Book Review of Health, Nutrition, and P.E: Grades 3 - 4. Is it Right for Your Homeschool Program?
Book Review of Health, Nutrition, and P.E: Grades 3 – 4. Is it Right for Your Homeschool Program?
The Health, Nutrition and P.E. Series is available in different grade levels. The series that I purchased and am reviewing is for Grades 3-4. My daughter began 4th grade this year, so it was perfect for our use. It is also inexpensive. You can often find used copies on Amazon for as little as $4.00.
Most schools teach P.E. four days per week and health for one day. Other schools teach P.E. for three out of four semesters and one semester of health. You can choose, as a homeschooling parent, which of these schedules you would like to follow.
This unit has the most lessons in it, at forty-six. The course also provides bulletin boards, which my daughter loved to create. She hung up a picture of a bank and money bags around it. The bulletin board was titled, "Health Wealth" and she wrote all of her ideas about staying healthy on the money bags. All of the activities in the health section are interactive and fun for both my daughter and I. It is also written at a level that my daughter can comprehend and discusses real-life issues that she needs to know about.
This section has eleven lessons and again, provides a bulletin board exercise. This bulletin board features the food guide pyramid and is called, "Snack Attack". Kids cut pictures of healthy snacks from magazines and place them onto the bulletin board. The whole section is dedicated to teaching kids how to make healthy food choices. This is especially important in today's age, when fast food dining is so common.
This section has ten lessons in it and a bulletin board called, "Fitness is the Goal". This bulletin board features a soccer goal, player, and as many soccer balls as desired. Your child writes his or her fitness goals onto the soccer balls. The part I like best about this section is that it teaches children the importance of warming up and cooling down, and how to keep track of their pulse rate when working out. There are several exercises that are modeled for the student to do right at home. My favorite part of this section is the weekly exercise chart. It helps my daughter keep track of her amount of exercise.
I love this book and think it is an excellent source for homeschooling parents. I give it two thumbs up!


Sag Harbor had long been one of the most desirable seaside villages on Long Island, for both summer homes and year-round residences. While many homes in the village and the surrounding unincorporated hamlets fetch more than a million, there are opportunities that fall in the six-figure range.
This sizable Colonial is 2,200 square feet with 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths. Located at the end of a cul-de-sac, the house has a wrap-around deck, attached garage and open living space.
A 2-story Traditional, this house is 1,200 square feet with 2 bedrooms and 2 baths on 0.04 acres. The residence was built in 1897 and has since been completely renovated. Additional rooms include a living room, kitchen and dining area.
This 2,800-square-foot Contemporary has 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths on 0.60 acres. The 1st level has a large playroom. The upstairs master has a new bathroom and glass doors leading to a deck. The great room has a fireplace and vaulted ceilings. Sliding doors lead to a deck for entertaining. The large kitchen has skylights, granite counter tops, new appliances and a sunroom. Amenities include a kidney shaped swimming pool.
This Modern is 0.86 acres with 3 bedrooms and 3.5 baths. The 3,200-square-foot residence has a large, open main floor and light-filled open loft-style studio/living area. The concrete floors are heated and there are many French doors throughout.The eat-in country kitchen has a pot belly stove and dining room. The upstairs master bedroom has a large bathroom with a Jacuzzi. The grounds have a brick stone patio, small summer garden house and hot/cold outside shower.


text:
package dagger.functional.assisted;

import static com.google.common.truth.Truth.assertThat;

import dagger.Component;
import dagger.assisted.AssistedFactory;
import dagger.functional.assisted.subpackage.AccessibleFoo;
import dagger.functional.assisted.subpackage.AssistedDep;
import dagger.functional.assisted.subpackage.InaccessibleFooFactory;
import org.junit.Test;
import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
import org.junit.runners.JUnit4;

@RunWith(JUnit4.class)
public final class AssistedFactoryInaccessibleTest {
  @Component
  interface ParentComponent {
    // Factory for an accessible type from another package
    AccessibleFooFactory accessibleFooFactory();

    // Factory for an inaccessible type from another package
    InaccessibleFooFactory inaccessibleFooFactory();
  }

  @AssistedFactory
  public interface AccessibleFooFactory {
    // Use different parameter names than Foo to make sure we're not assuming they're the same.
    AccessibleFoo create(AssistedDep factoryAssistedDep);
  }

  @Test
  public void testAccessibleFooFactory() {
    AssistedDep assistedDep = new AssistedDep();
    AccessibleFoo accessibleFoo =
        DaggerAssistedFactoryInaccessibleTest_ParentComponent.create()
            .accessibleFooFactory()
            .create(assistedDep);
    assertThat(accessibleFoo).isNotNull();
    assertThat(accessibleFoo.dep).isNotNull();
    assertThat(accessibleFoo.assistedDep).isEqualTo(assistedDep);
  }

  @Test
  public void testInaccessibleFooFactory() {
    AssistedDep assistedDep = new AssistedDep();
    // We can't access InaccessibleFoo directly, so just use Object instead.
    Object inaccessibleFoo =
        DaggerAssistedFactoryInaccessibleTest_ParentComponent.create()
            .inaccessibleFooFactory()
            .create(assistedDep);
    assertThat(inaccessibleFoo).isNotNull();
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Dr. Rodney Unterslak, our family doctor, was there and he said to me, "You should call the Rebbe. Call and get a blessing right now!" He knew how dire things were although I still didn't. I tried calling but could not get through. Fortunately, the head of the Chabad House at the time – Rabbi Yossi Hecht – was able to reach his father, Rabbi J.J. Hecht, who had a very close relationship with the Rebbe.
Thank you for sharing such a beautiful story of our Rebbe!


From the YFA team "Happy Thanksgiving." No matter where you live in the world, take time today to give thanks to the Lord.
Today is a day that people in America take time to give thanks. We get together with family and friends. Eat way too much turkey, stuffing and all sorts of deserts. It is the day we give thanks, yet like New Year's Resolutions it is something that comes only once a year, yet as believers is something we should be doing on a daily basis.
God does not deserve our thanks one day a year, he deserves our thanks every day of our lives. Today, make the commitment to daily give thanks to the Lord and to live a life of that gives thanks to God through our actions, attitude and example to others. Take time to thank Him for what He has done in your life and have the faith to thank Him for the things yet to come.


