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Updated February 24, 2022 at 4:24 PM ET
As much as 40% of Europe's natural gas is supplied by Russia — prompting fears about what might happen if Moscow cuts off some or all of that supply.
The United States and its NATO allies are trying to punish Russia with heavy economic sanctions in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It's difficult to say how Russian President Vladimir Putin might retaliate. As of early Thursday, Russia's major energy company Gazprom said gas exports via Ukraine continue as normal.
Read on to understand why energy is a central concern following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Why is natural gas important to this crisis?
In short, many countries in Europe are dependent on Russia for imports of natural gas and, to a lesser extent, oil.
Foremost among them is Germany, Europe's largest economy, a key ally of the United States and a historically important participant in negotiations about Ukraine.
No country buys more natural gas from Russia than Germany, which depends on the fuel to help heat homes in winter and operate factories.
In a significant move on Tuesday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the government was postponing certification of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia, saying he wanted to "send a clear signal to Moscow that such actions won't remain without consequences."
President Biden followed, ordering sanctions on the company Nord Stream 2 AG that is building the pipeline between Russia and Germany, as well as its officers.
Speaking on NPR's All Things Considered on Wednesday, German Ambassador to the U.S. Emily Haber said the pipeline "has never been operational, so it will not immediately affect the development of the gas prices."
How dependent is Europe on Russian gas?
More than 38% of the natural gas used by European Union members in 2020 was imported from Russia, according to Eurostat, the EU's statistics office.
Across Europe, however, the reliance on Russian gas varies widely by country. Some buy very little Russian gas, like the United Kingdom, or use low amounts of natural gas altogether, like Sweden.
But others — especially in central and Eastern Europe, including states once part of the Soviet bloc — are 100% reliant, or close to it, on Russia for significant natural gas needs.
Western leaders, both in Europe and the U.S., have long urged Europe to reduce reliance on Russia in order to limit the continent's vulnerability to geopolitical plays by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"The fact that they are dependent on Russian gas has given Vladimir Putin tremendous coercive power over Europe's economies," said retired Gen. H.R. McMaster, a former U.S. national security adviser, in an interview with NPR last month.
During an energy crisis in Europe last fall, Russia dialed back exports to Europe, helping exacerbate the low inventories and high demand that sent energy prices spiking.
"In the typical Russian fashion, they did it in a way that they couldn't be accused of breaching any of their commercial relations, but still managed to give a strong reminder to Germany, in particular, and the rest of Europe, just how dependent they were on Russian gas," says David Goldwyn, president of the Goldwyn Global Strategies energy advisory firm. "They're no fools."
Germany's U.S. ambassador remarked, "these surging gas prices that we see [are] mainly due to the fact that Russia has weaponized energy exports and energy contexts in recent times."
Putin denies using gas as a political tool.
What will happen to Europe if Russia shuts off the valve?
A sudden, complete cutoff of Russian gas to Europe is unlikely. But if it were to happen, experts warn it would be painful. Another option available to Russia would be to cut off gas exports via pipelines in Ukraine — a move that would notably affect Germany. (Germany's reliance on Ukraine-based pipelines is part of the reason for its interest in Nord Stream 2.)
With supply drastically affected, Europe's already-high energy prices would likely skyrocket.
"If we will get additional volumes from Norway and from Azerbaijan and from Qatar and from the United States, then we can build up a scenario how to handle the situation that is theoretically possible if we have full disruption of gas flows from Russia," said European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson, speaking at a news conference on Tuesday.
One short-term solution is importing liquefied natural gas from countries like Qatar and the U.S. The U.S. has dramatically increased its exports of LNG to Europe in recent years. But experts say that LNG supplies would likely be unable to cover all needs in the case of a complete Russian cutoff.
Quickly implementing alternatives to natural gas is a challenge. For instance, coal is not an attractive solution, given efforts by many European countries to reduce carbon emissions and tackle climate change.
What is the view from Russia on this issue?
In a sense, analysts say, now could be an opportune time for Putin to cut the lines: Russia is sitting on $630 billion in currency reserves, meaning it could potentially afford a short-term hit to revenue. Meanwhile, gas and oil prices are very high, so a cutoff would seriously hurt the coffers of European countries scrambling to cover the shortfall.
But just as Europe depends on Russia for gas, Russia also depends on Europe for revenue. Europe buys nearly three-quarters of Russia's gas.
With gas prices spiking, Russia's natural gas sales soared to more than $60 billion in 2021. The country's largest gas company, Gazprom, is majority state-owned, and revenues from sales make up a major portion of Russia's federal budget.
"It needs oil and gas revenues at least as much as Europe needs its energy supply. Two-thirds of Russia's export revenues come from oil and gas. That's about half of Russia's budget revenues. So this is far from checkmate for Putin. This is a codependency," Daleep Singh, the White House deputy national security adviser for international economics, told NPR.
A cutoff would also likely prompt Europe to fast-track alternative energy sources, says Henning Gloystein, director of energy at the Eurasia Group.
"There would be an immediate, concerted effort by the European Union to permanently reduce gas reliance on Russia, which obviously won't solve the problem this winter. But over the next two years, that would have pretty strong consequences," Gloystein says.
How does the U.S. play into all this?
The Biden administration says it is hitting Russia with sanctions while trying to avoid impacts on fuel supply and prices.
"Our sanctions package is specifically designed to allow energy payments to continue," Biden said on Thursday.
"We are closely monitoring energy supplies for any disruption. We've been coordinating with major oil producing and consuming countries toward our common interests to secure global energy supplies."
He said the U.S. would release more barrels of oil if needed and is coordinating with other countries to do so too.
But when the White House announced penalties on the company building Nord Stream 2 earlier this week, President Biden said, "Through his actions, President Putin has provided the world with an overwhelming incentive to move away from Russian gas and to other forms of energy."
The U.S. and European countries are now hitting Russia with a raft of more sanctions, including on Russian banks and elites.
Helping to diversify European energy supplies has been part of the U.S. response, alongside NATO defense and diplomatic efforts.
"We've been working very closely with Germany and with Europe to surge capacity from other parts of the world — from Europe, from North Africa, the Middle East and Asia — and we think we're prepared to compensate for any shortfalls that might materialize," said Singh.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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A man was arrested Tuesday after allegedly groping a cast member at Walt Disney World Resort's Magic Kingdom theme park near Orlando, Florida, police say.
Brian Thomas Sherman, 51, has been charged with battery, a misdemeanor.
According to an arrest affidavit, Sherman and his wife were at the Magic Kingdom on Saturday when the couple took a photograph with a female employee dressed as a Disney princess.
The employee was sitting between the couple for the photo when the alleged groping took place.
"The defendant did actually and intentionally touch the victim against her will by placing his right arm around her shoulders and reaching down" to grope her breast, according to the affidavit.
The groping was "witnessed by co-workers who provided statements that were consistent with the victim's statement," the arrest report says.
In addition, "when the defendant left the room the victim began shaking and crying," according to the affidavit.
A Disney photographer, who was one of the witnesses to the incident, provided photos to investigators that helped police identify and track down Sherman.
The Orange County Sheriff's Office is asking anyone who may have also been inappropriately touched by Sherman to contact them at 407-836-4357.
ARRESTED: Brian Thomas Sherman, 51, on charges of Battery for groping a cast member at the Magic Kingdom on 11/2. If anyone else believes they were touched inappropriately by Sherman, contact the Sheriff's Office at 407-836-4357. pic.twitter.com/PJrjNGGMDq
— Orange County Sheriff's Office (@OrangeCoSheriff) November 5, 2019

subset: commoncrawl


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Aladine Izink Ice Whiskey Frost | 80ml
Item: 80370
Aladine - Izink Ice - Whiskey Frost is a unique and amazing translucent paint which creates a coloured ice effect that is great for almost any surface.
In stock
Product Description
Approximate Size:
80 ml
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The stripped-down nostalgic style was born in the '60s, but the power of the Milwaukee-Eight® 107 engine brings it all into the right now, fast.
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St. Vincent Disney Mickey's Sports Pro. Football Tennis Basketball Suv. of 8 MNH
- Product Sku:
- Categories Sports, St. Vincent, Walt Disney Stamps
St. Vincent Disney Mickey's Sports Pro. Football Tennis Basketball Suv. of 8 MNH
Mickey Mouse Donald Duck
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The company was founded on October 16, 1923 – by brothers Walt and Roy Disney – as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, and also operated under the names The Walt Disney Studio and Walt Disney Productions before officially changing its name to The Walt Disney Company in 1986. The company grew to establish itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into live-action film production, television, and theme parks
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Posted 11 years ago
(1413 items)
A beautiful tin container made by the Metal Box Company, England . I have a few tins ,but this one is the most ornate container of them all. The angel, that seems to be a cupid figure and floral designs ,animals , birds and small creatures are splendidly painted, the best feature is the the lid is hinged and will never be lost as so many tins are often without their lid.


