text:
Strings Music Festival: Time for some rest
Ali Mignone/For Steamboat Today
The next performance at Strings Music Pavilion is BOSTYX Unplugged Featuring David Victor, formerly of Boston, at 7 p.m. Sept. 9. Tickets are available now.
Upcoming at Strings
• Friday, Sept. 9 — BOSTYX Unplugged (acoustic hits of Boston and Styx)
• Friday, Oct. 14 — Todo Mundo (world music)
• Friday, Nov. 4 — Mandy Harvey (jazz)
• Thursday, Dec. 22 — Riders In The Sky (Christmas the Cowboy Way)
• Friday, Dec. 23 — The Science of Santa (holiday family show)
• March 3 – Broadway's Next Hit Musical (improv musical comedy)
Tickets available at 970-879-5056 and stringsmusicfestival.com.
Right now, a mama moose and two calves are hanging out in the grass by my window. When the trio first arrived, the area was peppered with people trying to move quietly and keep a respectful distance, while still getting a reasonable photo on their cell phones.
It was like a super-slow flash mob. But now that the family has settled in for a rest — all three dozing on the lawn — all the people have gone away, leaving the moose to recuperate from their (remarkably successful) leaf-stripping efforts in peace.
The scene reminded me that Strings is in a short downtime right now. The busy, eight-week concert season is over, and the next show isn't for a few weeks. Though the off-season isn't really "off" — we'll have a show or two every month until next summer, and the full-time staff will hit the ground running in September to get summer 2017 programmed, contracted, housed, fund-raised and all the other silent details that go along with running a successful, non-profit music organization — it's definitely a slower schedule than the full sprint of the summer concert season.
In addition to catching up on some hiking and biking time, I have a few seasonal recollections that make me glad to be in resting mode right now.
• Full coffee cups resting on each of the following: piano, backstage electrical box, onstage amp. Stage manager saying bad words to coffee cup owners.
• Musicians wanting "just 10 more minutes" into my scheduled lunchtime, after having started 15 minutes late because of chatting.
• Anytime anybody wanted the Wi-Fi password to check Facebook when I was clearly in the middle of something else.
• The gaff tape running out, with only one more inch needed to finish my project.
• My laptop battery dying after I set up my desk-of-the-day too far away from the outlet for the cord to reach. (Don't judge — my brain capacity in the middle of the busy season makes this kind of problem seem complex and insurmountable.)
• Towels that didn't absorb brass instrument "condensation," but, instead, just smeared it around the stage in a slip-and-fall zone that was larger and less obvious than the original, shiny puddle.
• Forgetting my OSHA-approved tennis shoes and getting to unload a semi-trailer full of concert gear in flip-flops.
• Packing my gig bag with two black socks, two black shirts, no black pants.
• Hair ties that didn't … in the middle of a piano move in front of a full house.
Ahhhh, rest — feet up, with a glass of wine and a good book. That's where I'm headed for the next few days. This is my last column here until next summer, so thanks for reading. See you at BOSTYX in September.
Ali Mignone stage manages for Strings Music Festival, among other things. When she's not telling roadies and musicians what to do, you can find her hiking, biking or skiing around the Yampa Valley and blogging at thequirkyquill.com.


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Kin Chuen Tou is on the board of Suncity Group Holdings Ltd., Sun International Group Ltd. and Milan Station Holdings Ltd. and Associate of Taxation Institute of Hong Kong, Principal at Roger K.C. Tou & Co. and Member of Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
Mr. Tou received an undergraduate degree from Hong Kong Shue Yan University.


Looks like Tamron is jumping on the super-zoom image stabilized band wagon the new Tamron 28-300 f/3.5-6.3 XR Di VC lens that was announced today. Bob Atkins has a handy preview article. You can also check out the features in the press release below.
Mr. Morio Ono, President of Tamron Co., Ltd., has announced the successful development of the AF28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 XR Di VC LD Aspherical (IF) MACRO zoom lens, a high power zoom lens designed for SLR cameras with full-size format(Model A20), now equipped with a Vibration Compensation (VC) mechanism. The AF28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 XR Di VC is the ultimate high power zoom lens that covers everything from wide-angle to telephoto and macro. Tamron has incorporated a Vibration Compensator, an anti-shake mechanism developed by Tamron, into the highly versatile zoom lens. The new AF28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 XR Di VC LD Aspherical (IF) MACRO zoom lens offers the convenience, comfort and versatility of a high power zoom lens and the capability to reduce hand-shake blur on SLR cameras using either APS-C size or full size format imagers.
When the AF28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 XR Di VC is used with a full size format SLR camera, it covers the tremendous focal length range from 28mm in wide angle to 300mm ultra telephoto. When mounted on a DSLR with an APS-C sized imager, the lens covers a 43mm wide angle to 465mm equivalent ultra telephoto* (full size format equivalent, in a diagonal angle of view of 5°20′).
(*) The ratio Tamron uses to convert from full size format to APS-C focal length is 1.55X.
The proprietary VC (Vibration Compensation) mechanism developed by Tamron features a triaxial configuration using three pairs of driving coils and slide balls around the compensator group of the lens' optical system. Since the compensator lenses are supported with rolling friction of the balls, the response performance is enhanced and the construction is simple, which results in the compactness of the lens. The lens incorporate a highly accurate gyro sensor for detecting hand-shake, which, combined with a 32-bit RISC CPU, offers comfortable anti-vibration effects.
The AF28-300mm F/3.5-6.5 XR Di VC integrates optical technologies that Tamron has accumulated as the pioneer and leader of high power zoom lenses in order to realize the desired compactness even while incorporating the VC mechanism. The optical system uses a number of lens elements made from special optical glass materials including XR (high refraction index) glass elements, GM (glass-molded aspherical lens) elements, hybrid aspherical elements, LD (low dispersion) glass elements to compensate for on-axis and lateral chromatic aberrations and AD (anomalous dispersion) glass element. The lens offers high contrast, high resolution performance and flatness of the image field as a one-does-it-all zoom lens designed to match the characteristics of DSLR cameras.
The AF28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 XR Di VC LD MACRO boasts an MFD (minimum focusing distance) of 0.49m (19.3″) over the entire zoom range, a top-class closing focusing capability among high power zoom lenses for full-size format SLR cameras, which provides the remarkable maximum macro magnification ratio of 1:3 at the 300mm telephoto end.
Through the use of "Internal Surface Coatings" (i.e., multiple-layer coatings on cemented surfaces of plural elements) and multiple-layer coatings to prevent reflections from lens surfaces, ghosting and flare due to reflections that occur when light enters through the front element as well as reflections caused by the imager itself in the mirror box are reduced to the absolute minimum.
Tamron has reviewed the roles that respective barrel parts play in order to achieve the high power, compactness and light weight. As a result, dimensional increases are confined to a mere 17.8mm (0.7″) in overall length and about 5mm(0.2″) in diameter, when compared with the existing AF28-300mm (Model A061), despite the incorporation of the VC mechanism.
The zoom lock prevents unwanted barrel extension when carrying the lens/camera combination over the shoulder.
Have you had any problems with your Tamron 28-300 VC lens? I'm on my second one and it is beginning to exhibit the same problem as the first lens (using it with both a Nikon D200 and D3). The problem starts with the lens hitting a stop point at 80 mm when zooming from long focal length (>80 mm) to short focal length (< 80 mm). I can get past this stopping point by forcing the lens through the 80 mm point quickly. Each time I do this there is a clicking sound as if the lens mechanism is having to jump over something inside. The catch does not occur in the opposite direction. Tamron took nearly two months to repair the first one, and when it was returned the zoom mechanism was fixed but it would not autofocus. They quickly replaced the first lens with a new second lens, but now the second lens has developed the same sticking point in the zoom mechanism. I'm not hard on my equipment and consider the use it has received in the two months I've had the replacement lens to be light. Have you experienced similar problems or do you know of anyone with similar problems? I'm getting tired of sending this lens back for repairs. I bought the first one just 10 months ago. Other than these operational problems, the lens performs well for the purposes it was purchased. Thanks for any help you can send my way.


text:
/*
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */

package app.metatron.discovery.extension.dataconnection.jdbc.connector;

import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;
import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;

import java.sql.Connection;
import java.sql.Driver;
import java.sql.DriverManager;
import java.sql.ResultSet;
import java.sql.SQLException;
import java.sql.Statement;
import java.util.Properties;

import app.metatron.discovery.extension.dataconnection.jdbc.JdbcConnectInformation;
import app.metatron.discovery.extension.dataconnection.jdbc.dialect.JdbcDialect;
import app.metatron.discovery.extension.dataconnection.jdbc.exception.JdbcDataConnectionErrorCodes;
import app.metatron.discovery.extension.dataconnection.jdbc.exception.JdbcDataConnectionException;

/**
 * The type Abstract jdbc connector.
 */
public abstract class AbstractJdbcConnector implements JdbcConnector{
  private static final Logger LOGGER = LoggerFactory.getLogger(AbstractJdbcConnector.class);

  @Override
  public Driver getDriver(String connectionUrl, String driverClassName) throws SQLException {
    return DriverManager.getDriver(connectionUrl);
  }

