text:
Sarah Holder·
At the beginning of every semester, Yale Law School professor Ian Ayres stands at the front of the classroom and opens his wallet. He pulls out crisp bills and hands them out, one by one, to the passing law students. The students walk out not only with their casebooks, but also with ten dollars from the author himself.
In a 2005 New York Times opinion article titled "Just What the Professor Ordered," Ayres sparked a national debate when he wrote, "Professors' incentives in choosing textbooks are in some ways more distorted than doctors' incentives in choosing drugs." On average, course book authors receive ten percent of the cover price in royalties for each book sold. Ayres argued that they could abuse their freedom to assign reading for financial gain.
Ayres finds this freedom particularly alarming given soaring textbook prices. In 2013, the National Association of College Stores, a campus retail group, estimated the cost of one new textbook to be seventy-nine dollars, bringing the average cost of a student's required course materials to over six hundred dollars per semester.
The American Association of University Professors delegates responsibility to individual universities to regulate this ethical quandary. Professors at Virginia State, the University of Minnesota, and Southern Utah University, for example, must have their syllabi screened by committees for potential conflicts of interest. After a November 2014 article published in the University of Buffalo's newspaper, The Spectrum, exposed professors who assign their own books for profit, the university's Faculty Senate instated a committee to draft a policy addressing the matter.
Yale, however, does not monitor the texts professors assign. When I scoured the new Faculty Standards of Conduct draft, I found no mention of the topic. When I wrote Stephanie Spangler, head of the Ad Hoc Committee on Faculty Standards of Conduct, she confirmed its absence and directed me to the University's policy on conflicts of interest, where, again, there was no explicit reference to assigning textbooks.
Regardless, some Yale professors have heard Ayres's clarion call. Journalism professor Steven Brill promised to give his students a check if they purchased his book, America's Bitter Pill, at the end of this past semester. Music professor Craig Wright puts a picture of a ten-dollar bill on the last slide of his presentations, prompting students to come forward and "retrieve the money that is rightly theirs." But most Yale educators are reluctant to make such refunds.
I walk into American Studies professor Matthew Jacobson's office to discuss one of twelve required texts on his "Formations of Modern American Culture" syllabus, What Have They Built You to Do, a book about Cold War America and the film The Manchurian Candidate. My questions, however, aren't about McCarthyism or communist ideology. Instead, they are about present-day capitalism. The book, co-written by Jacobson, costs $1.04 on Amazon for a used copy, $10.87 for a Kindle edition, and $17.96 for a new paperback. "None of us are in it for the money," Jacobson tells me, "People don't even think of it as income. I can show you stubs from royalty checks that are, like, forty dollars."
Professor Robyn Creswell assigns his own edition of That Smell and Notes from Prison for the course "Politics and Literature of the Middle East." He, too, responds to my questions with a shrug. As a translator, his royalties are only one to two percent of the cover price, and only when the book is purchased new. Jacobson hasn't negotiated for Kindle profits, and professor David Blight says he makes no royalties off A Slave No More "for complicated contractual reasons."
I've been at Yale for four semesters and I've been assigned five books written by my professors, on everything from environmental law to poetry. I haven't asked any professors for a refund. But inspired by Ayres's insistence, I shyly ask professor Creswell whether he'd consider handing out cash if the profits were greater. "Maybe I would take students out for doughnuts," he says.
As I speak to professor Ayres on the phone, I pace back and forth in Sterling's nave, watching students thumb through thousands of dollars worth of readings. I've started viewing the books as their receipts, but Ayres snaps me out of it, reminding me that books, above all, are meant to teach students. "I'm hired to transmit ideas I think are of value," Ayres says. "Assigning a book you've written allows you to more officially profess ideas you created and believe in passionately."
But there's an inherent conflict of interest here, too. Can—or will—students objectively discuss and critique the author's argument when their grade depends on their relationship with said author?
When professor Creswell asks my class what we think of his translation, we compliment the rawness of the language, the shortness of the sentences. We don't find anything to criticize. But, Creswell says, "students certainly have to be made to feel that they are interlocutors," empowered to participate and respond.
To that end, Jacobson asks his graduate students to write critical responses to the readings he assigns, including his own. "If they promise to be respectful, I promise not to be defensive," he chuckles. Similarly, Brill assigns the forty-page article upon which America's Bitter Pill was based, providing students with thick stacks of the photocopied pages. "I told them to find something badly sourced or badly written," he says.
Some professors circumvent the question of textbook profits by allocating them to a charity related to their field. John Grim, who teaches courses on religion and ecology, donates to Native American groups. George Chauncey, the instructor of "U.S. Lesbian and Gay History," donates to groups advocating for LBGTQ rights and researching AIDS.
But Ayres still implores Yale professors to consider returning the proceeds to the students who are there to learn. "I call upon students to ask their professors to join me in disgorging the profits," he proclaims. "Rather than there being a law, let's start modestly by just politely asking." Nowadays, he prefers to let his administrative assistant handle this "disgorgement," as he calls it. Handing out cash himself has come to seem too dramatic, he says. And besides, he doesn't always have exact change.
April 2015 | Volume 47 Number 5August 2014 | Volume 47 Number 1capitalismCraig WrightcurriculumDavid BlightethicsGeorge ChaunceyIan AyresJohn GrimMatthew JacobsonprofessorprofessorsprofitRobyn CreswellroyaltiesSarah HolderSteven Brilltextbooks
Sarah Holder
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The Patent Application had 17 claims with independent system claim 1, capsule claim 15 and method claim 17. Each of the independent claims defined the feature of "at least one rib extending from the circumferential wall [of the capsule] into the inner space to provide additional stiffness to the capsule" (the Rib Feature). System claim 1 and method claim 17 (but not claim 15) further defined that a fluid dispensing means supplied fluid to the capsule at a pressure of 4 to 20 bar (the Pressure Feature).
Cantarella asserted that claims were invalid for lack of novelty and inventive step. In addition, Cantarella asserted that dependent claims 10 and 11 reciting the feature of "an alternative capsule" lacked clarity.
An issue between Cantarella and Douwe was whether the Rib Feature would include ribs formed by or part of the wall, such as a corrugated wall section, where the corrugations extending inward were the "ribs". After considering expert evidence from both parties, the hearing officer concluded that, as the Rib Feature defined that the rib extended from the capsule wall, this meant that the wall must have in effect a projection extending from its surface. Thus, the Rib Feature would exclude corrugations or ribs formed in walls as they each do not extend from a surface of the wall.
One prior art document was a PCT application that was withdrawn prior to its formal publication, but was later used as a priority document for a later filed PCT application. This later filed PCT application was published after the earliest priority date of the Patent Application. Hence, there was an issue as to whether the first PCT application was part of the prior art base for novelty. The hearing officer reviewed section 88 of the Patent Act and found that the first PCT application would be part of the prior art base if it were published. Cantarella argued that the first PCT application had been published as it became publicly available upon publication of the later filed PCT application. The hearing officer agreed and so the first PCT application was considered part of the prior art base as a "whole of contents" novelty citation.
This finding on common general knowledge helped sway the hearing officer to find that the claims were inventive over the two prior art documents that did not disclose the Rib Feature since the addition of the Rib Feature would not have been routine. Similarly, the hearing officer's assessment above of the expert evidence in relation to the Pressure Feature led to the finding that it would not have been a routine modification to include the Pressure Feature in any of the cited prior art. Consequently, the claims were inventive over the other prior art documents that did disclose the Rib Feature but not the Pressure Feature. Thus, the claims (except claim 15) had an inventive step.
Cantarella was successful on the clarity issue in relation to claims 10 and 11. The hearing officer found that the term "exchange capsule" (referring to the capsule defined in claim 1) was interchangeably used with "alternative capsule" in these claims. Therefore, the reference to the "alternative capsule" was ambiguous as to whether it referred to the capsule defined in claim 1 or a different type of capsule. Hence, these claims were invalid for lack of clarity.


SOUTH BEND — A 17-year-old was robbed at gunpoint Sunday night, he told police, after accepting a ride from a friend.
The teen told police he was walking in the 2100 block of West Lathrop Street about 7:45 p.m. when a friend he knew from school offered to give him a ride.
The teen said he rode in the friend's car for a little while until he pulled into a parking lot, when the friend and a second man he did not know pulled out guns and robbed the teen.
The teen said the two men stole his coat, his cell phone and a necklace before forcing him out of the car and driving off.


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Iconic coastal birds
Llwybr Arfordir Cymru
10 birds to spot on the Wales Coast Path
From otters to orchids, puffins to peregrine falcons and dolphins to damselflies, Wales has more wildlife than you can point a very large pair of binoculars at. But it's the region's sea birds that provide one of the biggest draws of the Welsh Coast for fans of the natural world.
Cormorants on Anglesey
Where to see them: Puffin Island, Anglesey, North Wales
As well as sheltering grey seals, Puffin Island is home to a huge colony of cormorants – for which the island is a Special Protection Area. A supreme fisher, these marine birds are a sight to see on the cliffs of island. There are also increasing numbers of black guillemots and puffins here. Boat tours around the island are available throughout the summer from Beaumaris pier.
