Hi everyone, a big welcome or welcome back to my channel. This is going to be a big one. Let's talk about my most anticipated releases from January to June. We're going to be covering literary fiction, non-fiction, poetry, short story collections, with a little sprinkling of romance, fantasy and YA as well. There are so many good books coming out in the first half of this year. I feel like I always think that about new releases, but this year even more so. I'm also just really loving being back on booktube and reading and reviewing again, so I'm very excited about this list. A big thank you to all of the publishers who can send me advanced copies of these books. I can't wait to read them all and let you all know what I think. I hope you all enjoy this list. Let me know down below in the comments if there are any new releases I may have missed. Let's go. Out on the 4th of January from Atlantic Books, we have Normal Women by Ainsley Hogarth. From the author of Mother Thing, this is a darkly comic literary novel. It follows the story of a new stay-at-home mum who becomes embroiled in a dangerous mystery when the female guardian of a supposed yoga center temple goes missing. This is said to explore values of female labor and sex work. It sounds very intriguing. Also, I love this cover. From the 18th of January, from HQ, we have Hidden Fires by Sirish Hussein. This novel opens during Ramadan in 2017 as Grenfell Tower sets on fire. It follows Yusuf, who lives on his own in Bradford and who is haunted by his own experiences of India's partition when his granddaughter Ruby comes to stay with him. I loved Sirish Hussein's debut novel, The Family Tree, when I read it a couple of years ago. It was thrilling and surprising and so full of heart. I'm reading this one currently and just desperately hoping that it's going to be as good. Also, from the 18th of January, this one from Faber, we have God Complex by Rachel Allen. This is a narrative poem telling the story of the breakup of a toxic relationship with the backdrop of global degradation and disaster. I loved Rachel Allen's debut collection, Kingdomland. This one is said to be fiery and sweeping and urgent, exploring pollutants and purgatory. Really looking forward to exploring this one soon. From the 1st of February, also from Faber, we have My Heavenly Favorite by Lucas Reineveld. My very basic Norwegian is telling me that the J in their name is pronounced as a Y. This is a Danish literary novel set during the summer of 2005, exploring the obsessive relationship between a 14-year-old farmer's child and the local veterinarian. I never read The Discomfort of Evening, which won the International Booker in 2020, so I'm really excited to explore this author's work. I'm reading this one currently. It is incredibly uncomfortable and disconcerting and mesmerizingly written. Also, from the 1st of February, from Atlantic Books, is This Is Salvaged by Bohini Vara. This is a short story collection following different characters who, through various turbulence, are all fervently seeking connection in one another. I'm reading short story collections more than ever before, and this one caught my eye. I've just started this one. It is feeling quite punchy and quite varied, so we will see. Next up, from the 9th of February, from Fitzcarraldo Editions, we have Alphabetical Diaries by Sheila Hetty. This is a non-fiction book comprised of Sheila Hetty's thoughts over a tenure period organised into alphabetical order. I've heard nothing but amazing things about Sheila Hetty, and the premise here just had me hooked. I've had a flick through. It looks bizarre, and I'm hoping engaging and enlightening. Out on the 8th of February, from Daunt Books, we have Vladimistoc Circus by Elisa Chouard-Dussepin, translated by Anisa Abbas Higgins. This is a French literary novel following Natalie, a costume designer for a trio of artists who are performing a dangerous act in the Vladimistoc Circus in Russia. I could make a whole video, honestly, on just Daunt Books releases. Their 2024 list is insane. I'm hoping this will be immersive and dreamlike. It sounds very character-focused. And Luke Bird's covers, honestly, just never miss. Coming on the 22nd of February from Viking, we have Blessings by Ibe Chukwibuka. This is a literary novel following teenage Obi-Funa, who is banished to a Christian boarding school by his father, after being caught sharing an intimate moment with the family's apprentice. This is said to explore love and loneliness and violence. Sounds like perfection. And it was actually my good friend Emma Leong, who is a literary agent who discovered this one, so it's extra special for that reason, too. Also coming on the 22nd of February from Coma Press, we have Don't Look Left by Atef Abu Saif. This is the complete and unedited diaries of the Palestinian writer and minister of culture, detailing his experiences of the genocide in Gaza from the 7th of October onward. I am highly anticipating getting my hands on this one, and hats off to Coma Press for publishing this, and for turning it around so urgently as well. It was upstairs. Also, coming on the 22nd of February from Cannon Gate, is Poyums by Len Penney. This is a poetry collection written partly in the language of Scots, which explores womanhood, abuse, relationships, and more. I've already read this one. It's so good. Delicious and musical and fiery, with a really distinct voice. And the Scots in here is just coming on the 7th of March from Atlantic Books, is We Are Together Because by Kerry Andrew. This is a literary novel following three siblings, one hot, lethargic summer holiday when inexplicable and eerie happenings occur. I'm very intrigued by the vibes here. I love summer literary novels that are a bit weird. Siblings, sex, the end of the world. I'm sold. Coming on the 7th of March from Skepta is Stoneyard Devotional by Charlotte Wood. This is a literary novel set in the Australian outback. It follows a burnt-out middle-aged woman who is haunted by her childhood and seeks refuge in a religious community. This is said to be strange and otherworldly. I'm hoping it's going to be really immersive. I'm intrigued to get to this one and just experience whatever it throws at me. Coming on the 7th of March from Hutchinson Heineman is The Tower by Flora Carr. This is a historical reimagining of Mary Queen of Scots as she was held captive in a remote Scottish castle, alongside three loyal women as they all plot to escape and reclaim her country and freedom. This sounds as though it will be quite plot focused, filled with intrigue and female friendship. I think it could be really fun. I hope it packs a punch. Also coming on the 7th of March from Sphere is I promise it won't always hurt like this. 18 Assurances on Grief by Claire McIntosh. This is a non-fiction book in which Claire McIntosh shares her own experiences of grief relating to the death of her son and her father. So my dad unexpectedly passed away last summer, which means I have already read this slowly bit by bit over the past few months. This is gentle and open and kind. I would highly recommend it to anyone who might need it. Coming on the 14th of March from Hutchinson Heineman is Primer Facy by Susie Miller. This is a literary novel adapted from the award-winning play. It follows a top criminal defense barrister who is raped and who must then partake in the system that she so believes in from the other side. I never got to see this when it was shown in cinema, but I heard outstanding things. I'm very happy to see it made into a novel. I really hope it's well done. I want this one to impress me. Coming on the 14th of March from Dead Ink Books, we have Swanna in Love by Jennifer Bell. This is a literary novel set during the summer of 1982, when 14-year-old Swanna and her brother are sent to an artist colony and she falls in love with the handsome, married father of two, Dennis. Dead Ink are one of my favourite indie publishers and this sounds so them. Exploring Adolescent Desire, it's supposed to be hilarious and shocking.  Coming on the 14th of March from Fleet, we have Lobster by Holly Mcnish. This is a non-fiction poetry essay hybrid book. Exploring all of the things we have been taught to hate, our bodies, our pleasure, our fun, and ultimately how we may be able to learn to love these things again. I loved Holly Mcnish's book Slug, which had a similar structuring to this, so engaging and thought provoking and easy to consume. I can't wait to get my hands on this one. Coming on the 19th of March from Usborne, we have We're Sleeping Girls Lie by Faradah Abike E. Yemedi. This is a YA contemporary mystery following Sade, the new girl at a boarding school, as she discovers dark secrets and cover-ups when her roommate goes missing. I adore Faradah Abike E. Yemedi. She is one of the best YA writers out there right now. She knows how to plot. She knows how to character. This sounds so good. I can't wait. Coming on the 21st of March by Harville Secker is Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange. This is a literary novel following several generations of the same Native American family exploring both the Sand Creek massacre in the American Indian wars and mass shooting in the 21st century. I really enjoyed Tommy Orange's debut there, there. He's such a beautiful evocative writer and I'm just excited to read more Native American fiction generally. I think this one's going to be brilliant. Coming on the 28th of March from Dawn's Books is Headshot by Rita Bullwinkle. This is a literary novel following eight teenage girl boxes in Nevada as they compete to be named the best in the country through a series of face-offs. So intrigued by this one the premise sounds lush. It is said to be raw and humorous and tender and striking and again cover Luke