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Materials: 9ct white gold hallmarked
Gems: Round brilliant cut diamond supplied
Method: Cast, pave set
Price Band:D
The client came to me with a much loved costume ring. She had been searching for a similar ring on the internet. When she found my website and saw an oval ring that looked quite like the ring she had and sent an email. We met, I had a look at the ring and took a few photos. All other steps were done by email and photos, as she lived some distance away.


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Building peace in our communities will be a difficult task. But our shared understanding of human values can help us overcome divisions. By Martin Griffiths
Yesterday we were all Belgians. I hope we will not forget or lose that connection that links the people of Brussels with the wretched families in Mosul or Raqqa, with the revellers in Paris last November.
This connection of shared horror is important because it reminds us of the most treasured asset we have: Our common humanity.
This shared understanding of life also provides us with clues as to how to deal with this common threat. When we set up the European Institute of Peace in 2014, we knew from the outset that our efforts to resolve conflicts abroad must be complemented by similar efforts to resolve the conflicts inside our own societies. Peace is not just something for foreign lands and peoples; it is also a precious dream for Europeans. This is not just a sentimental axiom, it is an acceptance that we are equal in many things, including in evil.
After the attacks in Paris, one senior Syrian Islamist said to me that even in this horror at least we could find a partnership because he and his people have experienced the evil of ISIS for more than two years. He knew our pain. Syrians can help Europeans, he told me, against this common enemy.
It may help us Europeans to listen to the stories of foreign fighters who have seen the actions of ISIS first hand. These stories may even deter future recruits. Europe needs to make an effort to learn and listen. At EIP we try to support this learning exercise.
I have dealt with conflicts all my life. One powerful lesson I learnt is that the principal force for peace are always the ordinary people. Families, whether in Molenbeek or in Mosul, want to see their children safe, healthy and in school. As parents or siblings, we all share this feeling.
My Syrian Islamist friend would be considered by some as an 'extremist'. But I know him as a teacher and a leader of principle who is profoundly religious in a way that is different from me. But we share the principles of our common humanity: of love for children, of respect for difference, and for rejection of evil.
So, yesterday as my morning was disrupted by terror, I remembered this Syrian man and how he would be the first to travel with us out of this horror. He too is a Belgian today.

subset: commoncrawl


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As the sun sets on another amazing season of club events & festival madness, including our own label showcase to close ADE 2014, we present 'Musical Currency – Volume 2', a selection of our biggest tracks from over the past few Months brought together in a truly unique 'credit card' USB album compilation and limited to just 100 copies.
This release sets about showcasing everything that is good about drum & bass music, from the uplifting & soulful to the hard hitting & floor shaking; our aim has been to pull together a collection of tracks that demonstrate the diversity and talent of those artists signed to the label for 2014 and beyond. In short this is one credit card you can flex to the max, without limit!
Want a preview? you can check it out Here
Want to buy your own copy? You'll need to be quick… Head over to the Shop
Track Listing:
Track No. Artist Name | Track Name
1. Bipolar | Lovely Day
2. Harrison & Bone | Rollercoaster
3. Cogun | Mindwoods
4. Rune & Kaiza | Knowling
5. DBR UK | Sanctioned
6. Mystic State | Flatline
7. Improper Conduct | Insular
8. Soularize | Dry Ice
9. Part Affair | Closure
10. Genotype Feat. Amanda Seal | Stone Dead*
11. Paramount | Japura
12. Re Turn | Essence of Corfe
* Additional production & mixing by Tony Weaver for C-Sonix
Mastered @ Dubstudio, Bristol by Henry Bainbridge
Worldwide through HORUS Music:


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My Life As A Teenage Robot Porn Story: Ties of Blood Ties of oil – Chapter 1
Ties of Blood, Ties of Oil
A My life as a teenage robot Fanfic
Chapter 1:
In which Nora Wakeman leaves for a Convention and we learn that All is not well with the Cluster
The clouds above the town of Tremorton were a fiery orange in the setting sun on a quiet Sunday afternoon. In a lonely garage along side the ordered streets of the heart of the town, a taxi engine roared to life with a sputtering cadence. It reversed out into a street, and began to drive at a leisurely, but steady, pace down the road. It drove from the tidy streets of downtown between intersections and over hills to the wandering streets of the residential neighborhoods. As it trundled down street after street, it at last it came to a slow stop in front of a house. The driver leaned over to check the address. It was the right one, he noted with some satisfaction.
The house was similar to the others on its street. It was angular with a faded white look, and windows were made in a particularly sharp style. There were a few differences though. For one thing, the lawn was just a bit unkempt, and the driver thought he could make out scorch marks on it. Crazy kids he thought, what is it with kids and fire? On its second story a room could be seen through a massive screen of windows, and if the driver of the taxi was paying attention he perhaps would have noticed that the room within was adorned like a teenaged girls, even though it did have an inordinately large number of monitors inside it.
The taxi settled onto the side of the street and shifted into a park. The driver casually shut off its engine. The driver rolled down his window and let his arm hang out of it, so that it could gently rock back and forth in the breeze. He grabbed a pulp novel with his left hand and began to read. Faintly, he believed he could hear sounds from inside. Possibly people he thought idly. He wasnt sure though, one voice sounded a little artificial.
As anyone might guess, some of her daydreams were unattainable. Chief among these improbables was being completely human, being in the entourage of popular singing sensation Men to Boyz (It was spelled with a Z, so you knew they were extra edgy) and being constructed in the 1970s (When she was newly constructed, she had developed a strange fascination with the era). For these there was no list, except perhaps for a buried thought log floating around in her CPU. She did not need a list, so she mused at times, for she always would carry them in her heart (Or her Lubricant pump, as the case might have been)
So imagine her surprise when one would come true.
Youre going out of town again? Jenny asked Nora Wakeman in the foyer of the Wakeman house with an increasingly incredulous voice And youre not taking me with you?
Nora adjusted her glasses with her shoulder, bending her wrinkled neck as she lugged two large suitcases across the floor XJ-9 Nora said with stressed syllables, pronouncing the name more like, Ex-Jay-Niyun, rather than its actual phonetic equivalent. I have told you already the situation, Perhaps it might behoove you to listen to your mother once in a while, Hmmmm?
Jennies face screwed up into an exasperated contortion and an irritated sigh escaping her lips Moooom, I pay attention to you
Really Noras terse voice replied Then where am I going, if you pay such great attention?
Mom, I never said I- Jenny began, but the words turned into an exasperated growl as she caught Noras eye -Arrrgh! Fine. Youre going to some convention thingy, something about a planet or something
Not a planet XJ-9, a panel, a very prestigious panel in fact. I have been asked to participate in the Earth Sciences Convention for five years now, and finally they gave me a reason to be happy about it. Nora returned to lugging her bags Conventional application of advanced AI, thats what the panels about you know-
Yeah, I know said Jenny her eyes rolling in her eye sockets, making gentle rattling noises as they did.
-And I am the leading authority on the subject you know-
I know
-And if I dont show up theyre going to give the spot to Mogg-
I know mother
Nora looked at Jenny with a narrowed eye Oh, and I suppose you know your assignment then
Jenny looked back at her mother with a slightly petulant look An assignment? Mom its the end of school, its summer Mom, remember? Summer? You know, the time when all the teens hang out together?
XJ-9 I am familiar with summer but hanging out does not take precedence over the safety of the world
But Mooommmm-
Abububub! Dr. Wakeman said, her finger held high to forestall any teenaged complaints I will not here any more of this young robot. Now if you insist on making a scene like this I am just going to have to take you with me wont I?
Jenny clapped her hands over her mouth in horror You wouldnt
I would, and I will if this keeps up the doctor declared Now follow me to my lab
Fine Jenny grumbled and trudged after her mother, her metallic boots clomping heavily and creating a great reverberating noise, even through the carpet.
Eventually they reached Noras lab. It was a chaotic and disheveled place and full of the smell of smoke (Really Jenny couldnt smell, but she could register elements floating in the air). Someones been soldering Jenny mused and she tells me to keep my room clean, feh. Jenny herself thought it amazing that such an old woman like her mother could keep from injuring herself in this deathtrap, but Nora knew this place well and nimbly stepped around various piles of clutter like a mountain goat. They passed several stacks of files and papers, some sp precariously stacked that they threatened to come tumbling down at even the faintest touch. Ultimately they came to a table with a sleek and small computer chip nestled in a black box on top of it.
Jenny curiously glanced at the chip, Mom, whats that supposed to be for?
This, Jenny, is the Sustained Engram Emitting Repeater, or the S.E.E.R for short.
Right Jenny said a little cautiously So whats it do?
Ohh this is a good one. It allows you to project your consciousness into the internet. But this is not a toy X-J9!
Jennys pigtails whirred quizzically upward Why do I need it if its not to surf the web?
