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previous: 27 THE WIFE OF ATHOS
D'Artagnan was astounded by the terrible confidence of Athos; yet many things appeared very obscure to him in this half revelation. In the first place it had been made by a man quite drunk to one who was half drunk; and yet, in spite of the incertainty which the vapor of three or four bottles of Burgundy carries with it to the brain, D'Artagnan, when awaking on the following morning, had all the words of Athos as present to his memory as if they then fell from his mouth - they had been so impressed upon his mind. All this doubt only gave rise to a more lively desire of arriving at a certainty, and he went into his friend's chamber with a fixed determination of renewing the conversation of the preceding evening; but he found Athos quite himself again - that is to say, the most shrewd and impenetrable of men. Besides which, the Musketeer, after having exchanged a hearty shake of the hand with him, broached the matter first.
"I was pretty drunk yesterday, D'Artagnan," said he, "I can tell that by my tongue, which was swollen and hot this morning, and by my pulse, which was very tremulous. I wager that I uttered a thousand extravagances."
While saying this he looked at his friend with an earnestness that embarrassed him.
"No," replied D'Artagnan, "if I recollect well what you said, it was nothing out of the common way."
"Ah, you surprise me. I thought I had told you a most lamentable story." And he looked at the young man as if he would read the bottom of his heart.
"My faith," said D'Artagnan, "it appears that I was more drunk than you, since I remember nothing of the kind."
Athos did not trust this reply, and he resumed; "you cannot have failed to remark, my dear friend, that everyone has his particular kind of drunkenness, sad or gay. My drunkenness is always sad, and when I am thoroughly drunk my mania is to relate all the lugubrious stories which my foolish nurse inculcated into my brain. That is my failing - a capital failing, I admit; but with that exception, I am a good drinker."
Athos spoke this in so natural a manner that D'Artagnan was shaken in his conviction.
"It is that, then," replied the young man, anxious to find out the truth, "it is that, then, I remember as we remember a dream. We were speaking of hanging."
"Ah, you see how it is," said Athos, becoming still paler, but yet attempting to laugh; "I was sure it was so - the hanging of people is my nightmare."
"Yes, yes," replied D'Artagnan. "I remember now; yes, it was about - stop a minute - yes, it was about a woman."
"That's it," replied Athos, becoming almost livid; "that is my grand story of the fair lady, and when I relate that, I must be very drunk."
"Yes, that was it," said D'Artagnan, "the story of a tall, fair lady, with blue eyes."
"Yes, who was hanged."
"By her husband, who was a nobleman of your acquaintance," continued D'Artagnan, looking intently at Athos.
"Well, you see how a man may compromise himself when he does not know what he says," replied Athos, shrugging his shoulders as if he thought himself an object of pity. "I certainly never will get drunk again, D'Artagnan; it is too bad a habit."
D'Artagnan remained silent; and then changing the conversation all at once, Athos said:
"By the by, I thank you for the horse you have brought me."
"Is it to your mind?" asked D'Artagnan.
"Yes; but it is not a horse for hard work."
"you are mistaken; I rode him nearly ten leagues in less than an hour and a half, and he appeared no more distressed than if he had only made the tour of the Place St. Sulpice."
"Ah, you begin to awaken my regret."
"Yes; I have parted with him."
"Why, here is the simple fact. This morning I awoke at six o'clock. You were still fast asleep, and I did not know what to do with myself; I was still stupid from our yesterday's debauch. As I came into the public room, I saw one of our Englishman bargaining with a dealer for a horse, his own having died yesterday from bleeding. I drew near, and found he was bidding a hundred pistoles for a chestnut nag. 'PARDIEU,' said I, 'my good gentleman, I have a horse to sell, too.' 'Ay, and a very fine one! I saw him yesterday; your friend's lackey was leading him.' 'Do you think he is worth a hundred pistoles?' 'Yes! Will you sell him to me for that sum?' 'No; but I will play for him.' 'What?' 'At dice.' No sooner said than done, and I lost the horse. Ah, ah! But please to observe I won back the equipage,' cried Athos.
D'Artagnan looked much disconcerted.
"This vexes you?" said Athos.
"Well, I must confess it does," replied D'Artagnan. "That horse was to have identified us in the day of battle. It was a pledge, a remembrance. Athos, you have done wrong."
"But, my dear friend, put yourself in my place," replied the Musketeer. "I was hipped to death; and still further, upon my honor, I don't like English horses. If it is only to be recognized, why the saddle will suffice for that; it is quite remarkable enough. As to the horse, we can easily find some excuse for its disappearance. Why the devil! A horse is mortal; suppose mine had had the glanders or the farcy?"
D'Artagnan did not smile.
"It vexes me greatly," continued Athos, "that you attach so much importance to these animals, for I am not yet at the end of my story."
"What else have you done."
"After having lost my own horse, nine against ten - see how near-I formed an idea of staking yours."
"Yes; but you stopped at the idea, I hope?"
"No; for I put it in execution that very minute."
"And the consequence?" said D'Artagnan, in great anxiety.
"I threw, and I lost."
"What, my horse?"
"Your horse, seven against eight; a point short - you know the proverb."
"Athos, you are not in your right senses, I swear."
"My dear lad, that was yesterday, when I was telling you silly stories, it was proper to tell me that, and not this morning. I lost him then, with all his appointments and furniture."
"Really, this is frightful."
"Stop a minute; you don't know all yet. I should make an excellent gambler if I were not too hot-headed; but I was hotheaded, just as if I had been drinking. Well, I was not hotheaded then - "
"Well, but what else could you play for? You had nothing left?"
'Oh, yes, my friend; there was still that diamond left which sparkles on your finger, and which I had observed yesterday."
"This diamond!" said D'Artagnan, placing his hand eagerly on his ring.
"And as I am a connoisseur in such things, having had a few of my own once, I estimated it at a thousand pistoles."
"I hope," said D'Artagnan, half dead with fright, "you made no mention of my diamond?"
"On the contrary, my dear friend, this diamond became our only resource; with it I might regain our horses and their harnesses, and even money to pay our expenses on the road."
"Athos, you make me tremble!" cried D'Artagnan.
"I mentioned your diamond then to my adversary, who had likewise remarked it. What the devil, my dear, do you think you can wear a star from heaven on your finger, and nobody observe it? Impossible!"
"Go on, go on, my dear fellow!" said D'Artagnan; "for upon my honor, you will kill me with your indifference."
"We divided, then, this diamond into ten parts of a hundred pistoles each."
"You are laughing at me, and want to try me!" said D'Artagnan, whom anger began to take by the hair, as Minerva takes Achilles, in the ILLIAD.
"No, I do not jest, MORDIEU! I should like to have seen you in my place! I had been fifteen days without seeing a human face, and had been left to brutalize myself in the company of bottles."
"That was no reason for staking my diamond!" replied D'Artagnan, closing his hand with a nervous spasm.
"Hear the end. Ten parts of a hundred pistoles each, in ten throws, without revenge; in thirteen throws I had lost all - in thirteen throws. The number thirteen was always fatal to me; it was on the thirteenth of July that - "
"VENTREBLEU!" cried D'Artagnan, rising from the table, the story of the present day making him forget that of the preceding one.
"Patience!" said Athos; "I had a plan. The Englishman was an original; I had seen him conversing that morning with Grimaud, and Grimaud had told me that he had made him proposals to enter into his service. I staked Grimaud, the silent Grimaud, divided into ten portions."
"Well, what next?" said D'Artagnan, laughing in spite of himself.
"Grimaud himself, understand; and with the ten parts of Grimaud, which are not worth a ducatoon, I regained the diamond. Tell me, now, if persistence is not a virtue?"
"My faith! But this is droll," cried D'Artagnan, consoled, and holding his sides with laughter.
"You may guess, finding the luck turned, that I again staked the diamond."
"The devil!" said D'Artagnan, becoming angry again.
"I won back your harness, then your horse, then my harness, then my horse, and then I lost again. In brief, I regained your harness and then mine. That's where we are. That was a superb throw, so I left off there."
D'Artagnan breathed as if the whole hostelry had been removed from his breast.
"Then the diamond is safe?" said he, timidly.
"Intact, my dear friend; besides the harness of your Bucephalus and mine."
"But what is the use of harnesses without horses?"
"I have an idea about them."
"Athos, you make me shudder."
"Listen to me. You have not played for a long time, D'Artagnan."
"And I have no inclination to play."
"Swear to nothing. You have not played for a long time, I said; you ought, then, to have a good hand."
"Well, what then?"
"Well; the Englishman and his companion are still here. I remarked that he regretted the horse furniture very much. You appear to think much of your horse. In your place I would stake the furniture against the horse."
"But he will not wish for only one harness."
