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Chapter Eleven
The vibrations caused by exploding mortar rounds shook dirt loose from the ceiling.
Richie pulled the pins on the dual primed initiation device, setting off the double strand of detonation chord taped in a circle around the stone wall. Deckard had personally supervised to make sure that this time P was not applied to the breaching charge.
The overpressure was intense. The assault teams bore down with earplugs firmly in place, the force of the explosion knocking most to their knees and a few off their feet. Deckard slammed one boot down on the floor and pushed off, sprinting fifty meters to the breach.
Sure enough, the charge had crumbled the stone wall. The rocks having been stacked on top of each other without any mortar being used meant that it didn't take much. Glancing back to ensure the assault teams were on his heels, Deckard stepped through the breach. The blast had taken out a few bulbs in the hallway, leaving him in the shadows.
One of the insurgents leaned out of a doorway down the hall, investigating the blast just in time for Deckard to gain target acquisition with the VSS rifle. Two rounds center mass dumped him on the ground for someone to clean up later.
The Samruk assaulters stepped through the breach, stacking up along both walls. Deckard took the first door on his left, tossing in a FMK2 hand grenade. A few seconds later the combination of recrystalized hexogen and TNT exploded, turning the grenade's metal body into fragments that shot out in all directions in a fifteen foot radius. Flowing into the room before the smoke cleared, Deckard cleared the right corner, the Kazakh behind him clearing the left.
As the rest of the assault team entered and cleared their sectors, several Afghan terrorists struggled out of their cots with blood streaming from their ears. Breaking down their sectors of fire, the assaulters fired two rounds apiece from their AK-103s into the enemy before they had a chance to reach for dusty pistols and rifles.
Deckard joined the Kazakhs in a preliminary search of the room while grenades were detonated outside by other assault teams. Kicking over beds and overturning carpets produced nothing of immediate interest.
Lining up on the door for an organized exit, Deckard was about to call them out into the hall, when one of the PKM gunners opened up. A few screams later, and one of the Kazakhs yelled to the machine gunner pulling security down the corridor. The gunner yelled something back, and the stack flowed back into the hall.
Stepping over several fresh corpses, the assault team leapfrogged passed another team clearing what looked like a kitchen area and lined up on the next available doorway. With the second man in the stack preparing another frag grenade, the gun team picked up their machine gun and ammunition, coming up alongside to provide cover fire as needed.
The assaulter winged the fragmentation grenade into the room and waited. Without warning, one of the insurgents came running through the door, trying to avoid the blast. The lead Kazakh slammed the muzzle of his AK into the Afghan's chest, knocking him back through the door as the grenade detonated.
This time Deckard was the last in the stack and patiently followed the mercenaries as they took their points of domination inside the room. Striding through the door, he felt like the entire room was flashing in slow motion. The muzzle flash of an enemy's AK-47 blinked like a disco strobe light in the dark as he blasted away, 7.62 rounds spraying everywhere. Deckard sidestepped out of the door as quickly as possible, the Kazakh standing to his side dropping to the ground like a marionette that had its strings suddenly cut.
The remaining assaulters turned their guns on the muzzle flash, emptying magazines at the threat. Riddled with bullets, the insurgent was punched backwards by the hail of gunfire. As the mercenaries secured the room, Deckard moved to evaluate the injured assaulter. No need. He realized, the enemy's shots had caught him in the face and neck.
Deckard made a mental note that this room needed to be searched and marked for demolition. The walls were stacked nearly to the ceiling with wooden crates showing dust-covered Cyrillic writing. He recognized most of them as being ammunition crates, mostly for PG-7 rocked-propelled grenades and 7.62×39 AK rounds. Others he wasn't so sure about. Blasting the stanchions that ran down the center of ammunition depot would probably do it.
The commandos quickly took turns loading fresh magazines into their rifles before Deckard yelled out to the machine gun team.
"Coming out!"
Back in the corridor, Deckard glanced down the hall. The barricaded entrance to the bunker complex at the end would lead outside. He was surprised how fast they were clearing and advancing through the complex, even with six assault teams leapfrogging each other. Collectively, his team cringed as another group let loose a grenade across the hall.
Reaching over and grabbing the PKM gunner to bring him down the hall with them, Deckard was preparing his assaulters to take the next room, when an Afghan calmly walked into the middle of the corridor from the room at the end of the hall.
Everyone shouldered their weapons just a moment too late as the terrorist leveled an RPG-7 launcher in their direction and pulled the trigger.
Chuck Rochenoir had lived his life by some very simple words.
When in doubt, shoot from the hip and go with what you know.
Hence the six lines of green parachute chord, tied to the web gear of each PKM gunner on the support by fire line. After all six guns went cyclic on the target area for fifteen seconds the former SEAL yanked the strings, signaling them to cease fire.
Next he pulled the string tied to the first gunner and let him fire for five seconds before pulling the string tied to the second gunner. When gun two fired, it was the signal for gun one to shut down. After another five seconds he tugged on the string tied to gun three, and the process continued all the way down the line as they swept the enemy with a powerful base of fire. Chuck would continue to use the 'dopes on a rope' method until the machine gunners gained more experience. Eventually they wouldn't need him or the parachute chord to dump huge amounts of coordinated fire on the enemy.
With their barrels beginning to glow in the darkness, the titanium frame Russian machine guns were proving their worth, alongside the gunners themselves. Assistant gunners reloaded and readied fresh belts of 7.62×54 rimmed ammunition during down periods. Meanwhile, each gunner actively tracked targets, carefully using the red arc of his tracers to walk his fire less then a dozen meters in front of the advancing assault line.
By the time the enemy was out from under the onslaught of machine gun fire, the assault line composed of two entire rifle platoons would be right on top of them.
Chuck was laughing on the inside.
Kanat grabbed the rifleman, pulling him backward to stay parallel with the rest of the assaulters on line with each other. Some of the mercenaries were getting over excited and scrambling ahead of their comrades, sending the platoon sergeant into fits of rage, barking corrections as the assaulters stalked forward.
Arriving at the first of the enemy positions, the platoon sergeant reached into his pocket, retrieving a chem stick. Snapping it mixed the chemicals inside, causing it to glow bright orange. Hurling it across the objective, he gave the signal to the support by fire line to shift fire.
Seeing the tracer fire move from their immediate front to lay suppressive fire deeper into the objective, the platoon sergeant yelled to the riflemen to sweep and clear. Second and Third Platoon advanced forward, individual squad leaders taking change and clearing stone pill boxes and mud huts built into the side of the mountain, finding plenty of fresh corpses created by mortar and machine gun fire.
In between the rapid bursts of PKM fire, individual rifle shots could be heard as the Kazakhs double-tapped downed enemy combatants, assuring that the dead were truly dead.
Kurt Jager terminated a brief conversation with Chuck over his Motorola radio and ducked as a grenade exploded, showering him with rock and debris. More rifle fire was exchanged in the distance. Having established a foothold within the enemy's fortified positions, they would now wait for weapons squad to displace themselves to somewhere that they could better support the assault. The objective area was simply too big to be adequately covered by a static support by fire line.
Kurt yelled to several Kazakhs and pointed out where he wanted them to pull security until Chuck arrived. Taking cover behind a dirt berm, the mercenaries almost immediately began taking enemy fire. Stepping over the bodies of several insurgents that the sniper team had eliminated before they arrived, Kurt moved to a DShK heavy machine gun mounted on a tripod.
Thankfully, the enemy had been deprived of the opportunity to use it against them, but now he had to act fast.
Reaching into his cargo pocket, he pulled out a flex linear charge he had made out of detonation chord, deciding to improvise a bit to destroy the machine gun before moving on. The last thing they needed was an insurgent getting behind them as they continued to clear the area and man the 12.7mm heavy Soviet cannon.
Kurt wrapped the door charge around the barrel and affixed the time fuse in place. He was just about done with the square knot when he heard someone shout in Pashto.
A single shot cracked in the darkness.
The German shuddered, expecting an impact.
Turning, he saw an insurgent on the roof of a hut ten meters away pitch forward over the edge and crash into the ground below, taking a long dirt nap.
"Watch yourself," Piet's voice said over the radio.
Kurt shook his head, finishing the preparation of the explosives as Chuck and his PKM gunners came shuffling toward him, ducking their heads as green tracer fire crisscrossed the night sky.
"Chuck, glad you could make it."
"Wherethefuckarethesemotherfuckers?"
"We should keep three guns on our right flank, so we can hold the high ground. Detach the rest of the guns to the assault squads for immediate support by fire. The terrain looks rough ahead."
"Got it," Chuck said. "I'll take the three gun teams and leave the other three with you, so you can explain it to them."
Kurt nodded in agreement.
Chuck Rochenoire policed up his men and headed uphill, eyes already scanning for a new place to station his men for the duration of the assault.
Turning away from the DshK, Kurt began speaking in Russian to the remaining machine gun teams, knowing that lost time meant the assault lost momentum. Seconds later, the Kazakhs acknowledged their understanding and began to break off to find individual squads.
Standing up, Kurt was about to call Chuck over the radio, when something heavy rolled between his feet.
They stared like idiots as the rocket propelled grenade soared over their heads, leaving a faint plume in its wake. The PG-7 anti-tank projectile continued on its path, spiraling down the corridor before smashing into the wall on the far side of the escape shaft they had entered from and exploded.
In the narrow confines of the bunker, the pressure was overwhelming, knocking the mercenaries off their feet as more shrapnel was flung over their heads. Struggling back up, the Afghan dropped his RPG-7 launcher, looking as surprised as his opponents were. The confusion quickly turned to anger as the Kazakhs sighted in and sent a barrage of fire into him.
The terrorist was practically turned into a sieve by the time it was all over.
The Kazakhs were still checking faces and testicles with their hands to make sure everything was still there in the aftermath of the blast, when Deckard started yelling and forcing troops back to their feet, grabbing them by the collar.
As near as he could tell, the bunkers were more then half clear, but a glance back at the remaining mercenaries told them they were taking casualties in the process. If they lost the initiative for even a moment and the enemy was able to launch an effective counter attack, it was all over for the Samruk men. They had nowhere to retreat but to a tunnel that was impossible to defend from.
"Doorway left! Doorway right! Go!"
The assaulters surged forward.
More grenades were hurled into the uncleared rooms, simultaneous explosions jarring Deckard's fillings. The American jumped in the nearest stack, moving into the next room. Inside, two insurgents were sprawled out on the ground, lifeless eyes staring at the ceiling. It seemed that the FMK2 grenades were worth the ridiculous invoice Deckard had been given for them.
A third terrorist attempted to stand, but was quickly put back down by shots from three AK-103s and Deckard's VSS rifle. Outside, the staccato bursts chattered back and forth. The rumble of explosions shook the walls, showering them with debris. Deckard whistled. The chamber was packed to the gills with poppies ready to be processed into opium.
Another assault team bounded past as they exited through the door to move deeper down the corridor. Deckard was stepping out into the hall, when Frank literally ran into him with a sheen of sweat coating his face.
"We got him," Frank panted. " Khalis. MIK, and his boyfriend, too."
"Oh, well," Deckard lamented. "At least he died doing what he loved."
Frank snorted.
"Make sure you get a picture of him and DNA."
"That's fucking disgusting, I'm not doing it that shit."
"I mean a blood sample, you fucking idiot-"
Screams were suddenly drowned out by gunfire.
Kurt Jager slowly opened one eye, then the other, before lifting his head up off the ground.
When the grenade rolled between his feet, the former sergeant had leaped to the ground, covering his head with his arms and hoping to avoid the inevitable blast. It never came. Looking at the Soviet pineapple grenade, Kurt reached out and picked it up. Pulling the pin, he hurled it back at the enemy.
The explosion rewarded him with the satisfying smell of sulfur. It permeated through the air, alongside the screams of dying insurgents.
By now Chuck had reset the support by fire line. The machine gun teams opened up, holding the triggers down, significantly reducing the amount of incoming enemy fire as the insurgents were again forced to the ground to avoid the wall of lead cutting through the air above them.
Knowing it was time to move, Kurt pulled the pin on the initiator, beginning the burn sequence on the time fuse.
Alibek and Kanat could barely be heard above the gunfire, but the men got the message and once again began to advance. Jumping over the sand berm, Kurt and his adopted squad moved with one of the PKM gunners bringing up the rear. The terrain quickly narrowed into a single winding path that clung to the side of a cliff. He suspected it was much the same for the other squads as they cleared laterally, sweeping around the mountainside from one enemy position to the next.
During a break in machine gun fire, he heard something sliding down the cliff face and halted the squad. Pressing up against the side of the crumbling cliff wall, the mercenaries watched as the bodies of two insurgents slid off the cliff, flailing like rag dolls, recent victims of Chuck's machine gunners in a kill zone somewhere above them.
Inching along the path, Kurt rounded a bend and found himself face to face with another sandal-wearing insurgent with a Mosin-Nagant bolt action rifle in his hands. Both gunfighters brought their weapons into play, Kurt beating him by a wide margin and drilling the man with three shots into his chest. Dropping his rifle, the insurgent slid off the cliff to be reunited with his comrades somewhere below.
A little more cautious now, the squad moved forward, all too aware that they were channelized along the mountain trail with nowhere to go, a suicidal leap of faith down the mountain excluded.
Back at the stronghold they had left behind, the charge set on the DShK exploded. Combat created a strange kind of time distortion. It seemed like they had been on the trail for a hour already, but in reality there was only a minute of time fuse to burn before the charge went off.
Rounding the next bend in the trail, Kurt afforded a quick glance around the turn before exposing himself. Sure enough, there was a sandbagged fighting position, three insurgents present and manning a ZSU-23 anti-aircraft machine gun. Nestled into the mountain face, it was out of the line of fire of Chuck's PKM crew.
Leaning back, he whispered in the lead Kazakh's ear, explaining the situation and plan of action in Russian before telling him to pass the information back to the rest of the squad. Hopefully it didn't result in a game of telephone where the tail gunner in the rear got a story about Genghis Khan's army sitting in a foxhole.
"Piet?" Kurt whispered into his handheld radio.
"The boys are a little busy. We got buggers crawling all over the mountain."
"Can you handle a few more?"
Kurt flipped on the infrared strobe light strapped to his assault rig.
"I just switched on my strobe."
"I've got you. Whole squad lined up on there, huh?"
"Look to your left from my strobe."
"A couple gun barrels in there, I think."
"Two barrels, one gun. A ZSU."
"Three bad guys, too. Give me a moment to get ready."
"Make it fast. Nikita is the only thing stopping the squad below you from being overrun."
Kurt palmed one of his grenades. Holding down the spoon, he yanked the pin.
"When you're ready," he said, keying the radio with his free hand.
Almost immediately a single shot thundered out from Piet's bolt gun. His concealed position in the rocks gave the remaining the enemy little hint as to where he was located. The survivors began shouting in excited Pashto as Kurt lobbed the Argentinean grenade into their fighting position. Half a second later, Piet fired a second shot, cutting off the Afghan's conversation; a second after the grenade detonated ending any notion of it.
"Tausend dank," the German called back.
Piet responded with something in Afrikaans that Kurt couldn't understand.
Moving in, the squad rapidly captured the insurgent position, finding it occupied by two corpses shot through the head and another riddled with shrapnel. Kurt put the PKM gunner facing forward to take on any new threats while he decided their next move.
Without any more explosives he did the next best thing to disable the massive anti-aircraft gun. Detaching the linked 23mm rounds, he lugged them to the side of the cliff and hurled them over.
Muzzle flashes were lighting up the night, tracer fire flying in every direction. So much gun powder was in the air that it wafted in with a nauseatingly sweet smell that seemed to stick to their sinuses.
A barrage of RPG rockets streaked over their heads.
Kurt wondered how much farther it was to the bunkers.
Chuck winced as one RPG whooshed just a few feet over his head before the second rocket hit the ground in front of the firing line, raining shards of rock down on them. While trying to blink his eyes and see through the toxic cloud left in the anti-tank round's wake, a third rocket exploded and threw him on his back, everything blinking out, going dark.
Coughing and wiping dust out of his eyes, the former Navy SEAL felt like he was moving in slow motion, his mind struggling to keep up with his surroundings. His hands ran over his body, out of instinct more then anything, checking for holes. Forcing himself to focus he looked at his hands but didn't see any red.
Looking back he remembered where he was.
A single PKM gunner was holding down the trigger, sending a constant volley of fire down range while the two other machine guns lay silent. Despite the nearly blinding flame shooting from the muzzle of the lone PKM, Chuck found it strange that he couldn't hear anything.
Arm over arm he high crawled forward until he laid his forearm down on something hot. Retracting his arm in pain, he saw that he had crawled on top of one of the PKMs or what was left of it, the receiver hopelessly bent by a rocket propelled grenade.
Closer now, he saw the bodies of two gunners and one assistant gunner. The remaining AG was rolling back and forth holding his face. There was nothing Chuck could do for him at the moment. If someone didn't start putting more fire down range, they'd have more dead and dying friendlies on their hands.
Manning the remaining PKM, Chuck conducted a functions check on the weapon, his mind struggling to remember the procedure. Racking the bolt back and forth a few times was the best he could manage under the circumstances. Digging through the dead AG's kitbag, he found what was left of the 7.62×54 linked bullets.
To his right the remaining gunner ceased fire, smoke coming off the barrel as the Kazakh was also sent digging around for more ammunition.
Chuck slapped the fresh belt in the feed tray, slammed the feed tray cover closed, and racked the bolt to the rear.
Looking down the iron sights, he targeted an insurgent in the distance, only visible as a silhouette under the moonlight, but the outline of the RPG-7 was clear enough. The tube primed with a fresh rocket.
Pulling the broken wooden stock tight into his shoulder, Chuck went cyclic.
Adam ducked back behind the boulder as AK-47 rounds kicked dirt into his face.
Lower on the side of the mountain his squad had found themselves in relatively open terrain, even if it sloped at a vicious angle, making it difficult for the troops to maintain their footing. Only a few lonely boulders and shallow depressions offered them any cover as the insurgents hammered them, apparently determined not to lose any more ground.
"Right side! Bound!"