Dr. Wakeman began fiddling with the S.E.E.R with a soldering iron and made a few last minute adjustments in bright blue flashes Its part of that assignment I mentioned XJ-9. I originally designed you to fight corporeal crime, aliens, zombies and the like. I left cyber-crime to the police. But- Nora said switching a lever on the chip -recently there has been some Hacker breaking into sensitive areas of the United Nations database. More accurately though, the sections that deal with the Cluster
The Cluster? Who would want to know about that? Vexus was kicked out a like three months ago. And Vegas in charge now anyway. If they really wanted to know about the Cluster they could just ask
Nora rubbed her chin thoughtfully Thats what worries me X-J9. Whoever wants that data can only be up to no good. The new Cluster government is young, and though it has full support of its citizens, its military is something else entirely. I think someone on earth might want to manipulate that delicate political climate, and oh is it delicate. In any case this device allows you to replicate what a VR setup can do for a human by appropriating your dream chip. Normally, I wouldnt trust you to meld with the internet normaly, with all those viruses floating around, but I trust those clowns at skyway patrol less. Now be a dear and let me install it.
Jenny spun her head in a full 180 degrees, and a maintenance hatch opened behind her head. Reaching in deeply, Nora installed the S.E.E.R with a muffled grunt Good, fits perfectly. Now, Every time a breach is detected in the computer system a alarm will go of on the monitor frequency, so youll need to get right on that, but as for now I need to get going. Cant keep the taxi waiting forever can I? Now remember Ill only be gone four days OK? Oils in the fridge, and I rented some of those movies you like. And please be more careful than you usually are X-J9. I dont want to spend another afternoon repairing your antivirus software a Honk sounded outside. Ooh! Thats the Taxi. I need to get going. Nora said heading to the door Try to keep out of trouble wont you? Jenny waved See you Mom, have fun at your panel or whatever! Nora opened the door and left.
Jenny did a silent impromptu dance. Ooh I have the house all to myself; this is going to be so great! She thought through her gyrations. Indeed, it was looking like it would be a very good four days at the least. She continued dancing as the taxi puttered away. She continued dancing to the fridge, grabbed a can of oil, and sauntered up to her room. She waltzed to her bed, and let herself fall back with a contented sigh onto the bed. She popped the lid of the oil can and took a refreshing draught as her mattresses springs groaned in protest. This was going to be a great few days, even with school.
Hey Jen, Whats up?
Jenny glanced up to see a 15 year old boy climb through her window. He was of a pale complexion, and wore a vest and a dress shirt. The shirt was not tucked in and its tails stuck out at asymmetrical angles. His most notable feature might have been his spiky red hair.
Hey Brad, Jenny said casually and glanced around wheres Tuck? She asked in a bit of confusion. Tuck, Brads younger sibling stuck like glue to Brad most of the time, so Brad being on his own was just a bit of an oddity.
Brad leaned on a wall and shrugged I told him there was a treasure buried under his school, he should be gone for an hour at least Jenny giggled, and Brad continued So wheres your Mom going? I saw her leave in a Taxi?
Oh that. shes going to some big convention for four days.
Wow, really? So the house is all yours?
As all mine as it can be
You have an unsupervised house? Do you know what that means? Brad began enthusiastically Time to Par-tay! And now shes gone for even longer, Score! he ended the sentence with an exited whoop.
Jenny got up from her bed, which let out a groan of bending springs Oh no you dont. Last time we had a party at my place, half of the student body nearly threw themselves over a cliff, and before that they almost caused the Minutians to succeed in their invasion.
Brad smiled Geez Jenny, lighten up. Its just a party, nothing can go wrong
Im not falling for that again Brad, no parties at my house. Its just going to be me and relaxation She stressed the syllables of the last word.
If you feel that way Jenny. Brad said, attempting to place a beleaguered expression on his face Anyway, I was on my way to Sheldons. He needs some help moving some stuff down to his garage, and I can not wait to get my hands on some blackmail material
Jenny cocked an eyebrow Youre evil, you know that?
I like to think I do my part
Jenny sat back down on the bed. I think Ill pass Brad, I just wasnt to take a load off my mind without my Mom getting all crazy.
Brad climbed out the window again and descended to the earth below but not before calling out, You dont know what youre missing Jen! He walked back to the street, his hands in his pockets. He really had wished Jenny had come along; hanging out with Sheldon for extended period of time could be strange. Brad shuddered involuntarily and hoped Sheldon didnt try and rope him into playing that whole Drakes and Dungeons game again. Besides, Jenny was a superhero, she could get that room cleaned faster than anyone he knew, and he wouldnt need to lift a finger. Also, it was always worth a laugh to she Jenny give Sheldon a beating for some of his more creepy pursuits. I wonder if his Jenny shrine is still up. Brad thought, and resolved to find out as soon as he got to Sheldons.
He was so absorbed in thinking to himself that he failed to notice a car pull up next to him. Excuse me boy, but do you know where Tremorton high is? came a voice from the cars window. It was rough, and had a hint of an accent to it, though for the life in him Brad couldnt place it. Brad looked over and saw a man leaning out the window to address him. The man was an older man, somewhere around 40 or 45 years of age. He had black, graying hair which traveled down the side of his face to a graying goatee. He wore thin spectacles on his pale and wrinkling face. Brad noted with some interest that the man was dressed unseasonably warm, complete with a trench coat and scarf. His expression was quizzical, but it had an edge to it, and looked like he was not in the mood for mischief.
Sure I know where Tremorton high is Brad said with a air of practiced coolness Just keep on following this street down to Maple, and then take a left until Jefferson. You cant miss it
The older man eyed brad critically before breaking out into a smile Thanks kid, Ill put in a good word for ya. he said with a wink and began driving down the street. Brad waited for a few moments and then began the walk towards Sheldons. That was weird Brad thought. He pushed it from his mind, it wasnt that important. Besides, there was blackmail material for the taking a few blocks down.
Good, it will be a nice diplomatic branch to return my mothers slaves Vega mused as she sat. The throne where she rested was massive with inlays of gold and precious jewels, looking out over the assembled court of Clusters aristocracy. Vega fussed in the seat. She had meant to have the thing melted down for parts, but she just couldnt get around to doing it. It was the last relic her mother had left behind after all.
The coup for Cluster Prime had been quick, and nearly without conflict. Vega had wanted a new government. She fancied a republic herself, with each planet in the empire having representatives on Cluster Prime. The citizens would have none of it; however, and despite her protestations she had become the new Empress of Cluster Prime. A flicker of a giggle flashed through Vegas circuits. Perhaps she had wanted to have this happen deep down. Now she was respected, powerful even. Of course she was just, but all that power at her fingertips was just a bit intoxicating; and in court, that feeling increased by ten fold
She had sat through Cluster Court for three months now, and it was beginning to wear on her. This particular court was not really helping the feeling anyway. How did Mom put up with this? Vega wondered silently as she waited for the Aristocracy to address her, one by one, and expect ruling on their problems, both petty and great.
For a highly evolved civilization, Cluster government was still in the dark ages as far as earth was concerned. Literally. Robots, living for essentially indefinite spans of time, were slow to change. They would refine, upgrade, and innovate, but drastic changes were few and far between. For now, the Cluster was ruled as it had always been, as a feudalistic government. Rights and property descended from the queen to a select few Noble families, who then would delegate their power to other families down a unending chain of robots. It had worked excellently under the economic grease of Slave labor, but now with the slaves on nearly all of the Clusters many assimilated planets were released, the well oiled machine of the Cluster was beginning to rust. Vega wanted to change that. She was young, practically an infant by conventional robot reckoning (A fact that had earned her the unofficial title of The Child Queen by the masses) and out of everyone in the Cluster empire, she saw the need for change. The Empire was going through growing pains, and Vega was damned if she was just going to let the empire fall apart from something as trivial as that.
Vegas optics noticed that the herald had not left yet. Rather, he stood nervously, he gears grinding together with audible strain. What is it? asked Vega.
The herald made a quick bow Excuse me my queen, but I have other news. I am afraid it is not, ah, optimal. He straightened and continued The Earth government in collision with the Mars Republic demand reparations for the crimes done to their citizens, totaling no less than six billion credits. Vega listened passively. She had expected something like that. The Herald continued Even more distressing is the outlying Colonies of Velix 4, Aston, and Dar Fel. As of 0400 hours they refused to acknowledge your leadership and have declared themselves a sovereign nation, called the Confederation of independent planets.
Vega had not expected that at all What? What reason would they have? she said, her voice incredulous.
The herald dipped his head in deference I do not no my queen. Their dispatch declared that they have never received adequate treatment from the Cluster, and they believe that as a Confederation of planets that they would be better off not paying taxes to a new regime. They were excruciatingly polite my queen and they hope that they could open trading relations.
They are fools! a mechanical voice bellowed from behind the queen, and Gerzon, an elderly robot, stepped forth. In his youth he had been a judge, and after the fall of the Cluster hegemony Vega had found him a loyal and indispensable member of her court. He was a barrel chested robot, with a stunning finish of chrome despite his age. To think that they can simply leave the Cluster and expect us to be all Oh sure, go ahead? This is madness! He turned to Vega This must be stopped at once Vega. If the other colonies see this they will take it as an invitation to join with these treasonous vermin
Vega looked back at Gerzon Be quiet Gerzon. I know how serious this is, and I will address it at an appropriate time, not before. A Council will be formed to deal with this threat. Gerzon stood erect, grinding his lower mandible Of course my queen
Vega sighed inwardly. Gerzon was brave, strong and reliable. He was quick to laugh, and quick to forgive. On the other hand though, he had a terrifyingly short fuse and a vicious protective streak when it came to the Cluster nation; and as far as Gerzon was convinced, Vega was the Cluster. She knew he only wanted the best for the Cluster, but he was always treating her like a child. She was 16 damn it, and was just as smart as anyone.
