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__label__cc	0.686863	0.313137	Sunrise in the Mexican Riviera, sailing on the RC Mariner of the Seas Sunset in the Mexican Riviera Sunrise on the Disney Wonder forward in the Bahamas Disney Wonder docked in Nassau, Bahamas Nassau, Bahamas - passageway to downtown (Incredible that you can see different shades of blue water in such short distance) Nassau, Bahamas - no wake area Disney Wonder, sunset in the Bahamas Leaving Nassau, Bahamas as the sunsets Castaway Cay with Disney Wonder and the original Pirates of the Caribbean Ship in the background The boys are back pose...HSM Abstract view of the Disney Wonder Ashley and Stitch on Disney Wonder Water Reflection of the Coronado Resort in Walt Disney World during sunset Walt Disney Magic Kingdom - Cinderella's Castle Walt Disney, Animal Kingdom Terra Cotta Warriors at the Epcot Center - The Terracotta Army (simplified Chinese: 兵马俑; traditional Chinese: 兵馬俑; pinyin: bīngmǎ yǒng; literally "soldier and horse funerary statues") or the "Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses", is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor of China. Making a pizza in Mama Melrose's Ristorante Italiano at Walt Disney Hollywood Studios. Christmas Night Light Celebration at Walt Disney's Hollywood Studio I'm just a Broadway Baby. Walking off my tired feet. Pounding Forty-Second Street To be in a show... Heavenly Mountain Resort is a ski resort located on the California-Nevada border in South Lake Tahoe. It has 97 runs and 30 lifts that are spread between California and Nevada and four base facilities. The resort has 4,800 acres (1,900 ha) within its permit area, with approximately 33% currently developed for skiing, boasting the highest elevation of the Lake Tahoe area resorts with a peak elevation of 10,067 ft (3,068 m), and a peak lift-service elevation of 10,040 ft (3,060 m). South Lake Tahoe, CA, Marriott Timberlodge - Snow fight The Boeing 777 is a long-range, wide-body twin-engine jet airliner manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It is the world's largest twinjet and is commonly referred to as the "Triple Seven".[3][4] The aircraft has seating for over 300 passengers and has a range from 5,235 to 9,380 nautical miles (9,695 to 17,370 km), depending on model. Its distinguishing features include the largest-diameter turbofan engines of any aircraft, six wheels on each main landing gear, a circular fuselage cross-section, and blade-shaped tail cone.[5] Developed in consultation with eight major airlines, the 777 was designed to replace older wide-body airliners and bridge the capacity difference between the 767 and 747. As Boeing's first fly-by-wire airliner, it has computer mediated controls; it is also the first entirely computer-designed commercial aircraft. Waiting to board JAL Boeing 777 from SFO to Narita International Airport Hong Kong Island - a view from our 18th floor room at the JW Marriott Hong Kong, Ngong Ping Hong Kong Victoria's Peak Hong Kong's Symphony of Lights Hong Kong Disneyland - Asian Snow White Hong Kong Disneyland - Parade performer Hong Kong Disneyland - Toy Story Soldier Hong Kong Disneyland - Main Entrance Taking a first class Hydrofoil Ferry "TurboJet" from Hong Kong to Macau. http://www.turbojet.com.hk/ Hong Kong - Ocean Park Tokyo, JP - DisneySea - Lost River Delta Tokyo, JP - DisneySea - Arabian Coast Tokyo, JP - DisneySea	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10606
__label__cc	0.585239	0.414761	Ashley Black, Cassandra Whitehead and Sarah Rhoades at America’s Next Top Model Cycle 5 Finale Event (Dec 05) To learn more about Cycle 5’s Ashley Black, visit her bio page here. To learn more about Cycle 5‘s Cassandra Whithead, visit her bio page here. To learn more about Cycle 5‘s Sarah Rhodes, visit her bio page here. Posted by modelscribe Filed in Ashley Black, Cassandra Whitehead, Cycle 5, Ebony Taylor, Publicity, Red Carpet, Sarah Rhoades Tags: 2010 Sarah Rhoades, americas next top model 5 ashley black, americas next top model cassandra cycle 5, antm 5, antm cycle 5, antm cycle 5 ashley black, antm cycle 5 cassandra, antm cycle 5 Cassandra Whitehead Red Carpet and Publicity Photos, antm cycle 5 sarah rhoades, antm cycle 5 Sarah Rhoades cycle 5, antm cycle 5 Sarah Rhoades Interview with OrwellProject.com (Oct 05), Ashley Black antm cycle 5 photos, Ashley Black antm cycle 5 photos currently, Ashley Black antm cycle 5 photos now, Ashley Black antm cycle 5 photos today, Ashley Black photos, Ashley Black photos antm, Ashley Black photos currently, Ashley Black photos now, Ashley Black photos today, ashley cycle 5 antm, ashley cycle 5 top model, ashley photos antm cycle 5, cassandra where is she now cycle 5, Cassandra Whitehead antm cycle 5, Cassandra Whitehead antm cycle 5 photos currenlty, Cassandra Whitehead antm cycle 5 photos now, Cassandra Whitehead antm cycle 5 photos today, Cassandra Whitehead photos, Cassandra Whitehead photos a, Cassandra Whitehead photos currently, Cassandra Whitehead photos now t, Cassandra Whitehead photos today, Cassandra Whitehead Red Carpet and Publicity Photos, Cassandra Whitehead Red Carpet and Publicity Photos photos, Cassandra Whitehead where is she now, Cycle 5, cycle 5 cassandra, cycle 5 cassandra whitehead, photos of cassandra whitehead, Sarah Rhoades cycle 5, Sarah Rhoades cycle 5 photos, Sarah Rhoades cycle 5 photos today, Sarah Rhoades Interview with OrwellProject.com (Oct 05), Sarah Rhoades Interview with OrwellProject.com (Oct 05) photos, Sarah Rhoades photos, Sarah Rhoades photos currently, Sarah Rhoades photos now, Sarah Rhoades photos today, Sarah Rhoades what is she doing today, Sarah Rhoades where is she now, top model ashley, top model ashley cycel 5, top model cassandra cycle 5, top model cassandra cycle 5 antm, top model cycle 5, top model cycle 5 Cassandra Whitehead Red Carpet and Publicity Photos, top model cycle 5 Sarah Rhoades Interview with OrwellProject.com (Oct 05), top model sarah rhoades, what is Cassandra Whitehead doing today, what is Sarah Rhoades doing in 2010, where is Cassandra Whitehead now, where is Sarah Rhoades now Sarah Rhoades Interview with OrwellProject.com (Oct 05) In October of 2005, OrwellProject.com interviewed Cycle 5‘s Sarah Rhoades following her elimination and appearance on the show. Here is the text from the interview (written and posted by Jackie Helm): Interview with Sarah, the third-eliminated contestant from Cycle 5 of America’s Next Top Model Hi Sarah! We are neighbors I am in Kansas City! I call you my hometown honey in my ANTM recaps! (Laughs) Aww…thanks! You seemed devastated to leave. How are you doing? I am good now. Even when I watched the show I cried. It was hard to watch myself be in that much pain. It was hard to watch and hard to go through. But I am fine now. It was kind of bittersweet, but I only have positive things to say about it now. It was fun. Will you continue to pursue modeling? I think so. You would think that I would be a complete mess but I had a fabulous time and I still want to. I wanted it before the show and I want it now. So yes, I do plan on going further with it. What do you think about Cassandra’s exit? It happened really fast and it was really sudden and shocking. I have respect and admiration for her for standing her ground. Would I have done the same thing – no! But I am not her. I know she is the only girl to ever quit the show. I don’t know; you do have to wonder about her. But I have respect for what she did. Regarding your highly exploited friendship with Kim, did your boyfriend see the show? That is the thing – he is not my boyfriend! We did date before but we are just friends now. He has always been a good friend and he has always supported me. I called him just to talk about things, but he was not my boyfriend. So that was not an issue at all. When it comes to what people think about it; I think it is weird for them. Boonville is such a really town and L.A. is so different. There are so many different cultures in L.A. and it’s a totally different world. I am not sure anyone really knows how to take it. Did you develop any real feelings for Kim? It was very real. They did show it how it was. There was something there. I don’t think they even knew what to think and even I didn’t. I didn’t go on the show planning for anything like that. I didn’t even like Kim in the semi-finals. I couldn’t stand her so it’s really funny that it all happened. I don’t consider myself a lesbian or bisexual. I am just me! What happened – just happened, I was attracted to her, I don’t know why. I saw her as a person and who she was versus her gender. I date boys and am sort of seeing a boy now. I didn’t really want that all on TV. But it happened and I don’t regret it at all. Kim is a great person and I am glad that I got to know her. You’re walk was often given harsh critique. Had you practiced the catwalk before going on the show? I didn’t have a lot of modeling experience so I wasn’t really ready for that. I guess I thought they would teach us more about modeling. Which they didn’t and we just got thrown in to situations and were expected to perform like top models. We only had about 15 seconds each with J. Alexander so it wasn’t enough to help me at all. Also, I have a size 7 foot and I was in 9’s and 10’s so that didn’t help at all. Naturally I am a little klutzy even walking in tennis shoes. I have practiced a little bit since then and I hope to get better at it. I did my best there so it’s okay. When it came down to you and Kim, did you know that it was going to be you to go? Yes. I kind of had an inkling all day. I had a feeling that it was my time to go. It wasn’t fun, I wasn’t ready to go and I wanted to stay longer. I wanted to win of course and I wanted to stay with Kim and continue having fun with her. But I knew it was my time. It was an honor to go up against her. I wouldn’t have wanted to lose against anybody else. It was dramatic, but it was fun. If you could do anything different what would it be? I would have made out with Kim some more. (Laughs) I would have just tried to remain myself and stay grounded with myself. Instead of letting the whole tripping thing get me worked up. It just got into my head that I was going to trip and fall because that is what they thought that I did. I couldn’t get past it. I would try to let it go and tell myself that I was NOT going to trip and fall. Do you think you’ll maintain friendships with any of the girls? I hope so. I talk to Kyle and Coryn sometimes. I talk to Kim a lot; I just talked to her this morning. We all kind of want the same thing in life. I hope to remain good friends with everybody. Who got on your nerves the most? Lisa, for sure. You can’t like everybody. I made an effort to get along with her. Most of what she did was drinking and bossing people around. It was just annoying. I still don’t like her but I have respect for her and I try to get along with her when I am near her. There was alcohol in the house? No, no, no. She liked wine and she had her wine that she got for herself. Whenever they show her telling us what to do then running into the wall – she was a little tipsy almost at all times. There wasn’t really any drinking except mainly on her part. Who has your vote to make it to the end or even win the competition? I don’t know it’s hard to tell. You’ll have to watch. Vote for Kim! But I have no idea. What was your favorite part of the experience? The whole thing was surreal. The house was kick ass beautiful. We don’t have anything like that in Booneville at all. It was phenomenal. I still can’t believe that I stayed in a mansion-it was gorgeous. The limo was crazy fun. My favorite part about the whole thing was getting to know the girls and hanging out with the girls. I usually hang out with guys. So it was really fun getting in touch with that side of myself. What was your favorite photo shoot? I love the horse photo shoot. We were at the ranch and I felt at home and comfortable and confident. I loved that photo shoot it was the best. My sister works with horses so it was funny that I had a horse in mine. Do you have any last words or shout outs? I had really great time. I want to say hi to my sister Samantha because she is so supportive of me through everything and I love her so much. My whole family has been really great. To everyone in Missouri, it’s been very fun representing. It’s been great. Well you represented us well. Thank you for talking with me Source: OrwellProject.com Photo: CW Filed in Article, Cycle 5, Interview, Publicity, Sarah Rhoades Tags: 2010 Sarah Rhoades, antm cycle 5, antm cycle 5 sarah rhoades, antm cycle 5 Sarah Rhoades cycle 5, antm cycle 5 Sarah Rhoades Interview with OrwellProject.com (Oct 05), Sarah Rhoades cycle 5, Sarah Rhoades cycle 5 photos, Sarah Rhoades cycle 5 photos today, Sarah Rhoades Interview with OrwellProject.com (Oct 05), Sarah Rhoades Interview with OrwellProject.com (Oct 05) photos, Sarah Rhoades photos, Sarah Rhoades photos currently, Sarah Rhoades photos now, Sarah Rhoades photos today, Sarah Rhoades what is she doing today, Sarah Rhoades where is she now, top model cycle 5 Sarah Rhoades Interview with OrwellProject.com (Oct 05), top model sarah rhoades, what is Sarah Rhoades doing in 2010, where is Sarah Rhoades now Sarah Rhoades Interview with Reality News Online (Oct 05) In October of 2005, Reality News Online interviewed Cycle 5‘s Sarah Rhoades following her elimination and appearance on the show. Here is the text from the interview (written and posted by Phil Kural): “Plan B Is To Marry Rich!”– An Interview With America’s Next Top Model 5’s Sarah” Sarah, the fourth girl eliminated this season on America’s Next Top Model, will forever be known as the girl who couldn’t walk in heels. Was that really the case though? In this interview with RealityNewsOnline, Sarah talks about her time on the show, her time with Kim, but most importantly, her time in heels! Find out right here what she had to say! Sarah was probably one of the most “fun” girls this season. I think one of the reasons I liked her so much was because she was at a point in her life where she had never done much traveling and was just really discovering who she was. I had a chance to talk to Sarah about her time on America’s Next Top Model, and she was quite candid when we discussed Cassandra quitting, her relationship with Kim, and what she plans to do if modeling doesn’t work out. I’m sure you’ve seen her quote up top! Relax, she was joking! RealityNewsOnline: Thanks for taking the time to talk with me today, Sarah. Had you watched previous seasons of the show and what factored into your decision to apply? Sarah: Well, I had bought the first season on DVD, since I had never seen it, and I saw all of the fourth season. I didn’t see any of seasons two or three. My aunt had encouraged me to apply for the show, and I had done so many other things to get involved in the business that this was kind of like a last resort, but I ended up getting picked! RNO: What is it about yourself that you believed would make you stick out from the rest of the girls? Sarah: Well, of course we have my lips! Really though, I just think they saw my personality and how badly I wanted to be a model. I was ready to do whatever it took to be in this competition. RNO: Did you have any type of modeling experience before being on the show? I know you had stated that you spent money to get into it in the past. Sarah: Well, I had been to conventions and paid some agencies to make me a portfolio, which Tyra says the conventions were scams. Anytime you have to pay someone to do these things, it’s usually a scam, and I believe her. I tried to get involved with many things, but it just never clicked for me. RNO: A big chunk of this week’s episode focused on the relationship between you and Kim, whatever that might be. Fill me in on what was going on between you two. Sarah: Nothing was really shown out of context with myself and Kim. It was what it was. I was at a very weird time in my life, and being sheltered and never really knowing any gay people, it was a change for me. I didn’t even like Kim during the semi-finals, so it’s funny to see how we ended up so close. I’m not sure what it was about her, but I found her to be quite comforting, and everyone was so stressed out. RNO: So what’s the deal with Cassandra? Did everyone pretty much know she was going to quit, or did it come as a shock? Sarah: It all happened so fast. I mean, after she received the first haircut, I thought she was going to stick it out. They only wanted to take off another inch or two of her hair, so I don’t understand what the big deal was! She already went though the worst of it, so one or two more inches shouldn’t have been a problem. I think we were all shocked. Did anyone make any kind of attempt to stop her? Watching the episode, in your opinion, do you think Bre might have encouraged it? Sarah: I don’t think anyone tried to stop her except maybe one of the stylists might have said something. As for Bre, I saw that too! This is a competition after all, so I guess anytime someone has a chance to talk someone else out of it, helping their chances to win, they are going to go for it. Bre is real like that! RNO: I know that sometimes it’s hard to understand a situation unless you are in it. Cassandra’s biggest gripe was having all her hair chopped off. Had they wanted to do to you what they did to her, would you have gone through with it? Sarah: Oh, I’m actually surprised that they didn’t cut mine shorter! I was expecting it, and you have to go into this realizing that they are going to make changes to you. RNO: Is there a point you think you would have drawn the line, or were you ready to do anything? Sarah: I don’t want to say “no” because then I’ll sound desperate. However, they never wanted us to do anything that was scandalous or made us feel really uncomfortable, so in that light, there really wasn’t a line to be drawn. RNO: We saw you stumble several times while doing the runway walk. Had you practiced at all before you went on the show? Sarah: I didn’t really practice because I didn’t think I was that bad! Of course, if I could relive that moment I would have practiced more before I was on the show. Although, it didn’t help that most of those times I was wearing a size 9 or 10 shoe, and I’m a size seven! RNO: What was the most challenging aspect of the whole experience? Was it learning the walk, the lack of sleep, or dealing with Jay Manuel and his shoddy advice and diva attitude? Sarah: Oh, Phil! I wouldn’t say it was the walking, I would say it was the stress. It always seemed like we had to go somewhere or do something. I just needed some moments to be alone and relax, and that was probably the hardest thing to deal with – getting that time! RNO: You had been in the bottom two twice – once with Ashley, and then with Kim. Did you think or know that you would be the one eliminated either of those times? Sarah: With Ashley, I had a feeling it might be me because of when I stumbled on the runway. I knew I wanted to be there though, and felt I deserved it more than some of the other girls. When I was up against Kim, I knew it was my time to go. I kind of knew all day. I’ve said it before though – I’m glad it was Kim that I lost to because it was an honor and I wouldn’t have wanted it to be anyone else. RNO: Looking back at your performance, is there anything you could have done to stick around longer, or do you think your walk did you in? Sarah: Actually, I don’t think it was my walk that did me in. I think it was more of a confidence issue. I mean, they saw how flustered I got. The walk could always be fixed in time. I had some problems with coping with the stress, and that was my downfall. I think I’m more relaxed and comfortable now though. But now it’s too late! RNO: What kind of advice would you give to girls who are thinking about applying to future seasons of the show? Sarah: I would just say that you better be ready to have all your emotions exposed. Your whole life will be exposed to the public and you have to be ready for that, so be comfortable with yourself and who you are. RNO: So after all that you have been through, is modeling still something you want to pursue? If it doesn’t work out, what’s your plan B? Sarah: It’s definitely still something I want to do. I’m obsessed with modeling and always have been. I’m going to keep on trying at least 10 more times and then I’ll take it from there. As for plan B, that would be to marry rich! I’m kidding! RNO: Is there anything you would like to add or say to fans of the show? Sarah: I just want to say that I had a great time on the show, I learned a lot and I made a bunch of friends. I don’t regret anything and would probably do it all the same if I had to do it over again. Thank you to all the fans and supporters of the show! RNO: Thanks, Sarah! Source: Reality News Online Tags: 2010 Sarah Rhoades, antm cycle 5, antm cycle 5 sarah rhoades, antm cycle 5 Sarah Rhoades cycle 5, antm cycle 5 Sarah Rhoades Interview with Reality News Online (Oct 05), Sarah Rhoades cycle 5, Sarah Rhoades cycle 5 photos, Sarah Rhoades cycle 5 photos today, Sarah Rhoades Interview with Reality News Online (Oct 05), Sarah Rhoades Interview with Reality News Online (Oct 05) photos, Sarah Rhoades photos, Sarah Rhoades photos currently, Sarah Rhoades photos now, Sarah Rhoades photos today, Sarah Rhoades what is she doing today, Sarah Rhoades where is she now, top model cycle 5 Sarah Rhoades Interview with Reality News Online (Oct 05), top model sarah rhoades, what is Sarah Rhoades doing in 2010, where is Sarah Rhoades now Sarah Rhoades Interview with Fans of Reality TV (Oct 05) In October of 2005 Fans of Reality TV (FORT) conducted an interview with Cycle 5‘s Sarah Rhoades following her appearance and elimination from the show. Here is the text from the interview (written and posted by Hepcat): The FORT Interview with Sarah, 10/10/05 The latest to be eliminated from America’s Next Top Model was 18-year-old Sarah, a girl who gave up her job at the fragrance counter in small-town America to try her luck in the big city. Sarah was new to Los Angeles, new to runway walking, and new to lesbians. At least, that’s the way she seemed on the show. Does Sarah see herself as the clumsy small-town hick who fell head over heels for one of her fellow competitors? Ah, the power of reality show editing. Cassandra said it best, though, when she described Sarah as “lighthearted and fun.” Sarah’s bubbly personality was very much in evidence as she laughed her way throughout the interview. Thank you for speaking with me this morning, Sarah. I’m just sorry that it’s so soon in the competition, as you were one of my favorites. Oh, well thank you very much! That’s sweet. You seemed to be gaining confidence as the competition went along. Was getting eliminated at this point a blow to that confidence? Somewhat, but I’ve had time to kind of get over it now. You would think that being in a competition that’s so judgmental and critical would tear me down, but it’s really built my confidence a lot. In the end I’d say that I’m a better person, I’m more confident. I believe in myself a lot more now than I did before I entered the competition. Did you feel like you were improving? You know, I was doing the best I could at everything. Even my walk did improve a little bit – and I am working on it still. I think if I had been given a couple more weeks I could have done a lot better. (Laughs) It’s hard to improve on something that takes time to work on, and we didn’t have a lot of time with Jay Alexander. It takes a while, but I was working on it! So how difficult was that revolving platform in the Sue Wong runway challenge? (Laughs) Oh, my God. That was the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever been on. I don’t know, it was really hard, and then my getup – they made me the wedding princess of it all and I had that thing on my head…so in a way, I was thinking, “Oh God, I am so set up to fail at this.” (Laughs) It was really hard! And with that train and that head piece, it was just one big disaster waiting to happen. Had you watched previous cycles of the show? Was it different than you expected? My aunt had told me about it a couple of years ago. In my town, we didn’t get UPN until last year, so I didn’t even have the opportunity to! But I watched Cycle 4 and I bought the first season [on DVD], so I kind of knew what I was getting into. I didn’t realize how intense it was until I was actually in it. What did you think of your makeover? I loved it! I was so ready for the makeover. I was a hair virgin, I’d never colored my hair or anything before, so I was ready for them to chop it off. I’m kind of growing it back out now just because I don’t trust anyone in Booneville to cut it! (Laughs) I still haven’t dyed it yet, but I really like my makeover and I think I’ve adapted to it. What did you think of the personal style they chose for you? I think they said I was a Ralph Lauren chick, which I can see because with the haircut I looked totally preppy. I don’t consider myself preppy at all, but I did my best to adapt to it. If I’d had some more time to shop maybe I would have looked a little more Ralph Lauren. What do you consider your personal style? You mean me, right now? I buy what’s on sale. (Laughs) That would be my personal style. I don’t really have one. Did the experience give you any technical knowledge, like how to pose while accentuating your strongest feature, that kind of thing? No. I mean, I learned more about myself and who I wanted to be and things I didn’t want to be, more than I learned about modeling. It’s kind of weird but it was like that. I think I learned a little bit, though, like how to pose with my shoulders. I have really broad shoulders. Tyra said, “Don’t pose head-on to the camera because your shoulders look even bigger.” So I learned a little bit about it, but more about myself than anything. Do you consider your lips an asset or a liability? Yeah, my lips. It’s so funny because I used to be really ashamed of them. I hated them. I would walk around with my mouth sucked in so nobody would look at them because I got made fun of so much for them when I was a kid. But now, they’re my favorite thing about me, and I think they’ll get me far. What went wrong with your last photo shoot (the fashion police)? Oh, God! See, I didn’t even think it was that bad! (Laughs) Jay Manuel, when I was doing it, he kept saying, “good job” and then when I see the video of him, he really didn’t think I was doing a good job! The running thing was hard, and I was also at a place at that point in the competition where I was just so exhausted from everything, and so tired of feeling like I would never be good enough, you know? But I gave it my all. I thought it was good. I thought my outfit was kind of sh***y and all the other girls looked way more sexy than I looked. I don’t know if they made it like that or what happened. Do you think sometimes they don’t actually pick the best photo? You know, I completely – yes, yes, yes. You hit the nail right on the head there. Like with that last photoshoot: I could have sworn I had a better one than that! I wish we’d had more say in which picture they used. It’s the same with the horse photoshoot. I like that picture, but I did so many poses, I’m surprised they picked with my nose up in the air! I definitely wish we had more say in which photo they use, and I think I probably would have done a little bit better if they had. Were you surprised to see Kim in the bottom two next to you? It was emotional and really dramatic, because they were kind of splitting up the couple of the house! I don’t know if they did that on purpose or not, but I was honored to go up against her, and I wouldn’t have wanted to have lost against anyone else. It was emotional, it was hard, it was really bittersweet – but I was proud to have lost against her. When you watched the show, were you happy with the way you came across? Oh, yes and no. I know it’s an hour long show so they can’t show every facet of who you are, but for the most part I think I came off okay. And I am just a dork, so if it seemed like I came across kind of clumsy and silly, I am like that. It was okay. Some of it I think I came off as being more into the Kim relationship than I was. They would only pick certain things that I said when I had a lot more to say about it, you know what I mean? Like I said, “I like her but it’s not going to lead to anything.” With that, I know I chose to do that on TV, and I knew I’d have to think about it later, but I don’t consider myself bisexual or a lesbian. I just consider myself me, and I looked at her as a person and who she was versus her gender. So, it’s okay. That’s the only thing I thought, that they portrayed me as a little more into it than I probably was, that’s all. Did you have to explain anything when you got home? I’m going home tonight! I’m so scared, I don’t know if my little hick town is going to tar and feather me or what! (Laughs) It’s pretty different in Booneville than in L.A. so, they’re probably not going to be as open about it. I haven’t talked to my parents yet so I don’t know how that will go. How did you find L.A. compared to Booneville? It’s black and white, really, it’s two different worlds. I’m from a small town, we have one main street, and it’s just a quiet little town along the Missouri River, and L.A. is a complete rush and a blow to the head to me. It’s crazy! I do like it a lot, but when I’m here I miss my home town, and when I’m in my home town I miss L.A. Maybe somewhere in between is where I need to be. Okay, I’m going to read off the names of your competitors, could you give your impression of them in one or two words? Ashley – I didn’t get to know her that well, but I didn’t think she was very real. She put on a lot. Bre – I have a lot of respect for her and she’s been through a lot, and I think she’s a very strong girl. Cassandra – She was my roomie so I don’t really have anything bad to say about her. She stood up for herself and I have a lot of respect and admiration for her for that. Coryn – See, they didn’t show it but Coryn and I were like best friends in this! Coryn is oneo f the most beautiful people I’ve seen in my life. We auditioned in Minneapolis together – we just happened to meet each other there. I think she’s so beautiful, and she’s got a really beautiful heart, too. She’s a great person. Diane – Loud and funny as can be. She’s a really nice girl. Ebony – Oh, God – she was funny, and I don’t know but I think sometimes she’s a little insecure. It seems like people who are making jokes all the time might be insecure, and that was my impression of her. Jayla – I think Jayla needs to be in therapy. (Laughs) That’s about all I have to say about that! Kim – She’s very different, and she’s very open. And she’s very beautiful. Kyle – very preppy, very pretty – a classic all-American girl. Lisa – Lisa is a drunken, fool, know-it-all idiot. (Laughs) That was my overall impression of her – a drunk, walking, talking fool. Cassandra said one time, “It’s America’s Next Top Drunk” because she was drunk all the time. It was the funniest thing. Nicole -. I really liked her a lot, and I know some people didn’t, but I think she’s a funny girl, and I think she’ll go far. She’s really nice. Nik – Nik is sheer perfection. It makes me sick, she’s so beautiful and so funny. I’m really glad I got to know her, she’s a beautiful person. So it sounds like Lisa was the one who annoyed you the most in the house? (Laughs) Yeah, you know, I’m beginning to see she annoyed everybody! You know, you can’t like everybody, and she’s just one of those people I don’t like that much. But I try to be respectful and get along with her when I’m near her. What was the hardest photo shoot? I don’t mind photoshoots at all, I usually have a lot of fun at those. It was the runway that killed me. That was the hardest part of my experience there. What was your favorite photo? My favorite photo was the horse photo just because my sister works with horses, and so I like them to. It felt comfortable for me to be out in country setting versus a big city. It was kind of like, more Booneville, you know? What did you learn during this experience? I learned to have respect for myself and I think that I just walked away with a lot more confidence. I used to struggle a lot when I was younger with who I was, and feeling very lost, and I was very sad. I have a new-found respect for myself and I feel happy that I am who I am today, and I have never felt that way before. Do you read the internet sites to see what people are saying about you? I do, I can’t resist! I do sometimes, and I haven’t read anything too awful or bad and I’m sure one day I will, but I just let it roll off my shoulders. Do you plan to pursue a modeling career? I do! I plan on pursuing it. I think I can only benefit from the show. I know my walk is kind of stumbly but I do like modeling and it makes me feel alive, and it’s something I have passion for so I’m definitely going to go for it. So please stop by and visit us on fansofrealitytv.com, Sarah. I will, I’ll go there! I had fun talking to you. Thanks so much for your time, Sarah, it was fun talking to you too! Many thanks to Sarah for chatting with me and thank you, UPN, for granting the interview. Source: FORT Filed in Article, Cycle 5, Interview, Sarah Rhoades Tags: 2010 Sarah Rhoades, antm cycle 5, antm cycle 5 sarah rhoades, antm cycle 5 Sarah Rhoades cycle 5, antm cycle 5 Sarah Rhoades Interview with Fans of Reality TV (Oct 05), Sarah Rhoades cycle 5, Sarah Rhoades cycle 5 photos, Sarah Rhoades cycle 5 photos today, Sarah Rhoades Interview with Fans of Reality TV (Oct 05), Sarah Rhoades Interview with Fans of Reality TV (Oct 05) photos, Sarah Rhoades photos, Sarah Rhoades photos currently, Sarah Rhoades photos now, Sarah Rhoades photos today, Sarah Rhoades what is she doing today, Sarah Rhoades where is she now, top model cycle 5 Sarah Rhoades Interview with Fans of Reality TV (Oct 05), top model sarah rhoades, what is Sarah Rhoades doing in 2010, where is Sarah Rhoades now Sarah Rhoades Interview with TVGuide.com (Oct 05) In October of 2005 TVGuide.com conducted an interview with Cycle 5‘s Sarah Rhoades following her appearance and elimination from the show. Here is the text from the article (written by Ben Katner): Model Kicks Off “Trippy” Klutz Cute as Sarah Rhoades is, the underdog sex kitten couldn’t walk to save her life, much less keep her in the running toward becomingAmerica’s Next Top Model (Wednesdays at 8 pm/ET, on UPN). Perhaps to keep her from bruising her pretty face by taking a spill, the judges handed Sarah a nice, soft seat on an airplane home to Boonville, Mo., which sucks for two reasons: 1) Both hot and warm, she was easily the season’s most appealing contestant, and 2) now we’ll never know how far her relationship with lesbian buddy Kim would have gone had they continued making out in limos and taking midnight swims together. Before she starts telling tales on today’sTyra Banks Show, I can make myself — and maybe you, too — feel a little bit better by letting you in on the not-at-all-dumb blonde’s master plan. TVGuide.com: Journalistic integrity be damned; I want to give you a big hug! Sarah Rhoades: [Laughs] Thanks! TVGuide.com: I was so hoping that when Cassandra quit the show, maybe there wouldn’t be an elimination. Sarah: I know! We were all thinking, “Yay! No elimination this week!” But we weren’t so lucky — or I wasn’t so lucky! TVGuide.com: I’m going to guess that in real life you somehow manage to get from point A to point B without tripping. What went wrong on the show? Sarah: [Laughs] I don’t know. See, I wear a size 7 shoe, and on the runways, I had a size 9 or 10 on — that didn’t help. And I’m kind of clumsy to begin with, so that probably didn’t help, either. And I think the first time I tripped, I became “the girl who trips.” You know, J. Alexander calls me “Tipsy Tumbles,” so it was in my mind that I was going to trip, that they expected me to trip and, well, I just couldn’t get past it! TVGuide.com: In your last runway challenge, it seemed kind of mean to me that they made you wear the biggest gown and headdress this side of Vegas. Sarah: Yeah, that was the only time I was kind of feeling as if I was set up to fail a little bit. I mean, I could have gone in tennis shoes and a skirt and still had problems, but still, with the head thing and the dress…. Whew, I was bound to fail! TVGuide.com: How did it feel to be in the bottom two with Kim, the girl to whom you were closest? Sarah: That was intense. I think all the girls were probably like, “They’re splitting the couple up!” It was hard, but in the end it was an honor to go up against her. I wouldn’t want to have stood there with anyone else. I was proud to lose against her. It was kind of bittersweet. TVGuide.com: Are you still in touch? Sarah: I just talked to her a couple minutes ago! We’re still good friends. Nothing romantic…. TVGuide.com: Hey, don’t start answering my questions before I ask them! Um… go on. Sarah: I don’t even know what happened with [our flirtation]! I don’t consider myself bisexual or a lesbian; I just consider myself me. I didn’t go in there with intentions like that. And I couldn’t stand Kim during semifinals! I didn’t like her at all. So it was weird to be in that situation. But she’s a great person, and you get drawn to her when you meet her. I don’t regret it at all. It was fun, and she’s a beautiful girl. TVGuide.com: If you’re going to make out with a girl, it might as well be a beautiful one! Sarah: Hell, yeah! TVGuide.com: How did your boyfriend handle your dalliance when you got home? Sarah: See? I didn’t have a boyfriend. I know that [the subtitle on screen] said that was who I was talking to on the phone, but he’s just a friend, so that wasn’t an issue. I couldn’t tell anyone about Kim or any of that [until the show aired], so I think everyone sort of went through [their reactions] last night. I haven’t talked to my parents yet, so I’m not sure how they took it. We’ll see. Boonville’s not as out and open as L.A., so I may get tarred and feathered! TVGuide.com: If that’s the case, maybe it’s time to move. Sarah: You might be right! TVGuide.com: Your parents must have at least seen the big limo makeout session by now. Sarah: Yeah, they saw it. They were just like, “Oh, geez,” you know? And they probably would have been happy if it had ended there. So I’m not sure if they’re too happy about [last week’s show]. They didn’t call me after, so I don’t know if they’re upset or don’t know what to say. My sister is OK with it, but she’s [a teenager]. I hope I didn’t set any bad examples! I don’t want to go home and have her making out with girls! TVGuide.com: Oh, come on! It’s only a bad example if you’re a bad kisser. Sarah: It’s hard to be with these lips! [Laughs] TVGuide.com: What are your plans now? Sarah: I hope that I’ll go ahead and pursue a modeling career and get out of “Booneyville,” leave the cows behind. TVGuide.com: A talent for pratfalls would be a big asset on a sitcom. Have you considered it? Sarah: [Laughs] Well, I do love acting, which is actually the reason I started modeling in the first place, to try to bust into that. Hopefully! That would be fun! TVGuide.com: I’ll see what strings I can pull. Sarah: Put in a good word for me! Source: TVGuide.com Source: The CW / Mike Rosenthal Tags: 2010 Sarah Rhoades, antm cycle 5, antm cycle 5 sarah rhoades, antm cycle 5 Sarah Rhoades cycle 5, antm cycle 5 Sarah Rhoades Interview with TVGuide.com (Oct 05), Sarah Rhoades cycle 5, Sarah Rhoades cycle 5 photos, Sarah Rhoades cycle 5 photos today, Sarah Rhoades Interview with TVGuide.com (Oct 05), Sarah Rhoades Interview with TVGuide.com (Oct 05) photos, Sarah Rhoades photos, Sarah Rhoades photos currently, Sarah Rhoades photos now, Sarah Rhoades photos today, Sarah Rhoades what is she doing today, Sarah Rhoades where is she now, top model sarah rhoades, top modle cycle 5 Sarah Rhoades Interview with TVGuide.com (Oct 05), what is Sarah Rhoades doing in 2010, where is Sarah Rhoades now Sarah Rhoades Interview with AfterEllen.com (Oct 05) In October of 2005 AfterEllen.com conducted an interview with Cycle 5‘s Sarah Rhoades following her appearance and elimination from the show. Here is the text from the interview (written and posted by Malinda Lo, Senior Writer): Interview with Sarah Rhoades from Top Model Season 5 of America’s Next Top Model is the third time that the reality series has included an openly lesbian or bisexual contestant, but it’s the first time that two contestants have developed a relationship with each other during the show. After ostensibly straight Sarah Rhoades kissed openly lesbian Kim in the season premiere, their relationship quickly heated up and led to nighttime swims in the Top Model pool capped off with under-the-covers shenanigans caught by an optimally placed night-vision camera. But though it might have all seemed like fun and games until then, Sarah’s teary-eyed confessional revelation that she was genuinely confused by the experience won her many lesbian fans who recalled their own early experiences in coming to terms with their sexuality. Unfortunately, after tripping one too many times on the runway, Sarah was cast off the show just as things between her and Kim were getting interesting. We recently chatted with her about what really happened between the two of them, whether she considers herself to be gay, and what it’s been like dealing with the issue in her conservative Midwestern home town of Boonville, Missouri. AfterEllen.com: I think that a lot of lesbian viewers really identified with you when you said that you felt really confused. Sarah Rhoades: Yeah, that’s like kind of a constant state of mind (laughs). I guess I was confused about … everything. Really, being there is so intense and so stressful and it’s so different from my life, and me and Kim, we just kind of became each other’s support system, and I went to her for comfort and vice versa. And through that we kind of developed feelings—I know I did for her—and that confused me even more. (Laughs) It helped me, and it confused me, and—I mean, I don’t know. Even now, I’m like, whatever (laughs). AE: Well, dealing with those feelings for the first time can be really, really distracting. Do you think that they distracted you from the competition? SR: I don’t. Mainly when you watch the show, it looks like it’s all one big jumble … but really, when you’re modeling and when you’re in the house, they’re two very separate things, and if you can separate those—which I can in my head—then you’re fine. And I don’t think that hindered me at all in the competition. The initial tripping is probably what was worse for me, because it was kind of in my mind that “I’m gonna trip, I’m gonna trip,” so then every time I went out there I was like, “Oh I know I’m gonna trip,” and that’s what they want me to do, so I just always did. Not intentionally, it just kind of happened. So I don’t think it was Kim—I think it was more in my mindset at the time. AE: You’ve said in some interviews after you came off the show that you couldn’t stand Kim during the semifinals. SR: Yeah (laughs). AE: What changed? SR: I couldn’t stand her just because it seemed to me like she was using her lesbianism—(laughs) I don’t know the proper terminology for that—just to get on the show. I still don’t even know whether she did or not, or whether that’s why they chose her. Um, but to me it was constant, always like “Yeah okay, Kim, we know you’re gay, like shut up,” you know, ’cause that’s all she talked about. So I wasn’t really that happy when I found out we were going to have to live together, but she’s just one of those people [where] once you get to know her, she grows on you. And she’s a great person. I care about her a lot now as a friend. We’re friends still. But at the time I wasn’t her biggest fan. AE: On the show you made a phone call to someone who was identified as your boyfriend, but I think you’ve said since that he wasn’t actually your boyfriend? SR: Yeah … he wasn’t actually my boyfriend. We had dated before, and maybe that’s why the show labeled it as that, but yeah. (Laughs) That wasn’t really an issue when I got back because we weren’t together at the time. AE: Do you think that you were portrayed accurately? SR: Yeah, I mean, yes and no. They take tidbits out of your interview and just use the words they want you to say [when] really you have much more to say on the subject, but overall, I think I was portrayed okay. AE: So, with this guy, you said you weren’t dating him at the time. Are you with him now? SR: No, no, I mean, we hadn’t been together for six or seven months when I talked to him, and we haven’t ever been together since. AE: So how about your relationship with Kim; do you think that was portrayed accurately? SR: Yes and no. I kind of feel like they made it look like I was a lot more involved versus Kim, but we really [were] on the same page more or less, because I knew she had a girlfriend and she knew that I was semi seeing somebody. I don’t know, it kind of seemed like they made me like come off as the foolish one, when really I wasn’t at all, and I’m not now. So I didn’t appreciate that, but yeah, whatever. (Laughs) AE: Tell me what really happened. SR: They showed what happened, but in interviews they cut off a lot of what I was saying to make me seem like the needy, feeble, straight 18-year-old girl, and Kim was like the all-wise lesbian, which really wasn’t the case. I mean, we were on the same terms. I thought we were on the same page, and she thought the same. So, it’s fine (laughs). AE: I think that many viewers actually feel that she treated you unfairly, that she was being more of a player than a friend to you. How do you feel about that? SR: That’s pretty much what I mean. In the end I know what happened, she knows what happened, and the way that they edited it does make me come off as a fool and her being all powerful, but I know how it was and so does she. And we’re fine now, we’re friends, it’s really quite fine. I’m not mad at her. AE: So you’re still in touch with her? SR: She’s still with her girlfriend and I’m with someone, so it’s fine. AE: Are you in touch with any of the other girls on the show? SR: Me and Kyle talk sometimes, me and Diane, and Coryn now and then, we talk. AE: Did you tell you family about what was going to happen before it aired, or were you not allowed to talk about it until the airdate? SR: We weren’t really allowed to talk about anything. I kind of hinted at it, so I think they were kind of sort of expecting it, a little bit, so they were okay. AE: How have they reacted to it? Have they talked to you about it at all? SR: No, it’s kind of one of those unspoken things no one talks about it. No one mentions it or says anything about it, so it’s kind of like it didn’t happen, here. I’m from Boonville, Missouri, and the Midwest is very very different from L.A. [It’s] not as accepting, we don’t really have that many lesbian people or gay people or whatever out here at all, and no one really wants to talk about it, so we don’t. We don’t even say the word “lesbian!” (Laughs) It’s really different here, so, no, I actually have never talked about it with my mom or dad or anybody. AE: Wow. Do you think that they might want to talk about it? Do you want to talk about it? SR: I would if they wanted to, but they don’t seem to even want to acknowledge it at all. I mean, I don’t consider myself bisexual or a lesbian, so I’m not even sure what I would say to them at this point about it at all, so I’m kind of glad they don’t want to talk about it, I guess (laughs). AE: Do you think, though, even if you don’t identify as lesbian or bisexual, do you think you just might not be straight? SR: I don’t know. I really don’t know what constitutes as being considered one or the other. I don’t know, you tell me! (laughs) Kim’s the only person I’ve ever had feelings for, I guess, in that sense. AE: In your parting words on the show, you said that you learned a lot about yourself. Tell me about something that you learned that has nothing to do with Kim. SR: I’m a lot more confident and I have [more] respect for myself versus from before. I always had a low self-esteem and I didn’t like myself at all, and I didn’t think I could do anything, you know? I hated myself at one point in my life and the show has really brought out my confidence. I can honestly say that I like who I am today, and I have never been able to say that before, so I’m really thankful for the show in that way. AE: That’s wonderful. What was your most unexpected experience on the show? SR: Kim, for sure. That would definitely be it. E: What was your favorite part about the experience? SR: My favorite part was probably just getting to know all the girls, because I’m friends with a lot of guys here and I usually hang out with them. But I loved just being in the house and it was a really different experience for me. I loved getting to know the girls and I came out with some really good friends, so I’m happy. AE: Are you dating someone now? SR: A boy, yes (laughs). Yes, a boy. AE: How does he feel about what he saw? SR: He actually [didn’t see] the show. UPN out here is not a big station at all. We just got it in our town last year and they didn’t even show the first episode of it, so it’s not big at all here. There’s nothing here, no one really even knows about UPN, so he hasn’t seen it. A lot of people haven’t seen it, which kind of benefits me. So he hasn’t seen it, but he knows about it. I think he’s okay with it. He hasn’t really said much. It’s just no one talks about it here, which I know is weird to you, but we really don’t. He hasn’t said much, but I think he’s fine with it, and he’s a great guy, so he’s okay. AE: Well, that’s good. SR: Yeah, I hope. AE: What was your least favorite part of the experience? SR: My least favorite part I guess I hated that we did runway right off the bat, and then as soon as I left they’re not doing it anymore. That’s like, great. My least favorite part was probably not having any training. You think you’re going to go in and learn how to be a model, but you don’t and they don’t tell you anything at all. You have 15 seconds with the runway coach and that’s it. They just expect you to be a top model and they don’t teach you anything, ever. So I don’t really feel like I learned much about modeling at all versus, you know, learning about myself. AE: Had you done some modeling in the past, though? SR: I’ve been with an agency and gone to some conventions but I’ve never actually modeled, no. AE: Have you been practicing your runway walk since then? SR: Not a lot. I need to get in some classes I think. I need some serious help. (Laughs) AE: What happened? It seemed like you were so frightened of falling that it might have tripped you up, actually. SR: Yeah, well, I have a 7½ foot and all the shoes are 9s and 10s, so that doesn’t help at all, and plus after the first initial trip, it’s just in your head that you’re going to trip and that was probably my biggest; I mean it was more myself versus myself than myself versus the runway, you know? AE: So what are your plans for the future? Are you still interested in modeling? SR: Yeah, definitely. I think I want to move out to L.A. I just don’t think New York and me would mix too well, so I think I want to move out to L.A. eventually, maybe December or January, and I know people out there now, so hopefully it’ll be good. AE: That’s great. Well, people will want to talk to you about this in L.A. All the time. SR: Great (laughs). AE: What is one thing that you want to tell people that you haven’t been able to tell them before about your experience on the show? SR: I guess I don’t think it’s necessarily fair for them to judge me when they really don’t know what it was like in there at all, or what I’m like. If someone’s been on the show and they’ve experienced it, then it’s okay, but I don’t really think it’s fair for anyone to judge me at this point about my decisions or anything I did on the show, because they don’t know what it was like there. AE: Who do you think is judging you? SR: I guess just the public in general, and a lot of radio stations here in the Midwest trashed me, and the boy who was on the phone, even, he called and trashed me and called me a lesbian. So it’s a lot harder in the Midwest than it is in L.A. because L.A.’s so accepting. AE: Well, there are plenty of people I know who would be happy to call you a lesbian and not think that it’s a slur. SR: Well, thanks (laughs). Source: AfterEllen.com Source: The CW Tags: 2010 Sarah Rhoades, antm cycle 5, antm cycle 5 sarah rhoades, antm cycle 5 Sarah Rhoades cycle 5, antm cycle 5 Sarah Rhoades Interview with AfterEllen.com (Oct 05), Sarah Rhoades cycle 5, Sarah Rhoades cycle 5 photos, Sarah Rhoades cycle 5 photos today, Sarah Rhoades Interview with AfterEllen.com (Oct 05), Sarah Rhoades Interview with AfterEllen.com (Oct 05) photos, Sarah Rhoades photos, Sarah Rhoades photos currently, Sarah Rhoades photos now, Sarah Rhoades photos today, Sarah Rhoades what is she doing today, Sarah Rhoades where is she now, top model sarah rhoades, what is Sarah Rhoades doing in 2010, where is Sarah Rhoades now Sarah Rhoades Red Carpet Photos Sources: Getty Images / ViewImages Filed in Cycle 5, Publicity, Red Carpet, Sarah Rhoades Tags: 2010 Sarah Rhoades, antm cycle 5, antm cycle 5 sarah rhoades, antm cycle 5 Sarah Rhoades cycle 5, Sarah Rhoades cycle 5, Sarah Rhoades cycle 5 photos, Sarah Rhoades cycle 5 photos today, Sarah Rhoades photos, Sarah Rhoades photos currently, Sarah Rhoades photos now, Sarah Rhoades photos today, Sarah Rhoades Red Carpet Photos, Sarah Rhoades Red Carpet Photos photos, Sarah Rhoades Red Carpet Photos top model cycle 5 Sarah Rhoades Red Carpet Photos, Sarah Rhoades what is she doing today, Sarah Rhoades where is she now, top model sarah rhoades, what is Sarah Rhoades doing in 2010, where is Sarah Rhoades now	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10607
__label__wiki	0.987175	0.987175	Click to copyhttps://apnews.com/f75d6f8bb7c148dfb374079568392d7e Remains of NY Marine killed in Korean War identified NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (AP) — U.S. military officials say the remains of a Marine from New York killed during the Korean War have been identified. The Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency says Tuesday that Meredith Keirn’s remains were identified earlier this year. The Pentagon says Keirn, of Niagara Falls, was a 24-year-old sergeant serving in the 1st Marine Division as a light machinegun section leader when he was reported killed during fighting on Nov. 30, 1950 in North Korea. His remains were reportedly buried but couldn’t be recovered after the war. In 2015, a South Korean citizen turned over the remains to U.S. forces. DPAA scientists used DNA samples from his family and other evidence to identify the remains. Information on funeral arrangements weren’t immediately available from military officials.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10608
__label__wiki	0.997078	0.997078	World Cup shows three formats can thrive Scott Bailey Australian Associated Press 11 July 2019 ICC) CEO David Richardson says the World Cup shows 50 over, Test and ODI cricket can co-exist ICC chief executive David Richardson says the success of the one-day World Cup shows all three versions of the game can continue to thrive. This year's World Cup has come at the time of a critical juncture for the 50-over game, with fears it could be squeezed out of relevance. Test cricket remains the form of the purists while the explosion of Twenty20 cricket and domestic leagues has left 50-over cricket stuck in the middle. That format won't even be played at the top level domestically in England next year, with the 50-over county championship to run as a development competition beside the controversial new-look Hundred. But still the World Cup is seen as the jewel in cricket's crown, with the global tournament remaining increasingly popular. "We are very fortunate in cricket to have three thrilling and thriving formats of this great sport and the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup is the absolute pinnacle of the ODI game," Richardson said. "It comes as no surprise that this tournament has excited fans around world - we have had full houses and diverse crowds enjoying fiercely competitive cricket. "I'm sure after the trophy is lifted at the Home of Cricket, Lord's, fans across the globe will remember this event as one of the greatest in history." The ICC will meet this month at their annual conference, where it's expected the fixture format of the next World Cup in India and the amount of team who enter will be discussed. The organisation has recently attempted to add context to bilateral series between World Cups, with a one-day league to begin next May with each nation to play eight series in a two-year cycle. But they will also take heart in the way the one-day game has been received in the six-week long tournament. Ninety-five per cent of tickets were sold across all matches in England, while television ratings back in Australia were well up on expectations. "The tournament has been outstanding the way that it's gone," Australia's captain Aaron Finch said. "There has been a lot of games that have gone really deep. There's been a few one-sided games but that happens when you play so many games of cricket. "But all in all the standard of the cricket has been outstanding. "The contest between bat and ball has probably brought it back from what we have seen during the last four years, which has been a real dominance by the bat. "That's been a great part of the tournament in my opinion that everyone's had an opportunity to dominate at some point."	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10619
__label__cc	0.622602	0.377398	Food Security on the Decline in Armenia? The Weekly's interview with a food expert reveals a worrying lack of regulation and research in Armenia's food industry--and how we are only just beginning to see the consequences. July 12, 2018 at 12:20 pm Sofia Manukyan Interviews 0 Armenia has always been blessed with bountiful lands, ripe for the agricultural undertaking, and the country’s culinary heritage is, as a result, a point of pride for its residents. But how is food in Armenia faring in the industrial era? In the last few decades, while Armenia’s food system has industrialized along with the rest of the developed world’s, it’s remained worryingly unregulated. Predictably, the market favors producers who get food to supermarket shelves quickly and cheaply. And while that may be good for ‘the market,’ turns out it’s not for much else. Quality of food items in grocery stores all over in Armenia as a result are, it seems, in decline. Even simple foods, like rye bread and more notably, ice cream, have taken major hits–transforming from simple staples to cocktails of chemicals and additives. But while there have always been watch dogs, the issue has typically lingered in the public’s periphery–that is, until people started getting sick. The effects of food insecurity in Armenia has reared its ugly head with greater frequency as of late. Outbreaks of gastrointestinal diseases are on the rise. Last May, in Armavir, at least 80 people suffered Salmonella poisonings. More recently, Hripsime Apresyan, head of a department at Nork Infectious Diseases Hospital in Yerevan, said in a report to Arka News Agency, that the number of people hospitalized as a result of food poisoning has increased by 25%, about 80% of whom are minors. Hoping to better understand the causes and potential solutions, as well as current food safety policy in Armenia, the Weekly’s correspondent, Sofia Manukyan, recently sat with David Pipoyan, Head of the Department of the Informational-Analytical Center for Risk Assessment of Food Chain at Armenia’s National Academy of Sciences’ Centre for Ecological-Noosphere Studies. Pipoyan received his full degree in Veterinary food safety at the Armenian State Agrarian University and later completed his PhD in Production quality and safety at the University of Tuscia in Italy. From 2012 to 2016 he was a doctorate researcher at the Department of Agri-food Systems Innovation and got the degree of doctor in food science and nutrition at the Campus Biomedico of Rome. He has also worked for the Armenian Government as an expert of food safety and export. David Pipoyan (photo taken from his Facebook page) Below is our interview. Sofia Manukyan: How does the state control what we eat? Davit Pipoyan: Armenia is a member of Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), so regardless of which body carries out the state control, it has to follow the legal code of this union. In Armenia the institution of compliance assessment is still operational, which follows guidelines adopted back in the seventies and eighties. But since then, the world has gone in another direction. In Armenia, legislation was drafted back in 2013 in accordance with European Union (EU) directives, but political changes happened and we went back to previous technical regulations. S.M.: What kind of regulations are these? D.P.: These regulations have physical-chemical indexes and security indexes—indexes that show the quantity of fats in the food or the food origin, so that, for example, a certain type of spread is not presented as butter, and security indexes, such as the presence of pesticides and so forth. The rest of the world has, for years, abandoned this model. There are now quality assessment mechanisms, such as geographical labeling, which are a sign of high quality and help protect the location of the product, such as in case of Champagne, Cognac, and Feta. This way, historically certain geographic locations have granted their names to certain products and have become brands of high quality. As a result of this policy, for example, Armenia cannot produce cognac today, because it can be produced only in the town of Cognac and the brand is a protected label. So I always raise the question both within the government, as well as within our scientific community, that Armenia can become a country of quality food and geographical labeling. Moreover, in terms of culture and cuisine, there are several “Armenias” in this country. The immigration from Western Armenia has brought the traditions of a certain location to [Eastern] Armenia, including the gastronomic traditions. In this sense, Armenia is a microcosm of a once big cultural-gastronomic diversity. S.M.: What are some local brands in Armenia and how are they marketed? What’s the new government’s approach to export policy? D.P.: For example, an apricot from Ararat or potato from Martuni are the tastiest. Wine from Areni is famous too, so in this sense Armenia has good potential. However, discussions with the previous government, the Ministry of Agriculture, about making Armenia an exporter of food brands didn’t lead to anything. Unfortunately, the ministry’s approach was hardly professional. As for the current government, it’s still early. We haven’t had the chance to meet with them and understand their approach. When the government presented its program, the section on agriculture was not written in the traditional way programs are, so I can’t really comment on what policy they will have. So far, we have had only one label apply for recognition as a quality brand product: Sevan’s Trout. If a company is going to claim that it produces a quality product, it also has to have ample research conducted, which proves that its product’s quality differs from similar product with its taste, smell, etc. For example, in case of apricot, we all know that Armenian apricot and its nut are sweet, however there should also be research showing, for example, what antioxidants Armenian apricots may contain and how it differs from apricots in, let’s say, Uzbekistan, since they grow apricots there too. This demands time and a professional approach. For years our previous governments paid no attention to this. S.M.: So who is testing our food for its quality? How is the market regulated? D.P.: For years, there was no real testing happening. Let’s take a recent case: when producers were protesting about milk prices. All over the world, there are categories of milk products: extra, first category, second category, abnormal. Producers of these categories cannot get the same amount of income for their products. The regulation is as follows: Producers of fresh drinking milk fall into the “extra” category, “first category” milk can be used in pasteurized milk, and so on. Their prices differ in the market. The market dictates that if you produce milk of the first or second category, the prices are lower. In our country, high quality milk is produced in small amounts. And since the market here is not regulated and producers cannot be differentiated according to their categories, the prices are based on competition. This competition comes at the cost of lower quality. For five years, we have been studying the quality of one such dairy product: ice cream. Year after year, this product loses quality, mostly because the producers go for cheap options, using products such as milk powder, imported vegetable fats, manufactured spreads instead of butter, and so forth. We have sounded the alarms on the issue, noting that this is not simply a matter of labeling, but also of unfair competition. The state must regulate this market, because consumers cannot differentiate between products. In order to be competitive in the market, producers drop quality. It’s a problem, when in 2018 we still don’t have product labelling, categorizing, etc. We have some serious gaps in this field and the person who will be appointed as the head of State Service for Food Safety will have a burdensome task. S.M.: What about the food quality control at supermarkets? D.P.: Since the institution of compliance assessment is still operational in Armenia, there is a certain procedure and products need to be taken to laboratories and get certain certifications before they hit the supermarket shelves. There is also a state body, which acts based on complaints. If we are speaking about issues such as security, control cannot be implemented with the technical regulations that we have. For example, this system can regulate three or four types of pesticides, however today, this number has multiplied throughout the world. That’s why in Europe, for example, there is a system that tracks producers, to know when each producer buys a certain pesticide. The controlling body can then check for those specific pesticides in the product. In Armenia, we don’t have this or other type of mapping—no system of enumeration of domestic animals, no registry of animals and producers, and so forth. Just a few days ago, a mass poison breakout happened at a factory, probably one of the biggest such case in the past years. The factory workers were provided with food that had salmonella in it. The producer was not even a registered entity. So controlling the food security without this mapping is very difficult. S.M.: Food is primarily affected by soil and water quality. Here in Armenia, we have a lot of mining activity. How does mining affect our food? D.P.: Food security globally maintains the principle: “from farm to fork.” This means that if the soil is polluted, the pollution will eventually reach the food. Quality and security control mechanisms have two procedures—primary production and the processing phase. In Armenia, various regions have different amount of pollution of soil: In one place it is copper, in another it is lead, and so forth. In order to operatively control the soil with these mechanisms, one has to have the soil mapping to conduct a risk assessment of the soil. In Armenia, we don’t have this as well. The Ministry of Nature Protection is the body that regulates this sphere (risk assessment of soil), but it doesn’t assess agricultural lands because it is outside its realm. It would be best if environmental impact assessments (EIAs) were carried out not only when opening factories or mines, but also for agricultural activity. Today we have products grown near mine sites, and there is an everyday potential that this food can enter the market [and we don’t know how safe it is or isn’t]. That’s why it is of particular importance to make an inventory (mapping) of lands. S.M.: Has your center assessed soil and water pollution in Armenia? D.P.: We do projects based on grants, which is never enough to undertake such large research projects, so instead, we do thematic research projects, such as one on heavy metals, another on pesticides. So each year there is certain fragmentary research being conducted, but large funds are necessary for a large-scale project. In 2013, we studied agricultural lands in Syunik, in 2014 we conducted research in Alaverdi, then in 2015, in Ararat; but these cannot be combined under one research project, since they are done at different periods, under different climatic circumstances, and so forth. Our research has shown various locations having various levels of pollution from copper, molybdenum, mercury, and other metals. All of these have different levels of toxicity. The level of such substance may be two to three or more times higher from the permitted level. But it is also important to take into account as to what is growing on this type of soil, because some plants absorb these elements more than others. Garlic, for example, even if growing on the tailings of a mine, will absorb no heavy metals. S.M.: So using the right methods, areas polluted with heavy metals can be cleaned up? D.P.: Exactly, and it could be a cost effective measure to clean up this way. In our sphere, there are two departments: one dealing with risk mitigation, the other with lowering risks. Risk mitigation is pretty much about risk veiling, because the fact that garlic doesn’t absorb metals doesn’t mean it cleans the soil—the risk remains as the metals stay in the soil. Lowering risk means cleaning the soil, which costs a lot. There are different methods for doing this, for example the phyto-remediation method, when certain species that absorb the metals intensively are planted for years, but not used in food, but for biogas, for example. It will be of particular importance to involve scientific communities in the process of such policymaking. S.M.: So what can be done for your concerns to be heard? D.P.: Well, with the order of the prime minister, I was recently appointed a member of the board of trustees at the government’s authorized body in food sector. This is an opportunity to express all our concerns not just through media as we did before, but to respective public bodies. Taking into consideration the situation scientists have been in for many years while trying to maintain their objectivity, this is a very welcoming step. The problems in our sector can be divided into short, medium, and long term issues. There are issues that won’t be tackled in a short term period—whether it is forming registries, enumerating domestic animals, and so forth. These issues also demand funds. For example, counting and creating the registry just for cattle will cost about $2-3 million. It is equally important to have the political desire to solve important existing problems, unlike the situation in the past years. During its short life, our centre has done its best to maintain objectivity and independence and I think this is one of our main achievements, which we will keep up in the future as well. Sofia Manukyan Sofia Manukyan is a staff writer at the Armenian Weekly. Her specialization is in the field of human rights impacted by the private sector. She is particularly interested in how private interests impact the environment and socio-economics. She holds a degree in human rights from the University of Essex. In Armenia she is mostly engaged with promoting environmental protection and labor rights. Latest posts by Sofia Manukyan (see all) Food Security on the Decline in Armenia? - July 12, 2018 Roads to Amulsar Blocked as Locals Protest Gold Mine - July 6, 2018 Local Voices Express Hopeful Expectations and Cautious Skepticisms - May 31, 2018	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10620
__label__wiki	0.581884	0.581884	Tag: Lee Mendelson Limited Editions from Peanuts TV Specials Make Us Want To Do a Snoopy Happy Dance! We just discovered we have a few super rare and hard-to-find Peanuts limited editions created for the anniversaries of the Charlie Brown Christmas and It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown TV specials. Given how much we at ArtInsights love all things Snoopy and Charlie Brown, it’s like we got an early Valentine’s Day gift! What a coincidence. Fans of the beloved Peanuts animated cartoons just celebrated the anniversary of the first airing of the 1975 Peanuts TV special Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown. Although there are over 40 animated TV specials created over the years through Bill Melendez’s studio, many fans actually remember a few of them really well. For me it was Snoopy Come Home, for which I had the board game, the Valentine special, and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. As an adult, I can to love this weird one that it turns out is the favorite of many of the animators who worked on multiple films for Melendez, What a Nightmare, Charlie Brown!. However, we can all agree that A Charlie Brown Christmas and It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown are the most classic, right? MELENDEZ AND MENDELSON MAKE TV MAGIC Beyond the fact that the Peanuts Christmas special was a huge deal in that it was the first time the comic strip characters by Charles Schulz were translated to animation, it was also the first religious-based animated special to ever be played on tv, and offered a wonderful jazz score by Vince Guaraldi. This cartoon has been played during the holidays every year since it played in 1965. The music was also a huge success, selling millions of copies. At the time, A Charlie Brown Christmas was seen by 45% of those watching television in the US. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown quickly followed the Christmas special in October of 1966, although it was the third, not the second, coming after Charlie Brown’s All Stars in June of the same year. It was nominated for an Emmy. Longtime Peanuts specials producer Lee Mendelson, (who brought Schulz and Melendez together to translate the Peanuts comic strip into a cartoon, among many other important roles in the history of Peanuts specials) was outvoted in the discussion about Charlie Brown getting rocks instead of candy. He wanted him to get his fair share. Apparently the audience that year agreed with him, sending the character thousands of bags and boxes of candy to Melendez’s animation studio! My childhood is filled with memories of watching the specials with my dad. We also played my Snoopy Come Home board game a lot together. We quoted lines from all the cartoons and the comic strip, and I’d even say seeing them every year influenced my going into a career selling art and promoting the artistry of animation. Dog on Duty, a limited edition with three hand-painted layers, was created for the anniversary of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. It included the drawings that capture Snoopy’s struggles and bravery as a flying ace. It was quite an experience the one time I got to eat dinner next to Bill Melendez at an event some years ago, only to discover what a wonderful sense of humor and quick wit he had. I had already heard he was famously a great boss, according to many people in the industry who had worked at a number of studios. In the interviews I conducted more recently, that compliment was repeated by everyone who had ever taken part in the creation of the Peanuts specials or any other Melendez studio project. ANNIVERSARY PEANUTS LIMITED EDITIONS This “Snoopy’s Audition” limited edition was the first one released for anniversary of A Charlie Brown Christmas. #SnoopyVulture 2015, the anniversaries were coming up for both the Christmas and Halloween specials. The company connected with the Melendez family and his studio, who sells all things Peanuts and Bill Melendez Studio related in terms of art, planned a big event to celebrate with Peanuts art. They spent a long time, with the help and design artistry of Peanuts specials director Larry Leichliter, creating an anniversary collection of Peanuts limited edition cels. There were only 65 and 66 in each editions. When the first piece was released, we all called those folks who had always bought art when the company released art. They were allocated, so each gallery could only get a few of these A Charlie Brown Christmas limited editions and the It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown limited editions. (I think I got as many as any gallery was allotted, with 6 of each edition). Those who bought the first one, got right of first refusal on each subsequent piece so they could match the sets. So some said yes to them all, some skipped one, and so it went. My Peanuts collectors tend to leave their art with me for a while and come in only a few times a year. One thing led to another, we did inventory, and POOF! We actually have a few Peanuts Charlie Brown and Snoopy limited editions (and of course some with the whole Peanuts gang!) available for sale! Imagine my surprise! This Peanuts limited edition cel, “Dog Gone Commercial” captures when Snoopy was decorating his dog house for the holidays. Classic! Anyway, this is all to the benefit of big Peanuts fans who will fall in love with these images. The largest Christmas and Halloween limited edition cels each took weeks to complete, there was so much hand-work involved. If you think they look cool online, they are truly spectacular in person! We look forward to a fan or a few fans who grew up with the cartoons and Peanuts comic strips like I did winding up with these pieces. They can bring them home as a wonderful, nostalgic reminder of holidays gone by. Or rather, holidays to come, because they will be playing these Peanuts TV specials every year until our great-grandchildren think they came out for them! In this blog are all the images of the pieces we have. Click HERE to see them all, or on each image for more information for those specific pieces. The work-intensive A Charlie Brown Christmas limited edition art created for the anniversary called “50 Years of Joy and Wonder” The anniversary It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown limited edition that we have for sale sold out immediately when it was released, with only 66 created. Linus and Snoopy steal the show again! Remember if you love Peanuts and the Charlie Brown TV specials, there are some original production cels available from a number of cartoons you’ll remember we get directly from the Bill Melendez Studio. None from the Christmas or Halloween specials, but we’ve found a few choice ones for fans from Snoopy Come Home, several Valentine specials, and others that would excite you. Contact us! We’ll leave you with this an interview I did with the producer Lee Mendelson, talking about the history of the Peanuts cartoons: 50 years of joy and wonder A Charlie Brown Christmas art A night to believe Great Pumpkin art It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown larry leichliter limited edition cels Peanuts animation art peanuts art Peanuts limited editions Peanuts TV specials	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10625
__label__wiki	0.52152	0.52152	Home Arts & Culture Books BOOK: Unsuitable Celibate BOOK: Unsuitable Celibate Asian Lite News Indian American author’s ‘Unsuitable Celibate’ released on Amazon’s Kindle A novella that deals with the complex issue of celibacy and teenaged monks among certain sections of the Indian American community has just been released for the global market on Amazon’s Kindle. “Unsuitable Celibate: Mistaken Glory of Celibacy” written by Dr. Bharat Thakkar, a well-known reliability and quality control expert and highly regarded poet, critically examines religious and cultural conditioning which many teenaged boys have to endure. Although the novella’s plot is fictional, it has some significant elements drawn from Dr. Thakkar’s real life experiences. “The core details of my novella’s plot does find inspiration from real life even though much of what I write in terms of religious indoctrination is an amalgamation of prevalent practices among the Indian American community which are not specific to any particular Hindu sect or religious order,” Dr. Thakkar said. The explicit focus on the idea of celibacy is something Dr. Thakkar says he has closely observed for the past four decades, adding, “I have been struck by how forced the life of celibacy can be for teenaged novitiates who have not even fully begun to understand sex and sexuality.” The fictional plot revolves around Parthiv Patel, a young school graduate living with his parents in Sunnyvale, California, who has been subtly and not so subtly been raised to join a fictional religious order called Siddhi Prapti Sansthan and lead a life of a celibate monk. “As the title suggests, it is my case that celibacy for a teenager is unsuitable and it’s much trumpeted glory mistaken. I think it is unnatural to condition an impressionable teenage mind to think he can give up on sexual urges at the instance of his parents and under pressure from a sect that is always in need of new recruits,” Dr. Thakkar says. In the introduction to the book, the author writes, “‘Unsuitable Celibate’ at its heart is about choice. We all have a natural right to choose but oftentimes that natural right is diluted by the vagaries of life. Having lived in America for close to 50 years, I am very much a part of the evolution of the Indian American community over a considerable period. Those decades have given me a good sense of a community living conflicted between two cultures, one they bring with them and the other they adopt here. However, there is a third crucial element to this and that is of the generations born here. They may have been born into culturally rooted Indian families but on their own, they are very much like mainstream Americans. Their conflicts and dilemmas are of a completely different nature. My short novel is an exploration into these sociocultural pulls and pressures without being judgmental about them.”The broad contour of the plot has the protagonist Parthiv grapple with lifelong conditioning over celibacy and monkhood even as his parents Ramnik and Dipti go through a mélange of uncertainties and doubts over what is underway. In the 166-page book the author offers a series of rather telling glimpses into the lives of Indian Americans even as he keeps the pace moving given that it is a novella and not a full-fledged novel. On whether the objective is to start a debate about religious and cultural challenges that the diaspora community face and how the second or third generation of Indian Americans struggle to balance their lives, Dr. Thakkar says, “There is no explicit objective. My job as a writer of fiction is to tell an engaging story. Everything else is secondary. That said, I do hope some readers do feel stirred up enough to think about these issues.” A passage concerning Parthiv’s conflicted mind goes thus: “Parthiv’s was feeling increasingly torn between his growing physical attraction for Bela and what he was reading in the Sansthan literature. In a particular passage in a chapter titled “Urges and Vitality” in the book about celibacy, Guruji had written: “Physical urges of sex are an enemy of the human body’s vitality. The pleasure of sex may be good but it is short-lived and always extracts vitality in the form of semen. Yogis of India preserve that vitality by practicing celibacy. Their unspent semen becomes an eternal reservoir of vitality.” Parthiv found that after he read that particular passage his interactions with Bela began to feel strained. He particularly remembered how he turned away one evening when she was about to kiss his cheek. Bela was furious and she asked again, “Are you sure we are not breaking up? You are being weird with me. Why did you turn away?” Realizing that he had messed up Parthiv thought it was perhaps the best time to explain to her what was going on.” Previous articleModi Express in Sydney during G20 Next articleIndia to name 3 black money account holders	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10626
__label__wiki	0.976796	0.976796	Home Sport Indian Super League kicks off Sunday Indian Super League kicks off Sunday Indian Super League football franchise based in Kolkata, Atletico de Kolkata players during a practice session in Kolkata After weeks of unprecedented promotional blitzkrieg generating an initial awareness about football in a cricket-dominated country, the inaugural Indian Super League (ISL) begins Sunday with a potential of awakening a ‘sleeping giant’ from its long slumber. The competition’s aim is to help world’s most popular sport grow, with a heavy dose of glamour quotient, in the world’s second-most populous country, having a population of 1.2 billion but languishing at the 158th spot in FIFA rankings. Football in the subcontinent is substantially insignificant when compared to the beloved game of cricket. But while the European leagues, particularly the English Premier League, enjoys considerable television viewership, the domestic league barely raises any voice. The new league, with a rich cast of celebrity owners from cricket to Bollywood, renowned foreign managers, several high-profile players and aggressive promotion and branding, is aiming to change that. The pattern of the tournament is heavily borrowed from the immensely popular and profitable Indian Premier League (IPL) in cricket, ISL will feature eight franchise teams based across the country. Italian World Cup winners Alessandro Del Piero and Marco Materazzi, Spain’s Joan Capdevila and Luis Garcia, and French stars David Trezeguet and Robert Pires are some of the star attractions in the cash-rich tournament. Their association with the league has garnered fair share of attention in the international press too. The tournament will be played in a round-robin format with the top four sides to qualify for the semi-finals. It will be played over two legs, with the winners advancing to a one-leg final. There will be no promotion or relegation. Atletico de Kolkata take on Mumbai City FC Oct 12 at the Salt Lake stadium in the first match of the tournament in the nation’s football cradle – Kolkata. In the opening match, the Kolkata franchisee, with Sourav Ganguly and 2013-14 Spanish La Liga winners Atletico Madrid as part of a consortium of owners, will flaunt former Spain international and Liverpool star Luis Garcia as their ‘marquee’ player. Ex-Sweden and Arsenal legend Freddie Ljungberg and French stalwart Nicolas Anelka bolster their opponent’s – the Mumbai franchisee, co-owned by movie star Ranbir Kapoor. The other franchises are also not too far behind in attracting big names. Chennai-based Chennaiyin FC, co-owned by Abhishek Bachchan and Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni have hired Marco Materazzi as coach, Brazilian Elano as the ‘icon’ player and former Manchester United and Arsenal defender Mikael Silvestre. Delhi franchisee Delhi Dynamos, owned by cable TV company DEN Networks, managed to bag Juventus and Italian legend Del Piero. Goan team named FC Goa is coached by Brazilian virtuoso Zico and has Frenchman Robert Pires to spearhead their attacking line. Kerala Blasters, the southern franchisee, with cricketing master Sachin Tendulkar as the part-owner, signed up former England goalkeeper David James in a playing-cum-coaching role. Ex-Spain international Capdevila will represent actor John Abraham-backed NorthEast United FC while FC Pune City has French World cup winner David Trezeguet and Romanian Adrian Mutu in their ranks. The Oct 12-Dec 20 tournament’s – bankrolled by Reliance Industries, Star India and sports management group IMG – primary focus is on developing young talent to try and make an impact on the world stage. It remains to be seen whether all the hoopla surrounding it assumes game-changing proportions or becomes just another false dawn for the sport in the country. Previous articleWorld Of Sports Next articleVayalar award for K.R. Meera Boris Vows Brexit By Oct 31	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10627
__label__wiki	0.639295	0.639295	Official Name: Republic of Gambia Kunta Kinteh Island and Related Sites Stone Circles of Senegambia 1001 Hist Western Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean and Senegal - The World Factbook Particulars for Gambia: The Gambia gained its independence from the UK in 1965. Geographically surrounded by Senegal, it formed a short-lived federation of Senegambia between 1982 and 1989. In 1991 the two nations signed a friendship and cooperation treaty, but tensions have flared up intermittently since then. Yahya JAMMEH led a military coup in 1994 that overthrew the president and banned political activity. A new constitution and presidential elections in 1996, followed by parliamentary balloting in 1997, completed a nominal return to civilian rule. JAMMEH has been elected president in all subsequent elections including most recently in late 2011. - The World Factbook	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10628
__label__wiki	0.891457	0.891457	Hoping for summer heat? Most Canadians won't get it, Dave Phillips warns Alexandra Mae Jones, CTVNews.ca Published Friday, June 21, 2019 5:21PM EDT Last Updated Friday, June 21, 2019 7:13PM EDT Even more heat for western provinces that suffered forest fires this spring, and likely no change for a central Canada still hoping for sunny skies—the forecast for Canada’s summer is looking like more of the same, Environment Canada’s Dave Phillips says. The agency’s senior climatologist spoke to CTV News Channel Friday morning, on the first official day of summer, to share his outlook for the coming months. Phillips said that current weather patterns aren’t likely to shift fast, and he admitted wishing we could “change the weather around.” “Bring the West, what they’ve had, to us — and give them the kind of moisture that we’ve had,” he suggested. “We’d be happy campers, but it doesn’t work that way.” Typically by this time, he said, the first “taste of summer” has already arrived. But this year, it’s been largely confined to western Canada. “We had some pretty dry conditions, of course, that lead to forest fires,” he said. “We’ve seen temperatures that have gone up to 35, 36 degrees. So clearly some summery-like weather there in the spring. Here, in the eastern part of Canada, we’re still waiting. It’s like spring was sort of missing in action.” Freezing rain warnings on May 1 in some parts of Ontario. Communities across provinces experiencing temperatures several degrees below average levels. Severe flooding in parts of Ontario and Quebec. It’s been a difficult spring. In eastern and central Canada, “we really have had no lead-up, no dress rehearsal with regards to the summer-like weather,” Phillips said. “Last year, some people complained that we had too much summer. This year it may be that we don’t have enough summer.” According to Environment Canada, the summer weather is looking to be a continuation of the spring. It’s expected to get warmer and warmer the more west you are. While British Columbia and Alberta are likely going to be high above normal temperatures, Manitoba and Saskatchewan will be warmer than normal, but closer to past summer temperatures. Phillips said the Maritimes are “going to see some southerly air coming up to them.” But in Ontario and Western Quebec, “where millions of Canadians live and are waiting anxiously for some indication that summer is going to happen, it just may be more of the same,” Phillips said. “Here in the central part (of Canada), it’s been rain, rain, and more rain, we just can’t string two or three good days in a row!” Temperatures are expected to be “comfortable” there, unlike the heat that killed nearly 100 people in Quebec and prompted coast to coast heat warnings last summer. Meanwhile, western regions could struggle to see much rain, according to Environment Canada. Precipitation is difficult to predict over a three month period, but current models are showing that areas already suffering from dryness in western Canada are going to stay dry, Phillips said. And, although there were some “million dollar rains” on some of the southern prairies this week, he said, farmers will need more than that — the opposite problem that Ontario is having. “There are some good things about a lacklustre kind of a summer,” Phillips said about central Canada’s predicament. “I don’t think people will be dying because of the weather.” But he acknowledged that some residents in Ontario and central Canada may be frustrated. “We had a tough fall, a tougher winter, the spring has been disappointing, so I think we’re thinking that we’re owed some summer-like weather,” he said. “Nature never pays attention to our needs.” Central Canada is predicted to have cooler than normal temperatures this summer, according to Environment Canada. Things may be slightly warmer than usual in the Maritimes, but the hottest part of the country is predicted to be the western provinces. (Environment Canada) They were eight care-free teenagers out celebrating a birthday when the bullets flew. The rampage that ensued on July 22, 2018, changed their lives. 'I'm an American': U.S. gas clerk won't serve Mexican women	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10639
__label__cc	0.710559	0.289441	The Redeemer What happens when a man dies? KNOW ABOUT GOD God has Placed Some Pharaoh in Your Life,So That You will Realise God’s Glory in Your Life at Right Time. Every disappointment is an appointment for God to work miracles in our lives Keep Faith! Nothing Is Impossible With God ☝☝  “Ah Lord God! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee.” – Jeremiah 32:17 Does the Bible prophesy a one-world government and a one-world currency in the end times? The Bible does not use the phrase “one-world government” or “one-world currency” in referring to the end times. It does, however, provide ample evidence to enable us to draw the conclusion that both will exist under the rule of the Antichrist in the last days. In his apocalyptic vision in the Book of Revelation, the Apostle John sees the “beast,” also called the Antichrist, rising out of the sea having seven heads and ten horns (Revelation 13:1). Combining this vision with Daniel’s similar one (Daniel 7:16-24), we can conclude that some sort of world system will be inaugurated by the beast, the most powerful “horn,” who will defeat the other nine and will begin to wage war against Christians. The ten-nation confederacy is also seen in Daniel’s image of the statue in Daniel 2:41-42, where he pictures the final world government consisting of ten entities represented by the ten toes of the statue. Whoever the ten are and however they come to power, Scripture is clear that the beast will either destroy them or reduce their power to nothing more than figureheads. In the end, they will do his bidding. John goes on to describe the ruler of this vast empire as having power and great authority, given to him by Satan himself (Revelation 13:2), being followed by and receiving worship from “all the world” (13:3-4), and having authority over “every tribe, people, language and nation” (13:7). From this description, it is logical to assume that this person is the leader of a one-world government which is recognized as sovereign over all other governments. It’s hard to imagine how such diverse systems of government as are in power today would willingly subjugate themselves to a single ruler, and there are many theories on the subject. A logical conclusion is that the disasters and plagues described in Revelation as the seal and trumpet judgments (chapters 6-11) will be so devastating and create such a monumental global crisis that people will embrace anything and anyone who promises to give them relief. Once entrenched in power, the beast (Antichrist) and the power behind him (Satan) will move to establish absolute control over all peoples of the earth to accomplish their true end, the worship Satan has been seeking ever since being thrown out of heaven (Isaiah 14:12-14). One way they will accomplish this is by controlling all commerce, and this is where the idea of a one-world currency comes in. Revelation 13:16-17 describes some sort of satanic mark which will be required in order to buy and sell. This means anyone who refuses the mark will be unable to buy food, clothing or other necessities of life. No doubt the vast majority of people in the world will succumb to the mark simply to survive. Again, verse 16 makes it clear that this will be a universal system of control where everyone, rich and poor, great and small, will bear the mark on their hand or forehead. There is a great deal of speculation as to how exactly this mark will be affixed, but the technologies that are available right now could accomplish it very easily. Those who are left behind after the Rapture of the Church will be faced with an excruciating choice—accept the mark of the beast in order to survive or face starvation and horrific persecution by the Antichrist and his followers. But those who come to Christ during this time, those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life (Revelation 13:8), will choose to endure, even to martyrdom. What happens if you take the mark of the beast?-666 Hell The Two Witnesses of Revelations Last Days Prophecy END TIMES OF THE WORLD Things you need to know about “the Lamb’s Book of Life” How the Seven Trumpets of Revelation Will Affect Humanity What are The Seven Seals in the Book of Revelation? Fill out the information above, and click “Subscribe” © The Redeemer 2019 DESIGNED BY BINU ISSAC	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10641
__label__wiki	0.750812	0.750812	Category Archives: Royal Navy To Which We Serve September 5, 2018 1940s, All at sea, Royal Navy, War, Wartime attacks, World War 2talkinghistory2013 There are times when ‘doing what you plan to do’ gets done – and there are also times when ‘what you planned to do’ didn’t get done – and today I am not sure which of these apply – so I’ll leave it to you to decide! It’s a part of our ‘Music for Ragtime to Rock ‘n’ Roll’ story – but doesn’t specifically contain either! Last week our 1942 story had two new singers on the scene. This week we are all at sea with the story of HMS Kelly- a K-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy and the flotilla leader of her class. She had served through the early years of the Second World War in Home Waters, off Norway and in the Mediterranean. Throughout the ships service it was commanded by Lord Louis Mountbatten. The vessel was lost in action in 1941 during the Battle of Crete. In 1942 a British patriotic war film, directed by Sir Noël Peirce Coward and Sir David Lean, with the assistance of Britain’s Ministry of Information, came on screen. It was called ‘In Which We Serve’ with a screenplay inspired by the exploits of Captain Lord Louis Mountbatten. In the Box Office the film was the second most popular movie at the British box office in 1943 and was one of the most successful British films ever released in the US, earning $1.8 million in rentals. Noël Coward had composed the music as well as starring in the film as the ship’s captain. The film also starred John Mills, Bernard Miles, Celia Johnson and Richard Attenborough – it was Richard’s first screen role. ‘In Which We Serve’ also received a full backing by the Ministry of Information which offered advice on what would make good propaganda. The film remains a classic example of wartime British cinema through patriotic imagery of national unity and social cohesion within the context of war. However – there were ‘responses’. A New York Times writer observed, “There have been other pictures which have vividly and movingly conveyed in terms of human emotion the cruel realities of this present war. None has yet done it so sharply and so truly as In Which We Serve… For the great thing which Mr. Coward has accomplished in this film is a full and complete expression of national fortitude … Yes, this is truly a picture in which the British may take a wholesome pride and we may regard as an excellent expression of British strength.” Variety called the film “a grim tale sincerely picturized and splendidly acted throughout” and added, “Only one important factor calls for criticism. It is that all the details are too prolonged. The author-producer-scriptwriter-composer and co-director gives a fine performance as the captain of the vessel, but acting honours also go to the entire company. Stark realism is the keynote of the writing and depiction, with no glossing of the sacrifices constantly being made by the sailors.” Despite largely positive reviews by audiences and critics alike, the film was not well received by some within the Admiralty who dubbed it “In Which We Sink“. None-the-less – on Christmas Eve 1942 in New York, the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures honoured the film as the ‘Best English Language Film of the Year’ citing Bernard Miles and John Mills for their performances. The film was nominated in the 1943 Academy Awards but lost to ‘Casablanca’ for Best Picture and ‘Princess O’Rourke’ for Best Original Screenplay. However, Noel Coward was presented with an ‘Academy Honorary Award for “his outstanding production achievement.” In 1943 ‘In Which We Serve’ also won the ‘New York Film Critics Circle Award’ for Best Film’, beating Casablanca’, and the ‘Argentine Film Critics Association Award for Best Foreign Film in 1943. A strange 20th century story begins April 19, 2017 A story is told, Conflict, history, Royal Navy, Wartalkinghistory2013 There are many, still unanswered, questions in Britain’s history. The story I am beginning today is just one of them. I use the word ‘beginning’ because the end has yet to be confirmed! The story starts when the Russian Sverdlov class cruiser ‘Ordzhonikidze’ brought Nikita Khrushchev and Nikolai Bulganin on a diplomatic mission to Britain. While it was berthed in the Portsmouth dockyards Lionel Kenneth Phillip ‘Buster’ Crabb, OBE, a Royal Navy frogman and MI6 diver, was sent to investigate the Russian ship’s propeller – a new design that Naval Intelligence wanted to examine. On Tuesday 17th April Buster and a companion booked in to the Sally Port Hotel in Old Portsmouth. On the evening of the 18th Buster went to Havant and caught a train back to Portsmouth and on Thursday 19th April 1956 a frogman was seen entering the sea at the mouth of Portsmouth Harbour – that frogman was Buster Crabb. Buster’s MI6 controller never saw him again! Buster’s companion – a ‘Mr Smith’ – settled the Sally Port hotel bill and collected all his and Buster’s belongings. He – or was it some plain-clothed police officers – also took the pages of the hotel register on which Buster, his ‘friend’ and the other guests – had written their names. Ten days later British newspapers published stories about Buster Crabb’s disappearance in an underwater mission. The next steps will appear here on Saturday 29th April 2017!	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10643
__label__cc	0.688287	0.311713	Every Time Zone Never warp your brain with time zone math again. Meetings Pro People Pro July 16 – 21 Share iCal Pro Customize new 9:20 pm current local time 9:20 pm your local time 🇺🇸 Pacific Time (US) PDT UTC-7 🇺🇸 Mountain Time (US) MDT UTC-6 🇺🇸 Central Time (US) CDT UTC-5 🇺🇸 Eastern Time (US) EDT UTC-4 🇧🇷 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil -03 UTC-3 🕛 UTC 🇬🇧 London, United Kingdom BST UTC+1 🇩🇪 Berlin, Germany CEST UTC+2 🇷🇺 Moscow, Russian Federation MSK UTC+3 🇦🇪 Dubai, United Arab Emirates +04 UTC+4 🇮🇳 Mumbai, India IST UTC+5:30 🇸🇬 Singapore, Singapore 🇨🇳 Beijing, China CST UTC+8 🇨🇳 China Time, China 🇯🇵 Tokyo, Japan JST UTC+9 🇦🇺 Sydney, Australia AEST UTC+10 🇳🇿 Auckland, New Zealand NZST UTC+12 Convert timezones and find the best time for your meeting in (GMT-12:00) International Date Line West, (GMT-11:00) American Samoa, (GMT-11:00) Midway Island, (GMT-10:00) Hawaii, (GMT-09:00) Alaska, (GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada), (GMT-08:00) Tijuana, (GMT-07:00) Arizona, (GMT-07:00) Chihuahua, (GMT-07:00) Mazatlan, (GMT-07:00) Mountain Time (US & Canada), (GMT-06:00) Central America, (GMT-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada), (GMT-06:00) Guadalajara, (GMT-06:00) Mexico City, (GMT-06:00) Monterrey, (GMT-06:00) Saskatchewan, (GMT-05:00) Bogota, (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada), (GMT-05:00) Indiana (East), (GMT-05:00) Lima, (GMT-05:00) Quito, (GMT-04:00) Atlantic Time (Canada), (GMT-04:00) Caracas, (GMT-04:00) Georgetown, (GMT-04:00) La Paz, (GMT-04:00) Puerto Rico, (GMT-04:00) Santiago, (GMT-03:30) Newfoundland, (GMT-03:00) Brasilia, (GMT-03:00) Buenos Aires, (GMT-03:00) Greenland, (GMT-03:00) Montevideo, (GMT-02:00) Mid-Atlantic, (GMT-01:00) Azores, (GMT-01:00) Cape Verde Is., (GMT+00:00) Edinburgh, (GMT+00:00) Lisbon, (GMT+00:00) London, (GMT+00:00) Monrovia, (GMT+00:00) UTC, (GMT+01:00) Amsterdam, (GMT+01:00) Belgrade, (GMT+01:00) Berlin, (GMT+01:00) Bern, (GMT+01:00) Bratislava, (GMT+01:00) Brussels, (GMT+01:00) Budapest, (GMT+01:00) Casablanca, (GMT+01:00) Copenhagen, (GMT+01:00) Dublin, (GMT+01:00) Ljubljana, (GMT+01:00) Madrid, (GMT+01:00) Paris, (GMT+01:00) Prague, (GMT+01:00) Rome, (GMT+01:00) Sarajevo, (GMT+01:00) Skopje, (GMT+01:00) Stockholm, (GMT+01:00) Vienna, (GMT+01:00) Warsaw, (GMT+01:00) West Central Africa, (GMT+01:00) Zagreb, (GMT+01:00) Zurich, (GMT+02:00) Athens, (GMT+02:00) Bucharest, (GMT+02:00) Cairo, (GMT+02:00) Harare, (GMT+02:00) Helsinki, (GMT+02:00) Jerusalem, (GMT+02:00) Kaliningrad, (GMT+02:00) Kyiv, (GMT+02:00) Pretoria, (GMT+02:00) Riga, (GMT+02:00) Sofia, (GMT+02:00) Tallinn, (GMT+02:00) Vilnius, (GMT+03:00) Baghdad, (GMT+03:00) Istanbul, (GMT+03:00) Kuwait, (GMT+03:00) Minsk, (GMT+03:00) Moscow, (GMT+03:00) Nairobi, (GMT+03:00) Riyadh, (GMT+03:00) St. Petersburg, (GMT+03:30) Tehran, (GMT+04:00) Abu Dhabi, (GMT+04:00) Baku, (GMT+04:00) Muscat, (GMT+04:00) Samara, (GMT+04:00) Tbilisi, (GMT+04:00) Volgograd, (GMT+04:00) Yerevan, (GMT+04:30) Kabul, (GMT+05:00) Ekaterinburg, (GMT+05:00) Islamabad, (GMT+05:00) Karachi, (GMT+05:00) Tashkent, (GMT+05:30) Chennai, (GMT+05:30) Kolkata, (GMT+05:30) Mumbai, (GMT+05:30) New Delhi, (GMT+05:30) Sri Jayawardenepura, (GMT+05:45) Kathmandu, (GMT+06:00) Almaty, (GMT+06:00) Astana, (GMT+06:00) Dhaka, (GMT+06:00) Urumqi, (GMT+06:30) Rangoon, (GMT+07:00) Bangkok, (GMT+07:00) Hanoi, (GMT+07:00) Jakarta, (GMT+07:00) Krasnoyarsk, (GMT+07:00) Novosibirsk, (GMT+08:00) Beijing, (GMT+08:00) Chongqing, (GMT+08:00) Hong Kong, (GMT+08:00) Irkutsk, (GMT+08:00) Kuala Lumpur, (GMT+08:00) Perth, (GMT+08:00) Singapore, (GMT+08:00) Taipei, (GMT+08:00) Ulaanbaatar, (GMT+09:00) Osaka, (GMT+09:00) Sapporo, (GMT+09:00) Seoul, (GMT+09:00) Tokyo, (GMT+09:00) Yakutsk, (GMT+09:30) Adelaide, (GMT+09:30) Darwin, (GMT+10:00) Brisbane, (GMT+10:00) Canberra, (GMT+10:00) Guam, (GMT+10:00) Hobart, (GMT+10:00) Melbourne, (GMT+10:00) Port Moresby, (GMT+10:00) Sydney, (GMT+10:00) Vladivostok, (GMT+11:00) Magadan, (GMT+11:00) New Caledonia, (GMT+11:00) Solomon Is., (GMT+11:00) Srednekolymsk, (GMT+12:00) Auckland, (GMT+12:00) Fiji, (GMT+12:00) Kamchatka, (GMT+12:00) Marshall Is., (GMT+12:00) Wellington, (GMT+12:45) Chatham Is., (GMT+13:00) Nuku'alofa, (GMT+13:00) Samoa, and (GMT+13:00) Tokelau Is.. Hi there! We make Every Time Zone and we’re happy to answer all your questions! Send us a message and we'll get back to you by email! Prefer email? support@everytimezone.com Have a question? Comment? Need help? Write us! © 2019 Slash7 LLC Terms Privacy Help	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10648
__label__cc	0.571073	0.428927	bilaterals.org » Negotiations » Philippines Talks are ongoing for possible PHL-US free trade pact —envoy posted 10-February-2019 GMA News Online - 7 February 2019 By Ted Cordero, GMA News US Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim is positive that Washington and Manila can forge a free trade agreement (FTA) as both countries continue holding dialogues on strengthening bilateral trade relations. The US envoy also noted both countries made significant progress in solving longstanding bilateral trade issues under the 1989 Philippine-US Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA). “Both sides are continuing discussions on how best to move forward in expanding the bilateral relationship,” Kim said on the sidelines the US-Philippines Bilateral Relationship conference in Makati City Thursday. In October 2018, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez and US Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer issued a joint statement announcing achievements in resolving bilateral trade issues that included: US market access for mango, young green coconuts, and carrageenan Expanding the Generalized System of Preferences Program to include travel goods Developing cold chain facilities in the Philippines Efforts to ensure World Trade Organization-consistent valuation of farm imports Philippine commitment to continue accepting vehicles that meet US Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards Even though there is no deadline for the US and Philippines to reach a free trade pact, what is “important is both sides are interested and continuing our discussions,” Kim noted. US goods exported to the Philippines amounted to $8.3 billion, while the corresponding imports from the Philippines totaled $10 billion, according to a 2017 report of the Office of the United States Trade Representative. The Philippines was the United States’ 31st largest goods export market in 2016. —VDS, GMA News source: GMA News Online	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10654
__label__wiki	0.889934	0.889934	Cricket at the Crossroads In About the Game by Bill Ricquier 14/04/16 The recently concluded World T20 was a fantastic celebration of cricket. It displayed the shortest form of the game at its absolute best. It was far from being an uncomplicated slogfest. Many of the games were relatively low- scoring and there were some deliciously tight finishes. Nothing exemplified the spirit of the competition better than the exhilarating final, played in front of 66,000 spectators at one of cricket’s most iconic venues, Eden Gardens in Kolkata, between the two best sides in the tournament, England and the West Indies. England were 23 for three in the fifth over and their eventual total of 155 for 9 – achieved thanks largely to an accomplished half century from Joe Root, one of the players of the tournament – did not really seem enough. But when West Indies were reduced to eleven for three, with two wickets to Root and key performers Chris Gayle and Lendl Simmons back in the dug-out-things looked very different. Momentum continued to shift, with the enigmatic Marlon Samuels controlling affairs from one end while wickets fell at the other. When captain Darren Sammy holed out to David Willey in the sixteenth over , with 49 still needed, England seemed to be in charge and Willey and Chris Jordan kept things reasonably tight for the next three overs. The last over, bowled by Ben Stokes, will be remembered as one of the most remarkable final overs of any game of cricket. West Indies needed 19. Like everything, there are so many “ifs”. Perhaps the main one is suppose it had been Samuels on strike and not Carlos Braithwaite. Anyway , West Indies reached their target in the shortest possible time. Poor Stokes.. A week earlier, in the Super 10 Group 1 match against Sri Lanka – effectively a quarter final – he had demonstrated an interesting but perhaps not surprising thing about T20: how a player can have a decisive, match turning impact in just a few deliveries. He came in to face the last ball of England’s innings, from Thisara Perera, and whacked it for six over midwicket. That took England’s total to 171. Sri Lanka started disastrously and were fifteen for three in the third over with captain Angelo Mathews and Lahiru Thirimanne both newly in. On the last ball of that over Mathews called for a quick single and then sent Thirimanne back. Stokes running from midwicket swooped on the ball and threw it while still in mid -air, hitting the stumps with Thirimanne out of his ground. Mathews rebuilt the innings and when it came down to the last over, they needed fifteen to win (it would have been nine without that six off the last ball ). It was Stokes who bowled that final qover. He conceded four runs. Of course Stokes is not a star only in T20. At Cape Town in early January his 258 against South Africa was one of the most remarkable Test innings ever played. His catch, at third slip, to dismiss Adam Voges off Stuart Broad in the fourth Ashes Test at Trent Bridge, was straight out of Special Effects. Stokes is one of those players, rare and special, whom people want to watch whatever he is doing in whatever form of the game. He could not do it again in Kolkata. Few, however, would begrudge West Indies their victory. But some are probably wondering whether this victory was the worst thing about the World T20 as well as the best. The trouble is that it is impossible not to think about West Indies’ last appearance in Test cricket while assessing their triumph in the World T 20. This was their tour of Australia in January when they lost the first two Tests by massive margins (the third being ruined by rain). The abject character of their performance – Samuels in particular showing a distinct lack of interest in proceedings – was one thing. What made matters worse was that a number of their potentially star performers – notably Gayle and the talented all- rounder Dwayne Bravo – were simultaneously in Australia playing in the Big Bash, Australia’s T20 franchise tournament. Gayle, Bravo, Simmons, Andre Russell and others are exemplars of a new breed of T20 mercenaries. Braithwaite, one of the few successes of the west Indies’ tour of Australia- has signed for the Delhi Daredevils in the IPL and it must be hoped that he will not go the same way. It is easy to understand and sympathise with the appeal of the global T20 franchises for cricketers from the Caribbean, in particular. But they are not alone. The various national boards have gradually had to realize that the IPL, in particular, simply has to be accommodated in the international calendar. Jos Buttler, until a few months ago England’s first choice Test wicket keeper, is playing in the current tournament. It is surely no coincidence that West Indies won the World T20 with a team comprised largely of specialists. Other countries will have to consider following their lead. A while ago the view was often expressed that T20 should be left to the franchises and that T20 internationals should be kept to a minimum. The success of the tournament in India makes that seem absurd. National sides, and especially the Associate countries, should be playing more T20s, not less. The daftest decision the International Cricket Council(” ICC”) has made in recent years has been to reduce the number of teams participating in the 50 over World Cup from 14 to 10: how is one to spread the appeal of cricket as a global sport by reducing the number of teams playing it? The fact is, though, that the best way to popularize the game is through T20. Is any of this a threat to Test cricket? It shouldn’t be. There is clearly a problem in the West Indies; it is awful to see the pitifully small crowds watching Test matches there. But if the West Indies Cricket Board can somehow reach a rapprochement with the players and all work together to make the most of the undoubted talent there, things may change. Elsewhere matters are not so bad. In the twenty-first century one cannot expect attendances at a sporting contest that takes five days to unfold to be record-breaking. But the interest is still very much there. Some changes may come. Day-night Test cricket seems a bit of a gimmick but it may be worth pursuing at least in places where dew is not too much of an issue when dusk falls. If two admittedly rather ordinary sides from England and Australia cannot once take a game in an Ashes series to the fifth day, perhaps the time has come to consider four day Trsts. There is nothing sacrosanct about the five-day Test. Historically, matches have sometimes been scheduled for longer and sometimes for shorter. Four days used to be the norm. The role of the fifty over game also needs to be considered, and scheduling generally. The worrying thing is that decisions about cricket clearly cannot be left to the ICC as currently constituted. Rather than a clique of businessmen more concerned with self aggrandizement and the interests of individual boards we need a committee of cricketers to conduct a root and branch review of the international game. It could comprise, for example, Steve Waugh, Rahul Dravid, Clare Connor, Courtney Walsh, Shaun Pollock, Kumar Sanggakara, Brendon McCullum and Younis Khan. Now what are the chances of that happening?	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10655
__label__cc	0.51673	0.48327	Bitcoin vs. Monero [An In Depth Comparison Guide] Jack Choros Intro to Bitcoin vs. Monero In this post we are going to compare Bitcoin vs. Monero. Both projects promise users the ability to exchange value anonymously using a decentralized database that records transactions on a public ledger making it difficult if not impossible to create fraudulent transactions or manipulate their respective blockchains in any way, shape or form. It’s this idea of building a peer-to-peer decentralized network that remains anonymous that is acting as the vehicle pushing the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies further forward as the years go by. Bitcoin’s creator is both anonymous and infamous at the same time. His/her/their name is Satoshi Nakamato of course. Outside a small number of pioneering cryptocurrency developers (often referred to as cypherpunks), and American computer scientist Craig Wright (who claims he himself is Nakamoto), nobody on the planet is successfully convincing the public of the creator’s identity. In contrast, seven different individuals lay claim to being the ones responsible for creating Monero. Two of those individuals are publicly known. Riccardo Spagni, also known as Fluffypony, and David Lapatie. The other five inventors remain completely anonymous by choice to this very day. Like many other cryptocurrencies, the basic principles that govern Monero’s coding structure are similar to that of Bitcoin. One key difference however is that the coin the developers used as their direct template is actually Bytecoin. We’ll dive deeper into comparing Monero to Bytecoin later. What’s more important to understand for now is that Monero’s reason for existence involves taking the public ledger that Bitcoin is famous for and making transactions private so that only the constituents involved in completing a transaction truly know all of the details of the value being exchanged and the reason behind the transaction. The developers of Monero accomplish this using several unique approaches. It’s safe to say five years since the project’s inception, Monero continues to demonstrate its value, ranking as the 14th most valuable cryptocurrency in the world according to market capitalization. The project is valued at just under $2 billion Canadian at the time of this writing. As you read on and continue to learn more about how the fundamental principles, mechanisms and coding implementations of both bitcoin and Monero compare and contrast, hopefully you’ll realize that privacy is at the root of it all. Both projects will likely continue to maintain staying power for many years to come. That’s saying a lot in a fast-paced, dynamically changing market like cryptocurrencies where last year’s talk of the town can quickly become the project nobody talks about anymore. Monero and Other Privacy Coins When Monero launched in 2014, another privacy coin called Dash launched alongside it. These two projects began the cryptocurrency industry’s journey into finding ways to build on top of Bitcoin’s initial promise of anonymity. Several instances of Bitcoin transactions being traced back to original users by sophisticated investigators exposed an opportunity to grab hold of a segment of the cryptocurrency market left begging for a more robust approach to transacting anonymously. Dash offers users privacy by way of a feature called PrivateSend. PrivateSend allows users to hide data at their discretion within Dash’s mixing mechanism. This makes it difficult if not impossible to both uncover and unscramble data, which means hackers and forensic technology experts have a tough time unraveling all the details. Dash’s coding structure is a fork of Bitcoin’s with this PrivateSend feature standing as the key differentiator between the two. Monero on the other hand uses a proof-of-work algorithm that markedly different from Bitcoin’s. It’s called CryptoNight. CryptoNight goes beyond mixing up data and hiding it. The protocol uses ring signatures to totally confuse in disguise data being registered on the project’s blockchain. This means it’s impossible to know who is sending XMR tokens, who is receiving them, and the specific details of that transaction as they are recorded on the public blockchain. This means the blockchain maintains its function as an immutable decentralized database without making all of the details public. Aside from Dash and Monero, Zcash (ZEC) is arguably the most well-known and respected privacy project in cryptocurrency. One of the core believes of the Zcash team is that privacy and legality are not opposites. This belief explains why Zcash offers two different transaction types to its users. One that allows for anonymous trading and keeps ZEC addresses shielded from one another. The other transaction type allows exchanges of value to remain on a public ledger. In short, users get the best of both worlds, and they get to choose between the two. The Zcash blockchain launched in October of 2016. While the technical aspects and overarching merits of the project were highly touted, the value of ZEC tokens plummeted well below the price offered to users at the time of the initial coin offering before bouncing back thanks to the solid fundamentals of the project. Monero is designed to be the ultimate privacy coin Other privacy focused projects such as PIVX and Verge garnered brief moments in the cryptocurrency spotlight, but the latter project is often the focus of hackers. Last year, an estimated $1.4 million in XVG tokens were stolen thanks to two separate hacking attempts that occurred within less than two months of each other. It’s perhaps for this reason that privacy projects introducing themselves to the world after Monero’s launch struggle to maintain higher valuations over a sustained period of time. Monero vs. Bitcoin: Privacy and Perspective The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats presenting themselves within the modern day cryptocurrency industry are oftentimes misunderstood by both government bodies and the general public. Even though it has now been well over a decade since Bitcoin launched, people still talk about digital currencies the way they talked about the internet in the 1990’s. It wasn’t too long ago that the Internet was viewed as a gateway for criminal activity and largely unregulated and unmonitored content that would spiral out of control and cause all sorts of undue harm to users. Today, browsing the Internet is part of everyday life in Western society. The one thing about the Internet that has never changed is that privacy with regard to the storage and exchange of data is an ongoing concern for most users. As cryptocurrencies continued to evolve, both the privacy -related capabilities at the disposal of users and their perspectives surrounding those capabilities will continue to change too. It’s this ongoing change that saw early adopters begin to ask themselves whether Monero and its privacy-focused counterparts are beginning to win the Monero vs. Bitcoin privacy debate. Is Bitcoin Really Anonymous? The idea of being able to transfer value from peer-to-peer without the need for a central authority governing the transaction is clearly the chief value proposition that early adopters of Bitcoin hoped would one day revolutionize economies and render the traditional banking system obsolete. Shortly after Bitcoin’s initial release the underbelly of the crypto world quickly discovered that Bitcoin could be used to facilitate criminal activity. Bitcoin and Silk Road Ross Ulbricht began working on a website called Silk Road. Silk Road mission was to facilitate the exchange of illicit goods and services online. Guns, drugs, stolen credit card numbers and the like were made available through the marketplace using a special browser known as Tor. Ulbricht created and managed the website, earning himself a substantial amount of money. In order to disguise the origin of those funds, Ulbricht allowed users to pay for products in Bitcoin. Fast forward to 2013. Government authorities collapse on Ulbricht and shut down Silk Road. To do this, they surveyed the website through the Tor network for an extended period of time and ultimately traced Bitcoin transactions back to Ulbricht. He would later be convicted in court for his actions and be sentenced to life in prison. News of Ulbricht’s impending incarceration sent shockwaves through the cryptocurrency space. The incident functioned as an awakening to anybody using Bitcoin to facilitate illegal transactions. The world realized Bitcoin transactions can indeed be tracked, or at least to a degree. In the years that would follow, more and more companies and investigative services dedicated to uncovering blockchain transactions began to pop up. Thus, the savviest of crypto users understood that other cryptocurrencies and their respective approaches to allowing truly anonymous transactions and impenetrable levels of privacy. Monero Gains Popularity among Criminals With Ulbricht’s case in the rear-view mirror and a hefty prison sentence handed down, the take down of Silk Road was perhaps the tuning point criminals needed to clue in to the idea that Bitcoin transactions could indeed be tracked. Criminals needed to find new ways to disguise the origins of funds, even with the benefits of partial anonymity that digital gold offers. Another reason Monero gained popularity among criminals is the profitably of mining XMR tokens. Investing in a Monero mining rig or mining pool can yield more than $50 USD per day in profits at the time of this writing. Depending on a miner’s hashing power and the percentage of pool fees paid out, its possible to earn over $1,500 per month mining Monero while mining on a relatively small scale. Monero has been given a shady reputation, since it’s been used by criminals A Bitcoin vs. Monero mining comparison shows that using a similar hashing power while mining on both blockchains, a user mining on the Bitcoin network will yield less than $10 per day (all numbers based on 100 KH per second mining power). That means it’s roughly 80% more profitable to mine Monero as opposed to Bitcoin, criminal activity or not. Speaking of criminal activity… Enter AlphaBay While Ross Ulbricht began to face the prospect of spending life in prison, AlphaBay launched at the end of 2015. Within 90 days the website attracted more than 14,000 users. Criminal activity on the darknet was alive and well. AlphaBay quickly became the largest and most profitable website on the darknet. Over that same time, Monero stood as the most popular cryptocurrency used for transactions on platform. Though the founder of AlphaBay died of an apparent suicide attempt in 2017 (when authorities were well aware of the illegal site), many AlphaBay users lost their money thanks to pending transactions that were never fulfilled and Monero transactions that remained private. The WannaCry Ransomware Attack Silk Road and AlphaBay definitely prove Monero’s value as a privacy focused cryptocurrency. However, the WannaCry ransom ware attack that spread across an estimated 200,000 computers in 150 countries with most of those computers being infected within 24 hours. The attack used programming tactics used by the United States National Security Agency and compromised major agencies around the world, including the National Health Service in England and Scotland. The hackers who created WannaCry were out to disrupt Windows computers across Western society, ultimately attempting to disrupt large public agencies and corporations. In the months after news of the WannaCry attack spread across global media outlets, hackers and phishing scam artists began sending emails to hackers demanding Bitcoin and Monero payments, threatening a WannaCry attack as the penalty for non-compliance. While other instances of criminal activity surrounding Monero payments were pinned on individual hackers, WannaCry has been attributed to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and other notable figures. Even U.S. President Donald Trump stood by the accusations. North Korea denies any involvement. Virus Ransomware Attackers Demanded Monero Bitcoin vs. Monero: Who’s going to win the Privacy Race? While more people use Bitcoin than Monero at the present moment, nobody knows if and when that will change. Another thing worth considering is that not every crypto user values privacy enough to switch from a respected grandfather like Bitcoin to a privacy token. Bitcoin is still the de-facto king of the industry after all. A person’s outlook on Monero’s future as the king of privacy is a matter of perspective. If you belive governments will eventually catch up to what’s trending in technology as they have many times before, perhaps privacy tokens won’t prove to be as anonymous as enthusiasts believe. If on the other hand you believe the common theory that criminals are always at the forefront of the latest technology and thus a sign of mass adoption to come, perhaps you find the idea of learning about and trading Monero intriguing. Only time will tell if that mass adoption really is around the corner for Bitcoin, Monero and the like. As time passes on and your desire to trade Bitcoin vs. Monero grows, do it right here at Bitbuy. Jack Choros is a freelance writer who believes Bitcoin is the future. He loves Andreas Antonopoulos and the Toronto Raptors. Banks, Blockchain, and Economic Liberty – A follow up What is Ethereum? A Full Comprehensive Guide Charlie Aikenhead Medici Land Governance: A Major Online Retailer Starts Blockchain Land Company in Africa	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10656
__label__cc	0.634069	0.365931	Eco-tourism in Nicaragua: Coffee Plantations, Part 2 By Deborah Charnes on March 7, 2017 at 9:40 PM Estelí is a booming bustling urban center in Northwest Nicaragua, with a population hovering around 100,000. It is a stopping ground from which to explore beautiful nature and rural communities. This is coffee country, among other things. Highlights for eco-tourism fans include Miraflor, a refuge from urbanization, where nine coffee co-ops are nestled in the mountains. All yield certified organic, fair trade beans sold primarily to Germany and the U.S. Miraflor is a protected region of 54 agricultural communities spread across 200 square kilometers. While it may look close to Managua on a map, it takes about four hours to get from the capital city to Estelí. From there, you need to take a bus, four-wheel drive or motorcycle uphill. If you take the bus, as most tourists do, depending on weather conditions and how far you’re headed, allow anywhere from 30-minutes to two hours, to get to your destination, even if it’s no more than a 10 mile jog. It’s best to hire a guide from the non-profits, Treehuggers or the Unión de Cooperativas Agropecuarias (UCA). English- or Spanish-speaking guides can escort you to your homestay, coffee fields or look-out points. There are no signs, and the guides veer off the road to take a myriad of short cuts. For a nominal donation to either non-profit, the guide will meet you where you get off the bus. He’ll trek through the fields (by foot or horseback), opening and closing farm gates, and even help you from slipping in the deep mud. And, talk to you about life in this pristine territory. What a deal. Actually, every penny anted up through the non-profit tours will yield plenty of dollars in experiences. If you opt for a home-stay, the tour operators will do their best to pair you with a family that will likely be most compatible for you, with language skills taken into consideration, too. Wherever you stay, you will be treated to a hidden getaway for peace and tranquility, and fresh roasted coffee. This is a wonderful way to understand, learn from, and bond with, the locals. There will be no distraction of televisions, computer screens, traffic, or sound pollution. Maybe a bit of music will waft around on Sundays from the churches’ community member-led sermons, songs and prayers. Second to mass, the next largest gathering may be coffee harvest. The area is verdant with dense untouched forests of pine and oak. In the community of Sontule, there are three coffee plantations sitting in a row. One is run by women. Another, just men. The third is mostly, but not exclusively, men. The entrance to all three is off the main road. If it’s not harvest time, you and the guide may have the plantations all to yourselves. Hear about the inner workings of the coffee co-op. Sit and relax. Take in the beauty of the area. See where the beans are separated and sorted. Note where the coffee waste is re-used. Like the story of Finca La Magdalena in Ometepe, these fields once belonged to wealthy landowners. Now, they’re of the people. UCA clarifies, “All the co-ops organized after the Nicaraguan revolution (1990), but not all the lands were split up (among the workers)…” Don Rogelio belongs to the men’s coffee co-op in Sontule. He is an example of someone who benefited from the expropriation of lands. Now about 70, he and his wife, Lucia, have lived in these mountains their entire lives. As children, they worked the fields, like indentured slaves. Today, they still have no traditional benefits that one gets from contributing to a pension plan or social security. They labored, more than most. But there were no paper trails. No employer-filed documents. As a result of the revolution, Don Rogelio was granted 12 manzanas of land. Today, he has a nice piece of personal property with cows, chickens, pigs, and goats. Plus, he’s part of the men’s coffee growing co-op. No easy ride, it took him ten years saving his earnings from the co-op to be able to afford his own property. Lucia belongs to the women’s coffee co-op. Despite having worked in the fields from the age of 14, she didn’t benefit from the revolution’s re-distribution of land. She and Don Rogelio recall the dire times before the Sandinistas took power. Sandinistas routinely convened in the mountains, and Lucia recalls several occasions when she and Don Rogelio had to hide from the Contras. Decades after the Sandinistas won the revolution, through the financial assistance of a German company, she and a group of other women were given a loan. They bought the land that is now the women’s coffee co-op. All the women make joint decisions as to the operations of the small co-op. It has a feel of a cottage industry. These are not cash cows. Life in Miraflor is not easy, but it has many benefits. Don Rogelio and Lucia wake up around 5 a.m. to grind corn and hand shape the tortillas for the day. Lucia prepares a huge pot of coffee that she fills into three or four large thermos containers, while Rogelio shucks the corn for tortillas, and picking the bad ears that he’ll give to the animals. They drink coffee throughout the day, and night. Everything is done on their fire burning stove, with natural light peaking in through the windows, doors, and crevices in the ceiling. No Mr. Coffee or Kreps machines here. Coffee is toasted and ground in a hand wound mill. Then poured into a large ceramic vat to heat. Eco-tourism, in Miraflor is a beautiful way to learn about the local communities, infrastructure and how agricultural co-ops work in Nicaragua. These experiences help you to appreciate our environment and the lives of those who work the land. Plus, spending your money here (not much) goes a long way to buoy the local communities. Another way to contribute is by buying coffee from one of the nine Miraflor coffee co-ops. Fundación Entre Mujeres (FEM) is an NGO that created the first female-only co-ops in Nicaragua. FEM works with agrarian women and markets their products under the brand, Las Diosas (The Goddesses). Based out of Estelí, just 80 meters south of the Mirador tower, visitors can buy coffee, wine, herbal teas and other products at the FEM office. According to UCA, 15 percent of the Miraflores’ economic livelihood comes from tourists. “EcoTourism has helped the personal development of the residents of the Sontule community. These changes have been significant over the years. In fact, when tourists first began to visit the region, the residents were very reserved and withdrawn. Now, there is a tourist-friendly state of mind and the engagement between the tourists and community members is routine, with a smooth flow of two-way communication. With regards to the economic development, the community has benefited…through the community-led sale of eco-tourism services including meals, lodging and guided tours.” Deborah Charnes Traveler Search History, Unburied at the Alamo Door County, Wisconsin Blooming with Arts & Culture Unique Accommodations: Keepers of the Light in Rock Island, Wisconsin Five Reasons to Visit Pushkar, India Home-cooked Meals and Recipes: Benefits of Jaipur Homestay Varanasi, India: Twain’s Words Still True Spontaneity Leads to Spectacular Experiences in Varanasi India Ethical Tourism: Refuse to Ride Elephants in India JohnD on Travel diary: Chris Shepherd encounters a curious Vietnamese coffee Debi @MomOnMars on Austin Chill fencesitter on Texas ski resort planned for Grand Prairie Bradman on Texas ski resort planned for Grand Prairie tired dog on “Smartest ship at sea” coming soon	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10661
__label__wiki	0.884577	0.884577	HomeReviewsDick’s Picks: Picking apart the infamous debut album from Bathory Dick’s Picks: Picking apart the infamous debut album from Bathory December 11, 2017 Glen Bushell Reviews 0 As the weather gets progressively colder, Dick has ventured to the darkest area of Sweden’s extreme music history this week, looking at the elusive ‘yellow goat’ variant of the iconic debut album from Bathory. Aren’t Bathory considered one of the very first black metal bands? In some ways, yes. While the style was taken to the extreme by the Norwegian scene some years later, Bathory, along with Venom and Mercyful Fate, served as the roots of black metal. Bathory initially had more in common with thrash, hardcore punk, and traditional metal, but the satanic imagery and anti-religious lyrics is all part of what would become the black metal aesthetic. Influenced by Motorhead, GBH, Black Sabbath, and Venom, their debut album is raw, fierce, and features a lo-fi production quality that was typical of the time. It would have sounded wrong any other way, though. Recorded and mixed in less than three days, the rushed approach adds to both the urgency and depravity of the record. So what makes this so rare then, Dick? Right before the 1984 release, The album was initially set to be called Pentagrammaton and a Pentagram was going to adorn the front cover. This idea was scrapped, and the Pentagram moved to the rear of the sleeve. In true DIY fashion, Bathory mastermind, Quothorn, used rub-on lettering to create the text on the back, but ran out of letters (C, to be exact), meaning a dubious misspelling of Necromansy had to be made. But that’s not the rare part… The goat on the front cover, taken from a Joseph Smith drawing, was supposed to be printed in gold. The cost of this turned out to be too high, and Quothorn asked for it to be as close to gold as possible. The result turned out to bright yellow, and even the band have said that the cover looks “awful.” After the initial 1000 copies were sold through, it was switched to the black and white design that has now become iconic within extreme music. The original yellow goat pressing, or as it is also know, Gula Geten, is worth a considerable amount of money in any condition, and the chances of ever seeing one are slim to none. eil.com… the world’s largest online retailer of rare and out of print vinyl, CDs and music memorabilia – since 1987. #bathory #dickspicks New Stocks Of Rare Vinyl & CDs From Our Japanese Buyer Sonic Kicks!! Huge Paul Weller, Jam & Style Council Collection Just Arrived…. Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow launch new version of classic Black Sheep Of The Family April 28, 2019 JP Cartwright Music News 0 From Loudersound. Ritchie Blackmore‘s Rainbow have released a new version of their 1975 track Black Sheep Of The Family. The track, which originally appeared on the band’s self-titled debit album and was sung by Ronnie James […] Happy New Year 2015!!! December 31, 2014 Tim Card eil.com News 0 Behemoth unveil new track, Wolves Ov Siberia September 6, 2018 Cathryn Draper Music News 0 Behemoth have unveiled another brand new track, Wolves Ov Siberia. It is the second track to be taken from I Loved You At Your Darkest, which is released on October 5th via Nuclear Blast. It is […]	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10662
__label__cc	0.664469	0.335531	Follow MONO Life On The Road / 15 August 2018 Charlie Starr of Blackberry Smoke Talks Life on the Road, Collaborations and Vintage Gear With 18 years of experience up their sleeves, 6 studio album releases and an average of 250 shows a year, Blackberry Smoke is showing no signs of slowing down. They’ve had a fair share of accolades as well – Rolling Stone once labeled them responsible for the revival of Southern Rock – and shared the stage with artists like Gov’t Mule, ZZ Top and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, the quintet most recently released their 6th studio album, Find A Light, in April, which hints at a wide range of influences while still remaining true to their brand of Southern Rock. We catch up with Charlie Starr, lead vocalist and guitarist of the band and talk traveling as a band, favorite artist collaborations and vintage gear. Tell us about your most recent album, Find A Light. Find A Light is our 6th studio album. We produced it ourselves and recorded it in a couple of studios in Atlanta. I really feel that it’s some of our best work. The process was so enjoyable. Everyone seemed to be at the top of their game. Everything just fell into place. How has the band developed since the release of your first album in 2004? I’d say that we’ve learned to slow down and let things breathe, ya know. We’ve always been a band that focuses more on the song than the bells and whistles or gimmicks, but I think we’ve grown more and more dedicated to recording cohesive collections of songs than ever before. You travel extensively together. When you average over 250 shows a year, what are the things that make a life on the road feel like home? I know it sounds corny, but being around one another is the key. We still get along really well and laugh at the same goofy sh*t. You can’t be a grown-up on the road. I generally go into writing mode when I have some extended time off the road. When writing a group of songs, variety is very important. Do you have any essential travel items that you couldn’t live without? I’m pretty easy to please. A good coffee maker, some books and plenty of music. If your tour bus could talk, I’m sure it would tell a thousand stories. Can you tell us one of your favorites? You wouldn’t believe what kind of mess a birthday cake, 2 cans of Pringles (completely crumbled), a broken (full) bottle of bourbon and some pine straw (???) can make in the front lounge of a tour bus. You’ve collaborated with a ton of different artists through the years… what is it that you like the most about collaborating? We’ve been listening to each other play for almost 20 years, so when someone else gets involved and adds another musical personality and/or perspective it can be really exciting. We’ve been fortunate enough to collaborate with some of our favorites… George Jones, Gregg Allman, Bob Weir, Billy Gibbons, Robert Randolph… Each one of them brought their unique voice or musical style to the song or songs. It really is an incredible thing to experience. How has your gear changed through the years? And how has this impacted how you play, or your sound? Do you have any favorite guitars or amps? I personally love vintage guitars and amps. Each one of those can bring something new to the stew. It’s nearly impossible for me to pick a favorite, but this week it might be a 1953 Gibson Les Paul and a 1962 Fender Princeton. What is it you like about your MONO Products? I trust the MONO Dual case with guitars that old because of the sturdy way in which they are constructed. Rugged yet sleek on the outside, soft and plush on the inside. Do you have any upcoming shows you are looking forward to this year? Well, we have a 2 night stand at Irving Plaza in NYC, a 6 week European tour, our annual Homecoming show at the Tabernacle in Atlanta…tons of stuff. How do you balance satisfying fans with the hits and keeping it fresh for you guys? We play a different show every night. With 6 albums worth of material it’s very enjoyable to shake it up all the time. My favorite song to play probably changes every night… Check out Charlie’s MONO Dual Electric Case here, or see the whole MONO catalogue here. Join our newsletter for exclusive offers and the latest MONO news. Today our blog post is a report from the road, from Jason Martin, MONO Artist Relations and Partnerships. If you haven’t experienced Sweetwater GearFest, put it on your “to do” list. There’s a plethora of activities for every musician and music lover to enjoy (even the little kids loved going down the… Read more #Life On The Road Justin Butler talks Nashville, Pedal Mods and Vintage Amps Meet the guitarist and founder of Thru-Tone FX. Read more Drumming since the age of two. Read more	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10665
__label__wiki	0.908176	0.908176	› College Football › Market Report: 2018 College Football Conference Championship Game Tickets Market Report: 2018 College Football Conference Championship Game Tickets November 7, 2018 0 Comments College Football, Big Ten Football Championship, SEC Football Championship, PAC 12 Football Championship, ACC Football Championship, Big 12 Football Championship With rivalry weekend over, all of the Power Five conference championships are set, and demand for the SEC title game between No. 1 Alabama and No. 4 Georgia is the highest of the five. The $776 average asking price is the second most expensive of the decade for the SEC and for all Power Five conference championships, according to secondary ticket marketplace TicketIQ.com. The most expensive was last season’s SEC title game, which settled at $945. The average asking price for this year’s game has dipped from a high of $820, but is the priciest of the five by far. The next most expensive game is the Big 12 championship, which pits No. 5 Oklahoma against No. 14 Texas, and has an average asking price of $331. The cheapest is $90 for a ticket to the PAC-12 championship between No. 11 Washington and No. 17 Utah. Several of the Power Five conference championships will affect the College Football Playoff. While Alabama, No. 2 Clemson and No. 3 Notre Dame appear to have their spots wrapped up, the fourth spot could go to either Georgia or No. 5 Ohio State, which flew up the rankings after manhandling Michigan, 62-39. It appears as though Georgia must beat Alabama to hang on to the fourth spot. If the Bulldogs don’t, and Ohio State beats Northwestern in the Big Ten title game, then the Buckeyes may well get the invite. Below is a look at how the Power Five conference championships shape up: ACC Championship Game - No. 2 Clemson vs. Pittsburgh When/Where: December 1, 2018 at Bank of America Stadium (Charlotte) Average asking price: $105 Get-in price: $46 Clemson finished the season undefeated and will now be looking for its second shot at a national championship in three seasons. The Tigers upset then No. 1 Alabama in the national championship following the 2016 season. And last year, they got to the national semifinals before losing to, yep, you guessed it, Alabama. Clemson should have a fairly easy time against unranked Pittsburgh, winners of the Coastal Division. The ACC champion usually heads to the Camping World Bowl and plays a Big 12 team, but if Clemson wins, expect them to get a CFP invite instead. According to TicketIQ.com, the average asking price for this game has dropped from $164 in early November to $105. It is the second cheapest Power Five conference championship, ahead of only the PAC-12. BIG 12 Championship Game: No. 5 Oklahoma vs. No. 14 Texas When/Where: December 1, 2018 at AT&T Stadium (Arlington, Tex.) Get-in price: $124 This is one of four Power Five conference championships to feature two ranked teams. In fact, the Big 12 ended the regular season with four teams in the Top 25. This game will be a rematch of that regular-season barnburner, which ended in a 48-45 Texas victory. Hard to say if there’s really a favorite in this game, but it’s the only one of the Power Five conference championships that has seen an increase in average asking price on the secondary market, according to TicketIQ.com. Since early November, demand haspushed the average asking price to $331 from $285, and it is the second most expensive Power Five conference championship behind the SEC. This game will mark only the second time since 2010 that the Big 12 champion will be determined by a championship game. The winner of this game likely won’t be in the CFP mix, and will accept the annual invitation to the Sugar Bowl. Big Ten Championship Game: No. 5 Ohio State vs. No. 21 Northwestern When/Where: December 1, 2018 at Lucas Oil Stadium (Indianapolis) This matchup isn’t completely unexpected, but Ohio State’s whipping of Michigan sure was. The Buckeyes sent Michigan down to No. 7 in the CFP rankings and out of the mix for the national championship last weekend. Ohio State has to win this game to have a shot at taking that No. 4 ranking away from Georgia and getting a CFP invite. The Buckeyes’ only loss this season was to Purdue, otherwise, they’d be in the top four. Saturday’s game is only the eighth conference championship in Big Ten history and the fifth to pit the East winner vs. the West. Ohio State has won three national championships this century, the most recent in 2014. The average asking price for this game has dropped from $260 in early November to $211, according to TicketIQ.com, and it is the third priciest of all the Power Five conference championships. PAC-12 Championship Game: No. 11 Washington vs. No. 17 Utah When/Where: November 30, 2018 at Levi’s Stadium (San Francisco Bay Area) Average asking price: $90 The cheapest of all the Power Five conference championships, Washington-Utah isn’t moving the needle much, and it probably doesn’t help that it’s not a home game for either team. According to TicketIQ.com, the average asking price on the secondary market is $90, down from $129 earlier this month. The get-in price is only $31. This game will be a repeat of the second game of the season, in which the Huskies beat the Utes, 21-7, in Salt Lake City. The game is the eighth conference championship in PAC-12 history. Washington is playing for the second time and Utah is making its first appearance. The winner will play the Big Ten winner (unless that OSU gets a CFP invite) in the Rose Bowl. SEC Championship Game: No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 4 Georgia When/Where: December 1, 2018 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium (Atlanta) This game appears to be a must-win for Georgia, if it wants a shot at the CFP. After Ohio State dismantled Michigan on Saturday, the Buckeyes jumped to No. 5, and a victory over Northwestern in the Big Ten championship could move them into the top four. The game is rematch of last year’s national championship, in which Alabama overcame a 13-point deficit to win. Alabama has won the last four meetings and holds a 39-25-4 series advantage. This is the most expensive of the Power Five conference championships, though at $776 on the secondary market, according to TicketIQ.com, the average asking price has dropped from a high of $820. The SEC winner traditionally goes to the Sugar Bowl, but no matter who wins, the winner will likely go to a CFP semifinal. College Football Big Ten Football Championship SEC Football Championship PAC 12 Football Championship ACC Football Championship Big 12 Football Championship Market Report: 2018 MLS Cup Playoff Tickets Saints vs Falcons Tickets Are Most Expensive NFL Thanksgiving Day Game Of 2018 Where To Buy 2019 Missouri Football Tickets Primary market Missouri football tickets are available on the team website through Ticketmaster for the games against South Carolina, Ole Miss, West… TOP 5 College Football Games Of The Week TicketIQ Top 25 Week 1 Update: Georgia Tech Climbs The Ranks Wisconsin Football Raising Ticket Prices For 2015 Season	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10666
__label__wiki	0.977521	0.977521	Dudley ’64 and Judy Burgess receive William D. Barth award in recognition of service October 30, 2017 Alumni RelationsPosted in News Dudley and Judy Burgess were honored with the 33rd annual William D. Barth Award from Tri-City Family Services. They were recognized for the significant and positive impact they have had through community service in the central Kane County area. “Judy has always been a volunteer, and I had a corporate career, so she always followed me around,” said Dudley, a retired vice president of government affairs at AT&T. “After I retired, she got me involved at TriCity Family Services”, Dudley said. But Judy claims it was Dudley who brought his expertise to the agency when he helped launch a quality control committee and program dedicated to continuous improvement, one that would help it through the national accreditation process. “The agency needed someone who understood quality control, and Dudley worked in that area at AT&T,” Judy said. “It was a natural.” TriCity Family Services established the Barth Award in 1985 to honor William D. Barth, a founder of the agency and a dedicated community leader. Click here to learn more about the work Dudley and Judy have been doing in their community. Kevin Chavous ’78 Named K12 Inc. President of Academics, Policy, and Schools K12 Inc., a technology-based education company and leading provider of proprietary curriculum and online school programs for students in pre-K through high school, has announced that national education reform advocate Kevin Chavous has been named the company’s President of Academics, Policy, and Schools. A 1978 graduate of Wabash, Kevin is a noted education reform leader and innovator with a well-chronicled track record of empowering families with education choice, and driving change and opportunity for children of all backgrounds and circumstances. Click here for more information about Kevin and K12 Inc. Jacob Bradley ’01 Named Partner at Quarles & Brady The national law firm of Quarles & Brady LLP announced that Jacob Bradley ’01 has been named a partner, effective October 1, 2017. Jake joined the firm in January 2015 in the Litigation & Dispute Resolution Practice Group. He represents a diverse range of clients in the areas of commercial litigation, appellate litigation, and white collar criminal defense. You can read more about Jake at Indychamber.com Congratulations, Jake! Taimur Baig ’94 Joins DBS as Chief Economist DBS Bank has announced Taimur Baig ’94 will be joining the bank as Chief Economist and Managing Director for Group Research. He previously worked with Singapore Monetary Authority, Deutsche Bank Asia, and the IMF. Taimur’s areas of specialty include international finance, macro risk spillover, exchange rate and fixed income analytics and forecasting. Taimur earned a PhD in Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Economic Times Terry Sweeney ’85 Named President and CEO of Downtown Lexington Partnership Terry Sweeney ’85 has been named president and chief executive officer of the Downtown Lexington Partnership, a consolidation of the Downtown Lexington Corporation and the Lexington Downtown Development Authority. He currently serves as director of the Corpus Christi Downtown Management District in Corpus Christi, Texas. Terry begins his new position December 4, 2017. The Lexington Herald Leader Josh Minkler ’85 Confirmed as U.S. Attorney October 3, 2017 Alumni RelationsPosted in News Josh Minkler ’85 was confirmed unanimously to serve as U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of Indiana. Senators Joe Donnelly and Todd Young released the following statement: “Josh has served in the U.S. Attorney’s office for more than 20 years and has earned a reputation as a tough prosecutor, who has a heart for the communities he serves. His unanimous confirmation is evidence that he has garnered respect from both sides of the aisle.” Josh has served as the interim U.S. Attorney since June 2015. Prior to that, he served 21 years as Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District. Following his 1985 graduation from Wabash, the Muncie native earned his J.D. from Indiana University Maurer School of Law.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10667
__label__wiki	0.839604	0.839604	Home > In Brazil, RBS group's radical transformation paying off In Brazil, RBS group's radical transformation paying off “We are obsessed with margins,” Andiara Petterle, SVP of Product Development and Operations for RBS, says of the company's determination to pursue only those revenue streams that bring good profit margins. Andiara Petterle of RBS Group, Brazil, speaks at the Media Transformation for Small and Mid-Sized Publishers' Annual Meeting as part of the 70th World News Media Congress in Estoril, Portugal. Photo by Ricardo Lopes for WAN-IFRA “We don't want to do events just because people are doing events," Petterle [1] said. "We don't want to do marketing services if there is no margin in it.” RBS is one of the largest multi-media groups in Brazil and encompasses news and entertainment channels for TV, radio, digital and newspapers, including three regional and local papers. Based in the south of the country with a history going back some 60 years, Petterle said RBS's media outlets reach about 11 million people each month, which is 99 percent of the population in that part of the country. Merging TV, radio and newspapers Facing many of the same challenges as publishers in other parts of the world as well as a difficult national economy, RBS undertook a massive groupwide transformation initiative beginning in 2016 that has seen them merge their main businesses – television, radio and newspapers – sell off five of their eight newspapers and change most of their senior leadership. “We created a mantra, the first part of which is 'the right people in the right place', and we brought in people from different industries, such as a VP of sales from Facebook as well as from Dell and telcos," Petterle said. "We brought in amazing people. Most of them weren't from the media business, but people who would ask the right questions and make the company question itself and its processes, and come up with ideas.” “Second, consumers are our king,” she added. “We began using the design thinking process, especially in our newsrooms, because we have to understand what our audience wants, and what our clients and our advertisers want, and once you start doing that, you can't stop.” This has transformed the way they've designed their newsrooms as well as how they decide on their portfolio of products, she said. Third, they adopted a digital subscription-only strategy. “We started to do this at RBS in late 2015, and now it's our only strategy for newspapers. This is the only way that we can see our papers existing in the future and producing professional journalism, and it's hard, but it's really worth it,” she said. "Fourth, we are 'local for locals', so we focus very much on local businesses and local audiences," Petterle said. “Three or five years ago we had a broader approach, especially in our newsrooms, but now we really focus on the city and what's going on across the street,” she said. The fifth part is an obsession with profit margins. With this multi-part mantra as a framework, RBS came up with a new strategy and began to deploy it. Paywall and focus on subscriptions RBS began in 2016 with new management, Petterle said. "We also started a paywall, totally focused on subscription business, print and digital. We've divested, we've sold five newspapers. This was something that gave us an opportunity to focus on the brands of the newspapers that we kept. Brand is so important now, especially because of fake news." Petterle added that 2017 was a very interesting year for RBS because they had been a multimedia group with television, radio and newspapers that were completely independent. Each business also had its own strategy, management, portfolio as well as its own sales teams. "They were independent companies with independent cultures, and we've integrated our television, newspapers and radio stations starting with the sales and marketing team," Petterle said. She added this made sense because their advertisers didn't care if they were divided or united – they just wanted to buy media from RBS. She stressed that although the integration process was very difficult, it has proven to be well worth it. RBS also took the step of greatly increasing the prices of their print newspapers because of the expense of producing and delivering them. Despite a steep 25-percent increase, they found their print readers were willing to pay it, so the following year, Petterle says, they increased it again by a similar amount, with the same results. Next steps and payoff "In 2018, after we'd gotten the sales integration right, we started another step, brand positioning and culture, so this is the process we are in," Petterle said. And their efforts are clearly paying off. "We ended 2017 with a 19-percent EBITDA margin," she said. "This year we might be at 21 or 22 percent. Print advertising is declining fast, and now it's okay because this money is going to radio or televison." #WNC18 [2] integration [3] paywalls [4] RBS [5] subscriptions [6] World News Media Congress [7] business models [8] Source URL: https://blog.wan-ifra.org/2018/06/07/in-brazil-rbs-groups-radical-transformation-paying-off [1] https://events.wan-ifra.org/speakers/andiara-petterle [2] https://blog.wan-ifra.org/tags/wnc18 [3] https://blog.wan-ifra.org/tags/integration [4] https://blog.wan-ifra.org/tags/paywalls [5] https://blog.wan-ifra.org/tags/rbs [6] https://blog.wan-ifra.org/tags/subscriptions [7] https://blog.wan-ifra.org/tags/world-news-media-congress [8] https://blog.wan-ifra.org/categories/business-models [9] https://blog.wan-ifra.org/users/brian-veseling	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10668
__label__wiki	0.789441	0.789441	Home / Film / DVD Review: Absolutely Fabulous – Absolutely Everything Catch up all of Absolutely Fabulous in Absolutely Everything, on sale now, before new episodes arrive in January. DVD Review: Absolutely Fabulous – Absolutely Everything JeromeWetzelTV December 26, 2011 Comments Off on DVD Review: Absolutely Fabulous – Absolutely Everything 27 Views Absolutely Fabulous, often called Ab Fab for short, released Absolutely Everything in 2008, comprising all of the episodes and specials, as well as a wealth of bonus features. With new material only weeks away, it’s time to look back at that awesome collection, and perhaps pick up a copy and watch it marathon-style, preparing for the return of two of the funniest ladies to ever grace the television. The story by now is familiar the world over. Edwina “Eddy” Monsoon (Jennifer Saunders, French and Saunders) is a PR agent who wants desperately to keep up with the latest trends and seem young, which she does while abusing drugs and alcohol. Unfortunately (or fortunately, for viewers’ sakes), her best friend, magazine editor Patsy Stone (Joanna Lumley, Corpse Bride), is just as bad, not only enabling, but participating in Monsoon’s crazy schemes. Edwina’s daughter, Saffron (Julia Sawalha, Lark Rise to Candleford), provides balance, as the sane one of the trio, acting more the parent than child. Saffron does have a mother figure to rely on, in Edwina’s own Mother (June Whitfield, Last of the Summer Wine). Rounding out the cast is Jane Horrocks (Fifi and the Flowertots) as Bubble, Eddy’s idiotic personal assisstant. Created in the early 1990s by Saunders and Dawn French, Absolutely Fabulous originally ran for three seasons. Series one finds Eddy drinking heavily and trying to lose weight without putting in any effort. Eddy also adopts a baby, holidays in France, and “celebrates” her 40th birthday. Series two finds Eddy facing being a tabloid sensation, the death of her father, and a trip to Morocco, as well as dealing with Patsy burning her kitchen and her husbands cutting off her alimony. The final series sees Saffron leave for college, and Patsy loose her magazine. Depressingly, the two friends must deal with serious change in their lives, which they aren’t thrilled about, and end up turning on each other, before reuniting in New York City. Then some thought Absolutely Fabulous would end, as it faced cancellation. However, the following year, the two-part special, “The Last Shout,” made it to air. Saffron heads for the altar, much to Eddy’s chagrin. When Eddy learns the would-be husband is rich, though, she changes her tune. That is, until God intervenes, much as she might have with keeping the series going. It is five more long years before series four begins. But begin it does, as Eddy and Patsy find all new trouble to get into. They bemoan the loss of their rock idols, and wish they were in Sex and the City. Edwina convinces Saffron to do a fashion show with her in Paris, and Saffron writes a play about her mother, which isn’t too flattering. Also, the ladies face menopause. This series is followed by another special, where Edwina seeks her son in New York, and considers what it means to be gay. Series five comes to life in 2003, and begins with a pregnant Saffron returning from Africa. Eddy builds a panic room and runs into Minnie Driver (playing herself). Patsy and Edwina go hunting, and Edwina erases lost Beatles recordings and loses Saffron’s baby. This series is followed by three specials, which find Edwina celebrating a family Christmas and remodeling her kitchen. Each of these episodes and specials have their own great jokes. The characters do grow over time, but the core of who they are remains the same, making them layered, complex people, even when they appear goofy on the surface. Patsy and Eddy belong up there with the great female duos of all time, like Lucy and Ethel and Laverne and Shirley. Only better, because with all of the time off between fresh content, the series writers are able to come up with the best possible uses for their creation, and nothing is diluted by overuse. The fact that there are three brand new specials coming in January is a testament to how enduring this series is, and how much esteem fans hold it in. However, the enjoyment of Absolutely Fabulous: Absolutely Everything does not stop with the episodes themselves, as great as they are. There is a behind the scenes featurette, a clip show where Edina looks back upon her crazy life, and a handful of comedy sketches, including the one that predates the series, and which Absolutely Fabulous is based on. There are also photo galleries from the show, a look at Lumley’s modeling days, and audio commentaries from Saunders and Jon Plowman, which give some real insight into their creative process. Many outtakes are included, and perhaps because of the immense humor the actors involved can channel, they tend to be much funnier than in most DVD sets. A real treat is the pilot episode of a series that never happened called Mirror Ball. In it, the main cast of Absolutely Fabulous play other characters, giving them a showcase for their range as performers. It’s not as good as the main series, but it’s a real treat to see everyone together in such a different light. It also makes one wish that Mirror Ball had been picked up, as it would have definitely been a nice companion show, though it was not a spin-off. In all, Absolutely Fabulous is well worth the price, currently $83.99 on amazon.com. There is a lot here, and it’s a gem for any DVD collection. Pick up a copy today, and get ready for more laughs, coming soon! Tags Absolutely Everything Absolutely Fabulous BBC Dawn French fashion God Jane Horrocks Jennifer Saunders Joanna Lumley Jon Plowman Julia Sawalha June Whitfield Minnie Driver New York City Sex and the City About JeromeWetzelTV Jerome is the creator and writer of It's All Been Done Radio Hour, a modern scripted live comedy show and podcast in the style of old-timey radio serials, and the founder of the Columbus-based entertainment network, IABDPresents. He is also the Chief Television Critic for Seat42F.com and a long-time contributor for Blogcritics. Plus, he works fiction into his space time. Visit http://iabdpresents.com for more of his work. @JeromeWetzelTV Theater Review (NYC): ‘LadyShip’ by Laura Good and Linda Good at NYMF Theater Review (NYC): ‘The Bacchae’ from the Classical Theatre of Harlem The Inimitable Steve Goodman Shines on Expanded Versions of His Final Albums U.S. Women’s World Cup Victory – Clearly Ends the Equal Pay Question BC Arts: NYC Celebrates Astor Piazzolla in Music and Theater Theater Review (NYC): ‘LadyShip’ by Laura Good and Linda Good at the New York Musical Festival… https://t.co/B06AB6qfc12019/07/15 Theater Review (NYC): ‘The Bacchae’ from the Classical Theatre of Harlem https://t.co/zTPgW5UFcx @classicalharlem https://t.co/czEcrLF2Ep2019/07/15 The Inimitable Steve Goodman Shines on Expanded Versions of His Final Albums https://t.co/uHVvZuVOQ1… https://t.co/6iCtr7cz8M2019/07/15	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10669
__label__wiki	0.53542	0.53542	Education Week's blogs > Rick Hess Straight Up See more Opinion Rick Hess Education policy maven Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute think tank offers straight talk on matters of policy, politics, research, and reform. Follow Rick on Twitter, and also follow AEI's Education Program. « New York City: Winning the Sprint, Losing the Marathon? \| Main \| Where Parent Revolution Lost Me » Lessons From Los Angeles By Sarah Reckhow on October 19, 2012 6:45 AM Note: Sarah Reckhow, assistant professor of political science at Michigan State University, is guest posting this week. In my book, Follow the Money, I compare the top-down approach to education reform in New York City to the slower and more open approach of Los Angeles. Today I will show that Los Angeles--a place that rarely gets highlighted by Boardroom Progressives--has some lessons for would-be-reformers. Although Mayor Villaraigosa attempted to gain mayoral control in 2006, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is still governed by an elected board. This makes LAUSD less attractive for funders who favor districts with mayoral or state control, but it has not stopped major foundations from investing in Los Angeles charter schools. In 2005, major foundations gave no funds directly to LAUSD, but gave $16.2 million to organizations in the charter sector. Los Angeles has more students enrolled in charter schools than any other school district--82,788 students in the 2011-12 school year (12.5% of the total K-12 enrollment in the district). Nearly half of Los Angeles charter schools are operated by charter management organizations, such as Green Dot, Alliance for College Ready Public Schools, and Aspire Public Schools. Based on this context--elected school board and rapid charter growth--one might expect education policy in LA to be highly politicized and deeply divided. On the surface, this appears to be true. Pro-union and pro-charter protestors regularly gather at LAUSD board meetings, and school board campaigns attract millions in contributions from outside organizations. The Los Angeles area is home to parent trigger controversies (the subject of the recent film, Won't Back Down) and the famous Green Dot "takeover" of a public school--Locke High School. Furthermore, all of this controversy is layered on top of an unwieldy school district facing five consecutive years of deficits. LAUSD should be ungovernable and hobbled by polarization. But that is only half of the story. Using surveys and social network analysis, I discovered a robust and closely linked group of advocates and neighborhood organizations that share information with both the charter sector and LAUSD. There is policy consensus among a very diverse set of education leaders and stakeholders that LAUSD should encourage charter-like autonomy for traditional public schools. Of course, consensus about an idea can seem easy when the real battles are fought in implementation. How much autonomy? Will autonomous schools operate with "thin" labor contracts? Will principals have discretion over which teachers to hire? Despite these questions, LAUSD is moving ahead, most recently with a new MOU negotiated between the district and the teachers' union, which establishes a procedure for school level autonomy on issues like curriculum, length of school day, and union contract provisions. Moreover, student achievement in LA is steadily improving, according to state level assessments (API) as well as NAEP scores. How did LAUSD get to this point? Unlike New York City--where philanthropic funding supported a top-down approach to reform, a fairly similar set of reform ideas (school level autonomy, choice, and accountability) have spread more slowly and organically in Los Angeles. Philanthropy has supported these ideas through large grants for charter expansion and smaller grants supporting advocacy groups. Two lessons from LA stand out: 1. Local Ownership and Investment: For organizations working to shape education policy, locally generated political support is an integral resource. Investment from diverse groups requires persistent engagement and willingness to seriously address local concerns--not just "outreach" or "communication strategies." In Los Angeles, many of the organizations that received major foundation funding to implement reforms--including charter management organizations--developed direct relationships with local advocacy organizations and constituents. Advocacy groups like Alliance for a Better Community, InnerCity Struggle, and Community Coalition have taken on varying roles in developing reform policies: as both partners and competitors with charter groups to open and operate new schools, as advocates for reforming teacher contracts, and as leaders in a citywide reform coalition. 2. Change Takes Time: For an outside philanthropist concerned with long-term sustainability, building broad political support should be more attractive than seeking out the next Michelle Rhee. In Los Angeles, the expansion of charter schools and charter-like autonomy for public schools is developing through public debate, deliberation, community organizing, and electoral politics. These processes take a long time, and they do not always move forward in a coherent direction. But the expansion of charter-like autonomy for public schools now has support from a majority of Board of Education members, the Mayor, several local advocacy organizations, charter school supporters, and many public school teachers. I know that these lessons may sound unduly optimistic in light of the contentious realities of urban education politics. Los Angeles will have important local elections in 2013 for a new mayor and three members of the board of education. And many candidates and pundits will grumble about the excessive influence of the teachers' union through campaign contributions and voter mobilization. Some Boardroom Progressive reformers and foundation leaders point to the substantial influence of teachers' unions and argue that special interests corrupt education politics and their interests must be sidelined. This strategy often depends on strong centralized leadership, swift policy change, large-scale private funding and the expectation that the public can be persuaded after the fact. Yet this aggressive political strategy means reformers lose the opportunity to build a diverse coalition. In addition to avoiding compromise with union leaders, the insider reform strategy also removes the political channels available to public school parents and other less powerful local interests. Promoting policy reforms "to" a community rather than "with" a community also has important political consequences, and leaders who ignore these consequences often pay the price at the ballot box. Foundation funded reforms will have greater staying power if they can prosper with lively democratic politics. --Sarah Reckhow The opinions expressed in Rick Hess Straight Up are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications. Special Education Reform That's Great for Students—and the Budget! Special Education Reform That's Good for Teachers Special Education Reform Is Entering a New Era What Kind of Programs Can Help Teacher Diversity? 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__label__wiki	0.594499	0.594499	You are here: Home › About › News Articles › 2018 News Articles › Rosalie Sowers awarded a Goldwater Scholarship from the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation Rosalie Sowers awarded a Goldwater Scholarship from the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation September 4, 2018 - Rosalie Sowers, a senior undergraduate student double majoring in biochemistry and molecular biology (BMB) as well as computer science, has been awarded a Goldwater Scholarship from the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation. The scholarship is among the most competitive honors in the country for undergraduates in the sciences and mathematics fields. The foundation awards 300 students from across the country with the $7,500 scholarship each year. The Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation was established by Congress in 1986 to serve as a living memorial to honor the lifetime work of Senator Barry Goldwater, who served his country for 56 years as both a soldier and a statesman, including 30 years in the U.S. Senate. The Goldwater Scholarship helps ensure that the U.S. is producing highly-qualified professionals that the nation needs in the fields of natural sciences, mathematics and engineering. Over its 30 year history, thousands of undergraduates have received scholarships, many of whom have gone on to win other prestigious awards like the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Fellowship, Rhodes scholarship, Churchill Scholarship and the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship. Sowers, a State College native, always had an interest in mathematics and science thanks to her parents whom exposed her early and frequently to science. However, it was not until high school, when an opportunity to work in an entomology lab at Penn State presented itself, that Sowers took her first major step toward a career in science. Even an initial fear of bugs did not keep her from enjoying this first research experience. As an undergraduate at Penn State, Sowers quickly found her next opportunity to further her research experience by applying for the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology department's independent research program for undergraduates (BMB 496), which allows students to work in faculty laboratories and develop their own research projects. After interviewing and speaking with Dr. Song Tan, it was clear that his lab was the best fit for her. The Tan Lab seeks to understand how genes are turned on and off, which is fundamental to how both healthy and diseased cells function. In particular, the lab is interested in understanding how gene regulation molecules interact with our DNA (genetic information) packaged into chromatin. The lab uses structural biology methods such as crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy to visualize these gene regulation chromatin complexes. Sowers’ research within the Tan Lab focuses on how a leukemia-related complex binds to the nucleosome unit of chromatin. Her goal is to understand the molecular mechanism of this complex through structural approaches. The opportunities and experiences that Sowers has taken advantage of are not just limited to her work in the Tan Lab. In addition to conducting her research in the Tan Lab throughout the academic year, she has also completed a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) at Michigan State. In addition, using what she has learned as a computer science major, Sowers interned as a software engineer at Google during summer 2017 and at Knewton (a NYC-based educational technologies company) during summer 2018. Dr. Tan was glowing in his praise for Sowers “She’s everything that makes it joyful to come into work and interact with students. She’s quick, she’s smart, but she also works really hard. She combines tenacity with a brilliant mind”, said Dr. Tan. Sowers plans to combine her interests in biomedicine and computer science to pursue graduate studies in computational biology. Her goal is to use computational approaches to solve problems impacting human health.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10674
__label__wiki	0.759755	0.759755	publication date: Jun. 22, 2018 Vinay Prasad, oncologist and Twitter star, locked in debate over precision medicine By Paul Goldberg In recent years, Vinay Prasad, a young hematologist–oncologist at Oregon Health and Science University, has emerged as a premier critic of new directions in cancer medicine. In his view, cancer drugs are aimed at miniscule populations, approved way too easily, and priced too high. With nearly 21,300 Twitter followers, over 30,000 tweets, a book, and multiple op-eds, Prasad can turn an academic paper into a bestseller—and an obscure point into a rallying cry. Vinay Prasad is the guy to call. An argument can be made that his brand is this strong, because most people in oncology’s mainstream, even his biggest detractors, agree with some of his opinions and even make similar points at least some of the time. This year, the American Association for Cancer Research and the American Society of Clinical Oncology invited Prasad to argue that exaggeration of benefits runs rampant in cancer care today. At AACR, he was featured at a session titled “Is Genome-Informed Cancer Medicine Generating Patient Benefit or Just Hype?” The scene was repeated at a “meet the professor” session at ASCO. In fact, when ASCO was planning that session, there was no shortage of candidates for arguing in favor of precision medicine. However, one name clearly stood out for arguing the “con” side—Vinay Prasad. “He has positioned himself as the iconoclast/John Ioannidis model for oncology. That was how he floated to the top,” said Jeremy Warner, associate professor of medicine and biomedical informatics at Vanderbilt University and ASCO 2018 Annual Meeting Education Committee track leader of the Health Services Research, Clinical Informatics, and Quality of Care track. Earlier this month, Prasad’s publications formed the intellectual foundation of an editorial, “Easier Drug Approval Isn’t Cutting Drug Prices,” in The New York Times. “Medications are already clearing regulatory hurdles faster than ever, but it’s not clear that people, as opposed to drug companies, are feeling much benefit,” read the lead editorial in the June 8 issue. Two of Prasad’s opinion pieces—characterized by the Times as “studies”—were cited as key evidence in support of what amounted to a proposal to toughen up FDA’s drug approval standards. Follow the links, and you will see these papers: “Comment: Low-value approvals and high prices might incentivize ineffective drug development” in Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology, and “Perspective: The precision-oncology illusion” in Nature. According to his website, Prasad is “nationally known for his research on oncology drugs, health policy, evidence-based medicine, bias, public health, preventive medicine, and medical reversal” and “the author of more than 160 peer-reviewed articles and 35 additional letters or replies in many academic journals.” Prasad, 35, is on Twitter a lot, throwing buckets of cold water on work he describes as “boneheaded,” sometimes resorting to name-calling, and using juicy acronyms. In one Twitter post, Prasad demanded proof on usefulness of aspirin in cancer patients: “RCT or STFU,” he declared. RCT, of course, is an abbreviation for a “randomized controlled trial.” STFU is “shut the fuck up.” The tweet, dated June 17, 2016, appears to have been deleted during the writing of this story. “The community is stubborn” Critics note that some of Prasad’s most tweetable pieces appear on the opinion pages of peer-reviewed journals and that some of these writings are marred by sloppy arguments and less than perfect use of economics and statistics. While the journals are peer-reviewed, opinion pieces are typically only fact-checked by editors and not sent out to outside experts. Moreover, these same critics say that they don’t wish to meet Prasad on his turf—Twitter. “Many physicians, myself included, use Twitter as one tool to help keep current on the academic literature,” said David Hyman, chief of Early Drug Development Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Prasad’s debate opponent at AACR. “For some others, peer-reviewed papers or, equally commonly, opinion pieces in these journals, seem almost tailor-made for the next Twitter thread. “This builds a Twitter following, which in turn drives social media citation metrics, now prominently displayed on most journal’s websites, for the next editorial, and so on. It’s a positive-feedback loop. Speed, reductionism, and sensationalism can be incentivized—sometimes to the detriment of more deliberate and nuanced skepticism that has always served an invaluable role in medical debate,” Hyman said. “As physicians, we all want the same thing—effective and safe treatments for our patients. The disagreement, to the extent one exists, is really over the best way to get there.” Prasad’s social media persona is intriguing, said Warner, who debated Prasad at ASCO. “In terms of social media reach, I don’t know how many of Vinay’s followers are clinicians vs. general public, but his opinions are certainly getting out there way beyond the academic clinical Twittersphere,” said Warner, who directs the Vanderbilt Cancer Registry and Stem Cell Transplant Data Analysis Team. “I was looking at his Twitter feed. It looks like he has made over 30,000 tweets. That is a very time-consuming activity, although not unique amongst the better-known Twitter personas in oncology.” Recently, in part because of social media stars like Prasad, Warner took a break from Twitter. “It’s hard to get your signal through if other people have such an out-of-proportion presence,” he said. “You see only a few things unless you make it a full-time occupation, which hopefully nobody does. Nevertheless, I still find myself drawn back to Twitter, as it has become a good venue for news in academia.” The ASCO debate turned out to be a relatively tame affair, Warner said. “One of the best comments from the audience, which I agree with, is precision oncology is not just about selecting new treatments,” he said. “It’s about helping to realize that some treatments will not work. It’s not about ‘Let’s choose a new drug.’ Sometimes it’s about, ‘Let’s rationally decide to de-escalate or not to do something.’ “Prasad didn’t disagree with that.” Prasad and Warner agree that post-marketing monitoring of therapies in the US simply doesn’t work. And, of course, it’s clear to everyone that precision medicine chips away at niches of cancer patients, some of whom benefit dramatically. Some of Prasad’s peers wonder whether building a career on criticism of the prevailing system is a sufficient contribution for an academic oncologist. Recently, Eliezer Van Allen, an assistant professor and translational scientist at Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, posted a string of responses to one of Prasad’s tweets: “You are an oncologist at an academic medical center. You clearly have knowledge & feelings about trial design. You even did some power calculations already. So… write some grants, write some protocols, get some buy in, and do something to be part of the solution. “Just saying the same thing over and over again, whether in social media or in medical literature, ain’t gonna get it done.” Prasad responded with a string of tweets: “I have debated this topic at the Washington Post, asco and aacr. The community is stubborn. They think they already know the answer. Cancer centers use this as a sales tactic to bring in patients. No desire to randomize.” If his Twitter feed is an indication, Prasad is a man in a hurry. On June 21, he tweeted about having uncovered an apparent scandal involving FDA: “We often discuss the impact of time to drug approval on patient safety What about when the FDA takes 6 MORE MONTHS to restrict the use of HARMFUL drugs than the EMA?” Prasad had proof of the agency’s slothfulness: the European Medicines Agency’s announcement showed clearly that it restricted Keytruda and Tecentriq in bladder cancer on 01/06/2018, while FDA’s documents showed that its restriction went in effect on 6/20/2018. Presumably, somebody had informed Prasad that in the UK, where EMA is located, 01/06/2018 stands for June 1, 2018, not Jan. 6. FDA was not six months late. Prasad deleted the tweet. The magnitude of benefit from precision oncology I have been tracking Prasad’s pronouncements for a few years, and—like everyone I know—I agreed with some of what I read, and never looked deeply at his argumentation. The Times editorial changed that. Prasad’s recommendations were being proposed as a basis for approval of cancer drugs. “The misguided editorial omits many important pieces, including the need for flexibility in clinical trials, particularly for those with serious illnesses,” Friends of Cancer Research said in a statement. “Additionally, the recommendation that FDA should require two successful clinical trials for any drug is rigid, and in some cases, unethical. “Arcane rules that tether medicine to a bygone era should not grind our drug approval system to a halt. Such rules will not protect anyone and will only deprive patients of their best chance at recovery.” With so much at stake for the world’s cancer patients, researchers, and policymakers, it would be important to correct the academic record if Prasad and his colleagues were wrong. I decided to give Prasad a call. I had general questions about his thoughts on Twitter, about his views on the FDA standards for drug approval, and—more urgently—I had profound questions about statistical and methodological underpinnings of Prasad’s two opinion pieces cited in the Times editorial. “Although I tweet about things often, I do not believe I have made any arguments on Twitter that I have not first made in the peer reviewed literature,” Prasad said. “I have some arguments that I purposely do not make on Twitter, because the paper is under review. I’m actually cognizant of that, although I think Twitter is… let’s be honest, why do I use Twitter? “Number one, I find it fun. I find it fun to use Twitter, it’s enjoyable, it’s interactive, you get to hear from interesting people. I do not use Twitter to debut ideas, I use Twitter to get ideas out that were published in peer reviewed journals. “I’m pretty sure that everything I’ve said on surrogate endpoints we’ve already published in a couple of papers.” During our 40-minute chat, Prasad acknowledged that one of his publications was, in fact, mischaracterized in the Times editorial, when it stated that “according to one recent study, targeted cancer therapies will benefit fewer than 2 percent of the cancer patients they’re aimed at.” A transcript of that conversation appears here. In our conversation, Prasad said the percentage of patients likely to benefit is actually two-and-a-half times higher than that. The newspaper “should have just used our paper in JAMA Oncology, where we estimate genomic drugs to be 9 percent, 5 percent responders, I think that is a better estimate, for that particular quote that they’ve used.” Asked to explain the origin of the 2 percent estimate, Prasad said: “It depends on the question you’re asking. If the question you’re asking is, of all the people with relapsed tumors who go on NGS, then the answer is two percent. If the question you’re asking is, of all the de novo cancer patients in America who may benefit from a genomically-targeted drug, the answer is about 5 percent, and that’s our estimation paper in JAMA Oncology that came out last month. I think there are two different estimates. I think these numbers are much lower than what I think many would suspect them to have been. I think they are sobering.” To put this in perspective, I bounced this comment off MSKCC’s Hyman, Prasad’s debate opponent at AACR. “This analysis draws an artificial distinction between genome ‘targeted’ and ‘informed’ therapy,” Hyman, a gynecologic oncologist said. “BRCA-mutant breast and ovarian cancer patients who achieve ~60 percent response rates with PARP inhibitors might be surprised to learn they are not benefiting from ‘targeted’ therapy by this definition. “Response rates, according to RECIST, were also never intended to strictly define the proportion of patients who benefit. An ALK fusion lung cancer patient with a -25 percent tumor regression (stable disease per RECIST), lasting >3 years probably feels like they have benefited from targeted therapy. “Ironically, this author has separately published critiques on use of response rate as a ‘surrogate endpoint’ for patient benefit. Instead, I believe this analysis suggests that ~16 percent of advanced cancer patients currently qualify for proven and routine genome-driven therapy. “Moreover, this estimate does not account for investigational therapies the patient may qualify for on the basis of this type of testing.” The 2 percent treatment rate cited in the Prasad paper and in the Times editorial came from an early interim analysis of the NCI MATCH trial, for patients with advanced disease. Reported in 2016, these data came from the first 645 patients screened for ten arms that were open at that time, all targeting rare variants. Today, the trial has 35 arms. “After accrual of nearly 6,000 patients to the centralized screening phase of the MATCH trial, we found that 19 percent of patients had molecular findings that permitted treatment assignment,” said Keith Flaherty, director of Clinical Research at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and the ECOG-ACRIN chair of the NCI MATCH trial. “Notably, this excludes the proportion of patients who were not eligible for treatment assignment in MATCH because of prior FDA approval or ongoing late stage trials in patients with those cancers types with those same molecular features. Our experience indicates that NGS testing was an efficient strategy for identifying patients for inclusion in MATCH.” Zeroing in on Prasad’s “thought experiment” My conversation with Prasad zeroed in on another of his papers cited in the Times, the “Comment” in the May 18 issue of Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology. Again, our discussion, which can be read in transcript, triggered profound confusion on my part. A reader is free to blame me, but the fog was failing to lift. Here is how Prasad’s commentary was described in the Times: “Drug approval has become so lax and relatively inexpensive, one recent study suggested that companies could theoretically test compounds they know to be ineffective with the hope of getting a false positive result that would enable them to market a worthless medicine at an enormous profit.” Running trials of compounds that the sponsors know to be ineffective would be diabolical on many levels. While Prasad’s paper didn’t suggest that this was actually happening, it claimed that it was feasible, i.e. that drugs cost so much that a pharmaceutical company could turn statistical errors into profits. Prasad told me that he was quite proud of that publication, continuing to describe it as a “study.” “I think a thought experiment is a type of study, it’s a thought study,” Prasad said to me. “In certain fields, some of the studies are purely thought experiments. I think it’s a very clever paper. I guess at the end of the day, I think that’s a good paper. It’s a very good paper, it’s a very clever experiment, and I haven’t heard anyone articulate anything they think is fundamentally wrong with that thought experiment that would change the conclusion.” Clearly, Prasad is not alone in seeing value in this thought experiment. Diana Romero, chief editor of Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology, wrote in an accompanying editorial titled “To all involved—we have a problem” that the comment by Prasad and collaborators Christopher McCabe and Sham Mailankody represented more than a “moaning exercise” about drug pricing: “Their conclusion is sobering: any anticancer drug that generates a US$440 million profit and is approved on the basis of the results of a single clinical trial would justify a hypothetical portfolio involving 100 inert compounds. “This scenario is an exaggerated distortion of reality, and the authors ‘certainly do not believe that companies are actively pursuing ineffective drugs’, but the revenue they propose actually matches those of many agents currently used in clinical practice. “Let’s not forget that anticancer agents remain the best-selling drugs among FDA-approved therapies (32 percent of sales projected in 2017)2. Another fact to keep in mind is that many drug approvals are indeed based on the results of a single trial, which do not always meet the threshold for meaningful clinical benefit3. “[The authors] state that the risk–benefit balance in oncology clinical trials (regardless of whether they are intended to lead to drug approval) remains to be properly addressed. They do not explicitly formulate a request but, after reading their article, we cannot help but ask for transparency from the regulatory bodies regarding the criteria they use for drug approvals.” The article’s usage metrics, Altmetric score of 307, places it in the top spot among 53 tracked articles of a similar age in Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology. Overall, the paper is in the 99th percentile of tracked articles of a similar age in all journals. The thought experiment was tweeted by 555 and picked up by one news outlet—the Times. After reading the paper, I had questions about the methodology that went into it. My biggest question was about the p-value Prasad and his colleagues used in the calculation. They said that they used a p-value of < 0.05 for how often the inert compounds at the center of their thought experiment would appear beneficial by chance alone. Then, they based their calculations on this p-value equating to the inert compound seeming beneficial by chance 1 in 20 times. This seemed both like very basic statistics, and utterly wrong. Testing two things that are the same against one another will lead to one or the other looking better 1 in 20 times by chance, which means the drug they were hypothetically testing would only look better 1 in 40 times. When I asked Prasad about this, he told me that their p-value was one-sided—something never mentioned in the publication. And it’s not something I have ever encountered in decades of covering FDA. Other questions about why he left out some costs of testing a drug were answered in equally baffling ways. Why didn’t he adjust for inflation when using old estimates of how much a clinical trial cost? I couldn’t follow these answers, and I assumed the readers of The Cancer Letter would also be left more confused than enlightened. So, I decided to borrow a technique routinely used by journals—I put the paper through a process that largely mimics peer review. First, I wanted to check whether the “thought experiment” had been subjected to peer review at Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology. “Comment pieces in Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology are topical, authoritative Op-Eds pertaining to scientific research and its ramifications,” Rebecca Walton, a spokeswoman for Nature said to me. “Comment pieces do not typically undergo formal external peer review, but are carefully edited by our in-house professional editors, and undergo fact-checking and copyediting. For confidentiality reasons, we cannot discuss the specific history of any published article with anyone other than the authors.” Translation: Not as far as we know. Peer review is a sacred area in science. I didn’t want to do anything that might seem unethical or unreasonable. Perplexed, I called Art Caplan, the Drs. William F. and Virginia Connolly Mitty Professor of Bioethics at New York University’s Langone Medical Center, an expert on ethics in medicine and medical publishing. I asked Caplan to assess my nascent plan for assessing the value of Prasad’s thought experiment. Of course, this would not be formal peer review, but rather a process resembling peer review of the science at the heart of an already-published opinion piece. “Editors do review opinion pieces, but it doesn’t make it a study,” Caplan said. “In peer review, you are given the assignment to make sure the methods justify the conclusion. In an editorial opinion piece, normally the editor is asking: ‘Is this coherent? Does this argument seem to hold together? But that’s it. They are what I would call ‘vetted,’ but they are not studies. Signals like ‘comment,’ ‘editorial,’ ‘opinion’ are what journals use to say this is not a study. It could be based on reading other articles and offering your view and interpretation, but it doesn’t make it a study.” I told Caplan that as a reporter, I prefer to keep my sources on record as much as possible, though sometimes I work with unnamed sources. In this case, potential referees told me that they preferred to submit comments confidentially, citing concerns about being accosted on social media. “I think you can run with anonymous review; I have no issue with that whatsoever,” Caplan said to me. “I have no issue with that, because you know who the reviewers are, you can say the reviewers requested anonymity, you say the reviews are worth publishing, you will be the object of the tweets, and so what? A lot of peer review operates in exactly this way, with anonymous referees. A lot of reviews I get say Referee 1, Referee 2, Referee 3, and I have to trust the editor to have made a selection of reasonable reviewers, because I have no idea who they are. “Go ahead, these are important matters of policy.” I decided to keep the authorship confidential, and to publish the critiques. After that, I submitted the critiques to Prasad and his co-authors, and asked one of the reviewers to assess the responses. I did this with full realization that some journals are starting to move away from anonymous review. However, anonymous review is used by the vast majority of journals. The assessments of the three reviewers speak for themselves. The three reviews All three reviewers agreed with the question I raised about the two-sided p-value. They also pointed out that: The thought experiment fails to account for the costs of phase I and phase II trials. Also, Prasad et al. seem to confuse revenues with profits, in essence assuming that it costs nothing to run a pharmaceutical company. The full text of the reviews—with responses from Prasad and his colleagues—appears here. Here are excerpts from what the reviewers said: Reviewer 1: Drug profits would… need to be well-north of $2.5bn per drug to justify development of ineffective agents, about 6-fold the authors’ estimate… Maybe we need more transparency about the criteria for drug approval and a suitable, informed debate might well be enlightening. Simplistic, headline grabbing arguments, on the other hand, are not of value. Reviewer 2: The authors are wrong on what the p<0.05 reflects regarding how often a trial of an inert compound would be ‘positive’. They repeat this same error when they talk about the probability of having two falsely positive trials listing it as .05^N. They say one in twenty trials would by chance alone be ‘positive’. What they clearly mean is that one in twenty trials would show the inert compound to be superior to the comparator. This is a big oops. In testing the null, setting the p cutoff to 0.05 is equivalent to saying you would accept a ‘falsely significant’ finding (i.e. a Type 1 error) one in twenty times, but those occur half the time when the inert compound appears better than the comparator by chance, and half the time when the opposite is observed by chance. In other words the B term is half the value it should be. Reviewer 3: Accepting a single trial with a p-value <0.05 means there is less than a 5 percent probability the finding is wrong due to chance. It is not a 5 percent chance the drug is ineffective or there is a false positive. These are slightly different things that I believe the authors confuse. I am also concerned that lumping 100 trials of different drugs, each with a p<0.05 and assuming 5 findings will be wrong is inappropriate. I am sure that assuming 5 findings will be a false positive is a stretch. In statements about the cost of drug development and the money made selling an approved drug: I worry the authors confuse a drug company’s revenue with a drug company’s profit. I do note a single phase III trial is estimated to cost $22.1 million in what year? The cost to a drug company for drug development is not just the phase III costs. Is it appropriate to say these costs are “sunk?”	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10676
__label__wiki	0.636095	0.636095	25 Sep 2017 22:26:49 UTC cybernations.wikia.com » NDU (Horadum) kingdomheartsfanfiction.wikia.com » U.K music.wikia.com » Yehudi Menuhin musicality.wikia.com » Yehudi Menuhin songs.wikia.com » Yehudi Menuhin sovietussrunion.wikia.com » Democracy water.wikia.com » Rhine information women.wikia.com » Oona King wiki.laquadrature.net » Utilisateur:Theocrite/Draft commons.wikimedia.org » User:AngelikaCourtois meta.wikimedia.org » CentralNotice/Request/Danke, aber Nein Danke de.wikipedia.org » Florian Lückler es.wikipedia.org » Usuario discusión:Alelapenya/Archivo11 fa.wikipedia.org » مجلس اروپا fa.wikipedia.org » پارلمان اروپا ga.wikipedia.org » Rialachán Adhmaid mt.wikipedia.org » Regolament tal-Unjoni Ewropea dwar l-Injam mzn.wikipedia.org » اروپا پارلمون ru.wikipedia.org » Макмиллан-Скотт, Эдвард ru.wikipedia.org » Эдвард Макмиллан - Скотт sl.wikipedia.org » Demokratični deficit v Evropski uniji sr.wikipedia.org » Корисник:Sanjanew1/песак <a href="http://archive.today/0fTmo"> <img style="width:300px;height:200px;background-color:white" src="https://archive.fo/0fTmo/0ef0e6de6a55480154cf22e0f76fd7a1d1793572/scr.png"><br> European Parliament - Wikipedia<br> archived 25 Sep 2017 22:26:49 UTC </a> {{cite web \| title = European Parliament - Wikipedia \| url = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Parliament \| date = 2017-09-25 \| archiveurl = http://archive.today/0fTmo \| archivedate = 2017-09-25 }} For the statutory organ of the Council of Europe, see Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. For recent elections, see European Parliament election, 2014. 8th European Parliament Antonio Tajani, EPP Since 17 January 2017 Mairead McGuinness (EPP) Bogusław Liberadzki (S&D) David Sassoli (S&D) Rainer Wieland (EPP) Sylvie Guillaume (S&D) Ryszard Czarnecki (ECR) Ramón Luis Valcárcel (EPP) Evelyne Gebhardt (S&D) Pavel Telička (ALDE) Ildikó Pelczné Gáll (EPP) Ioan Mircea Pașcu (S&D) Dimitrios Papadimoulis (GUE/NGL) Ulrike Lunacek (Greens/EFA) Alexander Graf Lambsdorff (ALDE) Leader of largest Manfred Weber, EPP Since 4 June 2014 Leader of the 2nd largest political group Gianni Pittella, S&D Since 1 July 2014 751 MEPs GUE-NGL (52) S&D (189) Greens-EFA (51) ALDE (68) EPP (214) EFDD (41) ENF (40) Non-Inscrits (18) Vacant (4) Economic & Monetary Affairs Environment, Public Health & Food Safety Industry, Research & Energy Internal Market & Consumer Protection Transport & Tourism Civil Liberties, Justice & Home Affairs Women's Rights & Gender Equality - Human Rights (Sub) - Security & Defence (Sub) Length of term Party list, STV and First-past-the-post[1] Next election 1st: Louise Weiss: Strasbourg, France (image) 2nd: Espace Léopold: Brussels, Belgium Secretariat: Luxembourg & Brussels europarl.europa.eu Juncker Commission President Juncker (EPP) Secretary-General Italianer President Tajani (EPP) Largest groups; EPP (Manfred Weber) S&D (Gianni Pittella) 8th session (2014-19) Quaestor Justice and Home Uwe Corsepius Directorates-general COREPER President Draghi ESCB Court of Auditors Policies and issues Ext. Action Service Defence Policy Economic Area Area of FS&J Schengen Area Supranationalism United States of Europe Enhanced co-op 2014 (last election) Treaty on European Union Single European Act [[Nice Treaty\|Nice] Treaties of Accession President Tusk (EPP) Building of the European Parliament in Brussels "European Parliament" on official languages of the European Union (on the Parliament building in Brussels) The European Parliament (EP) is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union (EU). Together with the Council of the European Union (the Council) and the European Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU. The Parliament is composed of 751 members, who represent the second-largest democratic electorate in the world (after the Parliament of India) and the largest trans-national democratic electorate in the world (375 million eligible voters in 2009).[2][3][4] It has been directly elected every five years by universal suffrage since 1979. However, voter turnout at European Parliament elections has fallen consecutively at each election since that date, and has been under 50% since 1999. Voter turnout in 2014 stood at 42.54% of all European voters.[5] Although the European Parliament has legislative power that the Council and Commission do not possess, it does not formally possess legislative initiative, as most national parliaments of European Union member states do.[6][7] The Parliament is the "first institution" of the EU (mentioned first in the treaties, having ceremonial precedence over all authority at European level),[8] and shares equal legislative and budgetary powers with the Council (except in a few areas where the special legislative procedures apply). It likewise has equal control over the EU budget. Finally, the European Commission, the executive body of the EU, is accountable to Parliament. In particular, Parliament elects the President of the Commission, and approves (or rejects) the appointment of the Commission as a whole. It can subsequently force the Commission as a body to resign by adopting a motion of censure.[6] The President of the European Parliament (Parliament's speaker) is Antonio Tajani (EPP), elected in January 2017. He presides over a multi-party chamber, the two largest groups being the Group of the European People's Party (EPP) and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D). The last union-wide elections were the 2014 elections. The European Parliament has three places of work – Brussels (Belgium), the city of Luxembourg (Luxembourg) and Strasbourg (France). Luxembourg is home to the administrative offices (the "General Secretariat"). Meetings of the whole Parliament ("plenary sessions") take place in Strasbourg and in Brussels. Committee meetings are held in Brussels.[9][10] 1.1 Consultative assembly 1.2 Elected Parliament 1.3 Parliament pressure on the Commission 1.4 Recent history 2 Powers and functions 2.1 Legislative procedure 2.3 Control of the executive 2.4 Supervisory powers 3.1 Transitional arrangements 3.2 Salaries and expenses 3.3 Political groups 3.4 Grand coalition 4 Proceedings 4.1 President and organisation 4.2 Committees and delegations 4.3 Intergroups 4.4 Translation and interpretation 5 Seat 6 Channels of dialogue, information, and communication with European civil society 6.1 Dialogue with religious and non-confessional organisations 6.2 European Parliament Mediator for International Parental Child Abduction 7 European Parliamentary Research Service 8 Eurobarometer of the European Parliament 9.1 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought 9.2 European Charlemagne Youth Prize 9.3 European Citizens' Prize 9.4 LUX Prize Further information: History of the European Union The Parliament, like the other institutions, was not designed in its current form when it first met on 10 September 1952. One of the oldest common institutions, it began as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). It was a consultative assembly of 78 appointed parliamentarians drawn from the national parliaments of member states, having no legislative powers.[11][12] The change since its foundation was highlighted by Professor David Farrell of the University of Manchester: "For much of its life, the European Parliament could have been justly labeled a 'multi-lingual talking shop'."[13] Its development since its foundation shows how the European Union's structures have evolved without a clear "master plan". Some, such as Tom Reid of the Washington Post, said of the union: "nobody would have deliberately designed a government as complex and as redundant as the EU".[14] Even the Parliament's two seats, which have switched several times, are a result of various agreements or lack of agreements. Although most MEPs would prefer to be based just in Brussels, at John Major's 1992 Edinburgh summit, France engineered a treaty amendment to maintain Parliament's plenary seat permanently at Strasbourg.[11][15] Consultative assembly[edit] The body was not mentioned in the original Schuman Declaration. It was assumed or hoped that difficulties with the British would be resolved to allow the Council of Europe's Assembly to perform the task. A separate Assembly was introduced during negotiations on the Treaty as an institution which would counterbalance and monitor the executive while providing democratic legitimacy.[11] The wording of the ECSC Treaty demonstrated the leaders' desire for more than a normal consultative assembly by using the term "representatives of the people" and allowed for direct election. Its early importance was highlighted when the Assembly was given the task of drawing up the draft treaty to establish a European Political Community. By this document, the Ad Hoc Assembly was established on 13 September 1952[16] with extra members, but after the failure of the proposed European Defence Community the project was dropped.[17] Session of the Council of Europe's Assembly in the former House of Europe in Strasbourg in January 1967. Willy Brandt, German minister for Foreign Affairs, is speaking. Despite this, the European Economic Community and Euratom were established in 1958 by the Treaties of Rome. The Common Assembly was shared by all three communities (which had separate executives) and it renamed itself the European Parliamentary Assembly.[11] The first meeting was held on 19 March 1958 having been set up in Luxembourg, it elected Schuman as its president and on 13 May it rearranged itself to sit according to political ideology rather than nationality.[18] This is seen as the birth of the modern European Parliament, with Parliament's 50 years celebrations being held in March 2008 rather than 2002.[19] The three communities merged their remaining organs as the European Communities in 1967, and the body's name was changed to the current "European Parliament" in 1962.[11] In 1970 the Parliament was granted power over areas of the Communities' budget, which were expanded to the whole budget in 1975.[20] Under the Rome Treaties, the Parliament should have become elected. However, the Council was required to agree a uniform voting system beforehand, which it failed to do. The Parliament threatened to take the Council to the European Court of Justice; this led to a compromise whereby the Council would agree to elections, but the issue of voting systems would be put off till a later date.[21] Elected Parliament[edit] The emblem of Parliament until 1983 In 1979, its members were directly elected for the first time. This sets it apart from similar institutions such as those of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe or Pan-African Parliament which are appointed.[11][22][23] After that first election, the parliament held its first session on 11 July 1979, electing Simone Veil MEP as its President. Veil was also the first female President of the Parliament since it was formed as the Common Assembly. As an elected body, the Parliament began to draft proposals addressing the functioning of the EU. For example, in 1984, inspired by its previous work on the Political Community, it drafted the "draft Treaty establishing the European Union" (also known as the 'Spinelli Plan' after its rapporteur Altiero Spinelli MEP). Although it was not adopted, many ideas were later implemented by other treaties.[24] Furthermore, the Parliament began holding votes on proposed Commission Presidents from the 1980s, before it was given any formal right to veto.[25] Since it became an elected body, the membership of the European Parliament has simply expanded whenever new nations have joined (the membership was also adjusted upwards in 1994 after German reunification). Following this, the Treaty of Nice imposed a cap on the number of members to be elected, 732.[11] Palace of Europe, Parliament's Strasbourg hemicycle until 1999 European Parliament Building in Strasbourg, France, view from street. Like the other institutions, the Parliament's seat was not yet fixed. The provisional arrangements placed Parliament in Strasbourg, while the Commission and Council had their seats in Brussels. In 1985 the Parliament, wishing to be closer to these institutions, built a second chamber in Brussels and moved some of its work there despite protests from some states. A final agreement was eventually reached by the European Council in 1992. It stated the Parliament would retain its formal seat in Strasbourg, where twelve sessions a year would be held, but with all other parliamentary activity in Brussels. This two-seat arrangement was contested by the Parliament, but was later enshrined in the Treaty of Amsterdam. To this day the institution's locations are a source of contention.[26] The Parliament gained more powers from successive treaties, namely through the extension of the ordinary legislative procedure (then called the codecision procedure),[27] and in 1999, the Parliament forced the resignation of the Santer Commission.[28] The Parliament had refused to approve the Community budget over allegations of fraud and mis-management in the Commission. The two main parties took on a government-opposition dynamic for the first time during the crisis which ended in the Commission resigning en masse, the first of any forced resignation, in the face of an impending censure from the Parliament.[29] Parliament pressure on the Commission[edit] In 2004, Parliament forced President Barroso to change his proposed Commission team. In 2004, following the largest trans-national election in history, despite the European Council choosing a President from the largest political group (the EPP), the Parliament again exerted pressure on the Commission. During the Parliament's hearings of the proposed Commissioners MEPs raised doubts about some nominees with the Civil Liberties committee rejecting Rocco Buttiglione from the post of Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security over his views on homosexuality. That was the first time the Parliament had ever voted against an incoming Commissioner and despite Barroso's insistence upon Buttiglione the Parliament forced Buttiglione to be withdrawn. A number of other Commissioners also had to be withdrawn or reassigned before Parliament allowed the Barroso Commission to take office.[30][31] Rocco Buttiglione was the first Commission designate to be voted down by Parliament Along with the extension of the ordinary legislative procedure, the Parliament's democratic mandate has given it greater control over legislation against the other institutions. In voting on the Bolkestein directive in 2006, the Parliament voted by a large majority for over 400 amendments that changed the fundamental principle of the law. The Financial Times described it in the following terms:[32] That is where the European parliament has suddenly come into its own. It marks another shift in power between the three central EU institutions. Last week's vote suggests that the directly elected MEPs, in spite of their multitude of ideological, national and historical allegiances, have started to coalesce as a serious and effective EU institution, just as enlargement has greatly complicated negotiations inside both the Council and Commission. In 2007, for the first time, Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini included Parliament in talks on the second Schengen Information System even though MEPs only needed to be consulted on parts of the package. After that experiment, Frattini indicated he would like to include Parliament in all justice and criminal matters, informally pre-empting the new powers they could gain as part of the Treaty of Lisbon.[33] Between 2007 and 2009, a special working group on parliamentary reform implemented a series of changes to modernise the institution such as more speaking time for rapporteurs, increase committee co-operation and other efficiency reforms.[34][35] Recent history[edit] Further information: Barroso Commission Parliament's overhaul of the Bolkestein directive signalled a major growth in status for Parliament The Lisbon Treaty finally came into force on 1 December 2009, granting Parliament powers over the entire EU budget, making Parliament's legislative powers equal to the Council's in nearly all areas and linking the appointment of the Commission President to Parliament's own elections.[36] Despite some calls for the parties to put forward candidates beforehand, only the EPP (which had re-secured their position as largest party) had one in re-endorsing Barroso.[37] Barroso gained the support of the European Council for a second term and secured majority support from the Parliament in September 2009. Parliament voted 382 votes in favour and 219 votes against (117 abstentions ) with support of the European People's Party, European Conservatives and Reformists and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.[38] The liberals gave support after Barroso gave them a number of concessions; the liberals previously joined the socialists' call for a delayed vote (the EPP had wanted to approve Barroso in July of that year).[39] Once Barroso put forward the candidates for his next Commission, another opportunity to gain concessions arose. Bulgarian nominee Rumiana Jeleva was forced to step down by Parliament due to concerns over her experience and financial interests. She only had the support of the EPP which began to retaliate on left wing candidates before Jeleva gave in and was replaced (setting back the final vote further).[40] Before the final vote, Parliament demanded a number of concessions as part of a future working agreement under the new Lisbon Treaty. The deal includes that Parliament's President will attend high level Commission meetings. Parliament will have a seat in the EU's Commission-lead international negotiations and have a right to information on agreements. However, Parliament secured only an observer seat. Parliament also did not secure a say over the appointment of delegation heads and special representatives for foreign policy. Although they will appear before parliament after they have been appointed by the High Representative. One major internal power was that Parliament wanted a pledge from the Commission that it would put forward legislation when parliament requests. Barroso considered this an infringement on the Commission's powers but did agree to respond within three months. Most requests are already responded to positively.[41] During the setting up of the European External Action Service (EEAS), Parliament used its control over the EU budget to influence the shape of the EEAS. MEPs had aimed at getting greater oversight over the EEAS by linking it to the Commission and having political deputies to the High Representative. MEPs didn't manage to get everything they demanded. However, they got broader financial control over the new body.[42][43] Powers and functions[edit] The Parliament's hemicycle (debating chamber) during a plenary session in Strasbourg The Parliament and Council have been compared to the two chambers of a bicameral legislature.[44] However, there are some differences from national legislatures; for example, neither the Parliament nor the Council have the power of legislative initiative (except for the fact that the Council has the power in some intergovernmental matters). In Community matters, this is a power uniquely reserved for the European Commission (the executive). Therefore, while Parliament can amend and reject legislation, to make a proposal for legislation, it needs the Commission to draft a bill before anything can become law.[45] The value of such a power has been questioned by noting that in the national legislatures of the member states 85% of initiatives introduced without executive support fail to become law.[46] Yet it has been argued by former Parliament president Hans-Gert Pöttering that as the Parliament does have the right to ask the Commission to draft such legislation, and as the Commission is following Parliament's proposals more and more Parliament does have a de facto right of legislative initiative.[7] The Parliament also has a great deal of indirect influence, through non-binding resolutions and committee hearings, as a "pan-European soapbox" with the ear of thousands of Brussels-based journalists. There is also an indirect effect on foreign policy; the Parliament must approve all development grants, including those overseas. For example, the support for post-war Iraq reconstruction, or incentives for the cessation of Iranian nuclear development, must be supported by the Parliament. Parliamentary support was also required for the transatlantic passenger data-sharing deal with the United States.[47] Finally, Parliament holds a non-binding vote on new EU treaties but cannot veto it. However, when Parliament threatened to vote down the Nice Treaty, the Belgian and Italian Parliaments said they would veto the treaty on the European Parliament's behalf.[48] Legislative procedure[edit] With each new treaty, the powers of the Parliament, in terms of its role in the Union's legislative procedures, have expanded. The procedure which has slowly become dominant is the "ordinary legislative procedure" (previously named "codecision procedure"), which provides an equal footing between Parliament and Council. In particular, under the procedure, the Commission presents a proposal to Parliament and the Council which can only become law if both agree on a text, which they do (or not) through successive readings up to a maximum of three. In its first reading, Parliament may send amendments to the Council which can either adopt the text with those amendments or send back a "common position". That position may either be approved by Parliament, or it may reject the text by an absolute majority, causing it to fail, or it may adopt further amendments, also by an absolute majority. If the Council does not approve these, then a "Conciliation Committee" is formed. The Committee is composed of the Council members plus an equal number of MEPs who seek to agree a compromise. Once a position is agreed, it has to be approved by Parliament, by a simple majority.[6][49] This is also aided by Parliament's mandate as the only directly democratic institution, which has given it leeway to have greater control over legislation than other institutions, for example over its changes to the Bolkestein directive in 2006.[32] The few other areas that operate the special legislative procedures are justice & home affairs, budget and taxation and certain aspects of other policy areas: such as the fiscal aspects of environmental policy. In these areas, the Council or Parliament decide law alone.[50] The procedure also depends upon which type of institutional act is being used.[6] The strongest act is a regulation, an act or law which is directly applicable in its entirety. Then there are directives which bind member states to certain goals which they must achieve. They do this through their own laws and hence have room to manoeuvre in deciding upon them. A decision is an instrument which is focused at a particular person or group and is directly applicable. Institutions may also issue recommendations and opinions which are merely non-binding, declarations.[51] There is a further document which does not follow normal procedures, this is a "written declaration" which is similar to an early day motion used in the Westminster system. It is a document proposed by up to five MEPs on a matter within the EU's activities used to launch a debate on that subject. Having been posted outside the entrance to the hemicycle, members can sign the declaration and if a majority do so it is forwarded to the President and announced to the plenary before being forwarded to the other institutions and formally noted in the minutes.[52] Budget[edit] The legislative branch officially holds the Union's budgetary authority with powers gained through the Budgetary Treaties of the 1970s and the Lisbon Treaty. The EU budget is subject to a form of the ordinary legislative procedure with a single reading giving Parliament power over the entire budget (before 2009, its influence was limited to certain areas) on an equal footing to the Council. If there is a disagreement between them, it is taken to a conciliation committee as it is for legislative proposals. If the joint conciliation text is not approved, the Parliament may adopt the budget definitively.[50] The Parliament is also responsible for discharging the implementation of previous budgets based on the annual report of the European Court of Auditors. It has refused to approve the budget only twice, in 1984 and in 1998. On the latter occasion it led to the resignation of the Santer Commission; highlighting how the budgetary power gives Parliament a great deal of power over the Commission.[21][29][53] Parliament also makes extensive use of its budgetary, and other powers, elsewhere; for example in the setting up of the European External Action Service, Parliament has a de facto veto over its design as it has to approve the budgetary and staff changes.[42] Control of the executive[edit] Unlike most EU states, which usually operate parliamentary systems, there is a separation of powers between the executive and legislative which makes the European Parliament more akin to the United States Congress than an EU state legislature.[46] The President of the European Commission is proposed by the European Council on the basis of the European elections to Parliament.[36] That proposal has to be approved by the Parliament (by a simple majority) who "elect" the President according to the treaties. Following the approval of the Commission President, the members of the Commission are proposed by the President in accord with the member-states. Each Commissioner comes before a relevant parliamentary committee hearing covering the proposed portfolio. They are then, as a body, approved or rejected by the Parliament.[54][55] In practice, the Parliament has never voted against a President or his Commission, but it did seem likely when the Barroso Commission was put forward. The resulting pressure forced the proposal to be withdrawn and changed to be more acceptable to parliament.[30] That pressure was seen as an important sign by some of the evolving nature of the Parliament and its ability to make the Commission accountable, rather than being a rubber stamp for candidates. Furthermore, in voting on the Commission, MEPs also voted along party lines, rather than national lines, despite frequent pressure from national governments on their MEPs. This cohesion and willingness to use the Parliament's power ensured greater attention from national leaders, other institutions and the public—who previously gave the lowest ever turnout for the Parliament's elections.[56] The Parliament also has the power to censure the Commission if they have a two-thirds majority which will force the resignation of the entire Commission from office. As with approval, this power has never been used but it was threatened to the Santer Commission, who subsequently resigned of their own accord. There are a few other controls, such as: the requirement of Commission to submit reports to the Parliament and answer questions from MEPs; the requirement of the President-in-office of the Council to present its programme at the start of their presidency; the obligation on the President of the European Council to report to Parliament after each of its meetings; the right of MEPs to make requests for legislation and policy to the Commission; and the right to question members of those institutions (e.g. "Commission Question Time" every Tuesday).[25][55] At present, MEPs may ask a question on any topic whatsoever, but in July 2008 MEPs voted to limit questions to those within the EU's mandate and ban offensive or personal questions.[57] Supervisory powers[edit] The Parliament also has other powers of general supervision, mainly granted by the Maastricht Treaty.[58] The Parliament has the power to set up a Committee of Inquiry, for example over mad cow disease or CIA detention flights—the former led to the creation of the European veterinary agency. The Parliament can call other institutions to answer questions and if necessary to take them to court if they break EU law or treaties.[59] Furthermore, it has powers over the appointment of the members of the Court of Auditors[60] and the president and executive board of the European Central Bank. The ECB president is also obliged to present an annual report to the parliament.[59] The European Ombudsman is elected by the Parliament, who deals with public complaints against all institutions.[59] Petitions can also be brought forward by any EU citizen on a matter within the EU's sphere of activities. The Committee on Petitions hears cases, some 1500 each year, sometimes presented by the citizen themselves at the Parliament. While the Parliament attempts to resolve the issue as a mediator they do resort to legal proceedings if it is necessary to resolve the citizens dispute.[61] Members[edit] National apportionment of MEP seats (total 751) Main article: Member of the European Parliament The parliamentarians are known in English as Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). They are elected every five years by universal adult suffrage and sit according to political allegiance; about a third are women. Before 1979 they were appointed by their national parliaments.[17][62] Under the Lisbon Treaty, seats are allocated to each state according to population and the maximum number of members is set at 751 (however, as the President cannot vote while in the chair there will only be 750 voting members at any one time).[63] The seats are distributed according to "degressive proportionality", i.e., the larger the state, the more citizens are represented per MEP. As a result, Maltese and Luxembourgish voters have roughly 10x more influence per voter than citizens of the six large countries. As of 2014[update], Germany (80.9 million inhabitants) has 96 seats (previously 99 seats), i.e. one seat for 843,000 inhabitants. Malta (0.4 million inhabitants) has 6 seats, i.e. one seat for 70,000 inhabitants. The new system implemented under the Lisbon Treaty, including revising the seating well before elections, was intended to avoid political horse trading when the allocations have to be revised to reflect demographic changes.[64] Pursuant to this apportionment, the constituencies are formed. In six EU member states (Belgium, France, Ireland, Italy, Poland, and the United Kingdom), the national territory is divided into a number of constituencies. In the remaining member states, the whole country forms a single constituency. All member states hold elections to the European Parliament using various forms of proportional representation. Transitional arrangements[edit] Due to the delay in ratifying the Lisbon Treaty, the seventh parliament was elected under the lower Nice Treaty cap. A small scale treaty amendment was ratified on 29 November 2011.[65] This amendment brought in transitional provisions to allow the 18 additional MEPs created under the Lisbon Treaty to be elected or appointed before the 2014 election.[66] Under the Lisbon Treaty reforms, Germany was the only state to lose members from 99 to 96. However, these seats were not removed until the 2014 election.[67] Salaries and expenses[edit] Before 2009, members received the same salary as members of their national parliament. However, from 2009 a new members statute came into force, after years of attempts, which gave all members an equal monthly pay, of 8,020.53 euro each in 2014, subject to a European Union tax and which can also be taxed nationally. MEPs are entitled to a pension, paid by Parliament, from the age of 63. Members are also entitled to allowances for office costs and subsistence, and travelling expenses, based on actual cost.[68][needs update] Besides their pay, members are granted a number of privileges and immunities. To ensure their free movement to and from the Parliament, they are accorded by their own states the facilities accorded to senior officials travelling abroad and, by other state governments, the status of visiting foreign representatives. When in their own state, they have all the immunities accorded to national parliamentarians, and, in other states, they have immunity from detention and legal proceedings. However, immunity cannot be claimed when a member is found committing a criminal offence and the Parliament also has the right to strip a member of their immunity.[69] Political groups[edit] Main article: Political groups of the European Parliament MEPs in Parliament are organised into seven different parliamentary groups, including thirty non-attached members known as non-inscrits. The two largest groups are the European People's Party (EPP) and the Socialists & Democrats (S&D). These two groups have dominated the Parliament for much of its life, continuously holding between 50 and 70 percent of the seats between them. No single group has ever held a majority in Parliament.[70] As a result of being broad alliances of national parties, European group parties are very decentralised and hence have more in common with parties in federal states like Germany or the United States than unitary states like the majority of the EU states.[46] Nevertheless, the European groups were actually more cohesive than their US counterparts between 2004 and 2009.[71][72] Groups are often based on a single European political party such as the socialist group (before 2009). However, they can, like the liberal group, include more than one European party as well as national parties and independents.[73] For a group to be recognised, it needs 25 MEPs from seven different countries.[74] Once recognised, groups receive financial subsidies from the parliament and guaranteed seats on committees, creating an incentive for the formation of groups. However, some controversy occurred with the establishment of the short-lived Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty (ITS) due to its ideology; the members of the group were far-right, so there were concerns about public funds going towards such a group.[75] There were attempts to change the rules to block the formation of ITS, but they never came to fruition. The group was, however, blocked from gaining leading positions on committees — traditionally (by agreement, not a rule) shared among all parties.[76] When this group engaged in infighting, leading to the withdrawal of some members, its size fell below the threshold for recognition causing its collapse.[77] Grand coalition[edit] Given that the Parliament does not form the government in the traditional sense of a Parliamentary system, its politics have developed along more consensual lines rather than majority rule of competing parties and coalitions. Indeed, for much of its life it has been dominated by a grand coalition of the European People's Party and the Party of European Socialists. The two major parties tend to co-operate to find a compromise between their two groups leading to proposals endorsed by huge majorities.[78] However, this does not always produce agreement, and each may instead try to build other alliances, the EPP normally with other centre-right or right wing Groups and the PES with centre-left or left wing Groups. Sometimes, the Liberal Group is then in the pivotal position. There are also occasions where very sharp party political divisions have emerged, for example over the resignation of the Santer Commission.[29] When the initial allegations against the Commission emerged, they were directed primarily against Édith Cresson and Manuel Marín, both socialist members. When the parliament was considering refusing to discharge the Community budget, President Jacques Santer stated that a no vote would be tantamount to a vote of no confidence. The Socialist group supported the Commission and saw the issue as an attempt by the EPP to discredit their party ahead of the 1999 elections. Socialist leader, Pauline Green MEP, attempted a vote of confidence and the EPP put forward counter motions. During this period the two parties took on similar roles to a government-opposition dynamic, with the Socialists supporting the executive and EPP renouncing its previous coalition support and voting it down.[29] Politicisation such as this has been increasing, in 2007 Simon Hix of the London School of Economics noted that:[13] Our work also shows that politics in the European Parliament is becoming increasingly based around party and ideology. Voting is increasingly split along left-right lines, and the cohesion of the party groups has risen dramatically, particularly in the fourth and fifth parliaments. So there are likely to be policy implications here too. During the fifth term, 1999 to 2004, there was a break in the grand coalition resulting in a centre-right coalition between the Liberal and People's parties.[79] This was reflected in the Presidency of the Parliament with the terms being shared between the EPP and the ELDR, rather than the EPP and Socialists.[80] In the following term the liberal group grew to hold 88 seats, the largest number of seats held by any third party in Parliament.[81] Main article: Elections to the European Parliament The composition of the European Parliament with regard to percental share of deputies for each political group, 1979 to 2014. Left to right; Radical left Greens & Regionalists CDI or TGI Non-Inscrits Radical Alliance CD / EPP Forza Europa Eurosceptics UEN Elections have taken place, directly in every member-state, every five years since 1979. As of 2014[update] there have been eight elections. When a nation joins mid-term, a by-election will be held to elect their representatives. This has happened six times, most recently when Croatia joined in 2013. Elections take place across four days according to local custom and, apart from having to be proportional, the electoral system is chosen by the member-state.[82] This includes allocation of sub-national constituencies; while most members have a national list, some, like the UK and France, divide their allocation between regions. Seats are allocated to member-states according to their population, since 2014 with no state having more than 96, but no fewer than 6, to maintain proportionality.[83] The most recent Union-wide elections to the European Parliament were the European elections of 2014, held from 22 to 25 May 2014. They were the largest simultaneous transnational elections ever held anywhere in the world. The eighth term of Parliament started on 1 July 2014.[84] The proportion of MEPs elected in 2009 who were female was 35%; in 1979 it was just 16.5%. There have been a number of proposals designed to attract greater public attention to the elections. One such innovation in the 2014 elections was that the pan-European political parties fielded "candidates" for president of the Commission, the so-called Spitzenkandidaten (German, "leading candidate). However, European Union governance is based on a mixture of intergovernmental and supranational features: the President of the European Commission is nominated by the European Council, representing the governments of the member states, and there is no obligation for them to nominate the successful "candidate". The Lisbon Treaty merely states that they should take account of the results of the elections when choosing whom to nominate. The so-called Spitzenkandidaten were Jean-Claude Juncker for the European People's Party, Martin Schulz for the Party of European Socialists, Guy Verhofstadt for the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party, Ska Keller and José Bové jointly for the European Green Party and Alexis Tsipras for the Party of the European Left. Turnout has dropped consistently every year since the first election, and from 1999 it has been below 50%. In 2007 both Bulgaria and Romania elected their MEPs in by-elections, having joined at the beginning of 2007. The Bulgarian and Romanian elections saw two of the lowest turnouts for European elections, just 28.6%[85] and 28.3% respectively.[86] In England, Scotland and Wales, EP elections were originally held for a constituency MEP on a first-past-the-post basis. In 1999 the system was changed to a form of PR where a large group of candidates would stand for a post within a very large regional constituency.[87] One could vote for a party, but not a candidate (unless that party had a single candidate). Proceedings[edit] The hemicycle in Brussels Each year the activities of the Parliament cycle between committee weeks where reports are discussed in committees and interparliamentary delegations meet, political group weeks for members to discuss work within their political groups and session weeks where members spend 3½ days in Strasbourg for part-sessions. In addition six 2-day part-sessions are organised in Brussels throughout the year. Four weeks are allocated as constituency week to allow members to do exclusively constituency work. Finally there are no meetings planned during the summer weeks.[88] The Parliament has the power to meet without being convened by another authority. Its meetings are partly controlled by the treaties but are otherwise up to Parliament according to its own "Rules of Procedure" (the regulations governing the parliament).[89] During sessions, members may speak after being called on by the President. Members of the Council or Commission may also attend and speak in debates.[90][91] Partly due to the need for translation, and the politics of consensus in the chamber, debates tend to be calmer and more polite than, say, the Westminster system.[92] Voting is conducted primarily by a show of hands, that may be checked on request by electronic voting.[93] Votes of MEPs are not recorded in either case, however; that only occurs when there is a roll-call ballot. This is required for the final votes on legislation and also whenever a political group or 30 MEPs request it. The number of roll-call votes has increased with time. Votes can also be a completely secret ballot (for example, when the president is elected).[94][95] All recorded votes, along with minutes and legislation, are recorded in the Official Journal of the European Union and can be accessed online.[96] Votes usually do not follow a debate, but rather they are grouped with other due votes on specific occasions, usually at noon on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays. This is because the length of the vote is unpredictable and if it continues for longer than allocated it can disrupt other debates and meetings later in the day.[97] Members are arranged in a hemicycle according to their political groups (in the Common Assembly, prior to 1958, members sat alphabetically[98]) who are ordered mainly by left to right, but some smaller groups are placed towards the outer ring of the Parliament. All desks are equipped with microphones, headphones for translation and electronic voting equipment. The leaders of the groups sit on the front benches at the centre, and in the very centre is a podium for guest speakers. The remaining half of the circular chamber is primarily composed of the raised area where the President and staff sit. Further benches are provided between the sides of this area and the MEPs, these are taken up by the Council on the far left and the Commission on the far right. Both the Brussels and Strasbourg hemicycle roughly follow this layout with only minor differences.[99] The hemicycle design is a compromise between the different Parliamentary systems. The British-based system has the different groups directly facing each other while the French-based system is a semicircle (and the traditional German system had all members in rows facing a rostrum for speeches). Although the design is mainly based on a semicircle, the opposite ends of the spectrum do still face each other.[98] With access to the chamber limited, entrance is controlled by ushers who aid MEPs in the chamber (for example in delivering documents). The ushers can also occasionally act as a form of police in enforcing the President, for example in ejecting an MEP who is disrupting the session (although this is rare). The first head of protocol in the Parliament was French, so many of the duties in the Parliament are based on the French model first developed following the French Revolution. The 180 ushers are highly visible in the Parliament, dressed in black tails and wearing a silver chain, and are recruited in the same manner as the European civil service. The President is allocated a personal usher.[100] President and organisation[edit] Main article: President of the European Parliament President Antonio Tajani The President is essentially the speaker of the Parliament and presides over the plenary when it is in session. The President's signature is required for all acts adopted by co-decision, including the EU budget. The President is also responsible for representing the Parliament externally, including in legal matters, and for the application of the rules of procedure. He or she is elected for two-and-a-half-year terms, meaning two elections per parliamentary term.[101][102] The President is currently Antonio Tajani MEP of the EPP. In most countries, the protocol of the head of state comes before all others; however, in the EU the Parliament is listed as the first institution, and hence the protocol of its President comes before any other European, or national, protocol. The gifts given to numerous visiting dignitaries depend upon the President. President Josep Borrell MEP of Spain gave his counterparts a crystal cup created by an artist from Barcelona who had engraved upon it parts of the Charter of Fundamental Rights among other things.[8] A number of notable figures have been President of the Parliament and its predecessors. The first President was Paul-Henri Spaak MEP,[103] one of the founding fathers of the Union. Other founding fathers include Alcide de Gasperi MEP and Robert Schuman MEP. The two female Presidents were Simone Veil MEP in 1979 (first President of the elected Parliament) and Nicole Fontaine MEP in 1999, both Frenchwomen.[104] The previous president, Jerzy Buzek was the first East-Central European to lead an EU institution, a former Prime Minister of Poland who rose out of the Solidarity movement in Poland that helped overthrow communism in the Eastern Bloc.[105] During the election of a President, the previous President (or, if unable to, one of the previous Vice-Presidents) presides over the chamber.[106] Prior to 2009, the oldest member fulfilled this role[107] but the rule was changed to prevent far-right French MEP Jean-Marie Le Pen taking the chair.[106] Below the President, there are 14 Vice-Presidents who chair debates when the President is not in the chamber. There are a number of other bodies and posts responsible for the running of parliament besides these speakers. The two main bodies are the Bureau, which is responsible for budgetary and administration issues, and the Conference of Presidents which is a governing body composed of the presidents of each of the parliament's political groups. Looking after the financial and administrative interests of members are five Quaestors. In August 2002, Nichole Robichaux [née Braucksieker] became the first American citizen to intern for a member of the European Parliament—Monica Frassoni [Green Party].[108] As of 2014[update], the European Parliament budget was EUR 1.756 billion.[109] A 2008 report on the Parliament's finances highlighted certain overspending and miss-payments. Despite some MEPs calling for the report to be published, Parliamentary authorities had refused until an MEP broke confidentiality and leaked it.[110] Committees and delegations[edit] Main article: Committees of the European Parliament These "relocation boxes" of the European Parliament, called "cantines", are ready to be transported from Brussels to Strasbourg where a plenary session will take place. Each month, the EP moves back and forth to meet the EU obligation to hold meetings also in France. The Parliament has 20 Standing Committees consisting of 25 to 71 MEPs each (reflecting the political make-up of the whole Parliament) including a chair, a bureau and secretariat. They meet twice a month in public to draw up, amend to adopt legislative proposals and reports to be presented to the plenary.[111] The rapporteurs for a committee are supposed to present the view of the committee, although notably this has not always been the case. In the events leading to the resignation of the Santer Commission, the rapporteur went against the Budgetary Control Committee's narrow vote to discharge the budget, and urged the Parliament to reject it.[29] Committees can also set up sub-committees (e.g. the Subcommittee on Human Rights) and temporary committees to deal with a specific topic (e.g. on extraordinary rendition). The chairs of the Committees co-ordinate their work through the "Conference of Committee Chairmen".[111] When co-decision was introduced it increased the Parliament's powers in a number of areas, but most notably those covered by the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety. Previously this committee was considered by MEPs as a "Cinderella committee"; however, as it gained a new importance, it became more professional and rigorous, attracting increasing attention to its work.[21] A Committee room in the Parliament The nature of the committees differ from their national counterparts as, although smaller in comparison to those of the United States Congress, the European Parliament's committees are unusually large by European standards with between eight and twelve dedicated members of staff and three to four support staff. Considerable administration, archives and research resources are also at the disposal of the whole Parliament when needed.[46] Delegations of the Parliament are formed in a similar manner and are responsible for relations with Parliaments outside the EU. There are 34 delegations made up of around 15 MEPs, chairpersons of the delegations also cooperate in a conference like the committee chairs do. They include "Interparliamentary delegations" (maintain relations with Parliament outside the EU), "joint parliamentary committees" (maintaining relations with parliaments of states which are candidates or associates of the EU), the delegation to the ACP EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly and the delegation to the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly.[111] MEPs also participate in other international activities such as the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly, the Transatlantic Legislators' Dialogue and through election observation in third countries.[112] Interpreting booths in the hemicycle simultaneously translate debates between 24 languages Intergroups[edit] The Intergroups in the European Parliament are informal fora which gather MEPs from various political groups around any topic. They do not express the view of the European Parliament. They serve a double purpose: to address a topic which is transversal to several committees and in a less formal manner. Their daily secretariat can be run either through the office of MEPs or through interest groups, be them corporate lobbies or NGOs. The favored access to MEPs which the organization running the secretariat enjoys can be one explanation to the multiplication of Intergroups in the 1990s.[113] They are now strictly regulated and financial support, direct or otherwise (via Secretariat staff, for example) must be officially specified in a declaration of financial interests.[114] Also Intergroups are established or renewed at the beginning of each legislature through a specific process. Indeed, the proposal for the constitution or renewal of an Intergroup must be supported by at least 3 political groups whose support is limited to a specific number of proposals in proportion to their size (for example, for the legislature 2014-2019, the EEP or S&D political groups could support 22 proposals whereas the Greens/EFA or the EFDD political groups only 7).[115] Translation and interpretation[edit] Speakers in the European Parliament are entitled to speak in any of the 24 official languages of the European Union, ranging from French and German to Maltese and Irish. Simultaneous interpreting is offered in all plenary sessions, and all final texts of legislation are translated. With twenty-four languages, the European Parliament is the most multilingual parliament in the world[116] and the biggest employer of interpreters in the world (employing 350 full-time and 400 free-lancers when there is higher demand).[117] Citizens may also address the Parliament in Basque, Catalan, Valencian and Galician.[118] Usually a language is translated from a foreign tongue into a translator's native tongue. Due to the large number of languages, some being minor ones, since 1995 interpreting is sometimes done the opposite way, out of an interpreter's native tongue (the "retour" system). In addition, a speech in a minor language may be interpreted through a third language for lack of interpreters ("relay" interpreting) —for example, when interpreting out of Estonian into Maltese.[117] Due to the complexity of the issues, interpretation is not word for word. Instead, interpreters have to convey the political meaning of a speech, regardless of their own views. This requires detailed understanding of the politics and terms of the Parliament, involving a great deal of preparation beforehand (e.g. reading the documents in question). Difficulty can often arise when MEPs use profanities, jokes and word play or speak too fast.[117] While some see speaking their native language as an important part of their identity, and can speak more fluently in debates, interpretation and its cost has been criticised by some. A 2006 report by Alexander Stubb MEP highlighted that by only using English, French and German costs could be reduced from €118,000 per day (for 21 languages then—Romanian, Bulgarian and Croatian having not yet been included) to €8,900 per day.[119] Some see the ideal single language as being English due to its widespread usage, although there has been a small-scale campaign to make French the reference language for all legal texts, due to the fact that it is more clear and precise for legal purposes.[120] Because the proceedings are translated into all of the official EU languages, they have been used to make a multilingual corpus known as Europarl. It is widely used to train statistical machine translation systems.[121] Seat[edit] Further information: Location of European Union institutions, Espace Léopold, and Seat of the European Parliament in Strasbourg The Parliament is based in three different cities with numerous buildings. A protocol attached to the Treaty of Amsterdam requires that 12 plenary sessions be held in Strasbourg (none in August but two in September), which is the Parliament's official seat, while extra part sessions as well as committee meetings are held in Brussels. Luxembourg hosts the Secretariat of the European Parliament.[10] The European Parliament is the only assembly in the world with more than one meeting place and one of the few that does not have the power to decide its own location.[122] The Strasbourg seat is seen as a symbol of reconciliation between France and Germany, the Strasbourg region having been fought over by the two countries in the past. However, the cost and inconvenience of having two seats is questioned. While Strasbourg is the official seat, and sits alongside the Council of Europe,[123] Brussels is home to nearly all other major EU institutions, with the majority of Parliament's work being carried out there. Critics have described the two-seat arrangement as a "travelling circus",[124] and there is a strong movement to establish Brussels as the sole seat. This is because the other political institutions (the Commission, Council and European Council) are located there, and hence Brussels is treated as the 'capital' of the EU. This movement has received strong backing through numerous figures, including the Commission First-Vice President who stated that "something that was once a very positive symbol of the EU reuniting France and Germany has now become a negative symbol—of wasting money, bureaucracy and the insanity of the Brussels institutions".[125] The Green Party has also noted the environmental cost in a study led by Jean Lambert MEP and Caroline Lucas MEP; in addition to the extra 200 million euro spent on the extra seat, there are over 20,268 tonnes of additional carbon dioxide, undermining any environmental stance of the institution and the Union.[124] The campaign is further backed by a million-strong online petition started by Cecilia Malmström MEP.[126] In August 2014, an assessment by the European Court of Auditors calculated that relocating the Strasbourg seat of the European Parliament to Brussels would save €113.8 million per year.[127] In 2006, there were allegations of irregularity in the charges made by the city of Strasbourg on buildings the Parliament rented, thus further harming the case for the Strasbourg seat.[128] Most MEPs prefer Brussels as a single base.[129] A poll of MEPs found 89% of the respondents wanting a single seat, and 81% preferring Brussels.[130] Another, more academic, survey found 68% support.[13] In July 2011, an absolute majority of MEPs voted in favour of a single seat.[131] In early 2011, the Parliament voted to scrap one of the Strasbourg sessions by holding two within a single week.[132] The mayor of Strasbourg officially reacted by stating "we will counter-attack by upturning the adversary's strength to our own profit, as a judoka would do."[133] However, as Parliament's seat is now fixed by the treaties, it can only be changed by the Council acting unanimously, meaning that France could veto any move.[122] The former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has stated that the Strasbourg seat is "non-negotiable", and that France has no intention of surrendering the only EU Institution on French soil.[134] Given France's declared intention to veto any relocation to Brussels, some MEPs have advocated civil disobedience by refusing to take part in the monthly exodus to Strasbourg.[135][136][137] Channels of dialogue, information, and communication with European civil society[edit] Over the last few years, European institutions have committed to promoting transparency, openness, and the availability of information about their work.[138] In particular, transparency is regarded as pivotal to the action of European institutions and a general principle of EU law, to be applied to the activities of EU institutions in order to strengthen the Union's democratic foundation.[139] The general principles of openness and transparency are reaffirmed in the articles 8 A, point 3 and 10.3 of the Treaty of Lisbon and the Maastricht Treaty respectively, stating that "every citizen shall have the right to participate in the democratic life of the Union. Decisions shall be taken as openly and as closely as possible to the citizen".[140][141] Furthermore, both treaties acknowledge the value of dialogue between citizens, representative associations, civil society, and European institutions.[140][141] Dialogue with religious and non-confessional organisations[edit] Article 17 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) lays the juridical foundation for an open, transparent dialogue between European institutions and churches, religious associations, and non-confessional and philosophical organisations.[142] In July 2014, in the beginning of the 8th term, then President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz tasked Antonio Tajani, then Vice-president, with implementing the dialogue with the religious and confessional organisations included in article 17.[143] In this framework, the European Parliament hosts high-level conferences on inter-religious dialogue, also with focus on current issues and in relation with parliamentary works.[142] European Parliament Mediator for International Parental Child Abduction[edit] The chair of European Parliament Mediator for International Parental Child Abduction was established in 1987 by initiative of British politician and MEP Charles Henry Plumb, with the goal of helping minor children of international couples victim of parental abduction. The Mediator finds negotiated solutions in the higher interest of the minor when said minor is abducted by a parent following separation of the couple, regardless whether married or unmarried.[144][145] Since its institution, the chair has been held by Mairead McGuinnes (since 2014), Roberta Angelilli (2009-2014), Evelyne Gebhardt (2004-2009), Mary Banotti (1995-2004), and Marie-Claude Vayssade (1987-1994).[145] The Mediator's main task is to assist parents in finding a solution in the minor's best interest through mediation, i.e. a form of controversy resolution alternative to lawsuit. The Mediator is activated by request of a citizen and, after evaluating the request, starts a mediation process aimed at reaching an agreement. Once subscribed by both parties and the Mediator, the agreement is official. The nature of the agreement is that of a private contract between parties.[145] In defining the agreement, the European Parliament offers the parties the juridical support necessary to reach a sound, lawful agreement based on legality and equity. The agreement can be ratified by the competent national courts and can also lay the foundation for consensual separation or divorce.[145] European Parliamentary Research Service[edit] The European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) is the European Parliament's in-house research department and think tank. It provides Members of the European Parliament - and where appropriate, parliamentary committees - with independent, objective and authoritative analysis of, and research on, policy issues relating to the European Union, in order to assist them in their parliamentary work. It is also designed to increase Members' and EP committees' capacity to scrutinise and oversee the European Commission and other EU executive bodies. EPRS aims to provide a comprehensive range of products and services, backed by specialist internal expertise and knowledge sources in all policy fields, so empowering Members and committees through knowledge and contributing to the Parliament’s effectiveness and influence as an institution. In undertaking this work, the EPRS supports and promotes parliamentary outreach to the wider public, including dialogue with relevant stakeholders in the EU’s system of multi-level governance. All publications by EPRS are publicly available on the EP Think Tank platform.[146][147] Eurobarometer of the European Parliament[edit] The European Parliament periodically commissions opinion polls and studies on public opinion trends in Member States to survey perceptions and expectations of citizens about its work and the overall activities of the European Union. Topics include citizens' perception of the European Parliament's role, their knowledge of the institution, their sense of belonging in the European Union, opinions on European elections and European integration, identity, citizenship, political values, but also on current issues such as climate change, current economy and politics, etc.. Eurobarometer analyses seek to provide an overall picture of national situations, regional specificities, socio-demographic cleavages, and historical trends.[148][149] Prizes[edit] Annually, the European Parliament awards four prizes to individuals and organisations that distinguished themselves in the areas of human rights, film, youth projects, and European participation and citizenship. Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought[edit] With the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, created in 1998, the European Parliament supports human rights by awarding individuals that contribute to promoting human rights worldwide, thus raising awareness on human rights violations. Priorities include: protection of human rights and fundamental liberties, with particular focus on freedom of expression; protection of minority rights; compliance with international law; and development of democracy and authentic rule of law.[150][151] European Charlemagne Youth Prize[edit] The European Charlemagne Youth Prize seeks to encourage youth participation in the European integration process. It is awarded by the European Parliament and the Foundation of the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen to youth projects aimed at nurturing common European identity and European citizenship.[150] European Citizens' Prize[edit] The European Citizens' Prize is awarded by the European Parliament to activities and actions carried out by citizens and associations to promote integration between the citizens of EU member states and transnational cooperation projects in the EU.[150] LUX Prize[edit] Since 2007, the LUX Prize is awarded by the European Parliament to films dealing with current topics of public European interest that encourage reflection on Europe and its future. 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British Politics and European Election. London: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4039-3585-4. Farrell, David; Roger Scully (2007). Representing Europe's Citizens?: Electoral Institutions and the Failure of Parliamentary Representation. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-928502-0. Gazzola, Michele (2006). "Managing Multilingualism in the European Union: Language Policy Evaluation for the European Parliament". Language Policy. Netherlands: Springer. 5 (4): 393–417. doi:10.1007/s10993-006-9032-5. Corbett, Richard; Jacobs, Francis; Shackleton, Michael (2016). The European Parliament (9th ed.). London: John Harper Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9564508-5-2. The same three co-authors have written every edition since the first in 1990. Corbett, Richard (June 1998). The European Parliament's Role in Closer EU Integration. LBasingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0333722527. Hix, Simon; Noury, Abdul; Roland, Gérard (2007). "Democratic Politics in the European Parliament (Themes in European Governance)". Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-69460-5. (draft version on-line) Hix, Simon; Noury, Abdul; Roland, Gérard (April 2006). "Dimensions of politics in the European Parliament". American Journal of Political Science. Wiley. 50 (2): 494–520. JSTOR 3694286. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5907.2006.00198.x. Pdf. Hoskyns, Catherine; Michael Newman (2000). Democratizing the European Union: Issues for the twenty-first Century (Perspectives on Democratization. Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-5666-6. Kreppel, Amie (2001). The European Parliament and Supranational Party System: A Study in Institutional Development (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-00079-6. Van der Laan, Lousewies (2003). The Case For a Stronger European Parliament. London: Centre for European Reform. ISBN 1-901229-49-1. Lodge, Juliet (23 June 2005). The 2004 Elections to the European Parliament. London: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4039-3518-2. Lodge, Juliet, ed. The 2009 Elections to the European Parliament (Palgrave Macmillan; 2011) 327 pages Maier, Michaela; Tenscher, Jens (2006). Campaigning in Europe, Campaigning for Europe: Political Parties, Campaigns, Mass Media and the European Parliament Elections 2004 (Medien). Lit Verlag. ISBN 978-3-8258-9322-4. Rittberger, Berthold (2007). Building Europe's Parliament: Democratic Representation Beyond the Nation State. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-923199-7. Sabbati, Giulio (2015). European Parliament: Facts and Figures'. European Parliament – European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS). Schmitter, Philippe (2000). How to Democratize the EU ... and Why Bother? (Governance in Europe). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 978-0-8476-9905-6. Scully, Rodger (2005). Becoming European?: Attitudes, Behaviour, and Socialization in the European Parliament. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-928432-0. Serodes, Fabrice; Heinz, Michel (2013). Le Parlement européen. Foreword by Martin Schulz. Paris: Nane Editions. ISBN 978-2-84368-100-4. Smith, Julie (1999). Europe's Elected Parliament (Contemporary European Studies). London: Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-333-59874-0. Steuenberg, Bernard; Jacques Thomassen (2002). The European Parliament on the Move: Toward Parliamentary Democracy in Europe (Governance in Europe). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7425-0126-3. Dick Toornstra; Christian Meseth (2012). Inside the European Parliament: A guide to its parliamentary and administrative structures. European Parliament – Office for Promotion of Parliamentary Democracy (OPPD). Watson, Graham (2004). EU've Got Mail!: Liberal Letters from the European Parliament. Bagehot Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9545745-1-2. Wood, David M.; Birol A. Yesilada (2007). The Emerging European Union (4th Ed.). Pearson Longman. ISBN 0-321-43941-4. Wikiquote has quotations related to: European Parliament Wikisource has several original texts related to: European Parliament Wikimedia Commons has media related to European Parliament. 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__label__wiki	0.700489	0.700489	2 Apr 2015 15:13:44 UTC dimensionscollide.wikia.com » Genghis Khan history.wikia.com » Ahmad Khan islam.wikia.com » Uthman ibn Affan hu.wikipedia.org » Szerkesztő:Pi70/arab világ ro.wikipedia.org » Discuție:Secui ru.wikipedia.org » Обсуждение:Великий Хорасан <a href="http://archive.today/FY7Lh"> <img style="width:300px;height:200px;background-color:white" src="https://archive.fo/FY7Lh/b270f2501100d09b2567e00e5dd070a05e3b18b8/scr.png"><br> Greater Khorasan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br> archived 2 Apr 2015 15:13:44 UTC </a> {{cite web \| title = Greater Khorasan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia \| url = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Khorasan \| date = 2015-04-02 \| archiveurl = http://archive.today/FY7Lh \| archivedate = 2015-04-02 }} Greater Khorasan [hide]This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. This article has an unclear citation style. The references used may be made clearer with a different or consistent style of citation, footnoting, or external linking. (March 2013) This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (March 2013) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2013) Names of territories during the Caliphate in 750 CE. Khorasan, also written as Khurasan (Middle Persian: Khwarāsān, Persian: خراسان بزرگ or خراسان کهن‎ listen (help·info)), is a historical region[1] lying in the northeast of Persia. "In pre-Islamic and early Islamic times, the term "Khurassan" frequently had a much wider denotation, covering also parts of Central Asia and Afghanistan; early Islamic usage often regarded everywhere east of western Persia, sc. Djibal or what was subsequently termed 'Irak 'Adjami, as being included in a vast and ill-defined region of Khurasan, which might even extend to the Indus Valley and Sind."[2] Khorasan in its proper sense comprised principally the cities of Balkh, Herat, and Ghazni (now in Afghanistan), Mashhad, Nishapur, and Sabzevar (now in northeastern Iran), Merv and Nisa (now in southern Turkmenistan), and Samarqand and Bukhara (now in Uzbekistan). Some believe that at certain times Khorasan covered a wider area, which included parts of Transoxiana, Soghdiana, Sistan, and extended to the boundaries of the Indian subcontinent.[1] When the Arabs first arrived to the southern Hindu Kush to defeat the Zunbils, they recognized it as al-Hind (Sind), owing to the prevalence of Buddhists and Hindus (non-Zoroastrians) due to its cultural connection with Greater India. Sources from the 14th to the 16th century report that areas in the south of the Hindu Kush mountain range (Zamindawar, Balochistan, and Kabulistan) formed a frontier between Khorasan and Hindustan.[3] In the Islamic period, Persian Iraq and Khorasan were the two important territories. The boundary between these two was the region surrounding the cities of Gurgan and Damghan. In particular, the Ghaznavids, Seljuqs, and Timurids divided their empires into Iraqi and Khorasani regions. The adjective Greater is added these days to distinguish the historical region from the Khorasan Province of Iran, which roughly encompasses the western half of the historical Greater Khorasan.[4] 2 Geographical distribution 4 Cultural importance The name "Khorasan" is derived from Middle Persian khwar (meaning "sun") and āsān (or ayan literally meaning "to come" or "coming" or "about to come"), hence meaning "land where the sun rises"[5] the same etymology also having been suggested for Khwarezm. The Persian word Khāvar-zamīn (Persian: خاور زمین‎), meaning "the eastern land", has also been used as an equivalent term.[6] Geographical distribution[edit] An accurate map of Persia by Emanuel Bowen showing the names of territories during the Persian Safavid dynasty and Mughal Empire of India (ca. 1500–1747) First established as a political entity by the Sassanids in the 3rd century AD,[7] the borders of the region have varied considerably during its 1600-year history. Initially the Khorasan province of Sassanid empire included the cities of Nishapur, Herat, Merv, Faryab, Taloqan, Balkh, Bukhara, Badghis, Abiward, Gharjistan, Tus or Susia, Sarakhs and Gurgan.[7] It acquired its greatest extent under the Caliphs, for whom "Khorasan" was the name of one of the three political zones under their dominion (the other two being Eraq-e Arab "Arabic Iraq" and Eraq-e Ajam "Non-Arabic Iraq or Persian Iraq").[2] Under the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates, Khorasan was divided into four major sections or quarters (rub′), each section based on a single major city: Nishapur, Merv, Herat and Balkh.[6] In the Middle Ages, the term was loosely applied in Persia to all its territories that lay east and north east of Dasht-e Kavir and therefore were subjected to change as the size of empire changed. According to Ghulam Mohammad Ghobar, Afghanistan's current territories formed the major portion of Khorasan,[8][9] as two of the four main capitals of Khorasan (Balkh, Merv, Nishapur and Herat) are now located in Afghanistan. Ghobar uses the terms "Proper Khorasan" and "Improper Khorasan" in his book to distinguish between the usage of Khorasan in its strict sense and its usage in a loose sense.[8] According to him, Proper Khorasan contained regions lying between Balkh in the east, Merv in the north, Sistan in the south, Nishapur in the west and Herat, known as the Pearl of Khorasan, in the center. Improper Khorasan's boundaries extended to Kabulistan and Hazarajat in the east, Sistan and Baluchistan in the south, Transoxiana and Khwarezm in the north, and Damghan and Gorgan in the west. It is mentioned in the Memoirs of Babur that: "The people of Hindustān call every country beyond their own Khorasān, in the same manner as the Arabs term all except Arabia, Ajem. On the road between Hindustān and Khorasān, there are two great marts: the one Kābul, the other Kandahār. Caravans, from Ferghāna, Tūrkestān, Samarkand, Balkh, Bokhāra, Hissār, and Badakhshān, all resort to Kābul; while those from Khorasān repair to Kandahār. This country lies between Hindustān and Khorasān."[3] History of Iran, History of Afghanistan Before the region fell to Alexander the Great in 330 BC, it was part of the Achaemenid Empire and prior to that it was occupied by the Medes. Following Alexander's brief occupation, the successor state of the Seleucid Empire controlled the area until 305 BCE when they gave south of the Hindu Kush to the Indian Maurya Empire as part of an alliance treaty. "Alexander took these away from the Aryans and established settlements of his own, but Seleucus Nicator gave them to Sandrocottus (Chandragupta), upon terms of intermarriage and of receiving in exchange 500 elephants."[10] —Strabo, 64 BC – 24 AD The land that became known as Khorasan in geography of Eratosthenes was recognized as Ariana at that time, which made up Greater Iran or the land where Zoroastrianism was the dominant religion. The southeastern region of Ariana fell to the Kushan Empire in the 1st century AD. The Kushan rulers built a capital in modern-day Afghanistan at Bagram and are believed to have built the famous Buddhas of Bamiyan. Numerous Buddhist temples and buried cities have been found in Afghanistan.[11][12] However, the region of Ariana (or Khorasan) remained predominantly Zoroastrian but there were also Manichaeists, sun worshippers, Christians, Pagans, Shamanists, Buddhists, Jews and others. One of the three great fire-temples of the Sassanids "Azar-burzin Mehr" is situated near Sabzevar in Iran. The boundary of the region began changing until the Kushans and Sassanids merged to form the Kushano-Sassanian civilization.[citation needed] An early turquoise mine in the Madan village of Khorasan during the early 20th century During the Sassanid era, Persia was divided into four quarters, Khvarvaran in the west, Bakhtar in the north, Arachosia in the south and Khorasan in the east, next to Sind or Hind. Khorasan in the east saw some conflict with the Hephthalites who became the new rulers in the area but the borders remained stable. Being the eastern parts of the Sassanids and further away from Arabia, Khorasan quarter was conquered after the remaining Persia. The last Sassanid king of Persia, Yazdgerd III, moved the throne to Khorasan following the Arab invasion in the western parts of the empire. After the assassination of the king, Khorasan was conquered by Arab Muslim troops in 647 AD. Like other provinces of Persia it became one of the provinces of Umayyad dynasty.[citation needed] The village of Meyamei in 1909 The first movement against the Arab invasions was led by Abu Muslim Khorasani between 747 and 750. He helped the Abbasids come to power but was later killed by Al-Mansur, an Abbasid Caliph. The first independent kingdom from Arab rule was established in Khorasan by Tahir Phoshanji in 821, but it seems that it was more a matter of political and territorial gain. Tahir had helped the Caliph subdue other nationalistic movements in other parts of Persia such as Maziar's movement in Tabaristan.[citation needed] Other major independent dynasties who ruled over Khorasan were the Saffarids from Zaranj (861–1003), Samanids from Bukhara (875–999), Ghaznavids from Ghazni (963–1167), Seljuqs (1037–1194), Khwarezmids (1077–1231), Ghurids (1149–1212), and Timurids (1370–1506). It should be noted that some of these dynasties were not Persian by ethnicity. The periods of the Ghaznavids of Ghazni and Timurids of Herat are considered as some of the most brilliant eras of Khorasan's history. During these periods, there was a great cultural awakening. Many famous Persian poets, scientists and scholars lived in this period. Numerous valuable works in Persian literature were written. Nishapur, Herat, Ghazni and Merv were the centers of all these cultural developments.[citation needed] From the 16th century to the early 18th century, Khorasan was ruled by the Shia Safavid dynasty while the region to the east by the Sunni Khanate of Bukhara and the southeast by the Sunni Mughul Empire.[13] It was conquered in 1722, by the Ghilzai Afghans from Kandahar and became part of the Hotaki dynasty form 1722 to 1729.[14][15] Nader Shah recaptured Khorasan in 1729 and chose Mashhad as the capital of Persia. Following the assassination of Nader Shah Afshar in 1747, A major part of Khorasan was annexed with the Durrani Empire, including Herat and Balkh.[16] Mashhad was under control by the ancestor of Nader Shah, Shahrukh Afshar until 1796.[17] In 1796, Agha Muhammad Khan conquered most parts of Khorasan, including Herat and Merv.[18][19] Herat was annexed to Afghanistan from Persia in 1857 by the Treaty of Paris (1857).[20] In 1881, the northern parts of Khorasan or Khwarezm areas, were annexed to Russian Empire by the Treaty of Akhal. [21] Cultural importance[edit] Timurid conqueror Babur exiles his treacherous relative Muḥammad Ḥusaym Mīrzā to Khorasan. Khorasan has had a great cultural importance among other regions in Greater Iran. The literary New Persian language developed in Khorasan and Transoxiana and gradually supplanted the Parthian language.[22] The New Persian literature arose and flourished in Khorasan and Transoxiana[23] where the early Iranian dynasties such as Tahirids, Samanids and Ghaznavids were based.The early Persian poets such as Rudaki, Shahid Balkhi, Abu al-Abbas Marwazi, Abu Hafas Sughdi, and others were from Khorasan. Moreover, Ferdowsi, the author of Shahnameh, the national epic of Greater Iran was also from Khorasan.[citation needed] Until the devastating Mongol invasion of the thirteenth century, Khorasan remained the cultural capital of Persia.[24] It has produced scientists such as Avicenna, Al-Farabi, Al-Biruni, Omar Khayyám, Al-Khwarizmi, Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi (known as Albumasar or Albuxar in the west), Alfraganus, Abu Wafa, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, Sharaf al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī, and many others who are widely well known for their significant contributions in various domains such as mathematics, astronomy, medicine, physics, geography, and geology.[citation needed] In Islamic theology, jurisprudence and philosophy, and in Hadith collection, many of the greatest Islamic scholars came from Khorasan, namely Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Abu Hanifa, Imam Bukhari, Imam Muslim, Abu Dawood, Al-Tirmidhi, Al-Nasa'i, Al-Ghazali, Al-Juwayni, Abu Mansur Maturidi, Fakhruddin al-Razi, and others. Shaykh Tusi, a Shi'a scholar and Al-Zamakhshari, the famous Mutazilite scholar, also lived in Khorasan.[citation needed] In Ali Soufan's book "The Black Banners", he explains the title by noting that quotes from various Hadiths regarding "Black Banners" of a "new army" taking over Khorasan have some kind of prophetic significance with many modern adherents of Jihadism. He notes that it is "not a coincidence" that Osama bin Laden made al-Qaeda's flag black. On the other hand, Afghanistan's national flag was black originally and even today it is one-third black, and with the help of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is fighting against al-Qaeda. What is more interesting is that after Afghanistan, other Muslim nations with black in their flags began fighting against their rulers. This includes Iraq in 2003 against Saddam Hussain, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) against Pervaz Musharraf, and the latest Arab Spring in which a number of Arab rulers were deposed. Soufan also notes that there is debate about whether the prophet Mohammed actually spoke some of the quoted Hadiths (such as one attributed to Abu Hurairah). He also notes that Sheikh Salman al-Ouda has said the Black Banner hadiths are not able to be authenticated.[25] Khorasan was originally inhabited by the Parthian people, the ancestors of today's people of Afghanistan's western provinces and Iran's eastern provinces as well as parts of Turkmenistan. The Parthian people appear to have been the first ethnic group to populate the region, but they began mixing with an increasing number of foreign invaders and as a result their proportionate number was reduced.[26] Significant immigrants such as Arabs from the west since the 7th century and Turkic peoples after the Turkic migration from the north in the Middle Ages settled in the region. After Genghis Khan conquered Persia in the 13th century, many Mongols settled in Khorasan after depopulating its cities.[citation needed] Biblical place names in Khorasan ^ Jump up to: a b "Khorasan". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 2010-10-21. historical region and realm comprising a vast territory now lying in northeastern Iran, southern Turkmenistan, and northern Afghanistan. The historical region extended, along the north, from the Amu Darya (Oxus River) westward to the Caspian Sea and, along the south, from the fringes of the central Iranian deserts eastward to the mountains of central Afghanistan. Arab geographers even spoke of its extending to the boundaries of India. ^ Jump up to: a b "Khurasan", The Encyclopaedia of Islam, page 55. Brill. Retrieved 2010-10-22. ^ Jump up to: a b Zahir ud-Din Mohammad Babur (1921). "Events Of The Year 910 (p.4)". Memoirs of Babur. Translated by John Leyden, Esq., M.D. and William Erskine, Esq. Packard Humanities Institute. Retrieved 2010-08-22. Jump up ^ Dabeersiaghi, Commentary on Safarnâma-e Nâsir Khusraw, 6th Ed. Tehran, Zavvâr: 1375 (Solar Hijri Calendar) 235–236 Jump up ^ Humbach, Helmut, and Djelani Davari, "Nāmé Xorāsān", Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz; Persian translation by Djelani Davari, published in Iranian Languages Studies Website ^ Jump up to: a b DehKhoda, "Lughat Nameh DehKhoda", Online version ^ Jump up to: a b The Encyclopedia of Islam, Brill 1979, Vol.5, page 56: "In Sasanid times, Khurasan was one of the four great provincial satrapies, and was governed from Marw by Ispahbadh. ^ Jump up to: a b Ghubar, Mir Ghulam Mohammad (1937). Khorasan, Kabul Printing House. Kabul, Afghanistan. Jump up ^ Tajikistan Development Gateway from The Development Gateway Foundation – History of Afghanistan LINK Jump up ^ Nancy Hatch Dupree / Aḥmad ʻAlī Kuhzād (1972). "An Historical Guide to Kabul – The Name". American International School of Kabul. Archived from the original on 30 August 2010. Retrieved September 18, 2010. Jump up ^ "42 Buddhist relics discovered in Logar". Maqsood Azizi. Pajhwok Afghan News. August 18, 2010. Retrieved 2010-08-23. Jump up ^ "Buddhist remains found in Afghanistan". Press TV. August 17, 2010. Retrieved 2010-08-16. Jump up ^ Romano, Amy (2003). A Historical Atlas of Afghanistan. The Rosen Publishing Group. p. 28. ISBN 9780823938636. Retrieved 2010-10-17. Jump up ^ "Last Afghan empire". Louis Dupree, Nancy Hatch Dupree and others. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2010-09-24. Jump up ^ Axworthy, Michael (2006). The Sword of Persia: Nader Shah, from Tribal Warrior to Conquering Tyrant. London: I.B. Tauris. p. 50. ISBN 1-85043-706-8. Retrieved 2010-09-27. Jump up ^ Friedrich Engels (1857). "Afghanistan". Andy Blunden. The New American Cyclopaedia, Vol. I. Retrieved 2010-08-25. Jump up ^ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahrukh_Afshar Jump up ^ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qajar_dynasty Jump up ^ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Paris_(1857) Jump up ^ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Akhal Jump up ^ Lazard, G., "Dari", Encyclopaedia Iranica Jump up ^ Frye, R.N., "Dari", The Encyclopaedia of Islam, CD edition Jump up ^ Lorentz, J. Historical Dictionary of Iran. 1995 ISBN 0-8108-2994-0 Jump up ^ The Black Banners, Ali Soufan, 2011, W. W. Norton & Company Jump up ^ "Khorasan i. Ethnic Groups,"' Pierre Oberling, Encyclopaedia Iranica People of Khorasan Scientists: Abu Ma'shar · Abu Wafa · Abu Zayd Balkhi · Alfraganus · Ali Qushji · Avicenna · Birjandi · Biruni · Hāsib Marwazī · Ibn Hayyān · Khāzin · Khāzinī · Khujandi · Khwarizmi · Nasawi · Nasir al-Din Tusi · Omar Khayyám · Sharaf al-Din Tusi · Sijzi · Philosophers: Ghazali · Amiri · Farabi · Nasir Khusraw · Qushayri · Sejestani · Shahrastani · Islamic Scholars: Abu Dawood · Abu Hanifa · Ahmad ibn Hanbal · Ansari · Baghavi · Bayhaqi · Bukhari · Hākim Nishapuri · Juwayni · Marghinani · Maturidi · Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj Nishapuri · Nasafi · Nasa'i · Razi · Shaykh Tusi · Rohan Kumar · Taftazani · Tirmidhi · Zamakhshari · Poets and artists: Abu al-Khair · Attar · Behzad · Daqiqi · Ferdowsi · Jami · Rabi'a Balkhi · Rudaki · Rumi · Sanā'ī · Historians and political figures: Abul-Fazl Bayhaqi · Abu Muslim · Abu Saʿīd Gardēzī · Ali Sher Nava'i · Ata al-Mulk Juvayni · Aufi · Muhammad Bal'ami · Goharshad Begum · Ibn Khordadbeh · Khalid ibn Barmak · Nizam al-Mulk · Tahir ibn Husayn · Yahya Barmaki · Ahmad ibn Nizam al-Mulk · Shihab al-Nasawi · Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Greater_Khorasan&oldid=654372284" History of Central Asia Historical regions of Afghanistan History of Herat History of Balkh Province History of Merv History of Nishapur Wikipedia references cleanup from March 2013 All articles needing references cleanup Articles covered by WikiProject Wikify from March 2013 All articles covered by WikiProject Wikify Articles lacking in-text citations from March 2013 Articles needing additional references from March 2013 Articles containing non-English-language text Afghanistan articles missing geocoordinate data	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10686
__label__wiki	0.883443	0.883443	Canada's other contentious energy export sees strong growth potential A man holds hardwood pellets used in a wood burning boiler at Athens Elementary School in Athens, N.Y., April 1, 2015. As Canada's attention is increasingly focused on the polarizing oil exports debate, another contentious energy export has been quietly gaining momentum. The humble wood pellet, once used mostly for small-scale home heating, has graduated to an alternative to coal in the hungry power plants of Europe and Asia with the disputed promise of carbon neutral energy.Mike Groll / THE CANADIAN PRESS Ian Bickis CALGARY — As Canada’s attention is increasingly focused on the polarizing oil exports debate, another contentious energy export has been quietly gaining momentum. The humble wood pellet, once used mostly for small-scale home heating, has graduated to an alternative to coal in the hungry power plants of Europe and Asia with the disputed promise of carbon neutral energy. Foreign demand has spurred the growth of operations across Canada, as companies look to make use of waste wood to produce about $500 million a year worth of the product, said Gordon Murray, executive director of the Wood Pellet Association of Canada. “It was big in B.C., and then a few Alberta plants got involved, and then also in the Maritimes, and now we’ve got plants in almost every province.” Exports jumped by 46 per cent in 2016 compared with a year earlier to reach 2.4 million tonnes, according to the National Energy Board, while companies have since continued to make investments to further boost production. Pinnacle Renewable Holdings Inc., which went public with a $150-million initial public offering in February, has built a specialized wood pellet terminal in Prince Rupert, B.C., and is working on a 400,000-tonne-per-year pellet facility in Entwistle, Alta. and a 125,000-tonne-per-year plant in Smithers, B.C. The company also says it has a few hundred thousand more tonnes of capacity in mid-stage design and engineering, plus over a million tonnes of early stage projects across North America. The increasing capacity in Canada will help meet demand from both power generation and heating segments that is expected to grow from about 30 million tonnes globally as of last year to 70 million tonnes by 2025, according to industry analyst William Strauss. He forecasts Japan and South Korea will account for much of the increased demand, along with growth from the Netherlands, the U.K. and Denmark as the EU has set a goal of having 35 per cent of power sourced from renewables, including carbon neutral-designated biomass. Wood pellets are considered carbon neutral because as forests grow they can retrap carbon, but the designation has drawn criticism from environmentalist and academics who have questioned the equation. John Sterman, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, published a paper earlier this year that argued burning pellets would release more carbon dioxide than coal in the short term because it was a less efficient source of energy. The lag for when the carbon would potentially be reabsorbed to eventually make it carbon neutral is too long when emissions reduction is needed now, said Sterman in an interview. “The next few decades, the rest of this century, this is the critical period,” said Sterman. “Biofuels, and especially wood pellets, actually worsen climate change over this period.” There are also significant concerns about the reliability of the forest retrapping the carbon, since climate change is expected to increase the risks of forest fires and insect infestations, said Sterman. “The EU has made this error, and accounting error. It’s just a false statement to say that biofuels are carbon neutral. They’re not neutral in the short run, and whether they’re neutral in the long run depends on the fate of the land.” Murray at the pellet association says such criticism is unfounded, with Canadian wood pellet production coming from waste materials like wood chips and sawdust from the lumber mills. “That material is already being harvested by the sawmill industry…so instead of wasting it, we’re using it to displace a fossil fuel,” he said. The EU has also emphasized that wood pellets should be sourced if possible from waste material, since pellets from whole trees have been found to have a much greater impact on total carbon released. But some have questioned the effect of even burning wood from waste, including a paper out in February by Mary Booth, director of the Partnership for Policy Integrity, a public advocacy group. Booth noted that while net emissions from whole tree pellets were substantially higher, her calculations found that 40 years after pellets were burned, their emissions still meant more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than had been retrapped by growing trees. Murray argues that academics and environmentalists who challenge the carbon neutral designation don’t understand how the industry works. “As long as that forest is growing at a sustainable rate, you’re actually replacing that carbon the very same day. The forest is growing continuously, and as long as you’re taking less wood out of the forest than you’re combusting, you’re better off.” While the debate continues over how to best measure its carbon impacts, the industry expects years of continued growth as power producers try to move away from coal while keeping reliable sources of power. Companies in this story: (TSX:PL)	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10690
__label__wiki	0.576376	0.576376	CyberUSA is a collaboration of states focused on a common mission purpose of enabling innovation, education, workforce development, enhanced cyber readiness and resilience – all while connecting the cyber ecosystem of the United States and its Allies. This non-profit “community of communities” is governed by its members, established to enhance information sharing between states and improve cyber resilience at all levels of participation – local, regional and national. CyberUSA provides a communication framework, a national summit and cyber related resources to communities across the United States. CyberUSA is chaired by Governor Tom Ridge, the nation’s first Secretary of Homeland Security and Chairman of Ridge Global. Former US Commerce Undersecretary Phil Bond serves as executive director of the group, while former Symantec government relations executive Adam Rak serves as national policy director. Four key principals guide the work of CyberUSA: Sustainable Funding Providing Resources for Situational Awareness (Multi-Sector & Multi-State) Increasing Opportunities for Education and Outreach The group coordinates public and private efforts across different states and communities to ensure American leadership in cybersecurity by shaping the education, innovation and policy landscapes at both the state and federal levels. Contact us to find out about the c-Community in your state.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10691
__label__wiki	0.760607	0.760607	10 Modern Stunts That Make Evel Knievel’s Look Tame Evel Knievel is the household name for death-defying stunts. When you think of motorcycle stunts, you likely picture him in his Elvis-inspired costumes, leaping over rows of cars and buses. To many, he is still the greatest stuntman of all time and arguably the most famous. However, records are made to be broken, and stunt performers are always pushing the boundaries of what’s considered possible. Believe it or not, over the last several years, some people have pulled stunts that make Knievel’s look tame by comparison. 10 Danny Way Ollies The Great Wall Of China On A Skateboard A skateboarder doing something crazier than Evel Knievel? “That’s ridiculous!” I hear you say, but it’s true. In 2005, Danny Way stunned the world by ollying over the Great Wall of China on a skateboard. If Way, who had previously leaped out of a helicopter on a skateboard and built a seven-story ramp, wasn’t already the Knievel of skateboarding, this certainly sealed the deal. He had a custom ramp built around the tallest portion of the Great Wall (since, you know, jumping the lower portions wouldn’t cut it). The ramp was tall enough that the top swayed in the wind. During a practice run, he accidentally broke his foot, but instead of getting surgery right away (like a sane person), Way wrapped his foot to prevent it from swelling and jumped the wall anyway. On his way down, he rolled onto the ramp, and everyone’s heart skipped a beat—he not only jumped the Great Wall but performed a breathtaking 360, thus conquering it like a Mongol![1] 9 Kyle Loza Performs The Electric Death Kyle Loza is one insane man. As proof, consider how he cheated death during the 2008 Summer X-Games Best Trick competition. In mere seconds, he launched his bike three stories into the air, and while keeping just one hand on the bars, he did a handstand in midair and flipped his body all the way around—briefly touching the hand of death—before returning to his seat. He then landed and simply rolled away like it was an everyday occurrence![2] 8 Brian Deegan Performs A 360 Flatspin While Injured Brian Deegan is the original bad boy of freestyle motocross. He practically invented the sport when he “ghost rode” his bike across the finish line in celebration after winning the 1997 LA Supercross. The American Motorcyclist Association disapproved of this stunt, and he was fined for it, but the crowd ate it up. Deegan then teamed up with Larry Linkogle to form the freestyle motocross (FMX) team Metal Mulisha and soon began dominating the early days of FMX competition. Despite still nursing an injury he received from the prior Winter X-Games, Deegan entered the 2004 Summer X-Games FMX Best Trick competition. With his punk rock attitude, he launched toward the ramp and shot into the air, performing a jaw-dropping 360-degree flatspin. This dangerous maneuver combines a backflip with a horizontal rotation. This stunt is tough enough to pull off when healthy but nearly impossible to do when injured![3] 7 Night Of Records 2006 In 1996, Seth Enslow technically broke Evel Knievel’s long distance jump record. During the filming of the FMX video Crusty Demons of Dirt 2: Twisted Metal, he took his Suzuki and jumped from one desert dune to another, traveling a distance of about 60 meters (200 ft)—breaking Knievel’s record of 43 meters (141 ft). However, he crash-landed onto a crowd of people and bikes. Fortunately, no one was injured, but since Enslow crashed, the record didn’t count. (Knievel crashed at the end of his jump, too.) However, in 2006, a gathering of FMX riders arrived in Queensland, Australia, for the Night of Records. This was a FMX event where a few riders would attempt to break Doug Danger’s record of 77 meters (251 ft). (Danger had since broke Knievel’s long distance jump record.) Seth Enslow was scheduled but had to back out after injuring himself during a practice run. This gave Metal Mulisha founder Larry “Link” Linkogle a chance to break the record, which he did by jumping 78 meters (255 ft). He was the new world record holder . . . for a whole couple of hours. On that same night, FMX rider Trigger Gumm, as if he were a rocket soaring to the Moon, flew an incredible 84 meters (277 ft) on his motorcycle, shattering both Danger’s and Linkogle’s records in a single night![4] 6 Carey Hart Lands The Holy Grail: The Backflip Throughout the 1990s, motocross riders were pushing the envelope of the sport. This is when riders such as Jeremy McGrath and Mike Metzger began performing BMX tricks on their motorcycles, leading to the creation of freestyle motocross. Metzger and mutual rival Carey Hart wanted to adapt the ultimate BMX trick to the moto: the backflip. However, both of them failed their attempts and visited the ER a number of times. By the end of the 1990s, performing a backflip on a motorcycle was thought to be impossible. However, at the 2000 Gravity Games (the X-Games’ forgotten younger sister) Carey Hart made everyone’s heart stop when he launched his bike toward a dirt jump. In the blink of an eye, he was three stories in the air, inverse rotating his bike and landing the Holy Grail of FMX! The impossible was made possible, paving the way for a whole new era of freestyle motocross.[5] 5 Mike Metzger Backflips Over The Caesars Palace Fountains In 1967, Evel Knievel saw the Fountains at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and knew jumping them would be the ultimate thrill. If he could pull it off, he would forever be a legend. So he organized the jump with the casino’s CEO through some clever social engineering by posing as a fake corporation (Evel Knievel Enterprises), even going as far as making calls to the CEO claiming to be from ABC and Sports Illustrated to organize the jump. On December 31, 1967, Knievel, after a shot of whiskey, jumped the fountains and landed on the ramp but came up short. Knievel ended up crashing, breaking a shopping list’s worth of bones, and spent 29 days in a coma. In 2006, as a tribute to his childhood hero, Mike Metzger—the Godfather of freestyle motocross himself—wowed a crowd of spectators when he backflipped his 100-kilogram (220 lb) bike over the fountains at Caesars Palace, somersaulting 38 meters (125 ft) through the air.[6] 4 Robbie Madison Backflips No-Handed Over Tower Bridge No one in their right mind has ever jumped London’s historic Tower Bridge. That was until an early summer morning in 2009, when FMX rider Robbie Maddison (“Maddo”) did exactly that. Tower bridge was shut down by the police and moved to the raised position to become the world’s deadliest ramp. If Maddo were to fail, he would have been in serious trouble in the dark waters of the River Thames. He took his 120-kilogram (265 lb) bike and not only jumped across the raised bridge but performed a backflip during the jump. This wasn’t an ordinary backflip, either, because as he rotated around, he let go of the bars as if to taunt the Grim Reaper himself and say, “Hey, Death! Look what I can do!”[7] 3 Travis Pastrana Performs A Double Backflip From a young age, Travis Pastrana has always been successful on a motorcycle. At 16, he competed in the first-ever X-Games Freestyle Motocross Competition and invented his own trick: the Lazy Boy. At 17, he was crowned the 2000 125cc Motocross champion, and at 18, he won the 2001 125cc Supercross Championship. His most daring feat on a motorcycle came during the 2006 Summer X-Games. During the FMX Best Trick competition, he was going to attempt the new Holy Grail—the double backflip. If he failed, he could have ended up seriously injured or even killed. But Travis, being Travis, was all right with that, as he “was just having fun.” In front of the packed Staples Center crowd with his adrenaline pumping, he took his Suzuki, sped toward the ramp, leaned back, and at that moment, it looked as if time stood still while he performed two full rotations in midair! An absolutely incredible achievement.[8] 2 Josh Sheehan Performs A Triple Backflip Nine years after Travis Pastrana stunned the world with his double backflip, Josh Sheehan wanted to push the envelope a little further—by going for three. With the help of none other than Pastrana himself, they built a custom ramp in Travis’s backyard, a ramp tall enough for the bike to gain enough altitude for Sheehan to perform three full rotations. With nerves of steel and a lot of guts, Sheehan fired his Honda to life and raced toward the ramp. After launching from the ramp, he leaned back, and like something straight from a Hollywood movie scene, things moved in slow motion as he performed the deadly triple backflip. He touched down safely, threw his bike to the side, and held his arms up like he was the king of the world. He was then mobbed in celebration by the Nitro Circus crew.[9] 1 Robbie Madison Jumps On The Vegas Arc De Triomphe And Back Down Time and time again, Robbie Madison has raised the bar in FMX. In 2005, he set the record for longest jump while performing a trick. In 2008, he broke Trigger Gumm’s long distance record with a jump of 107 meters (351 ft). On New Year’s Eve 2008, Madison raised the bar to impossible heights. In font of 300,000 onlookers, he raced his Yamaha toward a ramp and rocketed ten stories into the air, landing on the 12-meter-wide (40 ft) platform of the Arc de Triomphe at the Paris Las Vegas hotel. Maddo now had to get back down, and he wasn’t about to take a safe helicopter like some kind of wuss. Instead, he took his bike and simply rode off the side into a 15-meter (50 ft) free fall! Fortunately, there was a ramp waiting for him to land on and roll away safely. He was just as stunned as anyone in the crowd that he pulled off this incredible, daring stunt and lived.[10] Joshua Courter is an automotive journalist who enjoys writing about cars, hot rods, and drag racing history. On occasion, he has written about baseball, action sports, and music. 10 Life-Changing Inventions That Were Discovered By Accident 10 Tragic Deaths That Rocked Extreme Sports Top 10 Olympic Nightmares And Mishaps Shortest NBA Basketball Players admin July 22, 2018 July 22, 2018	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10693
__label__wiki	0.741614	0.741614	The giraffe ranks among the most familiar of the zoo and park animals. Even so, giraffes continue to harbor surprising facts. The creatures can turn black or white and make inexplicable noises at night. They even ogled a Chinese emperor during the 1400s. There are funny things in their armpits and a puzzling disease creeping up their legs. Even though giraffes are endangered, it is often conservation breeding programs that decide whether they are allowed to live or die. 10 There Are Four Species Until 2016, there was one species of giraffe. For those who cared to squint harder at subtle differences between ossicones (head “horns”), coat patterns, and different habitats, there were nine subspecies. As the classifications had been made between 1758 and 1911, modern researchers felt that the requirements were unreliable because giraffes had not been studied as deeply as other big African mammals. Unlike lions and elephants, there is plenty that remains unknown about giraffes. To discover the truth, a five-year-long study became the first to genetically analyze all the nine subspecies. The DNA tests proved that the “nine” were actually four distinct species—the reticulated giraffe (G. reticulata), Masai giraffe (G. tippelskirchi), northern giraffe (G. camelopardalis), and southern giraffe (G. giraffa). As they do not breed with each other, the correct identification of species is a positive step forward to ensure that all four survive.[1] 9 The Imperial Giraffes During the 1400s, Emperor Yongle of China wanted to explore the world. He sent a fleet of ships on seven expeditions which made it as far as South Africa, landing at the modern-day Cape of Good Hope. Yongle liked to collect exotic animals, and foreign nations gave him rhinoceroses, peacocks, elephants, and bears as gifts. During the fourth expedition, the Chinese arrived at Bengal and met with envoys from Malindi (Kenya). The latter handed over a giraffe, which was promptly stabled aboard one of the Imperial ships. The animal’s size was not a problem. The vessels that sailed during this expedition remain the biggest wooden vessels ever constructed in history. Despite Yongle’s vast collection of strange animals, the giraffe made such an impression on the emperor that it became the only animal he asked the court artist to draw. The image added a mythical flavor, suggesting that it was a qilin—a creature comparable with the West’s unicorn. A year later, a second giraffe arrived at the royal court. Despite the animals’ strange story, there is no record of what became of the spotty pair.[2] 8 They Like Carcasses National Geographic photographer Corinne Kendall visited a reserve a few years ago. Once inside Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve, she took photos of a macabre incident. Two adult giraffes were busy with a dead wildebeest. Not only did they mouth the carcass, but they occasionally tossed it into the air. This grated against the giraffe’s image as a gentle herbivore. Experts reviewed the photographs and found the behavior was not as deviant as it first appeared. It was likely a case of osteophagy. To keep their own skeletons healthy, herbivores need calcium and phosphorus.[3] For this reason, these mammals gnaw on bones. Recently, another giraffe was filmed licking the skull of a dead buffalo. One of the experts who assessed Kendall’s pictures also told National Geographic that he regularly witnessed the fascination giraffes have for carcasses during his fieldwork. An average of about six times a year, he would encounter giraffes nosing around bones. 7 Birds Sleep In Their Armpits Snapshot Serengeti was a project that ran for years inside the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. It involved camera traps that automatically took photographs when an animal moved nearby. At one point, a camera documented something that had never been seen before. Researchers have always known that a brown bird called the yellow-billed oxpecker grooms giraffes and other large African mammals. The tiny creature removes ticks and even feeds on the host’s blood, eye goop, and nose mucus. However, this activity was only observed during the day. One night, a giraffe triggered one of the traps, which took a series of snaps. They showed that the animal’s armpits contained clusters of sleeping oxpeckers. Never before had anyone realized that the birds sometimes chose to overnight on what was basically their food source.[4] Although it was a surprising find, it was not hard to see why the oxpeckers did it. Apart from ensuring that they stayed with their food-providing host, the giraffe’s armpits were also safe and warm. 6 Males Turn Black Giraffe dudes do something unusual. As they age, their blocks become black. In 2012, curious researchers studied 36 males, all from the Luangwa Valley in Zambia. They knew the precise age of 10 and estimated the ages of the rest based on how dark their patterns were. The animals’ data had been compiled over 33 years, which provided a rich source to plumb about the color change and lives of males. A calf weans at two years old and leaves its birth environment between four and eight. The darkening first becomes obvious when bulls turn seven or eight. The black starts in the middle of the brown patches and bleeds outward toward the edges. This process takes almost two years, and on average, males have a full set of coal-black spots by the time they are 9.4 years old.[5] Although the 2012 study was the first to establish a timeline, it could not find the cause. As only males experience the change, it could have something to do with testosterone levels. Bulls mature around age 10, which is around the time that their transformation is complete. 5 A Mysterious Disease In 2014, Arthur Muneza had to pick an animal to study for his master’s at Michigan State University. Like many others, he considered the popular choices—elephants and African predators. However, the biologist chose giraffes when he heard that they suffered from a strange and understudied skin condition. Giraffes are somewhat neglected when it comes to megafauna studies. Even the affliction, which may be a contributing factor to their dropping numbers, received a casual name—giraffe skin disease (GSD). However, Muneza was on fire. He dug into past research and cornered veterinarians as well as zoo and park officials. He scoured old studies for the symptoms, which include lesions on the legs and neck. The areas often turn gray, bloody, and crusty. Just eight sources mentioned anything about it. The questionnaires he sent out to those working with giraffes only garnered 63 responses. Zoos reported 14 cases of GSD in their captive specimens. Frighteningly, the Ruaha National Park in Tanzania reported that 79 percent of their giraffes had the disease.[6] Muneza’s collaboration with experts is ongoing to unravel what causes GSD, how it spreads, and how it can be cured. 4 Marius In 2014, Copenhagen Zoo in Denmark considered euthanizing one of their giraffes. As Marius was a healthy 18-month-old, thousands signed a petition for his life to be spared until a new home could be arranged. The zoo’s reason was that Marius had nothing to add to their international breeding program. They also said they could not keep the growing male in case it led to fighting with others. Despite the local and international outcry to make an effort to relocate the giraffe, Copenhagen Zoo refused to do so. On a Sunday morning, a staff member fed Marius his favorite meal of rye bread and then shot him. The giraffe was dismembered in front of visitors before his parts were distributed among the zoo’s predators and research facilities. The demise of Marius caused such anger that the zoo’s staff received death threats against themselves and their families. Marius’s short life and public slaughter highlighted something of which few citizens are aware. It is a common practice for zoos to kill healthy animals when their genetics fail to meet breeding standards, when there is no space, or when they do not attract crowds.[7] 3 They Hum At Night Giraffes are quiet creatures. So quiet, in fact, that scientists became suspicious. After all, they move in herds with social structures. This strongly suggested some sort of communication beyond the occasional kick and snort. In 2015, a strange clue was captured at three European zoos. One theory was that giraffes get chatty on frequencies that humans cannot hear. To test this, researchers left recording devices near the creatures’ enclosures. After slogging through 1,000 hours of recordings, the researchers found that giraffes do make a sound—they hum. The noise resembled something between a swarm of bees and monastic chanting. The humming happened at a very low frequency but still fell inside the range of human hearing. Despite this, zoo staff heard it for the first time only when they listened to the tapes. The exact purpose of the sound remains mysterious. Since it happens exclusively at night, it could be a way for giraffes to stay connected in the dark. It could also be a passive sound related to sleeping, like snoring or dreaming.[8] 2 Kenya’s White Giraffes In 2017, a villager in Kenya’s Garissa County saw two white giraffes. He told conservationists about the bleached pair, and soon, the animals were tracked down. They lived in the best place for such rare creatures—the Ishaqbini Hirola Conservancy. The species was identified as the vulnerable reticulated giraffe. The two animals were also family—a mother and her calf. When the cow noticed the rangers, she calmly hid her baby in the bushes and positioned herself between the infant and the humans, who stood filming a few yards away.[9] Not only did the camera capture the curious beauty of white giraffes but it was also the first footage of specimens with leucism. This genetic condition prevents the normal formation of pigment inside skin cells. It differs from albinism in that dark pigment can still flourish inside soft tissues, which was why the mother and calf had dark eyes and some body coloring. 1 They Are Critically Endangered The plight of the African elephant is well-known. There are only about half a million of the creatures left in the wild. That being said, elephant numbers look fantastic against the remaining wild giraffe population—90,000. The last 15 years saw a 40 percent die-off thanks to habitat loss and poachers. Giraffes are now extinct in seven African countries. Despite these glaring warning signs, their official conservation status remains merely “Vulnerable” as opposed to the “Endangered” African elephants. However, there is hope in small pockets. In 2016, conservationists learned that oil had been discovered in Uganda and that prospectors planned to move into Murchison Falls National Park. A particularly vulnerable group of giraffes lived on only one side of the Nile, and unfortunately, it was the side where the oil was. A daring mission floored 20 of the awkward but dangerous animals, packed them onto a ferry, and released them on the other side. Not only did the small herd thrive, but as researchers followed them, they filmed an unknown behavior for the first time. At night, the animals took turns watching for predators while the rest slept with their necks folded over their backs like swans.[10] 10 Surprising Ways Bugs Shaped The Modern World 10 People Who Faked Their Own Death 10 Extraordinary Dogs That Saved Lives 10 Things That Upped The Bird World’s Weirdness Top 10 Surreal Animals That Really Exist	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10694
__label__cc	0.601695	0.398305	Division of Pharmacy Professional Development UW–Madison School of Pharmacy Changes and Challenges in Early Drug Discovery Today When: May 24, 2017 11:00am CST W. Adam Hill Early drug discovery sets the foundation for the successful delivery of novel medicines to improve the quality of human life. The science for targeting new diseases has changed dramatically over the last five years, with more changes to come. The new challenges and limitations facing researchers in early drug discovery will be discussed in the context of the conventional technologies that exist, and where the need for disruptive technologies is most pressing. Speaker: Adam Hill, CEO, Prospective Research Inc., Beverly, MA Adam Hill is currently CEO of Prospective Research, Inc., an antibiotics discovery company based in Beverly, MA and a Partner in Triple Sharp Venture Engineering, an early stage life sciences VC. Adam Hill received his D.Phil. from Oxford University. For the ensuing 28 years he has been engaged in drug discovery with a focus on high throughput screening. After a post-doc at Harvard he established one of the first academic high throughput screening centers, at the University of Connecticut in 1995. After stints at Schering Plough and Millennium he spent 11 years at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research where he headed the Screening group in Cambridge until 2016. Constantly innovating and improving on lead finding, Adam has aided in the discovery of a number of marketed therapeutics including Boceprevir (for HCV), Sonidegib (basal cell carcinoma), and LMI070 in the clinic for SMA. He has also also been responsible for the development and implementation of a number of innovative approaches to drug discovery including the use of design of experiment, facilitated access to screening technologies, and the development of the MALDI PharmaPulse. An early adopter of modular automation, he has overseen the installation of a number of automation systems for sample management, assay development, small scale and large scale screening including BL2+ environments and bespoke solutions for cell culture and high content imaging. This webinar is a collaboration between Bruker and Division of Pharmacy Professional Development at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Pharmacy. View Recording! Course Log In → Professional Development Record → FAQs → University of Wisconsin - Madison 777 Highland Ave. Email: cemail@pharmacy.wisc.edu Phone: 877-947-4255 \| 608-262-3132 Feedback, questions or accessibility issues: helpdesk@pharmacy.wisc.edu. This site was built using the UW Theme. © 2019 Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10697
__label__cc	0.635012	0.364988	John Cusack realizes for the first time this isn't a Merchant-Ivory film. (MGM/United Artists) John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, Clarke Duke, Crispin Glover, Lizzy Caplan, Chevy Chase, Sebastian Stan, Lyndsy Fonseca, Collette Wolfe, Charlie McDermott, Kellee Stewart. Directed by Steve Pink Every so often a movie comes along that you have very low expectations for that, when you actually sit down to watch, not only exceeds them but by a large margin. It’s one of the joys of seeing a lot of movies. Adam (Cusack) is 40-something and miserable. His girlfriend has just left him and not in a nice way. He was one of those bright souls that never really measured up to his potential, and he lives in a nowhere life with no future. His video-game playing nephew Jacob (Duke) lives in his basement, mainly because his sister Kelly (Wolfe) wants nothing to do with the boy, who is an unemployed geek and a virgin to boot. Nick (Robinson) is also 40-something, working in a pet spa cleaning the anal canals of dogs and inspiring them to exercise on a treadmill. He once had a promising music career but gave it up after marrying Courtney (Stewart), who has him completely emasculated. Lou (Corddry) is an out-of-control wild man who drinks to excess and is the friend that everyone likes in small…okay, microscopic portions. At 40-something, he’s unmarried, has no girlfriend and no real life. He drives into his garage one night, totally hammered out of his mind. When his favorite Bon Jovi song – “Home Sweet Home” for those keeping score at home – plays on his car stereo, he goes into full-on air concert mode, not realizing that the garage door has closed with the engine running and that every time he stomps his feet the engine revs, spewing further emissions into the closed space. All three men are close friends who have drifted apart since their glory years in the mid-80s. When Lou is taken to the hospital as a suspected suicide, only Adam and Nick come to the hospital (apparently Lou’s family hates him, which is unsurprising). The doctor urges the two friends to keep an eye on Lou and find a way to cheer him up. The two decide to take him to Kodiak Valley, a ski resort that was the site of some of their best times from their misspent youth. Much to Lou’s disgust, they bring Jacob with them (Lou has an unreasoning and unexplained loathing for Jacob). When they get there though, it is far from the glittering village of hedonism that they remember. It is run down with many of the store fronts boarded up. The hotel is falling apart and the one-armed bellboy Phillip (Glover) is dripping with attitude. The carnage continues when they get to their room. The hot tub is non-functional with the only thing in it a decomposing carcass of a raccoon. The only thing worth the trip is the carving that Lou put in one of the nightstand drawers that asserted that Adam was apparently gay and proud. However, after a fruitless evening of playing quarters and reminiscing, the four are amazed to find the hot tub fully functional. The party really gets started then with the four drinking like fish, including a Russian sports drink that’s apparently illegal here. They wake up much the worse for wear and decide to go skiing. To their surprise they find that the ski slopes are crowded. To their surprise, many of the skiers are wearing leg warmers and headbands to hold feathered hair. The black guys are wearing Jheri curl. Michael Jackson is still black. It’s 1986 and they’re at the scene of their many crimes. It seems that they’re all inhabiting their young bodies again – which they can see when they look into the mirror. But after meeting a cryptic hot tub maintenance man (Chase), they begin to realize that they are being constrained by the butterfly effect – the consequences that of a butterfly flapping its wings in Beijing causing a hurricane in Miami. In other words, the smallest action in the past can have devastating consequences in the future. Since Jacob was too young to be there, he is in danger of never having been born. Of course, that’s nothing like finding out that his mom was also at the ski resort and she was something of a skank in her day. But the guys need to do exactly what they did that day in the past; Adam needs to break up with his girlfriend (and take a fork to the face for his problems), the happily married Nick needs to have sex with a groupie and Lou needs to get beaten up by Blaine (Stan), the arrogant preppy ultra-conservative leader of the ski patrol. The thing is that by choosing different paths here they could make their lives a whole lot better in the future. However, the repercussions could also be devastating. Will they follow the path they chose once and return home to the lives they know, or will they take a chance and risk everything? Director Steve Pink co-produced two of Cusack’s finer films, Grosse Point Blank and High Fidelity. This movie is totally unlike Cusack has ever done before. He plays the straight man here, but the film is infused with a surfeit of toilet and sexual humor. It is as raunchy as they come, raunchier even than last year’s The Hangover. While I don’t believe this is going to pull the kind of numbers that film did, it is at least of a similar quality. Although Cusack is one of my favorite actors, he isn’t the reason I like this movie – Robinson and Corddry are. Corddry is manic and over-the-top in his performance. While he doesn’t deliver a Zach Galifinakis-like performance, he makes an indelible impression. Veteran actor Robinson is the master of the deadpan look, and he comes up with some of the best lines of the film. The film reproduces the 80s quite well, from the look to the music although it tends to lead more towards the cliché side. It’s not as bad as, say, The Wedding Singer in dwelling on the excesses of the decade but it does spoof its share. In some ways this is a parable about middle aged crazy, reclaiming our youth and second chances (in fact, the Jacob character plays the online social game Second Life incessantly which is a nice bit of business). On that level it works surprisingly well. Regret is a powerful thing, but the characters aren’t crippled by it precisely. They are however trapped by their choices to a certain extent which have colored their lives even to the present day. All three of these characters suffer from diminished returns on high expectations. It’s not a condition I’m unfamiliar with. I found myself laughing throughout the movie, from beginning to end. Too often a lot of modern comedies start off strong and fade in the final reel; not so Hot Tub Time Machine. Yes, the humor is scatological and crude, but if you don’t mind something that’s less highbrow, this is for you. I was quite pleasantly surprised; ignore the less-than-stellar trailer and give it a shot. REASONS TO GO: Surprisingly funny, much more than I expected it to be. Corddry and Robinson turn in some fine performances. REASONS TO STAY: Might be too raunchy for some. FAMILY VALUES: Much raunchiness, nudity and bad language. Mature teens and adults only. TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The “what color is Michael Jackson” line spoken by Craig Robinson is ad libbed. HOME OR THEATER: Nothing really screams big screen here. TOMORROW: Made of Honor This entry was posted in New Releases and tagged 80s, Chevy Chase, cinema, cocaine, Craig Robinson, Crispin Glover, crude comedy, diminished returns from high expectations, dog spa, drinking, drug use, emasculation, Films, Hot Tub Time Machine, hot tubs, John Cusack, marijuana, marital infidelity, MGM, movies, mushrooms, nudity, reviews, Rob Corddry, Second Life, ski resort, Steve Pink, suicide attempt, time travel, toilet humor, United Artists by carlosdev. Bookmark the permalink.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10704
__label__cc	0.739494	0.260506	Spain, March 1939 – the Spanish Civil War is coming to an end. Five young Republicans in the small town of Cuenca know they are on the losing side of the war. History only recognises the winners, and the group know they could die, all destined to become faceless statistics. They concoct a plan to go to Valencia in search of safety, but not all of these young men and women are going to survive… Seventy years later, bicycle mechanic Luna Montgomery, the granddaughter of a New Zealand nurse who served during the Spanish Civil War, has made Spain her home. A young widow and mother of two little boys, Luna wants to know what became of her Spanish grandfather. He is one of the ‘disappeared’, one of the hundreds of thousands of Spaniards who were murdered and hidden away during and after the war. On a quick trip to Madrid, Luna forms an unlikely friendship with an intelligent and popular bullfighter, Cayetano Beltrán, but as Luna presses on to delve into Spain’s history for answers, Cayetano struggles with truths he wished he had never found out. In an ever-changing society that respects and upholds family ties, betrayal by the people that Luna and Cayetano hold dear will hurt them more than they could have realised. There are old wounds that have yet to heal underneath Spain’s ‘pact of forgetting’. Listen to the author interview on ‘The Book Show’ on Talk Radio Europe 13.12.12 Purchase the first in the ‘Secrets of Spain’ series now in paperback and Kindle Hello! A few months ago, I asked for questions to be put to me about my upcoming book, ‘Blood in the Valencian Soil’, or anything writing related. I got a wide range of questions from all over the world. So let’s start! What is ‘Blood in the Valencian Soil’ about? Luna, a New Zealand woman living in Valencia, is the granddaughter of a nurse who was part of the International Brigade during the Spanish civil war. Luna needs the birth certificate of her Spanish grandfather in order to gain her residency permit to remain in the country permanently. With no family, and still hurting after her husband’s death, Luna is looking for a link to the country she lives in. Luna meets Cayetano, a bullfighter from Madrid, who is more or less looking for a way out of his life. Cayetano impulsively decides to help Luna on what should be a simple trip to Cuenca, and step by step, they both figure out who their families really are. Don’t expect a happy ending. The book is the first in a series. Have you ever been to a bullfight? What is your opinion of the sport? Why did you choose it for your novel? Yes, I have been to a bullfight, in Valencia. A few weeks after I arrived in Spain, in June 2005, I was given four tickets to a fight, and they were the all-important seats in the shade. In early July, with a one-year-old and a newborn, there was no way we could sit in the sun for hours. Maybe it was that I was brought up in the country where animals are food (or perhaps that I am especially sadistic), but the element of killing an animal doesn’t bother me in the way it bothers others. People view the performance as a bloodletting massacre, but that is just too simplistic. If you look at the work involved in it, from those who breed the bulls, to the work done by the toreros who compete, it is a massive operation. Whether you defend it as traditional or not, it is something ingrained into Spanish life (well, from Madrid south anyway). I suppose, for me, it was a foreigner curiosity that drew me there. Did I leave with an appetite for blood? No. Did I leave with an appetite for protest against the proceedings? Hell no. All I can say to those who have not been to a bullfight, yet have strong opinions on the subject – calm down. By all accounts the economy, and modern thoughts on animal welfare, could well deal the death blow to the sport soon enough. Why in my book? Bullfighting doesn’t feature heavily in terms of details. But like or hate it, it is quintessentially Spanish. It promotes the male pride that I need for my main character, Cayetano Beltrán. If you expect to see him prancing around in his suit of lights killing stuff, think again. There is a personality behind every torero. Why do you study Spanish Civil War graves? Where did you get the idea? Where? The hard way. I can’t go into a lot of detail in the interest of privacy, but I met a woman who knew of a grave in Valencia city, not far from where she and I lived. Until then, I had no idea of the Spanish Civil War. My only connection to Spain was a great-grandfather who fled the country, only to ‘disappear’ when my grandmother was very young. Where he went, no one knows. That was when I started looking for information, and was given a copy of Ghosts of Spain by the wonderful and insightful Giles Tremlett. I had to admit, my life in Spain, while incredible, was not the typical Spanish experience. I lived earning far more than the average Spaniard, given a home, car, people to help out with anything I could possibly need. Once I stopped spending the bulk of time among the expat community, I found a decidedly different Spain. Another book I read and found insightful early on was Jason Webster’s Guerra, about finding a mass grave in his backyard (as such). After sending a great deal of time in the mountain outside Valencia, you can get a sense of a more traditional Spain than in the cities. I have a particular fondness for the area and the people who live out there. The reality is that people are still digging up graves, despite the time that has past. People are still sitting on secrets. Not all grievances have been settled. No one seems to care, either. Rebalsadors mountain outside Valencia city, where the book is set. Do you have a muse? For the characters of BITVS, I don’t have a muse of any kind. I do find that having a muse can lead to feeling somewhat pigeonholed into what the character may or may not do. That is not always the case, sometimes having a case study to help with detail is helpful, but I don’t have a particular person in mind when writing. All the characters are completely fictional in terms of their personalities, characteristics and looks. Some of the characters (the ones set in 1939) are based on real people, but in the interest of their privacy, I have created entirely new people and fit their histories into the storyline. My lead character is Luna Montgomery, and she has been literally plucked from the air. If you were to ask who she is like, I honestly couldn’t tell you. If someone wants to read and see if she reminds them of someone, I’m all ears. As the main lead character, Cayetano Beltrán, he is also not based on anyone either. He is by no means perfect, and neither is Luna. To be honest, sometimes they do things that annoy me. Luna can be darned indecisive, a trait I don’t like. Cayetano can be too eager to be perfect, so when he falls flat, he falls exceptionally hard. How did you pick the locations in the book? I must confess that I took the easy route for this first book in the series, and chose places I know. In Madrid, they walk streets that I have walked down, been to hotels and buildings I have been to. The rural settings are just the same, places I have been to and love. Valencia is my favourite Spanish location, so it will be the main setting for all the books in the series. In the first book, they stick to the more well-known locations, and as we go along, more locations in Valencia and the surroundings areas will be touched on. I love Valencia, it’s a truly unique city. Valencia old town Do you get much feedback about your books? I do! Most days someone will tell me what they think of my writing. I have yet to have anyone tell me that what I have written is terrible, though surely that day will come. It is impossible to please everyone. I did have one ‘friend’ who told me my last book was no good, and that it wouldn’t sell, which I guess is proof you can’t please everyone. But on the whole, I get good feedback. Some is uncommonly good, so much so I hear from those people every day. They follow everything I do, read the same things, try the same recipes, follow the same people on FB and twitter, regardless if it has anything to do with my work, even following my private friends and hobbies. But it’s only virtual stalking, so I just have to let it happen. On the other hand, I do get messages, speaking as if my characters are real people, and they make suggestions for them. That I love. Which one of your characters would you like to have over for dinner, and why? From BITVS, I would like to have Paco Beltrán over for dinner. Paco is Cayetano’s father, and one of the main characters in the novel. Paco is 70 years old and has lived in Spain during a tremendous period of change. He was born just after the civil war, was a child during the years of hunger, and came of age in the late 1950′s while the country continued to struggle to get on its feet. He had a rising career in the 1960′s as the country was again evolving, and also in the 1970′s when the whole nation was transformed with the death of Franco and the building of a constitution. He was there during the ETA bombing of the 1980’s and the political scandals of the 1990’s, and the social upheavals of the early 2000’s. The man is intelligent and secretive, and still has a lot to tell me about his story in the continuing series I am writing. If I could have a second guest, it would be Scarlett Montgomery. She was a fearless New Zealander, who had no hesitations on sailing to Spain to try and help during the civil war. What she endured was extreme, and while she may seem cold, she is an intensely remarkable woman. Not only did she experience an extreme period on history, it shaped the rest of her life, living on the edge of conventional society. What is it like being a writer? Lonely! I spend so many hours researching the subjects I write. I am a mother of four, so most of my day-to-day conversations are child-related. I can easily go whole days without speaking to a person outside of my immediate family. They say the authors live twice – their real lives, and the lives of their characters. It’s very true. I may be visiting my accountant, but I am thinking of bullying in the Spanish police force in the 50′s. I am writing two books at the moment, on two subjects, the second in the BITVS series, and my second Canna novel, Violent Daylight. My mind of covering a wide range of subjects in a day. I love it. How much of your book is true, and what is fiction? The characters are all totally fictional. Their jobs, lives, homes,and relationships are all fictional. However, the storyline set in 2009 does follow what was happening in Valencia/Madrid/Cuenca in that time period. I did consider not mentioning the on-going financial crisis, but it’s a part of life at the moment. I feel it makes the characters more real to be worrying about jobs, money and the regional government. The storyline set in 1939 follows real time events, the dates, places and situations were all real, with fictional characters experiencing the upheaval going on in the cities and towns mentioned. You could go to the places mentioned in the book, as they are realistically described. I found that Valencia hides its civil war past better than other cities, but since I spent a lot of time at the port in the city, details did emerge. All the people I interviewed about their lives in the civil war are not named for their privacy. Calle de las Platerías. Ruzafa, Valencia ca. 1939 How many books will be in the Luna Montgomery series? It will be a trilogy. BITVS is the first book, set in present day, and in 1939 at the end of the Spanish civil war. The second book is set in the continuing present-time story of Luna and her bullfighter friend, Cayetano, alongside with a storyline set in 1957, about the fate of baby-snatching plan during Valencia’s famous deathly flood. The third with be set alongside present day and a story set in the 1970′s, as Spain changes after the death of Francisco Franco. You will know Luna inside out by then! How long are you planning on writing for? As long as I can! I have three books in the Luna Montgomery series, and two books in the Canna Medici series. I also have another book brewing, based on the battle for Madrid in 1936, and another quietly working itself out in the back of my mind, another social convention challenger, a bit like the Canna series. Once those seven are written, I will see what else I can come up with. Do you write yourself into Luna or Canna? That is a tough question. Is Luna me? No. Canna? No. But they do encompass attributes that I like. If I had to pick which character is more like me personally, I would have to say Canna, in that she is ‘bold’. She is dark, and I am not afraid to say that I am, too. She is a character fully made up by me, and I am happy to back up her behaviour and motives. Life isn’t always pretty (or legal), and that doesn’t get written often enough (in my opinion). Luna is a mother-of-two, so to write that is easy for me. Solo mothers aren’t normally lead characters in books, so I thought I would make her a mother. As soon as the character first came to me (three years ago), she always seems to be a mother of boys. So wherever you see her, you will see that she has made sure her children are safe and under control. She is extremely over-protective, but she has good reason. Luna is fragile, though she is doing her best not to act like it. You won’t see her crying over her lot on life or asking for help, despite what is going on. Do you have a favourite character in BITVS? Hmmm… if I had to pick one, I would say Scarlett, because I am a sucker for strong female characters. Scarlett is strong because she needs to be, and I find her to be the most practical person when faced with grief or trouble. I’m sure she does break down at times, but she never gave me the opportunity to write them, the war was dictating the storyline. My characters aren’t perfect, so whether you like Luna, Cayetano, Darren, or any of the others, they all have flaws, big and small. They wouldn’t feel real if they didn’t. Women played a huge part in the Spanish civil war Who are your target readers with your new book? Good question! Obviously I would like to appeal to as many people as possible. I have worried throughout the whole process that it would appeal more to women than men, which is not what I wanted. I would like it to appeal to male readers just as much as female. I have taken a lot time to get the finer details of the story correct, so it is not a throwaway holiday romance novel that you leave in the hotel room (well, you could… my husband accidentally left a copy of Night Wants to Forget in a luggage trolley at Paris airport in July), it is a book for you to read and come away feeling as if you learned something. If you live in Spain or have spent a lot of time there, the detail may not seem like much, because you will know the locations, habits, language, weather, food etc., but if you don’t know Spain you can read and understand without feeling overwhelmed. I didn’t want it to feel like a series of facts and details thrown at people who have sat down to read fiction. I have tried to balance detail with entertainment. In the end, it is novel, so if you are looking for war history, it may not be what you are looking for. Read Paul Preston or Gerald Brenan for that. Which writer is your mentor? Does anyone help you write? That’s a tough one. I can’t say I have a mentor. I don’t have another writer who I talk to about my writing. There are authors that I draw some inspiration from, but I couldn’t go as far as saying their books are written in a similar style to my own. I don’t know of another author that has a similar style to what I produce (if you have a suggestion, readers, I’m all ears). There were certainly points in writing BITVS that having someone to bounce ideas off would have been helpful, but not the other hand, I like that I did it all solo. I love anything written about Spain – I am currently reading The Sentinel by Mark Oldfield (when I have the time), and that is a book whose style inspires me to write. Any time I read Jason Webster I feel like writing because his fiction work is based in Valencia, and I find my mind drifting to my own settings and storyline when I read. I read while on the spin bike so I can can’t stop reading and pedaling, and start writing. Did you have any difficulties writing BITVS? I know all the characters really well, and find writing them easy. However, this no fairytale love story, so there is no happy ending. It is tempting to write everything working out, everyone making it to safety, everyone redeeming themselves. But that simply isn’t me. There are a few chapters towards the end that were hard. I wanted to give them alternate outcomes, but I had to stick to what the story needed. The story revolves around what happened to Cayetano Ortega (that isn’t a spoiler, by the way) and writing his life wasn’t as easy as I thought. The same goes for all the characters in the 1939 storyline. Also, in the 2009 storyline, I felt the need to keep changing the character of Darren, but it would change the story too much. At least my main characters stuck to the script! In the end, I wrote as the story needed it to be, regardless of how sad I felt about it. The clock tower building in Valencia port, damaged after a civil war bombing. BITVS has life-altering decisions made right here What was the first piece you wrote? I had to think about this one! I found the answer in a box of things that my mother left me when she died. There was a short story that I wrote when I was 14, and I had forgotten all about it until I found that my mother had kept it all these years. I see from the teacher’s notes that I scored 100%, and that is probably why my mother kept it. It would have been the only time I scored well in school! The story is about a woman working on an America’s Cup team in the United States. It was the night before a big race, and she was working alone in the night, taking in the silent area around where her team’s boat was moored. I loved reading this, not just because I could see my own early style in it, but also because it held so many dreams that I had for my own life. It is amusing to look back and see that I have achieved what I have set out in my life, and didn’t let go of the dreams I had as a kid. Don’t them go, otherwise it’s all job, mortgage, stress. Screw that! Will you put a timeline of the war in your book? Or perhaps a pronunciation list for Spanish names and words. I have no need to put a timeline in the book. In the end, BITVS is fiction, and not a book about the civil war in its own. The timeline wouldn’t help to understand the story. As for pronunciation, I think if the reader is having trouble with something, they are free to use Google to help themselves out. The reader doesn’t need to know Spanish to read this book, and the Spanish words used will not leave you feeling as if they missed something. As for the characters names, if you want, please Google them to see how they are said, otherwise let your mind make some up and just enjoy reading. The pronunciation does not need to perfect, as it adds nothing to the story, or level of enjoyment. The story is based in Valencia, and many can’t even pronunciation that properly. (It’s Ba-len-thia, by the way.) If you had the chance, is there anything you would change in the book? I don’t think here is any part I would like to change. The storyline flowed remarkably naturally for me, and I never got to a chapter, or part in the storyline, where I felt stuck. I could always see what was coming next, and why the characters were doing what they were. Nothing feels out of order or forced. These people are intensely real to me, and they stumble through life just like everyone else. It would be easy to fix their mistakes for them, but sugar-sweet people are rarely stimulating. Often, just a glimpse at something will help a whole chapter unfold all in one sitting. Do you consider your characters to be real people? Absolutely! If I don’t think them real, then no one else will. When I am writing, I say that I have a visitor (or visitors), and I am just recording what they are telling me. Different characters speak to me at different times. Some are in my room in the night, some talk loud while I vacuum, some will come storming in the door while I am sitting at my desk, some talk while I’m driving. This year I lost my beloved father, and none of my characters spoke to me while I was nursing him, or doing my daily four hour drive to and from his hospital. How many edits have you done on the manuscript? Six! Six bloody read through headaches (which took about a week each, given my timetable). The first two were changes on every single page, the third was a read to check for edits and commas, italics, etc. (and the very helpful read by my editor, Sabine Kern), and the other three were my own neurotic mind desperately holding on to my baby. Though, on my sixth reading, I did get sent come info that meant I needed to make a last minute change. I was so mad that I had made such a mistake in the storyline that I wanted to throw the whole thing away. Then I calmed down and felt grateful that I had received the information. Edit one – and yes, I always edit in pink If you were writing a book about your life, what would be about and what would you call it? What would the story of my life be like? A horror! LOL no… but it wouldn’t be a happy fairytale. I learned a lot about life pretty young. Divorces, desperation for a relationship, death at a young age, loneliness, depression, attempted rape, self-harm… and then I finished being a teenager! But also I know about realising your dreams, not veering off life’s course and sticking to what you want. I understand relationships and have held down marriage for 11 years (so far). I know all about the love of children, the grief of losing one, and the fight to save another. I have travelled the world and met the most colourful people, from homeless people to billionaires. Could I write this? Maybe, but not yet. The title – Love Displaced. Did you learn anything while writing BITVS? I learned a lot! As I was writing away, I was constantly asking people around (okay, on twitter) about little bits and pieces. What I thought as minor details about life in Spain were foreign (excuse the pun) to others I was talking to. That made me realise that I didn’t need to go into too much detail in the first book about Spain without it sounding over-complicated, or that I was trying too hard with detail. The reality was that many people didn’t know where Valencia is, let alone Cuenca. Many have no idea at all that there was a civil war in Spain, who was involved, or the fallout of it all. So, for the first book in the trilogy, I didn’t get too detailed and instead have kept it light. The plan is for you to learn things without feeling overloaded. As for writing, I learned a lot again about the process, which made writing the book rather seamless. I wrote the whole thing in about six months. I learned a whole lot about editing. Instead of just writing and writing, and then cutting out the fluff, I can concentrate on the story and not bother with the fluff to begin with. For my last book, I had no idea about editing, and every time edits came back to me, I felt crushed. Not the case this time. As a result, my own writing style has remained intact, whereas I felt it had been squeezed out of my last novel (as much as I like the story, there are changes I don’t like in Nights). From pronouns, to verb form use, to faulty parallelisms, to passive and active voices, to modifiers, to qualifiers and quantifiers, you name it, I have worked on it all. Writing is easy compared to editing. That being said, I like editing. Why is Luna Montgomery a bicycle mechanic? That idea came to me early on in the process. I imagined her husband to be a pro-cyclist and I needed a way for her to meet him. Luna is not a girly-girl, and a bike mechanic seemed like a great job for her. She is very much a ‘live your dreams’ kind of girl. She doesn’t yearn for a normal life. She wants a stable family for her sons, but that involves a life a nomadic whim-filled life. Luna is a woman prepared to take risks. Cycling is a big part of Luna’s life and relationships, not unlike my own life. The cycling in Valencia is fantastic Is there a part of your book that you didn’t want to write? There is, but I can’t say too much or will be a huge spoiler to the story. I got to a point in the story where I could have written a very lovely chapter where everyone came together and it was filled with love and blah blah blah, and that was predictable and boring. Instead, I finished that part of the storyline with something that really broke my heart. It was an issue very close to my life and I still feel bad for writing it. The reality is that life doesn’t have a happy ending, and I had to follow the story the way it had to be written. Let’s see if anyone can read the book and see what I’m talking about. What has been the toughest criticism of you book…If any…? Fortunately, I have no faced criticism for my work. I’m sure that day will come, but it hasn’t yet. The only negative thing I have faced about my writing is a couple of my friends getting all weird and jealous when I put out my first book. Needless to say, I let them go and kept writing anyway. That was just… mean. Why do you write about the Spanish civil war? I come from New Zealand, which is easily one of the most relaxed countries in the world, in all respects. One of the news items tonight was about a cow-milker who tweets while collecting the milk. Seriously. I won’t be walking down the street which is a site that has been the centre of a war, or, in fact, any major historical moment. The country hasn’t really existed all that long. So when moving to Spain, I was presented the opposite, a land with thousands of years of history. I’m a bit of a nerd, so that appealed to me. I first started studying the war after learning about war graves in Valencia, and the injustice of the process of moving and respecting the dead. It made the history of it all more real. With Spain, the stereotypes of the country and the reality are quite different. I’m not a fan of stereotypes. Do you read fanfiction? No. If I want to read about characters, I will read the original piece of work by the author that made up the characters and plot to begin with. Now, before fanfiction writers pick up their torches and pitchforks, I’m sure some of them are coming up with readable stuff… but still no. I don’t read much fiction as it is. I can’t think of a book that I would like to read fanfic about. Maybe it’s just me. Just today I saw someone mention fanfiction about tennis players… that is out there? I had no idea. My reading is taken up by study and research anyway. Are you scared of anything? Failure. And rollercoasters (what if my hair gets caught in it and it rips my head off?) Do you have any pet hates? People who park in disabled spaces, when their only disability is laziness and/or stupidity. Get a pass to park there, or piss off. People need those spaces. Sunrises… and missing them because I got to sleep in. The sun over Albufera lake in Valencia. I saw the sun rise over it every morning, because my kids never gave me sleep-ins. How did you get your character names? Luna is a favourite name of mine, Cayetano is friend’s name, Paco is the guy in Valencia that my husband buys suits from, Scarlett was a suggestion from my eight year-old, Alejandro and Ines I just like, Sofia was what my mother wanted me to name my daughter (never had one, never wanted one!), Darren was random… they just come to mind and are stuck there. What is the next book in the series about and when will it come out? The trilogy of books (Secrets of Spain) continues in book two, called Unrestrained Vengeance, and is set in two times – Valencia in 2010 and 1957. The storyline is the continuation of Luna Montgomery and her discoveries about her family, and the history she is digging up. 1957 centres around the flood that swept through Valencia, killing hundreds. The flood is going to disrupt an illegal activity and Franco’s visit to the flooded areas is going to hurt a lot of people – people who deserve it. There are plenty of clues in Blood in the Valencian Soil as to the main characters of the second novel. I will have it out in November 2013. So you can enjoy BITVS until then. I am also working on Violent Daylight, my Night Wants to Forget sequel, so I am pretty busy. One thought on “SECRETS OF SPAIN 1 – BLOOD IN THE VALENCIAN SOIL” Pingback: Caroline Angus Baker on ‘Talk Radio Europe’ « Caroline Angus Baker	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10705
__label__wiki	0.797464	0.797464	In Iran, a Lost Generation Raises its Voice Saddled with the effects of the 1979 upheaval, Iran’s “children of the revolution” have expressed their rebellion through both destructive and creative means. University students in Iran. Julia Maudlin. CC BY 2.0 Iran’s younger generation has faced an uncomfortable paradox: While they were born after the massive cultural and political revolutions that redefined their country beginning in 1979, they nevertheless have to grapple with its less-than-favorable results. Over the past decade, Iranians at home and abroad in the United States have faced internal turmoil and external oppression—and with unrest once again brewing between America and the Middle East, upheaval threatens to return in full force. Forty years ago, in 1979, the revolutionary period began when Iran’s Islamic Republic seized power from Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. Led by Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Islamists aimed to do away with the Westernized era of the Shah, and reinstate traditional religious principles. “We must root out immorality from our society,” announced the Ayatollah two weeks after his arrival in Tehran. “We shall purify the entire press, the radio, the television, the cinemas, the schools and the universities.” In the ensuing years, Iran transformed into what Qantara—a German website seeking to promote dialogue with the Islamic world—calls “Neither East nor West, but an Islamic republic.” Vigilantes claiming to be “Followers of the Party of God” (“Ansar-e Hezbollah”) blacklisted liberal newspapers and torched publishing houses and bookshops. The Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution disseminated instructions to educators at all levels of the school system, ordering them to ensure their curricula aligned with the tenets of Islam. Further, the revolution adopted distinctly anti-American rhetoric, decrying the United States’ profiting from Iranian oil and thwarting of democratic movements for the past quarter-century. Not every regime that has come to power since 1979, however, has enforced strict regulations on the lives of its constituents. Between 1997 and 2005, reformist leader Mohammad Khatami ushered in the “Tehran spring,” a period of political liberalization and relaxation of the harsh rules governing citizen behavior. Yet Khatami largely failed to live up to his promises of freedom, democracy, transparency, and reform, even when the reformers gained power in Parliament. Particularly traumatic for the Iranian people were the events of summer 1999, when gangs of thugs killed one student and injured many others during an attack on a Tehran University resident hall. When the students defended themselves, Khatami refused to support them, prompting many students and young people to distance themselves from the pro-democracy movement. And with the election of religious hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president in 2005, even the perfunctory reforms enacted by Khatami lost their potency. In recent years, Iran’s overwhelmingly youthful population—60 percent of its 70 million citizens were under 30 as of 2009—is placed in an uncomfortable position with respect to its country’s tumultuous past. This cohort did not experience the revolution directly, or experience the rule of the Shah, or fight in Iran’s battle with Iraq—yet they have experienced the aftermath of the 1979 upheaval and have grown up steeped in what The Economist calls “Iran’s strange blend of theocracy and democracy.” This group of younger citizens was dubbed “the children of the revolution” by the mullah leadership that took control of the government after the 1979 student-led takeover of the American embassy. Having never known a world other than the one controlled by Islamists, they are branded with this label regardless of their own views on the massive cultural shifts that defined their childhoods. Their education was marked by intense ideological indoctrination, and among those who came of age in the 1980s, the principle of jihad and martyrdom against enemy forces in Iraq was often embraced. A young woman in Gorgan, Iran. Soudeh Rad. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 In the following decades, young people were profoundly affected by the economic failures of the Iranian government: Although citizens are generally extremely well-educated and literate, job prospects have historically been grim, with rampant inflation and unemployment disproportionately affecting the young. The population spike following the revolution only made matters worse, as it encouraged rapid urbanization and an increasingly slim job market. With a job shortage, a lack of leisure and entertainment facilities, and discouraging prospects for the future, many young people experienced crippling apathy. In the mid-2010s, Qantara described dangerous levels of drug addiction among Iranian youth and an insurmountable rift between younger generations and ruling clerics. Overall, asserts Qantara, the children of the revolution yearn to live in freedom—to develop their talents and ideologies according to their personal desires and morals rather than under the aegis of spiritual leaders. Yet despite widespread disaffection, young people are stymied by their complex relationships to their own country and its leadership. Many young Iranians still hold religion in high regard, and do not wish to transform Iran into a secular country; rather, they would prefer Islam to be eliminated from the public sphere and kept within their private lives. Further, despite the failings of their government, younger generations maintain a strong sense of national pride, and would still protect their leaders if faced with outside interference or attack. Today, blame has shifted slightly among some citizens, targeting the theocracy rather than the elected executive class. Writing for The Economic Times of India in 2019, Abhijit Iyer-Mitra notes that lower-class rural voters are beginning to turn against the same religious leaders who have long supported them, but that their lack of independent leaders and means of mass mobilization effectively limits the harm they can do to the established order. Meanwhile, Iranians living in America face unique challenges and often have complicated feelings about their native country. Virginia-based magazine AltDaily notes that the 2009 elections, which reinstated Ahmadinejad as Iran’s president, placed the country’s power structure and governance at the center of American dialogue. Writing 10 years later, in May 2019, Shervin Malekzadeh—who left Iran as a baby in 1978—describes the revolution as transforming Iran “from an exotic and ancient civilization” in the international eye “into something ominous.” Malekzadeh describes demonization of Iranians as religious fanatics, and feelings of pressure to present the “correct” narrative to Americans about a country that, to him, was largely an enigma. Young men in Qazvin, Iran. Kamyar Adl. CC BY 2.0 In a piece for the Asian American news and culture magazine Hyphen, Iranian American writer Manijeh Nasrabadi notes hesitation to identify as Iranian among children of the diaspora: The 2000 US census indicated slightly more than 500,000 people of Iranian birth and descent living in America, but diaspora organizations place that number between 600,000 and 1 million. Nasrabadi points to negative treatment of immigrant groups by Americans, exacerbated by the 1979 upheaval and its anti–US rhetoric. Yet xenophobic attitudes—especially after 9/11, when Americans grew ravenous for knowledge of little-known, “threatening” parts of the world—have paradoxically offered a new outlet for Iranian American expression: writing. In the mid-2000s, memoirs by writers who came of age in Iran, such as Reading Lolita in Tehran, achieved mainstream success, and helped make a name for Iranian American literature as a distinct creative category. “We have all faced a daunting challenge,” Nasrabadi writes, “how to grapple with a violent revolutionary legacy while inhabiting an America that abhors Iran and yet constitutes our home.” Now, with US tensions against Iran once again ramping up, and President Trump invoking bellicose threats as he deploys a military presence to the Persian Gulf, Iranian youth both in the Middle East and in America may once again face profound trauma as their native country grows embroiled in international turmoil. Perhaps this time, rather than channeling their frustrations into public disturbance, the younger generation will go the way of Nasrabadi and Malekzadeh, and express their disaffection through creative means—in the process, acquainting the international community with the unique concerns of the children of the revolution. TALYA PHELPS hails from the wilds of upstate New York, but dreams of exploring the globe. As former editor-in-chief at the student newspaper of her alma mater, Vassar College, and the daughter of a journalist, she hopes to follow her passion for writing and editing for many years to come. Contact her if you're looking for a spirited debate on the merits of the em dash vs. the hyphen. Tags Tehran, Iran, Middle East, generation, youth, protest, social action, politics, culture, revolution YEMEN: A Call for Action: The Worst Humanitarian Crisis in the World #Mandela is pushing our #society to #end #poverty. #Help him reach his #goal this #MandelaDay. #savetheworld https://t.co/UwZxyCIcYb #Mexico” a film about #QuintanaRoo, #Yucatan and #Campeche by Face du Monde. https://t.co/urJ398HCti https://t.co/wIBCveSTx3 How will you #celebrate #MandelaDay2019? #Mandela #poverty https://t.co/BulzED3KH2 Copyright © 2019, MISSION MEDIA LLC. All rights reserved.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10707
__label__wiki	0.654228	0.654228	Stories tagged "Slovenian": 7 Zak Funeral Home By Michael Barkacs Funeral homes are necessary to every functioning community, but they are generally not the sexiest and most popular businesses in town. Successful ones, however, provide more than just rudimentary mortuary services to their neighbors, and are… Azman & Sons Market By Joe Dill Some masters of craft may work in paints, and others, wood. Frank Azman III, however, works in meats and has been doing so for the past four decades. An afternoon spent in Azman & Sons Market over a sausage sandwich reveals in one bite why the shop… Diemer Mansion In a city with a history as rich as Cleveland, one would have no problem finding a building, landscape, or district recognized either nationally or locally for its historical significance. Places like the Terminal Tower, Rockefeller Park, or the West… Slovenian National Home By The Cleveland Historical team Slovenian migrants have built National Homes at the center of their communities wherever they have moved throughout the world. Cleveland's Slovenian National Home is the cultural center for Cleveland's Slovenian community and the largest facility of… Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame The National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame Museum--located at 605 East 222nd Street, Euclid, Ohio, is filled with artifacts and memorabilia from polka stars of yesterday and today. Some of the highlights include "America's Polka King" Frank… Slovenian Cultural Garden Originally named the Yugoslav Cultural Garden, the Slovenian Garden is located near the intersection of St. Clair Avenue and East Boulevard, adjacent to the Polish Garden. Over 100,000 people paraded in support of the Yugoslav Garden's dedication… Frank Sterle's Slovenian Country House Frank Sterle, an immigrant from Ljubljana, Slovenia, founded his Slovenian Country House in 1954. With a small building on East 55th Street, a few picnic tables, and only one waitress - who had to memorize the small menu since none had been printed -…	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10710
__label__wiki	0.822635	0.822635	Public health response needed to manage syphilis outbreak The Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) has written to the Associate Minister of Health, Julie-Anne Genter, calling on the NZ Government to urgently set targets and provide additional resources to tackle the syphilis outbreak affecting vulnerable communities across New Zealand. Doctors also want the Ministry of Health to establish a promised electronic surveillance system that correctly notifies the number of syphilis infections. “We are very concerned about the growing number of New Zealanders who are contracting syphilis infections, particularly in Auckland, where there is the highest rate of notified infections in the country – double the nation’s average,” said Dr Jeff Brown, RACP President (NZ). “There are now cases of congenital syphilis, where the infection is being passed from a pregnant woman to her unborn baby. Without treatment, there can be serious and sometimes fatal complications for an infected fetus. “In 2018, this simply shouldn’t be happening in New Zealand.” In its letter to the Ministry of Health, the RACP highlights that syphilis has been a notifiable condition for 18 months, however, the Ministry is yet to implement an electronic surveillance system that correctly notifies the number of infections. Sexual health clinics are notifying cases of syphilis to the Institute of Environmental Science and Research; however, the current surveillance system doesn’t include cases managed by primary care practitioners. Infection rates in the community are therefore likely to be higher, doctors say. DHBs don’t have any targets when it comes to reducing syphilis infections or a national policy on workforce requirements for the sexual health sector (including medical, nursing, allied health professionals). Currently, there are no mandatory service specifications for the provision of publicly funded sexual health clinics. “Syphilis doesn’t belong to a by-gone era, it’s here - particularly in vulnerable communities - it’s on the increase, and it’s entirely treatable and preventable with access to medicine, health services and regular screening,” Dr Brown said. “The Ministry needs to urgently roll out the electronic surveillance system to monitor notifications, as well as set national standards for sexual health services. These public health services need to be adequately resourced to prevent and contain the spread of the disease. “We are concerned that the absence of targets, workforce policy and service specifications combined with the reduction in specialist positions in Auckland will further contribute to the ongoing syphilis epidemic.” Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease that is caused by Treponema pallidum. It can usually be treated with antibiotics such as penicillin shots. Without treatment, syphilis can cause serious health problems. Infected babies who aren’t treated can have seizures, brain damage, blindness, developmental delay, or die. Since 2013, the number of infections has been steadily increasing across New Zealand and especially in Auckland. The incidence for New Zealand in 2015 was 4.6 per 100,000 per year but was nearly twice as high in Auckland (8.7 per 100,000). Around 495 cases of syphilis were recorded in 2017. Anyone can contract an infection. While 2015 data shows that infections have been most prevalent among gay and bisexual men of all ethnicities, in 2017 provisional data shows that 30 per cent of cases were diagnosed in the heterosexual population. Media contact: Melissah Bell 0415 111 503	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10713
__label__cc	0.611639	0.388361	SimpleGive – Online Giving Lamb & Lion – Secure Site PayPal – No Account Needed Prophecy Partner – Become A Partner Purpose – Nature & Creed History – Testimony of Faithfulness Governance – Board of Trustees Leadership – Transition Time Finances – A Faith Ministry Ministry Staff – Meet the Staff Outreach – Accomplishments Missions – Supported Missions Associates – Associated Ministries Favorite Links – Recommendations Dr. David Reagan – Founder and Director Tim Moore – Associate Evangelist Nathan E. Jones – Internet Evangelist Watch the story behind the ministry Events – Calendar Annual Bible Conference – July 12-13, 2019 Press Resources – Photos, Banners & Bios Booking – Book a Speaker Register for Prophecy Cruise Israel Tours Schedule – 12 Exciting Days! 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Read the current edition of the magazine Topical – By Category Religious Issues Prophetic Issues First Coming Prophetic Voices Read the featured article from the Lamplighter The Rapture Road Thru 1 Thessalonians (Part 19) Pastor Vic Batista and Nathan Jones have been teaching through the Bible's prophetic book Get a daily dose of Bible Prophecy from our blog David Reagan The Basics of Bible Prophecy – Building a Firm Foundation through God’s Prophetic Word 12 Faith Journeys of the Minor Prophets – by Nathan E. Jones Order Dr. David Reagan's latest book The Fate of Islam – Presented by Nathan E. Jones Jesus is Returning Soon! – Presented by Dr. David Reagan Pre-Order the 2019 Bible Conference Album! CDs & MP3s – Audio Sermons Study Charts – Bible Prophecy Hats – Lamb & Lion Tees – Lamb & Lion Save big on special bundles while supplies last The Abuse of Bible Prophecy Dr. David R. Reagan on the show Christ in Prophecy explains why the subject of Bible prophecy is abused and ignored. Last aired on July 28, 2009. To order, call 1-972-736-3567 (M-F, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. CST), or select the resource below to order online. Fundamentals of Bible Prophecy Multimedia Training Kit Dr. Reagan: There is probably no portion of the Bible that has been more ignored or abused by the Church than Bible prophecy. It has been trashed by liberals; it has been spiritualized into meaninglessness by those who do not believe that it means what it says. And it has been trivialized by fanatics who have used it as a playground for sensational speculations. Dr. Reagan: Greetings in the name of Jesus our blessed hope and welcome to Christ in Prophecy. This is the first in a series of programs of programs on the fundamentals of Bible prophecy. We’re going to begin with a discussion of the abuse of prophecy. In the second program we’ll take a look at the importance of prophecy. During our third program, we’ll discuss the fascinating variety of prophecy. The fourth program will focus on the interpretation of prophecy and we will see that the best way to understand it is to look for its plain sense meaning. In our fifth program we’ll take a look at the various end time viewpoints. Or to put it another way, we’ll take a look at the four major ways in which people have interpreted end time prophecy. The sixth and final program in the series will be devoted to a presentation of an overview of the signs of the times that point to the soon return of Jesus. And now let’s begin this series of programs with a look at the abuse of Bible prophecy. My topic is the abuse of Bible prophecy. Folks, let’s face it. Bible prophecy is held in contempt by most people. Non-Christians just scoff at the very idea that anything supernatural could be going on in this world, that anyone would have supernatural knowledge. But the tragedy is that many professing Christians share this particular attitude, this scoffing attitude. The consequence of this is a paradox. The paradox is that we worship a God of prophecy, and yet we ignore the prophetic Word. There’s a great passage about this in Isaiah 46:9 that I’d like to bring your attention to. In this passage, God, speaking through Isaiah says, “I am God. There is no other. I am God there is no one like me. Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying ‘my purpose will be established and I will accomplish all my good pleasure, truly I have spoken, truly I will bring it to pass.” Now God is saying here, “I am the one and only unique God. And I can prove this, because I know what’s gonna happen in the future. I am omniscient. And, I can prove it because I have the power I’m omnipotent to see to it that what I say will come to pass.” And because of this, we are exhorting throughout the scriptures to pay attention to Bible prophecy. For example, in 1 Thessalonians 5:20, Paul admonishes us with the words “do not despise prophetic utterances.” And in 2 Peter 1:19 Peter wrote these words. He said “We have the prophetic Word to which you do well to pay attention, as to a lamp that is shining in a dark place.” And yet, despite these warnings, there is a long and sad Christian heritage regarding Bible prophecy. Throughout most of Christian history for the past 2,000 years Bible prophecy has been abused and Bible prophecy has been ignored. In fact, the only portion of God’s Word that has been as abused and ignored as Bible prophecy is the very beginning of the Bible, the creation story. In fact, I don’t know if you’ve ever stopped to think about this, the two areas of the Bible most abused and most ignored throughout history have been the beginning of the Bible, and what the Bible says about the End Times. Those two areas Satan has concentrated on in trying to convince people that they are not true, that they are to be skeptical of them, that they do not mean what they say. Let’s take a look for a moment at people today who are causing the problems with regard to Bible prophecy. There are three groups that I want to talk about, in fact before I do that, let me just make a point. And that point is that the very scoffing that we’ve been talking about, the very attitude of scoffing is in itself a fulfillment of Bible prophecy and an indication that we are living in the End Times. Look here at Second Peter chapter 3. “Know this first of all that in the last days, mockers with come with their mocking, following after their own lusts and saying “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the father’s fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” And we have people like that all over the place today; you know “Where is He coming?” “Why hasn’t He come? He never will come.” He’s delayed so long. It’s all a fable, it’s all a myth.” Even professing Christians are saying these sorts of things. Well, of the groups that are abusing Bible prophecy the first group that I would mention are what I would call the apostates. The apostates are people who are professing Christians but who scoff at the Word of God not only regarding Bible prophecy, but just about everything in the Word of God, and yet they profess to be Christians. These are people who do not accept the Bible as the revealed Word of God. Instead what they argue is that the Bible is man’s search for God, and therefore it is full of myth and legend and superstition. They argue that there is no such thing as Bible prophecy. They argue that every prophecy in the Bible was really written after the effect and manipulated to make it appear to be prophetic in nature. They hate for example the book of Daniel. Despise it completely because it is so accurate in its prophecies. And yet, our Lord Jesus Christ quoted the book of Daniel. I want to give you an example of what I’m talking about when I talk about scoffing. This is a non-denominational ministry. Because of that I have been to just about every kind of Church you can possibly imagine. I have been to Orthodox and Unorthodox, Charismatic, Non-charismatic, Pentecostal; I’ve been to churches you couldn’t even imagine. But I’ve been to all kinds and I’ve discovered the Lord has a great sense of humor in getting me into some of these Churches that once I got there they wished I had never come. I’ll give you an example. Back in the early 80’s when I was on radio I had a call from a man one day who said “I’ve been listening to your radio program,” and he said “You know what? I would love for you to come to our Church in the mid-cities area between Dallas and Fort Worth.” He was from a Mainline Protestant denomination. He said, “I’d love for you to come to our Church and teach one Sunday evening.” I said, “Well I’d be glad to come, just have your pastor invite me.” He said, “That’s the problem.” I said, “What’s the problem?” He said “Our pastor does not like Bible study,” he said, “On Sunday evening we have entertainment.” He said “He brings in folk singers and dancers and ballet” and he said, “We’ve had puppeteers, everything you can think of except Bible study.” He said, “He just doesn’t like it.” So he said “it’s gonna be very difficult for me to get him to invite you.” And I said, “Well, I don’t know what to do about that.” He said, “Well I’ll tell you what, give me a jazzy title.” And you know what? The moment he said that I thought it was funny but the moment he said it, just like that, a title popped into my mind. This was in the early 80’s, Hal Lindsey’s book the Late Great Planet Earth was still popular, and the title that popped into my mind was “The Future of the Late Great Planet Earth.” He said “Wow that’s jazzy.” He said “Pray for me, it’s gonna take a miracle.” The next day this guy called me and you could have heard him shouting all the way across Dallas, he was so excited. He said “Brother, you’re invited! You’re invited! The pastor will be sending you a letter,” he said “I can’t believe I didn’t even have to argue with him!” Now what he did not know and what I did not know, only God knew, was that when he walked into that pastor’s office, now this is hard to believe, but this is the way God orchestrated. When he walked into that pastor’s office he said “I have a man I would like to invite to teach Bible prophecy” and he said “Bible prophecy?” and he said “Yes.” He said “What’s his title?” he said “The Future of the Late Great Planet Earth” he said “Invite him!” Because that man was sitting there at that moment reading a book by that title, a book I’d never heard of, a book by a man who was debunking Bible prophecy saying there is no such thing, there is not one prophecy in the Bible and Hal Lindsey is an idiot. Well folks, I was invited. And when I got there that night he stands up and he says “We’re so glad to have this learned man on Bible prophecy, he’s gonna tell us tonight why there is no such thing in the Bible.” And I’m looking around, is he introducing me? And I jump up, you know there’s 200 people there, I run up and tap him on the shoulder and I say, “I need to talk to you for a minute” and in front of the whole congregation I called him over and I said, “You know, I think there’s been a mistake.” He said “Why” I said, “I believe in Bible prophecy” he said “There’s been a mistake” I said “Do you want me to go home?” he said “No just keep it short.” I said “Okay.” So I got up, I was scared, I didn’t know what to do. I said “Okay I’ll tell you what we will do. Let’s turn to the book of Acts.” And I was gonna show them how the very first gospel sermon ever preached by Peter on the day of Pentecost was nothing but Bible prophecy from end to end. He said this prophecy, this prophecy, this prophecy, this prophecy and Jesus fulfilled them all, and the people said “what must we do to be saved?” so I said turn to Acts chapter 2. And I didn’t hear any pages rustling, you know that’s music to the ears of a preacher, I look out and everybody’s sitting there like this. I said, “How many have a Bible?” no one had one. I said, “Okay get the pew Bibles” a guy stood up and said, “We don’t have pew Bibles in this Church” I said, “Okay I tell you what we’ll do, I’ll lead you in three songs and while we do that you send the deacons through the educational wing of the building, get all the Bibles and bring them back in here. We led three songs, they came back, and they said, “We can’t find any Bibles in this Church.” The pastor stood up and said “Well I think I got a few in my office.” He comes out and he’s got five Bibles. We divided the congregation into five groups he gave each group a Bible. I said “Okay, now great turn to Acts chapter 2” and the pages started rustling, and they rustled and they rustled and they rustled. There was no one there who knew where Acts was. You know, I grew up in a Church that thought the only book in the Bible was the book of Acts. They didn’t know where it was. So we had a Bible drill. I taught them Old Testament. I taught them New Testament, I taught them that the Old Testament was full of history books and poetry books and Major Prophets and they loved it! And finally we got to Acts chapter 2 and I made my point and they were just shouting hallelujah! They were ready to go. And I said, “Okay, turn to the book of Daniel.” And the pastor stood up in front of the entire congregation and said, “We do not allow anybody to read from that book in this congregation.” I said, “Why?” he said, “You obviously are not a seminary graduate because if you were you would know the book of Daniel is a fraud and shouldn’t even be in the Bible.” So we got into a debate over the book of Daniel. I said, “Well Jesus quoted it.” “Well I…” he said, “You know he quoted it because it had just been written at the time.” I said “Come on! It was included in the Septuagint translation.” He said, “What does that mean?” I said, “Well that translation was made 280 years before Christ.” He said, “Well I don’t believe that’s when it was made.” I said, “It was shown to Alexander the Great when he came to Jerusalem.” He said, “Where’d you get that story?” I said, “From Josephus.” He said “Ah, Josephus, all he ever wrote were old wives’ tales.” I said, “Do you want me to go home?” He said “No, you just can’t quote out of the book of Daniel.” So I stood there for a moment and I said, “Okay, turn to Genesis 3:15, let’s look at the first Messianic prophecy in the Bible.” And everybody started turning, he stood up and he said, “We will not allow that verse to be read in this congregation because I know what you’re gonna do with it, you’re gonna use it to talk about the virgin birth and we don’t believe in the virgin birth here.” This went on all evening long. I wish I could say that this is an exception to the rule but I’m telling you, I’ve run into this kind of hardcore unbelief over and over and over again. Now, it’s easy to throw rocks at liberals. I mean, they’re just such easy targets. But there are others who abuse Bible prophecy in fact there are conservatives who abuse Bible prophecy. These are the spiritualizers. The spiritualizers who use the Bible against itself. There are both liberal and conversation spiritualizers. They are the ones who say the Bible never means what it says, particularly when it has to do with Bible prophecy. They’ll take a passage like the one in Revelation seven that says that during the great Tribulation, 144,000 Jews are going to be sealed supernaturally by God. Protected by God during that time, and probably will be great evangelists going out all over the world sharing the gospel. And they take that and they say, “Well, the 144,000 doesn’t mean anything at all, that’s just a number. And these are not Jews, this is the Church.” Did you know one time I looked at all of the commentaries on the book of Revelation that I could find and 85% of the commentaries I could find said “those 144,000 Jews were the Church.” Folks, what would God have to do to convince us that He is talking about 144,000 Jews? He says 144,000 then He numbers them by tribe. He names them by tribe. Would he have to put a neon light in the heavens and just flash in on and off and say, “Jews! Jews! Jews!” he said, “144,000 Jews.” I believe He meant what He said. Yet it’s amazing how people take that and spiritualize it and say, “Oh no, this is the Church, it’s a symbol for the Church.” Well I wanna suggest to you that God knows how to communicate. I wanna suggest to you that He wants to communication, and I want to suggest to you that He doesn’t play games as He communicates. You do not need a PhD in Hermeneutics or a PhD in imagination to understand the Word of God, even to understand Bible prophecy. What you do need is the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. So we have the apostates, we’ve got the spiritualizers. But there is a third group that is guilty of abusing Bible prophecy and these are the fanatics. The fanatics are often people who truly believe in Bible prophecy, unlike the editors of the Sun, who just use it to sell newspapers. But they usually believe ardently in Bible prophecy. But they are so obsessed with date-setting and with endless speculations, they are sensationalizers to the core who play with Bible prophecy, instead of using it in a responsible manner. They are the ones who often make me ashamed of being a Bible prophecy teacher because when you say that to people they often think “Oh he’s one of those guys, you know, looking under every rock for the Antichrist.” We are in the midst of an epidemic today of these sensationalists. And I think this is no accident, I think the closer we get to the coming of the Lord, the more of these sensationalists there’s going to be. Because Satan is trying to deceive people by taking some really honest people, some really sincere people, and they just simply get so deceived into start setting dates and naming names and all that sort of thing, And it’s like the little boy crying “wolf! Wolf! Wolf” and they do this over and over and then when a responsible Bible prophecy teacher comes along, and says, “I don’t know the date, but let me tell you we’re in the season.” They say “Oh come on, you’re just like the rest.” We are in an epidemic. Let me just mention a few just to remind you. In this epidemic of date setting we started in 1988 in this great plague with a man by the name of Edgar Whisenant. Remember? 88 Reasons Why the Lord’s Coming Back in 1988. He sold 2 million copies of this pamphlet! I was knee-deep in them! My radio listeners sent me one after another. I was just gonna ignore it, but finally I decided I’ve got to deal with this, and so I did. And I pointed out if you accept all of his assumptions, Jesus is coming in 1988, but his assumptions are all false, they’re not based upon Biblical concepts. When Jesus didn’t come, guess what Edgar Whisenant did? He put out a new pamphlet 89 Reasons Why Jesus is Coming Back in 1989. These guys never learn. Or, take for example in October, the Church in Korea, which set the date of October the 28th, 1992. Everybody in the Church sold everything they had, gave it to the Church, the Church used that to publish pamphlets in every language of the world. In fact, I was in Moscow walking down the streets of Moscow when a Korean Asian man walked up to me, handed me a pamphlet. I knew enough Russian to be able to figure out what it was, and it was a pamphlet about why Jesus was returning on October the 28th, 1992. Or consider this man, Harold Camping who owns the largest Christian radio network in the United States. He predicted that the second coming would occur in September of 1994. It didn’t happen. Or consider Monte Judah, a fellow in Oklahoma. This is a guy who formed a ministry in 1995 and suddenly announced to the world that the Tribulation had begun in 1993, September 1993. He picked that because that was when–you remember? Yitzhak Rabin met with Arafat at the White House and signed the peace treaty. He said, “That was it! That was the beginning.” I always got amused by that because let me tell you something, when the Tribulation begins, nobody will doubt that the Tribulation has started. Nobody will have to call it. I have pastors call me and say “Do you think we’re in the Tribulation?” I said “Brother, let me tell you, if we were in the Tribulation, you wouldn’t have to ask anybody.” I mean it is gonna be something horrible. Yet he said it started in 1993 and that the Antichrist would appear in Jerusalem in March of 1997 to stop the sacrifices. I called Monte, I said “Monte, are you aware of the fact that there are no sacrifices in Jerusalem?” he said, “I know that’s a problem. I think that they will be started, they’ll be started before then and then they will be stopped.” And he said, “You know, you’re just a scoffer.” He said “I’m a prophet of God and you’re a scoffer.” Finally, he had so many people challenge him he actually issued a written statement saying, “I am so convinced that I am right that if what I’ve prophesied does not happen, I will demand that I be stoned to death.” And he even went so far to say, “I will let Dave Reagan throw the first stone.” Well, I wasn’t interested in stoning the man to death I was interested in the integrity of God’s Word, and people not making fun of it. But he missed it all, and he continued. He didn’t get stoned to death. Or consider this pamphlet that a lady sent me from Texas. This was a Texas lady, down in south Texas. She wrote one called Rapture Alert and she set the date for the Rapture of May 26th, 1996. Or consider this pamphlet put out of a prophecy teacher in Michigan, the Tribulation to begin in 1998; the second coming would occur in 2005. On and on and on it goes, and yes Harold Camping came back just like Edgar Whisenant, published a new book, Time Has an End and has set the new date for the coming of the Lord to be the 2011. Some people just don’t learn. It just keeps going on and on. Meanwhile, the speculation concerning the identity of the Antichrist continues unabated. You know, I could show you article after article on this in which people are saying, “Well, it’s Henry Kissinger, no it’s Bill Clinton, no it’s Jane Fonda, it’s Hillary Clinton, it’s Rosie O’Donnell.” It seems like anybody that somebody doesn’t like, that’s who it is. Some have even said Ronald Reagan, but he’s passed on now so he obviously is not a good candidate. But it goes on and on and on and the weirdest I’ve ever run across is in this book, The Antichrist and a Cup of Tea. This book is 415 pages long and in this book, he does everything he can to try to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Prince Charles is the Antichrist. Now folks, I’ve met this guy personally, and I said to him, “Let me tell you something. One of the biggest wimps that have come down the pike in a long time is Prince Charles. How in the world could you possibly think this man is going to be the Antichrist?” He said, “That’s part of the whole deal. This is his disguise.” He said, “When the time comes, it’s gonna be like Clark Kent, walking into the phone booth, taking off the clothes, coming out at superman. All of this is an act. He’s really a very strong guy underneath, and one day, he will reveal to the world, that he is the Antichrist.” Is it any wonder that people think that Bible prophecy is a playground for fanatics? But I’ve got good news for you. If it’s properly taught, it can be green pastures for disciples. Now, in addition to it being abused, Bible prophecy has been sorely ignored. I mean sorely ignored. Some have ignored it because they say it’s just too complex. And I love this particular cartoon that shows this fellow up on a ladder and he is trying to draw all of these different diagrams and so forth and these guys down at the bottom trying to figure out what in the world he’s doing. The caption reads, “The elders try to make sense of Pastor Steve’s third point.” Well, I’ve seen this sort of thing going on. People say, “It’s just too complex. Nobody can really understand it.” Well, I would agree that Bible prophecy requires what Dennis Pollock my former associate used to call that dirty five letter word, study. It requires study. But anyone who is willing to commit study to it can understand Bible prophecy if they have the Holy Spirit residing within them. Many pastors take a different position by before I do that let me show you one other cartoon that I love about this, concerning the complexity of Bible prophecy. Here is a Bible prophecy teacher, he’s got his end time chart, he’s got all kinds of little notes on the end time chart. He’s explains everything in detail and this poor lady gets up to ask a question and guess what he says? “No questions please. I find they disrupt the flow of my answers.” I have seen a few of those along the way also, which of course, makes it complex for people, and they think it’s impossible to understand. Now, another reason people have ignored Bible prophecy is because they consider it too other worldly. This is where many pastors are. I will say to a pastor, “Why is it you never teach on Bible prophecy?” and his answer nine times out of ten will be because it’s all pie-in-the-sky. It has to do with the future, not with the present. He’ll say, “David, you’re a traveling evangelist, you’re not a located pastor like I am. You do not understand the problems I have; you don’t understand that I’ve got every sin known to man in my congregation. I have got adultery going on, I’ve got homosexuality, I’ve got people involved in gambling who are addicted to gambling. I’ve got everything you can imagine going on and I’ve got to preach practical, down to earth sermons. I do not have time for pie-in-the-sky. And my response to him is, “I can understand that, but you don’t understand Bible prophecy, because let me tell you something about Bible prophecy. There are two life transforming facts that you need to know about Bible prophecy. Number one, if you can ever convince a person that Jesus is really coming back to this earth, I mean truly convince them. Not here, that’s where most professing Christians believe it. I’m talking about believing it here, in your heart. Because you don’t really believe anything until it moves to your heart and it begins to have an impact upon the way you think and the way you talk and the way you live. If you can ever convince a person that Jesus really is coming back, and number two, His return is an event that could occur any moment, their lives will be transformed. You know why? Because first of all, they’ll commit their lives to holiness, and secondly they commit themselves to evangelism. Let me tell you something folks, that’s about as practical as you can get. How much more practical could you get than teaching something that’s gonna cause people to commit their lives to holiness and commit their lives to evangelism, but that’s why Bible prophecy does if it is properly taught. And I’ve seen it happen in my own life, and I’ve seen it happen in the life of others. Now, there’s another reason Bible prophecy is ignored. And that is, preachers often say to me, “It’s too controversial. I just don’t want to get into it because if I do, I know it will cause dissention in the congregation, people will get mad, people will be fighting each other over it, and some people will leave.” And there are good cartoons about that one, like this one. I just love this. These two old geezers in the ring, they’ve got on their boxing gloves, they’re looking at each other like they hate each other, and what is the caption? “It has to do with eschatology.” Well, I have seen that happen from time to time, but let me tell you something. Bible prophecy can be divisive. It can be divisive if a person comes into a congregation with a chip on his shoulder, determined to prove that everybody else in the world is wrong except him. But if a person comes with the right attitude, not with cockiness, not with the determination to prove everybody else is wrong, but with determination to simply preach and teach what God’s Word says, it is not divisive whatsoever. In fact, what is does is it stimulates people to Bible study. It makes them want to learn more about God’s Word, and it drives them into the Bible to test what you’re teaching to see whether or not it is true. There is another reason that Bible prophecy is often ignored and that is some people consider it just too scary. I had a fellow write me one time who was listening to me on the radio and he said, “I don’t like Bible prophecy because it’s all about blood and gore and things that go bump in the night.” And I have met a lot of people who feel that way about Bible prophecy. Let me tell you something folks, there is a lot of very bad news in Bible prophecy for those who have rejected Jesus Christ, but let me tell you something, for those who have accepted Him there is nothing but good news. There is nothing but promise after promise after promise about a glorious future with the Lord Jesus Christ. When I consider how Bible prophecy has been abused and has been ignored, I have come to the conclusion that there must be a satanic conspiracy to discourage people from studying Bible prophecy. Satan does not want anyone to know that he is going to be totally defeated and that Jesus Christ is going to be totally triumphant, so he tries to convince everybody that the book of Revelation is a Chinese puzzle that nobody can understand. He doesn’t want anybody reading the last book of the Bible because the last book of the Bible says we win! And I praise God for that. Bible prophecy is very, very valuable, because it gives people tremendous hope. My study of it has convinced me that Jesus Christ is coming soon, it has convinced me that if I’m alive when He comes that I will be taken up in the sky, that I will not even experience death, that I’ll be translated on the way up. It has convinced me that if I die before He comes He will bring my spirit, resurrect my body, put my spirit back together with my body and in the blink of an eye He will transform my body into a perfected body. I think I’m gonna have even a little hair, perfected body. It will be a body that will never age again, never have any pain again. It will be an eternal body. I will be in heaven with Him during that great Tribulation, return at the end. I will see Him reign over this earth and participate in that reign. I will see this earth flooded with peace, righteousness, and justice as the waters cover the sea. At the end of that time He’s gonna take me off this earth, put me in that new Jerusalem and from that vantage point I’m gonna see the greatest fireworks display in all of history as he burns up Satan’s pollution of his last revolt. And how there’s gonna come a new heavens and a new earth and I’m gonna be lowered down inside of a new body in a new Jerusalem to live in the presence of almighty God forever and ever and ever. And because of that, I can look to the future and I can say “Maranatha, Maranatha, come quickly Lord Jesus!” Well folks, that’s our program for this week, I hope it was a blessing to you and I hope you’ll be back with us next week when we will continue this series on the fundamentals of Bible prophecy, by taking a look at the importance of prophecy. Until then, this is Dave Reagan speaking for Lamb and Lion Ministries saying, “Look up, be watchful, for our redemption is drawing near. End of Program Filter by Guest Al Gist Alan Franklin Allan Walker Alvin Price Andy Woods Ann Reagan Anna Watts Annie Thrasher Arnold Fruchtenbaum August Rosado Avi Mizrachi Baruch Korman Bill Koenig Bill Salus Billy Crone Brannon Howse Brian Thomas Carl Gallups Caryl Matrisciana Charles Ryrie Daniel & D'vorah Calic Darryl Nunnelley David Hocking Daymond Duck Debbie Blalock Dennis Pollock Don McGee Don Perkins Doug Greenwold Ed Hindson Eric Barger Evelyn Hinds Gary Frazier Gene Getz Glenn Meredith Greg Pruett Jack Hollingsworth Jack Kinsella James Fleming Jan Markell Jean Eason Jeff Kinley Jimmy Phillips Jobe Martin Joel Chernoff Kelly Shackelford Ken Humphries Kerby Anderson Mark Gabriel Mark Hitchcock Marty Goetz Michael Norten Mike Hile Mike Riddle Noah Hutchings Orpah Hicks Pat Marvenko Smith Phillip Goodman Rachel Houck Rafael Cruz Randall Bane Randall Price Ray Gano Ray Sanders Robert Jeffress Roberta Potts Ron Carlson Ron Rhodes Russ Miller Sharon Sanders Shea Houdmann Stan Goodenough Steve Howell Steve Jaslow Stu Schlackman Ted Pearce Terry James Tim Chey Tim Moore Tim Wildmon Todd Hampson Todd Strandberg Tom Hughes Tom Mccall Tommy Ice Vic Batista Warren Smith Wayne Hilsden William Hallmark Lamb & Lion App Lamb & Lion Ministries was established for the purpose of proclaiming the soon return of Jesus. 