  @Override
  public Connection getConnection(JdbcConnectInformation connectionInfo, JdbcDialect dialect, String database, boolean includeDatabase){
    return getConnection(connectionInfo, dialect, database, includeDatabase, getUsername(connectionInfo, dialect), getPassword(connectionInfo, dialect));
  }

  @Override
  public Connection getConnection(JdbcConnectInformation connectionInfo, JdbcDialect dialect, String database, boolean includeDatabase, String username, String password){
    Properties properties = getProperties(connectionInfo, dialect);
    if(properties == null){
      properties = new Properties();
    }
    if(StringUtils.isNotEmpty(username)){
      properties.setProperty("user", username);
    }
    if(StringUtils.isNotEmpty(password)){
      properties.setProperty("password", password);
    }

    String connectionUrl = getConnectionUrl(connectionInfo, dialect, database, includeDatabase);

    return getConnection(connectionUrl, properties, dialect.getDriverClass(connectionInfo));
  }

  @Override
  public Connection getConnection(String connectionUrl, Properties properties, String driverClassName) {
    try{
      Driver driver = getDriver(connectionUrl, driverClassName);
      return driver.connect(connectionUrl, properties);
    } catch (SQLException e){
      throw new JdbcDataConnectionException(JdbcDataConnectionErrorCodes.DATASOURCE_CONNECTION_ERROR,
                                            e.getMessage());
    }
  }

  /**
   * Get connection url string.
   *
   * @param connectionInfo  the connection info
   * @param dialect         the dialect
   * @param database        the database
   * @param includeDatabase the include database
   * @return the string
   */
  protected String getConnectionUrl(JdbcConnectInformation connectionInfo, JdbcDialect dialect, String database, boolean includeDatabase){
    return dialect.makeConnectUrl(connectionInfo, database, includeDatabase);
  }

  /**
   * Get username string.
   *
   * @param connectionInfo the connection info
   * @param dialect        the dialect
   * @return the string
   */
  protected String getUsername(JdbcConnectInformation connectionInfo, JdbcDialect dialect){
    return connectionInfo.getUsername();
  }

  /**
   * Get password string.
   *
   * @param connectionInfo the connection info
   * @param dialect        the dialect
   * @return the string
   */
  protected String getPassword(JdbcConnectInformation connectionInfo, JdbcDialect dialect){
    return connectionInfo.getPassword();
  }

  /**
   * Get properties properties.
   *
   * @param connectionInfo the connection info
   * @param dialect        the dialect
   * @return the properties
   */
  protected Properties getProperties(JdbcConnectInformation connectionInfo, JdbcDialect dialect){
    Properties properties = new Properties();
    String userName = getUsername(connectionInfo, dialect);
    String password = getPassword(connectionInfo, dialect);
    if(StringUtils.isNotEmpty(userName)){
      properties.setProperty("user", userName);
    }
    if(StringUtils.isNotEmpty(password)){
      properties.setProperty("password", password);
    }

    //add native properties
    if (connectionInfo.getPropertiesMap() != null) {
      for (String propertyKey : connectionInfo.getPropertiesMap().keySet()) {
        if (StringUtils.startsWith(propertyKey, JdbcDialect.JDBC_PROPERTY_PREFIX)) {
          String nativePropertyKey = StringUtils.replaceFirst(propertyKey, JdbcDialect.JDBC_PROPERTY_PREFIX, "");
          properties.setProperty(nativePropertyKey, connectionInfo.getPropertiesMap().get(propertyKey));
        } else if(!StringUtils.startsWith(propertyKey, JdbcDialect.METATRON_PROPERTY_PREFIX)) {
          String nativePropertyKey = propertyKey;
          properties.setProperty(nativePropertyKey, connectionInfo.getPropertiesMap().get(propertyKey));
        }
      }
    }
    return properties;
  }

  public void closeConnection(Connection connection, Statement stmt, ResultSet rs){
    if (rs != null) {
      try {
        rs.close();
      }
      catch (SQLException ex) {
        LOGGER.trace("Could not close JDBC ResultSet", ex);
      }
      catch (Throwable ex) {
        // We don't trust the JDBC driver: It might throw RuntimeException or Error.
        LOGGER.trace("Unexpected exception on closing JDBC ResultSet", ex);
      }
    }

    if (stmt != null) {
      try {
        stmt.close();
      }
      catch (SQLException ex) {
        LOGGER.trace("Could not close JDBC Statement", ex);
      }
      catch (Throwable ex) {
        // We don't trust the JDBC driver: It might throw RuntimeException or Error.
        LOGGER.trace("Unexpected exception on closing JDBC Statement", ex);
      }
    }

    if (connection != null) {
      try {
        connection.close();
      }
      catch (SQLException ex) {
        LOGGER.debug("Could not close JDBC Connection", ex);
      }
      catch (Throwable ex) {
        // We don't trust the JDBC driver: It might throw RuntimeException or Error.
        LOGGER.debug("Unexpected exception on closing JDBC Connection", ex);
      }
    }
  }
}


