text:
The No State Solution: Institutionalizing Libertarian Socialism in Kurdistan
Alexander Kolokotronis,
In what many outside of the territory are referring to as the Rojava Revolution, a major shift in political philosophy and political programmatics has taken place in Kurdistan. Yet, this shift is not limited to the region of Rojava, or what many call Syrian or Western Kurdistan – a region where the Democratic Union Party (PYD) has taken an active part in this change. In "Turkish," or rather Northern Kurdistan, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has been the foremost leader. In Eastern Kurdistan (lying within Iranian borders) the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK) has taken to the change in ideological orientation as well. It is an expanding movement towards what is internally being described as a "democratic, ecological, gender-liberated society" – a collection of ideas, institutions, and practices that compose the political, economic and social outlook of Democratic Autonomy and Democratic Confederalism.
As stated in Democratic Autonomy in North Kurdistan – a book written by a group from TATORT Kurdistan (a human rights advocacy organization based in Germany; "TATORT" translates to "crime scene") who ventured from Germany into Kurdistan for their research – the paradigmatic shift to Democratic Autonomy and Democratic Confederalism has meant renouncing the establishment of "a socialist nation-state and instead" seeking the creation of "a society where people can live together without instrumentalism, patriarchy, or racism – an 'ethical and political society' with a base-democratic, self-managing institutional structure" (TATORT Kurdistan, Democratic Autonomy in North Kurdistan, Porsgrunn, New Compass Press, 2013, 20). In short, "democracy without a state".
Contrary to what many might believe, the ideological shift did not take place in the last few months or even the last year. Rather, approximately a decade ago it forthrightly appeared when Abdullah Öcalan, long-time leader of the once Marxist-Leninist PKK, issued The Declaration of Democratic Confederalism. In it Öcalan disavowed the nation-state, deeming it an organizational entity that serves as an obstacle to self-determination instead of as an expression of it. Öcalan states, "Within Kurdistan democratic confederalism will establish village, towns and city assemblies and their delegates will be entrusted with the real decision-making." For Öcalan this means "democratic confederalism of Kurdistan is not a state system, but a democratic system of the people without a state."
This system of Democratic Autonomy and Democratic Confederalism is composed of overlapping networks of workers' self-managed enterprises, entities of communal self-governance, as well as federations and associations of groups operation according to principles of self-organization. Most, these assemblages function according to direct participatory democracy as well as with close-to-home delegate structures that are accorded through a council system.
The year 2005 wasn't only a period of theoretical or ideological shifts. It also marked the beginning of the construction of councils. In urban settings, this took place on concentric levels of the neighborhood, district and city. In 2008 and 2009 these councils were reorganized so as to include the input and power of various "civil society organizations, women's and environmental associations, political parties, and occupation groups like those of journalists and lawyers" (TATORT Kurdistan, Democratic Autonomy in North Kurdistan, Porsgrunn, New Compass Press, 2013, 26).
Yet, before venturing any further it is important to look discuss the ideological roots of Democratic Confederalism.
Theoretical Roots of Democratic Confederalism
Much has been said about the influence of the American eco-anarchist Murray Bookchin's influence on Abdullah Öcalan, who has been imprisoned since his arrest in 1999. In fact, through his lawyers, Öcalan contacted Bookchin. Unfortunately, Bookchin was too sick to enter into serious dialogue with Öcalan, but, Bookchin did send his wishes that the Kurds would be able to successfully move towards a free society. Yet, Bookchin's influence on the wider Democratic Confederalist movement can't be overlooked.
Bookchin is unheard of to many outside-–and even inside-–anarchist circles. Yet, the scale of his political involvement and writing was immense. As Janet Biehl denotes in her article "Bookchin, Öcalan, and the Dialectics of Democracy," upon Bookchin's death in 2006 the PKK went as far to call Bookchin "one of the greatest social scientists of the 20th century."
Bookchin upheld what he called Social Ecology. Bookchin's view, as stated in his book Remaking Society, was that "the basic problems which pit society against nature emerge from within social development itself" (Bookchin, Remaking Society, Black Rose Books, 1998, 32) and that placing society and nature into an oppositional binary was both descriptively erroneous and prescriptively destructive. More elaborately and succinctly put, "the domination of human by human preceded the notion of dominating nature. Indeed, human domination of human gave rise to the very idea of dominating nature."
With Social Ecology Bookchin sought to broaden the scope, nuance, and depth in the ways we look at systems of oppression and the ways in which they are intertwined with and often serve as a production of social hierarchy. Bookchin looked both at the roots of hierarchy and its various mutually supporting manifestations and institutionalizations, as well as at the conditions for its abolition and the founding of institutions based on non-hierarchical relations.
Like many anarchists, Bookchin saw the State as the highest manifestation of hierarchical organization. Why the opposition to the State? In Bookchin's own words from his book Remaking Society:
Minimally, the State is a professional system of social coercion – not merely a system of social administration as it is still naively regarded by the public and by many political theorists. The word 'professional' should be emphasized as much as the word 'coercion.' Coercion exists in nature, in personal relationships, in stateless, non-hierarchical communities. If coercion alone were used to define a State, we would despairingly have to reduce it to a natural phenomenon –which it surely is not. It is only when coercion is institutionalized into a professional, systematic, and organized form of social control – that is, when people are plucked out of their everyday lives in a community and expected not only to 'administer' it but to do so with the backing of a monopoly of violence – that we can speak properly of the State (Bookchin, Remaking Society, Black Rose Books, 1998, 66).
In terms of identity, such coercion is utilized by the State for the purposes of molding a given manifold of cultures and ethnicities into what Joost Jongerden and Ahmet Hamdi Akkaya refer to in their article "Democratic Confederalism as a Kurdish Spring: The PKK and the Quest for Radical Democracy," from the book The Kurdish Spring, as the attempt to craft "a single identity population" (Mohammed M.A. Ahmed and Michael Gunter, The Kurdish Spring, Costa Mesa, Mazda Publishers, 2013, 170.). More often than not, such ventures are violent ones. The Turkish State has been no exception to this.
Turkey does not allow the Turkish language to be spoken or taught within State-run institutions, including public schools, and raids are frequently carried out on an array of municipalities and civil society organizations. The treatment of Abdullah Demirbas is exemplary of Turkey's treatment of the entire Kurdish population. He was elected in 2004 as mayor of Sûr, a district in Amed. One of his promises was to conduct affairs in Kurdish, however, according to TATORT Kurdistan "three years later the Council of State removed him for using Kurdish, Assyrian, and English in providing municipal services." He was reelected in March 2009 by an even wider margin, but in May he was arrested again for supposed ties to the Union of Kurdistan Communities (KCK) as well as for "language crimes.'" For this he was sentenced to two years in prison.
While there are differences between Bookchin and the Kurdish people whom Bookchin has influenced, what has been most strongly imparted from the former to the latter are goals of building "dual power" and implementing a system of governance that is composed of varying forms of stateless, equalitarian, assembly-democracy.
With a strategy of building dual power one finds the goal of building, according to Janet Biehl in her aforementioned article, "a counterpower…against the nation state." This means building a parallel societal structure. Or rather, building a set of and network of alternative and counter institutions that are decidedly different from, and run in contradiction and opposition to, the dominant system. In this case, the nation-state and capitalism. This notion is not original to Bookchin, as one can find its explicit articulation in Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky, and even earlier in the writings of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. Öcalan himself embraces this outlook of building dual power with his exhortation that "'regional associations of municipal administration' are needed, so these local organizations and institutions would form a network" and as such a "non-statist political administration."
Building a Solidarity Network
As a Democratic Society Congress (DTK) member denotes it is "not just about autonomy – it's about democratic autonomy." As such, this has meant organizing institutions outside of the State that are based and operation according to self-organization and self-management. The knitting together of a solidarity network is, in part, a macro-political production of a relationship between such institutions. These institutions are being built in numerous, and concentric, local levels.
In their article "Jongerden and Akkaya quote a chair of a neighborhood council in one of the poorer areas of the city of Amed asserting, "Our aim is to face the problems in our lives, in our neighborhood, and solve them by ourselves without being dependent on or in need of the state" (Mohammed M.A. Ahmed and Michael Gunter, The Kurdish Spring, Costa Mesa, Mazda Publishers, 2013, 183-184.). This best expresses the meaning of Kurdish communities seeking to establish Democratic Autonomy. As such, Jongerden and Akkaya define Democratic Autonomy as the "practices in which people produce and reproduce the necessary and desire conditions for living through direct engagement and collaboration with one another" (Mohammed M.A. Ahmed and Michael Gunter, The Kurdish Spring, Costa Mesa, Mazda Publishers, 2013, 171.).
Yet, it is the combination of Democratic Autonomy and Democratic Confederalism that constitutes "for or going beyond those of the nation state" (Mohammed M.A. Ahmed and Michael Gunter, The Kurdish Spring, Costa Mesa, Mazda Publishers, 2013, 178.). This manifests "as a network model of localized small-scale self-organization and self-administration." With the Democratic Society Congress (DTK) such a network is given institutional shape and form. In 2005 the DTK was founded, with the intention of bringing together a diversity of groups.
The DTK contains a gender quota: the continuation of its operations contingent on meeting the requirement of at least 40% of attendees and positions being filled by women. The organizational structure of the DTK largely consists of the General Assembly, which meets at least twice per year, and the Standing Committee. The General Assembly holds at least 1,000 delegates, 60% of which come from the grassroots level, and 40% of which are elected officials such as representatives or mayors. The General Assembly elects a Standing Committee of 101 people. There is also a Coordinating Council, which consists of 15 people, and works in the areas of ideology, social affairs and politics. On all levels though, committees are frequently organized based on these three areas. The DTK itself holds numerous committees and commissions, which range from areas of ecology, women, youth, economy, diplomacy, culture and a whole of others.
The building of such a model is closely aligned to Bookchin's conception of confederalism which he defines as "a network of administrative councils whose members are elected from popular face-to-face democratic alliances, in the various villages, towns and even neighborhoods of large cities" (Mohammed M.A. Ahmed and Michael Gunter, The Kurdish Spring, Costa Mesa, Mazda Publishers, 2013,177.). Such administrative councils do not make policy, but rather are "strictly mandated, recallable, and responsible to the assemblies that choose them for the purpose of coordinating and administering the policies formulated by the assemblies themselves." Administrative councils are just that: they administrate and do not constitute a system of representation which accords high levels of decision-making and policy-making power to representatives.
Thus, as Jongerden and Akkaya remark, "Democratic Confederalism can be characterized as a bottom-up system of self-government" (Mohammed M.A. Ahmed and Michael Gunter, The Kurdish Spring, Costa Mesa, Mazda Publishers, 2013,172.).
The City of Amed – North Kurdistan
Amed, one of the largest cities in region and by official estimates containing over 1.5 million residents, is part of the DTK. Similar to other cities in Kurdistan, Amed is composed of councils and assemblies on all levels. This includes street councils, neighborhood councils, 13 district councils, and a city council. The city council is comprised of 500 people, containing the mayor, elected officials, delegates from women's and youth organizations, NGOs political parties, and others.
The city council is organized along five different areas: social, political, ideological, economic and ecological. Within these five areas committees are formed, which all hold the aforementioned 40% gender quota as well. The political area holds a Coordinating Committee, which includes women's councils (there are strictly women's councils, which are self-organized, and mixed gender councils) youth councils, political parties, and others. The economic area concentrates on forming cooperatives. The social area concentrates on things such as education and health.
For juridical matters, committees handle conflicts and disputes. Their goal is to engage in conflict resolution so that the disputing parties can come to a consensus. This applies to issues ranging across a whole range of potential conflicts. In other areas of North Kurdistan, such as Gewer, legal committees do not purely hold lawyers, but also contain feminist and political activists.
The Town of Heseke – Western Kurdistan
Heseke in Rojava holds a similar institutional layout to Amed. Like Amed and the DTK carries a 40% gender quota. It contains a city council, however, it is comprised of 101 people, as well as five representatives each from five other organizations including the PYD, and the Revolutionary Youth. There is also a coordinating council, which is made up of 21 people. Heseke holds 16 district councils.
