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[Illustration: "Wolfman" © 2006 by B. Lloyd.]
Dwelis Spurnfit exited the tower of the Order of the Watch and looked up at the night sky. His long, brown hair swayed with a passing breeze. It was cold and coming from the north. Soon the snows will cover the land, he thought.
The last embers of dusk glowed, low on the horizon, and stars appeared in its wake. He slung saddlebags over his mount, Loth, and prepared for the night's patrol of the woods that surrounded the tower. The tower itself, a large structure of solid rock standing taller than a giant, overlooked much of the Split Land. This was where the knights surveyed the land for any trouble that might be seen.
Dwelis looked to the two brothers who were also preparing for the patrol. Chaltin Locke stood as tall and as proud as his brother Welthin, although the two could not be more different. Chaltin was always clowning around, and as knights in training had often gotten the three of them many detentions.
His brother, Welthin, was the opposite. Quiet and reserved, he calculated every movement and observed every detail.
The three knights had entered training together from the town of Thistlehorn, a day's ride southeast from the Castle of the Order. Their training in combat and the codes of the knights made the three almost inseparable over the years. Now, among the two siblings, Dwelis couldn't help but feel like a brother with them. He looked forward to the patrol this evening with the two men he admired most, even though they would be patrolling different areas.
"Any signs of trouble?" asked Welthin.
"No trouble in the reports from the day patrol, just a band of merchants seeking shelter within the forest," replied Dwelis.
Chaltin and Welthin mounted their horses and the three set off. Chaltin went to the north. Dwelis went to the south and Welthin went to the west. They bid farewell and safe travel and then the trees swallowed each of them.
The massive trees stood some fifty feet high and were several arms' lengths around. The forest was tightly packed, and after only a few minutes of riding into the woods Dwelis could no longer see the tower.
For several miles he rode, noticing the soft ground of leaves and moss. This reminded Dwelis of earlier times. As a boy he would come hiking into this forest and would often wander across a knight on patrol. It was after talking with one of those knights and being enamored of the shiny armor and the way in which the knight spoke, with care and honor, that he decided that this was the calling for him.
He shook his head and brought himself back to reality. He had been daydreaming of times gone by and barely noticed that the evening had turned to night and that a mist was slowly winding its way through the forest. It crept around trees and drowned them in a translucent gray film.
I must be more alert, he thought. It would not do for a knight to be taken upon unawares. Then he thought of what Chaltin would say to him, most likely calling him a day-dreaming schoolgirl, and he let out a little chuckle.
"Good thing it's just the two of us here, right Loth?" The horse flicked an ear in response.
The night waned on and the moon illuminated the mist to give it a silvery sheen. It made the trees appear to float on a satiny sea. The lush forest smells opened up in the water-saturated atmosphere and lightened Dwelis's heart. He loved the forest and was studying to become an expert in woods lore.
Loth stopped suddenly, laying back his ears and snorting. Dwelis scanned the forest. He could hear nothing but held a great respect for the horse's sense of intuition. Something was here, but he could not see it.
"What do you see, boy?" he said, pulling his sword out. It shone in the moonlight, as if it had an internal glow lit by a hundred candles. He moved Loth around in circles, trying to see what was happening. He could feel it now too — the sadness, foreboding, and power. It was coming closer, but from where?
He wheeled around faster, scanning the area. Then, suddenly, Loth reared back. If Dwelis hadn't been holding the reins as tightly as he was, he surely would have fallen off. The horse snorted and began to charge, yet the knight could not see anything. No sooner had Loth charged than he skidded to a halt. Dwelis felt like a rag doll taken along for the ride. "Loth! What are you doing? Why do you charge? What do you see?"
The horse lowered its head and Dwelis could see now what the horse had charged at. A faint, female, elven figure with long, golden hair and wispy, pink and red robes was stroking Loth's nose.
"Do not fear me, great knight. I mean you no harm," the woman said.
"Who are you?" he demanded. Then, remembering his station, said, "I'm a knight of the Order of the Watch, charged with protecting this forest. State your business."
The elven woman looked at him with a sadness that Dwelis had never seen. A power existed in the creature that he would never understand; that much he was sure of. Her eyes called to him, daring him to see what she did, to understand what she had witnessed in the lifetimes that she had walked this forest.
He shook his head. "I said, State your business here!"
"Put your sword away, knight. It will do you no good against me, and even if it could, I do not wish to engage you in combat," she said. Her voice was silky and wonderful to his ears. "I have found you for a reason. Normally, I don't make myself known to any in these woods. As you have been given a charge of duty, so have I." She walked away from Loth, giving him a final smooth stroke on the nose. Dwelis could see, knowing the horse so well, that Loth was in heaven. He started to follow the ethereal elf until the knight halted him.
"What is your charge here?" the knight said. He had put away his sword without quite realizing it. He felt somewhat defenseless now and started to reach for his sword again.
"Please. I mean you no harm, Sir knight. Unfortunately, I have done a regrettable deed and am in need of your assistance."
"Who are you?" Dwelis asked.
"I am known by many as a windwalker." Indeed, the name did fit. Dwelis could see that a slight breeze caressed the elf's golden mane and gently billowed her translucent pink and red robes. "In my living days my name was Ontari-Kan." She looked sadly at the ground. "But those days are gone now."
Dwelis felt a deep, burning desire to know what had befallen this beautiful creature. "What happened to you, lady?"
Ontari-Kan snapped her eyes up to the knight. She had not been called a lady for many, many years and it caught her ear and brought a little smile to her full lips. "I died here more than eight-hundred and fifty seasons ago. I was sent out to protect these woods much like you do today. However, I was here to protect the forest from man and monster, whereas you protect men from the forest and the creatures that may lie within.
Loth had moved close to the elf, wanting to be stroked more. She smiled and started to rub the horse's nose.
"I have not spoken to a human since the druids walked this land. Now I have spoken to two this very night. Hopefully, both will not be in vain."
"What is this bad deed that you speak of?" Dwelis said. He got off his horse and stomped his feet, bringing the blood back. He no longer felt that this woman was a threat to him.
Ontari-Kan sighed and looked at the forest floor. "I was trying to help. I thought that after all these years of making sure the woods were protected that it was time that I could help man. After all, I hadn't seen any human hurt the woods in many years. Although I hadn't seen many people in this forest." She sighed again. "I led a group of merchants, early this morning, to a good, clear area so that they may rest." She looked up and into Dwelis's eyes. "One of their guards was hurt and he needed to rest. I was only trying to help," she said, imploring him to believe her. He motioned for her to continue, truly believing that she spoke the truth.
"I left the merchants to themselves but returned a while later to make sure the woods were safe. As I feared, the woods were in jeopardy." She gave a sob and turned her back to the knight. He could only feel a sense of pity for her. Something grave had happened this day and he could see that Ontari-Kan felt responsible.
Dwelis tried to put a comforting hand on the elf's shoulder but his hand passed right through her incorporeal form. She half turned, looking up at him. "I will show you. Come." She motioned for him to follow as she walked through the trees to the North.
The knight followed Ontari-Kan through the woods for a short ways. He did not expect to see what he did. The sight took his breath away and immediately he drew his sword, scanning the area for any danger, anything that might still be alive that could have done this.
The clearing held two covered wagons, and three fire pits lay smoldering near them. Ten bodies, twisted in different death throes, lay strewn about the campsite like cattle after a tornado. Pools of blood lay near most. Dwelis dismounted his horse and walked through the dead. He could tell that a great battle was fought here. Swords lay broken and cracked, much like the skulls of the men.
A cough rang out through the merchant's campsite like a thunderbolt. Dwelis spun about, finding the source of the noise underneath one of the wagons. Quickly he went over and crawled under the wagon, opening his flask and pouring water into the mouth of a bloodied man. The man's eyes fluttered once and he spit the water back up. He grabbed onto Dwelis, then his eyes rolled back in his head and his soul slowly left him to find peace elsewhere. What could possibly have done this to ten armed men, he wondered.
Dwelis backed out from under the covered wagon. Turning, he said to the elf, "What did you do?"
Ontari-Kan was sobbing and looking at all the dead. "I made a mistake," she said. "I offered this place for the men to rest and left. When I returned, to check on their wounded, I saw that they were cutting down trees. I became enraged and quickly left in search of a kistiani that I knew was in the area. I told it where the camp was and…" She looked back into his eyes again. "I knew in that moment that I had done something that I would regret for as long as I am able to walk in this wood. I have put shame on myself."
"What do you expect me to do about ten dead men?" he said. He was angered by the deaths and needless destruction.
She flinched at his words. "I thought you could take them back to the tower and give them a proper burial. Better than being left to rot out here." She looked back down to the ground. "They do not deserve that."
Dwelis had never seen such a cruel waste of life outside of combat, which he thought was an honorable way to die. This was just slaughter. He looked to the sky, a full moon observed the carnage. Dwelis shook his head in disbelief. "You set a beast on these poor men for cutting down a tree?" His code of honor was the only thing keeping him from lashing out at the windwalker.
"You do not truly understand my purpose for being in these woods." She gave out a small groan and looked to the forest as if it only understood her. She walked over to one of the large brown trees and gently, almost caressingly, touched the rough bark.
"I died long ago, but while I was living I was a ranger within these woods. I was to look after the forest and all the woodland creatures within. However, I was to also help any humans who seemed to be in need of assistance. It was a time of trust among the races, and the humans and elves got along quite well. Not like today, where there is mistrust and speculation of evil deeds.
"So what do you do now, other than lead monsters to an easy kill?" He regretted saying that as soon as it left his lips. Dwelis was angry and lashing out. He couldn't help but notice how she flinched at the accusation.
"Now I look after the woods and nothing more. I thought I cared little for what man or creature does within, as long as they do not harm my forest… my home," she said.
"Because you're dead you no longer care about the living, right?" he said.
"Wrong, Knight!" Ontari-Kan's eyes flared with anger. She stood tall and faced Dwelis squarely. "I see the destruction and I know this was my doing. I didn't tell you why I'm dead, did I?" She started to pace and then fell silent again. After a short time she hesitantly explained. "I was taken by a band of merchants who raped me, then killed me so I wouldn't talk." A tear fell down her cheeks. She hid her face in her golden hair, ashamed of what had happened so long ago.
Dwelis's expression softened. He understood now. This was a reaction to her murder as much as it was to see the destruction of a tree. He felt ashamed. "I'm sorry…I didn't realize." There was nothing he could say to make things better.
Ontari-Kan walked away. She couldn't bear to look at this scene anymore. Dwelis watched through rays of moonlight, filtering down between the large trees. She had to have been a beautiful woman in her day, he thought. The moonlight glinted on her golden hair and her skin radiated as if the beams gave her energy.
It took Dwelis a moment to realize he was hearing a signal horn. Ontari-Kan spun around. "What is that?" Her eyes were wide and full, like the moon above.
"It's a signal. A knight is in danger and needs help." With agility one would not expect of a knight clad in full plate armor, Dwelis leapt onto Loth and charged through the night towards the sound of the horn calling.
All he could think of was getting to his brother. He was not sure who it was, but he suspected it was Chaltin because the sound rang faintly and far from the north. It was unnerving to hear that sound, as it was not often that a knight rang out with the need for help. Some knights preferred not to even carry a horn with them, feeling that it was a dishonor to call to another for help in combat. Dwelis didn't share this notion, though. He had his honor and his code but he also was a sensible man and didn't take unnecessary risks.
He leaned into his steed, almost lying on his neck, urging Loth to move faster. They whipped between trees and hurdled small bushes. The ground was a blur and dirt sprayed up behind the strong horse. He was startled to see Ontari-Kan sprinting beside him, barefoot along the ground.
She didn't look at him. Her face was set in a determined visage. She was prepared to help the calling knight in any way she could. She needed this; it was a small piece of redemption in the wake of the slaughter behind.
Without warning, Loth came to a sliding halt, sending Dwelis flying over the top of the steed and skidding to a stop on the ground. He shook the dizziness from his head and glared at the horse. He could hear the horn in the distance. It sounded more frantic now and repeating itself quickly.
Ontari-Kan slowed to a trot and then walked up to Loth, putting a hand on his flank to settle him. His flaring nostrils settled but his eyes remained wide, the whites showing with panic. Dwelis saw the windwalker's eyes widen to match his horse.
"What?" he said. "What is it?" The two were looking past Dwelis. He got up, wiping dirt from his armor. Then he turned and the blood drained from his face. It was Welthin, laying half in and half out of the green shrubs that were now dripping with his blood. Much of his armor was ripped off and shattered. Many claw marks left telltale signs of the monster that did this, and large bite marks showed the mortal injury to his throat.
"What is that that he holds," Ontari-Kan asked.
Dwelis looked down at Welthin's bloody hand. A silver chain was interwoven through his fingers. He didn't have to open his hand to know what it was. "It's his symbol of the order," he replied softly.
The symbol, shaped as the crest of the order, was a tower with an eye above cast in pure silver. A knight's most precious possession, given by the lord knight when the student has attained the status of a true knight.
Tears gently fell down Dwelis's face. He remembered the day well when he and the two brothers were given their symbols. It was a cherished moment in all of theirs lives. It was the last thing that Welthin thought of in his dying moments.
Dwelis yelled out to the sky in anger at the death of his near-brother, and anguish for not being here to help. Gently he uncurled Welthin's hand and took his symbol from him. He pulled a cloth out of a saddlebag and wrapped it, then tucked it safely into the bag.
"The horn. Should we not go?" Ontari-Kan asked. Dwelis didn't want to leave his brother here, not like this, but the sound of the horn was faltering and he knew now that it was Chaltin who was in trouble. If he could help one of his brothers in arms tonight, maybe not everything would be a loss.
He took a second cloth out of his saddlebag and laid it over the head of Welthin. "I will come back for you, my brother. I swear on my honor, as a knight of the Order of the Watch."
Quickly, again, he mounted his steed and tore through the woods, following the sound of the horn and signaling with his own horn to tell Chaltin that help was near.
Branches slapped at his face, but he hardly noticed. His only thought was to get to Chaltin. Hold on brother, I'm coming, he thought.
Loth burst through a thicket of brush, leaping into a ghastly scene: Chaltin, backpedaling, fending off a huge, wolf-like creature. The knight deflected a swipe of the creature's claws with his sword and blew again into the horn. The call was weak and Dwelis could see why. Chaltin had large gashes in his side; bright red blood spilled from many wounds.
