taken aback at what the blonde woman said, but she also took it to heart.
A while later, the two ended up on the same street corner they started on and Cye pulled up in his car. Robyn waved at her new, old friend Mary Anne before she got in.
"Have fun?" Cye asked as she closed the door.
"Yeah," Robyn answered truthfully. "I did."
"Great," Cye smiled back.
Robyn watched the blonde woman leave as they drove off. She thought again to what Mary Anne had said earlier. There were women out there who were jealous of what she had. Robyn had never had anything worth coveting in her entire life. Now, according to Mary Anne, she had something very good. Yet, she wasn't sure if she wanted it. Didn't that make her kind of crazy somehow?
She glanced at Cye's profile a few times, trying not to look like she was looking at him. He was quite handsome now that she thought about it. And he had always been good to her, and kind. Thinking that other women would love to have what she had made Robyn suddenly like him more. Even want him.
At that thought, Robyn's cheeks grew red again. What was she thinking? Was she serious? Was she really glad she was married to him like this? Is this what she really wanted?
"So, are you ready for tomorrow?" Cye suddenly asked.
Robyn was thrown out of her daydreams. "Huh?" she blinked at him, only partially hearing the question.
"Don't tell me you forgot!" Cye replied. "Remember? We're going to have dinner over at your parent's house tomorrow."
Robyn's world crashed all around her once again. Had she heard right? HER parents? Her whole body suddenly went numb. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18358 | A Big Shadow
A Paint It Black Story - Raven
D.M. Evans
Disclaimer – not mine, all rights belong to Katsura Hoshino, just doing a little nonprofit playing.
Rating – PG-13
Time line – includes spoilers for bound vol #3 (so up to and including ch 26)
Pairing – gen fic with some Allen/Lenali musings
Summary – As he lies in his hospital bed, fears creep into Allen's mind like shadows
Author's Note #1- this was written for colorific's Paint it Black challenge using the prompt "Raven" and being faced with the Ravi/Lavi, Rinali/Lenalee/Linali translation dilemmas I split the difference and went with Lenalee and Ravi (because Lavi just reminds me of the lavatory…)
Author's Note #2 – I only have access to the bound volumes and am not following the series in scanlations on line so any errors in my future speculations are apologized for in advance
Worry gives a small thing a big shadow – Swedish Proverb
It wasn't fair. Allen could barely pry himself out of bed, let alone go on another mission soon. He felt exhausted, aches nesting in his joints like serpents. In fact, he had sent Ravi out of the room on the pretense of not being able to sleep while someone watched, even if that someone was meant as a guardian.
He flexed the fingers on his misshapen hand. They all worked with only a twinge of pain. Komui had apparently done a fine job of repairing all the damage Road had done to Allen's arm. Still, how could Komui think Allen was ready for another mission, no matter how urgent?
Allen sat up and the pain in his head surged. His stomach roiled, his mouth running salt water, and for a moment he thought he'd vomit. Maybe that would prove to Komui that he wasn't fit for duty just yet. Part of Allen's reluctance was his fears and the sense of loss tearing at him. The memory of Road torturing him was as sharp as the stake she had plunge into his eye. Allen shuddered as if feeling the blood and gel weeping down his scarred cheek all over again. What was he going to do now that part of him was so terribly injured? At fifteen, he was already maimed. As if his white hair, scarred face and strange arm with the Innocence embedded in it didn't attract enough attention, now he had this to deal with. Of course, looking at Ravi, Allen couldn't help but wonder if there were a lot of one-eyed Exorcists. Would he lose his special sight? What if he could no longer spot an akuma?
Allen judged the pain in his head, the nausea in his stomach and the urging of his bladder, trying to determine if he could lie in bed or would bodily need force him up. Maybe he shouldn't have been so fast to send Ravi away but Allen didn't think that he could use a bed pan in front of a stranger; worse, Ravi might summon Komui to help.
The room spun as he stood. Allen clamped a hand over his mouth, hoping to hold the flood in should it surge upward. Getting his stomach under control, Allen searched for a water closet. All he found was a thunder pot; that would have to do. One urgent need cared for, Allen crashed into the edge of the dresser after washing his hands, cursing at his loss of depth perception.
He got back under the covers, which stank of his sweat. He wondered how long Komui would let him rest and recover. Allen's fingers brushed the bandage over his eye. Maybe he should be thankful for Komui's assumption that he'd be well enough for action and take it as a hopeful sign that the science officer felt that Allen would heal without infection or other trials.
Bone weary as he was, Allen couldn't sleep. Maybe he should ask to visit Lenalee. If he knew she was healing, could see it with his own eyes…eye, then maybe he could relax. Worrying about her was the other reason Allen didn't want to go away on another extended mission. He had become aware of something when he had been stuck in the repeating day; he was exceedingly attracted to Lenalee. His body occasionally tried slipping his control around her and he didn't mean just in his inexplicable desire to show off around her. Allen couldn't help the stray thoughts about burying his fingers in her raven hair, touching her soft lips.
As sharp and painful as any of the physical wounds he endured was the sting of Lenalee's anger at him for risking his life trying to save the akuma's soul. The slap to his face, the worry in her dark eyes, hurt but it also gave him hope that she felt something for him. Allen had never thought much about girls before; he never had time but now…he couldn't help notice Lenalee, those curves, the way the dark boots hugged her lithe legs.
Then again, if Komui wanted to wait until his sister was awake before explaining the details of the new mission that probably meant he planned to send Lenalee, too. That idea made Allen's heart do a strange skipping thing that was far from unpleasant.
As protective as Komui was, Allen wondered if the science officer would allow his sister to go with Allen, if Komui had a clue that Allen was attracted to her; worse if he knew that she might like him back, the science office might create another robot trained to emasculate Walker. The young exorcist had no intentions of illuminating Komui on his feelings.
The sound of sudden rain kissing the glass made Allen huddle up under the stale sheets. The quilt felt heavy and as warm as a hug. He didn't want to go out in the cold autumn rain. Allen wished Komui had pulled the curtains so he didn't even have to see the gray ugly skies outside. Still, storm or no, sleep dragged the boy down. As Allen slipped into slumber, a cozy dream closed over him; a crackling fire to stave off the autumn chill, Lenalee and him in front of it. After all he'd endured, a pleasant dream was his due. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18360 | In August of 2010 of the Brittanian calendar and the 10th year of the Kyoroku Era in the Japanese system, the Sacred Empire of Japan invaded the small island nation of Brittania. This was accomplished despite the powerful technology known as the Knightmare Frame, a mobile armor weapon of incredible military potential, which Brittania had developed and which had kept the independent nation safe for some time, for Japan wielded a much larger amount of the potent material Sakuradite that enhanced their own Knightmare Frame's power despite the Brittanian's more advanced Knightmares, and overwhelmed the Brittanian forces, nearly destroying the country until it surrendered, and became a colony underneath the Empire of Japan.
It is now the year 2017, and a new chapter in history is about to begin, written with blood as its ink, the pen a mysterious power known only as Geass.
But for good or ill, none can say for certain.
Seven years ago…
Two boys sat watching a bloody sunset, a palette of colors that evoked a sense of mourning and loss, of childhood's horrifying murder, a wailing requiem for innocence. Around sat the ruined corpse-city of a nation, rubble scattered around like severed pieces of rotting flesh from a long dead body.
One of the boys sat crouched over himself, huddled and broken, his eyes mirrors into a shattered soul- he had already lost his innocence before this day. All he was losing now were the last shreds of peace he had clung to for so very long.
The other boy stood, defiant to the end, glaring at the sun as if challenging it to burn him away, and in his eyes a fire of his own that burned as fierce and all consuming as the sun's own was lit.
"It's all over now. Thank you for coming to meet me, even though… even though you're not supposed to," the first boy said softly, eyes downcast. "You'll keep your promise, right? I can't take care of her, but you can…"
"I will," the other boy replied, his tone a challenge not to his friend, but to the world. "I should never have left… if I had been here during the invasion…"
"You had no choice… we would only have used you as leverage against your father," he responded reassuringly, but his tone was fragile, like glass- whatever strength this boy possessed once had long since departed him.
The other boy had no reply to that, and turned away. It was only as he began walking away that he finally spoke again.
"Lelouch… I'm sorry about all this… but I promise you…" he vowed, emerald eyes alight with the flickering inferno of a revolution.
"I will crush Japan!"
"I heard the world up, late night.
There's a chill in the air, nobody could care.
How you're caught up in the fight of your life."
-"Heard The World" by O.A.R.
Chapter 1
The Sword in the Stone
He awoke, unusually enough, before dawn, waking to sweat soaked sheets, screaming the names of people he hadn't seen in seven long years.
Eyes staring at him accusingly, screaming silent obscenities at him, cursing him and promising him that they would meet again in the place where all sinners go…
"A bad dream," he muttered cynically, pressing his hand against his face, covering half of it, as though trying to hide himself from the relentless ghosts that plagued his thoughts. Irritably, he swung himself around until his legs were hanging off the bed, allowing him to sit atop of it.