"Stake both, PARDIEU! I am not selfish, as you are."
"You would do so?" said D'Artagnan, undecided, so strongly did the confidence of Athos begin to prevail, in spite of himself.
"On my honor, in one single throw."
"But having lost the horses, I am particularly anxious to preserve the harnesses."
"Stake your diamond, then."
"This? That's another matter. Never, never!"
"The devil!" said Athos. "I would propose to you to stake Planchet, but as that has already been done, the Englishman would not, perhaps, be willing."
"Decidedly, my dear Athos," said D'Artagnan, "I should like better not to risk anything."
"That's a pity," said Athos, cooly. "The Englishman is overflowing with pistoles. Good Lord, try one throw! One throw is soon made!"
"And if I lose?"
"You will win."
"But if I lose?"
"Well, you will surrender the harnesses."
"Have with you for one throw!" said D'Artagnan.
Athos went in quest of the Englishman, whom he found in the stable, examining the harnesses with a greedy eye. The opportunity was good. He proposed the conditions - the two harnesses, either against one horse or a hundred pistoles. The Englishman calculated fast; the two harnesses were worth three hundred pistoles. He consented.
D'Artagnan threw the dice with a trembling hand, and turned up the number three; his paleness terrified Athos, who, however, consented himself with saying, "That's a sad throw, comrade; you will have the horses fully equipped, monsieur."
The Englishman, quite triumphant, did not even give himself the trouble to shake the dice. He threw them on the table without looking at them, so sure was he of victory; D'Artagnan turned aside to conceal his ill humor.
"Hold, hold, hold!" said Athos, wit his quiet tone; "that throw of the dice is extraordinary. I have not seen such a one four times in my life. Two aces!"
The Englishman looked, and was seized with astonishment. D'Artagnan looked, and was seized with pleasure.
"Yes," continued Athos, "four times only; once at the house of Monsieur Crequy; another time at my own house in the country, in my chateau at - when I had a chateau; a third time at Monsieur de Treville's where it surprised us all; and the fourth time at a cabaret, where it fell to my lot, and where I lost a hundred louis and a supper on it."
"Then Monsieur takes his horse back again," said the Englishman.
"Certainly," said D'Artagnan.
"Then there is no revenge?"
"Our conditions said, 'No revenge,' you will please to recollect."
"That is true; the horse shall be restored to your lackey, monsieur."
"A moment," said Athos; "with your permission, monsieur, I wish to speak a word with my friend."
"Say on."
Athos drew D'Artagnan aside.
"Well, Tempter, what more do you want with me?" said D'Artagnan. "You want me to throw again, do you not?"
"No, I would wish you to reflect."
"On what?"
"You mean to take your horse?"
"Without doubt."
"You are wrong, then. I would take the hundred pistoles. You know you have staked the harnesses against the horse or a hundred pistoles, at your choice."
"Well, then, I repeat, you are wrong. What is the use of one horse for us two? I could not ride behind. We should look like the two sons of Anmon, who had lost their brother. You cannot think of humiliating me by prancing along by my side on that magnificent charger. For my part, I should not hesitate a moment; I should take the hundred pistoles. We want money for our return to Paris."
"I am much attached to that horse, Athos."
"And there again you are wrong. A horse slips and injures a joint; a horse stumbles and breaks his knees to the bone; a horse eats out of a manger in which a glandered horse has eaten. There is a horse, while on the contrary, the hundred pistoles feed their master."
"But how shall we get back?"
"Upon our lackey's horses, PARDIEU. Anybody may see by our bearing that we are people of condition."
"Pretty figures we shall cut on ponies while Aramis and Porthos caracole on their steeds."
"Aramis! Porthos!" cried Athos, and laughed aloud.
"What is it?" asked D'Artagnan, who did not at all comprehend the hilarity of his friend.
"Nothing, nothing! Go on!"
"Your advice, then?"
"To take the hundred pistoles, D'Artagnan. With the hundred pistoles we can live well to the end of the month. We have undergone a great deal of fatigue, remember, and a little rest will do no harm."
"I rest? Oh, no, Athos. Once in Paris, I shall prosecute my search for that unfortunate woman!"
"Well, you may be assured that your horse will not be half so serviceable to you for that purpose as good golden louis. Take the hundred pistoles, my friend; take the hundred pistoles!"
D'Artagnan only required one reason to be satisfied. This last reason appeared convincing. Besides, he feared that by resisting longer he should appear selfish in the eyes of Athos. He acquiesced, therefore, and chose the hundred pistoles, which the Englishman paid down on the spot.
They then determined to depart. Peace with the landlord, in addition to Athos's old horse, cost six pistoles. D'Artagnan and Athos took the nags of Planchet and Grimaud, and the two lackeys started on foot, carrying the saddles on their heads.
However ill our two friends were mounted, they were soon far in advance of their servants, and arrived at Creveccoeur. From a distance they perceived Aramis, seated in a melancholy manner at his window, looking out, like Sister Anne, at the dust in the horizon.
"HOLA, Aramis! What the devil are you doing there?" cried the two friends.
"Ah, is that you, D'Artagnan, and you, Athos?" said the young man. "I was reflecting upon the rapidity with which the blessings of this world leave us. My English horse, which has just disappeared amid a cloud of dust, has furnished me with a living image of the fragility of the things of the earth. Life itself may be resolved into three words: ERAT, EST, FUIT."
"Which means - " said D'Artagnan, who began to suspect the truth.
"Which means that I have just been duped-sixty louis for a horse which by the manner of his gait can do at least five leagues an hour."
D'Artagnan and Athos laughed aloud.
"My dear D'Artagnan," said Aramis, "don't be too angry with me, I beg. Necessity has no law; besides, I am the person punished, as that rascally horsedealer has robbed me of fifty louis, at least. Ah, you fellows are good managers! You ride on our lackey's horses, and have your own gallant steeds led along carefully by hand, at short stages."
At the same instant a market cart, which some minutes before had appeared upon the Amiens road, pulled up at the inn, and Planchet and Grimaud came out of it with the saddles on their heads. The cart was returning empty to Paris, and the two lackeys had agreed, for their transport, to slake the wagoner's thirst along the route.
"What is this?" said Aramis, on seeing them arrive. "Nothing but saddles?"
"Now do you understand?" said Athos.
"My friends, that's exactly like me! I retained my harness by instinct. HOLA, Bazin! Bring my new saddle and carry it along with those of these gentlemen."
"And what have you done with your ecclesiastics?" asked D'Artagnan.
"My dear fellow, I invited them to a dinner the next day," replied Aramis. "They have some capital wine here-please to observe that in passing. I did my best to make them drunk. Then the curate forbade me to quit my uniform, and the Jesuit entreated me to get him made a Musketeer."
"Without a thesis?" cried D'Artagnan, "without a thesis? I demand the suppression of the thesis."
"Since then," continued Aramis, "I have lived very agreeably. I have begun a poem in verses of one syllable. That is rather difficult, but the merit in all things consists in the difficulty. The matter is gallant. I will read you the first canto. It has four hundred lines, and lasts a minute."
"My faith, my dear Aramis," said D'Artagnan, who detested verses almost as much as he did Latin, "add to the merit of the difficulty that of the brevity, and you are sure that your poem will at least have two merits."
"You will see," continued Aramis, "that it breathes irreproachable passion. And so, my friends, we return to Paris? Bravo! I am ready. We are going to rejoin that good fellow, Porthos. So much the better. You can't think how I have missed him, the great simpleton. To see him so self-satisfied reconciles me with myself. He would not sell his horse; not for a kingdom! I think I can see him now, mounted upon his superb animal and seated in his handsome saddle. I am sure he will look like the Great Mogul!"
They made a halt for an hour to refresh their horses. Aramis discharged his bill, placed Bazin in the cart with his comrades, and they set forward to join Porthos.
They found him up, less pale than when D'Artagnan left him after his first visit, and seated at a table on which, though he was alone, was spread enough for four persons. This dinner consisted of meats nicely dressed, choice wines, and superb fruit.
"Ah, PARDIEU!" said he, rising, "you come in the nick of time, gentlemen. I was just beginning the soup, and you will dine with me."
"Oh, oh!" said D'Artagnan, "Mousqueton has not caught these bottles with his lasso. Besides, here is a piquant FRICANDEAU and a fillet of beef."
"I am recruiting myself," said Porthos, "I am recruiting myself. Nothing weakens a man more than these devilish strains. Did you ever suffer from a strain, Athos?"
"Never! Though I remember, in our affair of the Rue Ferou, I received a sword wound which at the end of fifteen or eighteen days produced the same effect."
"But this dinner was not intended for you alone, Porthos?" said Aramis.
