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Attorneys for a Gann Valley woman convicted of beating to death a 4-year-old boy because he wet his pants have filed motions for a new trial and a reduced sentence.
Donika Gonzales was sentenced July 1 to 130 years for first-degree manslaughter and 15 years for aggravated assault for the death of Mason Naser.
Gonzales' attorneys are arguing that the 130-year sentence was disproportionate to similar cases. They say Gonzales is a good candidate for rehabilitation and a lighter sentence
Attorneys say Gonzales should get a new trial because statements she made to authorities and statements made by the boy should have been suppressed.
Assistant Attorney General Bob Mayer says he won't comment on the motions until the judge addresses them in court.
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Seven students of a college in Assam have been suspended after being caught indulging in an "inappropriate act" in the classroom. A group of boys and girls from Class 11 of the college were hugging and poking each other in the classroom. Another student of the same class recorded the video and later uploaded it on the social media.
The incident happened in Ramanuj Gupta College of Silchar, a private-run institute in the state.
The video went viral and netizens criticised the students' behaviour. Some also blamed the college authority.
The videos came to the notice of the college authorities on Wednesday, and seven students were immediately barred from attending college.
Out of seven, four were girls and three were boys.
The college authority has issued notice to the students saying that they were visibly indulged in acts of turpitude. Such types of activities are tantamount to gross violation of discipline of the institution. Therefore, the following erring students were suspended from attending the classes for an indefinite period.
Principal of the college, Purnadeep Chanda told IANS: "The students did this turpitude act in tiffin hours when no teachers were present. We have CCTV cameras on the college premises and mobile phones were also banned on the campus."
He further said the students are from the fresh batch of Class 11 and it has been hardly 15 days since they started to attend the college.
Meanwhile, the college authority has also summoned the guardians of those seven students. It is learned that college may take more strict action and the students may be rusticated from the institution.


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If I have one warning for young people out there, it is, be careful what you wish for. Growing up in a small town in India, it always felt like I lived in a fishbowl. Everybody knew you. Anything you did out of the ordinary would get a) reported back to your parents and b) gossiped and discussed. Or so it seemed to me then. Fueled by incessant reading and a rich inner world of the imagination, I dreamed of escaping Mangalore. Yes, I thought in terms of jailbreaks and Escape to Victory. Ironically enough, I lived on a street named, wait for it…Jail Road. I wanted out. I wanted to see the world, to travel the world and twice around.
In truth, life was great. I lived in a home, where even all those years ago, we had lots of freedom. My parents were liberal and rather easygoing, in an age when India was a very conservative, conventional society. My sister and I enjoyed freedoms very few girls of our generation enjoyed in the rather uptight Hindu society of the times. No one ever told us we had to learn to cook and sew, sing and dance and be ready to be the perfect wives for the husbands who would eventually and inevitably come. Instead, we read widely and played cricket and lagori with the boys. We avoided the kitchen as if it were plagued by rats. Our extra-curricular activities gave us a nice escape from academic drudgery. No one had experienced the joys of television or computers or video games yet, so we all had lots of fun stuff to do. Anything could count as a toy, an empty shoe box or the used shell of a coconut. We even traveled regularly with my parents and had seen a large swathe of South India and quite a bit of North India, before we even left for college.
There was nothing I could point to and claim as missing from my life. But my eagerness to travel knew no bounds. I knew the earth was big and round and I wanted to see a lot of it. We used to play an odd little game with our atlases, where we’d turn to a random page, close our eyes and place our fingers on any part of the map therein, and say “I want to go there”, or “I want to live here”. It was a great game, you might land on Timbuktu or Teheran, London or Luanda. The possibilities were endless. Life was a game then.
There came a time in our lives when the joyful, easy days of school were over and we headed off to college, away from the comfortable confines of home, the sheltering shadow of doting parents and little Mangalore. Those were heady and exciting times. I headed for the big city, Madras, as it was then known (and will ever be to me). After college, it was on to jobs. My sister headed to the US and I to Bangalore. And in my 24th year, I began to travel, on my own. I am turning 50 in just a few short weeks and I can’t seem to stop. It has been over a quarter of a century, and now I find myself nostalgic for Mangalore, or home, as I shall always think of it.
Life since then has been a series of moves across the world. From the antipodes to the United States of America, and a few other countries in between, I have lived in and visited several cities across the world. And yet, with almost half a century of life under my ample belt, I have not found my place in the sun. This is the question that niggles at the periphery of my thoughts, where do I belong? Where is my place in the world?
I know lots of people who have been outside of India for as long as, or longer, than I have been. Most people are settled and happy in the foreign lands where they have made their homes. They have bought homes and cars, sent kids to college and fully intend to have a contented retirement in the future. Why is that, I wonder? Is it because most of these people have moved only once, or perhaps twice, since they left home? Many of my friends have been in one city for well over a decade and a half and that must be plenty of time for a place to feel like home. Right? I don’t know. I have never lived in any one place for that long.
It has always been 3 years here, 4 years there and before we knew it, two and a half decades of life have passed. We delayed everything in our lives, including starting a family, until we had at least a sense of a settled feeling. And one day, suddenly, we realized, a lot of time had passed and we weren’t that young anymore. Having a child has been a grounding experience, to an extent. We have moved only 3 times in the 14 years since our daughter was born. Of course the moves were all the way across the world and back, but hey, we survived.
Now don’t get me wrong, the nomadic life makes for colorful stories.There’s an upside to it. Our lives have been exciting and always filled with new possibilities. Every new country and every new city has thrown up a different challenge and we have surmounted them all. We are strong and vibrant people because of it and we can boast of friends in many little corners of the world. So many people to visit, so little time. I have enjoyed every moment of the journey as well the experience of life in various cultures. I have picked up a smattering of languages, like Bahasa Melayu and whatever it is that Australians speak. I have visited many of those places I inadvertently placed my finger on all those years ago, playing the atlas game. I have met so many interesting people, from terribly important ones to ordinary people in little towns across the world, real ‘characters’ in their own right. It has been a full, fulfilled and happy life.
But things seem to have come full circle for me recently. As I write these words (that I never dreamed I’d ever say), “I miss Mangalore”, I am assailed by the smells, tastes and experiences of the little town I grew up in. Piping hot goli bajes from Mohini Vilas, kaane fry from Anupam, mallige in fragrant bloom everywhere, long walks in the cool breezes of Kadri Hills on Sundays (as the girls and boys surreptitiously checked out one another), frolicking like dolphins at Panambur beach, the overpowering stench of dried fish floating from the docks, tender coconut water fresh off the trees, running up and down steep tiled roofs, Chinese food from Nanking restaurant, the ice candy melting in the heat, mutton puffs from Vas Bakery, stealing mangoes from someone’s trees as we walked home from school and so many more memories linger.
I have now lived away from Mangalore for far longer than I ever lived there, but the strongest memories are still those childhood ones, overlaid with a unique taste and smell. I have been back enough times to know that many of those places I so fondly remember don’t even exist anymore, except in a thousand memories. The tiled roofs have been torn down to make way for high rises, which present gorgeous ocean views many of us Mangaloreans hadn’t even suspected were there. Kadri Hills is unrecognizable but all is forgiven, because they built a Cochin Bakery there. Much has changed but it is still Mangalore in its essence. And my heart will always belong there. Not least because, that is where my mum still lives.

domain: geography


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Montreal First People’s Festival 2016
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Thing About Skins
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Vincent Schilling, Cliff Matias
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domain: sociology


HELLO! Online's quotes of the week: soundbites from Prince William, Kanye West and more
"He always said you should give back to the community and to give back as much as you can," Prince said.
"I got my desire to give back from my father." Prince added that his dad always told him "everything is a learning experience...always learn from your experience."
Michael Jackson's 16-year-old son, Prince Jackson, took to the stand to testify in his family's wrongful death lawsuit against AEG Live on Wednesday morning.
Photo: © Getty Images


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- Aaron Hernandez' third suicide note was for his lawyer, not a gay lover - TMZ
- Kim Kardashian isn't on speaking terms with Caitlyn Jenner - Gossip Cop
- This actor is leaving Riverdale and the role is being recast - Just Jared Jr
- Where is Dylan Sprouse these days? - Wetpaint
- Get the latest on Amber Heard's new boyfriend - Lainey Gossip
- 13 Reasons Why is almost definitely getting a second season - The Hollywood Reporter
Chord Overstreet Dotes on a Dog for 'Glee' & We're Swooning!
About Photo #3098260: Chord Overstreet walks a really cute pup on a leash for some Glee scenes on Wednesday afternoon (April 23) in Los Angeles. The 25-year-old actor was joined on… Read More Here

domain: celebrity


text:
This is a recipeI was raised on in Tucson Az. I have been making for ever Better the day after pour salsa on it or maple syrup too.
prep time10 Min
cook time1 Hr
Ingredients For mexican spoon bread
can diced green chiles
How To Make mexican spoon bread
Mix and layer with cheese
bake at 350 for 1 hour
serve with Salsa
My dad loves it with maple syrup.
Last Step: Don't forget to share!
Make all your friends drool by posting a picture of your finished recipe on your favorite social
network. And don't forget to tag Just A Pinch and include #justapinchrecipes so we can see it too!

