National Guard troops.

Demonstrators also protested hyperinflation and shortages of food and medicines in the country.

"We are protesting because we are in disagreement with the government of Nicolas Maduro. We are experiencing a serious crisis that is suffocating us Leonardo Bruzual. journalist

Problems in Venezuela

Hyperinflation. Venezuela's inflation rate, which has been over 50 percent since 2014, reached 536.2 percent in 2017 largely due to the rapid depreciation of the local currency on the black market, the opposition-controlled National Assembly said on October.

The International Monetary Fund estimates that inflation will reach 2,068.5 percent by 2018.

Economic war. The government says it is the victim of an "economic war", including speculation and hoarding, by pro-opposition businessmen. Venezuela's currency has weakened sharply on the black market.

Food shortages. The government controls the price of basicgoods, but the black market still has a powerful influence on prices. Prices on basic goods can change in a matter of days, causing severe food shortages.

The often leads to food shortage which reflects in the long lines of people inside and outside supermarkets and the attempts to cross the border with Colombia to buy basic goods.

Oil output. Venezuela's oil production, which has been falling by about 20,000 barrels per day (bpd) since last year, is on track to fall by at least 250,000 bpd in 2017.

Refinancing its debt. However, the country's President Nicolas Maduro has dismissed the possibility of a default, adding that Venezuela would instead work on refinancing and restructuring its foreign debt.

However, the country's President Nicolas Maduro has dismissed the possibility of a default, adding


that Venezuela would instead work on refinancing and restructuring its foreign debt. Health assistance . The economic crisis is also hitting Venezuela's public health system the hardest. In the country's public hospitals, medicine and equipment are increasingly not available.

"Most of the time patients die because their families are out of the hospital looking for the treatments and they don't come at a time we can use the treatment, when they bring the treatment, the patient's already dying," Orfram Moreno, a doctor working in a public hospital in Merida told Al Jazeera.

Crime and poverty. Crime and violence are also widespread. In 2016, 27,479 people were killed - an all-time high - according to the independent group the Venezuelan Violence Observatory.

Political opposition

Democratic Unity Roundtable. Venezuela's political opposition has been representedmainly by the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), a coalition of different parties including centrist, centre-left, left-wing and centre-right parties.

Many Venezuelans distrust parts of the coalition, which includes figures who were active in politics decades ago.

The strength of the coalition has also been hit by internal power struggles as well as disagreements over ideology and policy.

Latest developments

On March 2018, Venezuela postponed its upcoming presidential vote from the original date of April 22 to May 20 following a pact between Maduro's government and some opposition parties.

On February 2018, Venezuela officially launched the pre-sale of its new digital currency called the petro.

According to the government, the petro is backed by oil, gas, gold and diamonds, and is meant to help overcome US and EU sanctions.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order


The EMS Division, under the direction of the EMS Administrative Captain who is responsible for ensuring all North Las Vegas Fire personnel provide state of the art emergency medicine to the public. The EMS Division supports fire and rescue operations with supplies, education and research; oversees compliance with the ambulance contractor and provides medical disaster planning for the community. EMS field supervision is provided by three Captains assigned to EMS on shift under the call sign EMS 15.

North Las Vegas Fire personnel serve on various local, state and national EMS committees including the National Association of EMT’s; The International Association of Fire Chiefs EMS section; the Emergency Medical Services for Children program; The Southern Nevada Safe Kids Coalition; the National Association of EMS Educators, and the American Heart10 states and from reports of hospitalizations and deaths, Schuchat says. They illustrate the extent to which swine flu, also known as H1N1, is hitting children, who account for 8 million infections, 36,000 hospitalizations and 540 deaths. In a typical flu season, about 80 children die.

Arnold Monto, a flu expert at the University of Michigan, says the government must rely on estimates such as these because flu tests in doctors' offices are unreliable and most diagnoses are based on patients' symptoms. That makes flu reporting sketchy at best.

"We know we are missing cases," Monto says. "What they're trying to do with these estimation methods is fill in the gaps."

Fortunately, most flu cases so far have run their course after a few days of bed rest, fluids and aspirin


Squamous cell carcinoma complicating tibial osteomyelitis treated with local wide excision and staged microvascular reconstruction.
Squamous cell carcinoma is a complication of chronic tibial osteomyelitis treated with limb-preserving surgery. A 61-year-old man with 42-year history of chronic osteomyelitis of the left tibia was found to have malignant change. A curettage procedure was performed by a general surgeon. He then was referred to the osteomyelitis service; local wide excision was followed by staged microvascular latissimus dorsi muscle flap and fibular osteoseptocutaneous flap transfer. The patient remains well 36 months later with no clinical or radiologic evidence of local recurrence or distant metastasis. This kind of limb-sparing treatment is an excellent alternative treatment for malignancy.2, 2020.

References

Sources

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300,000. In April 1969, Dubček was replaced as first secretary by Gustáv Husák, and a period of "normalization" began. Husák reversed Dubček's reforms, purged the party of liberal members, dismissed opponents from public office, reinstated the power of the police authorities, sought to re-centralize the economy and re-instated the disallowance of political commentary in mainstream media and by persons not considered to have "full political trust". The international image of the Soviet Union suffered considerably, especially among Western student movements inspired by the "New Left" and non-Aligned Movement states. Mao Zedong's People's Republic of China, for example, condemned both the Soviets and the Americans as imperialists.

Vietnam War

U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson landed 42,000 troops in the Dominican Republic in 1965 to prevent the emergence of "another Fidel Castro."Tagged: war

Eroica is an example of the Polish School, films made in the 1950s concerning World War II. It’s in two parts, originally meant to be three but the director, Andrzej Munk, was dissatisfied with the final section, and tells two stories of heroism. ‘Eroica’ is Italian for ‘heroic’ and, in the context of the film, refers to Beethoven’s third symphony; a brief extract from which is heard at the start of the film. I don’t think the musical reference is particularly important, but the film is clearly about heroism.

The first section is a funny tale of a chancer, Gorkiewicz, who we see at the start fleeing from being conscripted into the Polish Resistance; an entirely unheroic action. He blags his way back to Warsaw only to find


his wife apparently ‘shacked up’ with a Hungarian officer. Gorkiewicz takes this philosophically and becomes embroiled in helping the Resistance anyway. The humour rises from Gorkiewicz’s behaviour as he finds himself in a number of precarious situations. At one point, whilst he’s boozing sitting on a river bank, a German tank fires a volley, making him jump, before moving on its way. The laughter of the German soldiers can be heard; the film humanises the conflict with humour.

Behind you!

The second part is sombre and is set in a POW camp. It portrays the relationships of men who’ve been incarcerated for the whole of the war and how they pin their faith on the one of their number who managed to escape.

The third part may have balanced the narrativeof the film more; just two, basically unconnected, tales are little more than two short films, one after the other. The second film only tangentially deals with heroism. However, it is still an essential to see film if only because of the humour of the first part and some brilliant mise en scene: devastated settings form the backdrop to a number of the scenes. Munk’s career was curtailed by an early death, which was a loss to Polish, and World, cinema.

Like this:

Ivan’s Childhood is Andrei Tarkovsky’s first feature film and he started his film career running; unquestionably he is a ‘poet’ of cinema. He went on to make a number of masterpieces, such as Andrei Roublev (1967) and Solaris (1972), and his elliptical visual style is evident in


prisoner of war camp in the North of Italy and have made their way South. They are holed up in a village and the villagers arrange a bargain with a group of nuns who are looking for wine and food to take back to Rome. The nuns will take the POWs and in exchange will get ham and wine. But the nuns are actually black marketeers led by a beautiful young woman played by Giovanna Ralli. She wants rid of the POWs as well but she has a kind heart and one of the men, an American airman (played by Peter Baldwin), has an old wound that has re-opened. She ends up letting the men stay in the spacious attic above her apartment. The other two men area British officer (Leo Genn) and a Russian sergeant (the great Sergei Bondarchuk, a talented actor and director).

The men end up staying for several weeks, culminating in a Christmas dinner. Nobody is fluent in more than one language so communication is difficult, but in the famous Christmas dinner sequence the Russian makes a moving speech in which the meaning is clear from his intonation and facial expressions. Giovanna is also part of the partisan network and the men meet her boyfriend and others in the movement. Inevitably it becomes impossible to keep the men’s presence a secret and there is a great deal of tension before they are exposed to the fascists and their Nazi bosses. The final section of the film, leading up to the point when


the Allied troops arrive in the capital, opens the narrative up further to include the aristocratic family who own the working-class apartment block. They too are on the side of the partisans and the landlord is a Vatican officer whose family entertains an aristocratic German officer. Just as in Roma citta aperta and Paisa there is a sequence involving local priests – with refugees hidden among the novices. This sequence and another in which Leo Genn pretends to be a butler to serve the German officer are played with wit and a gentle sense of the absurd. I was reminded of Fellini’s contributions to the scripts of the earlier wartime films.

Far from being some kind of ‘commercial filler’, I found this to be a moving film about lifeand screen actor but he had also been a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Royal Artillery in 1943. When he recreated his wartime persona he was 55 years old, but that doesn’t seem to matter. His calm and ability to speak the Latin of his schooldays and appear to genuinely learn Italian during the course of the narrative give the film a real grounding in the period. This was an actor and trained barrister who prosecuted war crimes at Belsen and narrated both the events at the 1953 Coronation and the opening of the UN in 1947. The Wikipedia page on Leo Genn refers to his role in “Rossellini’s remarkable and largely forgotten film”. The film is remarkable and it shouldn’t be forgotten. It’s not as ‘dramatic’ as Roma citta


… Continue reading → […]

‘Creative Visions’ is the title of the latest celebration of Hong Kong Cinema at HOME in Manchester (continuing a series of celebrations that started during the cinema’s previous incarnation as Cornerhouse). This latest short season of films presents work from 1997-2017, twenty years since the handover of Hong Kong back to China. HOME’s seasons come … Contin […]

Hotel Salvation is the latest Indian Independent film to successfully tour film festivals worldwide and now receive a limited general release in the UK. It was first launched at the Venice Film Festival last year. Its young (25 year-old) writer-director Shubhashish Bhutiani had already won prizes with Kesh (2013), his thesis film short from New … Continue re […]

Cloud-Capped Star is the first film in Bengali directorBaker v. Smith

On December 18, 2012, the Court of Appeals held that a detainee could not sue an assistant jailor for negligence, because the assistant jailor was protected by official immunity. In this case, the detainee committed suicide while in custody, and his Estate sued the assistant jailor alleging that she failed to take adequate measures to prevent the detainee from committing suicide. The detainee was on a suicide watch, and used a blanket to hang himself.

