text:
The Dark Wizard Of Donkerk, Chapter 8: The Journey North
Ventor was called into throne room on a particularly bad morning. One of the serving girls, a freshly hired one, had brought breakfast to his room by mistake. He had stared that the tray of food. The sausages had been fried enough that the skin had cracked, revealing grease and juice inside. There were six small tomatoes that were still on their vine together, and those had been fried as well so they were cooked through. Everywhere his eyes landed there was another marvel, a glob of blackberry jam on top of a piece of buttered toast, a baked roll with soft cheese inside it, a hard-boiled egg decorated with a pinch of salt and pepper, on and on, a full breakfast that his mouth would have watered at even if he hadn't been without food for six years and three months. He had taken the plate with shaking hands and thanked the serving girl, who hadn't seemed to realize that anything was wrong. He'd sat in his room with the plate on a desk in front of him, staring at it for a good twenty minutes. He went so far as touching the food, bringing it to his nose to sniff at it. Every other oath Ventor pictured as a chain, but the Oath of Hunger and the Oath of Thirst were like twin animals clawing him hollow from the inside.
Ventor hadn't broken his oath. He'd come close, trembling with a hot sausage inches from his tongue, but at the last second he'd thrown the plate out his window instead. He had cried, but it wasn't the first time that the twin oaths had done that to him. He had been careful not to let his tears fall into his mouth.
By the time a messenger had come to fetch him, Ventor had pulled himself back together. There was usually a deep catharsis in coming upon a temptation and resisting it, but six years had weakened the thrill of conquest that he'd once felt at keeping the animal oaths at bay. Ventor was coming to wonder how many years he had left in him. Delland had lasted sixty years in the Strangheid. Ventor couldn't imagine himself enduring for that amount of time, if he managed to survive the trials and tribulations of hunting witches and wizards for the king.
The throne room was bedlam when Ventor entered. There were a dozen other oathkeepers, nearly all that were stationed in the castle, even those that should have been sleeping. When Ventor entered, they looked to him as though he would know what to do, even though he'd never led anyone in his life. The Strangheid had a special power among the oathkeepers; it was a symbol of everlasting devotion and sacrifice. It didn't matter at all that Ventor had come within a bare inch of breaking his oath.
"My daughter went to her room at the usual time last night," said King Aldric. His voice cut through the chatter, stilling the sages in mid-sentence. His gaze was firmly on Ventor. "This morning, her handmaiden came to her room to wake her for the day. The door to the bedroom was locked, which was not terribly unusual. It wasn't until well after breakfast that more insistent efforts were made to bring the princess from her slumber. A key was found and used to open her bed chambers after giving her plenty of warning. When the door was opened, she was not there; her perfectly made bed had a note on it. That note claimed that she decided to go west, in order to commune with Lantis, the spirit of the Berrung Mountains. When my son was informed of this, he revealed that Princess Sofia had spoken with him some days prior about what conditions in the Silent Desert were like. It is Prince Rowan's contention that the note was a false trail laid for us to deflect our attentions. He believes that Sofia's target is not Lantis, but Pothis instead. The princess is, at most, twelve hours away from Marurbo at this moment. If you are in this room, then you are privileged in knowing the prophecy that came before my daughter's birth. We must now behave as though the prophecy is nigh and the kingdom itself is in utmost danger."
Ventor nodded to his king. An order was going to come soon and the Oath of Fealty would become his guide once more. "I will do whatever it takes to see her returned," said Ventor.
"The sages must think on the matter," said King Aldric. "Be ready to leave at a moment's notice."
With that the room became lively once more. Ventor stood with the other oathkeepers as the sages spoke with each other. He had questions, like how such an escape could even happen given that she was under guard by two oathkeepers throughout the night, but he didn't suppose that his questions would do much more than distract from the issue at hand, which was getting the princess back. The other oathkeepers looked uncomfortable; this was, in part, their failure.
"We can split our resources between east and west," said one of the sages.
"Those aren't the only two options," said another sage. "If the princess has left one false trail, it is possible that she's more than one. She might have gone north, or boarded a ship going south. It's possible that she's staying in the city and not traveling anywhere at all."
"So we cannot know where she is going," said the first sage, "Which would mean that we should use some method to cover as much ground as possible in all directions."
"Nonsense," replied a sage with a thick black beard. "We are not dealing with fair dice. We must gather all the information that we know about how the princess thinks and make a distribution of probabilities, then spend our resources in such a way that we expect the highest possible return."
The conversation continued on in this vein for quite a long time. Ventor chafed at it, but there was little to be done about it. The sages would do their thinking and the king would make the ultimate decision, but until that time, Ventor would await his orders. The other oathkeepers had preparations to make so that they could be ready for an extended journey, but Ventor never removed his armor and carried his sword with him everywhere he went. He had no need to stock up on food or carry skins of water. His station of authority meant that he had no need for money either. He had no friends to say goodbye to and no obligations that he would be leaving on the floor.
The sages eventually came up with a plan for sending the oathkeepers along all the major roads away from Marurbo, stopping in every town along the way in order to enlist the help of the locals. Given their travel speeds, the oathkeepers could ensure that the entire kingdom would know that the princess was missing within the week. With a sizable reward on offer, everyone would be looking for her. It would be a scandal for the king, but he had waved that concern aside as though it were nothing.
Ventor was the last of the oathkeepers to be given an assignment. When it came his turn, the king had the sages and the prince leave the room as well. Ventor could feel nervous anticipation at the thought of what was coming. There was something that the king wanted done, something that required secrecy.
"By the power of your oath to me," said King Aldric. "I command you to travel to the orphanage at Leshampur with all due haste and seek the savior promised by prophecy. If you find my daughter while trying to find the savior, I command you to bring her back to the castle with all due haste, whether my daughter wishes to return or not. If those two commands conflict, the second command takes precedence over the first."
"I understand, my king," said Ventor. The Oath of Fealty was a thin golden chain, stretched out behind Ventor and pulling him backward almost immediately. "I shall leave at once and not return until my task has been completed." Ventor turned and walked away without listening for an answer. It was rude, but his oath did not care about such things. Ventor was on the hunt again.
❧❧❧
Saying goodbye to Ulf had been the hardest part. He had understood that she was leaving the castle, and seemed to know that this was necessary, but he wasn't happy about it. Sofia had met dozens of spirits, but Ulf was the one she had the strongest connection to. He was also the one that she knew best. He would miss her, and she would miss him. When he dropped her on the bridge, she gave him a tight hug that squeezed the pieces of porcelain together, then kissed him on the curved white and blue shard that made up his forehead. Then she was off, without a second look backward.
Sofia had waited until the night of the full moon, which made walking in the dark easier. Once she was past the Grunwich Tower that marked the border between Marurbo and the farmlands, she ducked into a copse of trees in order to complete her disguise. Her ringlets of red hair hung down to the small of her back when they were loose, which was too distinctive if she wasn't wearing a hood. She gathered her hair up at the back of her head and used a sharp knife she'd taken from the kitchen to slice through it all. After that she pulled out a bottle of dye she'd taken from the royal alchemist and began rubbing it into her hair. Once she was done, she washed up in a nearby stream and looked at the results in a hand mirror, trying her best to reflect the moonlight so she could get a look at herself. She looked like a different person, less royal than before. Her skin was more fair than she would expect from a girl who had worked as a washerwoman or a maid, and her fingers were clean and slender, but the resemblance was close enough. She had stories ready for those who would question her.
Sofia was past the point of no return. If all went well, no one would know that she was gone for hours, by which time she would be twenty or thirty miles from Marurbo. She would take the back roads and take advantage of the kindness of out-of-the-way strangers. The oathkeepers would be looking for her, and they would move quickly, but they had a wide area to search. The first days would be the most difficult, but after those had passed, it would simply be a matter of keeping her head down and traveling as swiftly as possible. It would take two months to get to the Citadel, where Sofia hoped she would meet her mother.
"Sacrifice, ritual, intention," said Omarr. "Those are the three components to dark magic. It's only the first that makes it dark though; the intention might be good or bad, and the ritual is usually nonsense meant to signal the spirit, but it's the sacrifice that makes people shiver, and sometimes that's even for good reason."
Henry sat on the soft grass outside the cottage as his father lectured. Sometimes the lesson of the day involved practical matters of dark magic, like how to properly draw geometric shapes for a ritual or how to distinguish diopside from augite. Dark magic required a frighteningly large amount of knowledge about the natural world because the ritual ingredients and materials meant for sacrifice were often quite specific. Henry felt fortunate that his mentalist training had given him effectively perfect memory, which meant that he could easily pass any knowledge drill that his father gave him. Omarr had given up on those two years prior, in favor of teaching Henry processes and theory that mere memory didn't help with.
Today, the lesson seemed to be about people.
"Sacrifice can be usefully divided into those which are permanent and those which are not." He held up his left hand, where two fingers were missing. "The reticence is understandable for those things which you can't get back. But for blood? Hair? Nails? The magic is weaker, but the magic can be used time and again. A strand of hair and a drop of spit can create a simple ward that will ensure a door stays shut for quite some time. A vial of blood can grant a few minutes of wicked claws for fighting, or six hours of night vision, or a few dozen other things. Even among those sacrifices that require a limited resource, there are those which no person should object to. Your father and I have saved all of your baby teeth for use in any ritual that might require them. And of course even with something so extreme as taking a life, there are sometimes ways of minimizing the cost. So the question then becomes, why are there such extreme prohibitions in place?"
Henry shrugged. The question was obviously rhetorical and he didn't imagine that his father would enjoy a proper debate on the subject.
"People are stupid," said Omarr. Henry frowned. "They're irrational. Boys hear from their fathers that dark magic is bad, then when they get older they tell their sons the same thing. People associate blood with injury, so they see any use of blood as something to be squeamish about. I know you don't like to hear it, but if you mean to practice dark magic in Donkerk, you need to know that people are stupid."
"I don't think people are stupid," said Henry. He rested his hands on his knees. "I don't think the sisters are stupid. And I've talked to enough people in Leshampur to know that they're more or less like you and I."
"You haven't talked to any of them about dark magic though, have you?" asked Omarr.
Henry shook his head. "You impressed upon me that this would be a bad thing." That was an understatement. He had so many memories of being lectured on the bad things that would happen if he let the truth slip that they all blurred together.
"Good. Let's say that something bad happens once you leave here. A man's leg breaks while you're traveling with a caravan, for example. The wound gets badly infected and the man is going to die. You have your baby teeth among your effects and without considering it too much, you perform the ritual to cure him of his sickness and restore him to health. Now, if people were smart, you wold expect that the man would be grateful, and since the only sacrifice was something that you unambiguously owned, there would be no cause for anyone to be alarmed. Yet the result is likely that you would be attacked or turned in to the oathkeepers."
"That doesn't make them stupid," said Henry. "They could be acting in their own self interest. A man might be grateful that I saved his life, but if I was revealed as a dark wizard in a more public way then he might get in trouble by not having turned me in. That would make him selfish or cautious, not stupid."
"You're being charitable," grumbled Omarr. "I sometimes fear that your father and I have done too much to shield you from the harsh realities of the world. You have never watched a man die while knowing you could save him. You've never seen the inside of a hospital that sits a mile from an abattoir where unused blood flows into the sewers, wasted. There are cemeteries where bones, skin, hair, and flesh all lay unused, rotting into the ground for no discernible reason."
"I know all that," said Henry. "I haven't experienced it like you have, and I won't until I make my own way through the world, but I do know it. That doesn't mean that people are stupid."
"Stupid was the wrong word," called Hirrush. He walked toward them from the cottage. Henry hadn't know that his other father was listening in, but it didn't surprise him. "Irrational was right, but it doesn't fully contain the disdain that your father feels, so he uses stupid instead." Hirrush nodded to Omarr. "Your father and I have seen enough of the world to know that most people are incurably irrational. I have seen men die, knowing that I could save them at the cost of revealing myself as a dark wizard. I have revealed myself as a dark wizard and had my services refused by dying men. One on occasion I continued on anyway, trying to prepare the necessary ritual, but the man fought against me, smearing the lines I was drawing in the dirt even as he was bleeding to death."
"He might not have understood," said Henry quietly. "He might have thought that you were trying to kill him, not rescue him."
"You normally have a strong sense of empathy," said Hirrush. "It's failing you now though. Someone with access to all the same information you have, someone who has read all the same books, who knows all the same arguments, might still disagree with you. I won't claim that I know what was going through that man's head as I tried and failed to save his life, but to say that he would have allowed me to do what needed to be done if only we had time to have a civilized chat is simply wrong."
"I think I understand," said Henry. "But you're arguing two different things then. One, people are irrational and do things that directly contradict what their own interests and values might be. Two, people are different in some core way that isn't reducible to just the facts at hand. So there's a disorder to the mind which makes dark magic dangerous around them, but even without that disorder it might still be dangerous."
"I know you won't be home for much longer," said Omarr. "Working at the orphanage was just your first step toward finding your own way through life and I don't have any illusions about this cottage being able to hold your attention for long."
"It's not that," began Henry.
"We're not offended," said Hirrush. "What your father is trying to get across is that people are dangerous, even beyond mere abilities. If you've got any ambitions at all, you're going to run up against other people, those who are irrational or those who are rational with their own goals that differ from your own. Worse, you're going to encounter systems of people that don't really exist for any reason that anyone understands and which no one individual is capable of changing."
"We're worried you're going to try too much," said Omarr. "We've equipped you as best we can, you're more skilled as a mentalist than your father was at your age —"
"Don't give the boy an ego," said Hirrush.
"— and all you're really missing is an oath if you wanted to have the trifecta of power. You're strong, Henry, and you're going to get stronger as the years go by, but there are still challenges that are beyond you. Call people stupid, or irrational, or say that they're just aligned along a different axis than you, but understand that it's you against the world. The injustices that you find, the ones that you're going to be compelled to fix, those are the ones that have been most resistant to fixing. There are problems with experience, ones that are intractable. Don't throw yourself against the rocks."
Henry frowned and looked very solemn. He stared at the ground in front of him as his fathers shared a look. "I think a reasonable person can see the horror of the world and shirk back from it. I think you can throw up your hands and say that the way things are is how they'll always be, that the problems we see, or at least the big ones, are still around because they're just so frighteningly difficult. You can be reasonable and intelligent, and you can still think those things." Henry looked up and met his fathers' gaze. "If you're telling me not to try changing the world, then I can't promise that. I'll be careful. I'll be clever. But once I've tracked down my parents and talked to Sofia, I'm going to find those big, intractable problems and work on the solutions."
Henry stood up and walked away, across the pasture with the grazing goats and toward the road. He had no firm destination in mind, but the conversation was over. His fathers had tried to warn him about a certain type of people without really thinking about the fact that they might be the sort of person they were warning about. He could count on one hand the number of times his fathers had done something that wasn't for themselves or for him. He was grateful for the life they'd provided him, and for the skills and training they'd given him, but he wasn't planning on leaving just because of wanderlust or the need to make his own way in life. His fathers, unfortunately, were wrong.
Ventor knocked twice on the door to the orphanage. Though Leshampur had seen some changes in the sixteen years since he'd come through, the orphanage looked the same as it ever did. He was certain that it had experienced some wear in that time, but his memories weren't sharp enough that he could compare the thick oak door to how it had been. If anything it was in better repair than it had been. The orphanage had been standing for a hundred years, replacing wood when there was rot and taking on a fresh coat of paint every decade or so. It was reassuring to think that in a hundred years, the orphanage would probably still be standing, in more or less the form it took now.
A young girl of not much more than twenty swept open the door. She wore the wimple and a powder blue dress that draped to the floor, which marked her as a member of the Foresworn Sisters, but the youth of her face betrayed her as very much a junior member of her order. She was pretty, in the way that young women often are, and Ventor felt a slight tug at his Oath of Chastity, which he imagined as a silver chain about his neck. She looked him up and down, and her eyes widened with every inch they traveled.
"Is Sister Clarice available?" asked Ventor. "It's quite urgent."
"She's not here," said the sister. She had no Oath of Silence then, which was something of a relief. More than that, she seemed to recover quickly from having taken in his imposing figure, which was another point in her favor. In his hunting of witches and dark wizards, Ventor had come to know the value of someone who could resist being tripped up by the unexpected. "She left the order three years ago. Is there perhaps something that I can help you with?"
Ventor felt a tightness in his chest. The image of Clarice laying naked in the moonlight floated unbidden through his mind, a memory sixteen years old but no less vivid for the passage of time. "She is Fallen," said Ventor. "She betrayed her oaths."
"Who did you say you were?" asked the sister. "I am Sister Miriam and if there was something that Clarice could have helped you with, perhaps I can help in her stead."
"I am Rector Ventor," said Ventor. He straightened his back and gestured to his chest. "I bear the Strangheid, which does not permit insignia, but I am a member of the High Rectory. I can demonstrate my oaths, if you require such."
Miriam seemed to relax. "That won't be necessary," she replied. "Especially given my induction was so recent I cannot respond in kind. Yet you still haven't told me what it is you wished from Clarice."