"No," said Porthos, "I expected some gentlemen of the neighborhood, who have just sent me word they could not come. You will take their places and I shall not lose by the exchange. HOLA, Mousqueton, seats, and order double the bottles!"
"Do you know what we are eating here?" said Athos, at the end of ten minutes.
"PARDIEU!" replied D'Artagnan, "for my part, I am eating veal garnished with shrimps and vegetables."
"And I some lamb chops," said Porthos.
"And I a plain chicken," said Aramis.
"You are all mistaken, gentlemen," answered Athos, gravely; "you are eating horse."
"Eating what?" said D'Artagnan.
"Horse!" said Aramis, with a grimace of disgust.
Porthos alone made no reply.
"Yes, horse. Are we not eating a horse, Porthos? And perhaps his saddle, therewith."
"No, gentlemen, I have kept the harness," said Porthos.
"My faith," said Aramis, "we are all alike. One would think we had tipped the wink."
"What could I do?" said Porthos. "This horse made my visitors ashamed of theirs, and I don't like to humiliate people."
"Then your duchess is still at the waters?" asked D'Artagnan.
"Still," replied Porthos. "And, my faith, the governor of the province - one of the gentlemen I expected today - seemed to have such a wish for him, that I gave him to him."
"Gave him?" cried D'Artagnan.
"My God, yes, GAVE, that is the word," said Porthos; "for the animal was worth at least a hundred and fifty louis, and the stingy fellow would only give me eighty."
"Without the saddle?" said Aramis.
"Yes, without the saddle."
"You will observe, gentlemen," said Athos, "that Porthos has made the best bargain of any of us."
And then commenced a roar of laughter in which they all joined, to the astonishment of poor Porthos; but when he was informed of the cause of their hilarity, he shared it vociferously according to his custom.
"There is one comfort, we are all in cash," said D'Artagnan.
"Well, for my part," said Athos, "I found Aramis's Spanish wine so good that I sent on a hamper of sixty bottles of it in the wagon with the lackeys. That has weakened my purse."
"And I," said Aramis, "imagined that I had given almost my last sou to the church of Montdidier and the Jesuits of Amiens, with whom I had made engagements which I ought to have kept. I have ordered Masses for myself, and for you, gentlemen, which will be said, gentlemen, for which I have not the least doubt you will be marvelously benefited."
"And I," said Porthos, "do you think my strain cost me nothing?-without reckoning Mousqueton's wound, for which I had to have the surgeon twice a day, and who charged me double on account of that foolish Mousqueton having allowed himself a ball in a part which people generally only show to an apothecary; so I advised him to try never to get wounded there any more."
"Ay, ay!" said Athos, exchanging a smile with D'Artagnan and Aramis, "it is very clear you acted nobly with regard to the poor lad; that is like a good master."
"In short," said Porthos, "when all my expenses are paid, I shall have, at most, thirty crowns left."
"And I about ten pistoles," said Aramis.
"Well, then it appears that we are the Croesuses of the society. How much have you left of your hundred pistoles, D'Artagnan.?"
"Of my hundred pistoles? Why, in the first place I gave you fifty."
"You think so?"
"Ah, that is true. I recollect."
"Then I paid the host six."
"What a brute of a host! Why did you give him six pistoles?"
"You told me to give them to him."
"It is true; I am too good-natured. In brief, how much remains?"
"Twenty-five pistoles," said D'Artagnan.
"And I," said Athos, taking some small change from his pocket, I - "
"You? Nothing!"
"My faith! So little that it is not worth reckoning with the general stock."
"Now, then, let us calculate how much we posses in all."
"Thirty crowns."
"Ten pistoles."
"And you, D'Artagnan?"
"That makes in all?" said Athos.
"Four hundred and seventy-five livres," said D'Artagnan, who reckoned like Archimedes.
"On our arrival in Paris, we shall still have four hundred, besides the harnesses," said Porthos.
"But our troop horses?" said Aramis.
"Well, of the four horses of our lackeys we will make two for the masters, for which we will draw lots. With the four hundred livres we will make the half of one for one of the unmounted, and then we will give the turnings out of our pockets to D'Artagnan, who has a steady hand, and will go and play in the first gaming house we come to. There!"
"Let us dine, then," said Porthos; "it is getting cold."
The friends, at ease with regard to the future, did honor to the repast, the remains of which were abandoned to Mousqueton, Bazin, Planchet, and Grimaud.
On arriving in Paris, D'Artagnan found a letter from M. de Treville, which informed him that, at his request, the king had promised that he should enter the company of the Musketeers.
As this was the height of D'Artagnan's worldly ambition - apart, be it well understood, from his desire of finding Mme. Bonacieux - he ran, full of joy, to seek his comrades, whom he had left only half an hour before, but whom he found very sad and deeply preoccupied. They were assembled in council at the residence of Athos, which always indicated an event of some gravity. M. de Treville had intimated to them his Majesty's fixed intention to open the campaign on the first of May, and they must immediately prepare their outfits.
The four philosophers looked at one another in a state of bewilderment. M. de Treville never jested in matters relating to discipline.
"And what do you reckon your outfit will cost?" said D'Artagnan.
"Oh, we can scarcely say. We have made our calculations with Spartan economy, and we each require fifteen hundred livres."
"Four times fifteen makes sixty - six thousand livres," said Athos.
"It seems to me," said D'Artagnan, "with a thousand livres each-I do not speak as a Spartan, but as a procurator - "
This word PROCURATOR roused Porthos. "Stop," said he, "I have an idea."
"Well, that's something, for I have not the shadow of one," said Athos cooly; "but as to D'Artagnan, gentlemen, the idea of belonging to OURS has driven him out of his senses. A thousand livres! For my part, I declare I want two thousand."
"Four times two makes eight," then said Aramis; "it is eight thousand that we want to complete our outfits, toward which, it is true, we have already the saddles."
"Besides," said Athos, waiting till D'Artagnan, who went to thank Monsieur de Treville, had shut the door, "besides, there is that beautiful ring which beams from the finger of our friend. What the devil! D'Artagnan is too good a comrade to leave his brothers in embarrassment while he wears the ransom of a king on his finger."
Turn to the next chapter: 29 HUNTING FOR THE EQUIPMENTS

subset: commoncrawl


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(Via Hot Air) Michael Tomasky, now that he is finished swallowing his gum from watching the Lightworker flail about like… someone who went from undistinguished state Senator to President of the United States in four short years, all the while learning not a darn thing… would like to offer the President a counter-narrative.
The story, in a nutshell, is this: we inherited a total disaster, things are getting better, and Romney will bring us back to disaster. The last part is the most important: putting the emphasis back on the challenger.
Because apparently not even the Online Left is willing to really pretend that this administration can be trusted to come in out of the rain. But enough cheap shots and other innocent amusements: let's unpack this argument. Such as it is.
We inherited a total disaster
Which the President proceeded to make startlingly worse.
Note, by the way, that at this point it's a little difficult to discuss actual budgets: the Democrats have been refusing to pass one since before they lost the House of Representatives.
…things are getting better…
This graph, for those who can't see it, shows the various rates of job recovery after the epicenter of various recessions. Short version: the deepest recession in over seventy years… and a malignantly slower recovery than any in that time period. Note well, by the way: Barack Obama's argument is that he can do less to affect the economy than George W. Bush could. Which is almost true (the reality is, Barack Obama is drastically more incompetent at managing a recovery than Bush was), but would not exactly be a flattering admission even if it was true.
…and Romney will bring us back to disaster.
For that matter, define 'bring us back.' Because we're having one now.
The last part is the most important: putting the emphasis back on the challenger.
But I'll grant Tomasky this: changing the subject is about the only way that Barack Obama can hope to get re-elected. Lord knows that telling the truth on the economy won't help the man.
Moe Lane (crosspost)


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On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.
Breq is both more than she seems and less than she was. Years ago, she was the Justice of Toren--a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of corpse soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.An act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with only one fragile human body. And only one purpose--to revenge herself on Anaander Mianaai, many-bodied, near-immortal Lord of the Radch.
Some of you may know Ann Leckie as the secretary of the SFWA (for a few more days at least). As far as I am aware, this is her first novel so if you haven't read a book by a new author (or a female one) in a while, you might want to check it out. Ancillary Justice will be published by Orbit in October. Sign me up!


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Four members of DR Congo Olympic team go missing after Games in London
The London Olympics came to an end with the Closing Ceremony on Sunday night, but not all members of the Olympic teams are accounted for. According to the Guardian, four members of the Democratic Republic of Congo's Olympic delegation have been missing in London since the weekend.