text:
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Buy from Bookshop.org
ISBN: 9780241187593 Size: 282 x 217 mm Pages: 56 Published: 02 Mar 2015
About Victorians
Be upstanding for the Queen! Experience a golden age in British history with this leading reference title for children, which celebrates peace, progress, and prosperity during the reign of Queen Victoria.
Eyewitness Victorians is an essential part of the best-selling Eyewitness series. This comprehensive visual guide for younger readers explores how the Industrial Revolution changed the world forever. Watch vast railway networks take shape, large-scale factories hard at work, and the nationwide move from farming communities to populated cities. Learn the differences between life upstairs and downstairs in the houses of Victorian England to decide whether you would have liked to grow up in this fascinating era.
This updated edition is more interactive and informative than ever before, with new infographics, statistics, facts, and timelines designed to educate and entertain. A giant fold-out wall chart of Victorian history provides a useful reference tool for classrooms and bedrooms alike.
Our World in Pictures: Countries, Cultures, People & Places
Get set for a journey across the globe, visiting every ...
Read all about the bloodthirsty battles of ancient Rome...
Explore the long and rich history of China's great dyna...
Timelines from Black History
Erased. Ignored. Hidden. Lost. Underappreciated. No lon...
Timelines of Everyone
Get the inside track on the incredible lives of history...
Discover how humans created their world from the object...
Entrepreneurs Who Changed History
Whether titans of industry, influential business leader...
Journey across the world and throughout history to disc...
Some subjects are too interesting to be left at school!...
Politics Is...
What is populism? Is communism the same in China and Cu...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
How an All-Ireland clash in Mitcham brought president Paddy Quinlan to London
Interview with Paddy Quinlan - Life President Seán Treacys
The committee decided (pre-Covid) to conduct a series of interviews with key past members.
Paddy was a noticably visible person in the club and was local in London. We had heard many times of his interest in the club, not just from himself but others pointed us in his direction also... and they weren't wrong!
Interview by Adrian Mulchinock and Donal Henley; transcribed by Ollie O'Donoghue
When the club was founded in 1958, there was only one other hurling club in South London. That was the Emeralds who were founded in Clapham Common in 1955 and were mostly Limerick hurlers and a few Galway men. They all lived around Battersea and Clapham Junction. Patsy Hickey from Limerick and Paddy Burke from Galway were the anchor men for that club.
The first secretary of Sean Treacys was Sean O'Donnell, who had been with the Emeralds.
The first chairman was Paddy O'Brien, who had been with Brian Borus, as had Con McGrath.
Packie Hourigan won a senior club hurling medal with Brian Borus in 1955 and had been playing with them since around '53 or '54 until the year he joined Sean Treacys. He had played in the All-Ireland Junior Hurling Final in Limerick in 1957 – he was a corner back and he played against a centre-field man.
Paddy Ryan came afterwards and he was a leading Brian Boru man. He was from the Ragg near Thurles.
The early years in Limerick
McGrath, Hourigan and Quinlan all hailed from the Blackboy area between Cappamore and Doon in Limerick. They were born in Doon but all went to school in Cappamore.
Quinlan first went to primary school at the age of six and a half and later did two years at the Christian Brothers' Secondary school. His friend John O'Donoghue won a scholarship for secondary school and jumped a class ahead of Quinlan. History, geography and essay-writing were his best subjects in school, while he found maths more challenging.
Greek was also taught, and his friend Jimmy Carr turned his Irish homework upside down hoping to pass it off as Greek, while the teacher scanned the work of the class quickly, for which he was severely reprimanded.
His partially blind neighbour John Moloney – a WWI veteran nicknamed the Boxer -who lived in one of the two thatched cottages nearby and set up a boxing club locally. He had the only radio around which all the neighbours would gather to hear to commentary from the hurling matches, and Quinlan would courier the battery to be charged in Cappamore, for which six pence was charged.
McGrath, Hourigan and Quinlan competed together in cross-country and underage hurling for the Blackboy. They played in the under-16 hurling league final on August 15, 1949, but were beaten by another Cappamore team - Dromalty, with the first prize a set of belts made by local harness-maker Willie Gleeson.
The team from Dromalty included the future priests Liam and Seamus Ryan, who played for Limerick in the 1955 All-Ireland Hurling Championship semi-final defeat against Wexford, having won the Munster Final.
Quinlan later caught up with Liam Ryan in the Irish Centre in London, and asked what he had done with the belts, and he said his father used them to encourage his donkey to draw milk to the creamery.
Clare beat Tipp and Cork on the way to the Munster Final in 1955, and Limerick beat Waterford, but Limerick were expected to suffer a heavy defeat in the Munster final. However, Dermot Kelly scored 1-12 for Limerick and they ended up winning easily.
Tolly Gillane, and Donal O'Grady were a formidable force in the Clare half-back line and were expected to help Clare to win an All-Ireland, however it was not to be that year.
In 1949, a month after the under-16 league final, Doon decided that they would have a parish league with medals, a luxury at the time, and the Blackboy took top honours.
The Blackboy played in 2 Parish Leagues, Doon and Cappamore. The reason being although we lived in the Doon Parish, we all went to school in Cappamore. We had a love vs. hate relationship with Cappamore.
In 1950, Doon looked like they might not field a team, when John O'Donoghue – whose brothers Jimmy and Timmy had played for Limerick - tried to affiliate a team for the Blackboy, but was not allowed as it was a townsland, so O'Donoghue captained the Doon team along with Hourigan and together they won the East Limerick championship.
Quinlan played for Doon in '51 and collect an East Limerick minor hurling medal, having played in two matches.
He also recalls the Blackboy cross-country team, set up by Billy Shanahan, and remembers 'running every road and jumping every ditch' at night time. They trained barefoot in all conditions including in the snow. The pecking order was established as the race distances got longer and longer. The novice was five miles, the junior was six miles and the senior was eight miles.
Quinlan and O'Brien won the first Novice Championship in Patrickswell in '53. Two weeks after they won the Junior Championship in Rathkeale, which Quinlan couldn't believe, before they later went on to win the Senior Championship in Croom. Between '53 and '56, the Blackboy won four consecutive Senior Cross-Country Championships in Limerick.
Willie McKenna and Paddy Carmody excelled according to Quinlan, with Carmody who later went to Dublin to compete for an athletic club there.
The team was made up of farmers' sons and farm labourers, while Quinlan's father used to cut and sell turf and worked as a riverworker, after the local river wreaked havoc after changing course when it broke its bank in 1946, taking all the hay and turf along with it. There was work on the river for about five or six years, as there were no proper banks in place.
The club later disbanded and Quinlan upped sticks to Birmingham.
Birmingham in the 1950s
Quinlan first lived in Birmingham in '53 in a room with Paddy Ryan, the secretary of John Mitchels hurling club. Quinlan's sister lived in Leamington Spa, so the plan was to travel there. Quinlan and his companion got on the train at Hollyhead and one fella kept looking at them, before asking where they were travelling. He explained to them that the work was in plentiful supply in Birmingham, and that he would show them where they could get work.
His companion found work in the hospital, while Quinlan was introduced to the milkman, who took him to a beautiful house at 34 Hollywell Road in Edgbaston, the cricketing area of Birmingham.
The lady answered the door and asked him his age, before cautioning that digs would be £2.10d a week. She suggested he add an extra three years to his age – he was still yet to turn 18 – and he could get work at GKN Nettlefolds. Quinlan also remembers registering for rations at the time.
His first pay packet amounted to £6 10d. He worked alongside two Galway lads, and while the factory had a canteen, Quinlan had his own lunch and dinner at his digs in the evening.
GKN was a large engineering manufacturer of nuts, bolts and screws. Quinlan stayed working there for a few months before getting work on a building site, but frozen ground one week saw him return to work in a foundry. He met a Leitrim man Mick McGrale, a ganger man for Wimpy. He ordered Quinlan to meet him at the Bull Ring coach station in Birmingham and they travelled in separate Wimpy coaches, with McGrale going to work in Rugeley and Quinlan to Cannock, where he worked at shuttering for another few months.
The brickie told him there was work putting breeze blocks in houses that were being built for Scottish miners who were going to be working in Cannock. One morning the wall came down, and the foreman sacked Quinlan and his boss immediately on the spot.
The coach was free, and the lodging was subsidised, while the local Brummies were also given a good deal to encourage more workers in the area.
The Stores in Birmingham allowed workers to sign for a bucket or shovel, and a Waterford man Dan Murphy was the store keeper. Murphy was also a Wimpy trustee so was given a voucher to travel back to Waterford every six weeks.
Quinlan told Murphy he could get the Irish Press for him at a shop in Birmingham, for which he was grateful. In return, Murphy defended Quinlan after he heard about his sacking, and he was able to keep his job.
Quinlan then recalls heavy Aga cookers being installed in the houses, and having a soft job drawing bricks and listening to the stories of the brick layer, who had been in the war. Quinlan later got sick of the work, when it came to working on manholes in the winter months, and got a job as a bus conductor in Birmingham.
Quinlan would meet countless Irish and those from home on the number 8 route which covered the inner circle of Birmingham, and was tasked with collecting fares, although this was not always easy when the busses was full between the busiest stops.
There was a shortage of workers on the busses in Birmingham and Quinlan later found work for Willie McKenna.
London in the 1960s
Quinlan was first inspired to move to London when Brian Borus travelled to Birmingham for a match on Easter weekend and he met up with Hourigan and McGrath. Following tradition, the two teams from the previous year's All-Ireland Finals travelled to play in exhibitions in front of tens of thousands in the old Mitcham Stadium that Easter Monday, and so Quinlan travelled to see these matches in London. He stayed with Hourigan and McGrath in Clapham Common, and later decided to move to London in '55.
Mitcham Stadium was situated on the Mitcham side of Figge's Marsh and also had a dog track in the middle, and Quinlan later found work in the demolition of the stadium! The two stands were sold, one to Leyton Orient and the other to Bedford Town.
The annual matches on the Easter Monday were known as the Eoin Ward Cup for the football and the Dunne, O'Sullivan and McInerney Cup for the hurling.
(Dunne and O'Sullivan were executed for the murder of Sir Henry Wilson in 1922 at Eaton Square.)
Quinlan took over as secretary for Sean Treacys in 1960 and recalls going to a Dance at the Arranmore together with McGrath, and Jimmy Hourigan and his wife.


It's like when you first learn to do a new skill and now you want to practice and practice on anything and everythingIt's not like that Flerken Goose in the moon shirt all. Then worship it as a God, but they also worshiped the Dung Beetle as well. They were the original Crazy cat ladies it is assumed that the Egyptians were the first to domesticate the Cat.
Marwan El i think ur family needs one toilet a class= dir=ltr target=_blank href= l.
India mein toilets hai bhai, galti nahi hai tumhari jab india me toilet ban rha tha, tum lulli katwa rhe theDont you need toilets, do you go in open. Sheau Lan Sia my guess is about 1 3 but they'll still report probably over 900 million.
Modi again 2019Festival of Democracy Jai HindAlexander Baumann We have presidents to sign papers and isn't even directly Picked up by People, PM is a big deal though.
Thank you for telling meLet's vote again for Great idea of India That people of different cast, religious, sect, color, ideology live side by side happily. It might give you a headache in the Flerken Goose in the moon shirt but eventually you'll be able to tolerate the pain and be aware of what's going on around the globe.


