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Category Archives: 30.04
Speck 30.4
Posted on October 22, 2013 by wildbow
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I didn't break eye contact with Dragon. My eyes were damp, and it was impossible to find a balance in terms of keeping still. I either slumped over or I held myself so rigid that I trembled, an ache creeping over my body, my muscles too taut.
Back when Emma and I had been friends, way back in middle school, we'd done one of the sleepover dares. Going into a dimly lit room and staring out our reflections. Repeat the name of the monstrous woman, a name that escaped me now, over and over, without breaking eye contact.
The freaky thing had been that it had worked. My expression had torn, twisted and distorted, dark patches creeping over my cheeks and forehead, my mouth disappearing with only a blank stretch of skin in its place. I'd fled the room.
I'd later read up on it, because understanding something meant being able to handle it, and my problems back then had been ones I could understand. The effect was a result of the mind's idleness. We only really saw a little bit of what we looked at, and our brain worked constantly to fill in the gaps and unimportant spaces with its best guesses. In a dimly lit room, with the mind focused on the steady, hypnotic repetition, the brain would fill in spaces with the only reference points available to it, taking from features in its field of view to patch together the face. Fear, imagination and the recently-told scary story of having one's entrails ripped out through their mouth did the rest.
The mind was an amazing thing, but it had limits and weaknesses. I'd been taking in too much even before I added the clairvoyant.
Dragon spoke, her voice insistent, concerned, and pitched as a question at the end.
I raised my arm and the stump of a limb to the sides, bringing the clairvoyant's hand with me. An exaggerated shrug. I then let them flop down to my sides.
Dragon said something else in response, a statement, quiet.
Using the clairvoyant was an art, it seemed, and I hadn't received any advice on how to handle it. I was figuring it out, though. My focus on Dragon was like staring into the mirror. There were too many details to clarify to keep my attention in one place for so long. Things were starting to bleed around the edges in areas I wasn't focusing on, like a watercolor painting that was bleeding out beyond the lines.
Subtle, but it was there. Was it the entity, trying to tap into my memories to hash things out where my perceptions were failing? It wasn't anything substantial, not yet. I was focused on Dragon, above all else. The various people, the capes, the fighting, all were clear in my awareness. It was the hills, the mountains, the vast spaces of water or field without anyone nearby that were shifting subtly. Cities in particular seemed to be a jumble. Or was it just easier to see the differences and errors when a city was rearranged in a way that didn't make sense?
More to the point, was I simply losing my mind entirely?
I'm running out of time.
I raised my hand again, reaching out towards the Birdcage, below us, towards the comparative miles of space and containment foam, the forcefields and countless other effects that had been worked together to form the most secure facility they could manage. The empty space between the hanging structure itself and the walls that had been thickened by the engine was vast in a way that staggered me, just a little. Shit like that didn't help with the fucked-up perception thing.
My hand was shaking, the muscles in my forearm too tense, the hand too loose.
Without breaking that eye contact, I gestured, turning my hand over, curling the fingers. I opened a portal at the same time, inside the Birdcage.
Dragon shifted her stance, and that same room flooded with containment foam.
She said something in that same, quiet voice.
As communication went, it would have to do. Not the words I couldn't understand, but the gestures. I'd declared what I wanted, she'd drawn the line.
I wanted so badly to hug her, to cross the distance between us and throw my arm around her muzzle, or around one of her legs. To have something physical to hold on to that I wasn't actively controlling. I couldn't give her an opening to take me out of action.
I began opening a portal beneath a flow of lava, a trickle on Earth Bet, at the mouth of a cave system. The lava met the edge of the portal, and it winked out of existence. A splash of it passed through the portal, touching Dragon where her 'neck' met her body.
She moved, jet-engine 'wings' reorienting, pulsing with thrusters going on full to move her fifty feet to the right. Her claws met a cliff face, digging into stone, and the thrusters kept going, pushing her against the rock and holding her on the surface.
Right. Okay. A different tack then.
She was retaliating, too. Her guns trained on me, barrels glowing.
I opened defensive portals before I even saw what she was firing at me. Lightning, crackling in visible arcs around what looked like sphere-shaped empty spaces. Controlled pockets of ionized atmosphere, probably, to give the lightning a path to travel.
The lightning traveled through the portal and struck Scion from behind. I closed the portal before he could react.
The guns changed, the barrels contracting, the mounts behind the barrels reconfiguring. A portal simultaneously opened behind me.
She sprayed containment foam. Not a stream, but an honest spray, as if she was trying to paint the entire mountain peak.
I stepped through a portal, putting myself halfway on the other side of the world. I stood on the roof of the Byzantine Tower in Istanbul. Third tallest building in the world, surrounded by a shattered city and waterways that were now polluted with detritus and rubble.
Then I opened fire. Every parahuman I controlled with a ranged attack or gun fired into the portals I was opening beside them. The exit-points were beside Dragon, and a cascade of bullets, lasers, energy shots, ice, lightning, metal and other effects obliterated her ship, tearing through the cliff face.
I moved my collection of people out of the way before the resulting rockslide could kill anyone. The thinkers and tinkers joined me, the rest relocated to other points on the mountain.
The ship she'd sent my way was slag. Barely worth calling scrap metal. I checked it over twice.
Dragon deployed her drones. Not ships, but tens of thousands of airborne craft, most no larger than a basketball, kept aloft by antigrav panels like the ones on my flight pack. I already knew that each was loaded with a specific payload. Containment foam, EMP pulses, explosives, tear gas and more.
This wasn't a typical fight. It was more like a war, two parties with vast resources at their disposal, with armies and incredible potential in terms of the tools we could bring to bear. In a typical fight, things would end when one person knocked the other out, but a war rarely ended that way. The fighting would continue until we'd done enough damage to the other that they had to give up. Dragon was decentralized, with no single point that could be attacked to remove her from the fight. Truth was, I'd probably have to destroy everything to destroy her. If she didn't give up.
If she could give up.
As for me, I was inaccessible, out of reach.
I was quietly confident I could win this, one way or another. She'd have to defeat every cape in my little army, every cape I potentially acquired in the meantime, and I doubted her willingness to do that.
Don't destroy my army. Please don't be willing, don't be capable. If that happens, then I've failed completely and totally, I've done this to myself and will go out as a villain, all for nothing.
The fight against Scion was ongoing. I needed to be able to focus, especially with the way things seemed to be breaking down in the least important areas. I couldn't split my attention between him and Dragon, or something that was nigh-impossible would become harder.
The drones closed the distance, and my army began gunning them down. They were evasive, and I could take in the whole picture to see how Dragon was managing them. Not simultaneously, but close enough it barely mattered.
I tapped into precogs and clairvoyants, along with other thinkers, gauging the best approach.
Shén Yù informed me of the general thrust of Dragon's attack. I could see it through his perceptions, mottled, indistinct lines in the battlefield. X drones moving to one of my groups, Y drones to another. The path they intended to travel… I could tell that as well. An initial wave of attacks to debilitate, and then the second wave, drones for a follow-up strike. The lines had a feeling to them. I could almost assign labels. Infantry, cavalry.
I looked around me. If I drew parallels, tried to correlate what I was seeing with what Shén Yù was seeing…
She was aiming to strike me. How?
Seventeen Dragon-craft deployed from the hangar. Again, not combat models, but utility models, fast response and rescue. Craft she'd been holding in reserve, no doubt because the cost of deploying them outweighed their potential benefit against Scion.
The clearer Dragon's direction of attack became, the more Shén Yù's awareness clarified on her weak points. Distant locations and objectives. Some were objectives I couldn't identify, even with the clairvoyant. He only saw within the boundaries of Earth's atmosphere.
Others… valid targets. I sent one squad to an army base. Pulses of gravity and intense heat let me detonate the contents of a munitions depot and direct the force of the explosion in one direction. The end result annihilated a data center Dragon had set up nearby.
I could see her reaction, in the broadest sense. Where her drones had been micromanaged before, they weren't being controlled now. She was focusing elsewhere, controlling the larger craft and assigning them to the protection of the various data centers.
There was a skeleton crew of people at one facility. A data management firm that Dragon had bought out, I suspected, because the entire databank was reading as hers. Row upon row of servers, standing like tombstones in refrigerated rooms. Freezing air poured through the floor, pushing up against the warmer air. The facility seemed more like an alien landscape of steel and cold than anything of human design, complete with a constant, persistent weather pattern – a constant, gale-force wind generated by the movements of hot and cold air in what had to have been a careful design.
That the crew had stayed suggested something about their personalities. Discreet, paranoid people, who'd built a shelter inside the facility as a hiding place, in case things went to hell.
Which was pretty damn reasonable, considering the sheer amount of nightmarish crap there was in the world.
I used portals to take control of them. I couldn't read what was on the screens, so I had them take a more direct route. They made their way through the building, throwing switches, pulling plugs and opening sealed doors.
Three of my Yàngbǎn capes entered the facility through portals and began generating heat as they'd done outside the C.U.I.'s Imperial Palace. I could find the freezer… and another cape could step through to damage it. Dragon's utility craft arrived on site, but the damage had been done.
I'm sorry, I thought, again. My attention shifted to the monitors and gauges in her various databanks. I could see dials shift closer to red, numbers rising, gauges nearly filled.
Dragon could manage her things, I told myself. She had safeguards, ways of keeping her data safe. There was no doubt in my mind on that score. Each time I disabled a facility, I forced her to consolidate, to put the resources that remained under further stress.
My ranged capes aimed for portals once again. This time, I put the exit portals against Earth's atmosphere, aiming for the general direction of a satellite.
It took thirty seconds of sustained fire before Shén Yù's power stopped telling me it was a weak point. Other thinker powers in my range were giving me similar feedback. A cape with perfect eyesight was telling me it could even see the explosion.
The displays across Dragon's private realm shifted further.
She was saying something to Defiant, words I couldn't make out. I could see him tensing, moving like he was going to go somewhere. Then Dragon spoke again, and he went still. His head turned in Scion's general direction.
Please stop, I thought. Don't make me go further.
She went further. She intensified and organized the attack, and her drones reached my front line, disabling them with nonviolent means. Tranquilizers, electric pulses, containment foam and tear gas.
I let it happen, because I needed to see what her second wave attack was, before she organized a more efficient frontline attack.
The second wave approached, and they made a beeline for the portals that were controlling my minions. The portals that would exit right next to me. But the drones were too large…
Until they jettisoned outer shells and accelerated. Half the payload, but they had the same kind of propulsion jets I had in my flight pack. I moved the portals a fraction of a second before they speared through, and they continued onward through open air.
Shén Yù informed me about the third wave's imminent attack. Not a feeling of attack, but… the initial wave had read to his senses as something like infantry or spearmen. The second wave had read as cavalry.
This? A siege weapon? The lines that Shén Yù's power painted on the world indicated something deliberate, devastating, but diffuse, somehow indirect.
I directed fire at the drones, and forcefields served to protect most. The non-Yàngbǎn capes I had that could penetrate the forcefields were few and far between, the drones too numerous.
They set up, planting their mechanical limbs firmly on the ground, and then they deployed, pyramid-shaped structures, glowing blue at the peak.
My portals began opening, ones I'd closed not long ago. Portals I'd opened to control my capes, and the larger portal I'd opened to escape to this location on the Byzantine Tower. I couldn't shut them.
Drones started to make their way through.
I, in turn, opened another portal, handing one tinker device to Shén Yù before hurrying on, leading the rest through. Portals blocked the drone's ranged fire.
The Yàngbǎn's strategist used Teacher's device, and all the doors in his vicinity slammed shut.
Dragon's path to me was shut.
I watched the meters and gauges. Each attack had pushed Dragon's remaining resources closer to capacity. That was on top of the extra strain she was under with Scion having done so much damage to the Eastern seaboard. He would have eliminated other databanks when he'd attacked. Just like me, she'd been wounded and disabled before entering into our private war. Just like me, she desperately wanted to focus on Scion, but she couldn't afford to.
If each attack pushed the remaining databanks four percent closer to capacity, at a guess… no. I was having trouble putting the numbers together. Had to eyeball all of it.
I targeted another facility. All of the ranged attacks, channeled through open portals, ripping through an unoccupied facility.
In quiet horror, I watched meters flip over into the red, gauges hitting maximum capacity, bars filling, characters on screens going nutso until they were all the same digit, repeated ad infinitum.
One by one, monitors went blank. Server banks I hadn't even touched began to spin down, fans stopping, lights fading. Whole grids of blinking green lights winked out, some in order, others at random.
I watched, silent and frozen, as the process continued.
Stop, I thought. That's enough.
You have backup servers, I thought. Those servers need to stay online. They have to stay online, because you can't exist in stasis any more than I could.
She needed life support, at a bare minimum. She couldn't go any length of time without something running any more than I could go for a duration without a heartbeat or breathing.
But the lights continued to go out.
She said things to others, over the comms systems. To Chevalier and other various heroes. A few words or a statement or two, specific to each of them.
Some longer words and phrases dedicated to Defiant, and more acerbic words for Teacher and Saint.
Saint didn't react, but Teacher raised his phone, tapping it a few times before saluting the air with the device.
The drones close enough to do so sank to the ground all across the mountain's peak. Her suits had already retreated and settled on the ground. Defiant was very still as he watched them land.
Then Scion attacked, screaming incoherently, and Defiant moved, taking control of one ship.
The last of Dragon's lights went out.
I stood in a daze as the various machines went still, surprisingly hot as the fans stopped spinning. All of the server rooms and data banks were utterly dark and quiet.
Drones that hadn't been close enough to the surface to land dropped out of the air. They hit the ground, along with one or two members of my swarm, and I flinched with the crashing, as if they were striking me.
I'm sorry, I thought, but it wasn't my thought. A memory.
It was good that my power was saying it, because I couldn't. My own thoughts were a jumble.
My feelings were a chaotic mess. A lump was growing in my throat, swelling beyond my ability to tolerate it.
I hunched over, and I very nearly let go of the clairvoyant's hand before remembering that I couldn't. Instead, Doormaker and the clairvoyant both pulled at my mask until it was halfway up my face. I felt the lump become a wave of vomit, spattering over the rooftop. It hurt, not just the physical act, and yet it felt like so little. Still a scene I was experiencing while half-numb, experiencing from a distance.
I miscalculated?
Had she been vulnerable because of what Teacher had done to her?
Did it even matter?
I felt the need to throw up again, almost wanted to, just for that relief from what was welling up inside.
She'd been an ally, a friend.
I wanted to scream, to yell at her for being like all of the others and refusing to play along, to listen and cooperate. I wanted to do the opposite, to beg her forgiveness, and hate myself for being exactly what I'd criticized others for.
I wanted to put all of those feelings aside and start dealing with Scion. I wanted to give up on that entirely, because, fuck it, what was I even trying to save, at this point?
If I'd been whole, if I'd been balanced, I might have been able to find the middle road between the conflicting ideas. But I wasn't. I remained hunched over, almost paralyzed.
My anchors… what had I chosen, again? Tattletale, Rachel, Imp… Grue's cabin. My interlinking hexagonal portals were a mess. In the course of fighting Dragon, I'd closed portals and opened others without any attention to keeping it together. That was something to pay attention to. If I wasn't feeling my emotions as clearly as I should, I had to look for the external clues, and that jumble was suggestive of an emotional turmoil I'd been suppressing.
I began pulling the grid back together, not feeling any better.
I reached out, trying to remind myself of the anchors I'd set up.
My mom… I found the graveyard.
My old house…
Where had it been again?
The streets were such a mess, one pile of rubble virtually indistinguishable from the rest. What was I supposed to even do to identify it, if there were no landmarks?
I'd hoped to use the anchors to help push myself forward, but reaching for one thing that I'd known from the very beginning and failing in the process left me in a more unbalanced state.
I was what?
There had been an idea I'd been reaching for, a word, a symbol, something. Yet I couldn't clarify it in my head.
Don't panic, I thought, but the words sounded panicked in my head. Rushed. Sloppy. My breathing was hard and fast, my heartbeat pacing out of control. Between the two, it was getting to my head, affecting my thoughts.
Don't panic, I told myself. The repetition felt good, helping.
Or had it been my passenger telling me not to panic?
No. I had a perfectly normal lapse. Perfectly normal. A person in a stressful situation like this is going to have moments where she can't come up with the right word.
Perfectly normal.
My breath wheezed a little as I panted.
You don't want to, but you have to, I told myself. Stop Scion.
The portal slid open.
Except I hadn't ordered it.
You want to take over, passenger? I thought. I began to struggle to my feet.
The drones moved.
Defiant?
Saint, taking over her systems again?
They flowed through the doorway to Shén Yù, blitzing him in passing.
No. Neither of the two seemed to be paying attention to me. They were focused on Scion.
I began erecting portals, shooting the drones out of the air, defending myself against the initial bombardment of tear gas canisters and containment foam. If I was slow to react, it was because of the disorientation, the lack of knowledge of who and what I was up against.
I had other thinkers available. Understanding their power was easier with the Yàngbǎn's power boost. If they were puppets, the power boost meant the puppets fit my hand. I put them to work, trying to divine just who was seizing control of these drones.
It was so much easier to operate when I was doing something. Time and again, my lapses, the slippage, it had been in the quiet moments, between the conversations and the fighting.
It was easier if I was active, in the midst of conflict.
This was me. I thrived when I had an opponent, and when I could carry out that goal I'd had from the beginning, getting the world to the point where it all made sense. Bringing people in line, subjugating those who would get in the way or do more harm than good.
That was how I functioned. I'd always reveled in the chaos, in the madness of it all.
No, the thought crossed my mind. Not always.
Once upon a time, I'd been Taylor, minus the powers. I'd avoided conflict. I'd just been trying to get by.
Does that mean this is you, passenger?
There was, of course, no reply.
The drones kept coming, and I redoubled my efforts, calling individuals to me to form a battle line.
