Where do I find commercial lawyers in Dubai?
Are you looking for a commercial lawyer in Dubai? Finding any lawyer cannot be hard. But finding the right lawyer is never easy. Choosing a bad attorney could be the most expensive mistake any firm can make. Besides the regular bills, losing a lawsuit or rejections in certain claims can have long term impacts on your firm. Not only money loss, but also you will suffer from defamation at that point which will affect the Goodwill of your firm. Hence finding the best commercial lawyer in Dubai for your business is highly inevitable.
Identifying and hiring the right lawyer is one of the most important decisions you need to make while setting up a business or even while running one. Remember, it is the protection you are offering to your company. But not everyone gets it right in the beginning itself. As mentioned earlier, hiring a right lawyer in Dubai can be difficult. You need an expert in the business who also shares the same values and interests as you do. It doesn't coincidentally align most of the times and even giant corporations hire and fire legal firms and attorneys periodically. Hence do your research and make sure that you find the perfect commercial lawyer in Dubai for your firm. Are you not sure about where to start looking or how to start searching in order to find the best attorney in Dubai? Here are a few suggestions for you.
Bar associations in Dubai: Bar associations are the most reliable sources for collecting necessary information about attorneys in Dubai. They will have the lists of attorneys specializing in particular fields. By reaching out to them you can have a good start. They will offer you the best suggestions possible. If you personally do not want to visit, you can go the websites and collect information. You can go to the International Bar Associations and select UAE. Also, you will find other relevant sources online which guide you to the bar association in Dubai.
Word of Mouth: Like anything else in the human world, asking around and finding out the best possible options for a commercial lawyer is not a bad idea. If you have friends or family members who own or run businesses, they will have several contacts for finding the best Commercial Lawyers in Dubai. Some might even have close associations with legal firms or independent practitioners who are suitable for your business. When it comes to close circles, they know you and your business idea better than an outsider. They will have a perception as to what kind of a legal firm will serve you and your business better. Also, if you have friends, who are practicing law, even if their area of expertise is in different subject matters, they will know good commercial lawyers in Dubai. In case they don't, they will definitely ask around for you to find the best options available. Besides, friends and family, you can also seek help from other stakeholders of your business. Your partners, associates, suppliers etc. might know someone who could be the best. Also, feel free to ask around to other business owners who are dealing with businesses just like yours. Sometimes, even if the business structure differs, there will be other contacts they might be able to offer. But be sure not to hire a lawyer who is also dealing with your competitors as it would create a conflict of interests.
Trade Events: There are different kinds of trade events and expos where you will come across commercial lawyers in Dubai. It will be a random meeting, but actually not so random at all. They visit such places to meet potential clients and to intimate their presence. Just like you, they might receive several other connections as well. All it takes is a casual meeting and exchange of cards. Hence, if you have plans for opening a business or hiring a new commercial lawyer in Dubai, keep your eyes open at the trade expos. Do not shy away from meeting with people and exchanging business cards. If you connect with somebody well, save the contact immediately to the phone before losing cards. However, do not hire someone without a proper background check even if he seems trustworthy, reliable and you connect well. Always avoid making quick decisions and hiring people on the spot. Do elaborate research and if the lawyer still checks out the criteria, do not hesitate to hire him.
Search on the Internet: we can no longer ignore the virtual world while making our decisions. There are so many internet platforms where you will find information about commercial lawyers in Dubai. There are online directories and websites. There are review platforms as well where clients rate and comment about the services offered by the law firm and the lawyers. Well, do not make harsh decisions about the attorneys if you find one or two negative comments because sometimes even the competitors can post them. But if you see a series of comments pointing out a certain issue, analyze the pattern before making a decision. Besides directories and common platforms, there are individual websites of commercial lawyers in Dubai as well. If you visit those, you will get to see the listings of credentials, achievements, portfolio, testimonials etc. which will help you evaluate your options and to rate them.
Talk to a lawyer: Nowadays, it is not hard to get in touch with commercial lawyers in Dubai. You will have contact information on the internet directories or websites. If you feel like, somebody matches your interests, the portfolio is appealing and testimonials are good, please do not hesitate to call them. Through calls even if you cannot make a decision, you will definitely be informed well about the ways of a person. You can assess the knowledge and mannerisms of a person to at least some extent if you have a well-informed conversation.
Plan Consultations: Nothing is better than a face to face open conversation. There are so many benefits to it. Easy judgment is one of them. If you have done thorough research and you have liked a few candidates you can shortlist them. After having a telephonic conversation, if you feel the worth of the candidate, you can meet them directly. Be prepared when you approach a Commercial Lawyer in Dubai. In order to make the meeting productive, there is no issue in being prepared. You can have a list of questions to ask them and if all of them were answered well, you can make an informed decision.
Hiring the right lawyer can be challenging. Sometimes you will not even know where to start searching. Do not be alarmed. AAB is here to help you. Give a call on 05432 73073 to get in touch with the best commercial lawyers in Dubai and worry no more!


I pitted next to Elusive Graphics at the Hollister race last year. I know for sure they do.
Supposedly gang discount, but I can't confirm that.
Come to a race and follow me around...I'll wrap it in dirt for free!
Bryer Perry at 180 does them also!
Don't tease, I think it's time for a comeback!


Croatia feeds | This Place is Electrifying!
He was definitely a man ahead of his time. Some of his inventions seemed so unreal that it appeared as though he came from the distant future. Meet Nikola Tesla and the region he came from!
The ingenious scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla was born exactly at midnight on the night of the 9th to the 10th of July 1856, in the small village of Smiljan near the town of Gospić. The talk of the village is that there was a thunderstorm that night, and so it is no wonder how his life progressed from then on.
Tesla had hundreds of inventions, but the most well known and most used fruits of his labour were the alternating current, radio devices, electrical igniter for gas engines, remote controls… It is enough to say that most of the things we do today could not be done in the same way had it not been for Tesla.
The region from which this genius came from conceals many natural beauties. Lika is a region encircled by mountain chains – Velebit, Velika and Mala Kapela, and Lička Plješivica.
One of Lika's well known products is the Lika potato. In 2015, its name was inscribed in the EU Register of Protected Designations of Origin and Geographical Indication.
This region is adorned with the exceptional beauty of untouched nature, which is further endorsed by the fact that as much as 58% of the territory of Croatian national parks are located in Lika.
Legend has it that Plitvice Lakes were formed after a massive drought, all thanks to the Black Queen. People, animals and plants longed for a drop of water, and then she appeared. The Black Queen showed mercy to the people and sent rain that kept falling until the water levels grew high enough to form lakes.
The water wealth of this oldest, largest, and most famous national park consists of 16 lakes located in the area between Mala Kapela and Plješivica in Lika.
The extraordinary nature and abundance of flora and fauna attracts millions of tourists every year from all over the world, and so it is no wonder that Plitvice Lakes are the most visited Croatian national park. In addition to tourists, its beauty was recognised by UNESCO in 1979, which was among the first in the world to pronounce it a World Heritage Site.
If you are in search of the perfect blend of breath-taking nature and the richness of cultural and historical heritage, or perhaps you favour active tourism, this is a place you must visit as soon as possible!


text:
Q: Using Wild Cards in Powershell variables I have a folder that has weekly reports. Each report has the date of creation in the name example "report-A_2_05_19.pdf", "report-B_2_05_19.pdf", etc. I would like to create variables for these but since the date changes in the name of the reports each week I was trying to do this:
$rA = "c:\reports\report-A*.pdf"
$rb = "C:\reports\report-B*.pdf

When I do this and try to open the report using the wild cards it just prints to the screen:

c:\reports\report-A*.pdf

$pw = Get-Content C:\MailPW.txt | ConvertTo-SecureString
$cred = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential name@domain.com, $pw
Send-MailMessage -To name@domain.com -from name@domain.com -Subject "Attachments" -Body "Attachments." -attachments $rA, $rB -Smtpserver mail.domain.com -UseSsl -credential $cred

A: If you look at the Docs for Send-MailMessage  you will see that -Attachments does not support wildcards

Type: String[]
Aliases:  PsPath
Position: Named
Default value:    None
Accept pipeline input:    True (ByValue)
Accept wildcard characters:   False

So what you could do instead is incorporate Resolve-Path which does extrapolate paths from wildcards strings.
Send-MailMessage .... -attachments (Resolve-Path $rA, $rB).Path

Beware though that this could match more than you intended. You might need to validate the results before you attach the files.