For a long while, he sat there, trying to wish away the bad memories that refused to let him lie in that bed in the peaceful oblivion of sleep any longer. Finally, too frustrated and never one for that kind of sedentary thinking anyways, he stood, not bothering yet to dig a shirt out of his drawers, leaving him in nothing but a pair of black sweats.
Instead, he strode towards the windowsill, pushing aside one of the curtains, exposing the pre-dawn sky. The barest beginnings of light were starting to crack through the black curtain of the night, illuminating clouds and throwing them into sharp relief. Below, some hard working Brittanian boy, no older than himself, rode a bicycle on by, throwing out the daily news in front of his door.
Idly, he wondered if the news would have anything interesting to say. Anything that would make this world seem a little brighter, a little better, as if it were breaking the chain of pain and misery that had existed since the first man dropped from the trees and thought to walk on two legs.
But it wouldn't. It never did.
And that was because...
"This world... won't change. Not on its own."
The words slipped out of his mouth without his meaning to, laced with potent, but checked, rage and malice, like a sword begging to be released from its sheath, to draw blood and war and death. His teeth ground against each other, and his fingers curled around the rough cloth of his curtain as though strangling it.
And then, as if sensing his rage, the door opened with the slightest creak, and he heard a voice.
"You're up awfully early."
The tone was sly and catty, and he knew there would be a smirk on that face without turning around.
"So are you, C.C.," he said in reply, curling his lip in amusement, turning to glance back at her.
"You're pretty noisy when you wake up, boya," the green haired woman murmured silkily, with a sly look that would have driven the blood pressure up of most men, aided by the fact that she was dressed in nothing but an overly large white buttoned shirt, exposing endlessly long porcelain legs and a hint of cleavage.
"Do you have to walk around like that?" he asked curtly, arching his eyebrow.
She gave him a pretty little pout in response. "Don't like it?"
"I don't particularly care," he scoffed, crossing his arms and smirking down at her. "But I think Jeremiah's chivalry is offended when he sees you walking around like that first thing in the morning."
C.C. snorted and pushed him back softly, turning away. "You'd think that man would have gotten used to that by now."
He rolled his eyes, thinking to himself that Jeremiah was too devoted to his ideals of knightly honor to ever get used to a woman like C.C.
"Did you need something, C.C?" he questioned, striding over to his drawer and selecting a plain white shirt, pulling it over his head as he waited for a response.
"Did you dream about it again?"
The question caught him off guard, and he froze midway through pulling his shirt down. With a dangerous look in his eye, he turned and pulled the shirt down, glaring at the witch who had kept her back to him, hands folded at her back.
"Dwelling on bad memories doesn't help anyone," C.C. commented lightly, giving him a hooded look as she turned her head slightly to look back at him.
"I can't help what I dream, witch," he shot back irritably.
"Dreams are but an expression of our inner self," she replied airily, turning away to stare at the ceiling. "If you dream it, you were thinking about it, if only in your heart of hearts."
"And how can I not think about it!" he snapped suddenly, slamming his hand down on his dresser with a loud thump. "How can I not remember that... that..."
And then suddenly, without him even hearing her move towards him, he felt C.C.'s arms encircle him, pulling him into soft embrace as she leaned her head against his back.
"Let it go," she murmured quietly, breathing softly against his back. "You can't change the past, you said that yourself, that day, seven years ago. You can only move forward, and shape the future with your own hands"
"... I did, didn't I?" he chuckled softly, a bitter tone in his voice, letting himself lean into the embrace, needing the comfort of another's warmth, if only for a moment-
And then, suddenly, the door flew open with a loud bang and a frantic voice screamed, "My lord! Are you okay!"
Quick as a cat, C.C. pulled away from him, and stood off to the side as though nothing had happened, smirking at the newest arrival.
"Your precious prince is fine, Jeremiah-kun," she said slowly, teasingly, "He just had a mild temper problem, like all teenagers do."
"C.C...." he growled threateningly, and she merely chortled and sidled off to the door.
"Think about what I said, bo-ya," the witch said, and left, leaving him to turn towards the man who had so panickedly burst into his room.
"My apologies for intruding, sir," Jeremiah Gottwald said graciously, kneeling before him, dressed similarly to himself, in a plain black t-shirt and gray sweatpants, both of which were clearly drenched with sweat. "When I returned from my morning run I heard a noise in your room and your voice and thought something was wrong..."
"Jeremiah, stop kneeling," he muttered, rolling his eyes but with a soft tone in his voice. "You don't need to do that sort of thing anymore to me, remember?"
"You are still my liege, regardless of where you are or what titles you have," the knight answered immediately, keeping his head bowed. "My loyalty is absolute and unchanging."
"And I thank you for that, Jeremiah," he said quietly, a forlorn look in his eyes. "You are truly a knight of Brittania, and I am glad to have you in my service."
"You are too kind, my lord," Jeremiah replied respectfully, and then finally glanced up at him. "Since you are up already, what would you like for breakfast, Lelouch-sama?"
"Something filling," Lelouch Lamperouge, formerly Lelouch Vi Brittania, the seventeenth prince of Brittania, said lightly, a smirk forming on his face, "I get the feeling today might require it."
Elsewhere, another young man laid deep in the confines of sleep which had eluded Lelouch, a peaceful dream which laid to rest the usual scowl that adorned this young man's face. And despite the depths of his sleep, his face held lines that should not exist on a young man's face as though he bore the weight of trying to change the world, and his eyes bore remnants of bags, as though his sense of justice would not let him sleep for long.
His sleep, however, was peaceful, deserved, and-
Rudely interrupted.
Blearily, his eyes opened, and then immediately shut as he pulled the silken covers of his four poster bed over his head. The room around him was clearly opulent, containing a polished, lacquered wooden desk and dresser, an overtly large mirror complete with a light gold filigrees, and large double doors.
He hated it.
"Go away Milly," he muttered sleepily.
"No can do, Suzaku-sama," Milly Ashford answered sternly, clad in a modest one piece maid outfit, complete with a white headpiece atop her head, a playful glint in her eyes that belied her tone of voice. "I am the head of the household staff and the Master's own personal maid. Thus, I can't let you sleep in so late!" and with that, she yanked the covers off of his head forcefully, leaving him to curl up into rather pathetic ball and groan pitifully.
"Milly!" Suzaku protested, embarrassed. "I'm half-naked under here!"
"Oh for God's sake Suzaku-sama," she muttered, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms irritably, "I washed those boxers you're wearing right now just yesterday. I don't think seeing you in a state of undress is really that big a deal."
He groaned and rolled away from her. How is she always so cheery in the mornings?
"It's the principle of the thing," he countered grumpily. "Anyways, I was up late last night, writing a new draft of proposals to send to the homeland… can't you let me just skip the meetings today?"
"What would be the point of writing those new proposals if you miss the meetings they're for, hmm?" Milly replied cheekily, and forcefully tugged him off the bed, toppling him to the floor.
"Those meetings are full of yes-men who will agree to whatever I say, just because I'm the heir apparent," he retorted tartly, groaning and rubbing the back of his head as he began picking himself off the floor nonetheless. "And you didn't have to knock me onto the floor."
"Yes, yes, my apologies master," Milly said distractedly, waving her hand in absent dismissal. "Now get dressed. You have a meeting with Shinichiro Tamaki-san in an hour."
"What, the Secretary of Labor and Agriculture? Again?" he rolled his eyes irritably. "I swear, that man has more complaints than the entire city."
"Too bad for you that you're the one who has to deal with it, eh, Suzaku-sama?" Millay said cheerily, handing him a towel. "Now, get in! The main bath is already prepared."
"Which one of us is the master here, huh?" Kururugi Suzaku, Crown Prince of the Sacred Japanese Empire and Governor of the province of Brittania, complained.
"Lelouch-sama, breakfast is ready!" Jeremiah called out, absently stirring the pan of sunny side up eggs with his left hand, a frilly pink apron tied to his front (a prank from C.C., who somehow convinced Jeremiah to wear it through means that Lelouch did not really want to know).
"Thank you, Jeremiah," Lelouch answered, nodding crisply as he fixed the red tie of his school uniform (a white shirt with a green sports jacket and black slacks), descending down the stairs and into the kitchen/dining room, which were basically combined into one room, with the stove, microwave, fridge, and other parts of the kitchen on one half and the modest table (enough to comfortably fit four, but only three chairs were ever occupied) and chairs of the dining half on the other. There was also a television situated across from the head of the table, against the wall and on top of a small cabinet of its own, centered so that both people sitting on one half of the table and the other could see it clearly.
"Took you long enough," C.C. teased, already halfway through her second pizza bread (her standard morning fare). "Any longer and we'd be late."
For her part, the witch was also dressed in a school uniform, a white sailor style blouse with blue sleeves and a plain black skirt, complete with long white leggings.
"I don't want to hear about it from a woman who spends an hour in the shower," Lelouch retorted immediately, smirking.
"Why Lelouch…" she answered huskily, leveling him a hooded look, "Are you curious about my… private time? You pervert."
As always, he sputtered and flushed deep red, causing C.C. to laugh out loud amusedly.
