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If you're eligible for VAT relief on medical devices, you can claim it on this product. The VAT amount will be deducted from the price shown above. Look for full details in your shopping basket.
recurring payment
Nickel-plated connectors establish a clean contact between the cable and connector for a reliable connection.
Quality construction uses only top grade materials to create products of extended durability.
Bare copper shielding protects against signal loss.
This non-slip grip makes connecting your components easy and ergonomically comfortable.
Molded plugs ensure secure connections between components and offer extended durability.
Flexible PVC jacket provided protection to the delicate core of the cable. It also offers extended durability and ease of installation.
Rubber strain relief provides a secure, yet flexible juncture between the cable and the plug.


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Explore distant lands, fight bigger and more awe-inspiring machines, and encounter astonishing new tribes as you return to the far-future, post-apocalyptic world of Horizon.
The land is dying. Vicious storms and an unstoppable blight ravage the scattered remnants of humanity, while fearsome new machines prowl their borders. Life on Earth is hurtling towards another extinction, and no one knows why.
It's up to Aloy to uncover the secrets behind these threats and restore order and balance to the world. Along the way, she must reunite with old friends, forge alliances with warring new factions and unravel the legacy of the ancient past – all the while trying to stay one step ahead of a seemingly undefeatable new enemy.

subset: commoncrawl


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Technological innovation comes from many people around the world every single day. Yet, it is rare to know the names of those who spawn the innovations that eventually reach market and change our lives. Most people tend to only read headlines instead of history. If you are one of them, you would think that true technological innovation is generated by a select handful of individuals sitting by themselves in a small garage in California.
There are many examples of a lone innovator scrawling an idea on a napkin or a piece of paper that becomes a billion dollar company, forever altering how we interact with the world. In fact, the current combined net worth of "The Big Four" (Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook) is somewhere north of $1.1 TRILLION dollars. And they were all started with very little money and a single idea. So how is it that we all know about the humble beginnings of innovators such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Larry Page, and Mark Zuckerberg? Because their stories have been told so many times, they are now the stuff of legend. Today, parents tell their children they can do the same thing as a tale of optimism, much the same way our parents used to tell us that we if we studied hard we could become the President of the United States.


text: HD Makeup Studio and Academy is the Finest Hi-Definition (HD) Makeup and Precision Haircutting School in the Philippines. Makeup classes are taught regularly by Hollywood and Toronto-trained conventional and airbrush makeup artists. We have the lowest student to teacher ratio and the only makeup school that provides models to practice on daily. Photoshoots are included in all our makeup and hairstyling courses without any extra fees. Learn from the Finest. Enroll Now!


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There are far too few daughters in poetry. They turn up surprisingly rarely in nineteenth century poems, considering how they crowded into the available fictional equivalents. So it's a relief to start the twentieth century with this big, ornate and controversial poem by William Butler Yeats. In a way it was overdue. He married late. He was well on the way to being sixty when he wrote this poem for his only daughter Ann.
What exactly is it he wants for her? What is it he wants to keep her away from? If a wealthy marriage and Irish politics are the first and second answers here, they still can't shadow or trivialize the beautiful context of the piece. As a complex statement about patriarchy, the poem falters. But as an image of a father on a wild Atlantic night in the west of Ireland, trying to put words between his child and danger, it is memorable. And as an image-system of coastal thrushes, poisoned wells and the struggle against hatred it remains an absolutely compelling poem.
The absence of daughters in earlier poems raises an interesting question. Does a sudden, new and permitted subject matter--or gradually sudden as in this case--discover the poem, or the other way around? Probably the first. Certainly, the idea of daughters--the down-to-earth and vast register of human feeling compressed into the very word--has opened up a wonderful landscape of tone and intimacy and bold subversions in recent poetry, some of which I've tried to include here.
To start with, there's "Morning Song" by Plath. No sonorous authority here. Not only does this first, joyful birth of her daughter Freida in 1960, find Plath in good heart and fine voice. But this is a place where she tries out the anti-narrative she would perfect in later poems like "Balloons." The language is startling and exact. The baby's mouth is as clean as a cat's. The baby is at first a plump, ticking watch but then quickly lets out a bald cry which turns her into a statue, which makes emotion a museum and motherhood a spectatorship. And suddenly, skillfully, the poem has darkened.
Are daughters part of the domestic subject matter which is so often mistaken and devalued in talk about poetry? I would hope so. And the intimacy and grace of Richard Wilbur's beautiful poem for his writer-daughter shows how skillfully he blends those inward and indoor elements: the trapped starling and the old authorities of father versus daughter shimmering and dissolving as one writer listens for the emergence of another.
If Wilbur's poem is narrative, Derek Mahon's is all music. His daughter and her "difficult art" are beautifully lost in the musical effect of memory and regret. But Rita Dove breaks back into narrative in this fascinating poem, "The Bistro Styx," of the unresolved history between a mother and daughter, the mythic loss that takes place in the ordinary surroundings of a meal out being worked out in witty dialogue and implied grief.
I suppose it was something of that tension between myth and ordinariness that drew me into the Pomegranate, with its signature of the Ceres and Persephone myth: the loss of the child, the innovation of the seasons. And for me, the actual, practical experience of a daughter growing up. One of the true human legends.
But legends can darken. Daughters can not only grow up, but away. And then this subject matter, released into poetry, needs to be discovered again with age-old strategies of wit and elegy.
Hold it up to the light against Yeats's poem and Tom Lux's knock-about, turn-on-a-sixpence-syntax just seems wonderful, elegant and funny, until--as Berryman said of Henry Reed's "Naming of Parts"--"suddenly you want to weep."
Jill Bialosky goes a step further in this extract from her strong, eloquent sequence "Fathers in the Snow." The daughter is not just spoken to or about here. She speaks. This is a subversive piece. There are no legends allowed to intrude on the dark, unswerving tone of pain and disruption. One of the interesting things about poetry is that territory discovered by tone, strategy and poetic boldness stays on the map forever.
But finally, I have to admit my own attraction to the lyric moment lurking in this subject. And it seems to me realized in this superb poem by Nan Cohen, a recent Stegner Fellow and strongly emerging young poet who was in my workshop at Stanford. Stumbling on this poem there was like stubbing my toe on a diamond. Here in these plain, bold cadences the subject matter is herded into accurate language and steered back to the lyric moment which, I think--and I may be prejudiced--is always lurking in it.


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I'm working today on my fall/winter planting. I don't usually do this, but before I put my plants in the ground I decided to do a quick layout to decide where I would place them. Using Sketchbook Pro 6 to create my artwork & Carrots love Tomatoes & Roses love Garlic by Louise Riotte as a reference for companion planting I drew up this plan for my fall/winter garden.
So there you have it, my fall/winter garden plans. Now, I'm off to buy some Black Cow & Epson salts to amend my soil & get my plants into the ground before the rains come.
Have a wonderful weekend.
{peace, love & hugs}


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The Alpha-Xi magazine pouches have evolved from the Alpha-X pouches introduced in early 2018. We listened to customer-feedback, both positive and negative, and worked to develop our next general pouch that builds on the strongest features of the Alpha-X pouch, while addressing and resolving its weaknesses.
The new pouch has a striking modern look with large side cut-outs around the tension wheel. The smaller wheel used is not only convenient to rotate but now make it possible to easily mount a large magnet on the outside face of the pouch body.
The main advancement in the Alpha-Xi design is the manner in which the belt-hanger ball-joint attaches to the pouch body. The dove-tail solution from the Alpha-X were occasionally a weak point when the pouches were hit hard, as when going prone or catching a magazine on a barricade or table edge. In the new Alpha-Xi design, the ball-joint is attached using a custom-made wide-head screw which fits through the aluminum side wall of the pouch, making it extremely durable and strong.
The Alpha Xi pouch body offers 8 connection points to choose from – three height positions each for Right-hand or Left-hand shooters, and two height options for bullets-out mounting. A Key-seat engagement is used in combination with the custom wide-head screw, to prevent any possible wiggle, movement or weakness.
The ball joint is held in the aluminum belt hanger using a pressure coupling with a large T25 Torx M6 Screw. This offers a totally secure lock up and the option to make minute adjustments to the pouch's angle and tilt.
To further elevate the quality and durability of the product, the Allen screws have all been replaced with T20 and T25 Torx-head screws, and a custom made key which incorporates both these sizes is included.
The Alpha-Xi utilizes the same wrap-around spacers (but not identical parts), which align all magazine sizes in the center of the pouch body, while fully enveloping them with polymer, to prevent any possible binding and to create the smoothest draw of the magazine.
The spacer system incorporates a height-adjustable bridge support under the magazine, allowing the user to determine how deeply the magazine seats into the pouch.
Three sets of spacers are included as standard with every pouch, to fit all double-stack magazines (excluding the very large Glock/HK .45 mags). A single stack spacer adaptor is available too and is sold as an accessory.
And finally, a dash of color and personalization can be added with the laser-cut plastic inlays, available for user installation in several colors.