On taking fire, the squad broke down into two assault teams. Adam and his team leaned out from behind the rocky outcropping and fired on the enemy positions. It looked to him as if the muzzle flashes of several enemy rifles had blinked out permanently but he wasn't sure.
The second assault team leaped out from the depression they had lain prone in, sprinting forward to a pile of rocks that had gathered at the base of the cliff to their right flank. Meanwhile, their only PKM gunner moved up behind them, searching for his own position.
Once Adam heard the automatic fire of the PKM, he signaled to his men that it was time to move. With their counterparts laying down suppressive fire, the team ran forward, bullets still kicking up geysers of dust around their feet.
When they collectively huddled behind the only boulder in otherwise open ground, Adam was relieved to see they had all made it, even if one young kid's face was covered in blood from god only knew what. At least he was still on his feet.
On each side of the boulder, a Kazakh got in the prone while another took a knee beside him. Leaning out from behind cover, they fired high and low. When one of the kneeling mercenaries went dry on his AK and had to reload, Adam pushed him back, taking his place. They continued to sweep gunfire at known, likely, and suspected, targets until the PKM gunner came up behind them, pushing Adam and his buddy out of the way.
The gunner went cyclic again while the other fire team found relief in a nearby ditch created by weather erosion. Finding their new positions, the assault team joined the AK fire stitching several insurgents across the middle, weapons falling from lifeless hands.
"Let's go," Adam ordered taking the lead.
His team rushed forward, finding another small gully created by rainwater; it was knee deep at best. By now incoming fire was reduced to the occasional crack that sent dust showering down over the edge of the ditch.
"Grenades!"
The Kazakhs looked back and forth, not understanding until he pulled an FMK2 grenade from his chest rig and pulled the pin out. Tearing through chest harnesses, the Kazakhs primed their own grenades and waited for Adam's command.
Five frag grenades arced through the night, coming down on top of the bastion. Explosions knocked down haphazardly built stone walls and tore the insurgents limb from limb.
Amid the pained screams coming from their front, the other assault team made one last bound before the entire squad formed a skirmish line and stalked across the enemy position, double-tapping bodies to make sure, while in a few cases delivering a final coup de grace.
Halting the squad, Adam ran down the assault line, physically lifting them up and placing them where he felt they could best pull security in case of an enemy counter attack. Finding the young kid with blood gushing down his face, he pulled out some gauze and began wiping his head down, looking for the source of the bleeding.
They turned in unison, as it sounded like strikes of thunder were slamming into the side of the mountain.
Deckard sunk the blade into the terrorist's throat until it stopped at the hilt.
Cutting through the thick muscles around the neck was somewhat more difficult then most people expected. Slicing the rest of the way through the enemy's carotid artery, Deckard grabbed him by his dishdasha and cast the insurgent aside.
The Kazakh who had been pinned underneath the insurgent got to his feet.
He looked pretty good for having a near-death experience or two.
With Frank distracting him, some of the assaulters had gotten spread a little thin. By the time he caught up with them, one of the mercenaries had already been sideswiped and taken to the ground.
Down the hall, assault teams looked back at him, giving the thumbs up. The bunker complex was clear. Finally.
"Alexander! Medic!"
The platoon sergeant came rushing forward, his right hand covered in blood. Pulling out a pair of medical shears, Deckard grabbed the Kazakh commando by the arm and sliced off his shirt sleeve. Alexander grunted, just now noticing the bullet crease across his forearm that was pumping a steady flow of blood.
Deckard began applying a field bandage while glancing up at Alexander's bloodshot eyes.
"We need security," he said, nodding. "Security. Casualties? Bullets?"
"Medic, yes."
Securing the bandage with its metal fasteners, Deckard patted the sergeant on the shoulder.
The platoon sergeant took off, making sure his men pulled security rather then just standing around. Barking orders, squad leaders began to report in with any injuries their men had sustained and how much ammunition had been expended. Deckard already knew they had several fatalities.
"Frank?"
"Yeah," the Army veteran said, sticking his head out a door.
"Start collecting whatever you think is relevant."
"Already on it." Then as an afterthought, "We got a couple prisoners here, too."
Evidence exploitation was specifically not included in the Operations Order. They were supposed to kill and destroy everything they found. Scorched earth. His handlers didn't want him collecting up hard drives and documents, much less interrogating anyone.
They wanted him in an intelligence black hole and it wasn't his place to ask questions. He had other ideas.
"Shit, how the hell did that happen?"
"Guess they missed a couple guys during the initial sweep who had tried to hide."
"Remember that for the AAR."
Alexander came stomping back. What followed was an impossible to follow dialog, for any casual observer, that took place in English, Russian, and sign language, but the point was made. The troops expended about two magazines each. There were seven injuries, two dead. The platoon medic was working on the most serious injury.
Motioning for the platoon sergeant to lead the way, Deckard followed him to a critically wounded Kazakh, lying on the ground in the insurgent's kitchen area. The American stood back, silently observing.
The casualty had been shot through the abdomen, the bullet punching straight through his chest, leaving a ragged exit wound. The commando gasped, struggling to breath. Using the plastic packaging from a field dressing, the Kazakh medic taped it over the exit wound before pulling out a fourteen-gauge needle and carefully sticking it between the second and third mid-clavicle line below the collarbone.
A whoosh of air escaped from his chest cavity, a successful tension pneumothorax treatment that decompressed the chest cavity. As if someone had waved a magic wand, the casualty began to breath normally again. If the medic was able to keep his patient alive all the way to the field hospital in Bagram, Deckard would make sure both the medic and the former Green Beret who trained him received a bonus.
Deckard turned around, examining the other casualties that had been consolidated in the kitchen for triage and treatment. Some cuts and non-life threatening gunshot wounds; the five Kazakhs would survive. It was the final casualty that concerned the Samruk commander.
"Richie, what the fuck?"
"Bullocks, you bloody bastard," he gasped.
"That's a real gusher you got there."
The demo expert looked down at the mostly cauterized burn across his shoulder.
"One of those fucking barbarians of yours got too close when we were clearing a room," he spat through clenched teeth. "Got caught with his muzzle flash."
"Hold on a sec," Deckard said, sympathetically. "Let me help you with that."
Reaching down, he grabbed Richie by the ear and painfully dragged him to his feet.
"Does it feel better now?"
"I'll slot the whole lot of you wankers!"
"We don't have time for you to start sandbagging on us. Gather up whatever demo you distributed to the platoon. I want a line main down the corridor. You can probably find enough mines and rockets in the stockpile they have here to sympathetically detonate and bring the roof down. Got it?"
Richie stormed out of the kitchen, ego bruised, but reputation still about par for the course.
Back out in the hall, Deckard grabbed several Kazakhs who were standing by for further orders.
He had no way of knowing the status of the assault topside, but it was time to open the bunker doors and find out.
The only way was up.
One of the Kazakhs leaned against the cliff face, making stirrups with his hands.
Putting a hand on the merc's shoulder to steady himself, Kurt stuck a booted foot in his hands and sprung upwards, searching for and finding purchase on a rock sticking out of the dirt. Scrambling up, he found himself on an embankment that looked to offer an easy way forward over open terrain.
Leaning over the edge, he gave his squad the thumbs up to begin climbing up.
Offering his hand, Kurt helped the next Kazakh up the slope, preventing him from sliding back down. Grabbing him by his belt, the German's bicep flared as he lifted and flung him onto the embankment. The Kazakh stood up, dusting himself off, when the hand of god seemed to swat the mercenary right out of the air, literally tearing him to pieces.
His face now splattered with his comrade's blood, Kurt rolled out of the way as large caliber rounds tore apart the ground he had occupied a fraction of a second before, churning up a cloud of dust in their wake.
The noise was deafening, twin barrels chewing apart everything in their line of fire. What had become sporadic bursts from the support by fire line now ceased completely, the assault's momentum lost.
Kurt rolled right, finding concealment if not cover behind a few rocks piled on top one another. Stealing a glance at the enemy's hard site, he confirmed what he already knew from sound alone. Another ZSU-23, so named for the dual 23mm anti-aircraft cannons, now turned on unarmored ground troops to ruthless and morale-depriving effect.
With its crew spinning the gun turret's wheels, the cannon rotated, raking the side of the mountain with fire, causing both platoons to find immediate cover or be taken apart like a holiday turkey. The ZSU was roughly one hundred meters away over sloping but open ground. A frontal assault was out of the question.
"Piet," Kurt called to the sniper team leader on his radio. "Do you see that other ZSU?"
"No, the elevation is too high. We can't see it from here but can sure as hell hear it."
Kurt considered his options. At any moment the ZSU gunners were liable to see him, and he didn't have any illusions about a few rocks protecting him from twin streams of 23mm bullets.
"Mendez, this is Kurt. Fire mission, over."
"Kurt, this is Mendez. Fire mission, over," the radio crackled.
"Grid mission," Kurt said, looking down at a topographical map. "42S 1350 7595." He rattled off the most accurate grid possible under the circumstances. Reaching into the pocket sewn onto the shoulder of his fatigue jacket, he retrieved the Silva compass he had carried since his orienteering days as a teenager. "253 degrees."
The compass only read degrees, so Phil would have to convert the number to mils for use by the mortar teams. Really it was the least of his problems. The anti-aircraft gun chopped away at the mountainside with a hailstorm of automatic fire.
He had a fat finger trying to read digits and analyze terrain features in the dark with just a small red lens flashlight. At any rate he was definitely into the red with this one.
"Danger close. Anti-aircraft cannon, no overhead cover."
"Roger."
The pause seemed to go on forever while he waited for Mendez to get his guns aligned.
"Shot, over."
"Shot, out."
"Splash, over."
Kurt's jaw tensed. There was a certain margin of error when using mortars at over a klick away from you of about three hundred meters. He was a hundred meters from the intended target.
The 82mm HE round went wide, landing to the right of the ZSU-23. Kurt blew out his cheeks. Not that he didn't have faith in the mortar section or anything.
"Splash, out. Left two hundred meters."
It was hard to adjust fire at night with limited equipment. He could have Mendez fire an illumination round first to light up the area, which would give him forty seconds or so of light to make adjustments, but in the meantime who knew how many hidden mercenaries he'd be buddy fucking if the light revealed their positions and subjected them to more then half a minute of fire from that cannon?
He'd just walk the rounds laterally until he got them behind the gun and then walk them in.
The mortar round exploded smack dab behind the ZSU.
"Splash, out. Drop fifty meters. Fire for effect."
"Drop fifty. Fire for effect."
While the mortar tubes could be heard bellowing in the distance, the rounds themselves didn't whistle as they soared overhead.
Three 82mm mortar tubes hung ten rounds apiece in rapid succession, the high explosives detonating all around the ZSU, rocking the gun and its crew with blast after blast that lit up the night, casting spooky shadows across the rocky ground.
By the time Phil and his boys were done, there probably wouldn't be enough of the bad guys left to soak up with a sponge.
"Let's go, lift that cross bar," Deckard ordered, stepping forward to help the five Kazakhs struggling with the heavy wooden beam. With a final grunt, the six of them were able to lift the beam from the metal braces it sat in and drop it on the tunnel floor.
The twin metal doors sounded like nails on a chalkboard as they were pushed open. Deckard gave the halt sign to the Kazakhs with a closed fist and began walking towards the mouth of the tunnel. Linking up with friendly forces in the middle of a firefight had an exceedingly high probability of some kind of blue on blue incident going down. Friendly fire usually wasn't.
Confronted with a series of ninety degree turns, he snaked through the passage, which was wide enough to drive a truck through. The turns were designed to prevent Uncle Sam from launching a cruise missile straight into the mountain fortress through the front door. Feeling his way through the darkness, he could hear the occasional crump, crump, crump of mortars.
The fight wasn't over yet.
Turning the last bend, Deckard could see the mouth of the tunnel and flipped on his radio just in time to hear someone who sounded like Mendez making a transmission. It was coming in garbled and undecipherable, due to him still being underground.
The ground shook hard enough to knock Deckard to his hands and knees. His first thought was an earthquake, until he registered thirty or more mortar rounds striking a position that couldn't be more then fifty meters from where he stood.
As the tunnel flooded with dust, a supporting beam jutting across the ceiling fell free, shaken loose by the onslaught outside and landed with a crash inches from Deckard's head.
Coughing and spitting out dust, he snapped a green chem stick and tossed it outside the mouth of the tunnel, giving the all-clear signal.
"Any station on this net," he choked out, "this is Samruk Six."
"Hey, O'Brien. This is Kurt."
Apparently call signs had fallen by the wayside during the fog of war or something.
"You see my green chem?"
"Shisa. Is that you?"
"Are you okay? There was an anti-aircraft gun right next to the opening of the tunnel. I didn't even know it was there until you mentioned the chem you just threw out."
"I'll live. Move up and secure this area. As soon as that's done, I need you and Adam in here."
"Got it," Adam's voice came over the net.
Standing at the entrance to the tunnel, Deckard watched sunlight creeping over the horizon, casting long shadows across the mountains. It created a panorama that looked like a Nicolas Roerich painting. The infiltration and assault had taken all night. With pilots unwilling to fly into such a hotly contested area during daylight, they were stuck out in the hinterlands until nightfall.
Motherfucker.
Reconsolidation and reorganization took nearly an additional forty-five minutes. Deckard knew that it was common from past experience. The entire company was spread out over difficult terrain. All troops had to be accounted for. Wounded needed to be identified and treated. Dead needed to found and gathered in a centralized location.
After writing the final numbers down on an index card, his eyes seemed frozen on the figures. Twelve dead, twenty-three wounded. Most of the wounded were ambulatory, but three, included the sucking chest wound he had observed earlier, were urgent surgical.
Sliding the card into the front pouch of his assault rig, Deckard knew the mission was far from over. Not until the helicopters set down at Bagram Airfield would he even begin to let his guard down.
Looking over his shoulder and down the corridor, he could hear the muffled sounds of Adam interrogating the two prisoners in a side room. The walls of the hallway were littered with empty crates and what looked like oversized sardine tins, all three platoons having replenished their AK magazines from the enemy stockpile. Richie directed the several Kazakhs assisting him in setting the charges, linking them off the line of detonation chord running down the hall.
Piled at the mouth of the tunnel were several crates of recovered 82mm mortar rounds.
"Richie, how long?" Deckard shouted down the hall to him.
"Five minutes," Richie shrugged.
"Kurt," he said, walking into the kitchen area that had been converted into the casualty collection point, "do me a favor and tell the platoon sergeants I want all three platoon moved out of here. Find some fortified areas outside to hunker down in until nightfall and move the dead and wounded there. We're going to demo this place in ten minutes," he said, adding a buffer to Richie's estimation.
"No problem," Kurt said looking up from one of the wounded Kazakhs he was tending to.
"How is Chuck?"
"Concussion. He'll be okay in a few days. When you suffer that kind of blast, your brain gets bounced around and bruised pretty bad. That's why he looks drunk right now."
Looking across the room, Charles Rochenoire did indeed look like he'd been on all-night bender, and if Kurt had not vouched for the salvo of RPG fire he was in the middle of, Deckard probably wouldn't have believed the concussion story.
Supposedly, a Kazakh corporal had found Chuck wandering around the mountain absentmindedly with a PKM, firing at any rocks or sandbags that looked at him the wrong way.
"I also want Third Platoon to carry those recovered mortar rounds down to Mendez and then reinforce the mortar section."
"That's a hike."
"I don't want to leave him out there by himself all day. If need be, he can collapse back to our position. I don't like splitting our forces in half, anyway."
Moving back outside, Deckard took a knee as Third Platoon came pouring out behind him, carrying the crates of mortar rounds. The men looked tired but motivated, several of them walking wounded. Deep down he knew they were better then he deserved.
"Mendez," he said, keying the radio. "I'm sending Third Platoon down to you with a resupply."
"Ah, okay," the mortar section leader paused. With the sun cresting above the horizon, he probably hadn't waited a moment longer to light up a smoke. "Cool, I'll be waiting for 'em."
"Roger, out."
Deckard watched Third Platoon as they made their way down the mountain on the donkey paths, the mercenaries growing smaller as they got farther away until they looked like a line of ants. By then First and Second platoon were emerging from the bunkers, carrying the dead and dying on improvised stretchers. Chuck stumbled along with them incoherently. Frank brought up the rear. His assault pack was overflowing with potential intelligence sources he'd found on the objective.
"What have you got?"
"A laptop, a few hard drives I pulled out of computers, bunch of documents, a couple Thuraya satellite phones, took down serial numbers off of everything including the lot numbers off the ammo crates."
"Don't let that pack leave your sight. I want you and Adam all over that shit as soon as we get back to Astana."
"Alright, get up there and assist Kanat and Alibek for now."
"Groovy."
Frank grunted, following the Kazakhs up to another fortified area they had found.
Deckard moved back inside, personally checking each room to insure that no one was left behind. All he found were the bodies of insurgents with flies crawling across their lifeless eyeballs.
"Adam," he said, finding the ad hoc interrogation room. "Move those two jokers out of here with the rest of the company. This place is about ready to go."
The two prisoners had had their hands tied with some rope as they were not carrying flex cuffs or other conventional restraints. One of them was a grimy looking creep; the other an older guy with a beard.
"Alright," he responded momentarily, switching from Pashto to English. "Too bad. I'm about done with these guys. We could have just left them here and dropped the roof on them."
"I can give you a few more minutes."
"Nah, I'll get them out of here."
"Have it your way."
Adam led the two Afghans out at gunpoint while Richie was uncoiling time fuse towards the entrance.
"Is this shit going to work?"
Richie gave him a what the fuck look.
"You ready, boss?"
Richie turned the pins on the fuse igniter, and with a snap and fizzle, the time fuse began to burn.
"Three minutes," Richie announced.
"Three minutes until detonation," Deckard announced over the net as they cleared the tunnel entrance.
Following the same path as the two platoons, they climbed past the wreckage of the ZSU-23 that Mendez had mortared. Distracted, his eyes were drawn to the ridge line above them. They had good coverage from where they were but no vantage point at the summit of the mountain.
"Piet?" he called into his radio.
"Think your snipers can cheat forward up to the top to the ridge and give us eyes on the other side of this hill?"
Static hissed over the radio.
"Yeah, give me a minute to get the boys moving."
"Roger, let me know when-"
Deckard's words were cut off as gunfire smacked the ground on both of his sides, the muzzle flashes clearly announcing the enemy gunfire from the ridge above them.
The action continues in chapter twelve.