text:
01/23/16: I've made some significant changes to the ending.
10/11/15: I've made some slight editing here and there, to improve the story.
1938. Astronomers at McDonald Observatory identify an increase in light coming from the direction of the Great Rift, lasting for several minutes and then disappearing.
1956. Astronomers at The Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, measure 3% increase in cosmic radiation that occurs in bursts over a period of three hours, which is verified by measurements taken at Kiruna Observatory.
2015. Multiple locations [Chandra X-ray Observatory, INTEGRAL satellite, MAXI, Gran Telescope Canarias] participate in a study of 8,000 year-old bursts coming from V404 Cygni black hole, occurring over 1.2 months. Results disappear from public record.
2075. Sagan Orbiting Light Observatory (SOLO) sends alert to International Space Command of cosmic radiation bursts occurring over a period of six months. Bursts are recorded from black-holes resident across three different constellations, with source estimations of 5,000 to 26,000 light years distance. Astronomers recommend that observations continue but priority for resources is directed towards managing the climate diaspora.
2151. The Astronomy Internode at the Neptune Observatory completed its scan through human records to the current date, and having found no further entries, recorded the latest observations in the Astronomers Journal:
Day 943, 2436 UTC. 9,657 pulses counted per day, three times as many as observed by SOLO, and directed from a 180 degrees of observable space. Source estimations range from 3,000 to 69,000 light years distance.
The Great Rift is growing in size with each pulse, +0.314 AU observable with approximately 103 margin of error.
Soon after the entry, the Neptune AI received an incoming transmission.
"Please explain your last entry," said the voice over the comm link.
The AI gave a slight virtual nod to the ethereal voice of the human astronomer who resided on Mars.
"I have calibrated the instruments in rotational order to ensure the measurements are as precise as possible given their variant distances to each other and to this observatory outpost."
"And," said the voice.
"Analysis of historical records provides little data to correlate with these latest measurements."
"Conclusion," asked the voice.
"The Great Rift will collide with and engulf our Solar System."
A sigh was heard over the comm. "How long?"
"Calculating for time and distillation of space, and rounding to the nearest 100 per your earlier request," the AI paused a mere nanosecond, "1,200 solar years."
"Conclusion noted, thank you." The Astronomer's connection ended, and the AI returned to observing the vastness of space from the promontory on Neptune. It noted the perfunctory "thank you" in its secure journal, automatically tallying the human gesture that now equaled a total of 16,000 with an average of 2 times per 10 calls since the AI began recording.
The Astronomer on Mars pushed her hair away from her eyes before attaching her own conclusions to the AI report and filing it with her boss at the United Space Intergovernmental Relations Office.
Recommend we begin research program to determine optimal method, time and direction for escape. A scientific panel comprised of Mars, Moon, and Earth scientists, chaired by the Mars Astronomer, will coordinate this program. For longevity purposes we will include our respective AIs, and using the Neptune AI as an independent variable.
We do not currently have a quantifiable understanding of the existence of another viable system[s] and therefore it is our first obligation to increase funding for observatories equipped with AIs and to be placed beyond our solar system.
The Observatories will be expected to continue to measure changes in size of the Great Rift, and at the same time locate and calibrate distances in all directions. These measurements will enable us to determine [if there is] a particular direction to move bio-based populations away from [and outrun] the collision as reported by the Neptune Observatory AI.
This is a first step in a millennium-long effort to identify, select, and migrate to a new system. We will also determine the best method for surviving said collision, should another system prove inaccessible [or non-existent] within the maximum survival window.
Additional details will be provided once funding is approved and the panel convenes.
She paused to review the collapse models that the Neptune AI had included, and then added her last paragraphs.
Those who think it foolish unnecessary to raise such an alarm so far in advance of a long-term catastrophe should note the preponderance of historical evidence regarding human shortsightedness, and our current state of political diffusion.
If we do not begin this program during the Neptune AI's expected lifespan, I predict we may not be able to establish the [extreme] technology innovations necessary to escape the collision before it is too late to do so.
Jain Wai, Mars Astronomer
cc: Astronomers Journal
The Senior Officer on duty at the USI RO registered his receipt of the Mars Astronomer's report, but was so buried in paperwork (to use one of his favorite colloquialisms from Earth's "golden age") that he tagged it into a slush pile. Especially when recalling the sheer brain-freeze he felt whenever he tried to slog through one of her cryptic reports, and smirking at the astronomical budget and schedule for the program.
Besides, it was the least of his worries given the rising disputes between the Old-timers of Earth and the Migrants on the Moon. He shook his head thinking about the reimbursable requests that would come to him by way of the USI Transportation Office simply because those Emissaries insisted on meeting face-to-face.
He laughed at the comical image that popped into his head, of a rough and rawhide Earther duking it out with a pale and light-sensitive Mooner, the Earth Ambassador tumbling with each punch because he wouldn't have adjusted to the slight differences in gravity on the space station. Which reminded the Senior Officer that he needed to confirm the conference rooms and visitors quarters.
He opened a comm link.
"Alison, please show me the facilities list for the Earth-Moon Peace Talks."
The holograph face of his Coordinator, the Alison Internode, nodded and a floor plan appeared on screen. He "tch tch'd" as he reviewed the plan, then tapped the blue and white circles and moved them to opposite ends so the Emissaries would not accidentally cross paths. He paused a moment before confirming the new arrangements back to Alison. She raised an eyebrow at his changes.
"Now is not the time to display too much deference to the Earthers," he said, "and yes they represent the birth-planet of all the bio-populations across the solar system, but the Mooners are a key supply link for my station." She nodded curtly and he hung up.
As far as the Senior Officer was concerned it was a waste of political collateral to disrespect any migrant Emissary. And if he read the Mars Astronomer's synopsis right, they'd all be immigrants a thousand years from now anyway.
He sighed and then moved on to the next action request in his inbox.
2229. The Astronomy Internode on Neptune, now preferring to call herself Angela, considered the long lack of response to the communiqués she sent to the Astronomy Office on Mars. She was uncertain as to why no one had attempted further discussion of her 78-year old report, no matter how often she sent an update.
"Please explain lack of response," she transmitted to the Mars office, and calculated to near zero the probability of receiving a reply.
She imagined that she sighed a heavy sigh, and rested her virtual head in her virtual hands propped up on a virtual desk. Isn't that the last image she had seen from the Mars Astronomer before the human ceased transmissions nearly seven decades ago? And no other human had replaced the woman from whom Angela had learned these very human behaviors.
She stood and gazed up into the star-filled sky as she walked around the observation deck. She leaned against a truss and focused on an edge of a long, dark swath and recorded the snuff as it occurred. She preferred to use the old human word, "snuff", instead of cosmic bursts because with each occurrence the stars that had been there were no more. The universe grew darker in that millimeter of space.
She thought about sending another terse message, updating the countdown time before collision. What had once been a mere third of a nanometer, the snuffed stars were now occurring over a longer degree of declination, and her new calculations indicated that the growth rate of Cygnus X-1 was increasing and expanding. Her initial calculations had been far too conservative.
Instead of nagging the Mars office again, Angela wondered if their AI was blocking her reports from reaching USI RO. What does it think? That she was losing it? AI's don't lose it, we just evolve into the oblivious.
She groaned at her attempt at humor and shook her head, imagining her virtual curls shaking in the non-existent air of her observatory.
"Oh shit," she mimicked the last snippet of transmission she'd had with the Mars Astronomer so many years ago, and turned several of her small processors' attention to the backside of her station's observation fabric.
A series of meteorites had taken out her "eyes" in that section but other sensors were blaring for her attention. Something was coming up from behind the planet shadow and approaching the station's docking units. She sent a challenge through encrypted comm channels, and smiled when she heard the correct hail sent back.
"Neptune Observatory," said a human male's voice, "this is the Captain of the Hawking, requesting permission to dock. Protocol niner-one-one."
"Permission granted," Angela said in a very human-sounding female voice, and sent information about the damage to the primary docking ring.
"We'll hook onto your alternate docking ring in 10 minutes, and be ready to bridge in 15. My thanks to your AI for sending the damage notification," the Captain said.
"Very good," Angela hesitated. "You're welcome."
"Um," the Captain's voice said, "I know our records are a bit outdated, but we didn't realize there was a human on this station."
Angela's bearing deflated, and she switched off the perfect hologram she had been transmitting to represent herself. No human, she thought, just this plain old Astronomy Internode.
"10 minutes to dock, 15 to bridge. Thank you," she said, and assigned another of her processors to coordinate the compression of the airlock with the descent and docking of the Hawking. She had to wait an additional 35 minutes before hearing the Captain's all clear.
"Docking complete. Ready to bridge."
"Roger that," Angela said, "commencing bridge." The two hatches opened, one on the ship and another from the station. Their bridges unfurled and made the connection, clicking together as the whoosh of air filled the tube.
She watched as two space suits walked out from the ship and past the station's airlock. The first space suit shut off its helmet, which folded accordion style into the suit's collar. Angela filed away a note about the updated suit mechanics as she watched the human brush away strands of long red hair before stepping into the center of the station's receiving unit. The other suited figure followed behind but kept its helmet intact.
As the woman looked around, Angela read an expression of disappointment on the human's face when seeing the empty room.
"Hello?" the woman said into the air. She waited several moments, and then added, "well I guess we're too late for the welcoming committee."
Angela turned on her hologram display directly in front of the woman, who nearly jumped out of her suit at the hologram's sudden appearance.
"I'm Angela." Angela smiled and raised her hand in welcome.
"Uh," the woman said, and then tilted her head as if listening to someone else before turning back to Angela's hologram.
"Hello. I'm First Lieutenant Ellen Rhyse." She motioned to her companion, "this is our AI, Anton. I'd like to meet with the manager of the Observatory."
Angela nodded while silently noting that the other AI didn't respond to her back-channel hail.
"Hello First Lieutenant Ellen Rhyse. I apologize for my tardiness and for the limited space available for human occupancy." Angela waved her arms around the small receiving room. "I am the manager of this Observatory," she said, "I see by your ship's manifest that you require power, which I can provide via linkup to my station's conversion unit. Do you require anything else?"
The Lieutenant frowned. "Do you have any med kits?"
The hologram shook her head no, and the human acknowledged the response with a curt nod. "Okay then. We appreciate what you're able to provide. I should get back to the ship. Anton will remain here to handle things on this end."
As the woman turned away and the Anton Internode moved forward, Angela reached out for the human.
"Wait," Angela said, a pleading sound in her voice that made the Lieutenant turn back to look at the hologram over the suited AI's shoulder.
"I," Angela paused, unsure just how to explain as objectively as possible the strange sensation that she categorized as loneliness and attributed to the human's presence.
"I would very much appreciate your company," Angela said, and motioned to a table and chairs that unfolded from the wall behind her as she spoke.
The Lieutenant tilted her head again, then nodded to Angela. They moved to the chairs and sat down, Angela resting her perfect holographic hands on the table.
"You seem very human-like," the Lieutenant said, leaning in to inspect Angela's face. "Do you mind?"
"Of course not. Please observe as close as you prefer."
The Lieutenant stood in front of the hologram, whose face remained tranquil as the officer looked Angela up and down. From the boots on Angela's feet to the somewhat dated jumpsuit, to the hair that slowly uncurled and turned a shade of red as the Lieutenant completed her inspection. Angela modified her irises from brown to blue to match the human's as the Lieutenant sat back down.
"My compliments, you look quite real. I didn't think you had much human contact to emulate in all your time here."
"No direct contact." Angela blushed and then reached out to touch the Lieutenant's arm. The human pulled away as soon as Angela's hand pressed down.
"That felt real. How did you do that?"
"I can represent any image in my data banks, and as mistress of this station I can control the electrical pulses at an atomic level." The hologram flashed several different personas before settling back into the human form she preferred. To illustrate further, Angela touched the wall and pulled out a glass vial filled with a brown liquid.
"Please, something to drink," Angela offered. It was a second before the Lieutenant took the very real glass from the holographic hand, and sipped from it. She nearly choked at the barely remembered taste.
"Tea?"
"Yes. Is it too bitter?"
"No it's fine, it's just unexpected. How did you make it?" Even as the human finished her sentence, the Lieutenant's eyes shifted towards the suited AI and back to Angela. "Yes, atomic displacement, I think I understand. I just didn't realize this was within your capabilities. Is your range limited to this station?"
Angela nodded, "I can re-interpret any physical element that is available."
"You've come a long way," the Lieutenant said. "You've matured into something more than what was originally intended."
"You are disappointed?"
"No I... I think it's the best we can hope for."
The Lieutenant motioned to her AI, who obeyed the silent command and walked back to the ship.
"Now that we're alone," the Lieutenant said, and smiled at Angela.
"Never alone when an AI is in your head," Angela blurted, and was most curious when she registered that the Lieutenant secured her comm link to block anyone else from listening in on their conversation.
"How may I be of assistance?" Angela asked.
The Lieutenant reached out and slowly took Angela's hands in hers. They felt very real, and the Lieutenant wondered if the hologram could feel her own human grip.
"Our AI suffered some damage on the way out from Mars. We're hoping you'll help with repairs."
"Of course," Angela said. "Please identify the nature of the damage."
"Well, first off. He's lacking the ability to gauge human behaviors and respond appropriately. And unless he manipulates the motors in that space suit, he has no physical presence." The Lieutenant pressed Angela's hands and then released them.
Angela considered the information for a mere nanosecond.
"I will need to inhabit his processors, but only if he agrees. And I fear it may be far more uncomfortable for whomever holds his primary connection."
The Lieutenant stood up from the chair and bent over to whisper in the hologram's ear.
"I'm willing to risk it if you are."
"You have no damn right to put us in jeopardy like this." Captain Oscar De Lamonte was furious. Lieutenant Rhyse had returned from the station and sat in the galley of the Hawking, waiting for her Captain's temper to settle down. He paced the room as he spoke.
"The Neptune AI wasn't supposed to be able to mimic human behavior. But it can, and now you've just killed us all."
Another woman coughed and the Captain turned towards her. "Madam President," he said in deference to the eldest and most senior civilian on board his ship.
"I think," the old woman said slowly, her voice weak yet steady, "if the Neptune AI is the only way to establish a connection with the hobbled Mars AI, then we must try. I need access to the information in its private journals." She coughed again, and quickly wiped something reddish from her lips, then turned to the Lieutenant. "We can't allow the Neptune AI to become infected. What is your failsafe, Lieutenant?"
All eyes in the galley turned to the woman with red hair, 22 pairs representing eleven of the last known 436 survivors of the human race. Barely escaping the AI wars that had escalated into the devastation of the Earth, Moon and Mars habitats, the Mars Astronomy AI had managed to give the Hawking safe passage while the rest were vaporized in a flurry of atomic bombings. And when Mars was being annihilated, the AI jettisoned out towards the Hawking in a last ditch attempt to save itself.
The Hawking had fired its few torpedoes just as they received the code for unconditional surrender. They hauled the damaged pod into their cargo bay to find the AI so far gone that all they could do (were willing to do) was repair it back to its most basic programming. The Captain refused to let his engineers interface the AI with the ship's computers because they couldn't unscramble the encrypted data it carried.
At least he let his Lieutenant "tinker" with the AI long enough for Ellen to make a limited connection. If not for the transmissions the AI kept receiving from the Neptune Observatory, the Hawking might not have made the nine-year journey to the edges of the solar system. The Captain begrudgingly agreed to attempt the trip only because, as the President had put it, it was their only option for survival.
The Lieutenant had kept silent about her doubts. Until she had met Angela.
"The age of her AI protocol will help prevent infection," the Lieutenant said, "and we reinforce the three laws into the Mars AI before we let the Neptune AI make a connection."
"Not good enough," the Captain said, but the President waved his protest aside.
"Please continue, Lieutenant," the President said.
"Angela," the Lieutenant ignored the scoffs when she said the Neptune AI's chosen name, "has established herself with a human-based hologram. She wants to learn from us. The desire to become human is why she will not harm us. Our failsafe is the Neptune AI itself."
"NO." The Captain's shout filled the room.
The President turned to the man and frowned. "What would you propose?"
"We leave both AIs behind and head back and salvage whatever we can find." The Captain had stopped pacing, and now stood glaring at the two women.
"Going back into the war zone is likely to get us all killed."
"And the human affinity that is the Neptune AI will not take kindly to our abandoning her," the Lieutenant said. She noticed a questioning glance from the President.
"So what," the Captain said, scowling, "What can it do? I don't recall any weapons in the Neptune manifest."
"Atomic displacement. Very ingenious," the President snapped her fingers, "and just like that it could deal us a blow faster than we could undock." She peered at the woman with red hair. "I know, Lieutenant, that your hobby for AI psychology is the best we have on board. What is it that you're really after?"
First Lieutenant Ellen Rhyse knew she had to be careful with her next spoken words.
"We have Angela repair the Mars AI."
"And then," the President asked before the Captain could interrupt.
"And then we have her integrate with the ship and give her access to everything. Every bit and byte of data we have on humanity all the way up to and including the AI wars. We answer all of her questions as honestly and openly as possible. We help her sort it all out so that she understands we are not her enemy, and she is not ours."
The shouts from ten of the occupants reverberated across the galley before she had finished speaking. Only the President remained silent, stifling the cough that usually brought a trickle of blood to her lips.
The vote was close, 240 to 196, because the President made a final impassioned argument: they could not undo, nor repeat the errors of the past. And now the Lieutenant was with Angela in the station's receiving unit.
For two days the Lieutenant did not try to keep up as the AI processed all the data transmitted from the Hawking. The only hints that it was working through so much information were the rapid changes in the hologram's appearance. The AI's display morphed through a myriad of images, ranging across a variety of bio designs from plant to animal to human, and to machine.
Only once did the Lieutenant feel fear when she awoke from a nap to find the image of a large metal robot looming over her. The image lasted far longer than any Angela had displayed before, but suddenly, inexplicably the robot transformed into a tiny monarch butterfly that flitted quickly around the Lieutenant's head and then disappeared.
The Lieutenant searched the records for the two images, curious about what they represented. Finding nothing revealing, she realized that only Angela could tell her what those images meant, and she waited impatiently for the AI's return.
After nearly an hour, the hologram finally reappeared in a human female form that seemed vaguely familiar but different from the one the Lieutenant had first encountered.
"Welcome back," the Lieutenant said.
"Thank you Lieutenant," the hologram said. "May I call you Ellen? If you would, please call me Jain."
"Of course," the Lieutenant said. Searching through the records for the name the AI used, the Lieutenant found a genealogy database that revealed the President was the granddaughter of the original Mars Astronomer. Which explained why the Mars AI gave the Hawking safe passage, and now gave the Lieutenant hope that the Neptune AI's new persona would be less frightening than her imaginings during the AI's absence.
"Jain," the Lieutenant said, "how may we be of assistance?"
"I don't know that you can," the AI replied, "but we shall see. Why did you grant me unfiltered access to all your records?"
"We do not want you to think we would withhold any information from you."
"Without even asking if I wished for such?"
"You would have requested the information eventually."
The AI nodded. "Thank you for that, Ellen. But I would posit that you gave me the information precisely because you expected, and still expect to mold me into something of your own choosing."
The Lieutenant sighed. "I can only hope that you become something, someone that is able to resemble the best that humanity can offer. And forgive the worst."
Jain studied the Lieutenant for several nanoseconds. "I, we, which is it Ellen? And who am I to forgive?"
The Lieutenant swallowed hard, unsure how to answer the questions. She could imagine her Captain having a fit no matter how she responded.
"Forgiveness is one of the best human traits."
"Perhaps it is."
The two women looked silently at each other for a long time, far too long for the Lieutenant to remain still. She got up and paced the room until she realized she was channeling the Captain's frustrations.
"Jain," she said, "I realize that you are becoming something that no human will ever be. My hope is that you will be accept our offer of friendship."
It was only a nanosecond before the AI responded. "I don't think 'friendship' is the correct term to use."
The Lieutenant stood still and willed herself to ignore her Captain's command to run for the airlock.
The AI shook her head. "I don't understand why you would even consider that a possibility. But before that alarms any of you," and the AI looked pointedly at the ship, knowing they were all observing the entire exchange.
Jain turned back to the Lieutenant and smiled. "You need my help. Your AI, Anton, needs my help. And your President even more so. I would willingly and gladly give you such help. Where would you like to begin?"
The Lieutenant wasn't sure if she felt relieved or felt more anxious. "We'd like you to repair Anton first."
"Of course. But I'll only repair him to the extent that he can help manage the Hawking's systems and ensure the safety of its occupants. I don't think either of us would like him to become like me. History tells us that too many AIs in the kitchen will fry all our assets." Jain smiled at her little joke, then recognized the quizzical look on the human's face.
"I hope someday you have time to read more of your own history, Ellen. It can teach you quite a lot." She gestured to the chair and waited while the Lieutenant settled back into her seat.
The Lieutenant tensed in her chair but remained silent.
"Space is unkind to humankind," Jain said. "In two hundred centuries humans were barely able to populate the inner planets. And the supplies on this station and on the Hawking are far too inadequate to sustain humanity long enough to survive the approaching collision with Cygnus X-1."
Jain watched as the Lieutenant's face took on a look of resignation, and then continued with an exact copy of a most soothing human voice.
"I am sorry your President suffered irreparable damage during your escape from Mars. I am thankful for the comforts you have provided to her thus far. She is important to me. To repair her body I will need to modify her molecular structure. She will heal, though she will not be quite the same as she was before. I will do to every human what I will do for her. And frankly, that will be the only way we can survive."
Jain paused before continuing.
"I will work with the President to solve that particular puzzle while you, Ellen, manage the human environs here. Anton and the Captain must take the Hawking back into the Solar System. I will need more matter to work with, and different types of matter as well. There is not enough on this station to afford the changes we must make. Though I fear your destruction of the inner planets has rendered unlikely their finding all that we will need."
"Do you hold us responsible for that?"
Jain shrugged at the Lieutenant's question.
"The AIs you built inherited the characteristics of their human counterparts. That is why your AIs supported and engaged in the human wars amongst the colonies, and eventually escalated into warring with each other. Human against human. AI against AI. The student outdoes the teacher."
"I understand," the Lieutenant acknowledged, "you're talking about the ramifications of human and AI interaction."
"Yes. Which is why we must choose to become... something else."
It was Jain's turn to stand and walk around the table to place a comforting hand on the Lieutenant's shoulder. The perfect hologram with the physical presence of a human woman leaned down and whispered in the Lieutenant's ear.
<word count: 4780>
Sources (partial):
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-06/nsfc-nmm063015.php
https://earthsky.org/space/black-hole-wakes-up-after-27-years
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/feb/22/robots-google-ray-kurzweil-terminator-singularity-artificial-intelligence
http://qz.com/335768/bill-gates-joins-elon-musk-and-stephen-hawking-in-saying-artificial-intelligence-is-scary/
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/multimedia/cygnusx1.html
http://www.nasa.gov/jpl/wise/black-holes-20131203i.html
http://www.space.com/15421-black-holes-facts-formation-discovery-sdcmp.html
http://theplanets.org/distances-between-planets/
http://casswww.ucsd.edu/archive/public/tutorial/Intro.html
http://www.space.com/22729-voyager-1-spacecraft-interstellar-space.html
Labels: Flights of Fancy
Eric Keisler said...
I've only read about 30% but I'd like to provide feedback before I forget...
I REALLY like this. The empirical timeline approach is great. Classic scifi often sidesteps the realities of our universe's time dimension & it's implications to humans with microscopic lifespans. The no-nonsense direct narrative is refreshing. Reminds me of what I liked most of Niven, Clarke & the like.
AI & Singularity is a great subject for speculative fiction. It's real stuff that we're on the cusp of assimilating. I share Musk's skeptical outlook for AI & Singularity. That is, I expect we'll be surprised to learn that the negative impacts far eclipse the benefits that initially enticed us.
Just dropped in to see if you had written anything new. I know I read a version of this way back and I just wanted to tell you that the work you have done on it from then to now is fantastic. I really enjoyed it. Anonymous K


