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The cleanup
After returning from their time in France, the most wounded of their companions are rushed into medical care. Major Lowe has come directly from Belgium to assist with the more serious cases. Major Pringle has come along with him, to look at the devices that were retrieved from the site. Unfortunately as these were already claimed by shadowy Archival agents, he instead hangs around the labs being a pest and contributing to the design of new devices.
While he's there, Lowe offers Aaron a job as field tester of some new devices he has coming out shortly, which Aaron accepts willingly, in the expectation that they may be healing devices.
Pringle offers the entire RSE the use of his life-force transferrance machine, to create attuned devices of their own.
After the chaos eventually subsides, the team eases into a quiet period over christmas and the new year, which they spend training and pursuing their own personal hobbies. Unfortunately because they all died last year, they can't see family, so they stay on base for the holidays.
Major Bell comes by in January to review the impact of the kinetic weapons test in Normandy from the teams perspective, and to give Freddie a christmas present – a new set of drones. These drones are based on a reduced-capability version of the distributed AI used in the Alpha Arena bots, although hopefully less prone to homicidal breakdowns. If Freddie can ensure he brings back at least one of the six drones in the swarm, they will learn from their prior experiences and get smarter over time. Freddie names them the hounds.
The lull in activity continues through January and most of February, but can't go on forever. Freddie passes the time watching their public sources (the red top and yellow paged tabloids for the most part) for anything worth looking into.
News snippets
- A Mrs Tibbetts of Nottinghamshire reports being rescued from a mugger by a man in a policemans hat and cloak, who then flew away. Mrs Tibbetts reports "I'd not have been out there if my Bill were still alive, but I've been alone these last 12 years now, and that nice young man gave those hooligans a right good thrashing and then he was off into the sky. So nice to see that not all the youth are as bad as those ones off the telly". The metropolitan police have noted that Mrs Tibbetts will get the help she clearly needs from social services, and further that impersonating a member of the police force is an offence under the Police Act 1996 liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine not exceeding 5,000 pounds, or both. The met further noted that any person not a constable wearing an article of police uniform in circumstances calculated to deceive is liable to a further fine not exceeding 1,000 pounds, and that possession of an article of police uniform is an offence liable for a further 200 pounds. In short, Superintendent Barry noted, "don't toss about with police uniform".
- A meteor strike in northern france has caused a flurry of debate amongst the amateur astronomy community, as arguments flare up over the origin of the object that crashed into Normandy destroying several acres of historic regional parkland. Astrologers, meanwhile, have said that the arrival of the object clearly means prosperous times ahead for Aries, and that Scorpios should be wary of large financial transactions in the near future.
- Hacker group Anonymous have claimed responsibility for a power outage in Kent that largely affected the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory and Royal Air Force operations, as well as the nearby town of Sevenoaks. The activist group's statement claimed that DSTL and RAF were testing experimental advanced weaponry at the base. A spokesman for the RAF stated "After parliament gave AgustaWestland almost two billion pounds for the Wildcat helicopter programme, you'd be daft to think we were trying to hide them. Quite the opposite."
Something to do
Wills goes to talk to Mrs Tibbets in Nottinghamshire, just to be sure that the flying squad is not now a real thing. Unfortunately he then has to talk to Mrs Tibbets, in all her racist old bat glory. It's hard to say whether she's just loopy, or there really was a flying gentleman impersonating a policeman.
Wills focuses on trying to get a better description of what the man was wearing, as policeman don't generally go around in cloaks. He does succeed in narrowing down Mrs Tibbets impressions of the policeman's hat and cloak (with the help of a quick google search) to a more modern bobbies helmet from the early 2000's, and a cloak that hasn't been worn since victorian times but is common in costumers.
An unusual robbery
Freddie and Hal come across a bank robbery in Elephant & Castle that seems a tad unusual – the robbery itself seems ordinary, it took place in a tiny off-brand bank in a crappier part of london – but the circumstances are somewhat strange. None of the witnesses interviewed by police can recall anything about the robbery, and none of the descriptions given for the robber line up. Even more unsual, all the security cameras and CCTV in the immediate area were disabled just prior to the robbery.