The Herald continued. In addition, the Military is slow to respond to our summons home. The responses that they have returned have been curt and uninformative. There is a general sentiment that they are not coming back.
Vega acknowledged this with a nod. The Cluster military was an entirely different automation than the rest of the Cluster. They were built for one thing, and one thing only, combat. It was unlikely that without extensive reprogramming that they could ever function in peacetime, and reprogramming them would be a devastating attack on their, and every other Cluster citizens, rights. Vega even wondered if they did reprogram them, if they could ever get close enough to do it. Most of the drones were nothing more than hunks of metal with a motherboard and some servos, and while most were able to have personalities, they also were dumb as a post. But there were other robots in the Cluster military, robots strong and cunning, almost feral in comparison to other robots. Others were cold and calculating, and as unmoving as a mountain. And some, some were never allowed to set foot on any Cluster planet, ever.
The Herald gathered his breath, a useless theatric, given he did not need to breath Also, in the chaos of the succession, for the first time in five hundred years we are experiencing terrorist activities. Today at 0600 hours a payload of three hundred kilos of explosive was deployed in a central communications hub. Half of the city went out of action. We reported 12 wounded, 24 disabled, and 3 permanently deactivated. Eyewitness reports say it was a self destruct sequence from a robot. We have yet to confirm his identity A gasp was heard in the empty throne room, and to Vegas surprise it was hers. The Police suspect it was, ah, a diversion.
Through the horror of her own citizens killing each other Vega coulnt help but think this is going to be a heavy blow to the golden chippers. Everyone loved having their golden computer chips installed, but there were some that feared them to. Turning every citizen of Cluster prime into a walking missile platform was just too dangerous, they said. They should be restricted, or outlawed, or any other manner of things. Vega believed in every robots right to be in control of their body, but this atrocity was beginning to sway her.
The throne room filled with nervous talk, some members of Cluster aristocracy even looked physically wounded. Snatches of conversation wafted through the throne room, Terrorism? was the most common term bandied about, but Vega could hear other words, hateful words. Vega rose out of Vexuss thro- Her throne.
Who is responsible for this outrage? She demanded
My queen! herald exclaimed Cringing away We do not know, we suspect it was a separatist movement though. They would have done something in the data blackout Vega looked over, and even through her anger she could see the fear in the herald, and like a morning fog her anger abated, only to be replaced by a great weariness.
Gerzon Vega said quietly What would you suggest?
Gerzon looked at the young queen My lady, He began I can only suggest that you find the culprits immediately. Though the common robot wholeheartedly endorses you, there is unrest in this country that has festered for 2000 years under your mothers rule. You must act quickly and decisively, lest these separatists gain more supporters.
But I cannot be too harsh, or else Ill act just like my Mother Vega grumbled.
We cannot stand this outrage! A Cluster Noble exclaimed, Vega dimly remembered him to be known as J-40 As citizens of the Cluster we must act NOW. J-40 said, slamming an iron clad appendage on his bench.
Vega addressed him And what would you suggest, Lord J-40?
Suggest? I demand that we strike back at these terrorists! Circuits for circuits, oil for oil! He finished, and a grumbling agreement spread through the court.
Vega might have been young in the ways of polotics, but she knew that this was inexcusable Lord J-40! You demand nothing! She screeched back at J-40, ignoring the embarrassing crack in her voice. I am Queen here and I will not stand for such insubordination. You will suggest, but you will order nothing!
For a few palpable seconds, their wills locked in a titanic struggle. In the silence Vega could swear she could even hear subroutines completing in her head. She was studying J-40, and she could tell J-40 was studying her. J-40 had a polished blue exterior, with a centauric chassis. His torso had two powerful arms, while his abdomen was set up with four limbs. Vega noticed that on his back were two pairs of wings, similar to those her mother once had.
With her mother defeated, the supply of golden computer chips had been returned to the people, and it had sparked a new age of self discovery. And fear Vega thought. J-40 was definitely modeled like her mother. He wore a head piece of blue and black stripes, and sported her mothers the insectoid design. He must be having a hard time with that Vega considered. Not everyone on Cluster Prime was accepting as Vega had hoped they would be, and a peculiar anti-insect styled racism was becoming prevalent. The Robots built that way couldnt help it, but the abuse continued. So far it was small, and Vega hoped to keep it that way, but Vega wasnt so sure it would stay that way. J-40 was lucky to be part of the aristocracy, and somewhat immune to that racism, but every line on his body was tense. Hes just is trying to prove himself Vega realized, and for a moment she felt sorry for him. They she Hardened her heart Proving himself or not, I will not allow him to make a mockery of me.
The Stare down continued. Until finaly, J-40 lowered his eyes. Forgive me my queen he mumbled dejectedly I forget myself at times
Vega sat once more, gathered her synthetic breath, and spoke with her most regal voice Lord J-40 speaks the truth though. These attacks on Cluster will not be tolerated. The culprits will be caught and they will face justice. But there will be no lynchings. This is not the Old Cluster, this is the new, the reborn. They will be captured as is the law, and they will face justice, as is the law. She looked around the hall, and saw the lords slowly nodding their heads. Her gaze returned to J-40. He was humbled, and his eyes looked at his feet. Now for something risky Vega thought For this task, I name Lord J-40 as head of the effort J-40 looked up at the mention of his name, and then froze, unable to process what had just happened M-my queen? He said I, I am honored. I swear to bring this filth to justice Vega smiled a private little smile and continued.
The Confederate colonies cannot be ignored either. I have no military experience, and out Army has deserted us, but perhaps it is for the better. I do not want to reclaim the colonies in a hail of fire and oil. That is the old Cluster, this is the new. We must stand united. I will think about this matter, but for now, we will adjourn for a recess.
The Aristocracy stood and left the hall, leaving Gerzon and Vega, alone but for their guards. On your feet lass Gerzon said, reassuringly placing a hand on Vegas shoulder We have to get ready for a press release
Vega stood up and looked plaintively at Gerzon Do I have to? Im so tired.
Gerzon chuckled Welcome to politics my queen. Youll get used to it. Now lets get you ready They both began walking from the hall with slow strides.
Things are really bad arent they? Vega asked quietly.
Gerzon stopped for a second and sighed. I wont lie to you, but this is the lowest point the Cluster has had for 500 years. Youre in a unique spot, and you are the only thing keeping this whole empire from coming apart at the seams. He continued walking The tensions Vexus left are just the tip of the datastream. Cluster Law states that the queen can only be succeeded if either she is deactivated, or abdicates the throne. Though no one wants her back, there will be bots who will not accept youre rule, and will seek for legal avenues to increase there own gain, like the confederates. He put a heavy hand on his chrome chin I think there may be others of this mind at court
J-40? Do you suspect him? Vega inquired.
No Gerzon replied He is just newly assembled and a male unit Gerzon then broke out into a loud belly laugh And that was a sharp piece of work back there queeny! First you beat him around the server than you give him a charge of more importance than hes ever had! He aint going to be saying anything bad about you for a long time!
Vega giggled It just seemed like the thing to do. J-40 is a smart robot, with a lot of passion. This should be a good outlet
Gerzon looked back at her See, youre getting used to this sort of politics. Before you know it youll have the whole court eating out of your hands
Vega smiled I guess so and walked farther down the passage. They walked in silence the rest of the way, until Vega quietly spoke I wish Jenny was here
So do I my queen. So do I
A drone scurried up to his commander. Sir? Tatican did not move, seemingly oblivious to the drone. The drone knew better. Tatican never gave anything away in a conversation. No matter who he talked to he always played his hand close to the vest. The only time anyone had ever seen that icy disposition crack had been on Omicron, and even then, it was merely a growl and a balling of his fists.
The Drone Straightened behind Tatican Commander, we have received another Comm wave from Cluster Prime. Should we respond?
Tatican was Silent for a few seconds, allowing several processes to run their course in his mind. For a robot like him, it was an eternity. No, he responded I will not honor a usurper, keep the comm Quiet
The Drone Saluted, Sir it barked, and scuttled back to its post, leaving Tatican to his silent Vigil
If one was close enough to Tatican, they might have heard him mutter, in a voice akin to a rusty knife being sharpened. Where are you my Queen, He whispered to the empty view screen, Where are you Vexus He continued to stare into the void, as if it would answer, but the placid veneer was undisturbed. Tatican hated this, he had hated every minute of his command for the Last three months. He hated those three Months ago everything fell apart.
Tatican was a general, a true general, not like that oaf Smytus, who was more brutality and cunning than finesse and intelligence. He had masterminded the downfall a dozen planets, each with their own culture and own defenders. All had burned at his feet, crushed under their own failings, without Tatican ever having to use the full might of his armies. He had fought when all the odds were against him and had succeeded, and he had never lost a battle.
And all he had done, he had done for his queen.