District councils hold anywhere from 15-30 people, which meet every two months. Anywhere from 10-30 communes comprise a given district, with 20 communes approximating to 1,000 people. This means that there is often 1 delegate for every 100 people in a district, which is far more direct than many other institutional structures across the world. It should be kept in mind though that what is most frequent is the convening of peoples' assemblies, a phenomenon that also spans across Kurdistan and serves as the base for Democratic Autonomy; many areas in Kurdistan have weekly peoples' assemblies.
In Heseke "communes have commissions that address all social questions, everything from the organization of defense to justice to infrastructure to youth to the economy and the construction of individual cooperatives." The commissions for ecology concern things such as sanitation and specific ecological problems. There are also "committees for women's economy to help women develop economic independence" (TATORT Kurdistan, Democratic Autonomy in North Kurdistan, Porsgrunn, New Compass Press, 2013.)
This structure also sends delegates to the general council of Rojava. Similar to many other areas in Kurdistan, resolutions and decisions are preferred to be made by consensus instead of simple majoritarian vote.
Embrace of Heterogeneity
In the Charter of Social Contract, a constitution formed by cantons in Rojava, begins its document with an embrace of pluralism:
We the people's of the democratic self-determination areas; Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians (Assyrian Chaldeans, Arameans), Turkmen, Armenians and Chechens, by our free will, announce this to ensure justice, freedom, democracy, and the rights of women and children in accordance with the principles of ecological balance, freedom of religions and beliefs and equality without discrimination on the basis of race, religion, creed, doctrine or gender, to achieve the political and moral fabric of a democratic society in order to function with mutual understanding and coexistence with diversity and respect for the principle of self-determination and self-defense of the peoples.
This alone in the preface to the Charter contradicts the often oversimplified depictions of the Middle East by Western media. According to the translation of Zaher Baher of the Kurdistan Anarchist Forum (KAF) from his eyewitness account titled "The Experiment of west Kurdistan (Syrian Kurdistan) has Proved that People Can Make Changes" (Zaher Baher, "The experiment of West Kurdistan…, Libcom, August 26, 2014) The Charter goes onto state in its first page that "the areas of self-management democracy do not accept the concepts of state nationalism, military or religion or of centralized management and central rule but are open to forms compatible with the tradition of democracy and pluralism, to be open to all social groups and cultural identities and Athenian democracy and national expression through their organization"
Yet, if one is to truly talk about an embrace of heterogeneity, this must involve the nonhuman just as much as it involves the human. This means going beyond the multilingualism and cultural diversity that many in Northern and Western Kurdistan have embraced – even institutionally – to looking at the ways in which the question of ecology is being tackled.
For Aysel Dogan, an ecology activist and president of the Alevi Academy for Belief and Culture in Dersim, "the best way to create and ecological system is to build cooperatives" (TATORT Kurdistan, Democratic Autonomy in North Kurdistan, Porsgrunn, New Compass Press, 2013, 165.). Other eco-minded activities include the development of seed banks, protesting the simple notion of nuclear power plan development, and the disallowing the entrance of mining companies.
All of these are seen as a means to foster an ecologically geared social consciousness. Much of this also includes education, and as such is ecological schooling is part of the explosion of academies and other learning institutions that inhabit the region. The increase in academy and cooperative development has interlocked with other emancipatory efforts as well.
A number of academies have opened across Kurdistan. This includes the founding of the Mesopotamian Social Sciences Academy in late August in Qamislo in the Cizîrê canton of Rojava, which operates according to "an alternative education model." According to Rojava Report, in Cizîrê alone 670 schools with 3,000 teachers are offering Kurdish language courses to 49,000 students (Rojava Report, August 31, 2014).
Language, cultural and historical academies oriented towards preserving and building identity aren't limited to Rojava. They have taken off in North Kurdistan as well. As of July 2012 there are "thirteen of them, with various foci, including nine general academies, two women's academies and two religious academies, one for Alevis and one for Islamic beliefs." TATORT Kurdistan reports Kurdish youth public school students staging week-long strikes in response to the constraints placed on their language within those spaces and other assimilation policies.
Commenting on a number of schools run outside of the auspices of the Turkish State a representative of the Amed General Political Academy states, "These schools want to work out the essence of Islam and connect to the oppositional Islamic movements, which reject rulers and an Islamic state but nonetheless are connected to Islam." (TATORT Kurdistan, Democratic Autonomy in North Kurdistan, Porsgrunn, New Compass Press, 2013.)
As indicated by the Amed General Political Academy, much of the politicized Kurdish population carries an anti-capitalist, anti-State outlook, including and especially at the grassroots level. TATORT Kurdistan reports in the academy's three-month course, "All participants reflect on what they have learned and formulate a critique of state and ruling class." These political academies also teach things outside of class analysis, such as histories of women and the development of patriarchy, of which a critique of the latter is raised as well.
Also, in Amed lies a center that offers courses to women ranging from technical and practical skills, to those teaching the Kurdish language and literacy, as well courses in law and women's rights. Other centers offer health and sexuality courses. There are also seminars offered on Democratic Autonomy.
Empowerment of Women
In multiple ways women are empowering themselves in Kurdistan, and as a result serving as the main thrust of the movement. In a few ways this has already been indicated, such as through the gender quota that is institutionalized on nearly all levels of society, and through learning sites and academies. Another great example of the latter is the Amed Women's Academy.
TATORT Kurdistan quotes leaders of this academy, "the liberation of women, and of gender, is as significant as the liberation of men in society." They work on projects, such as transcription of oral histories and engaging in "female writing of history." They offer courses through a participatory discussion-based model.
Many from these academies and the Free Democratic Women's Movement (DOKH) also engage women by simply striving to empower many to step outside of their home. Some women within this movement take on a particularly radical perspective towards the State consigning to having a role in producing a hierarchical logic within the family unit.
Along with women's councils, academies and centers, there are women's cooperatives wherein the goal is to "help women create their own relations of production, where they can work and participate," as TATORT Kurdistan quotes those involved in women's cooperative development. Through women's cooperative development the altering of gender relations takes place on a number of levels: women's relation to the workplace (previously have very little of such, if at all), in relation to their husbands and male relatives (breaking culturally embedded taboos and gender roles), and in relation to the whole of society (inserting evermore in and through the program of Democratic Autonomy). Through these cooperatives many women have become economically independent, have engaged in individual capacity development as well, and through both are breaking female internalizations of patriarchy.
As Baher of the KAF specifically reports for the latter region, throughout Northern and Western Kurdistan there is "a system called Joint Leaders and Organizers" meaning "the head of any office, administration, or military section must include women." Such organizational layouts are manifest in a number of the councils and committees mentioned throughout this article.
In addition, to this the women have their own armed forces. "Thus, within People's Protection Units (YPG), there has been the formation of Women's Protection Units (YPJ). The YPJ, a 7,000 strong military group have been on the frontlines against ISIS. As might be expected, the emergence of the YPJ has significantly punctured many conceptions of preordained gender roles, particularly ones that have filtered into notions and systems of male domination.
Empowerment of Youth, and Workers' Self-Management
With Democratic Autonomy, youth councils, both under-18 and over-18, have emerged. Like the other councils, the youth councils have say and power in the carrying out of initiatives and projects, e.g., in the building and modifying of recreational sites and spaces. Besides this though, some of the most radical perspectives have, with clear articulation and vision, come from the Kurdish youth.
To TATORT Kurdistan one Kurdish youth, between 16 to 26, remarked, "We don't consider ourselves nationalists. We're socialist internationalists." There was also the statement by the same Kurdish youth that:
At the moment we're moving into a new phase of the revolution through the construction of communes, collectives and cooperatives. Popular self-organization of the economy has the goal of laying the groundwork for comprehensive change in prevailing social relations… the movement is building village, youth and women's cooperatives… The different levels of self-management let us enter into the process of organizing more easily.
There are varying results with the federating of cooperatives and communes. According to a member of a women's cooperative in Baglar, anarchists in twenty-two communes in Gewer have gone as far as to abolish money as a means of exchange.
The Fight Against ISIS
The largely lackluster support given by the United States government to the Kurdish line of defense against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) should come as no surprise, especially when considering the close ties between the United States and Turkey. Given Turkey's extensive history of repressing the over 20 million Kurds that reside within its borders, and given that presently the Kurds are on the frontlines fighting against ISIS, the deficient response by Turkey to ISIS should not be a shock.
From 2009 to July 2012 over 8,000 people were arrested "for alleged membership in the Union of Kurdistan Societies, KCK, under the Anti-Terror Law" (TATORT Kurdistan, Democratic Autonomy in North Kurdistan, Porsgrunn, New Compass Press, 2013.) More recent reports, as noted by TATORT Kurdistan, have asserted that as many as 10,000 people have been arrested in anti-KCK operations. The incarceration of Kurds is at such scales that one finds examples of thirty-five people thrust together in a single cell , with people being forced to sleep atop one another. The overcrowding of prisons has come to the point that Turkish built F-type cells, originally intended for solitary confinement, often hold four people at a given time.
Turkey's policy to expand its hydropower base through the building of dams has doubly served as a means to destroy Kurdish culture. As Aysel Dogan, the head of the Alevi Academy for Belief and Culture, states, "Since the holy places are endangered by the dams, the state sent [a] so-called scientist here who's supposed to provide expert opinion. He says that there are only stones here and no indication that it is a holy place. But these stones are sacred for us."
Yet, many in the mainstream trumpet their shock at Turkey's and the Obama administration's hitherto low level response to ISIS. On September 22, the BBC reported that Turkey closed a number of border crossings upon of tens of thousands of Kurdish refugees. This is consistent with Turkey's existing relationship with the Kurds, and so is the U.S. government's caution in carrying out a policy of bolstering Kurdish defense. Only of late has the U.S. government supplied arms to Kurdish forces in Kobane. Recent reports from Workers Solidarity Movement even show the Kurds gaining on ISIS. Yet, one wonders how far the U.S. government is willing to go in supporting Kurdish forces that carry strong anti-state, anti-capitalist tendencies.
Simultaneous to all of this, Turkey allowed the Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga passage to Kobane in Rojava to take part in the fight against ISIS. At first this may appear to be a strong policy reversal on the part of Turkey, but amongst the four regions of Kurdistan it has by-far held the best relationship with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq, or what is otherwise known as South Kurdistan. The KRG, led by Massoud Barzani, has historically been in violent tension with the PKK, with Turkey naturally welcoming episodes of violence between the two camps. The KRG has also indicated a level of distrust and disavowal of the activities in Rojava, particularly with the PYD, which holds a cordial relationship with the PKK.
To any libertarian socialist the developments in Kurdistan over the last decade are strongly encouraging. Many of the Kurdish people assert that Democratic Confederalism can be positioned as a body with transnational capacity potential. Many within Kurdistan, including Öcalan himself, find Democratic Confederalism to be a means to bringing peace and emancipation in the Middle East. Proponents of Democratic Confederalism, as indicated by their apparent openness to cultural diversity, do not simply consider this a solution for the Kurdish population, but for the multiplicity of the groups and ethnicities that constitute the wider region. Öcalan has gone as far as to assert that dual power must be built on a global scale, and that with such, a transnational body competing with the United Nations must be formed.
Not only does Democratic Autonomy and Democratic Confederalism constitute an ideological and institutional push away from the State and capitalism, but it is a system that is keen on increasingly moving away from representative political structures to those of autonomous and performative practices. Yet, if the institutions and practices that constitute Democratic Autonomy and Democratic Conferederalism are to deepen inwardly and scale outwardly then a critique of all hierarchical social frameworks must be maintained, and the concretization of an anti-hierarchical and non-hierarchical societal outlook and vision must continue to be applied and actualized.
Alexander Kolokotronis
Alexander Kolokotronis is a Ph.D. student in political science at Yale University. He is the founder of Student Organization for Democratic Alternatives and formerly the student coordinator of the NYC Network of Worker Cooperatives and worker cooperative development assistant at Make the Road New York. Follow him on Twitter: @avk48.


