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Japanator Unboxing: TokyoTreat - January 2017
Feb 26
// Red Veron
There are three tiers for TokyoTreat: Small, Regular, and Premium. Check out the images below to get an idea of what each package might look like: More details at the TokyoTreat site (Don't forget to use the code "Japanator")! Small - About 5-7 full sized Japanese candy and snacks Regular - About 10-12 full sized Japanese candy and snacks with DIY candy Premium - About 16-18 full sized Japanese candy and snacks with DIY candy, special item, and drink. Use the code "JAPANATOR" to get $3 off your first order of the Premium box! Free shipping included!
Happy New Treats!
[TokyoTreat provided the box and the reviewer has an affiliate partnership with TokyoTreat] The nice folks over at TokyoTreat sent me a box from their New Year 2017 to check out and it is a greatly delicious way to ring the ...
Loot Anime: Dimension - Japanator Unboxing
Feb 07
// Red Veron
Loot Anime is a monthly mystery subscription box featuring items related to your favorite anime and manga. There will be 4-6 items with each box, about $60+ in retail value, licensed, and most are exclusive to Loot Anime. If you are interested in signing up for next month's themed box, use the code "JAPANATOR" for $3 off first your order at Loot Anime!
Adventure in Another World
We've all probably fantasized of embarking on great adventures in worlds of sword and sorcery and doing all kinds of cool thing like slay dragons and saving kingdoms. This setting is familiar to those who are fans of anime a...
Japanator Unboxing: TokyoTreat - December 2016
Jan 30
// Red Veron
There are three tiers for TokyoTreat: Small, Regular, and Premium. Check out the images below to get an idea of what each package might look like: More details at the TokyoTreat site (Don't forget to use the code "Japanator")! Small - About 5-7 full sized Japanese candy and snacks (note: There were two of those red things on the right but I are one LOL) Regular - About 10-12 full sized Japanese candy and snacks with DIY candy Premium - About 16-18 full sized Japanese candy and snacks with DIY candy, special item, and drink.
Sweet and Savory Christmas
[TokyoTreat provided the box and the reviewer has an affiliate partnership with TokyoTreat] One of my favorite activities is where I venture to the local asian supermarkets to pick up some snacks and candy to satiate my crav...
Japanator Unboxing: Loot Anime - Galaxy
Dec 31
// Red Veron
Loot Anime is a monthly mystery subscription box featuring items related to your favorite anime and manga. There will be 4-6 items with each box, about $60+ in retail value, licensed, and most are exclusive to Loot Anime. If you are interested in signing up for next month's themed box, use the code "JAPANATOR" for $3 off first your order at Loot Anime!
Beyond the Stars
We're ending the year with a big bang with an out-of-this-world themed Loot Anime box full of goodies with the theme "Galaxy"! We have some pretty cool merch here that is sure to please Space Cowboys everywhere! I absolutely...
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Japanator Unboxing: Loot Anime - Blade
Dec 10
// Red Veron
Loot Anime is a monthly mystery subscription box featuring items related to your favorite anime and manga. There will be 4-6 items with each box, about $60+ in retail value, licensed, and most are exclusive to Loot Anime. If you are interested in signing up for next month's themed box for next month, use the code "JAPANATOR" for $3 off first your order at Loot Anime!
A Cut Above
When I found out that one of my favorite anime was to be one of the featured goodies in this month's Loot Anime, I was beyond hyped and was super excited when it arrived in my mailbox. The lovely folks over at Loot Anime HQ ...
Japanator Unboxing: Loot Anime - Delicious
Nov 03
// Red Veron
Loot Anime is a monthly mystery subscription box featuring items related to your favorite anime and manga. There will be 4-6 items with each box, about $60+ in retail value, licensed, and most are exclusive to Loot Anime. If you are interested in signing up for next month's themed box for next month, use the code "JAPANATOR" for $3 off first your order at Loot Anime!
Sweet Tooth for some Sweet Anime Loot
My monthly craving for some anime goodies just got satisfied with the latest Loot Anime box! The lovely folks over at Loot Anime HQ provided us with this month's Loot Anime, and the theme is "Delicious". This month's Loot An...
Japanator Unboxing: Loot Anime - Demi-Human
Oct 06
// Red Veron
The anime and manga featured in this month's "Demi-Human" Loot Anime box are One Punch Man, Tokyo Ghoul, Twin Star Exorcists, and Bleach. Check the video above for a guide to the items in the latest Loot Anime and check out the gallery below for some close up pictures of the items! Loot Anime is a monthly mystery subscription box featuring items related to your favorite anime and manga. There will be 4-6 items with each box, about $60+ in retail value, licensed, and most are exclusive to Loot Anime. If you are interested in signing up for next month's "Delicious" themed box for next month, use the code "JAPANATOR" for $3 off first your order at Loot Anime!
Less than Human, More than a Monster
The latest box of anime goodies from Loot Anime just smashed its way to my mailbox and it is all about "those part human, part something else entirely". Loot Anime's latest theme comes to us just at the right time of the yea...
Japanator Unboxing: Loot Anime - Back To School
Sep 08
// Red Veron
Next month's "Demi-Human" Loot Anime box will feature goodies from One Punch Man, Bleach, Tokyo Ghoul, and Twin Star Exorcists. If you are interested in signing up for next month's "Demi-Human" themed box for next month, use the code "JAPANATOR" for $3 off first your order at Loot Anime!
Don't be late!
The latest Loot Anime box just burst through my front door with a piece of toast in its mouth while wearing a sailor-styled school uniform (just kidding, boxes don't have mouths) and this month's theme is "Back to School"! T...
Japanator Unboxing: Loot Anime - Squadron
Aug 04
// Red Veron
If you are interested in signing up for the "Back to School" themed box for next month, use the code "JAPANATOR" for $3 off your order at Loot Anime! Next month will feature items from Assassination Classroom, Digimon Adventure tri, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Persona 3, Danganronpa and Fruits Basket!
Anime Squadron Goals
The latest Loot Anime box arrived at my doorstep and I am here to show y'all the awesome goodies inside the box. This month's theme for the monthly subscription box Loot Anime is "SQUADRON", and this new box of anime and man...
Here are the otaku games to eye this Steam Summer Sale
Jun 24
// Josh Tolentino
[Note: Pricing and actual percentage discounts can vary based on your region, so check your local Steam page to get the exact numbers.] The Fruit of Grisaia - The well-regarded visual novel series recently got an anime adaptation and was localized by Sekai Project last year. Its sequel, The Labyrinth of Grisaia, is also on sale, as is the Michiru-led comedy spinoff The Leisure of Grisaia. Higurashi When They Cry - The classic and now terribly ugly "sound novel" series was being sold for impulse-buy money even without a discount, and now the whole series, including Umineko, is up for the cut. Also interesting are other MangaGamer offerings like lesbian ghost sim Kindred Spirits on the Roof and Nikola Tesla pretty-boy sim Gahkthun of the Golden Lightning. Bandai Namco felt the touch of the green percentage as well, with all three Dark Souls games facing significant price cuts, as well as Tale of Zestiria, which has an awesome Japanese intro whose lyrics didn't make it into the English version. The Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm games are also on sale, so if you want to catch up with the last quarter of the Naruto manga's plot while also having cool graphics, that's up. Dragon Ball: Xenoverse and One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 also flesh out the roster of Shonen JUMP titans. Square Enix is as well-known these days for publishing western games as much as Japanese ones, but as far as relevance goes, Final Fantasy titles are where it's at. VII, VIII, IX, X, X-2, XIII, XIII-2, Type-0 and Lighting Returns are all on sale. And if the thought of playing all those JRPGs makes you want to strangle someone, they're also selling a handful of cool Hitman games. Capcom also brings a slate of offerings headlined by a much-needed discount on the beleaguered Street Fighter V. By most accounts, the fighting-game core of this unfortunate beast is strong, but the damn thing simply isn't finished yet. Capcom are promising a free "cinematic" story mode soon, as well as some new characters. Fans of Dead Rising can snag a hefty discount off a bundle containing Dead Rising 2, Dead Rising 2: Off The Record, and Dead Rising 3. The PC version of Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen is also available, spreading its cult appeal beyond the consoles. Look at Sega's store lineup and you'll find more Total War and Company of Heroes than the games most folks used to associate with the company. That said it would be a "shameful display" if a self-respecting, PC-owning otaku didn't at least try Shogun 2: Total War at the price it's being sold at now. It's the most Japanese game to ever come out of West Sussex, where developer Creative Assembly is quartered. People who do remember what Sega used to mean can drown their sorrows in a hefty collection of retro rereleases, or maybe some Valkyria Chronicles. XSEED, which has in many ways overtaken Atlus as the premier English-language localizer of note, has a number of PC offerings on sale, including the PC versions of Akiba's Trip and Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus. Fans who don't need too much anime boobies in their life can turn to a host of Ys games and The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky. Ghostlight, publisher of many a localized game in the UK, has a handful of Agarest titles up for discount, but the real prizes in my mind are Way of the Samurai 3 and 4, the quirkiest open-world games this side of a Yakuza spinoff. They're also basically better, more thought-out takes on what you may have tried in Akiba's Trip, but with more swords and S&M torture and less anime boobies. Speaking of games that were published by Spike Chunsoft at some point (they handled the original versions of Way of the Samurai and Akiba's Trip), you also can't forget Danganronpa 1 and 2, which are arguably two of the best visual novels available in English right now. In keeping with the fact that Idea Factory International mostly just handles a few games these days, a truly absurd number of Hyperdimension Neptunia games and DLC are on sale, with Fairy Fencer F and the redundantly-titled otome game Amnesia: Memories rounding out the offering. Playism brings a raftload of fairly obscure titles, but the headliners here are Swery's D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die, and the Indiana Jones-like metroidvania La-Mulana. NIS America, for its part, only started releasing PC games recently, and its availablity of old PS2-era strategy titles, including Phantom Brave and Disgaea alongside tough games like htoL#NiQ: The Firefly Diary and Stranger of Sword City are up for some modest price cuts. Other discounts of interest include the brilliant Stardew Valley, which does Harvest Moon better than its current masters in Japan have managed, and Undertale, a loving and subversive send-up of JRPGs. That's just a smattering of the most notable otaku-oriented offerings this summer. There may be more or larger discounts rolling in as the sale develops, so keep an eye on the storefront if there's something you're hoping to pick up.
