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Pokemon Ranger Manga
Pokemon Ranger Manga by Kusaka Hidenori, Yamamoto Satoshi
Action, Adventure, Fantasy
1 Volumes, 5 Chapters, 168 Pages
Manga scans by:
Read Mobile Version
Series Brief Review
In yet another area of the Pokemon world, there are no trainers, only rangers who temporarily borrow the service of wild Pokemon for good.
The main character finds himself on an almost impossible mission, and discovers with the Pokemon he has borrowed from the Pokemon he has gathered, hopefully a way to stop the evildoers who have started havoc.
Volume 1
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
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G-Maru Edition
by Mizuki Kawashita
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aka: (G) Edition
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(Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Gender Bender, Romance, Sci-Fi, Shoujo, Shounen, Manhua, 14 volumes, 70 chapters)
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aka: Kiss, Break Up, Kiss, Mienai Kiss
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aka: Kuroko no Basket, Kuroko's Basket Ball, The Basketball Which Kuroko Plays
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by Chitose Yagami
(Adventure, Fantasy, Shoujo, Supernatural, 1 volumes, 5 chapters)
aka: Keajaiban Kurumi, Kurumi chikku Miracuru
Love Plus: Rinko Days
by Konami Digital Entertainment, Kouji Seo
(Comedy, Romance, School Life, Shounen, 2 volumes, 12 chapters)
aka: LovePlus: Rinko Days
Oniichan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki ja Nai n da kara ne!!
by Kouichi Kusano
(Comedy, Ecchi, Harem, Romance, School Life, Seinen, 7 volumes, 69 chapters)
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Money Matters
What is Money Matters?
Money Matters is a financial education program that will allow current students and alumni to learn about personal finance, using credit wisely, identity theft and other topics. There are different components to the Money Matters program, allowing students and alumni to pick and choose how they can utilize and benefit from the program offerings. There will be campus events, one-on-one counseling, webinars and an online component called SALT.
What is SALT?
Emerson College has partnered with American Student Assistance to provide SALT. SALT is a dynamic, multichannel financial education and debt management program that educates, empowers and engages our students to truly own their finances, by making it immediately rewarding, easy and fun to make smart decisions about their money and student loan borrowing.
How to participate?
Check our events page for upcoming events. In addition to on campus events, current students and alumni can also sign up for the SALT program.
Sign up for SALT online!
Learn how to manage your money.
Contact us
80 Boylston St, Little Building
1st floor: Office of Student Success
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 9:00 am–5:00 pm
Thursday 9:00 am–4:00 pm
Friday 9:00 am–3:00 pm

subset: commoncrawl


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Totins Home
Daily Specials
Starters and Salads
Smaller Plates
Contact Us
Jim and Joanne Totin (Tote-In) have been in business since October 30, 2009.
Transforming what used to be an old car garage into what most people call a "cute new spot".
Stop in to see Jim Totin, owner/chef, for a decent portion of some Pittsburgh homecooking. We serve anything from breakfast to dinner and offer homemade soups and dinner specials daily! Totin's Diner is on the Wexford flats of Perry Highway (across from Kollinger Auto Body).
Totin's Diner is a family friendly restaraunt, where you can frequently meet our little "totin-tots" when stopping in for a bite to eat. We are a great stop before or after a NA game or activity, and there are many wonderful churches nearby.
We Deliver from
11am to 2pm and 4pm to 8pm Monday through Saturday anywhere within 5 miles!
So if you take your car in for service don't wait hungry... give us a call
We are now BYOB!!
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Review Summary
Gucci Premiere Eau de Parfum
Gucci Premiere is a sophisticated wood and musk sensation.
Top notes: bergamot, orange blossom The fragrance opens with the luxury and exuberance of a vintage champagne. A burst of effervescent bergamot fused with feminine and celebratory orange blossom conveys the heady excitement of the red carpet entrance.
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Watch for Sale:
35 mm Ladies' Baby G GREEN
Please click here to receive a quote
Details about this Watch
Price: Is firm, my margins are very
small, no additional discounts sorry. See the
CASIO overview table for the price
Why I think this
WATCH is interesting:
While these watches are advertised as Ladies' BabyG, I think they make ideal Sports Companions! Ideal for sports like Squash, double Tennis, Racketball. Thanks to the new flatter design, reduce the risk of injuries to yourself and your partner!
Dimensions (mm):
Case diameter (excl.crown): 35
Lug to Lug: 35
Height: 14
Lug width: 17
Bracelet tapered: 17-22
Weight: 30 grams
Max Wrist Size: 8"
Crown type: non-screw down
Crystal Material: Acrylic
Water Resistance 100 m
Specialties (more specs from the Casio Asia Website):
Construction Shock resistant construction,
World time 30 cities (27 time zones), with daylight savings time setting function,
City temperature data Average monthly highs and lows for 30 cities around the world
(this is NOT a temperature sensor, it is average DATA!)
e-DATA memory Up to 40 records (up to 7 characters each) for Internet access codes
Stopwatch 1/100 second (Up to 59'59"99)
Timer Count down by seconds, 24 hours maximum; auto-repeat
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Battery CR-1620, approx. 3-year life span
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All the colors available - all colors are TRANSLUCENT, except for the WHITE model!
Packing for this watch


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This is about family history research in Queensland, Australia. There are articles about sources, problem-solving research techniques, interesting items at Qld State Archives and elsewhere, and specific individuals (some of whom are mentioned in very unexpected sources). Explore the options in the tabs below, in the sidebar and at the bottom of the page, and visit my main Web site.
Sunday, 3 October 2010
Police summons sheets (Sources Sunday)
A wide variety of offences are listed. They include larceny; assault; insulting words; obscene language; excessive use of liquor; boarding a train while in motion; breaches of various Acts and By-laws; child desertion; wife desertion; disobeying a maintenance order; failing to contribute to support of children in an orphanage; and affiliation. ('Affiliation' refers to a court order against a man alleged to be the father of an illegitimate child, requiring him to make payments towards the child's upkeep.)
One entry in A/146 shows that Bob LONG, charged with 'larceny, lollies', was 'convicted but not punished upon condition that his father flogs him'.
To check whether similar sources exist for other towns, search for the phrase summons sheet in ArchivesSearch.
Other 'unusual' sources are described on my Web site, which lists over 53,000 names from records in Archives.
(From time to time I use my 'Sources Sunday' theme to discuss a non-Internet source such as a specific item or series in a record office, a book, or a library, museum etc as a source in the broader sense. Sometimes 'Sources Sunday' is in one of my other blogs, which are listed in the sidebar.)
2 comments:
hi Judy I've nominated you for the Ancestor Approved Award as thanks for all your hard work in Queensland FH research. PauleenReplyDelete
Pauleen, thank you so much! I have been away and without Internet access for almost a week, so this was a lovely surprise when I came home last night. I have been preoccupied with family problems, executor duties, helping friends during the floods, etc. Hopefully I can find a bit of time for writing during the coming weeks.ReplyDelete
If you think we are related, or if you want to comment but cannot do so because of restrictions designed to block spam, please email me at the address shown here or on www.judywebster.com.au.


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The 2011 Chardonnay appears to have more richness and body than the 2010, which is counterintuitive considering the cool year, but in 2011 Bo Barrett and his team had to wait until the end of October for this fruit to fully ripen, which, needless to say, is highly unusual. The characteristic Montelena Chardonnay aromas and flavors come through, but in a slightly richer style than normal. Hints of lemon oil, crushed rocks and flowers meld together beautifully on the resonant finish. Barrett adds that the 2011 was the first wine made in the new cellar, which is set up to handle small-lot fermentations. Whatever the reasons, the 2011 is striking in every way. Anticipated maturity: 2015-2025. Chateau Montelenas 2010 Cabernets are among the highlights in this set of new releases, although the 2011 Chardonnay is pretty terrific as well. Bo Barrett credits his experiences in 1987 and 1988 as a big reason he was able to handle the stresses of the 2010 vintage, in particular the late season heat spikes that gave growers fits. Its great to see this historic property making wines that live up to its reputation. A recent bottle of the 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate was also superb.
(12/ 2012)
(13.8% alcohol; the 40th chardonnay vintage at this historic Calistoga winery): Bright, pale lemon-yellow. Crisp aromas of apple, citrus peel and white peppery, along with a light metallic quality. The palate offers bracing lemon zest and grapefruit pith flavors and strong acidity yet comes across as silky and tactile at the same time. Cool and spicy, but with a surprisingly glyceral quality for the year. The youthfully edgy finish suggests that this wine will need serious patience.
(5/ 2013)
This is the highest rated Chardonnay from Montelena Estates that has ever been released to date! A masterful piece from the so called "bad vintage" that would fool you for Premier or Grand Cru Burgundy. Exquisitely balanced with gorgeous minerality, bright acid, creamy lemon curd and subtle fruit from sitting on its lees but with no stirring and no malolactic fermentation. This hits it out of the ball park for sure, and will be in my fridge until it's gone. (Christie Cartwright, Hollywood Domestic buyer)
Below is a listing of the wine review scores we frequently reference in our notes. While these sources remain an excellent source of information, we always recommend that you trust your own palate. Scores in these publications often represent the personal taste of an individual critic, which may not always coincide with your own. We have a huge team of excellent wine professionals that can match wines you've had in the past with new arrivals that meet your flavor profile.
The item you have chosen is in stock, and has inventory in our warehouse and one
or more stores. Below is the current quantity on hand information for this product within our database. It is never more than five minutes old. Additionally, our shopping cart looks at real time inventory so when you add an item to you cart we will do an immediate check of available inventory and alert you if there are any issues.
2011 Clos Pegase "Mitsuko's Vineyard" Carneros Chardonnay (Previously $20)
2013 Rombauer Carneros Chardonnay
2010 Sbragia "Gamble Ranch" Napa Valley Chardonnay
2013 Kalinda Napa Valley Chardonnay
2012 Spellbound California Chardonnay


