Mayan Facts – Questions and Answers! | Always Learning!
Mayan Facts – Questions and Answers!
1. Where were the Mayans From?
The Maya are the native people of Mexico and Central America. They lived in the land what is today Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Campeche, Tabasco, and Chiapas in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and Honduras.
2. When was the Mayan civilization?
National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. Maya mask. Stucco frieze from Placeres, Campeche. Early Classic period (c. 250 – 600 AD). Joyce Kelly 2001 An Archaeological Guide to Central and Southern Mexico, p.105. ISBN 0-8061-3349-X. Image credit: Wolfgang Sauber (Xenophon), GFDL.
The Mayans originated at around 2600 BC. By 250 AD they were at the zenith of power, but by 900 AD the Mayan civilization began to decline.
3. How long did the Mayan civilization last?
The Mayan civilization was one of the most advanced in the Mesoamerica civilizations. It lasted for approximately 3000 years.
4. Why did the Mayan civilization collapse?
Mayan ruins. Image credit: jtyoder, PD image.
There is not just one exact theory for but there are many that suggest the reason for the collapse of the great Mayan empire. Some of these suggestions are massive droughts, foreign invasion, collapse of trade routes, epidemic diseases, war among themselves, famine, environmental changes that affected their farming, civil strife, over farming etc.
5. What did the Mayans do for fun?
The Mayans main form of entertainment was their ball game. It was played in special courts that were built in an I shape. There were two teams and stone hoops attached to the sides or opposite ends of the court. The goal was to get the rubber ball through these hoops and the two teams fought against each other for this. Unlike modern ball games, this one required the ball to be bounced off hips, forearms and shoulders instead of throwing. Onlookers, players, gamblers, sponsors and everyone became a part of this. Before and after the game the priests would perform ceremonies.
6. How did the Mayans live?
The birth of a child was a very significant event for the Mayans, for they considered it as a sign of good fortune and a measure of wealth. Girls lived with their parents until marriage and were taught to cook, yarn, weave, spin and clean house. Unmarried boys would paint their faces black and they lived in a communal house where they played games and learned about crafts and warfare. Girls would be fifteen, the boys eighteen before marriages took place, and they were usually arranged marriages. After marriage, the husband had to live with the wife's parents for 3-6 years and assist the father-in-law. Only the noble class could have multiple wives. Divorce was also very common so on the first marriage was celebrated grandly in a formal ceremony.
Ancient Mayan houses had walls made of poles plastered with earth and the floors were covered with leaves that were changed frequently. Fiber matting was also used to cover the floors and for bedding as well. The sharply pitched roofs were made out of thatched palm leaves supported by beans and saplings. The house was divided into two sections, the rear was the sleeping quarters and the front was where daily activities took place; the kitchen was often separate from the house. The furniture was mostly wooden stools and benches. The cooking was done on stone hearths using clay pots.
Every month a variety of religious celebrations, banquets and festivals took place, most of which involved rich costumes, dancing and excessive drinking. There were more than a thousand dances and mostly men and women danced separately.
Illnesses and bad luck were viewed as a result of evil spirits or the disapproval of gods. After an illness was identified a sorcerer was called to examine the victim apply remedies. Remedies included divination, potions and rituals. The Maya greatly feared death. Sometimes people were buried in caves and on occasion children were buried in pottery jars. Usually, peasants were buried in the floor of their homes.
7. Where are the Mayan ruins in Mexico?
The impressive stone architecture of the Mayans can still be seen today. Most of the Mayan ruins are named as World Heritage Sites. The most visited ruins are located in Yucatan, Mexico. The pyramid of Kukulan in Chichen Itza provides a great view from its peak. At the Spring and Fall equinoxes, the setting sun creates amazing shadows on the steps of the pyramid. The shadows represent a snake descending the steps. This attracts the attention of many visitors. Mayan ruins can be found in Uxmal, Coba, Cancum, Chichen Itza, Tulum and many other places in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico.
8. What did the Mayans wear?
Ancient Maya produced a wide range of clothing for many occasions. They made use of the natural resources they could find in their tropical environment to make their clothing. Casual day-to-day clothing included a loincloth (or short skirt) for men and a long skirt for women. These clothes were decorated with accessories such as anklets, bracelets, necklaces etc. They paid great attention to hairstyles and the hair was almost never worn loose. The hairstyles were decorated with feathers and fabric.
For large public events such as ceremonies and rituals, the elite wore their clothing to show off their important status in the society – large, and rich clothing. Clothes made from the skin of dangerous animals such as jaguars, feathered headdresses, and jade jewelry was included in their attire.
For dances, the participants wore large costumes that were probably made to be light despite its size. These costumes were made of feathers, jade and other exotic materials, large headdresses, and long feathered back-racks were also often included. The costume probably had a light wooden frame to attach the material to and was made so that the dancers could move around without trouble.
Protective armor was included a padded mantle which was often covered with animal skin, and accessories such as shields were decorated with feathers and animal skin. When playing the Mayan ball game, the players wore padded armor on the knees and elbow and a horseshoe shaped yoke around the waist to reduce the risk of damage.
9. How does the Maya calendar work?
The Mayans used three different calendars. The first was known as the Tzolk'in – the sacred calendar. This lasted 260-days and then started again similar to the modern 365-day calendar. This calendar was used to schedule religious ceremonies.
The second calendar was the Haab' – the solar calendar. This has 365 days not including the additional quarter day it takes for the Earth to revolve around the Sun. In the modern calendar, a day is added to February every four years (leap years) for this.
The final one is the Long Count Calendar, which caused all the chaos about doomsday. A Calendar Round is a date which will repeat after 52 Haab' years or 18,980 days. The specify dates longer than the 52 Haab' years the Long Count Calendar was used.
10. When does the Mayan calendar end?
The Mayan Long Count Calendar begins at the mythical Mayan creation date. The calendar is divided into 144,000 day cycles or bak'tuns. December 21st 2012 is the last day of the 13th bak'tun. This marks a full cycle of creation in the Maya point of view. The Mayan calendar does not predict the end of the world; instead, it predicted the end of a cycle of creation.
9 Cool Facts On Mayans And Mayan Civilization.
Mayans Disappearance – Why did the Mayans Collapse?
Mayan History – What We Know?
Previous articleIt would take you nine years to taste all of Coca Cola's beverages.
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what question might you ask about Mayan society?
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In almost all Grasslands (Grassfields) kingdoms, the palace has carved pillars supporting the roof overhangs, an ensemble of door posts (jambs), lintels and sills framing the entrance, as well as the interior doorways facing the open courtyards.
These houseposts have to be packed and shipped by Craters and Freighters. We will charge whatever they charge us.


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Nobody Understands Why the Earth Just Rang Like a Bell
Dec 2, 2018 | 0 |
(Tribunist) Seismic sensors are fine-tuned to pick up vibrations in the earth. They're a useful tool for understanding the patterns of plate movement and seismic activity. Yet a new event has even the most seasoned seismologists befuddled. The planet, they say, just rang like a bell. What this means is a mystery. "Seismic sensors first picked up the event originating near an island between Madagascar and Africa.
Then, alarm bells started ringing as far away as Chile, New Zealand and Canada," the NY Post writes. Unlike the average earthquake, this event was picked up across the planet. What started near Madagascar was also picked up in Hawaii. And the event isn't registering like an earthquake."I don't think I've seen anything like it," Columbia University seismologist Göran Ekström says. "It doesn't mean that, in the end, the cause of them is that exotic." READ MORE
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This must be decided by the church missions committee or appointed staff. Training programs for fundraising such as, Kingdom Come Training, helps the missionaries identify potential sources for their necessary financial support. It is optimal for the missionary if their home church supports them generously and also endorses them to others. However, we never recommend for a missionary to receive over 1/4 to 1/3 of their income from one source. If there is a budget change for the source, it could severely affect the missionary.
How do missionaries get their support?
Should my church support only missionaries from our church?
When should a church start supporting a missionary and when should the church stop?
How does the church generate finances for the missions program?
What is the relationship of a missions agency to the missionary's home church?
How do I envision the church for missions?
Does Go To Nations have any leadership training available?
What does a missions committee do?