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- THREE (3) winners randomly drawn from all comments left on the STAMPlorations blog and participating designers blog will each receive a $25 certificate to the STAMPlorations store
- TWO (2) randomly drawn winners will each receive products in their wishlist (up to $50 MSRP)
- ONE (1) randomly drawn winner will receive a grab bag consisting of new products (valued at $30 MSRP)
- ONE (1) randomly drawn winner will receive a grab bag consisting of new products (valued at $30 MSRP)
Winners will be announced on July 10 and they have until July 20 to claim their prize. (Anyone who is drawn as a winner and fails to claim her prize within the allotted time forfeits her prize. We want to be fair to those who do keep up with our blog and claim prizes on time. So you don't miss any of our posts, follow our blog by email or follow us via Google Friend Connect -- you'll find links to both on the right side bar.)
- Simply leave a comment on this post and on the designers' blog hop posts between now and Monday, July 3, 11:55 p.m. Pacific (GMT-7). Only one comment per blog, please.
- Create your STAMPlorations wishlist and link it up on our Wishlist Linky Party post found here. Instructions on creating a wishlist is in the post as well.
- Go to our Facebook page here and then like, share, and comment, on our Birthday Bash post. You won't miss the post because it's pinned on the page.
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All in all, we are giving away over $200 worth of prizes! We'll announce the winners on Monday evening, July 10, right here on the blog. How easy is that? Have fun!


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All — Scrimshaw Necklace
What's The Allure of A Charm Necklace?
Posted by Karen Sugarman on
For several years, I was able to offer customized tokens that celebrated the honors, travels, family and theatre/operas attended by so many of my customers in pre-ban ivory, then subsequently in a man-made ivory material. These token necklaces were fashioned after the famous Elizabeth Taylor / Edith Head Opera Token Necklace and were a huge success for several years. To this day, I still get inquiries about making up a necklace. I recently had a phone call with my scrimshaw artist and to my delight, she has agreed to tackle these tokens once again, sometime in the latter part...
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- Tags: Bee My Heart Necklace, Calliope Necklace, Charm Neclace, Cherish Necklce, Crossed Fingers Necklace, Customized Necklace, Edith Head Necklace, Elizabeth Taylor Necklace, Emoji Necklace, Fleur de Lis Necklace, Heart Necklace, Mother of Pearl Charms, Napoleonic Bee Necklace, Opera Token Necklace, Queen Bee Necklace, Queen of Hearts Necklace, Royalty Necklace, Scrimshaw Necklace, Swallow Necklace, Token Necklace, Victorian Necklace, Whimsical Necklace


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SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — Police say a Pennsylvania drug suspect was all wet when he urinated in his pants in the hope that it would dissolve the heroin and cocaine in his pocket.
The (Scranton) Times-Tribune says 42-year-old Wesley Autrey sold heroin Tuesday during an undercover sting in Scranton.
When police tried to arrest him afterward, they say he struggled and had to be subdued with a stun gun.
Police say Autrey then began urinating in his pants in an attempt to dissolve the drugs. Police say he was unsuccessful, and they found five small bags of heroin, four small bags of cocaine and $3,000 in cash.
Online court records don't list an attorney for Autrey. He remained in the Lackawanna County jail on Thursday unable to post bond.


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In an ever-changing landscape of emerging companies and shifting benefit offerings, choosing the most appropriate Medicare plan can be confusing for seniors. And no one appreciates that as much as Steven Fine and his Medicare Agents, owner of DLX Insurance Group, servicing residents in Euclid, OH. As we head into the Medicare Open Enrollment period, televisions will be inundated with commercials suggesting certain company's plans are superior to others. "You might see Joe Namath hawking a new hotline as a good way to get answers, but the reality is that each plan has individualized implications for each senior," says Steven. "This is not a one-size-fits-all situation. My obligation is to expose seniors to all the options available to them so they can make intelligent choices."
Our Medicare Agent offers options and solutions based on each client's specific needs to help make choosing the right insurance company, Medicare plan, and plan options simple and easy. As an independent, certified agent, Steven represents most of the top Medicare insurance companies, including UnitedHealthcare, Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Humana, Aetna, Medical Mutual, and many more. He says one of the newest companies within the market—Devoted Health—offers remarkable plans for certain types of customers. He offers a wide selection of plans that may include no co-pays, zero-dollar premiums, prescription drugs, dental, vision, over-the-counter items, transportation to doctor's visits, and more. DLX Insurance Group is now actively seeking to help seniors in Euclid, OH.
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Walker White is a senior lecturer and Stephen H. Weiss Provost's Teaching Fellow in the computer science department. He has designed the introductory computer science courses which serve as an inspiration for this course.
Walker White is also the Director of the Game Design Initiative at Cornell. In this role, he directs the computer game minor at Cornell and teaches the primary game design courses. He is a strong proponent of project-based education incorporating interdisciplinary teams, and he is the faculty sponsor of the CU-AppDev engineering project team.