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- Home >
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Happy Father's Day!
Goldline End of Season Sale up to 75% off!
2014 Waterspiel Featuring Debbie McCormick's Mobile Pro Shop
Posted on March 4, 2014 by Andrew
2014 Waterspiel Featuring Debbie McCormick's Mobile Pro Shop
Posted in Goldline, Goldline Ambassadors, Goldline Retail
Kirsten Wall Team Jones Olympic Gold Medallist
Posted on March 4, 2014 by Andrew
Kirsten Wall Team Jones Olympic Gold Medallist
Please join us this Saturday, March 8th as Kirsten Wall, Team Canada Curling Gold Medallist stops by our Mississauga Pro Shop from 10 - 11am.
Posted in Goldline, Goldline Ambassadors
Winnipeg is Ready to Roar
Posted on November 30, 2013 by Brian
The Roar of the Rings is about to kick off in Winnipeg, and Goldline will be there. Not only is the field packed with Goldline sponsored teams, you'll have a chance to meet them! We'll have a fully stocked store near the arena, so come check it out!!
Posted in Goldline
New at Goldline: Custom-designed Curling Gifts
Posted on November 27, 2013 by Andrew
New at Goldline: Custom-designed Curling Gifts
Do you need promotional curling gift items for your pro shop, special event, bonspiel or club members? Goldline is introducing its line of unique, yet affordable, fully sublimated gifts that will help make your event a success! The curling shoe bag, brush head cover and microfiber glasses cleaning cloth can all be fully customized with choice of background, club logos, and/or event names. You can even personalize the items with individual curlers' names!
The design is limited only by your imagination. There is, however, a minimum order requirement to do the sublimation: for shoe bags, a [...]
Posted in Goldline, Goldline Retail, Curling Equipment
Curling Calendar – November month end update
Posted on November 27, 2013 by Andrew
Curling Calendar – November month end update
Another two weeks have gone by and we continue to see some great curling action out on the ice.
Every athlete dreams of a shot at Olympic gold. Debbie McCormick, a key Goldline distributor in the U.S., will again have that chance! The team skipped by Erika Brown, on which Debbie plays vice, won the U.S. Olympic curling trials, and will serve as the United States' representative at the Sochi Olympics. Debbie, congratulations from everyone here at Goldline; we wish you and your team the best of luck in February.
Crossing north of the 49th parallel [...]
Posted in Goldline, Curling, Goldline Ambassadors
Congrats to Debbie McCormick and Team Erika Brown
Posted on November 21, 2013 by Brian
Goldline rep Debbie McCormick is off to Sochi, to represent the USA with her team, skipped by Erika Brown.
Last year's American National Champions won the Olympic Trials in Fargo, North Dakota and will be off to Russia in February as part of the US Olympic Team.
Congrats Debbie and team!!
Posted in Goldline
Sportsnet – Canadian Athlete of the Year 2013
Posted on November 13, 2013 by Andrew
Ottawa's own, Rachel Homan, skip of Team Homan is nominated for
'Sportsnet – Canadian Athlete of the Year 2013'
Please vote now! Voting closes on Friday, November 15th, 2013.
Click on the link to vote (poll is at the end of the article): http://www.sportsnet.ca/more/vote-now-canadian-athlete-of-the-year-2013/
Photo courtesy of Agence Photos B&W
This upcoming season, Team Homan is closing in on their goal of representing Canada at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. They have qualified for the 2013 Roar of the Rings Canadian Olympic Curling Trials where they will compete for the privilege of representing Canada at the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games. [...]
Posted in Goldline, Curling, Goldline Ambassadors
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Bordering San Marco and the Rialto and stretching east to some of Venice's quietest greenest parts, Castello is the city's most varied 'sestiere'. Its most famous aspect is the Riva degli Schiavoni waterfront next to the Bridge of Sighs, with picture-postcard views onto the lagoon. Yet a few yards from the tourist hoards, the backstreets are quiet and typically Venetian. There are many outstanding churches and art collections in this area.


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As of Thursday, March 29, 2012
© Copyright 2014 Newton Citizen
I have been a resident of Rockdale County for six years. I am a taxpayer.
I have been volunteering at the Rockdale Community Clothes Closet for about three years. I decided to start volunteering there because I had a desire to help the community, and I needed clothes for my family. Because I am pursuing a college education, I can only work part-time. Funding my education has been difficult. The Clothes Closet helped me clothe myself and my children through these difficult years. It has also given me so much more than clothes. Through working with the community I have learned many things. I have learned to appreciate my life. I have learned to have sympathy for others. I have seen firsthand how much small acts of kindness can help and inspire others. I have watched mothers humbly find clothes for their children. I have witnessed extreme gratefulness when families received Christmas gifts. I have felt my own burdens lift when finding a coat for my children to wear during winter.
I was devastated to learn the county would no longer fund this organization. Many questions have burdened my heart for the last few days. Questions such as: How will I have the funds to clothe my children? Where will the shelters go when they need clothes? How many people will suffer from this loss? How will I feel when I no longer have the company of the compassionate volunteers I have grown so close to? How will underprivileged families get school supplies, Easter baskets, Christmas gifts, and household items?
I am more than happy to pay the taxes to fund this wonderful organization. I can only pray Rockdale reconsiders this decision to shut it down. I can assure you it is needed. The thousands of families that receive aid from the Clothes Closet every year need it.
—Sheila Arrington
More like this story
- LETTER: Clothes Closet fills more needs than clothing ( March 29, 2012 )
- Christmas Hope seeking donations, volunteers ( November 10, 2012 )
- JULIE WELLS: Now is the perfect time of year to unplug and connect with family ( November 10, 2011 )
- Family expresses thanks for Christmas gifts from Newton County deputies ( January 5, 2012 )
- Scot Ward business gives $1M to community ( September 16, 2013 )


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Kate Major, girlfriend of Michael Lohan, talks about the arrest of her boyfriend's daughter, troubled starlet Lindsay Lohan.
" The phone rang at 4 am this week. The person told Michael Lindsay was in jail. He jumped out of bed.
Lohan, 26, was arrested for allegedly punching another woman in the face following a dispute at Chelsea nightclub Avenue.
Good Day NY asked Major, who is eight months pregnant, why her notoriously publicity seeking boyfriend won't stay out of the spotlight:
"All I know is that Michael has tried to privately help her. He's set up interventions to do it privately It's now to the point that he's so afraid that he's going to get a call that she's not alive," answered Major.
Lohan has had several runs in with the law.
"I want the best for Lindsay. I feel terrible for her. I agree everyone should go about quietly."


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Various Activities of Kinga Vereczkey-PorterJanuary 10th, 2014
Dr. Kinga Vereczkey-Porter has graduated in medicine from the University of Albert Szent-Gorgyi Medical in Hungary. She is one of the famous Neuro Surgeons of the country and has finished her fellowship in 1998 from Millard Fillmore Hospital.
At present, she is working as the Sanford Specialty Clinics Director, at North Carolina. She is taking care of many specialized areas in medicine and is practicing for almost last four years. She along with the team, who are the main part of Community Practice network of North Carolina University has been doing fairly good job. Their group is a constituent of North Carolina Universities Health care System.
Dr. Kinga Vereczkey-Porter is also a very active member of the network known as Triangle Physician Network. This network collects various medical professionals from different places to discuss about diverse medical challenges that are new.
The Sanford specialty clinics is responsible for providing treatment to patients, who are suffering from pulmonary disease, which is at chronic stage due to excessive smoking. At the same time she has also got good exposure to rheumatology, with the help of which she treats joint problems, vasculitis, autoimmune diseases & disorders of heritable connective tissue.
Nowadays, many people suffer from cardiac problem, which is mainly due to unhealthy living style and eating habits. Kinga Vereczkey-Porter & his team of doctors at the Sanford specialty clinics have helped many cardiac patients in treating them from their sufferings with the help of their thorough treatment & right medication.
The Clinics is responsible for providing treatment to the patients, who are suffering from various kidney related ailments with the Nephrology treatment, which also includes hypertension and electrolyte disturbances, dialysis, kidney transplantation and many more. Also, many special treatments are provided under the direction of Dr. Vereczkey-Porter for those patients, who are suffering from systematic disorder.
She has also educated many of her patients how to control their diabetes with effective medicine, exercises and strict diet regime. She has also helped many patients to give up smoking with the help of her smoking cessation program. She took lots of effort to train people about the benefit of quitting smoking and how they can help people to lead healthy life by giving up their smoking habits.
In addition to that, she has also conducted several programs related to many other diseases that have motivated public to get examined from her clinic to improve their health. With the help of such check-up many people have changed their eating and working habits, which have helped them to cure a lot of diseases. Besides that, Dr. Kinga has also opened emergency services at the clinic for the benefit of her patients.