Luckily, he was saved by Jeremiah, who set the plate of eggs in front of him. "Breakfast is ready, Lelouch-sama," the knight said graciously, bowing his head.
"Ah… thank you, Jeremiah," the ex-prince said gratefully, nodding back as he settled into his chair.
"No thanks necessary, Lelouch-sama," Jeremiah answered immediately, as he removed his apron and hung it up on a nearby hanger, before settling down to eat as well. There was a companionable silence for a moment, and then the television broke through the silence.
"And in other news, the People's Representative within the Empire's government, Schneizel El Brittania, has made yet another public statement that he is no way connected with the terrorist group referring to itself as the Brittanian Liberation Front, or BLF. Naturally, no one has been more cooperative in working with Japanese officials, but of course, Representative Schneizel is a former prince of Brittania, and such allegations are natural…"
Jeremiah and C.C. watched the television with varying degrees of interest, while Lelouch merely looked bored, not even looking up from his plate, polishing off the last of his peppered egg.
"Fools," he scoffed, a slight sneer on his face. "Do they really think my brother is so spineless as to have completely bowed to their will? He is connected to the BLF, they just aren't smart enough to figure out how he's doing it."
"You really think so, boya?" C.C. asked with a bemused smirk.
"I know how my brother fights," Lelouch answered succinctly. "He's working with the Japanese to ingrain himself into their confidence and help Brittania from the inside, while he secretly aids those helping Brittania on the outside."
His eyes narrowed and his lip curled in distaste. "He plays both sides, and he is the one who benefits most."
"Lelouch-sama…" Jeremiah began hesitantly, glancing over to his liege lord, "Forgive me, but…"
Without even changing expression or looking over at his knight, Lelouch interrupted, "You want to know why I haven't done the same as my brother, or any other member of the royal family… why I do not fight our colonial masters."
Jeremiah looked mildly stricken at how candidly the question was stated, and opened his mouth to try and make it sound more polite, but Lelouch continued on without waiting for a response.
"My brother only fights this way because it's the only path he sees open to him… while I know there are other ways… I believe there is a path outside of war," he clenched his fingers and cast a pointed look at C.C. "Until certain conditions are met, however, my actions are still limited."
"Certain conditions?" the knight blinked, before he noticed the significant look his lord was casting towards the female member of their household. His confusion was ignored, however, as the two seemed engulfed in a world where only the two of them existed.
"C.C.," Lelouch began slowly, "Have you reconsidered-"
"My answer is still no, boya," the witch interrupted briskly. "The power of Geass is not something to take lightly, and I will not hand it over to a child."
"A child?" he arched his eyebrow with a dangerous tone in his voice.
"You do not know what you ask," C.C. replied tartly, casting her eyes downward, a dark look in her eyes. "What kind of path you are asking to take."
"I need that power!" Lelouch shouted, slamming his hands down on the table, rattling the plates. He glared over the table at C.C., who continued to eat the rest of her pizza bread nonchalantly, pointedly ignoring his angry stare.
With an angry huff, the former prince stood from his chair. "Thank you for the meal," he muttered irritably, and stormed back upstairs. "I'm going to get my bag."
After he had departed, Jeremiah glanced over at the only other occupant at the table with a hesitant look. "C.C.-san," he began slowly, "If I might be so bold… why don't you agree to Lelouch-sama's request? It pains him so much not to have the power of Geass, to be unable to help his country in the way he truly desires…"
"Jeremiah," C.C. said softly, and the tone immediately gave him pause. "Do you care for him?"
"Of course," the knight answered without hesitation.
"Would you protect him from anything that was going to harm him… even if it was himself?" the witch continued quietly, glancing downwards, fixing her eyes on the table.
"C.C.-san?" Jeremiah murmured, blinking in surprise.
"Power corrupts, Jeremiah," C.C. stated, a subdued tone in her voice. "And I will not see him corrupted by my own hand."
For a long time, neither spoke, with C.C. continuing to stare blankly and Jeremiah struggling to find something, anything to say to her.
"Oi, C.C. Let's go," Lelouch broke the silence, sighing as he descended the stairs, school bag held casually over his shoulder.
"Yeah, yeah," C.C. replied, rolling her eyes, not a trace of her subdued tone left in either her voice or expression, vanishing entirely like morning mist.
"We're off," Lelouch replied casually, as he stepped out the back door, with C.C. tailing close behind.
Jeremiah, for his part, stood as well, nodding at his prince. "Have a good day, Lelouch-sama, C.C.-san. Now, please excuse me- it's almost time to open up the bakery."
In addition to being Lelouch's full-time guardian and caretaker, Jeremiah Gottwald had also gained a new profession- the proud owner of a small corner bakery, entitled Orange Breads. Not the typical job one might think a former knight of Brittania would take, but that was exactly why Jeremiah had taken it.
After all, who would think that the friendly, somewhat air-headed local baker was a highly trained soldier and royal knight guarding one of the last of an imperial family that was scattered to the winds?
The world was lightless, soundless, tasteless. An endless, timeless, deathless oblivion of pure and unending darkness. How long she had been plunged into this world, she did not recall, and what of the world she had been in before that, she could only tease an image or two out of her beleaguered and weary mind.
A flash of a smile, a murmur of a word, the barest hint of some tantalizing scent, and then the images were gone and only oblivion remained.
The images mixed and swirled like rain washing dirt, muddying the waters of her mind with the past, the present, and maybe even a passing glimpse of the future, diluting into dreams of half seen things and whispered sounds.
Time had no meaning here.
Hunger did not exist, nor did thirst.
And so she dreamed on, a thoughtless sleep with a muddied mind in a deathless void.
"I have the target in sight boss."
"Roger that. It's just like our intel said. Looks like a nice and easy grab and smash."
"We have intelligence boss?"
"Hey, we have damn good intelligence."
"Coulda fooled me!"
"Hey Rivalz, do you really think it's a good idea to be joking right before a mission?"
"Aw, lighten up. I'm just messing with Gino. No need to interrupt some good pre-battle banter."
"Yeah, come on Shirley. As your commander, I'm ordering you to relax! Come on."
"… boys. Don't get cocky! This is serious!"
"Yeah, yeah, I remember."
Gino Weinberg shrugged, and a grin flashed over his face.
"Well, you heard the lady. Let's get started then."
"I'm afraid your requests for more Brittanian laborers for the factories in Glasgow is simply not possible at this time, Secretary Tamaki-san," Suzaku answered briskly, setting down the thick stack of forms to glance over at the older man. He was dressed according to his station as a Prince of Japan, clad formally in a simple green haori jacket over a silken black kimono and matching hakama pants, with the kimono bearing the traditional five crests, each bearing the Imperial Crest- a yellow-gold chrysanthemum, outlined in black, with sixteen petals and the tips of sixteen more petals showing beneath those. While simple, everything about it spoke to the traditional Japanese authority, hailing back to the traditions of old that retained great power even in this modern age of machines and metal.
It was the outfit Suzaku wore with the most disdain, the most secret hate.
"What? Aw, come on, Suzaku-sama, I'm not askin' for much," Tamaki pleaded from across the table, dressed smartly in a black suit and pants, leaning forward.
"Secretary Tamaki is right," another aide chimed in, nodding his head sycophantically. "My lord, strictly speaking, the factories in Glasgow-"
"I have a report here," Suzaku interrupted flatly, gesturing towards his personal computer, "That indicates that those factories are mistreating and abusing their Brittanian workers. One report even indicates that a woman may even have been raped!" he added, a tone of outrage in his voice.
Before he could continue his rant, however, a voice broke in from his immediate right.
"Prince Suzaku," Colonel Kusakabe Ichiro, his Chief of Staff and liaison to the military, cut in mildly, a note of condescension in his voice, "If I may be so bold, these accusations are from Brittanians themselves. No doubt they are merely attempting to stir up trouble. You can't expect to take their word over the word of our fellow countrymen. And in any case, we are the ones who carry the justice of heaven."
Silence dominated the room after his statement, and some eyes drew towards the flag of Japan hanging on the far wall. Within the red sun of the white flag, sat the two kanji letters under which the Empire fought its wars.
Ten, for Heaven.
Chu, for Punishment.
Tenchu, heaven's punishment. We who deliver the punishment of heaven onto the world that will not kneel before the one true ruler, the true divinity, who sits atop the Chrysanthemum Throne.
Around the table, heads bobbed in affirming nods- all except for one.
"To stir up trouble?" the prince sputtered, clenching his fists. "Is that what you think, Colonel Kusakabe?"
The rest of those assembled at this meeting fell back at the barely checked rage present in their prince's voice, but Kusakabe took it in stride.
"My lord, I know the owners of that factory, and I can assure you that they would do no such thing," the Colonel replied with an oily tone, "And this factory is an important element of our military capabilities here in Brittania. More workers must be found."
"The decision to assign those workers, however, belongs to me," Suzaku countered coldly, fixing a steely look at his Chief of Staff. "And I have made my decision, Colonel, and that is final."