Among the missing are Cedric Mandembo, a judoka who lost his match in the 100kg category in 49 seconds, and his coach Ibula Masengo, Congo boxing trainer Blaise Bekwa and national technical director of athletics Guy Nkita. The Congolese Olympic Committee says Mandembo disappeared on Sunday evening and has not been answering his cell phone. All four members of the team reportedly left their luggage in the Olympic Village.
Seven Cameroonian athletes including five boxers, a swimmer and a soccer player also went missing during the Olympics. It is believed they are attempting to stay in London for economic reasons, but no details about the four members of the Congolese delegation have been released at this time. While police have been notified about the missing Cameroonians, they technically have until November — when their visas expire — to vacate the country.
As the missing athletes and this unauthorized batch of condoms have reminded us over the past week or so, no Olympic Games are ever totally lacking controversy.


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Thicket™ Family of Source Code Obfuscators
Semantic Designs offers robust technology and a wider variety of language obfuscators than any other company, making us the premier supplier of source code obfuscator tools.
A source code obfuscator accepts a program source file, and generates another functionally equivalent source file which is much harder to understand or reverse-engineer. This is useful for technical protection of intellectual property when:
- source code must be delivered for public execution purposes (with interpretive languages like ECMAScript in web pages)
- commerical components must be delivered in source form for direct integration by a customer into his end product (portable applications in C or PHP etc., code libraries or hardware components coded in Verilog or VHDL)
- sending test cases derived from proprietary code to vendors (code triggering buggy behavior, etc.)
- object code still contains too many clues (such as class public methods used only inside an application, as with Java class files)
Semantic Designs' Obfuscation tools generally strip comments, remove nice indentation and whitespace, encode constants in inconveniently readable ways, and rename identifiers in source (for variables, functions, etc.) from their original (presumably self-explanatory) name to nonsense names that convey no information. A programmer-supplied file controls whether certain names are preserved (to ensure continued access to published external APIs). This makes it straightforward for application development to continue, and yet still easily obfuscate new application versions.
Our obfuscators typically turn small fragments of readable source code (JavaScript example):
for (i=0; i < M.length; i++){ // Adjust position of clock hands var ML=(ns)?document.layers['nsMinutes'+i]:ieMinutes[i].style; ML.top=y[i]+HandY+(i*HandHeight)*Math.sin(min)+scrll; ML.left=x[i]+HandX+(i*HandWidth)*Math.cos(min); }
into this:
for(O79=0;O79<l6x.length;O79++){var O63=(l70)?document.layers["nsM \151\156u\164\145s"+O79]:ieMinutes[O79].style;O63.top=l61[O79]+O76+(O79*O75) *Math.sin(O51)+l73;O63.left=l75[O79]+l77+(O79*l76)*Math.cos(O51);}
It still does exactly the same thing as the original, but it is far more difficult to guess what the variables do. If a thief doesn't know the intended purpose of the variables, he can hardly claim it as his own, let alone modify it in competitive ways. Some names are purposely not scrambled because access to public APIs must be preserved. For most languages (as in this case), indentation and line breaks are removed, to make it that much more inconvenient to analyze. The larger the code, the uglier the obfuscated result gets (see sample codes for language-specific Obfuscators via the corresponding product web page via links below), and it gets correspondingly difficult to reverse engineer.
Warning: obfuscators do not stop reverse-engineering efforts by really determined opponents. In fact, no protection scheme will. Rather, obfuscators are like good locks on bank vaults, in that they stop most thieves because the work is simply too much trouble, and immediately frustrate the amateurs that try. Obfuscation can also help signal your clear legal intent to protect your code; a thief must first actively de-obfuscate it, and that act alone can be used an indicator of his intentions versus those of honest users.
Many conventional obfuscation tools use ad hoc string processing methods to carry out the obfuscation process, or operate on binary files. String processing can sometimes work, but it often fails when multiple statements per line, nested comments, comments around incomplete blocks of code or keywords, obscure language features such as escapes in quoted strings, odd casing conventions for names, etc. are encountered, as they always are in large systems of software. This is because programming languages have complex formation and name resolution rules, and so processing them reliably usually requires a complete language parse, not string hacking. Failure to process the program correctly could produce an obfuscated version that is broken. Binary obfuscators can work quite well, but are generally limited to a standard simple binary formats (e.g., Java class files, not Win32 object files).
The most reliable way to build an obfuscator is to parse the source language according to the source language lexical and syntax rules into compiler-like data structures, carry out the obfuscation, and then unparse back to source text. This ensures that the syntax structures found match those of the language. All of SD's obfuscators are built as extensions of source code formatters, based on DMS's ability to parse and prettyprint source files, and are based on the language definition modules used to drive DMS for large scale software reengineering tasks.
The obfuscator is applied to a set of files at once, and obfuscates them all consistently. Each obfuscator run produces an obfuscation map showing how identifiers were scrambled, as reference, or to ensure that later obfuscations scramble symbols in the same way. This might be used to ship obfuscated source updates to customers.
All SD's obfuscators are designed to operate as command-line style programs, to enable inclusion in scripts used for production purposes. There is a GUI available for initial configuration and operation. Consistent handling of formatting switches and I/O conventions across formatters and obfuscators aid software engineering staff when handling the multiple languages typically used by an organization.
SD's obfuscators are presently available on Windows 2003, XP, or later operating systems.
Available Obfuscators
SD offers a family of obfuscators based on DMS. Presently available are:
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- ECMAScript (JavaScript), including script embedded in HTML, XML, ASP or PHP _
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- C# v5 and v6
- Java v7 and v8
- PHP version 5 _
- SystemC
- SystemVerilog
- Visual Basic 6 (Beta)
- VBScript, including Active Server Pages (Beta)
- Verilog 2012
- VHDL 2002 and 2008
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Custom Obfuscation Options
Semantic Designs can build custom obfuscators with special features:
- FORTRAN or other standard programming languages
- Unusual or custom languages or dialects
- Encryption of literal strings (removes easy clues from binary dumps)
- Program transformations to scramble logic while preserving function
- Watermarks and hidden copyrights


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XT24 & XT48 Fertiliser Spreaders
Dominic Sharpe runs a 200 acre Dairy farm near Roscrea, Co. Tipperary in Ireland, operating a spring and autumn calving system where planning for good grass growth is critical to the success of the business.
Read More
Tomahawk 8555 Dual Chop
"We need to achieve butterfats of over 4%"
James Cossins farms 2,500 acres on the chalk hills around the Tarrant Valley in mid- Dorset. James is the 5th generation of J Cossins & Sons who have been on the farm since 1887. The business is a true family affair with James' wife, son and daughter involved in this large, mixed farming enterprise.
Stephen Clarke and Family became the new owners of a 100-acre farm close to Zorra Station adjacent to the 39th Line at Cody's Corner in 1996. Today Stephen and his son Todd specialise in the production of Turkey's on site with the adjoining land being rented out. The Clarkes along with machinery operator Terry Burke produce 65000 "Tom Turkeys" per year.
Tomahawk 8500
Located in the hills of SW Wisconsin is Glenmar-Dale Farms owned by the Martin Family. This family enterprise is under the stewardship of Brenda, husband Bryan and daughter Becky. Their 270-acre farm is home to the 90 head milking herd plus additional heifers.
Tomahawk 404M 505M 505XLM
Peter Heiniger senior founded the farm in 1977 and his son Peter junior took over the business in 2012. Ferme Bernerhof is a Dairy Farm with 280 head of cattle, 140 in lactation for a production of 180kg/day. Ferme Bernerhof has 400 acres of land where they cultivate corn and hay.
The Wiedrick Family have farmed in locality of Townsend Ontario since 1868, today the seventh generation is focused on the family, investments and long-term future of Mae-Mart Farms Ltd. Under the stewardship of Phillip today and the next generation, his son Marshall they farm 700 acres, run a feed mill seed cleaning business, raise 30,000 pigs and 300,000 chickens per annum.
Nestled in the hills of Loudoun County, Virginia some 54 miles from the Nation's capital reside Wendy and Don Denman. The farm is home to the "Best Barn" in Loudoun County according to Michael Gast their local veterinarian and it seems fitting that the owner also invested in the best machine to bed the barn a Teagle 8500.
Oliver Hoddinott is a specialist broiler grower located close to Wells in Somerset. Mr Hoddinott took over the unit around 7 years ago, with capacity to around 1.5m chickens/yr. in 2014. The farm produces birds under contract, with chicks delivered at 1 day old, and shipped out at 40 days. Oliver adds "revenue depends enormously on quality, with a high productivity being essential.
The Stenager Økogris farm is located in the south west region of Denmark, close to Esbjerg. The farm's principle activity is managing a herd of around 600 sows, finishing over 12,000 pigs a year. The pigs are living on 40 Ha land. To support this over 175 hectares of cereals are grown on the farm.