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|© UNICEF Senegal/2004/ Delvigne-Jean
|Delegates at the Pan-African Forum in Senegal, Dakar
El contenido de esta página estará disponible en español en los próximos días
By Thierry Delvigne-Jean
DAKAR, Senegal, 18 October 2004 – More than two hundred community and religious leaders from across Africa discussed the perils threatening the survival of Africa's children, at the Pan-African Forum which opened here today.
Christian, Muslim and traditional leaders are attending this three-day event to explore ways in which they can use their influence to help avert child deaths in Africa by promoting immunization. African media representatives are also present.
In his opening statement, President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal said: "No one can doubt that the survival of children in Africa is in peril. This is partly due to high levels of poverty, a lack of essential services, inadequate social and health infrastructures, and insufficient resources."
UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy told delegates that they play a crucial role in promoting and disseminating the truth about life-saving health care for children.
"We have paid insufficient attention to the community of religious and traditional leaders whose influence – at family and community levels – can ensure that children not only survive, but thrive."
Bellamy made it clear that no single organization can take on this challenge alone.
"We believe that without the engagement of people of direct and immediate community influence – leaders such as yourselves – even the best health programmes will not reach all the children who need them," she said.


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Just found out about the selectmen's meeting debacle in Dracut Tuesday evening. Disgusting.
Please, please make sure you cover this on the front page!
The town needs to know what the selectmen are doing for what they claim is their constituency. They aren't speaking for me.
Town Meeting majority spoke for me and we said $2.9 million override loud and clear. More than once.


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With rumors swirling that new Texans head coach Bill O'Brien has dismissed the entire Texans coaching staff, the Texans' defensive coordinator and Houston icon appears to have confirmed that he's...
Wade Phillips no longer has a kidney or gallbladder. Now we know why.
"According to the team, Phillips, who has turned the Houston defense from the NFL's worst in 2010 to one of the league's best this season, will be in the press box for Sunday's game at Reliant Stadium."
Chris does a nice job taking a gander at franchises who could feasibly have head coach openings this offseason as said openings relate to Wade Phillips.
As the Texans and their fans celebrate the first division title and playoff berth in franchise history, a quick note of thanks to the organization from BRB.
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This unsuspected navigational mechanism, described 24 January in Current Biology, is likely not limited to the Scarabaeus satyrus examined by the researchers »
The astronomer Sir Patrick Moore died at his home in Selsey, Sussex on Sunday 9 December »
A planet without any gravitational ties to a star has been discovered roaming through space »
Darpa is planning to provide amateur astronomers with the equipment and technology to help hunt down and locate the estimated 500,000 pieces of space debris orbiting the Earth and threatening astronauts and satellites every day »
The BBC's aversion to swearing live on air may have prevented the discovery of intelligent alien life, according to Brian Cox. Sort of »
Most of the stars that will ever exist have already been born, according to the most comprehensive survey of the age of the night sky »
A planet that orbits a pair of stars and has a second pair of stars revolving around has been discovered by volunteers using the Planethunters.org website »
Passing less than five Earth-moon distances apart every 97 days, the planets are far closer together and more different in density than any two planets in our solar system »
At about 5:30am BST on 6 June, early-morning skywatchers witnessed the planet Venus dancing past the Sun. It's the last time this rare transit will occur for over one hundred years »
After a solar eclipse which was seen from the Far East to the United States, astronomers are looking forward to the next passage of a planetary body across the Sun -- the transit of Venus »
Hubble takes the most detailed photo yet of a fading star with two beams of light bursting from its poles »
Celebrity culture has permeated even the loftiest heights of academia: when biologists or astronomers discover something new, the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature and the Minor Planet Center lets them name it as they please »
When the Thomassen family returned to their Oslo allotment after the winter, they were surprised to find a splintered hole in the roof of a shed. They were even more surprised to learn that the culprit was a meteorite »
Nasa says that "no one should be overly concerned about an Earth impact of an asteroid or comet". Jay Tate, founder of the Spaceguard Centre in Wales, which detects much smaller near-Earth objects, disagrees »
GJ 1214b, a planet some 40 light-years from Earth, is a water world. It's almost entirely made of liquid, is boiled to an estimated temperature of 230C and is enshrouded by a steamy atmosphere »
Design studio Lab212 has created an installation where the viewer sits in a swing and rocks their way through an interactive sky filled with stars, inspired by a Windows 3.1 screensaver »
Amazing space photos don't just happen. A lot of work goes into making them. This new video offers a behind-the-scenes look at how one facility, the W. M. Keck Observatory, produces its superb images »
This week, there will be a faint new object in the night sky: the asteroid 433 Eros. Anyone planning to train their binoculars or telescope on the asteroid can help scientists use the asteroid to precisely calculate the size of the Solar System »
Nasa astronomers have found a primordial galaxy cluster, still in the earliest phases of cosmic construction »
Using data from Nasa's Kepler space telescope, Astronomers have discovered two cosmic super-survivors. A pair of deep-fried planets that were engulfed in the violent death throes of their parental star, and lived to tell the tale »
So, you've decided you need an iPad. Here's the rock-bottom cheapest way that it's possible to get it »
The new working environment is at once rec room and high street, coffee bar and potting shed »
Wired.co.uk reviews the Vodafone Smart 4 Turbo »


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County: Cabell
High School: Cabell Midland High SchoolGPA: 4.2
Activities and achievements: Tiffani has volunteered extensively with the Girl Scouts, helping raise money to buy a bulletproof vest for Milton Police Department's canine unit and to provide medical care for homeless people in her community. She also has helped to collect books and toys for the River Park Hospital pediatric unit, cell phones for domestic violence victims, backpacks for underprivileged students and items for the animal shelter. She has been a church camp counselor and a cheerleader. She also is a member of the National Honor Society.
Plans: Tiffani's volunteer work at Cabell Huntington Hospital helped spark an interest in medicine. She hopes to study athletic training at Marshall University and then complete graduate work in physical therapy at both Marshall and Duke universities.


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The "I" Word: How can buyers best ensure they get the innovation they require from their outsourcing providers?July 17, 2014 | Outsource Magazine
Outsource community members share their thoughts on how to find innovation within an outsourcing agreement…
John Gregory Global Business Services – Global Finance Lead, Kelloggs Buyers will sensibly build a savings target into their BPO contract to ensure focus on … Read More
Navigating the Changing BPO Value PropositionJuly 16, 2014 | Outsource Magazine
One of the most compelling value propositions of business process outsourcing has always been labour arbitrage. Whether enabled through "your mess for less" or more of a "fix then shift" approach, a key lever has been the same: deploy less … Read More
Q&A: Liv Sandbaek, AccentureJuly 15, 2014 | Outsource Magazine
Liv Sandbaek is the Chief Technology Officer for Accenture Operations. Having been deeply involved with a provocative (and hopefully catalytic) piece of research in collaboration with HfS, we thought Liv would be the ideal person to give us a glimpse … Read More
Malaysia: emergence of a new outsourcing destinationJune 12, 2014 | ValueNotes
Recently when I was in Kuala Lumpur for one of my projects, I had a tryst with the developmental saga of Malaysia. Whether it was the infrastructure or the economic sentiment within industries, the country left an impact on my … Read More
The next-generation shared service centreMay 1, 2014 | Ravichandran Venkataraman
Going up the value chain and providing value to business have been talked of since BPOs/shared service organisations started years ago. However, even now, many companies treat offshoring or BPO play as one that saves costs. Whilst that is true … Read More
What are the primary obstacles to the widespread adoption of robotic process automation?April 23, 2014 | Outsource Magazine
BPOs are at a critical turning point where they need to deliver cost-effective, differentiated solutions. Clients continue to demand innovation, but are hard-pressed to define what that "innovation" might be. Robotic process automation represents a dramatically new, exciting way for … Read More
What will be the main ramifications for today's outsourcing space of the ongoing robotic automation revolution?April 23, 2014 | Outsource Magazine
I've already re-shored around 300K work items a month from our existing outsource work stack and automated processes using RPA, and at a fraction of the cost of manual resource. Although we'll always have a need for a manual back … Read More
How widespread do you see the adoption of robotic process automation being within your own organisation over the next 12 months?April 23, 2014 | Outsource Magazine
As an ITO we are always looking for ways to expedite while securing quality. For this reason software reuse, software factory and agile methods are in play and being advanced on an ongoing basis, driven by our strategic agenda (not … Read More
What will be the impact upon your organisation specifically of the increased adoption of robotic process automation?April 23, 2014 | Outsource Magazine
We hear from suppliers that the BPO industry has been reluctant to embrace RPA as it is often seen as a threat rather than the opportunity it is. If however you are a service provider with a large workforce in … Read More
The Three Laws of Robotics: what is Robotic Process Automation, and what forms will it take?April 23, 2014 | Paul Morrison
Ask five experts what robotic process automation is, and you will get six different answers. This is no slur on anyone's intelligence or integrity; rather it is a reflection of the dazzling explosion of this idea onto the business scene … Read More