And now she was gone, overthrown by her treacherous daughter and some filthy Earth Robot. Tatican seethed silently. He had been away laying siege a planet during the revolt, and by the time the planet had surrendered, he had been ordered home by the wretched usurper. He had sued to keep a garrison on the conquered planet, but the usurper had forbid it. Chastised, He began the long trip home. But before he left, he made sure his conquest would never again defy the Cluster. He had shelled the planet from orbit, and turned the planet into a ball of molten glass and slag.
That action had drawn the ire of the Child queen Vega. She had stated, in no uncertain terms, that Tatican would return home immediately and then would surrender his command to the will of the cluster. He had acquiesced before her, but as soon as she left a new course of action blazed in his mind. This was no rightful queen, he had realized, she was weak, and would lead the Cluster back to the times before freedom of the organics. He could not allow her to continue, he could not allow the Cluster to fall. In a burning desire for knowledge, he sent out a call across his net of informers in every part of the galaxy. Slowly, the story of the New Cluster took shape.
He raged. He had left Smytus with Vexus to protect her whil she toyed with the Earth. Could that idiot not have been trusted with that task? 90 of the Cluster fleet was with Taticus, and the 10 left to Smytus must have been at least five times he amount needed to subjugate earth, and what had happened? A failure so crushing that it had sundered all that Tatican had sworn to! Regret surged through his circuits. Why could he not have been there? It was his fault Vexus was dethroned. Why did he not bring her with him? She loved to see planets fall to the Cluster, why did he not ask her to come? And why, why had he left her with that oaf Smytus?
Tatican thought of what he would do to the usurper when he got his metallic hands around her throat. He would show her that the Cluster fleet served only one queen. He would make her pay for what she had done to him. She would pay for taking meaning out of his life.
Commander! A drone called out along the bridge We are receiving a distress beacon.
Tatican turned A beacon? What is its origin solider? Tatican was curious about this, even though something felt wrong about it. He pushed the feeling aside. As a rule, Tatican never let feelings get in the way of war.
It is difficult to pinpoint sir, but we have a location, and an audio clip. It is distorted though sir.
Put it on screen Tatican ordered, his eyes full of a hungry spark
The View screen flared to life with the white snow of static. Though the crush, words could be made out This I chhhhhhhh- s. Destroye -shhhhhh- Carpon of th -Chsssht- requesting immediate shhhhhc- , priority code 22843 code a -chhhhh— the rest of the transmission was static, before repeating in binary.
Tatican was unmoved except for the tiniest twitch or his right index finger I know that voice Tatican growled Smytus Emotion surged through Tatican in a cascade of electrical impulses. Fear, worry, hope, and joy whirled through him, but the strongest by far was anger. Tatican suddenly spun back to the bridge. I want a full burn hyperspace jump to those coordinates now. Send comms to the rest of the fleet telling them to set out in a Fang formation, except for the 6th and 12th fleet. I want them in flanking positions in 10 galactic standard time units after we arrive.
The Drones saluted Sir! they exclaimed in unison, and began their work at a furious pace. Voices droned into communications posts and digits and limbs worked in rapid succession, and slowly, the bulk of the Talon moved through the void of space. Warning Klaxons blared as the hyperspace jump began, beginning first in English, and then in binary. Space began to ripple as quantum laws began to distort the reality of the universe. Space began to boil infront of the talon, and in front of the numerous other warships in the Cluster fleet.
Tatican returned to looking into space. His body was tense, jittery even. His hands grasped a guardrail and squeezed. Amidst the chaos around the bridge, no one could hear the metal whine and squeal beneath Taticans Iron grip. Low in his chest, a growl began to form.
Smytus he said to himself When we meet, you are going to do just a little bit of explaining on why you failed so miserably and then- Taticus tightened his grip on a handrail, denting it severely-Im going to treat you to something special Tatican stared ahead as the whole of space ripped asunder in a warp jump, and as the world dissolved into colors and bolts of energy he headed to the only lead he had to find his lost queen.


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Businessman Abhishek Verma on Saturday did not appear before a Delhi court for recording of his evidence in a cheating-cum-defamation case lodged by him against his US partner as the day was fixed for his meeting with his wife in jail.
Abhishek Verma, who is in Tihar Jail along with his Romanian wife following their arrest for allegedly bribing unknown officials to stall the government"s blacklisting proceedings of a Swiss arms firm, told the court through his counsel that he cannot appear on Saturday as this is a day, fixed for him to meet his wife in jail.
"He (Verma) cannot come for recording of his evidence in the case as per the courts direction, as he has to meet his wife. The jail authorities have allowed him to meet his wife only on Saturday," the counsel for Verma informed Metropolitan Magistrate Surya Malik Grover.
Taking note of the counsel's submissions, the court fixed August 13 as the next date of hearing in the case.The court had taken cognisance of Abhishek Verma"s complaint on July 4 and had fixed July 21 for recording of his pre-summoning evidence.
Presently Abhishek Verma and his wife is in jail for allegedly receiving money from a Swiss arms firm to stall blacklisting proceedings against it by the Indian government.Verma is also an accused in the Naval War Room leak case in which official secrets were leaked to foreign companies.Ravi Shankaran, kin of former naval chief Arun Prakash, is also an accused in this case.
Abhishek Verma, in his complaint, had alleged that his US-based business partner C Edmonds Allen, an American attorney, and Delhi-based Arjun Arora had duped him of Rs 55 crore, which was to be paid to him in lieu of his consultancy services to them.


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watch 01:50
The Loop (Games)
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|Zone (Patch)
|Skyshrine: The Underdepths (LU63)
|100▲▲▲ Tier 11 Epic x2 , (Approx. HP: 100.000.000)
|Temple of the Wurm Mother
|Reported Drops
|none reported, try LootDB.
|AA Exp
|Status Points
What does this information mean?
tank and spank fight
FYI: You must have A Vial of Time Distilled Protoplasm which was dropped from the two previous named in order to kill this named if you have heroic/em raid gear. If you are HM raid geared and a complete beast (you know who you are) you can kill this encounter without it.
- Set up the group near the ramp where you came in, but make sure that you are close to a wall so that you can't be knocked back over the ledge.
- Select someone in your group who has Ancient Skyshrine Control Wand in their inventory (I would choose either a bard or chanter). They will not be controlling their character for the entire fight. Instead they will have a much more important role. This person will now be referred to as Wand Person.
- When everyone is ready have the Wand Person engage the named from max range and then run back to the group. When they get to the group they should immediately start spam clicking the wand. If the named is in range it will change the Wand Person's view into a robot that they will control for the next 90 seconds.
- As the Robot, they need to engage the named and pull him to the far side of the room away from the group. Use the combat arts on the hot bar, but don't use the AOE taunt.
- Repeat steps 3 and 4 for the rest of the fight.
- At 90% health you will have a chance to activate hardmode if you desire. At 80% there will be a group of 3 linked adds that will join the fight and rush the group. These adds will continue to spawn in waves the rest of the fight.
- Have the group kill the adds off.
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Zoopla Study Finds Getting A Two
02 Apr 2018 07:23
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The Honourable Hector Y. MacDonald
1918 - 1941 Justice of the Saskatchewan Court of King's Bench
1941 - 1951 Justice of the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal
Hector Y. MacDonald was of Highland Scottish ancestry, born in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and went to law school at Dalhousie University. He practiced law in Halifax and Sydney before moving West.
From 1906 to 1908, he practiced law in Moosomin and Prince Albert before moving to Regina in 1908 to work for the Attorney General's Department. In 1910, he became Regina's first City Solicitor. Six months later he joined a private law firm, working with the Gordon brothers (one of whom, P. H. Gordon, would become a judge of the Court of Appeal). Mr. MacDonald was famous for his sense of humor.
Mr. MacDonald was appointed to the Court of King's Bench in 1918 and to the Court of Appeal in 1941. He served on the Court until February 1951. Justice MacDonald died in 1969.
Photo courtesy of the Regina Leader Post and the Saskatchewan Archives Board (R-A25016).


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This question prompts for explanation on a topic, an interpretation of this topic is given. A simplified question statement is also given at the end for those who do not wish to read.
In the Self Gene by Richard Dawkins, it was suggested that genes are the fundamental units of evolution.
In one of the chapters of this book, animals such as the ants are discussed. These animals are specified to have the following properties:
- They live in colonies consisting of sterile workers and reproductive queens.
- Worker ants possess half of the genes from its queen and half its genes from the king, which is not living in the colony because it died after fertilizing the queen.
- The queen produces male "drones"--potential kings for future colonies. Drones are genetically identical to the queen.
The following interaction is suggested: worker ants, being less related to the drones than they are to each other, will manipulate the colony to increase the number of workers and reduce the number of drones present. They may do this by eating some drones before they hatch.
The reason why the workers do this is explained and interpreted as such: The workers wish to produce more individuals that are more closely related to themselves; other workers are more closely related to a worker than a drone is to that worker; therefore, the worker prefers another worker over a drone.
The Selfish Gene suggest that genes are the fundamental units of evolution, therefore a successful gene must be able to displace its alleles by being better at propagating itself.
Suppose gene-A incentivizes workers' drone-eating behavior, this gene in the short term and within one colony can produce a larger number of its own copy, but all of these copies are inside sterile workers, none of which can propagate gene-A.
