pair of jeans. In fact, he notes, looking in the mirror, these fit and look better than the old pair he had on. He finishes dressing, combs back his long, wet hair and walks back down the hall towards David's apartment.

Before knocking, he stops to look over to the balcony. As David did a few minutes before, he easily spots the speed freaks in the swarming scene below. That explains the underwear, he thinks to himself. Speed freaks are lamentably casual about the when, where, and whether of sex, especially in public places. However, maybe in a little while, because of what he's doing, there won't be as much of the stuff to go around. Some of those below may actually go straight. So, it's been worth it,as Mary gathers up the plates and trays, David drops on the couch, lights a cigarette and says to Todd and Lance, "Well, what do we do now?"

"Depends what you want to do," says Lance.

"You know what I want, dammit. I just didn't think it would happen this way."

"Well, how did you think it would happen? You knew someday you'd have to come to grips with how you dealt with Stan's death," says Mary.

"You're right, I've been living in a dream world. I guess that ended tonight."

"So, you're ready to fight back?" asks Todd.

"You know that."

"Well, we've been waiting for you to finally say it."

"Well, there it is. We're in it now. Agreed?"

"Agreed," says Mary, Todd and Lance together.

Todd and Lance get up to leave. Mary says she's


a glaring, actinic point of light in a dark crystal blue sky. At surface level, there is near white out as gale force northwest winds churn last night's powder into billows of frozen crystal. The post-blizzard blowing and drifting has begun.

Mike looks out the picture window and says, "It'll be a while before the roads are back to normal."

"Looks that way. Did'ya notice the rafters shaking in the wind last night? Happens when the wind is strong."

"No, I thought it was the band."

"Well, them too. You want me to heat this up or do you want it cold?" says David as he pulls a couple of plates from the refrigerator stacked with the leftover slices from the night before.

"Cold's fine with me. Got any coffee?"

"Yeah, over on theof the building.

The ostensible business of the warehouse is paper goods. All kinds, from napkins to corrugated cardboard. Joe inherited the business from his father and has run it for many years. His trucks range across most of the Midwest and beyond making pickups and deliveries.

Joe Schmidt is a pasty, paunchy, middle aged guy with a fat wife with unrealistic social ambitions. Joe's personality is essentially that of a dirt lot used car salesman, he'll do anything for a buck so long as it doesn't involve any effort on his part. Joe is partial to plaid sports jackets, heavily patterned ties, and pants of a polyester look.

About ten years ago Joe got into financial trouble and found that his only offer for a bailout came with strings attached.


make a career here just documenting what you're doing?"

"You probably could, Dr. Watson, you probably could."

Mike now looks much more intently at the large flickering liquid crystal displays mapping the data flow of the planet. He understands now. It's an amazing sight, one only a few people in the world know about and many of them are bad guys.

"In the meantime, dude, we can use tools like this to spy on our mutual enemies and maybe sabotage some of their operations. Drug networks should be a piece of cake. But more of that later. Come on, for now I'll show you the rest of the place."

They get up and David guides Mike past more banks of servers, processors, disk drives, fiber optic network connections, workstations and displays.

After loopingof thing."

"Actually, I do know."

"The credit transaction would have appeared within seconds after the clerk swiped your card and would have given the motel's name and address," says Todd.

"That quick?"

"Yep, that quick. I hacked the Iowa DMV network and ran an ID on the plate from Tom and Bob's car. It's registered to an address in Waterloo Iowa. According to Lance's sources in Iowa, the owner's a small time errand boy for the organization and so is his friend whose driver's license is listed to the same address. We did some further checking but couldn't come up with much but we have managed to ID them both. One is named Tom Schaffer, 5'10, blond hair, blue eyes, age 22, and the other is named Bob McCarthy, 6'3", dark


shopping channels."

Mike rolls his head towards David and cries, "You mean there's more?"

"Yep, overnight delivery. Probably jewelry. I think they bought jewelry. They always buy jewelry. Bling, they call it. Hey, nice hair cut."

"Do you know one of them wanted to put eyeliner on me? Where did you get them? Some charm school for the depraved?"

David laughs and gets a glass of scotch, lights a cigarette, flops on one of the couches and says, "Well, you needed it. You're getting a little old for the retro hippie look. Anyway, your own mother wouldn't recognize you now. Think of it as a disguise, with or without the eye liner."

"I'd rather not think about it. It was very traumatic. I may need therapy. Ya'know, when they came back, I wasthe time. They hired me on as a programmer. One thing led to another and next thing, I had stock options, then the buy out. Finished my degree about the same time as Stan got murdered. When David finally decided to buy this place, he asked if I wanted to join him. He had some ideas on cyber warfare, that sort of thing. So, being filthy rich, I didn't have much better to do so I moved out here a couple of years ago and been doing this part time and running that computer maze upstairs the rest of the time. It's sort'a like being back at grad school, half the time in the lab, half the time in a bar."

"Man, that's every occupation. Where did you come


really a worm but a bot used to organize infected computers into a botnet which can be controlled from a single site. Storm Worm may control up to 10 million machines right now, no one really knows and Mega D is probably even bigger! Other types of cyber attacks include spreading propaganda by altering or hijacking legitimate news sites, disrupting equipment such as military satellites, attacking communications networks, routers and name servers. Also, attacks at infrastructure such as power grids, water supply systems, transportation, fuel systems, nuclear power stations, you name it."

"Wow!"

"Get on the Internet, for a few hundred dollars you can have your own custom built botnet along with 24x7 tech support. You can host it in a country like China or Russia for a few bucksscreen.

"I'm just opening a connection to Todd's web cam."

Mike sits quietly and watches as the large LCD screen lights up to display a group of new icons, tool bars, and message windows. David, mouse now in hand, quickly moves the cursor to an icon. He quickly double clicks and a window appears with a web cam shot of Todd behind the bar on the floor below. As soon as he does this, the LED on David's web cam on the wall switches from red to green.

"See, there's my web cam," as he points the small lens below the green LED just above the screen.

"Hey David," greets the voice from the animated figure in the window on the screen.

"What'ya got Todd?" David replies.

"Our friends from the motel walked in


away.

Bob comes to and stumbles uncertainly to his feet only to be grabbed by Jim. From the pained expression on his face as Jim tightens his grip, it's clear he's done fighting.

David and Lance relieve them of their guns and David says, "This is a nice, quiet bar, we don't need trouble makers. Oh, and by the way, tell your boss I don't like having guns pulled on me."

Lance says, "Okay guys, time we sent'em packing."

Sean and Jim unceremoniously frog march Tom and Bob to the door and heave them out into the bank of snow and slush next to the entrance. Jim retrieves their coats from the coat room where they were searched earlier and tosses them on the wet, prone figures below. Jim slams the doorasks?

"Oh, Todd told me he arranged a few of his electronic gadgets to be attached to our friends' car while Mary kept bringing them beer. Nothing elaborate, just a wireless mic and a GPS tracking bug. That's the GPS display over there and the middle window is analyzing the sound you hear from our frozen duo huddled in their car about a block from here."

"How did he ID their car?"

"Outside security cam. He played back the tape after we ID'd them and saw where they parked."

David clicks the speaker on and they listen in on Tom and Bob who are now shivering, arms crossed, frozen hands in their armpits, Bob says, "Now what the fuck do we do? Pete's fucking not gonna be fucking happy about this. We


the window and retransmit the signal from a van parked on the street. We should be able to hear everything they say."

Turning to Mike, David says, "This is getting complicated."

Just then Todd's phone rings, it's one of the bartenders downstairs. Flipping his phone shut he says, "I think your girl friend is here. Sean says there's a girl downstairs that fits her description."

"Come on, let's go out and take a look," says David.

They all get up, and head out to the balcony. Mike scans the floor below. It's nearly 11:30 pm and the crowd is thinner, and more desperate.

David says, "They say everyone looks better at closing, or so the story goes. It's just a story. By closing time, they all just look drunk."

Jessica arrived late that eveningroad. A few blocks down the street they turn into a donut shop drive-thru where they buy coffee and a couple dozen donuts. They get back on the road and drive to Joe's warehouse. This might not be a good day to be late. Parking in the lot across the street, they sit waiting, drinking the coffee and eating the donuts.

"Well, what'ya think's gonna happen?" says Bob to Tom.

"We're not gonna get any prizes, that's what. First, we missed Mike's car getting jacked right under our noses then we got our cover blown at the club. I don't see a prize in that."

"We really didn't fuck up that bad, ya'know. But I guess Pete won't be too happy that Mike's been tipped off that we're onto him. But,


that took Mike's car while we were checking out the club, they must have spotted us. Ya'know, the more I think about it, that bouncer at the door last night, I think he was the one in the lobby at the motel. It looked like him, I think. Right?" says Tom.

"Hey, yeah, that was it! That was how they did us."

"Yeah, you might be right. And we showed Mike's picture to that waitress. She must have known Mike was there. She could have tipped off Shea. It really wasn't our fault," says Tom. "We were just doing what we were told to."

"But I still don't see how that's gonna help us much. I wonder what the full story is about Mike. Did you ever think he was reallyfeed from the discrete small wireless microphone fixed to the corner window of Joe's office. The camera is focused on Joe as he unlocks the side door to the warehouse and on his companions who wait, jumping up and down in the cold.

Lance and Todd join David, Mike and Jay to listen in on the meeting. They pour coffee and quietly take their seats on the couches around the display screen as it shows the feed from the van.

"Is the window mic working okay?" asks Todd.

"Not sure yet, but it seems to be. We're mainly getting street sounds right now. They just went in the warehouse so we should know for sure in a minute. The car mic worked fine and we're getting good video. I was able


and practice of schaddenfreude.

Pete, in his thirties, is dressed more like a business man in a top coat, creme colored cashmere scarf, thin black leather gloves and a sporty fur lined hat. Pete began as a small time street hood who worked his way up in the organization. He started a small gang in high school and terrorized anyone he thought he could shake down. Quickly cornering the market for drugs and prostitution in his neighborhood, he left his first victim by the side of the road when he was seventeen, a 'hit and run' said the police, someone who got in Pete's way.