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Christmas Day has finally arrived.
I hope everyone got what they wished for or needed.
The tradition around our house is that we get together as a family on Christmas Eve and open gifts. Then, on Christmas Day, the little ones open the gifts from Santa.
There are many traditions at Christmas. One of them has to do with mistletoe. The other day, I was watching a Christmas movie and someone was walking around at a gathering holding mistletoe over people's heads and getting them to kiss.
Twitter @ColumbiaCounty
An Evans church has been paying down the layaway accounts of strangers this Christmas in a program they call "Layaway in a Manger."
Nearly 50 members of Wesley United Methodist Church went to Kmart in West Town Shopping Center in recent days, paying $20 to $200 on layaway accounts of Christmas toys, said Michael Sosby, the manager of the Martinez store. Another 25 or more have paid accounts at Ruben's Department Store in downtown Augusta.
Construction is expected to start next year now that the Family Y and Columbia County Commissioners have reached an agreement on a lease for a new facility being redesigned in Grovetown's Gateway.
The plan recently went up for revision after initial construction bids for the county's nearly 49,000-square-foot multi-purpose facility came back about $1 million higher than the $6 million in sales tax funding budgeted for the project.
The following accounts were taken from reports from the Columbia County Sheriff's Office. Additional reports are available at www.columbiacountyso.org:
Man arrested for robbing cousin
A man was charged with armed robbery Wednesday after trying to hold up his cousin at gun point.
A 30-year-old said his cousin, Elton Jamar Harrison, 21, of the 200 block of Watkins Street, came up to him at about 11 p.m. Tuesday as he was walking to his vehicle at the 3100 block of McCladdie Drive in Appling.
Twitter @JennaNMartin
As Christmas trees are removed from living rooms across Columbia County, they can take on a new role once the holidays are over.
Area residents will have several opportunities to recycle their Christmas trees within the county.
Natural Christmas trees can be dropped off at Riverside Middle School on Furys Ferry Road through Friday, Jan. 6 as part of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers program. All decorations, including tinsel, lights and garland, should be removed before trees are dropped off.
Twitter @ValerieRowell
Santa made a pre-Christmas stop at the Evans Walmart on Wednesday.
Mr. Claus visited with 46 children before they headed out to shop with Columbia County sheriff's deputies as part of the ninth annual Day With a Deputy.
Aidan Tidwell, 6, enjoyed the shopping spree funded by donations from area businesses and individuals. He loaded his cart with the Hungry, Hungry Hippo game, a Nerf gun and lots of Spiderman and superhero gear.
The Columbia County Planning Commission wrapped up its final meeting of 2011 on Thursday by approving four plats and a plan revision for an Evans retirement community.
The minor change applies to a proposed facility at Brandon Wilde for patients with Alzheimer's Disease. The 25-bed center would be constructed as a separate building instead of an extension of the main Brandon Wilde facility off Owens Road, as initially designed.
The first phase of Milton Ruben Superstore's renovation project is nearing completion.
The Martinez car dealership on Washington Road embarked on a $5 million project in February to renovate the existing structures on the property and create a modernized look to the dealership.
The Toyota facility was the first building to be overhauled and work might conclude early next year, said Milton Ruben media specialist Kristin Bentley.
Harlem leaders said farewell to one of their own Monday.
Mayor Bobby Culpepper presented a plaque to Councilwoman Robin Root, who opted not to run for another term. Monday's meeting was her last.
"When I started this a long time ago, I just wanted to be involved and that I was," Root said. "And I've loved every minute of it. This is bittersweet. I look forward to not being on the council, but I also am going to miss it terribly."
Follow News-Times:
Columbia County News-Times ©2014. All Rights Reserved.


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Renee Ellmers on Technology
Proponent's Argument for voting Yes:
Opponent's Argument for voting No:
[Rep. Waxman, D-CA]: This bill will cripple National Public Radio, public radio stations, and programming that is vital to over 27 million Americans. We are now voting to deny the public access to one of our Nation's most credible sources of news coverage. This bill does not save a penny. This legislation does not serve any fiscal purpose, but it does serve an ugly ideological one. This legislation is not about reforming NPR. It is about punishing NPR. It is vindictive, it is mean-spirited, it is going to hit the smallest stations in rural areas particularly hard. Public radio is indispensable for access to news that's hard to get, especially where broadband service is limited.
Congressional Summary:Prohibits the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from proposing, promulgating, or issuing any regulations with regard to the Internet or IP-enabled services. Makes such prohibition non-applicable to regulations that are determined necessary to:
Congressional Findings:
OnTheIssues Explanation: This bill opposes "net neutrality," the principle that all users should have equal access to the Internet. By disallowing FCC regulation, commercial carriers could create "tiered service" (which is the opposite of "net neutrality"). Tiered Internet service would allow, for example, faster access for companies who paid more (such as for ads).
|2012 Governor, House and Senate candidates on Technology:
|Renee Ellmers on other issues:
NC Gubernatorial:
Bev Perdue
Pat McCrory
NC Senatorial:
Kay Hagan
Richard Burr
Thom Tillis
Lame-duck session 2012:
KY-4: Thomas Massie(R)
MI-11:Dave Curson(D)
NJ-9: Donald Payne Jr.(D)
WA-1: Suzan DelBene(D)
Re-seated Former Reps:
AZ-1: Ann Kirkpatrick(D)
AZ-5: Matt Salmon(R)
FL-8: Alan Grayson(D)
IL-11:Bill Foster(D)
NH-1: Carol Shea-Porter(D)
NV-3: Dina Titus(D)
NY-24:Dan Maffei(D)
TX-36:Steve Stockman(R)
2013 Resignations and Replacements:
AL-1:Jo Bonner(R,resigned)
IL-2:Jesse Louis Jackson(D,resigned)
IL-2:Robin Kelly(D)
MA-5:Ed Markey(D,to Senate)
MO-8:Jo Ann Emerson(R,resigned)
MO-8:Jason Smith(R,elected June 2013)
SC-1:Tim Scott(R,resigned)
SC-1:Mark Sanford(R)
Newly-elected Democrats:
AZ-9: Kyrsten Sinema
CA-2: Jared Huffman
CA-7: Ami Bera
CA-15:Eric Swalwell
CA-24:Julia Brownley
CA-29:Tony Cardenas
CA-35:Gloria Negrete McLeod
CA-36:Raul Ruiz
CA-41:Mark Takano
CA-47:Alan Lowenthal
CA-51:Juan Vargas
CA-52:Scott Peters
CT-5: Elizabeth Esty
FL-18:Patrick Murphy
FL-22:Lois Frankel
FL-26:Joe Garcia
HI-2: Tulsi Gabbard
IL-8: Tammy Duckworth
IL-10:Brad Schneider
IL-12:Bill Enyart
IL-17:Cheri Bustos
MD-6: John Delaney
MA-4: Joe Kennedy III
MI-5: Dan Kildee
MN-8: Rick Nolan
NV-4: Steven Horsford
NH-2: Annie Kuster
NM-1: Michelle Lujan-Grisham
NY-5: Grace Meng
NY-10:Hakeem Jeffries
NY-18:Sean Maloney
OH-10:Joyce Beatty
PA-17:Matt Cartwright
TX-16:Beto O`Rourke
TX-20:Joaquin Castro
TX-23:Pete Gallego
TX-33:Marc Veasey
TX-34:Filemon Vela
WA-6: Derek Kilmer
WA-10:Denny Heck
WI-2: Mark Pocan
Newly-elected Republicans:
AR-4: Tom Cotton
CA-1: Doug LaMalfa
CA-21:David Valadao
CA-41:Paul Cook
FL-3: Ted Yoho
FL-6: Ron DeSantis
FL-19:Trey Radel
GA-9: Doug Collins
IL-15:Rodney Davis
IN-2: Jackie Walorski
IN-5: Susan Brooks
IN-6: Luke Messer
KY-6: Andy Barr
MI-11:Kerry Bentivolio
MO-2: Ann Wagner
MT-0: Steve Daines
NY-26:Chris Collins
NC-8: Richard Hudson
NC-9: Robert Pittenger
NC-11:Mark Meadows
NC-13:George Holding
ND-0: Kevin Cramer
OH-2: Brad Wenstrup
OH-14:Dave Joyce
OK-1: Jim Bridenstine
OK-2: Markwayne Mullin
PA-4: Scott Perry
PA-12:Keith Rothfus
SC-7: Tom Rice
TX-14:Randy Weber
TX-25:Roger Williams
UT-2: Chris Stewart
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Only the strong will survive...
The human race died out, a virus killed most of the wolves prey as only 3 pack stood strong. Prey is low tension is high and a huge battle is brewing, who will live?
pack's, fates, human, race, died, virus, killed, most, wolves, prey, only, pack, stood, strong, tension, high, huge, battle, brewing, will, live?
Deadwood, Colorado is a town ablaze with conflict and riches. Only the strong can survive.
deadwood, colorado, town, ablaze, with, conflict, riches, only, strong, survive
Come join the one of the best Call of Duty communities/clans there is! We are active and still going strong after a whole year!
Cincinnati Arsenal Gaming. A local Community Forum for all types of Gaming with a strong focus on tabletop wargaming
warhammer, cincinnati, gaming, games, workshop, privateer, press, warmachine, hordes, magic:, gathering, board, tournaments, battle, reports, army, lists, local, game, stores, hobby
Welcome tot he Official Homepage of Divine Darkness we are a clan that is competitive and strong! if you're looking to find a clan like that look no further.
A canine roleplay set in the abandoned city of detroit
A team of strong and talented duelists who work hard to become the best.
planet, gods, team, strong, talented, duelists, work, hard, become, best
JustWe is aim to Connecting the world of business, friends, relationships and forum for people to interact and grow a strong brand. Please the administrator is not responsible for any lost and fraud.
This website will hopefully be for American Farming Simulator Mods and help with modding and to become a strong modding team to have this site be clean and helpful!!
farming, simulator, this, website, will, hopefully, american, mods, help, with, modding, become, strong, team, have, site, clean, helpful!!