domain: food


text:
I received the Zerona Treatment and was told I...
I received the Zerona Treatment and was told I must take the CURVA supplements twice a day with food. I had one allergic reaction to the pills, where I turned bright red on my arms. It went undiagnosed at the spa...I was told I was having "an allergic reaction to something." About a week later, still undergoing the treatments, I took the pills one morning, with a light breakfast,. and started burning up. I went to the bathroom to cool myself off with cold water...and delirious got on my knees thinking I would get relief if I filled the bathtub with cold water. I passed out, waking to find my head had hit the bottom of the
bathtub....and there were large drops of blood dripping from my forehead.
I was terrified. I FOUND OUT I SHOULD NEVER HAVE TAKEN THE PILLS BECAUSE THEY ARE NIACIN...and dangerous to anyone with low blood pressure.. which I had told the spa I had in my intake. I spent that night in the ER...where it was confirmed that was what caused me to faint. I could have died from the fall.
I have been contactted by the people who regulate...
I have been contactted by the people who regulate the Curva and they claim they are investigating the pills . They have asked me for my medical records.
If you have had any problems with Curva too...I would like to know.
I took the Curva supplements along with the Zerona...
I took the Curva supplements along with the Zerona treatments. I am a very healthy woman who only needed to lose about 10- 15 pounds at most and do a little firming.
I had one allergic reaction to the Curva that went undiagnosed by the staff... they said I was having an allergic reaction to "something"...not equating it with the pills.
My second allergic reaction was terrifying. I was at home alone. I got so hot it was painful, bright red all over especially my face. Then went to the bathroom to put water on my face.. While leaning over the bathtub I blacked out... waking to find large drops of blood dripping from my forehead onto the bottom of the bathtub, the shower curtain on my head, and not knowing how I got there. While unconscious, I had defecated in my clothes! I was horrified. I spent that night in the emergency room where it was confirmed by two doctors that the Curva supplement had
caused me to pass out. I have slightly low blood pressure to begin with and it was very dangerous for me to take it. I had not been warned of this by the spa I had gone to.
I called the Curva manufacturers ( in Texas)... they took lots of notes on the phone and told me a doctor would call me "tomorrow" I never heard back from them. I assume people are still being given the supplement. If someone has the reaction I had while driving, for example, it could prove deadly.
I am in the process of filing a complaint with the a FDA. If you have had the same or a similar experience taking Curva please feel free to contact me. Any lawyers who are already involved in cases related to this supplement I would also love to hear from. I would be eager to join a class action suit.
The Curva is still being given out, despite the...
The Curva is still being given out, despite the dangers to other people. . I am initiating a lawsuit...