Gannets on RSPB Grassholm Island
Where to see them: coastal areas, especially near RSPB Grassholm Island, Pembrokeshire
These bright white seabirds are a common sight around the Welsh coast and you'll know them for their plunging dives from great heights. One place you're sure to spot them is around the coast near RSPB Grassholm Island in Pembrokeshire. That's because this tiny piece of rock is home to the third largest colony of gannets in the world – roughly 39,000 pairs.
Gannet on RSPB Grassholm Island
© Ben Andrew (rspb-images.com)
Arctic terns at Cemlyn Nature Reserve
Where to see them: North Wales coast
White with a black cap, the arctic tern is also known by its local name 'sea swallow' and they really are extraordinary birds. Arctic terns can live up to 30 years. And in their long life scientists reckon they make the equivalent of three round trips to the Moon. North Wales is the best place to spot them, particularly the Cemlyn Nature Reserve on Anglesey.
Manx shearwaters and puffins on Skomer Island
Where to see them: Skomer Island, Pembrokeshire, West Wales
Anyone walking round the Wales Coast Path should keep their eyes peeled for the manx shearwater – although they may not have to look too hard. Wales has half the world's population, with Skomer Island, Pembrokeshire supporting 120,000 breeding pairs and Bardsey Island, just off the Llyn Peninsula, home to a further 16,000 pairs. This medium sized seabird is black on top and white below and has a distinctive 'shearing' form of flying, with stiff wings and few wing beats.
Atlantic Puffin and a Manx Shearwater on Skomer Island, Pembrokeshire, West Wales
Bearded tits on RSPB Newport Wetlands
Where to see them: RSPB Newport Wetlands Reserve
Despite its name, this brown, long-tailed bird is a 'parrotbill', not a close cousin of our familiar blue and great tits. The 'beard' refers to the black markings on the male's face (although they look more like handlebar moustaches). Found only in reedbeds, bearded tits have a small population of around 630 breeding pairs in the UK, mainly in the east of England, but recently the RSPB Newport Wetlands Reserve has become home to them.
Bearded tit on RSPB Newport Wetlands
Chough on RSPB South Stack Cliffs
Where to see them: from Pembrokeshire to Anglesey
The chough's Welsh name, Brân Goesgoch, literally means 'red-legged crow' – and that's what it is. Usually seen along the coast, the chough is the rarest member of the crow family. The UK has just a few hundred pairs, with three-quarters of them living in Wales. You may hear them before you see them though – they have a distinctive call. A great place to find them is at the RSPB's South Stack Cliffs, in North Wales.
Red kites at Gigrin Farm
Where to find them: mainly in the Mid Wales
One of the best places to see red kites is Mid Wales, although they have spread from their stronghold out to areas of the coast, particularly Ceredigion. Keep your eyes open wherever you are, and if you want the quintessential kite experience, peel off the path and head inland to see them being fed at Gigrin Farm, or flying over the lakeside cafe at Bwlch Nant Yr Arian.
Red kite at Nant yr Arian, near Aberystwyth, Mid Wales
Ospreys in Mid and North Wales
Where to find them: Glaslyn Estuary or Dyfi Valley
Ospreys are one of the most recent, and certainly one of the most spectacular, birds to recolonise Wales. Your chances of seeing one along the route of the Wales Coast Path are much enhanced by visiting the Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust's, Dyfi Osprey Project at Cors Dyfi near Machynlleth. Further north, the Glaslyn Osprey Project is based at Pont Croesor in the Glaslyn Valley.
MONTY IS HOME!!!!! We promise this isn't a joke. Welcome home Monts!! pic.twitter.com/OmmidRRVZI
— Dyfi Osprey Project (@DyfiOspreys) April 1, 2019
Stonechats on the Glamorgan Heritage Coast
Where to find them: anywhere along the cliffs – try the Glamorgan Heritage Coast
This little bird is a common sight on the Welsh coast as they thrive in coastal vegetation. The adult male has a distinctive black head and, while the birds are sometimes shy, they do love to let you know they're around. In fact, you may well hear a Stonechat before you see one, listen out for a sharp, loud call, like two stones being tapped together. they can be found along the cliffs and shingled stretches.
Peregrine falcon at Cardigan Bay
You'll need all your wits about you to hone in on one of these beautiful birds of prey, Britain's largest falcon. That's because the peregrine is one of the fastest animals on earth, reaching speeds of 200 miles per hour while diving for prey. Peregrine falcons thrive in coastal areas (as well as, increasingly, urban centres) – and while you might encounter one anywhere along the coast, the beaches of Mwnt and Llangrannog in Cardigan Bay are great places to start.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


GenYES is a student-centered research-based solution for school-wide technology integration. At Shadow Mountain High School in Arizona, GenYes students work with teachers to design technology-infused lessons and provide tech support. Today's video shows the students' exploration of software they've acquired to support the use of the Xbox 360 Kinect motion sensor in the classroom.


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Recorded conversations can play crucial role in upcoming Philly mob trial
August 18, 2012 Dapper_Don
It was just a bunch of guys sitting around a table, eating, drinking, and talking about the old days. There were a few bottles of wine, some antipasto, several nice entrées, and then a little anisette.
And all the while there was lots of conversation.
The talk focused on business - murders, robberies, "making" ceremonies - but then, what else would nine mob guys talk about over drinks and dinner?
That was the scene at La Griglia, an upscale Italian restaurant in North Jersey one day back in May 2010.
The question now is whether any of that talk - secretly recorded by a cooperating witness - is relevant to the pending racketeering case against Philadelphia mob boss Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi and key associates Anthony Staino, Joseph "Scoops" Licata, and Louis "Big Lou" Fazzini, all of whom were at the meeting.
Defense attorneys say there is no relevance. They argue that nothing from the meeting, which was recorded by a cooperating figure who later killed himself, should be entered as evidence.
Prosecutors contend that the discussions help set the backdrop for the case and that they provide an unguarded account of the way organized crime operates.
U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno is scheduled to hear arguments on the issue Friday. His ruling could determine how the racketeering trial set to begin in October will play out.
To date, only snippets of the tapes, made by Nicholas "Nicky Skins" Stefanelli, have been made public. They were referred to in a superseding indictment handed up this year and in a detention memo filed by the government in May.
Prosecutors say Licata, 71, a capo who represents the Philadelphia crime family's interests in North Jersey, set up the meeting and dominated the conversation. Among other things, they allege, he joked with Ligambi about the murder of John "Johnny Gongs" Casasanto; complained about problems with the Lucchese crime family; and waxed philosophical about the need for quality over quantity in La Cosa Nostra.
There are more detailed accounts in a 150-page government document, not yet made public, that includes partial transcripts from the meeting at La Griglia in Kenilworth and from a second restaurant meeting, attended only by Licata, Fazzini, and Stefanelli, at the American Bistro in Belleville in October 2010.
The government document will be the focus of the legal arguments on Friday.
What is clear from memos already made public is that on May 19, 2010, Ligambi and Staino traveled more than 80 miles to break bread with Licata, Fazzini, Stefanelli, and several reputed leaders of New York's Gambino crime family, including brothers John and Joe Gambino and Lorenzo Mannino.
Ligambi, 73, was introduced to the New Yorkers as "the acting boss" of the Philadelphia mob; Staino, 54, was described as a capo, or captain.
The meeting lasted several hours and included rounds of drinks and lots of food. La Griglia touts its pasta and steak and chops dishes.
Some samples from the menu: Spaghetti served with lobster, toasted herb bread crumbs, and roasted shallots in a sherry lobster sauce goes for $24. A rack of lamb chops served with fingerling potatoes and broccoli rabe in a rosemary-balsamic reduction is listed at $38. And a bottle of Brunello di Montalcino, a classic Tuscan red, costs $85.
What Ligambi and the others ate and drank that day has never been detailed. What they discussed has already been alluded to in several government documents.
At a hearing last week, Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Labor, one of the prosecutors in the case, said the 150-page government memo includes transcripts of about 90 minutes of conversation gleaned from more than seven hours of mob chatter.
How any of the discussions recorded by Stefanelli fit into the racketeering-conspiracy case now pending is the fundamental question.
The answer may depend in part on how much of the history of the Philadelphia mob Robreno is prepared to allow the jury to hear.
Defense attorneys contend that none of the topics discussed has anything to do with the racketeering-conspiracy charges pending against Ligambi and the others.
The case includes allegations of gambling, loan-sharking, and extortion built around sports betting and illegal video poker machines.
The defense contends that violence tied to other mob regimes, particularly from the bloody Philadelphia crime family headed by Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo in the 1980s and the organizations run by John Stanfa and later mob boss-turned informant Ralph Natale in the 1990s, has no connection to the current case.
References to murders and acts of violence from those periods, they argue, are both unfair and prejudicial.
"The issue here is not what the mob was, but what it is today," said Gregory Pagano, Staino's attorney, sounding a theme that was repeated by other defense attorneys and that will likely emerge as a talking point in the coming trial.
