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DoD News Briefing with Brig. Gen. Wiggins at the Pentagon Briefing Room, Arlington, Va.
Presenters: Deputy Director for Operations, Joint Staff Brig. Gen. Perry Wiggins
July 03, 2007
GEN. WIGGINS: Good afternoon.
Operation Phantom Thunder is into its third week, with U.S. and Iraqi security forces conducting operations, as you're well aware, in the northern and southern Baghdad belts, as well as Diyala and Anbar provinces, and still in Baghdad through Fard al-Qanun working on hot spots. As expected and as has been reported, this offensive is involved in some very difficult fighting, this fighting against al Qaeda in areas where they've long had freedom of movement as well as time to prepare elaborate defenses.
During Phantom Thunder, U.S. and Iraqi forces have captured nearly 500 enemy and found over 50 major weapons caches. The most remarkable thing about these gains is that the actions are increasingly a result of local Iraqis coming forward and providing tips and responding to those tips and finding these caches. They know where the bad guys are hiding, they know where the weapons are, and they're giving them up to the Iraqi security forces as well as U.S. forces operating particularly in Baqubah, in favor of a better option.
These caches have contained stores of mortars, rockets, as well as IED components. In Baqubah we have rooted out what can only be described as a shadow government set up by al Qaeda. We have found a courthouse, jail and torture houses, which provide an indicator of the type of inhuman justice one could expect if al Qaeda was in charge. We've cleared over 120 deeply buried IEDs, numerous booby-trapped houses, some that were so extensively booby-trapped that instead of being, I guess -- EOD taking them and disarming them, they had to be blown up.
These facilities and the local al Qaeda authority demonstrate more than anything I could say about the nature of the enemy and their continued willingness to commit horrific atrocities against the innocent Iraqi people.
In concert with these operations, Phantom Thunder also includes aggressive shaping operations by U.S. and Iraqi special operations forces that are going after al Qaeda leadership as well as Jaish al- Mahdi special groups and car bomb networks that are located throughout Iraq. Within the city of Baghdad, U.S. forces, along with 12 Iraqi security force brigades, continue their disrupt, clear and retain operations in the 10 security districts in Baghdad through Operation Fard al-Qanun.
As Phantom Thunder continues to squeeze al Qaeda and other insurgents, we expect them to oppose our progress by trying to inflict high numbers of casualties among the Iraqi people as well as coalition forces, by using asymmetric weapons like suicide bombings, high- profile attacks and buried IEDs.
In Afghanistan, NATO's International Security Forces and the Afghan security forces have seized the initiative, as I stated during the spring offensive in 2007. We have yet to see a summer offensive from the Taliban. On July 2nd, Operation Adalat concluded in the south with over 250 Taliban killed, as well as Taliban sanctuaries, operations and lines of communications disrupted. In the eastern region, Operation Maiwand, this marks the first Afghan National Army offensive led by them and involves U.S. forces in support. This is a significant step in the development of Afghan National Security forces. Maiwand is aimed at separating the enemy from Taliban -- from the populace -- excuse me -- and removing the Taliban from the Ghazni belt.
As I close, I think it's important to remember that tomorrow we celebrate our 231st anniversary of our freedom. And as we celebrate here, we should keep in mind that our very best that our nation has to offer is standing on point and fighting for freedom. I ask that you keep your -- our servicemen and women in your prayers, along with their family members.
And with that -- as we celebrate our 4th of July tomorrow. And with that, I'll take your questions.
Yes, ma'am?
Q Sir, Turkey's military chief again today criticized what he's calling a lack of cooperation from the international community regarding the PKK problem in northern Iraq. And you mentioned the last time you spoke to us that the U.S. is cooperating with Turkey on this.
Can you specific about what that cooperation consists of?
GEN. WIGGINS: Turkey has been an ally with us on this global war on terrorism, and I know that's no secret. We've worked with them, we understand their concern with regard to the PKK terrorists that operate both in southeast Turkey and that have set up some safe havens within northern Iraq. We continue to work with Turkey as they prosecute the war on terror. We continue to work with them as an ally in this global war on terrorism. We have several opportunities where we have worked with them both as a cross-section of intelligence with the Turkish government, the Turkish military particularly, and we'll continue to do so.
Q (Off mike) -- they don't think it's enough. Do you -- could you sort of say how you assess the successfulness of your efforts?
GEN. WIGGINS: Well, I'd tell you, from a military perspective, we have a great relationship with the military in Turkey. We do do the training.
As far as any other initiatives, it might be something you might want to take on the policy side with regards to what we're doing with the Turkish. But we've worked with them in the past, we continue to work with Turkey. Right now our focus is on Iraq. Our military focus is on Iraq and the situation in Iraq. And I know, as the secretary of Defense has said, any disruption or -- up in northern Iraq would not be helpful at this time.
Yes. Yes, ma'am.
Q The U.S. Army released a report yesterday indicating that a gunner shot at two friendly positions in Afghanistan in March of 2006. The individual who was responsible for that was not actually questioned. We're just wondering if he was going to be questioned; will he be disciplined at any point?
GEN. WIGGINS: Well, I can't speak specifically on the issue you're talking about, but I can tell you that any time there are issues or allegations or incidents where friendly fire takes place, they are thoroughly investigated by the commander. We don't normally discuss those things while they're in an investigation, but normally the commander takes those particular investigations, and we take those particular pieces seriously, and we do investigate them to the fullest extent.
Yes, ma'am.
Q On Friday, we understand that the Joint Requirement Oversight Council agreed to validate the Army's request for more than 17,000 MRAP vehicles. How fast can those vehicles be made? Has the JROC actually approved 17,700, which was the Army's request? How fast can they be produced? And can they be produced in enough time in the next -- over the course of the next year to get those 17,000 to Iraq?
GEN. WIGGINS: That's a good question. I can tell you that they have validated 17,700 for the Army [sic – the Joint Requirements Oversight Council informed OSD/PA that this decision has not yet been made.] and I believe 3,400 for the Marines and approximately 300 for our Special Operations Forces
I can tell you that the deputy director for regional operations -- I'm not the best person probably to ask as far as how quickly they can be produced. That's probably something better served for the J-4 section and piece. But I can tell you that I know that the commanders in the field want those produced as quickly as possible to get them out to our soldiers and Marines that are out there in the fight, and that's about all I know on that.
Yes, sir.
Q General, I noticed that you mentioned both in talking about Iraq and Afghanistan the number of enemies that have been killed. Do you think that the enemy body counts is a real measure of success in these operations?
GEN. WIGGINS: I can tell you that, personally, I don't think that that's necessarily an indicator, particularly when we're looking at military efforts alone are not going to win the fight, whether it's Afghanistan or whether it's in Iraq. You know, we're primarily providing security in order to shape and give time and space to the Iraqi and Afghan governments so that they can formulate their security forces in order to take the fight to the Taliban and take it to al Qaeda, particularly in those two countries.
So body counts is not necessarily something that we get into. It's not something that I advocated as a success measure or gauged success on, but I can tell you that those are just indicators that we're taking the fight to the enemy, the enemy's still there. It's also indicators that it's still a dangerous place out there, and -- but as far as success can be measured, I think we measure success on the security, primarily securing the population, enabling governance to take place within Iraq and Afghanistan. Those are the important indicators that we look at.
Q If I could just follow up, when you mention these indicators, whether it's the number of enemy killed or the number of deeply buried IEDs or weapons caches that are found or, in fact, the statement that there are an increasing number of hits coming from local Iraqis -- those are all things we've heard over and over and over again over the last four years in numerable briefings.
So I guess my question is: What indications are there that anything is going better now than in all those previous times that we're also given these sort of positive indicators?
GEN. WIGGINS: Yes, sir. And I would say -- I get what you're trying to get at. I would probably say we ought to wait until General Petraeus comes in September and makes this assessment and kind of ties in those pieces. We're reporting figures, and I understand we've been reporting figures all along.
But what I'm saying is is I don't tie that to overall success. There's a number of indicators and pieces out there that we tie together to indicate success.
In this particular case, we are making slow and steady progress with regards to military operations. But as I said, military operations alone is not what I gauge as to overall success there.
Q If I could follow up on that question, General. As you know, General Pace, in two consecutive briefings here, mentioned that, in his view, public perceptions among Iraqis -- how they feel today versus how they felt five years ago, how they'll feel in five years from now -- are better measurements, it's a better metric for gauging progress or lack thereof in Iraq. Would it be fair to say that that is the way the Joint Staff is starting to think about how to measure progress, by looking at public perceptions in Iraq?
GEN. WIGGINS: I'd say that's one indicator. Like I said, I'd probably wait till General Petraeus comes in and gives his assessment on how things are with regards to Iraq, and I think that's going to happen in September. I don't have the exact date on that particular piece, but --
Q (Off mike) -- indicator --
GEN. WIGGINS: It is an extraordinary indicator. You know, the people -- it's important. And people are always important when you're talking about their country. Those are sovereign countries, you know, and people -- and protecting the people and the populace are absolutely critical to conducting operations there.