text:
Tag Archives: rape
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Thank you for you consideration!
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This entry was posted in Local News, Nonprofit, SAPARS Info, Uncategorized and tagged Advocacy, Awareness, end sexual assault, giving, giving tuesday, maine, me too, nonprofit, Prevention, rape, rape crisis center, rape culture, sapars, Sexual Assault, sexual violence, Support, Survivor, survivors, Thank you on November 21, 2017 by Mandy.
Disclosing a sexual assault to your children
'I need to tell you something': How survivors of sexual assault tell their children, via The Washington Post:
They were sitting in a car outside a Home Goods store in Savannah, Ga., and the conversation was not going the way Jenny Lynn Anderson planned. And she had planned. Anderson is pragmatic that way. That's how her mother – the lawyer, judge, trailblazer — raised her, and Anderson intended to bring up her daughters in the same mold: independent, self-assured, strong.
Once that foundation was set, Anderson decided, she would tell them.When I was in my 20s, I was sexually assaulted. Calm, no-nonsense. An outline. Details if they asked. That she eventually would tell them was never a question in her mind. She could not protect them as they made their way through the world, but she could educate them. She could give them the tools she didn't have. She could teach them something about another form of strength: resilience.
Sixteen might be a good age, Anderson thought. But when the youngest, Allison, turned 16, Anderson decided no, this one is not ready. I'll wait. But there Anderson was one day, sitting in the car outside the store, fighting a panic attack brought on by the sight of a lone man standing in the parking lot. There she was, telling Allison, "Wait, don't unlock the door." To watch her puzzled daughter follow her gaze, turn to look at the man, a black man, and say, "Mama, you are such a racist."
No, Anderson said, stunned, suddenly crying, which was definitely not part of the plan. That's not why I am afraid of that man.
"Allison, I need to tell you something."
In the leapfrog from headline to headline on sexual assault, from slogan to slogan — yes means yes, not alone, it's on us — public awareness waxes and wanes. What endures are the inner battles among parents who have been sexually assaulted and who do not engage in the public discussion as an abstraction, but as a prompt. Should I tell my kids what happened to me? How and to what end?
These are the most private of conversations, the unseen backdrop of the public dialogue on sexual assault. A mother – or a father – telling a child: All this you are reading about it, all this you are hearing, it happened to me. Someone hurt me when I was young. Took from me what was not theirs to take. You need to know this about me. You need to know this about life.
"This happened to me, and it wasn't my fault, and there are ways to prevent it from happening to you," Cynthia Brown, 53, of Marietta, Ga., told her daughter. Her daughter was 17, nearly the same age at which Brown was raped in 1980. Brown's attacker was convicted. "I grew up 'Father Knows Best,' 'Brady Bunch,' life is a bowl of cherries — and it's not."
Dawn Helmrich, 42, of Milwaukee, was abducted and sexually assaulted at gunpoint by three teenagers when she was 21. The eldest of the three, a 17-year-old, pleaded guilty to rape, kidnapping and armed robbery. The younger two juveniles were sentenced to juvenile facilities.
"When I first had kids, I questioned why I would even want to tell them? I thought, 'Are you doing this for you or for them?'" she said.
"I think, in the beginning, I thought of it almost like an absolution. I wanted to absolve myself of the guilt I felt. I thought, 'If I tell them, and they think I'm stupid or I did something wrong, at least they will get it off their chest, and I will move on.'
"But as I got older and a little wiser, I changed my perspective. I thought, 'How empowering it can be for them to know the kind of resiliency that is within them. Here I am. Their mom. I got married. I own a home. I got a Master's degree. I teach at a college, and I have a full-time career. I did all these things. Despite what happened. It became more about finding them the message that is basically, 'You know what? A lot of stuff happens in life . . . and sometimes you have to scoop yourself off the ground.'"
These are the moments of quiet revelation far from the headlines. The conversations that parents choose to have with their children are as different as the individuals recounting them, as different as the experiences with sexual assault. But parents who tell their children often say they do so from the understanding that all parents come to: They will not always be there to protect their children from those who would do them harm, and so their children must learn to protect themselves. And so, they seek to educate them, to prepare them to be vigilant in the most honest way they know how.
They teach them to listen to themselves. "You get a weird feeling, you trust it," Laurie Stevens, from San Fernando Valley, Calif., who was drugged and raped by an acquaintance when she was a college student, told her daughter, a high school senior. "That intuition is your umbilical cord to God, and you honor it."
They teach their children to listen to others.
"One of the things that is hardest for survivors is not to hate themselves, to not blame themselves," said Patricia Miller of Portales, N.M. A survivor of childhood sexual abuse, she is a moderator for the 78,000 member Pandora's Aquarium, an international online forum and chat room for survivors of sexual assault and abuse. "I wanted to prepare my children to have compassion and empathy. I would tell them, 'Look around whatever room you are in and know that one in every five women will be sexually assaulted and one in six men. People you know will be hurt, and they will need to have folks around who will listen to them with open hearts."
They teach them that in talking about the hurt, they rob it of its power.
They come to the conversations in different ways. Miller told her children over time, giving them just the information she thought they could understand and handle as they grew older. Did you ever think you were going to die and go to heaven, asks her son after his appendix burst. Yes, she said, and tells him a little of a father around whom she felt she could never be safe.
They circle around it for years with advice on never drinking from an open bottle, on being alert, on being active bystanders. For 30 years, Stevens carried around fragmented memories of an assault by a student in one of her classes. She wasn't drunk, just one moment she was present doing homework and the next she was far away and watching him disrobe her. Oh, him, another former classmate would say many years later, he got in trouble for drugging and raping women. Stevens started researching date-rape drugs for a series of psychological suspense novels she was writing. It all came together.
Did you ever get him arrested? Did you report him? Her daughter asked when Stevens told her the details earlier this month. No, it was not rape as I understood rape then. It wasn't violent, Stevens answered, and thinks: I hunkered down. I was ashamed.
What is his name, her son, now in college, demanded, shaken and angry. Where is he? She will not tell him.
Decades later, they have triggers. Loud noises. Don't ever come up behind mom unannounced. I don't care if it's a squirt gun, no guns, no gun-like toys, in the house.
At a crowded Milwaukee street fair, Dawn Helmrich suffers a panic attack and her 10-year-old daughter takes her hand and leads her from the crowd, comforting her, and then asking, 'Mom, when are you going to tell me what happened to you?"
"HOW EMPOWERING IT CAN BE FOR THEM TO KNOW THE KIND OF RESILIENCY THAT IS WITHIN THEM. HERE I AM. THEIR MOM. I GOT MARRIED. I OWN A HOME. I GOT A MASTER'S DEGREE. I TEACH AT A COLLEGE AND I HAVE A FULL-TIME CAREER. I DID ALL THESE THINGS. DESPITE WHAT HAPPENED."
— Dawn Helmrich
She told her children the whole story this year when they were 11 and 13, younger than she might have planned. But by then, she had become involved in victim advocacy and had organized Milwaukee's participation in Denim Day USA, a sexual violence prevention and education campaign. When her advocacy was recognized with a community award, she and her husband decided their children should know why.
"They asked a lot of questions, and when I finished, they both got up and said, 'Mom, you have so much courage, and you are so brave, and we are so proud of you,'" Helmrich said.
Both have since become young advocates in their own right.
In the car, outside the Home Goods store in Savannah, with a teenage daughter she thought still too sensitive to hear her story, Anderson regains her composure. A matter-of-fact tone enters her voice. She says: "When I was 27 years old, I was on business trip, staying in a downtown Atlanta hotel. I was walking out of my door, room 939, to go to the elevator. A man captured me in the hallway. He pulled a knife out and despite my fighting him and my screaming, he was more powerful, and he pushed me back into the room, and he robbed me first, and then he sexually assaulted me."
She says she tricked him into thinking her marketing director was coming to the room, and when he cracked open the door, "my eyes locked on a housekeeper in the hallway, and I started screaming." The man fled, and Anderson called hotel security. But her perpetrator escaped.
Like her older sister, Morgan, Allison listened to the story, wide-eyed and somber. "I didn't think she was ready, but she was," Anderson said. "And once I told them, I was totally an open book with them and with their friends. I brought it up. I wanted them to understand there was no shame in what happened to me. It was not my fault."
In the three years since, Anderson has gone on to speak publicly to more than 100 groups about her experience. In 2011, she published "Room 939, 15 minutes of horror, 20 years of healing," on how she reclaimed her life after her assault.
That day in the car with Allison, Anderson said, "the greatest thing that I wanted to leave with her was that there was courage, courage like my mother had, and courage would win the day. In the end, good will win over evil. They have to believe good prevails, and I believe it does. But you have to have courage."
That man in the parking lot scared me, Anderson told Allison, but we are going to get out of this car, and we are going to go into that store, and we are going to complete what we came here to do.
Which is exactly what mother and daughter did.
This entry was posted in Articles and tagged rape, Sexual Assault, sexual violence on February 17, 2015 by Mandy.
Dealing with rape on college campuses
Finally dealing with campus rape means that some men will have it tougher, via The Guardian, written by Jessica Valenti:
The epidemic levels of rape on university campuses has a lot of people really worried. Unfortunately, they're worried that campuses are going "too far" in their effort to punish rapists; that young men will be wrongly accused; that campus sex policies will criminalize consensual sex; that the rape epidemic is more ideological rhetoric than actual lived experience.
They are worried, it seems, that stopping campus rape and helping the victims of it – most of whom are women – will hurt young men.
It seems odd that, at a moment when we're finally making headway on campus assault – with White House-backed initiatives, rape victims sharing their stories, and students mobilizing to make their campuses safer and more responsive to sexual violence – the response from some quarters is to worry for men's futures rather than celebrate women's potential safety.
No one wants to see innocent people accused of horrible crimes, but there is a distinct lack of evidence that young men on college campuses – even the ones who have raped women – are suffering any harm due to the increased focus on ending rape.
Rape remains a chronically underreported crime, and only 2% of rapists ever spend a day in jail. On college campuses, only 10 to 25% of rapists are expelled, less than half are suspended and many are given university-mandated "punishments" like writing a research paper or an apology letter.
So why the ramped-up concerns for men?
Maybe it's that we're not used to seeing gender justice in action, so it feels strange and new … and therefore off. Alexandra Brodsky, a co-director of anti-rape organization Know Your IX, compared the situation to someone who has unwittingly been living in an apartment with a tilted floor their whole life.
"You become used to that, so if you wake up one day and your floor is level, it's going to feel uneven," she told me.
Others, like Tracey Vitchers of Students Active for Ending Rape (SAFER) believe the renewed focus on accused rapists' rights is simple denial. "It comes from not wanting to believe that campus sexual assault is as prevalent as survivors, advocates and, frankly, research, demonstrate it to be", Vitchers told me.
I also believe that the disproportionate worry for accused rapists over their victims boils down to a fundamental distrust of women. It is less worry that men will be wrongly accused, and more a lasting, ill-informed "certainty" that women lie about rape. After all, the most controversial news story of campus rape this year – an irresponsibly-reported assault alleged by a student at the University of Virginia – didn't even involve a young man was brought up on campus or criminal charges. The public outrage stemmed from the belief that the woman lied about her attack.
The rape truthers' belief that any increasing efforts to stop rape and hold more accusers accountable will hurt innocent men is, at best, magical thinking. While multiple female rape victims at 89 different colleges have filed suits citing Title IX violations and unfair treatment by school administrators, there has not been one recent public case of a wrongly-accused male student who suffered significant, permanent legal harm at the hands of a malicious accuser. That hasn't stopped people from trying to identify one, though.
The man accused of sexually assaulting two students and then raping Emma Sulkowictz – the Columbia University student who started the "Carry that Weight" performance protest – has tried appealing to anti-feminist media to claim his life was ruined, though no mainstream media published or broadcast his name until he came forward. And Columbia found the man not responsible, allowing him to remain on campus. A Washington Post column late last year fretted about the dangers of campus sexual assault policies for young men, yet focused on the case of a young man who was also found not responsible. How did the system fail him, exactly?