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Policy Alliance (DPA), Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies
(MAPS), Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), Students for Sensible Drug
Policy (SSDP), National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML),
Americans for Safe Access (ASA), Veterans for Medical Cannabis Access, and
Arizona Medical Cannabis Nurses Association:
Immediate Release:
Beck 415.823.5496
March 31, 2014
State Senator Blocks Funding for Long-Sought Medical Marijuana
Trial for Veterans with PTSD Has Already Obtained Approval from U.S. Food and
Drug Administration, U. Arizona Institutional Review Board, and U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services
April 2: Veterans, Military Family Members and Supporters to Rally at Wesley
Bolin Memorial Plaza
22 years of hard-fought efforts, the non-profit pharmaceutical company MAPS has
finally obtained approval from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS) for a FDA clinical trial to examine the medical safety and efficacy of
marijuana. The trial would study military veterans suffering from
treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Yet the study's
ability to receive Arizona state funding is in jeopardy due to State Senator
Kimberly Yee.
has collected millions of dollars from its medical marijuana program. Under
Arizona's medical marijuana law, that money is reserved for furthering the
provisions of the law and should include research and education – but none of it
has been spent. A bill being considered by lawmakers would give the Arizona
Department of Health Services discretion to use some of this surplus funding to
study the medical benefits of marijuana. On March 10th, the bill HB 2333,
sponsored by State Representative Ethan Orr of Tucson, passed the Arizona House
52-5, with strong bipartisan support. But State Senator Kimberly Yee (Phoenix),
who chairs the Senate Education Committee, refused to put the bill on her
committee's agenda before the March 20th deadline – saying only that she wanted
the funds to be directed for drug abuse prevention.
bill will help a lot of people. Not just combat veterans, but people with
chronic illness and pain who can't find relief anywhere else. Whether you are
for recreational use or against it, we should at least know what marijuana does.
It's research – that's all we are trying to do," said the bill's sponsor, State
Representative Ethan Orr.
2333 would allow for protected funds, which currently total more than $6M and
are collected through the sales of medical marijuana cards to qualified patients
in Arizona, to be allocated for study in a university setting "with the intent
to conduct thorough, objective clinical research on the safety, efficacy and
adverse events with marijuana." The study would support the Arizona economy, as
it requires all studies to be conducted in state. The bill fixes a problem
facing administrators of the Medical Marijuana Act who are restricted to using
funds specifically in furtherance of the Act. HB2333 does not cost tax payers
any money – rather, it would put existing money to work for the betterment of
study paves the way for research that could make marijuana into a federally
approved prescription medicine for PTSD," says MAPS executive director Rick
Doblin, Ph.D. "We worked for 22 years to get permission to purchase marijuana
from NIDA's monopoly supply. By refusing
to consider HB 2333, Senator Yee is making it clear that she would prefer the
research never to happen at all."
like Ricardo Pereyda of Tucson, who fought in combat in Operation Iraqi Freedom
2, are angry that Senator Yee wouldn't allow the bill to be heard in her
committee. "Being able to treat multiple symptoms from post-traumatic stress
with cannabis has been instrumental in my ability to lead a full and productive
life," said Pereyda, "Senator Yee is placing politics before science, and doing
so at the expense of our combat veterans." Pereyda served in the U.S. Army and
Military Police Corps, and is the Veterans Liaison for Arizona
response to this anti-democratic action by Sen. Yee, Pereyda is leading a
coalition effort to bring veterans, military family members and other Arizonans
who support medical marijuana research together at the Wesley Bolin Memorial
Plaza on April 2nd from 5pm to 7pm. Advocates are asking for Arizona State
Senate President Andy Biggs to bring the bill to the Senate floor for a vote,
thereby bypassing the need for a hearing in committee.
WHAT: A Rally in Support of Medical Marijuana
Research for PTSD Treatment
WHEN: Wednesday, April 2nd, from
Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza, Phoenix, Arizona
· Emcee: Ricardo Pereyda, Iraq War
Combat Veteran, Veterans Liaison for AZ NORML
· Former State Representative, Ruben Gallego,
USMC Veteran
· Scott Cecil, Students for Sensible
Drug Policy, Arizona State University
· Heather Manus, RN, Arizona Medical
Cannabis Nurses Association
· Retired Lieutenant Police Officer Tony
Ryan, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
· Dr. Sue Sisley, University of Arizona,
Principal Investigator of PTSD Study
Sue Sisley of the University of Arizona, who is the principal investigator of
the proposed study, is also frustrated with the inaction of Senator Yee.
"Twenty-two veterans a day are killing themselves," said Dr. Sue Sisley,
"They're not benefiting from conventional medicine. And while many are using
marijuana to help them with this debilitating disorder, they want it to be
legitimized. They want data. They want to know what doses to take. They want to
be able to discuss this with their doctors. The Obama administration is hearing
this, because allowing us to do this study does represent a major shift in
medicine is natural, gentle, non-toxic, and should be available to PTSD
sufferers in Arizona," said Heather Manus, president of the Arizona Cannabis
Nurses Association. "Many PTSD patients
in neighboring states are successfully finding relief of symptoms through the
use of cannabis." The AZCNA has filed a petition with the Arizona Department of
Health Services on behalf of veterans and other PTSD sufferers to add PTSD as a
debilitating condition under the state's medical marijuana
is unthinkable that someone would stand in the way of medical research,
particularly research could benefit military veterans, first responders, and
victims of violent crime, yet that is precisely what Senator Yee has done by
blocking HB 2333," said Steph Sherer, executive director of Americans for Safe
veterans put their lives on the line for this country, and now Senator Yee says
that rather than pursuing every option to address the problems many of them
face, we should instead force these proud soldiers into an illicit marketplace,
and turn them into criminals for trying to make themselves whole. It's a
shameful way to treat our veterans, and worse, will force many not to pursue
treatment at all," said 36-year police veteran Lt. Tony Ryan (Ret), a board
member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a group of law enforcement
officials opposed to the war on drugs.
Yee's refusal to allow this medical research for veterans harms not just
veterans and their families, but all Arizonans who have loved ones who suffer
with post-traumatic stress," said Jon Gettel of NORML. "It's an outrage to prevent this important
supporter of this event is the Drug Policy Alliance's Freedom to Choose
campaign, which advocates for veterans' access to medical marijuana. "Veterans
deserve the freedom to choose the safest treatment for their debilitating
conditions. When our veterans come home they deserve access to the medicine that
works for them," said Jessica Gelay, who is the policy coordinator for DPA's New
Mexico office and the coordinator of the Freedom to Choose campaign. "It is
unconscionable that research that could help prevent the needless deaths of men
and women who have already sacrificed so much would be blocked by one