"A child was stolen from this orphanage sixteen years ago," said Ventor. "I came here then and attempted to find whoever had stolen the child, but to no avail. Now desperation requires the search to begin again. Sister Clarice was instrumental in providing me with assistance last time and I had hoped that she would be able to do so again. If she is fallen, she is worthless for this endeavor and you will have to serve as my liaison during my time in Leshampur."
Miriam's eyes widened. "Oh, you're that Ventor, I had been given some background but only one of the others sisters has speech. I'll prepare a room for you right away and of course answer any questions that you might have. In the meantime, if you'd like to remove your armor and get more comfortable, I'll inform the others that you're here."
"I do not remove the armor," said Ventor. He felt himself stiffening and tried to relax. Just as the serving girl hadn't meant offense by giving him breakfast, this sister did not understand the pain that she caused. "I do not eat or drink either, and I have taken the Fifth Elevation of the Oath of Chastity. Please make no further offers."
Miriam gave him a curt nod. "Henry," she called with a look over her shoulder. "I know you've been eavesdropping, make yourself useful and take the rector to the receiving room."
A small blonde boy, too old to be under the orphanage's care, stepped out from behind a doorway and gave the sister a bow. "If you'll follow me?" he asked.
"You could apologize for listening in," said Miriam.
"Curiosity is nothing to apologize for," replied the boy with a grin. "I try not to apologize if I don't mean it."
Miriam gave a harrumph, but went off her own direction.
"You're not an orphan," said Ventor as he followed behind the boy. The king's wording, 'all due haste', echoed in his mind. There were other wordings that the king could have used, ones which would have bound Ventor more tightly, but 'all due haste' gave some leeway for Ventor to decide how much haste was due, so long as Ventor was doing his best to move forward. "If you were an orphan, you would have been sent to the rectors years ago. Why are you here?"
"I'm useful," said Henry. "I fix things that are broken, clean things that are dirty, help out with the children from time to time if there's a crisis, run errands that the sisters are too busy for, speak for the sisters that have taken oaths of silence, and generally help things run smoothly."
"How old are you?" asked Ventor.
The boy opened the door to a room and paused slightly to take in Ventor's armor. "Sixteen," he replied. "If you need anything at all, let me know. This is the room that they use for talking to prospective parents, or for other business that requires some privacy. I can bring you a pen, ink, and paper if you'd like. You're going to be looking for a child?"
"A boy," said Ventor. "Your age, in fact." His eyes narrowed, but the boy looked at him with simple curiosity. "Who are your parents?"
"My father is Omarr, a farmer some ways outside of town," said Henry. "My mother, Patrice, died when I was six years old. I don't really remember her though. If you'd like, I can help to round up some of the children my age. The sisters stay at the orphanage, for the most part, but I know plenty of people around Leshampur. It wouldn't hurt to sweeten the pot if you wanted to bring people in, some torts or trifles for those who aren't moved by civic duty."
Ventor pursed his lips. He didn't honestly believe that he could be so lucky as to find the prophesied savior sitting inside the orphanage he'd been stolen from sixteen years ago. Besides, he had an immediate feel for the boy as something of a scoundrel. Ventor had started his life as a miscreant and knew how a young boy with loose morals might weasel his way into the employ of those who didn't truly need him. On top of whatever they were paying him, Henry likely took his own cut when he went to buy things for the sisters. Once he had inserted himself into the middle, he could skim his own portion from the top.
"Your service would be appreciated," Ventor said to the boy. "In the meantime, I will need the pen and paper that you mentioned. There is much work to be done here if I might hope for this investigation to bear fruit."
Sofia had been surprised by the number of spirits she encountered on her journey north. House spirits, like Ulf, were supposed to be found in one in every thousand buildings. Nature spirits were more common, but also more rarely seen, simply because there was so much more to nature. If a lake had a spirit which had taken physical form, fishermen might row their boats across the placid water for decades without ever catching sight of it. Houses and structures were also inherently centered around humans, so of course house spirits would have an interest in people. Not so the nature spirits, who mostly didn't care about people so long as there was some measure of respect involved. Seeing a nature spirit was supposed to be something transcendental and unique, the kind of experience that a person got once or twice in a lifetime. Occasionally people developed a relationship with a nature spirit; a hunter might see the same spirit a number of times and take it as an omen for good or ill, or a prospector might spend a few days walking side by side with the spirit of the claim he'd staked. That was supposed to be even more rare though. Those were stories that made their way into books as exceptions to the rules that governed spirits.
Sofia saw three nature spirits in her first day on the road. The first was a squirrel with bright colors in its fur and eyebrows so large that they looked almost like wings. It had leapt from tree to tree, following her at a distance but making a fair bit of noise, until finally Sofia turned around and curtsied to it, which either scared it away or let it know that she was no threat. The second was a large bird, which flew at a sedate pace such that it cast a continual shadow over her and spared her the harshness of the sun. Once she was done walking through the wide field, the bird was nowhere to be seen. The last had been a creature that was something like a turtle, with a shell made of bark that twisted up in an improbable corkscrew on its back. It drank from the river while she refilled her waterskin and because it ignored her, she did it the courtesy of ignoring it in turn.
There was something special about Sofia, some connection to the spirit world that no one else had. House spirits were supposed to be one in a thousand, but they'd been one in a hundred instead, maybe even more. Nature spirits were supposed to be rare and reclusive, but she'd seen three in the course of a single day. Had those spirits been there all along and only been more eager to see her than they ought to have been? Or had they come from the spiritual realm to the physical realm just because of her presence? It was said that everything had a spirit, from the smallest rock to the largest mountain, but most of the time the spirits simply stayed in their own plane of existence that laid next to the real world like a sheet of paper. Sofia had no idea how anyone could have tested that, so took the idea with a grain of salt.
At mid-day she took a nap on top of a large, flat rock. When she woke up, she ate meat and cheese from her pack for supper and continued on. She was traveling light, with only a single change of clothing and enough food to last her for two days, along with enough money that she could buy whatever it was she needed along the way. Stopping in towns was dangerous, because that was where she was most likely to encounter someone looking for her, but it was a necessary part of the plan if she hoped to make it to the Citadel in a reasonable amount of time.
Her first proper stop was on her second day, when she walked into the small town of Gull's Hollow. There was only a single tavern, but they offered a pot of beef and rutabaga stew that was a welcome change from the meats and cheeses that Sofia had been eating from her pack.
"Traveling alone?" asked the innkeeper.
"Unfortunately," replied Sofia. "My uncle is a sage and sent me off by myself to gather some information on plants and animals."
The innkeeper nodded. "Well, you be careful. There's doings afoot. Heard from a friend this morning that they saw an oathkeeper running at full tilt, fast enough to kick up a trail of dust. That's a bad omen if ever there was one."
"I'll keep a look out," replied Sofia. She felt bad that her father was worrying about her, but between the note and Rowan's story, he shouldn't have been so concerned. She was grown; her father should have known that she could take care of herself.
The real test would come when she came across someone who was on the lookout for her, but that would thankfully wait for another day. Her disguise seemed adequate at least, and she had a dozen stories ready to go in case anyone asked about who she was, some of which she had the props to back up, but if she was caught she had no real illusions about being able to escape.
On the third day she came across the Trenten Wood, a long stretch of forest that hugged the River Lenten for a hundred miles. The terrain alongside the river was rocky, which meant that the paths weren't suitable for trade, especially given the much easier travel that was available by boat. Sofia had decided ahead of time that she would take the more difficult roads though, in part because she wanted to limit her exposure to people as much as was practical. The oathkeepers would hopefully avoid the Trenten Wood in favor of stopping at the settlements that flanked it, which meant that the only real risk she ran would be at the various landings where roads wound themselves through the thick canopy cover and away toward the towns outside the forest.
Sofia was only an hour into the Trenten Wood when she felt something watching her. She continued on for a few paces before turning to look at it; what she saw was a large bear the size of a carriage. Dotted all through its fur were small, purple flowers, and its eyes were that same color as well. Sofia had no doubt that she was looking at the spirit of the Trenten Wood. She had almost expected to see it, given the experiences of the past few days, but she hadn't thought that it would be so large. When it caught her eye, it rose up on its hind legs and let out a loud road that shook pine needles down all around them. Sofia wanted to scream, or to run, but neither of those would have done her any good, so instead she simply watched the spirit and prepared a speech.
"They talk about you," said Sofia. "People have tried to settle the Trenten Wood since Donkerk was just an outpost, but you always get in the way." She stared right into the bear spirit's eyes as it trundled towards her. "It's not in the history books, but I think they must have tried to kill you, maybe a few times, and you always came back stronger and meaner for it." The spirit stopped a few feet from her, sniffing the air. Still Sofia didn't move. "I don't think you're bad. I think you know that given the choice, people would cut down the trees for lumber and plant their crops on the cleared land. If they did that enough, there wouldn't be a Trenten Wood anymore. You're just defending yourself from people who haven't learned to live in harmony with the land, people who think they know better."
The spirit tilted its head to the side and looked at Sofia.
"You never give problems to people who are just passing through," said Sofia. "So I hope you'll treat me just the same as them. We've stopped encroaching on the Trenten Wood because you used force against us, but I think we both wish that it hadn't come to that." She held a hand forward, palm up. "I can't speak for all people, but I'm not going to do anything to hurt you. Deal?"
The spirit moved forward and nudged her hand with a surprisingly warm nose.
"Good," said Sofia. She let out a sigh of relief. "You can keep me company while I walk, if you'd like."
She turned to move, putting the massive spirit behind her, but the moment she did, she felt herself yanked backward. She almost lost the grip on her pack when she landed in a thick expanse of fur, but she closed her eyes tight and held on to her belongings with one hand while the other dug deep to grab a handful of the spirit's shaggy fur. After nothing more happened, Sofia righted herself and looked around; she was sitting on top of the spirit, right in the small of its back. When she had situated herself a little bit better, the spirit began to move, trundling forward through a forest that seemed to move out of its way.
Sofia leaned down and hugged the spirit close.
"Thank you," she breathed. "When I get home, I promise I'll try my best to make sure you don't have to hurt anyone again."
Henry spent an inordinate amount of time at the orphanage. Ventor's arrival was a truly frightening thing; it threw everything into jeopardy. Omarr and Hirrush were both in danger, as was Adrianna, not to mention Henry himself. He wasn't sure what the oathkeeper wanted with the missing child, but it clearly had something to do with the prophecy. Why this was being dug into now, sixteen years after the fact, was a question that Henry kept coming back to. Something must have changed.
"I could dip into his head," said Henry on the first night. "He's dangerous, I need to know what he knows. With the speed that I can chew through memories, if I worked through the night it wouldn't take me longer than a day to find a recent memory and from there I might be able to work backwards in order to get at the instructions that were given to him, or the text of the prophecy itself."
"He's important," said Hirrush. "The armor he wears is magical. You said the sword seemed to be too. That means he's not just any oathkeeper, he's one with a high rank and strong oaths, a one-man army. Most probably, his orders come from the king himself. That means that the royal mentalist will have planted a seed in the man's head, which in turn means that any attempt to breach his mind will be met with lethal force. You can't attempt it, not safely."
"If we breached together?" asked Henry.
"I'm rusty," said Hirrush. "Perhaps if we worked the job together, we'd stand a chance, but it would leave me crippled for days afterward. I wouldn't mind killing an oathkeeper, it's just a question of whether conventional means are better."
"I don't want to kill him," said Henry.
"He wants to kill us," said Omarr. "He's the same man who came here sixteen years ago. He killed a few hedge wizards then and did it with a ruthless efficiency. You said he doesn't eat or drink? There are bound to be some powerful oaths there. It's even possible we're dealing with the most powerful oathkeeper in all of Donkerk."
"I still don't want to kill him," said Henry.
"I don't either, for what that's worth," said Adrianna. The witch had been brought in for an emergency council. She was the most at risk out of all of them, owing to the fact that she had been practicing in a semi-public manner for quite a long time. Her patrons were numerous; any of them could turn her in. Worse, she had met Ventor before and there was a good chance he would remember her.
"It's not a matter of voting," said Hirrush. "It's a matter of whether we'd even be capable of it."
"We should start preparing for a rapid exit," said Omarr. He looked down at his left hand, where he was already missing two of his fingers. "We'll do the ritual ahead of time and be ready to enact it at a moment's notice."
"And leave all this behind?" asked Hirrush. "The books alone are worth a considerable fortune. All our implements, the onyx altar … it's our home, Omarr."
"Home is meaningless if we're dead," replied Omarr. "I have two caches set up, one in Marurbo and the other in Nalian. We can go to either, but we should decide now. Once we're prepared to leave, then we can think of killing the oathkeeper." He saw Henry's look. "Or not killing the oathkeeper and trying to stick this one out anyway."
"I passed his first inspection," said Henry. "If I stay close to him, I can have some control of where he decides to look. He's been sent on a fool's errand anyway. If he was sent by the king, the king is acting in desperation. And in the worst case scenario … I can hand myself in."
"Don't be daft," said Omarr.
"We don't know what the prophecy says," replied Henry. "Maybe the king wants me dead, but we can't be sure. Maybe I'm supposed to be his adviser."
"That's precisely why it's too dangerous," said Hirrush. "It's uncertain. There's high variance."
Henry rubbed his forehead. The only upside was that they were listening to him and arguing the point instead of simply trying to dictate the next move or cutting him out of the conversation entirely. "Ventor doesn't know I'm the one that he's looking for. If I leave suddenly, the sisters will notice, which will draw Ventor's attention. If we're going to evacuate to one of the boltholes, we need to make some excuse that explains where I went, unless we want Ventor on the scent. He's under the Oath of Fealty, which means that he'll be tenacious. He'll have to be, or he'd lose all that power he worked so hard to gain."
Omarr swore. "You're right. You're a known quantity. If you disappear, Ventor would come by the cottage, where he'd find dozens of major wards and a whole library full of books, any one of which is a hanging crime to own."
"You could tear up the wards and burn the cottage as you leave," said Adrianna. "But … that would be suspicious as well, if there weren't bodies to find in the fire."
"I have a ritual for that," said Hirrush. "One to reshape the bones of a cow. We could stage a house fire."
"That's drastic," said Henry. "And I think a fire is suspicious either way. Let me get in some time by Ventor's side. I can help guide his investigation. I can keep him from thinking that I'm who he wants. Maybe I can find out what he wants from me."
"That's very courageous of you," said Omarr with a frown. "Exactly the sort of thing that your father and I are worried about."
Yet the next morning, they let him go. Henry's fathers were making preparations in a number of ways, so that they might slip away without leaving behind a trace, and so that if worse came to worst they would be able to open up with all the firepower available to them. Adrianna was understandably reluctant to come with them, but her life was in danger far more than theirs was. For his part, Henry tried to pretend that everything could stay the same in the wake of the oathkeeper's arrival. So long as the future didn't hold too many more surprises, maybe that was possible.
The spirit of the Trenten Wood took Sofia on a circuitous path through his domain. She had thought that the Trenten Wood was mostly the same, simply trees clustered around the Lenten River and its tributaries, but the spirit was eager to show her that she was wrong. He took her to a small clearing that held a gentle lake, walked beside her as they came across a family of deer, and gave a happy roar when they found a blackberry bush for her to eat from. There were many rocks that jutted up from within the thick, loamy earth of the forest, and there were places where the trees were nearly overtaken by brush. Sofia slept huddled against his massive form, luxuriating in the heat that he gave off. She tried to track their location by the sun, but after the second day she was throughly lost and couldn't tell whether they were making progress north at all. Ulf had been possessive in the same way, leaving her side only rarely. Sofia began to worry that their tour of the Lenten Wood wasn't taking her north at all, but just as she was trying to figure out how to communicate her will to the spirit, they broke through a line of trees, beyond which was a large town.
"Leshampur," said Sofia. "So you did know. What's more, I think you've saved me quite a few days of travel and some awfully sore legs at that." She climbed down off the spirit and looked at the buildings arrayed before her. Leshampur was the last port of trade along the Lenten, before it became unsuitable for travel by boat.
The spirit of the Trenten Wood turned its head around and buried its muzzle in its fur. When it turned back around, it had one of the small purple flowers that adorned its back clutched gently in its teeth. He prodded Sofia with his nose, just once, then held the flower toward her. She plucked it from his teeth and tucked it behind her ear, then wrapped him in as much of a hug as she could, which wasn't very much given his size.
"Thank you," she whispered. "You were a good help, and I enjoyed seeing your forest."
When she pulled back, the spirit cocked its head to the side.
"I remember what we talked about," said Sofia. "I'll talk to my father when I get back and I'll make sure that we come to an arrangement regarding people trying to encroach on you."
The spirit bear huffed once and turned away, trundling back off into the woods without much more in the way of goodbye, leaving Sofia all alone. She turned to look at Leshampur. Her pack was nearly empty of food following her time in the Trenten Wood, even with the occasional stop to eat from the bounty of the forest. She smelled more than she thought a princess was ever supposed to smell, though she didn't find it terribly offensive. She didn't have terribly much dye left for her hair either. Sofia was going to have to stop in Leshampur, there was no way around that. Given that she was stopping though, there was one minor bit of business that she could look into; Leshampur was the home of her prophesied savior. With a number of goals in mind, Sofia strode forward, toward her destiny.
The Dark Wizard Of Donkerk, Chapter 7: The Mentalists
The Dark Wizard Of Donkerk, Chapter 9: The Fated Meeting
Chapter 1: The Orphan
Chapter 2: The Kidnapping
Chapter 3: The Drowned Witch
Chapter 4: The Separate Paths
Chapter 5: The Castle Spirit
Chapter 6: The Wayward Princess
Chapter 7: The Mentalists
Chapter 8: The Journey North
Chapter 9: The Fated Meeting
Chapter 10: The Dueling Deceptions
Chapter 11: The Twist in the Winds
Chapter 12: The Foresworn Citadel
Chapter 13: The Revelations
Chapter 14: The Dark Wizard of Donkerk
Chapter 15: The Crown in the Castle
Chapter 16: Epilogue


