IF YOU OR ANYONE IN YOUR WORKPLACE ARE IN DANGER OR NEED EMERGENCY HELP, CALL 911.
At Empower Work ("Empower Work", "we", or "us"), our goal is to help people navigate a tough work situation -- however they define it -- and come to an outcome they feel comfortable with. We want to empower people to be able to take the next step that's right for them.
Each time that you first send a text or web message to Empower Work, you'll receive automated reply message(s) with a link to our current Terms of Service so you may review them before continuing to use Empower Work. Using Empower Work after receiving those text message(s) shall constitute your acceptance of the Terms of Service.
We value your privacy, we will respect anonymity, and we will not share your data or information. We reserve the right to end the service.
This statement may be modified from time to time as our service adjusts to best meet the needs of those using it. The latest version will always be on our website www.empowerwork.org. Your use of the Service after any such modifications have been posted shall constitute your acceptance of the revised Terms of Service.
Please remember that your participation in Empower Work does not constitute any type of confidential relationship. Empower Work is an accessible peer-based counseling chat. It is not bound by attorney-client privilege, doctor-patient privilege, or any other confidential interaction. Empower Work is not a substitute for legal counsel or professional health care. If you believe you or someone in your workplace is in immediate danger, please call 911.
Neither Empower Work nor any of our employees, peer counselors, or agents are responsible for any decisions, or results of the decisions that you make while, as a result of, or after using the Service. This includes whether you choose to seek or not seek additional professional support, legal action, or take employment action in other ways, or to modify the approach you're currently taking to your work situation based on the information provided by this service.
You are the decisionmaker. You are in the place of power to determine what course is best for you. We will ask questions and support thoughtful deliberation. Only you control your actions, reactions, and next steps.
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To keep it simple: please be respectful and thoughtful in using our Service. We're doing our best to help people navigate tough work situations. If you abuse our Service, we will end your access.
Empower Work reserves the right to end your access to the Service at any point. For example, we might determine that you'd be better served by a different kind of support or that you require service beyond those that we can reasonably provide to you.
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You may contact us through third party websites, applications or services ("Third Party Services"). However, these Terms only apply to you and Empower Work. We are not responsible for, and make no representations regarding the policies of business practices of any Third Party Services. If you contact us through a Third Party Service, you are subject to these Terms as well as the terms and policies of the Third Party Service. We encourage you to review the terms and policies of any Third Party Service you use to contact Empower Work. If you do not wish to be subject to a Third Party Service's terms or policies, please do not contact Empower Work through a Third Party Service; instead you should contact us by texting 510-674-1414.
These Terms of Service and the provision of the Service is governed solely by, and shall be interpreted according to, the laws of the State of California without giving effect to principles of conflict of law. Empower Work and you both consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in the city of San Francisco (because that's where we're based).
The Service is operated in the United States and serves a U.S. audience. If you are located outside the United States, please be aware that any information you provide will be collected in or transferred to the United States. By using the Service and/or providing us with your information, you consent to that collection and transfer.
We take your privacy and security very seriously, so we employ reasonable security controls (including encryption) to help protect your information. Despite these protections, SMS remains an imperfectly secure environment and there are some really persistent hackers out there. We are trying hard, but Empower Work cannot guarantee protection from intruders, hackers or interceptors. You agree to use the Service and submit information to Empower Work at your own risk, and you agree that Empower Work has no liability regarding anyone's unauthorized access to our Service or the data associated with it.
Additionally, we care about the privacy and safety of our staff and peer counselors. In using the Service, you agree to not communicate with our counselors outside of the Service. If you have questions, comments or feedback for us, please email team@empowerwork.org.
At Empower Work ("Empower Work", "we" or "us"), our goal is to help people navigate a tough work situation -- however they define it -- and come to an outcome they feel comfortable with. We want to empower people to be able to take the next step that's right for them.
Importantly, we also want you to feel safe when you chat with us. We want you to share as much about your work situation as you feel comfortable so that we can be in the best position to help you think through it.
Your privacy and security are very important to us. To make sure we're doing everything we can to secure your information, we communicate our privacy and security guidelines to Empower Work employees and peer counselors. We stringently enforce these privacy safeguards.
"Personally Identifiable Information" is data that can be used to uniquely identify you, such as your full name or home address. During your use of Empower Work, we would only ask for Personally Identifiable Information if we believe it would help us better serve you (such as connecting you to local legal or employment resources). You may be prompted (but never required) to voluntarily provide Personally Identifiable Information, including but not limited to, your name or home address.
Empower Work uses the information it collects about you to, among other things, improve the Service, contact you if needed, provide anonymous reporting internally, and fulfill your requests, including but not limited to referrals to other services. In other words, we collect information so we can best help you and others who use the Service.
The following section provides examples of the types of Personally Identifiable Information Empower Work may collect and how we may use it.
When you use the Service, we may request information including your name or zip code.
In situations where you or someone else is in danger or in need of emergency help, we may request your current location, or the current location of the person in danger.
We use Personally Identifiable Information to help us develop, deliver, and improve our products, content, advertising and the Service.
We may also use Personally Identifiable Information for internal purposes such as auditing, data analysis, and research to improve Empower Work's products, services, and communications.
We may also use your information to help us personalize your experience with us and to operate, maintain and improve the features and functionality of our service.
We also collect non-Personally Identifiable Information, which is data that cannot be directly used to identify or contact you. We may collect, use, transfer, and disclose non-Personally Identifiable Information for any purpose, including but not limited to improving volunteer services, disclosing to third parties to generate support for Empower Work, or as required by law.
We may collect information such as age, gender, language, zip code, area code, and the time zone where a phone is being used to contact the Service to better understand behavior and improve the Service.
We also may collect information regarding usage of Empower Work such as the conversation volume, average length of conversation, and other data. This information is aggregated and helps us conduct internal research so we can improve the quality of our Service.
It's our goal to support you in a tough work situation. While that likely does not involve emergency services, if a peer counselor identifies imminent harm to yourself or someone else (you have the desire, plan, means, timeframe), they may let you know they're concerned about your safety. At this point, they might ask you where you are or what your name is. If they feel like you might not be able to keep yourself safe, they may contact local law enforcement or EMS.
We operate the Service in conjunction with volunteer and staff peer counselors ("Peer Counselors"). Any information, including Personally Identifiable Information, that you share with the Service may be viewed by Empower Work staff or Peer Counselors for quality control, to contact emergency services or to better assist you with your situation.
If you provide feedback through our anonymous feedback survey, that feedback may be shared with Empower Work Staff and Peer Counselors. We want to provide the best service, and are eager to learn from your feedback!
Sometimes, we may refer you to other support. There are some really great resources out there! We will give you their contact info but we will NOT give them your contact info. It's up to you if you want to use the referral. If you would like to receive support from other services, please note that different rules may apply to their use or disclosure of Personally Identifiable Information. We do not control the privacy policies of others. We encourage you to ask questions before you disclose your Personally Identifiable Information to others.
If you contact us through a Third Party Service (A) both Empower Work and the third party that runs the Third Party Service may have access to the content of the messages you share and (B) your information may be shared between us and that third party. For example, we and the third part may exchange your location information to contact local law enforcement or emergency services in an emergency.
Note that Empower Work's staff and Peer Counselors are located across the United States, and may not be licensed in your state or trained in your state's law. Other state laws may apply to your communications, and those state laws may not protect your communications to the same degree, or in the same way, as the laws of your state.
We may share information about conversations with researchers at universities and other institutions. We would only share data with trusted researchers when it will result in insights that create a better experience for our texters.
Empower Work retains data for reasons including but not limited to improving the quality of our Service, complying with federal research grant and other reporting requirements, and potentially creating open data sets to improve workplace support.
Retention policies and security measures match the sensitivity of the data. You may request more information by contacting us at team@empowerwork.org.
Empower Work cares about you and the security of your Personally Identifiable Information. We take reasonable precautions, including administrative, technical, and physical measures, to protect your Personally Identifiable Information from loss, theft, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. We store all information on servers and we only permit approved Empower Work employees and third parties to access those servers pursuant to the practices described above.
We employ different security techniques to protect your Personally Identifiable Information from unauthorized access, including standard encryption practices. However, perfect security does not exist anywhere, including for text messaging/SMS data. Although we believe we take appropriate measures to safeguard against unauthorized disclosures of information, we cannot assure you that your Personally Identifiable Information or communications with Empower Work will never be disclosed in a manner inconsistent with this policy, and make no representations or warranties regarding the sufficiency of our security measures to prevent unauthorized access or interception by third parties.
Always be careful and responsible regarding your Personally Identifiable Information. We are not responsible for, and cannot control, what others not affiliated with Empower Work or Peer Counselors do with information you provide to them.