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"Storm clouds are gathering ... We need you, Aang." |
— Monk Gyatso speaking about the imperiled state of the world. |
"The Storm" is the 12th episode of Book One: Water of Avatar: The Last Airbender and the 12th of the overall series. It debuted on June 3, 2005.
Sokka accepts a job from a local fisherman to make money and the man accuses Aang of abandoning the world. In the large, ensuing storm, Aang recounts to Katara the events of his dark past. After being told he was the Avatar, Aang was ordered to be separated from his mentor, Monk Gyatso. Upset, Aang ran away from his home where he encountered a deadly storm, causing him to fall into the water, activating the Avatar State, trapping him within an iceberg. Meanwhile, Iroh tells the ship's crew Zuko's story. After speaking out of turn at a war meeting, Zuko was punished by being forced to fight an Agni Kai against his own father. His refusal resulted in him getting his scar and being banished for perceived cowardice. Meanwhile, Aang learns that Sokka and the fisherman are trapped in the storm; he rescues them, earning him the fisherman's respect. Zuko spots them, but lets them go, instead opting to escape the storm.
Aang has a dream in which he, Katara, and Sokka fly through clear, sunny skies; Sokka is using Aang's glider, Aang is riding on Appa, and Katara is riding a larger version of Momo. Katara says, "We need you, Aang", to which he responds happily, "I need you, too." Suddenly, the dream takes a dark turn and Aang, panicking as the sky blackens around him, finds himself alone on Appa. The form of his past guardian, Monk Gyatso, appears before him and asks him why he disappeared. Aang replies that he did not intend to vanish and reaches out to his mentor, but Gyatso's body dissolves into dust before him. With the voices of Katara and Gyatso repeating the mantra "We need you, Aang", he and Appa are swallowed by storm, which causes them to crash into the sea. While they sink into the darkness, lightning splits the sky, and the silhouette of Fire Lord Ozai surrounded by flames appears for a fraction of a second. Aang, gasping for air, jolts awake, causing his companions to stir from their slumber as well. He apologizes for the disturbance, explaining that he had a nightmare, though he does not elaborate any further.
The next morning, Aang, seeing the perfectly clear skies above, remarks about how smooth their flying should be and Katara informs him that, since there is no food left, they will have to fly to the closest market. Sokka proceeds to dramatically tell them that he had a dream the previous night in which "food eats people" and claims that it means they should avoid the market, much to Aang and Katara's annoyance.
Meanwhile, at sea, Iroh predicts that there will be a terrible storm and advises they alter their course for the sake of the crew, but Prince Zuko shouts back that the safety of the crew does not matter when the Avatar is at stake. Noticing Lieutenant Jee overheard his statement, he walks up to him and tells him straight up that capturing the Avatar is more important than anyone's individual safety. As the prince retreats inside the ship, Iroh tells Jee that Zuko did not mean what he said, arguing that the young prince was merely "worked up".
At a harbor town, a woman selling fruit snaps at Katara that the watermelon she is holding is "perfect", though she is not convinced due to a swishing noise made by the fruit when shaken. Despite Aang agreeing with the saleswoman, Katara puts the melon down, stating that she just remembered they were out of money, much to the vendor's annoyance, who takes the rest of her produce out of Sokka's hands and kicks him. Contemplating what they could do next to get food and money, they overhear an argument between an elderly fisherman and his wife. As the woman declares that it is too dangerous to go out as there is a storm brewing, Aang becomes uneased and suggests that they find some shelter. Just like the fisherman, however, Sokka does not believe that a storm is coming. When the argument between the elderly couple boils down to the woman refusing to accompany her husband and the fisherman declaring he will find someone else to help him and pay that person double, Sokka readily volunteers and is hired on the spot; however, when Sokka reiterates the promise of a double wager, the fisherman acts like he never said that.
Meanwhile, out at sea, Zuko's ship is approaching ominous storm clouds. As Zuko emerges on deck once again, Jee sarcastically comments how surprising it is that Iroh had been right after all about the weather. Zuko instantly turns on his lieutenant and demands respect lest he teaches it to him. Not taking Zuko's comment kindly, Jee snaps at him that he knows nothing about respect, based on the way he talks to his crew and his "esteemed uncle". He declares Zuko to only care about himself and being a "spoiled prince", a comment Zuko answers with an Agni Kai challenge. As the two lock arms, smoke already erupting from Zuko's hand, Iroh breaks them up, trying to defuse the situation by noting that they are all just tired from being at sea so long and hungry. He offers them a bowl of noodles, and they separate. As the crew retreats inside, Zuko angrily snaps at his uncle that he does not need his help to keep order on his ship. When Iroh places a comforting hand on his shoulder, he shrugs it off and walks to the front of the bow to gaze out over the stormy waters ahead of them.
At the harbor town, Aang, looking at the approaching gray clouds, tells Sokka, who is loading the ship, that going out at sea may not be a good idea. Although Sokka acknowledges the bad weather, he argues that since he has given the fisherman his word, he must go through with the fishing expedition in spite of the brewing storm. When the fisherman's wife states that the "boy with the tattoos" is right, the fisherman realizes that Aang is the Avatar. Aang and Katara smile at the recognition, but the fisherman promptly scolds Aang, accusing him of turning "his back on the world" by disappearing for a hundred years. Although Katara instantly comes to his defense, proclaiming that Aang would never turn his back on anyone and is the bravest person she knows, Aang is shaken by the accusation and backs away. Without giving an explanation, he flies away on his glider. The fisherman yells after him that he should keep flying, a comment for which Katara reprimands him. Not wasting any more time, she jumps on Appa and commands the flying bison to follow his master. Emerging from the belly of the ship, Sokka complains that his friends have left without saying goodbye. As the fisherman acknowledges that it was not a polite thing to do, Sokka launches into a rant about previous impolite gestures by them but is promptly interrupted by the old man, who orders him to go below deck.
As rain is pouring down, Katara eventually finds Aang in a small cave. As she enters, he apologizes for having run away. Although Katara accepts his apology, declaring the fisherman to having been out of line, Aang sadly notes that he was right to say the things he had said. When Katara wonders why he would say that, Aang declares he does not want to talk about it, though Katara deduces that it has to do with his dream and urges him to open up to her.
After Katara gets a fire going, Aang begins to tell her the story of his childhood, starting with the day the monks told him he was the Avatar. A flashback shows a lively Southern Air Temple, where Aang is showing his friends how to use his air scooter technique. At that moment, Gyatso and the other elder monks tell him to follow them as they need to speak with him. In their meeting room, they tell Aang that he is the Avatar. As proof, they show him the four toys he picked from thousands when he was younger, revealing them to be the Avatar relics, toys that have belonged to previous Avatars, his past lives. Although Aang notes that he chose them because they "seemed fun", Tashi says that he picked them because they seemed familiar to him. Gyatso admits that they normally would have waited to tell him about his Avatar destiny until he turned sixteen, though because "storm clouds are gathering", signs of an imminent war, they need the Avatar.
On Zuko's ship, in the belly of the vessel, Jee sits around a small fire with several members of the crew, ranting to them about Zuko. When he rhetorically asks who Zuko thinks he is, Iroh, standing just outside the circle, announces his presence to them by asking if they want to know. Calm rather than upset, Iroh enters the circle and begins explaining why Zuko is how he is. In a flashback to the Fire Nation Royal Palace, a younger, scarless Zuko makes his way to the Fire Lord's War Room. When he is denied entry, however, he explains to Iroh that he simply desires to learn as much as he can so he could be a great ruler of the Fire Nation one day. Iroh yields to the prince's arguments, though warns him not to speak as the old generals are sensitive. When one of the generals suggests using an entire division of inexperienced new recruits as a distraction, allowing the rest of the army to attack from the rear, an outraged Zuko speaks up in harsh opposition against the plan, asserting that sacrificing a group of loyal soldiers is an act of betrayal. Interrupting his story, Iroh comments to the crew that Zuko had been right, though since it was not his place to speak out, there were "dire consequences" to be faced.
Inside the cave, Katara asks why Aang was not excited that he was the Avatar. Aang admits that he did not know how to feel about it, though only knew that after he found out about it, everything started changing. To make his point, Aang recalls how he returned to the courtyard to find his friends all whizzing around on air scooters. Being told that the other children made up a game to play with the air scooters, Aang readies his own scooter, though as he does so, the other monks dismount and tell him that him being the Avatar would give an unfair advantage in any team he would be on. Although he argues that nothing has changed, he is not permitted to play with them. Saddened, Aang retreats to inside the temple where he plays a game of Pai Sho with Monk Gyatso, although his heart is not in it. Gyatso uses his airbending to pull Aang's robe over his head, allowing him to switch two tiles on the board. His cheating is quickly discovered, however, much to their joined amusement. At that moment, Tashi enters to room, scolding Gyatso for playing games with Aang as the Avatar should be training instead. As Aang stands to follow Tashi to be tested on some high-level airbending techniques, Gyatso stops him, noting that as long as he is Aang's guardian, he would be deciding when Aang would train and play. Tashi scoffs but leaves Aang to continue his game of Pai Sho with Gyatso.
Continuing with his story, Iroh recalls how the Fire Lord became angry with Zuko for his outburst and declared the prince's challenge of the general to be an act of "complete disrespect", something that needed to be solved via an Agni Kai. Zuko accepted the challenge, though as he prepared to fight in front of a large, gathered crowd, he discovered that his opponent was to be his father and not the old general.
A saddened Aang confides in Katara that just when he started to feel better, something worse happened. The flashback resumes in the meeting room at the temple, where Tashi, annoyed over having been told off by Gyatso, took the matter to Monk Pasang. Although Gyatso argues that Aang needs to grow up as a normal child, Pasang decides that Aang would be sent to the Eastern Air Temple to complete his training there, away from Gyatso. Unbeknownst to them, Aang is perched on the roof of the room and overheard everything.
Back in the cave, Katara sympathizes with Aang, though he turns away from her, raging about the monks' decision and involuntarily entering the Avatar State, sending powerful currents of air through the cave. He instantly calms down, however, and apologizes for his outburst. When Katara notes that he has the right to be angry after the monks sent him away like they did, he sadly continues his story, noting that events occurred differently. He admits to having been afraid and confused, so he decided to run away. By the time that Gyatso came to his room, he had already fled the temple and was bracing a terrible storm on Appa. He notes that he never saw Gyatso again, as he had been thrown into the waters, where he had frozen himself in the iceberg from which Katara rescued him a hundred years later. As the flashback ends, Aang continues that the Fire Nation attacked the temple afterward, displaying guilt over not having been there to protect his people when they needed him the most. He concludes that the fisherman was right for saying that he turned his back on the world. Katara tries to console him, stating that he is being too hard on himself and that even though he had run away, it was meant to be; if he had stayed, there was a good possibility he had been killed with the other airbenders. She ends by emphasizing that the world needs him now and that he gives people hope.
Iroh reveals to the crew that when Zuko saw that he had to duel his father, he begged for mercy, refusing to fight him. Zuko tries to convince Ozai that he only "had the Fire Nation's best interests at heart" and apologizes for having spoken out of term. Nonetheless, Ozai demands that he fights for his honor. Zuko falls to his knees, emphasizing that he is a loyal son. Although Ozai orders him to rise and fight, Zuko prostrates himself more to his father, declaring that he will not fight. Unfazed by his son's pleas, Ozai notes that "[Zuko] will learn respect and suffering will be [his] teacher", a statement Zuko takes in with tears in his eyes. Iroh admits that he looked away while Ozai scarred Zuko's face, unlike Azula or Zhao. As the flashback ends, Jee demurely reveals that he always thought that Zuko had been in a training accident. Iroh angrily notes that it was no accident and wraps up the story by saying that Ozai banished Zuko, because he had shown "shameful weakness" by refusing to fight; only by capturing the Avatar is Zuko allowed to return home with honor. Jee finally understands Zuko's obsession with capturing the Avatar and Iroh adds that the Avatar is Zuko's source of hope.
Meanwhile, in his own quarters, Zuko is meditating in front of four candles, which rise and fall on the rhythm of his breathing, while brief flashes of Zuko's youth appear; Zuko and Azula running over a meadow with Ozai behind them; Ozai placing a hand on Zuko's shoulder; Zuko, without his scar, looking out over the sea, his father's arm around him and a smile on his face. The face of the happy child changes to that of a scowling teenage Zuko, who suddenly looks up as lightning strikes his ship.
At the cave, Katara and Aang are startled by the fisherman's wife's cries for help. Although Katara rushes to her side and says that she is safe, the woman declares that her husband is not, since he and Sokka are still out at sea, caught in the storm that is evolving into a typhoon. Determined, Aang declares he will find them, and Katara immediately resolves to accompany him, while the elderly woman makes herself comfortable in the cave, noting that she will remain there.
On Zuko's ship, everyone has made it to the bow and Zuko wonders where they were hit. Iroh directs their attention to the crow's nest, where the helmsman is hanging on for dear life. Zuko and Jee waste no time climbing the ladder to save him, despite the ship being dangerously rocked back and forth. Meanwhile, another lightning snakes down toward the metal ship, though Iroh intercepts it and redirects it away from their vessel and into the water, the encounter leaving him smoking. Unable to hold on, the helmsman plummets down, screaming. He is saved, however, by Zuko, who grabs a hold of his hand as he passes him by and lowers him to Jee, who supports the man to safety; the prince and the lieutenant look at each other with a small smile of respect.
Meanwhile, Aang and Katara face the storm, desperately searching for Sokka and the fisherman. When a large wave threatens to swallow them, Aang determinedly uses his staff to spin the water out of the way so Appa can fly through unharmed. As they finally spot the fishing boat, they fly passed Zuko's vessel. Zuko spots them, though when asked by Jee what he wants to do, he orders his men to let him go and set course for safer waters instead. As Iroh advises to head to the eye of the storm, he smiles proudly at his nephew.
On the fishing boat, which is bobbing and weaving on the rough waves, Sokka and the fisherman are holding on to the ropes for their lives. While Sokka laments that he is too young to die, the fisherman remarks that he is not but still does not want to die either. When Aang jumps aboard, lighting strikes the boat and causes the mast to fall down. Thinking quickly, Aang uses his waterbending to sever the beam in two, saving Sokka and the fisherman, and helps them up on Appa's saddle. Before they can all escape, they are overtaken by another large wave and pulled below the surface. As they float down, Aang sees Sokka, Katara, and the fisherman all holding on Appa's saddle, albeit unconsciously. As he himself is slipping away too, he suddenly grabs hold of Appa's reigns with renewed vigor and his tattoos start to glow as he does so. Pulling himself back atop Appa's head, he smashes his fists together and forms an air pocket around them all, allowing Appa to fly through the water.
On the surface, Zuko's ship has reached the calmness inside the eye of the storm and Zuko apologizes to his uncle. As they keep their course, Appa and his passengers burst through the surface in front of the ship, rapidly rising in the air. Looking over his shoulder, Aang notices Zuko staring after them, though the prince leaves them to fly out of the storm, rising above the clouds.
Back at the cave, the fisherman reunites with his wife, who immediately orders her husband to apologize to Aang. Aang notes that it is not necessary and the fisherman circumvents his wife's wishes by offering them a free fish instead. When Aang announces that he does not eat meat, the fisherman claims that fish is not meat. When Sokka approaches the fisherman, desiring to claim his pay for working on the boat, he receives a fish, much to his horror. While the elderly couple resumes arguing again, Aang approaches Katara and says that she had been right before. He declares that he is done dwelling on the past, as there is nothing to be gained by making guesses about how things could have been different if he had not run away, and announces that he will make the best of the present. Katara is happy to hear that and adds that she does not think he will be plagued by any more nightmares. At that moment, the fisherman approaches them and thanks Aang for having saved his life.
Noticing that the storm has cleared, they walk outside and stare upward at the brightening sky, though Appa promptly shakes the water from his fur, sending a final cascade of water splashing onto them.
- Written by:
- Directed by:
- Starring:
- Also starring:
- Additional voices:
- Dee Bradley Baker
- Paul Butcher
- Daniel Hansen (Air Nomad boy and Jinju)
- Karen Maruyama
- Jim Meskimen (Jee)
- Keone Young (Bujing)
Production notes[]
- Main article: Transcript:The Storm
Avatar Extras[]
- Main article: Avatar Extras for Book One: Water
Series continuity[]
- For a split second at the end of Aang's dream, there is a brief silhouette of Fire Lord Ozai. This nightmarish image of Ozai is first seen in "Winter Solstice, Part 2: Avatar Roku" when Aang learns about Sozin's Comet and again in "The Guru" when Aang must confront and overcome his greatest fear: fighting the Fire Lord.
- This episode reveals how Aang was trapped in the iceberg, where he was initially found in "The Boy in the Iceberg".
- This is the episode that reveals how Zuko got his scar and why he was banished from the Fire Nation.
- This is the first of three times in the series where Aang has continuous nightmares. The second time is in "The Avatar State" and the third time is in "Nightmares and Daydreams".
- During one of Aang's flashbacks to his life before being trapped in the iceberg, two airbenders are seen playing the Avatar World's own version of "Rock, Paper, Scissors", the difference being that the four elements are used instead of the familiar stationery. In the three rounds seen playing, two hand forms were shown: a pound fist later revealed to represent earth, and what looked like a "stop" hand or a "eight trigram palm" from Baguazhang. This game is seen again in "City of Walls and Secrets", when it is played by Aang and Sokka. As revealed in the later episode, earth appears to beat fire, which had the hand emulating flames or what looked like a dragon grasp from Northern Shaolin style.
- In the chapter "The Decision" of The Rise of Kyoshi, Kyoshi destroys the clay turtle relic. Avatar Yangchen would later remind her to replace the turtle for the next Air Avatar, meaning it was replaced at some point between 295 BG and 12 BG.
- When Zuko and Iroh are arguing about the storm, right before the picture cuts to the close-up of Iroh's face, Zuko's ponytail disappears.
- In the scene where Zuko tells Lieutenant Jee to show respect, he is wearing his usual turtleneck-like garment under his armor, but in the next few shots it disappears.
- When Aang is hiding in the cave, Katara's shadow should have blocked the shadows of the rain on Aang, but it did not.
- Appa entered the cave with Katara even though he generally hates going underground or in tunnels.
- When a soaked Appa walks into the cave where Aang is hiding, his muzzle is white instead of the usual gray.
- In various camera angle switches, both Aang and Katara are seen in separate scenes nearly pressed up against the rock wall. However, after the camera changes, they are suddenly sitting a good distance from it.
- During Aang's story, in the shot when he is on the air scooter asking if he cannot play, there are six boys standing around him but in the next shot where he walks away, there are only five.
- When Monk Tashi opens the door to find Aang and Monk Gyatso playing Pai Sho, the door remains at his right. When he leaves, however, the door is absent.
- The scene with Monk Gyatso finding the note is shown despite it being impossible that Aang, narrating the story, would know about it, as he was not actually present when it happened.
- In a few scenes, in particular when Aang briefly enters the Avatar State in his anger, Katara's lower kimono no longer has slits that begin at her hips. Instead, it resembles a complete dress with no separation.
- When Zuko intends to enter the War Room, both guards are on either side of the curtain. When the left guard blocks Zuko's path, however, the right guard stands slightly in front of the curtain as well, although he did not move.
- In the side overview of the Agni Kai chamber right before Zuko begs Ozai for mercy, there are only three levels to the arena, although there should be four.
- When Iroh turns his head away the moment Zuko screams in pain, his top-knot becomes see-through, resulting in a part of Bujing's right ear to be visible through it.
- When Iroh tells the soldiers about Zuko's scar, the soldiers believe it was a training accident and seem to be unaware of the events that occurred during the Agni Kai, even though the whole arena was crowded with people. Furthermore, even some people in the Earth Kingdom seemingly know how Zuko was banished and how his own father burned him, so it is strange that the soldiers do not know about it.
- While Aang and Appa are in the ocean, Aang is on top of Appa and goes into the Avatar State. A moment later, Appa is above him instead.
- When the old fisherman's wife is telling the fisherman to give Aang an apology, her hair-clip is in her bun, but usually it is in the rest of her hair.
- No one is seen drying off or even having wet clothing during all the times that people get wet in this episode.
- This is Michael Dante DiMartino's third favorite episode because of how the story goes deep into both Aang's and Zuko's pasts.
- Zuko is seen crying for the first time during this episode.
- When the gang and the fisherman are struggling in the storm, a strange white blob flashes onto the background.
- When Aang asks Gyatso if the Council might have made a mistake when they said he was the Avatar, Gyatso says that, "The only mistake they made was telling you before you turned sixteen", meaning that Avatars are not made aware of their status until their sixteenth birthday. This is further shown in the episode "The Avatar and the Fire Lord", when the Fire Sages told Roku that he was the Avatar on his sixteenth birthday. Avatar Korra is an exception to this rule, since she discovered she could bend multiple elements on her own before she was old enough to have been trained.
- This is the first time Aang goes into the Avatar State twice in the same episode. Once in the cave, when he goes into the Avatar State for a split second, and again when he forms an air pocket around Appa.
- In the scene where Zuko is begging his father for mercy, many of the Agni Kai's spectators are shown wearing green, blue, and yellow, which is unusual seeing that they are Fire Nation citizens.
- The title of this episode, "The Storm", is one of many titles that have multiple meanings; this one has at least three. It refers to the actual storm in which the characters get caught, to the reasons for Aang's "stormy" feelings of guilt and shame, and to Zuko's "stormy" history of how and why he was banished.
- This episode explores the emotional stress that is placed on the Avatar, serving as the first of many episodes that has Aang reluctantly confront his duty as the Avatar.
- When Sokka wakes up from his dream early in this episode, he says, "Momo could talk. You said some very unkind things." This is referenced later when Momo talks and says unkind things in Aang's daydream in "Nightmares and Daydreams".
- It is shown that the four toys Aang chose that determined his destiny are a clay turtle, a string-powered propeller, a wooden hog monkey, and a wooden hand drum. This method is akin to the one used in determining the next incarnation of a Tulku Lama in Tibetan Buddhism.
- The watermelon that the merchant tried to sell to Katara made a "swishing noise", which resembles the merchants of China in the early 1900s who would try to make their melons sound heavier by injecting them with foul water from a river or one of the creeks.
- According to Dante Basco's interview in Great Big Story. The Agni Kai flashback is a reference to the Luke and Vader duel of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
- Ironically, it was Zuko who puts in Luke Skywalker's situation. While the villain is played by Luke Skywalker himself.
- Dante states that it is the most surreal moment in his career.
- This episode contains Azula's first on-screen appearance.