Bird. Coming on the 28th of March from Fly on the Wall Press is The Dark Within Them by Isabel Kenyon. This is a psychological novel set in a Mormon community when our protagonist Amber's daughter shows up dead. She must then decide whether to safeguard her fragile marriage or delve deeper into the community's secrets. This is the debut novel from Fly on the Wall Press's lovely founder and publisher Isabel Kenyon. It sounds delicious and gripping and chilling. I'm fully here for this. Coming on the 2nd of April from Hot Escape is a witch's guide to magical in keeping by Sangu Mandana. This is a romantic novel following a once powerful witch who runs an inn in Lancashire when she gets a second chance to get her magical powers back via the help of a broody historian. I loved Sangu Mandana's debut, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches. It was cozy and sweet and magical. I loved the characters. I'm essentially just hoping for more of the same here. Coming on the 11th of April from Serpent's Tale is England is Mine by Nicola Padance. This is a literary novel set in an East London borough following two teenagers. David, who becomes more and more interested in the far right narrative on masculinity, and Hassan, who begins volunteering in his local mosque. This is about two second generation immigrants searching for a sense of identity and belonging amid a way of online radicalization and extremism. If this is done well I think it could be brilliant. Coming on the 11th of April from John Murray Press we have The Borrowed Hills by Scott Preston. This is a literary novel following two neighboring farmers during the foot and mouth epidemic in Cumbria as they determine what is left to save of their farming community. Being brought up in rural Cumbria I am a sucker for this kind of Cumbrian focused fiction. This is supposed to have American Western vibes, an epic tale of forgotten Britain. Let's go. Coming on the 11th of April from Viking is The Familiar by Lee Bardugo. This is a historical fantasy novel set during the Spanish Inquisition. It follows a servant girl who is discovered to have magic and becomes involved with a man of high rank who is determined to regain the king's favor. I actually may be the only booktuber who has never read Lee Bardugo. The bewitching perilous vibes here have me hooked. The hype around the author has me hooked. I'm excited to explore her writing for myself. Coming on the 11th of April from Bluebird is Sociopath by Patrick Gagney. This is a memoir exploring the author's struggle with coming to terms with her identity as a sociopath while shedding light on the maligned and often misunderstood mental disorder. This sounds fascinating. I'm really looking forward to reading about this woman's experiences both before and after her diagnosis. I'm excited to learn more about this. Coming on the 25th of April from Viking is Funny Story by Emily Henry. This is a romance novel from the current queen of millennial romance. It tells the story of a children's librarian Daphne who is stranded and alone after a breakup when she moves in with her ex-fiancé's new fiancé's ex. One of the most highly anticipated releases this year, I am sure, I will continue to read whatever Emily Henry brings out every year. Coming on the 2nd of May from Faber is The Mark by Frida Eisberg translated by Larissa Kaiser. This is a new literary novel set in near future Reykjavik where society is divided by the development of an empathy test which can determine an individual's moral character. It follows four main characters leading up to the referendum which will decide whether marking every citizen with their results should be compulsory. This sounds so interesting. I love the premise. I love that it sounds character focused while exploring the wider themes. Big yes. Coming on the 15th of May by Fitzcarraldo Editions is The Son of a Man by Jean-Baptiste Del Amo translated by Frank Winn. This is a new French novel set on a hostile, isolated mountainside following a man and a woman and a child who have just been reunited as a family and who are haunted by transgressions of the past. I love Fitzcarraldo Editions. Everything I read by them is of a certain quality. This is said to explore nature and family and how violence is inherited from one generation to the next. It sounds fab. Coming on the 16th from Dead Ink Books is Lost in the Garden by Adam S. Leslie. This is a folk horror literary novel following three women as they road trip one summer through the idyllic, perilous English countryside to the infamous Almanby. This is said to be strange and creepy and unforgettable. Dead Ink Books does folk horror like no other. I think this is going to be dreamy. Coming on the 16th of May from One World is Monstrum by Lottie Mills. This is a short story collection said to be a meditation on otherness exploring the experiences of characters who have been excluded by society. It is pitched as chilling and tender and eerie collection of modern fairy tales. I tend to really enjoy darkly atmospheric short stories. The vibes just fit that format for me. Really excited to dive into this one. Coming on the 21st of May from Knopf Publishing is Butcher by Joyce Carol Oates. This is a literary novel based on authentic historical documents set in a women's asylum in the 19th century. It follows a terrifying male doctor as he becomes fascinated by a female servant who then becomes the primary focus of his experiments. I really like Joyce Carol Oates. I find her to be such a reliable, solid writer. This sounds really interesting and I'm enjoying the darker vibes from her writing recently. Coming on the 6th of June from Osborne, we have made it to June, is Four Eads and a Funeral by Faradah Abike Iyemedi and Adiba Jagadar. This is a YA romance following two ex-best friends Tiwa and Saeed as they must work together to save their Islamic centre from demolition. This has been on my radar ever since I saw the announcement like early last year. I love both of these authors. They are two of my favourites who write YA. So this is a match made in heaven for me. Coming on the 6th of June from Canningate is The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barrie. This is said to be a literary love story for the ages set in 1980s Montana. It follows a young poet and degenerate named Tom when Polly, the young wife of a devout mind captain, comes to town. Kevin Barrie is a beautiful writer, so incredibly accomplished and captivating and from what I've heard this novel is him at his best. Apparently he's been working on this novel for like a decade. And finally, coming on the 27th of June from Carcannet is Ambush at Still Lake by Caroline Byrd. This is a poetry collection that is said to explore the ambush of real life that occurs in the stillness after the happy ending. Carcannet are one of my favourite ever poetry publishers. They know what they are doing. I love the sound of this. I love the title. I put my poetry reading life in Carcannet's hands. There we go guys, we made it. Those are all of my most anticipated releases from January to June. I'm going to wrap this up quick. My camera is about to die. Thank you so much for watching. Please chat to me down below and I will see you very soon in another video. Bye.


We chose the Bolera system because of its range, its durability, its latency, and their customer service. We communicate with a lot of different departments as stage management so we are communicating with electrics, we are communicating with the crew, sometimes we are communicating with wardrobe, flyman, lots of different departments and we need to make sure that the communication is clear. So we are previously using an older generation wireless system it was limited to three channels and it was very hard to define rolls or profiles for a department So we ended up with a system that is effectively only two channels When the Nearlyoto comes in when we did the first test with Ee loan they realised that the coverage of this is so nice they don't need to worry about where they are going to We're not riding wires everywhere We've got a small footprint on the stage It means that everyone can just go and pick up their belt pack in a secure location We offered to demo the product for them So spent the afternoon testing the reedel blero system through out the venue And just making sure it would be suitable The support from reedel and autograph have been great We had assistance setting it up ac mae'n gael bod ein cyfnod o'r ddyn nhw'n gwneud o'r ei gwn o'r hollol. Mae'n gweithio'n gweithio'r 15 ardalol o'r hollol ar y llyfr oherwydd arnyn nhw, ac mae'r cyflwyb er mwynhau. Mae'r cyflwyb ym!) yn ysgol yng Nghymru, ac mae'n rhaid i'w sgol. Yn ymgylchau'r cyflwyb ym hyn, yn ymlaen, ddim ond, yn y sgol yw ar gyfer ddyn nhw, ac mae'r gweithio'n gwneud. The belt packs themselves charge themselves in a charging station which is all self-contained. It's a fantastic system where we don't have to change batteries or anything like that. It's very clear this new system which is perfect as we're wearing them all day. There's a lot of voices happening all at once and it's really great to be able to turn down the levels of a certain channel so that you can just focus on one voice at a time. So someone who's just picking up a belt pack, turning it on, it couldn't be simpler. The great function that we certainly use now, which we never had to, was a walkie-talkie function. So buttons are very easy to press, the tactile feel of it's good, the ergonomics of it are good. Because we're using the system all day, it becomes part of you and it's really great to be able to find the buttons for channels, the volume. It becomes muscle memory and part of the routine of tech rehearsals that you don't think about what you're doing, you just use it.