One suggestion: you might want to delete Empower Work conversations from your phone. You might even want to clear us from your history and make sure we are not saved in your contact list. If contacting our website, we encourage using an incognito or anonymous web browser and clearing your browser history. We totally understand if you want to take these steps and others, to ensure that your relationship to Empower Work remains your business.
You may request that we delete your Personally Identifiable Information, such as last name, physical address, zip code, phone number, and texts/message transcripts by texting in the keyword CLEAR, after which you will be prompted to confirm your request.
The Service is operated in the United States. If you are located outside of the United States, please be aware that any information you provide will be collected in or transferred to the United States. By using Empower Work and/or providing us with your information, you consent to that collection and transfer.


Right to Repair is a scheme for council tenants.
It will make sure that certain small urgent repairs which might affect your health, safety or security are done quickly and easily. A repair only qualifies if it costs less than £250.
You have a legal right to arrange your own repairs under the Right to Repair scheme - but only if we fail to repair something within set time periods.
You must also have allowed us reasonable time to gain access into your home to complete the work.
Do not get someone else to do the repair without discussing it with us first, otherwise we might not pay the bill.
Can I have an appointment?
When you report your repair we aim to offer an appointment for all urgent and routine repairs at a convenient time.
As well as explaining what day we will call, we will also confirm a morning or afternoon appointment.
For planned repairs which generally require an inspection, we aim to offer you an appointment before the work is done. Also at the time of inspection we'll arrange a further appointment for the work to be completed.
But not all repairs will need an appointment (work to the outside of your home, for example).
For emergency repairs you will need to guarantee access to your property for the following 24 hours.
You will not be given a set appointment but will be able to negotiate a time when you will be at home to make sure the emergency work can be done.
You will receive written confirmation of your appointment, and of the repair.
Can I have other minor repairs carried out during a call?
The contractor can generally only do the work that has been ordered.
Please be aware that contractors also have other appointments with tenants that they must keep and do not always have the necessary equipment and materials to do other work.
For safety reasons some work can only be carried out by certain contractors, such as gas repairs that can only be done by Gas Safe registered plumbers.
Is there a charge for repairs?
The vast majority of repairs are paid for out of the money we collect in rent.
You will be asked to pay for any repairs that have been caused by damage to, or misuse of your home caused by you, your family or friends.
However, the contractor will not ask you for any money when they call.
Your housing officer will be able to tell you more about what repairs you may be asked to pay for and how to pay.
You have the right to appeal if you don't agree with a decision to charge you for repairs.
What do I need to tell you when I report a repair?
Whether you would like an appointment.
If in doubt about the offer of an appointment, please ask when you report the repair.
What happens when the contractor calls?
All contractors carrying out work for us will show you their identity card. Always ask to see this card before letting any contractor into your home. If they can't show you a card, or you have any reason to be suspicious, don't let them in.
Any contractor doing work on our behalf will treat you and your home with courtesy and respect.
They will try to cause as little mess and disruption as possible and will use dustsheets to protect your home.
They will do their best to clear up when finished and remove any rubble or materials that day.
Whether your gas, electricity or water will need to be turned off and for how long.
To carry out specialist surveys.
Do not allow any person into your home if they do not carry the relevant identity card.
What standards of service can i expect?
We will first make sure that it is our responsibility to do the repair. If it is, and we have enough information about the repair,an order will be placed with a contractor to carry out the work. Wherever possible, the order will be placed immediately.


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Biking the river Elbe from the source to Prague Biking the river Elbe from Prague to Dresden Biking in luxury from Prague to Dresden Biking the river from the source to Dresden Biking the river Elbe from Dresden to Prague Biking from Carlsbad to Prague Biking around Prague in the heart of Bohemia Biking around Budweis and Cesky Krumlov Biking from Budweis to Prague Biking Prague - Vienna Biking from Dresden through Prague to Vienna Biking along the ponds of the Golden Canal
Hiking program
Hiking the dark woods in the Bohemian Forest Hiking the Bohemian Paradise (Cesky Raj) Hiking the summits in the Giant Mountains Hiking through Krivoklatsko hills of the kings
Canoe program
Canoeing the famous river Vltava (Moldau)
Cross-country skiing program
Cross-country Bohemian Forest Cross-country Giant mountains
School trips (current)
About us (current)
Contact (current)
FAQ Czech Republic Route descriptions Terms and conditions Arrival and departure Arrival conditions Imprint
Biking program
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The provider expressly points out that data transmission on the Internet (e.g. communication by e-mail) is subject to security gaps and cannot be completely protected against access by third parties.
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This stainless steel mens Kharga watch with rectangular 29mm case is a contemporary classic. The clean lines of the streamlined case have beautifully finished edges ensuring that the watch feels as tactile as it looks. The dial is in a black lacquered finish with central chapter ring. The applied indexes are in stainless steel. The polished steel bracelet is finished to the highest possible standards and has a folding clasp with push button release for added security. The stainless steel crown is faceted for improved grip. A stylish watch for the modern man reflecting the best in French design.


All the info you need to figure out how to become an IBCLC can be found on the website for the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners. The first time I visited the website, I found it a bit confusing, so I'll lay out some things here to help clear it up.
First, there are several different lactation helper levels; only one is IBCLC. This post is primarily about how to become an IBCLC, but I figured it's useful to understand the different levels of lactation support you may encounter.
science of lactation, put in many hours (sometimes 1000 or more) of in-person work with lactating women, sits for an exam similar to boards for doctors. This is the only internationally standardized lactation credential available.
continuing education credits every 3 years to maintain their certification.
primary role, as the name suggests, is to educate families interested in learning more about breastfeeding.
● LLLI Leaders – La Leche League International Leaders – accredited by La Leche League International to offer mother-to-mother support for breastfeeding. LLLI Leaders have breastfed their own babies for at least nine months, adhere to LLLI statements of belief, and have demonstrated knowledge of breastfeeding through essays and personal work with her supporting Leader as well as the Leader Accreditation Department. Generally, a Leader works for about a year to earn her accreditation.
● PC – Breastfeeding Peer Counselors – someone who offers mother-to-mother support for breastfeeding, advocates for breastfeeding as the normal, optimal way of feeding an infant, and helps to establish or prolong the time spent breastfeeding. Peer counselors are accredited by various agencies (WIC, for instance) and have varying qualifications. Most have completed around 20 hours of training and taken some sort of examination.
Now, let's get to the nitty gritty about how to become an IBCLC — again, all this info (and more, in much more detail) can be found at www.iblce.org.
There are three pathways through which you can obtain your certification — I won't go into the details of each pathway, but I'll give you some help in deciding which one might be for you. They are outlined in detail here.
● 14 health sciences courses — if you have an undergraduate degree in some science, you may have a lot of these already covered. Details about the requirements are outlined here.
education. Keep in mind that many courses are listed as 50 min, and not a true hour.
You need 90 full hours (60 min each).
● In-person lactation specific clinical experience — the extent and type of this experience changes with the different pathways.
Now, here are the three pathways with a small level of detail to help you decide which one fits your situation best. Again, all are outlined in detail here.
recognized health professions. These professions include: dentist, dietician, midwife, nurse, occupational therapist, pharmacist, physical therapist or physiotherapist, physician or medical doctor, speech pathologist or therapist.
mother support counselors. The difference between this pathway and pathway 3 is that you do your 1000 hours of lactation specific clinical hours while working/volunteering in one of the above capacities (more on pathway 3 below).
these programs in the USA.
● Pathway 3 — this pathway requires you to make a plan that is verified and approved by IBCLE. I like to think of this pathway as the one for the lay person. You do your lactation specific clinical hours under the supervision of an IBCLC mentor. Before you begin, you make a plan with your mentor for the successful completion of your certification and IBCLE approves that plan.
I think that about covers it! If you have more questions about this process, please feel free to ask them in the comments below. We have a few members/admins who are in the middle of this process, and we have a couple IBCLCs in the Facebook group as well.


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Home Disney Hawkeye Hawkeye Episode 6 – Release Date – Spoilers Spider-Man in Finale Episdoe
Hawkeye Episode 6 – Release Date – Spoilers Spider-Man in Finale Episdoe
Hawkeye Episode 6 focuses on where we left off with our major characters. Clint ends his partnership with Kate after coming face to face with Yelena and Maya in the rooftop brawl. Eleanor is wary, Jack is wary, and Maya is still seeking vengeance against Ronin. Episode 5 isn't just a big moment for the whole Hawkeye show, but it's also important for a lot of Marvel movies. This week, like all the good ones, there is a good mix of action, important talks, and revelations that make us excited for next week's show. When can fans anticipate the fifth episode to be released? Here (tvacute.com) find out when final episode 6 titled "The Boss" of Hawkeye will be released, as well as what to expect from episode 6 of the Disney+ series. (Watch Hawkeye Episode 66 Promo below)
Hawkeye Episode 6 Spoilers
A lot of questions concerning the series will be addressed in Episode 6. For example, why Eleanor Bishop (Vera Farmiga) is covertly working with Wilson Fisk, she ordered a hit on Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner), who murdered Armand Duquesne III (Simon Callow), and what the strange Rolex watch means. Not only that, but the episode must also end Yelena Belova's (Florence Pugh) desire to kill Clint. How Hawkeye will handle all of these storylines is a mystery, as is how the MCU will move forward. But Marvel fans won't have to wait long to get their answers.