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Labor MP's laughable water claims
A Federal Labor MP's attempts to claim credit for driving a water plan being held up by the Rann Government were laughable, Senator Simon Birmingham said today.
In his latest newsletter, Labor MP Steve Georganas says he
"…has ignited State Government interest in a water plan that would provide as much as 5,500 megalitres of treated waste water per year to industry and parks in Adelaide's western suburbs and parklands."
His own headline even claims Mr Georganas is driving the plan to stop wastewater being pumped into the sea off the Glenelg coast.
"Steve Georganas clearly has trouble telling the difference between ignition and the Rann Labor Government locking the keys in a car organised and half paid off by the Howard Government," Senator Birmingham said today.
"There is only one thing stopping this water saving project – the intransigence of Mr Georganas's state Labor mates.
"The Howard Government put the money on the table, but the Rann Government has refused to come to the party with the necessary matching funding.
"Funding of $25 million for the Glenelg Wastewater Treatment Plant project was announced by the Prime Minister on 29 September 2004 and required only matching funding from the Rann Government to proceed.
"This funding has not been forthcoming and, under questioning in Senate Budget Estimates in May, it was revealed that Rann Government officials had advised the National Water Commission that the project was in abeyance.
"Thousands of megalitres of water are being wasted in South Australia because the Rann Labor Government's commitment to valuable water conservation projects has all but evaporated.
"Mr Georganas has some more work to do convincing his state Labor mates to go ahead with the project or come up with an alternative before he can make claims in his newsletter about anything being ignited.
"Does Mr Georganas have any original ideas or is he, like Mr Rudd, just content to steal Liberal ideas and badge them as his own?"
Category: Media Releases 16 April, 2009
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Craig Henighan has racked up a formidable list of film credits over the last 18 years, as a sound designer, supervising sound editor, and sound re-recording mixer. From conjuring up the weighty impact of robotic punches to crafting textures of dark psychological dissonance, his talents and fine ear have made him one of Hollywood's A-list sonic illusionists. We were thrilled to discover that Craig has been using the Lowender subharmonic synthesizer in his workflow for years, and took the opportunity to ask him a few questions about it.
Q: How long have you been using the Lowender?
I've been using Lowender pretty much on every project since around 2007. I used to use reFuse back in the old OS 8 and 9 days for Reason, and when I got into Pluggo, I happened upon Lowender.
Q: How do you incorporate the Lowender in your workflow?
It's part of my template, running on one or two aux's depending on the project.
Q: So you set up multiple instances of Lowender for mixing? Could you elaborate on that technique a bit more?
I like to have a couple settings, one is for the real low stuff. I start with your "Thunder" preset and boost the drive a touch. So that instance is set to about 25Hz - 50Hz, and then for the other I'll dial up the 36Hz - 56Hz range. The real low one isn't all that useful for most projects, but there's been the odd one where you put some fun stuff through the ultra lows, more to feel than to hear obviously. I generally run the blender at the full bass setting.
Q: What are some of the films that you've used Lowender on?
Black Swan, Real Steel, Moonrise Kingdom, The Grey, The A-Team, Snow White and the Huntsman, Chasing Mavericks.
Q: Is there a specific sound cue that you remember Lowender working particularly well to enhance?
Pretty much all the fights in Real Steel have Lowender all over them. With the automation you can really control the punchiness of the plug-in. When using the outboard sub synths, you sometimes can't be as precise with the energy created. Lowender helps maintain a more precise use of subharmonic synth frequencies.
It also worked quite well on a scene in Snow White and the Huntsman, where we built from a quiet bit into a low end "subsonic" wave. Lowender helped me build a very cool sounding transition.
To learn more about Craig's creative process, check out these Soundworks Collection videos.