And, like, five thousand other games
It's that time again, eager gamers and deal-conscious customers: Valve's yearly Steam Summer Sale has just kicked off, and the prices are a-dropping. That's especially relevant to you, the fan of games from Glorious Nippon, a...
Japanator Unboxing: Loot Anime - Duel
May 02
// Red Veron
Phat Anime Lootz
When the first geek-centric subscription boxes came around, Loot Crate was one of the first to make a name for the monthly mystery goody box that caters to connoisseurs of cool. When I first got my hands on a Loot Crate, I wi...
Steam Anime Sale
Steam's Anime Weekend sale reveals the depths of our infiltration
'Send the rest', he said
Apr 29
// Josh Tolentino
Sony isn't the only place putting the deals out for Golden Week. Steam, that hive of all other things Japanese when it comes to gaming, has just pulled the trigger on its Anime Weekend Sale. Running through Monday May 2nd, th...
Golden Week PSN Sale
It's a golden time for Sony's Golden Week 2016 PlayStation sale
Try Gravity Rush, Yakuza, and Suikoden!
Apr 27
// Josh Tolentino
If you have an interest in cool Japanese things - and I'd wager you do, having visited this site and all - you might be aware that Golden Week, that most anticipated cluster of Japanese holidays, begins tomorrow, on April 29t...
PSN Flash Sale
Hot deals on JoJo's, Fatal Frame this weekend on PSN
And more
Mar 19
// Josh Tolentino
Destructoid's Jordan Devore claims that grabbing Platinum Games' rollicking brawler Transformers: Devastation for less than a Jackson* is the centerpiece of this weekend's PSN Flash Sale. I respectfully disagree, because...
Square Enix sale
Square Enix's Steam sale chops chunks off Final Fantasy and more
Lightning Returns....for fat bargains!
Mar 04
// Josh Tolentino
It's no surprise that here at Japanator we're into Japanese games, but we're also into saving a bit of money while getting them, which makes Square Enix's Publisher Weekend sale on Steam quite relevant to both of those intere...
OMAKASE Black Friday deal gets you some stylin' anime goods
I want that Senketsu scarf
Nov 25
// Red Veron
Black Friday is here again along with the insanity but not all deals are to be had in stores since a lot of the anime goods you want aren't in brick and mortar stores these days. One great deal I stumbled upon for the post-turkey day shopping holiday is the OMAKASE subscription goodie box by online video streaming service Viewster.com.
Steam Comiket Sale
Go nuts for doujin games with Steam's Summer Comiket Sale
Indie-credible Deals
Aug 11
// Josh Tolentino
If there's one thing otaku like more than otaku things, it's otaku things bought for cheap, which makes Steam's latest excuse to have a sale especially relevant. Y'see, Summer Comiket is happening right about now, and the ota...
Steam sale
PSA: Anime is the name of Steam's weekend game sale
Now with more amorous avians!
Jan 09
// Josh Tolentino
Of all the geeky trends people took note of in 2014, one of the least appreciated is the Japanese gaming industry's growing embrace of indie development and global digital distribution. Sure, it's been happening for the last ...
MangaGamer sale
Celebrate Moe Day with MangaGamer!
Also, it's Moe Day!
Oct 10
// Josh Tolentino
October 10th is a special day for fans of moe and puns, because today is Moe Day! Why, you ask? Well, the Kanji characters for "October 10th" (十月十日) just so happen to line up just right to spell th...
PSN Sale
PSA: Dragon's Crown free, more discounts on PSN Sale
Get them while they're hot
Aug 08
// Josh Tolentino
It's not every day that you can get a bunch of good deals on a cool games, and that day has come if you're the type to buy things on PlayStation platforms. Both versions of Atlus' excellent Dragon's Crown are free to members ...
Holiday Shopping
Aksys Games holds digital holiday sale
Get Fate/Extra for $9.99
Dec 03
// Karen Mead
You've got to keep a close eye on the folks over at Aksys Games. When they're not busy trying to raise money to help Typhoon Haiyan victims, they're holding a sale on digital titles in honor of the holiday season. The sa...
PS Vita sale
PSA: PlayStation Vita hardware on sale at Radio Shack
All the portable gaming you can eat!
Nov 11
// Josh Tolentino
Hey, North Americans, I hear you're getting a PlayStation 4 soon! You know what would be a good companion machine for that monster? A PlayStation Vita! At least, Sony and Radio Shack seem to think so. Sony's done its part by ...
Japan PS Vita Sale
Japanese games star in the next PS Vita sale
Hook some big savings!
Aug 14
// Josh Tolentino
Hey, you know what's cool? Games from Japan for the PS Vita! You know what else is cool? Not paying a lot for videogames! It just so happens that Sony agrees with me, and has decided that for the next fortnight or so, you won...
SMT and Fire Emblem offer
SMT IV gets an offer that gives you back part of yo yens
Only if you buy Fire Emblem Awakening as well.
Jul 09
// Salvador G Rodiles
First I would like to say that Atlus has officially become my number one waifu, since they have teamed up with Nintendo to create an offer that's too good to be true. Starting July 16th, people who register Shin Megami Tensei...
PSA: Persona and other Atlus titles on sale for Euro PSN
Persona, troll boulders, a funny way to say 'droplets', and the holy Trine-ity
Jan 16
// Josh Tolentino
Are you a fan of deals? Sure you are! That's why Atlus is offering those of you European deal-lovers that also happen to be game-lovers a deal...on games. Atlus-published ones. On the PlayStation Network. From now until...
Get your shopping on with pre-Black Friday sales
Nov 21
// Brad Rice
Looking to spend all that holiday gift money on your friends yourself? Well, here's a chance to blow everything you've got left after that Criterion sale earlier this month. Right now, there are three big sales going on: FUNi...
PSA: Buy a PS Vita from Amazon, get Gravity Rush
Aug 01
// Josh Tolentino
In case you've been on the fence about getting yourself a PS Vita, a new Amazon offer might just help your decision. Buying a PS Vita, be it the 3G/Wi-Fi bundle or the regular Wi-Fi only model, will net you not only the handh...
PSA: RightStuf begins its 12 Days of Savings
Nov 28
// Josh Tolentino
In this case the "S" in "PSA" means SWEET DEALS. Preeminent anime retailer RightStuf has begun its "12 Days of Savings" mega-sale. In fact, the whole sale will be going on for longer than twelve days, lasting through December...
Hurry and buy: Persona 2, Fate/Extra are lightning deals
Nov 28
// Josh Tolentino
You've got less than half an hour left (as of 0850 PST)! And it's over! Fate/Extra (Regular and Limited) and Persona 2 are going for $20, $30, and $20, respectively. Go!
Poor food and late deliveries ruin some New Year parties
Jan 09
// Bob Muir
Japanese New Year celebrations usually incorporate osechi, a tradition dating back to the Heian Period involving symbolic foods packed into special bento boxes called jubako. Eating osechi is kind of a big deal, so you w...
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Status updates from everyone
Katie White
I love vampire knight... it makes me sad like really sad... and I only know one person that actually likes vampire knight... I need more friends to talk to about it... T-T
Katie White
I love anime !!!!!! <3
fairytail is epic
Anthony Redgrave
I'm very interested going forward reading the Vertical Bakemonogatari light novels having seen the anime first i.e. the reverse of what I did with Kizumonogatari. Would I think the novels are too bland without the superb animation/ direction of the anime?
Anthony Redgrave
Kizumonogatari films 1+2 are technically marvellous and brilliant adaptation of the highlights from the source material. Despite the Monogatari origins it is not beginner friendly. A lot of Monogatari staples are omitted/muted and has more horror elements
Garage Hero
Garage Hero is an independent movie group based in Tokyo, Japan that specializes in (but not limited to) the Tokusatsu genre of Japanese Cinema. Follow us on Twitter (@garagepro7) and Facebook!
It seems like Qpost isn't as well integrated as it is in dtoid. Shame this place isn't more active but I still love all of you.
DeScruff Sypran
Hello I guess I'm new. I came in because of the Va-11 Hall-A stream last night. When I get back home I'll explore this site a bit!
Hi I'm new and well I love anime...
Sometimes it just hard waiting for the pre-order. You know? But then there is other anime :).
Red Veron
Hey, readers! I love you<3
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Oh my gosh i just finished clannad after story for the second time and i need at least 5 more tissue boxes sniff sniff
Hiroko Yamamura
Yeah! I ordered three things all at different times and they all came in at the same time. Thanks name withheld ordering company!
Salvador G Rodiles
Since my condition hasn't improved that much from yesterday, my Jtor Live segment won't be happening tonight. If anything, it should be back this Saturday.
Salvador G Rodiles
Since I'm feeling under the weather right now (curse you, spring season), this week's Jtor Live shall be pushed to Sunday.
Anthony Redgrave
Hearts over Hanekawa! <3
Salvador G Rodiles
As a heads-up, this week's Jtor Live is being pushed back to Sunday.
Anthony Redgrave
Someone's got a new desktop background :D
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I don't know what this is, but it's tres Adorbs!
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text:
Part 36
Bren Derlin grinned, peeling off his gloves and stuffing them into the pocket of his jacket before taking the proffered beaker of thick, sweet kaffin from his Lieutenant. "Thank you..."
The Lieutenant returned the grin, telling him, "Thought you would appreciate it, Sir."
Derlin wrapped his hands around the warmth and closed his eyes: lifting the beaker to his lips and inhaling the rich, bitter aroma.