For a moment, Kusakabe stared back at him, a hard look in his eyes, before he bowed his head. "As you wish, my lord."
Suzaku bit back his disgust, turning towards Tamaki with a more apologetic look. The Colonel might be a corrupt, scheming politician, but Tamaki was more a fool than anything else, and didn't deserve his ire.
"It's just too much, I'm sorry," he finished, inclining his head as he stood up sharply. "Now, if you'll excuse me."
All those present at the meeting stood as he did, and bowed deeply in respect as Suzaku strode quickly out of the room, not deigning to give them a return bow.
"Rough meeting, Suzaku-sama?" Milly asked, bowing deeply to him, having been standing just outside the door to await her master's return.
Suzaku smiled wearily.
"A bit," he replied, and Milly fell into stride behind him, head still bowed respectfully. "I'm going to head out for a bit, Milly- would you mind covering for me?"
"Not at all," she responded graciously, bowing deeply. "Should I prepare the usual excuses?"
Despite his frustration and exhaustion, Suzaku chuckled. "Just as long as you don't tell them I was out finding 'love slaves for my future imperial harem' again, okay?"
Milly smiled cattily. "Why Suzaku-sama, don't you know me at all?"
"That's exactly why I said it," he muttered, shaking his head.
"Geez, that stupid prince," Tamaki muttered angrily, as the door shut resoundingly behind Suzaku, "Where does he get off yelling at us like that?"
"The Emperor is much too lenient with the Prince, even if he is the heir apparent and his only son," Colonel Kusakabe agreed, sounding annoyed. "But it cannot be helped. The Prince is the governor of this region, and his orders are absolute. We cannot get more men to the factory just yet."
"We could try askin' the Emperor," Tamaki suggested, but the Colonel shook his head.
"Going above the Prince's head for a matter like this isn't worth it. No, we need to save that for more pressing issues…" Kusakabe's voice trailed off, as his phone began to ring.
The Colonel frowned, but he recognized the number and put the phone to his ear. "I told you never to call me at this number," he warned dangerously, but he recognized that the caller had to be in desperate straits to need to call. "What is it?"
The message was only a single short sentence.
Ten minutes later, Kusakabe had his persona military forces organized and ready to go- now this was the kind of pressing issue that required going above the Prince's head.
What the boy wouldn't know wouldn't hurt him, after all.
Elsewhere, someone else's phone pulsed slightly, having been on silent, because of his surroundings.
Only two people in the classroom seemed to notice- the teacher continued to lecture on and on and scribble the occasional near illegible note on the board at the front, while the rows of individual desks were filled with students who were either falling asleep, trying and failing to pay attention, or were doing something to kill the absurd boredom.
Lelouch let a brief grin cross his otherwise bored face, as he pretended to continue to pay attention to the teacher, even bothering to let his pen flow freely across the page, taking brief, shorthand notes that he really didn't need anyways.
C.C. fixed an unreadable gaze upon him, the shade of a frown on her face.
As always, he waited at the grassy knoll in the public park, a small area tucked away on the far side of a lake, behind a cherry blossom tree. It was disguised well enough by that tree and several bushes on different sides that it was practically invisible to most patrons of the park. The London Settlement, being the principal city of the Japanese province that was once Brittania, and as such it was a fairly bustling, clean city, made so in order to showcase the might and wealth of the Japanese Empire.
He waited at the park because it was the only place he could still sometimes pretend that the Empire hadn't yet touched this country. He had always been more comfortable, more at ease amongst the rough and tumble of rocks and trees and grass, with shorts worn above skinned knees and a shining sun overhead.
Sometimes, he was able to close his eyes and pretend he was at peace.
A step, at the edges of his hearing.
Lelouch had a distinct gait, a slow, measured movement that belied a kind of inherent grace belonging to those born of royalty, a grace that he himself had never learned.
He should be where I am, he thought to himself. He's far more cut out for this.
"Did I pull you out of class?" Suzaku asked casually, gazing up at the endless sky, arms crossed behind his head to make a makeshift pillow. He had changed out of his formal kimono and into simple jeans and t-shirt- clothes he could get dirty in, get lost in a crowd in, be free in.
"Like I really need it," Lelouch scoffed, rolling his eyes, taking the final steps up the hill so that he was standing just behind Suzaku's head, looking up at the same sky. "What's wrong?"
"Why would something be wrong?"
Lelouch raised a cynical eyebrow, looking unimpressed. "You're not even frowning today. When you're not frowning, it means you're not upset- you're angry."
Suzaku chuckled. "You know me too well."
"We've been best friends for seven years, I would think so," came the bored answer, but the undercurrent of warmth was audible to his ears- the mutual understanding worked both ways, after all.
"It's nothing new… just… this Empire. This world. It won't…" Suzaku bit his lip- he wasn't halting his words because of hesitation, but frustration.
"It won't change," Lelouch finished, already knowing the answer. They were best friends, after all. "How is she?"
Suzaku let a smile cross his face. "She's fine. I check on her every day, just like I promised. I could let you see her, if you want…"
A tremor, like a disease patient trembling, ran below Lelouch's skin, a memory like a cancer eating away at his control.
"You know I can't. It's not safe," he said slowly, the words as dry and stale as desert air, as though he had repeated them over and over to himself for years.
Only silence followed, wind whistled through leaves, mixing with the soft lapping of waves against the shores of the lake behind them, enwrapping the two boys in a world of peace all their own.
And as is the way with reality, that peace was utterly shattered by the sounds of war in the distance.
Shirley Fenette was what some people would call a 'girly girl'- she enjoyed little girl motifs, the color pink, flowers, and dresses. She was slim and delicate looking, with long strawberry hair and pale skin.
Which was why no one once thought she was actually a dangerous member of a Brittanian resistance cell, dedicated to bringing down the colonial government ruling over their country.
"Shirley, a little help here? I could really use some directions," Rivalz Cardemonde begged nervously, dressed, like her, in a gray jumpsuit and matching hat to cover his eyes, sweating hands on the wheel of the eighteen wheeler truck they had commandeered for this mission, which just barely managed to fit their cargo and their "insurance". He wasn't at the legal age to drive, but it didn't really matter, considering they had just stolen military property- at this point, breaking driving laws was the least of their worries.
Frankly, the whole mission smelled wrong to her- the information had come from sources that even Gino seemed somewhat skeptical about, but the chance to secure some important new military technology shipped in from the Japanese homeland was too much for them to pass up.
Shirley rolled her eyes. "The drop off point is outside Havering. You need to take the next exit and then make a right. We went over this at the briefing."
"I'm sorry we can't all remember stuff like that all that well," Rivalz shot back sarcastically, more out of nervousness than anything else. He had gone on several missions with her, and though he still got nervous under fire, he was reliable and hard working, which earned him a degree of trust.
"Look, let's just keep moving, alright?" Shirley muttered, pulling her hat closer over her eyes- it was important that they weren't identified. "God only knows when those damn Japanese bastards will figure it out-"
And right on cue, an electronically amplified voice interrupted her tirade.
"This is the Japanese military- stop the vehicle immediately and surrender yourself to our custody. If you do not, we have been authorized to use lethal force."
"Well, we're in trouble now," Rivalz said, chuckling morbidly, glancing over at her.
"Just keep driving," Shirley said determinedly, whipping off the hat as she unbuckled herself out of the passenger's seat. "I'll take care of this. It's why we have that 'insurance', anyways."
Shirley Fenette was what some people would call a 'girly girl'- she enjoyed little girl motifs, the color pink, flowers, and dresses- and as a result, not only did people not realize she was part of an underground terrorist cell, but that she was also a very capable Knightmare Frame pilot.
"Wait, hold… hold on… I… I need to catch my breath…" Lelouch panted slowly, hands on his knees, sweat practically rolling down his neck as he attempted to regain his breath, causing them to stop at the sidewalk of a formerly busy intersection (but thanks to whatever was causing this commotion, the number of cars had decreased dramatically).
"We only ran a few hundred feet," Suzaku said lightly, tone unchanged, as though he had been at a brisk walk instead of running headlong towards whatever disturbance was in the area. "Come on, it can't be that bad. I think whatever's happening is just ahead."
"Go… to… hell," he shot back, glaring daggers at his best friend. "We're not all meatheaded idiots. And why are we running?"
"I want to find out what's happening with my own two eyes," Suzaku replied quickly, a hint of impatience in his tone.
"You're too damn impulsive," Lelouch scowled, rolling his eyes in consternation. "Why don't you just make a call and find out what's happening? You're the head of the government here- shouldn't you have people for that?"
"… I left my phone behind," Suzaku admittedly sheepishly. "I didn't want to be bothered."
Lelouch gave him a look that could have melted steel and turned timber to ash, as he pulled his phone out, moving to punch in a number-
When an explosion not ten feet away occurred in street next to them, causing Suzaku to stumble and Lelouch to fall flat on his ass (leaving no question as to which one of them had the better sense of balance and physical ability).
They had barely recovered when an eighteen wheeler truck came barreling down the street like a massive land missile, followed swiftly by a white Knightmare Frame running interference behind it against several pursuing tanks- thankfully, they were going the opposite direction, so they were on the opposite lane, across the street.