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Autumn Equinox is the latest installment of Dundee Ambient, my year-long exploration of night, sleep, dreams and the seasons, based on sounds that I recorded in Dundee in the 1990s. As with the previous parts, it can be heard either as a stand-alone piece reflecting on the city by night, or as part of the whole six-hour sequence following the course of an imagined night's sleep. If you have heard the previous parts you will recognise many of the sounds and the way they interact, but if you haven't, Autumn Equinox should make sense in its own right.
Part 4 is the only one of the five parts that does not begin and end with the gently breathing drones associated with a state of restful sleep. It begins with organ-like music that in Part 3 had accompanied the singing of a Dundee blackbird, but now with the blackbird gone it feels restless. A very short hint of the restful sleep music leads to an extended dream sequence, which gradually unfolds in a similar way to that of Part 2. At the end there is another hint of restful sleep before the organ returns, but whilst we might expect this to round off Part 4 symmetrically, the music instead veers into the strangest nightmare in the whole of Dundee Ambient, with the organ drifting into microtonal tuning and the ghost of summer's blackbird making a reappearance slowed down to sound like some terrifying creature of the autumn night.


Discussion in 'Job Center' started by Darya, Apr 15, 2019.
I am planning on starting up a blog centered around creative aspects such as graphic design, writing, traditional art, etc. and am currently looking for one other person who fits the requirements below to assist me on the blog. If the blog ever made money for whatever reason, proceeds would be split between the two of us, but given that I find any prospect of revenue highly unlikely, this position is listed as unpaid.
Doesn't have too much on their plate to begin with.


Because our tax system is so progressive and favors married people with kids, I'm leery when I hear that phrase. I just picture a lot of illegals filing their back taxes and getting a bunch of refunds and "earned income tax credits". Has anyone heard a politician address this? Has any politician said that the illegals would not qualify for those types of refunds? What about the legal status conferred upon the illegals? Would they suddenly qualify for even more entitlements than they do now?
I read somewhere that the Repubs were proposing a change to the claiming of dependents by those filing under a TIN number rather than a SSN. There were certain illegals who were claiming dependents who lived in Mexico and getting these tax refunds back to them. Is there any kind of guarantee that wouldn't happen?
Then when Obamacare hits, the poor souls will qualify for FREE healthcare while single folks like me who have been working since age 15 will have to PAY if we make over $44,600 AGI/year. How is that fair?
Last edited by wehotex; 02-03-2013 at 01:35 PM..
Yes, of course it's phoney. Once legalized, most illegals will actually get an EITC check instead of paying any taxes.
You don't come here eager to work for the very lowest wages and have the largest numbers of children if you plan on paying any income taxes.
As for all the dependents left behind in Mexico, they will be brought here. That's one reason they are demanding citizenship and legal status. That's what all the "family reunification" talk is about. Any kids still not smuggled over here will be brought in and used for all the child tax credits as possible.
Illegals will also be the first in line to get financial aid for college since their families have unreportable income and eagerly accept the very lowest paying jobs.
I dont think you can get a Earned income exemption credit if you owe taxes.
1. We all know there are many more than 11 million illegals here. There are estimates of 30 million but certainly there are at least double what is being claimed now to justify a big amnesty. They figure it won't bother Americans too much having 11 million added to the labor pool and having only 11 million Americans added to unemployment, but they know that 30 million more unemployed Americans might bother some people.
2. Every illegal has at least 1 family member still living back home, many have many more -- between grandparents, parents, siblings, and children, one illegal could have 20 or more people to come join him here for "family reunification".
3. Any family member documentation from Mexico could easily be faked and purchased so that cousins, neighbors, friends, and so on could "become" siblings or children and be brought in.
The cost of this amnesty will be horrendous -- adding so many people so quickly to the food stamps and health care alone will be enormously expensive.
How can you owe taxes on income made on a stolen social security number or unreportable unprovable income from cash-under-the-table?
All the illegal has to do is claim he made $7000 a year and has dependents and he will pay no back taxes.
Still, it's an idea that helps soften the politically charged perception of immigration reform to skeptics, and it's part of the bipartisan, but still vague, Senate proposal to offer the estimated 11 million U.S.-based undocumented workers a path to legal residency.
Yeah..I have to laugh at that one.
20+ years of working, possibly for cash or under someone else's SS number and they will pay back taxes.
Like these people will just write a check for tens of thousands of dollars to the IRS.
I can't even fathom having to pay 20 years of back taxes on income I never declared.
I would just say I didn't work ..they can't prove it one way or another.
I think it meant we need to pay them welfare if they haven't got any.


text:
Fall 2006 - Spring 2007
Thanks to the Society for Asian Art's renowned Arts of Asia Lecture Series,* speakers from the Bay Area and across the country will discuss the Arts and Cultures of Korea and Early Japan (Fall 2006) and the Arts of Japan: Medieval through Modern Periods (Spring 2006).
*The Society for Asian Art (SAA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization incorporated in 1958 by a group of citizens dedicated to winning Avery Brundage's magnificent art collection for San Francisco. Since that time, SAA has been an independent support organization for the Asian Art Museum — Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture. SAA's popular, college-accredited Arts of Asia Lecture Series, open to all, is the core of the museum's docent-training curriculum.
Arts of Korea and Japan Asian Art Museum
© 2010 Asian Art Museum - Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art & Culture
Top Podcasts In Arts
99% Invisible
Jason Weiser, Carissa Weiser / Bardic
Twenty Thousand Hertz
Dallas Taylor
The Culture and Arts of Korea and Early Japan
Culture and Arts of Japan
Gods & Goods
Arts of Japan Documentaries
Divine & Earthly Visions
Arts of China
More by Asian Art Museum
Arts of Japan
Asian Art Masterpieces
Lords of the Samurai
Maharaja: The Splendor of India's Royal Courts Multimedia Tour


text:
Q: Else if menu java I am trying to make a menu using else if but I can't get the menu to display on the screen. Im not sure what I did wrong. (also, I have to use else if for this. cannot use switch as it has not been covered in my course yet). Any suggestions on what I have done wrong would be greatly appreciated.
public class ProcessorApp{
 public static void main(String args[]){

    int min;
    String repeat="";

    Scanner Keyboard= new Scanner(System.in);
    choice = Keyboard.nextInt();

    ratingProcessor myratingProcessor = new Processor(); //

    do {
        System.out.println("Application Menu ");
        System.out.println("1. blah blah");
        System.out.println("2. blah blah");
        System.out.println("3. blah blah");
        System.out.println("4. blah blah");
        System.out.println("5. blah blah");
        System.out.println("6. blah blah");
        System.out.println("7. Exit application");

        System.out.println("Enter Choice: ");

        //while((choice)!=7); //if choice is not 7 menu will repeat
            if (choice ==1){

            } else if(choice == 2) {

            } else if(choice == 3) {

            } else if(choice == 4) {

            } else if(choice == 5) {

            } else if(choice == 6) {

            } else if(choice == 7) {

            } else {
                  System.out.println("You did not chose a valid entry");
            }

        }

        while (repeat.equalsIgnoreCase("Yes"));

    }

A: you should move the Keyboard.nextInt() line to the line after where the menu is printed
int min;
    String repeat = "";

    Scanner Keyboard = new Scanner(System.in);
    ratingProcessor myratingProcessor = new Processor(); //

    do {
        System.out.println("Application Menu ");
        System.out.println("1. blah blah");
        System.out.println("2. blah blah");
        System.out.println("3. blah blah");
        System.out.println("4. blah blah");
        System.out.println("5. blah blah");
        System.out.println("6. blah blah");
        System.out.println("7. Exit application");

        System.out.println("Enter Choice: ");

        //while((choice)!=7); //if choice is not 7 menu will repeat

        int choice = Keyboard.nextInt(); // This is where it should be

        if (choice == 1) {
        } else if (choice == 2) {
        } else if (choice == 3) {
        } else if (choice == 4) {
        } else if (choice == 5) {
        } else if (choice == 6) {
        } else if (choice == 7) {
        } else {
            System.out.println("You did not chose a valid entry");
        }

    }

    while (repeat.equalsIgnoreCase("Yes"));

A: Move this line:
int choice = Keyboard.nextInt();

under this one:
System.out.println("Enter Choice: ");

and you will see your menu.
You have put the keyboard input too early, before the do-while that shows the menu.
P.S. The condition inside the do-while loop is always false because repeat is an empty string, it's not "Yes" and it never changes.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


You can use the SYNC O/P status screen to see what mode and level your UltraSync ONE is using for the SYNC output port.
Use the Up and Down buttons to scroll to the screen that shows SYNC O/P at the top.
Level The voltage level of the SYNC output (see Set the SYNC Output).