The moment the line was in place, the drones shifted. Some entered the portal, then immediately made a 'u' turn, flowing back around the sides of the portal and down. They circled around the building, trying to get at me from behind. I had to redistribute my personal army to block them off.
The portals were open and I couldn't close them. But the lights on the drones were off. No lenses glowed, the antigrav panels were the only thing that indicated any power at all. Remote control of some sort?
The lights are off, but they're still running.
I laughed, abrupt, an alien sound, not my own laugh.
The goddamn lights are off!
It wasn't Saint mounting this attack against me. It wasn't Teacher, or Defiant, or any of those other guys.
I continued laughing. My winded panting and nausea from before translated to a kind of lightheadedness.
Fucking Dragon.
Fucking with my head. Giving me a reality check. Trying to catch me off guard. She'd figured out that I had the ability to see her systems, she'd switched off the lights on the panels, put every system into hibernation, stopped the fans, and cut everything down to a bare minimum while the fans had stopped, so they didn't overheat too quickly.
A drone that had crept around behind the building detonated in a flare of pale sparks, and every portal in the vicinity distorted, taking on weird shapes, more three-dimensional than two-dimensional. They winked out of existence.
Leaving me in the midst of an army I no longer controlled.
Fucking tinkers, I thought. But I was strangely overjoyed. I was fucked over six ways from Sunday, but I was happy. I hadn't murdered one of my favorite people.
The capes at the edge of the rooftop were looking around in a daze.
The drones were moving, assuming a perimeter. The capes at the edge of the rooftop looked lost and shell-shocked.
And I was still laughing, clutching the clairvoyant's hand as if it was one of the few things keeping me grounded.
Capes at the edges retreated, bumping into one another.
The laughter stopped as I abruptly let out a sound, half-roar, half-scream, incoherent, channeling every last iota of the lingering rage and despair into the noise.
I commanded the people in my range to attack the drones, and I continued screaming even as my throat began to hurt and I felt like I might pass out from oxygen.
Dragon was only just beginning to speak, some drones blaring out words in what might have been English, others in a sing-song dialect that was likely Chinese. The percussion and detonations that followed the attacks striking home drowned out most of it.
The ones at the edge took cues, attacking the drones they'd just been fighting.
Each and every one of them had been brainwashed. Some by Teacher, some by the Yàngbǎn. They hadn't had freedom of choice for some time. Between the scream of rage, a pretty damn universal sound, and the action of the ones I did control, they defaulted to going with the crowd.
I still had to deal with Dragon. Her intent was clear, from the way the drones were moving. She wanted to target me, and stop me from the source. I needed to do the same, and I needed to do it without destroying her infrastructure. I wasn't going to risk making that faked death into a real one.
Fuck you for fucking with my head at a time like this, Dragon.
The thought wasn't one of malice. My feelings were so confused I could barely tell on that front. I was relieved, disoriented, but those were more states of being than actual feelings.
I was muddled.
One task at a time.
Stopping Dragon.
I watched as the suits she'd settled on the ground kicked back into action.
We'd fought Endbringers together. For a time, the Guild had been one of our biggest assets. I'd seen what happened when Dragon was taken out of action. A.I.? Nothing substantial. But when her main suit was taken out of action…
I saw the way she deployed the suits. Which was she keeping safest?
One was in the thick of things, creating different types of forcefield to try to mitigate the damage Scion was doing to our side. Capes had baited Scion out over the water, but the fact that there were less targets in range was counterbalanced by the fact that Scion was more focused on those who were there, and he was hitting harder. When he hit the water, waves crashed against the shore, doing nearly as much damage as any of his attacks might. A Leviathan with one arm, one leg, and most of its head missing was perched on the shoreline, apparently mitigating the damage.
There were two more suits on the fray, offering long-range fire.
And one more above the clouds, periodically firing exceedingly long ranged laser beams at Scion.
The drones were making headway. These capes weren't completely under my control and they weren't the most stable, either. They were liable to crumble where other capes might stand firm.
Doormaker was recovering his power. He could make portals, but it was slow.
My first instinct was to regain control. I reconsidered.
I didn't have time to feel guilty. I didn't have time to think. There was only a moment where I felt the weight of what I was doing, the knowledge that if this didn't work, I'd set everyone back for nothing.
I opened portals behind Dragon's longest-range ship, the entrance portals above my army's heads. I began firing through the doors with every individual I could control, creating more portals to seize control of others with every passing second.
More ranged attacks joined the barrage. Dragon flew out of the way, her ship badly damaged, and I moved the portal, maintaining the assault.
The wreck of the ship plummeted from the sky, and the behavior of the other Dragon-craft changed, as though they'd switched gears. The drones dropped from the sky once again.
Something told me this wasn't a feint.
I opened portals into the Birdcage, and Dragon didn't stop me. No containment foam came down from the ceiling.
Maybe fifty or sixty members of my swarm had been disabled by the nonlethal measures. With the Birdcage, I added seven hundred and forty-three individuals to my army.
The nonlethal measures would wear off. It was a step forward.
I turned to my passenger to sort them out, and I sent a share of them into the fight to reinforce the others.
One obstacle, removed. Dragon would take time to reboot. I could disable her in a similar manner next time.
Defeating Dragon this way hadn't been ideal, not completely freeing myself of the distraction and threat she posed, but it beat murdering her.
I turned my attention to the world as a whole, with the idea of recruiting other capes. I hit a dead end. The worlds were bleeding together, and it had gotten worse while my attention was elsewhere. I had to force myself to clarify what I was looking at, to tell myself that the areas didn't make sense.
It took excruciating minutes to get my head out of that sludge, and to make sense of what I was looking at. Minutes, as Scion tore into Alexandria, to convince myself that it was all in my head, and that Scion wasn't actively tearing apart reality.
I exhaled slowly, and the exhalation was a shudder. My throat hurt from the screaming.
The going was slow at first, but it picked up as I let my passenger handle more of the load. Capes in hiding. Rogues. Deserters who had fled for safety in our hour of need. A surprising number of capes who had no costume, and who had barely used their powers at all, judging by the way it felt when I reached for their abilities. They were rogues who'd been subtle at best, or rogues who'd gone without powers altogether.
There were the retirees, not old capes, but capes who'd been wounded, or who'd dropped out of the scene for other reasons. Their powers were more developed at their core, but rusty at best.
I reached for the insane, along with those disabled by their powers. A small few, all things considered. Glory Girl was among them, in a newly built wing of a home for non-cape invalids. Something her family had set up, no doubt.
I found members of Bonesaw's Slaughterhouse Nine. Clones who'd fled, or who'd been left behind, lurking in dark corners, or simply hiding. A Mannequin, two Damsels that were keeping each other company, a Night Hag-Nyx hybrid, and a Crawler-Breed hybrid.
When I had the vast majority of them, I began looking to other universes.
There were capes in Earth Aleph, barely C-list by our standards. Sundancer, Genesis, and Ballistic were there as well, the former two in civilian clothes, retired, the latter in a lavish penthouse, fully done up in costume. My portals opened, and I had control of them. I left Oliver behind.
Other earths only had a small handful. No doubt there had been contamination at some point where doorways had been opened. Whole worlds with only ten capes at most, half of which were case fifty-threes.
Monster.
I shook my head a little, blinking.
I found another Earth with a mixture of capes, all incredibly beautiful people, all in what was obviously a global position of power. Every flag that flew in their world was the same flag, and the gauntlet emblem on that flag matched the icon on a particular woman's costume. A blue costume, with white fur at the collar, and a heavy cape that would have done Alexandria proud.
I attempted to seize control of them as well, and the woman in blue resisted me. She spoke, and I lost my hold on everyone in her range.
It was only twenty capes. Negligible. But I wasn't going to settle. If I was going to compromise on any level, it was going to take more than this.
I created a portal, and I ensnared Canary, who was busy rescuing the wounded, flying here and there with her Dragonslayer suit, her arms full.
She set down the wounded, and then she passed through the portal.
She began to sing.
I was controlling her, and it was my song in a way, syllables rattled off at a fast tempo and severe clip, followed by long high notes. Not English, but not my own muddled speech either. I could feel her expressing her power through the song, through each intonation and sound.
I brought her close enough to give her the benefit of the Yàngbǎn's power enhancer. I had enough awareness of her power to know how to keep myself safe from it.
I tried again with these foreign capes, in this world where this blue-costumed woman ruled the world, portals feeding Canary's song into their council chambers.
Those same portals let me attempt to reassert control.
An attack from two directions. She wasn't immune, only resistant. I felt myself assert control. I understood her power, even if I didn't understand a thing about her. A personal, point-blank trump power, allowing her to tune abilities and defenses much like Scion did. A powerful long-ranged telekinesis, a compulsion power like Canary's, presence-based rather than voice based, and a personal power battery that let her be stronger, for limited times.
Where the hell had she come from?
No powers that really made her amazing against Scion, but it was an asset.
The others… they weren't weak. Nothing gamebreaking, at a glance, but they weren't weak.
Sleeper. I could see him, sitting on a lawn chair on a balcony, reading a book out loud to himself.
More trouble than he was worth. I let him be.
One by one, I brought the ones I'd collected to the battlefield. The prisoners, the brainwashed, the lunatics, the cowards, the monsters and the broken. They assembled in groups, in the spaces between the other major groups. In front, behind, above, and below.
Canary's song wove its way out of the portals. Slower than before, working with the wind and the waves rather than fighting against them.
More doors opened, and more of the ones I'd collected continued to appear.
Teacher was making his way into Cauldron's base, walking past the heroes at the doorway like he belonged there. He was talking into his phone, mocked up to be like a PRT-issue phone, and the communication was going to every major member of the Protectorate and Guild.
Contessa, for her part, was waking up.
I was shaking, and it wasn't just the tension. I wanted to sit down, but I knew that if I did, I probably wouldn't stand again.
My anchors… The mantle of portals, Tattletale, Rachel, Imp, Grue.
My old house continued to elude me. That detail gave me a sinking feeling in my gut. I reached out for a replacement. Not my home, then. My dad's workplace? No. Something else, something family.
A quaint old house on a hill, surrounded by rose bushes, a grandmother… Not my grandmother. I barely knew my Gram. I shook my head. The house on a hill had been a memory of something I'd read, once.
It was unsettling, the seeming reality of it, the nostalgia. If I was a little further gone, could I have clung to it, used something wrong to keep my identity intact?
I was still lost in thought when I became aware that I'd stepped onto the battlefield. I hadn't plotted it. Had even felt like it would be a bad idea. Now Miss Militia was turning my way. Exalt was standing beside her.
Teacher was talking, and they were responding.
He was warning them about the threat.
I could see people throughout the crowd. Protectorate members, team leaders of the Wards. They were tense.
A voice carried over the wind. I recognized the quality of it, even if I didn't recognize the words. Glaistig Uaine, welcoming me back.
Crooning. She was pleased, on a level. I found her sitting on a mountaintop, surrounded by three of her ghost-capes.
My small army had grown to be a formidable force. Three thousand strong in all. I had thirty layers of portals around me.
Teacher said something, and it was Tattletale who replied. I could see her, and she didn't look happy.
So many voices, so many things to focus on.
I felt momentarily lost in the midst of it. I had a large army, by parahuman standards, I was probably strong enough to kill everyone here-
I stopped myself.
Why had I thought that? I didn't want to kill anyone.
Glaistig Uaine continued to croon in my ear. Was it her?
No. I was almost positive it wasn't, and I had any number of thinkers at my disposal who could have warned me.
I shook my head a little.
I had a large army. I was powerful. I could move on to the next big step, but I wasn't sure how. It was like playing chess, the moves I could make had enough gravity and nuance that I could only make one move at a time. What to do first? What wouldn't open me up for retaliation?
It was better if I wasn't here. I turned to leave, backing through a portal.
Tattletale, in that same moment, stepped outside. She gazed over at my army, then turned and looked straight at me.
Her eyes were wide. She looked just a little freaked out.
I don't- I can't…
My thoughts stuttered.
Tat-
I clutched to every image and object I'd set in my mind's eye, to the tethers that were supposed to keep me tied down.
It's too soo-
Too soon.
I was running out of time.
Had to move. Had to act. It was easier, so long as I was in the thick of it.
Glaistig Uaine was the real threat. She would be first.
Thing was, I didn't like the look of those ghosts of hers. A woman, one of the really crazy looking ones who had a costume that was more for revealing than it was for covering up. She was warped, twisted by Glaistig Uaine's power until the costume and the body were one and the same, which only made her look more vulgar.
I didn't recognize her, but she looked like one of the crazy ones.
There was a guy, built like a football player in full padding, only it was all muscle. That muscle, in turn, was covered in armor that had spikes studding it at regular intervals. The helmet covered his eyes. He sat at Glaistig Uaine's feet, and he was tall enough that her eyes barely looked over the top of his head.
And there was a woman, so thin she was barely there, a look no doubt exaggerated by Glaistig Uaine's powers. When Glaistig Uaine spoke to me, it was the thin woman who passed on the message, her lips moving. Like Screamer, then.
I prepared to make a move, and I felt the danger sense of no less than twelve different capes in my army go off.
Yet I still alerted the ghost in armor. He moved, lurching to his feet, and he spoke.
Glaistig Uaine said something, and it was a single word, a hard word.
He was a precog, and to look at him, he was a defensive cape.
She'd been anticipating an attack.
The thin woman moved, and a current of wind ripped through the air, two feet wide and ten feet tall, less a tornado and more a battering ram. It flew through the sky, homing in on me.
I moved through a portal, and the column followed. It hit me like a truck, and I nearly lost my grip on the clairvoyant's hand.
I tumbled. In a sense, my lack of control over my own body helped more than anything. I was left panting, but I hadn't tensed up because the reflex simply hadn't been there. Being limp when I took the hit was better than going tense and tearing something.
The Faerie Queen had anticipated an attack. She had to know what I'd been doing, how I was operating. If I used my power…
What did the vulgar woman with the lipstick smirk and creepy white teeth do?
Another column of wind homed in on me.
My army threw barriers in the way. Force fields, walls of crystal and walls of fire.
The column passed between them like it wasn't even a consideration. I closed the portal in front of me before the column could zip through.
I watched as it changed course, heading for the nearest member of my army. I might have been able to do something about it, but I suspected it would have found a way to me anyways. Instead, I shifted my grip, gripping the young man's wrist, and making him grab mine. A surer grip than hand-on-hand.
The wind-attack compressed, passing through the foot-wide portal behind them, and it hit me. Not as hard as the first, because it wasn't as large, but it still hurt.
The Faerie Queen spoke, her voice imperious, echoing in that curious way of hers. Indignant more than furious, but still with that bite of anger behind it.
The others on the battlefield reacted, and it wasn't to rally against Glaistig Uaine.
Tattletale was murmuring under her breath. Was that- Was it my name?
The faerie queen banished her wind-witch and brought out another spirit. I tried to capitalize on the distraction, getting one cape with one of the stronger ranged powers to attack her. A gravity pulse, a bullet that imploded things at the impact site.
The man in armor moved, and the vulgar woman reacted, creating a circle of rippling air. The bullet struck the barrier, and the man who'd sent out the pulse promptly imploded, blood showering everyone nearby.
Something indirect, then. I opened a portal a distance away, and I used Canary's song.
She kept the field up. I could feel the pain wrack Canary, hear her choke on her words. She doubled over and coughed up blood.
A power counterer, a precog… and Eidolon, now.
If I'd used a portal, what would have happened to me? Would it have affected Doormaker or me? Or both of us?
I didn't feel very stable on my own two feet as I climbed to a standing position. I had a whole army, and I could lose them in an instant if I simply unloaded on her.
I needed to hit her with something that broke the rules. Not Foil. I wasn't willing to risk Foil. But something…
I took control of Alexandria, instead, Pretender. Controlling the person who was controlling the manipulative bitch Alexandria. I took Legend, who was part of that fight, two foreign capes and Moord Nag.
They were the ones running interference, buying us time to breathe.
Now I positioned them. As I'd done with my bugs, I lined up the shot.
He took the bait, shooting. I moved everyone out of the way.
Glaistig Uaine's pets informed her of the imminent danger, and the shield was raised in time.
Smoke poured off of Scion, indicating he'd taken the reflective effect full force.
And smoke cleared around the Faerie Queen as well. She was panting a little, her ghosts tattered but intact. I made her stand straighter, and then banished her ghosts, replacing them. I'd used the distraction to plant a portal behind her.
I opened a portal, passing through, re-entering Earth Gimel.
Miss Militia turned a sniper rifle on me. I caught her before she could fire.
Then, group by group, I captured the rest of the defending force. Some resisted, some predicted the attack, but it was a foregone conclusion. I had enough soldiers, enough tools at my disposal, that nothing here really stood in my way.
I created more portals, until I didn't have space for all of them. I shrunk them, reorganized. Where I could find the open space, I tapped other worlds, reaching for bugs.
Those bugs then swirled around my captives, flowing around their feet or behind them, where they wouldn't obscure the view.
I saw with compound vision. Five thousand pairs of eyes, collecting more with every second that passed.
I breathed with five thousand mouths.
I was adrift in a sea.
My eyes fell on Tattletale. Panacea was behind her.
She shook her head, putting herself between me and Panacea.
I reached out, my hand trembling.
It flopped down at my side.
I need her as an anchor more than I need her power.
My mom's grave… it was in Brockton Bay, right?
Brockton Bay. It took me a minute to find, more time because I was busy keeping capes out of Scion's way. Putting them through doorways, bringing them back. Always being careful to keep the doorways from being touched by his power.
I couldn't find the grave. No time.
What else? The mantle of power, of course.
Tattletale.
I reached out, tried to find others, and I failed.
It would- would have to do.
This was it. Finally, everyone was working together.
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Stories (Arcs 1-10)
Arc 1 (Gestation)
1.x (Interlude)
Arc 2 (Insinuation)
Arc 3 (Agitation)
Arc 4 (Shell)
4.x (Bonus Interlude)
Arc 5 (Hive)
Arc 6 (Tangle)
Arc 7 (Buzz)
Arc 8 (Extermination)
Arc 9 (Sentinel – Interludes)
 Arc 10 (Parasite)
10.x (Bonus Interlude)
10.x (Interlude)
Stories (Arcs 11+)
Arc 11 (Infestation)
Arc 12 (Plague)
Arc 13 (Snare)
Arc 14 (Prey)
14.y (Bonus Interlude)
Arc 15 (Colony)
15.x (Bonus Interlude #2)
Arc 16 (Monarch)
16.x (Donation Bonus #2)
16.x (Donation Bonus)
16.z (Donation Bonus #3)
Arc 17 (Migration)
Arc 18 (Queen)
18.y (Donation Bonus #2)
18.z (Interlude)
Arc 19 (Scourge)
Arc 20 (Chrysalis)
20.y (Interlude)
Arc 21 (Imago)
Arc 22 (Cell)
Arc 23 (Drone)
Arc 24 (Crushed)
24.y (Interlude 2)
Arc 25 (Scarab)
Arc 26 (Sting)
26.03x (Donation Bonus #1)
26.a (Interlude A)
26.b (Interlude B)
Arc 27 (Extinction)
Arc 28 (Cockroaches)
Arc 29 (Venom)
Arc 30 (Speck)
Stories (Epilogue)
E.01
Interlude: End
Stories (Pre-Worm 2)