SPIDER-MAN IN HAWKEYE 6?
Peter Parker (Tom Holland) swings right over Rockefeller Center in Spider-Man: No Way Home. The latter place appears to be a significant setting in Episode 6, so there's a chance Holland's wall-crawler could make a cameo in the Disney+ show's finale. Also, Hawkeye Episode 5 mentions the "new and better Statue of Liberty" from Spider-Man: No Way Home. Marvel has gone out of its way to link Hawkeye and No Way Home. It's unclear if Holland's Spider-Man will appear in Hawkeye, but it makes sense given how and where No Way Home concludes.
Hawkeye Episode 6 Synopsis:
Watch Hawkeye Episode 6 Promo
Hawkeye Episode 6 Release Date
Hawkeye Finale Episode 6 which is the penultimate episode of the season, will be released on December 22, just one week after the first two installments. When it comes to when fans may watch Disney+, the streaming service releases new material in the early hours of the morning. It's a good bet to look for Hawkeye at 12:01 a.m. PT, or 3:01 a.m. ET. The first five episodes of Hawkeye are now streaming on Disney+.
Hawkeye Episode 5 Recap
Episode 5 began with a look back at 2018. In an isolated wintry terrain, Yelena and another former Black Widow operative are breaking into a luxurious estate. They locate Ana inside and a battle ensues. After capturing Ana, Yelena sprays her with an antidote to the mind control employed on all current Black Widow agents worldwide. It is Yelena's purpose to release each girl left stuck in her thoughts after the Black Widow film. Ana isn't brainwashed, and the house is hers. The three ex-murderers have tea and catch up. The worst happens to Yelena in the bathroom. From her perspective, Yelena vanishes and reappears. Yelena shakes and moves through a house where she sees Ana with a family.
In Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos uses the Infinity Gauntlet to wipe out half of all life on Earth. Natasha Romanov, her sister, was killed in Avengers: Endgame while resurrecting everyone. Kate arrives home battered. Her mother, Eleanor, is quick to calm and heal her. Kate's anxieties and frustrations are honestly expressed by both of them. Eleanor reassures her that a life without superheroes is still possible. Kate reveals to her mother that she has been investigating Jack and she promises to use her security system company to look into it. Maya and Kazi have a similar scene. Kazi cleans and bandages Maya's fresh cuts, emphasizing the need of letting go of her quest to find Clint. She grudgingly agrees to kill Clint and then move on. Remember Clint.
Clint goes to the house of Grills, the Larper who possessed the Ronin costume in Episode 2. He collapses on his couch, exhausted and cozy with a pizza dog. Kate Returns to her burnt-out first-episode apartment after her talk with her mother. She has no idea that Yelena is waiting for her. Then she cooked a box of pasta! No fight. Instead, a witty Yelena teases Kate, before slowly revealing her true motives. She's clearly not there to kill. That would have happened the instant she walked in, Yelena insists. No, Yelena is here to talk about Clint and his current whereabouts. She's here to avenge her sister's death. Kate senses something about him that reminds Yelena of Clint's past. Kate says he's not perfect but a wonderful person. Yelena is unfazed. Kate discovers Yelena is on assignment and wonders who would make such a call.
Before leaving, Yelena warns Kate not to get in her way again. The next day, Kate arrives home to find Jack detained. Eleanor watches him bravely declare his innocence. Kate, discouraged by recent events, decides to help Clint again and calls him on his cell. Nobody answers so she leaves dozens of messages! On the night of the Battle of New York, Clint phones Laura and tells her he's terminating things with her. So he gets his Ronin suit from the gym locker area. He invites Maya to a meeting but she must come alone. She has her Tracksuit Mafia backup with goons hidden under cars and Kazi as a sniper atop a billboard. It doesn't work since Clint appears as the Ronin and effortlessly defeats Kazi and his team. They battle until Maya is flung to the ground. Clint makes it plain he can and will destroy them all if she threatens his family. He also says her current boss ordered him to assassinate her father.
Maya wins and throws Clint to the ground. Maya is about to attack when Kate shoots the Ronin sword out of her hand. They escape. She questions Kazi about his whereabouts on the night her father was murdered. Kazi doesn't have anything to say and they part ways. Yelena tracks and follows Eleanor before the episode ends. Kate receives two discoveries from Yelena through text during breakfast with Clint, Grills, and pizza dog. First, Eleanor hired Yelena to find Clint. We know who that prior episode's phone call was to! The second revelation is that Eleanor is working for Kingpin, and Clint said Maya reports to him.
Hawkeye Episode 6
Hawkeye Season 1
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Olivia Wilson - December 1, 2021 0
Hawkeye premiered on Disney+ on November 24, and the two-episode launch has already sparked interest in the new show. Even those who don't consider...


Encarsia formosa is a tiny (0.6mm) wasp that attacks only whiteflies. Adult female Encarsia kill whitefly scales in two ways: by puncturing and feeding on scales, or laying their eggs in scales (each female may produce 30-500 eggs during her lifespan). Encarsia eggs hatch into tiny larvae, which cause the whitefly pupae to turn black as the young wasps mature. At 70°F, a new adult wasp emerges about 21 days after the egg is laid. The parasites are shipped inside the blackened whitefly scales which are attached to cards in batches of 50-100 per card.
Target pests: Greenhouse whitefly, and mixed greenhouse/silverleaf whitefly populations.
Favorable environment: Daily average temperature above 64° F, supplementary light in winter, 70% RH . At temperatures above 70° F, Encarsia develop faster than whitefly.
Release Strategy: Release Encarsia at the first sign of whiteflies on yellow sticky cards. Release at 1-2 week intervals for 6-8 weeks.
At 1st whitefly sign: 1 per 3 sq ft/wk for 3-6 wks.
Up to one whitefly per plant: 1 per sq ft/wk for 6 wks.
Poinsettias: 0.1 or more /plant weekly, combined with the release of Eretmocerus below. If used alone on poinsettias, use 2 or more per plant weekly.
This minute black lady beetle has a voracious appetite for whitefly eggs, scales, and adults. Each beetle is about the size of the bottom half of this "8″. The beetle matures from egg to adult in about 3 weeks at 80°F. Females will live for about 50 days, laying 3-4 eggs per day, if well supplied with whitefly prey. They require 100-150 whitefly eggs per day to maintain egg-laying. They eat about eleven whitefly scales per day, or from 150-640 whitefly eggs per day. Delphastus beetles complement Encarsia and Eretmocerus biocontrol programs. They do not eat parasitized whiteflies.
Release strategy: Concentrate releases of adults near areas of high whitefly populations so that beetles have sufficient food for reproduction and establishment. Subsequent generations will disperse through the greenhouse and provide control in other areas.
Application Rates: These release rates serve to inoculate a whitefly infestation with beetles. Use ½ to 1 per sq ft, but concentrate at least 25 beetles per release site.
Eretmocerus eremicus is the first parasite specifically adapted to silverleaf whitefly (Bemisia argentifolii), formerly known as the B strain of the sweet potato whitefly (Bemisia tabaci). Eretmocerus lays its eggs under small young scales of silverleaf whitefly. It differs from the greenhouse whitefly parasite, Encarsia formosa, which lays eggs directly into the whitefly scale. We recommend Eretmocerus on vegetables and foliage plants where silverleaf whitefly is the predominant species. This new biocontrol does not reproduce on poinsettia, but it may provide complete control of whitefly infestations when used properly. Hoddle, Van Driesche and others at U. Mass. recently found that a release rate of 1-3 Eretmocerus /plant/wk. gave better than 95% control of silverleaf whitefly on poinsettias. Eretmocerus is used in European greenhouses with good success.
Favorable environment: Native to desert areas of California & Arizona; tolerant of higher temperatures than Encarsia. 75°-100°F.
Release strategy on poinsettias: Before whitefly detected or with very low levels, 2-3/10 sq ft/week. With whitefly, 1 or more /plant/wk.
For other crops, try doubling Encarsia rates (Encarsia is nearly 100% female). Avoid getting release material (sawdust or bran) wet by using Release Points™ or other careful placement.


