Zen by Jerome Bixby. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Eric Jacobs. Zen by Jerome Bixby. Because they were so likable and intelligent and adaptable, they were vastly dangerous. It's difficult when you're on one of the asteroids to keep them tripping because it's almost impossible to keep your eyes on the ground. They never got around to putting portals on spaceships, you know, unnecessary when you're flying by GB and psychologically inadvisable besides. So an asteroid is about the only place apart from Luna where you can really see the stars. There are so many stars in an asteroid sky that they look like clouds, like massive, heaped-up silver clouds floating slowly around the inner surface of the vast ebony sphere that surrounds you in your tiny foothold. They are near enough to touch, and you want to touch them, but they are so frighteningly far away and so beautiful. There is nothing in creation half so beautiful as an asteroid's sky. You don't want to look down, naturally. I had left the Lucky Pierre to search for fossils. I'm David Coons, the Lucky Pierre's paleontologist. Some are off in the darkness on either side of me were Joe Hargraves, agitating for mineral deposits, and Ed Rees, hopefully on the lookout for anything alive. The Lucky Pierre was back of us, her body out of sight behind a low black ridge, only her gleaming nose poking above like a porpoise coming up for air. When I looked back I could see, along the jagged rim of the ridge, the busy reflected flickerings of the bubble camp the texts were throwing together. Otherwise, all was black except for our blue-white torch beams that darted here and there over the gritty rocky surface. Twenty-nine of us were ETI Team 17, whose assignment was the asteroids. We were four years and three months out of Terra, and we'd reached Vesta right on schedule. Ten minutes after landing, we had known that the clog was part of the crust of Planet X, or Soren, to give it its right name. One of the few such parts that hadn't been blown clean out of the solar system. That made Vesta extra special. It meant settling down for a while. It meant a careful, months-long scrutiny of Vesta's every square inch and a lot of her cubic ones, especially by the life scientists. Fossils, artifacts, animate life, a surface chunk of Soren, might harbor any of these, or all. Some we tackled already had a few. In a day or so, of course, we'd have the one-man Beatles and crewboats out and the floodlights orbiting overhead, and Vesta would be as exposed to us as a molecule on a micro-screen, then work would start in earnest. But in the meantime, and as usual, our grieves, Rhys and I, were out prowling our weighted boots, clomping along in darkness. Captain Feldman had long ago given up trying to keep his science-minded charges from galloping off alone like this. In spite of being a military man, Felds, a nice guy, he just shrugs and says, huh, scientists, when we appear brightly at the airlock, waiting to be let out. So the three of us went our separate ways, and soon we're out of sight of one another. At Rhys, the biologist was looking hardest for animate life, naturally. But I found it. I had crossed a long, rounded expanse of rock, lava, wonderfully colored, and was descending into a bolder, cluttered pocket. I was nearing the bottom of the chunk, that part that had been the deepest beneath soren's surface before the blow-up. It was the likeliest place to look for fossils. But instead of looking for fossils, my eyes kept rising to those incredible stars. You get that way, particularly after several weeks of living in steel. And it was lucky that I got this way this time, or I might have missed the zen. My feet tangled with a rock. I started a slow, light-gravity fall, and looked down to catch my balance. My torch beam flickered across a small, red-furred teddy bear shape. The light passed on. I brought it sharply back to target. My hair did not stand on end, regardless of what you've heard me quoted as saying, why should it have, when I already knew yours so well? Considered him, in fact, one of my closest friends. The zen was standing by a rock, one paw resting on it, ears cocked forward, its stubby hind legs braced ready to launch it into flight, big yellow eyes blinking unemotionally at the glare of the torch, and I cut down his brilliance with a twist of the polarizer lens. The creature stared at me, looking ready to jump halfway to Mars, or straight at me, if I made a wrong move. I addressed it in its own language, clucking my tongue and whistling through my teeth. Suh, zen! In the blue-white light of the torch, the zen shivered. It didn't say anything. I thought I knew why. Three thousand years of darkness and silence. I said, I won't hurt you. Again, speaking in its own language. The zen moved away from the rock, but not away from me. It came a little closer, actually, and peered up at my hemorrhaged, mirror-glassed head. Unmistakably, the seat of intelligence, it appears, of any race anywhere. Its mouth, almost human-shaped, warped. Finally, words came. It hadn't spoken, except to itself, for three thousand years. You are not zen, it said. Why, how do you speak zenakai? It took me a couple of seconds to untangle the squeaking syllables and get any sense out of them. What I had already said to it were stockphrases that Yurt had taught me. I knew still more, but I couldn't speak zenakai fluently by any means. Keep this in mind, by the way. I barely knew the language, and the zen could barely remember it. To save space, the following dialogue is reproduced without bumblings, blank-stairs, and what did you say? In reality, our talk lasted over an hour. I am an earthman, I said. Through my earphones, when I spoke, I could faintly hear my own voice as the zen must have heard it in Vesta's all-but-non-existent atmosphere. Tiny, metallic, cricket-like. I pointed at the sky, incredible sky. From out there, from another world. I thought about that for a while. I waited. We already knew that the zens had been better astronomers at their peak than we were right now, even though they'd never mastered space travel. So I didn't expect this one to boggle at the notion of creatures from another world. It didn't. Finally, it nodded, and I thought, as I often had before, how curious it was that this gesture should be common to earthmen and zen. So, hurt mm, it said. And you know what I am? When I understood, I nodded too. Then I said, yes, realizing that the nod wasn't visible to the one-way glass of my helmet. I am. Last of zen, it said. I said nothing. I was studying it closely, looking for the features which Yurt had described to us. The lighter red fur of arms and neck, the peculiar formation of flesh and horn of the lower abdomen. They were there. From the coloring, I knew that zen was female. The mouth worked again, not without emotion. I knew, but with the unfamiliar act of speaking. I have been here for—she hesitated, I don't know— for five hundred of my years. For about three thousand of mine, I told her. And then, blank astonishment sank home in me, astonishment at the last two words of her remark. I was already familiar with as zen's enormous intelligence, knowing Yurt as I did, but imagined thinking to qualify years with my, when just out of nowhere from another planet, planetary orbit pops up. And there had been no special stress given to the distinction, just clear, precise thinking like Yurt's. I added still a little odd. We know how long ago your world died. I was child then, she said. I don't know what happened. I have wondered. She looked up at my steel and glass-faced. I must have seemed like a giant. I suppose I was. This, what we are on, was part of Soren, I know. Was it—she fumbled for a word. Was it atom explosion? I told her how Soren had