Former Wales flanker Martyn Williams says that Wales' 16-10 warm-up win in Ireland on Saturday was an important step in their World Cup preparations.
Warren Gatland will name his final 31-man World Cup squad at 12:00 BST on Monday, but who will make the cut?
Williams tells presenter Ross Harries who he thinks should he would take, and who might be unlucky.
Wales will face England and Australia at Twickenham, while also playing Uruguay and Fiji at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.


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PTN's "Ask Mike" – August 31st
by: Mike Irwin
It is time once again for our weekly "Ask Mike" segment where our veteran analyst Mike Irwin answers your questions about Arkansas Athletics.
Q: Let's begin with our weekly COVID update.
A: The big issue continues to be the number of infections on college campuses. Alabama reached a thousand over the weekend. That's one in 40 testing positive. That's total cases not new cases but it's a concern there.
At Auburn it's spread to the football team. They shut down practice last week after nine players tested positive with 16 going into quarantine. Gus Malzahn will open practice up this week. This is why the season was pushed back for SEC teams. To give coaches extra time to deal with an outbreak if it occurs.
The University of Arkansas is at around a hundred positive cases. A dormitory on campus has been reserved as a place for these students to be quarantined. A hundred cases is low but the concern is, how much does does it spread? If you get into a situation where there's, say, a thousand actives cases on campus then the possibility looms for online classes only. If that happens I don't think it will result in football being shut down.
So far at Arkansas the "testing positive" numbers among students doesn't appear to have spread to athletes. I say "appear" because we haven't been given an update in a while but if there was an issue we'd have heard about it. So so far, so good with the Razorback football team.
Q. Our first question is from simon the squealot who says: The spike in COVID-19 cases upon the resumption of on-campus classes at the various colleges and universities suggests our country is not yet ready for the assembly of 17,000-30,000 fans in a single locale. What is the rationale for allowing fans to come to the games?
A. Data from various sources, including the CDC suggests, that the problem on campuses is not occurring outdoors. It's happening indoors in places where the wearing of masks and social distancing is not enforced. There will be strict protocols in place for these games plus obviously they are held outdoors where the virus is less likely to infect.
The SEC has its own COVID health panel which has approved each school's plan for seating fans. Plus each of the schools has to comply with guidelines within their respective states which have their own health advisory panels.
Q. BloodRedHog asks: Do you see any similarities between 2020 and Nutt's first season in 1998 that could give fans hope for a magical season?
A. There are some. Both coaches inherited good talent. Much better than a lot of fans and media people realized. Danny Ford was a good recruiter but his assistant coaches didn't get along well. That affected the players. Morris recruited well but his offensive coordinator was too inexperienced for the SEC. The defensive coordinator was past his prime.
Nutt fired his players up with positive messages and speeches. Sam Pittman is more of a detail guy. You may have heard him say after Friday's first scrimmage, he doesn't believe in telling players how good they are to inspire them. He likes to show it to them on video. The video doesn't lie.
As far is instant success, the SEC West is a much tougher division than it was in 98. Plus Arkansas is playing an All SEC schedule and every ranked SEC team is on their schedule. I'm not looking for miracles. Just solid improvement.
Q. EngrHog wants to know: From a scheme standpoint and not current player personnel/ talent, which side of the ball is easier to turn-around faster, defense or offense? Conversely, from a scheme and current player personnel standpoint, which side of the ball do you expect to have a bigger improvement this year?
A, I think it's easier to turn an offense around with a scheme change simply because there's not an equivalent of the quarterback on defense. That is, a guy who has his hands on the ball on every snap. Change a scheme to fit your quarterback and it's usually gonna make a big difference.
As far as Arkansas, I'll go with anything Kendal Briles comes up with over Chad Morris and the QB change with Feleipe Franks is huge. Based on Friday's scrimmage it sounds like the offense is ahead of the defense.
Q. whippersnapper says: I believe had the Ladybacks been able to participate in the NCAA tourney in March we'd be talking bout a 2nd weekend team. If basketball is played this season will the Ladyback expectations be higher than last year or bout the same?
A. Definitely higher. They will be bigger this season. Destinee Oberg is a big forward who got hurt early then played some but they're looking forward to having her for an entire season. Macy Weaver another big forward. She missed the whole season injured. And then Destiny Slocum, an honorable mention all American grad transfer guard from Oregon State. She's a 45% shooter from the floor. Averaged 15 points per game and of course they will have 5-11 forward Chelsea Dungee back. She averaged 17 points a game last year.
Q. PorkSoda wants to know: Any stand outs in practice that the average fan may not have heard of?
A. I'm gonna go with Josh Oglesby, He's a sprinter on the track team that played football in high school. He's run a 10.3 hundred meters in track. That's like really fast in football. Sam Pittman has complimented him. The other running backs talk about how quick he is. I think we're gonna see at leAst three running backs play a lot this season. I think he'll be one of them.
Q. cowhog32 asks: With this basically being a bonus year for players, do you think the same should be extended to coaches? Like with all the craziness going on it would be nice if coaches got a free year of not worrying about being fired for loosing too many games.
A. I guess if I were a losing coach I would like it. The question is, will any SEC coach whose team struggles get a break because of the all conference schedule? I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that very few college coaches period will be fired this year mainly because with revenues down who wants to pay a big buyout?
Q. Pigsfeat wants to know: Are the "secondary" sports teams unhappy with shortened announced seasons or are they just happy to have an opportunity to compete?
A. Pretty much the same story as with football. They aren't thrilled with the situation but they also understand that in some conferences their sport has been canceled. So competing under some restrictions is better than not competing at all. Isn't that he attitude of most fans? Games with no fans or games with restricted attendance is not as entertaining but it's still worth watching. It's just part of what we are all dealing with.
Q. MuskogeeHogFan says: There have been reports of the D-Line making a lot of big plays in practice. . What have you seen, either in person, in videos or in conversations with members of the staff that would encourage you that the O-Line is going to be vastly improved, despite the plays that the defense has been making?
A.. This is a good example of what happens in August Camp. We see almost nothing. Certainly not scrimmaging. The coaches and players made reference to certain things and fans form opinions based on partial information. I've actually gotten this question from the other angle. That the offense is dominating the defense and does this indicate a problem with the D-line? I've seen enough in the form of video to tell me that the offensive line is looking better so far. There's been a genuine back and forth according to Sam Pittman which is good. I really like what I'm seeing from Myron Cunningham and Ricky Stromberg. I've seen above angle, live drill blocking video where both of those guys are impressive.
Q. Twinky275 asks: Any word on stadium attendance? Will there still be a student section? With some space freed up due to no bands, any possibility of regular ticket sales and if so do you think there would be a dramatic price increase?
A. Attendance will be between 16-17 thousand here. That's going to be lower than at most SEC stadiums because of tighter restrictions imposed by the Governor's COVID public health committee. Right now we're experiencing anywhere between 400-800 new cases a day. It's been slowly dropping for a few weeks now but it's still a concern. There will be a student section. At the current time only season ticket holders will be allowed in. If the infection rate drops significantly as the season progresses I guess there would be a possibility of larger crowds. But with over 30 000 season ticket holders I doubt we'll see any individual game tickets sold.
Q. The_Bionic_Pig says: The 120 play scrimmage wore this team down. K. Briles as the OC at Baylor averaged 90+ offensive plays per game. Is 3 weeks enough time to find the right stamina?
A. It was Pittman who said they got tired. He pointed out that it was unusually hot that day. There's actually almost a month until the first game and he said there's plenty of time to get them into better shape. I would point out that while the preseason is lasting longer this season, August Camp, which is now over, was structured differently. They were practicing just times in a week before school started. Five is normal during camp. The pace was slower so that had something to do with conditioning. There are also at least two more scrimmages to come so we'll see if Pittman has the same observation after those scrimmages.
Q. peakhog wants to know: With limited numbers in the stadium, how will that affect an already crowded press box?
A. SEC guidelines limit each press box this season to no more than 50% capacity. Each school, of course can reduce that even more depending on local guidelines for social distancing. There will be proper social distancing in each press box and masks will be required. In addition at Reynolds Razorback Stadium local TV stations will not be allowed to shoot their own video. They must take a feed from the TV broadcast. It's a new world for all of us.
Q. DeltaBoy is back with another question: How is the defense looking? It seems to be an improvement from what the press, players and coaches say.
A. I like the way you put that. "Seems to be…." I say that because again, until we see it in a game how do we really know? The players have been over the top in their praise of the new coaching staff. Isaiah Nichols, who was in Morris' first recruiting class, said that the coaches, "talk to us like men." The implication is that the previous defensive staff didn't. He also says they are bigger and more physical. Other guys on that side of the ball have mentioned that defensive coordinator, Barry Odom, is extremely detail oriented. The little things don't get overlooked. One of the things I will be looking for in that Georgia game is whether the defense is in more of an attack mode. I've said it before. Arkansas defenses under John Chavis were reactive instead of proactive.
Q. BloodRedHog has another question: Do you anticipate the SEC deciding to go with an all-conference schedule for men's basketball?
A. I can't predict the future but I will say no. The COVID numbers are dropping in just about every area but rural rural parts of this country. I've read that rural American, especially out west will be the last place to have increased COVID numbers. Clearly that doesn't apply to the SEC so I think we'll have a normal season and although I think there will be fans I wouldn't guess at this point what that would look like.
I would also point out that Arkansas basketball team has been working out indoors for several weeks with no infections that we know of and I think we'd know even if the school didn't report it.
Q. EngrHog has a second question: How does the UofA media access compare to other programs? Obviously this year is unique with COVID, but in years past what is the main driver for the progressively limited access?
A. Over the years Arkansas has generally been more open than other conference schools both in the SEC and the SWC. Media access has slowly been reduced. One factor is the shear number of people that cover the Razorbacks. When I arrived in '75 there were four or five of us on a daily basis. Now it's more like 15-20. It's just a lot harder to accommodate that many reporters. But I also think there's a trend for each school to want to have exclusive content on their own website so they will put it there first before we get it.
There are coaches like Bob Stoops, when he was at Oklahoma, who are extremely restrictive. Nick Saban is another one, though he's more open than Stoops was. We're told that Sam Pittman will follow the Kirby Smart model and where did Smart get his model? From Nick Saban of course. So I expect to have a little less access under Pittman than we're used to. If he wins I doubt the fans will care. They only seem to make an issue out of media access when a coach is losing. As for me, I'll adapt. I've covered 12 head coaches at Arkansas. Each has handled the media in his own way.
Q. Our last question comes from WizardofhOgZ. It's really more of a theory. He says: I'd like to dispel a myth surrounding road games this season. The false (IMO) expectation that traveling to other SEC environments will be "much less intimidating" than usual in 2020. I maintain that, especially at field level, 15-25K rowdy, screaming fans sounds almost the same as 70-100K fans.
A. I'm wondering how many times you've been at field level in multiple SEC stadiums? I've done it a lot and I can tell you that the difference in the noise level between 35,000 fans at Vanderbilt and 80,000 to 100,000 in places like Auburn, LSU, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Alabama is enormous. And there's not going to be a crowd of 35,000 this season, anywhere. Maybe 30,000 tops
Another issue is the social distancing. 25,000 fans packed together will made more noise than 25,000 spread over a 100,000 seat stadium.
Looking at Arkansas' road games, at Mississippi State there will be about 35,000 fewer cowbells clanking at that game. I have to believe that's going to make a huge difference. Auburn will have 60,000 fewer fans than normal, spread out in an 85 thousand seat stadium. I promise you there will be a difference. Mizzou is not that loud anyway but with 18,000 fans spread out there difference will be noticeable.
by ArkansasRazorbacks.com / Jan 16, 2021
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Displaying quality and depth in various events, the Razorbacks opened the 2021 campaign with a dominant victory in the Arkansas Invitational held Saturday inside Randal Tyson Track Center.
Totaling 228 points, the Razorbacks topped a seven-team field which included Oklahoma (119), Arkansas State (60.3), and Harding (31).
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – An opening act on Saturday to start the 2021 indoor season produced a team victory for the Razorbacks in the Arkansas Invitational as they totaled 159 points to better a seven-team field in the Randal Tyson Track Center.
Oklahoma finished as team runner-up with 104 points, followed by Arkansas State (95) and Central Arkansas (54).
by Kevin McPherson / Jan 16, 2021
De ja LSU? Apparently so, because for the second consecutive game Arkansas was noticably inept and overmatched against an SEC opponent as the Alabama Crimson Tide ended nearly 7 years of futility against the Razorbacks with a dominant 90-59 win Saturday in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
The Hogs (10-4, 2-4 SEC, NCAA NET No. 28 entering Saturday) have now lost two consecutive games by a combined margin of 47 points, which includes Wednesday's 16-point defeat at LSU in a game Arkansas trailed by 31 points in the first half. The Hogs, who trailed by as many as 36 points against the Tide, have also lost 4 of their last 5 outings with three of those defeats by double digits and an average losing margin of 20.0 points.
Arkansas pharmacists outline who can get a COVID-19 vaccine now and where they can get it
Coronavirus: Questions & answers
Arkansas Professionals
Teen Facing up to 20 Years in Prison for Brutal Attack