text:
Groundbreaking Vivo Phone Arrives, But There's a Catch
By Philip Michaels 2018-01-25T18:45:00Z Smartphones
Vivo is taking orders for the X20 Plus UD. which uses an embedded fingerprint sensor that wowed CES. But the phone may never reach the U.S.
Editors' Note: This article was originally published Jan. 24. We updated it at 1:45 p.m. ET on Jan. 25 with additional information on pricing and availability from Vivo.
After seeing Vivo show off how an in-display fingerprint sensor can unlock its upcoming smartphone, we now have a good look at some of the phone's other features. But we still don't know if Vivo's new X20 Plus UD will ever reach the U.S.
(Image credit: Vivo)
Vivo says its new phone is available for preorder in China starting today (Jan. 24), where it sells for 3,598RMB. (That's roughly $568 under current exchange rates.) The X20 Plus UD features a 6.43-inch AMOLED screen offering an 18:9 aspect ratio. Easily the phone's most noteworthy feature is the fingerprint sensor, developed by Synaptics, that pops up on the display when you have to unlock the phone or verify a payment but otherwise vanishes to let you enjoy the full-view screen.
While the fingerprint sensor turned our heads when we saw it earlier this month at CES, it's hardly the only feature Vivo is touting for the X20 Plus UD. The curved metal back of the phone features a pair of cameras: a 12-megapixel lens with dual-pixel sensors and a 5-MP shooter. Vivo says its cameras should be able to deal with challenging backlighting on shots, thanks to optimization features.
MORE: Tom's Guide CES Awards: Best New Tech
The X20 Plus UD is powered by a sizable 3,905 mAh battery, which you would imagine would let it last all day on a charge. (For context, ZTE's budget Max XL phone offers a 3,990 mAh battery, and it held out for nearly 12 hours on the Tom's Guide battery test.) You'll find one of Qualcomm's mid-tier Snapdragon 630 mobile processing platforms inside Vivo's X20 Plus.
Many of those specs place the X20 Plus UD firmly among midrange phones currently available. The $279 Moto 5GS Plus, for example, features a Snapdragon 625 CPU and a dual-rear-camera setup (a pair of 13-MP sensors). The difference, of course, lies in the display, with Vivo's phone offering both an AMOLED panel as well as that embedded fingerprint sensor.
We asked Vivo if the phone will find its way to additional markets, and the company responded that it had no announcements about the X20 Plus UD's availability outside of China at this time. The reality is, though, that even if other regions get a chance to buy the new phone, the U.S. won't likely be one of them, as Vivo tends to stick closely to the Asia and Russian markets. It's still worth taking note of the X20 Plus UD, though, just to see if other leading smartphone makers take the Synaptics sensor and adopt it for their future phones.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Штурм им. SommerTimmon / Find Iphone Low-cost On Cheap Carded Goods
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SommerTimmon


text:
Weird Tales: The Narrow Road
February 18, 2012 February 22, 2012 by Alessandro Cima
By Quenby Eisenacher
Quenby Eisenacher lives in Central Pennsylvania, where her daily life includes raising babies, raising a husband, and navigating the Amish-clogged back roads. When she isn't teaching classical ballet to ten-year-old girls, she is working on her novel The Half Killed. You can find Quenby at quenbolyn.livejournal.com and eatingpaper80.blogspot.com.
Today's weird tale is about a busload of children taken to a remote dormitory where the rules are strict but explanations are few. Something is not as it seems and one little girl wants to know more about where she finds herself and why she's there. An unsettling story about a barely glimpsed world on the other side of reality.
The Narrow Road
The road doesn't run in a straight line, splitting the vast plain in half. It curves back and forth, winding around nothing, a ribbon of hard-packed dirt and stones that meanders toward the silvery haze of the horizon. There's a cloud of dust thrown up behind the bus, the rear windows already coated with a layer of grime that even the daylight can't penetrate. Every few minutes, one of the larger stones gets chucked up into the undercarriage, striking hard and fast, the sound too much like a gunshot. A few of the children wince at the noise, their eyes squeezing shut, scuffed skin pulled taut over their white knuckles. Karin glances at the boy beside her, the one with the mud caked into the ends of his straw-colored hair. She could speak to him, she thinks, just a few words to show that she doesn't want to be a stranger. But the words fail to come, her tongue clinging to the roof of her mouth, swollen and thick, as if she's forgotten how to make it work.
Over another bump and she closes her eyes, her toes curling inside the stiff brown shoes on her feet. Swinging her right leg, she taps the seat in front of her with the tip of her cracked toe, the edge of her blue sock just visible where the upper pulls away from the sole. The head in front of her doesn't turn, black braids neatly parted and tied up at the bottom with little bits of red ribbon. Karin looks at the ribbon for a moment, at the dull film of dust hiding the shine of satin from view. Her eyes are still fixed on the vivid strips of cloth as her fingers find her own hair, loose and scraggly around her shoulders. She wishes she had ribbon like that, and swings her foot into the back of the seat one more time.
The window is on the other side of her, close enough that she can press her left shoulder against the glass and silence the rattle inside the frame. There's not as much dust either, being only a few seats back from the driver. For a moment, she feels bad for the children in the rear, the ones next to the filthy windows, cut off from the light and the scenery trundling past them on all sides. Not that there's much to see, but it's better than staring at the floor. Crossing her arms until her hands are hidden inside her sleeves, she leans back, her chin tucking into her shoulder, one dirty lock of hair sliding out from behind her ear as she fixes her gaze on some imaginary spot far off in the distance.
It might be sleep that takes her, but when she opens her eyes again, the light is at the same level, glinting off the glass as the bus rounds a sharp curve. A low hum of whispering breaks out across the aisle from her, a few kids pressing their faces against the windows, lips parted with the numb slackness in their jaws. Twisting the edges of her skirt in her fingers, Karin watches the backs of their heads, all of them shifting and bobbing to get a better look.
The bus groans as the driver puts his weight on the brakes, a shudder passing through the metal framework. A few children grip the edges of the seats, or lean forward, clinging to the benches in front of them. Karin shifts when the boy moves beside her, his thigh brushing against her own. Closer to the window, she peers out through the glass, the dark outline of a building blocking out the light, casting the bus in shadow. Not until the brakes let out a final squeal does she see the other children, stepping back, making room for the new arrival without bothering to acknowledge it with a glance. A few are kicking a partially deflated ball between them, the flatness on one side of the sphere causing it to roll in a crooked line. Karin watches the uneven progress of the ball until a hand touches her upper arm.
"C'mon," the boy says, his voice cracking, as if he's unsure of the strength of it. "We gotta go."
She stands up, her legs still bent as she moves sideways, shuffling into the aisle. The boy doesn't look back. He's done his duty, and so she merges into the line of children, no one speaking as they make their way towards the front of the bus.
The heat is palpable. Karin tries out the word, her lips moving without sound. She hasn't known it long, so she says it again, a faint whisper that barely pushes at the air outside her mouth. But it fits. The heat is there, in wavering lines rising up from the bus's engine, pressing in at the edges of everything, filling her lungs with every breath.
The last of the children step down from the bus, scratching at collars that now seem too close under the gleaming sky. Sleeves are pushed up past elbows, the boys fussing with the buttons of their shirts, undoing one or two before glancing over their shoulders, waiting to be reproved. Two dozen pairs of eyes stare out from the group, scanning the buildings, the faces of the other children, the small stones thrown by the shoes of the woman walking towards them.
She doesn't smile when she reaches them, the lines set in her face, creased with dust. When she lifts her chin, the light shines off her forehead, her pale hair disappearing against her skin.
"Let me see the young ones in front," she says, her voice deep. Another step, and the rustling of her dark skirts is audible. "Who's the youngest? Step forward, now."
A frisson passes through the group, a few children shifting from foot to foot, stepping aside as the three smallest work their way towards the front.
"Yes," the woman says, and bends at the waist, putting herself at eye level with the smallest girl. "Do you know where you are, dear?"
The little girl pulls her chin back, one shoulder raising to brush against the side of her jaw.
"Now, that's alright. No need to be scared. We're all friends here. Just look around you, there's an entire group of little ones waiting to be your friends." She straightens up, back to her full height, still an inch shorter than one of the older boys at the back of the group. "My name is Helena," she announces, her voice smoothing out as she speaks. "If there are any problems, any questions, you will come to me. Now, can I see the boys over here," her right hand makes a small gesture. "And the girls lined up along there?"
As if by instinct, everyone moves into their rows, from tallest to shortest, backs straightening as Helena's eyes move over them. Karin looks up and sees a flash of red ribbons two spaces ahead of her. She feels pride at being taller than the other girl, and when she looks down at the girls shredded tights, a hint of satisfaction that her own knee-high socks boast only a few small holes.
"This way," Helena says, her feet kicking up a small cloud of dust as she turns, heels striking the hard ground, crunching on the stones. A few children move out of her way as she passes, one of them averting his eyes, his chest stilling with a held breath until her shadow moves on.
