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How Crazy Is Too Crazy to Be Executed?
The voices told Andre Thomas to gouge out his eyes. But even that hasn't convinced the state of Texas to reconsider his death sentence.
Marc Bookman
Andre Thomas is escorted by officers during his 2005 murder trial.
Chris Jennings/Herald Democrat
Years later, after Andre Thomas had been convicted of killing his estranged wife, his 4-year-old son and her 13-month-old daughter in the most bizarre case in Grayson County history, after he had received a death sentence and been told that it would be imposed at the appropriate future time, after he had been dispatched to Texas' death row to wait his turn with the other condemned men and women, the prosecutors were still talking about "the eyeball issue."
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Certainly there were other details that made the crime uniquely memorable. For one thing, Andre had cut out the children's hearts and returned home with the organs in his pockets. For another, he was careful to use three different knives so that the blood from each body would not cross-contaminate, thereby ensuring that the demons inside each of them would die. He then stabbed himself in the chest, but he did not die as he had hoped. In fact, he was well enough to leave a message on his wife's parents' phone explaining that he thought he was in hell, and he managed to confess to the police what he had done before they took him in for emergency surgery.
The entire episode had biblical overtones—Andre had convinced himself that his wife was Jezebel, his son the Antichrist, and her daughter just plain evil. In short, the case had enough spectacular aspects to keep the most jaded of court watchers buzzing for months, but it was the eyeball issue that garnered most of the attention. And that was only the beginning.
But the beginning of the crime is never the beginning of the story. A case like this one doesn't drop cleanly out of the sky, just as no one suddenly wakes up one day and decides to take an Uzi to the mall. Andre, who was raised in Sherman, Texas, a small town about 60 miles north of Dallas, had gnarled roots, and it was next to impossible not to trip over them. People like me, who do capital defense work for a living—and lest you be curious, I have never been an attorney for Andre Thomas—like to draw family trees, because patterns of mental illness and substance abuse and domestic discord and parental neglect tend to emerge from their branches like an old Polaroid developing on the kitchen table.
Andre's family tree had all of these patterns going back two generations, and likely you could have gone back two more and found the same assortment of disabilities. This is not only true of stricken souls like Andre—take a look at the family trees of Ernest Hemingway, or the composer Robert Schumann, and you'll see manic depression and suicide running through their branches as well. But Andre's was more tortured than most. You'd have to look long and hard to find a pedigree more predictive of disaster.
Andre's grandmother, Vivian, was already a full-blown drunk by her mid-teens, so it's hardly surprising that she fell in with drunks as well. Johnny, Andre's grandfather, beat Vivian regularly, occasionally threatened to kill her with his gun, and once pushed her to the ground when she was pregnant, breaking the foot of her child in utero. Johnny was vicious but also strange—one of Vivian's children remembered the time he threw all the food in the house into the yard.
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Vivian had never been selective with men. She had nine children with five of them starting at the age of 14. After Vivian left Johnny, she married a man named Walter Martin, and the pattern continued—heavy drinking and a steady diet of domestic violence. It was in 1973, during one of their battles, that Walter put a gun to Vivian's head. Andre's uncle Gregory, who was all of 17 at the time, tried to pull the gun away, and that's when Walter shot him in the stomach, killing him. Walter would later boast that he "planted" one of Vivian's children, and fully intended to "plant another one."
Vivian's daughter Rochelle, who was closest in age to Gregory, never recovered from his killing. She, too, drank heavily, suffered from depression, and according to her siblings was sexually molested by Walter. Rochelle was Andre's mother, and that was half the genetic pie.
Andre's mostly absentee father, Danny Thomas, came from practically the same background—generational alcoholism, violence, mental illness. One of his brothers suffered from alcohol-induced dementia. Another was locked up in a state mental retardation ward. Looking at both wings of the family side-by-side was like snipping away at a piece of folded paper in elementary school and opening it to find two identical sides of a snowflake.
Walter would boast that he "planted" one of Vivian's children—killed him, that is—and fully intended to "plant another one."
But what did it all add up to when you stacked Andre's background against the removal of people's hearts? Alcohol, violence, mental illness, trauma—that isn't an unusual background for a death row inmate. Cable TV and criminology courses are loaded with that sort of thing. It was the eyeball issue that made people realize this was more than just the most bizarre case in Grayson County history.
Yet even the eyeball issue, like the Polaroid on the table, was a slow-developing story. It probably started with Vivian, who claimed to have a gift from God—more of a torment, really. She believed she received divine messages through dreams and visions, only she "didn't handle the gifts," as one of her children recalled. "They handled her." Vivian saw her talent as a line that one could approach but never cross—a line separating dreams and visions from madness and delusion.
It is almost certain that Rochelle, the next generation of the gifted, crossed that line. She, too, believed that she had been chosen to hear God's messages—that her mother's gift had been passed down to her. This proved a curse for her and Andre alike. God often told Rochelle what to do, and she was certain that He was telling her son as well.
Andre's grandmother "didn't handle the gifts," one of her children recalled of her divine visions. "They handled her."
Andre was the fifth of Rochelle's six children—all boys. By the time he came along, in 1983, Rochelle already had sons by three different men. She moved around constantly, and often relied on a local church to pay her utility bills. Yet despite living in one of the most chaotic situations in which a little boy might find himself, Andre somehow thrived. He received outstanding marks in kindergarten and first grade, and was placed in his school's "gifted and talented" program. His second-grade teacher described him as a "strong and delightful student."
Andre's mother, meanwhile, couldn't even say where her son went to school—as she later testified, she had so many children she simply couldn't keep track of them. This is not quite as absurd as it might sound: Thanks to his mother's transience, Andre attended three different schools in three different cities in two different states—and that was just second grade.
Around third grade Andre started telling his friends, apparently in earnest, that he was Raiden, a character from the video game Mortal Kombat. Like his mother and grandmother before him, he was hearing voices. He made no secret of it. Lots of people knew that Andre suffered from what the professionals called "auditory hallucinations." At 10, he attempted suicide by slitting his wrists. He would try again three years later, sawing at his arm with a butcher knife. Both attempts were prompted by Andre's mother saying she should have aborted him.
At 10, Andre attempted suicide by slitting his wrists. He would try again three years later, sawing at his arm with a butcher knife.
He also began dabbling in petty crimes. When he was 11, he was charged with criminal mischief after damaging some golf carts, and later with theft for stealing a car and driving it into a ditch. He faced the consequences alone. No parent or guardian was on hand to support him when he first met with his probation officer to determine a case plan. His mother often would find excuses to miss the appointments, on one occasion telling the probation officer it was "too cold" for her son to be outside.
As Andre grew older, his grades slipped and he was forced to repeat seventh grade. He managed to climb back into the gifted and talented program, only to regress as his family life deteriorated further. When his mother told him of a plan to move the family to Oklahoma, he informed his probation officer, and a judge placed him in a juvenile detention facility. The justice system would become Andre's surrogate parent, keeping tabs on his whereabouts and overseeing his affairs. He once asked the judge for a work permit so that he could pay off his restitution and court fees, only to be told that at 14 he was too young to work.
Photoillustration by Tim J Luddy
AT AGE 16, on top of all of his other problems, Andre became a father. He had been seeing Laura Boren for several years when Little Andre came along. He dropped out of school, earned his GED, and began doing various low-wage jobs—at one point digging graves at Sherman's West Hill Cemetery. The couple found their own place for a while, but later ended up moving in with Laura's parents, and then with Andre's mother. They got married on Andre's 18th birthday, and Rochelle kicked them out of her house two weeks later. With nowhere they could live together, the newlyweds parted ways. Laura took Little Andre back to her parents' house and Andre moved in with his brother. After four and a half months, they separated for good.
Andre's world, already tenuous, was falling apart. He lost some seasonal work mowing grass, and struggled to pay for heat and electricity. And because his place lacked utilities, Laura began scaling back his visits with his son. Andre remarked to his father that he was in a circle he couldn't break out of.
As the date of the murders approached, Andre stopped talking for days at a time, placing duct tape over his mouth.
He kept trying, though, and sought out counseling for his suicidal feelings and the voices that wouldn't keep quiet. By the time he was 19, they were blaring in his head like a brass band in a nightmarish parade, and he had attempted suicide several more times. As the date of the murders approached, Andre's behavior grew ever weirder. He stopped talking for days at a time, placing duct tape over his mouth. He fixated on the dollar bill, imagining a code for his salvation among its symbols.
Three weeks before the killings, he overdosed on Coricidin—a brand of cough medicine—and wound up at a mental health facility in Sherman, where he asked the staff to kill him. "Life is too much for me to handle," he said. Somehow they let him leave on his assurance that he was going straight to a nearby hospital. When he failed to show up, a warrant went out for his immediate apprehension, but the police failed to enforce it.
Two days before the killings Andre overdosed again, and stabbed himself with a knife. He walked into the ER at the Texoma Medical Center, where an attending physician deemed him suicidal, and quoted him saying he was trying to "cross over into heaven."
"Thomas," the ER doctor wrote, "is psychotic. He thinks something like Holodeck on Star Trek is happening to him."
The doctor would later testify that Andre was "really mentally ill," as if to stress that this wasn't just your run-of-the-mill crazy person. And then there was this detail from the physician's records: "Thomas," he wrote, "is psychotic. He thinks something like Holodeck on Star Trek is happening to him." If you don't know what that is, and there is no good reason you should, a holodeck is a simulated reality facility—a place where nothing is real.
Finally, the patient wanted to know whether he had volunteered for his life, or been forced to live it. Maybe that was the final straw. The doctor referred Andre to the hospital's mental health unit and filled out an emergency detention order to hold him against his will. But while staffers waited for a judge to sign the order, Andre simply wandered off. The hospital called the police, but there's no evidence that officers went looking for him at the home of Andre's mother or any of his other relatives. The next time they saw him, he was walking into the Sherman police station to confess to killing his family.
You might wonder what Andre was thinking when he removed the children's hearts and placed them in his pockets to take home—along with a piece of Laura's lung, which he mistook for her heart. By his own account, he had received a message from God telling him to kill Jezebel, the Antichrist, and a related evil spirit. The only other clue was the dollar bill he had folded lengthwise and left next to his wife's leg, exposing the pyramid with the eye at the top.
Pull out a dollar bill and look at the back for yourself: Above the eye are the words Annuit Coeptis: "He approves our undertakings." It's likely you haven't thought much about this, but Andre did—for hours at a time. Maybe he was seeking approval, and the dollar bill served to confirm the words that kept pounding in his head. But two days later, when he was confessing his crime to the police, he called the eye at the top of the pyramid "evil." A day after that, he explained that he was the "thirteenth warrior on the dollar bill." (It just so happens that there are 13 steps on the pyramid for the 13 original states, but no reference to warriors.)
His wife and kids weren't really dead, Andre told a jailhouse nurse. He had removed their hearts to free them from evil.
A further explanation followed: According to the notes of the nurse who was monitoring Andre in his glass-walled observation cell at the Grayson County jail, his wife and kids weren't really dead. He had removed their hearts to free them from evil.
Andre refused the anti-psychotic medication the jail doctors prescribed him, but at least he had the Bible, and when he wasn't acting belligerently or gesticulating wildly or ranting about evil he would read from it. One can only wonder what he thought when he turned to Matthew 5:29—particularly in light of his obsession with the eye on the pyramid. "If your right eye causes you to sin," the passage reads, "gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell."
And that is precisely what Andre did. Sitting in his cell, reading the Bible, he gouged out his right eye with his fingers. Had it finally dawned on him, six days after the killings, what he had done?
THERE IS A WORD for almost everything in this world, and there is a word for the intentional removal of one's own eye: auto-enucleation. What little medical literature exists on this malady states the obvious: It is an extraordinarily rare form of self-mutilation brought about by extreme psychosis. It occurs with paranoid delusions, often of a religious nature, that accompany schizophrenia, and is occasionally referred to as Oedipism.
The reference, of course, is to the myth of Oedipus the King, who blinds himself after learning that he has fulfilled a prophecy by murdering his father and sleeping with his mother. For Oedipus, it is not schizophrenia or delusions, but rather his own guilt and the merciless Fates that cause him to stab out his eyes. Yet even blinding himself can't save him: "I know death will not ever come to me through sickness or in any natural way," he laments at the end of the Sophocles play Oedipus Rex. "I have been preserved for some unthinkable fate."
After removing his eye, Andre was placed in a secure wing of North Texas State Hospital, whose doctors later pronounced him fit to stand trial.
When Andre took his eye out, the legal proceedings stopped in their tracks. Who knew what the man might say or do in front of 12 jurors? For starters, the authorities quickly equipped him with big mittens—fastened to his wrists to prevent their removal—to protect his other eye. Three doctors evaluated him—one from the jail, one appointed by the court, and one brought in by the state. All of them said that Andre suffered from some form of schizophrenia. He was declared incompetent for trial and shipped off to the secure wing of North Texas State Hospital, where he continued to hear voices and talk to himself, and seemed to have a recurring dream where scorpions and tarantulas were trying to eat him.
But this wasn't the sort of case likely to fade from public view. Maybe that was why Andre's diagnosis was changed during his stay at the state hospital. At the end of 47 days of evaluations and medications, the doctors concluded that most of his hallucinations were substance-induced. His discharge order seems contradictory: The doctors said Andre was malingering by exaggerating his mental illness, and yet they made him wear the mittens throughout his stay. They also noted that he was consistently cooperative with staff, behavior that is not at all typical of malingerers. Andre was now competent to stand trial, they wrote, and the court so found.
Still, the eyeball issue had gotten everybody's attention. At one point the district attorney of Grayson County had called it the desperate act of a man who feared punishment, but as the trial date approached, the prosecution seemed more circumspect. After all, the defense would surely argue that Andre was insane, and could even the most hardened DA argue that he was faking it—that he had scooped out his own eye to manipulate the jury?
Texas alone is responsible for 37 percent of all executions in the United States since 1977.
For the prosecution, one big decision remained: Would the state seek the death penalty? After all, no murder, no matter how heinous, depraved, or just plain bizarre, requires it. Ever since the Supreme Court outlawed mandatory death sentences 37 years ago, these decisions have been left to the prosecutors. In Texas, district attorneys have used their discretion broadly, not only in seeking the death penalty but also in making sure it is carried out. The Lone Star state alone is responsible for 37 percent of all executions in the United States since 1977, when the death penalty came back into vogue.
But discretion has its limits. Race, for one, cannot be considered at all. Not to say it never is—just that it is unconstitutional to do so. Yet race tends to play a big role in capital cases, especially ones like the Thomas case, where the victim is white and the defendant is black.
Laura Boren Thomas, Andre's late wife, was white. The children he killed were mixed race. These facts were particularly important when it came to jury selection. Under questioning by the lawyers, 4 of the 12 eventual jurors said they were opposed to people of mixed-race backgrounds marrying and/or having children. One even stated that he did not believe "God intended for this." Andre's court-appointed lawyers did not object, and the jurors were seated.
Andre's prosecutors used the "shuffle," an only-in-Texas option, which resulted in an all-white jury.
In fact, for this particular jury selection, the prosecutors invoked an option available only in Texas. It's called the "shuffle." The pool of potential jurors, known as a venire, are seated in a room, and with no information other than what the jurors look like, either side can request that they be shuffled—reseated in a different order.
The order of the venire, it turns out, is crucial to the jury's final makeup. That's because each juror is questioned in turn, and if lawyers from either side want to exercise their right to disqualify someone, they have to do it then and there. If it looks like one side is striking a juror based on race—which is not allowed—the other side can mount a challenge. Hence the shuffle: At Andre's trial, there were initially six African Americans seated in the first two rows. After the shuffle—which proceeded without any objection by the defense—there were no blacks in the first five rows. Ultimately, two black jurors were questioned and dismissed. When all was said and done, the entire jury—not to mention the judge and all of the lawyers—was white.
IT'S FAIR TO SAY that race played a role in more than just the jury selection. The crime and the trial both took place in Sherman, a town still remembered for a shocking lynching and subsequent race riot back in 1930. In the spring of that year, a black farmhand named George Hughes was accused of raping a young white woman. He surrendered to the police, and a trial was set for six days later.
False rumors that the woman had been mutilated spread across the town, and on the morning of trial, as many as 5,000 people descended on the Grayson County courthouse hell-bent on revenge. As the trial commenced, the mob battled with state police and set the building on fire. Hughes, who had been placed in a county vault for his protection, died. The townspeople pulled his corpse into the street, dragged it behind a car, and hung it from a tree. In the mayhem that followed, most of the town's black businesses, and one residence, were burned to the ground. The governor imposed martial law, and for two weeks the state militia took over the town. Sherman's black community never fully recovered from the trauma—for the next 65 years, not a single black doctor or lawyer practiced within its boundaries.
At the sentencing, the DA asked jurors if they were willing to risk Andre "asking your daughter out, or your granddaughter out?"
It was here, in Sherman, that Andre Thomas not only married a white woman, but became friends with a number of others, who showed up at the sentencing to testify on his behalf. This did not go unnoticed by the prosecutor. In the last sentence of his closing argument in favor of the death penalty, he mentioned the "string of girls that came up here," and asked the jurors if they were willing to risk Andre "asking your daughter out, or your granddaughter out?"
Statements like these tended to distract the jury from the more pressing question of Andre's mental health problems. Given the grisly details of the crime—and the eyeball incident—more than a few observers were undoubtedly left wondering just how crazy a person could be and still face execution.
There is no simple answer to this question. State courts across the country have struggled to define "intellectual disability" (also known as mental retardation) since 2002, when the Supreme Court ruled that retarded people are exempt from capital punishment. The high court has also banned the execution of anyone who was under 18 at the time of his crime, but no court has ruled that severe mental illness makes a person ineligible for the death penalty.
The Supreme Court's latest foray into the issue involved the case of Scott Louis Panetti, another Texas death row inmate. Panetti, a diagnosed schizophrenic who killed his in-laws, defended himself in court wearing a purple cowboy suit. As if that weren't enough, he asked to subpoena Jesus, John F. Kennedy, and the pope. While the justices didn't offer any clear standard on how crazy is too crazy, they suggested that severe mental illness might render someone's "perception of reality so distorted" that he cannot be constitutionally executed.
As it stands, a person cannot be put to death if he or she is deemed "insane," but that's a narrow legal distinction. Whether at trial or on the eve of execution, an insanity defense hinges on a defendant's inability to connect his crime with the consequences. Absent that connection, neither deterrence nor retribution is served by execution. As the legal scholar Sir William Blackstone put it more than 200 years ago, madness is its own punishment.
Almost every state, including Texas, now utilizes some version of what is known as the M'Naghten Rule. Daniel M'Naghten, an Englishman, was put on trial in 1843 for fatally shooting a civil servant he apparently mistook for the prime minister. He had delusions of persecution, and a number of doctors testified that he was unable to hold himself back. When the prosecution produced no witness to say otherwise, M'Naghten was found not guilty by reason of insanity. He spent most of the rest of his life at the State Criminal Lunatic Asylum in London's Bethlem Royal Hospital, which locals pronounced "Bedlam."
Thus was coined a word we associate with chaos—and it was chaos that ensued when M'Naghten was acquitted and the public took the verdict poorly. What emerged amid the outcry was the generally applied law that an insanity defense would only be available to someone who cannot understand the "nature and quality" of his act.
Andre's trial hinged on this very question, but with one wrinkle. In Texas, if your insanity is caused in any way by voluntary intoxication, you cannot use it as a defense. The prosecution's doctor-experts testified that Andre was well aware he was behaving wrongly, and that his crimes may have been triggered by his cough medicine overdoses, drinking, and pot smoking.
The defense called to the witness stand doctors who pointed to Andre's history of mental illness apart from any substance abuse. And hadn't the man removed his own eye!? Was the state seriously suggesting that Andre's auto-enucleation was a ruse? No. Instead, the prosecutors argued that it "was an impulsive act." They didn't dwell on it, of course. There's no requirement that attorneys have to spend lots of time talking about evidence that hurts their case. They just said it was an impulsive act, and moved on.
The jury moved on with them, and Andre's insanity plea was rejected. He was found guilty and, four days later, sentenced to death. It turned out that an impulsive act, even coupled with orders from God and the removal of hearts, could not soften the punishment for murdering three in Grayson County. And so, less than a year after killing his family, Andre went off to death row.
THE STATE'S CONDEMNED live in the Allan B. Polunsky Unit, just outside of Livingston, Texas. It looks as one might imagine a death row would look—a series of imposing concrete structures surrounded by excessive razor wire and four guard towers.
The Polunsky unit didn't become death row until 1999, after seven inmates tried to escape from the old facility. At the time, the Polunsky unit was called the Terrell unit, after Charles Terrell, a Dallas insurance executive and a former board chairman at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. But when it became death row, Terrell asked to have his name removed. He was uncomfortable being associated with capital punishment because he had problems with how it was administered.
The DAs could claim whatever they wanted, but this guy was as crazy as a peach-orchard boar, and prison officials were going to treat him as such.
Almost a decade later, Terrell would sign a letter supporting a state moratorium on the death penalty. The letter laid out his concerns about racial fairness in some parts of Texas, the absence of DNA testing when it was possible to do it, and his opinion that life without the possibility of parole was in fact more punitive for young offenders than a death sentence. He added that he was the only person he knew of who ever had his name removed from a building. Documents generated by the prison system in the Thomas case, however, still read "facility POLUNSKY (formerly TERRELL)." In one final touch of irony, Terrell was born in Sherman.
Death row is not designed for rehabilitation. There are no programs to attend, no degrees to obtain. The main business carried on is waiting. Those lucky enough to come to the row mentally intact may be able to hold themselves together through the years of aloneness by reading, talking to prisoners in nearby cells, or listening to the radio. But inmates like Andre, who are already debilitated by mental illness, do not get better. There are no avenues for it. The cells at Polunsky are smaller than a basketball free-throw lane, the prisoners are on lockdown more than 90 percent of the time, and there is no human contact at all. Andre still wore the mittens to protect his remaining eye, and his meals were brown-bag because he couldn't be trusted with utensils. He was taking the same medication he had been taking at the state hospital.
His diagnosis on death row, paranoid schizophrenia, was not the diagnosis prosecutors had argued to the jury that put him there, but the prison records said "no stop date indicated" for his medication. In short, the DAs could argue whatever they wanted to avoid an insanity verdict, but this guy was, as they sometimes say in Texas, "crazy as a peach-orchard boar," and prison officials were going to treat him as such.
Every once in a while there were skeptics. Like the doctor who didn't trust Andre's hallucinations because the voices always told him to "do things he wants to do anyway. People who have hallucinations do not recognize they are hallucinations." Prisons, of course, are houses of skepticism. Consider this entry from an early psychological intake form: "R eyelid is in a fixed, closed position. R eye seems to be missing (as pt claims)." Apparently the mittens weren't enough of a giveaway.
"The government is conspiring to read my mind. That's why I ripped out my right eye. That's the righteous side."
And so it went from March 2005 to the summer of 2008—lots of complaints from Andre about the voices, an attempt at cutting himself with a razor blade, and the periodic suggestion that he was faking the whole thing. Mostly, though, the prison records depict a barely-getting-by paranoid schizophrenic who knows he is seriously mentally ill but doesn't have any idea what to do about it. Sometimes the voices would scream at him to "bash my head," as he put it. Other times he thought six-inch demons were coming out of the walls and playing music by the rock group Queen. And then there were days that he said he felt fine and was writing music for his mother.
On July 14, 2008, Andre managed to procure something sharp and slash a seven-centimeter gash in his throat, requiring eight stitches. He insisted that he was the cause of all the problems in the world, and that if he killed himself all the problems would stop. The next day, he reported that he had been reading his Bible and got confused because he wasn't sure if it was the voices or his own thoughts that were telling him to kill himself. During a psychiatric assessment one week later, he explained that "The government is conspiring to read my mind. That's why I ripped out my right eye. That's the righteous side. They can't hear my thoughts no more. I cut my throat. Gotta shed a little blood to save the world. Like the guy in the dayroom told me, "Don't lighten up, tighten up!'"
Prison officials were concerned enough to send him to the system's psychiatric facility, but they returned him to his regular cell within a month. It was only eight stitches, and he clearly could have inflicted far more damage.
Andre had always believed in déjà vu—except he was convinced that he was reliving days and weeks in their totality.
Then again, maybe the episode signaled the start of another slide. After three years on the row, there was little question that Andre was getting worse. Or maybe it's more accurate to say that events were beginning to recur again. Andre had always believed in what we all call déjà vu—except he was convinced that he was reliving days and weeks in their totality. A year prior to the killings, he complained to friends that life kept repeating itself. And since things were happening over and over again, it meant they weren't really happening at all. Shortly after his crime, when he explained to the nurse that his wife and children weren't really dead, he had said, "This is déjà vu from all reality."
By late that fall, Andre was acting much as he had in the weeks leading up to the crime. He felt suicidal again and asked for help, but refused to take his meds. He stopped talking and wouldn't eat. He came out to see his lawyer with Scotch tape clumsily covering his mouth, and insisted on writing his answers to her questions on a glass partition with his finger. It's conceivable that Andre's relapse was related to an incident in late November, when he found himself in a cell next to an inmate who swore he was the Antichrist. This enraged Andre, who believed he had already done God's work in removing the Antichrist from the earthly realm.
Perhaps what he did next—the thing that got everybody's attention again—resulted from a combination of all these things: On December 9, 2008, Andre ripped out his left eye. His only eye. And he ate it.
As he explained some days later, he didn't want the government to read his thoughts, so he ate the eye because he was certain they would figure out some way to put it back in. He said he had been reading the Book of Revelations, and felt sympathy for the devil because it wasn't all Satan's fault. After all, Andre was supposed to have been aborted.
AFTER THE SECOND eye removal, it was clear that the Polunsky unit was no longer the appropriate home for Andre. He was packed off to Jester IV, a state prison psychiatric unit. As the name implies, Jester IV is one of a series of Jester units, all located in Richmond, Texas, just southwest of Houston. The complex is surrounded by cornfields. Indeed, the property once hosted the Harlem Plantation, which became a prison farm in the late 1800s. It was renamed in honor of former Gov. Beauford H. Jester, who served from 1946 to 1949, and was in the process of reforming the state prisons when he died in office of a heart attack.
There are a few other death row inmates at Jester IV, but the unit is reserved for the mentally ill. Andre is still locked in a small cell 23 hours a day, but by all accounts Jester IV is a quieter place. He seems more comfortable around other mentally ill prisoners, and he does not believe, as he did at Polunsky, that they are scheming against him. He hasn't yet learned to read Braille, and the medicine he is on now tends to knock him out for large portions of the day. While he is awake he often breaks into song. He is a big fan of Depeche Mode.
Joe Brown, the district attorney of Grayson County, said he was surprised to hear that Andre had removed his second eye, but he did not call it a second impulsive act. He simply announced that the state would gather together Andre's records and evaluate the situation.
Eight days after swallowing his remaining eye, Andre said that the government had the one he didn't eat. He wanted it back.
The records themselves are remarkable if only to show how acceptable bizarre thoughts can become in a prison psychiatric setting. Eight days after swallowing his remaining eye, for example, Andre reports that he is hearing voices, including that of God, and says the government has the eye he didn't eat and he wants it back. The evaluation form accompanying these remarks indicates that he is not presenting delusional or paranoid symptoms, and that his "insight/judgment" is fair. Other records are similarly disingenuous.
Four years have passed since the second eyeball incident, but Andre's prosecutors have not reported back about their record-gathering or any subsequent evaluation. Texas continues to forcefully pursue Andre's execution. No state authority figure has expressed hesitation about ending the life of a man who intentionally blinded himself, nor has there been any move by the district attorney to reconsider Andre's mental state at the time of the killings.
The only one who has revisited the issue, apart from the lawyers who are now appealing his sentence in the Texas federal courts, is Andre himself. He spoke about it with a nurse shortly after he slashed his own throat—back when he still had one eye to see with: "I killed my wife and two kids," he said. "My wife was Jezebel. God told me to, so I cut out their hearts. I fucked up though: I heard another voice. I thought it was God, so I listened. It told me not to complete the ritual and don't burn the hearts. So, I threw them out." This failure, he explained, would bring consequences: "Before 2012, they will come back and be mad I killed them."
But now it is 2013. His family hasn't come back, and won't. Andre Thomas remains in his tiny cell on death row, waiting. And no one, not even Andre, is quite certain what he is waiting for.
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Texas Executes Mentally Disabled Man Based on Rules From John Steinbeck Novel
Another Dubious Execution Under Rick Perry?
James Ridgeway and Jean Casella
Rick Perry's Death Penalty Problem