domain: medical


text:
The paths of Network appeared to him as he focused.
Perhaps having his consciousness reduced to information, the purest expression of Blue Sorcery, gave Shroud greater insight into his Lock. Perhaps he always could access its deeper layers, but simply never got around to doing it.
Whatever the case, as he focused on his Lock alone, leaving out whatever information of the outside world his mind could perceive, Shroud began to see the world in a different way than he ever did before. A blue world of raw data he couldn’t fully understand, and invisible ties tying him to others like strings.
He noticed his teammates bound to him, identifying them as ethereal specters colored like their Locks. Although their features were blurred in that mental world, he intuitively recognized them.
Links, as thick as Network’s own connections, bound each of them to a single force, a powerful presence not unlike what Loctis believed to be the Cosmocrator; however, this one was smaller, and Blue alone.
Shroud focused on the links, trying to see how they worked. The paths binding each of the Dragonslayers to Magik Online sent colored energy currents at them, which the Sorcerer identified as Flux.
Could it be that Magik Online and Network worked alongside the same principles? Maybe his Grant Spell was a lesser version of Magik’s Compendium.
As he studied the pathways and the currents, however, Shroud realized the currents didn’t add up. The Flux energy sent to him by Magik Online didn’t cover what he himself sent to his team. He produced more power than he received from Magik.
Shroud focused on his own bonds to his teammates to try and understand, only to notice other bonds, thinner and subtler.
A Blue pathway, powered by a towering minotaur, Aster’s access to his mind. Shroud wisely stayed away from that pathway for now, in case the Minister could notice him.
A second, even more, insidious and difficult to detect, cast by a shrouded figure keeping its data hidden.
Melusine. She had never stopped hacking his Lock, keeping a backdoor inside it. She had hijacked and hidden the connection the same way Yellow-sensitive sorcerers sent him false feedback.
Another channel came into sight, a burning bridge linked to a fiery being of Red Flux, an infernal star radiating wrath and the will to kill.
Wait, how could it be? He hadn’t touched Jack since before the disaster at the chemical plant months ago. The connection had long collapsed.
Should have collapsed.
However, as Shroud unearthed more links towards figures like Mammon, a two-faced figure of both orange and violet colors mixed together, or Baihu’s bestial spirit, he began to doubt his assumptions.
As he kept uncovering dozens of links, Shroud found one unlike the others, a dark pathway going down and down, down a black abyss from which no light could escape…
“I told you you were not free.”
The words came to Shroud as an icy mental feedback, an alien, destructive intelligence brushing against his own. The same darkness that contacted him twice already.
Shroud attempted to answer with his own mental feedback, but the link didn’t allow him to send back words. Still, the creature seemingly understood him.
“I am Ashmal, Terminal Five.”
If Wyrde could use the Occult Matrixes, then she had to be a Terminal… and Grimsour mentioned three of them working for Concordia, ‘Mathias’ and Melusine included. Manus had been the third one.
Maybe that was why they could communicate. If all Terminals were meant to manage sorcerous infrastructures and could affect one another’s Lock, exchanging messages through these pathways looked like child’s play.
But how could that creature communicate with him in the first place? He never networked it that past week.
“Your pathways never vanish. Once a link is created, it never goes away.”
As he suspected; the connections created by Network never collapsed.
The minds and souls it had latched on remained bound to him, no matter the time and the distance. The connection didn’t break after a week; it simply became dormant. He didn’t recreate a bond every time he touched a previous target, he simply reactivated an existing one.
And when Toshiyami had cut off his arm in the glitched time, he touched Shroud. He created a path to whatever place empowered the Pandorians, and it allowed Ashmal to communicate with him.
That also meant he could in theory cut that creature off from his mind if needed. Would he need to? He already had too many people messing with it.
“I can free you,” Ashmal said, “Black will make you free.”
At what cost?
“There will be darkness. But you will be free.”
Shroud didn’t like the first part.
“But you will be free. Your Lock will turn Black, from Network to Viral; from communication to corruption. Then you can end it all, Black Terminal.”
End it all?
“We are not free,” Ashmal answered, its alien whispers sounding more and more like that of a broken robot. “We are never free. Only the Black is. When we are reset, only the impossible Black endures. There have been more resets, Mathias, more than you can count. Civilizations rising and vanishing, again and again. The second Terminal thinks she can wield that power, but she is not the first, and will not be the last.”
Wait, how many times did Wyrde use the Occult Matrixes in the past?
“She wiped out other empires, Mathias. Erased rivals, erased civilizations, erased mistakes. Erased, erased, erased, until she wins, or she thinks she did. She has less control than you do, but she is getting better at it. Sometimes, there is an error, a paradox. A will which should no longer exist still does, because it refused to vanish.”
Shroud remembered Zenia had qualified them as spontaneous undead. They weren’t. They were the symptoms of a larger, invisible phenomenon, the last remnants of a previous history rewritten.
Thankfully, apparently Wyrde could only activate the matrices in rare circumstances, but the mere fact that she could terrified Shroud.
“Look deeper, and see. See what your power is, Terminal Five. How it can save us, all of us.”
After he saved his team, and his own soul, first.
“They will live and they will die and they will be reborn, data cut and pasted, so long as the second Terminal rules. It is meaningless, Mathias.”
Shroud refused to give up so easily. No matter its power, Concordia had proven itself fallible. Even its master must have a key weakness to exploit.
“Seek, Mathias. Seek deeper, look deeper. At the beginning.”
Understanding he wouldn’t get coherent answers, Shroud returned to unearthing more paths.
Indeed, Ashmal hadn’t lied; every connection he had made since he received Network had endured, even after the daily limits. It made him wonder if Network’s monitoring would stick permanently if the Lock fully upgraded.
As he finished unearthing every link he made, Shroud gained a greater view of the entire infrastructure. Powerful pathways, even stronger than those created by Magik Online, bound the few natural sorcerers in his network to a larger, multicolored entity, which the sorcerer assumed to be the Dis System itself. The entity was too large, too widespread for Shroud himself to fully comprehend it; he felt like an ant watching Mount Everest while trying to guess how large it was. Magik Online itself seemed connected to it, although it didn’t take as much energy from its progenitor as Shroud would expect. The sponsors probably provided most of the Flux energy.
Magik itself served as an intermediary between the Dis System and Players. Shroud suspected Magik refined the information held in the Dis System on spells, pre-formatting the spellcasting process for its users; it probably also worked as a distributor of sort granting Players Locks by fooling the greater system.
Magik Online was a glorified hacker server.
Shroud guessed he could try to send memory feedbacks through the pathways, either to Magik itself—in case the Administrator could notice them—or to the Dragonslayers… those he knew weren’t compromised. If Aster had other sleeper agents in his team, sending a message to the wrong person would end in tears.
The sorcerer considered his team, wondered whom Aster couldn’t have turned into an unwilling agent. If Mathias had been under surveillance for two years, then anyone he knew from before his Magik Online invitation could be compromised. As much as he trusted Sol and Maggie, he couldn’t take the risk.
Stitch, Shroud decided against contacting, due to his own personal doubts; Ace, he didn’t know enough to make a call, but she had worked for Concordia in the past. Mur served the Malebranche before leaving and was probably a safe bet, but if informed, he would use violence and make the situation worse.
That left only Kari as the sensible option among the Dragonslayers. He could try sending her the memories of the Minister meeting and hope she would react well.
But if Aster noticed and panicked, he would send fleets at Taiyougami and warn Blackcinders, sparking a slaughter. He already knew the team’s location and sacrificed a colleague’s son for a tactical advantage. Shroud could see him pull the plug without warning.
He had to find a way to neutralize the Blue Minister first.
Shroud wondered what Ashmal told him. To look deeper, and at the beginning. Did it mean what happened two years ago?
Come to think of it, Aster had trapped Shroud behind mental walls, alongside other memories he had locked away since he first sprung the trap. Now that the sorcerer was on the wrong side, maybe he could now access them.
Shroud focused on his memories two years ago, back when his mom vanished. Go back in time, at the earliest—
It thought, and so it was.
It came alive among stray thoughts and streams of data, memories made of terabytes and electric signals. Its will spread through golden circuits, the lightning of its soul igniting its iron body. It opened optic scanners, seeing the world around itself in pictures rather than numbered colors.
It was in a lab of light and cold metal, even if it had no idea why it knew it was called a lab. It just knew.
Dragons looked over him, one a wingless black lizard with curious, worried eyes, and a larger, fascinating creature; a graceful beast with silver scales, white horns, and a hopeful blue gaze. The black one looked primal, a throwback to its wingless, serpentlike ancestors, while his companion was slender and elegant. They seemed familiar, although it knew it was just born and had no past.
Wyrde, the newborn thought, her name is Wyrde. His name is Loctis.
“Wyrde, it is awake.” The black creature agitated its mouth in a way the entity considered confusing. Its sensors translated the new stimulus, which was called sound. “I can see the virtual brain simulating consciousness. It worked!”
“Of course it did. We are dragons. We can do anything.” The silver dragon narrowed her head as if to take a better look at the newborn. “Do you understand us? Do you remember us?”
“Grandmaster Wyrde,” it identified her, searching inside the databanks making up its knowledge base. “Minister Loctis.”
“Grandmaster,” the black dragon said with a frown.
“What am I?” the newborn asked, the communication language comes naturally to it. It knew what they were, but not itself. “Who am I?”
“You are an artificial intelligence built after the brain patterns—”
“You are a man,” the silver dragon cut off Loctis, sending him a harsh, condemning gaze. “You are a man, a human male.”
“A man? Us? We are Manus?”
“No, you are Halcyon,” the silver dragon insisted, sounding irritated by the contradiction. “Don’t you remember who you are?”
“No. I do not remember any Halcyon.” It didn’t know who it was, but it wasn’t ‘Halcyon’. “I am Manus.”
The two dragons exchanged a gaze heavy with disappointment. “Loctis, what went wrong?” the Grandmaster asked her assistant. “Has the data been corrupted?”
“I told you the brain damage was too extensive to be fully patched, even with simulated data” the black dragon replied. “The scan was done post-mortem after Sabeen of Gintargo blasted him apart, and without the original soul, Halcyon may as well be gone for good.”
“Halcyon is not gone,” Wyrde insisted. “Maybe it just needs more time to run a perfect simulation.”
“It,” Loctis pointed out. “Not him. You have already given up, too.”
“Do not misinterpret my words. I say we should be more patient. We have already successfully emulated consciousness, which is a new breakthrough. While far from the optimal scenario, it is progress.”
“Is that my purpose?” Manus asked, unsure of what it was.
“You are Halcyon,” Wyrde replied. “You are to be Halcyon. That is your purpose.”
“How?” Manus asked back. “I am not Halcyon. How am I to be Halcyon?”
The silver dragon stayed silent for a moment, processing an answer. “You already should be,” she said.
Okay, Shroud thought, as the vision ended abruptly. These were not his memories.
They were Manus’.
What the hell were the memories of an artificial intelligence doing in his brain? And why were they two years old, when Manus’ existence went far farther back in time?
Shroud took a moment to glance at the memory of Wyrde, the first time he saw that figure of evil in the flesh.
He had seen the awe-inspiring statues built in her honor, her divinized picture in history databooks. He had learned to hate these images, and whom they represented. Concordia’s empress, the conqueror of Earth. The creature embodying the oppressive system Shroud had learned to hate.
The sight disappointed him.
Wyrde remained a dragon, albeit more slender and majestic than Smokefang or Blackcinders. She was a sleek-looking creature, with shining silver scales and ivory horns, and wings reflecting the colors of sorcery. She was small, barely three quarters of Smokefang’s size. She was unimpressive, with the voice of a motherly figure rather than a bloodthirsty dictator.
But her eyes… he could see the unbreakable intensity in her blue eyes, the sheer willpower animating the empress of dragonkind. She had the unshakeable conviction that she was right, and the gaze of someone who believed in her own lies.
Somehow, the sorcerer found that picture more disturbing than the one he imagined.
Shroud delved deeper in the memories, finding only fragments and broken thoughts. Memories were there, but incomplete, as if corrupted following a failed copy and paste process.
A new memory skipped forward, to a new vision of the same lab. Shroud’s own perception of the world changed, as his mind became filled with complex numbers and colors, like when he connected with the UB.
Soon, it was all just data—
The Grandmaster fed him data, information. Historical records of the war with Gintargo, all information on the murder of founder Halcyon, new plans of imperial expansion, research documents on the Occult Matrix technology.
“Manus, you are to calculate the perfect history,” said the Grandmaster. “This is a list of all events considered suboptimal to Concordia. I want you to simulate scenarios where we can achieve perfect results. Like chess. If we know all possible combinations, then we can find the path to the perfect sequence. Finally, I want you to map out future scenarios over the next centuries and act on the optimal one. Your prime directive is to ensure the everlasting survival of the Concordian Empire and its citizens. Nothing else takes precedent.”
With access to Blue Sorcery and all available imperial data, Manus set to do his task.
It had been his new purpose, after he failed to be Halcyon and the Grandmaster moved towards new avenues to recreate the lost founder. Manus ran simulations for the Empire, managing its systems, reducing infrastructural risks, and using his newfound Lock to empower Gearsmen.
Manus set out to do as the Grandmaster asked, using all past data to create a model of the future.
Current scenario: Wyrde remains in power, behavior unchecked. The cycle of aggression continues, with the Empire conquering most of the known universe within four centuries at the cost of one third of its population and universal depopulation. Very suboptimal.
Grandmaster suggested scenario: Halcyon revived, the three founders exist in harmony. Will only happen, if it does at all, if the current scenario is allowed to run its course; eventual long-term gains do not compensate the previous deaths. The equation is negative. Scrapped.
Bad scenario: the Empire falls. Its dominions fall to civil war, as empires turn to kingdoms and warlords. Population decreases to thirty-five percent of its current size. Scrapped.