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They represent the most established window wiper technology. This structure features 4 to a maximum of 8 pressure points, depending on the length of the blade. An elastic casing distributes the force generated by the arches to the rubber blade, maintaining a uniform pressure on the glass.
THEY GIVEYOU- The safety of the most widespread window wiper technology


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Today, UX designers can put themselves or their whole company at financial risk by simply designing a user experience. Failures in U.S. patent law are making this an everyday possibility and threatening digital innovation globally.
My initial layman's understanding of patents and their influence on our industry was that they protect truly unique intellectual property, and therefore are of commercial value to a patent holder. I thought the generic elements of digital interfaces that are seen and used by millions of people every day would be in the public domain. And I thought that companies only carve out patents for what is truly theirs, and that they must be commercializing that intellectual property into products. In time, though, I learned that these assumptions were mostly incorrect in regards to digital UI and interaction design patents in the U.S.
The reality is that generic elements of digital interfaces or parts of websites are in fact owned by various corporate entities and some of these entities have no intention of commercializing them within their own products. Simple functions within UX design as basic as menu systems and "upgrade" buttons are patented. These patents cannot be freely used by the people who don't own them. I am sure almost every UX designer has unknowingly infringed upon a U.S. patent.
What's Happening Out There?
Many companies I work with in the U.S. are very concerned about unexpected patent infringement actions coming their way; the U.S. has always been an overly litigious place. If a patent holder comes knocking with an infringement lawsuit, the first thing everyone asks is who is liable for the infringement. Usually the liability falls back to whoever created the infringing product, so for our industry this has large repercussions.
We have to realize that every time we push some pixels around to form a digital design and put it into the public realm, we take on patent infringement risk. Unsettlingly, we are unable to identify what the associated risk of our creations is without spending a lot of time and money doing patent research.
Patent Trolls
If you stumbled across U.S. Patent 5,251,294 before you began designing a website, your interpretation wouldn't likely be that JavaScript-style rollover menus are patented. But the owner of this patent is getting a reputation for legal action against people using this very generic type of intellectual property.
Companies that apply for U.S. patents do so as a defensive strategy to protect their investment in the commercial application of a technology, or to hold the patent to license the technology to other parties. A small group, commonly called patent trolls, use the latter non-practicing strategy, and they are a threat to our industry. Patent trolls are an opportunistic few take advantage of the current U.S. patent system by buying questionably generic patented intellectual property, waiting for people to unknowingly infringe, and then maneuvering those people into out-of-court monetary settlements.
The cost of intellectual property litigation is expensive. The legal costs may easily start at around $50,000—well beyond the reach of most small companies. For many, commercial time pressures also limit their options considering litigation can take years. If a patent troll issues a letter demanding settlement or legal action, it is becoming common for companies to pay out the few thousand dollars for an out-of-court settlement to avoid involving expensive lawyers. If it wasn't for cost and time taken to properly dispute these claims, we might see the majority of these unsubstantiated patent infringement suits successfully defended in court. Many patent cases that manage to be heard in civil courts end with the invalidation of the patent.
Frustratingly, patent "aggregators" hold patents for technologies that they have purchased but not created, and that they have no intention of commercializing except through licensing to third parties. Even large companies play into the hands of patent aggregators by paying annual license fees to avoid possible patent infringement lawsuits.
The practices of patent trolls and aggregators are starting to sound like the Mafia of the Internet as they demand paid protection from businesses.
How Does This Affect Us?
Considering that we've all probably infringed on patents in our work, you are probably asking, "Why haven't they come after me?" It comes down to luck and how publicly visible your work is within the U.S. It's a big game of Russian roulette where every patent you infringe on is another bullet in the cylinder and the higher profile your product is, the more pulls of the trigger you are taking. The risk also varies depending on who owns the patent; it is up to that company to decide whether to take legal action against you.
I am sure the majority of us don't wish to infringe upon someone else's intellectual property, but within the UX field it's easy to unknowingly infringe on patents. As an industry, we do not have the time or the money to undertake expensive, detailed research of U.S. patents every time we create or adjust a design. We have to accept that there are legal risks in our industry, but we also need to try to mitigate as many of these risks as possible.
As intellectual property ownership becomes more fragmented, the number of patent licenses required to develop technologies will increase, hindering innovation. Eventually it may become impossible to hold a patent with certainty as patents may struggle to exist on their own without infringing upon other patents. This complexity of determining the boundaries of intellectual property may make filing a successful patent an extremely expensive exercise and therefore restrict the protection of the patent system to the wealthy.
Reducing the Risk of Patent Infringement
Understand the risks
Check your legal agreements. Sit down with your lawyer and understand the amount of risk you are accepting when signing service agreements with your client or your UX vendors. Pay particular attention to indemnification clauses.
Look at the amount of liability you are accepting as a UX vendor and aim to limit this liability. For example, why accept unlimited liability for a project that may only pay $20,000 but puts your whole company at risk?
Be protected
Patent infringement insurance is not cheap, but is worth investigating. Make sure your insurance level is commensurate with the IP liability limits you have agreed to with clients.
Be aware of how visible your work will be in the public realm. The less visible your work is, the less risk there is of someone seeing a patent infringement and taking legal action. Ask yourself if the financial reward for the product or work is aligned with the visibility it will receive.
Be informed
Keep an eye on patent infringement news, the litigious activities of patent trolls, and the outcomes of the legal actions they take.
Pay up
If you have a time-critical project that is going to be highly visible, it may be easier to approach a patent troll and pay a license fee for a known troublesome patent. If you don't request permission to use their intellectual property, then you the risk damaging the relationship with your client or the success of the project.
Patent search
Undertaking a patent search may be a time-consuming and expensive exercise, but if you are investing in the development of a product or an intellectual property, it could well be worth knowing whether someone else already owns part of what you are trying to create.
Their ideas, their risk
If you are a vendor being paid for UX services to develop experiences based off the requirements and requests of the client, then decide if you are willing to accept liability for their ideas. Remember that you are not a professional service that researches patents and takes on patent infringement risk for your client's gain.
More Resources
- IPWatchdog, an online magazine focusing on the news & business of IP.
- Techdirt, a blog that uses a proven economic framework to analyze and offer insight into news stories about changes in government policy, technology and legal issues that affect companies ability to innovate and grow.
- The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a leading civil liberties group defending rights in the digital world, with a special focus on IP and patent abuse.
- Brad Feld (feld.com), a successful tech/Internet VC with a passion for patent issues.
- End Software Patents.
- Patent Absurdity, a free film on how software patents broke the system.
- Patentleyo, a patent law blog.
- A whitepaper by the Society of Digital Agencies on Patent Infringement Risk.
This article is not to be considered legal advice. Please contact a legal professional for legal advice.