After dropping out of school, he was avidly recruited by just about every crime operation in the Mississippi valley. Eventually, he caught the eye ofwinter. There's some hot coffee and donuts over there."

"Thanks."

The others sit silently while Pete gets coffee and a donut. A minute later with his mouth full he begins, "Okay Joe, let's get right down to business. What'ya know about this bar and do you think Mike's holed up there?"

"I made some calls this morning and did a little research. About the bar, not too much, Pete. Just a big dance club in a converted warehouse in an old part of town. It's called Mo Rún and it's owned by a guy named David Shea who's pretty well off, I've learned. The place is popular and gets a few hundred people most nights, mainly in their twenties and early thirties. As to Mike being there, yeah, it's very likely."

"Shea,


All along it are the usual collection of gas stations, fast food outlets, supermarkets, and strip malls. Garish, multi-colored signs on tall round steel posts wobble in the brisk wind. The brilliant white snow cover beneath a cloudless sky is blinding. Traffic is light as the weather has brought many activities to a halt.

Mark jerks the Jeep into the parking lot, bouncing over the unseen curb, hidden by the snow. He parks the Jeep and all four jump out and jog to the restaurant. They pay the lunch admission, get a table then help themselves to plates of fried chicken, French fries, meatballs, ribs, ham, mini-corn dogs, Salisbury steak, hush puppies, macaroni and cheese, hash browns, corn, onion rings, and stuffing. A couple of trips later they've surroundedOn screen, they can see Pete reach for the phone, pick it up and say, "Hello." Immediately the land line phone tap cuts in. Another window appears with a jagged audio amplitude graph and now they hear both sides of the call.

"Hey Pete, got a minute?"

"Yeah, Joe, what'ya got?"

"I got the information on their electricity. They're fed by several high voltage overhead lines that come from a sub-station about two blocks away. I don't know much about these things, but it looks like they use one pant load of electricity. Those are very high capacity lines, as I understand it. What's more, they're the only building being fed by that substation. All the other buildings in the area are fed by a different substation three blocks away. Strange."

"Seems


gonna get in if this doesn't work."

"Yeah. Let's hope we don't need to go in there. Thanks for the diagrams. Send me anything else you come up with." He says goodbye and hangs up.

He picks up the phone again. This time he calls Mark and Sid at their motel. Mark answers, "Hello?"

"Mark? It's Pete."

"Did you get the smoke bombs?"

"Yeah. Tom gave us the address of that fireworks shop off I80 and we got them a little while ago."

"Will they do the trick?"

"Oh yeah, we got a demo from the guy that owned the store. Lots'a smoke. We got a case of twelve of them."

"Good, and the gasoline?"

"Yeah, we got a couple of small bottles we can use too."

"Sounds good guys. Get to the club a bit early and4 as it was about to drop off line, that's all!"

The red lines on the ISO Midwest map begin to turn yellow then, one by one, green. The Palo station returns to green. The lines in Texas begin to return to green as gas fired generating stations across the state quickly ramp up to their full mid-summer capacity from their January reduced output level of a few minutes earlier.

"I knew there was a lot of extra capacity in Texas, so I borrowed it. Their systems are designed for air conditioning when it's 110F in Dallas. They only use a fraction of what they can produce this time of year. You can see their plants spinning up to meet the extra demand," brags Todd. "Look, now that the strain


and, at last, gone to heaven.

Time: 4:30 PM

At around 4:30, two groups of two guys arrive separately. These are Joe's people who are scheduled to be back later in the night. They buy beers and wander around, looking the place over. After they finish their beers, they leave. Lance has had each of their driver's licenses scanned. Todd builds a database on them and has them photographed from different angles by the security cameras. They're mainly petty criminals from the metro Omaha area all residing at the same address in Council Bluffs.

Time: 5:00 PM

David, Mike and Jay go to Tom and Bob's apartment around five pm. David knocks on the door. Bob walks over and opens it and says, "Hey guys, com'on in."

Tom hops up and walks overjust got a call from Mark. He says those fuckups Tom and Bob have split. When Mark went to their motel, they were gone. All they found in their room was the gas can, bottles and rags."

"I don't know how they could pull anything. I don't think they had twenty bucks between them until they finished this job. I'll check around and see if anyone knows anything," says Joe.

"When I'm done with this business, I'll deal with them personally. I wonder if that Shea was somehow involved? Some of his people may have tracked Tom and Bob back to their motel?"

"It's possible. He knew who they were and why they were there. So, what's the plan now?" says Joe.

"This Shea's becoming a fucking pain in the ass. Looks


bombs and some small bottles of gasoline. Looks like the same plan. I swapped the smoke bombs and replaced the gasoline with kerosene and olive oil. It won't do much now. It might not even light."

"Olive oil?" Mike whispers to Jay.

Time: 10 PM

As it nears ten o'clock, Mark and Sid wander back towards the coat room.

Lance keys his mic for all to hear and says, "Hey guys. Sid and Mark are getting ready to make their move. Keep an eye on them. Let's play this cool. Stay on the perimeter until it's time. You guys got your trash barrels ready?"

"Roger that," comes from several unseen voices.

Mike say, "Look! They both have their cell phones out, it's a conference call, I'll bet."

"Yeah, it is, I'm intercepting Mark's signal andrush to the stage. At last, they blast the flames with foam and clouds of CO2. The fires are quickly extinguished. Steve and Harry are too, due to a combination of incineration and too much crystal meth.

The crowd slowly calms down and mills about. Furious canaries sternly perched on the balconies and rafters above chatter angrily. The security guards disarm the remaining exit alarms and holler to the people outside to get in out of the cold. Many return through the exits out through which they only moments ago fled. Now they rush back in, not wanting to miss the excitement. Anyway, they figure, David always puts them up for the night if there's a real problem. As calm returns, a few brave birds descend to fetch nuts


are seen in St. Louis the following morning courtesy of cable news and entertainment networks.

**6. Saturday January 13**

_Time: 2 AM_

By 2 am the crowds of cops and press have finally cleared out. David, Todd, Jay, Lance, Tom, Bob and Mike, a few minutes apart, take separate SUVs from the parking lot and rendezvous at an all night diner several blocks away. After checking that they've not been followed, they then drive to the other side of town.

Pulling up to a large garage door at the side of a dingy old flat roofed cinder block building, Lance hits a remote control and the door slowly rises. The SUVs pull in and the door noisily rattles down behind them.

They are in an old, unheated, auto repair shop with stalls forprairie standing in a small brick lavatory. The fluorescent light fixtures buzz and the fan in a scuffed, old green built-in electric wall heater rumbles against the cold.

One of them says as he points out at the lot, "That Shea guy was right, we really do have a problem."

Outside, an 18-wheeler rolls slowly to a stop. It sits and waits. Finally, two bearded truckers alight, and, pointing at the guys visible through the building's large glassed front, jog towards the building. As they near and pass under one of the sodium vapor lamps, they see that one has a gun.

They panic and rush through the steel men's room door and barricade themselves behind it. The truckers, now inside the building try pushing on the door but without result.


so to speak."

"How's that?" asks Mike.

"Listen, he's on the ropes. Everything he's tried has come up empty. My guess is that Jack is not a very forgiving person. Am I right?"

"Oh yes, Jack doesn't like failure. Neither do Jack's colleagues. My guess is that right now, they're not too happy and a little bit concerned as to whether Jack's in control of things," says Mike. "Jack knows this too, so, I guess Pete's got a problem too."

"Then maybe we've got some leverage with Pete right now. We've turned other guys in the organization, why not Pete? He's got incentive and I don't think there's a lot of brotherly loyalty here. He may be able to hand us Jack himself."

"But once we put together our report, Jack's in plentymuch anyway, Pete. That last batch of meth I gave them would have ended them even if the crowd hadn't. It'll show up on the autopsy, though."

"All the better," smiles Pete, "The cops will chalk the incident up as a drug OD and probably won't look much further. Anyway, I'm going back to the hotel and see if I can figure a way out of this mess. You see if you can find out how that David knew we were coming."

Time: 5 PM

Mo Rún opens again Saturday afternoon at five pm, later than usual because there was a lot of cleanup to do after the night before. The door alarms are reset and new cameras are positioned to watch over them. Several plain clothes police mingle with the


I like the balcony," he says walking out and rubber necking at the view below. "Maybe I could extend my apartment out so the balcony would be part of it?"

"Might work. You pay for the renovations, though."

David picks up his cell phone, puts it on speaker phone and calls Jay in the lobby, "We're all set up here. Ya'see him yet?"

"Nope, nothing yet. Pretty quiet down here. I can see Lance, though."

Lance hears and waves. Jay nods and says, "Hello Lance. I won't wave in case anyone's watching me."

Todd's voice suddenly cuts into the phone call, "Hey guys, we got a problem."

"What is it?" says David as Lance returns to the room.

"Okay, so you know my phone scripts have been monitoring calls by anyone on the network whosegot it, I can see you. Now wait, I'll make them reveal themselves. I'll ring both their phones at once. Jay, don't give on but listen closely. They could be anywhere."

Jay jumps a tiny bit as she hears the cell phones on two guys in chairs not fifteen feet away begin to chirp with annoyingly happy ring tones. Jay says quietly into her phone, "We have a winner, two winners, actually. They're about fifteen feet to my left."

Todd says, "I see them."

David says, "We see them too."

The two guys pull out their phones and answer them. Todd's programmed them to receive a recorded sales pitch for a credit card. They immediately hang up and look at one another shaking their heads in annoyance as one mutters something to


Nebraska have converged on this scene of mass destruction. They've posted a description of the car which you see in the box on the screen along with the license plate number. It belongs to a car reported stolen this morning near Kansas City. Right now, I29 is closed in both directions and not expected to reopen until at least tomorrow. Due to the extreme cold and the blowing and drifting snow from the blizzard last week, the state police have opened the cross-overs in order to move traffic. They hope to clear the cars from the road before the night sets in with expected wind chills down to minus sixty."

"Wow, me and my little gun caused all that?"

"Well, I did the driving," says Ed.

"And very well, too. Hey,another car so the license plate won't be visible from the street.