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__label__wiki	0.71317	0.71317	Cinema Connections It's like a never-ending "6 degrees of Kevin Bacon" game Category Archives: Silent #371. Stories through Time The more things change, the more they stay the same. This is partly due to those people who don’t learn from history and are therefore doomed to repeat it. While most movies usually span a short timeframe, there are a few out there that manage to cover almost the entirety of human existence. Some even go so far as to speculate what the future would bring for humanity. After all, if humans keep making the same decisions and mistakes in the past, what could possibly change that habit in the future? These parallel storylines are often used to prove some point to the audience. While it can be interesting to see how people in ancient times acted in the same way we do, sometimes the message the filmmaker is trying to make is beaten home too much. This week’s two films use multiple stories throughout time to tell a story. Length: 197 minutes / 3.28 hours In telling multiple stories that span a long time period, each individual story is practically a short film in itself. The epic scale of the run-time for these films is merely a product of the multitude of stories that need to be told. During the early days of movies, short films were the norm, so stringing four of them together to tell a larger narrative was certainly doable. D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance: Love’s Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916) manages to span a timeframe from 539 BC all the way to 1914 AD, stopping off around 27 AD and 1572 AD in the process. This film was so impactful, not only as a form of apology for The Birth of a Nation (1915) but for inspiring at least one parody: Buster Keaton’s Three Ages (1923). Both films highlight the fact that humans have remained the same for a very long time. Throughout the ages, intolerance has been a problem for humanity. The similarities between Cyrus the Great of Persia (George Siegmann), the Pharisees of Israel, and the Catholics of France all show how being intolerant of others leads to great destruction, pain, and death. Sometimes, the people being affected by the intolerance have their own intolerance against their persecutors, with a few notable exceptions. Even in modern times, money fuels the prejudice between businessmen and the workers they exploit. In the end, this intolerance isn’t necessarily based on the color of one’s skin, but instead on how one group of people has a prejudice against a different group of people who might threaten the wealth and power they’ve grown used to over the years. Aside from the obvious lesson that intolerance has been around for a long time, we also see that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Rating: R While Intolerance covered about 2.5 centuries of stories, some modern films have gone from the beginning of time to the present day. The Tree of Life (2011) didn’t have nearly as many stories to tell, but the range was much greater. In contrast, Cloud Atlas (2012) only covers just over 450 years. However, Cloud Atlas examines the future as well via its parallel stories. While other movies that cover long timespans in short chunks will use the collective history lesson to sell a moral, Cloud Atlas speculates what the distant future will be based on what we know about human behavior. More to the point, Cloud Atlas shows us how individuals can span centuries in various forms, sometimes taking the spotlight or sometimes acting in a supporting role. Whether or not you believe in reincarnation, I think we can all agree humans have the same basic thought processes that affect global history. Actions have consequences, even if they’re not immediately apparent. Individuals who support the abolition of slavery in 1849 could affect the post-apocalyptic world of Hawaii in 2311. For instance, the 1849 journal of Adam Ewing (Jim Sturgess) could influence Robert Frobisher (Ben Whishaw), who gains credit for “The Cloud Atlas Sextet” via blackmail. This piece of music could influence Luisa Rey (Halle Berry), a journalist in 1973 San Francisco who escapes an assassination attempt after uncovering a nuclear conspiracy. Rey’s life could be novelized and read by Timothy Cavendish (Jim Broadbent), who is accidentally committed to an asylum. Cavendish’s memoir could be turned into a movie that helps shape the revolution of the human clone known as Sonmi-451 (Doona Bae) in 2144 Seoul. This revolution leads to Zachry (Tom Hanks) and his tribal people worshipping Sonmi-451 in 2331. 2 sum it up: 2 films, 2 timeless tales by benthereseenthat filed under Pay Attention, Silent, Theme tagged as Cloud Atlas, Intolerance, Stories through Time, The Tree of Life, Three Ages #370. D.W. Griffith Some directors may have been prolific, but then there are directors like D.W. Griffith. In the 23 years of his career, he directed over 500 movies. Most of these films were directed before 1914, as Griffith made the newfound medium of filmmaking his playground to discover and cement many of the film techniques we know today. It’s weird to think the close-up shot wasn’t widely used before Griffith made it a standard. It is also interesting to note that Griffith worked almost exclusively in the medium of silent films. Of his 518 movies, only two were with sound: Abraham Lincoln (1930) and The Struggle (1931). These were the last two films he ever directed. With a catalog of movies this large, there are bound to be a few gems. This week’s two films highlight some of the most significant films D.W. Griffith ever directed. Partly because the length of a reel of film was a technical limitation, many directors of the silent era made their movies on a single reel of film. At a length of 1,000 feet, silent movies could fit about 15 minutes of footage on a single reel. Longer movies would often advertise their run-time in terms of reels. With so many short films in circulation, it was a little odd to find D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915) was comprised of a whopping 12 reels. Even modern movies rarely break a three-hour run-time, but this silent spectacle certainly does. With movies like this, D.W. Griffith ushered in the era of the “feature-length” movie. He showed how much could be done in 12 reels of film, not only in terms of plot but also in terms of the creative and artistic methods used to tell a story of this length. The Camerons of South Carolina enlist to fight the Civil War and soon find that Ben Cameron (Henry B. Walthall) is the only surviving son of his two brothers. His headstrong attitude caused him to lead a charge at a major battle and earned him a nickname: “The Little Colonel.” Unfortunately, he is captured after being wounded in battle. While he is accused of treason by the Union and sentenced to hang, his mother asks Abraham Lincoln to pardon him and has her request granted. After Lincoln is assassinated, Ben finds the freed slaves of the South are using underhanded techniques to become elected officials. These former slaves don’t seem to know proper manners for governing individuals, which is why Ben tries to “scare” them into behaving by starting the ghost-themed Ku Klux Klan. Soon, order returns as the Klansmen ensure the slaves are no longer stuffing ballot boxes. If The Birth of a Nation was long, Griffith’s follow-up, Intolerance (1916) was even longer. Around 200 minutes long, this epic is actually four different stories told in parallel. Because of the backlash he received for the racially insensitive The Birth of a Nation, Griffith answered the only way he knew how: through film. He wanted to show intolerance in its many forms as a form of apology for glorifying the racist ideals of the Ku Klux Klan in his previous movie. Fortunately, this apology seemed to work, as he continued to direct many films after this point, including the classics Broken Blossoms (1919), Way Down East (1920), and Orphans of the Storm (1921). Regarding his legacy, the American Film Institute originally put The Birth of a Nation on its Top 100 list in 1998, replacing it with Intolerance during the 10th Anniversary list. A fitting substitution, considering the original circumstances. To show “Love’s Struggle Throughout the Ages” (the subtitle for this film), Griffith follows four instances of intolerance across history. The oldest story is from the Babylonians, whose intolerance between different sects of followers of two different gods led to their demise. Even Jesus Christ (Howard Gaye) Himself experienced intolerance, the penultimate result of which was His eventual crucifixion. Centuries later, Catholics were intolerant of Protestants, which resulted in the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. Finally, in the modern times of 1914, the socially backward situation that leads to a man being sentenced to hang just for protecting his wife from the boss who put him in prison the first time. Most of these moments of intolerance end in tragedy. There is one story that does manage to pull out a happy ending, while still enforcing the huge influence intolerance has over people. 2 sum it up: 2 films, 2 great D.W. Griffith movies Bacon #: 3 (San Francisco / Roger Imhof -> Man Hunt / Roddy McDowall -> The Big Picture / Kevin Bacon) filed under Director, Silent tagged as Broken Blossoms, D.W. Griffith, Intolerance, Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages, Orphans of the Storm, The Birth of a Nation, Way Down East #369. Shameful Nations We all have that one thing we’re ashamed of. Whether it’s a guilty pleasure, like enjoying a children’s television show, or something more sinister, like breaking the law, individuals will usually have something in their life they want everyone to forget. While many of these shameful things can be common for a large number of people, when a society forms around a group of people, there are inevitably individuals the group would rather outsiders just outright ignore. These individuals can bring shame to the entire group, either through their actions or by their strongly-held beliefs. Unfortunately, because these anomalous individuals are often seen representing the whole group, shame is brought to everyone. This can be scaled up from something as small as a workplace, to as large as a nation. This week’s two films highlight shameful nations and the individuals and groups who formed them. Rating: Passed Length: 93 minutes / 1.55 hours Crime doesn’t pay, but when criminals become popular, there’s a bigger problem with society. If people don’t feel remorse for their crimes, and if they’re lauded for standing up to a system keeping them down, then the laws that hold everything together will have a difficult time supporting a civilized nation. While criminals can be part of larger organizations, the famous mobsters of the 1920s were personalities who often made headlines all by themselves. Individuals like Al Capone, Frank Costello, and Carlo Gambino made the police and law enforcement of America look foolish by breaking numerous laws and getting away with it. In shaming the legal system, these individuals in turn shame the entire nation these laws were enacted to protect. And yet, these gangsters provide entertainment via their hijinks. Loosely based on the real-life gangster, Al Capone, Antonio “Tony” Camonte (Paul Muni) is inspired by the sign outside his apartment which states, “The World is Yours.” Working underneath Italian mob boss John “Johnny” Lovo (Osgood Perkins), Tony is helping the Italians take over the south side of Chicago. Of course, just being a lackey isn’t enough for Tony. Not only does he start pursuing Johnny’s girlfriend, but he makes a move to take over the north side of Chicago from its Irish gangs. To aid in achieving his goals, his friend Guino Rinaldo (George Raft) helps Tony kill Johnny after a botched assassination on Tony’s life. However, when he learns his beloved sister is in a relationship with Guino, Tony goes insane and kills his friend, which inevitably results in the police coming in and taking Tony down. While history is written by the victors, there can be embarrassing or shameful events in this history which are difficult to gloss over. Especially as time marches on and sentiments change, what was once condoned as appropriate behavior is condemned by future generations. These shameful events in a nation’s history cannot and should not be overlooked, lest the nation repeats them. For the United States, much changed in the wake of the Civil War, but the shameful veil of racism still seems to hold onto many of its residents more than a century later. Organizations like the Ku Klux Klan disgrace an entire nation that considers itself “enlightened.” Unfortunately, early Hollywood did not help with this, since films like The Birth of a Nation (1915) bolstered a rebirth of the KKK that still exists today. The lives of a family from the North and a family from the South are intertwined during the Civil War. Both families send their sons to the front lines of war, but the daughters and wives end up working in the hospitals. When one of the Southern boys, Ben Cameron (Henry B. Walthall) is captured and taken to a Union hospital, he is stricken with the daughter of the Northern family. Similarly, the eldest Northern son falls in love with one of the Southern daughters. When Abraham Lincoln is assassinated, everyone returns home and tries to rebuild. While the Northern family makes sure Reconstruction policies are enforced in the south, Ben Cameron observes the freed slaves abusing the government and not taking their responsibilities seriously. After starting the Ku Klux Klan, Ben manages to bring the freed slaves back in line and restore order to the southern governments. 2 sum it up: 2 films, 2 shame-filled societies filed under Silent, Theme tagged as Scarface, Shameful Nations, The Birth of a Nation #235. Minimal Dialogue The medium of cinema is inherently visual. Seeing as a film is merely a series of pictures strung together, this makes sense: the base of a movie will always be the moving pictures. Everything added on to these pictures merely enhances the experience. A musical score, sound effects, and dialogue help to enforce the visual themes represented on the screen. That being said, a film can be made that has one, two, or three of these auditory additions. A movie can also be made that has none of them, and the point will still get across. Perhaps this is why early films relied heavily on their visual elements: adding sound proved to be somewhat tricky because it required synchronizing with the pictures on the screen. This week’s two films examine some examples of cinema that doesn’t rely on dialogue to tell their story. The Red Balloon Much like the picture books of our childhood, sometimes words are not needed for a simple story. Short films are regularly created in the same way. More often than not, animated shorts have no dialogue because their main characters are expressive enough to be able to drive the plot by their actions alone. In fact, many of the animated shorts that have won (and been nominated for) the Best Animated Short Oscar have had no dialogue at all. Even in feature-length animated films, like Up (2009), there are long segments, often in montage, that can portray a whole lifetime’s worth of plot without resorting to dialogue. But what about live-action shorts? These too can hold to a minimal amount of dialogue, especially if the plot is simple and the storytelling is well done. One of the best examples of this is the French short film, Le Ballon Rouge (1956). Even though the few lines of dialogue in this film are in French, the plot of The Red Balloon is simple to understand because the dialogue is so minimal. Of course, when one of the main characters, the eponymous Red Balloon, cannot speak, it makes sense that there is little to talk about. Despite this verbal inadequacy, the Red Balloon is quite sentient and develops an attachment to a young boy. As they play, the boy must soon go to school, which causes the balloon to follow him there and cause him to get in trouble for disrupting the class. Once out of school, the two of them find a young girl with a Blue Balloon that exhibits the same unique properties as the red one. Jealous of the boy’s aerial friend, some bullies pop the red balloon. To comfort the young boy, all the sentient balloons in Paris come to him and lift him into the air. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles Now I know what you’re thinking: aren’t there a whole set of films that have no dialogue at all? What about silent films? While I do recognize that these films didn’t have actors speaking their lines, most of them did have some form of a dialogue between characters, usually in the form of intertitles. Of course, there are exceptions in some of the earliest films, but a recent silent film, The Artist (2011), has shown we can still make silent films today, even if they do have a few spoken lines in them as well. What’s more impressive, however, are films that are of epic length utilizing minimal dialogue. Some early silent films (notably by D.W. Griffith) are more than three hours long without a single spoken word. They did have dialogue, though, which is why Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) is such an impressive film for its minimal use of it. With a running time quite a bit over three hours, Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles examines the life of a single mother and homemaker. Since most of her time is spent alone in her house, there is little dialogue during the day. When her son comes home from school, they talk and eat dinner. Covering a timeframe of three days (almost in real-time), the audience gets an intimate and uneventful look into Jeanne’s (Delphine Seyrig) life and her many routines, including her stay-at-home profession as a prostitute. That being said, the tiny nuances in her schedule reveal that something is wrong. Small failures like dropping a freshly cleaned spoon on the floor and ruining dinner bother Jeanne in a way that eventually explodes in a session with a client, both sexually and violently. While a film of this length with as little dialogue as it has might seem tedious at first, its voyeuristic approach is enthralling up to the very end. 2 sum it up: 2 films, 2 quiet characters filed under Foreign, Silent, Theme tagged as Jeanne Dielman 23 Quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles, Minimal Dialogue, The Artist, The Red Balloon #192. Pioneers of Sound When we watch a film, two of our senses are stimulated: sight and hearing. While some movies might remove one of these stimulants, they do so for a short time. If the entire film has one of these elements removed entirely, it essentially ceases to be a film. Without visuals, a movie becomes a radio play. Without the sound, it becomes a pantomime. And while early films couldn’t fully utilize sound, the orchestral score did wonders for setting the mood and tone without including any speech. Still, a lot can be conveyed if the full range of sound is used in a film. There are certain aspects of sound that have been around for so long, we have mostly forgotten a time when they weren’t used. This week’s two films helped to push the limits of what sound can do to fully immerse the audience in the story provided by the visuals. What’s interesting about Fantasia (1940) is that, aside from some in-between sections of explanation, the entire movie is essentially “silent.” Almost two decades after the “talkies” stormed the film industry; this film came along and revealed how easy it is to tell a story with only music and some colorful visuals. While some might have seen this as a step backward in sound technology, it was, in fact, a great leap forward. To recreate the sensation of a live orchestra playing classical music, an innovation known as “Fantasound” was developed, specifically for this movie. This system was the first instance of what we now know today as “surround sound.” Without getting into too much technical jargon, some of the other benefits that came out of this audio development were multi-track recording and noise reduction, both of which are used elsewhere in a multitude of different applications today. You may ask yourself, “Why go through all the trouble of making it seem like the audience was listening to a live orchestral performance?” We’ll put aside the fact that this technological achievement was absolutely astounding to have been created in 1940 just to point out that this orchestral performance was the crux of the whole film. To be immersed in the experience provided by Disney’s animators, the sound needed to move and flow as smoothly as the visuals did. From the dancing of the Nutcracker Suite to the flooding of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice to the terror of Night on Bald Mountain, these segments (and many others) needed the full sound of Leopold Stokowski’s orchestra to completely envelop the audience in these animated worlds. The medium of sound had outgrown its humble roots and Fantasia helped to lay the groundwork for the sounds we hear today. Of course, in a post about pioneers of sound, I would be completely amiss if I did not include The Jazz Singer (1927). Films up until this point were limited in what they could convey. Sure, the musical score set the tone of a film, but sometimes just reading dialogue off of a caption card isn’t enough to convey the true emotion of the actors. The challenge in making the actors “talk” was due to lip-synching. Since we all experience people talking in real life, we have a good sense of what’s being said even by simply watching someone’s mouth move. If the sounds coming out of their mouth don’t match what their lips are doing, our mind rejects the speech. But, as recording techniques, both for visuals and audio, increased in accuracy, the lip-synch issue soon became a thing of the past. The first step toward that future was through The Jazz Singer’s songs. Just like The Artist (2011) was mostly silent, except for a sound-filled nightmare, The Jazz Singer wasn’t entirely filled with speech. In fact, the majority of the audible speech in the film comes through the variety of songs sung by Jack Robin (Al Jolson). These songs are more natural to synch because they follow a musical pattern, instead of speech, which can be incredibly random. While other films had synchronized speech before The Jazz Singer, this film about a man’s dream of becoming a famous jazz singer against his father’s wishes was the first feature-length example of such a technical achievement. This film straddled the line between the silent films of the past and the vast world of cinema we know today. While some other movie might have eventually made this jump, history has marked The Jazz Singer as the pioneer for the “talkies.” 2 sum it up: 2 films, 2 spectacular sounds filed under Animation, Musical, Silent, Theme tagged as Fantasia, Pioneers of Sound, Singin' in the Rain, The Artist, The Jazz Singer #189. Buster Keaton I have mentioned a few times before in previous posts that there was a triad of comedians who excelled in silent film slapstick. First came Charlie Chaplin, then Harold Lloyd. Finally, Buster Keaton rounds out the list with some of the best-known stunts in cinematic history. In fact, with each successive actor, the stunts seemed to become more impressive. While Chaplin did a lot of his slapstick with people, Lloyd hung from buildings, and Keaton let buildings fall on top of him. The trick was that all three actors were working in the same time period. Even though they were offset by a few years, there was definitely some cross-influence between them, as well as competition for box office sales. Even with this competition, Buster Keaton made a unique name for himself. This week’s two films highlight a few of Keaton’s classics. Sherlock, Jr. Part of Buster Keaton’s success was due to his branding. Chaplin had his “Tramp” with the short mustache, rounded hat, and cane; Lloyd’s characters wore his trademark glasses, and Keaton’s brand was the pork pie hat he wore in most of his films. This, of course, was a bit of a reference to Lloyd’s characters, who also wore a similar hat. Another theme Keaton used often was that of the underdog. Chaplin might have idealized homelessness, but Lloyd’s wealthy characters were often contrasted by burly antagonists, like in The Kid Brother (1927). Keaton’s few “Junior” films pulled from Lloyd, creating characters who were against the odds, but not because society had been hard on them. Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) came four years after his first “Junior” film, but still maintained the underdog aspect. What was almost more impressive than Keaton’s stunts were the special effects used in many of his films. In the aforementioned Steamboat Bill, Jr., the front of a house falls on top of Keaton, his only salvation being an open window in the façade. In Sherlock, Jr. (1924), he actually broke his neck when a load of water from a water tower fell on him. Fortunately, his underwater escapades in The Navigator (1924) later that year were performed safely. Obviously, some effects need to be performed in person, but scenes like walking into a movie from the stage could be done with early camera tricks. The need in Sherlock, Jr. to enter a film was the main character’s daydream that he could solve a case involving a stolen item. As he transposed himself with the detective in the movie, he was trying to recreate the circumstances that would help him get the girl. Three Ages Intellectual property theft was big in the early days of film, which was why Keaton’s stunts ended up being so difficult to copy: he thought the best ones up himself. Furthermore, while we are all familiar with parody films, having a vast array of popular culture to pull from, this genre is by no means new. Even in 1923, with major motion pictures only having been around for a few decades, parodies were being made to highlight a film’s cultural significance. At over three hours long, D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance (1916) gave moviegoers a look into three different historical eras to show that persecution and bigotry were rampant throughout time. This allowed Buster Keaton to easily break into cinema from the Vaudeville stage. With Three Ages (1923), Keaton began his slapstick career, seven years after Intolerance hit theaters. At a third of the length, Three Ages stole the central plot device of using parallel storylines from Intolerance, but instead to show that man has always loved women, instead of the moral browbeating of its epic predecessor. The first of the Ages is that of the stone age, where a prehistoric man (Buster Keaton) would use whatever primitive tools necessary to convince the woman (Margaret Leahy) that he loved her. Unfortunately, as we would then see in the age of ancient Rome, it’s not so simple as that. There are rivals (Wallace Beery) who will compete for the love of the woman, often leaving the weaker and less-athletic men to think up more elaborate schemes to win the heart of a girl. Finally, in the “modern era” (in this case, the Roaring Twenties), the audience sees that things have not changed between the three ages: love has always been the way it is. 2 sum it up: 2 films, 2 Keaton classics Bacon #: 2 (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn / Patty McCormack -> Frost/Nixon / Kevin Bacon) filed under Actor, Comedy, Silent tagged as Battling Butler, Buster Keaton, College, Go West, Our Hospitality, Seven Chances, Sherlock Jr., Steamboat Bill Jr., The General, The Navigator, Three Ages #188. Junior Nothing extends a person’s legacy like their children. Most people want to be known for what they have accomplished, which means most people want to be recognizable by their name. As such, to extend their legacy, they would give their name to their progeny. However, to avoid confusion, the child usually has “Junior” attached to the end of their name. This only adds to the parent’s prestige, since they will henceforth have the “Senior” added to their name as well. Sometimes, this naming convention is done out of vanity, but occasionally it is done to pass on the perceived talents and gifts of the parent to the child. The real challenge comes when the child grows up. Will they follow in their parent’s footsteps, or take a completely different path? This week’s two films feature main characters with the “Junior” moniker. Steamboat Bill, Jr. The problem with having a “Junior” is the tendency for the Senior to live vicariously through them. Often, the parent will want the child to follow in their footsteps, carrying on the family business. The parent will put some very stringent expectations on the child that are sometimes impossible to live up to. We are all unique, so trying to create another individual who is identical to the parent can be difficult, mainly because our experiences shape our personalities. It is impossible to recreate the experiences to form another identical person. This is why a Junior will many times be a disappointment to a Senior. More often than not, you will see the Junior moniker on males, which puts a heavy burden on them to achieve the success of their father. These Juniors can still be successful, even if it’s not in the way their family expects. William Canfield, Jr. (Buster Keaton) is a mild-mannered college student who would rather be artistic than do a hard day’s work. This is much to the chagrin of William “Steamboat Bill” Canfield, Sr. (Ernest Torrence), who was hoping his son would be a strong and burly man. He had this hope because his steamboat business was struggling and he needed an athletic son to carry on the tradition of captaining a paddle steamer by solving his current rivalry with John James King (Tom McGuire), the owner of a much better steamboat. Unfortunately, on top of his weak body, Bill, Jr. is also in love with Kitty King (Marion Byron), John’s daughter. However, this doesn’t stop Junior from saving his father, his girlfriend, and his girlfriend’s father from the cyclone that rips apart the small town. It is in the aftermath that Steamboat Bill understands his son’s real talents and allows him to pursue his own path. There are times where the “Junior” annotation is added to someone’s name, not because they were named after their father, but rather because they have come close to replicating the fame of another. This fame can be for a myriad of talents including playwriting, baseball, or even piloting an aircraft. These skills could be translated into a Shakespeare, Jr.; Babe Ruth, Jr.; or Charles Lindbergh, Jr. (who was actually closer to the first instance of “Junior” mentioned earlier in this post). An individual who aspires to the greatness of their predecessor will have these same skills. While this nickname might be seen as a derogatory statement, there are times when it actually inspires someone to pursue that talent even further. They see it as a compliment and will continue to hone their talent so they could eventually surpass the person they are named after. One such example of a predecessor “Junior” would be Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock, Jr. We often dream of a life different from our own, and Buster Keaton (as himself) is no different. While running the projector at a local movie theater, he has time to think what his life would be like if he were a famous detective, like Sherlock Holmes. The reason behind his daydream is that he has fallen in love with a girl (Kathryn McGuire) whose father (Joe Keaton) has just found out that his pocket watch has been stolen. With the movie on the screen mimicking this situation, Keaton enters the film and takes on the personality of an observant detective. When he wakes up from his daydream, he finds out the case he had committed to solving had been resolved. It turns out his rival in love, a local sheik (Ward Crane), had stolen the watch and pawned it for money to buy the girl gifts to win her affection. 2 sum it up: 2 films, 2 jaunty Juniors filed under Actor, Silent tagged as Buster Keaton, Junior, Sherlock Jr., Steamboat Bill Jr. Critic Credentials	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10728
__label__cc	0.56758	0.43242	Digital IDs Overview and Concerns Regarding the Indian Draft DNA Profiling Act The Indian Code of Criminal Procedure was amended in 2005 to enable the collection of a host of medical details from accused persons upon their arrest. Section 53 of the Cr.PC provides that upon arrest, an accused person may be subjected to a medical examination if there are “reasonable grounds for believing” that such examination will afford evidence as to the crime. The scope of this examination was expanded in 2005 to include “the examination of blood, blood-stains, semen, swabs in case of sexual offences, sputum and sweat, hair samples and finger nail clippings by the use of modern and scientific techniques including DNA profiling and such other tests which the registered medical practitioner thinks necessary in a particular case.” In Thogorani Alias K. Damayanti v. State of Orissa and Ors, 2004 Cri. LJ 4003 (Ori), the Orissa High Court affirmed the legality of ordering a DNA test in criminal cases to ascertain the involvement of persons accused. Refusal to cooperate would result in an adverse inference drawn against the accused. After weighing the privacy concerns involved, the court laid down the following considerations as relevant before the DNA test could be ordered: “(i) the extent to which the accused may have participated in the commission of the crime; (ii) the gravity of the offence and the circumstances in which it is committed; (iii) age, physical and mental health of the accused to the extent they are known; (iv) whether there are less intrusive and practical ways of collecting evidence tending to confirm or disprove the involvement of the accused in the crime; (v) the reasons, if any, for the accused for refusing consent.” Id. In brief, the 2007 draft DNA Profiling Bill (hereinafter “Bill”) pending before parliament attempts to create an ambitious centralized DNA bank that would store DNA records of virtually anyone who comes within any proximity to the criminal justice system. Specifically, records are maintained of suspects, offenders, missing persons and “volunteers.” The schedule to the Bill contains an expansive list of both civil and criminal cases where DNA data can be collected including cases of abortion, paternity suits and organ transplant. In all fairness, the Bill contains provisions limiting access to and use of information contained in the database, and provides for the deletion of a person’s DNA profile upon their acquittal. 2007 Draft DNA Profiling Bill Preamble (§ 1) Section 1 of the Bill sets out the broad policy objectives of its drafters. The most telling portion of § 1 states: “[DNA analysis] makes it possible to determine whether the source of origin of one body substance is identical to that of another, and further to establish the biological relationship, if any, between two individuals, living or dead without any doubt.” Bill, § 1 (emphasis added). Although it later makes mention of potential harms resulting from governmental misuse of genetic information technology, it is evident that the policy animating the Bill presupposes the objective infallibility of genetic analysis. This patent mistruth underpins the policy rationale for the Bill, and as such casts a long shadow over its substantive provisions. At the very least, it tells the reader (and perhaps one day the court) to broadly interpret the Bill’s language to favor DNA analysis as the privileged solution to investigational and prosecutorial needs. Definitions (§ 2) A number of the Bill’s definitions are overbroad, further expanding the scope of its later provisions. The “crime scene index” is defined to include “DNA profiles from forensic material found . . . on or within the body of any person, on anything, or at any place, associated with the commission of a specified offence.” Id., § 2(1)(vii) et seq. A “specified offence” is defined as any of a number of more serious crimes, “or any other offence specified in the Schedule [to the Bill].” The so-called “Schedule,” tucked neatly on page 34 of the Bill’s 35 pages, lists a hodgepodge of various crimes from rape, to “offences relating to dowry,” defamation, and “unnatural 3 offenses.”[1] Taken together, the government is empowered to conduct genetic testing on almost anyone in any way connected with even minor infractions of the criminal law. Furthermore, the crucial term “suspect” is defined as anyone “suspected of having committed an offence.” Id., § 2(1)(xxxvi). By intentionally leaving out the qualifier “specified,” the drafters’ intent is plain: to sweep within the Bill’s breadth all persons suspected of any crime whatsoever. And, accordingly, the Bill defines the “suspects index” to include “DNA profiles derived from forensic material lawfully taken from suspects.” Id., § 2(1)(xxxvix). It is hard to imagine anybody of subsequent regulation that could adequately circumscribe this manifest affront to personal privacy and bodily integrity. DNA Profiling Board (§§3 to 13) The DNA Profiling Board (hereinafter “Board”) is responsible for administering and overseeing the Indian DNA database. §3 et seq. Among its several enumerated powers, the Board is charged with “recommend[ing] privacy protection statutes, regulations and practices relating to access to, or use of stored DNA samples or DNA analyses,” as well as “mak[ing] specific recommendations to . . . ensure the appropriate use and dissemination of DNA information [and] take any other necessary steps require to be taken to protect privacy.” §13(1)(xv) to (xvi). This provision is in lieu of any substantive principle limiting the scope of the legislation, which the bill otherwise lacks. This is a significant omission. As expressed in the preamble, the stated purpose of the Bill is “to enhance protection of people in the society and [the] administration of justice.” §1. Taken alone, this expresses only the government’s interest in the legislation, suggesting an ambiguously wide scope for its provisions. A substantive concept of individual privacy is required to counterbalance the interests of the government and provide protections for the equally vital privacy interests of the individual. As such, a limiting privacy principle should be included alongside the expressing in §1 of the government’s security interest. Without it, the Board will effectively have carte blanche with regard to what privacy protections are—or are not—adopted. Approval of Laboratories (§§14 to 18) Sections 14 to 18 provide for the approval by the DNA Profiling Board of DNA laboratories that will process and analyze genetic material for eventual inclusion on the DNA database. Under §14, all laboratories must be approved in writing prior to processing or analyzing any genetic material. However, a conflicting provision appears in the next section, §15(2), which permits DNA laboratories in existence at the time the legislation is enacted to process or analyze DNA samples immediately, without first obtaining approval. Either an oversight on the part of the drafters, or the product of overly-vague language, the result is that established genetic laboratories—including whatever genetic material or profiles they may already have for whatever reason—are in effect “grandfathered” into the system. The only review of these laboratories is the post hoc approval of the laboratory by the DNA profiling board. The potential for abuse and error that this conflict of provisions would be best addressed in keeping with the rule articulated in §14, i.e. correcting the language of §15(2) that allows for laboratories to be “grandfathered” into the system. Standards, Obligations of DNA Laboratory (§§19 to 28) Chapter V, which concerns the obligations of and the standards to be observed by approved DNA laboratories, lacks adequate administrative provisions. For example, §22 requires that labs ensure “adequate security” to minimize contamination without providing for accountability in the event of contamination. Similarly, §28 provides for audits of DNA laboratories only, withholding from similar scrutiny of the DNA Profiling Board itself. National DNA Database (§§33 to 37) In addition on one national DNA database, the Bill sanctions the several Indian states to maintain their own DNA databases, provided these state-level databases forward copies of their content to the national database. Id., § 33(3). The national database is envisioned to comprise several sub-databases, each to contain the genetic information of a subset of persons/samples, namely: (1) unidentified crime scene samples, (2) samples taken from suspects, (3) samples taken from persons convicted or currently subject to prosecution for “subject offences,” (4) samples associated with missing persons, (5) samples taken from unidentified bodies, (6) samples taken from “volunteers,”[3] and finally (7) samples taken for reasons “as may be specified by regulations. Id., § 33(4) et seq. Putting to one side the breadth of persons subject to inclusion under subcategories (1) through (6), subsection (7) appears on its face to be a “catch all” provision, leaving one only to guess at the circumstances under which its specificities may be promulgated. Id. A close reading of § 33(6) strongly suggests that the agency [4]conducting conducting the forensic analyses and populating the DNA database shall retain the DNA samples thereafter. This section reads in relevant part: The DNA Data Bank shall contain . . . the following information, namely: (i) in the case of a profile in the offenders index, the identity of the person from whose body substance or body substances the profile was derived, and (ii) in case of all other profiles, the case reference number of the investigation associated with the body substance or body substances from which the profile was derived. Id., § 33(6). Rather than choose to link the DNA profile data to a specific offender or case, the drafters of the Bill instead like the “body substance or body substances” with that specific offender or case. Whether sloppy drafting or clever nuance, this provision elides the DNA profile with the DNA sample, injecting unneeded—and potentially harmful—ambiguity into the proposed law. Confidentiality, Access to DNA Profiles, Samples, and Records (§§ 38-44) Further compounding this ambiguity, § 36 entitled “Access to Information” opens the door to much more than DNA profiles alone being kept on the government database. In all three of its subsections it purports to govern access to “the information” contained in the database, not “the DNA profiles” contained in the database. Id., § 36(1) et seq. Subsection 2 employs even broader language, covering “the information in the offenders’ index pertaining to a convict.” Id. Taken at face value, this provision of the Bill suggests that any and all sort of “information . . . pertaining to a convict” that might be derived from his or her DNA can be stored on the database. Even if prudential oversight provisions elsewhere in the Bill suggests a tightly-controlled techno-forensic apparatus, the overbroad construction of provisions such as §§ 33 and 36 raise significant questions about the wisdom of enacting the text in this form. Two further provisions regarding access to the database warrant close scrutiny. First, §§ 39 and 40 purport to confer upon the police direct access to all of the information contained in the national DNA database. While administratively expedient, this arrangement opens up the possibility for misuse. A more prudent system would place the Board (or some administrative subordinate portion thereof) between the police and the content of the DNA database, with the latter having to make specific and particular requests to the former. This would minimize the risks inherent in the more expansive model of database access the bill currently envisions. Second, and more concerning, § 41 permits the Data Bank Manager to grant access to the database to “any person or class of persons that the Data Bank Manager considers appropriate.” This is a sweeping provision. It vests in one individual the ability to permit almost anyone access to the DNA database—without administrative review or oversight of any kind. Taken together with the general lack of administrative safeguards in the bill, § 41 again places the government’s interest in investigating crime far above individual privacy rights. Omissions Most notably, the bill specifically excludes a private cause of action for the unlawful collection of DNA, or for the unlawful storage of private information on the national DNA database. Nor does the bill grant an individual right to review one’s personal data contained on the database. Without these two key features, there is effectively no check against the unlawful collection, analysis, and storage of private genetic information on the database. Best Practices Analysis Collection of DNA With consent: only for a specific investigation (e.g. from a victim or for elimination purposes). Volunteers should not have information entered on a database No provision Without consent: only from persons suspected of a crime for which DNA evidence is directly relevant i.e. a crime scene sample exists or is likely to exist. Or, broader categories? No provision Requirement for an order by a court? Or allowed in other circumstances? No provision Samples collected by police officers, or only medical professionals? Must take place in a secure location i.e. not on the street etc. No provision Provision of information for all persons from whom DNA is taken No provision Crime scenes should be promptly examined if DNA evidence is likely to be relevant, and quality assurance procedures must protect against contamination of evidence No provision; regulated at discretion of DNA Profiling Board Analysis of DNA Should take place only in laboratories with quality assurance Regulated at discretion of DNA Profiling Board Laboratories should be independent of police No provision; regulated at discretion of DNA Profiling Board Profiling standards must be sufficient to minimise false matches occurring by chance. This must take account of increased likelihood of false matches in transboundary searches, and with relatives. No provision; regulated at discretion of DNA Profiling Board Storage of DNA Data from convicted persons should be separate from others e.g. missing persons’ databases Unclear Access to databases and samples must be restricted and there must be an independent and transparent system of governance, with regular information published e.g. annual reports, minutes of oversight meetings Access to database at discretion of DNA Data Bank Manager Personal identification information should not be sent with samples to laboratories No provision; regulated at discretion of DNA Profiling Board Any transfer of data e.g. from police station to lab or database, must be secure No provision; regulated at discretion of DNA Profiling Board User Samples and Data Research uses should be restricted to anonymised verification of database performance (e.g. checking false matches etc.). Third party access to data for such purposes should be allowed, provided public information on research projects is published. There should be an ethics board. No provision Research uses for other purposes e.g. health research, behavioural research should not be allowed. No provision Uses should be restricted by law to solving crimes or identifying dead bodies/body parts. Identification of a person is not an acceptable use. Missing persons databases (if they exist) should be separate from police databases. Ambiguous provisions suggest much wider scope Familial searching should be restricted e.g. ordered by a court? Or not used? Or regulated for use in special cases? No provision Destruction of DNA and Linked Datas DNA samples should be destroyed once the DNA profiles needed for identification purposes have been obtained from them, allowing for sufficient time for quality assurance, e.g. six months DNA samples are retained An automatic removals process is required for deletion of data from innocent persons. This must take place within a reasonable time of acquittal etc. No provision There should be limits on retention of DNA profiles from persons convicted of minor crimes No provision There should be an appeals process against retention of data No provision Linked data on other databases (e.g. police record of arrest, fingerprints) should be deleted at the same time as DNA database records No provision Crime scene DNA evidence should be retained for as long as a reinvestigation might be needed (including to address miscarriages of justice) DNA evidence permitted to be retained indefinitely Use in Court Individuals must have a right to have a second sample taken from them and reanalysed as a check No provision Individuals must have a right to obtain re-analysis of crime scene forensic evidence in the event of appeal No provision Expert evidence and statistics must not misrepresent the role and value of the DNA evidence in relation to the crime No provision Relevant safeguards must be proscribed by law and there should be appropriate penalties for abuse No provision Impacts on children and other vulnerable persons (e.g. mentally ill) must be considered No provision Potential for racial bias must be minimised No provision [1]. No examples are given as to which unnatural offences are intended, leaving the reader wondering. Perhaps a DNA test of witchcraft? [2]. Section 15(2) does mandate that such laboratories petition the DNA Profiling Board for approval within six months after the legislation is enacted. [3].Per § (2)(1)(xxxxiii) of the Definitions, a “volunteer” is “a person who volunteers to undergo a DNA procedure.” The definition does not require that the “volunteer” be informed of the nature, purpose, or possible consequences of his generosity; nor is any such requirement specified elsewhere in the Bill. [4].Or, as is laid out in great detail in §§ 14-32, at the privately-contracted forensics laboratory. Note: § is a symbol for 'section'. Filed under: Featured, Internet Governance The views and opinions expressed on this page are those of their individual authors. Unless the opposite is explicitly stated, or unless the opposite may be reasonably inferred, CIS does not subscribe to these views and opinions which belong to their individual authors. CIS does not accept any responsibility, legal or otherwise, for the views and opinions of these individual authors. For an official statement from CIS on a particular issue, please contact us directly. Featured, Internet Governance GeneWatch UK & the Council for Responsible Genetics, US DIDP #34 On granular detail on ICANN's budget for policy development process The Impact of Consolidation in the Internet Economy on the Evolution of the Internet Picking ‘Wholes’ - Thinking in Systems Workshop Announcement of a Three-Region Research Alliance on the Appropriate Use of Digital Identity Workshop on Feminist Information Infrastructure Internet Speech: Perspectives on Regulation and Policy SOTM Asia 2018 Workshop on Cybersecurity Illustrations Roundtable on Cyber-security and the Private Sector Symposium on India’s Cyber Strategy	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10730
__label__cc	0.736225	0.263775	THE FINANCE COMMISSION OF TEXAS, THE CREDIT UNION COMMISSION OF TEXAS, AND TEXAS BANKERS ASSOCIATION v. VALERIE NORWOOD, ELISE SHOWS, MARYANN ROBLES-VALDEZ, BOBBY MARTIN, PAMELA COOPER, AND CARLOS RIVAS, No. 10-0121 On Rehearing COINMACH CORP. F/K/A SOLON AUTOMATED SERVICES, INC. v. ASPENWOOD APARTMENT CORP., No. 11-0213 IN RE STEPHANIE LEE, No. 11-0732 ROSSCER CRAIG TUCKER, II v. LIZABETH THOMAS, No. 12-0183 AMERICO LIFE, INC., AMERICO FINANCIAL LIFE AND ANNUITY INSURANCE COMPANY, GREAT SOUTHERN LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, THE OHIO STATE LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, AND NATIONAL FARMERS UNION LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY v. ROBERT L. MYER AND STRIDER MARKETING GROUP, INC., No. 12-0739 LEE C. RITCHIE, ET AL. v. ANN CALDWELL RUPE, AS TRUSTEE FOR THE DALLAS GORDON RUPE, III 1995 FAMILY TRUST, No. 11-0447 BROOKSHIRE BROTHERS, LTD. v. JERRY ALDRIDGE, No. 10-0846 UNION CARBIDE CORPORATION v. DAISY E. SYNATZSKE AND GRACE ANNETTE WEBB, INDIVIDUALLY AND AS REPRESENTATIVES AND CO-EXECUTRIXES OF THE ESTATE OF JOSEPH EMMITE, SR., JOSEPH EMMITE, JR., DOROTHY A. DAY, VERA J. GIALMALVA AND JAMES R. EMMITE, No. 12-0617 IN RE FORD MOTOR COMPANY, No. 12-0957 LUBBOCK COUNTY WATER CONTROL AND IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT AND TOMMY FISHER, IN HIS OFFICIAL CAPACITY AS PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE LUBBOCK COUNTY WATER CONTROL AND IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT v. CHURCH & AKIN, L.L.C., No. 12-1039 GARY WAYNE JASTER v. COMET II CONSTRUCTION, INC., JOE H. SCHNEIDER, LAURA H. SCHNEIDER, AND AUSTIN DESIGN GROUP, No. 12-0804 SUSAN ELAINE BOSTIC, INDIVIDUALLY AND AS PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE HEIRS AND ESTATE OF TIMOTHY SHAWN BOSTIC, DECEASED; HELEN DONNAHOE; AND KYLE ANTHONY BOSTIC v. GEORGIA-PACIFIC CORPORATION, No. 10-0775 TENET HOSPITALS LIMITED, A TEXAS LIMITED PARTNERSHIP D/B/A PROVIDENCE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, AND MICHAEL D. COMPTON, M.D. v. ELIZABETH RIVERA, AS NEXT FRIEND FOR M.R., No. 13-0096 TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES v. OLIVER OKOLI, No. 10-0567 IN RE STATE BAR OF TEXAS, No. 13-0161 ZACHRY CONSTRUCTION CORPORATION v. PORT OF HOUSTON AUTHORITY OF HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS, No. 12-0772 BOB GREENE, AS NEXT FRIEND OF LEWAYNE GREENE v. FARMERS INSURANCE EXCHANGE, No. 12-0867 KING FISHER MARINE SERVICE, L.P. v. JOSE H. TAMEZ, No. 13-0103 IN RE JOHN DOE A/K/A “TROOPER”, No. 13-0073 HIGHLAND HOMES LTD. v. THE STATE OF TEXAS, No. 12-0604 IN THE INTEREST OF K.M.L., A CHILD, No. 12-0728 PETROLEUM SOLUTIONS, INC. v. BILL HEAD D/B/A BILL HEAD ENTERPRISES AND TITEFLEX, INC., No. 11-0425 RAHUL K. NATH, M.D. v. TEXAS CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL AND BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE, No. 12-0620	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10739
__label__cc	0.730508	0.269492	HMNB Clyde Europe Naval U.S. Navy Ballistic Missile Submarine USS Alaska Arrives at HMNB Clyde, Scotland July 3, 2019 DP Staff Writer 0 Comments HMNB Clyde, Nuclear ballistic missile submarine (SSBN), Ohio-class SSBN, Scotland, U.S. Navy (USN), UK, USA, USS Alaska (SSBN-732) The U.S. Navy Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarine, USS Alaska (SSBN 732) arrived at the Royal Navy base of HMNB Clyde in HM Naval Base Clyde Hosts NATO Submarine Rescue System (NSRS) Training Exercise December 19, 2018 DP Press Releases 0 Comments France, French Navy, HMNB Clyde, NATO Submarine Rescue System (NSRS), Norway, NSRS Submarine Rescue Vehicle (SRV), Royal Navy, Royal Norwegian Navy (RNN), Submarine Rescue System (SRS), UK Personnel from France, Norway and the United Kingdom gathered at HM Naval Base Clyde to take part in a NATO Europe GeoPolitics/ Policy Europe’s Largest Multinational Exercise Joint Warrior 18-1 Begins Off the Coast of Scotland April 24, 2018 DP Press Releases 0 Comments Exercise Joint Warrior, HMNB Clyde, Military exercise, Royal Navy, Scotland, U.S. Navy (USN), UK, USA, USS Ross (DDG-71) Europe’s largest multinational tri-service exercise Joint Warrior 18-1, organised by the UK Ministry of Defence, began off the coast of Royal Fleet Auxiliary Replenishment Tanker RFA Tidespring Arrives in Faslane, Scotland April 23, 2018 DP Staff Writer 0 Comments Exercise Joint Warrior, HMNB Clyde, Replenishment oiler (AOR), RFA Tidespring (A136), Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA), Royal Navy, Scotland, Tide-class tanker, UK The British Royal Fleet Auxiliary’s (RFA) Tide-class replenishment tanker, RFA Tidespring (A136) arrived in Falsane, Scotland for the very first U.S Navy Ballistic Missile Submarine USS Maryland Arrives at HMNB Clyde, Scotland March 18, 2018 November 16, 2018 Arun Mathew 0 Comments HMNB Clyde, Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Nuclear ballistic missile submarine (SSBN), Ohio-class SSBN, Scotland, U.S. Navy (USN), UK, USA, USS Maryland (SSBN-738) The U.S. Navy Ohio-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine USS Maryland (SSBN-738) arrives at Her Majesty’s Naval Base (HMNB) Clyde located Royal Navy Submariners at HMNB Clyde Takes Delivery of New Sonar Suite January 31, 2018 January 31, 2018 DP Press Releases 0 Comments HMNB Clyde, Royal Navy, Sonar, UK Royal Navy submariners at HM Naval Base Clyde have taken delivery of a new sonar suite, named Rapidly Reconfigurable Training Technology Royal Navy Submarine Service completes 350th deterrent patrol December 15, 2017 DP Staff Writer 0 Comments HMNB Clyde, Nuclear ballistic missile submarine (SSBN), Royal Navy, Royal Navy Submarine Service, UK, Vanguard-class SSBN The Royal Navy Submarine Service at the HM Naval Base Clyde marked a major milestone recently with the successful completion	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10746
__label__cc	0.505813	0.494187	Denison Completes CAD$20M Bought Deal Private Placement of Common and Flow-Through Shares TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - March 9, 2017) - NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES Denison Mines Corp. ("Denison" or the "Company") (TSX:DML)(NYSE MKT:DNN) is pleased to announce that it has completed its previously announced private placement offering (the "Offering") of ordinary common shares and common shares issued on a "flow-through" basis pursuant to the Income Tax Act (Canada) ("Flow-Through Shares"). The Company issued 5,790,000 common shares (the "Common Shares") at a price of CAD$0.95 per Common Share, 8,482,000 Flow-Through Shares, at a price of CAD$1.12 per Flow-Through Share (the "Tranche A Flow-Through Shares"), and a further 4,065,000 Flow-Through Shares at a price of CAD$1.23 per Flow-Through Share (the "Tranche B Flow-Through Shares", together with the Common Shares and the Tranche A Flow-Through Shares, the "Securities"), for total gross proceeds of CAD$20,000,290. The Securities were issued through a syndicate of underwriters led by Paradigm Capital Inc. and including Cormark Securities Inc., TD Securities Inc. and Eight Capital (together, the "Underwriters"). The Securities are subject to a four-month hold period, which will expire on July 10, 2017. The Company has agreed to use the gross proceeds realized from the sale of the Tranche A Flow-Through Shares and Tranche B Flow-Through Shares for "Canadian exploration expenses" (within the meaning of the Income Tax Act (Canada)) and anticipates using the gross proceeds for expenses related to the Company's uranium mining exploration projects in Saskatchewan - including the Company's flagship Wheeler River project, located in the infrastructure rich eastern portion of the Athabasca Basin. The Company has agreed to renounce such Canadian exploration expenses with an effective date of no later than December 31, 2017. Denison is a uranium exploration and development company with interests focused in the Athabasca Basin region of northern Saskatchewan. Including its 60% owned Wheeler River project, which hosts the high grade Phoenix and Gryphon uranium deposits, Denison's exploration portfolio consists of numerous projects covering over 350,000 hectares in the infrastructure rich eastern Athabasca Basin. Denison's interests in Saskatchewan also include a 22.5% ownership interest in the McClean Lake joint venture, which includes several uranium deposits and the McClean Lake uranium mill, which is currently processing ore from the Cigar Lake mine under a toll milling agreement, plus a 25.17% interest in the Midwest deposit and a 63.01% interest in the J Zone deposit on the Waterbury Lake property. Both the Midwest and J Zone deposits are located within 20 kilometres of the McClean Lake mill. Certain information contained in this press release constitutes "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking statements"), within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and similar Canadian legislation concerning the business, operations and financial performance and condition of Denison. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "believes", or the negatives and/or variations of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur", "be achieved" or "has the potential to". In particular, this press release contains forward-looking statements pertaining to the anticipated use of proceeds of the Offering and the Company's exploration activities and plans and objectives. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made, and they are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Denison to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Denison believes that the expectations reflected in this forward-looking information are reasonable but there can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and may differ materially from those anticipated in this forward looking information. For a discussion in respect of risks and other factors that could influence forward-looking events, please refer to the "Risk Factors" in Denison's Management Discussion & Analysis dated March 8, 2017. These factors are not, and should not be construed as being, exhaustive. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy the securities described herein in the United States. The securities described herein have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered, sold or resold in the United States. View previous (Mar 8, 2017) View next (Mar 29, 2017)	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10750
__label__wiki	0.803241	0.803241	Archive:Donna the Buffalo thunders into Asheville’s Orange Peel Posted in Donna the Buffalo, tagged Americana, Asheville, Carol Rifkin, Dave McCracken, Donna the Buffalo, Jeb Puryear, Kyle Spark, larry campbell, Locket and Key, Music, NAshville, nevins, north carolina, orange peel, roots music, Silverlined, solo CD, Sugar Hill Records, Tara Nevins, Vic Stafford, Wood and Stone on January 31, 2011\| Leave a Comment » Carol Rifkin from the Asheville Citizen times/ Take Five posted this nice preview of Donna the Buffalo for their Orange Peel show on Saturday Jan 29th: Donna the Buffalo thunders into Asheville’s Orange Peel by Carol Rifkin ASHEVILLE – “Have you herd?” Fans of folk-rock band Donna the Buffalo know that phrase means their favorite group is headed to town. Led by founding members Tara Nevins and Jeb Puryear, Donna the Buffalo has its own brand of socially conscious songwriting and an eclectic instrumental groove that resonates through infectiously danceable music… … … “We’ve been together 21 years now, a long time,” Nevins said. Even though 11 members have passed through the group over the years, the musical groove, vision and sound have remained consistent and true to the band’s roots. “Absolutely, I guess that is because Jeb and I are key members and we write all the songs for the band,” Nevins said. “Jeb and I are so excited because we just love our new band,” Nevins said. “With Vic Stafford on drums, Kyle Spark on bass and Dave McCracken on keyboard, well, they are such great guys and such great musicians that we are having so much fun playing.” Stafford and Spark both attended Berklee College of Music, played in a college band together and went on to play with Blueground Undergrass before joining Donna the Buffalo. “It makes for a great rhythm section,” Nevins said. “The new band formation is really able to put the songs across well and play the songs well. We are riding a high on that right now, and we feel like the songs are coming across in a way that is just really good music,” Nevins said. The songwriting team of Nevins and Puryear has written more than 140 songs together over the years. The band’s 2008 release, “Silverlined,” on Sugar Hill Records, was its sixth studio release and rose to No. 8 on the Americana music charts. Nevins’ catchy song “Locket and Key” was a hit on radio. “At different times in your life different things happen to you,” said Nevins, talking about her songwriting style. “I definitely write songs that come out of experience. I’m better at that than trying to pick a topic. “Definitely, on ‘Silverlined,’ that has ‘Locket and Key’ on it, that was true. There are a lot of very personal songs on that CD. I had experienced some pretty intense heartbreak, and it comes through,” she said. Their songwriting skills have evolved and grown over the years. “If I have something to say, I’m pretty good at it,” she said with a laugh. In late February the group will head to Nashville and record its next CD on the Sugar Hill label, and it will include a lot of guest artists. Nevins is waiting for the April release of her second solo CD, “Wood and Stone,” on Sugar Hill. “It’s produced by Larry Campbell, and we recorded it at Levon Helms studio up in Woodstock, N.Y.,” Nevins said. All but two of the songs on “Wood and Stone” were written by Nevins. The band will play a couple of Nevins’ new tunes at The Orange Peel concert along with its other feel-good crowd favorites. Carol Rifkin writes about bluegrass and traditional music for take5. E-mail her atCMRifkin@gmail.com. READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE: http://m.citizentimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110128/ENT/301280006/-1/pda Video of Music City Roots with Donna the Buffalo Posted in Donna the Buffalo, tagged Americana, Catie Curtis, Donna the Buffalo, Jim Lauderdale, Music, Music City Roots, Rayland Baxter, roots music, stream, The Black Lillies, The Cleverlys, Video on January 28, 2011\| Leave a Comment » Donna the Buffalo made an appearance on Music City Roots in Nasheville on Wednesday, Jan 26th. Others appearingont he episode were Catie Curtis, The Cleverlys, The Black Lillies, Donna The Buffalo, Rayland Baxter, Jim Lauderdale – Host You can view the video here: livestream.com/musiccityroots Music City Roots airs live on Wednesday’s from the Loveless Barn in Nashville,TN on The Lightning 100. Donna the Buffalo Heads Through Nashville, Greensboro & Asheville Posted in Asheville, Donna the Buffalo, tagged accordion, Acoustic Syndicate, Asheville, B3 Hammond, Band of Horses, Biggie K, Bill Reynolds, Blind Tiger, country, Dave McCracken, David McCracken, Donna the Buffalo, DtB, durham, Folk, Folkswaggin’, Greensboro, Hobex, jam band, Jay Sanders, Jeb Puryear, Kyle Spark, Lightning 100, Louisiana, Loveless Barn, Mercy Lounge, merlefest, Mule to Ride, Music, Music City Roots, NAshville, Nashville Scene, New Album, New York, north carolina, old-time fiddle, orange peel, Q-Bex, rock, roots music, Roy Jay Band, Shakori Hills, Silverlined, soul, south east, Sugar Hill, Sugar Hill Records, Tara Nevins, tour, traditional music, Trumansburg, Wilkesboro, Winston Salem, Wood and Stone, zydeco on January 27, 2011\| 1 Comment » Donna the Buffalo is on for a great weekend heading through Nashville, Greensboro, and Asheville. There are lots of great interviews for the shows which are posted below. Co-band leader, Tara Nevins, kicked of the day yesterday with a solo studio session on the Lightning 100 with Lt Dan. Then the band went over to the Loveless Barn for a Music City Roots performance with other amazing artist including Catie Curtis, The Cleverlys, The Black Lillies, and Rayland Baxter. Check out some wonderful pics from the night here. DtB will be playing on Cannery Street tonight in Nashville at the Mercy Lounge with the Roy Jay Band, who is on the road with DtB for several shows this winter. Here’s a nice writeup in the Nashville Scene by Edd Hurt about the show: Photo by Jim Gavenus Folkies with a superior sense of rhythm are rare enough, but folkies with a good beat and a healthy disrespect for eclectic clichés are a national treasure. Hailing from the metropolis of Trumansburg, N.Y., Donna the Buffalo began playing their mixture of country, soul, zydeco and folk 20 years ago, and they’ve never sounded better. On their 2008 full-length Silverlined, songwriters Tara Nevins and Jeb Puryear came up with such great songs as “Biggie K,” which may be the finest tune ever written about childbirth: “Though her stomach’s stretched and pulled / She’s never been more beautiful.” The quintet’s easy way with American roots music suggests a fusion of Brinsley Schwarz and The Holy Modal Rounders, and they make music that’s beautiful but never prettified. They say they have a couple of projects in the works, including a full-band effort and a solo record by Nevins. Read the original post at nashvillescene.com. On Friday, January 28th, they head on over to Greensboro, NC to play at the new Blind Tiger. David McCracken, DtB’s B3 Hammond player, grew up in Greensboro and did this great interview with Eddie Huffman from GoTriad.com: From the moment Greensboro native Dave McCracken first saw Donna the Buffalo play live, at MerleFest in 1997, he knew he belonged in the band. “I watched them for the first time, and I remember I saw them move the organ across the stage,” McCracken says, speaking by phone from his mother’s house in Liberty. “I said out loud, ‘Man, that should be me.’ Ten years later — 10 years later! — it’s me. I swear, I don’t even know how that happened. I just knew it should be me for some reason.” Donna the Buffalo formed in 1989 in upstate New York but has made many N.C. connections in the years since — McCracken and North Wilkesboro’s MerleFest among them. The group signed with Sugar Hill Records, a fixture in Durham for more than two decades before the label moved its offices to Nashville, and the members of Donna the Buffalo founded the twice-yearly Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance in rural Chatham County, now entering its eighth year. Jam band fans already knew McCracken via Folkswaggin’, which started in Greensboro in 1994 and played at the Blind Tiger regularly. “I really cut my teeth in that place,” he says. “That’s where I learned how to play keyboards. I’ve been playing there since ’97. I’ve gone through a lot of things in that place, and it means a lot to me. I’m looking forward to playing there again. It’s been a long time since I’ve been there.” In recent years, McCracken has played at the Blind Tiger with Q-Bex, a version of the band Hobex which includes acclaimed drummer Jeff Sipe. McCracken did a stint in Hobex about 10 years ago, and he played in a metal band called Perpetual Iniquity in Greensboro as a teenager in the late 1980s. But his musical ambitions go all the way back to his early childhood in the 1970s. “Playing music for a living was seriously a dream I had when I was, like, 3,” McCracken says. “You know how Facebook reunites people so much? I reunited with somebody who was my friend until I was 5. He was like, ‘Wow, you’re playing music for a living.’ He said it wasn’t surprising at all because all I talked about back then was how I wanted to do it.” Read the full article at gotriad.news-record.com Tara Nevins also interviewed for the Blind Tiger show. She spoke with Laura Graff from the Winston-Salem Journal. Here is a bit of the article: Photo by Lewis Tezak Jr Donna the Buffalo’s music belongs on the festival circuit — it’s an engaging mix of roots, bluegrass, reggae, country and New Orleans-inspired zydeco. . . “We just come from a base of traditional music,” said Tara Nevins, one of the band’s original members. Nevins formed the band with Jeb Puryear, and both play old-time fiddle. “Over the years of playing fiddle music, we discovered other traditional music,” Nevins said. “We don’t do it on purpose, it’s just that we have a lot of music that we’ve been involved in over the years and that we love.” Nevins, who started out playing the fiddle, bought an accordion about 20 years ago. “That gave us a Louisiana flavor to our songs,” she said. “We just have a lot of musical influences, because of some of the different instruments we play, those flavors come out in our music.” Nevins just finished work on a solo album, “Wood and Stone,” which will be released on Sugar Hill in April.”Wood and Stone” is her second solo album. The last, “Mule to Ride,” showcased the fiddle and was, Nevins said, more “old-time bluegrass.” This new album, she said, showcases her songwriting. “I’ve written pretty much everything on the record,” Nevins said. “It’s not all about the fiddle the way the first one was.” She said the band is planning to return to the studio in late February to work on a new album. “It’s going to be a collaboration,” Nevins said. “We’re inviting other artists that we’ve played at with festivals over the years — artists we admire.” Read the full article at www2.journalnow.com On Saturday, the band jumps on the bus over to Asheville to play the Orange Peel. The Mountain Xpress wrote a nice little blurb about the show and some of DtB’s Asheville connections: Kyle Spark. Photo by Lewis Tezak Jr. For years, upstate N.Y.-based, self-desribed “Cajun/ zydeco, rock, folk, reggae and country” band Donna the Buffalo has long had an Asheville connection through it’s bassist. First it was Bill Reynolds (Band of Horses) then Jay Sanders (Acoustic Syndicate). Now DTB has Massachusetts bassist Kyle Spark but the group (who has toured for 21 years) still makes its semi-annual trek South (DTB is likely to pop up at regional warm-weather festivals). . . Read the original post at: mountainx.com Great weekend in store. We hope to see lots of the Herd around for these SouthEast shows! Archive: A bit about DtB and the Herd Posted in Donna the Buffalo, tagged American music, Americana, book, charitable fundraising, commentary, dance, Denver Miller, documentary, donnabase, facebook, fans, festival m usic, Folk, herd charities, high-energy, JAMerica, L.J. Giuliani, Morgantown, Music, music fans, NAshville, New Album, Peter Conners, roots band, Side To Side Charities, solo album, Sugar Hill Records, Tara Nevins, The herd, touring bands, touring musician, twitter, wv on January 23, 2011\| Leave a Comment » Here’s some great excerpts fom an article about Donna the Buffalo in preview for their show at 123 Plesant Street in Morgantown, WV Jan 22. Donna the Buffalo Takes the Stage at 123 charlestondailymail.com The roots band — which easily blends several genres from folk to reggae — has come through Morgantown for 20 years. …According to 123 owner L.J. Giuliani, the group’s sound remains consistently infectious. “… is heavily influenced by a zydeco swing that makes it hard not to dance to,” he said in an email. “That lends itself to a pretty high-energy show that people really love. They have toured the region extensively, so their reputation definitely proceeds them.” Nevins said she hopes to see some familiar faces in the crowd, which isn’t an uncommon experience. The band’s fans, who call themselves The Herd, are a dedicated bunch, even starting a charitable fundraising organization, Side To Side Charities, in 2002. “A lot of fans show up at a lot of the gigs, and we’ve gotten to know them and recognize them,” Nevins said. Self-organized, The Herd is quite active, she said, and several websites have been created to help fans keep in touch with one another. The band’s own website, Facebook page and Twitter account also keeps those interested up-to-date with photos and commentary from recent shows as well as any other pertinent information. For instance, the band recently posted on its Facebook page that it will be included in “JAMerica,” a documentary and book project by Peter Conners and Denver Miller that focuses on the genre’s emergence and growth. Nevins said band members will meet with the project’s organizers in the next two weeks to discuss details. And that’s not all that’s on the band’s plate. In the midst of a busy touring schedule, Donna the Buffalo will head to Nashville in the next couple of months to record another album, more than two years after its latest effort “Silverlined.” And in April, Nevins’ solo album “Wood and Stone” will debut. Both albums are set for release on Sugar Hill Records. While the band’s schedule can be hectic, Nevins said finding time to rest, get some good food on the road and take care herself helps. And a positive perspective can’t hurt either. “Everybody is really busy doing whatever they do,” she said. “We’re no different. If you love what you do, that’s an advantage to anyone.” READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE: http://charlestondailymail.com/ap/ApTopStories/201101200394 Fun Herd related sites: http://donnathebuffalo.com http://www.herdcharity.org http://www.donnafans.com http://www.haveyouherd.com http://www.donnabase.com http://www.funkyside.com Donna the Buffalo brings the Herd to Nashville at Music City Roots 1/26 & Mercy Lounge 1/27 : New DtB Album in the Works; Nevins’ Solo Album Release in April Posted in Donna the Buffalo, tagged accordion, album, album release, Allison Moore, Americana, Americana Music, Amy Helm, banjo, Bass, Byron Issacs, CD release, collaborate, Donna the Buffalo, drums, DtB, electric guitar, fiddle, Finger Lakes GrassRoots, greatest guests record, her, January, Justin Glip, larry campbell, levon helm, Levon Helm Studios, Loveless Barn, mandolin, Mercy Lounge, Music, Music City Roots, musician, NAshville, New Album, pedal steel, Roy Jay, Scott Preston, Shakori Hills, Silverlined, Snowbird, Sugar Hill Records, Tad Dickens, tambourine, Tara Nevins Album, Teresa Williams, The Heartbeats, The herd, The Roy Jay Band, vocals, Woodstock on January 20, 2011\| 1 Comment » Donna the Buffalo is bringing the Herd back to Nashville with two performances! DtB plays Music City Roots on Jan 26th and Mercy Lounge with The Roy Jay Band on Thursday, January 27th, 2011. The Music City Roots Lineup for January 26th includes Catie Curtis, The Cleverlys, The Black Lillies, Donna The Buffalo, Rayland Baxter, with Host: Jim Lauderdale. DtB is also excited to announce are going to be spending more time in Nashville working on a new Donna the Buffalo album starting in late February! Tara Nevins’ solo album is is due out this April! More details below. Show Details at a Glance: Music City Roots Wednesday, Jan 26, 2011 Loveless Barn 8400 Tennessee 100 – All Ages Show – $10, Doors open at 6:00PM. Seating is first come, first served. http://www.musiccityroots.com/tickets Donna The Buffalo & The Roy Jay Band doors 8pm, $15, 18+ 1 Cannery Row www.mercylounge.com Here’s a Nice video of DtB on Music City Roots in 2009: Donna the Buffalo is excited to announce that they are heading in to the studio this February in Nashville for their next album to be produced by Sugar Hill Records. DtB had successful 2008 release of “Silverlined“, which rose to #8 on the Americana Music Chart and also marked their 20th year as a band. In an interview with Tad Dickens(Roanoke Times reporter), Nevins described the album: Donna is preparing to record a new album in the next couple of months. It will be the band’s “greatest guests record,” Nevins said. The idea sprang from the band’s annual closing set at the festival it helped create, Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music & Dance, held in Trumansburg, N.Y. The band likes to bring up whatever musicians are still around by the time the festival is winding down. “We’ve formed so many great relationships like that over the years, and we also have our musicians that we’ve always loved to play with or collaborate with but haven’t yet,” said Nevins. Other exciting news is that multi-instrumentalist and DtB’s co-band leader, Tara Nevins, has a new album set for an April release by Sugar Hill Records. Produced in Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock by 2 time Grammy award-winner Larry Campbell who also be performs on the album. Nevins penned 90% of the material and sings on all of the songs. In a recent interview with Scott Preston (Cincy Groove) Nevins describes the players on the album: The nucleus of the band was Larry Campbell, Byron Issacs, who plays bass in Levon’s band, Justin Glip who is the engineer at the studio played drums on quite a few tracks. I was also very fortunate to get to have Levon Helm play drums on 2 songs. I overdubbed some fiddle, accordion, tambourine, and Larry played pedal steel, mandolin, banjo, electric guitar, bass. We also had Teresa Williams and Amy Helm (Levon’s daughter) do some vocals, they both also sing in Levon’s band. Allison Moore came in to sing on a song as well. I played in an all female string band, called The Heartbeats. So I had those gals come in and we ripped out a couple tunes. Check out this fan video from Shakori Hills performing one of her new songs, Snowbird. Archive: Interview with Tara Nevins by Kat Mills Posted in Donna the Buffalo, tagged American roots, Americana, Awful Arthur’s, community, digital revolution, Donna the Buffalo, Festivals, Finger Lakes Grass Roots, Finger Lakes GrassRoots, Kat Mills, larry campbell, levon helm, live music, Music, New Album, new release, Roanoke, roots music, Roy Jay, Sugar Hill Records, Tara Nevins, tour on January 20, 2011\| Leave a Comment » Donna the Buffalo heads out to Roanoke , VA tonite to play at Awful Arthurs. Here are some excerpt from a recent interview with Tara Nevins by Kat Mills with 16 Blocks Magazine: A WORD WITH DONNA THE BUFFALO Local Singer Songwriter Kat Mills talks to the group prior to their show at Awful Arthur’s Towers 16blocksmagazine.com Some of us remember when Donna the Buffalo was the new kid on the festival scene, nearly twenty years ago when roving groups of rabid fans were branching out from the Grateful Dead to follow bands like Phish and Blues Traveler. A new hybrid dance groove infused with American roots sounds but more kinetic and fresh was leading young people back to festivals to find their kind. If you attended one of those festivals, you have probably seen Donna the Buffalo. With origins in New York State, but making the whole eastern US home, DtB has remained a fiercely self-directed operation. They write their own tunes, create their own scene, and continue to cover a wide touring area throughout the year, happy to take on new fans along the way… Recently I got a chance to ask Tara a few questions about their current tour and the difference between music and non-music towns. KM: The Roanoke and New River Valleys are, in some ways, searching for a musical identity. We have a great mix of influences, and some real local talent, but have yet to become a true destination for many touring artists. After building the band from the ground up, and founding a festival, do you have any insight to offer a community working on creating a scene? TN: We see communities struggle all the time. We started our festival in Trumansburg, NY (Finger Lakes Grass Roots) where the community was already alive with great music and music appreciation, so for us it was a no-brainer. It is hard in a town where the general population doesn’t seem geared toward or centered around music. We experience this going from town to town, city to city. You can feel it in the air for sure when a town is alive with music lovers craving the chance to hear and see live music. I would say that in general people like feeling involved, so starting an event like a festival provides a real chance for involvement and promotes interest, which promotes community, which promotes growth and allows for the possibility of something great evolving on many levels. KM: How is such a self-propelled and grass roots operation as DtB adjusting to the “digital revolution”? Web presence, digital distribution and tour diaries are becoming more important for independent artists. What is working for you there? TN: It’s all working for us. It’s now a growing part of our already established machine. You want to have a presence wherever you can. The selling of records, though, has changed dramatically. [With] people downloading, records don’t sell like they used to. It’s a transitional time, and that can be a little rough. KM: Please catch us up on news for 2011. We’d love for you to share updates on Donna recordings, but also on your latest solo endeavor. TN: I just finished recording a (solo) record with Larry Campbell (Levon Helm Band, Phil Lesh and Friends, Bob Dylan) up in Woodstock, NY at Levon Helm’s studio. The record is due out in April on Sugar Hill Records. I feel fortunate to have had this opportunity. Larry is an incredibly talented musician and producer, and a super person. Levon played drums on two of the songs! He is also wonderful. There are 13 tracks on the record. I wrote pretty much all of it. It is both exciting and nerve wracking. Donna the Buffalo is planning on recording in February and March. We will be recording this new record in Nashville and have been talking with a fabulous producer and engineer. It will also be on Sugar Hill. I’m not sure when the release will be. We are very excited! Kat Mills: Any special guests on this leg? I see Roy Jay’s band will join you for a few dates, including Roanoke. Tara Nevins: Yes, Roy Jay is joining us on several dates for the winter. He is a great guy and his band is full of gritty bluesy grooves… READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE: http://16blocksmagazine.com/2011/01/a-word-with-donna-the-buffalo/ Writer, Kat Mills (Photo above) is an independent singer/songwriter based in Blacksburg VA and touring throughout the east and beyond. Info and recordings at www.katmills.com Click here to see a video interview with Kat (interviewer of this article) after she opened for Levon Helm at Floydfest last year. Archive: Interview with Tara Nevins of Donna the Buffalo in the Roanoke Times Posted in Donna the Buffalo, tagged album, Americana, Awful Arthur's, Cd, community, Donna the Buffalo, Finger Lakes Grassroots Festival, guitarist, herd, Jeb Puryear, Larry Campbel, Levon Helm Studios, multi-instrumentalist, Music, new music, record, Roanoke, roots music, Silverlined, Tad Dickens, Tara Nevins, The herd, Trumansburg on January 17, 2011\| Leave a Comment » Tad Dickens did a GREAT interview with Tara Nevins to help promote their show coming up Thursday, Jan 20th at Awful Arthurs in Roanoke. Be sure to clikc the link to listen to a wonderful 30 minute podcast interview with Nevins. Here are some excerepts of the written piece: Donna The Buffalo has loyal Herd of fans Donna The Buffalo hits the stage Thursday at Awful Arthur’s at Towers in Roanoke. By Tad Dickens \| The Roanoke Times When Donna The Buffalo takes the stage, folks from all over show up to see and hear. The American roots music band, which plays Awful Arthur’s at Towers Shopping Center in Roanoke on Thursday, just wrapped up a run of shows through Florida. When Donna The Buffalo singer and multi-instrumentalist Tara Nevins looked out at the crowd during a Jan. 5 set in Jacksonville, she saw people she recognized from shows all over the country. She said the band’s merchandise guy counted fans from 13 states, in addition to all the Jacksonville-area fans who showed up. “It’s a great feeling to promote such a feeling of community, like you’re really part of something that’s happening, like a movement or a positive force,” said Nevins, who with guitarist/singer Jeb Puryear is the band’s creative core. “All those people that come and follow you and you recognize them and you become friends with them — you’re all moving along for the same purpose. It is powerful. It’s very powerful, actually.” Podcast With Tara Nevins of Donna The Buffalo Read the Herd conversation here. It’s been two and a half years since Donna The Buffalo released a record. That disc, “Silverlined,” was part of the band’s 20th anniversary celebration. The band played FloydFest just after the CD came out in July 2008. “We’ve formed so many great relationships like that over the years, and we also have our musicians that we’ve always loved to play with or collaborate with but haven’t yet,” said Nevins, who declined to identify the musical guests. Nevins has also finished recording her own new album at Levon Helm Studios, in Woodstock, N.Y. Larry Campbell, seen at FloydFest performing with Helm, is the producer. Helm played drums on two cuts, Nevins said. She said she had a “wonderful experience” working with both musicians. “It was awesome just to get to hang out with [Helm] and get to know him a little,” she said. “He’s a fantastic person and a soulful, soulful musician.” And the circle grows.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10756
__label__wiki	0.502433	0.502433	Home Language & Literature The Palgrave Handbook of Sociocultural Perspectives on Global Mental Health Mental health interventions, which neglect the context of poverty, risk ineffective delivery. This is partly because mental illness and the stigma surrounding it can be a causal factor behind a family’s poverty. Many people with mental illness are unable to maintain paid employment, and illnesses can get in the way of other productive work (Razzano et al. 2005). In addition, the stigma of mental illness can reduce individuals’ prospects indirectly by making it harder to acquire education. For example, Fatuma Mohamed, who participated in BasicNeeds Tanzania programme commented: ‘I wish to go to school like my fellow pupils, but I’m afraid of being called awful names’ (BasicNeeds 2006a). Depending on location, this stigma can take multiple forms. In India, a fear that mental illness will harm marriage prospects can lead to it being hidden, and this is felt more strongly by women than by men (Thara et al. 2003). Thornicroft et al. (2009) found degrees of anticipated and experienced discrimination are consistently high among people with schizophrenia through a study across 27 countries (see chapter 13 by White, Ramachandran and Kumar in this volume for further details about mental health related stigma and discrimination). Equally, having an occupation can help in sustaining recovery from mental illness (Bush 2009). Where individuals are able to engage in wage earning or other productive work, it can offer a renewed sense of purpose and feeling of meeting the responsibilities one has towards one’s family. Participants of BasicNeeds’ programmes have reported feeling satisfied that they no longer feel like a burden on their families, and are proud to be able to contribute. Regaining a sense of purpose can be part of managing mental illness. Nguyen Thi Mui, a 43-year-old woman from Vietnam, diagnosed with schizophrenia, told BasicNeeds: I have learnt how to make a broom and now I can sell it at the local market. It is very wonderful. Every day, I can earn 10,000 to 15,000 VND ($0.47-$0.72) so that I can buy some food for myself. My parents are very happy because I can overcome my illness. BasicNeeds provides, alongside its community-oriented mental health treatment, interventions designed to enable affected individuals to engage in paid employment or other productive work. This first involves an assessment of the opportunities available to the individual, which includes the skills of the individual, the skills shortages locally and locally available institutions that can provide support. In addition to this assessment, BasicNeeds and its partner organisations visit affected individuals to offer support, mentoring and information about opportunities such as micro-finance initiatives. While some independent micro-finance organisations have been hesitant to offer loans to individuals with mental illness due to stigma, BasicNeeds has offered a subsidy in the form of a loan guarantee in some regions. This support can be accompanied by communities organising self-help groups as part of the animation process or communities supporting the affected individuals by identifying valuable activities they could work towards: Before he became ill, Venkatesh worked for thirty years in the weaving industry. He gave it up and concentrated on overcoming his illness with the support of his family. Following treatment and ongoing assistance from one of BasicNeeds’ partners in India, Grameena Abyudaya Seva Samsthe (GASS), Venkatesh decided to set up a small business—supplying snacks to travelers using the bus shelter in his village. Trade has been good and he turns over about R.300 [$7.50] a day, a modest sum but comparable to the incomes of many people in the area. Most importantly, Venkatesh describes himself as having a completely new beginning. He is confident and contented, enjoying the relative freedom of the work he does now. Notably, the local panchayat (local elected body) has been instrumental in allowing Venkatesh to use the bus shelter, which is a favourable location for his business. (BasicNeeds 2006b)	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10759
__label__wiki	0.675233	0.675233	Cultural Heritage Center Cultural Heritage Coordinating Committee The Cultural Heritage Coordinating Committee (CHCC) coordinates diplomatic and law enforcement efforts to combat antiquities trafficking, disrupt trafficking networks, and protect against the looting and destruction of cultural property around the world. The Department of State established the CHCC in 2016 pursuant to the Protect and Preserve International Cultural Property Act, with the Cultural Heritage Center as its secretariat. The CHCC coordinates the activities of participating agencies and institutions and its three working groups to advance principal U.S. interests to achieve the following goals: protect and preserve international cultural property; prevent and disrupt looting and trafficking of antiquities, especially when linked to terrorist and criminal organizations; protect sites of cultural and archaeological significance; provide for the lawful exchange of international cultural property; and strengthen the ability of the executive branch to protect and preserve cultural property at risk from instability, conflict, natural disasters or other threats. The CHCC comprises more than 12 U.S. government interagency partners including the Department of State, the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Justice, the Department of the Treasury, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Smithsonian Institution, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. The CHCC is composed of three working groups that include Technology, Public Awareness and Outreach, and the Cultural Antiquities Task Force. Cultural Heritage Coordinating Committee Fact Sheet with Cultural Heritage Center Watch our CHCC Cultural Heritage and Foreign Policy Panel Discussion Cultural Property Advisory Committee Cultural Antiquities Task Force Native American Cultural Heritage	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10760
__label__cc	0.646792	0.353208	Victim safety is a priority of intimate partner violence interventions, as the risk of repeated violence is highly probable in incidences of this specific form of violence against women. Risk assessment approaches aim to protect victims of gender-based violence from further victimisation. More specifically, in the context of intimate partner violence, risk assessment evaluates the level of risk of harm a victim (or others connected to the victim) may be facing, including the likelihood of repeated and/or lethal violence, allowing professionals to prioritise cases, and allocate available resources to where they are most needed. Police play a lead role in assessing the risk to a victim of intimate partner violence, as their involvement often indicates the seriousness of the pattern of abuse, as in general most incidences of intimate partner violence remain unreported. In order to support EU Member States to improve their responses to combating intimate partner violence, and to protect victims from further victimisation, EIGE is currently conducting the study, Risk Assessment by Police of Intimate Partner Violence against Women. Research on existing risk assessment procedures and tools among EU Member States, as well on risk management strategies, has been undertaken in conjunction with interviews with stakeholders and consultation meetings with experts from the field of risk assessment and risk management. This work aims to analyse the current situation in the EU of assessing risk and protecting victims from further harm, identifying challenges and proposing solutions to overcome them. By the end of 2019, EIGE will publish a guide on risk assessment and risk management on intimate partner violence against women, for police. The guide will consolidate EIGE’s research into effective approaches to risk assessment and risk management, and will provide recommendations and guidelines for police across the EU in carrying out comprehensive and coordinated responses to protecting victims of intimate partner violence. The guide will act as a reference tool for ensuring that approaches to victim safety are grounded in the awareness of the individual needs of each victim and are conducted in a gender-sensitive manner that takes into account the root cause of gender inequality within incidents of intimate partner violence against women.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10762
__label__cc	0.540468	0.459532	Music • People • Treme I can’t even begin to get good words around how much this man’s voice and musicality meant to me, and how much his work colored my sense of American music. From West Helena, Arkansas to the world. We’re now filming the last episode of the third season of Treme. In the original beat sheet for that episode, there is a story arc in which one of our characters performs with Helm and his band in Woodstock, at one of his legendary Midnight Rambles. Helm himself had conversations with one of our producers about the possibility. And having had the chance to attend one such Ramble in his barn there, I wanted it to happen badly. Those homemade concerts were pretty damn magical, and I relished the thought of using the drama to cast a little more light on Helm and what he meant to roots rock’n’roll. A couple months ago, we got word that Helm had again stopped singing, and, too, we had exhausted a good chunk of our travel budget for the production. We published the script without the Levon Helm scene this week, but still hoped we’d get a chance to do it if we had the good fortune to get a fourth and concluding season for the drama. Then the news. “Rag Mama Rag,” was the song we wanted. Helm on mandolin and vocals, Lucia Micarelli playing fiddle. Carol Robertshaw says: Here it is February 17, 2019, and I just finished watching Season 3 of “Treme” for the first time. My heart skipped a beat when Annie’s agent said he was going to take her up to Woodstock to see Levon Helm. The words of adulation for Levon your writers put in the agent’s mouth were so gratifying to hear. Levon, his music, and his book, THIS WHEEL’S ON FIRE, changed my life. What a wonderful gift it was to hear this “Treme” character pay tribute to him as part of your series on the great music and music giants of New Orleans and how so many of them got screwed by the Katrina aftermath. The last time I was in New Orleans, before I even knew your series existed, I made a personal pilgrimage to the site of Levon’s club at the corner of Decatur and Bienville, as well as several of the clubs and sites featured in your series, including The Blue Nile, The Spotted Car, Marigny, Bywater, Algiers, and the site of the Iberville Projects, formerly Storyville. Watching “Treme” is very nostalgic for me in so many ways, and Episode 7 of Season 3 really cemented it for me. Thank you for that. I have nothing but high praise for “Treme,” Only wish I had known about it when it first came out. Father Luke says: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn60YWO218k Hail, hail Levon. Yup. Don’t you think it should have been “Down South in New Orleans,” a tune Levon did with the Band on The Last Waltz? Dexter Peabody says: Marvell, Arkansas, not West Helena. Terry Weldon says: Sometime back in the ’90’s, during the winter, I was in New Orleans and walked past a club and at the open door I could hear that they were playing something by The Band–a record, to fill during the band’s break, so I walked in to listen. Levon Helm was sitting at a table by himself, just inside the door, almost as if he was collecting covers and checking i.d.’s. It turned out that he owned the club, or at least was fronting for the owner. I managed not to make a fool of myself and just gave him a nod and got one back. When the break was over, he and a bunch of guys I’d never heard of got up on the bandstand and played a solid hour. It was one of those New Orleans events for me. On Decauter, at the corner of Bienville, just up from the HOB and the Weirlein’s music store. Co-owned it with Banu Gibson. I saw him play drums in there on a set of Chicago blues. larry simon says: I just read your post on Levon Helm. I have been a fan of yours for many years. Read your book Homicide, and for a long time felt that the TV show was the best thing I had ever seen on the tube. Until the Wire. But now I am completely addicted to Treme. In it you go deeper, characters more finely drawn. It’s still very political but I feel the writing and productions have gone on to another level, and you’ve hit my sweet spot. Love of New Orleans and roots music. Which brings me to Levon and The Band. I have been a Band addict since i came on them by accident in the late 60’s @ the concerts in Central Park. My friend told my about “a Canadian girl singer who wrote “Both Sides Now” i agreed to go. Opening up for Joanie was a group just called The Band. When I saw the wall of instruments and listened to the mix of blues, gospel, country, rock n roll, pour from the stage I was hooked for life. I agree with George Harrison’s assessment, the best Rock n Roll band of all time. In the first part of this century I became aware of Levon’s struggles and amazing comeback. When my wife asked me a few years back what I wanted for my 60th I said, “let’s go to a Midnight Ramble”. As you wrote it was magical. From the drive up the dirt road, to the scamper for the best folding chair to the anticipation of the sweetest and truest music one can imagine, the night went on from 8 to 1. As Marc Cohn sang “I was still listening to Levon” and watching the joy of music beam out of his smile to the congregation. As I said to my wife now this is what religion was supposed to do. I remember the tease in Treme 3 when the idea of scoring some tickets to the Ramble came up and was anticipating the visit. Sadly it was not meant to be, but if any venue could have communicated the magic of the barn Treme could have. This weekend I am going to see Ain’t in it for my Health” up in Portsmouth and remember that night. Thanks for what you do. It was religious. You are right to say so. The First Church of Levon. Now in diaspora, sadly. Harris Bevan says: I love reading your articles, David Simon \| Levon Helm has been added to my bookmarks in chrome. In Newark last night, May 2nd, Bruce Springsteen pulled a sign out of the crowd that said “Play 1 for Levon – RIP”. Bruce then talked about Levon’s voice and how remarkable it was that he could sing so passionately while playing the drums. He then played for the first time ever a beautiful version of The Weight alone on acoustic guitar for the first verse and then his whole band joined in. It was a highlight of the whole show and really nice tribute to Mr. Helm. Already this morning, there are 4 or 5 copies of the song posted on YouTube, someone with Bruce’s whole heartfelt introduction. Check it out. Will check it out, thx. At jazzfest here in New Orleans, Springsteen brought Dr. John onstage and had the doctor take the lead on “Something You Got.” What was amusing, and a little charming, was how hard it was for Springsteen and the E Streeters to stop themselves from rushing the tempo. New Orleans R&B lives in that slow, second-line drag. That’s where the groove is. Took ’em half the song to get comfortable and find the pocket, which Springsteen readily confessed afterward. kl says: “Rag Mama Rag” is a fantastic song for the fiddle, one of my favorites. I’m very sorry this didn’t come to pass. R.I.P. Levon, ramble on in heaven. I wonder if you might ever consider using The Band’s “Acadian Driftwood” on TREME. It is probably too slow and soft for background music, but it is a beautiful song about the migration and history of the Cajun people and the lyrics are quite appropriate for the themes of the series. “They signed a treaty and our homes were taken, loved ones forsaken, they didn’t give a damn…” Or heck, just listen to it if you never have before. It’s great. Thorough historical breakdown here: http://theband.hiof.no/articles/acadian_driftwood_viney.html Matt Rogers says: What an amazing musician and person the world has lost. I was only fortunate enough to see Levon play once but as Mr. Simon stated, it was definitely magical. Sadly, the irony of my life is that a majority of musicians I admire have passed (some before I was conceived) and I will never have the chance to experience their craft live. I’m extremely grateful that I was able to see Levon tear down the barn that night and it’s a memory that will never fade. I have been listening to The Band on vinyl these past few weeks predominantly after a long day of work and it’s ability to make me forget even for a moment the struggle for survival never ceases to amaze me. You will be missed brother, I’ll catch you on the flipside. If you pour some music on whatever’s wrong, it’ll sure help out. – Levon Helm David if you’re reading this, I would like to share an amazing story about how I lived with Levon and his wife. Please get in touch when you can. Sounds great, but I’m on set filming the last ep of Treme 3 right now. Buried in that. Forgive me. Alison Byrne Fields says: The irony, of course, would have been that Levon would have been pissed that Robbie Robertson was getting performance royalties as the sole member of The Band with a songwriting credit. Still would have loved to have seen it. Mike Rice says: The man and his music live in my soul. I don’t remember feeling like this since we lost John Lennon. CAM says: I decided (rather late in life) to take keyboard lessons. The instructor asked me to bring an example of my favorite playing. That was a month ago. I took “rag, momma, rag’ It doesn’t come any better. Kacey Koeberer says: I have not been able to stop listening to “Big Pink”… well, ever… but in particular in light of his passing. A giant among men. Thank you for honoring him here. steveh46 says: I got a phone call from a health care worker in Helena once and said, “One of my favorite musicians is from there. You must know Levon Helm.” He said, yes, I’ve had a drink with him. But pretty much everyone around here could say that too. I got to shake Levon’s hand once, saw him play many, many times, and always felt like he was a friend to everyone he met. BillT says: Damn, that would have been so cool. Love both of them. And it might have been a more obvious choice, but I would have gone with Evangeline.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10766
__label__wiki	0.994112	0.994112	‘American Idol’: Simon Cowell, Kelly Clarkson To Visit; Current Cast Contemplates More Seasons – TCA January 15, 2016 12:45pm Kelly Clarkson will be a guest judge on the first live episode of American Idol in its “farewell” season, exec producer Trish Kinane told TV critics at TCA this morning. Clarkson’s also hoping to appear in the finale, although that’s about the time the pregnant singer is expected to deliver her baby. Simon Cowell will be part of the finale, Kinane said, knocking down a reporter’s suggestion that he should have returned to judge the show this season by noting there would have been “huge” scheduling issues (Cowell’s also involved with reality franchises in the UK). Though the network has announced this as the show’s “farewell season,” some on stage say they’re open to continuing the show. At the start of the Fox exec panel at TCA, cochairs/CEOs Dana Walden and Gary Newman noted this season’s debut clocked best year-to-year retention in six years. “It’s been an amazing run and it’s still a healthy show,” EP Kinane acknowledged, when asked why the show is ending if it’s doing well. “You’d have to ask Fox,” she said when pressed again. Imagen Awards Nominations: 2019 Field Includes Antonio Banderas, Jennifer Lopez & Pedro Almodovar. After a reporter said the network is “making a mistake” calling this the final season. “They’re calling it the farewell season,” Harry Connick, Jr. corrected. “What did I say?” the reporter shot back. “Final,” Connick corrected again. “I think the Eagles have had a least three farewell tours,” judge Keith Urban jumped in. “You never know with a format like this – it’s possible,” judge Jennifer Lopez weighed in on the “final” versus “farewell” debate. “Whether they’re making a mistake, if that’s the feeling, right now, that’s their feeling….At the end of the day you never know.” “I was just speaking to Gary and Dana before the session,” host Ryan Seacrest said. “The numbers look great this season and we’re all pleased people are watching, and some are coming back to watch…Does that mean it’s the end? I’m not so sure.” Finally, a reporter asked the judges flat out whether they’d return if they got the call in a couple years. Connick said he couldn’t think about that now. “Hypothetically,” Lopez began, and seemed to sort of leave open the door. “I’m obsessed about it,” Seacrest answered. “This show is like a family member to me.” “Always be there when they call,” added Lopez, somewhat vaguely. TBS/TNT chief Kevin Reilly, however, said it’s time to pull the plug. With American Idol an important player for Reilly during his tenure as chairman of Fox, an Idol question got lobbed his way at TCA, the morning after the singing competition launched its 15th season. “Yes, now is definitely the right time,” Reilly said. “Idol was an extraordinary, one of a kind show, but it is time for it to be over.” Last May, Fox announced American Idol, would end its run after this season, its 15th. The parade of returning American Idol alums will include original executive producer Nigel Lythgoe who is set to reprise his duties for the series finale. Lythgoe, along with fellow Idol veteran Ken Warwick, were ousted after Season 12 in 2013 as part of a major shakeup aimed at turning the once-dominant series’ ratings fortunes around. Also, Seacrest has said all of the show’s previous judges would appear this season. American Idol rocked TV Reporters Who Cover Television, and timeslot competition, when it debuted in the summer of 2002 and quickly became a monster franchise for the network. It introduced Cowell to American viewers, produced such recording stars as Carrie Underwood, Clarkson and Jennifer Hudson – Hudson being the competition’s Most Famous Non-Winner – and spent nearly a decade dominating TV ratings. But the series‘ stats have declined steadily over the past several years, and its hours were trimmed. The decision to end Idol came as the network had success with scripted fare, most notably Empire, which is important because scrubbing Idol from its schedule will require substituting its 40 or so hours on the network’s primetime slate.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10767
__label__wiki	0.909775	0.909775	Student Voices Take Spotlight in Walkout Coverage The #Enough movement pushes for stricter gun control measures, more funding for mental health March 15, 2018 Emily Richmond On Wednesday, students across the country joined forces to call for stricter gun control laws, better mental health services in public schools, and to draw attention to concerns about violence in their own communities. The events were organized in the wake of the February 14 shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which left 17 people dead. By some estimates as many as 1 million students from Maine to Washington State left their classrooms Wednesday for protest activities ranging from observing moments of silence to peaceful marches, a remarkable demonstration of solidarity by peers nationwide. Students walked out of school yesterday to honor victims of the shooting in Parkland and to protest gun violence. Here are pictures from across the country.https://t.co/jZEZBq3Kdr — NPR's Education Team (@npr_ed) March 15, 2018 While student protests have a long history in the United States, this particular moment in history has a special resonance thanks to the digital natives-turned-activists leading the walkouts. Education reporters across the country, all at approximately the same appointed hour in their respective time zones, were carrying out roughly the same assignment: to chronicle the protests and give voice to students. In Littleton, Colorado, students observed 30 seconds of silence: 17 seconds for the Stoneman Douglas victims and an additional second for each of the 13 people killed in the 1999 massacre carried out by two students at Columbine High School. From The Denver Post: “Even though Columbine happened 19 years ago, nothing has changed to prevent this from happening again,” a Columbine student speaking into a microphone told classmates. Other students tied orange ribbons — a symbol of gun violence protest — to a fence. The protests were largely carried out by high schoolers, although some middle schoolers and even younger students also participated. In New Jersey, parents signed out their kindergarteners to demonstrate that no one is too young for “a teachable moment,” reported The 74’s Kate Stringer. In some instances, students found connective tissue between their own day-to-day experiences around gun violence and the violent rampage at Stoneman Douglas High School. At CCA Academy in Chicago, all 180 students in attendance on Wednesday participated in the walkout, along with a teacher, reported Kalyn Belsha of The Chicago Reporter. The school has lost at least 10 students to gun violence since 2013, including 17-year-old Tony Webb earlier this month. The student protesters numbered in the thousands across the Windy City. "If we keep coming together like this we will be unstoppable": Thousands of Chicago-area students walk out of schools to demand gun reform https://t.co/quSackielj pic.twitter.com/SP9QxTMhSa — Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) March 15, 2018 From The Chicago Tribune: “I’m hoping students feel heard and inspired. This is not the end, but the beginning of a nationwide call for gun control,” said Syd Bakal, a senior at Barrington High School, where about 500 students walked out chanting “enough is enough.” “There are teens like myself who are tired of lockdown drills, fear, and perpetual mourning,” Bakal said. Rural schools also saw participation — and some pushback. Writing for the Post-Register in Idaho Falls, Nathan Brown described how a few hundred students left their high school to observe the moment of silence, while some classmates clad in hats and T-shirts supporting President Trump and the Second Amendment watched from nearby bleachers, a few of them shouting “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people” at the walkout participants. From The Post-Register: As she wrapped up, [organizer and high school senior Ana] Omotowa told the students listening to her to reach out to others. “One thing that I ask all of you is speak with someone you disagree with,” she said, gesturing toward the other group. “Because there’s a whole rally over there.” In Birmingham, Alabama, a central location in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s, school officials encouraged students to protest peacefully in keeping with the city’s legacy. (Birmingham City is also where 17-year-old Courtlin Arrington was shot and killed by a fellow student just over a week ago.) Elsewhere in Alabama, instead of supporting the walkout, district officials organized activities intended to promote student engagement. Instead of walking out, students at Florence High School were encouraged to “walk up” to someone they wouldn’t usually speak with, according to Trisha Powell Crain of AL.com (the Alabama Media Group). Threat of Disciplinary Action The involvement of district officials ranged from assigning staff members to keep tabs on students once they left campus for the walkouts to announcing parallel events that would keep kids in class — and potentially out of harm’s way. The more heavy-handed efforts weren’t well received by some students, who viewed them as attempts by adults to co-opt their protests. Indeed, reporters made a concerted effort to keep the focus on the students, such as The News Journal’s extensive coverage of statewide walkouts in Delaware. (The 74’s social media roundup is another example, along with EdSource’s piece featuring student voices from across California.) In Las Vegas, district officials at first warned students they would face disciplinary action for participating in walkouts, but later softened that stance, according to the Review-Journal. Students left class at more than a dozen high schools in the nation’s fifth-largest school district. Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., hundreds of students gathered outside the White House with home-made signs demanding changes to the nation’s gun laws, reported Mel Leonor and Kimberly Hefling of Politco’s education team. Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) came out to show their support for the protest and were cheered by students, according to Politico. (President Trump was out of town during the protest yesterday.) While they were outside, the U.S. House of Representatives was in session debating the STOP School Violence Act, which would allocate $50 million annually through 2028 for campus safety measures. The bill had bipartisan support and sailed through on a 407-10 vote. At Venice High School in Southern California, walkout organizers set up 14 empty student desks and three empty teacher desks to represent the Parkland victims, reported The Los Angeles Times. About half of the school’s 2,000 students took part in the walkout. Did you know? Venice HS, where students rallied today on #NationalWalkoutDay, was @LASchools' most-improved high school 2 yrs ago, after turning the tide of a strong “opt-out” movement. https://t.co/SFU6e8b6bh #Enough @CAedchat pic.twitter.com/yGyKYUINuf — LA School Report (@LASchoolReport) March 14, 2018 But amid the solemnity and moments of silence there were also calls to action. Near the memorial desks on the athletic field were places to register to vote, sign petitions asking lawmakers to pass stricter gun control laws, or write condolence notes to recent victims of gun violence, according to The Los Angeles Times. Writing for The Atlantic, reporter Isabel Fattel posits that while the walkouts on their own might not be enough to spur substantive legislative action, they speak to the power of “sustained outrage” that is fueling the momentum of the #Enough and #NeverAgain movements. Next up is the March for Our Lives protest in Washington, D.C., on March 24, and a day of action on April 20 sponsored by several national organizations including the nation’s two-largest teachers’ unions. The latter date marks the 19th anniversary of the Columbine attack. For additional national coverage of the walkouts, take a look at Education Week’s overview. Chalkbeat also dispatched its bureau reporters to cover protests from New York City to Indianapolis. Character & Citizenship Federal K-12 Reform School Security: Inside or Out? June 24, 2016 Kate Schimel of High Country News for EWA The grim subject of violent attacks in schools seems unlikely to go away. While the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School appeared to be a watershed moment in the national conversation about how to keep schools and students safe, school shootings have continued and little has changed in how the issue is covered in the news media. Most stories about school security center tend to focus on extreme events or threats. In Wake of Parkland Shooting, Schools Look to Learn From Tragedy Resources, questions to ask as schools reassess systems for identifying, helping troubled students. March 5, 2018 David Loewenberg That an expelled student with a lengthy school discipline record, a history of violent outbursts, disturbing social media posts, and Questions to Ask as Schools Weigh Response to Student Walkouts With student-led protests for stricter gun laws spreading, journalists probe districts' policies, preparedness February 26, 2018 David Loewenberg In the wake of one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history, a groundswell of student activism has jolted the gun control debate and left some school districts coping with the surge of civic engagement. For education journalists, the developments present an opportunity to examine how local schools and districts are responding to and preparing for student demonstrations and walkouts. Are they encouraging students? Threatening to suspend them? Struggling to come up with a clear strategy? To Teach Civic Engagement, Put Students Into Action, Advocates Say March 2, 2018 Ben Felder of The Oklahoman for EWA With their bodies submerged in the shallow bayou and their heads bobbing just above the water, Sunny Dawn Summers and her class of high school students talked through the process of harvesting, shucking, and selling oysters. Just miles from restaurants in New Orleans’ famed French Quarter, the students pondered the costs of labor, boat maintenance, and shipping that get an oyster from the muddy bayou floor to the dinner plate.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10774
__label__cc	0.537889	0.462111	Rotten Apple: Diabolical Assault on the Unborn Continues by Michael Warsaw The diabolical assault on the unborn reached another tragic low point late last month as New York’s self-identified “Catholic” Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law the most permissive abortion legislation in the history of the United States on the 46th anniversary of the legalization of abortion by the U.S. Supreme Court. Under the provisions of the new legislation, an unborn child’s life can be snuffed out at any time up to birth. Cuomo stated the day he signed the bill that pro-lifers, lumped in with other “extreme conservatives,” aren’t welcome in New York. But it wasn’t just the legislation that made my stomach turn. It was the delight with which the new bill was received by legislators and abortion advocates. The gleeful enthusiasm was straight from the pit of hell. The Empire State Building, which is lit up for civic (and previously, religious) celebrations, was even lit up to honor the abortion movement. Cuomo’s public rejection of essential Church teaching demands a public response. Although the Catholic lawmakers who campaigned and voted for this legislation have effectively removed themselves from communion with the Catholic Church, the Church in this case should also take a strong public stance by excommunicating them. There are some states that still regard unborn children as our greatest asset, and they’re worth naming: Alabama has all but banned abortion in the state, and Louisiana, Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas and West Virginia are following suit. In early February, Alabama petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold its law restricting dismemberment abortions. Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah joined the petition. Join me in praying for the civic leaders in these states who promote the culture of life. And let’s pray, as well, for those who devalue life: that their eyes are opened to the truth before it’s too late.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10775
__label__cc	0.507654	0.492346	Saint Polycarp Saint Polycarp (69 AD – 155 AD) was raised a Christian and from an early age was in contact with those who had known Our Lord personally. He was a disciple of Saint John the Evangelist himself, who consecrated him Bishop of Smyrna. Having learned from Saint John about the life of Our Lord, about His simultaneous divinity and humanity, Saint Polycarp was instrumental in combating the early heresies which denied either one or the other of these two facts. It is believed that he wrote many letters, but only one is preserved, a letter written to the Church of the Philippi in Macedonia. In it, with clarity, he reminded the Philippians that, “Everyone who shall not confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is antichrist, and whosoever shall not confess the testimony of the Cross, is of the devil; and whosoever shall pervert the oracles of the Lord to his own lusts and say that there is neither resurrection nor judgment, that man is the firstborn of Satan." Around the year 155, Saint Polycarp became aware that the Roman authorities were on the lookout for him. He withdrew to a house in the country and there spent his days in prayer, preparing himself for the martyrdom he knew was about to come. He changed locations a few times but was eventually located and arrested. When he refused to deny Christ, he was sentenced to death by being tied to a stake and burned. However, when the sentence was carried out, the fire surrounding him did not touch his body. He was then stabbed to death. From the resulting wound, there came forth so great a quantity of blood, that the fire was extinguished. Those watching the scene marvelled at this and at how bravely Saint Polycarp faced his execution. Saint Polycarp has been venerated as a Saint since his death in 155.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10776
__label__wiki	0.906758	0.906758	Saint Gregory Nazianzen Saint Gregory Nazianzen (329 – 390) was born near the village of Arianzum in what is today north-eastern Turkey. His parents were well-off land owners who provided him with an excellent education. He studied in the cities of Nazianzus, Caesarea, where he met the future Saint Basil the Great and with whom he forged a deep friendship, Alexandria, and Athens, where he made the acquaintance of Julian, who would later become emperor of Rome and be known as Julian the Apostate. St Gregory’s great desire was to become a monk and live a life of seclusion and prayer. However, when at around the age of thirty he returned home, his father, who was then Bishop of Nazianzus, requested that Gregory help him manage his see. Upon the insistence of his friend St Basil, and against his will, he accepted this task and allowed his father to ordain him a priest. Arianism had spread throughout Christendom during that period in history and his father’s diocese was now divided by this evil. St Gregory healed the division through his inspired preaching and writing, bringing all back to the Catholic faith. At this time, he also wrote a treatise, Invectives Against Julian, directed at Emperor Julian who had by then apostatized. The Emperor resolved to prosecute St Gregory for his criticism of him but died before he could do so. When his father passed away, St Gregory continued to administer the diocese of Nazianzus but refused to be named its bishop. He was then called to Constantinople to assist in its struggle against Arianism. Here, he taught and preached at a little chapel converting many to the faith due to his personal holiness and skill as a preacher. The Arians, angered by his success, attacked the little church on the Vigil of Easter while he baptized catechumens, wounding him and killing a bishop. St Gregory, undaunted, persevered in his ministry. The persecutions subsided when, in the year 380, Emperor Theodosius, after being baptized, ordered his subjects to adhere to the Catholic faith and determined that St Gregory should be bishop of Constantinople. Soon thereafter, in 381, St Gregory resigned his post due to poor health and to the disagreement among fellow prelates as to whether he should be confirmed as Bishop of Constantinople. He then returned home where he resumed the care of the See of Nazianzus. In 383 he retired to a little plot of land, all that remained to him after he had given away his wealth, and spent the remainder of his days in writing and prayer. He died in 390 and is a Doctor of the Church.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10777
__label__wiki	0.617197	0.617197	Feb 03 2017 . 11 min read THE ESCENTIALS CANNABIS’ AROMATHERAPY COMPONENT OFFERS A BOUQUET OF HEALING By Richard S. Gubbe Grandmothers of old promoted natural healing remedies and used them without knowing what the actual content was or how they worked. Grandma said plants and trees produced a cure for almost any ailment, and out of faith we believed. Much of what granny said would work actually does and we are finally getting proof by identifying each of the compounds involved. Ask 100 educated people what a terpene is and you may find one or two who knows they are part of our daily lives and have been since the first plant popped up. Enter any cannabis dispensary, take a big whiff and you will smell everything from pine to citrus. Ingesting the terpenes found in cannabis plants can ease the most challenging of conditions ranging from seizures to PTSD. Unfortunately, there isn’t much research available about what this natural collection of molecules does for the human body. We know strains of cannabis have different organic compound mixtures of terpenes and cannabinoids that attach to receptors in the body, particularly in the brain, and can be healing. But lesser known are delivery methods, dosages, and mixtures. Compare finding your ideal strain to the business of taking pharmaceuticals where a doctor tells you what you need, how much, and the delivery method. The doctor makes a calculated, educated guess as to what may help you and how much to give you. For medical cannabis, that is now the role of the dispensary worker to know. But buyer beware, the information can vary. And yet, patients can now make an educated guess on their own as to what is needed to reduce or relieve symptoms with a little bit of research. The Botany of it All The discovery of terpenes and their interaction with cannabinoids has created a new science that is in need of exploring. Terpenes, advocates say, create a synergy of effects that have healing results. The cannabinoid THC has long been known to help with pain and anxiety relief to name a few, but how it interacts with other cannabinoids and terpenes when received by receptors in the body is the key to better servicing patients. Think of the synergy as if you are making an angel food cake. If you leave out the vanilla, does it change the taste, the outcome? Absolutely. But we won’t die from a change in the recipe. Approximately 200 terpenes have been found in cannabis. Among them are monoterpenes, diterpenes and sesquiterpenes, which are characterized by the number of repeating units of a 5-carbon molecule called isoprene, the structural hallmark of all terpenoid compounds. Terpenes, or isoprenoids, provide cannabis with its inviting aroma. Terpenes deter insect predation, protect plants from environmental stresses, and act as building blocks for more complex molecules such as cannabinoids. Many terpenes act synergistically with one another, and some either catalyze or inhibit formation of different compounds within a plant. Understanding how terpenes function can allow scientists and doctors to manipulate cannabinoids to desired ratios. Terpenoids and cannabinoids are said to increase blood flow, enhance cortical activity, and kill respiratory infections, including MRSA. They can also prevent fungus or act as an antibiotic. Terpenes and CBD can also buffer THC’s tricky psycho-activity. Terpenes are active aromatic molecules that evaporate easily. Various researchers have emphasized the pharmacological importance of terpenes, or terpenoids, which form the basis of aromatherapy, a popular holistic healing modality. What Grandma Didn’t Know Marijuana’s compelling fragrance and particular psychoactive flavor are born from predominate terpenes in a strain. Terpenes work the same as cannabinoids by attaching to cannabinoid receptors. The delivery of terpenes in tinctures, oils and concentrates is where the debate begins as to which is better for the patient. Smoking it, purists claim, is the best form of unleashing these healing compounds. Most cannabis varieties have been bred and crossbred to contain high levels of THC while other cannabinoids like CBD become miniscule. Different harvests may demonstrate different terpenoid profiles due to variances in growing and curing techniques. Lab testing is the only way of knowing a strain’s terpene potency. Matching the terpene profile and cannabinoid profiles to fit a patient’s needs is the best way to achieve the synergistic effects desired. The bad news is they dissipate, just like a room deodorizer. The challenge is to keep the bud fresh or, when extracting terpenes from the bud, to capture them quickly, keep them cool and turn them into a concentrate or mix them in a cartridge or syringe. Now that’s a Nice Profile Matthew Gardiner, the VP at Shango, beams when giving tours of his vertical facility on Boulder Highway. As a corporation, Shango has experience in Oregon and Washington and created a grow house in Las Vegas of at least 3,000 plants that cycle through the curing process to the bud packaging or extraction rooms. Each room is full of busy, gowned employees who take cannabis from the cultivation through production to the dispensary. Gardiner says extracting terpenes quickly is crucial, as he holds up a vial of a golden mixture made from a Shango strain. The staff also mixes terpenes with CBD and THC to create vaping cartridges while every day gaining more knowledge of their interaction, notes Gardiner. Shango and other growers are learning how to enhance terpene content by altering grow techniques that include stressing the plant or using different food. When you ask Gardiner or any other grower about data, the response is generally: “That’s proprietary.” The only thing not present at Shango is a testing lab. Labs are primarily regulatory, but they also are gold mines for data collection. Darryl Johnson is the scientific director of Ace Analytical Laboratory in Las Vegas and has a Ph.D. in bioanalytical chemistry from the University of Georgia. As a former Research Chemist Fellow at Atlanta’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the author of eight peer-reviewed scientific journal articles, he’s far more than a lab tech. Testing the profile is Johnson’s way to assure Nevada patients that they only get the good stuff, the clean stuff. As far as data goes, Nevada, with its stringent testing regulations, is at the forefront of research. “We’re just scratching the surface,” Johnson says. “But we have more data than anyone else has ever compiled. A year from now we’re going to laugh at how much we learned.” There is no typical terpene profile. For instance, in one batch, the strain Tropicanna had a state-tested percentage of more than 10 milligrams per gram of myrcene as well as generous amounts of limonene and pinene and a lot of THC. Anything more than two to four percent of a terpene in a profile is a lot. The profile comes in samplings taken from the bud. For concentrates, the profile contains everything in the oil. Concentrates and cartridges can now boast 75 to 90 percent THC with small amounts of terpenes and other cannabinoids. Concentrates come directly from the extraction of the plant of one strain. For the Tropicanna bud sample, the THC level tested above 26 percent with a low CBD count. Small amounts of terpenes and CBD can dip as low as .01 or lower. “Those miniscule amounts may have more of an impact than you know,” says Johnson, who believes that as much as 75 percent of terpenes can be lost after the plant is cut down. “Rosin press preserves terpenes pretty well,” he continues, “but the concentrates are missing something. I prefer the flower. I’ll always prefer flower.” Hugo Alonso, a chemist at New Heights Laboratory, says different testing results can come from testing different parts of the bud. “Parts of the plant are even stronger than others,” Alonso says. “Concentrate would be more accurate to measure terpenes.” He also believes terpenes are fleeting and he simplifies the process to “just keep it cold, heat it fast, and cool it down again.” Just Like Grandma Used to Grow When Jay Crozier was a little boy, his grandma gave him a marijuana tincture if he ever started to get sick. She was growing pot in the 1940s for medicinal purposes and taught him how to grow, and how to stay healthy. A 46-year-old, off-the-grid grower, Crozier remembers grandma telling him of a Native American Indica tincture in the 1930s made illegal in 1941. “I never got sick,” he says of using it. “When I was young we used to get pepper bud out of Canada that smelled like black pepper.” He’s spent his life learning how to grow cannabis to get the most out of it. “I’m just into the medical aspect of it,” he says. “I make sure the medicine is grown right, otherwise, you’re not getting the full benefit.” Growers can accomplish that by not cutting down plants early and curing them properly, he says, “It’s taken me 30 years to know what I know.” He’s been extracting since 1998 but never knew there were multiple substances involved. “We knew terpenes added flavor but we thought they were part of THC because they were oily,” he explains. Crozier warns that synthetic terpenes are dangerous. “They need to be banned,” he relays. “Freshly pressed rosin is solvent-free and just pressed from the flower. And live resin distillates -- they’re great, too.” Making a Terpene Pie In 2011 the British Journal of Pharmacology discussed the wide-ranging therapeutic attributes of terpenoids, which are typically lacking in CBD-only products. The article reported that cannabinoid-terpenoid interactions “could produce synergy with respect to treatment of pain, inflammation, depression, anxiety, addiction, epilepsy, cancer, fungal and bacterial infections.” Dr. Bonni Goldstein puts that into practice combining terpenes with CBD. She is the medical director of Canna-Centers, a group of medical practices throughout California that educate patients on the use of cannabis therapy. The terpenoid called beta-caryophyllene has been shown to be anti-inflammatory and she uses that in combination with CBD to see what works in children to end epileptic seizures. “I really believe that that’s one of the compounds that is very important for a child who has seizures,” she told Project CBD in California. She believes neuro-inflammation causes seizures and has had numerous success stories taking them away. One of her small clients went from 60 seizures a day to zero by using a CBD-terpene mix. Martin A. Lee of Project CBD believes the synergy of CBD and terpenes is a key to many afflictions he’s seen Dr. Goldstein treat. Finding the right mix, he says, is like “a painter with a palette. Profiles offer a kaleidoscope of shifting colors. Terpenes and cannabinoids are chemically related like cousins with medicinal affects. But receptor pathways are different in everyone. When you put it all together with this holistic entourage, the impact of the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” Lee also believes myrcene is basically a sedative and follows the line of thinking that indica and sativa is not a valid measuring tool as each can have generous amounts of myrcene and other terpenes that alter the effects in every strain. He added that therapists can control the ratio of such when recommending a strain or method to their patients. The Future Is… Shared research will mean more accurate profiles and, in turn, the ability for patients to find accurate recommendations for precise mixtures of terpenes and CBD. Delivery methods will need to be studied further as missing terpenes in profiles could create adverse or nonproductive situations. In the future kiosks will adorn each dispensary to supply credible, uniform information and will tailor client profiles to preserve privacy. Dispensary workers will undergo continued training to better understand the science, delivery, and strains. Edibles will include the actual baking of cannabis itself to maintain the synergy of the plant through baking, much as it is now through vaping. Terpene bars and flavor testing rooms will inhabit dispensaries and enable more patients to utilize terpenes for healing. Until then, budtender Sheldon Gates of Inyo Fine Cannabis dispensary sums it up simply: "the smell of terpenes is therapeutic and the plant energy itself makes people happy. We rarely see people who are bummed out. It’s intoxicating to be around it. Our employees are on a natural high.” Looks like grandma was on to something. Profiles in Teaching: The Biochemist, Fr ... Josh Kasoff Profiles in Teaching: The Believer, Tisi ... Profiles in Teaching: The Visionary, Tre ...	