We know that choosing to be a conscious consumer can be overwhelming at times, so we're here to help. In this series, we'll show you how to stock up on socially responsible products in every area of your life, from planning a vacation to making your holiday gift list.
A girl can never have too many scarves in our opinion. But a gift from Block Shop is more like a work of art than a simple scarf. The Bagru by LA based company has a mission to make heirloom textiles that have high social benefit and low environmental impact. We love the lifecycle of each scarf from concept to production: gorgeously designed on paper, printed with wooden blocks and dyed in small batches.
Shinola is hands-down one of the coolest brands around right now. You might know them best for their made-in-America bikes and watches, but we love these hard linen-covered notebooks, at a more accessible price point.. Handcrafted in Ann Arbor, MI, from all US-sourced materials, including acid-free paper from sustainably managed American forests, this is a notebook anyone would be proud to carry.
When you shop from Sydney Hale, you can choose from rich, nostalgia-inducing scents like "Smoked Cardamom + Honey," "Sea Salt + Bay Rum," and "Clementine + Clove." We've been burning the "Woods" candle at the office to bring a little evergreen into our mornings. It's been magical. As if a gift your recipient would never buy for herself wasn't fun enough, each candle also supports animal rescue. Throw in a set of beautifully branded easy strike matches and you're on your way to best gift of the party.
We wish Found My Animal made a human version! This ombre number is not only the most fashionable dog leash that has ever existed, but it also has a very special message. Each leash sold by the company promotes pet adoption, a cause both you and your favorite pup can get behind.
There's more to these serving spoons than meets the eye. Each 100% pure brass set is made by hand—heated, cut, shaped and polished—by artisans in Uganda, at above-market wages. Trust us when we tell you that they are even more beautiful in person than they are online.
Cute right? We think so. There's something about the combination of style (we all know bucket bags are having a moment, but the Mini is the perfect cross body moment), price point (under $50!) and cause (each one provides 25 school meals when sold). We're especially excited about Pale Fog for winter looks.
Tegu blocks are our new go-to kids gift for many reasons. Unlike so many toy companies today, Tegu is committed to an ethical supply chain that has positive long-term effects both here and abroad. This block set is designed in the USA and purposefully made in Honduras with sustainably sourced Central American wood.