The court provided an excellent analysis of official immunity, which protects public "officials" from mere negligence. The issue in this case was whether an assistant jailor was an "official." The case law clearly held that the jailor was entitled to such immunity, but whether the assistant jailor was entitled to immunity was


Ozma (オズマ, Ozuma?) is an unusual spherical monster that debuted in Final Fantasy IX as the game's superboss. It is a ball of swirling energy, one hemisphere being made of light energy and the other hemisphere of dark energy.

Ozma is a superboss fought in Chocobo's Air Garden. To reach it, the player needs to undertake a long sidequest. Ozma is notorious for its unpredictable attack patterns and the random damage it can dish out with its Meteor. Defeating Ozma yields a trophy item, its Tetra Master card, and a Pumice that can teach Dagger her ultimate eidolon, Ark. In the latest versions, defeating Ozma also yields an achievement/trophy. If the party defeats Ozma before encountering Hades in Memoria, Hades will comment on the feat.

Ozma's exact nature is unknown,which will remove anyone who is not within the portal from the public dungeon. Defeating the boss while still alive earns an achievement, which rewards the Demi-Ozma mount.

Ozma appeared in the original free-to-play version as a dark-elemental summon and its appearance was based on its original design from Final Fantasy IX.

Ozma's special ability was Final Judgment when summoned into battle, which dealt dark-elemental damage to all enemies and allies. The ability's appearance and effect were callbacks to the Doomsday black magic from Final Fantasy IX, which Ozma used during the fight against it. Summoning Ozma required 3 bars from the Summon Gauge.

Ozma allowed the wielder to use the following abilities:

Flare Star I

Flare Star II

Flare Star III

The metaphysical being Ozma exists without form and is unknowable, untouchable, and unattainable.


and surrounding areas like Hawijah in Kirkuk Province and Baiji in Salaheddin Province.

Halgurd Hekmat, a spokesman for Kurdish forces, also said that the majority of the deployed troops are Kurdish.

“These forces came with the approval of the presidency and government of the Kurdistan region of Iraq,” Hekmat added, noting that the base is for both aircraft and soldiers.

On Sunday, a senior Saudi-born Daesh commander, named as Shobaib Abu Majd al-Kanani, was killed in an airstrike in Nineveh Province. Eight other militants were also killed in the attack.

Gruesome violence has plagued the northern and western parts of Iraq ever since Daesh launched an offensive in the country in June 2014.

The militants have been committing vicious crimes against all ethnic and religious communities in Iraq, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, ChristiansHurricane Dorian, a powerful Category 5 storm, roared over the Bahamas on Sunday making landfall on three different islands with punishing sustained winds of 185 mph and gusts that reached speeds of 225 mph.

Dorian proved to be a historic hurricane, the strongest ever during modern record-keeping to make landfall in the Bahamas and, with sustained 185-mph winds, it’s now the second-strongest hurricane, by wind speed, ever recorded in the Atlantic basin. Dorian now stands behind only Hurricane Allen, the strongest storm ever recorded in the Atlantic basin. Allen thundered over the Gulf of Mexico in August 1980 and achieved sustained wind speeds of 190 mph before making landfall near the U.S.-Mexico border.

Hurricane Dorian made its initial landfall at Elbow Cay, Abacos, in the Bahamas. The eye of Dorian


the storm slowly drew nearer to Florida’s Atlantic coast, the National Hurricane Center issued its first hurricane warnings and watches for parts of the Sunshine State.

A baby sleeps inside a church that was opened up as a shelter for residents who will wait out Hurricane Dorian in Freeport on Grand Bahama, Bahamas, Sunday, Sept. 1, 2019.

Meanwhile, the first mandatory evacuation orders were issued on Sunday for St. Johns County, St. Lucie County and Martin Countyand parts of Palm Beach County, including where President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort is located. The Miami Herald reportedthe Palm Beach evacuations are for those in low-lying areas and that the county began opening shelters on Sunday.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended traffic tolls after the first evacuation orders went into effect at 1 p.m.Dorian. The five-day forecast shows sunshine and temperatures in the 90s for Birmingham for the first week of September. But from Florida up through Georgia and the Carolinas, people were on edge. States of emergency have been in place for days.

While Dorian is a very powerful storm, AccuWeather meteorologists point out that it’s small in size, something that could be critical depending on the track it takes as it approaches the southeastern coast of the U.S. Satellite images of Dorian still portray the hurricane as a relatively small feature. Hurricane-force winds only extend outward from the hurricane by about 30 miles, while tropical-storm-force winds extend outward from the center of the hurricane by about 105 miles — a size that is roughly half of what is average for


Listen to this Episode

Our guest today is the wonderful Shannon Lee, talking about her life and her father's legacy.

Among the highlights of the day:

Coming to terms with being Bruce Lee's daughter

Shannon's work as the head of Bruce Lee Enterprises

We bow to our one and only god: Pete McCormack, director of the documentary I Am Bruce Lee

The sordid tale of how the evil Bolelli used his Godfather skills to end up in the documentary (btw, the most glorious 53 seconds in movie history!)

Why nerdy Asian boys owe their very lives to Bruce Lee

On nationalism and the wild tale of a Bruce Lee statue built in Bosnia right after the war there

What makes some people more authentic than others?

Rebelling against dogma and creating our own path: "That’s the thing I’vepick of the Anaheim Ducks in 1996 (ninth overall).

The native of Belarus has appeared in 842 career games with Anaheim,
Florida and Colorado, picking up 43 goals and 151 assists for 194
points, to go along with 1,017 penalty minutes.

The Red Wings now have 24 players signed for about $59 million.

They still have center Justin Abdelkader to sign. He'll likely sign for
a cap hit of around $750,000 to $800,000. Then they would need to trim
two players -- Meech and a forward, either Mattias Ritola or Drew
Miller.

Holland said he'll wait until training camp to see how
things unfold before trimming players. Teams are allowed to be as much
as 10 percent over the salary cap until the start of the regular season.

"I was fine going into the season with what we had," Holland


come to this area, but we had an opportunity to come see and take a rickshaw ride around the area.

Tea drinking at the Bell Tower was very refreshing, and it was a good activity to avoid the cold for a bit! The Bell Tower was used in the olden days where to tell time would be by burning a match or wax would take about an hour and once that was done, the bell would be hit to announce the hour had gone by.

More local food for lunch! And we had more of the pork with tofu, pork with cashews, turnip with almond, soup and noodles with meat sauce.

That was pretty much the end of our 2 day tour and mum and I just wanted a little downhospital where he died at around 7 p.m., just two hours after police estimate the partying began.

Callaway told ABCNEWS.com that Morris had at one time been employed by the bar as a bouncer, a job his sister, Jacqui Morris, told a local newspaper was his way of getting back on his feet after a rough couple of months.

Morris had spent seven months in jail on theft and burglary charges, according to the Florida Department of Corrections records obtained by ABCNEWS.com.

Jacqui Morris told the St. Petersburg Times that she thinks her brother kept taking shots to prove his endurance — a quality coveted in their family, she said.

"It's just because we had to be tough," Jacqui Morris, 27, told the newspaper. "We were raised to be tough."

And while police


out after Jean Segura led off the inning with a single.

“Today felt good and hopefully we continue to put up some good at-bats and score some runs,” Seager said.

Seager had gone 21 games without a home run before hitting his 17th and 18th of the season Sunday. He recorded his eighth career multi-homer game and his 31st multi-hit game of the season.

Zach Duke (4-4) picked up his first win as a Mainer when he got one out in the seventh for the win. Alex Colome pitched a scoreless eighth and Edwin Diaz locked down his major league-leading 41st save of the season as the Mariners avoided the series sweep.

Cruz finished with four RBI, driving in the game’s first two runs with an RBI single off the glove ofof the anterior chamber (the space between the cornea and iris) through the trabecular meshwork and the uveoscleral pathways, both of which contribute to the aqueous humor drainage system. The delicate balance between the production and drainage of aqueous humor determines the eye's IOP.
FIG. 1 is a diagram of the front portion of an eye that helps to explain the processes of glaucoma. In FIG. 1, representations of the lens 110, cornea 120, iris 130, ciliary body 140, trabecular meshwork 150, and Schlemm's canal 160 are pictured. Anatomically, the anterior segment of the eye includes the structures that cause elevated IOP which may lead to glaucoma. Aqueous humor fluid is produced by the ciliary body 140 that lies beneath the iris 130 and adjacent to the lens 110


in the anterior segment of the eye. This aqueous humor washes over the lens 110 and iris 130 and flows to the drainage system located in the angle of the anterior chamber. The angle of the anterior chamber, which extends circumferentially around the eye, contains structures that allow the aqueous humor to drain. The trabecular meshwork 150 is commonly implicated in glaucoma. The trabecular meshwork 150 extends circumferentially around the anterior chamber. The trabecular meshwork 150 seems to act as a filter, limiting the outflow of aqueous humor and providing a back pressure that directly relates to IOP. Schlemm's canal 160 is located beyond the trabecular meshwork 150. Schlemm's canal 160 is fluidically coupled to collector channels (not shown) allowing aqueous humor to flow out of the anteriorIsis - Live VII 02.25.10 (CD)

The music of the band ISIS is a suitable metaphor for their thirteen-year career: patient, meticulous, fraught with tension and gradually building towards an apex of seismic proportions. From the hypnotically bludgeoning down-tuned riffs of their early years to the gracefully sprawling passages on their pivotal sophomore album ‘Oceanic’ and continuing through the intricate rhythmic textures and increased melody of 2006’s ‘In The Absence Of Truth’, ISIS have successfully navigated the process of growing and evolving without disavowing their initial vision.