gotten careless with its hydrogen atoms and had blown itself over half of creation. This, the ETI team said, surmised from scientific records found on arrows, as well as from geophysical evidence, scattered throughout other bodies. I was child, she said, again after a moment. But I remember, I remember things different from this. Air, heat, light—how do I live here? Again I felt amazement at its intelligence, and it suddenly occurred to me that astronomy and nuclear physics must have been taught in Soren's elementary schools. Else that in my years an atom explosion would have been all but impossible. And now this old, old creature remembering back three thousand years to childhood, probably to those elementary schools, remembering and defining the differences in the environment between then and now and more, wondering at its existence in the different now. And then I got my thinking straightened out. I recalled some of the things we had learned about the Zen. The average lifespan had been twelve thousand years or a little over, so the Zen before me was, by our standards, about twenty-five years old. Nothing at all strange about remembering when you were twenty-five, the things that happened to you when you were seven. But the Zen's question, even my rationalization of my reaction to it, had given me a chill. Here was no cuddly teddy bear. This creature had been born before Christ. She had been alone for three thousand years on a chip of bone from her dead world, beneath a sepulcher of stars. And last, the last and greatest Martian civilization, the El Rai, had risen and fallen in her lifetime, and she was twenty-five years old. How do I live here, she asked again. I got back to my own framework of temporal reference, so to speak, and began explaining to the Zen what a Zen was. I found out later from year at that biology for the reasons which follow was one of the most difficult studies. So difficult that nuclear physics actually preceded it. I told her that the Zen had been, all evidence indicated, the toughest, hardest, longest-lived creatures that God had ever cooked up, practically independent of their environment. No special ecological niche, just raw, stubborn, tenacious life, developed to a fantastic extreme, a greater force of life than any other known, one that could exist almost anywhere under practically any conditions, even floating in mid-space, which, ask rate or no, the Zen was doing right now. The Zen's breathed all right, but it was nothing they had to do in order to live. It gave them nothing their incredible metabolism couldn't scrounge up out of rock or cosmic rays or interstellar gas or simply do without for a few thousand years. If the human body is a furnace, then the Zen body is a feeder pile. Maybe that, I thought, was the solution always worked toward.  The Zen said. I'd been expecting that. Two years ago, on a bleak surface of arrows, Yurt had asked Inkstrom to do the same thing, but I asked why, although I knew what the answer would be too. The Zen looked up at me. She was exhibiting every ounce of emotion the Zen is capable of, which is a lot, and I could recognize it, but not in any familiar terms. A tiny motion here, a quiver there, but very quiet and still for the most part, and that was the violent expression we strained. Yurt, after two years of living with us, still couldn't understand why we found this confusing. Difficult aliens, or being alien. I've tried so often to do it myself, the Zen said softly, but I can't. I can't even hurt myself.  She was even quieter. Maybe she was crying. I'm alone. Five hundred years. Not too long. I'm still young, but what good is it, life, when there are no other Zen? How do you know there are no other Zen? There are no others, she said, almost inaudibly. I suppose a human girl might have shrieked it. A child, I thought, when your world blew up and you survived, you were a young, three-thousand-year-old woman, uneducated, afraid, probably crawling with neuroses. Even so, in your thousand-year terms, young lady, you're not too old to change.  For a moment, the human quality of her thinking terrified me, the feeling you might have waking up some night and finding your pet puppy sitting on your chest, looking at you with wise eyes and white fangs gleaming. Then I thought of your smart, friendly yurt, who had learned to laugh and wisecrack, and I came out of the jeebies.  Well, it was his problem. He'd probably pull her through. But I didn't pick her up. I made no attempt to take her back to the ship.  If she got suspicious, or to decide to throw a phobic tizzy, she could scatter shreds of me over a square acre of Vesta in less time than it would take me to Yelp. Will you? She began again. I tried shakily.  Wait here. Then I had to translate it. I went back to the lucky pier and got yurt. We could do without him, even though he had been a big help. We'd taught him a lot. He'd been a child at the blow-up, too, and he'd taught us a lot. But this was more important, of course. When I told him what had happened, he was very quiet, crying, perhaps. Just like a human being with happiness. Captain Feldman asked me what was up, and I told him, and he said, Well, I'll be blessed. I said, Yurt, are you sure you want us to keep hands off? Just go off and leave you? Yes, please. Feldman said, Well, I'll be blessed. Yurt, who spoke excellent English, said, Bless you all. I took him back to where the female waited. From the ridge I knew the entire crew was watching through binocs. I set him down, and he fell to stunning her intently. I am not a zen, I told her, giving my torch full brilliance for the crew's sake, but Yurt here is. Do you see?  She said, I can see enough of my own body, too, and yes. Yurt, I said, Here's the female we thought we might find. Take over. Yurt's eyes were fastened on the girl. What do I do now? Yurt worriedly. I'm afraid that something only a zen would know, I told her, smiling inside my helmet. I'm not a zen, Yurt is. She turned to him. Will you tell me? If it becomes necessary. He moved closer to her, not even looking back to talk to me. Give us some time to get acquainted, will you, Dave? And you might leave some supplies in a bubble at the camp when you move on just to make things pleasanter. They were still in space, not a sound, not a motion. I wanted to hang around, but I knew how I'd feel if a zen say wouldn't go away if I were the last man alive and had just met the last woman.  We all had a drink to the saving of a great race that might have become extinct. Ed Rhys, though, had to do some worrying before he could down his drink. What if they don't like each other, he asked anxiously. They don't have much choice, Captain Feldman said, always the realist. Why do humbly women fight for jobs on the most isolated space outposts? Rhys grinned. That's right, they look awfully good after a year or two in space. Make that twenty-five by zen standards or three thousand by ours, said Joe Hargraves. I'll bet they look beautiful to each other. We decided to drop our investigation of Vesta for the time being and come back to it after the honeymoon. Six months later, when we returned, there were twelve hundred zen on Vesta. Captain Feldman was a realist, but he was also a deeply moral man. He went to Yurt and said, It's indecent. Couldn't the two of you control yourself at least a little? Twelve hundred kids? We were rather surprised ourselves, Yurt said complacently, but this seemed to be how zen reproduced. Can you have only half a child? Naturally, Feld got the authorities to quarantine Vesta. Good God, the zen could push us clear out of the solar system in a couple of generations. I don't think they would, but you can't take such chances, can you? End of Zen by Jerome Vixby. Recording by Eric Jacobs, Seattle, Washington.