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Q: Does it make sense to calculate MLE for multimodal distributions? The simplest examples of multimodal distributions I've seen are mixtures, namely mixtures of normals.
However, in this case, the Maximum Likelihood Estimator [MLE] doesn't make much sense. An example is described in the DeGroot and Schervish book.

The MLE for a mixture of a Normal$(0,1)$ and Normal$(\mu, \sigma^2)$
  (both parameters unknown) for a sample $(x_1,...,x_n)$ are non-unique:
  $\hat \mu =x_k$ for $k \in \{1,...,n\}$ and, if we allow it, $\hat
 \sigma^2=0$.

Are there other examples of multimodal distributions where computing the MLE does make sense?
Any help would be appreciated.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Garland County: Our History and Heritage
Friendship Cemetery Tombstone Inscriptions 2007
Compiled by Gail Ashbrook, Lana Donoho, and Elizabeth C. Davis
The acquisition of land and the first interments in Friendship Cemetery (which was planned with the African American community in mind) took place in the early 1920s. Several pages of photographs and historical notes make this a very attractive and interesting volume. A map section and an alphabetical index complement the block by block, row by row inscription list, compiled by Ashbrook in 2007. There is an epitaph section, as well. Because older temporary markers are damaged or missing, the 1969 list of markers, compiled by Inez Cline and Bobbie Jones McLane, is included along with a list of temporary markers placed in Friendship by Page Mortuary and a list of markers made by Hot Springs Monument Company which were delivered to Friendship.
© Copyright 2016 Garland County Historical Society. All rights reserved. P.O. Box 21335, Hot Springs, AR 71903-1335

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council (11 002 917)
A vulnerable young man was a victim twice, once from the crime against him and again from the service he received from Trafford Youth Offending Team (YOT) and Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council during the handling of his complaint.
The young adult had been subjected to witness intimidation before he was due to give evidence about a robbery and was offered the opportunity to take part in restorative justice.
The young man and his parents complained to the joint ombudsmen about the behaviour of a Youth Offending Team member and the subsequent handling of their complaint, which prevented the complainant from fully taking part in the restorative justice process.
The ombudsmen have found fault and agreed a remedy with the council and YOT.
To remedy the injustice the council and YOT have agreed to take the following actions:
a senior officer from the council should write to the complainants to apologise for the maladministration identified , and for the breach of the Victims' Code;
Trafford YOT and the council should between them pay the complainants £2,500 for stress and frustration; and
the council should provide the complainants with an updated copy of the action plan, which demonstrates what actions have been undertaken as a result of their complaint.