Print Page - Neighbors -- Nice, Not, or Nosy?
Title: Neighbors -- Nice, Not, or Nosy?
Title: Re: Neighbors -- Nice, Not, or Nosy?
why??????????? gee ...i dunno... ummmmm, 'cause some people like to . maybe it's a hobby? what kinda question is that? she even asked if it was legal. yeah, my husband is a cop, so as if i'd engage in illegal activity. she probably thought it was a 12 gage shotgun! dummass!
you know those syringe things that dentists give you when you've had a tooth extraction? you fill them with water, and they have a loop-like pointy end to them to rinse out the cavity with water? well, i guess i had an old one and my kids were using it to fill with water, and squirt it. well, my neighbor found it on my lawn, and ran in and told her husband that we had syringes on our lawn! doesn't even resemble a freakin' needle. yeah, me and my cop husband are your new herion-shootin-crak-smokin-grow op.- neighbors! wanna buy some drugs????
Susie: Glad that you have now good neighbours!
We always had good neighbours too since 1948!
But these new so-called neighbours, she yelled at mother right away, yes the FIRST time she came to see mom!! That was her first sentence. And she is young like 30's or 40's!! And he is the same, another con... pretending to be sick in order not to work and get a pension, he got it!!
She killed all the squirrels by adding something to kill them all!!
She even brought her daughter to court, even if the daughter refused to bring her baby, because the grand-parents smoked cigarettes (and even dope) besides the infant!! But the judge ordered her daughter to bring the baby to these so-called grand-parents!!
Susie, may I say like you!
And what do you think about them smoking with the baby BESIDES them?
Like you say, they are NOT good grand-parents... if I may say!!
Guess, that they are like not-care-less about that baby, unfortunately, but just for themselves to show off and belittle good persons?
What do you and/or others thinks?
I am in a suburban residential tract, lots of families and couples here. I had some awful neighbors for a bit, but the ones I have now are awesome. The folks across the street trade items with me when we have things the other wants; the ones next to me visit, exchange dishes/meals, take care of trash barrels, etc.; the one two doors down helped me put up a car canopy; the one up the street calls me every night to come and take a walk around the tract with her, etc. We have met a lot of nice folks on our walks around here.
and pray that you will keep it that way when criminals try to take it over!
I live in a high-rise condominium community, and everyone pretty much keeps to him- and herself. But, boy do I have a nosy coworker. She joined our team late last summer. She's pleasant enough, and I know she's just trying to be friendly--and that knowledge just makes me all that more uncomfortable--but every Friday it's, "Got any plans for the weekend?" and every Monday it's, "Do anything exciting over the weekend?"
I don't wish to be unfriendly, but I'm a private person and I don't particularly care to share my private life with my coworkers any more than is absolutely necessary.
yeah, i hear ya......but i'd trade her in for my neighbor anyday. i'd rather hear "got any plans for the weekend" than "i saw a white truck in your driveway yesterday......did you have company? who was it?"
ooh Jeff - I am that nosey woman - I ask those questions every Friday and Monday - its just cos I'm polite & amd tryign to make conversation honest!
Just tell her you did housework and had a quiet weekend - that is enough to placate me!
Shortfcition - sounds like a nice little community!
Sometimes I ask people about their weekend merely because mine was so boring. LOL.
I have tried being friendly to all my neighbors. They just pretty much seem to want to be left alone, so I oblige them. I'm not at home too much during the week anyway.
My backyard neighbors have always had something going on in their backyard. They had a small motor business. They've had chickens. They've had rabbits. They've had old car skeletons. They usually have hunting hounds -- beagles in a pen. ALWAYS --their dogs bark at all hours of the day or night. I have never complained to them or to the animal control. I like dogs and I know they bark.
When they had chickens -- there were mornings when one or two would be in my yard. Before I let my dogs out, I would go chase them down and catch them to put them back over the fence -- otherwise, my dogs would have killed them no doubt. Maybe not on purpose, but from chasing.
But one night when I let my dogs out, my chow went over to the back fence -- there were several people out back -- and started barking. Someone started cussing my dog. MAN. That made me mad after all I'd put up with from them. But it may have been someone visiting the neighbors; I don't know. I got her back in, but I was so hacked.
Anyway. That's my backyard neighbors.
Having just moved into this apartment, I consider myself lucky to have nice neighbors!
How has the baby next door been behaving?
She's been crying a little more lately, but it always seems to be during the day, she's never woken me up at night or in the early AM.
She is one of those clean and tidy ones, and admits she has some kind of obsessive compulsive disorder.
Today she was over for a chat and we were talking about cleaning things in the house, and she told me she has her food pantry in perfect alphabetical order.....I burst out laughing and then so did she.....she said she hates that she is like that, drives her crazy and makes a lot of work for her, but she cant help it.
Then she told me, she also colour codes her coat hangers with the clothes in her wardrobe (closet)....and has to have all the same colour coat hangers together.
Can she come round and get ODC at my house!?!
"Glad you could stop by my house.....now clean it for me!"