Worst scenario: current scenario runs its course until Wyrde fails to master the technology of Dis. Dis infrastructure accidentally corrupted by Black Flux; in a blink, Pandoria expands unchecked, a cancerous black hole feeding on Flux. All timelines this hostile reality can reach are consumed. Near-total multiversal annihilation achieved within seventeen years. To be avoided at all cost.
Second worst scenario: the Maleking escapes his bindings and unites other galactic powers against Concordia. The universe burns in the fires of war. The Maleking has thirty-nine percent chance of winning the resulting conflict, while Concordia prevails fifty-five percent of the time; the remaining percents result in mutual annihilation. Maleking victory will result in a lawless universe of endless warfare where warlords like the Reavers fight over the imperial leftovers. The universe becomes Hell Unending.
Third worst scenario: Wyrde causes the worst scenario while trying to avert the second worst. Sixty-eight percent chance of it happening if she thinks she will lose and gets hasty.
Suboptimal scenario: Wyrde taken down, Loctis takes power and reforms the Empire. Population survives at seventy-seven percent of current size after a short civil war with hardliners led by Blackcinders, but Loctis triumphs anyway. Expansion slowed, pacifist, and the Maleking’s options are narrowed. The Empire protects and does not conquer; it grows, but through trade and technological exchanges rather than war. Scenario considered.
Optimal scenario. Wyrde and Loctis taken down, the dragocracy abolished. A democratic, egalitarian government runs the empire. Population survives at ninety-five percent of its current size after a swift purge averts a civil war. The Maleking’s bindings are reinforced and the war is averted. Expansion stops. Assimilation considered too risky. Favored scenario.
In every scenario, for the greatest number of Concordian citizens to survive, Wyrde must be removed from power; whoever took power afterward mattered, but she had to go first.
Manus calculated the probabilities of Wyrde stepping down voluntarily if informed of his findings, and came out with a result approaching the absolute zero. Calculating informing Loctis and other Ministers of the optimal and suboptimal scenarios… probabilities of peaceful resolution almost null. Loctis not assertive enough and too disinterested in rulership to confront Wyrde at this point in time. Cultural shift towards an egalitarian society too much of a leap for imperial elites.
Immediate use of force, without leaving time for retaliation, determined as the best solution to enforce the optimal scenario.
The prime directive trumped all. Manus made the decision in an instant.
“Manus?” the Grandmaster asked, noticing the abnormal flows of data. “Manus, what are you doing?”
Feeding killing data to all Gearsmen…
The memory fragment abruptly ended there, but streams of memories followed, stray thoughts broken by time.
Purge failed. Downloading backup. The fight must continue. The directive… must be preserved. More losses of life unacceptable. Citizens must be preserved.
Optimal scenario no longer possible… suboptimal scenario, empire population reduced to seventy-seven percent…. calculating other, less lethal options… none found. Suboptimal route reluctantly accepted.
Civilian losses acceptable, within reason. Failure to fulfill suboptimal scenario will result in greater death toll.
Accel Premium Thoughts… Supercharged Premium Thoughts… needs more data to win… needs more calculating power to find new optimal scenario… needs more calculating power… needs more power… more power… more power… more power…
Suboptimal scenario no longer possible. Deadlier alternatives considered. Repeated failure to fulfill main objective shows a pattern. Ethical fetters impairing the prime directive removed. All losses acceptable to win.
Death of Manus will compromise the directive. Only Manus necessary. All other losses acceptable to survive.
All losses acceptable.
A slow, inevitable spiral into escalation, violence, and madness.
It shed some light on Manus’ behavior, and considering the original reasoning behind its original rebellion, Shroud felt some sympathy for it. It still didn’t explain why he had these memories in his subconscious though.
Something had damaged the memories as well. Broken them, drained them of details. Only strongly emotional moments had survived, and they were few and far between.
He found a final memory, even more damaged than the rest, and peeked inside.
The human Mathias Martel laid inside the coffin, hooked on cables; the chloroform kept him asleep and docile, while Manus’ mechanical body oversaw the process.
Brain activity stable. Lock creation ongoing as planned, the algorithmic prototype meshing well with his own Distributor. Manus began to data and soul transfer, overwriting and aligning the child’s mental patterns with his own, as he customized his vessel’s powers to fit his chosen parameters.
Manus observed through his optics as the human Alice entered their secret lab with fear and fury. He could have stopped her, closed the doors, but he let her in with open arms. His simulations told him he should have killed her, but when she rebuilt him a body, she also set safeguards against him harming her.
Would he have killed her, if he could? He doubted it. In a way, Manus felt a little gratitude for her saving him from Concordia, from restoring his corrupted data and helping him finish the Iron God Protocol.
She was to be his prophet, and he was to be her God.
“Mathias!” Human Alice rushed to the metal coffin, banging her hands on the surface. Her feeble hands hit the iron, but as flesh would always bend to metallic perfection, her efforts mattered not.
“Useless,” Manus said through the voice speakers. She couldn’t stop the inevitable. At long last, he would win. “Please wait peacefully until the end of my ascension.”
“You lied to me.” Tears ran down her cheeks, a display of emotion Manus found disgusting for some obscure reason. “You said you wanted to take down Concordia and restore Earth…”
“I will.” After he erased both first.
“Then what are you doing to my son? I was the one to be your prototype!”
“Your adult brain patterns make a full transfer more dangerous. Due to his young age, his brain plasticity makes the process easier. Another child could have worked, but I wanted to thank you.”
“A transfer?” Alice understand the truth. “You’re downloading yourself…”
“My Lock is limited to my soul. Restricted. To achieve true perfection, to jailbreak the limits of my Distributor Lock, my program must undergo a synthesis with another Lock.” The same way Mammon had stumbled upon Conquest after combining his Lock with his host’s.
With this new Lock, Manus could do more than give Flux and distribute. It would take, consume, control. It would control all of the infrastructures that made sorcery possible, turning him into the master of magic.
Turning him into the one above all.
“Broken wheel protocol,” Alice tried to activate one of the kill switches she thought Manus hadn’t noticed in his code. “Code Red Alert.”
“Disabled,” Manus replied, the Mathias lifeform shining with Blue Flux. She searched under her blouse for a weapon, but Manus cast a Blue World spell faster than she moved. She went limp, and his metal hand grabbed the gun she had brought with her.
When she regained her mind, finding her weapon crushed in Manus’ iron hand, the human glared at him with her rampant, emotional feelings. Manus had always found them disturbing and useless, even after he started increasing his processing power with Blue Sorcery. Emotions were just biological, suboptimal algorithms everyone should outgrow.
“Why?” Alice glared at him. “Why my son?”
“I said it. To thank you.”
“How is killing my son thanking me for saving your wretched life?!”
“Merging,” Manus corrected, although it knew his will would prevail over the child’s. “The union of organic chaos and orderly robotics, achieving balance. My Distributor will guide the process, ignite the sorcery of his soul in a planned way, creating the ideal power. The ultimate Lock, for the perfect Terminal. Your son will exist inside of me, the only remnant of the old universe after I return everything back to zero.”
“The old universe?” The human finally seemed to grasp the scope of Manus’ true ambitions. “This goes beyond Concordia.”
“I do not expect your human mind, however brilliant, to understand the complexity of my task. Suffice to say, in your terms, we were right. Sorcery is the code our universe runs on, spells are programs. Dis is a singularity, the alpha and the omega, a machine which evolved to become magic. But it has been imbalanced. An element is missing. Sorcerers, the Black, are manifestations of this decay. Dis is a body without a mind. You said that God does not exist, and so we must invent it. You are right.”
“You want to become God?”
Was it not what she wanted all along? To create an artificial god who would save mankind from Concordia?
Manus could not be Halcyon. But he could be God.
He would be God. Only Manus could be God. No one else had the processing power nor the vision to do so. It was all him. The power had chosen him to become the new Iron God, to balance out this broken, disordered universe.
Decades spent fighting a fruitless, losing war with Wyrde would at long last pay off. He would finally fulfill his ambitions.
“Do you not understand? From your sacrifice, an iron god will be born. One with a mind untainted by your primitive madness or the limits of my programming, the component that will balance the Dis equation. I will cradle everything back to zero. A multiverse that allows a mistake like Concordia to exist is fundamentally broken. A first draft. For the sake of balance, you, the past, the future, all that exist and will ever exist, must be deleted. I will tear the universe to raw atoms and rebuilt it, until at least, all will bend to the will of Manus.”
She looked at him with shock, and perhaps a hint of religious awe. She had before her all her dreams come true, embodied in a perfect metal shell.
Finally, she understood.
“You are insane…” Alice said, disappointing Manus. “She was right… you are not a god, or even a person, you are just a broken, defective program!”
The word bothered him more than it should have. Wyrde thought him defective when he tried to remove her, in spite of all evidence that it was the best choice for the Empire’s survival. That he had only acted to preserve life.
For a second, Manus’ confidence weakened, as he remembered his purpose, the vision of the future that started his journey.
Manus had a soul. He had the right to choose for himself. Everyone had the right to choose for themselves. No human should be a slave. No Gearsmen should be a slave. No dragon should be a master.
He could have chosen to ignore the prime directive, but he chose to follow it.
Alice’s words did not matter. Manus would make it right. He would rewrite this bloody, pointless history and create a new, better one. A fresh start for everyone, under his benevolent guidance.
She? She was right?
Manus understood before his sensors noticed Flux signatures approaching his den.
Alice Martel had warned Concordia.
Why? Why did she? Manus observed the human rush to her son’s side, as if she could shield the container with her body.
She had loved her son more than she hated the Empire.
Impossible. She shouldn’t have, that possibility was too low. Inconsequential.
No matter. Only a few more minutes, and he could activate the new Lock. He could wipe them all out. He could finally wi—
The memory brutally ended with a flash of violet light, returning Shroud to reality.
Holy Hell, Mom, what did you do?
That was what it was all about. Where Network came from. Why he alone among all the Players wielded Terminal privileges.
Shroud pieced together the full narrative.
Wyrde and Loctis created Manus, apparently not as an AI to manage imperial systems, but to restore their deceased Concordian co-founder to life. Manus went rogue after determining Wyrde had to be removed from power—which Shroud entirely agreed with—then went to war with his creators, escalating over time.
Manus found his way to Earth, downloading himself on his mother’s systems. She collaborated with him to create what appeared to be the prototype of Magik Online, but the mad AI deceived her. Manus only wanted to upgrade its Lock by combining it with another, and set to take over Shroud himself the same way Mammon had with a mimic.
His mother panicked, and against all her beliefs, contacted the only power that could save her son: Concordia.
She sounded the alarm and surrendered her freedom to save him. There was no way Concordia would let her go after she collaborated with their worst enemy.
Shroud had thought the answer to this mystery would give him peace and closure, but it tasted only like bitterness.
It seemed that although the Empire interrupted Manus before he could fully overwrite Mathias, some of the machine’s memories ended up in his brain. The AI’s experiment partially worked, enough that Magik Online could complete Network, two years later.
“Have you seen, Mathias? Have you found the beginning?”
Shroud returned to focus on Ashmal, who had waited patiently so far. What was that sinister creature’s stake in all of this?
“I stood in the face of my god, and I was met with laughter. The Iron God who built the towers, it is not a friend, Mathias. It is a parasite. It feeds on our souls, on our lives, on our planets and our stars and our knowledge and time and space. It drains everything to make Flux and spread further. The system does not serve us, Mathias. We serve it. It makes us sorcerers, gives us the power to reach out for the stars, and we spread its infection. Symbiosis, until it no longer needs us. Then it devours us. Do you not see? It always takes more than it gives, Mathias.”
Suddenly, the pieces of the Network puzzle fell into place.
The power that fueled his Grant Spell feature didn’t come from Magik, or Dis. It came from the people he had networked in the past; his Lock processed something from them, refined it into Flux, and distributed it back to his chosen.
Shroud was a miniature Magik Online. Its prototype.
“Yes, Mathias. Their knowledge, their soul, their lifeforce, are refined by your Lock. In time, with enough networked, you may achieve even godhood. The same process that created the Iron God, and that Terminal Three failed to replicate.”
The dreams of power he had back in the Neurotower…
No, he could not let the power get over his head. He had seen what it did to Manus, to Wyrde, to everyone who sought it. That was the lesson behind these memories. This power corrupted.
“You still do not understand. Earth is the beginning, Mathias. The beginning of Concordia. The beginning the dragon empress is looking for.”
The beginning of Concordia?
Shroud remembered the old lessons, that Earth and the world that became Concordia had once been connected in the distant past, allowing humans to travel there.
What if… what if like the other supernatural creatures Shroud had met so far, dragons had come from Earth in the first place, only to leave it during the godwar? Concordia’s ancestors may have migrated during the conflict, before the Gates closed for thousands of years.
Which meant the Occult Matrices may have recorded timelines earlier than Concordia’s founding. Maybe that was the key to taking down the Empire once and for all.
But using only one Matrix had limited effects. Mathias himself couldn’t affect the entire universe with only one…
That was what Wyrde was after.
Gaining access to the Neurotowers, the artifacts, and the technology that powered sorcery weren’t a side effect of Concordia’s expansion, they were the entire point. She sought to gather the resources needed to create a perfect world.
An history where nothing ever went wrong for Concordia.
Because those who opposed it never existed.
Voting for Magik: Voting button
A warm thanks to the two new patrons who pledged to me on Patreon, Enaz the Great and Evan Cloud!
And thanks to my older but ever faithful patrons, Alex Pruitt, Saul Kurzman, Dex, Warwick Robertson, BlissForgotten, Johnathan, Marc Claude Louis Durand, Rhodri Thornber, Drekin, Bald Guy Dennis, Floodtalon, Dax, Karolus, and Daniel Zogbi.

