Multitudes

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Sample computer pics.



I am large, I contain multitudes.
Walt Whitman

This was the distorted view, the moment when all coalesced, the moment when cascading screens of horror showered down on him. Defeat was there. He was completely trapped. Just at the moment his phone rang, his incessant boss harassing him yet again. That woman could never rest, not when it came to his persecution. But the phone going off was all they needed. He could see the guards taking instructions through their headphones, their eyes resting on him.

And at that exact same moment, his implant stopped working. He could no longer see the map of the surrounding streets and know exactly where he was. He could no longer detect the police around him, those in uniform and those in plain clothes. Suddenly they all just looked like ordinary people. He couldn't focus in and know everything about them, their rank, their career progression, their marital status, the name, even the photo, of their girlfriends. And, if he wanted to focus enough, the details of their credit cards, the overdue bills, the higher purchase arrangements.

It was all gone. Each frieze frame was underpinned with absolute terror. Like the moments before a car crash, every moment was frozen, a lattice of circumstance, of the visual physical world, each frame full of a hysterical horror. He was completely trapped. As he tried to escape the dense packing of the crowd, he could see them forming a pincer movement around him. There was no sympathy in dark eyes. Some of them had German Shepherd dogs, straining at the leash.

They were all acting on orders. He didn't know what to do. He could see the smoke still rising from the building behind, the flashing of the ambulances and the fire engines as they cleared the last of the injured.

Mr Fielding? a voice whispered in his ear.
He turned to look at his tormentor, at the exact same moment his phone began ringing again.
That woman was unbelievable.
He tried to keep walking, as if brushing the guard aside.
Mr Fielding, the voice resumed, more insistent. You will need to come with us.
He stopped; and was immediately surrounded.
He could see a few curious onlookers watching the incident.
What have I done? he asked, pointlessly, trying to delay his fate.
You will need to come with us, the voice said again.

His entire life had coalesced into fear. Used to the powerful intellect and the ready sources of information that came with it, he missed his implant desperately. It had made him such a superior operating machine; and now it was gone.

You will need to come with us, the voice repeated, and his legs began to wobble and the buildings swoon around him; a sudden blinding hangover before oblivion. This was his worst nightmare; being caught. What on earth would he tell his boss. How could he file a story now? The frieze frames, the horror, the lapping hysteria of the crowd, it all vanished as he lost consciousness.

THE BIGGER STORY:http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-04-08-voa66.cfm

The major U.S. presidential candidates are in Washington for key Senate hearings on Iraq. Republican Senator John McCain and Democratic Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama returned to Capitol Hill to question the top U.S. military commander in Iraq and highlight their own proposals for handling the war if elected commander-in-chief. VOA's Deborah Tate reports from Capitol Hill.


Sen. John McCain gives an opening statement ahead of testimony by US Army Gen. David Petraeus,and US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker before Senate Armed Services Committee, 8 April 2008
Senator McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee and his party's presumed nominee for president, used the occasion of General David Petraeus' appearance before the panel to highlight his opposition to withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq before adequate security is established.

"The promise of withdrawal of our forces regardless of the consequences will constitute a failure of political and moral leadership," he said.

McCain warned that a precipitous withdrawal could unleash sectarian tensions - leading to a full scale civil war that could destabilize the Middle East.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/rudd-heads-into-storm-over-tibet/2008/04/08/1207420390673.html

KEVIN Rudd has become entangled in the international row over China and human rights abuses, with Beijing lodging a formal complaint to Australia about the Prime Minister's comments on Tibet before his arrival in China today.

The flare-up came as China faced a growing conundrum over pro-Tibet protests disrupting the Olympic torch relay, with top Olympic officials suggesting the remaining international legs of the relay, including Australia's, may be abandoned.

Hours before Mr Rudd's scheduled arrival in Beijing today on a four-day visit, it emerged that China had lodged protests both in Canberra and with the Australian embassy in Beijing about the PM.

The complaints followed Mr Rudd's comments at his news conference with US President George Bush in Washington, during which Mr Rudd condemned human rights abuses in Tibet and called on China to engage with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

"It is absolutely clear that there are human rights abuses in Tibet. That's clear-cut; we need to be upfront and absolutely straight about what's going on," Mr Rudd said.



Sample computer pics.