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10781
__label__cc	0.690042	0.309958	Vulcan (VMC) Down 1.6% Since Last Earnings Report: Can It Rebound? Zacks June 1, 2019 PolyOne (POL) doesn't possess the right combination of the two key ingredients for a likely earnings beat in its upcoming report. Get prepared with the key expectations. A month has gone by since the last earnings report for Vulcan Materials (VMC). Shares have lost about 1.6% in that time frame, outperforming the S&P 500. Will the recent negative trend continue leading up to its next earnings release, or is Vulcan due for a breakout? Before we dive into how investors and analysts have reacted as of late, let's take a quick look at its most recent earnings report in order to get a better handle on the important drivers. Vulcan Materials' (VMC) Q1 Earnings & Revenues Beat Estimates Vulcan Materials Company reported solid first-quarter 2019 results, wherein both the top and bottom lines surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Also, earnings and revenues improved year over year, given broad-based shipment growth, price improvements and operating efficiencies in aggregates business. Also, robust growth in public construction demand and continued improvement in private demand added to the positives. The company, which is one of the largest producers of construction aggregates, reported adjusted earnings of 46 cents per share, surpassing the consensus mark of 33 cents by 39.4%. Total revenues of $996.5 million outpaced the consensus mark of $910 million by 9.5%. On a year-over-year basis, its top line improved 16.6% and bottom line grew 4.6%. Segments in Detail Revenues from the segment increased 19.3% year over year to $835 million. Freight-adjusted revenues rose 18.7% from the prior-year quarter to $628.6 million. The bottom-line growth was mainly driven by strength in backlogged project work, and increased demand and customer confidence. Aggregate shipments (volumes) were up 12.6% year over year, reflecting solid underlying demand and pent-up demand. However, shipments in California decreased due to heavy rainfall throughout the quarter. Gross profit of $186 million was up 25% year over year. Also, gross margin (as a percentage of segment sales) expanded 100 bps, backed by solid growth in shipments and price improvements. Asphalt, Concrete and Calcium Revenues from the Asphalt Mix segment were $132.1 million, up 27.2% year over year. However, the segment recorded a gross loss of $3.3 million versus the year-ago quarter’s profit of $2.5 million due to lower material margins. Asphalt mix selling prices increased 5% or $2.73 per ton from the prior-year quarter. Unit cost of liquid asphalt, which recorded a 29% year-over-year increase, was relatively stable throughout the quarter on a monthly basis. Nonetheless, price increase is expected to gradually offset the increased costs in 2019. Total revenues from the Concrete segment were $83.6 million, down 16.7% year over year. Moreover, gross profit totaled $8.6 million, down 17% year over year. Also, same-store shipments were down 10% year over year due to wet weather in Virginia markets. Total revenues from the Calcium segment were down 0.5% from the prior-year figure to $2 million. The segment reported gross profit of $0.67 million versus $0.55 million in the prior-year quarter. Operating Highlights Selling, Administrative and General or SAG expenses were $90.3 million, increasing 15.3% year over year. Moreover, as a percentage of revenues, the metric improved 10 bps. Adjusted EBITDA was up 15% year over year to $193 million, driven by strong shipments and pricing. As of Mar 31, 2019, cash and cash equivalents were $30.8 million, down from $40 million at the end of 2018, as well as $38.1 million recorded in the comparable year-ago period. In first-quarter 2019, Vulcan Materials returned $41 million to its shareholders, 10% higher than the prior-year period, through dividends. At the end of the quarter, total debt amounted to $3 billion, or 2.6 times of the trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA. 2019 Guidance Reiterated Vulcan Materials expects double-digit earnings growth in 2019. The company also expects solid growth in private and public demand. Above-average demand growth in Vulcan markets compared with the rest of the United States supports its shipment growth guidance. The company expects aggregates shipment growth of 3-5% for the year. Aggregates freight-adjusted price is expected to increase 5-7% from a year ago. Its earnings from continuing operations for the full year are expected within $4.55-$5.05 and adjusted EBITDA is projected in the range of $1.250-$1.330 billion. How Have Estimates Been Moving Since Then? In the past month, investors have witnessed a downward trend in fresh estimates. VGM Scores Currently, Vulcan has an average Growth Score of C, though it is lagging a lot on the Momentum Score front with an F. Charting a somewhat similar path, the stock was allocated a grade of D on the value side, putting it in the bottom 40% for this investment strategy. Overall, the stock has an aggregate VGM Score of D. If you aren't focused on one strategy, this score is the one you should be interested in. Estimates have been broadly trending downward for the stock, and the magnitude of this revision indicates a downward shift. Notably, Vulcan has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). We expect an above average return from the stock in the next few months. Vulcan Materials Company (VMC) : Free Stock Analysis Report Chewy First-Quarter Results Show 45% Revenue Gain	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10785
__label__cc	0.521154	0.478846	Nationalism–the Wrong Right Turn In the course of the 18th century, many European thinkers agreed that national rivalries had led to destructive wars, and what was needed was some federal union of states. Rousseau, who did much to popularize this idea, concluded that it might take a revolution to bring about a European federation to end war. Unfortunately, the revolution, when it came to France shortly after Rousseau’s death, initiated one of the bloodiest periods of national conflicts in European history. The French Revolution was the seminal event of modern times, the period when Enlightenment theories of liberty and equality, natural rights and the social contract assumed a concrete form. All subsequent history in the West has been a series of attempts to extend (or resist) the principles of the Revolution, and since World War II, there has been no practical opposition to the ideology of 1789. Many of the wars of the 19th century were informed by the ideology of nationalism. Nationalism—as the formation of the word indicates—is one of those ideologies that starts by acknowledging some part of reality which the ideologues then convert into the summum bonum. Love of country is a natural and wholesome outgrowth of the love of kith and kin, but the modern concept of nationalism is largely the creation of the French Revolution, which implemented Rousseau’s theory of the general will and continued the process of centralization inaugurated by the Bourbon monarchy. The classic text is Le Contrat Social, a book as mad as it is important. Following his own injunction in his essay on the origin of Inequality,” Rousseau set aside all the facts and accepted John Locke’s state of nature and social contract lock, stock, and barrel. He then developed the social contract theory into a nightmare. Since government rests on the mystical consent of the governed, which Rousseau terms the General Will, that national will is the sovereign. “…the act of association comprises a mutual undertaking between the public and the individuals, and that each individual, in making a contract, as we may say, with himself, is bound in a double capacity; as a member of the Sovereign he is bound to the individuals, and as a member of the State to the Sovereign. But the maxim of civil right, that no one is bound by undertakings made to himself, does not apply in this case; for there is a great difference between incurring an obligation to yourself and incurring one to a whole of which you form a part.” The sovereignty of the nation’s General Will is indivisible and inalienable—hence the language of our own nationalist Pledge of Allegiance: “One nation indivisible” has the same ring as Superman’s credo, “fighting for truth, justice, and the American way.” The General Will is also infallible, though the people in their deliberations may make mistakes. These mistakes arise from ignorance and the self-interest of factions. “It is therefore essential, if the general will is to be able to express itself, that there should be no partial society within the State, and that each citizen should think only his own thoughts which was indeed the sublime and unique system established by the great Lycurgus.” In other words, the militaristic communal system of tiny Sparta can now be applied to a great nation state. According to nationalists, the will of the nation, as defined as an historic community of blood and tongue, had to find expression in a common and unified state. Hence, the Italian nationalist Mazzini, whose political lineage goes back to the Revolution, spoke always of the twin principles of unity and nationality. The French Revolution is not a simple phenomenon dominated by one ideology. Influenced by Rousseau, the leaders of revolutionary France proclaimed their devotion to the nation Indeed, The Declaration of the Rights of Man states that “The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation. No body nor individual may exercise any authority which does not proceed directly from the nation.” Yet they also declared their support for other revolutionary movements that would rise up to throw off the chains of monarchy, feudalism, and Christianity. In the Proclamation of the Convention to the Nations, December 1792, they declared: “We have conquered our liberty and we shall maintain it. We offer to bring this inestimable blessing to you, for it has always been rightly ours, and only by a crime have our oppressors robbed us of it. We have driven out your tyrants. Show yourselves free men and we will protect you from their vengeance, their machinations, or their return.” In other words, the universal rights of men justify the French conquest of Europe. In the 19th century, the revolutionary ideal would separate, temporarily, into nationalist and internationalist channels, the one leading to the formation of centralized nation-states in France, Germany, Italy, and the United States; the other inspiring Marxists with their project of establishing economic justice in an international order. On another occasion, we might discuss the evils of Marxist internationalism that has killed more people than the most evil nationalisms, but as different as they may appear on the surface, both nationalism and internationalism are ideological movements that make war on all the little platoons in which the human character is formed and everyday life is life. (Next, we take up Romantic Nationalism). Andrew G Van Sant says: John Lukacs provided cogent warnings on the dangers of nationalism. Yes, but while his basic outlook was correct, it was derived ultimately from Lord Acton, who spent a good deal of time making distinctions with a difference. Lukacs, like Acton, praised patriotism but rejected nationalism, and when Acton tried to make distinctions, he fell back on a Whig rationalist tradition–to which (As Herbert Butterfield pointed out) he was too deeply attached and distinguished between ethical attachment to one’s country to the extent it was ethical. Now this, I shall be contending, is not only wrong but plays into nationalism by converting patriotism into an abstraction. But all this will come out. Lukacs, with whom I discussed this on more than one occasion, was more sensible and intuitive than Acton. Ken Rosenberger says: Very timely essay, where I’m concerned, Dr Fleming. When I heard about Lukacs’ passing, I began to read his 1993 book “The End of the Twentieth Century.” He talks a good bit about nationalism there (as he did in many of his books), and he inevitably comes around to Hitler. I almost got the impression that he was saying that all nationalisms lead that way. Would it be possible to have a good nationalism, depending on who the leaders were? I’m not sure I got a handle on his ideal arrangement (I assume something like the federal system we had prior to the War Between the States), that he would contrast to, say, a nationalist system that might be favored by people like Sam Francis or Pat Buchanan. And I wondered what Lukacs thought about the soft totalitarianism (not so soft these days) of the managerial technocrats on the left. Well, I know you have some personal insights into all three men, and I hope you will continue to give us your meditations on nationalism. I hope Dr Wilson will weigh in on this subject too. I have a lot more to say about the definition of nationalism and patriotism. Lukacs supported Buchanan’s presidential run but viewed with suspicion his superficial endorsement of nationalism. His critical review of one of PJB’s books elicited rage among some of Pat’s less intelligent followers, but that, of course, is another and rather unpleasant story. Robert Reavis says: The late professor Lukacs said nothing about Pat’s book that Victor David Hanson and Christopher Hitchens had not said in their own critical reviews. Scott McConnell was only trying to appear and appease the intellectual fad of objectivity in his own unique, conniving and cunning way. In these pathetic times what’s left of the tattered remains should be better respected by those who can still remember—-very much like the Ute Indians respect the ancient remains of the cliff dwellers of Messa Verde even to this day. TAC was–does it exist any more?–designed to be a partisan publication, but McConnell–Sam Francis always referred to him as ‘Scooter’–could not be loyal to anyone or anything but his own vanity. Lukacs was never a movement conservative and a perfect right to be candid. He did his own reading, thought his own thoughts, and that is more than can be said for most of the latterday conservative movement writers. TAC is a sad piece of work these days. Their marquee “writer” appears to be a rather histrionic fellow we don’t mention here, other than to say he’s a guy who switches religions a good bit. Lukacs is not someone who should be dismissed for one or two opinions he’s posited in his long, thoughtful life. Rather he is rare thing: a historian who’s also a genuine writer. His books are worth owning and reading and having on your shelf, as much as the works of someone like Anthony Powell or Walker Percy. Any genuine conservative (I always use that word with some trepidation these days, meaningless as it has become) who aspires to a higher degree of literacy, should probably own at 5-10 of his books, if not more. There is much wisdom there. Dr Fleming, I have been re-listening to your 2013 Summer lecture on nationalism and Maurice Barres. You provide some good delineation between nationalism and patriotism in that talk (not an easy thing to do, but “I gotta use words when I’m talking to you”). As I make it out, a patriot would be an American who loves his country because it’s filled with a billion small things he loves: a street corner in Charleston; a curve in Rte. 64, a few miles west of Brevard, NC; a short story by Fred Chappell, and so on. Whereas, a nationalist is really one of Lincoln’s acolytes: what’s all this big deal about states? Aren’t they just big counties? We need something like a new 14th Amendment, with an equality clause, so every state’s laws are the same. We’ve got to get this country united, if takes killing half of the people to doit. Then we’ll get them on the same page, thinking alike, watching Fox News. After that you just get a load of our Manifest Destiny. Ken, you are indeed right about John Lukacs, whose work I admired for decades and whose friendship I valued highly. And thanks for reminding me about the Barres lecture–which had completely slipped my mind. I’ll hunt it up. Perhaps I should re-record it. I fear that the organization that has the tapes will not be around very long, if, it in fact exists today. No dismissal of the good professor from me, Ken. His friends and students are the best witness of his good character and wisdom. His review of Buchanan’s book was not offensive to me in the least although Scott McConnells predictable machinations were of a type. Sorry if my post seemed rather dismissive of the old professor. Robert, no problems with your post. I was thinking of a few other “conservatives,” who had probably never read one page of Lukacs, before they read that review, and then concluded, based on that, that he was someone they could now write off forever. And I say that as someone who has generally liked (and voted for) PJB and does not particularly care for Churchill, at least what I have read about him. I also have to admit that Lukacs, given his experience as a young man in occupied Hungary, given his long reflective life and three dozen books (most of them at least good and more than a few very good), might have had a few good reasons for liking Churchill as much as he did. Harry Colin says: I certainly concur with Mr. Rosenberger’s comments on Lukacs. For anyone who has not read any of Lukacs work, I humbly suggest “Remembered Past” as an introductory way to gain insight into his thoughts. This book is a compendium of his reflections on history, historians and other prominent figures, drawn from his work over decades. When I learned of his passing I decided to re-read much of it; I have not regretted that decision. Dr Fleming piqued my interest . . . no it does not. It is now Charlemagne. Next story Take Five: Norway’s Deviation Into Sanity Previous story Ending Electoral College Would Dissolve Democratic Party The Fleming Foundation > FF > Free Content > Nationalism–the Wrong Right Turn	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10787
__label__wiki	0.825847	0.825847	Monroe Doctrine U.S. President James Monroe Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, author of the Monroe Doctrine The Monroe Doctrine was a United States policy of opposing European colonialism in the Americas beginning in 1823. It stated that further efforts by European nations to take control of any independent state in North or South America would be viewed as "the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States."[1] At the same time, the doctrine noted that the U.S. would recognize and not interfere with existing European colonies nor meddle in the internal concerns of European countries. The Doctrine was issued on December 2, 1823 at a time when nearly all Latin American colonies of Spain and Portugal had achieved, or were at the point of gaining, independence from the Portuguese and Spanish Empires. President James Monroe first stated the doctrine during his seventh annual State of the Union Address to Congress. The term "Monroe Doctrine" itself was coined in 1850.[2] By the end of the 19th century, Monroe's declaration was seen as a defining moment in the foreign policy of the United States and one of its longest-standing tenets. It would be invoked by many U.S. statesmen and several U.S. presidents, including Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan. The intent and impact of the Monroe Doctrine persisted with only small variations for more than a century. Its stated objective was to free the newly independent colonies of Latin America from European intervention and avoid situations which could make the New World a battleground for the Old World powers, so that the U.S. could exert its own influence undisturbed. The doctrine asserted that the New World and the Old World were to remain distinctly separate spheres of influence, for they were composed of entirely separate and independent nations.[3] After 1898, Latin American lawyers and intellectuals reinterpreted the Monroe doctrine in terms of multilateralism and non-intervention. In 1933, under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the U.S. went along with the new reinterpretation, especially in terms of the Organization of American States.[4] The U.S. government feared the victorious European powers that emerged from the Congress of Vienna (1814–1815) would revive monarchical government. France had already agreed to restore the Spanish monarchy in exchange for Cuba.[5] As the revolutionary Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) ended, Prussia, Austria, and Russia formed the Holy Alliance to defend monarchism. In particular, the Holy Alliance authorized military incursions to re-establish Bourbon rule over Spain and its colonies, which were establishing their independence.[6]:153–5 Great Britain shared the general objective of the Monroe Doctrine, albeit from an opposite standpoint and ultimate aim, and even wanted to declare a joint statement to keep other European powers from further colonizing the New World. The British Foreign Secretary George Canning wanted to keep the other European powers out of the New World fearing that its trade with the New World would be harmed if the other European powers further colonized it. In fact, for many years after the Monroe Doctrine took effect, Britain, through the Royal Navy, was the sole nation enforcing it, the U.S. lacking sufficient naval capability. Allowing Spain to re-establish control of its former colonies would have cut Great Britain off from its profitable trade with the region. For that reason, Canning proposed to the U.S. that they mutually declare and enforce a policy of separating the New World from the Old. The U.S. resisted a joint statement because of the recent memory of the War of 1812, leading to the Monroe administration's unilateral statement. However, the immediate provocation was the Russian Ukase of 1821[7] asserting rights to the Pacific Northwest and forbidding non-Russian ships from approaching the coast.[8][9] Seeds of the Monroe Doctrine Despite America's beginnings as an isolationist country, the seeds for the Monroe Doctrine were already being laid even during George Washington's presidency. According to S.E. Morison, "as early as 1783, then, the United States adopted the policy of isolation and announced its intention to keep out of Europe. The supplementary principle of the Monroe Doctrine, that Europe must keep out of America, was still over the horizon".[10] While not specifically the Monroe Doctrine, Alexander Hamilton desired to control the sphere of influence in the western hemisphere, particularly in North America but was extended to the Latin American colonies by the Monroe Doctrine.[11] But Hamilton, writing in the Federalist Papers, was already wanting to establish America as a world power and hoped that America would suddenly become strong enough to keep the European powers outside of the Americas, despite the fact that the European countries controlled much more of the Americas than the U.S. itself.[10] Hamilton expected that the United States would become the dominant power in the new world and would, in the future, act as an intermediary between the European powers and any new countries blossoming near the U.S.[10] In fact, in a note from James Madison, Thomas Jefferson's Secretary of State and a future president, to the U.S. ambassador for Spain, the federal government expressed the opposition of the American government to further territorial acquisition by European powers.[12] Madison's sentiment might have been meaningless because, as was noted before, the European powers held much more territory in comparison to the territory held by the U.S. Although Thomas Jefferson was pro-French, in an attempt to keep the British–French rivalry out the U.S., the federal government under Jefferson made it clear to its ambassadors that the U.S. would not support any future colonization efforts on the North American continent. The Doctrine The full document of the Monroe Doctrine, written chiefly by future-President and then Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, is long and couched in diplomatic language, but its essence is expressed in two key passages. The first is the introductory statement, which asserts that the New World is no longer subject to colonization by the European countries:[13] The occasion has been judged proper for asserting, as a principle in which the rights and interests of the United States are involved, that the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers. The second key passage, which contains a fuller statement of the Doctrine, is addressed to the "allied powers" of Europe (that is, the Holy Alliance); it clarifies that the U.S. remains neutral on existing European colonies in the Americas but is opposed to "interpositions" that would create new colonies among the newly independent Spanish American republics:[1] We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power, we have not interfered and shall not interfere. But with the Governments who have declared their independence and maintained it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European power in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States. International response Because the U.S. lacked both a credible navy and army at the time, the doctrine was largely disregarded internationally.[3] Prince Metternich of Austria was angered by the statement, and wrote privately that the doctrine was a "new act of revolt" by the U.S. that would grant "new strength to the apostles of sedition and reanimate the courage of every conspirator."[6]:156 The doctrine, however, met with tacit British approval. They enforced it tactically as part of the wider Pax Britannica, which included enforcement of the neutrality of the seas. This was in line with the developing British policy of laissez-faire free trade against mercantilism. Fast-growing British industry sought markets for its manufactured goods, and, if the newly independent Latin American states became Spanish colonies again, British access to these markets would be cut off by Spanish mercantilist policy.[14] Latin American reaction The reaction in Latin America to the Monroe Doctrine was generally favorable but on some occasions suspicious. John A. Crow, author of The Epic of Latin America, states, "Simón Bolívar himself, still in the midst of his last campaign against the Spaniards, Santander in Colombia, Rivadavia in Argentina, Victoria in Mexico—leaders of the emancipation movement everywhere—received Monroe's words with sincerest gratitude".[15] Crow argues that the leaders of Latin America were realists. They knew that the President of the United States wielded very little power at the time, particularly without the backing of the British forces, and figured that the Monroe Doctrine was unenforceable if the United States stood alone against the Holy Alliance.[15] While they appreciated and praised their support in the north, they knew that the future of their independence was in the hands of the British and their powerful navy. In 1826, Bolivar called upon his Congress of Panama to host the first "Pan-American" meeting. In the eyes of Bolivar and his men, the Monroe Doctrine was to become nothing more than a tool of national policy. According to Crow, "It was not meant to be, and was never intended to be a charter for concerted hemispheric action".[15] At the same time, some people questioned the intentions behind the Monroe Doctrine. Diego Portales, a Chilean businessman and minister, wrote to a friend: "But we have to be very careful: for the Americans of the north [from the United States], the only Americans are themselves".[16] Post-Bolívar events In early 1833, the British reasserted their sovereignty over the Falkland islands. No action was taken by the US, and George C. Herring writes that the inaction "confirmed Latin American and especially Argentine suspicions of the United States."[6]:171[17] In 1838–50 Argentina was blockaded by the French and, later, the British. No action was taken by the U.S., despite protestations.[citation needed] In 1842, U.S. President John Tyler applied the Monroe Doctrine to Hawaii and warned Britain not to interfere there. This began the process of annexing Hawaii to the U.S.[18] On December 2, 1845, U.S. President James Polk announced that the principle of the Monroe Doctrine should be strictly enforced, reinterpreting it to argue that no European nation should interfere with the American western expansion ("Manifest Destiny").[19] French intervention in Mexico, 1861–1867 In 1862, French forces under Napoleon III invaded and conquered Mexico, giving control to the puppet monarch Emperor Maximilian. Washington denounced this as a violation of the doctrine but was unable to intervene because of the American Civil War. This marked the first time the Monroe Doctrine was widely referred to as a "doctrine." In 1865 the U.S. stationed a large combat army on the border to emphasize its demand that France leave. France did pull out, and Mexican nationalists executed Maximilian.[20] In 1862, Belize was turned into a crown colony of the British empire and renamed British Honduras. The U.S. took no action against Britain, either during or after the Civil War.[21] President Cleveland twisting the tail of the British Lion; cartoon in Puck by J.S. Pughe, 1895 In the 1870s, President Ulysses S. Grant and his Secretary of State Hamilton Fish endeavored to supplant European influence in Latin America with that of the U.S. In 1870, the Monroe Doctrine was expanded under the proclamation "hereafter no territory on this continent [referring to Central and South America] shall be regarded as subject to transfer to a European power."[6]:259 Grant invoked the Monroe Doctrine in his failed attempt to annex the Dominican Republic in 1870.[22] The Venezuela Crisis of 1895 became "one of the most momentous episodes in the history of Anglo-American relations in general and of Anglo-American rivalries in Latin America in particular."[23] Venezuela sought to involve the U.S. in a territorial dispute with Britain over Guayana Esequiba, and hired former US ambassador William L. Scruggs to argue that British behaviour over the issue violated the Monroe Doctrine. President Grover Cleveland through his Secretary of State, Richard Olney, cited the Doctrine in 1895, threatening strong action against Great Britain if the British failed to arbitrate their dispute with Venezuela. In a July 20, 1895 note to Britain, Olney stated, "The United States is practically sovereign on this continent, and its fiat is law upon the subjects to which it confines its interposition."[6]:307 British Prime Minister Lord Salisbury took strong exception to the American language. The U.S. objected to a British proposal for a joint meeting to clarify the scope of the Monroe Doctrine. Historian George Herring wrote that by failing to pursue the issue further the British "tacitly conceded the U.S. definition of the Monroe Doctrine and its hegemony in the hemisphere."[6]:307–8 Otto von Bismarck, did not agree and in October 1897 called the Doctrine an "uncommon insolence".[24] Sitting in Paris, the Tribunal of Arbitration finalized its decision on October 3, 1899.[23] The award was unanimous, but gave no reasons for the decision, merely describing the resulting boundary, which gave Britain almost 90% of the disputed territory[25] and all of the gold mines.[26] The reaction to the award was surprise, with the award's lack of reasoning a particular concern.[25] The Venezuelans were keenly disappointed with the outcome, though they honored their counsel for their efforts (their delegation's Secretary, Severo Mallet-Prevost [es], received the Order of the Liberator in 1944), and abided by the award.[25] The Anglo-Venezuelan boundary dispute asserted for the first time a more outward-looking American foreign policy, particularly in the Americas, marking the U.S. as a world power. This was the earliest example of modern interventionism under the Monroe Doctrine in which the USA exercised its claimed prerogatives in the Americas.[27] Spanish–American War, the result of U.S. intervention in the Cuban War of Independence In 1898, the U.S. intervened in support of Cuba during its war for independence from Spain. The U.S. won what is known in the U.S. as the Spanish–American War and in Cuba as the Cuban War for Independence. Under the terms of the peace treaty from which Cuba was excluded, Spain ceded Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam to the U.S. in exchange for $20 million. Cuba came under U.S. control and remained so until it was granted formal independence in 1902.[28] The "Big Brother" American poses with dead Haitian revolutionaries killed by US Marine machine gun fire, 1915. The "Big Brother" policy was an extension of the Monroe Doctrine formulated by James G. Blaine in the 1880s that aimed to rally Latin American nations behind US leadership and open their markets to US traders. Blaine served as Secretary of State in 1881 under President James A. Garfield and again from 1889 to 1892 under President Benjamin Harrison. As a part of the policy, Blaine arranged and led the First International Conference of American States in 1889.[29] The "Olney Corollary" Main article: Olney interpretation Also known as Olney interpretation or Olney declaration was United States Secretary of State Richard Olney's interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine when the border dispute for Guayana Esequiba occurred between Britain and Venezuela governments in 1895. Olney claimed that the Monroe Doctrine gave the U.S. authority to mediate border disputes in the Western Hemisphere. Olney extended the meaning of the Monroe Doctrine, which had previously stated merely that the Western Hemisphere was closed to additional European colonization. The statement reinforced the original purpose of the Monroe Doctrine, that the U.S. had the right to intervene in its own hemisphere and foreshadowed the events of the Spanish–American War three years later. The Olney interpretation was defunct by 1933.[30] In 1902, Canadian Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier acknowledged that the Monroe Doctrine was essential to his country's protection. The doctrine provided Canada with a de facto security guarantee by the United States; the US Navy in the Pacific, and the British Navy in the Atlantic, made invading North America almost impossible. Because of the peaceful relations between the two countries, Canada could assist Britain in a European war without having to defend itself at home.[31] The "Roosevelt Corollary" Main article: Roosevelt Corollary 1903 cartoon: "Go Away, Little Man, and Don't Bother Me". President Roosevelt intimidating Colombia to acquire the Panama Canal Zone. The doctrine's authors, chiefly future-President and then secretary-of-state John Quincy Adams, saw it as a proclamation by the U.S. of moral opposition to colonialism, but it has subsequently been re-interpreted and applied in a variety of instances. As the U.S. began to emerge as a world power, the Monroe Doctrine came to define a recognized sphere of control that few dared to challenge.[3] Before becoming president, Theodore Roosevelt had proclaimed the rationale of the Monroe Doctrine in supporting intervention in the Spanish colony of Cuba in 1898.[citation needed] The Venezuela Crisis of 1902–1903 showed the world that the US was willing to use its naval strength to intervene to stabilize the economic affairs of small states in the Caribbean and Central America if they were unable to pay their international debts, in order to preclude European intervention to do so.[32] The Venezuela crisis, and in particular the arbitral award, were key in the development of the Corollary.[32] In Argentine foreign policy, the Drago Doctrine was announced on December 29, 1902 by the Foreign Minister of Argentina, Luis María Drago. This was a response to the actions of Britain, Germany, and Italy during the Venezuela Crisis of 1902–1903, in which they had blockaded and shelled Venezuela's ports in an attempt to collect money owed as part of its national debt, accrued under regimes preceding that of president Cipriano Castro. Drago set forth the policy that no European power could use force against an American nation to collect debt. President Theodore Roosevelt rejected this policy as an extension of the Monroe Doctrine, declaring, "We do not guarantee any state against punishment if it misconducts itself".[6]:370 Instead, Roosevelt added the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine in 1904, asserting the right of the U.S. to intervene in Latin America in cases of "flagrant and chronic wrongdoing by a Latin American Nation" to preempt intervention by European creditors. This re-interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine went on to be a useful tool to take economic benefits by force when Latin nations failed to pay their debts to European and US banks and business interests. This was also referred to as the Big Stick ideology because of the phrase from president Roosevelt to "speak low and carry a big stick".[3][6]:371[33] The Roosevelt corollary provoked outrage across Latin America.[34] The Roosevelt Corollary was invoked to intervene militarily in Latin America to stop the spread of European influence.[33] It was the most significant amendment to the original doctrine and was widely opposed by critics, who argued that the Monroe Doctrine was originally meant to stop European influence in the Americas.[3] They argued that the Corollary simply asserted U.S. domination in that area, effectively making them a "hemispheric policeman."[35] The Lodge Resolution The so-called "Lodge Resolution" was passed[36] by the U.S. Senate on August 2, 1912, in response to a reported attempt by a Japan-backed private company to acquire Magdalena Bay in southern Baja California. It extended the reach of the Monroe Doctrine to cover actions of corporations and associations controlled by foreign states.[37] Global Monroe Doctrine Scholars such a Neil Smith have written that Woodrow Wilson effectively proposed a "Global Monroe Doctrine" expanding US supremacy over the entire world. Some analysts assert that this prerogative for indirect control and sporadic invasions and occupations across the planet has largely come to fruition with the American superpower role since World War II. Such a expansion of the doctrine is premised on the "nominal equality" of independent states. Such superficial equality is often undermined by material inequality, making the US a de facto global empire.[38] Smith argued that the founding of the United Nations played a role in the establishing this global protectorate situation.[39] The Clark Memorandum The Clark Memorandum, written on December 17, 1928 by Calvin Coolidge's undersecretary of state J. Reuben Clark, concerned U.S. use of military force to intervene in Latin American nations. This memorandum was officially released in 1930 by the Herbert Hoover administration. The Clark memorandum rejected the view that the Roosevelt Corollary was based on the Monroe Doctrine. However, it was not a complete repudiation of the Roosevelt Corollary but was rather a statement that any intervention by the U.S. was not sanctioned by the Monroe Doctrine but rather was the right of America as a state. This separated the Roosevelt Corollary from the Monroe Doctrine by noting that the Monroe Doctrine only applied to situations involving European countries. One main point in the Clark Memorandum was to note that the Monroe Doctrine was based on conflicts of interest only between the United States and European nations, rather than between the United States and Latin American nations. After World War II began, a majority of Americans supported defending the entire Western Hemisphere against foreign invasion. A 1940 national survey found that 81% supported defending Canada; 75% Mexico and Central America; 69% South America; 66% West Indies; and 59% Greenland.[40] Latin American reinterpretation After 1898, jurists and intellectuals in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay, especially Luis María Drago, Alejandro Álvarez and Baltasar Brum, reinterpreted the Monroe doctrine. They sought a fresh continental approach to international law in terms of multilateralism and non-intervention. Indeed, an alternative Spanish American origin of the idea was proposed, attributing it to Manuel Torres.[41] However, American leaders were reluctant to renounce unilateral interventionism until the Good Neighbor policy enunciated by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933. The era of the Good Neighbor Policy ended with the ramp-up of the Cold War in 1945, as the United States felt there was a greater need to protect the western hemisphere from Soviet influence. These changes conflicted with the Good Neighbor Policy's fundamental principle of non-intervention and led to a new wave of US involvement in Latin American affairs. Control of the Monroe doctrine thus shifted to the multilateral Organization of American States (OAS) founded in 1948.[4] In 1954, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles invoked the Monroe Doctrine at the 10th Pan-American Conference in Caracas, Venezuela, denouncing the intervention of Soviet Communism in Guatemala. President John F. Kennedy said at an August 29, 1962 news conference: The Monroe Doctrine means what it has meant since President Monroe and John Quincy Adams enunciated it, and that is that we would oppose a foreign power extending its power to the Western Hemisphere [sic], and that is why we oppose what is happening in Cuba today. That is why we have cut off our trade. That is why we worked in the OAS and in other ways to isolate the Communist menace in Cuba. That is why we will continue to give a good deal of our effort and attention to it.[42] The U.S.-supported Nicaraguan contras During the Cold War, the Monroe Doctrine was applied to Latin America by the framers of U.S. foreign policy.[43] When the Cuban Revolution (1953–1959) established a Communist government with ties to the Soviet Union, it was argued that the Monroe Doctrine should be invoked to prevent the spread of Soviet-backed Communism in Latin America.[44] Under this rationale, the U.S. provided intelligence and military aid to Latin and South American governments that claimed or appeared to be threatened by Communist subversion (as in the case of Operation Condor). In the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, President John F. Kennedy cited the Monroe Doctrine as grounds for America's confrontation with the Soviet Union over the installation of Soviet ballistic missiles on Cuban soil.[45] The debate over this new interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine burgeoned in reaction to the Iran-Contra affair. It was revealed that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency had been covertly training "Contra" guerrilla soldiers in Honduras in an attempt to destabilize and overthrow the Sandinista revolutionary government of Nicaragua and its President, Daniel Ortega. CIA director Robert Gates vigorously defended the Contra operation in 1984, arguing that eschewing U.S. intervention in Nicaragua would be "totally to abandon the Monroe Doctrine".[46] 21st-century approaches The Kerry Doctrine Further information: Foreign policy of the Barack Obama administration § Americas President Barack Obama's Secretary of State John Kerry told the Organization of American States in November 2013 that the "era of the Monroe Doctrine is over."[47] Several commentators have noted that Kerry's call for a mutual partnership with the other countries in the Americas is more in keeping with Monroe's intentions than the policies enacted after his death.[48] President Donald Trump implied potential use of the doctrine in August 2017 when he mentioned the possibility of military intervention in Venezuela,[49] after his CIA Director Mike Pompeo declared that the nation's deterioration was the result of interference from Iranian- and Russian-backed groups.[50] In February 2018, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson praised the Monroe Doctrine as "clearly … a success", warning of "imperial" Chinese trade ambitions and touting the United States as the region's preferred trade partner.[51] Pompeo replaced Tillerson as Secretary of State in May 2018. Trump reiterated his commitment to the implementation of the Monroe Doctrine at the 73rd UN General Assembly in 2018.[52] Vasily Nebenzya criticised the US for what the Russian Federation perceives as an implementation of the Monroe Doctrine at the 8452nd emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on January 26, 2019. Venezuela's representative listed 27 interventions in Latin America that Venezuela considers to be implementations of the Monroe Doctrine:20–21 and stated that, in the context of the statements, they consider it "a direct military threat to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela".:47 Cuba's representative formulated a similar opinion, "The current Administration of the United States of America has declared the Monroe Doctrine to be in effect..." :28[53] On March 3, 2019, National Security Advisor John Bolton invoked the Monroe Doctrine in describing the Trump administration's policy in the Americas, saying "In this administration, we're not afraid to use the word Monroe Doctrine...It's been the objective of American presidents going back to [President] Ronald Reagan to have a completely democratic hemisphere."[54][55] Historians have observed that while the Doctrine contained a commitment to resist colonialism from Europe, it had some aggressive implications for American policy, since there were no limitations on the US's own actions mentioned within it. Scholar Jay Sexton notes that the tactics used to implement the doctrine were "modeled after those employed by British imperialists" and their competition with the Spanish and French.[56] Eminent historian William Appleman Williams described it as a form of "imperial anti-colonialism."[57] Noam Chomsky argues that in practice the Monroe Doctrine has been used as a declaration of hegemony and a right of unilateral intervention over the Americas.[58] Monroe Doctrine Centennial half dollar ^ a b "The Monroe Doctrine (1823)". Basic Readings in U.S. Democracy. United States Department of State. Archived from the original on January 8, 2012. ^ "Monroe Doctrine". Oxford English Dictionary (3rd ed.). 2002. ^ a b c d e New Encyclopædia Britannica. 8 (15th ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. p. 269. ISBN 1-59339-292-3. ^ a b Scarfi, Juan Pablo (2014). "In the Name of the Americas: The Pan-American Redefinition of the Monroe Doctrine and the Emerging Language of American International Law in the Western Hemisphere, 1898–1933". Diplomatic History. 40 (2): 189–218. doi:10.1093/dh/dhu071. ^ Boyer, Paul S., ed. (2006). The Oxford Companion to United States History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 514. ISBN 978-0-19-508209-8. ^ a b c d e f g h Herring, George C. (2008). From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1776. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195078220. ^ For the text of the Ukase of 1821, see: "Imperial Russian Edicts Relating to the Russian–American Company". Fur-Seal Arbitration: Appendix to the Case of the United States Before the Tribunal of Arbitration to Convene at Paris Under the Provisions of the Treaty Between the United States of America and Great Britain, Concluded February 29, 1892. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. 1892. p. 16. ^ Kennedy, David M.; Cohen, Lizabeth; Bailey, Thomas Andrew (2008). The American Pageant: A History of the Republic, Volume I. Cengage Learning. p. 267. ISBN 9780547166599. ^ Miller, Robert J.; Furse, Elizabeth (2006). Native America, Discovered and Conquered: Thomas Jefferson, Lewis & Clark, and Manifest Destiny. Westport, CT: Praeger. p. 136. ISBN 9780275990114. ^ a b c Morison, S.E. (February 1924). "The Origins of the Monroe Doctrine". Economica. doi:10.2307/2547870. JSTOR 2547870. ^ "Monroe Doctrine, 1823". Office of the Historian. United States Department of State. April 6, 2016. Retrieved March 26, 2016. ^ Nerval, Gaston (1934). Autopsy of the Monroe Doctrine. New York: The Macmillan Company. p. 33. ^ Monroe, James. "The Monroe Doctrine". U.S. Department of State. Retrieved November 2, 2011. ^ Hobson, Rolf. Imperialism at Sea. 163. Brill Academic Publishers. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-391-04105-9. Retrieved October 12, 2009. ^ a b c Crow, John A. (1992). "Areil and Caliban". The Epic of Latin America (4th ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 676. ISBN 0-520-07723-7. ^ Uribe, Armando, El Libro Negro de la Intervención Norteamericana en Chile. México: Siglo XXI Editores, 1974. ^ Howe, Daniel (2007). What Hath God Wrought. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 115. ^ Debra J. Allen (2012). Historical Dictionary of U.S. Diplomacy from the Revolution to Secession. Scarecrow Press. p. 270. ^ no by-line. "James K. Polk: Reaffirmation of the Monroe Doctrine". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved July 28, 2016. In his message to Congress of December 2, 1845, President Polk reinterpreted the Monroe Doctrine in terms of the prevailing spirit of Manifest Destiny. Whereas Monroe had said only that the Western Hemisphere was no longer open to European colonialism, Polk now stated that European nations had better not interfere with projected territorial expansion by the U.S. ^ M. M. McAllen, Maximilian and Carlota: Europe's Last Empire in Mexico (2014) ^ "Ireland and the Americas". google.co.uk. ^ Ulysses Simpson Grant; John Y. Simon, Editor (1998). The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant: November 1, 1870 – May 31, 1871. SIU Press. p. 286. CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list (link) ^ a b Humphreys, R. A. (1967). Anglo-American Rivalries and the Venezuela Crisis of 1895: Presidential Address to the Royal Historical Society December 10, 1966. Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. 17. pp. 131–164. ^ "Bismarck and the Monroe Doctrine". Chicago Tribune. October 20, 1897. Retrieved August 16, 2016. ^ a b c Schoenrich (1949:526) ^ King (2007:260) ^ Ferrell, Robert H. "Monroe Doctrine". ap.grolier.com. Archived from the original on March 21, 2008. Retrieved October 31, 2008. ^ Smith, Joseph (2014). The Spanish–American War 1895–1902: Conflict in the Caribbean and the Pacific. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-83742-3. ^ Lens, Sidney; Zinn, Howard (2003). The Forging of the American Empire: From the Revolution to Vietnam, a History of U.S. Imperialism. Human Security Series (Illustrated ed.). Pluto Press. p. 464. ISBN 0-7453-2100-3. ^ George B. Young, "Intervention Under the Monroe Doctrine: The Olney Corollary," Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 57, No. 2 (Jun., 1942), pp. 247–280 in JSTOR ^ Dziuban, Stanley W. (1959). "Chapter 1, Chautauqua to Ogdensburg". Military Relations Between the United States and Canada, 1939–1945. Washington DC: Center of Military History, United States Army. pp. 2–3. LCCN 59-60001. ^ a b Matthias Maass (2009), "Catalyst for the Roosevelt Corollary: Arbitrating the 1902–1903 Venezuela Crisis and Its Impact on the Development of the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine", Diplomacy & Statecraft, Volume 20, Issue 3, pages 383–402 ^ a b Roosevelt, Theodore (December 6, 1904). "State of the Union Address". TeachingAmericanHistory.org. Retrieved December 20, 2008. ^ Thomas Leonard; et al. (2012). Encyclopedia of U.S. – Latin American Relations. SAGE. p. 789. ^ Lerner, Adrienne Wilmoth (2004). "Monroe Doctrine". Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security. ^ "Senate Vote #236 in 1912". ^ New York Times Current History: the European war, Volume 9. 1917. pp. 158–159. ^ McGranahan, Carole; Collins, John F. (August 2, 2018). "Chapter 18". Ethnographies of U.S. Empire. Duke University Press. ISBN 9781478002086. ^ Smith, Neil (March 19, 2003). American Empire: Roosevelt’s Geographer and the Prelude to Globalization. University of California Press. pp. 406–419. ISBN 9780520230279. ^ "What the U.S.A. Thinks". Life. July 29, 1940. p. 20. Retrieved November 10, 2011. ^ Chandler, Charles Lyon (July 1914). "The Pan American Origin of the Monroe Doctrine". American Journal of International Law. 8 (3): 515–519. doi:10.2307/2187493; García Samudio, Nicolás (1941). "La misíon de don Manuel Torres en Washington y los orígenes suramericanos de la doctrina Monroe". Boletín de Historia y Antigüedades (in Spanish). 28: 474–484; criticized by Whitaker, Arthur P. (1954). The Western Hemisphere Idea: Its Rise and Decline. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. p. 27. ^ "352 – The President's News Conference August 29, 1962 response to Q[21.]". Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. ^ Dominguez, Jorge (1999). "US–Latin American Relations During the Cold War and its Aftermath" (PDF). The United States and Latin America: The New Agenda. Institute of Latin American Studies and the David Rockefeller Center for Latin Americas Studies. p. 12. Retrieved August 4, 2010. ^ "Study Prepared in Response to National Security Study Memorandum 15". NSC–IG/ARA. July 5, 1969. Retrieved August 4, 2010. ^ "The Durable Doctrine". Time. September 21, 1962. Retrieved July 15, 2009. ^ Smith, Gaddis (1995). The Last Years of the Monroe Doctrine, 1945–1993. New York: Hill & Wang. p. 201. ISBN 978-0-8090-1568-9. ^ Johnson, Keith (November 18, 2013). "Kerry Makes It Official: 'Era of Monroe Doctrine Is Over'". Wall Street Journal. ^ Keck, Zachary (November 21, 2013). "The US Renounces the Monroe Doctrine?". The Diplomat. Retrieved November 28, 2013. ^ "Trump Says He Is Considering Military Action in Venezuela". VOA News. ^ "CIA Director Pompeo: Venezuela's Situation Continues to Deteriorate". VOA News. ^ Gramer, Robbie. "Tillerson Praises Monroe Doctrine, Warns Latin America of 'Imperial' Chinese Ambitions". Foreign Policy. The Slate Group. ^ "Remarks by President Trump to the 73rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly, New York, NY". September 25, 2018. ^ "S/PV.8452 Security Council: Seventy-fourth year: 8452nd meeting". United Nations. January 26, 2019. p. 12. ^ "John Bolton: 'We're not afraid to use the word Monroe Doctrine'". March 3, 2019. Retrieved March 4, 2019. ^ "What is the Monroe Doctrine? John Bolton's justification for Trump's push against Maduro". The Washington Post. March 4, 2019. ^ Preston, Andrew; Rossinow, Doug (November 15, 2016). Outside In: The Transnational Circuitry of US History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190459871. ^ Sexton, Jay (March 15, 2011). The Monroe Doctrine: Empire and Nation in Nineteenth-Century America. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. pp. 2–9. ISBN 9781429929288. ^ Chomsky, Noam (2004). Hegemony Or Survival. Henry Holt. pp. 63–64. ISBN 978-0-8050-7688-2. Retrieved December 20, 2008. "Present Status of the Monroe Doctrine". Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 54: 1–129. 1914. ISSN 0002-7162. JSTOR i242639. 14 articles by experts Bemis, Samuel Flagg. John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy (1949) Dozer, Donald (1965). The Monroe Doctrine: Its Modern Significance. New York: Knopf. Lawson, Leonard Axel (1922). The Relation of British Policy to the Declaration of the Monroe Doctrine. Columbia University. May, Ernest R. (1975). The Making of the Monroe Doctrine. Harvard University Press. Meiertöns, Heiko (2010). The Doctrines of US Security Policy: An Evaluation under International Law. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-76648-7. Merk, Frederick (1966). The Monroe Doctrine and American Expansionism, 1843–1849. Murphy, Gretchen (2005). Hemispheric Imaginings: The Monroe Doctrine and Narratives of U.S. Empire. Duke University Press. Examines the cultural context of the doctrine. Perkins, Dexter (1927). The Monroe Doctrine, 1823–1826. 3 vols. ‹See Tfd›(in Italian) Nico Perrone, Progetto di un impero. 1823. L'annuncio dell'egemonia americana infiamma la borsa (Project of an Empire. 1823. The Announcement of American Hegemony Inflames the Stock Exchange), Naples, La Città del Sole, 2013 ISBN 978-88-8292-310-5 Sexton, Jay (2011). The Monroe Doctrine: Empire and Nation in 19th-Century America. Hill & Wang. 290 pages; competing and evolving conceptions of the doctrine after 1823. Monroe Doctrineat Wikipedia's sister projects Monroe Doctrine and related resources at the Library of Congress Selected text from Monroe's December 2, 1823 speech Adios, Monroe Doctrine: When the Yanquis Go Home by Jorge G. Castañeda, The New Republic, December 28, 2009 As illustrated in a 1904 cartoon Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Monroe_Doctrine&oldid=905799441"	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10791
__label__cc	0.664887	0.335113	Thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display Find sources: "Thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) A thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display (TFT LCD) is a variant of a liquid-crystal display (LCD) that uses thin-film-transistor (TFT) technology to improve image qualities such as addressability and contrast. A TFT LCD is an active matrix LCD, in contrast to passive matrix LCDs or simple, direct-driven LCDs with a few segments. TFT LCDs are used in appliances including television sets, computer monitors, mobile phones, handheld devices, video game systems, personal digital assistants, navigation systems, projectors,[1] and car instrument clusters.[1] Further information: History of display technology ConstructionEdit A diagram of the pixel layout The liquid crystal displays used in calculators and other devices with similarly simple displays have direct-driven image elements, and therefore a voltage can be easily applied across just one segment of these types of displays without interfering with the other segments. This would be impractical for a large display, because it would have a large number of (color) picture elements (pixels), and thus it would require millions of connections, both top and bottom for each one of the three colors (red, green and blue) of every pixel. To avoid this issue, the pixels are addressed in rows and columns, reducing the connection count from millions down to thousands. The column and row wires attach to transistor switches, one for each pixel. The one-way current passing characteristic of the transistor prevents the charge that is being applied to each pixel from being drained between refreshes to a display's image. Each pixel is a small capacitor with a layer of insulating liquid crystal sandwiched between transparent conductive ITO layers. The circuit layout process of a TFT-LCD is very similar to that of semiconductor products. However, rather than fabricating the transistors from silicon, that is formed into a crystalline silicon wafer, they are made from a thin film of amorphous silicon that is deposited on a glass panel. The silicon layer for TFT-LCDs is typically deposited using the PECVD process.[2] Transistors take up only a small fraction of the area of each pixel and the rest of the silicon film is etched away to allow light to easily pass through it. Polycrystalline silicon is sometimes used in displays requiring higher TFT performance. Examples include small high-resolution displays such as those found in projectors or viewfinders. Amorphous silicon-based TFTs are by far the most common, due to their lower production cost, whereas polycrystalline silicon TFTs are more costly and much more difficult to produce.[3] TypesEdit Twisted nematic (TN)Edit TN display under a microscope, with the transistors visible at the bottom The relatively inexpensive twisted nematic display is the most common consumer display type.[citation needed] The pixel response time on modern TN panels is sufficiently fast to avoid the shadow-trail and ghosting artifacts of earlier production.[citation needed] The more recent use of RTC (Response Time Compensation / Overdrive) technologies has allowed manufacturers to significantly reduce grey-to-grey (G2G) transitions, without significantly increasing the ISO response time.[citation needed] Response times are now quoted in G2G figures, with 4ms and 2ms now being commonplace for TN-based models.[citation needed] TN displays suffer from limited viewing angles, especially in the vertical direction. Colors will shift when viewed off-perpendicular. In the vertical direction, colors will shift so much that they will invert past a certain angle. Also, most TN panels represent colors using only six bits per RGB color, or 18 bit in total, and are unable to display the 16.7 million color shades (24-bit truecolor) that are available from graphics cards. Instead, these panels display interpolated 24-bit color using a dithering method that combines adjacent pixels to simulate the desired shade. They can also use a form of temporal dithering called Frame Rate Control (FRC), which cycles between different shades with each new frame to simulate an intermediate shade. Such 18 bit panels with dithering are sometimes advertised as having "16.2 million colors". These color simulation methods are noticeable to many people and highly bothersome to some.[4] FRC tends to be most noticeable in darker tones, while dithering appears to make the individual pixels of the LCD visible. Overall, color reproduction and linearity on TN panels is poor. Shortcomings in display color gamut (often referred to as a percentage of the NTSC 1953 color gamut) are also due to backlighting technology. It is not uncommon for displays with simple LED or CCFL-based lighting to range from 10% to 26% of the NTSC color gamut, whereas other kind of displays, utilizing more complicated CCFL or LED phosphor formulations or RGB LED backlights, may extend past 100% of the NTSC color gamut, a difference quite perceivable by the human eye. The transmittance of a pixel of an LCD panel typically does not change linearly with the applied voltage,[5] and the sRGB standard for computer monitors requires a specific nonlinear dependence of the amount of emitted light as a function of the RGB value. In-plane switching (IPS)Edit Main article: IPS panel In-plane switching was developed by Hitachi Ltd. in 1996 to improve on the poor viewing angle and the poor color reproduction of TN panels at that time.[6][7] Its name comes from the main difference from TN panels, that the crystal molecules move parallel to the panel plane instead of perpendicular to it. This change reduces the amount of light scattering in the matrix, which gives IPS its characteristic wide viewing angles and good color reproduction.[8] Initial iterations of IPS technology were characterised by slow response time and a low contrast ratio but later revisions have made marked improvements to these shortcomings. Because of its wide viewing angle and accurate color reproduction (with almost no off-angle color shift), IPS is widely employed in high-end monitors aimed at professional graphic artists, although with the recent fall in price it has been seen in the mainstream market as well. IPS technology was sold to Panasonic by Hitachi. Hitachi IPS technology development[9][10] Transmittance/ Super TFT IPS 1996 Wide viewing angle 100/100 Base level Most panels also support true 8-bit per channel color. These improvements came at the cost of a higher response time, initially about 50 ms. IPS panels were also extremely expensive. Super-IPS S-IPS 1998 Color shift free 100/137 IPS has since been superseded by S-IPS (Super-IPS, Hitachi Ltd. in 1998), which has all the benefits of IPS technology with the addition of improved pixel refresh timing.[quantify] Advanced Super-IPS AS-IPS 2002 High transmittance 130/250 AS-IPS, also developed by Hitachi Ltd. in 2002, improves substantially[quantify] on the contrast ratio of traditional S-IPS panels to the point where they are second only to some S-PVAs.[citation needed] IPS-Provectus IPS-Pro 2004 High contrast ratio 137/313 The latest panel from IPS Alpha Technology with a wider color gamut[quantify] and contrast ratio[quantify] matching PVA and ASV displays without off-angle glowing.[citation needed] IPS alpha IPS-Pro 2008 High contrast ratio Next generation of IPS-Pro IPS alpha next gen IPS-Pro 2010 High contrast ratio LG IPS technology development Horizontal IPS H-IPS 2007 Improves[quantify] contrast ratio by twisting electrode plane layout. Also introduces an optional Advanced True White polarizing film from NEC, to make white look more natural[quantify]. This is used in professional/photography LCDs.[citation needed] Enhanced IPS E-IPS 2009 Wider[quantify] aperture for light transmission, enabling the use of lower-power, cheaper backlights. Improves[quantify] diagonal viewing angle and further reduce response time to 5ms.[citation needed] Professional IPS P-IPS 2010 Offer 1.07 billion colors (10-bit color depth).[citation needed] More possible orientations per sub-pixel (1024 as opposed to 256) and produces a better[quantify] true color depth. Advanced High Performance IPS AH-IPS 2011 Improved color accuracy, increased resolution and PPI, and greater light transmission for lower power consumption.[11] Advanced fringe field switching (AFFS)Edit This is an LCD technology derived from the IPS by Boe-Hydis of Korea. Known as fringe field switching (FFS) until 2003,[12] advanced fringe field switching is a technology similar to IPS or S-IPS offering superior performance and color gamut with high luminosity. Color shift and deviation caused by light leakage is corrected by optimizing the white gamut, which also enhances white/grey reproduction. AFFS is developed by Hydis Technologies Co., Ltd, Korea (formally Hyundai Electronics, LCD Task Force).[13] In 2004, Hydis Technologies Co., Ltd licensed its AFFS patent to Japan's Hitachi Displays. Hitachi is using AFFS to manufacture high end panels in their product line. In 2006, Hydis also licensed its AFFS to Sanyo Epson Imaging Devices Corporation. Hydis introduced AFFS+ which improved outdoor readability in 2007.[citation needed] Multi-domain vertical alignment (MVA)Edit It achieved pixel response which was fast for its time, wide viewing angles, and high contrast at the cost of brightness and color reproduction.[citation needed] Modern MVA panels can offer wide viewing angles (second only to S-IPS technology), good black depth, good color reproduction and depth, and fast response times due to the use of RTC (Response Time Compensation) technologies.[citation needed] When MVA panels are viewed off-perpendicular, colors will shift, but much less than for TN panels.[citation needed] There are several "next-generation" technologies based on MVA, including AU Optronics' P-MVA and AMVA, as well as Chi Mei Optoelectronics' S-MVA. Patterned vertical alignment (PVA)Edit Less expensive PVA panels often use dithering and FRC, whereas super-PVA (S-PVA) panels all use at least 8 bits per color component and do not use color simulation methods.[citation needed]S-PVA also largely eliminated off-angle glowing of solid blacks and reduced the off-angle gamma shift. Some high-end Sony BRAVIA LCD TVs offer 10-bit and xvYCC color support, for example, the Bravia X4500 series. S-PVA also offers fast response times using modern RTC technologies.[citation needed] Advanced super view (ASV)Edit Advanced super view, also called axially symmetric vertical alignment was developed by Sharp.[14] It is a VA mode where liquid crystal molecules orient perpendicular to the substrates in the off state. The bottom sub-pixel has continuously covered electrodes, while the upper one has a smaller area electrode in the center of the subpixel. When the field is on, the liquid crystal molecules start to tilt towards the center of the sub-pixels because of the electric field; as a result, a continuous pinwheel alignment (CPA) is formed; the azimuthal angle rotates 360 degrees continuously resulting in an excellent viewing angle. The ASV mode is also called CPA mode.[15] Plane line switching (PLS)Edit See also: IPS panel § PLS A technology developed by Samsung is Super PLS, which bears similarities to IPS panels and touts improved viewing angles and image quality, increased brightness and lower production costs. PLS technology debuted in the PC display market with the release of the Samsung S27A850 and S24A850 monitors in September 2011.[16] TFT dual-transistor pixel (DTP) or cell technologyEdit Patent TFT Store Electronic Systems TFT dual-transistor pixel or cell technology is a reflective-display technology for use in very-low-power-consumption applications such as electronic shelf labels (ESL), digital watches, or metering. DTP involves adding a secondary transistor gate in the single TFT cell to maintain the display of a pixel during a period of 1s without loss of image or without degrading the TFT transistors over time. By slowing the refresh rate of the standard frequency from 60 Hz to 1 Hz, DTP claims to increase the power efficiency by multiple orders of magnitude. Display industryEdit Find sources: "Thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Due to the very high cost of building TFT factories, there are few major OEM panel vendors for large display panels. The glass panel suppliers are as follows: LCD glass panel suppliers major TV makers IPS-Pro Panasonic Solely for LCD TV markets and known as IPS Alpha Technology Ltd.[17] Panasonic, Hitachi, Toshiba H-IPS & P-IPS LG Display They also produce other type of TFT panels such as TN for OEM markets such as mobile, monitor, automotive, portable AV and industrial panels. LG, Philips, BenQ S-IPS Hannstar Chunghwa Picture Tubes, Ltd. A-MVA AU Optronics S-MVA Chi Mei Optoelectronics S-PVA S-LCD (Samsung/Sony joint venture) Samsung, Sony AFFS Samsung For small and medium size special projects. ASV Sharp Corporation LCD TV and mobile markets Sharp, Sony MVA Sharp Corporation Solely for LED LCD TV markets Sharp HVA CSOT HVA and AMOLED TCL[18] Electrical interfaceEdit This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) External consumer display devices like a TFT LCD feature one or more analog VGA, DVI, HDMI, or DisplayPort interface, with many featuring a selection of these interfaces. Inside external display devices there is a controller board that will convert the video signal using color mapping and image scaling usually employing the discrete cosine transform (DCT) in order to convert any video source like CVBS, VGA, DVI, HDMI, etc. into digital RGB at the native resolution of the display panel. In a laptop the graphics chip will directly produce a signal suitable for connection to the built-in TFT display. A control mechanism for the backlight is usually included on the same controller board. The low level interface of STN, DSTN, or TFT display panels use either single ended TTL 5 V signal for older displays or TTL 3.3 V for slightly newer displays that transmits the pixel clock, horizontal sync, vertical sync, digital red, digital green, digital blue in parallel. Some models (for example the AT070TN92) also feature input/display enable, horizontal scan direction and vertical scan direction signals. New and large (>15") TFT displays often use LVDS signaling that transmits the same contents as the parallel interface (Hsync, Vsync, RGB) but will put control and RGB bits into a number of serial transmission lines synchronized to a clock whose rate is equal to the pixel rate. LVDS transmits seven bits per clock per data line, with six bits being data and one bit used to signal if the other six bits need to be inverted in order to maintain DC balance. Low quality TFT displays often have three data lines and therefore only directly support 18 bits per pixel, while better ones have a fourth data line so they can support 24 bits per pixel, which delivers truecolor. Ultra high end models can support even more colors by adding more lanes, that's how 30-bit color can be supported by five data lanes. Panel manufacturers are slowly replacing LVDS with Internal DisplayPort and Embedded DisplayPort, which allow sixfold reduction of the number of differential pairs.[citation needed] Backlight intensity is usually controlled by varying a few volts DC, or generating a PWM signal, or adjusting a potentiometer or simply fixed. This in turn controls a high-voltage (1.3 kV) DC-AC inverter or a matrix of LEDs. The method to control the intensity of LED is to pulse them with PWM which can be source of harmonic flicker.[citation needed] The bare display panel will only accept a digital video signal at the resolution determined by the panel pixel matrix designed at manufacture. Some screen panels will ignore the LSB bits of the color information to present a consistent interface (8 bit -> 6 bit/color x3).[citation needed] With analogue signals like VGA, the display controller also needs to perform a high speed analog to digital conversion. With digital input signals like DVI or HDMI some simple reordering of the bits is needed before feeding it to the rescaler if the input resolution doesn't match the display panel resolution. SafetyEdit Liquid crystals are constantly subjected to toxicity and eco-toxicity testing for any hazard potential. The result is that: wastewater from manufacturing is acutely toxic to aquatic life,[19] but may have an irritant, corrosive or sensitizing effect in rare cases. Any effects can be avoided by using a limited concentration in mixtures, are not mutagenic – neither in bacteria (Ames test) nor in mammalian cells (mouse lymphoma assay or chromosome aberration test), are not suspected of being carcinogenic,[20] are hazardous to aquatic organisms (bacteria, algae, daphnia, fish),[19] do not possess any significant bioaccumulation potential, are not easily biodegradable.[20] The statements are applicable to Merck KGaA as well as its competitors JNC Corporation (formerly Chisso Corporation) and DIC (formerly Dainippon Ink & Chemicals). All three manufacturers have agreed not to introduce any acutely toxic or mutagenic liquid crystals to the market. They cover more than 90 percent of the global liquid crystal market. The remaining market share of liquid crystals, produced primarily in China, consists of older, patent-free substances from the three leading world producers and have already been tested for toxicity by them. As a result, they can also be considered non-toxic. The complete report is available from Merck KGaA online.[20] The CCFL backlights used in many LCD monitors contain mercury, which is toxic. Burst dimming Display examples Liquid crystal display television Transflective liquid crystal display, for adaptation to environment brightness ^ "LCD Panel Technology Explained". Pchardwarehelp.com. Retrieved 2013-07-21. ^ "TFT LCD - Fabricating TFT LCD". Plasma.com. Archived from the original on 2013-05-02. Retrieved 2013-07-21. ^ "TFT LCD - Electronic Aspects of LCD TVs and LCD Monitors". Plasma.com. Archived from the original on 2013-08-23. Retrieved 2013-07-21. ^ Oleg Artamonov (2004-10-26). "X-bit's Guide: Contemporary LCD Monitor Parameters and Characteristics (page 11)". Xbitlabs.com. Archived from the original on 2009-05-19. Retrieved 2009-08-05. ^ Marek Matuszczyk, Liquid crystals in displays Archived 2004-12-23 at the Wayback Machine. Chalmers University Sweden, c. 2000. ^ "TN Film, MVA, PVA and IPS - Panel Technologies". TFT Central. Retrieved 9 September 2009. ^ "IPS or TN panel?". eSport Source. Retrieved 23 May 2016. ^ "Enhanced Super IPS - Next Generation Image Quality" (PDF). LG Display. Retrieved 9 September 2009. ^ IPS-Pro (Evolving IPS technology) Archived 2010-03-29 at the Wayback Machine ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-11-15. Retrieved 2013-11-24. CS1 maint: Archived copy as title (link) ^ tech2 News Staff. "LG Announces Super High Resolution AH-IPS Displays". Tech2.in.com. Archived from the original on 2013-06-06. Retrieved 2013-07-21. ^ "AFFS & AFFS+". Technology. Vertex LCD. ^ K. H. Lee; H. Y. Kim; K. H. Park; S. J. Jang; I. C. Park & J. Y. Lee (June 2006). "A Novel Outdoor Readability of Portable TFT-LCD with AFFS Technology". SID Symposium Digest of Technical Papers. AIP. 37 (1): 1079–82. doi:10.1889/1.2433159. ^ "Sharp Advanced Super View (ASV) - Sharp". www.sharpsma.com. Retrieved 2019-06-12. ^ The World of Liquid Crystal Displays from personal.kent.edu/%7Emgu ^ "Samsung SyncMaster SA850: World's First Monitor on PLS Matrix". X-bit labs. 2011-05-30. Retrieved 2013-07-21. ^ IPS Alpha Technology Ltd Archived 2007-12-24 at Archive.today ^ "About Us". www.szcsot.com. Retrieved 2019-06-05. ^ a b Kim, Sae-Bom; Kim, Woong-Ki; Chounlamany, Vanseng; Seo, Jaehwan; Yoo, Jisu; Jo, Hun-Je; Jung, Jinho (15 August 2012). "Identification of multi-level toxicity of liquid crystal display wastewater toward Daphnia magna and Moina macrocopa". Journal of Hazardous Materials. Seoul, Korea; Laos, Lao. 227–228: 327–333 – via Elsevier. ^ a b c "Display solutions \| Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany". www.merck-performance-materials.com. Retrieved 2018-02-17. Wikimedia Commons has media related to LCD computer monitors. TFT Central – Reviews, News and Articles and includes panel search database "Monitor panel search". FlatpanelsHD.com. – LCD monitor panel search database Animated LCD Tutorial by 3M LCD Panels with Response Time Compensation, X-bit labs, December 20, 2005 "Contemporary LCD Monitor Parameters and Characteristics". X-bit labs. October 26, 2004. Archived from the original on January 14, 2005. Gaming issues with TFT LCD Displays, Digital Silence, August 10, 2004 What is TFT LCD, Plasma.com – detailed description of the technology inside a TFT LCD Monitor buying guide – CNET reviews Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thin-film-transistor_liquid-crystal_display&oldid=906497161"	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10792
__label__wiki	0.90884	0.90884	For the Alfred Boucher sculptures, see Volubilis (sculptures). Volubilis (Berber languages: Walili, Arabic: وليلي‎) is a partly excavated Berber city in Morocco situated near the city of Meknes, and commonly considered as the ancient capital of the kingdom of Mauretania.[1] Built in a fertile agricultural area, it developed from the 3rd century BC onward as a Berber, then proto-Carthaginian, settlement before being the capital of the kingdom of Mauretania. It grew rapidly under Roman rule from the 1st century AD onward and expanded to cover about 42 hectares (100 acres) with a 2.6 km (1.6 mi) circuit of walls. The city gained a number of major public buildings in the 2nd century, including a basilica, temple and triumphal arch. Its prosperity, which was derived principally from olive growing, prompted the construction of many fine town-houses with large mosaic floors. ⵡⵍⵉⵍⵉ (Berber) وليلي (Arabic) Volubilis ruins Shown within Morocco Meknès Prefecture, Fès-Meknès, Morocco 34°04′16″N 05°33′13″W / 34.07111°N 5.55361°W / 34.07111; -5.55361Coordinates: 34°04′16″N 05°33′13″W / 34.07111°N 5.55361°W / 34.07111; -5.55361 3rd century BC Phoenician, Carthaginian, Roman, Idrisids Archaeological Site of Volubilis ii, iii, iv, vi Reference no. State Party The city fell to local tribes around 285 and was never retaken by Rome because of its remoteness and indefensibility on the south-western border of the Roman Empire. It continued to be inhabited for at least another 700 years, first as a Latinised Christian community, then as an early Islamic settlement. In the late 8th century it became the seat of Idris ibn Abdallah, the founder of the Idrisid dynasty and the state of Morocco. By the 11th century Volubilis had been abandoned after the seat of power was relocated to Fes. Much of the local population was transferred to the new town of Moulay Idriss Zerhoun, about 5 km (3.1 mi) from Volubilis. The ruins remained substantially intact until they were devastated by an earthquake in the mid-18th century and subsequently looted by Moroccan rulers seeking stone for building Meknes. It was not until the latter part of the 19th century that the site was definitively identified as that of the ancient city of Volubilis. During and after the period of French rule over Morocco, about half of the site was excavated, revealing many fine mosaics, and some of the more prominent public buildings and high-status houses were restored or reconstructed. Today it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, listed for being "an exceptionally well preserved example of a large Roman colonial town on the fringes of the Empire". Foundation and Roman occupationEdit Built on a shallow slope below the Zerhoun mountain, Volubilis stands on a ridge above the valley of Khoumane (Xuman). It overlooks a rolling fertile plain north of the modern city of Meknes. The area around Volubilis has been inhabited at least since the Late Atlantic Neolithic, some 5,000 years ago; archaeological excavations at the site have found Neolithic pottery of design comparable to pieces found in Iberia.[2] By the third century BC, the Carthaginians had a presence there, as evidenced by the remains of a temple to the Punic god Baal and finds of pottery and stones inscribed in the Phoenician language.[3] The origins of its name are unknown but may be a Latinisation of the Berber word Walilt, meaning oleander, which grows along the sides of the valley.[4] The city lay within the kingdom of Mauretania, which became a Roman client state following the fall of Carthage in 146 BC.[3] The Punic influence lasted for a considerable time afterwards, as the city's magistrates retained the Carthaginian title of suffete long after the end of Punic rule.[5] Juba II of Numidia was placed on the Mauretanian throne by Augustus in 25 BC and turned his attention to building a royal capital at Volubilis.[6] Educated in Rome and married to Cleopatra Selene II, the daughter of Mark Antony and Cleopatra, Juba and his son Ptolemy were thoroughly Romanised kings, although of Berber ancestry; their preference for Roman art and architecture was clearly reflected in the city's design.[3] Map of Mauretania Tingitania showing the location of Volubilis After Claudius annexed Mauretania in 44 AD, the city grew substantially due to its wealth and prosperity, derived from the fertile lands of the province which produced valuable export commodities such as grain, olive oil and wild animals for gladiatorial spectacles. At its peak in the late 2nd century, Volubilis had around 20,000 inhabitants – a very substantial population for a Roman provincial town[7] – and the surrounding region was also well inhabited, to judge from over 50 villas discovered in the area.[8] It was mentioned by the 1st century AD geographer Pomponius Mela, who described it in his work De situ orbis libri III as one of "the wealthiest cities, albeit the wealthiest among small ones" in Mauretania.[9] It is also mentioned by Pliny the Elder, and the 2nd century Antonine Itinerary refers to its location and names it as Volubilis Colonia.[10] Its population was dominated by Romanised Berbers.[11] Arch of Caracalla (Triumphal Arch) The city became the administrative centre of the Roman province of Mauretania Tingitana. It remained loyal to Rome despite a revolt in 40–44 AD led by one of Ptolemy's freedmen, Aedemon, and its inhabitants were rewarded with grants of citizenship and a ten-year exemption from taxes.[8] The city was raised to the status of a municipium and its system of governance was overhauled, with the Punic-style suffetes replaced by annually elected duumvirs, or pairs of magistrates.[11] However, the city's position was always tenuous; it was located on the south-eastern edge of the province, facing hostile and increasingly powerful Berber tribes. A ring of five forts located at the modern hamlets of Aïn Schkor, Bled el Gaada, Sidi Moussa, Sidi Said and Bled Takourart (ancient Tocolosida) were constructed to bolster the city's defence.[8] Sidi Said was the base for the Cohors IV Gallorum equitata, an auxiliary cavalry unit from Gaul, while Aïn Schkor housed Hispanic and Belgic cohorts. Sidi Moussa was the location of a cohort of Parthians, and Gallic and Syrian cavalry were based at Toscolosida.[12] Rising tensions in the region near the end of the 2nd century led the emperor Marcus Aurelius to order the construction of a 2.5 km (1.6 mi) circuit of walls with eight gates and 40 towers.[8] Volubilis was connected by road to Lixus and Tingis (modern Tangier) but had no eastwards connections with the neighbouring province of Mauretania Caesariensis, as the territory of the Berber Baquates tribe lay in between.[8] Mosaics in Volubilis Rome's control over the city ended following the chaos of the Crisis of the Third Century, when the empire nearly disintegrated as a series of generals seized and lost power through civil wars, palace coups and assassinations. Around 280, Roman rule collapsed in much of Mauretania and was never re-established. In 285, the emperor Diocletian reorganised what was left of the province to retain only the coastal strip between Lixus, Tingis and Septa (modern Ceuta). Although a Roman army was based in Tingis, it was decided that it would simply be too expensive to mount a reconquest of a vulnerable border region.[8] Occupation of the city continued, however, as fine mosaics such as that of a chariot race conducted by animals in the House of Venus can not have been created earlier than the fourth century. The end of the Roman city probably came in the form of an earthquake towards the end of the century, which buried numerous bronze statues in the wreckage of the houses.[13] After the RomansEdit Volubilis continued to be inhabited for centuries after the end of Roman control. It was certainly reoccupied in the sixth and seventh century, when three Christian inscriptions are dated by the provincial year.[14] By the time the Arabs had arrived in 708,[7] the city – its name was changed to Oualila or Walīlī – and it was inhabited by the Awraba, a Berber tribe that originated in Libya. Much of the city centre had been abandoned and was turned into a cemetery, while the centre of habitation had moved to the southwest of the city, where a new wall was built to contain the abridged Roman town. [15] Volubilis remained the capital of the region well into the Islamic period. Islamic coins dating to the 8th century have been found on the site, attesting to the arrival of Islam in this part of Morocco.[11] They are concentrated outside the city walls, which suggests that Arab settlement remained distinct from the Berber settlement inside them. It was here that Moulay Idriss established the Idrisid dynasty of Morocco in 787-8. A direct descendant of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, he escaped to Morocco from Syria following the Battle of Fakhkh in 787. He was proclaimed "imam" in Volubilis, occupied by the Awraba, under Ishaq ibn Mohammad. He married Kanza, from the Awraba, and fathered a son, Idris II, who was proclaimed imam in Volubilis. He, too, lived outside the walls of the city, along the banks of the Wadi Khoumane, where a complex has recently been excavated that may be identified with his headquarters.[16] Idriss I conquered most of Northern Morocco during the three years of his reign, founding the city of Fes. He was assassinated in Volubilis in 791 on the orders of the caliph of Baghdad, Harun al-Rashid.[17][11] On his majority Idriss II removed to Fes which served as his new capital, depriving Volubilis of its last vestiges of political significance.[17] Panoramic view of Volubilis, looking west. The old Phoenician core of the city is on the left, the Basilica and Capitoline Temple are visible in the centre, while the Arch of Caracalla can be seen on the right behind the Roman extension to the city. A Muslim group known as the Rabedis, who had revolted in Córdoba in Al-Andalus (Andalusia in modern Spain), resettled at Volubilis in 818.[11] Although people continued to live in Volubilis for several more centuries, it was probably almost deserted by the 14th century. Leo Africanus describes its walls and gates, as well as the tomb of Idris, guarded only by two or three castles.[18] His body was subsequently removed to Moulay Idriss Zerhoun, 3 km (1.9 mi), where a great mausoleum was built for it. The name of the city was forgotten and it was termed Ksar Faraoun, or the "Pharaoh's Castle", by the local people, alluding to a legend that the ancient Egyptians had built it.[19] Nonetheless some of its buildings remained standing, albeit ruined, until as late as the 17th century when Moulay Ismail ransacked the site to provide building material for his new imperial capital at Meknes. The 1755 Lisbon earthquake caused further severe destruction. However, English antiquarian John Windus had sketched the site in 1722.[17] In his 1725 book A Journey to Mequinez, Windus described the scene: One building seems to be part of a triumphal arch, there being several broken stones that bear inscriptions, lying in the rubbish underneath, which were fixed higher than any part now standing. It is 56 feet long and 15 thick, both sides exactly alike, built with very hard stones, about a yard in length and half a yard thick. The arch is 20 feet wide and about 26 high. The inscriptions are upon large flat stones, which, when entire, were about five feet long, and three broad, and the letters on them above 6 inches long. A bust lay a little way off, very much defaced, and was the only thing to be found that represented life, except the shape of a foot seen under the lower part of a garment, in the niche on the other side of the arch. About 100 yards from the arch stands a good part of the front of a large square building, which is 140 feet long and about 60 high; part of the four corners are yet standing, but very little remains, except these of the front. Round the hill may be seen the foundation of a wall about two miles in circumference, which inclosed these buildings; on the inside of which lie scattered, all over, a great many stones of the same size the arch is built with, but hardly one stone left upon another. The arch, which stood about half a mile from the other buildings, seemed to have been a gateway, and was just high enough to admit a man to pass through on horseback.[20] Visiting 95 years later in 1820, after the Lisbon earthquake had flattened the few buildings left standing, James Gray Jackson wrote: Half an hour's journey after leaving the sanctuary of Muley Dris Zerone, and at the foot of Atlas, I perceived to the left of the road, magnificent and massive ruins. The country, for miles round, is covered with broken columns of white marble. There were still standing two porticoes about 30 feet high and 12 wide, the top composed of one entire stone. I attempted to take a view of these immense ruins, which have furnished marble for the imperial palaces at Mequinas and Tafilelt; but I was obliged to desist, seeing some persons of the sanctuary following the cavalcade. Pots and kettles of gold and silver coins are continually dug up from these ruins. The country, however, abounds with serpents, and we saw many scorpions under the stones that my conductor turned up. These ruins are said by the Africans to have been built by one of the Pharaohs: they are called Kasser Farawan.[21] Volubilis before its excavation and restoration The ruins of the triumphal arch, photographed in 1887 by Henri Poisson de La Martinière Remnants of the basilica as seen in 1887 before its later restoration Walter Burton Harris, a writer for The Times, visited Volubilis during his travels in Morocco between 1887–89, after the site had been identified by French archaeologists but before any serious excavations or restorations had begun. He wrote: There is not very much remains standing of the ruins; two archways, each of great size, and in moderately good preservation, alone tell of the grandeur of the old city, while acres and acres of land are strewn with monuments and broken sculpture. A few isolated pillars also remain, and an immense drain or aqueduct, not unlike the Cloaca Maxima at Rome, opens on to the little river below.[22] Excavation, restoration and UNESCO listingEdit Edge of the excavated area at Volubilis. A stretch of Decauville track used to carry spoil away is still visible. Much of Volubilis was excavated by the French during their rule over French Morocco between 1912 and 1955, but the excavations at the site began decades earlier. From 1830, when the French conquest of Algeria began the process of extending French rule over much of northern, western and central Africa, archaeology was closely associated with French colonialism. The French army undertook scientific explorations as early as the 1830s and by the 1850s it was fashionable for French army officers to investigate Roman remains during their leave and spare time. By the late 19th century French archaeologists were undertaking an intensive effort to uncover north-west Africa's pre-Islamic past through excavations and restorations of archaeological sites.[23] The French had a very different conception of historic preservation to that of the Moroccan Muslims. As the historian Gwendolyn Wright puts it, "the Islamic sense of history and architecture found the concept of setting off monuments entirely foreign", which "gave the French proof of the conviction that only they could fully appreciate the Moroccan past and its beauty." Emile Pauty of the Institut des Hautes Etudes Marocaines criticised the Muslims for taking the view that "the passage of time is nothing" and charged them with "let[ting] their monuments fall into ruin with as much indifference as they once showed ardour in building them."[24] The French programme of excavation at Volubilis and other sites in French-controlled North Africa (in Algeria and Tunisia) had a strong ideological component. Archaeology at Roman sites was used as an instrument of colonialist policy, to make a connection between the ancient Roman past and the new "Latin" societies that the French were building in North Africa. The programme involved clearing modern structures built on ancient sites, excavating Roman towns and villas and reconstructing major civic structures such as triumphal arches. Ruined cities, such as Timgad in Algeria, were excavated and cleared on a massive scale. The remains were intended to serve, as one writer has put it, as "the witness to an impulse towards Romanization".[25] This theme resonated with other visitors to the site. The American writer Edith Wharton visited in 1920 and highlighted what she saw as the contrast between "two dominations look[ing] at each other across the valley", the ruins of Volubilis and "the conical white town of Moulay Idriss, the Sacred City of Morocco". She saw the dead city as representing "a system, an order, a social conception that still runs through all our modern ways." In contrast, she saw the still very much alive town of Moulay Idriss as "more dead and sucked back into an unintelligible past than any broken architrave of Greece or Rome."[26] As Sarah Bird Wright of the University of Richmond puts it, Wharton saw Volubilis as a symbol of civilisation and Moulay Idriss as one of barbarism; the subtext is that "in ransacking the Roman outpost, Islam destroyed its only chance to build a civilised society".[27] Fortunately for Morocco, "the political stability which France is helping them to acquire will at last give their higher qualities time for fruition"[28]—very much the theme that the French colonial authorities wanted to get across.[29] Hilaire Belloc, too, spoke of his impression being "rather one of history and of contrast. Here you see how completely the new religion of Islam flooded and drowned the classical and Christian tradition."[30] The first excavations at Volubilis were carried out by the French archaeologist Henri de la Martinière between 1887 and 1892.[31] In 1915 Hubert Lyautey, the military governor of French Morocco, commissioned the French archaeologists Marcel and Jane Dieulafoy to carry out excavations in Volubilis. Although Jane's ill-health meant that they were unable to carry out the programme of work that they drew up for Lyautey,[32] the work went ahead anyway under Louis Chatelain.[31] The French archaeologists were assisted by thousands of German prisoners of war who had been captured during First World War and loaned to the excavators by Lyautey.[23] The excavations continued on and off until 1941, when the Second World War forced a halt.[31] Following the war, excavations resumed under the French and Moroccan authorities (following Morocco's independence in 1955) and a programme of restoration and reconstruction began. The Arch of Caracalla had already been restored in 1930–34. It was followed by the Capitoline Temple in 1962, the basilica in 1965–67 and the Tingis Gate in 1967. A number of mosaics and houses underwent conservation and restoration in 1952–55. In recent years, one of the oil production workshops in the southern end of the city has been restored and furnished with a replica Roman oil press.[33] These restorations have not been without controversy; a review carried out for UNESCO in 1997 reported that "some of the reconstructions, such as those on the triumphal arch, the capitolium, and the oil-pressing workshop, are radical and at the limit of currently accepted practice."[33] From 2000 excavations carried out by University College London and the Moroccan Institut National des Sciences de l'Archéologie et du Patrimoine under the direction of Elizabeth Fentress, Gaetano Palumbo and Hassan Limane revealed what should probably be interpreted as the headquarters of Idris I just below the walls of the Roman town to the west of the ancient city centre. Excavations within the walls also revealed a section of the early medieval town.[34] Today, many artefacts found at Volubilis can be seen on display in the Rabat Archaeological Museum. UNESCO listed Volubilis as a World Heritage Site in 1997. In the 1980s, the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) organised three conferences to assess possible nominations to the World Heritage List for sites in North Africa. It was unanimously agreed that Volubilis was a good candidate for the list and in 1997 ICOMOS recommended that it be inscribed as "an exceptionally well preserved example of a large Roman colonial town on the fringes of the Empire",[35] which UNESCO accepted. City layout and infrastructureEdit Prior to the Roman occupation, Volubilis covered an area of about 12 hectares (30 acres), built on a V-shaped ridge between the Fertassa and Khoumane wadis on a roughly north-south axis. It was developed on a fairly regular pattern typical of Phoenician/Carthaginian settlements and was enclosed by a set of walls.[36] Under the Romans, the city was expanded considerably on a northeast-southwest axis, increasing in size to about 42 hectares (100 acres). Most of the city's public buildings were constructed in the older part of the city. The grand houses for which Volubilis is famous are in the newer part, behind the Decumanus Maximus (main street), which bisected the Roman-era part of the city.[31] The decumanus was paved, with footways on either side, and was lined with arcaded porticoes on either sides, behind which were dozens of shops.[37] The Arch of Caracalla marks the point at which the old and new cities merge. After the aqueduct fell into disrepair with the end of the Roman occupation, a new residential area was constructed to the west near the Wadi Khoumane.[36] The city was supplied with water by an aqueduct that ran from a spring in the hills behind the city.[38] The aqueduct may have been constructed around 60–80 AD and was subsequently reconstructed on several occasions.[39] An elaborate network of channels fed houses and the public baths from the municipal supply and a series of drains carried sewage and waste away to the river to be flushed.[38] The aqueduct ran under the Decumanus Secundus, a street that ran parallel with the Decumanus Maximus, and terminated at a large fountain in the city centre near the Arch of Caracalla.[3] Infrastructure in Volubilis The Decumanus Maximus, looking north-east The Tingis Gate, looking back down the Decumanus Maximus Interior of the North Baths, fed by the aqueduct Basilica and Capitoline Temple Most of the original pre-Roman city wall was built over or destroyed, but a 77-metre (250 ft) stretch of the original wall, which was made of mud bricks on a stone foundation, can still be seen near the tumulus.[11][39] The Roman city walls stretch for 2.6 km (1.6 mi) and average 1.6 m (5.2 ft) thick. Built of rubble masonry and ashlar, they are mostly still extant.[31][39] The full circuit of walls had 34 towers, spaced at intervals of about one every 50 metres (160 ft), and six main gates that were flanked by towers.[37] A part of the eastern wall has been reconstructed to a height of 1.5 metres (4.9 ft).[31] The Tingis Gate, also reconstructed, marks the northern-eastern entrance to Volubilis.[36] It was constructed in 168/169 AD – the date is known due to the discovery of a coin of that year that was deliberately embedded in the gate's stonework by its builders.[37] An early medieval wall stands to the west of the Arch of Caracalla; it was built after the end of the Roman occupation, apparently some time in the 5th or 6th centuries, to protect the eastern side of the city's new residential area. It was oriented in a north-south direction and was constructed using stone looted from ruined buildings elsewhere in the abandoned areas of the city.[8][39] CommerceEdit A reconstructed Roman olive press in Volubilis During Roman times, Volubilis was a major producer of olive oil. The remains of buildings dedicated to olive pressing are still readily visible, as are the remains of the original presses and olive mills. One such building has been reconstructed with a full-size replica of a Roman olive press.[40] Olive oil was central to the life of the city, as it was not just a foodstuff but was also used for lamps, bathing and medicines, while the pressed olives were fed to animals or dried out and used as fuel for the bathhouses. For this reason, even some of the grandest mansions had their own olive presses.[41] Fifty-eight oil-pressing complexes have so far been discovered in Volubilis. They housed a standard set of elements: a mill, used to crush the olives, a decantation basin to catch the oil from pressed olives, and a press that comprised a counterweight, a prelum or cross-bar and the wooden supports within which the prelum was fixed. The olives were first crushed into a paste, then put into woven baskets that were subjected to pressing. The olive oil ran out into the decantation basin, to which water was periodically added to make the lighter oil float to the surface. This was then scooped out of the basin and poured into amphorae.[39] There is also substantial evidence of the city being a lively commercial centre. No fewer than 121 shops have been identified so far, many of them bakeries,[42] and judging from the number of bronzes found at the site it may also have been a centre for the production or distribution of bronze artworks.[43] Notable buildingsEdit Plan of Volubilis, indicating some of the most notable buildings Although only about half of Volubilis has been excavated, a number of prominent public buildings are still visible and some, notably a basilica and a triumphal arch, have been reconstructed. Many private buildings, including the mansions of the city's elite, have also been uncovered. They are especially notable for the fine mosaics that have been discovered in a number of buildings and which are still in situ in the houses where they were laid.[7] The buildings were mostly made from locally quarried grey-blue limestone.[31] Very little remains of the original Punic settlement, as it lies under the later Roman buildings.[11] A large tumulus of uncertain origin and purpose stands approximately in the middle of the excavated area, between the old and new parts of the city. Various theories have been advanced to explain it, such as that it was a burial site, a religious structure of some kind, a funerary monument or a monument to a Roman victory. However, these remain unproven hypotheses.[11] Public buildingsEdit Two major public buildings are readily visible at the centre of the city – the basilica and the Capitoline Temple. The basilica was used for the administration of justice and the governance of the city. Completed during the reign of Macrinus in the early 3rd century, it is one of the finest Roman basilicas in Africa[44] and is probably modelled on the one at Leptis Magna in Libya.[45] The building is 42.2 m (138 ft) long by 22.3 m (73 ft) wide and originally had two storeys.[39] Its interior is dominated by two rows of columns framing the apses at each end of the building where the magistrates sat. The outer wall of the basilica, which is faced with columns, overlooks the forum where markets were held. Small temples and public offices also lined the 1,300 m2 (14,000 sq ft) forum,[44] which would have been full of statues of emperors and local dignitaries, of which only the pedestals now remain.[39] Not much is known about the public buildings which existed in Volubilis prior to the start of the 3rd century, as the buildings currently visible were built on the foundations of earlier structures.[46] The Capitoline Temple stands behind the basilica within what would originally have been an arcaded courtyard. An altar stands in the courtyard in front of 13 steps leading up to the Corinthian-columned temple,[44] which had a single cella.[39] The building was of great importance to civic life as it was dedicated to the three chief divinities of the Roman state, Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. Civic assemblies were held in front of the temple to beseech the aid of the gods or to thank them for successes in major civic undertakings such as fighting wars.[44] The layout of the temple, facing the back wall of the basilica, is somewhat unusual and it has been suggested that it may have been built on top of an existing shrine.[47] An inscription found in 1924 records that it was reconstructed in 218. It was partly restored in 1955 and given a more substantial restoration in 1962, reconstructing 10 of the 13 steps, the walls of the cella and the columns. There were four more small shrines within the temple precinct, one of which was dedicated to Venus.[39] There were five other temples in the city, of which the most notable is the so-called "Temple of Saturn" that stood on the eastern side of Volubilis.[39] It appears to have been built on top of, or converted from, an earlier Punic temple, which may have been dedicated to Baal.[48] It is a sanctuary with a surrounding wall and a three-sided portico. In its interior was a small temple with a cella built on a shallow podium.[39] The temple's traditional identification with Saturn is purely hypothetical and has not generally been accepted.[49] Public buildings in Volubilis Exterior of the Basilica at Volubilis Interior of the Basilica The Capitoline Temple Volubilis also possessed at least three sets of public baths. Some mosaics can still be seen in the Baths of Gallienus, redecorated by that emperor in the 260s to become the city's most lavish baths.[41] The nearby north baths were the largest in the city, covering an area of about 1,500 m2 (16,000 sq ft). They were possibly built in the time of Hadrian.[47] Triumphal archEdit The Arch of Caracalla is one of Volubilis' most distinctive sights, situated at the end of the city's main street, the Decumanus Maximus. Although it is not architecturally outstanding,[40] the triumphal arch forms a striking visual contrast with the smaller Tingis Gate at the far end of the decumanus. It was built in 217 by the city's governor, Marcus Aurelius Sebastenus, to honour the emperor Caracalla and his mother Julia Domna. Caracalla was himself a North African and had recently extended Roman citizenship to the inhabitants of Rome's provinces. However, by the time the arch was finished both Caracalla and Julia had been murdered by a usurper.[47] The arch is constructed from local stone and was originally topped by a bronze chariot pulled by six horses. Statues of nymphs poured water into carved marble basins at the foot of the arch. Caracalla and Julia Domna were represented on medallion busts, though these have been defaced. The monument was reconstructed by the French between 1930–34.[47] However, the restoration is incomplete and of disputed accuracy. The inscription on the top of the arch was reconstructed from the fragments noticed by Windus in 1722, which had been scattered on the ground in front of the arch.[39] The Arch of Caracalla at Volubilis North side of the Arch of Caracalla Dedicatory inscription South side of the Arch of Caracalla The inscription reads (after the abbreviations have been expanded): IMPERATORI CAESARI MARCO AVRELLIO ANTONINO PIO FELICI AVGVSTO PARTHICO MAXIMO BRITTANICO MAXIMO GERMANICO MAXIMO PONTIFICI MAXIMO TRIBVNITIA POTESTATE XX IMPERATORI IIII CONSVLI IIII PATRI PATRIAE PROCONSVLI ET IVLIAE AVGVSTAE PIAE FELICI MATRI AVGVSTI ET CASTRORVM ET SENATVS ET PATRIAE RESPVBLICA VOLVBILITANORVM OB SINGVLAREM EIVS ERGA VNIVERSOS ET NOVAM SVPRA OMNES RETRO PRINCIPES INDVLGENTIAM ARCVM CVM SEIVGIBVS ET ORNAMENTIS OMNIBVS INCOHANTE ET DEDICANTE MARCO AVRELLIO SEBASTENO PROCVRATORE AVGVSTI DEVOTISSIMO NVMINI EIVS A SOLO FACIENDVM CVRAVIT or, in translation: For the emperor Caesar, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus [Caracalla], the pious, fortunate Augustus, greatest victor in Parthia, greatest victor in Britain, greatest victor in Germany, Pontifex Maximus, holding tribunician power for the twentieth time, Emperor for the fourth time, Consul for the fourth time, Father of the Country, Proconsul, and for Julia Augusta [Julia Domna], the pious, fortunate mother of the camp and the Senate and the country, because of his exceptional and new kindness towards all, which is greater than that of the principes that came before, the Republic of the Volubilitans took care to have this arch made from the ground up, including a chariot drawn by six horses and all the ornaments, with Marcus Aurelius Sebastenus, procurator, who is most deeply devoted to the divinity of Augustus, initiating and dedicating it. Houses and palacesEdit The houses found at Volubilis range from richly decorated mansions to simple two-room mud-brick structures used by the city's poorer inhabitants.[46] The city's considerable wealth is attested by the elaborate design of the houses of the wealthy, some of which have large mosaics still in situ. They have been named by archaeologists after their principal mosaics (or other finds): The House of Orpheus in the southern part of the city thus takes its name from the large Orpheus mosaic, showing the god playing his harp to an audience of trees, animals and birds.[41] As Paul MacKendrick puts it, the mosaic is rather artlessly executed, as the animals are all of different sizes and face in different directions with no relationship to Orpheus. It appears that the mosaicist simply copied patterns from a book without attempting to integrate the different elements.[37] The mosaic is situated in the triclinium, the dining room, where the diners would have reclined on couches set against the walls and admired the central mosaic. Other mosaics can be seen in the atrium, which has a depiction of Amphitrite in a chariot pulled by a seahorse and accompanied by other sea creatures, and in the bathing rooms. One room off the main courtyard has a mosaic of a dolphin, considered by the Romans to be a lucky animal.[41] The House of the Athlete or Desultor, located near the forum, contains a humorous mosaic of an athlete or acrobat riding a donkey back to front while holding a cup in his outstretched hand.[47] It may possibly represent Silenus.[50] The most prestigious houses in the city were situated adjoining the Decumanus Maximus, behind rows of shops that lined the street under an arcade. They were entered from side streets between the shops. The House of the Ephebe was named after a bronze statue found there. It has a prominent interior courtyard leading to a number of public rooms decorated with mosaics, including a depiction of Bacchus in a chariot being drawn by leopards. The House of the Knight next door also has a mosaic of Bacchus, this time showing coming across the sleeping Ariadne, who later bore him six children.[47] The house takes its name from a bronze statue of a rider found here in 1918 that is now on display in the archaeological museum in Rabat.[51] It was a large building, with an area of about 1,700 m2 (18,000 sq ft), and incorporated a substantial area dedicated to commercial activities including eight or nine shops opening onto the road and a large olive-pressing complex.[52] Mosaic of Bacchus encountering the sleeping Ariadne from the House of the Ephebe Mosaic of the Four Seasons in situ in the House of the Labours of Hercules Mosaic of Diana and her nymph surprised by Actaeon while bathing, from the House of Venus The bronze bust of Cato the Younger, found in the House of Venus in 1918 The House of the Labours of Hercules is named for the mosaic depicting the twelve tasks that the demigod had to perform as penance for killing his wife and children. It is thought to have been created during the reign of the emperor Commodus, who identified himself with Hercules. Jupiter, his lover Ganymede and the four seasons are depicted in another mosaic in the house.[53] The house was of palatial size, with 41 rooms covering an area of 2,000 m2 (22,000 sq ft). A building dubbed the Gordian Palace is located further up the Decumanus Maximus. It was the largest building in the city and was probably the residence of the governor, rather than the emperor Gordian III; it was rebuilt during Gordian's reign in the mid-3rd century. It combined two separate houses to create a complex of 74 rooms with courtyards and private bathhouses serving both domestic and official functions.[54] It also incorporated a colonnaded front with a dozen shops behind the colonnade, and an oil factory consisting of three oil presses and an oil store in the north-east corner of the complex.[43] The decoration of the Gordian Palace is today quite plain with only a few scanty mosaics remaining.[54] Despite its presumed high status, the floors seem to have been mostly rendered with opus sectile rather than decorated with mosaics.[42] Inscriptions found in the palace testify to the city's decline and eventual fall. They record a series of treaties reached with the local Berber chieftains, increasing in number as the city became more vulnerable and the tribesmen pressed harder. By the time of the final treaty, just a few years before the fall of the city, the chieftains were being treated as virtual equals of Rome – an indication of how much Roman power in the area had declined.[54] The last two inscribed altars, from 277 and 280, refer to a foederata et diuturna pax (a "federated and lasting peace"), though this proved to be a forlorn hope, as Volubilis fell soon afterwards.[12] The House of Venus, towards the eastern side of the city under a prominent cypress tree, was one of the most luxurious residences in the city. It had a set of private baths and a richly decorated interior, with fine mosaics dating from the 2nd century AD showing animal and mythological scenes. There were mosaics in seven corridors and eight rooms.[42] The central courtyard has a fanciful mosaic depicting racing chariots in a hippodrome, drawn by teams of peacocks, geese and ducks. The mosaic of Venus for which the house is named has been removed to Tangier, but in the next-door room is a still-extant mosaic showing Diana and a companion nymph being surprised by Actaeon while bathing. Actaeon is depicted with horns beginning to sprout from his head as he is transformed by the angry goddess into a stag, before being chased down and killed by his own hunting dogs.[55] The house appears to have been destroyed some time after the city's fall around 280; a mosaic depicting Cupids feeding birds with grain has been charred by what appears to have been a fire burning directly on top of it, perhaps resulting from the building being taken over by squatters who used the mosaic as the site of a hearth.[43] The same building was also the site of the discovery in 1918 of a bronze bust of outstanding quality depicting Cato the Younger. One of the most notable artefacts discovered at Volubilis, it is now on display in the Archaeological Museum in Rabat. It was still on its original pedestal when it was found by archaeologists. The bust has been dated to the time of Nero or Vespasian and may be a copy of a bust created in Cato's lifetime or shortly thereafter. Its inscription identifies its subject as the orator.[42] Another outstanding bust, depicting a Hellenistic prince, was discovered in a bakery across the street. It seems to have been made at the same time as the Cato bust and may well have come from the House of Venus, where an empty pedestal in another room suggests that the Cato had a companion piece. The bust, which is also on display in Rabat, is usually identified as Juba II but other possibilities include Hiero II of Syracuse, Cleomenes III of Sparta, Juba I or Hannibal.[56] Villa of Idris IEdit Just outside the walls of the city, on the floodplain of the Oued Khoumane, was found a series of interlocking courtyard buildings, of which the largest contained a hammam, or bath. This is an L-shaped structure, with a cold room paved with flagstones and benches running along the sides. At the end is found a plunge pool with three steps leading into it. From the cold room one moved to a vestibule at the corner of the building, decorated with a relief of a shield taken from the Arch of Caracalla. From there, one moved into the warm room, still covered by a vault, and finally into the hot room. The vault of this has now been restored, but it is possible to see the channels in the floor through which the hot air passed. Beyond this a furnace heated the room, as well as the hot water which would have flowed into basins in the corners. The courtyard of which this hammam formed the western limit was large, and contained numerous large silos for grain storage. To the south of this courtyard was one evidently designed for reception, with long narrow rooms to the east and west, one of which was painted red, with a low bench or divan at one end. Further south a third courtyard, only partially excavated, seems to have been devoted to domestic use. The plan, with its large courtyards and narrow rooms, is very different from the contemporary one or two-roomed structures inside the walls, probably inhabited by the Berbers of the Awraba tribe. It is dated by coins and pottery to the reign of Idris I, and has been identified as his headquarters .[16] Berbers portal Ancient Rome portal Mauretania Tingitana Lixus Iulia Valentia Banasa Iulia Constantia Zilil Iulia Campestris Babba Tamuda Thamusida Sala Colonia Rusadir Roman 'Coloniae' in Berber Africa Moulay Idriss Zerhoun FootnotesEdit ^ http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/836 ^ Carrasco 2000, p. 128. ^ a b c d Rogerson 2010, p. 236. ^ "Archaeological Site of Volubilis". African World Heritage Fund. Archived from the original on 20 October 2013. Retrieved 21 October 2012. ^ Parker 2010, p. 491. ^ Davies 2009, p. 141. ^ a b c Davies 2009, p. 41. ^ a b c d e f g Rogerson 2010, p. 237. ^ Romer 1998, p. 131. ^ Löhberg 2006, p. 66. ^ a b c d e f g h Volubilis Project – History. ^ a b MacKendrick 2000, p. 312. ^ Fentress & Limane 2010, p. 107. ^ Conant 2012, p. 294. ^ Akerraz 1985. ^ a b Fentress & Limane 2010, p. 103–122. ^ a b c Rogerson 2010, p. 238. ^ Leo Africanus trad. A. Épaulard, I, p. 245 ^ Windus 1725, p. 86. ^ Windus 1725, p. 86–9. ^ Shabeeny & Jackson 1820, p. 120–1. ^ Harris 1889, p. 69–70. ^ a b Raven 1993, p. xxxi. ^ Wright 1991, p. 117. ^ Dyson 2006, p. 173–4. ^ Wharton 1920, p. 45. ^ Wharton 1920, p. 158. ^ Dean 2002, p. 39. ^ a b c d e f g UNESCO September 1997, p. 73. ^ Gran-Aymerich 2006, p. 60. ^ a b UNESCO September 1997, p. 74. ^ Reports on these excavations, as well as a detailed plan of the site, can be found at http://www.sitedevolubilis.org. ^ UNESCO September 1997, p. 75. ^ a b c UNESCO September 1997, p. 72. ^ a b c d MacKendrick 2000, p. 304. ^ a b Raven 1993, p. 116. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Volubilis Project – Map. ^ a b Davies 2009, p. 42. ^ a b c MacKendrick 2000, p. 311. ^ Raven 1993, p. xxxiii. ^ a b Grimal 1984, p. 292. ^ a b c d e f Rogerson 2010, p. 241. ^ Rogerson 2010, p. 244. ^ Roller 2003, p. 153 fn. 181. ^ MacKendrick 2000, p. 303. ^ Davies 2009, p. 43. ^ Volubilis Project – House of the Cavalier. ^ Rogerson 2010, pp. 243–4. ^ MacKendrick 2000, p. 310-11. Akerraz, Aomar, ed. (1985). "Note sur l'enceinte tardive de Volubilis". Bulletin Archéologique du Comité des Travaux Historiques. pp. 429–436. Carrasco, J. L. Escacena (2000). "Archaeological relationship between North Africa and Iberia". In Arnaiz-Villena, Antonio; Martínez-Laso, Jorge; Gómez-Casado, Eduardo (eds.). Prehistoric Iberia: Genetics, Anthropology, and Linguistics. New York: Springer. ISBN 0-306-46364-4. Conant, Jonathan (2012). Staying Roman: Conquest and Identity in Africa and the Mediterranean, 439–700. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-19697-0. Davies, Ethel (2009). North Africa: The Roman Coast. Chalfont St Peter, Bucks: Bradt Travel Guides. ISBN 978-1-84162-287-3. Dean, Sharon L. (2002). Constance Fenimore and Edith Wharton: Perspectives On Landscape and Art. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. ISBN 978-1-57233-194-5. Dyson, Stephen L. (2006). In Pursuit of Ancient Pasts. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-11097-5. Gran-Aymerich, Eve (2006). "Jane Dieulafoy". In Cohen, Getzel M.; Joukowsky, Martha Sharp (eds.). Breaking Ground: Pioneering Women Archaeologists. London: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-03174-0. Fentress, Elizabeth; Limane, Hassan (2010). "Excavations in Medieval Settlements in Volubilis 2000-2004". Quadernos de Madinat Zahra (7p). Fentress, Elizabeth; Limane, Hassan (2018). Volubilis après Rome. Fouilles 2000-2004. Brill. Grimal, Pierre (1984) [1954]. Roman Cities [Les villes romaines]. Translated by G. Michael Woloch. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0-299-08934-4. Harris, Walter (1889). The Land of an African Sultan: Travels in Morocco. London: S. Low. OCLC 249376810. Löhberg, Bernd (2006). Das "Itinerarium provinciarum Antonini Augusti": Ein kaiserzeitliches Strassenverzeichnis des Römischen Reiches. Berlin: Frank & Timme GmbH. ISBN 978-3-86596-085-6. MacKendrick, Paul Lachlan (2000). The North African Stones Speak. Chapel Hill, NC: UNC Press Books. ISBN 978-0-8078-4942-2. Parker, Philip (2010). The Empire Stops Here: A Journey along the Frontiers of the Roman World. London: Random House. ISBN 978-0-224-07788-0. Raven, Susan (1993). Rome in Africa. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-08150-4. Rogerson, Barnaby (2010). Marrakesh, Fez and Rabat. London: Cadogan Guides. ISBN 978-1-86011-432-8. Roller, Duane W. (2003). The World of Juba II and Kleopatra Selene. New York: Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0-415-30596-9. Romer, Frank E. (1998). Pomponius Mela's Description of the World. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-08452-4. Shabeeny, El Hage abd Salam; Jackson, James Grey (1820). An account of Timbuctoo and Housa. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown. OCLC 165576157. "UNESCO Advisory Body Evaluation" (PDF). UNESCO. September 1997. Retrieved 28 October 2012. Windus, John (1725). A journey to Mequinez, the residence of the present emperor of Fez and Morocco. London: Jacob Tonson. OCLC 64409967. Wharton, Edith (1920). In Morocco. New York: C. Scribner's Sons. OCLC 359173. Wright, Gwendolyn (1991). The Politics of Design in French Colonial Urbanism. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-90848-9. Wright, Sarah Bird (1997). Edith Wharton's Travel Writing: The Making of a Connoisseur. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-312-15842-2. "The History of Volubilis". Volubilis Project. 25 September 2003. Archived from the original on April 24, 2012. Retrieved 29 October 2012. "The House of the Cavalier". Volubilis Project. Archived from the original on November 20, 2008. Retrieved 1 November 2012. "Map of Volubilis". Volubilis Project. Archived from the original on February 21, 2011. Retrieved 29 October 2012. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Volubilis. The Volubilis Project Volubilis on the UNESCO Website Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Volubilis&oldid=901449882"	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10793
__label__wiki	0.911217	0.911217	Husband, William (DNB00) ←Hurwitz, Hyman Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 28 Husband, William by George Clement Boase Huse, William→ 1904 Errata appended. 548575Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 28 Husband, WilliamGeorge Clement Boase1891 HUSBAND, WILLIAM (1823–1887), civil engineer and inventor, born at Mylor, Cornwall, on 13 Oct. 1822, was eldest son of James Husband, surveyor for Lloyd's Register at Falmouth, who died in 1857. He was educated first by Edgcombe Rimell, curate of Mabe, and afterwards at Bellevue Academy, Penryn. Declining to be either a sailor or a ship-builder, as his father desired, he ran away at the age of sixteen to Hayle, where at his earnest solicitation he was in 1839 received as an apprentice for four years by Harvey & Company, engineers and iron-founders. His steadiness and ability soon won for him the esteem of his employers, and in 1843, when they had built the Leigh water engine for the drainage of Haarlem Lake, he was sent to Holland to superintend its erection. As the machinery could not be landed for some time on account of the ice, he went to the village school at Sassenheym to learn Dutch. In six months he wrote and spoke it with fluency. On the death of the mechanical engineer in charge of the steam machinery on the drainage works in 1845, he succeeded to that post, when he planned and erected the half-weg engine. The lake when drained added forty-seven thousand acres of rich alluvial soil to the country, and being situated in the midst of populous provinces proved of material importance. King William expressed his satisfaction, and on 13 March 1848 Husband was elected a member of the Koninklijk Instituut van Ingenieurs. In 1849 he suffered so severely from ague, from the effects of which he never fully recovered, that he resigned his situation and returned to England. While in Holland, in conjunction with his friends Colonel Wiebeking and Professor Munnich, he invented a plan for drying and warehousing grain at a small cost, and preserving it in good condition for years. On 2 May 1851 he submitted to Sir George Grey a plan for a powder magazine in the Mersey, on the recommendation of the Liverpool town council. At the invitation of T. E. Blackwell, C.E., he went to Clifton to assist in some works in the Bristol docks, when he planned a bridge for the Cumberland basin. In September 1852 he undertook the management of the London business of the firm of Harvey & Company; in June 1854 he returned to Hayle to take the charge of the engineering department, and in 1863 became managing partner. He resumed the management of the business in London in October 1855, where he remained until his death. In practical knowledge of hydraulic and mining machinery Husband was surpassed by few. In June 1859 he submitted to the admiralty a plan for a floating battery, and patented the following inventions: the balance valve for water-work purposes (this superseded the costly stand-pipe), the four-beat pump-valve, a safety plug for the prevention of boiler explosions, and a safety equilibrium cataract, used with the Cornish pumping engine for the prevention of accidents. He also effected many improvements in pneumatic ore stamps, finally perfecting and patenting those now known as Husband's oscillating cylinder stamps. During the last two years of his life he was employed in carrying out contracts for the pumping machinery at the Severn tunnel, and at the time of his death was planning further improvements in Cornish pumping engines. On 1 May 1866 he was elected a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and during 1881 and 1882 served as president of the Mining Association and Institute of Cornwall. He actively supported the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society. In 1855 he planned and superintended the erection of a breakwater at Porthleven in Mounts Bay, thereby making it a safe harbour. He helped to secure a water supply for Hayle and a system of drainage. He originated and became first captain of the 8th Cornwall artillery volunteers in April 1860, a post which he held till 1865. He established science classes at Hayle in connection with South Kensington. In spectrum analysis and astronomy he took a great interest, and made observations with a 10¼-inch telescope. On 28 and 29 March 1887, in company with Sir John Hawkshaw and Mr. Hayter, C.E., he was employed in inspecting nine pumping engines which his firm had erected in the Severn tunnel for keeping down the water. He died on 10 April of an attack of gall stones at his lodgings, 26 Sion Hill, Clifton, Bristol, and was buried at St. Erth, Cornwall, 16 April. On 20 June 1850 he married Anne, fifth daughter of Edward Nanney, by whom he had a family of four children. In 1890 a sum of 800l. was raised to establish a Husband scholarship for the technical education of miners. [Times, 3 May 1887, p.11; Minutes of Proceedings of Institution of Civil Engineers, 1887, lxxxix. 470-3; Gevers D'Endegeest's Du Dessechement du Lac de Harlem, 1849-61, pt. ii. p.1 2, &c.; Boase and Courtney's Bibl. Cornub. i. 260, iii. 1239; A. Huet's Stoombemaling van Polders en Boezems, 1885, pp.108, 116, &c.; Iron, 6 May 1887, p.384; Engineer, 6 May 1887, p.361; information from Mrs. Husband, of "West Bournemouth, Hampshire.] G. C. B. Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.163 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line Page Col. Line 319 ii 37 Husband, William: after Husband, insert shipbuilder and 38 ⁠for 1857 read 1859 42-43 ⁠omit he ran away .... to Hayle, where 14f.e. ⁠after founders insert at Hayle 320 i 29 ⁠for 1855 read 1885 Retrieved from "https://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Husband,_William_(DNB00)&oldid=7343277"	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10794
__label__wiki	0.79796	0.79796	(Redirected from Nato) Intergovernmental military alliance of Western states This article is about the military alliance. For other uses, see NATO (disambiguation). "OTAN" and "Otan" redirect here. For the village in Syria also spelled "Otan", see Autan. For the small town in Nigeria, see Otan Ayegbaju. For the ruling political party in Kazakhstan, see Nur Otan. Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord Member states of NATO NATO, OTAN Animus in consulendo liber 4 April 1949 (1949-04-04) Military alliance French[1] Chairman of the NATO Military Committee Air Chief Marshal Stuart Peach, Royal Air Force Supreme Allied Commander Europe General Tod D. Wolters, United States Air Force Supreme Allied Commander Transformation Général André Lanata, French Air Force Expenses (2018) US$1.0 trillion[2] NATO.int The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO /ˈneɪtoʊ/; French: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord; OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 29 North American and European countries. The organization implements the North Atlantic Treaty that was signed on 4 April 1949.[3][4] NATO constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its independent member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party. NATO's Headquarters are located in Haren, Brussels, Belgium, while the headquarters of Allied Command Operations is near Mons, Belgium. Since its founding, the admission of new member states has increased the alliance from the original 12 countries to 29. The most recent member state to be added to NATO is Montenegro on 5 June 2017. NATO currently recognizes Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, North Macedonia and Ukraine as aspiring members.[5] An additional 21 countries participate in NATO's Partnership for Peace program, with 15 other countries involved in institutionalized dialogue programs. The combined military spending of all NATO members constitutes over 70% of the global total.[6] Members have committed to reach or maintain defense spending of at least 2% of GDP by 2024.[7][8] 2 Military operations 2.1 Early operations 2.2 Bosnia and Herzegovina intervention 2.3 Kosovo intervention 2.4 War in Afghanistan 2.5 Iraq training mission 2.6 Gulf of Aden anti-piracy 2.7 Libya intervention 3 Participating countries 3.1 Members 3.2 Enlargement 3.3 Partnerships Main article: History of NATO On 4 March 1947 the Treaty of Dunkirk was signed by France and the United Kingdom as a Treaty of Alliance and Mutual Assistance in the event of a possible attack by Germany or the Soviet Union in the aftermath of World War II. In 1948, this alliance was expanded to include the Benelux countries, in the form of the Western Union, also referred to as the Brussels Treaty Organization (BTO), established by the Treaty of Brussels.[9] Talks for a new military alliance which could also include North America resulted in the signature of the North Atlantic Treaty on 4 April 1949 by the member states of the Western Union plus the United States, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark and Iceland.[10] West Germany joined NATO in 1955, which led to the formation of the rival Warsaw Pact during the Cold War. The North Atlantic Treaty was largely dormant until the Korean War initiated the establishment of NATO to implement it, by means of an integrated military structure: This included the formation of Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in 1951, which adopted the Western Union's military structures and plans.[11] In 1952 the post of Secretary General of NATO was established as the organization's chief civilian. That year also saw the first major NATO maritime exercises, Exercise Mainbrace and the accession of Greece and Turkey to the organization.[12][13] Following the London and Paris Conferences, West Germany was permitted to rearm militarily, as they joined NATO in May 1955, which was in turn a major factor in the creation of the Soviet-dominated Warsaw Pact, delineating the two opposing sides of the Cold War. Doubts over the strength of the relationship between the European states and the United States ebbed and flowed, along with doubts over the credibility of the NATO defense against a prospective Soviet invasion – doubts that led to the development of the independent French nuclear deterrent and the withdrawal of France from NATO's military structure in 1966.[14][15] In 1982 the newly democratic Spain joined the alliance. The collapse of the Warsaw Pact in 1989–1991 removed the de facto main adversary of NATO and caused a strategic re-evaluation of NATO's purpose, nature, tasks, and focus on the continent of Europe. This shift started with the 1990 signing in Paris of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe between NATO and the Soviet Union, which mandated specific military reductions across the continent that continued after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991.[16] At that time, European countries accounted for 34 percent of NATO's military spending; by 2012, this had fallen to 21 percent.[17] NATO also began a gradual expansion to include newly autonomous Central and Eastern European nations, and extended its activities into political and humanitarian situations that had not formerly been NATO concerns.[18] The fall of the Berlin Wall, a section of which is now displayed outside NATO Headquarters, marked a turning point in NATO's role in Europe. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in Germany in 1989, the organization conducted its first military interventions in Bosnia from 1992 to 1995 and later Yugoslavia in 1999 during the breakup of Yugoslavia.[19] Politically, the organization sought better relations with former Warsaw Pact countries, most of which joined the alliance in 1999 and 2004. Article 5 of the North Atlantic treaty, requiring member states to come to the aid of any member state subject to an armed attack, was invoked for the first and only time after the September 11 attacks,[20] after which troops were deployed to Afghanistan under the NATO-led ISAF. The organization has operated a range of additional roles since then, including sending trainers to Iraq, assisting in counter-piracy operations[21] and in 2011 enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1973. The less potent Article 4, which merely invokes consultation among NATO members, has been invoked five times following incidents in the Iraq War, Syrian Civil War, and annexation of Crimea.[22] The first post-Cold War expansion of NATO came with German reunification on 3 October 1990, when the former East Germany became part of the Federal Republic of Germany and the alliance. As part of post-Cold War restructuring, NATO's military structure was cut back and reorganized, with new forces such as the Headquarters Allied Command Europe Rapid Reaction Corps established. The changes brought about by the collapse of the Soviet Union on the military balance in Europe were recognized in the Adapted Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty, which was signed in 1999. The policies of French President Nicolas Sarkozy resulted in a major reform of France's military position, culminating with the return to full membership on 4 April 2009, which also included France rejoining the NATO Military Command Structure, while maintaining an independent nuclear deterrent.[15][23][24] Between 1994 and 1997, wider forums for regional cooperation between NATO and its neighbors were set up, like the Partnership for Peace, the Mediterranean Dialogue initiative and the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council. In 1998, the NATO–Russia Permanent Joint Council was established. Between 1999 and 2017 NATO incorporated the following Central and Eastern European countries, including several former communist states: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Albania, Croatia and Montenegro.[18] The Russian intervention in Crimea in 2014 led to strong condemnation by NATO nations and the creation of a new "spearhead" force of 5,000 troops at bases in Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria.[25] At the subsequent 2014 Wales summit, the leaders of NATO's member states formally committed for the first time to spend the equivalent of at least 2% of their gross domestic products on defence by 2024, which had previously been only an informal guideline.[26] Main article: List of NATO operations Early operations No military operations were conducted by NATO during the Cold War. Following the end of the Cold War, the first operations, Anchor Guard in 1990 and Ace Guard in 1991, were prompted by the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Airborne early warning aircraft were sent to provide coverage of southeastern Turkey, and later a quick-reaction force was deployed to the area.[27] Bosnia and Herzegovina intervention Main article: NATO intervention in Bosnia and Herzegovina NATO planes engaged in aerial bombardments during Operation Deliberate Force after the Srebrenica massacre. The Bosnian War began in 1992, as a result of the breakup of Yugoslavia. The deteriorating situation led to United Nations Security Council Resolution 816 on 9 October 1992, ordering a no-fly zone over central Bosnia and Herzegovina, which NATO began enforcing on 12 April 1993 with Operation Deny Flight. From June 1993 until October 1996, Operation Sharp Guard added maritime enforcement of the arms embargo and economic sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. On 28 February 1994, NATO took its first wartime action by shooting down four Bosnian Serb aircraft violating the no-fly zone.[28] On 10 and 11 April 1994, the United Nations Protection Force called in air strikes to protect the Goražde safe area, resulting in the bombing of a Bosnian Serb military command outpost near Goražde by two US F-16 jets acting under NATO direction.[29] In retaliation, Serbs took 150 U.N. personnel hostage on 14 April.[30][31] On 16 April a British Sea Harrier was shot down over Goražde by Serb forces.[32] In August 1995, a two-week NATO bombing campaign, Operation Deliberate Force, began against the Army of the Republika Srpska, after the Srebrenica massacre.[33] Further NATO air strikes helped bring the Yugoslav wars to an end, resulting in the Dayton Agreement in November 1995.[33] As part of this agreement, NATO deployed a UN-mandated peacekeeping force, under Operation Joint Endeavor, named IFOR. Almost 60,000 NATO troops were joined by forces from non-NATO nations in this peacekeeping mission. This transitioned into the smaller SFOR, which started with 32,000 troops initially and ran from December 1996 until December 2004, when operations were then passed onto European Union Force Althea.[34] Following the lead of its member nations, NATO began to award a service medal, the NATO Medal, for these operations.[35] Kosovo intervention Main articles: 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia and KFOR German KFOR soldiers patrol southern Kosovo in 1999. In an effort to stop Slobodan Milošević's Serbian-led crackdown on KLA separatists and Albanian civilians in Kosovo, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1199 on 23 September 1998 to demand a ceasefire. Negotiations under US Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke broke down on 23 March 1999, and he handed the matter to NATO,[36] which started a 78-day bombing campaign on 24 March 1999.[37] Operation Allied Force targeted the military capabilities of what was then the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. During the crisis, NATO also deployed one of its international reaction forces, the ACE Mobile Force (Land), to Albania as the Albania Force (AFOR), to deliver humanitarian aid to refugees from Kosovo.[38] Though the campaign was criticized for high civilian casualties, including bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Milošević finally accepted the terms of an international peace plan on 3 June 1999, ending the Kosovo War. On 11 June, Milošević further accepted UN resolution 1244, under the mandate of which NATO then helped establish the KFOR peacekeeping force. Nearly one million refugees had fled Kosovo, and part of KFOR's mandate was to protect the humanitarian missions, in addition to deterring violence.[38][39] In August–September 2001, the alliance also mounted Operation Essential Harvest, a mission disarming ethnic Albanian militias in the Republic of Macedonia.[40] As of 1 December 2013[update], 4,882 KFOR soldiers, representing 31 countries, continue to operate in the area.[41] The US, the UK, and most other NATO countries opposed efforts to require the UN Security Council to approve NATO military strikes, such as the action against Serbia in 1999, while France and some others claimed that the alliance needed UN approval.[42] The US/UK side claimed that this would undermine the authority of the alliance, and they noted that Russia and China would have exercised their Security Council vetoes to block the strike on Yugoslavia, and could do the same in future conflicts where NATO intervention was required, thus nullifying the entire potency and purpose of the organization. Recognizing the post-Cold War military environment, NATO adopted the Alliance Strategic Concept during its Washington summit in April 1999 that emphasized conflict prevention and crisis management.[43] Main articles: International Security Assistance Force and War in Afghanistan The September 11 attacks in the United States caused NATO to invoke its collective defence article for the first time. The September 11 attacks in the United States caused NATO to invoke Article 5 of the NATO Charter for the first time in the organization's history. The Article states that an attack on any member shall be considered to be an attack on all. The invocation was confirmed on 4 October 2001 when NATO determined that the attacks were indeed eligible under the terms of the North Atlantic Treaty.[44] The eight official actions taken by NATO in response to the attacks included Operation Eagle Assist and Operation Active Endeavour, a naval operation in the Mediterranean Sea designed to prevent the movement of terrorists or weapons of mass destruction, and to enhance the security of shipping in general, which began on 4 October 2001.[45] The alliance showed unity: On 16 April 2003, NATO agreed to take command of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which included troops from 42 countries. The decision came at the request of Germany and the Netherlands, the two nations leading ISAF at the time of the agreement, and all nineteen NATO ambassadors approved it unanimously. The handover of control to NATO took place on 11 August, and marked the first time in NATO's history that it took charge of a mission outside the north Atlantic area.[46] ISAF General David M. Rodriguez at an Italian change of command in Herat ISAF was initially charged with securing Kabul and surrounding areas from the Taliban, al Qaeda and factional warlords, so as to allow for the establishment of the Afghan Transitional Administration headed by Hamid Karzai. In October 2003, the UN Security Council authorized the expansion of the ISAF mission throughout Afghanistan,[47] and ISAF subsequently expanded the mission in four main stages over the whole of the country.[48] On 31 July 2006, the ISAF additionally took over military operations in the south of Afghanistan from a US-led anti-terrorism coalition.[49] Due to the intensity of the fighting in the south, in 2011 France allowed a squadron of Mirage 2000 fighter/attack aircraft to be moved into the area, to Kandahar, in order to reinforce the alliance's efforts.[50] During its 2012 Chicago Summit, NATO endorsed a plan to end the Afghanistan war and to remove the NATO-led ISAF Forces by the end of December 2014.[51] ISAF was disestablished in December 2014 and replaced by the follow-on training Resolute Support Mission. Iraq training mission Main article: NATO Training Mission – Iraq In August 2004, during the Iraq War, NATO formed the NATO Training Mission – Iraq, a training mission to assist the Iraqi security forces in conjunction with the US led MNF-I.[52] The NATO Training Mission-Iraq (NTM-I) was established at the request of the Iraqi Interim Government under the provisions of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1546. The aim of NTM-I was to assist in the development of Iraqi security forces training structures and institutions so that Iraq can build an effective and sustainable capability that addresses the needs of the nation. NTM-I was not a combat mission but is a distinct mission, under the political control of NATO's North Atlantic Council. Its operational emphasis was on training and mentoring. The activities of the mission were coordinated with Iraqi authorities and the US-led Deputy Commanding General Advising and Training, who was also dual-hatted as the Commander of NTM-I. The mission officially concluded on 17 December 2011.[53] Turkey invoked the first Article 4 meetings in 2003 at the start of the Iraq War. Turkey also invoked this article twice in 2012 during the Syrian Civil War, after the downing of an unarmed Turkish F-4 reconnaissance jet, and after a mortar was fired at Turkey from Syria,[54] and again in 2015 after threats by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant to its territorial integrity.[55] Gulf of Aden anti-piracy Main article: Operation Ocean Shield USS Farragut destroying a Somali pirate skiff in March 2010 Beginning on 17 August 2009, NATO deployed warships in an operation to protect maritime traffic in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean from Somali pirates, and help strengthen the navies and coast guards of regional states. The operation was approved by the North Atlantic Council and involves warships primarily from the United States though vessels from many other nations are also included. Operation Ocean Shield focuses on protecting the ships of Operation Allied Provider which are distributing aid as part of the World Food Programme mission in Somalia. Russia, China and South Korea have sent warships to participate in the activities as well.[56][57] The operation seeks to dissuade and interrupt pirate attacks, protect vessels, and abetting to increase the general level of security in the region.[58] Libya intervention Main article: 2011 military intervention in Libya During the Libyan Civil War, violence between protestors and the Libyan government under Colonel Muammar Gaddafi escalated, and on 17 March 2011 led to the passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, which called for a ceasefire, and authorized military action to protect civilians. A coalition that included several NATO members began enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya shortly afterwards, beginning with Opération Harmattan by the French Air Force on 19 March. On 20 March 2011, NATO states agreed on enforcing an arms embargo against Libya with Operation Unified Protector using ships from NATO Standing Maritime Group 1 and Standing Mine Countermeasures Group 1,[59] and additional ships and submarines from NATO members.[60] They would "monitor, report and, if needed, interdict vessels suspected of carrying illegal arms or mercenaries".[59] Libyan Army Palmaria howitzers destroyed by the French Air Force near Benghazi in March 2011 On 24 March, NATO agreed to take control of the no-fly zone from the initial coalition, while command of targeting ground units remained with the coalition's forces.[61][62] NATO began officially enforcing the UN resolution on 27 March 2011 with assistance from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.[63] By June, reports of divisions within the alliance surfaced as only eight of the 28 member nations were participating in combat operations,[64] resulting in a confrontation between US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and countries such as Poland, Spain, the Netherlands, Turkey, and Germany to contribute more, the latter believing the organization has overstepped its mandate in the conflict.[65][66][67] In his final policy speech in Brussels on 10 June, Gates further criticized allied countries in suggesting their actions could cause the demise of NATO.[68] The German foreign ministry pointed to "a considerable [German] contribution to NATO and NATO-led operations" and to the fact that this engagement was highly valued by President Obama.[69] While the mission was extended into September, Norway that day announced it would begin scaling down contributions and complete withdrawal by 1 August.[70] Earlier that week it was reported Danish air fighters were running out of bombs.[71][72] The following week, the head of the Royal Navy said the country's operations in the conflict were not sustainable.[73] By the end of the mission in October 2011, after the death of Colonel Gaddafi, NATO planes had flown about 9,500 strike sorties against pro-Gaddafi targets.[74][75] A report from the organization Human Rights Watch in May 2012 identified at least 72 civilians killed in the campaign.[76] Following a coup d'état attempt in October 2013, Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan requested technical advice and trainers from NATO to assist with ongoing security issues.[77] Map of NATO affiliations in Europe Map of NATO partnerships globally NATO members Membership Action Plan Individual Partnership Action Plan Mediterranean Dialogue Istanbul Cooperation Initiative Main article: Member states of NATO NATO organizes regular summits for leaders of their members states and partnerships. NATO has twenty-nine members, mainly in Europe and North America. Some of these countries also have territory on multiple continents, which can be covered only as far south as the Tropic of Cancer in the Atlantic Ocean, which defines NATO's "area of responsibility" under Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty. During the original treaty negotiations, the United States insisted that colonies such as the Belgian Congo be excluded from the treaty.[78][79] French Algeria was however covered until their independence on 3 July 1962.[80] Twelve of these twenty-nine are original members who joined in 1949, while the other seventeen joined in one of seven enlargement rounds. From the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s, France pursued a military strategy of independence from NATO under a policy dubbed "Gaullo-Mitterrandism".[citation needed] Nicolas Sarkozy negotiated the return of France to the integrated military command and the Defence Planning Committee in 2009, the latter being disbanded the following year. France remains the only NATO member outside the Nuclear Planning Group and unlike the United States and the United Kingdom, will not commit its nuclear-armed submarines to the alliance.[15][23] Few members spend more than two percent of their gross domestic product on defence,[81] with the United States accounting for three quarters of NATO defense spending.[82] Main article: Enlargement of NATO NATO has added 13 new members since the German reunification and the end of the Cold War. New membership in the alliance has been largely from Central and Eastern Europe, including former members of the Warsaw Pact. Accession to the alliance is governed with individual Membership Action Plans, and requires approval by each current member. NATO currently has two candidate countries that are in the process of joining the alliance: Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia. North Macedonia signed an accession protocol to become a NATO member state in February 2019, which is undergoing ratification by the member states.[83] Its accession had been blocked by Greece for many years due to the Macedonia naming dispute, which was resolved in 2018 by the Prespa agreement.[84] In order to support each other in the process, new and potential members in the region formed the Adriatic Charter in 2003.[85] Georgia was also named as an aspiring member, and was promised "future membership" during the 2008 summit in Bucharest,[86] though in 2014, US President Barack Obama said the country was not "currently on a path" to membership.[87] Russia continues to oppose further expansion, seeing it as inconsistent with informal understandings between Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and European and US negotiators that allowed for a peaceful German reunification.[88] NATO's expansion efforts are often seen by Moscow leaders as a continuation of a Cold War attempt to surround and isolate Russia,[89] though they have also been criticised in the West.[90] A June 2016 Levada poll found that 68% of Russians think that deploying NATO troops in the Baltic states and Poland—former Eastern bloc countries bordering Russia—is a threat to Russia.[91] In contrast 65% of Poles surveyed in 2017 Pew Research Center report identified Russia as a "major threat", with an average of 31% saying so across all NATO countries,[92] and 67% of Poles surveyed in 2018 favour US forces being based in Poland.[93] Of non-CIS Eastern European countries surveyed by Gallup in 2016, all but Serbia and Montenegro were more likely than not to view NATO as a protective alliance rather than a threat.[94] Ukraine's relationship with NATO and Europe has been politically controversial, and improvement of these relations was one of the goals of the "Euromaidan" protests that saw the ousting of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014. In March 2014, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk reiterated the government's stance that Ukraine is not seeking NATO membership.[95] Ukraine's president subsequently signed a bill dropping his nation's nonaligned status in order to pursue NATO membership, but signaled that it would hold a referendum before seeking to join.[96] Ukraine is one of eight countries in Eastern Europe with an Individual Partnership Action Plan. IPAPs began in 2002, and are open to countries that have the political will and ability to deepen their relationship with NATO.[97] A 2006 study in the journal Security Studies argued that NATO enlargement contributed to democratic consolidation in Central and Eastern Europe.[98] Further information: Foreign relations of NATO Partnership for Peace conducts multinational military exercises like Cooperative Archer, which took place in Tbilisi in July 2007 with 500 servicemen from four NATO members, eight PfP members, and Jordan, a Mediterranean Dialogue participant.[99] The Partnership for Peace (PfP) programme was established in 1994 and is based on individual bilateral relations between each partner country and NATO: each country may choose the extent of its participation.[100] Members include all current and former members of the Commonwealth of Independent States.[101] The Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) was first established on 29 May 1997, and is a forum for regular coordination, consultation and dialogue between all fifty participants.[102] The PfP programme is considered the operational wing of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership.[100] Other third countries also have been contacted for participation in some activities of the PfP framework such as Afghanistan.[103] The European Union (EU) signed a comprehensive package of arrangements with NATO under the Berlin Plus agreement on 16 December 2002. With this agreement, the EU was given the possibility to use NATO assets in case it wanted to act independently in an international crisis, on the condition that NATO itself did not want to act – the so-called "right of first refusal".[104] For example, Article 42(7) of the 1982 Treaty of Lisbon specifies that "If a Member State is the victim of armed aggression on its territory, the other Member States shall have towards it an obligation of aid and assistance by all the means in their power". The treaty applies globally to specified territories whereas NATO is restricted under its Article 6 to operations north of the Tropic of Cancer. It provides a "double framework" for the EU countries that are also linked with the PfP programme.[citation needed] Additionally, NATO cooperates and discusses its activities with numerous other non-NATO members. The Mediterranean Dialogue was established in 1994 to coordinate in a similar way with Israel and countries in North Africa. The Istanbul Cooperation Initiative was announced in 2004 as a dialog forum for the Middle East along the same lines as the Mediterranean Dialogue. The four participants are also linked through the Gulf Cooperation Council.[105] Political dialogue with Japan began in 1990, and since then, the Alliance has gradually increased its contact with countries that do not form part of any of these cooperation initiatives.[106] In 1998, NATO established a set of general guidelines that do not allow for a formal institutionalisation of relations, but reflect the Allies' desire to increase cooperation. Following extensive debate, the term "Contact Countries" was agreed by the Allies in 2000. By 2012, the Alliance had broadened this group, which meets to discuss issues such as counter-piracy and technology exchange, under the names "partners across the globe" or "global partners".[107][108] Australia and New Zealand, both contact countries, are also members of the AUSCANNZUKUS strategic alliance, and similar regional or bilateral agreements between contact countries and NATO members also aid cooperation. Colombia is the NATO's latest partner and Colombia has access to the full range of cooperative activities NATO offers to partners; Colombia became the first and only Latin American country to cooperate with NATO.[109] Main article: Structure of NATO The North Atlantic Council convening in 2010 with a defence/foreign minister configuration All agencies and organizations of NATO are integrated into either the civilian administrative or military executive roles. For the most part they perform roles and functions that directly or indirectly support the security role of the alliance as a whole. The civilian structure includes: The North Atlantic Council (NAC) is the body which has effective governance authority and powers of decision in NATO, consisting of member states' permanent representatives or representatives at higher level (ministers of foreign affairs or defence, or heads of state or government). The NAC convenes at least once a week and takes major decisions regarding NATO's policies. The meetings of the North Atlantic Council are chaired by the Secretary General and, when decisions have to be made, action is agreed upon on the basis of unanimity and common accord. There is no voting or decision by majority. Each nation represented at the Council table or on any of its subordinate committees retains complete sovereignty and responsibility for its own decisions. NATO Headquarters, located on Boulevard Léopold III/Leopold III-laan, B-1110 Brussels, which is in Haren, part of the City of Brussels municipality.[110] The staff at the Headquarters is composed of national delegations of member countries and includes civilian and military liaison offices and officers or diplomatic missions and diplomats of partner countries, as well as the International Staff and International Military Staff filled from serving members of the armed forces of member states.[111] Non-governmental citizens' groups have also grown up in support of NATO, broadly under the banner of the Atlantic Council/Atlantic Treaty Association movement. JFCBS JFCNP AIRCOM LAND- STRIKFORNATO JWC JFTC JALLC Locations of NATO's two strategic commands—Allied Command Transformation (ACT; yellow marks) and Allied Command Operations (ACO; red marks)—the latter of which has Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) as its headquarters. The subordinate centres of ACT and subordinate commands and joint force commands of ACO are also shown, minus the new Joint Force Command - Norfolk. The military structure includes: The Military Committee (MC) is the body of NATO that is composed of member states' Chiefs of Defence (CHOD) and advises the North Atlantic Council (NAC) on military policy and strategy. The national CHODs are regularly represented in the MC by their permanent Military Representatives (MilRep), who often are two- or three-star flag officers. Like the Council, from time to time the Military Committee also meets at a higher level, namely at the level of Chiefs of Defence, the most senior military officer in each nation's armed forces. The MC is led by its chairman, who directs NATO's military operations. Like the Council, from time to time the Military Committee also meets at a higher level, namely at the level of Chiefs of Defence, the most senior military officer in each nation's armed forces. Until 2008 the Military Committee excluded France, due to that country's 1966 decision to remove itself from the NATO Military Command Structure, which it rejoined in 1995. Until France rejoined NATO, it was not represented on the Defence Planning Committee, and this led to conflicts between it and NATO members.[112] Such was the case in the lead up to Operation Iraqi Freedom.[113] The operational work of the Committee is supported by the International Military Staff Allied Command Operations (ACO) is the NATO command of responsible for NATO operations worldwide. Allied Command Transformation (ACT), responsible for transformation and training of NATO forces. The Rapid Deployable Corps include Eurocorps, I. German/Dutch Corps, Multinational Corps Northeast, and NATO Rapid Deployable Italian Corps among others, as well as naval High Readiness Forces (HRFs), which all report to Allied Command Operations.[114] The organizations and agencies of NATO include: Headquarters for the NATO Support Agency will be in Capellen Luxembourg (site of the current NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency – NAMSA). The NATO Communications and Information Agency Headquarters will be in Brussels, as will the very small staff which will design the new NATO Procurement Agency. A new NATO Science and Technology (S&T) Organization will be created before July 2012, consisting of Chief Scientist, a Programme Office for Collaborative S&T, and the NATO Undersea Research Centre (NURC). The current NATO Standardization Agency will continue and be subject to review by Spring 2014. The NATO Parliamentary Assembly (NATO PA) is a body that sets broad strategic goals for NATO, which meets at two session per year. NATO PA interacts directly with the parliamentary structures of the national governments of the member states which appoint Permanent Members, or ambassadors to NATO. The NATO Parliamentary Assembly is made up of legislators from the member countries of the North Atlantic Alliance as well as thirteen associate members. It is however officially a different structure from NATO, and has as aim to join together deputies of NATO countries in order to discuss security policies on the NATO Council. NATO portal Ranks and insignia of NATO Common Security and Defence Policy of the European Union History of the Common Security and Defence Policy Similar organizations: Australia, New Zealand, United States Security Treaty (ANZUS) Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) Central Treaty Organization (CENTO) Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition (IMCTC) Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) ^ "English and French shall be the official languages for the entire North Atlantic Treaty Organization." Final Communiqué following the meeting of the North Atlantic Council on 17 September 1949. "... the English and French texts [of the Treaty] are equally authentic ..." The North Atlantic Treaty, Article 14 ^ "Defence Expenditure of NATO Countries (2010–2018)" (PDF). Nato.int. Retrieved 10 July 2018. ^ "What is NATO?". NATO Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium. 26 May 2017. Retrieved 26 May 2017. ^ Cook, Lorne (25 May 2017). "NATO: The World's Largest Military Alliance Explained". MilitaryTimes.com. The Associated Press, US. Retrieved 26 May 2017. ^ NATO. "Enlargement". NATO. Retrieved 18 March 2018. ^ "The SIPRI Military Expenditure Database". Milexdata.sipri.org. Archived from the original on 28 March 2010. Retrieved 22 August 2010. ^ The Wales Declaration on the Transatlantic Bond, NATO, 5 September 2014. ^ Erlanger, Steven (26 March 2014). "Europe Begins to Rethink Cuts to Military Spending". nytimes.com. Retrieved 3 April 2014. Last year, only a handful of NATO countries met the target, according to NATO figures, including the United States, at 4.1 percent, and Britain, at 2.4 percent. ^ "The origins of WEU: Western Union". University of Luxembourg. December 2009. Retrieved 23 July 2018. ^ "A short history of NATO". NATO. Retrieved 26 March 2017. ^ Ismay, Hastings (4 September 2001). "NATO the first five years 1949–1954". NATO. Archived from the original on 15 March 2017. 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Taking in Ukraine without also inducting Russia is the quickest way to alienate Russia ... and would justifiably give rise within Russia to fears of encirclement by, and exclusion from, the West." ^ Levada-Center and Chicago Council on Global Affairs about Russian-American relations. Levada-Center. 4 November 2016. ^ "Pew survey: Russia disliked around world; most in Poland, Turkey see Kremlin as major threat". Kyiv Post. 16 August 2017. Retrieved 4 September 2018. ^ "NATO summit: Poland pins its hopes on the USA". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 4 September 2018. ^ Smith, Michael. "Most NATO Members in Eastern Europe See It as Protection". Gallup. Retrieved 4 September 2018. ^ Polityuk, Pavel (18 March 2014). "PM tells Ukrainians: No NATO membership, armed groups to disarm". Reuters. Retrieved 27 March 2014. ^ "Ukrainian President Signs Law Allowing NATO Membership Bid". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 29 December 2014. 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Retrieved 22 August 2010. ^ Bram Boxhoorn, Broad Support for NATO in the Netherlands, 21 September 2005, "ATAedu.org". Archived from the original on 18 February 2007. Retrieved 10 July 2008. CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link) ^ "NATO Partner countries". Nato.int. 6 March 2009. Retrieved 15 June 2011. ^ [1] Archived 10 September 2013 at the Wayback Machine ^ "NATO PARTNERSHIPS: DOD Needs to Assess U.S. Assistance in Response to Changes to the Partnership for Peace Program" (PDF). United States Government Accountability Office. September 2010. Retrieved 27 August 2013. ^ "Partners". NATO. 2 April 2012. Retrieved 12 October 2012. ^ "Relations with Colombia". nato.int. 19 May 2017. Retrieved 20 May 2017. ^ "NATO homepage". Retrieved 12 March 2006. ^ "NATO Headquarters". Nato.int. 10 August 2010. Retrieved 22 August 2010. ^ "France to rejoin NATO command". CNN. 17 June 2008. Retrieved 4 September 2013. ^ Fuller, Thomas (18 February 2003). "Reaching accord, EU warns Saddam of his 'last chance'". International Herald Tribune. Archived from the original on 12 October 2007. Retrieved 15 July 2007. ^ "The Rapid Deployable Corps". NATO. 26 November 2012. Retrieved 4 September 2013. Art, Robert J. (1998). "Creating a Disaster: NATO's Open Door Policy". Political Science Quarterly. 113 (3): 383–403. doi:10.2307/2658073. JSTOR 2658073. Auerswald, David P., and Stephen M. Saideman, eds. NATO in Afghanistan: Fighting Together, Fighting Alone (Princeton U.P., 2014) Behrman, Greg (2007). The Most Noble Adventure: The Marshall Plan and the Time When America Helped Save Europe. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-7432-8263-5. Bethlehem, Daniel L.; Weller, Marc (1997). The 'Yugoslav' Crisis in International Law. Cambridge International Documents Series. 5. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-46304-1. Clausson, M.I. (2006). NATO: Status, Relations, and Decision-Making. Nova Publishers. ISBN 978-1-60021-098-3. Collins, Brian J. (2011). NATO: A Guide to the Issues. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-0-313-35491-5. Garthoff, Raymond L. (1994). Détente and confrontation: American-Soviet relations from Nixon to Reagan. Brookings Institution Press. ISBN 978-0-8157-3041-5. Gorbachev, Mikhail (1996). Memoirs. London: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-40668-0. Harsch, Michael F. (2015). The Power of Dependence: NATO–UN Cooperation in Crisis Management. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-103396-4. Isby, David C.; Kamps Jr., Charles (1985). Armies of NATO's Central Front. Jane's Information Group. ISBN 978-0-7106-0341-8. Kaplan, Lawrence S. (2013). NATO before the Korean War: April 1949 – June 1950. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press. Kaplan, Lawrence S. (2004). NATO Divided, NATO United: The Evolution of an Alliance. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-275-98006-1. National Defense University (1997). Allied command structures in the new NATO. DIANE Publishing. ISBN 978-1-57906-033-6. Njølstad, Olav (2004). The last decade of the Cold War: from conflict escalation to conflict transformation. 5. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0-7146-8539-7. Osgood, Robert E. (1962). NATO: The Entangling Alliance. University of Chicago Press. Park, William (1986). Defending the West: a history of NATO. Westview Press. ISBN 978-0-8133-0408-3. Pedaliu, Effie G.H. (2003). Britain, Italy, and the Origins of the Cold War. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-97380-6. Reynolds, David (1994). The Origins of the Cold War in Europe: International Perspectives. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-10562-9. Schoenbaum, Thomas J. (1988). Waging Peace and War: Dean Rusk in the Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson Years. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-60351-9. van der Eyden, Ton (2003). Public management of society: rediscovering French institutional engineering in the European context. 1. IOS Press. ISBN 978-1-58603-291-3. Wenger, Andreas; Nuenlist, Christian; Locher, Anna (2007). Transforming NATO in the Cold War: Challenges beyond deterrence in the 1960s. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-415-39737-7. Willbanks, James H. (2004). Machine Guns: An Illustrated History of Their Impact. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-85109-480-6. Zenko, Micah (2010). Between Threats and War: U.S. Discrete Military Operations in the Post-Cold War World. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-7191-7. Asmus, Ronald (2010). A Little War That Shook the World: Georgia, Russia, and the Future of the West. NYU. ISBN 978-0-230-61773-5. John Borawski, Thomas-Durell Young, "NATO After 2000: The Future of the Euro-Atlantic Alliance" Dr. Thomas-Durell Young, "Reforming NATO's Military Structures: The Long-Term Study and Its Implications for Land Forces", Strategic Studies Institute, 1 May 1998. Often taken for granted, the Alliance's integrated command structure provides the basis for NATO's collective defense, and increasingly, as seen in Bosnia, its ability to undertake peace support operations. However, the very value by which nations hold the structure has resulted in a difficult and time-consuming reorganization process, which has produced only limited reforms. Dr. Thomas-Durell Young, "Multinational Land Formations and NATO: Reforming Practices and Structures", Strategic Studies Institute, 1 December 1997. Reduced national force structures, new NATO roles and missions emanating from the military implementation of Alliance Strategy and the rapid reaction requirements associated with the embryonic Combined Joint Task Forces (CJTF) concept are but three of a multitude of inter-related issues. The current official reference for the NATO Military Command Structure appears to be MC 324/1 (The NATO Military Command Structure, May 2004) and a successor MC 324/2. The previous issue was MC 324, issued on 6 January 1999. NATO Office of Information and Press, NATO Handbook : Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, NATO, Brussels, 1998–99, Second Reprint, ISBN 92-845-0134-2 Hastings Ismay, 1st Baron Ismay (1954). "NATO: The First Five Years". Paris: NATO. Retrieved 4 April 2017. Pedlow, Dr Gregory W. "Evolution of NATO's Command Structure 1951-2009" (PDF). aco.nato.int. Brussels(?): NATO ACO. Retrieved 18 February 2015. Atlantic Council of the United States (August 2003). "Transforming the NATO Military Command Structure: A New Framework for Managing the Alliance's Future" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 October 2012. Wikiquote has quotations related to: NATO NATOat Wikipedia's sister projects NATO collected news and commentary at Al Jazeera English NATO collected news and commentary at Dawn "NATO collected news and commentary". The Guardian. "NATO collected news and commentary". The New York Times. 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__label__wiki	0.958748	0.958748	Over and Over (Bobby Day song) Find sources: "Over and Over" Bobby Day song – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) "Over and Over" Single by The Dave Clark Five from the album Glad All Over "I'll Be Yours (My Love)" Songwriter(s) Robert James Byrd Dave Clark The Dave Clark Five singles chronology "Catch Us If You Can" (1965) "Over and Over" (1965) ""Try Too Hard" (UK) "At the Scene" (US)" "Over and Over" is a song written by Robert James Byrd and recorded by him using the stage name Bobby Day. Day's version entered the Billboard Hot 100 in 1958, the same week a version of the same song by Thurston Harris entered the chart. Day's version reached #41, and was the B-side to "Rockin' Robin".[1] Thurston Harris' version peaked at #96. In the song, the singer describes going to a party with misgivings of having a good time, until he sees a pretty girl. The singer attempts to ask her out, but she is waiting for her date to arrive. He vows to try "over and over". Dave Clark Five version[edit] In 1965, the most successful version was recorded by the Dave Clark Five, one of the early British Invasion bands of the mid-1960s. This version was sung by lead singer and keyboardist Mike Smith. It followed the group's signature sound of thumping, 4 4 drum beats accompanied by a wailing saxophone. It omits the final verse of the song.[2] In the US, "Over and Over" was the group's 12th Top 40 hit and was their only #1 hit.[3] It was also the last #1 hit of 1965. Despite its success in the United States and the popularity of the group on both sides of the Atlantic, the single only reached number 45 in the band's native United Kingdom.[4] The Dave Clark Five omitted Bobby Day's last verse to the song, while the line "everybody went stag" as originally written by Bobby Byrd (Day's real name) was sung as “everybody there was there” on the DC5 version.[5] Covers[edit] In 1981, Mike Love of The Beach Boys covered the song on his solo album Looking Back With Love.[6] ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 148. ^ Phill Marder (11 August 2011). "Bobby Day may have provided the cornerstones of Rock's foundation". Goldmine Magazine blog. Retrieved 25 October 2015. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits: Eighth Edition. Record Research. p. 129. ^ Bronson, Fred (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (5th Edition). New York: Billboard Books. p. 189. ISBN 978-0823076772. Retrieved 25 October 2015. ^ "Over And Over Misheard Lyrics". Amiright.com. Retrieved 29 September 2016. ^ "Mike Love - Looking Back With Love". Discogs. The Dave Clark Five (DC5) Lenny Davidson Rick Huxley Denis Payton "I Knew It All the Time" "Do You Love Me" "Glad All Over" "Bits and Pieces" "Stay" "Can't You See That She's Mine" "Any Way You Want It" "Because" "I Like It Like That" "You Got What It Takes" "Everybody Knows" "Loving You" A Session with The Dave Clark Five US albums Glad All Over The Dave Clark Five Return! American Tour Weekend in London UK compilations Glad All Over Again US compilations The Dave Clark Five History of The Dave Clark Five Catch Us If You Can Book: The Dave Clark Five This 1960s single-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Over_and_Over_(Bobby_Day_song)&oldid=898638695" The Dave Clark Five songs Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles RPM Top Singles number-one singles Songs written by Bobby Day 1960s single stubs Use British English from April 2014	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10797
__label__wiki	0.752614	0.752614	Ulukus Named 2016-2017 Distinguished... Ulukus Named 2016-2017 Distinguished Scholar-Teacher by University of Maryland Sennur Ulukus Distinguished Scholar-Teacher Congratulations to Professor Sennur Ulukus (ECE/ISR), who has been selected as a 2016-2017 Distinguished Scholar-Teacher by the University of Maryland. She joins Professor Reza Ghodssi (ECE/ISR) 2014-2015; Professor Min Wu (ECE/UMIACS) 2013-2014; Professor Carol Espy-Wilson (ECE/ISR), 2012 – 2013; Professor Patrick O’Shea(Division of Research/ECE/IREAP/Physics/NanoCenter/UMERC), 2010–2011; Professor K.J. Ray Liu (ECE), 2006-2007; Professor Howard Milchberg (ECE/Physics/IPST), 2005 –2006; Professor Michael Fu (Robert H. Smith School of Business/ISR/ECE), 2004-2005; Professor Rama Chellappa (ECE/CS/UMIACS/CFAR), 2003-2004; Professor Steven Marcus(ECE/ISR), 2000-2001; Professor Isaak Mayergoyz (ECE/UMIACS) 1995-1996; Professor William Destler, 1992-1993; and Professor Christopher Davis (ECE/Maryland Optics Group), 1989-1990; as ECE winners of the award. Prior to joining UMD, Ulukus was a Senior Technical Staff Member at AT&T Labs-Research. She received her Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Wireless Information Network Laboratory (WINLAB), Rutgers University, and B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Bilkent University. Her research interests are in wireless communications, information theory, signal processing, networking, information theoretic physical layer security, and energy harvesting communications. Dr. Ulukus is a fellow of the IEEE. She received the 2003 IEEE Marconi Prize Paper Award in Wireless Communications, an 2005 NSF CAREER Award, the 2010-2011 ISR Outstanding Systems Engineering Faculty Award, and the 2012 George Corcoran Education Award. She served as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory (2007-2010) and IEEE Transactions on Communications (2003-2007). She served as a Guest Editor for the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications for the special issue on wireless communications powered by energy harvesting and wireless energy transfer (2015), Journal of Communications and Networks for the special issue on energy harvesting in wireless networks (2012), IEEE Transactions on Information Theory for the special issue on interference networks (2011), IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications for the special issue on multiuser detection for advanced communication systems and networks (2008). She served as the TPC co-chair of the 2014 IEEE PIMRC, Communication Theory Symposium at 2014 IEEE Globecom, Energy Harvesting and Green Wireless Communications Symposium at 2013 GlobalSIP, Communication Theory Symposium at 2013 IEEE ICC, Physical-Layer Security Workshop at 2011 IEEE Globecom, Physical-Layer Security Workshop at 2011 IEEE ICC, 2011 Communication Theory Workshop (IEEE CTW), Wireless Communications Symposium at 2010 IEEE ICC, Medium Access Control Track at 2008 IEEE WCNC, and Communication Theory Symposium at 2007 IEEE Globecom. She was the Secretary of the IEEE Communication Theory Technical Committee (CTTC) in 2007-2009. The Distinguished Scholar-Teacher program recognizes faculty members who have demonstrated outstanding scholarly achievement along with equally outstanding accomplishments as teachers. Ulukus one of only four Maryland professors to receive the honor this year. Nominees for the award are selected by their peers; the winners are chosen by a panel of former Distinguished Scholar-Teachers. University Medal Awarded to Electrical Engineering Senior... Shoukry Wins NSF CAREER Award Nisar and Odigwe Win 2018 International Space Solar Power... UMD Researchers Conduct Field Tests to Evaluate the... Joseph JaJa Named Interim Chair of ECE Department Symbiont Health, Co-founded by ECE Major Erich Meissner Wins... MC2 Graduate Student Advised by Papamanthou Awarded Symantec... Stories / March 28, 2017 Papamanthou Receives NSF CAREER Award to Improve Security in... Stories / January 5, 2016 Qu Wins NIST Grant Alumnus Amr Adly Promoted to Vice President at Cairo University	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10799
__label__wiki	0.820157	0.820157	Cabinet Opinion on the American Debt to France, 2 March 1793 Cabinet Opinion on the American Debt to France The President communicated to the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of War and the Attorney General of the United States, a letter from William S. Smith Esqr. of the 28th. of February past, to the Secretary of the Treasury, with sundry Papers No. I. II. III and IV. relating to a negotiation for changing the form of the debt to France; and required their opinion what answer should be returned to the Application. The opinion unanimously is, that the Secretary of the Treasury shall inform Mr. Smith that the Government of the United States have made and engaged1 payments to France to the extent which is at present consistent with their arrangements; and do not judge it adviseable to take any measures on the Subject of his Application. March 2nd. 1793 H Knox Edm: Randolph MS (DLC): Washington Papers); in the hand of Tobias Lear, signed by TJ, Hamilton, Knox, and Randolph; endorsed by Lear. Smith’s letter to Hamilton of 28 Feb. 1793 and the sundry papers relating to Smith’s offer to buy the American debt to France and pay it in American goods have not been found. See note to Notes on Conversations with William Stephens Smith and George Washington, 20 Feb. 1793. 1. Preceding two words in the margin. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-25-02-0275 Note: The annotations to this document, and any other modern editorial content, are copyright © Princeton University Press. All rights reserved. Jefferson Papers “Cabinet Opinion on the American Debt to France, 2 March 1793,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-25-02-0275. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 25, 1 January–10 May 1793, ed. John Catanzariti. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992, pp. 310–311.]	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10806
__label__cc	0.691734	0.308266	THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. This weekend I am traveling in California, where I'm focusing on important issues for our Nation's future, including our economy, energy prices, the war on terror, and immigration reform. America's economy is strong, and we need to keep it strong in an increasingly competitive world. The talent and innovative spirit of our people have driven America's economic growth. To maintain our economic leadership, our Nation must stay on the leading edge of innovation -- so I have proposed the American Competitiveness Initiative. One important part of this initiative is improving math and science education for our young people, so they have the right skills to succeed in the 21st century economy. On Friday in San Jose, I had the chance to visit Cisco Systems, a company that understands the importance of preparing the next generation for the high-tech jobs of tomorrow. I can't find a radio station that carries the radio address. Do any stations in Pomona carry it? Click here for answer.... Through its Networking Academy Program, Cisco is helping to train high school students in math, science, and information technology skills. By ensuring that we have a skilled workforce for the future, companies like Cisco are helping America compete with confidence, and keeping our economy growing, and creating new jobs for our citizens. Saturday is Earth Day, and many of you are asking how we can meet our growing energy needs while protecting our environment. The key is technology. So I have proposed the Advanced Energy Initiative to change the way we power our homes, businesses, and cars. I will visit the California Fuel Cell Partnership to take a closer look at hydrogen fuel cells, one of the exciting new technologies supported by my initiative. These fuel cells have the potential to revolutionize the way we power our cars by giving us vehicles that will emit no pollution and will be more efficient than gas-powered cars. My Advanced Energy Initiative will also help improve hybrid vehicles -- cars and trucks that run partly on electricity and help drivers save gas. We're funding research into a new generation of plug-in hybrid vehicles that could be recharged in electrical outlets and could allow many drivers to make their daily commute using no gasoline. By developing these and other new sources of clean renewable energy like ethanol, we will continue growing our economy, reduce energy prices and protect our environment, and make America less dependent on foreign oil. Americans are asking about our progress toward victory in the war on terror. I have confidence in the outcome of this struggle because I know the character of the people who wear our Nation's uniform. On Sunday, I will attend church and have lunch with Marine Corps and Navy personnel and their families at the Twentynine Palms base. I will tell them how honored I am to be their Commander in Chief and express the gratitude of all Americans for their service in the cause of freedom. Since September the 11th, 2001, the men and women of our military have overthrown a cruel regime in Afghanistan, captured or killed many al Qaeda terrorists, liberated Iraq, and made America more secure from terrorist dangers. We're fighting the terrorists abroad so we do not have to face them here at home. By taking the fight to the terrorists and bringing liberty and hope to a troubled region, our courageous troops are making the world a safer place. On Monday, I'll visit Irvine, California, to discuss immigration reform with the local community. Immigration is an emotional issue. And it's sparked passionate debate. When we discuss immigration, we're talking about the integrity of our borders, the enforcement of our laws, and the character of our Nation. Here's what I believe: America does not have to choose between being a welcoming society and being a lawful society. We can be both at the same time. In the coming weeks, I'll press Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform that secures our border, enforces our laws, meets the needs of our economy, and upholds our highest ideals. We must also ensure that all immigrants assimilate into our society and learn our customs, our values, and our language. America is a land of immigrants and a Nation of laws. And we must stay true to both parts of this great heritage. As Congress returns from its recess, its members have important and consequential work before them. I urge them to act on my initiatives to keep America competitive, to promote alternative sources of energy, reform our immigration system, and continue their support of our troops fighting in the global war on terror. By taking these steps, we'll maintain America's strength. And a strong America will help lead the world to a future of greater freedom and prosperity and peace. History & Tours \| Kids \| Your Government \| Appointments \| Jobs \| Contact \|	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10807
__label__wiki	0.612752	0.612752	LGTB Memory of Sitgesadmin2019-05-12T10:06:47+00:00 Our LGBT history in Sitges is a collective history and is part of the history of Sitges. And we want to reinvindicate that we also build history, the history of Sitges. In an attempt to keep alive many of the aspects of LGBT life in the past, in Sitges, GSL is involved in two projects: Rainbow route GSL regularly organizes this activity directed by Isidre Roset. This is a walk through Sitges based on a reading based on the resignification of the most emblematic places paying special attention to the past LGTBI + of the city. 100 years of history Gai de Sitges. The LGBT History of Sitges It is a project started by Brandon Jones, the “100 years of Gay History in Sitges” documentary video has been produced. This documentary with the support of Gay Sitges Link was presented on June 28, 2018 at Cinema Prado. A DVD has been published that can be bought at our institution with a price of 8 euros. Month of LGBT History Each year, during the month of February, it is held all over the world, the month of LGTB history. Gay Sitges Link is organizing a lecture every year by Stephen Gamwell, a member of GSL and activist in the UK’s most popular LGBT history through the executive board of the School’s Out association. The history of gay, lesbian, transsexual and bisexual people is under construction, weaving another and a reasoned historical discourse could help us to understand why Sitges has become so attractive to the diverse heteronormative communities.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10812
__label__cc	0.538466	0.461534	Chief, Division of Gynecologic Oncology Virginia Commonwealth University is seeking a Chief for the Division of Gynecologic Oncology. The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology includes six distinct divisions, each comprising highly specialized experts with national and international reputations for excellence. And as testimony to patient satisfaction, our ob-gyn faculty members are regularly named in local and national “Top Docs” rankings. Faculty are involved in many national organizations including leadership roles in the ABOG Board of Directors, the Council of University Chairs in OB/GYN, ASCCP, CREOG Council, ACOG Committee Chairs, and NASPAG. The mission of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department is to provide the highest quality clinical care in both specialty and sub-specialty obstetrics and gynecology to the women of central Virginia. In addition to the clinical mission, the Department has the allied goals of providing undergraduate and graduate medical education in the field and advancing the field through basic and clinical research. The Department is committed to enhancing diversity among its faculty, staff, and students. The Department faculty has a responsibility to provide service to their profession and to the University Community. The VCU Massey Cancer Center is among the top 4 percent of cancer centers in the country and is one of two in the state designated by the National Cancer Institute to lead and shape America’s cancer research efforts. Its 205 research members include faculty from 38 departments in 3 colleges and 4 schools at VCU. Massey leads Virginia in offering one of the largest cancer clinical trials menus as well as a statewide clinical trials network that bring Massey’s cutting-edge trials to patients throughout the Commonwealth. This position is designed to lead and administer the clinical, research, and educational programs for the Division of Gynecologic Oncology. The Chief will provide subspecialty care in gynecologic oncology, including surgery, in- and outpatient consultation, chemotherapy, and in- and outpatient management of women with gynecologic cancers. The successful candidate will be responsible for student and resident education in gynecologic oncology. S/he also will have oversight of the Division’s research activities. Demonstrated experience working in and fostering a diverse faculty, staff, and student environment or commitment to do so as a faculty member at VCU. Completion of training in OB/GYN and Gynecologic Oncology equivalent to ACGME and ABOG accredited programs. Certification by the American Board of OB/GYN in Gynecologic Oncology. Ability to obtain an unrestricted Virginia state medical license. Virginia Commonwealth University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. Women, minorities and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10818
__label__wiki	0.645906	0.645906	Author: AnonyMPC Title: Magic Marker, Book Two: Indelible Summary: Life as her brother's fuck toy is a mixed blessing for Susan... it sure is a lot of fun, but he's just so irresponsible, always pushing boundaries, both hers, and those of the magic marker that makes whatever is written with it come true. The marks on her may only last a week, but a week is a long time, and some of the changes her brother makes... they might just be indelible. Keywords: mg, Mg, mc, fg, bond, anal, inc, Mdom, humil, magic, oral, spank, toys Previously, in Magic Marker, Book One: Felt: Two kids found a magic marker, and discovered it really was magic... anything written on a person or object becomes true, until it wears off. Unfortunately, twelve-year-old Susan wrote "Jerk" on her brother to try to prove its powers, and he took control from there, writing a series of marks on her... like "super-horny", "loves anal stuff", "addicted to cum", "cock sucker" and "fuck toy." She thought the changes would be temporary, that when the mark "jerk" wore off he'd be back to normal... until she found out that he rewrote the word on himself, because he liked being a jerk. Magic Marker, Book Two: Indelible by AnonyMPC (mg, Mg, mc, fg, bond, anal, inc, Mdom, humil, magic, oral, spank, toys) Susan wondered if her life was ever going to change back to the way it was, or if this was the way it was going to be from now on. Obviously some things wouldn't... some changes couldn't be changed back, lines couldn't be uncrossed. Losing virginity, for example. And some lessons stayed with you forever. But sometimes you could pretend the changes didn't happen, decide not to make mistakes again, and go back to living the way you did before, couldn't you? Or was this the new normal? The question crossed her mind as she lay spread eagle, each of her limbs bound to one post of a twin-sized bed (her arms cuffed to the headboard, her ankles tied with ropes to the foot). Semen was drying on her face leaving a sticky, flaky mess everywhere her tongue couldn't reach, and there was a slim rod in her ass, a feeling that she loved except that she knew it could also be made to vibrate, but only if somebody turned it on. That was something she was in no position to do, no matter how much she wanted it. And she wanted it... in fact, she craved it. Even at twelve years old, Susan was super horny, her hairless pussy practically throbbing with need, and she was unable to do much of anything about that need, aside from clenching her ass around the inactive vibrator for the faintest hint of stimulation. It wasn't enough, not by a long shot. It was her brother's fault she was stuck like this, that this might be her life from now on. Keith was a jerk. And that was Susan's fault, that he was a jerk. She couldn't escape that. She was the one who wrote the word on him, with a magic marker - a marker that made almost anything you wrote on somebody a true description. In writing those word 'Jerk' she turned him into one. Since that moment, the marker was in Keith's hands, and he'd used it to turn their family life upside down, and Susan's life in particular. Now, in addition to being super horny, she was addicted to cum, she loved anal stuff, and she was both a cocksucker and a fuck toy. All of that was because of the marker, and a heavy burden to bear for a preteen girl who was a virgin who'd never been kissed the day before. At least he also made her infertile, so she wouldn't have to worry about getting pregnant, although she'd begun to think about that while lying there, waiting for her brother to return from downstairs and hopefully uncuff her... maybe it was because she was super horny, but the idea of giving birth to her brother's baby made her heart flutter and thighs clench even more. Even though that would be another one of those permanent changes that she could never come back from, a part of her nonetheless wanted it. It wasn't even so much the birth itself that excited her most. It was the thought of everybody seeing her pregnant, knowing she'd had sex, maybe everybody in school seeing her with a baby bump. Sometimes she even fantasized that they knew it was her brother behind it, but of course she didn't really want that, unless it was some fantasy world where he couldn't get in trouble. That could be the case at home, she realized with a squeeze of her ass, at least now that her brother had used the marker on their parents... if he kept marking them every time what he'd written had started to fade, at least. Because right now both Mom and Dad had magic words on their bodies that forced them to have complete faith in Keith. If he got her pregnant, they would believe him if he told them he wasn't the father. They'd probably believe him if he said he was the father, but she seduced him and so it was her fault, or there was some other reason it was okay. Maybe he could even convince them they should be married, or act like it... who knows how the far the magic would take it. Susan grunted, and tried to pull her hand to the toy inside her once more, completely forgetting the cuff that yanked back at her as it clattered against the wooden headboard. When was Keith coming back? What if he forgot about her? No, that was a ridiculous fear... it was his room, after all, he'd have to be back eventually. And she didn't hear the front door slamming shut like it usually did when he left the house. He might be downstairs watching TV, after enjoying whatever it was he was making himself to eat. She had detected the unmistakable delicious, greasy smell of bacon wafting up a few minutes ago, and some other scents too. Maybe he was making something extremely elaborate and complicated, and that's what was taking so long. Maybe he'd just gotten bored of her and decided to experiment with how far the magic words "Good Cook", written on his arm, in magic marker, carried him beyond his normal skills. Before writing that, he'd never cooked bacon himself, or much of anything. He wouldn't even fry an egg. Now he was making, or had already made, what smelled like a delicious lunch. Hopefully, he'd make enough for her, too, because Susan was starting to get super hungry as well as super horny. And super bored. Judging by what she read in those Shades of Grey books her mother liked, bondage was supposed to be exciting. And maybe it was while Keith was right there with her, doing anything he wanted without her even being able to resist a little... unable to close her legs and force him to prove how easily he could pry them apart, or even to control things enough to assume a more comfortable position, just open to be taken and used. Even when he was cruelly denying her, not cumming inside of her so she could have her fuck toy orgasm, and jacking off on her face while the restraints prevented her from fulfilling her cocksucker nature, there was some level of excitement to it... she had, even before the marker, wanted to watch what it looked like when he squirted, just for curiosity's sake. But then he left, and all she could do was lie there, waiting. And that was starting to get boring. Normally, if she was stuck somewhere, like on a long car ride or waiting for a doctor's appointment, what she would do is work on one of the stories in her head, work out the details of a plot twist or try out various ways of describing a person, place, or action. Here, though the ever-present horniness didn't even grant her that escape... every time she tried to divert her thoughts, they soon fled back to how she wanted... no, needed to cum really bad. Her mind may have been like a ping-pong ball, back and forth between her needs, and what Keith was doing, and whether she might be able to squeeze her hand out of the handcuffs and escape, and whether she should... but it was a boring ping-pong ball all the same. For a time she occupied herself by seeing if she could on turn the vibrator in her ass, by rubbing it along the sheets underneath her in a way that might twist the knob. She tried that again, but without luck, and puffed out a frustrated breath of air that tossed her bangs out of the way of one of her eyes. Finally, after what seemed like an impossibly long time (her panties were covering the face of the clock by Keith's bed so she couldn't say for sure, but it felt like an hour or more since he first left), she heard a series of plodding steps ascending the stairs, and waited, flexing her butt and arching her back slightly to raise her pussy and give him as tempting a sight as she could... maybe he'd want to play with her. Her brother pushed open the door with a sock-covered foot and entered, his hands full with two plates. On one was a half-finished sandwich, toasted and full of gooey cheese. A grilled cheese sandwich, but not just a conventional one, there was bacon and something else... closer, now, she could smell mustard somewhere in there. The other plate was covered in a pot lid. Susan licked her lips, hoping it was for her, another one of those delicious smelling sandwiches, or maybe something else. Probably something else, or why hide it? As long as it wasn't something disgusting... he might be enough of a jerk to like humiliating her by making her eat something icky. If he did that, she hoped it would be a cum sandwich... she could pretend not to like that but enjoy eating it anyway due to her addiction, which, after a certain amount of time, made swallowing cum, in any form, as refreshing as a thirsty man in the desert finally finding water. If Keith provided something really disgusting, her only hope might be to pretend she really wanted it... reverse psychology was a good tool on a jerk, or at least she thought it might be... though too often she only thought of it too late, like the moment after he smiled and walked out of the room immediately after she suggested that he couldn't leave her tied up. It seemed like forever that he was gone. But now he was back. Keith put the covered plate on his desk, the other on a chair, without saying anything about it. Susan couldn't take the mystery anymore. "What'd did you make?" she asked. "This?" he asked, and picked up one half of the sandwich, the half with a bite already taken out of it. "Grilled cheese with bacon and apple." "Apple?" she asked. She liked apples, but... in a cheesy sandwich? Still, it smelled pretty good. "Yeah, I know, sounds weird, but it tastes really good." He took another bite... it crunched, although when he pulled his mouth away the cheese trailed back to the sandwich until it finally fell away. Keith chewed a few times, then continued, mouth full, "Mom really needs to go shopping though, I could do a lot more if I had some decent ingredients." He swallowed. "Shit, I should audition for Masterchef or something. Just have to write it on me and I'm a shoe-in." Susan wasn't sure whether she should point out that if he went on a reality show, he'd have to go alone, and stay alone for several weeks... which meant any of the marks on her or their parents would disappear before he came back. That would be one way for her life to get back to normal... although, she wasn't sure whether she even wanted that anymore. Some changes, sure, but she'd be happy to keep a few of the marks on her. The only ones she absolutely wanted gone were on his body, not hers... the ones that said "Jerk." There were two of those, one she wrote, and one he wrote himself in a more convenient place and was free to renew for as long as he had the marker. If he did audition for Masterchef, she figured they'd probably choose him... "Yeah," she finished the thought out loud. "They always chose a few jerks for the show, to create drama." He grinned, and leaned over her, tugging at one of the handcuffs with one finger. "So how are you liking bondage so far?" Was now a time for reverse psychology, or not? She wasn't sure, and so chose the middle path. "It's okay," she said. "But boring. And I'm hungry. What's under the tray? Is that one for me?" "It is," he said, his face animating in a smile. "But it's not a delicious bacon and apple grilled cheese sandwich." Okay, this was definitely a time for reverse psychology. "It's not a cum sandwich or anything like that, is it?" She make an effort to wrinkle her nose in disgust, even though right now she craved cum so much it hurt, she'd even eat it on wax green beans, her least favorite vegetable. Mostly she just didn't like Keith knowing how much she liked it now, he'd make fun of her for it and, probably, withhold it even more, just to be a jerk. "No," he said. "Although that is a good idea." Susan deliberately grimaced, so she wouldn't see her delight in the idea. "Anyway, I was just thinking, you're right..." "I am?" "Yeah... about bondage. It has its appeal, but mostly, it's boring. What's the point of having a fuck toy if I have to do all the work? It's more fun if you can move around some, don't you think?" Susan didn't think you needed to use reverse psychology when someone was asking you to agree with them, so she nodded. "Yeah." Keith reached into his pocket and retrieved the keys, unlocking each of the handcuffs, and then turned back towards where he'd left the plate. Susan's arms, which had been experiencing a dull ache from being above her head for so long, began to suffer brief stiff pains as she lowered them to her chest... never enough that she felt close to crying out, but she winced before twisting her arms in every direction to both make sure the pain wasn't too bad, and also to see if she could take it if it did. But, as there were no lingering problems, she immediately bent forward to start untying her feet. These were easy... they were only tied tightly enough that it was difficult to escape without hands, and even then, if she really kicked, she might have been able to pull it loose. She just never tried because the benefits of her legs being free to move didn't outweigh the risk of accidentally making the knot tighter, or angering Keith, or the vibrator falling completely out of her butt while she tried to work herself free. Speaking of the vibrator, after freeing her legs she immediately pushed it back inside that little bit... she hadn't even thought of it, it just seemed like it needed to be deeper in her ass than it was, and fixed the mistake. That settled, she looked over to her brother, who had the mysterious covered plate in his hand. He was obviously waiting for her to ask again, so she didn't, but that didn't stop her from eying it warily. "So if we're done with bondage, do you want to have sex with me again?" "What makes you think I'm through with bondage?" She frowned. "But, you just said..." "I said it's more fun if you can move around." "So... you want me to tie you up?" Her heart beat a little faster. If he was tied up, he couldn't stop her from taking and using the marker... but no, of course he couldn't actually want to be tied up. What made more sense was that he wanted to tie up just her arms or something, maybe so she'd have to be standing up. "Of course not. I just think we should try a different way." He lifted the pot-lid, revealing beneath it a pile of smooth black stuff that at first gave off the impression of a coiled snake... but of course, it wasn't, it was too thin for that, except for a few larger lumps, and Susan quickly realized that it was some kind of restraints, and on the top of it was what looked like.... "That's a dog collar," she said. It was made of dark leather, with little metal studs, although there was definitely more to it than that, the collar merely sat atop a pile of other stuff that she hadn't identified. "Yes, it certainly looks like one, doesn't it?" "Where did you even get that?" They didn't have a dog. Could he have taken it from the neighbors? He picked up the collar, and she could see that it was attached to a leash, which made up much of the pile... but not all of it. Beneath that, there were other things she still wasn't sure about, but they looked like they might be boots or gloves or something. Those didn't come from the neighbor's dog. "Apparently, Mom is more of a freak than I ever imagined," Keith said. "Or maybe it's Dad. But I think it's probably Mom. She reads those stupid books." The Fifty Shades books, he must mean. Susan had read some of it, but she didn't remember anything like this in them. Of course she flipped back and forth a lot while trying to find out the appeal, rather than reading straight through. There was just a lot of Christian being a controlling jerk, which she didn't like (although there were times when it seemed like him looking out for her because she didn't care about herself enough, and that tickled something inside of her), and some tying up and hitting. A leash? That seemed especially weird for people having sex to do to each other. Like who'd want to have sex with a dog? Keith, apparently... or at least, like somebody he could treat like a dog. He leaned forward and attached the collar to her neck. She remained still for this, knowing that fighting it was only going to lead to more trouble later. And what did it matter, if he used the leash while having sex with her doggy-style, he could pull her head back without grabbing her hair. She always liked how that felt, him pulling her back, and at the same time pulling her more onto him, but with her short hair sometimes he had to grab too close and pulled too hard and it hurt. When she put a finger between her neck and the collar, Keith asked, "Too tight?" She shook her head, taking some comfort in the fact that he cared. It might be uncomfortable if she had to wear it for a really long time, but probably it wouldn't be long before Keith got bored, and even if he didn't, Mom and Dad would be back that afternoon. Both their eyes lingered on the other stuff on the platter. Keith held one up and it looked like a mitten made of leather. She could now tell beneath them were some boots that had weird long straps and buckles, but whatever they were for, Keith looked at them and put them aside on the bed, saying, "I think we'll do without these, for now. As long as you're good." Before she could think about what that meant, he ruffled her hair, then stroked her side with surprising tenderness that gave her goosebumps. "Come on," he said, then stood up and pulled on the leash. Susan climbed off the bed and stood, enjoying the feeling after being on her back for so long. Keith took a step out of the room, and Susan followed. They only got a couple steps for her brother looked back. "What are you doing?" "Dogs don't walk like that. Get on your hands and knees." She did this without complaint. She'd done that before, fully clothed, once in a while, run around on her hands and knees for fun. This time, she even had a tail to wag. Or had, anyway. When she wagged it to demonstrate, the vibrator clattered to the floor. "Oops," she said, and reached back to grab it. It wasn't so bad, at least now she could turn it on. "No," Keith said, his voice firm and forceful. She looked up at him, hopeful. Did he want to fuck her already? Instead, though, he said, "You can't pick things up with your hands. You're a dog, remember?" Susan rolled her eyes with her head lowered so he couldn't see. This was just getting silly. What next, was he going to make her eat out of a bowl on the floor? "Come on, Keith, you can't make me..." She wasn't trying to stand up to him, though, she said it more to try and convince him how silly it was. "Of course I can," he interrupted. "I could get you to put on the rest of the outfit so you can't use your hands or walk on your feet, but I think it's more fun this way. Remember... I can make you do anything I want. I can write 'acts like a dog' on you and you won't have any choice. You'd follow me out to the yard and lift your leg to pee on the fencepost if I wanted it. Or I could breed you to the dog next door and make you love it. And maybe I will do that if you won't be a good doggy inside the house." Susan gulped. "But, see, the fun part of being a master is watching you do things not because you have to, but just because I ask you to. And if I'm not having fun... well, let's just say that the more bored I get, the more time I'll have to think about other things the marker could force you to do." By now she knew when she was defeated. "Okay, fine," she said. She let go of the vibrator, and hoped he'd put it back in. "No talking, either," he said. "Dogs don't talk. And they certainly don't talk back. If you need my attention, you can bark." Susan sighed automatically, belatedly wondering if dogs did that, if that would get her punished. Keith didn't call her on it, though. Instead, he tugged on her collar again. But... she almost spoke the word aloud, then remembered, and let out a little bark, like a dog asking a question, and nudged her head to the vibrator. Keith bent down, took it, then put it on his dresser. "No, I don't think you've earned this yet." Surprisingly, Susan found she didn't mind it being out after all. She loved anal stuff, but that being inside of her for so long, and on for a large part of their bondage play, she'd started to feel used to it, almost numb to it. In fact, with it out, her butt actually was tingling even more than it had before, as it got used to trying to be tight again. She still craved the feeling of something inside of her, but the feeling of it first going in, stretching her was one of the best parts. And it was like almost anything... if you don't take a break, you take it for granted. Like how eating feels good, but it's so much better if you're actually hungry. That comparison made her tummy rumble to remind her that she was still actually hungry, but if she couldn't talk, it was going to be hard to satisfy that urge, unless Keith let her off the leash... or unless he let her suck his cock. But although she craved that too, it wasn't very filling, and it didn't seem to be part of Keith's immediate plans anyway, since he had his pants on. Instead, he led her downstairs on the leash, while she shuffled forward on her hands and knees, which she might have done on her own sometimes, but it got old fast, particularly when you went down stairs. Going upstairs wasn't too bad, but down was surprisingly slow and awkward, particularly when somebody's walking in front of you and you have to keep your speed low. On the ground floor, he walked her around in a circle, just to seemingly tease her and show off his power. After the second repeat, Susan decided to make a barking noise and pull at the leash when they neared the kitchen entrance. He deliberately missed the point. "What's that, girl?" he asked. She barked again and jerked her head towards the kitchen. "You want to go for a walk outside?" He started towards the front door, which they were nowhere near, and she waited until he tugged hard on the leash to finally follow, a big frown on her face. "Okay," he said. "If you want me to walk you out outside, I guess I can." A blush formed on Susan's face, despite her knowing how unlikely it was that her brother would follow through with the threat. She could see him maybe doing that in the back yard... it was a risk, but there were fences and most of the time nobody was looking in anybody's yard. But out front? Somebody would see. And it didn't matter that Keith had a magic marker, he had to know that if he took her out naked in the front yard on a leash, he'd be arrested. Still, just the thought... everybody seeing her... thinking she was some kind of freak for going along with her brother. Maybe he wouldn't even be risking himself... what if he just took the leash off, opened the door, and told her to run around outside without him, so it looked like her idea? He'd never do that, would he? Maybe. And maybe her flushed face might give him the idea that she wanted it, like it sometimes seemed to. So Susan shook her head defiantly and barked again. "I don't know what you want," he said, like he was disappointed, but the smirk on his face proved that was a lie. Fine, she'd play that game. She sat up on her knees, and then put her hands up by her mouth, palms down, like she really was a dog and doing the "begging" trick. Dogs did that when they wanted food, right? "Oh, you want some food, do you?" Susan nodded, and barked. "Oh, okay, fine. Let's get you some food." Finally, he walked her to the kitchen, and started looking through the cupboards. Since they didn't have a pet, Susan at least didn't have to worry that she was going to have to eat dog food or something gross like that. He'd have to give her real food. Keith must have been thinking along similar lines, but more inventively, because he pulled out a bowl and a box of cereal, and poured the cereal in the bowl. It was Reese's Puffs, which, in a bowl without any milk, did actually look a lot like dog kibble. Even more when he put it on the floor like he expected her to eat it from there. Which, Susan supposed, he did. Eating the dry cereal didn't bother her... sometimes she liked eating it without milk more. But eating without her hands was going to be difficult and humiliating. Then again, she was so hungry. All she'd had for breakfast was some cum, an under-the-table blowjob her brother demanded. And although that satisfied one kind of hunger, it was only took up a tiny amount of actual space in her stomach. So she glared up at him, and then planted her mouth in the bowl, slurping as much as she could into her mouth and then chewing them into tiny bits and swallowing. On her second mouthful, just as she was starting to need a drink, her brother read her mind again, and put his usual degrading spin on it. He half-filled a bowl with water and put it beside the food bowl. She knew she'd get punished for using her hands, so she lapped up what she could with her tongue, while occasionally looking up at her brother who had a smirk on his lips. Going back and forth between the cereal and the water, it took what felt like ten minutes to finish off the bowl, and her stomach felt better, but she still wasn't full. Yet she couldn't ask him for more, not directly. Even if she made a sound, she'd probably just get more cereal, and she was getting sick of that. So when he asked "All done?" she gave a little shrug, and he tugged her leash to get her to follow him back to the living room. There, she finally got something she wanted, a reward for obedience. Her brother patted the couch, like he wanted her up on it, and when she complied, he used his free hand to pull apart one lip of her pussy while the one that held the leash fumbled for his crotch. Finally. She let out the happiest bark she could make. "Yeah, you're going to be a good doggy, aren't you?" Another happy bark greeted that, and seconds later, felt the warm head of his cock pressing into her, prying her apart, and her fuck toy instincts took over, her hole relaxing just enough to allow him easy entry while still being tight. Soon he was thrusting up into her, filling her, while she let out a little moan that sounded close to a growl. A few seconds later, she let out a bark. Maybe it was because he was treating her like a dog, her fuck toy nature forced her to act like one... or maybe it was just the only thing that seemed natural, considering he asked her to pretend. It was hard to tell sometimes... that was the scariest part of the marker's writing. How much would go back to normal if the words faded, and how much was not a permanent part of her soul. Maybe now that she'd experienced sex and how good it could be, she'd always be super horny. For all she knew she was a natural fuck toy and the marker just awakened that instinct for the first time. At least she enjoyed getting fucked, and continued letting out animal noises, usually right at the end of a firm thrust, or when he first did tug back on the leash, forcing her neck back into an uncomfortable position, and yet liking the feeling even as it made her yelp. Keith seemed like an animal too, at these times, the way he took her, pounded against her, like instinct had completely taken him over, and the only thing that set them apart was that he was the alpha, the one who was unquestionably in charge, the one whose pleasure came first. It was a relief losing herself in that secondary role, especially knowing that as a fuck toy, her pleasure would come when his did. Why not let him take charge, use her body to get what he wants as quickly as possible? After all, she'd get it at the same time, and if she expended any thought beyond reacting to his movements, she might just get in the way and delay things. When she gave her will over to his, it was like they were one. Before long, they were one in orgasm too, as she felt that squirt inside her that triggered an explosion of pleasure, her eyes rolling back in her head and not even caring that she felt like she couldn't breathe because he'd reflexively pulled back on the leash so hard it was choking her airway. He let go just as she was starting to feel like she might pass out, but in some ways that was what it was always like, towards the end, as the pleasure receded. He let the leash drop and they both breathed out firmly as he pressed his crotch into her to make sure every last drop landed inside. "Good doggy," he said finally, as he let himself slide out of her, pulling a river of slime with him. He let go of the leash and backed away, pulling his cock back into his underwear. "You stay and clean up, I need to go to the bathroom." Susan started to do what was instinctual by then, satisfying her cum addiction with what was already inside of her. But when she reached towards the goo dripping down her legs, her brother's voice stopped her cold. "No," he said. She looked up to see a grin on him. "No hands, remember?" "Bu..." she started to ask, but he shot her one more warning glance and she corrected herself. "Buh-ark," she said. How was she supposed to clean herself up without scooping up the cum and licking it off her fingers? Like dogs clean themselves, she decided instantly, as Keith continued on to the bathroom. It was easier said than done. She was flexible, but it was hard to bend in half and get close enough to lick. To smell, that was easy, that pungent (yet somehow now pleasantly intoxicating) aroma was tantalizingly in reach, but her tongue wouldn't reach. It wasn't just a matter of bending over... she could touch her toes without problem, but that would put her head nearer to her knees, still too far from her pussy. By trying to curve her spine and neck in an awkward position, she could get close, not quite make contact. It always came down to two parts of her body needing to pull in different directions. She let out an exasperated sigh, blowing up a lock of her hair in the first puff, and as she watched it drift down she had another idea. Instead of bending to reach it, she lay on her back and pulled her legs in the air, dangling over her, like she was in the middle of a somersault and stopped. She still couldn't reach it... but now gravity was working in her favor. Only... not fast enough. Though she opened her mouth and extended her tongue, it was mostly sliding along her body, rather than dripping down. She did manage to squeeze her pussy in such a way that a white drop from inside dangled temptingly, it was like waiting for stuck ketchup in a bottle. "Well, you're trying," her brother said, having returned from the bathroom. "I'll give you that." She hadn't been paying attention to the sounds, so it surprised her, and turning her face enough to see him caused a long strand of liquid to land on her cheek. Luckily, that was within range of her tongue. "Maybe I should write 'flexible' on you so you can do it exactly like dogs do." She couldn't answer him, not without breaking his rules, so she gave him a shrug and a smile. That really wasn't something dogs did either (they always looked like they were smiling), but he never complained about that. Still, being more flexible was one of the better things he could write on her. It would be like a super power. She didn't want to either overly encourage him or discourage him. "Maybe later," he said. "Could be fun to try out a few new positions, but right now it's still too fun watching you struggle." Susan rolled her eyes, but went back to trying to lick herself, until a growing pressure, one she'd been feeling for a while but suddenly kicked up intensity, made her turn over and crawl on her hands and knees. She needed to go pee. When she made it to the bathroom, she frowned and realized that Keith had closed the door on the way out. She looked back at him, but he was watching her with a curious interest, and he'd be pissed if she used her hands to open the door. So instead, she summoned up a whine from the back of her throat, like a dog who wanted something urgently. It wasn't quite that bad yet, but probably it would be in a few minutes. Keith stood up and slowly moved towards her, a smirk on his face. "Shouldn't you be scratching at the door to the backyard?" he asked. "That's what dogs do." She stared at him with a pleading look. The backyard? That would be so embarrassing, and maybe messy too if she had to do it like a dog, which she'd never tried before. But especially embarrassing, and worse, dangerous if anybody actually did see. How could he ask her to do that? It turned out, he couldn't... or, at least, he wouldn't, yet. "But okay, you've been a good doggy so far, I guess I'll let you be a human in the bathroom." He opened the door and stepped out of her way, and Susan took him literally. When she crossed into the bathroom, she stood up and closed the door, then sat down on the toilet. She did have to pee, but why waste the chance to use her fingers and get more of that delicious cum her addiction told her that she still needed. After she finished relieving herself, she washed, opened the door, and got on her hands and knees again to walk out. Keith smiled at her over the arm of the couch, then patted his side, out of her view, but loud enough that she could hear it. "Come on, girl." She rushed, as best as she could not actually having four legs, and hopped up on the couch beside him. He continued to pat his side, and tentatively, she leaned against him, then lay against him, as he put his arm around her and stroked her gently. "Good girl," he said. "Let's watch some TV." Except for the sex, being a dog was largely a pain, but this... she liked this, snuggled up against her big brother, watching TV. She felt... loved. Maybe it was the way his fingers played along her skin, like even when he was distracted he wasn't willing to let her go... or maybe it was that he turned on Nickelodeon, and they watched shows she liked but he, supposedly, didn't. Why do that, except because, even as a jerk, he still wanted to make her happy, like she'd made him happy? And that didn't just feel good, it felt warm and safe. For that feeling, and of course, for the sex, it would be worth being a dog. She could keep her mouth shut for that. When she returned to her room, she decided she would write about this moment in the story she was writing about her experience, to never forget that he loved her. Or she might, if she got the chance. If Keith made her give herself over to being a pet as well a fuck toy, that might become impossible. Dogs don't write, after all. The thought scared her, but so did the knowledge that, this, too, she could probably accept, if it meant the rest came along with it. It was like she was being simplified, reduced, from a person with dreams, hobbies, and conflicting opinions on things, into something that only existed for pleasure, hers, yes, but most importantly, somebody else's. There was something alluring in that, too. She had already enjoyed her transformation into fuck toy... maybe all those extra things, they were just clutter, getting in the way of her true role in life. Maybe she was wrong to want them. It didn't stop her from actually doing so, though... she wanted her freedom and to be able to speak, and not give up the orgasms Keith had been giving her either... but she could do without freedom for a while, anyway. She could lay with her brother and be his faithful dog. After about an hour of TV, Susan felt Keith shift beneath her, followed by him standing up so abruptly that she fell to the couch. "Okay, that's enough television." He tugged on her collar, and led her to the kitchen, still walking on her hands and knees. "Still hungry?" She nodded, a little warily. "Well, you've been a good dog, so I think I can give you a treat." He dropped the leash. "Stay." She did, and sat on her hind legs, watching as he prepared what looked like another sandwich. She waited eagerly. If she had a tail, she knew she'd be wagging it right now. It didn't take long... he didn't make her exactly what he made for herself, but a far simpler version that at least wasn't something you'd feed a dog... a grilled cheese sandwich. But she liked those well enough, even if only Dad had ever cooked them for her before. When he was done, he put it in a shallow bowl and said, "Sorry, I finished all the bacon myself." Susan brightened that he actually apologized... it was uncharacteristically nice, but maybe it was jerky enough to hog all the bacon in the first place that apologizing over it still satisfied the marker. Or maybe he remained a jerk by how he gave it to her. "You want?" he asked, keeping it just out of her reach. She opened her mouth to speak, but caught herself, and barked. "What's that?" She barked again. Then she realized, and so she sat on her hind legs and pulled her arms up and her fists balled up under her chin, making whimpering sounds, begging like a dog. "Okay, here you go," and put the sandwich on the ground. That was when she realized how much of a jerk he still was. How was she supposed to eat a sandwich without using her hands, particularly a gooey one that stuck together. She looked down at it, then up at Keith, but her eye caught on the fridge behind him. There was a magnet on it that said "Don't Just Complain About Problems, Find Solutions! Think outside the box." Mom had brought it home from work one day a couple months ago as some kind of motivational saying... it seemed like good advice, especially now. She couldn't trust her brother to help, so she had to try and find a solution. After a moment's thought she scooted over to the bowl on her belly and bit into one corner, trying to take a small piece and lift it over the edge. Once it hung over, she figured she could take small bites. Her plan didn't work... her first few tries when she tugged on the sandwich with her teeth it would just tear off edges of bread, and when she finally got a good grip and pulled, she pulled too hard... the whole sandwich moved and the bowl clattered as it overbalanced one end. Her brother's hands ruffled her hair. "Okay, you know what, I don't want you making a mess on the floor, and I've got other things to do, so until I say otherwise, you can walk and use your hands again." Having Keith solve her problem wasn't exactly thinking outside the box, but considering he was the one who caused the problem in the first place, she wasn't going to beat herself up over it. Before she could grab the sandwich, Keith bent down at his knees, grabbed the leash, and followed it with his hands to her collar, gave it a tug. "But you keep this on, you understand? So you understand who you belong to." Susan nodded, savoring the idea, that she belonged to him. Her brother wouldn't make such a claim on something he didn't want, right? "And no clothes, and no talking. Otherwise, you can do what you want." He dropped the leash, stood, and left the room, just like that. Susan remained sitting on the floor for a few seconds, then picked up the sandwich with her hands. She waited at first, looking back to see if her brother would come and change his mind, but when she heard him going up the stairs, she leaned in and took a bite. It was probably one of the best examples of grilled cheese she'd had, the light crunch of the bread when her mouth closed over it somehow still managing to ooze butter, and then reaching the savory, gooey cheese inside. The only thing that might have made it better was bacon, and maybe apples, though she still wasn't sure about that. And maybe some ketchup. She liked ketchup for her grilled cheese. But then, she could just get it, couldn't she? She realized that despite the fact that she'd been given the freedom to do what she wanted, she still felt constrained. She was, after all, still sitting on the cold floor, like a dog, butt naked with a collar on her. The last two, she might not have been able to do anything about, not without violating her brother's orders and risking his wrath and, perhaps, another unwelcome enforced change from the magic marker, but she could still sit like a person and eat off a plate rather than a bowl, with ketchup and keep a little bit of dignity. Dignity, it had seemed, was no longer something she cared much about. When you've lost so much of it, it just seems crazy to spend so much energy holding on to the rest. Maybe it'd even be better to go all the way and give it up rather than have it taken away... if she got up and sat at the table and act like a person, maybe that would just make it harder the next time her brother decided to take that right away from her. She compromised and sat cross-legged on the floor, which was more comfortable and certainly not something she'd ever seen a dog do, and with the bowl in her lap. Now if she could just get something in her ass... Keith didn't come back for Susan, so she had to go fetch him. She'd gradually allowed herself more human pursuits after her sandwich, from washing her hands after her meal like a person, to sitting on the couch and watching her favorite shows while idling working fingers into her ass, to finally walking upstairs and enjoying some time on the computer in her room, writing up the newest part of her life story, listening to music, watching funny videos, and other things she could do with her hands free and her rectum flexing regularly around a pen. That included touching base with her friends through messaging, although she kept it brief and vague. Her friend Dana saw her online and wanted to talk on a video chat but Susan was afraid to violate her brother's spoken rules... no talking, and no clothes. Who knew how he might punish her? She didn't need the leash she was wearing, she realized, the threat of the marker--or even just the threat of being unable to satisfy the words on her skin--kept her on a short leash. With her friends, she stuck to text (that didn't count as talking, she decided) and turned Dana down quickly then hid her online status so no one else could contact her. Talking to them just reminded her that she couldn't afford to make plans with friends, her needs would yank her back to her brother at any moment. Was it her super-horniness or her cum addiction that got to her first? She couldn't say, it all crept up on her subtly but when she found herself surfing for porn just to pick up some techniques, she realized that she had better submit herself to her brother then or she might never get any peace... their parents would be home before too long and it might be her last chance. His door was closed. Susan hesitated outside of it. He'd said that she could use her hands, so knocking was an option... but he seemed to like things better if she played along. Maybe she should try to get his attention like a dog, scratch at the door, whine wordlessly to be let in. It could backfire though, make him keep up the dog act, which was already wearing a bit thin for her and, she hoped, him too. What she wanted to do was just open the door, bend over in front of him and spread the lips of her pussy and beg him to fuck her, or maybe, if he was busy, to just nurse on his cock until he filled her mouth with his delicious semen. But that was too bold, and besides, entering his room without knocking always pissed him off. Finally, she couldn't wait any longer and decided to take him at his word... he said she didn't have to act like a dog except for the collar, so she knocked. He could always change his mind after. Keith didn't invite her to come in, so she waited, and gave some thought to trying to pose herself in an alluring way. Without talking, how could she try to subliminally suggest to her brother that he should fuck her right away, other than being naked and wearing a collar like she already was, and yet not as desperate as just bending over in front of him like she expected him to serve her? She settled for backing against the wall and sliding down to her butt, bending her legs and sliding her fingers through her warm, wet pussy. Maybe it'd make him think he'd left her for so long that she tried to take care of it herself. It certainly wasn't the first time she'd touched herself down there. She'd had to, in order to clean herself, or to gather cum to eat later, and sometimes while she was doing something sexual with her brother it seemed like the natural thing to do, to enhance the sensations. However, this was the first time she'd rubbed her own pussy in such a determined way, when she was all alone, just to please herself. Her ass, she'd played with that a lot on her own, shoving fingers or other solid objects in to satisfy the magic words her brother had written on her buttcheek, but it wasn't quite the same thing. That was just fun, the words said she loved anal stuff, and it was only natural to do stuff you loved. This was actually masturbating like they did on the porn videos she'd just started to watch now that her life had taken such a turn for the sexual. The concept of masturbation wasn't new to her, but now she felt like she truly understood it for the first time. It wasn't just a relief to urges she didn't understand before she had them, it didn't just enhance pleasure. Even as it relieved the desire to be touched it somehow also made her need greater and harder to resist. The more she did, the more she wanted... what started as a slight rubbing, soon that wasn't enough and she stuck two fingers right in the hole, as far as she could, wiggling them while the palm of her hand rubbed the area outside. It certainly didn't feel as good as her brother fucking her, but it was something, and heightening her super-horniness, getting close to the point of orgasm on her own. Maybe if she triggered it herself, she wouldn't need Keith anymore, except for the occasional dose of cum to feed her addiction. The thought was a pipe dream, she knew she couldn't seriously deny her brother, she was already a fuck toy and even if she could somehow turn herself into an uncooperative fuck toy... if he wanted her he could force it on her, or force her to accept a new magic marker curse. Still, as she used her fingers like a cock and fucked herself, a part of her played with the idea, unsure whether this independence was something she should crave or be afraid of. As she brought herself closer to the edge, she scooted forward, and her outstretched leg began to kick at her brother's door, partly just to move--she wanted to move, to toss her body around violently if nobody else would do it--but partly to get his attention again, too, to warn him. Better come quick, she thought. Or I won't need your cock anymore. I'll have an excuse to not come here. And I don't want that excuse. It was a revelation, even if she didn't know yet whether she'd use the excuse. While she was becoming more and more familiar with her body, her soul was becoming more and more a stranger. She sometimes didn't know what she would do until she did it. What she did know, what her body was telling her, was that she was coming very close to the orgasm point, her breath was coming in shorter and shorter bursts, and her thighs seemed to want to clench down on something. The door opened, her brother stood over her, grinning down at her, but there was a little meanness in the grin. "What are you doing?" She opened her mouth, and as one part of her mind warned her of the trap, her lips and tongue were already in motion. "I... I'm.... uhhh.. cumming..." The last word was distorted, maybe not even finished as her body went into full twitch mode, the wave of pleasure overwhelming her, a fuck toy who'd managed to push her own buttons. Keith watched her the whole time... or at least he was watching her when she couldn't help but close her eyes, and he was watching her when she finally opened them, breathing deeply to get air back into her body. Finally, he said, "You done?" Susan shrugged and blew some of her hair out of her eyes with one of her big exhalations. She'd talked, but he must have missed it. She wasn't going to make the mistake again. He held out a hand, and she reached for it, not with her own right, which was still resting along her still twitching pussy but with her left, and finally got to her feet, more with her brother pulling her than through her own efforts. The leash attached to the collar made a slap as it hit against the wall. "You know, traditionally, when dogs want to pleasure themselves, they just lick themselves." I'm not a dog. Way to give mixed messages, expect me to act like your dog, while you help me to my feet. Her right hand fell to her outer thigh, wiping the wetness against her more dry skin there. She shrugged then, hoping he'd get the hint and tell her she could talk. Instead, he took the leash in his hands and walked her into his room. She could see the work on his desk, the hentai manga he was working on now that the magic marker had turned him into a great artist. The page currently in progress did indeed show a girl who looked much like an anime-girl-version of herself in a collar bent over in the kitchen. Now that he'd almost caught up, did that mean he needed more inspiration? "Did you enjoy that?" he asked, though she didn't know if he meant the recent orgasm or the recent dog-play, or perhaps even the time she'd had to herself. He did look at her like she was expecting an answer. She pointed to her mouth. "Oh, now you remember you can't talk?" The smile returned, the mean smile, the jerk smile. "Don't think that gets you off, I know you disobeyed me." She swallowed heavily. So hard to tell his mood when he was like this, whether it was a serious infraction or he was just trying to scare her. "Fine, you can speak, for now." "I... you asked me a question, so I thought you wanted me to answer. I didn't mean to disobey, I'm sorry, I just got confused." "I see. Well, I guess I should be forgiving, I mean... you were a little distracted, weren't you?" She nodded, able to breathe more easily. "You took care of yourself, then?" She shrugged. "So I guess you don't need me." "I don't know. I'm still addicted to cum, thanks to you." She looked down at her chest. "And I'm still your fuck toy. So if you wanted..." She trailed off. "Get on the bed," he said, and she let a smile form as she hopped into his sweaty-smelling but surprisingly comfortable mattress. The smile faded as she saw him reach into his pocket and pull out the familiar purple magic marker. "What are you doing...?" "I haven't decided yet. I've gotta punish you somehow, though." "For what?" she cried, indignantly. "I told you no talking, and you talked." "You said you were going to be forgiving." "I said I SHOULD be forgiving. But I won't. Guess I'm just a jerk." His eyes lit up. "Now, what new mark should I give you? Don't worry, it won't be anything TOO bad... unless you fight it, of course." Susan had no intention of fighting it. She'd already made that mistake too many times. So she just lay back and watched as her brother loomed over her, inspecting her naked body as though trying to choose just the right spot to write on. She was concerned about that, hoped for somewhere that wasn't visible, but she was more concerned about what he wrote, which would define her until it washed off. If he'd just gone and done it, it wouldn't have been so bad, but he drew the process out, talked about it to himself. "Let's see, what should I do? You got in trouble for talking, so maybe I should just make you mute. It certainly would save me a lot of trouble. Then again, what really got you in trouble was that brain of yours." He tapped her forehead with the writing end of the pen... luckily, the cap was still on. "Maybe I should just make you too stupid to do anything but follow orders. Maybe 'brainless'? Or 'spineless'?" "You can't!" she said, despite knowing it was a mistake, the way his eyes grew dark even as his smile looked casually amused. "Can't?" She licked her lips nervously, then spoke. "I just mean... if you were going to write that... you have to be very careful, you know. If you wrote 'brainless' or 'spineless'... I mean, I might die. It's magic, it might make my brain go poof. If you're going to do it... I mean, at least write 'stupid', or... 