#this is a post aimed specifically at alexys

[ausetkmt]

https://t.co/Aw6AMY3eW5?s=09

Florida school ‘segregated’ Black students for talk on test scores, parents say

Black students at a Florida elementary school were singled out and pulled from class for an assembly about how it was a “problem” that they had performed poorly on their standardized tests, school district officials said Wednesday. The incident drew outrage from parents and prompted an investigation by the school district.

Only Black fourth- and fifth-grade students at Bunnell Elementary School in Flagler County, Fla., were taken out of class on Friday for the assembly on how to improve their grades — even students who had passing grades. Students were selected to attend based on their race, Flagler Schools spokesman Jason Wheeler told The Washington Post on Wednesday.

Black teachers showed the students a typo-laden PowerPoint presentation titled, “AA Presentation,” which noted how Black students had underperformed on standardized tests for the past three years. On the slide titled “The Problem,” the school district identified Black students as “AA,” or African Americans, in its assessment of their low overall scores, according to the presentation obtained by The Post.

The incident has drawn backlash from parents who were not alerted about an event that had “segregated” their 9- and 10-year-olds. Some say their children were told in the assembly that they could end up dead or in jail if they did not do well on their upcoming tests.

“It told my child that she was not good enough,” Jacinda Arrington told WOFL, a Fox affiliate in Orlando. “The color of your skin means that you are not good enough, when, in fact, she’s one of the smartest kids in her class.”

Another parent, Alexis Smith, told WFTV, an ABC affiliate in Orlando, that her son was panicking after the assembly. She said he asked her, “So I’m going to die, I’m going to get shot, I’m going to go to jail if I don’t do right?”

The school district is investigating how Black students were the only group that attended an event aimed at encouraging improvement in test scores. As an incentive, the students were promised meals from McDonald’s, Flagler interim superintendent LaShakia Moore said in a statement Tuesday.

“While the desire to help this particular subgroup of students is to be commended, how this was done does not meet the expectations we desire among Flagler Schools,” said Moore, who is Black.

Moore added that after speaking with Donelle Evensen, Bunnell Elementary’s new principal, “it is clear there was no malice intended in planning this student outreach.” But, she said, “sometimes, when you try to think ‘outside the box,’ you forget why the box is there.”

On Wednesday, Moore posted a video apologizing to parents.

Evensen did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday morning. County School Board Chair Cheryl Massaro told The Post that while the event wasn’t intended to hurt the Black students or their parents, the School Board did not know about the plans for an assembly and would have advised against having only Black students in attendance.

“We know it was wrong, and it shouldn’t have happened. It wasn’t a great idea,” Massaro said. “It’s sad that it was segregated by race because that’s not fair. But that’s what happened.”

Wheeler said that no information has been given about what exactly was said in the assembly, specifically the claims from parents that students could end up dead or imprisoned if they didn’t perform better.

The event and the backlash to it come as Florida has dramatically changed its standards on how race and history are taught in the classroom.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, and his administration have faced strong criticism over a new policy that requires teachers to instruct middle-school students that enslaved people “developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” DeSantis’s administration has also blocked a high school Advanced Placement course on African American studies from being taught and pushed through the “Stop Woke Act” to limit discussions on race in schools and by corporations.

Wheeler told The Post that what happened at the elementary school had “nothing to do with education initiatives from Tallahassee.”

The elementary school is in Bunnell, Fla., about 75 miles north of Orlando. About 19 percent of the public school’s students are Black, and roughly 70 percent of the total enrollment are classified as economically disadvantaged, according to U.S. News & World Report. Evensen was named Bunnell’s principal last month after four years as an assistant principal at the school.

It’s unclear how many Black students were pulled from their classes for the presentation on Friday.

The state grades students on standardized tests between Levels 1 and 5, with 5 being the best score. As part of the presentation, the school said that 32 percent of its Black students scored at Level 3 or above for math and language arts. The school noted that 41 percent should be at Level 3 or above, according to state testing guidelines.

One slide said that Black students could improve their scores if they “commit to earning at least a Level 3 or higher on all standardized assessments” and “concentrate on passing all curriculum based assessments with at least a 75 percent or higher.” High-performing Black students were also called up by teachers and presented as examples to their peers who needed improvement, parents told WESH, an NBC affiliate in Daytona Beach.

Those students who show improvement, and win individual assessment matchups, “will have a meal from McDonald’s,” the school said in its presentation.

An in-school suspension supervisor also attended the assembly with two Black teachers, according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal.

Massaro, the School Board chair, said the assembly should have included all of the students who scored below Level 3.

“If we had done this and there was information about it to the parents, then it would have been a cross-section of everyone,” she told The Post. “There are White and Asian students who also don’t score well.”

Moore emphasized Tuesday that the school wants its parents and guardians to “actively participate in their children’s educational successes,” saying it was wrong not to alert families about plans for an assembly targeting Black students.

“Without informing them of this assembly or of the plans to raise these scores, our parents were not properly engaged,” she said in a statement. “… [F]rom this point forward, all of our schools will engage our parents, no matter what group or subgroup their children may be in, in our continued efforts to raise achievement among all students.”

But some parents are still upset, noting that the assembly targeting their Black children should have never happened in the first place.

“No other child needs to ever experience being singled out, being targeted, being discriminated against because of their color,” Francine Howard, whose daughter was in the assembly, told First Coast News.

“It’s 2023, and they segregated our babies,” Arrington said.

#Florida school ‘segregated’ Black students for talk on test scores #parents say #florida #Black History Matters #Black Students #Youtube

[bauresurrected]

emily: is in the room for two seconds for the first time ever  penelope: THAT 

#they're girlfriends your honor #mutuals can r/b #this is a post aimed specifically at alexys #this is ... gay behaviors #also she's BABY #i needed background noise and i never went through season 2 bc i didn't ... wanna deal with #elle leaving and the reid trauma i just wanted emily #but here we are #( dyn. penny / techkitten ) the voice from the stars #( visage ) i'm going to stay

[cafecitowriter]

ao3 tag game

Tagged by the wonderful @teaandatale, thank you so much!

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 17

2. What is your total AO3 word count? 412,319 (damn that’s more than I expected apparently I cannot shut up 😂)

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they? On AO3 just Steggy/MCU. But privately I've written for other fandoms, but nothing I think I would ever post. 

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Should the Stars Align (684)

Aim for the Heart (265)

Flowers (214)

The Untamed (209)

My 6 Foot Romance (154)

5. Do you respond to comments, why or why not? I do my best to! My mental health has been in the gutter so I haven’t really been keeping up the last while but I love reading comments, and I love talking to the readers about what they liked and honestly just thanking them for reading and commenting.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? So apparently I’m incapable of ending a fic with angst, so the closest one at the moment is the ending of the last posted chapter of Aim for the Heart. It’s a WIP so it’s not the end-end but this is about as angsty as my endings get 😂

7. Do you write crossovers? Not really, I have some ideas but at the moment they are just that.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic? Like, not hate-hate but definitely some frustrations that I haven’t updated and there were a couple of not-so positive ones when I was posting my first fic but I wouldn’t call it outright hate.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Yes but not always. Kind of pops in on a whim or if I think it’ll fit. It gives me a lot of anxiety writing it though 😂

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I know of!

11. Have you ever co-written a fic before? No, though I can barely write with myself these days so it’s probably for the best at the moment 😂

12. What’s your all time favorite ship? Steve/Peggy are definitely one of the top ones. However there are others that I adore: Evelyn/Rick, Chloe/Lucifer (even though season 6 did them dirty), Coulson/May, David/Patrick & Ted/Alexis

13. What was the first fandom you wrote for? I wrote some Harry Potter fic (specifically Ron/Hermione) before I even knew what fic was, but through writing this fic I eventually found out about fanfiction as a whole thing!

14. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written? Okay I have so many different answers for this question, but I think right now in this moment I have to go with The Untamed. This one was so much fun and so easy to write, and I adore this universe.

Tagging: literally anyone who wants to do this that hasn’t been tagged yet because I do not know who hasn’t been tagged. Seriously just say I tagged you because I did!!

#about fic #teaandatale

[aion-rsa]

Black Widow: The Disturbing Real Spy History Inspirations

https://ift.tt/3yL2A1C

This article contains Black Widow spoilers.

Black Widow is the first Marvel Studios release to have an opening credits sequence since 2010’s Iron Man 2. Which by itself is kind of nice. After all, both movies bookend Scarlett Johansson’s tenure in the role of Natasha Romanoff. Yet when watching the opening moments of Marvel’s latest adventure, the decision to include an ominous montage of young Nat’s childhood after the movie’s brutal cold open is about more than creating symmetry with the past; it fills in the most mysterious Avenger’s blindspots… and reveals the red in her ledger is also our own.

Scored to a haunting cover of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Black Widow’s opening titles dovetail out from one of the movie’s best moments. With a stripped down prologue devoid of space gods and magic rocks, Black Widow’s first 10 minutes wouldn’t look out of place in a Tom Clancy adaptation or an hour of premium cable TV: Young American girls Natasha and Yelena (Ever Anderson and Violet McGraw) have the comforts of their midwest childhoods ripped away when their “father” Alexi (David Harbour) reveals to “mother” Melina (Rachel Weisz) that their cover is blown. American authorities are coming to arrest them as Russian spies, and they need to leave the country. Now.

While the following car chase features some of Marvel’s typical bells and whistles, there is an impressive restraint implemented (at least initially) by director Cate Shortland. The movie minimizes the CG spectacle here but ups the on-the-nose Americana: high school football, rock and roll, and literal “American Pie” of the Don McLean variety. This is a story about a sham “family” of four Russian spies seeing their illusionary bliss shattered, and their innocence stolen. The implications then become explicit during the unusually bleak title sequence which juxtaposes Nat’s sterile and cruel girlhood with the geopolitical chaos that closed out the 20th century.

Unlike nearly every Marvel film not named Iron Man or Black Panther, there is a momentary consideration for the real world context in which these flights of comic book fancy are borne, and how grim post-Cold War espionage would be for a superhero’s origin story. With fleeting snapshots of young Natasha and Yelena asked to imitate happy Christmastime memories for phony family photos, or being brainwashed inside the fabled Red Room’s ballet studio, Black Widow echoes actual horrors from the recent past…

Russian Spies on American Soil

The story of Russian spies infiltrating American borders is of course nothing new. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg made international headlines in 1950 when the American couple was arrested, and later convicted, for spying on behalf of the Soviet Union. Indeed, they were the first Americans executed during peacetime for espionage after they were revealed to have smuggled nuclear weapon designs to Russia.

Of course the childhood origins of Natasha and Yelena better resemble more recent Russian spy games, including sleeper cells who operated in the U.S. for decades. Like FX’s The Americans TV series before it, the prologue and opening credits of Black Widow appear to be greatly inspired by a Russian spy ring arrested by the FBI in 2010. 

Dubbed the “Illegals Program” by American law enforcement, the Russian spy network dated back to the early 1990s and was implemented after the fall of the Soviet Union by the SVR—Russia’s foreign intelligence service which replaced the KGB. Designed to place Russian spies in positions of influence and access in American government, business, and academia, the program included 11 spies operating in locations as far flung as New York City and Seattle, and Boston and northern Virginia.

While the program never successfully achieved its reported aim to gather information on America’s nuclear weapon arsenal, foreign policy toward Iran, or access to CIA or congressional leadership, it did in retrospect presage the soon-to-be chilling relationship between the U.S. and Russia.

It also required intricate false identities, aliases, and cover stories which led to some Russian operatives starting families in the guise of blending in. For instance, Vladimir and Lidya Guryev arrived in the U.S. in the 1990s under the names Richard and Cynthia Murphy. Cynthia proved especially adept at adapting American life, if not gathering pertinent state secrets. In 1997 she earned an associate degree from NYU, and in 2000 an MBA from Columbia University. During that entire time frame, she worked at a prestigious Manhattan accounting firm, taking home an annual six-figure salary.

The couple also gave birth to two daughters during their time as Russian sleeper agents, with both children being American citizens when their parents were arrested in 2010. The daughters were ages 11 and nine at the time, and were forced to follow their parents back to Russia after they were swapped with Americans convicted of espionage in Russia.

Similarly, Andrey Bezrukov and Yelena Vavilova were assigned the task of becoming Donald Heathfield and Tracey Lee Ann Foley while still a young Russian couple. They moved to Canada to more easily establish false identities before immigrating to the U.S., with “Donald” eventually studying at Harvard. Their two sons Tim and Alex were born in Canada and were ages 20 and 16 when their parents were arrested. Despite having Canadian passports and having never even been to Russia, they were stripped of their citizenship, which as of the publication of an in-depth profile in the Guardian in 2016, they were still fighting to get back.

“I never had anything close to a suspicion regarding my parents,” Alex told the British newspaper. “It seemed all my friends’ parents led much more exciting and successful lives.” It didn’t even seem quite real to Alex and his brother until they went to Russia and were shown photographs of their parents in their 20s—in officers’ uniforms and adorned with medals.

Perhaps the most famous spy from this ring remains redheaded Anna Chapman, who the press in 2010 dubbed the “sexy Russian spy.” In fact, The Independent reported that the FBI’s then-counterintelligence chief Frank Figliuzzi said she was getting “closer and closer” to possibly seducing a member of the Obama administration’s cabinet in a classic “honeypot” scenario. 

However, Figliuzzi said he was misquoted and they were worried about her proximity to American officials, not “seduction.” Cynthia Murphy, however, did establish contact with a friend and fundraiser of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. Clinton was then the Secretary of State.

Since being deported to Russia, Chapman became a model and social media celebrity… and a vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump.

The Real Red Rooms

Another aspect that looms over Black Widow’s opening credits and beyond is the depravity of the Red Room, an institute we see teased in the movie’s title sequence when Ray Winstone’s interpretation of slime-incarnate, Col. Dreykov, tells young Natasha the school “is your home.” Viewers are also later reminded this is where Natasha was sterilized as a teenager after being taught to kill, and an older Yelena (Florence Pugh) was literally brainwashed with mind-altering drugs.

While mind control and sterilization appear to be fanciful additions made by Marvel, Soviet espionage schools for young women and otherwise were a definite product of the Cold War era. While details remain obscured even decades after the Iron Curtain fell, CIA officers and even some former Russian intelligence personnel have given peaks behind the shroud. Former KGB Lt. Gen. Leonid Vladimirovich Shebarshin recalled living in a “dilapidated” dormitory while being trained in espionage and surveillance.

And a school specifically designed to train women to use sex and seduction as tools of spyycraft did exist. According to multiple former CIA officers, it was located in Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. Graduates of the program, variously known as “swallows” in the espionage world, inspired many Cold War stories, including how the Widow program is depicted in the MCU.

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Jason Matthews, who worked as a CIA officer for over 30 years, including in Europe during the Cold War, explored the sordid details as an author in his Red Sparrow trilogy, which the CIA officially reviewed as “accurate [and] richly detailed.”

“The Russians have for many, many years, used women to try and sexually entrap [high-ranking foreign officials] for blackmail purposes, to try and tell their secrets,” Matthews told CNBC in 2018. And while he said the Kazan “Sparrow School” has been closed down, those honeypot operations persist.