When the colony containing gene-A spawns drones and potential queens, there are two cases to consider:
- Gene-A is present in drones: If this is true, then by incentivizing the occasional drone-killing by the workers, gene-A has reduced the number of gene-A carrying drones, this is deleterious to gene-A. When workers of the new colony is born, gene-A reduces the number of possibly non-gene-A-carrier drones and decreases the fertility of the new colony in general.
- Gene-A is present in female offspring: gene-A decreases the fertility of new queen, making her produce less gene-A carrying drones, this is again deleterious.
So far, gene-A has proven to be often deleterious to itself by restricting the number of reproductive individuals that may carry it. In terms of competition, gene-A may harm its alleles when the queen carries the allele and the king carries gene-A, but this will stop being beneficial when the number of gene-A and the number of its Alleles reach a 1:1 ratio, since after that point, the probability of harm is equal for both.
So, why is the drone-killing behavior still exhibited in animals such as ants?
Simplified question
Worker ants sometimes kill male ants in its colony because they are less related to the worker ants than the latter is to each other. Since worker ants can't reproduce, why do they bother about the number of close relatives who also cannot reproduce?


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Many Christians start off with the intention of reading the Bible all the way through. Then, somewhere in the middle of the book of Leviticus, their Bible reading comes to a grinding halt. For many years, I was one such Christian. I had read bits and pieces of the Bible many times, but had never actually read the Bible from cover to cover.
Then, one day, I came across an article on the Internet on speed reading the Bible. I had never thought of reading the Bible fast. All of the Bible reading plans I had looked at took a year or longer — sometimes as much as three years — to read through the Bible.
The article I read was written by a man named Philip Green who had mastered the art of speed reading the Bible. The article I read covered 28 years of his speedy Bible reading habits.
To give you an idea of what I mean by speed reading the Bible, let me share with you the schedule that Mr. Green kept:
For 5 years, he read through the Bible every 60 days, or 6 times a year. That would total reading the Bible through 30 times in 5 years.
Then, for the 6th through the 10th year, he read his Bible through every 40 days, or 9 times a year. Thus, in those 5 years, he read the Bible through 45 times.
His Bible speed reading habits continued until by the 28th year, he was able to read through the Bible every 3 days, or 121 times in a year!
Now, I won't bore you by listing how many times he read the Bible each year, but I would like to share with you the total of times he read the Bible in 28 years. Are you ready? He read the Bible a total of 584 times in 28 years! Can you imagine how well this guy must have known the Bible?
Honestly, I don't think I'll ever be able to match this guy's enthusiasm and discipline, but he did inspire me to try my hand at speed reading the Bible, and I successfully read through the Bible in 56 days. That was actually the first time I had ever read through the entire Bible from cover to cover in spite of the fact that I had been a Christian for many years. Not only did this give me a sense of accomplishment, but it also helped me to see the Bible in a totally different light.
Here are some advantages to speed reading the Bible:
1. You make quick progress which encourages you to keep going. Before I knew it, I was already half way through the Bible, which encouraged me to keep going. The quick progress I made gave me the motivation to keep going and gave me a strong sense that I could actually successfully read the Bible through.
2. I was able to get through the parts of the Bible that usually bog me down without any problem. I'll admit that although there are wonderful gems in books of the Bible such as Ezekiel, overall, it is a tough book. If I'm reading only a few chapters a day, I may give up before I make it through a long, hard book. With speed reading the Bible, I get through even those tough books in just a few days. That I can handle!
3. I saw things in the Bible in a totally different light. Speed reading the Bible helped me to see common threads and themes in a way I had never noticed before. I understood the Bible in a fresh new way because I could see the big picture in a much more vivid way as I sped read through the Bible.
If you think you might like to speed read the Bible, here are some things to keep in mind.
First, set a goal. How quickly do you want to read through the Bible? With this method, I would suggest taking no longer than 90 days to read through the Bible.
Next, divide the number of pages in your Bible by the number of days you chose in you goal setting. For instance, my Bible has 1095 pages, so if I want to read through the Bible in 60 days, I have to read approximately 18 pages per day to read through the Bible in 60 days.
Then, make a schedule for reading the Bible. I used a simple Word document to list the date and which pages I would read each day. One advantage of making a schedule is that you don't have to figure out each day which pages of the Bible to read. Also, when I made the schedule, I noticed that my last few days I would be at a women's retreat, and I knew I would likely have a hard time reading that many pages in the Bible while there, so I chose to pick up the pace a little so I could finish reading the Bible prior to the retreat. I wouldn't have realized that conflict if I hadn't made a Bible reading schedule ahead of time.
Finally, I sped read the Bible with a pencil in hand, so I could make a quick checkmark by verses that stood out to me as I read. Then, when I finished my reading for the day, I chose one verse that I marked to write a few sentences about. That simple practice gave me a single focus each day as I sped read the Bible and helped to make the experience more meaningful.
I hope that you'll try speed reading the Bible at least once. It's an experience I would highly recommend!


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Instability In Indonesia: Is It Inevitable? Part II
Indonesia adapted to the end of the Cold War in a pretty stable and prosperous manner, not being negatively affected by any of the immediate aftermath. In fact, the end of the Cold War actually increased its regional standing through the expansion of the ASEAN trade bloc to the countries of Indochina and Myanmar. Jakarta was able to gain a certain amount of asymmetrical clout through being the largest country of the enlarged organization, and seemingly also one of the most politically stable. All in all, Indonesia superficially appeared to be in quite an enviable position, although deep undercurrents of disaster were violently churning just below the surface.
1997 Asian Economic Crisis Provokes Anti-Suharto Riots
The 1997 Asian economic meltdown that was discussed at the very beginning of the ASEAN section of the research had the effect of catalyzing these destabilizing processes and creating the social preconditions for a forthcoming regime change maneuver. The Indonesian currency was hit hard by the regional effects of this financial conflagration, which in turn led to explosive inflation and rampant unemployment. The economic boom that characterized the earlier part of the decade had abruptly stopped and begun to reverse itself with equal force, creating a panic among many whereby a craze-inducing run on the stores was set in motion. The social chaos that this induced prompted the opposition to step up their anti-government activities, which in turn led to a state backlash. Through a cascading series of grassroots events, Medan, Jakarta, and Surakarta erupted in violence in May 1998 and hundreds of people were killed, arrested, and injured. Chinese businesses were particularly targeted by the rioters due to the assumption that this supposedly 'better off' demographic had access to critical food and supplies that the rest of the population didn't. The ensuing chaos was too much for Suharto to handle and he decided to resign at the end of the month, ending over thirty consecutive years in power and leaving the country on the brink of disaster at the end of the "New Order".
The chain of destabilizing regime change events that were first set off by the regional economic crisis may have portended a new wave of asymmetrical post-modern warfare that had yet to be mastered, a sort of trial run for a forthcoming and more focused attempt. This was spoken about earlier in the work, but to conceptually simplify the specifics of what's being directly referred to at this time, a regional economic crisis was the trigger for anti-government protests in Malaysia and Indonesia. The former had behaved relatively independent under the leadership of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed (and therefore was seen as a potential threat vis-à-vis the Wolfowitz Doctrine) while the latter was a promising economic giant presided over by an aging and unpopular leader that would inevitably be replaced in the coming years. From the strategic perspective of American policy makers, a regime change in both countries would be preferable – in Malaysia because its independent policies prevented it from coming under Western tutelage, and in Indonesia because the stale "New Order" was bound to be replaced sooner or later and it was thought to be more advantageous for the US to have a guiding role in this transition by 'wiping the plate clean', completely getting rid of the 'old guard', and working to place a new and fresh generation into power via pro-Western "liberal-democratic" means.
The latter objective of 'spreading democracy' is always preferable for American intelligence agencies because it provides them an easily manipulatable format with which to 'democratically' enact changes in an existing government, be it to support their desired candidate for whatever particular office it may be or to disrupt an opponent's campaign, both of which can be done via 'plausibly deniable' and internationally recognized 'legitimate' ways. Indonesia was obviously forecast to play a growing role in the future world order due to its geostrategic position, enormous population, and well-endowed natural resource wealth, and the US establishment interminably maintained a fear that the rise of another Sukarno could wrest the country away from their grip and undermine Washington's grand strategy. It's better for the US to have a weakened, albeit still strategically aligned, partner with which to do business and whose model is susceptible to the CIA's 'democratic engineering' than to allow it to uninterruptedly continue its existence as a potentially strong and stable state with a difficult-to-influence leadership transition model that might somehow fall under or choose to side with a non-Western power. Indonesia's post-independence historical model was such that only a dramatic event could alter the traditionally strong role of the President and spearhead the constitutional changes necessary for limiting the leader's power.
As assessed from this angle, it makes perfect sense why the US would be interested in Suharto's violent overthrow, which not only produced the required legal amendments after the fact and for these exact reasons (and ushered in the period of "Reformasi" to go along with it), but also provided more valuable field testing for the CIA's region-wide situational preconditioning model, which had up to then been used against the Soviet Union, the Communist Bloc, and the former Yugoslavia. Utilizing economic warfare as a means for 'justifying' 'democratic' multistate (or multi-unit in the case of previously unified Yugoslavia) regime change operations would later become the US' favored coup method, with forthcoming applications in the 'traditional' Color Revolutions in Serbia and the former Soviet space (Georgia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan), the failed 'Central Asian Spring' of 2010, and then the "Arab Spring" of 2011.