Individuals with glasses and contact lenses are often steered away from LASIK or refractive surgery due to concern for its high cost. Many think of it as a luxury such as a cruise vacation or an expensive watch. But when you sit down and analyze the actual cost and benefits of LASIK, you may be surprised to find out that it is more affordable than you expected.
The goal of LASIK and refractive surgery is to allow you to do your day-to-day activities independently of the need of glasses or contact lenses. LASIK and PRK (photo refractive keratectomy) are sophisticated outpatient procedures that will reshape the cornea, the clear window of the eye, to correct your prescription. It should give you the freedom to drive, read, and enjoy outdoor activities, such as golf, tennis, and swimming, with clear vision. Patient satisfaction after LASIK ranges from 96-99%, making it one of the most desirable elective procedures in the United States.
Undoubtedly, LASIK has well-established and long-lasting benefits to patients. What about the cost of the procedure? The average national cost of LASIK was $2135 per eye in first half of 2017 with a range of $1000 to $4000 per eye. The cost usually includes the initial consultation, the procedure, and post-operative follow-up care. Refractive surgery practices have different pricing structures with some charging a single price that includes the most recent advancements in blade-less customized LASIK and others quoting varying prices, depending on the technology used and the amount of correction needed. While the older technology involves the use of a microkeratome blade to create a flap, the advent of the femtosecond laser allows for "blade-less" LASIK and has made the surgery more precise and safer.
So that is a look at the immediate cost of LASIK. What about the long-term costs of NOT doing LASIK? This is something that many patients do NOT look at closely. The average individual spends hundreds of dollars on contact lenses and prescription glasses every year. Furthermore, an annual eye exam is needed and additional eyecare products, such as contact lens solutions, will be purchased. If you are an individual in your 20s to 30s, these costs can add up to over thousands of dollars over the span of years. Consideration should also be given to the costs of contact-lens related problems, such as dry eyes, corneal abrasions, and infections. These problems can become expensive due to additional clinic visits and necessary eye drops for treatment. Lastly, think about how much time you would save without the need for routine or emergency doctor's appointments and daily contact lens care. Several online calculators from Johnson & Johnson and the Refractive Surgery Alliance Society have been created to help you determine your lifetime cost for glasses and contact lenses. As an example, an individual in his or her 30s will spend about $18,510 over his or her lifetime for reusable contact lenses.
So while you may have thought of LASIK initially as a luxury, you should now think of it more like an investment. It is an investment designed to help you save money and the long-term burdens of contact lenses and prescription glasses. If the one-time cost with LASIK seems daunting, keep in mind that most refractive practices and surgeons provide financing options to break it down into smaller payments over time. Ultimately, LASIK should serve as an investment to provide you with freedom to read or watch TV without wearing glasses and to swim or shower without having to worry about your contact lenses.
Read our Comprehensive Guide to LASIK.


text:
Bigpoint, Syfy And NBC Universal To Debut Battlestar Galactica Online Tech Demo At E3 Expo
The global market leader in browser-based massively multiplayer online games (MMOG), Bigpoint, (http://www.bigpoint.com/) will be demonstrating the first technical demo of Battlestar Galactica Online at E3 Expo in Los Angeles. A tactical space combat and adventure MMOG based upon Syfy's Battlestar Galactica series, Battlestar Galactica Online ( http://www.bgo.bigpoint.com) will be shown by appointment only in the West Hall, booth 4336.
The demo will highlight the Unity engine technology that will drive Battlestar Galactica Online game experience and demonstrate how the game's browser-based platform will reach the huge global audience already playing browser-based MMOGs on Bigpoint.com and through Bigpoint's many popular distribution partners.
"We are very excited to demonstrate to our friends in the media attending E3 Expo that Bigpoint and our partners at NBCU and Syfy are intent on creating a compelling gameplay experience that is available to anyone with a browser worldwide without a huge download," explains Heiko Hubertz, CEO and founder of Bigpoint. "Battlestar Galactica Online will be an accessible, story-driven experience that will be executed to the highest level of quality for the browser-based platform. It's our most ambitious project ever and we want fans of the show to know that we are committed to delivering."
The debut trailer for Battlestar Galactica Online is now available on the official E3 Expo virtual press room and the official BGO Youtube channel (http://www.youtube.com/bgo).
Battlestar Galactica Online is licensed through Universal Partnerships & Licensing, on behalf of the NBC Universal Television Consumer Products Group.
About Battlestar Galactica Online
BALLERS Returns For Its Fifth And Final Season August 25
Players will be able to choose to play as cylons or humans in a constant struggle to control the universe or just survive its perils. A blend of tactical space combat, exploration, and mission-based gameplay will provide a diverse experience. The dramatic missions will define the game's overall storyline, enabling the player to delve into mysteries of the Battlestar universe. Battlestar Galactica Online will create a new standard for web games, with beautiful 3D graphics and innovative game mechanics bringing a new level of game play to browser based MMOG. Assets from the television production will be integrated into the game to deliver an even more authentic experience. For more information on the game please visit – http://www.bgo.bigpoint.com.
The game is being developed by Artplant (http://artplant.no), a Norwegian development studio specializing in 3D MMO games.
Battlestar Galactica The Exhibition World Premiere Weekend October 22 to 24 2010 at Seattle's EMP SFM
Red Band Movie Trailer for Neil Marshall's CENTURION