Indeed, Jonna Mendez, a former CIA chief of disguise and a member of the International Spy Museum’s Board of Directors, confirmed the Kazan swallows school. In a 2018 interview, she told The New York Times about the time a swallow compromised a U.S. Marine stationed in Moscow during the 1980s. After being enticed by the Soviet spy, he allowed her and several other women (also likely swallows) into the American embassy. The marine was later convicted of allowing a security breach.

“It was a seduction scenario not unlike what you would have [seen in the Red Sparrow movie],” Mendez said.

The Menace of Dreykov

The real world seediness of the Red Room and Widow program’s inspirations is only matched by the darkness of Dreykov. To go back again to the movie’s opening credits, it’s disquieting in the way the villain of the film is juxtaposed. He is not seen rubbing shoulders with Thanos or a cameoing Vulture, nor is he depicted as in pursuit of some mythical MacGuffin. 

When we get our first good look at Dreykov, he’s visiting the Rose Garden with President Bill Clinton, who occupied the White House during the film’s 1995 prologue. Another shot in the credits show him meeting with Condoleezza Rice, who was President George W. Bush’s National Security Advisor and then later his second Secretary of State. She participated in the meetings that led to decades of war in the Middle East, including the invasion of Iraq and its quest for nonexistent weapons of mass destruction.

When coupled with actual shots of the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003—which would’ve been around the time Natasha “graduated” from the Red Room—the implication is obvious: Dreykov is orchestrating or participating in world events from the shadows. While the film never overtly states Dreykov played a role in shaping American or Russian foreign policy at the turn of the century, it is nonetheless heavily inferred as his root motivation, much like the menace of sexual manipulation and violence in a school inspired by actual Soviet era honeypot programs.

In fact, during the climax of Black Widow, Dreykov is revealed to be a sleazy amalgamation of multiple predatory men in power who’ve finally seen their reckoning in the last several years. During their final confrontation, Dreykov looms over Johansson’s Natasha like a brute trying to intimidate a woman by his girth and the implicit threat of violence. He’s a toxic blend of every account about Harvey Weinstein or Roger Ailes trying to manipulate and assault women, or the way a certain presidential candidate purposefully stalked around a debate stage to loom over his female rival.

It also mirrors the disturbing connections that some of these serial abusers possessed. Convicted sexual offender, pedophile, and child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein famously associated with leaders of every political stripe, visiting the Clinton White House four times, and having the former president fly repeatedly on his private jet. Donald Trump, meanwhile, flew on the same plane, multiple times according to Epstein’s brother Mark. Epstein was also a member of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club where at least one underage girl was allegedly preyed upon and groomed into Epstein’s sex ring. Epstein was eventually banned from the resort in 2008, but that came after he was indicted by a grand jury for soliciting child prostitution.

In 2002, Trump told New York Magazine, “I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”

The Marvel Method

That a Marvel Studios film would wade into any of this, even with the lightest of steps and most diminutive of glances, is a surprise. Which is not to say Black Widow—a movie which features a flying mansion fall from the sky—is some kind of pensive commentary on the exploitation of women, be it in espionage or other halls of power. It’s a superhero movie, and one made by Disney, no less.

And yet, in its own way, it is a superhero movie that at least reflects the world it’s made in, thereby offering something more tactile than most Marvel alternatives. It also provides an entirely euphoric catharsis. From the opening credits to the ending resolution, we witness in all its comic book trappings how powerful men embodied by Dreykov use and abuse women’s bodies, often beginning when they’re still girls who can be indoctrinated into what’s “expected” of them.

Seeing Scarlett Johansson sever her own olfactory nerve to break the power of a man like this and then beat him to a pulp— signaling to her target audience they are not just the tools or playthings of the society around them—is the kind of spy game we should watch play out a lot more.

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The post Black Widow: The Disturbing Real Spy History Inspirations appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3ebXWBV

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[thesunstone-system]

I decided to make a larger post for our fictives to try and find sourcemates; this post is aimed at SYSTEMS ONLY. No kinnies or fandom blogs please.

Spring Awakening:

Ernst Robel: 17, he/they, gay.

Interested in talking to any sourcemates, specifically Martha or Ilse.

Hanschen Rilow: 18, he/him, bi.

Neutral about talking to sourcemates, but okay with anyone.

Melchior Gabor: 18, he/him, questioning.

Apprehensive about talking to sourcemates, but also open to talking to anyone.

It (2017/2019):

Richie Tozier: 41, he/him, gay.

Interested in talking to any of the Losers.

Eddie Kaspbrak: 40, he/him, gay.

Interested in talking to any of the Losers.

Schitt's Creek:

David Rose: 35, he/him, pan.

Interested in talking to any sourcemates, but specifically Patrick, Alexis, or Stevie.

Swamp Thing (2019):

Alec Holland: 27, he/him, straight (?).

Interested in talking to only Abby. Everyone else get fucked (his words).

Doctor Sleep:

Dan Torrance: 42, he/him, gay.

Interested in talking to sourcemates, but specifically Billy. No Rose/anyone in the true knot for that matter.

Again, this post is for fictives in DID/OSDD1 systems, please don't interact with or respond to this post if you don't fit the bill. If you don't respect the DNI you're getting blocked.

(I cant believe I actually need to specify this but) If you have any negative feelings towards any one of our fictives because of canon actions or anything of the like, keep them to yourself please.

- Dan 🍂

#dan wrote this but im the one posting it so im tagging us both #🍑 #🍂 #osdd #osdd1b #osdd fictive #sourcemates

[gravitascivics]

AN OVERALL AMERICAN CONSTRUCT, PART I

This writer, in his recently published book, introduces an instructional mode for the teaching of civics education.[1]  He calls that mode historical dialog-to-action (HD-to-A).  Simply described, it calls on students to discuss, argue, and debate (in ascending order) civic issues through analyses of their historical developments.  

The main rationale for such an approach is that through historical developmental stories, students can be appraise holistic accounts about how current challenges have come to be.  The essence of the challenges chosen is their endangerment in fulfilling federalist values, for example, the way the opioid crisis has endangered the equity of millions of Americans.  The aim is not to determine what should have happened, but to what should happen in the future in dealing with the identified challenges.

While that is the aim, a lot must be filled in to guide such an effort – both in terms of content and, to some degree, instructional methods.  This posting sets out to initiate addressing of the former – the content.  And in that, such an effort, to be logically in line with what this blog has argued, that overview of the nation’s history would ideally reinforce a federalist bias that this blog has claimed characterized much of that history.  

To restate that argument, the US, since its colonial past, held as a dominant view concerning government and politics, a federalist version of what those entities should be.  That dominance lasted till the years after World War II and then it was overcome by a shift to the natural rights view or construct.  

Both views are aspirational in nature and should not be considered descriptive of what was or is.  The version of federalism that earlier Americans held was what this writer calls parochial/traditional federalism and it called for the federation of mostly the European-based population of the American nation.

Given these claims, a look at the historical overview of the nation not only gives one stories of how this development took place but provides evidence as to the veracity of this overall claim regarding the role of federalism.  But before delving into these concerns, a few definitions are needed.  

By federalism this blog has not emphasized, nor totally ignored, the structural elements of that construct; that being of the two levels of governance, the central government and the state governments. Instead, this blog has been mostly concerned with what Daniel Elazar calls the processes of federalism.[2]

Those processes basically highlight the construct’s call for a citizenry to adopt a partnering mode of civic intercourse.  Or more in line with the term, federalism, citizens establish and maintain themselves as being federated with each other. The term federalism is derived from the Latin term foedus – meaning to be leagued through an agreement (a covenant) that, in turn, is held to be sacred.[3]  

A further distinction is between a covenant and a compact.  According to Donald Lutz, the former calls on God to witness such an agreement, the latter does not.[4]  The US Constitution is a compact.  The common citizen becomes aware of such an agreement when he/she considers the solemnity of the marriage vow.  Usually in a church, that agreement is a covenant; before a state official, it’s usually a compact.  Both are held equally scared.