In Anbar, what's important is the people are coming forward because they're tired of the indiscriminate killing and they're pointing out the IEDs, they're pointing out the weapons caches. These are all accellerants, these are all things that the enemy uses in order to create high-profile attacks and to create mass casualties.
So is that a positive sign? Absolutely a positive sign. Is this something we want to continue happening? Absolutely we want to continue it. And those type of initiatives are spreading, and not just in Anbar; Salahuddin -- they're also happening in Diyala. So these are a positive. We see them as positive signs. But, you know, we have cautious optimism with regards to those, because there is an enemy out there that continually takes a look at those same type of indicators, those same positive trends and tries to target those and tries to take action against those positive trends.
Q Do you have any polling data, though, on that? I mean, does the military conduct any --
GEN. WIGGINS: I don't have any polling data, no, sir.
Q What metrics will General Petraeus be using to decide whether the surge is succeeding?
GEN. WIGGINS: Ma'am, I really don't know. I don't want to speculate for General Petraeus on what exactly the metrics are he's going to use at this time. I really don't know.
Q General, within the past couple of weeks, a number of NGOs and news organizations reported that the number of civilian casualties in Afghanistan, the number of civilians killed in Afghanistan by coalition forces had exceeded those killed by the Taliban or al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
At the time, the U.S. military strenuously denied that conclusion, but I understand within the past couple of weeks the number of civilians killed by coalition forces has indeed, even by the U.S. military's own estimates, surpassed those killed by enemy forces in Afghanistan. Is that the case? And can you provide those numbers for us today?
GEN. WIGGINS: I don't have the numbers. I've seen the same reports you've seen with regards to the NGOs. They're reporting those particular numbers.
I can tell you that it's difficult for me to believe that you can actually capture an accurate number with regards to the terrain in Afghanistan, some of the remote areas where some of these operations go on, and the fact that you have motivations out there that are different. Not to say that all the numbers are wrong, but to absolutely say that we -- when we conduct operations, we go out and investigate thoroughly, especially when there's accusations of civilian casualties.
In a number of cases in recent, we've gone out and investigated where they have claimed there were civilians killed and in fact those were unfounded. And in cases -- we go to great lengths, as I've said in the past, in order to mitigate civilian casualties. I think you've seen demonstrated on a few occasions times where we have actually bypassed targets, not engaged targets because we've had civilians in the area.
Our forces use positive control of indirect fire means, whether that's air or whether that's artillery. We have people who are qualified on the ground that bring those particular type of weapon systems on the target. For example, you probably recently read in the press what happened in Diwaniyah with regards to indirect fire from the enemy into a forward operating base there, firing approximately 75 rounds into that camp.
Well, what I can tell you is that camp -- those rounds that were fired didn't -- all those rounds did not necessarily fire into the FOB. Matter of fact, a great amount of those rounds actually fell short of the forward operating base and fell into the city of Diwaniyah. The F-16 that was launched was not only launched to protect the FOB, it was also launched to protect the citizens of Diwaniyah from these indirect fire attacks.
And when the F-16 was overhead, we had positive ID on three buildings where the fire was emanating. We launched the F-16 with guided munitions onto those three buildings, three targeted buildings, with positive ID of enemy. They hit their intended targets and had secondary explosions out of two of those buildings.
So we use precision weapons systems. The enemy, on the other hand, fires from highly populated areas, once again, fires in densely populated areas, concentrations of civilians, fires with a indirect fire system that is not a accurate system, not a point weapons system, and indiscriminately kills civilians. So that is the difference.
Q I guess -- but returning to my original question, has the U.S. military, have coalition forces, dropped any firm denial that coalition forces have killed more civilians than enemy forces in Afghanistan? Are you backing away from that point?
GEN. WIGGINS: And to be honest with you, like I said, I don't track, from the Joint Staff perspective, don't track civilian casualties. I know that the theater tries to go and investigate as they happen and they go out and do thorough investigations of those sites. But -- so I would -- to answer your question, if we're backing off or do -- are we denying, I wouldn't be able to do that from here.
And so from the Joint Staff and from the J33 regional operation perspective, I don't have an answer to that. I can tell you that we do go and investigate. On a number of those occasions, we have gone and investigated. We have found those claims to be unfounded. But we have found that in a number of occasions, the Taliban uses those civilians as human shields. And in some cases when we do target, you know, and there are civilians that have been killed as a result of targeting, those are reported.
Yes, sir.
Q About that Diwaniyah incident, I believe the press release that was issued on that said that there was a review underway as to whether the appropriate firepower by coalition forces was used to respond to the mortar position. Can you explain to us what that was? Obviously you're pointing to the issue of the F-16 as appropriate position targeting. But I mean what exactly is the review about?
GEN. WIGGINS: Well, as I said, whenever there is accusations that civilians were casualties, they're investigated by the commander. Every commander does that as a matter of course, and it's the right thing to do. So in this particular case, I'm sure, because of the accusation, once again, it was reported that there's a commander out there that's doing the appropriate investigation. They take a look at those particular reports to see if they're founded or unfounded and then report when they have complete investigation and the facts are made available.
Q Just out of curiosity if not for the record, why does the U.S. military, if they conduct these investigations, if they make payments to families who have lost loved ones as a result of coalition strikes, why does the U.S. military not provide or keep accurate records of civilians, as best they know, killed by coalition forces?
GEN. WIGGINS: As I said, from the J3 and the Joint Staff perspective and from my foxhole, I don't keep track of those particular pieces. There might -- and commanders probably do at their level and commanders down range.
That's probably something better served to take down range to the tip of the spear and those -- with those commands that probably do -- commanders do keep track of operations and when civilians are in fact -- become casualties.
Yes, sir.
Q General, can you give us any statistics to back up what you said at the beginning of your briefing regarding the apparent lack of a spring or summer offensive by Taliban? What do you base that on? Can you compare the number of attacks that they made at this point last year to this year? Can you give us anything that backs up that claim?
GEN. WIGGINS: Right. I primarily deal with trends with regards to that. So as far as specific numbers, I can tell you that the attacks are down significantly. As far as the exact numbers, I don't necessarily have that and that's not how I track up here on Joint Staff. I can also tell you that they have suffered a number of casualties to include their senior leadership. The architect of their spring offensive, Dadullah Lang, was taken out, and there are indicators that they're having problems trying to find somebody to fill his particular shoes as well as others that have been taken out.
So those are the indicators we use. It's primarily the fact that, based on previous springs, based on indicators that we had that there was going to be spring offensive this particular year and it hasn't necessarily panned out, that's what we've used. And now we're past and through the spring.
Q So when you talk about attacks, I mean, if we talk about Taliban attacks on civilians, for example -- which seems to be the way they operate to a large extent because they're not involved in pitch battles with coalition forces to a large extent -- are you saying there are fewer attacks on civilians by the Taliban this year than last?
GEN. WIGGINS: What I'm saying is -- and you got it partially right. They did target coalition forces. As a matter of fact, they made a concerted effort last year to target coalition forces in the south as an effort to fracture what is considered ISAF when they took over, particularly the Canadians and the Dutch.
So with that, this particular year they tried to do a similar piece, particularly against coalition forces in the south once again, and particularly, in this case, they took on and they're starting to try to take on the national police because they see that as a weaker enemy. The Dutch went and responded and took the fight to the Taliban, resulting in numerous Taliban forces -- what's also starting to happen, we're starting to see shape, is the Afghan National Army standing toe to toe with the Taliban on their own and defeating the Taliban. That you probably would not have seen in the past, and now you're starting to see more and more of that. We'd like to see the national police there, you know, increase in their capabilities and working hard to make that happen as well.
Q The British says they're investigating any potential links between their car bomb incident and al Qaeda in Iraq. What evidence, what information have you seen that might indicate that there would be links? Is there any indication in recent months, or years, even, that insurgents or fighters in Iraq have moved into Europe, have moved into the U.K.?
Is there any indication yet the kind of technology used has any parallel to al Qaeda in Iraq? Has the British government come to the U.S. military, which maintains, of course, a forensic database on all the car bombs and IEDs in Iraq? Has there been any discussion in your world about this?
GEN. WIGGINS: Not in necessarily my world. I mean, I've heard some discussion in regards to car bombs. Any time there's a car bomb, you know, and they try to correlate, I know that some of the partners that I've had, particularly our British partners that we've had discussions, this is primarily a homeland defense type of lane. But with regards, you know, you don't want to rule out any sides here, from whether al Qaeda involvement to one extent down to somebody who is just acting out on their own.
But, you know, with Iraq, the car bombing piece, I know that there's a lot of forensic data that's being developed. I think that's going to be probably better served to be asked for homeland security because it's a policing function, and I believe the British allies that I talked to specifically when this happened, just through the course of a discussion, stated that that was a police function going on in Britain and that they continue to work that and roll up and arrest these people as they come across them.
Q Have you seen any indications of movement or interest by Iraqi insurgents or al Qaeda in Iraq in moving from Iraq into Europe, into the U.K., into Germany?