text:
Mastering Revision Control
This morning, browsing Twitter as one does, I came across this tweet:
"Don't use feature branches: work on master all the time. Make changes in tiny steps. Each change is itself atomic and leaves the code in a working state. We are happy to deploy changes into production that are not yet complete, but don't break anything." https://t.co/aPq24xxRW4
— John Arundel (@bitfield) April 18, 2018
I initially assumed that the tweet was meant satirically, but it seems it was not so. After a wee bit of discussion, someone asked me to explain why this is a really bad idea:
I think this may be asking a lot, but.. have you / could you jot down your reasons somewhere more expansive than Twitter? I'd love to read them.
— Aldric (@Trevoke) April 19, 2018
So I shall.
Alice and Bob are working together on the same software project. Each makes a copy of the files of the project in their local filestore, which these days tends to be on their own machine. These days, indeed, they tend to make a clone of the repository on their local system, and this is a good thing - but for the present argument it's a detail.
Alice makes changes in two files, foo.src and bar.src; she saves these locally, runs tests locally, checks they pass, and commits her changes to revision control. The continuous integration system pulls the commit, builds it, runs the tests, verifies they pass, and all's good.
Bob makes changes to two files, bar.src and ban.src; he saves locally, runs tests locally, checks they pass, and tries to commit to revision control. And of course he can't immediately because Alice has already changed bar.src, so he has to pull Alice's changes, do a merge, fix the resulting issues and rerun the tests.
Now, that's the game. That's what we all do when working on collaborative teams. We try not to work simultaneously on the same bit of the system; we try not to trample on other people's work; but it happens. So Bob only grumbles a bit.
But it's late in the evening, Bob's tired. It's time to knock off. What to do? Well, in any sane shop, he's working in a feature branch so he pushes his feature branch up to the server, and goes home. But in this shop, management has dictated that they will ignore the last thirty years of software practice and experience and do everything in master. So Bob commits his work in progress to his local clone of the repository, and goes home.
Morning dawns bright and early, and Bob's in work raring to go. He powers up his machine, and... nothing. His local hard disk has died. Doesn't matter, all his work's in... oh.
That's a day's work lost.
Meantime, Clarice is working in another part of the codebase, on a problem where the most efficient implementation isn't obvious. She builds an implementation, and it passes the tests, but she's not convinced it's optimal. So she commits her implementation to revision control. She then starts working on an alternative solution, completes it, and it passes all the tests, too. She wants to commit this to revision control, too, but management have dictated that everything shall be done in master, so she can't. One version or the other can be current.
So what does she do? Overwrite her first solution? Abandon her second solution?
Yes, of course she can commit her second over her first - the point of revision control is that you don't lose stuff - but in practice that means a decision is taken to prefer the second solution, because the nature of the growing edge of a software project is that a commit from several commits back on a branch is not going to be promoted to the head of the branch unless you have very serious breakage.
Any software development which cannot be wholly automated involves design decisions and uncertainty. The cost to the developer of being experimental - of trying one idea, seeing under what circumstances it works well, seeing under what it works poorly, and trying another - needs to be as low as possible. If management puts needless difficulty in the way, that's bad management.
Software development time is expensive. Practices which cause work to be lost are highly undesirable. It needs to be as easy as possible to make sure work is not lost.
Git - and other modern revision control systems - are the product of decades of hard won experience. What we've learned over those decade is that branching is good. Feature branches are especially good. They prevent trampling over other people's changes, and reduce stress and conflict in the team. They make it very easy to track which features are in the build. They make committing and pushing low-stress, low cost activities.
Of course it should be the responsibility of every developer to ensure all tests pass before merging a feature into develop, developers are human and sometimes things go wrong. We always need a branch which we know is production ready code, from which the production system can be rebuilt in case of failure. That's what, conventionally, the master branch is; and the whole point of having a develop branch is to have a branch into which all changes are merged, which can then be tested to demonstrate that it is production ready before merging into master.
Labels: Software
Of foxes, and kings.
Mourning goose
Yet another bid to centralise power
Response to consultation on a new enterprise agenc...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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The applicants were four Ukrainian nationals resident in Kiev. On 7 June 2000, they founded a non-governmental organisation, the 'Civic Committee for the Preservation of Wild (Indigenous) Natural Areas in Berezansky' (the Organisation), with Mr Koretskyy at its head.
On 27 July 2000, the applicants filed an application to register the Organisation at the Kiev City Department of Justice in accordance with the applicable legal requirements. Following advice from the City Department, amendments were made to the Organisation's articles of association, which were then resubmitted. On 18 September 2000, the City Department rejected the application on the grounds that the articles of association did not comply with domestic law, in particular the provisions relating to (i) the Organisation's geographical scope, (ii) the economic and administrative functions entrusted to its executive committee, (iii) its publishing activities and (iv) participation of volunteers. The applicants challenged this decision at the Pecherskyy District Court of Kiev, which dismissed it. The District Court decision was upheld by the Kiev City Court of Appeal. Both courts cited similar grounds to those given by the City Department. The Supreme Court rejected the applicants' request for leave to appeal. The applicants applied to the ECtHR alleging a breach of the right to freedom of association (Art. 11).