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The FCC, after determining it to be safe, is trying to decide whether to allow passengers to make cell phone calls in mid-flight. I say it should be left to the airlines, and the ones that want my travel money won't allow it. Lots of you sounding off on this.
Cheri says: "Better my seatmate yack to his own friends than to me!!"
Brandy writes: "NO! Loud airplane equals grumpy people. That will be a complete disaster."
Dan suggests: "Allow it in business class and let them pay the higher price if they need to talk on their phone during the flight."
But most of you, like Tiara, said absolutely no cell phone calls: "If the fasten seat belt sign dinged the flight attendants would need bull horns to get everyone's attention. I vote no."
Carla writes: "Jerks are jerks and they fly. We don't need them having the power to talk endlessly thru the flights."
Buffy said: "I am already offended by the weird smells coming from that many people and the guy next to me that his big arms are invading my space."
Buffy, might I suggest the train.
From Kelcy: "Allow something that will make it MORE annoying to travel in close quarters with strangers. Fantastic idea."
Lisa says: "Texting cool, talking not."
Finally from Jill: "Yes, as long as the person talking on the phone wears a plastic bag over there head during the entire conversation."
I'm Kelly Ogle and that's YOUR 2 Cents.
Find news on Oklahoma's economy, local business, the banking industry and more.
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Looking for a website you heard mentioned on News 9? Find it here!
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Thanks so much for giving me Your 2 Cents. I read every e-mail I get and appreciate your comments. Be looking for Your 2 Cents Monday through Friday on NEWS 9 at 10. Thanks so much, Kelly Ogle, NEWS 9 Anchor


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Hi guys, I quite new to the forum and have never posted before. Please take it easy on me!
I'm in my 4td year of Interior Architecture in Edinburgh and am trying to settle on a topic for my dissertation (which is stressing me out big time!). I'm thinking about looking into the idea of how atmosphere is created in architectural space and how one can be completely overwhelmed in one space and not in another. I'm thinking I might set up an interview of some sorts in various buildings to find out what is it that draws an emotional response from the viewer and allows them to connect with the building and in some cases what is it that causes them to dislike an interior intensely. What is it that makes a 'good building' as opposed to an 'interesting building'?
I've never tackled something like this before and would love to get some feedback from you guys on whether this is something worth pursuing for a dissertation?
Cheers y