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WILDLIFE presenter Chris Packham said culling of foxes was not needed - because people encouraged them into towns by throwing food on the ground and into bins.
The Southampton nature expert was talking after reports that a baby had been attacked by a fox in London.
The child's mother was alerted by his screaming and rushed into his room to see his hand lodged "halfway down the animal's throat".
Surgeons were able to reattach a finger and he was said to be recovering well.
London Mayor Boris Johnson said more must be done to tackle the growing problem of urban foxes.
He said: "They may appear cuddly and romantic but foxes are also a pest and a menace, particularly in our cities.
"This must serve as a wake-up call to London's borough leaders, who are responsible for pest control.
"They must come together, study the data, try to understand why this is becoming such a problem and act quickly to sort it out."
But Chris Packham said culling was not needed.
He said instead people had to stop throwing food on the ground and into bins since that was contributing to a rises in numbers in urban areas.
An RSPCA spokeswoman said the only reason a fox would attack is due to fear.
She said: "It's extremely unusual for foxes to attack young children or anyone.
"It's not typical fox behaviour at all. Foxes will come closer to a house if there are food sources. Then they can become quite bold, but they usually do back off and run away when there's people around."
The issue of foxes attacking humans has divided the public, with many sceptics questioning recent cases amid fears of a backlash against urban foxes.
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Our new licensing explained
May 2nd, 2019
Today we are happy to announce the roll out of our new licensing agreement! We've reached out to many of you, our dear customers, to better understand your licensing needs and have put considerable effort into improving it over the past few months.
Many of the improvements have to do with use of the Spine Runtimes. Below we explain the changes in simple terms.
Third-party product distribution
Many smaller studios do not directly sell to consumers. Instead, they sell or license their apps and games to third parties, such as publishers, who in turn distribute the products to end users.
Under our old agreement, this introduced some friction. If a product contained the Spine Runtimes, the third party had to obtain their own Spine license to distribute it.
Our new agreement removes this requirement. If a studio sells a product containing the Spine Runtimes to a third party, the third party can distribute it without their own Spine license, provided they do not modify the product or create new products with it.
Distribution after license expiration
Spine Enterprise is renewed annually, but some customers may not have a continuous need to use Spine due to production schedules or other reasons.
Under our old agreement, a Spine Enterprise customer needed to renew their license for as long as they distribute products containing the Spine Runtimes, even if they no longer need to use the Spine editor.
With our new agreement, you need a Spine license at the time the Spine Runtimes are integrated into a product, but after that you can keep distributing the product even if the Spine license expires.
SDKs and game toolkits
We felt our old agreement was not very clear about the implications of using an SDK or game toolkit that contains our Spine Runtimes.
Our new agreement specifically covers middleware that contains the Spine Runtimes, such as the fantastic pixi-spine or Yoyo Games' GameMaker Studio 2. If you use an SDK, game toolkit, or software library to create applications which contain the Spine Runtimes, you need your own Spine license.
If you are the author of middleware containing the Spine Runtimes, please inform your users of this license obligation. Note this requirement was in our old license agreement, but now it is stated more clearly.
Going forward
We hope these improvements will make it easier than ever to use Spine in your projects. Let us know what you think on the forum!


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A nation must think before it acts.
After two-and-a-half years of steadily metastasizing violence in Syria, the harsh reality is that the country isn't going to become a stable, unified state again in the foreseeable future, let alone a remotely democratic one. It may be time to start thinking about alternatives.
Syria has already fragmented into increasingly well-defined enclaves. A multiplicity of Sunni Arab rebels control large swaths of the north and east, while the regime is dominant in the capital and major cities, the largely non-Sunni coastal provinces, and a corridor connecting them. Kurds control small border areas in the far northeast. The Druze, heavily concentrated in southwest Syria, have formed militias to fend off rebel incursions, while tending otherwise toward neutrality.
Although the rebels are likely to eventually bring down the minoritarian regime of President Bashar Assad, as Michael O'Hanlon helpfully analogizes, the fall of Damascus will "no more end the war in Syria than the overthrow of Saddam in 2003 brought stability to Iraq." Pro-regime forces will fall back toward the coast, Kurds and Druze will fortify their enclaves, and the Sunni rebels will fight each other to reclaim what's left of the Syrian capital.
It could be many years before any coalition in Syria is sufficiently powerful, willing, and united to impose a state monopoly of force. By that time, the country will have lost hundreds of thousands of lives, most of its urban infrastructure, and a generation's worth of economic growth and development. The collateral damage of a grinding fight to the finish could render the dominion of whoever wins all but ungovernable and destabilize the rest of the Levant.
Keenly aware of this, Obama administration officials continue to place their hopes on brokering a negotiated settlement providing for a peaceful transition to majoritarian rule in Syria. The problem is that powerful jihadist rebel factions and their wealthy donors in the Arab Gulf will never accept a political accord that curtails their pursuit of an Islamic state in Syria, while most Alawites and other minorities will reject any transition plan that doesn't. There's no way to bridge the gap until someone reins in the jihadists, and that clearly isn't going to happen before pro-regime forces are decisively defeated (if then).
The most viable alternative to the violent restoration of Sunni Arab hegemony in Syria is partition – either "hard," resulting in two or more independent states (e.g. Sudan, 2011), or "soft," as O'Hanlon proposes,[1] resulting in autonomous centralized cantons under a weak federal government (e.g. Bosnia, 1995).
Of course, Syria is not neatly divided into geographic ethno-sectarian constituencies. Apart from Jabal Druze and the coastal hinterland of Latakia and Tartous provinces, there are few sizable blocs of Syrian territory where any one minority is a majority (though there are plenty where Sunnis predominate). All of the major cities are confessionally mixed.[2] However, insofar as refugees from government-controlled areas are disproportionately Sunni and those fleeing rebel-held areas are disproportionately non-Sunni, territories under the control of both the regime and the opposition are becoming steadily more homogenous.
As in Lebanon during its 1975-1990 civil war, de facto partition is happening every day. The question at hand is whether the international community should encourage a settlement that reifies and institutionalizes this fragmentation, rather than seeking to propel one side or the other to victory.
Though explicit advocacy of either soft or hard partition is deeply taboo in Syria (an unfortunate legacy of French colonialism), it appears that most Alawites, nearly all Kurds, and many Christians and Druze would prefer some form of secession or extreme decentralization over the uncertain outcome of majoritarian (and almost certainly Islamist) rule, particularly if it means an earlier end to the fighting.
Most Sunni Arabs vehemently oppose partition, not so much because they see Syria's sovereignty and current borders as sacrosanct (in fact, the more deeply religious see both as largely irrelevant), but because they expect to win out under majority rule in a unitary Syria. However, Sunnis may come to support partition if it means escaping Assad's grip without paying the catastrophic costs of defeating him. They may also come to prefer living in a more homogenous polity less susceptible to outside (particularly Iranian) influence. Jihadists will unquestionably reject partition, but no more than they have rejected all other conceivable political outcomes acceptable to a critical mass of minorities (and perhaps less so, insofar as a rump Sunni Arab state with fewer minorities has fewer obstacles to their political ascendancy).
At the regional and international level, partition is no one's first choice of outcome. However, with the exception of Turkey (always a stickler about Kurdish autonomy anywhere), neither is it anyone's last choice. Jordan and perhaps Israel would find a friend in a Druze statelet, while a coastal Alawite-dominated statelet would be sure to align with Tehran and Moscow (indeed, partition could be Russia's best hope of holding onto its naval facility at Tartous long-term). The Kurdish zone would likely form a close relationship with its counterpart in Iraq. The Arab Gulf states would own the center (literally, in many places). Partition could prove to be a stable equilibrium, an arrangement from which regional and international players have little incentive to unilaterally depart once it is in place.
Partition obviously won't solve all of Syria's problems, least of all its authoritarian political culture. Assad and his minions will surely dominate the coast, while Islamists will reign supreme in the bulk of what's left. The largest and most militarily powerful Kurdish group, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), is deeply autocratic. Those not belonging to the dominant ethno-sectarian group in their statelet are going to have a hard time of it. Such a solution would be a travesty if prospects for peaceful reunification and democratization weren't so abysmal. Under the present circumstances, according to New York Times columnist (and former Beirut bureau chief) Thomas Friedman, it "might actually be the most stable and humanitarian long-term option."[3]
Nor will geopolitical fragmentation of the Levant solve all of America's problems. Partition would mean a less-than-complete Iranian strategic defeat in Syria. However, this outcome can be mitigated by ensuring that the coastal state does not encompass territory contiguous either with Iraq or with the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah movement's fiefdom in Lebanon, and it must be weighed against the hefty price tag of dealing Iran a complete defeat – a Sunni Islamist capture of power in Damascus. While an interior Sunni Arab state will surely have a decidedly Islamist bent, it will be less fractious than its multiconfessional predecessor, and therefore a more reliable buffer against Iranian encroachment in the Arab world.
This doesn't mean the Obama administration should propose partition as the answer in Syria, at least not at a time when most domestic and regional actors continue to loudly repudiate the idea. But neither should it insist on a negotiating framework that explicitly disallows partition (by mandating a transitional government of "mutual consent" as the cornerstone), as those who dare not speak its name today are likely to gravitate toward it in practice as the war drags on. Even Turkey is now losing enthusiasm for the rebel effort. Down the road, it's not inconceivable that Assad's inner circle can be persuaded to abandon the interior without a bloodbath in exchange for Western recognition of an Alawite-dominated mini-state. If that is what it takes to avert the calamities yet to come in Syria and the region, Washington should keep an open mind.
[1] Michael O'Hanlon, "Solving Syria: Is There a Realistic Way for America to Help Stop the Civil War?" The Daily Beast, September 27, 2013.
[2] For an excellent discussion of demographic barriers to partition, see Mustafa Khalifa, "The Impossible Partition of Syria," Arab Reform Initiative, October 2013.
[3] See Thomas Friedman, "Syria Scorecard," The New York Times, June 22, 2013.