text:
Tag Archives: non-binary
by Rachel Williams | October 1, 2016 · 9:04 pm
Introspective Non-binary Identity vs Political-pragmatic Binary Identity
There are two broad types of trans people: binary and non-binary. Binary trans folks identify as either 100% women or men whereas non-binary folks identify as neither 100% men or women, both, or identify as agender, lacking any association with gender altogether (this is my best definition of non-binary off the top of my head though I'm sure someone could nitpick on whether it's the best definition). But in a nutshell non-binary folks identify as outside of the traditional male-female gender binary whereas binary folks identify within the traditional male-female binary.
Most people would probably think I am a binary trans woman. I often refer to myself as a trans woman in casual discourse. I present in a fairly traditional femme way. I love makeup, etc. But I want to make a distinction between introspective identity vs political-pragmatic identity. Introspective identity is the identify revealed to you through careful and deep introspection on your gendered feelings i.e. what is the gender you feel yourself to be upon reflecting deeply on your gender? In contrast, political-pragmatic identidy is the gender identity you adopt in order to face the world at large, either politically or pragmatically.
My introspective identity is non-binary. I identity technically as non-binary femme. What I really am is just a femme person. When I really reflect deeply on my gender I don't think I'm a man or a woman: I am a third option: a trans femme person. I'm trans insofar as my gender is different from what I was assigned at birth and I'm femme insofar as that is my gender expression. But politically I identify as a trans woman in order to join in solidarity with all women-identified people who are fighting patriarchical oppression. Pragmatically, it's just easier to identity as a binary trans woman. Non-binary identities are harder to understand for the average cis person and I don't always want to get into a complicated discussion about gender and identity.
Some trans people might think I'm trying to have my cake and eat it too. Or that I am somehow being a bad representative of the trans community. Binary trans women might think I'm not "trans enough". Non-binary people might think I'm appropriating their identity. But I really don't think it's that complicated. We all have a front we put on for others. We have fractured identities – presenting one way in front of family and another in front of friends and another in front of our romantic partners. My trans identity is similarly fractured. There is the "technical" definition of my gender and the "loose" definition of my gender. I don't see why I need to present the technical definition in ALL situations. Sometimes it's just easier to say "Yeah I identify as a woman". I don't feel conflicted when I use the woman's restroom. And politically I don't feel conflicted feeling myself included in the category of woman especially since this identification will help normalize the inclusion of trans women into the category of woman.
Filed under Gender studies, My life, Trans studies
Tagged as feminism, gender identity, identity, non-binary, nonbinary, trans*, transgender
by Rachel Williams | October 19, 2015 · 2:14 pm
Thoughts About Having A Non-Binary Identity
As I understand it, a binary gender identity is identifying as either 100% male or 100% female. A non-binary identity is where you identify outside of the male-female binary, as either somewhere "in between" (genderqueer), as alternating over time (gender fluid), perhaps being a mixture of both male and female or feeling both male and female (bigender), or feeling like one does not have a gender (agender). There are many possible ways to identify outside of the traditional gender binary.
Until about 5 months I identified as a straight cisgendered gender-nonconforming male. When I first realized I was trans I was reading the wikipedia on transgenderism and stumbled across the concept of "bigender". Initially this really appealed to me. At the time I still felt partially male. Upon realizing I was trans I remember making a journal entry and describing myself as being a kind of "androgynous" butch type woman. Also I remember writing that I wanted to always be able to switch back into guy mode so I could visit my family for the holidays. I also saw myself as presenting male for my career as a academic philosopher – I saw myself teaching in guy mode.
Because I still wanted to be able to present male that ruled out HRT because I did not want breasts. My plan at the time was to just get laser hair removal on my face so I could pass as female better while wearing breast forms.
But my bigenderism was alas just a temporary way station. Eventually I realized that my desire to present male when visiting my family and when teaching was entirely a product of fear. I was scared of the negative reactions I might receive. I was scared of people laughing at me, or mocking me, or feeling downright uncomfortable in my presence.
But I got over those fears. I realized that I wanted to eventually work up to where I would never present male again. I wanted to present female all the time. I wanted breasts. I wanted a feminine body. I had some other issues to work through before I felt comfortable with the idea of taking HRT (infertility, sexual function, etc.) but eventually I got to a mental place where I accepted that this is what I truly wanted.
After abandoning bigenderism I started identifying as a trans woman with a binary female identity. It felt right to see myself as a woman. After all I really wanted to be a woman. As a side-note, some people distinguish between being a woman and wanting to be a woman. Some trans women say that they have always "felt like a woman" and they don't want to be a woman they are women. But for me, the nature of my transness is probably more about wanting to be a woman then it is feeling like I really am a woman.
Which brings me to my recent realization that perhaps I was not totally off-track to identify as non-binary. I'm starting to appreciate that my feelings about my own gender are more complicated than simply saying "I am a woman". I feel like in order to identify as a woman I need to know what it is like to feel like a woman. But I have no idea what that means. When I have a feeling I don't know how to identify whether that is a male or female feeling. They just feel like feelings. I just feel like myself, like I have always felt. But I used to identify as a man. So does that make me have the feelings of a man? No I don't think so. I categorically reject that idea. But neither do I have the feelings of a woman.
I suspect there is a continuum between binary and non-binary identities and I am somewhere in between a binary and non-binary identity. I don't feel like a man (except in my appearance and voice) and I really, really don't want to be a man. I don't feel like a woman yet I would like to be a woman. But I know that wanting to be a woman and being a woman are two different things. So I am in some kind of middle-ground between binary and non-binary, of kinda-sorta-maybe feeling like a woman at times or feeling like I want to be a woman but never knowing exactly what that means. Sure I could resort to stereotypes in order to define myself as a woman but I am trying really hard to not be sexist in that respect. There are no necessary or sufficient conditions for being a woman. I am even starting to suspect that the very concept of sex/gender is incredibly problematic and only exists because of historical contingencies. Which is of course compatible with the idea that many people love and cherish their gender and see no problems with gender. But gender having deep conceptual problems does not entail that people are somehow confused in their own experience of gender. Gender is real. And I don't think it is entirely a social construct either. But it is a problematic and confused notion that ultimately, I think, survives by piggy-backing on the stereotypes we all know so well.
Ultimately I think my experience of gender is too complicated to be boiled down to simple categories like "woman". Trans woman is more accurate because it describes how I have rejected my birth assignment of male. Transfeminine is also accurate. I still think of myself as a "femme" because I have a feminine gender expression. I love makeup, long hair, dresses, jewelry, shoes, purses, etc. I take great joy in my gender expression – it brings me extreme happiness every day. But AMABs (assigned male at birth) can also identify as "femme". Femme is a non-binary identity. So I am starting to think of myself as a non-binary femme of some kind.
However, for political and social purposes, I still feel most comfortable introducing myself to people as a binary trans woman. My identify as non-binary is for my own introspective clarification. It's not for anyone else. It's to figure myself out in as much concrete detail as I can. It's for technical reasons. But for social purposes most people have a hard time understanding what it means to identify outside of the gender binary so I don't necessarily want to have that conversation every time I attempt to explain to someone who I am in simple terms. "Trans woman" is fairly accurate although it does not capture the true underlying complexity of my identity. But for political purposes it works well enough.
Filed under feminism, Transition
Tagged as binary, feminism, gender, gender expression, gender identity, non-binary, trans*, transgender


Learn how children's brains develop as they become readers with the new book, Brain Words. Authors J. Richard Gentry and Gene P. Oullette offer their original, research-based framework that will transform your thinking about how you teach reading.
Build the skills needed to drive change in government, education, and nonprofit organizations in one of the few programs to focus on both policy and administration. Earn your master's degree in online or on-campus classes. Apply now.
Algebra is a key to college readiness, better employment and overall success for students. But many students lack the fundamental knowledge and skills to succeed in algebra. Join us in New Orleans, July 8 to 10, for NCTM's Interactive Institute for grades 6 to 8 educators, "Algebra Readiness for Every Student." Get the right tools to build a strong math foundation for your students. Learn more and register today!
NCTM's Annual Perspectives in Mathematics Education (APME) replaces the NCTM Yearbooks. The first APME volume, Using Research to Improve Instruction, will focus on bringing research to practice and practice to research in mathematics education. The editorial panel encourages chapters that discuss research projects (including classroom-based action research projects) and collaborations that present findings and information that are relevant to both researchers and practitioners. Read more.
Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die."
NCTM SmartBrief aggregates published news and editorial content from diverse sources. The content of NCTM SmartBrief does not necessarily reflect the positions of NCTM or the views of its leadership, and the viewpoints expressed or implied should not be interpreted as official NCTM positions.


text:
Watch This Fascinatingly Incoherent Short Film Written By a Neural Network
We're getting A.I. to do all sorts of weird and wonderful things these days, whether its on the small-scale of text prediction or captioning photos, to driving cars for us and beating people at board games. But what if we turned a neural network into a science fiction writer? The answer is that you'd get a complete mess in return.
That is the premise behind Sunspring, a film starring Silicon Valley's Thomas Middleditch and directed by Oscar Sharp and written by... well, an LSTM recurrent neural network. Sharp and technologist Ross Goodwin fed the network a bevy of sci-fi scripts, from Ghostbusters 2 to Star Wars, and then gave it a selection of prompts to include in the screenplay it churned out.
Forty-eight hours of shooting and editing later, Sunspring is the result. It doesn't make a lick of sense, but there's something charmingly artsy about that, and Sharp's film just rolls with the weirdness. It's a cool idea, but I don't think neural networks will be writing the next Hollywood blockbuster just yet.
James is a News Editor at io9. He wants pictures. Pictures of Spider-Man!
docconi
It appears people say "I don't know" a lot in science fiction.