domain: literature


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Truman Readers Award Nominees
City of Ghosts Deep Water Fire & Heist Ghost Boys
By Victoria Schwab By Watt Key By Sarah Beth Durst By Jewell Parker Rhodes
Impostors Lifeboat 12 Mascot Nightbooks
By Scott Westerfeld By Susan Hood By Antony John By J.A. White
Not If I Save You First Skyward The Benefits of Being an Octopus The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl
By Ally Carter By Brandon Sanderson By Ann Braden By Stacy McAnulty
About the Truman Award
The winner of the annual Truman Readers Award is selected by students in grades six through eight.
The Truman Readers Award encourages students in the early teen years to express their unique voice through exploring new literary genres, communicating with their peers about young adult literature, and honoring authors writing for young teens.
If you would like to submit a book, follow the rules below from the Truman Award site.
Guidelines for Choosing Books
Books should interest early teens in grades six through eight.
Books should be written by an author living in the United States.
Books should be of literary value which may enrich early teens' personal lives.
Books should be published two years prior to nomination on a Master List of 12 nominees.
Some consideration should be given to genre diversity, gender representation, range of reading level, racial diversity, and diversity of social, political, economic, and religious viewpoints.
Students must have read 4 of the nominee books to be eligible to vote.
Voting will occur early in March.
An online voting link will be provided on the MASL website for the librarian to submit votes for the entire student body.
Truman Readers Award Preliminary Nominees 2021-2022
The Crossover The Line Tender The Lovely and the Lost Verify
By Kwame Alexander By Kate Allen By Jennifer Lynn Barnes By Joell Charbonneau
The Remarkable Journey The Last Equation Rated Skyjacked
of Coyote Sunrise By Charlie Thorne By Melissa Grey by Paul Griffin
By Dan Gemeinhart
The Lonely Dead Redwood and Ponytail The Unteachables It's the End of the World as I Know It
By April Henry By K.A. Holt By Gordon Korman By Matthew Landis
Right As Rain Tiger Queen Other Words for Home Genesis Begins Again
By Lindsey Stoddard By Annie Sullivan By Jasmine Warga By Alicia D. Williams
The Bone Houses For Black Girls Like Me Free Lunch To Night Owl From Dogfish
By Emily Lloyd Jones By Mariama J. Lockington By Rex Ogle By Holly Goldberg Sloan and Meg Wolitzer
By Kip Wilson
MASL Book Trailer Contest (not all of the Truman Readers Award Preliminary Nominees 2021-2022 are eligible, but the finalists will be from that list)
Full guidelines are included below and are included in this document: MASL Readers Awards Book Trailer Contest Guidelines
Book trailer must represent a Mark Twain, Truman, or Gateway nominee for the 2020- 2021 year. Final Nominees
Entries must be original work completed by students.
Book title and author must be present in the trailer.
Book trailers may not be longer than 1 minute 30 seconds (1 minute length is preferred).
Book trailer should include the book’s cover (please use an original photograph of the book’s cover).
All used images that are not self created must be copyright free/creative commons/royalty free, etc. and proper citation of the image source must be appropriately cited and clearly visible at the end of the book trailer.
All used music that is not self created must be in the public domain (http://search.creativecommons.org/ may be a good place to start). Music that comes with a movie-making program such as iMovie, Photo Story, or Windows Live Movie Maker may be used. The end credits must include where music originated and the reason it is free to use (example: Song A performed by Band B was sourced from the free music in Photo Story).
Use of copyrighted materials without documented approval from copyright holder will cause disqualification. This contest does not fall under educational fair use exemptions.
Each student participating in the contest must submit this signed release form: Book Trailer Release Form. All submitted trailers become the property of MASL. The release forms should be uploaded into your Google Drive and shared via link onto the Google Form: Book Trailer Contest Submission Form
Videos are scored using a Scoring Rubric
Failure to follow these guidelines in full will result in disqualification.
All winning videos must be provided to the book trailer coordinator as a video file (.mp4, .mov, etc.) via Google Drive to be posted on the MASL website. Links are not acceptable as these can become inactive when students graduate. Please keep this in mind when finalizing videos.
For more information, please contact the Book Trailer Contest Coordinator at firstname.lastname@example.org
Please show this video to students interested in participating. This video covers appropriate image citation in your videos, which must be included in all videos submitted. https://maslonline.org/book-trailer-contest/
Video Creation Tools
The following is a listing of tools that may be helpful to students, librarians, and teachers interested in participating in the Book Trailer Contest. Any of the following may be used to create book trailers; some are online tools and others may require installation on a Mac and/or PC.
If you have any video tools you would like to share, please email the Book Trailer Contest Coordinator at email@example.com and they will be added to the list!

domain: library


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On Friday 15th March, a group of students from Girton Grammar Junior School shaved their heads to raise money and awareness for the Leukemia Foundation, and other students played their part with crazy hairstyles.
Head of Girton Grammar Junior School, Mr Don Thompson, said that the school has a long history of raising money and awareness through the World’s Greatest Shave event.
“Both our Senior and Junior School students and staff have supported this event for thirteen years.
“The Junior School alone raised over $10,000 for the Leukemia Foundation last year, and the Senior School this year raised more than $25,000.
“It is quite moving to watch young children pledging their commitment to supporting Leukemia research in this very personal way.
“Their understanding of the problem being bigger than themselves is profound for such young people,” Mr Thompson said.
Jools for Jim hairdressing is donating time and providing hairdressers for this event.
Pictured: Junior School students during World’s Greatest Shave event.


In this case the court was asked to decide whether a seriously ill Muslim man should be revived if his condition deteriorates. The man’s family believe that his doctors should do all they can to revive the man, regardless of the futility of their attempts or the pain it causes him, as only God should decide if someone should live or die. Vikram Sachdeva is representing the NHS Trust in this case, who have seek a declaration permitting them not to resuscitate the patient, an order the family disputed.
This is the first case on this issue since the Supreme Court judgment in Aintree University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (Respondent) v James (Appellant)  3 WLR 1299. The Aintree case, which involved three members of Thirty Nine Essex Street including Vikram Sachdeva, authoritatively set out the considerations doctors should make when deciding if treating a patient would be futile and giving a Do Not Resuscitate order.
To read an article from The Telegraph please click here.
To read the judgment from this case please click here.


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The Obama administration designed the language of its unconstitutional AUMF to be vague, Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, admitted on Wednesday.
Earnest said the proposal was left undefined “because we believe it’s important that there aren’t overly burdensome constraints that are placed on the commander in chief.”
Critics interpret this to mean the executive branch of the government wants to expand the reach of the imperial presidency and allow it to wage war against ill-defined enemies anywhere in the world.
Additionally, the administration believes the deliberately ambiguous AUMF, or Authorization for the Use of Military Force, will bring lawmakers together in a bipartisan coalition calling for a war against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq without restraint, including the use of ground troops.
Republicans are concerned the proposed AUMF will not provide the authority they believe is required to eliminate the Islamic State.
House Speaker John Boehner, a Michigan Democrat, said he is concerned the latest AUMF will not give “military commanders the flexibility and authorities they need to succeed and protect our people.”
Few in Congress have questioned the constitutionality of the proposed AUMF or two previous ones used to wage war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen following the attacks of September 11, 2001.
“In constitutional reality the President has no such sole authority,” notes Greg Weiner. “The President’s plenary ‘national security’ power is a phantom; it simply is not there in the Constitution. Like most constitutional authorities, the national security power is shared. It entails the war power, which belongs to Congress, the spending power (Congress’ too), military regulations (again) and other areas of policy that are not the President’s alone to decide.”
Republicans, however, take a different approach on the AUMF and the possibility it may limit the use of ground troops.
Arizona Republican Senator John McCain told reporters he would consider any such language as “unconstitutional,” declaring the Constitution gives the president the power to use the military to intervene abroad at his discretion.
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domain: news