On investigating further, Hal finds that another robbery happened seven days earlier in another bank in Elephant & Castle, which fits the same profile of unusual memory loss. The team surmises some sort of memory wiping device, and some sort of EMP or accelerated hacking device for the cameras.
Another robbery, another robber?
While Wills is up in Nottinghamshire, Aaron and KD deploy to Elephant & Castle under the guise of couriers. When another robbery occurs two days later at Lambeth North Post Office, KD is able to get to the scene in time to see a young dark skinned man running from the scene. Aaron has been holding a central position and hurries to the location of the robbery. While on the way to the scene, KD rigorously checks for the presence of magical devices, and does not discern any in his immediate area. Aaron is using the long range detector, and he only sees the signature of KDs own device in the region.
KD chases the runner down an alley, and briefly loses him in the nest of ancient and decrepit yards and run down buildings.
After some quick hunting down of information on the surrounding buildings, Freddie identifies that two are owned by Saudi investment companies, one by a French real estate investment vehicle, one by an English real estate company, and the last has been held since before records began by a Whitlaw family.
Given the curious coincidence, the team confers briefly and decides to question their CO about his real estate holdings. Major Whitlaw denies all knowledge of the Whitlaws in question, saying simply that his family is from Cornwall since centuries back and the only property they own is the house he bought his mother after he started working for DMG.
Putting aside for now the suspicious ownership issue, KD is joined by Aaron and they look further into the alley. At this point they start to hear swearing from across one of the fences. Aaron being Aaron, he glances over the top of the fence from the other side of the alley, and see's KD's erstwhile running man clinging desperately to the brickwork on the side of the building while attempting to open what is clearly a locked window on the first floor.
After thoroughly scanning for any devices, and checking with Pembroke that the devices couldn't in some way be disabled and not show up on the scan, Major Whitlaw orders the team to disperse and disappear into the general population before the local plod turn up, as this young scofflaw is clearly in their purview alone.
A more likely contender
Aaron points out that the previous two robberies that were definitely their target happened seven days apart. The team confers and decides this is likely a pattern worth pursuing, and they gear up to prepare for another robbery seven days after the last – ignoring the incident at the post office.
They deploy to a carpark near Elephant & Castle subway station, as a reasonably central starting location. In the van are Wils, Penfold, Freddie, and Aaron, with KD scouting and generally roaming around the area on a couriers motorcycle. Upton is providing logistical support and overwatch from Fort Halstead. Freddie has all but one of the hounds ready to go, launching from the sunroof of the non-descript blue Mercedes Sprinter they're staging in.
Sure enough, later that morning a set of CCTV cameras surrounding the Link Financial in Camelford house near the river go dark. The team move to deploy there, with KD leading the way on his motorcycle.
However, there is a problem. Camelford House is a mall right next door to MI6 headquarters at SIS house!
After hurried co-ordination between Fort Halstead and Vauxhall Cross, the team is allowed to deploy in a low key manner within the mall. The bank in question has only two entrances and occupies a corner section in the mall. Aaron arrives and enters the bank, queuing up behind three others to assess the situation. It doesn't yet appear that anything has occurred amiss in this bank.
MI6 goes onto lockdown, and otherwise leave the team to it. Aaron waits, as first one then another in the queue approach the counter and are served. The computers appear to be down, and the tellers are laboriously working through the complex paperwork required to perform even the simplest transactions. Several waiting people appear frustrated, stressed, and potentially robby.
Flash and dash
As Aaron approaches the front of the queue and wonders if there is going to be a robbery at all, KD approaches the exterior of the bank and plants a drone in a pot plant to get some eyes on the ground nearby. He doesn't enter the bank, for fear of giving away their presence to the potential robbers.