James Johns farms a herd of 260 high performance Holsteins, as well as 180 acres of maize and 100 acres of cereals with his father Andrew, close to Newquay in England.
Agricultural Cooperative Vsestary (ZD Vsestary) belongs to one of the largest agricultural companies in the Czech Republic, with a cultivated area of around 2200 ha, and a herd of around 550 cows which are primarily Holstein, bred with Brown Swiss stock.
In January 2014 Philip McCartney was selected as the lucky winner of the use for 12 months of a Special Edition Tomahawk 8150 Dual Chop, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Teagle manufacturing the Tomahawk range of Feeder Bedders.
Tomahawk 1010
Beckhithe Farms is a family business and a major player in the UK beef producers scene, 'farming around 3000 Angus cattle on 1700 hectares on the Norfolk Broads for a major retailer, via dedicated processor Dovecote Park.'
Super-ted Swath Conditioner
Alistar Hodnett farms 255 acres in partnership with his father Michael on the outskirts of Dundee.
Norfolk Free Range is owned by Steve Heart and comprises pig units across Norfolk, all certified by Freedom Foods and the CMI Red Tractor.
Streamlining husbandry and using 100 acres less straw.
Maurice and Russell Retallick own a 500 acre sheep and beef farm which perches between 300ft and 1500 ft on Dartmoor; as well as running a Hay and Straw Haulage business which serves Dartmoor and Devon farmers with feed and bedding from farms along the M4 corridor.
In 2006 Teagle Machinery had an enquiry from Christian Missions, Zambia about a Spiromix to help build a Hydro-Electric Scheme.
Turneys Farming is responsible for around 3500 pedigree Holstein/Fresian cows, working in partnership with farms in Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, Dorset and the Isle of White.
Agrocoop Imel' a.s. have a farm with around 800 high performing cows.
Great care is taken over the preparation of the feed commodities, with a focus on particle consistency to ensure that cows do not sort their ration.
AGROPO s.r.o., Zvoncin run a farm of around 1300 hectares and have a dedicated line for manufacturing pellets from straw, of which there is an abundance in the area, which are sold for horse bedding and for burning in boilers.
Simon Watchorn farms over 1000 acres near Bungay in Suffolk, rearing around 320 pigs/week, or 16,000 pigs each year, from over 600 breeding sows.
Andrew Thomas and his family run a mixed farm of around 230 acres just outside Mabe in South West Cornwall; their focus being a high yielding herd of around 130 Holsteins, typically producing over 10,000 litres, and a similar number of young stock.
Paul Whyand operates a breeding herd of 1100 sows and has an eye for detail when it comes to ensuring that the conditions he provides for his herd will provide the best performance.
Charlie and Barbara Wray, Wayside Farm (www.wayside-farm.co.uk), farm right beside the M25 motorway close to Kings Langley in Hertfordshire.
Gordon Ross runs a mixed farm in the West Midlands with around 340 Dairy and Beef cattle.
Adrian Steele runs Chapel Farm, a 440 ha (1,090 acre) organic unit near Pershore in Worcestershire.


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Competition, antitrust and trade
Competition issues are often technically challenging and often involve the risk of very high financial penalties. Our clients tell us that they like our ability to resolve the complexities and deliver clear and pragmatic advice, tailored to their specific circumstances.
We have long-standing experience in defending our clients' international interests. Wherever you're located, you can access our entire range of legal capabilities and sector expertise from any of our offices. Competition law requires strength across the major European jurisdictions. Our pan-European footprint means that we are able to work quickly and efficiently in the jurisdictions you operate in and across borders.


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The Federal Reserve unleashed a huge repositioning in global financial markets, as investors reacted to a world where the U.S. central bank is no longer guaranteeing that its policies will only be dovish – or easy.
The dollar surged the most in a year over a two-day period against a basket of currencies.
Stocks were mixed around the world on Thursday, as were bond markets. Many commodities sold off. The Nasdaq Composite was higher, while the S&P 500 and Dow slid. Tech gained and cyclical stocks fell.
The central bank delivered a strong message Wednesday when Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said officials have discussed tapering bond buying and would at some point decide to begin the process of slowing the purchases. At the same time, Fed officials added two rate hikes to their 2023 forecast, where there were none before.
"It's the end of peak dovishness," said Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Global Advisors. "It's not going hawkish. It's just we're past peak dovishness. This market response is as if they were already tapering."
Not an immediate shock, but volatility ahead
Strategists say the the Fed's slight step toward tightening policy didn't shock markets Wednesday, but it will likely make them volatile going forward. The Fed, in essence, is acknowledging the door is now open to future rate hikes.
It is expected to make a fuller declaration about the bond program later this year, and then within several months start the slow process of bringing $120 billion a month in purchases down to zero.
The yields of shorter-duration Treasurys, like the 2-year note, rose, while longer duration yields, such as the benchmark 10-year fell. That so-called "flattening" is a go-to trade when interest rates rise. The logic is that longer yields fall since the economy may not do as well in the future with higher interest rates, and short-end yields rise to reflect expectations of the Fed raising rates.
U.S. longer-dated Treasurys, like the 10-year, have been lower than many strategists had expected lately. In part, that's because they are highly attractive to foreign buyers due to negative rates in other parts of the world and liquidity in the U.S. markets. The 10-year yield shot to 1.59% after the Fed news, but was back down at 1.5% Thursday afternoon. Yields move opposite price.
Commodities-related stocks, like energy names and materials shares, were down sharply Thursday afternoon. Of the S&P 500's major sectors, energy was the worst performing, down 3.5%, and materials were off about 2.2%.
"It's a massive flattening of the yield curve. It's an interest rate trade, and it's the belief the Fed is going to slow growth," said Boockvar. "So sell commodities, sell cyclicals… and in a slow growing economy people want to buy growth. It's all happening in two days. It's just a lot of rewinds."
Boockvar said the curve flattening has been happening swiftly, too. For instance, the spread between the 5-year yield and 30-year bond yield quickly compressed, moving from 140 basis points to 118 basis points within two days.
"You're watching an incredible unwind of positioning in the bond market. I don't think people thought the Fed would do it," said Rick Rieder, CIO global fixed income at BlackRock.
"We thought the flattening trade was the right move when we saw some of the news out of the Fed. That was something we jumped on pretty quickly. I have to say we're letting some Treasurys go into this rally," Rieder said on CNBC.
For stock investors, the shift in cyclical stocks goes against a trade that has been popular as the economy reopened. Financial stocks fell on the flatter yield curve, but REITs were slightly higher. Technology stocks were up 1.2%, and health care gained 0.8%.
"The implication is higher stock market volatility, which I think we're going to have and going to continue to have," said Julian Emanuel, head of equity and derivatives strategy at BTIG. "Yesterday changed things. This whole idea of data dependency – the market is going to trade it like crazy, particularly given the fact that the public participation remains very elevated and the stocks the public is most interested in are high multiple growth stocks that have been leading the last several weeks as the bond market remained range bound."
Even as Powell acknowledged inflation was higher than the Fed expected, the central bank also pressed its message that inflationary pressures could be temporary. The Fed's boosted its forecast for core inflation to 3% for this year but was at just 2.1% for next year, in its latest projections. Powell used the example of the rise and fall of lumber prices to illustrate his view that inflation will not be long lasting.
But Emanuel said it will be difficult to tell whether inflation is fleeting or not, and the economy's emergence from the pandemic has been difficult to predict. "Whether it's the Fed or paid economists on the sell side, or paid economists on the buy side, the ability to measure what's going on in the economy is really nothing more than…educated guess work at this point because the statistics are just all over the place," said Emanuel, adding inflation readings have all been hotter than expected.
He expects the market will trade in a range for now, with the bottom at 4,050 on the S&P 500, and the top at 4,250. The S&P 500 closed at 4,221 Thursday, down just 1 point. The Dow was of f0.6% at 33,823, and the Nasdaq was higher by 0.9% at 14,161.
The late July Fed meeting now looms large, and that could add even more volatility as investors wait to see if the Fed will provide more details on tapering after that meeting. Many economists expect the Fed to use its annual Jackson Hole symposium in late August as a forum to lay out its plan for the bond program.
The bond purchases, or quantitative easing, were begun as the economy shut down last year as a way to provide liquidity to markets. The Fed purchases $80 billion in Treasurys and $40 billion in mortgage securities each month. Rieder expects the Fed could slow purchases by $20 billion a month once it starts the tapering. Once the Fed gets to zero, it could then consider when to raise interest rates.
The market expectations for rate hikes have moved forward, and the euro dollar futures market now sees four rate hikes by the end of 2023, according to Marc Chandler of Bannockburn Global Forex. Prior to the Fed's announcement Wednesday, futures showed expectations for about 2.5 rate hikes.