This overview reappears in this blog from time to time.  The historical development stated above also reappears often.  But as this blog sets out to test its overall historical view, this context is judged essential in this initial posting.  And before moving on, one more repetitive note should be added.

By saying federalism served as the central view of governance and politics it is not to say all agreed with it or that other ideas, theories, models did not exist under its umbrella.  But, for this latter grouping, there should be a logical connection between what more specifically served to guide Americans, e.g., Puritanism, and what constitutes the more general tenets of federalism.  

And those tenets can be summarized by a few words: cooperation, collaboration, commonality, and community.  More granular terms are equality (a regulated equality), liberty (a federal liberty), and civic virtue (a common value held by the founding fathers[5] and a quality that introduces a moral aspect). This list can be expanded, but if one considers what the phrase “to be federated” means, the reader can think of his/her own terms to describe this view of citizenry.

So, given this, what overview serves to provide a substantive general look at what constitutes the nation’s history.  For that purpose, this blog relies on the overview authored by Allen C. Guelzo.[6]  In introducing his treatment, Guelzo poses the question:  do Americans have a collective mind?  And to address that question:  what is a national mind?  It is a shared view – a construct – that to some degree defines what a people see social reality to be.  And Americans seem to approach that question a bit reluctantly.

They are considered to be doers, not thinkers. Of course, such a dichotomy cannot be totally true.  A people do need to think, and they do need to do; so, the question is:  how far a people carry on their affairs favoring one or the other?  The eventual dominance of Pragmatism in the late 1800s seems to indicate a “doer” bias, but Pragmatism itself is a well thought out philosophical position.  But this is getting ahead of the story.

In the writings of Elazar, he tells of how the original settlers, those of Massachusetts Bay being prominent, brought with them this Puritanical, covenantal approach with them.  The Mayflower Compact (a covenant) initiated this approach. The signees of the document entered into a federalist arrangement.  

But to return to Guelzo’s account, he identifies this Puritanical influence as the starting point for how Americans began defining themselves.  The Puritanical strain shortly was mixed in with those influences emanating from the Enlightenment – and as it will be fully described at a later date, a Scottish Enlightenment.[7]  Guelzo uses the analogy of two cooks – each one of these two traditions – cooking up America’s intellectual history.

But was there another “cook”?  Guelzo points out that one of the aspects of the American experience discouraging an intellectual bent was the practical realities that Americans faced in settling a continent.  Typical days that these early generations faced were filled with how one was going to make it till sunset.  The bulk of the population had its days filled with a slew of practical hurdles the frontier provided.  

But this, in and of itself, according to this blogger, added to the need for a federated approach.  Alexi de Tocqueville describes the common experiences of Americans in the 1830s.[8]  The outstanding characteristics highlighted in that description were how intense were the levels of cooperation, collaboration, and community – these characteristics were not considered as so many duties, but necessary and even sources of entertainment.  And in this, one can see how Ralph Waldo Emerson was keen on pointing out Americans’ practical thinking.  

Even de Tocqueville expressed concern over Americans’ lack of philosophic concern.  He wrote, “Each therefore, withdraws into himself and claims to judge the world from there … [he, therefore has] the shallowest of ideas, and tend[s] to be tightly chained to the general will of the greatest number.”[9]

The plan for the next posting is to pick up on this overview.  To this point, one can readily see that what is described above does not contradict federalist thought among Americans but by reviewing these finer elements of the nation’s past, one can further describe federalist influences and explain why it held on so strongly until the late 1940s.

[1] Robert Gutierrez, Toward a Federated Nation: Implementing National Civics Standards (Tallahassee, FL:  Gravitas/Civics Books, 2020).  Available through Amazon.

[2] Daniel J. Elazar, Exploring Federalism (Tuscaloosa, AL:  The University of Alabama Press, 1987).

[3] Center for the Study of Federalism (n.d.), https://federalism.org/about/what-is-federalism/ .

[4] Donald Lutz, The Origins of American Constitutionalism, (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1988).

[5] Thomas E. Ricks, First Principles:  What America’s Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country (New York, NY:  HarperCollins Publishers, 2020).  He analyzed George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison.

[6] Allen C. Guelzo, The American Mind, Part I, II, III – transcript books – (Chantilly, VA:  The Teaching Company/The Great Courses, 2005).

[7] Ricks, First Principles.

[8] Alexi de Tocqueville, “Political Structure of Democracy,” in Alexis de Tocqueville:  On Democracy, Revolution, and Society, ed. John Stone and Stephen Mennell (Chicago, IL:  Chicago University Press, 1980/1835).

[9] Guelzo, The American Mind, Part I , 11.

#federalism #Daniel J. Elazar #Donald S. Lutz #Thomas E. Ricks #Alexis de Tocqueville #Allen C. Guelzo #civics education #social studies

[hardcorehardigan]

tomhardydotorg 

October 22, 2013

Tom’s drawing for “In the Name of Honour”. Little Marta which in Tom’s words “is a special little girl”. Enjoy! :)

exploringtomhardy (charlidos)

In The Name of Honour: A Charity Gala Event for Victims of Domestic Abuse

August 19, 2013

Held in conjunction with Christie’s, the Sara Charlton Charitable Foundation (SCCF) is hosting In The Name of Honour, a ground-breaking Contemporary art exhibition at One Mayfair exploring violence against women, gender and the female body. Taking place from 19–22 September, the exhibition will open with a special Gala Event on 18 September at One Mayfair.

With one in four women in the UK suffering abuse in their lifetime, and with some 3000 reported cases of honour-based violence each year, there is an urgent need for action. The 18-22 September 2013 will mark an important week as the SCCF launches their gala evening and sale of artworks to raise funds for victims of abuse. The artworks will be on display and open to the public until 22 September, during which time educational days, workshops and artist talks will also take place. Top Criminal Behavioural Analyst Laura Richards is advising the SCCF on its educational programme.

The exhibition will feature 45 works for sale by both emerging and internationally acclaimed contributors of different ages from around the globe. This includes ground-breaking feminist artists from the 1970s and 80s, such as Jenny Holzer and Alexis Hunter as well as a younger generation of artists addressing gender issues, such as Vanessa Beecroft, Mona Hatoum and Sarah Lucas. There are also representatives of the new wave of young and emerging feminist artists, including Faiza Butt, Amalia Caputo, Shadi Ghadirian, Manal Al-Dowayan and Sarah Maple. A number of works have been created especially for In the Name of Honour. The majority of works will be available to purchase on the launch night, with 10 going under the hammer for the gala’s live auction. The rest will be available subsequently throughout the week, with five to be auctioned via the Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art sale at South Kensington on 24 September. In the Name of Honour also features a special selection of celebrity drawings created specifically for the event by names such as Patrick Stewart, Helen Mirren, Rosario Dawson, Tom Hardy, Maggie Smith and Ben Elton, to name a few. These include an edition by Prime Minister David Cameron. The celebrity drawings will be sold via silent auctions at the gala dinner.

“Domestic Violence is one of the greatest overlooked problems in our society,” says SCCF Director Antonia Packard. “To date, domestic violence has been largely viewed as a private matter and a gender issue. We have to get to the place where society sees domestic violence as a violation of human rights over everything else. With the public’s support, I hope that we can get to a place where we are not scared to speak out against abusers, and to see abusive behaviour as a crime.” Says curator Jenny Christensson: “The In the Name of Honour exhibition and sale of contemporary art has from the outset had two aims: to raise awareness of violence against women around the world and to raise money for the work that the Sara Charlton Charitable Foundation does in the UK to support victims of domestic violence. With this in mind we invited artists whose work addresses either gender issues or violence against women to donate artworks to our project. We have been overwhelmed by the response, which has in all cases been immediate, generous and engaged. Whether female or male, all of the participating artists are passionate about these issues and many of them have dedicated their lives, through their art, to communicating them.