'metaphorically brainless' or something like that." "Hmm." "I mean, unless you want me to die or something." If he did, maybe it'd be best to go out quickly... she loved her brother, even after all of this, and she thought he loved her, but if he really wanted her to die, would it be worth living? Maybe if she was just dead she could talk to God and ask what the hell he was thinking making a marker like that. Instead though, he relaxed, smiled more naturally, tapped the marker against her forehead and then used his other hand to mess up her hair in that brotherly way she bother hated and loved. "Relax, dummy, I wasn't really going to write it like that. But maybe you're better off with your brain after all." That filled Susan with a proud warmth in her chest, and a feeling that maybe this would be okay after all. She even risked a smile. "Don't get too comfortable, I'm still going to write something on you." He looked away for a few seconds, then said, "Actually, you know what? Since you only spoke because you were cumming..." She brightened again... forgiveness after all? "...I think that's what we should do. I don't like the idea of you cumming on your own. You're only twelve, too young to be getting yourself off, and besides, you're my fuck toy. Really you should only cum when I say, right?" She remained still, not wanting to risk jinxing this... it wasn't a total pass, but it was better than she could have expected. He slid back along the bed so he could grab hold of her right ankle with his left hand, and lifted her leg up. He then put the marker to his mouth, held the cap in place with his lips, then withdrew the rest of the marker. Susan didn't struggle, even though it tickled as he wrote. The very first thing he wrote on her with the marker, before they knew it was magic, was 'Stinky Feet' and that was embarrassing enough, probably more embarrassing than anything else he'd written since, since everybody nearby knew. This time, she had a feeling it wasn't going to be as bad, unless he worded it poorly. It felt long, whatever the words were, long enough that she started to feel a twinge of pain from being held in the awkward position for so long... but that was nothing new to her, she'd been held in more awkward positions for longer, since her brother developed his interest in bondage. Finally, he let go, and while he recapped the marker and put it away, Susan scrambled into a partly seated position once more and lifted her foot to read what it said, exactly. "Can't Cum Without Permission," she read aloud. "Yeah, well, you're my fuck toy," Keith said again. Was she? The words on her chest only said 'fuck toy,' they didn't say whose she was. This was the same way. It didn't say whose permission she needed. Maybe it even meant nothing... could she give permission to herself? That didn't seem like it worked for anything else, but still, she'd have to try it while alone sometime... not with Keith, or he might amend it. It still made a decent punishment... it meant she would have to beg for her fuck toy orgasms, the one she'd previously achieved every time Keith came, which would probably do wonders for her brother's ego, but the conditions were better than she ever hoped, and her mind cycled through the possibilities, different shades of meaning of the words. "Something wrong?" Susan shook her head quickly. "No, but I was just thinking. Mom and Dad are going to be home soon. So it might be your last chance to fuck me before I have to get dressed and take off the collar." "I wouldn't be so sure about that," he said, but he did reach for the button on his pants and then unzipped. "Edge of the bed." Susan scooted over, turned on her back and raised her knees to her chest, spread slightly, so that he could have access to either her ass or her pussy. Both certainly had their advantages in her book. But he didn't penetrate her, instead he got on his knees, put his thumb to her first, sliding along with the rest of his hand along her slit but then dipping into the hole. At least she was still wet (even though her recent self-induced orgasm had beaten back her 'super-horny'ness for a little while), and already used to much bigger things, she just let out a gasp of surprise. "I've been thinking of what comes next," he said. "Next?" "I mean, you being my fuck toy is fun and all, but... you're so high-maintenance, you know?" "That's kind of your fault. What you wrote. You could always change it." "Hmmm," he said, like he was considering it, as he worked his thumb in and out. "You know you made me write those things. I'm not taking them back. Maybe, maybe I'll let them expire on their own, when the ink wears off." Her heart jumped, and not just from the stimulation. "If I get bored of you by then." Now she felt sick, like a sudden spike of fear combined with nausea, as she knew she wasn't sure she wanted him to get bored with her, even if it also meant her freedom. And, of course, if he was starting to think about that now, that meant he was already getting bored... it could leave her super-horny and addicted to cum for the last few days before the mark finally wore off. That would be a rough few days. "What do you want me to do?" she asked, her voice unsteady. "So you won't get bored?" "You? I'm not sure there's anything you can do. I mean, other than do whatever I say, whenever I say, but you're already willing to do that, aren't you?" She nodded. "I'm mostly just thinking out loud. But, you know what?" She waited until he continued on his own... it wasn't like what she said mattered much to him these days. "I think I'll skip fucking you right now. Save it for a little later, stretch out the fun, you know?" "Okay, but..." she hesitated a second, then continued, "I need... you know, I need a..." What was the word Keith used before? The thing the junkies call it in the cop shows. "...A fix. Of cum. For my addiction." It was probably part of the reason she was feeling nauseous, that need, something wrong in her body that needed to be put right. It was easy enough to ignore when she thought her brother was going to fill her with cum that she could then fish out and slurp off her fingers, but now that he was telling her to wait, it was taking over her mind, like a mold growing over her conscious thoughts, threatening to become all she was aware of. He withdrew his thumb, then leaned over her body and thrust it towards her lips. She opened them automatically, knowing he'd want that, accepting the thumb into her mouth and sucking on it like it was his penis, which she'd vastly prefer. "Here, have some girlcum then." Girlcum? Was that a thing? Even at twelve she knew enough about biology that cum was mostly sperm, and that girls didn't make sperm, but both boys and girls were described as "cumming" when they had an orgasm. Maybe whatever came out when you were cumming was cum. She began to suckle greedily, licking along his thumb trying to get every drop. Yes, maybe it was all in her head, but it did seem to be helping... it wasn't quite the same thing, she finally decided, there was no instant rush of pleasure and relief as when she drank her brother's cum, but it was close enough to push back the nausea, the all-consuming need, maybe like the stuff they give to drug addicts so they don't go through withdrawal, but don't get high either. If was comforting to know she could fight back her addiction with her own cum... ... if only she had figured it out before her brother took away her ability to cum without permission. Chapter Four: Keith left her alone after that first taste, not by leaving, but let her gather her own girlcum and drink as much as she could, while he sat at his desk, turned towards the computer and began to watch anime videos on it. He didn't kick her out of his bed though, so Susan, once she felt she'd gotten all she could, lay there, relaxing, watching his screen over his shoulder, and trying not to disturb him. At times she thought he'd forgotten about her entirely, but in a good way... like he was so comfortable that he'd let his guard down and let her see what he was like when he was alone. Was a jerk still a jerk when he was just doing his own thing? Or was it a peek at the truer soul underneath? Judging by what he was watching, her brother's truer soul liked dirty things an awful lot. The anime was of the hentai variety, though she wasn't sure if the word applied to cartoons or just comics. She couldn't tell exactly what was going on in the cartoon either... the subtitles were too small to read at that distance, and she certainly didn't understand Japanese, but there was a tiny girl with a much larger man and some kind of sex machine involved. Maybe he was looking for ideas of things to do with her, to not get bored. That thought that he planted in her head was already beginning to gnaw at her soul... she might not be enough for him. Even if the marks stopped working, she didn't want her brother to be bored with her, she wanted him to want her, to keep wanting sex whenever their parents weren't home. Which was going to be a factor once more, soon. Her eyes darted back and forth to the clock every minute or so, and when she thought she couldn't safely wait any longer, she cleared her throat to get his attention from the girl on the screen who was screaming like an animal in pain or going through orgasm, she really wasn't sure. "I better go get dressed, they're going to be home soon." She rolled her lower body off his bed and then pushed off. While she regained the balance of her feet, she noticed Keith had paused the video and rotated his chair around. "I'll come with you," he said. "To make sure you wear something I like." He let her walk in front, which made her wonder whether she was supposed to get down on all fours and try to walk like a dog, but she didn't and he didn't say anything, so she just walked, trying to put a little bit of a sexy sway that her friend Dana had once tried to teach her, in case he was watching her butt. Maybe he could be tempted into giving her one last dose of the good cum after all. Inside her room, Keith took up a spot holding up the wall holding her light switch, seemingly untempted. Trying not to look disappointed, Susan went to her dresser. He just watched, so she assumed she was free to choose something, at least as long as it was something he would like. She made her first mistake when she went for her underwear drawer. She pulled out one of her normal pairs, pink with black trim, but before she could step into it, he said, "No..." It was the tone of voice you give a dog, not one who was doing something immediately bad like peeing on the carpet, but that you were trying to train to do the right thing and they weren't quite getting it. She dropped that pair and picked another one, then looked again to her brother. This time he merely shook his head, and Susan got the picture, or thought she did. No underwear. That could be fun, sometimes, but in front of her parents? It wouldn't be so bad, she thought, if she was wearing shorts or something, but a quick test revealed that wasn't going to be an option either. As soon as she got some shorts, her brother said, "No, wear a skirt." After a few more choices getting rejected, for being too long, she finally broke. "Well, if you're so concerned, why don't you come and choose something?" Keith smirked, pushed himself off the wall. "Fine. But don't say I didn't give you a chance." He joined her at her closet, picked through what she had there, got an evil grin and made two selections, then handed them to her. They were clothes she hadn't worn in a while, since before her last growth spurt at least. They were almost certainly due to be donated to charity when back-to-school shopping began. The skirt was pleated, pastel pink in alternating horizontal stripes, one slightly darker than the other. The shirt was a lime green shirt with a glittery blue outline of unicorn and the words, "Love This Life!" The skirt once came down to mid-thigh, and the shirt comfortably to her waist, but that was before a growth spurt. "That's too small," she said. "I think it'd look cute. Try it on." Susan sighed, but knew better than to argue... she only hoped that he'd see how stupid she looked after a demonstration. Her hands went to the collar on her neck, with the attached leash, so she could remove it, only to find another unpleasant surprise. "Who said you can take that off?" "They're going to be home soon..." "And they're going to see you wearing that," Keith said calmly, and her heart sank. She had an idea of what he was planning... maybe not the specifics, but in general terms, he was going to push the line of whatever spell the magic marker had cast on their parents So far, ever since the marker gave them complete faith in him, they had never questioned him even when things had gotten really suspicious. But that didn't mean he could get away with anything, did it? Faith only went so far, Susan assumed. She didn't think that if, for example, Keith told them Susan wasn't wearing a collar and leash, they'd believe their own eyes over him. So, she tried to protest, make him see sense, "This collar is Mom's." Or Dad's, maybe, but it made more sense that Mom wore it. Either way, it rose a lot of questions, but it would raise even more if they suddenly saw Susan wearing it. It would have to mean that one of them went digging around their drawers, in the hidden box Keith described which contained things like the vibrators and cuffs, and where they were most certainly not allowed. But again, she knew better than to argue. He had the marker, and when he got annoyed at her, he was willing to use it. So she just gave him her best grumpy glare, and attempted to pull her already-too-small shirt on over the collar. It wasn't really that difficult... it was short but loose, and it had a wide neck hole, the kind where if she leaned over in front of someone she had to worry that they could see her training bra, if she was wearing one. That was the chief reason she hadn't worn it in so long, rather than the size. Maybe, she thought, her heart bubbling with excitement, it was one of the reasons her brother chose it, that he used to take sneak peeks at her, even back before he was a jerk. Now, it was a little less loose on her, and left her belly button exposed, and, looking down, she could tell that it was low enough that, while it may have covered her nipples when she wasn't bent over, anyone could clearly read "Fuck toy" on her chest. Together, it looked like the life she professed to love was that of a fuck toy. Or at least, that might have been the intent. The truth was, if she kept the neck hole properly centered and kept her back straight, it really only looked like it said "uck to." And to their parents, they wouldn't see anything at all... thanks to another creative inscription by her brother, they didn't notice any of the marker's writing on themselves or anyone else. She took the skirt from his hands next, stepped into it and pulled it up. The waist was still stretchy enough that it wasn't uncomfortable, but it was definitely going to be too short, especially without underwear. It came down just to the blow where her butt began, and that meant bending over too far you'd probably see everything, unless she bent at the knee. Even worse, the colors didn't really go together, in her mind... bright lime green and pastel pink? "Can't I wear something more normal?" It wasn't arguing, she told herself, but maybe he'd respond to a request. "Normal's boring. Besides, you're already wearing a leash, normal's pretty much gone out the window." "Fine," she said. "But if I get in trouble, I'm going to tell them it was your idea." She wasn't serious... what good would it do after all? Keith made the point explicit. "Yeah, but then I'll just say it was yours, and who are they going to believe? They don't have total faith in YOU." No good response, so she just made a face, in one last hopeless effort to subtly plead to her brother to change his mind. He was a jerk, after all, and he seemed to love making her uncomfortable... and sometimes that was fun, when it was just the two of them. She didn't expect she'd get any pleasure out of it when it was in front of her parents, though. Hiding in her room wasn't going to work either. Best case scenario she'd be called down for dinner and have to answer embarrassing questions then, but even that was denied, for when she tried to stay put as her brother left she realized, with a sudden lurch, that he'd grabbed the dangling leash. "No, let's go downstairs." When she didn't move right away, he added, "Come on, if you're good, I'll let you suck on my cock until they come home." She hesitated a moment longer, just to try and make sure he didn't think that was a tempting offer, then started down the stairs. Of course it was a tempting offer, probably was going to be as long as she was a cock sucker and addicted to cum, but she didn't want him to know that, and she was dreading the things Keith might make her do in front of their parents. Half-dreading, anyway. At the very least, one-quarter dreading. She did not wind up sucking her brother's cock, because he didn't unzip and whip it out. If he did, Susan knew that unless he started taking charge and doing something else with her, she'd revert to her cocksucker label and start doing that. But instead he just sat beside her watching daytime TV, and looking anxiously at Susan as the time that their parents usually returned approached. It seemed that, for all his jerky bravado, he did seem to have some last minute doubts about getting caught openly doing dirty things. How far did faith in one's son go, even if it was 'complete faith'? When the front door finally opened, their parents trudged in, first Mom, then Dad, and this time not talking. It was a Friday, and although that meant they were finally free of work for a couple days, it also seemed to be when they were at their most irritable. Mom especially. Susan guessed that it was a matter of outlook... it was the same with school, you could either look at it like "Yay, it's finally the weekend," or look at it like "Ugh, I've just had to go through a whole week." Dad was more outwardly happy, but he could get angry if you got in the way of his attempts to unwind. So they were distracted and a little tense, and maybe as a result, it took them about a full minute before they noticed Susan was wearing a collar and leash. "What the..." her mom said first, freezing in the middle of the living room to stare at Susan as the young girl felt a blush flood over her whole face, maybe her whole body. Mom seemed perplexed for a moment, but her mouth worked soundlessly. Her face seemed to be getting red too. "What are you wearing?" Susan responded with a shrug, so her mom asked again. "Where did you get that?" "Get what?" Her dad walked into the room, looked her over, then quickly locked his eyes onto her neck. "Oh." Awkward silence dominated for the next few seconds, although her mother looked like she was waiting for an answer. But Susan didn't know what to say. She certainly couldn't tell them the truth. Finally, Keith broke the silence. "What? It's not that weird." Their parents both looked at him, like there was a struggle going on in their minds between what they knew to be true and what Keith was telling them. "It's not that it's weird, son," Dad said. "It's that she shouldn't be wearing it." "Sure she should." He said it full of self-assurance, and Susan knew he was testing the power of the marker, the faith they had in him. Would it mean they would never contradict him? "I mean, if she wants to, why not let her?" Evidently not, or at least not completely, because Mom said, "It's not appropriate. Do you know where she found this?" Maybe they believed he was right but were too afraid of what the other one might say. "Yeah, she found it in your room," he said, and he couldn't help to put a little smirk in it. "She said she was bored and went snooping. I don't think she knew what any of the other stuff was for..." He winked, then. "But she thought it might be fun to play doggy for the day and I didn't see the harm." Mom exhaled sharply, then directed her attention right at Susan. "I'm disappointed in you, Susan. You had no right to go snooping around in our room. I expected more from you." "I'm sorry," she said in a small voice, somehow feeling extra ashamed despite, or maybe because, she wasn't really responsible. "You're grounded for the next two weeks." Susan's face turned into a grimace, but she didn't argue. Sometimes the same strategies she used on Keith applied to Mom and Dad. Not the sexual ones, obviously, but arguing with a punishment always made things worse. To her surprise, Keith argued for her. "Whoa, isn't that a little unfair?" "I know it looks that way but she has to learn that people's private possessions are..." "No, no, I mean... isn't it unfair to me?" She stared at him, and he continued. "I mean, if you ground her, that means I have to stay home to watch her. And it's not like I did anything wrong." "He has a point," Dad said. "Well, she needs to be punished! This is not okay." Dad put up his hands defensively. "I never said it is!" "Oh, she should definitely be punished," Keith said, making Susan glare at him. The jerk. Sure, he might use her sexually in any way he wants, alter who she was, but... they should at least have each other's backs against their parents. She'd never try to get him in more trouble... at least, it had been a couple years since she had. Maybe this was payback for a tattling habit she'd long grown out of. You'd think making her a fuck toy would be payback enough for everything, though. He went on, "It's just don't do something that makes me have to watch her all the time. You know what you should do, ground her for the whole weekend, while you'll be home. And make her wear the leash for the whole weekend, too." "It would serve you right," Mom said. "Believe me, you might find it fun now, but you'll get sick of it. But still, I don't think..." Keith broke in again. "Or, you know, maybe she deserves a spanking." Chapter Five: Their mom looked at Keith, surprised, maybe a little conflicted at his suggestion. They'd both been spanked occasionally, but not for a long while... the family rule was that it was inappropriate except when you broke the rules in a way that was actually dangerous to someone, that only then was the pain justifiable, if it helped you remember never to do that again. This obviously didn't count... and yet, it seemed like because Keith had said it, maybe she had to reconsider. Finally she said, "No, I only want to make sure she learns, not hurt her." "Oh... well, then maybe you should let me do it." Another stare, and he went on, "I'm not mad at her, so it's not like I'm going to be too hard on her. I'll be practically gentle... it'll just be really embarrassing. And really, doesn't she deserve a little embarrassment? For what she's done?" "She does," Mom agreed, and she looked to Dad, as though seeking his permission. Dad, however, seemed to be staring at Susan, like he'd just noticed the shortness of her skirt or skimpiness of her top as well as the collar. Mom's eyes swung back to Susan herself. "I won't let your brother spank you," she said finally, but before Susan could decide whether to be relieved or disappointed at the news, she added, "Unless you agree. You did violate my trust by looking through our private things, and you need to understand how... how violated I feel right now. So I'm going to leave it in your hands. You can either let your brother gently spank your bottom, and we'll let this go with only a weekend grounding... or..." She paused, like she hadn't fully thought through the 'or' part of the plan. "Or we take away your computer and your phone privileges for the rest of the summer." Well, that was hardly any choice at all. Either lose her ability to ever talk to her friends, and to write stories, until school started back up again, or let Keith do something he'd already done a few times since becoming a jerk, something that she was starting to find pleasurable despite herself and despite the fact that he was doing it much harder than he would be here. The only difference was that he'd be doing it in front of their parents... which was weird, sure, but the weird was coming no matter what. "I'll take the spanking please." It turned out it wouldn't even be in front of their parents... at least not both of them. The moment Susan agreed, Mom looked at Dad and said, "Why don't you go upstairs, and change out of your work clothes?" It was said firmly, like it wasn't a friendly suggestion but rather something that she wanted and would probably make him pay for later if he refused. So he didn't. He opened his mouth like maybe he wanted to, but closed it again, then opened it once more to say, "Yeah, I could probably use a shower." His voice conveyed boredom, but Susan thought she saw disappointment in his expression, like he had wanted to see how this turned out. He went for the stairs, glancing back every few steps until finally he was out of sight. Mom gave a nod once he was upstairs. "Okay, but remember, gently... this is your sister," she said to Keith. He nodded with a jerky grin on his face, then patted his lap. "Okay, you bad girl, come here and accept your punishment." Susan leaned over and crawled on her hands over Keith's legs, which put her butt in the air and, made it clear for the first time that she wasn't wearing any underwear under her short skirt. She'd forgotten, at least until Mom's sharp, surprised, "Susan!" Then she began to blush. Both of them did, actually. Keith spoke again, like it was no big thing. "Oh yeah, she's been walking around like that. I guess it's more comfortable when it's warm out. It's no big deal as long as it was around the house, trust me." Again, a trace of nervousness there, like he wasn't sure she would buy it but wanted to press on the trust granted by the magic marker. "Besides, this makes it easier for the spanking anyway." That really was pushing it. They'd never been spanked bare butt before. Well, Susan had, but only recently and by Keith. Mom looked uncomfortable, but stood, hands on her hips, and watched with a frown, and so Keith slid the skirt up, exposing her bare ass completely, as well as the words "Likes Anal Stuff," words which Mom should be unable to see. Susan was more worried it might still show traces of redness from previous spankings. Or maybe it'd be obvious she'd been fucked. Did a virgin butt look different from a non-virgin butt? Would Mom know the differences? Keith's hand lingered on the butt cheek, stroking it lazily, possessively, as he said, "I think twenty would be appropriate, don't you? Since they're not hard?" Mom nodded. Susan didn't know whether the spankings would be hard, but she knew one thing that was... Keith. She could feel his boner hard against her stomach. And that was starting to make her super-horniness kick into high gear, even in front of their mother. She hoped he quit messing around and get it done before she started dripping in front of Mom! Smack! There, it started... it wasn't even that hard... she could have taken harder, maybe even would have liked it harder, but since this was for Mom's benefit, not hers, she could hardly complain. Wait, actually, it occurred to her that maybe she should complain, or at least act like it bothered her more than it did. So, the next blow that landed, she squinted real hard and bit her lip and then said, "Owwww!" "Oh, stop whining, I barely touched you!" The next one was harder, though, like he was trying to make a point. After five, he stroked her stinging buttock right in front of Mom, making her tremble and Mom just raise an eyebrow. But it seemed like she still trusted him. Even when, after two more hits, the stroking turned into an outright squeeze. She couldn't have missed that. Susan thought there was no way he could get more bold than that, but she was wrong. At about twelve strokes in, which were once again the light kind, the pain just lasting for a few moments after contact, Keith suddenly said, "Stop squirming around so much," and, with the hand that wasn't being used to spank, reached up to her butt and lay a finger up between and then, after a moment of pressure, slipped inside of her. The sudden penetration, unexpected because it was under the watchful eye of Mom, made her lower body arch upward against his hand. "Keith," her mother said, in a warning and yet somehow not outraged voice. "That's not appropriate." "What? It's not like I like doing this, Mom! I'm just holding her still. I mean, I could hurt her if she wiggles the wrong way when I'm spanking." The tip of his finger wiggled inside her, invisibly to Mom. "Besides, doesn't this make a better punishment? Your privacy was invaded, so Susan can feel a little invaded." The finger sank deeper. "It still looks inappropriate," her mother said finally. "I might know you don't mean anything by it, but if anyone else saw you..." "Okay. So this is okay as long as no one else sees?" Mom looked in Susan's eyes and asked, "Is it hurting you? I mean, besides being embarrassing." Susan shook her head, but knew her face was blushing like mad. "Fine, you can hold her like that... but if she says it's hurting her, or someone else comes, you stop right away, understood?" Keith pulled his finger out of her asshole so he could make a thumbs up gesture, which he could easily have made with his other hand... maybe he wanted to slip the finger back in while Mom watched. "And so help me God, if your father finds out about this, from either of you..." Her mouth closed but worked like she was still chewing on something tough and unpleasant. "You'll both be sorry." The excuse for the finger in her ass might have been to keep her from squirming, but in practice it seemed to have the opposite effect. It was kicking her super-horniness into high gear, and as the spanking resumed (somewhat lighter because Keith wanted to avoid hurting his own fingers), her ass moved like it was seeking the slap rather than avoiding it, although the truth was that she was just making her own friction on her finger, and her butt was clenching visibly as she struggled to get as much stimulation as she could. He stopped when he reached twenty... at least, she thought he did. She'd lost count, so she'd have to trust him as their mother almost certainly did. He didn't remove the finger though, at least not until her mother came around and said, "Let me see..." At first, Keith just raised all but the finger inside her to get a better view of where he'd been hitting. "Stop making a fuss, Susan, he didn't hurt you any." A second later, a second in which Susan couldn't hold back another pulse of shameful pleasure that sent her pussy twitching and another bead of wetness to drip out, Mom added, "In fact, from what I can see he probably should have punished you more. You don't have to hold her anymore, Keith." A few seconds later, her brother did pull out, allowing her anus to slowly contract, allowing Susan to take an uncertain breath that was ragged enough that it seemed to confirm what her mother must have realized, that she was turned on. She hadn't even really noticed she'd been holding it, but she'd had, in the way that she often did when she wanted to enhance the pleasure. But even without the breath, it had to be obvious, Susan felt super wet, and based on past experience she knew that her pussy was probably red and puffy, almost as though he'd been smacking that and not her ass. But he hadn't been, at least not mostly, and Mom probably knew what it meant. She seemed to be looking at her daughter with a disappointed look, and her head moved slightly back from side to side. "Maybe I should ground you after all," she said finally. "I have a feeling this punishment isn't going to motivate you to do better in the future. But your brother's right, that isn't fair to him, so I'll let it go, if you promise not to go snooping around in my room again." Could she promise that? Keith could probably force her, somehow. Then again, she didn't do it this time, so if she promised not to, and had to break it, she'd already taken one punishment for that, and they would just be even. "I promise." "Okay, you can let her up then, Keith." "She might be more comfortable staying like this for a while," he suggested. Bare ass up over Keith's lap. "I mean, sitting might hurt." His hand ran softly over the cheek, almost lovingly but raising goosebumps of pleasurable anticipation of another hit. "I'll get her a pillow. Your father'll be back down any minute and it's not appropriate for him to see her like this." Mom reached for Susan's arm and gently pulled her up to a standing position, which would at least feel better than sitting, and she continued. "Besides, you probably need to get in the kitchen." Keith just looked amused. "I do?" "Well, you showed such talent cooking last night, I thought you might like to do it again. Just... for God's sake, wash your hands first." He smirked. "I would make something..." he said, and to Susan's surprise he seemed like he was actually considering it, rather than it being another chore he'd just been assigned. Maybe being a good cook included liking the job, just like being a fuck toy seemed to. "But you really need to go shopping first, we don't have a lot I can work with. You know what would be a better idea? Just order us a pizza for tonight, we'll go grocery shopping tomorrow." Susan couldn't tell if it was her trust in Keith's judgment or if Mom just really didn't want to cook on a Friday, but she thought that was a great idea. By the time the pizza was ordered, the whole incident seemed almost forgotten... Susan still wore the leash and collar, and her dad seemed to be looking at her a little weirdly because of it, but she could sit normally with only a little soreness and she didn't think he'd realized that she wasn't wearing any underwear. That didn't entirely surprise her... she first learned the word "oblivious" because Mom had described him that way, and it was a fitting description. What did surprise her was that Mom didn't insist she go upstairs and change. Keith had said something to her, though, and maybe his faith magic had convinced her against all reason again. But things settled into a sort of normalcy... so much so that when the pizza arrived, Susan went to the door, as she usually did, to help carry it, having completely forgotten she was wearing a collar. The pizza man visibly drew back as his eyes fell on her, which reminded her, and reminded her mother, who was at the door paying for it. She mumbled, "Kids these days, you know?" when he finally handed the pizza over, then gave him his tip and took the drinks. At least Susan remembered fast enough that she didn't turn around until the door was closed, so he might not have seen the trailing leash, much less any lingering redness that might have remained on her upper thighs from the spanking session. When she turned, she realized even Keith looked momentarily scared, like he realized how dangerous it was, and with a start, Susan remembered how low the neckline of her shirt dipped. He might have seen the word Fucktoy on her chest, though, or at least 'Uckto'. Maybe he'd think she wrote the name of a band on herself or something, but... what if he put together the missing two letters? He didn't seem to speak very good English, though, judging by the thick accent when he repeated the price before she showed up, she could just hope he wouldn't tell anyone except maybe ranting to his family about American kids. That scare was only a minor blip, the pizza smelled too good and everyone was too hungry to dwell on it for long. They sat at the table and ate like a family. Normally, Mom or Dad would ask how Keith and Susan spent their day... this time, they didn't, as though they already knew on some level, or maybe they just took the story Keith gave them about Susan choosing to pretend to play doggy all day and didn't find any of the details interesting. They did, however, talk about their own days, and something Mom said made Keith sit up and take notice. After complaining about something with a customer, she added, "Oh, and Devon was messing with me all day." "Oh?" She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, he was saying for a while I had something written on my..." She popped a lone pepperoni from the top of her pizza in her mouth, chewed, and swallowed before continuing, "On the back of my neck. Like, to try to convince me that you wrote 'sleeps too much' or something on me while I was asleep." That was when Susan looked at Keith, and noticed he straightened up and looked at Mom. Both of them knew that Mom actually did have something very similar to that written on her, when Keith wrote "Deep Sleeper" on her, and Dad, so they wouldn't wake up when he wrote more on them. Susan's look was out of worry, and she wanted to catch her brother's eyes to imply, 'See?' so he'd get how dangerous it was to just write things on people. Mom and Dad might not be able to see the writing, but others could. Keith, though, his look wasn't worried exactly. His eyelids narrowed and practically squinted at Mom, like there was something not quite right. "Oh, he did, huh?" "I mean, it was totally stupid. Your father doesn't play stupid tricks like that. But Devon just wouldn't let it go. I even looked in a mirror just to be sure you didn't do anything." "Well," Keith said. "Maybe you shouldn't associate with him. If he's going to be a liar like that." "Oh, he was just fooling around. He's just got a very strange sense of humor." "Uh-huh." His face was grim and unmoving, like stone, but after a few seconds he said, "I'm about done. I'm just going to take a few slices upstairs with me. Don't worry, I won't make a mess." "I know you won't." That would be a first, Susan thought, but then, their parents still both had faith in him now. "I'm going to go too," Susan tried, but received a glare from Mom and she stopped moving and settled back into her seat. "No, you stay here until you're done, then wash up. I don't want you getting greasy hands over everything." It wasn't that long a wait, she just finished one more slice, then cleaned her hands and finally climbed up the stairs to knock on Keith's door. She was curious about what made him leave so quickly, but also, her horniness was starting to get up to irritating levels again, and she needed him to take care of it, even if she had to beg. He opened the door, still looking angry, but it didn't seem to be at her this time, because his features softened when he realized who it was. "What?" "Can I come in?" She looked behind her, just in case, although she knew her parents wouldn't be able to see her unless they ninja-walked up the stairs, then lifted the skirt to show off her pussy, hoping he'd get the hint. He stepped aside, let her in. The horniness still remained, but since she was feeling good that he wouldn't deny her urges right now, she decided to satisfy her curiosity as she climbed onto his bed. "What happened downstairs at dinner?" "Huh?" "It's like you were mad at Mom for some reason." "Oh, that." The frown returned. "What, you couldn't figure it out?" "So Devon saw what you wrote. The pizza guy might have too... I'm more worried about that." And you should be too, she made her tone convey. "It's not her fault that he saw. She didn't even know it was there." "Yeah, but... I never wrote it on her neck." "Where'd you write it?" "On her back." Chapter Six: It didn't hit right away... Susan just shrugged at the revelation and said, "So? Back, neck what's the difference?" Keith connected the dots, pointed to his own side at what presumably was the height he wrote it. "So how did he see it?" It hit her then, a roiling feeling in her stomach, an implication she didn't want to accept. There had to be a rational explanation, other than that Mom had taken off her shirt in front of her co-worker. It was just from behind, anyway, that could be innocent. "Maybe... maybe she got some, like, printer ink on her shirt and pulled her shirt out to try and wash it out." It was a lame thought, even though Keith said, "Yeah, maybe," his tone suggested he didn't believe it and that she was stupid if she did. She pictured her parents getting divorced, maybe even them being split up to live with a different parent each. "So what are we going to do?" "Don't worry, I'll handle it," he said. "I'm going to have a little fun doing it, too." That only helped Susan's worries a little... after all, as a jerk, he could have some pretty mean kinds of fun. She wasn't sure she wanted to know, but still she asked, "Like what?" "I said I'll handle it. Don't you have faith in me?" Susan almost shrugged, but decided a nod was the better call. She didn't want him writing the same thing he wrote on their parents, complete faith in Keith... somebody needed to be able to tell him if he really was doing something stupid. Like when she warned him about how their parents might react, or about using 'metaphorically' if he wrote certain things with the marker. "Good. In the meantime, I think it's time for a little more fun. You need a little relief, don't you?" Another nod, this one much more enthusiastic. To Susan's relief, he didn't have anything weird or elaborate planned... at least, not right away. He just pulled his pants down, gently guided her legs apart and started using her as a fuck toy, and she got to experience the wonderful feeling of being taken, felt, used even, her arousal growing with the thought of it, even as she was aware that she'd need his permission to finally cum. That was the only worry, that he might withhold that, just to be a jerk. He thrust into her aggressively, heedless of the noise he was making as the bed moved with their motion, and she was just trying to get her mind clear enough to find a way to warn him about making too much noise when he said, "Aren't you being a little quiet?" "... what?" she whispered between breaths. "I think..." he paused as he pushed onto her and withdrew, in the length of a second, and continued, "I want my fuck toy to be loud tonight." And just like that, like a switch was flipped on in her head, she began to moan, loudly. It didn't matter that her parents might hear her... or, perhaps it mattered, mattered a lot, but it didn't stop her, because it was written on her skin that she was a fuck toy, and that meant Keith's desires for how she fucked overrode her own, and even her own common sense. Whereas before she was biting her lip to keep from accidentally letting out a peep, now each thrust was punctuated by a yelp-like moan, rising in pitch and intensity and sounding like something out of a bad porn movie. Keith wasn't satisfied with that, either. "Why don't you bring back the dirty talk, too?" He had a smug look on his face, and Susan knew that this was planned, the next step in his humiliation campaign, or maybe testing the boundaries with their parents, it amounted to the same thing no matter what the goal was. But again, no matter what the goal was, she didn't have any choice in the matter, as a fuck toy her vocabulary, like her volume, responded to the desires of the one playing with her. "Oh, god, yes..." she found herself saying, at a level that might be lost in television background noise, if they were watching television. "Fuck me, fuck me harder." She had enough of herself and her own free will that she could also say, "This is a bad idea," and that itself could be whispered because she had intended it to be, but immediately afterwards she followed it up with "God, I love your cock!" at full volume. "Dirtier," he prompted. She found herself yelling out, "Yes! Rape my fucktoy cunt... pound your whore until she screams!" It didn't even make sense, it certainly wasn't rape (or was it, if the marker made her do it?), and she didn't technically think she was a whore, but it didn't matter. It was simply the dirtiest thing she could think of. "Oh yeah, you want that?" he asked, a light coming on in his eyes. And soon, maybe because he did pound her harder, inspired by her loud dirty talk or whatever ideas it provoked in him, she did scream, a scream that rose and feel in pitch with their shared motion, but not as genuine a scream as she'd given before, still play-acting. The scream did remind her though, of a growing need, as she was getting pushed closer and closer to the edge of where a real scream should come. Because she also knew that no matter how close she got pushed, she couldn't quite reach it. Not unless Keith gave her permission, anyway. And now, her dirty talk had a purpose. "Can I cum?" she begged. "Please let me cum, I'll be such a good whore for you, just say I can cum, I need it so bad, let me cum all over your cock while you pump me full of hot sperm and fuck a baby in me!" As those last words slipped out, Susan wondered if she had perhaps made a mistake... Keith certainly couldn't want that, and he'd made her infertile so it couldn't happen anyway, but it was a dirty thought, a thought she found both scary and terrifyingly exhilarating, a thought that might have pushed her over into her own orgasm, and not just a fuck toy mutual orgasm, if only she'd been allowed to have one. Yet he leaned in close, almost overbearing on her, and pinning her wrists to the bed with his hands, close enough for a kiss, but he didn't he just said, "Well, when you put it like that, I guess you can cum... but only if you do it loud." It wasn't instant, it wasn't a command, just permission, conditional permission even, but the knowledge that she had that permission was liberating and even eased back on the pressure. She would cum, she knew, when he did anyway, so she only had to speed that along, and she put her hips into motion, fucking against him and squeezing down inside. Keith must have been already close, though, because after a few seconds of that he kicked into his own frenetic motion and started cumming, and at first Susan wondered why she wasn't experiencing the obliterating white joy, then remembered the condition, and began screaming, "Oh yes, fuck meeeeeeee," and shortly after that went wordless, and yet still very loud. When he'd done squirting inside of her, he let go of her wrists and both pushed himself off and pulled himself out of her, and it seemed almost the moment that the head of his cock and slipped out between her vulva she was returned to herself, no longer forced to act like a sex toy. Mostly returned to her old self anyway. She did sit up and began the routine that had become almost reflex now, digging into her own dripping wet pussy, not for extra stimulation but to gather as much cum as she could and ferry it to her hungry mouth to feed the addiction he'd planted in her. But, she no longer had to scream, she no longer had to be exactly what Keith wanted, she could rebel to the limited degree that was safe, with her emotions, with her expression. To that end, she glared at him as she sucked cum off her fingers. He didn't notice at first, because he wasn't looking at her. He went to check for any messages on his computer of which there didn't seem to be any, and reload a few websites, but eventually looked back at his little sister and her sulk. "What?" "Why'd you have to do that? You know they probably heard that!" He grinned. "Yeah, but, you know what? They didn't come up. Obviously they didn't think you were in any danger. Isn't that a good thing?" "I don't care, I don't want them hearing me. It was so embarrassing! Humiliating!" The grin faded, but his eyes still danced with delight, like he was planning something fun. "Oh? Well, that's a shame. I guess it's going to be awkward the next time you see them, huh?" She gritted her teeth, knowing she was playing into his game somehow, but she still had to say it. "Yes it will!" "Especially since you're going to have to ask them if you can sleep with me tonight." Susan's mouth dropped open for a moment, then she said, "Shouldn't you do it? They may let you get away with everything thanks to the magic marker, but they still treat me the same." Almost the same. Letting her brother spank her isn't quite the same treatment she usually got, but it was part of how they were letting Keith do what he wanted. "I think it'd be more fun if you ask. You can come call me if they have any doubts, but I want them to see this coming from you. See how they react." "Please, Keith? I really don't want to." "You don't want to sleep with me?" She nodded her head quickly. She did want to. She had last night, and there was something wonderfully warm and comforting about it. But asking her parents? Even the thought of it made her feel like she should blush. "I do, but..." "Then I'll leave it up to you," he said. "If you get their permission to sleep with me, then we'll sleep together in my bed, and I'll be here if you get super-horny in the night. But if you don't want to embarrass yourself by asking... well, then, I guess you sleep alone. I'll be locking my door, so don't count on me to help you until morning. And it's a Saturday tomorrow, so I'll be sleeping in until long after Mom and Dad are up." He then looked upward, as though just thinking of something. "Though I do want to tag along for grocery shopping, so maybe I'll just wake up when they do." He shrugged. "Either way, you'll be on your own. Your call, I honestly don't care." She didn't like that thought, but she didn't want to beg to sleep with Keith in front of her parents either. "If I have to sleep alone, can I at least have permission to cum during the night?" she asked, already knowing it wasn't likely. Keith made a show of considering it, then grinned. "No, I don't think so. I mean, what have you done for ME lately? You won't even swallow your pride and ask Mom and Dad to sleep with me." Sometimes he made her want to grumble under her breath. "Fine. I'll ask. But after a shower." She still hung onto hope that maybe they didn't hear her yelling out, begging him to get her pregnant, maybe they were watching loud TV or something. They might let her if she asked after a shower, because of their complete faith in Keith... but if she came down smelling of sex, she didn't think they possibly could. "Whatever. You probably could use one anyway." "Jerk." "Damn right." Chapter Seven: Coming out of the shower was a wonderful feeling, although lately, the sensation of cleanness wasn't as strong as it used to be... Susan no longer could look down at her body and see fresh unmarked skin, she would always see the words her brother wrote, she would always look dirty, and that made her feel dirty, even fresh from the shower. If she closed her eyes, she could just take in the smell of soap and shampoo and recapture some of the feeling by trying to forget the writing and the fact that she spent most of the shower sticking things--ranging from her fingers to a toothbrush to a shampoo bottle--up her butt (it was just an easy way to make a boring shower more entertaining). Maybe it changed nothing, but, she thought, it might make it easier to pretend she was just an innocent little girl again in front of her parents. Several deep breaths with her eyes closed as water slowly drained off her skin and hair and Susan almost felt like her old self. She wrapped herself in a towel, and decided to go downstairs like that, instead of dressing. It was something she sometimes did before, so it wouldn't look out of character. And it seemed like her dad was a tiny bit more indulgent when she did, like if she wanted to stay up later, or needed permission to go somewhere. It might not matter, but every bit was sure to help. She also left the collar and leash on the sink. Neither Keith nor Mom had outright said she had to keep wearing it for the whole weekend, it was just suggested. Nobody said she should take it off after the spanking, either, so maybe it was supposed to be part of her punishment. But obviously the collar was some kind of sex thing and she didn't want her parents thinking about anything sexual when she asked them if she could sleep with her brother. Still, she took her time going downstairs, building up courage. Her parents were there, watching TV with the lights down low, and it did seem pretty loud. Maybe they hadn't heard what happened earlier. She walked barefoot up to the couch, and waited, not wanting to interrupt, until they saw her. Mom looked over first. "Oh, uhm.... why aren't you wearing your leash?" Susan blushed. She looked over to her dad and realized, even in the dim light that made everything seem a little blue, he was blushing too. Completely red, and he wouldn't look her in the face. "Um... I don't think I need to wear it anymore." If pressed, she thought she could argue she meant that she didn't think it was part of her punishment, or if it wasn't then she was just saying it wasn't fun. "I'll bet." Dad stood up suddenly. He still didn't look at her, just said, "Well, I think it's time that I head up for bed," and he said it really fast and mumbled. He wasn't this bad when he first saw her with the collar, or during dinner, but suddenly he was very clearly uncomfortable and didn't want to be in the same room with his daughter. Susan could only think of one reason for that, that they'd heard some of what she shouted. Dad didn't want to deal with it. Neither did she, really, but it stung that he seemed to reject her so completely for it. They passed by each other and he didn't even say goodnight, or kiss her on the cheek or forehead like he often did, didn't even look at her face, just her chest, as though she could see the words "Fuck toy" that were barely visible above the towel. He shouldn't be able to, but maybe that's what he saw when he looked at her anyway. Mom, on the other hand, sat with her arms folded, one leg bobbing anxiously over the other, and her jaw working like she was trying to decide what she was going to say. She waited for Dad to get out of the room first, and Susan knew that as soon as he was gone, she was going to say something, blame her for seducing Keith, maybe, but whatever it was, she didn't want to hear it. The only thing she could think of to say to cut her off was what she'd come down here to say, what she'd practiced in the shower and on the way down the stairs, and that didn't seem like it would help any. And yet it was the only thing in her mind, so, she blurted out, "Um, I was wondering if it'd be okay if I slept with Keith again tonight." Mother and daughter stared at each other for a few seconds. Susan wondered what must be going through her mother's mind, hearing her two children have sex and then her little girl asking to be in his bed all night so he could fuck her some more. She should be outraged, call them both perverts, maybe even call the police. Instead, she said, "Maybe that would be for the best. I mean, if you've been having trouble sleeping. But don't expect to make a habit of it." Susan already turned, barely even getting out a "K, Thanks, Bye," before she too was fleeing the room for the safety of a less awkward part of the house. She couldn't believe it, didn't understand it, and yet... was starting to feel good about it, in the same way you feel a little giddy finally being done with reading a book report in front of the whole class after dreading it for days. At least it was over and she got her permission. Maybe, even, Mom had accepted what was going on between them. She thought she heard a sigh from her mother, followed by, "But put a nightshirt on or something this time!" Well, she would, because her mother asked her to, but she didn't think she'd be wearing it for long. In fact, her mother hadn't asked her to wear panties, and she knew her brother liked them off, so that's how she dressed when she knocked again on his door, just in a long short-sleeved seafoam blue shirt that stretched down to mid-thigh, with "I (heart) Sweet Dreams" written on the front, only the heart was a heart-shaped cake or donut with frosting and sprinkles on top. She heard the sound of the door being unlocked, and her brother stood there, wearing just boxer shorts. "I did it." He raised an eyebrow. "Did what?" Susan exhaled in frustration. He'd forgotten already? "I asked if I could sleep with you." "Oh, that." He looked completely unconcerned. "So how did it go?" "Well, Mom said yes." "No, I mean, how did it go? How did they act?" She didn't want to remember the details, but knew Keith would press, so she said in a small voice, "Dad looked embarrassed and he just left as soon as I got there. Mom, well, she seemed like she was mad at me." "Not me, though, right?" "No." He nodded. "She did say I should wear a nightshirt..." She tugged at the cloth she wore. "Yeah, I heard." She must have made a face, because he added, "What? I told you I'd have your back. I listened in on the whole thing." So obviously he acted like he'd forgotten just to be a jerk. Still, she liked that he actually did care, he actually did have her back. So, she pulled up her shirt, exposing her lack of panties and hoping to get a smile from him because she'd done what she knew he'd want. And it worked, which emboldened her to say, "But I mean, nothing says I need to keep wearing it, right?" "Nah, keep it on," he said. "It looks cute on you." Susan beamed. At least until he added, "Plus, it'll be fun to see how they act when it's ruined with cum stains." Chapter Eight: By the time it actually came time to go to bed, Susan super-horniness was starting to kick in. Part of that was because they didn't go to bed immediately, but this time did the sensible thing and waited for their parents to fall into their nightly deep sleep. Mom did briefly stop in to say goodnight, and Keith was at his computer while Susan waited under the sheet. She didn't give them any warnings or advice beyond, "Don't keep her up too late," to Keith, but it was half-hearted, like she didn't really worry about it but that was a thing a mom had to say. Once she left, Keith did keep her up, but not in a fun way... she was forced to watch as he killed time, some drawing of his comic, sometimes staring off at his computer screen, but none of it involving paying attention to her beyond answering the occasional question. When he started getting annoyed by those, she kept her mouth shut... at least until her pussy was starting to slicken up and get hot again, and she felt the craving to drink cum. "Come on, Keith..." she finally whined, after she began to feel unsatisfied with thigh squeezes and needing something more. "Come to bed." "Not yet," he said distractedly. She let out a grunt of frustration, then decided to try and take care of herself, rubbing her pussy with her hand. She really wished that she still had the vibrators from Mom, but Keith had packed those up, along with the rest of the bondage gear except for the collar and leash, and left it back in the master bedroom room before they came home. Not that she'd be able to cum, now, no matter what she did, unless she caught Keith in a distracted moment, asked for permission and got it automatically, but she didn't think so, and that wasn't the point, masturbation helped, a little, like scratching an itch, even knowing you were also making it worse, and if you did it too much without permanent relief you'd suffer for it later. She flipped the sheet down to her knees after about a minute, deciding that, maybe, if she put on a show of how desperate she was, she could convince Keith to come after her. The nightshirt pulled up to her chin, she spread her legs and thrust her hips upwards, grunting as she wordlessly begged for attention. She got it, but not the kind she wanted. He glared over in her direction after a couple minutes. "Would you quit your squirming?" He spoke in hushed tones, so she did as well. "Well, what do you want me to do? I'm super horny. If you'd come and fuck me I wouldn't need to squirm. Or I could come to you, if you wanted..." "Yeah, well, I don't want any noise until Mom and Dad are asleep." She stopped, lowering herself back to the bed and slowing down to just a soft stroke around her slit. Oh, that's what they were waiting for? "I can be a quiet fuck toy if you want me to, remember? I won't make a peep." A flash of irritation crossed his face, and Susan knew somehow that he had forgotten that, and didn't like that she'd thought of something he didn't. "Maybe you won't, but the bed will," he said finally. Did she dare push one more? "You could write 'quiet' on the bed," she suggested. "With the marker. Or 'soundproof' on the wall, even." The squint told her that he hadn't thought of that either, but at least this time he wasn't mad, he seemed to be more concerned with considering the possibilities. "No," he said finally. "I LIKE making noise. Just at the right time. Not when people are trying to sleep. Geez, you're so inconsiderate, Susan." She couldn't help it, she pouted. "What am I supposed to do, then?" "Well... my eyes are getting tired of staring at this screen. Maybe we could do something real slow. You know, just lie together with my dick shoved up your ass. Would that help you?" "It might!" She could squeeze back against it, flex her butt repeatedly, and not make too much noise. It might be hard to cum that way, unless she made him cum and she had his permission to be a proper fuck toy and cum when he did. And if she didn't have his permission, nothing she did would matter anyway. "Let's give it a try." She turned onto her side, her back to him, and poked her butt outward to provide him a tempting target. He joined her, sitting on the bed first, then pulled one of her still tender buttocks upward, exposing the hole and her pussy. She hoped he took the hint and went for her ass... she'd already fingered her pussy to the point that it wasn't as exciting as feeling something in her ass again, even if it hurt more when it pounded, maybe that would make it even better. Either he read her mind or she got lucky... she shivered with anticipation as she heard the sound of him spitting into his hand, which he only did when he was about to slide into her driest hole. He rubbed her around the asshole, fingertips grazing it and making it twitch like it had a mind of its own, and desires that matched Susan's, then Keith went to spit again... and stopped. "Shit, why the hell am I doing all the work?" Yeah, Susan thought, my pussy's dripping wet here, you can just rub it around. "I mean, speaking of using the marker to make things easier on us." Her heart dropped. "Uh, what?" "Three words. Self-lubricating asshole." The idea didn't fill her with the same enthusiasm that her brother apparently felt. It was more of a mixed-feeling. Not having enough lube was sometimes a problem, although not much of one, because usually when she was super-horny she was also super wet, and she could just use that. And though it hurt a little if she tried to put something in that was too dry... she liked the pain, too. Maybe just because it was part of "anal stuff" that she loved, according to the Marker. "Is that really necessary?" she asked. "Oh, come on, imagine your butthole as wet as your pussy," he said. "Wouldn't that be sweet?" He got off the bed and opened the drawer, fetching the old lockbox he'd remembered while they were first playing around with bondage, a birthday gift from a friend years ago that once stored a USB key of dirty cartoons where their parents couldn't stumble upon it, but now held the marker when he wasn't using it, held safe with a combination lock that Keith once had on his locker. Susan didn't know the combination. The time it took to unlock it only gave her a few seconds to think of an excuse to stop him, or decide if it was something she did want and embrace it. Maybe it would get him to fuck her ass more, and that would be good. On the other hand, she had a sudden vision of her ass constantly dripping, even when she wasn't using it, ruining any clothing whenever she sat down, maybe even making poop slip out when she didn't want it. Maybe that made an excuse... if it didn't make him want it more, to embarrass her. She decided to risk it... poo was disgusting to everyone, right? "Yeah, but, like, what if it made like, constant diarrhea or something? I mean, if it was wet all the time down there." Marker now in his hand, Keith considered it. "You're right," he said, but then instead of putting it away, he advanced with it and added, "I'll reword it. Roll on your back." She did, and asked, "What are you going to write?" If she couldn't stop him, at least she could keep him from making a mistake. For that matter, what if he spelled something wrong? "How about... 'asshole lubes when touched?'" he suggested. She thought it over, but there didn't seem to be an major problems with that, nothing that seemed like it could be easily misspelled. "Okay. That seems fine." She might miss the little bit of pain from things going in dry, but it was probably a bad thing that she even started to like it... if she stopped being able to feel it, then it would be almost as good as not liking it. Her butt reflexively twitched as she felt the wet pressure of the felt tip against her skin, but she stayed steady and let him finish. She was pretty sure he'd written it just around the same place as "Loves Anal Stuff," which seemed appropriate. And at least it wasn't a new area that she had to worry about covering. The cap clicked back into place, and she looked back at that moment, watched Keith admiring his work, gently touching her butt, which was still extra-sensitive but at least not exceptionally sore from the spanking earlier. Beside that sensitivity there was a new sensation, a slight tingling sensation around her butthole itself, like it was moving somehow without moving. Maybe that was what it felt like when a part of her body changed so it could do something, like make lube, that it hadn't before. It had to come from somewhere, right? And through pores or something. Keith seemed to sense this line of thought, for he asked, "Feel any different?" He let go of her butt and went to return the marker to the lockbox. "Feels a little weird," she said, and as she did, the tingling vanished. What replaced it was a sensation of slipperiness, like someone had squirted a single drop of oil right in the tight ring. But... "Keith..." her voice trembled a little with worry. "You're not touching me." "Well, give me a second," he said, as he closed the box, reset the lock. "No... you're not touching me! But I'm getting slippery!" She rubbed her body against itself, flexing the asshole, feeling it comfortably loose and sliding freely. Wait, 'when touched'... was she always, technically, touching her own body? "Oh, that." He shrugged. "I might have improvised a little while I was writing." A groan of frustration escaped her. If she dared to convert it into words, it probably would have been "You bastard!" but instead she just asked, "What did you write?" "It's not THAT different," he insisted. "'Asshole Makes Sex-Lube When Horny.'" "But I'm always super-horny!" "Not always," he pointed out. "Otherwise I wouldn't get any sleep." He crawled into bed beside her, nudging her onto her side. She felt a drip slide out of her asshole. At least it wasn't a torrent, though. And she was around her most horny, so maybe it wouldn't be too bad and she could get used to it. She was still pissed at him, but that too she'd gotten used to and forgave quickly. Keith tested his work with his fingers first, slipping his hand in ahead of his cock and pushing his index finger against her hole. It slid in easily, and although she still clung and squeezed tight against it, it seemed to move more freely and felt pretty damn good that way, enough that she let out a small moan. "Quiet, fuck toy," he said, and she couldn't speak, or moan. He'd suggested that he wanted her quiet before, so their parents would fall asleep but apparently it only worked when they were actually fucking, or made it explicit. The finger retreated, then it was soon replaced with something much bigger. But she easily stretched around the bulbous cockhead, the widest part, and after that, it was just like any other fuck except she was all lubed up. It didn't feel excessively wet, just smooth enough to make it easier. "Yeah, this is much better," Keith whispered, and Susan found herself agreeing when he pushed deep into her. "Okay. Now I'll fuck you properly later," he said. "Until then, try and get some rest." She wanted to groan again, but couldn't. She'd forgotten that part, in all the confusion, that they were just supposed to lie together until Keith was sure their parents would be asleep, deep asleep. It wasn't without its upsides. It still counted as 'anal stuff' so she loved it. If it wasn't for her super-horniness, she'd have been totally content to spend the whole night like that without movement. It was like an ultra-close form of snuggling, him actually inside her, like they were two halves of one person. And although her ass no longer stung on contact, she might not have been able to take the vigorous pounding she wanted after that spanking earlier. But now, with that anxious feeling that seemed to spread outward from either her pussy or her stomach (it had all blended into on undifferentiated area), she wanted more, even though she felt constrained by her brother's desires. As a fuck toy, it seemed, if he wanted a fuck that didn't shake the bed in the slightest, she had to comply. Squeezing around the cock in her ass seemed to be her only option, but she knew from the vibrator that it wasn't enough to get her the pleasure she wanted, and besides which, she needed permission to cum, permission she couldn't even ask for when he told her to be quiet, so eventually she gave up and, somehow, drifted to sleep. Susan awoke to another void inside her, and she realized that she was alone in her brother's bed. She wouldn't have thought that she could sleep through his dick pulling out of her, and yet somehow she had, and more, him getting out of the bed and leaving the room entirely. She wondered if he'd somehow managed to write "Deep Sleeper" on herself as well, without her noticing it. It was something to check for sure later in front of a mirror, but she didn't think so... it was, after all, still dark out, so she couldn't have been sleeping that deeply... she was probably more tired than she thought. Tired, but still horny. And now curious, as well. Was it just a bathroom break, or was he off doing something, making more alterations to their parents? She rolled out of bed, yawned, and walked through the open door and down the hall. The door to the master bedroom was also open, just a crack, which confirmed her suspicion. There was also some kind of light on in there, and if their parents weren't awake now, they weren't likely to wake up from her, so she dared to slip in. There was Keith, of course, with the marker, and writing on Mom's bare back by the light of a flashlight. There seemed to be a fair bit there, although she wasn't close enough, and the light not bright enough, to make out more than the letters "n's cock." "What are you doing?" she whispered. Her brother flinched, whirled around, guiltily made to cover up her back with the blanket, then calmed. "Nothing. Just making a few changes around here. Trust me, it's for the good." Just before she spoke, she saw the letters "so" before "n", and put together that he'd written something about his own cock on their mother. Her mind filled in possibilities like "must suck son's cock" or "will never refuse son's cock," and her heart sank. Bitterly, dejectedly, she asked, "So what, you're going to make her your fuck toy too?" "Only if she's really good," he said. "Maybe I could use another fuck toy. Does that bother you?" Reverse psychology time? "You're a jerk, you're going to do whatever you want anyway." "Glad you approve. But I'm not going to fuck my own mom. Jesus, Susan, what do you think I am?" He rolled his eyes. "She's like almost forty." "I saw you writing something about your cock on her." "That... that is just a little punishment. I'm making her fantasize about it. But I'm not going to give it to her. It'll be hilarious." He did seem to find it extremely funny, and motioned over to Dad's snoring form. "Want me to do the same to Dad? Make him think about fucking you all the time?" "No!" she said out loud, immediately, but a part of her whispered, "Yes!" The conflict forced a blush up her cheeks as she tried to sort out how she really felt. She didn't want to fuck her dad... okay, she DID, a little, but that was mostly the super-horniness talking, she decided. She wanted to fuck practically anyone right now. But with her dad, even before the marker came into their lives, it seemed like he'd been paying less and less attention to her the last couple years and now after what he heard upstairs, he seemed like he was deliberately avoiding her. She might prefer that Daddy just wanted to stick his cock in her and use her like a fuck toy if only it meant that he still wanted to be with her. And, she had to admit, another source to feed her cum addiction would be awfully handy. That was just being practical. "You sure? Could be awful fun to tease him. I could make sure he couldn't actually do anything." Well, that just took ALL the fun out of it. "No," she said again. "I don't want to tease him." "He might already want to fuck you, you know. I mean, I did. You're probably torturing him without realizing it, in your skimpy clothes and with your fuckable lips. He's probably lying there right now dreaming of what he can't have." Susan had had enough of this line of conversation, it was giving her confusing feelings. "Yeah, well, you can have me, so... are you almost done writing? I still need you to fuck me and let me cum otherwise I'm never going to get back to sleep." He bobbed his head, mulling it over, but a playful smile stayed on his face. "Okay, I guess they're sleeping deeply enough that I can take care of you." "Good." Susan turned towards the door... only to feel a strong hand on her wrist yanking her roughly backwards. "Why wait? Let's just take care of it right here." Chapter Nine: Susan didn't resist the pull, but she didn't get on board, since her brother seemed to be directing her towards the bed that her parents were currently sleeping in. "We can't," she warned him. "I don't care how deep they're sleeping, they'd wake up if someone was having sex in the same bed!" They'd even been talking in whispers throughout the conversation. "I took care of that," Keith said. "Trust me, they'll be having sweet dreams until at least sunrise, no matter what. Hopefully about me, in Mom's case. Look." He let go of Susan's hand and went down by Mom's side, flipped her over onto her back, poked her boob with the end of the marker. She wasn't dead, that was clear, she still breathed, Dad still snored, but there was no sign that she was in the least bit bothered by the rough treatment. She didn't even stir as Keith grabbed her by the legs and pulled her, just enough that her head slipped off the pillow. "See? We can fuck right on top of them and they won't notice a thing. You can even cum as loudly as you want." Her heart started to race as she realized... that counted as permission, didn't it? Maybe conditional permission, but he'd said she could cum, at least if they fucked right on top of them. It might be weird, but, she was super horny and there was something really exciting about doing it right under their noses... or, literally, right over their noses. "Okay, I guess." Actually, it was Mom's nose Keith seemed especially interested in fucking over. He directed Susan into position, and away from places that seemed more natural places to put her hands and knees because they weren't right according whatever perverted idea was working its way through his brain. She wound up with one knee on the edge of the bed, another on the other side of Mom's head. Her pussy was suspended over Mom's face, but at a slight angle, and her hands were between Mom and Dad's sleeping bodies. Finally, though, she was in position for a doggy-style fuck, and was more than ready for it. She was pretty sure some of her wetness dripped out right on Mom's face when Keith's thumb worked its way inside her now self-lubricating asshole, sawing in and out, preparing her for more. "You going to do me there?" "Might as well finish what I started, right?" Susan nodded. She had the permission she needed, and as a fuck toy she'd cum when he did, so right now, however he wanted to do it was great, especially if it made him cum faster. The thumb retreated, and she felt him close in on her and his dick slide around and finally press in towards the wet and still-not-completely closed hole his thumb had left. He pushed forward with a grunt, and she responded with one, but there wasn't any pain, just the sensation of being full and complete once more. Yet of course that wasn't enough on its own, and for a second she was afraid that he would just leave it inside her again to torture her like he seemed to enjoy torturing Mom... but finally, he pulled out again, and pushed back in, and she rocked back into him. She wasn't loud, but she wasn't quiet. He'd said she could be as loud as she wanted, and apparently, that was a state in-between, of grunts and soft moans but not screams. It wasn't about trying to keep quiet for her parents, at least not consciously. In fact, she soon mostly forgot they were there at all, so consumed with her own pleasure, the sensations he caused both inside and outside of her. There was the usual sensation of being conquered, of yielding inside and being completed... and also the milder but still exciting sensation, the squeeze of one hand on her butt or waist, the feel of the other sliding up her back almost lovingly. Underlying all of that, best of all, welling up inside her was the feeling, the approaching orgasm that was long-delayed. Not quite there yet, but close. She might not even need to wait for her brother to cum. If she beat him to the punch, she could have two... and two was always better than one. To that end, she lifted one hand from the bed and began to rubbing the soft wet lips of her pussy, stoking that fire, a task which might have been easier if she didn't feel like she was in danger of falling over because her position, which didn't distribute her weight completely evenly, was now even more precarious. Every thrust felt like she might topple if she didn't shift her body in just the right away, and that meant she couldn't just lose herself completely in the sensation. But she was approaching that moment of perfection by inches, and now her breaths were becoming sharper, not quite screams but loud enough that they should have woken anybody as close as her parents were. The feeling had started inside of her, the one where she felt like she was on the edge of the cliff... Suddenly, she was pushed over. Physically, that is. Keith's hand on her back suddenly became a shove, and her arm gave out at the unexpected force. She toppled forward, unable to correct herself in time, and her face planted towards the bed, but in practice right at her sleeping father's crotch. It wasn't a soft place to land... in fact, to her surprise, and a curious mix of horror and excitement, there was a very familiar type of hardness there beneath her father's boxers, that made her think either he must be awake, or maybe Keith was right and he was dreaming, maybe even about her. She struggled to push herself up and off of him, at the very least to check if his eyes were open, but Keith whispered, "Face down, ass up," and her fuck toy mind interpreted that as an order, so she stopped trying, let her brother continue to fuck her ass while overly conscious of her father's hard dick up against her face, with a thin layer of fabric between them, and the sweaty yet not entirely unpleasant smell that filled her nose and mouth. She tried to shift her position slight while still obeying Keith's order, at least get her face off of it, but finally gave up and surrendered to the dirtiness, knowing that could close the gap between where her soul was and where it wanted to be. Susan's hand, the one between her legs, kicked into frenzied motion as she came over that final barrier and finally had the mind-shattering orgasm she'd been craving for what felt like forever. It didn't seem to matter whether her father's dick was in her face when it happened. Keith wasn't done yet, and continued pounding into her all through the orgasm, the force sliding her face back and forth along her father's hardness, and the friction making it press more against her. She decided to try again to shift her position to the side when she felt another sudden wave of pleasure out of nowhere, as her brother started shooting his cum inside her ass. This one, without even the warning of him clutching hard against her butt, caused her to let out an undulating moan muffled by her father's underwear. He pulled out more quickly than usual, enough that, while she was still riding the wave, she felt another splash of cum, not going deep inside her but landing between her butthole and her pussy and dripping. Another followed, much less powerful, only felt at all because he was rubbing the head of his cock on her ass flesh. Susan caught her breath once more and then again attempted to push herself up. Now that she wasn't being fucked, the fuck toy orders didn't seem to apply, and she could push her face clear... only realizing then that her knees had slid way farther back and her own slit bumped into something soft and yet with a hard core... it only took a second to realize it was her mother's nose. An involuntary shudder shook her body and she made a noise something like a soft "eww." That thought was definitely more disturbing to her than her proximity to her daddy's hard dick, or even the worry that he might have been awake and only pretending. Her body repositioned in jerky confused motions, trying to quickly right herself without touching either of her parents. This wasn't helped by the force of her brother's hand on the small of her back, seemingly trying to keep her over her mom's face. "There's no rush," he said. "They'll be out for hours." The goo sliding out of her butt seemed to disagree, if she didn't move then it would... oh. Of course, that was what he wanted. Jerk. "You could have just done it on her face if that's what you wanted." "Come on, Susan. I'm not going to cum on my own mom's face!" It sounded serious, but Susan knew him well enough that it was only fake-serious. Then again, she was lying too, she would have been more disappointed if he hadn't gone off inside her. "Totally different thing if it comes from you." She didn't want to drip cum on her own mom's face either... though her butt didn't seem to be on the same page as the other end of her, as she kept feeling her bowels flex involuntarily as though trying to push as much of the cum out as fast as possible. This was probably instinct, as she had always done that to get cum to feed her addiction. Which she'd still have to feed, she knew, only now she'd have to get it from her mother's face, or at least whatever she didn't get from her hands. So, she started using one, not quite disobeying her brother for she stayed in position, still dripping, but succumbing to her addictive behavior and scooping up big globs for her to slurp down before they landed. Before long, she started to feel like whatever would fall already had, the rest might slide slowly down her legs, but there was no need to rush, the crisis had passed. Still gathering the dregs with her fingers and licking them clean, she started to shuffle her position so she could first sit up without doing so on her mother's face, and then slide off the side of the bed safely. Keith didn't tell her not to, but when her feet hit the floor, he said, "You missed some..." She knew she had, but as long as she didn't see it, it was only in the back of her mind and she felt like she could maybe ignore it. But her jerky brother pointed it out to her, took her by the shoulders and turned her towards her sleeping mother's face with a few translucent globs on it, and her cum-addicted mind turned it into a compulsion, reminding her that she didn't know where she might get her next fix so she should take whatever she got, where ever she could. And as her brother's hands slid down to the sides of her arms, gently but firmly resisting her attempts to raise them in her usual way, she knew what he was expecting, and didn't resist, just leaned forward and licked her mother's face where the cum dripped, blood rushing to her face even though there didn't seem to be anything dirty about licking her mother, at least not on her face, even if cum was involved... if anything it was cleaning her up. And yet, it felt dirty somehow, maybe because the only other person she could remember licking was Keith. And with him, it was almost always dirty. "That's a good girl," he said, after her tongue dragged along Mom's face a few times, getting what she craved so much, but the words made her feel almost good as the cum, an absurdly warm glow inside her. Even if was the kind of thing you'd say to a dog, even if it was only praise for doing something dirty, it was still praise from her big brother. And he was stingy with that even when he wasn't a jerk. Keith sent Susan back to his room, to his bed, to wait for him while he made a few last 'improvements' to their parents with the magic marker. He wouldn't tell her what they were, and her stomach fluttered with anxiety over the possibilities, how their family life might change, maybe even forever as long as he had the marker. And yet... her super-horniness wasn't making her uncomfortable, her cum addiction had just been fed, and she was tired. Not just the normal tiredness from a long day, but either, she'd discovered since the marker came into her lives that a really good fuck made her sleepy, so, even though she was worried and trying to wait up, she found herself drifting off. She woke to find her brother already beside her, and snuggled up against him, then fell asleep again feeling warm and safe and loved and only a little bit super-horny. Keith was still asleep when she woke next, too, after dawn, to light filling the room and a craving deep inside her. She thought about poking him in his pecs until he woke up, but the last thing she wanted was for him to wake up cranky. Maybe there was a way to get what she wanted without waking him... or if he had to be woken, at least doing it in a way that he'd be happy with. The bedcovers only came up to the bottom of their legs before skewing off to the side, and that meant she could see his boxers and the bulge inside. Seeing that, while knowing Keith was asleep, made her feel better about the previous night... it didn't make sense, but it seemed like guys got hard in their sleep. Dad must be the same way. She sat up, lifted his boxers by the waistband and pulled them down. There it was, itself looking almost asleep, despite the swollen hardness, it didn't jerk or move like excited, or even spring up, but then she was jarringly reminded that she was a cock-sucker. It was written on her skin, written on her soul, and when she saw a cock in front of her that wasn't otherwise being used, she had to. The truth was, she'd planned to do that anyway, but it was still surprising how firm the compulsion was. No hesitating, just leaned in, opened her mouth, and started sucking her brother's cock like a porn star with no gag reflex. The dick responded quickly too, growing even bigger than it was and now seeming like it would stand upright without the help of her hand. Succumbing to her cocksucker nature certainly wasn't a problem, although without her brother to guide her the 'sucking' part of it seemed a more consistent feature, without pausing for licks or any other motion, which meant she could only pause to take a breath when she absolutely had to. That got to be stressful, over time, making her regularly light-headed and not because she was close to an orgasm. Even more stressful was the realization that she couldn't stop on her own, not even when she heard one of her parents walking down the adjoining hall. If the door got opened, there would be no hiding it, she didn't think she'd even pull off while her mom or dad watched, until they physically pulled her away, which they probably would. And Mom did have a habit of coming in without knocking. Every sound she heard from outside made Susan think that was what was going to happen, that she'd be caught, and this time there'd be no hiding it, her parents not being able to pretend that sex wasn't going on. Maybe they still wouldn't care, but she wasn't sure she wanted that either. Still she kept on sucking regardless of the risk, the only thing she could do was pull the covers over her head and her brother's waist. That might buy themselves a few seconds that Keith might use to pull her away and come up with some stupid excuse that they would totally believe for why it looked like, underneath the covers, her head was bobbing up and down on his crotch. Maybe he could do that regardless, even if they were caught out in her open, he might just say something like how she had an itchy throat and his dick was the only thing that could reach far enough to scratch it. Maybe if Dad was the one that caught them he'd just offer to try with his. Her eyes winced shut while her tired tongue tried to shift position. Why'd she think about that? She was sucking her brother's cock, and he'd made her want it, but he hadn't written anything about wanting Dad, too. Even if she was a super-horny fuck toy cocksucker with a cum-addiction, shouldn't one cock be enough for her? If she kept thinking about others, did that mean she was turning into a slut all on her own? And if the marker wasn't responsible, there was no hope of the mark wiping away, either, it might well be permanent. A hand fell on her head, and for a moment she thought she'd missed the door opening, but then realized it was only Keith, starting to stir as her diligent cock-sucking was starting to pay off. Only a second later it jerked, and filled her mouth with his delicious rich cum. She swallowed only to get another, and another. By the time her brother said, "Now that's a nice way to wake up," there was nothing left but dribbles from a much smaller dick, which allowed her tongue to focus directly on the source of them. But even when those were gone, she couldn't let go, at least until about a minute later when Keith shoved her away. "Okay, that's enough, you're going to start wearing the skin off..." She disentangled herself from the covers and finally was able to take a deep breath that entirely filled her lungs and exhale, but she smiled at her brother when she did, mainly because he was smiling in a cute sleepy way that didn't make him look like a jerk at all, just a brother she now woke up with blowjobs. And not just that. "Good morning," she said. "Want to fuck quick before we have to go for breakfast?" He groaned a little. "Jesus, Susan, I may have a low refractory period but even I have my limits." She opened her mouth, about to suggest that he could write "always able to have sex," or "never runs out of cum" or something else on himself, but remembered she really didn't want to fuck now... or at least, she didn't want to do it while they'd be overheard and potentially caught. Her super-horniness was up to a level where she really did want to fuck, and that's what made her suggest it, but it wasn't so bad that she couldn't think better of actually doing it. "Okay. How about I go to my room and get dressed then?" "Sure." She crawled over his body to the side of the bed, then left him alone, wondering as she did if he was less of a jerk in the mornings, like some people were more of a jerk when they just woke up. He did seem a little nicer when they woke up yesterday, but those were unusual circumstances, with Mom bursting in on them. With that thought on her mind, she didn't listen at the door like she'd wanted to, to make sure the hallway was clear, and when she opened it, her mother was in the hall. Chapter Ten: This time, there was no dramatic confrontation. Of course, this time, it was less surprising... Susan had asked for permission to sleep in her brother's room, and she seemed to be clothed. She and her mom merely stared at each other for a few seconds, almost sizing each other up. For her part, Susan was trying to figure out if the spot that she'd licked cum off her mother's face the night before looked a little red or if it was her imagination, and then wondered if her mother was likewise inspecting her for subtle signs of something not quite right. Susan didn't think there would be, after all, the last batch of Keith's cum went directly down her throat, so there shouldn't be anything on her face. There might be cum spots from earlier on the nightshirt she wore, but she didn't think it would be that obvious if she acted completely normally. "Morning," she said, a blush automatically forming on her face that probably wasn't normal, nor was the way she averted her gaze towards the floor and walked back to her room without another word. But she couldn't help it, a part of her still thought Mom saw everything bad she ever did and just sometimes chose not to punish her. Maybe that was the case this time, too, because she just said, "Morning, Susan. We'll be having breakfast soon, so be sure to get dressed." She didn't sound at all angry, at least, although she seemed especially emphatic about the 'getting dressed' part. A new set of clothes made her feel more normal. She chose shorts today, technically pink in color but the colors were faded enough that they could be confused for white, and a red tank-top with blue trim. Some of the marks showed through, on her thigh, and if she bent over you could see she was a fuck toy. It didn't matter if they stayed at home, but it might be a problem if there were any family plans this weekend... she'd have to change again. Breakfast was eggs and toast, prepared not by Keith but by Mom. It was simple but good, except when Dad complained about how there was no bacon, and Mom seemed to blame Susan. Not outright, in words, but when she explained that they were all out she glared in Susan's direction in a way that made her blush guiltily, even though it was entirely Keith's fault. He ate the last of it for lunch and she didn't get any. "No big deal, though, I'll pick up more when we do the grocery shopping." "I'll come along," Keith said, entering the kitchen, belatedly, and still wearing only his boxers. Susan noticed her Mom's eyes look him up and down, and then suddenly away into her plate. "I've got some ideas, but I don't trust you with a list." He took the plate that was waiting for him on the counter and joined the table. "Then you'd better get dressed fast, unless you plan on walking around the grocery store in your underwear," Mom said, still not looking at him. Now her face did look a little red. "We're leaving right after we eat." She looked at Susan, said, "What about you, are you coming too?" Susan looked down at herself, imagined herself in public, people at the grocery store reading "fuck toy" on her chest when she bent down to get something from a low shelf. Maybe this was a wrong choice of outfit after all. "I'd have to change." "Forget it then," her mom said. "I can wait for your brother to get dressed, but I'm not waiting around while you spend hours deciding on what you want to wear." That was totally unfair, she didn't spend hours. "You can stay home with your dad." Dad cleared his throat, looked up like he was just now paying attention. "I'm sorry, what? I'm staying home?" "Well, if Keith's coming along you don't really need to, do you? And someone should stay home with Susan, just in case." Susan hated that. She was twelve, not a baby, it's not like she needed supervision. If you're old enough to start having sex you should be old enough to stay home alone. "And you're always complaining you never have time to yourself anyway." "I guess." Dad didn't seem too enthused by the idea. "I do have some work to catch up on." "Then it's settled. You two stay home, and Keith and I will have a mother-son shopping day." Susan didn't like the way mom looked at Keith when she said that. The look itself wasn't that bad, she was smiling, which was sort of unusual in itself, since she usually looked mildly frustrated or exasperated with her oldest son. But Susan also knew that Keith made Mom fantasize about him, and so saw more in that smile than a mother wanting to spend time with her son. When they were alone in a car, who knew what might happen? Maybe that was why Dad and Susan had been told to stay home, that Mom was going to try to have sex with Keith, and even though he said he didn't want that, Susan still fumed at the thought. He was a jerk, and jerks could lie about anything they wanted. She didn't want them to do anything together, and yet she didn't think she could stop it if that's what he wanted. The best she could do was try to talk to Keith before they left. So when he went upstairs to put some clothes on, she slipped up too. She found him with his jeans but still topless, and he looked good. Better than usual. Was it her super-horniness or did he write something new on himself? "Wanna have sex before you go?" She pulled down her shorts with her thumb, with the idea of reminding him what he already had access to any time he wanted. He didn't need Mom, too. He looked back at her with a smile as he slipped a shirt on. "I don't think we really have time to. Maybe when I get back." She opened her mouth, then closed it again, not sure how to beg him not to fuck Mom without seeming jealous, or worse, giving him the idea that it would be another fun thing to torment her with. He might do just that, even if he didn't want to fuck her... do it, or pretend that he did, just to mess with her. Susan wished she could get a hold of the marker and... hope sprung in her for a moment as she formed the thought, and then it was crushed almost as quickly. For just a second, it looked as though he was ready to leave, without it, but then he turned back to the lockbox and opened it, his back to her to carefully hide the combination. Of course he was taking it with him. She wouldn't be that lucky, that he might leave it at home and let her try to find some way to open it while he was gone. And when he was gone, he'd do whatever he wanted... all she could hope was that he was being honest when he said he didn't want to have sex with Mom. That made it almost not worth worrying about. Letting out a defeated breath, she moved onto her next concern. "You might be gone a while," she said. She knew how Mom's shopping trips with Dad could be, often they didn't go to just one place but stopped off at multiple stores because Mom kept remembering one more thing she needed to do. "Can you give me permission to cum, at least, when I get super-horny?" Keith made a show of thinking about it as he slipped the marker into his jeans pocket and put the box back. Susan by now knew his habits... that was a no, unless she'd done something that particularly made him happy, and aside from waking him up with a blowjob (which, she thought, should absolutely count and yet somehow didn't) she couldn't think of anything. Now that she thought about it, maybe she shouldn't have sucked him off at all, she should have gotten him to have sex with her first thing in the morning and had a fuck toy orgasm that would have lasted her until he got back. Because of that mistake, she was going to be suffering for the next few hours, at least if she was right about her brother's answer. Which she was. "No, I don't think so. I'd rather have you super-horny and waiting for me when I get back." She slumped, and he tousled her hair as he moved past her to the hallway. "Tell you what, if it gets to be too much, you can always ask Dad for permission." She followed him out and down the stairs, scowling at the thought. I'll never get that desperate, she told herself. Mom waited for him by the door, fidgeting one-handedly with the keys, then smiling again when Keith showed up, then gave one last glance to her husband, on the couch, and daughter at the foot of the stairs. "Okay, we won't be gone long, you two, so... try and get up to something productive." "Hey, Mom, you think I can drive?" Keith asked. Before, the answer would be "no." Keith's driving made Mom too anxious. Now, though, she said, "Sure, I don't see why not," and tossed him the keys. The moment the others were out the door, Susan and her dad looked at each other. Then looked away, Dad breaking contact first. He stood up and mumbled, "Well, I have some things to do upstairs." Susan gave him his space, spent time in the living room, trying to tell herself she enjoyed the quiet alone time, without Keith in the house. Her dad might be uncomfortable around her now, but at least he didn't see her as just a fuck toy, so it was almost like she could be her old self. Or so she tried to tell herself, but the feelings didn't go away just because no one was there to take advantage of it. Nor did reminding herself that there was no way to take care of her super-horniness make it go away... she might only be a little way down that path, but she couldn't stop herself from travelling down it. Thinking about it certainly didn't help the problem, because thinking about it lead to thinking of all the stuff she wanted to do to solve it, which led to more horniness. Watching TV sounded like a much better solution. She could lay down on the couch and with some educational Saturday morning television on at least be distracted. There was a show full of cute dogs with stories from owners and dog care tips and she only occasionally thought back to when she played dog for her brother, and his threats to make her have sex with a real dog, and wondering why these shows never showed what dogs dicks were really like. Isn't that far more important than that you should never feed your dog chocolate, which didn't everyone already know anyway? Susan gradually began to realize that TV wasn't distracting her as much as she had first thought. Or it was, but in the wrong way. When your mind was mostly occupied watching the television, it was easy to absentmindedly do something that felt good, because, hey, why not feel good? So she barely noticed that her hand slipped into her shorts to start rubbing herself, then fingering herself, it just felt good and helped pass the time. The same thing happened when she was eating junk food, if she wasn't careful and she did it while watching TV, she might go through a whole bag of chips without realizing it. Of course, when her father caught her pigging out on chips, it wasn't nearly as embarrassing. She wasn't 100% sure he saw anything. But then, she didn't notice he was downstairs at all until he coughed, at which time she quickly slipped her hand out of her shorts and pretended nothing was happening, and her father walked past looking for some papers and not looking in her direction at all. But his face was more pink than usual and he seemed to walk funny like he was keeping his front aimed away from her. Even though she didn't see one, she imagined him with a boner he was trying to hide as he went about his business. The thought made her own face flush and she buried it in a couch cushion as hard as possible so he wouldn't see, but her pussy clenched at it, wondering if her brother really did go back and write that Dad fantasized about her, if he was doing it right now when she looked at her, and what exactly he was thinking. She was also mortified at what he'd saw, or might have seen, but that was on a separate, quieter layer of the emotions running through her. Horny came at the top, then excited, then embarrassed, and below that flattered and ashamed were somewhere. Ashamed was not quite the same as embarrassed, she was finding out. For example, when she thought about going back to masturbating openly while he watched, pulling down her shorts so he could actually see her playing with herself, she was ashamed at the thought, but the embarrassment only came when she imagined him reacting badly, freaking out... if he watched patiently and excitedly, she didn't think she'd be embarrassed but still ashamed. On the other hand, when she thought about everyone at school learning she was her brother's fuck toy, she was super embarrassed but somehow not ashamed. Soon she found herself wishing that her father would either find the paper he was looking for and leave so she could go back to masturbating in peace, or try to act on those maybe-fantasies so she could ask his permission to cum. That was another thought she was a little ashamed of, after the wish came true. The first part of the wish, the innocent part, but still, soon he was running back up the stairs, and that was a relief. He hadn't said a word to her, not even a hello in passing, or asking if she'd seen whatever it was he was looking for. This made her more and more convinced that he had seen her rubbing her pussy while watching a show about dogs and was simply embarrassed. The real question was, was he ashamed? Chapter Eleven: Susan didn't go back to masturbating right away, though, despite that was why she wished her daddy would leave. She did those thigh-clenches and got some of the same kind of pleasure that way, but those seemed to be automatic, like her body reminding that she was super-horny, and that she needed to cum. But she knew if she gave in and masturbated it would just get worse and worse and pretty sure she'd do something she'd regret. Whether or not she was embarrassed or ashamed, she knew she couldn't give into certain urges, there was only so much change her life could take. She might sometimes like how her relationship with her brother had changed, but she didn't want to give up her whole life... there was no going back with some things. It was like the word on the marker, 'indelible,' which wasn't really true with the marker, because the marks did fade with time, and maybe you could find special chemicals that would erase them. But 'indelible' also meant 'unable to be forgotten or removed,' and that was the real danger of the marker, these indelible changes to the way people saw her. Already her parents were looking at her differently, and Daddy could never see her in the same way if she tried to have sex with him. Whether or not it worked. Even once the marks faded away, that change would be indelible. She just wished her brother would get home soon... that relationship couldn't change much more than it had already, and if he just made her cum she wouldn't even be considering throwing the rest of her normal life away. But he wasn't there, and she was considering it. Considering knocking on her father's door completely naked and, when he answered, telling him she was super-horny. Of course, he'd probably just say something stupid, like, "Hi, Super-Horny, I'm Dad." The absurd thought provoked a snort of genuine amusement... even as unfunny as the joke was, the situation somehow was. It helped a little, remembering the relationship as it should be. And there wasn't much that was as unsexy as a dad joke. She tried to keep more of those in her mind as she shut off the TV and went upstairs. Not to bother her father, but to hide in her own room, try and do something that took more of her brain than TV and didn't let her mind wander. Writing would normally be her first choice, but she figured anything she wrote would turn sexual... and considered it anyway, some traitorous part of her brain telling her that if she wrote out what she was imagining with her father as a story she wouldn't need to do it. But she knew that might only work if she could cum while writing it. So instead she read social media, checked some of her favorite sites, did some research for a fan fiction story she'd thought about writing before this all started. She didn't think she was going to write it, not while the marker was her life, maybe not ever, but doing the research and making notes still kept her mind off things, for a while, and since it wasn't actually writing it didn't turn dirty and start to make her touch herself and make the problem worse. It helped, but she kept having little slips as her mind wandered into dark territories, and as an hour stretched into two it began helping less and less and her need grew more and more, and with no idea how long her brother would be gone, she started thinking again of doing the unthinkable. She changed her clothes just because it seemed her shorts were soaked and visibly so, like she'd wet her pants, and while she was naked, she wondered if it'd be better to just stay that way. Maybe forever. Instead, she changed into a skirt, left underwear off, made a deal with herself, put it in fate's hands. She'd go downstairs, watch TV and pretend to sleep... or maybe not, but lie there at least, with her butt up and legs over one of the sides of the couch. With that skirt, people could see her panties like that, if she wore them. If Daddy came downstairs, he'd see her hungry wet pussy right away, and if he chose to do something about it, she wouldn't say no, she was way too horny to say no. If her mom and Keith came home first, then she'd just get up before they got in the hall and pretend nothing happened. Of course she knew fate was the one who put a literally magic marker in her life and a brother who used it to make her into a fuck toy, so fate might be planning for her to just be that forever. But if that was the case, you can't fight destiny, right? And if it wasn't fate, just bad luck and bad choices, then maybe she deserved to be punished for them a little more. Even if it meant making another bad choice. It really was a bad choice, although she only realized how bad later when she wasn't so horny... she didn't even think of what might happen if her dad did something and then Mom and Keith walked in on them in the act. Mom would be mad, maybe mad enough to call the police. Keith probably would be mad too, though his anger seemed safer. Either way, it was a very bad choice, one she only made because she was so horny. But this time, her bad choice didn't come with bad luck, though it was a very close thing. She heard her dad moving upstairs, like he might just come down and see what was waiting for him, and Susan had just decided to thrust one hand underneath her, masturbating, to give him something even better to walk in on, something that she couldn't pretend she was doing innocently... but a second later, before Daddy reached the stairs, she heard keys at the front door. Susan snapped upright, spun, and then sat down on the couch, pulling her skirt down so that no one would see the lack of underwear beneath it from any angle except perhaps at around her feet. By the time her mother came rushing in, she was the perfect picture of innocence. Not that she would have noticed, Mom was practically in a panic, sprinting for the bathroom with a single dark plastic bag under her arm. Keith came in casually a few seconds later, holding one more traditional reusable bag full of groceries which was the least he could do. Almost literally, because on family shopping days they always bought at least six or seven of those bags worth of stuff but he just carried in one, put it on the living room table and seemed completely uninterested in going back for more. Jerk. Instead, he smiled at Susan. "Have fun?" "You could have called and said you'd be so late." She was still horny, but now that Keith was here, it was easier to control. It was the uncertainty that made it so bad before, not knowing how long Mom and Keith might be gone or if they might be having sex... she looked back towards the bathroom at the thought, then at her brother, trying to find any subtle signs. There didn't seem to be any, but she wasn't sure what they might be. Maybe she could suck his dick and see if it tasted strange. Or she could just ask. "Did you and Mom...?" From the grocery bag, Keith retrieved a smaller bag, a bag of Doritos, which was already open, but now he took another single chip. It was one of those smaller bags, the kind that is good for one person or maybe two, the kind Mom never bought because she felt they weren't worth the money, and they were likely to spoil dinner. Susan wondered if he just talked her into it, or if it was a reward for something, like giving Mom a great orgasm. As he munched the chip, he looked at her with an expression on his face, like he was expecting her to finish the question... as though he had no idea what was in her head. When she didn't take the bait, he finally said, "We stopped at the mall." That wasn't an answer to the question she was looking for, but it'd do until she could taste his dick. "Would have been here sooner, otherwise." It was probably the closest she was going to get to an apology, so she smiled, at least until he put his feet up on the coffee table and brought up a whole new cause for suspicion. "But check it out, she bought me new shoes." They looked good, sleek black running shoes, name brand, more expensive than the kinds Mom usually bought them, but not ridiculously priced. It was the same question as with the Doritos again. Was that a "I feel guilty for what I'm feeling" gift, or a "I feel guilty for having sex with my own son in the mall parking lot" gift? Or maybe it's just a "he says he needs it and I have complete faith in him" gift. Maybe she was just being paranoid. Not just being paranoid, paranoid and super-horny. "Wanna go upstairs?" she whispered, hoping that he would reveal that nothing happened with Mom by his own horniness. "In a bit. Once the groceries get in I need to do some prep for dinner, I'm doing a roast. Should be good. Never realized how much I enjoyed cooking." At that moment, Mom came out of the bathroom. "Felt like I wasn't going to make it there. Those mall washrooms are disgusting, I didn't even want to sit down in there." She walked over to the staircase landing and called up, "Honey, come help get the groceries out of the car." Dad came down, gave those assembled a look, then went outside. Mom also seemed to look at Susan for a few seconds, then returned to the bathroom and came back a moment later with the black bag. "Susan, I'd like to talk to you upstairs in your room." Her heart started to race. A talk upstairs? That was never good. Did Keith say something about her? Her brother didn't seem like he was concerned, or smug, either of which might be the case if it was something he set up. He was just watching the TV, uninterested. "Uhm, okay," Susan said, and started up the stairs, her mother close behind. They didn't speak on the way to her room. They didn't speak immediately when she entered, either, which made Susan feel even worse as her mother directed her to sit on her bed. Mom didn't look like she wanted to do this, whatever it was, any more than Susan, looking all around the room and then took a deep breath and finally launched. "Okay, I know that you're becoming a young woman, now..." Oh, god, Susan thought. "And you know it's all perfectly natural to be exploring certain feelings that might be new to you, things that you know, pop into your mind and feel good, and you know, it's totally normal for a girl your age." "Mom, stop." If there was any comfort in this it was that her mother seemed as uncomfortable as she did. It wasn't much. "I'm not judging at all, it's totally natural to have these feelings and to want to explore your body in this way, your hormones are out of control..." At first Susan thought her Mom was complaining about her 'whore moans' especially when she continued with, "It's just you do have to realize that this house isn't very big." "Mom, please..." "We're not trying to interfere, but you need to learn to practice boundaries and also a little self-control, just so, you know, so you don't disturb anybody. Now, I got you something." She reached into the mysterious black bag and pulled out a hard-plastic shrink-wrapped item as Susan looked up in curiosity. At first, the cardboard backing was faced the other way, so she couldn't figure out what it was, but her mother awkwardly thrust it in her hands and then seemed to take a lot of interest looking out the window. It was a finger-sized cylinder, pointed at one end, described as a "mini personal massager." It looked very much like the toy Keith found in the box with Mom's leashes, only smaller. She was still mortified, but at least it didn't say "My First Vibrator!" or something like that. Mom also handed her a pack of batteries that were exactly the right type listed as being required but not included. "Now, I don't want you rooting around in my stuff or using an electric toothbrush or anything like that," her Mom continued. "This is yours. Keep it somewhere discreet, and wash it after you use it, every single time, okay? If you need replacement batteries, come to me, not your father, okay?" Mom didn't look to see if Susan nodded at either question, at this point they were avoiding eye contact as much as possible. She didn't nod, tried to think if she should say thank you. Right now she wanted to just pretend this conversation wasn't happening. Though she did want to keep the vibrator. "And one more thing," her mother said, and reached into the bag again and pulled out... something weird, and not wrapped in any packaging, merely a tag on a string at one end. It was some sort of rounded bar, and looked a little like the very end of a bike handle, that rubber bit you hold onto, but it had holes all the way through it, like one of those wiffle balls. Susan had no idea what it could possibly be used for. Sure, you could probably push it up inside you, but you could do that with so many things. "If you feel you can't help being loud, put this in your mouth and bite down." She mimed the action, holding the gag, for that's what it was, just outside of her mouth. "You can breathe through it, but we won't be able to hear you so easily." At least now she knew completely for sure that they'd heard her. That also wasn't much comfort at all. "This way you can do whatever you need to do without worrying about your brother or father overhearing. They don't need that in their head." And now she knew for sure that they thought she was alone the previous night after dinner, that they didn't know her yelling out was from her brother fucking her. Otherwise Mom certainly would have said something about that, right? That did make her feel a little better, finally. Even if this conversation was horribly painful, it could have been a lot worse. Okay, her parents probably thought of her as a super-horny preteen who couldn't stop from touching herself... which she was, too, but that perception, as indelible as it was, would be easier to live with once she finally found her way out of the marker business. If they found out Keith and her actually had sex, that was something else. She just had to convince her brother to stop flaunting it. After nearly a minute of silence between her and her mother, with neither of them knowing exactly what to say, Mom finally moved towards the door. "I'll leave you alone now." One step out the door and she came back in. "Oh, and if you're going to be sleeping in your brother's bed again... make sure everything's out of your system in here first, okay? You'll, um, sleep better." She left again, and this time she didn't return. Her next visitor was Keith, a few minutes later. He had something behind his back. "What was that all about?" There were no points in any secrets, so she held up the still shrink-wrapped mini-vibrator The gag she left on the bed beside her. Her brother sat down beside her, still keeping whatever he was holding out of sight. "So that's what she was doing when she sent me to go find a pair of shoes I liked. I just thought she was getting, you know, women's stuff." He grinned at her, tousled her hair. "Looks like I wasn't the only one to get something nice out of this trip, huh? Actually, you got two gifts." She thought he meant the gag, but he didn't seem to have noticed that at all, and it sat unnoticed between them. He might have meant the batteries, but she wasn't sure, and there was still the thing he was hiding. That could have been a gift, but she didn't want to presume. So she said, "Huh?" He did in fact lift the thing he brought into the room, a long, thick, green vegetable. "You got me a cucumber?" Chapter Twelve: Susan stared at the vegetable as her brother explained. "Well, I figured you might be suffering by now, and since I might be busy for a while with dinner, I'd have mercy and let you make yourself cum... but only while this is deep in your pussy." It certainly had a good shape for it, rounded at both ends, and though it was longer it was more or less the same thickness as Keith's dick when he was hard. She noticed all of that right away, and she wanted to try it out even before he'd explained what it was for, and even more once she realized that he'd given her permission. Even if it was conditional permission, that counted before. She'd prefer the real thing (or maybe something a little wider, even), but at this point, she just needed to get a way to cum, so she reached out and took the vegetable from him, then pulled up her skirt. She spread her legs slightly, and pushed one slightly yellow-streaked head of the vegetable up against her slit, rubbed up and down to get some wetness on it, and then began practically forcing it inside her. It didn't hurt, though it looked like it probably should, her lips swollen around it and clit poking upwards and excited but as though it, too, was straining against the internal pressure. Keith watched until it was about halfway in... not halfway down the whole cucumber, but halfway on where it would be if it was his dick, and then said, "Just remember, that's just a loaner." That made Susan stop the insertion and look up at him quizzically. "What?" "Yeah, I'm going to need it back when it's time to make the salad tonight." He had that grin again, that devilish look. He was going to feed the entire family a salad made with a cucumber that she'd cum all over. The thought excited her too, but she refused to show it, grimaced instead. "Why would you do that?" "Cause I think it'll taste good." He pulled back his sleeve where the words "Good Cook" were written. "You going to question my chef-ly instincts?" She sighed, but decided to pick her battles. She didn't think her parents would notice what had happened to the cucumber... she doubted either of them had tasted what pussy juices taste like, so they'd probably just think it was a weird salad dressing. Which it sort of was. Susan's All-Natural Salad Dressing. A gasping laugh escaped her. "There, that's the spirit. So I'll be back for that in a little bit. Have fun getting it all nice and juicy for me." After her brother left and closed the door, she leaned back, one hand still on the cucumber, then spotted the hard-plastic package out of the corner of her eye and got an idea. She sat up suddenly and violently tried to tear it apart. Of course, it wouldn't work, but she gave it a few more frustrated tries, twisting it this way and that before finally deciding she needed scissors. So she rolled to the end of the bed, trying to keep the vegetable inside her by keeping her knees closed. There was no way she'd make it all the way downstairs like that, but there were some scissors somewhere by her desk for occasional crafting projects or school work, so why take it out when she could just duckwalk? It took some searching, but she found it in a drawer, returned to the bed and cut open the plastic, just a little until it was weak enough to tear open. Next she needed the batteries, but at least that packaging was easy to open and before long they were inserted. There was a sliding switch on the toy with off and three settings... she slid it all the way to the maximum setting and it came to life, shaking eagerly. Susan thought it might be best to turn it off again before putting it in her ass, which was where she intended it, but first while it was on she slid it up along she slide of her cucumber-devouring pussy lips and her whole body seemed to shake. Yes, this was going to be good. A voice through the door broke her composure for a moment. "Don't forget the gag, sweetie." Susan immediately shut the power off and her face felt on fire, then stopped moving, trying to be as silent as the grave until she heard her mother's footsteps retreating. Yes, it really was a small house and a noisy toy... maybe not loud enough to be heard everywhere in it, but if someone was right outside her room, clearly someone would. Hopefully it'd be quieter when it was actually inside of her. Once she was sure her mother was no longer standing by her door, she rolled onto her side and then pressed the pointed end to her butthole, feeling it start to drip in anticipation, and then started pushing. She got about halfway before she realized that, if she wasn't careful, it could slide all the way in and close around it, leaving it stuck in there for who knows how long. Better to be safe and leave enough out that it wasn't in danger of that, and where she could easily access the switch. She flicked it back to the full power position, and suddenly it was like her whole lower body was vibrating in pleasure. Letting go of the vibrator, her other hand closed on the cucumber in her pussy, sliding it in and out of her stuffed but still hungry cunt. Her heart raced along with the incredible sensations with what felt like irregular bursts, like it was trying to decide whether to follow the slow rhythm of her thrusting the cucumber in and out or the much faster buzz of the vibrator shaking her asshole violently. It wasn't just her heart, her chest heaved sucking down air, her holds clenched and she even bit down on her lip... her entire body seemed to be a series of mostly involuntary motions surrounding a set of sensations that were overwhelming her. Her mom's warning popped into her head again, something that should have drained all the excitement out of her, but she was too far gone for that and instead the thought that her mother, maybe her dad, knew what she was doing added more excitement, mixed with embarrassment. The gag was probably a good idea despite that. Her free hand lurched out questing around the bed, searching for the gag her mother recommended, and part of her pictured her whole family watching this display, not bothered by her writhing in sexual pleasure and concerned only that she not make enough noise to disturb the neighbors. Finally closing her hands on the rubber, she thrust it into her mouth and bit down as her other hand, the one on the cucumber, picked up speed as she reached the moment she'd been needing for hours. Suddenly Susan felt like so much more than a squirming, clenching collection of parts feeling pleasure, she was pure pleasure itself. It couldn't last forever, not even very long. After her brain finished exploding (figuratively, some part of it mind reminded her) she lay there, catching her breath through the holes in the gag. Her ass still buzzed with the vibrator on maximum, and she still liked it, but it seemed so much less intense now. She could have stopped there, taken out the cucumber, sucked on it to get her own cum to feed her addiction, gone back to being a normal girl again until the marks on her body once again took over her life. Then again, she had permission to cum as long as the cucumber was inside her... who knew when she'd next get the chance? It was a slower start this time, and she spit the gag out of her mouth first... she wasn't sure whether it did the job of making her quiet, but it wasn't pleasant anymore. In the moment, it was, there was something that really felt good about having something in every hole... but it still felt good just being stuffed in her pussy and ass, and lying there, rubbing her pussy and the long green vegetable still inside to gather whatever girlcum she could to feed her addiction. If only one of them was a real cock... or maybe not just one, her pussy tingled with the thought of it, not just Keith fucking her pussy, but also someone else, Daddy, fucking her ass. She imagined him there, forced by a word written on her by her smirking brother, and Susan lying between them on the bed, squeezed, rocking with fuck toy orgasms as each of them came in her. It was a wicked thought, and so was the one that followed, that she wouldn't need a gag if there was someone else there, too. She didn't know who, right away, some teachers popped into her head and she auditioned them mentally, taking a few seconds to imagine their cocks in her mouth in turn. None of them felt quite right... not bad, maybe even a lot of fun, just not perfect and she wasn't sure why they'd be visiting her house to join in the fun. Maybe it'd be best to stick with just her father and brother, that way she could keep the vibrator going in her ass. Yes, that clicked in her head, because she could pretend that was happening right now. It was even plausible that Keith might want her to do that someday soon, with the way he'd been acting, the way he seemed to want his parents to fantasize, to even actually taste her. Fucking was the logical next step... and she knew it was wrong, a step too far, a step their family couldn't come back from, but in her imagination it was okay. It was like how you weren't bad for writing a story where somebody murdered... anything was okay in the imagination, so it was okay to use this idea to cum. She rolled onto her knees, and angled herself so the cucumber pressed down against the bed, so instead of using her hands she merely needed to push against it and it would push back. In that way, she could pretend to be riding on top of one cock while her ass buzzed pleasantly. Now if she only had another fake-cock to stand in for Daddy. Or maybe Keith... in her mind's eye, which one was in front of her and which one below jumped back and forth. She'd never really seen her Dad's dick, not hard anyway, and wondered if it was bigger, because he was taller... she didn't think it worked that way, but it might. There wasn't anything on hand that was bigger than the cucumber... the gag was the closest thing to the right shape, if she slipped it in her mouth sideways, so that's what she did, though it felt even less like a real cock than a cucumber, her tongue kept dragging on the holes. That just meant she had to imagine even harder, and think dirtier thoughts. Imagining fucking her dad and sucking Keith (or the other way around) became imagining doing it all in front of Mom, became Mom telling Keith to cross out the 'in' from 'infertile' so she'd get pregnant and have to return to school with a big belly and not knowing which of her family members was the father. Everyone would think she was a slut and treat her one and since she'd have to pretend she didn't know who got her pregnant, she'd probably have to pretend to be a slut and just fuck anyone who wanted her, especially if she was still a Cock Sucker and Super-Horny. They'd probably see the marks, too, those ones if Keith renewed them plus whatever else he might write. That could be anything. He'd talked about making her fuck a dog, maybe he'd write "dog-fucker" on her and anyone who wanted to see that would just have to bring their pet. She once again tried to imagine what that was like, having sex with a dog. It couldn't be that different, and right now it wasn't even disgusting, it was almost hot... the only reason for the 'almost' was that it was too unknown, too hard to picture... but she'd both loved and hated it when her brother treated her like a dog, and a dog having sex with her would be the same thing, except she couldn't be angry at the dog so she'd probably enjoy it more. Imagining that while riding the cucumber was getting her close to the point of another orgasm, but instead of continuing with that, she found her mind circling back to Keith and Daddy sharing her instead, only now they were being rougher, she was wearing a leash that was tugged violently whenever she wasn't fucking back hard enough. Imagining them too turned on to treat her like a daughter or sister, just using her solely a fuck toy spoke turned her on a lot more than she expected. It was weird, the thought of them not caring about her pleasure seemed to give her even more, like if her feelings didn't matter then she was free to just enjoy it instead of being so conflicted like she was every other time. She didn't have to worry about what was right, just feel good and make her family feel even better. The gag in her mouth still didn't feel much like a cock but she sloppily sucked it like her life depended on it and she felt the moment coming when the pleasure took over and rocked on her vegetable with all the energy she had left until it came, until she came, collapsing onto the bed in a pile, the drool-covered gag slipping out of her mouth. Chapter Thirteen: Eventually Susan came back to herself and shut off the vibrator as soon as she could manage to move her arms, then finally pulled the cucumber out, giving all her holes a rest. They were now starting to hurt... but it was a good hurt. Not just because now she felt so relaxed, but because it occupied her mind. So did her reflexive probing of her pussy to collect her juices on her fingers and suck on them to feed her cum addiction with her own cum. Because once the pain faded and she'd quelled that urge, shame began to drip back into her, shame for thinking what she thought and enjoying it as much as she did, and for knowing that soon she'd be doing exactly the same thing, or worse. She couldn't change what had happened already, didn't even think she wanted to, but she knew she had to stop it from getting any worse. Or at least she had to try. Only problem was, she doubted she was strong enough or smart enough. Even as she looked at the cucumber, and realized that she could interfere with her brother's plans by eating it, she couldn't bring herself to make even that small rebellion. Then again, what did it matter if her parents ate that, as long as they didn't know. It was just a minor step. So was every step along this journey that had gone too far already, she knew, but still believed that if she could just find a line and get Keith to promise not to cross it, maybe it would be okay. For that, he needed to not be angry at her, so she left the cucumber as it was, for Keith to collect a couple hours later. He was a jerk about that too, sniffing it after he picked it up, saying, "Woo, how long'd you keep it in there? It's practically a pickle." But when he didn't get the reaction he seemed to be wanting, he changed. "You okay?" "Yeah," she said. "But we need to talk, okay?" The smirk returned. "Oh, we do? What, didn't you get to cum? Do you need masturbation lessons? I could get an expert in here." "No," Susan said, blushing despite the fact that there shouldn't be anything embarrassing about the topic of masturbation anymore. It was probably just the thought of bringing someone else in, which probably meant Mom, which was just the sort of thing they needed to discuss. "Just, please, can we talk a bit?" "Later. We'll have plenty of time to talk tonight, but right now I've got to finish dinner." Keith patted the cucumber again for emphasis, then grinned a wicked grin and left the room. Susan sighed. The conversation could wait, as long as he didn't try to do anything during dinner. Once dinner was officially called, Susan dragged her heels, descending the stairs slowly, worried that they'd somehow know what had happened and blame her, because of course based on all evidence she'd seen so far they wouldn't blame Keith. At the very least, Mom would know what she'd been doing upstairs, the first time she'd seen her since that awkward talk. Now that she wasn't thinking of seducing anyone, or letting them seduce her, she'd changed her outfit, into a simple pastel blue-green t-shirt with a smiling cartoon watermelon on the front, and a pair of pastel blue pants. Everyone was already seated at this time, so she slid into her spot beside Keith, trying to ignore her mother's look, her father's eyes automatically sliding away when their gazes crossed. On her plate was already a generous portion of some kind of white creamy pasta, one appealingly pink slice of meat, and a small quantity of salad... lettuce, tomatoes, and slices of a very familiar cucumber. They'd waited for her to start, except for Keith who already cut into his slice of meat when she sat down. Then everyone seemed to dig in at once. Members of her family, she'd noticed before, generally ate things like salad last, except for her mother who dove in first under the theory that it would make her eat less of the more fattening things. Everyone mixed things up a little, but Susan usually was more of a mixer than anyone else, taking a bite of this, a bite of that, but watching her mother eat pieces of cucumber that once had been inside her, while Keith looked on with a grin, made her focus on the roast, with occasional bites from the pasta. The rest of the dinner did taste delicious, she had to give Keith that, even if it was only because of the marker that he was such a good cook. The meat was cooked to the perfect level of doneness, so it was juicy and flavorful, the noodles were al dente, and the sauce complimented the meaty flavor when she swirled the roast in it. The remainder of the roast sat on a plate beside her father, who also was the one to cut it despite having nothing to do with the cooking. When he saw that Susan had none of the meat left, he raised the plate and thrust it in her direction. "Would you like some more meat?" "Of course she does," Keith answered for her. "She can't get enough of my meat." "Keith," her mother said, like he'd just said something questionable, but finally just shook her head and seemingly decided it wasn't worth bringing up since he almost certainly didn't mean anything by it. "Never mind." Her father dropped another slice of the roast on her plate, then returned to his own meal. "How's the salad?" Keith asked, directing the question directly at Susan. She glared at her brother, but dug her fork into a clump of greenery and put it in her mouth. There was a cucumber there, but to her surprise, she didn't taste anything unusual. There was some kind of vinaigrette dressing on it that drowned out any of her personal flavors. "It's fine. It tastes like salad." Pretty good salad, but she wouldn't admit that. "How about you, Dad? I think you'd like the dressing." Susan's face burned and she wanted to bury it in one hand, especially as her father finally sampled the salad, a forkful which included at least three slices of cucumber in a row. After chewing and swallowing, "Yeah, I'm not normally much of a salad person, but I like it. Not as much as the meat, mind you, but, it's pretty good. Hard to believe my son's suddenly turned into a master chef." "Something fishy to me," Mom said, and this time Susan did smack her face with her hand and held it there to try and hide her blush, and partly to keep from letting out an embarrassed "Oh god." "Oh?" was all Keith said. She finished her bite, then pointed her fork at Keith. "I think you've been spending all this free time this summer watching those cooking channels." "Maybe I'm just supernaturally talented," Keith said, which seemed to be the truth. "So, how about you, Mom, aren't you going to try some of my meat?" This time, Mom coughed through the bite of pasta she'd taken, and Susan stared suspiciously at the blush climbing up her mother's cheeks. "Yes, the roast is very good, Keith." She'd only had a bite of it so far, but Susan wondered if she'd tried some more of Keith's meat, either while shopping or in the hours before dinner. "If you want to take over the cooking from now on, I'm fine with that." "I don't know about that. Wouldn't want you to get lazy. And there's nothing quite like having your Mom serve you." This time, she didn't seem to notice anything unusual, just said, "That's sweet. At the very least we should set up a schedule so we know who's doing what on what day." They ate quietly for another minute, before Mom spoke up again and said, "So, I was thinking..." "Uh oh, that's a bad sign," Dad jumped in automatically. A glare shot his way before Mom continued, as though he hadn't said anything, "Since tomorrow's Sunday, why don't we go to church?" Nobody wanted to be the first to speak, even though it would break the awkward silence. As a family, they were the kind of believers who sometimes went to Church on Christmas or Easter, if they didn't have other plans, and had been that way at least since shortly after Susan's baptism. Religion just wasn't really talked about, it was assumed everybody believed, but that they were saved merely by the belief itself and didn't have to do any work at it. Now Mom was suddenly suggesting they give up their Sunday morning. "If you think it's a good idea," their father said finally, although the skepticism in his voice was clear. "I suppose it couldn't hurt." "What's the matter, Mom? Did something you feel the need to confess to?" Confession wasn't even really a thing at their church. "No!" Her mother denied Keith's joking suggestion so adamantly that Susan knew she had to be lying, that that was the whole reason for this, she was feeling guilty about something and thought going to Church might help. The only question was, did Mom feel guilty for her fantasies or for acting on them? It was too much to hope she was feeling guilty for whatever was going on with her co-worker, something Susan still didn't like thinking about. If it was about that, she would have brought up church yesterday, wouldn't she? "Hey, I don't judge, we've all got sins," Keith continued. "And if you think you need to get right with God for something, more power to you. But you know me, I like to sleep in. So I'm going to pass. I think I'm good." Mom seemed to deflate a little, like she'd expected Keith to jump at the chance, which was a silly thing to expect in Susan's book. Then again, she had complete faith with him thanks to the marker, maybe that included a lot of unrealistic expectations. She didn't seem to fight it, though. "Then I guess it'll just be the three of us." Susan let the moment hang for a few awful seconds, hoping Mom meant some other third person, then cleared her throat and said, "I don't really want to go." The boldness surprised her, but Susan just couldn't picture herself sitting in a stuffy old church, listening to a boring sermon while super horny and needing a fix of cum. She'd probably break down and start masturbating, or flashing the priests in the hopes one would molest her or something, and she really didn't want to do that. Necessity was, it seemed, the mother of bravery, as well as invention. I wonder if bravery and invention ever had sex. "You could really benefit from it, Susan," Mom said, and the way she stressed 'you' it felt like she was saying, "You're a dirty girl masturbating all the time and you need to beg God to forgive you." "I, uh..." her thoughts raced wildly and she brushed a lock of hair out of her vision as she tried to come up with some excuse they would buy. "I think I might be catching a cold. I don't want to make people sick there." It sounded fake, even to her... it was too bad her parents didn't have the same kind of faith in her as they did in Keith. "I'm disappointed in you, Susan... lying to get out of Church." Susan's head sank as she blushed, realizing that that was exactly what she did. Her brother surprised her though. "It's true, though," he said. "She was saying it earlier. Probably caught it from one of her friends. I hear there's something going around. And you don't want to make the whole Church sick." "Oh, honey, I'm sorry," Mom said. "It's just I haven't noticed anything weird. It's okay, maybe we can go next week." "Really?" Keith said. "You're not going to go just because we aren't? It's not really setting a good example for us, is it? I mean, if it's really important to go, shouldn't you go even if we don't?" "Maybe he's right," Dad said. "You don't want them to think that this is just about them." Mom frowned, and Keith added, "Tell you what, you guys go, and I promise I'll make Susan watch one of those megachurch channels, then when next week or whenever Susan's feeling better, if you still feel it's important, we'll all start going." Susan looked at him, but he didn't seem at all worried that he might have to start giving up his Sunday mornings. He must have something planned, she realized, then decided that he didn't even need to. If he wanted to get out of it, he could just write "doesn't want to go to Church" on Mom. Or maybe just rely on his fast-talking their way out of it when the time came. Or maybe he assumed that, by the time next week rolled around, Mom would be too ashamed that her children are fucking in front of her to want to set foot in a Church all on her own. If that was his plan, she'd have to try to talk him out of that... but everything else sounded good, especially if it meant Mom and Dad out of the house on Sunday mornings so she can Keith could have fun. If Mom accepted. After chewing her son's deal over, along with a mouthful of food, she says, "Fine, you're on. But both of you are still welcome to join us tomorrow if you guys change your minds." "So is this a good time to ask if I need to go too?" Dad asked, then, responding automatically to her glare, raised his hands defensively and said, "Kidding!" But his automatic grin slumped again when she wasn't looking and he looked very much like someone who was volunteered for something that held no interest for him. A few mouthfuls of food later, Mom pushed her plate away from herself, still containing a half-eaten slice of roast, and stretched back with her arms behind her back. "So, Keith," she said, while stretching, almost as though to get his attention while her breasts were prominently thrust up and forward. "Have you been making the most out of your summer so far?" Keith's smug grin returned, looking back to Susan for a moment. "I'd say so." "Any summer romances I should know about?" A part of Susan wanted to say, "Yeah, me," but that would go against all of her own plans, so she had to play the naive little sister and look interested in what he'd say. "As hot as I am?" Keith said. "Trust me, I do all right." "When you do find someone special, you should have her over, your father and I would love to meet her. Or him, that's okay too, not that I think you are like that. But there must be someone you've got your eye on, even if you are beating off admirers with both hands." "Uhm, if he's doing that, I'd really rather not see it," Dad said. "I'm fine with it, just out of my sight, please." Susan looked at her father in confusion, then at the glare Mom shot him. "What?" "Never mind," he said, then reached out to point at Mom's plate with his fork. "You going to finish that?" Mom raised the plate, though she still seemed angry at whatever Dad had said, while he dragged the unfinished meat away. "But you're mother's got a point, you should be out there ladykilling." He cleared his throat. "Again, not literally." "So, is there?" Mom asked. "Someone you've got your eye on?" Keith now had his eye on his little sister, literally, but then looked away and said, "I don't know, there's a cute girl who works at the pool I think is pretty into me." Tricia, Susan remembered. Not long ago she was trying to set her brother up with the girl. Now that thought was so far out of her mind that it gave her a nervous sick feeling. "You should invite her over some time. For dinner. Now that you're finally ready to show off these mystery cooking skills you've been hiding... well, you were already a catch, but so much more. Girls love guys who can cook. " "I don't even have her number, Mom." "You know where she works. You can take Susan and... oh, right, she's sick." Ha, Susan thought. "Well, you can go on your own one of these days, send Susan off to one of her friends. I have no doubt that if you just go over to her and have confidence, you could have her agreeing to come right here on her day off." "Here?" Susan asked. It was one of the dating rules that, at the time, seemed to apply to both of them... no opposite sex 'friends' in the house when the parents weren't home. A rule that didn't seem to make sense at first because Susan had girl friends of hers over when only Keith was there, but they explained that that didn't count because it wasn't one of his friends, but that if he wanted to bring a girl he knew over he wasn't allowed to, without supervision. Suddenly, though, that rule was out the window. She suspected it would still apply to her. "Well, he's still got to watch you, most days, so if he wants to hang out with a girlfriend, it only makes sense that he brings her here. You don't want to cramp your brother's style, do you?" "I don't even know what that means," she said, although really she had a sense of the term. "He doesn't even have a style." "Doggy," Keith said automatically, then grinned, and added, "Cowgirl, Reverse Cowgirl." "Don't be gross," Mom said automatically, but didn't chastise him any more than that. "She doesn't even know what any of that means." "You'd be..." he started, but Susan reflexively kicked him, not full-force, but the side of her foot against the side of his leg, just to remind him to be careful, and he did in fact stop, though she couldn't stop from blushing. Mom already knew she knew way more than she probably 'should,' was this just a case of family all lying to be polite? "Yeah, you're probably right." "And you shouldn't either." "Sure, Mom." He finished off the last bite of his meal, then said, "Anyway, I'm done. I'm gonna go up and play some games, I think." He slipped out of his chair without even asking to be excused. "You can come up and play with me later, if you want," he added to Susan, ruffling her hair. "If you're not sick of shoving meat in your mouth." Susan held her breath, but her parents didn't seem to notice, acting like he'd said "When you get sick," which would suggest that he meant when she was done eating, instead of "If you're not," which suggested that that was going to be part of their 'playing together.' Then again, maybe it was another instance of everybody knowing what was going on and yet pretending not to. It was so hard to be sure, and it mattered a lot. If she knew everyone was pretending, she could just relax and pretend along. But if they just hadn't noticed, then it was another close call and something she had to put a stop to before they finally did catch on. The only thing said about it after he left was when Mom took his plate, and her own, into the kitchen, she stopped by Susan and said, "I don't want you sleeping in your brother's bed tonight. You don't want him catching your cold, do you?" She shook her head, and Mom moved on, and Susan spent a few minutes trying to figure out what THAT meant. She finally decided that it must mean they didn't realize what was going on, otherwise wouldn't Mom have advised her not to shove her brother's meat in her mouth? That was good, in one way, even if part of her wanted to just believe things could continue with everyone pretending. Susan picked at the rest of her food, leaving a couple bites of the pasta and most of the salad, before looking at her dad and asking, "May I be excused?" "Sure," he said. "Give me your plate." Dad often finished off anything she left behind, though rarely had that included slices of a cucumber she'd cum on. So although she'd been excused, she stood off by the wall and watched fascinated as he dug into the salad like it was more than a chore, and she couldn't help picturing him licking her with the same enthusiasm. It was something Keith had only done briefly a couple of times, just enough to let her know that it felt really really good... maybe if Daddy did wind up treating her like the fuck toy she was, he'd be more eager. Her thighs squeezed together and she realized her hand was on her stomach and almost ready to sink below her pants right there, and she shuddered, then reminded herself of the problems it would cause, and started up the stairs. She really had to have a talk with her brother. Chapter Fourteen: Susan had a plan when she entered her brother's room, and even how she got there was part of the plan. She knocked quietly, waited for him to invite her, better to not make him mad. Unfortunately, the moment she stepped inside was where the plan she had seemed to evaporate into a million conflicting threads of plans as she second-guessed every course of action she'd been so committed to before. Now she wondered if maybe it'd be better to try to have sex with him first, so he could think about what she had to say without his mind clouded with horniness, or if it would be better to talk to him first so she could use her pussy to tempt him into agreeing. If she should just bring it up suddenly or wait until he got close to the topic, make it look like it was a natural part of the conversation. If she should use reverse or regular psychology. After telling her she could come in, he ignored her at first to finish up a task on his computer game, then looked over his shoulder at her, with a smirk, and said, "Dad really seemed to enjoy your special salad dressing, huh?" "You need to stop," she said. It just slipped out, far more angrier and confrontational than she intended in any of her plans. He spun his chair to face her, eyes looking suddenly dark and angry. "Oh, I do, do I?" Deliberately softening her voice, trying to sound submissive, "I just mean... please, would you listen to me for a second?" "Do I look like I'm not listening?" She sighed. "It's just... look, I'm not saying stop what you're doing with me. I don't mind it." No, honesty would be better here, she thought. "Okay, I like it. A lot. But... it's starting to get dangerous, what you're doing, like, you're trying to show off or push things further and further and..." She took a breath, changed direction, decided now was the time to ask the burning question. "Have you had sex with her yet?" "Who?" Who else? "Mom. You were alone with her, and you were like so late, and..." He smirked. "What's the matter, jealous?" "No." She wondered if honesty was the best policy there, but it was too late, and besides, he was a jerk, so knowing she was jealous might make him more likely to do it. Reverse psychology, she decided, would be the best play here. "I don't care who you have sex with, but, just tell me..." If he had, then maybe this was all for nothing. "I haven't," he said. "Promise." "Okay, good. I'm just saying you shouldn't. And you need to stop shoving us in their faces, too." "I need to, do I?" Again, it seemed like he was starting to get angry. "This is for your sake as much as mine!" She took a breath, then said, "Look... I'm still your fuck toy and I'm also your sister, and the sister part isn't going to change no matter what... and even if we lost the marker right now, okay, I could still have fun being your fuck toy after the marker ran out, I think." Maybe she'd suddenly change her mind, but she didn't think so. "But with Mom and Dad... if they find out what you're doing, it'll change everything, forever." "Relax, you've seen how easily I can manipulate them." "Because of the marker," she pointed out. "What happens if it runs out?" The marker itself said 'never runs out,' but before he could point that out she added, "Or you lose it? Or something else happens, and the marks fade away and you can't control them anymore? If you had sex with Mom, or made Dad have sex with me, or even if they just knew we were doing it. They're not going to forget that. It'll be indelible." She stretched out the word, savoring it now that she'd finally hit on the right word it felt like lightning. The marker had warned it all along, it wasn't just about the words themselves, but about the changes that came from what you did under its influence. "Who knows what they'd do, to you, to us, to themselves even?" "It won't run out. And what makes you think I'm ever going to be dumb enough to lose it?" Finally she was able to break out one bit of the argument she'd planned in advance. "I bet that homeless guy we got it from thought the same thing." Keith tilted his head like he was considering the point. "All I'm saying is we don't know. This is magic. With a capital M." Although she didn't actually know if it should have a capital M if she were writing this. "Maybe it's like one of those magic things in the stories, where whoever has it is cursed to lose it eventually, no matter how hard they try to hold on to it. And you're acting like you don't care if you keep what we've been doing a secret and that's going to get us in trouble, you especially. I'm never going to tell on you, I promise, but... let's just keep doing things the smart way and keep Mom and Dad out of this, okay?" He seemed to be thinking it over. "But it's so fun teasing them," he whined. "There are other ways to have fun," she said, and tugged down the front of her pants. He didn't seem to be too impressed, unfortunately, but maybe he was still thinking over what she'd said. "And if you promise not to push things with them, I'll let you