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Kingman Route 66 Street Drags
presented by NAPA Auto Parts
Route 66 Street Drags Corporation has, after much thought and consideration, made the decision to cancel the upcoming "Kingman Rt 66 Street Drags " scheduled for October 23-25 of 2020.
After discussing this at length with our major sponsors and with the City of Kingman, and by weighing the possible effects Covid-19 virus could impact large gatherings, it was unanimously decided to cancel the event for this year.
We appreciate the support we receive from all our sponsors, participants, and our awesome spectators last year and we know this is a disappointment to everyone. Our decision was not made lightly. We here at Rt 66 Street Drags will work diligently to bring you a bigger and better event in 2021! Rt 66 Street Drags will have smaller events planned to keep your racing energy flowing, so please keep track by frequenting our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts over the next 18 months leading up to the 2021 event.
And do not forget to support the Kingman Rt 66 Street Drags by wearing your event swag and car decals! Stop by our ecommerce centers at www.rt66streetdrags.com or our Facebook page and look for our 2020 Kingman Rt 66 Street Drag swag that will be up for sale in the upcoming months!
***All Racer entries to the 2020 Kingman Rt 66 Street Drags event will be returned promptly within the next two weeks.
Rt 66 Street Drags wishes to extend a sincere thank you to everyone involved from our hardworking team of volunteers, vendors, racers and sponsors, the City of Kingman, and her residents. We also are enormously proud to be a part of this community and we appreciate your support.
Let's Go Racing,
Brian, Dicken and Dana
Ca rs race down Route 66 in the middle of Kingman at this unique annual event for three days!
The Drags is a genuine 'street race', but with all of the safety equipment you would expect to find at a "purpose built" track and a full timing system, with reaction times, 60' times, 330' times, 1/8-mile times and speed. Plus, it's legal!
Interested in racing? Entries are limited to the first 300 paying entrants. But to win, you'll have to be the fasted going down this newly paved stretch of old 66 the fastest – that's right, fresh blacktop in 2019! The racing schedule for 2020 is coming soon!
The racing schedule for 2019 was as follows:
Friday racing schedule: 12pm to 9pm. That's the day you'll have a chance to tune your ride to best handle the street. The timing system will still give you your incremental times, but Friday runs will be started off with an old-fashioned flag starter, giving homage to the history of drag racing. Time slips will be cut in half and no times will be posted on the scoreboards.
The Saturday racing schedule: 9am to 10pm, with all runs counting as time trials. After everyone gets their two timed trials, we will determine the 'Quick 8' in each class. The 'Quick 8' will move on to complete for the championship in each class. Everyone else will then run the 'Grudge Class' for the rest of the event. Finals for all classes will be held on Sunday.
Sunday's schedule: 9am to 4pm. In between each round of competition, we will run the 'Grudge Class' non-stop. The 'Grudge Class' is how racers from different classes will get matched up to race; for example, a diesel truck might run against a Ford Mustang. It is the best way to call someone out and solve who is the fastest once and for all!
Racers who survive the 'Quick 8' and wins the Championship Title in each class will take home a cash prize and a custom-built trophy to culminate a historic weekend and what promises to be the biggest legal street race on Route 66, maybe even the world! Don't miss out on this history making legal street race!
For more information visit www.kingmanrt66streetdrags.com.
For a taste of what's to come, here's a collection of scenes from the 2008 Street Drags held in Historic Downtown Kingman. A quick disclaimer - it gets loud!
Thank you for visiting https://www.gokingman.com:443/event-street-drags! Be sure and revisit gokingman.com frequently for content updates and more.