I'm delivering this joint pledge on behalf of a number of countries. We're asked to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which aims to increase knowledge on the universality and indivisibility of human rights, especially among young people, inspire people to create a movement of shared humanity, while empowering them to fight for their rights. Whereas this regards and contempt for lives and human rights have resulted in barbaric acts of injustice, oppression, and other indignities that rightly outrage the conscience of peace-loving nations. Whereas it is essential if peoples are not to be compelled to have recourse as a last resort to resistance against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law, and accountability for gross violations of these rights as outlined in international law and international humanitarian law must be ensured. Whereas member states have pledged themselves to achieve in cooperation with the United Nations the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Whereas the development of friendly relations among nations based on respect for the fundamental rights to life and the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples is among the purpose and principles of the United Nations as defined in the Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as enshrined in the international covenants on civil and political rights, and the international covenants on economic, social, and cultural rights, and relevant United Nations resolutions. Whereas the recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inlinable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world. Whereas the right to self-determination is a sacred right enshrined in international law as the responsibility of all states. Whereas the right of peoples and nations to life and to self-determination is a prerequisite to the full enjoyment of all fundamental human rights. We, the undersigned nations and organizations, first we affirm that the right to life is an inalienable and inherent right, the enjoyment of which is a necessary condition of the enjoyment of all other human rights. Second, we affirm our unwavering commitment to the Palestinian people's inalienable right to life and right to self-determination. Third, resolve to actively recognize and promote the realization of the right to life and the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people. Fourth, commit to take all measures to ensure the realization of these rights and conformity of our obligation under international law.


This research focused on developing a new type of electromagnetic absorber composed of Fe and TiO2 nanoparticles sandwiched between two dimensional carbon nanosheets. The resulting material was able to absorb electromagnetic waves over a wide frequency range while maintaining low reflection losses. This could be used to reduce electromagnetic interference in electronic devices or other applications where electromagnetic shielding is needed. This article was authored by Bai Wendeng, Zhen Xiang, Wan Xiong, and others.


Okay, so now that we have this ability to work with Boolean expressions, the question is how do we, you know, how do we work with them? Yeah, I know I can do, you know, in this case, 3 greater than 4 false, but okay, what's the purpose of that? Well, what happens is all of a sudden, this is where that fork in the road can come into play. We use something known as an if statement. Now you see right beside if is kind of this little block known as a conditional statement, followed by our little colon. What happens all of a sudden is when I want to make a conditional statement. Let's say, for example, I go a little more fancy. I want to create a program to work off of. So, sorry, all of a sudden, I want to say let's just pick some values x equals 25, y equals 50. All of a sudden I've got two numbers. I want to compare them. I want Python to tell me which one is the bigger one. I know that 50 is the bigger one due to being able to rationalize numbers, but I want Python to tell me which one is the bigger one. What I can do is I can come in here and I can say if. If all of a sudden is, as you can see, kind of changes color, it activates itself. That's a special word inside of Python. Now the second portion you see is I need a conditional statement. So I separate it and now I'm going to basically give it one of those Boolean expressions that I've just created. In my case, I want to see if x is less than y. Well, x less than y. If this is the case, then all of a sudden what I should see is print y is bigger. We save it. I'll just save it as demo.py. And so as I run this, I see that I see y is bigger. Now something to take note of is you notice this indentation here. That indentation is to indicate that this only is going to occur if this is a true statement. If it's not a true statement, this gets ignored. Case in point, let's change x to 55. Now all of a sudden when I run this, I see nothing. I know I see y is bigger up here, but that was from our old version. It's gone. I didn't get a print statement this time. So what can I do?  I can reset this. But the big one, the easy one, is now that we're dealing with that fork in the road, I can look to have what we call my else statement. Now you notice I put it on the same level as my if. This way it's sort of now kind of if this is false, this is what gets activated. Print x is bigger. Now you might be asking yourself, well, so what can we do with this? Maybe you accidentally come over here and you print hello, just as a formality, this is going to error. I didn't like that sound. Reason why is because suddenly this kind of cancels out my if statement. Now it's saying that there is only an if statement, no else attached to it. If I come in and put that tab inward, then all of a sudden what I should see is y is bigger, hello. I see them both because they both are inside those tabs. If I swap that now and run it, then what I see is only my x is bigger than 1.