GEN. WIGGINS: I have not. But what I'll tell you is, is, you know, a war takes two sides, you know, and in this particular case, you know, the enemy has, back since 9/11, has been trying to destroy the freedoms here in this country as well as in Europe. That has never stopped being an aim. The fact that we took the fight to them in Iraq and we took the fight to them in Afghanistan has de-synched them, made it a little more difficult.
But you know, I don't think that their aim has changed. This United States was their first battleground, by launching 9/11. The fact that they're out there trying to do that I don't think is any secret or any surprise to America, nor Europe and the Brits.
Yes, sir.
Q General, you described at the beginning of your briefing the large number of deeply buried IEDs. Could you give us a little bit more detail on what these IEDs are looking like? As well, do you see any kind of shift in tactics by insurgents towards burying these mines for any reason, because they're harder to detect or because they're more lethal, they're directed against a certain kind of coalition or U.S. technology?
GEN. WIGGINS: Right. What I'll tell you is, as you're well aware, when General Petraeus talked of getting at these areas where we have not been at with any continued presence, and getting at these areas where the -- where al Qaeda's had an opportunity build VBIEDs (Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Device), for example, of which, in Baqubah, we have discovered nine, one of which recently was a fire truck IED. So they're building them larger. They're using trucks.
In these particular cases, in areas where we haven't been, they've had the opportunity to emplace these particular IEDs in areas. And then, through the course of time -- they have a lot of patience with regards to these particular weapons -- they become camouflaged, they become over the top. And then it's just a matter of time before they either -- through whatever the triggering device, engage them.
Are they buried deeper? Yes, because it gives them time.
But getting at these areas, what that does is restrict their freedom of movement in these particular areas, makes it harder for somebody with a shovel to dig something very deep. And also you now have the local citizens that are out there identifying these people and turning them in. It's made it more difficult.
I can tell you that in Anbar province, where we've had these tribal initiatives go on, we have had 70 percent, you know, of IEDs, particularly, that have been found and cleared in those particular areas. We've also had a 40 percent reduction in attacks. That's a direct result of local populace getting involved, similar to what we have here in the United States. If somebody went out and did something, suspicious activity, it would be reported to the police.
The other thing is, they're reporting these particular things to the Iraqi security forces as well, in larger numbers. And that in fact is due in large course because they're building a credibility with the people.
We have built these neighborhood watch programs through these tribes. We're getting them integrated into the police support units that are established getting to be a part of the Iraqi security force structure, and that is working out very well right now.
The last question, please. Yes, sir.
Q The figures, General, for -- how many casualties continue to be caused by IEDs, especially since the surge began and -- particularly in the last few months, when U.S. deaths were so high? Secretary Gates has given a round figure of roughly 70 percent. I wonder if that's on the increase, and can you be more specific more than that.
GEN. WIGGINS: Well, like I said, from my perspective, we deal on trends and percentages, not necessarily specific numbers. But I can tell you that one of the things that has happened through the neighborhood watch and the -- and Safe Neighborhoods Initiative within Baghdad and setting up security checkpoints and other things, it's made it harder for al Qaeda to get at the civilians, although they still execute high-profile attacks. But about 70 percent, 75 percent of all attacks -- or these type of attacks are basically going against coalition and Iraqi security forces now as opposed to civilians; in that, about 70 percent, as Secretary Gates said, causes U.S. casualties.
Q (Off mike) -- specific numbers, but how are you developing trends if you don't have specific numbers?
GEN. WIGGINS: Well, I get those, sir, I get those reported. That's probably commanders downrange. We get reports provided to us. We kind of track those trends. All right?
Q Thank you.
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Ann Fyfe
Fact Sheet
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HeartFlow: Developer of patient-specific modeling technology that non-invasively assesses coronary blood flow in patients to determine if surgical repair is necessary. HeartFlow technology has the potential to eliminate almost a million unnecessary cardiac surgeries annually.
InPress Technologies: Developing a single-use medical device to treat postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) by specifically addressing uterine atony. By avoiding the use of pharmaceuticals, hysterectomy, or other invasive surgical procedures, the InPress can dramatically reduce the cost of healthcare during childbirth and save women's lives.
InterVene: Percutaneous approach to restoring valve competency in the deep leg veins.
Materna Medical: Working to reduce the incidence of childbirth-related injuries to women during vaginal delivery with a device designed to prevent vaginal tearing and pelvic floor damage during childbirth.
Medical Cue: The NeoCue System solves a major need in newborn monitoring and resuscitation by automatically sensing key physiologic data and offering decision guidance through neonatal resuscitation and rapid venous access.
Mitre Medical: Focused on developing innovative solutions to treat structural heart disease in humans and companion animals, Mitre's lead program The Mitral Touch(R) is an elegant, less-invasive surgical solution to treat functional mitral regurgitation and potentially prevent the onset of congestive heart failure.
Niveus Medical: This company is developing novel devices for preventing muscle deterioration in patients requiring extended periods of critical care. The technology will shorten hospital stays, and save costs by reducing in-hospital patient morbidity.
Medical Sewing Solutions, LLC: This company is developing a miniaturized sewing machine for use in latharoscopic surgery. This technology will offer surgeons the ability to place a continuous chain of stitches with one pull of a trigger to produce one stitch.
PQ Bypass: This company has developed catheters and stent grafts to perform a fully percutaneous femoral artery bypass. The PQ Bypass treatment method will be associated with greatly reduced morbidity and recovery relative to currently available techniques, and will be applicable to approximately 200,000 patients in the US who suffer from peripheral arterial disease.
Prescient Surgical: Working on CleanCision, a platform that prevents surgical wound infections. The technology targets a patient segment that has the highest risk of infection: obese patients undergoing colorectal surgery.
Vida: This company is harnessing play through technology to advance health care education. They are focused on the digital transformation of science education. Their first product is a fully integrated anatomy and physiology engine.
Board of Directors
Chairman, Director, Founder: Thomas J. Fogarty, M.D
Director: Frederick St. Goar, M.D., F.A.C.C\
Director, Vice Chairman: Lewis Wexler, M.D.
Director, Secretary: John B. Goodrich, J.D., L.L.M.
Key Leadership
President and CEO: Ann Fyfe
Chief Operating Officer: Michael Needels
Chief Medical Officer: James Joye, D.O., F.A.C.C.
Clinical Advisor: Christopher K. Zarins, M.D.
Executive Director, Clinical Research: Betty deBettencourt, R.N., M.S
The Fogarty Institute for Innovation is located on the El Camino Hospital Campus in Mountain View California:
Melchor Pavilion
2490 Hospital Drive, Suite 310
Mountain View, CA 94040


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Public schools across the country overwhelmingly responded positively to the "Don't Filter Me" campaign to address discriminatory censorship of web content in public schools, the American Civil Liberties Union announced in a report today.
The report chronicles the conclusion of the campaign, which asked students to determine if web content geared toward the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities — a frequent target of censorship in schools — was blocked by their school's web browsers.
The ACLU found that most schools did not realize that, in addition to blocking all sexually explicit websites regardless of sexual orientation, their filtering software also contained a feature to block LGBT-related websites that were not sexually explicit.


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Getting Started
Beginners´ guides to get you started observing and finding your way around the sky, as well as choosing equipment.
A Quick Guide to the Astronomy Site
Absolute Beginners - Autumn Skies
Absolute Beginners - Observing the Moon
Absolute Beginners - Observing the Sun
Absolute Beginners - Seeing Mars and beyond
Absolute Beginners - Seeing Mercury and Venus
Absolute Beginners - Spring Skies
Absolute Beginners - Start Observing
Absolute Beginners - Summer Skies
Absolute Beginners - Winter Skies
Astronomy Day - Bringing Astronomy to the People
Astronomy Newsletter Sign-up
Choosing and Using a Telescope
Citizen Science in the Electronic Age
Exploring Stars and Planets - book review
Heavens Above [offsite link]
How to Tell a Planet from a UFO
Start Observing - with Binoculars
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text:
Eminence Organics Carrot Vitamin Masque 2 oz/60 ml | 2 oz / 60 ml
What it DoesCarrot contains Vitamin A which exfoliates the skin. Honey moisturizes and nourishes. Zinc Oxide soothes and calms irritation. Linseed contains Omega 3 to heal. Biocomplex adds a boost of antioxidants and vitamins.
Who should use it
Appropriate for Dry, Sensitive, and Dehydrated Skin Types
How It Feels
Calming and hydrating.
How to Use It
Apply a thin layer of masque with fingertips to cleansed skin, avoiding the eye area. Leave on for 5 minutes or longer (recommended to place wet gauze or cotton strips over top). It is possible to use as a massage agent by diluting the product and periodically dipping your hand into tea, juice or water. Remove with a damp face cloth.


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Updated: 08/20/2013 7:07 AM KSTP.com By: Cassie Hart
Warmer than normal temperatures are returning to the Twin Cities, with a shot of rain this week.