Dwelis didn't need to give a kick to his steed. Loth immediately charged, a testament to the link between rider and mount. He raised his sword in salute as he charged into battle.
The horse swung in close to the beast, raising its front hooves and bowling over the kistiani. Chaltin shuffled back, kicking up dirt with his heels. Dwelis swung his sword down at the kistiani, gashing its chest and spraying blood. It howled in pain and with amazing speed rolled out of the reach of Loth's hooves.
The kistiani snarled and gnashed its teeth together, then sprang at Dwelis, knocking him off of his mount. The two rolled through the dirt and soon separated, both coming to their feet. Its eyes blazed with fury.
The mangy creature lunged at Dwelis, but he side-stepped the beast and slashed at the fast claw coming in at his head. Part of its hand fell to the ground with a sickening thud. Again the kistiani howled but, sensing the weaker member in the group, charged at Chaltin, who was on one knee and holding himself up by his sword that was stuck into the ground.
"Chaltin! Look out!" Dwelis yelled. Chaltin looked up. Dwelis could see the blood trickling down around his eyes and nose from a gash in his scalp. The whites of Chaltin's eyes became huge as he saw the raw fury of the wounded kistiani barreling down on him. In that second Chaltin knew it was too late for him to defend himself. It was his time. In his last moments, he grabbed onto his symbol of the Order and closed his eyes.
The kistiani plowed into Chaltin, sending his sword flying into the brush. The knight flew backwards, landing flat on his back, his head slamming into the dirt. Chaltin's eyes were staring straight up through the canopy of trees, at the same bright stars that Dwelis often admired at night from atop the tower. With blinding speed the kistiani crouched over Chaltin, dripping saliva onto his face. It seemed to sneer for a second, showing large, bloody canines, and then it crunched down on Chaltin's throat.
Dwelis ran to Chaltin but it was too late. The kistiani looked over it shoulder, bloody canines dripping onto its matted fur. The beast howled at the moon and stared back at the knight.
Screaming, Dwelis charged at the kistiani, driving the point of his sword deep into the hide of the wolf-man. It raised its head, roaring in pain and scrambling to free itself from the sword. Dwelis gripped his weapon with all his strength, driving the sword deeper. Finally, the kistiani shrugged off the knight's thrust and staggered back from Dwelis. Its ears hung low and it turned and fled into the woods.
In the distance, several eerie, haunting howls pierced the night. Dwelis looked at Chaltin and sucked in his breath. His sensibility was overshadowed by rage. He could not let these two knights die in vain. He quickly stood up and charged after the monster. Loth was at his side, and in moments the two were speeding through the night, searching for the kistiani.
It was not hard to follow its tracks. It left a fresh trail of blood and footprints that shone in the moonlight, and soon the hunt was over.
Dwelis was not prepared for what he saw next. The windwalker was holding a frail man with brown hair and a slightly extended face. His body was naked, but large tufts of coarse, brown hair clumped in many spots. He was bloody and unconscious.
"Do not be alarmed, knight," Ontari-Kan said.
He scanned the area. "Is this the creature that took the lives of my brothers?"
"Yes and no," was her reply. "This is a man that has been poisoned with a terrible disease."
"Are you trying to defend this thing? First help it kill a band of merchants and then my brothers-in-arms? Maybe you are the one I should be wary of." He didn't know what to think. He doubted that the elf was evil, but why comfort this creature after all she knows the kistiani has done?
"This man is afflicted with the disease of becoming the creature that you saw tonight." She looked down at the man in her lap. "This man suffers this fate."
"I should slay both of you this very night." He was seething with fury. The routine patrol he expected tonight has ended in disaster.
"Nay, that is not what's needed here. Look upon this man with pity for he doesn't know what he does until the truth of his actions are revealed to him in his human form."
The knight was taken aback. "He doesn't know what he's doing?" He found that hard to believe. "How can it kill so viciously and not know?"
"The kistiani is a source of evil within the body of this man. He doesn't want it anymore than he would want to be dying of some disease trapped within him. Yet this isn't a disease that kills him, it kills others."
"And I should take pity on him and not hold him accountable for what he has done?" More howls rang out in the night. They were getting closer.
"Yes!" she said.
"That is unacceptable," he roared back. The man in her lap stirred. "Only my honor and my code keep me from killing him. I will take him back to the Order of the Watch and let the Lord Knight decide what to do with him," Dwelis said.
He took some rope out of his saddlebags, bound the man, and slung him over Loth's back. Next he went for Chaltin and Welthin and carefully laid them over the horse as well. Mournfully, he set off for the tower, making note to come back for the dead merchants.
* * *
The next morning, rain drizzled down. Dark clouds hung low over the Split Land, and at the Castle of the Order of the Watch many somber faces crowded into the Hall of Knights.
The kistiani, who now appeared in human form, was chained to the floor, standing in the middle of the massive room. Knights of many disciplines filled the rows of benches.
Some knights were Protectors of the People in the Split Land. Others had more specific roles, like the Disciples of the Woods, which Dwelis was hoping to achieve. Many other disciplines attended, such as the Mountain Disciples and the Disciples of the Orc, who were elite and dangerous. The Lord Knight, who was voted on by the Council of Disciples, sat at his throne before the chained man.
He wore ceremonial armor etched with protective runes. His white hair flowed down the back of the silver armor and made the crown on his head seem to sparkle even more. He held a sword across his knees that shimmered with a faint blue light. Termaenor was the sword's name. It was handed down from ruler to ruler within the Order and its ability to kill orcs was legendary.
"Dwelis Spurnfit, state your claim," the Lord Knight said. "Let all hear what you say, knowing that you, on your honor, state these things as fact and truth."
Dwelis got to his feet and told all the events that had unfolded the evening before. Many of the knights found it hard to believe that the windwalker existed, but they would not doubt the honor of this knight and many would later ask for more detail from Dwelis.
"Very well," said the Lord Knight, scanning the room and laying his eyes finally on the man shackled to the floor. "You have been charged with these events. What do you say?"
The man was very weak from his wounds and didn't know how much longer he would be able to stand. "My name is Taxoran Havensmith of Thistlehorn. I do not deny the claims made against me, although I don't recall ever having done them."
A murmur spread throughout the room. The Lord Knight raised his hand for silence. "Do you claim ignorance? I don't see how that is possible, yet you don't deny what you do?"
Dwelis stood up again. He was visibly shaking with anger. The man who killed his closest friends was still alive; they were not. He knew this man was innocent and honor bound to say so, but he still wished the man dead. "He speaks the truth, sir," Dwelis spit out. He explained to the council and the Lord Knight what Ontari-Kan had told him about the man's disease.
One of the council stood. This man had black, piercing eyes that bore into Dwelis as if he could search the younger knight's soul to see if there was even an ounce of untruth to what he said. "I don't see how we can take the advice of a dead elf who has appeared in the night."
The Lord Knight motioned for him to be seated. "The windwalkers, although very rare, are known to me. I do believe Sir Dwelis when he speaks of Ontari-Kan." Any voices in the crowd that had any doubts before were now quieted. Again he turned to Taxoran. "Do you agree with what was stated?"
Taxoran tried to stand as tall as he could, but the cuts from Dwelis's sword were still very fresh in his back. "I do, Lord Knight. I was a blacksmith in Thistlehorn and was attacked by a kistiani while taking wares to the village of Wispin. It's a misfortune for sure, and I have fled into the woods not knowing what else to do, sir." Taxoran's shoulders slumped and he stared at the ground in front of him. "I just don't know what to do."
Dwelis clenched and unclenched his jaw. Although he knew the right thing was to help this man, part of him hoped he would be sentenced to death. He shook with rage, thinking of Chaltin and Welthin, who were now deep below the castle in the burial crypt. He struggled desperately with what he wanted to do against what his honor and the code asked of him.
"I have heard all sides and with the guidance of the council a verdict will be reached." The Lord Knight stood up and left the room by a door close to the throne. The council, all seated at a table near the Lord Knight, followed him out.
Dwelis got up with the rest of the knights and filed out of the room. He glared the whole time at Taxoran, but the man would not meet his gaze. Two knights stayed in the room to guard the man. No one knew, not even Taxoran, when or if he would turn back into a kistiani.
The rain increased through the day and lightning struck the ground more than once while the Lord Knight and the council debated the fate of Taxoran. Dwelis paced outside the great hall. He could not rest, eat, or think of anything else. He was not sure what the fate of Taxoran should be, and after having some time to reflect on it he was not sure that he should be held any more accountable than, say, a bear that has brought down a knight. Surely no council would come together over a bear. Might this not be the same? he wondered.
Finally, the council and the Lord Knight reentered the great hall and seated themselves. Then the many knights including Dwelis found their seats. A murmur was buzzing around the room, no one sure of what the verdict would be. Dwelis looked at Taxoran who was slumped on the ground.
"All shall rise," said one of the council members, bearing a green engraving of a tree on his breastplate. This was a Disciple of the Woods, the discipline Dwelis hoped to be part of once his studies were complete.
The Lord Knight stood and surveyed the room. "Between myself and the council we have come to a decision. Let all here be testament to what has been said and hold up the decree with honor and dedication." He looked down at Taxoran from his large chair. "Taxoran Havensmith, are you prepared for judgment?"
Taxoran looked up at the Lord Knight. Sorrow was in his eyes. "I am, Lord Knight." Dwelis noticed that although his shoulders were slumped, his voice held a determination to see this through with what pride he could muster.
All eyes turned back to the Lord Knight. "Very well. By order of the Lord Knight and the council we pronounce you free of all charges." Hushed conversation broke out immediately. A few knights stood, enraged that this monster could get away with killing two of their own. The Lord Knight raised his hand for silence.
"Some of you may wish this man to be put to death, and I have to agree that on first thought; this is what came to my mind as well. However, we must not lose sight of who we are and what we all hold dear in our Order. Honor in the face of adversity is how we live… and also how some of us die."
Dwelis sat back in his chair. He hated to admit it, but he agreed with the Lord Knight. Chaltin and Welthin died with honor. They entered the woods yesterday knowing that this day could have been their last. It is how they all lived their lives.
The Lord Knight continued. "Our honor is our most prized possession. The bastion that the outside world looks to in times of trouble, holds onto, and pulls themselves up by. The people of the Split Land expect justice from us. Along with that comes the responsibility of looking at situations from all sides, as we have done today." He looked down again at Taxoran. "So, Taxoran Havensmith, you are found free of murder this day. However, it is deemed by the council and myself that you seek help with your condition and that this will be moderated by one of us. In addition, to pay back for the lives that the demon inside of you has killed, you will be charged with finding other kistiani and bringing them back to be healed. If they do not wish to come with you peacefully, they shall be killed by order of the Lord Knight."
Taxoran looked to the Lord Knight, blinking tears from his eyes. "I fully believed that I would die this day, Lord Knight. But in your wisdom and the wisdom of the council I see a better road has been chosen for me. One that I will gladly walk down."
The Lord Knight nodded his head. "Good. Now, the decision of who will be charged with leading Taxoran down this road of resolution was a hard decision. The council made a unanimous decision that a new discipline will be implemented. This is something that has not been seen within this hall in some time. The Disciples of Kistiani has now been brought to life, charged with gaining knowledge of kistiani and how to combat and revert the unfortunate souls who find themselves in the situation that poor Taxoran Havensmith has suffered."
The Lord Knight looked directly at Dwelis. "It seems only fitting that the person who should lead this discipline be the one who is most connected with this situation. Sir Dwelis Spurnfit, we know that the two knights who died yesterday were very close to you and, and it was you who brought these events to the Order of the Watch's eyes. It is only proper that you are given the choice of being head of this discipline. What say you?"
Dwelis could not believe what he was hearing. A new discipline! No discipline had been enacted in several hundred years, and he was to be head of it. He looked around the room at all of the knights. Some old, some young, but all were willing to stake their lives for the good of the Split Land. How could he not accept? He looked at Taxoran and his fists clenched automatically.
"It is with my honor and the code of the Knights of the Order of the Watch that I take on this charge, Lord Knight. I will live up to the challenge as you expect me to. I do this in remembrance of Chaltin and Welthin Locke who died protecting our land. I will carry their spirits with me, letting them guide my heart and sword." Dwelis sat back down. His heart was pounding in his head.
"Well said, Sir Dwelis. Your first charge will be to study Taxoran and, once healed, set off across the Split Land in search of more kistiani. Between the two of you, a new day has come. Sad might this day be, yet know that the future of many lives will be saved by your actions today."
The Lord Knight sat down. That was all that needed to be said, and knights rose and started to file out of the room.
Taxoran was unchained from the floor but still had shackles on his hands and feet. He may have been saved, but he is still a killer, thought Dwelis as he approached the prisoner. He hated the man-beast for what he did. Knowing that it wasn't something the man could control didn't bring his brothers back. He felt the injustice.
"I am indebted to you, Sir Dwelis. I have caused you much anguish and I'm prepared to fight this disease for myself and any others who are so afflicted," Taxoran said.
Dwelis stood before him. He could barely look at the man. "It is wrong that they are dead and you live. Fortunately for you, I am not the Lord Knight, but if this is how it must be, then I will put my heart and soul into it for Chaltin and Welthin." He drew a dagger and held it up to Taxoran's throat. He sucked in ragged breaths, barely controlling the sobs that he checked and added: "But by Ghendhali and my brothers, you make but one wrong move and I will gladly see your way to the Land of the Dead. I hope we make ourselves clear."
Dwelis didn't give Taxoran time to respond. He spun on his heel and left the room to pay his respects to the dead.
A small sparrow had been sitting on the window ledge through the whole proceeding. It jumped off of the ledge and flew into the forest to the west of the castle. It swooped through the trees and landed on the windwalker's finger. Chirping, it told her of the events of this day. She smiled, knowing that there were indeed good people left in the world; people who did not judge hastily.
She set off into the woods with the sparrow on her shoulder. She needed to prepare herself for a long battle with a terrible disease. Ontari-Kan expected Dwelis to show up soon with a man who had been given a second chance, just as she had. *
About the Author: Matthew Ide lives in Northern Michigan, and when he's not writing he usually can be found tromping along forest trails with his beautiful wife, Trina, and their four kids.
(c) 2006 Matthew Ide email@example.com
About the Artist: B. Lloyd is an artist.
(c) 2006 B. Lloyd firstname.lastname@example.com