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Analyzing the complicated depiction of bipolar disorder on 'Homeland'
Carrie Mathison: crazy or brilliant? Or both?
S.E. Smith
Published Nov 1, 2015 Updated May 27, 2021, 5:29 pm CDT
Almost every thinkpiece on the Showtime hit Homeland seems to lead with speculation about the lead character's mental health—and almost no one can agree on whether the show's spin on mental health conditions is positive or negative. In an era when mental health typically only hits the news in the wake of mass shootings, treatment of mental illness in pop culture matters as an important point of contact for mental health awareness, not just as character development.
The Internet—including mental health organizations, mentally ill commentators, viewers of the show, and mental health professionals—can't seem to make up its mind on whether Homeland's version of bipolar disorder is sensitive, self-aware, and accurate, or dangerously stereotyped. Perhaps the dichotomous viewing of bipolar disorder on Homeland mirrors poor social perceptions of mental illness in general, but perhaps it also illustrates the eager desire to have ideas about mental illness affirmed through the sane lens. A significant majority of viewers have limited experience with mental health conditions, and Claire Danes' depiction is comfortingly familiar, because it matches what pop culture has already told them about people with bipolar disorder.
Carrie Mathison's illness is an evident part of her character arc from the very first episode, where viewers learn she's concealing her illness from the CIA for fear of being fired. From there, the depiction whipsaws: Sometimes she's off her medication and experiencing mania and psychotic episodes; sometimes she has her mental health condition well controlled with medication and a strong safety net. Most recently, the show has swung to the negative end of the spectrum, with Mathison deciding to go off her medication because she decides it interferes with her work, in an episode titled "Super Powers." It was a very literal nod to the popular and mistaken belief that mental illness, particularly symptoms like mania, confers some sort of superpower.
https://twitter.com/petersuderman/status/658466324205686784
wtf @SHO_Homeland?! irresponsible mischaracterization of #bipolar disorder. stopping treatment does NOT give u super powers!! #dafuq
— nicklaus (@nick_loss) October 21, 2015
With depictions of mental illness extremely rare in pop culture, Mathison's bipolar disorder matters on both an artistic and social level.
Those weighing in on the side of good have included the National Institutes of Health, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, mental health providers, viewers, and mentally ill people themselves—who are the most obvious choice of experts on their own experience of mental illness. Perhaps most notably, Jamie Stiehm, the woman who provided the research basis for Mathison's illness, believes her experiences are portrayed accurately. "How rare to see a sparkling and spirited representation of what it's actually like to walk through life with bipolar disorder," Stiehm wrote for the New York Times. "So let a thousand conversations bloom."
The common pop culture depiction of mental illness is something very much mirrored in Homeland.
NAMI similarly believes the show provides an accurate look at mental illness, specifically suggesting that it works to take on stigma and misinformation about bipolar disorder. One of the issues the organization cites is Mathison's attempt to hide her illness for fear of losing her job, a common experience for many bipolar people. This is a particularly extreme problem for members of the intelligence community, who typically lose their clearance if they are diagnosed with mental illnesses.
Hannah Jane Parkinson, also bipolar, similarly believes the show is an accurate and affirming depiction of her mental health condition. She was particularly pleased by the show's depiction of the struggle to balance changes in mental health status, from well-managed mental illness to spinning off base with mania or depression to the slow struggle to refocus and gain control again. Describing the show as a "triumph," she clearly feels that it offers a fresh and important take on mental illness.
Psychiatrist Jeffrey A. Lieberman, writing for Psychology Today, praised the show as well, claiming that it was a dead ringer for the symptoms and actual experience of bipolar disorder. He cited the fact that Mathison's story revolves around herself, rather than her disease, as a compelling argument for supporting this depiction of bipolar disorder—mirroring one of the most common critiques from disability rights activists when it comes to pop culture, in which disabled people are typically portrayed as disabilities, rather than human beings.
Claire Danes is incredible at playing Carrie, especially in the bipolar episodes. #Homeland
— Darren Main (@Mavedotcom) October 19, 2015
Clare Danes's encapsulation of being on the knife's edge; living with bipolar & being a strong woman in a man's world. Incredible #Homeland
— JD Hunt (@JamieDHunt) October 19, 2015
However, the very things he identifies as positives were cited as negatives by other critics. He associates bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses with unusual creativity, for example, writing: "She is in, perhaps, the highest stress job there is, yet she carries it off (no pun intended), brilliantly, either in spite of, or because of, her mental illness." Such characterizations of mental illness as a predictor of creativity are an issue that mental health advocates have long taken exception to. Moreover, he plays upon common stereotypes about bipolar disorder, including the notion that bipolar women are sexually promiscuous, unable to control themselves, and dangerous. The Mathison he describes is narcissistic, edgy, unreliable, and frenetic—all accurate characterizations—but he implies that these traits are the result of her mental illness, rather than more complicated factors.
Claire Danes deserves every award there is for how good and convincing she portrays her bipolar character #Homeland
— Sharad (@OmgSharad) October 19, 2015
For all that the show is cited by a number of authorities as a striking depiction of mental illness, there's a considerable portion of the Internet that begs to disagree. Unfortunately, as is commonly the case with critiques of depictions of disability, their voices are often drowned out by those seeking to shower the show with accolades. Troublingly, characters like Carrie Mathison are charged with a particularly heavy burden, speaking for a huge and diverse population with many different experiences of mental illness. Many mentally ill people and advocates think that Homeland is getting it gravely wrong, and dangerously so, perpetuating the stereotypes that keep mental health conditions in the shadows and force people to be afraid of being open about their mental illnesses.
There are a considerable number of problems with Homeland—the stereotyping of mentally ill people, the inaccurate depictions of the security services, the racism, the Islamophobia—and they're often glossed over in critical discussion. Some of those problems, moreover, are the very same things that critics are praising, like her out-of-control behavior, the depiction of unmedicated mania as a form of brilliance and creative inspiration, and Carrie's frequent self-destructive spirals. The situation is particularly fraught because it involves not just the extremely common case of disabled critics versus nondisabled fans but also mentally ill people themselves debating whether Homeland is fair to bipolar disorder.
Having #bipolar I can say: no, Carrie, u can't control mania. #NotRealLife #mentalillness
Carrie goes off her meds.https://t.co/jU4RAKWjmc
— AZ Girl Diary (@doriowen) October 19, 2015
Writing for the Conversation, commentator Meron Wondemaghen had a great deal to say in her detailed analysis of the show's handling of bipolar disorder in the first three seasons, and much of it was unflattering. She speaks particularly strongly about the emphasis on dysfunction, isolation, and rebellion, noting that these are common stereotypes about mentally ill people, along with the notion that mental illness is a predictor of dangerousness and irrational decisions. The common pop culture depiction—and accompanying social attitude—of mental illness rendering conditions like bipolar disorder as something that fundamentally ruins the ability to function in society is something very much mirrored in Homeland.
Bethlehem Shoals, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder over a decade ago, isn't very impressed with the use of bipolar disorder as a simplistic plot device in the show, as explained in an essay at GQ. Like many disabled critics of this and other depictions of bipolar disorder, Shoals expresses frustration with the very binaristic handling of the condition, and the common trope that audiences see into Carrie's world and understand she's not "crazy" for seeing things that others don't, but don't see the more complicated nuances of mental illness. Shoals suggests that Carrie's mental health condition serves only to parallel the "topsy-turvy structure of Homeland," rather than acting as something that might complicate and enrich her character.
https://twitter.com/sparrowstclaire/status/656006447667531780
These sharp critiques of the show underscore completely bizarre and troubling storylines. In a recent dramatic storyline, Carrie goes off her meds because she feels stalled out on a case, but she tells her boyfriend to stand by with a sedative just in case she gets out of control—a painfully stereotyped depiction of mania that strikes at the core of social attitudes about bipolar disorder. Mentally ill people, in this framework, are wild and dangerous, and need to be subdued with psychiatric medication for the good of people around them.
This episode of #Homeland must have mental health professionals screaming!! That's not how you deal with bipolar disorder @Showtime
— Jon Moench (@jon92027) October 19, 2015
Critics concerned about mental health in television and film charge that the bipolar disorder of Homeland is simplistic, lazy, and frustrating, but more than that, it's dangerous. They're not wrong. It's hard to imagine a world in which people would want to be open about their mental illness only to be confronted with the attitude that they must be "just like Carrie"—wild, out of control, narcissistic, dangerous, at times threatening and scary. When the only version of mental illness that people know is promiscuous, self-harming, and deeply pathological, it creates a hostile atmosphere for mentally ill people—including those who are trying to explore treatment options and want to reach out for help from those around them.
Screengrab via Showtime
*First Published: Nov 1, 2015, 12:00 pm CST
s.e. smith is a Northern California-based journalist and writer focusing on social justice issues. smith's work has appeared in publications like Esquire, the Guardian, Rolling Stone, In These Times, Bitch Magazine, and Pacific Standard.
Review: 'The King's Daughter,' the Pierce Brosnan mermaid movie they didn't want you to see
This week in streaming: The buzz for 'Yellowjackets'
Four episodes into 'The Book of Boba Fett,' the show seems weirdly uninterested in Boba Fett