KSTP.com meteorologist Dave Dahl said high temperatures will probably end up being 10 to 15 degrees above average for the first part of the week, with readings getting into the low to mid 90s each day.
On Monday, the temperature hit 87 degrees at 4 p.m., making it the warmest day so far this month. It was also the warmest we've felt since July 22, when it was 88 degrees.
It's also been nearly two weeks since we've seen measurable rainfall in the metro. Dave said a cool front may help relieve our dry weather problem.
"Right now it looks as though there'll be at least a small chance for showers and thunderstorms Wednesday night," said Dave.
The first day of the State Fair on Thursday still looks dry and a little more comfortable with highs in the mid 80s. Friday should end up being very similar.
There is also a chance of rain in the extended forecast. Dave said we usually only get two or three days with some rain during the 12 day run of the State Fair. He said this year we might end up with a few more days than that.
He said right now it's too early to tell exactly where the rain will fall.
Track KSTP weather by clicking here.


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500,000 should've been spent on buildings in downtown. refacing, rennovating, creating. Lots of empty carcasses that are owned by absentee landlords. They don't care, they'll keep them empty for tax write-offs. Westfield, DEVELOP the city's downtown. It's not about a clocktower or bridge, do something for small retail businesses that want to open in a clean, decent space.
Kind of a joke really. I moved out of Westfield two years ago, when the project was suppose to be done. Who needs water metered spitting fountains that will cost the city $$ to maintain. Who needs a clock tower with dancing people, in reality who needs two bridges that ultimately lead to the same two lanes of traffic anyway. Ridiculous use of money and nobody stopped them. They should've invested money in those decrepant old buildings downtown and allowed rent waivers for start up business. Stupid city officials aren't listening to the people or the businesses. And who exactly is the DAPC? Just another paid board like the BID that can't seem to spark Westfield.
So What?! Glad to see him go, he loves to hear himself talk. Why is that a story?
Dispicable, I hope you people get what you paid for. This Governor is out of his mind and spending your money on Illegal immigrants, when viable college students are struggling to pay their tuition bills. Shame on him, shame on you for voting him back in. Wake up Massachusetts - we've become a dumping ground for welfare recipients and illegal immigrants. How dispicable.
I have a problem with Angelides, not caring enough about her own backyard and now wanting a state job. I'll bet she doesn't even know who her Select Board or School Committe is. She's a planted piece of furniture from the Rogness team. Not worthy of a political seat. Although I don't agree with Ashe's stand with the Dems in Boston and not speaking up enough for our district, he served his time with the town he lived in. She is not representation of our area. Couldn't they come up with a better choice for a Republican candidate?


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Crystal saw
this wiki
|Release date
|15 August 2006 (Update)
|Quest item
|The Eyes of Glouphrie
|10 coins
|High alch
|6 coins
|Low alch
|4 coins
|Maybe Brimstail will have another...
|Store price
|Not sold
|A magical saw.
|0 kg
A crystal saw is an item made from a small crystal seed by invoking the singing bowl in Brimstail's cave in the Tree Gnome Stronghold. The seed is awarded to players who complete The Eyes of Glouphrie quest.
The saw adds a hidden +3 bonus to the player's Construction skill. This allows the player to construct items as if their Construction level were higher by 3, although this advantage is not applicable when constructing things that do not require a saw, such as monsters, plants, or rooms. This bonus is stackable with drinking teas, sculpting chisel and spicy stews that already boost this skill, only for objects requiring a saw to make.
Once the saw has been used to construct 28 items, it reverts to its seed form where it will need to be re-enchanted by returning it to the singing bowl in either Brimstail's cave or in the Ithell clan district. If the saw is in your inventory, it will lose a charge after constructing an item regardless of whether the saw is needed to construct the item or not. With the completion of Roving Elves, Ilfeen is also able to recharge this seed.
If a player has both a normal saw and a crystal saw in their inventory when building furniture, the crystal saw will be used and a charge will be deducted, even if the player has the requisite Construction level for the piece of furniture and does not need the crystal saw's boost.
The Crystal saw can also be used in the Sawmill training area in place of a regular saw. This will not use any of its charges and gives double experience when creating the required planks (however, it will not double the reward for the completion of a job). This can give around 100,000 experience in an hour.
If you lose or destroy the saw, you can get it back by talking to Brimstail in his cave. Brimstail will not give you a seed if you have either the seed, saw, or Crystal chimes in your bank or inventory.


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Assign 50 people in 25 different groups (for example RN?s, LPN?s and CNA?s) to 6 daily shifts and 75 locations each day on a simple Excel calendar scheduler. First you specify the availability of each employee for each shift each day for the month, and then you assign them to one or more daily shifts and locations from drop-down menus of people who are qualified and available for the shift on that day. You may schedule someone to more than 1 daily shift, but are alerted if you do.
This scheduler is ideal for companies that dispatch contract personnel to various locations each day such as agencies who dispatch nurses to several different hospitals and nursing homes. Since you can specify exactly which shifts each person can work each day, you are assured that scheduling conflicts will not arise.
Outputs include location and employee calendars showing personnel assignments for the month and a schedule calendar that you can e-mail to selected employees. The spreadsheet is available to schedule 3 or 6 daily shifts for 50, 100 or 200 people and may be downloaded from the Shift Schedules website and used freely for evaluation.
Keywords: Employee Dispatcher, Schedule on a Calendar, Agency Scheduler
Recent Changes: Changed to Annual License
Install Support: Install and Uninstall
Supported Languages: English
Additional Requirements: Not Established
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Leaders F (0%)
Groups F (0%)
Events F (0%)
History F (0%)
Opposition F (0%)
Tactics F (0%)
Content F (0%)
Grade levels F (0%)
Current events F (0%)
Civics F (0%)
Other movements F (0%)
Context F (0%)
GRADE F means Vermont includes none or less than 20% of the recommended content and should significantly revise its standards.
Vermont's Framework of Standards and Learning Opportunities (last revised in 2000) provides requirements for teaching the civil rights movement. In 2004, Vermont's State Board of Education produced a supplemental document, Grade Expectations for Vermont's Framework of Standards and Learning Opportunities. This document identifies Grade Cluster Expectations (GCEs), described as "more specific statements of the Vermont standards."
The introduction to the GCEs explains, "'E.g.s' are examples (not requirements or limited sets) of student demonstration or further clarification of a GCE."
Elementary and Middle School
Pre-K-4: Martin Luther King Jr. is included in the state's history and social sciences standards setting out "how democratic values came to be and how people, (e.g., Washington, Lincoln, King) events (e.g., 4th of July, Memorial Day, Labor Day) and symbols (e.g., flags, eagles) have exemplified them." The framework does not mention the civil rights movement.
Grade 6-8: The social studies GCEs mention the civil rights movement once as non-required content where students should "connect the past with the present" by "[i]nvestigating how events, people, and ideas have shaped the United States and/or the world; and hypothesizing how different influences could have led to different consequences (e.g., How did the civil rights movement change the United States, and how might the United States be different if it had never happened?)."
High School
Vermont does not require study of the civil rights movement in high school, although a few of the GCEs have suggested content related to the movement. The state asks students to "act as citizens by [a]nalyzing and evaluating changes in the interpretation of rights and responsibilities of citizenship over time (e.g., changes in voting age, changes in voting rights for women and African Americans)." Later, the Ku Klux Klan is included as a suggestion for analyzing subcultures (along with "Goths" and "Hippies"). A few additional CGEs elsewhere in the Civics, Government and Society strand touch on issues of race, but none are directly related to the civil rights movement.
Additional Documents
The Vermont Department of Education's website offers several pages of annotated resources in support of Black History month, several of which deal with the civil rights movement.
Vermont's standards and frameworks fail to set forth explicit requirements to learn about the civil rights movement.
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text: No recent wiki edits to this page. Codename: Gordon is a 2D flash-based side-scrolling shoot 'em up developed by Nuclear Vision for Valve Software.In Codename: Gordon players undertake the role of Gordon Freeman, the very same mute character from the immensely popular and critically acclaimed Half-Life series, and lead him through various locations inspired by the Half-Life universe, including City 17 itself. The game features several recognizable enemies from Half-Life including the headcrabs, zombies and the Combine, and also features a few of the main characters such as Alyx Vance. Gordon is armed with various weapons, such as the trademark crowbar and the gravity gun, introduced in Half-Life 2. You also communicate to other characters through text boxes by using emoticons, such as :] and :-), to choose your answers. Upon finishing the game, a new bonus game is unlocked, called "Crow Chase", in which the player has to try and gather as many points as possible within a given time limit by chasing crows, in an attempt to keep them in the air for as long as possible. Codename: Gordon was exclusively distributed through Steam and not available to buy elsewhere. You can install the game by putting steam://install/92 in your address bar. Plot The story of Codename: Gordon presents an alternate version of the story in Half-Life 2 with some locations being inspired by both Half-Life and Half-Life 2. Through his adventures, Gordon Freeman meets up with some of the other characters from Half-Life 2 to find out the cause of the disappearance of the third dimension. Through his adventure, he meets up with Barney, Alyx, Eli, Dr. Kleiner and the G-Man. Gordon eventually finds out that a strider, a large tripod war machine, turns out to be the source of the problem. Upon defeating it a portal is opened in which Gordon steps in, sending him back to the third dimension.