‘Live VII’ is the seventh in their post break-up series of live albums and their first to be released by Ipecac. The seminal show was recorded at The Corner Hotel in Melbourne, Australia on February 25, 2010 as part of the Soundwave Festival’s


"The FBI submitted a partial report on the investigation in question in March and then a completed background investigation in late July," Wray said during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

FBI Director Christopher Wray said Tuesday that the White House received results from a completed background check into former White House aide Rob Porter in July, but was asked to take further investigative steps.

Porter resigned as White House staff secretary last week amid accusations he abused both of his ex-wives. He was working with a temporary security clearance because the FBI had not approved him for permanent status.

Both of Porter's ex-wives both said they spoke with the FBI in January 2017 and again months later regarding the alleged physical abuse and the possibility Porter's conduct would5:15 PM PT -- Lady Gaga just responded to the sad news, calling the suicide of her friend "beyond devastating." She also urged anyone suffering from mental health issues to reach out to friends and family, adding ... "We must save each other."

Rick Genest -- better known as Zombie Boy due to the corpse tattoos covering his body -- has died from an apparent suicide ... according to reports.

The Canadian artist and fashion model was well known in the body art world for obvious reasons, but gained mainstream fame in 2011 when he appeared in Lady Gaga's music vid for "Born This Way."

This led to more high-profile fashion work on the runway, including helping relaunch Jay-Z's label Rocawear in Europe in 2012. He also modeled for magazines like


GQ and Vanity Fair.

Zombie Boy held the Guinness World Record for most insect tattoos with 176, and another for most bone tattoos with 139. He had also reportedly been working on an album of original songs with ex-Rob Zombie guitarist Mike Riggs before he died.

According to Canada's iHeartRadio ... Montreal cops say Genest was found dead in his apartment from an apparent suicide.Livity Sound aren't the new kids on the block anymore – the Bristol label and live crew have been putting out records from the holy trinity of Peverelist, Kowton, and Asusu for nearly four years now, bringing together techno, jungle, and grime while remaining spiritually tied to the city's sound system culture.

Even so, it's easy to forget that they haven't really put out a new record of original material for a while. After 2013's self-titled compilation/album from the collective, Livity Sound have been touring Japan and Europe with their hardware-based live show and issuing remixes from the likes of Surgeon, MMM, Kassem Mosse, and A Made Up Sound, but 2015 promises a return to what they do best: making tracks and releasing them.

A slew of new material is


Tami Simon's in-depth audio podcast interviews with leading spiritual teachers and luminaries. Listen in as they explore their latest challenges and breakthroughs—the leading edge of their work.

Shinzen Young: The Science of Enlightenment, Part 1

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Shinzen Young is a renowned mindfulness teacher known for his live gatherings, where he uses a scientific, "algorithmic" approach to explain the many aspects of meditation. With Sounds True, he has published the decades-in-the-making book The Science of Enlightenment: How Meditation Works. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon and Shinzen speak on his approach to mindfulness, including a method of breaking down sensory experience into easily parsed categories. They talk about the three core powers of focused attention—sensory clarity, concentration, and equanimity—and how mindfulness can free us ofthe impression that our selves are static and unchanging. Finally, Shinzen and Tami discuss the different ways in which we can understand the concept of enlightenment, including an in-depth consideration of what Shinzen calls "classical enlightenment." (66 minutes)

Shinzen Young: The Science of Enlightenment, Part 1

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Tami Simon: You're listening to Insights at the Edge.. Today my guest is Shinzen Young. Shinzen is an American mindfulness teacher who is known for his algorithmic approach to mindfulness, and often uses mathematical metaphors to illustrate meditative phenomena. He leads meditation retreats throughout North America and has helped establish numerous mindfulness centers and programs, including the Home Practice program. With Sounds True, Shinzen has written a new book—a book several decades in the making—called The Science of Enlightenment: How Meditation


the language is spoken. It encourages enjoyment of language learning and the recognition that language skills enable students to take their place in a multi-lingual global society.

Our students continuously work on improving listening, reading, speaking and writing skills. Students will be formally assessed in all four skills in a GCSE style at the end of each term during MFL Exam Week. They will be assessed on the previous two units of learning and will have an exam on each of the 4 skills divided equally across the units.

This four-skilled specification requires students to develop their ability to read, listen, write and speak confidently in the foreign language. This qualification counts towards the English Baccalaureate.

Students study all of the following themes on which the assessments are based.

Theme 1: Identityand Culture

Theme 2: Local, national and global areas of interest

Theme 3: Current and future study and employment

The GSCE has a Foundation Tier (grades 1–5) and a Higher Tier (grades 4–9). Students must take all four question papers at the same tier. All question papers must be taken in the same series.

Paper 1 Listening: Understanding and responding to different types of spoken language

Written exam: 35 minutes (Foundation Tier), 45 minutes (Higher Tier)

40 marks (Foundation Tier), 50 marks (Higher Tier)

25% of GCSE

Paper 2 Speaking: Communicating and interacting effectively in speech for a variety of purposes

Non-exam assessment

7–9 minutes (Foundation Tier) + preparation time

10–12 minutes (Higher Tier) + preparation time

60 marks (for each of Foundation Tier and Higher Tier)

25% of GCSE

Paper 3 Reading: Understanding and responding to different types of written language

Written


In an email to Sea Shepherd Global Director Captain Alex Cornelissen, the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture has communicated the results of their investigation. The Chinese government has temporarily suspended the fishing licenses of all of the vessels owned by the company, the Dong Xing Long Ocean Fishing Company. The six vessels of the Fu Yuan Yu fleet have been ordered to remain in port for an indefinite period. In addition, the captains of the fishing vessels have had their certification as Masters permanently revoked and each vessel has been fined the equivalent of $300,000 U.S. dollars.

Captain Paul Watson, founder of Sea Shepherd said, “This was a bold campaign led by a courageous Sea Shepherd captain and his crew. This intervention has removed six very destructive poaching ships fromthe Indian Ocean and has sent a strong message to Chinese flagged ships around the Globe that China is serious about international fisheries law and enforcement.”

Sea Shepherd first intervened when Captain Sid Chakravarty and his crew on board the Steve Irwin discovered, documented, exposed and pursued an illegally operating Chinese drift fleet in the Indian Ocean.

Sea Shepherd reported the activities and supplied evidence to the Peoples Republic of China. The pursuit which began in the Indian Ocean ended in Chinese waters with the Chinese Navy allowing the Steve Irwin to continue the pursuit through the South China Sea to the coast of China.

With the six ships in Chinese ports, the Chinese government took over the investigation. In response to Sea Shepherd’s initial discovery and documentation of the illegal


is an efficient, thorough, prompt and effective attorney. She has made the horrible immigration situation more bearable and has never given up in my case ever when the situation seemed impossible to resolve. I truly recommend Ms. Hilf in any immigration case."

VJ

"Finally, finally, finally, my waiting is over. Case approved!!!...For anyone living in Michigan and needs help with immigration issue, I recommend Sufen Hilf. She is an experienced attorney with history of family petition cases."

We serve clients throughout Michigan including those in the following localities: Oakland County including Auburn Hills, Farmington Hills, Madison Heights, Novi, Pontiac, Rochester Hills, Royal Oak, Southfield, and Troy; Genesee County including Genesee and Flint; Ingham County including East Lansing and Lansing; Livingston County including Howell; Macomb County including Mount Clemens, Saint Clair Shores,with a motor which serves both for film feeding and autofocusing and a motor for zooming in order to perform the driving for autfocusing and the driving for feeding film in the opposite direction by a single driving motor with a simple construction constructed at a low cost, in which the transmission of the driving force of the motor serving both for film feeding and autofocusing is switched by means of planetary gear type clutches in the state of film winding and film feeding and in the state of film rewinding, and in which a gear for autofocus-driving is located where it can mesh with one or other of the planetary gear drives of the planetary gear type clutches, the position of one of the planetary gear is


becomes small and the attaching of the motor becomes difficult as mentioned before. To resolve the problem, a composition is known in which a cylindrical step motor is located effectively in an lens-barrel to reduce the thickness of the lens-barrel and the lenses can be driven accurately and at high speed (hereafter referred to prior art 7). According to this prior art, the front lens group is located fixedly in the front side of the aperture position in the lens-barrel, the rear lens group is formed to have its lower part removed, a shutter consisting of two blades which are driven to open and shut in a range not interfere with the removed portion, the shutter serving both as the aperture, and the cylindrical step motor is locatedastride of the aperture position in the space below the rear lens group and front lens group.
Further, a composition is known in which, in order to construct a camera module to be thin and furthermore to realize accurate focusing and image zooming by moving lens position, lenses are fixed to the first and second barrel so that the lenses for focusing an image to an image pickup device do not deviate, further the first and second barrel are fixed to the housing, a guide groove is formed on one side of the housing to receive the extended part of the first and second housing so that the first and second housing can be slid (hereafter referred to as prior art 8). In the prior art 8, the rotation


Wildlife conservationists and a controversial paper company this week relocated a critically endangered tiger away from plantations and onto a national park in Sumatra, an Indonesian island famous for its rich biodiversity.

A veterinarian performed a final checkup on the 7-year-old female Sumatran tiger, named Putri or "princess" in Indonesian, and fitted her with a GPS tracking collar shortly before she woke up from sedatives. After the gate to her cage was lifted by remote control from a nearby boat, Putri strolled into the jungle.

Camera traps sprinkled around the release site will record Putri's activity as she settles into her new home in Sembilang National Park, South Sumatra.

"The Sumatran tiger is a national treasure and a symbol of our rich history. It is imperative that as a nation wework together to ensure the health and longevity of this species for generations to come," said Zulkifli Hasan, Indonesia's Minister of Forestry, in a press release.

Conservationists earlier this year found 165-pound Putri roaming a plantation forest grown on slashed-and-burned land in South Sumatra and captured her. Since then, several organizations have worked together to monitor Putri's health and design a plan to move her far away from humans.