After a few minutes, the rest of RSE realises they haven't heard from Aaron. They call in, and get no response, so KD charges in and the rest of the team decamps from the van to prepare to storm the bank. Freddie releases the hounds to get surveillance on the entire perimeter and watch the exits, since the CCTV in the area is all down.
KD finds Aaron standing in the queue, surprised to see him, and even more surprised to see that the man who had just reached the first teller is gone. All Aaron can remember is a bright light, then KD arriving to check on him. The team figures at least three minutes have passed, but the robber is probably still in reach of the mall.
Fast work with the hounds to capture the faces of all pedestrians exiting the area and some work from Upton to cross check them in a hurry against the previously recorded faces outside the earlier robberies finds a match from the first robbery, three weeks ago now.
KD chases after the man, who cuts across a local park. The robber gets to the other side of the park just in time to get into a black bmw and get away before KD can catch him. The team pursues their quarry, now in a vehicle, across the bridge to the Pimlico subway station. Aaron cycles directly.from the mall, and makes it their just as KD gets their on his motorcycle courtesy of london traffic. Unfortunately, neither KD nor Aaron make it there in time to stop the robber getting away on the Victoria line, as the train pulls away just as they make it to the bottom of the subway station steps.
Subway paperwork
Freddie and Upton are monitoring CCTV in the area, and they see another blip as several CCTV cameras on the subway carriages flake out at once, and the train itself is briefly stopped in the tube.
Assuming their target has pulled the emergency stop and debarked between stations, KD sets up a cordon at Pimlico, while Aaron races ahead and sets up a cordon at Victoria, the next stop up the line.
Wils and Freddie head into the line office to try and get control of the subway line in the area that they believe the man to be still within.
However, the line office is extremely cautious about letting unknown persons into their secure areas, let alone access to internal surveillance and controls or secure areas of the lines, as security has been ramped up in the wake of the deadly July 7 attacks in 2005.
After eventually convincing the line superintendent of their bona fides, they are allowed to access the controls and shut down the section of line to prevent any further trains coming in, which means they can venture onto the track (provided they are accompanied by authorised transit authority personnel) to continue their pursuit.
It isn't until this stage that the line super mentions that they have internal CCTV over all the pedestrian exits from the line, as well as alarm systems in place.
On quickly reviewing the footage and system status, Freddie figures out that no-one ever got off the stopped train – their target has escaped up the line with the train, and is now somewhere north. After all the holdups, that particular train has since reached the end and is returning, so their foe has almost certainly got clean away.
The team call a halt to the active component of the mission, to review footage and try and figure out their next steps. If nothing else, there's always next week.


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I have this super fun worksheet for you to download FREE from TpT today!
It is a 'Roll and Race' worksheet to help your students practise writing ANY 6 'spelling list' words. Just write the words in the top word-key space, before you photocopy them for your students.
I have bundled up 35 fun ways for you students to write-out their words, in this little bundle:
I would love to blog some more, but I purchased my first ever puppy today! We are so excited to welcome little Maggie into our family. I have dreamt of having a puppy my whole life, so it is a BIG day! I am off to have a play and to grab a photo to post for you real soon!
She is adorable!
Head over to The Teaching Tribune to find more fun worksheets - in Worksheet Wednesday!

subset: commoncrawl


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The wallcovering collections produced by Holland & Sherry's Long Island City studio represent hand-painted wallpaper at its finest. Each of our artists has both a fine arts degree and many years of experience in the field, and their skills are reflected in the craftsmanship of their work. To create our wallpapers, our artists push, pull, scrape and comb their paint into intriguing and original textures. Every order is individually produced for the client, and handmade in the purest sense: just paint, paper, and an artist's hand.