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The very moment I decided to bring Ryuu-kun over to my house, I knew the next day was going to be strange. I had left Akemi-chan's house in the middle of the night, without leaving any message as to where I was going. I was sure she was a bit freaked out when she woke up that morning to find that I was gone. Probably the first place she'd come looking was my house. It was obvious. Knowing Akemi-chan, she'd probably jump to conclusions. After all, she didn't really know much about my personality. She knew about my past, but not how I really acted in certain social situations. She'd probably think I felt weirded out or something, staying at someone else's house.
So, when the piercing cry of my alarm clock grabbed reality and shoved it into my face the next morning, I wondered how the day was going to go. Akemi-chan didn't live really that far away from me. She was probably waking up at the same exact moment. And, to her surprise, finding an empty futon next to her. I lay in the softness of my bed, staring at my beloved ceiling fan, with its perfect, endless cycle, pondering on these things. Was I worried about school, or dealing with Akemi-chan's inquiries? Not exactly. After last night, I found that things like that didn't bother me as much anymore. It couldn't possibly compare to a supernatural, inter-Dimensional card dealer hellbent on my demise. So, I sort of tossed it aside.
After I mustered enough motivation, I slid out of bed and trudged into the kitchen. It was very early, so it was a bit dark. I flicked on some lights and squinted as my eyes adjusted. It was very quiet in the house, too. The only sound was the constant, soothing noise of the refrigerator I was gazing at. I ran my hand over my face, trying to wake myself up. I wasn't worried about the rest of the day, but that didn't change the fact that some tough decisions would need to be made. I had opened the refrigerator and had begun the search for some breakfast when I sensed motion nearby and noticed Ryuu-kun had appeared in the doorway. He was dressed in his school uniform already, perfectly ready to go.
"Good morning, Shiori-san," he said. I almost dropped the tupperware I was holding. It was a bit shocking to suddenly see him looking exactly as when I had first seen him. And, oh, what an experience that was.
"H-hi," I whispered. I also performed some sort of strange waving motion with my free hand. Then I remembered the state of my physical image. It was embarrassing. Gesturing to my pajamas and hair, "I-I'm sorry . . . I just, uh, f-forgot . . ."
"It's fine," he replied nonchalantly. "I've seen worse."
Not sure if that was an insult or a compliment. I didn't have any reply for that sort of thing.
"I'm going to head to school here in a bit," Ryuu-kun continued. "I know it's really early, but I'm not sure you'd want us to be seen walking to school together, after what everyone saw yesterday."
Yeah, that could cause some problems for me. "Oh," I muttered. "Um, okay." I paused for a bit. "D-did you eat?"
"W-well . . . I can fry you an egg, or something. If y-you'd like."
"I don't want to cause you any unnecessary troubles like that," Ryuu-kun said. "I've already caused you enough trouble by staying over."
"I-it's not like th-that," I replied. "You need to, uh, eat. Y-you know. Breakfast."
He smiled. I sensed amusement on his part. He must've been comparing me to his mom or something. "A fried egg?"
"Sounds tasty," he laughed.
"Nothing. You just didn't seem like the type that could cook anything."
Well, excuse me. "I-I can . . . cook."
"Then why eat instant ramen every day at school?"
I looked at the floor, at my bare feet. "B-because it's . . . easy." I could feel his gaze. It seemed like he was totally making fun of me. There was a brief silence.
"Maybe some other time," he said at length. "I've got to get going, I'm going to buy some lunch on my way."
"Um, okay."
"See you at school."
And with that, he disappeared. A few seconds later, I heard the front door open and close. Then, silence. I was alone. Surprisingly, I didn't feel relieved. Why, I wonder? Maybe I wasn't flustered or nervous. Well, I was. Perhaps, not as much as before. I seemed to be getting used to him already. I stood there and stared at the tupperware I still had not opened. Was I getting attached to him? I didn't think so. I only needed him around because of this 4D mess, right? Once this was all resolved, things could go back to how they were. I could sit behind Ryuu-kun, and he wouldn't talk to me. I wouldn't have to be nervous around him. His eyes wouldn't be so scary to look into. Things will get better after this. I was sure of it.
It was too bad that day didn't come for a very long time, and it was not how I had imagined it at all.
I was startled by a sudden knock at the door. I had to perform some ninja moves to keep from dropping what I was holding. Who on earth could possibly be here? Oh. Akemi-chan. I took a deep breath and went to the door. I turned the handle slowly, creaked it open, and peered through to see the exhausted figure of exactly who I had presumed it to be.
"Shi-chan!" she wheezed. "You're okay!"
I wasn't sure where to start. I began by opening the door all the way. "I'm s-sorry about last night . . . it's a bit of a long s-story."
"I was so worried!"
"Thank y-you," I answered. Before I could get any more out, she hugged me again.
"You scared me so badly!" she said into my ear. "I didn't know what had happened to you!"
"I . . . uh, don't have time to tell you r-right now," I said as she released me. "B-but I can tell you at s-school, okay?" But, of course, I couldn't tell her everything. I'd have to leave out the Dealer, Ryuu-kun, and my new powers. All of that. I'd have to fill in the holes with other stuff somehow.
"Why did Ryuu-kun come out of your house earlier?" Akemi-chan asked. He eyes were wide with both fear and curiosity. My heart stopped.
What the hell was I supposed to say? She had seen him, undoubtedly. She must have almost been here when he left, seen him leave, stood there in disbelief, and then ran full speed to the door. It was a very bad situation.
"I . . . uh," I hesitated, "it's n-not . . . what you th-think. You s-see, he . . . uh . . ." I had no idea what to say. "I . . . wanted to, um, apologize." That's right. "For yesterday." But that still didn't explain why he had come out of my house.
Akemi-chan's face changed to one of oh-my-god-I-understand-now. "That's nice of you Shi-chan! I was sure that it was something related to that."
Oh really? "Y-yeah." I was hoping she wouldn't ask why I was still wearing my pajamas.
"I'm proud of you, Shi-chan!" Akemi-chan chirped. "See? You're already changing! So, can you talk to him, like, normally now?"
"Uh," I replied, "n-not really." I faked a smile. "It's a . . . work in p-progress."
She clapped her hands together. "That's wonderful! Will you be fine with us eating lunch together like yesterday? Or is it too soon?"
This could work out for the better. "N-no, that's great," I said. "Let's eat, uh, together . . . today."
"Roger that!" Akemi-chan said, saluting me. "Well, I'm off to school early! I need to beat the other girls there to invite him to lunch! I won't lose!" Yeah, that's true. He probably has a fan club already. "I'll meet you there, okay?"
"O-okay," I replied. "I still need to g-get ready."
"All right!" She patted me on the shoulder. "Good work, Shi-chan! See you at school!" And she danced away down the street. What a rainbow of emotions she exhibits in such a short period.
I couldn't believe I made it through that alive. I almost cracked under the pressure. I wanted to slam the door and never see her again. Not in a bad way, I just didn't want to face her or have to reply to her questions. But when I thought about it, she would make a terrible interrogator. If I hadn't said those few words that caused Akemi-chan to jump to conclusions, things could have gotten bad. I felt like I was a character in a light novel or a manga. Is there some sort of natural law that states whenever a high school student obtains special powers, they are then faced with situations like this? Or rather, I think it has something do with a certain mentor that has to appear to help the hero master those powers. So, it wasn't me, I told myself. It was Ryuu-kun's fault.
I laughed. My head was hurting. It was too early for this kind of thing. Sighing, I shut the door and leaned my forehead against it. My long black forelocks framed my sight. For a few minutes, I stared at the floor, listening to the occasional hum of a passing car. I tried to clear my head, but the less I tried to think of anything, the more I actually thought of. School was going to be interesting. And, with Akemi-chan there, difficult. Ryuu-kun didn't know he had been seen, probably. He doesn't know what Akemi-chan thinks happened.
That's not good at all. But, knowing Ryuu-kun, he'll probably come up with some perfect line that neither agrees nor disagrees with anything Akemi-chan says or doesn't give a yes or no answer no matter what she asks. Or, Akemi-chan might just forget all about the ordeal by the time she gets to school. The possibility of that happening is quite high as well.
I took a little longer to get ready for school than usual. I was very tired. I had run around the school grounds dodging deadly playing cards and swinging around a chainsaw last night. My body had barely enough energy to finish getting ready
and after that I had to stop and collect some energy before heading out the door, trudging along like a tortoise. I hoped my quiet personality could help save me from having to muster strength to answer people. Staring at them could shut them up. But, I couldn't do that to Akemi-chan. It would destroy my progress in getting a close friend.