Asia Pulp & Paper, a company whose logging practices on Sumatra recently caused Lego to stop using its products, and which is alleged by environmental organization Greenpeace to have driven Putri from her home in the first place, helped fund the relocation.

About 500 Sumatran tigers exist in the wild, according to recent estimates. Poaching the tigers for their striped coats is


a problem, but unprecedented deforestation continues to shrink their native habitat.

Most of the forest losses are due to paper milling and palm oil plantations. Since the 1980s, about half of Sumatra's natural forests have been destroyed. From 2000 to 2005, the region saw close to a 3 percent loss of its remaining natural forest cover.

The relocation effort by Asia Pulp & Paper comes shortly after Greenpeace released graphic footage of a Sumatran tiger dying in a wild boar trap (video below, in gallery.) According to their report, the animal struggled for seven days on the border of the company's deforested land before eventually dying.

After being captured from a plantation, Putri is washed in a shower in her temporary enclosure. Putri is transported on a boat to Betet Islandin South Sumatra. Putri is unloaded from the boat in her box. While sedated, Putri is checked on by a veterinarian. A GPS tracking collar is attached to Putri. Conservationists prepare Putri's cage for her release. Putri the Sumatran tiger strolls out of her cage. A camera positioned near Putri's release cage catches her wandering into the jungle. A Sumatran tiger caught in a wild boar trap at the edge of an Asia Pulp & Paper plantation. Video: GreenpeaceVideo/YouTube

Video and images: Alain Compost/Asia Pulp & Paper

See Also:


dealer and picked up by Hines on the day of the accident.
"The undisputed facts show that Sinclair is a gunsmith who makes or alters rifles only for target shooting. He is not a dealer or agent for Remington Arms but is allowed some discount in price because of the volume of parts he purchases. Both of the guns he manufactured for Mr. Hines originated with Remington.
"Sinclair purchased a Model 700 twenty-two caliber repeating rifle from Remington, without a stock. He then removed and discarded the barrel, leaving only the bolt and frame of the original gun. He manufactured a new barrel and then reamed, or honed, out the receiving chamber so the gun would accommodate cartridges with a larger diameter but tapered down to the size of theof any sort.
"A specially made stock was then fitted to the newly created rifle, appropriate for bench rest target shooting but completely inappropriate for hunting or free-handed shooting. The completed guns were not repeating rifles but were single shot, to be loaded by hand. They were intended to be loaded when the shooter was seated at the table at a rifle range, with the gun pointed down-range.
"During one telephone conference between Hines and Sinclair during the making, or conversion, of the second rifle, Sinclair told Hines that he was still using the same reamer to enlarge the gun chamber as had been used on the first gun. He did not believe it was worn, but instructed Hines to test it upon receipt to determine that it accepted his


cartridges snugly to assure accuracy in shooting. If not, Sinclair would rebuild it.
"Hines reloads his cartridges in a room in his home. During the course of time he has been target shooting he has selected certain ones that seem to better contribute to accuracy. He replaces the primer, gunpowder *155 and bullets in them and seems to prize them.
"Upon returning home after taking delivery of the second rifle, Hines went into his loading room, selected one of his prized cartridges, already reloaded, and placed it in the gun breech, with the bolt drawn to the rear. When he shoved the bolt forward to push the cartridge into the receiving chamber the cartridge fired when the bolt closed. The bullet entered a canister of gunpowder that was at theback of the loading table. A terrific explosion and fire resulted in Hines' injuries.
"Remington Arms Company brings this motion for summary judgment on the basis that the gun which caused Hines' damages, which likely was defective as manufactured by Sinclair, is not a Remington Model 700 Repeating Rifle; that it only contains few of the parts manufactured by Remington and at the time of the incident was not being used in the manner for which it was designed.
"The Remington 700 Rifle is designed to use rim-fire cartridges which are approximately the same diameter as the bullet in them. It has a safety which blocks the trigger from movement, when engaged.
"The Sinclair rifle is designed to use larger cartridges and has no safety.
"Remington had no control over Sinclair and


was a mechanical engineer with expertise in guns and the other was a gunsmith. In rejecting their affidavits, the majority sums up its reasons saying and I quote: "the opinions of plaintiff's `expert' witnesses were based on conclusions from what others had said, and appear to be no more than legal conclusions." These reasons for rejecting the affidavits, in my opinion, are patently wrong. Information supplied by the "others" on whom Weisman expressly relied were four lengthy depositions, all of which are in the recorddepositions given by George Greene, Earl Hines, James A. Stekl, and Fred Sinclair. Stekl, as pointed out above, was Remington's expert. Information on which Greene relied is referred to not only in his affidavit but also in his 107 page deposition which is alsoof the black cab rapist – needless to say the prejudiced and under-performing police officers responsible instead of being sacked received the traditional tap on the wrist with a feather).

I’ve never forgotten the black cab driver I witnessed on a Critical Mass ride, near Waterloo station. The driver had his hand casually dangling out of his window. His fist slowly unfurled and he released drawing pins all over the road, with the clear intention of puncturing the tyres of cyclists.

On another occasion I witnessed a black cab driver flip and trash the bicycle of a Critical Masser. The pair of shaven headed cops who turned up exuded aggression and hostility to the cyclist and were all smiles and jokes with the cabbie. The attitude of this pair of


but helped Bradley get more time on the ball, was always in position to help defensively, and was once again a reliable outlet in possession.

RW: DeAndre Yedlin (7): Uncontainable speed that he's harnessed and honed into a weapon. There's nothing particularly fancy about his game, but you don't need to be fancy when you run like the wind itself.

DM: Daniel Williams (6): Came in and immediately won the ball, then surged forward and helped create a chance. Then had three straight midfield turnovers, one of which led to an immediate Dutch turnover, which then turned into the Brooks goal. And then he had two more turnovers, and then he got a goal himself.

This was a productive and entertaining outing from Williams, who singled-handedly made the game about 800%more frenetic. Here's his heat map for the day:

I'll be surprised, however, if Klinsmann sees it as the type of performance that edges Williams past Beckerman in the pecking order ahead of the summer's Gold Cup.

CF: Bobby Wood (8): He was the game-changer, pushing the Netherlands defense back with his speed and aggression in his runs. He will never be a fan favorite because he will never be a clinical finisher, but it's pretty obvious why Klinsmann rates him. Wood made the game better for everybody around him.

F: Jordan Morris (7): Like Wood, he opens teams up with his speed and aggression. Unlike Wood he's looked to be a natural finisher in the past. We'll be seeing lots more of this kid in the future.


China To Install 40 Gigawatts Of New Solar By The End Of 2018 Despite Cutbacks

November 6th, 2018 by Joshua S Hill

China has installed a total of 34.5 gigawatts (GW) worth of new solar PV capacity in the first nine months of the year, according to figures published last week, with expectations that figure will hit 40 GW by the end of the year, despite significant cutbacks to the country’s solar plans.

2018 has been a tumultuous year for the Chinese solar industry. The opening months of the year saw analysts expecting China to exceed its 2017 capacity levels, which saw the country install 52.83 GW in a year which resulted in 98.9 GW worth of new solar around the world. Almost immediately analysts started predicting 2018 capacity installations would1987, Wilson filed an Answer, Counterclaim and Third Party Complaint (# 16), alleging, inter alia, the three counterclaims which are the subject of this order.
As counterdefendant, CMI filed a "Motion to Dismiss, for Partial Summary Judgment, or for Judgment on the Pleadings on Defendants' First, Sixth and Seventh Counterclaims" (# 54) on August 11, 1988. By Order (# 59) dated September 29, 1988, this Court vacated its previous Order (# 58) of September 27, 1988, which had granted CMI's Motion to Dismiss. Pursuant to this Court's Order, on November 4, 1988, Wilson filed a Memorandum in Opposition to CMI's Motion to Dismiss (# 60).
For the reasons discussed herein, CMI's Motion to Dismiss is granted regarding Wilson's First and Sixth Counterclaims, but CMI's motion regarding Wilson's Seventh Counterclaim is


play zone for some reason.

- Ryan Kelly recorded a horrorcore album between the third and fourth quarters. Pitchfork gave it a 9.2 and called it "transcendent."

- Wesley Johnson spit and his saliva congealed into a mound of soft, pleasantly tangy cheese with notes of lemon peel and cedar. One pound of the cheese is worth fourteen Nickyoungcoins.

- In a remote fishing village in Iceland, a dog spoke to a boy. The boy asked the dog if it wanted to go outside, and the dog said "yes, I do" in Icelandic, then farted. The boy wept. The dog wept, then began writing its first novel.

- Mermaids exist now.

- A volcano erupted on Jupiter. From the eruption emerged a new kind of life form-- an organism best described as aany woman and for many men as well. The book outlines 13 habits to adopt in order to help you overcome obstacles and become more successful. "When you find a constructive way to tap into your discomfort and use that suffering as fuel," she writes, "your pain transforms into progress, power, and positive impact."

3. "Inventing Joy" by Joy Mangano

Inventor Joy Mangano has sold more than $3 billion worth of home products, including her famous self-wringing mop and non-slip clothes hangers. Her life is the basis of the 2015 movie "Joy," starring Jennifer Lawrence. To succeed, Mangano didn't quit her job or take out a massive loan. Instead, she worked very hard creating and peddling her inventions. When department stores wouldn't sell her mops, she stood in parking lots,


1840 United States presidential election in Vermont

The 1840 United States presidential election in Vermont took place between October 30 and December 2, 1840, as part of the 1840 United States presidential election. Voters chose seven representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for President and Vice President.

Vermont voted for the Whig candidate, William Henry Harrison, over Democratic candidate Martin Van Buren. Harrison won Vermont by a margin of 28.43%.

Harrison's 28.43% margin of victory made it his strongest victory in the election while he carried 63.90% of the popular vote made Vermont his second strongest state after Kentucky.