CHAPTER XII I come now to a part of my narrative, which would have been deemed altogether incredible in those closing years of the nineteenth century that witnessed the first steps towards the solution of the deepest mysteries of the ether, although men even then held in their hands without knowing it, powers which, after they had been mastered and before use had made them familiar, seemed no less than Godlike. For six months after Hall's departure for San Francisco, I heard nothing from him. Notwithstanding my intense desire to know what he was doing, I did not seek to disturb him in his retirement. In the meantime things ran on as usual in the world, only a ripple being caused by renewed discoveries of small nuggets of Artemisium on the Tetons, a fact which recalled to my mind the remark of my friend when he dislodged a flake of the metal from a crevice during our ascent of the peak. At last one day I received his telegram at my office in New York. San Francisco, May 16, 1940. Come at once, the mystery is solved, signed Hall. As soon as I could pack a grip, I was flying westward one hundred miles an hour, un-reaching San Francisco, which had made enormous strides since the opening of the twentieth century, owing to the extension of our oriental possessions, and which already ranked with New York and Chicago among the financial capitals of the world, I hastened to Hall's laboratory. He was there expecting me, and after a hearty greeting during which his elation over his success was manifest, he said, I am compelled to ask you to make a little journey. I found it impossible to secure the necessary privacy here, and before opening my experiments I selected a site for a new laboratory in an unfrequented spot among the mountains this side of Lake Tahoe. You will be the first man, with the exception of my two devoted assistants, to see my apparatus, and you shall share the sensation of the critical experiment. Then you have not yet completed your solution of the secret? Yes, I have, for I am as certain of the result as if I had seen it, but I thought you were entitled to be in with me at the death. From the nearest railway station we took horses to the laboratory, which occupied a secluded but most beautiful site at an elevation of about six thousand feet above sea level. With considerable surprise I noticed a building surmounted with a dome, recalling what we had seen from the grand teetown on the roof of Dr. Six's mill. Hall, observing my look, smiled significantly, but said nothing. The laboratory proper occupied a smaller building adjoining the domed structure. All led the way into an apartment, having but a single door and illuminated by a skylight. This is my sanctum sanctorum, he said, and you are the first outsider to enter it. Seat yourself comfortably until I proceed to unveil a little corner of the Artemisium mystery. Near one end of the room, which was about thirty feet in length, was a table on which lay a glass tube about two inches in diameter and thirty inches long. On the farther end of the tube gleamed a lump of yellow metal, which I took to be gold. Hall and I were seated near another table about twenty feet distant from the tube, and on this table was an apparatus furnished with a concave mirror, whose optical axis was directed towards the tube. It occurred to me at once that this apparatus would be suitable for experimenting with electric waves. Wires ran from it to the floor, and in the cellar beneath was audible the beating of an engine. My companion made it adjustment or two, and then remarked, Now keep your eye on the lump of gold in the farther end of the tube yonder. The tube is exhausted of air, and I am about to concentrate upon the gold an intense electric influence, which will have the effect of making it a kind of cathode pole. I only use this term for the sake of illustration. You will recall that as long ago as the days of crooks it was known that a cathode in an exhausted tube would project particles or atoms of its substance away in straight lines. Now watch. I fixed my attention upon the gold, and presently saw it enveloped in a most beautiful violet light. This grew more intense, until at times it was blinding, while at the same moment the interior of the tube seemed to have become charged with a luminous vapor of a delicate pinkish hue. Watch, watch! said Hall, look at the nearer end of the tube. Why, it is becoming coated with gold, I exclaimed. He smiled, but made no reply. Still the strange process continued. The pink vapor became so dense that the lump of gold was no longer visible, although the eye of violet light glared piercingly through the colored fog. Every second the deposit of metal, shining like a mirror, increased, until suddenly there came a curious whistling sound. Hall, who had been adjusting the mirror, jerked away his hand and gave it a flip, as if hot water had spattered it, and then the light in the tube quickly died away. The vapor escaped, filling the room with a peculiar, stimulating odor, and I perceived that the end of the glass tube had been melted through, and the molten gold was slowly dripping from it. I carried it a little too far, said Hall, ruefully rubbing the back of his hand, and when the glass gave way under the atomic bombardment a few atoms of gold visited my bones. But there is no harm done. You observed that the instant the air reached the cathode, as I, for convenience, called the electrified mass of gold, the action ceased. But your anode, to continue your simile, I said, is constantly exposed to the air. True, he replied, but in the first place, of course, this is not really an anode, just as the other is not really a cathode. As science advances we are compelled for a time to use old terms in a new sense, until a fresh nomenclature can be invented. But we are now dealing with a form of electric action more subtle in its effects than any at present described in the textbooks and the transactions of learned societies. I have not yet even attempted to work out the theory of it. I am only concerned with its facts. But wonderful as the exhibition you have given is, I do not see, I said, how it concerns Dr. Six and his Artemisium.  You no doubt have been told how one night the Six engine was heard working for a few minutes, the first and only night work it was ever known to have done, and how, hardly had it started up when a fire broke out in the mill, and the engine was instantly stopped. Now there is a very remarkable story connected with that, and it will show you how I got my first clue to the mystery. Although it was rather a mere suspicion than a clue, for at first I could make nothing of it. The alleged fire occurred about a fortnight after our discovery of the double tunnel. My mind was then full of suspicions concerning Six, because I thought that a man who would fool people with one hand was not likely to deal fairly with the other. It was a glorious night, with a full moon whose face was so clear in the limpid air that having found a snug place at the foot of a yellow pine tree where the ground was carpeted with odoriferous needles, I lay on my back and renewed my early acquaintance with the romantically named mountains and seas of the gloom or globe. With my binocular I could trace those long white streaks which radiate from the crater ring called Tycho, and run hundreds of miles in all directions over the moon. As I gazed at these singular objects I recalled the various theories which astronomers, puzzled by their enigmatic aspect, have offered to a more or less confiding public concerning them. In the midst of my meditation and moon-gazing I was startled by hearing the engine in the Six works suddenly begin to run. Immediately a queer light shaped like the beam of a ship's search light, but reddish in color, rose high in the moonlit heavens above the mill. It did not last more than a minute or two, for almost instantly the engine was stopped, and with its stoppage the light faded and soon disappeared. The next day Dr. Six gave it out that on starting up his engine in the night something had caught fire which compelled him immediately to shut down again. The few who had seen the light, with the exception of your humble servant, accepted the doctor's explanation without a question. But I knew there had been no fire, and Six's anxiety to spread the lie led me to believe that he had narrowly escaped giving away a vital secret. I said nothing about my suspicions, but upon inquiry I found out that an extra and pressing order for metal had arrived from the Austrian government the very day of the pretended fire, and I drew the inference that Six, in his haste to fill the order, his supply having been drawn low, had started to work contrary to his custom at night, and had immediately found reason to repent his rashness. Of course I connected the strange light with this sudden change of mind. My suspicion having been thus stimulated, and having been directed in a certain way, I began from that moment to notice closely the hours during which the engine labored. At night it was always quiet, except on that one brief occasion. Sometimes it began early in the morning and stopped about noon. At other times the work was done entirely in the afternoon, beginning sometimes as late as three or four o'clock, and ceasing invariably at sundown. Then again it would start at sunrise and continue the whole day through. For a long time I was unable to account for these eccentricities, and the problem was not rendered much clearer, although a startling suggestiveness was added to it when at length I noticed that the periods of activity of the engine had a definite relation to the age of the moon. Then I discovered, with the aid of an almanac, that I could predict the hours when the engine would be busy. At the time of new moon it worked all day. At full moon it was idle. Between full moon and last quarter it labored in the afternoon, the length of its working hours increasing as the quarter was approached. Between last quarter and new moon the hours of work lengthened, until, as I have said, at new moon they lasted all day. Between new moon and the first quarter work began later and later in the forenoon as the quarter was approached, and between first quarter and full moon the laboring hours rapidly shortened, being confined to the latter part of the afternoon, until at full moon complete silence reigned in the mill. Well, well, I broke in, greatly astonished by Hall's singular recital. You must have thought Dr. Six was a cross between an alchemist and an astrologer. Note this, said Hall, disregarding my interruption. The hours when the engine worked were invariably the hours during which the moon was above the horizon. What did you infer from that? Of course I inferred that the moon was directly concerned in the mystery, but how? That bothered me for a long time, but a little light broke into my mind when I picked up, on the mountain side, a dead bird, whose scorched feathers were bronzed with Artemisium, and some time later another similar victim of a mysterious form of death. Then came the attack on the mine, and its tragic finish. I have already told you what I observed on that occasion, but instead of helping to clear up the mystery it rather complicated it for a time. At length, however, I reasoned my way partly out of the difficulty. Certain things which I had noticed in the Six mill convinced me that there was a part of the building whose existence no visitor suspected, and putting one thing with another I inferred that the roof must be open above that secret part of the structure, and that if I could get upon a sufficiently elevated place I could see something of what was hidden there. Now at last I began to perceive the real truth, but it was so wildly incredible, so infinitely remote from all human experience that I hardly ventured to formulate it, even in my own secret mind, but I was bound to see the thing through to the end. It occurred to me that I could prove the accuracy of my theory with the aid of a kite. You were kind enough to lend your assistance in that experiment, and it gave me irrefragable evidence of the existence of a shaft of flying atoms extending in a direct line between Dr. Six's pretended mine and the moon. Hall, I explained, you are mad! My friend smiled good-naturedly and went on with his story. The instant the kite shriveled and disappeared I understood why the works were idle when the moon was not above the horizon. Why birds flying across the fatal beam fell dead upon the rocks, and whence the terrible master of that mysterious mill derived the power of destruction that could wither an army as the Assyrian host in Byron's poem melted like snow in the glance of the Lord. But how did Dr. Six turn the flying atoms against his enemies? I asked. In a very simple manner he had a mirror mounted so that it could be turned in any direction and would shunt the stream of metallic atoms heated by their friction with the air towards any desired point. When the attack came he raised his machine above the level of the roof and swept the mob to illustrious, if expensive, death. And the light at night was the shining of the heated atoms, not luminous enough to be visible in broad day, for which reason the engine never worked at night, and the stream of volatized Artemisium was never set flowing at full moon when the lunar globe is above the horizon only during the hours of darkness. I see, I said, whence came the nuggets on the mountain. Some of the atoms owing to the resistance of the air fell short and settled in the form of impelpable dust until the winds and rains collected and compacted them in the cracks and crevices of the rocks. That was it, of course. And now, I added, my amazement at the success of Hall's experiments and the accuracy of his deductions increasing every moment. Do you say that you have also discovered the means employed by Dr. Six to obtain Artemisium from the moon? Not only that, replied my friend, but within the next few minutes I shall have the pleasure of presenting to you a button of moon-metal fresh from the veins of Artemis himself. End of CHAPTER XIII. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Led by Betsy Bush in Marquette, Michigan, June 2007. The Moon-Metal by Garrett P. Service. CHAPTER XIII. THE LOOTING OF THE MOON. I shall spare the reader a recital of the tireless efforts continuing through many almost sleepless weeks whereby Andrew Hall obtained his clue to Dr. Six's method. It was manifest from the beginning that the agent concerned must be some form of etheric, or so-called electric energy. But how to set it in operation was the problem. Finally he hit upon the apparatus for his initial experiments, which I have already described. Recurring to what had been done more than half a century ago by Hertz, when he concentrated electric waves upon a focal point by means of a concave mirror, said Hall, I saw that the key I wanted lay in an extension of these experiments. At last I found that I could transform the energy of an engine into undulations of the ether, which, when they had been concentrated upon a metallic object, like a chunk of gold, imparted to it an intense charge of an apparently electric nature. Upon this charging a metallic body enclosed in a vacuum, I observed that the energy imparted to it possessed the remarkable power of disrupting its atoms and projecting them off in straight lines. Very much as occurs with a cathode in a crook's tube. But this was of supreme importance. I found that the line of projection was directly towards the apparatus from which the impulse producing the charge had come. In other words I could produce two poles between which a marvelous interaction occurred. My transformer, with its concentrating mirror, acted as one pole from which energy was transferred to the other pole, and that other pole immediately flung off atoms of its own substance in the direction of the transformer. But these atoms were stopped by the glass wall of the vacuum tube. And when I tried the experiment with the metal removed from the vacuum and surrounded with air, it failed utterly. This at first completely discouraged me, until I suddenly remembered that the moon is in a vacuum, the great vacuum of interplanetary space, and that it possesses no perceptible atmosphere of its own. At this a great light broke around me and I shouted Eureka. Without hesitation I constructed a transformer of great power, furnished with a large parabolic mirror to transmit the waves in parallel lines, erected the machinery in building here, and when all was ready for the final experiment I telegraphed for you. Desperate by these explanations I was all on fire to see the thing tried. Hall was no less eager, and calling in his two faithful assistants to make the final adjustments, he led the way into what he facetiously named the lunar chamber. If we fail, he remarked with a smile that had an element of worryment in it, it will become the lunatic chamber. But no danger of that.  That constitutes the pole from which I proposed to transmit the energy to the moon, and upon which I expect the storm of atoms to be centered by reflection from the mirror at which focus it is placed. One moment I said, am I to understand that you think that the moon is a solid mass of Artemisium? And that no matter where your radiant force strikes it, a cathode pole will be formed there from which atoms will be projected to the earth? No, said Hall, I must carefully choose the point on the lunar surface where to operate. But that will present no difficulty. I made up my mind as soon as I had penetrated Six's secret that he obtained the metal from those mystic white streaks which radiate from Tycho, and which have puzzled the astronomers ever since the invention of telescopes. I now believe those streaks to be composed of immense veins of the metal that Six has most appropriately named Artemisium, which you, of course, recognize as being derived from the name of the Greek goddess of the moon, Artemis, whom the Romans called Diana. But now to work. It was less than a day past the time of new moon, and the earth's satellite was too near the sun to be visible in broad daylight. Accordingly, the mirror had to be directed by means of knowledge of the moon's place in the sky. Driven by accurate clockwork, it could be depended upon to retain the proper distance when once set. With breathless interest I watched the proceedings of my friend and his assistance. The strain upon the nerves of all of us was such as could not have been born for many hours at a stretch. When everything had been adjusted to his satisfaction, Hall stepped back, not without betraying his excitement in flushed cheeks and flashing eyes, and pressed a lever. The powerful engine underneath the floor instantly responded. The experiment was begun. I have set it upon a point about a hundred miles north of Tycho, where the Yerks' photographs show a great abundance of the white substance, said Hall. When we waited a minute elapsed, a bird fluttering in the opening above for a second or two wrenched our strained nerves, Hall's face turned pale. They had better keep away from here, he whispered with a ghastly smile. Two minutes I could hear the beating of my heart. The engine shook the floor. Three minutes. Hall's face was wet with perspiration. The bird blundered in and startled us again. Four minutes. We were like statues, with all eyes fixed on the polished ball of silver, which shone in the brilliant light concentrated upon it by the mirror. Five minutes. The shining ball had become a confused blue, and I violently winked to clear my vision. At last! Thank God! Look! There it is! It was Hall who spoke, trembling like an aspen. The silver knob had changed color. What seemed a miniature rainbow surrounded it, with concentric circles of blinding brilliance. Then something dropped flashing upon an earthen dish set beneath the ball. Another glittering drop followed, and at a shorter interval another. Almost before a word could be uttered, the drops had coalesced and came a tiny stream, which, as it fell, twisted itself into a bright spiral, gleaming with a hundred shifting hues, and forming on the bottom of the dish a glowing interlacing maze of viscid rings and circlets, which turned and twined about, and over one another, until they had blended and settled into a button-shaped mass of hot metallic jelly. Hall snatched the dish away and placed another in its stead. This will be about right for a watch charm when it cools, he said, with the return of his customary self-command. I promised you the first specimen. I'll catch another for myself. But can it be possible that we are not dreaming? I exclaimed. Do you really believe that this comes from the moon? Just as surely as rain comes from the clouds, cried Hall, with all his old impatience. Haven't I just showed you the whole process? Then I congratulate you. You will be as rich as Dr. Six. Perhaps, was the unperturbed reply, but not until I have enlarged my apparatus. At present I shall hardly do more than supply mementos to my friends. But since the principle is established, the rest is mere detail. Just weeks later the financial centers of the earth were shaken by the news that a new supply of Artemisium was being marketed from a mill which had been secretly opened in the Sierras of California. For a time there was almost a panic. If Hall had chosen to do so he might have precipitated serious trouble, but he immediately entered into negotiations with government representatives and the inevitable result was that, to preserve the monetary system of the world from upheaval, Dr. Six had to consent that Hall's mill should share equally with his in the production of Artemisium. During the negotiations the doctor paid a visit to Hall's establishment. The meeting between them was most dramatic. Six tried to blast his rival with a glance, but knowledge is power, and my friend faced his mysterious antagonist whose deepest secrets he had penetrated with an unflinching eye. It was remarked that Dr. Six became a changed man from that moment. His masterful air seemed to have deserted him, and it was with something resembling humility that he assented to the arrangement which required him to share his enormous gains with his conqueror. Of course Hall's success led to an immediate recudescence of the efforts to extract Artemisium from the Six-Or, and equally, of course, every such attempt failed. Hall, while keeping his own secret, did all he could to discourage the experiments, but they naturally believed that he must have made the very discovery which was the subject of their dreams, and he could not, without betraying himself and upsetting the finances of the planet, directly un-deceive them. The consequence was that fortunes were wasted in hopeless experimentation, and with Hall's achievement dazzling their eyes the deluded fortune-seekers kept on in the face of endless disappointments and disaster. And presently there came another tragedy. The Six-Mill was blown up. The accident, although many people refuse to regard it as an accident, and asserted that the doctor himself in his chagrin had applied the match. The explosion then occurred about sundown, and its effects were awful. The great works, with everything pertaining to them and every rail that they contained, were blown to atoms. They disappeared as if they had never existed. Even the twin tunnels were involved in the ruin, a vast cavity being left in the mountain side where Six's ten acres had been. The force of the explosion was so great that the shattered rock was reduced to dust. To this fact was owing the escape of the troops camped near. While the mountain was shaken to its core, the enormous parapets of living rock were hurled down the precipices of the teetan. No missiles of appreciable size traversed the air, and not a man in the camp was injured. And Jackson's hole, filled with red dust, looked for days afterwards like the mouth of a tremendous volcano just after interruption.  