The concerns over due process in campus adjudication procedures are also misplaced. In The New York Times, Judith Shulevitz bemoans the Department of Education guidelines that instruct schools to use a "preponderance of evidence" standard in rape cases, as if such a thing is unheard of. But this is the same standard of evidence that's required when a rape victim sues her attacker in civil court. Shulevitz also warns that schools risk losing federal funds if they don't adhere to the DOE's rules, but no school has ever had their funding taken away because of a Title IX violation.
Too many of us are more comfortable taking on imaginary problems rather than real ones – but reflexive thought experiments don't stop rape or address the real underlying problems. They only do a disservice to the victims.
This entry was posted in Articles and tagged campus sexual assault, rape, Sexual Assault on February 12, 2015 by Mandy.
TV show Switched at Birth addresses campus sexual assault
ABC Family's Campus Rape Story line Goes Where Scripted Television Hasn't Gone Before, via BuzzFeed:
The anger directed at HBO's The Newsroom in December in the wake of an episode that attempted to capitalize on the debate surrounding the scourge of college sexual assault crystallized the complexity of emotions surrounding the very complicated issue plaguing campuses nationwide. At the time, the Rolling Stone/UVA debacle was dominating headlines — a magazine story that was meant to serve as crusading journalism, peeling back the lid of insidious behavior at the Virginia university and bringing awareness of the situation to a larger audience, instead had the opposite effect as the story's factual basis was attacked and the magazine backed away from supporting the writer. Any platform that the story could have provided rape victims — particularly those on college campuses — was undone, and the piece itself has become a watchword for reckless reporting and a lack of fact-checking. In the months that followed, the conversation continued, especially when two 2015 Sundance Film Festival projects dealt with campus rape: Kirby Dick's The Hunting Ground and Morris May and Rose Troche's interactive Perspective. There is something in the air at the moment — the discourse and epidemic are reaching a boiling point.
The latest entrée into the conversation is, on the surface, a surprising one: A teen television show waded into the murky waters of campus rape narratives in its Feb. 3 episode. But that teen series, ABC Family's groundbreaking Switched at Birth, has never been one to shy away from potentially explosive issues of race, class, or the hearing/deaf divide (many of its main characters are deaf or hard-of-hearing and the show has embraced the use of American Sign Language and closed captioning). The teen drama, created by Lizzy Weiss, might have initially been about the ramifications of two families — one white and wealthy, the other Latina and struggling to get by — learning that their daughters had been switched at the hospital as babies. But in the four seasons since, it's evolved into a canny exploration of communication, expression, and identity.
There's a reason the particular issue of campus rape is one that is poignant forSwitched's deaf and hard-of-hearing characters — and why it's fitting now. Last year, the Washington Post ran a story about the climbing rates of campus rape and the belief among university administrators that "robust reporting" could contribute to preventing these crimes in the future. The university with the highest rates of reporting forcible sex offenses proved to be Gallaudet University, which saw "more than 11 per thousand students in 2012." Gallaudet also happens to house the nation's premier deaf education program, and the university's dean of student affairs and academic support pointed toward the resources available — "direct access in terms of communication and language with on-campus personnel without requiring the need for an interpreter" — as the reason for the higher overall numbers and reporting rates.
Switched at Birth has long looked toward Gallaudet and deaf history and culture for inspiration for its storylines. Though it's unclear whether the Post's reporting played a role for Weiss and the writing staff in penning the Jan. 27 episode, the installment saw Bay Kennish (Vanessa Marano) waking up after a drunken night in the bed of her ex-boyfriend Tank (Max Adler), her clothes scattered on the floor. In the Feb. 3 episode, Bay struggles to recall the events of the night before, wondering whether she had cheated on her long-distance boyfriend, Emmett (Sean Berdy), by possibly drunkenly sleeping with her ex. But more troublingly, she is uncertain about whether she consented to having sex with Tank or not in the first place.
It's Bay's birth mother Regina (Constance Marie) who first utters the r-word — noting that if a woman is drunk, she cannot actually give consent, and that any consent given while impaired isn't actually consent. It's a shock to Bay, and to the viewer, really, to hear such an open discussion on such a controversial subject on a teen drama — but it's important that this is a conversation happening on a show geared toward a younger demographic. All too often, rape gets swept under the rug or is used as a means to an end to look at victim culture or false accusations or something different altogether; on Switched, however, though it's used for a narrative, it's also instructive and educational. Regina's lines are uttered with such certain sincerity that the moment, like many others on this series, isn't saccharine or forced, but significant.
Typically, sexual assault storylines play out with strangers, their repercussions barely, if at all, glimpsed. A recent episode of The Good Wife looked at the epidemic through the lens of a college disciplinary board following a student accusing another of rape, taking its title ("The Red Zone") from the most dangerous time of year for sexual assault against first-year female students. Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies), representing the victim, flicks at the specter of Title IX, saying that the university could open itself up to a lawsuit under the U.S. Code for gender discrimination in education. But the rape didn't happen to Alicia's son Zach (Graham Phillips) or her daughter Grace (Makenzie Vega) — and while the episode was powerfully rendered and meticulously constructed, there was an inherent narrative distance between the topic and the framework of the show; it was a case to be won or lost by Alicia, and while it drew upon real-life inspiration, it ultimately doesn't change the direction of the show or any of the central characters.
That's not the case with Switched at Birth. As Bay goes back and forth about whether she consented to sleep with Tank, the show shifts between each of their perspectives — hers increasingly inebriated, his equally drunk — which differ in small but meaningful ways. Did she kiss him? Did he kiss her? Did she push him away? And if she didn't, did it mean that she was actually able to give her consent?When Bay confronts Tank about her lack of clarity regarding the events of the previous night, he is horrified by what she is implying: that he took advantage of her, that he assaulted her, that he raped her. They were both drunk, he bellows, and he would never do anything like that. Tank is not a stranger to Bay or the audience: He's been presented previously as a "good guy." Which is precisely the point.
The plot doesn't wrap up neatly after one episode; in fact, there's a simmering level of anger, fear, and distress that threatens to boil over in next week'sSwitched, even as Bay says she doesn't want to do anything about what happened, that she just wants it to go away. But Bay's brother Toby (Lucas Grabeel) — who is also Tank's roommate — tells his girlfriend Lily (Rachel Shenton) about what happened… and Lily is an administrator at the university, meaning she has a legal obligation to bring the situation to the disciplinary board. It looks like Bay's hope that this just goes away will soon be evaporating completely.
But that's because this storyline is realistically messy and fraught — it's painful and profound, showing a night that Bay deeply regrets. Of course, regretting that something happened does not mean accepting responsibility for it — andSwitched carefully threads its narrative here, placing the blame for what may have happened on Tank for having sex with Bay when she was clearly too drunk to actually give her legal consent.
That this is all playing out in a show that so many teenagers (and adults) are watching is important for so many reasons. The ultimate irony is that this ABC Family teen drama is doing a far better job of tackling this difficult topic than its allegedly more hard-hitting and award-winning adult counterparts — and that, thankfully, means those in the audience who may soon be college-bound themselves are actually watching.
Switched at Birth airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on ABC Family.
This entry was posted in National News and tagged consent, rape, rape culture, Sexual Assault, switched at birth on February 5, 2015 by Mandy.
Kassie Edwards reported her rape. But that was before the attention on U-Va. or Cosby, via The Washington Post:
Kassie Edwards reported her rape. It wasn't much of a decision, really.
She was attacked on Halloween 2008. Two months earlier, Edwards had transferred to Florida State University to be an African American studies major, with dreams of eventually working at one of the Smithsonian museums. Soon after arriving on campus, she was assigned a work-study job at the university library.
She had the 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. shift that day, and just before noon, she took the elevator to the third floor to restock shelves. It was dark until she walked out and triggered the motion-detector lights.
That was when she noticed a young man with bloodshot eyes standing very still in the lobby. No one else was around. She was pushing her cart down an aisle when he came up to her from behind, took her in a chokehold and wrestled her to the ground.
"Don't say nothing," he told her, indicating that there was a gun in the pouch of his hooded sweatshirt. She was afraid to scream but remained conscious throughout the attack. When the man was done, he pulled up his pants and instructed her to count to 100 before she got up — warning that if she didn't, he would come back for her.
The backlash against women who have raised sexual-assault allegations against comedian Bill Cosby, including Victoria Valentino, left, and Barbara Bowman, could intimidate other women who have been sexually assaulted, Edwards says. (Left: Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post/Rigjht: Erin O'Connor for The Washington Post)
Edwards counted to five, heard the sound of shuffling papers and ran to find a co-worker. Within minutes, Tallahassee police were at the library.
She didn't cry until later. Until after the rape kit was administered at the hospital and a detective had taken her statement. Then her roommates took her home. "And I didn't know what to do but just cry. I felt like my life had changed," says Edwards, now 28.
Today, more than six years after the attack, Edwards is a victim advocate and speaker with the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network. She sat down for an interview at an apartment in Laurel, Md., where she has lived for two months and which overlooks the woods. Tall and outgoing, she now speaks of the rape with a matter-of-fact calmness. She feels it's especially important to be vocal about her experience, in light of the avalanche of media attention that high-profile sexual assault cases have received in recent months.
She stayed in her room for much of the week after the attack, she says, and when she did emerge, she shuddered at the sight of every man in a hooded sweatshirt, wondering whether each one was her attacker.
Edwards had never known anyone who said they had been raped, and she had never thought that it would happen to her. But something happened as she talked to her friends about the attack. They started talking back — about their own experiences with sexual assault.
"I learned about all my friends who had been raped before, which I would never have known about because they were afraid to come forward. And these were close friends," she says. "There's a veil of shame about being raped."
Rape and doubt
Two months after the attack, Edwards's rapist was caught. He had raped two other women and then murdered his girlfriend. Edwards wrote a letter to be read at his sentencing. "I've forgiven you," she wrote. "I hope you will live the rest of your life making the right choices."
Her assailant, who was not a Florida State student, is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole, and Edwards doesn't think about him much anymore. She finished college — had a great deal of fun and had her heart broken. She healed her wounds through prayer and counseling and poetry.
And whenever the opportunity arose, she talked about what had happened — to the media, to her friends, to audiences at spoken-word open-mike nights. She talks because it's helpful to her, but more than that, because she hopes it will be helpful to others. "To give them inspiration to be more inclined to report crimes that happened to them," she says. "Especially rape."
And at this moment, her advocacy work feels more urgent than ever. The past year has shone a bright light on the issues surrounding crimes against women — first there were the accusations against quarterback Jameis Winston at Edwards's alma mater. Then came Ray Rice, and the University of Virginia story in Rolling Stone, and the multiplying number of women coming forward to say that Bill Cosby once drugged and assaulted them. And unfortunately, Edwards thinks, the sum result is that it may now be more difficult for women to come forward than ever before — especially if their attacker is someone previously known to them.
"Legislatively we've made it easier for rape victims, but culturally I think we're taking a couple steps back," says Edwards, who works at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Although it didn't happen in her case, Edwards says she has learned that one of the biggest problems is that people "tend to doubt the rape victims' stories. They tend to blame the victim or they don't believe them, instead of saying, 'Oh, how could somebody do this?' "