Results

References

Vermont
1840
Category:1840 Vermont electionsAfter one of the least tumultuous weeks of the college football season, the top 10 teams in the latest BCS Standings remain exactly the same. It is the first time in 10 years that the top 10 of the standings have remained the same. The University of Oregon remains No. 1 despite struggling to defeat Cal on the road. Auburn, which clinched the SEC West with a win over Georgia, is No. 2. TCU and Boise State remain No. 3 and No. 4, respectively, but the Broncos closed the gap considerably after a big win over Idaho while the Frogs had a close one with San Diego State. LSU rounds out the top five. The top two teams in the final BCS standings play for the BCS National


Championship in Glendale this year.

Stanford, which also had a close call on Saturday, is No. 6, while Wisconsin, which tallied an amazing 83 points, is No. 7. Nebraska checks in at No. 8 while Ohio State and Oklahoma State round out the first 10.

Making big jumps this week were Virginia Tech and South Carolina. The Hokies went from No. 20 to No. 16 after a win over North Carolina and South Carolina's win over Florida helped them jump from No. 23 to No. 17. Newcomers to the standings this week are Florida State and Miami from the ACC.

The Southeastern Conference has six ranked teams total, including four in the top 13. The Big 12 has five ranked teams and the Big Ten adds four teams.Jacopo Prisco , CNN Written by

Sean Yoro paints portraits that have an expiration date by design.

His creations have previously graced remote waterside walls, barely escaping the waterline, and icebergs in Iceland, which have likely melted by now.

The latest project -- called "Puliki," or "to embrace" in Hawaiian -- was even more precarious: sketched with natural chalk and water on the burnt bark of trees, it's already been washed away by the first rainfall.

The artist, also known as Hula , is based in New York City but is originally from Hawaii: "I grew up on Oahu, where I was surrounded with everything nature had to offer," he told CNN. "The ocean was my playground and art didn't enter my life until my later teenage years."

"Puliki" is designed to send


a message about climate change, droughts and deforestation: "When I saw first hand the devastation of the recent wildfires, I knew I had to incorporate the trees into my art," he said.

'Puliki' was painted with natural non-toxic chalk, with water to spray on the burnt bark. Credit: Hula studios

The piece was done in the Pacific Northwest, in an unspecified location "due to legal precautions," says Yoro: "I had scouted a lot of forests in the past couple months and I wanted to choose a location that was impacted heavily by drought and wildfires."

Yoro is a tattoo artist and a surfer, and some of his previous projects involved painting his portraits from a floating board.

Why portraits? "One of the exciting things about painting portraits is being able to bringneutral territory", ITV said.

When I read that, I wondered if they were talking about the same programme that I worked on. District judge Alan Berg was bang on - the Jeremy Kyle show encourages guests into unnatural, emotionally charged confrontations, lights the touchpaper and then retires to a safe and judgmental distance.

I worked for a year on various daytime shows produced by Granada TV - the Trisha show, Jerry Springer and then on the launch of Jeremy Kyle. I was at Kyle for just over a month, and I worked on five episodes; many other episodes were recorded while I was there. In my time at Granada on all three shows I saw numerous disturbing encounters. Some made it on screen in their entirety, some we could not


until the moment Kyle introduces them. This is the moment of confrontation - the "money shot". It is also the first time the guests see their hated enemy.

The whole show is designed to produce a gladiatorial-style exchange. Guests walk out of opposite entrances in the same way that Roman fighters would enter the ring in the Colosseum. For particularly controversial or confrontational subjects, producers would ramp up the music, selecting heavy metal tracks to set the tone.

Revolting as all this may be, there is nonetheless a strange morality at work: the Queensberry rules of the daytime chat show. Producers of the Jeremy Kyle Show would never put a guest on air whose story was not in some way true. They would never fake DNA results or lie detectorA Journey In Reverse Direction, Zhu Lanqing 朱岚清

Zhu Lanqing is one of the youngest, if not the youngest, photographers ever to win the prestigious Three Shadows Photography Award back in 2014. Her Series A Journey In Reverse Direction is a poetic expedition of her hometown Dongashan Island, in which she rekindles her relationship with the culture she was born into. The news of her winning sparked some controversy online with some questioning the social significance of the project. Others said her series was “petty bourgeois, trivial and plain”. In this interview, I talked to Zhu Lanqing about her motivation behind A Journey In Reverse Direction and the current project she is working on. While working on Ten Billion New City, Lanqing has also published Lateral Root, a photo


include in your narrative?

I am working on a project called Ten Billion New City which took place in a resort city in Tongshan Island built in the 90s. The city is populated with hotels and tourist facilities. The project examines the transformation of a simple island into a tourist destination, and its impact on the islanders. I got the idea for the project when I was shooting A Journey. Before the construction began, developers from Hong Kong and Guangdong promised to invest 30 billion dollars in a period of 15 years, building high-end villas, restaurants, discos, saunas and equestrian training schools. However, for various economic and political reasons, the project was abandoned midway, facing the same grim fate of countless development projects in China. Many newly built resorthotels were demolished, leaving acres of vacant lands, now overgrown with weeds.

Ten Billion New City symbolises the golden era of Dongshan Island, where rows of seafront hotels overlooking the city welcome tourists from around the world. Now the city is no longer bustling. I wanted to document the current situation of the city, not only through my photographs but also by collecting old photographs taken by people who lived by the sea, in the hotel and resorts. I am also collecting promotional brochures and sales catalogues, in an attempt to recreate the gilded age of the island – a rather short-lived dream of prosperity. Through these images, I wanted to visualise the relationship between rural development and the local residents, and understand how a city’s image is constructed.


marriage derailed, and has since moved back to her native New Zealand.

She told local news site Stuff that while she was able to give away her wedding dress and get rid of excess baggage, the one thing that she needed to take time to part with was her ring.

At the suggestion of her current partner, who is a rocket scientist, she decided to make a rocket and film the blast off.

The ring: Though the video of their wedding is still online, the video of Ms Gibbs launching the rocket containing her wedding ring has since been removed

Before the video was taken down from YouTube, it showed Ms Gibbs painting her creation, adorning it with flames and a picture of a heart broken in two.

More than anything she hopedtried their bread-and-butter play behind fill-in Tim Lelito against standout Cardinals defensive end Calais Campbell:

Ty Schalter/Bleacher Report

Campbell walked right through Lelito; he was one of two Cardinals who met and dropped Thomas two yards behind the line of scrimmage.

The Saints, without Evans, rushed three times for minus-five yards in the first half. They tried a few sweeps and tosses to get outside but basically abandoned the inside run game until the second half, when Brees and the passing game built up a 24-7 lead.

San Francisco's seventh-ranked passing defense, allowing 211.7 yards per game, per Pro Football Reference, is significantly harder to throw on than the Cardinals' 17th-ranked secondary (allowing 243.7). If Brees and the Saints want to get control of the game early, they'll need Evans to lead


where she takes international studies. She spent the afternoon volunteering for the festival as a photographer.

Although she was born in Yemen, she is a Canadian citizen because one of her parents is a Canadian. The story of many origins is common in the Somali community, she said, and it can lead to split identities.

“A lot of the younger Somalis, they have a Somali identity and a Canadian identity,” she said. “And one of them comes out more.”

Like Mohamed Awil, who was also volunteering on Saturday. He was born in Sweden, moved to the U.K. (long enough to develop a British accent) and now lives in Canada.

Awil said he tries to build a bridge between his cultural background and life in Canada. But that will take time.

“It’s a senseterminal, the hotel offers twelve superbly-appointed Courtyard guestrooms, one Avalon Courtyard Suite and two Ocean View Suites, all located on the third floor with an expansive atrium lobby area that celebrates the hotel's ocean-front setting and offers sweeping panoramas of Avalon Bay.


Empire and, at least initially, took an outwardly neutral path on religion so as not to alienate the still largely pagan senatorial and equestrian classes on which he depended for his administration. Later, he passed edicts that ended most state sponsorship of the pagan cults and sought to limit public pagan worship, though it’s unclear how rigidly the latter were enforced. The conversion of the emperor and his family to Christianity and, more importantly, the removal of massive imperial funding of pagan temples and centres certainly did have the effect of greatly increasing conversions to Christianity over Constantine’s reign and that of his successors, but the Empire was not “Christianised” until the reign of Theodosius, who made Christianity the state religion in 380 AD; 43 years after Constantinedied.

The only connection between Constantine and Easter is his calling of the First Council of Nicea in 325 AD, with the aim of settling several disputes within the Christian churches. While the primary issue for the Council was sorting out the Arian Controversy over the nature of the Trinity, the Council also ruled on when Easter should be celebrated. This issue had been controversial within Christianity for some time, with Eusebius reporting that as early as 190 AD there had been disputes about whether the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus should be celebrated in line with the Jewish Passover or only on a Sunday, since Jesus is reported to have risen from the dead on the Sunday after his crucifixion. Most Christians in the west of the


English speaking world, in almost every other European language it is some variant on the Greek Πάσχα:

French: Pâques; Romanian: Paşti; Portugese: Páscoa; Italian: Pasqua; Spanish: Pascua; Faeroese: Páskir; Swedish: Påsk; Icelandic: Páskar; Welsh: Pasg; Norwegian: Påske; Danish: Påske; Dutch: Pasen; Russia: Paskha.

Πάσχα in turn is derived from the Hebrew פֶּסַח (Pesach) meaning … Passover. Only an idiot could look at this and somehow conclude that the English word “Easter” had anything at all to do with the name of an ancient Akkadian goddess who was worshipped two millennia before the first English speakers and 4,000 kilometres to the south east of England. But there are a lot of idiots on the internet and, unfortunately, it seems some of them are associated with the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reasonhistory of the earth and, thanks to the work’s popularity, helped fix the BC/AD dating scheme as the standard. In his discussion of calendars he gives us the traditional Old English names for the months, with a brief discussion of each. Some of his etymologies seem to refer to the agricultural cycles of the year, such as Weodmonath (August) or “weed month” or Thrimilcemonath (May) “three milkings month” so called because in that month cattle were milked three times a day thanks to lush spring grass. Others refer to pagan practices. Bede says Halgemonath (September) is “Holy Month” because it was a “month of sacred rites”, possibly associated with harvest. And he says two months were named after goddesses – Hrethmonath (March) after Hrêða and Eostremonath (April) after


such a goddess and that, unlike elsewhere in Europe, the Anglo-Saxons used the name of her month for the new Christian festival given that it fell around the same time of year. But to leap from this to claiming the festival itself was somehow “pagan” is simply wrong – Christians had been celebrating Easter at this time since at least the second century AD, which was around 400 years before Christianity came to England and encountered any worshippers of Eostre. The only thing Eostre seems to have given to Easter is her name. (Many thanks to Dr Levi Roach of the University of Exeter for drawing my attention to Shaw’s evidence and tempering my former scepticism about the existence of Eostre).