"I guess we know what's happening," Lelouch coughed, trying to pick himself back up. "Eh, Suza- Suzaku?"
He blinked, scanning the street, only to find his friend already half a block down, running full tilt after the battle.
"Get somewhere safe!" Suzaku yelled behind him, "I'll find out what's going on!"
And before Lelouch could even comprehend and reply, he was gone.
"Damn meatheaded idiot," Lelouch swore loudly, picking himself up, and started after him.
Since the very first time she stepped inside a Knightmare, Shirley had to admit she received a thrill at handling such a potent machine, feeling the power at her fingertips. A dark part of her relished it, a part she was sometimes ashamed to admit existed, but that was fundamentally a part of her since that day, seven years ago.
"This is for you, daddy," she whispered softly, her personal, private ritual before battle, and charged forward with her Knightmare.
Because Brittania had developed Knightmare Frame technology first, even now, the old Knightmares made back during the war were still effective enough to fight on somewhat equal grounds with the newer Japanese Knightmare Frames. This particular model was known as the De Danann, one of the last series developed by the Brittanian Knightmare group, the Ashford Foundation, before they collapsed in the aftermath of the war.
The De Danann was white, with a cylindrical head that contained a Factsphere within, and bulky arms and legs that were occasionally somewhat clumsy, but it was fast and it carried two sharp Slash Harkens attached to the sides of its chest, which was all Shirley needed.
The tank in front of her swiveled its turret towards her, but before it could fire, she hit the controls and the De Danann lunged forward, smashing its fist into the front of the tank and crumpling the vehicle with a single blow.
Before the other two remaining tanks could respond, Shirley's Knightmare launched its Slash Harkens, easily slicing through the armor of both tanks, destroying them in an instant- conventional armored vehicles were growing ever less effective against Knightmares, and even an aging one like the De Danann could handle it easily.
However, that was only up against three tanks- Shirley could see using the sensors that reinforcements were coming in fast and hard, and this time, they would probably be using the Japanese Knightmares as well.
"Rivalz!" Shirley yelled loudly into the communicator. "Take a left at the next light and head into the Underground! We'll try to lose them there!"
Most of the once famous London Underground, the train tunnels that had once connected the old bustling capitol of Brittania, had been so heavily damaged during the invasion that the Empire had decided to abandon them altogether, replacing them with above-ground railroad tracks that now served the same purpose for cheap public transportation. As a result, however, the Underground became a breeding ground for those who refused to live in a city run by their oppressors- resistance fighters like Rivalz and Shirley knew their way around far better than the Japanese Army.
Now if only they could reach it in time-
Overhead, one Knightmare transport plane soared overhead, two more following close behind, and Shirley bit back a curse. "Rivalz! Their Knightmares are here! I'll slow them down, you keep going! I'll meet you at the drop off point!"
"Be careful," Rivalz replied, and the truck swerved left, down towards the Underground. There was no actual road into the Underground, but there were still a few abandoned rails that headed into tunnels- Rivalz had just cut onto one of them, a route they had used in previous missions.
For her part, Shirley found herself having to deal with the enemy Knightmare Frame, which was rapidly descending from its transport plane. The machine in question was a generation ahead of her aging De Danann, making it a Fifth Generation Knightmare Frame- the new model created after the invasion, ubiquitously named "Shinran".
It was painted a deep forest green, featured a more streamlined design than her De Danann, but the armor was significantly thicker, especially around the cockpit and shoulders, and the shoulder armor even boasted a wicked looking spike that Shirley had seen used as a makeshift weapon before. The head design was closer to a human's than her Knightmare's odd cylinder-shaped one, and boasted two overly large horns, purely for aesthetic value. To add to all this, it was equipped with an assault rifle, whereas her Knightmare had only its Stun Tonfas and Slash Harkens.
A brief trill ran through her stomach, the anticipation of battle. Grinning, the picture of a valkyrie springing out of myth, Shirley charged forward, extending her Stun Tonfas attached to her Knightmare's arms as she did so.
The Shinran Knightmare Frame pulled back, trying to put enough distance between them to use its assault rifle- a mistake, as it turned out, as Shirley rushed forward, correctly predicting its movement and slammed her left Stun Tonfa down on the arm carrying the rifle, shattering the enemy Knightmare's arm in one go and causing the rifle to fall.
Her Knightmare might have been a generation behind the Japanese machine, but Brittania was the creator of the Knightmare Frame to begin with- its Knightmares, while fewer in number and not having nearly as much of the precious Sakuradite to use as fuel, had always had an edge in power.
With a swift thrust, Shirley slammed her other Stun Tonfa directly into the chest of the Shinran, crumpling the cockpit, likely killing the pilot within, causing the Knightmare to collapse onto the road, unmoving.
She had no time to relish the victory, as the other two transport planes had already released their deadly cargo, and she was now facing down two more Shinran Knightmare Frames.
Gritting her teeth, Shirley pushed her De Danann forward, trying to close the distance again before they could draw a bead on her and open fire with their weapons. Cleverly, they split up, one going left and the other right, forcing her to split her attention- she chose to hit the right one, firing her Slash Harkens.
The enemy Knightmare ducked one, but the other caught its arm and sliced it off at the elbow, causing it to drop its rifle. Feeling confident she had stymied that opponent for at least a few moments, Shirley turned the Knightmare just in time to avoid a burst of fire, though not nearly fast enough to avoid getting clipped as part of her left Stun Tonfa was destroyed- but she still had her right, and proved it by dashing forward and crushing the side of the Shinran's head with it, causing it to spin out of control and crash into a nearby building.
The other Knightmare fired off its Slash Harkens, trying to take her by surprise, and it half worked- Shirley couldn't turn fast enough and her De Danann lost its right arm. She paid the opponent back in kind, however, as her own Slash Harkens tore apart the torso and destroyed the cockpit.
Ahead off in the distance, several more Knightmare transport planes came into focus, and below, a convoy of armored vehicles and tanks- the second wave of the pursuers. She had already lost both her Stun Tonfas and her right arm fighting three of them. Any more would be suicide.
It was time to go. Shirley briefly paused to grab a fallen assault rifle, and then took off, avoiding using the same route Rivalz had, knowing another way to get into the Underground that was farther away, so that they wouldn't be able to use her to find him.
Hopefully, he hadn't gotten himself into too much trouble…
"Colonel, that De Danann is escaping," his aide reported nervously, glancing over at him.
"Ignore it. One rebel is not as important as the cargo they stole from us," Kusakabe snapped irritably, hands clenched over the hilt of his ceremonial officer's katana, planting its sheathed blade firmly on the floor of the armored transport he sat in.
Damn. How the hell did those insurrectionists find out about this shipment? Who could have leaked it… the only ones who should have known were the people who developed it at the research lab and himself…
"Faster," he instructed impatiently. Let me find them in time, damn it…
"Oh man I am so freaking lost," Rivalz muttered, pulling the truck around another bend. He had to admit, he was rather terrible with directions- Shirley was always the navigator during missions. Still, Havering had to be in that general direction, right… with determined resolve, he made a right-
He hit a dead end.
Rivalz swore.
"Oh screw it, I'll pull over and get the map."
Suzaku was already far inside the tunnel following the runaway truck when he started reconsidering his decision to follow what was likely a group of terrorists. He was confident in his martial abilities, but still… On the other hand, he was curious what prompted such an immediate response from the military, and without his authorization to boot.
Was Kusakabe planning something?
He might have been the Governor and the Crown Prince, but most of the politicians and officials still liked to keep him out of the loop, preferring to think of him as a boy. Sometimes, the only eyes and ears he could trust were his own.
His train of thought was derailed, so to speak, after watching the truck suddenly pull over down a corner and stop, killing the lights. Was the driver trying to hide, or was this the meet up point?
Creeping up carefully around the corner, he watched as the driver exited the vehicle, holding what Suzaku guessed humorously was a map. It was too dark to tell the sex or age of the driver with any certainty, but from the tall, slender frame, Suzaku guessed it had to be an older male.
Swiftly, he closed the distance between them, and pulled the driver into a headlock.
"Don't move!" Suzaku hissed, tightening the grip.
"Y-you'll never get anything out of me!" came the stammering voice of a young man, probably younger than Suzaku himself.
He was so surprised he nearly lost his grip, but regained control at the last moment. "I'm not with the military," he muttered, which was technically not a lie. "I just want to know, what's in the truck?"
The young man stopped squirming at that. "Why should I trust you?" came the defiant question.
Suzaku felt a faint smile cross his face. This young man had guts, at least. "I swear it," he said quietly. "I can't let you see my face just yet, but I promise I just want to know what's in there."
It took a few moments before he received a reply. "… I don't really know. This truck was already loaded with the stuff when we got to it, we were just supposed to hijack it. Some kind of new military technology that just arrived this morning… the boss said it was supposed to be a quick smash and grab. Didn't expect this."
"New military technology?" Suzaku blinked. Now there had to be something wrong. Any kind of important shipment would have gone through him first and foremost, especially if it was valuable enough to dispatch Knightmare Frames after.