Ethnic Conflicts Explode
The situationally engineered overthrow of Suharto created a governing void that decreased the authorities' hold over the ethnically diverse and identity-conflicting peripheral provinces. Deeply rooted animosities between locals and their transmigrant neighbors came to the fore in the aftermath of the state's unprecedented weakening, and as a result, large-scale and geographically broad violence began to break out. The beginning of 1999 saw conflict erupting in the Maluku islands, where the Muslim and Christian communities started killing one another due to long-bubbling tensions. For the most part, the Christians were native to Ambon island and the surrounding areas that were affected, while the Muslims were transmigrants or their descendants. Violence started in the first quarter of the year then returned in the late summer/early fall and continued to the end of the year. In North Maluku, a new majority-Muslim province that was just created that year out of Maluku proper, a wave of rolling religious and ethnic conflicts crested from August until November, sometimes overlapping, sometimes not. For example, Christians and Muslims of the same ethnicity were slaughtering one another, but at other times the conflict was between different regional ethnic communities and had nothing to do with religion.
A similar sort of conflict had also broken out in mid-March in West Kalimantan, the official designation for the western part of Indonesian-administrated Borneo. Around 3,000 Muslim Madurese transmigrants were killed by local Dayaks during the Sambas Riots, in what was sadly just the latest in a chain of violence that had periodically been sparked off since the 1960s. The saliency of it occurring in 1999 is that it proves that the self-evident weakening of the state after Suharto's overthrow gave the impression to various identity groups that they now had the 'opportunity' to exact their local vengeances. The situation once more boiled over in 2001 with the Sampit Conflict, during which 100s were killed and around 100,000 Madurese had to flee Central Kalimantan. It's notable that if one looks at a map of Indonesia and locates these conflict zones, then they'd see that it really does ring around the entire periphery. If one counts the ethno-religious tensions in Sulawesi island that culminated in the May 2000 Walisongo Christian-on-Muslim school massacre and factors in the near-constant threat of violence in West Papua (kept under control chiefly due to the heavy military presence in the province), then almost all of the former "East Indonesia" and its adjoining territories (West Kalimantan and West Papua) were affected by some type of ethno-religious conflict during this time.
It makes one wonder whether or not the US had stoked any of these conflicts or had advance premonitions (if not outright intentions) that something like this would happen after Suharto's manipulated departure. It conceivably looks to be the case that American intelligence was testing the theory of managed chaos and observing its 'natural' spread throughout the archipelago, monitoring which latent conflicts were successfully aroused and which dodged the bullet and remained dormant. From a strategic vantage point, the socio-demographic feedback that the US would have received simply by watching this process unfold would have been invaluable in helping to craft forthcoming region-wide destabilization plans, to say nothing of the value that such information would have acquired if the US had a role in instigating any of the said conflicts and 'testing' their given variables. In hindsight, it certainly appears as though this was one of the US' objectives (whether it was a primary, partial, or tangential one is moot in this context), and the surrounding and pre-scheduled events in East Timor, around which the aforementioned ethno-religious violence may have been timed, convincingly make it seem as though this was indeed the case.
East Timor Independence Referendum And The Potential Unravelling Of Indonesia
Suharto's briefly tenured successor, Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie, initiated an historic feat by putting Indonesia's occupation of East Timor up to a democratic vote in the besieged province, announcing his intentions in late-January 1999 to hold a referendum on whether the territory should be independent or receive heightened autonomy from Jakarta. It was later agreed that the vote would be held on 30 August of that year. The reasons for this decision are aplenty, but they're broadly understood as being part of the "Reformasi" period of change that was initiated after Suharto's overthrow, whereby the new authorities began brainstorming ways to transform (or as they termed it, 'reform') the country. It's not at all to infer that this particular decision was necessarily negative and shouldn't have been made, but that it should be seen as being part of the basket of changes that the US wanted the post-Suharto government to initiate. In this instance, it was one that was welcomed by the international community after awareness about the illegal and ultra-violent Indonesian occupation began to gradually attract increased worldwide attention after the Cold War.
If the reader accepts the author's main thesis about the US testing and deploying the new 'superweapon' of 'managed chaos' all across the world in the post-Cold War era, then it's natural to conclude that it had an ulterior strategic motive for going along with what otherwise seemed like a conventionally humanitarian move. The reader would do well to remember that the US never evokes 'human rights' and 'international justice' without some cynical sort of reason, and this despite whether or not others are even aware of what it's ultimately up to. Interestingly enough, as viewed in the context of the event timeline of domestic destabilization earlier elaborated upon, there's a possibility that East Timor's warranted independence later in the year could have been exploited by the US to create a pretext for other troublesome islands to secede as well, albeit this time ones which were formally and historically a part of Indonesian and not technically occupied by it.
The violence in Maluku and North Maluku certainly raises this intriguing prospect, and it's curious to wonder whether or not the rioters on either side of the conflict there (but more so in Maluku than North Maluku [which began to be destabilized right when the East Timor referendum was to be held]) were inspired by the forthcoming vote and may have thought they could use its precedent to push for their own autonomy or independence. It also can't be discounted that any potential organizers of the island violence and their affiliated 'narrative writers' in the international mainstream media may have also had this in mind at the time as well, especially if one considers the earlier theory that the US was using the post-Suharto environment as a tropical testing ground for various degrees of chaos theory implementation and/or 'natural' field observance.
Under this specific branch of scenarios, Washington may have wanted to stretch the limit of public opinion and see how far it could take the recently unveiled media stratagem of "humanitarian intervention" in the event that something 'went wrong' with the vote (as would later happen). It should be recalled that it was in March 1999 that the US began its War on Yugoslavia ostensibly under the publicly presentable and totally fabricated pretext of 'preventing genocide'. With East Timor, at least such claims would have historically been true, and in both instances (Yugoslavia and Indonesia), the information operations necessary for convincing the general public of the potential need for a militant intervention had already been prepared in advance.
For a brief moment of time, however, it looked as though the US was actually ready for a militant intervention in East Timor, albeit under less conspicuous anti-state grounds than ones used against Yugoslavia earlier that year. When the referendum resulted in over three-quarters of the population voting for independence, frenzied pro-Indonesian mobs and military-affiliated militias wracked havoc throughout the occupied territory and started randomly killing the locals. Some estimates state that around 1,400 people died in the under one-month period between the referendum and the introduction of an Australian-led force on 20 September. Referred to as International Force for East Timor (or INTERFET), it wasn't UN-sanctioned and was more of a 'coalition of the willing' that also included Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, the UK, France, Germany, and a handful of others. The US "Led From Behind" via intelligence and logistical support but didn't actively take part in the operation, but the fact that it was playing coy about doing so until about one week before the mission was formally launched may indicate that it understood the strategic value of implicitly threatening to do so.
The once-strong Indonesian state, which previously would never have allowed a multinational coalition to 'liberate'/re-occupy its own occupied territory (no matter how wrong and unjust it was for it to do so in the first place), had now been reduced to scrambling all of its allied militias out of the zone and holding its breath that the East Timorese island foothold wouldn't be used for launching other formal or asymmetrical destabilization operations further into the peripheral insular interior. This fear never fully panned out, but strategically speaking, it was definitely a risk that the Indonesian military accounted for and had prepared a contingency response if need be. After all, it's was commonly understood among experts that Indonesia was "damned if they do, damned if they don't" leave East Timor after having occupied it for so long, since the thinking went that the liberation of this territory might set off a chain reaction in the former lands of "East Indonesia" that might lead to a rapid unravelling of the unitary Indonesian state (whether in terms of formal secessionism or a return to federalism).
In the situational context of what was unfolding in that part of the country at the moment (the North Maluku and Maluku ethno-religious clashes and the foreign intervention in East Timor), the disintegrative processes could have been taken to their conclusion if the US had mustered the political will to do so, but it opted instead to remain passive after the fact and gain valuable field data about its new asymmetrical weapon of chaos. Additionally, it may have been that influential forces in Washington realized that the cost-benefit analysis (in terms of the military resources necessary for procuring a given natural resource or strategic end) wasn't acceptable for the necessary commitment, especially as plans were already underway for tightening the noose around Russia and re-instigating a hot war in the Mideast. Rather, it may have been assumed, it was decided that the strategic goal of weakening the structure of the Indonesian state was already accomplished and that the final ethno-religious centrifugal hit could indefinitely wait to be unleashed until later, perhaps if necessary to pull Indonesia away from China in a forthcoming scenario. For the time being, a weakened, subservient, but still-unitary Indonesia that was firmly in the pro-Western orbit and outfitted with a rotating 'liberal-democratic' government was seen as the most preferable strategic 'solution' for the US' pre-Pivot to Asia policy in ASEAN.
The Dawn Of Wahhabist Terrorism
The last of the post-Suharto crises to rock Indonesia was the emergence of Wahhabist terrorism as a major source of instability, especially in the sense that it was one which captivated worldwide attention after 9/11. Jemaah Islamiyah is perhaps the most notorious 'homegrown' terrorist group in the country, although it does have sizeable ties with Al Qaeda and other likeminded foreign organizations. The group skyrocketed to international attention after it staged the 2002 Bali bombings, but it had earlier become infamous in Indonesia for the 2000 Christmas Eve bombings that targeted churches and other soft targets in nine separate cities, including Jakarta. Seeing as how Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim country, it has a greater risk than any other that even a statistically insignificant proportion of terrorist-supporting citizens could wrack disproportionate damage on the country.