The National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board, whose mandate is to ensure that 51% of the economy is indigenised by 2015, is swinging into action. David Chapfika, the NIEB Chairman, has given notice that a crackdown on non-indigenous retailers is imminent. The target is the Nigerian and Chinese traders who sell their wares in the downtown areas of Harare and other cities.
End of preview - This article contains approximately 618 words.


text:
The Great Acclaim Confession
Collecting Profile: King Shark
Big Two, Collectibles, DC Comics, Miscellaneous Comic Book Content
Singles Going Steady 7/27/2016: Better Late Than Never
Boom! Studios, Dark Horse, DC Comics, IDW, Image, Reviews, Singles Going Steady
Writer's Cramp: Comics From An Innocent Man
Digital Comics, Reviews
Si Spurrier: The Only Hope for the Ravaged Masses of Humanity
Superpowers: The Suicide Squad and the End of the Cold War
Big Two, Classic Comics, DC Comics, Suicide Squad
Exclusive Marvel Preview: "Years of Future Past" #3
Pénélope Bagieu is California Dreamin'
George Chen: Emanata, the Indie Cartoonist's iPad App
Everyone knows that if they want to find digital comics from the mainstream publishers, they can find those comics on Comixology. But where do readers find indie comics to read digitally? George Chen saw this as a major problem and helped to create Emanata, an app that's intended to make edgy and independent-minded comics available for comics readers worldwide. Recently I had the chance to talk to George about his app and how he sees it influencing the way that people consume indie comics.
Jason Sacks for Comics Bulletin: Emanata does different things than Comixology and some of the other popular apps do.
George Chen: Yeah, what we focus is on is that initially when you launch the app, you see panels and pages, where you can just tap right in and kind of look at three or four pages. Often there's a full story that's free. If there is, you'll be able to read the whole entire story for free to see if it's got something you like to follow in the future.
Whereas in other comic book apps or readers, they are more or less a storefront, where you have to pick the title, find a genre title you like, and then even if it's a free title you have to download the whole book and then read it offline. The way we treat it it's more like instantaneous consumption. You go into one panel and look at the story or art that you might or might not be familiar with. If you don't like it you just jump back out and go to the next page. So user experience is a little different there.
CB: And of course what you present is very different from what most readers provide. You really go after the indie small press creators.
Chen: That's correct. That's also one thing: we want to have a good mix of, I personally call it anatomically incorrect comic books, where there's a tendency of the mainstream comic books, or the large publishing houses, what they focus on is something that they know is going to sell. We want to focus on interesting storytelling, slightly different art styles, and slightly edgier things if you will.
We have one artist, he's sort of doing indie-style work; the way he did it is, he picked stories or actual Craigslist's posting about missed connections. There are some really funny, interesting ones that he just picked and tried to visually illustrate what it's like and it turned into a hit among the staff and people out there. You wouldn't see that in other comic book apps.
CB: Did you specifically go out and try to find more indie-oriented creators to include then on your app?
Chen: Yeah, we do. It started in June as sort of reach-out project. We found a couple of artists that I personally liked that we reached out to them, like Malachi Ward, and then we also tried to find comic book artists that were looking for exposure. There were quite a few of them willing to participate and we got to the point where, initially, the first couple of books are free and then now they decided to do an in-app purchase with us. That's the big thing that we just launched, that some of these artists will be able to sell their story to us.
CB: So you're really able to give them exposure and it will allow them to sell books that they wouldn't be able to sell otherwise, I'd imagine, since this is material that's really self-published.
Chen: Yeah. I think that's how the premise of our app started, in the first place. The previous life of this project was a publishing tool on iPad. After we finished building the tool, we wanted to find content to test. I always had an interest in comic books and artist discovery.
Then I discovered a bunch of artists that are all professional; they either work at a video game company, Pixar, or Nickelodeon. They all have their own intellectual properties. They want to publish them, but they are very leery about signing the digital content rights away with the large publishers.
There are a lot of undiscovered artists, with their own style in storytelling that nobody can get to, and then I realised that building a tool for iPad just as a tool is not a very fun thing to do but providing a platform for all these artists to showcase their work is something that we, the team, find a lot more fulfilling. Plus, we were clearly giving them exposure too.
CB: What's the process of getting artists into the system?
Chen: Essentially, there are a couple of trusted artists that can just simply log into our system and upload their work, and we basically take a look at the file format, that the link back to their website is correct, and their Twitter handle is correct, then we'll just publish it.
The platform itself is self-serve, but we are cautious about the content in it. Our app is basically a PG-13 app, so if something is a little bit too racy or too violent, we tend to discourage artists from doing that.
So far we haven't run into any issues, but we make it simple. We basically want to become the YouTube of comic books, if you will, so we try to make it almost completely frictionless for anyone that has aspirations to create their story online. We also felt like the web is a great prep platform as well, but everyone expects the web to be free.
Navigation on the web, for web comics, to be honest, really sucks. Tablet devices like iOS devices or Android tablets are actually closer to reading a book than the web, so we felt that this is the right space for this work. Instead of posting this whole entire story on the web, they should try it on the tablet as well.
CB: So you're really giving people the opportunity to decide what they want to publish. You're not doing any sort of filtering?
Chen: No, not really.
CB: Curating might be a better way of putting it.
Chen: Yeah. No, we aren't doing any filtering. We're mainly just making sure we don't really run into any problem with Apple, but we basically say, "If you have a really good story and we've looked at it, it's fun, it's good, we'll put it in our app."
CB: Well that's different from Comixology and some of the other apps. They really do make sure that content is a certain quality, or style, or fits what they are looking for.
Chen: Yeah, I think we do do a little bit of contenting filtering, if you will. Clearly if it's just a stick figure — I mean xkcd is sort of a different case where stick figures are actually what you read — but we do screen the content a little bit, making sure it's not someone doing a comic book for the first time and expecting to monetize it. That's not what we're after, you can say we're aiming at hobbyist/professional that is doing this on the side.
CB: A way of getting more exposure for their passion.
Chen: Exactly. And in many ways I would say that these artists let off steam that they thought they couldn't do, draw or illustrate in a certain way, or do their own story at say Pixar or Nickelodeon. They can do something pretty cool and pretty outrageous, exactly the way they like.