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About » Tour Our Facilities » Art Studio
Art is taught in a dedicated, modern and spacious Art Studio, where pupils are introduced to many forms and styles of artistic expression, including drawing, painting, collage, printing and clay modelling.
Our Art Studio is used by all pupils from Forms 1 to Form 6. It is situated at the top of the original Victorian building offering a bright and airy authentic attic studio which provides the perfect environment for inspiration and creativity.
Art Club is a popular extra-curricular after school activity. We are proud that students in Form 6 are regularly awarded Senior School Art Scholarships for their talent and we actively help with advice and preparation of portfolios.


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Bluff, Bluster, Lies and Spies: The Lincoln Foreign Policy 1861-1865  is a wild ride through the world of espionage and foreign affairs during the American Civil War. Although the research focuses on the success and failure of the Lincoln State Department under William Henry Seward, Confederate foreign relations and their problems are analyzed as well. In addition to fighting a war for union at home, Lincoln also faced a world war with England, France, Spain and Japan - at the same time.
David Perry is a retired Lecturer in American and European history from the University of New Haven. He has written and published prior scholarly journal articles on Lincoln. His research was also selected by National Public Radio in 2009 to represent Lincoln scholars on the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth. His interview was heard nationwide. Dr. Perry will be recording another NPR interview in late May to discuss his book as well as the similarities and differences between Lincoln's foreign policy and that now recommended by Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.


text:
Steel Architecture
Angus Macdonald
Steel Architecture offers a re-interpretation of Modernist design through an examination of the history of metal-framed buildings, from the mills, warehouses and spectacular glasshouses of the nineteenth century to the multi-form, tall towers which currently characterize the skylines of the world's major cities. Based on extensive research, this insightful book reassesses the development of a signature landscape of Modernism through the lens of contemporary issues, and critically appraises some of the most prominent works of architecture of the Modern age, including Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Pavilion, Richard Neutra's Lovell Health House, and Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. Topics covered include: the early commercial steel buildings; steel and mid twentieth-century consumerism; the Chicago skyscrapers of the 1970s; High Tech architecture and finally the 'formalist' architecture of the late-Modern period. Extensively illustrated and accessibly written, Steel Architecture discusses the meanings behind the visual vocabulary of Modern steel architecture, and places the style in the broad context of the social, political and economic preoccupations of its age.
Steel Architecture by Angus Macdonald
Angus Macdonald is Professor Emeritus of Architectural Structures and former Head of the Department of Architecture at the University of Edinburgh. He teaches at all levels in the degree programmes in Architecture and Architectural History at UoE/Edinburgh College of Art and is the author of several books including Structure and Architecture (3 rd ed., 2019) and Crowood's High Tech Architecture (2019).


text:
About Ann Oakley
FAQs Quotes from her work Full CV Publications by Theme
Fiction Non-Fiction
Barbara Wootton Richard Titmuss
Welcome to Ann Oakley's website
Here you can find out more about Ann Oakley's work and life, and get details of her books and other publications. There are also links to videos and interviews in which she talks about her work.
Ann Oakley is a writer and a sociologist. She has written both novels and many non-fiction books. Most of her life has been spent working in university research. She is best known for her work on sex and gender, housework, childbirth and feminist social science. Her more recent interests have focused on evidence-based public policy and methodologies of research and evaluation, on the sociology of the body and on biography and autobiography as forms of life-writing.
She is Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at the UCL Institute of Education, and until January 2005 was Director of the Social Science Research Unit (SSRU) at the Institute, where she also headed the Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Coordinating Centre (EPPI-Centre). She holds an honorary appointment as a Fellow at Somerville College, Oxford. In 2011 the British Sociological Association gave her one of their first Lifetime achievement Awards for her extraordinary contribution to the history of the development of sociology in Britain. She now works on research part-time, and spends the rest of it writing, wondering what to do about her archives, developing environmentally friendly cleaning products, and spending time with her grandchildren.