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Satellite tv for pc TELEVISION Sellers
A satellite TELEVISION system consists of a dish that captures the TV signal broadcast from a satellite tv for pc, and a receiver that amplifies the sign and sends it to a television. In the municipalities of Naucalpan and Tlalnepantla there are a number of industrial parks where many multinationals have their factories, subsequently if you happen to come on enterprise travel Ciudad Satelite is an efficient alternative for a break to have lunch or hang around.
There is no Metro reaching Ciudad Satelite therefore one of the simplest ways to succeed in is by Bus or Microbus that depart from Metro stations Chapultepec station (Line 1, pink), Rosario (Lines 6: Pink and 7: orange) or Cuatro Caminos (also referred to as Toreo) (Line 2, blue).
The tools you could obtain DIRECTV programming features a satellite TV dish, satellite TV receivers, and distant controls This tools is at the moment free whenever you sign up for one among DIRECTV's programming packages, and comes with free installation.
I dwell in the UK, however I can watch TV from stations all over the world, irrespective of where on the earth I am. You'll be able to even use a dial up connection with most of the software program however clearly a broadband connection (even on wi-fi) will give superior outcomes.
Another application is to make use of them for cellular radio methods (even at decrease latitudes) since vehicles traveling through urban areas need access to satellites at excessive elevation in an effort to secure good connectivity, e.g. within the presence of tall buildings.