After this a new arrangement was made whereby Andrew Hall became the sole producer of Artemisium, and his wealth began to mount by leaps of millions towards the starry heights of the billions. About a year after the explosion of the Six Mill, a strange rumor got about. It came first from Budapest in Hungary, where it was a verb several persons of credibility had seen Doctor Max Six. Dr. Six had been familiar with his face and his personal peculiarities through actually meeting him, as well as through photographs and descriptions, and unless there was an intention to deceive, it did not seem possible that a mistake could be made in identification. There surely never was another man who looked just like Dr. Six, and besides, was it not demonstrable that he must have perished in the awful destruction of his mill? Soon after came a report that Dr. Six had been seen again, this time at a catering-burg in the earls. Next he was said to have paid a visit to Batang in the mountainous district of southwestern China, and finally, according to rumor, he was seen in Sicily at Nicolossae among the volcanic pimples on the southern slope of Mount Etna. Next followed something of more curious and more startling interest. A chemist at Budapest, where the first rumors of Six's reappearance had placed the mysterious Doctor, announced that he could produce Artemisium and proved it, although he kept his process secret. Hardly had the sensation caused by this news partially subsided when a similar report arrived from a catering-burg, another from Batang, after that a fourth from Nicolossae. He could fail to notice the coincidence, wherever the Doctor, or was it his Ghost, appeared there shortly afterwards somebody discovered the much sought secret. After this, Six's apparitions rapidly increased in frequency, followed in each instance by the announcement of another productive Artemisium mill. He appeared in Germany, Italy, France, England, and finally at many places in the United States. It is the old Doctor's revenge, said Hall to me one day, trying to smile, although the matter was too serious to be taken humorously. Yes, it is his revenge, and I must admit that it is complete. The price of Artemisium has fallen one-half within six months. All the efforts we have made to hold back the flood have proved useless. The secret itself is becoming public property. We shall inevitably be overwhelmed with Artemisium, just as we were with gold, and the last condition of the financial world will be worse than the first. My friends' gloomy prognostications came near being fulfilled to the letter. Ten thousand Artemisium mills shot their etheric rays upon the moon, and our unfortunate satellite's metal ribs were stripped by atomic force. Some of the great white rays that had been one of the telescopic wonders of the lunar landscapes disappeared, and the face of the moon, which had remained unchanged before the eyes of the children of Adam from the beginning of their race, now looked as if the blast of a furnace had swept it. At night, on the moonward side, the earth was studded with brilliant spikes, all pointed at the heart of its child in the sky. But the looting of the moon brought disaster to the robber planet. So mad were the efforts to get the precious metal that the surface of our globe was fairly showered with it. What kind of fields were, in some cases, almost smothered under a metallic coating? The air was filled with shining dust, until finally famine and pestilence joined hands with financial disaster to punish the grasping world. Then at last the various governments took effective measures to protect themselves and their people. Another combined effort resulted in an international agreement whereby the production of the precious moon-metal was once more rigidly controlled. But the existence of a monopoly, such as Dr. Six had so long enjoyed, and in the enjoyment of which Andrew Hall had for a brief period succeeded him, was henceforth rendered impossible. Chapter 14 The Last of Dr. Six Many years after the events last recorded, I sat at the close of a brilliant autumn day side by side with my old friend Andrew Hall on a broad, vine-shaded piazza which faced the east where the full moon was just rising above the rim of the Sierra, and replacing the rosy counter-glow of sunset with its silvery radiance. The sight was calculated to carry the minds of both back to the events of former years, but I noticed that Hall quickly changed the position of his chair and sat down again with his back to the rising moon. He had managed to save some millions from the wreck of his vast fortune when Artemisium started to go to the dogs, and I was now paying him one of my annual visits at his palatial home in California. "'Did I ever tell you of my last trip to the Teton?' he asked, as I continued to gaze contemplatively at the broad lunar disk which slowly detached itself from the horizon and began to swim in the clear evening sky. "'No,' I replied, but I should like to hear about it. Or of my last sight of Dr. Six. "'Indeed, I did not suppose that you ever saw him after that conference in your mill when he had to surrender half of the world to you. Once only I saw him again,' said Hall with a peculiar intonation. "'Pray, go ahead and tell me the whole story.' My friend lighted a fresh cigar, tipped his chair into a more comfortable position, and began. It was about seven years ago. I had long felt an incongruable desire to have another look at the Teton and the scenes amid which so many strange events in my life had occurred. I thought of sending for you to go with me, but I knew you were abroad much of your time, and I could not be certain of catching you. Finally, I decided to go alone. I traveled on horseback by way of the Snake River Canyon, and arrived early one morning in Jackson's Hole. I can tell you it was a gloomy place, as barren and deserted as some of those Arabian weighties that you have been describing to me. The railroad had long ago been abandoned, and the sight of the military camp could scarcely be recognized. An immense cavity with ragged walls showed where Dr. Six's mill used to send up its plume of black smoke. As I stared up at the gaunt form of the Teton whose beatling precipices had been smashed and split by the great explosion, I was seized with a resistless impulse to climb it. I thought I should like to peer off again from that pinnacle which had once formed so fateful a watchtower for me. Turning my horse loose to graze in the grassy river-bottom and carrying my rope tether along as a possible aid in climbing, I sat out for the ascent. I knew I could not get up the precipices on the eastern side, which we were able to master with the aid of our balloon, and so I bore around when I reached the steepest cliffs until I was on the southwestern side of the peak where the climbing was easier. But it took me a long time, and I did not reach the rift in the summit until just before sundown, knowing that it would be impossible for me to descend at night. I bethought me of the enclosure of rocks supposed to have been made by Indians on the western pinnacle, and decided that I would pass the night there. The perpendicular buttress forming the easternmost and highest point of the Teton's head would have baffled me but for the fact that I found a long crack, probably an effect of the tremendous explosion extending from bottom to top of the rock. Driving my toes and fingers into this rift, I managed with a good deal of trouble and no little peril to reach the top. As I lifted myself over the edge and rose to my feet, imagined my amazement at seeing Dr. Six standing within arm's length of me. My breath seemed pent in my lungs, and I could not even utter the exclamation that rose to my lips. It was like meeting a ghost. Notwithstanding the many reports of his having been seen in various parts of the world, it had always been my conviction that he had perished in the explosion. Yet there he stood in the twilight, for the sun was hidden by the time I reached the summit. His tall form erected and his black eyes gleaming under the heavy brows as he fixed them sternly upon my face. You know I never was given to losing my nerve, but I am afraid I lost it on that occasion. Again and again I strove to speak, but it was impossible to move my tongue. So powerless seemed my lungs that I wondered how I could continue breathing. The doctor remained silent, but his curious smile, which as you know was a thing of terror to most people, overspread his black rimmed face, and was broad enough to reveal the gleam of his teeth. I felt that he was looking me through and through. The sensation was as if he had transfixed me with an ice-cold blade. There was a gleam of devilish pleasure in his eyes as though my evident suffering was a delight to him and a gratification of his vengeance. At length I succeeded in overcoming the feeling which oppressed me and making a step forward I shouted in a strained voice, You black Satan! I cannot clearly explain the psychological process which led me to utter those words. I had never entertained any enmity towards Dr. Six, although I had always regarded him as a heartless person, who had purposely led thousands to their ruin for his selfish gain, but I knew that he could not help hating me, and I felt now that in some inexplicable manner a struggle, not physical but spiritual, was taking place between us, and my exclamation uttered with surprising intensity, produced upon me and apparently upon him the effect of a desperate sword thrust which attains its mark. Immediately the doctor's form seemed to recede as if he had passed the verge of the precipice behind him. At the same time it became dim and then dimmer until only the dark outlines and particularly the jet-black eyes glaring fiercely remained visible. And still he receded as though floating in the air, which was now silvered with the evening light, until he appeared to cross the immense atmospheric gulf over Jackson Hole and paused on the rim of the horizon in the east. Then suddenly I became aware that the full moon had risen at the very place on the distant mountain brow where the spectre rested, and as I continued to gaze, as if entranced, the face and figure of the doctor seemed slowly to frame themselves within the lunar disc, until at last he appeared to have quitted the air and the earth and to be frowning at me from the circle of the moon. While Hall was pronouncing his closing words I had begun to stare at the moon, with swiftly increasing interest, until as his voice stopped, I exclaimed, Why, there he is now! Funny, I never noticed it before! There's Dr. Six's face in the moon as plain as day! Yes, replied Hall, without turning round, and I never like to look at it.


So, yeah, this is how it all unfolded, full match highlights. And, yeah, Daniel Green into the area was a lovely part from Jamarro Phillips initially. This one from James was a beach of a ball and ranking heading just wide of the upright. My lines, they were in the stick for Thickenthindo and this is how they went ahead off the pole from Wilson and look at that from Javon Brown. 20 yards out, big left footed strike. And there was no keeping that out from Shakwan Davis. One deal after 28 minutes and my lines were ahead against all odds. They came to play today. Lots for the Mount Pleasant bench to think about. They steadily came into this game. Daniel Green on the left hand side. This is second half stuff now across the area and Aubrey just couldn't get there. Harrison was exposed, got a bit of a touch but Aubrey a bit late in getting there. My lines driving forward into Nelson. Thought he had provided a pass. He was courting with a strike, couldn't find a way past Shakwan Davis. Good save towards the near post. He was a bit exposed and German Nelson was a bit disappointed that they didn't find the finish. Then the build up play. Nathaniel James to Bradford. Bradford with a strike. Good save, Harrison. With the right hand pushing it over. Good save, Peter Harrison. He would have more saving to do. Daniel Green. Many times we've seen him put that into the top corner. This one not quite in the corner too central and it was pushed wide. Then James towards the post. Bradford should have hit the target there, Bradford. The goal is exposed. Gets lots of chances, Bradford, and keeps coming. Didn't score today. Then this Bradford just couldn't get the chest trap close enough to him. It was an awkward delivery. And yeah, a chance wasted yet again. They just didn't give up. They kept coming. Mount Pleasant. Devonte Campbell coming on as a substitute. Twisting and turning. Shandy James with the assist. Suley McCullough with his fourth goal of the season. The eight minute of stoppage time. And Mount Pleasant earn a point. Shandy James intelligent across the area. Questions of offside. No offside. And one all after 90 minutes. Tyrone Robinson has seen enough. A big point for the champions.