Karin looks up as they pass into the shade of the buildings, her eyes adjusting to the sudden change in light. Ahead of her, Helena pushes at one of two large, rectangular doors, scuffed at the bottom, the green paint worn away to the faint shade of a stain. It's cool inside, footsteps echoing on the swept stone floor, while a few whispers break out near the rear of the columns. The walls are thick, and Karin reaches out, brushes her fingers over the dry surface.
"Girls, this way."
The group moves on, the boys left to loiter near the entrance. As they walk, the line begins to lose some of its shape, a few girls pausing in front of a closed door, or rising to the balls of their feet to look out at the courtyard through one of the small, immaculate windows.
The room they're led into is the largest that Karin has ever seen. Longer than it is wide, the ceiling is high, arched near the top, with great wooden beams criss-crossing each other, holding the stone in place. The first thing she thinks of is a hangar, but though she's never seen one, she remembers the descriptions. They could keep whole airplanes in here, she thinks. Or maybe even one of those large zeppelins she's seen pictures of. Too late, she realizes Helena is talking, and then the girls spread out, each one moving towards one of the dozens of small beds lining the walls.
"Boys do not belong in here," she says, slowly walking down the center aisle. "Just as you do not belong in their rooms."
A few girls nod, while the others pick at the folded white sheets sitting on top of their flattened pillows.
"There are only a few rules here, but they will be obeyed. Now," she pauses as four women enter the room, lugging large metal tubs between them. "I want you all to undress, and then you'll be bathed. Don't worry about your old clothes. Just leave them at the foot of your bed and they'll be taken care of."
The water steams as the women pour it into the tubs, the surface bubbling at the edges and then going still, before another pitcher is emptied into it. The youngest are washed first, their soft, pale bodies scrubbed to pink with a bar of white soap and a course cloth. By the time Karin steps into the water, it's almost cool, lapping at the layers of mingled dirt and sweat that had been hiding beneath her socks, sticking to her skin. The women allow her to do most of the washing herself, only stepping in to help scrub the filth out of her hair, one of them clicking her tongue as she dislodges a few gritty stones from a thick tangle. She's wrapped in a towel as soon as she steps out, her feet leaving little puddles on the floor. Before her hair finishes dripping, a small stack of clothes is handed to her, plain underwear, socks, and a faded grey smock that could've been made to fit any of the other girls in the room.
As soon as she's dressed, she sits on the edge of her bed, her crisp sheets still stacked beside her. A few other girls are making their beds, fitting the corners under the thin mattress with an adeptness that makes Karin study them, ready to emulate them when she makes her attempt.
It takes her only a few moments to realize that no one is talking. The girls give each other strange glances, trying to see without being seen, quickly looking down at their hands when they think that someone else's eyes have found them. She spots the girl with the red ribbons at the end of the row, combing her fingers through one side of her thick, black hair, the other side already done up in a fresh braid, the red bow at the bottom carefully tied.
Her eyes sweep over the next girl in the row, and then she stops. When she looks again, she feels the crinkling of the skin above her nose, her eyebrows pulling together. The girl is several years younger than her, maybe as young as five or six. Her hair is brown, black at the ends, still damp from the bath. When the girl raises her eyes, Karin feels a swift jab of recognition, but then it's gone. A silly thought. Of course she doesn't know her. She doesn't know any of these girls. It had taken her most of the morning just to remember her own name.
When the last of the girls is bathed, the tubs are carried out, the clean smell of the soap lingering. No one is dressed the same, everyone having put on what they were given before reaching under the beds for their own shoes. Karin steps into hers, grimacing at the size of them, the thinness of the soles beneath her heels. She ties them quickly, neatly, pinching her finger in the knot as she gives the laces a final tug.
Everyone looks up when Helena returns, the click of her heels preceding her appearance at the door. One of the girls hastily finishes tucking in a corner of her sheet, the edge left to stick out from beneath the mattress.
"All better?" she asks, the question answered with a few nods and a trace of a smile. "Now, this is when you all go out to play with the other children. At dark, you will be called in for dinner, and then it's bedtime." She pauses, as if waiting for questions, or a sign that this new information is satisfactory. "Outside," she says at last. "This way."
The courtyard feels hotter than before. A handful of children are playing under the full light of the sky, winding up a game of Tag that brings out a round of squeals every few seconds. The rest of them keep nearer to the shadows, tracing patterns in the dirt, a game of Hangman, or Tic-Tac-Toe. Karin picks out the newest arrivals without having to look twice. They remain huddled in their group, without talking to anyone, just watching, being watched. The older girls cling to one section of the outer wall, open derision on their faces when a younger child runs past them, mouth open, baby teeth gleaming in the light.
Karin paces at the edge of her group, scuffing her feet through the dirt, making ruts that are obliterated on the next pass. A noise from behind her draws her gaze, a group of children maybe a little younger than herself pitching stones to see how far they'll fly. She watches for a moment, her feet ceasing to pace, fingers twitching with the urge to pick up a pebble and join in. A couple of girls beside her trade a few whispers before falling back into silence, the first awkward steps towards conversation. Turning away from them, she scans the children lined up along the wall, two of them with their heads together, snickering over a worn comic book.
She sees the boy standing by himself, sketching shapes in the dirt with his finger. The boy from the bus, the one with the dried clots of mud in his hair. Except he's clean now, like everyone else, his hair washed and combed, his clothes freshly laundered, if a few sizes too large.
"What're you doing?" she asks, standing a few feet away from him, the tips of her shoes just outside the border of one of his drawings.
"Just…" he starts, but doesn't finish.
His finger presses harder into the ground, creating a deep groove that cuts in a circle until he runs into a rock the size of his thumb. Digging it out, he chucks it over his shoulder and continues on with the shape.
"The wind'll blow it away," Karin says, eyeing the small hills of reddish-brown powder.
"There ain't none," he reasons, and begins adding features to the blank canvas.
The boy is right. With her hands teasing one of the buttons on her skirt, she looks around, as if expecting the air to move, to prove its existence. Blinking rapidly, she wipes her hand across the back of her neck, searching for perspiration that isn't there.
"What's yours?" he counters.
"Karin," she offers, when she realizes hes not going to give in. "I was named after my Granny."
His mouth pinches in concentration. Shaking his head, he wipes out the trunk of a tree and starts over. "I'm Peter." He says it without looking up, his attention focused on the curve of a branch. "But I didn't take it from nobody."
She stays at the edge of the picture, rocking onto the balls of her feet and then back onto her heels. He continues to draw as she watches, each finger of his right hand used for a different task. His thumb traces the roots, his index finger the branches, while he saves the tip of his little finger for the smudges meant to stand in for the leaves. A few more scratches, and there's a knot in the trunk, large and oblong, dark like a gaping mouth, like a yawn.
"I've seen that tree," she says, and Peter pulls his hand away from the sketch.
"Where?" He looks up at her, his face smudged in the shadow of the building.
"I dunno," she shrugs. "But I've seen it. I've climbed it."
He sits up, his knees sliding in the dirt as he backs away from the picture. "So have I."
The both of them study the drawing for a moment, Karin imagining that the leaves are twitching on the branches, the more slender of the twigs bending with the breeze. There should be a road, she thinks, running behind it. A paved street, buckled and potholed from years of traffic. And a wrought-iron fence standing in a foundation of red bricks. She can see the bricks in her mind, feel the roughness of their edges scraping the tough skin on her knees.
The ball comes from behind Karin's left shoulder. Heavy and still slightly lopsided, it bounces off the edge of the sketch, sending out a spray of debris before it rolls across the rest of the picture, only the base of the trunk still visible after it moves on, ricocheting off the wall with a dull thump. The boy who comes to collect the toy doesn't glance at either of them, or at the demolished picture. A shout to his friends and he braces the dying ball under one arm as he runs back to join the game.
"You can draw it again," Karin says as Peter stands up, brushing the dirt from his pants. He looks at the disturbed plot of dirt for a moment, before wiping out the rest of it with a kick of his foot.
"It wasn't any good," he says, his voice hollow.
"I liked it." And she nods, an action she hopes will pull his eyes away from the ground.
"Nah," he wipes his nose with the back of his hand, finishing the movement by passing the same knuckles across the seat of his pants. "It wasn't tall enough. And the fence…" He trails off, swallows, and looks at her.
"Just put the fence in next time," she tells him, and waits for his head to move, the steady up-and-down motion of his chin.
"Yeah, I will," he says. "Next time."
***Slowly, the line moves forward. Karin can still feel the soap under her fingernails, the slickness she didn't have time to rinse away. But the water was so cold, the substance clinging defiantly to her skin.