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About The Book
Becoming Jinn #1Author: Lori Goldstein
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends (Macmillan)
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Publisher: Feiwel & Friends (Macmillan)
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Harry Potter meets Twilight in debut novelist Lori Goldstein's magical tale of sixteen-year-old Azra, a teenage girl whose Jinn ancestry transforms her into a modern-day genie. With the power to grant anyone's wish but her own, Azra pretends to be human, spending her days at the beach, enjoying a budding romance, and evading her Jinn destiny. But when she discovers she may not be like the rest of her circle of Jinn, will her powers save or endanger them all?
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Hamilton Reservoir Residents Pay Tribute to 9-11
Some folks living on South Basin of Hamilton Reservoir in Holland, MA got together on Sunday 9/11 to pay tribute to those lives lost on 9/11 .. 15 years ago.
Although the weather was iffy and the winds were high, they decorated their boats and paraded around the lake to the causeway on Mashapaug Rd where they released Red, White & Blue balloons into the sky, with a moment of silence ...
remembering those lost and families left behind ... Some kids on the shore line waved their flags and others stood up to salute our American Flag. "Never forget and remember USA Free and Home of the Brave"
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Who the Hell is Betty Pleasant?
Betty Pleasant is a longtime "writer" for the "independent" South Los Angeles based "newspaper" The Wave. Betty completely aghast that a federal investigation of shady dealings of the campaign of Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas has decided the tack to take is to completely slime Ridley-Thomas' former opponent, Councilmember Bernie Parks.
Rather than honestly report on the serious investigation - which has even potentially extended to include Chief Bratton - as opposed to Patrick Range McDonald in the LA Weekly - Betty decides to go after Parks. Pleasant calls parks "one of the worst and most vicious officials" LA has ever had. She even goes further to call Parks a "sore loser." To continue the looniness Betty even digs up the ghost of long ago LAPD Chief Willie Williams who has never met a free Vegas hotel room or buffet that he didn't like. Great journalism Betty!
But when you dig deeper you may find the true source of Betty's motivation. First off, county records show that Ridley-Thomas spent extensively on campaign advertising in the paper while Parks spent nothing. An independent expenditure by an SEIU backed independent expenditure committee placed $180,000 in advertising for Ridley-Thomas in the paper. Is The Wave pay for play? We don't know but at least one political consultant has confidentially told us Wave management allegedly said that lack of positive coverage was tied to a lack of advertising in the paper.
The bottom line is that Pleasant's screed is a sign that Ridley-Thomas supporters are desperate to deflect attention from a very real federal investigation. But we need not give Pleasant much credit. This deep thinker has also opined that the recent conversion from analog to digital television was a conspiracy similar to the much ballyhooed but totally false notion the oil companies hunkered down to rid Los Angeles of streetcars. Looks like we've found another loon.
Labels: bernard parks, betty pleasant, chief william bratton, los angeles wave, Maria Elena Durazo, Mark Ridley Thomas, willie williams