The theme seems to imply that while the defendants may be mobsters, they're not the gun-toting, head-bashing gangsters who preceded them.
Edwin Jacobs Jr., who represents Ligambi, said at that same hearing last week that the government was trying to build its case on "an outdated reputation of an organization that is not on trial. ... They're trying to present these people as every bit as evil as those who went out and committed murder for Scarfo."
But prosecutors say the Ligambi organization is a continuation of a mob family that stretches back decades, and that Ligambi and his codefendants played off the mob's reputation for violence to extort and intimidate in the 21st-century Philadelphia underworld.
At last week's hearing, the prosecution drew a comparison between the mob and the New York Yankees.
Murderers Row, the famous Yankees juggernaut of the late 1920s, was a team from the past, Labor said, but today's Yankees are part of the same organization.
"These defendants used threats of violence and exploited the history and reputation of La Cosa Nostra" to control the underworld in which they operated, he said.
That reputation and that history, he contended, were the things discussed as they sat around a table at La Griglia eating good food and drinking fine wine.
http://articles.philly.com/2012-08-17/news/33249288_1_ligambi-and-staino-louis-big-lou-fazzini-nicholas-nicky-skins-stefanelli
Judge to decide whether violent history of Philly mafia family will be allowed at upcomign trial (fivefamiliesnyc.com)
Secret jury ordered for upcoming Philly mob trial (fivefamiliesnyc.com)
Lawyer and prosecutors spar over secrecy in Philly mob trial (fivefamiliesnyc.com)
Philly mob captain pleads guilty to racketeering but will not cooperate with the feds (fivefamiliesnyc.com)
Photos and videos part of evidence against Philadelphia crime family (fivefamiliesnyc.com)
Philly mobster pleads guilty but is not cooperating (fivefamiliesnyc.com)
Feds request a sequestered jury for upcoming Philly mob trial (fivefamiliesnyc.com)
Philly mob underboss sent incriminating letter while in prison (fivefamiliesnyc.com)
Another Philly made man plans to plead guilty (fivefamiliesnyc.com)
Gambino Crime Family / Joe Gambino / John Gambino / Lucchese Crime Family / Nicholas Stefanelli


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Best Seaside Towns for Families
Best Railway and Transport Attractions In Barrow
We've rounded up the best railway and transport attractions in Barrow in our quest to discover brilliant family attractions and places to visit near you.
There are 37 Barrow railway and transport attractions to pick from.
Alternatively, why not explore some other sightseeing days out nearby, including museums and art galleries. Find the perfect places to go with your kids and get out on your next adventure!
All the railway and transport attractions we list are rated according to the ages they are suitable for, facilities and whether they are suitable for rainy days or best when the sun is shining.
Many of the places we list are historic or educational in nature and would be suitable for class trips or as ways to keep the learning up whilst having fun over the school holidays.
Railway and Transport Attractions
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The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway
Suitable for all ages •Outdoor 11.3 miles from Barrow
Evesham Vale Light Railway
Bourton Model Railway
Suitable for 0-12 •Indoor 17.6 miles from Barrow
Cotswold Motoring Museum
Suitable for 4+ •Indoor 17.9 miles from Barrow
Kingfisher River Cruises
Tours and River Cruises
Suitable for 4-12 •Outdoor 20.9 miles from Barrow
Avonvale MES Miniature Railway
Perrygrove Railway and Treetop Adventure
Rating 3/5 (2 reviews)
Suitable for 0-12 •Indoor, Outdoor 21.3 miles from Barrow
Broomy Hill Miniature Railway
Broomy Hill
Suitable for all ages •Indoor 25.4 miles from Barrow
Tintern Old Station
Swindon and Cricklade Steam Railway
STEAM - Museum of the GWR
Suitable for 4+ •Indoor, Outdoor 31.9 miles from Barrow
Aerospace Bristol
Transport Museum Wythall
Suitable for all ages •Indoor, Outdoor 33.3 miles from Barrow
British Motor Museum
Oxford Bus Museum and Morris Museum
Avon Valley Railway
Strawberry Line Miniature Railway
Bath Boating Station
Suitable for 4+ •Outdoor 37.6 miles from Barrow
The Matthew of Bristol
Adventure Attractions in Barrow
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Bioceuticals ArmaForce Tablets introduces an herb-nutrient all-in-one formulation containing both herbal extracts like andrographis, Echinacea, olive leaf and nutrients such as vitamin C and zinc. Its formulation is scientifically proven to relieve symptoms and shorten duration of colds and infections affecting the upper respiratory tract.
Contains 62.5mg standardized amount of andrographolides derived from andographis. Andographis boosts the immune functions and relieves common cold symptoms.


As a newcomer on the site (just joined 3 days ago), it took me several hours of roaming around to accidentally find this very useful bird's eye view of FAQs on Meta: FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions and Reference Answers It also took me a while to think of searching through tags of topics I am interested in.
When clicking "Ask a Question" on the main ethereum.stackexchange.com, a window pops us that says "Is your question about Ethereum, the decentralized application platform and smart contract enabled blockchain? We prefer questions that can be answered, not just discussed. Provide details. Share your research. If your question is about this site, ask it on meta instead."
Could you perhaps add a couple of lines and links (before "Provide details") to the effect of: Before asking your question, please look up keywords (top right box), relevant tags, and this FAQ page to make sure your question has not already been answered. If it hasn't, provide details about the challenge you face. Share your research etc..."
Or does anyone have better ideas for how to support newcomers to find existing answers to their questions, and avoid unknowingly duplicating?
Regarding the guidance-box on the right when asking a new question: This feature you suggested already exists, if I understand you correctly. As soon as you insert a title and add tags and a body, it keeps suggesting similar questions. I think this is a very good way to prevent duplicate posts.
We can't edit "How to Ask" but we are able to add a link to the FAQ to https://ethereum.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic and this has been done.
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged feature-request faq new-users duplicates .
How do we edit comments?


Although we are God's most intellectual human species, when it comes to the supernatural and invisible realm governed by the Creator, we are finite, limited in our comprehension of the invisible God, who is Spirit. Yet, He provided a way for us to connect with Him and commune with Him, spirit to Spirit. As spiritual beings we can tap into the spiritual realm (the invisible realm). Actually, after our born-again experience it is our spirit man who should dominate so that we're constantly in communion with God. Knowing this, it becomes our responsibility to pursue God through prayer.
Staying connected to Him requires that we yield our intellectual reasoning abilities, our physical body and our soul (spirit) to the Holy Spirit's (God in us) control, otherwise our sinful nature, its carnal mind will control. Our behavior is ungodly if our sinful nature or carnal mind is in control. It is within our power to choose to submit to the Spirit of God. He (Holy Spirit) will always agree with God's will as revealed in His written Word (Holy Bible).
It is a consistent prayer life that enables you to stay connected, and your spirit to be synchronized with the Spirit of God (Holy Spirit) within. By yielding your mind to the Holy Spirit, you think pure thoughts. By yielding your mind to Holy Spirit your prayers are in agreement with God's will. In Romans 8:1-17, Paul explains in detail life through the Spirit; life through the Spirit is nurtured and developed in prayer—communion with God. This may sound deep and mystical, but it is not. Apostle Paul exhorts us, "…present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God…be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." In essence, yielding your mind, body and soul (spirit) to Holy Spirit's control changes your character—you become God-conscious; seeing and thinking from God's perspective. You are empowered to live a lifestyle of holiness as He has commanded. By the power of the Holy Spirit this is made possible through a constant and consistent life of prayer. When you pray, you always want what God wants because you yield your mind, body and spirit (soul) to Him.


text:
Video captures police officer in Florida kneeling on a black man's neck during an arrest
A Florida police department has launched an internal investigation after a video surfaced on social media showing a Sarasota police officer kneeling on a man's neck during an arrest. CNN affiliate WFTS reports.
Posted: Jun 4, 2020 6:31 PM
Updated: Jun 4, 2020 6:31 PM
Posted By: By Madeline Holcombe, Jess King and Tina Burnside, CNN
A Florida police department has launched an internal investigation after a video surfaced on social media showing a Sarasota police officer kneeling on a black man's neck during an arrest.
In the nearly 90-second cellphone video taken by a bystander during the May 18 incident, three officers can be seen attempting to take a male individual into custody. One of the two officers is then seen kneeling on the head and neck of the man.
The man, who was arrested on a domestic violence/battery charge, is heard yelling, "Why am I being arrested?" as the officer kneels on him.
"As I'm yelling, and asking, 'Why am I being detained,' he started putting his knee on my neck," Patrick Carroll said in an interview with CNN affiliate WFTS.
The video surfaced as protests are underway across the nation seeking justice and reform in the wake of George Floyd's death, which an independent autopsy attributed to officers kneeling on him during his arrest. Video showed an officer with a knee on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes.