I would also recommend splatting when provided large amounts of parameters and values.
$sendMailMessageParameters = @{
    To          = "name@domain.com"
    from        = "name@domain.com"
    Subject     = "Attachments"
    Body        = "Attachments."
    attachments = (Resolve-Path $rA, $rB).Path
    Smtpserver  = "mail.domain.com "
    UseSsl      = $true
    credential  = $cred
}

Send-MailMessage @sendMailMessageParameters

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: Deleting 'read only file' I've modified a file in AppData/LocalLow to be 'read only'. Then I'm trying to undo the 'read-only' and I'm getting that I need the permissions of myself - meaning the permission of my user that now I am being logged in with this user.
Also I can't delete the file. Any help?


text:
Browse through our Interesting Nodes on Tourism in Cyprus Read the Convention Relating to the Regime of the Straits (24 July 1923) Read the Convention Relating to the Regime of the Straits (24 July 1923)
PART XIII
MARINE SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
Right to conduct marine scientific research
All States, irrespective of their geographical location, and competent international organizations have the right to conduct marine scientific research subject to the rights and duties of other States as provided for in this Convention.
Promotion of marine scientific research
States and competent international organizations shall promote and facilitate the development and conduct of marine scientific research in accordance with this Convention.
General principles for the conduct of marine scientific
In the conduct of marine scientific research the following principles shall apply:
marine scientific research shall be conducted exclusively for peaceful purposes;
marine scientific research shall be conducted with appropriate scientific methods and means compatible with this Convention;
marine scientific research shall not unjustifiably interfere with other legitimate uses of the sea compatible with this Convention and shall be duly respected in the course of such uses;
marine scientific research shall be conducted in compliance with all relevant regulations adopted in conformity with this Convention including those for the protection and preservation of the marine environment.
Non-recognition of marine scientific research activities
as the legal basis for claims
Marine scientific research activities shall not constitute the legal basis for any claim to any part of the marine environment or its resources.
SECTION 2. INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION
Promotion of international co-operation
1. States and competent international organizations shall, in accordance with the principle of respect for sovereignty and jurisdiction and on the basis of mutual benefit, promote international co-operation in marine scientific research for peaceful purposes.
2. In this context, without prejudice to the rights and duties of States under this Convention, a State, in the application of this Part, shall provide, as appropriate, other States with a reasonable opportunity to obtain from it, or with its co-operation, information necessary to prevent and control damage to the health and safety of persons and to the marine environment.
Creation of favourable conditions
States and competent international organizations shall co-operate, through the conclusion of bilateral and multilateral agreements, to create favourable conditions for the conduct of marine scientific research in the marine environment and to integrate the efforts of scientists in studying the essence of phenomena and processes occurring in the marine environment and the interrelations between them.
Publication and dissemination of information and knowledge
1. States and competent international organizations shall, in accordance with this Convention, make available by publication and dissemination through appropriate channels information on proposed major programmes and their objectives as well as knowledge resulting from marine scientific research.
2. For this purpose, States, both individually and in co-operation with other States and with competent international organizations, shall actively promote the flow of scientific data and information and the transfer of knowledge resulting from marine scientific research, especially to developing States, as well as the strengthening of the autonomous marine scientific research capabilities of developing States through, inter alia, programmes to provide adequate education and training of their technical and scientific personnel.
Convention on the Law of the Sea: Index
Parts: I - II - III - IV - V - VI - VII - VIII-IX - X - XI - XII - XIII - XIV - XV - XVI - XVII
Annexes: I - II - III - IV - V - VI - VII - VIII - IX

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


When you leave a job, you are often faced with a decision about your 401(k) or other retirement plans. At your direction, your employer can transfer your distribution directly to another qualified plan or to a rollover individual retirement account (IRA).
A rollover is when you withdraw cash or other assets from one eligible retirement plan and contribute all or part of it within 60 days to another eligible retirement plan. Under this option, you would direct your plan administrator to make a direct and tax-free transfer of funds from your former employer's plan to a rollover IRA at a financial institution of your choice. That way, you maintain the tax-deferred status of your retirement account, consolidate all retirement accounts for easier management and benefit from increased investment flexibility.
When deciding which financial institution to roll your 401(k) assets into, research the incentive matches and bonuses that some companies offer and be sure to read the fine print in great detail. Most of the bonuses require you to deposit money within 60 days of opening the account. All require the account to remain open and fully funded with the initial bonus amount for at least 12 months, or they can reverse the bonus amount.
Fidelity has become an excellent resource for investors seeking a wide variety of investment options and services with a relatively low fee structure. The company offers one of the higher dollar matching rates out of any financial institution.
However, unlike most other institutions that offer a flat dollar or percentage matches on assets that are rolled over, Fidelity matches based on additional contributions over the next three years. To qualify, you must first open a rollover IRA through Fidelity. The match rate is determined by the initial dollar amount you roll into your new Fidelity IRA. Below is the table of the transfer amount and the corresponding match rate.
The maximum amount of total matching that Fidelity is willing to contribute is 10% for the next three years. For example, if you roll over $500,000 from an old 401(k) plan, you would be eligible for a 10% match if you contribute for the next three years.
In 2019, if you are age 50 or older, the maximum contribution for an IRA is $7,000 ($6,000 + the $1,000 catch-up). For each contribution of $7,000, Fidelity matches 10% or $700 into the account. If you contribute the maximum amount for three years (a total of $21,000), Fidelity will match a total of $2,000. Obviously, a higher initial rollover would determine a higher match, but this should be an excellent incentive if you are looking to move assets from an old 401(k).
If you are interested in rolling assets into a self-managed trading financial institution, TD Ameritrade would be an excellent option. The company offers six different thresholds for its bonus program besides offering the largest cash bonus out of all the IRA rollover incentive programs in the industry.
At a minimum, if you roll at least $10,000 into an IRA, you would qualify for 90 days of commission-free trades (up to a maximum of 300 trades). If you have a very large 401(k) or retirement plan to transfer, TD Ameritrade is willing to add a bonus of $2,500 into your new rollover IRA. Below are the threshold levels and corresponding cash bonus amounts.
Scottrade is an online brokerage tailored for the do-it-yourself investor offering several different tools and advanced platform solutions that rival most major investment firms. The company also offers excellent online support through its website and mobile application allowing you to easily execute trades through your smartphone.
Scottrade has a very similar cash bonus program to TD Ameritrade's, although the latter is specific to rollover IRAs. Scottrade's program works for any type of deposit, either qualified or non-qualified assets.
Merrill Edge is the self-directed investment subsidiary of Bank of America and the brokerage company Merrill Lynch Wealth Management. Merrill Edge has seen success through its cross-selling to current Bank of America clients who report finding it easy to incorporate its services into their current bank accounts.
Similar to Scottrade, Merrill Edge will pay a cash bonus if you deposit a qualifying amount into either an IRA or non-qualified account called a cash management account (CMA). If you deposit a minimum of $20,000, Merrill Edge offers 300 commission-free trades for 90 days and a cash bonus of $100. Below is the list of the qualifying asset deposit levels and cash bonus amounts.
Ally Bank is a popular choice for customers seeking higher-than-average yields on its certificate of deposit and savings accounts. This online bank offers no maintenance fees on savings, checking, money market and certificates of deposit. In February 2019, Ally offers a variety of CD maturity options, ranging from three-month to five-year options, and offers cash bonuses on rollovers from a 401(k).


text:
Q: Life of Static reference to Activity or View in Android I have an Activity where I have one static variable of type Activity. In oncreate() method, the activity instance is set to the static vairable.
I want to know how long the activity instance will remain in memory if that instance is set as a static variable. And when will garbage collector run on the this activity instance and its view objects.
As far as I know , Static variable gets loaded when class is loaded by ClassLoader, and would be removed when it is Unloaded. So does this mean that the activity/view instance will remain in memory till OS kills the process.


Our highly-trained physicians and nurses are experts in ambulatory surgery and will provide you with high-quality care in a compassionate and respectful environment.
Policy Statement: California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) is committed to high-quality, accessible services. This includes ensuring that patients with disabilities have the same access to our facilities and services as patients without disabilities.
Street parking is available but limited. Non-neighborhood residents are restricted to two-hour parking on the street. Public parking is available for a fee at nearby garages.
What do I need for pre-registration?


text:
# Void

## A D Starrling

# Copyright

**Void**

Copyright © AD Starrling 2014-2017. All rights reserved. Registered with the UK and US Copyright Services.

Second eBook edition: 2017

www.ADStarrling.com

The right of AD Starrling to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No parts of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without the prior written consent of the author, excepting for brief quotes used in reviews. Your respect of the author's rights and hard work is appreciated.

Request to publish extracts from this book should be sent to the author at ads@adstarrling.com

This book is a work of fiction. References to real people (living or dead), events, establishments, organizations, or locations are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used factitiously. All other characters, and all other incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real.

Editor: Right Ink On The Wall (www.rightinkonthewall.com)

Cover: A.D. Starrling

### Contents

Void

Thank You

Want Free Books And Exclusive Extras?

About the Author

Also by A D Starrling

Hunted Extract

# Void

It called to her. The darkness.

She stared at the infinite horizon, water lapping noiselessly at her feet.

The wind sighed, a whisper in the fathomless night. The dry susurration filtered through her mind and lured her forward. She took a step, then another. Soon, the water reached her thighs.

Laura Cabe stirred and opened her eyes. She blinked at the clock on the cabin wall. The iridescent green glow cast ghostly shadows across the smooth, white surface, indicating a local solar time of 02:30. Below it, smaller numbers showed a Mars time of 04:43 at the Airy Crater, the planet's prime meridian.

She sat up slowly and ran her fingers through her tangled hair. Something had roused her from sleep. She looked toward the door.

The hum of the station's bioregenerative life support system was a steady background sound, one to which her senses had become attuned since her arrival on the Mars Baker2 Colony ten solar days ago. Other than the occasional rattle from the unit's heating system and the soft sound of her own breathing, she could hear nothing else.

She was about to lie down when she heard it again. The noise was faint, as if it had traveled from a distance. Hairs rose on her arms.

It sounded like a scream.

Laura stared at the pale lines of the cabin's austere furnishings and waited. Silence prevailed outside the cabin. She frowned.

Had she imagined it?

She hesitated before rising from the bed and slipping into her work suit. She crossed the floor and paused by the com port next to the door. Her fingers hovered above the row of buttons as she considered calling McAllister, the station manager on nightshift in the command center. She lowered her hand; better to investigate first before troubling the man with a false alarm. She had liked the burly geophysicist from the moment she met him and knew he would not mind her disturbing him so late in the night. Still, the scientist had plenty on his plate right now.