text:
Protecting Nature In Growing Nepal
Walking north from the ghats of the Pashupatinath Temple, across the sacred Baghmati River…
We're Out of Sorts
Marshall McLuhan wasn't talking about psychics when he said, "The medium is the message."…
Krishnaswami, V. The history of Europe, the history of the world, does not present…
Leading Hindu Professor Murdered by Atheists
Professor R. Ramaseshan of Orathanad, South India, died September 16th after being stabbed by…
Kavadi
Idumban challenged the child-God Muruga for possession of the Sivagiri and Sakthigiri mountains. Easily…
Swami Radha
"The main thing I try to do is have my students bring quality into…
Legacy of Hinduism's East Asian Empires
In modern context, this map looks like the Asian air routes of Air India…
Hindu Encyclopedia in Ten Years
Professor K.L. Seshagiri Rao is exuberant His voice, at age 58, still sounds youthful,…
Educational Insight: How the Major Religions View God, Soul & World
Educational Insight: Akshar-Purushottam School of Vedanta
Educational Insight: Karma Yoga
Educational Insight: Hinduism In a Nutshell
Educational Insight: Modern Matchmaking
Educational Insight: Four Questions People Ask About Hinduism

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Acquired directly from the artist.
Catalogue Essay
The Egyptian artist Youssef Nabil is fascinated by concepts of identity and self-awareness. Nabil's intimate portraits, including many of himself, explore the themes of sexuality, selfhood, sensuality, and the interplay between the apparent and implied elements of human portrayal. My Frida comes from a series in which Nabil photographs a female character who recalls the famous Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. For Nabil, the portrayal is not only a visual recollection of an iconic image, but has a deep rooted meaning which finds genesis in the work of Kahlo herself. Troubled by her life experiences, and fascinated by the visual culture and mythology of her native Mexico, Kahlo's paintings were fraught with symbols of suffering, sexuality and cultural introspection. Kahlo's obsession with herself was in no way vain, but stemmed from her own recognition that the subject she had most knowledge about was herself, a reflective realization which is echoed both in Nabil's "My Frida" and in other examples of his oeuvre.
Hand-painted gelatin silver print.
37.4 x 25.4 cm. (14 3/4 x 10 in).
Signed, numbered of twelve and dated 'Youssef Nabil 1996 CAIRO' on the reverse. This work is from an edition of ten and two artist's proofs.