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Somerville, MA, United States | Member Since 2005
"An important but misused book"
Don't let the Glenn Beck endorsement fool you; this might not be the book you were expecting. The Road to Serfdom is not a utopian view of capitalism as a solution to every problem, nor is it an anti-government manifesto. Rather, the book articulates a set of cautionary arguments against the temptations of collectivism, which might promise a more just or efficient world, but delegates to a central authority the power to decide exactly what "just" and "efficient" mean. In Hayek's view, the devil is in the details, and rarely does any distant authority have the information to set an array of prices, wages, production quotas, job assignments, and incentives in a way that's fair and functional. The more control the central authority assumes over the economy, the less responsive and transparent its micromanagement becomes, leaving many citizens frustrated and lacking motivation (as anyone who's ever dealt with any kind of massive bureaucracy can imagine). As political unrest grows, the authority will find itself in a position where it either has to relinquish control, or clamp down on freedoms (think of the line from the classic Who song: "...and the party on the left is now the party on the right").
Generally, I found Hayek's arguments carefully thought-out and sensible, responding to the views of his opponents without dismissing their concerns, intelligence, or good intentions (a feature of the book that seems to have been lost on people like Glenn Beck). As a moderate liberal, I would agree that fairly structured free markets work well enough for many things, allowing most people to meet their own needs and to pursue at least some of their wants. What works just fine shouldn't be discarded in a quest to fix what doesn't.
But, of course, the magic word is "most". Hayek does acknowledge that free markets aren't a panacea, and recognizes the need for social safety nets, public education, a minimum wage, anti-exploitation laws, consumer protection laws, environmental laws, and other features of modern liberal democracies. His concern isn't so much that the government might set regulations or provide public services, but that it do so without destroying the benefits of a competitive system or giving some interest group special advantages over others. He also argues against state-sponsored business monopolies, an indictment that would presumably include much of today's shameless lobbying and corporate welfare. That said, I thought he glossed over the possibilities of democratic socialism, wherein citizens form local cooperative arrangements that work with local government.
All in all, I think the Road to Serfdom remains, after so many decades, a book that continues to be relevant to discussions about economics in that it outlines a sober and sensible set of warnings against the dangers of utopian thinking. However, it also doesn't purport that capitalism is an innately fair or just system (an issue that a lot of modern day Tea Partiers and Randians seem in denial of), but one whose application must evolve with a society's needs. Trouble is, the devil is in the details either way you go, and Hayek leaves the USA of the early 21st century with a lot of questions that still need good answers. For example, what do we do with the many formerly middle class Americans whose jobs have been lost to globalism and advances in technology? Many of these citizens just aren't cut out for joining the intellectual class (doctor, engineer, professor, etc.), but forcing them to compete for wages with foreign workers or machines isn't a very palatable choice. At what point does Joe Average become a piece of expensive, obsolete equipment in the eyes of capitalism? While Hayek's book is still worth reading for its arguments, I fear we may be on our way out of the reality to which his analysis easily applied.
"Puts a lot in perspective"
I can't remember the history of the Islamic world rating more than a few pages in my high school AP World History textbook. And those pages were about the things that related directly to the story of Europe and the Americas, kthxbye. Oh, and oil.
This book is an excellent corrective for the distorted, limited picture most Americans have of the Islamic sphere, revealing it as a complex and fascinating parallel universe that had developed largely apart from Europe. This culture rose to great heights while most Europeans still lived in ignorant medieval squalor, became fragmented by Mongol invasion and the politics of empire in successive centuries, and was finally encroached upon by the modern West in the 19th and 20th centuries, an encounter that it's still in turmoil from.
Tamim Ansary, an author and lecturer, turns a millenium plus into an informal, engaging narrative, as a good professor would. There's even some humor ("pointing his cannons at Parliament and blowing it up was just the shah's way of showing that he some objections to the new agreement"). Good historical narrative doesn't judge the past from a modern perspective, but illuminates it as a complex set of relationships that evolved over time. There are many terms here that I'd heard before and had a vague sense of the meaning of -- Sunni, Shia, Sufi, Assassin, caliphate, 12th Imam, vizier, harem, Mamluk, janissary, Safavid, Ottoman, Great Game, Raj -- but Ansary puts them all into their place.
Thus, it became easier for me to understand how Islam is often (without irony) called a "religion of peace", while also having a warrior aspect. During and following the prophet Muhammad's life, the faithful saw themselves as creating a new vision for society, founded on peace, justice, self-discipline, religious tolerance, and egalitarian brotherhood (even sisterhood) for the once fractious people of the Arabian peninsula and the Levant. Muslims saw God's favor as being demonstrated by their success at liberating the oppressed inhabitants of neighboring lands and God's disfavor as being shown through military loss -- which was to have far-reaching implications.
Ansary also helped me see how Islam's source ideas played out in attempts to codify them into a framework for daily life. Elaborate bodies of law developed and scholars saw a unity of reason and divine revelation, bringing about advances in science and mathematics, and re-introducing classical Greek logic to the world. Of course, these noble goals did not prevent the usual conflicts between higher thinking and human nature from taking root -- politics, greed, war, dynastic feuding, cultural chauvinism, overly conservative thinking -- and so Islam fragmented into different visions. Mystics, enlightened progressives, and traditionalists all found footholds in different parts the greater empires. Interesting stuff.
The latter chapters, which deal with the Muslim world's encounter with the West, are the most revealing. I'd never fully considered how the Protestant Reformation opened the door for a culture of individualism and mercantilism, but it did, and soon European traders and bankers were making inroads into stratified empires in Asia Minor, Persia, and India, making deals that that decadent rulers couldn't refuse and securing more and more privilege for themselves. Never underestimate the corrosive power of loans! While Muslim intellectuals and secularists came to see the future as lying in the kind of democratic, constitutional governments that the west had (as Turkey is today), a combination of cynical Western imperialism and rising fundamentalism among large, impoverished lower classes that saw their elites as selling out on God's instructions (with no pope-like figure to intermediate), poisoned this dream in many places. Obviously, terrorism can't be justified under any system that claims respect for the innocent, but the resentment and sense of a stolen destiny that boiled over into extremism (enabled by oil money) makes more sense to me now.
For people who enjoy history and know that there are different ways of telling it, depending on who's in the "center" of a narrative and who comes crashing in from outside during Act Three, I can't recommend this one highly enough.
"Smart, witty altered-consciousness thriller"
Afterparty was a pleasant discovery for me, comparable to recent Neal Stephenson or William Gibson, but less geeked-out than the former and a little snarkier than the latter.
The initial setting is a near-future Toronto. A former neuroscientist named Lyda is in a mental hospital, in the wake of a series of breakdowns. It's about a decade after her biotech startup discovered, while trying to cure schizophrenia, a drug that enables users to experience God. Well, in a manner of speaking. More specifically, Lyda and her colleagues overdosed on the drug and each now experiences a very convincing hallucination of a heavenly spirit companion. In Lyda's case, it's a moralizing winged angel named Doctor Gloria. In more controlled doses, the drug, nicknamed Numinous, makes people feel that they're in the presence of the divine.
It's not the only mind-altering custom drug in this future. There's now a whole subculture of print-it-at-home drug manufacture, to say nothing of what more serious organizations do with the tech. Some products have amusingly harmless effects, but some alter consciousness in disturbing ways, such as one that removes one character's natural empathy and turns him into a temporary sociopath.
When a peculiarly troubled teenage patient shows up in the clinic, it dawns on Lyda that Numinous, which her and her colleagues swore to keep secret, is now on the street, being distributed by a strange new "church". So, Lyda must check herself out of the hospital, evade monitoring systems, get across the border, and track down her former colleagues in the US. Her only allies are a sweetly unaware young man who thinks his consciousness resides in the aquarium toy hanging from his neck, and a crafty American ex-intelligence officer whose own mind has been scrambled by too much "focus" drug over her career. And a cat. And, of course, the amusingly huffy Doctor G, who remains invisible to everyone but Lyda.
This is definitely a smart book, asking meaningful philosophical questions about the nature of being and the implications of messing with our brains/minds. Or of messing with other people's. It's also a witty one, with cleverly written scenes, oddball characters, and a lot of snarky quips from Lyda. For example, when a drug dealer sells a seemingly effective gay-for-a-day "product" to some straight dudebros at a college frat party, she retorts, "product? Don't you mean placebo?" (Well, it made me laugh.)
The story, once it gets going, is interesting. There's also a backstory that emerges, concerning the tragic events that took place at Little Sprout (the startup) ten years ago, what became of Lyda's wife and fellow scientist, who took too much Numinous, how Lyda ended up in the mental hospital, and what happened to her daughter, who she had to give up for adoption. While Gregory doesn't posit a drastically altered future, I also enjoyed the creative, incidental little ideas that he drops in here and there, such as a plausible successor to smart phones. Like the plot of a good thriller, all the pieces come together in the end, but with some room for taking the characters and setup further, should he choose to.
If there are a few believability issues and the ending is a little predictable, it's a thriller with a brain and an eye on an approaching bend in the road ahead. And the core questions -- if there is a better us inside ourselves, should we try to access it by tampering with ourselves? Or should we not? Is "divine experience" more about the divine, or the experience? -- are ones that Gregory keeps hovering in our peripheral vision throughout the book, but admirably never tries to answer for us.
"Beautiful, melancholic literary fantasy"
Last Dragon falls into a space somewhere between straightforward genre fantasy and literary fiction, which is probably why not too many readers have noticed it. The bones of the plot have a lot in common with the former: there's a teenage girl, destined to become an Empress (which we know because she's writing an epistolary from her older years), who leaves her nomadic people to seek blood justice against her grandfather, who has murdered her family and most of the rest of her village, then fled. Along with her slightly-older uncle, who is now technically the village shaman, she travels over the mountains and enters the more civilized, darker-skinned country to the south.
As we might expect, the young Zhan will find companions on the road who have their own histories and purposes, learn about the wider world, discover that the truth is more complex than the one she began with, and get sucked into a war that comes back to her people. Not everyone's stories, when fully revealed, will be quite as they seem. Several of the main characters have an ambiguous quality to them.
Unlike a lot of fantasy, which tends to proceed in a linear way, Zhan's tale is expressed in semi-ordered, dreamlike fragments, concentrating less on genre tropes, and more on how humans reveal themselves in their interactions. There are betrayals and surprises that will emerge, some of which seem to be a product of the older Zhan's unreliable memory. There's a definite Gene Wolfe flavor -- if The Book of the New Sun spoke to you, this probably will, too (and if you hated The Shadow of the Torturer, you're not the audience for this book). The format can be a little confusing, but there were enough contextual hints for me to mostly keep track of the plot.