Edwards fears that the backlash against women who have come forward — especially the Cosby accusers, whose motives have been questioned — will dissuade others from taking the same step. "Because they've seen how the victims are being portrayed," she says. "It's good that we're talking about it, but the conversation is not steered in a positive light."
Her message to victims is this: "It's not something you could've prevented. It's not about you being a weak person. It's about somebody who doesn't have control over their greed and their desire for power."
She encourages victims to tell someone about what happened, although she knows that's often a much more complicated endeavor than it was for her. "It's about what feels comfortable for them and exploring all the avenues before making the ultimate decision not to report. Whether it's reporting it to an anonymous hotline or friend or advocate or going to counseling." By reporting the crime, she says, they may be able to prevent it from happening to someone else.
Edwards says that her initial fear — that her life would be forever damaged because of the assault — has proved not to be true. "Going through that experience just made me a stronger person," she says.
The advocacy work in particular has added new depth and meaning to her life. But mostly she has just stayed on track, knowing that nothing — and no one — has the power to knock her off course.
In the coming weeks, Edwards will start a new job — at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
This entry was posted in Articles and tagged rape, rape culture, Sexual Assault, sexual violence on January 22, 2015 by Mandy.
Cee-Lo Green loses performance after rape comments
Cee-Lo Green Pulled From Military Base Performance, via Jezebel:
After his atrocious Twitter comments about rape and subsequent terrible apology, Cee-Lo Green has been cut from the performance line-up of a concert at a D.C. navy base. It seems concert organizers realized that having someone who has allegedly drugged and raped a woman and then complained about it was not the right person to appear at a military facility, when the military is struggling to prove it has a handle on its own sexual assault issues.
Freedom LIVE – the name for the programming presented by the Naval District Washington (NDW)'s portion of the military's Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) department, which is currently in its first season – announced Thursday evening they had removed Cee-Lo from the line-up of their September 20th show with Little Big Town at the Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in D.C. They wrote on their Facebook page:
We seek a Department-wide culture of gender dignity and respect where sexual assault is completely eliminated and never tolerated, where sexual assault victims receive compassionate and coordinated support, and where offenders are held appropriately accountable.
Unfortunately, one of the performers we signed for the JBAB Freedom Live show on 20 September recently posted comments on social media that we consider to completely inconsistent with Navy core values. Regardless of intent or context, the lack of sensitivity towards an issue that is one of the great challenges facing our Navy is unacceptable.
As a result, we have made the decision to pull CeeLo Green from the Freedom Live event on 20 September. Little Big Town, the main attraction for the event, will still perform as scheduled. We will announce as soon as possible a replacement opening act of the high quality that you expect and deserve.
After Cee-Lo's original appearance was announced and his tweets were sent and deleted, one veteran told Jezebel he sent a complaint about the performance to the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office at the Department of Defense, though it's unclear how many other people complained. The comments on the Facebook post about the cancellation are almost universally positive.
Image via Ethan Miller/Getty
This entry was posted in Articles, National News and tagged cee lo green, military, rape, rape culture, Sexual Assault, sexual violence on September 9, 2014 by Mandy.
Making a visual statement for change
Columbia University student will carry her mattress everywhere as long as her rapist remains on campus, via feministing:
Watch her video interview HERE.
Columbia University student Emma Sulkowicz was raped in her dorm bed at the beginning of her junior year. Now, for her senior visual arts thesis, Sulkowicz is carrying her mattress with her everywhere she goes as long as she attends the same school as her rapist.
As she explains in the video about her project above, "The piece could potentially take a day, or it could go on until I graduate. For me, it's an endurance performance arts piece."
Sulkowicz's rapist has been accused of sexual assault by two other women at Columbia but remains on campus. Sulkowicz has described in detail the terrible, incompetent hearing process she went through trying to get justice from Columbia, and was one of the students who filed a federal Title IX complaint accusing the school of mishandling sexual assault cases. Later, she reported her rape to the police — an experience which illustrated pretty much exactly why many survivors are reluctant to do so.
The mattress is an apt physical symbol of the weigh Sulkowicz has carried with her while sharing her campus with her rapist for a year. "A mattress is the perfect size for me to just be able to carry it enough that I can continue with my day, but also heavy enough that I have to continually struggle with it," she explains. It also represents the way she's been speaking out about her experience. "We keep [beds] in our bedroom, which is our intimate and private space… The past year or so of my life has been really marked by telling people what happened in that most intimate, private space and bringing it out into the light."
This entry was posted in Articles, Survivor's Words and tagged college, rape, Sexual Assault, sexual violence on September 4, 2014 by Mandy.
Supporting a survivor
What You Can Do If Your Friend Has Been Sexually Assaulted, via The Huffington Post:
The conversation about sexual assault usually centers around frightening statistics and failed responses from college institutions. Those stories need to be told, and loudly. But as we discuss the pain of sexual assault and how we can prevent future violence, we also need to talk about the other side of the narrative: helping survivors heal.
Despite increased awareness about sexual assault, it remains an understandably difficult topic to discuss. So many people simply don't know what to say when they find out a friend has been sexually assaulted.
But helping a friend who is a survivor of sexual assault isn't really about words. It's about listening without judgement and providing sensitive emotional support. It's about understanding that survivors can heal — and that having the right allies to support them is critical to helping their recovery process. Here are the most important things you need to know in order to be one of those allies:
1. Believe them.
As Working Against Violence, Inc. puts it: "The greatest fear of rape survivors is that they will not be believed." That fear is part of what keeps so many survivors silent. It follows that one of the best statements of support you can offer is a simple, "I believe you."
2. Be supportive, and help them seek out the right resources.
Encourage your friend to take control of his or her physical and mental health. Jill Mayer, a licensed professional counselor and former clinical director of Women Organized Against Rape told The Huffington Post that, in the aftermath of a sexual assault, she recommends locating a local rape crisis center on the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN) database.
She said that it's important to encourage your friend to seek immediate medical attention, have a rape kit done and be tested for STIs and pregnancy. A rape kit exam is used to gather forensic evidence within the 96 hours after an assault. If possible, Mayer recommends having a rape kit exam done regardless of whether the survivor definitively intends to report the crime, as doing so keeps future options open, and a rape crisis center can provide a list of local hospitals that offer that service. Rape crisis centers also typically have counselors on staff who can provide psychological help to survivors and court advocates on staff who can provide information about their legal options.
3. Assure them that what happened is not their fault.
It's all too common for victims to blame themselves. "There's also a level of shame and embarrassment surrounding being sexually violated… Survivors may feel like the assault was their fault, but the blame is solely on perpetrators," said Mayer.
Survivors may be more apt to blame themselves if drugs or alcohol were involved, or if their perpetrator was a friend or intimate partner. (Loveisrespect.org has excellent resources for helping a friend being sexually abused by a partner.)
Further, if your friend is a man, he faces the painful, enduring societal myth that men cannot be raped or sexually abused. As an ally, you can do survivors a great service simply by reaffirming that their trauma and pain is valid, no matter the circumstances. Mayer also suggested urging survivors struggling with self-blame orinternalized rape myths to seek counseling.
4. Listen, and don't press for details.
Opening up about these experiences can be scary and painful, and it's important not to pressure survivors into divulging memories that may be upsetting. As The Healing Center puts it: "Listen, listen, listen." Resist the impulse to gather all the facts; and let your friend decide what information he or she wants to disclose. Focus on being a supportive sounding board as your friend works through his or her feelings.
5. Respect the decisions they make in the aftermath.
The unfortunate truth is that many sexual assault survivors are further traumatizedwhen they choose to report their assault to the authorities. You don't have to look far to find examples of victim-blaming during police interrogations or slut-shaming in the court room. Given these realities, it's upsetting, but not surprising, that only 36 percent of survivors report their assault to the police, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Ultimately, each survivor deserves to make an independent decisionwithout external pressure. If your friend does choose to go forward, your support will be meaningful. If not, it's critical to reserve your judgment.
6. Respect their recovery process and encourage them to heal constructively.
After sexual assault, survivors may experience a wide range of emotional and physical reactions as they recover and heal. Community Crisis Center, Inc. outlines some of the most common reactions to sexual assault, which include emotional withdrawal, disturbance of sleep and eating habits, and avoiding activities that may trigger traumatic memories. Mayer warned against telling your friend to "Just get over it" or suggesting potentially destructive coping mechanisms, like a night out of drinking. Respect that your friend may need alone time, but let him or her know that you're there if they need company.
7. Help them seek other lifelines.
According to Mayer, the most important thing a survivor needs is a healthy support system of allies. But you can't provide that on your own. Mayer cautioned against taking on the responsibility of being a sole lifeline or playing the role of therapist. "It's very important to lay down a boundary line," she said. She also recommended helping your friend identify people in their lives who can offer that support, and encouraging your friend to seek counseling or support groups. (You can find these local resources through the RAINN network.) Ensuring that your friend has other shoulders to lean on makes it easier to keep your own boundaries in place.
8. Take care of yourself and don't be afraid to seek out support.
Being a good ally can be emotionally draining. Mayer told The Huffington Post that allies "could be getting traumatized or burnt out by the information that they're hearing and can start to feel hopeless and depressed themselves." Don't dismiss those feelings. If you become overwhelmed, seek support from friends, family or professional counselors. RAINN has excellent resources about self-care for friends and allies. You can't be part of your friend's support system if you aren't taking care of yourself.
Ultimately, being a good ally isn't about saying "the perfect thing" that makes everything better. It's about offering compassion and understanding as your friend heals.
This entry was posted in Articles and tagged rape, Sexual Assault, sexual violence, Support on August 26, 2014 by Mandy.
Sexual assault happens outside of college, too
We have more than just a campus rape problem. There is invisible rape all over, via The Guardian:
As the school year starts up again this month, so will university orientations with ramped-up trainings on sexual assault prevention – followed, I'm sure, by a semester of underreported attacks, inevitable administrative mishandlings and student-led lawsuits. Thanks to the increased American focus on campus rapes by activists, the media and even the White House, people will undoubtedly be paying attention this school year. And I'm glad for that.
But I hope that, as we shake our heads in shame and frustration over student assaults, we don't forget the scourge of rape that has infiltrated every corner of our country – not just the places that house college campuses.
In Rochester, New York, a 21-year-old man is facing state and federal charges for allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl and then posting a video of the attack to Facebook. The teeanger was unconcious while one man allegedly raped her and another filmed.
A Connecticut man has been arraigned after authorities say he kidnapped, raped and strangled the 19-year-old woman he was dating. A 28-year-old teacher in Oklahoma has been charged with raping her 15-year-old student. A man in Kentucky has been indicted on charges that he raped a child under 12 years old.
The Waupaca County police in Wisconsin are looking for a man they say tried to rape a teenager who accepted a ride home, and a wrestling coach in Eden, New York pleaded guilty to raping two teen girls at the school where he worked.
Oh, and, for a bit of context: All of this has happened in the last 48 hours.