They hop out of the car and instinctively look suspiciously around them to see if someone is watching then jog across to the warehouse in the howling wind. Sid is waiting for them at the door. Once inside, they are taken to Joe's bugged office where their conversation is recorded.

Waiting inside the office for them are Joe, and Mark. Jim and Ed introduce themselves then Jim says, "Our car's hot, we kind'a borrowed it after that little road rage incident on I29 in Iowa."

"Yeah, I heard about that. That was you guys? Geeez, let's not start that over here. We're gonna have enough publicity before this is over," says Joe as he rummages around in his desk


streets and here's a map of that part of town. This is a picture of the loading dock where the beer is delivered."

"Looks good," says Ed.

"Now the beer deliveries are usually around two in the afternoon and Friday's calls for about 12 kegs, all Millers Draught. But first the truck stops at this bar a few blocks away to make a delivery before heading to Mo Rún."

Pointing to a picture of the alley behind the bar where the truck stops just before going to Mo Rún, Joe says, "Here's the plan. Mark and Sid will take a van with the RDX kegs and wait on the street for the beer truck to pull into this alley. This is a good place to take the truck. There are nooverlooking windows and it's not visible from the main street."

"While the driver is making his delivery, Mark and Sid will pull in behind the beer truck. You two will park your car and wait up here. When the driver comes out, Mark and Sid will grab him and put him in the van. Then they'll load the RDX kegs onto the beer truck. You two will take it from here. Give Mark your car keys and he'll bring it back here and park it across the street while Sid takes care of the van. Take the beer truck to Mo Rún, make the delivery then bring the truck back here and park it in the warehouse. Mark will give you your keys then you two can then hit


the road. Got it?"

"Sounds like you want us out of town?" asks Jim.

"The fewer people here, the better."

"What happens to the beer truck?"

"Jack says the blast will be around 10 pm. Afterward, when every cop in Omaha is focused on the club, Mark and Sid will take the beer truck and the driver a few miles south of here. They overdose him with meth then run the truck and the driver off an old bridge into the Missouri River. It'll look like an accident by some twinked out temp on dope. No one will care anyway. They'll have more pressing problems with a few hundred casualties and a bombed out warehouse. Any questions?"

"Nope, it sounds good to me. Are the RDX kegs the same weight as the regularjacket with matching black leather gloves and a red stocking cap over his head from under which a generous amount of blond hair shows. Ed waits while Jim preens in the mirror. They look around the motel room to see if they've forgotten anything and then head for the car. A few minutes later they park in the lot across from Mo Rún where Mark and Sid are already waiting.

"Geeez, aren't you a bit over dressed?" asks Mark.

"What'ya mean? We dress like this all the time at the clubs in St. Louis. What'ya wear to a dance club out here? Bib-overalls?" quips Ed.

"Maybe something a little less conspicuous, that's all."

"Don't worry man, two days from now, nobody will recognize us and, if they do, so what? We're temp


main receiving area of the warehouse. Joe says, "Call us if you have any questions. Here's my number," handing Ed a slip of paper.

"When you get back here with the beer truck, just pull in the west entrance, you can see it down there, park it, and then get out'a Dodge. We'll take care of it from there."

**12. Friday January 19**

_Time: 11 AM_

Around eleven Friday morning, Mark and Sid arrive at Joe's and park their car across the street. They jog over to the warehouse. Mark pulls out a set of keys and unlocks the door. Normally it would be open but today, Joe's given everyone the day off so it's locked. Joe does not want any witnesses, even his own guys.

Once inside, they walk through the garageSid take off their coats and Joe leads them to the storage room where the kegs are. He unlocks the door and Mark and Sid carefully put the first of the bombs on a two-wheeler and push it slowly to the van. Sid opens the back doors as Mark steadies the two-wheeler. Inside the van are some heavy padded quilts like moving companies use, along with some heavy woven fabric straps with buckles and a tarp.

Sid spreads out a couple of layers of the quilts then they lift the first keg in and place it on its side with its top facing the rear. They get the two other kegs and place them similarly but with a quilt between each keg and between the side kegs and the


mistakes. So, where you gonna be when the ball drops?"

"Gee, I dunno, I guess we should find someplace with a good view. What do you think it'll look like?" asks Sid.

"Like Baghdad. Mushroom cloud, the works. The flames will be huge, I'm told."

"Then I guess we won't watch from across the street. How about you?"

"Jack wants a blow by blow description so I'll be back at the warehouse and watch from an old office on the top floor. I should see the whole show perfectly."

"Yeah, I'll bet that'll be the best view in town," says Sid.

"That's for sure," agrees Mark.

"You two wanna watch?"

"Yeah, sure do!" says Mark as Sid nods in agreement.

"Okay, be here about 9:30."

They finish their lunch and hurry back to the warehouse. It's a littleTom? Everything go okay?"

"Went off with no problem. We got the driver."

"Good, I'll call you later once they make the delivery."

About fifteen minutes later, Tom pulls into David's garage, now bright from the sunlight streaming through the dirt streaked windows high in the walls but still sub-zero. He pulls the van to a squeaky stop and turns off the ignition. Bob hops out and slides the side door open.

Tom phones Lance and tells him they've arrived. He gets out, still wearing his ski mask, looks through the open van door and says, "Sit up man, I'm gonna remove that duct tape from your mouth. He carefully pulls the duct tape off his face and says, "You okay? Hope that didn't hurt too much. We're gonna be here a


and three kids, are they?"

"Guess not. I guess not."

Jim says, "You can't do this, it's cold blooded murder. You'll hang for this. You won't get away with it."

One trucker laughs and says to the other, "Ya'know, he has a point. Do they still hang people in Wyoming? Maybe we should let them go?"

"It's okay with me. It's up to you guys? Do you wanna go?"

"Yeah?" says Jim not understanding where this is leading to.

"All right you guys, you start running. You got till I count to twenty before we start shooting."

Jim looks quickly at Ed and they both start running back down the deserted road away from the truck while one of the drivers calls out the numbers slowly until they both start laughing. Both truckers head backLance's SUV a block away. Tom opens the door and they quickly enter. Sean resumes his position in the back of the van and Tom reattaches the cable ties to his wrists and ankles. Lance expects that Joe will want the driver checked when he returns. Tom retreats up to the second floor which overlooks the garage area below. He finds a small folding chair, disappears into the shadows and waits to release Sean once Joe, Mark and Sid have returned and checked on their captive driver. Sean has a sharp knife concealed in his rear pocket, just in case.

At about nine-thirty Joe arrives at the warehouse and parks his car in the lot across the street as usual. The neighborhood is deserted. Mark and Sid pull in


cap.

"You're not gonna put the duct tape on my mouth again, are you?"

"No, if you promise to keep quiet."

"Like a mouse."

"Okay, then in you go," says Tony as the driver rolls into the back of the van on his side. Tony and Bob get in. The garage door opens and they drive out. One overhead florescent shop light remains lit.

Tony heads for the interstate and over into Council Bluffs. He takes the third exit ramp and pulls into the parking lot of a burger place. Tony parks the van in a dark part of the lot out of sight of any security cameras.

Bob turns around and says, "We're in a parking lot. We're gonna put you out next to a parked car. Count to 100 then you canthat explosion?"

He says, "I don't know. It doesn't seem likely. How could a beer truck do that?"

"Yeah, I guess that's silly."

The next morning, the police will arrive at his house and interview him again. He will play dumb and repeat the story exactly as Bob told him to. He will show them the marks on his wrist. He will then ask them what happened in Omaha. They will say it was drug related and that parts of his truck were found in the rubble of the warehouse. His wife will get a bit hysterical, the police will decide they've gotten all they can from him and will take their leave.

At Mo Rún, the guys watch the TV feeds running on David's big screen and occasionally go back to


to drain every one of their private accounts and send the cash to the non-profits who will never know where the money came from. On the other hand, when the bad guys check their accounts, they'll find them empty with no transaction record as to where the money went. Nice little feature of secret off shore accounts, no history tapes."

He hits a few keys. On the screen arrow lines begin to flash from the bank accounts to the charitable organizations. "Those are the transfers taking place."

"Watch. After a while the bank account dots will vanish. When a dot disappears, the account is empty," says David.

Soon, all the bank accounts are gone and only the charitable organization stars remain.

"Well, wasn't that fun?" asks David.

"Holy shit, man, that was unbelievable!DEA phone number on each to call if you spot the subject."

"Jack's is not going to be amused," says David.

"Hey, but I will," says Todd.

"Well, me too," says Mike.

"And so say all of us," answers Jay.

**15. Monday January 22**

_Time: Noon_

By Monday, chaos rules the drug underworld. Unencrypted messages are flying back and forth expressing total confusion and fear. The milk cartons have begun to appear in larger cities. The local police are both amused and embarrassed.

Politicians, who only days before were on the take, are obstreperously demanding investigations as their payments dwindle. Several drug lords flee the country for safer havens in South America. Jack is holed up in his apartment in St. Louis and desperately trying to reestablish connections with his former colleagues. Mike and Jay work


no more layers than in your Linux kludge. It's available now. Small memory footprint and full Java code functionality."

"Yeah, I've seen Java functionality. As soon as you get an application running, they change all the freaking libraries. I never could get any performance out of one of those applets. This isn't a browser, we're building. No, I want a Linux core and a real programming language, C, not some bastard version for people who can't program."

"C's old, man. Too error prone, no security, no neat network interfaces. Lots of buffer issues in the libraries. Most aren't even thread safe."

"Yeah, but it's efficient, isn't interpreted and it's got pointers. How the hell am I supposed to write controllers in Java?"

"Well, you can write the drivers in C and thendress for cold weather. We all meet me down at the loading dock in fifteen minutes."

"Will do," says Tom as he and Bob get up and hurry to their apartment.

Turning to Mike and Jay, he says, "You two stay here and work the communications. We'll keep in touch. Keep tracking them if you can."

"You got it," says Jay.

"I should go," says Mike.

"No, you stay here. You're the one with the goods on Jack. I'm not taking any risks with you."

Once in their apartment, Tom and Bob put on heavy jeans and a second layer of polyester sweat pants. They put on two layers of long sleeved jerseys and a double set of heavy socks. They've been out in the Iowa cold before. The get out heavy coats and


see the diner is mainly empty except for a few guys drinking coffee at a table near the window and a waitress talking to an old guy at the lunch counter.