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Kryptowährung Nachrichten
PR-Pressemitteilung einreichen
Was ist ein Proof-of-Stake??
Münze sehen 3 vor Wochen Keine Kommentare
Proof-of-stake is a method of maintaining the integrity of a cryptocurrency, preventing users from printing extra coins they didn't earn. While a different method, called proof-of-work, is currently used by Bitcoin and Ethereum – the two largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization – Ethereum has plans to migrate to proof-of-stake to make the platform more scalable and reduce energy consumption of the network.
Both proof-of-work and proof-of-stake are what are called "consensus mechanisms," the method by which a blockchain maintains its integrity. Consensus is what addresses the "double spending" problem of digital money. If there were any way the user of a cryptocurrency could spend their coins more than once, it would undermine the entire system. The currency would be worthless.
This is a tricky problem, especially with online currencies that have no central authority, such as a bank or a government, to keep track of how much money each person has, how they're spending it, and whom they're paying.
The Bitcoin network was the first to solve this problem with proof-of-work. Proof-of-stake has emerged as a possible alternative that some researchers think is both more energy efficient and more secure, though there's debate about this.
Why is proof-of-anything needed?
It's not so hard to prevent double spending in a centralized manner, when there's one entity managing a ledger of all the transactions. When Alice sends Bob $1, the manager of the central ledger simply takes $1 from Alice and gives $1 to Bob. PayPal does exactly that.
But cryptocurrencies are different. The goal is not to have one leader or entity in control of the system, which makes this record-keeping more complicated.
Instead of just one leader, thousands of users run the Bitcoin software all over the world. These "nodes" ensure the rules of the network are followed. This sprawling infrastructure needs to be tied together so all the software is in agreement. Otherwise these nodes will be disconnected islands.
It turns out it isn't easy to get these users around the world to agree with each other, so decentralized money was out of reach for researchers for a long time.
Until Bitcoin came along. Proof-of-work is the innovative algorithm that Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto came up with, making decentralized money without a leader come to life for the first time.
Proof-of-work vs. proof-of-stake
Some argue proof-of-work has problems. As bitcoin mining has become concentrated, some groups have become more powerful than Bitcoin's creator intended. And Bitcoin currently uses at least as much energy as all of Switzerland. (Others argue it's not that bad because the current financial system also uses plenty of energy.)
In a nutshell, these proof-of-X schemes help to verify what transactions are added to the blockchain by way of blocks, which are filled with the latest transactions. The winner gets a reward.
Proof-of-work and proof-of-stake each pick a "winner" – the entity that will create the next block – in a different way.
With proof-of-work, miners are the participants. They are more likely to add additional blocks to the blockchain if they have more computational power, which is fueled by electricity.
In proof-of-stake, miners are more likely to win additional blocks if they have more money – ether, in the case of Ethereum. Mit anderen Worten, proof-of-stake relies on "proof" of how much "stake" users have.
Critics argue it hasn't yet been proven that proof-of-stake can eradicate these problems. But advocates think it could be the way forward.
Proof-of-stake FAQ
How does Ethereum's proof-of-stake work?
The most ambitious proof-of-stake rollout to date is Ethereum 2.0, a series of upgrades intended to transition Ethereum from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake. Here's how it works, at a high level.
Special entities in proof-of-stake known as "validators" are charged with selecting the next blocks for the Ethereum blockchain.
Validators tie up some of their ether so they can't use it as they're participating in the proof-of-stake process. Similar to miners in proof-of-work, they are rewarded for taking part in this process.
Validators are awarded when:
They attest to a new block, meaning they accept it as accurate, saying it follows the rules.
Sie "win" a block.
To make sure validators don't fool around, Ethereum's proof-of-stake doles out penalties as well.
Penalties are dispensed when:
If a validator proposes a block with a false transaction or false data history, a significant portion of the validator's staked resources are slashed by the protocol. Des Weiteren, the validator is banned from the network to punish this bad behavior.
Smaller penalties are allotted if the validator goes offline.
In Ethereum 2.0, each validator will need to stake 32 Äther, worth about $12,000 at time of writing, to run a validator node.
Is proof-of-stake better than proof-of-work?
Not necessarily. This question is still up for debate.
Proof-of-stake has drawn more than a few critics. One reason is that Ethereum developers have been quick to tout the advantages of proof-of-stake, but it has not yet been proven to work because it doesn't exist yet.
Blockstream Director of Research Andrew Poelstra wrote a mathematical paper back in 2015 saying proof-of-stake is "fundamentally unable to produce a distributed consensus within Bitcoin's trust model."
But if proof-of-stake does turn out to work, either without or with minimal complications, then it could be a greener alternative that can accomplish the same goals as proof-of-work, but more efficiently.
Is proof-of-stake safe?
As the answer to the question above highlights, the jury is still out on whether proof-of-stake is "safe."
Critics argue the system risks leading to an oligopoly. While blockchains are supposed to not have leaders in charge, critics worry that proof-of-stake would unintentionally steer blockchains back in the direction of centralized control, since users who have the most ether have the most power over the system.
Proof-of-stake is a long awaited addition to Ethereum. Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin proposed it in the white paper as far back as 2013.
When will proof-of-stake be rolled out on Ethereum?
And it's still not clear when it will be fully implemented. As we mentioned before, proof-of-stake is supposed to be gradually implemented as a part of Ethereum 2.0, a series of upgrades to restructure Ethereum.
The first phase of Ethereum 2.0 launched on Dec. 1, 2020. It's unclear how long it will take to move through all of the phases.
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French 2 trk promo CDs for Exit Planet Dust.
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'I got my whole 'fit already planned out for the 1st game:' With WNBA season over, Te'a Cooper excited to support Sharife in NBA
The Atlanta siblings seemingly enjoy success of one another more than success of themselves.
By Rashad Milligan Sep 26, 2021, 11:38am EDT
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Photo by Adam Hagy/NBAE via Getty Images
The Los Angeles Sparks' season came to an end on Sept. 19 with an 87-84 loss to the Dallas Wings. Second-year guard Te'a Cooper put up a team-leading 24 points, 6 assists and a rebound in the effort.
Now, as she heads back to her metro Atlanta residence, the area where she went to high school, her attention shifts to support her little brother Sharife Cooper in his NBA rookie season with the Atlanta Hawks.
"I'm super excited," Te'a said in her Sparks exit interview Friday. "When we played in Atlanta, I had gotten the chance to get in the gym with him and we were working out. Just to see him playing and being out there with them is- it's so heartwarming."
Te'a began to smile when the topic of her brother came up in the Zoom availability, similar to the supportive energy she brought to Sharife's NBA Draft night party at Lifestyle Sports Bistro in Marietta.
"I'm so excited, I can't wait, you already know I got my whole (out)'fit planned out for the first game," Te'a said. "Sitting courtside, yeah. I'm super excited."
Te'a and Sharife are one of six notable, if not the sixth-ever, brother sister NBA-WNBA pairs. Candace and Anthony Parker, Amir and Nia Coffey, Javale McGee and Imani McGee-Stafford, Rudy and Marta Fernandez, and Ime and Mfon Udoka.
"It's crazy to even think about," Sharife told Bally Sports' Autumn Johnson at the Sparks-Dream game. "Growing up with her, always playing basketball, playing against her team in high school, finally getting to see her live out her dream, it's special to see."
Sharife will spend time in the same Gateway Center Arena Te'a played in less than two weeks ago this year, as the 6'1 guard signed a two-way contract with the organization this past summer.
"'(I'm looking forward to) just the experience," Sharife said. "Getting in, learning new guys, just getting my feet wet in the NBA. Really just the experience to get used to (the NBA)."
Through four games in the Las Vegas NBA Summer League, Sharife averaged 14.8 points and 7.2 assists per game. Sharife's signature moment of the exhibitions was the game-winning corner three-pointer he made against the Indiana Pacers as time expired on Aug. 10. Cooper fell to pick No. 48 in the draft this summer after being projected as high as a lottery prospect before draft night. What made Sharife's game winner sweeter is two of the critiques on the former Auburn guard were his 6'1, 180-pound frame and his inability to shoot three pointers.
It appears the professional journey of Te'a has foreshadowed Sharife's to this point, as she also fell to the second round of the 2020 WNBA Draft to the Phoenix Mercury before getting cut and signing with the Sparks before her rookie season. Te'a was widely regarded as a top five prospect in the draft class, but her shooting ability and maturity were both in question after she played for three programs in college (Tennessee, South Carolina and Baylor). This past season, Te'a found herself playing a larger role for the Sparks after point guard Chelsea Gray signed with the Las Vegas Aces. Te'a responded well throughout the season, and averaged 19 points and 3.3 assists over three games in the final week of the season.
As for Sharife, he's recently been in the Hawks' practice facility working ahead of the team's preseason slate, which begins on Oct. 4 in Miami.