These are just the stories we know about – cases where victims have come forward and the local media is paying attention. But such cases represent just a small percentage of the attacks that happen every day –every two minutes, in fact – across the United States. These largely invisible sexual assaults – the ones we never hear about – are the ones where the most vulnerable are victims: homeless women, prisoners, the mentally ill, the disabled, children, sex workers and those addicted to drugs and alcohol. This is true not just in the US, but globally – where the most disadvantaged are not only the most likely to be attacked, but the least likely to be helped.
Do we care less about these victims? Where are their profiles? Where is their White House task force?
I do understand why the national conversation about rape is so focused on campus assaults. And it's certainly not as if the campus rape problem is going away – college administrations are still failing survivors, and victim-blaming still abounds. But part of the reason the issue of student sexual assault has captured our attention – in addition to the tireless work by young activists – is that we see these victims as more deserving of sympathy, and because they more closely resemble the people in the media who are making editorial decisions, and their friends and family.
When vice president Joe Biden speaks about campus rape, for example, he often talks about protecting "our daughters". But not everybody's daughter goes to college – and our empathy too often doesn't extend to those on the margins. Maybe that's because we think of women in college as "good", middle-class girls deserving of attention, thoughresearch has shown that it's often lower-income women on campuses who get attacked and later blamed for their own attacks. Maybe it's because we just don't want to think too much about how some victims' marginalization – in which we are all in some way complicit – contributed to them being victimized again: if you want to stop the rape of homeless women, for example, you need to talk about economic injustice. Maybe we think that, if we just take on college rape, we'll only have to deal with administrations and (maybe) the attackers themselves. But that's thinking too small – we have a whole world of misogyny to grapple with before we can end rape on campus or anywhere.
Yes, we have a campus rape problem. But we also have a national (and an international) rape problem. Let's not forget that in the back-to-school rush.
This entry was posted in Articles and tagged campus sexual assualt, college, rape, Sexual Assault, sexual violence on August 21, 2014 by Mandy.
A new attempt at preventing rape on campus
The Power Of The Peer Group In Preventing Campus Rape, via NPR:
Many forces can drive a male college student to commit sexual assault. But one of the most important may be the company he keeps.
A number of studies, on college campuses and elsewhere, have shown that having friends who support violence against women is a big risk factor for committing sexual assault. Now prevention efforts are exploring the idea that having male friends who object to violence against women can be a powerful antidote to rape on college campuses.
"One of the things that matters most to boys and emerging adult men is the opinion of other men," says John Foubert, a researcher at Oklahoma State University who studies rape prevention among young men.
One of the most well-known studies on perpetrators of campus sexual assault is psychologistDavid Lisak's 2002 "undetected rapists" study. Because few campus rapes are ever reported, much less prosecuted, Lisak looked for sex offenders hiding in plain sight at University of Massachusetts in Boston.
"There is a small percentage of college students who are sex offenders. They are behaving like sex offenders. They are sex offenders.
– David Lisak
He surveyed about 1,800 men, asking them a wide range of questions about their sexual experiences. To learn about sexual assault, he asked things like, "Have you ever had sex with an adult when they didn't want to because you used physical force?" When the results came back, he was stunned.
All told, 120 men in the sample, or about 6 percent of the total, had raped women they knew. Two-thirds of those men were serial rapists, who had done this, on average, six times. Many of the serial rapists began offending before college, back in high school.
Other studies at colleges and in the military have since found similar numbers — usually somewhere around 10 percent of men admitting to either an attempted rape or a rape, with a significant proportion of them reporting a history of repeated offenses.
"I was forced, really, to accept that these are college students, but there is this small percentage of college students who are sex offenders," says Lisak. "They are behaving like sex offenders. They are sex offenders."
How Campus Sexual Assaults Came To Command New Attention
Together, the 120 men in Lisak's study were responsible for 439 rapes. None was ever reported.
But Lisak had no problem getting details about how the men carefully planned and executed their assaults. They'd often ask a girl to come to a party, saying it was invite-only, a big deal to a nervous freshman. Then they'd get her drunk to the point of incapacitation so they could have sex with her.
In an excerpt from one of Lisak's interview transcripts, a college student using the pseudonym Frank talks about how his friends would help him prep for an assault:
"This idea that getting somebody intoxicated so you can have sex with them is an idea we just simply have to confront and erode.
"We always had some kind of punch, you know, like our own home brew. We'd make it with a real sweet juice, and just pour in all kinds of alcohol. It was really powerful stuff. The girls wouldn't know what hit them."
Alcohol was the weapon of choice for these men, who typically saw themselves as college guys hooking up. They didn't think what they had done was a crime.
"Most of these men have an image or a myth about rape, that it's some guy in a ski mask wielding a knife," says Lisak. "They don't wear ski masks, they don't wield knives, so they don't see themselves as rapists."
In fact, they'd brag about what they had done afterwards to their friends. That implied endorsement from male friends — or at the very least, a lack of vocal objection — is a powerful force, perpetuating the idea that what these guys are doing is normal rather than criminal.
But in a group of guy friends, Oklahoma State's Foubert says, the opinions that can end up influencing behavior are often just what a guy thinks his friends think.
To Fight Campus Rape, Culture Must Change
"Let's say you have a peer group of 10 guys," says Foubert. "One or two are constantly talking about, 'Oh, I bagged this b- – -h.' Many of the men listening to that are uncomfortable, but they think that the other men support it through their silence."
What if that silence could be broken before college — as early as high school?
At a few high schools in Sioux City, Iowa, students are starting to find out what that might look like.
MVP, or Mentors in Violence Prevention, matches upperclassmen with groups of incoming freshmen. Throughout the school year, the older kids facilitate discussions about relationships, drinking, sexual assault and rape.
Xavier Scarlett, a rising senior and captain of the football, basketball and track teams, says he tries to get inside the heads of the freshmen guys he mentors. They talk through various scenarios. What does it mean to hook up with a drunk girl when you're sober? Would you be letting down your guy friends if you didn't hook up in that situation?
Campus Rape Reports Are Up, And Assaults Aren't The Only Reason
And they spend a lot of time on that scenario Lisak heard about over and over in his U-Mass Boston study. You're at a big party. You see a guy you know with an extremely drunk girl, and he's trying to leave with her.
Scarlett says he talks through all the options with the freshmen in his group. "Do I let them just leave? Or do I grab him, or do I grab her? Or do I get some friends? If I say something, then will my friend judge me?"
These conversations are tough, often awkward, in high school. A lot of the mentors still haven't confronted this kind of situation in real life by the time they graduate. But once they get to college, says Iowa State University junior Tucker Carrell, a former MVP mentor, the scenarios come to life.
Tucker says that he's not afraid to confront his Delta Tau Delta fraternity brothers when they talk about women in a way that makes him uncomfortable. He'll sit down with them, sometimes even bringing a woman they've hit on into the conversation.
The day we talked, Tucker said he'd used his MVP training to intervene in a situation just the night before.
This was at a going-away party at a bar in Ames, Iowa. Tucker noticed that a friend's female cousin was pretty drunk. She was over by the jukebox with two guys who weren't part of the party. They were strangers. Tucker says he was paying attention to her body language, and something didn't look right. She looked almost cornered.
So Tucker grabbed a buddy, and they went over to the jukebox together.
"We were like, 'Hey, let's pick a song.' So we picked a song. And then we were like, 'Do you want to go to the table and see your cousin?' "
They steered her back toward their group of friends.
And that was it. The night went on as if nothing had happened.
Enlisting Smartphones In The Campaign For Campus Safety
Lisak says by the time 18-year-olds leave for college, they need to be hearing this kind of challenge from their guy friends.
"This idea that getting somebody intoxicated, plastered, so that you can have sex with them is an idea we just simply are going to have to confront and erode," he says. "Just like we have eroded the idea that it's fine to get drunk and get in your car."
There are only a few dozen high schools around the country that offer the MVP program. It's been used in high schools around Sioux City, Iowa, for over a decade now. Surveys of participating students suggest their attitudes about sexual assault, and intervening in dangerous situations, shift after they go through the program, but researchers have yet to evaluate how effective it is in reducing incidents of sexual violence.
John Foubert, the psychologist in Oklahoma, says it's important to remember that 90 percent of men have never committed a rape. The key is opening their eyes to what's going on with the other 10 percent, so they can see it and intervene.
This entry was posted in Articles and tagged campus sexual assault, college, rape, Sexual Assault, sexual violence on August 19, 2014 by Mandy.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Protiviti adds three experienced consultants to US team
22 June 2014 Consultancy.uk 3 min. read
Protiviti
Protiviti, a global consulting firm that specializes in Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) advisory, has over the past months strengthened its U.S. practice with the addition of three experienced consultants. Steve Altier has joined the Minneapolis office, Peter Firestone will be based in Los Angeles and Seth Twery has joined the Charlotte office.
Steve Altier has joined the Minneapolis office as a managing director focused on financial services in the firm's Internal Audit and Financial Advisory practice. Altier has 18 years of professional experience and is an expert in public company SOX compliance, Investment Company (1940 Act) asset management compliance and SEC registered broker dealer compliance. He also has significant experience in providing business advisory services, including those related to navigating initial public offerings. Prior to joining Protiviti, Altier was a partner at a Big Four firm, where he managed internal and external audits in the financial services industry. Altier earned a bachelor of science degree in business from the University of Minnesota. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the Minnesota Society of Certified Public Accountants.
Peter Firestone has joined the consulting firm as a managing director in Los Angeles. Firestone leads Protiviti's west region Business Performance Improvement (BPI) practice. Firestone has more than 25 years of management consulting experience serving clients in the technology, media, telecommunications and life sciences industries. He has led numerous business performance improvement programs, including those focused on finance transformation, shared services, post-merger integration, customer/channel strategy and digital business. Prior to joining Protiviti, Firestone was a managing director at Accenture in its Finance & Enterprise Performance practice. Prior to Accenture, Firestone was a partner at Deloitte Consulting.
Seth Twery has joined the Charlotte office as a managing director. His focus is on providing technology-enabled risk and compliance solutions for clients in the financial services industry. Twery has 30 years of experience working with banks and consumer lending organizations, including designing and applying innovative technology solutions across operations, governance, risk and compliance, and anti-money laundering (AML). Prior to joining Protiviti, Twery spent 18 years with IBM, including 12 years as their North American risk and compliance leader. His professional accomplishments include leading the design, development and rollout of more than 20 fraud and operational risk solutions, assisting financial services firms in the transformation of financial crime operations, and leading AML systems integration projects for more than 50 financial institutions.
In addition to IBM, Twery was a senior manager at a Big Four firm where he worked on credit card technology and strategic systems planning for national retailers and banks. Prior to that, he was a principal with the boutique payments consulting firm Carmody and Company. He has a bachelor of science in mathematics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Protiviti news
Talent retention the top worry for businesses over next decade As firms look to 2023 with apprehension, a new survey has identified the top concerns of executives – not only for the next year, but the next decade.
Cities becoming increasingly important to business success More than 60% of businesses believe cities will have a greater role to play in enabling their work, by the end of the decade.
Generational diversity in cyber - striking the right balance Technology skills are in high demand, but how do companies ensure they remain inclusive for younger and older workers alike? Cheryl Mathieu, Jez Haisman and Belton Flournoy from Protiviti share their