More neo-pagan New Age fantasy

Rabbits, Hares and Eggs?

SoThings looked bleak for the New York Yankees after starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery lasted just seven pitches on Tuesday night before leaving his outing due to an elbow injury against the Houston Astros.

Against one of the best-balanced lineups in baseball, manager Aaron Boone was forced to turn to his bullpen to try and shut down one of the best-balanced lineups in baseball for the long haul.

It could have very well been a recipe for disaster as he first called upon Domingo German, a 25-year-old right-hander who had made just 11 major-league appearances in his career.

In four previous outings this season, German didn't look like anything special, allowing six runs over 10.1 innings of work, a 5.23 ERA, with six walks to go with 14 strikeouts.

Yet Boone was rewarded


jurisdiction. In the meantime, Hill began serving his sentence and was eventually released from prison in May, 2001.
[¶ 2] Between the time he was sentenced and his appeal, Hill filed a Motion under § 2255 to vacate, set aside or correct his sentence. Hill raised three claims in his Motion, all of which revolve around an allegation in the information that he violated a court order entered by the District Judge[1] that was filed on December 8, 1998. He contends that he could not be convicted of criminal contempt for failing to comply with the December 8th order, because no such order ever existed. He also contends that his counsel was ineffective because she failed to "obtain and examine" the order and advise him accordingly.
[¶ 3] Hill's §Oh, My Beloved

A plant, an iris perhaps, thrust its slim green sword through a clod of earth at the base of the outer wall— a doughty gesture for such a tiny and fragile weapon in the shadow of such immensity. For centuries, the very sight of these walls had leached hope from the hearts of would-be conquerors and instilled it in those whom they held in their embrace. 'Til this day in May they had been vulnerable only to deceit and the greed of European allies. The saddle of his horse creaked and his ceremonial robes rustled amid the strangely quiet bustling of silent men of war preparing their order of march. His eye roved the walls. Turning his back to the ruin and carnage north of the


gate, he took them in as they dwarfed the mute procession and marched in a double course, unbroken, unmarred, invincible down to the sea. Even northward where sections had been undermined by sappers or pounded to rubble by the massive stone shot fired from the great dragon-mouth cannon, the avalanche-choked valleys of their ruin formed ramparts that a few could defend long against many.

Even his terrible old men had quailed before these walls. Constantinople is a dying city, the spies had said. The population has dwindled, its defenders are precious few and the Italians, merchants to the end, seek a high price for coming to its rescue. Yet the old men quailed, they who terrified him still as walls and warfare and stench of death never could. Thecity is impregnable, they said; wait, bargain, they will give anything to save their city… And even when he decided, against the advice of his most powerful viziers, to assault those walls, Halil Pasha, the most terrible of old men, continued to bargain with his counterparts in the city. Old men they were, all of them, who clung to power and wealth and the bitter ends of life amid webs of bargain, treachery, and cruel pragmatisms… He knew them well. Princes, emperors, sultans purchased the precious wisdom of these men by ever so gently allowing the possibility of monumental betrayal to seed itself in the soil of their most intimate and helpless moments.

After his father, who was more the tale of a father than a presence, the first


of his terrible old men was Güranî. Ah, Güranî! The hennaed beard, which always seemed like a froth of dried, red-brown blood about his grim mouth, spilling down his chest, the stick…no more than a thumb's girth, but author of such pain! Until he was going on twelve, life had been lived at his own whim; never again would he know such power though he now ruled kings and kingdoms on two continents. He had done as he pleased. Servants, tutors, the women of the harem could do nothing with him, nor cared to it seemed on looking back. By this time he knows the whole story with the cruel clarity that wielding power requires, but then it was bewildering. The sudden news, the impossible news… Alaeddin Aliis dead. His older brother, huge, powerful, who could toss a boy high in the air and catch him with one hand, the pupil of his father's eye. The gazis loved him. He had marched from Amasya to join his father, Murat, in putting down the rebellion of Ibrahim Bey, the Karamanid. They had been gloriously victorious, the father and his magnificent son. Or so the reports ran that dribbled into the private quarters of the young prince who, in name at least, governed Manisa. One day surely Ali would be sultan and lead the Ottoman armies to conquest after conquest.

And then a spate of garbled rumors: Ali had returned to Amasya, shining brilliant in the radiance of victory and his father's love but in his wake came


Kara Hizir Pasha, Black Hizir. What an irony. Mehmet's young mind was already attuned to ironies, double meanings through the portals of which one could glimpse the really real. The mythic Hizir, as everyone knew, was the mystical, magical green-man, who drank from the waters of eternal life and so roamed the world eternally young, restoring to life the fallen heroes of tale and legend…and this other Hizir, his dark counterpart in this transitory world where the only inexorable rule is that of death. His errand's origins were obscure. Why he came no one could be sure but of that visit's consequence there was no doubt. In a night, the soft serpent of the executioner's velvet garrote took the lives of prince Ali and his baby sons aswell. It was so quickly done. And his father, inconsolable, they said, wept bitter tears for his favorite son. Yet who but this father could have ordered such a monstrous act? What was the crime, what the need? The mist of unanswered questions reeked of terror and revealed only shadowy premonitions of death. He would learn.

The first lesson was Güranî. When they brought the young prince, now eldest heir, to Edirne and his father's palace, no one rejoiced. The prince was suddenly bereft of close companions and an easy life; the sultan was less than pleased to be confronted by a headstrong boy who had refused to be taught. So one morning he was called to a spare room where stood the stern mullah with hennaed beard and


stout switch. "Your father has commanded that I instruct you," he said harshly and with no preliminaries. "And if you will not, he has given leave for me to beat you until you change your mind." The boy could only laugh as he had for years at all such empty threats. Then Güranî thrashed him, beat him with the stick on the back, on the legs, and later, with the help of a servant, who resolutely restrained any show of satisfaction, on the tender soles of his feet. Even when he cried out that he was dying from the pain, the mullah only gasped hoarsely amid his exertions, "No! For you dying will be much less painful. I am teaching you how to live!"

Only later did he understand.As he sat his horse, during a brief lull, around noon on this late May morning in the year 857 of the Hijra, 1453 in the Christian calendar, he reflected on the easy days of his childhood and his magical princedom in Manisa. I was free, life seemed easy because the hand of death hovered close above me and warded off the admonitory blows of life. Had Ali lived and prospered, one day still in my youth, in the midst of who knows what pleasures or what dream of pleasures, they would have come with the velvet cord and in an instant, without warning or even pain, I would have been dead. They all knew this and respected the gentle protectorate of death. They only beat me when


it became clear that I must live and be enlisted in the harsh service of life.

Oh, he did learn. He memorized the Quran in less than a year and took in much besides. There were a thousand lessons to learn, most harsh and cruel, few tender. And there was little time. He was still but twelve when his father , who could feel his own prodigious strength waning, conceived a dangerous gambit. The Byzantine Emperor John held, in Constantinople, a pretender to the Ottoman sultanate. Whether or not this Orhan was indeed of the Ottoman line no one could be sure, but there were many who would flock to his banner, if for no other reason than to break the unity of Ottoman domination and recreate the Ottomansas vassals of the Byzantines.

Lesson: When power, authority, rule are granted to a family by the traditions, loyalty, faith and general consensus of thousands upon thousands of people, each family member is potentially a deadly danger to every other member. A living sibling is a constant threat to bring the whole fragile structure of sovereignty to ruin. A son is always a danger to his father, but a brother is a danger to the very foundations of the state.

Murat had pounded the Balkans into submission, subdued his Muslim rivals in the East. But they were restless, waiting…just a moment's weakness would be enough. The Byzantine Emperor cowered behind his invincible walls, reduced to threatening that he would unleash his tame Orhan with a rival "Ottoman" army. This they


would surely do the moment they learned of Murat's death. In the instant of uncertainty that surrounds a death and accession, the European provinces would boil up, the Anatolian princes would be emboldened, Rome would move decisively, and the Italians would seek every advantage. Both West and East were already astir. Perhaps, they thought, the waning of the Byzantines could indeed be stemmed or a Latin hegemony could be reestablished in the East? But there was a way out, or so it seemed to Murat.

Who can know a father's motives? The lesson of Ali, the favored son and heir, was a dark and ambiguous one. Was it a concern for the future of the dynasty? Was it a trap? And the bait…?

One day his lalas—at once mentors, tutors,councilors, protectors—came to him: Ibrahim, a gentle scholarly man, and his foremost lala Zaganos Pasha, a Greek by origin, a soldier first and last, warlike, loyal, honest. They brought with them the grand vizier, Chandarli Halil Pasha, among the most cunning, astute, and cautious of men, a scholar by training and master of political manipulation; a man who, for all his famed deviousness, was Murat's most trusted and powerful servant. He was perhaps the most dangerous and terrible old man young Mehmet would ever face in such a vulnerable state.

He was still watching. As the horse stirred restlessly under him, he could see Halil gazing at him through lidded eyes. The unbelievable victory was a defeat for Halil Pasha. He had not wanted this battle. It was surely


too risky. Did he even want the victory? Now the scales of power hung lopsided in favor of the young sultan. The army was flush with plunder. From the lowest sailor or foot soldier to the loftiest of the janissary corps they had been enriched far beyond their meager dreams. The grace of God and the hand of fortune had touched this young man and they would follow him in every enterprise. He was the Conqueror, Father of Conquest, at that moment and forever.