As Lance's squad enters, he calls to the waitress, "Mind if we push a few tables together?"

She looks up at the gal and nine guys and says, "No problem honey," quickly calculating the tip potential and grabbing up a handful of menus.

They push together a couple of tables then take off their outerwear and sit down. Lance sits in the middle, Mary sits next to him. He pulls out his laptop and powers up. He slips in a cell phone wireless card and makes a good connection to the nearby cell antenna array on the water tower. Heare no longer on my friends list," says Lance to Mary.

She looks at him and says, "Hey, that was a complement. How many times do you get to say you're with a woman? I'm gonna go powder my nose. You boys behave yourselves."

Lance recovers and leans over and in a low voice only the guys at the table can hear, pointing to the map, begins, "When we get out on the road, I say we ditch her. Let the wolves put up with her!"

"I'm not taking her on. She's your problem," says Sean.

"Okay, I'll worry about it later. Back to the plan. I figure we can get to within about a quarter mile of the farm in the SUVs without being detected. There's a small hill here and


we should have a commanding view of farmhouse. From there, we can get the rest of the way on snow shoes. The snow may be deep in places."

"Yeah, and real powdery too, not good to try to walk through," says Bob.

"Okay, then what?" says Sean.

"If everything checks out okay, then three of us will take the front door, three the back. We toss a couple of stun grenades and go in. Bob, Sean and Tony, you're on the back door, me Tom and Chris will be on the front. Jim, Gene and Phil will stay with the SUVs and charge the place when the grenades go off."

"You want us to enter the house when we get there with the SUVs?" asks Jim.

"No, it should be over by then.effect on the three variables. The relationships are stated by three equations that, while further years of observations are anticipated, can be considered models to forecast the characteristics of the pollen season: the starting date depends on the mean temperatures of January and February, and the length and intensity of the season depend on the rainfall between the beginning of January and the starting date of the season. For the study period, the weekly concentrations (pollen curves) throughout the year showed no typical pattern of variation over the years, so that it was impossible to make mid- and long-term forecasts of the variation in weekly concentration. The most noteworthy aspects of grass pollen curves are a long pollen season, which starts in February or March and lasts until


The 2016 Olympic track and field competition kicked off Friday in Rio de Janeiro with a 10,000-meter world record-setting victory by Almaz Ayana that took the field by surprise—and pulled seven others to their own national records.

In front of sparse crowds in Olympic Stadium and under intermittent drizzle, Ayana, 24, of Ethiopia, won the gold medal in 29:17.45. It beat the previous world record by 14 seconds, held by Wang Junxia of China since 1993. It was only the second 10,000-meter race Ayana has ever contested.

Vivian Cheruiyot, 32, of Kenya took the silver in 29:32.53. Bronze went to Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba, 31, in 29:42.56, a lifetime best that was 14 seconds faster than the previous Olympic record she set in 2008.

It was an aggressive pace from the gun.Lucknow, December 6: The Jaithari-Kuraoli road leading to the village of late police Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh in Uttar Pradesh's Etah has been renamed to 'Shri Subodh Kumar Singh Shahid Marg. The decision comes three days after Singh was killed by a mob protesting cow slaughter in Bulandshahr. On Thursday, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath met the family members of the slain policeman at his residence. In the wake of the tragic incident, the Chief Minister on Monday had announced a compensation of Rs 40 lakh for Singh’s wife, Rs 10 lakh for his parents and a government job for a member of his family. Bulandshahr Mob Violence: Did Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh Fire at Sumit Before Being Lynched? Video Capturing His Final Moments Out.

On Monday, Singh and his


team were trying to control protests after cow carcasses were found in a forest. Soon after a mob went out of control, and began attacking the policemen with stones. As the protest turned violent, two persons, including the inspector, were killed in mob violence in Siana area of Bulandshahr. According to reports, the protest was allegedly led by Yogesh Raj, member of Bajrang Dal, who claimed that seven men slaughtered cows in village Mahaw.

Jaithari-Kuraoli road leading to village of late police Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh in Etah has been renamed to 'Shri Subodh Kumar Singh Shahid Marg'. #Bulandshahr

On December 3, the National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRC) issued a notice to the Government of Uttar Pradesh over reports of killing of two persons including police officer SubodhThe Art Of A Skilled

Sculptures from the Philippines come in a wide range of mediums. As soon as drawing and painting expertise are developed to the purpose where college students can precisely put down what they see, creating gentle and shadow is studied and faithfully delineated material emerges in a world of house and quantity.

When you benefit from the sculptures created by this artist then you may also be interested within the illustrations, work, textiles and installation pieces created by this artist as nicely. Teaching the arts is the most highly effective instrument that lecturers can current in their school rooms because this enables the scholars to achieve their highest stage of learning.

A full spectrum of learning, combining the basic data skills required by the subject combined with


more intriguing implication of "believing in Phil" is what the president can do next offseason as well -- if he can bring back Anthony, he could perhaps convince another star to come aboard. There's also still time for Jackson to sign free agent forward Pau Gasol, who was rumored to have spoken to Anthony about coming east and joining the Knicks.

"Ultimately, Anthony's heart is in New York where his family is comfortable and where he confident that Jackson can return the club to prominence," Isola wrote. "Anthony's friend says that Anthony prolonging his decision is not a reflection of him having second thoughts about the Knicks. Instead, it was Anthony wanting to be sure that he could put himself in position to win a championship."

Bleacher Report's Howard BeckSavills launch building and project consultancy team

Estate agents Savills has launched a new Building and Project Consultancy team in its Irish office in order to provide a greater breadth of service for its clients.

The new service offering will be headed up by Allen Devine, who joins Savills from commercial building consultants, Malcolm Hollis LLP.

Devine and his team will offer consultancy services for dilapidations, project management, design and contract administration, development monitoring, technical due diligence and reinstatement cost assessments.

A native of Malahide, Co Dublin, Allen Devine graduated from Dundalk Institute of Technology in 2011 with a BSc (Hons) Building Surveying. He is a chartered member of both the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) and Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

Savills Ireland has been providing building and project consultancy


services to its clients for a number of years through its UK division, under the leadership of Simon Collett. Due to a surge in demand, the firm has decided to establish a dedicated in-house offering from its Dublin office, linked to the Savills UK & European Building Teams.

Simon Collett, head of building and project consultancy at Savills said: “We’re delighted to have Allen on board to drive this important new service offering for the Irish office. The landscape of the property industry in Ireland has changed quite dramatically in recent years and, with a significant increase in construction taking place throughout the country, now is an opportune time for us to launch this new division within Savills Ireland.”In Memoriam Benjamin W. Lee

IN MEMORIAM

Benjamin W. Lee

Dr. Benjamin W. Lee, Head of the Theoretical Physics Group at Fermilab, was killed in an automobile accident near Kewanee, Illinois, on June 16, 1977. He was driving with his family to the Fermilab Program Advisory Committee Meeting at Aspen, Colorado. Dr. Lee was heading west on I-80 when an eastbound semi-trailer crossed the highway divider into the westbound lane and struck his car on the left front side. Mrs. Lee and their two children, Geoffrey and Irene, sustained minor injuries.

Benjamin W. Lee, 42, was born in Seoul, Korea, and came to the United States in 1956 as a student. He studied at Miami University, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pennsylvania, where he received the Ph.D. in 1960.


Lee became a United States citizen in 1968.

He held appointments at a number of institutions here and abroad, including the State University of New York at Stony Brook, the Institute for Advanced Studies, and the University of Paris. He was also a fellow of the Sloan Foundation, a Guggenheim fellow, and a fellow of the American Physical Society. He served on advisory committees for many other laboratories and universities. He joined the then National Accelerator Laboratory in 1971. He also held a joint appointment as professor of physics at the Enrico Fermi Institute of the University of Chicago.

Dr. Lee was the author of more than 100 research papers in the field of elementary particle physics. His work particularly emphasized the theory of weak interactions. He made significant contributions(R-MI) and Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) sent a joint letter to Ambassador Pashayev of Azerbaijan expressing their concern over the reported destruction of Armenian monuments in the medieval cemetery of Julfa, Nakhichevan of the Azerbaijan Republic on December 15, 2005.

As Co-Chairs of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues, we are writing to express our grave concern and indignation regarding the reported destruction of the historically and architecturally significant Armenian monuments in the medieval cemetery of Julfa, Nakhichevan of the Azerbaijan Republic.

The eyewitness reports and documents brought to our attention indicate that on December 15, 2005 some 100 Azerbaijani soldiers, armed with heavy equipment, broke into the Old Jugha ( Julfa ) Cemetery, and engaged in barbaric destruction of its centuries-old Armenian khachkars ( headstones ).

The old Cemetery of


Julfa is known to specialists to have housed as many as 10,000 of these intricately carved khachkar headstones, up to 2,000 of which were still intact after an earlier outbreak of vandalism on the same site in 2002. Eyewitness accounts of the ongoing demolition indicate at the organized nature of the operation, qualifying it as cleansing.

Azerbaijan, as a member of the international community, has national responsibilities within the United Nations, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and other relevant international frameworks to preserve the cultural and historical heritage in its custody. Persistent vandalism in Azerbaijan against monuments representing our common cultural heritage advises us and the international community concerned on your Government’s deliberate ignorance of its responsibilities in that regard. Such practice runs against the basic norms ofContinues to Ignore the Various Acts of Cultural Genocide Perpetrated Against the Oldest Christian Civilization

The destruction of the Armenian stone crosses (khachkars) by the Azerbaijani government has been ignored by the international community. A few days ago, a group of 200 Azerbaijani soldiers destroyed the remnants, of the few surviving architectural treasures of Old Jougha, a 400-year-old Armenian cemetery located in Nakhichevan (now, a part of Azerbaijan). Back in 1648, some 10,000 khachkars at the 1,600 square meter site of the Old Jugha cemetery were recorded, many as old as the 8th century. Thousands of Armenian graves were destroyed here in 2002 by the Azerbaijani government, vandalism which was ignored by the world.