Sex. It's like pizza. Don't get it at Bob Evans. Hi, I'm Dr. Kush, head d'ankologist here at Smote Cartel. Since the beginning of time, human beings have loved sex. They've tried to have more of it, and they've tried to make it better. They've also loved weed. But what would happen if you took both, and you put them together? Weed makes a lot of things better. A boring day at home, babysitting, a funeral, divorce proceedings, a job interview. Pretty much anything you can imagine would be improved if you had one or two hits of Kush. So what about sex? The body's endocannabinoid system affects things like pleasure, memory, movement, thinking, coordination, time perception, and feelings of fear and anxiety. All of these things are crucial in the sac, and have each ruined a separate sexual experience for me by not functioning properly with a different person named Catherine. In 1984, the Journal of Sexual Medicine conducted a survey of college students to determine the effects of cannabis on sex. 58% of men and 32% of women said it increased the quality of their orgasms. 50% of men and 60% of women said it increased their desire for a familiar partner. 35% of men and 56% of women said it increased their desire to snuggle. 60% of men and women said it increased the sensation of touching. And 70 to 80% of men said it increased their overall satisfaction sexually. Dr. Becky Lin, Director of the Center for Sexual Health and Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at St. Louis University, performed an all-female study on the subject of cannabis and sex. Unfortunately, she did not respond to my attempts to reach out, nor did I attempt to reach out to her at any point. Women who used marijuana were two times as likely to report more satisfactory orgasms and overall increased sex drive. So, case closed, right? In a 2010 study in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, men who used cannabis were more likely to report issues with premature ejaculation as well as issues with delayed ejaculation. How does that make sense, you ask? I don't know. It doesn't really. Science is kind of hard. I never said I liked it. But we all just do whatever we can to get through the day, one day at a time. Human sexuality is very complicated. My thesis for my master's degree was losing my virginity. Unfortunately, performance anxiety caused the attempt to be unsuccessful and I had to restart graduate school. Attempting to quantify the nuances of human sexual behavior into scientific results is nearly impossible. So, does cannabis make sex better? Will I ever forgive my grandmother? It's impossible to say for sure. Both cannabis and sex are experiences that differ so much from person to person that a definitive answer is virtually impossible. That looks like fun, honey. If you're not that experienced and you think cannabis might make sex more enjoyable for you, go ahead and try it. You might want to do it with a familiar partner first just in case you get high and suddenly realize they are very ugly.  But you also might get high and it might feel really good and you'll have a great time and have a lot of fun. And remember, not to lecture you. It's always important to respect your partner's boundaries. And if your partner doesn't respect your boundaries, leave and call 911. Thank you for joining me through this journey on all of a 16-year-old boy's favorite things. Weed, sex, and my grandmother.  In appropriate situation. Honey? Sweetheart?


This site here is Redgum Reserve in Batesford. It's a council reserve that has some wonderful conservation assets on it. Some beautiful big old river redgums, some remnant native grasslands, one of the rarest vegetation types left in Victoria now. And a whole bunch of revegetation work that's been done by the local community to take this from what was a bear paddock on a creek line to revegetated by diverse area that's full of birds and small mammals and the like. It's a fabulous place. It really is lovely. So people might view this as us putting fuel in here, but it's actually working in our favour because it's suppressing the fine fuel. Yes, that's true. All that long rank introduced grass that's so flammable in summer. And if you only got a look here... Some of the very best engagement I do around fire and fire ecology and fire management is that one-on-one stuff with people. Very resource hungry, takes a lot of your time potentially, but I personally think the outcomes are really, really good. And they will go and talk to their neighbours or their friends or their family and it puts hopefully a very positive spin on their interaction both with us as an agency and the issue that they had that they were trying to get a result on. Because it was so late in the season, the intensity was still quite low. And that's really evident here. I mean, you just look at this beautiful tree here. We've burnt right underneath this. And there's, you know, it's a relatively cool burn because there's very little scorch on the canopy. Personally I find that doing a site visit with people makes me feel more involved as well with their plans and their objectives. And that helps me with my own objectives and plans. And it shares their passion for the site. And it's very rewarding, especially when you see people excited about what's coming back and what's happening. I love walking through here and I walk through here just about every day just to connect with nature really and to calm the self down each day. This is life, you know, this is a kind of life in microcosm. It's one or two trees here. So that's what it means to me. Without question, the ability to build relationships based on trust, it's the cornerstone of a successful program. And I think to do that, one of the first challenges is to understand expectations. Now understand what the limitations are of our organisation and our place and our role in this, you know, melting pot, this tapestry of fire in the environment, fire ecology. Part of it is about figuring out what are the non-negotiables from that and then what are the negotiables and where do you land. So it's almost like taking your ideas and putting them through a community filter of like what is going to be easily accepted and digestible and where can you build on that. There are legal constraints on what people can do. We try to be very pragmatic about that. We try to bring people along to an understanding of why those constraints are in place. When they hopefully come to an understanding and we're not just beating them over the head with a big stick about it, then hopefully they will trust what we're telling them. So, you know, that's a long period of time and it involves trust based on honesty and an open communication about what we're trying to do, what our own skills and abilities are, what the benefits of skills and abilities and knowledge that the community have. And again, treating everybody equally as part of the team in order to do that, no matter who they work for, what role they play. You know, some of the activities that we carry out where you're actually putting fire into the landscape near people's property is quite a challenging thing to do. There's a lot, a huge amount of work that goes into making sure that those activities are as safe as possible. We just make sure that people are aware it's going on, that they know ahead of time so that if they've got concerns or queries or they wish to, you know, perhaps request that we delay a particular activity, maybe a plan burn that might be impacting something that's important to them, so that we have open lines of communication. What doesn't work well for trust is when things don't go to plan and you don't have that follow-up discussion with the rest of the team or with the rest of the community that you're working with as to why things didn't go to plan. You can't always control those things because of the weather, the fuel moisture, the amount of fuel that's there and you need to make sure that the people know that these things can alter the outcome and if they're going to trust you, then you need to be quite honest upfront about what's going to happen. It's part of that relationship. If you can bring them along, you learn something from them, they learn something from you, you come to some sort of level of agreement but there's a level of understanding around that and trust around that, then I think you've gained that ability to keep moving forward. Most of that will come through conversation and talking and understanding and learning and listening and that builds that relationship and that trust over time.