text:
We are PNWF
All of our physicians are board-certified in reproductive endocrinology and infertility, and they are supported by a team of experienced and compassionate professionals who are dedicated to helping and caring for you at every step on your path to parenthood.
VIEW BIO >
Nurses + IVF Coordinators are patients' key contacts as they move through their treatment cycles. They are highly knowledgeable about the process of IUI and IVF, testing, medications, treatment protocols, and so much more.
Jane Perkins, ARNP
Bachelor of Science in Nursing from University of Colorado Health Sciences Center
Master of Science in Nursing from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Board Certified Family Nurse Practitioner
Certified in Reproductive Endocrinology and Fertility Nursing by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine
Member of ASRM and Seattle Tacoma Assisted Reproduction Society
Inaugural member of Pacific Northwest Fertility with over 20 years of experience in women's health
Specializes in fertility evaluation, use of clomid/letrozole and injectable gonadotropin cycles to achieve pregnancy, intrauterine insemination cycles, donor sperm cycles, fertility preservation for cancer patients, and embryo shipping
Resa Tucker, ARNP, WHNP-BC
Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Seattle University
Master of Science in Nursing from Yale University
Board Certified Women's Health Nurse Practitioner
Member of American Society for Reproductive Medicine, Seattle Tacoma Assisted Reproduction Society, and American Academy of Nurse Practitioners
Over 15 years of experience in infertility and women's health
Specializes in fertility evaluation, use of clomid/letrozole and injectable gonadotropin cycles to achieve pregnancy, intrauterine insemination cycles, donor sperm cycles, fertility preservation, polycystic ovarian syndrome, and recurrent pregnancy loss evaluation
Jennifer Schilling, CNM, ARNP
Bachelor of Science in Nursing from University of Pennsylvania
Master of Science in Nursing from University of Pennsylvania
Board Certified Nurse Midwife
Member of American Society for Reproductive Medicine and American College of Nurse-Midwives
Over 20 years of experience in women's health
Specializes in fertility evaluation, use of clomid/letrozole and injectable gonadotropin cycles to achieve pregnancy, intrauterine insemination cycles, donor sperm cycles, and polycystic ovarian syndrome
Rebekah Weaver, CNM, ARNP
Associate in Nursing from Eastern New Mexico University
Bachelor of Science from Middle Tennessee State University
Master of Science in Nursing from Frontier Nursing University
Member of American Society for Reproductive Medicine, American College of Nurse-Midwives, and Academy for Eating Disorders
Over five years of experience in women's and mental health
Specializes in fertility evaluation, intrauterine insemination cycles, donor sperm cycles, trauma-informed care, support of patients with anxiety and depression, eating disorders, and other mental health diagnoses
Lea Spencer, CNM, ARNP
Bachelor of Arts from Northeastern University
Master of Science in Nursing from Vanderbilt School of Nursing
Member of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and the American College of Nurse-Midwives
Conversational in Spanish
Five years of experience in women's health
Specializes in fertility evaluation, intrauterine insemination cycles, donor sperm cycles, trauma-informed care, gynecology, midwifery, and family planning
Kara Clark, ARNP-BC
Associate in Nursing from Lower Columbia College
Bachelor of Science in Nursing from University of Texas
Master of Science in Nursing from University of Cincinnati
Diploma in Licensed Practical Nursing from Hopkinsville Community College
Over eight years of experience in women's health
Specializes in fertility evaluation, intrauterine insemination cycles, donor sperm cycles, trauma-informed care, fertility preservation, polycystic ovarian syndrome, and inclusive care for BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and HIV+ patients
Olivia Mills, DNP, ARNP
Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Arizona
Doctorate of Nursing Practice from the University of Arizona
Member of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners
Jennie Minkus, ARNP
Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Washington
Doctorate of Nursing Practice from Georgetown University
Member of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine
10 years of experience in women's health
Specializes in fertility evaluation, intraueterine insemination, donor sperm cycles, gestational surrogate cycles, trauma-informed care, support of patients with anxiety, depression, and other mental health disorders, care for BIPOC and LGBTQ+ patients, and early pregnancy care including pregnancy loss
Our embryologists and laboratory personnel have over 30 years of combined laboratory experience. Cindee and Amin Khabani lead our team of skilled embryologists and laboratory staff.
Cindee Khabani, BS, ELD - Laboratory Director
Pacific Lutheran University graduate in Biology & Chemistry
Worked over 15 years at Swedish Medical Center Reproductive Technology before co-founding Pacific Northwest Fertility and IVF Specialists in 2005
Certified Embryology Laboratory Director from the American Board of Bioanalysis
Member of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine and the American Association of Bioanalysts
One of the few Embryology Laboratory Directors in the country who works as a "hands on" embryologist
Amin Khabani, BS, ELD - Embryology Laboratory Director
University of Washington graduate in Molecular and Cellular Biology
Led the University of Washington's Fertility and Endocrine Center as their Embryology Laboratory Director
Served as the start up Embryology Laboratory Director for Seattle Reproductive Medicine, before co-founding Pacific Northwest Fertility and IVF Specialists in 2005
Over 20 years of experience in Clinical Embryology
Our amazing nursing team includes our nurses, our procedure team, and our Collaborative Reproduction Team.
Our on-staff certified and licensed genetic counselor, Lauren Garrett, MS, CGC, works alongside patients to determine what type of genetic testing can be incorporated into their treatment plan, and how results influence their care.
Fertility treatments can be daunting from a financial perspective. Our on-site financial counselors are happy to speak to any prospective or current patient and review the potential costs associated with our treatments as well as different options for financing those costs.
This group includes our operations team, our administrators, and our Patient Care Coordinators. They are the smart, compassionate people who you see when you arrive, and they are a vital part of how we deliver extraordinary care and service to our patients.
Our dedicated support team includes on-site sonographers, phlebotomists and medical assistants, here to ensure you get the most advanced and comprehensive care, all under one roof.