Strategist expect some of the Fed reaction is just temporary, and reflects investors who were too far offsides in some positions. "I'm still a commodities bull," said Boockvar. Commodities had already begun falling ahead of the Fed announcement, after China announced plans to release metals reserves.
"The Fed needed to reign in the inflation story. They did it only very very slightly, but at least they accomplished it, and they've squeezed out inflation expectations and they've seen a pullback," he said. "The question is can they through. To raise rates in two years or baby step tapering is not going to do it, but at least for two days they've succeeded in calming things down."
The dollar index was up 0.8% Thursday afternoon, about the same as Wednesday's move.
Chandler said the dollar move could also be a temporary adjustment and not part of a much bigger move. The dollar index's gain largely reflect the dollar's move against the euro, weaker as the European Central Bank continues to sound dovish.
"Norway signaled [Thursday] that they are going to hike rates in September and yet the dollar rallied against Norway. I think what happened yesterday set off a new wave of positioning in the currencies…If it's not done it's nearly done," he said.
The biggest component of the dollar index basket is the euro. "The correction is long in the tooth. It began in late May. That's when the euro put in its last high," said Chandler.


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This is a talk given at the Nassau Club in Princeton by Chris Hedges, former New York Times Middle East bureau chief:
Israel, without the United States, would probably not exist. The country came perilously close to extinction during the October 1973 war when Egypt, trained and backed by the Soviet Union, crossed the Suez Canal and the Syrians poured in over the Golan Heights. Huge American military transport planes came to the rescue.
They began landing every half-hour to refit the battered Israeli army, which had lost most of its heavy armor. By the time the war as over, the United States had given Israel $2.2 billion in emergency military aid. The intervention, which enraged the Arab world, triggered the OPEC oil embargo that for a time wreaked havoc on Western economies. This was perhaps the most dramatic example of the sustained life-support system the United States has provided to the Jewish state.
Israel was born at midnight May 14, 1948. The U.S. Recognized the new state 11 minutes later. The two countries have been locked in a deadly embrace ever since.Washington, at the beginning of the relationship, was able to be a moderating influence. An incensed President Eisenhower demanded and got Israel's withdrawal after the Israelis occupied Gaza in 1956.
During the Six-Day War in 1967, Israeli warplanes bombed the USS Liberty. The ship, flying the U.S. Flag and stationed 15 miles off the Israeli coast, was intercepting tactical and strategic communications from both sides. The Israeli strikes killed 34 U.S. Sailors and wounded 171.
The deliberate attack froze, for a while, Washington's enthusiasm for Israel. But ruptures like this one proved to be only bumps, soon smoothed out by an increasingly sophisticated and well-financed Israel lobby that set out to merge Israel and American foreign policy in the Middle East.
Israel has reaped tremendous rewards from this alliance. It has been given more than $140 billion in U.S. Direct economic and military assistance. It receives about $3 billion in direct assistance annually, roughly one-fifth of the U.S. Foreign aid budget. Although most American foreign aid packages stipulate that related military purchases have to be made in the United States, Israel is allowed to use about 25 percent of the money to subsidize its own growing and profitable defense industry. It is exempt, unlike other nations, from accounting for how it spends the aid money.
And funds are routinely siphoned off to build new Jewish settlements, bolster the Israeli occupation in the Palestinian territories and construct the security barrier, which costs an estimated $1 million a mile.The barrier weaves its way through the West Bank, creating isolated pockets of impoverished Palestinians in ringed ghettos. By the time the barrier is finished it will probably in effect seize up to 40 percent of Palestinian land. This is the largest land grab by Israel since the 1967 war. And although the United States officially opposes settlement expansion and the barrier, it also funds them.
The U.S. Has provided Israel with nearly $3 billion to develop weapons systems and given Israel access to some of the most sophisticated items in its own military arsenal, including Blackhawk attack helicopters and F-16 fighter jets. The United States also gives Israel access to intelligence it denies to its NATO allies. And when Israel refused to sign the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, the United States stood by without a word of protest as the Israelis built the region's first nuclear weapons program.
U.S. Foreign policy, especially under the current Bush administration, has become little more than an extension of Israeli foreign policy. The United States since 1982 has vetoed 32 Security Council resolutions critical of Israel, more than the total number of vetoes cast by all the other Security Council members. It refuses to enforce the Security Council resolutions it claims to support. These resolutions call on Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories.
There is now volcanic anger and revulsion by Arabs at this blatant favoritism. Few in the Middle East see any distinction between Israeli and American policies, nor should they. And when the Islamic radicals speak of U.S. Support of Israel as a prime reason for their hatred of the United States, we should listen. The consequences of this one-sided relationship are being played out in the disastrous war in Iraq, growing tension with Iran, and the humanitarian and political crisis in Gaza. It is being played out in Lebanon, where Hezbollah is gearing up for another war with Israel, one most Middle East analysts say is inevitable.
The U.S. Foreign policy in the Middle East is unraveling. And it is doing so because of this special relationship. The eruption of a regional conflict would usher in a nightmare of catastrophic proportions.
There were many in the American foreign policy establishment and State Department who saw this situation coming. The decision to throw our lot in with Israel in the Middle East was not initially a popular one with an array of foreign policy experts, including President Harry Truman's secretary of state, Gen. George Marshall. They warned there would be a backlash. They knew the cost the United States would pay in the oil-rich region for this decision, which they feared would be one of the greatest strategic blunders of the postwar era. And they were right.
The decision has jeopardized American and Israeli security and created the kindling for a regional conflagration.The alliance, which makes no sense in geopolitical terms, does makes sense when seen through the lens of domestic politics. The Israel lobby has become a potent force in the American political system. No major candidate, Democrat or Republican, dares to challenge it. The lobby successfully purged the State Department of Arab experts who challenged the notion that Israeli and American interests were identical. Backers of Israel have doled out hundreds of millions of dollars to support U.S. political candidates deemed favorable to Israel.
They have brutally punished those who strayed, including the first President Bush, who they said was not vigorous enough in his defense of Israeli interests. This was a lesson the next Bush White House did not forget.George W. Bush did not want to be a one-term president like his father. Israel advocated removing Saddam Hussein from power and currently advocates striking Iran to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons. Direct Israeli involvement in American military operations in the Middle East is impossible. It would reignite a war between Arab states and Israel.
The United States, which during the Cold War avoided direct military involvement in the region, now does the direct bidding of Israel while Israel watches from the sidelines. During the 1991 Gulf War, Israel was a spectator, just as it is in the war with Iraq.President Bush, facing dwindling support for the war in Iraq, publicly holds Israel up as a model for what he would like Iraq to become. Imagine how this idea plays out on the Arab street, which views Israel as the Algerians viewed the French colonizers during the war of liberation.'In Israel,' Bush said recently, 'terrorists have taken innocent human life for years in suicide attacks. The difference is that Israel is a functioning democracy and it's not prevented from carrying out its responsibilities. And that's a good indicator of success that we're looking for in Iraq.'
Americans are increasingly isolated and reviled in the world. They remain blissfully ignorant of their own culpability for this isolation. U.S. 'spin' paints the rest of the world as unreasonable, but Israel, Americans are assured, will always be on our side.Israel is reaping economic as well as political rewards from its lock-down apartheid state.
In the 'gated community' market it has begun to sell systems and techniques that allow the nation to cope with terrorism. Israel, in 2006, exported $3.4 billion in defense products — well over a billion dollars more than it received in American military aid. Israel has grown into the fourth largest arms dealer in the world. Most of this growth has come in the so-called homeland security sector.'The key products and services,' as Naomi Klein wrote in The Nation, 'are hi-tech fences, unmanned drones, biometric IDs, video and audio surveillance gear, air passenger profiling and prisoner interrogation systems-precisely the tools and technologies Israel has used to lock in the occupied territories.
And that is why the chaos in Gaza and the rest of the region doesn't threaten the bottom line in Tel Aviv, and may actually boost it. Israel has learned to turn endless war into a brand asset, pitching its uprooting, occupation and containment of the Palestinian people as a half-century head start in the 'global war on terror.' 'The United States, at least officially, does not support the occupation and calls for a viable Palestinian state. It is a global player, with interests that stretch well beyond the boundaries of the Middle East, and the equation that Israel's enemies are our enemies is not that simple.'Terrorism is not a single adversary,' John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt wrote in The London Review of Books, 'but a tactic employed by a wide array of political groups. The terrorist organizations that threaten Israel do not threaten the United States, except when it intervenes against them (as in Lebanon in 1982).