In the police incident report obtained by CNN, one of the officers involved says that after they placed Carroll in handcuffs, the "defendant attempted to pull away from officers and refused to get into the rear of the patrol vehicle. Minor force was used to escort subject to the ground and secure him long enough for him to calm down."
The Sarasota Police Department said in a statement released Tuesday it didn't learn about the video until Monday when the department was tagged in a social media post showing a portion of the arrest. After a review of several videos, Chief Bernadette DiPino immediately initiated a formal internal affairs investigation, the department said.
The officer, who had not been identified, has been placed on administrative leave.
SPD did not address whether the other two officers on scene, and shown in the video, would face any disciplinary action.
SPD also released an unedited video taken from the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office helicopter on the day of the arrest. The 13-minute video provides a bird's eye view of officers responding to the scene and taking the man into custody.
"Chief DiPino was disturbed to see an officer kneeling on the head and neck of an individual in the video. While it appears the officer eventually moves his leg to the individual's back, this tactic is not taught, used or advocated by our agency," a statement released by SPD read.
Carroll did not seek medical attention or formally complain of his injuries during the May 18 incident, according to police.
Police also stated in the incident report that Carroll was resisting arrest.
However, during the interview with CNN affiliate WFTS, Carroll says he was not resisting. He says he was attempting to move around so that he could have "circulation in his body and throat."
CNN has reached out to the International Union of Police Association for comment.
4 Minneapolis cops fired after video shows one kneeling on neck of black man who later died
Video captures officer knocking down motorcycle rider
Allentown Police investigating after video appears to show officer putting his knee on man's neck
Video shows Florida officer hitting 14-year-old twice during arrest
Video shows Florida officer hitting 14-year-old
Black man killed during arrest suffered neck injury, likely died of asphyxia, coroner says
13-foot alligator captured in Florida park


text:
nike_ravus
The Charity Auction
Apr 11, 2010 22:21
Title: The Charity Auction
Author: Alsike
Fandom: X-Men/Criminal Minds x-over
Pairing: Emma Frost/Emily Prentiss
AN/Disclaimer: Not my girls.
Prompt: JJ 'buys' Emily in an auction (And, of course, by JJ, we mean Emma).
Apologies: A fic that I scribbled during the CM Kink Meme #2, clearly without any pretense at anonymity, which, of course, was supposed to be a short PWP and ended up being "10 pages of Plot and humorous dialogue Without any semblance of Porn." :( Still, Corset!Sex makes up for it, right? (I did write one more, but that will stay anonymous, thank you.) No mutants. Tony Stark is Emma's BFF (this has become a theme in my work. Check back Tuesday for more) and this one lives in the little world in my head where at some point, to the eternal horror of their daughters, Ambassador Prentiss and Mr. Frost had sex, ranging, in various worlds, from a Hellfire Club hook-up to a full blown affair. This is canon in my head. This worries me.
Morgan came prancing into the office after lunch. "Guess who has a date for this Friday," he crowed, clearly thrilled with his prowess.
JJ cocked her head. "Did you just pick up someone in the coffee shop?" she asked wryly.
"Maybe I did. Just worked some of my awesome high-speed mojo." He wandered past Reid's desk and ruffled his hair. "You gotta learn from the master, boy."
Reid frowned and put his hand on his head, smoothing the muss. "It's not that hard. You don't have to act like you solved one of Dantzig's equations."
JJ glanced at him. "It's not that hard? What aren't you telling us?"
Reid turned bright red. "It's not, I mean, she's a sociologist. We have interests that we want to talk about-"
"Reid," Emily said, laughing. "That's usually a good thing to have on a date, not something you need to be embarrassed about."
"That's excellent!" Morgan exclaimed, offering Reid a high-five, which he took hesitantly. "So I'm covered, you're covered." He pointed at JJ. "You?"
"Will's off, and my mom's babysitting. We're staying in."
Derek nodded, satisfied. "Garcia? You and Kevin going out?"
"White Wolf campaign," came the response over the intercom.
Morgan turned slowly around the room until he was pointing at Emily. "And you?"
Emily shook her head, ducking away from his gaze. "Not me."
"This is very disappointing, Prentiss. You're not even going to party?"
"I'm not that desperate."
"I don't know about that. When was the last time you went on a date?"
Emily turned toward the coffee machine, a little tenser than she ought to be. "Why are we even talking about this? Don't we have work to do?"
"And look how she evades the question!" Morgan spread his hands. "This is what I call a serious case of the stay-ins."
"Morgan!" Emily turned too quickly and knocked the coffeepot off its stand, splashing it onto herself and scalding her arm. "Fuck!" She quickly soaked it up with a napkin but winced. "Don't you know when to shut up?" she snapped, and threw the napkin at him before storming off to the bathroom.
Morgan caught the napkin and looked helpless. "What'd I say?"
"Way to go, hotshot," Reid commented dryly.
Morgan was approaching with apology-coffee when he noticed that Emily was on her phone.
"No, mom! No! No no no!" Emily was hissing, under her breath. "I am not going to be auctioned off like a piece of meat!"
Intrigued, Morgan sidled nearer. He watched her take a deep breath, blowing it out in exasperation, and rub her forehead.
"Are you serious?" She sighed again. "It's humiliating, that's why. Going out with someone who paid for me, or not getting bid for at all? You tell me which one is worse."
She made a frustrated noise at the response. "Fine, whatever. You'll just harass me until I say yes." She hung up and glanced up, seeing Morgan, and groaning in depressed resignation. But she took the coffee.
"A Charity Auction?" he asked, unable to keep the grin off of his face.
"Fuck off," Emily mumbled through a screen of foam.
"Come on. Think positive. Maybe you'll get laid."
"Not if I get bought by a guy, I won't."
Morgan only processed this as he was taking a big gulp of his own coffee and in his surprise succeeded in spitting it all down his shirt. "Shit! Emily!"
But she was just laughing at him. He supposed that she was in a better mood at least, even if he needed a new shirt.
"Pick someone, Emma," said Tony with a grin. "It's bad form to go to a charity auction and not bid."
"Because I'd really just die for a date with someone's disaffected son, or a divorcee who's desperate to reclaim her youth."
"No one catches your eye?"
Emma snapped the booklet closed and took another sip of champagne. "I can't say they do."
"Just promise you'll look. Maybe a bid or two?" Tony tried to wheedle.
Emma shook her head. "If I'm bidding, Tony, I'm bidding to win."
He watched her through the first round. Her various expressions of boredom were more entertaining than the spotty college dropouts and heavily made-up older women. She yawned, signaled to the waiter for another bottle, paged through the booklet again. Tony leaned over to her. "If you want it, I have a pen. You can put mustaches on all the photos."
Emma glared at him. "Shut up, I'm having terrible flashbacks to Oklahoma. I'm just waiting for someone to try to flog their saddle."
Tony hid his smirk. There was a well-endowed matronly lady on stage who looked like she needed some excitement in her life, and Tony indulged in a lackadaisical bidding war with an unidentified opponent at one of the tables in the front. He lost with grace.
He inquired from the waiter whether they had any chilled agave nectar with pineapple. They didn't. Emma made an odd noise, and he glanced back over at her, and then followed her gaze to the woman who had just come out on stage. She was pretty enough if you liked pale and bony, but everyone was a little narcissistic. At least she had a good rack, set off by red velvet.
"See something you like?"
Emma frowned, glancing over at him. "She just looks familiar."
Emma shrugged and threw the booklet at him. She continued watching the action, her expression oddly stiff. "Why is no one bidding for her?" she suddenly asked.
Tony blinked. There was a small bidding war going on at one of the front tables. It seemed rather heated.
"It's not going to go above four-thousand. That's atrocious."
One of the men they were sharing the table with leaned over. "That's Emily Prentiss," he said. "The ambassador's daughter. Everyone but her mother knows she's gay. The bidders are trying to curry favor with her mother."
"Small favor," Emma muttered.
The auctioneer started to call out the final bid. "That's three-thousand nine-sixty, going, going-"
Emma raised her paddle. "Sixteen thousand," she said, her voice betraying nothing but utter boredom. Tony covered his face. She wasn't joking when she said she bid to win.
Everyone stared. The woman onstage was looking over, her eyes wide with utter shock. The auctioneer stuttered, but announced the new bid. No one protested. "Sold!"
Tony shook his head. "Christ, Emma. That was a jump."
Emma shrugged. "I would have gone up to twenty."
This was the awkward part. Emily's face was already red from the looks she had been given. Her mother had come backstage to yell at her about making her pet politicians very unhappy, as if she had planned this. She felt kind of like bursting out laughing, because this was so absurd, and it was taking everything she had not to just call Morgan in the middle of his date and brag.
She spotted the woman leaning up against the wall in the anteroom. She was easy to recognize. No one else was wearing all white. And this was where she had no idea what to say.
"Um, hi."
The woman glanced up and looked at her, her eyes narrowing as she examined her up close, and Emily swallowed hard, trying not to panic. But then she smiled. "Hi yourself," she drawled sarcastically.
She was not making this easier. "Do you…" Emily grimaced. "Do you actually want to… go out?"