I know it was a bit of a minor detail in your story, but I think what you mentioned about having "very little guidance other than some blog posts on the Internet" is actually really important – from what I've seen, a lot of other devs are in the same bucket. I think a lot of folks look at that situation and use it to defend their impostor-y feelings ("I can't really code, I have to google everything") when it's really just the opposite and is, in fact, empowering ("I have strong problem solving skills, and with the amazing resources available on the web, I can figure out anything and make anything work.").
Oh yeah. I really try to put myself in this mindset when building out dev.to. Our need to go to the Internet void for help pervades every bit of our journey, not just for strictly technical questions and answers. That time someone online told me "don't worry, all startups kind of have codebases like that" was everything I needed to plow along.


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Apospasta rougeoti är en fjärilsart som beskrevs av François Louis Nompar de Caumont de Laporte 1974. Apospasta rougeoti ingår i släktet Apospasta och familjen nattflyn. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

Nattflyn
rougeoti

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Although 'de Vries' is a Dutch name Susanna is of Irish extraction with some Scots ancestors. Educated at in England she studied visual arts and history at the Sorbonne in Paris and in Madrid.
Susanna was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship to study Renaissance art in Florence and has worked as an art historian and arts journalist in London and Spain.
including several on Australian artists, eight biographies of Australian women and illustrated histories of Brisbane and Sydney. She became one of ADFAS's first local lecturers. In 1996 she was awarded an Order off Australia for 'services to Australian art and literature' both for her books and the quality of her talks and powerpoint presentations.
Details of other lectures and Susanna's publications are here.


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Jesé tackles Emmanuel Macron
What's next after this ad
Former Paris Saint-Germai flop, Jesé (29) is now playing in Turkey, near Ankaragucu. The Spanish striker took advantage of the end-of-year celebrations to return home and confide in the radio SER padlock. On this occasion, the journalists again asked him about the aborted transfer of Kylian Mbappé to Real Madrid. And for the ex-Parisian, the Bondynois had to go to the Merengues.
"No, I haven't spoken to him again, but come on, it was clear to me because he told me. He told me and I tell other people: those of us who spoke Spanish. I think it was more personal pressure than professional pressure. All players make decisions, they can make mistakes or accept the decision. But people cannot intervene. For example, the President of France cannot tell you "don't go here, you have to stay". In my opinion, I think he felt more personal than professional pressure to make a decision," he said.
OM: Dimitri Payet praises Boubacar Kamara
Pub. the 28/12/2022 13:23
L'article Jesé tackles Emmanuel Macron est apparu en premier sur 24hfootnews.