Just what was the Colonel planning?
"Give me the keys, I want to have a look. After you give me the keys, get up against the wall, and don't turn around. I won't hurt you or take whatever it is in there- I just want to know what it is," Suzaku promised slowly, letting the grip relax a fraction. "Do you understand?"
"… it's not locked, I think. We didn't have time to lock it… you just need to remove the outside bolt," the driver admitted, but handed the keys over anyway.
"I'm going to let you go now. Don't turn around." And with that, Suzaku let go, and darted off for the back of the truck, just in case his prisoner decided to break his word. Since Suzaku had the keys, though, the other man couldn't take off with the cargo.
Removing the bolt, Suzaku opened the doors…
What he saw was not what he expected. In the far back, there was a single, dominating container, made up of smooth, polished metal that looked as though it had no openings or edges to speak of- as though it were simply a large rectangular block cut from some unknown, alien material. It would have puzzled Suzaku, had he not seen what was lying just at the feet of the black shape, like a sacrifice at some unknown altar.
The first thing he realized was the color pink dominating his vision, a vibrant pink that completely contrasted with the darkness around them. The pink was coming from long hair that looked unnaturally lustrous, almost supernaturally so. His eyes traced the hair to the delicate face of a woman that, even in this dim lighting, he realized was astonishingly pretty, and strangely familiar.
This beauty was marred, however, by the black gag and blindfold that had covered her mouth and eyes respectively, and as he glanced farther down he realized this girl was in one of the prisoner restraining suits created by Japan, with numerous buckles that tied the victim up at the ankles, knees, elbows, and wrists, completely freezing movement.
After another moment, he realized she was completely and utterly inert, comatose to the world- she had been drugged.
This was the military technology Kusakabe was smuggling into the country?
"What the hell is he doing?" Suzaku breathed, disgustedly removing the blindfold (revealing a delicately framed nose and long, long eyelashes), lifting the girl in his arms, holding her delicately, moving to take off the gag-
"Working for the betterment of our country, my Prince."
Suzaku whirled about, searching the darkness, when he was suddenly blinded as several floodlights kicked in, causing his vision to turn white as he reflexively put his hand up to shield his eyes. After it returned, he blinked furiously several times and removed his hand, coming face to face with his traitorous military commander, backed by five armed men alongside an armored vehicle and two Shinran Knightmares.
Off to the side, the body of the driver, who was revealed to indeed by a young man with blue hair, was restrained by another soldier.
"Working for the betterment of our country or yourself, Kusakabe?" Suzaku spat, narrowing his eyes. "What did you do to that boy?"
"The boy is fine. I need him for questioning, after all." The Colonel smiled like a serpent. "You don't understand what you're holding in your arms, my Prince. That girl, and the other parcel in that truck… they could change the face of war forever."
Suzaku scowled. "You're insane. This is just a girl."
Kusakabe sighed, shaking his head disappointedly as he rested his hands atop his katana, which was plunged into the dirt. "You just don't understand. In any case, I must ask that you release the girl- she's my property."
"Property?" his nostrils flared, and his fists tightened, aching to break the world between his fingers. "She's a human being!"
"If only you knew," Kusakabe snorted, and then jerked his head, and the soldiers behind him moved forward to take the girl from his grasp.
Suzaku shot them a glare, and stood, still holding the girl in his arms. "In the name of my father, the Emperor who sits upon the Chrysanthemum Throne, and as the Crown Prince of holy Japan and Governor of Brittania, I order you men to stand down and arrest the Colonel!"
The soldiers didn't even slow down, and grabbed at the unconscious girl, trying to pry her away from him.
Angrily, Suzaku tried to fight them off, shouting again, "Didn't you hear me? I'm-"
"Your orders don't count for anything here, boy," Kusakabe said venomously, chuckling. "Men obey those with real power, not puffed up princes who pretend they have a say in the world."
"You bastard!" Suzaku snarled, and lashed out with a kick, striking the nearest soldier and sending him crashing away into another man. He kept a firm grip on the girl, pulling them back towards the truck's cargo hold, when he was stopped by the distinctive click of a gun being cocked.
Kusakabe's unpleasant smile became as thin and sharp as a killing edge. "Like I said, your orders mean nothing here, my prince," he said, using the title mockingly, and motioned with his gun. "Now, set the girl down. I would hate to spill royal blood here. And don't think that the Emperor can save you. The Chrysanthemum Throne is half a world away, and if I can present him with what this girl represents, he won't need you anyway."
"I wasn't counting on my father's protection anyway," Suzaku growled, refusing to let go, even as he turned around.
"Indeed, I rather imagine he'd be pleased being rid of some whoreson he was forced to call his own blood," the Colonel replied, a sardonic, mocking play of a smile on his lips. "Isn't that why he sent you to this accursed island when you were a child, seven years ago? To hide such an embarrassment from the eyes of the court?"
If Suzaku could have done it without loosening his hold on the girl in his arms, he would have torn out Kusakabe's throat with his bare hands.
"In fact…" Kusakabe raised the gun, finger dancing at the trigger, "Why don't we just find out how angry he would be if I killed you?"
The gun went off.
The world was no longer lightless, soundless, tasteless. There was a light at the edges of her mind, burning so bright that even the ravenous, jealous darkness that consumed her could not keep her from it.
What that light was, she couldn't say. Maybe she knew it, but in this unending oblivion she had forgotten so very much.
But it was warm and it was real, and she longed to find it.
It's you, she whispered, opened her eyes, and pushed herself forward in time to catch the bullet, which pierced her breast, a merciless sword of white hot agony. But it was all worth it, because she could feel again for the first time in what might have been eternity.
For Suzaku, it all happened too fast to react to. Kusakabe was a trained, professional soldier- he wasn't going to wait a moment to add a pithy one liner to his threat. He was just going to shoot.
Even if he had been capable of even thinking about moving, he wouldn't have- to do so would have been to let go of the girl, and once he did he wasn't sure he'd be able to take her back from those men.
As the gun went off though, his mind finally kicked in, just in time to watch as the very girl had been trying to protect suddenly push through his grip and move herself in the way of the bullet, which pierced her chest, splattering his face with her blood, anointing him with the sacrifice of an innocent girl.
"Damn it!" Kusakabe swore loudly, looking annoyed. "Now look what you've done! I might have just ruined our only test subject!"
Suzaku's trembling hands reached out to turn the girl's face towards him, her violet eyes now open and unblinking, as if accusing him of her death.
And with horror, he realized he knew this girl.
"Lelouch, don't be mean to him!" she said loudly, nudging the glaring, amethyst eyed prince away, and flashing him the most brilliant, beautiful smile he had ever seen. "It's okay. Welcome to Brittania, Kururugi Suzaku-san. I'm Euphemia Li Brittania, but you can call me-"
"Euphie?" he whispered, eyes widening. Impossible.
No one had seen her since the fall of Brittania, over seven years ago- she was missing, declared dead. Even Lelouch swore he had never been able to track her down, despite all his best efforts. Unlike most of the other royal children, who had either gone into exile or cooperated with the government, her location seemed lost.
She was dead.
And yet…
This was her. This was Euphie.
"What is she… why was she in there…" he breathed, half-mad, babbling words without knowing it.
"You've never seen death so close before, have you?" the Colonel questioned, raising his eyebrow, chuckling, sounding vaguely bemused. "It's always a shock that first time. But don't worry, I won't miss this time."
Shaking, his shocked mind finally allowed itself a thought- not to move him out of the way, but to berate him in the last few moments before his brain would be reduced to so much gray pulp and blood on the walls.
You can't even save the life of one girl. This is the extent of your justice? You're going to die without accomplishing anything?
Suzaku shut his eyes, and waited for death.
You don't have to die.
The thought was a foreign intrusion on his mind, the voice unlike his own- the voice of a woman, a pleasing, soft pitch in his ears.
Was this some kind of last minute hallucination?
I will give you the power. I know you can use it. You're the one I've been waiting for.
"Farewell, my dear prince." Kusakabe smiled thinly, and fired.
Lelouch scowled, glancing down the tunnel suspiciously. He thought he had heard gunshots, but… there was no way Suzaku would actually be stupid enough to go into the Underground alone, right?
He thought about it for another moment.
"That goddamn idiot." Lelouch cursed his erstwhile best friend, even as he started down the tunnel. "If we live through this, I'm going to kill him."
A hollow threat, in more ways than one, Lelouch knew, but it felt nice to say it.
But at the same time, he couldn't shake this nameless, vaguely malignant dread that plagued his heart. Something terrible was about to happen.
You'd better be safe Suzaku, he thought determinedly, and moved a little faster.
The world had turned into a maelstrom of violence and sound, a chaotic vortex that drowned his senses.
Was this how it felt right before the bullet?
I'm sorry, Euphie, he whispered silently, and pulled her body closer to his own- maybe in death his grip on her would still trouble the soldiers.
What happened next, however, was not the feeling of a tiny cone of death piercing his skull, but the sound of a bullet ricocheting off of something metallic.