It's a loft bed��� it's a bunk bed... it's a desk... it's a dresser... it's all of these things to you but for your young lady it is so much more! For parents and kids alike this just might be the most interesting bed you'll see here or for that matter, anywhere else at all!
This solid birch convertible loft bed features a built in 5 drawer dresser and 2 shelves on one side. If that's not enough it also includes a ladder and a 3 drawer desk on the other so your little girl can have her very own place to doodle, color, or study! The ladder and desk side can switch sides with the dresser so you can customize the arrangement to fit your child's bedroom. If that's not modular enough you can even remove the upper twin bunk and turn this amazing kids loft bed into a separated individual twin bed, desk and drawer combo! Your girl will love the 3 butterfly shaped ���peek a' boo" cut outs for fun and play. It even has Reversible Drawer Fronts and Changeable Knobs that allow you to flip the colorful drawer fronts to a more adult looking natural finish as your child gets older. All this and so much more from a 100% natural solid birch kid's bed that you can feel good about!
Included in this set are 8 colorful flower knobs and 8 natural wave knobs. The overall loft is 42.5"D, 72.5"H. Mystic Garden Twin bed can fit under loft to turn it into a real Bunk Bed. Purchase the Mystic Garden Platform bed with the Mystic Garden kid's loft bed and save!
Add the adorable Mystic Garden bedding set to complete your little girl's dreams. Designer print with flowers and butterflies alike. Coordinating comforter (print on top, solid on bottom), solid bed skirt and tailored sham set make the Garden theme complete. Available in Twin size in the finest 100% Cotton.
Warranty information is not available.
Shipping detail is not available.