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The 'Columbia Hills' in Color
This image from the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows a forward-looking view of a portion of the "Columbia Hills." This portion features "Husband Hill" to the left, "West Spur" in the center, and a talus (rock debris) slope to the right. West Spur is Spirit's planned first stop at the hills. Husband Hill measures approximately 90 meters (295 feet) tall from the base of the hills to its highest peak. Even in this distant shot, large boulders can be seen on the hillside. These boulders are of great interest to scientists, as they may reveal clues about how these hills formed.
Based on these and past observations of the hills in comparison to hills on Earth and other celestial bodies, scientists theorize that the Columbia Hills may be one or a combination of the following: a portion of an eroded old crater rim, a wrinkle ridge, the remnants of a former interior crater deposit, a central peak or a volcano.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell
This expansive view of the martian real estate surrounding the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is the first 360 degree, high-resolution color image taken by the rover's panoramic camera.
As Far as Opportunity's Eye Can See
This map updates progress that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is making toward reaching a driving distance equivalent to a marathon footrace. It indicates the rover position on March 5, ...
Rover's Progress Toward Mars Marathon, Sol 3948
This series of images shows simulated views of a darkening Martian sky blotting out the Sun from NASA's Opportunity rover's point of view, with the right side simulating Opportunity's current view ...
Shades of Martian Darkness
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has this view northward from the position at the north edge of the "Home Plate" plateau where the rover will spend its third Martian winter.
View from Spirit's Overwintering Position (False Color)
The yellow line on this map shows where NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity has driven from the place where it landed in January 2004 -- inside Eagle crater, at the upper left end of the track -- to a po...
Eagle to Endeavour: Opportunity's Path, Sol 2609
This illustration depicts some highlights along the route as NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity drove as far as a marathon race during the first 11 years and two months after its January 200...
Opportunity's Marathon Journey
The first episode documents the hurdles leading up to both launches. From Mother Nature being uncooperative to a problem with the cork insulation on the rocket, lift-off was no small feat. Ultimate...
Challenges of Getting to Mars: Two Launches: Spirit and Opportunity
NASA's twin robot geologists, the Mars Exploration Rovers, will launch toward Mars in 2003 in search of answers about the history of water on Mars. The rovers will be targeted to sites that appear ...
MER Rover Artist Concept
Some of the team members from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover project were still in college -- or even high school -- when the rovers landed in 2004. Hear their stories of becoming part of this remar...
10 Years on Mars: How Spirit & Opportunity Affected Our Lives
This image from the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's panoramic camera shows the results of the second drilling by the rock abrasion tool, located on the rover's instrument deployment device, or...
Brushing A Mars Rock
This view from the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's panoramic camera is a false-color composite rendering of the first seven holes that the rover's rock abrasion tool dug on the inner slope of ...
False-Color View of a 'Rat' Hole Trail
This grouping of two test rovers and a flight spare provides a graphic comparison of three generations of Mars rovers developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The setting is ...
Three Generations in Mars Yard, High Viewpoint
The piece of metal with the American flag on it in this image of a NASA rover on Mars is made of aluminum recovered from the site of the World Trade Center towers in the weeks after their destruction.
Interplanetary Memorial to Victims of Sept. 11, 2001
"Marathon Valley" on Mars opens to a view across Endeavour Crater in this scene from the Pancam of NASA's Mars rover Opportunity. The scene merges many exposures taken during April and May 2016. Th...
Mars Rover Opportunity's Panorama of 'Marathon Valley'
This image from the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's panoramic camera is an approximate true-color rendering of the exceptional rock called "Berry Bowl" in the "Eagle Crater" outcrop.
Discovery Served Up in a Bowl
With the parachute deployed, three retrorockets fire their engines, suspending the lander 30 - 50 feet above the Martian surface.
Mars Exploration Rovers: Descent Artwork
This view from within "Perseverance Valley," on the rim of Endurance Crater, includes wheel tracks from the Opportunity Mars rover's descent of the valley to investigate its origin. The rover's Pan...
View From Within 'Perseverance Valley' on Mars
A rock with a white edge and a red center reminds us of a jelly donut in a box from the local donut shop in this image taken by Opportunity on February 4, 2014. Named "pinnacle Island" by Opportun...
A Sweet Find
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity obtained this view from the top of the "Cape Tribulation" segment of the rim of Endeavour Crater. The rover reached this point three weeks before the 11th ...
High Martian Viewpoint for 11-Year-Old Rover (False-Color Landscape)
This Aug. 15, 2014, scene from the Pancam on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity looks back toward part of the west rim of Endeavour Crater that the rover drove along, heading southward, duri...
Rover Tracks in Northward View Along West Rim of Endeavour, False Color
Results from Opportunity and Curiosity show Mars could have supported life.
Rover Fist Bump
Rover 2 is driven over staggered ramps to test the suspension's range of motion.
Mars Exploration Rovers: Rover 2 Driving Test
This full-circle panorama shows the terrain around the NASA Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity during the 3,071st Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (Sept. 13, 2012).
Opportunity's Surroundings on Sol 3071, on 'Whitewater Lake' Outcrop
These side-by-side images were taken by the Pan Camera (Pancam) on NASA's Opportunity rover. They're actually the same image; the left version is how the image originally came down, due to data dro...
Artistic Pancam Frame
This 3-D cylindrical-perspective projection was constructed from a sequence of four images taken by the navigation camera onboard the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. The images were acquired...
One View, Two Craters (3-D)
Follow the Journey
The Red Planet
Science Goals
Astrobiology
Past, Present, Future, Timeline
Why Mars?
Planetary Resources


Most respectfully I submit the matter for your kind perusal and necessary action that I am a resident of Bhuli Nagar, Dist.- Dhanbad, Quator No. 13/A, State- Jharkhand, Pin-828104.
I had recharge on12/04/17 via online on paytm.My paytm in successful via debit card but my recharge is unsuccessful till now.
I had contact to customer care.but they tolled me it will happen in 2 hrs. But my recharge still not successed.


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New technologies are making rockets cheaper and more powerful than ever before. As companies like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic make space more accessible, and NASA returns to crewed spaceflight, a new era of space exploration may be on the horizon.
Discover the feats of engineering that made the Concorde the first supersonic airliner.
Death Dive to Saturn
Follow Cassini's final days as it skims the cloud tops before plunging into the planet.
NOVA's "Rise of the Rockets" Homepage
How Do You Get a Rocket to Land Back on Earth?
There's a reason why so few rockets are designed to come back to their launch sites.
Rise of the Rockets Preview


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Hippocrepis is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae.

Etymology

The name "Hippocrepis" comes from the Greek for "horse" () and for "shoe" (): literally, "horseshoe"; this is descriptive of the shape of the fruit segments in some species
.

Species

Notable species include (along with their common names):

 Hippocrepis emerus, or scorpion senna.
 Hippocrepis comosa, or horseshoe vetch.

References

Fabaceae genera


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Job title: Business Development Manager.
Time with Console: 18 months.
Potato Scallop or potato cake: Scallop. Is that a real question?
Last book you read: Richard Branson's biography, Losing my Virginity. That's the real name of the book.
Sacred sports team: Sydney FC!
Matt Wilson grew up in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, and like a growing number of Console staff, Matt's background is in real estate. Despite the ultra-sharp suits he wears to work, (yes, even on Fridays) Matt is softly spoken and easy-going. He describes himself as a massive soccer fan and a bit of a foodie.
Let's start by getting one question out of the way: just how many suits do you own?
I don't know. Is that bad? Maybe fifty? It's a lot.
Fifty is more than a lot.
Haha, probably. Let's say I own enough suits that I had to install extra clothes railings at home to be able to house them.
Where did the suit thing start, anyway?
In childhood. When I was a kid I wanted to be either a professional footballer, a marine biologist, or I wanted to have a job where I wore a suit to work. I guess number three was the one that stuck.
And was that the dress code for your first job? Where did you work?
As an adult, I can see now that she probably wasn't being serious. But I was. Because I went around the suburb where I lived, going from shop to shop, asking everyone to hire me. I eventually arrived at a lolly shop, whose owner agreed to hire me for the princely wage of $2 per hour. And that was my first job. I worked the till after school each day from 4-7.
I'm pretty sure that's not legal.
Yeah, but it was the nineties. It was a wild time to be a kid.
So now you're all grown up. You've been a business development manager for Console for 18 months now. What do you do each day, in practical terms? What happens when you sit down at your desk?
My role for Console is to build relationships with our existing clients, and bring new ones into the fold. Some parts of that are explaining how our property management software works, as you might expect. But a lot of it is helping businesses figure out how to leverage our products so they can grow and become more efficient. It's about business excellence, and building a strategy that works for them.
You spend a lot of time visiting with clients. What do they teach you?
I've learnt how much clients want to be not merely listened to, but heard. They have taught me that I can't guess at what they need.
Visiting a lot of property managers and real estate agencies has also taught me that no two people or clients are the same, and that you shouldn't treat them the same. People don't come out of a cookie cutter, and that's not how they want to be treated either.
What preconception about your work would you like to challenge?
People think being on the phone all day is easy. But it's not really. It takes a lot of energy and confidence to be able to be your absolute best to every person you talk to each day.
I also think people look at me in the office, and they see a walking suit. Believe it or not, I just like to wear them—it's not some act or show. I like to think I'm actually a pretty nice person. I am a nice person, right?
Yeah, you're pretty nice. So what's your philosophy of customer service?
One of the things I bring to Console from my property management days is my belief that communications should be face-to-face or by phone call if possible, with emails as a last resort. Good customer service rarely happens by hiding behind a computer screen.
If you could give one piece of advice to the property management industry, what would it be?
We all know that every day is different. We all know that there'll be good days and bad days. And we all know that at some point, we'll bear the brunt of someone else's bad days. So when those darker days happen, don't give up.
As contradictory as it sounds, the best advice I could give to a property manager is to keep your soft skills sharp. Stay focused on delivering the best customer service you can.
Because at the end of the day, what differentiates PMs from anybody else in the world is that specialist knowledge. If you combine that knowledge with the ability to deliver high quality customer service, you get a huge advantage.
What would you change about the property management industry if you could?
People are getting over the lack of training that is being invested into that part of the real estate industry. It's causing high turnover, and that means bad results for landlords. If you're dealing with someone's most important asset, you need to be properly equipped and trained to do so.
If I could change anything, I would love to see real estate agencies valuing their property managers more, and investing in them more. It's time we lifted them up a bit, you know?
You've met Matt Wilson. Want to meet some more members of our team? Why not read about Queensland Account Manager Dave Wallensky, or Support Team Leader, Tracy McPhee?