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This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:
The Promised World
What's your "waiting on" pick this week?
Want to participate? Grab the logo, post your own WoW entry on your blog, and leave a link in the comments section!
This one is on my wish list too! Here are my picks: (1) and (2)
That sounds intriguing and intense!
Here's my WoW.
I'm definitely picking this one up. I haven't read much on twins - fraternal or identical.
Here's mine for this week:
I'm adding yours to my list to be read...sounds excellent!!!
Here's mine
The Promised World sounds really good! I am going to add it to my TBR list! Mine is here.
Mine for the week.
The Promised World sounds good!
Here's what I'm waiting for.
Great choice!! It is going on my wish list.
HERE is my WoW post
Here's mine!
That's an interesting pick there.
The Burton Review is up.
Have a great day!
This sounds great! Mine is here
I can always count on finding good "adult" reads on here!
My pick is Sent by Margaret Peterson Haddix
WOW, I need to add this one to my wish list
Here's my WoW
This sounds really interesting, and kind of intense!
Here's mine :-)
Great post!
Here is mine :) Thanks!
Sounds like a winner!
My WoW post is located on my blog @
Interesting pick this week. Here's mine http://cornucopiaofreviews.blogspot.com/2009/06/waiting-on-wednesday_24.html
As always, thanks for hosting!
Here's Mine:
That one sounds intense, it's def. on my wishlist now!
Here's mine: http://readerrabbit.blogspot.com/2009/06/waiting-on-wednesday-psych-major.html
Here's mine: http://bookworminginthe21stcentury.blogspot.com/
Great pick! It sounds interesting. :)
Here 's mine.
This sounds good - I will have to put it on my wishlist.
Mine is here.
Oh wow, that sounds very interesting.
this is mine (some are out, some aren't)
My first WoW!
xoxo, Ella
Here's mine:
You're looks really interesting, I hadn't heard of it before.
Sounds like another winner; thanks. here is mine:
After waiting all day for the internet to finally boot back up again, I have now posted my Waiting On Wednesday :)
Here it is >
I'm a little late, but I finally have my WoW up...
Waiting on Wednesday: Hey, Where Did Those Deformed Triplets Come From? Oh, Divine Conception You Say.
I had to re-read the blurb for your pick a couple of times...it seems like one very tangled web, but interesting nonetheless.
Here's mine: http://damnedconjuror.wordpress.com/2009/06/24/waiting-on-wednesday-invisible/
My pick wont come out until June of next year, I can't wait to read it though.
Here is what I am waiting on
Sounds great! Added to the ever-growing wish list!! Here's my first WOW entry!
Mine is here: http://ponderingthelibrary.blogspot.com/2009/06/this-is-my-first-waiting-on-wednesday.html
looks like a good one. twins is such an interesting topic these days because more of them are around.
here's my pick:
Great WoW pick!
This sounds like an intense read -- great pick!
I'm not sure I could handle this one - sounds so sad!
Here's mine for this week: http://tiny.cc/rQFru
Great pick! I'll be reading this one in September and can't wait.


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TODI is the first indoor snorkeling and diving center in Europe where visitors can enjoy the underwater world under optimal and safe conditions surrounded by more than 2,200 colorful tropical freshwater fish and lifelike decorative elements like a trees, stone baskets for the smaller fish, reefs, a cave, a canyon, a mine tunnel, a piece of Atlantis, a cottage and 3 car wrecks. All this in a gigantic diving pool which is 10 meters deep and 36 meters in diameter, with more than 6.2 million liters of water and a temperature of 23°.
It is situated on the site of an old coal mine in Beringen, in a renovated building were they used to clean the water to wash the coal.
The complete site is also full of other activities, so you can easily spend the whole day here with family and friends; there's something for everyone!


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Will Smith & Tom Hanks are in talks to star in 'Dumbo' live-action remake
LOS ANGELES - The Disney classic is being helmed by Tim Burton with reports claiming Smith will play the father of children who befriend the lovable elephant.
Hanks would reportedly play the villain who locks up Dumbo's mom. Run Forest, Run! This latest live-adaptation comes after Disney's successful turns with Maleficent and Cinderella.
Smith and Hanks together? You'd have to be a dumbo to not think it will be box office gold.