1) Painting walls of 5m x 2m office in South Kensington. Walls in good condition, 5 litres of new good quality B&Q coloured silk paint supplied.
3) Painting standard interior door with supplied gloss paint.
Job to be carried out after 5pm weekdays (or weekend may be possible).
Great guy! On time, polite and great painting job overall!
Good standard of finish & attention to detail. Brought own dust sheets and covered everything safetly.
Hard worker - top job!


All Juniors and Seniors received an email in their school email accounts with a link to register with Parchment. This email includes a unique registration access link for each student. Following this link will pre-populate demographic information in regard to each student. If you do not have this email, please contact the Data Processor in your building.
If you wish to register without the code, you can go directly to the parchment website at www.parchment.com and follow the registration instructions below.
If you are an alumni prior to the class of 2014 you will need to create an account by following the directions below.
1. Click the link to Parchment, or visit www.parchment.com.
2. Click "sign up" in the high school transcript area.
3. Follow directions to complete the enrollment process.
4. Be sure you have indicated that Brookfield Central is your institution.
5. Activate your account and Parchment will send you a confirming e-mail. Check your "spam" email folder if you do not receive this e-mail.
1. Sign in to your Parchment account.
2. Follow the instructions for selecting colleges to which your transcript should be sent.
3. For other organizations, such as the NCAA, click the link under "Select Other Destinations" and enter the requested information.
4. You will know you have completed the request when you have entered your debit/credit card information.
5. Use the "track" tab at the top to check the status and history of transcript requests. Do this before checking on transcripts with the counseling office.
If you have any problems with Parchment during the registration or ordering process of transcripts, go to www.parchment.com and click on "contact us", select students/parents and fill out the form with your name and other details.
Student can see their guidance counselor for questions or concerns on the transcript process.
For video tutorial on registering using an email or code click here.
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WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES- The Pentagon said Wednesday that US air strikes in Iraq and Syria against the Islamic State group may have killed 119 civilians since 2014, a figure far lower than casualty estimates by monitoring groups.
The figures released by Centcom, the US military command in the Middle East, came from a months-long review of reports and databases, it said, adding that the deaths and injuries stemmed from 24 air strikes.
London-based NGO Airways estimates coalition bombing has killed 1,787 civilians since the air campaign to destroy the Islamic State group began in August 2014.
"We have teams who work full time to prevent unintended civilian casualties," Colonel John Thomas was quoted as saying in the Centcom statement.
"We do all we can to minimize those occurrences even at the cost of sometimes missing the chance to strike valid targets in real time."
The Pentagon's investigation found that "in each of these strikes the right processes were followed; each complied with Law of Armed Conflict and significant precautions were taken, despite the unfortunate outcome," Thomas said.
The United States, which carries out 80 percent of the coalition bombing, says it uses precision-guided munitions that limit civilian casualties.
Meanwhile Russia is accused of using conventional bombs that are much more deadly to civilian populations.
Amnesty International estimates that there have been at least 300 civilian victims in Syria alone from coalition strikes.
The number of casualties has risen sharply since the start of the coalition's campaign in late 2015 to lay the groundwork to take back IS strongholds in Mosul, Iraq and Raqa, Syria.


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text:
Q: Windows application using MySQL from a webserver My boss wants me to create a desktop application with a database that is accessible via the Internet. The database is used to store information taken from a TCP server, but that is not my question.
so far on my research, I found shared web hosting, VPS, dedicated hosting and Amazon RDS to be possible choices. The only interest I have is the MySQL Server included in the given package.
I think for a simple application a regular shared web hosting is enough, merely because the database is consists of 10 tables and records won't likely exceed more than a thousand records.
But my question is, is it possible to directly connect a C# application to a MySQL instance from a web server? And if it does is it secure? It will be storing vital information such as credit card numbers, and member information and needs to be up all the time.

A: You can easily connect to a MySQL database from any computer as long as your firewall do not block port 3306 on the database server. However, I strongly discourage you from doing so since you loose control over the clients.

*

*Each client needs to store the database connection somewhere (or fetch from some kind of server)

*You need to be able to update the MySql connector on all clients

*You get very little control over the data access.