subset: commoncrawl


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iMovie HD Available Here August 17, 2010Posted by Robert Harder in Utility.
Tags: mac, quicktime, video
157 comments
Jan 2015 update: Here's a post about running iMovie HD in Yosemite.
The last good version of Apple's iMovie was version 6, later called iMovie HD. At least that's my opinion, and it's shared by a few others. The later versions became more of a video manager (and not a good one), and a very rudimentary editor (and not a good one).
Realizing, but not admitting, how much people hated the new iMovie, there was a period when Apple would let you download the previous and now-abandoned iMovie HD, but it is no longer available from Apple, even on their Old Software List, so until I'm given a Take Down notice, I'm putting iMovie HD up for grabs here. Of course you're trusting that I haven't embedded some kind of nasty malware or anything, which I haven't.


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Jarley Silva still bears the scars – including 23 screws in his shattered leg – from a hit-and-run accident suffered on a Toronto street five years ago.
But he also bears much fresher wounds – the pain of being denied compensation from a public victims fund and the shame of being booted out of the country.
As an undocumented migrant from Brazil, Silva lost a court appeal for compensation from the Motor Vehicle Accident Claims Fund because he was illegal in Canada at the time of the hit-and-run.
Under provincial law, the government doesn't give payouts from its Motor Vehicle Accident Claims Fund to no-fault accident victims who "ordinarily" reside outside of Ontario.
However, Silva had lived in the province for almost nine years when he was hit by a car on Bloor St. W. and Lansdowne Ave. early one morning in April 2011, raising questions over the definition and interpretation of ordinary residence in the law.
"The issue is whether the person can show they are an ordinary resident of Ontario," said personal injuries lawyer Rebecca Nelson, who represents Silva. "If you are here illegally, what the court decision underscores is you can't access the publicly funded benefits as a matter of policy."
Silva first came to Canada in 1994, using false documents, and worked in Ontario as a cleaner until 1995, when he was arrested by immigration officials and deported to Brazil. He was banned from returning to Canada, according to court documents.
However, he came back to Toronto illegally in 2002 via the United States and lived here underground until his accident nine years later when he suffered a broken leg and came on the radar of the authorities. He decided to make an asylum claim, which was denied in 2013. His deportation ensued.
"I was thrown over the car at high speed and lost consciousness. Someone called 911 and the ambulance sent me to a hospital emergency," recalled Silva, now 42, who had worked in construction in Toronto for years before he was sent back to Brazil in June 2013. He required 23 screws in his leg to help him heal, he told the Star in a phone interview.
The Motor Vehicle Accident Claims Fund is the "payer of last resort" for people injured in car accidents when no automobile insurance exists to respond to the claim. Victims are eligible for compensation even in an accident with an uninsured or unidentified driver or a stolen vehicle.
In 2014, the latest statistics available, the fund paid out $17 million in accident benefit claims.
At the time of the accident, Silva did not own a car or have other insurance for the injuries he suffered, though he did have an Ontario driver's licence. He tried to sue the unidentified driver and the province for $200,000 in compensation from the accident claims fund.
Despite his lengthy residency in Ontario, a motion judge agreed with the government that the applicant was not "ordinarily" a resident in Canada, which precluded him from being compensated.
"Toronto was my home. It was my only place of residence. It's just not fair," said Silva, who is unable to return to construction work as a result of his injuries and now is supported by his retired mother in Mato Grosso, in western Brazil.
"I wonder what would happen if it was the other way round and I was the driver who hit someone and what they would do to me."
In appealing the court decision, Silva and his lawyer argued that the province should have been required to prove he was ordinarily resident in Brazil or a country other than Canada.
However, the Ontario Court of Appeal disagreed, ruling the definition of "ordinary" residency in the province was set out to avoid unnecessary payments out of the fund, which relies on public money.
"Payments to those persons are permitted only where the claimant resides in a jurisdiction that provides ordinary residents of Ontario with reciprocal benefits, that is, 'with recourse of a substantially similar character to that provided (in Ontario,)" the three-member appeal panel wrote in its decision.
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"The appellant was present in Ontario illegally, was subject to deportation on discovery and had already been deported once. His continuing and knowing unlawful presence in Ontario . . . was the result of deception, and he never sought to regularize his illegal status until after he was made subject to a deportation order."
In dismissing the claim, the appeal court also ordered Silva to pay $5,000 in legal fees to the government.
Correction - October 27, 2016: This article was edited from a previous version that said Jarley Silva was 18 when he first came to Canada.


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In the 19th and early 20th centuries, railroads were a popular form of transportation, instrumental to the growth and development of Rochester.
Since 1832, no fewer than 26 lines have served the area, including local steam trains and trolleys.
Lehigh Valley was the last major railroad to come to Rochester, arriving in 1892. Founded in southeastern Pennsylvania in 1846, its main business was transporting anthracite coal, though its passenger service was also a point of pride.
The railroad's featured train was the Black Diamond Express, which first operated on May 18, 1896, and ran between Buffalo and Jersey City. Offering speed, reliability, luxury and comfort, it was advertised as "the handsomest train in the world."
Named for the mineral that fueled the railroad's profits, the Black Diamond included a combined baggage and café car with a library and smoking room, Pullman coaches with lavatories and lounges, an observation car, and a dining car that served savory fare like broiled lobsters in parsley butter, lamb stew, omelets with asparagus tips and custard fritters in cream sauce.
Some of the earliest motion pictures were short clips of the Black Diamond Express coming toward and/or receding from the camera. Its popularity among newlyweds en route to Niagara Falls earned it the nickname "The Honeymoon Express."
The first Rochester depot for the Lehigh Valley Railroad was a small, uninviting wooden building on Griffith Street, where the Genesee River fed into the Erie Canal. In 1905, the station moved a few blocks north to an attractive, newly constructed brick building on Court Street, depicted in this photograph.
Designed by F.D. Hyde, the Court Street station was built over the river and the Johnson and Seymour millrace. Its detailed exterior included two-toned walls, copper gutters and flashing and a red tiled roof.
As the railroad struggled financially in the early 1950s, Rochester's Lehigh Valley Station stopped serving passenger trains. The building was briefly used as a bus depot before it closed altogether in 1954.
For decades it sat vacant, vandalized and deteriorated and rated as one of Rochester's top 10 eyesores. After a failed remodeling attempt in the mid-1970s, the building was purchased and renovated by developer Max Farash in the 1980s.
In the early 1990s, it housed the Carpe Diem nightclub. In 1998, its current resident, the ever-popular Dinosaur Barbeque rib joint, moved in.
Now a cherished local landmark, the remodeled depot is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Finn is the deputy historian for the city of Rochester.


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It's the season for picnics, whether that's under sunny skies or during dazzling fireworks. One of the easiest ways to enjoy time with family and friends is by packing enough delicious Indiana fried chicken to feed everyone before heading to the lake, park, or the coolest part of the backyard.
Wagner's Family Restaurant in Oldenburg, Indiana is one of the most popular choices in Southeastern Indiana. Call ahead to order plenty of fried chicken for a crowd, or meet everybody inside this casual, comfortable local place where the piping hot chicken is served up with dish towels instead of napkins, and the sweet tea is fresh and cold.
Waitress and daytime bartender Betsy McCray grew up in Oldenburg. She knows most of the diners by name and rarely has to offer a menu even to the newcomers since most folks come in for the Family Style Chicken Dinner.
The heady fragrance of chicken frying in cast iron pans makes hungry guests grow impatient, but when those generous portions arrive, it's obviously worth the wait. Brian Larimore and his father Robert drive up from Lawrenceburg to enjoy the delicious food and enthusiastically recommend the freshly fried chicken dinner.
All of that crispy, moist, amazing chicken is piled onto plates – what a sizzling, aromatic feast. Betsy serves steaming bowls of tempting side items against the backdrop of a cheerful dining room noisy with conversation, laughter and TV sports.
The coleslaw is creamy and just a little sweet. Those flavors marry well with the peppery gravy made onsite. The dinner rolls are the store-bought, in-a-plastic-bag kind and are actually perfect with a generous spread of butter, or smeared with extra gravy.
The green beans come to the table with a dollop of butter and plenty of salt, while the mashed potatoes are of the standard variety, leaving the diner plenty of opportunity to focus on the flavorful chicken and rich gravy.
According to Betsy, there are delicious desserts available, as well. Fruit cobblers, a variety of cheesecakes … it's all so tempting, but after such a banquet, dessert might require a separate visit all its own.
Fortunately, a return trip to Oldenburg is just a scenic drive away …


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One boar(castrated) one gilt both 6 years old and have been brought up together. Separate parentage.
BKKPS registered and tags available. Fully wormed.
Ill health and the passing away of my wife means I cannot give them the time they need and deserve.
They are free of charge to a good home, new owner will need to collect from Southend area.
Pair of kunekune pigs
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Changes Art Print Colored Variant
On Sale Monday, March 4th at 12 noon PST
Limited color variant edition of only 25 copies with hand embellishments rendered in mixed media.
Each one will be it's own one of a kind piece and totally unique. None will be exactly the same.
Archival Fine Art Print measuring 18″ x 24″
$125 Plus Shipping


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Dr Sam Roberts graduated from The Newcastle Upon Tyne University in the UK with a Distinction in clinical Dentistry in 2006.
Following graduation, Sam worked in the UK under the close mentorship of an experienced oral surgeon. Sam then moved to Australia to combine dentistry with his passion for travelling. Sam has worked in Mackay, Darwin and Hobart to attain mentorship in Oral surgery, Implant dentistry and Cosmetic dentistry. Teaching from renowned clinicians in Brisbane has also given him valuable experience in more advanced dental procedures and techniques.Sam is a member of the Australian Society of Implant Dentistry and International Team for Implantology (ITI) study club.
Sam took over Hinterland Dental in July 2015 with his wife, Dr Gemma Hamilton.
Sam is particularly interested in implant dentistry, oral surgery, removal of wisdom teeth and treatment under general anaesthetic and the use of lasers to treat tongue ties and aid complex restorative treatment.
Outside of dentistry, Sam and his wife Gemma have a King Charles spaniel called Dusty. Sam plays soccer, enjoys mountain biking, golfing, stand up paddle boarding and at least once a year his main passion of skiing.