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Posts Tagged 'Russia flooding'
Outbreak of Infectious Salmon Anemia Confirmed in Canada
Posted by feww on July 9, 2012
Half million salmon to be destroyed due to infectious salmon anemia
An outbreak of infectious salmon anemia at a fish farm near Conne River in Newfoundland and Labrador has been confirmed by Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).
The operators, Gray Aqua Group, have been ordered to destroy more than 450,000 salmon. They claim the virus is being contained to one site.
In March, CFIA ordered a Nova Scotia fish farm outside Shelburne Harbour to destroy hundreds of thousands of salmon following a similar outbreak.
Last month, another outbreak was suspected in Nova Scotia, but the tests were said to be 'inconclusive.'
"Outbreaks of infectious salmon anemia in New Brunswick in the late 1990s dealt a blow to the aquaculture industry there at the time and the federal government provided tens of millions of dollars in compensation," said a report.
Other Global Disasters/ Significant Events
U.S. Corn Belt. Drought and heat wave are affecting production of grain crops in the U.S. Corn Belt. Iowa and Illinois, which produce about 35% of the U.S. corn and soybeans, are particularly hard hit.
Drought conditions, have intensified since last week across the U.S. (see comparison map below) and already caused irrevocable damage to crops in southern Illinois, Indiana and Missouri.
"By Sunday or Monday, if we don't get rain here, we will be losing anywhere between 7 to 9 percent of our yield potential," said Roger Elmore, corn agronomist at Iowa State University in Ames. "If it drags on into next week, it is going to be worse."
Abnormally Dry and Drought Conditions (D0 – D4) currently prevail in 76.33% of the contiguous United States, the largest area than at any other time since the U.S. Drought Monitor began more than 12 years ago.
U.S. Drought Map. Released July 5, 2012
'Farming in Hell'
As of July 1, crops were in the worst condition since 1988, as the Midwest heat wave last week set or tied nearly 1,100 temperature records.
"The drought is much worse than last year and approaching the 1988 disaster. There are crops that won't make it. The dairy and livestock industries are going to get hit very hard. People are just beginning to realize the depth of the problem," according to the CEO of Rochester, Prairie Mills Products LLC, an Indiana-based grain processor.
The persistent drought has hit plants during the most vulnerable time in their growing cycle, killing their pollen.
"Corn yields were falling five bushels a day during the past week" in the worst-affected parts of the Midwest, said Fred Below, a plant biologist at the University of Illinois in Urbana. "You couldn't choreograph worse weather conditions for pollination. It's like farming in hell."
Krasnodar region, Russia.
At least 171 lives have been lost in the devastating flooding and landslides in in Russia's southern Krasnodar region, reported RT.
17 others have been reported as missing.
"Some 584 people, 83 children among them, have sought medical aid following the flood. Medics have hospitalized 159 people, including sixteen children."
At least 3,000 have been evacuated.
About 35,000 people have been affected by the disaster.
Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background
The First Wave of World's Collapsing Cities
Back to the Primordial Future
The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs
2010 Disasters [Links to 2010 Disaster Calendar]
Mega Disasters
Posted in Global Disaster watch, global disasters, global disasters 2012, Global Food Crisis, Global Food Shortages, global water crisis | Tagged: aquaculture, Conne River, Corn Belt, Farming in Hell, grain crops, Gray Aqua Group, infectious, infectious salmon anemia, Krasnodar Region, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Russia flooding, salmon holocaust, Shelburne Harbour | 1 Comment »
Record Heatwave Kills Dozens in U.S.
Deadly heat persists in eastern U.S.
At least 46 people have died amid extreme heat that has paralyzed more than two dozen states from the Midwest to the East Coast.
Heat-related fatalities occurred in Virgina (at least 12 deaths reported), Maryland (11), Chicago (10), Wisconsin (4), Ohio (3), Pennsylvania (3) Tennessee (2), and Indiana (1), where an infant died after being left in a vehicle in triple-digit temperatures outside her home in Greenfield, about 25 miles east of Indianapolis.
Hundreds of thousands of people in West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio, New Jersey, Maryland and Indiana are still without power 9 days after deadly storms swept through the region causing widespread destruction and 'catastrophic damage' to power grids.
Map of Temperature Departure from Normal
Krasnodar Region, Russia. The worst flooding in living memory in southern Russia's Krasnodar Region, near the Black Sea, has left at least 153 people dead and and more than 5,000 homes destroyed or damaged, reports said.
"The flash flood inundated the cities of Gelendzhik, Krymsk and Novorossiysk as well as the four villages of Divnomorskoe, Nizhnebakanskaya, Neberdzhaevskaya and Kabardinka."
"The streets of Krymsk are now mostly deserted. The town looks like the set of a post-apocalyptic movie," RT reported .
About 3,000 people have been evacuated from flood-hit areas in Krasnoda, as of posting, while 30,000 people are without power in the region, and more than 80 percent of the population of Krymsk have lost their gas supply cut off.
Trends in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide
Up-to-date weekly average CO2 at Mauna Loa
Week of June 24, 2012: 395.33 ppm
Weekly value from 1 year ago: 393.50 ppm
Weekly value from 10 years ago: 375.08 ppm
Recent Mauna Loa CO2
June 2012: 395.77 ppm
Recent Global CO2
May 2012: 393.77 ppm
Links to Recent Related Entries
Drought Disaster Declared in Montana Posted on July 5, 2012
Colorado Declared Agri Disaster Area Posted on July 4, 2012
Disaster Declared in 94 Counties across 4 States Posted on July 3, 2012
Deadly Heat Blankets Eastern U.S. Posted on July 2, 2012
States of Emergency Declared in 4 States and DC as Storm Death Toll Rises Posted on July 1, 2012
Deadly Heat Wave Affects Third of U.S. Population Posted on June 30, 2012
The record-setting heat wave continues to expand Posted on June 30, 2012
Explosive Wildfires Continue Erupting Across the U.S. Posted on June 29, 2012
Destructive Wildfire Activity Intensifies in Colorado Posted on June 28, 2012
Drought 2012 Posted on January 8, 2012
Posted in environment, global deluge, Global Disaster watch, global disasters, global disasters 2012, global drought, Global Food Crisis, Global Food Shortages, global ghg emissions, global health catastrophe, global heating, global precipitation patterns | Tagged: AEP Ohio, Appalachian Power, carbon dioxide, Deadly Heat, deadly storm, derecho, Extreme heat, extreme heat warnings, Gelendzhik, Ghost towns, heat wave, Indiana, Krasnodar Region, Krymsk, Maryland, Mauna Loa CO2, MonPower, mountain tsunami, New Jersey, Novorossiysk, Ohio, Recent Global CO2, record heat, Russia flooding, Trends in Atmospheric CO2, U.S. Heat wave, Virginia, West Virginia | 2 Comments »
Widespread Death and Destruction amid Flooding in Russia
States of emergency declared in S. Russian cities of Krymsk, Novorossiysk, and Gelendzhik
At least 141 people have been killed, 1,500 displaced and up to 15,000 others severely affected by extreme rain events, flooding and landslides in the Krasnodar region, southern Russia.
Krasnodar Territory, Russia. Severe flooding caused by extreme rain events has claimed at least 141 lives (death toll continues to rise as more bodies are discovered) across the South Russian Krasnodar Territory, reports said.
States of emergency have been declared in the cities of Gelendzhik, Krymsk and Novorossiysk, afetr a massive storm swept through the region dumping more than 6 months worth of rain in less than two days.
"Over a meter of water crashed over the intersection of Ostrovsky and Kirov Street in the center of Gelendzhik, ripping up the pavement and sweeping away everything in its path. According to the city administration, 5,000 homes have been flooded." RT reported.
Flooding has left thousands of people displaced or severely affected.
"One third of Krymsk is still submerged, with the water only receding in certain areas, complicating rescue efforts. Rescuers have already retrieved over 6,000 survivors from rooftops and trees."
Krasnodar Governor called the flooding, storms and landslides the worst disaster in at least 70 years.
The affected area is said to be very large, and damage widespread.
Parts of the Northern-Caucasus railroad have been washed out.
Many regional roads are impassible.
"It is spectacular, to be sure, and very tragic. The water came with such force that it tore up the asphalt," said the Governor of the Krasnodar region.
"Eyewitnesses claim a 7-meter wave struck Krymsk in the middle of the night," said RT.
"It all happened during the night. People just ran from their homes, because there was a huge wave of water, nobody warned them. Two-story houses were flooded up to the second floor. The water came on very fast. It wasn't rain." Anna Kovalyovskaya, whose parents are currently in the flood zone, told the Russian News Service.
"I don't know if this is official information or not, but in the city they are saying that they opened the water reservoir in the mountains above the city. That's where the wave came from. In the city all of a sudden there was 7 meters of water. There was certainly a large storm beforehand, but the water came on so quick that in 15 minutes everything was flooded."
Minnesota: Major Disaster Declared in Minnesota due to Extreme Weather Events
The Disaster President has declared a major disaster exists the State of Minnesota affected by severe storms and flooding during the period of June 14-21, 2012.
The declaration was issued for 13 Minnesota counties and three tribal nations: Aitkin, Carlton, Cook, Crow Wing, Dakota, Goodhue, Kandiyohi, Lake, Meeker, Pine, Rice, Sibley and St. Louis counties, as well as the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, and the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe.
FEMA said additional designations may be made at a later date if requested by the state and warranted by the results of further damage assessments.
See also: Extreme Weather Event Forces MN Gov to Declare State of Emergency across 8 Counties
Drought Disaster in South Dakota
Butte County Commissioners have declared a drought disaster in the County amid scarce rainfall since 2011.
Inadequate precipitation since last summer has caused drought conditions, which has had an "enormous effect on the production capabilities of the agricultural industry, which in turn severely affects the entire local economy," the Commissioners said in a statement.
South Dakota Drought Map released July 3, 2012. Source: U.S. Drought Monitor. Location of Butte County is enclosed in red.
SD Drought Conditions (July 3, 2012)
D0 – D2: 95.98%
D2 : 3.19%
Toxic seepage from tailings pond at an old zinc and lead mine has forced the authorities to declare a state of emergency in the Regional District of Central Kootenay (RDCK).
Heavy rainfall has raised the water level in the region and there is "ongoing seepage" from sections of the toxic pond, reports said.
Continued Flooding in Britain
More than 200 flood warnings and flood alerts remain in effect throughout England and Wales, with at least 13 flood warnings in Scotland.
Extreme rain events and landslides have brought disruption to the roads and railroads in parts of the UK, a report said.
Residents of Sheepy Magna village in Leicestershire have been evacuated after flooding, the report said.
Floodwaters have inundated many homes and business at various location.
An undisclosed number of people have been displaced due to widespread flooding.
See also: Storms and floods Cause Chaos in the UK Posted on June 30, 2012
Posted in global deluge, Global Disaster watch, global disasters, global disasters 2012, global drought, Global Food Crisis, global ghg emissions, global health catastrophe, global heating, global precipitation patterns, global Temperature Anomalies | Tagged: Belle Fourche, British Columbia, Butte County, drought 2012, drought disaster, Extreme Rain Events, Extreme Weather Event, Federal Disaster Areas, flooding, Gelendzhik, HB Mine, Krasnodar death toll, Krasnodar Territory, Krymsk, Minnesota disaster declaration, mountain tsunami, Novorossiysk, RDCK, Russia flooding, SD Drought Conditions, South Dakota drought map, storm, UK flood evacuations | Leave a Comment »