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Kentucky high school student seen on video mocking Native American protester gives his side of the story
By Rachel DeSantis, theresa braine and ginnie teo
The school had sent the boys to attend the March for Life, but instead ended up condemning the students' actions at the Indigenous Peoples March on Friday. (AP)
The MAGA cap-wearing Kentucky high school student caught on video mocking a Native American demonstrator gave his side of the story Sunday, claiming he's not a racist but was in fact trying to keep the peace.
Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann, a junior, said, "I never interacted with this protestor. I did not speak to him. I did not make any hand gestures or other aggressive moves." He goes on to add that he "even said a silent prayer that the situation would not get out of hand."
Claiming that he's been called "every name in the book, including a racist" ever since the video filmed Friday at a March for Life anti-abortion event in Washington, D.C., event emerged, he added that he and his family have received death threats. He released the statement to "correct misinformation and outright lies being spread about my family and me."
Sandmann and his schoolmates crossed paths with Nathan Phillips and other Native Americans at the end of the Indigenous Peoples March as they performed the "American Indian Movement" song. In the video that has gone viral, they were filmed clapping with smiles plastered on their faces as they mockingly sang and danced along to the song. A smirking Sandmann stands face-to-face with Vietnam War veteran Phillips – a Nebraska native of the Omaha tribe who now lives in Michigan — blocking his path and grinning in his face as his friends looked on, laughed and filmed him.
According to the student's account reported by CNN, what transpired before Phillips and the other Native Americans got there was far more aggressive. He said the African-American protesters on the Lincoln Memorial steps with his group taunted them for a while before his fellow students asked chaperones for permission to chant their school sports songs, designed to raise spirit.
"The protesters said hateful things," Sandman's statement said of the Hebrew Israelites, referring to them as African-American protesters. "They called us 'racists,' 'bigots,' 'white crackers,' 'f---ts' and 'incest kids.' They also taunted an African-American student from my school by telling him that we would 'harvest his organs.' "
When Phillips and his group approached, Sandmann said, the crowd "parted for him," and no one blocked his path.
"At no time did I hear any student chant anything other than the school spirit chants," Sandmann said. "I did not witness or hear any students chant 'build that wall' or anything hateful or racist at any time. Assertions to the contrary are simply false. Our chants were loud because we wanted to drown out the hateful comments that were being shouted at us by the protestors."
Sandmann says Phillips then "locked eyes with me and approached me, coming within inches of my face."
"He played his drum the entire time he was in my face," the student goes on to say.
He added that he was "startled and confused" by Phillips' actions.
A woman claiming to be the mother of one of the students told news outlets on Sunday that the Native group members themselves were the aggressors, not the other way around. The woman said Phillips – referring to him as "this man" – got into the teen's face with his drum and that the students themselves were being harassed by people she called "Black Muslims."
Viral video shows teens mocking Native American demonstrators at Indigenous Peoples March »
Phillips, 64, explained his version of events to the Detroit Free Press on Sunday, and said the boys initially took issue not with his group, but with a religious group called the Black Hebrew Israelites.
Phillips said the Israelites had four people speaking and saying some "harsh things" that the boys did not agree with and were offended by.
He said he intervened as things escalated between the two groups.
"I put myself in between that, between a rock and a hard place," he said, noting that was when he became the "beastly" boys' new prey.
"[They had a] mob mentality that was scary. . . . It was ugly, what these kids were involved. It was racism. It was hatred. It was scary."
He also compared the looks of "glee and hatred" on the boys' faces to those who happily lynched people, and criticized the school's chaperones for failing to keep an eye on the students.
Phillips has faced racial harassment before, as Native Americans do daily. He told the Detroit Free Press that he had a beer can thrown at him after he told a group of Eastern Michigan University students that their Native American costumes were racist.
"It's like we need somebody to blame again for our failings," he said. "Our President is kind of . . . feeding the fires of racism. Some of the things he's been saying have been divisive, the building of the wall. . . . Why do we have to build a wall on the southern border and not the northern border?"
The Diocese of Covington and Covington Catholic High School in Covington, Ky., issued a statement condemning the students' actions and apologizing to Phillips.
"This behavior is opposed to the church's teachings on the dignity and respect of the human person," the statement read. "The matter is being investigated and we will take appropriate action, up to and including expulsion."
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If you dive deep into the nether reaches of the internet, you've stumbled across a Q Anon conspiracy theory.
The internet's most shadowy figure is either a deep state operative, a kid LARPing and LOLing his face off, or President Donald Trump himself.
He's supposedly got a plethora of access at the upper echelons of government but a long history of his predictions flaming out.
Today, we go deep on Q with an expert, Mike Rothschild, who writes extensively about the matter.
Follow Mike on Twitter, and check out his article determining who Q is here.


Prepare for the opportunity. No matter how prepared you are, you may never feel you have prepared enough.
When you have a flexible framework, it's easier to stay focused on reaching your goals. An integrated plan will help you measure short- and medium-term progress toward realizing your long-term vision.


Wear a weight vest, body armor, loaded pack or whatever is needed to load yourself with 50 lb. for the runs.
Command Sgt. Maj. Martin "Gunny" Barreras, 49, of Tucson, Arizona, died on May 13, 2014, of wounds he sustained while leading a successful rescue mission in Herat Province, Afghanistan. Barreras joined the Marine Corps in 1983 and the Army Rangers in 1988. He was the senior enlisted adviser in the 2nd Battalion, 5th Infantry, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Fort Bliss, Texas.
He used CrossFit training to improve his fitness and the fitness of his unit. Murph and Griff were among his favorite workouts.
He is survived by his wife, Melinda; daughters, Amice and Victorria; and son, Calvin.


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Gatlinburg – miasto w Stanach Zjednoczonych, w stanie Tennessee, w hrabstwie Sevier. Położone jest 62 kilometry na południowy wschód od Knoxville.

Miasta w stanie Tennessee

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Composition of sterol fraction and content of identified compounds in herb of fireweed (Chamaenerion angustifolium /L./ Scop.) and leaves of evening primrose (Oenothera biennis L.) obtained from several populations of these species growing wild in Poland were determined by HPLC. The investigated species differed in respect of the composition and content of identified sterols. High intraspecific variability concerning accumulation of sterols was also observed. Herb of fireweed was characterised by relatively high content of β-sitosterol (85.80–171.18 mg/100 g), campesterol (24.24–334.49 mg/100 g), and β-sitosterol D-glucoside (26.33–86.32 mg/100 g). Leaves of evening primrose appeared to be much poorer source of sterols. Content of β-sitosterol (the dominant compound in the sterol fraction) in this raw material ranged from 5.21 to 34.66 mg/100 g.


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If you do the wrong thing for the right reasons v. the right thing for the wrong reasons ….
So we had a little hiatus from blogging because I was teaching a class at the U. of Maine Law School. That teaching exercise was, using technical lingo, a Giant Time Suck. My hats off to anyone and everyone in education who do this year after year. Phew!
But with the class done, let us return to the blog-o-sphere and the sexiest of all legal topics, the First Amendment.
With some exceptions, if you are employed by the government, your employer cannot fire you because you are engaged in protected expressive conduct. The Supreme Court today ruled that it is actionable under the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. §1983, if the government employer fires you because it believes mistakenly that you engaged in such protected conduct. Heffernan v. City of Paterson, Docket 14‑1280 (opinion by Breyer, J; Justices Thomas and Alito dissenting). Heffernan is the flip side of an earlier plurality decision, Waters v. Churchill, 511 U.S. 661 (1994) (opinion by Justice O'Connor), in which the plurality ruled that it was not a violation of Section 1983 if the government employer fired an employee under the reasonable belief that the employee was not engaged in protected conduct, even if the employee was in fact so engaged.
The common trait of these two decisions is that liability is based on intent. Does that make sense? It certainly does from a deterrence perspective. But don't we also want to provide a remedy for someone who was punished for protected conduct? If an employer fires someone engaged in protected conduct, but mistakenly thinking that the employee was not so engaged, then the employee is still getting fired.
Justice O'Connor applied a reasonableness standard in Waters, so the intent test isn't subjective – the employer's belief that the conduct wasn't protected must be reasonable. Should that make a difference? Why? (Oh no, I just can't stop the Socratic thing …).
Justices Thomas and Alito dissented in Heffernan because they took a very text-focused approach and said, "hey, the statute says you have to be deprived of a constitutional right." (Can you tell that I'm paraphrasing?) If you aren't actually engaged in the exercise of a constitutional right, then the defendant isn't depriving you based on that exercise. Justice Thomas said:
"The mere fact that the government has acted unconstitutionally does not necessarily result in the violation of an individual's constitutional rights, even when that individual has been injured. Consider, for example, a law that authorized police to stop motorists arbitrarily to check their licenses and registration. That law would violate the Fourth Amendment. See Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U. S. 648, 661 (1979). And motorists who were not stopped might suffer an injury from the unconstitutional policy; for example, they might face significant traffic delays. But these motorists would not have a §1983 claim simply because they were injured pursuant to an unconstitutional policy. This is because they have not suffered the right kind of injury. They must allege, instead, that their injury amounted to a violation of their constitutional right against unreasonable seizures—that is, by being unconstitutionally detained.
Here too, Heffernan must allege more than an injury from an unconstitutional policy. He must establish that this policy infringed his constitutional rights to speak freely and peaceably assemble. Even if the majority is correct that demoting Heffernan for a politically motivated reason was beyond the scope of the City's power, the City never invaded Heffernan's right to speak or assemble. Accordingly, he is not entitled to money damages under §1983 for the nonviolation of his First Amendment rights."
Why didn't the majority go for that approach? Justice Breyer's opinion roams around, but basically, it seems to me, that it's because we as a society focus more on culpability as a basis for liability. If you got fired, and the defendant fired you for a bad reason, then we think that's wrong, whether the reason turned out to be accurate or not.
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Oral argument – the fundamentals