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Le Yaca's 4-Course Brunch
Celery root soup, La Soupe du Jour from Le Yaca
Anne Leonard
I never dreamt I'd eat a chocolate croissant next to soup, but Williamsburg's Le Yaca made that dream possible. After a weekend of hiking and camping along Humpback Rocks just off of the Appalachian Trail, the husband and I stopped to grab a 4-course French brunch on the way back to Virginia Beach. The perk about having my husband as an eating adventure companion is that there's no judgment should I pick at his plate once, twice or five times. In this case, it was more often five.
The sun decided to present itself plentiful so we sat outside at one of their white-clothed tables. We were almost overwhelmed by the menu, drooling over every item. Once we told our server we'd be going the 4-course route, out came the bread basket, and the rest they say is history. Not only did the basket present a pillowy-centered warm and crunchy French baguette, but there were the most poised chocolate croissants I'd ever laid eyes on. Perfectly round, just a smidge of chocolate revealed from its spongy spiral.
"I'll save this [chocolate croissant] for dessert," the husband said. A moment later, I peered over to his plate only to find flakes, remnants of a croissant hastily eaten. Dessert before dinner—or in this case, brunch—is always the best idea.
Now, onto our extravagant brunch.
Course 1: Drinks, of course.
I went for a bubbly Champagne Mimosa, and my husband went the Bloody Mary route.
Course 2: Appetizer soups
His La Soupe a l'oignon, or puréed French onion soup, was earthy and full-flavored, but my order of La Soupe du Jour, or soup of the day, was our favorite out of the two. The celery root soup was gritty, yet wonderfully creamy. Chopped pieces of bacon were scattered over top with soft croutons and a rainbow of microgreens. Perhaps the tastiest aspect was a generous drizzle of aromatic truffle oil making for a balanced and lively approach to celery root soup.
While awaiting our entrées, we further munched from the bread basket leaving no stone unturned to finish every last drop of our soups.
Course 3: Entrée
I ordered Le Homard, an olive oil-poached Maine lobster tail served with a salad and crispy potatoes. The chewy, hearty lobster tail spread out over a bed of crispy, caramelized, bite-sized potato slices. Drizzled over the dish was shaved truffle vinaigrette. I could have easily been content with a ramekin of that heavenly vinaigrette and their French baguette and called it a day! Too enamored with my dish, I was able to snag a taste of his Le Boeuf—tender beef tenderloin cooked to a perfect medium rare over spinach and crispy potatoes all enveloped in a rich demi-glace.
Course 4: Dessert
Oh goodness, dessert, my heart. I almost contemplated ordering every dessert item, but I stuck to the one: La Marquise au Chocolat, or a piece of chilled, chocolate, fudgy, truffle cake goodness. The cake was served with a homemade salted caramel-like wafer that tasted like toffee and a sort of custardy vanilla bean "shot"—their Creme Anglaise sauce. He chose the Crème Brûlée à la Vanille, luscious and rich with vanilla bean specks freckling the bottom of the dish.
Le Yaca is open during varied hours, so visit their website or Facebook page for more information including their menus.


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Two Astronauts Survive Crash After Rocket Failure
A two-man US-Russian crew of a Soyuz spacecraft bound for the International Space Station was safe following a dramatic emergency landing on Thursday shortly after liftoff in Kazakhstan when their rocket failed in mid-air. US astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin landed safely and rescue crews who raced to locate them on the Kazakh steppe quickly linked up with them, according to the US space agency NASA and Russia's space agency Roscosmos.
The emergency occurred as the first and second stages of a booster rocket separated shortly after launch from Kazakhstan's Soviet-era cosmodrome of Baikonur. The Soyuz capsule carrying the two men separated from the malfunctioning rocket and made what NASA called a steep ballistic descent to Earth with parachutes helping to slow its speed. A cloud of sand billowed up as the capsule came down on the desert steppe.
The capsule took 34 minutes to reach the ground after it separated from the faulty rocket, NASA said. Rescue crews then raced to the scene to retrieve them, including paratroopers parachuting to their landing spot, helicopters and all-terrain vehicles, NASA said. Footage from inside the Soyuz capsule showed the two men being shaken around at the moment the failure occurred, with their arms and legs flailing. Ovchinin, the Russian cosmonaut, can be heard saying, "That was a quick flight."
Photographs later released by Roscosmos after the rescue showed the two astronauts smiling and relaxing on sofas at a town near their landing site as they underwent medical tests.
Moscow immediately suspended all manned space launches, the RIA news agency reported, while Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin said he ordered a state commission to be set up to investigate what had gone wrong. Russia's Investigative Committee said it had opened a criminal investigation into the matter.
NASA officials now must decide how or whether to maintain a US presence on the $100 billion orbital research laboratory as Roscosmos investigates the cause of the rocket's malfunction.
"We have a lot of things planned through the rest of the fall and the winter, and that's all just being reassessed right now," Sam Scimemi, NASA's director for International Space Station, told Reuters. "We have resources well into next year for this crew, so there's no concern about resources on board."
Interfax quoted a source as saying the crash meant the three people now aboard the space station – a German, a Russian and an American – would be stuck there at least until January. Unmanned launches of Soyuz rockets might also be suspended, Interfax said.
Russian rockets have been the only means of bringing crew members to the International Space Station since the United States retired its Space Shuttle program in 2011, although NASA has announced plans for a test flight carrying two astronauts on a SpaceX commercial rocket next April. Thursday's accident was the first serious launch problem experienced by a manned Soyuz space mission since 1983, when a crew narrowly escaped before an explosion on the launchpad.
Jim Bridenstine, NASA's administrator who was in Kazakhstan to witness Thursday's launch, said in a statement that the failure had been caused by an anomaly with the rocket's booster.
"A thorough investigation into the cause of the incident will be conducted," Bridenstine said, saying the safety of the crew was the utmost priority for NASA.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the most important thing was that the two men were alive.
"Rescue services have been working since the first second of the accident," Rogozin wrote on Twitter. "The emergency rescue systems of the MS-Soyuz spacecraft worked smoothly. The crew has been saved."
A Russian space industry source was cited by the Interfax news agency as saying that there was enough food onboard the space station to last until April of next year. The next re-supply run was meant to take place on Oct 31, the source was quoted as saying, but that was now in doubt since the Progress supply ship was propelled by the same kind of rocket used in Thursday's incident.
Questions are now likely to be asked about Russia's space program. In August, a hole appeared in a Soyuz capsule already docked to the ISS that caused a brief loss of air pressure and had to be patched. Rogozin has said it could have been sabotage. And in November of last year, Roscosmos lost contact with a newly launched weather satellite – the Meteor-M – after it blasted off from Russia's new Vostochny cosmodrome in the Far East.
Rogozin said at the time that the problem with the launch of the 2.6 billion-rouble ($39.02 million) satellite had been due to an embarrassing programming error. Hague and Ovchinin would have joined the station's current crew, which includes American astronaut Serena Aunon-Chancellor.
"What we usually do is one group comes up and another group comes down just as part of our regular crew rotation," NASA spokeswoman Kathryn Hambleton said.


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Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes (SNES)
Published by
Developed by
Also For
DOS, FM Towns, Genesis, MSX, PC-88, PC-98, Sharp X68000, TurboGrafx CD, Wii, Windows | Combined View
Not an American user?
DescriptionDragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes tells the story of a young prince named Selios. One day his old teacher Raiyas sends him to a nearby cave to retrieve a magic weapon. When the prince returns, he finds the house attacked by monsters. Raiyas tells him to seek help in the castle of a baron, whose country has always been allies with theirs for a long time. However, the baron betrays Selios' trust and imprisons him. The young prince manages to escape, but without the possibility to return he has no choice but to wander through the land, trying to find trustworthy companions who would help him to save his country.
This is a traditional medieval-themed Japanese RPG with turn-based combat viewed from first-person perspective (like in Dragon Warrior games). The enemies are semi-random: they do appear out of nowhere and attack suddenly, but they are visible on the screen, and if you flee from a battle they will still be there to pursue you.
Promo Images
Alternate Titles
- "英雄传说" -- Chinese spelling (simplified)
- "ドラゴンスレイヤー英雄伝説" -- Japanese spelling
- "Dragon Slayer: Eiyū Densetsu" -- Japanese title
- "Dragon Slayer 6: Legend of Heroes" -- MSX title
Part of the Following Groups
User Reviews
There are no reviews for this game.
Critic Reviews
There are no critic reviews for this game.
There are currently no topics for this game.
There is no trivia on file for this game.
Unicorn Lynx (181640) added Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes (SNES) on Sep 29, 2004
Other platforms contributed by Riemann80 (19419), Michael Cassidy (21142), li zhen (1044), firefang9212 (66473), Terok Nor (28915), Unicorn Lynx (181640) and 雷堂嬢太朗 -raido.jotaro- (60709)
There are no game credits on file for this release of the game. Everything in MobyGames is contributable by users.


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USA Millwork is the first choice for turnkey, custom millwork and commercial casework solutions.
We focus on collaborative customer relationships, leveraging our broad network of suppliers, process driven
approach to project management, and industry-leading technology to deliver exceptional results.
USA Millwork announces the acquisition of Bay Area-based Mission Bell.
USA Millwork announces the acquisition of Bay Area-based Mission Bell… more
Our Portfolio of exceptional Brands
Our operating companies are premier Architectural Woodworking Institute (AWI) certified suppliers that provide products and services for large-scale, custom millwork projects.
Our products meet the standards of exceptional performance in academic and laboratory as set forth by The Scientific Equipment and Furniture Association (SEFA).