A tray is passed back to her, and then there's a bowl, a dented spoon, the steam from the soup curling upwards from the surface in translucent wisps, moistening the underside of her chin. The bread is hard, but she drops it into the soup, hoping the broth will do something to soften it before she attempts to tear into it with her teeth. Her gaze darting from one end of the room to the other, she searches the rows of tables and benches for an empty space, preferably near an end, so she won't have to make as many apologies as she sets down her tray.
All of the boys are on one side of the room, the girls on the other. It's a gulf that separates them, a wide aisle of freshly scrubbed stone. A nudge in her back and Karin moves forward, her arms under her tray, holding it out like a gift. In the end, she has to squeeze between two other girls, her elbows tucked against her ribs as she tries not to garner attention from either of them. But no one looks up, and she rips into her bread, her thumb punching a hole through the crust, digging at the moist stuff inside, broth dripping from her fingers.
There's conversation around her, most of it conducted in whispers, punctuated by glances over shoulders, shoulders that rise as heads lean forward. The girl across the table spends a long minute slurping the broth from the edge of her spoon, her dark eyes blinking as a drop splashes on her chin. "I'm just sayin'," she mutters, and wipes her mouth with her hand.
"She was here this morning," another girls says. "I saw her at breakfast. I'll bet she ran off."
"That's silly." The first girl rolls her eyes, her blonde bangs brushing the tops of thin eyebrows. "If you run, you're gonna disappear. There's nothing round here, not for miles."
A mousy girl, taller than the rest, drops her elbows on the table. Under the dim lights on the ceiling, her freckles blend into the shadows beneath her eyes. "Would you rather go back?" The question hangs in the space above the table, aimed at no one in particular. "Hop on one of the buses, then. Just make sure Miss Helena doesn't catch you. She'll drag you off to the office before you can spit."
"I don't wanna go back," a young one mutters, ginger curls trembling as she shakes her head. "I think we're safer here."
"That's probably why they shipped us all this way," the mousy girl says, her voice mimicking wisdom. "To keep us from getting killed."
Karin scrapes the sides of the bowl with her spoon, careful not to make too much noise, to miss any of the words flying over her head. The broth is thick by the time she gets to the bottom, clogged with crumbs and globules of yellow grease. But she eats all of it, even running her finger along the inside of the bowl to scoop up the dregs. It isn't until it's gone that the taste of it comes back to her, the saltiness, the chewy bits of vegetable that weren't cooked through.
"Someone should tell Miss Helena." It's the girl on Karin's left that says this, her voice a series of sharp hisses. "If Simone ran away…"
"I'm not telling her." The mousy girl dunks her spoon into the depths of her uneaten soup. "I'll bet she knew before we did. And she won't say anything about it, either."
Karin sets down her bowl, her spoon clinking softly against the rim. It takes her a moment to decide who to direct her question towards, finally settling on all of them. "What are you talking about?"
A few of the girls continue their muttering, pausing to take a bite and grimace at the flavor as their broth turns cold. The mousy girl fixes her with a dark-eyed stare.
"How old are you?" she asks. "Ten? Eleven?"
"I'll be twelve soon." Karin sniffs. "Next month."
The other girl makes a small sound, dismissing her with a breath. "I'm older than you." She smiles, two rows of shining braces put on display. "So I'll bet you wouldn't understand."
***In the dark, Karin hears a cough, a brief blast of sound that breaks the night's silence before abandoning it again. She clings to the memory of the noise, hoping it will be enough to lull her back to sleep, but the quiet presses down on her until she fidgets beneath the covers, her head sliding from one edge of the pillow to the other in search of the coolest spot.
Above her, the windows are black squares of nothing, barely distinguishable from the walls, but her gaze rests on one of them as she hopes for a sound from outside, something that will reassure her with its familiarity. At night, she should hear the rumbling of traffic from the street below, planes buzzing across the sky. A glance at the wall and she thinks of pipes clanking, knocking away as if someone was using them to tap out some kind of code.
Another cough and she sits up, one hand pushing the hair out of her eyes as the other tugs at the blankets, the sheet twisted around her ankles. There is movement in the dark, at the edges of her vision, but when she turns her head, the disturbance disappears. A rustling sound propels her off the edge of the bed, the girl in the bed beside her rolling from one side to the other in her sleep. To her own ears, she is too loud, the thin mattress creaking beneath her, the soft slap of her bare feet on the stone floor. Even the brush of her hand across her mouth to dislodge a strand of hair must be sound enough to alert even the deepest of sleepers.
Without the light of day to illuminate the room, the rows of beds seem to move on their own, shifting closer together, ready to catch the edge of her foot or her hand if she's not careful. At the door, she stops and breathes, hoping that the narrow space between the girls' dormitory and the corridor will muffle the sound. She remembers Helena, and the memory makes her hesitate. She should go back to bed, bury her face in the flattened pillow and pull the blanket over her eyes. She should, she thinks, and takes another step forward.
The corridor seems larger now, without other bodies to eat up the space. She clings to the inner wall, away from the windows, until she sees the edge of the doors that lead outside. There is someone else nearby. She knows this, but she doesn't call out into the dark in hopes of a response.
Her cheek is pressed against the wall. She waits for a minute, maybe, and then a smudge of shadow seems to separate itself from the darkness. It moves slowly, slow enough that Karin blinks several times until she's certain it can't be a trick of the light. She watches the door, expecting it to open, but the great slab of wood remains shut. The smudge continues its motion forward, hesitates for a moment, before passing through the door and out of sight.
She should follow, she tells herself, but her feet refuse to move. Better to stay where she is, until she can see in the dark, and then return to her own room, her own bed. She turns, slowly, without a breath escaping her lungs, but another figure is there, watching her.
"You," she whispers, and seals her lips together. The boy from the bus, from the courtyard. Peter. Peter with the pictures. The picture of the tree they both had climbed.
He puts his finger to his lips, shakes his head twice. Karin nods and raises her shoulders against the urge to speak a second time. A slight tilt of his head tells her to follow him. Towards the boys' dormitory, she notices, but she doesn't say a word.
His hand catches her arm, tugs at her nightdress until she ducks around the corner with him.. She hears his breathing, feels the warmth of it on her shoulder, along the side of her neck.
"Did you see him?" he asks, his voice so low she has to turn her head and watch the movement of his lips to understand what he says.
"I saw… Yes."
"He was in the bed near mine. I heard him get up and… and…" He swallows, the sound of it louder than his words. "The door," he says, and nothing more.
Karin glances to her left, down the length of the hall, but everything is still again, the shadows staying in place. "Should we tell someone?"
"I dunno, maybe…" She looks at his eyes, white and black and glimmering in the darkness. "The lady, Helena."
His mouth thins until it disappears. "We're not supposed to be out of bed."
Karin shakes her head.
"We didn't see nothing," he tells her, and says it again. "We didn't see nothing, okay?"
***After breakfast, they are sent outside, the boys and the girls in two straight lines. They remain at opposite sides of the courtyard, the girls talking in whispers, the boys venturing out from the shadows to run, or to play at fighting, before retreating to the shelter of the walls once more. Karin stands apart, one shoulder against the cool stone of the wall while she pushes the toe of her shoe into the pale dirt.
Peter isn't there. She searches for his straw-colored hair among the heads that surround her, and then her gaze drops down as she looks for any scratches or drawings on the ground. She tries not to think about the night before, the darkness of the corridors, and the smudge of shadow that flickered in and out before it passed through the door.
"Child?"
Karin jumps at the word, spoken so close that she feels the air move across the top of her head. She looks around, and everyone is quiet, every pair of eyes trained on her.
Behind her, Helena stands outside of the shadows, her eyes hardly squinting against the bright light of the sky.
"You will come with me," Helena says, and waits for Karin to move before she turns away.
Indoors again, and Karin finds herself blinking rapidly until her eyes acclimate to the darkness. She tries to recall the morning, the dawn and the steady brightening of the light outside the windows that signals the beginning of another day, but there was no steady progression from darkness to light. She closed her eyes after returning to her bed, and when she opened them again, it was as bright as midday.
She closes her eyes now, puts out her right hand and trails her fingers along the wall. It's a solid thing, and she wonders at that, as if she might have been able to discover some sort of weakness in the structure, something that would permit one solid object to pass through another.
"This way," Helena prompts her, and Karin looks up to realize that she has fallen behind. The corridor is unfamiliar to her, and she glances at the windows, wondering how far she has been led from the courtyard. She can't hear any voices, no sounds of play or discord. Helena is several paces ahead, her neat skirt swaying softly with every step, the hem long enough that it nearly hides her feet from view. The dress is old, she thinks. A style that she hasn't seen before, only in pictures and portraits. But when she tries to remember a particular image of a woman wearing such an outfit, the memory shudders and begins to fade away.