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Monday, October 5, 2009
Byward Market and an Abundant Harvest - Pope Opens Second Synod on Africa
The cathedral and my residence are right up against the Byward Market.
At this time of the year, with the fruits of the harvest present in abundance, I love wandering by the fruits and vegetable stands.
Thanksgiving Day is coming up in a week's time. In order to remind ourselves of all the fruits of the earth for which to give thanks to God, each day this week my blog will feature a photo of the colourful displays around every corner - something offered for our reflection.
Today: We give you thanks, O Lord, for various kinds of squash and gourds
2nd AFRICAN SYNOD BEGINS
Yesterday, in St. Peter's Vatican Basilica, the Holy Father inaugurated the second gathering of Bishops from Africa to deliberate on issues common to that continent and which present special challenges to the Church's evangelizing mission.
The daily sessions begin today and will conclude on October 24, with Pope Benedict XVI presiding a Closing Eucharistic Celebration on Sunday, October 25.
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What a beautiful picture of the trees in all their Autumn splendour! The trees here in Wales are lovely now too but somehow they are never as vivid as the colours of the trees in Canada. Someone told me it is to do with frost and dampnesss - true or false I don't know. However, such beauty is another way God shows his presence and love. By the way, I enjoy your blog. It is nice to see what is happening in the Church in other parts of the world.
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Creative Things Thursday at The Vintage Farmhouse
Cottage Garden Party at Fishtail Cottage
Say G'day Saturday at Natasha in Oz
Hi Sherry, great post on the herbs, I have to have my mint in tea and lemonade every day! just linked up, thanks so much for the party!
Great features! And I love your herb garden! Thanks for hosting!...hugs...Debbie
Hi Sherry! You have some healthy looking herb plants. Wonderful for cooking, but so nice to grow! i just love all the scents. I think they're all delicate and pretty too! Thanks for hosting! Have a great weekend!
Hello Sherry, Growing herbs is definitely one of those things we all should do - I just love adding fresh herbs to my dishes. Your features are great - I do appreciate you sharing with Home and Garden Thursday and for being a gracious hostess,
I love all your herbs...and my new favorite has been tarragon. It is lovely with fish. And I have the best recipe for basil lime tarts. Basil is my 2nd favorite...love to smell it!
Hi Sherry, thank you for hosting your lovely party. Your herbs look wonderful. I also love cooking with herbs and having them in my garden. I especially love lavender shortbread cookies and mint tea. Have a wonderful weekend.
Love fresh herbs! To go out in the garden and get what you need for cooking - wonderful! Lovely features this week :) Thanks for hosting, Sherry!
Greetings from Australia♥
I couldn't live without herbs, they are the magical ingredient to the deliciousness of my foods. I've linked up with you again, and thank you for hosting. blessings, Lady
I love to cook with fresh herbs too, and we just got our herb garden planted this year. Had to start over this year after some of the herbs got a disease last year. However, we have 2 dachshunds who also love our herbs. One in particular will serve herself a meal right from the ground. Needless to say, our herbs are all in raised pots. Thanks for hosting Sherry.
Sherry, I am a girl who loves to use herbs from my garden. You Seven herb primer is so informational! I want to try every recipe. I see you have your mint in a pot. I do too! I don't want to have it go EVERYWHERE!
Thanks for hosting Home Sweet Home!!!!
NOw I am off to visit others who have joined in!
Thanks for the how-to on herbs. I haven't always used fresh herbs but I am now a total convert.
Hi Sherry, I love using fresh herbs. We grew our own last year for the first time ever. We had such a mild winter that I was able to use my rosemary throughout. I just used a few sprigs last night in our dinner. I love the smell and taste of them...so fresh!
Thanks for hosting,
...oh yes, herbs for summertime cooking are a joy and a must!!
xo, Rosemary
A wonderful array of fresh herbs in your garden...I love cooking with fresh herbs, nothing is better than a sprinkling of herbs to finish off a dish.Have a wonderful day x
Thank you for hosting this fun party! Your herbs look so healthy and you have a good variety to use in your cooking. Have a good weekend!
There's nothing better than fresh herbs from the garden! Thanks for hosting!
So nice to sit and while away the evening enjoying all the great "home sweet homes" you've allowed everyone to share here. Thank you!
Thanks for hosting!
Thank you for hosting Sherry!
Susan and Bentley
Oh how I love freshly snipped herbs!! thanks for hosting xox
Maybe I should start to do herbs also. Great share. Love the featured ladies also.
Have a beautiful eve ~
Hi Sherry, my herb garden just outside my back door is one of my favorite spots in the garden. I don't even mind weeding it. Such wonderful frangrance surrounds me when I do. I have the same herbs as you. Just planted my basil. The features are fabulous! Love that potting bench. Thanks for hosting.
Sherry, thanks for sharing your herb garden. We have the same plants growing in our herb garden, but lost the lavender this year. I need to get some more planted.
Thanks for hosting. ~ Sarah
Sherry, thanks so much for hosting this party ~ I've just linked up. Your herb garden looks wonderful. Makes me wish I had one!!
Big TX Hugs,
sherry, your little heart sachets are darling! i have a ton of lavender-i'll have to make a couple like yours! thanks for sharing my potting bench--so sweet:)
Love the features and now you have me wanting to get my herb garden growing!!
Have a great weekend! ... thanks for hosting!
Great features! Thank you for hosting.
The herbs look wonderful. I've been thinking about starting an herb garden and you just made up my mind for me!
All of your herbs look beautiful. Thank you for hosting and have a wonderful weekend!
I love fresh herbs too! You mentioned all of my favorites. I've been wanting to put in an herb garden for the last couple of years, but haven't found the right place for it, although I know many people who just grow them in pots! I may have to try that! Thanks for sharing!
Wonderful herbs, I can almost smell them ; )
Thank you for the links too. I will have a look, certainly something to do for the weekend !!
Have a great day.
I must be living spice. Rosemary, oregano and thyme are musts. And lemon balm, which I decorate cakes and desserts. Parsley and dill are indispensable. Like basil. Mint tea on a hot day! You and I both seem equally enchanted with herbs. I wish you a very nice weekend! Zinnia
Thanks so much for hosting this party for us, Sherry! I really enjoyed seeing and learning about herbs and look forward to using some of the recipes that you link in.
Hi Sherry! This is such a great post! I know it's the wrong time of year Down Under to be planting a herb garden but I think I might start planning one after seeing this. Thank you!
Thanks also for hosting today. It's great to be partying again after my "sick leave"!
Best wishes for a lovely weekend,
What a great turn out for your party...I wish I had a post to link up but sadly I don't. Hopefully soon. :o) Your herb lesson was wonderful. I am going tomorrow to get mint and dill. I have already planted rosemary, basil and chives. Thanks and happy weekend!
Dear Sherry!
Tomorrow I will have something to join the party with!
Beautiful projects as usual!!!
Dear Sherry!!! I finally finish my post and linked up! Please have a look and tell me what you think?
I love your table escapes!!!
Thanks for hosting. This was my first time linking up with you and I'll be back again!
Amy {aprons & ambition}


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Friday, December 20, 2013
Cover Reveal & Giveaways: Romance Through the Ages
Coming February 1, 2014
Romance through the Ages brings you SEVEN NOVELS from 7 bestselling authors (including New York Times, USA Today, and Amazon bestsellers). Join us for a fabulous collection.
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Masquerade by Janette Rallison, who has sold more than 1 million books!— It's hard for a woman to keep up the masquerade when her boss is as handsome as Slade Jacobson and the job takes her to Hawaii with him. In between handling his whirlwind four-year-old daughter and dealing with a whole cast of Hollywood personalities, Clarissa has to keep a tight hold on her heart.
The Reluctant Bachelorette by Rachael Anderson, Amazon Bestseller!—Unknowingly cast as the bachelorette for her town's charity event, Shelter's Bachelorette, Taycee Emerson is in for the ride of her life. Especially when she discovers her old teenage crush, Luke Carney, is one of the bachelors and it's up to the viewers—not her—to decide which bachelors stay or go.
Pride and Precipitation by Heather Horrocks, Amazon Bestseller!— Breezy Jones is crazy about the weather, rain or shine, which makes her job as the local television station's meteorologist perfect. That's before she meets the attractive new general manager, Noah Drake, who is determined to repackage everything—including Breezy's down-home delivery.
My Own Mr. Darcy by Karey White, Amazon Bestseller!— Lizzie falls hard for Matthew Macfadyen's Mr. Darcy character and makes a promise to herself that she will settle for nothing less than her own Mr. Darcy. When she meets two men, Chad—a science teacher, and Matt Dawson—who looks and acts like Mr. Darcy, she's forced to re-evaluate what it was she loved about Mr. Darcy in the first place.
She Owns the Knight by Diane Darcy, Amazon Bestseller!— Why does Gillian Corbett have to travel seven hundred years through time to find a decent guy?... Why can't Sir Kellen Marshall find a lady who is obedient, submissive... or at least not trying to kill him?
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Bloggers who put up a spotlight post about these books on their blog can enter to win an additional $25 gift card or paypal cash. See details in the Rafflecopter.
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Lord Krishna's springtime rasa dance. The purnima or full moon of Damodara month is the second full moon of the autumn season, and rasa lila is again celebrated.
This second rasa yatra is celebrated more in Bengal, whereas the first one is celebrated more in Vrndavana. On this day one should perform full worship of Radha and Krsna with many flowers, and place them in a rasa mandapa surrounded by the gopis. Sri Krishna Vasant Rasa is similar excepting that it is in the Spring (Vasant), at this time everyone dresses in yellow. On this full moon night the devotees usually leave out pots of sweet rice payasam for the Lord to enjoy during His rasas.