"W-what the hell is that?" Kusakabe said loudly, but it sounded distant to his ears, as though coming through a high, keening wind that absorbed most of the noise.
The smell of gunpowder filled his nostrils, and yet it felt as though the scent stayed there, unable to effect him. Sweat born from frayed nerves rolled down his neck, and he didn't even notice. His own heartbeat practically roared in his ears, and still, he heard it and felt it with a curious dissonance, analyzing it, feeling it without experiencing it.
Nothing felt real in that moment, except the machine in front of him.
It was golden, radiating such magnificent glory that it caused a frightful awe in all who saw it, like a god of myth and legend descended to earth. It was a Knightmare Frame, or at least that was all he could call it, because that was the closest man-made creation that could come even close to being categorized with this beast that seemed to have sprung from some sort of terrible, fiendish imagination. Unlike other Knightmares, which looked like clumsy imitations of men, this was the image of man as he could be, a magnificent specimen of metal exaltation. It had no unwieldy Landspinners to propel itself, but true feet, set in three toed claws, and a helmeted head with a mouthless face and burning red eyes, a terrible knight sprung from fairytales. It wielded a mighty blade in one hand, half again as tall as Suzaku himself, as bright as the stars and as keenly edged as the eyes of a hawk.
And without thinking, he already knew its name, for that same ethereal voice was in his ear, whispering it to him.
This is your power.
Without thinking, as though he were an automaton, a slave to the effulgent, alien magnificence that was this machine, the Caliburn, Suzaku glanced over at Kusakabe, his men, and his war machines that seemed as paltry and insignificant as dry leaves before a wildfire, and spoke only two words to this newly gestated god.
"Kill them."
And as this golden warrior-god, this Caliburn, did as he requested, taking its massive blade and slicing through Kusakabe's body and the body of five other men as though moving through air, and then lunged forward and stabbed through the armored vehicle as a child might put his finger through the sand, before finally turning its attention to the Shinran Knightmare Frames, who fought it like wasps fighting a giant, stinging it with their bullets that were no more than an annoyance against its unnatural armor before being destroyed with a single swing of that terrible sword, a thought, a realization, an epiphany that might have come on the trumpets of angels or maybe the murmurs of devils, came into being in his psyche.
This was it.
This was what he had waited for his entire life.
A means to fight against a society that had fallen into corruption and ruin, a power to use to defend the powerless, and a justice against the injustices of a world gone mad.
A path.
Kururugi Suzaku laughed, and the world trembled before him.
Author's Notes
Welcome to my new pet project- I won't be working on it very much until I finish Revenant, but I thought I'd post the first chapter and see what people thought about it. This'll mostly be my nice side project to work on continuously after Revenant.
I'm aware I haven't truly set the stage yet, but with this story, I'm going to introduce the elements gradually, to ease you all in- besides, it's no fun to show you guys all my cards right away. Everyone will be playing a part, in some capacity, though all roles will be reversed in some fashion or another. Admittedly, I haven't thought of what to do for everyone yet, just the core cast and some of the supporting, but as the ideas come to me I'll continue adding more characters to this mythos. Not all the characters will switch roles with the person taking their place, by the way- Shirley has taken Kallen's role, but that doesn't mean Kallen has taken Shirley's… *grins*
Pairings will occur in this story, just as it did in canon. I'm still not totally decided on how it will all play out, or who will be with whom, but I'll be playing around with a number of different ships, so keep an eye out- just know that no pairing is set in stone.
This chapter took a long time to finish (read: started it over half a year ago, left it alone, and then came back to it a few days ago and wrote most of it in a day and a half), because I was basically trying to run it completely parallel to the original first episode of R1, and didn't realize how much it would take to make the whole thing come together. After this, though, things will begin deviating rapidly from canon- I'll have some arcs that will parallel the original story, but other times I'll be changing things entirely.
Kusakabe is one of the one-shot characters in Code Geass season 1, the guy who took over the Kawaguchi hotel and held the Ashford girls and Euphemia hostage. He seemed a good fit for my purposes, so I used him here, which is what I'll probably be doing with several more minor characters.
Its funny- I picked Havering at random as a place, and then went "oh shit, I need a place that's close to the docks", only to find out it is, in fact, close enough to the ocean and the London dock area to count. Big thanks to hungrybookworm though for letting me question her about England - any inconsistencies with the original country you can just attribute to this being fiction and an alternate universe to boot, because I already tried to make it as accurate as I could.
The De Danann is a reference to the Tuatha De Danann, an ancient people in Irish mythology. I didn't really know how to describe it, but basically it's this world's version of the Glasgow Knightmare, but with better specs overall. The Shinran is the equivalent of the Sutherland, and I named it after a particular Buddhist monk. Points to whoever actually knows the sect of Buddhism he belongs to.
And yes, Suzaku's Knightmare, the Caliburn (the original translation of Excalibur from Welsh, which eventually became Excalibur) is inspired by Nunnally's Knightmare in Nightmare of Nunnally, but I'm also drawing heavily on the Evangelions from Neon Genesis Evangelion and Linebarrel from Kurogane no Linebarrels. Suzaku himself is what I can draw about his younger self, pre-patricide- it seems like he has the same ideals about justice as Lelouch, but the trauma of killing his father caused his views to change. I'm aware that he got the most amount of time here, but what can you do? It's supposed to parallel episode one- next chapter the other characters will get their chance to shine as well. As for what's going on with Lelouch… all things in time, my friends.
Thanks for reading, hope you leave a review, and see you next time! |
global_01_local_0_shard_00000017_processed.jsonl/18362 | Slash, death, violence, drug/alcohol usage.
Nope, don't own any characters, just the plot.
This story is mean to take place after an attack on the Mordhaus
by the government, who, as well know from the show, hates Dethklok.
This one attack spawned millions of others, and soon the world was in shambles.
Keep in mind that because of this there is no running water, electricity, or any
modern conveniences.
Reviews are love.
When did the voices
so diseased and angry
and whose strength do they use
to carry us to such unfamiliar places
They can pull triggers
they can throw us off rooftops
they can split us into uneven halves
whose strength do they use
~~Madness And A Bit Of Hope, by Safiya Henderson-Holmes
It began with a mass of fire and ash. They were violent, merciless assassins that had come in the dead of night to take away everything, and that's just what they had done. Nobody had been ready, nobody had been able to withstand their hatred, and so the Mordhaus fell to the madness of murder. The rest of the world followed, and each country sank down and died slowly and painfully, killed each other off in an insane display of nuclear bombs and bullets. Cities—Rome, London, Tokyo, Washington and all the rest—were reduced to nothing and the world was left to disappear under a blood-red sky. Everyone suffered, but somehow there were a few survivors. Toki was one of them.
Together he and Nathan had managed to pull back what little remained of their old rich lives and salvage their sanity—or what was left of it. Day was nothing but a long, miserable Hell, seeming to last ten lifetimes of misery. The night was terrifying—a gunshot in the dark or a cruel trick of the mind?-but somehow they managed to keep one another alive. Now they sat in what remained of the old living room of the Mordhaus, staring at a dead-asleep Pickles. "Ams he going to wake up today?" Toki asked, a deep frown on his face. "You said he was just sleepings; how long can he sleeps for?"
Nathan turned way from the hopeful Norwegian and said, "I already told you that he might not wake up."
"Oh." he looked down, a discouraged look on his face. "Whys not?"
He let out a slightly annoyed sigh; of course he ended up explaining this to the guitarist every day, but still he took Pickles' hand, sang to him, prayed in Norwegian, and told him stories, hoping that he would wake up again and be the same. The only problem with this was that nothing was the same. "He's in a coma."
"You know damn well why. I've explained it to you a hundred times."
Toki's pale eyes filled with tears as he stared at Pickles' ashen, emotionless face. Where had the life in him gone? "I miss hims."
"I know."
"And I miss Skwisgaar, Murderface, and Ofdensens..."
Nathan nodded. "I know, I do too."
The Norwegian laid his head next to the drummer's and closed his eyes. He remembered the night so many weeks ago when the Mordhaus had been attacked. They had all been sleeping. He had been hugging his deddy bear to him when Skwisgaar had burst into his room and cried, "Tokis, gets up quick!"
"There ammnest peoples with guns shootings everything up!"
He couldn't move, couldn't think. Instead he just asked in a hoarse, fearful voice, "Whats?"
Skwisgaar lead him over to his bedroom window and let him look outside at the devastation; hundreds of Klokateers were shooting and getting shot. Toki's face paled as he was lead out of the room by the Swede...somehow thru it all they'd been separated and Pickles had been shot and now...Toki didn't know. He stood, hovering over the bed where Pickles rested. "I wish he would wakes up, I really dos."
Nathan reached for his hand, but then drew back. "I...maybe we should just leave him alone for a little whi-"
"Leaves him?" The guitarist shook his head and knelt next to where the drummer lay. "Nevers. We should never leaves each other agains, Nathans." he paused before inquiring, "What if he doesn't wakes up again?"