Laura unlocked the door and moved quietly into the corridor outside the cabin. The panel closed soundlessly behind her, revealing the fresh nameplate screwed into the hard plastic. _Dr Laura Cabe, MD_ glittered in the pale light cast by the security lamp in the ceiling.

Sunrise was not for another three hours at their current location on the Acidalia Planitia, in the northern Martian hemisphere. The colony was shrouded in darkness.

Her room was next to the station's MediLab. Laura studied the shadowy space of the state-of-the-art medical facility beyond the glass walls to her left before glancing at the living unit directly across the passage. The name on the opposite door read _Dr Alice Cho, MD_.

Dr Cho was Baker2's principal physician. She was also one of nine colonists who had disappeared from the station in the last two hundred and thirty Mars sol days.

The MediLab was at the south pole of the cross-shaped, pressurized system of geodesic domes that housed the main colony. The south arm was home to several research labs, including the ones dedicated to biological sciences, ecology, and palaeontology. Engineering, geosciences, and atmospheric science took up the western branch of the cross. Social science was the only discipline that had earned the right to be accommodated within the colonists' main living quarters in the north arm of the structure.

As she headed along the silent corridor toward the command center, she passed the giant cupola of the botany lab and paused to stare through the glass walls. Even though she had been in the greenhouse to interview Dr Jennifer Chaplin, the chief botanist, on several occasions, she was still amazed at the diversity of plants the Mars colonists had cultivated in the fifteen years they had been at the site. She dragged her gaze from the rows of artificial light and sprayers and continued down the interconnecting passage to the core of the colony.

Today was Earth date June 10, 2085. On Mars, it was Sol date 75167.

She had arrived at the Zubrin Space Station on Sol date 75132 but had had to wait a month in orbit before making it to the planet's surface; that was how long it took for the dust storm that had blown up from the Chryse Basin and engulfed the entire northern hemisphere to settle. Although she felt frustrated at being forced to take a detour from her original mission to join the Jupiter Europa Space Station, she had spent enough hours reading the investigative reports on the disappearances that had taken place at the Baker2 station to be intrigued.

Mankind's aim to colonize Mars received a much-needed financial boost after the success of the first Mars Sample Return Mission in 2024, under the Joint Exploration Initiative established by NASA and the European Space Agency. The scientific yield from that one venture alone hinted at large deposits of deuterium and platinum among a dozen other minerals beneath the planet's surface, making Mars a wholly worthwhile investment. The first manned vehicle to Mars landed on the Meridiani Planum two degrees south of the planet's equator in 2040. Twenty years later, the Mars Orbit Zubrin Space Station was completed. It was the largest of its kind in the solar system, dwarfing Earth's two international space stations.

There were now five colonies on Mars, all involved in the long and arduous process of terraforming the planet for future human settlement. Mars Baker2 was the second oldest of the outposts. Under the command of Dr Ralph McAllister, the Senior Planetary Geosciences Leader for the combined Mars colonies, it was home to twenty scientists. There were plans to double that number by 2092.

The first colonist went missing seven solar days after the transit of Earth from Mars, when the human race's home planet passed between the sun and the Red Planet on November 10, 2084. By the end of February, seven more had gone missing. An emergency investigation team from the Zubrin Space Station was sent down to the surface to address the mystery of the disappearing colonists. While they were there, another colonist went missing. The team had yet to come to any definitive conclusions.

The most perturbing aspect of their reports related to the lack of physical traces left by the vanished scientists, compounded by the sheer suddenness of the events. Four of the colonists disappeared while on their way to check two greenhouse factories a couple of miles from the station. Another three went missing after going to investigate a remote alarm raised at the nuclear power plant that supplied most of the colony's energy needs; the alarm had subsequently turned out to be false.

More worryingly still, all the missing scientists had been in groups of at least two people, as was the protocol when they worked outside the pressurized station.

The final comment made by the investigative team's chief psychologist was the reason why Laura had been sent to Mars. During the six weeks they spent looking into the disappearances at the Baker2 colony, several of the investigators had noted the subtle element of paranoia and fear that permeated the remaining residents' psyche. Concerned about Subliminal Distraction exposure, a previously contested but now well-explored psychological phenomenon that had led to psychotic breakdowns on prior space missions and historical nautical ventures on Earth, the Zubrin Space Station commander had requested an urgent assessment of the remaining Baker2 settlers by an MD with expertise in neuropsychiatry and neuropsychology.

Of the eleven colonists she had interviewed, the one who caused Laura the most concern was Jennifer Chaplin. A close friend of Alice Cho, the last person to disappear from the Mars station, the woman had come across as jittery and evasive.

During their meetings in the greenhouse, Laura had observed the botanist glancing repeatedly over her shoulder, as if looking for something that was not there. When she asked the scientist about it, the woman's eyes had widened in horror and she had almost fallen off her chair in her frantic efforts to turn and scrutinize the empty space at her back.

'I think I'm hallucinating,' Chaplin finally admitted after a tense minute. Her voice was hoarse, her skin pallid.

Laura knew not to dismiss her fears. 'What do you imagine you're seeing?'

The scientist bit her lip. She hesitated before whispering, 'Cho,' in an almost inaudible voice. 'Even though I know she's gone, I keep seeing her,' Chaplin explained. 'It's hard to describe. It's like she's there, but not really there, as if I can just glimpse her figure out of the corner of my eye. At first, it was only happening about once a week. Now, I see her every day.' She grimaced and clutched her head. 'It's driving me insane.'

Laura noted her trembling fingers and dilated pupils. 'Are you sleeping well?'

For a moment, Chaplin looked surprised. A burst of hysterical laughter escaped her lips. 'Would you sleep if you kept seeing your dead friend?'

Laura was silent for a while. 'What makes you think Dr Cho is dead?'

The woman's eyes widened. 'She's got to be, hasn't she?' Panic lent a tremor to her voice. 'I mean, all of them have to be dead. Where else would they have gone on this godforsaken planet?'

'Do you know what happened to them?'

A defensive expression dawned on the botanist's face. 'How would I know something like that? Like I told the first investigators, none of us had anything to do with the disappearances.' She bit her lip again before abruptly adding, 'If you'll excuse me, I have work to do.'

The scientist had refused her offer of a sleeping pill but reluctantly agreed to another meeting later the next day.

Laura turned the corner of the passage presently and saw the door to the command center ahead of her; cold artificial light streamed through the opening. Seconds later, she stepped inside the brightly lit dome, an apologetic smile on her face as she prepared to explain her presence in the colony's telecommunications hub to the station manager. Halfway across the floor, she stopped and stared, the smile slipping from her lips.

The room was empty. She glanced from the mug of coffee in front of the main console to a narrow door on her left. From her tour of the facilities, she knew it led to a bathroom and sleeping cot for when the colonists wanted to take a break. She took several steps toward the door, expecting it to open at any moment. When it failed to do so, she pressed the open key and watched the panel slide aside.

The space beyond was also empty.

Laura frowned. She recalled one of the scientists mentioning leaving his post in the command center one night to investigate an alarm in the MediLab.

That was the night Alice Cho disappeared.

Laura turned and crossed the floor to the control panel; maybe McAllister had gone to look into the source of the noise that had woken her.

An old-fashioned clipboard hung on the wall next to the work console. She studied the list on it and found the geophysicist's personal radio code. She entered the numbers into the com port's touch screen and waited.

After several seconds, she tried the code again. There was still no response. She was about to enter it a third time when a sudden burst of static came through the speakers, making her jump.

'Hello, Ralph? This is Laura Cabe. I'm in the command center. Where are you?' she said into the com link. There was a soft rustle. Laura glanced over her shoulder. There was no one there. She realized the sound had come from the com port. 'Ralph? Can you hear me?' The rustle came again. It was followed by the sound of labored breathing. She heard a low moan. 'Ralph?'

Silence followed. Then, a shrill and tremulous whimper rose from the speakers. 'Oh God! Oh God! No, no, please, no—'

The voice cut off abruptly and the line went dead.

Laura froze and stared at the console. For the first time since her arrival at the colony, she felt a cold prickle of fear. She dialled the geophysicist's radio code again. White noise filled the room.

She turned and studied the dark corridor outside the command center. It remained resolutely empty. She hesitated before crossing the floor and pressing the control pad. The door slid closed. She gazed through the narrow window at the top, engaged the lock, and returned to the control desk.

She glanced at the list on the clipboard and dialled another number. Bill Doors was the station's chief engineer and next in command after McAllister. While she waited for him to respond, she studied the digital panel above the console. All the lights were green. There were no alarms in any sector of the colony.

The number rang out. A trickle of dread coursed down Laura's back. She tried again.

There was a click after the fifth ring.

'Bill? Thank God! Look, I don't know what's going on, but I think Ralph is in trouble...' She paused and stared at the com port. 'Bill?'

Static erupted from the speakers.

Laura sat down, her knees shaking. She looked at the numbers of the remaining colonists and tried them one after the other. All the lines were dead.

She gazed at the main console for timeless seconds.

What was going on?

She glanced at the door and considered heading for the station's living quarters. The com links might just be disabled, in which case the colonists were likely sleeping soundly in their beds.

She recalled the voice that had issued from McAllister's radio; she was almost certain it had belonged to the geophysicist. The terror in it had been undeniable.