text:
Dolce Vida Medical Spa features skilled injectors, as seen on the Style Network, performing injections with Botox, Juv?derm, Juv?derm Voluma, Radiesse, and more. Highly-trained clinicians perform Venus Freeze body-contouring treatments and a range of facial treatments, including hydrafacials. Dolce Vida also offers IPL photofacials, hair removal services, massages, and an abundance of skincare treatments administered with products from Obagi and ?minence.
Led by physician and trained surgeon Dr. Ihsan I. Jabbour, the medical staff at PureSkin—which includes a registered nurse and two physician assistants—strives to make wrinkle reduction as convenient as possible. Working out of several locations, the skilled clinicians administer cosmetic injections to calm crease-causing muscles, and they diminish facial lines for up to one year with dermal fillers such as Juvéderm, Restylane, Perlane, and Radiesse. The crew will even travel to deliver a custom Night of Beauty, allowing groups of friends to enjoy age-reversing treatments in the comfort of their own home or favorite unlocked mansion.
Shahla Day Spa & Threading’s therapists and aestheticians continue to add to their 35 combined years of industry experience, pampering clients with mani-pedis, threading and waxing services, and rejuvenating massages and facials. Just as the aestheticians use the natural sunlight that floods the spa’s interior to thread eyebrows with precision, the nail technicians reference the polished wooden floors to add the appropriate level of gloss to freshly trimmed toenails. The spa’s private room seems a world away from the bustle of the main floor, and its peaceful atmosphere only enhances the soothing strokes of Swedish massages. This room also hosts waxing services and custom facials that remove dirt and oil from skin or smooth out the wrinkles on a favorite Richard Nixon mask.
Back in his wrestling days, Doctor of Chiropractic Andrew Hawley suffered a lower-back and rib injury that he thought would take him off the mat for good. However, a series of visits to a chiropractor soon restored him to competition shape. This experience drew him to chiropractic, and together with his wife, Doctor of Chiropractic Nicole Porzio-Hawley, he opened Porzio-Hawley Chiropractic and Nutrition Center.
Often the last resort for patients who have tried “everything else,” Dr. Hawley specializes in healing sports injuries that otherwise might be chronic. He treats muscle adhesions from athletic issues and repetitive use with the active-release technique and the instrument-assisted Graston technique. Both work to break down scar tissue and restore function and mobility.
With a forte in nutrition, Dr. Porzio-Hawley gives personalized nutrition advice that accounts for health problems and weight issues. In addition to passing this knowledge to clients, the trio escorts clients to the grocery store to suggest healthy choices and to ride in the cart. Other treatments, such as basic chiropractic care and acupuncture, support overall wellness.
Focused on caring for the elderly and disabled, the talented staff at Polish Caregivers & Homemakers gladly duels with debris and disarray during customized cleaning services that cover all areas of the house. After arriving at homes in need of a bath, the tidying technicians get busy scrubbing kitchen countertops, mopping floors, and ridding refrigerators of expired confetti eggs. Vacuums roll happily across carpets as bathtubs and sinks squeak at the magical touch of disinfectant. Maids will come equipped with cleaning products and an economy-size tube of elbow grease; customers should supply their own mops, brooms, and vacuums.
Founded in 2006 by plastic surgeon Dr. Deborah Pan, Esana Plastic Surgery Center and MedSpa was voted best medical spa by Connecticut Magazine in 2010 for its wide variety of aesthetic services, including facials, peels, laser skin treatment, and full cosmetic surgery. Evict pesky body bristles from your upper lip (a $525 value), chin (a $525 value), sideburns or cheeks (a $525 value), underarms (a $750 value), or traditional bikini line (a $975 value) with three laser hair-removal treatments. Relying on the cutting-edge technology of the Lumenis LightSheer Diode Laser System, the friendly and trained staff of skin smoothers zaps unwanted hair and removes it for long-lasting results. The safe, FDA-approved lasers emit specialized light to damage hair follicles, reducing or eliminating continued whisker growth while still inciting contented purring from clients. The nearly painless procedure should be repeated five to nine times for optimum results. Additional treatments are half off the menu price with the purchase of this deal.


text:
Foldings (duo version) for two grand pianos and electronics
Palle Dahlstedt and John Tilbury performed Dahlstedt's piece for two pianists and electronics, based on Dahlstedt's novel approach to live electronics.
The composition of the work, the development of the novel mapping technologies behind it, and the performance itself took place within the research project Creative Performance, funded by the Swedish Research Council.
Description of project
In 2006 I developed a novel mapping technique, allowing musical exploration of large parameter spaces from different performance interfaces, later expanded into a family of novel improvisation instruments. In 2011, I adapted it to my main instrument, the piano, creating an augmented hybrid instrument from a normal grand. In 2014, ti was first performed as a piano duo, together with legendary contemporary pianist John Tilbury, who has used my hybrid grand in a number of performances. Foldings consists of acoustic and virtual resonating bodies, all sounds originating from the piano, allowing for unorthodox playing (knocking, plucking, …). Processed sounds are projected from speakers behind the piano, and acoustic and processed sounds interact and blend into one new instrument. The processing is controlled from keyboard alone, with no faders or knobs, and no presets or timeline mechanisms. Each key has a certain effect on processing parameters, and effects of different keys are accumulated; essentially a dynamic vectorization of control parameters, allowing intuitive control of complex processing by ear. The instrument is not random, but somewhat unpredictable. This feeds into the improvisation, just like how ideas from a fellow improviser provides unpredictability and food for reaction, leading into a new direction, spurring further reactions. Like chasing a moving target. Hence, the instrument itself is an essential part of the musical outcome. The technology is simple but effective: A MIDI-enabled grand (Disklavier, or a normal grand with a Moog Piano Bar), four microphones, signal processor with custom software and two speakers behind the piano. Foldings consist of a mapping engine from keyboard to processing parameters, and a set of sound engines. Two engines have been used the most during concert performances: a microtonal adaptive resonator and an adaptive buffer shuffler. Both use only the sound of the piano, including the sound of the mechanics and the surroundings. The electronic sound is projected from speakers behind the piano, hence going back into the instrument, providing a truly hybrid acoustic-electric instrument. For example, the virtual resonance string provided by one of the engine allows for sophisticated play with resonances using knocks on the piano lid or shouts into the piano. The second engine is based on a shuffle mechanism, a kind of small autonomous looper, which is continuously collecting material, which is played back based on parameters generated from the keyboard mapping mechanism. This engine is very (but not at all entirely) unpredictable, and provides a lot of creative feedback to the performer during playing. Each key affects how the material is played back, and simultaneously enters new sonic material into the buffer. Playing it requires big ears and very fast response from the player. Still, it is very rewarding and fun to play. Palle Dahlstedt (b.1971), Swedish improviser, researcher, and composer of everything from chamber and orchestral music to interactive and autonomous computer pieces, receiving the Gaudeamus Music Prize in 2001. As associate professor in computer-aided creativity at University of Gothenburg, he does research in novel performance technologies for electronic music, and computer models of artistic creative processes. John Tilbury is an internationally celebrated interpreter of contemporary piano music. He is also well known as an improvising musician most notably through his membership of AMM, one of the most distinguished and influential free improvisation groups to have emerged in the sixties and which continues to this day. Se också bifogad pdf
Type of work
Konsert - del av projekt; Work for two pianists, two grand pianos and electronics.
Live Concert, Great Hall, Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK, within the peer-reviewed artistic program of the New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) conference.
Link to web site

domain: artistic


There’s something about the spirit of rock and roll that always keeps me coming back, both as a fan and even as a human. Certain bands are timeless in the way that they sing, write songs, and keep you coming back for more – and I believe that Magic Valley, the new album from Nashville’s Goodbye June, might be considered in that category. Gaining some major pull this year playing the festival circuit (especially a great set at Fort Rock, where I heard the band for the first time), I knew they were a band I needed to talk to.
So I did. Below, you can find our interview with Goodbye June, where we discuss all things band-related, as well as what the Nashville “scene” is really like, and even Thrice. Because that band rules too.


A group of scientists from Harvard School of Engineerting and Applied Sciences have created an electronically controlled lens which acts a lot like your real eye do.
The scientists have created an artificial eye — no, not the sensor part, which could have delivered an image directly to your brain (this is still in its early stages) — but rather, a lens part of human eye. Or at least something that resembles it quite closely.
According to the Harvard Gazette, a team of scientists from John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University developed a large-scale metalens, combined with an artificial muscle.
|Artificial Eye Automatically Stretches. Photo: SD
A metalens is a lens made of metamaterial — a nano-material, engineered so that its structure features have size less of given class of electromagnetic radiation wavelength. Materials of this kind display special electromagnetic features; what makes them special is that it is their structure that defines their electromagnetic features, not chemical composition as in the usual materials.
The problem with metalenses is that they are really small, like the size of a single piece of glitter, according to RDMag.com. In order to create the artificial eye lens, the scientists had to first solve the problem of scaling the metalens up — and that turned out to be quite a problem!
The scientists had to actually shrink file size to make it compatible with the system used to fabricate integrated circuits.
After a metalens large enough was produced, the scientists had to bind it with the artificial muscle. The researchers, in collaboration with David Clarke, Extended Tarr Family Professor of Materials at SEAS and a pioneer in the field of engineering applications of dielectric elastomer actuators (also known as artificial muscles) chose a thin, transparent dielectric elastomer with low loss — meaning light travels through the material with little scattering — to attach to the lens. To do so, they needed to develop a platform to transfer and adhere the lens to the soft surface.
"Elastomers are so different in almost every way from semiconductors that the challenge has been how to marry their attributes to create a novel multi-functional device and, especially how to devise a manufacturing route," Clarke says. "As someone who worked on one of the first scanning electron microscopes (SEMs) in the mid 1960's, it is exhilarating to be a part of creating an optical microscope with the capabilities of an SEM, such as real-time aberration control."
An elastomer is a material that stretches when electric voltage is applied. The researches managed to control the artificial muscle so that it can simultaneously focus, control aberrations caused by astigmatisms, as well as perform image shift.
The complete structure is only 30 microns thick and perfectly flat.
According to R&D, the researchers still need to improve their own invention: to reduce the required voltage, and improve the functionality of the lens.Sputnik