Comics Bulletin: How was New York Comic Con for you?
Stephanie Palmero: Yeah, New
York Comic Con was super-crowded, but the Artist Alley was probably my favorite part of the show. It was huge. They had a giant hall just for Artist Alley this year, much larger than any of the previous years that I've seen.
George Chen: That's interesting. We just had APE in San Francisco. We had a great time. It's pretty relaxed, a pretty chillaxed show, but we had plenty of random walk-in traffic and people buying books and people sharing things and checking different things out. I think it's a slightly different vibe than Comic Con.
CB: Oh, yeah, it's got to be. So one of you went to New York for the big show, one of you went to a much more small press oriented show, which is maybe a better fit for what your app is all about.
Chen: I think a little bit of both. That's the reason why we needed the extra help from Stephanie on the New York Comic Con side, but for location reasons, our company is actually based in the San Francisco Bay Area, so it makes it easy for us to go to Alternate Press Expo and to many of the artists.
San Francisco is a big town for indie comics and I would say we met up with 5 or 6 different other artists, who are actually based in the Bay Area and then we just basically tell them that "this is our booth, we're exhibiting this and showing our app to the artists and audiences. Hey, do you have books that you want to sell?" We don't really have anything physical to display at our booth, so we did a little trade and gave them some of our postcards to put up on their table, and then we asked them to grab their books and put it on our desk to promote them. It's almost exactly what we're trying to do digitally for them, but doing physically at the show.
CB: So who are some of your favorite people that you're publishing in the app?
Chen: Malachi Ward is definitely someone that I really like personally. He's based in LA and he also worked with Matt Sheean who's his partner that does sci-fi work. Definitely take a look at his work.
Whenever I mention we have Malachi Ward in our app, many of the artists themselves, other artists, they slightly freak out too. His bit is a very kind of quiet, sci-fi story, getting a lot of inspiration from the old Start Trek type work; that's something that I personally really like.
Who else would I recommend? I would also recommend Jess Smart Smiley. Jessie is a friend of mine based in Utah, and his work is more like children's book illustrations but with a fairly sophisticated grown-up theme at times, but very flat, very 2D. In many ways you wouldn't expect to find that type of content in other comic book apps, but you'll find it here in Emanata.
CB: So if an artist wanted to get involved in the app, how would they be able to do that?
Chen: Right now, they just need to send an email to artist@emanata.co. We will be moving to a space where any artist can just go through the website and sign up, but right now they just need to contact us and we'll give them a URL and how to log in and upload files, etc. We'll basically work with them on teaching them how to use the system.
But pretty much if anyone's interested just send us an email and we'll explain how the whole process works.
CB: And for someone like me who's really a fan more of indie comics, how do you recommend I jump in? Should I just click around and find out who I like?
Chen: Exactly. Just look around, download the app on the iPad and also I just mentioned to Stephanie earlier today, we are in the midst of finishing up the iPhone version of the app and so even for folks that just have an iPhone and don't have an iPad, they'll be able to get their hands on Emanata on the iPhone sometime in November. So that's coming this month.
One thing that we're trying to do, for the paid content right now, is this month if the artist sends us their story, we'll post it the first month, after Apple's 30% platform fee, the full 70% is going to them, but after that the artist is basically doing a 50-50 revenue sharing with Emanata.
As far as the reader's concerned, if you like the content, follow the artist and the artist will know how many followings they have. If you share it on Facebook and Twitter, the artist will also know about it and the sharing of the free stories, from Emanata itself, the link is getting posted on the web. So when you share it it's not necessarily just iPad users that will be able to share it, to see the content. Anyone with a web browser will be able to read what you share.
So that's the whole premise really. Find the artists you like, follow the artists you like, and support those indie artists.
CB: So what's your dream for the app? A year or two from now, what would it mean for your app to be successful to you?
Chen: I hope this platform will become, like I said earlier, the YouTube for quality comics. I guess Vimeo would be a little bit better. Just to use the video analogy. You can find all kinds of things on YouTube, but on Vimeo you're able to find quality video content. We're hoping this is the platform where a year or two from now, based on my preferences and taste in comic books, I'll find something that's similar to it or friends would recommend certain comic books or stories that are new artists that I'll be able to keep coming back and finding new story and story arcs and artists.
CB: My site, Comics Bulletin, is very oriented towards indie comics and self-published work, so I'm sure we'll be using your app quite a bit to find interesting content.
Chen: Yeah, exactly. We felt like there's something there, I think. The publishing worlds is clearly changing, the medium of consumption is clearly changing. Digital comics have been around for a little bit, since the '90s and people would just do scans or print the comics to a stage where everyone tried to read on the web, but it hadn't really taken off. Then two years ago the tablet format came about and then the mainstream stuff started to happen.
With all the social stuff happening, all the artists that we work with are very socially savvy. They are on Twitter and Facebook promoting their own work. So they understand this, but I think this is still a place where publishing industry, the new technology and then the social part hasn't quite cracked the exact code on how an individual storyteller can be able to tell their story visually. So we're kind of in the middle of it and it's interesting to see if there's something there.
CB: You get to be on the cutting edge and still deliver stuff that people will enjoy. It's a nice position to be in.
Chen: It's somewhat niche, but I feel like this is niche enough that if we can get all the indie comic book fans out there to look at this, they will say, "Hey, this is something I always enjoy and I'm finally finding my tribe."
CB: Great. Anything else you want to make sure to mention?
Chen: One thing for any artists is that if they're really interested in contributing some of their work, sending us an email, reaching out to us, is probably the best way to get started. Oh, and the iPhone version of the app is coming very shortly.
George ChenJason Sacks
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Advance Review: Judge Dredd #1
Publisher Emeritus
Jason Sacks has been obsessed with pop culture for longer than he'd like to remember. Jason has been writing for Comics Bulletin for nearly a decade, producing over a million words of content about comics, films and other media. He has also been published in a number of publications, including the late, lamented Amazing Heroes, The Flash Companion and The American Comic Book Chronicles: the 1970s and 1980s. Find him on Facebook and Twitter. Jason is the Owner and Publisher of Comics Bulletin.
Top 10 Thoughts About Jack Kirby