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The Circuit: Executor Rising by Rhett Bruno
It has been centuries since Earth was rendered a barren, volatile wasteland. With their homeworld left uninhabitable, humanity founded a system of colonies throughout their local solar system. Known as the Kepler Circuit, these settlements are strung together by a network of nonaligned Solar-Ark transports, locked in continuous motion. They have served to provide an influx of resources to every faction ruling over the remnants of humankind, most importantly the newly discovered element Gravitum which is found only in the Earth's unstable mantle.
By 500 K.C. a religious sect known as the New Earth Tribunal has risen to preside over most of The Circuit. Though there is barely a faction left remaining to challenge them, a string of attacks on their transports force them to summon the enigmatic, yet brilliant, Cassius Vale for help. What they don't know is that together with his intelligent android creation, ADIM, he is the one orchestrating the raids.His actions lead to the involvement of Sage Volus, a beautiful Tribunal Executor sent by her masters to spy on their mortal enemies – the Ceresian Pact. In order to find out who is behind the attacks, she infiltrates the ranks of a roguish mercenary named Talon Rayne. Against all her intentions, however, she finds her faith tested by him and his ragtag squad.
While Sage and Talon are engaged in a futile hunt, Cassius Vale initiates his strategy to bring down the narrow-minded Tribune once and for all. But will anyone be able to survive what he has in store for the Circuit?
The Circuit: Executor Rising is available at:
Author Bio:
Rhett Bruno grew up in Hauppauge, New York, and studied at the Syracuse University School of Architecture where he graduated cum laude.
He has been writing since he can remember, scribbling down what he thought were epic short stories when he was young to show to his parents. When he reached high school he decided to take that a step further and write the "Isinda Trilogy". After the encouragement of his favorite English teacher he decided to self-publish the "Isinda Trilogy" so that the people closest to him could enjoy his early work.
While studying architecture Rhett continued to write as much as he could, but finding the time during the brutal curriculum proved difficult. It wasn't until he was a senior that he decided to finally pursue his passion for science fiction. After rededicating himself to reading works of the science fiction authors he always loved, (Frank Herbert, Timothy Zahn, Heinlein, etc.) he began writing "The Circuit: Executor Rising", the first part of what he hopes will be a successful Adult Science Fiction Series.
Since then, Rhett has been hired by an architecture firm in Mount Kisco, NY. But that hasn't stopped him from continuing to work on "The Circuit" and all of the other stories bouncing around in his head. He is also currently studying at the New School to earn a Certificate in Screenwriting in the hopes of one day writing for TV or Video Games.
You can find out more about Rhett Bruno and his writing at his website, www.rhettbruno.com, or on Twitter: @rcbruno44


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The Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma has reached a $75 million opioid settlement with three of the nation's largest drug distributors, the first deal of its kind with a tribal government in the country.
AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson shipped vast quantities of highly addictive pain pills over the past 20 years, triggering an avalanche of lawsuits.
In a statement, Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said the opioid crisis had disproportionately affected people in his community.
"This settlement will enable us to increase our investments in mental health treatment facilities and other programs to help our people recover," Hoskin said.
The Cherokee Nation is a sovereign government with more than 390,000 citizens. Officials described this as the largest settlement in their history.
The drug companies also issued a joint statement "strongly" denying any wrongdoing. They said payouts will be spread over the next six to seven years.
"This settlement was negotiated in connection with ongoing negotiations toward a broad resolution of opioid-related claims brought by Native American tribes," the firms said in a release sent to NPR.
AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, McKesson and a fourth firm, Johnson & Johnson, are also in the final stages of confirming a $26 billion opioid settlement with state and local governments across the U.S.
In their statement, the companies said the deal with the Cherokee Nation won't affect that process.
Meanwhile, Cherokee Nation officials said they will continue to pursue separate litigation against pharmacy chains that sold opioid medications, including CVS, Walgreens and Walmart.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Apple Closes the OS Gap between Mac OS X and iDevices in Lion
On October 10, 2010, Apple gave us the first look at the next release of Mac OS X, called Lion, due some time in 2011. During his keynote speech at the special event to unveil the eighth major release of OS X in a decade, Apple CEO Steve Jobs labeled the philosophy behind Lion as "Back to the Mac."
Jobs explained that Apple had created the operating system for its iPhone (iOS) using some of the best features of Mac OS X. Then Apple perfected the iOS, added some new things, and put the iOS in the iPad. Now, Apple is taking some of the best features it developed in the iOS and putting them back into Mac OS X Lion.
Lion Demonstration
Jobs announced that this sneak peek at Lion would include demonstrations of the feature called Mission Control as well as these "high level, exciting" features inspired by the iOS:
- Multi-touch gestures
- Full screen apps
- Launchpad
- Mac App Store
Jobs promised that Lion would contain "tons" of other new features, too numerous to demonstrate, including AutoSave and AutoResumealso inspired by the iPad.
I found it interesting that before the actual demonstration, Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook gave a "state of the Mac address" explaining, among other things, that Mac is one-third of Apple's revenue. (If Mac were a stand-alone company, it would be number 110 on the Fortune 500 list.) As a Mackie, I always enjoy hearing that the Mac is doing well, gaining market share, and so on, but I don't really need to hear this when I'm itching to see the new release. This was probably just Apple's way of saying, "Mac is important to Apple, and we are investing in it heavily."