The works in the exhibition address a range of gender-based issues, including the representation of the female body in the media, the role of religion (Christianity, Judaism and Islam) in the oppression of women, domestic and honour-based violence, trafficking, Female Genital Mutilation, the continued use in some cultures of capital punishment as a sentence for women accused of so-called “sexual crimes” and the vulnerability of women to sexual assault in conflict situations. Many of the works challenge us and encourage us to confront matters we would prefer to avoid, but it is exactly this that the very best art sets out to do.”

In The Name of Honour Programme:

All events held at One Mayfair.

Wednesday 18 September Gala evening and auction, conducted by Tom Best, Christie’s

Thursday 19 September Educational Day Lunch Talk (12:30-14:00) Evening Lecture (18:30-20:00)

Friday 20 September Artist Talk with Faiza Butt and fellow artists Curator led tour (18:00-20:00 TBC)

Saturday 21 September Artist Workshop

https://bollyspice.com/in-the-name-of-honour-a-charity-gala-event-for-victims-of-domestic-abuse/

#little marta #a special little girl #drawing #tom hardy #in the name of honour #charity #gala #event #victims of domestic abuse #christies #sara charlton charitable foundation

[theartificialdane]

would she be embarrassed though? I mean V said she's not a pageant queen that was obviously Alexis' influence when she was just starting drag and I never got the feeling dr was about winning for her. she's much more of a club kid/music/art/pop culture queen i just saw someone posted bits of her hey queen interview where she said that she wanted to do more music or something like a visual album I think that kind of thing is her aim rather than pageants or competing.

I fully agree that that is her aim, which is why I can’t help but wonder if that’s why she’d feel embarrased about that specific crown?

I’m thinking specifically in relation to how “big” Brooke’s physical drag prices are.

Brightest Vanj is extremely acomplished when it comes to the goals she has set for herself, but when you look at traditional drag she hasn’t exactly done amazing.

I’m sure V has some sort of MTV/whatever price, and that she happily has them out on display and she’s super proud of them!

[ettadunham]

A Buffy rewatch 3x19 Choices

aka everyone’s just dying to give each other a piece of their mind

Welcome to this dailyish text post series where I will rewatch an episode of Buffy and rant about it in 10-3k words. What you can expect: long run-on sentences and disjointed observations, often focused on one tiny detail about the episode. What you shouldn’t be expecting: actual reviews that make sense.

And I’ve been waiting forever for today’s episode to finally discuss some quality Willow and Faith feelings... And it turns out that it was just a 2-minute-scene all along? Still, we’ll be making the best out of those 2 minutes, folks.

There’s actually a lot going on in Choices, but I want to get the main rant out first, before I get lost in all the small details of it.

So... Willow and Faith.

Fun fact, did you know that that is actually the 5th most popular BtVS F/F pairing tag on Ao3? Right after the popular canon, the popular “it’s basically canon and you can fucking sue me” ship, the pairing of the two main female characters (shout out to the Wuffys, I got you) and the less popular canon ship.

Which... wasn’t really what I was expecting? I mean, I also wasn’t expecting #6 being Faith/Dawn (having a 2 fic-lead on the ultimate OTP because you’re all heathens), so I guess I know nothing.

Some of those switch though if you filter for the F/F category, look, I have charts:

(Meanwhile Buffy/Kendra has like 12 fics, you really are all heathens.)

Anywho, thanks for coming to my Ted talk about the math of Buffy femslash. Now, back to Willow and Faith specifically.

Once I thought about it, it did make sense that this is actually a popular fandom pairing I guess? On one hand, it’s a common denominator situation, as in note which characters pop up consistently on that chart... On the other hand, in this episode alone Willow taunts Faith to which she responds by punching her and threatening her with a knife... And that’s pretty much how foreplay works as far as Faith’s concerned.

Faith just likes it rough, okay? Remember the screencap I used for Consequences after Buffy punches her?

I rest my case.

But I’m already way off topic here. Because what I was actually planning on talking about initially was how Willow felt about Faith, and the source of those feelings.

I already pointed this out, but I feel it’s worth repeating - Willow’s dislike of Faith goes back to two episodes in particular: Bad Girls and Consequences. As far as I was able to discern this time during my rewatch, there were no previous signs of animosity between the two preceding that two-parter.

In Bad Girls, Buffy blows Willow off for their study session to go out with Faith, and starts rambling about how Willow and Xander wouldn’t understand anyway what she and Faith do.

Willow is deeply hurt and jealous... She actually blows Buffy off too in return when she tries talking to her at school in the next episode, and only listens once Buffy shows up crying at her doorstep not knowing what to do about the whole Faith killed a guy situation.

In the same episode, Xander lets it slip that he and Faith had sex... And Willow is once again obviously hurt and jealous. She even has a good cry about it in the bathroom.

And I guess that that seems like a stronger emotional response than how she reacts to Faith stealing away Buffy from her, but it’s still coming from the same place. Note her line in that episode when she acknowledges her biases:

I'm not the most objective, I know. I kind of have an issue with Faith sharing my people.

“Sharing my people” - she’s pointedly talking about both Xander and Buffy here.

And there is a specific kind of betrayal that she feels from Xander, and that’s going to translate to pretty much all of Xander’s relationship... But at this point, it’s not really about her wanting that relationship with Xander. She had the option and she rejected it.

Still, if Xander has that with someone else, that makes their shared experiences feel less special. It makes her feel like less special in his life. (Which unfortunately tracks with a lot of Xander’s behavior about how he’s always chasing the new, shiny and unattainable thing in his life.)

Meanwhile with Buffy, Willow is mostly supportive of her relationships... up until to the point that she feels like they’re taking up the space that she occupies in Buffy’s life. And that very much happens with Faith in those moments, as Buffy suddenly feels like she can’t share with Willow what she and Faith has. (I swear, I’m not even trying, these sentences just turn out this way.)

So... yeah. Willow is super pissed at Faith for having the audacity to try and take away her people from her, and then hurting the both of them.

And I guess we can see some of that same kind of jealousy with Faith (I can and I will read parallels into Willow and Faith’s characters, just you wait) and her whole thing with Buffy and Angel in Choices... Except it’s weirdly misdirected? Like is the Mayor and the show seriously trying to tell us that Faith is jealous about Angel not wanting to make out with her, when that whole thing was all about Buffy in the first place?

Really, Mayor Wilkins? Really?

Well, I guess he is evil.

Back to Willow though, we have this scene where she gets taken hostage, and after she murders her vampire guard with a pencil (amazing), she decides to get comfortable in the Mayor’s office and read through all 5 tomes of the Books of Ascension??? It’s such a delightful nonsense.

Of course, I’m definitely with her on the whole “knowledge is power” notion. Even if they were to prevent the Mayor from having this Box of MacGuffin, there’s no way to tell if that would actually stop the Ascension. But knowing what’s to come and what they could do about it? That’s a definite win.

The issue is that as Faith puts it, being caught red-handed while gaining that knowledge makes Willow some very strong murder material for the bad guys. She could’ve just put the books in a bag, and tried escaping with them, or get the hell out there the moment she discovered those sensitive pages.

But do you know what I think? I think Willow just wanted to have the chance to confront Faith. She was ready to die just to give her a piece of her mind.

Willow: It's way too late. You know, it didn't have to be this way. But you made your choice. I know you had a tough life. I know that some people think you had a lot of bad breaks. Well, boo hoo! Poor you. You know, you had a lot more in your life than some people. I mean, you had friends in your life like Buffy. Now you have no one. You were a Slayer and now you're nothing. You're just a big selfish, worthless waste.

That’s commitment.