In recent decades, Armenian culture has undergone an array of vandalism, yielding an immunity, which the


to crush Armenian graves and crosses, that were saved by a miracle in the attacks of 2002,” the Armenian prelacy told Regnum, a Russian news agency.

Old Jougha was a famous Armenian cemetery with hundreds of years old stone-crosses (khachkars). The cemetery included tens of thousands of stone-crosses, each of them a unique architectural monument. A few years ago the Azerbaijani government destroyed most of the Armenian monuments of Old Jougha, but stopped the vandalism after UNESCO’s protest. As of now, no international organization has protested the recent vandalism.

www.Blogian.cjb.net, a Blog network based at www.Hayastan.com, has received the video reportage from the Armenian prelacy of Iran, and has made it possible for Internet users to download it. In order to download the 30-second video showing the destruction, go toset of carriers, including all qualified incumbents." She did not go into detail on what that option would look like.

Senators participating in the hearing said they were encouraged the GIC would reconsider, but still had questions about how the decision was made.

Senate Ways and Means Chairwoman Karen Spilka said the move left thousands of municipal and state workers "feeling alienated and, frankly, unappreciated, and understandably so."

In a series of public hearings the GIC has held since its Jan. 18 vote, Herman said she has learned that the proposed changes caused "overwhelming anxiety." She said she looks forward to expanding outreach efforts to unions, lawmakers and other stakeholders.

GIC officials have previously said their goal in restructuring was to limit new out-of-pocket costs for enrollees.

Michael Heffernan, Gov. Charlie Baker's budget


public and stakeholder feedback."

As secretary of administration and finance, Heffernan holds one of the 17 seats on the commission. He said he voted for the consolidation, and the Tufts Navigator plan that covers his family was among those that would be dropped.

Heffernan said yes when Sen. Donald Humason -- who gets Unicare insurance through the GIC -- asked if he knew when making the decision he would be voting to change his own plan.

Herman, who said her family is enrolled in a Unicare Plus plan, testified before the group of senators for about an hour, walking them through the process that led to the Jan. 18 vote and fielding questions about next steps.

The agenda for the commission's Thursday morning meeting includes reconsideration of the Jan. 18 vote "toregional vice president Robert Sorrenti said in a letter to Spilka. "Some of the public comments would lead one to believe we have no existing relationship with the GIC. This could not be further from the truth."

Sorrenti said UniCare has served GIC members for 30 years, and the UniCare state indemnity plan has the largest share of GIC members enrolled, with 173,000. He said the Unicare plan "has been the fastest growing health plan offered by the GIC, driven by consumer satisfaction," and offers access to all providers in Massachusetts.

Jim Durkin of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees said the January vote was "a symptom or manifestation of much larger problems that have existed for far too long" at the GIC, including "steady and relentless


cost shifting to workers in the form of higher rates, and more and larger co-payments and deductibles."

According to SEIU Local 509, the consolidation meant 47 percent of active members and 62 percent of dependents "would have been thrown off" their health plans. In prepared testimony, the union's president Peter MacKinnon told of two members "thrown into chaos" because of how the change would affect their children.

One, a Department of Children and Families social worker, has two children with autism who need weekly therapy and go to a clinic in Wakefield that accepts her Harvard Pilgrim insurance, but not the three GIC plans that would remain, MacKinnon said.

He said a case manager at the Department of Transitional Assistance has a teenage son with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, whose careIn the 40 years since its release, Star Wars has been a defining piece of science fiction cinema, influencing countless stories with its iconic visuals and characters. Things weren't always that way, as the final film reflected multiple changes from not just the original script, but the original character designs crafted by artist Ralph McQuarrie. In honor of those first imaginings of the galaxy far, far away, students from the Digital Animation and Visual Effects school took it upon themselves to bring those iconic images to life with the trailer below.

Knowing that describing the events of his story couldn't match the images in his head, George Lucas tapped McQuarrie to create concept art to show the bizarre worlds he imagined, full of excitement, adventure and aliens. For a


Seaway Trail Discovery Center

The Seaway Trail Discovery Center is a museum located in Sackets Harbor, New York that offers a wide range of exhibits about the culture and heritage of the Great Lakes Seaway Trail and surrounding regions. The Seaway Trail is a  National Scenic Byway in the United States, mostly in New York but with a small segment in Pennsylvania.

The museum is located in the historic Union Hotel and was opened in July 2000 by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Preservation to provide visitors with an overview of the Seaway Trail, the State's only scenic byway. It includes exhibits on the history, architecture and natural resources of St. Lawrence, Jefferson, Oswego, Cayuga, Wayne, Monroe, Orleans, Niagara, Erie and Chautauqua counties, those thatYang Lan

Yang Lan is often called “the Oprah of China.” The chair of a multiplatform business empire, Yang is pioneering more-open means of communication in the communist nation.

Why you should listen

Yang Lan’s rise to stardom in China has drawn comparisons to Oprah Winfrey’s success in the US. It’s easy to see why: Yang is a self-made entrepreneur and the most powerful woman in the Chinese media. As chair of Sun Media Investment Holdings, a business empire she built with her husband, Yang is a pioneer of open communication.

Yang started her journalism career by establishing the ﬁrst current-events TV program in China. She created and hosted many other groundbreaking shows, starting with the chatfest Yang Lan One on One. The popular Her Village, which now includes an online magazine


Occupy Wall Street People's Library blog post and video round-up about the November 21, 2011 incident at Baruch College, in which NYPD and CUNY security attacked and arrested students, faculty, staff, and community members who were peacefully [...]their individual and official capacities; DAN MORALES,
    Attorney General of Texas, individually and in his official
  capacity; and BOARD OF LAW EXAMINERS OF TEXAS, Rachel Martin,
Executive Director of Texas Board of Law Examiners, Warlick Carr,
Chairman, Texas Board of Law Examiners, individually and in their
                        official capacities,

                                                  Defendant-Appellees.


Wednesday, April 30, 2014

The movie was about a young lady named Sydney played by Lea Michelle (Glee) getting through her last year of high school and all the struggles that come with being eight teen. It is a quirky comedy with a lot of ups and downs and it is rated PG. There were some twists and turns and some unforeseen surprises. You also follow Sydney as she looked for jobs and the trials she faces along the way. You see life from Sydney's point of view and what it is like to be from a divorced family. She also has a unique family that some would find strange... She lives with her father played by Matthew Modine (Family weekend), mother played by Melissa McCarthy (bridesmaids) and stepheavily centered around Sydney's walk with Christ and how she is growing in faith. She volunteers at an elementary school and at her churches children's ministry. She is involved with a young life club that she had to step out of her comfort zone to get involved with. By being this introverted girl she overcomes being non social and participating in more social activities.
She is involved in Yearbook and she soon realizes how much work it is to complete the yearbook. She some how ends up to be the only girl in her CAD class, we find out what she thinks of it. One would think that being the only girl in a room of boys would be a dream come true for any girl. She gets a


"Senior skip day is about freedom and just getting away from the rules and confinement of school" Said Steven Terison. When asked what senior skip day mean to people Shannon said "I believe it is a day at the end of the school year when all the students in the senior class coordinate amongst themselves to take a day off. Some of the class will go together to a special location i.e.: beach, amusement park." Senior skip day is about rebelling and being free of the rules of school. When asked do you think there should be a senior skip day, Shannon said "Official day- No as it defeats the purpose of the rebelliousness of the day. Unofficial right of passage- Why not? As long as it isMost of the trees are around 100 years old and are still living. There are two barns on the property and one looks like it's more of a shed than a barn. The other is a normal looking barn and it is where people used to get needems and cider. There is still a little snack shack at the front of the orchard. The snack shack looks like a little white shed with a sign that says Apples.
I spent most of my falls growing up at the orchard, so much so that it has a spot in my heart. The part that makes the orchard my content place is the fact that it is peaceful and mostly quiet. The orchard reminds me of a happier time in my


Search form

In North Carolina, all the public educational institutions that grant baccalaureate degrees are part of the University of North Carolina. The multi-campus state university encompasses 16 such institutions, as well as the NC School of Science and Mathematics, the nation’s first public residential high school for gifted students. Chartered by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1789, the University of North Carolina was the first public university in the United States to open its doors and the only one to graduate students in the eighteenth century. The first class was admitted in Chapel Hill in 1795. For the next 136 years, the only campus of the University of North Carolina was at Chapel Hill.

Additional institutions of higher education, diverse in origin and purpose, began to win sponsorshipfrom the General Assembly beginning as early as 1877. Five were historically black institutions, and another was founded to educate American Indians. Some began as high schools. Several were created to prepare teachers for the public schools. Others had a technological emphasis. One is a training school for performing artists.

The 1931 session of the General Assembly redefined the University of North Carolina to include three state-supported institutions: the campus at Chapel Hill (now the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), North Carolina State College (now North Carolina State University at Raleigh), and Woman’s College (now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro). The new multi-campus University operated with one board of trustees and one president. By 1969, three additional campuses had joined the University through legislative action:


the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

In 1971 legislation was passed bringing into the University of North Carolina the state’s ten remaining public senior institutions, each of which had until then been legally separate: Appalachian State University, East Carolina University, Elizabeth City State University, Fayetteville State University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, North Carolina Central University, the North Carolina School of the Arts (now the University of North Carolina School of the Arts), Pembroke State University (now the University of North Carolina at Pembroke), Western Carolina University, and Winston-Salem State University. In 1985 the NC School of Science and Mathematics was declared an affiliated school of the University; in July 2007NCSSM by legislative action became a constituent institution of the University of North Carolina. All the schools and universities welcome students of both sexes and all races.

The UNC Board of Governors is the policy-making body legally charged with “the general determination, control, supervision, management, and governance of all affairs of the constituent institutions.” It elects the president, who administers the University. The 32 voting members of the Board of Governors are elected by the General Assembly for four-year terms. Former board chairmen may continue to serve for limited periods as non-voting members emeriti. The president of the UNC Association of Student Governments or that student’s designee is also a non-voting member.