Instead I would introduce some kind of data access layer that the clients would use. You could for instance use WCF Data Services or build your own very simple data layer (let the clients send SQL queries and return the proper result) using WCF.
Both those options lets you use any technology behind (you can even switch database server without the clients noticing).

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Theatre includes: Little Inez in Hairspray (Uk & Ireland Tour); The Christmasaurus (Hammersmith Apollo); The Bodyguard (Dominion Theatre, West End and Ed Mirvish Theatre, Toronto); Jesus Christ Superstar (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre); Extraordinary girl in American Idiot (Arts Theatre); Clara in Ghost (English Theatre, Frankfurt); Jesus Christ Superstar (World Arena Tour); Tribe in Hair (Munich); Genie of the Ring in Aladdin (Jordan Productions); Chiffon in Little Shop of Horrors (Birmingham Rep Theatre); Lil Inez in Hairspray (Shaftesbury Theatre); Dorothy in The Wiz (Greenwich Theatre).
Other work includes: Over the rainbow (ITV); Singer for Comedy Sketch with Miss Jocelyn & Clive Swift (BBC Radio); Appeared on Children in Need (BBC) and The Alan Titchmarsh show (ITV) with the cast of Hairspray.
Recordings include: One Voice (David Burns Productions) (Greenwich Music Ltd).


Family medicine specialists provide care for patients of all ages, with a focus on family.
Family medicine specialists provide primary medical care for patients of all ages, with a strong emphasis on the family. Family physicians see patients of any gender and age, from infants to older adults. Many people choose a family physician so that their whole family sees the same doctor. The family medicine physicians can coordinate overall care for all family members, and refer to specialty care and services with the family's best interests in mind. Some family physicians deliver babies and have additional qualifications in prenatal care, pregnancy and delivery.
Disease prevention and management, including heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, arthritis, cholesterol management, etc.
It's never easy to be sick, but we make it a lot easier to get better. Our primary care network provides same-day priority scheduling, walk-in appointments and extended hours.
Call 913-782-2224 to schedule a same-day appointment with an Olathe Health Physicians' primary care provider.
Are test results, imaging and/or medical records available to share with my primary care provider?
With Patient Portal, you can communicate securely with your clinic physician and staff, request appointments, submit prescription renewal requests, view test results and manage your health profile.


text:
/**
 * @Project: communityFocus
 * @FilePath: com.newenv.communityFocus.configuration.DataSourceConfiguration.java
 * @author: mingjie.lu
 * @date: 2016年5月10日 上午9:16:05
 */
package com.newenv.communityFocus.configuration;

import org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationProperties;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;

/**
 * @ClassName: com.newenv.communityFocus.configuration.DataSourceConfiguration
 * @Description: 数据源配置类
 * @author: mingjie.lu
 * @date: 2016年5月10日 上午9:16:05
 */
@Configuration
@ConfigurationProperties(prefix = "dataSource")
public class DataSourceConfiguration {
	private String driverclass="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver";
	private String jdbcurl;
	private String user;
	private String password;
	private Integer acquireIncrement=1;
	private Integer initialPoolSize=1;
	private Integer minPoolSize=1;
	private Integer maxPoolSize=500;
	private Integer maxIdleTime=600;
	private Integer idleConnectionTestPeriod=500;
	private Integer maxStatements=0;
	private Integer maxStatementsPerConnection=100;
	/**
	 * @return the driverclass
	 */
	public String getDriverclass() {
		return driverclass;
	}
	/**
	 * @param driverclass the driverclass to set
	 */
	public void setDriverclass(String driverclass) {
		this.driverclass = driverclass;
	}
	/**
	 * @return the jdbcurl
	 */
	public String getJdbcurl() {
		return jdbcurl;
	}
	/**
	 * @param jdbcurl the jdbcurl to set
	 */
	public void setJdbcurl(String jdbcurl) {
		this.jdbcurl = jdbcurl;
	}
	/**
	 * @return the user
	 */
	public String getUser() {
		return user;
	}
	/**
	 * @param user the user to set
	 */
	public void setUser(String user) {
		this.user = user;
	}
	/**
	 * @return the password
	 */
	public String getPassword() {
		return password;
	}
	/**
	 * @param password the password to set
	 */
	public void setPassword(String password) {
		this.password = password;
	}
	/**
	 * @return the acquireIncrement
	 */
	public Integer getAcquireIncrement() {
		return acquireIncrement;
	}
	/**
	 * @param acquireIncrement the acquireIncrement to set
	 */
	public void setAcquireIncrement(Integer acquireIncrement) {
		this.acquireIncrement = acquireIncrement;
	}
	/**
	 * @return the initialPoolSize
	 */
	public Integer getInitialPoolSize() {
		return initialPoolSize;
	}
	/**
	 * @param initialPoolSize the initialPoolSize to set
	 */
	public void setInitialPoolSize(Integer initialPoolSize) {
		this.initialPoolSize = initialPoolSize;
	}
	/**
	 * @return the minPoolSize
	 */
	public Integer getMinPoolSize() {
		return minPoolSize;
	}
	/**
	 * @param minPoolSize the minPoolSize to set
	 */
	public void setMinPoolSize(Integer minPoolSize) {
		this.minPoolSize = minPoolSize;
	}
	/**
	 * @return the maxPoolSize
	 */
	public Integer getMaxPoolSize() {
		return maxPoolSize;
	}
	/**
	 * @param maxPoolSize the maxPoolSize to set
	 */
	public void setMaxPoolSize(Integer maxPoolSize) {
		this.maxPoolSize = maxPoolSize;
	}
	/**
	 * @return the maxIdleTime
	 */
	public Integer getMaxIdleTime() {
		return maxIdleTime;
	}
	/**
	 * @param maxIdleTime the maxIdleTime to set
	 */
	public void setMaxIdleTime(Integer maxIdleTime) {
		this.maxIdleTime = maxIdleTime;
	}
	/**
	 * @return the idleConnectionTestPeriod
	 */
	public Integer getIdleConnectionTestPeriod() {
		return idleConnectionTestPeriod;
	}
	/**
	 * @param idleConnectionTestPeriod the idleConnectionTestPeriod to set
	 */
	public void setIdleConnectionTestPeriod(Integer idleConnectionTestPeriod) {
		this.idleConnectionTestPeriod = idleConnectionTestPeriod;
	}
	/**
	 * @return the maxStatements
	 */
	public Integer getMaxStatements() {
		return maxStatements;
	}
	/**
	 * @param maxStatements the maxStatements to set
	 */
	public void setMaxStatements(Integer maxStatements) {
		this.maxStatements = maxStatements;
	}
	/**
	 * @return the maxStatementsPerConnection
	 */
	public Integer getMaxStatementsPerConnection() {
		return maxStatementsPerConnection;
	}
	/**
	 * @param maxStatementsPerConnection the maxStatementsPerConnection to set
	 */
	public void setMaxStatementsPerConnection(Integer maxStatementsPerConnection) {
		this.maxStatementsPerConnection = maxStatementsPerConnection;
	}

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


+ NOTE: All general business meetings are open to Quelab members and members of the public. Attendance is encouraged!
+ Field trip, was discussed, everyone was ok with the idea, but it really does not directly effect the space so we say do it and see if they come.
+ Meeting ended at 5:29) Some after meeting discussion talked about using a hosted wiki rather than doing our own, due to backups, patching, yada yada, wikispaces has treated aaron and sherie well.


The African Journal of Clinical and Outcomes Research was established to answer in a publication vehicle need for original research articles, clinical reviews and opinion papers on all aspects of clinical research, clinical development, regulatory affairs and ethics, eClinical, outcomes research. The target audience include, but are not limited to, multinational companies, clinical research organisations and site management organisations. The journal also provides a platform for the advertising of positions in the field and enrolment opportunities.


text:
Q: Nginx 301 Redirect I have website with permalink like this this:
_http://www.domain.com/read/o/one-url-posting/
_http://www.domain.com/read/t/two-url-posting/
_http://www.domain.com/read/f/four-url-posting/
_http://www.domain.com/read/s/six-url-posting/
_http://www.domain.com/read/n/nine-url-posting/
_http://www.domain.com/read/x/xxx-url-posting/
How to redirect all permalink to _http://www.domain.com/read/nine-url-posting/ without one char between slash after "read" slug?
Thanks

A: I found answer from another web, like this.
location ~ ^/read/(.*)/(.*)/ {
    return 301 /read/$2/;
}

Case closed.
Thanks

A: Do you need all links rewrited to 1 link or each link to same link, but without one char (x/xxx-url-posting/ -> xxx-url-posting/)?
Try this for first case:
rewrite "^/read/([a-z]{1})/(.*)/$" /read/nine-url-posting/ last;

And this for second case:
rewrite "^/read/([a-z]{1})/(.*)/$" /read/$2/ last;


Last month saw Perrier award-winning comedian Dominic Holland returned to the iconic Edinburgh Festival Fringe following a ten-year absence. Performing 21 times in three weeks Dominic showed his hilarious Eclipsed show to packed out crowds at the Voodoo Rooms at the festival and delighted audiences with his unique brand of comedy.
With his hilarious blend of observational quality and anecdotes from his own life, his show focuses on those widely relatable day to day life experiences as well as drawing on the fame his son Tom is now experiencing. Since being cast as the lead role in Spider Man: Homecoming he has become a Hollywood star, something Dominic references in all of his shows.
Dominic's debut at the festival came in 1993 where he won the 'Best Newcomer' award and he remains as funny as ever, 24 years on.


text:
The Escherichia coli chromosome shows two main levels of global organization: macrodomains and replichores. Macrodomains were discovered by cytological studies. They contain loci showing the same intracellular positioning and choreography during the cell cycle.

References

Chromosomes

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Meet our dear friends Collin & Erin. They recently got engaged and as you might be able to tell from the above image, they're very excited about that. Last week, we all took the Novomobile for a little road trip and we had a blast stopping off at different places to goof off and create images. I quickly realized that there was very little I had to do but point the camera at them and click the shutter. Their joyous personalities and heartfelt affection for each other were naturally evident. Afterwards, Collin had us over to his house where Erin had cooked some of the best Thai food I've ever tasted in my life. They both share a passion for the people and culture of India and someday, they hope to move there. But until then, they'll be here...gracing Northwest Arkansas with their awesomeness. Here's a few images from our little road trip. Enjoy.