Hello, I'm Jay-E. I am an artist and I'm a teaching artist and that means that I get to share some of my art practices with you. I like to make art a lot of different ways. Sometimes I dance, sometimes I work with technology, but one material I really love is paper. So today we're going to be exploring paper magic and storytelling. We're going to make a book like this that has words and pictures and it will be folded from a single piece of paper. But before we get started with that, we want to start brainstorming what our story might be. So what I like to do is take a piece of paper and divide it into four sections. And you can start a story a lot of different ways, but one way that people start stories is once upon a time. So you might start thinking about what that once upon a time is. Once upon a time there was a starfish who lived at the bottom of the ocean or once upon a time there were a big group of friends that all lived in a tree house together and then the next panel you want to add on to what happens next. What is the event that makes your story a story? So one day and maybe I have one day there was a big storm that came along and a bolt of lightning split the tree house right in half. And the third panel you want to have whatever happens next. So I'm starting it and then. So and then there was so much chaos, the tree house friends didn't know what to do. Some of them were really angry and some of them were really scared. They were fighting so much they didn't know if they could be friends anymore. And then in the last panel you want to be able to wrap up your whole story. So what do you say to have your story come to a conclusion or come to an ending? And a lot of times people will end their story with the end but you could also end it with to be continued if you have a lot more to say. So for me I might do but eventually the sun came out, the clouds went away and the tree house friends were able to venture out and clean up all the debris and they were able to build a new tree house community. And so one way to do this is you can do it all by yourself. But I really like this as a project that you can do with your friends or family. The way that you do it with your friends or family is you would start by having everyone have their own piece of paper and drawing your your four boxes and everyone would start their first panel.  So I'm going to go ahead and start drawing this and when you're drawing you can use markers or colored pencils really anything that you have on you. So in my first one, I'm going to begin writing. So once upon a time there was a big group of friends that lived in a tree house together and I might begin drawing my tree house and then I would pass it on to the next person and the next person would start the story their own way. So they might think that something else happens. So they might say and then one day an airplane crashed into the top of the tree house. Then you could pass it on to the next person and they would write the third part and the next person write the fourth part. You can also just pass this back and forth between two people. One thing that's pretty cool about doing this this way is that you'll be able to come up with ideas that are totally different from what you might have imagined to begin with. Now that we have an idea for a story we can start building our book. For your book, you can use any kind of paper. Notebook paper is okay. You could even cut up a paper bag to get your paper. What you want is a rectangle piece of paper. I'm going to use a piece of paper that's a little bit bigger than regular notebook paper just so that's a little bit easier for us to see. So to begin what you do is you fold your paper in half. And when you're folding you can use your hands but one thing that I really like doing is using a marker to help me with this crease because when you use the flat part of the marker you can get that crease so much tighter than you can with just your hands. Next what you can do is you can take this flap and fold it right to the end here to this crease that you made before and flip it over and do the same thing on the other side. Next when you unfold it you'll see that you have these four sections right and sort of like a w shape. That's pretty cool. Now what you want to do is you want to fold it the long way the opposite way. So you're going to fold against these creases that you just made and fold it all the way across.  Now what we have is a piece of paper with eight sections. What we want is a hole that goes just down the middle. And so when I'm making this cut I like to be extra certain that I made the right cut. So what I do is I'll take a pencil and I'll draw right here down the middle so I know that my pencil goes from here to here and this is the part that I want to cut. I'm going to go ahead and fold it the opposite way so that my pencil mark can be seen. And when you're making your cut here you can use scissors if you have them and if you're using scissors you would just start cutting right along here to the edge so that you have a hole in the middle like this. The other way to do it is if you are ripping or tearing the paper. So you can tear the paper pretty effectively if you're really careful. When I'm using the tearing method it's extra super duper important to make sure that your creases are really tight when I wind up but that's okay I can redo it. So I know that this right here in the middle is the crease that I want to tear because I'm going to be using my hands to tear at this time. I want to make sure that I go back and forth with my crease so I'm going to crease it again on the other side but just in the middle part the part where I'm going to tear and once again on the other side just to be sure this sort of helps the paper have a memory of where it needs to be torn. So now I have this and I'm going to start right at this crease and rip it very carefully. I can even sort of pull the paper away and I'm doing it just until we get to that crease. Now I have my paper like this. We want to make our W shape again so it looks like this. With your W shape you'll see that there are two flaps here like this. You can take your flaps and pull them into a plus sign. It's pretty tricky sometimes to imagine but what you're doing is you're just taking this, you're pulling outwards and then you're starting to pull down until it becomes a plus sign. Then what you do is you flatten all of it into a book. So I have my plus sign and then this page starts to go in, this page starts to go in, this page starts to go in and I have it as a book. I want my creases to be tight again so I'm just going to go over each of these one more time so that I have something that is pretty tight like this. When I'm thinking about my story in a book form I know that I have a cover and on the cover you can draw an image of something that represents your story. Maybe it's the main character and you also want to put the name of the author which would be you. In the first spread, the first page you can think about what words you want to put in your story and the images or the illustrations that go along with the words that make your story, the add to your story. In the next spread you have your words and your picture again and then in the third spread you have your words and your picture. You might notice that in our first story we had it in four parts but this one we only have three spreads in here so another way to think about this is the first spread is the beginning, the second spread is the middle and the third spread is the end. So you can still do a similar story but you'll have to think about another way to put it into this format. I have a story that I already started working on and I want to keep working on the story. The story is called The Fair Weather Friends. So I started coloring the first page and in the first page I wrote out my words The Fair Weather Friends all live together in a big tree house. There's a little bit more to that but I'll save that for the end and then I have a picture of my tree house and some of The Fair Weather Friends. In the next part I want to start coloring my story. So I have my words and I have just the pencil outline of where my images are. You can use any sort of color so you have at home. You can use crayons, you can use markers, you can use colored pencils but my favorite way to color is with watercolor. So that's what I'm going to use for my story. Some people like to spend a really long time coloring and some people like to color really really quickly and both ways are okay. I'm starting by working on my yellow lightning bolt and because I already have my lines here this is almost as if you are using a coloring page just coloring in all those lines that you already made and this is the final book that I made and I would love to be able to share it with you. So the book is The Fair Weather Friends by J.E. and on the cover I have one of our friends just this long neck bird. On the first page it says The Fair Weather Friends all live together in a big tree house. They would sunbathe on the roof and plant flowery gardens. Things were good and The Fair Weather Friends were happy. And here we can see our tree house and some of our friends here and here and here I guess this is one of those flowery gardens and look at all those different sections of that tree house and I think that this is a yellow slide that goes down. On the next page we have but one day a big storm came along the wind blew and blew the wind blew the slide to the ground the rain made the garden into a swamp and a big bolt of lightning split the tree house right in half. Some of the friends were scared some were angry there was so much chaos the friends didn't know if they could be friends anymore. Look that's the slide on the ground we have that bolt of lightning that split that tree in half and it looks like there's big storm clouds on top and in our last section eventually the sky cleared up the wind stopped blowing so hard and the sun came out again. Things were different after the storm there were lots of pieces to pick up lots of things to fix but one by one the friends ventured outside and together they were able to rebuild and not the same but still magnificent tree house community. The end. Thank you so much for playing with me for drawing with me. I would love to hear your stories and I hope that you're able to share your stories with your friends and family. I'm Jiayi and I am an artist that loves paper.


ITU elected officials, honourable ministers and ambassadors, ladies and gentlemen. It is an honour to address this award to the honourable public attending to the ITU-PP 2012 conference on behalf of the Government of Brazil. I wish you thank and congratulate the Government of Romania for hosting this important conference, giving us the warmest welcome in this remarkable city of Bucharest. United with you all to build a better digital future, I would like to share some of the steps Brazil is taking. The ICT sector has a unique role in achieving the sustainable development goals of 2030 agenda. To foster this sector within our national vocation for improving spectrum of viability, we have managed to offer our players a wide range of bands under different conditions. With this, there is no artificial spectrum scarcity. Believing that deployment of 5G technology can revolutionise our economic and social landscape, we made a spectrum available in low, mid and high bands in our 5G auction, which took place last year and was one of the largest auctions in the world. The auction even brought new entrants to our market. Once Brazil concluded a diagnosis of telecommunications infrastructure gaps, the most significant contributions due from the auction winners are being paid through goals of standalone 5G deployments, public schools connectivity and others. With this, I see Brazil as a leading country in the blooming 5G reality. But a digital future is not an isolated one. Many of the outcomes I have reported, we are obtained along with ITU's work in the 3 sectors. That's why Brazil is eager to share our experience and help ITU set the direction for global digital transformation. To go beyond our constant participation in study groups, meetings and conferences, we present a Brazilian representative as a candidate to the Radio Regulation Board, Mr. Agotinho Linhares, and we also expect to participate again in the ITU Council. At this conference, we want to reinforce Brazil's commitment to ITU, respecting the union mandate, its technical core, the equal rights of all member states and the reaching contributions of sector members. We believe that advances could be achieved in critical contemporary topics such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and outer space sustainability just to name a few. To support the union's need during the following years, I am proud to announce that Brazil is increasing the number of contributory units from 3 to 11, reaching a higher class of contribution. That's an effort to strengthen ITU by allowing new projects to face our current challenges. Finally, Brazil expresses our thanks for the tidalers efforts made by Secretary-General Zhao, the directors of the 3 sectors and all the ITU team in the last few years. May this planning potential reconference bring us fruitful discussions and concrete advances. Thank you, Mr. Chair.


For science communication it's about, ultimately it's about democracy, because I think democracy relies on an informed public. So the people who go to elections should have a general knowledge, not only about science, about anything, about how the society works and about why things are like they are. In that sense people need to know how knowledge is generated, they need to know the process of actually obtaining knowledge and when you can trust knowledge and when you can't. We have discovered that there are various types of cells in this part of the brain that tells the rest of the brain our location in space. So one of them is the grid cells, grid cells are like an internal coordinate system in the brain, it has often been compared to an internal GPS, because these cells keep track of our locomotion, how far we move, what distance and direction we move and then infer from that where we are, just like a GPS when we drive a car. Well at two levels, so first of all it helps us to understand space, how we actually know where we are and how we can get from one place to another. But at another level it also is one of the first higher brain functions or cognitive functions that they're beginning to understand the neural mechanisms of.