Each of the UNC campuses is headed by a chancellor who is chosen by the Board of Governors


on the president’s nomination and is responsible to the president. Each university has a board of trustees consisting of eight members elected by the Board of Governors, four appointed by the governor, and the president of the student body, who serves ex officio. (The UNC School of the Arts has two additional ex officio members; and the NC School of Science and Mathematics has a 27-member board as required by law.) Each board of trustees holds extensive powers over academic and other operations of its campus on delegation from the Board of Governors.

In addition to its teaching role, the University of North Carolina has a long-standing commitment to public service. The UNC Center for Public Television, the UNC Health Care System, the cooperative extension and research services, nineModel of Gehry's plans for the Eisenhower Memorial.

I n 1999, two powerful senators, Ted Stevens and Daniel Inouye, both World War II veterans (Inouye was a Medal of Honor recipient), sponsored legislation to build a memorial in Washington, D.C., to Dwight Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe and two-term President of the United States. The memorial was scheduled for completion in 2007.

It’s been pretty much downhill from there. In the intervening fifteen years, Stevens and Inouye’s noble idea has become a classic Washington boondoggle, an object lesson on how not to build a memorial in that city.

The enabling legislation for the Eisenhower Memorial mandated a bipartisan commission composed of four senators, four representatives, and four citizens to be appointed by the president of the


of the memorial. Hiring an architect before seeing his or her plan was rather like buying a pig in a poke. In fact, the design jury, composed of independent experts, said that all the designs were “mediocre” and that “none of the visions expressed the whole essence of Eisenhower.” The evaluation board, which included Siciliano and the EMC staff architect, ignored the jury’s sensible recommendation for another round of applications, and Gehry was awarded the commission in 2009. Critics have claimed that Siciliano stacked the deck for the architect. He has a long history and friendship with Gehry, dating back to the early 1980s when Siciliano was on the board of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art at the time it awarded Gehry one of his firststeadily plods on.

In April 2014, a full decade-and-a-half after it was established, the EMC finally presented the Gehry design for approval to the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC), which is supposed to ensure that proposed structures in the District conform to established guidelines. Much to the EMC’s dismay, the Gehry plan was turned down for a number of reasons, but principally because some of the pillars supporting the “tapestries” blocked the view toward the Capitol.

I n September, the EMC met and voted to return to the NCPC with a rejiggered Gehry design. Two senators, Jack Reed of Rhode Island (who said it was a “good time to give someone else a chance and bring in new perspectives”) and Jerry Moran of Kansas, resigned within two weeks of the


“a traditional first-semester architecture exercise.” Distressingly, Earl A. Powell III, the long-time director of the National Gallery and Chairman of the CFA, was Gehry’s cheerleader. With Powell’s continuing support, the revised Gehry design sailed though the CFA at its October meeting.

Now the EMC is doing a premature victory dance as they rush to get final approvals from the NCPC and CFA. They’ve even declared in a recent press release that they intend to break ground in 2015, making one wonder if the EMC and its aggressive staff have lost touch with reality.

To begin construction, the EMC needs north of $80 million in additional funds, but Gehry is notorious for his massive cost overruns, so the final price tag will probably be much higher. As John Silber wrote inHoloLens Lauching With 2 New IPs, Conker Title

Microsoft began taking pre-orders for its $3,000 HoloLens Development Edition today in anticipation for its launch in March 30.

Kudo Tsunoda, Corporate Vice President at Microsoft, announced that Fragments, Young Conker, and RoboRaid will be included with the hardware to showcase the gaming capabilities that augmented reality opens up. Early purchasers of the new hardware will include game developers, and Microsoft is looking to create an ecosystem of software that will help it sell the consumer version of HoloLens down the line.

Fragments puts gamers in the middle of an augmented reality crime drama that unfolds in their living room. Players are able to investigate clues and solve crimes by interacting with characters that sit on their couch and talk directly to them.

Young


Conker takes the popular squirrel created by Microsoft-owned developer Rare off platform gaming and and into the real world. Developed by Asobo Studios, the game changes based on what environment the gamer is playing in.

Rounding out the launch games is RoboRaid, which was previously playable at E3 last year as Project X-Ray. RoboRaid is a first-person shooter that has invading aliens literally ripping through the walls of the room you’re in. You use the Clicker to shoot at the waves of alien robots as they fly into the room shooting lasers.

RoboRaid uses spatial sound as a gameplay feature, alerting gamers which direction to turn when they hear the wall crumbling. The game was created by a team of eight people over the course of 12 weeks at Microsoft.

Theteaches developers how to use the HoloLens interaction model of gaze, gesture, and voice within games and other applications.

Share this:

Kelfala 'Kels' Sesay News Editor Kelfala 'Kels' Sesay is a News Editor from the DMV who has the expertise and techniques to create articles devastatingly fast like lightning! He is also a laidback sneakerhead with well versed videogame, pop culture, and music knowledge.


These learned calls were short (monosyllabic) and were forgotten soon after they were learned. (2) Over generations, the representations of the calls, which were encoded in the posterior temporal-parietal region, became incrementally more robust. Consequently, the calls could be remembered for increasing lengths of time. Eventually, the representations of the calls in the posterior temporal-parietal region became immune to decay and began to be remembered after the first encounter during infancy. Because the mimicked calls were encoded in both a pre-existing long-term memory store through sound recognition (located in the middle temporal gyrus) and in the new long-term vocal memory store (located in the posterior temporal-parietal region), the practice of mimicry led to the formation of associations between related representations in the two memory stores. Consequently, though infantsPrincess of Thieves

(No Ratings Yet)

Loading...

20011h 28m268 views

Sherwood forest has a courageous new hero – Gwyn, the daughter of Robin Hood. Possessing the cunning skills of her legendary father and the beauty and intelligence of her mother Maid Marian, Gwyn is anxious to follow in her father’s footsteps. King Richard nears death and Robin Hood and his Merry Men are summoned to help bring Richard’s son Philip to his rightful place on the throne before the evil Prince John can assume power. Robin Hood’s life and that of the future King of England soon lies in Gwyn’s hands when Robin is captured and sentenced to death.


China police detain man over 'sex slaves' in basement Published duration 23 September 2011

Police in China have detained a man on suspicion of imprisoning and raping six women in a basement for two years and of killing two of them.

Reports said the man, 34-year-old firefighter Li Hao, had dug two rooms underneath the basement he bought in Luoyang city, Henan, four years ago.

He then kidnapped the women, all of whom are said to have worked in nightclubs or bars.

He was arrested after he let one of the women leave and she went to police.

Police confirmed that they had arrested Mr Li on 6 September and that an investigation was ongoing.

Shallow grave

The Southern Metropolis Daily reported that the women were held in a cellar four metres (12ft) below thebasement in a residential district of the city.

The newspaper said that Mr Li repeatedly raped the women and only gave them food every two days to keep them weak.

The women were only allowed to leave when he needed them to sleep with other men for cash, it said, and this was how one of the women, a 23-year-old, managed to escape.

When she guided police to the basement, they found three more women.

They also found the bodies of two women buried in a shallow grave in the corner of the cellar.

Mr Li, who is reportedly married with a wife and child, was arrested as he tried to leave the city.

An official from the Luoyang public security bureau told China Daily police were conducting tests to assess his mental competence.

The


journalist from the Southern Metropolis Daily who first reported the story, meanwhile, said he had been visited by two men - apparently from the local authorities - who asked for his source and warned him he had been revealing "state secrets".Sodium ion-coupled uptake of taurocholate by rat-liver plasma membrane vesicles.
Uptake of taurocholate into plasma membrane vesicles isolated from rat liver was investigated. In the presence of an extra- to intravesicular gradient of Na+ ions, a typical "overshoot" phenomenon in the accumulation pattern was observed. Osmotic manipulation of the incubation medium indicated that the transport of this bile acid occurs into an osmotically active intravesicular space. Uptake of taurocholate as measured after 1 min was specifically stimulated by Na+ ions: NaNO3 and NaCl were capable of supporting accumulation, whereas KNO3 was not. Na+-coupled uptake of taurocholate showed saturation kinetics and was inhibited by other bile acids or by preloading the vesicles with Na+. Our observations support the idea of a carrier-mediated bile-acid uptake system, as suggested previously for the


SPI: a PACS interface specification.
In the developing area of Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) standardization is of major importance in guaranteeing compatibility between medical equipment from various manufacturers. The first necessary step was the development of the ACR-NEMA Standard. To implement a full, practical PACS it is necessary to add further specifications to the ACR-NEMA Standard. For this reason Philips and Siemens have developed the SPI (Standard Product Interconnect) specification that addresses PACS-specific issues. The main features of SPI are discussed briefly.In the months following the state's deadliest mass shooting in modern times, Oregon Institute of Technology President Chris Maples quietly set up a new scholarship program.

Starting this fall, OIT will waive tuition for any Umpqua Community College student who was in one of four classes in Snyder Hall on Oct. 1 when a gunman killed 10 people, including himself, and wounded 8 others.

The "UCC Hero Scholarship" is available to 85 students, Maples said in an interview Thursday. OIT picked that criteria with the help of UCC since those students were "considered most physically and emotionally impacted" because of their proximity to the shooting.

Three UCC students are already enrolled at OIT this fall and a fourth has applied to the four-year school.

Maples said that was more than he expected


Suicidal despair of Pakistani father Published duration 26 October 2011

image caption Raja Khan's life was a constant battle against the ravages of poverty. Pictures by Bhasker Solanki

A young Pakistani man set himself on fire outside parliament in Islamabad in protest at his failure to find a job, and inability to feed his family. Human rights workers in Pakistan say suicides stemming from poverty are on the increase. But these deaths often pass unnoticed, as Orla Guerin reports.

What was going through his mind? Worries about his two young sons? About his pregnant wife? Was he reflecting on his own gnawing hunger? On years of fruitless struggle?

We will never know the final thoughts of Raja Khan - a poor unemployed labourer from Pakistan's Sindh Province, whose name meant King.

But the23-year old spelled out his despair, with his own burning flesh, at about 2pm on 24 October when he doused himself in kerosene and set himself alight.

Police say he left a note saying he was exhausted by poverty, and that his soul would rest in peace if the government looked after his family - something the authorities did not do in his lifetime.