But, man, McDermott can write. I loved the sparse, delicate beauty of the prose, and the haunting imagery that fills the book. Camp fires made from an intoxicating weed that grows in the mountains. A language that considers a bird to be any creature that sings. Ancient dragons that onced imparted their preternatural wisdom to a nation, an order of paladin who sacrificed their own lives to maintain the great creatures, and black-skinned soldiers from the south, who brought an end to this order (and many others) with their musketry. Ants that crawl in the masonry of a great city, and come to play their own disquieting role. An old warrior, from a place where different tribes modify their bodies to pay homage to different animals, telling a blend of personal and tall tales from childhood, which include a moment where a storm drops fish from the sky on a column of captives. There's an ambiguity and bleakness to the main story, which ends unhappily for most in it, but it's told in such a lovely way, including Cori Samuels's English-accented audio narration.
Not everyone will like this book. If you prefer novels to have a clear plot resolution, with all the characters' motives fully revealed, you should probably look elsewhere. However, if you accept that books can be puzzles, with meanings that are hinted at through allegorical imagery and invocation of themes, Last Dragon is worthy of your time. While the novel sometimes loses itself in its own dreamlike gauziness and structural experimentation, and perhaps a few of the author's ideas and characters could have been developed a little more, it's an impressive first novel.
"Hot times in the nineteen-o's"
This is one of those books I had to read for class in high school, but which was somewhat wasted on me at the time. I didn't know enough about history and adult psychology to really appreciate Doctorow's portrait of the roiling, chaotic, ever unsatisfied nature of turn-of-the-20th century America, with its class struggles, expanding immigrant population, media celebrities and their sordid scandals, racism, squalor, and energetic search for something better.
This is a novel where the author's technique shines as much as his story or characters. Assuming an omniscient, godlike point of view that seems to pay homage to John Dos Passo's America Trilogy, Doctorow swoops above the day, taking in the events of the newspaper headlines, then zooming down into dining rooms, meeting halls, and bedrooms, for a closer look into his characters lives, then diving into their thoughts and emotions, before flying away again. This approach creates a sense of urgency and burgeoning unrest, not surprising in a novel written soon after the late 1960s.
The story blends history with the lives of a fictional middle-class white family in a New York City suburb, who are named only as Father, Mother, Younger Brother, and The Boy. The bourgeois Father owns a business that sells patriotic supplies, and joins Robert Peary on his expedition to the North Pole, which seems to mark an apex of Father's life. Younger Brother is a troubled young man who obsesses over an equally troubled young starlet, the real Evelyn Nesbit, and loses himself in designing fireworks, then in radicalism. When Mother takes in a young, unwed black women and her infant, the family becomes involved with a successful, cultured black pianist named Coalhouse Walker, who refuses to back down from his demands for redress after his car is vandalized by a racist fire chief. Things escalate, and the Family finds itself connected to a righteous terrorist, who acts out a fantasy that many blacks at the time probably had.
This central plot, though absorbing, is only an eye of the storm for the rest of the book. Doctorow spends as much time with other figures, fictional or historical, whose energies intersect and rise into the same sublime madness. An immigrant Jew living in the slums of New Yorks, who struggles after a better life for his daughter and is pulled towards a new industry. Anarchist labor organizer Emma Goldman, who gives a scathing critique of capitalist society and its moral hypocrisies. Plutocrat J.P. Morgan, who searches for higher purpose, now that he's achieved the pinnacle of success and found it wanting, and fellow capitalist Henry Ford, who gives a folksy comeuppance. Escapist artist Harry Houdini, who pushes back against his own inner emptiness with ever more dangerous and unreal stunts.
This is a brilliant book, swirling with color and energy, but also wit and insight into the psyche of America at a significant moment. There's a strong whiff of counterculture and the kind of creative, what-if reimagining of hidden moments of history that I enjoyed in Doctorow's Civil War novel The March. Readers who dislike the cinematic, somewhat fanciful staging of such scenes, or prefer a more conventional, grounded plot might not enjoy this book, but I'd recommend Ragtime to anyone who wants to better understand the US, or this time period in particular.
Doctorow, who obviously isn't a trained voice actor, narrates his own audiobook. The recording isn't of great quality, being a little muffled in places and making him sound like he has a cold. Still, I appreciated knowing that all the verbal emphasis in the reading was just as the author intended.
"Fate Inescapable"
This is a fun little anthology. All the pieces here revolve around the same premise: the idea that there's a machine that can predict a person's death from a blood sample, spitting out its answer on a small card. The machine sometimes words its oracular messages in an ambiguous or poetic way, but it's never wrong. If it predicts that you'll die by drowning, moving to the desert won't save you -- you'll just die in the shower or by choking on a drink. Perhaps, like Oedipus, you might even suffer the paradoxical fate of being doomed by your attempt to escape fate.
Naturally, there are a number of logical, philosophical, and moral implications that can arise from the premise, and the various authors get pretty creative in exploring them. How would you act if you knew your death? What if your friends or family knew? What if your government knew? A few pieces are set in the present day, but the genres of most of the others run the gamut from sci-fi to dystopian to fantasy to zombie horror to time travel to Sherlock Holmes. There's even a choose-your-own-adventure. The most interesting ones, for my money, tend to weave in some other issue.
The tone of the stories ranges a lot as well. Some are witty, some are serious, some dark, some absurd, some poignant, some melancholy, and some cryptic. Some feature better writing than others, but there was a good deal of talent and imagination on display. Similarly, the various audiobook readers range from competent-but-unremarkable to skilled. I particularly enjoyed the voices done by the guy who narrated the story told from the point of view of an orc.
In sum, a collection I could recommend to any adult who enjoys creative short fiction (I say "adult" because of some profanity and a few grown-up topics). I would note that this is the followup to any earlier anthology, called Machine of Death. I haven't read that one, but the grapevine (well, the Internet) says that this is the more inventive of the two.
"Colorful magic realist science fiction"
There aren't a lot of sci-fi/fantasy writers who use Africa as a primary setting, but Nnedi Okorafor is a noteworthy voice in this small subgenre. I enjoyed 2010's post-apocalypse coming-of-age, Who Fears Death, though I found the plot a little disjointed. Lagoon, her most recent work, shows her strengthening her skills as a writer and storyteller.
Here, when aliens come to set up a new home on Earth, they don't pick New York, London, or Tokyo, but land their ship in the ocean near Lagos, Nigeria, flooding the coast. Immediately, their technology, which is advanced to the point of near-magic, begins to wreak changes on the local marine life. For reasons that don't become clear until later, three people, strangers to each other, a marine biologist named Adaora, a popular Ghanaian rapper named Anthony, and a soldier named Agu, are attracted to the beach. A wave pulls them all into the water, and some time later, they return with a fourth individual, an ambassador from the aliens who has taken human form.
At this point, had the story been set in the US, the government would have swooped in, set up a tight military cordon and whisked away the visitor. But, this is Nigeria. Instead, Adaora conducts a few tests, footage ends up on the internet, and different parties, from a charlatan witch-hunting preacher to some enterprising kidnappers to a unit of trigger-happy soldiers, converge on the scene. Meanwhile, the strange events unleash religious fervor, rioting, and other chaos throughout Lagos. The aliens, like gods, can be benevolent in their way, but also seem to be judging humanity and are dangerous when provoked.
This definitely isn't conventional sci-fi. There are some strong mystical elements to the story, which lend it, at times, a magic realist flavor reminiscent of Salman Rushdie. The aliens, it seems, have awakened old spirits and powers lurking just beneath the skin of Lagos (including a man-eating road!). I very much enjoyed the colorful writing and the honesty about Nigeria's conflicted, multifaceted personality that emerged in the book's many short vignettes, each from the perspective of a different denizen of the city. Okorafor's creativity especially shines in the sequences devoted to animals changed by the aliens' energies. Audiobook narrators, Adjoa Andoh and Ben Onwukwe, who do an astonishing range of accents, demonstrate just how much the spoken-word experience can enhance a book.
It's not that there weren't annoyances, though. The central plot, which concerned the main characters' mission to get through the chaos to meet up with Nigeria's ailing president, gets a little tedious in its one-thing-after-another action overload. Also, the author over-relies on the device of having many of her characters coincidentally know other characters who are important to the story. And, as much as I loved the voice actors, some of their accent were incomprehensible to me. The pidgin English dialect was like listening to an amped-up Jar Jar Binks.
Still, the overall theme of human worthiness of redemption, in the face of our many abuses of nature and one other, resonated for me. Okorafor is one to keep an eye on. The same (well, ear) goes for Andoh and Onwukwe.
"Familiar but gripping epic fantasy"
There's virtually nothing in Anthony Ryan's Blood Song that fantasy readers haven't seen before. Vaguely European medieval world? Check. Protagonist with a special magical gift? Check. Walled-off academy wherein a young protagonist learns many diverse arts? Check. A set of religious/mystical Orders that safeguard the realm and its affairs? Barbarians in the north? Hidden secret Order? Check, check, check.
Yet, this is a confident, unapologetically traditional novel that will likely please fans of military and warrior epics. Ryan, to his credit, doesn't go in for a lot of world-building or the potential flab of multiple character perspectives. Other than the framing device of introducing the story from the perspective of a scribe from a southern empire, who interviews the now-legendary captive, Vaelin al Sorna, much of the narrative follows the experiences of the man himself. As we soon learn, Vaelin was left as a boy by his father at the gates of the Sixth Order, which trains warriors to serve the faith, a sort of medieval Army Ranger battalion.
Roughly the first third of the novel is taken up by Vaelin's training, an increasingly harsh series of lessons and tests. It's a little comparable to events in Patrick Rothfuss's popular The Name of the Wind, but this school is much more martial than university-like. It's stuff we've seen before, but I enjoyed watching Vaelin and his fellows grow in skill and maturity, with glimpses of the outside world and its issues, which occasionally intrude on their training.
Most good military fiction involves the hero learning, over many bloody battles, that the purity of the warrior's ethos doesn't always align with the slimy nature of realpolitik. This is true here. As he graduates from his final test, Vaelin finds himself falling into the favor of a manipulative, ambitious king, who sends him on sham missions against an insurgency of heretics in the north, then into actual set battles against the empire to the south, for reasons that sound worthy on paper but reek of the king's self-interest.
While the too-noble-for-this-war-too-dutiful-to-stop-fighting-it themes are familiar, Ryan does a great job with the savage crunch and clamor of battles, and capturing the many small details of a warrior's life and its hard disciplines. There's a bit of droll humor, too. There's even beauty in the writing, in the depiction of a primeval northern forest, or in a pod of orca whales pacing a ship. Fantasy can so easily crumble when modern sensibilities or glibness creep into it, but Ryan seems to recognize the importance of a believably mythic world, of keeping the basic themes simple and clear.
That said, there are weaknesses. The story suffers from a few cliches, and only a handful of characters are more than a sketch. The Princess, whose calculating nature makes it unclear whose side she's on, is interesting, but there wasn't very much to distinguish Vaelin's brothers-in-arms from one another. I was a little disappointed that the Faith, so central to what the Order does, was never explained in much detail, and that the magic-related side of the plot, while seemingly important to the larger series Ryan has in mind, felt a little shoehorned into the story.
Still, such issues are to be expected in a debut and I think much of the praise from readers is warranted. If this isn't quite the next Game of Thrones, it takes many ideas that worked well in that series and channels them into one hero and his reality. Audiobook narrator Steven Brand doesn't do a wide range of accents, but he has a confident, unpretentious voice that fits the text. While some readers have complained about grammar issues, they weren't evident to me in this format.
"A quietly intense trip into the meta"
I loved The Islanders and its mysterious alternate world, even if I didn't entirely get what the book was about. I'd read that the Dream Archipelago had its origins in Priest's earlier, 1981 novel, The Affirmation, so this seemed like a fitting next step into his catalog.