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Selena Gomez is showing gratitude to the numerous Black leaders who took over her Instagram page over the past two weeks.
The 27-year-old pop star returned to Instagram Thursday (June 18) to share a heartfelt message of thanks to the 12 "inspiring" activists and authors for educating her 180 million followers. The singer also encouraged her fans to continue educating themselves and to enact change through voting.
"I want to thank all of the amazing people that took the time to speak to us directly," Gomez began her note, which included photos of the dozen individuals. "I am blown away with your knowledge, eagerness to teach and commitment to ensuring Black voices are not silenced. Educating ourselves is the first step if we hope to make any progress in bringing an end to systemic racism."
https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/9406223/selena-gomez-shows-gratitude-to-black-leaders-who-took-over-her-instagram


Another big geek collectible company has jumped on the subscription box bandwagon first driven forward by Loot Crate, and frankly, I'm amazed they've taken so long. ThinkGeek, the venerable purveyor of both in-house-designed and third-party geek collectibles, clothes, and gadgets, has launched its own subscription box: the ThinkGeek Capsule. ThinkGeek sent us the first ThinkGeek Capsule, and we're impressed by what it has to offer.
The ThinkGeek Capsule is a bit more expensive than the standard Loot Crate at $29.99 including shipping compared to $21.99. However, if the first ThinkGeek Capsule's contents are any indication, it offers more items and is comparable to Loot Crate's bigger, gaming-focused Loot Gaming crate, which is $31.95 monthly including shipping. ThinkGeek says every Capsule has a value of at least $50 while Loot Crate and Loot Gaming have respective values of $45 and $60. Of course, whether or not what's in the crate is actually worth that much is in the eye of the beholder, considering how much licensed items can get marked up or price slashed for clearance at any given time.
Here's what came in the first ThinkGeek Capsule, which is already sold out (Capsule #2 is already coming, and available if you subscribe now).
Let's start with not one, but two wearable items: a The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild t-shirt and a pair of Harry Potter socks. The t-shirt is soft and tagless, with a picture of Link on the front. The art of Link is actually identical to a t-shirt included in the WILD Loot Gaming crate from February, but a white paintbrush-like background was added, and the shirt is a darker gray. The Harry Potter socks are gray and burgundy, marking you as a Hogwarts alumnus with a surprisingly low-key design.
Fallout is pretty great even if buying Fallout 4 at full price again just for VR seems horrible, and the biggest item in the ThinkGeek Capsule is Fallout-themed. It's a power armor helmet coin bank, about the size of a cube-shaped tissue box and made of plastic. There aren't any fancy gimmicks to it, but it looks nice and comes in a great box.
This aluminum cup isn't specifically branded with anything. It's just a neat unicorn design and comes in seven different colors, in a blind box. We got a red one.
The Capsule also comes with not one but two enameled pins. One is ThinkGeek mascot Timmy the Monkey, while the other is a blind pick of fantasy-themed pins. We got a potion in vaporwave colors of pink and purple. It's not clear if the Timmy pin is the first of a line of monthly pins like Loot Crate's pins, or is unique to the first Capsule.
If all that isn't enough, here's a deck of Goonies playing cards. I don't have anything to add because I 've never actually watched The Goonies all the way through, so feel free to yell at me in the comments.
This last item is downright intriguing. It's a blind value gift card for ThinkGeek, worth $5 to $100 (ours was worth $5). You scratch off the metallic strip on the back, enter the code on ThinkGeek's site, and it tells you how much store credit it's worth. It's a pretty neat idea that makes sense considering ThinkGeek was an online store long before they launched the ThinkGeek Capsule, though it isn't clear if this will be a monthly item in the box or is only for the first one.
That's the first ThinkGeek Capsule, and it's pretty solid. The items are easily worth the $30 price tag, even if only half of them personally hit for you. This is a promising new box that, considering ThinkGeek's creativity and clout, could go head-to-head with Loot Crate in a way other subscription boxes haven't managed. We'll see how future Capsules measure up.


If you have a blog, Twitter, or Facebook, maybe you like to publish your posts to all of them. After you wrote a blog, how to publish it to other? I would like to tell you a web service that can help you publish your blog to Twitter, or Facebook.
Dlvr.it is a web service, it gives a way to publish your blog to Twitter, Facebook. You can fill your blog feed, choose what site you like, all done. It will automatic publish your blog to both sites if you wanted.


text:
#ifndef _CHARACTERISTIC_TAKS_TEST_IMPL_H
#define _CHARACTERISTIC_TAKS_TEST_IMPL_H
/*******************************************************************************
* ALMA - Atacama Large Millimiter Array
* (c) European Southern Observatory, 2004
*
*This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
*modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
*License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
*version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
*
*This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
*but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
*MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
*Lesser General Public License for more details.
*
*You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
*License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software
*Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307  USA
*
* "@(#) $Id: characteristicTaskTestImpl.h,v 1.9 2008/10/01 03:07:07 cparedes Exp $"
*
* who       when      what
* --------  --------  ----------------------------------------------
* bjeram  2004-09-17  created
*/

/************************************************************************
 *
 *----------------------------------------------------------------------
 */

#ifndef __cplusplus
#error This is a C++ include file and cannot be used from plain C
#endif

#include "characteristicTask.h"

class CharacteristicTaskTestImpl:  public virtual baci::CharacteristicComponentImpl,
			      public virtual POA_ACS::CharacteristicTask

{
  public:

    CharacteristicTaskTestImpl( const ACE_CString& name,  maci::ContainerServices *containerServices);

    virtual ~CharacteristicTaskTestImpl();

    /*
    * @throw taskErrType::TaskRunFailureEx
    */
    virtual void run (const ACS::StringSequence & parameters, const char* fileName);
};

#endif /*!_H*/

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


If you've never gone through the process of building a home before, then you're about to experience a whirlwind of emotions. From excitement and anticipation to stress and anxiety, you're going to feel pushed and pulled in a variety of directions at some point. Don't let this scare you away, though. When the process comes to an end, you'll be glad you did it.
Even if you don't plan on ever swinging a hammer or driving a nail, you're going to be heavily involved in the process of building your home. Having said that, you'll want to make sure you know what you're doing.
There is no decision more important than selecting a homebuilder. The right builder will make the process easy and stress-free, while the wrong one will make your life a living nightmare.
Spend time carefully researching potential builders in your area. (The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) is a great place to start.) Once you've gathered the names of a couple reputable options, vet them in more detail. Eventually, you'll end up with one name that sticks out.
The last thing you want is to end up in the middle of a build and discover that you and your builder have a disagreement on something. In order to reduce the likelihood of big issues during and after the build, have a lawyer review the contract on the front end. This will cost you a little bit, but could save thousands down the road.
It's easy to visualize what you want out of your house right this very moment. What's harder, yet equally as important, is to plan ahead and think about the future.
For example, you might be a newly married couple with no kids, but you'll probably want to account for a growing family in the future. This goes beyond just having a couple of extra bedrooms. You also need to think about play areas in the home, the safety of the backyard, location (for school zoning), and other details.
There's a big difference between things you want and things you need. If you don't get clear on what the non-negotiables are now, you'll find it nearly impossible to make decisions on the fly (of which there will be many).
Examples of non-negotiables include the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, the location of the master bedroom, the flow of the floor plan, siding material, location of windows and doors, and other critically important elements. Things that you might want, but that aren't deal-breakers, may include kitchen countertop material, the exact size of the living room, and the brand of appliances used throughout the home.
It's never smart to max out your budget in the beginning. As a rule of thumb, you should always expect to spend at least 10 percent more than is originally estimated. So, if your budget is $300,000, it would be wise to come in around $270,000. This leaves you $30,000 in wiggle room should unexpected expenses arise (and they always do). If you fail to leave room in your budget, you could just as easily end up spending $30,000 more than you originally anticipated.
It's easy to get caught up in the design and building processes that you begin to see your home in isolation. But unless you're building on a huge plot of land without neighbors, you have to think about the location. Overbuilding will make it hard to get a good return on your investment when it eventually comes time to sell. As they say, you never want to be the most expensive house in the neighborhood.
While this should be a general rule of thumb, no matter what you're doing in life, being kind to the people who are actually on the site building your home goes a long way. Mistakes will happen, issues will arise, and you want these guys on your team.
If you're looking to buy or sell a home in the Houston area, start the process with us. At Green Residential, we understand the complexities of this market and are able to point you in the right direction when it comes to buying, selling, or managing a property.
For additional information on our services – including our flat-rate fees – please don't hesitate to contact us today!