'Begged for help'

Raja's aged father, Roshan Khan Rindh, howled in pain as he waited outside the mortuary for the body of his eldest son.

"I begged God for this son. I was married for 10 years before my wife gave birth to him. He and I were very close. But now Allah has taken him back," he said, beating his brow with his own hands.

image caption Raja


Khan's father said his son had begged local politicians for help finding a job

Raja looked far and wide for a job, his father said, and was ready to do anything. He begged local politicians for help, and was answered with promises.

"They told him the government had a hiring ban, but they would get him a job when that was lifted."

He tried and failed to enlist in the army. Finally, he set out for the capital, carrying the flag of the ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP), which he supported.

"My son came to Islamabad with PPP flags, and with huge banners," Roshan told me.

"He said he was going to President Zardari, who would give him a job. I told him that wouldn't happen. He said 'Father, pray for me. Iam going'. He asked for 1,000 rupees ($11.50; £7) for the fare," Roshan said.

The closest Raja got to the president was the exterior of the parliament building, where he sustained burns to 90% of his body.

When he was rushed to a nearby hospital, doctors found that only his feet were unaffected.

Dr Farooq Khan was among those who fought for five hours to save his life.

Despair

"He was very badly burned, but he was trying to speak," he said. "He told me his was not satisfied with his life. It was so depressing to see this young man like this."

image caption When Mr Khan was rushed to a nearby hospital, doctors found that only his feet were unaffected

The dying man was comforted by a local woman, Farzana, who was visiting


her son in the hospital's burns unit.

"He kept asking for water," Farzana said, "and I gave him some from a spoon. He told me he had not eaten for two days."

When asked if she was surprised by the gruesome manner of Raja's death, she quickly shook her head. "When people are desperate," she said, "what do you expect?"

Raja's despair was plain in his last phone call home.

He told his mother he planned to end his life because he could not get a job.

"She cried," said Roshan. "She said: 'Don't do this. Come back. You have little children.' But then the news reached our village and everyone started weeping."

The grief-stricken father wore the shabby clothing and weary expression that is the uniform of many of Pakistan's poor - aBouazizi, who set himself on fire outside a government building last December.

His death sparked protests that led to the Arab Spring.

But here the deaths of the poor do not spark uprisings, or unseat corrupt administrations. There is no whisper of revolution in the air in Islamabad.

"The poor are too busy just trying to survive," said one affluent Pakistani woman.

And there is another key factor. In Pakistan, there is freedom to protest, unlike in the pressure-cooker regimes that blighted the Arab world.

Pakistan's poor are free to demonstrate, to complain - and to end their own lives.

As Raja's coffin lid was nailed shut, his father cried out for the president.

"Oh Zardari, where are you?" he called out, his voice rising in a tormented song of loss.

"This wouldn't have happened if


Members of the United States women's soccer team celebrated winning the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup with a parade through the streets of New York City (0:38)

Soccer's world governing body FIFA has approved the expansion of the Women's World Cup from the existing 24 teams to 32 for the 2023 edition and reopened the bidding process for potential hosts.

"The FIFA Council has unanimously agreed to a proposal to expand the number of teams taking part in the women's World Cup from 24 to 32, with effect as of the next edition of the tournament in 2023," it said in a statement.

- USWNT's Ellis stepping down after victory tour

- Rapinoe gets book deal after World Cup win

- USSF says USWNT has made more than the men

FIFA said Wednesday thatthe decision was made remotely.

Nine national associations had expressed interest in hosting and were due to submit their formal bids by Oct. 4: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa and South Korea, which could bid jointly with North Korea

Under the new timetable, any national association has until December to make a bid. FIFA expects a bid evaluation report next April and a decision the following month.

FIFA's statement made no mention of prize money. The U.S. received $4 million of a $30 million prize pool for winning the World Cup on July 7, a small percentage of the $38 million from a $400 million pool that France got for winning the 2018 men's World Cup. FIFA has increased prize money for the 2022 men's World


Cup to $440m and FIFA President Gianni Infantino said July 5 that he was proposing FIFA double the women's prize money to $60m for 2023.

The United States celebrates its World Cup victory in France this summer. Catherine Steenkeste/Getty Images

After the U.S. won the women's final in Lyon, France, fans in the stadium chanted "Equal Pay!"

Infantino said in a statement that "this is the time to keep the momentum going and take concrete steps to foster the growth of women's football" and "it means that, from now on, dozens more member associations will organize their women's football program knowing they have a realistic chance of qualifying."

"We have a duty to do the groundwork and strengthen women's football development infrastructure across all confederations," he said.

The Women's World Cup started with12 teams in 1991, expanded to 16 in 1999 and 24 in 2015.

The men's World Cup was played with 13-16 teams from 1930 to 1978, 24 from 1982 to 1994 and has been contested with 32 since. It is due to expand to 48 in 2026, when the tournament is co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada.

Infantino also has proposed a Women's Club World Cup, creating a women's world league and doubling FIFA's investment in women's soccer in the next four-year cycle to $1 billion.

Information from Reuters and The Associated Press was used in this report.


and force-feedback that results in a more potent presence of remote bodies). The biological body is not well organ-ized. The body needs to be Internet enabled in more intimate ways. THE EAR ON ARM project suggests an alternate anatomical architecture - the engineering of a new organ for the body: an available, accessible and mobile organ for other bodies in other places, enabling people to locate and listen in to another body elsewhere.

Acknowledgements:

SURGICAL TEAM: Malcolm A. Lesavoy, MD, Sean Bidic , MD and J. William Futrell, MD POST-OPERATIVE TREATMENT: Supervised by Wayne A. Morrison, MD STEM CELL CONSULTANT: Ramon Llull, MD PROJECT COORDINATION: Jeremy Taylor, October Films, London PROJECT FUNDING: Discovery US for the documentary series 'Medical Mavericks' 3D MODEL & ANIMATION: The Spatial Information Architecture Lab, RMIT,Shots heard as Aristide's supporters battle police

Residents have accused riot squad of killing at least 13

MICHELLE FAUL, Associated Press

Published 5:30 am, Friday, October 29, 2004

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI - Gunfire echoed through the streets of Port-Au-Prince on Thursday as supporters of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide battled police whom residents have accused of executing at least 13 people two days earlier.

The charred carcasses of vehicles blocked a main road of the capital and in some slum neighborhoods, residents locked their doors as pro-Aristide militants shot at police from behind the wreckage.

Increasing chaos

It was unclear if anyone was wounded or killed in Thursday's violence. But along Port-au-Prince's seaside road, gunfire was reported and people told a radio station that four people were killed by armed civilians. The reports could not be independently


confirmed.

The surge in violence marks growing chaos in Haiti and an increasingly difficult challenge for a U.S.-backed interim government that has promised elections next year. A month of violence has left at least 62 people dead — not including the 13 people residents said were executed by police on Tuesday.

People who said they were witnesses and relatives of the victims described the police executions, while occasional gunshots whizzed around Fort National, a warren of alleyways and one-room homes in the capital.

'Shot him in the mouth'

"I was on the roof taking clothes off the line when my friend Reginald was trying to run away from (the police)," said
Renemise Joseph
, 23. "They shot him in the mouth. Then they dragged him away and I heard another shot. We couldn't seeanything else because when they arrived they shouted: 'Everybody get down, get down!'"

She said she saw men with black hoods, masks and helmets, the typical uniform of the Haitian riot police squad.

Latortue said it was definitely not an police operation, and suggested the attackers were agents of Aristide trying to destabilize the country. "These black uniforms, you can buy them anywhere," he said.

Latortue mentioned no plan to investigate the killings.

Joseph identified her dead friend as Reginald Francois, 25. His brother Gary Francois said he saw Reginald's body and seven others at Port-au-Prince's general morgue Wednesday. He said his brother's hands were bound with a black cord.

Truck like those of police

Francois said the gunmen arrived in five vehicles, including a blue pickup like those used by police and a


white Nissan like those driven by Haitian senators. None had license plates.

Another brother, Luc Francois, said the victims didn't have jobs, but they never hurt anybody.

"They passed their time playing music, playing dominoes, watching television," he said. "The only other thing they did was smoke some weed. They had no guns. They were never into anything violent. They were not into politics."

Neighbors said they heard young men pleading for their lives, shouting, "Have mercy, have mercy, don't shoot!"

An old woman afraid to give her name said, "They didn't ask them anything. They just shot them."After a member of Antifa, armed with a rifle and Molotov cocktails, wreaked havoc at a migrant detention center in Washington state this weekend, Joe Biggs, an Army veteran, reporter, and political activist, says it is more important than ever for patriots to speak out against the group.

Biggs, along with Enrique Tarrio and other organizers, is planning a End Domestic Terrorism rally in Portland, Oregon on August 17 in the wake of the violence against Andy Ngo and last weekend’s stunning attack on a migrant detention center from a self-identified member of Antifa.

Speaking to Big League Politics, Biggs said that the weekend saw “A 69 year old guy who carried out an attack on an ICE facility, and he came with weapons and Molotov cocktails.”

“That’s pretty insane. Not


Conference. They’ve won 13 of their last 20 games and sit just a game and a half out of a playoff spot and 3.5 out of 6th place in the West- despite having gotten a total of just 90 minutes out of 23.7% of their 2010-11 payroll.

It's important to realize that the Rockets have managed to get back into the playoff hunt by taking advantage of a soft patch in their schedule. Of the seven loss they’ve suffered in their last 20 games, five (at home to Miami, and on the road to Dallas, Chicago, OKC and Portland) have come against quality opposition, while the same can only be said of four of their 13 wins (home wins over OKC and the Lakers, and a pair of 16-pointflow may thus move from a first end of the valve, traverse the port or hole, and continue through the second end of the valve. Likewise, the valve is closed by rotating the sphere so as to position the port or hole perpendicular to the ends of the valve. Unfortunately, the sphere may deform over time under loading conditions, resulting in leakage or improper seals.