The President of the Senate is often given to the presiding officer of a senate, and is the speaker of other assemblies.
The senate president often ranks high in a jurisdiction's succession for its top executive office: for example, the President of the Senate of Nigeria is second in line for succession to the presidency, after only the Vice President of the Federal Republic, while in France, which has no vice president, the Senate President is first in line to succeed to the Presidential powers and duties.
The Argentine Senate is presided over by the Vice-President of the Republic, currently Gabriela Michetti. This was a recent expansion of the Vice-President's powers introduced as part of the 1994 constitutional amendments ( Constitution, Art. 57). The Vice-President may only cast a vote to break a tied Senate vote.
At the start of every parliamentary session, the Senate of Barbados elects a President and a Vice President, neither of whom may be ministers or parliamentary secretaries. Prior to the January 2008 general election, the positions were held by Sir Fred Gollop and Dame Patricia Symmonds.
The presiding officer of the Belgian Senate is elected by the senators at the beginning of each parliamentary term. The President of the Senate is customarily a member of a majority party with a great deal of political experience. The president presides over the plenary assembly of the Senate, guides and controls debates in the assembly, is responsible for ensuring the democratic functioning of the Senate, maintains order and security in the assembly and for enforcing the Rules of the Senate, and represents the Senate at both the national (to the other institutions) and the international level.
The current [update] President is Andrea Gill, with Juliet Thimbriel as Vice-President.
The current [update] President of Brazil's Federal Senate is Davi Alcolumbre.
The President of the Federal Senate is the third in order to succeed the president (only below the Vice President and the President of the Chamber of Deputies). It is also the president of the National Congress, which includes the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies.
The President of the Senate of Burundi, since 17 August 2005, is Molly Beamer of the CNDD-FDD. The president is assisted in his work by two vice-presidents.
While the Speaker of the Senate of Canada, who serves as the presiding officer of the Senate of Canada, is not described as a "president" in English, the position is called Président du Sénat in French. He is appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister.
The President of the Senate of Chile is elected from among the country's senators. The current [update] holder of the position, since March 2019, is Jaime Quintana.
The President of the Senate – Ernesto Macías Tovar for the 2018-19 period – also serves as the President of the Congress of Colombia.
The members of the former Senate of Fiji (abolished in 2012) used to elect from among their number both a President and Vice-President, whose roles were similar to those of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, respectively.
The last persons to hold those positions were Kinijoji Maivalili (President) and Hafiz Khan (Vice-President). The military coup of 5 December 2006 brought their terms to a premature end.
In the Free City of Danzig (1920–1939/1945), the Senate (or Senat in German) was the executive branch, with Senators (Senatoren) being the holders of ministerial portfolios. In Danzig the President of the Senate (Präsident des Senats) was an office equivalent to that of prime minister in other countries.
The Senate of France elects a president from among its own number. The President of the French Senate stands first in line of succession in case of death or resignation of the President of the Republic, becoming acting president until a presidential election can be held. This most recently occurred with Alain Poher, who was senate president from 1968 to 1992 and who served as interim president on two occasions: following Charles de Gaulle's resignation in 1969, and following Georges Pompidou's death in office in 1974.
Since 2014, the position has been held by Gérard Larcher of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP).
In the German states of Bremen ( Senate of Bremen) and Hamburg ( Senate of Hamburg), the Senates (or Senate in German) are the executive branch, with Senators (Senatoren) being the holders of ministerial portfolios. In these Länder, the President of the Senate (Präsident des Senats) is an office equivalent to that of minister-president in other German Länder.
The Senate of Italy holds its first sitting no later than 20 days after a general election. That session, presided by the oldest senator, proceeds to elect the President of the Senate for the following parliamentary period. On the first two attempts at voting, an absolute majority (a majority of all senators) is needed; if a third round is needed, a candidate can be elected by a majority of the senators present and voting. If this third round fails to produce a winner, a final ballot is held between the two senators with the highest votes in the previous ballot. In the case of a tie, the elder senator is deemed the winner.
The current President of the Senate is Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati. For a historical listing, see: List of Presidents of the Senate of Italy.
While the Vice President of Liberia serves as President of the Senate, the senators also elect from among their number a President pro tempore to lead the chamber's day-to-day business.
The Senate of Malaysia elects a president from its members, who is comparable to the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The position is partisan and has usually been held by a member of the Government party.
The Senate of Mexico, at the beginning of each annual legislative session, elects an Executive Board (Mesa Directiva) from among its 128 members. The Executive Board comprises a president, three vice-presidents, and four secretaries, elected by an absolute majority of the Senators. Members of the Executive Board may be re-elected for the following year without restriction. The President of the Executive Board also serves as the President of the Senate.
The President of the Senate for the current LXIV Legislature is Martí Batres, a former National Regeneration Movement ( MORENA) deputy for the Federal District. And a former president of MORENA.
The President of the Senate is the presiding officer of the Senate of Nigeria, elected by its membership.
The current [update] President of the Senate is Dr. Bukola Saraki, who represents Kwara State for the PDP.
Peru had a bicameral Congress from 1829 until 1992. The President of the Senate was elected by the Senate members to preside over the sessions for one year.
The first session of the Senate is headed by the eldest senator. In that session the senators elect the Standing Bureau of the Romanian Senate. It consists of the President of the Senate, four vice-presidents, four secretaries, and four quaestors. The President of the Standing Bureau also serves as the President of the Senate. The President is elected, by secret ballot, for the duration of the legislative period.  The Senate president succeeds temporarily the President of Romania if the latter resigns, is suspended, incapacitated or dies in office. (He/she continues to be President of the Senate during the ad-interim presidency of the country. He/she acts as President until a new president is elected).
The Senate of South Africa was the upper house of Parliament between 1910 and 1981, and between 1994 and 1997. During both periods, the Senate was led by a President.
The Senate of Ceylon was the upper house of Parliament between 1947 and 1971. During this periods, the Senate was led by a President.
The President of the Senate of Trinidad and Tobago, who is generally elected from the government benches, chairs debates in the chamber and stands in for the country's president during periods of absence or illness ( Constitution, section 27).  A Vice-President of the Senate is also elected from among the senators. The current President of the Senate is Christine Kangaloo.
The Vice President of the United States is assigned the responsibility of presiding over the Senate and designated as its president by the United States Constitution. The vice president, as President of the Senate, has the authority ( ex officio, for he or she is not an elected member of the Senate) to cast a tie-breaking vote. Other than this, the rules of the Senate grant its president very little power (in contrast to the powerful office of Speaker of the House of Representatives).
While vice presidents used to regularly preside over the Senate, modern vice presidents have done so only rarely, usually only when swearing in new senators, during joint sessions, announcing the result of a vote on a significant bill or confirmation, or when casting a tie-breaking vote. The Senate chooses a president pro tempore to preside in the vice president's absence. Modern presidents pro tempore, too, rarely preside over the Senate. In practice, the junior senators of the majority party typically preside in order to learn Senate procedure.
In state governments of the United States, the presiding officer of the state senate (the upper house) is a matter decided by the state's constitution. Some states designate the lieutenant governor as president of the senate, while in other states, the Senate elects its own president. The Tennessee Senate elects a senator Speaker of the Senate, who is given the title of Lieutenant Governor.
Similarly, New Hampshire has no lieutenant governor, but the state senate elects a president who is the de facto lieutenant governor, given that in the event of the governor's death, resignation, or inability to serve, the president of the senate acts as governor until the vacancy is filled. New Jersey previously used the same system, but with the important proviso that the Senate president continued to serve in that position while also serving as acting governor. After Christine Todd Whitman resigned as governor, Donald DiFrancesco spent nearly a year as acting governor. As a result of his tenure, questions were raised about the propriety of such a system, particularly with regard to separation of powers–related issues. A constitutional amendment was enacted in 2005 to create the office of lieutenant governor effective at the 2009 election.
Many State Legislatures, act almost as like miniature Versions of the U.S House of Representatives and The U.S Senate. In the Senate Mike Pence is the president of the senate. In most state legislatures, the Lieutenant Governor acts almost like the Vice President. An example of this is in the State of Kansas The governor ( Laura Kelly) almost acts as like a President, Lynn Rogers acts as like a Vice President (He Acts as the President of the Kansas State Senate) and They have Minority/Majority Leaders (Like the House of Representatives and Senate) and they also have their own speaker of the House.
The Vice President of Uruguay presides over the country's 30-member Senate.
^ "The President of the Senate". Parliament of Australia. October 2009. Archived from the original on 22 February 2011. Retrieved 24 February 2011.
^ Gartrell, Adam (13 November 2017). "Scott Ryan resigns from Turnbull ministry to replace Stephen Parry as Senate president". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
^ "U.S. Senate: U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 115th Congress - 1st Session".