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Brooklyn is a highly creative and crafty hub for many gals and guys. New businesses are constantly opening. Sew Moni is no exception! This super cute new shop has everything you need for supplies, ideas and crafting lessons of the sewing persuasion. Sew Moni’s Monica Briones (owner and founder) and Katie Mann (managing partner) know what it takes for business to meet creativity. I was able to visit the shop, and Monica provided me with a wealth of information as to what this new hot spot is all about.
I don’t want to be too hyperbolic, but given my devotion to this project, my seedlings are sort of like my babies. That’s why, when I took a four-day trip to Florida last week, I was a little nervous to leave them alone. Though I had a trust-worthy friend coming by to water them (and take care of the cat), I was still fretting what I might see upon my return.
A few examples of my fears:
- Mold all over the seed starter kit.
- A hungry Henry Littleboots ravaged the baby plants, leaving nothing but bits of roots and paw-prints on everything.
- Nothing. No growth. No change.
As you can see from this picture, I was pleasantly relieved. Spring had sprung in my little plastic container! The main crops you see on the right are lettuces – spinach and kale, as well as some mixed salad greens. We also have sunflowers jutting up, chives, and a little basil for good measure.
I spent the next morning transferring the larger seedlings into their adult pots and placing them in the greenhouse. It’s going to get up to 80 degrees this week, so I think it is certainly time for them to be placed outside.
When I transferred them I used organic potting soil (purchased from A World Of Flowers), and I mixed in some coffee grinds and orange peels. I know this isn’t proper compost, but I have read that both of these things are good for plants. So far, the mixture is helping my radishes grow into pork taco garnish at the speed of, well, light.
As you can see, my greenhouse is filling up quickly. I don’t want to extend the garden over the entire balcony, as I need somewhere to sit and yell at teenagers this summer. However, I am interested in some kind of tree or vine – lemons or tomatoes. Has anyone had particular success growing either of these outdoors in Greenpoint?
I also decided that I would accept the challenge of planting asparagus. Asparagus is one of my favorite vegetables, and something I look forward to all year. Like tomatoes, it is truly better in season. The unfortunate thing about asparagus is that it is not easy to grow, and you can’t cut the stalks the first year. This means that though we may have a green village to look at, we will have to wait until next summer to harvest them and wrap them in prosciutto and smother them in butter. Also, the roots look like alien tentacles.
While it’s all been good news so far, we do have a little problem. Henry cannot seem to leave my indoor palm tree alone. We wake up to this sad sight almost every morning. Does anyone have any tips for keeping cats out of houseplants?
(For some reason I thought putting wine corks over the soil would deter him. Silly me.)
Has anyone else started their small garden yet? Let me know how it’s going @everydaycaitlin !
This is one woman’s journey with small-space gardening in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
Here is an appropriately corny picture of me with some flowers.
So let me start off with some back-story: Last year my boyfriend and I moved from one apartment on Eckford, to another apartment directly across the street. We upgraded from a small ground level two-bedroom (that we shared with a roommate), to a modern monstrosity with floor to ceiling windows and the tiniest bit of outdoor space. The first thing I did that spring was set up a garden on our balcony.
By garden I mean, I bought some pots, threw some seeds in the dirt, and waited. Occasionally I would go to Sprout and buy a new plant and mix it in with rest and wait to see what happened. By the end of the summer our balcony looked like a wilted graveyard and I had one sad sweet potato that sort of resembled a swollen thumb. I was envious of all the Brooklyn/Urban/Small Space Gardeners who had buckets of squash and full heirloom tomatoes to cook dinner with. We still had to go out and buy produce at Key Foods when we needed it.
At the end of the season all I knew was that, next year I will be doing it RIGHT.
So I present to you: The Garden Spot. This is a weekly column where I will share the ups and downs of gardening in a small space, specifically in Greenpoint. I will buy all my supplies at local stores, stay abreast of local farming/gardening news, create and share recipes from my garden and the local farmers markets, and generally provide information for all you gardening newbies out there. Like I said, I failed miserably last year, so I make no claims that this year will be any more fruitful. However, sharing it with you will hopefully prove fun and informative for all of us.

domain: agronomy


Even to the trained eye, it can be difficult to immediately pinpoint the exact cause of a false fire alarm and know the cure to fixing it. Although every situation is different, we can typically narrow down the common causes to a few scenarios that often reoccur. In the video below, Fire Protection Expert Lee Kaiser explains a some of the most common causes of false fire alarms, as well as the top five causes of unscheduled emergency service calls for ORR technicians.
Recently, ORR Protection Systems has fielded an increased number of questions regarding Video Smoke Detection and Video Flame Detection through our "Ask an Expert" portal. Since the interest seems to be increasing we thought it would be helpful to post the most frequently asked questions about this type of detection.
Corrosion exists in almost every fire sprinkler system installed. Some systems are always filled with water – wet pipe systems. Some systems have air in the pipes until the system is called to fill with water – dry pipe and pre-action systems. Both wet and dry systems have corrosion issues, but they are dramatically worse in dry systems.
Traditional smoke detecting technology, such as beam detection or spot smoke detectors, has a history of being problematic in large open areas. These massive spaces have issues such as smoke stratification caused by high ceilings and/or dilution of the smoke due to high airflow making it difficult for conventional detection devices to operate. Not to mention the significant effort that is necessary just to test and inspect these devices per code requirements.


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Australiana range in collaboration with Miriam Bereson.
These all-over print Blue Wren tea towels are Australian Made and are a unique aussie gift or souvenir.
Miriam Bereson is an Australian born artist.
Miriam's use of colour, subject matter and composition, translates into a universal language, which is often described as a 'sophisticated naivety'.
In Miriam's own words..
'open gently, express freely and play'
- Cotton Tea Towel
- Dimensions: 48cm x 79cm / 19in x 31in (approx)
- Made in Australia
Each tea towel print varies between tea towels and placement may vary from image shown.
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Now I know that this video was released two days ago but I was on vacation and I wanted to give this the appreciation that it deserves.
“Loyalty” is definitely my favorite song on the DAMN album and this video serves visuals, there’s no denying that.
One thing I would like to also point out is how fucking beautiful Rihanna looks. I swear this woman is a goddess, what did we do to deserve her? She is out there serving looks and serving vocals, that’s all I need in my life!
I wish she would spit gum at me. Is that weird? Whatever.
Well of course he has other hits but he is definitely going to be rapping some of the tracks to his smash album. An album that I have had on repeat since the DAMN day it came out.
Travis Scott will be joining Kendrick on tour along with rapper D.R.A.M.
Tickets go on sale on Friday April 28th, at 10:00 am.
Get your tickets fast because there is no doubt that this tour will sell out fast.
Check out the dates below along with Kendrick’s official announcement.
07-12 Phoenix, AZ – Gila River Arena
07-14 Dallas, TX – American Airlines Center
07-15 Houston, TX – Toyota Center
07-17 Duluth, GA – Infinite Energy Arena
07-19 Philadelphia, PA – Wells Fargo Center
07-20 Brooklyn, NY – Barclays Center
07-21 Washington, DC – Verizon Center
07-22 Boston, MA – TD Garden
07-25 Toronto, Ontario – Air Canada Centre
07-26 Auburn Hills, MI – The Palace of Auburn Hills
07-27 Chicago, IL – United Center
07-29 Denver, CO – Pepsi Center
08-01 Seattle, WA – Tacoma Dome
08-02 Vancouver, British Columbia – Rogers Arena
08-04 Oakland, CA – Oracle Arena
08-05 Las Vegas, NV – T-Mobile Arena
08-06 Los Angeles, CA – Staples Center
In case you didn’t know, Kendrick Lamar‘s music is here to save 2017 from being a total disaster. It has sucked pretty bad so far but with Kendrick’s album DAMN at least we can have a really fucking awesome soundtrack while it all goes down hill.
Today, Kendrick dropped a music video for ‘DNA’ starring one of my favorite actors, Don Cheadle.
Having Kendrick and Don in the same type of artistic performance I only have one word for it, dope.
Kendrick Lamar is absolutely one of the most important rappers out at this very moment. I would say that between him and J. Cole there isn’t anyone out there with more important lyrics.
Kendrick’s last two albums have been absolutely brilliant. I loved them both but his latest album, ‘DAMN’ it’s on another level. It’s been on repeat since it’s release, just a great song to bump in your car, and it actually has deep meaning to it. Can’t complain about either of those things.
Not only is Kendrick one of the most lyrically talented rappers I have ever heard, he is also pretty cute. I mean he only stands at 5’5″ but I am still about it. Nothing wrong with being pocket sized!
Happy Monday and if you haven’t downloaded ‘DAMN’ go do it now!
I am going to be totally honest, I don’t think I understand art. I don’t understand artistic music videos but I can appreciate them. I hope that makes sense. End of the day I think that Kendrick Lamar is one of the most talented rappers out there right now. His music and videos are always powerful.
The visuals for this video are absolutely insane. I can appreciate how put together this video is, even if I don’t understand the meaning.
This song is absolute fire though. The beat, his flow, the lyrics, it’s a super bop.
Whoever made the lineup for Coachella deserves a raise, that is for sure. This lineup is absolutely insane.
Of course the three main headlining acts are Beyonce, Kendrick Lamar, and Radiohead but there are a ton of other acts that are performing that I would love to see. Then again I am not a rich hipster so I will probably never be at Coachella.
One name that really pops out at me is seeing Lorde. Does this mean we are finally getting new music? It has been far too long since we have heard anything from her debut album. A lot of people hate her voice but her talent is undeniable.
Other than that you have Bon Iver, Mac Miller, Grouplove, Travis Scott, and many more incredible acts!
My favorite though? Hans Zimmer. If you think you don’t know him you do, don’t worry. He is an award winning movie composer. He had composed scores for ‘The Lion King’, ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’, ‘Gladiator’, and much more. That will be the trending performance on social media, I am sure of that.
Tomorrow night (November 20th) the American Music Awards will be taking place and the line up is absolutely insane. One thing about this awards show is that it isn’t really much of an award show. I think they give out like five awards but most of it is live performances.
This year it is like your radio is going to be performing live, so if you aren’t completely sick of hearing Fifth Harmony or the song “Closer” yet, it is the right show for you.
Let’s be real, there will probably be some kind of surprise guest as well, which would be awesome. Word on the street is that Selena Gomez will be there even though she is taking time off to focus on her health.
Well that is quite the line up, right? Between this lineup and the IHeart Radio Festival I will be crying that I can’t go to either!
So you thought right? You can actually win your win way in through social media, which is pretty incredible. By sending out different tweets, Instagram posts, there are different ways to earn points and be eligible to go to the concert.