The woman leaned towards her, reaching out and lifting her chin up so she could look into her face. "Honey, I spent sixteen thousand on you. I'm expecting you to put out." Then she laughed.
Emily felt her face heat up and hoped hard that it was just a joke. She knew her weaknesses. Blonde, confident and gorgeous was a historical failing of hers. It would be too easy to be sucked in and believe that she actually wanted her, and then the inevitable rejection would sting like anything. Of course, if she had actually been bought for the sex, then that was something she ought to avoid as well. Prostitution, even for charity, was a line that Emily refused to cross.
"Um, we'll see."
And the woman laughed again, as if it were the perfect response. She took out her purse, removing something pearlescently white and flipping it open. "When are you free? I'm in town until Wednesday."
It was a white blackberry. Emily blinked. "Do you have a Mac?" she asked, almost without thinking about it.
"What?" The woman stared at her. Then she glanced down at the object in her hand, back up, and rolled her eyes. "No," she said dryly. "My company makes computers. They come in white, and run Linux. And I get them for free." She glanced back down and poked the screen with the matching white stylus. "Monday is terrible. Tuesday?"
"Sure," Emily said. They should still be in town, even if a new case came in on Monday. She gave her phone number.
"Good," the woman clicked the blackberry off and dropped it back in her purse. She nodded and then just walked away. Emily stared after, watching as she met up with a shorter man in an amusing goatee and spoke to him. He offered his arm, and she took it as if she were amused by the gesture. She scanned them carefully, trying to put together the tells, trying to work out something, even if it wasn't exactly a profile.
It was only when the door had shut behind them that she realized she had forgotten to ask the woman's name. It was probably on the credit card though, so she went to ask the organizer.
"And, soooo?" Morgan rolled his chair over to Emily's desk. "Were we purchased?"
Emily frowned at him. "Is that a royal we, or are you coming along?"
"You have a date!" He grinned. "So, girl or boy?"
Emily tried to look irritated, but she couldn't help the grin of pride. "A woman, in fact, decided to purchase my company, for the good of the children."
"Someone's getting laid!" Morgan pressed his hand to his chest. "I can't but help feel responsible for this."
"You had nothing to do with it."
"I know. That doesn't make a difference. How much did you fetch?"
"Sixteen thousand," Emily said, with practiced nonchalance.
Morgan froze. He looked at her, and blinked a few times. "What?"
"Sixteen thousand."
He gaped. His eyes bugged. "Oh my god!"
Reid glanced up. "What is it?"
Even JJ peeked out of her office. "Morgan?"
"You pulled Sixteen Gs? That is…" He shook his head. "I took top prize at the FBI auction for five hundred."
"Better class of buyers," Emily said, not bothering to try not to grin.
"So what's her name?" Morgan skidded around to Emily's side of the desk, muscling her away from her computer. "We need to do some Google-stalking."
"And a background check," added Garcia though the intercom. Morgan perked up. "Can you do health records too, babe? We need to know if our darling Emily can go all the way."
"I'm on it!"
"Oh no." Emily hid her face.
"Oooh," said Morgan, pleased with what he found on her computer screen. "It looks like someone's already been doing some Google-fu. That's her name? Emma Frost?"
Morgan clicked on the CNN website tab and swallowed hard at the included photo. "Babygirl!" he announced to the intercom. "You had better have good news, because if Emily doesn't hit this chick, I am."
"Interesting," Reid leaned forward, looking over Morgan's shoulder. "I read that article. She seems to be a very impressive woman, although with the rather cutthroat methods for success and the color-coordination, I'm going to say that there are probably some issues with control."
"Like, in bed issues?" Morgan grinned. "Classy, controlling, confident, not married, no kids. She's not into long-term relationships, probably doesn't want to involve them in the power plays that are her real life."
"Looks like she's clean. No records of drug abuse, although one comment about self-medicating with alcohol and refusing therapy."
"Okay," Reid grinned. "Doesn't trust shrinks, doesn't like to let people in. Some use of alcohol. Has she ever been prescribed sleeping pills?"
"No," came the immediate answer.
"So no real psychiatric issues. Probably just stress from the high powered lifestyle."
"I don't know," JJ interjected. "She could be a functional alcoholic."
Emily stared at the group of people surrounding her desk. "Are we really profiling my date?"
Morgan gave her a sidelong glance and grin. "Don't tell me you didn't start putting one together on your own."
Emily groaned. "Fine! I did. But I didn't start speculating on whether she was an alcoholic or not!"
"Non-smoker," Garcia commented through the speakers. "That's a good sign."
"Looking forward to your date, Emma dear?" Tony's smirk was audible over the phone.
"No," Emma said flatly. "And could you stop giving my father my secretary's phone number. I'm still not interested in what he's selling, and, in fact, if you could tell him to die soon, I would appreciate it very much."
"No? You spent sixteen thousand on that girl!"
"I was going to donate that much anyway." Emma scowled and picked up her glass, listening to the ice cubes clink in the bourbon. She ignored his snort of irritated disbelief and downed the shot. Then she scowled at nothing. "I've slept with her before."
"She didn't recognize me, not that that's surprising. It was… god, twelve, thirteen years ago?"
"A teenage crush, Emma? I didn't think you had any of those."
"What? A crush?" Emma frowned. "We had sex. I didn't moon pathetically over her for weeks on end. I think it was generally intended to piss my father off. Everything I did in those days was for that reason." She picked up the bottle and considered refilling her glass, but she set it down instead. "It was right before I left."
"A catalyst to encourage you to break with your family and make it on your own?"
"Have you been reading schlocky romance novels again, Tony? Try not to apply them to reality."
Tony laughed. "So you're nervous, because she doesn't remember you? Are you going to confess?"
Emma made a disgusted noise.
"Relax, Ems. Why did you bid for her anyway?"
"Because…" Emma sighed. She flicked out at the empty cut glass snifter and sent it skidding off the table. It landed on the carpet with a thud. "Because I'm not who I used to be," she snapped. "And I'd like to show that to someone."
There was a pause, then Tony said dryly, "Has anyone suggested therapy for your daddy issues, Emma?"
"Shut up." Emma hung up and tried not to punch anything.
"Mom, are you still freaking out about this? It's a date. A date she paid for. I'm not marrying in to the clan."
"You don't have any idea about what that family is like."
Emily gaped at the ferocity in her mother's voice. "We're having dinner," she tried.
"She bankrupted her own father, and then she sent the IRS information about his overseas accounts."
"How enterprising of her," Emily commented flatly.
"Is it because she's a woman?" Her mother sounded suspicious. "You don't feel threatened. Do you think that because she's a woman she won't try to pressure you into sex?"
Emily gaped at this and didn't respond.
"I know you've never responded well to the men I've set you up with. Are you just uncomfortable around men?"
Morgan was making faces at her across the office, trying to get her to tell him what was going on. Reid had one of his comic books hidden in his files again. Hotch wandered through giving her a slight glare for being on the phone while they were supposed to be catching up on paperwork.
"I'm perfectly comfortable with men, at least when they aren't treating me as a tool, either for sex or for your attention. Do you have any idea how uncomfortable it is to be hit on someone who is more interested in my mother?" Elizabeth made an offended sound in reply. "Emma Frost, at least, doesn't have anything to do with you."
"There's a restaurant a couple of miles outside of Quantico, it takes maybe a half an hour to get there. Should I pick you up at work?"
"Sure." Emily tried not to stutter. "I didn't know what time we'd get done, so I thought I'd get ready here anyways."
"An hour?"
Emily nodded, and then wished she hadn't. "Yes."
She hung up and glanced around, hoping no one had seen that mess. Then she found her bag and disappeared into the bathroom. JJ came in as she was finishing her makeup.
"Wow." JJ walked around her, eyes wide. "You're really… dressed up."
Emily bit her lip, and then needed to retouch the lipstick.
"Do you want it to… go well?" There was an odd expression on JJ's face. Emily met her eyes in the mirror.
"I don't want it not to." She smiled, a little self-deprecating and shook her head. "I haven't gotten laid in way too long."
She was out the door, leaving JJ gaping behind her.
JJ marched into Garcia's office. "Who is this person who's picking Emily up?"
Reid, sitting behind a hard drive glanced up. "Didn't you hear the profile we did yesterday?"
"She's here."
"I want to see!" exclaimed Morgan. Garcia typed quickly and the images jumped to the feed from the outside surveillance cameras. A blonde woman in sunglasses and a white leather duster was leaning against a champagne-colored Rolls Royce.
Emily came out and she took off her sunglasses, said something, and flicked her eyebrows. Emily ducked her head, but smiled like she was both pleased and embarrassed.
"Oh yeah," said Morgan. "Some action is going to happen tonight."
"It's a Tuesday," JJ said disapprovingly.
There was a plink from Garcia's computer, and she paged through a few screens. "Oh," she said. "This is new."
Morgan glanced over. It was an article from a newspaper published over a decade before, and had been scanned in. A tiny section of it was highlighted, a segment from the gossip page. "Ambassador Elizabeth Prentiss, of the US State Department, seen in London accompanied by Winston Frost, CEO of Frost Corp Incorporated. A state contract in the offing for Frost Corp? Or something else?"