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LONDON • As Rams cornerback Cortland Finnegan so aptly put it: "Sometimes you're the bug, and sometimes you're the windshield."
It wasn't difficult to tell which was which Sunday night in Wembley Stadium.
The Rams got some sightseeing in during their weeklong stay in the England. Among other things, they saw the Tower of London, and the crown jewels, and Trafalgar Square. What they didn't see was that red, white, and blue truck — complete with windshield — otherwise known as the New England Patriots.
After a promising start, the Rams were outscored, outplayed and humiliated by the Patriots in a 45-7 loss before a sellout crowd of 84,004
It was a long way to go to play so poorly. The Rams, now losers of three in a row, fell to 3-5 and have an extra week to stew about it as they enter their bye before returning to action Nov. 11 at San Francisco.
"There's just days where you're going" to stink, defensive end Chris Long said. "And ... we were terrible. We were also playing a Hall of Famer. So it was a bad day to come out and be below average."
The Patriots, who pulled the future Hall of Famer — quarterback Tom Brady — with 8 minutes, 20 seconds to go in the fourth quarter, improved to 5-3. Adding insult to injury, they topped 350 yards of offense for the 17th consecutive game, breaking a record they had shared with the Greatest Show on Turf - more precisely, the 2001 Rams team they defeated in Super Bowl XXXVI.
"They got off to a good start" with the early touchdown, Brady said. "We countered and never looked back."
Things started promisingly enough for the Rams, who came out in the no-huddle after taking the opening kickoff. Just five plays into the game, quarterback Sam Bradford found wide receiver Chris Givens deep for a 50-yard touchdown pass. It marked the fifth consecutive game Givens had caught a pass of 50 yards or more, setting an NFL rookie record.
"First time we touch the ball, we go down and score -- exactly what we planned to do," Bradford said. "And then it just all felt apart from there."
The lead lasted as long as fish and chips do at lunchtime around here. Before you could say "Spygate," it was 28-7 Patriots at halftime.
"I don't know what happened," linebacker James Laurinaitis said. "A lot of things steamrolled against us. We had plays where we just dropped coverages, missed communications. At the end of the day, we're a better defense than this - than what showed."
En route to a 473-yard day on offense, Brady, tight end Rob Gronkowski and the Patriots' underrated running game couldn't be stopped, or even slowed. The Patriots scored TDs on their first five possessions, including all four series in the first half.
The Rams forgot to pack their pass rush for this trip, going sackless for the first time all season. When they rushed four, Brady had plenty of time. When they blitzed, Brady carved them up like a Thanksgiving turkey, frequently throwing to the area vacated by the blitzer.
Former Ram Brandon Lloyd caught only two passes Sunday, but both went for touchdowns as he gave rookie cornerback Janoris Jenkins fits.
Two more Brady TD tosses went to Gronkowski, who gave Rams safeties and anyone else in his path fits with eight catches for 146 yards. Gronkowski looked like a rugby player out there, bouncing off would-be tacklers for extra yardage with his 6-6, 265-pound frame.
"He's a good player," safety Quintin Mikell said. "I think him and Tom have a rapport together, and he creates certain matchup problems with his size and all that stuff. At the end of the day, if we're all doing what we're supposed to do, we can minimize that."
About the only thing that got minimized Sunday was the effectiveness of the Rams' offense. The Rams got some cheap rushing yards near the end of the game, after the Patriots had sent out their JV defense, but Thunder (Steven Jackson) & Lightning (Daryl Richardson) never really got going.
And after the big strike to Givens early, the Rams never did much to exploit one of the league's worst pass defenses.
"You look at their defense and I think they were 30th defending the pass, so we came into this game really expecting to move the ball," Bradford said. "We got beat in every phase of the game. Got dominated. I don't think there is any other way to put it."
After the Rams' opening score, they didn't make it into New England territory again until their fourth possession late in the first half, and that ended in a mini-disaster. On the first play following the 2-minute warning, Greg Zuerlein lined up for a 53-yard field goal but never got "The Leg" on the ball. Holder Johnny Hekker bobbled the snap and was forced to scramble for his life.
Hekker was tackled for a 9-yard loss with New England taking over at its 45, giving Brady a short a field for the Patriots' fourth TD drive of the day just before the half. It wasn't until the end of the third quarter, by which time the Rams were down by 31 points, that New England was forced to punt.
Just before the start of the second half, coach Jeff Fisher gathered the entire Rams team around him on the field and gave an animated speech trying to stir up the squad. So much for the impassioned plea: The Patriots needed only six plays to reach the end zone again after taking the second half kickoff.
At 35-7 and only 2½ minutes into the second half, it was only a matter of how big the shellacking would be. It turned out to be the Rams' worst defeat since a 47-7 setback late in 2009, Steve Spagnuolo's inaugural season in St. Louis, to Fisher's Tennessee Titans.
"What is required to beat a Patriot team that's playing that well on both sides of the ball is a near-perfect game, and obviously, we were unable to do that," Fisher said. "Tom got a hot hand, and had a good sense, and those guys made a lot of plays for him.
"So this will be a real test for our young football team going into the bye week coming off a disappointing loss like this. We'll find out a lot about ourselves."


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The Department of Defense announced today the death of three soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.
They died Sept. 21, at Forward Operating Base Shank, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces
attacked their unit with small arms fire while conducting range training in Gardez, Paktia Province, Afghanistan.
Killed were:
Staff Sgt. Liam J. Nevins, 32, of Denver, Colo., assigned to 5th Battalion, 19th Special Forces Group, Watkins, Colo.
Staff Sgt. Timothy R. McGill, 30, of Ramsey, N.J., assigned to 2nd Battalion, 19th Special Forces Group, Middletown, R.I.
Spc. Joshua J. Strickland, 23, of Woodstock, Ga., assigned to Group Support Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash.
CORRECTION: Updated Spc. Strickland's assigned unit.
"He which hath no stomach to this fight let him depart. But
we in it shall be remembered. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers!! For he today, that sheds his
blood with me, shall always be my brother." (W.Shakespeare)
Rest in peace my Brothers, you have not been forgotten.


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Tuesday, January 5, 2010
CASE a CAS at Gingersnap Creations
8 comments:
- Lynn Stevens said...
Simply stated and Simply Stunning. Love it!!!!!!!!!
- January 5, 2010 at 12:50 PM
- Hearts Turned said...
Jean--this is simply gorgeous! Love everything you did here!
- January 5, 2010 at 1:54 PM
- Ellen said...
perfect, I love the combination of the sentiment with the heart .
mmm that reminds me I've still got some of those pen nibs somewhre
- January 5, 2010 at 3:46 PM
- LeAnne said...
Lovely! I remember that card of Ali's and yours is just as gorgeous! Love that background and what a clever thought to use the pen nib!
- January 5, 2010 at 5:02 PM
- Evelyn S. said...
This card is just fabulous!!! I must have missed that particular theme when I checked out Ali's creations. I love the simplicity of this...the image and pen nib in the center and the sentiment down in the corner by itself. Beautiful!
- January 5, 2010 at 5:43 PM
- Louise (KardKrazy) said...
I just love this, Jean!
- January 5, 2010 at 7:20 PM
- Lorraine said...
I really like this its very sophisticated and elegant perfect for the man in your life or your dad perhaps
- January 6, 2010 at 4:08 AM
- Shar B said...
Totally delightful design and a perfect take on CAS with ephemera!
- January 7, 2010 at 3:45 PM


text:
Introduction: Peekaboo Pumpkin-pumpkin Bread
here is how to make pumpkin bread with a fancy little surprise in the middle
the recipe is for pumpkin bars so it is more of a dessert bread
please pay attention to how long you cook it for forgot to time it :(
Teacher Notes
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Step 1: Things You'll Need
- Pumpkin bread
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup canola oil
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 – 15oz can of pumpkin
- 2 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ginger
- ½ teaspoon cloves
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- Cream Cheese Frosting
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon almond extract
- 1 tablespoon milk
Step 2: Preheat Oven to 350 Degrees F
Step 3: Mix Eggs, Oil, Sugar and Pumpkin in a Large Bowl.
Step 4: Sift Remaining Ingredients Together
Step 5: Add to the Pumpkin Mixture and Mix Well
Step 6: Pour Into Greased Bread Pan
Step 7: Bake Until Done, Keep Close Eye on It!!
Step 8: In a Large Bowl, Beat Together the Butter and Cream Cheese With an Electric Mixer.
Step 9: With the Mixer on Low Speed, Add the Powdered Sugar a Cup at a Time Until Smooth and Creamy.
Step 10: Beat in the Vanilla Extract
Step 11: Once Bread Is Done Let Cool
Step 12: Slice Bread and Use a Pumpkin Shaped Cookie Cutter to Cut Out a Pumpkin From Each Slice
Step 13: Place Pumpkin Shapes Into the Middle of a Greased Bread Pan
Step 14: Mix Up More Pumpkin Bread According to Directions Give at the Beginning
Step 15: Pour Mixture Over Your Pumpkin Bread Cutouts in the Pan, Making Sure to Cover the Tops of the Pumpkins. You May Have More Batter Than You Need. Try Not to Overfill the Pan.
Step 16: Bake Until Done, Keeping a Close Eye on It
you can use this time to eat what was left from cutting out the pumpkins =)
Step 17: Remove From Pan and Add Cream Cheese Frosting
Step 18: And Now Enjoy!!!
some photos courtesy of(due to losing the ones originally taken for this project):
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3 Discussions
OMG, i love it, so cool
Or maybe, instead of covering them in more batter, you could just make two different batches with two different colours, slice each loaf, then cut out the pumpkins from each slice and trade them? Then you'd end up having two loaves :) I think thats just another way to do it. Might be easier for some people, not sure
This is awesome!


text:
Well, I'm getting close to finishing my Infusion of Flavour cigar sampler from Pipes & Cigars, and so I continued exploring it by selecting a long and narrow double corona; the Baccarat "the Game." I understand from Neptune Cigar that the cigar has a "Mexican Dulce Binder and the filler is Honduran Habano grown in the Jamastran Valley."
Initial inspection revealed golden rich tobacco with a sharp label, few seams and a well-constructed triple cap. It seemed a perfect choice for watching Game of Thrones; certainly another high-stakes game!
Baccharat is 007's game of choice, and the label had images of cards on it, so the brand name is likely meant to suggest danger, mystery and intrigue. I was intrigued but there was little apparent mystery; the Game was clearly an infused golden Connecticut with all of its virtues visible to the eye; though certainly that triple cap indicated a professional player. But the wrapper note was simply sweet; honey and clover again, not uncommon for an infused cigar.
I clipped the stick with my guillotine cutter; it clipped easily enough. Once again with my cedar spills close to hand, since I happened to be at home, I lit the cigar. I was greeted with delicious golden tobacco with a slight sweet infusion. Very pleasant; exactly right for a morning smoke. We settled into to watch Game of Thrones and I relaxed and enjoyed the slightly-honey-tinged cigar. I found it to be pleasant but not exceptional or unusual.
I was startled from my absorption in the show when I dropped ashes and its cherry on my legs and toe! That was a hot surprise! The burn was clean but it seems that the pack was lighter than I'd anticipated. This was about fifteen minutes into the smoke (and the episode).
I re-lit the cigar and continued to smoke it. I suppose largely because the infusion was fairly strong I didn't notice much differentiation between the thirds. But ten minutes later it spilled some more ashes on me! This time it had to be swept off the chair I was sitting on, which burned me a little, and then smothered.
Hmm; just like Baccharat, I suppose; fun and a little bit dangerous!
The cigar reached its end just about the same time as the Game of Thrones episode, so I would estimate it took me about an hour and fifteen minutes to smoke. I found also that it indeed fit the bill of a "mild-medium" bodied cigar. No lightheadedness at all.
Pleasant, but not worth the danger and not long enough! I would smoke it again if someone put one in front of me, but would not seek it out. It is perhaps best served as it tends to be advertised; a good starter cigar for new cigars smokers. Don't get me wrong; in this lady's perspective it's a good bet that you'll enjoy it, but it has little to make it truly unique. And don't smoke it while you're driving or watching TV! All in all:
You can get in the Game at $81.00 USD for a box of 25 churchills at Thompson Cigar, and $82.95 USD for a box of 25 double coronas or $5.15 USD for a single at Neptune Cigar.