They turn around a corner, into a hall without windows but boasting a single door. Helena places her hand on the knob and waits for Karin to come up beside her before she opens the door and motions for her to step inside.
The light is the first thing Karin notices. There are no windows, no other doors, but there are lamps – two, three, maybe more – scattered around the large room, teetering on the edge of a shelf, a tall lamp arching over a worn armchair, and yet another on the end of a desk. The desk is flanked by mismatched chairs, and in one of the chairs sits Peter, the tips of his shoes barely brushing the bare floor as his legs swing forward and back.
"Sit down, over there," Helena says, and directs Karin toward the chair closest to Peter. Her skirt rustles softly as she moves to the other side of the desk, but she remains standing as she regards the two of them. "Tell me," she begins, and then a pause. Her lips seal together, one corner of her mouth quirked before she speaks again. "Tell me what you remember."
Karin looks down at her lap. She feels Peter's gaze on her for a second, before he follows suit and drops his chin against his chest.
"Now, now. There's no reason to be shy. You're not in any kind of trouble. I would just like to… Here." Helena takes a step forward, and Karin studies the polished tips of the woman's shoes. "Just tell me your name. Surely, you can do that. Child," She places her fingers on Karin's shoulder, the touch so light it causes her arm to twitch at the slight contact, but it succeeds in drawing her gaze up from the floor. "Do you know your name?"
"Karin," she says, and then says it again, for fear that Helena didn't catch it the first time.
"Karin. Good. That's very good. And you?" She looks at Peter. "Do you remember your name?"
"It's Peter. Ma'am," he adds, before he coughs and clears his throat.
"Karin and Peter." There is almost something of a smile carried on her words. "And can you tell me how old you are? Do you remember that as well?"
"I'm ten," Peter pipes up. "But… no. No, I'm eleven. Because I had a birthday, and… and…"
"And Karin?"
"I think…" She begins to lace her fingers together, to pull at them until she feels the knuckles crack. "I'm eleven," she says. "But I'll be twelve soon." And as soon as she says it, she knows that it is true. She will be twelve years old, and her mother promised to buy her a new dress, and her father said that she could have a new pair of shoes as well, because she had taken to growing so fast… so fast…
She looks up quickly, and Helena's eyes are fixed on her. "I-I'm sorry," she mumbles, but doesn't turn her head away. "There was… My parents…"
"What were their names?"
Karin feels the skin crinkle beside her eyes as she tries to think. "I don't… I don't…"
"It's alright," Helena tells her, cutting her off before her voice continues to deteriorate. "You're doing very well. Now," she tilts her head to one side, somehow able to watch the both of them without changing the focus of her gaze. "Is there anything else you would like to tell me? Either of you?"
"We…" Karin begins to speak, but a movement from Peter, a small shift of his elbow is enough to close her mouth again.
"N-Nothin'," Peter stammers, and finishes it with a shake of his head, sending a few strands of pale hair across his brow. "Nothin', Ma'am."
Karin hears Helena breathe, a slow breath drawn in through her nose before the air slides out from between the woman's thin lips. "Very well." She raises one hand, a gesture devoid of meaning until she speaks. "You may go now, both of you."
Karin's feet are the first to touch the floor, Peter only a moment behind her. She walks toward the door, her hand reaching out for the knob while she attempts to glance back over her shoulder, to keep Helena in sight as she leaves the room.
"C'mon," Peter whispers, his voice urging her forward.
In the hall again, and the light startles her. She waits until Peter closes the door behind her, and then he takes hold of her wrist, his arm tugging at hers until she begins to walk, until she begins to run. Their steps make dead sounds on the hard floor, without any sort of repeat against the equally hard walls. As Peter leads her around the corner, he glances back. His hair is in his eyes, his mouth set. Without a word, he pulls again, and they slow to a walk until the broad expanse of the main doors comes into view.
"No," he says as she moves toward the building's exit. "Wait." He looks back over his shoulder, and then he raises a single finger to his mouth. The two of them stand still, holding their breath as they listen. Karin hears noises coming through the doors, the other children at play, the deep voice of an adult saying a few words that she can't quite make out, but there are no other sounds inside, no footsteps indicating that someone else is about to walk around the corner and find the two of them standing there.
"I don't like her," Peter says, all in a rush. He brushes his hair out of his eyes, only to have the same strands sweep back across his forehead.
"Is that why you didn't tell her about…?"
He looks at her then, his eyes bright in the light from the windows. "We weren't supposed to see him. That boy. But she knew, didn't she?"
Karin nods, the only response she can manage before Peter speaks again.
"I'm going to leave. Tonight. I want to see what's out there, see if I can find that boy, and… the others…"
She looks behind her again, every nerve on alert as their voices lose strength. "You could follow the road."
"Yeah. If I go back the way we came… the bus…" He squints, the skin between his eyes crinkling with some kind of internal effort.
Karin moves a step closer to him. "You don't remember, do you? How we got here?"
He shakes his head, his eyes closing, as if defeated. "Something happened. It was… there was noise. And my mom and dad… they weren't there."
"Neither were mine."
"But that Helena," Peter tilts his head toward the end of the corridor. "She knows. She knows everything."
Karin nods again. She licks her lips, and suddenly she wonders when the next meal will be, but she can't remember how long it's been since breakfast, and then she looks at the windows, even though she knows the angle of the light won't help her.
"C'mon," Peter says, and tugs at her elbow. "We should go back outside."
"Yeah, okay." She begins to follow him, but her eyes are drawn back towards the window, at the square of sky visible to her through the panes. There's a tingle at the back of her mind, and she closes her eyes long enough to see on the back of her eyelids what she doesn't see through the glass.
"What is it?" he asks her, his voice louder now, as if he's no longer afraid of being caught.
"It's…" Karin walks away from him, until she is nearly against the wall and her eyes are just level with the windowsill. "It's the sky. It's bright and all, but… there's no sun. If there's light, there should be sun." She looks back toward Peter. "Shouldn't there?"
"I'm going outside," he says, ignoring her question.
She sighs, and then she follows him through the door.
***Her nightgown is folded into a neat square, clean and white on the end of her bed. The other girls all shuffle into place beside their own beds, and then there is the soft thump of shoes hitting the floor, the rustle of fabric as dresses are drawn over heads and hair is smoothed back into place once more. Karin leaves her own dress in a heap on the floor, but she knows that in the morning, it will be folded and set on top of her shoes. And it will smell strange, as if she had never worn it before.
As soon as she slips into her nightgown, she sits on the edge of the thin mattress and begins to comb her fingers through her hair. The girl behind her, the one with the dark hair and the braids unties her red ribbons, places each one beneath her pillow, and shakes out the soft waves that hang over her shoulders. Karin picks at a strand of her own lank hair, and in that instant she knows that she's always disliked her hair, that her sister's hair was so much thicker, so much softer than her own, that… that…
Her gaze darts from one corner of the room to the other, searching everywhere for a girl, for that girl that had been so familiar to her on the morning of their arrival… just for a moment, she almost remembers…
She feels her shoulders sag as the memory slips away. One by one, the other girls are climbing into their beds. Karin slips between the sheets, stretching her legs out as she waits for the blanket to warm against her skin. As soon as the last girl is tucked in, one of the women appears in the doorway, her hand crossing the wall as she reaches for a switch. A click, and the lights go out. Karin stares up at the ceiling, blinking away the white spots where the lights had been.
The pillow is flat and firm beneath her head. She rolls onto her left side, the side she always sleeps on, and closes her eyes to the rustle of other girls shifting in their beds, the creak of mattresses protesting the change of weight above them. She tells herself that she won't fall asleep. There are too many thoughts in her head, all of them tumbling against each other, fighting for her attention. She won't fall asleep. She won't…
A hand on her arm, a blast of warm breath across her cheek, and her eyes open wide. She doesn't move, but Peter places his finger to his lips, warns her before she can even think to open her mouth.
He nods towards her neat stack of clothes, and she notices then that he's fully dressed. She sits up slowly, her teeth clenched as the bed releases a small groan. Her dress is folded again, neat and square, but there's no time to dwell on it. Peter picks up her shoes as she slips her dress over her head, her arms wriggling as she slips her nightgown down, down her waist and over her hips. Her bare feet find the floor, and then she follows him, out of the room, into the corridor, and then past the windows as they make their way toward the main entrance.
"Here." Peter pauses long enough to pass her shoes back to her. She steps into them, feeling clumsy in the dark.
A gesture from Peter, and they move toward the doors. He puts his hands out, palms forward, until he touches the wood. And then he waits.
Karin doesn't look behind her. If they're being watched, she doesn't wish to know. She keeps her eyes forward, watching Peter's left hand as it slides across the door, his fingers pale white in the darkness. He looks at her, expectantly, and the question is there in his eyes. But despite what they saw the previous night, the door remains a solid thing. He sighs, and there is a soft click as he raises the latch, and it's then that Karin realizes she's holding her breath, her shoulders raised high as if that enough would block out any more unwanted sound.