Moreover, Palestinian terrorism is not random violence directed against Israel or 'the West'; it is largely a response to Israel's prolonged campaign to colonize the West Bank and Gaza Strip. More important, saying that Israel and the US are united by a shared terrorist threat has the causal relationship backwards: the US has a terrorism problem in good part because it is so closely allied with Israel, not the other way around.'Middle Eastern policy is shaped in the United States by those with very close ties to the Israel lobby in many cases with dual citizenship.
Those who attempt to counter the virulent Israeli position, such as former Secretary of State Colin Powell, are ruthlessly slapped down. This alliance was true also during the Clinton administration, with its array of Israeli-first Middle East experts, including special Middle East coordinator Dennis Ross and Martin Indyk, the former deputy director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, AIPAC, one of the most powerful Israel lobbying groups in Washington. But at least people like Indyk and Ross are sane, willing to consider a Palestinian state, however unviable, as long as it is palatable to Israel.
The Bush administration turned to the far-right wing of the Israel lobby, those who have not a shred of compassion for the Palestinians or a word of criticism for Israel. These new Middle East experts include Elliott Abrams, John Bolton, Douglas Feith, the disgraced I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz and David Wurmser.Washington was once willing to stay Israel's hand. It intervened to thwart some of its most extreme violations of human rights. This administration, however, has signed on for every disastrous Israeli blunder, from building the security barrier in the West Bank, to sealing off Gaza and triggering a humanitarian crisis, to the ruinous invasion and saturation bombing of Lebanon.The few tepid attempts by the Bush White House to criticize Israeli actions have all ended in hasty and humiliating retreats in the face of Israeli pressure.
When the Israel Defense Forces in April 2002 reoccupied the West Bank, President Bush called on then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to 'halt the incursions and begin withdrawal.' It never happened. After a week of heavy pressure from the Israel lobby and Israel's allies in Congress, meaning just about everyone in Congress, the president gave up, calling Sharon 'a man of peace.'
It was a humiliating moment for the United Sates, a clear sign of who pulled the strings.There were several reasons for the war in Iraq. The desire for American control of oil, the belief that Washington could build puppet states in the region, and a real, if misplaced, fear of Saddam Hussein played a part in the current disaster. But it was also strongly shaped by the notion that what is good for Israel is good for the United States.
Israel wanted Iraq neutralized. Israeli intelligence, in the lead-up to the war, gave faulty information to the U.S. about Iraq's alleged arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. And when Baghdad was taken in April 2003, the Israeli government immediately began to push for an attack on Syria.
The lust for this attack has waned, in no small part because the Americans don't have enough troops to hang on in Iraq, much less launch a new occupation.Israel is currently lobbying the United States to launch aerial strikes on Iran, despite the debacle in Lebanon. Israel's iron determination to forcibly prevent a nuclear Iran makes it probable that before the end of the Bush administration an attack on Iran will take place.
The efforts to halt nuclear development through diplomatic means have failed. It does not matter that Iran poses no threat to the United States. It does not matter that it does not even pose a threat to Israel, which has several hundred nuclear weapons in its arsenal. It matters only that Israel demands total military domination of the Middle East.
The alliance between Israel and the United States has culminated after 50 years in direct U.S. military involvement in the Middle East. This involvement, which is not furthering American interests, is unleashing a geopolitical nightmare. American soldiers and Marines are dying in droves in a useless war. The impotence of the United States in the face of Israeli pressure is complete. The White House and the Congress have become, for perhaps the first time, a direct extension of Israeli interests. There is no longer any debate within the United States. This is evidenced by the obsequious nods to Israel by all the current presidential candidates with the exception of Dennis Kucinich.
The political cost for those who challenge Israel is too high.This means there will be no peaceful resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It means the incidents of Islamic terrorism against the U.S. and Israel will grow. It means that American power and prestige are on a steep, irreversible decline. And I fear it also means the ultimate end of the Jewish experiment in the Middle East.The weakening of the United States, economically and militarily, is giving rise to new centers of power.
The U.S. economy, mismanaged and drained by the Iraq war, is increasingly dependent on Chinese trade imports and on Chinese holdings of U.S. Treasury securities. China holds dollar reserves worth $825 billion. If Beijing decides to abandon the U.S. bond market, even in part, it would cause a free fall by the dollar. It would lead to the collapse of the $7-trillion U.S. real estate market. There would be a wave of U.S. bank failures and huge unemployment.
The growing dependence on China has been accompanied by aggressive work by the Chinese to build alliances with many of the world's major exporters of oil, such as Iran, Nigeria, Sudan and Venezuela. The Chinese are preparing for the looming worldwide clash over dwindling resources.The future is ominous. Not only do Israel's foreign policy objectives not coincide with American interests, they actively hurt them.
The growing belligerence in the Middle East, the calls for an attack against Iran, the collapse of the imperial project in Iraq have all given an opening, where there was none before, to America's rivals. It is not in Israel's interests to ignite a regional conflict. It is not in ours. But those who have their hands on the wheel seem determined, in the name of freedom and democracy, to keep the American ship of state headed at breakneck speed into the cliffs before us.
Chris Hedges
Princeton University
May 22, 2008


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Solder slug pellets offer a pre-measured amount of solder with a rosin core designed to fit inside of your closed end lug or terminal. By heating the connector with a torch the solder slug pellet will melt and flow, ready for simple insertion of your stripped cable. The solder slugs are color coded to match the common color coding used on the lugs as follows:
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- 4 awg - Gray
- 6 awg - Gray
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Last Updated on May 24, 2015
From an information security perspective, November has been a month with two faces. The first part of the month has been characterized by hacktivism, nevertheless the Cyber Crime has reached an unprecedented level with the 69% of occurrences.
Let us begin with the Daily Trend chart. This chart confirms the influence of cyber attacks motivated by hacktivism in the first half of the month that explain the peak around the 5th of November.
Despite the peak of attacks motivated by hacktivism occurred in the first half of the November, the Motivations Behind Attacks chart confirms the predominance of Cyber Crime with nearly the 69% of occurrences, followed by Hacktivism with the 28%. This growing trend of Cyber Crime is in line with the previous months even if the frequency has reached an unprecedented value (the higher so far).
Also in November, the Distribution Of Attack Techniques Chart confirms the predominance of SQL Injection. Nearly one attack on two has been carried on with this technique. It is also interesting to notice the presence of DNS Poisoning: November has brought three attacks executed with this method.
The Distribution Of Targets chart shows the preference of cyber-crooks for targets belonging to the Industry sector. Even if the difference with governmental targets is only one point (19% against 18%), this is in contrast with the previous month where the ranks were exactly opposed (governmental targets led the chart with the 31%). Educational targets are "stable" at the 11% (were the 13% during the previous month). Curiously this month has registered a peak of attacks against Torrent sites.
As usual, no need to remind that the sample must be taken very carefully since it refers only to discovered attacks included in the November Cyber Attacks Timeline (the so-called tip of the iceberg), and hence it does not pretend to be exhaustive but only aims to provide an high level overview of the "cyber landscape".
If you want to have an idea of how fragile our data are inside the cyberspace, have a look at the timelines of the main Cyber Attacks in 2011 and 2012 (regularly updated), at the Cyber Attack Statistics, and follow @paulsparrows on Twitter for the latest updates.
Also, feel free to submit remarkable incidents that in your opinion deserve to be included in the timelines (and charts).
Related articles
- 1-15 November 2012 Cyber Attacks Statistics (hackmageddon.com)
- October 2012 Cyber Attacks Statistics (hackmageddon.com)


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Whosoever shall not confess that the flesh of the Lord giveth life and that it pertains to the Word of God the Father as his very own, but shall pretend that it belongs to another person who is united to him [i.e., the Word] only according to honour, and who has served as a dwelling for the divinity; and shall not rather confess, as we say, that that flesh giveth life because it is that of the Word who giveth life to all: let him be anathema.
If any one maintains that the flesh which is united with God the Word is by the power of its own nature life-giving, whereas the Lord himself says, "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing" (St. John vi. 61), let him be anathema. [He adds, "God is a Spirit" (St. John iv. 24). If, then, any one maintains that God the Logos has in a carnal manner, in his substance, become flesh, and persists in this with reference to the Lord Christ; who himself after his resurrection said to his disciples, "Handle me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye behold me having" (St. Luke xxiv. 39); let him be anathema.]
The part enclosed in brackets is certainly a spurious addition and is wanting in many manuscripts. Cf. Marius Mercator [ed. Migne], p. 919.
St. Cyril.
(Declaratio undecima.)