Notice also how she highlights Faith having Buffy in her life and not appreciating it enough to keep fighting. I do feel like Willow is deeply offended by that. I talk about her jealousy a lot, but her commitment to the people she loves is usually her more dominant character trait. Feeling like Faith stole her friends from her hurt her; but her anger mostly comes from the fact that Faith hurt Buffy and Xander in unimaginable ways.

I guess this episode did give me a lot of Willow feelings.

Someone else who shared Willow’s need to impart some wisdom in the most inconvenient times was the Mayor. And honestly? I didn’t care a whole lot about it. Angel and Buffy has a million other conflicts that come before him being immortal.

Like, I get that it’s supposed to shake them out of their own little bubble a bit, and face the fact that they don’t really see a future together. I believe the phrasing I previously used was that being together prevents them from becoming the people they want to be.

Their initial exchange at the graveyard is kinda hilarious though. “You never take me to any place new” - I’m still laughing, ngl.

At the same time, Xander and Cordelia still appear to be having their bitter verbal conflicts. Which is weird, especially after Earshot, an episode that I praised for including Cordelia in the group once again. (I guess maybe Earshot was written with a different place in the season in mind for it initially? I know that it didn’t air when it was supposed to too, because of the school shooting aspect...)

Here, the two of them are once again out to get each other. Even Buffy ends up in the crossfires, as Cordelia aims one of her pointedly cruel jabs at her. Yikes.

But we also find out here that Cordelia is working in a dress shop now, so there’s that.

And this episode of course is also about everyone’s futures. Willow decides that despite being accepted into literally every school ever, she’s going to attend UC Sunnydale with Buffy. Not just to be with her, but because she enjoys saving the world and all that jazz.

Oh, Willow, if you only knew...

This of course also presents a welcome contrast for Buffy, who feels like she doesn’t have a choice but to stay in Sunnydale. It’s a really nice moment between them, as Buffy realizes herself that she too very much made that choice herself. Because that’s who Buffy is. Someone who could never turn her back on the people who need her.

Buffy:  I kinda love you.

We all do, Buffy. Just ask Oz, and his decisive ingredient smashing move that annihilated the whole argument about whether or not they should rescue Willow. (”That’s your future wife!” - me @ Alexis Denisof in that scene.)

Also, shout out at that whole Mission Impossible heist premise we got going on in this episode. I always appreciate a weird clash of genres.

#buffy rewatch 2k19 #btvs talk #btvs

[translationandbetrayals]

THE GACHA GAMES

At this point in time, you have probably already heard about gacha (if not, God bless thee, may he protect thine white soul from corruption!) well, being serious, gacha is a capsule-toy vending machine quite popular in japan, and gacha games are those games that have adapted this system into the game itself examples may be: Fate/Grand order, AzurLane, Girl’s Frontline, BanG Dream!, among MANY others.

These games are usually free to play but have an option to use real currency in order to obtain something (you may argue PAY TO WIN but that comes later) In these games, there are usually numerous characters, cards, or other random items that players can obtain, and and sometimes they are only obtainable via the "gacha" mechanism, which will allow players to "pull" or "spin" the gacha (here is where the slot machine or roulette wheel mechanics come into play) using a specific amount of in-game currency, which will then give player a randomized character, card, or other item. Sometimes, these gacha are limited, such that specific prizes can only be obtained within a specific event time-frame (Rate-Up is a lie BTW). Because some of the rewards have a lower chance to appear, typically players must spin the gacha many (manyx10) times before they get their desired outcome if they ever do (*cries in salt*).

Their Fool-proof/Numbah wan strategy is: to use a very liked character of the game/franchise and make A LOT of variations of this same character *laughs in saberface*

Many people (and whit these people is where the true problem lies in my opinion) say that you are FORCED to use real life currency in order to obtain anything and that these kinds of practice should be banned (LOL). They compare it to GAMBLING and that the CHILDREN SHOULD NOT BE SUBMITED TO THESE SHADY PRACTICES and so on and so forth, *sigh* to start on something, these games are aimed at an audience that has monetary income, credit cards, in other words NOT CHILDREN (if you give your children a C. card in order to maintain him entertained, you have failed as a parent and as a human being) hell, even the themes of the source material are normally aimed at a mature audience…(don’t trust the SRB and other rating institutions, they rate it in an isolated environment and usually discard context)… if you say that the Fate series, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and such are for children….. ill beat you up.

To begin whit, most of these games have a farmable currency FFS… FGO has the quartz shards (the most annoying to farm out of all 7 Q SHARDS = 1 saint quarts and 3 of these are needed to roll) Azur lane has cubes, You get around 4 per day, and you need one (up to three) in order to pull. And so,on and so forth the few games that really have a nearly unfarmable currency are the “idol games” but those are on a whole another level. (like… the amount of publicity, fame, copyright and such is just way to different, look at The IdolM@ster games, the numbers are mind-blowing ).Sadly, this has put them in the same (dastardly) category as the “lootbox” games (overwatch, fortnite, etc.) which in my opinion are NOT gacha.

  Ok, to end this random-ass rant and to try to explain myself here, I am not saying that Gacha games (and their creators) are saints, hell, I’m a victim of the eternal salt too, but I’m not whining (too much) the point is simply to state my opinion in this matter, and the reason for this? I was going to do a post about a different thing, but two days ago I heard a walking piece of trash (AKA absolute Normie) that was not only dissing my favorite games AND franchise but also said the cursed words of Anime is for children (he was talking about fate and puella magi to top it off…) 

so yeah, if you have read up to this point.

  CONGRATS! AND TANKS FOR READING!

BONUS: an image you can hear

Alexis Romero

[mccaffreybirk54-blog]

Alexi Lubomirski, Prince Harry And Meghan Markle's Wedding event Professional photographer

Say the word contract" to a group of wedding event professional photographers, and you will often get the exact same cumulative sigh that the word research" elicits from a group of seventh graders. Speak up. A trusted photographer will understand that your personal privacy and right to the images defeats their desire to be published, so if you define that you don't want the images shared (even if it isn't really in the agreement), they're obliged to follow your lead. Of course, wedding event photographers will also typically get shots of one of the most crucial moments - the newlywed's very first kiss. I won't inform you ways to construct your copyright agreements for your images, this is something extremely individual that professional photographers have to decide on their own. At my wedding my parents had an expert photographer take videos and pictures, however I am incredibly happy that I had family and friends, "beginners" as they might be, who enjoy their electronic cameras and video cameras.

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[architectnews]

The Conservatory, Pretoria Building

The Conservatory, Pretoria Real Estate, South African Modern Architecture, Retreat Building, Photography

The Conservatory near Pretoria

31 Aug 2021

Architect: Nadine Engelbrecht

Location: Pretoria, South Africa

The Conservatory

The principal requirement of The Conservatory project consisted of creating a retreat for its occupants from a hectic urban lifestyle. The client obtained an underutilised 35 hectare farm outside of Pretoria with magnificent views. The house had to have a strong relationship with its immediate landscape and living spaces had to embrace the surroundings, breaking away from conventional space allocation.

Since the main portion of the house would be inhabited by only two permanent users, they requested spacious volumes and dwelling spaces to be located on a single storey. Guest suites would be separate and not integrated into the circulation of the main house.

Sloped natural grasslands and majestic views informed the design of a dwelling partially submerged in the hill. Veld grasses are allowed to flow continuously onto a portion of the roof and vegetation permeates the interior through a conservatory placed at the core of the building. Habitable spaces are oriented around the conservatory to make optimal use of surrounding views.

At the heart of the building, the conservatory is intentionally designed to be context specific with solid and translucent roof sheeting and sufficient insulation to optimise passive climate control. In winter the conservatory is configured to allow solar penetration while keeping cold air out. This passive heat is released into the adjoining living spaces by opening the desired partitions. In warm summer months an automated glass façade opens up the conservatory to creating an outside patio which allows natural cross ventilation to flow constantly though the house.