"That's strange," said Garcia. "Their parents knew each other?"
Morgan frowned. "That's really strange. Her mother was way not okay with this date either."
"How do you know that?" asked Reid.
"I eavesdrop on people's phone conversations, duh."
Emily thought it probably would be going rather well, if only she could just stop… being herself. So far they had had a very interesting conversation on whether or not bald people were less likely to be Vitamin D deficient, the new EU food regulations and whether they were good or bad for gourmands, and whether Sherlock Holmes technically counted as the first criminal profiler since he worked without the benefits of modern psychological evaluation. They decided he probably was, although his fictionality complicated that.
Emily sighed. "I haven't been to London in ages," she said, when the conversation bent that way.
Emma paused and gave her a searching look. She opened her mouth as if to speak, the closed it, frowned and tried again. "Do you… auction yourself off often?"
Emily glanced up at her in surprised, and felt horribly embarrassed. "No! My mother… I mean…" she sighed and glanced away. "I just couldn't get out of it this time."
"Sometimes it's difficult to defy one's parents."
Emily glanced up at her. She had sort of expected to be mocked for this, chided at least. "You bankrupted your father."
Emma flashed her a grin. "I didn't say it's impossible."
"We'll, I'll certainly try harder next time." Emily laughed. "Now that I have such an impressive role model to live up to."
Emma gave her another curious look. "I always thought… I mean, I didn't imagine you were the type of person to bend so easily."
"My mother wasn't very happy with a lot of the choices I made. But if it were something I knew was important, I wouldn't let her stop me. She's gotten used to those things, finally. She can't tell me what to do. But she's learned how to plead and wear me down."
"I see, very adaptable. My father still hasn't moved past the yelling and attempts at bribery."
Emily smiled, and glanced away, wondering why this couldn't be a real date, and not this desperate farce.
"Why don't you tell me about some of those dramatic life choices you've made," Emma said lazily, taking a sip of her wine. This was awkward, and Emily couldn't even bear to answer such a blatant fallback question. But when she finally looked up, she found that Emma was looking at her, intently, and waiting, as if she actually really was interested. Surprised, Emily found herself beginning to speak without even thinking about it.
Emily wasn't entirely sure how she had gotten here. Her mouth tasted like wine, and her head was a little foggy, but the room smelled uncomfortably familiar, like hotels and Emma, and she called her away from the minibar. "I don't want any more to drink."
"No?" Emma was almost smiling, and Emily just wanted to taste it.
"Look, I'm not…" she swallowed and tried again. "Sex," she said, starting out strong and then faltering, "is not included in the sixteen thousand."
Emma grinned and sauntered towards her. "So how much more do I have to pay? Half again? More?"
"I will throw it in gratis," Emily said, proud of the sentence. Emma laughed, and Emily kissed her while her mouth was open. Emma quickly took over, sliding her tongue between her lips.
"My team decided that you have control issues."
Emma blinked. "Is that a suggestion?"
Emily laughed. "Not unless you want it to be."
"I don't know if that's necessary, but…" she looked at her and arched an eyebrow. "There is one thing that I'd want to try."
"I want to bind you."
Even somewhat drunk and sated on good food and kissing, Emily knew she wasn't quite okay with that. You couldn't work as a profiler for that long without developing some warning signals. "I don't…know you."
"I didn't mean tie you up," Emma smirked and gave her a lazy glance. "Maybe when we know each other better. I want… to put you in a corset."
"Oh," Emily's mouth opened. She hadn't done that in a long time. "Why?"
"The first girl I slept with was wearing one," Emma said with an odd look on her face. "I had no fucking clue how to get it off, so I just left it on. It turned out that that is entirely allowable, which was nice. You… remind me of her."
There was something Emily was supposed to be remembering here, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. She kissed Emma, lazy and slow, remembering the way the bindings had tightened around her ribs, like someone was holding you, holding on so tightly that you couldn't be afraid of them letting go. "I want to."
"Good," Emma said. She leaned in, brushing feather light kisses along the curve of her neck as she unfastened the back of her dress.
It had been too long since she had done this. It had been years of looking but not touching, not being able to get close enough to touch or to smell. The sweet sweat, shampoo, and the cloying acrid napalm of perfume: women were just different. She shuddered, as Emma pushed her dress down, her hands sliding over the skin of her back, settling warmly on her hips.
The way she kissed was almost familiar, a little too hard, but slow and easy, as if she knew she wasn't going to be refused, as if it hadn't even crossed her mind. Emily smiled into it, that arrogance coupled with pure desire, why would she say no to that?
The corset was a canvas one, boned and laced. She hadn't worn one like that since she had stopped binding in college, when she couldn't even bear to look at it without remembering how she felt abandoned by those people who were supposed to be her friends. But that was a long time ago now. It tightened around her and she breathed out. Slowly the laces were pulled in and the pressure, the ache of it, was almost more than she could bear. She tipped her head back, feeling Emma's fingers brush against her skin, and couldn't hold back the moan.
As if that were a trigger, the laces snapped tight, and Emily felt herself being spun around and then shoved, almost roughly, until her knees hit the bed and she toppled backwards, Emma climbing on top of her, pinning her shoulders, mouths meeting like a fist to the face, and this was going just a little bit not like awkward one-date-sex was supposed to go at all. She wasn't asking, not with her words, not with her body, and if she hadn't been so deft with her hands, one sliding down her thigh and hiking up her leg, her fingers curling right over that spot on the inside of her knee that made her hips buck, her mouth light and then rough and then light enough again to turn the bruising into arousal, she might have been scared. But it wasn't frightening, because it wasn't sociopathic, it didn't feel like being taken entirely at the pleasure of someone else. It felt like someone that knew you too well, that didn't care about making you feel comfortable because she knew what you wanted better than you did, and Emily was just drunk enough to go along with that.
Emma had moved down leaving neon bite marks on her neck, and then she was pressing against Emily's cleavage. The corset hiked her breasts up into a soft hilly cartography, and Emma had just stopped, nuzzling into them as if she wanted to do nothing but feel them against her face. Emily had always found excessive interest in her breasts to be rather unnerving, and she had other areas of focus that were not being appreciated properly. She hooked her legs around Emma's ass, clenching tightly to bring her forward, and grinding up into her, catching a handful of hair to jerk her back up to be kissed properly. The sound she made at the rough handling was a catch of breath, and a low echo in her throat. Her back arched, body tensing, and then she was back, mouth claiming her, and her hands sliding down the rough canvas and onto skin, spreading over her thighs, her hips pushing into her in an ungainly irregular rhythm.
She felt like she was seventeen again, so greedy for touch that it was better when it hurt. The corset kept her from breathing deeply, and she was panting already. She had forgotten it was like to be bound during sex, had forgotten how every time her chest expanded, pressing out against the resistance, the force that couldn't escape threaded out through the rest of her body, settling in a hot knot of arousal inside of her. And when Emma's fingers burrowed into her, like they had every right to be there, they pressed right into the center of it, and she was so close to coming that this was going to be utterly humiliating.
"Not already," she mumbled, but couldn't keep from thrusting against the pressure. She felt Emma grin against her cheek, and speed up. And then it hit, only she arched, the corset a brilliant ache against her chest, not letting her release, and then it just exploded outwards, so much more intense, and so much more uncontrollable than it was without it.
"Oh…" she lay there, limp and overcome, Emma's body a warm weight on top of her, and it came to her, easily, like opening up. "I missed you…"
"You fucking didn't," Emma grumbled, and rolled off of her, sitting up and working the cricks out of her shoulders.
"How would you know?" And Emily wriggled up her, pinning her hands at her sides. "Don't touch," she said and leaned down to bite at her breasts.
Five in the morning and hung-over sucked, but getting to work late and hung-over on a Wednesday morning was just asking for it. Emily levered herself sleepily out of bed and started searching for her clothes. Locating them she tried to work the laces on the corset. She was really out of practice. "Fuck," she muttered, as she only managed to pull it tighter.
"Just keep it," was the mumbled from the bed.
Emma propped herself up on her elbow. "Wear it to work," she said, smirking lazily.
Emily snorted. "Because that won't pass without comment."
"I didn't tell you it would."
Emily slipped the dress on over the corset, smoothing out the wrinkles as best as she could.
"You don't wear as much eye make up as you used to."
Emily looked up at her and let herself smile. "You're not as irritating as you used to be."
"Yes, I am. You're just used to me."
Emily laughed, sticking her underwear into her bag, and starting towards the door. Emma made a short noise of protest and she paused. She glanced back, about to protest that she had to go. But it was clear what she wanted. Emily gave in. She crawled back onto the bed and kissed her. It wasn't as light as she had intended and she had to draw back just to breathe.
"Mmm," Emma mumbled, still half asleep. "I should probably apologize." Emily blinked at her in surprise. "I… really don't have any idea what your father looked like, so insinuating that your mother was a whore and you were a bastard and probably my half-sister was pretty groundless. I'm sorry about that."