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Publications > WP167: Does personal experience of bribery explain protest participation in Africa?
WP167: Does personal experience of bribery explain protest participation in Africa?
Moletsane Monyake
UNIQUEMENT DISPONIBLE EN ANGLAIS.
Protests, boycotts, and online petitions targeting alleged corruption are fast becoming commonplace in many of the world's most corrupt nations. In addition to the mass uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt in 2011 and the Color Revolutions in Ukraine, a series of anti-corruption protests have emerged in Nigeria, Moldova, and India and forced Guatemala's president, Otto Pérez Molina, to resign following allegations of fraud, conspiracy, and bribery (Luhnow, 2015). In 2009, thousands of Indonesians took to the streets to oppose attempts by corrupt elements in government and business to frustrate the work of Indonesia's anti-corruption agency (Beyerle, 2014). In 2015, more than a million Brazilians demonstrated against systemic corruption. While earlier protests centered on a wide range of socioeconomic grievances, media reports indicate that the recent protests in Brazil were specifically inspired by allegations of corruption, especially in the presidency (see, for example, Magalhaes & Jelmayer, 2015). Indeed, it would seem, as Transparency International co-founder Frank Vogl, observed, "… that ordinary citizens, even in some of the most corrupt nations … and some of the most dangerous for anti-corruption activists, can organize and secure justice" (Vogl, 2012, p. 193).
Nevertheless, recent academic analyses of different forms of anti-corruption collective action seem to take for granted the motives of the individuals who participate in these endeavours, focusing more on the strategies and tactics of the civil-society organizations that mobilize against corruption (see Beyerle, 2014; Landell-Mills, 2013). Furthermore, the fact that Landell-Mills, Beyerle, and others restrict their analysis to instances of "successful" anti-corruption civic engagement constrains variation on the dependent variable. For that reason, their research offers a limited account of why anti-corruption collective action does not occur in societies that often share similar attributes with those in which such initiatives seem to thrive.
Attempts at more systematic comparisons also focus almost exclusively on institutional factors underlying the successes or failures of anti-corruption civic engagement, offering no explanation about variations in individual-level participation. While Verdenicci and Hough (2015) underscore the role of state institutions in the "success" of civilian-led anti-corruption initiatives in India, and their apparent failure in China, they do not explain why participation rates differ in the former. In essence, the overemphasis on the institutional context seems to play down the role of individual-level factors in explaining anti-corruption civic engagement, particularly the effect of perceptions and experiences of corruption.
Publication 2019 | Michael Bratton et Sadhiska Bhoojedhur PP58: Les Africains désirent des élections transparentes – surtout celles porteuses d'alternance
Publication 2019 | Jennifer N. Brass, Kirk Harris, and Lauren M. MacLean WP182: Is there an anti-politics of electricity? Access to the grid and reduced political participation in Africa