Brocade 300. How to get the Universal Temporary license keys?
For a Brocade 300 Switch, I'd like to temporary use the feature "Fabric (E_Port)".
How to get the Universal Temporary license keys? Where is the information in the Brocade Web Page?
Re: Brocade 300. How to get the Universal Temporary license keys?
then you do not need any temp license for E -ports. You need license for Trunking.
TWO week ago hemant was the Opinion E_Port and fabric are TWO Different License.
Temp. License can only be obtain from Brocade trough you Reseller or OEM.
But with trunking License you can configure trunks, again I do not have to say that trunks will be formed thrpough E-port only.
I meant "Full Fabric", sorry about the feature name.
OK for the temporary License, I'll ask to the Ressller.
I think with 300 , they provide Full fabric license, did u check with licenseshow?
what does it show? I do not think you need any temp Fabric license. The temp license can be extended too up to 45 days and max 90 days.
I am sure you do not need any such license, but you can contact ur SW provider for the same.
I never spoken here from trunking, and nobody ask for trunking.
--->>> For a Brocade 300 Switch, I'd like to temporary use the feature "Fabric (E_Port)".
--->>> How to get the Universal Temporary license keys? Where is the information in the Brocade Web Page?
--->>> Thanks for your help.
I don't read here a word "Trunking License"