Now that I think of it, wouldn't last night's events make me closer to Ryuu-kun than Akemi-chan? I worried at the thought.
When I got to school, Takahiro-kun was in his usual position at the chalkboard writing kanji. Ryuu-kun and Akemi-chan were nowhere to be found. When I slid open the door, the clacking of the chalk on the board ceased and Takahiro gazed at me through his glasses as if he were criticizing me.
"Oh," he said in response to my appearance. "Good morning, Shiori-san. You're okay?"
Am I okay? Oh yes, I forgot. I had a nervous breakdown yesterday during lunch. "Y-yes." I needed to stop forgetting that other people didn't know about the situation other than the events yesterday at school.
"Akemi-chan ran after you a few seconds after you left. She didn't show up for the rest of the day." He turned back to his work. "She was really worried about you."
" I said.
"Are you going to be okay today?" he asked. "Do you want me to get Zakuro-sensei to ask Kiyomizu-kun to switch seats with someone else? I can do it for you."
That's nice of you, Takahiro-kun. However, despite what you may think, that will not be necessary. I shook my head.
He glanced back at me. "Are you sure?"
"Yes," I replied softly. "I th-think that was a one-time thing
He looked confused, but shrugged. "If you say so." And he continued his work.
I took my seat, and found my book bag lying underneath. Thank the heavens. I opened it and looked through my notebooks for my unfinished homework. While I was in the process of searching, Akemi-chan arrived and danced towards me with her usual radiant smile, so bright that I almost had to shield my eyes as I watched her. How could she be so cheerful all the time? I was bewildered but entertained.
"Good morning, Takahiro-kun!" she said to him.
"Good morning, Akemi-chan," he chuckled. "Not only are you early, strangely, but you're unexpectedly cheery. Did something happen?"
"Lots of things! Hey, Shi-chan!"
I couldn't help but smile. "H-hello again. Long time no see."
"I saw Ryuu-kun! He was acting a bit strange, but he said he'd eat lunch with us. Takahiro-kun? Wanna eat with us too?"
Takahiro-kun laughed. "Is this going to be a daily thing? Should I just assume you're going to ask me every day, Akemi-chan?"
Akemi-chan's giggle filled the otherwise vacant classroom. "I guess so."
"Wonderful. However, I have a lot of student council issues to deal with during lunch, so I'll have to pass."
"Aw, that's too bad."
"Wh-where is Ryuu-kun?" I interrupted. "Er, I mean, Kiyomizu-kun?"
For a split second, Akemi-chan's face was that of profound confusion. I called Ryuu-kun by his first name accidentally. It was how I thought of him, for some reason. But, I needed to make it seem like I hardly knew him at all, so it was best for me to call him by his last name. Thus, my correction. Akemi-chan, despite how innocent she may have seemed, noticed my blunder and for a split-second looked at me extremely suspiciously. But, the expression vanished as quickly as it had appeared. I barely even registered it.
"He was in the library, getting books," Akemi-chan said. "I ran here full speed after leaving your house, Shi-chan. But he wasn't in the classroom, so I went looking for him and found him there. He was acting really weird though!"
"W-weird? How so?" I hope you didn't mess up, Ryuu-kun.
"Like he was not listening to anything I was saying."
"W-well, what were you saying?"
She seemed taken aback. I knew she was talking to him about my supposed apology to him this morning, which obviously did not happen. She was trying to verify my words. I should have known better than to think she believed my half-assed lies. Akemi-chan seemed to notice that I knew this. Gullible, ditsy Akemi-chan had a quick, clever response.
"I was asking him to lunch, obviously!" she chirped, smiling.
And that was the end of it. My other classmates began to appear, greeting us. By "us," I mean Akemi-chan and Takahiro-kun. After yesterday's ordeal at lunch, I was sure a larger number of people were taking care to avoid me and not speak to me. Not that I had any complaints, though.
Akemi-chan disappeared to greet her other friends. Takahiro-kun had finished his work and began studying again. I was left with no one to speak to. Ryuu-kun showed up five minutes before the bell, with a stack of very thick books in his arms. All female heads in the room turned to look when he stepped through the door, with some gasps and the usual dramatic reactions. No one seemed to care about the huge books he was carrying. Takahiro-kun greeted Ryuu-kun as he passed on his way to his seat, in front of me. Ryuu-kun only looked at me once before he sat down, but as he did, he mouthed one word.
With a loud thump, he plopped the stack of books on his desk and seated himself with some clattering. Notes? What is that supposed to mean? I leaned forward a bit to look closely at his books. They were very large, with complicated titles relating to physics, space, and chemistry. What on earth? First of all, why go to the library in the morning before classes? And, what's up with all the crazy scientific bibles? I didn't figure Ryuu-kun to be that type. But, perhaps I could be wrong. I was wrong about a lot of things about him before.
After Ryuu-kun's entrance, the room became considerably less noisy, as most of the girls were not talking, but watching him. And me. I felt a large number of vilifying glares. Perhaps it would be best if I did not greet Ryuu-kun today. Zakuro-sensei began homeroom.
Homeroom. Math.
It was a third of the way through History, as the bald-headed history teacher rattled on about boring dates and people, that Ryuu-kun passed me a note. I hesitated at first, but took it and opened it. Was this what he meant about notes?
Did you get my message?
What message? Does one word count as a message? Glancing around, I frantically scribbled yes and passed it back to him, making as little noise as possible. The teacher had his face buried in the textbook, reading it aloud.
Ryuu-kun returned it to me a few seconds later. Good. These books are for you. I will give them to you after school so no one sees. Do you think you can read them in a few days?
All of them? That's a lot of reading.
So, can you read them?
I can try.
Good. This is how we're going to communicate during school. I'm guessing, to avoid as much stress as possible, you want us to act like we didn't meet at all last night? Around other people?
He was spot on. Yeah, that'd be great. One thing. Why do I have to read those books?
They'll help you. Trust me.
Ok. Whatever you say. I probably won't read them, though. So what's up?
Let me first begin by explaining where I come from. The reality that I come from is a Fourth Dimensional reality. Its existence is denser than this reality that you come from, because yours is a Third Dimensional. Mine is a very advanced world, but it still takes some work to travel between Dimensions. The organization I work for is the IDEA. It's the Inter-Dimensional Enforcement Agency. We have technology to detect disturbances in certain realities. Most of them are of lower density than ours, like yours. Soldiers like me are dispatched to resolve these disturbances. We are trained warriors. I underwent strict training for several years before I was even accepted into the IDEA, and even then I had to be enlisted for several more years before I could attain status as a soldier. Even more time before I could be dispatched outside of our own reality, and even more time before I earned enough merit and a high enough rank to travel to other Dimensions. Does any of this make sense?
Good god. He filled up the whole rest of the page. I flipped it over. I don't get the whole Dimension/reality thing.
Imagine a bookshelf filled with books. The shelves are the Dimensions, and the books are the realities. I'm from a different book, one shelf above you.
That's easily understood. Okay. That makes sense. So what's this dream thing you're looking for?
The Talisman of Dreams. It's an artifact from my reality, an ancient weapon that is supposed to possess the power to transcend bookshelves. Not only that, but transcend the restrictions the books have on which shelf they can sit on. Basically, its power is capable of transforming an entire 3D reality into a 4D one. Or, even above that. It's an unbelievably powerful item, sought after since the birth of our world.
Damn. So how do you find something that's immaterial?
It's not technically immaterial. Before I can explain that, I have to explain the Dimensional concept. Obviously, matter from your world possesses three dimensions. If that matter were to be transferred to my world, a 4D world, the matter's very existence would be crushed into nothingness under the existential pressure. That's because the density of a 4D world's existence is much higher than what any 3D matter is able to withstand. Understand?
I was dumbfounded. I understood what he was saying, I just could not wrap my mind around the concept of an existence being crushed into nothingness, as he described. That's incredible. Yes, I understand.
Good. So, 4D matter in a 3D world? What do you think that would be like?
Now he's asking me questions about the things he's supposed to be explaining to me. I thought very hard, taking a moment to glance up at the history teacher. He hadn't noticed a thing. Well, 3D matter has three dimensions, and 4D would have four. So 4D matter in a 3D world would have
an extra dimension?
Good. That's right. That means that since I am made of 4D matter, I have an extra dimension that is incapable of being expressed in this world. On top of that, explaining the concept of my fourth dimension to you would be pointless, since the idea cannot be expressed in common words or numbers that are used in this world. Problem is, the Talisman of Dreams' makeup consists entirely of the fourth dimension. So, it is immaterial in this world only because it does not use any of the three dimensions that make up the fabric of this reality. Make sense?
I wasn't sure what to think. But yes. It makes sense. It's just unbelievable.
You have to believe it. You are now exposed to the truth of the universe. There are things that seem unbelievable, but must be believed because they are real. They weren't real to you before, but now they are. Please. Bear with me.
This is crazy.
You may think that. But that doesn't change the fact that it is real now.