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Ends Of The Earth
Passage Of Sound
Calhaun
Wood From The Trees
Apperture - Where the Light Gets In
The House Is Leaving Me
Leanbh
The Sea Wolves
Apperture - Photo
The Round House
The Diving Bell
Duinín
Space - Prologue
From The Trees
Social Media Feed
Shelagh Honan
Shelagh Honan is a visual artist working in Ireland. She works predominantly with experimental film, photography, projection, sculpture and installation.
Her practice concerns the development of new strategies to present narrative through video, sound and projective environments. Her's is a contemplative video practice that encompasses the minimalist, observational art of slow cinema, a genre of film-making that emphasizes long takes with little or no narrative.These films establish an evocative register that connects the viewer with the saliences of a memorialised past and a memorialised landscape.
She is a full time lecturer in Photography Film Video in Limerick School of Art and Design.
Recent exhibitions include the wom@rts series, opening in Maribor, Slovenia, Vilnius (Lithuania), Santiago de Compostela (Spain) and Rijeka (Croatia), Angoulême (France) and Limerick (Ireland). In 2019 she was awarded Culture Ireland funding to exhibit and attend in this series of international exhibitions. In 2018 she took part in a residency program in Avilés in Spain and she was invited to exhibit her installation Passage of Sound In Feile Na Bealtaine festival in Dingle. 'Passage of Sound' was also selected for Blow Up international Film festival in Chicago, and several other film festivals in Ireland.
shelagh.honan@gmail.com
Follow on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/shelaghhonan/


The sitter is Hermine Gallia, née Hamburger (1870 - 1936). In 1893 she married her uncle, Moritz Gallia, a government adviser who became a leading patron of the arts. In this painting she wears a dress designed by Klimt.