The heat seeped into his hands. He opened his eyes, looking at the synthetic 'skin' of his cybernetic arm. The sensation in that hand was slightly different from the other: almost the same, but not quite. He was so used to it now that he forgot, most of the time, that it wasn't real flesh and bone.
Today, however, it had been playing on his mind.
He took a mouthful of the kaffin, turning to look at the chronometer. Swallowing the hot liquid, he asked, "No notifications of delay?"
"No, Sir," the Lieutenant confirmed, knowing exactly what Derlin was referring to. "The ship's estimate for arrival is still good."
Wedge Antilles and Samoc Farr were returning to duty. They'd both been reassigned to the Rogues and the ship bringing them to Echo Base would be dropping into orbit very soon.
Derlin nodded, taking another mouthful of kaffin. He looked around the hangar then asked, "Is it just my imagination, or is there a sense of anticipation about the place?"
The Lieutenant grinned at him. "I'd say that 'anticipation' was a bit of an understatement, Sir."
Skywalker had told the pilots about Farr and Antilles' return, and the news had spread like flashfire. There had been a buzz of excitement in the Base since, tinged with apprehension, especially amongst the pilots.
Farr had been brought back from the dead: posted killed-in-action following the Alliance attack on the Bilbringi shipyards. Alliance Intelligence had only discovered that she was still alive, and languishing in one of the facilities on Orinackra, when a Rebel agent had infiltrated the Möerdaast penal facility. Farr had been rescued in an extraction operation that had coincided with the mission to the Möerdaast: the mission that had rescued Wedge Antilles, but cost Derlin his arm.
Antilles… The rescued hero: the man who hadn't been left behind.
However, Derlin had overheard a conversation between Hobbie Klivian and Alissha Downhigher, and knew that the pilots were concerned about Antilles, about what his treatment at the hands of the Imperials might have done.
"But what if it's not him, Hobbie? What if he's changed? What he went through..."
"Shhh," Hobbie had replied, softly, assuring her, "We'll deal with it. We treat him like we always did... He might not be Wedge when he gets here, but after a few days of the normal banter, he'll start coming back to us. Nejes promised us, back on the Home One, remember?"
Downhigher had made a soft, non-committal sound.
"And Samoc's coming back too, don't forget," Hobbie had pressed the point. "She's been gone since Bilbringi and Luke says she's doing fine..."
Almost as if she could read his train of thought, Derlin saw Major Toryn Farr appear on the far side of the hangar. Assigned to Echo Base as the Chief Communications Officer, Toryn was Samoc's older sister.
Draining his already-cooling kaffin, Derlin dumped the empty beaker on what passed as his desk, and headed across to Farr through a hangar that appeared to be getting more crowded. She saw him moving towards her and began making her way to him.
"Hello, beautiful," Derlin greeted as he reached her, teasing, "So, were you on time for duty this morning?"
She glared at him, good-naturedly, returning, "Yes, I was, no thanks to you!"
He grinned at her, reminding, "I offered to fold the game... You were the one who wanted to play out the hand…"
"Only because I knew you were cheating," she countered. "And it's a damned good job I've sat across a sabbac table from you before, mister!" she accused. "Fleecing Palo Torshan like that… Thank the Gods I arrived when I did!"
"I'd have given him his money back!" Derlin chuckled before telling her, "You were a far more interesting opponent!"
"Practice makes perfect," she offered, "especially when you're getting coached by a Wookiee! But enough of that," she went on, turning the conversation towards her reason for being in the hangar, "Samoc and Antilles are here... The transport just hit the atmosphere..."
Derlin's grin widened. "I figured it might be when I saw that smile on your face... Are Skywalker and Solo heading back?" he asked as he turned and headed back to his 'desk'.
Both men were out on Tauntauns doing reconnaissance of the area around the base. Not a way either men would have chosen to spend their morning's duty, but one of the inbound transports had reported seeing movement the day before. Solo had taken the Millennium Falcon to have a look, but found nothing. With the possibility of the engine noise scaring any indigenous life into hiding, and with the snowspeeders offline, General Rieekan had ordered reconnaissance of the area by Tauntaun.
Toryn dropped into step beside Derlin, confirming, "They are… but the ship will reach us before they do."
Derlin nodded, pulling his comlink from his pocket and ordering, "Chizg, hit the warning klaxon and patch me into the hangar comms." There were entirely too many personnel congregating in the hangar for his liking. Not that he blamed them. Everyone knew that Antilles and Farr's arrival was imminent, but as duty Deck Officer, it was his job to ensure the safety of everyone in the hangar.
The soft wail of an alarm cut across the cold air and a voice confirmed, "Patched in now, Major."
"Transport inbound!"Derlin announced, hearing his own voice echo through the hangar. "Transport inbound! All non-essential personnel vacate the main hangar. All non-essential personnel vacate the main hangar."
Jenniiya Elleba, Manwah of the Diazez Cartel, walked out into the warm, afternoon sunshine of the Gehndaarian afternoon. A soft breeze swirled around her, tugging gently at the brightly-coloured curtains that screened the interior of the gazebo in the centre of the garden.
Jenniiya walked down the path towards it, relishing the heat of the sun on her back. The Growing Season had moved into Harvest and the sky would soon cloud over into the storms of the Rainy Season. For now, though, the sun was still warm.
She reached the gazebo, pushing a curtain aside and ducking inside.
Yolan Nabrood dozed in one of the chairs, long legs stretched out in front of him, arms crossed over his chest. Jenniiya watched him for a moment, smiling.
In the months since the Rebel Alliance had delivered him safely home, his wounds had healed and his strength had returned, but the physicians had been unable to completely repair the damage to his lungs. There were still occasions when the breath would catch in his chest, sending him into a spasm of coughing that left him fighting to breathe.
Only when Yolan had been returned to them, had Jenniiya realised how much she truly valued him: his strength, his warmth, his courage, his loyalty. Only when she had held him, talking softly to him as he fought to breathe in the aftermath of a coughing fit that first evening, had she realised how scared she was of losing him again. She had lain beside him for the rest of the night, simply watching him sleep, afraid to leave him.
And when tiredness had finally overtaken her, she had woken to find herself wrapped in his arms, her head pillowed against his shoulder.
The coughing episodes were growing less frequent, but the physicians had warned that they would never entirely leave him and had advocated that he spend the Rains in the high, dry air of the mountains.
The thought of not having him with her, had sent a pang of loneliness through her. Nabrood had said nothing, but she had seen the resolute denial in his eyes.
"Is there something I can do for you, Manwah?" he rumbled softly, eyes still closed. "Or do you simply wish to gaze at the gods-given grace of my mortal frame?"
Jenniiya chuckled, moving towards him, teasing, "Such disrespect for your Manwah! I should have you flogged! Have you forgotten that, as your Manwah, you have given over your mortal frame to me, to do with as I wish."
Opening his eyes, grinning up at her, he countered, "But only in the defence of, and for the good of, the Diazez, Manwah. In all other ways, I am a free man..."
"Aha! Politics!" she responded, sinking into the chair beside him, turning the conversation towards the reason she had sought him out, "If you wish to talk politics, let us talk politics! There is a matter I would have your council on."
Pushing himself straight, sitting up, he uncrossed his arms, catching her hand, drawing it to his lips and kissing her fingers. "What council does the Manwah wish of me?"
She smiled at him, telling him, "I have received news... and it appears that the time may have come to place proposal before the Council: the intention of the Manwah to take a consort..."
He frowned, looking at her, his eyes searching her face. "What…" he began. "What news have you received that brings you to such conclusion?"
Her smile widened. "If all goes well," she told him, "the start of the Growing Season will bring us a child..."
Yolan looked at her, then at her belly, then back to her face. He blinked, swallowing and clearing his throat before managing, "What?"
Jenniiya laughed, reaching up to brush the back of her fingers down his cheek. "You are going to be a father, my love... I have suspected for a few weeks, but physician Vezlentz has just confirmed it..."
A slow, wide smile spread across Nabrood's face. "A child..."
She nodded, confirming, "By the start of Growing Season... And I will need all your help, yours and Lyn's, to stay ahead of the Council, the Alliance and, most importantly, the Empire. Oston is vile and honourless and will come in for the kill if he senses any weakness."
Yolan shook his head, joy and an all-consuming protectiveness surging in his chest. Grasping her hands in his, voice earnest, he assured her, "It will not happen. You will be guarded. The Diazez will be guarded. But, as of now," he went on, "there are no risks taken. Everything is planned, set out, all possibilities examined. As of now, we must be far more clever..."
He stopped, a smile tugging at his lips again as he caressed the back of her hands with his thumbs. "A child..."
Imperial Advisor Alec Pradeux turned, looking towards the door of the Emperor's audience chamber as it opened.
Pradeux had not seen former-Senator Bail Organa since the last time the Rebel had been brought before the Emperor. The situation this time, however, was far different. There was no escort of Imperial guards, nor were there any restraints around Organa's wrists. Instead he was accompanied solely by Ljana Castell.
The ISB officer had been promoted to full Colonel and assigned to head a new department within ISB itself. The continued existence of that department rested on the results of Organa's interview with Palpatine.
After the success of Antilles' public denunciation of Rebel sedition, Bail Organa had been assigned to the same fate. The Emperor had gleefully pronounced that there was far more political value in re-educating his opponents, than in ridding himself of them… and turning them into martyrs.
Pradeux watched Organa as he walked across the floor. He still held himself with a regal bearing. He still moved with the authority Pradeux remembered from before his arrest. His treatment at the hands of Colonel Castell appeared to have had no detrimental affect… except for the dark smudges beneath his eyes.
He slowed as he reached the assembled Imperial Advisors, arranged either side of Palpatine's throne. He ignored them, his attention fixed on Palpatine. Sinking to one knee, bowing his head, he greeted, "Majesty."