text: A nurse works in the emergency room of al-Kindy hospital The havoc and destruction of war compounded that mismanagement. After the US-led invasion last year, US occupation chief Paul Bremer repeatedly offered a positive prognosis, claiming the health service was "better than before the war". "Yes, it's better than before," says Dr Hasan Muhammad Abbas, a manager at Medical City's Educational Hospital. "We have the freedom to request what we need from any country, we're getting new equipment and we're paid more." But many doctors working in Iraq's roughly 240 health centres offer a second opinion: the sector remains in a critical condition. "Getting better? The situation is getting worse every day," says Dr Ahmad Farooq, a urologist at Medical City. He agrees that corruption and mismanagement in previous decades was damaging. "Spending was haphazard, yes, but we still had some new equipment and staff coming in. Now, we see nothing being spent in the hospitals; we lack basic equipment." His observations chime with the findings of an official US report released on 29 June, which says many aspects of Iraqi life are worse now than before the war and blames Bremer's administration for mismanagement. Slow recovery The General Accounting Office says only a quarter of the $58 billion of the money donated internationally for the reconstruction of Iraq has been spent. The largest chunk has disappeared into ministry operations. Dr Ahmad Farooq says monthly salaries were just $3 in 2003Iraq spent a reported $20 million on its health service in 2002 - around 68 cents per person. The budget for this year is $900 million - around $40 per person. But many medics see little improvement. "It's true, salaries have risen," Dr Farooq says, "but I don't know where the rest of the money has gone." Punitively low monthly salaries under the ousted regime, from around $1.50 in 1995 rising to $3 for a specialist in 2003, caused 9000 doctor to emigrate after the war - worsening the situation, he adds. Improvements are on their way. Dr Abbas shows me new and refurbished wards with modern devices that are due to open soon. X-ray equipment lies in storage crates at the hospital. Other items are still with the Health Ministry awaiting distribution, he says. "It will take about a year for all the rehabilitation to be complete," says Dr Abbas. Catastrophic consequences But the failure to improve services quickly is having catastrophic consequences. One in 10 infants will die before they are a year old, according to the Health Ministry, while nearly eight per cent of the survivors will perish before they reach five years of age. With the supply of basic medicines such as antibiotics still unreliable, Iraqis are dying from easily treatable infections. About three in 1000 mothers die after childbirth, often from preventable infections, the Health Ministry says. "The situation in the villages is even worse," says Dr Farooq. "There is little sanitation or access to clean water." He says poor sanitation generally has led to a rise in diseases such as tuberculosis, while the war disrupted immunisation programmes. Some also report abnormally high rates of cancer in younger people, which some blame on US-led forces' use of radioactive ammunition during the invasion. Shells coated with depleted uranium were used because they penetrated armour more easily. Collapse Although decades of war, poor management and UN sanctions stunted Iraq's health service, the US-led invasion saw its near total destruction. Doctors from the Union of Islamic Clinics have joined forces "There was total chaos. People couldn't reach the hospitals because of the fighting," says Dr Farooq. "But we anticipated the collapse of the system and made an emergency plan. We contacted medical staff across Baghdad and set up small clinics." He and a few other medics used mosques - seen as relatively safe - to treat residents nearer their homes. The doctors then discovered that other physicians were doing similar work across the city. "Later, we tried to organise ourselves more, so we invited doctors to come together, discuss and plan a larger administration," he explains. The result was a new non-governmental organisation (NGO) - the Union of Islamic Clinics (UIC). Serving communities The UIC now operates six clinics in Baghdad and continues to assist smaller mosque-based programmes in remote areas. The largest clinic, in the district of Aadamiya, occupies an austere two-storey building once owned by the ousted Baath party. Medical services are hamperedby years of underfundingIn the first six months of operation, it treated more than 17,000 patients. Staffed by around 25 doctors and 40 support staff, the polyclinic offers a range of services from dentistry to obstetrics and sees about 5600 patients a month. "All our staff are volunteers," says Dr Alaa Alani, head of the UIC. "We receive our drugs from relief organisations, both Iraqi and international." Patients pay a nominal 50 US cents for treatment, which is invested in related projects and equipment. UIC doctors also visit the village of Hamidiya, a 30-minute drive east of Baghdad, where a makeshift clinic operates in primitive conditions. Its water supply is drawn from a well and carried indoors by hand. The long-term aim of groups such as the UIC is to work with the Health Ministry, expand its services and raise professional medical standards. In the meantime, however, doctors continue to face severe obstacles. Urgent needs "We were forbidden from going abroad by Saddam Hussein, so we lack new information and we need training according to our specialities," says Dr Alani, who is also a senior physician at al-Kindy hospital. Dr Alani says the Iraqi healthsystem needs international aidHe also complains of chronic drug shortages and an absence of post-graduate study programmes. For the UIC and the similarly new Iraqi League for Medical Professionals, another problem is their lack of organisational experience. "We're new to this. As an NGO we lack knowledge - how to write a proposal, how to research communities," Dr Farooq says. "We need other NGOs to contact us." Dr Abbas echoes the need for international help to train and advise Iraqi staff, and calls on hospitals in other countries to "twin" with their Iraqi counterparts. The Italian Red Cross, among others, has helped upgrade facilities at Medical City, while the Red Crescent in Qatar has provided the UIC with training and education. But Dr Alani ends with an urgent plea for direct international aid. "We can't continue unless we are helped from other parts of the world. And if all the money goes to the Health Ministry, not all of it will reach the people it should." The Union of Islamic Clinics can be contacted at: email@example.com, email@example.com and email@example.com SOURCE: Aljazeera


text:
Friday the 13th, yes.
Full Harvest Moon, yes.
September 13, 2019… 20 years to the day, baby.
Friday the 13th, yes.
Full Harvest Moon, yes.
September 13, 2019… 20 years to the day, baby.
Pluto in Enhanced Color
Image Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research Inst.
Explanation: Pluto is more colorful than we can see. Color data and images of our Solar System's most famous dwarf planet, taken by the robotic New Horizons spacecraft during its flyby in July, have been digitally combined to give an enhanced view of this ancient world sporting an unexpectedly young surface. The featured enhanced color image is not only esthetically prettybut scientifically useful, making surface regions of differing chemical composition visually distinct. For example, the light-colored heart-shaped Tombaugh Regio on the lower right is clearly shown here to be divisible into two regions that are geologically different, with the leftmost lobe Sputnik Planum also appearing unusually smooth. New Horizons now continues on beyond Pluto, will continue to beam back more images and data, and will soon be directed to change course so that it can fly past asteroid 2014 MU69 in 2019 January.
On Thursday, September 10 2015, NASA released a batch of newly downlinked hi-res Pluto images:
They're all here.
And, why am I only seeing this now? Stephen Colbert vs Neil deGrasse Tyson on the merits, wonders, and status of the NINTH PLANET IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM, dammit. Which places me firmly in the camp of the sentimental vs the scientific but however you cut it this clip is wicked fucking funny.
Will gravity rip you apart and crush you into the black hole's core? Or will a firewall of energy sizzle you into oblivion? Could some essence of you ever emerge from a black hole? First posited by a group of theorists including Donald Marolf, Ahmed Almheiri, James Sully and Joseph Polchinski in March 2012, the question of how you would die inside a black hole is probably the biggest debate in physics right now. It's called the firewall paradox.
Based on the mathematics in Einstein's 1915 General Theory of Relativity, you would fall through the event horizon unscathed before gravity's force pulled you into a noodle and ultimately crammed you into singularity, the black hole's infinitely dense core.
But Dr. Polchinski and his team pitted Einstein against quantum theory, which posited that the event horizon would become a blazing firewall of energy that would torch your body to smithereens.
Keep both theories, the physicist Stephen Hawking said in January 2014. Black holes aren't what we thought they were. There is no event horizon, and there is no singularity. They're just different.
According to Dr. Hawking, at the edge of a black hole, the fourth dimension known as space-time fluctuates like weather, making the crisp edge we assume impossible. Instead, Dr. Hawking's "apparent horizon" would be like a purgatory for light rays attempting to escape a black hole, slowly dissolving and moving inward, but never being pulled into singularity. The event horizon, he says, remains the same, or even shrinks as a black hole slowly leaks energy. Suspended in the apparent zone, you would scramble and leak out into the cosmos as "Hawking radiation."
From yesterday's New York Times
The Curiosity rover on Mars captured imagery of the brightest object in its evening twilight sky, our own Earth and moon, on January 31, 2014. The rover has been at the Dingo Gap, inside the Gale Crater, on Mars this week. It captured these images on Sol 529, that is, the rover's 529th day on Mars. Just think … everything we know is within that little dot, seen as a "star" from the planet just next door.
Via Earth/Sky.org
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/TAMU
via nasa:
Earth from the Moon! To celebrate tonight's scheduled 11:27 p.m. EDT launch of our Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft, it's moon day on NASA's new Instagram, where we bring you photos from our planet and beyond. This image taken July 20, 1969 from Apollo 11 shows the Earth rising over the limb of the moon much as the Harvest Moon does from our planetary perspective. Over the stark, scarred surface of the moon, the Earth floats in the void of space, a watery jewel swathed in ribbons of clouds. To learn more about our LADEE mission, visit www.nasa.gov/ladee and to learn more about the moon, visit solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Moon For more images from NASA on Instagram, follow us at @NASA.
Image credit: NASA
via NASA:
Two or three times a year, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory observes the moon traveling across the sun, blocking its view. While this obscures solar observations for a short while, it offers the chance for an interesting view of the shadow of the moon. The moon's crisp horizon can be seen up against the sun, because the moon does not have an atmosphere. (At other times of the year, when Earth blocks SDO's view, the Earth's horizon looks fuzzy due to its atmosphere.)
If one looks closely at such a crisp border, the features of the moon's topography are visible, as is the case in this image from Oct. 7, 2010. This recently inspired two NASA visualizers to overlay a 3-dimensional model of the moon based on data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, into the shadow of the SDO image. Such a task is fairly tricky, as the visualizers — Scott Wiessinger who typically works with the SDO imagery and Ernie Wright who works with the LRO imagery — had to precisely match up data from the correct time and viewpoint for the two separate instruments. The end result is an awe-inspiring image of the sun and the moon.
Image Credit: NASA/SDO/LRO/GSFC
Pretty wild, eh? Via EarthPosts


text:
In these difficult times, we need to come together as a community like never before.
Do you know a neighbour or someone nearby that could use assistance with picking up groceries, prescriptions or is perhaps living alone and you think they'd enjoy a chat on the phone?
If you do, and you feel comfortable assisting, download this flyer, and pop it in their letterbox:
Please follow the latest updates and advice at: australia.gov.au


text:
Need a light fixture hung
By M K
Accepting offers for: Hurry!
Location: Austin, Texas, 78757
Category: Handyman & Assembly
Budget: $15.00
Payment type: Pay Directly with Cash or Check
Complete by: Sep 20, 2016
Posted: Sep 19, 2016
I have a light fixture that needs to be attached to the ceiling. There are holes in the light fixture that align with screws in the ceiling.