According to information about him provided by the Pentagon, Hadi was a key paramilitary commander in Afghanistan during the late 1990s, before taking charge of cross-border attacks against US and coalition troops from 2002 to 2004. He was accused of commanding attacks on coalition forces in Afghanistan, and of involvement in plots to assassinate Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. Following the American invasion in 2001, he clashed with Ahmed Khadr arguing that front line battle would prove more useful than guerilla tactics around Shagai, Pakistan.[10]

Al Iraqi was alleged to have managed the Ashara guest house, in Kabul's diplomatic district, from where he was alleged to command al Qaeda's army, and to have served as al Qaeda's accountant.[11]

Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi is one of Usama bin Laden’s top global deputies, personallybin Laden had failed to anticipate the strength of the Iraqi's anti-occupation resistance, and that he dispatched al Iraqi to take charge of establishing an al-Qaeda presence in the resistance. Newsweek asserted that Zarqawi had left a bad impression on his fellow veterans of the struggle to evict the Soviet invaders, and that bin Laden didn't trust him. However, al Iraqi recommended that al Qaeda would be better served by naming Zarqawi the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq than by trying to compete with him for volunteers and establish a parallel effort — explaining the reconciliation.

It was reported in January 2002 that someone with the same pseudonyms Abdul-Hadi al-Iraqi and Abu Abdullah had been captured in Afghanistan.[13] That person was also described as a training camp commander. But


despite these coincidences, the two suspects are now known to be distinct people.

Despite the report that Abdul-Hadi spoke several regional languages, several of the charges against Abdul Zahir stem from him serving as a translator for Abdul-Hadi.[14]

A captured letter[15] dated 13 June 2002, and thought to be from Saif al-Adel, mentions an Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi who is quite senior in al-Qaeda and is at large (probably in Afghanistan) at the time of that writing. The US DoD statement says that Abdul-Hadi "during 2002-04, was in charge of cross-border attacks in Afghanistan" and that prior to his capture he "was trying to return to his native country, Iraq, to manage al-Qai`da's affairs and possibly focus on operations outside Iraq against Western targets".

On 27 April 2007 it was reported thatAbdul Hadi Al-Iraqi was in custody in Guantanamo Bay.[16] He was previously held by the CIA. The BBC reported that US sources told them Al-Iraqi was arrested "late last year".[17]

On September 6, 2006 US PresidentGeorge W. Bush officially confirmed that the CIA maintained a secret network of offshore interrogation camps, when he announced that fourteen "high value detainees" had been transferred to Guantanamo.[18]

Bush claimed that the transfer of these fourteen men had emptied the CIA's secret interrogation camps.[18] Critics pointed out that Bush had not announced the closure of the camps. The date of Al-Iraqi's capture has not been made known. It is not clear whether Al-Iraqi entered the CIA's network of secret interrogation camps before or after Bush's announcement.

The Department of Defense announced on August 9, 2007


that all fourteen of the "high-value detainees" who had been transferred to Guantanamo from the CIA's black sites, had been officially classified as "enemy combatants".[19] Although judges Peter Brownback and Keith J. Allred had ruled two months earlier that only "illegal enemy combatants" could face military commissions, the Department of Defense waived the qualifier and said that all fourteen men could now face charges before Guantanamo military commissions.[20][21]

On January 21, 2009, the day he was inaugurated, United States PresidentBarack Obama issued three Executive orders related to the detention of individuals in Guantanamo.[22][23][24][25] That new review system was composed of officials from six departments, where the OARDEC reviews were conducted entirely by the Department of Defense. When it reported back, a year later, the Joint Review Task Force classifiedby military commission for the purpose of, among other purposes, forcing the United States, its allies, and non-Muslims out of the Arabian Peninsula, Afghanistan, and Iraq. To that end, the accused and his co-conspirators committed the following overt acts to accomplish the objectives and purposes of the conspiracy:

Abdul Hadi al Iraqi suffers from a spinal condition.[28] Camp authorities flew in a neuro-surgical team for an emergency operation, hours before Cuba was struct by Hurricane Irma. According to Carol Rosenberg, writing in the Miami Herald, his lawyers blamed the severity of his spinal condition on a decade of medical mistreatment. Military spokesmen, on the other hand, pointed to him as an example of the high quality of the treatment provided to captives.

According to his lawyers a CT scan performed


— under President Bush.

1.
Mosul
–
Mosul is a major city in northern Iraq. Since October 2016 it has been the site of an operation led by the Iraqi Government, under Haider al-Abadi, in an effort to dislodge. The city has been under the control of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant since June 2014, and no westerner has entered the city until the latest initiative. The Battle of Mosul, an offensive to retake the city begun in October 2016, is the largest deployment of Iraqi forces since the 2003 invasion by U. S. Located some 400 km north of Baghdad, Mosul stands on the west bank of the Tigris, opposite the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh on the east bank. The metropolitan area has grown to encompass substantialareas on both the Left Bank and the Right Bank, as the two banks are described by the locals compared to the direction of Tigris. Mosuls population grew rapidly around the turn of the millennium and by 2004 was estimated to be 1,846,500, an estimated half million people fled Mosul in the second half of 2014 when the IS fought with government forces for control of the city. On November 17,2014, ISIS attacked the city of Mosul, ultimately killing seven civilians, while some residents returned, more fled in 2015 as fighting and violence increased, and US bombings pounded the city. Historically, important products of the area include Mosul marble and oil, the city of Mosul is home to the University of Mosul and its renowned Medical College, which


together was one of the largest educational and research centers in Iraq and the Middle East. The University has since been closed, the Islamic States leadership in Mosul has kept the Medical College open but it is reported to be barely functional. The name of the city is first mentioned by Xenophon in his expeditionary logs in Achaemenid Assyria of 401 BC, there, he notes a small Assyrian town of Mépsila on the Tigris somewhere about where modern Mosul is today. Be that as it may, the name Mepsila is doubtless the root for the modern name, in its current Arabic form and spelling, the term Mosul, or rather Mawsil, stands for the linking point – or loosely, the Junction City, in Arabic. Mosul should not be confusedwith the ancient Assyrian capital of Nineveh and this area is known today as the town of Nebi Yunus and is now populated largely by Kurds. It is the only neighborhood in Mosul. The site contains the tomb of the Biblical Jonah, as he lived and died in the capital of ancient Assyria. Today, this area has been absorbed into the Mosul metropolitan area. The indigenous Assyrians still refer to the city of Mosul as Nineveh. The ancient Nineveh was succeeded by Mepsila after the fall of Assyria between 612-599 BC at the hands of a coalition of Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Scythians, Cimmerians and Sagartians, the Assyrians largely abandoned the city, building new smaller settlements such as Mepsila nearby

2.
Iraq
–
The capital, and largest city, is Baghdad. The main ethnic


groups are Arabs and Kurds, others include Assyrians, Turkmen, Shabakis, Yazidis, Armenians, Mandeans, Circassians, around 95% of the countrys 36 million citizens are Muslims, with Christianity, Yarsan, Yezidism, and Mandeanism also present. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish, two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run south through Iraq and into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf. These rivers provide Iraq with significant amounts of fertile land, the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, historically known as Mesopotamia, is often referred to as the cradle of civilisation. It was here that mankind first began to read, write, create laws, the area has been home to successive civilisations since the 6th millennium BC. Iraq was the centre of the Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian and itwas also part of the Median, Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Ayyubid, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires. Iraqs modern borders were mostly demarcated in 1920 by the League of Nations when the Ottoman Empire was divided by the Treaty of Sèvres, Iraq was placed under the authority of the United Kingdom as the British Mandate of Mesopotamia. A monarchy was established in 1921 and the Kingdom of Iraq gained independence from Britain in 1932, in 1958, the monarchy was overthrown and the Iraqi Republic created. Iraq was controlled by the Arab Socialist Baath Party from 1968 until 2003, after an invasion by the United States and its allies in 2003, Saddam Husseins Baath Party was removed from power and multi-party parliamentary elections were held


in 2005. The American presence in Iraq ended in 2011, but the Iraqi insurgency continued and intensified as fighters from the Syrian Civil War spilled into the country, the Arabic name العراق al-ʿIrāq has been in use since before the 6th century. There are several suggested origins for the name, one dates to the Sumerian city of Uruk and is thus ultimately of Sumerian origin, as Uruk was the Akkadian name for the Sumerian city of Urug, containing the Sumerian word for city, UR. An Arabic folk etymology for the name is rooted, well-watered. During the medieval period, there was a region called ʿIrāq ʿArabī for Lower Mesopotamia and ʿIrāq ʿajamī, for the region now situated in Central and Western Iran. The term historically included the south ofthe Hamrin Mountains. The term Sawad was also used in early Islamic times for the region of the plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In English, it is either /ɪˈrɑːk/ or /ɪˈræk/, the American Heritage Dictionary, the pronunciation /aɪˈræk/ is frequently heard in U. S. media. Since approximately 10,000 BC, Iraq was one of centres of a Caucasoid Neolithic culture where agriculture, the following Neolithic period is represented by rectangular houses. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gypsum, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations

3.
Guantanamo Bay detention camp
–
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also referred to as Guantánamo or GTMO, which fronts on Guantánamo


Bay in Cuba. Since the inmates have been detained indefinitely without trial and several inmates were severely tortured, the camp was established by the President George W. Bushs administration in 2002 during the War on Terror. During his term, his administration succeeded in reducing the number of inmates from about 245 to 41, in practice, the site has long been used for indefinite detention without trial. The facility is operated by the Joint Task Force Guantanamo of the United States government in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Detention areas consisted of Camp Delta including Camp Echo, Camp Iguana, and Camp X-Ray, which is now closed. The Bush administration asserted that detainees were not entitled to any of the protections of the Geneva Conventions. Following this, on 7 July 2006,the Department of Defense issued a memo stating that detainees would, in the future. Current and former detainees have reported abuse and torture, which the Bush administration denied, in a 2005 Amnesty International report, the facility was called the Gulag of our times. In 2006, the United Nations called unsuccessfully for the Guantanamo Bay detention camp to be closed, on 22 January 2009, President Obama issued a request to suspend proceedings at Guantanamo military commission for 120 days and to shut down the detention facility that year. President Obama issued a Presidential memorandum dated 15 December 2009, ordering Thomson Correctional Center, Thomson, in February 2011, U. S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said that Guantanamo Bay was unlikely to be closed, due to opposition in the Congress. Congress