Cory Barber, Wallcovering Creative Director
Since earning his BFA in Fine Arts from the SUNY Purchase School of Art & Design, Cory has spent his career working with the finest names in hand-painted wallpaper and printmaking. His background informs his wallcovering designs, which combine the consistency of printmaking with the complex layers of color and texture found in fine art painting. Rather than working with off-the-shelf tools, Cory prefers to fashion his own equipment out of combs, hairbrushes, jigs and other found objects that he repurposes for the unique effects they yield. His highly creative mind instinctively seeks out the unexpected, often developing new patterns as a way to highlight a striking new tool or technique. The result is a collection of superbly beautiful designs unlike anything else in the market.
Every design is conceived and executed in our studio using painting techniques that are innovative yet rooted in tradition. We are inspired by our urban environment, as well as by the commonplace items around us that creative minds employ to create singularly uncommon products. Beautiful, luxurious, and durable, our painted wallcoverings lend themselves to unlimited customization. The Archetype and Paradigm collections show our abilities, but the possibilities are limitless, and our team is ready to work with you to create your ideal wallcovering design.


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Depression can take many forms: it is often associated with a lack of energy and listlessness but it can also be accompanied by restlessness or agitation – or by a combination of both lethargy and excitement.
Lavender has long been used to help alleviate depression, but is especially valuable where there is a tendency towards mood swings, due to its regulating or stabilizing nature. Essential oils such as lavender are also very beneficial when coping with difficult life situations involving emotions such as grief, loss or fear. One doctor who recognizes the value of aromatics in this field describes her own reasons for using aromatherapy afer the death of her mother;
I didnt want tranquillizers and didnt feel anti-depressants were needed as mine was a perfectly normal reaction to the stress I was living through. I didnt want to take alcohol and yet craved relief from what I was experiencing. I knew these pharmacological treatments did not work for real-life situations of stress. They might work for people with neurotic problems, or those in a state of clinical depression, but thats a different thing. I didnt have any of those symptoms . A combination of massage and essential oils (especially lavender) is more powerful than either one alone, and [makes for] a valuable form of relaxation therapy.
Depression Photo Gallery
Add 8-10 drops of lavender oil to the bath – best used in combination with other anti-depressant oils such as jasmine, rose, neroli or bergamot.
Receiving a regular professional massage using a blend of anti-depressant oils including lavender can help encourage relaxation and feelings of self-worth and well-being. Research has shown that the synergistic combination of smell and touch can have a profoundly nourishing and comforting effect on the psyche.
For an uplifting/soothing room fragrance, use lavender oil in a vaporizer, or put a few drops on a handkerchief for inhalation throughout the day.
Other measures: yoga, meditation and psychotherapy/counselling. Other essential oils of benefit include bergamot, neroli, jasmine and rose.


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Happy Friday, friends! Today I want to share with you a few things I've been loving lately...
+These customized bracelets from Dear Piper. This was a fun collaboration I've had in the works with a lovely lady, and I'll share more details soon! :) But for now check them out and get excited for their fall line!!
+Sally Hansen Miracle Gel nail polish. I bought my first bottle last year, and have been hooked since! They last so much longer than my regular nail polishes, and their colors are so gorgeous. They just came out with a "2x Volume" top coat, and I've been loving at as well!
+Last but not least, this simply delicious perfume, Candy Kiss by Prada. The notes of caramel and vanilla make for a sweet yet sultry mix of scents! I love trying new perfumes!!


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On June 8, Dallas Jensen and Hayden Heaton, from Mt. Nebo Junior in Nebo School District, impressed the Nebo School Board of Education with their Internationally acclaimed "Pollution Solution" project.
These fine young scientists, ninth-graders to be exact, just returned from traveling to Houston, Texas, where they competed in the International Science Fair called International Sustainable World (Energy, Engineering & Environment) Project Olympiad I-SWEEEP.
Over 60 countries were represented along with projects from over 40 states. At the science fair, Hayden and Dallas had the opportunity to share their science project, "Pollution Solution," with judges from across the world for three days of judging and other activities.
Hayden and Dallas won a bronze medal at the International Science Fair. Only three projects from Utah were invited to attend this prestigious competition. Mt. Nebo Junior and Nebo School District are proud of both students recognized on an international level as elite young scientists.