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Unison, which represents 230 council and NHS staff involved in the Stockport Together vanguard, said the decision follows seven months of negotiations. The industrial action will take place on 27 April. The union said 96 per cent of respondents to the ballot voted to strike.
HSJ revealed staff's concerns in January, which presented further difficulties for a project that has already been scaled back from initial plans to form a single accountable care organisation.
The project partners – including Stockport Foundation Trust, Stockport Council and Stockport Clinical Commissioning Group – have instead focused on establishing integrated community teams working under an "alliance contract" between providers. The project has been allocated £23m of transformation funding over four years by national and regional leaders.
However, union members are concerned about a planned expansion of unqualified support workers, as well as a reduction to the availability of services during peak times.
"If the proposals are introduced, our members fear someone could die or be seriously harmed. Staff are very dedicated to their work and to their patients, and it is for that reason that they have reluctantly decided they have to take strike action.
She said talks are due to take place on Monday through the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service.
A Stockport Together spokesman said: "This is about improving services for local people and that is at the heart of our efforts to create a sustainable, quality future for local residents.


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Churches Support Flood Victims
As the flood waters continue to rise the Churches have established appeals for the Queensland flood victims. Donations may be made through the Anglican Church Rockhampton Diocese, the Catholic Church through Vinnies Qld Flood Appeal, the Churches of Christ through Care Community Foundation, the Lutheran Church Queensland District, The Salvation Army in conjunction with Woolworths and Big W stores and the Uniting Church through Lifeline Queensland. Appeals have also been launched to support the 51 NSW communities recently declared natural disaster areas.
Published in Media Releases
Churches Express Concern for Communities affected by Floods
The National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA) joins with all Australians to express great concern for the many communities and people affected by the floods in NSW and Queensland. Reverend Tara Curlewis, NCCA General Secretary, said "It is truly devastating to see flooding of this magnitude affecting so many towns first in NSW and now in Queensland. On behalf of the NCCA I extend our care, support and sympathy to the thousands who are affected by these floods, those who have lost their homes or possessions and the farmers who have lost crops or livestock."
Horrific Attacks on Christians in Egypt Condemned
The National Council of Churches in Australia condemns the horrific attack perpetrated against the Coptic Orthodox Christians during the New Year's Eve midnight mass in the Saints Church in Alexandria, Egypt.
At least 21 people are dead and many more injured following a bomb explosion outside the Church of Saint Mark and Saint Peter after the New Year Eve mass ended and people were filling out onto the street to return to their homes.
Filipino Health Workers 'Morong 43' Walk Free
from the National Council of Churches in Australia
In the early hours of Saturday morning news filtered out of Manila that 38 of the 43 community health workers walked free after 10 months and seven days in detention. This news is warmly welcomed by the National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA). The Reverend Tara Curlewis, General Secretary of the NCCA said "yesterday's news that a court in Rizal province ordered their release after the State prosecutors withdrew charges was fantastic. Now to know that these people are reunited with their families sees the hopes of many around the world became a reality."
Aid Agency Hits Back at Christmas Waste
From act for peace the International Aid Agency of the National Council of Churches
Dowload a pdf of this release
Today, the international aid agency Act for Peace launched its annual appeal, the Christmas Bowl, encouraging Australians to share their Christmas with war-torn communities. The appeal is set to hit back at the billions of dollars spent each December on Christmas gifts that prove to be unwanted.
Act for Peace's Executive Director, Alistair Gee said, "We're injecting some meaning back into Christmas. It's not all about socks, scented candles and neck ties. With the help of Australians, we're aiming to raise over $2.7 million to support war-torn and refugee communities around the world. What do we have to lose? Well, apart from a few socks and foot spas."
Churches call for Support for Iraqi Christians
The National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA) shares the grief of Iraqi Christians following deadly attacks whilst people attended church in Baghdad. "With broken hearts we mourn the tragic and violent deaths of our brothers and sisters at Mass on 31 October" said the Reverend Tara Curlewis, NCCA General Secretary.
Constitutional acknowledgement should not detract from addressing legislative discrimination
from the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ecumenical Commission of the National Council of Churches in Australia
download a pdf of this release
The announcement by the Prime Minister that the Government will work towards recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in the Constitution was welcomed by the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ecumenical Commission (NATSIEC) as a positive action to address a long overdue omission.
Executive Secretary of the NATSIEC, Mr Graeme Mundine, has however raised concerns that Constitutional recognition will not mean anything unless the rights of Indigenous people are protected and respected in all policy decisions and implementation.
Christmas Bowl Delivers Aid as Crises Loom
From Act for Peace, the international aid agency of the National Council of Churches in Australia
Australian christians who support Act for Peace's Christmas Bowl program in 2010 will offer a life-line to thousands of refugees who are suffering through the unfolding crises in Burma (Myanmar) and Sudan.
Burma's military dictatorship has announced victory in Burma's first elections in 20 years. Based on reports on the ground, the process was dominated, restricted and manipulated by the military junta. The elections have left the country more volatile than ever, with eruptions of violence causing citizens to seek refuge.
Cluster Bomb Ban Bill Introduced During Disarmament Week
Today, a Bill was introduced into the Federal Parliament to give effect to the Convention on Cluster Munitions which makes it illegal to assist in the production of cluster munitions.The ANZ bank currently provides loans totaling $135.8 million to cluster munitions manufacturers.
In light of the Bill, Act for Peace (the international aid agency of the National Council of Churches in Australia) urges Australian banks which currently fund cluster munitions manufacturers for any reason to now cancel their funding.
Financial Investments in Cluster Bomb Manufacturers Should be Outlawed
During United Nations (UN) Disarmament Week (Oct 24-31), a bill to enact the Convention banning Cluster Munitions is reported to be tabled in the House of Representatives, though it is unlikely to contain a provision prohibiting financial institutions from funding manufacturers of cluster bombs.
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Schools in Gulfport, MS
Best Fit Cost of Living (Low to High) Cost of Living (High to Low) Education Quality Outcomes
Within: miles
(21) Elementary School
(11) High School
(10) Middle School
(5) Private
(27) Public
(12) Gulfport School District
(14) Harrison County School District
(1) Roger Amos McMurtry Admissions
(2) Baptist
(2) Catholic
(2) Alternative
(5) Traditional
(2) Vocational
(3) Basketball
(3) Cheerleading
(3) Football
(1) Softball
(1) Swimming
(2) Volleyball
(1) Weight Lifting
Show all 8 Show fewer
(32) Coeducational
Main Search Results
Discover & research the 32 schools in Gulfport, MS. Narrow by grade level, religious affiliation, and sports offered and get advice from other parents on Noodle.
Gulfport Vocational Annex
100 Perry St, Gulfport, MS 39507
Gulfport Vocational Annex is a coeducational public vocational school for students in grades 9 through 12. learn more
Institution Type: Public Setting: Small City District: Gulfport School District
1215 Church St, Gulfport, MS 39507
The Learning Center is a coeducational public alternative school for students in grades 3 through 12. learn more
Roger Amos McMurtry School
14426 James Bond Rd, Gulfport, MS 39503
Roger Amos McMurtry School is a coeducational public school for students in grades 7 through 12. learn more
Institution Type: Public Setting: Rural District: Roger Amos McMurtry Admissions
Three Rivers Elementary
13500 Three Rivers Rd, Gulfport, MS 39503
Education Quality
Three Rivers Elementary is a coeducational public school for students in grades Kindergarten through 6. learn more
Institution Type: Public Setting: Rural District: Harrison County School District
Twenty Eighth Saint Elementary
Twenty Eighth Saint Elementary is a coeducational public school for students in grades Kindergarten through 5. learn more
Harrison County Alternative School
11072 Hwy 49, Gulfport, MS 39503
Harrison County Alternative School is a coeducational public alternative school for students in grades 7 through 12. learn more
Institution Type: Public Setting: Small City District: Harrison County School District
Crossroads Elementary School
10453 Klein Rd, Gulfport, MS 39503
Crossroads Elementary School is a coeducational public school for students in grades Kindergarten through 6. learn more
Bel Aire Elementary School
Bel Aire Elementary School is a coeducational public school for students in grades Kindergarten through 6. learn more
North Gulfport 7th Grade
4715 Illinois Ave, Gulfport, MS 39501
North Gulfport 7th Grade is a coeducational public school for students in grade 7. learn more
West Harrison High School
10399 County Farm Rd, Gulfport, MS 39503
West Harrison High School is a coeducational public school for students in grades 9 through 12. learn more
Harrison Central Elementary
15451 Dedeaux Rd, Gulfport, MS 39503
Harrison Central Elementary is a coeducational public school for students in grades Kindergarten through 3. learn more
Facts About Schools in Gulfport, MS
There are 32 Schools in Gulfport, MS.
Browse Schools in Gulfport, MS by Type
(5) Private Schools in Gulfport, MS
(27) Public Schools in Gulfport, MS
Browse Schools in Gulfport, MS by Level
(21) Elementary Schools in Gulfport, MS
(11) High Schools in Gulfport, MS
(10) Middle Schools in Gulfport, MS
Browse Schools in Gulfport, MS by Characteristic
(2) Alternative Schools in Gulfport, MS
(5) Traditional Schools in Gulfport, MS
(2) Vocational Schools in Gulfport, MS
Browse Schools in Gulfport, MS by Religion
(2) Baptist Schools in Gulfport, MS
(2) Catholic Schools in Gulfport, MS
Browse Schools in Gulfport, MS by City
Schools in Mississippi
Browse Schools in Gulfport, MS by Gender
(32) Coeducational Schools in Gulfport, MS
Parent Teacher Relations
We'll let you know as soon as we launch Schools.