Y'all know what time it is. So let's get it.  A wheelchair. Sympathy, I suppose. That's what I thought at first, but he's a man in yellow. He's a reverse flash. He's much smarter than that. Sympathy can't be the only reason. Yeah, it was a misdirect. Just like everything else, Wells was done. I mean, the last person we suspect to be the man in yellow was someone who lost the use of their legs. That's exactly right, Joe. Which is why I started messing around with the wheelchair. And that's when I found this. You can't get that, Radio Shack. It looks like the tech inside, did you? I measured the output and this thing is caking off serious juice. I mean, we're talking enough to power all of Central City. Seriously? Oh, yeah. What do you think Wells was using it for? I think this thing has some kind of battery. Battery? As in, Wells was using it to power himself. To gain more speed and that's why he's so much faster than you. Oh, that's interesting.  Talking about that in Avengers. You know how Super-O moves and stuff. Remember when Dan had grabbed the staff? Nick Fury put his hand on those guns, like, what is your gun gonna do to him? Nothing.  So I'm pleased to make a movie with cop don't grab his gun against a super villain.  He ain't got his chair no more. Maybe Barry can catch him. Fuck. Still can't catch him. Fuck. Well, Barry, maybe you need to sit in that motherfucking chair. Wells must have released her. Did you hear that? I checked all the containment cells everyone's accounted for.  Don't touch me. Remote.  I think you all know that. They'll be an ongoing joke. But you're just a little dehydrated. The IV should help with that.  Okay, Eddie? He was too fast. We found him under that hatch in the pipeline. I'm so sorry about that. I thought I looked everywhere for you. It's not your fault.   Well, you know, all that's important is that we're all safe. And back together, right? Hey, why do you take you? He said that we're sent his real name is Eobard Thawne. Eobard Thawne. I just like him a dream. Did you say anything else? Anything that could help us? I figured out what he's really after. He didn't say much. He just kept working on some tube. A tube? What did he look like? A metallic, futuristic. He said it was the key to him getting back everything that was taken from him. Yeah, I don't understand. Yeah, I don't know. Look, I just want to go home. Is that okay? Yes, of course. I'll make sure he gets a rest. I'm a fan. It's some sort of future power source that's what's charging up the accelerator.  Do you see a power button anywhere on this thing? Dude, this thing is from the future. It's beyond me. I press or touch or cut the wrong thing. I could bring the whole building down. OK, how long until it's fully functional? That's, I can tell, 36 hours. That's what I was thinking of that. Why would Wiles want the particle accelerator to work again? I don't know.  It made me the flash. It's not all it did. So what happens if the particle accelerator turns on while the medi-humans are in their containment cells? They're toast. We put them down there, and now their lives are in danger because of us. Look, I think you all know I've never been a fan of this arrangement here. I thought the whole plan was to rehabilitate them and set them free. It was. We've been a little busy. Well, if they stay in there, they die. And if we let them go, they destroy the city. We're going to have to move them. Move them where? Iron Heights can't have medi-humans. You're right. But Lee and you can.  Lee and you? Lee and you is the island where Oliver was stranded for five years, Argus built a covert military prison on it. That's where we sent Captain Boomerang. Oliver keeps his worst criminals there. They won't be able to escape, and more importantly, they won't be able to hurt your body. Great. So we ship them from one illegal black site to another. That's right. I guess so, yes. How do we move them to Oliver's own private alcatraz? I'll call them. Maybe you can help with transport. And Cisco, if we do this, nobody can get loose. My name and way of getting them out of here safely. All right, get on it. I'm there. This is insane. Joe, we have to do this. You don't think that these darn blessing supervillains grew downtown and always been an office? A villainous, that's where you'll come in. Cecile, bye. Anything for my favorite detective? Let's say hypothetically, I know a prison of sorts a place that has metahumans to bad ones. Reconcerved, especially if hypothetically you had anything to do with it. Why are you asking me about this? Because things are this unmoved and... Mugglin, Joe, those are very bad things. These are some bad people, Cecile. But their lives are all against them. I can't. I can't get involved in this, Joe. I can't. Yeah, but I'll get the villain. I'm quite possibly the attorney who will one day be prosecuting you. I tell him to get as far away from this as possible. She is bad. Back gentlemen, let me talk to her for a minute. I am. We just need to get them to Ferris Airfield. So, I'm looking through that, but... No, actually, it was not him, apparently. He's in the probat, wherever that is. I don't know. I called Lila, Thickel's wife.  So, what about CCPD giving us an escort? Man, it ain't happening. What? You saw me talking to the DA. She was very clear. I can lose my badge. I can go to jail. We can go to jail. We are protecting people. We are, Bear. I'm a cop. There's a certain set of rules I need to follow him. This year, I broke all of them. Lying to my boss. I know. And ignoring the law. I made the rules to help people. Yeah, Joe. That's right. I had nothing to say. An album.  It isn't the Scarlet Speedster. Scarlet Speedster. It's a disease. Nicoled eggs here are fantastic. Play. Geez, man. Must be pretty desperate to come asking for my assistance. But I'll bite. What do you need? Help transporting some people out of the city. How many? Five. It's called his eyes. He's very bad. He's very angry people. Our Zoom. So you want me to, what, freeze the problem? Protect you from them if anything goes wrong? First rule of business, always protect yourself. I'm not going to help usher your enemies out of town. Take it, not just my enemies, they're your enemies too. I doubt it. We'll destroy Central City. It's not my problem.  