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Tag: 'foot'
May 10, 2011 at 5:56 pm
Photo by akeg / by Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic
For those of you concerned about my foot pain saga (there must be at least one of you, right, Mom?), I saw the podiatrist today. She felt up my feet, took some x-rays and told me I most likely have tendonitis and I most definitely have flat feet.
I knew I had a flat chest, but the flat feet thing is new to me. Can we complete the trifecta and get me a flat stomach, too? I'm not sure if I've always had flat feet or if my morbid obesity helped flatten them or if it's a new thing unrelated to that. Regardless, I am no longer supposed to walk barefoot. Anywhere. Even if I'm just shuffling around the house I need to have sandals with a good arch support. She recommended some brands for that.
She also sprayed my foot with glue and taped it. I'm supposed to keep the tape on for the next five days and see if it helps with the pain, and if […]
April 26, 2011 at 4:32 pm
Photo by ambientfusion / by BY-NC-SA 2.0
If I could have one wish I think it would be to have a year without any medical problems or injuries. Not a lifetime, just a year! I'd like one sweet, sweet, year when my body would function just as it was supposed to. Alas, this will probably always remain a fantasy. I always tended to injure myself when I was running or training for races, and even though I'm not training for anything right now my right foot is causing problems.
I don't remember the day my right foot began to hurt (kinda like I don't remember the moment I got my headache), but it was sometime around late December 2010. I felt a pain in my arch whenever I walked, but it felt fine when standing or sitting with no weight on it. I thought it would just heal with time, but it started to get worse, particularly after I did anything active that required bending my foot, like, oh, WALKING.
I decided I needed to see a doctor, […]
March 17, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Last Sunday my training schedule called for a 90-minute run. The weather was actually above freezing and there were no abominable snowman on the trail. My nose hairs did not form nasal popsicles when I walked outside.
So, of course, this is the week I injure my left foot.
Some days I might be happy to use an injury as an excuse to avoid a long run. Instead, I'd been looking forward to using a long run as an excuse to have a Coco Loco, a chocolate truffle surrounded by coconut cake and glazed with caramel. No 90-minute run for me. No Coco Loco either :(
It's all been rather tragic. Last Wednesday it was 50 degrees out and I came home 90 minutes before sunset, leaving plenty of time to run on the trail without three layers of insulation. Only I couldn't, because I've developed a sharp pain on the underside of my foot when I walk, not always, just sometimes when I distribute my weight in certain ways. I suspect it's an overuse injury, a strained […]


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Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Old Fashioned IF
Long long ago when books had pages to touch and print to read. Some very special children would read stories and fall under a spell of imaginings.
Posted by Dayle's Painted Diary-Dayle Dodwell at 4:53 PM
Labels: Books and bunnies, old fashioned
7 comments:
sweet illustration DayleReplyDelete
adorable illustration. sweet words, too!ReplyDelete
Amazing and adorable!ReplyDelete
A beautiful drawing..ReplyDelete
Very cute. I like falling under that "spell of imaginings" too.ReplyDelete
Really, really good.ReplyDelete
havent been here for ages... how are you?ReplyDelete
i hope eveythings fine.
a beautiful drawing :) like always.
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Ashley Tisdale Topless? See It For Yourself!
Former Disney star Ashley Tisdale is shedding her good girl image—and her top—on the cover of this month's Maxim magazine. In the interview, the 27-year-old cover girl reveals that she is into bad boys—and blonde frat guys too. Watch the video above to hear what else she has to say about her dating life.
You a fan of the High School Musical star's cover? Tell us in the comments section below or tweet us @OKMagazine.
Get A First Look At Rihanna's New Documentary Airing May 6!
Who Changes More Baby Diapers, Bill or Giuliana Rancic?
Lisa Vanderpump Opens Up About Fainting In 'DWTS' Rehearsal!