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Rick Astley Rick Astley: The Ultimate Collection [album]
"The biggest star of the Eighties,
Rick Astley is back with his 'greatest
hits' album release Rick Astley: The
Ultimate Collection. Rick is the current
YouTube sensation, proving he's still
up there with the best..."
STILL SOUNDING FRESH in spite of the two decades of making music behind him, Rick Astley is looking forward both to the release of Rick Astley: The Ultimate Collection, his greatest hits album, and also his Here And Now Tour in May (2008).
Rick Astley: The Ultimate Collection, is the first-ever collection that encompasses all Rick's hits and more from his recording career. The rich, deep and mature voice belts out song after song with a powerful delivery — a talent that has helped Rick sell in excess of 19 million records and earn himself a string of eight consecutive Number One's. Check out the seductive tones on the classic When I Fall In Love. Rick's singing is beautiful.
Opening with the memorable Never Gonna Give You Up — the most viewed pop video of all time on YouTube with over 21 million views! — through to the bouncy Take Me To Your Heart with its typically Eighties vibe and the more unusual Move Right Out; singing his own emotive version of Don MacLean's Vincent to the hopeful Full Of You.
• This is Rick Astley, showing just what he can do on his new album Rick Astley: The Ultimate Collection, to be released on SonyBMG on 28 April (2008).
Tracklisting: 1 Never Gonna Give You Up | 2 Together Forever | 3 My Arms Keep Missing You | 4 Whenever You Need Somebody | 5 She Wants To Dance With Me | 6 When I Fall In Love | 7 Cry For Help | 8 Take Me To Your Heart | 9 It Would Take A Strong Strong Man | 10 Hold Me In Your Arms | 11 Hopelessly | 12 Move Right Out | 13 The Ones You Love | 14 Never Knew Love | 15 Body And Soul 16 Vincent | 17 Full Of You (previously unreleased in the UK)
In 1987, Rick Astley released Never Gonna Give You Up, which spent five weeks at the top of the British Charts — making it that year's biggest-selling single — as well as topping the charts in over 16 countries. It recently became the most-viewed pop video of all time on YouTube, with over 21 million views to date due to the Unstoppable phenomenon of 'Rick-Rolling'.
This Ultimate Collection album will coincide with the Here And Now Tour which Rick Astley is headlining and that kicks off in Manchester on 9 May, travels through to London and finishes in Newcastle on 18 May.
The phenomenon of 'Rick-Rolling' has taken over the world. Most recently there has been an incredible increase in the number of people being Rick-Rolled online. This had happened after users clicked on a link to a film of a misbehaving celeb only to be redirected to Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up video. On April 1 2008, YouTube Rick-Rolled their site so that when people clicked on the YouTube homepage they were redirected to the Rick-Roll homepage. Just on this one day, Never Gonna Give You Up received well over 6 million plays in one 24-hour period, worldwide.
Check out Rick Astley at www.rickastley.co.uk.
home | top of page | all CD reviews


Kidkraft Vanity Tables make the perfect finishing piece for girls' bedrooms and playrooms. Made of wood, they are finished in lead-free, non-toxic colors. Any little girl will feel like a princess or movie star as she primps and preens in front of the shatter-proof mirrors. Whether you are looking for a simple tabletop vanity, a deluxe table with shelves and drawers, or something a bit fun and funky, you are bound to find something you and your little diva both love. Also be sure to check out Kidkraft's Let's Play Dress Up Unit and Swivel Vanity; they make the perfect accompaniment to Kidkraft Vanity Tables.
The Kidkraft White Tabletop Vanity is made of wood, has a large, plexi-like mirror, drawer that opens for storage and two small shelves. For further info and to view availability, please click on picture. The KidKraft Princess Dress Up Unit swivels 360° and features five convenient storage compartments, four crown-shaped knobs, and shatterproof mirror. For further info and to view availability, please click on picture. Our pretty-pink Kidkraft Princess Vanity table will make any little princess feel pampered. For further info and to view availability, please click on picture.
The Kidkraft White Let's Play Dress Up features sturdy wooden construction, wooden rod for hanging clothes, shelves for storage and mirrored side for kids to model their dressup costumes. For further info and to view availability, please click on picture. The Kidkraft Pink Fashion Pretend Play Station features sturdy wooden construction, wooden rod for hanging clothes, shelves for storage and mirrored side for kids to model their dressup clothes. For further info and to view availability, please click on picture. Crafted from wood, KidKraft's Diva Vanity Table and Stool Set is a stylish focal point for every little girl's room. For further info and to view availability, please click on picture.
The well-known Medium Diva Vanity Table and Stool set by Kidkraft now comes in Pink! For further info and to view availability, please click on picture. Our Kidkraft Deluxe Vanity has 1 large mirror and 2 adjustable side mirrors and 4 shelves. For further info and to view availability, please click on picture.


Yes. PBS Passport is a new member benefit from participating PBS stations and in order to take advantage of it, you must identify your station. You can select any station in the country by searching by state or zip code, or find the station that is closest to where you live. Just keep in mind that the station to which you donate when signing up for the PBS Passport member benefit is the same station you need to select on PBS.org when you want to view Passport content. For example, if you donate to KQED you can only watch Passport videos when you have selected KQED on PBS.org.
If you are using the PBS Video app on a streaming device, you can change your local station through the Settings menu within the PBS Video app.


More Stop Smoking Hypnotherapy Success & Another 5* Review!
Read the latest 5* review and feedback from a previous client for our stop smoking hypnotherapy treatment at the Harley Street Stop Smoking Clinic.
Another long-term, heavy habit broken in just 1 session!
Every year people all over the globe give up their vices for Lent, whether this is abstaining from chocolate, going without alcohol, or no longer indulging in unhealthy snack foods.
Lent is a Christian festival, traditionally involving the giving up of rich foods between Ash Wednesday and Easter. However, people now use the period to give up a variety of bad habits, to test their resolve and give their bodies a break. You no longer have to be religious to give something up for the forty days.
If you are looking to quit smoking this year why not try during this year's Lent period? A time for new beginnings and fresh starts, there seems no better time to finally stop smoking cigarettes than with the promise of spring not far away.


LCE's kit comes complete with the plastic guides, cam and crank sprockets, single row chain (96 Link), tensioner, gaskets, and crankshaft oil seals. This single row timing chain kit only works on 85-95 engines. For early models, use part number 1015000. The metal backed guides are far superior to the plastic guide which is the common failure in timing chain components. To get the timing chain with metal backed guides see part number 1015035.


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Q: {CallerMemberName} like Functionality for nameof() param I'm writing more library code and came across an annoyance - here is an example
public static TParam RequiredParam<TParam>(TParam param, string name) where TParam : class
{
  return param ?? throw new ArgumentNullException(name);
}

private readonly int _testInt;

public TestClass(int testInt)
{
  _testInt = RequiredParam(testInt, nameof(testInt));
}

Basically I have to pass in the name in the usage
What I want to have is:
public static TParam RequiredParam<TParam>(TParam param) where TParam : class
{
  return param ?? throw new ArgumentNullException(*NAME STILL GETS HERE SOMEHOW*);
}

private readonly int _testInt;

public TestClass(int testInt)
{
  _testInt = RequiredParam(testInt);
}

Is there a better way? Back in the days of WPF I used to use [CallerMemberName]  like so:
private void PropertyChanged([CallerMemberName]string name = default)
{
  PropertyChanged?.Invoke(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(name));
}

Does anyone know something similar to achieve the same result for this? Considering how often this library is called I don't mind stepping into post-build steps or whatever, but would prefer to avoid reflection for performance reasons.
Edit - Made my objective clearer

A: Firstly, i personally wouldn't do that anyway, you are hiding logic behind another method to save a couple of keystrokes. In doing this, for new readers they will have to click through to see what it does, and you still have to use nameof anyway.
You could probably do something with reflection, but even then it will be a lot of work for dubious gain.
Can i suggest a 3rd approach?
Why don't you just create a Resharper template for the keywords args[tab]
$NAME$ = $NAME$ ?? throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof($NAME$));

The benefits are

*

*New readers can easily see whats going on.