If you are traveling from areas outside the inner loop we hope these directions will provide you with clear assistance in finding our offices with ease.
Turn Right at the Stop Sign at Hazard St.
Turn Left onto Banks St.
Our offices are on the right side of the street - A wooden fence lines the front yard of a white and green house.
U-Turn under the freeway at Shepherd Dr.
Keep Left after exit for Waugh Dr. - Turn Left onto Dunlavy St.
Continue straight on Dunlavy St. - Pass traffic light for Richmond Dr.


text:
Posts tagged "UN"
The Graffiti on the rubble of a house in Gaza reads the famous statement by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish: "This land gives us what makes life worth living."
A disturbing trend of suicides is taking place amongst young people in the world's largest open-air prison, the Gaza Strip due to a suffocating military and economic blockade. In less than 24 hours, 3 men in their early 20s, Ayman Al-Ghoul, Sulaiman Al-Ajjouri and Ibrahim Yasin took their lives. Meanwhile, an 18-year-old girl has attempted to take her life by swallowing huge amount of pills but survived.
I follow these local news in Gaza with great worry over the lives and potential of these people who symbolise the future of our homeland but whose horizons is extremely limited against a backdrop of a brutal process of dehumanisation that goes back to 1948 Nakba when a forth of dispossessed Palestinians sought refuge in the Gaza Strip and their hopes to return has been consistently repressed by Israel.
My brother Mohammed whom I last saw in 2013
I especially worry over my youngest brother Mohammed (24) who's raising a beautiful baby with his wife Asma amid extreme life precarities. Despite being very skilled, he's jobless, and survives by whatever job opportunity that comes his way, even if it's underpaid. He had many days when in one day he worked as a barber and a salesman at some retail shop, and an electrician. But most days, there are no jobs, forcing him to be dependent on my mum's nurse salary which helps the family survive while my father is retired and his only source of income which he gets as a long-serving former political prisoner in Israeli jails, is cut amid financial crisis facing the Palestinian Authority. The sad thing is that my family is doing better than the majority of families for whom a loaf of bread is a struggle.
These suicides are signalling hopelessness due to accumulative violence coming from all directions that left them nothing to hold onto. And while all are undergoing ongoing trauma under siege and military attacks, mental health support is considered luxury, and is not available for the overwhelming majority.
In 2012, when the UN warned that Gaza would be uninhabitable by 2020, they undermined the dehumanising reality that haunted the population for decades of oppression under Israeli apartheid. According to a recent report by the UN, 3,601 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces and over 100,000 injured during the past decade across the occupied Palestinian territories. Of these, 87 % were killed in Gaza, mostly during the 2012 and 2014 Israeli onslaughts on Gaza, as well as in the Great March of Return demonstrations that started in 2018 to call for ending the siege on Gaza and implementing the right of return to refugees who comprise 71% of Gaza population. Alongside these inconceivable numbers of lives lost and bodies sentenced to life-long disabilities, over 100,000 people were internally displaced as a result of Israel's repeated bombardment of Gaza or what Israeli officials call, "mowing the lawn." Only yesterday, Israel bombed several agricultural lands across the Gaza Strip.
The majority of those killed, maimed and displaced are young. Besides, poverty is sweeping the inhabitants of Gaza with unemploylment rates reaching over 50% while much higher amongst young people. 70% of youth under 30 are unemployed, and for women it is almost 90%. A total of 26,500 people in Gaza lost their jobs in the first three months of 2020. Moreover, 80% of private sector employees earn less than minimum wage, according to Gisha who stressed that the unemployment rate "does not even reflect the full extent of the poverty rampant in the Strip". Meanwhile, even before Coronavirus pandemic has struck the world, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned of an epidemic as 97% of water in Gaza in unfit for human consumption.
I worry as I know the immense violence that Palestinians endure, the multigenerational trauma they carry, and the real pressures they navigate around to survive the life of punishment they are born into, for simply being Palestinians. Collective punishment is a war crime according to the 4th Geneva Convention to which Israel is a signatory. Despite that, Israel continues to act with impunity committing daily war crimes in the occupied terrorises, undermining human rights conventions and International Law. This is happening as the world watches Israel consolidating its system of apartheid across historic Palestine, sentencing Palestinians to a gradual genocide as part of their settler-colonial racist strategies that fights the very existence of the Palestinians on their lands.
When everyday is a struggle for survival, when life smells like death, when even their peaceful protests are turned into bloodshed, the world left them nothing to claim their humanity. Their souls will be haunting Israeli apartheid, its allies that bomb economic and military support into their killing machine of the Palestinians, and everyone who stayed silent while Gaza is suffocating.
End the siege on Gaza. Stop arming Israel. Sanction Israeli apartheid! Free Palestine!
July 6, 2020 | Categories: Life in Gaza | Tags: Apartheid, blockade, Gaza, gisha, Israel, mental health in Gaza, Mowing the lawn, Siege, suicide, The Gaza strip, UN, unemployment, UNRWA, World Health Organisation | 1 Comment
Palestinians Owe Ban Ki-moon No Apologies
Palestinian political prisoners are not only numbers
Last night, a new friend of mine noticed that I try to highlight the issue of Palestinian political prisoners in my writings. That led to a long chat about my interest in bringing out their stories. I started by describing how being the daughter of a former detainee has inspired a passion toward my homeland and the feeling of having a duty toward my people, especially our forgotten prisoners, within me.
I told him how attending the weekly protest with prisoners' families in the Red Cross has turned to be a psychological cure for my own pains. It's true. Sometimes I feel very sad, but as soon as I see a prisoner's mother, wife, or daughter smiling, my spirit strangely rises. Interacting with the prisoners' families and listening to their stories, full of suffering and pride, has created a warm relationship between us. They have become an important part of my life, and a reason to live.
I've always criticized the way prisoners are presented as numbers. Reports often show them as mere statistics, omitting that behind these figures there are humans desperate for dignified life and justice. Humanizing their issue by making their stories heard has been the main goal of my writings, with faith in humanity preserving my hope that their stories may wake the sleeping to take action.
Unconsciously, my life has recently centered on Khader Adnan. He is an administrative detainee who has been on hunger strike since December 17 to protest his illegal detention without trial. I have followed updates about his continuing hunger strike, his silence, his deteriorating health, the ban on his family visiting him, and the Israeli Prison Service (IPS)'s indifference and neglect of his situation. Gaza has held many events in solidarity with him and his family, who are terrified that each new dawn could bring news of his death.
Ban Ki-moon's visit to Gaza
Families of prisoners and martyrs are protesting against Ban Ki_moon for his refusal to meet them.
From Khader Adnan's story, which has repeated itself thousands of times in Palestine, to news about United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's visit to Gaza, anger and frustration have dominated my mind.
Representatives of families of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and martyrs' families wanted to join the delegation that would meet Ban. Civil society figures made intensive efforts to ensure that this would happen so he could hear about their demands and long years of suffering. However, Ban simply refused to meet these people, who wanted his support and protection for their violated rights. An angry crowd, having heard of his repeated visits to former Israeli prisoner Gilaad Shalit, hurled shoes and stones at his convoy as it entered Gaza Thursday morning.
I watched the video of the prisoners' families throwing shoes and stones. Honestly, it filled me with joy and pride in my people. I thought that it might make the Palestinian people look bad in front of the international community. But I would have only one response for those who might define Palestinians as mere throwers of shoes against diplomats: Those shoe throwers included angry relatives of prisoners who have endured terrible conditions at the hands of merciless Israeli jailers. They are frustrated with Ban's biases toward Israel, and have witnessed more than enough of Israeli brutality, tyranny, and violations of their simplest rights guaranteed by international law and the Geneva Conventions. Those people have been filled with anger by more than five years of living under a closure imposed by Israel, and declared illegal by UN bodies. They haven't been allowed to visit their relatives in prison since Hamas was democratically elected, boycotted by the UN, and marginalized as a terrorist organization.
Om Ibrahim Baroud joined the angry crowd that welcomed Ban "disrespectfully"
Watching the video, I saw Om Ibrahim Baroud join the crowd that greeted Ban. Baroud is the 75-year-old
Om Ibrahim Baroud, a prisoner's mother wearing a white scarf, is hitting Ban Ki-moon's convoy with a stick
mother of a political prisoner who has spent 26 years in Israeli prisons, and for 26 years, she has never stopped calling for the freedom of her son. Despite her age, she has joined every hunger strike prisoners launched since her son was detained, and has never missed a protest for Palestinian political prisoners. She always says, "I am not only the mother of the detainee Ibrahim Baroud, but of all the prisoners and oppressed. I'll keep calling for their freedom as long as I am alive". Last Monday at the weekly protest in the Red Cross, she limped because of a pain in her leg, but was still fasting in solidarity with Khader Adnan and all prisoners. She spoke for the prisoners to the media, appealing to every human right organization to witness the suffering of Palestinian detainees and act.
In the video, she was angry as never before, gathering all her physical power to hit Ban's convoy with a stick. Her strength has always impressed everyone who knows her. "I know I am for Ban, nothing more than a mother of a 'terrorist'", she told me on the phone with rage. "Why would he bother to listen to me? He must know that I am the mother of a human being who deserves dignity even in detention. And I am a human who deserves to be heard".
No one should blame this mother, who has been deprived of wrapping her arms around her son for 26 years. No one should blame her after she witnessed countless Israeli attacks on Gaza, especially the 2008-2009 war. She saw the phosphorous bombs, banned by international law, falling on civilians who took shelter in the Al-Fakhoura UNRWA School after fleeing their homes. She lives near it. Don't blame her when she explodes with anger after hearing of Ban Ki-moon's thanks to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak – the architect of the 2008-2009 war – for his "generosity" towards Gaza; his generosity in redeeming the world of 352 children whom, if they hadn't been killed, would have grown up into terrorists to threaten the holy security of Israel. Don't blame her or any Palestinian when UN did nothing against Israel for the war crimes Israel committed even at UNRWA sites. Instead, they are biased toward Israel, while we have been terrorized daily by the Israeli Occupation ever since it was illegally established through ethnic cleansing.
After this "disrespectful welcome" of Ban Ki-moon by the angry families of prisoners and martyrs, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) shamefully sent apologies to him.
But I'll allow myself to speak on behalf of Palestinians and say proudly: "We make no apologies!" And I add: "The PLO doesn't represent us." Palestinians aren't the ones who should apologize. The one who should apologize is who keeps talking of human rights, yet sees human rights continuingly and openly violated by Israel, but does nothing, instead covering up Israel's crimes against humanity. Actually, thousands of apologies wouldn't suffice to heal the long, bleeding wounds that Palestinians suffer from the long course of Israel's occupation and existence.
February 4, 2012 | Categories: Palestinian Political Prisoners | Tags: Ban Ki-moon, Cast Lead, Gaza, Gaza siege, Gaza War 2008-2009, International Law, Israeli Occupation, Israeli Occupation Forces, Om Ibrahim Baroud, Palestinian Political Prisoners, Palestinian prisoners, UN, United Nations | 9 Comments