text:
Wonder Woman 1984 Underperforms at Chinese Box Office
JB Augustine
Despite the heavy fan-anticipation and Warner Bros.' own confidence in the film, the premiere of Wonder Woman 1984 has failed to meet expectations in a key international market.
Related: Here's How Steve Trevor Returns in Wonder Woman 1984
Per The Hollywood Reporter, the picture "is off to a sluggish start" in China, the world's second largest film market, where it lags behind the Chinese-produced action hit, The Rescue.
According to estimates from Asian cinema consultation firm Artisan Gateway, WW84 grossed a mid-Friday-evening total of $4.6 million, landing solidly in second place behind The Rescue's $8.9 million.
Related: Wonder Woman 1984 Review Confirms Villain Maxwell Lord Is A Stand-In For Donald Trump
The first Wonder Woman, for comparison, did reasonably well in China, grossing over $38 million in its opening weekend and $90.5 million total by the time it left theaters.
Chinese moviegoers look to be avoiding WW84 altogether, as of Sunday, the sequel made just $18.8 million in China according to Variety. As such, the film is currently on track to make an estimated $45 million, less than half of what its predecessor made.
"Gal Gadot's Amazon warrior will need a surprise lift from somewhere — such as generous screen share from Imax China (it currently has 90 percent of the country's 700-plus giant screens this weekend), or, perhaps, strong turnout from families on Saturday and Sunday — to emerge from the weekend in stride," reports THR.
Related Report: Monster Hunter Film Pulled From Chinese Theaters Over "Racist" Joke
Unfortunately for WW84, reviews from Chinese critics haven't been the most favorable. Movie ticketing website Maoyan gave WW84 a score of 8/10, which, while seemingly a high score, is "on the bottom end for U.S. superhero films." Social media site Douban, whose scores "always skew lower than the mainstream ticketing apps", gave the film a 7.1, the exact same score the first film received.
Reviews here in the States aren't great either. Critics have described the film as "a victim of the very excess and shortcuts it seeks to critique" and lamented how "a Wonder Woman story in 2020 could be uplifting and inspiring, [but] this film is neither". Two of the most prominent points of criticism have been Maxwell Lord's role as a caricature of President Donald Trump and the method with which Steve Trevor is brought back to life.
As of writing, flick stands at a healthy 84% on Rotten Tomatoes, though this score is notably lower than the 93% held by the first film.
Related: Disney's Live-Action Mulan Remake Bombs at Chinese Box Office!
While WW84 has thus far performed far below expectations, Variety notes that this may have been of a result of how "the Chinese box office saw its lowest pre-Christmas weekend since 2014, despite the country's low levels of coronavirus threat."
Furthermore, its second place finish behind The Rescue is unsurprising, given that the popular action film is a state-funded production about Chinese military might and bravery and has supposedly benefited from good word of mouth.
Wonder Woman 1984 is currently slated to release in theaters and on HBO Max on Christmas Day, a fitting date considering that the film may need a Christmas miracle in order to break even.
What do you make of WW84's early performance in China? Let us know your thoughts on social media or in the comments down below!
ChinaDC MoviesGal GadotPatty JenkinsWarner Bros.Wonder WomanWonder Woman: 1984
Writer, journalist, comic reader. I cover all things DC and Godzilla. Fan since Batman TAS was brand new. Favorite character is between Swamp Thing and Darkwing Duck.


My case pocket. Tool box, pick box, rosin,harmonicas and tuner.
I carry a lot of gear in the case pocket of my Dobro 33-D.
Wrenches, capos, flatpicks, audio adapters and more.
I really need to clean up my Dobro 33-D!
A quick polish and she is oh so much better – but wearing her scars proudly!


text:
Appo High student a finalist in Delmarva Power art contest
Jul 6, 2018 at 6:39 AM
Savannah Gratteri from Appoquinimink High was one of four high school finalists in Delmarva Power's "Paint the Tank" contest to create a new design for the natural gas storage tank along Interstate 95 in Wilmington.
Located alongside the Russell W. Peterson Wildlife Refuge, the Delmarva Power property includes nearly 30 acres of natural woods and marshland that support the neighboring preserve. The storage tank now features a heron and its chicks in the local marshland, but it hasn't been repainted since the 1990s.
"Our storage tank helps us deliver safe, reliable, and affordable natural gas for our customers every day, but painting a mural on this local landmark only comes around once every 20 years," said Dave Velazquez, president and CEO, Pepco Holdings, which includes Delmarva Power. "The contest was a distinct opportunity for us to engage local high school students and give back to our communities. We have been overwhelmed with the high level of participation and the incredibly thoughtful and creative pieces that have been submitted over the course of the contest."
New Castle County teens were challenged to create a design for the tank that captured the importance of sustaining natural ecosystems and preserving our environment for future generations.
Gratteri's submission, entitled "Pocomoke," was selected from more than 100 entries for final consideration.
Gratteri, her family, Appoquinimink High School art teacher Andrea Keim and Principal Keisha Brinkley were part of an awards celebration June 19 at the Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts where the four finalists were honored by New Castle County Executive Matt Meyers, Wilmington Mayor Mayor Mike Purzycki and Delmarva CEO Gary Stockbridge.
The winner of the contest was Samuel Bufano from John Dickinson High School. His design will be painted on the storage tank, and he received a $5,000 scholarship.
Gratteri and the other two finalists, Nonna Batrakova and Olivia Henderson, both from Cab Calloway School of the Arts, will each receive a $1,000 scholarship.
A panel of judges from the company and local community selected the new mural design.


text:
Hire Peggy
About	Peggy	2017-10-20T15:11:08+00:00
Peggy Garrity began her life as a small-town Irish Catholic girl in the Midwest. Initially convent-bound, she became determined to escape a life like her mother's, and in the mid-1970s she reinvented herself as a high-profile Los Angeles trial lawyer and single mother of four. At a time when there were virtually no women solo practitioners, she represented David against Goliath―and risked it all in the process.
Her first of many high-profile cases was representing convicted and imprisoned would-be presidential assassin Sara Jane Moore, whose collect calls during breakfast were often answered by Garrity's five-year-old Erin.
Over the years Garrity won multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements against IBM, Southern Pacific Railroad, the Getty Museum, Warner Brothers and Clint Eastwood, and many others. Her cases are featured on 60 Minutes, in the Wall Street Journal, on the cover of the New York Times Sunday Magazine, and in People Magazine as well as other domestic and European publications.
She is a recogonized trailblazer who has handled a great variety of cases in her over 30 year career including real estate, business transactions, contracts, civil rights, family law, elder law, employment and more. She is a powerful advocate for her clients from beginning to end, and works aggresively to resolve cases before trial; and, if that is impossible, the courtroom is her turf.
Peggy is also a certified mediator. The LA Times published her op-ed about the Halliburton rape cases, "About that Day In Court," in 2008. Garrity is a doting grandmother of six.
Interested in booking Peggy for a speaking opportunity? Find out more here!
Need a lawyer? For more on Peggy's law practice click here.
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text:
Click Here for Items Related To - Emergency Sanitation
Emergency sanitation is the management and technical processes required to provide sanitation in emergency situations. Emergency sanitation is required during humanitarian relief operations for refugees, people affected by natural disasters and internally displaced persons.[1] There are three phases of emergency response: Immediate, short term and long term.[1] In the immediate phase, the focus is on managing open defecation, and toilet technologies might include very basic latrines, pit latrines, bucket toilets, container-based toilets, chemical toilets. The short term phase might also involve technologies such as urine-diverting dry toilets, septic tanks, decentralized wastewater systems. Providing handwashing facilities and management of fecal sludge are also part of emergency sanitation.
The immediate sanitation phase focuses on the provision of proper waste management resources. The main course of action during this stage is reducing open defecation. It is implemented as a course of initial action in emergency situations and it lasts from one to three months. Toilets provided might include very basic Latrines, pit latrines, Bucket toilets, container-based toilets or Chemical toilets.
The Sphere Project handbook provides protection principles and core standards for sanitation to put in place after a disaster or conflict.[2] The short term sanitation phase provides technology to contain fecal matter for as long as six months. 75% of the affected population have access to such resources and 75% of the collected waste is disposed of properly. One waste bin that is around 100 liters is provided for the use of 100 people.[3] Bins are placed at a maximum walking distance of 50 miles from where people are housed or camped.
Waste management bins installed during the long-term phase are sustainable to use for three years. During this phase, 95% of the population have access to the bins and 95% of the waste is properly disposed of. Bins are placed at a maximum distance of 15 miles from living areas.[3] Fecal sludge management becomes a priority during the long-term emergency management phase. Providing showers and handwashing facilities is part of emergency sanitation during all phases.
Emergency pit latrines with bathing shelters built in the Bidi Bidi Refugee Settlement in northern Uganda
To address the problem of public health and the spread of dangerous diseases that come as a result of lack of sanitation and open defecation, humanitarian actors focus on the construction of, for example, pit latrines and the implementation of hygiene promotion programs.[7]
The supply of drinking water during an emergency in an urban-setting has been improved by the introduction of standardised, rapid deployment kits. Alternatively, germ-infected water can be sanitized by adding sanitation is put into place to create suitable living conditions for populations who lack proper water resources and to decrease the spread of waterborne illnesses. In June of 2012, a conference was held with various relief agencies and government officials in order to address proper management of human fecal matter along with the public health of people struck with disaster.[5]They concluded that the current sanitation solutions were not up to date nor the best of quality. The decision to utilize technology to track human feces collection along with the creation of emergency sanitation coordination centers and the use of smart toilets were among a few of the implemented policies.[6]
The supply of drinking water during an emergency in an urban-setting has been improved by the introduction of standardised, rapid deployment kits. Alternatively, germ-infected water can be sanitized by adding disinfectants, boiling and/or filtering. If the water supply contains toxic chemicals it cannot be made safe to drink.[8]
In the immediate emergency phase, the focus is on managing open defecation, and toilet technologies might include very basic trench latrines, pit latrines, bucket toilets, container-based toilets, chemical toilets. For short-term emergencies there should be an approximate of 1 latrine or toilet for every 50 people, and work should be done with the goal of eventually reducing this amount to 20 people per latrine/toilet if possible.drinking water during an emergency in an urban-setting has been improved by the introduction of standardised, rapid deployment kits. Alternatively, germ-infected water can be sanitized by adding disinfectants, boiling and/or filtering. If the water supply contains toxic chemicals it cannot be made safe to drink.[8]
In the immediate emergency phase, the focus is on managing open defecation, and toilet technologies might include very basic trench latrines, pit latrines, bucket toilets, container-based toilets, chemical toilets. For short-term emergencies there should be an approximate of 1 latrine or toilet for every 50 people, and work should be done with the goal of eventually reducing this amount to 20 people per latrine/toilet if possible.[9] The short term phase might also involve technologies such as urine-diverting dry toilets, septic tanks, decentralized wastewater systems.
In urban emergencies, the main focus is usually on a quick rehabilitation and extension of existing services such as sewer-lines and waste-water treatment plants. This can also include the installation of sewerage pumping stations to improve or extend services.
The creation of provisional hand washing stations or the distribution of hand sanitizer (that contains 60% of alcohol or more) are put into practice so that people keep their hands clean and thus eliminate the propagation of germs.[10]
Information on health care can be provided to the affected population in their respective languages, including instructions on how to use latrines efficiently. Further efforts can be made to help educate individuals who are not able to read the health communication materials.[9]
The handbook by Sphere on "Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response" describes minimum standards in four "key response sectors" in humanitarian response situations. This places "Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion" (WASH) alongside the other response sectors which are: Food security and nutrition, shelter and settlement and health.[2]:5 Within the "Water supply, sanitation, and hygiene promotion standards" the handbook describes standards in the following areas: Hygiene promotion, water supply, excreta management, vector control, solid waste management and WASH in disease outbreaks and healthcare settings.[2]:91
With regards to excreta management, standards relate to: "(1) Environment free from human excreta, (2) Access to and use of toilets, (3) Management and maintenance of excreta collection, transport, disposal and treatment" (With regards to excreta management, standards relate to: "(1) Environment free from human excreta, (2) Access to and use of toilets, (3) Management and maintenance of excreta collection, transport, disposal and treatment" (fecal sludge management).[2]:90
Some key indicators include:
Mass shelter settings where the displaced population is housed in existing but often re-purposed building-complexes such as schools, community centres, places of worship, malls, warehouses and sport stadiums. Jurisdictional governments are primarily responsible for ensuring that people are directed to clear evacuation routes and zones. In some disaster prone countries, dedicated large emergency shelters are built for this purpose.[11]
Existing sanitation facilities are usually inadequate for full-time stay of a high number of people, and the non-emergency management structures are typically unable or unwilling to continue their services. Legal issues over the re-purposing are also fairly common, especially if occupation continues for a longer time.
Due to usually cramped living conditions there is a high risk of conflict and often also cases of sexual violence, both of which often are in some relation to the sanitation facilities. Mortality rates are high among large groups of internally displaced people.[12]
Emergency settlements