"It's okay," Emily said, and kissed her again, lightly. "I was pretty angry with them too." She crawled out of bed, starting for the door, this time intending on making it.
"My parents were still married," Emma grumbled, and then pulled up the covers, going back to sleep.
Emily stepped outside into the dim light before dawn, dialing for a taxi to take her home. That had been… strange, to say the least. When she got home, it didn't take her too long to shower and dress. The corset was easier to remove when she was awake. She was awake too early to go into work. After standing in front of the mirror for a while, checking to make sure none of the bite marks on her neck were visible, she stopped, and went and found her old photo albums. It was a glossy picture, one of the few her mother had deigned to take of her while she was still dressing Goth, up on one of the battlements of the Tower of London, the London Bridge in the background, and a scowling skinny girl with dirty-blonde hair standing next to her with crossed arms.
She found a frame for it and set it on the mantelpiece. Then it was time to go to work, and she left it behind.
criminal minds, x-men, au, emma/emily
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On Juneteenth, Sheefy Confronts His Arrest with "Pro Black"
One year ago today, Detroit artist Sheefy was arrested by local police while painting a mural for the City of Detroit's City Walls project, which is administered by 1xRUN. City Walls is a multi-faceted civic program that helps combat vandalism and refurbish old storefronts with city-sanctioned artwork. At the time, Sheefy was one of several participating artists installing murals in Detroit's varied neighborhoods. Taken for a vandal, officers handcuffed the artist and took him to jail, where he spent 24 hours until his release.
It so happened that Sheefy's arrest took place on June 19, 2019, or Juneteenth, which commemorates the 1865 arrival of Union troops upon Galveston, Texas, the last of the states to receive federal orders that all previously enslaved people were now free. The irony is not lost on Sheefy, also known as Tashif Turner, who considers himself an oxymoron: "[I'm] painting for the city and getting arrested for it by the city; living in a Black city and not being able to be a Black artist."
Since then, Sheefy has built an extraordinary following of international fine art collectors. On 1xRUN alone, he's sold 120+ original works of art and seven distinct print editions across 11 solo collections. Between 1xRUN's City Walls, Murals In The Market, and Quicken Loans Small Business Mural Project, Sheefy has also installed dozens more murals throughout the city of Detroit. He is undoubtedly one of the most highly sought-after artists in the fine art community.
We sat with Sheefy to reflect on Juneteenth and the symbolism it carries for himself, his artwork, and the Black community, 155 years on.
Sheefy poses with Untitled, Mixed-media on canvas. 2020.
1x:RUN: Tell us about the mural you were creating for City Walls and the events leading up to your arrest. What was going through your mind at the time? How did it leave you feeling afterwards?
Sheefy: It was the first one I started. A crazy big wall, a whole block. I was really focusing on something the neighborhood would enjoy. 7 Mile, Cartier County––stuff that the inner city can really feel in touch with. In the midst of finishing the second side, under the viaduct, that's when it started. The cops thought I was doing graffiti.
I called Zak Meers (wall manager for the City Walls project), but they thought I was calling my Mom or lying, or something. I couldn't win. Seven cop cars, I'm in cuffs, you feel me? I actually had a city official there, but they still wanted to take me in for an old ticket from 11 years ago. It was like, "We're gonna take you to jail because we can."
I had so many emotions running through me. I had never been to jail. I always avoided jail. And to go to jail doing something for the city? I was just an oxymoron sitting in that cell. I was thinking about it the whole time. It felt so wrong, but I knew I was doing right.
I used my voice to speak up. I knew the editors at Metro Times and Free Press. I told my Mom first. She posted it on Facebook, she just went off, and I sent her status to all the editors. It went from local to national to global in a weekend. You don't know how powerful your voice is. It was crazy.
Mural by Sheefy. 7 Mile Road, Detroit, Michigan. 2019.
1x: You were confronted by police of the very same municipality that commissioned you to paint the mural in the first place. What message did that send to you as an artist?
Sheefy: It shows that they judge me by how I look. The cops weren't really thinking about what was happening. They tried to play the "good cop, bad cop" thing, like they were my friends even though I'm going to jail.
I saw cops the whole week while I was painting. It wasn't like I had just started; I was there and I had been painting the whole block. I tried to explain it to them, that this ain't no graffiti. It shows that street art is different in Detroit. The cops can't even tell the difference between street art and graffiti. If we've got a graffiti task force that don't know the difference, they're going to judge it by who they think does graffiti: a Black person. But if you think of a lot of the graffiti writers in Detroit, they're mostly white. We don't have a lot of Black writers here.
I'm just happy to be away from it. It fucked me up. I took a few weeks to breathe, then I got back to painting. With all the opportunities that came with me speaking my truth, I just really pushed my artwork and went tunnel vision on it. I feel like I've grown a lot as an artist since then. Not only in skill, but what I'm putting in my artwork. The messages, the intensity, the fun––I wrap up all those things in one piece.
Sheefy painting. 7 Mile Road, Detroit, Michigan. 2019.
1x: The incident took place on Juneteenth. The irony of a Black man's arrest taking place on a day that celebrates his freedom is baffling –– what is your takeaway from that?
Sheefy: I didn't realize it until like a month later, when someone pointed it out to me on Twitter. I was like, damn. It just added to the oxymoron: painting for the city and getting arrested for it by the city; living in a Black city and not being able to be a Black artist.
Now a year later, I want to do something special with it. Since my last release, I wasn't even thinking about the connection to Juneteenth. But it felt right. It's something organic, and I think it's pushing me to see my art as bigger than just being pretty. It can be for my city and my people, too. All I gotta do is be able to open up and let loose.
1x: In the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests surrounding the murder of George Floyd, Juneteenth feels as important to recognize now as ever. How do you celebrate Juneteenth, and how do you think Juneteenth should be observed?
Sheefy: I feel like as long as Black people celebrate it, we ain't gotta worry about none of that. It's going to come to us. It takes the people to appreciate it, rather than a government that don't give a fuck about us. We just gotta see it as our day.
We've got to embrace our freedom and embrace each other. We're seeing men getting killed every day, Black men and women being shot by the police still. It's a never-ending fight. We need to show that we know that we were free, but we're still not free. We have to keep that state of mind and connect with our communities. That's what art can do.
1x: How do you use your art as a form of protest?
Sheefy: I'm not out on the streets protesting; I'm in my studio working, but I still want to be able to help. I've been having these feelings like I want to do something, and that's how I got inspired to do the Pro Black series. I feel like I'm always drawing Black people to begin with. My subconscious sees figures with thick lips, big noses, curls––that's what I'm drawing all the time. I'm always Pro Black. Me being Black and successful is Pro Black.
I hit up Pietro, and I was like, man, there's so much on my head. I really want to find a good way to vent. I want to give back somehow. That's when he got back to me about this Black Lives Matter series.
Even this Untitled painting––I wasn't planning on having it in the series; it was just me venting. I couldn't work on commissions or nothing for a week. Then I painted that in three days. I was just trying to get something out of me. It's how I feel, it's got a message to it, and I want people to have it. Plus, it's money for me to give away to the cause.
I know my name and how far my voice goes, so I try to take a positive approach to the media buzz. Instead of, "I got fucked with by the police", it's, "I'm a great artist and this art is for the world."
It's not just about me it's about all of us ✊🏾🎨 #DETROITARTISTS @4liveinthed
A post shared by Sheefy McFly/Edward Elecktro (@sheefymcfly) on Jun 7, 2020 at 6:02am PDT
1x: The city of Detroit has a complicated relationship with street art: it cracks down on graffiti, but at the same time it supports public art projects.
Sheefy: I travel a lot so I can learn from other cities. They connect public art with graffiti in a good way. When you think of graffiti in Detroit, you think of 7 Mile Bloods or something like that. The people in office don't see street art as beauty. If you've got Rock Financial bringing in Kaws, Futura, and Shepard Fairey… it's like, the world knows that's cool, but the city of Detroit don't even know who these artists are. It's still going over their heads. But when you've got artists like me, or Sydney James, or Tiff Massey putting a lot of work around the city and making a global stamp, it makes it better for the youth. They can see representations of themselves, and that will make Detroit stronger.
I believe creativity is our greatest export. Motown, techno, Dilla, Tryee Guyton on up. We've got so much creativity but we haven't really propelled our city. There are a lot of things that blow up, and then just leave here. We can take that initiative going forward. We need more institutions like 1xRUN that are willing to listen to artists, instead of use them when it's convenient. We have to build organic art. We're not doing it just be seen, we're doing it because we love Detroit.
Mural by Sheefy. Gratiot Ave, Detroit, Michigan. 2018
1x: Much work still needs to be done in order to reform the criminal justice system that has worked against Black communities for decades –– what are some changes that you would like to see?
Sheefy: That's such a big question. There's so much that needs to be done. It ain't going to be done in a year. We gotta buckle up.