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The Planes of Planechase
A stolen moment on a utopian Bant savannah. A whiff of the sulfurous air of Shiv. A glimpse of the ætherscape of Iquatana. The four planeswalkers pursued one another from plane to plane, wielding realities like weapons, their sparks igniting wild magical effects as they ventured through the unknown reaches of the Multiverse.
Bant, Alara
We kick things off here in the angel-watched fields of Bant, familiar territory with its towering castles and leotau-riding knights. Your armies will come to know the power of exalted here, a kind of instantaneous membership in the sigiled caste—and Bant-friendly creatures might even get the benefit of Elspeth, Knight-Errant-style protection (or myojin-style, if you think back to the last time you saw divinity counters) with the chaos ability.
Art director Jeremy Jarvis selected many of Planechase's artists for their experience illustrating those same worlds in card sets. Michael Komarck was an easy choice for illustrating this beautiful Bant scene, as he was one of the primary Bant illustrators in Shards of Alara block. You can see his work on cards like Finest Hour, Clarion Ultimatum, and Knight of the Reliquary.
Grixis, Alara
A landscape founded on the oozing strata of bygone corpses? This must be Grixis. Grixis is a prime world to try your hand at some necromancy—your appropriately colored dead creatures all gain the unearth ability as soon as you arrive here. If you roll the chaos symbol, even mighty green, white, or colorless monsters can join the zombie party.
Again, Nils Hamm was one of the artists who became an expert on the grim world of Grixis—his palette and style fit with Grixis's creepy atmosphere. Just look at the titles of some of the cards he's illustrated: Grixis Battlemage, Grixis Panorama, and Obelisk of Grixis!
Naya, Alara
Naya is a world of gargantuans, and planeswalking here helps you out with that hefty summoning task by letting you dump lands onto the table with reckless abandon. Then the chaos ability kicks in, letting you make a behemoth out of a Bear Cub. (Yes, I'll draw a card from Drumhunter, thanks.)
You can see the light-filtered jungle scene illustrated by the artist team of Zoltan Boros and Gabor Szikszai. Their work can be found on other Naya-flavored cards such as Nacatl Outlander, Wildfield Borderpost, and Volcanic Fallout.
Note that plane cards for Esper and Jund are missing from Planechase. A travesty! But it means that there's room to grow, and it means that Alara doesn't dominate the planes available. One hopes that we'll be able to revisit plane cards sometime down the line and fill in some of those gaps!
The Maelstrom, Alara
The Maelstrom was never a plane—it's the storm of mana that developed at the chaotic center point where all five shards of Alara overlapped. There are many more plane cards than there were known planes of the Multiverse, and many planes have several famous locations within them (Alara included, now that it's one plane in the aftermath of the Conflux), which is part of why Planechase plane cards represent regions or sites within planes rather than planes as a whole. Most planes are just too huge and diverse to be captured in the mechanics of a single card—imagine trying to confine Dominaria or Ravnica to a couple lines of rules text.
So now you can planeswalk right into the middle of the Maelstrom. Just as creatures like Fusion Elemental or magics like cascade spawn off from its fierce generative energies, just arriving at the Maelstrom gives you a chance to plop down a Darksteel Colossus or Progenitus off the top of your library.
Lethe Lake, Arkhos
Arkhos is the plane represented by the Future Sight card River of Tears (also illustrated by Chris J. Anderson). It's a dreamlike world where night and day intermingle according to its own strange internal logic—check out the delicate quality of the light in the art. Near Lethe Lake on Arkhos, memories ebb away like the current of an old stone watercourse. Most mages tend to steer clear of the psychic ravages of the Lake, but surprisingly, some seek it out, believing they need to be cleansed of all remnants of the past in order to make their minds free for new magical creations.
"The prerequisite of originality is the art of forgetting, at the proper moment, what we know."
—Arthur Koestler
Pools of Becoming, Bolas's Meditation Realm
Scott McGough's novels Assassin's Blade, Emperor's Fist, and Champion's Trial feature an enigmatic plane known only as the "meditation plane." It is a surreal, always-changing plane whose geography can mirror the thoughts and potential futures of its inhabitants. A certain fearsome, almost godlike dragon, then known by his title Emperor of Madara, used the pocket plane as a venue for meetings with his advisers. It's been a long, long time since Nicol Bolas battled Tetsuo Umezawa and lost his seat as emperor of Madara, but the ancient dragon may still travel to this plane to this day.
The Pools of Becoming are brimming with magical potential, although it takes a master to control their power and put it to beneficial use. Planeswalkers may even be able to manipulate the plane's fluid potential to shape effects that are normally only available on other planes.
Academy at Tolaria West, Dominaria
The mist-shrouded isle of Tolaria was home to the mages' school, the renowned Tolarian Academy—but it was Academy Ruins in the wake of the Obliterate of Barrin, Master Wizard. To begin to heal the wounds of Dominaria's apocalyptic past, scholars have built a new mage school, surrounding it with an artificial body of water to create a small island, and dubbing it the Academy at Tolaria West. Tolaria West represents a renaissance of advanced learning on Dominaria, and strict rules are in place to prevent researching dangerous time magic. Here planeswalkers can immerse themselves in deep study of arcane mysteries, but not without a price. Scholars say that the moat around the Academy is there not to protect the campus, but to symbolize the One with Nothing the mind must become before the torrent of knowledge may fill it.
Isle of Vesuva, Dominaria
Vesuva, a Dominarian island famous for its Vesuvan Doppelganger and other Vesuvan Shapeshifter, is a region where nothing is as it seems. The shifting illusions can produce magical doubles of visitors there, and such doppelgangers are notoriously, murderously envious of the "originals." You can see post-apocalyptic Vesuva in Boros and Szikszai's Time Spiral art for Vesuva; here in Planechase the island is shown in a more pristine state. Note how the reflections in the water create a mirrored double of the towers and buildings of the town there.
Krosa, Dominaria
Krosa, a forested region on the Dominarian continent of Otaria, is home to ferocious beasts and races such as the Nantuko and the centaurs. The Mirari's Wake radiating outward from the Mirari artifact, planted there by the Kamahl, Pit Fighter-turned-Kamahl, Fist of Krosa Kamahl, caused creatures to grow even more huge and violent. To this day the forest is a site of powerful creature-magic and amplified mana, recovering its vigor and magical potential as Greenseeker and other druids restore it to its former glory.
Llanowar, Dominaria
The famous Llanowar Forest towers skyward, its broad canopies spreading in an exultant celebration of life, its vast redwood foliage almost blotting out the sun. The atmosphere of Llanowar is soaked with life energy, infusing its inhabitants with inherent powers of green magic. One of the first regions Llanowar Reborn since the impacts of Phyrexia and Karona, Llanowar remains one of the best sites for druidic training in advance of major magical undertakings—if you can convince the Llanowar Elves not to break your bones just for treading there.
Artist Kev Walker is no stranger to Llanowar, having illustrated the most recent versions of both Llanowar Elves and Llanowar Behemoth. I just love the quality of light in this art—it's a sphere where neither night nor day matters as much as the dominance of green.
Otaria, Dominaria
This card represents a "wide shot" of the entire continent of Otaria, the setting of the Odyssey and Onslaught blocks and of the storyline of Kamahl and the Mirari. In the art you can see Cabal City, home of the famous Cabal Pit, and some of the area around Balshan Bay. This continent's memories of magic and power are soaked into the very land; many areas of Otaria support magic that can be cast from those memories. Some planeswalkers report that it feels as if Otaria itself yearns for its own past, aching to revisit times gone by.
Shiv, Dominaria
A region shaken by volcanoes, permeated with ash-riddled gases, and lorded over by dragons, Shiv is one of Dominaria's most red-mana-centric regions. Recently phased fully back into Dominaria by Teferi at the cost of his planeswalker spark, Shiv has a deep history that dates back to the time of the Thran, who used it as a site of the immense Mana Rig, source of the powerstones that powered their civilization. These days you'll find more Shivan Dragon than Thran machinery, but it can still play a key role in powering a red-mana assault.
The Eon Fog, Equilor
Urza once said of Equilor:
"An old name. The oldest name. The farthest plane. It belongs to a plane on the edge of time."
–The novel Planeswalker by Lynn Abbey
The plane of Equilor is unthinkably ancient, making even Urza look like a young pup when he discovered it in his fourth millennium of life. Its very geography appears worn down by time, a final, unstirring gray fog clinging to eroded rocks, all the plane's processes having completed their cycles of change long before recorded memory. Equilor is not frozen or dead; it's just done, a world whose journey through time appears to be complete. The subtle mysteries of this plane intrigue those planeswalkers who manage to encounter it in the remote reaches of the Blind Eternities.
The Æther Flues, Iquatana
Iquatana is a world whose atmosphere is almost pure æther. The æther has a strange effect on the ecosystem here; creatures tend to warp and vacillate, turning into other organisms. The world's land is an expanse of chimneys and sinkholes that vent the plasma-like æther, supporting vapor currents ridden by the dreamlike, fickle-formed creatures.
Some planeswalkers visit here to attempt massive summonings, or to study the intelligent Iquati, who created the many Narcomoeba that float above the flues. The narcomoebae were created as living recollections, as the genealogical memory stores of the Iquati were sundered in some unknown past event.
Turri Island, Ir
On the obscure plane of Ir is the mysterious Turri Island, a rocky isle beaten by choppy ocean waves, topped by a mountainous, rough-hewn stone fortress. This is the home of the Fomori, barbaric giants like the one seen on the Future Sight card Fomori Nomad (also illustrated by artist Raymond Swanland). The hulking Fomori leer over their battlements, threatening a boulder barrage toward anyone who should attempt entry—but many planeswalkers try, as the island is said to be a mana haven for summoning not only giants, but other cloudscraping creatures as well.
Skybreen, Kaldheim
Skybreen, a blizzard-wracked mountain range on the plane of Kaldheim, is no place for the meek to visit. The scouring winds tear at gear and skin alike; the frigid temperatures congeal the blood and generate a frosty deterrent to magic; ice sheets, as sharp as straight razors, slice up travelers and form blind cliffs in the constant blizzards. The primitive barbarian race that survives here is not known for its hospitality or reasoned discourse; they practice both surgery and diplomacy with axes.
Minamo, Kamigawa
The Minamo "campus" in Kamigawa floats in the misty air over a waterfall, supported by columns of water and sturdy magic. Arcane magic flows as steadily at this Minamo, School at Water's Edge as the great river pouring over the falls, producing chains of spellcraft that decorate the floating islands. The location is a favorite of blue mages, although any planeswalker looking to choreograph a dance of swift magical steps is sure to enjoy his or her stay here.
Sokenzan, Kamigawa
In contrast to the serene halls of Minamo, School at Water's Edge are the daggerlike peaks of the Sokenzan mountain range. The impossibly steep crags and treacherous snowfields of the Sokenzan Mountains have hosted countless battles among the akki, barbarian warlords, and fierce frost ogres who lurk there. If you travel there, be prepared for either avalanche or ambush; it's said that although many trails lead into Sokenzan, none lead out.
Goldmeadow, Lorwyn
Goldmeadow and the fields around the clachan are such a perfect union of golden sun and green grass that they've been a sanctuary for springjacks for as long as anybody can remember. Kithkin jackherds admit that the beautiful, rolling pastures do tempt packs of boggarts to happen by and steal a springjack now and again, but the knights of Kinsbaile and Cloverdell appreciate the loyal, strong Goldmeadow stock.
Artist Warren Mahy worked as a designer and sculptor for Weta on the Lord of the Rings movies, and provided much of the storybook look for cards throughout the Lorwyn and Shadowmoor blocks.
The Great Forest, Lorwyn
The Great Forest of Lorwyn, a seemingly endless expanse of stout-trunked oaks and other mighty trees, is also a grove of the Rising, a protected birthplace of treefolk. Some of Lorwyn's most famous treefolk warriors and shamans, such as Doran, the Siege Tower, originated here, and some of that sturdy oak and rowan attitude graces any who travel here. If you remain perfectly still, you may be able to hear the trees gossiping among one another; then again, by remaining perfectly still in the Great Forest, you might be asking to be taken for a sapling, and have your roots fertilized by the seedguides. Take that as you will.