It took me a while to respond. I hated how all of this was forcing itself on me. But, I needed to know what was going on with my body. So, I needed to learn this stuff. I guess I should be grateful that Ryuu-kun is willing to divulge this information. He could have just left me in the dark, found his talisman, and left. I should thank him sometime. But, seriously. This stuff was insane. I replied regarding one of my biggest concerns.
What happened to my body?
This time it took Ryuu-kun a while to respond. Every now and then, I would see him erase something, think really hard, and then write something else. It worried me. I grew anxious. I kept glancing around at my classmates. They seemed about as interested in the history lecture as a famous rapper in the sheet music for ACDC song. Eventually, Ryuu passed the note back to me. I opened it to read the words that haunted me for days.
I don't know.
I stared at the words, both angry and fearful. What do you mean, you don't know?
I mean I don't know. It's not possible for a 3D being to gain 4D powers or weapons. Now, if you were from a 4D reality, there wouldn't be any problem. But, you claimed to be of this world. Plus, the fact that you don't know what happened, yourself, proves that you are indeed a 3D being. How you attained 4D powers is beyond my comprehension.
That still doesn't help. Wouldn't having 4D powers make me a 4D being?
It should. But apparently, for you, it doesn't. You still blacked out when I performed the reparation incantation last night before we left the school. If you were a 4D being, you wouldn't have blacked out, you would have seen it. So, it seems to me that you're a 3D being with 4D powers. I still have no idea how you attained them, though.
That's wonderful.
This has never been witnessed in the history of any known reality in any Dimension. I believe you are the first being to ever achieve qualities of a higher Dimension. It's unbelievable. I've only ever read theories and legends and myths of this happening.
Like I said. That's wonderful.
It makes you the most powerful 3D being to have ever lived.
I sighed. I never asked to be. So what's next?
Well, since this is the first incident like this to ever occur, I will be observing you while carrying on my search for the Talisman of Dreams. I'm sure it would be best if the IDEA didn't send officials or researchers here to observe you. They tend to be ruthless. Our best option would be to come back to the school tonight to investigate the area again, perhaps I can gather some clues as to the origin of your powers and maybe some idea of where the Talisman of Dreams is located.
Class was almost over. Ok. The teacher asked for our homework from yesterday, but naturally, I did not have it done. I cringed as he marked my name and scolded me with a stern face. Ryuu-kun handed his in, no problem. Where did he find the time and energy? Well, he is a 4D being. Maybe that fourth dimension has something to do with very high stamina. Hopefully I can gain that ability soon, too. If it weren't for Ryuu-kun's notes, I probably would have fallen asleep during class.
Lunch began. Takahiro-kun stopped by for a second to apologize for not being able to eat with us. Akemi-chan told him it was no problem. I had no problem with eating lunch with them, but Akemi-chan invited Yuko-san and Riko-san again. Apparently Akemi-chan retained a the-more-the-merrier mentality, whereas I was pretty much the opposite, depending on the people. Most of today's lunch period consisted of Yuko-san, Riko-san, and Akemi-chan drilling Ryuu-kun with questions while I sat there and ate silently, while most of the girls in the class watched, hanging on Ryuu-kun's every word.
"So, Ryuu-kun!" Akemi-chan began. "What're all those books for?"
Ryuu-kun took a second to respond. "I think I'm getting interested in this field. I thought I'd read a bit of it to see if this was true." Clever. Except you won't be the one reading them, I will.
"Do you perhaps want to be a scientist?" Yuko-san asked.
"I'm not too sure."
"Hey," Riko-san interrupted. "What do you like to do for fun, Ryuu-kun? You seem like the sportsy type."
Sportsy? What kind of word is that?
"I used to play soccer back in Hokkaido," he replied. "I wasn't too good though."
Like hell you're from Hokkaido and like hell you played soccer. I held back a laugh.
"I find that hard to believe," Yuko-san commented.
"Yeah," Riko-san added. "You seem like you'd tear it up out there."
"I think Ryuu-kun's just being modest!" Akemi-chan declared. The other girls nodded.
I got the impression that Ryuu-kun was uncomfortable in this situation. But there wasn't really much I could do for him. I decided I would just finish my lunch and watch Ryuu-kun's interrogation.
"What do you do on the weekends, Ryuu-kun?" Yuko-san asked. "You don't have a girlfriend, do you?" At these words, I noticed Akemi-chan glance at me. I lowered my head a bit as I continued to finish my food and listen.
"I had one back in Hokkaido," Ryuu-kun said. "But we hadn't been together long. When I found out I was moving here, we both figured it was best to break up. Long distance relationships always end badly."
I noticed Akemi-chan gaping at Ryuu-kun. What the hell was with her? Before anyone else noticed her, she recollected herself and resumed her usual air of curiosity. What was that all about?
"I'm sorry, Ryuu-kun."
"Me too."
"That's terrible."
I could almost hear Ryuu-kun's mental cries to me. Help, I imagined him pleading. But, it was all I could do to keep back my laughter. He had to make up so much crap just to answer their silly questions. I doubted he'd ever be able to keep any of it consistent. Something tells me he's going to ask me for help with that.
Thankfully, I made it through the period without any bad incidents. I don't recall ever even saying a single word. Akemi-chan, I'm sure, was hoping I'd talk more; but, technically, it was her fault for inviting the other two girls, who were intent on learning everything about Ryuu-kun. They left no room for any other conversation. Hopefully Akemi-chan will get the hint and not have them eat with us next time. But, I was worried that Yuko-san and Riko-san had grown accustomed to eating with Ryuu-kun and having a Learn All About Kiyomizu-kun Period instead of a lunch period. I feared they would just show up uninvited from now on.
But, considering how the bright, cheerful Akemi-chan was beginning to show her suspicious side after this morning, she may have only invited the two girls to have an interrogate-Ryuu-kun-session just to see my reactions to certain things he said, however subtle they may be. Like I mentioned, Akemi-chan appeared to be smarter than she seemed.
A few minutes after the afternoon classes began, I took the first chance I had and passed Ryuu-kun a note. How was your lunch? I wrote, holding back laughter.
Shut up. I thought I was going to die. My brain is fried. Why didn't you say anything?
It was too funny. You did well though. You never visibly hesitated.
Well, thanks for your approval. Next time, help me out.
Huh? How? What am I supposed to say?
Can't you faint or something? Then I could carry you to the nurse's office. Well, not really. We could ditch. Those two girls are very annoying. Akemi-chan's not. But they are.
I can't ditch again. I already have a late assignment for History that was due today that I didn't have done because of last night. I can't afford to ditch any more classes.
Not like you pay attention, though.
Oh, well, excuse me, Ryuu-kun. That's been thanks to you.
I don't want you to be in the dark if things get tough. The Dealer may not have been the only one to follow me here.
I shuddered. That's a lovely thought. So, this Netherworld is another 4D world?
Yes, much like Hell.
I shuddered again. Wonderful.
It's full of malicious beings and powerful sprites bent on dominating neighboring realities. IDEA has been at war with them for ages. Occasionally, one or two Nether beings will escape to lower dimensions and we have to go hunt them down. Remember, any being from a higher dimension cannot be killed by matter or beings from lower dimensions.
Thanks for reminding me. I figured that much. So what's the plan for tonight? We're just gonna come snooping around campus again?
Pretty much. I've been thinking and putting things together. It is possible that the activation of your 4D powers created a dimensional rift on the school grounds. We will need to go see if there is one, and how bad it is.
What's a dimensional rift?
When there is a powerful surge of energy from a higher dimension inside a world of a lower dimension, the strength of the impact against the fabric of reality may blow a hole in the walls of the dimension, and matter from higher dimensions may leak in. Take your bookshelves for example. It's like drilling a hole through the bottom of the shelf above you.
And books can fall through these holes? I saw Ryuu-kun laugh silently when he read my note. Don't make fun of me. I know very little about this. He passed it back to me.
The books are realities. Other things from those books can fall through, like
I don't know, bookmarks and little pieces of paper. Beings, likely. If a dimensional rift was severe enough for an entire reality to fall through, it would be a complete catastrophe. It could not be repaired. I wouldn't even be able to begin to describe the destruction. But that's never happened before, and I don't think we have to worry about it.
Again, I couldn't wrap my mind around the concept. So
what if there happens to be a rift where my powers activated? Couldn't 4D beings be spawning there right now?
No. It's hard to explain. Your powers activated last night around two or three in the morning. If there was a rift, and 4D beings were near it on the other side of the fissure, they could only spawn there during that same time frame.
I began on a new piece of paper. I stuffed the last two in my bag to take home and reread over and over. It made some loud crinkling, despite my efforts. Some heads turned, but the teacher didn't seem to notice. Sighing, I continued my investigation. Why is that?
It's hard to explain. I can think of an example, but it may not be very clear. Let's imagine a large set of working gears. They keep spinning no matter how many you take out, but there's so many of them, you can't even fit a small stick through any opening at any time. That would be the working fabric of this reality. There are no holes. A rift would be the equivalent of taking out one of those gears so that there is an opening to the other side, but it only appears every few seconds because of the continuous spinning of the others. Those few seconds would be the span of twenty-four hours that the days in this dimension cycle around. Make sense?