I do, and it is. Well, guess what? These people get loose, there won't be a city to love anymore. I'll be the one if everybody's dead. I know argument. I'll need something in return. That's to be something you want that I keep... Yeah, that's for her. I was checking her out till I said who they are, walking over there. Nearly two weeks, and your first thought is to go back to work. I just needed something constant. Keep dropping. I love you. This was for me, wasn't it? When you took me to the waterfront, and Dr. Wells have done to you, you were going to propose. I was. But now you're not. What did he do to you? He didn't do anything to me, Iris. He sort of shot me. What could he possibly have shown you that would make you change your mind about us? A future. He should be the future, Iris. We don't get even buried in a gutter. He told her. Out of your mind. What do you mean you talked the letter snark? I have to help.  We have already tried everyone else. Look, did you try the CCPD? I tried Oliver. I even tried Ronnie and Dr. Stein. And the particle accelerator goes online in 16 hours. 16 hours, Joe. I'm not willing to let the methods die. And we can't let them escape either. So, like it or not, snark with his cold gun is the only one that can stop them if Cisco's transportation does not hold. I'm lucky for you. I figured out what it is you can get me. Hello, Detective. Nice to see you again. I got a gun. I thought about your proposal. You want my prints, dental records, DNA, criminal records, family tree, everything there is in this world concerning Leonard Snarkt. I want it destroyed. All of it. At CCPD. Online. Everywhere. The brass understood. You really think we'd do that for you? That's the only way I find it. You and me need to talk right now. Joe's drawing a line. What is wrong with you? You can't just erase Snarkt's criminal records. Yeah, I can. And I'll do whatever I have to do. There's got to be a different way to do this. Okay, but what is it, Joe? Tell me what it is and we'll do it. We're running out of time. What is going on with you? You're working with that killer. This isn't who you are. Who I am is the guy who's not fast enough to stop Wells. He hasn't been one step ahead of us, Joe. He's been a thousand. I can't catch him. I can't beat him. What I can do is save those people down there.  I do.  And this is every single piece of physical evidence that the police had. Good. That's right, sis. Play. Play! Honey, she is very uptight. I'm not uptight. Pull this off. Why are you wearing your mask so I already know who you are? And I promised I wouldn't tell anyone. That includes my sister. Jeric? Trainwreck. Don't look so surprised, detective. I'm playing too. Hey, Cisco.  Well, I'm not still mad at me, are you? I really did enjoy kissing you. Under duress. Calm down. Don't fall for it. Because this... Ha ha ha! ...goes to the airport. I have actually. That's pretty dope. This is cool. Why'd you get this? My uncle owns and his company holds frozen food cross-country. Okay. So I retrofitted the cooling system with the wheelchair's power source to create an energy damper. Of course you did. Which means what? Exactly. Basically, the back of this rig is being flooded with so much power that it's effectively creating a transient pulse strong enough to disrupt the metahumans' powers. So we can get them to the airport and get them on the plane without them getting fresh on us. Technically, we need somebody with a Class A commercial driver's license to drive this, though. I can drive it. The Class A CDO. You do? We can't all be doctors. All right, well, let's do this. The plane's going to be here in two hours. And we got Optimus Prime. Good Optimus. That's what I'm talking about. I'm helping the Flash. Autobots. Transform and roll out. Let's just hope Wells isn't working with Megatron. You're right. True. This is one fight to fight. She was giving me a bad-ass alias. It's like six years ago.  They double-crossed them. I remember him. I don't remember the guy with the I-D's. It's a whole lot of frostbite. I know you are always pleased to meet a fan. Just remember who it was made sure you didn't get thrown on that plane bound for nowhere. You just let this go. Take that guy. Be as part of my ropes and a rotting away in the North China Sea. Here's the thing. How did you expect me to do not be what I am? I saw an opportunity to turn things to my advantage. And I did. Who you're really mad at is yourself. This is on you. Who that? Well, I guess you owe me one now, too. I will say all of this. I'm really excited to see how it all turns out. See?  I like this episode.  That's all clear. Burn Barry. Here we go. I'm so sorry. All a part of your plan, I assume? Actually, that didn't factor into my plan at all. But I'm impressed. You took such great lengths to keep those people from harm. Never the hero. How, Barry? You've hurt enough people. I know. You see me as the villain.  Let me show you. You know, I just learned the hard way not to trust the bad guy. And yet, I've shown you time and time again. You can't beat me, Barry. That's what I'm gonna say. I was like, is it suit and ring? Last night at our sleepover? Was that it? Okay. Okay, so they're getting it. Hold on. I didn't know that this was gonna be a fight like this at the end.  Shit, I was bored. Play. Like you can see.  It did disable me. I'll be damned. God even getting it.   All right, what you gonna do with him? Come on. I ain't going to go free.  That's what I'm talking about. He gets to save mom. All right, y'all. Post your comments down below. Let me know what you think. If you enjoyed my reaction, hit the like button, subscribe, and share. If you did not chuck your heart out like Wells. One million subscribers. Woo!