Energy and water requirements are met completely “off-grid”. Materials chosen for durability and low maintenance include cement washed bricks, exposed steel and concrete soffits. The industrial use of building materials continues to the interior closets, cupboards and kitchen.

Upon entry of the conservatory a glass floor allows a glimpse into the wine cellar below, accessible only via a seamlessly integrated trap door. The main bedroom is located on the challenging western side of the house to enjoy bird watching into the tree canopy and brilliant sunset views. The large overhanging patio and timber shutters assist in eliminating unwanted afternoon sun. The remainder of spaces remain oriented north with optimal overhangs to ensure climate comfort throughout seasons. Seldom used guest suites are separately treated on the lower ground area with a private entrance and outdoor space.

Interior Information Timber chandelier in the conservatory – David Krynauw Timber table in conservatory and wine cellar – Built by client Timber bench in lounge – Laurie Wiid van Heerden Felt chairs in lounge – Ronel Jordaan Lounge lamp – Aim pendant lights, designed by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for Flos Lounge painting – Marie Vermeulen Breedt Main bedroom wall mounted lamp – Model 265 by Paolo Rizzatto for Flos Steel kitchen table and counter – Custom made, design by Nadine Engelbrecht, manufactured by Tsipe Engineering Timber cabinet in kitchen – Weylandts

Construction Information Webber Floors – cement screed Forest Flooring – white oak timber floors Yebo Windows & Doors – steel door and window frames Bronk Joineries – white oak custom designed timer interior doors Coroma – custom designed automatic steel and glass door (to open up side of conservatory) Status stones – “Cement Sand” bathroom vanities

The Conservatory near Pretoria, South Africa – Building Information

Architect: Nadine Engelbrecht Email: [email protected]

Photographer: Marsel Roothman

The Conservatory, Pretoria image / information received 310821

Location: Pretoria , South Africa

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Comments / photos for the The Conservatory near Pretoria page welcome

Pretoria

The post The Conservatory, Pretoria Building appeared first on e-architect.

#e-architect

[adri10sworld-blog]

Purple PurseVerified account          @PurplePurse      Purple Purse is an initiative of The Allstate Foundation to financially empower domestic violence survivors. Donate here: http://bit.ly/1WPgcTTPurple Purse by All State

This organization is to help women gain their financial independence from a abusive relationship. Often women who are victims of domestic violence are also victims of financial abuse. This is where their spouse, or significant other takes away all monetary resources. Leaving them with absolutely nothing for them to be able to get away from that situation.

Many victims of domestic violence often stay with their abusers due to not being able to provide for themselves. 1 in 4 women (24.3%) and 1 in 7 men (13.8%) aged 18 and older in the United States have been the victim of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime. Females ages 18 to 24 and 25 to 34 generally experienced the highest rates of intimate partner violence.

https://www.purplepurse.com/the-issue/domestic-violence-financial-abuse.aspx

https://www.facebook.com/purplepurse/

https://twitter.com/PurplePurse

Purple Purse

Verified account

         @PurplePurse      

Purple Purse is an initiative of The Allstate Foundation to financially empower domestic violence survivors. Donate here: http://bit.ly/1WPgcTT

https://twitter.com/PurplePurse/status/1012437123910262784

https://twitter.com/YahooEnt/status/1011027460354400256

         Purple Purse supports those affected by domestic violence.      

Allstate Foundation's commitment to helping victims of domestic violence through financial empowerment began in 2005. Our trustees saw the staggering facts about the issue and committed to using our financial expertise to make a difference. Since then, the Foundation has invested more than $60 million and trained nearly 11,000 advocates to help more than 1.3 million survivors take steps toward financial independence. Our program is named Purple Purse because a purse represents the center of a woman's financial domain, and purple is the national color for domestic violence awareness.

Introducing Purple Purse ambassador, Serena Williams.

Purple Purse is teaming up with tennis champion, entrepreneur and philanthropist Serena Williams to raise awareness for the often invisible role financial abuse plays in trapping victims in harmful relationships. To help spread the word and raise funds, Serena designs an exclusive purple purse each year that will be used by nonprofits affiliated with Purple Purse for fundraising.

                             "Standing up for women's rights has long been a passion of mine. I hope people will join the Purple Purse movement and work with us to end abuse against women."            

—Serena Williams

Introduction

Welcome!

It's easy to tell if you're being physically abused, but financial abuse is more subtle.

Ending a relationship with an abusive partner is a big step. This course provides information to consider before you do. It will explore what an abusive relationship is and steps you can take to protect your safety. While it doesn't have all of the answers, it's a start.

The Allstate Foundation has adapted its hard copy Purple Purse Moving Ahead Through Financial Management curriculum into this web-based version that you can watch, listen to and learn from. The curriculum was developed by The Allstate Foundation in partnership with the National Network to End Domestic Violence, and has been academically validated by Rutgers University. For additional information regarding any of the topics discussed, you can download the curriculum at PurplePurse.com.

The information provided in this course is intended to be general advice for those in an abusive relationship. But not everyone's situation is the same. If you need specific advice, contact a domestic violence advocate or visit http://www.thehotline.org. You may also contact a financial advisor or attorney.

Curating key findings from across the country

We're constantly curating data from nationwide studies to help us learn more about abuse. Here's what we've learned.

                                   3            women            

each day die from domestic violence injuries

                                               3M            children            

witness domestic violence each year

                                               No. 1                        

cause of family homelessness

Conducting research of our own

In 2014, Allstate Foundation commissioned the Silent Weapon: Domestic Violence and Financial Abuse survey to look at everything from public perceptions of abuse to those who've experienced it themselves. See what we found.

                                   66%                        

believe domestic violence is a serious issue for the US

                                               78%                        

are unaware financial abuse is a form of domestic violence

                                               97%                        

think financial abuse is unlikely to be recognized by an outsider

https://youtu.be/1qZXcKpP7cA

Tennis superstar Serena Williams has only been a mom to Alexis Ohanian for less than a month, but she’s already making strides to be a positive role model to her daughter by teaming up with the Allstate Foundation Purple Purse campaign as a designer and ambassador in honor of National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

“My dedication to ending violence against women has grown even stronger since the birth of my daughter just a few weeks ago,” Williams tells PeopleStyle. “One way I am working to make this crucial societal change is by joining forces with Allstate Foundation Purple Purse, which aims to end domestic violence against women through financial empowerment.”

Every year, the Allstate Foundation launched an annual Purple Purse that you can win by donating $10 towards empowering women to break free from an abusive relationship through financial education, job training and readiness, and small business programs for survivors. The fundraising effort’s critical: on a single day last year, more than 12,000 requests for emergency shelter, childcare and financial aid from women suffering from domestic violence went unanswered due to lacked funding.

Looking for more style content? Click here to subscribe to the PeopleStyle Newsletter for amazing shopping discounts, can’t-live-without beauty products and more.

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This year, Williams designed her first handbag for the Purple Purse campaign, following in other famous ladies’ footsteps like Kerry Washington, who has been an ambassador and designed a purse for the Allstate Foundation Purple Purse campaign for the past three years.

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Williams’ handcrafted Italian leather handbags (which are valued at $400) come in two designs — one deep plum and another more vibrant purple — which can be entered to win in a weekly sweepstakes. “It’s sophisticated, but also spacious enough for carrying everyday essentials,” Williams says. “It is my hope that the lucky recipients of this handbag will wear it proudly as they help get the word out around this inspiring cause.”

http://www.thehotline.org/resources/statistics/

https://twitter.com/PurplePurse

https://people.com/style/serena-williams-purple-purse-domestic-violence-awareness/

Purple purse has all their social media outlets covered. From Facebook to Twitter, they are active, and constantly posting news on changes, who has joined the cause. It is important for a non profit organization to stay on top of social media, because it is a sure way to reach the public. The internet keeps the conversation going.