More or less.
Good, so at three-ish last night, you took out a gear and an opening appeared that only appears at three-ish every night. Through this opening, 4D beings can leak through from other worlds, most likely the Nether. There's just one problem. A 4D being passing through that opening would be like sticking a steel pipe through the opening in the gears. After a little bit, the opening closes. It would close on the pipe, and all the gears would stop. It is detrimental to the existence of the reality if this is not dealt with as quickly as possible.
I saw where this was headed. So, pretty much, if a 4D beings passes through from the Nether, we just have to destroy them before the opening closes again
on the pipe.
Precisely. If there is a rift, and it is in such a place in the fissure that 4D beings can leak through, we will have to fend them off every night until the rift is fixed.
How does the rift get fixed?
IDEA does it. I would have to go back to IDEA in my home reality and get them to come fix it.
How long would that take, in the event that there is a rift in the first place?
The fissure between dimensions distorts time. I could leave, and, for me, be gone two days, while to you I may be gone for several weeks. There's no telling.
I sighed. That's just great. If there's a rift there, I'm going to be screwed for quite some time. Are you sure you don't have some sort of inter-dimensional communication device?
I have another analogy for sending messages back and forth, but generally it's best to just go yourself. Messages get lost in the fissure a lot, since they are data and not matter.
How frustrating. Imagine trying to send your mom a birthday card through the fissure. No matter what you do, it probably won't arrive on time. Wait. You said 4D beings can only spawn here during the certain time frame when the opening appears. I thought the fissure distorts time.
I'm glad you caught that. New analogy. Imagine a vertical tunnel. At the top is the Fourth Dimension. At the bottom is the Third Dimension. A rift would be a tunnel that you would just haphazardly fall through. A rift gets you through faster, but it usually happens randomly and is uncontrollable once it appears. The time distortion doesn't quite have the opportunity to effectively set in. Actually traveling through the fissure is like a tunnel with a ladder. It's much safer, but slower, and that's when the time distortion sets in.
Something hit me. Why can't you just jump down when traveling instead of taking the ladder? That's pretty dumb.
Because there's the chance that something in the fissure will shift during your fall, and you'll end up inside the fissure instead of your destination. People who fall into the fissure doing just that are never heard from again.
Who knew that there were so many rules for this sort of thing?
They're not rules, they're precautions and guidelines. Things to watch out for.
I sighed again, and glanced at the clock. We still had a lot of time left, even after school was over. What was I going to do? Go home and do homework, and then come to the school to fend off fourth-dimensional ravenous beasts, and then come home in time to go to school again? I doubt I would last very long under that sort of schedule. Seems like no sleep. Or, sleep during classes. And get failing grades. I ran all of this past Ryuu-kun.
Not good. Since I am a 4D being, I can go for weeks without this "sleep" that you 3D beings require. I would have to fend them off every few days or so, that way you could get some sleep.
I caught a condescending tone. How does that happen through written notes? I think it was the quotation marks he used. Well, I'm sorry I get tired. I'm exhausted even now.
Go home and sleep. I'll come and wake you up a little before 2 a.m. so that we can run through some stuff really quickly, like battle tactics and stuff.
You're saying that like 4D beings are actually going to show up?
Better safe than sorry.
Fine then.
When classes finished for the day, Akemi-chan disappeared without her usual invitation to go shopping and such. Ryuu-kun purposefully left his books behind so that I would end up with them. He didn't say a single word to me as he shuffled past the misty eyes of Yuko-san and Riko-san and vanished out of the classroom. I tried to slip the books into my bag but they were too big. They were heavy too. There's no way I'm even going to crack one of these. Besides, Ryuu-kun told me to go home and sleep, right?
To avoid being noticed with these ridiculous hardcover science bibles, I had to give up on my signature first-in last-out class attendance and immediately exit the school and endure the trek home carrying these in my bag and in my arms.
The sky was dark and overcast by the time I reached my equally dark home. It looked like it was going to be a rainy night. Slipping inside to the cold, vacant interior of my little house, I plopped Ryuu-kun's books onto the kitchen counter, dropped my bag on the floor, and trudged towards my room to change into more comfortable clothes for the late night ahead. If I went to sleep in them, I wouldn't have to change again when I woke up. Convenient.
As I headed down the hallway on the way to my room, I passed a small coffee table, adorned with the glinting surfaces of a long, white chainsaw.
Shiori - Day 3 by RavenousCrucifixWatch
©2011-2015 RavenousCrucifix
I put this one off for a while.
I just needed about six more paragraphs and it'd be done. Those books Ryuu-kun lends Shi-chan are quite special. That'll be revealed once she actually decides to take a look at them. She's a bit irresponsible on stuff like that. And do you think 4D beings are actually gonna show up? Of course you do. And I guess I kind of gave it away already with this: [link] .
Next chapter:
Wow, finally managed to read this haha. Done quite well, and only found one grammatical error ^.^ Haha sorry, typically I'm not a grammar nazi but I am when it comes to actual literature.
You know, with all the notes they were writing, it seems like they'd have a half a notebook's worth filled o.o
You know, with all the notes they were writing, it seems like they'd have a half a notebook's worth filled o.o
You can draw and write.
I can barely do either.
Damn you.
I can barely do either.
Damn you.
Such a cute and shy/ innocent story <3


text:
Jayson Werth says "there's nothing harder in the galaxy" than hitting
Mar 20, 2014, 8:20 AM EDT
Jayson Werth is an interesting guy. Not wired quite like most ballplayers. You get the sense that there's a lot going on above and behind that beard of his. Wheels are always turning. Because sometimes you get quotes from him which don't come out of the cliche factory.
Take his views on hitting as described in Adam Kilgore's article in the Washington Post the other day. Werth's friend Raul Ibanez told him that if you can hit you can do anything. Werth expands:
"Just because you can do something else doesn't mean you can hit. If you can hit, you can do anything. Because it's the hardest thing to do. There's nothing harder. I can bake a cake. I could figure out a way to do algorithms. But a guy that knows how to do algorithms could never hit. It's literally the hardest thing to do. If you can do the hardest thing, you can do anything else . . . There's nothing harder in the galaxy," he said.
Werth is married and has two kids and, based on my own personal experience at least, he had best not say such things around his wife lest he be forced to swallow and then pass a bowling ball as a means of approximating childbirth. Oh, and then take care of the bowling ball by himself for several years as his wife spends six or seven months at a time out on the road trying to hit baseballs. I feel like, eventually, his wife would be able to hit one of those baseballs. I question how well Werth would do with the bowling ball.
But we could say this about any number of things. Maybe the childbirth analogy is a bad one. Pick any other ones. I'm sure you can imagine many. Which isn't to say that hitting is easy. Far from it. Most of us couldn't make contact on batting practice pitches if we were given 100 chances. But it is probably the case that anyone who says that a thing they do at a hyper-elite level is the hardest thing to do in the world is worthy of your skepticism.
- stex52 - Mar 20, 2014 at 1:21 PM
I actually don't have too much trouble with the first half of Werth's argument. It's the corollary that gets me. Hitting an MLB pitch is incredibly hard. Thinking that means you can do anything else in particular (except maybe hit a golf ball) is the stretch.
- moogro - Mar 20, 2014 at 2:28 PM
Hitting is a specific hand-eye skill set that some people can adapt to better than others.
- avallstar - Mar 20, 2014 at 3:17 PM
Absurd to relate hitting to child birth. Literally 50 billion women have given birth. Any woman can give birth. It's not a rare, special talent. It might be painful, but that's where it ends. You're just a beaten down man who gave up a long long time ago to even think those two things compare.
- historiophiliac - Mar 20, 2014 at 3:33 PM
You know a lot of women die or develop serious health issues from childbirth, right? And, just because you do it, doesn't mean it's easy.
- mudhead123 - Mar 20, 2014 at 8:24 PM
All we have learned is Craig and paper lions are both dumbasses. Somehow Craig gets paid to be a dumbass
- fjsharp - Mar 23, 2014 at 11:51 AM
What Jason failed to consider that somewhere on the far spiral arm of the Milky Way is a planet that plays a sport that is exactly like baseball but the balls are the size of golf balls, they use invisible force field bats to hit with, and if you strike out you're vaporized. This is much harder than ours.
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Violet Oakley's studio at the Red Rose Inn, ca. 1900
Physical Details: Photographic print : 1 item : sepia ; 21 x 15 cm.
Creator: unidentified photographer
Description: Photograph shows a room with a high ceiling, chairs stacked with books and portfolios, a large easel and a painting leaning against the wall.
Identification on verso (handwritten): V.O. studio, the Red Rose.
Forms part of: Violet Oakley papers, 1841-1981
Rights Statement: U.S. public domain
Citation: Violet Oakley's studio at the Red Rose Inn, ca. 1900
Digital ID: 11549
- Artists' studios