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Browser Requirements
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To maximize your Internet banking experience and for your Internet security, we recommend using the latest supported browsers. Please note that we do not support Beta or test versions of browsers.
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To access our services, your browser must also support 128-bit Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption. All the browsers we support meet this requirement. If yours doesn't, please download the appropriate encryption support from your browser's supplier.
To use our online banking services, you must enable your browser to accept cookies. Detailed information on our use of cookies is available in our Privacy and Security section. For more information on enabling and disabling cookies, please refer to your browser's Help section or documentation.
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Street motorbikes are designed for riding on paved roads and to perform well in the city traffic. The motorcycles from this category are designed to perform extremely well and to take you smoothly to any city point. However, their functionality, level of comfort and ergonomics expand beyond city boundaries and they can easily turn into your preferred rental choice for long distance riding on asphalt. The most popular models are manufactured by Suzuki, Kawasaki, BMW, Yamaha, Honda and Ducati - Yamaha XJR 1300 and MT-03, Suzuki Bandit and V-strom, BMW R 1200 and F800, Honda CB 600, CB 1000 and NX700, Ducati Monster 696, Ducati Streetfighter 848, Kawasaki Versys.
In Stock


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The State Library of Pennsylvania fostered the development and expansion of a statewide database of library catalogs, accessible from a single website on the Internet for all residents of Pennsylvania. This service, Access Pennsylvania, enabled resource sharing across the Commonwealth. Services provided by the State Library of Pennsylvania grew to include electronic databases, digital collections, and a 24/7 live chat service. In 2013, all of these services were united under a single web portal and named POWER Library.
Click here to access Power Library resources
This project is made possible in part by Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funds from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services and through Library Access Funds administered by the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, Department of Education, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Wolf, Governor. The views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this website do not necessarily represent those of the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services or the Department of Education, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.