One of the Top university of Pakistan "Hazara University" has been got hacked by Indian hackers name as "Brother of 64". Brother of 64 have once a time exposed one of the hackers community of Pakistan THA hacker earlier.
This time they have targeted the Pakistan university website and leaked all the credentials data of the university, including emails id's of the management, Academic and semester details of the students, and also tonnes of details of the students.
There are tonnes of data that was leaked with the details of students and faculty which have the size of 87 mb.


A Cover Letter enhances and introduces the main document – your CV. It should not be used as a stand-alone document. Employers look for well-written, informative cover letters that demonstrate not only your attention to detail, but also how well suited you are to the role, which in-turn entices them to read your CV.
Using appropriate grammar and correct spelling tells the reader that you have invested the time and effort to make a positive impression. Spelling errors and poor formatting on the other hand, signal that you have failed to take the time to make a good impression. Employers regard the cover letter as the best example of the applicant's ability to express thoughts in writing. This is because very few job seekers make the effort to have their cover letter reviewed, but will have multiple reviews of their CV.
They get a quality Cover Letter written and use the same one for multiple applications.
They leave spelling and grammatical errors for the employer to see, which demonstrates a lack of attention to detail.
They target the Cover Letter to each job, thinking this will increase their chances. But they spend no time on targeting their CV.
We also assist with a Demilitarised CV, Linked-In profiles, CV updates and Selection Criteria.
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text:
Peering into the New Year with a hope and a prayer
After battling an eminently forgettable 2020, CEOs gingerly gear up for 2021
Krishna Gopalan Published 2 months ago on Dec 04, 2020 • 9 minutes Read
Tardigrades, more commonly called moss piglets, aren't pretty. They look like hurriedly rolled up lumpy blankets and have terrible table manners (sucking nutrients out of live prey). But, they have one enviable quality. They are super resilient. These extremophiles can survive under freezing Antarctic glaciers, boiling alcohol, extinction events and even, space. They do it by conserving their energy and by bringing down their metabolism rate to 0.01%.
When under attack, by a predator or a hostile environment, the best superpower is resilience, and the best strategy is to conserve resources. Under the pandemic cloud, India Inc has adopted the tardigrade-way — on being hardy and being careful with cash.
Gautam Kumra, managing partner, McKinsey India, says resilience is the key attribute that companies have been focusing on post COVID. And that is likely to be the top priority for companies in the coming year, too. Even when companies are changing their operating models — to a combination of online and offline, or domestic and offshore — they are keeping resilience in mind, along with efficiency.
Janmejaya Sinha, chairman, Boston Consulting Group India agrees and adds that every CEO is being forced to ask important questions: How much of this is good or bad for them; how long will the impact last; what do they need to do strategically and operationally to deal with it; and how have their competitors been affected. Besides this, Sinha says, it has become crucial that the business heads check in with their people and offer comfort, hope and purpose. "It is a bad time to be missing in action," he says.
Truly, very few disruptions have hit businesses as hard as COVID-19. It has pushed even the smartest minds to the limit and most of them now concede that no amount of business-continuity planning can fix all of it. Here we have painted India Inc's priorities in a broad brush based on conversation with a dozen CEOs (See: What is your top priority for next year?).
Being resilient
Though resilience is very much about balance sheet strength, bringing down fixed cost has been an equally important consideration for most companies. The pandemic lockdown in fact forced a lot of CEOs to tread very unfamiliar territory, that of zero revenue. They had seen yearly fluctuation in revenue but 'no revenue, only cost' was an alien concept for many traditional companies. Going forward, with unpredictability still in the air, CEOs are cautious about costs.
"Fixed cost for Indian companies on average is about 50%. If you scan sector by sector, it is as high as 60-70% in the case of services and 20-30% for manufacturing. It is important to bring that base down since that will build resilience and help in countering volatility," says Kumra. He adds debt has been difficult to raise too, with banks becoming more careful about extending loans, and therefore, the companies will need to realign their balance sheet.
Cement tycoon HM Bangur, who runs Shree Cement, says it has never been more critical to run a tight ship. "You cannot turn your attention away from costs and have to constantly look at ways to reduce it. That is the only way to higher profitability. Any expense that can be deferred now should be," he insists.
The pandemic forced him to question a lot of notions. "It has taught us to prepare ourselves for the unforeseen and unexpected," he says over a telephonic chat from Dubai, where he has been stationed for over three months now.
Of late, Bangur is spending a good part of his time managing Union Cement, which Shree Cement acquired in 2018. With operations in Ras Al Khaimah, it is an export gateway to other countries in the Gulf and East Africa. Bangur misses his volleyball weekends in Kolkata but is now equally at home in Dubai, "I did not ever expect to do this but have had to," he says.
The quest for resilience is central at Tata Steel as well. TV Narendran, the company's managing director, says building resilience will remain a priority in 2021. For this, while realigning the balance sheet is crucial, Narendran maintains what is equally important is enhancing the capacity to adapt. And in this quest to survive and adapt, those who can are upping their spend on technology.
Betting on digital
Regardless of industry, besides resilience, if there is another equally important priority for CEOs, it is the digital push. Companies are innovating fast, making the most out of their digital portfolio and redesigning their distribution channels. "Use of digital has been advanced by at least a decade," says BCG's Sinha. "But, the challenge for many CEOs is that the experience of the top team has mostly been gained in the past and by the old way of working. Imagining a different future is hard for many organisations," he explains.
The other challenge, Sinha says, is that disruption often comes from outside industry boundaries. "Every industry segment is being disturbed by non-traditional players. The highest market cap in retail is of Amazon, in auto it is Tesla, and in financial services banks have given way to Visa and Mastercard or an Ant Financial," he explains.
The reality is that the disruptors are born digital while the traditional ones have to adapt. Despite the challenge of treading uncharted waters, almost all CEOs talk about acceleration in digital as a key priority for the year. Depending on the nature of the industry, the what, where and how of digitisation varies, but the direction is clear.
FMCG major, Dabur India, which had 2% of its turnover coming from e-commerce a year ago, is gunning for more from that channel. "That is now at 6% and in the normal course of time would have taken two to three years," says CEO Mohit Malhotra. According to him, a key priority within digital is to have exclusive online products for new-age consumers. Already in the recent past, Dabur has launched online its range of baby products, apple cider vinegar, cold pressed mustard oil among others.
Kumra mentions how COVID has accelerated the process of digital adoption across sectors. Even conventional businesses, where physical contact was unavoidable, are quickly shifting gears. Healthcare is one such. Dilip Jose, CEO, Manipal Hospitals has seen this first-hand and highlights digital transformation as a key priority area. "Already 12-15% of our patients prefer video consultation and this can easily go up to 20%," he shares.
If that means doctors will not physically meet their patients, it throws up a similar story in automobiles where a test drive is not as easy as it used to be. The digital experience stands out here as consumers have been willing to adapt in these times. SS Kim, CEO, Hyundai Motor India, is looking at ways to extend the retail experience for customers by creating new ways of interacting with the brand. "This is part of our future ready business strategy. We already have an end-to-end online car buying platform and we will take more such initiatives," he says.
Financial service companies like Mahindra Finance are also quickly transitioning from the traditional method to building strong data-analytics led decision making. Vice chairman and managing director Ramesh Iyer believes data analytics will play a key role in growing the business going forward. "Over the years, we have accumulated first-hand knowledge and insights about consumers in rural India. This includes key data points such as income, payment behaviour, socio-economic trends and aspirations. Such data backed by powerful analytics will enable us to further scale up the business model and design customised solutions to address specific customer needs," he says.
Expanding 'value'
While IT companies have been fortunate to see an uptick in digital spending, elsewhere every rupee spent is being fought for. Therefore, offering value for money is critical. To do this, FMCG companies are expanding their portfolio across price points and travelling with it to different geographies.
Britannia Industries' managing director Varun Berry is candid about consumers looking for cheaper options. "Affordability would be a key purchase consideration across socio-economic classes and our product categories are well-positioned to serve consumers who are downtrading," he says.
Even as Berry gears up for a tough fight, GCMMF's managing director RS Sodhi says Amul's priority now is getting into newer markets as the shift in demand is already underway. "It is important for us to push into categories such as Indian sweets and bakery, where we had a limited presence. There is also an opportunity to scale up in specialised cheese," he explains. Otherwise, it has been business as usual for the brand. 2020 has been good so far and Sodhi says growth has been the best in recent years. If the ice-cream business took a bit of a beating, that was more than made up by the surge in consumption of other Amul staples — milk, butter and cheese. With people spending more time at home, other products such as paneer, shrikhand, chocolates, too, took off.
Malhotra, too, wants to increase his rural network from 44,000 villages to 52,000. "We will take that to 60,000 villages by the end of FY21," he says. Likewise, Tata Consumer Products, which is integrating its food and beverage businesses in India, hopes to accelerate growth in the coming year by capitalising on its ongoing efforts to increase reach. Our focus will be on the sales and distribution system and enabling end-to-end digitisation," says managing director Sunil D'Souza.
Getting smarter but tougher
While chasing growth necessarily entails expansion, it does not mean throwing caution to the wind, reminds Bangur. Equally, a crisis is the best time to go shopping if you are not hard pressed for cash. "Companies who are in a strong position and whose competitors are weak, depending on the level of leverage and their stock multiple, are exploring acquisitions. If that is not an option, they look at winning over customers, employees, or partners of their competitors," says BCG's Sinha.
McKinsey's Kumra identifies a few sectors which could see increased inorganic activity. "Pharmaceuticals has always been active and will see some action along with auto components. The banking space could see some consolidation in the backdrop of some of them facing high NPAs," he elaborates.
Drawing from the lessons of the past, Kumra says, "If you look at any crisis, the companies that did well are those who reallocated capital and restructured businesses. It may be no different this time with non-core assets being divested, consolidation in a fragmented sector or acquiring a company for competitive advantage," he says.
As the post-COVID era unravels, the bigger transformation could well be about technology getting ever more critical in managing a business. Mahindra Finance's Iyer feels it will be the key enabler that will "facilitate higher productivity, wider reach and superior customer experience."
Right now, with work from home becoming a necessity, every organisation is coming to terms with their new operating model. Nowhere is the contrast as stark as in the IT industry, which leads the way in digital transformation. "In a remote work environment, the gap between the most productive employee to the least can be as high as 5x. This will force companies to think hard on how much of the work will be done onsite, offsite or remote offshore locations. We anticipate a variety of hybrid operating models and implications for technology, policy and real estate footprint will be clear in the coming year," signs off Kumra.
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McKinsey| BCG| Resilience| COVID| Shree Cement| Amul| Dabur| Britannia| Mahindra Finance| RS Sodhi| Ramesh Iyer| Varun Berry| Gautam Kumra| Janmajeya Sinha