ASTM A254 Steel Tubing,copper brazed low carbon steel tube,yellow zinc plated,with steel tube nuts,be used to cars brake lines.
Brake Caliper Line Transfer Tube,PVF coated steel with copper coating inside,with brake tube nuts,be used for cars,trucks and SUV.
Single Strip Type Steel Tube,low carbon steel with PVF coating and copper coating inside,pre bent be used to brake lines.
Brake Line Steel Tubing,carbon steel material,galvanized coated for automotive brake lines.


Chandigarh, India : Chitkara University is happy to announce that its professor Dr. Nitin Saluja, Assistant Director Research from Chitkara University Research and Innovation Network (CURIN) has got selected in Economic Times – Power of Ideas, an event by Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Facebook.
At Chitkara University, Research and Innovations are the prime focus for the students from their first day at the campus. Chitkara University Research and Innovation Program (CURIN) is the department designed dedicatedly for research and innovation on the campus. Through this department, professors, researchers, and students get a chance to work across disciplines to extend their boundaries of knowledge. Chitkara University has 12 centres underCURIN that are contributing to build and sustain thought leadership of Innovations. These centres are involved in cutting-edge research, exploring new technologies to improve the country's infrastructure and safety and thereby contributing to the society through their discoveries.
Economic Times (ET) Power of Ideas is aimed at creating an entrepreneurial ecosystem in India. ET Power of Ideas received over 5,800 business summaries from participants from across the country. This time, over 300 ideas have been shortlisted to go pitch in front of the panellists after refining their ideas with mentors.Dr. Nitin Saluja's Idea E-Pancreas made it to the top 60 list after four phases of selection. The four stages of the selection process were conducted at a seven-day boot camp with excellent pitches to investors in Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Dr. Nitin has been awarded a grant of two lakh rupees for further enhancement of the idea and its validation.


A Muslim woman who tried to kill a Labour MP by stabbing him in the stomach was jailed for life on Wednesday.
Roshonara Choudhry, a 21-year-old student, twice plunged a knife into former minister Stephen Timms when she went to meet him at his constituency office in east London on May 14 this year, shortly after the general election.
Judge Jeremy Cooke said Choudhry , reportedly after watching online sermons by Yemeni-US cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, would continue to be a danger to MPs for the foreseeable future and passed a life sentence with a minimum term of 15 years.


One of our most popular Bugayenko products, Invisibility harnesses the power of all that stuff you can't see: magnetic fields, microbes, love. Buy this if you want to contemplate the eternal, or just enjoy the paradox of being able to see what invisibility looks like!
As usual, we would like to make it very clear that this product is not edible; in fact, we would not recommend even opening the bottle. Do you really want to tangle with the essential powers of our universe?


text:
Contact Rep. Saylor
PA State Rep. Stan Saylor Serving PA's 94th Legislative District
Where to Call for Help
Citizens Access Portal
State Government Links
Property Tax/Rent Rebate
PennDOT Forms
I-83 Construction
Saylor, Gillespie Announce Funding to Enhance Recreational Opportunities in Wrightsville
HARRISBURG – A stretch of Front Street at Riverfront Park along the scenic Susquehanna River in Wrightsville will be improved and made safer for pedestrians through a $1 million Multimodal Transportation Fund Program grant awarded today, Reps. Stan Saylor (R-Red Lion) and Keith Gillespie (R-Hellam Township) announced.
"Wrightsville Borough is a gateway to our wonderful York County, and I am glad that Representative Gillespie and I were able to secure this needed funding to help improve the streetscape of Front Street," Saylor said. "This grant will help improve the vitality and walkability of this amazing community while address critical issues such as stormwater management and signage. This is a great step forward for Wrightsville and I want to commend the borough council for their leadership in seeking these needed improvements."
Under the plan, Front Street will be narrowed from 34-feet to 22- to 24-feet using curb extensions in order to lower traffic speeds in front of the popular Riverfront Park. The project also includes streetscape improvements, such as the planting of trees along the street and enhancements to stormwater management.
"This on-going project complements efforts to improve recreational opportunities along the river," Gillespie said. "We are fortunate to have such a natural treasure as the Susquehanna River in our backyards and this project will help attract people, including nature lovers, to the area."
The Multimodal Transportation Fund provides grants to encourage economic development and ensure that a safe and reliable system of transportation is available to the residents of the Commonwealth.
Representative Keith Gillespie
Representative Stan Saylor
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Kevin DiGuiseppe
717.260.6419 (office), 610.937.4679 (cell)
100 Redco Avenue (Just off of Route 74)
Red Lion, PA 17356
M- W 8:30- 4:30
Th 10:00 - 6:00
F 8:30 - 12:30
245 Main Capitol Building
© 2021 PA House Republican Caucus. Terms of use