The singer shrugged and answered, "Just...Toki, he's been asleep for a while, and all you do is talk to him and-"
"Because it helps him!"
"No it doesn't!" he said. "It just makes everything harder!"
He shrank back, took the drummer's hand, and watched him breathe. In and out, in and out. A steady heartbeat, no signs of death, only an eternal sleep. Toki bit his lower lip in thought and finally said, "But he looks stills alive."
"He's not." Nathan carefully placed a hand on the guitarist's shoulder. "He might not come back."
"But he ams right here!" Toki said, tears rolling down his face in slow and steady streams. "How can he 'comes back' when he ams stills here?" and he let out a sob and hissed, his voice so full of frustration, "It doesn't makes any sense!"
"Toki, he's-"
"And why can't yous just admit that you cares abouts him?" the Norwegian continued, his breath coming out in short, rasping gasps from his constant crying. "Why ams you still so worried abouts being brutal? We're all each other has and you act like you don'ts care!"
Nathan looked down and murmured, "I do care."
"Then why don't you ever shows it?"
"I...I..." he didn't know what to say, so he just walked towards the door and said in his deep voice, "Keep him company." and left, just like that.
Once he had gone, Toki turned his attention back to Pickles and squeezed his hand. "Nathan doesn't knows anything. You ams going to wakes up; I knows you will, because-" his voice broke as he whispered in the drummer's ear, "-because you can'ts leave me, nots now. I needs you, Pickle. Please comes back, please. Don't gives up, please wakes up."
Burning, coked by smoke and blinded by ash and corpses. The dead littered the ground as he lead Toki and Skwisgaar out of the burning Mordhaus. He was holding Toki's left hand and the Swede was clutching his right, both of them desperately trying to keep the weeping, coughing Norwegian close. "Skwisgaar!" Pickles shouted above the maddening sounds of the fights and fire around them. "We can't stay together no more! They'll catch us!"
"What dos we do?" he asked, hugging Toki to him protectively.
"We gatta let Toki go aff on his own."
"He'll have more of a chance." he insisted. Skwisgaar wiped some soot from his forehead and patted the other guitarist's shoulder in an effort to get his attention.
"Tokis, listens to me—you haves to run nows, okay? Runs as far as you can and don't look back, alright?"
He shook his head, his pale eyes wide and shining in the firelight that the smoldering house gave off. "N-Nos, I can't leaves you."
"It ain't safe no more, dude!" Pickles told him. "It's better for you t'just run ahead without us."
"I cant's!"
"Toki, you haves to. Please," Skwisgaar said, hugging the Norwegian one last time. "dos it for me?"
He glanced from one man to the other and finally nodded. "Fines. I-"
"Go!" Pickles urged, pushing the guitarist away. Toki turned and made a mad dash for the forest that surrounded the Mordhaus, but before he could reach the safety of the treeline, a loud shot rang out. Although gunfire was filling the night air all around them, this shot somehow stood out above the rest. It echoed, was loud and ear-piercing. For one fearful moment Pickles thought that Toki had been shot until he felt something warm and sticky hit his cheek. When he looked over, he saw that Skwisgaar was laying on the ground, a pained and astonished look on his pale face. "P-Pickle..." he blinked and a little blood ran from between his lips. "I thinks I gots shot..."
The drummer wiped the other man's blood from his own cheek then knelt down next to the Swede. He shook his head in denial; this was impossible, a dream. This couldn't be real. What had happened to their old, carefree life? Just yesterday hadn't they been down in the studio, laughing and making fun of each other in between recording songs? "Dude, you're-"
Skwisgaar fully understood the reality of the situation, because in a moment he was holding Pickles' hand, whispering in Swedish, and crying. "I don't wants to die," he whimpered. "Why ammnest this happenings?"
The drummer couldn't answer this, but he knew that he had to, so he responded with, "I...I don't know, dude..."
The Swede closed his eyes and breathed raggedly, "It wasn't supposed to bes this ways...we were all supposed to makes it and be okays..."
"We all are gonna-"
"Toki—takes care of him. Dos that for me, okays?"
He nodded and squeezed Skwisgaar's hand a little tighter. "Of course I will, dude. You know I love that kid."
"He ammnest like my brother."
"I know."
And the Swede smiled, his lips and teeth dyed red with his own blood. "I loves him...makes sure he ams okays. He won't understand..."
"He'll be fine; everything will be-" behind him there was the sound more gunfire and screaming. "-alright."
"H-Hows?" Skwisgaar wondered, casting his dying, deep blue gaze up at at the starry, red night sky above them. A bloody smile came across his face—he closed his eyes and whispered in an oddly peaceful way, "Hows did this happens?"
And the scene melted away as the Swede's body became limp, lifeless, and cold. There was a new voice now, one that was wretched with its whispered pleas of desperation. "Pickle? You haves to wakes up, you haves to! Please, please wakes up now."
Move, move!
He couldn't feel any part of himself, but the sound of that voice almost brought him back, if only for a moment. Toki? Yes, it was him, and Pickles remembered that night again, how he had heard another shot and felt the ripping pain of a searing hot bullet...he remembered the way it had felt to lose his blood, to watch the precious, life-giving liquid freely flowing out of him...had he died? No, but he wasn't alive, so where was he? Teetering on the edge of some unknown place between life and death?
Move, move!
Words were good too, he supposed, but he so longed to move, to rip himself out of this zombie-state of being. Then it came—he opened his eyes for a split second. Yes, he thought, I'm okay! I'm alive, I'm-
Dead again. Still he couldn't move and once again he was asleep. Toki saw this feeble display of life, though, because in a moment he was sobbing and kissing Pickles' cheek, saying prayers in his native tongue. "Han er i live! Gud, vennligst gjør ham våkne opp nå!" Then in English, "Pickle, I saws it, I know you ams alive! Please wakes up now!"
I can't...
God, I wish I could!
It was amazing, but in that split fraction of a second that his eyes had been open, Pickles had seen Toki's face; there was a small, half-healed cut along his cheek now, but other than that he was just as alive and childlike as ever. The dream, it really happened? But that means that they're dead, everyone's dead...and I promised Skwisgaar that I'd keep Toki safe...they're all gone...and nothing is the same.
"Hey, I brought you something to eat." Nathan announced as he entered the room. Toki glanced over at him and arched a brow.
"What ams it?"
"Canned stuff." he answered, throwing him a can. The label had been ripped off, but the guitarist didn't care; he ripped the can open and devoured its contents quickly.
"That ams all we haves left?"
"It's all we can afford to eat right now." he said, taking a seat next to Toki. The Norwegian was sitting cross-legged next to the still sleeping drummer. Nathan stared down into Pickles' face and murmured sadly, "Toki, I've been thinking..."
"Nos." he said immediately.
"No what? I didn't even tell you yet."
"We ams not going to leaves him alone to die."
Nathan shook his head and insisted, "You just don't get it, do you? He's-"
"I saw hims open his eyes today!"
"It was your imagination." he turned away and added warily, "You've been spending too much time crying over him. It's time to move on."
"I ams never going to forget abouts him." Toki stated, glaring at the singer hatefully. "I ams nots like you—I care abouts people!"
"I care!"
"Likes hell you do!"
He sighed in defeat and wrapped an arm around Toki's waist. He pulled him closer, into an awkward hug. "I care about you and I can't watch you waste any more tears over him; I'll lock you out of this room if I have to, I don't care."
"I hates you!" he cried, trying to end the hug. "I hates you, I-"
Both men let their expressions of anger wash away from their faces and turned their attention to Pickles. He was moving now, flexing and unflexing his fingers. As soon as Toki saw this, he let out a joyful cry and went over to him. "Wakes up, Pickle, please! Proves Nathan wrong, ple-"
"T-Toki?" Pickles muttered weakly. The Norwegian fell into his arms and began to laugh.
"Look, Nathans, he ams awake!"
"Y-Yeah." he said, a shocked look on his face.
"I was right, I knews it." and he hugged the drummer tighter and began to weep.
Pickles just tried to adjust his eyes to the new, painful light. He felt Toki's crushing weight against him and loved it. Finally he was home again. Slowly he summoned up what little strength he had in him, loosely put an arm around the guitarist, and pulled him closer. "Hey, dude. You missed me?" he could only nod. Pickles let a grin come across his face as he whispered in Toki's ear, "I missed you so damn much." then he cast his glance over to Nathan. "Doin' good?"
"Could be better."
The drummer let out a weak laugh and nodded. "Yeah, me too." his green eyes looked around the old living room, observed the destruction and the state of disrepair that the room was in, and the smile gradually faded from his face. "I guess we could all be doin' better."
The way I look at it, I could either get fairly good reviews on this story, or horrible ones—probably horrible ones considering the subject matter. Oh well. I've already typed up 5 chapters [this story's going to be an flowerchild-standard 6 parter] so yeah...hope you like it and enjoyed this chapter, cause there's more to come. Yes, in case you really, really can't believe it, Skwisgaar and Ofdensen are both dead; currently Murderface isn't confirmed to be dead, only missing...but still maybe dead. Ah, the suspense and plot twists to come! :P
Peace & Love |
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