Palpatine rose to his feet, stepping off the dais and moving towards him. "Senator Organa," he began, voice dripping with condescension, "you have very much disappointed us. We thought you to be a trusted friend. Instead we find that, even as the Empire was being founded, you were colluding with traitors and plotting sedition with the Jedi: contriving terror at the very heart of our Empire…"
He stopped, looking down at the Rebel sympathiser. "What do you have to say for yourself?"
"Majesty, I am guilty of all charges laid against me," Organa told him.
Palpatine made a small sound of distaste and then turned, mounting the steps to his throne and sinking into it. Organa didn't move; remaining on his knees with his head bowed.
"And is this all you have to say, Senator?" Palpatine demanded.
Gaze still fixed on the floor, Organa shook his head. Emotion coursed through him: anger at his own foolishness, fear that Palpatine might not execute him but throw him back into the hell of darkness and isolation instead. He closed his eyes, taking a moment to calm himself before admitting softly, "I allowed my heart to rule my actions. I allowed my relationship with the Jedi to cloud my judgement. In my grief at the loss of those I held as friends, despite the horror of the Jedi assassination attempt on your august person, I formed conclusions that were… unsound…"
An image swept up from the depths of his memories: a young Jedi boy, standing in an open doorway, fending off blaster bolts before being cut down. Sorrow and guilt constricted Bail's chest: at the senseless loss, at the line the Jedi had spun to gain his support, at his own gullibility.
Lifting his head, he looked up at the scarred, mutilated face of the Emperor. The Jedi were responsible for the disfigurement. In their lust for power they had tried to murder him, believing that his death would leave the way open for them to seize control of the galaxy. They had reckoned, however, without Palpatine's foresight.
"In my flawed conviction," he told the Emperor, "I failed to see with the clarity you possessed. In my grief, I failed to realise that the Jedi Council coveted the power given to you by the people themselves… In trying to find answers, I railed against your new order. In my anguish, I believed the Empire, not the Jedi, to be flawed."
He paused, taking a deep, steadying breath before admitting to the most heinous crime of all, "I aided Jedi to escape. I helped Kenobi and Yoda hide Anakin Skywalker's children…"
The announcement pulled Palpatine up short. Children…
This was unforeseen… and yet it answered questions: about the small tremors in the Force he had sensed, deep in the absorption of meditation.
Vader had encountered the Skywalker boy at Yavin. The security recordings had confirmed the striking resemblance between the youngster and Anakin Skywalker. Kenobi's presence had only given weight to the suspicions about the boy's heritage. Palpatine had questioned Vader closely about young Skywalker but Vader had reported sensing no apparent Force abilities in him.
Palpatine had begun to suspect that conclusion when the presence had appeared within the Force: fleeting, unfocussed and untrained but hinting of power…
He had not foreseen a second or, possibly, third child; one who was apparently coming into their Force legacy. Now that he knew of another Skywalker's existence, however, he would investigate further.
He studied the kneeling figure of Bail Organa. The Senator and Kenobi had been right to hide Skywalker's brats from him. Had he known about the children, he would have had them hunted down and killed with the rest of the Jedi plague. And yet, ultimately, Organa and Kenobi had been unable to keep their deception silent in the face of the power of the Dark Side of the Force.
All that subterfuge, all that planning, come to nothing.
I helped Kenobi hide Anakin Skywalker's children…
A memory surfaced: of Vader, reporting that they had allowed Organa's daughter to leave the Death Star aboard a ship that would lead them to a Rebel base. She would not give up the Rebellion. Her resistance to the mind probe was considerable.
Palpatine took a long, deep breath as realisation swept in.
Her resistance was considerable…
Organa had hidden another of Skywalker's children in his own family. Vader had, unwittingly, held Skywalker's daughter within his grasp on the Death Star.
The information about the daughter and her identity would, of course, have to be kept from Vader. The Sith Lord was distracted enough by his encounter with Kenobi and memories of Amidala.
Palpatine leaned back in his chair. "Did you think," he accused, the lie falling easily from his lips, "that we were unaware of Kenobi taking the boy to Tatooine while you hid the girl in plain sight as your own daughter?"
He heard the intake of breath from Alec Pradeux but kept his attention on Organa…
The Senator bowed his head. "Majesty," he began, "I allowed my relationship with the Jedi to cloud my judgement."
"And we are greatly pleased that you have found clarity, Senator," Palpatine countered, keeping his voice soft and unthreatening. "We will speak more on this later."
Rising to his feet, looking at Castell he continued, "Colonel, your assignment is now permanent. You will have your orders within the hour."
Heart hammering in her chest, trying desperately to keep her composure and not allow the pride and excitement to show on her face, Castell drew herself up straighter, saluting the Emperor as he turned, "Thank you, your Highness."
"Have the Senator returned to his quarters," Palpatine told Pradeux, moving past him towards his private rooms. "See to his needs. There are other matters to which I must attend."
Samoc Farr stood at the ship's main hatch. The soft vibration through the soles of her feet died away as the engines spooled down. She tugged on her jacket again, nervous and excited about returning to duty.
She hadn't expected this. As the long weeks had drawn into months and no rescue had come, Samoc had given up hope of ever returning to Rebel lines. Instead, she had focussed all of her energy on simply staying alive… and sane.
It hadn't been easy. The scars on her back and the slightly crooked fingers of her left hand were testament to that: an enduring reminder of what she had survived. As persisting as the memory of watching the life fade from the eyes of the big, brute of a man who had decided she was easy pickings.
She had given him due warning. He hadn't been thinking with his brain, however. Being twice as big as her, he hadn't believed her, either.
Wrenåk, the other Rebel pilot thrown with her into the detention facility, had tried to help but he had been in worse shape than she had been. She had pushed him back, dealing with her would-be attacker herself. Weak from interrogation, only her combat training had saved her…
The man had looked at her in disbelief as he had fallen backwards onto the ground. She had knelt beside him, yelling at him for being stupid and not believing her, as the blood had choked his lungs and slowly suffocated him. It had earned her a respect that had helped keep her and Wrenåk alive when others had died.
Despite the careful, guilt-freeing counselling of Nejes, she had watched him die again in her dreams only the night before.
She sighed, softly.
"Are you okay, Lieutenant?" Nejes' soft voice asked from behind her.
Samoc turned, looking at the Medical Specialist, giving her a wan smile. "Nervous," she admitted. "Excited… but nervous..."
"That's perfectly understandable," Nejes smiled back. "You've been out of the loop for a while. Everything will seem familiar," she reminded gently, "but different… Don't forget that this is a new base, though, so everyone is pretty much still getting used to it."
She turned her attention to the pilot standing beside Samoc. "What about you, Lieutenant-Commander?"
Wedge Antilles looked at her, considering the question for a moment before nodding and assuring her, "I'm okay…"
Nejes smiled. "Well," she told them, stepping back away from them as the hatch opened, "you both know where I am. My door will always be open."
Frigid air rushed in, stinging Wedge's face. He blinked, taken aback, glancing at Samoc, who had quirked an eyebrow in surprise at seeing her breath misting in the sudden influx of icy air. They'd been warned that Echo Base was on an ice planet… but the knowledge hadn't quite prepared either of them for the freezing reality.
"Chilly," Nejes chuckled from behind them, "isn't it?"
The steps had folded down, and locked into place with a clunk. A tall, slender man walked up into the ship, followed by a smaller, slighter figure. Both were wrapped up against the cold.
All three Alliance officers saluted them. Carlist Rieekan returned their salutes, ordering, "At ease, people," before introducing, "General Rieekan, commanding officer of Echo Base." He turned, introducing, "Princess Leia Organa."
Leia gave them a warm smile, acknowledging Nejes with a nod before telling Antilles and Farr, "We are pleased to welcome both of you to Echo Base."
"Thank you, Your Highness," Samoc replied.
"Thank you, Ma'am," Wedge also acknowledged.
Rieekan considered the pilots for a moment before telling them, "Neither the Princess nor I thought you would want any pomp or circumstance about returning to duty… but the folks here have had a hard graft to get this base running and we agreed that some pageantry would be good for morale."
"Your colleagues are assembling in the hangar to greet you," the Princess explained. "The engineers and ground staff too… But there's nothing too formal," she assured them.
"There is, however," she went on, "the matter of Commendations you're both being awarded."
The quickly concealed dismay on both pilots' faces confirmed for Leia what Nejes had reported before signing them both fit for light duty: neither pilot was comfortable with the fact that they were being viewed as heroes. Leia understood that. She had refused to accept a commendation herself, after Yavin. She had cited her rank, her position within the Rebel Alliance: persuading Mon Mothma that it would mean far more to the Alliance personnel if she was to present the medals, rather than receive one.
Luke, Han and Chewbacca had been the heroes of Yavin. All she had done was stay alive long enough to be rescued.
"The Princess and I have both agreed," Rieekan was continuing, "that it's too damned cold to stand around out there for a ceremony, so we have decided to present them here, where there's at least some warmth."
"General Rieekan," Wedge interrupted, unable to stay silent any longer, a small flutter of panic trembling through his gut.
Leia stepped forward, laying a staying hand on the General's arm. Rieekan looked at her, but fell silent.
"You are about to tell us that you have done nothing to warrant a Commendation," Leia began softly. She watched him swallow, and then nod.
Looking at Farr, she asked, "Is this what you also feel?"
The dark-haired woman nodded, confirming, "Yes, Ma'am."
Leia smiled gently at them both, shaking her head in disgreement.
"Wedge," she began, using the pilot's given name, rather than his rank, "I know that your memories of what happened are… sketchy… at best, but your courage in the face of overwhelming odds, along with the courage of the other pilots sent to Gehndaaria, is almost entirely responsible for the Diazez Cartel forging a treaty with the Rebel Alliance. The Diazez honour bravery. Allying themselves with the Rebel Alliance was done in honour of your bravery. Moreover, Yolan Nabrood has confirmed that without your strength and courage, he would have died in a xylpher fire in the mines. You got him out. Only three of you survived the fire."