Meeting planner friends are you attending CM&E next week or perhaps IMAX or IBTM later this year or really any other industry trade show? Let's make sure you get ROI out of attending those trade shows this year. Stick around. Hey friends it's Leanne and if you attend any of the trade shows that they host for meeting planners in the meetings industry you know it's gonna be a busy week when you take time out of the office to go and attend the show. Now chances are you understand that there is ROI to be had at these trade show experiences but how do we get the most out of our time away because we know it's going to be a busy time when we get back to the office and try and catch up on emails. So here are some of my best tips and tricks on how to tackle a trade show and then of course how to tackle the notes when we get back to the office. Tip number one plan your route. Often these trade shows are really large and trying to get it all done in two or three days is almost impossible but if you plan your route in advance and save some time on your steps getting to and from different booths you might be able to be a bit more efficient. In fact for some shows I even narrow the focus to one demographic area so that I can really focus in on the the suppliers in that region and then maybe for the next trade show I focus on a different demographic area. So if that works for you you might want to employ that and then you don't feel like you're spreading yourself so thin and running around like a crazed person trying to get everywhere at once. Tip number two take notes. I'm a note taker. I don't know how people who don't take notes retain that information so however you choose to take notes make sure you've got that with you when you're visiting each and every booth. I even sometimes take a stapler and staple that business card right onto the page of notes that I'm taking so then when I get back to the office I can refer the notes to the person that I talked to. So take some great notes when you're on the trade show floor then you'll actually feel like you've accomplished something when you get back to the office. Tip number three business cards. Now you're going to be taking business cards and also collecting business cards but don't let them pile up on the corner of your desk when you get back to the office make sure that they're filed appropriately. Now whether you staple them to your notes like I alluded to earlier or perhaps even take a picture of it and keep them electronically. Both cam card and Evernote work really well for this and if you check out the blog post for this video you'll see links to both of those applications and you can download those on your phone and use them on the go. Tip number four sensible shoes. This is more for the ladies out there but gentlemen make sure you've got good shoes as well and here's the thing this is I'm still learning how to do this we all want to wear beautiful shoes my feet do not fit into beautiful shoes and do an eight-hour trade show I even have my shoes sometimes labeled where I know exactly how many hours I'm going to get out of a pair of shoes before I'm screaming bloody murder so make sure you got your eight to ten hour shoes packed when you're hitting the trade show floor. Tip number five take a water bottle in fact you can even take other things that reduce your use of single-use plastics take your own cutlery I have a spork take a metal straw a T mug whatever it is that'll cut down on some of those single-use products trade shows are notorious for creating waste so let's make sure we all do our part to cut down on that. Tip number six a good night's sleep and sometimes with those networking receptions this one is hard but you want to be fresh and alert when you're on the trade show floor so you ask intelligent questions and you can answer the questions that are being asked of you so make sure you get enough sleep when you're doing a three-day trade show. Tip number seven review your notes as soon as you get home now our inboxes are full our voicemails are full and we want to tackle all the things that we missed but carve out an hour of your day on that very first day back from the trade show and catalog all the notes and all the business cards that you collected. Number one you'll retain the information better but number two then you'll be able to find that information when the time arises so take some time as soon as you get home to get yourself organized. So what strategies do you use to get the most out of your trade show floor experience will you share them with the community here? I hope these tips will help you make better connections on the trade show floor and better relationships as we continue them offline when we're back at the office. For more tips on being productive in the meetings industry hop on over to conferencesource.net and find productivity tips under our categories. And friends if we do cross paths at an upcoming trade show will you please stop and say hi and introduce yourself I would love to meet with you. Good luck at your next show and have a great week everyone. Bye for now.


What's going on everybody welcome back to another draw preview and we have the first Masters 1000 event for the men on the ATP To Miami Open. We didn't get it last year. We have it back in 2019, but we didn't get in 2020 and a lot of players have actually pulled out Let's go to the withdrawal list. All right, so it's a long list of players that have pulled out We have undo half Caruno Buster, Beritini's pulled out, Chorich, Quavos, Fakina, Novak Djokovic pulled out during the week, Edmund, Federer, the defending champions also out, Gasky, Kriyanovich, Nick Kirios, He's not playing Miami, Milman, Monfice, Mutay, Rafa Nadal's also pulled out, Pella, Ramos-Fernoles, Rood, Simon, Dominic Teem, Songa and Stan Vavrenka. So a huge withdrawal list from this tournament, But there are some good players playing. Let's go to the top of the draw. All right, so starting at the top of the draw we have 32 seeds. It feels like a mini grand slam, very similar to women's sides tournament as well. It feels like a mini slam. We have 32 seeds all getting a buy in the first round and the number one seed. Daniel Medvedev, he's the world number two, but he gets the number one seed because Djokovic pulled out. He gets a buy in the first round. He'll play the winner of Quarry or Lou in the second round. Then we have Lopez versus Poprin, so a battle of the generations in the first round. Winner of that's going to play number 30 seed Opelka in the second round. Then we have the number 19 seed Evans. He's into the second round. He'll play the winner of Tiafo or Trevalier who were playing in the first round. Then we have a couple of qualifiers playing each other. The winner of that qualifier battle will play against number 16 seed Lyovic in the second round and you can see there that Opelka, he might have to take on Medvedev in the third round and that is not an easy match for Daniel Medvedev. Also, don't forget Evans. He's been in some form lately, so keep an eye on him in Tiafo. He's been in a little bit of form as well, playing a lot of tournaments over the last couple of weeks and also Lyovic who might be Medvedev's fourth round opponent is somebody that he lost to a couple of weeks ago in Rotterdam. So Medvedev, not an easy draw for him. Going to the second part of the draw now, we have number 11 seed. Ozealius Seed, buying the first round. He'll play the winner of Heber or Soza who were playing in the first round. Then we have Pospisil versus a qualifier. The winner of that's going to take on number 18 seed John Isner and don't forget Isner made the final here back in 2019 and beat Ozealius Seed along the way, so they might have a rematch in the third round. Then we have the 31st seed Struff gets to buy in the first round. He'll play the winner of a qualifier or Berenkus in the second round. Then we have Harris versus Murray, the wild card Andy Murray. He's back and he's up against one of the most informed players at the moment. So