As soon as they are outside, Karin searches the sky, for stars, for the moon, but there is nothing. Yet she can see the lines of the walls, the shallow indentations in the ground from an afternoon of muted play. She puts her own hand out in front of her, her fingers flexed, and she can count all five of them, the nails, the knuckles, the veins and tendons all clearly visible, even without any light from the sky.
Their steps fall quietly on the ground, a dead sound that makes Karin uncomfortable. Peter leads her to the edge of the yard, and then a few more steps, and they arrive at the line that the road draws through the land. Karin moves to stand beside him, her shoulder just brushing against his own.
"Which way?" she asks, but she's sure that she already knows.
Peter doesn't look left or right. His chin raises slightly, hardly a movement, and then he breathes. "You can go back, you know."
Karin nods. "I know." Her fingers twitch. She reaches across the few inches of space left between them, touches her fingers to his.
"C'mon," he says, but he doesn't move. Karin circles her hand around his wrist, gives his arm the gentlest of pulls. They move forward, not left or right, but across the narrow road.
***The lights are bright, even with her eyes shut. There is a rush of sound, of overlapping voices, the clink of glass, a steady squeak and roll. A curtain is pulled back, and she tries to turn her head toward the sound, but her neck is stiff, sore, and her body doesn't want to cooperate.
She breathes slowly, focusing on each breath, on the way her chest expands and contracts, at how each inhalation and exhalation sound inside her head. She counts her heartbeats, up to ten before she starts over, again and again until another noise distracts her.
The curtain again, and then footsteps. A shadow passes over her, blocking out the light for a moment, and then a hand touches her arm, cool fingers turning over her wrist before pausing for several seconds. The hands move to her body, pressing gently against her ribs, and then upwards, across her shoulders, over her neck, touching her jaw long enough to turn her head from side to side. The fingers leave briefly, and then her right eyelid is pulled open, a bead of light shining directly into her eye.
"Stop." Her mouth moves without sound. Her throat convulses, and then a shudder – almost a cough ripples through her chest. Immediately, the light is switched off and the hand pulls away from her face.
"Karin?" A man's voice. She knows she's never heard it before this moment.
She opens her eyes, but nothing is clear. A white spot still floats in front of her right eye, and she blinks until it begins to fade.
"Karin, can you hear me?"
The smell… There's something chemical about the smell, and when she turns her head to one side, even the pillow has a harsh, clean odor to it.
"Karin-"
"Peter." She blinks, runs her tongue over her bottom lip, and tries again. "Where… Where's Peter?"
"Karin, can you see me?"
More blinking. The lights are too bright, and the smell… every time she breathes, it makes her eyes water and burn. She wants to speak, but her throat feels strange, tight. So she searches for the muscles in her neck and gives him a slow nod in response.
"Good. That's good. And do you know where you are?"
No, no, no. She wants to shake her head. But the light, the sounds, the smells, the gentle fingers of the man standing over her…
Another nod.
"Good. And… do you… do you remember? Do you remember what happened?"
What happened… She remembers the feel of Peter's skin, his wrist warm and slender in her hand. She remembers the hard-packed dirt of the ground as they walked to the other side of the road, and then…
"What…" Her voice is a croak. She forces out another cough, and then tries to swallow. "What happened?"
"Now, Karin. I want you to rest. Can you do that for me?"
"No." She reaches out, her hand sliding over stiff sheets and a blanket before her fingers encounter cold… cold, smooth metal. A bar, she thinks. Or a kind of rail. She slips her hand through the rail, grasping until she finds the edge of the man's white coat. "No, no. What… What happened?"
She hears him sigh. He wants to leave her, leave her to sleep, to dream. But she wants to stay awake, with her eyes open, and she wants him to tell her everything.
"You were at school," he says, his words slow, so that she feels young and small in the large, metal bed. "Do you remember that much?"
A nod. That is all she can give him.
"You were at school, and there was an attack. A bomb. And there was… there was an explosion. There were… A lot of people were hurt. Do you… Do you remember…?"
But already, her head shakes, side to side, side to side. They were on the bus, and they were safe, and there was Peter…
"I want… I want to go back," she says. "I want to find Peter…"
The man steps far enough away that the edge of his coat slips from her fingers. "I'm going to call someone, one of the nurses who's been taking care of you…"
She can't fight. She doesn't have the strength to fight. And everything hurts, even the parts she hasn't tried to move. "Please," she says, and her throat tightens around that single word.
He presses a button, and then he returns to her side, one hand patting her gently on the shoulder. "I'll fetch your parents. They're with your sister right now. She was in surgery this morning, but she'll be fine. You'll both be fine, okay?"
Her eyes close, and maybe she sleeps, because when she opens them again, her mother is beside her, and her father is in a chair, his elbows resting on the foot of her bed. Her mother speaks to her in hushed tones, about survivors and about the children who didn't make it, as if any word spoken in a whisper will not hurt. Her father sits with his hands clasped, pressed against his forehead. He doesn't speak, but every few minutes he unfurls one hand and rests it against her knee.
A nurse enters while her parents are still there, and the woman asks if she would like something to eat, or if she would like more pillows. She turns to leave, and then she stops, her white shoes squeaking softly on the shining floor.
"Oh, I just remembered." She returns to the bedside, sets both of her hands on the metal rail. "You had said something about a boy. A boy named Peter, I think?"
Karin shifts in the bed, her elbows digging into the mattress as she tries to sit up.
"Karin, just calm down…" her mother says, but places a hand beneath her arm and helps to move her upright as she adjusts the stack of firm pillows behind her head.
"Well," the nurse says. "I checked, and there is a boy who was brought in with you. He's not from your class, but he woke up around the same time as you, and he…"
"I want to see him," Karin says, and she feels her mother's hand tighten on her arm.
There is a silent dialogue between her mother and the nurse, entire sentences spoken with the lift of an eyebrow and the dip of a chin. "Alright," the nurse says after a minute. "I'll see what I can do."
Karin closes her eyes and leans back against the pillows. She feels her father's hand on her knee, giving it a squeeze. When the curtain is pushed back again, she raises her head, but her mother's arm blocks her view, and she has to tilt her head forward to see.
His hair is the same, the color of straw, but its shine is muted beneath the artificial lights all around them. He moves awkwardly, his left arm in a sling, and across the bridge of his nose is a dark bruise with a gash in the middle of it, so swollen that it makes his eyes look red and heavy, as if from crying.
She opens her mouth, ready to speak, but her voice dies in her throat. A sigh, and she tries to smile, but in the end, she simply nods once, and after a moment, he does the same.
"The Narrow Road" Copyright © 2012 by Quenby Eisenacher, All Rights Reserved
Posted in: Fiction, Weird Tales	| Tagged: short story, strange, tales, weird
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Filmmakers of Our Time: John Cassavetes – 1968 French Documentary →


text:
Domino's delivery driver saves customer's life
by: Yama Hazheer
Posted: May 14, 2016 / 07:40 PM PDT
SALEM, Ore. (KOIN) – Domino's delivers!
Employees at a Domino's Pizza in Salem hadn't heard from regular customer Kirk Alexander in 11 days, so they sent a delivery driver to check on him. It turned out Alexander needed help.
Sarah Fuller, the general manager for Domino's, told KOIN 6 News Alexander has been ordering from their store since 2009.
"He orders every day, every other day," Fuller said. "His order pops up on the screen because he orders online. So we see it come across the screen and we're like, 'Oh, Kirk's order.'"
But a few days had gone between his orders and some of the drivers mentioned it. Finally, around midnight Saturday, they decided to look at his account to see what was going on.
"We saw the last order was 11 days ago. We knew something wasn't (right), that wasn't normal at all," Fuller said.
She sent pizza deliverer Tracey Hamblen to Alexander's northeast Salem home in the 4100 block of Penticton Circle NE. Hamblen knows the route well, since Alexander orders often.
He also knew Alexander, 48, has health issues. When Hamblen arrived at Alexander's house, he saw lights on and heard the TV. But there was no answer at the door and his phone went directly to voicemail.
Paramedics said Alexander was laying on the ground in his house, and Fuller said they believed he had a stroke. It's not clear when Alexander was affected.
"It's crazy. It wasn't what I was really expecting would happen at all," Fuller said.
She said she visited him at the hospital, and though he didn't talk much, she said he smiled.
Kirk Alexander, she said, is "just an important customer that's part of our family here at Domino's. He orders all the time, so we know him. I think we wer just doing our job checking in on someone we know who orders a lot. We felt like we needed to do something."
The Marion County Sheriff's Office publicly thanked Hamblen and said his quick action and willingness to help made all the difference.