160 years ago, my great grandfather was a slave. 60 years ago, my grandma was getting spit on trying to go to school. We just got civil rights. Now, decades later, we're getting murdered in the street. It's really not better than how it was 100 years ago; it's just a whole different game. They got people in prison right now basically doing slave work. We got viruses killing mainly Black people. There's a lot of shit that's hitting us in waves, but we've got to just keep up the fight, and do everything we can to speak our truth.
If we can't get the education we deserve, we have to learn how to teach our own. We've got kids in Detroit fighting for their right to learn how to read. What type of shit is that? Detroit Public Schools is crumbling. They're destroying us at all different levels. They're not even giving us a fighting chance.
We have to see Black Lives Matter past it just being profitable. It looks like a lot of folks are just going to support this for two months. But what about the next five, ten years? We've got to keep our eye on the prize. It's got to be better than just us protesting. You've got to be able to put some money up. We have to be able to put up our own buildings and teach our own children. Our best bet is to get our own and to protect our own.
Follow Sheefy at @sheefymcfly. Explore the Pro Black collection here.
-1xRUN
BY: Joe Silver
city walls, Contemporary Art, detroit, features, graffiti, juneteenth, Murals In The Market, Original Art, Sheefy, street art
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Are PPP Loans Doing What They're Meant to Do?
Sarah Ewing
The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) handed out $753 billion to 4.5 million entities, ranging from LLCs to corporations. The purpose of a PPP loan was to allow a company to retain their workforce during these trying times. However, the available PPP data is questionable. More than 800,000 entities claimed they retained negative or no jobs. The fact that the average PPP loan came in at $155,000, per request. Therefore we, the American taxpayer, spent roughly $124,000,000,000 to retain zero jobs. Granted, the people applying for the loans must have kept their job, but that's not why the program was created in the first place. The application process and publicly-available data appear to be in disarray. The poor quality of the data, and lack of record keeping, indicates fraud and abuse of the SBA's PPP loan program.
Getting into the data
The publicly-available data, released by the Small Business Administration (SBA), keeps being used to report how many jobs were saved by PPP. However, with closer examination of the data, it's clear that the data can't be correct.
Here are some reasons why:
There were exactly 878,275 loan requests that reported zero or negative jobs retained. Even the SBA website says the purpose of the loan is to "provide a direct incentive for small businesses to keep their workers on the payroll4."
The Washington Post interviewed a few loan recipients who reported to the SBA that they had 500 employees retained. Those recipients told WaPo that they only have 10-20 employees. Therefore, the SBA data is wrong3.
There are over 12,000 loans that were granted through Wells Fargo, which reported zero jobs retained. All of these loans were requests for over $150,000. It seems to indicate that Wells Fargo didn't gather this information from their applicants. Rather than leave it empty, they chose to put in zeroes.
North Dakota received the most PPP loans per a state's population, coming in at $2,410.99/person5. This is very unusual, as North Dakota is renowned for its low cost of living6. While it's likely that a company reports that they're based in ND for tax reasons, the SBA data should also capture where the majority of their employees live. This way, the data reported can be verified. (see heat map below)
There are some industries that retained as many or more jobs as they had available in 2018, due to PPP loans. These include, but are not limited to: the performing arts, personal services, agriculture and forestry 2,7. It's also assumed that not every entity in these industries applied for a loan. Even if every entity did apply for a loan, there must have been over a 10% growth in 2019 to get these numbers. Even in the booming economy of 2019, a 10% growth in jobs is not very likely.
Among the highest loan value requests, loans over $150,000, there are over 20,000 addresses recorded that aren't valid. It seems unusual that a bank would grant a business a loan for over $100,000 and not have a viable address on file for the company.
There was an address in Idaho that was associated with about 15,000 entities "921 S ORCHARD ST STE G", and it appears to look like a business building like any other.
Many businesses applied to multiple lenders, using the same business name and address. It's not clear if these are duplicate entries or if duplicate loans were granted.
921 S Orchard St STE G
So, there is some good news. According to the SBA data, Houston Texas retained the most jobs out of any city. It's an unprecedented level of transparency for this administration to make all the SBA data publicly available. This allows for experts to review and give feedback. Most of the PPP loans were rushed out in April, when the process was still in its infancy. However, it has been confirmed that loans can still be applied for until August 8th, 2020. They might even be granted further into 20204.
Hopefully, some changes will be implemented in the application process. That will gather more accurate information, so we can measure the effectiveness of the PPP loans. It's worth mentioning that this likely won't be the last pandemic in our lifetime. Providing a roadmap to economists on how to properly navigate the "next time" will fall directly on gathering accurate data.
Due to the job retention metric, there seems to be an implied association with unemployment and the PPP loan. However, more money was given to states who had unemployment increase between January and May 2020 (as seen in the graph below). This image seems counterintuitive. The whole purpose of the loans given in April was to stop citizens from collecting unemployment benefits, and to retain their job. Only time will tell if the disbursement of the funds truly impacted the unemployment rate.
Looking at the graph, we can see there's a correlation between PPP loan and unemployment. Delving deeper into this, the x-axis is normalized by taking the square root of each state's total amount of PPP loan money ($ USD) received. The y-axis is of the difference between each state's unemployment rate, from January 2020 to May 2020. When you do an ordinary least squares regression, this results in an overall P-value for the model of 0.06. The significance for the square root of the PPP loan is at 0.06 as well. While this doesn't pass the hard science alpha of 0.05, keep in mind that we're using real-world socioeconomic data— the correlation between the two variables does check out.
Anyone acquainted with the 2008 economic collapse is aware that unemployment is a complex measurement. It will take more than the amount of loans handed out in a state to explain its behavior. However, it's disheartening to see that states with higher increases in unemployment are receiving more PPP loans. After all, the loan aims to keep people employed and not collect unemployment. Perhaps the primary location that the loan is applied for is not where the majority of employees live?
The process of applying for the PPP loan was rushed. In doing so, the publicly available SBA data became very messy. This indicated that fraud may have taken place. The loans were granted to entities without an address listed, and many addresses appear to be very wrong. This paves the road for the loans not being repaid or tracked appropriately. There needs to be some form of verification in the number of employees that a company has, and the number it can retain because it received the loan. There should be some guardrails in the application, with regards to the fact you can not retain more jobs than there are employees currently within the company. Different lenders gathered different fields of information, and hopefully in the future, business loans will become more standardized. This will ensure that their impact can be more easily tracked.
The publicly available PPP loan data is very messy, more than is reasonably expected when almost 8 billion dollars is sitting on the table. This money is coming from the American taxpayer, and the purpose is to keep people employed in their current roles so that our economy will keep going forward. We are currently dealing with an economy that is trying to cope with COVID-19, which isn't an easy task. It's not clear, to economists, what the best path is to retain a healthy, capitalist economy. The PPP loan program was very quickly implemented to deal with the uncertainty of 2020.
Going forward, the loans will continue to be granted until August 8th. Hopefully, the application process becomes more standardized, and the lenders will do their due diligence to gather the most correct information. This will allow them to implement some discernment in granting the funds. The lack of clean data for this amount of money being handed out points to fraud. The question is, at what level is the fraud occurring? The government? Lender? Individual business? Until we discover the source, it stands in the way of effectively keeping small businesses afloat.
(1)http://pppfacts.ai/
(2)https://sba.app.box.com/s/tvb0v5i57oa8gc6b5dcm9cyw7y2ms6pp
(3)https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/07/14/ppp-job-claims-sba/
(4)https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/coronavirus-relief-options/paycheck-protection-program
(5)https://www.census.gov/data/datasets/time-series/demo/popest/2010s-state-total.html
(6)https://www.experience.nd.gov/live/CostofLiving/
(7)https://www.bls.gov/emp/tables/industry-employment-and-output.htm
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That´s not it – when we prepare a dashboard for one customer, every customer of us can use the dashboard as well. Therefore, you can download the heatmap dashboard in our Change Log / Patch section of our online manual.
Just download Performance Analyzer and give it a try and check http://manual.opvizor.com (Change Log/ Patch) to get the new Virtual Machine Performance Heatmap dashboard.


McAfee, 67, is the prime suspect in a murder discovered Sunday morning in Belize. Convinced that he'll be killed if he's taken into custody for questioning, the millionaire antivirus pioneer has gone into hiding somewhere in the Central American nation, where he moved in 2008 to retire. Starting at 10:30 this morning, Belize time, he has been calling to tell me his side of the story.
Faull, who moved to Belize from central Florida, has had at least one run-in with the police himself — in the U.S. In December 2009, the 5-foot-11, 220-pound Faull was arrested by the Seminole County Sheriff's office and charged with aggravated battery.
The complete story of McAfee's journey from high-profile tech entrepreneur to accused murderer will appear in Wired's January issue.


Our collective focus has enabled our ongoing modular conversion, improved the balance of our Army, increased cohesion within our units, and improved predictability for our Soldiers and their families. Transforming while waging war is exceptionally difficult, but we are on the right path.
-Communicate the Army Story: Promote understanding of how we are changing.
-Build Support: Enhance relationships through outreach and engagements with political leaders to obtain our compelling needs.