Velis Vel, Lorwyn
Velis Vel is the legendary cavern of the changelings, the place to which many of that reflexively chameleonic race return once per year. On that day, as rays of sunlight penetrate the chamber through cracks in the ceiling, its walls glint and glimmer with the same quality as changeling's mutable skin. The crystalline halls of Velis Vel can have strange effects on other creatures, especially those with racial kinship, giving entire races newfound powers—but only while inside the cavern. There's an unwritten understanding among planeswalkers that no Slivers should be summoned within Velis Vel, for fear of causing an ecological catastrophe within Lorwyn's underground.
Cliffside Market, Mercadia
When you come to Mercadia, get ready to do some trading. The High Market is open all day and night, year-round, and it's easy to drive a hard bargain. Then again, it's also easy to get stiffed by a fellow planeswalker in a deal gone very, very wrong. If I were you, before I headed to Mercadia, I'd cast Invulnerability on my coin purse. And my back.
Mercadia City resides on a huge, inverted mountain that balances on its peak, and this is where the Market resides. As you can see in Matt Stewart's art, the architecture and dress of the region takes artistic influence from a mixture of Persian and Elizabethan sources.
Glimmervoid Basin, Mirrodin
On the metal world of Mirrodin, the closest thing to a desert is the Glimmervoid, an expanse of mirror-like metal hexagons. Thanks to the reflective qualities of the landscape, a spell can double, triple, or even radiate in dozens of directions as its targets demand. In some cases, even creatures can find themselves magically reflected in the glassy hexes—which can be handy for planeswalkers looking to build up an army in a hurry.
Panopticon, Mirrodin
Deep in Mirrodin's hollow center stands a strange "mage's tower" called Panopticon. Panopticon is surrounded by huge pillars of mycosynth, a fungus-like metal that grows from Mirrodin's interior surface toward the plane's mana core. Memnarch spent centuries magically monitoring the ecosystem of the plane from this hidden surveillance tower, and planeswalkers who travel here can take advantage of its powers of near-universal perception.
Fields of Summer, Moag
According to Lynn Abbey's novel Planeswalker, Moag is "a truly hospitable world with abundant, rich soil, a broad swath of temperate climates and a wealth of vigorous cultures." Urza and his traveling companion Xantcha spent a few peaceful decades there, and indeed the natural recuperative properties of the plane may be unmatched.
Feeding Grounds, Muraganda
The only things we know about the plane of Muraganda come from two Future Sight cards: Muraganda Petroglyphs, which depicts primitive cave etchings, and the flavor text of Imperiosaur:
"An ancient, powerful force has overtaken the valley. I sympathize for its former inhabitants, but I rejoice for the land itself." —Olanti, Muraganda druid
Muraganda's steaming, primordial jungle seems naturally suited to enormous reptilian beasts. You probably won't be surprised to find not only that your instinct-driven, from-the-gut red and green magic is easier to cast, but also that the plane exerts natural selective pressure on its inhabitants to grow momentous in size and strength.
The Fourth Sphere, Phyrexia
The dreaded Phyrexia, a plane overrun with creatures of foul artifice fused with twisted flesh, is at once one of the Multiverse's most unstoppable forces and one of its most horrifying places. Phyrexia is divided into nine nested spheres, each with a different grisly role. The fourth sphere of Phyrexia was both killing field and testing ground, where unnatural creations were set loose into a hellish artificial ecosystem to see which of them survived. If your circuitous route takes you here, prepare your minions for a hellish fight, and prepare yourself for casualties. Most planeswalkers will want to prepare to planeswalk away, as drawing the attention of Phyrexia can bring only doom. Check out the art by Dave Kendall, one of the most delightfully twisted minds illustrating for Magic today—you can see other pieces of Dave's set in places like Grixis, Shadowmoor, and the fouler parts of Terisiare.
Sea of Sand, Rabiah
The Sea of Sand is a sun-blasted, interminable desert residing somewhere in Rabiah. Whether you come upon a lush oasis or merely trudge all day toward the shimmering mirage of one (which, of course, will turn out simply to be yet more parching sand) is largely up to the whims of fate. Rabiah the Infinite was the setting of the Arabian Nights expansion, a mass of planes each of which is a story in itself. Bring a reliable compass, or else you're likely to become a bleached skeleton, and then just a sand dune among infinite others.
Stronghold Furnace, Rath
This is the magma-powered furnace that fuels Volrath's Stronghold on the plane of Rath. The heat here is blistering; woe to any planeswalkers who attempt to battle here, for they'll find their injuries magnified by the skin-melting heat of the very air, not to mention the touch of the lava itself. The magma channels that wind through the furnace spit geysers of molten stone at random; take care that you don't find yourself in their trajectory. However, if one could somehow harness the overwhelming heat and pressure of these caverns, as Volrath himself once did, the power would be great indeed.
Agyrem, Ravnica
The ghosts of Ravnica's dead linger. Agyrem, commonly known as the Ghost Quarter, is an area of that city-plane where many spirits have collected, going about their business like nothing was amiss—except that they're dead. Planeswalkers who travel here may notice the spectral phenomena in the area; you may find that your creatures return to you instead of rotting in the dirt. You may even notice that the strictures and laws surrounding the tattered Guildpact still have power to prevent conflict in that district.
Izzet Steam Maze, Ravnica
The Izzet guild wears many hats—esoteric experimenters, reckless magewright-engineers, elementalist puzzle-solvers—but one of their chief roles is the responsibility of keeping Ravnica's infrastructure functioning. The Izzet have networks of steam tunnels below the city, laden with pipeworks designed to conduct crucial materials and crackling energies where they're needed. To be sure, wild Izzet magic powers much of the machinery, and the rules are simply different down here than they are up on street level. You may find your spellcraft more efficient, more energetic, more cranked up, to a degree you've never evoked before. But be careful: other planeswalkers may experience similar gains in thaumaturgical performance; and will surely use it against you.
Undercity Reaches, Ravnica
Not all of Ravnica's subterranean levels belong to the Izzet, however. The sun-eschewing tunnels, forgotten catwalks, strangely well-maintained sewer lines, and shadow-belurked (yeah, belurked) passageways hold secrets that only a certain other guild can fathom, secrets that the minds of the common streetfolk will never absorb. If secrets had a natural habitat, this would be it—and so that is exactly where you go to prey upon those lore-engorged (yeah, engorged) whispers. Secrets are the very foundations of Ravnica; slink among them and enjoy the new edifices raised in your own mind.
Plus, this plane card represents something more. It's new Ravnica art by Stephan Martiniere. Just look, man. LOOKY.
The Hippodrome, Segovia
The riddle of the Segovian Leviathan, a massive sea creature that overshadows Segovian whales yet that somehow only weighs in at a meager 3/3, has been conclusively solved. The answer is that Segovia is a miniature plane, about a hundredth the scale of a regular plane of the Multiverse, and so its immense Leviathan is merely the size of a Dominarian elephant. Here we have the Hippodrome, an arena for chariot races, where the tiny Segovians zoom around its tiny oval, occasionally losing their tiny lives in the surprisingly brutal spectator sport. Travel here, and expect to get Shrink down to size, just like the locals.
It's hard to show "tiny" without showing something for scale, and everything in Segovia is tiny—nothing huge to compare its little inhabitants to. So artist Steve Argyle used a simulated tilt-shift technique in the art, narrowing the focus to a tight, sharply-detailed region in the center and blurring rapidly toward the edges, creating an effect that makes its subject look strangely miniature. It's a striking effect, quite well executed—nice job, Steve!
Sanctum of Serra, Serra's Realm
Created on the foundations and principles of white mana by the planeswalker Serra, this world is an ultimate refuge from pain and misery. Urza fled here to escape the marauding Phyrexians, but in their pursuit they caused Serra's Realm to become tainted with black mana. Serra herself was forced to flee her Realm as it began to Planar Collapse under the corruption. If you visit this world in a game of Planechase, intending to recuperate among its heavenly Drifting Meadow and unending sunrise, do make sure to keep track of your belongings as you exit.
Raven's Run, Shadowmoor
If you visit Shadowmoor, the creepily charming night-cycle of the plane of Lorwyn, you should of course expect mischief—but it's not the mischief of a mislaid springjack-saddle or a stolen rambleberry pie. Shadowmoor's mischief is malicious—prepare yourself for a mislaid finger or a stolen daytime. Here in the lurid moonlight of Raven's Run, the gloomy forest once known as Wren's Run, your creatures will take on a malevolent cast, and you'll occasionally be able to commit dire trickery upon the forces of your foes. Take the art of Omar Rayyan, also the artist of such Shadowmoor ghoulies as Cemetery Puca and Mistmeadow Skulk, as inspiration as you travel through the storybook night.
Eloren Wilds, Shandalar
The plane of Shandalar has no fixed location in the Multiverse, instead wandering an irregular course through the Blind Eternities. Shandalar is rich in mana, so planeswalkers covet control over locations such as the Eloren Wilds, a land of riotously overgrown fields of wildflowers and other flora. Innocuous though they may seem, the Eloren Wilds harbor dangers to spellcasters: magical barbed vines that can quickly tighten around a roughly-humanoid-sized object and "lose" it forever.
The Dark Barony, Ulgrotha
On the plane of Ulgrotha, the vampire known as Baron Sengir controls a whole region of tightly clustered small villages, cast in perpetual night: The Dark Barony. Castle Sengir looms over this region, symbolic of the Baron's rule. The art, fittingly by the artist of most of the Sengir family's cards in Homelands, Pete Venters, shows the Barony from the point of view of one of the castle's balconies. Travel to this world only if you're prepared to take the reins of the Barony for yourself, dispensing edicts and mind-destruction effects with power-mad abandon.
Immersturm, Valla
The Immersturm is the continual storm of war, chaos, and lightning that rages across a plane called Valla. The combatants strike back and forth with lightning's fury, forever falling and returning for another assault, the clang of sword-clashes and the death-screams of the vanquished rolling incessantly along the bellies of thunderstruck clouds. You'll be amazed at the change in your own creatures here; bloodthirsty shouts will coincide with the buzzing æther of your summonings as your trusty forces inherit Valla's inbuilt warrior spirit.
I think artist Raymond Swanland earns the Planechase "worked hard for the money" award here—check out the incredible detail in that mass battle scene. (Anyone care to count warriors? Ever since Xantid Swarm, I'm out of that gig.)
Naar Isle, Wildfire
You've already met the Shah of Naar Isle in Future Sight, the efreet-lord who rules this brass-towered city-state afloat on a sea of lava. Now you can visit the flame-drowned plane of Wildfire itself—oh goody!—and meet its Emberwilde order of djinns and efreet, and beg their leave to protect you from the plane's periodic tides of raw fire. Seriously, this is not a world to visit for a relaxing vacation; there isn't even all that much interesting planar study to do. The only fun thing to do on Wildfire is to pad your life total and then chase your planeswalker enemies here, and watch them suffer under the Shah's fiery whims.
Murasa, Zendikar
At last we come to Zendikar, a vibrant new world to explore. As Zendikar previews begin next week, I don't want to say too much about this world yet, but rest assured that there's plenty to dig into—there's over thirty thousand words in the Zendikar style guide alone, not even counting the art. For now, suffice it to say that Murasa is a continent on the plane of Zendikar, and it looks like the art above, and you'll learn more—much more—very soon.
Tazeem, Zendikar
What's this? A forty-first plane card, representing another glimpse of Zendikar, with art by one of Zendikar's concept artists? It's true—but Tazeem is not available in any of the Planechase decks themselves. It's a promo card available at the Planechase release events this weekend, September 4-6, 2009.
No Letter of the Week today, as I'm way over my word-count and a game of Planechase is firing up with some of my buddies here in the office. But tune in to next Wednesday's Savor the Flavor article, as an important Zendikar-related question that many of you have been asking will be answered.