She stopped, letting him take all of that in.
Turning to Farr, she began, "Samoc… Your resistance to Imperial questioning frustrated them so much that you earned yourself a death sentence. That bravery alone is grounds for this commendation. And when, instead," she went on, "you were consigned to Orinackra, despite having a broken hand, you ensured the survival of both yourself and another pilot who was badly injured. According to Wrenåk Vey, he is only alive because you kept him alive in those first days."
She paused again, looking from Wedge to Samoc. Drawing two, long, flat boxes from the pocket of her duffel, holding them in her hand, she went on, "More importantly, these medals are a sign of hope for everyone out there in that hangar. Just like the medals given to Commander Skywalker and Captain Solo after Yavin, these are a sign of the Empire's ultimate downfall: a tangible reminder that the Empire is not all-powerful, that it can be, and has been, defeated."
Leia's words struck a chord with Wedge. He looked at the boxes in her hand, emotion welling up in his chest. He swallowed it down, fighting for composure.
The Princess was right. The medals were a sign that the Empire wasn't all powerful, that it could be defeated. They echoed his very presence, here and now, on this ship, about to step out into a Rebel Alliance base. The Empire had tried to mind-wipe him: turn him away from everything he believed. For a time, they had succeeded… but only for a time.
That he had saved Nabrood's life was a revelation: although it explained the curved daggers currently packed in his belongings, with the Yolan family crest engraved on the handles, and the accompanying parchment that had read, simply, "Brother, you have always a place within our halls. Stay strong and return home soon."
He had very little memory of Gehndaaria and the aftermath. Everything was distorted, fragmented. He remembered Nabrood; he remembered the blond woman in Imperial uniform; he remembered the warmth of the Gehndaarian sun on his face… and a cold, never-ending darkness…
He had been shown the media footage of his forced confession, but he had no recollection of it: nor of being on Corscant.
His mind, Nejes had explained, was protecting him. He might slowly recover his memory, it might all come back, in a flood, at once… or he might never remember.
There were still times when he found himself thinking the Imperial propaganda he had been fed, but those occasions were growing less and less frequent. And the thoughts were easily banished by reaching for one of the data crystal that had arrived for him, regularly, during his convalescence. They held all the get-well wishes and general everyday idiocy from Luke, Hobbie, Alissha, Brin, Janson and others he had flown with. And the occasional messages from a rather gorgeous brunette called Lyn Areese: whom he had apparently met on Gehndaaria, although he didn't remember it.
Pulling himself up, squaring his shoulders, he swallowed down the constriction in his throat, clearing his voice. "Your Highness, General," he began, "Please accept my apologies. I…"
He trailed off, searching for the words to explain what he had just been thinking.
"The Princess Leia is right," he began, finally. "Those medals are a sign of hope… a symbol that the Empire can be stopped. They tried to turn me; they trooped me out in front of the entire galaxy to denounce the Rebel Alliance… but it failed. Instead, it brought more people to the cause. It did the opposite of everything the Empire intended."
He paused, a slow smile pulling his lips. "Those aren't medals for bravery," he told the Princess, "they're medals for tenacity. And on those grounds I will gladly accept one, on behalf of the Rebel Alliance."
Samoc looked at him. Wedge was right. It was sheer bloody-mindedness that had kept her alive on Orinackra. And, if what the Princess said was correct, she had survived despite an execution order. Despite everything the Empire had thrown at her, she was still here.
Samoc grinned then laughed softly, shaking her head. Looking at the Princess, she announced, "Antilles is right. And on those grounds, I will also accept one on behalf of the Rebel Alliance."
Leia was also smiling. She handed the boxes over to the pilots, ordering, "Open them, please."
Stepping forward, she lifted Samoc's medal out of the box, placing it over her head to settle around her neck. Then she turned, lifting Wedge's medal and settling it around his neck.
Rieekan saluted them, telling them, "It is an honour to serve with both of you."
Then he turned, heading out of the hatch and down the steps. Wedge heard him bark, "Parade! Parade, atten-shun!"
The sound of hundreds of personnel moving to attention in unison ricocheted around the ice walls of the hangar. Leia gave both pilots another, wide smile then told them, "After you, Lieutenant, Lieutenant-Commander."
Wedge moved towards the hatch, pausing only to tug his jacket straight. He glanced at Samoc, giving her a quick nod. Samoc took a deep breath, returning the nod. Then, together, they stepped off the ship, back into the ranks of the Rebel Alliance.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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text:
Have the Congress's dual or triple power centres fallen apart? The more the beleaguered UPA II government is inching closer towards the elections and hence trying to create magic across the country hoping that it will enable it to somehow return for the third consecutive term, the more it is losing face.
Direct cash transfer scheme, food security bill, ordinance to shield convicted politicians and then taking a U-turn, formation of Telangana, call it whatever you feel, but that much desired magic is yet to be created.
Could Pranab have served as a better PM?
The critical juncture in which the Congress has found itself could raise again the question that was not answered nine years ago when Sonia Gandhi declined to become the prime minister.
Could Pranab Mukhrjee have been made the prime minister then instead of Manmohan Singh? The way the former has been asserting his voice as the president of the country, had it been better if he was made the prime minister, the executive head?
Pranab's huge experience was ignored
Mukherjee's political experience is more than that of the two Gandhis and Singh put together. The 78-year-old was in active politics for six decades before becoming the president of the country in July last year. Hadn't been it wise for Sonia Gandhi to use the experience of this man to lead her UPA government, at least in the second term?
Mukherjee had won his first Lok Sabha contest in 2004, unlike Singh who has always remained 'elite' parliamentarian from the Rajya Sabha, and backed it up with another win in 2009. He was one of those rare old-timers in the Congress who had an influence over the bureaucracy unlike most of the ministers today, who excessively depend on the bureaucracy for the day-to-day functioning. True, Mukherjee was not a mass leader like many others in the country but his victory as a member of the Lok Sabha coupled with his huge experience could make him a fitter prime ministerial candidate than Singh.
Shadow of the past stopped Pranab again?
Perhaps the Gandhis failed to come out of the shadow of the past. In 1984 after the assassination of Indira Gandhi, Mukherjee as the then Number Two in the Cabinet, could have become the successor but the dynastic politics didn't allow that to happen.
Indira's son Rajiv Gandhi, who was just a general secretary of the Congress, was invited to become the prime minister by the then President Gyani Zail Singh.
Mukherjee faded into oblivion after the young leader took over as the prime minister but was brought back after the Gandhi in power faced a big trouble in the name of Bofors.
Mukherjee was one of those leaders who played an important role to bring back the Gandhis to the leadership of the party after it faced a big crisis after the days of Narasimha Rao and Sitaram Kesari. Yet, in 2004 while responding to the inner call, the name of Mukherjee as the PM did not arise for Rajiv's widow, Sonia Gandhi.
Pranab was the most experienced man in the Cong but yet ignored.
Manmohan served Sonia's conscience but not the nation
May be Mukherjee's sea of experience and a thinking mind ruined his chances, quite paradoxically, and Manmohan Singh looked a better candidate for he could be easily won over.
But the convenience of Sonia Gandhi didn't prove beneficial for the nation in the long run. The tragic fall of Singh, particularly in the last one year when 'trouble-shooter' Mukherjee was no more there in the UPA II, shows how much directionless and leaderless the Congress-led regime has turned out into.
But Mukherjee's leadership skills have not gone wasted. He is showing even as the nominal head that voices always have an impact.
What Pranab speaks as President, MMS can't as PM?
What Sonia's candidate Manmohan Singh failed to do as the prime minister, Pranab Mukherjee, the candidate she overlooked, has been doing as the president, even if that has led to a reassessment of the role of the titular head.
Pranab showed the way to Rahul and MMS
President Mukherjee showed how things are done, both at institutional and leadership levels. He raised objection to the controversial ordinance in his presidential capacity and not through a superman-like act at some press conference.
A section of the media and the supporters of the Congress were extremely elated over Rahul Gandhi's act as a 'saviour' of the democracy but surprisingly, the constitutional spirit with which the president acted as the real 'saviour' didn't get its due recognition.
Again in Belgium, the president's strong words on terrorism are something Prime Minister Singh can learn. Strong message doesn't mean just reading from a script in a high pitch. It means to speak with a conviction. The prime minister looks completely out of sync with what's happening all around, be it violations at the border or crime against women (read Thik Hain).
Mukherjee didn't confine himself to a limited political role but asserted himself. This is how a leadership is expected to act, with conviction.
Congress's balance of power is lost
The balance of power in the Congress was spoilt the day Mukherjee made an exit. The vacuum that prevails in the party under the weakened Gandhis will be difficult to fill up. Sonia Gandhi perhaps regret the way she authored the story.


text:
ED Magedson – Founder
Ripoff Report
VESTA CORPORATION11950 SW Garden Place Portland, Oregon USA
VESTA CORPORATION On Dec 02, Vesta Corp made an unauthorized withdrawal from my bank aqccount. Portland Oregon
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On Dec o2 Vesta Corp made an unauthorized withdrawal from my bank account. I was never notified via text to my phone or email to my address. I found out when I checked my bank account balance early Mon am, Dec. 02
I immediately tried to call Vesta but couldn't get through as their phone nbr is good only for retrieving msgs.
Had to call AT&T but they do not do refunds. Have disputed this with my bank.
This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 12/02/2013 09:14 AM and is a permanent record located here: http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/vesta-corporation/portland-oregon-97223/vesta-corporation-on-dec-02-vesta-corp-made-an-unauthorized-withdrawal-from-my-bank-aqcc-1103566. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year.
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text:
John E. Roll
John E. Roll is celebrated, among other things, as having assisted Abraham Lincoln in the construction of the flat boat with which the tall Kentuckian made his first trip from Salem, Ill., to New Orleans, in 1831.