Staying relevant may seem like a hard thing to do, because it seems like sometimes people are not very attracted to who you have chosen to represent you. Yet at the same time, when choosing a spokesperson you want someone is going to be warm and inviting. Specially when it comes to matters a delicate as domestic violence.

#NECSOCIALFINAL

[kastle09]

Why I fell out of competitive Tetris,  and the frustration of The Tetris Company (TTC)

In my life previous to FGC I was heavily involved with a Tetris variant called “Cultris 2” as a player since 2011 and Tournament Organiser for 3-4 years. You can even see my early article writing attempts as well. 

I go back to it every now and again but I sometimes wonder where it could have gone. I had dreams at one time to see Tetris reach the heights of the other esports, but it could never get there. The things that have halted its progress and development when I left are still ruining the community I loved even now.

I almost think the original version of Tetris was so successful it has halted anyone bad mouthing the game in its current standing. A game can be groundbreaking and revolutionary, but it can also be out of date, and that is exactly what is happening with Tetris at the moment.

Short overview on competitive Tetris

So a bit of background for those of you not as familiar with it, there are (broadly speaking) three kinds of players: Marathon, Sprint, and Battle.

Marathon is classic tetris; High score, playing as long as you can. If you watch Classic Tetris World Championship or the fantastic documentary “Ecstasy of Order” you would be extremely familiar with this game mode. It is also what I would say is the most fundamental tetris, the other game modes will branch off but it doesn’t start without understanding these games. Tetris on the NES and Tetris:The Grand Master (TGM) Series are examples of marathon.

Sprint is 40 line mode. Clear 40 lines as fast as possible. These world records are amazing to behold. I still remember a few years ago going under 20 second barrier was an amazing feat, now closing in on under 15. Jstris, Lockjaw and Nullpolimo among others are very well known for catering to this crowd, stripping back almost all unnecessary animations and incredibly fine tuning in order to play as fast as possible. If you play Counter-strike and you are the guy that looks to change their mouse sensitivity to a very specific decimal pointed number, play 800 x 600, left handed model. That's kind of what these sprint Tetris games are like.

Battle is the final and has become more popular since the new millennium. 1 vs 1, Garbage line, T-spins, ‘x’-wide combos etc are all terms derived from this game mode. It’s easier to tell which era you grew up with Tetris pending if you prefer playing Battle or Marathon style Tetris. I would probably say Tetris Friends especially which began on Facebook in 2008 would be one of the key reasons people are so familiar with this game mode, but it stretches out even now in Cultris 2, or Puyo Puyo Tetris.

The Tetris Company (TTC)

Despite creator Alexey Pajitnov creating Tetris all the way back in 1984, it wasn’t until he and Henk Rogers formed “The Tetris Company” in 1996 that he could actually earn royalties from his creation.

From the perspective of a creator getting his due credit and worth from something so popular, it's understandable why TTC exists. Imagine having no power at all when a 100 companies flood the app store with 100 different versions of Tetris for example. Copyright is there to protect that name, and that style. 

Games that are TTC Licenced games, also called “Guideline Tetris” are called as such because there is a list of guidelines that TTC sets out for a developer that MUST BE FEATURED. These include(but are not limited to):

The Size of the play matrix

The Colour of the Tetriminos

The Ability to Hold Piece and show Ghost Piece

Use of the “7 System” (Also known as bag system) for the block spawning generation

System dictating how blocks rotate

etc 

If a lot of these seem really arbitrary it's because they are. For TTC it’s more important the game looks and feels the same all the time across all their versions, rather than trying to do anything actually interesting with the systems (foreshadowing).

This is where I feel TTC has fallen down. The rigidity of guidelines has created a limited design that has widened the division between the original creators and the current community.

I’ll put it this way, if we were happy with the official games, we wouldn’t have the need for the fan clones. That's also a reason why some of the best Tetris games out at the moment, aren’t the official ones.

TTC vs Community

From what I’ve understood (and keep in mind I am not a lawyer), while you can copyright the game itself and your expression of that form you cannot copyright a game design or mechanics.

Wouldn’t it be ridiculous if every shooter released had to follow the Call of Duty format? Thats because the Brand name and style of Call of Duty can be copyrighted, but first person perspective, sprint button and aim down sights cannot be.  And yet that's kinda what TTC does for Tetris. If any other developer did that to their game it would be seen as medieval thinking. Somehow though Tetris has avoided this criticism and instead of choking creativity it's somehow celebrated as protecting the brand.

What people want out of their Tetris game isn’t the same. Just consider what I said earlier about their being very different sub communities. Each finding what they like about Tetris and branching off to the experience they like.

But TTC doesn’t like that. TTC likes to tell you “this is what the game is, this is how you play it, because I said so”. That might sound hyperbolic but you know when the last time those guidelines were adjusted? 2009.

More than 11 years ago. Tell me how the hell you can think you are still in tune with fans when you haven’t revised your thoughts in ELEVEN years.

Tetris Ultimate was when I drew the line in the sand. I’d like to personally apologize now to “CeeCee”, the Community Manager from Ubisoft who was responsible for overseeing TU because I don’t think she was prepared for the amount of hate and turmoil that that development was going to produce. She had to find out the hard way that A) there is such a thing as a hardcore Tetris community and B) they can get incredibly vocal and toxic.

Every forum or social media outlet Ubisoft had was just bombarded with foul language and rage. Everything Ubisoft tried to post was followed up with unanswered questions and complaints.

It was when I first really felt like no one actually cared what was happening. Not TTC for over seeing the end product and not Ubisoft for being able to make a game that High-school students code as a school project. 

As a community we get stuck right in the middle

We can’t rely on TTC to re-format the game we want 

the developers don’t listen to the feedback given and/or are hamstrung by TTC

Any clone that actually makes an effort gets a cease and desists for their efforts.

The Pipe Dream of Tetris esport

When Tetris 99 dropped a couple of years ago, there was an interview Alexy Pajitnov did with US gamer and was quoted as saying: “I really want Tetris to establish itself as an esport. We’re getting there very slowly but surely.”

As someone who has been able to view this industry from a lot of different angles (Player, Viewer, Tournament Organiser, Coach, Commentator) it is laughable to suggest that Tetris is making any headway towards esports viability.

If they were concerned about fixing the player experience, some developer or TTC themselves would have invested some time into discovering why previous games' battle modes weren’t balanced well. Why only one stacking strategy ever proved optimal. Why something as simple as button remapping and Delay and Repeat actually matters.

Esport games need to have a good viewing experience as well, have they taken any clues from the successful games, and how they have a mode specifically with spectator tools to help a streamer, commentator or tournament organiser present and organise games?

A community is paramount to an esport. So why is it every Tetris game on release has trouble maintaining a player base after a couple of years. Why is it that some Clone games have lasted much longer. 

The short answer is they have no idea about what it takes to get into esports, and none of their actions suggest they are even making any headway. If I released this article 5 years ago, the challengers are exactly the same as they have ever been.

Final Words

Leaving was one of the hardest things I had to decide but I felt stuck. On one side is a community of dedicated and talented people who yell into the void hoping for things to change. On the other side, the mainstream that seems almost unwilling or blindsided that there could possibly be anything wrong with a game as “perfect” as Tetris.

No one has ever been able to put pressure on TTC to change. Not mainstream media, not its player base (which is mainly casual), and no creator has had enough financial backing to fight a C&D to make a game that the community wants.

I love my life now in fighting games and esports, but I wish my old compatriots and peers could have what I always wanted for the game. For it to be better than what they have had to put up with.

#tetris #esports #rant #opinion #ttc