Sally Phillips is a freelance writer with many years' experience across many different areas. She enjoys reading, hiking, spending time with her family, and traveling as much as possible.
You usually don't think of bullies as being seniors. However, with the aging population, understanding this issue, especially in long-term care facilities, is important for the well-being of loved ones.
Oral hygiene is sometimes overlooked by seniors and their families. Ignored it can create additional aging and health concerns with increased Long-Term Care services.
If you have a loved one that is in a long-term care facility, addressing their spiritual needs may be very important for them, as well as for you. Many facilities have spiritual/religious services available.


text:
Download full 2017 archive Page archived at: Mon, 28 Aug 2017 11:21:57 +1000
The University of Sydney - Arts and Social Sciences (Undergraduate) Handbook 2017
Arts (UG) Handbook
You are here: Home / Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (Undergraduate) / Subject Areas / Subjects A-B / Agricultural Economics
Bachelor of Arts (Asian Studies)
Bachelor of Arts (Languages)
Bachelor of Arts (Media and Communications)
Bachelor of Economics
Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood)
Bachelor of Education (Secondary) (Health and Physical Education)
Bachelor of Education (Secondary: Aboriginal Studies)
Bachelor of International and Global Studies
Bachelor of Political, Economic and Social Sciences
Bachelor of Visual Arts
Diploma of Arts
Diploma of Language Studies
Diploma of Social Sciences
Master of Teaching
Master of Social Work (Qualifying)
Combined degrees
Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Economics
Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws
Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Social Work
Bachelor of Arts (Media and Communications) and Bachelor of Laws
Bachelor of Economics and Bachelor of Laws
Bachelor of International and Global Studies and Bachelor of Laws
Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Education (Secondary: Humanities and Social Sciences) and Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Education (Secondary: Mathematics) and Bachelor of Science
Bachelor of Education (Secondary: Science) and Bachelor of Science
Bachelor of Engineering Honours and Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Information Technology and Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Music Studies and Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Project Management and Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts / Master of Nursing
Bachelor of Economics / Doctor of Medicine
Subjects A-B
Subjects C-E
Subjects F-H
Subjects I-L
Subjects M-P
Subjects S-Z
Table A tables
Table A (A-B)
Table A (C-E)
Table A (F-H)
Table A (I-L)
Table A (M-P)
Table A (S-Z)
International and Global Studies
Table A descriptions
Table B tables
Table B subject tables (A-L)
Table B subject tables (M-Z)
Table B subject descriptions (A-L)
Table B subject descriptions (M-Z)
Education & Social Work tables
Education general units
Aboriginal Studies
Human Movement and Health Education
Social Work (Qualifying)
Resolutions of the Senate (Arts and Social Sciences)
Resolutions of the Senate (Education and Social Work)
Resolutions of the Senate (Sydney College of the Arts)
Resolutions of the Faculty (Arts and Social Sciences)
Resolutions of the Faculty (Education and Social Work)
Resolutions of the Faculty (Sydney College of the Arts)
Arabic Language and Cultures
Biblical Studies and Hebrew (Classical)
Celtic Studies
Digital Cultures
Faculty Scholars
Germanic Studies
Government and International Relations
Greek (Ancient)
Indonesian Studies
International and Comparative Literary Studies (ICLS)
Internship for credit
Jewish Civilisation, Thought and Culture
Modern Greek and Byzantine Studies
Political Economic and Social Sciences
Socio-Legal Studies
Studies in Religion
Visual Arts Honours
Units of study
All units of study for the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences can be found in Table A:
Agricultural Economics units of study
Agricultural Economics units of study descriptions
Economics is a diverse, fascinating discipline that studies a wide range of issues that shape the broad framework of society – political, social and commercial. The School of Economics has a proud history as one of the most highly ranked centres in economics. This is reflected in our degrees, which promote a deep understanding of the key concepts of economics with a focus on contemporary issues of Australian and international importance. Our graduates are leaders in their fields – at the Reserve Bank, Treasury and other government departments, in global financial institutions, business, and with international agencies and non-government organisations. They also go on to further study at some of the finest institutions in the world.
The major in Agricultural Economics provides a valuable understanding of commodity markets and the economics of agricultural production. This major focuses on the development of analytical, quantitative and communication skills. It adds considerably to the prospects of students interested in working as applied economists in commodities and futures markets, merchant and trading banks, government departments, large agribusiness firms, corporate farms, and in the media as economic journalists.
For the award of a major in Agricultural Economics, students complete 24 credit points of core junior prerequisite units and 36 credit points of senior units.
For the award of a major in Agricultural Economics students complete:
(i) four junior prerequisite units of study (24 credit points), as follows:
ECMT1010 Introduction to Economic Statistics (or BUSS1020 Quantitative Business Analysis#)
ECMT1020 Introduction to Econometrics
ECON1001 Introductory Microeconomics
ECON1002 Introductory Macroeconomics
(ii) three compulsory senior units of study (18 credit points), as follows:
ECOS2001 Intermediate Microeconomics; OR ECOS2901 Intermediate Microeconomics Honours##
AREC2001 Economics of Biological Production Systems
AREC2002 Commodity Market and Price Analysis
(iii) a minimum of two senior elective units of study (12 credit points) selected from the following:
AREC2004 Benefit-Cost Analysis
AREC3001 Production Modelling and Management
AREC3002 Agricultural Markets
(iv) one senior elective unit of study (6 credit points) selected from the following:
AREC3005 Agricultural Finance and Risk
ECMT2150 Intermediate Econometrics
ECOS3002 Development Economics
ECOS3005 Industrial Organisation
ECOS3006 International Trade
#BUSS1020 is a core unit for the Bachelor of Commerce and related degrees and substitutes for the junior prerequisite unit ECMT1010 for students enrolled in those courses.
Any senior unit can only be counted toward one major (be it the Economics, Econometrics, Financial Economics, Agricultural Economics or Environmental and Resource Economics major).
##Where students are completing both an Economics and an Agricultural Economics major, an additional senior elective (at ECOS2000 or ECOS3000 level) should be completed for one of the majors, as both majors require the compulsory unit ECOS2001/ECOS2901. Both majors need to include at least 36 senior credit points without counting a senior unit ie ECOS2001/ECOS2901 towards two separate majors.
Contact/further Information
School of Economics
sydney.edu.au/arts/economics
Room 370, Merewether H04
economics.enquiries[at]sydney.edu.au
© 2002-2017 The University of Sydney. Last Updated: 28-Nov-2016
Authorised by: Director, Marketing and Communications.


text:
package liquibase.sql;

import liquibase.structure.DatabaseObject;

import java.util.Collection;

public interface Sql {
    public String toSql();

    String getEndDelimiter();

    Collection<? extends DatabaseObject> getAffectedDatabaseObjects();

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Immerse yourself in paradise with our project rendering videos. Or hear what our satisfied customers have to say about their completed projects. You can also see our offering of extra features for your pool or spa in action.


We are a new family of 4, who love to travel. My husband and I have been to many states, countries, and amazing destinations. We are here to help you turn your dreams into your reality. Travel is the best thing to refresh the soul and the memories made are forever in your heart.