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Speaking of TV … In what's being seen as a very strategic maneuver, HBO has re-upped it's contract with Universal to ensure it maintains exclusive access to the content – through 2022!
So what does this likely mean for us, the consumer? I'd say more of the same. No way to access HBO beyond extending your MSO relationship. Our household isn't quite ready to cut the cord, though we certainly find plenty "over the top."
I suppose things would be radically different if we didn't have to authenticate first on things like the XBox where Cablevision has yet to cut a deal. We can connect the ESPN application which is quite solid, but there's no way to add in additional content really beyond the usual sources like Netflix etc and that's not replacing even the moderately poor TV the family enjoys. Without being able to watch Bravo, I'm never convincing the wife there are alternatives.


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Russian Scientist Could Face Forcible Exile
July 8, 2010
Amnesty International has said that any deal over the release of a nuclear scientist, Igor Sutyagin, which requires him to leave Russia against his wishes, will amount to forcible exile, which is prohibited under international law.
Sutyagin is reportedly being taken to the United Kingdom as one of a number of people convicted of spying in Russia who are being exchanged for ten or eleven individuals alleged by the United States to be Russian spies.
"If Igor Sutyagin is opposed to this "deal" and had to accept it under pressure, it may amount to forcible exile," said Nicola Duckworth, Europe and Central Asia Program Director. "It will also deprive him of the chance to clear his name of the charges he has been convicted of in a retrial that is in compliance with international standards for fairness. It will also deprive him of his contacts with family and friends."
Sutyagin's mother told Amnesty International that he has opposed this deal but was coerced to accept it.
He understands that by signing a confession of his guilt, he is losing all chances for a fair trial of his case, including a hearing of his case pending at the European Court of Human Rights. That's why he asked me to pass on to everyone that he is not guilty. He had to sign this confession as he had no other options. He looks at his swap as an expulsion from the country," said Svetlana Sutiagina.
His case was highlighted by Amnesty International in 2004 in connection with concerns over freedom of expression and fair trial.
Sutyagin compiled information on military and defense issues in Russia while working as a private consultant for U.K.-based Alternative Futures consultancy. He was found guilty in 2004 of "high treason by means of espionage" and was sentenced to 15 years in a strict regime penal colony.
He has always claimed that he had only used open public sources and has always denied guilt for the charges of espionage and passing on state secrets.
The case against Sutyagin was initiated by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB).
Amnesty International believes that the case against him was politically motivated and part of a clampdown on the freedom of expression in Russia that has progressed in recent years to include academic and cultural figures as well as religious groups.
The proceedings against Sutyagin were marred by violations of international fair trial standards. Amnesty International has called for his prompt retrial.
For a number of years, Amnesty International has voiced concerns about the shrinking space for expressing dissenting views and for independent media and independent non-governmental organizations to operate throughout the Russian Federation.
The organization is concerned about the further encroachments on the right to freedom of expression in Russia.
For more information, please visit: www.amnestyusa.org


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