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Port of Liverpool £300m container terminal plan gets boost
duration 1 August 2012
image captionThe terminal on the River Mersey, called Liverpool 2, is due to open in 2015
Multi-million pound plans for a new container terminal at the Port of Liverpool have been given a boost.
The European Investment Bank has agreed to provide almost half the finance for the £305m Liverpool 2 development.
Currently going through tendering process, the port's construction is due to start next year and completion expected in 2015.
Port managing director Gary Hodgson said the announcement is "another sign of confidence" in the region.
It is hoped the project will create 5,000 jobs and bring the world's largest container ships to the River Mersey.
'Massive benefit'
The post-Panamax terminal - for ships wider than the original Panama Canal - will be capable of handling ships carrying 13,500 containers, compared to the current limit of 3,500 in Liverpool.
It will accommodate two large vessels at one time and allow goods to be imported and exported by sea.
Geoff Muirhead, chairman of the Atlantic Gateway, a network of major developments along the Mersey and Manchester Ship Canal, said it was "great news".
"This follows hard on the heels of the government's full approval for the construction of the Northern Hub Rail Improvement Project," he said.
"These two schemes mark a very successful start to the campaign designed to lever massive economic benefit and jobs across the whole of the North West."
Owner Peel Ports, said the terminal, which is part of a 20-year plan to transform the Port of Liverpool, would be more efficient and better for the environment as it would take large amounts of freight off the UK road and rail networks.
Plans for £300m container terminal in Liverpool
Liverpool waterfront 'threatened'
Port and ship canal growth plans
Wirral Waters 'long term project'
Peel Ports
Liverpool Council
Wirral Council
Blaze at former Haydock Catholic Club tackled by firefighters
St. Helens Star
Couple create 'Bags of Hope' for others in memory of their baby girl who died after being born at 22 weeks
Man arrested following convenience store robbery in Ellesmere Port
Wirral Globe
Council can't say when it expects income from £30m investment
Warrington Guardian


Over the last two decades, the songs that the Rolling Stones have played in rehearsals, live shows and studio sessions have been recorded by Ronnie Wood in a series of handpainted set lists. The result is a unique collection of canvases that document sell-out tours across the globe, such as the band's landmark 50 & Counting tour, historic concerts such as 2016's performance in Havana, as well as closed-door sessions for their latest album, Blue & Lonesome.
Now for Genesis subscribers and for all fans of the Rolling Stones, we are delighted to present Ronnie Wood's painted set lists for the first time. Choose from two new limited editions, each signed by Ronnie Wood.
Ronnie Wood has chosen more than 100 painted set lists to be published for the first time. Presented in chronological order, each year of set lists is introduced with a selection of photographs and Stones memorabilia, from A Bigger Bang in 2005 to the latest 2018 No Filter tour. The collection follows the group's travels to foreign rehearsal locations that were kept secret at the time. They reveal the songs rehearsed for historic performances, such as the Rolling Stones' 2014 inaugural concert in Israel, as well as documenting the shows as eventually played.
The colourful hand-lettering recalls Wood's early art school days when he worked as a sign writer. The set lists are visually eye catching and filled with fascinating details. Wood's calligraphy is interspersed with his own illustrations, doodles by fellow band members, and jotted notes that all add up to paint a picture of life on the road with the Rolling Stones.
Featuring an introduction by Mick Jagger, in a new 198-page manuscript Ronnie Wood offers a glimpse behind the scenes of one of the most famous rock groups in the world.
Ronnie Wood's personal reflections bring the story of the set lists to life as he discusses the band's creative process, learning up to 80 songs per tour; personal highlights, such as Valentine's Day 2014, when a small group of fans were invited into rehearsals; collaborations with fellow musicians such as The Black Keys, Eric Clapton, Florence Welch and Jeff Beck; and the band's various reunions with former Rolling Stones Bill Wyman and Mick Taylor.
In addition to Ronnie's quotes, extended captions analyse each set list in depth, examining the significance of certain songs and their place within the Rolling Stones' history. Nearly 150 photographs and items of memorabilia provide additional context.
Presented in a cloth-bound slipcase, the 198-page volume is quarter bound in burgundy leather with purple and gold screen-printed covers - emblazoned with the lizards that feature on one of Ronnie's custom-made guitar straps. Ronnie Wood's large format Set Pieces book (page size: 297mm x 420mm / 11 ¾" x 16 ½") is hand-finished with gilt page edging and tooling.
The accompanying Giclée print (11 ¾" x 16 ½") is numbered and signed by Ronnie Wood. His vibrantly painted set list records a rehearsal in Los Angeles, 22nd September 2016, prior to the band's concerts that autumn. From 'Miss You' to 'She's A Rainbow', this list of important Stones hits and cover versions - see, for instance, Little Walter's 'Just Your Fool' - has been colourfully illustrated and includes a written reminder from Keith Richards: 'We stop on fishes' (referring to the closing lyrics of 'Blue and Lonesome').
Print size: 11 ¾" x 16 ½"
Framed size: 15 ¼" x 20"
Select your edition (above). Now shipping through February 2019.


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About 3 months ago, I was searching on Craigslist for some Oscilloscopes and I found the listing for a Tektronix 7704A Mainframe Oscilloscope for only $50! At first I thought it was way too good to be true, but then I called the number that was listed with the Scope, and I soon found out that this Tektronix Scope was actually at a e-waste recycling facility and the company who threw it out is one of the biggest technical and scientific research companies in Columbus if not the whole state of Ohio (Battelle Memorial Institute).
The Tektronix scope came with the original cart (Tektronix Scope Mobile) and 4 plugins. Some other goodies that came along with it were the manual, BNC cables, and calibration certificate.
Plugin 7B70 - Horizontal Time Base Unit similar to the 7B70. In combination, they provide a delaying-sweep mode of operation; the 7B71 being the DELAYING SWEEP and the 7B70 the DELAYED SWEEP.
The 7B70 also has a horizontal amplifier input for uncalibrated X-axis deflection from an external source.
Both units can be used singly in all 7000-Series mainframes, or in combination to add the delaying-sweep function. Independent dual-sweep operation is possible only in mainframes with two horizontal amplifers using CHOP or ALT modes.
Plugin 7B71 - Horizontal Time Base Unit similar to the 7B70. The 7B71 (occupying the A horizontal channel) contains the DELAY TIME MULTIPLIER and control circuitry to release the 7B70 DELAYED SWEEP (B horizontal channel) at a predetermined point during the delaying sweep. After release, the delayed sweep can be programmed to begin immediately or wait for the next trigger event.
Plugin 7A26 - 200MHz Amplifier Plug-In is a dual trace plug-in which offers 5 operating modes, trigger-source selectability, and trace identify. Vertical sensitivity of 5 mV/div to 5 V/div and with appropriate mainframe, DC to 200MHz bandwidth over the entire range. Also include a 20MHz bandwidth limit switch which reduces noise in lower-frequency applications.
Bandwidth may be set at full or limited to 20Mhz.
When Used in combination with another 7A26 plug-in, the Tektronix 7704A can become a 4 Channel 200 Mhz Scope!!!
The Tektronix 7704A is a Great scope for general and everyday use for your electronics lab!
Hooking up the Tektronix 7704A to the Analog Discovery by Digilent!


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ACIX Middle East is a professionally managed Value added distributor for IT & security products. Based in Dubai, UAE With its partnerships with various vendors acix focus to assist system integrators, installers, resellers with proper distribution or supply of products for the various requirements from access control systems, time attendance systems, cctv systems, video management softwares, cctv recoding storage solutions. ACIX has been so successful in catering far superior technology solutions in the middle east and north Africa region.
ACIX is committed to provide system integrators, installers, dealers and resellers with a broad product selection, competitive pricing, on-time delivery, outstanding technical support plus ongoing sales and technical training.
Our approach is distinctive: through an unbiased, agile combination of smarter solutions, targeted technology and advanced analytics, we help resellers, integrators to become more competitive by making their solutions more intelligent, innovative, effective and more profitable. Thus helping the system integrators grow themselves in the market.


Join us for our Easter Concert 2019, a joyous welcome to the warmer weather and a celebration of our talented musicians and performance artists. Whether your daughter is in Pre-School, Junior, Senior, Upper School or College, do join us for this glorious celebration evening.
The evening begins at 7.00pm and will finish by 8.30pm.


The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Weather Advisory for freezing rain, sleet and snow in Northwest Oregon and Southwest Washington.
Sleet and freezing rain have been falling on the northern Willamette Valley.
Cold air is being pumped into the Portland area through the Columbia River Gorge. The winds won't let up until tonight.
Temperatures will remain near freezing all day, especially east of the West Hills.
Temperatures will be slow to moderate tonight. Rain is forecast for most areas on Christmas Day.