Dissertation research: Extraocular muscles require the most precise control of muscle force needed for eye alignment and binocular vision. In my dissertation, "Development and Maturation of the Chick Extraocular Muscles and their Response to Treatment with Botulinum Neurotoxin", I determined whether botulinum neurotoxin's therapeutic effects are due to changes in the periphery or central mechanisms, a question that has clinical significance for the treatment of strabismus. Strabismus, one of the most prevalent ophthalmic disorders in children (4-5%), is a misalignment of the visual axes due to an imbalance in extraocular muscle function. Botulinum neurotoxin (BOTOX®) treatment can correct the misalignment with permanent therapeutic effects in infants. This lasting effect was thought to be due to permanent structural alterations caused by the toxin in developing extraocular muscle. Using the chick as my model system, I applied botulinum neurotoxin at a time that corresponds roughly to 4-6 months of human development. Quantification of physiological parameters (contractile force measurements) and morphological parameters (myofiber morphometry, innervation, quantitative transmission electron microscopy of mitochondria/fiber types) demonstrated that the effects of botulinum neurotoxin on developing extraocular muscle were transient. Thus, permanent therapeutic effects of botulinum neurotoxin appear to be caused by central (CNS) adaptive responses rather than permanent changes at the level of the peripheral effector organ. In other words, the effect of the toxin on immature eye muscles is temporary. By the time the weakened muscle recovers and regains its strength, the brain circuits controlling eye alignment have been recalibrated and maintain the eyes in their proper alignment. This work was recently published in the Journal of Neurobiology of Disease, 2007 (image selected for cover). For these studies I developed new methods for the quantification of the structural and functional changes that occur during extraocular muscle development, which includes: 1) the innervation and structures of the neuromuscular junction (published in the Anatomical Record, 2005 -image selected for cover), 2) effects of blood supply, age and in situ preparation on contractile force (published in the Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 2007), and 3) classification of myofiber types (published in the Anatomical Record, 2007).
Master's Degree Research: "Frozen but alive!" Imagine what it would be like to be frozen. Your breathing, heart beat, and blood flow stop as ice accumulates throughout your body. A day later you are thawed and gradually regain all normal physiological functions. Sounds impossible? Not for the Pacific tree frog. In my thesis "Seasonal Variation in freeze tolerance and Cryoprotectant Synthesis of the Pacific Tree Frog Hyla regilla", I discovered a new vertebrate species that has the ability to survive being frozen. Only a select group of vertebrates (few species of amphibians and reptiles) have been shown to be freeze tolerant, meaning, they can survive the formation of ice crystals within their extracellular fluids which results in the termination of breathing, heart beat, and blood flow. I found that during the initial phase of freezing, the pacific tree frog synthesizes large quantities (14 fold increase) of plasma glucose that is released from liver glycogen stores. The glucose acts as a cryoprotectant, which enables the animal to survive up to 24 hours of being frozen at -2°C. Understanding the mechanisms involved in this survival adaptation can provide a basis for future research in cryopreservation of organs for transplant therapy. This work was published in Copeia, 2000.
Von Bartheld CS., Croes SA., Johnson AL., Chapter 59: Strabismus. The book entitled "Ocular Disease: Mechanisms and Management", provides information concerning the basic science of disease, relevant to the clinical practice of ophthalmology, for clinicians as well as the research scientists. The focus of our chapter entitled "Strabismus", focused on the etiology of strabismus, its management, and current research and prospects for future treatments. Edited by Levin and Albert; Publisher: Elsevier Ltd. 2009.
Croes SA, Baryshnikova LM, Kaluskar SS, von Bartheld CS. 2007. Long-term effects of botulinum neurotoxin on the function and structure of developing extraocular muscles. Neurobiology of Disease 25:649-664.
Croes SA., von Bartheld. 2007. Measurements of contractile force of skeletal and extraocular muscles: effects of blood supply, size, and in situ preparation. Journal of Neuroscience Methods. 166:53-65.
Baryshnikova LM, Croes, SA, von Bartheld CS. 2007. Classification and development of myofiber types in chicken extraocular muscles. Anat Rec A Discov Mol Cell Evol Biol. (in press, 2007).
Croes SA, von Bartheld CS. 2005. Development of the neuromuscular junction in extraocular muscles of white Leghorn chicks. Anat Rec A Discov Mol Cell Evol Biol. 282:110-119.
Croes SA, Thomas RE. 2000. Freeze tolerance and cryoprotectant synthesis of the pacific tree frog Hyla regilla. Copeia 3:862-867.
Jacob JM, Croes SA. 1998. Acceleration of axonal outgrowth in motor axons from mature and old F344 rats after a conditioning lesion. J Exp Neurol 152:231-237.
Croes SA, Baryshnikova LM, Kaluskar SS, Bartheld CS. 2007. Classification, Development and Maturation of Myofiber Types in Chicken Extraocular Muscles. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 48: E-Abstract 5278.
Croes SA, Baryshnikova LM, Kaluskar SS, Bartheld CS. 2006. Long–term Effects of Botulinum Neurotoxin on the Function and Structure of Developing Extraocular Muscles.Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 47: E-Abstract 5396.
Croes SA, Baryshnikova LM, von Bartheld CS. 2006. Full recovery of muscle function after chemical denervation with botulinum toxin of developing extraocular muscle. Int. J. Dev. Neurosci. 24:512.
Croes SA, von Bartheld CS. 2004. Role of GDNF in the development of the neuromuscular junction in chick extraocular and skeletal muscle. Society for Neuroscience. Abstr. 30:#725.13.
"Classification, Development and Maturation of Myofiber Types in Chicken Extraocular Muscles". Poster Session, Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO). 2007, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
"Acute and Long-Term Effects of Botulinum Neurotoxin on the Function and Structure of Developing Extraocular Muscle". The 16th Annual Granlibakken Student Research Symposium, Sponsored by Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, University of Nevada, Reno, October, 2006. Granlibakken Conference Center, Lake Tahoe, CA.
"Role of Trophic Factors in the Development of the Neuromuscular Junction in Chick Extraocular Muscle". The 22nd Annual George G. Bierkamper Student Research Convocation, January, 2004. University of Nevada School of Medicine, Reno, NV.
"Quantification and Role of Trophic Factors in the Development of the Neuromuscular Junction in Extraocular and Skeletal Muscle". The 14th Annual Granlibakken Student Research Symposium, Sponsored by Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, University of Nevada, Reno, October, 2004. Granlibakken Conference Center, Lake Tahoe, CA.
"Innervation of Extraocular Muscles in Hatchling Chicks: Quantification and Role of Trophic Factors." Poster Session, Society for Neuroscience, 33rd Annual Meeting, November, 2003, New Orleans, LA.
"Seasonal variation in freeze tolerance and cryoprotectant synthesis of the pacific tree frog Hyla regilla." The 11th Annual California State University Graduate Research Symposium. April, 1997, San Luis Obispo, CA.
"Teaching the Cardiovascular System for Elementary Teachers" Winter Institute. Lead a full day workshop covering content and laboratory activities on the anatomy/physiology of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems for 4th and 5th grade teachers. Winter Institute was part of the Excellence in Science Instruction (eSCI) program in partnership with the Sacramento Area Science Project (SASP) at California State University, Sacramento. 2011.
"Science of Humans" Summer Institute. Lead discussions and laboratory activities on the anatomy/physiology of the cardiovascular and digestive systems in a summer institute for 4th-12th grade teachers. Institute was sponsored by the California Science Project of Inland Northern California held at California State University, Chico. 2008.
"Use of Botox (Botulinum Neurotoxin) to Improve Binocular Vision: How Does it Work?". Seminar presented at California State University, Chico. Chico, California. 2007.
"Long-term Effects of Botulinum Neurotoxin on the Function and Structure of Developing Extraocular Muscles". Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO). 2006, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
"The Chicken as a Model System for Extraocular Muscle Development: Effects of Trophic Factors and Botulinum Neurotoxin". Gordon Research Conference for Oculomotor System Biology. 2005, Bates College, Lewiston, ME.
Co-Principle Investigator and Lead Institute of Higher Education Advisor - California Mathematics and Science Partnership (CaMSP) Grant, California Department of Education, 2009-2012. "Science Model Academy for Reflective Teaching (SMART)" is a partnership between the Shasta County Office of Education, Shasta College, and California State University, Chico to provide professional development for science teachers, grades 3rd-8th. Participating districts include: Cascade Union Elementary, Columbia Elementary, Fall River Joint Unified, Gateway, Redding, Shasta Union Elementary, Shasta Union High School, and Whitmore Union Elementary School District.
Lake/ocean kayaking, scuba diving, sky diving, motocross riding, tide pooling, hiking/camping, mountain bike riding and spending time with my beautiful wife Tina, boys - Garrett and Brett, dogs - Arrow, Callie and Sargent, and cats - Bandit and Libby.
Click below for slide show music "What A Wonderful World"


Preventive maintenance of the Maxiscan® Model 1000 and Pediascan® Models 100, 200, and 500 consists primarily of periodic cleaning and recharging of the device using genuine battery chargers supplied from Sylvan Corporation (K913 Battery Charger).
Exterior cleaning of the device can be done with a soft brush and a cloth. Gently brush all surfaces to remove dirt and dust. Remove any remaining dirt with a cloth slightly dampened with a solution of mild detergent and water, isopropyl alcohol, or a liquid disinfecting agent. Be especially careful not to permit any liquid to seep in the units during cleaning. Additionally, the unit should never be submerged to clean or scrubbed with an abrasive cleaner.
If the device fails to produce a light beam and the batteries are adequately charged, the light bulbs (P112 – Lamp Assembly) may need to be replaced. If the unit was dropped, contact Sylvan Corporation immediately. Contact a Sylvan Corporation representative or technician for replacement parts and procedure of replacement.
CAUTION: Do not clean while unit is turned on. If the enclosure is cracked, send into Sylvan Corporation for repair before cleaning for risk or cuts. If unit is dropped, send the unit into Sylvan Corporation for repair.
Interior preventative maintenance should only be done by trained biomedical engineering staff or sent into Sylvan Corporation for evaluation. Clean with isopropyl alcohol and dust with low pressurized air as necessary.
CAUTION: Do not touch any metal contacts, they may be electrically charged and there is a risk of minor electrical shock. Do not touch the lamp bulb with bare hands. If the lamp bulb comes in contact with human skin, thoroughly clean the bulb with isopropyl alcohol and cotton cloth. Do not turn lamps on while cleaning the unit. The lamps get very hot and will transfer heat to interior metal sub-components.
Standard Gravity Sterilizer – Wrap Fiberoptic cable in a surgical towel and place in a clean, open tray. Sterilize for 30 minutes 250 degrees Fahrenheit at (15 psi) or 121 degrees Celsius at 1 Kg/Cm2.
High Speed Instrument (Flash) Sterilizer – Wrap Fiberoptic cable in surgical towel and place in an open tray. Sterilize for 3 minutes 270 degrees Fahrenheit at (30 psi) or 132 degrees Celsius at 2Kg/Cm2.
Pressure differential during steam autoclaving may cause small bubbles in the silicone tubing. The bubbles will not affect the Fiberoptic cable and dissipate with time.
Should the fiberoptic cable (P101 Fiberoptic Lightpipe) become contaminated, before use wipe with isopropyl alcohol or clean thoroughly with a soft-bristled brush in hand-warm water/soap solution to remove possible contaminants. Use a non-oily cleaner or mild soap.
Do not use synthetic detergents or oil-based soap as these soaps may be absorbed and may subsequently leach out to cause a tissue reaction. Rinse copiously in hand-warm water. Follow with a thorough rinse in distilled water and re-sterilize.
To check the efficiency of the P101 Fiberoptic Lightpipe, simply hold one open end up to any standard light source (100 watt or less) and check the opposite end. Any black voids in the exit tip will reveal broken light strands. As long as the silicone exterior is intact, this poses no danger. If the light output from the fiberoptic lightpipe is less than 85%, the light output is unacceptable and should be replaced. Contact Sylvan for details or questions.
CAUTION: Do not bend the fiberoptic lightpipe more than 30 degrees. Do not cut the fiberoptic lightpipe or have the silicone exterior come in contact with any sharp edges while cleaning. Do not clean fiberoptic lightpipe while connected to the unit and be sure the unit is turned off.
The Pediascan® and Maxiscan® transilluminators are designed to be kept on charge until needed for use. Turn the unit off before charging. These units will not illuminate while the charger is plugged into the unit. This is to prevent an over-surge of the battery and to extend lamp and battery life. Only use Sylvan supplied batteries and battery chargers with these units.
The internal battery packs have approximately 5000 recharges in its lifetime. With supplied chargers, the batteries take 2-4 hours to recharge from full discharge. There is a 20 minute fast charge features with the K913 Battery Charger, which allows roughly 30 minutes of use at nominal output. Refer to battery charger manual for more detailed charging instructions.
CAUTION: Do not charge unit while unit enclosures are not connected. Do not use any other charger or battery than those supplied by Sylvan Corporation. Do not use charger if the connecting cable is frayed or exposed.
If you have any questions regarding replacement procedures, cleaning or preventative maintenance or any other technical questions, please don't hesitate in contacting us.