This is it, the moment of truth for Proposition 8. In just a matter of days, the Supreme Court of the United States will meet to consider hearing Aver's case against Prop 8. There are a number of different possible outcomes, so let's take a minute to talk about what's going to happen and when. At the American Foundation for Equal Rights, I'm Matt Baume and welcome to a special episode of Marriage News Watch. First, a few basics. Prop 8 passed in 2008 by a narrow margin, changing the California state constitution in taking away the freedom to marry from committed gay and lesbian couples. In response, Afer sued the state in federal court, pointing out that there is no rational basis for Prop 8, and that the law now denies Californians equal protection under the law. And we won. Twice. First, at the district court in 2010, and then at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2012. Both courts agreed that Prop 8 violates the United States constitution and should be struck down. But even though we won, the law will remain in place until the proponents can exhaust their opportunities to be re-heard. And now they're down to that last opportunity for re-hearing, the Supreme Court of the United States. Here's what happens next. The justices will meet on Monday, September 24th, to discuss all of the cases before them. At that meeting, they'll choose some of the cases that they'll hear in their upcoming term, which will run from November of this year to June of 2013. Other cases, they'll decide not to hear. If they decide to take our case, they'll announce it in a list that's released on Tuesday, September 25th. Then we'll file briefs, have oral arguments, and get a decision from the court no later than June. If we're not on the list, it means one of two things. Either they're not going to re-hear our case, or they're simply holding off on making a decision until later. If they've rejected the petition to hear our case, they'll announce that on the following Monday, October 1st. In that case, our previous victory will be the final decisive word. In other words, Prop 8 will be gone forever, and marriages can start back up again in California. So there you have it. It's taken a while to get here, but we're finally approaching the end of the case. Visit AFER.org to stay up to date and to learn how you can help support the freedom to marry. At the American Foundation for Equal Rights, I'm Matt Baume. Thanks for watching.


Good afternoon folks. I'm Jim Comiskey. I am representing the Southlake County Fire Protection District, which is the fire district that basically has been encapsulated by the Valley Fire incident. Our response was as adequate as it could possibly be with the resources we had available, but what's important today for the purpose of your press conferences are cooperators. Behind me I have our county state elected officials. We have the director of Cal Fire. The OES director is here. We have the FEMA administrator and every other partner there possibly is, the Red Cross, all the other cooperators. And what we're saying from Southlake County representing all of our citizens who have suffered such horrendous losses that we welcome this. We welcome them being in our community. We know that they're going to be here for a long time and the relationships that we've developed in the past four, five, six, seven, eight days are going to carry us through the next couple of years in rebuilding our communities that have been lost and affected by the Valley Fire. Thank you. Rob Brown, Lake County Board of Supervisors, District 5. My district includes the area of Cobb Mountain that was heavily devastated by the fire a little over 10 days ago. It's encouraging to see the state and federal government stepping in to such a degree to show their concern and support for our ongoing efforts, not just for the fire and the emergency portion of this operation, but for the recovery and rebuild. We've already begun that process and I'm proud of our county. I'm proud of our community. As the repopulation occurs, members of our community have already indicated a desire to rebuild and bring this community back even better than it was to begin with. We're working to improve infrastructure even more than it was before the fire. We're looking at the possibility of implementing sewer systems in areas where it was once septic and that's going to be a huge improvement for not just our community but for the environment as a whole. Building roads to a more modern standard to avoid the destruction and keeping our constituents and our communities out of harm's way. We appreciate also the housing efforts, the money that's coming in to make sure that our community members have adequate housing during this time of rebuild. We appreciate their efforts to secure these financial resources as we begin to rebuild our communities. Thank you. Good afternoon. Jim Comstock, Lake County Board of Supervisors District 1. My district comprises Anderson Springs, Middletown, all of Southlake County to the county line, Hidden Valley Lake and up to Lower Lake and a small part of Clearlake. A vast majority of my district was tremendously affected by this fire. The community of Anderson Springs basically does not exist at this point. We are very, very saddened by the loss of life. The only thing we can say is our hearts go out to the family members of those who lost their lives. The Sheriff's Department has done such an outstanding job of searching for and finding those, the survivors, and unfortunately those that did lose their lives. If we can be encouraged by this, by the minimal loss of life, it does not in any way take away from those who have lost their life. As I said, our hearts and minds and prayers go out to all of them, but we are very encouraged that there are not more of them at this time. Our communities will rebuild. The situation here with State of California being here, State OES, FEMA being here, we cannot do it without these resources. This isn't going to be quick. This isn't going to be something that ends when the cameras go away and people go back to their jobs and their lives wherever they are. We are going to be in this for the long haul, rebuilding from the county, the state, and the federal level, helping all of us. We are greatly appreciative of all of them. I must mention the PG&E, the unbelievable effort that they have put. They created a community just here just north of Middletown of the PG&E workers and crews and they have brought resources to bear. I don't know that there are any PG&E rigs anywhere else other than right here right now. They have done such a good job getting back, getting powered up to the communities in the areas that could have. They had 800 and some odd poles to set. They were doing over 100 a day. I think they may be getting close to getting most of those back in the ground. It has been absolutely outstanding. Our fire services were stretched beyond the ability for anybody to deal with this. This was not a normal fire. This was an absolute firestorm that came down. They have done a tremendous job of suppressing where they could and containing and getting this and saving our citizens. We cannot thank them enough. The emergency personnel, the first responders, our county officials, and our state officials who are here, and the federal officials who are here, I personally want to thank you for the citizens of Lake County and South Lake County. For beginning this process, it's going to be long. We're not going away and we know you're not going away.  Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Mike McGuire and I'm honored to be able to represent Lake County in our state senate here in California. I would like to be able to start out with a few thank yous. First of all, I want to say thank you to Cal Fire and to all the firefighters in Lake County. At the peak we had over 4,000 individuals fighting this devastating wildland fire and we cannot thank them enough. And I think it's also important to note that we are at ground zero of this deadly inferno. And there were nine South Lake County firefighters that lost their home in the valley fire and stayed on the front lines for the last several days. And a special thank you to South Lake Fire for their incredible bravery, sacrifice, and their hard work. I would also like to take a moment to say thank you to Sheriff Martin. The sheriff behind me is the hardest working sheriff in California. And to put this in perspective, this is not the first fire that has hit Lake County this year. We've had the Jerusalem and the Rocky and it's been a hell of a last 90 days for Lake, but if any county can get through it, Lake County will. I want to say thank you to the County of Lake, the amazing staff, Lake County Office of Emergency Services as well as the Board of Supervisors. I talked to Supervisor Brown an hour after this devastating fire broke out and the man was directing traffic and helping with evacuations. And I want to say thank you to the board. California Office of Emergency Services has been unbelievable. Within hours of this fire raking out, they had representatives on the ground. And since the valley fire broke out, Office of Emergency Services has flooded this county with resources to ensure that the residents, the survivors, have the resources they need to thrive and in the years to come. A special thank you to Congressman Mike Thompson, who has been instrumental in making sure that we have this declaration. Thank you so much to the Congressman. As well as Assemblymember Bill Dodd. The Assemblyman was here and wanted to be here at this press conference but had another meeting and I just want to say thank you to Assemblymember Bill Dodd and to PG&E. PG&E has had to replace over 800 poles in South Lake County. And at the peak, they had over a thousand representatives here. And I want to say thank you. They've had to completely rebuild the infrastructure in South Lake County. On a personal note, I was here at this fire station around 3 a.m. on the first night of the fire. And it was devastating to see. And it was an inferno of destruction. And if you were to talk to veterans of Cal Fire or local firefighters in this county, they'd never seen anything like it. The size and speed is an unprecedented. In 12 hours, this fire grew to 40,000 acres. I cannot say thank you enough to the firefighters or the heroes and the neighbors who went door-to-door ensuring that their neighbors' pets or kids and their grandkids were out safely. And of course, to the amazing generosity of Californians who have donated millions to help the survivors of the Valley of Fire. I want to end with talking about resources from the state of California. The OES director, who we are going to hear from today, has been in this county five times since the fire broke out. He was here on Sunday. This fire broke out one week ago this past Saturday at approximately 1.30 in the afternoon. Mark, I want to say thank you for your leadership. It's been hands-on. Emergency managers has responded from across California to ensure that we have synchronized and coordinated efforts. The National Guard throughout California has been mobilized, and they are here in perpetuity until we rebuild. And I want to say thank you to FEMA. They are here for the long haul. As the administrator has said, we are here to the end. And I'm grateful for their hard work, and thank you to President Obama for the decoration. And again, Lake County will become stronger in the weeks and months to come. Thank you. Thank you, Senator. My name is Mark Gallarducci. I'm the Governor Brown's Director of Emergency Services here in California. First of all, let me just say, really, our hearts and prayers continue to go out to those who have suffered losses. But to all the residents in Lake County and the government of Lake County who are really working hard to deal with the impacts of this fire. You know, we deal with a lot of disasters throughout California. It's a big state. Some call it a nation state. I can tell you every one of them is personal to us. We've got staff throughout the state. Many of some live here in the county. And we really want to always lean forward to be able to address the unmet needs and the issues that counties are faced with. The one thing about California that I think is very unique is that we've got a tremendous mutual aid system of neighbor helping neighbor. And it's not ever more evidenced by what we've seen here. You've got representatives and support from counties all throughout the state. From state agencies and now from the federal government who have engaged with us and engaged with the county to be able to address these issues. But it all started with the tremendous effort and really heroic effort by the firefighters from Cal Fire and local fire agencies and the local fire district here. Having to respond to this fire. And as you know, there were firefighters that actually were burned over and injured doing their job. The