We perform in the churches the holy, lifegiving, and unbloody sacrifice; the body, as also the precious blood, which is exhibited we believe not to be that of a common man and of any one like unto us, but receiving it rather as his own body and as the blood of the Word which gives all things life. For common flesh cannot give life. And this our Saviour himself testified when he said: "The flesh profiteth nothing, it is the Spirit that giveth life." For since the flesh became the very own of the Word, therefore we understand that it is lifegiving, as the Saviour himself said: "As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me shall live by me." Since therefore Nestorius and those who think with him rashly dissolve the power of this mystery; therefore it was convenient that this anathematism should be put forth.
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Ann-Sophie Reinelt turned down two other job offers to take the helm of TRUMPF's intrapreneurship program "Internehmertum". "The idea struck me as exciting and interesting right from the start," says the 30-year-old innovation manager. Today, one year after the project started, she is more convinced than ever of its merits, and she clearly enjoys her benevolent role heading up the initiative. The TRUMPF intrapreneurship program helps employees develop their own ideas into business models. "The basic goal is to give employees the time and space they need to pursue and validate new ideas that have real potential. What matters to TRUMPF is that they look at the big picture and take a holistic, entrepreneurial approach that goes well beyond their normal job," says Ann-Sophie Reinelt. The first round kicked off in October 2017. Reinelt is now getting ready for the third phase of the project, which begins this October.
The Internehmertum initiative is open to all TRUMPF employees. It starts with a call for proposals on the intranet, which is when potential candidates are free to submit their ideas. An interdisciplinary committee then selects the teams that will form part of the next round of Internehmertum. "Each round involves approximately three to five teams each comprising at least two members. They are given 30 days within an overall period of three months to get their project off the ground," says Reinelt. The innovators are allowed to use 50 percent of their working hours and are given a budget which they can decide how to spend: "That's something I see as very important. I argued from the start that every participant should be able to make their own decisions on how to invest their budget. The only approval they need is from the other members of the team – so that means they can act like a real start-up," says Reinelt. The "intrepreneurs" can basically buy whatever they want and need: from a TV set for a presentation to tools, market studies and indeed anything else that makes their work easier.
Loosen your tie and get creative
Every project is different, but the underlying structure of the individual project cycles remains the same. Ann-Sophie Reinelt explains how it works: "We kick off with an intensive week that is designed to help the participants engage with the project. That's important, because the Internehmertum initiative is quite different from other types of work at TRUMPF. To really get into that start-up mood, you often get people switching from a shirt to a T-shirt," says Reinelt with a smile. The teams attend additional one-week intensive stages before their interim and final presentations, says Reinelt: "And for the rest of the time the participants spend two days a week with me in Ludwigsburg. Those are the days on which we run coaching sessions and offer the participants whatever support they need. We made a conscious decision to rent offices at the urbanharbor facility to give people the distance they need from their normal jobs in Ditzingen.
The participants can use the spaces at urbanharbor any time they want. I make sure they can focus entirely on their project by shielding them from red tape and any other hassles."
Succeeding by taking risks
The projects up to now have been highly diverse, ranging from digitalization and services to Industry 4.0. One successful spin-off has already emerged from the first round of Internehmertum, says Reinelt: "It's a start-up based around quantum technology. The employees are now the managing directors, so they can keep pursuing their original idea. TRUMPF is also in the process of examining an additional project from the second round to see if it, too, merits a spin-off." Just like any other start-up, there is no guarantee of success in an Internehmertum project. "Obviously things can go wrong. But it's a risk worth taking. It's fantastic to see TRUMPF becoming more and more courageous, because that inspires the participants all the more!"


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Department of Extension Education (DEE)
Dr. Kalpana Venugopal
Professor and Head
Department of Extension Education (DEE) is one of the departments of the Institute which basically focuses on all activities related to the in- service programmes of the institute excluding all other pre-service programmes of the Institute. In terms of the structure it has a Head who is supported by different State Coordinators for different states. It has State Coordinators for Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Lakshadweep and Puducherry. Every State Coordinator keeps in touch with the State Education departments and liaisons in between RIE Mysuru, NCERT and the State. In terms of different functions of the Department of Extension Education, mainly it has responsibility of identifying and collecting the State Educational Needs from all the States and the Union Territories and to enable the institute in converting these needs into programs, programs into activities and there by the needs of the States are addressed.
The State Coordination Committee is a very important activity of the Department of Extension Education. Every State has a State Coordination Committee headed by the Principal Secretary of Education Department in the respective States. The Principal of RIE Mysuru is the member convener of the committee. All the State Level Educational Functionaries, the Heads of different Education Departments are the members. The Head of the Department of the Extension Education and the respective State Coordinators are also the members of the State Coordination Committee. Normally the State Coordination Committee meets once a year. Initially the State Coordinator visits the State and discusses with the Educational Authorities about their needs and these needs would be brought back to the Institution, consolidated, refined and it would be taken up in the State Coordination Committee meetings for later discussions. In the State Coordination Committee meetings all the Departmental Heads of the Educational Departments share their concerns about their needs for the support from the RIE Mysuru. They would eventually be condensed and few doable programs would be proposed by the Principal Secretary, Education. With this the needs of the States are finalized by the State. Then these needs would be discussed with the different Heads of the Departments of the Institution, who in turn would share it with their faculty members thus convert them into program proposals.
These proposals would then be subjected before the departmental level scrutiny and put it up before Institute Advisory Board (IAB). The IAB is headed by the Principal of RIEM and different Educationists, all the State Coordinators, the Head DEE and the senior faculty of the Institute are the members of the IAB. A nominee from the Director and the Head PMD of the NCERT would also be the members of the committee. The Programmes prepared by the different Coordinators in the Institute would be presented in the IAB and based on the suggestions and recommendations they would further be refined. Then these refined programmes would be put up before the highest body of the Institute called the Management Committee (MC). The Management Committee is a committee headed by the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Mysuru, who is the Chairperson of the Management Committee and the Principal of the Institute would be the member convener of the committee. The representatives from all the States and Union Territories and the nominated members apart from the Institutional faculty, the Head, DEE and the State Coordinators comprise the Management Committee apart from the Administrative Officer of the institute and the Accounts Officer. In the Management committee all issues related to the management of the institution primarily focusing on the extension Education would be discussed where all the refined proposals after the IAB would also be presented and they would be subjected to another level of scrutiny. Based on the suggestions given in the Management Committee, the program proposals would further be chiseled out and refined and then would be ready for the Program Advisory Committee (PAC) of the NCERT.
The Program Advisory Committee of the NCERT is the highest body to consider all the programmes of the in-service activities of the Council. PAC is headed by the Director, NCERT. The PAC proposal meetings would be held once a year for a period of nearly 3-days where all the programme proposals prepared by all the constituent units of the NCERT would be presented and they would be discussed for their possible inclusion or exclusion. The decision of the PAC is final with regard to the activities that different institutions will have to take. PAC also approves the budgetary provisions. Once the budget is allocated to different institutions, different proposals will have to apportioned within the budget and carry out the program the next year. This is the mechanism used by the institution in converting the State needs into programmes. Apart from these there are many other activities other than all other pre-service programmes which would be undertaken by the Department of Extension Education. It also conducts several Extension Lecture Series by eminent personalities who would be able to inspire the students and the faculty alike on different concerns. Thus, it facilitates all Extension related activities of the institution in linking itself to different States and Union Territories of the country and undertaking several activities of the institution other than the pre-service programmes of the institution. This acts as an important link between institution and the States.
Faculty of Department of Extension Education (DEE)- click here
State Co-ordinators of DEE
Prof P Harinath - Andhrapradesh
Prof V Prasad - Kerala & Lakshadweep
Dr Chandranna - Telangana
Dr TV Somashekar - Karnataka
Dr Suresh Kumar - Tamilnadu & Puducherry


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Males more considerate than imagined
Male worms plug females after copulation as a form of 'gift', rather than to prevent them from mating again, as had previously been thought. Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access journal Frontiers in Zoology found that plugged females mated just as often and were just as attractive as those who were unplugged, and that plugging ultimately improved female fitness.
Nadine Timmermeyer worked with a team of researchers from the University of Tuebingen, Germany, to investigate the effects of copulatory plugs in the nematode worm Caenorhabditis remanei. She said, "Our results indicate that plugging neither affects the likelihood that a female is located by males, nor whether or not mating ensues. However, we found that plugging has a significant positive effect on egg production, suggesting that plugs may represent a beneficial act of a male towards its female partner rather than a competitive act between males".
Mating plugs have been documented for a broad range of animal groups, including insects, arachnids, reptiles, and rodents. In the worms studied, plugs consist of gelatinous mass deposited by the male onto the female's vulva at the end of copulation, which then hardens like glue. Speaking about possible ways that such a seal may benefit both males and females, Timmermeyer said "A plug may act as a seal, keeping sperm inside the female and preventing the entry of harmful pathogens. It may also contain substances that stimulate the female, or that have nutritious or antimicrobial properties".