"I knew him when he was 22 years old," said Mr. Roll. "He came down here to Sangamontown and worked in the timber building a flat boat for Orfutt & Greene, who were merchants and shippers. Sangamntown was then quite a place. There were two stores, a steam saw mill and a grist-mill, a tavern and a carding mill. I have seen fifty horses hitched there of a Saturday afternoon. Now there is not a stick to mark the place. The roads are cut out, so you can't get to it without going across the fields.
They built the boat up there because there was better timber, and were going to take it down and load at Petersburg. Charles Broadwell had a sawmill at Sangamontown, and Lincoln was there bossing the job. I came along and wanted work, and he hired me, and I made the pins for the boat. We launched here there, and she got a good deal of water in herm and we got her down as far as Salem dam, and there she was stuck, with her bow over the dam. And Lincoln bored a hole in the bottom of the boat, and let the water out. Looks like a funny way to get water out of a boat, to bore a hole in the bottom, but if the bottom is sticking out in the air, it is all right, I guess.
Lincoln was an awful clumsy looking man at that time. He wore a homespun suit of clothes, and a big pair of cowhide boots, with his trousers strapped down under them, as was the custom of that day, to keep them from crawling up his legs. And his coat was a roundabout, and when he stooped over his work we could see about four inches of his suspenders. He had on an old slouch wool hat. He was getting $15 a month from Offutt & Greene at that time.
After we got the flatboat launched we went out in the timber and found a good tree, and made a canoe. John Seaman and Walter Carman were along and they wanted to have the first ride in the canoe, and they jumped in, and the water was very high and swift and they tipped over and were in danger of drowning. The whole bottom was overflowed and there was a big elm tree standing about 100 feet from the shore, with its branches in the water, and Lincoln called to them to swim to the tree, and hold on there till we could get them. So they caught the branches, and got up in the tree. It was in March and the water was very cold. So we got a log and tied a rope to it and James Doyle got on the log and tried to get to them but the log turned over with him and he had to get in the tree with the other two.
Then we pulled the log ashore and Lincoln got straddle of it, and the rest of us paid out the rope and let him down toward the tree, and he got to them and took them off and brought them ashore.
After that he went on and loaded his boat with corn at Petersburg, and went down the river to New Orleans. I don't know how he got back but I have an idea he walked back though he may have come back by steamboat. He worked a while for Offutt & Greene in their store at Salem, and then he bought it out, and afterward he sold it and came here to Springfield and wen to practicing law.
All the time he was running the store he had been studying law. He would walk up here to Springfield, twenty miles, and borrow books from Major Stuart and read them, and bring them back. He didn't seem to be much of a speaker, but it seemed he could do whatever he started to do.
I had come up here to Springfield as soon as I got through the job on the flatboat and was working at the plastering trade when he moved up here. One time I remember I saw him out here on the Salem road walking along and reading one book, with another under his arm. He got tired and sat down on a log to rest. And while he rested he went on reading.
I put my money in land as fast as I made it and was worth a good deal of money. Lincoln and I were always good friends. One time Tom Lewis and I were standing and talking on the street and Tom said: 'John, why don't you run for some office? You've got so many tenants you could make them elect you.' And I said I didn't want no office till Abe Lincoln was elected President of the United States, and then I would expect him to give me an office because I had worked with him on the flat boat. And Lincoln came along just then—it was long before he had ever been mentioned for President, and Tom told him what I had said. And Lincoln laughed and said when hot to be President he would give me an office.
So I was the first man he ever promised an office to, but I never got it. Oh, yes I was making more money then than any office was worth. I wouldn't have had any office. I didn't want any.
I remember one time in a speech he made at the courthouse, that time he said the country could not live half slave and half free, he said we were all slaves one time or another, but that white men could make themselves free and the negroes could not. He said: "There is my old friend John Roll. He used to be a slave, but he made himself free, and I used to be a slave, and now I am so free that they let me practice law.' I remember that."
While some teachers might have heard of topic modeling technology in the context of cutting-edge digital humanities research, few have considered how these exciting new tools might find a place in the history classroom. However, a topic-modeling project offers an ideal introduction to the dynamic world of digital historical methodology. Perhaps best suited for an undergraduate setting, aspiring history majors can gain hands-on experience and useful technical skills in quantitative historical analysis. Yet while topic modeling has continued to make waves in historical research, most teachers are hesitant to include this technology in their curricula. For those more accustomed to conventional historical methodology, attempting topic modeling can be a daunting task. Even the most technologically literate teachers are left scrambling for the basics: What is topic modeling? How can these tools be used in meaningful ways? Are they teachable in already overburdened classrooms?
Topic modeling refers to a variety of programs that use complex algorithms to reduce an extremely large collection of text to a number of distinct topics. While diverse options exist for a more technologically advanced audience, the casual researcher and student should be most familiar with MALLET, an open source Java-based program that can be used without any coding knowledge through Topic Modeling Tools (TMT). There are plenty of good web-based resources for all skill levels that can help first time users get started with MALLET and TMT (like this overview of topic modeling, or this introduction to TMT).
To understand the philosophy behind topic modeling, it's easiest to start by identifying the human function this technology is trying to mimic on a grand scale. When an individual reads through a text, they use their own critical thinking skills to identify what topics are contained in the work. For example, a student might listen to a politician's speech and be able to articulate distinct themes in the text – the economy, the law, civil rights, etc. While some of this ability to categorize comes from the reader's prior knowledge, the distribution of certain words is also crucial to making these connections. For example, a reader might see the words "troop," "victory," and "casualty" in a paragraph and come to the rational conclusion that the speaker is referring to the military. Topic modeling aims to do the same by identifying distinct subjects within enormous quantities of documents that would be impossible to read page-by-page.
When a user inputs their database of text, topic-modeling technology generates lists of words that are likely to appear in proximity to each other throughout the entirety of the collection. These lists represent topics, or "a group of words that often co-occur with each other in the same documents," explains University of Richmond Director of Digital Sciences Robert K. Nelson. Users are left to use their own knowledge of the source-base to give meaning to these word lists and decide which categories represent legitimate themes. Once these topics are identified, the program can quantify the appearance of these categories within the body of work. For example, once having identified topic A, the program could tell you that 20% of the collection was relevant to topic A, or that Document 1 was 70% related to topic A. From these computations, researchers and students can draw conclusions about the collection of sources as a whole.
Nelson utilizes this technology in his Mining the Dispatch, one of the most noteworthy examples of topic modeling research. Working with the Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond in partnership with Tufts University's Perseus Project, Nelson analyzed the rich archives of the Richmond Daily Dispatch. Using 37 unique topics, Nelson and his research team were able to track "the dramatic and often traumatic changes as well as the sometimes surprising continuities in the social and political life of Civil War Richmond." While it would be impossible for his research team to read through the 112,000 pieces containing nearly 24 million words, Nelson used MALLET to discover unexpected insights . Teachers looking for a good introduction of the value and limitations of topic modeling would do well to read through Nelson's project as an example of topic modeling success. While Nelson's introduction explains how topic modeling can both succeed and fail at the individual document level, he emphasizes how these tools are most suitable on a much larger scale. Using engaging graphics, Nelson shows the rise and fall of his topics between 1860 and 1865. Some patterns are easily explained. For example, Nelson's discovery that fugitive slave advertisements were more likely to appear when the Union Army was near Richmond makes sense, as slaves were likely to run away in hopes of joining the northern forces. Others are less obviously correlated to outside events, such as Nelson's discovery that slave rental advertisements sharply reduced in 1862, suggesting a destabilized market without an apparent cause. Unexpected results such as this are just as potentially significant, argues Nelson: "Topic modeling and other distant reading methods are most valuable not when they allow us to see patterns that we can easily explain but when they reveal patterns that we can't, patterns that surprise us and that prompt interesting and useful research questions," he explains. Mining the Dispatch should serve as an example of successful topic modeling that can demonstrate to undergraduates the utility of quantitative analysis in historical research.
Yet while Nelson sets high standards, teachers shouldn't write off topic modeling as the domain of research professionals. My first encounter with topic modeling was as a college sophomore at the Dickinson College Digital Humanities Boot Camp. With minimal instruction, I learned quickly how to use the Stanford Topic Modeling Toolbox to create topics out of a large digitized collection of student publications from the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. My research partner and I chose to generate five distinct topics, which we then labeled based on our own prior knowledge of the works. For example, one list of words was "Baby Babies Indian Care Children Water Mother Child Food Proper," which we decided was most relevant to Reservation Life. We could then identify which works were most relevant to this topic, and how relevant this topic was to the collection as a whole. While we ended up using the topics as a taxonomy system for an online exhibit of historical photographs, the exercise of using topic modeling proved useful in and of itself by allowing us to get a better grasp of a collection much too large to read closely. Moreover, I gained a broader understanding of data-driven historical methods and how to apply digital skills to meaningful analysis.
The bottom line is that topic modeling is worth your attention. With the basic instruction, a few strong examples, and the right set of sources, topic modeling can provide an engaging and surprisingly simple lesson in the possibilities of digital humanities.
Keats suggests that MOOCs focus too much on job training, writing "the rapid retreat of MOOCs into vocational banality represents a squandered opportunity." He cites inventor Buckminster Fuller, who presented an idea that "students would gain knowledge through 'an intercontinentally networked documentaries call-up system, operative over any home two-way TV set'" in 1961. Keats believes that Fullers original vision was not about vocational studies but "generalism, to interest people in everything, so that they could grapple with complexly interconnected global problems." This is how the Netflix model can save MOOCs. As Keats describes "recommendation engines like those employed by Netflix and YouTube" can "entice students to compulsively take up new interests." A streamlined system of easy to view courses that are quick and simple to follow would allow students to study topics they are interested in, regardless of skill level and availability.