But nine years earlier, he was a twelve year old boy, an uncomprehending pawn on a crowded and violent chessboard pondered over by terrible old men. "Your father, the Fortune-blessed Sultan, is marching with his army once again to engage Ibrahim the Karamanid in Anatolia,"Halil said. "And he has named you as his regent in the European provinces. You are to be sultan in your father's absence…with the understanding that I am here to provide advice and counsel as you require it." As he said the latter, he thrust a sharp and cogent glance at Zaganos, who stood at Mehmet's side with arms respectfully folded. The first thrust in what would be a long and bitter battle.

As regent-sultan the twelve year old was a disaster. (How this disaster fit the father's plans no one knows for sure, but subsequent events are suggestive.) Halil Pasha was determined to keep the young prince under his thumb and in this he had the support of the new lala, the formidable Molla Husrev, who at times


made Güranî seem positively gentle. But when a dervish from Persia made his way to Edirne to spread the arcane mysticism of the hurufis, Mehmet was enamored. Could the true, esoteric meaning of the Holy Book—and, indeed, of all holy books and even of the world itself— be understood from the shapes and numerical values of the letters? Orthodoxy said no, but the young prince had listened with the stubborn independence no beating could entirely erase.

The old men rid themselves of the dervish. Yet the palace was set to humming like a hive of bees. And the janissaries, the elite slave-troops that formed the core of the Ottoman army, were suddenly restless, goaded by whisperings that he was now sure had emanated subtly, like the scent of roseson the breeze, from the retinue of Halil Pasha. Before long the tremors of discontent that rocked Edirne were sensed by eager ears in Europe and the time was deemed ripe for a crusade to preserve Christian rule in Hungary, to break the strangle-hold on Constantinople and drive the Turks from European soil. After all, Murat was campaigning in Anatolia with the bulk of the Ottoman army, lulled into heedlessness—or so they thought—by the signing of a ten-year truce.

He learned early that the Christians could not be trusted. In fact, he worked hard to understand them and their predecessors, to know why and how the Romans and Alexander and ancient Byzantium had succeeded so spectacularly. But they remained an enigma. Constantinople should have surrendered to his vastly superior


forces. The slaughter, pillaging and ruination of the city could have been prevented or minimized at the very worst. These walls, so violently breached here and there, were now his walls, the empty houses and desolate buildings his buildings. This would be the center of his dominions and in the short hours since his great victory he had come swiftly to regret the inevitable damage to what now belonged to him.

Now and again his nostrils caught the sweet and foul scent of rotting meat—the smell of battlefields. For days after the corpses were hauled off, after the foxes and carrion crows had snatched up the remaining scraps of flesh, the ground, soaked with blood, would smell of rotting meat, as if the earth itself were a corpse, deadand decaying. So it is with this world. They call it the world of being, and coming-into-being, of dying and decay, the world of impermanence and change. Only the Other World, the World of Ideal Forms, does not stink of rotting meat.

The young regent-sultan had tried desperately to sift through the rumors and reports that poured into the palace. The pretender, Orhan, launched a bid to win over the Ottoman march-lords and take Edirne for his own. A Christian crusade led by Vladislav, King of Hungary and Poland, and captained by the renown Hunyadi had traveled down the Danube to the Black Sea and was marching along the coast toward the center of Ottoman power. He and Zaganos had plotted late into the nights seeking a response. But


the response, when it came, was not Mehmet's but his father's and Halil Pasha's. Suddenly, despite Venetian attempts to hold them up, Murat and the Anatolian army crossed the straits with Genoese help and marched on the crusaders, crushing them in a great battle at Varna. Thence Murat returned to retirement in Amasya, once again leaving Mehmet as sultan—a sultan still very much under the control of a dubious Chandarli Halil Pasha.

In two years, Halil's machinations would return Murat to the sultanate and retire the fourteen year-old Mehmet to a liminal (and indeterminate) existence in Manisa. There, in the twilight of semi-exile with Zaganos and a retinue that still considered him to be the sultan, he waited and grew.

The procession had taken form as he mused. He wasin the center, flanked by Halil Pasha on his left and on the right, his confidant, the Jewish physician Ya'kub, known as Iacopo to the Italians and Jacob to the English. Behind him were his generals, the nearest, Zaganos Pasha who, as always, watched his back and kept a suspicious eye on Halil, and behind them a gaggle of scholars, high judges, and a brace of poets. To the front and flanking him were his solaks, his ceremonial escort, long young men stretched cypress-high by tall formal hats, each bearing a bow and each a master archer. Trailing the procession was an honor-guard of feudal cavalry, the sipahi resplendent in formal outfits hastily donned, as with all the soldiery in this procession, over bodies worn and often wounded


in the great battle that preceded this triumphal entry by only a few hours. Before anyone moved, he drew his great sword, brandished it aloft, and raising himself on his stirrups, shouted, "All praises and all thanks to God, for this victory, and to you, my army, our felicitations. This day and forever more you will be known as the Conquerors of Constantinople!" Those who could hear would carry these words to the rest of the army. Henceforth they would be his to command. The day of the terrible old men was on the wane.

As the procession passed in a ponderous and awesome silence through the outer wall and crossed the fosse toward the San Romano Gate—what the Ottomans would call the Top Kapı or Cannon Gate inhonor of the great cannon that had proved its undoing—his mind, caught up in the rush of events, bounced and swirled from topic to topic like a desperate leaf pursued by a brisk wind.

In Manisa he had grown into his adult body and the mind of a man. At sixteen he had fallen in love. All other loves would hark back to this. Gülbahar!—Flower-spring—slave, concubine of no special birth—although when he clung to her unexpectedly through the vast upheavals of his life, some would whisper it about that she was the captive daughter of a King of the Franks. He was still sixteen when she bore him a son. He was in love then, with all the anguish and longing of adolescence. He knew freshly and poignantly the


he came also to know the thrill and horror of great battles. He was with his father on the field of Kossova when Murat broke the Serbs and Hungarians for good amid rivers of blood and lifeless bodies in tens of thousands. In the long marches, the sanguinary days, the nights feasting with comrades in the great tent pavilion of the monarch, he came to understand another kind of love. Love in the sanctuary, the harem, was one thing: a warm, moist, secure love, like the long-remembered embrace of a mother or wet-nurse. Love-in-the-world, he learned, was something other.

The procession wound its way along a great avenue, first bending to the south and then due east toward the center of the city. The desolation that gaped at themfrom empty windows and fire-scarred districts never re-built bespoke a fall that began long before the siege, the conquest, and the pillaging that followed. Oh city of cities! Bazaar of the world, nexus of the Four Quarters and the Seven Climes! You are a poorly tended garden.

"The realm is a garden", one of his lalas had said, “And the sultan is like Rizvan, the gardener of Paradise. To the ruler is entrusted the planting and tending, and the harsher labors: the tearing up of weeds and rank growth, keeping watch on the walls against those who would steal his fruits. The ruler keeps order in the garden of this world. Each flower must be in its place, each rose-bed nurtured and protected. No single plant can be allowed


to dominate and crowd out its neighbors. The gardener is both master of the garden and slave to the Garden's Owner.

"Do not forget Notaras, oh fortunate monarch." Halil Pasha's harsh whisper brought his mind back to the procession as it ponderously wormed its way into the core of the city. He turned to the Pasha with an uncomprehending stare. But, in truth, he comprehended well enough. Of late he had derived a certain pleasure from disconcerting the Pasha, who prided himself on his ability to manipulate people and events by knowing everything and everyone's price. That Halil had been in contact with Lukas Notaras was a certainty. Mehmet's spies were convinced and, in any case, it fit the Pasha's pattern. Notaras was the High Admiral and Grand Dukeof Constantinople, the Emperor Constantine's right-hand (or left, depending on where one placed Sphrantzes). If Halil had been a Byzantine, he would have been Notaras. Just as Halil came from the old Turkish nobility, so the Grand Duke's father and grandfather had long been in the service of the Byzantine Emperors. The father had been a court functionary and envoy for Manuel II Palaelologus and the son had already been an ambassador to Murat's court eight years before Mehmet's birth. The Ottomans were well acquainted with him. In the present crisis he had covered all possible avenues and all eventualities. He held Genoese and Venetian citizenship, kept a good part of his vast fortune in Italian banks, and had sent his daughters to live in Venice, where they


would wait out the siege in safety and comfort. As the Ottoman noose tightened around the city, he had served his Emperor's interests by mediating between the Unionists, who, in return for a crusader army, would have healed the Great Schism and welcomed the authority of the Roman Pope in the East, and the Anti-unionists, who would have died first (and in many cases did). It was rumored that he had won over the Anti-unionists by crying out, "Better the Sultan's turban than the Latin mitre." Ridiculous! He would have sold the whole city, turbans, mitres and all, to Rome for a few boatloads of defenders and worried about handing it over when the siege was lifted. Had the chance arisen, he might even have bargained with thedevil. And Halil Pasha was not quite the devil.

Notaras had commanded the defense of the San Romano Gate but escaped the slaughter around the breaches as the Ottoman armies poured in striking down everyone they encountered, thinking they might be the vanguard of the large reserve force which the Turkish commanders feared and the Byzantines had longed for in vain. Mehmet suspected that he had withdrawn to his home by some previous arrangement under the protection of Halil's household troops. He was aware that Halil Pasha had made similar bargains with other powerful Byzantines, bargains against all turns of fortune. If the siege had failed, Halil would have been vastly richer and vastly more powerful. He knew and Halil knew that he knew.

One day they had been inspecting


the troops who had invested the land walls, when they noticed that some of the common foot-soldiers had captured a fox. Mehmet turned to Ya'kub, the physician and said, in a light and jesting tone but loud enough to reach the ears of Halil, "Oh wretched fox, were you not wise enough to bargain with Halil for your deliverance?"

When he was seventeen, his father and Halil decided that he needed a wife of noble birth to replace, or at least, counterbalance his adolescent obsession with Gülbahar. They sent the wife of the governor of Amasya as emissary and marriage broker to the court of S†leyman Bey of the Dhu'lkadir tribe, who ruled vast lands in the East of Anatolia. She brought back with her the lady Sitt, saidto be the most beautiful of Süleyman's daughters and the two were married in Edirne amid great pomp and ceremony. It was a marriage that produced no heirs, no happiness for either wife or husband, and no apparent diminution in his attraction to Gülbahar.