*You only have minimal key strokes as it will suggest the type after a few letters

*You save a bit of IL and a call to the stack

Also if you use Resharper, check out Code Annotation Attributes

You could also use an expression i guess
Example
public void ExampleFunction(Expression<Func<string, string>> f) {
    Console.WriteLine((f.Body as MemberExpression).Member.Name);
}

Usage
ExampleFunction(x => WhatIsMyName);

Still in my opinion, nothing is really gained

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Vladimir Putin Discuss Distribution of Food, Fertilizer to Mali
By Victor Ahonsi
According to a Kremlin statement, Russian President, Vladimir Putin has discussed possible deliveries of food, fertilizer and fuel to Mali in a phone call on Wednesday with the African country's interim leader, Assimi Goita.
Goita said on Twitter that the two leaders discussed Russia's support for Mali's political transition.
Goita's junta came to power in a coup two years ago and has entered into repeated clashes with neighboring countries and Western powers over electoral delays, alleged abuses by the army and collaboration with Russian mercenaries in the fight against an Islamist insurgency.
The West African country has deepened its ties with Soviet-era Russia as relations with its longtime ally and former colonial ruler France soured this year.
"We discussed the Russian Federation's support for Mali's political transition and praised the quality of our partnership, which respects the sovereignty of #Mali and the aspirations of its people," Goita tweeted.
Also, read; Ethiopia Completes Third Filling of Blue Nile Mega-Dam Reservoir
France announced in February that it was withdrawing its troops from Mali after nearly a decade fighting insurgents, some with ties to al-Qaeda and Islamic State, who have since spread to the Sahel region.
Since late last year, fighters from the Wagner Group, a private military company linked to the Kremlin, have supported the Malian army in its struggle.
Ethiopia Completes Third Filling of Blue Nile Mega-Dam Reservoir
Nigeria's Asisat Oshoala Becomes First female African To Get Ballon Dór Nomination
Victor Ahonsi
Ethiopia, Angola to Overtake Kenya As Largest Economies In Sub-Saharan Africa


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On The Break News
Home News The Weaknesses of Guardians of the Galaxy
The Weaknesses of Guardians of the Galaxy
alaaaburofa
The Guardians of the Galaxy
The Guardians of the Galaxy might be a fearless band of warriors, but they're also a group of serious weirdos. Arrested development, daddy issues, tragic origin stories — if you can name a serious insecurity or trauma, odds are, one of them has it. These are the Guardians' greatest weaknesses. Peter Quill is kidnapped as a child by Yondu and his band of Ravagers right after he watches his mother die.
Growing up in the company of space pirates is as thrilling as it is terrifying, ultimately stranding him in a prolonged adolescence. He gives himself the name "Star-Lord" in order to sound cool. His tastes and interests are static, as his entire cultural education is stuck on the "Awesome Mix" his mother left him. He is an eternal child of the 1980s, stranded among aliens who've never heard of Kevin Bacon.
While all of this is endearing in its own weird way, less so is his underdeveloped emotional intelligence. Peter is incredibly insecure. He gets into fights with Rocket over who's the best pilot, becomes jealous of Thor. He puts personal satisfaction before the greater good consistently. Who can forget the moment in Avengers: Infinity War when he attacks Thanos out of grief for Gamora? It gave the tyrant the opening he needs to escape. It's all part of his overall immaturity.
Groot is introduced as Rocket's muscle and partner-in-crime. While Groot turns out to be a sensitive creature, he also seems perfectly happy to do what everyone else is doing, especially if it allows him a relatively easy life.
The adult Groot in the first Guardians film is happy to take orders from Rocket, even amid constant criticism. Groot is a useful teammate when he's motivated, but pretty useless when it comes to everything else. Groot isn't going to come up with plans, chart a new course, or even pay attention. Indeed, when Baby Groot is asked to find a particular item for Yondu, he brings back everything imaginable but the item, including a severed human toe. The one time Groot thinks independently is when he sacrifices himself at the end of Guardians Of The Galaxy. He might not be a great thinker, planner, or leader, but he loves his adoptive family and will do anything for them.
"We are Groot." When audiences meet Drax the Destroyer in the first Guardians film, all he wants is to kill Ronan the Accuser.
Later, all he wants is to kill Thanos. His focus is sharp, but it also leads to trouble. While his lack of nuance and intense literal thinking is hilarious, "Nothing goes over my head! My reflexes are too fast. I would catch it." …Drax's one-track mind gets him and the group into trouble on more than one occasion. Indeed, after the Guardians' plan to sell the Orb to the Collector goes awry, Drax responds by calling Ronan out and demanding a showdown. He has no plan, other than to stab Ronan repeatedly. This, to him, is not an impediment. To Drax's credit, the beatdown he receives from Ronan does teach him to value his team.
The games of Thanos
It doesn't change his approach to battle, however: He's still a stab first, ask questions later kind of guy. Sometimes this is useful, but other times it leads to trouble. He's learning — but he's likely always going to be a hard-headed goofball with too many knives and too little caution. Thanos raised Gamora to be the perfect killing machine.
She grows up steeling herself against the need for affection, striving to become her adopted father's perfect killer. She succeeds, but only at a tremendous emotional cost. When Gamora finally escapes Thanos and finds herself with the Guardians, it triggers a long-suppressed need for a real family. While she complains about having to deal with Quill and Rocket's adolescent antics, it's clear that she secretly delights in scolding them. The same is true of Baby Groot and even Drax.
She doesn't just want to take care of them — Gamora wants them to behave. The problem is that Gamora puts everything into her strange little family. She goes from totally closed-off and selfish to totally open and self-sacrificing. That imbalance kills her, but she wouldn't have it any other way.
Thanos does one of the worst things a parent can do to Nebula and Gamora: He pits his daughters against each other, forcing them to fight for his approval. Nebula tends to come out the loser in these twisted games, and it scars her for life. When she finally hunts down Gamora on Ego and beats her in a fight, Nebula celebrates like the little sister that she is. That's when she reveals that all she's ever really wanted to be a sister.
This moment frees her of the need to please Thanos — now, all she wants to do is kill him. In the aftermath of the Snap, Nebula learns how to be a good friend. Instead of killing to please her father, she learns how to play paper football and be a good sport.
Also read:Marvel Phase 4: Wolverine Movie Announcement
Does Gamora get a happy ending?
It's not a happy ending for the blue-skinned cyborg — it is instead her happy beginning. At the beginning of the Guardians films, Yondu captures young Peter Quill on Earth but decides not to bring the boy to his father, Ego. From Quill's perspective, Yondu kidnaps him, but in fact, the pirate was saving him from a terrible fate, as he'd discovered what Ego was really doing with his children.
When the other Ravagers catch wind of Yondu's apparent human trafficking, they exile him. Instead of trying to find a way to redeem himself or tell Peter the truth, Yondu doubles down on being a scoundrel. Though he can never bring himself to kill Peter when he's betrayed by him, Yondu never tells him that he sees Peter as his own son until it's nearly too late. Being unable to say he's sorry dooms him in the end, even if he manages to redeem himself. Rocket puts up a gruff, wise-cracking exterior as a way of protecting himself from his own trauma and self-loathing.
Even when the Guardians accept him, he still actively antagonizes them because of how much he hates himself. It slips out occasionally, like when he gets drunk and yells, "I didn't ask to be torn apart and put back together over and over, and turned into some…some little monster!" His need to push everyone away obscures the fact that Rocket is a fierce warrior, a brilliant engineer, an ace pilot, and a loyal friend.
Everybody loves the Guardians Rocket
Rocket pushes people away because every time he feels love and acceptance, he remembers how much he thinks he doesn't deserve it. Groot is the only one he really lets in, and even then, Rocket bosses him around. Mantis first appears as a servant of Ego, Peter Quill's father. She knows that Ego is murdering his children as part of his plan to create one powerful enough to overrun the galaxy with his essence. However, she's too Egoistic to tell the Guardians right away.
Only her burgeoning friendship with Drax moves her to tell them what's really happening. Plainly put, Mantis has no self-esteem and no social skills. In a group where ruthless mockery is the norm, Mantis instantly becomes an easy target. She's happy to absorb it because the group accepts her, but hopefully, she'll soon learn that she doesn't have to stand for such teasing just to enjoy the bonds of friendship.
The Guardians End game
Even before Asgard's destruction, Thor struggled with responsibility and leadership. The events of Avengers: Infinity War send him spiralling into drunkenness in an effort to block out his trauma and loss. It's an understandable reaction, and ultimately, he redeems himself by naming Valkyrie as the next leader of Asgard. But his underlying problems remain.
By the end of Avengers: Endgame, Thor has no real long-term goals. He can do anything, but he realizes, even after defeating Thanos, that he doesn't know what he wants to do. That's why he fits in so well with the Guardians: He's a screw-up trying to figure things out, just like them. Will he chart a new course alongside them?
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/guardians_of_the_galaxy
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text:
Terminations of large strike-slip faults: an alternative model from New Zealand
V. Mouslopoulou
School of Earth Sciences, PO Box 600, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand (e-mail: vmouslopoulou@gns.cri.nz)
Present address: Fault Analysis Group, Department of Geological Sciences, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland (e-mail: vasso@fag.ucd.ie)
A. Nicol
GNS Science, PO Box 30368, Lower Hutt, New Zealand
T. A. Little
J. J. Walsh
Fault Analysis Group, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland
https://doi.org/10.1144/SP290.15
V. Mouslopoulou, A. Nicol, T. A. Little, J. J. Walsh, 2007. "Terminations of large strike-slip faults: an alternative model from New Zealand", Tectonics of Strike-Slip Restraining and Releasing Bends, W. D. Cunningham, P. Mann
The 500-km-long strike-slip North Island Fault System (NIFS) intersects and terminates against the Taupo Rift. Both fault systems are active, with strike-slip displacement transferred into the rift without displacing normal faults along the rift margin. Data from displaced landforms, fault-trenching, gravity and seismic-reflection profiles, and aerial photograph analysis suggest that within 150 km of the northern termination of the NIFS, the main faults in the strike-slip fault system bend through 25°, splay into five principal strands and decrease their mean dip. These changes in fault geometry are accompanied by a gradual steepening of the pitch of the slip vectors,...
Tectonics of Strike-Slip Restraining and Releasing Bends
W. D. Cunningham;
W. D. Cunningham
University of Leicester, UK
P. Mann
University of Texas at Austin, USA
https://doi.org/10.1144/290.10
© Geological Society of London 2007, ISBN 978-1-86239-538-1$30
Restraining and releasing bends are common, but enigmatic features of strike-slip fault systems occurring in all crustal environments and at regional to microscopic scales of observation. Regional-scale restraining bends are sites of mountain building, transpressional deformation and basement exhumation, whereas releasing bends are sites of topographic subsidence, transtensional deformation, basin sedimentation and possible volcanism and economic mineralization. Because restraining and releasing bends often occur as singular self-contained domains of complex deformation, they are appealing natural laboratories for Earth scientists to study fault processes, earthquake seismology, active faulting and sedimentation, fault and fluid-flow relationships, links between tectonics and topography, tectonic and erosional controls on exhumation, and tectonic geomorphology.
This volume addresses the tectonic complexity and diversity of strike-slip restraining and releasing bends with 18 contributions divided into four thematic sections: (1) a topical review of fault bends and their global distribution; (2) bends, sedimentary basins and earthquake hazards; (3) restraining bends, transpressional deformation and basement controls on development; (4) releasing bends, transtensional deformation and fluid flow.