A number of MOOC enthusiasts remain confident that student-oriented improvements such as the one outlined in the Wired article –or other changes yet to be realized– will inevitably emerge. Stanford professor Mitchell Stevens, for example, remains optimistic. "I'm not disappointed with MOOCs," Stevens reports to Stanford News, "We're still in the horse-and-buggy stage." Stevens is not alone when thinking that MOOCs have been successful despite their growing pains. Fellow Stanford professor (and co-director of the Stanford Lytics Lab), Candace Thille, explains that at least one major advantage of the recent experiments in MOOCs is that professors can now use this new form of online pedagogy to learn a great deal more about learning. Thille and Stevens, (along with John Mitchell) argue that the key to understanding the potential of MOOCs is understanding that they are not really "college courses. "They are a new instructional genre," claim the authors in a recent op-ed, "somewhere between a digital textbook and a successful college course."
This insight and other innovations (like the Netflix model that Jonathan Keats has been promoting) might well combine to infuse online learning with greater staying power in the second and third stages of its revolution. By having a simple, easy to use platform with access to a wide (almost infinite) range of compact subjects, lifelong students might eventually feel empowered to learn almost as easily as they channel surf. Of course, that means that MOOCs will have to develop greater humanities content and not just remain focused on the STEM and professional development fields that have so far been enticing the largest numbers of online registrants. Also, it might mean that online "courses" will have to become shorter and much more flexible in their commitment level, and most certainly less "massive" in their aspirations. Netflix, after all, succeeds in part because it understands the needs and habits of niche viewers. It might well be the ironic consequence of the MOOC experiment, that ultimately it proves to be transformative in our approaches to individualized learning.
Yet just three years after Christensen's sensational warnings, the pioneering spirit of democratized, open education has waned among its former believers. While some critics blame technical difficulties, copyright and intellectual property issues, or high drop out rates for the fading enthusiasm, others argue that MOOCs have yet to meet the inherent challenge of online learning. Unlike traditional classrooms, online academic experiences lack the personal interactions between professor and student and between peers that is crucial to creating a collaborative and engaging community of learning. In research investigating the social elements of online learning, educational technology specialists Whitney Kilgore and Patrick R Lowenthal argue that MOOC users often struggle with the individualistic experience of online learning: "Students regularly report feeling isolated and alone when taking online courses. This potential problem is amplified in MOOCs where there are hundreds, if not thousands, of learners," Kilgore and Lowenthal conclude. As MOOC developers face declining interest in their products, they must address this social gap.
A recent study from Pennsylvania State University's Saijing Zheng, Mary Beth Rosson, and John M. Carroll discusses one potential solution. Presented at the annual ACM Conference on Learning at Scale on April 26, 2016, "The Role of Social Media in MOOCs: How to Use Social Media to Enhance Student Retention" analyzes how MOOCs can utilize social media platforms such as Facebook to build community connections among online learners. Analyzing peer-to-peer interaction through the quantitative analysis of digital responses as well as a qualitative survey component among students and instructors, Zheng, Rosson and Carroll studied three MOOCs offered by Coursera. The researchers discovered that while more students were included in the Coursera-based discussion groups, the quality of interaction was much higher in the Facebook group created for course participants. Measuring the number of comments and likes/votes, the researchers concluded that students and professors were more likely to successfully find academic help and social interaction by posting or commenting in the Facebook group rather than in Coursera forums.
Students and professors participating in the study confirmed these data findings: "At the beginning of the course, I frequently asked questions on Coursera but [received] no answers. After a while, I chose to ask questions on Facebook and it worked. Actually, I like answering question on Facebook, as least I received some thanks and we can have real interactions," reported one student, stressing that conversations on Facebook felt like a more authentic connection. Both students and professors noted that the anonymity of the Coursera forums could be problematic. Students admitted to using fake names, leading to a lack of accountability that contributed to a more negative community environment. "You cannot imagine how painful it was when I tried to look through the comments," recalled one instructor. By forcing students to use their real names and pictures, the Facebook group for the courses fostered "very effective and meaningful discussions," another instructor reported. Overall, participants in the Facebook group were much more likely to finish the course than participants in the Coursera forums.
The study from Zheng, Rosson, and Carroll highlights the potentially significant role of integrated social media into the MOOC experience. The successful utilization of social media as part of the online academic experience raises new questions among those invested in the success of MOOCs. Could live-tweeting classroom sessions similarly produce authentic peer-to-peer or student-to-instructor interactions? Could the features of sites such as Facebook be replicated within Coursera forums for more success in these spaces? If the use of social media can foster a sense of community comparable to traditional classroom environments, MOOC developers should take note — the MOOC revolution may depend on it.
Guest post by Milt Diggins
In 2007, while serving as volunteer editor for the Historical Society of Cecil County in Elkton, I came across a nineteenth century newspaper article that caught my attention. Fredrick Douglass referred to "Thomas McCreary, the notorious kidnapper from Elkton." No one at the historical society had ever heard of McCreary, and apparently neither did anyone else in the county. Ask people to name a slave catcher and kidnapper and many could name Patty Cannon. The story of the infamous Cannon-Johnson gang is encrusted with local myth, but remove the layers of folklore and history will still reveal a formidable gang of kidnappers with a deserved reputation for viciousness. But why did Douglass call McCreary a notorious kidnapper? That question, and the questions that followed, drove seven years of research and writing. Patty Cannon may be better known, but reconstructing the story of the once notorious but nearly forgotten Thomas McCreary reveals him to be a more significant figure for examining the controversy over slave catching and kidnapping.
One reason for McCreary's historical importance was the time period in which he gained notoriety. Cannon died in prison in 1829. The debate in Congress over the abolition of slavery heated up in the 1830s. The Prigg vs Pennsylvania decision in 1842 proclaimed the constitutional right of slave catchers to capture suspected fugitives without hindrance by state governments, a guiding principle for slave catchers and kidnappers like McCreary. Northern states attempted to provide some protection for citizens of color through personal liberty laws, like Pennsylvania's, revised and enacted in 1847. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 increased federal responsibility for recovering escaped slaves by authorizing US circuit court commissioners to try fugitive cases. The most violent reaction to that law occurred at Christiana, Pennsylvania, one decade before the outbreak of the Civil War. McCreary operated within this series of events, and his actions were shaped by them. His activities added fuel to the animosity between Maryland and Pennsylvania over the slavery issue and the distinction between slave catching and kidnapping.
McCreary benefitted from the support of his community, adding a second dimension missing in the story of the Cannon-Johnson gang. Proslavery advocates prized his forays into Pennsylvania and his prowess for capturing accused runaway slaves. Local newspapers praised McCreary as Elkton's hometown hero. The editors defended his "arrests" to counter criticism from Pennsylvanians, and from Delawareans, most notably Thomas Garrett, and the editors of the Blue Hens Chicken, an antislavery newspaper.
McCreary's relationship with the political elite is a third reason for his significance. McCreary was deeply in debt when the county declared him insolvent in December, 1838. Two months later, the governor appointed him to a state position in Elkton, an indication that McCreary had found favor with Cecil County's political bosses. In time that local political connection would extend to the state level. These political relationships would work to McCreary's advantage.
Patty Cannon's villainy was widely recognized. Opinions divided over McCreary, mirroring the growing national divide. Elevated to the status of state hero, McCreary represented Maryland's insistence on the unrestricted right of slave catchers to seize blacks in Northern states and force them into the hands of slaveholders. Whereas opponents criticized McCreary's questionable slave catching tactics and condemned him for obvious kidnappings, proslavery Marylanders valued McCreary as an effective slave catcher. In their view, it was politically impossible for him to be a kidnapper, no matter what the likes of abolitionists like Fredrick Douglass or Thomas Garrett said, or what a Pennsylvania jury might have said if given the chance.
It was yet another one of those unforgettable moments from the American Civil War, and what makes it even more compelling is that we have some amazing photographic evidence of that astonishing trip. The War Department had sent several photographers to help capture scenes from the Sumter events and then from across the devastated city of Charleston. These are all now in the collection of the Library of Congress. Some of these images are famous, and widely reproduced, like the ones of the four black children (in Union military garb) seated by the pillars of the city's well known circular church:
Other images from that period are less familiar, but still vital for understanding the narrative details of this critical episode. In particular, there is one heavily damaged image, not usually reproduced, but which shows a level of crowd detail from around Beecher's speech unprecedented in the other images from the series.
Yet that heavily stained image (above), yields this wonderful detail (below), which clearly shows Major General Anderson, seated on the crowded platform itself, casually holding a walking stick, just to the right (our left) of the standing Rev. Beecher, who is tightly clutching the pages of his windblown speech.
Relying on this image and others from the series, we here at the House Divided Project have been busy trying to identify the rest of the notables at the event. Most important, we are trying to figure out exactly where editor William Lloyd Garrison was seated. His best modern biographer, the late Henry Mayer, used a detail from one of the blurrier versions of this image to claim that Garrison was probably the man in the big hat seated a few feet to Beecher's left (our right), but the quality of this particular detail shows how unlikely that was.
We think it is far more likely that Garrison was this lean, spectacled man, standing here (right) in reflective pose after the ceremony. In part, we believe this man was Garrison, because other images from the event suggest that he was seated behind Gen. Anderson, among other leading abolitionists, such as George Thompson, from Britain (and Garrison's close friend), and also New York antislavery editor Theodore Tilton. White House aide John G. Nicolay, who was serving as the president's personal emissary to the event, was also in that section of the platform. Details from some of these images are provided below. We also have some zoomable versions at the House Divided research engine, showing preparations, and two slightly different versions of Beecher's speech, here and here. The bulk of the images from that journey have been digitized by the Library of Congress, more than two dozen of them are now available online. Check them all out and decide for yourself. If you come across anything important, please offer your insights in the comments section below. If you can, please help us identify any other notables in the audience. We are especially eager to find Robert Smalls, the ex-slave and wartime hero. Newspaper accounts claimed that the ceremony was attended by a mixed race crowd and that Smalls was present and widely celebrated –but we cannot find him, nor actually much evidence of any black presence near the speaker.