Lesson: love-in-the-sanctuary, in the private world of women and children, is very much a mundane love elevated to a great mystery by the unfathomable ways of women. It is a love ever touched by births and deaths, great alliances and petty plots, sons of whom many will die young, daughters meted out to the sanctuaries of powerful husbands. Tender moments, swelling turgid with desire, shy endearments in the simple, untutored Turkish of foreign concubines, sweet release, drowsy hours in which one could almost imagine a


life unclouded by mortal terror…

Love takes on a different meaning in the world of men. It speaks in the words of poets, rides on the backs of poems by the Arab and Persian masters of old. It rings with mighty words in a tongue of tongues, entices in hints and glances and misdirections, encompasses all the inchoate longings that impel men from glory to defeat and back. It binds all loves into one great unquenchable obsession: Father, brother, comrade, ruler, God… His eye strayed to the young solaks who flanked the procession. It is one such as these who is the Beloved, the witness to God's ultimate beauty. About one of these the Prophet said, "I saw Him in the best of forms…" How can one not bemake you woeful

and you'll not want a moment's joy

(Avnî, Sultan Mehmet II)

His mind snapped back to the present in which his saddle creaked and the May sun was warm on his back. "Yes, I am thinking of Notaras, my Lala," he replied after the long silence. And he was. He would need some of the old Byzantine nobility to legitimate his reign among the Greeks who remained in his dominions. If he could find Gennadius the monk, voice of the anti-Unionists, who really did prefer the turban to the mitre, he would make him Patriarch of the Eastern Church and a compliant Notaras could manage the secular affairs of the Greek community in the City of the Turks, Istanbul, which was no longer the City of either Constantine,


first or last. Yes, he would see Notaras soon and woo him to his side—or at least know which way the winds were blowing. Even now the great train of wagons that provisioned his army was proceeding by another route toward the great square of the Hippodrome. This night he would feast with his army in the heart of the city, against the backdrop of Hagia Sophia's great dome. They would put death and a bloody day behind them; on bellies filled in peace for the first time in a long while, they would transmute a thousand thousand tragedies into the honeyed words of poets and dreams of a brilliant morrow.

********

I saw an angel, a sun-face

or this world's moon

Black hyacinth curls,

smoky sighs of lovers

An alluring cypress,

clad in black,a thin haze of smoke from feast to feast, disturbed only by tired soldiers leading forlorn bands of captives into a cloudy future. But the gulls, now shining pure as shards of shattered diamond in the bright sky, would also stoop to the same grisly supper. Tonight brave men would feast and brave men would be feasted upon…the way of this transitory world.

It was now time for Notaras. Mehmet had sealed his unbelievable victory with prayers beneath the awesome dome of the Hagia Sophia, now the grandest mosque in all Islamdom. Zaganos had been sent to Galata, across the Golden Horn, to calm the skittish Italians by assuring them that their economic interests—ever foremost in their minds—would continue to be served (and far better served) by the city's


new masters. It was time for the first steps in waging a successful peace and creating the eternal capital of the Ottomans on the ruins of Byzantium.

Notaras' house was not far from the great square of the Hippodrome. When Mehmet arrived, accompanied only by Ya'kub the physician and a modest escort of his household janissaries, he found the house guarded—as he had predicted—by two sipahis attached to Halil Pasha's family lands. One of them beat on the door with the butt of a dagger and Ya'kub, who had dismounted, spoke briefly in Greek to a red-eyed and trembling servant who emerged from the gloomy interior. After a moment, the master of the house, accompanied by his two sons and a son-in-law, all dressed in formal robes and conspicuouslyunarmed, appeared in the doorway and ushered the royal party into a large room.

He was shown with exaggerated courtesy to a backless sofa set upon a dais which extended from wall to wall at one end of the room, whereupon the Grand Duke and his sons prostrated themselves before him under the stern gaze of the silent janissaries standing vigilant at his side. When Notaras proffered a coffer brimming with gems and strands of pearl and said, in a grave yet fearless voice, "This and all that is mine are at your service, my lord the Sultan," he waited for Ya'kub to translate, even though, having learned some Greek at his mother's knee, he understood every word. (Lesson: It never hurts to keep something in reserve and to


him not rely too much on the protection of Halil.

He motioned for the Greeks to rise. As they did, he passed his eye over the four with a disconcerting deliberateness. The Grand Duke and his sons were tall and slender: the eldest son, a grown man like his graying father, freshly scarred by the battle they had so recently escaped; the younger son, about fourteen years of age, slim and supple as a cypress, with dark eyes and a handsome face as white and glowing as a full moon framed in dark curls—another Jacob by name, by looks another Joseph. The son-in-law, a Kantakouzenas, was shorter and stocky, his face bruised on one side by some powerful blow. With an air of choosing his words carefully, Mehmet addressedhis tautly expectant hosts: "Serve me well from this moment on and I will restore you to the power and position you once held under your late Emperor—nay, I will elevate you to power and position far beyond that, in a city more glorious than you have ever known. What say you?" The physician translated, this time in full:

"My lord, we are yours to command." replied the Duke.

"And your honored wife, God willing, she is well?"

"Unfortunately she lies ill in her bed. Otherwise she too would have been honored to greet you, my lord."

"Take me to her."

An instant of bewildered incomprehension…and then they led him to the bedroom where the Grand Duke's wife lay. He spoke to her tenderly—he was only twenty-one and had buried his own mother


to gnaw at the bitter ends of loss.

As the long night of feasting began in the ruddy light of sunset on garden-fields of carpets laid in the great tent pavilion set amid the cooking fires and great cauldrons that dotted the Hippodrome square, Halil, who had been pointedly left out of the earlier visit, asked after Notaras and his family. "They are in good health," the young Sultan said, "and I have plans for them." Halil nodded and smiled…which gave him to understand that the Pasha had plans for them as well. He could not dally; he must exert himself to win the loyalty of the Grand Duke away from Halil.

With an almost imperceptible nod he summoned to his side the Chief Eunuch of his household, a hugelonging for the fatal embrace of the rose. His name would be on all tongues and, thus elevated, he would join the janissaries of Mehmet's household, where the most elite of young men were trained for positions of great prestige and power. In the janissary corps—the "new army"—everyone was a slave, conscripted from the non-Muslim population, and from such conscripts came those who would rule the Empire. As the son rose in service to the Sultan, the bonds between the father and the Ottomans would grow stronger and each, by serving his own ends and the ends of his family, would ultimately serve the interests of the Sultan.

The news of this honor came like a cannon-shot to the Notaras household. Without warning the Chief Eunuch and his retinue


appeared at the door. The summons was relayed and then repeated several times in ever simpler Turkish and then pidgin Greek until the father was sure he understood. ‘Understood’ is, perhaps, the wrong term; he knew what was asked but could not fathom what it meant. After ushering the emissaries into a waiting room, the adult men of the family excused themselves "to prepare the boy" and gathered in one of the private inner rooms. They had lost so much this day it was inconceivable to them that this new development did not signal yet another and equally terrible loss. The father and brother sat as if stunned. The Kantakouzenas son-in-law, his face dark with rage, was the first to speak: "We know these Turkish dogs, their lustto die in defense of their refusal, he turned without a word and, lacking instructions for this eventuality, made his way back to the square and the Sultan. When he whispered his news in the Sultan's ear, the young ruler flinched as though struck by a blow and a flush crept up from his neck into his face. He turned to Zaganos, who had returned from his mission to Galata and was seated to his left. "Notaras will not send his son to serve at our feast. We intended to honor him thus and his family with him; what does this mean?" Zaganos cast a bitter glance at Halil and in the crudest Turkish replied,

"They think you mean to fuck the boy…right here, in front of everyone." As


the Sultan's red turned to purple and his lips parted in disbelief, Zaganos continued in a more elegant tone, " I know these Christians. I have myself been to Venice in the guise of a merchant and our spies have been even to the Golden Apple—Rome—where the Pope has his palaces. Their heathen lusts are a public disgrace. If a high-born woman be poor through some mischance, she has no recourse but to sell herself to powerful men. She is trained in literature, poetry, music, and the arts of conversation and becomes the centerpiece of cultured gatherings where she offers her body to the highest bidder. Such women throng the streets of Venice and even the Christians' holy city of Rome. They go about brazenly with faces andno."

They returned their attention to the feast but the young Sultan's mood was dark on what should have been his brightest of nights. By the time the Executioner and Eunuch arrived back at the pavilion with a terrible old man and his sons in tow, his mind was firmly set. To the Eunuch he said, "Take the young one back to his mother." And to the Executioner, "As for these…A simple nod was enough.

Hours later, when the feasting had ended in the dim glow of the false dawn, the ground outside the tents had already begun to smell of rotting meat.


This invention relates to blocks for constructing retaining wall and a constructed retaining wall structure.
Known retaining wall structures being constructed on the road or the seashore or the riverside include a retaining wall structure having the following construction. Namely, a plurality of T-shaped blocks for constructing retaining wall are stacked in several layers on a footing foundation embedded in the soil until the retaining structure having a desired height is obtained.
Each T-shaped block for constructing a retaining wall comprises a front wall and a counterfort, or buttress, which protrudes rearwardly from the back surface of the front wall. A plurality of holes for inserting reinforcing steel bar are formed in the counterfort. The counterforts of respective layers are overlapped with each other in a vertical direction so asDespite the grueling challenges of life as a single working parent, Princess Carolyn finds a fragile peace, managing to prioritize her little family without too much professional compromise.

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Meanwhile, after a series spent falling backward into fruitless, high-flying jobs, Todd has finally found meaning in nannying for Princess Carolyn’s daughter. When his stern stepfather appears on his doorstep seeking a colossal favor, Todd reconsiders his estrangement from his family. Elsewhere, Diane chases meaning through self-righteous documentary reporting, though it’s her burgeoning relationship with her cameraman that forces her to stretch the most—for the first time, Diane has met her match in someone who truly sees and values her for her authentic self. When Diane is boxed out of her job in a corporate sale, she moves in with her