Joe had always wanted to travel in space. He was fascinated by what he had read about other worlds and he wished that he had the opportunity to travel through space. As he read over the letter again he realized that his wish was about to come true. The reality of the words printed in black and white were inescapable. His quiet office job in Chicago was over.

He had just been drafted into the new Space Defense Force and while he had always wanted to travel in space, he wished he could do it under more peaceful circumstances. There was no war, but everyone knew it was imminent.

One by one planets fell to Mahmud Alina’s forces. Space had never before been militarized since humanity never encountered other sentient species. However, Alina rose to power in one of the colonies and quickly built a fleet of ships to dominate the heavens. His military quickly conquered many other colonies and every inhabited planet scrambled to build fleets to protect themselves.

Earth and every one of its colonies faced domination by Mahmud’s growing imperial forces. Even if Earth was never attacked it was allied with planets that faced attack. There was no avoiding the fight.

Joe knew this and prayed that he might return home safely.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Shanghai police will post photos and videos of jaywalkers in newspapers and on TV in a bid to shame them out of breaking traffic rules, local media reported on Thursday.

Offending pedestrians, moped riders and cyclists would be snapped at selected intersections and their images put in regular columns and on special television programmes set up by police, the Shanghai Daily said.

That’s bit too much Type A thinking going on. It might be a problem, but I am sure that they have bigger problems that need more immediate attention.