Laura came to a decision. After logging into the command computer, she touched the uplink to the space station. The screen flashed immediately, displaying the words _Unable to link to MOZST_. She swore under her breath and looked around the room.

Her gaze landed on a map on the wall. 'Yes!'

She grabbed the clipboard and flipped through the lists until she found the numbers she wanted. She turned to the com port and keyed in the code for the Baker1 colony.

A buzz of static rose from the speakers. She dialled the number again. The white noise persisted. Laura frowned. Was there a dust storm blocking the transmission?

She tapped the computer screen and uploaded the latest satellite images of the planet. Mars appeared on the monitor. Baker1's location on Terra Meridiani looked clear, as did the rest of the planet's surface. She tried the numbers for the other colonies without success.

Laura stared at the display. She hesitated before touching an icon on the bottom right corner. Rows of pictures appeared across the monitor.

They were the security feeds from the cameras around the colony. She tapped on each frame and studied the full-size images that filled the screen.

Most of the research labs were shrouded in darkness. Her gaze skimmed over the monitor, looking for movement in the gloom. She blinked as the brightly lit greenhouse appeared on the screen; it was also empty. She turned her attention to the colonists' living quarters.

The first camera showed a wide-angle view of the main corridor onto which the units opened. Cloaked in shadows, it was devoid of any sign of life. She was about to move to another frame when something caught her eye. She leaned forward and squinted at the monitor.

The doors were all ajar.

Laura touched the screen. Another image filled the monitor. It was from a camera halfway down the passageway and showed a close-up of two of the doors. The rooms beyond were pitch black. As she watched, the door on the left swung closed.

Laura gasped. It was Jennifer Chaplin's room. She reached for the com port and tried the botanist's radio code again. Static crackled from the speakers.

Acid flooded her mouth. Her fingers shook as she switched to the cameras outside the station. On the third frame, she saw the radio antenna in the glow of the outer security lights that bathed the perimeter of the colony in brightness. It was hanging off its mast.

Laura stared at the tangled wreck of metal for a long time before moving to the next camera. On the fifth frame, she saw a figure at the edge of the screen. Her breath caught in her throat. She zoomed in on the silhouette.

Her eyes widened. It was Alice Cho.

The woman was standing next to one of the methane propellant depots. As Laura watched, Cho turned to stare directly at the camera.

A harsh cry left Laura's lips.

Motion on one of the other frames caught her terrified gaze. Her heart slammed against her ribs. She was looking at one of the internal security feeds; it was from the camera outside the command center.

Someone was standing on the other side of the door.

Laura wheeled around and stared at the window in the top of the plastic panel. There was nobody there. She turned back to the screen to find the figure gone.

She rose shakily from her seat, crossed the floor to the door, and studied the empty corridor beyond. A minute passed. She returned to the console.

Alice Cho had also disappeared from the screen.

She concentrated on reviewing the remaining frames and tried hard not to think about what she had just seen.

The missing colonist had been standing outside the station in Mars' sub-zero, low-gravity, oxygen-sparse atmosphere. She had not been wearing a pressurized spacesuit.

Moments later, Laura saw a lone figure walking away from the colony. This one was clad in an extravehicular mobility unit with a portable life support system. She zoomed in on the frame.

All the scientists at the colony had personalized spacesuits. Laura made out the letters 'J. Chaplin' between the shoulder blades of the disappearing figure.

She scanned the other cameras. Aside from views of Mars' barren surface, they showed nothing alarming. She ran her fingers through her hair and stared at the control desk, her mind racing frantically as she considered her options.

Should she stay in the command center and try to contact the space station and the other colonies again, or should she go after the woman?

Laura bit her lip. She had to go after Chaplin; the scientist might lead her to the others. After studying the internal camera feeds one last time, she left the command center and made her way to the colonists' living quarters.

It was abandoned, as the cameras had suggested. There were no visible signs of struggle in any of the units. For all intents and purposes, it looked as if the scientists had simply walked out of the colony.

Laura found what she was looking for in a hanger in the east branch of the habitat. As well as housing most of the hardware the scientists needed to function on Mars, the hanger also contained spare spacesuits with individual life support packs, two pressurized surface rovers, a further three unpressurized rovers, and several utility trucks.

Laura slipped into one of the suits, adjusted the helmet, and tested the life support system. Once she was satisfied, she headed for one of the pressurized rovers. As she passed a tool rack, she paused and stared at the instruments on display. She reached for a hammer before climbing into the rover and driving the vehicle inside the airlock. Minutes later, the outer door opened. She guided the rover onto the Martian surface.

Howling winds immediately rose around her, whipping the planet's red, haematite-rich dust across the windscreen. She peered through the thick plastic and glanced at the map on the passenger seat.

In the camera feed she had seen earlier, Jennifer Chaplin had been heading northwest from the colony. Laura manoeuvred the vehicle in that direction. The mangled frame of the station's antenna disappeared behind her. Soon, she was outside the range of the colony's security lights.

The rover's weak beams barely penetrated the rising sandstorm. Three miles later, she finally caught sight of the white figure stumbling across the Martian landscape.

Laura glanced at the map. She was surprised the botanist had made it this far so quickly. She looked up and blinked; the figure had disappeared. Seconds later, she gasped and braked abruptly.

The front wheels of the rover skidded to a stop near the edge of a chasm.

Laura stared through the dancing dust at the gaping abyss before her and studied the map again. She frowned. There were no canyons or valleys in this part of the Acidalia Planitia. She hesitated before collecting the hammer and climbing inside the vehicle's airlock. Moments later, she stepped out onto the Martian surface.

Though she had prepared herself for the harsh winds, Laura was still shocked by the intensity and noise of the storm. It screamed in her ears and rocked her body, its presence almost organic, its intent seemingly hostile. She steadied herself against the rover and took a careful step forward.

She found herself on the eastern lip of a crater. As her gaze spanned the mile-long basin, she caught motion out of the corner of her eyes. A hundred feet to her left, a figure scrambled down the wall of the depression; it was heading toward a crevice near the floor of the basin.

Something strange at the center of the crater drew her gaze. A large, oddly shaped, grey-white structure floated in the middle of the bowl, as if suspended on unseen strings. As her mind struggled to make sense of what her eyes were seeing, she slowly looked up.

In the dark sky above Mars, the moon Phobos was rising from the west.

Laura's gaze drifted down again. What she was seeing was a reflection of the Martian satellite.

A gust of wind blew over the edge of the crater and danced down its walls. At the bottom, thin ripples broke across the surface of the dark liquid that filled its depths.

All of her senses screamed at her to run.

Laura looked to her left, her pulse racing. The figure had disappeared into the crack in the wall. She gripped the handle of the hammer and headed down the slope. Moments later, she reached the opening in the vertical rock face. She studied the darkness beyond before stepping inside.

The lights on her helmet illuminated the rugged sides of a narrow tunnel. Laura looked down; there were footprints in the dust. She took a shaky breath and started forward.

The noise of the wind died down. Soon, all she could hear was the sound of her own ragged breathing. She stopped and checked her oxygen monitor; the pack was still at eighty percent. She willed herself to breathe slowly and continued walking.

The tunnel gradually sloped downward, twisting on itself. Other passages emerged from the darkness, their walls carved smooth by centuries of wind and dust. The shafts soon merged into each other like a web of interconnecting burrows.

On several occasions, Laura thought she sensed movement behind her. However many times she wheeled around, she found no one there.

The tunnel finally opened out onto a long, narrow ledge. Laura slowed and looked up.

The beams from her helmet barely penetrated the gloom above her. They did, however, manage to cast a weak light on the distant roof of a vast cave. She stopped near the lip of the ledge. Her gaze drifted downward. That was when she saw them.

A hundred feet to her left, the missing colonists stood in a silent cluster on the edge of the outcrop. Ralph McAllister was among them. So was Jennifer Chaplin.

They were staring into the darkness beyond the rock shelf. None of them wore a pressurized suit. As if sensing her gaze, they turned and looked at her.

Laura screamed.

There was motion at the edge of her vision. She turned and felt her foot slip on the uneven ground. It gave beneath her.

Someone grabbed her flailing hand. She looked past the arm of her suit into the cold and bottomless eyes of Alice Cho. The woman smiled and let go.

A strangled cry left Laura's lips as she fell into the abyss. Seconds later, her back hit something hard. She grunted and rolled down a steep slope.

The glass covering the lights on her helmet cracked, fracturing the beams into spinning, jagged shards of brightness. Somewhere along her seemingly endless tumble, she heard the ominous hiss of precious oxygen leaking from her ruptured life support unit.

Her fall finally came to an end. She lay on the ground for a stunned moment, her breath coming in short, harsh gasps, surprised she was still alive. One of the lights on her suit winked out. As she rolled onto her front and crawled to her knees, the second light dimmed.

Laura slowly struggled to her feet. She glanced at her hand dazedly, stunned to see it still gripping the hammer. There was a sheer wall before her. She turned and faced the space at her back.

The void was endless. It gaped into infinity, a dark maw with a limitless horizon.

The hammer dropped from her hand and splashed into the black liquid washing over her feet. A breeze blew through the darkness and breathed her name.

She took a step forward.

Gary Armstrong cursed as the rover hit a shallow ditch. The engine roared and quickly powered the vehicle up and onto the rocky Martian terrain.

'Easy,' murmured his companion.

Armstrong glanced sideways and scowled. He had known his co-pilot, palaeontologist Elmer Gatsby, for five years. That was how long the engineer had been stationed at the Mars Baker5 colony on the Chryse Planitia. Although he had spent endless months in the older man's company, he still found his presence grating.