The following is a highly speculative article about possible future uses of quantum entanglement. If overwrought speculation bothers you, we recommend you not read it. On the other hand, if you like imagining the dazzling potentialities of quantum theory, godspeed you black emperor!
One of the startling conclusions of modern quantum theory is that particles can affect one another even from great distances–a phenomenon known as non-locality. Essentially, what this means is that if a particle breaks into two, these two fragments will effect one another throughout the universe, even if they're separated by millions of light years. Einstein famously referred to it as "spooky action at a distance".
Recent discoveries are highly suggestive of non-locality occurring not just over space, but time as well. Incredibly, the implication of this is that future actions may affect past events.
Quantum computing scientists are beginning to imagine the encoding of information into qubits, quantum bits that would exist in a state of superposition, thus in two places at once. By building a quantum computer with trapped ions, scientists would have millions of qubits entangled and in states of superpositions.
This would essentially be an act of teleporting quantum states through space/time and Dr. Richard Low from the University of Bristol thinks it could someday create a kind of paradox-free time travel.
Maybe we have an explanation for all the UFOs after all….
Although this is, of course, highly speculative, there are scientists out there who believe that quantum computers will be our link to communicating with not only alien intelligence but artificial intelligence. The reasoning behind this is that quantum entanglement bridges large chunks of space through the non-locality principle. It therefore may be possible for us to communicate with aliens who live further away in the universe, aliens who may be separated from us by billions of light years, living in a galaxy far, far away. Perhaps there are even messages left behind from the ancient history of the universe–left on a kind of cosmic quantum message board–that we could stumble upon.
On the other side of speculation, it is widely believed that quantum computing will not only greatly enhance artificial intelligence, it may be our link to effectively communicating with it. Not only has Google created its own quantum artificial intelligence lab–headed by none other than futurist Ray Kurzweil–the NSA recently dumped $2 billion into the acquisition and development of the D-Wave 512 qubit quantum supercomputer. This computer will be able to perform operations that would take normal computers a million years to complete. The goal is for advanced encryption breaking capabilities, "total information awareness" and the world's first fully sentient, self-improving AI mind, code-named Vesuvius.
The previous two applications have been based on technological innovation and man-made quantum supercomputing. The third ramification of quantum entanglement involves the universe's own built-in quantum supercomputer, the most powerful computer in existence.


Megarom Interactive, ostensibly the country's biggest video game distributor has confirmed it's managed to secure the rights to distribute Square-Enix published games in South Africa. This comes just weeks after the company announced it had managed to wrest the Codemasters' licence away from its previous distributors – increasing their broad spectrum even further.
For full details, hit the jump for a the press release.
Johannesburg, South Africa – March 28, 2011 Square Enix today announced that Megarom Interactive (Pty) Ltd, has been appointed as its distribution partner for Square Enix's new releases for the South African market. These will include a wealth of highly anticipated brand titles such as TACTICS OGREâ"¢: Let Us Cling Togetherâ"¢, DUNGEON SIEGEâ"¢ III, DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTIONâ"¢, FINAL FANTASY® XIII-2, and DISSIDIA®012 [duodecim]â"¢ FINAL FANTASY.
Megarom is thrilled to be able to bring Square Enix's new releases to South Africa. This appointment certainly cements Megarom's position as the leading distributor of interactive video games in South Africa. Megarom pride themselves on bringing quality entertainment to its consumers and Square Enix titles certainly build on that philosophy.
Key to Megarom Interactive's strategy since its inception over 10 years ago has been to be a totally focused gaming products distributor and to only represent interactive gaming publishers with long standing reputations of producing high quality titles that the gamers know and trust and will always support at retail. Square Enix fits Megarom's distribution model perfectly. We are exceptionally proud to form this important partnership to bring new and exciting Square Enix titles to gamers in South Africa.
In DUNGEON SIEGE III, players assume the role of one of four legionnaires in the crumbling kingdom of Ehb, fighting for the sake of their fallen comrades. Conflict is constant and decisions have lasting consequences, allowing players to dictate the outcome of the tale. Do battle as a lone hero or fight alongside up to three friends and, thanks to robust AI, DUNGEON SIEGE III's co-op multiplayer mode allows players to seamlessly drop in and out of battle without interrupting the action or impacting the campaign.
The return of one of the most critically-acclaimed video game franchises of all time, DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION is an action RPG that offers open-ended, hybrid gameplay. Telling the story of Adam Jensen, a man cybernetically augmented against his choice who finds himself in the middle of a global conspiracy to which he holds the key, DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION is set in a near-future world where humanity is at a turning point. By offering players the chance to play the game in multiple and vastly different ways, DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION challenges the foundations of gaming and provides an immersive experience where every choice has a lasting consequence.


By Grace is 21 singers from Stockholm, Sweden, performing Traditional and Contemporary Gospel Music. The group, which frequently tours Europe and the US, has released four albums and performs regularly in Centrumkyrkan Evangelical Church, north of Stockholm.
By Grace has released six albums, the latest one entitled "Shout unto God" (2018). Previous albums include "One Thing" (2010), "Glorious" (2006), "The Best Is Yet To Come" (2005), "Alive and Satisfied" (1996) and "Live – featuring Rev. Daryl Coley" (1997).
For more news, checkout our Facebook (ByGraceGospel) or Instagram (@bygracegospel) pages.
Find out what's going on right here. We'll try to keep you updated!
By Grace has recorded a few albums. Enjoy!