text:
|I love reading books that make me think, and I love picking up any book from which I'll learn something. This was great - well informed, well written, and gave me much pause for thought.
|This book of essays had some great moments and some wonderfully searing turns of phrase. I actually laughed out loud at times. It's a bit uneven though, or maybe certain subjects appealed to me less than others. Still though, it's worth a read.


text:
05 May 2004 Wednesday
photographs of tortured iraqis~
imported from email conversations:
From: alicson
Sent: Wednesday, May 05, 2004 1:48 PM
Subject: Re: RE: washpost (sent to me from another friend)
this article talked about how what they're doing is terrible.. and i get the gist of what's going on. but i haven't actually seen much of these photographs (not really any) and i only really know what's going on beause of the big scandal that was discussed on the radio one morning on my way to work… and about military action on this militaryguy who had probably suffered a cruel doctored photo prank… i know the sexual stuff is extra bad to them.. i don't actually know what's being done to them of a sexual nature, tho.. besides photos with them naked… honestly? i'm not really surprised about any of it. what outlets are really offered to these soldiers over there? the behavior is unacceptable, but who's responsible for educating them/ curbing them, anyway?
From: Alberto
Subject: Fwd: washpost
Sent: May 05 2004 12:34:24
It's really rather terrible. The worst part is that in the Islamic religion, modesty is highly revered. It's a sin and a shame to be naked in front of another man.
It's wrong to be a homosexual or to be involved in homosexual acts. So the military people are having them do these grotesque things to them and it's doubly bad for them.
I'll send you the new yorker article about it that goes into a lot more detail.
really well written too.
From: Alberto
Sent: Wednesday, May 05, 2004 2:09 PM
Subject: RE: RE: washpost
The Article.
The now infamous Taguma Report was drafted in February, so this has been going on a while. What doctored photograph are you talking about? Re: The not being surprised part…first of all, you pride yourself in not really being surprised by anything, so I guess that isn't new. And what else is being done besides these pictures?"Breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees; pouring cold water on naked detainees; beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair; threatening male detainees with rape; allowing a military police guard to stitch the wound of a detainee who was injured after being slammed against the wall in his cell; sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick, and using military working dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees with threats of attack, and in one instance actually biting a detainee."
It's a systematic process of breaking them down, humiliating them, and sodomizing them. And in terms of regulation and oversight…that's the question, isn't it? How high up does this go? Who encourages/discourages this? Why was the report issued in February…3 months ago, and why is nothing being done until now?
But the political repercussions are serious. In the Arab world where the Bush Administration has been trying to state time and time again that we're here for their own good…to liberate them, to give them freedom, to make their lives better…and then something like this gets out…as if there weren't enough people to view the Americans as being hypocritical. We're here as liberators…and then we make the Iraqis simulate sex acts on one another. We say that we are sensitive to their religion, and then hit mosques and do this to the people.
On an international level, Americans pride themselves on being a beacon of democracy. "But Americans are still as capable of torture as anyone else. Rumsfeld said yesterday that it was "un-American" to abuse prisoners—as if Americans were still somehow exempt from the passions that grip the rest of the human race. But we aren't, and because we aren't, we shouldn't dispense with rules that have been designed to contain them." (washingtonpost/A2328-2004May4)
It's also about the mentality that rules shouldn't apply to us because we're better. On an international level, that's what pisses everyone off…
it's a big deal, and though it's not beyond the realm of possibility that people are capable of doing this to prisoners…a lot of people believe that American's aren't actually capable of this. The Administration is also really trying hard to point out the fact that it's a limited variation of the norm when the truth of the matter is that it doesn't look so limited. Several of the prison systems in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo are under investigation for this very same thing.
It's one thing to strive for a higher ideal that is beyond one's reach, it's another to deny the facts and issues and to keep the world as black and white as one thought of before. That's Bush and his Administration's tragic flaw. Regardless of all of this, we're still liberators and anyone that doesn't see that is on the opposing side. We're good people, and therefore we shouldn't follow any rules.
From: alicson
Sent: Wednesday, May 05, 2004 5:05 PM
Subject: Re: RE: washpost
so what do we do?
war is bad.
torture is bad.
revelling in other's suffering is bad.
and we're not gods and are without God's powers.
so what do we do as a nation; government; species?—short of what is currently being done.
do you attack the motivations, or stengthen damage-control, or enforce strict policing?
we're fans of the 'every angle' approach, neh?
and why isn't it being done already, if the answers are reasonable, if not basically interpretable (i started to say 'obvious'.. but i suppose i can't) ?
right and wrong. good and bad. circumstances beget motivations beget circumstances…
they hate us. we hate them. why do they hate us? because we didn't like them enough to treat them accordingly. now we don't like them because they didn't like us and treated us accordingly.
and of course it's not even that simple, but if you'll step back for a bit… well, it is.
"why should i care?" i know you understand that sentiment.
that can be accordioned short, or long so many times in so many different directions that it doesn't matter how many things you manage to fix now.
some people.. some things… ..some ideologies.. they just cannot coexist.
human beings become more and more complicated all the time. we 'evolve'. and we become more complicated. we learn more; we're aware of more; we're capable of more.. and that simply translates to bigger, badder bads….—which also allows for greater, gooder goods… (i wanted to say 'greater, gooder God(s)'.. but offhandedly i'd venture that God has not become much gooder in the past fifty/hundred+ years.. and i wonder whether the desperation for Him is greater now than before,..or not…. a lot of terrible terrible terrible things have occurred in our (human) history. how horrified and indignant and despairing and frustrated and confused and hurt people must have been then—just the outsiders looking in at atrocity—not even the tortured and murdered and mutilated and the innocents so terribly trespassed upon and those from who all grains of decency and human kindness were stolen from… 'human kindness'.. it's a whole idea… it's one word by itself… there simply must be stake in it. and there is. but that's not what we're talking about here, is it? now where did this parentheses start..?...) ...yes… greater gooder goods… balance and day and night and all of that… more complicated… bigger… our crimes become farther-reaching, and potentially deeper.. and we have the increasing capacity to be aware of the crimes on a larger social scale, rather than just an individual one. when are you people going to read Grapes of Wrath?
constant struggle for good triumph above evil—however we find it/interpret it/label it/create it.
we take very personally the things that we know. our country. our people. our species.
you take personally your news articles.. your knowledge: composed/collected and delivered en masse. of course there's beauty in that. that with which you are unfamiliar, though, you grimace at.
and that's prejudice.
and you know that your way of thinking/doing/being is better than others.
and that's bigotry.
that, my dear, is missing only means, for exercising 'good'old-fashioned oppression.
and how far away is torture from there?
but you know all of that.
so what do we do?


text:
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GB.Net News Archive ~ GB.Net News By Category
Category: 300 News Posted by: admin One word for 300: ASTIG.
Then we will fight in the shade! (Blog)
Article Date: March 10, 2007 | Publication: The Mighty Dacs | Author: DACS
Source: http://mightydacs98.blogspot.com/2007/03/then-we-will-fight-in-shade.html
Ok, actually I've got more than just one word :P
I love the storyline.
It's actually a fictionalized account of the Battle of Thermopylae, where Spartan King Leonidas led 300 elite Spartan warriors against Xerxes' massive Persian army. Whatever the elements may have been - fiction or fact - the storytelling was superb.
I love the characters.
King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) was both mighty and endearing. As a warrior and leader, he was fierce and authoritative. As a husband he was loving and loyal. I never knew of Gerard Butler before; now I'm currently seeking DVDs of Dracula 2000 and Phantom of the Opera.
Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey) was girl power personified. She capably portrayed the independent Spartan woman.
Theron (Dominic West) was a convincingly evil politician. I wanted to applaud when Queen Gorgo did what she did to him in front of the council.
I love the soundtrack.
ROCK! Hahaha, instead of the usual orchestral arrangements for the fight scenes, the wall of abs that is the Spartan army walks on the battlefield to the sound of hard rock!
I love the cinematography.
Some scenes look like they were taken straight out from the comic book. The visuals were stunning. The sex-and-violence scenes were executed with such good taste. Nothing too explicit (as in hindi bastusan), nothing too gruesome (as in not needlessly gory).
I love the dialogue.
There were so many memorable lines in this film, I had to stop myself from taking down notes! I especially enjoyed the witty remarks that passed between friends and between enemies.
Persian emissary (to Leonidas): Why does this woman think she can speak amongst men?!
Gorgo: Because only Spartan women give birth to Spartan men.
Persian emissary: This is madness!
Leonidas: This is SPARTA!
Persian: A thousand nations of the Persian empire will descend upon you. Our arrows will blot out the sun!
Spartan: Then we will fight in the shade.
Xerxes: Consider the fate of your women...
Leonidas: Clearly you don't know our women. I might as well have marched them up here...
Persian: Spartans! Lay down your weapons!
Leonidas: Persians! Come and get them!
Needless to say - I LOVE THIS FILM!
Official site: http://300themovie.warnerbros.com
Category: 300 News
Posted by: admin
One word for 300: ASTIG.