It had been a fortnight since they lost all contact with the Baker2 colony. Despite being hailed by the other Mars outposts and the orbiting Zubrin space station, there had been no response from the Acidalia Planitia settlement. All signs appeared to point to a faulty radio mast. Mars Baker5 being the closest station to Baker2, Zubrin had ordered a team to travel there to investigate.

Armstrong maneuvered the rover around a large boulder. 'How far now?' he said impatiently.

'Give or take, about one mile,' Gatsby replied.

Armstrong's frown deepened.

_What was that, 'Give or take a mile'? They had a goddamned map, didn't they?_

Moments later, the white domes of the colony appeared through the red dust.

Armstrong sighed. Had it not been for another blasted sandstorm, they would have been here a week earlier. His eyes slowly widened. 'Hell. That explains why we couldn't get through.' He stared at the mangled remains of the station's antenna. 'I wonder how that happened.'

Gatsby did not reply. Armstrong glanced at him.

The palaeontologist was looking straight ahead. 'I'd slow down if I were you,' he said quietly.

Armstrong looked around, swore, and slammed on the brakes. The rover juddered to a stop.

A figure in a pressurized spacesuit stood watching them a few feet from the front bumper of the vehicle.

'What the—?' Armstrong looked sideways and saw Gatsby pull the helmet of his extravehicular mobility unit over his head.

'Let's go say hello, shall we?' said the palaeontologist. Armstrong stared at the older man and grunted. He entered the airlock and climbed out of the rover after him.

The figure had not moved.

Gatsby walked to the front of the vehicle. His voice came through Armstrong's com line. 'Hi. Can you hear us? We're from the Baker5 colony.'

The figure remained silent.

The palaeontologist turned to him. 'Are they on the same radio frequency as us?'

Armstrong shrugged. 'As far as I know, yes. It's standard protocol across the colonies.' Unease filtered through him as he watched Gatsby head toward the motionless figure. Something was not right.

His gaze dropped. The figure was holding something in its hand.

Armstrong's eyes widened. He shouted a warning.

Gatsby paused and turned.

The hammer swung through the air and hit his face shield. The plastic cracked. The weapon arced through the howling Martian wind and struck him again. The palaeontologist fell to the ground, his strangled gasps harsh in Armstrong's ears as his body convulsed from acute, severe hypoxia. The engineer stared from the dying man to the figure holding the hammer.

It pulled off its gloves, reached up, and undid its helmet.

Armstrong heard a faint whimper. It had come from his own lips.

A dark liquid oozed from beneath the sleeve of the figure's spacesuit and fell inside Gatsby's smashed face shield.

The helmet came off.

Laura Cabe smiled, her eyes as black and as fathomless as space.

* * *

THE END

# Thank You

Thank you for reading VOID.

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# About the Author

AD Starrling's bestselling supernatural thriller series **Seventeen** combines action, suspense, and a dose of fantasy to make each book an explosive, adrenaline-fueled ride. If you prefer your action hot and your heroes sexy and strong-willed, then check out her military thriller series Division Eight.

When she's not busy writing, AD can be found looking up exciting international locations and cool science and technology to put in her books, eating Thai food, being tortured by her back therapists, drooling over gadgets, working part-time as a doctor on a Neonatal Intensive Care unit somewhere in the UK, reading manga, and watching action and sci-fi flicks. She has occasionally been accused of committing art with a charcoal stick and some drawing paper.

Find out more about AD on her website www.adstarrling.com where you can sign up for her awesome newsletter, get exclusive freebies, and never miss her latest release. You'll also have a chance to see sneak previews of her work, participate in exclusive giveaways, and hear about special promotional offers first.

Here are some other places where you can connect with her:

* * *

www.adstarrling.com

Email: ads@adstarrling.com

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# Also by A D Starrling

Hunted (A Seventeen Series Novel) Book One

'My name is Lucas Soul. Today, I died again. This is my fifteenth death in the last four hundred and fifty years. And I'm determined that it will be the last.'

_National Indie Excellence Awards Winner Fantasy 2013_

_National Indie Excellence Awards Finalist Adventure 2013_

_Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist Action-Adventure 2013_

_Hollywood Book Festival 2013 Honorable Mention General Fiction_

* * *

Warrior (A Seventeen Series Novel) Book Two

The perfect Immortal warrior. A set of stolen, priceless artifacts. An ancient sect determined to bring about the downfall of human civilization.

_Next Generation Indie Book Awards Winner Action-Adventure 2014_

_Shelf Unbound Competition for Best Independently Published Book Finalist 2014_

* * *

Empire (A Seventeen Series Novel) Book Three

An Immortal healer. An ancient empire reborn. A chain of cataclysmic events that threatens to change the fate of the world.

_Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist General Fiction 2015_

* * *

Legacy (A Seventeen Series Novel) Book Four

The Hunter who should have been king. The Elemental who fears love. The Seer who is yet to embrace her powers.

Three immortals whose fates are entwined with that of the oldest and most formidable enemy the world has ever faced.

* * *

Origins (A Seventeen Series Novel) Book Five

The gifts bestowed by One not of this world, to the Man who had lived longer than most.

The Empire ruled by a King who would swallow the world in his madness.

The Warrior who chose to rise against her own kind in order to defeat him.

Discover the extraordinary beginnings of the Immortals and the unforgettable story of the Princess who would become a Legend.

* * *

Destiny (A Seventeen Series Novel) Book Six

An enemy they never anticipated.

A brutal attack that tears them apart.

A chain of immutable events that will forever alter the future.

Discover the destiny that was always theirs to claim.

* * *

The Seventeen Collection 1: Books 1-3

Boxset featuring Hunted, Warrior, and Empire.

* * *

The Seventeen Collection 2: Books 4-6

Boxset featuring Legacy, Origins, and Destiny.

* * *

The Seventeen Complete Collection: Books 1-6

Boxset featuring Hunted, Warrior, Empire, Legacy, Origins, and Destiny.

* * *

First Death (A Seventeen Series Short Story) #1

Discover where it all started...

* * *

Dancing Blades (A Seventeen Series Short Story) #2

Join Lucas Soul on his quest to become a warrior.

* * *

The Meeting (A Seventeen Series Short Story) #3

Discover the origins of the incredible friendship between the protagonists of Hunted.

* * *

The Warrior Monk (A Seventeen Series Short Story) #4

Experience Warrior from the eyes of one of the most beloved characters in Seventeen.

* * *

The Hunger (A Seventeen Series Short Story) #5

Discover the origin of the love story behind Empire.

* * *

The Bank Job (A Seventeen Series Short Story) #6

Join two of the protagonists from Legacy on their very first adventure.

* * *

The Seventeen Series Short Story Collection 1 (#1-3)

Boxset featuring First Death, Dancing Blades, and The Meeting.

* * *

The Seventeen Series Short Story Collection 2 (#4-6)

Boxset featuring The Warrior Monk, The Hunger, and The Bank Job.

* * *

The Seventeen Series Ultimate Short Story Collection

Boxset featuring First Death, Dancing Blades, The Meeting, The Warrior Monk, The Hunger, and The Bank Job.

* * *

Mission:Black (A Division Eight Thriller)

A broken agent. A once in a lifetime chance. A new mission that threatens to destroy her again.

* * *

Mission: Armor (A Division Eight Thriller)

A man tortured by his past. A woman determined to save him. A deadly assignment that threatens to rip them apart.

* * *

Void (A Sci-fi Horror Short Story)

2065. Humans start terraforming Mars.

2070. The Mars Baker2 outpost is established on the Acidalia Planitia.

2084. The first colonist goes missing.

* * *

The Other Side of the Wall (A Short Horror Story)

Have you ever seen flashes of darkness where there should only be light? Ever seen shadows skitter past out of the corner of your eyes and looked, only to find nothing there?

* * *

**AUDIOBOOKS**

Hunted (A Seventeen Series Novel) Book One

Warrior (A Seventeen Series Novel) Book Two

Empire (A Seventeen Seres Novel) Book Three

First Death (A Seventeen Series Short Story) #1

Dancing Blades (A Seventeen Series Short Story) #2

The Meeting (A Seventeen Series Short Story) #3

The Warrior Monk (A Seventeen Series Short Story) #4

# Hunted Extract

**PROLOGUE**

* * *

My name is Lucas Soul.

Today, I died again.

This is my fifteenth death in the last four hundred and fifty years.

**CHAPTER ONE**

* * *

I woke up in a dark alley behind a building.

Autumn rain plummeted from an angry sky, washing the narrow, walled corridor I lay in with shades of gray. It dripped from the metal rungs of the fire escape above my head and slithered down dirty, barren walls, forming puddles under the garbage dumpsters by my feet. It gurgled in gutters and rushed in storm drains off the main avenue behind me.

It also cleansed away the blood beneath my body.

For once, I was grateful for the downpour; I did not want any evidence left of my recent demise.

I blinked at the drops that struck my face and slowly climbed to my feet. Unbidden, my fingers rose to trace the cut in my chest; the blade had missed the birthmark on my skin by less than an inch.

I turned and studied the tower behind me. I was not sure what I was expecting to see. A face peering over the edge of the glass and brick structure. An avenging figure drifting down in the rainfall, a bloodied sword in its hands and a crazy smile in its eyes. A flock of silent crows come to take my unearthly body to its final resting place.

Bar the heavenly deluge, the skyline was fortunately empty.