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We are pretty close to our PubSweet 1.0 with the RFC now out for PubSweet 2.0, and a PubSweet dev site release next week.
It has been an amazing effort, particularly by Jure Triglav, the lead dev for PubSweet at Coko, but also fantastic work from Richard Smith-Unna, Alf Eaton, Yannis Barlas, and Christos Kokosias. Also more recently some great contribution from Alex Georgantas.
So, we are pretty much there and I'm presenting in San Francisco this week as part of a small Coko event to reflect on the future of the framework and discuss the RFC. For this purpose I'd thought I'd write a post to help me think through the thinking that got us here.
So…the thinking behind PubSweet started when I came back from Antarctica around 2007 or so (I was there setting up an autonomous base for artist-scientist collaborations).
I decided I wanted to give up the art world and try something new. The something new turned out to be FLOSS Manuals – a community writing free manuals about free software. I started it when I was living in Amsterdam somewhere around 2007. In order to execute on this mission I needed to get a couple of things sorted. Namely, learn how to build community, work out processes for rapid book production, and work out the tooling.
The tooling started with me scratching around with TWiki. A wiki written in Perl that happened to have the best plugins for rendering PDF. I scratched around, writing some Perl and cutting and pasting a whole lot more, and added some crazy .htaccess URL rewriting to produce a basic system for producing books. It was pretty scratchy but it actually worked. Later a buddy helped extend the system and later still I was able to pay him and others to extend it.
At the time it pretty much comprised a page (per book) for creating a table of contents.
and an interface to edit the content (chapters). I ripped out the native wiki markup editor and replaced it with a WYSIWYG editor, I think it was TinyMCE…
As you can see Right-to-Left content (in this case, Farsi) was also supported. There were also some basic things in place for keeping track of the status of a chapter, the version number, side by side diffs, side by side translation interfaces, and, later, dynamic table of contents organisation and edit locks.
Coupled with some basic PDF rendering stuff and a way to push the content from the 'draft' to the publishing front end and we were away.
It actually had some other pretty cool stuff, such as side by side translation interfaces…
..a built in live chat for talking with collaborators…
and even a way to send books between different instances (eg for sending a book from the FLOSS Manuals French community site to FLOSS Manuals Finnish for translation)….
We could even render book formatted PDF and push to the lulu.com print on demand services. I just now checked and some of the books are still there!
Not bad for a Perl-based system, built on top of a wiki that wasn't supposed to do this kind of thing, and built very with very few resources. The TWiki extensions were contributed back upstream to the TWiki repo and it was all open source but it was pretty hard to rebuild and no one I knew actually had a similar use case.
After this, I embarked on a journey to replace the system with a custom built solution specifically for book production. I can't remember exactly when this started, maybe 2008 or 2009 or something. It was originally called Booki…
…which later became Booktype. Booki (and later Booktype) replaced the FLOSS Manuals tooling, although you can still see the working old tool here. That ole Perl code is still functional with no maintenance after 10 years, I can hardly believe it. The docs on how to use it also still exist.
Booki was built with Django (python) and pretty much had all the same stuff. Although the look and feel was changed quite a bit in the transition. There aren't too many images around of Booki although I did find these screenshots of Booki taken by someone using it on the OLPC XO! (FLOSS Manuals did all the docs for OLPC/Sugar OS etc).
It was hard to get financial support for it. Internet Archive gave us $25,000 at the time which seemed like a fortune. The evolution of Booki to Booktype represented me taking the project to a buddy's in Berlin (I was living there at the time) based org (Sourcefabric) and parking it there so I could get more resources to build it out.
Booki/Booktype pretty much had, and has, the same stuff as the FLOSS Manuals system, just purpose built. So it had, a table of contents manager
And a book (chapter) editor…
And the other stuff. Perhaps the only new features (compared to the FLOSS Manuals system) were a dashboard…
and an interesting way to have Twitter-like messaging to pass snippets from chapters to other users.
Before I left Sourcefabric I wanted to get some other innovations built but didn't get there. I did build some prototypes though. There was a task editor…
…and live in-browser book design…
Booktype is still going strong, now it is its own company (based in Berlin) and they also run the Omnibook commercial service using the software.
I left because John Chodacki and Kristen Ratan from PLoS invited me to come work for PLoS to design a new web-based journal submission system. I agreed…
But, before I leave the book story behind for a bit..I had set up Book Sprints as a company and put a small amount of my own money into building two new book production systems somewhere between leaving Sourcefabric and starting at PLoS. These two systems were PHP-based and Juan Gutierrez built them over some months.
I wanted to do this because I was a little frustrated by Booktype not moving forward and also the platform was becoming more difficult to use. We were using it for Book Sprints but after I left the product took a new UI direction and I was finding Book Sprints participants were not enjoying using the system. So I built a Book Sprints specific system called… PubSweet… the namesake of the current Coko system which has eventually turned into something of a prototype for the new PubSweet… this new system was a lot simpler and easier to use than Booktype. It was initially meant to be modular but I think we lost that somewhere along the way. Cleanly modular systems take a lot of extra effort and time to produce so we gave in for speed of development's sake.
The old PubSweet had a dashboard….
..table of contents manager…
and editor. Just like before!
We also introduced some new innovations including visualisations of the book production process…
Plus annotation (using Nick Stennings annotator software)…
and other stuff…I think threaded discussions, outline views, review page, an in-browser book renderer, book stats and I can't remember what.
Anyway …I also built a platform on top of this old PubSweet for the United Nations Development Project. It was called Lexicon. Lexicon was pretty interesting as it opened my mind for the first time to the idea that an editor is not an editor is not an editor. Different content types (in a book) may require different editors or production environments.
Lexicon was produced to collaboratively produce a tri-lingual (Arabic, French, English) lexicon of electoral terms for distribution in Arabic regions.
Lexicon had all the same stuff as the old PubSweet but with one major innovation, you could create chapters that were WYSIWYG based, or you could create a chapter which enabled you to add and sort individual terms and provide translations.
It was a pretty interesting idea and we were able to make a really cool book which the UNDP printed and distributed across many Arabic-speaking countries. I still have the book on my bookshelf.
The other interesting thing was that the total cost for building this on top of the old PubSweet was $10,000 USD. This was mostly because we could leverage all the existing stuff and just build the difference…interesting idea!
Ok, so then I dropped book production systems around 2013 or so for a while and went to work for PLoS on a system that was called Tahi and then became Aperta. The name Tahi came from the name of the street I was living on in New Zealand before I had a US work visa and was designing the system – Reotahi Road (cool road). Reotahi means 'one voice' and 'tahi' means 'one' in Maori. It was built on Rails with Ember. Essentially the front end and backend were decoupled although it was really pushing the technology at the time to do this. I designed the system and moved to San Francisco to manage the team to build it.
Tahi (Aperta) had a dashboard (surprise!) and editor, just like the book production systems but I introduced two major innovations – Cards, and card-based workflow management interfaces. Unfortunately, while I was asked to come and build an open source system, things went a little weird at PLoS and they closed the repos, effectively making it a closed platform. So I quit. That also means I don't have any screenshots to show you. Pity. If you sign an NDA with PLoS I believe they might show it to you.
However, you can picture it a little – imagine something like Trello, or Wekan – these are card based kanban systems. But imagine if you could custom make cards to do anything. Effectively cards were first class citizens of the platform and could access the db, perform system operations, make external calls, do validations, whatever you wanted. In hindsight, I think they were as close to an idea of an 'app' that you could have in a browser platform, although that wasn't the way I thought about them at the time. Additionally, cards were imported into the system since each card was actually a gem file. This meant any publisher could custom make their own cards to do whatever they wanted and place them within the kanban-like workflow space (task manager). Pretty neat.
So, cards could be surfaced and used anywhere in the system. We used them for authors to enter submission data, but also for production staff to perform operations, for reviewers etc etc etc. They could also be placed on a kanban board to make a workflow. Cards could be moved around the workflow and deleted or new ones added at any time.
To manage all this my other idea was to let these cards flow through a TweetDeck-like interface. So you could sort cards, per role, per user, at volume.
Tahi essentially had four spaces – a dashboard, a submission page (which displayed the manuscript in an editor, and submission data could be entered through cards), a task manager (workflow for the article, using cards as tasks), and a 'flow manager' (the TweetDeck-like interface for sorting all your cards across all your articles). While the FLOSS Manuals, Booki and Booktype platforms were pretty much monolithic systems, the old PubSweet was sort of modular. However, Tahi did decouple the front end and back end but I wanted to also break these four spaces into discreet components. That would have given the system enormous flexibility but unfortunately I wasn't able to do this before I left.
Anyways, Tahi/Aperta is a little old now but it was pretty cool. I don't know what happened to Aperta but I believe it is now being used for PLoS Biology.
After I left PLoS I was offered a Fellowship by the Shuttleworth Foundation to continue on the mission to reform publishing. So I started Coko with Kristen Ratan (who was the publisher at PLoS)….
So there are some themes from building the past 7 or 8 publishing systems (depending on how you count it… there were also some other interesting experiments in between). First, the next system you build is always better. That is for sure. It's an important thing to realise because when I developed the FLOSS Manuals system I thought that was it. Nothing could be better! But I was wrong. Then Booki/Booktype and I felt the same thing. I was so proud of it and nothing could be better! haha… you get the picture. The reason why it's important to understand this is because I think it gives someone like me a bit of freedom. I can take some risks with systems knowing you get some stuff right, you get some stuff wrong. But the next system will get that bit you got wrong, right. Taking this attitude also takes the pressure off and you can have more fun which is good for your health, the team you are working with, and the system.
As far as technical lessons learned… well… after looking back at all these systems when we started Coko, I realised that the idea of independent 'spaces' for publishing workflows had a heap of currency. How many systems did I have to build with baked in dashboards, task managers, editors, table of content managers, etc etc etc before I could realise it doesn't make sense to do this over and over. I wanted to take the idea of these kinds of spaces forward and not have to build them again and again… so some kind of system where you could include whatever spaces/components you wanted would be ideal… This would have two very important side benefits:
- I could learn so much because if the next system you build is always better, what about a framework that would allow you to easily build a whole lot of systems at once! Or build a lot quickly over a short amount of time… just imagine how much you could learn…
- It would open the door for others to innovate. I have since given up the idea that my system (so to speak) was the best ever and no one could top it. That's just the testosterone talking. I'm kinda over it (sorta). I want other people to be able to make better stuff than what I have produced so far, to bring in innovations I never thought of. I want to make that easy for them and now I understand a whole lot better how publishing workflows actually work I'm in a very good position to do that.
That was a lot of the thinking behind the new PubSweet – PubSweet 1.0. But there is some other stuff too. Through my time at PLoS, I came to understand just how many variables affect workflow choices in journal publishing and that each publisher has slightly different conditions and roles that affect this. That means that the access control is complex. We might think there are various roles – author, editor, reviewer etc that shepherd an article through a process but it's not that simple. Any number of conditions can affect who gets to see or do what and when. So we need to have a very sophisticated way to set and manage this.
There was a lot of other stuff to take into account to but I mention these two specifically because recently when I was talking to Jure (lead PubSweet dev) about PubSweet 1.0 and reflecting on how far we came he nailed it, he identified the two major innovations of the system being:
- reusable/sharable components (spaces)
- attribute-based access control
I agree entirely. I think I might add another:
- developer experience
It is pretty easy, and getting easier, for developers to develop publishing platforms/workflows (call them what you will) with PubSweet. I think it is pretty astonishing and I think these 3 characteristics put together enable us to build multiple publishing systems fast and in parallel (with small teams) as well opening the door for other to do the same and huge opportunities for innovation.
If we are successful at building community this will be a huge contribution to the publishing sector.
In a future post, I'll break PubSweet spaces / components down in more detail. There were also a lot of other similar stories regarding technical innovations on the way (eg Objavi->iHat->INK), but I'll break them down into posts on another day.
I meant to also talk about Editoria here, the monograph production system built on top of PubSweet, and xpub – the PubSweet-based Journal system.
They are both pretty amazing and leverage so much more than the previous systems identified above.
I think the main thing with them is that we are working extremely closely with publishers using the method I developed – the Cabbage Tree Method.
This means that I am no longer involved in building, what I would call, naive publishing systems. Naive in the sense that publishers could use, for example, Booktype, but it's not really built for publishers. It's a general book production system built by someone who didn't know much about publishing at the time. That's great of course, there is a place for it. However, Editoria is not a naive system. It is designed by publishers for publishers and the difference is enormous.
But I will leave a longer rant about this for another post.
I do however, want to say that I didn't, of course, build any of the above systems by myself. There were many people involved and I have credited them elsewhere in this blog. I'm not going to do another roll call here except for Jure Triglav.
Jure and I sat down just over 18 months ago to discuss some of the lessons I learned as explained above. We jammed it out over post-its, whiteboards, coffee, and food in Slovenia and you can read a little more about that process in the PubSweet 2.0 RFC. But Jure trusted me, and I trusted him, and he took these ideas and, with a small team in very good speed, made them a reality. As a result, I think PubSweet is an exciting system and will only get better. Congratulations Jure, you deserve special thanks and recognition for the absolutely amazing job you have done.


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(Update) Numerous Reports Of My T-Mobile Login Troubles Surface, Are You Unable To Access Your Account?
Update: It took almost no time to at all to get a handle on this situation and we've updated the post with an internal statement from T-Mobile below. See the full internal statement below. Thanks to your comments, emails and Tweets it seems that a number of T-Mobile customers are unable to login to their My T-Mobile page. … [read full article]