Pictures, News Photos, Slideshows and More from The IK Foundation's Field Work, Expeditions, Research projects, Publications, Exhibitions and Press releases. Researchers, Editors and Reporters et al. who are interested in obtaining high quality Pics are welcome to Contact IK.
As an independent non-governmental organisation - with a strong reputation for interdisciplinary thinking, in-depth knowledge and long-term results - IK continues to develop unique international networks of cooperation and finance in order to fulfill its mission, we believe that it is the right of everyone to have access to good knowledge of both local and global Natural and Cultural History. In that a interdisciplinary and historical approach to these subjects probably makes it easier to understand life as it is today and to face the future - something that affects all of us on Planet Earth.
In our wing THE IK WORKSHOP SOCIETY we welcome individuals and organisations to participate in using our open sources and activities which connect us with our various subjects and projects.


text:
Child & Adult Beneficiary Safeguarding
World Vision's absolute priority is protecting children, vulnerable communities and our own staff.
World Vision has zero tolerance of incidents of violence or abuse against children and other people in the communities we serve, either committed by our staff or others connected to our work.
We abhor any misuse of power, status, or trusted position for any sexual or other exploitative purposes. We endeavour to tackle this root cause of abuse in our prevention and training efforts. Continuous improvement of safeguarding efforts, which emphasises prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse and other forms of violence or harm, is at the top of our agenda.
In World Vision programmes, we have mechanisms to enable communities, beneficiaries, and staff to report potential cases of abuse. We provide training for frontline staff in how to recognise and respond to issues of sexual exploitation and abuse, of children, vulnerable groups, and staff. For more than ten years, we have provided a confidential Integrity and Protection (Whistleblower) Hotline.
We continually monitor and update our safeguarding policies in order to be accountable and improve. We believe we have a moral obligation to maintain the highest ethical standards in our work. The Child and Adult Safeguarding Policy, also referred to as the Safeguarding Management Policy (2018), expands upon World Vision's Child Protection Standards, in place since the year 2000, to cover all vulnerable people, especially women and children, in one integrated policy.
Have you witnessed an incident that put a child or adult beneficiary at risk? Do you have a concern about a World Vision staff members' behaviour? Any other safeguarding concern?
We encourage anyone who has concerns, either about conduct of World Vision employees or of any abuse of children or other vulnerable groups in World Vision's operations to use our Integrity and Protection (Whistleblower) Hotline (Report online http://worldvision.ethicspoint.com or call collect +1-503-726-3990, or call the country-specific numbers provided on the website). Incident reports can also be made to safeguarding@wvi.org.
Integrity and Protection Hotline
Responding to Incidents
All reported incidences are investigated and dealt with in line with World Vision policies. If inappropriate behaviour is confirmed, the consequences may include dismissal from World Vision and reporting the incident to law enforcement authorities for criminal prosecution. For child victims in particular, their immediate safety and longer-term recovery is our priority, and so we also provide support to the victims and help to seek justice for them.
Annually, we publish details on number of reported incidents, actions taken and how we are continually strengthening our safeguarding system, in the World Vision International Accountability Report.
We participate in several inter-agency initiatives to help keep children, families, and communities safe, such as:
Humanitarian Accountability Partnership
People in Aid
Inter Agency Committee Task Team on Accountability to Affection Populations and Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse
Core Humanitarian Standards Alliance
Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance
Communicating with Disasters Affected Communities
Humanitarian Protection Cluster
Ending Violence
Want to know more about our accountability promise?


Conservation offers an outline of all facets of this quickly altering and debatable box. With the decline of species and our encroachment on traditional habitats, conservation is more and more within the public eye. preserving the variety of existence on the planet and utilizing our traditional assets in a sustainable demeanour is necessary to guard the choices of destiny generations.
This can be a choice of papers featuring the medical result of the 3rd Bulgarian Antartic excursion (1995). insurance comprises papers on weather conditions, soils, humus formation, crops, soil micro-organisms; actinomyces and streptomyces lines, diatoms, interstitial rhizopods, testate amoebae, soil nematodes, cestodes in birds on the Bulgarian Antartic Base at the Livingston Island, South Shetlands, Antarctic.
The Oligocene and Miocene Epochs include crucial levels within the Cenozoic international cooling that led from a greenhouse to an icehouse Earth. fresh significant advances within the knowing and time-resolution of weather occasions happening at present, in addition to the proliferation of stories on Oligocene and Miocene shallow-water/neritic carbonate platforms, invite us to reconsider the importance of those carbonate structures within the context of alterations in weather and Earth floor methods.
A turning out to be group of scientists, land-management determination makers, and cavers are enthusiastic about the security of average assets and need to proportion learn between themselves. yet few of them are fluent in every one discipline's jargon, and cavers and geologists specifically who are looking to proportion their discoveries locate it obscure one another.
6). 4 Val Plumwood calls this the culture-reductionist project (2006, p. 143). 5 Likewise, in her essay 'The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction', novelist Ursula LeGuin suggests that hunting and gathering, direct engagement with animals and plants, and the need to recount our excellent adventures with them taught us how to tell stories. Her playful and witty feminist analysis critiques the dominance of the hunting tale: So the Hero has decreed through his mouthpieces the Lawgivers, first, that the proper shape of the narrative is that of the arrow or spear, starting here and going straight there and THOK!
1993. Picturing the Beast. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Bataille, Georges.  1989. Theory of Religion. Translated by Robert Hurley. New York: Zone. Budiansky, Stephen. 1998. If A Lion Could Talk: How Animals Think. London: Phoenix. Burghardt, Gordon M. 1985. ' American Psychologist 40 (8) (August): 905–19. Daston, Lorraine and Gregg Mitman, eds. 2005. Thinking with Animals: New Perspectives on Anthropomorphism. New York: Columbia University Press. 29 This is not to say that a scientific or philosophical endeavour which adopts an investigative strategy that is broadly in line with what was called 'critical' or 'heuristic' anthropomorphism might not be productive or illuminating.
New York: Norton: 403–13. Griffin, Donald R. 1981. The Question of Animal Awareness: Evolutionary Continuity of Mental Experience. 2nd Edition. New York: Rockefeller University Press. ——. 1992. Animal Minds. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Heidegger, Martin.  1984. Nietzsche Volume II: The Eternal Recurrence of the Same. Translated by David Farrell Krell. New York: HarperSanFrancisco. Heidegger, Martin. [1929–30] 1995. The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics: World, Finitude, Solitude.


Client came to us with a shoestring budget, wanting a TVC that showcases how Flight Centre offers the lowest prices when flying to Mauritius with their Red Label holiday packages. We coined the word, "Mauritioned". It's that state where nothing upsets you or gets you down after you return from your holiday in Mauritius. Even a strict family who do things meticulously let things slide.


You have to be a pretty intense hoops fan to remember many of the details of the career of Shawn Bradley.
Other than, of course, you know what.
Take a look at the YouTube at the top of this post some of the details will come back to you. Or even click here for a short video dedicated to one of the most famous dunks -- the Tracy McGrady classic -- in which the 7-foot-6 Bradley was, as the saying goes in pro basketball, "posterized." That's the term for the man caught underneath the basic when a high-flying ace goes in for a picture-perfect slam.
"In your face" is the kind way to express the results.
However, there is much more to Bradley, the man, than posters. The purpose of this post is to encourage GetReligion readers, even those who don't care about sports, to CLICK THERE and spend the mere 12 minutes it takes to watch an amazing little ESPN film called "Posterized," which is a fantastic example of a piece of news-feature material that gets the religion angle of a story just right. Did I mention that it's really short?
If you search "Shawn Bradley" on YouTube, the majority of the results will be videos of people dunking on him or trying to fight the 7'6 center that was picked in between the much loved Chris Webber and Penny Hardaway during the 93 draft. Now, I don't mind those videos dominating the video results, but I do mind hearing people that have never watched him play in the 90?s say he was a "horrible player" or just some useless big man -- which could be said about a long list of big men in the past 14 years that were lottery picks and sometimes #1 picks.
Keep reading for the faith angle.
Thankfully I found another person who is willing to defend the center that wasn't afraid of defending the basket and getting posterized more than any other player in the history of the game. His name is Andrew Jenks and he's the director of the new ESPN 30 for 30 short: Posterized. Posterized is about the perceptions people have of Shawn Bradley and things that people don't know about Bradley and his values that make him a success in life now and even when he was ending up on the bottom half of posters night after night.
Now, the "values" word is, of course, a reference to the fact that Bradley was and is a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
That's part of the posterized image, of course, with the otherworldly tall, always thin white Mormon guy being humiliated by super-cool NBA stars, most of them black, who were so much more gifted and athletic than the victim in all of these hoops mini-dramas. Of course, the video clips rarely show Bradley doing what he always tried to do, which was defend the rim. He won more of these battles than he lost.
Yet he never reached his potential, you see. He never became a superstar.
That's where the religion angle of this documentary is so, so good. It simply demonstrates the ways in which Bradley was dedicated to basketball, but way more dedicated -- at each and every stage of his career -- to his faith and to his family. In other words, Bradley is reaching his potential NOW as an activist on behalf of the poor and, especially, angry, hurting kids who are struggling to overcome brutal and heartbreaking twists in their young lives.
The film doesn't preach. This is an ESPN product, after all. It just explains the role that hoops played in this man's life and why it's not the part of life that matters the most to him. Get a life? Bradley did.
Make sure you hang on for some of the hilarious quotes and memories at the end of the piece.
Congratulations to the always excellent 30 for 30 team. This is a small gem.