Under the Nixon administration, Brookings' relationship with the White House deteriorated, largely because many of the Brookings staff were Democrats who identified with the policies of the Great Society, opposed the Vietnam War, and advocated America's accelerated or unilateral nuclear disarmament. Brookings became part of the Watergate investigation as a result of Nixon's decision to authorize a break-in to the Institution's headquarters in 1971, in connection with the Pentagon Papers leak; He also ordered the FBI to wiretap the telephone of Morton Halperin, a Brookings Fellow.
Brookings tipped back to the political right in the 1970s and 80s, as evidenced by the presence of longtime Republicans like Stephen Hess (one-time speechwriter for President Eisenhower) and Roger Semerad (former Assistant Secretary of Labor under Ronald Reagan) in key positions. Brookings' then-President, Bruce MacLaury, was Under-Secretary of the Treasury for President Nixon.
Brookings has in recent years shifted back to the political left, particularly in its foreign policy positions. Condemning President Bush's Iraq policy, in April 2004 Brookings hosted Senator Edward Kennedy in an event aimed at discrediting the Iraq War. As the 2004 Presidential election neared, the Institution's Fellows endorsed Democratic candidate John Kerry's call for a "more sensitively" fought war on terrorism. They have also called for the American government to permit Islamic radicals like Tariq Ramadan to enter the U.S. with work visas.
Brookings has been involved with a variety of internationalist and state-sponsored programs, including the Global Governance Initiative, which aspires to facilitate the establishment of a U.N.-dominated world government, based in part on economic and Third World considerations. Brookings Fellows have also called for additional global collaboration on trade and banking; the expansion of the Kyoto Protocol; and nationalized health insurance for children. Nine Brookings economists signed a petition opposing President Bush's tax cuts in 2003.
The Brookings Institution's President since 2002 has been Strobe Talbott, who served as President Clinton's Deputy Secretary of State. The Board of Trustees features Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of John Kerry; Zoe Baird, failed Clinton appointee for Attorney General; and Lawrence Summers, former Harvard President and U.S. Treasury Secretary.
Brookings income derives from a wide variety of sources, including seminars run for government and businesses, and a vast array of corporate and government contracts. In recent years, Brookings has received grants from the Aetna Foundation, the American Express Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the AT&T Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Fannie Mae Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Heinz Family Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the Open Society Institute, Pew Charitable Trusts, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Surdna Foundation, the Turner Foundation, the Verizon Foundation, the Vira I. Heinz Endowment, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. In 2004, grants to the Brookings Institutions totaled $32,107,359.Also as of 2004, the Brookings Institution's net assets were valued at $248,205,816.


text:
#include "config.h"
#include "YarrSyntaxChecker.h"

#include "YarrParser.h"

namespace JSC { namespace Yarr {

class SyntaxChecker {
public:
    void assertionBOL() {}
    void assertionEOL() {}
    void assertionWordBoundary(bool) {}
    void atomPatternCharacter(UChar32) {}
    void atomBuiltInCharacterClass(BuiltInCharacterClassID, bool) {}
    void atomCharacterClassBegin(bool = false) {}
    void atomCharacterClassAtom(UChar) {}
    void atomCharacterClassRange(UChar, UChar) {}
    void atomCharacterClassBuiltIn(BuiltInCharacterClassID, bool) {}
    void atomCharacterClassEnd() {}
    void atomParenthesesSubpatternBegin(bool = true) {}
    void atomParentheticalAssertionBegin(bool = false) {}
    void atomParenthesesEnd() {}
    void atomBackReference(unsigned) {}
    void quantifyAtom(unsigned, unsigned, bool) {}
    void disjunction() {}
};

const char* checkSyntax(const String& pattern, const String& flags)
{
    SyntaxChecker syntaxChecker;
    return parse(syntaxChecker, pattern, flags.contains('u'));
}

}} // JSC::Yarr


Erin McGill, daughter of Tim and Sally McGill of Beech Creek, became the bride of Colby Welshans, son of Carl and Gayle Welshans of Mill Hall, on July 4, 2015 at a 4:30 p.m. ceremony in the Barn at Boones Dam in Bloomsburg. Cindy Killinger officiated.
Maid of honor was Taryn Bartholomew of Castanea. Bridesmaids were Keri Holland of Lock Haven, Alyssa Mincer of Jersey Shore and Michele Hanna of Lock Haven. All the attendants are friends of the bride.
Luke Welshans of Mill Hall was best man for his brother. Ushers were Kyle Turchetta of Mill Hall and Eli Hanna and Zach Hanna of Lock Haven, all friends of the groom.
A reception followed the ceremony at Haywoods on the Green. After a wedding trip to Rivera Maya, Mexico, the couple is residing in Lock Haven.
The bride is a graduate of Central Mountain High School, Lock Haven University and Walden University with a master's in Reading. She is a fifth grade teacher in Keystone Central School District.
Her husband is a graduate of Central Mountain High School and a graduate of Penn State. He is a physician assistant with Lock Haven Hospital.


Self-insured health plans are now becoming popular amongst large companies, allowing them to create customized health care benefits packages and save more money over traditional health care programs obtained through standard providers. For companies with over 100 employees, their premium is based on their own loss history. When calculating future premium, underwriters will typically add 40% over an employer's previous incurred loss to ensure that the amount is adequate to cover future risk and maintain an adequate profit margin.
With self-insured plans, a company will assume the financial risk of covering its employees based on the medical plans they offer. In essence, the employer is paying all of the health care costs in addition to administration costs. The policy will be managed by a TPA (Third-Party Administrator) and if no or little claims are paid out, the client will stand to benefit by profiting from the difference of what they would have paid in premiums and the actual payout disbursed. The employer can choose to limit their risk up to - or a little bit over - the amount they would have paid in premium under a fully insured program by purchasing stop loss coverage at any point.
Hospital & Lab Network - A network of participating Hospitals & Laboratories providing additional savings on those costs.
Through the combination of these 3 distinct elements, as well as other cost containment measures, the TPA will be in the position to administer healthcare plans just as equivalent to the level of a standard fully insured insurance plan and ensure that the cost of claims is kept to an absolute minimum. Most importantly, the PTA is in a position to do a better job over traditional carriers because they can customize plans and pay more attention to the individualized claims and administration process.
In some cases, the client will pay monthly "premium payments" directly into a fund managed by the TPA that is used to cover employee health expenses claimed. During periods when claim amounts are lower than expense paid out, the remaining funds left are returned to the client. During periods when claims are greater than expected, the Stop-Loss policy obtained by Broad Coverage Service when requested will cover any such payments.
Broad Coverage Service specializes in analyzing the challenges of each company and determining whether the application of a self-insured health plan is prudent - and will work with clients to choose the appropriate TPA, PPO, PBM and Hospital & Lab Network in an effort to maximize savings and minimize losses.


text:
The Norma Bull Portraiture Scholarship AWARD
APPLY NOW FOR THE 2023 NORMA BULL PORTRAITURE SCHOLARSHIP AWARD
The Norma Bull Portraiture Scholarship Award is made available through the bequest of the late Norma Bull. It is open to all students enrolled in a tertiary Arts Course or in classes conducted by an approved art association or art teacher in Victoria.
This is a biennial award, which aims to encourage students of all ages to advance in the Naturalist style. In 2023 the scholarship is for $5000. The winner will receive $2,500 at the award's announcement. Within 12 months the winner will report on the progress in their studies to receive the final $2,500.
The award is open to students of art of all ages and experience levels, whether this be in university, through the Victorian Artists Society or other art schools, informal institutions, societies or with a private tutor. You do not need to be a university student to enter. This scholarship is open to beginners and advanced students working in the Naturalist style.
'Shakthi', Oil on Canvas by Swathi Madike, Winner 2021
Norma Bull
Norma Bull was born in Melbourne in 1906. As an artist she was most active in England during World War II and famous for her wartime depictions. Her skills were diverse with etching and painting being her focus. The opening of her exhibition, 'War time Britain' on 4th December 1947 was attended by her Majesty the Queen of England. In the prelude to this exhibition one journalist expressed 'What I liked most was the artist's enthusiasm: it seemed to me she felt she had a message to give to the people of Australia'. After a long and distinguished career, she passed away in 1980 after a trust was set up to celebrate the study of art in the form of naturalistic portraiture.
Norma Bull, 'Painting with blue headdress,' oil. VAS permanent collection.
'Self Portrait in Black Jacket', oil on linen by Tyler Arnold, Winner Norma Bull Scholarship 2019
2017: 'Portrait of Greg Smith', by Rachel Dettmann-Smith
2015: 'Steve', by Fiona O'Byrne
2013: Noralisa Speranza
2011: 'Portrait of Peter Smales', by Cherry Manders
2009: Stephen Doyle
2007: D McDonald
2005: Jenny Mackay
2003: Lisa Li


I really enjoyed this summary of the issues.
Dear China: Please continue your dramatic improvements to curbing your own CO2 and other emissions and lead the world in climate-friendly, low-carbon alternative energy sources and technologies. If the incoming U.S. President pulls his country out of the recent international agreement, it is up to you, and to us here in Canada, and to the European nations, to continue to reduce carbon emissions if we are to have a habitable world in fifty or one hundred years, and if that world will have even a fraction of the endangered flora and fauna it has now. Mr. Trump will certainly have a damaging effect on climate-change amelioration, but his term is only four years; in those four years, China can show the world what must be done, and done quickly, to save the planet from more than 2 degrees of warming.


text:
Torvaianica or Torvajanica is a frazione of the comune of Pomezia, in the Metropolitan City of Rome, central Italy. Counting some 12,700 inhabitants, it extends for some   on central Lazio's littoral.