text:
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Support Real Journalism
Washington Area Home To Holiday Gifts Galore
By Stephanie Kanowitz
Willard InterContinental Washington
Also See: Tysons: Shopping Staple Expands Its Horizons
When you live somewhere, it's easy to take the beauty of the place for granted. But the Washington area has no shortage of beauty — or shopping for that matter, from cosmetics and cookbooks to high-tech gadgets and high-end experiences. That's why we stuck to local businesses for this year's holiday gift guide, although a few chains pop up now and again.
So while you wait for the wearable Apple Watch to come out, don't miss out on the hidden gems sure to satisfy the technology wizard, spa lover, theatergoer or child in your life. Additionally, we feature staycation options to help you get (re)acquainted with the beauty that Washington tourists experience, rather than the meeting rooms and office buildings that its residents often see.
Happy holidays — and happy shopping.
Reasonable: Erwin Gomez Cosmetics
1104 24th St., NW
erwingomezcosmetics.com
Erwin Gomez, the local eyebrow guru with a cult following, now has a cosmetics line that includes makeup, brushes and tools. Pick up the Waterproof Eye Brow Pencil ($19) to keep brows in line or the Picture Perfect Powder Foundation ($35) to smooth skin with a matte finish. Gomez's clients include Oprah and actresses Claire Danes and Rosario Dawson.
Splurge: Aura Spa's Collagen 90-II Facial
auraspa.net
Aura Spa's 75-minute Collagen 90-II facial ($150) is a treatment by G.M. Collin Skin Care, founded in France in 1957, that combines a pure native collagen sheet with other ingredients to hydrate and firm the skin in addition to reducing signs of aging by minimizing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Visit Aura Spa's fourth and newest D.C. location at the Yards in Southeast (1212 4th St., SE).
Mandarin Oriental Spa
Extravagant: The Mandarin Oriental Spa's Thai Ritual – Journeys
1330 Maryland Ave., SW
mandarinoriental.com/washington/luxury-spa/overview
Relax the body and mind with this treatment ($495) that involves meditation, controlled breathing and a combination of yoga stretches with muscle manipulation. Recommended for people with chronic pain and tension, Thai massage has been practiced in Thailand for more than 2,500 years.
Upshur Street Books
827 Upshur St., NW
upshurstreetbooks.com
This new bookstore in the Petworth neighborhood is the product of restaurateur Paul Ruppert and artist Kristina Bilonick — and their Kickstarter online funding campaign. Open since Nov. 1, it features books by local authors and topics for area entrepreneurs.
Photo: Cassidy DuHon Photography
Politics and Prose
5015 Connecticut Ave., NW
politics-prose.com
Washingtonians' famous Politics and Prose bookstore continues to recommend the fictional work "All the Light We Cannot See" ($27) by Anthony Doerr, which came out this summer and is now on the shortlist for the National Book Award this year. On the nonfiction side, women have produced big sellers this year, the store's director of marketing and publicity said. Among the top picks are comedian Amy Poehler's memoir, "Yes Please" ($28.99) and Helen Thorpe's "Soldier Girls" ($28) about three women who join the Indiana National Guard in the decade before Sept. 11, 2001. Become a member ($25 a year) and get 20 percent off all purchases Dec. 5 to 7.
Photo: Dan Chung
Hay-Adams Author Series
800 16th St., NW
hayadams.com/author-series
The hotel's namesakes — John Hay, a personal secretary to Abraham Lincoln, U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom and secretary of state, and Henry Adams, the grandson and great-grandson of U.S. presidents — hosted gatherings that included famous authors such as Mark Twain. It's in that tradition that the Hay-Adams started its author series ($85) in 2005. Since then, writers such as Toni Morrison, John Grisham and Joyce Carol Oates have participated. The next event will take place in early 2015. It will include a three-course meal, wine and participation in the author discussion.
Reasonable: "Richard Sandoval's New Latin Flavors"
richardsandoval.com
Local award-winning chef Richard Sandoval has seven area restaurants, including Masa 14, Zengo, Ambar, Toro Toro and El Centro D.F., and more than 25 others in places such as Dubai, Hong Kong and Qatar. Now the Mexico City native shares 125 recipes for contemporary Latin cuisine in his new cookbook, released in October ($29.95). Dishes include quesadillas, ceviche, arepas and enchiladas in addition to cultural fusions such as the meeting of Japan and Mexico with the Togarashi Tuna in Mini Won Ton Bowl.
Splurge: Cooking Classes at CulinAerie
culinaerie.com
December classes ($85 per person, $175 per couple) include a holiday baking workshop (Dec. 7 at 2 p.m.), popular Indian recipes (Dec. 14 at 2 p.m.) and French favorites (Dec. 14 at 2 p.m.). Couples can enjoy the classes together at special date-night events such as "Date Night: Thailand" on Dec. 20 at 6:30 p.m., when the menu includes papaya salad, pad thai, roasted duck and red curry, and coconut bananas.
Extravagant: Range and Reef
rangeandreef.com
Don't feel like cooking this upcoming holiday season? Hire a personal chef to prepare meals from Range and Reef (contact for pricing). Jim Holderbaum traveled to 60 countries in his pursuit of creating unique food experiences where cooking becomes part of the event. Meals to choose from include shrimp and seafood boils, lobster and clambakes, grilled ribs, and top sirloin and prime rib.
Reasonable: Holiday Afternoon Tea at the Willard InterContinental
Willard Holiday Hotline: (202) 637-7350
intercontinental.com/Washington
Take a break from fancy peppermint frappacinos and white chocolate lattes with a Willard InterContinental Holiday Afternoon Tea in the hotel's elegant Peacock Alley ($51, or $65 with a glass of Moët & Chandon Champagne). As you listen to live harp music, you can munch on egg salad, smoked salmon, goat cheese on brioche, ham and brie mini sandwiches, candy cane puffs, mini chestnut rum Yule logs and gingerbread men. It's available daily beginning Dec. 1 (except Dec. 25, 26 and 31) from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Afterward, see how the Willard has decked its halls with the complete White House Historical Association's Christmas Ornament collection, including the 2014 ornament honoring President Warren Harding, who signed the first federal child welfare program and oversaw a 50 percent unemployment drop. Started by the association in 1981, the ornaments chronologically honor a different president or White House event each year. The decorations will be on the hotel lobby's tree through early January.
Splurge: minibar by José Andrés
855 E St., NW
minibarbyjoseandres.com
A famous dining experience, minibar's menu ($250 and up) is at the whims of celebrated and award-winning chef José Andrés. Small plates of avant-garde imagination flow from the kitchen as they are ready. "The creations combine art and science as well as tradition and technique," according to the restaurant's website. "Here you will be taken on a culinary journey. Each bite is designed to thrill the senses by pushing the limits of what we have come to expect, and what is possible from food." Reservations are required and can be made via e-mail each season.
Photo: Travis Vaughn Photography
Extravagant: Mari Vanna's New Year's Eve Special
marivanna.ru/washington/
Mari Vanna feels — and tastes — like stepping into a traditional Russian home. The eclectic restaurant rings in 2015 with a prix-fix New Year's Eve menu ($395 per person) that includes black caviar and a bottle of Dom Perignon, along with Russian classics such as piroshki, blinis, khachapuri and beef stroganoff.
Photo: Dean Alexander
Morgann Rose and Hyun-Woong Kim perform in"Sleepy Hollow."
Theater and Performing Arts
Reasonable: The Washington Ballet's "Sleepy Hollow"
The Kennedy Center
washingtonballet.org
Washington Irving's ghostly love triangle will be told through ballet and original live music (tickets are $25 to $125). In the classic tale, a new school teacher, Ichabod Crane, finds himself smitten by a flirtatious beauty, Katrina Van Tassel, much to the displeasure of "Brom Bones" Van Brunt. A rivalry ensues and the Headless Horseman pays a visit one night. Costumes were designed by a Cirque du Soleil costume dancer, and art by the local firm Design Army will be on display citywide in early 2015. Seven performances run from Feb. 18 to 22.
Photo: MSG Entertainment
Splurge: Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular
1260 Avenue of the Americas, New York City
radiocitychristmas.com
Get into the holiday spirit with a high-energy performance by the Rockettes at the famed Radio City Music Hall in New York City (tickets are $46 to $109). Before the show, visitors can take pictures with a dancer or Santa, stock up on sugary treats at the sweets shop or sip cocktails at the Delta Sky360 Lounge.
Photo: Wolf Trap Foundation
Extravagant: Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts' President's Circle Membership
1645 Trap Road, Vienna, Va.
wolftrap.org
Membership ($25,000) has its privileges at Wolf Trap, whose stages have welcomed Art Garfunkel, Josh Groban and Ringo Starr. Members get priority seating, access to special events, insider news, backstage tours and the opportunity to buy tickets before they open to the general public. Memberships are available in other amounts, too, starting at $75.
Photo: BlackDog Advertising
Reasonable: DC Ducks
dcducks.com
We live here, but do we really appreciate all that Washington has to offer? Take a seat on an original World War II DUKW amphibious vehicle for a 90-minute tour of the city's most notable sites before floating down the Potomac River ($39 per adult, $29 per child). Pick up the tour at Union Station. From there it winds its way to the National Mall before sailing the river to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and returning to the train station.
Splurge: "Take in the City Tour" at the Hay-Adams
hayadams.com
This two-hour evening tour (starting at $529) takes you for a leisurely look at D.C.'s famous monuments illuminated with holiday lights. Enjoy the views while noshing treats from a deluxe champagne goodie basket. It's part of a two-night getaway package that also includes accommodations, your own White House chocolates and a full American breakfast for two.
Photo: Robert Reck
Extravagant: Capella Christmas Package
1050 31st St., NW
capellahotels.com/washingtondc/georgetown/
One of the District's poshest places, the Capella in Georgetown is a luxuriously appointed escape from the surrounding bustle. Its Christmas package (starting at $645) gets you a one-night stay in a room with a view — of the C&O Canal and historical Georgetown — a welcome cocktail called the "Rye Ginger Totty," a holiday stocking on Christmas morning and either Christmas Eve dinner or Christmas Day brunch in the hotel's restaurant, the Grill Room. Additionally, a Christmas gift-opening ceremony will take place in the Capella Living Room and includes a gift for each guest.
Photo: Stacy Zarin Goldberg
Reasonable: Custom Wreaths of Potomac
customwreathsofpotomac.com
Local artist Linda Hobbins has been making seasonal wreaths, wall hangings and table displays in her Potomac, Md., studio for about five years, using fresh, dried flowers or silk flowers. She also designs custom arrangements and holly and mistletoe balls. Prices vary.
Geoffrey Hodgdon
Splurge: Lori Graham Design + Home
lorigraham.com
Logan Circle, D.C., resident Lori Graham recently added a line from Canadian design team Gabriel-Scott to her showroom. A must-have from the collection is the Marx Stool, available in a black steel base with brass fittings for $850 or with a brass base for $1,350. Both versions come with a heather-grey herringbone cushion.
Extravagant: Eames Aluminum Soft Pad Management Chair by Herman Miller at Room & Board
roomandboard.com/catalog/office/herman-miller-collection/eames-soft-pad-group-leather-chairs
This leather desk chair ($2,839) is available in 12 colors, including classic black. For something to liven up the office more, however, try red (they call it Canyon), olive or white, which costs $90 more. The chair was first created in 1958 by Charles and Ray Eames. It's made with two-inch-thick foam padding and cast aluminum ribs.
Photo: Sweet Lime Portrait Design
Reasonable: Kinder Haus Toys
1220 N. Fillmore St., Arlington, Va.
kinderhaus.com
At this Arlington toy store, anything associated with Disney's latest animated hit "Frozen" is flying off the shelves, with charm bracelets, costumes, activities and picture books especially popular, an employee said. The Washington-based picture books by Sue Pyatt, "Call Me Madame President" and "D.C. Daniel - Washington Superhero" ($18 each), are also tough to keep in stock.
Splurge: The Puppet Co. Party Package
7300 MacArthur Blvd., Glen Echo, Md.
thepuppetco.org
Add a little culture to this year's holiday party by taking your kids and their friends to see "The Nutcracker" on the main stage (for kids in pre-K through fourth grade) or the "Nutcracker Fantasy" for Tiny Tots ages 0 through 4, both through Dec. 30 ($295 for main stage, $255 for Tiny Tots). Afterward, head to the party room, which gives you access to a fridge, freezer, sink, closet, tables and chairs. The package includes 20 tickets to one of the day's performances.
Photo: Wisp Resort
Extravagant: Wisp Resort
296 Marsh Hill Road, McHenry, Md.
wispresort.com
When the weather outside is frightful, get out and dive into it. Wisp Resort offers learn-to-ski programs for kids ages 3 to 14. A full day's session runs $89 to $159, while a two-day goes for $209 or $229. An extracurricular hour-long private lesson goes for $64. In addition to skiing, visitors can go snow tubing, snowmobiling and snowshoeing. While the kids are riding the slopes, parents can stay warm in the hotel's heated indoor pool and hot tub. Call for pricing and packages.
Reasonable: Bliss Spa Products
blissworld.com
You've had your massage/facial/body scrub and now you have to maintain it. Enter Bliss Spa's pampering products. There's the Buttah Bing ($39), which includes bliss lemon+sage body butter, grapefruit+aloe body butter and blood orange+white pepper body butter; Mistletoe Gems ($12), which comes with bliss high-intensity hand cream and Fabulips lip balm; and Diamonds in the Rough ($12.50) with bliss snowflake hand cream and peppermint hand cream.
Shinola Mini Backpack
Splurge: Shinola Mini Backpack
Area Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's and Neiman Marcus
shinola.com
Purses from the Motor City? Shinola proudly manufactures American products in Detroit that range from bicycles to watches to fine leather goods. The Mini Backpack ($255) emphasizes minimalist design and handcrafted details and was cut and sewn by expert craftspeople in Ste. Genevieve, Mo., from genuine Horween leather produced in America's oldest continuously operated tannery. Purses come in five colors and each is individually numbered, with a hand-sewn, whip-stitched internal card pocket.
Photo: © Tiffany & Co.
Extravagant: Tiffany and Co.
Tysons Corner, Va., and Chevy Chase, Md.
The little blue box with the thick white ribbon. It's been mentioned here before, and it appears again because it rarely disappoints. This year, we point out the delicate yet dazzling Tiffany seed pearl and diamond tassel pendant in platinum, which is part of the Tiffany Masterpieces 2014 collection. It debuted this fall and was created by design director Francesca Amfitheatrof (pricing available on request).
Reasonable: Kiehl's Since 1851 Essentials for Him
bluemercury.com
Who says women should get all the pampering? Bluemercury, one of the area's fast-growing local-based chains, sells a Kiehl's holiday package for guys ($31) that includes the Ultimate Man Body Scrub Soap, Facial Fuel Energizing Face Wash, Facial Fuel Energizing Moisturizer Treatment for Men and Ultimate Brushless Shave Cream - White Eagle.
Photo: Laura Fruchterman Photography
Splurge: Sock Drawer Makeover by Nice Laundry
nicelaundry.com
A couple of Washington residents launched this online company last year after noticing that many men's socks could use revamping. Choose any three packages of six socks ($99 each) to liven up your selection. The socks come in bright or muted colors and prints such as argyle, camouflage, stripes and dots. Athletic socks are now available, too. Bonus: Send Nice Laundry your old socks and they will have them recycled.
Extravagant: Meisterstück 90 Years Skeleton 149 Fountain Pen
montblanc.com
Technology may be overtaking handwritten notes, but for die-hard writers, there's nothing like a quality, classic writing instrument. This pen ($9,600) is inspired by Montblanc's first Skeleton Pen from 1999, designed for the Meisterstück line's 90th anniversary. It has a ruthenium-plated finish and a special anniversary design. Meisterstück is the flagship line of pens from Montblanc, the Germany-based company founded in 1906.
Stephanie Kanowitz is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.
Last Edited on November 26, 2014
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Barry Gallup, Jr. is a Vice President of The Jordan Company.
Barry joined TJC in 2012. Prior to TJC, Barry worked in the Investment Banking division at Morgan Stanley. He currently serves on the board of directors of ARCH, Borchers, RFJ Auto, RFour and Young Innovations.
Barry holds a BBA degree in Finance from the University of Notre Dame.