I pulled my cell phone out of my jeans and stared at it. It was smashed to pieces. I sighed. I could hardly blame the makers of the device. They had probably never tested it from the rooftop of a twelve-storey building. As for me, the bruises would start to fade by tomorrow.

It would take another day for the wound in my chest to heal completely.

I glanced at the sky again before walking out of the alley. An empty phone booth stood at the intersection to my right. I strolled toward it and closed the rickety door behind me. A shiver wracked my body while I dialed a number. Steam soon fogged up the glass wall before me.

There was a soft click after the fifth ring.

'Yo,' said a tired voice.

'Yo yourself,' I said.

A yawn traveled down the line. 'What's up?'

'I need a ride. And a new phone.'

There was a short silence. 'It's four o'clock in the morning.' The voice had gone blank.

'I know,' I said in the same tone.

The sigh at the other end was audible above the pounding of the rain on the metal roof of the booth. 'Where are you?'

'Corner of Cambridge and Staniford.'

Fifteen minutes later, a battered, tan Chevrolet Monte Carlo pulled up next to the phone box. The passenger door opened.

'Get in,' said the figure behind the wheel.

I crossed the sidewalk and climbed in the seat. Water dripped onto the leather cover and formed a puddle by my feet. There was a disgruntled mutter from my left. I looked at the man beside me.

Reid Hasley was my business partner and friend. Together, we co-owned the Hasley and Soul Agency. We were private investigators, of sorts. Reid certainly qualified as one, being a former Marine and cop. I, on the other hand, had been neither.

'You look like hell,' said Reid as he maneuvered the car into almost nonexistent traffic. He took something from his raincoat and tossed it across to me. It was a new cell.

I raised my eyebrows. 'That was fast.'

He grunted indistinct words and lit a cigarette. 'What happened?' An orange glow flared into life as he inhaled, casting shadows under his brow and across his nose.

I transferred the data card from the broken phone into the new one and frowned at the bands of smoke drifting toward me. 'That's going to kill you one day.'

'Just answer the question,' he retorted.

I looked away from his intense gaze and contemplated the dark tower at the end of the avenue. 'I met up with our new client.'

'And?' said Reid.

'He wasn't happy to see me.'

Something in my voice made him stiffen. 'How unhappy are we talking here?'

I sighed. 'Well, he stuck a sword through my heart and pushed me off the top of the Cramer building. I'd say he was pretty pissed.'

Silence followed my words. 'That's not good,' said Reid finally.

'No.'

'It means we're not gonna get the money,' he added.

'I'm fine by the way. Thanks for asking,' I said.

He shot a hard glance at me. 'We need the cash.'

Unpalatable as the statement was, it was also regrettably true. Small PI firms like ours had just about managed before the recession. Nowadays, people had more to worry about than what their cheating spouses were up to. Although embezzlement cases were up by a third, the victims of such scams were usually too hard up to afford the services of a good detective agency. As a result, the rent on our office space was overdue by a month.

Mrs. Trelawney, our landlady, was not pleased about this; at five-foot two and weighing just over two hundred pounds, the woman had the ability to make us quake in our boots. This had less to do with her size than the fact that she made the best angel cakes in the city. She gave them out to her tenants when they paid the rent on time. A month without angel cakes was making us twitchy.

'I think we might still get the cakes if you flash your eyes at her,' mused my partner.

I stared at him. 'Are you pimping me out?'

'No. You'd be a tough sell,' he retorted as the car splashed along the empty streets of the city. He glanced at me. 'This makes it what, your fourteenth death?'

'Fifteenth.'

His eyebrows rose. 'Huh. So, two more to go.'

I nodded mutely. In many ways, I was glad Hasley had entered my unnatural life, despite the fact that it happened in such a dramatic fashion. It was ten years ago this summer.

Hasley was a detective in the Boston PD Homicide Unit at the time. One hot Friday afternoon in August, he and his partner of three years found themselves on the trail of a murder suspect, a Latino man by the name of Burt Suarez. Suarez worked the toll bridge northeast of the city and had no priors. Described by his neighbors and friends as a gentle giant who cherished his wife, was kind to children and animals, and even attended Sunday service, the guy did not have so much as a speeding ticket to his name. That day, the giant snapped and went on a killing spree after walking in on his wife and his brother in the marital bed. He shot Hasley's partner, two uniformed cops, and the neighbor's dog, before fleeing toward the river.

Unfortunately, I got in his way.

In my defense, I had not been myself for most of that month, having recently lost someone who had been a friend for more than a hundred years. In short, I was drunk.

On that scorching summer's day, Burt Suarez achieved something no other human, or non-human for that matter, had managed before or since.

He shot me in the head.

Sadly, he did not get to savor this feat, as he died minutes after he fired a round through my skull. Hasley still swore to this day that Suarez's death had more to do with seeing me rise to my feet Lazarus-like again than the gunshot wound he himself inflicted on the man with his Glock 19.

That had been my fourteenth death. Shortly after witnessing my unholy resurrection, Hasley quit his job as a detective and became my business partner.

Over the decade that followed, we trailed unfaithful spouses, found missing persons, performed employee checks for high profile investment banks, took on surveillance work for attorneys and insurance companies, served process to disgruntled defendants, and even rescued the odd kidnapped pet. Hasley knew more about me than anyone else in the city.

He still carried the Glock.

'Why did he kill you?' said Reid presently. He braked at a set of red lights. 'Did you do something to piss him off?' There was a trace of suspicion in his tone. The lights turned green.

'Well, broadly speaking, he seemed opposed to my existence.' The rhythmic swishing of the windscreen wipers and the dull hiss of rubber rolling across wet asphalt were the only sounds that broke the ensuing lull. 'He called me an ancient abomination that should be sent straight to Hell and beyond.' I grimaced. 'Frankly, I thought that was a bit ironic coming from someone who's probably not that much older than me.'

Reid crushed the cigarette butt in the ashtray and narrowed his eyes. 'You mean, he's one of you?'

I hesitated before nodding once. 'Yes.'

Over the years, as I came to know and trust him, I told Reid a little bit about my origins.

I was born in Europe in the middle of the sixteenth century, when the Renaissance was at its peak. My father came from a line of beings known as the Crovirs, while my mother was a descendant of a group called the Bastians. They are the only races of immortals on Earth.

Throughout most of the history of man, the Crovirs and the Bastians have waged a bitter and brutal war against one another. Although enough blood has been shed over the millennia to fill a respectable portion of the Caspian Sea, this unholy battle between immortals has, for the most, remained a well-kept secret from the eyes of ordinary humans, despite the fact that they have been used as pawns in some of its most epic chapters.

The conflict suffered a severe and unprecedented setback in the fourteenth century, when the numbers of both races dwindled rapidly and dramatically; while the Black Death scourged Europe and Asia, killing millions of humans, the lesser-known Red Death shortened the lives of countless immortals. It was several decades before the full extent of the devastation was realized, for the plague had brought with it an unexpected and horrifying complication.

The greater part of those who survived became infertile.

This struck another blow to both sides and, henceforth, an uneasy truce was established. Although the odd incident still happened between embittered members of each race, the fragile peace has, surprisingly, lasted to this day. From that time on, the arrival of an immortal child into the world became an event that was celebrated at the highest levels of each society.

My birth was a notable exception. The union between a Crovir and a Bastian was considered an unforgivable sin and strictly forbidden by both races; ancient and immutable, it was a fact enshrined into the very doctrines and origins of our species. Any offspring of such a coupling was thus deemed an abomination unto all and sentenced to death from the very moment they were conceived. I was not the first half-breed, both races having secretly mated with each other in the past. However, the two immortal societies wanted me to be the last. Fearing for my existence, my parents fled and took me into hiding.

For a while, our life was good. We were far from rich and dwelled in a remote cabin deep in the forest, where we lived off the land, hunting, fishing, and even growing our own food. Twice a year, my father ventured down the mountain to the nearest village, where he traded fur for oil and other rare goods. We were happy and I never wanted for anything.

It was another decade before the Hunters finally tracked us down. That was when I learned one of the most important lessons about immortals.

We can only survive up to sixteen deaths.

Having perished seven times before, my father died after ten deaths at the hands of the Hunters. He fought until the very last breath left his body. I watched them kill my mother seventeen times.

I should have died that day. I did, in fact, suffer my very first death. Moments after the act, I awoke on the snow-covered ground, tears cooling on my face and my blood staining the whiteness around me. Fingers clenching convulsively around the wooden practice sword my father had given me, I waited helplessly for a blade to sink into my heart once more. Minutes passed before I realized I was alone in that crimson-colored clearing, high up in the Carpathian Mountains.

The crows came next, silent flocks that descended from the gray winter skies and covered the bloodied bodies next to me. When the birds left, the remains of my parents had disappeared as well. All that was left was ash.

It was much later that another immortal imparted to me the theory behind the seventeen deaths. Each one apparently took away a piece of our soul. Unlike our bodies, our souls could not regenerate after a death. Thus, Death as an ultimate end was unavoidable. And then the crows come for most of us.

No one was really clear as to where the birds took our earthly remains.

'What if you lived alone, on a desert island or something, and never met anyone? You could presumably never die,' Reid had argued with his customary logic when I told him this.

'True. However, death by boredom is greatly underestimated,' I replied. 'Besides, someone like you is bound to kill himself after a day without a smoke.'

'So the meeting was a trap?' said Reid.

His voice jolted me back to the present. The car had pulled up in front of my apartment block. The road ahead was deserted.