For example, if even 0.5% of the people are susceptible to the violent Wahhabist ideology (which is a conservative number, if anything), then that means that 1.25 million people out of the total 250 million citizens in the country could become potential terrorists, terrorist financiers, or supportive operators. With the massive population density present in Java and most of Sumatra, it means that this ultra-minority percentage of the population could inflict terrible harm to the rest of the country throughout the coordinated targeting of multiple soft areas such as cafes, churches, and schools. Worse still, they may not even have to go abroad for their training, as Al Qaeda, ISIL, and their affiliated groups could easily train in one of Indonesia's thousands of islands, most of which are uninhabited, or even in tense Sulawesi, if not in nearby Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago. Indonesia is frankly much too populous and geographically large for the government to fully monitor, and it's inevitable that certain blind spots will be or are already being exploited by Wahhabist terrorist groups, be they Jemmah Islamiyah, Al Qaeda, ISIL, their affiliates, a new organization, and/or a hybrid combination thereof.
The View From Jakarta
At this point, quite a lot of history and other national specifics have been laid out in the research, and it's a given that the reader might feel slightly overwhelmed with everything they've encountered so far. The inclusion of so much information was necessary in order to create the strategic backdrop for exploring the Hybrid War threats to Indonesia, the primary purpose of this text. Before getting to that point, however, it's beneficial to summarize everything that's been learned up until this time and present it from the perspective of Jakarta's decision makers. This will help the reader to better comprehend the strategic imperatives of the state and more wholly understand how the forthcoming Hybrid War scenarios pose the direst of dangers to the country's existence.
The Core Basics:
Indonesia is a geographically broad country filled with thousands of islands and thousands of square miles of seas, but at the end of the day, its core concentration lies in Java and the southern part of Sumatra. If one includes the entirety of the latter island, then these two pieces of land combined comprise around 80% of the country's total population and economy. Looked at in this way, what may have initially seemed like a staggeringly large country is reduced instead to the study of the two largest islands entirely under Jakarta's domain, with the rest of the space essentially being relegated as the literal and figurative periphery of Indonesian affairs. Ironic as it is, these two islands constitute only 31.5% of Indonesia's total landmass, further highlighting just how densely populated and economically productive they are when compared to the rest of the country.
Therefore, from a security standpoint, Wahhabist terrorism on either of these two islands appears to warrant the greatest urgency for the state. As was mentioned just earlier, a small number of radicals could inflict an exponentially destructive amount of force with relatively minimal effort, which of course necessitates that this threat be taken as seriously as possible and a large number of security resources directed towards tackling it. There's no disputing the logic in this decision since it's obvious that any country should place a heightened priority towards defending 80% of its population and economy more so than the other 20%, especially if this is densely concentrated enough as to make it practical to do so (being only 31.5% of the given physical territory), but one mustn't forget the festering problems in the periphery that could easily get out of hand and endanger the entire state's stability.
If religious tension (in the sense of co-confessional moderates versus misguided radicals) is a threat in the core territories of Java and Sumatra, then the periphery must confront not only this problem (as it has threatened to arise in Sulawesi), but also ethno-religious conflict between disparate identity groups. In some cases there's an overlap of religion and identity such as when a certain ethnic group largely practices a given religion and these combined ethno-religious factors of differentness form a source of conflict (e.g. the Javanese transmigrants are overwhelming Muslim whereas their recipient host population is mostly Christian and of a different ethnicity), but in the other instances there's no such double-layered difference between the antagonists and the only element of separateness is solely religion or ethnicity (e.g. the 2010 Muslim-on-Muslim riots between the Tidung natives and Bugimigrants in Tarakan, North Kalimantan). Both situations present a dilemma for decision makers to rectify, with each having their respective challenges standing in the way of communal reconciliation.
Pancasila As Indonesia's Panacea?:
The multisided identity conflicts that Indonesia faces have been known about for a long time, and the godfather of the state, Sukarno, was wisely aware of them as well. He knew that no polity had managed to formally unify the region's islands to the extent that the Dutch had been able to with their East Indies colony, and that the only way to maintain the unified state that he envisioned was to employ an inclusionary and effective ideology, ergo the pronouncement of the Pancasila. To refresh the reader's memory, the work earlier described this as being Indonesia's constitutionally incorporated unofficially ideology that stipulates that the country must remain a monotheistic, nationalist, just, welfare state that practices representative democracy. Having been made aware of just how deep Indonesia's identity divisions run, it should make sense to the reader why the government would need to resort to ideology to keep the peace and sustain nominal unity.
In the absence of a strong state (like had happened after the situational preconditioning that made Suharto's overthrow possible), there's no authoritative entity to enforce the existentially necessary ideology that had kept Indonesia together for so long, which is why identity conflicts exploded in the years after his political demise. As an individual man, Suharto himself didn't have any particularly commendable leadership characteristics that played a decisive role one way or another in maintaining the country's unity (except, one could cynically say, his penchant for overbearing state-directed violence), but what's important to realize is that he represented the national strongman, of which there have only been two in Indonesia's modern history. The structural stability that came with a long-serving leader presiding over the ethno-religiously and geographically divided state is what's chiefly important when discussing Suharto's role over Indonesian affairs, and his abrupt resignation at the heat of the unprecedentedly violent protests on Sumatra and Java (recall that this the national core) shook the system to its foundations and exposed it to its most vulnerable state since the brief federalist United States of Indonesia period.
In the post-Suharto period of "Reformasi", it's been all but compulsory for the country's leadership to espouse and physically practice one or two of Pancasila's principles in order to maintain the country in its present governing-administrative and physical form. The two ideals that were most commonly exercised after 1999 were nationalism (as in a unified Indonesian identity transcending religion and ethnicity) and representative democracy. As could be expected, nationalism took the form of enforcing the country's unity and putting down the chaotic riots that broke out in North Maluku and Maluku, whereas representative democracy could most clearly be seen by the series of constitutional amendments that were passed in the following years, most of which broke Indonesia closer to fulfilling this ideal in a more substantial manner than its symbolic practice in the past decades. Related to this idea has been the systemic decentralization of administrative responsibilities in spearheading the establishment of 8 new provinces since 1999, in one case in order to dilute Papuan nationalism (hence the creation of West Papua Province), but in the others in order to more effectively govern the given states and appease concerns that had arisen or had the potentially to destabilizingly do so in the future. Regardless of whatever tactical reason is being employed at a certain time, viewed in sense of the general picture, it appears as though the "Reformasi" governments in Indonesia have been even more dependent on Pancasila's precepts (in whatever form they're practiced or symbolically evoked) than their two pre-1999 predecessors were.
The Fine Line Between Decentralization And Devolution:
Having expanded on the role of Pancasila in recent Indonesian history, it's now time to speak a bit more specifically about the last aspect of its practice that had been described, the decentralization of certain administrative regions into new governing entities. It's true that this is an effective solution to stymying certain identity conflicts and paying preemptive token service to any nascent but possibly one day effective independence or regionalist movements, but there's also a dual side to this practice that observers may not be aware of. If taken to too far of an extreme, decentralization can cross over into the slippery territory of devolution, whereby the unitary government grants or is pressured to grant autonomy or de-facto privileges thereof to certain regions, which could thus set off a chain reaction of copy-cat movements if it's not kept tightly under control. The threat of Wahhabist violence is also pronounced, but the nature of that particular danger is less of a geo-demographic issue that can be rectified via an administrative reform than an ideological virus that must be fought against in a completely different manner.
East Timor
East Timor, West Papua, and Aceh are perfect precedents for this, but thus far the government has succeeded in convincing the citizenry that they were isolated cases that called for exceptional solutions. Portugal's prior possession had never been integrated into the Dutch-unified East Indies space, and thus was an historical-regional anomaly in many ways. Even so, after the government decided to put its decades-long occupation up to a democratic vote there, it still offered residents what would have at that time been an unprecedented autonomous regime. Although they didn't agree to it, the government set its own precedent by proposing such a measure.
West Papua
Afterwards, the former colony of Netherlands New Guinea was granted autonomy in 2001, but this still hasn't been enough to placate the people's yearnings. Also, the supposed autonomy was never granted in practice to the substantial extent that Indonesia routinely tries to present it as on both the world and domestic stages. Nevertheless, even if one cynically sees it as only being a symbolic public relations gesture, then it's still much more than other beleaguered provinces have received, particularly North Maluku and Maluku after their identity destabilizations (which, it must be noted, never took a particularly anti-government and/or separatist/autonomist platform).
The same can't be said for Aceh, which like the work earlier described, had fought against Jakarta since right around the time of East Timor's struggle, but ended up agreeing to and consequently receiving actual broad-based autonomy. To reference what was mentioned before, Aceh is the only region in Indonesia that implements Sharia law to all of the people within its territory (both Muslims and non-Muslims alike) and for every kind of crime. Additionally, it also has the right to receive 70% of all energy revenue that the state derives from the province, which makes it doubly unique in the country in terms of its administrative privileges.