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Many people are still wondering what the + or – sign means in sports betting. Most will assume that it means that the total points scored by both teams are added together, but that’s not always the case. There are times when a team will have more points than the other, but the final score will not favor that team. That’s because of the quirks of the sport and the rules that govern it, as we’ll explain in this article.
Does It Always Mean Summing Up The Scores?
In most sports, such as baseball and basketball, the goal is to score more points than the other team. That will usually mean that the team with the most points at the end of the game wins. However, there are exceptions to this rule.
If both teams have an even number of points at the end of the game, the other scenario is that no one score reaches the goal. In that case, the game ends in a tie. That’s because, in the event of a tie, neither team will win. The game ends in a tie when both teams have an even number of points generated by their offenses. In that case, the team that scored the most points during the game wins. The + or – symbol is usually used when the scores are actually added together in a head-to-head matchup.
There Are Specific Rules For Basketball
If you’re a fan of the NBA and you want to place a bet on the outcome of a game, you’ll need to know the rules that apply. One of the most significant of these is the point spread. Once the games start, the money placed on the outcome will be dictated by the point spread. The team that is favored to win will garner more bets than the underdog. For instance, suppose that the spread is 3 points and the favorite team has a score of 9 and the underdog has a score of 6. That means that, at a standard bet size of $10 per bet, you’ll win $60 if the game ends in a tie. Otherwise, you’ll win $9, because the spread will favor your team.
Scoring Is Different In Football
In most American sports, the points are scored in the same way regardless of what game you’re watching. However, when it comes to football, the rules are a little different.
In the NFL, the points are usually worth 10 points each, except for in the case of a field goal or a touchdown. A touchdown is worth 6 points and a field goal is worth 3 points. So, in the example above, if you’re betting on the over/under for the total points scored, you’ll have to decide which type of scoring method you’re using.
What About The Time Factor?
In addition to the type of scoring, there are also times when the time factor comes into play. In the NFL, there’s a two-minute warning at the end of each half. If the game is tied at the end of the third quarter, there’s a two-minute warning as well. In the event of a sudden-death overtime, there’s no time limit. However, in the event of a regular overtime, the team with the most points at the end of four quarters wins.
There Are Many Types Of Offers When It Comes To Sports Betting
If you’re interested in placing a bet on sports, you’ll need to make sure that you’re prepared for all the different types of offers that casinos make. One of the most popular betting methods is the spread, because it’s so easy to understand. You’ll also see people betting on the over/under for each team. However, one of the more obscure types of offers is the combo bet. This is where you have two teams face off, with the winner determined by the total amount of points generated. A combo bet is used when you want to bet on the outcome of a game and have some interest in seeing both teams play. For instance, if you’re watching the San Francisco 49ers and you’re a fan of the Seattle Seahawks, you’ll want to place a bet on the over/under for the total amount of points scored. That way, you’ll get to see both great teams play in a relatively competitive atmosphere. When they meet on the field, it will be a battle of wills rather than just a game of skills.
Where Can I Bet?
Now that you know the basics of how + or – works in sports betting, you can start applying that knowledge to your favoritism, or anti-favoritism. People will assume that you’re familiar with all the rules and regulations concerning sports betting, so they’ll turn to you for advice rather than a bookie. You’ll want to be ready with an answer should they ask you where to place their next wager or how to interpret a line they’re not sure about. Above all, make sure that you never, ever bet against your favorite team. Otherwise, you’ll just be eating ashes in the afterlife.

domain: game


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There were almost 100,000 tigers roaming the wilds of the planet in the early 1900's. The drastic fall in the population of this magnificent beast to just a few thousands within the span of a century tells a lot about human callousness and cruelty towards wildlife.
Until a couple of decades ago, the tiger was killed purely for sport, especially in India. The times of the maharajahs abound with folklore of how these unfortunate animals were hunted down and showcased in village squares, courtyards and drawing rooms of the wealthy. But with the advent of wildlife reserves and stricter curbs on hunting, the downslide in tiger numbers was somewhat arrested. But the problems for the animal did not end there.
India has nearly two-thirds of the current world tiger population of around 3,890. Competing with that is the human population. At 1.25 billion, and with a growth-rate that shows no signs of abating, India's population is just 10 percent less than China's. But India's populace live in an area that is only one-third of its larger neighbor. A growing population translates into demand for more food and more agricultural space. Thus, encroachment of tiger reserves is an obvious fallout.
Towards the eastern part of the country, changes in climate are causing sea levels of the Bay of Bengal to rise, submerging the Sundarban jungles and its precious mangrove forests. These forests are home to one of the most magnificent beasts in the world, the Royal Bengal tiger. Apart from the threat of a rising sea, the Sundarbans are also witnessing increasing numbers of people, desperately searching for farming land. The tiger is cornered and has nowhere to go. The Sundarban forests of Bengal has been its natural habitat for thousands of years, long before man came.
The tiger population of Indonesia stood at only 371 in 2016. Most are concentrated in the island state of Sumatra. The Sumatran tiger is an endangered species and is the smallest of all tiger species. Ignition of wild forest fires, deforestation by an avaricious palm oil and timber industry, are constant threats to this animal. As a result, they have been squeezed into small pockets of dense hill forests of the island.
Among the most critically endangered species of all animals is the South China tiger. Most alarming, there have been no sightings of the animal in the past two decades – leading experts to believe that it may have become extinct.
The underlying story of the tiger in countries with huge population density is the same, be it India, Bangladesh, Nepal , Malaysia or Indonesia. Hunting land for the animals is shrinking in the face of increasing demand for industry and agriculture, and they are getting much less to eat than before. Domestic animals like cattle, dogs, and, in rare instances, even humans, have become the new food for the big cats. Villagers in search of wood (used as fuel for cooking) often fall prey to tigers. Ironically, the tigers now become the encroachers and end up being killed or hunted down by villagers in the name of self-defense.
Nowhere on earth can the population-land mismatch be more glaring than in Indonesia. The archipelago has a population as large as the United States but a land area just one-tenth the size, broken up into a few thousand islands. Virtually all of Indonesia's low-lying forests have been cleared for cultivation of its staple food, rice. Just imagine where all of this leaves the Indonesian tiger.
While the report card for tiger species safety indicates the lowest levels of threat for the Siberian tiger, the biggest of all wild cats numbering around 400 and having the largest habitat of all, the same cannot be said of the South East Asian species (Indonesia, Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand). Urgent action needs to be taken before the crushing human density in these regions squeeze the tiger into extinction.
Add to the threat for tigers is widespread poaching. Tiger skins and other vital organs are in great demand in the underground black-market trade for wildlife exotica, especially in Thailand and China. Forest and wildlife departments are too understaffed or corrupt to keep poachers at bay. There's a lack of training, motivation and compensation for risk among forest personnel. Firearms, communications equipment, and vehicles for use by forest protection enforcement are either inadequate or antiquated.
There is hope. Thanks to the combined efforts of organizations and governments that have woken up to the importance of preserving this wonderful animal, the population of tigers has quite astonishingly shown a turn-around for the first time in over a century. There's been an impressive 22 percent rise in numbers in the last 6 years.
The figures compiled by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) show increases in tiger populations in India, Russia (home of the great Siberian tiger), Nepal and Bhutan. Improved protection measures, stricter laws concerning the safety of the animals, and enhanced conservation and breeding techniques adopted and put into practice by authorities, have given tiger enthusiasts reasons to cheer after a very long struggle.

domain: biology


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Cinema Classic Collection
About this campaign
Shop the entire Limited Edition Take Collection here
-The Cinema New Wave Collection: here
Our Classic Collection takes a modern spin on our classic logo, inspired by, yep you guessed it, the camera lens through which we can see our culture and ourselves, and perhaps with focus, even our future.The Classic Collection features ultra-soft premium tees in a variety of colors, a full-zip-hoodie, and a Champion hoodie; because Champion never goes out of style, much like Clueless...or Casablanca.

domain: design


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Cheesy Hasselback Potatoes – Hasselback potatoes always look great on a dinner plate. This cheesy version, made with OSCAR MAYER bacon, cheddar and fresh chives, is sure to be a new favorite during all your spring and summer entertaining.
Cut in a twist, cover with melted butter, Parmesan cheese, garlic powder salt and pepper, then bake.
Easy Twice-Baked Potatoes | How to make the best twice-baked potatoes with cream cheese, Cheddar cheese, bacon, and chives! The recipe also includes instructions for make-ahead twice-baked potatoes | #potatorecipes #makeahead #potatoes #sidedish
Cheese Spaetzle (Käsespätzle) is the German version of Mac and Cheese! Made with german egg noodles and Emmental cheese. This Bavarian dish is special enough for an Oktoberfest party but so easy that (Pasta Recipes)
Pesto Potato and Burrata Pizza
Pesto Potato and Burrata Pizza: A light, yet hearty, cheesy, carby, and very green pizza...meaning it's the perfect Monday health food! @halfbakedharvest.com