text:
package me.prettyprint.hector.api.ddl;

import java.nio.ByteBuffer;

public interface ColumnDefinition {
  // TODO(ran): should be typed
  ByteBuffer getName();
  String getValidationClass();
  ColumnIndexType getIndexType();
  String getIndexName();

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Samirah, a Palestinian-American dentist, is now the second Muslim to be elected to the House of Delegates, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
Samirah beat Republican Gregg Nelson and independent Connie Hutchinson for the post, which was left vacant after Democrat Jennifer Boysko was elected to the state Senate in January.
Samirah received 59 percent of the vote in the special election, according to the Post.
The 27-year-old had faced criticism during the campaign after a conservative website resurfaced old social media posts.
He also said that he agreed with a statement from musician Brian Eno that likened support for Israel to support for the Ku Klux Klan.
The posts surfaced around the same time as a photo from Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam's (D) medical school yearbook page showing one person in blackface and another in Ku Klux Klan robes. The same conservative site that published Samirah's posts also published the Northam yearbook photo.
Samirah apologized in a statement, saying that he regrets the posts. He also said that as a second-generation Palestinian refugee, the conflict is an "intimate part" of his life.
Samirah campaigned on a progressive platform that included advocating for universal pre-K, fighting climate change and expanding health care.


text:
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 * Date: 11/21/15
 * Time: 3:22 PM
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text:
Nevada, USA
Clayton Valley Blue Clay Lithium Project
Clayton Valley Deep Basin Lithium Brine Project
Marathon North Platinum-Palladium Property
Sienna Resources to acquire the Slättberg Cobalt-Nickel-Copper Project in Sweden
Sienna Resources December 4, 2017
Sienna Resources (SIE—TSX.v) (A1XCQ0 –FSE) (SNNAF—OTCBB) is pleased to announce it has entered into an exploration and option agreement (the "Agreement") with EMX Royalty Corporation (EMX–NYSE (American) TSX.v) to acquire the Slättberg Cobalt-Nickel-Copper Project in Sweden (the "Project"). The Project consists of two adjacent exploration permits comprising approximately 9513 contiguous acres.
Slättberg is located 25 kilometers northwest of Falun, Sweden. Slättberg is a historic mining camp hosting cobalt-nickel-copper rich massive sulfide mineralization that occurs within a two kilometer belt of historic nickel-copper mines. The Project contains drill defined massive sulfide mineralization that extends to ~100 meters in depth, and remains open for expansion at depth and along strike. The Project is accessible year round, with nearby rail, power and 5 smelters in the Nordic region. At least 12 historic mines are located on the property, with historic operations dating back to the late 1800's.
Mineralization at Slättberg is hosted by 1.8-1.9 Ga (Svecofennian) supracrustal rocks (metavolcanics and metasediments) located along the southwestern flank of a large gabbroic intrusive complex. The historic mines are positioned along an east-west trend of massive sulfide occurrences developed in and around a similarly oriented body of "leptite". This is a local term used to describe rhyolitic/felsic tuffaceous rocks commonly associated with sulfide mineralization in Bergslagen. Mafic and ultramafic rocks also occur in and around the mine workings.
Sweden is at the forefront of an exploration and development boom in the mining industry. The country's favorable business environment includes a low corporate income tax rate, a proactive geological survey, and broad public support for export-led resource extraction. Sweden has a long history of mining, and is host to some of Europe's largest active mines.
Jason Gigliotti president of Sienna states, "We are very pleased to have the opportunity to have access to this project. We are positioning Sienna 'at the forefront of the battery metals revolution.' This new project lies within one of the top mining jurisdictions in the world with significant mining history. The infrastructure is as good as any drill target I have seen. There are paved roads within metres of planned drill targets and this prospect is accessible year round. This new cobalt-nickel-copper prospect houses 12 past mines and we are optimistic about what new mining techniques could achieve. We expect to be drilling this property early in 2018. When you couple this new project with our 'Clayton Valley Deep Basin Lithium Brine Project' in Nevada, it is clear that Sienna is focused on the battery metals space. Management is looking forward to a very active 2018 season and we are very optimistic about the future growth of the company."
Northvolt is planning to be the largest battery factory in Europe at roughly the same size as Tesla's Gigafactory. Jason Gigliotti states "Northvolt wants to locally source as much battery material as possible such as cobalt and nickel. There are now more than 20 mega battery factories currently being planned or constructed globally, creating a massive demand on the battery metals such as lithium, cobalt and nickel. Sienna is focused on exploring and developing projects that will meet this insatiable demand."
Pursuant to the Agreement, Sienna can earn 100% interest in the Project through the issuance of shares to EMX and conducting exploration work during the one-year option period, as described below (all dollar amounts in CAD):
• On signing the Agreement, Sienna will issue to EMX 3 million common shares of Sienna stock.
• As a condition to the exercise of the option, Sienna must spend at least $500,000 in exploration expenditures on the project, including drilling of at least 750 meters.
Upon exercise of the option, Sienna will issue to EMX an additional 3 million shares of Sienna stock, and EMX will receive a 3% NSR royalty on the properties comprising the Project. Within six years of the execution of the Agreement, Sienna may purchase 0.5% of the NSR royalty for $1.5 million, leaving EMX with a 2.5% NSR royalty.
After exercise of the option, Sienna will use commercially reasonable efforts to raise $3,000,000 for development of the Project and other activities. Once Sienna has raised that amount, Sienna will issue an additional 4 million shares to EMX. Thereafter, EMX will have the right to participate pro-rata in future financings at its own cost to maintain its interest in Sienna. All terms laid out here are subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval.
The technical contents of this release were approved by Greg Thomson, PGeo, a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.
If you would like to be added to Sienna's email list please email [email protected] for information or join our twitter account at @SiennaResources
www.siennaresources.com
"Jason Gigliotti"
President, Director
Sienna Resources Inc.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.
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Learn more about Sienna Resources
Sienna Resources is focused on exploring for and developing high-grade deposits in politically stable, environmentally responsible and ethical mining jurisdictions.
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News of the death of Leonard Cohen comes soon after it was announced that this year's Nobel Prize in Literature is to be awarded to Bob Dylan, the first time it has ever been given to a musician in recognition of lyrical talent.
But many music lovers were aghast at the Nobel committee's choice, suggesting instead that the phenomenally talented lyricist Cohen was at least as deserving of such an honour as Dylan.
Cohen was a writer of prose and poetry as well as song lyrics, and his natural literary flair shines through the music in all of his songs, which are often densely textured with complex allusion, humour and moments of stunning, clear insight.
The rich and gospel-influenced Hallelujah is probably his most famous piece, even though it only achieved worldwide success when covered in a version by Jeff Buckley. But all of the lyrics in Cohen's extraordinary body of work are worth revisiting in full, as snippets don't tell the full story of his legendary talent.