Overview
According to Vergil's  Aeneid, the Trojan  hero Aeneas landed here: this event is confirmed by the excavation of the ancient Roman town of Lavinium in the neighborhood of Torvaianica. The name derives from a coastal watch tower, Torre del Vajanico, built in 1580 to defend against Barbary pirates attacks. The tower was damaged during World War II and demolished during the 1960s building speculations. The town was founded in the 1940s, after the reclamation of the Pontine Marshes; population at the time was mostly composed of fishermen.

The economy is mostly based on tourism. Torvaianica is home to the Zoomarine amusement park.

See also
Wilma Montesi

External links

Unofficial website

Frazioni of the Province of Rome
Populated places established in the 1940s

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


This Peridot Tree of Life bracelet is hand wire wrapped with gorgeous semi transparent Peridot gemstone using tarnish resistant silver & vintage bronze wire for the branches. It is a beautiful gift to give and receive!
About Deerskin Leather: Extremely soft and insulating, deer leather has for decades been used for clothing, shoes and even shelter. Deerskin is strong yet the softest. Looks great on all my Tree of life necklaces & others.
Photos 1 to 5 shown with a chocolate brown. leather.
photos 6 & 7 shown with a saddle tan & chocolate brown leather.
This Peridot Tree of Life bracelet is handmade by me to complement my Peridot tree of life pendant necklaces. This bracelet is made with chocolate brown deerskin leather & finished with a antiqued brass lobster clasp. You may choose black or saddle tan leather. You can choose the length plus 1 inch extension.
So beautiful - a real artist. I just love it!!! And quick delivery.
The bracelet is as pictured but the clasp is so difficult. It's the worst one I've ever had to deal with. Makes it very hard to put on. I don't wear it as often as I'd like to for this reason.
Peridot is for the 16th wedding anniversary and my wife appears to really like it:) People have stopped her to admire it. It seems well made. Thank you!
I purchased the Tree of Life necklace last year for a Christmas gift and this year I've come back for a Tree of Life bracelet for another gift. This bracelet is going to be perfect for the person I've purchased it for. Beautiful handiwork and a wonderful seller. Prompt attention to order; prompt shipping and delivery; lovely presentation including box and ribbon (as well as instructions for cleaning and storing jewelry). Thank you again! I'll be back soon, I'm sure.


Allianz (OTCMKTS: AZSEY) is one of 19 public companies in the "Insurance agents, brokers, & service" industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its competitors? We will compare Allianz to similar companies based on the strength of its dividends, profitability, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, earnings and valuation.
Allianz has a beta of 0.87, meaning that its share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Allianz's competitors have a beta of 0.85, meaning that their average share price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500.
0.2% of Allianz shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 64.0% of shares of all "Insurance agents, brokers, & service" companies are held by institutional investors. 23.2% of shares of all "Insurance agents, brokers, & service" companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Allianz pays an annual dividend of $0.70 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. Allianz pays out 34.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, "Insurance agents, brokers, & service" companies pay a dividend yield of 1.6% and pay out 32.3% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.
This table compares Allianz and its competitors' net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Allianz and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.com.
As a group, "Insurance agents, brokers, & service" companies have a potential upside of 7.15%. Given Allianz's competitors higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Allianz has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.
This table compares Allianz and its competitors top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
Allianz has higher revenue and earnings than its competitors. Allianz is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.
Allianz competitors beat Allianz on 9 of the 15 factors compared.


text:
Minimalist Three Stars Temporary Tattoo (Set of 3)
These three stars are just like the three stars at the top of each page of the Harry Potter books.
J.K. Rowling breathed magic into the lives of millions of people around the world when she penned the Harry Potter series. For many of us, these books defined our childhood, filling our imaginations with tales of adventure, magic, friendship, and love.
So powerful are these stories that many Harry Potter fans have been tattooed with the three small stars that grace every page of the Harry Potter series. Our small three stars temporary tattoo is one of the most popular options for fans who want to reference their favorite series.
This temporary tattoo may be small in stature, but it is huge in its significance for any Potterhead. This tattoo comes as a set of three, so you can share share with a friend or try out different placements before going for permanent ink. Our temporary tattoos are printed on 100% plastic-free paper and contain only non-toxic adhesive and soy ink.
Our small three stars temporary tattoo is an exquisite way to reference these powerful books, while also reflecting all that the night sky means to us. We look to the stars for guidance, hope, and desire. With an endless array of patterns and variations, stars provide us with endless inspiration for our lives.
Size: 0.8 in / 2 cm (width)
Katherine H.
Three stars Tatoo
Easy to use. Stayed on for nearly a week. No issues.


A scheme which aims to make Sheffield the most physically active city in the UK by 2020 has won a prestigious award.
Activity Sheffield's Miracle Cure project is a city-wide approach to increasing physical activity levels and aims to overcome barriers to activity, enable people to reach their potential and make a positive difference to their health.
At the Ukactive Flame Awards, held at Telford International Centre and attended by more than 850 people, Miracle Cure won the Healthy Partnerships award for its work.
Coun Isobel Bowler of Sheffield City Council, said: "I would like to congratulate the Activity Sheffield team and all their wide-reaching partners for coming away with this award, which is very much deserved after all the hard work they have put in.
More than 5,000 people have already signed up to take part. Visit www.movemoresheffield.com/miraclecure for details.


text:
DRUMS OF WAR
December 19, 2015 Joe Coleman Front page, News 0
Privacy and civil liberty advocates are organizing to block a dubious piece of cybersecurity legislation that was slipped into a massive, "must-pass" federal spending bill in Congress. The tactic is a way to make the additions virtually unstoppable. Speaker Paul Ryan announced the $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill on Wednesday. The bill would encourage corporations to share more data about hackers with the government. It additionally includes tax breaks that unfairly benefit corporations Also, the deal would lift the 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports from the U.S. and delay portions of President Obama's signature healthcare law. The House is expected to
vote on the tax and spending portions of the bill by the end of the week.
Critics state the bill will quietly expand mass surveillance by allowing corporations to share sensitive user data with law enforcement. It will also protect companies that voluntarily share data with the government through the Department of Homeland Security. The data reveals IP addresses and routing information that could be used to target online activists as well. There have been attempts by Republicans to enact this type of belligerent legislation before but efforts always failed in Congress amid privacy advocates' concerns about broadening the surveillance powers of the National Security Agency. The NSA is the same government agency that came under fire after Edward Snowden revealed its vast domestic spying program.
The White House and many private industry groups allege the bill is a necessary first step in their fight against hackers. The executive branch is quick to claim privacy provisions in the measure will ensure personal data is not shared throughout the government. "In divided government, you don't get everything you want," Speaker Ryan told reporters. "Republicans didn't get all that we wanted. Democrats didn't get all that [they] wanted. This is a bipartisan compromise."
A civil liberties advocacy group called Fight for the Future is among the strongest voices fighting the controversial cybersecurity bill known as the Cyber Information Sharing Act (CISA).
Earlier this year, Fight for the Future led a series of online campaigns that effectively got companies like Apple, Google, Twitter, Dropbox, Yahoo, Wikipedia, Yelp, and Salesforce to come out against the CISA proposal. "Now is when we'll find out whether President Obama really cares about the Internet and freedom of speech, or whether he's happy to roll over and allow technologically illiterate members of Congress to break the Internet in the name of cybersecurity," said Evan Greer, campaign director for Fight for the Future.
Warlord presidents use "national security" to acquire power. Despite Obama's silver tongue when he was running for president, his administration is one of the most secretive and hawkish in recent U.S. history. Right after 9/11, another warlord president, George W. Bush, along with his Republican friends, exploited the tragedy to push the repressive Patriot Act through Congress. The Patriot Act includes a clause that states any organization that "harms the economy" can be labeled a terrorist group. It is by this dangerous step in logic that progressive, activist organizations have been labeled as such.
This sneaky addition to the federal spending bill would allow corporations to share private identifying information of U.S. citizens with government intelligence agencies. I'm concerned about the combination of state and corporate power, which is often exercised in secret using little-known information technology. Hacktivists, journalists, and researchers utilize encryption apps to avoid overreaching government intrusion. The more money the government throws at surveillance programs, the more important encryption becomes to activists attempting to subvert the current status quo. Concerned hackers like Weev have shown the world that hacking is an effective tool for fighting corporatism. Our current political status quo is tumbling recklessly toward heightened war. The government is now biting at the bit to make those very apps illegal. Despite any evidence the Paris attackers and the San Bernardino couple utilized encryption apps for their crimes, Homeland Security Chair Ron Johnson recently went on CNN to vilify them.
One founding father, James Madison, said, "No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare." As a nation we've been in perpetual war since the months following 9/11. There is virtually zero evidence that Daesh poses any meaningful threat to the continental United States. Yet, the so-called "ISIS Threat" is on virtually every news channel this week. Barack Obama held a press conference today surrounded by his generals. He looked almost like Vladimir Putin in both his tone and optics. It seems Obama is determined to place ground troops in Syria and Iraq in the same operational area that Putin is launching a full-scale war. It's simply a recipe for disaster. Thomas Jefferson said, "Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms (of government) those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny."
Sanders and Trump Don't Stand a Chance


You know I wasn't happy with the election of Donald Trump and the fact that the Republicans now control the House, Senate, and White House. I didn't vote for any of them and I know none of them will have my concerns in mind when they start their agenda. However I won't be telling people Trump 'is not my President'. I don't think it's helpful to copy the Tea Party playbook lock stock and barrel. We need a more rational way to resist Trump and fight hard for our progressive agenda in which a majority of people agree.
This entry was posted in Politics, Progressive and tagged 2016 US Presidential Election, civil rights, Donald Trump, grassroots, issues, local elections, protests, Republicans on January 10, 2017 by Doug.


Countless other such pastimes were performed by mighty Balarama, the unlimited and immeasurable Supreme Lord, whose mystic Yoga-maya power makes Him appear to be a human being.
All the activities of the unlimited Lord Balarama are amazing. Anyone who regularly remembers them at dawn and dusk will become very dear to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Visnu.