devastation is significant. There's no question about it. But now we need to focus on the next phase. And the next phase is that of recovery. And that recovery period has a series of challenges that are in front of it. And challenges for all of us because there's a number of cascading kinds of issues that we need to deal with and being able to get the county back to where it needs to be. But in fact better than where what it was before the fire. And that's really what our goal is going to be. So this won't be an easy task. It will not be an easy task. But all working together local, state, federal, non governmental, private sector, faith based, all of us working together and the citizens of the county to be able to address the challenges in front of us. We can make this better. I've seen the time and time again disaster after disaster. It will take time and it will take patience and it will take effort. Governor Brown was very clear as directed all of state agencies unequivocally to lean forward and provide whatever assistance is necessary. As we sit here today and speak, we also are managing another major fire operation in Calaveras and Amador counties also hit by a major fire and also dealing with many of the same issues that we're dealing with here in Lake. Both counties, both incidents are major priorities and we will continue to engage and support both places at the same time through the duration. The governor early on declared a state of emergency and on Monday requested from President Obama a federal disaster declaration for both the valley fire here and the Butte fire in Calaveras. The day after the White House designated Lake as a disaster area and I know they're still working on getting through the issues on Butte. And I'm very, very honored and completely so deeply appreciative that the day after the declaration by the president, the FEMA administrator from Washington DC is here on the ground in Lake County touring the disaster area. This is commitment and it really stands in the consistency in the way that I think we in California, a neighbor helping neighbor, our concepts of not waiting but working, moving, addressing those gaps, those issues and trying to make things better as possible. FEMA's involvement really back from the day of the fire, they provided a fire management assistance grant to help offset the cost of the firefighting effort. And they have been in connection with us and embedded with us at the state operations center each day and now with the declaration they are on the ground here with the FEMA administrator to see firsthand and I'm deeply appreciative and I know all of Californians are deeply appreciated. So let me just close by saying that I'm going to echo Senator McGuire, the effort across the board has been unbelievable. We are not done yet. We are not out of the woods yet. While the fire may be contained, we have these other challenges in front of us. It's a marathon, not a sprint. But we know, I know, and I want you to know that working together we will be able to overcome and make things better. So with that, let me just turn it over now to Administrator Craig Fugate, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Administrator. Thanks, Mark. Obviously, you know, the loss of life in any disaster is one that touches everybody in the community and we share that with those we lost. But our mission now is to focus on the survivors and the challenges they're going to face in rebuilding. The governor has requested and the president declared the disaster in this county. I need your help. People need to register and we can do this three ways. They can call 1-800-621-FEMA and register online. They can go to disasterassistance.gov and do it with their phone or their iPad. But more importantly, tell me where the people are and we'll go to them and get them in the process. So that's the individual assistance piece. The other part I want to talk about is this fire is a symptom of the underlying drought and the drought is not over. And the one lesson I think that came out of this from the first responders in the fire community, there will be fires that we cannot stop. And we have to focus now on life safety and evacuation and everybody in California who lives in areas that are fire prone need to take serious to message of being prepared and ready to go with little or no notice.  And when it was time to act, many of them had little or no time to prepare. It's critical that people prepare, know what they're going to do, but most importantly, do not hesitate when an evacuation order is given. And that evacuation order may be local firefighters coming by telling you it's time to go. I'm going to tell you something.  We can always rebuild. We never get a second chance when it's too late. So help get us the message out that when the local officials say it's time to evacuate, as we saw with this fire, the fire behavior is erratic. They're moving faster than people are used to. They will not have time. They cannot hesitate. And it will mean a difference in life and death for them to get out safely. So help us get to the people that need assistance. But also help us to ensure that people understand that if an evacuation orders are given in the wildfires, go now. You do not have time. Delay can be deadly. Make their jobs easier by evacuating so they can get back to fighting the fire. Thank you. Go ahead and open it up for questions. So currently, I think the count currently as of today is 1,230 homes. The assessment teams are still out looking and adjudicating those numbers to ensure that those are the correct numbers. But the truth of this is that we're seeing what we expected and actually probably more than what we expected initially. Then you take into account the loss of commercial and also of agriculture and recreational. And I think they're still tallying the overall economic losses that will be as a result of this for the county. And I think that's going to be a little more number crunching on that, but certainly it's going to be significant. Anyone from the county want to give you guys a little about that? Matt? I'm Matt Perry, the county administrative officer. We've looked at property tax numbers and the total loss of the county in terms of property tax is $2.1 million. That's the Southlake annually. That's the Southlake fire district, school districts, the county funds and so forth. That's the loss of the property tax rolls. In addition, there will be loss of sales tax, transient occupancy tax, and other revenue sources as well. Well, it really depends if they didn't have insurance or undershirt, what kind of housing assistance they're going to need. And we're working with the state and county on what kind of assistance. Is it renters assistance? Is it getting them a hotel and motel room? And so what we're really focused on right now is what are their immediate needs? Do they have losses they need immediate replacement of? And so we can provide some financial assistance based upon need. So the first part though is getting registered, determine that need. But we know the longer term need is going to be housing. And we're going to work with the state and locals on how we get the housing needs met. Well, it depends upon what the state is looking at. Since you like to use the term trailers, we use FEMA has now moved to HUD approved housing. You would probably call it a manufactured housing. So we do have that and we have that capability. But it's going to be at the state and the county's request that we start looking at housing needs. They're still assessing and everything's on the table. But the first thing is determine what the needs are from the individuals who lost everything where they're at and where they want to go. Get in contact with us so we can plug you in and find out how to best help you. And it may not be immediate FEMA, it could be our Red Cross partners, it could be other folks. But get in contact, register, let's start working on what we can do to get you somewhere else. Well, the first thing is our assistance based upon need. And you just identify one of the first triggers is you have uninsured losses. So if you have insurance and you're covered, you're not probably going to see much assistance for FEMA because it's always based upon the need of the individual and family. So if they had uninsured losses, that's going to be one of the triggers that starts looking at us and Small Business Administration Assistance. Second question, you know, we'll work with the state and the locals. If they need it, that's what we'll do. We basically work through OES and the state. Again, our part will be those things that we're providing assistance for. And our oversight is again to make sure that on the federal dollars that we're doing everything we can to ensure that it's spent properly, there's no fraud, waste or abuse, but it gets to the people that need it. Depending upon their needs and whether they register with us generally within hours to days. Wait, hold on your question. Let me just add a couple things to the administrators that may be helpful. So the one thing about oversight, this has been a collaborative, integrated, what we call multi-agency coordinated effort from the moment the fire took off. It will continue to be that way throughout the incident. And we will continue to work together in that coordinated fashion to find the best solutions to these challenges, specifically with housing. We are going to, there's no, first of all, let me be clear, there's no silver bullet to this particular issue. There is a patchwork of capability that we're looking at. We're looking at everything from hotels to what rental properties may be available to opening an old resort that Kanakdai Harbor in to also maybe even putting manufacturing housing on the ground. So really the administrator is correct. It starts with the registration and we find out exactly what is needed, what kind of loss the survivor had, and then we can then move forward with that. It's conceivable and realistic that the costs overall, when you take in loss of revenue, response costs and everything clearly is in the hundreds of millions of dollars. We know that part. We don't have an exact figure yet. And the other thing is that immediate assistance now, as the administrator says from hours to days, we really, you know, some individuals who have insurance may have already gotten checks. Some of those people who have gotten checks may have already reached out and have gotten sheltering to meet their needs. FEMA, once they register, can rapidly, depending on where people come out in that registration process, can get a check, they can even direct deposit within hours of that registration. But no one, none of the folks that have been impacted by the fire, whether it's the counties, both Napa County and Lake County or the Red Cross or OES, working together. Salvation Army, faith-based groups, again, like I say, this whole community approach has come together to address the immediate needs that fire survivors may have and we'll continue to do that until we get people into more transitional housing. So I think we've been talking really for the last several years about the conditions and we've been saying in the beginning of this fire season, which really wasn't the beginning, the fire season hasn't ended, we're in four years of drought, the vegetation is critically dry. We've been talking about the potential for this kind of fire. We've absolutely been hoping that it wouldn't happen, we've been planning for it. But I think what has really, across the board, long-season firefighting professionals, residents of Lake County and across the state, no one has seen rates of spread, fires grow and spread as quickly as this, these are growing. And so that really leads into your next question and that's evacuations. And Secretary Fugate, Director Fugate said it very clearly. Our number one message to everyone in California right now is, heat evacuation orders, evacuate early. You've seen our public information about ready set go and that's preparing for fire ahead of time. We're past the preparing for fire now. It's now being ready to go. People have to have evacuation plans in place. This fire spread miles with just in a few hours. And as you've heard, firefighters were diverted from perimeter control and putting the fire out and law enforcement officers, other officials, and just going house to house and moving people out. And we need people to heed those evacuation orders and get out quickly and safely. Say it again. Yes, it is. I think at the height, what... Yeah, so 3,000 people that actually are what we consider homeless. Yeah, roughly 3,000 people we were considered homeless. In other words, that have their house, no place to come back to. At the time, there was like 20 something thousand that were evacuated, maybe even a little bit higher than that. Let me just say that, you know, many of them, you know, there's their shelters in Kelsey.