Now this is a good example of how historians have to interpret evidence and how these interpretations actually matter. Masur believes Lincoln was upset because he thinks the Great Emancipator was still adamant in the summer of 1861 that the war was being fought over union and not slavery. That is why Masur claims that Lincoln found the Fremont proclamation so upsetting and "objectionable," mainly because, as he puts it in The Civil War: A Concise History (2011), the order "violated the terms of the Crittenden-Johnson resolution, adopted by Congress on July 25, which reaffirmed the position that the war was not being fought to overthrow or interfere with established institutions" (28). Yet, Lincoln never mentioned that important (and very conservative-sounding) resolution in either of his two letters to Fremont. Nor did he use the word "objectionable" in his initial communication with Fremont, which Masur does not quote from in his short book.
Yet even in Lincoln's second letter to Fremont, the one which Masur quotes from, the tone is not necessarily "upset." Written in response to the general's September 8th reply to his "private and confidential" September 2d telegram, the president still remained at least outwardly calm despite the fact that the general was stubbornly refusing to do what he had suggested. Fremont had actually sent his wife, Jesse Benton Fremont, an experienced politico herself, to deliver his response to the White House. She did so apparently around midnight on September 10, 1861. There was some kind of dramatic confrontation between Mrs. Fremont and President Lincoln that evening at the White House although its nature has been disputed. Two years later, the president recalled, according to the wartime diary of a close aide, that she "taxed me violently" during their conversation, although much of their argument by his recollection concerned rumors of Fremont's administrative incompetence and factional politics in Missouri and not either martial law or emancipation (John Hay diary, December 9, 1863). This claim of the president's is supported by a private memo from another White House aide (John Nicolay) produced just a week after the confrontation which asserted that the "matter of the Proclamation … did not enter into the trouble with the Gen" (September 17, 1861). Years later, Jesse Fremont remembered it much differently, claiming in 1891 that Lincoln was focused almost solely on the dangers of emancipation and had told her: "the General should never have dragged the Negro into the war." This is not a very credible recollection, but it has appeared in various forms in many secondary sources and presumably helped inform Masur's outlook. Regardless, what resulted from this unusual collision was a second presidential note, this time for public consumption, in which Lincoln claimed that while there was "no general objection" to Fremont's August 30th order, on the particular matter of the "liberation of slaves," there was something "objectionable" about its "non-conformity" with the Confiscation Act. So, Lincoln decreed, since the general wanted an "an open order for the modification" from the Commander-in-Chief himself, that he was "very cheerfully" willing to do so. Hence, the president publicly ordered on September 11, 1861, that Fremont's proclamation was to be "modified" so as not to "transcend" the government's official confiscation policy regarding the seizure of Rebel-employed slaves.
And there's the rub. Some historians, like Masur, consider the official Union policy regarding slavery in the summer of 1861 to have remained what Lincoln had stated (or technically re-stated) in his March inaugural address. In his brief passage on Fremont's controversial order, Masur writes, "The proclamation itself violated Lincoln's assurance that he had no intentions of interfering with slavery where it existed" (28-29). Yet for other historians, such as James Oakes, that policy on non-interference had already changed –and had been changing since spring 1861. The August 6th Confiscation Act merely culminated a new wartime policy by Union authorities allowing them to interfere with slavery whenever it was necessary for military reasons. In particular, runaways or "contrabands" were generally supposed to be "discharged" from enslavement, because as the fourth section of the new statute delicately put it, any slaveholder who required or allowed "any person claimed to be held to labor or service" (i.e. his slaves) to either "take up arms" against the United States or to be employed by the Rebel military was to "forfeit his claim to such labor." It's not clear from the plain language of the statute that these ex-slaves were to be freed, but that was the practical effect in many cases. This new precarious freedom also applied indirectly to runaways who had nothing to do with the war effort. The War Department had begun issuing orders to field commanders as early as May 30, 1861 allowing them to protect so-called "contrabands" or fugitives from the demands of slaveholders, and on August 8, 1861, the Secretary of War (Simon Cameron) provided a clear directive based on the new law authorizing commanders to protect and discharge not only Rebel-employed slaves, but also runaways whose masters were loyal. Cameron's letter informed field commanders (in this case, specifically General Benjamin Butler) that they should simply keep records of everyone freed so that later ("Upon the return of peace"), Congress could provide for "just compensation" to any loyal masters whose slaves had been "discharged" incorrectly. Not every Union commander followed this directive in the subsequent months, but more than a few did. The result was real freedom for many ex-slaves. At the end of the year, President Lincoln, in his first annual message, described the policy shift as one that had "thus liberated" an unspecified "numbers" of black people in 1861.
The interpretative stakes are quite high here. Masur (and many others) explicitly describe the Civil War as one that "began as a limited war to restore the country" (xi) before becoming in late 1862 and early 1863 a more revolutionary struggle for freedom. Yet if Lincoln was not so "upset" by Fremont's 1861 emancipation decree, but rather more concerned over exactly how to emancipate slaves, then this emphasis on limited war seems misplaced. There was certainly plenty of limited, cautious rhetoric on the Union side, especially from President Lincoln, but the policies on the ground seem far more radical, almost right from the beginning. Yet it is complicated. On September 22, 1861, Lincoln defended his actions in regard to General Fremont in a remarkably candid private letter to his old friend, Orville Browning, now a U.S. senator from Illinois (he had recently taken the seat following the death of Stephen A. Douglas). Lincoln labeled Fremont's emancipation edict "purely political" and
denied forcefully that either "a General, or a President, may make permanent rules of property by proclamation." That sounds quite limited as a policy statement, and yet a smart Civil War student might well ask, isn't that also exactly what the Great Emancipator himself did just one year later, when he revealed his own emancipation policy on September 22, 1862? With presidential emancipation, he made "permanent rules of property by proclamation." In his letter to Browning –a must-read for any serious student– Lincoln denied that he had been or would be "inconsistent" and carefully explained to his longtime friend and political colleague the difference between "principle" and "policy" and why some things had to be done in private while others had to be managed in public. It's a masterful document and one that holds perhaps the key to understanding Lincoln as a wartime political leader.
This post originally appeared at Matthew Pinsker's Civil War & Reconstruction class (History 288), Dickinson College, Spring 2015.


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A 72-year-old man is in custody after being shot with a Taser by police following a stand-off.
He was arrested after officers investigating a claim of criminal damage went to a house in St Day, near Redruth in Cornwall, on Sunday. Armed police and a negotiator were sent to the scene after learning the man may have had guns in the building.
A Devon and Cornwall Police spokesman said today: "A 72 year-old man within the property, who is believed to have had access to a number of weapons and firearms, refused to come out of the property.
"Firearms officers and a negotiator attended the property. Taser was deployed and the man was arrested at the scene for criminal damage. He remains in police custody." PA
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text:
Sarah: LyingMature
After maths, Abbie tells Roxane, Kanoa and Lia to go on; she'd catch them up. I know what she's going to ask, so I try to get away. She catches me up.
"Sarah wait!"
"When were you planning to tell me about your parents?" Oh. That caught me off guard. I drag her into the toilets. They're empty coz, no-one's allowed on this floor at break.
"What about them?" I try to make out that I don't know what she's talking about.
"You know what" Damn. She knows me too well.
"No I don't" I try to keep it up.
"Well I could just ask your mum... or Oliver... In fact, I will ask Oliver. He doesn't seem to mind telling people" she says.
"It's my personal life"
"Well it's not any more coz everyone in the school knows"
"What!? Who told you"
"I had to hear it off Kanoa, because she heard it off the girls who sit behind her in maths." Abbie says. She's annoyed with me. I'm not surprised actually: she tells me everything that goes on in her life.
"Kanoa didn't have the right to tell you"
"No, she didn't. But I have the right to know what the heck's going on! Especially since I saved you from getting expelled!" she's angry now.
"Are you just going to say that every time you don't get what you want from me?" I accuse her
"No! I would never do that! Oh yeah, and also, what went on at lunchtime?"
"Yes it did"
"No it didn't"
"Yes it did because if 'nothing' had gone on then you would have made up some stupid excuse!" she knows me waaaaay too well.
"Nothing went on"
"Ugh! Seriously Sarah! You keep secrets from me that I deserve to hear and them you lie to me! I'm beginning to question whether you're really my friend!" and then she storms off, fuming. Crap. She knows. She knows it's me. I'm going to have a serious talk with Oliver. And Kanoa.


text:
"Sonic?" said Linebeck.
"What?" the hedgehog snapped in reply.
"I've been kinda wondering...how do you wink? Since you have one big eyelid for your double-eye..."
"Shaddup!" squealed Niko, unsheathing his cutlass. With his free hand he pointed. "Look!"
The black island was closer than ever. Then, with a sudden lurch, the Pirate Ship grounded.
Sonic saw what Niko was pointing to. A blue humanoid creature stood on the dark sands. It had black paws and a dark stripe on its face. It looked somewhat like the Egyptian god Anubis.
It looked towards the crew with soft red eyes. Then suddenly Pikachu leapt onto the beach.
"Pika!" it cried.
The creature stared down at Pikachu. The two's minds briefly joined. Then the creature spoke to the whole crew through Aura.
"I am Lucario," it said. "In case you are wondering, no, I am not the enemy. I know Pikachu. We both have the same Pokémon Trainer." At this, the crew were confused. "Pikachu and I are what are known as Pokémon. We are powerful animals who are companions to those Pokémon Trainers. Our Trainer is called Red. Us and Kanghaskan have been separated from him by some unseen dark force."
"Dude, we'll help you!" said Sonic. He somersaulted onto the black beach and landed cleanly on his feet.
"...Your eyes are conjoined," said Lucario. "Did you have a birth defect?"
"ARG!!" the hedgehog screamed. "MUST EVERYBODY SAY THAT?!"