'Yes.' Rain drummed the roof of the Monte Carlo. The sound reminded me of the ricochets of machine guns. Unpleasant memories rose to the surface of my mind. I suppressed them firmly.

'Will he try to kill you again?' said Reid. I remained silent. He stared at me. 'What are you gonna do?'

I shifted on the leather seat and reached for the door handle. 'Well, seeing as you're likely to drag me back from Hell if I leave you high and dry, I should probably kill him first.'

I exited the car, crossed the sidewalk, and entered the lobby of the building. I turned to watch the taillights of the Chevrolet disappear in the downpour before getting in the lift. Under normal circumstances, I would have taken the stairs to the tenth floor. Dying, I felt, was a justifiable reason to take things easy for the rest of the night.

My apartment was blessedly cool and devoid of immortals hell-bent on carving another hole in my heart. I took a shower, dressed the wound on my chest, and went to bed.

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text:
Q: Building a package that runs tests needing X server (debuild) I'm trying to make a package for srsGUI a package for drawing plots. Its tests require X server to run. Everything seems to build fine, then it gets to the tests and spits out:
$ debuild -us -uc
...
1/8 Test #3: realplot_test_c ..................***Failed    0.01 sec
Software Radio Systems, Ltd: cannot connect to X server
...

All eight of the tests fail. I've got X running, I can open xterm, so I don't think there's a problem w/ my DISPLAY variable. My guess is that debuild's sandbox is blocking/not passing through the X display. Should I be trying to tell debuild to pass through the X display, or should I be trying to tell it not to run the tests at all?

A: Of course, you could tell debuild to retain the X display number by running debuild -us -uc -eDISPLAY. This solution doesn't however apply to most Debian packages, since they won't be built from an X environment (that includes not only official debian buildds, but also autopkgtest, sbuild, pbuilder environments). All in all, a Debian package should build successfully with just its build dependencies installed and nothing else.
The canonical solution to this is
- Build-depend on xvfb
- run your tests wrapped with xvfb-run like this (in rules):
override_dh_auto_test:
  xvfb-run dh_auto_test

For an example, look here at salsa repository of gnome-settings-daemon.


text:
Rangers Back On Track Plus Brady Suspension Sticks
Paris – Four members of the Texas Tumbling and Trampoline Institute medaled in international competition in Portugal earlier this month. Sophie Stone won gold, immediately followed by a silver medal finish by teammate Rylee Chapman in their individual event. Chapman, Stone, and Jessica Francis also earned gold in a 12 and under team event. Logan Gilbert earned a bronze medal in 13-14 year old competition.
Mount Pleasant – When you think of the hardest throwers in professional baseball, Yankees reliever Aroldis Chapman may come to mind. Or perhaps Noah Syndergaard. However, from Mt. Pleasant high school and the Daingerfield area, Michael Kopech, with the Salem Red Sox in the Boston minor league system, dialed up the fastest pitch in all of pro baseball this year, clocked at 105 MPH. The pitch was confirmed last week by Salem manager Joe Oliver, who said the same speed registered on multiple guns.
Sulphur Springs – It won't be long until Sulphur Springs Wildcat football fans will be able to purchase their season tickets to the upcoming 2016 season. Sales begin on August 1st. Previous season ticket holders are already being sent notices of their renewal. The Wildcats will host five home games in the upcoming season, including the season opener against Sherman, their annual homecoming game, this year against Whitehouse, as well as district contests against Marshall, Mt. Pleasant and Hallsville.
The Texas Rangers drop the series, but win the finale against the Cubs 4-1. Cole Hamels gave up only one unearned run on four hits and seven strikeouts earning the win. Ian Desmond capped off the evening for Texas with a big fly. The Rangers are 55-38 on the season and remain in 1st place in the AL West ahead of Houston by 4.5 games. Texas will take on the Angels tonight on the West coast. First pitch on KPLT 1490am and 96.3fm is scheduled for 9:05pm Central time.
At Royal Troon, Henrik Stenson puts together a masterful final round of golf to defeat lefty Phil Mickelson. Stenson shot 63 on the final day to finish at -20 under on the tournament. His winnings exceeded $1.5 million dollars.
And New England Patriots quarterback, Tom Brady, had his suspension upheld. Meaning he will sit the first four games of the upcoming 2016 season for his role in the infamous deflategate scandal, dating back to the 2014 post season. Brady was granted an appeal last year, which merely put the punishment off for this season.
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Forest Virginia Wedding. What do you do when there's a hurricane forecasted for your wedding day? According to Rebekah and James, you make it work. Although they had planned for a ceremony in the woods with crisp fall weather and lots of outdoor activities, they made some last minute changes and were relieved to know that their guests were ready for anything.
Provisions for the day included rain boots and clear bubble umbrellas for the ladies. Who says you can't be beautiful splashing around in the rain?
Rebekah had envisioned a day full of bohemian style. She pulled this off by wearing a strapless A-line gown with a champagne belt and a flower crown over her brunette tresses.
The color scheme played off the rich reds of the season so her bouquet, and the lace bridesmaid dresses, all featured a gorgeous deep hue. Provisions for the day included rain boots and clear bubble umbrellas for the ladies. Who says you can't be beautiful splashing around in the rain?
James and his groomsmen were a simple but handsome bunch. The gentlemen wore white shirts, suspenders, and black ties, while James also wore a suit jacket.
Rebekah was escorted down the aisle by her father, who also officiated the ceremony. A group of umbrella-wielding guests looked on with warm smiles as the couple wed under the dripping remnants of Hurricane Joaquin.
Many elements in this wedding were DIY by the couple and their families. Handwritten signs directed guests towards the ceremony and reception, and the bride's sister did the entire seating arrangement in calligraphy.
A white tent helped keep guests dry during the reception. Golden floral table runners, antlers, and pine cones accompanied centerpieces with sunflowers, baby's breath, and berries.
A makeshift white tarp allowed guests to still enjoy some of the outdoor activities during the reception, as well as dancing, and it even provided a camp-like feel that the couple loved.
The cake was a white creation that overflowed with the same beautiful flowers from the bride's bouquet.
Marriage has its ups and downs and the couple looked at this experience as a way to say "Well, if it's going to rain, we might as well dance." And James and Rebekah wouldn't want to dance in the rain with anyone else.