watch out for Murray and watch out for Harris because that match, that could be awesome. Winner of that gets to play against number seven seed RBA who's also in a great form. So fun couple of matches in that part of the draw. But to be honest, this part of the draw is super wide open. Her bear got to watch out for him. He's been in some form and like I said, Harris as well. But RBA's made a final in the last couple of weeks and then Ozealius Seed, what can he produce at a tournament that he did well a couple of years ago, along with John Isner. Next part of the draw now, we have the number three seed, Alexander Zverev, hot off his Acapulco title last week, behind the first round. He'll play either the wild card Alcaraz or Roussevary in the second round. And Zverev did play Alcaraz last week in Acapulco. So we might get a rematch in the second round. Then we've got a qualifier versus Yamur. Winner of that's going to play against number 27 seed Basilash Vili. So a very fun matchup potentially in the third round between two players who have won titles this year with Zverev and Basilash Vili. So we'll keep an eye out for that. Then we've got the 21st seed Sinner behind the first round. Who played the winner of Gaston, the wild card or Coppa in the second round. Then we have Steve Johnson versus Hanfman, winner of that's going to play number 14 seed Hashinov in the second round. So few players in this part of the draw that have played well recently. Coppa last week, he played well, got to the semi finals of Acapulco. We know Sinner's been doing well this year, Basilash Vili and Zverev as well. And don't sleep on Hashinov because he is a dangerous player in a tournament like this where anybody can win it. So watch out for Hashinov as well. And rounding out the top half of the draw we have. Number nine seed Demetrov by in the first round. He'll play the winner of Nori or Nishioca in the second round. Then we have Giron versus Paul. Winner of that's going to take on the number 22nd seed Fritz in the second round. So no matter what, there's going to be an American in the third round. Then we have the number 32 seed Bublek into the second round already. He'll play the winner of Vesely or Jera in that second round matchup. And Bublek's been in some form. So watch out for him. Duckworth, he'll take on a qualifier in the first round. Winner of that's going to play against number eight seed Goffan in the second round. And this is a very interesting part of the draw. The four seeds in this part of the draw. Demetrov, Fritz, Bublek and Goffan have all had good portions of the year, but they've also played bad at times this year. So it could be anyone's section. Starting off the second half of the draw now, the bottom half of the draw. We've got the number five seed Schwartzman. He gets a buy in the first round. He'll play the winner of Caruso or Uchiyama. We were playing in the first round. Then we've got Ketchmenovich versus a qualifier winner. That's going to play against number 25 seed Manorino in the second round. Then we've got the number 17 seed Karatsev. He is the man of the moment. Everyone's talking about Karatsev gets a buy in the first round. He'll play the winner of the wild card Draper or Kokushkin who are playing in the first round. Then we have Korda versus Albert playing in the first round. Winner of that's going to play against number 10 seed Benini in the second round. So for all the Karatsev fans, he has a good draw because he has beaten Schwartzman recently. He beat Schwartzman at the Australian Open in fact a couple of months ago. So Karatsev, good draw for him, but will the added pressure and the added attention hurt him this week? Because a lot of people are thinking that he might even win the tournament. But don't sleep on Benini or Schwartzman because they could sneak out of this part of the draw too. Going to the next section of the draw, we have the number 13 seed Garen buying the first round. He'll take on the winner of Chilich versus Korya who are playing in the first round. Then we have the wild card Moe versus Mouseti and we watched a lot of Mouseti last week. Very impressed. You'll have to take on the American wild card first. Winner of that's going to play against number 23 seed Pear in the second round. Then we've got the number 29 seed Fucovich into the second round. He'll play a qualifier no matter what because there's two qualies going at it in the first round. Then we have Martinez versus Sangren winner of that's going to take on number four seed Andre Rubelev and straight away you could probably see the memes. Fucovich versus Rubelev again in the third round. They could be playing each other again but maybe you learned something from those two losses. But don't sleep on Mouseti, watch out for him and also Marin Chilich. He has a good draw as well because there are a lot of clay court players around that top part of the draw for him. Next section of the draw we have the number six seed Shapovalov buying the first round. He'll play the winner of Kwon or Vashka in the second round. Then we have Shadi versus Kutla in the first round. Winner of that's going to play against number 26 seed Hercatch in the second round. Then we've got the number 20 seed Umbair getting a buy in the first round. He'll play the winner of O'Connell or Soza in that second round. Then we have Thompson versus Del Bonas winner of that first round. We'll play against number 12 seed Rownich in the second round. And for me this is very wide open. I don't think it's very obvious. Shapovalov, Rownich, Umbair, Hercatch all the seeded players here could potentially get out of this part of the draw and make the quarter finals. But there are some players as well including Shadi who has been in some form lately. So watch out maybe Shadi can interrupt all the seeds and get through the quarters. And the last part of the draw here at the bottom of the bottom part of the draw. The number 15 seed Diminor he gets a buy in the first round. He'll play the winner of Galen or a qualifier in his second round match. Then we've got a qualifier versus Vadasco. Fernando Velasco back for the first time in what seems like forever. The winner of that match will play against number 24 seed Sonigo in the second round. Then we've got the number 28 seed Nishikori buy in the first round. He'll play the winner of Betonet or a qualifier in the second round. Then we have a protected ranking with Kevin Anderson. He'll take on Montero in the first round. Winner of that gets to play against number two seed Sinti Pass. So not an easy first couple of rounds ever stepped. He might have to play Anderson. He might have to play Nishikori probably the toughest part of the draw for any of the big seeds. Sinti Pass has got it. Unlucky for him, but he did have a tough draw in Acapulco and he still managed to make the final. So watch out Steph. He might like the fact that he has to play hard opponents. And there it is. The first ATP 1000 event of the year and the Miami Open doesn't have the big names. We don't have Federer Nadal, Djokovic team. We do have Medvedev, Sinti Pass, Rubeleven, Zverev. So we do have some big names from the new generation. Let me know down in the comments below. Who's going to win this event? It's the first time in 17 years that we've had an event with the out of the big three. All right, looking at the draw now, seeing you as the best draw. And this one's very hard to predict, but I think I'm going to go with Alexander Zverev. I was very impressed with his final performance last week in Acapulco, beating Sinti Pass. And it just feels like one of these tournaments where anybody could win it. And I think Zverev has the experience at Masters 1000 level to win an event like this. So I'm going to backstash Zverev, but of course, keep an eye on Medvedev. But Zverev, he's my pick. Again, let me know down in the comments below. Who are you picking for this one? So the Miami Open, we don't have the big names that we're used to seeing at Masters 1000s, but we do have a bunch of big names still.