The novel is about a young man named Peter Sinclair, whose life has fallen apart after the death of his father, a romantic dissolution, and the loss of his job to a bad economy (there's a palpable sense of Thatcher-era British malaise). Peter sets out to find new inner peace by moving into an old house recently purchased by a family friend out in the country, and fixing it up for the man and his wife. While engaged in this, Peter decides to write a memoir of his life. Then, he decides to rewrite it, first changing a few details to be more to his liking, then going all the way into a fantasy world.
At this point, it becomes clear that Peter may not be well, and that some of what he's told us so far might not be so reliable. Then, the book switches gears, and we're reading about the life of another Peter Sinclair, who lives in the world of the Dream Archipelago, which is technologically similar to ours, but has entirely different geography and countries, and a few science fiction-y elements. We learn that the alternate Peter has won a lottery that grants him life extension treatment, requiring him to make a trip by sea into the Archipelago (which has politically distanced itself from the main continent because of an ongoing war there). But, there are some costs, such as total amnesia and a subsequent "rebirth".
Gradually, the two halves of the story begin to show some parallels, such as the romantic relationships with Gracia/Seri (in each world). Then they begin to reference each other, through the manuscript Peter is working on/carrying with him in each reality, then, ultimately, to merge. Readers have made comparisons to Murakami and other magic realist authors, but I was also reminded of Julian Barnes's excellent The Sense of an Ending, which was also very "English" in its sensibilities and also turned on the narrator's memory and understanding of events not being totally dependable.
This is a novel that invites different interpretations. On one level, it could simply be about a man's harrowing descent into mental illness, the fantasies in his head becoming as real as reality. On another, it could be about a misguided recovery of memory. But The Affirmation is also a Cloud Atlas-like work of literary experimentation, the creation-within-a-creation structure looping back on itself. If you enjoy having your mind blown, pay close attention to events in the last chapters. This is a book that invites a second read, once the final twist becomes clear.
While The Affirmation's "real world" story is a little depressing, with its references to suicide and psychological breakdown, I was pleased to return to the Dream Archipelago and learn more about its workings. Perhaps I should revisit the Islanders and see if this book has shed any new light on happenings in that one. I also look forward to reading Priest's story collection, The Dream Archipelago.
I don't have much to say on the audiobook, except that Michael Maloney reads with a quiet intensity that I thought was a perfect fit for Peter's voice.
"Cerebral, Banksian space opera"
3.5 stars. This is hard sci-fi space opera in the same wheelhouse as the works of Iain M. Banks or Peter Hamilton, featuring uber-advanced cultures that operate on a galactic scale in a distant future. While my last Reynolds (Revelation Space) experience left me a bit "meh", I enjoyed this one, which calls to mind the high points of the two aforementioned authors.
The story takes place millions of years in the future, and concerns two mostly-human "shatterlings", who are part of an extended family engineered from the genetic stock of one single, long-ago ancestor. The shatterlings roam the vastness of space (at less than the speed of light), doing various good deeds and observing the rise and fall of civilizations, their own lives prolonged by their ability to go into stasis for long periods of time. Every 200,000 years or so, though, the members of the line come together for a grand reunion, to party, swap stories, and share what they've learned. Not a bad setup at all.
The two protagonists, Campion and Purslane, are on their way to just such a reunion when they get sidetracked and acquire a new passenger, a golden robot named Hesperus (whose persona harkens back to Asimov's classic robots). Their lateness permits them to escape a massacre of the gathered, which leaves few survivors. From there, the novel becomes a sort of cerebral thriller in space, the protagonists working to solve the mystery of who wants to wipe out their line, while playing cat-and-mouse with various enemies and trying to understand certain strange beings. There's also a thread concerning the line founder, her experiences in a fantasy virtual reality world that begins to take over her mind, and what motivated her to "shatter" herself.
This brand of science fiction tends to be heavier on science, ideas, and the gears of the plot than it is on storytelling, psychological depth, or thematic richness, and, though there are a few exceptions (Dune, Hyperion, and A Fire Upon the Deep come to mind), House of Suns isn't one of them. It's a shame that Reynolds didn't go deeper with his premise and explore his protagonists' inner lives with all those millions of years passing around them. Also, some developments seemed a little unbelievable, owing to the common sci-fi problem of "if they're advanced enough to do X, can't they do Y?" There's a lot of hand-waving where technology is concerned. (WTF is a homunculus weapon? Who knows.)
But if you enjoy geeking out on wormholes, machine sentience, nanotechnology, Matrix-esque virtual realities, relativistic time dilation, and the possibility of godlike higher beings lurking behind the universe, and want to see an author spin a story from these things, House of Suns is smart, well-executed hard sci-fi. I also found the characters more likable than those of Revelation Space. While I prefer my science fiction to be a little more on the literary side, some readers will appreciate a novel that dispenses of any such pretensions and gives us the spaceships and robots straight-up.
The audiobook production is fairly good, though it left a few things to be desired. On one hand, John Lee has the control to read all the astrobabble in the story without being cheesy; on the other, his protagonists sound pretty similar. It took me a little while to realize that there were two main points of view, though who's speaking becomes obvious once you grasp the contextual hints.
I haven't read enough of Reynolds's other books to make a comparison, but I think this is a perfectly good starting point if you want to see what the buzz is about.
"Wall, meet writing"
Spoiler alert: the takeaway from Thomas Piketty's dry but much-discussed book is what most citizens of the developed world already know: income and wealth inequality in first world countries, particularly the United States, are at levels not seen since the Gilded Age. As much as I've personally benefitted from globalism and technology, it's obvious that the lion's share of the profits from these trends has gone to a small elite, while many Americans are being left behind in an economy that no longer places great value on their skills (or gives a damn about educating their kids).
No doubt, the timing of the book's publication has something to do with the big splash it made -- these are clearly issues on a lot of minds -- but Piketty brings some cool analysis to the current reality, helping the reader understand how to see it in terms of historical data. As he argues, all economic evidence suggests that this disparity is likely to continue to grow, driving modern countries towards a form of society not seen since 19th century Europe. There, he shows, there was less economic growth than in the 20th century, which meant that a small upper class that controlled most of the capital received most of the income, consolidating its dominance through inheritance. Piketty brilliantly illustrates this point with references to classic 19th century novels, wherein protagonists aren't trying to better themselves in careers in which advancement is limited, but are focused on marrying well. Only the shock of two world wars ended this reality, creating a few decades of growth-through-rebuilding and relatively egalitarian prosperity for Western Europe and the US.
Piketty dives down into the weeds of numerical data, graphs, charts, and comparison tables to make his point, which doesn't always make for an ideal audiobook listen. Though there's a PDF supplement, dedicated readers might want to get the book in print. Still, the gist is clear. We can no longer count on the rapid expansion and population growth that drove the wheels of US industry in earlier days. Return on capital is now a better bet than return on growth in most sectors of a 21st century non-emerging economy, with the start-up costs for high-tech industries or rental properties favoring the already wealthy. Even the apparent exceptions, such as software development (my own field), kind of prove the rule, in the sense that they only provide jobs for a small class of highly-skilled workers, sometimes to the detriment of the less-skilled.
However, Piketty's proposed solutions, as much as I agree with their goals, seem naive given current politics. He advocates more confiscatory taxes on the global top 1%, more transparency in the financial systems of all countries, and stronger international laws related to seizing the assets of tax dodgers. I don't know about his fellow French citizens, but to even suggest to a certain segment of the US electorate that their country might not actually be a meritocracy, or that it be more subject to some international body of law, would trigger instant howling outrage. Never mind that most of that group will never be wealthy themselves -- they would still rather live in a decaying shack, imagining their interests to be aligned with those of the billionaire Koch Brothers, than ever agree with some "socialist" French academic.
Piketty emphasizes his faith in democracy, but there are a few things I wish he'd discussed more, even if they fall outside the purview of economics. The long-term implications of technological advances on the job market. The tendency of big government and big business to end up in bed with each other. How the people can take back ownership of the political system and the machinery of production without going down the failed route of Communism.
Still, I'm glad this book is being talked about. If the Boomer Generation is still earnestly clinging to the "American Dream" ideals it once knew, it's pretty clear to younger generations that the system isn't so meritocratic or upwardly mobile as it once was. I think that Piketty, a Gen-Xer himself, is speaking more to this demographic than the one currently in charge. After all, to quote a certain Gen-X musical, the aging Koch brothers are "just for now".
That said, your kids might give some thought to marrying one of their heirs.
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Review: Call The Midwife (From Lancashire Telegraph)
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Review: Call The Midwife
5:15pm Friday 8th February 2013 in Leisure By John Anson, Features editor
IT'S all the fault of the Christmas Day special. The better half has developed a liking for Call The Midwife.
The Beeb's Sunday evening wallow in nostalgia, set in the East End of the Fifties, follows the lives of, well, midwives as they trundle around on their bicycles delivering babies at every opportunity.
It's a strange mixture of a programme, a cross between those paperback sagas with titles like Wounded Heart, and the movie Alien. Every episode contains at least one fairly graphic scene of childbirth which is definitely not for the squeamish — certainly don't watch while having your tea! But for all its tweeness – accents are either "cor blimey guv" Dick van Dyke or the plumminess of public information films – there's something bizarrely watchable about the whole thing.
For a start it's entertaining, which is more than can be said about that other offering from the Beeb set in the East End.
And despite the fact that everyone having a baby appears to live on the same street, it's a programme with plenty of warmth in it. Miranda Hart recently left but there's still a top-notch cast including Jenny Agutter and the wonderful Pam Ferris.
It's not cool to admit it, but Sundays and Call the Midwife are the perfect fit.
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DIGITAL COMICS: Self-Obsessed by Sina Grace Debuts on ComiXologyA comics news article
by Danny Djeljosevic
A week after the debut of his graphic novel Not My Bag, Li'l Depressed Boy artist Sina Grace has released an early works/B-sides one-shot through Image Comics called Self-Obsessed, available as a 99 cent download on the digital comics platform comiXology. Collecting strips from as far back as his high school days, Self-Obsessed features autobiographical material and shows his growth as an artist.
Says Grace himself:
"It's crazy to look at the stuff I wrote about in college and see how it relates to Not My Bag," said creator Sina Grace. "I'm going through all of these pages, and to see the growth – as a storyteller and person – I'm proud to share Self-Obsessed, and I couldn't have thought of a better avenue than through the fine folks at comiXology."
Awesome. I pretty much bought Self-Obsessed the moment I saw it was available -- Sina Grace is a great artist and a cool guy, and 99 cents for 28 pages of comics is a total steal. Think of it as a sampler for Not My Bag -- if you like Grace's art and voice in this special, you'll probably like his newest work, too.
Self-Obsessed is already out on comiXology. Come to think of it, so is Not My Bag.
Danny Djeljosevic is a comic book creator, award-winning filmmaker (assuming you have absolutely no follow-up questions) and Co-Managing Editor of Comics Bulletin. Follow him on Twitter at @djeljosevic or find him somewhere in San Diego, often wearing a hat. Read his comic with Mike Prezzato, "Sgt. Death and his Metachromatic Men," over at Champion City Comics and check out his other comics at his Tumblr, Sequential Fuckery. His webcomic The Ghost Engine, with artist Eric Zawadzki, updates twice a week.