Structural Summary
To reiterate the pattern that's been explicitly expressed so far, the only regions that have been offered autonomy (whether of the symbolic or substantial forms) have been the ones that seriously rebelled against the government at one time. Intercommunal bloodletting like the kind present in North Maluku, Maluku, Sulawesi, and Kalimantan, while undermining state stability due to the contagion effect of identity conflict that it could spark elsewhere in the country, doesn't explicitly pose as much of a threat to Indonesia's unity as the anti-state rebellions/liberation campaigns (however the reader personally describes them) in East Timor, West Papua, and Aceh.
Going Too Far
Proposing autonomy in one form or another may seem like or actually has been the proper solution in each case, but the central government can't continue to do this each and every time an anti-government insurgency sprouts up. If it did, then the end result would be that the most of the country would end up "autonomous", essentially setting the stage for a federalized entity quite similar to the fleeting United States of Indonesia period, albeit likely without the geographically large and nominally unified "East Indonesia" administrative entity.
There's always the risk that the government could be pressured to go too far, too fast, and this in turn could unintentionally (or purposefully so, if it's engineered from abroad and for this very reason) create a semi-uncontrollable momentum towards what would in effect be a state-breaking federalization that could administratively undermine the entire country if implemented clumsily enough like in Bosnia. The difference between the Federation of Bosnia & Herzegovina and any theoretical Indonesian Federation is that the second one is the geo-maritime gatekeeper between the Pacific and Indian Oceans, the two littoral areas predicted to be the engines of the 21st-century global economy.
Jakarta's Worst Nightmare:
The last thing that Indonesia's leaders want to have happen is that the governing-administrative model devolves to the point of becoming unmanageable. The federalization fear that was described above could likely only come about via a series of nationwide destabilizations, whether synchronized with one another or separately carried, and only in the scenario that the country and its military are too weak to propose anything other than autonomy as a solution. The catalyst for debilitating the state to the point where it's largely helpless in effectively defending its integrity and/or is distracted with a swarm of crises is to manufacture another economic meltdown similar to the one from 1997, whether or not it goes regional or global in its aftershocks or originates outside of or inside of Indonesia. It's also not clear at this point whether it would be more effective for the autonomist-federalist cause if this happens before or during a series of nationwide identity clashes (be they coordinated with others or independently carried out), but either way, this is the decisive scenario development that would need to take place in order to actualize Jakarta's greatest fear.
In the eventuality that this occurs for whatever the strategic reason may be (even if the scenario spirals out of control and negates its intended objectives), an incoherent and semi-functioning failing state at this key global junction would create a disastrous and easily manipulatable situation which could predictably impact quite negatively on the global economy. The external actors that hold sway over the federalized remnants of the once-unified country would be in a major position to influence trade between these two oceans, alternatively obstructing their competitors' routes (e.g. blocking the Straits of Malacca and Sunda with calculated ship sinkings) while securing their own heavily defended detours (e.g. via the 'island-fortresses' that they may occupy in "East Indonesia") in order to tax and control the trade that resultantly passes by them.
This reality would have been preceded by a scramble for maritime influence unseen before in history, with the only relative comparison being the Scramble for Africa which took place over a much larger space and decades-long period. Instead, the 'Scramble for (Former) Indonesia' would be a lot quicker and concentrated in a much tighter space, possibly even set off by a rapid Yugoslav-like dissolution of the unitary Indonesian state and/or its autonomous-federal entities in this scenario. Conceivably, the 'rationale' of "humanitarian intervention" could be called upon by outside powers in intervene in any of the given quasi-independent island states or chains there, modeled off of the approach that was utilized in East Timor in 1999 and 2006, and conceptually even in the footsteps of the 2003 Solomon Islands operation (all three of which were led by Australia, one of the US' Lead From Behind partners). Each of the presumed rival actors partaking in this scramble would eventually seek to consolidate their gains after some point, which might lead to unexpected alliances between various parties, either of the formal nature or something more tacit such as limited anti-piracy missions that belie deeper cooperation.


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JERUSALEM is the EYE of the Universe. (R' Kaplan)
ERETZ YISRAEL is the center of the world and was given to Yaakov's descendants (Rashi)
AM YISRAEL is the Apple of the Eye of Hashem
AM YISRAEL is the chosen of the Nations
TORAH is central to Jewish Life and Perpetuation of Am Yisrael in the Golus
THE WRITTEN AND ORAL TORAH lives and breathes through history.
THE SABBATH Keeps the Nation of Israel. More than Jews kept the Sabbath, the Sabbath has preserved the Jews.
Many among the Nations have persecuted and tried to vanquish the Jews, but the Torah and Jewish way of life guaranteed their survival. If and when they slackened in holding tight to the Torah they were punished but not obliterated. Many through the ages have sought to destroy the Torah (prohibitions, burning of sacred texts, pogroms and murder), but more than the Jews survived the Torah survived.
HASHEM looked into the Torah and created the Universe. If the Torah is not studied night and day, the world would cease. The Sages are the guardians of the Torah.
After many years diluted among the non-Jewish Nations the Guardians of the Torah decreed that "henceforth" a Jew is born of a Jewish Mother. Non-Jews who want to join the Jewish Nation must accept the Teachings of the Torah entirely, keep the Laws, Kashrus, and raise their children in the Faith. One need not look like or live like the Haredim, but must to the best of their ability keep Halacha.
JEWISH EDUCATION is to be instilled in Jewish Youth by the Daughters of Jewish Mothers.
CENTRALIZED EDUCATION was initiated by the Early Sages of the Mishnah.
JEWISH MOTHERS AND RABBINIC FATHERS are our forebears.
THE TORAH WAY OF LIFE has been jeopardized many times during our long saga through each Golus.
HOWEVER, it is now being attacked from within by those who broke away from the laws of the Written and Oral Torah in the recent 200 years of our wandering through history. These splintered group(s) are challenging and attacking the very meaning of what defines a Jew. It's as if these newcomers wish to create a 'new Torah' of their deciding, turning their back on our beginnings in Mitzrayim, Deliverance by G–D from Slavery, led by Moses, and through the Mt Sinai Experience became a Nation devoted to G–D, the Creator of the Universe.
MANY NEWCOMERS on the historical scene, all professing to be Leaders and the legitimate arbiters of the godly purpose: Mohammedans, Xtians, Buddhists, and many others. But only Am Yisrael and the Torah are Authentic.
THE WRITTEN AND ORAL TORAH has been our guide for living. We Jews are a People, a Nation, and a Way of Life.
The newcomers do not live by G–D's Torah as handed down; especially those who today are challenging the Rabbinic Decisors of Israel in their Preservation of the Nation of G–D's Chosen People.
During the early years the formation of deciphering the laws of the Written Torah, delineated through the Oral Torah, was elucidated to Moshe by G–D.
There was an influx of converts from the peoples, who recognized the TRUTH and SACREDNESS of our Torah. These new Jews contributed greatly to understanding and perpetuating the lives of the fledgling Jewish Nation. But these converts accepted the entire Torah and thereafter taught the Jews.
Our Rabbinic Fathers established criteria for accepting converts into our lineage. However through the ages rarely did Non-Jews want to belong to our People. It was too dangerous. Now Today the most recent newcomers want to establish their own norms, discarding Laws that explain and decipher the Holy Words of the Written Torah.
RABBIS OF THE BEIS DIN OF ERETZ YISRAEL receive via Siata D'Shemaya by virtue of living on the Land, in our Holy City of Jerusalem, the place of Mount Moriya and the remains of our First and Second Holy Temples, how to lead the Nation despite the slings and arrows of those who would tear down the Word of G–D.
OUR WORLD was created for 6000 years before entering the 7th Millennium, the Day of All Shabbos. This is still not the completion of the intended Creation. Those Neshomas who survived through each Golus, who have completed their TESHUVA (for not having sufficient HaKoras HaTov, EMUNA and BITACHON in Hashem) will LIVE to enter the Day that is All Shabbos.
Since we are now in the twilight days of this World, it is necessary to prepare oneself for the completion of the 6000 in fulfillment of the Purpose of the World.
See more about the coming days:
LazerBeams about Rav Yehuda Zev Leibowitz's Third Prediction.


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Groton Hearing on Land Clearing Proposal, Townsend Road
Public Hearing Notice
Stormwater Management Permit
In accordance with the provisions of Chapter 198 of the Code of Groton, the Earth Removal Stormwater Advisory Committee will hold a public hearing on Tuesday, December 4, 2018 at 7:00 PM in the Town Hall (first floor meeting room) to consider the application for a Limited Stormwater Management Permit submitted by Chad Falardeau for land clearing as shown on the sketch plan prepared Chad Falardeau submitted with the application. The proposed project will be located on Assessors' Map 203, Parcels 3 & 31, on the southerly side of Town Line Road and westerly side of Townsend Road.
Copies of the application and plans are on file in the Town Hall. The Town of Groton does not discriminate on the basis of disability. Further, a signed translation of this public hearing will be provided for the hearing impaired upon request by contacting ADA Coordinator Michelle Collette at (978) 448-1105 at least one week prior to the hearing.
Earth Removal
Stormwater Advisory Committee
Edward Perkins, Chairman