text:
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Wealth Taxes
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State Carbon Taxes: Overview
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The Other 49 States (besides WA)
Washington's 2016 carbon-tax defeat
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Showing the Cost Side of the Climate Equation in a New Light
June 14, 2017 By Charles Komanoff
Doubling the temperature rise quadruples the anticipated damage. Curve shown is most conservative of three presented in new paper discussed here.
I'm tempted to call it the decade's most important paper on the costs of climate damage. The paper, just published in the peer-reviewed journal, Environmental and Resource Economics, upends the long-prevailing approach for estimating the social cost of carbon, potentially laying the ground for putting the SCC (in dollars per metric ton of CO2) into triple digits, from the $44 figure stipulated in rule-making by the Obama White House.
Not only that, the paper presents a trio of climate-damage functions relative to the temperature rise, that let us calculate the estimated global cost to humanity from each global warming increment. The functions vary depending on whether they include so-called "catastrophic damages" from climate change as well as estimates of climate change's potential drag on future growth in economic productivity. Each function expresses that cost as the percent of future GDP lost per additional centigrade-degree in global-average temperature relative to the pre-industrial level. (Graph at left, with equation in bold, is the most conservative, i.e., slowest-growing, of the three graphs in the paper. All three are shown in the next graphic.)
The new paper, Few and Not So Far Between: A Meta-analysis of Climate Damage Estimates, is by Peter Howard, economics director at NYU Law School's Institute for Policy Integrity; and Thomas Sterner, professor of environmental economics at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. (Disclosure: Thomas and I have shared a warm personal friendship since the 1980s.) As the somewhat unwieldy title suggests, the paper combines data and results of prior analyses that sought to place a cost on future damages from climate change. In those analyses, "damages" are expressed as a percentage of future global economic product — a somewhat cold-blooded metric that nevertheless allows policy-makers to compare the impacts of climate change on human well-being to the costs of mitigation and adaptation.
The Howard-Sterner paper identifies several sources of bias in previous meta-studies of the temperature-damage relationship. There's "duplicate bias," by which early climate-damage models tended to be overly conservative but, because of their primacy, came to be cited multiple times, thus biasing downward the temperature-damage relationships in meta-studies. Moreover, methodological choices or constraints kept some analyses from accounting for non-market climate impacts such as reduced biodiversity or for so-called catastrophic impacts such as collapses of regional or global agriculture.
Earlier analyses also failed "to control for whether market impact estimates [of climate damages] included potential impacts on economic productivity," write Howard and Sterner. Though it may appear bizarre, until recently many attempts to estimate the temperature-damage function deliberately excluded the prospect that climate change will erode societies' ability to generate new wealth by inhibiting the accumulation of technological and intellectual capital, which are key drivers of economic productivity and growth. In recent years, renowned climate economist William Nordhaus, whose Dynamic Integrated Climate-Economy (DICE) model and long-time intellectual leadership have been integral to estimating the social cost of carbon, has come under criticism for excluding non-market, productivity and catastrophic climate impacts from his modeling.
Graphic from Howard-Sterner paper. We recreated their third-highest curve ("preferred model for non-catastrophic damage") for our first graphic, above.
As we wrote last Friday, in 2015 the Interagency Working Group (IWG) on the Social Cost of Carbon created by President Obama directed federal agencies to use a "social cost of carbon" equivalent to $37/ton in 2007 dollars. (Note that the official link to the IWG was scrubbed away by the Trump White House, in 2017.) That figure, which equates to $44/ton in 2017 dollars, was drawn in part from the "2013R" version of DICE.
In their paper's conclusion, Howard and Sterner point out that updating DICE as per their findings "would increase the resulting SCC of the Interagency Working Group by between one-and-a-half to twofold." While that's true arithmetically, it's an understatement of sorts, insofar as their conclusion states clearly that "Using the preferred [model] specification, we find that the 2015 SCC increases by approximately three- to four-fold depending on the treatment of productivity." However, that increase is attenuated by the IWG's decision to derive their SCC not only via DICE but with two other temperature-damage models, neither of which are addressed in the Howard-Sterner paper.
Thus, while the authors' analysis would raise the estimate of the SCC derived solely from DICE by an estimated 209 percent, the need to average the increases for the DICE figures with the unchanged figures from the other models leads the overall increase to be considerably less, though a still substantial 63 percent. Even that lower rise boosts the social cost per ton of CO2 to $72, from the Obama administration's $44 (both figures in 2017 dollars).
That change is important since it warrants recalibrating the panoply of cost-benefit and other calculations that carbon tax advocates, corporate carbon-cutters and others have been basing on the social cost of carbon during recent years. But there's more, and here we return to the equation we highlighted (and graphed) in the chart at the top.
A possible increase in the global temperature rise from 2C to 3C is estimated to harm humanity ~5 times as much as the experienced rise from 0C to 1C, according to the Howard-Sterner equations.
In their paper, Howard and Sterner tested various curve shapes to distill the set of temperature-damage relationships they sifted in their meta-analysis. Their most robust functional form was a simple quadratic, by which the total damage to global well-being (expressed as the lost percentage of global economic output) rises by the square of the temperature deviation from pre-industrial levels.
Quadratic curves start slowly and gather steam — much as, when an object is dropped from some height, the distance from its point of release increases more with each passing second. And so it appears with the Howard-Sterner climate-damage function, by which the additional societal damage from each new temperature increment is greater than the damage from the previous increment. (See table directly above.) In fact, the additional damage is a linear function of the temperature rise (as you calculus jocks will have noticed, since the first derivative of any quadratic function is a linear one).
The implications are obvious but nonetheless profound. Arresting climate change isn't binary, whereby we either stop global warming in its tracks or we don't. It is, literally, a question of degree, with the importance of reducing and stopping warming intensifying as global temperatures rise. While that appears obvious, experientially — discomfort rises more when the mercury climbs to 100F from 95F than from 90F to 95F; and what goes for heat effects should go for drowned coasts, extreme weather, ecosystem stress, and so forth — now there's an equation to codify it.
Howard's and Sterner's quantification of the accelerating harm as global temperatures increasingly diverge from pre-industrial levels obliges humanity — all of us — to redouble our efforts to tax and eliminate fossil fuels and other greenhouse gas emitters at the fastest imaginable rate.
Drew Keeling says
Thanks for this informative report on what looks like a formidable analysis of the social cost of carbon, and for the link to the (freely downloadable) journal article itself.
The finding that social damages increase more than linearly with climate change seems particularly significant because it adds a further reason for insisting on near term policy action. Another big reason why delays in acting are costly comes from the fact that CO2 accumulates in the air; each year's postponement of putting an appropriate price on carbon means another year of mispricing carbon emissions, of which about half remain in the atmosphere (impacting the global climate in mostly negative ways) for centuries thereafter.
It is not mentioned here what discount rate is used, or might be suggested, on the future costs estimated. This aspect also seems potentially powerful because (whatever mechanism is used to determine a rate for discounting the future) that rate would logically drop over time if -as is suggested- "climate change will erode societies' ability to generate new wealth by inhibiting the accumulation of technological and intellectual capital, which are key drivers of economic productivity and growth." More slowly increasing economic productivity not only makes it harder to "grow our way out" of future climate disruption (as Nordhaus's early analyses seemed to suggest we might), it also computes to a higher present value cost of not acting right away to significantly reduce carbon emissions.
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and word association, promotional book and CD package for a specific existing type foundry. The intention was to design a package of typefaces using one main typeface and family to unite with a well-developed concept.
I mapped out to create the word, envisioned. Eventually my map expanded into the final word, color. My concept, deception and perception of color derived from word mapping and research. The overall message and concept of ROYGBIV was to raise an awareness about color vision deficiencies in general, since many people think those with this inability can only see things in black and white.
Role: Communications Designer & Photographer; this was a school project while attending the Academy of Art University.


text:
Veto of North Carolina 'born alive' measure upheld
By Gary D. Robertson, The Associated Press
RALEIGH — North Carolina Republican leaders failed on Wednesday to override Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's veto of legislation that would have created a new crime against doctors and nurses who fail to care for an infant delivered during an unsuccessful abortion.
Enough Democrats sided with Cooper to block the override, which required 72 votes of support. The vote was 67-53 in favor of the override. The Senate had voted to override in April.
The unsuccessful override hands a victory to abortion-rights groups and allied lawmakers after a series of legislative defeats in recent weeks in other states, such as Alabama.
The "born alive" measure would have directed health care practitioners to grant newborns delivered after an abortion the same protections as other patients. Cooper's veto message said the measure was unnecessary and laws already protect newborns.
President Donald Trump has expressed support for "born alive" bills. The Wisconsin legislature gave final approval to a similar measure earlier Wednesday, and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers already has promised to veto it.
Wednesday's actions were the latest in a recent string of state abortion legislation. In Alabama, GOP Gov. Kay Ivey signed a bill that makes performing an abortion a felony in nearly all cases unless necessary for the mother's health. The law provides no exception for rape and incest. Governors in Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio and Georgia have approved bans on abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can happen as early as the sixth week of pregnancy.
The North Carolina House vote reflected the new partisan makeup of the House and Senate chambers since January, when six years of veto-proof GOP majorities ended after Democratic seat gains in November. Now Republicans must get help from a handful of Democrats to override Cooper's vetoes.
Although four House Democrats initially voted for the "Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act" in April, only two of them stuck with the measure Wednesday.
Republicans in the state Senate needed to capture the vote of just one Democrat for an override, which they did soon after the abortion veto.
Democrats and allies opposed to the bill said North Carolina already has laws on the books against infanticide, doctors already are regulated by medical boards and physicians aren't neglecting these newborns.
The bill's supporters attempted a full-court press before Wednesday's vote, bringing in two women who said they had survived unsuccessful abortions in the 1970s and 1980s.
Still, the frequency of doctors neglecting these live infants is unclear.
The North Carolina Values Coalition said five states have reported at least 25 children were born alive during attempted abortions in 2017. North Carolina keeps no such statistics. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported more than 140 infant deaths in induced terminations nationwide from 2003 to 2014. It hasn't specified what level of care those newborns received.


Throughout our SEO journey, we've learned the importance of high quality content for search engines and people. While aspects of your website remain static for years, your content can not. A website is a living, breathing document that requires updates to survive. Let's take a look at the freshness of your site by examining both content and site design.
In the article titled How Fresh Content Can Influence Rankings, Cyrus Shepard points out that websites have a freshness factor. He goes through 10 reasons why fresh content is important. While he does an excellent job covering the technical details, you probably want to know how this can help your website.
What can you do to improve your freshness factor?
Ensure all products and services are listed with current descriptions, photos, and any other critical information. Remove old products or services no longer offered.
Add regular blog posts or news articles to your site. Don't add all content at one time, instead space it out over weeks, or months.
Update your homepage, based on your marketing strategy. Highlight a new product, service, or event.
Create pages that reveal details about your company, how you do business, who are you employees, what are your values, etc.
Ask customers and clients what they would like to see on your website. Remember, your customers and clients are more important than search engines, so solicit their feedback.
It is acceptable for your website design to remain static for a longer period of time. However, your website design should still keep up with current design standards. We have already discussed the importance of responsive design3, so what are some other signs that your website design might need a breath of fresh air.
Check out your web page addresses, if they end with a file extension, such as .html, .htm, .php, or .asp, your pages not have been optimized for search engines. Hiding these file extensions makes it easier to link to pages and require less updates to your website and back links.
First impressions are as important on the web as they are in person. Your home page says a lot about your business. So keep it simple and professional. Too much clutter, can cause confusion for your visitors.
Slow websites and web pages are a discouragement to your customers and to search engines. Google announced six years ago that they added "site speed" to their ranking algorithms. If your website is slow, especially on mobile, it's probably time for an update.
Social Media helps you communicate with your audience on a more personal level . But don't overdo it. Select 5 social media links or less. It isn't mandatory that you are on every social media channel available. In fact, certain social media channels are better than others, depending on your industry.
According to the Material Design Specifications, the images on your website should tell a story about your company, products, or services. You shouldn't grab any stock photos, but rather select those that inspire, motivate, and trigger emotions. Also, steer clear of the clipart and wordart, these scream amateur web design.
This is probably one of the easiest way to tell if your website is outdated. Ensure that the year is updated annually, or remove it all together.
These are a long lost trend of the late 90s for sure! Google Analytics is a very powerful tool that does so much more than tracking website visitors. You can track the type of audience, behavior, conversions, and so much more. Page counters are a thing of the past.
Both content and design updates are necessary to keep your website fresh and performing well. Working with professionals, like a web designer and content creator, is probably your best bet. They will have the time and expertise required to keep your site current and continually generating leads for your business.
Responsive design helps you reach every customer no matter how they access the web.