use the marker on me again." "You'll 'let me'," he said, although this time he seemed more amused. "Some of the stuff you wrote is starting to wear off." This was a big exaggeration. They weren't looking quite as fresh but they were still easily visible, only a couple days old... although somehow it felt like much longer. Still, it was all she could think of to offer. "I'll get naked right now and let you fill it all back in. No fighting or trying to get out of it. Even the stuff I don't like, I'll go through another few days and then promise to do it again whenever it starts to fade." "And what about new stuff?" She shrugged. "Well, I can't stop you can I? Just... maybe you could ask me just in case I think of something you don't. Like when you almost made me literally brainless." She actually didn't know if it would happen like that, but thought he could use the reminder. "I still think you'd be cute brainless," he said, and then made a point of correcting himself, "Figuratively brainless. But you do come in handy now and then. So you have a deal. If you submit yourself right now." He barely had to say the words and she was shedding all her clothes. While she sat on his bed to pull her socks off, he went for the lockbox that he kept the marker in. "We'll do the back first." Without a word of complaint, she lay on his stomach, although it was only then she realized how nerve-wracking it was. It wasn't that she was afraid of the words staying on her... she was starting to get used to them, and the effects they had on her, and she really did feel she could stay like this... but when she had her back turned, he could write anything and she wouldn't know until after, couldn't try to talk him out of it. It was exactly the kind of jerky thing he might do, surprise her with some new rule, despite his promise, which wasn't even actually a promise now that she thought about it. She just suggested it and he hadn't said no. Susan flinched when she felt the cool tip against her skin, but it seemed to be in roughly the same spot as "Super-Horny," and the letters, as best as she could follow them by feel alone, seemed to match. He moved on and made sure she "Loves Anal Stuff" again. If he was doing it all in order, cum addiction would be next, and though she curled her leg back so he could have easy access, she decided to press her luck. "You know, you don't HAVE to rewrite everything, if you don't want." "Oh? And you'd like to do without this one, would you?" "It might be better to just let it expire... or even cross it out, just to see what would happen." "Really? I mean, I'd love to, but doesn't it kind of go against your whole argument?" He seemed genuinely puzzled for some reason. Did he actually think she'd want to keep it? Even if she sort of liked sucking him now the addiction was inconvenient. "What?" "You just gave me a big speech about keeping it all secret, right?" "Yeah. And me not being addicted to cum will make it easier to keep it all secret." "Oh!" He let out a snort of amusement as he put it together. "You meant this one." He tapped her foot with the side of the marker. Susan herself was still confused for a moment. "What else would I...?" Then she remembered, the other one on her back, that read 'Infertile,' so she couldn't get pregnant. He thought that she was suggesting they cross it off to see what happened. And... wait, he also said he'd love to. Did that mean he wanted to get her pregnant? Her face flushed and she felt the cleft between her legs start to get wet at the idea. "No, it's probably best to keep that one then." "Yeah. Let's keep both of them, in fact." She felt him mark on her back, again, and then moved to her foot and, just like that, she was forced to live with her cum addiction a little while longer. When he was done, Keith slapped her other butt-cheek, said, "These other ones are still pretty fresh, so we'll skip them." She was still rolling over the idea in her head, that her own brother might want to get her pregnant, and trying to deny how much that turned her on despite feeling her body respond to the thought and make her own internal monologue a liar. "That means turn over." "Oh," she said, and quickly rolled over, bent her legs and drew them up beside her so he could have easy access to rewrite "Cock Sucker" when he chose. The position made it obvious that her slit was wet and slimy with arousal, especially when he leaned in close to write on her inner thigh. Less obvious was the sudden hardness of her nipples, but he had to know she was horny... she just hoped he didn't piece together why, or she might never live it down. Maybe it wasn't even because that, she told herself. He'd wrote "Super Horny" on her, and even if the words were already there in the same spot, maybe it counted as writing it twice, and made it twice as powerful. She should have thought this through. "I still haven't decided what new to write," he said. "But I think I decided where. I think you'd look good with one right here." He traced an arc over her mound with the back end of the marker. "It's got to be short and punchy and to the point though. Maybe I won't do it right away... you're going to submit for me whenever I decide to, right? No fighting?" Susan nodded. "As long as you keep your promise." He made a sound, like a "hmmm" that sounded sort of like agreement but infuriatingly without actually saying it, as he went to fill in "Fuck toy" across her chest. "You know, I was never going to let Dad fuck you." That was a surprise. "Sure seemed like you were going that way." It seemed bizarre to be disappointed he wasn't when she'd struggled so hard to prevent it, like she was losing the fantasy that he might break their agreement and do it anyway. "Nah. You're MY fuck toy. I just thought it would be hilarious if he really wanted to." He suddenly reached out to her breast, or rather to her nipple on a mostly flat chest, and pinched it roughly, making her gasp with pain, pleasure, and surprise, all at once. "Sure seems like the idea turned you on, too, though." "Don't be ridiculous," she lied. Turned out she hadn't entirely lost the fantasy. "That's just my super-horniness." "And I wasn't going to fuck Mom, either." She felt her body relax with that news, though her skin tingled with electricity, especially around her nipple. "Probably." Her heart sank again, not just at him teasing her like that, but also for what it meant. "You mean I agreed to all this for nothing?" Her brother flashed her a grin. "No. You actually did change my mind. I was working up to getting Mom and Dad to accept me fucking you right in front of them." He'd now finished remarking her as a fuck toy, and she'd been holding still as he did... now that the marker was pulled away, she let out a deep breath that sounded like a breathless sigh of someone who found that idea really hot despite knowing it would be an incredibly bad idea. Which was fair, because that's exactly how she felt... a part of her even told her it wasn't a bad idea, it would make it that much easier to deal with her cum addiction and super-horniness. "I was hoping to make them catch you giving me a blowjob when they got home from church tomorrow." She pictured the scene, her parents walking in on her, jaw dropping, as she sucked on Keith's shaft like a shameless whore... and she realized how easy it would be, too. Ever since she'd been given the "Cock Sucker" mark, she couldn't keep herself from sucking a cock Keith's cock when she saw it close to her mouth, at least until she was physically pushed away, so all he'd have to do is pull down his pants down and expose himself right as they walked in the door and she'd not stop until he'd cum down her throat with their parents watching. Possibly not even then. Now that would be an indelible event in the family history. "But you made some good points, so we'll play it your way. Maybe if we're still going strong in a year." Chapter Fifteen: Keith clicked the cap back into place, done with all the remarking that was more than a day old, and apparently he still hadn't thought up a new mark for right over her pussy. That was okay. Susan couldn't count on her brother being nice and letting her get away without one, but she could hope he might forget about it. Especially if he got distracted. "So you feel like using your fuck toy?" Her eyes grew wide with an idea. "We can do it while I've got the vibrator Mom got me in my ass." Nobody to suck on, unfortunately, but two out of three wasn't bad. "Whatever happened to keeping a low profile?" He took a second to put the marker back in the lockbox, which Susan had to think was a good thing. Out of sight, out of mind. "They could easily walk in on us, you know." "No they won't. They'd at least knock, and then believe any story you gave." "Still, it's a risk. Maybe we should wait for tonight, after they go to sleep when they won't hear anything." Susan knew her brother was teasing her now. "Come on, you know I can't wait that long," she whined. "We have to take some risks, unless you want to cross out some of these marks. Besides, we can do it in my room. Mom won't interrupt if she thinks I'm using it by myself, and she'll never think you were in there with me." Even if she couldn't find him anywhere else, Susan bet Mom would think he'd just gone out with friends without her noticing. "Fine. But if we're going to risk..." He grinned. "Dare you to run from here to your room naked." He held up one finger. "And by dare, I mean if you don't I won't follow." She glared at him, but she needed it too badly, and the risk didn't seem all that bad. As long as their parents weren't already upstairs during the few seconds it would take to get out of his room and into her own, there was no chance for them to see anything. And she was pretty sure they were still downstairs. "Will you be lookout?" she asked. "Sure." "And carry my clothes?" Mom or Dad finding what she was wearing at dinner on her brother's floor had to raise some suspicions no matter how much they trusted him. "You're asking a lot," he said, even though she really wasn't. It's not like they weighed anything. "But okay." A half-minute later, she was breathless, in her room, and excited enough at the thrill that little bit of danger provided that she hopped on her bed and began rubbing her pussy with one hand while waiting a few seconds more for her brother to follow. He smoothly closed the door behind him when he did, then tossed her clothes in a sloppy pile on the ground and began to undress. "Where's your toy?" She scurried along her bed until she could reach her nightstand drawer where she left it, then retrieved it and, while she was there, the gag as well. It might come in handy. With her legs spread, she worked the head of the device around her rectum, which was already magically lubing up, and then pressed it halfway in, hoping he was turned on rather than disgusted by the act, which seemed like something a raunchy porn star would do. The size of his dick seemed to indicate that was a quality he liked, though he did say, "You know, I don't think that's supposed to be an anal vibrator." Her forehead crinkled in confused consternation. "What's the difference? It vibrates, and it fits in my ass." "Yeah, but anal ones are usually bigger, with a wide spot on the end to make sure it doesn't slip inside." She'd noticed that danger too, before. "I'm careful with it." "Still can't believe Mom got you that." He shook his head in amusement. "You don't even know how to use a vibrator properly. It's like handing a gun to a monkey." "I know how to use it," she said indignantly, and to demonstrate, turned it on, allowed the waves of motion to emanate out and roll over her whole ass. "Even a monkey can flip a switch." "Great, so you can use it too," she said, hoping he wouldn't be too angry at the playful teasing. "And I'm sure it'd feel nice on you too. Come and see." She spread her pussy lips with two fingers, and smiled as he got into position. As she felt the head of his penis push past her pussy lips and inside, and it seemed almost like he was vibrating inside of her just as much as the toy in her ass, and so much better than a cucumber, especially because she could feel his whole body, warm, powerful, and connected to her by something magical. A thrust pushed that connection all the way. "Heh, I can feel it a little too. Pretty nice, actually." "It feels really good when you cum." She squinted at him. "I'm allowed to cum, right?" "You can cum when I do." That was all right, and she smiled, let him slide in and out of her a few more times, squeezed back up on him to intensify the vibration, when he let out a loud grunt. Finding it a chance to needle him, she reached around on her covers, then picked up the gag and held it towards him while he fucked her. "What's this?" "Just in case you're going to be loud," she said. "Don't want Mom or Dad hearing you in here." He held her just under her arms, thumbs playing with her erect nipples, and said, "You'd need that more than me." "You can just tell me to be a quiet fuck toy," she pointed out, and then tried to remember what she was the last time he told her. She didn't feel an urge to be particularly loud or quiet, so maybe it had been long enough that she "reset" to her normal self. "If I feel like I need to be quiet, maybe I'll just stick my tongue down your throat. Fix the problem for both of us." That got her even more aroused than before. She still couldn't cum until he did (and, as a fuck toy, would regardless of how horny she was), but the thought of him making out with her again inspired more impassioned movement, her legs hooking behind his back and pulling herself on and off him even as he pushed in and out. "Works for me," she said, trying to hide how much she wanted it in her voice, though with her need to take a hiccuping breath between words it seemed less than convincing to her own ears. "Maybe I should make you cum every time I kiss you," he said. She said "Okay," before he had a chance to continue, but he did anyway. "That way if you're bugging me I can just take care of you quick." "Okay," she said again, now a higher pitch. "Of course, you'd still have to be my fuck toy whenever I wanted it." "Always," she said, and she meant it, if he wanted her to be his fuck toy, available whenever he wanted it, for the rest of her life, right now, that sounded like a pretty good deal to her. She'd still rather do without many of the marks, and others relocated to more easy-to-hide places, but she liked being important to her brother, even if only as his favorite thing to fuck whenever he wanted. And it sure was fun for her. A little squeal escaped her as the force of his motion against her, inside her, suddenly crossed some threshold and although she didn't cum, a wave of pleasure struck that was stronger than she was prepared for. "Hey, weren't we supposed to be trying to be quiet?" he teased her, but he didn't seem worried at all. He didn't actually have to be, from the squeal alone. It didn't matter if Mom heard her squealing in pleasure... or Dad, probably, as long as he wasn't an idiot and thought she was in danger or something. And Keith didn't seem inclined to stop, or even slow down. The real danger came from someone hearing their conversation above the sex sounds, but he didn't seem particularly concerned about that, and to her surprise, Susan wasn't either, at least not right then... she'd liked what was being said so much that she hadn't even thought about it until then, and even once she did... some distant part of her told her it should be a lesson that when she got too horny she got stupid, but the stupid part of her wanted to enjoy it as long as possible. And then the stupider part of her had a brilliant idea. "So shut me up then," she grunted, hoping he'd take the bait. A few more seconds of vigorous thrusting combined with some intense eye-contact, and he did, leaning in close, and she stretched her neck up to meet his lips, opening to admit his tongue which forced its way inside her as he slammed into her from below. It was exactly what she wanted, although she also would have been satisfied if he just used the gag, or better yet, covered her mouth with his hand. It was surprisingly enjoyable needing to make noise and being physically stopped from doing so, her voice beating against an overwhelming resistance, like being totally possessed... but when it was done with a kiss, and all the feelings that went along with it, it was even better. She imagined what it'd be like to orgasm every time she kissed her brother like this... it seemed surprisingly plausible, and then suddenly she didn't have to imagine anymore, as she felt an orgasm explode upon her as Keith's cock started jerking and squirting off inside of her pussy, something she couldn't feel but could only imagine, the feeling was lost in the other sensations. Her entire lower body, seeming like it was made of pure vibration itself. Her moaning into her brother's mouth, the hungry moan in return, pulling away into a bite on her lips. Both of them melting away into nothing but one writhing mass of pleasure. Keith broke it to take a breath, one right in her face that smelled like meat burps... the romance was gone. His breath probably smelled that way all along, but she only noticed it when they were out of that perfect moment. Even now she didn't mind it, would have put up with it to stay near him except that he seemed to be pulling away against the legs on his back. She disentangled them and they parted, in silence except for the still faint buzzing of the vibrator. She reached down, found that it was in deeper in her ass than she thought, almost like a few more bumps and it would have slipped all the way, her ass closed up around it. Keith noticed it too, after he stepped away and she started working her muscles to push it out and hit the switch that would turn it off before her butt went completely numb forever. "Jesus, Suze, you gotta be careful with that thing." Her fingers snagged on the switch, hit it, and started to pull, so now instead of taking a vibrating poop it felt more like removing a part of herself, a malfunctioning part, resetting herself back into the version of herself that could think of stuff other than sex. Mostly, at least, for her fingers still worked to feed herself with the cum dribbling out of her while he got dressed. "It's your fault, you pushed it in more than it should've." Keith pulled his shirt back on, making him once more presentable to go outside a closed room, as if their parents weren't now wired to trust him even if he left his little sister's room naked and smelling of sex. "Wait here," he said, and she continued feeding on his cum while he left, checking only for a minute to see if the hallway was clear. A minute later he returned, magic marker in hand, and Susan's heart started thumping with excitement again. Her cumgathering turned into an eager rub of her pussy, near but not on her clit, as she wondered if she was going to bear a new mark, maybe one she even liked this time. Instead, he grabbed the vibrator, and began writing on it. When he was done, he showed it to her. It now read "Always sticks partly out." "There," he said. "That should help. Anything else you want on it? Maybe I can make it wiggle or something, too." Wiggling might be fun, but she didn't know how it would happen, maybe it would move weird like a snake or something. She liked the hard vibrating feel well enough not to mess with it, but she stared blankly and tried to think of something to ask for just so this rare opportunity didn't go to waste. Her mind seemed empty. "Not right now." After a second, she added, "Thank you," because now that she'd thought for a second, it was really sweet and completely unselfish, something he must have done because he cared about her, even though he was a jerk. "No problem." He tossed the vibrator back to her, then ruffled her hair and turned to leave again. "Try not to bug me until bedtime." "Um..." Once she had his attention again, she was going to tell him that Mom said she wasn't allowed to sleep with him tonight because of her being 'sick,' but then realized it wasn't important, she could just come after they fell asleep and leave before they woke up. It was always a little thrill disobeying your parents. And besides, she had a more important concern. "Aren't you going to write what you said?" "You know, about cumming every time we kiss?" He made a scoffing sound, like a soft chuckle, "Nah, that was just sex talk. You seriously think I want to be kissing you all the time just to cure your horniness? When it's so much more fun to watch you need it more and more, and then fucking you when I think you've suffered long enough?" Her heart sank, and he left, shaking her head. "You don't get off that easily." After he left, she reflected about how that might be the first time that her brother left her disappointed to not be getting a magic mark, and fell back onto her bed with a sigh. When she was done moping about that, she rolled over, felt the vibrator on her side, a sting of pain as it pressed against her the wrong away, and fished it out, looking at it, then smelling it, and she remembered her mother's advice and realized what she should have gotten Keith to write on it. Self-Cleaning would help a lot... maybe she could ask him when he was in a better mood, but until then, she really should remember to wash it. Her nightly routine seemed to be the best time to do it... she could sneak it in after brushing her teeth or in the shower, maybe hide it in a towel or something if her parents were around. Until then, she tossed it and the gag in her drawer and started to put the clothes she was wearing before her last fuck toy session with her brother back on. She had just pulled the shirt over her head when there seemed to be a weird shuffling sound that made her freeze in fear, solely because there shouldn't be anything making a sound at all. When she finally got her head through the neck hole, she looked in the direction of the source and saw her drawer partly open... and the head of the vibrator dangling out. She pulled the rest of her shirt on and walked over cautiously, picked it up, and read again what her brother wrote on it, this time aloud. "'Always sticks partly out.' Oh, shit." Chapter Sixteen: It wasn't as bad as she first thought, Susan decided after she did a few experiments. Like most of the marks, there seemed to be some compromise with the needs of reality. Just as she couldn't be super horny every second, the vibrator couldn't always stick partly out if there was no physical way for it to do that without defying gravity. It was only because a little bit of shuffling could push the drawer open and there were some notebooks inside to for it to stand up on and poke its head out. If she secured it carefully, she could hide it, but it seemed partly alive, as well. When she tried to shove it in an old school pencil bag, it wouldn't fit all the way in even though there was enough room, like it was somehow fighting back. If she wrapped it in anything remotely loose like a towel, it would slowly squirm its way to a gap. But sometimes it seemed to be content to be sticking out of something while hidden by something else. Wrapping it in a shirt in a drawer, for example, where it was sticking out of the shirt, seemed to satisfy the condition, which would hide it well enough unless someone opened her drawer and then saw a vibrator sticking out. Even sticking it in a nearly empty drawer seemed to work, as though it stuck out enough by being the first thing you saw when you snooped around. She'd have to be especially careful if she ever invited friends over now, they always thought looking through drawers was perfectly innocent. Exploring the boundaries of this mark was even sort of fascinating, like playing with magnets and feeling them move with an almost supernatural force. It was almost as though there was somebody intelligent evaluating the words and deciding whether it 'counted,' and if it didn't, fixing it. The thought amused her as she pictured some weird overworked angel watching everything she did and made sure it violated the condition, although she really didn't think that's what was going on. It was probably just magic, maybe the power of words themselves. The vibrator's new condition did make sneaking it to the bathroom a mortifying adventure, though, because her dad was upstairs in his room with the door open and possibly could come into the hallway at any moment, and she didn't seem to be able to completely hide the vibrator in any way while she went to the bathroom. She ended up walking there with it sticking out of her waistband, but when she tried keeping her shirt over the vibrator it kept slipping out completely and onto the ground before she got out of her room, and she mentally cursed at the imaginary angel and then grit her teeth and let that side of her shirt be tucked under the toy, so the edge of it could be seen from anyone on that side. She sweated every step, even walking on the side of her feet so as to make less noise just in case it made her father come out and wish her good night, see the vibrator and leave him with another indelible image of his little girl being a super-horny sex fiend, assuming he knew what it was. But she passed his door quickly and he didn't even have time to look up before she was out of sight and, seconds later, behind a safely locked door in the washroom. Washing the vibrator, after she took a quick shower and brushed her teeth, took up more time than she planned on, mostly because she spent some effort trying to see if she could erase the mark. It was more curiosity than anything else, she really didn't expect it to work but she remembered so-called permanent markers didn't stick on everything, and even the magic marker faded from skin, eventually. A few minutes of vigorous scrubbing with soap didn't seem to make a difference, though, and it cost her in another way, when she heard a soft knock on the door. "Sweetie, you going to be long in there?" It was her dad's voice. "Your mom's monopolizing our bathroom and I just need to go quickly." "Uhh, yeah, just a second." Her eyes cast around the room looking for somewhere to hide it. She was wearing her towel, and if she tried to swaddle it out in a bundle of clothes it might slip all the way out trying to stick out. Only one solution presented itself, and that had its own risks. She planted one foot on the toilet seat, pulled the towel up, and inserted the freshly-clean vibrator into her also freshly-cleaned (but, she felt, by definition only mostly-clean) pussy, pushing in all the way and letting out a choked-down squeal of pleasure when it reached the point where the vibrator's mark seemed to take effect and it would no longer penetrate. Instead, it seemed to cling to her pussy lips and resist any force sending it deeper. She dropped her leg and used every muscle she could down there to hold it in place while she smoothed down her towel, grabbed her clothes, and, taking a deep breath, unlocked the door. Her father was, of course, waiting, and his eyes seemed to focus on the part of her chest above the towel, the part that read "Fuck toy" even though he couldn't see it, but his gaze seemed to be full of hungry longing all the same, for a second or two before he became very fascinated in the corner of the bathroom doorjamb. Susan slipped past him, praying as she did that the vibrator wouldn't come loose and clatter to the floor between her legs right in front of him, clenching tight to prevent that possibility. She got four steps away when her father said, "Something wrong?" "Uh, no?" It was definitely still inside her. "Why?" "You seem to be walking funny." She shrugged, not sure how to answer that, wondering how he noticed that without turning back to look at her after she was already walking away, and then wondering why he'd do that other than to watch her towel-covered butt swaying as she walked. "Don't you have to use the bathroom?" "Right," and now he seemed embarrassed, and slipped into the bathroom and she breathed a sigh of relief and escaped to the safety of her room. Keith, in his typically jerky way, thought it was hilarious when she later explained the situation, after their parents were safely asleep and she snuck into his room to spend the night with him, and he refused to try and cross out or amend the mark. But, after a little persuasion, which involved her performing a strip show at his request with the vibrator in and active the whole time, he did agree to mark the device with the words "Self-Cleans When Not Being Used." The longer phrase was her idea, after he agreed to just "Self-Cleans," she realized, "Wait, what if it cleans when it's inside me?" Would it consider her dirty, and vaporize her or push her away or sweat out cleaning chemicals or whatever it was going to do to clean itself? "We gotta think about the consequences of these things," she reminded him as he wrote down the additional words she suggested. "You never know when a poorly-thought-out mark is going to get us into trouble." Turned out, that would be the very next morning. Mom seemed to decide that, since she and Dad were going to Church that morning, a big family breakfast was too much effort to indulge in, so they just had waffles, which was okay in Susan's book. Mom and Dad were dressed for church, which for Dad meant a suit much like the one he worked in and for Mom meant a long dress with a pink floral print and hardly any cleavage. "You can still come along, you know," she said to Susan, who was stuffing her face with a sweet syrupy mouthful. "You seem like you're feeling all right today, maybe a good night's sleep, alone, was all you needed." She was hardly alone, but of course Mom didn't know that, because she blearily snuck back to her own room just as the sun was getting up, with a bellyful of her brother's cum but still far more horny than she'd like, since he hadn't wanted to give her one last fuck before she left, under the theory that they'd have the whole morning together. "I'm still not feeling right," she said after swallowing, and then shot a look at her brother for assistance before Mom decided that she was just faking. "Yeah, I saw you needed to lubricate your throat this morning," he said with a smirk. "Probably best you stay home with me." He turned his gaze to Mom and added, "Don't worry, I'll take good care of her." Mom nodded. "If she gives you any trouble about watching the church channel, you let me know." Susan had forgotten her brother made that promise, casually... but of course Mom would believe he meant it. She must have made a face when she was reminded of it, because after that came, "It's only fair, Church should be done as a family and if you can't come along the least you could do is watch." "I won't even be watching you," she said. "It's just some dumb megachurch." "It's all God, that's what matters." "If you say so," she muttered, only partly able to keep the dubious tone out of it. Susan's own opinion of God had changed since the marker came into their lives, to a level she wasn't even aware of until she thought about it... before He was this vaguely comforting entity that she wasn't entirely sure she believed in for real, or if it was just a good story. Now, it was hard to imagine Him allowing this business with the marker to go on, so if he was real, either He wasn't very powerful, or He was a kinky pervert even bigger than Keith. "She shouldn't have to spend her whole morning watching religion," Dad said, which surprised her. He'd been mostly quiet, almost zombie-like, and skipped breakfast entirely except for a coffee. "Kids are supposed to have fun, do kid things, like, watch cartoons." "I think she's had more than enough time to watch cartoons," Mom said. "She could use a more wholesome influence." "She's not the only one," Keith said. "What's that supposed to mean?" "Just that I'm sure everyone in this family's got some things they need some divine forgiveness for." He leaned back cockily. "Except me, of course." "You have been pretty good lately," Mom conceded, and part of Susan wanted to say "In what universe?" but she kept her mouth shut, knowing it was the unnatural faith at work. "But you don't want to rest on your laurels." "Oh, don't worry. In fact, I plan to do a good deed this morning." Mom looked up from her now empty plate, and even Dad looked up. "Really? What's that?" "Guiding Susan, of course. Mark my words, this morning she'll be on her knees and calling out to God." The interest vanished as this no longer seemed to be new information. Keith then leaned over to Susan and added with a whisper to her ear, "Of course, not necessarily at the same time..." which made her blush and give him a warning jab with her foot. It was the sort of thing that her parents might one day notice if the marker ever disappeared. They didn't seem to think anything was unusual at the moment, though, as her mother took that opportunity to take her dish to the sink and then asked Dad, "Are you just about ready? We need to be on the road soon if we're going to get there on time." "Yeah." Her father was normally pretty cheerful, but he seemed to be especially grumpy on weekend mornings when he felt deprived of sleep he felt entitled to... having to wake up earlier than usual to go to Church seemed to bring that out in him today. "Just let me pour the last of this coffee down my throat." He drained the cup with a grimace, then stood, leaned over, said conspiratorially to the two of them, "Honestly, I'd much rather be here with you guys." Mom had left for the living room and could be heard getting her shoes on. "I'll bet," Keith said. "Certainly would be a lot more fun, right Suze?" She glared at her brother, but said, "Sure." "I'm sure your mother will get over this new obsession soon," he said, then seemed to suddenly remember he was supposed to be setting a good example, so he added "Not that I have anything against Church." He put his coffee mug in the sink, then also left to get ready to go. As soon as the door closed, after they'd said their goodbyes, Keith got up from the table and went to the window, watching to made sure they actually left and didn't come back to get one last forgotten item, then came back and said, "Okay, they're gone." "Good. Weekends are gonna be so hard," Susan complained. "It's hard enough waiting till you want to do it, without having to worry about them being home all the time." "A.. is somebody jonesing for her sperm fix?" "A little," she admitted. She'd blown him early in the morning, then slept a little in her room. It wasn't bad, but if he was offering, it would be good to get it out of the way. "I better take care of you, before you turn into a dirty Snickers ad or something." He stood beside the table, but not near her, and pointed to the floor at his feet. She shot him a look, annoyed that he wouldn't just come to her but instead had to have her get out of her seat, when he said, "Hey, I promised I would have you on your knees today." She rolled her eyes but slipped out of her chair. "What, don't tell me you're going to make me watch the Church service too?" "Oh, I have to. I promised. You don't want me breaking promises, do you?" He had a smug look on his face, like daring her to suggest it... and Susan had a feeling that if she said he should, he'd just use that as an excuse to break some promise to her... she wasn't sure which one, and considering he was a jerk, he might well break a promise just for kicks, but she wasn't going to give him an excuse. "Fine." She got on her knees, staring at his bulge, feeling the cocksucker compulsion start to rise in her but knowing it wouldn't take completely over as long as the cock was still in his pants. Meanwhile, he reached over to the table. "Here, I'll sweeten the deal for you." In his hand, when he returned, he had the syrup from the waffles, cap up. With his other hand, he pulled his shorts down while he started to pour the syrup. It's an idea that must have worked better in his head than in practice... or maybe Keith was learning to be subtler about being a jerk. She was already on her knees in front of him, and the moment she saw his cock come out, she couldn't help herself, she took it immediately in her mouth, heedless of the fact that a glob of syrup was on its way down. It hit her, instead, on her hair, the side of her face,, although yes, some of it did manage to get on his dick. "Jesus, Suze. Learn some self-control, you're a mess." Can't talk, Susan thought. I'm a cocksucker, and she just shut her eyes to avoid getting any stickiness there, and kept on her duty until he pushed her away. Though, when she was able to taste the mapley syrup on his dick, it did improve the flavor... for about ten seconds, then her body seemed to remember how much she ate of that on her waffles and it became almost sickly sweet. Worse, because it was all over her face the smell of it filled her nostrils as well. She started to feel sick, but couldn't help but power through. "Heh," her brother said. "It is kind of hot seeing you all sloppy like this," and she concentrated on moving her tongue with an energetic frenzy to try and push him into finishing as quickly as possible, to make his cock throw up before she did. She just barely made it. When her brother grabbed her by the clean side of her head and forced himself down on her, she knew it would be soon, and sure enough, seconds later her mouth filled with his warm, rich seed, which somehow combined well with the sweetness, at least enough that she no longer felt in danger of throwing up. After he was done cumming, he gently pushed her away which let her finally take breath, close her eyes while he put his cock away, and then move for the orange juice by her plate. "Jerk," she said after a swig. "Next time ask before you do something like that." His face darkened. "I was trying to do something nice." The orange juice gone, she went to the kitchen sink and filled it with water, and also start cleaning the side of her face, feeling guilt start to win out over her rage. The thing was, he probably was. He just didn't think things through. It was a big problem with him. "Yeah, but you know I can't control it when your cock's that close. And I'd just had like a buttload of syrup on those waffles." "A buttload?" He dangled the syrup bottle between two fingers. "I could make that happen literally, if you wanted." She tried, unsuccessfully, to get the syrup out of her hair by running it under hot water in the sink, but even on her tiptoes she couldn't get the right angle and felt like she was just getting herself messy... and dangling her butt in front of her jerky brother, which might be dangerous depending on how much he wanted to torture her. "More like if you want," she said, with a bit of a sigh, hoping that her admitting she was at his mercy would make him think twice about the teasing threat. It wasn't even sexy in any way she could think of... he was probably just being a dope. "I'm going to have to take a shower anyway." He put the syrup down on the table, then waved his hand dismissively. "Go clean yourself up properly," he said. "But when you come back, wear something hot." Chapter Seventeen: Susan ran to the upstairs bathroom, careful not to touch anything with her now sticky-hand, while trying to figure out what to wear after she was done cleaning. Keith had already seen her naked... even naked with a leash and collar. What counted as hot to someone who knew you inside and out, literally? A quick shower solved the syrup problem, but she still had no better ideas on the clothes. She left her old clothes on the bathroom floor, then went into her room to dig through her drawers and closet, trying to think through things he liked. All she had to go on was what he chose for her before, the stuff that was a little too small and was destined to be given away the next time Mom decided to clean out her closet. No panties seemed like an obvious move as well. Keith seemed to really get a charge out of that, and she didn't really have any really sexy underwear. In her old-clothes section of her closet, she found a short dark skirt, about as short as the pink one the other day, which she thought would look really good with no underwear, but none of the tops really had anything going for them besides being a little too short... maybe not wearing a top at all would be better. An idea struck her suddenly... one she wasn't entirely sure was sexy, but might cut through his jerkiness a little. It was thinking of the shirt Keith chose that gave her the idea... the one that exposed the words 'Fuck Toy' (or at least, 'Uck To') and then said "Love this Life," beneath it. She had another shirt that had escaped previous charity purges because it still had sentimental value and she wanted to keep it even though she'd grown out of it. She picked through to the bottom of one of her drawers, and found it. Originally, it was a birthday gift, from Keith, although she now knew Mom probably bought it and told him to give it to her. At the time she loved it and he seemed to like her appreciation, her wearing it all the time around the house. Now, the white shirt was too small to fit comfortably, wouldn't even go down to her belly button and she might have to cut the top off just to get her head in it. Like that, though, she could wear it like some kind of tight tube-top. That was part of the reason she kept it, she thought of maybe one day cutting out the message on the front and sewing it onto something else. It said, in words with a colorful design with hearts on white fabric, "I'm The Lil Sister Of A Super Big Brother." A part of her still didn't want to damage the shirt at all, but... she was under a lot of pressure to choose something hot, and if she failed, he might find some way to punish her. But even if he didn't think this was hot enough, reminding him of the good times might make him more forgiving, so she went to her work desk and got some scissors, and made the first snip before she could talk herself out of it. Once she'd done one, the rest was easier, and soon everything above the arm holes were gone (along with the words "I'm The"), and a lot of the lower half as well, and she had something she could pull over her head. It was still tight, but wearable, even if she could only wear it around the house with a perverted brother being the only one home. The words "Fuck Toy" poked out right over the top, no longer obscured at all, and almost like it was part of the slogan, like it said "Fuck Toy Lil Sister." No longer Uck To, if a pizza guy or anyone else other than their parents saw it they'd have to think she was addicted to her brother's cock, but as long as nobody saw it, who cared? The top came down to just over where her belly started, and it was so tight it felt like her nipples stood out. When she looked at herself in the mirror to check that, on certain angles it even looked like her flat chest wasn't completely flat. It gave her a flush of pleasure to realize that... maybe this really did make her look sexy. Susan looked back to the short skirt, then to the scissors on the bed. The skirt was sexy, but it could be sexier. She sat down and cut another inch or two off the bottom, and one slit up the side, then tried it on. If her parents were home when she was wearing that, she couldn't bend over or even sit on the couch without crossing her legs, and even that motion was liable to show off her hopefully just-fucked pussy. As long as they didn't and it was just Keith, that worked well... but the ensemble still needed something. Not a leash and collar this time, Mom might notice if it was disturbed, but something else. She saw a pair of tights that had come out in her rummaging. She couldn't wear that as it was... it would completely defeat the purpose of wearing no underwear. But since she was already cutting up her old wardrobe, maybe she could wear it like stockings... she remembered one night, her and Dana visiting their friend Sonia's house, where Sonia's older sister let them hang out with her while she got ready for a "hot date," as she described it. She wore thigh high stockings under a skirt and said that guys really liked it even more than bare legs, like Dana thought would be sexier. Susan wasn't sure if it was always true, but it made sense that some guys found it hot, and maybe Keith was one of those guys. He told her to wear something sexy rather than just be naked, after all. Snip snip, and where one pair of tights once was, she now had two stockings and something that maybe one day she could turn into something else. When she tried them on, she realized the cut wasn't even, one was longer than the other, but she heard her brother calling, "Man, what the hell's taking you so long?" and she decided against correcting the problem, and just went downstairs. There, her brother was on the couch, tossing the vibrator her mother gave her in the air and then catching it. She hadn't even realized he had it... he must have gone into her room while she was in the shower, though she couldn't guess why. When he saw her out of the corner of his eye, he gave her a once over and said, "Not bad." Not bad?! What a jerk. She destroyed three different pieces of her old clothes and all he could give her was a "not bad." "Is it hot enough for you?" "It'll do, I guess. Maybe some lipstick and eyeshadow or something would really make the whore look pop." She thought about makeup, but aside from the simplest stuff she'd need to borrow from Mom, and it was too hard to wash off right away if she needed to change in a hurry. Suddenly, her brother took a second look, eyes focusing on the tube top, and widened in recognition. "Jesus, is that that old shirt I got you? Pretty deep cut, turning treasured childhood memories into something to get me hard." She shrugged, not entirely sure if that was a compliment or an insult, until he smiled. "I like it." She smiled too, relaxing a little, and he patted the couch beside him. She rushed to join him, where he'd been as good as his word to Mom and had the Sunday Morning Megachurch broadcast on, although muted. He said he'd make sure she watched it, but apparently didn't care to listen to a sermon any more than she did. Instead, he tossed the vibrator up in the air and caught it a few more times. "So, I've been thinking about this little toy of yours." "What, you want to put it up YOUR ass while we fuck this time?" It came out with more of an angry bite than she'd expected... she was still sore at him describing her hot outfit as "Not bad." A sour expression crossed his face at the suggestion. "No," he said. "I was thinking about the writing on it. I mean, this thing cleans itself now. I've been doing all my writing on you, but there's so much more we could be doing." "Like what?" He tossed the vibrator to her, and she caught it instinctively. "Put it inside you." Susan started to turn it it over, looking for new marks, but he said, "Don't look at it, it'll spoil the surprise." She leaned backwards into the couch, sliding her butt towards the edge of the cushion, then feeding it to her hungry ass as far as it would go. Now it resisted at a certain point, like her butthole sucked onto it and wouldn't give up any ground in on direction. "You want me to turn it on?" she asked. "No, take your hands away." She did. "Now... abracadabra!" She tensed up automatically, but nothing happened. "No? Well, how about 'alaka... zoom?'" The moment he finished the word 'zoom' the wand in her ass began shaking with full force, sending waves of pleasure through her body. Except something was different. There was none of the usual buzzing sound that usually accompanied the motion... when it was buried in her ass the noise was usually muffled, but she could still always hear it... now, though, it was like he put a silencer on it. There was no silencer on her, so she let out an "Ahhhhh" as her butt squeezed down on the vibrating rod to intensify the sensations. "Okay, that's enough," he said, and the vibrator instantly stopped. She slowly pulled it out and read the new words. These were written very small, and must have been done very carefully. "Silently vibrates at full intensity when Keith says 'Zoom,'" it said, and below that, "Stops when Keith says 'Enough.'" "I figure I could have some fun with this. Maybe we will go to Church one of these days, with that in your ass. Wouldn't that be fun?" "I'd rather just use it at home," she said, but enjoyed some of the possibilities. She could keep it in her ass and he could control it while fucking her, activating it and deactivating it and so never quite knowing when the pleasure came. That could push her much faster into a needed orgasm, she figured... if she was allowed one. "Other things we could do, too," he said. "It made my bed more comfortable. I could probably go around the house fixing things. Make sure, I don't know, the shower always has hot water." She grimaced. "Don't do that, it might make it so you can't make it colder." The urge to remind him to think things through was strong, but she fought it down... it might only make him angrier. And it wasn't a bad idea if applied right. "Okay, bad example. But... check this out." He stood up, went to the TV, the marker in his hand from where he'd been holding it between one leg and the couch cushion, and began to write, and this time read aloud. "Unscrambles All Cable Signals." He lay the side of the pen against his chin and thought. "Wait, maybe I should put it on the cable box?" He shrugged. "Couldn't hurt to do both," and wrote the same thing, then returned to the couch and started flipping through channels, and soon the screen was filled with an image of a redheaded teenager kneeling between the naked legs of an older woman with dark hair and an open robe, while a man rubbed his erection, watching the seemingly inevitable lesbian act. "See, we definitely couldn't get THIS before." Susan stared at it in surprise, wondering what Mom or Dad would think if they stumbled upon it. Probably assume it was a glitch, but would they call the company and complain? "You like that, do you?" Keith said, misinterpreting her deep thought for fascination, and unmuted the TV. "If you want to be our babysitter," the older woman said. "You've got to learn to eat pussy. It's nothing to be scared of. Here, look." She grabbed the teen by her red hair and pulled her in, mashing the younger girl's face in her open, wet pussy. "There, now use your tongue, if you want my husband to fuck your virgin ass." Keith nudged her. "Look, she's still got a virgin ass. What a noob." "So we can watch anything now?" she asked. "Sure. But not this morning." She shot him a glance, and he said, "You're watching the church service, remember?" He lifted the remote and put them back to where they were before, only now with sound, a white-haired man in glasses and a long robe droning on about Jesus. Keith lowered the volume, not quite muting it but putting it to a level that the words were only barely distinguishable if everything else was quiet and you were really paying attention. "Come on, snuggle up with me," he said, and Susan looked at him with hopeful surprise. Snuggle? Was he just in a more affectionate mood, or was the jerk part wearing away. No, she realized as she slid up against her brother's side, it was too soon for that. It felt like forever, like they'd gone through so much, but it had only been a couple days. It should be at least a week before he stopped being a jerk, at least unless a mark became less powerful as it faded. When she was close, her brother guided her to lie more on his lap, and then ran one hand lazily up and down her body, sliding under the shirt, pinching one nipple, and then down to her skirt. "Any good ideas for things you want to change around the house?" he asked. "If I like one, I might do it." "I don't know," she said, trying to think of something good, though his finger digging its way inside of her, now that it had dipped underneath her micro-mini skirt and found no underwear in the way, made it hard to think at her best. "No? Come on, you're supposed to be the smart one. Maybe I should refuse to let you cum until you come up with one idea I like. Get some motivated thinking working here." The finger inside her was motivating her to get wet but not to think, but she had to try, her eyes roaming first around the living room for things that could be improved. Nothing jumped out at her, so she looked towards the kitchen, which she couldn't actually see from her spot on the couch, but she looked in the direction. "Maybe something with the stove?" she suggested. "So it won't overcook anything?" "I won't overcook anything," he said, sounding offended even though his cooking skills were themselves magical. "I don't need a magic stove. And what I tried with the fridge didn't work." "What did you try?" "'Bigger on the Inside'" he said. "Thought maybe I could fit more stuff in there, but I guess it has to obey the laws of physics. At least mostly." "Maybe you could make it use less power, or, like, clean itself." "What do I care? Mom cleans that." Okay, so he was still a jerk. "And if you're worried about energy efficiency I'm clearly not doing very good work." His finger jiggled inside her with sudden, frantic energy. She squirmed in response, her head grinding against his cock, which was slightly hard. He seemed to get off on teasing her... maybe that was the secret, to try and think like him, suggest the kind of thing he might do on his own. The vibrator he could control excited him, doing things right under the noses of their parents seemed to be something he couldn't help doing, even if it got them in danger, and he also seemed to like the idea of turning Mom on. "You could make Mom's underwear vibrate whenever you say hello..." she suggested. It wasn't very creative, almost just combining the first two ideas to come to mind, but he stopped moving his finger, which despite the fact that she wanted more, not less, was a good sign, he was thinking about it. "Oh, that could be fun. But it would be a lot of writing, I'd have to get all of her underwear to have any real fun with it. Might be easier to go another way.... still, I liked the thinking behind it." The finger retreated, and even the hand slapped away, though it swatted her gently on the butt. "Okay, I think that's earned you a ride." She already scrambled up into a seated position, waiting only to see if he'd direct her into a certain position. But he seemed content to stay seated and lounging back, and he did say "ride", so Susan realized he must want her on top. Well, that was pretty fun too, especially if she had permission to cum, instead of just being something for him to thrust into until he was done, it became a game of making him cum by riding him in just the right way. She straddled his hips, facing him, intimate enough to kiss. "No, turn around," he says. "You're going to miss the sermon." A whimper of frustration escaped her... she liked being face to face, when he might slip out of his control and kiss her, but she knew better than to argue, and spun in place, settling back against his crotch. Behind her butt, she could feel his hands working to free his cock, and she lifted slightly to give him freer access, and perhaps to offer him his choice of pussy or ass as he guided himself upright and towards whichever dripping hole he wanted. The head poked against her pussy, and, steadying herself with one hand on his knee, she used the other to help guide him inside as she slid down, feeling the wonderful feeling of sliding down on him, feeling him fill her with part of himself until they were just about the closet two people could be intertwined with each other. If they were kissing it would be even closer, but that wasn't in the cards from this position, so she settled for what she had, and began a slow rhythmic rising and falling, not fast enough to be called a bounce, though she knew before too long she would be. One of Keith's hands wrapped around her torso to slip under the shirt and play with the nipple on the other side of her body, squeezing it between the knuckles of two fingers. The other, she saw from the corner of the eye, was raising the remote control and pointing it to the TV. Hoping he was going to turn it to the porn, she looked, only to see he was turning up the volume. The sound of applause rose like a wave, and even though she knew it was because of something the preacher said, or maybe celebrating a choir performance, it felt like it was for her, and she picked up her pace. The camera focused on the preacher's face, a little sweaty under the hot lights, and now with the volume up, she could hear him clearly. It sounded practically like shouting at her. "So how are you in your passion for God? Are you lukewarm? Are you just going through the motions? Or are you red hot for God because He loves..." Here, Keith must have pressed the 'previous channel' button, because it went silent for half a second and then there was that redheaded babysitter getting fucked up the ass while the woman watched from the sidelines, and the older woman was in the middle of saying, "...a fucking slut!" The channel switched back, and the preacher continued, as though he really had just said 'God loves a fucking slut.' "Has there ever been a time in your life when you were closer to God than you are right now?" Susan wasn't sure. "If so why? Nobody's holding you back. The truth is you're as close to God as you choose to be. You can have as much of God as you want. You can be as passionate about God as you want. And if you're not it's your fault." Another channel switch and the redheaded girl was shouting, "Oh God, oh God..." "Oh God," Susan said too. As he flipped it back to the sermon, Keith whispered, "You can take as much of me as you want, can't you?" "Uh huh," she said, but it wasn't true, not really... she could take as much of his cock right now as she wanted, but eventually he'd lose interest again and she'd be stuck waiting. That was why it was important to cum whenever she could... The realization struck her like a brotherly cock sliding balls deep into her pussy, or maybe it just happened to be on a down bounce that it occurred to her. She didn't technically have permission to cum. He'd said she could have a ride, but that wasn't enough, and she was so horny that if she made him cum and he didn't get her fuck toy orgasm out of the deal, she'd be frustrated for who knew how long. "Can I please cum?" she asked. "Man, Suze, you really are a sex fiend, watching a church sermon and all you can think about is cumming on your brother's cock." It was his usual brotherly teasing voice, so she responded with a wordless grunt of agreement. "You want to cum then?" Again she made the sound. "You can always beg God for an orgasm," he suggested. "Or maybe you could beg me? Which do you think would work better?" Somehow she thought it was some sick jerky test to get her to choose him over God, but... at this point, hadn't she already? Incest was against the bible, sex before marriage was against the bible, sodomy was against the bible even if you're straight, according to one of the religious girls in her class. And Susan was never the most religious person, so if it was a test, it was an easy one. The TV preacher was still talking loudly, but she completely tuned him out and spoke solely to her brother, the one she knew was responsible for her ultimate happiness. "Please, Keith. I need to cum... I need to cum so bad, I'm so horny, and you're so good inside of me, and I need it so bad..." "Oh my God!" the shout seemed to fill the living room, but it didn't come from Susan, or Keith, or even the TV. It came from their mother, standing at the first place between the door and the living room with a clear view of the indelible sight of her two children fucking on the living room couch. Chapter Eighteen: Their mother's mouth hung widely open, staring at the two of them. "I can't believe you would do something like this! Stop this instant!" But Susan had already... her brother's cock was still inside her, she'd sank down far enough that only his balls were visible, and the very bottom of his shaft where it was splitting her open. Uselessly, she tried to pull down the shortened skirt she was wearing to cover it, but with the legs all the way spread and the way she'd fallen backwards onto Keith, the best she could do was cover the top half of her mound. "For the love of God, get off him! You... you can't be doing this, it's... it's sick!" Keith was the first to move, lifting her gently off his cock, which slipped back against his belly in a wet slap. "Mom, it's no big deal." Mom continued to stare, but not as Susan anymore, now she was staring at Keith's dick, at least until she forcibly closed her eyes and aimed her head in another direction. "I don't want to hear it. Just give me one fucking minute." And with that, she shuffled with an awkward, legs-pressed-together gait, towards the downstairs bathroom and closed the door. The two siblings exchanged a look, and Keith actually looked guilty and a little scared, for the first time in a long while. Susan, for her part, was sad, shocked, dreading whatever came next, and feeling horribly exposed. Her makeshift tube top was over one nipple, and she rapidly corrected it before her mother got back, as well as crossing her legs, as though there was some way of hiding what had happened. But there wasn't... Mom was so pissed off that she actually swore. Maybe the only thing they could do was spare Dad the image... wait, where was Dad? Lingering outside, unaware what his children had been doing? "I'll fix this, Susan," Keith said, like a promise, but she didn't think it was a promise he could keep, at least not without making a lot of things worse. They'd changed everything. She buried her face as she heard the door... not the front door, but the one to the bathroom, where Mom had rushed like her life depended on it. Now relieved of whatever pressure drove that flight, she walked slowly, deliberately, and although Susan wouldn't look she heard anger in every footfall. Then silence, but silence from Mom standing right in front of her, silence before the storm. At virtually the same moment, Susan started to look up, hands still covering her face and peeking through gaps in her fingers, and Mom snapped into motion, grabbing her by the wrist and pulling it violently away. "Look at me, Susan. This is serious. How could you do this to Keith?" "What?" she said, but what she really meant was "Me?" "You know damn well what. Seducing your own brother?! While we're at church no less? If I hadn't had to rush home to use the bathroom I..." "Why'd you have to rush home to use the bathroom?" Mom seemed thrown off by the irrelevant question, and Susan was surprised she'd even asked it, but it just seemed odd that she'd come home so early. Was that why Dad wasn't home? "I couldn't use the bathrooms at Church, they were just..." Mom shook her head. "No, you know what, this... this..." she waved one finger around, encircling the whole area of her view of where they'd been having sex. "...is what's disgusting. There's no excuse for that kind of behavior, Susan!" Mom now spared a glance for Susan's brother, her older brother, sitting right beside her and, in any rational universe, the one mostly to blame for all of this. "I don't blame you," she said, because of course she still had complete faith in her son, despite catching him fucking her daughter. "I mean, you should have refused but obviously your sister was determined to make this happen one way or another." Knowing it was useless, she protested, "I didn't!" "Look what you're wearing! I'm not an idiot!" She shook her head angrily, and Susan looked down again, not to check out her clothes, which she knew look slutty, but just because she couldn't meet her mother's eye. She know that made her look guilty but also realized that Mom would believe Susan started it no matter what. Even if she was tied up and screaming, Mom would probably ask what she'd done to provoke him raping her. "You know what, just go to your room while I decide what to do about you!" The pointing finger, still up from her previous gesture, now aimed towards the stairs. When she didn't start moving immediately, Mom's voice raised. "Go, you little whore!" That got her running, up the stairs and into her room where she closed the door behind her, crashed on her bed, and began crying into her pillow. Mom thought she was a little whore, now... even if she managed to steal Keith's marker this minute and get rid of it, that would never go away. Dad would probably find out too as soon as he got home. Life as she'd known it before was over, it would never be the same. "Susan! Get down here!" It had seemed like hours since Mom had sent her upstairs and she'd been lost in misery and dread for the future, but it had actually only been twenty minutes, which might have been even worse. It meant Mom would still be freshly mad. "And wear something decent!" She wasn't sure she knew what that meant anymore, but stripped off the cut-down skirt, tube top, and makeshift stockings and replaced them with a pair of grey sweatpants and a pink t-shirt with a cartoon image of a kitten playing with yarn on it, hoping that maybe it would remind Mom that she was still a little girl even if she was no longer a virgin. Now looking less like the fuck toy she was, Susan slunk down the stairs, eyes downcast, waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop. Her mother waited, hands on hips, still standing in the middle of the living room. Keith, he was more relaxed, a smirk painting his face and lounging easily on one side of the couch. Mom snapped her fingers and pointed to the couch, and Susan sat hunched forward with her hands on her knees, her stomach roiling with anticipation. "I want you to know that I find your behavior completely intolerable, Susan." Oh no... it was worse than anger, it was one of her "I'm so disappointed in you" type speeches. But to Susan's surprise, it didn't go there like she expected. "But it's more important to decide how we're going to move forward." Now she risked looking up. Move forward? "That doesn't mean you're going to get let off on punishment... I haven't decided what it is yet, but in this house bad behavior is punished... even if we've decided to keep this from your father." The heavy storm in her chest subsided, a little. Mom was going to keep this all a secret? Keith's doing, no doubt. "We are?" "This would just kill him," she explained. "And besides, he wouldn't understand. And yes, you may not believe me, but I do understand, it just doesn't excuse things. So you are getting punished as soon as I can think of one. I'd let Keith spank you again, except I think you'd get off on it. I probably should have noticed that last time, maybe that was my fault, but I thought you'd have a little more self-control, but obviously I was wrong." Mom was starting to ramble, as she often did when she got flustered, and instead of looking directly at Susan, she paced back and forth, only looking at her when she changed direction. "Obviously your sex drive is far more intense than I thought it was. I thought that vibrator would be enough, but from what your brother tells me you've been coming on to him for a while and if that's the case... well... tell me the truth, Susan, have you had sex with anyone else?" "No..." she said, not expecting to be believed, but her mother nodded. "That's what Keith said, but he might not know. And when I say sex I mean anything dirty... has anyone ever touched your privates, or made you touch theirs? You'd better tell me now, you won't get any more trouble." "Just Keith," she said. "Good. We need to keep it that way. I will not have my daughter be the neighborhood slut... I can understand having urges, but you're too young for a sexual relationship." What she didn't say was "How are you going to stop me, Mom? I'm super-horny all the time, thanks to Keith, and I'm addicted to cum, thanks to Keith. If I can't have sex, I'm going to die." She didn't say it because she knew she was still going to have sex, Keith was too much of a jerk to want to go without sex just because it wasn't allowed... otherwise they never would have started. They'd just keep it secret, she thought, do it when Mom wasn't there and at best she could delude herself into believing that her daughter was no longer having sex with her anyone, but... "That's why your brother's going to take care of all your sexual needs from now on." Susan's eyes blinked several times in rapid succession, trying to figure out if she just heard what she thought she heard, or anything else Mom might have said that she just imagined. "What?" "He generously offered, and convinced me that this is the best option to deal with the shi... the bad situation that you put us all in, Susan." "So you want me to... keep having sex with Keith?" "No, Susan, of course I don't WANT you to. It's disgusting and immoral but since you seem determined to be ruled by your libido, I don't think you've really left us with any other choice but to allow it. Under a few conditions." "Tell her the conditions, Mom," Keith said. Susan shot a look in his direction and he looked totally self-assured, like this was something he'd planned all along. Did he? she wondered. Had he written something on her to make her come home early today? As she tried to remember which marks she already knew about, Mom laid out the conditions. "First and foremost, this stays between us three. No one else knows, not even your father. If he ever finds out... and God forbid, if you ever try to seduce him like you seduced poor Keith, I'm shipping you off to some private boarding school or some Christian tough-love boot camp. Understood?" Susan nodded. "Same goes if I find out you've slept around with someone else. I don't want you passing your brother any diseases because he wasn't enough for you. You keep it at home, you keep it discreet, and you keep it to him, you understand?" Another nod from Susan. "And for the love of God, the last thing I need is a knocked-up twelve-year-old to worry about, so he's not allowed to finish inside of you. At least, not where he could get you pregnant." As long as Susan had 'infertile' written on her back, that meant every hole was still technically allowed, although maybe they'd have to hide it and pretend to be careful. Her mother continued, "Also, this is a two-way street. If your brother has needs, you take care of them too, even if you're not in the mood. You can consider that part of your punishment." Did it really count as a punishment if it was something she was already doing and enjoyed? "Knowing her, that's not much of a punishment," Keith said, reading her mind and putting a jerky twist on it. "I know, but I'm trying my best here. I'd ground her, but that'd just mean she'd spend all day with you." She let out a weary sigh. "Your father's the most important thing. If he's home, no hanky panky, at least not unless I say it's okay. I'll try to call you from now on when we're on the way home so there's no more unpleasant surprises like today." She let out one more sigh, then raised her thumb and forefingers to her temple like she had a headache and added, "This is a messed up situation and I can't believe I'm doing this, but this is where we are. But understand... this is rock bottom, Susan. This isn't a free pass for bad behavior, it's... it's..." She struggled for an analogy. "Like when we gave you that extra reading tutorial program to help in school. An accommodation for your special needs until you don't need it any more." The tutorials had only lasted a couple months... the problem hadn't gone away, not completely, but she'd far grown better at handling it. Maybe Mom expected the same here, and if she could get rid of the marker and everything went back to normal in a few months she'd assume her plan worked. "And I expect you to do better from now on, because if you use this as an excuse to keep misbehaving... well, you won't like what I'll have to do. Get it?" Susan nodded hurriedly. She still didn't like that Mom knew, but if she was willing to let it go on and hide it from Dad... it was the best outcome she could think of. It still filled her with shame, but at least she could shut the shame away when she wasn't using it. Keith raised his hand, like that were in class. "What, Keith?" "You... kinda interrupted us before we finished. Do you mind if we get back to it?" Chapter Nineteen: Mom's eyes rolled upward, like Keith was asking to borrow money she knew he'd never pay back instead of asking his mom if he could finish having sex with his little sister. "Fine, just... do it in your room. I don't need to see it." A smirk followed, along with a shrug. "You can if you want... I'm not shy. And how else will you know we've been following all the rules?" Susan buried her face in her hands again. That was just what she needed, her Mom watching and directing when and where her brother could cum in her. She looked like she was tempted, but shook her head. "I trust you, Keith. And I have no idea when your father's coming back." Upstairs, in her brother's room, Susan had a pout on her face, even as she undressed and a part of her was craving Keith being inside her again, bringing her to the orgasm she still needed. Keith's casual attitude seemed to make it even worse, and instead of hiding her feelings she let her pout deepen into a thoroughly grumpy expression when she noticed he still had a smirk on his face. She wanted him to know she was mad. "What?" he finally said. "I thought that went rather well." "We got caught. Just like I said we might." "And I took care of it. Just like I said I would." She let out a frustrated noise, almost a growl... that wasn't intentional, it was one thing to let him know she was upset, but she didn't want him to feel attacked and choose to do something mean in return. But he was infuriating in his smug self-assurance that everything was under control. To her surprise, though, he seemed to soften, the smirk vanishing. "Look, I know we agreed to keep it a secret, but, this was an accident. You wanted to cum, remember? You practically begged me for sex. How was I supposed to know she'd come home?" "Maybe if you'd thought things through sometimes..." Though maybe it was unfair. Susan only realized it after it had happened too. "This was your fault." Of course, he was the one who turned her into his super-horny fuck toy who was addicted to cum, but she didn't mean that. Because he was the one who turned him into a jerk, and that might have been the only reason he wrote all those things in the first place. So it was her fault, ultimately... but at least this particular circumstance, Mom's sudden unexpected return home to use the bathroom, that she knew she could blame Keith for. He didn't seem to agree. Or he simply hadn't connected the dots. "My fault?" Now he was starting to sound defensive. "What you wrote on Mom. That she can't undress outside of home? Why do you think she couldn't use the bathroom at church? Do you really think they were that dirty?" The same thing had happened the day before, shopping, Mom had rushed to the bathroom immediately upon their return home... she must have been holding it in. Somehow, undressing just enough to use the bathroom, even if nothing was completely removed, was also forbidden. Technically, it was also his fault because he put the television volume so loud that they didn't hear Mom enter, but this was the more important point. "Shit..." The injured outrage at the accusation was replaced, for one moment, by a flash of a guilty expression, before that too disappeared and the smug jerky smirk was back. "Yeah, you might be right about that. My bad. I'll fix that tonight so she won't be racing home from work tomorrow. Don't want her to get fired... and besides, I have plans for tomorrow." Plans? That didn't bode well, but before she could ask, he said, "Tell you what, I'll make it up to you, you're allowed to cum all you want tonight." Susan's anger didn't evaporate, but that was pretty good deal... all night covered not just this time but also when they shared a bed, if that was still going to happen, and even if it didn't, she could masturbate and still lose her horniness long enough to sleep. Unless he changed his mind... she didn't know if he could revoke permission if he changed his mind later... a perverse part of her wanted to test it, and maybe that was part of the reason she pushed and said, "You just gotta be more careful with what you write." The other reason she said it was because she really believed it. "Yeah, yeah. Why do you think I haven't written anything new on you even though you said I could? I haven't forgotten that, you know. Now do you want to get fucked, or not?" They were both naked now, and Keith was hard... far harder than she'd have expected considering she was giving him a hard time. But she certainly couldn't say no... or at least, if she did, she was pretty sure her cocksucker urge would take over and she'd be on her knees anyway. She wasn't close enough that it became compulsory, but it seemed like she had to be on that cock one way and so she wanted an orgasm along with it. "Yeah." "So say it." "I want to get fucked," she repeated, and crawled on his bed. "That's a good little fuck toy." He got into position behind her, the head of his penis up against her slippery wet pussy, and slowly pushed forward. Once he was halfway inside her, he said, "Now since Mom already knows we're fucking... you might as well be a loud little fuck toy, too. Let's make her hear how much you enjoy it." As a fuck toy, Susan didn't seem to have much choice in the matter, and so a series of moans escaped her lips as he thrust into her. She didn't want Mom to hear her, but what she wanted didn't matter, his suggestions might as well have been commands. At first it was just wordless cries, with the occasional "Oh, god, yes!" type outburst, but that wasn't enough for her brother. He leaned forward, his belly slid across her back as he whispered, "You think she's masturbating to this right now?" Susan hadn't thought about it... it was hard to picture her Mom masturbating. She didn't get a chance to answer, because he continued, "Come on, let's make her really jealous... scream about how much you love my cock." She was already in the middle of an "Oh god," so she just finished it with, "I love your cock so much! It's so big and thick and warm!" She took a breath, and then continued, "It feels so good, I know it's going to make me cum so hard! It makes me want to be your slut, your dirty little slut for life." He pressed into her with a grunt, and wetness flooded inside of her as a screaming orgasm took over her brain, a fuck toy orgasm triggered by her brother, but it was just as good as one of her own, except making her throat raw from exertion. Susan was just starting to come down from it, feeling her brother start to soften which meant that the fuck was over and so, with it, the fuck toy rules, when a frantic knocking on the door grabbed her attention. "Your father will be home any minute, cut it out now or put a gag in! Remember what I said!" "Okay, Mom, we'll stop," Keith said and pulled out of her. His cock continued to dribble a stream of milky cum, but it was the last dregs, and Susan fell over on her side to start to lick it up. It was a good thing Mom didn't come in or she'd have seen they were already breaking the rules about where he could cum... or at least, breaking what she thought were the rules. It's not like they could explain it was a loophole. "Then get yourselves dressed and presentable," Mom said, and they could hear her stomping downstairs. "So, how long you think she was listening at the door before she yelled in?" Keith asked, pulling his boxers up. "She wouldn't do that." She sucked some of his cum off her finger and went back for more, practically fingering herself, not out of a particular arousal but to make sure to swallow it all as quickly as possible. "Not everyone's a pervert like you." "Sure they are. Some just bury it deeper. Or need a little push. Remember everything you're willing to do when you got a little horny? Well, everyone gets horny." It seemed pointless to argue that some of that was because of things he wrote, how he changed her, with the magic marker... especially because he had a point. Some of it came from the marker, but horniness made her think of things that were perverted and far outside of anything he wrote. Maybe everyone really was a pervert inside, and they just wore a disguise most of the time. Once she'd gotten all the cum she thought she could easily get, she got back into hers, the same normal clothes she'd chosen after Mom caught her, and then, since Keith was back at his drawing desk, she slipped out. She stopped at the railing and peered over when she heard faint voices and recognized one as her father, and listened in. "Oh, it was just great," he said sarcastically. "Learned more than I ever wanted to know about riding mowers. You want to tell me why you ran out of there and left me to get a ride home from Fat Jimmy, the landscaping distributor? This whole church thing was your idea, you know." "I told you, I had to use the bathroom! The ladies room there was disgusting, I couldn't even take my clothes off in there!" Susan nodded in smug satisfaction... she was right, for all the good it did her. "Oh, please! Come on, tell me the truth. What, did you see some ex-lover or something?" Sometimes Dad had joked about Mom being unfaithful, like that one or the other of them might have been the mailman's kid... this time, it didn't seem like a joke, there was a bitter, angry tinge to it. "It was the truth. I had to go to the bathroom. Ask the kids. Ask them later, though, they're probably busy." "Jesus... have you been drinking?" A harsh clinking sound, like someone had slammed a glass, not hard enough to break, but hard enough to make their anger clear. "Look, don't judge me, you wouldn't believe the day I've had." "Yeah, right, you went through so much in the few hours between when we left for your stupid church idea and now." "You wouldn't believe me if I told you." "Where are the kids?" "Upstairs... screwing around, probably." This was followed with a short, bitter laugh, and then she said, "Forget it. Don't bother them." "I'm more worried about you bothering them. What are they going to think if they see you down here, drunk?" "I'm not drunk, asshole! I just had a little to calm my nerves. I'm totally okay." She heard a weary sigh. "Look, just, do me a favor, if you're going to drag me to something and want to bail halfway through, at least take me with you? They kept pressuring me to join some volunteer committee. I think it may have been a cult, I don't know." That sounded a bit more like her father's normal, joking mood. "So are we putting a pin in this church idea or we going again next week?" "I don't know. Maybe this family doesn't belong in a church." "Uh oh. What did Susan do now?" Susan's heart fell. "Nothing. Well, not nothing, she's been a handful, but... I handled it, okay. Let's just leave it at that." She slunk away and went to her room. Her own mother thought she was hellbound and not worth saving. That stung more than anything else. Chapter Twenty: By dinner their family seemed completely normal, although now Susan had to wonder if 'normal' had always been a set of lies. Because just before they sat down to eat, her mother pressed her vibrator into her hand and whispered, "This was sticking out of the couch cushions... be more careful with it!" And she ran upstairs with it in her hand to put it back in her room, only to run into her brother, who saw it sticking out of her pocket, grabbed it, and suggested she wear it in her ass during dinner. When she returned downstairs, it sticking partly out of her butt but safely covered by her pants, she overheard an exchange where her mother asked for help to set the table, and her father, sitting on the couch watching TV, said, snottily, "By help, you mean we start to do it together and then you leave me to do the rest on my own? I'll pass, I'm sure you can handle it." Later, when doling out the food, Mom seemed to use an excessive amount of force putting it on Dad's plate... but then everything settled down while they ate. That they could sit down and pretend to be a normal family after all that, when Keith and Susan were fucking all the time, and now Mom knew it and was helping her hide it, Mom and Dad were mad at each other and probably Susan as well (but probably not Keith, who was having fun working the word 'zoom' into conversations and activating a silent vibrator inside of her, which she herself had to hide)... it seemed crazy, but they did it, and so maybe they were lying at previous dinners too. Maybe Mom and Dad always hated each other but pretended to get along for her sake. Maybe they didn't even like her, either, just got along because they were family and it was expected. Maybe Keith always lusted after her and wanted a fuck toy little sister... that lie she wouldn't mind, but she didn't want to give up the honest brotherly love that she hoped went along with it. Still, she played her part and ate dinner, trying to sit still despite the fact that pleasant vibrations were rocking her body at unexpected moments and she technically still had permission to cum for the rest of the night, and her super-horniness had already crept in before her brother started secretly teasing her, drawing that line ever closer to a screaming orgasm while seated at a family dinner table. Nobody seemed to notice how close she was to that... if they did, that was pretending too. By the time she was done dinner, she was just about ready to burst with just a little more stimulation, but the vibrations had stopped, and she managed to ask politely to be excused, not saying that it was so she could rush up to her room and masturbate to some semblance of relief... but before she could stand she noticed a wet spot on the crotch of her pants from her dripping, needy pussy. Keeping her hands awkwardly in front of the wet spot, Susan stood carefully, hoping she wasn't simply drawing more attention to it, then two steps away from the table she realized she couldn't even turn around to be safe from embarrassment, her ass lubricated too now when she got aroused, and she'd been sitting on it as her brother activated and deactivated it with verbal commands slipped into ordinary conversation. So she instead skipped unnaturally sideways from the table and out of the room, then when she was out of sight, started charging up the stairs. "Geez, Suze, what's so important that you gotta zoom right up to your room?" At her brother said the magic word, 'zoom,' the vibrator silently activated and sent another unexpected blast of pleasure that sent her to her knees a few steps from the top, unable to risk completing the journey on rubbery legs, where she might trip and break her neck. She had to wait until her brother said 'enough' or she crossed the threshold. He didn't say the word, so she lay there, just past the point where she'd be visible from downstairs, as she felt the orgasmic feeling cresting on her, her only thought, beyond a faint hope that her family wouldn't follow up the stairs, was that she keep quiet, and bit down on the step just above her, second from the top to either muffle the noise or remind her as her mind went blank with pleasure. "You all right, sweetie?" Her father's voice sounded distant, but when she was coming down from an orgasm things sometimes seemed that way, like the her that saw and felt and heard was far away from her actual body, so when her brain had room for worry in it, she worried that he might be standing above her watching her writhe in pleasure. He wasn't, everyone still sounded like they were at the dinner table, but they must have heard something, the worrying thump of something soft hitting the stairs, if nothing else, maybe a grunt that could have been pain or surprise. The concern was mild, though, distant, not like someone who'd heard the scream that went off in her brain. After all, they hadn't even gotten up to check. "She probably just decided she hadn't had enough." The vibrator stopped moving in her ass, which helped, but she still needed a few deep breaths before she said, "I'm fine," and pushed herself to a crawling position, and that way finished her journey up the stairs and used the railing to pull herself to her feet. She needed to get to her room and get those pants off. When the knock at her door came, Susan was sucking absently on the crotch of her panties. Girlcum, her own juices, never quite satisfied her cum addiction the same way Keith's cum did, and this time around so much of it had been absorbed by the fabric that she felt it was worth a try to get all she could. It didn't taste especially pleasant, but it was mild enough that she could tune it out. By the time she heard the knock, she'd gotten just about all she thought she could get out of it though, and hurriedly took them out of her mouth and slipped them back over her legs, and pulled her shirt so that it covered everything. It was her room, she could get away with not wearing pants, she decided, but then pulled a handful of bedcovers over her just in case as she called out, "Come in." Her mother's head poked through when the door was open just enough to admit it. "Your father's downstairs watching TV," she said. "I know you and your brother didn't get to... finish, again today. I saw how antsy you were at dinner... if you're willing to be super quiet, you can do it now before bed." Susan stared in open-mouth surprise... because of what Keith had done, Mom seemed to accept their new sexual relationship... but still, she'd never expected that Mom would volunteer an opportunity, especially not with Dad home one floor below. Maybe her knowing wasn't such a bad thing after all. "I can be super quiet," she promised, and not mentioning the fact that she and Keith did, in fact, both cum just before Dad came home. But she wouldn't say no to another, nor did she expect Keith would. And it would be a chance to get some of the good cum. "Okay, then come on." She gave a beckoning wave, then looked out as though expecting Dad to potentially be upstairs that very moment, and left the door open. Susan followed her out of the room and into Keith's. She must have filled him in on the plan, because he was already just in boxers. Susan stepped into the room, standing near the chair to Keith's desk, and then looked at her mother, waiting for her to close the door and leave them alone. "Well, what are you waiting for?" Mom whispered. "The moment your father's show ends, this stops, and I don't think that'd be fair to your brother after the last two times." Gradually what Mom seemed to be getting at dawned on her. "...with you here?!" "Of course with me here! Somebody with a level head has to watch out and make sure your father doesn't come up! Besides... I want to make sure he's not hurting you. Accidentally," she stressed, turning towards Keith with an apologetic look on her face. "I know you wouldn't on purpose, but if you're very big and she's so small, I just want to make sure." Keith gave her one of his knowing, smug smirks. "It's fine by me," he said, then sat on the bed. "Why don't we do it with her on top again? That way you get a good look." "Good idea," Mom agreed, and her eyes lingered on the bulge in his shorts, and seemed laser-focused when he pulled the waistband down and sprang free. She continued to watch as her own son gave his cock some preparatory strokes, and Susan was surprised to see Keith had a small squeeze bottle full of a clear-liquid that he squirted into his hand and rubbed on himself, leaving his dick glistening and slippery. Mom watched this too, then, seemingly reluctantly, turned to her daughter. "Now, remember what I said about being quiet." "I promise," she said... she wasn't going to like Mom being there, but it was a small price to pay for a big piece of cock. She just hoped Keith would be sure to order her quiet once she was his fuck toy. Mom had other ideas. "I wish I could rely on that, but history suggests I can't exactly trust you to control yourself. That's why you'll be gagged." Right then, Susan might as well have been, for words didn't seem to want to come out of her open mouth for a few seconds. Finally, she managed, "It's in my room." "No, this time we'll use mine." Mom stepped forward and bent down to retrieve something from the foot of Keith's bed, something Susan hadn't noticed. It looked like a belt, but with a red ball interrupting the middle of it. "Take off your clothes and I'll put it on you." A few reluctant seconds later, Susan stood facing her brother, who was still lazily stroking himself with lube, while Mom tied the gag up behind her. The ball filled her mouth, making it difficult to talk, but it was just small enough to spit it out if it wasn't tied back. It was uncomfortable, but so was the knowledge that her mother was putting it on her. "Now, this isn't safe to use alone," she said. "Not unless I'm here, you understand?" Susan tried to respond but didn't see how the muffled grunt she made could be interpreted either as a 'yes' or a 'no.' She meant 'yes,', but how was Mom to know? Evidently, she took it on faith. "And if you have any trouble breathing, or if Keith starts to hurt you down there, just wave at me, okay?" She felt the strap cinch tight, and she gave a nod and another impossible-to-decipher sound. She thought of using the opportunity to say things she never would get away with, if understood, like telling Mom to 'F-off' and leave them alone, but resisted the urge... Mom had to have used these gags, maybe she learned gag-talk like it was another language. Once the gag was on, Mom turned her around and guided her backwards by the shoulder, towards her brother's lap, advising her to spread her legs when she needed to, and for Keith to hold himself up. "Now, the ass is very stretchy, but if you go slow..." "Actually, Ma," Keith said, interrupting her unnecessary tutorial. "Could you aim me for her pussy? We did anal earlier." This gave Mom a moment's pause. "Are you sure? You won't be able to finish there." "When I'm getting close we'll just take her off and finish the rest in her mouth. She won't mind that. Will you, Suze?" She shook her head, though now worried that Keith was going to use this to push the envelope even more, flood her pussy with cum and see if he could talk Mom into accepting that, too. "Okay, as long as you're careful." And, to Susan's surprise, Mom bent down, reached between her legs to grab hold of Keith's cock and hold it upright as she gently guided Susan even further back, so far that she felt the mattress on the back of her legs. She looked down, Mom was still holding her own son's cock, proud and upright, and staring at it with what seemed like hunger... and Susan felt a rush of anger and jealousy. Mom shouldn't be touching him, even if it was just to help him use his little sister as a fuck toy. "Slowly," she said to Susan. "Start sinking down. I'll guide you in." She lowered, slowly impaling herself on her brother's cock while Mom watched, transitioning into a crouch so she could see the full penetration. Whatever she'd given Keith to rub on his cock certainly made it smoother on the first entry, but before long Susan doubted she'd be able to tell the difference, she was getting wet from the pleasure alone. Halfway down, Mom finally let go so Susan could sink the rest of the way, and shook her head in some wonderment. "Obviously somebody's been practicing with hairbrushes for a while," she said, then put her hands on her knees and watched, looking up as though to give Susan permission to start. Whether or not that was the intent, Susan took it that way, rising and falling on him, only now with a ball gag to keep out any moans from her end from being audible more than a few feet away. Keith only made soft grunts, and Mom was dead silent, enraptured, but in her hands-on-her-knees couch, Susan noticed her legs moving together and apart rhythmically, like she was doing some exercise routine, thigh crunches, not in tune to the movements of her children having sex, but on its own, much slower speed, almost like she was doing her best not to but couldn't resist it either. Mom didn't watch the whole way like that, but got up, went to the door and out, as though finally taking her lookout role seriously, but then, after satisfying herself that they weren't about to be caught, returned, and returned to watching from right in front of them. Susan was getting more and more convinced Mom wasn't interested in Susan's comfort or safety, or even watching the sex itself, but rather just getting a front row seat at the cock she'd been fantasizing about thanks to the magic marker. Susan was starting to feel like she was just someone who occasionally got in the way of Mom's view. Sometimes Mom asked for status updates, from Keith, though, not from her, about whether he was getting close. Keith just answered with the vague "Not far now." The only time, once the sex had started to full on riding, that Mom gave Susan any advice, it was to say, "It's okay to rub yourself too to get yourself there faster." She then demonstrated on herself, rubbing her hand roughly over her pussy, albeit through the sweat pants she now wore, and Susan was about eighty-percent sure that the whole reason for the advice was an excuse to touch herself in front of her two children fucking, or more accurately her son's cock while it was fucking some slut that happened to be her daughter. Still, true or not, it was good advice, and Susan rubbed her mound with two pressing fingers, stroking around her clit as she rode faster, getting very close to another orgasm, struck by the feeling that she'd already be there if her mother watching everything didn't make the whole thing a little uncomfortable. Maybe she wouldn't be able to do it at all with Mom there, but she had to try, and so she tried to turn what was happening around in her head,, find a way to convince herself it was more hot, not less... plenty of things had seemed to make that change on their own, the thought of things entering her butt, the thought of her dad doing sexual stuff with her, the thought of everyone knowing her brother knocked her up... so what was the harm in one more? The act felt something like when she was writing a story and searching for just the right word, or metaphor, that would make everything just work, but before it happened, it was like groping around in the dark. Before she could make that connection, she heard her brother beneath her, his hands had been gently on her butt, but now they pushed upward, not insistently, but steadily, and he said, "I think I'm just about to blow." Mom sprang into action. "Get off, get off," she said in a panicked whisper as she rose and pulled Susan up under her arms, and with one heavy lift the young girl was free of the cock she craved and landed a few inches back on her brother's belly. "Noooo," she tried to cry out, knowing that if he was outside of her when he came, she wouldn't get the fuck toy orgasm she was so used to, but with the soft rubbery ball it just came out as an unidentified gurgle that might even have been an orgasm. "Shit," Mom said as one stream of faintly white but mostly transparent liquid bubbled off the head of Keith's cock. "No time to get her gag off." Susan watched as her mother held the shaft upright, then opened her mouth wide and enveloped the head with her lips. Chapter Twenty-One: Her Mom's lips didn't close around her brother's cock, though. Susan noticed it after a few seconds of fury, and of not being sure whether she was more made at Mom for preventing her fuck toy orgasm or stealing Keith away from her, somehow, but she did eventually notice that her mouth was abnormally wide and not actually sucking him, or even licking him. She was kneading her hand up and down like trying to massage the cum out of him, but her lips didn't actually seem to make contact, and tongue only accidentally grazed with motion, like she liked the taste of her son's cum but not his cock. She did swallow a whole bunch of his cum, though. Mom milked his cock into her waiting mouth and kept swallowing as though she was the one addicted to cum. She wasn't as good at it as Susan was, though, and some of it slid off down her tongue and out her lips along with a stream of saliva. Keith pushed Susan aside from her position on her brother's chest, turning her so that now her legs dangled over his body and he could get a better view, and she could see him too, staring at what Mom was doing, as wide-eyed as Susan felt but there was no jealousy on his face, or anything that looked upset. Susan found herself torn between watching her mother and her brother's face, and looked back and forth between them as they stared at each other like she wasn't there at all. Finally, Mom pulled away from the now dribbling cock, swallowed one more time for good measure, locked eyes with Susan and whispered, "Don't just stand there, Susan, get the gag off!" Only with that instruction did Susan reach to the back of her head and try to undo the strap. She also slid backwards off of Keith's body and just on to his bed and glared at the two of them. "Wow," Keith said. "I can't believe I did that." "I can't believe you did that either." "Me either," Susan tried to say, but the ball was still in her mouth and the strap was being stubborn... she was probably just pulling it the wrong way, but being at the back of her head it wasn't like she could look. "It's not like I wanted to or anything!" Mom insisted. "It was just an emergency and I didn't want it to spray everywhere. I didn't even actually touch you... I mean except for my hand. But, anyway, I realize that this was not appropriate... if Susan had been more prepared..." Finally, she got the strap off, maneuvered the ball out around her front teeth and out of her aching mouth, and whispered, "What the fuck?" Mom was going to try to blame THIS on her, too? "Susan!" Her voice rose above a whisper for the first time, an angry reaction before she caught herself and continued in an angry whisper, "That sort of language is totally out of line from you. This is not an excuse to break all the rules. Now get over here and finish cleaning your brother like you should have before." Susan rolled her eyes at the strange double standard in her mom's brain, where she practically yelled at her for swearing right before telling her to lick all the remaining cum off her brother's cock that she herself hadn't swallowed. But she was a cocksucker and even though she was far enough away that she could have resisted on her own, it seemed like when somebody told her to, she had to live up to the mark. She leaned over and took his messy cock inside of her mouth and began wiping it clean with her tongue. At least it was more comfortable than the ball gag, and there was still plenty of cum left for her, though whatever lube Mom gave Keith gave him a weird fruity taste. She just wished her mom would leave her alone to suck it in peace. "Watch your teeth," she advised, uselessly, because Susan already knew to watch her teeth, and they weren't hurting him at all. "Guys can be very sensitive especially after." She wanted to say that she knew, but it would mean taking her mouth off. Luckily, Keith stood up for her. "She's doing fine, don't worry." Mom made a sound like she was mildly bothered but wasn't going to make a big deal out of it, and watched for a few more seconds, then asked, "You haven't done that with anyone else other than your brother, have you?" She shook her head, completely honestly, although it didn't look like her mother believed it. "Fast learner, I guess," was what she said, but her tone still suggested she had her doubts. "That's enough, now... you don't want to get him all hard again since you can't do anything until tomorrow, your father will be done his show soon." Keith knew that she couldn't stop sucking on her own, so helpfully pushed her away and, while holding one hand on her forehead so she couldn't snap back on it, pulled his boxer over and hid it from view, freeing her from any compulsion except her horny desire to get him hard enough to fuck again. He'd gotten off, but she hadn't, and she was still aroused and seeking relief. Still, more than anything else, she didn't want Mom to be there watching... she'd rather masturbate in her room rather than that. Now that Keith was no longer exposed, Mom got up again to look out the bedroom door and check once again that there was no danger of interruption, while Susan got dressed again. Finally, she left them alone, once they were both wearing clothes again. It wasn't exactly fully clothed, but at least it didn't look suspicious enough that it might cause Dad to suspect his two kids were in a perverted sexual relationship that their mother watched. Even before they found the magic marker Keith would sometimes walk around in just boxers, and Susan sometimes just had a long t-shirt over underwear. It only seemed dirty to people who already knew what was going on. "That was really something, huh?" Keith said after Mom was downstairs. "Her finding out could be the best thing that's ever happened to us." Susan's lips pouted automatically. "To you, maybe." "Hey, you benefit too. If she hadn't run interference with Dad, you'd have been suffering until bed time." "I'm still horny. Meanwhile, Mom practically sucked your cock like it was a lollypop, so I guess you got what you want." Keith rubbed the back of his head, but the grin on his face was, for a chance, not smug, but rather guilty. "Yeah, she shouldn't have be able to do that. Just goes to show you that definitions matter." "I did make it she couldn't have any kind of sex with anyone but Dad." That was news to Susan... she thought the only thing he did to prevent that was make her unable to undress. "I guess that doesn't count as sex." "But... it's called oral sex!" "She didn't suck. She barely touched me, actually... it was weird. More like she was jacking me off into her open mouth." He shrugged. "I guess jacking someone off isn't sex, at least in her book." That thought seemed to capture his imagination for a moment. "I wonder if it's her definition that matters, or mine as the writer?" "It's a definition," she said. "Doesn't it just mean what it means?" Then she pointed out, "I didn't know what a fuck toy was, I just know how it makes me act." "Yeah, well, I wasn't sure what one was before I had one. And I guess my bed doesn't actually know what 'comfortable' means, you know?" He shrugged, as though losing interest. "Anyway, I guess if she didn't technically give me a blowjob, and she really didn't touch you at all, this doesn't technically count as my first threesome." "Good. I don't exactly want to know I had a threesome with Mom." Dad, maybe. "Being your fuck toy is one thing, being with Mom... that's... ick." "Yeah," he said, with a nervous chuckle, and then dismissed her, claiming he wanted to be alone for a while. As she walked to her room, she replayed the look he had on his face again and felt an anxious trembling in her stomach that he was just playing along, that even if Mom wasn't actually giving him a blowjob, the sight of her mouth around his cock during an orgasm had turned that from something he once thought as 'ick' to becoming hot, much like had happened in her own head with so many things. She prayed to a God she'd lost faith in that that wasn't what was happening... things were bad enough without having to share him with Mom. Sleeping together that night turned out to be forbidden, again. Not that it was going to stop them, but after Susan emerged from her room, after masturbating out the orgasm Mom stole from her, Mom intercepted her on the way to the bathroom and made a point of telling her it wasn't allowed. "I just can't trust you, you could force your brother into something again and wake your father up. Not to mention that you might get pregnant if you don't get off him in time, like last time." Which was mildly insulting in the usual way, with Mom assuming that Keith had no fault in the matter. Through gritted teeth, Susan said, "Fine," knowing that she'd sneak into his bed after Mom fell asleep. "And you're grounded for the rest of the week. If you're old enough to... do what you're doing, you're old enough to stay home alone, so I'll tell your brother he doesn't have to watch you, but you're staying put. It's part of your punishment." Susan nodded, turning her head away so she could roll her eyes without being caught, and maybe looking guilty at the same time. "And I'm putting you on birth control pills soon... just to prevent accidents like almost happened tonight." "Mom, that's not necessary..." Because of the mark on her, she couldn't get pregnant. "Yes, it is. Now go brush your teeth." She lowered her voice and added, "And your little toy, too. I know you were using it." It was infuriating that Mom could still make her blush and feel ashamed. The vibrator didn't need washing now that it magically cleaned itself, but she got it and took it into the bathroom with her just so Mom wouldn't nag. Keith, as usual, thought it was funny, both the grounding and the vibrator incident when she brought it up, in bed, his arms around her holding her like an oversized teddy bear that he could also fuck. Which he had already done by that point, a leisurely incestuous ass-fuck just to work out any remaining tensions of the day. They were just starting to drift off to sleep after their mutual orgasm, when she thought of something and asked, "Did you make sure Mom could go to the bathroom tomorrow?" "Shit." He pulled away, slipped out of her, and got up to get the marker out of the lockbox. "I'll just be a few minutes," indicating with a gesture that she should stay put. While that left her free to gather the cum that was now starting to drip out of her ass, she also got to worry about what other changes he might make while he was there. Maybe, her thoughts raced while she sucked her finger greedily, he's removing the 'no cheat' rule for Mom, or adding "or Keith" to the list of people she was allowed to have sex with, depending on how he worded it the first time. Or he could be going the other way, making Mom want to do lesbian stuff with her, or make her want Susan to get pregnant, or some other fucked-up change. This time, Keith was true to his word, probably because he was too sleepy to get creative, or at least that was what she hoped when he returned after only something like a minute. Distractedly, he tossed the marker on the desk and climbed back into bed with a yawn. His arm encircled her again, and Susan stopped her sucking, but unlike her brother, she was far from asleep, her heart was racing madly as she realized... he left the marker on the desk in a moment of sleepy inattention. He hadn't locked it away like he usually did. This could be her only chance to get it for herself. Chapter Twenty-Two: She didn't move right away. First, because she worried it could have been a test, that he did that deliberately to see if she'd go for it. Next because she realized that even if it wasn't, she had to make sure he didn't know she had it, at least until she'd hid it, or used it, or did whatever she was going to do with it. Keith was so much bigger and stronger than her, if she grabbed it and woke him up in the process, he would just pry it out of her hands and punish her for the attempt. This was like one of those cartoons where someone had to sneak away without waking up the monster. A vague memory of something once watched flashed through her head, not even with pictures, more a faint idea. It involved someone... maybe a duck? Being held by something like a bear. To get him to turn over, she thought, the duck used a feather to tickle the side of his ear until the beast rolled over and away. Now if only she could get a feather without waking Keith up. Since that idea didn't seem feasible, as Keith's pillows weren't feather, she instead tried to plan what she'd do when she got her hands on the marker. Writing on Keith was out of the question. Unlike their parents, now, he wasn't a deep sleeper, and would probably wake up the moment the wet tip of the marker touched his skin. She could maybe write on herself, but couldn't think of anything that would help, except maybe super strength which might let her fight off her own brother if she needed to. She didn't want to, though, she realized. Maybe it was just the other marks on her body talking but she liked, sometimes, the feeling of being completely helpless in her brother's grasp, and didn't want to give it up, even for a week. It seemed crazy, even to her lying in bed, to be more worried about that losing that than losing her chance to get away from this crazy situation, and that made her ask the big question she'd been avoiding. Did she even want to get away at all? The temptation to just surrender, give up and let her brother make all the decisions of her life tugged at her soul, a part of her knowing it was similar to the feel of being physically under his power, a freedom from any responsibility. She wouldn't have to get out of bed at all, either just slip comfortably into sleep and be a happy fuck toy again in the morning. Maybe she would have if it was just her, if her parents weren't under his spell too, and that thought made the horrible sight of her mother, mouth over his cock, flashed through her mind along with a warm rush of anger. No, she did have to get out of this. She also decided it was probably best to hide or destroy the marker, rather than waste time giving herself strength. If she could sneak to the marker, she could sneak out the door, maybe long enough to write "stuck" on the door so Keith couldn't follow her. Then she could run, maybe to the kitchen, throw it down the garbage disposal, or down a sewer grate, or even just flush it down the toilet. She would like to keep it, but anywhere she hid it had to last for at least a week, so the marks could wear off, and Keith might punish her by not letting her cum, or drink his cum, until she told him where it was hidden. He might do that if she destroyed it, though. Maybe she could mail it to herself, if she didn't have only a vague idea of how non-electronic-mail worked. It was as she was thinking about that, without even a good plan in place, that she felt her brother's arm slip away from her as he turned over on his back. He sometimes did that, usually only for a few minutes because it made him snore, and she elbowed him awake, but a few minutes would be all she needed. Her heart began racing again... it had calmed down some while she was planning, but now she'd have to make her move without a full plan in place. She decided to wait until the first snore. That would prove he was asleep. It seemed to take forever, though, and when it finally came, it was a soft sound, almost like something being dragged steadily over gravel. It might as well have been an alarm to Susan, though, her eyes snapped open and she lifted her neck to look over his body in the dark. Carefully, slowly, she rose into a seated position, then crawled over to the foot of his bed. It seemed safer than climbing over his body. Another snore made her comfortable as she set her foot down on the ground. As her second foot landed and she shifted her weight to get off the bed, it made a faint creak that made her hold her breath. A half-minute later, she completed the move and stepped gingerly through his room towards the desk. It was all going well until her foot landed on something crinkly. She couldn't see it but somehow she just knew it was that damn Doritos bag Mom bought him the other day, that he probably casually dropped on his floor after he was done. If she didn't know him better, she'd have thought it was an evil mastermind move, a trap set to detect her moving around. The truth was, he was just a slob. Her brother didn't move right away, and the thought she got away with it, but when she lifted her foot it crinkled again and she heard a soft voice, "What are you doing?" "Going to the bathroom," she said, the first thing to come to mind, even though she was mid-step moving farther away from the door. Looking back, she saw her brother looking at her, not obviously suspicious, but definitely awake. It was obviously too much to hope that he'd asked the question and immediately went back to sleep. "So go," he said, and she'd already committed to the lie, so she adjusted her course and started walking directly to the door, and into the hall, leaving the door open behind her. Since she didn't actually have to pee, she just walked down there and sat on the closed toilet for a minute, then washed her hands and returned to the room. Maybe, she told herself, he'd be asleep again. That hope lasted until she was halfway between the bed and the desk and she noticed. The marker was now gone. There was nothing else to do but slip back into bed with her brother, and now her heart was beating fast for a whole new reason... since he'd gotten up and moved it, he had to have guessed what she was trying, and she expected at any moment that he'd snuggle up, whisper in her ear, something like, "Nice try," or maybe "Bad girl," and, either way, find some way to punish her for the attempt. No such obvious sign came, he seemed to be content to sleep, and eventually, so did Susan, until it was time to get up again, and sneak back into her room at the crack of dawn. At that point she realized that her brother slept soundly right up to the moment she crossed into the hallway, and if she'd only waited, she could have grabbed the marker then. Mentally kicking herself on her way to her room, she at least consoled herself with the thought that she'd escaped punishment for her attempt, that he'd forgotten. At least, she thought that until she found out his plans for that day. Everything seemed normal in the morning, at least as normal as it got for them now. Mom grimaced when Dad advised them to "Have fun," before leaving for work, and seemed to glare at Susan with some kind of unspoken warning she couldn't be sure of but the only thing she could think of was something like 'make sure he doesn't cum inside your pussy.' So, naturally, as soon as the car pulled away, she sat on the couch, pulled her long shirt up to expose her horny wet slit and asked her brother, "Want to fill up my pussy?" Now that she'd seen how flawed Mom was, the kind of poor judgment she showed even before Keith started writing on her... deliberately disobeying her was starting to become its own kind of fun. "A little later, maybe," Keith said, but that didn't worry her, at least not right away, but she thought he might simply prefer to use another of her holes first. Then he ruined her morning by saying, "I'm going out for a bit." Her face crumpled up in surprise. "What?" Why would you go out when you've got an eager fuck toy little sister at home? "Where?" Now she realized why he was fully dressed so early in the morning. Even Susan was still wearing just a long t-shirt. "I thought maybe I'd go hang out with Nunya" She thought he knew most of Keith's friends, didn't recall one named Nunya. Sounded Mexican or maybe Middle Eastern somehow. "Nunya?" "Yeah, None-ya-business." He smirked at her, and she couldn't resist rolling her eyes. "I'm going out, that's all you need to know." "Can I come with you?" "You're grounded, remember? I'm not. Besides, you have to stay home just in case Mom runs home to use the bathroom again. I think I took care of it, but..." He finished off with a shrugging motion. "Don't worry, I'll be back before too long. Maybe even with a surprise." "Fine, but... can you at least take care of me before you go?" He seemed to mull it over, as he often did even when his mind was already made up. "No, I don't think I'll have time." Her voice came out in a whine that was annoying and childish even to her ears. "But I'm horny!" "And I want you to stay that way. That means no masturbating... well, no cumming. You can masturbate all you want, I guess. Consider it a lesson." Her face froze. He still had a smile on his face, but now it seemed less teasing and more menacing. A lesson... that sounded like he was doing this because he saw her making a move for the magic marker last night, and he was going to leave her horny and craving cum for who knew how long. She'd almost prefer a new mark to that kind of torture... but without something to suggest immediately, that was just asking for trouble. "Okay," she said finally, and hung her head like a puppy who knew she'd done bad. At least she didn't seem too upset over it, he even ran his hand over head, ruffling her hair in a goodbye. "Hey, at least you can watch whatever you want on TV, right?" It was small comfort, but once he was gone she did go look at what was available, first getting a bowl of cereal and sitting with it between her legs on the couch, eating while flipping through channels, trying to take her mind off the lesson her brother was apparently teaching her. Cartoons caught her attention first, some she'd never seen before because they were on channels ther parents never paid for, although none were interesting enough to watch for more than a few minutes. Some she only watched because she didn't want to change the channel while she was eating cereal. Once she was done with her breakfast, she got bored with cartoons, and wandered through more channels, but the anxious feeling in her lower torso seemed to draw her towards the channels that gave her a pulse of attraction every time she thought about them, even though she knew it would make her problem worse in the long run. But finally she gave in anyway, and turned to the porn channels. The first she landed on had a pigtailed blonde surrounded by naked men, all with huge cocks, and she seemed excited by the prospect, so much so that she started sucking on one, then the other, almost like she too had "cock sucker" written on her somewhere. Watching it made Susan thirsty, craving the cream she knew they contained, although the blonde didn't seem to spend enough time on any one to get it. And it seemed like some of the guys got impatient at that, for one grabbed her by the knees, from the front, and pulled her legs out, then one of the guys helped by grabbing and supporting one foot as she fell backwards, still sucking on whatever cock was pushed towards her face. But now that another hole was open, one pushed his thick cock in and began fucking, and it looked like another was trying to squeeze in below so he could use her ass. The title, when she looked at the on-screen guide, was "College Coed Gets Gangbanged" and it was apparently a sequel, although Susan seemed to understand what was happening despite not having watched any of the previous installments in the series. She was getting treated like a fuck toy by a dozen men at once, guys who all seemed to get along and share and wait their turn. That thought didn't get her masturbating... what did was the thought, "What if this is the surprise Keith mentioned?" Maybe he was going out to gather his circle of friends and invite them over to fuck his sister, thinking a sudden gangbang would be scary and an ideal punishment and reminder of what he could make her be with the marker. If he thought that, he didn't realize how horny she'd gotten, and the fingers of one hand started pressing the flesh of her mound, swirling it in place. Even though her brother's friends weren't as attractive as the guys in the movie, and probably didn't have cocks that big, she thought it could be pretty hot. The only way that might be a punishment is if he didn't let her cum. The girl on screen seemed to not care about cumming, not like Susan did, she seemed to think of it like a game where it didn't matter if she got off as long as everyone else did. And everyone else did seem to... whenever one did she heard him moan and his movement would change and then he would swiftly be replaced by another guy in line. Before long, she was shiny with sweat and spit and cum and she still seemed to be smiling, and Susan didn't know if she had cum or not but that kind of attitude seemed like something to aspire to. The movie ended with a group of them cumming on the girl's face while she licked up as much as she could, then smiling and winking at the camera. It didn't show how they treated her the next day, or whether she had to rush out to get cleaned up before her next class... that was apparently saved for the next in the College Coed Gets Gangbanged series, for it just faded to black and went to a short stream of credits. She was going to try again to find something else to do, but the next movie up was "I Need My Stepdaddy's Thick Cock!" and that title spoke to her somehow, even though she didn't have a stepdaddy, so she watched as a dark-haired girl, apparently back from college break, stopped at home to talk to her stepfather, who she called "Daddy," a hunky older guy who walked around in only shorts. Within a few seconds of talking to him, she asked him a favor, told him that college had made her really horny but she didn't have a boyfriend to help her out, and asked if she could please get his help getting off. That seemed to be all it took in the movie, asking, although he said "I don't know if it would be a good idea, your mother wouldn't like it," he pretty much just stood there while his stepdaughter got his cock out of his pants and it was already hard and before he could even finish his sentence she had it in her mouth. The fucking came pretty soon after that, and Susan fingered herself along, wondering how realistic porn films were, whether that was really all it would take, even if it wasn't a stepdaddy but rather a real daddy. Mom wouldn't like it if she knew, but it seemed like it was almost as fun to disobey Mommy and keep big secrets from her as it might be to fuck Daddy. Fucking Daddy would not be whatever surprise Keith brought. She knew that, but she played with her pussy imagining the idea anyway, right up through the scene and onto the next, in which two different girls were making out on the couch when a different stepfather emerged downstairs and caught them. They were shocked at first, but the one girl, his stepdaughter, said that she started playing around with girls in college, and begged him not to tell her Mom. The other girl suggested turning it into a threesome to keep it quiet. Susan watched that scene not as turned on, but still interested by the way both of the others went from saying it was wrong, to being okay with trying it if the other one was. She watched long enough to see the girl's face at the moment her stepdaddy's cock entered her, then changed the channel when her friend got on top of her and covered that. Threesomes seemed better to her when there were two guys. Needing a break, Susan went upstairs and put some panties on, simple white ones with penguins doing various summer activities spaced out around it... she thought maybe that with something actually on her pussy she wouldn't be so tempted to touch it. The idea didn't entirely work. With the underwear and without the porn channel on, she didn't masturbate as intently, but still found herself pulling the crotch aside and rubbing herself occasionally, mostly whenever she tried to think about what surprise might be brewing in Keith's mind. She just couldn't stop herself from making wild, and sometimes wildly hot, guesses. It was likely to be some kind of punishment as well, but it might be a hot punishment, like the spanking. Maybe he went out to buy something humiliating, like when he walked her around like a dog. She froze in the middle of rubbing her mound as a thought struck her. He didn't need to bring back anything to treat her like a dog, he could just get Mom's leash and collar again. But what if he actually brought a dog from somewhere? It was a sick, disgusting idea, but it wasn't the first time he'd brought it up to threaten her and, shamefully, it seemed to get less disgusting the more she thought of it. She resumed pressing the top of her slit and swirling as she tried to think if he'd actually do something like that, and what it would be like. It might not be so bad... a dog couldn't tell anyone. The most it could do is bite and scratch her while it filled her fuck toy cunt with doggy cum. Maybe Keith would even give his permission to cum at the same time, and laugh as she had an orgasm while a dog fucked her. Or maybe he'd just make her suck the doggy cock, put it in front of her and enjoy how she couldn't stop herself, because she was, after all, a cock sucker, and that was a cock. She couldn't picture the look of a doggy cock, just imagined the furry feel as it humped her face. And why not two dogs, if he could get one, one to suck and one to fuck? Maybe THAT was what he was doing, going door to door, telling people he was starting a dog walking service, then walk a whole bunch of male dogs to their front door. God, I really need to cum, she thought with a wince and forced herself to pull her hand away from her dripping pussy. It kept wanting to go back, but she knew it was only going to make the problem worse, not better, until her brother came home. It just wasn't fair for him to leave her alone like this, needy. I should teach him a lesson, she thought, but knew it was a useless one because he had all the power. Rebellion in small ways was certainly possible, like destroying something he loved, but only if she was willing to pay more for it later, or if it was something only she knew she'd done. Still, thinking of things she could do for revenge helped keep her mind off her pussy for a little while. One idea sent it right back, a delicious one, one she thought she might decide to try if he did this again... but no sooner had she gotten her finger wet he heard the door opening. "Hey, Suze. You decent?" Her brow furrowed at her brother's question. She was far more decent than he was, despite what she'd just been thinking about... although she also knew that usually when people asked that, they meant was she naked. But why would Keith ask... unless someone was with him? Maybe he really had brought his friends over to gangfuck her. But then, her already being naked would be a good thing, wouldn't it? She wasn't sure, but she pulled the underwear back over her fuck toy hole and pulled her shirt down over it, verified that the shirt was long enough to cover all her marks, then looked down to check the neckline. If there was company, she needed to make sure you couldn't see she was a fuck toy. Maybe that's not what they wanted, maybe they just wanted time to hang out. That mark was only visible if she tugged her collar down, so she guessed she counted as decent unless they were turned on by a girl whose knees were visible. "I guess?" she called back. Her brother stepped in, and behind him, she heard a giggle, and that's when her heart sank. Soon, they were visible, Keith first and then a blonde-haired girl only slightly shorter than him. She recognized her as the girl who worked the front desk at the pool, the day they found the marker. Right away, she could tell this girl, who knew him from school despite him being a year older, had a crush on him. That was the punishment, she realized, designed to make her feel sorry she even tried to take the marker... and it worked. For nothing had made her sadder than the realization that he hadn't brought someone to play with her, he brought a replacement. Chapter Twenty-Three: She remembered the girl's name, or at least her first name. Tricia. Before Susan became her brother's fuck toy, she actually encouraged him to ask this other girl out. Now, the thought that he did was unsettling. That, the part of her brain that still wanted to be a writer pointed out, was irony. Envy, too. She seemed to be everything Susan was not. Just a little shorter than Keith, her hair came down just past her chin with long side-swept bangs hanging down over her forehead, but instead of Susan's plain brown it was a beautiful golden blonde color. Where Susan had no chest to speak of, Trish had actual boobs that Susan could only dream of, and she looked like was trying very hard to show them off without looking like that's what she was doing. The girl wasn't wearing a low-cut top or anything that made cleavage, but her yellow shirt was awfully tight on her. And, most of all, she was pretty. Dark blue eyes that seemed like huge attention getters, a completely clean complexion even without makeup, and a smile that lit up her whole face and didn't look fake at all. Maybe once, Susan would have thought that Trish's prettiness was mostly from confidence in herself, that Susan could be pretty too if she believed in herself, but now, seeing her enter the family home, wearing a smile that looked as distinctly nervous and unsure of herself as Susan often felt, she had to admit... the girl was just plain pretty in a way she could never hope to match. "Hi!" Trish said, a chirp in her voice. "We met a couple weeks back, remember? At the pool?" "I remember." She folded her arms over her chest and stared daggers at her brother. If he was going to make her suffer, he was at least going to know how unhappy she was. Maybe it would keep the punishment short. "What are you doing here?" "Your brother invited me over." While Susan thought about how dumb it was to state such an obvious answer, she watched Trish look back to her brother with wide, worshipful eyes, like that really was answer enough, he asked, and of course she said yes. It was almost supernatural, and that was why Susan next looked over every exposed part of her body, trying to spot one of the telltale marks. There was something dark on the palm of Trish's hand, but she couldn't make out what it said. "Aren't you going to even say 'hi?'" Keith asked. "You don't want to be rude." "Hi." She made the word as icy as she could without being outright rude like giving her a finger, and she even felt a little guilty for that. It wasn't Trish's fault, after all. "What's that on your hand?" "Oh, it's nothing," she said, but she put it behind herself, hiding it like it most certainly was not nothing. As she made the motion, Susan saw a black mark peeking up from the bottom of her short shirt-sleeve. It was the edge of some letter, but he'd obviously done a number on her. Keith caught Susan's eye, a glint like he knew what she saw, and didn't care if she knew or not, then spoke again, casually leaning on one of the walls. "Hey, Suze, why don't you go show Trish your room. I'll get started on lunch for us." Again, their eyes met, and this time Susan read into them an encouragement to play along, backed up by a warning of all the things he could do to her if she didn't. "Fine." She started upstairs, and waved Trish to follow. After Keith disappeared into the kitchen, Trish spoke. "So your brother really knows how to cook, huh?" "It's a recent development." She started climbing the stairs, not even thinking that Trish could see up her shirt and to her underwear if she didn't follow as closely behind as she did. Her mind must have been on other things. "I've never had a boyfriend make me lunch before." Susan felt her face twitch. "Is that what he is? A boyfriend?" She looked behind her to see if Trish reacted, either to the question or how it came out. It felt like she'd just snapped at her. If Trish noticed, it didn't show, she seemed nervously happy, especially as she spoke. "I don't know, maybe. We haven't really defined it. But I l... I really like him. And I hope we're going to be super-close as well." Susan shrugged, then pushed through the door to her room. "Well, here it is," she said. Leaving unsaid, "You've seen it, you can go now." "It's cute." Trish walked around the room like she was invited, checking out the decorations on the walls, the desk... and standing awfully close to the drawer where she kept the vibrator. She last left it sticking out of a sock inside the drawer, which itself was currently left partially open out of carelessness. It was hidden for now but easily visible if Trish was especially snoopy. "I have one those too!" Susan looked up but too late, she'd stopped pointing and, although Susan was pretty sure she wasn't looking in the drawer with her newest toy, she couldn't tell if Trish was referring to a certain toy, or pillow, the letters of her name spelled out on the wall, or one of the posters of inspirational sayings or favorite TV shows. She didn't care enough to ask, either, she'd already had too many things in common with the girl, she didn't want to know that, say, they were both big fans of Once Upon a Time. She didn't want any reason to talk to her any more than necessary. Trish pivoted suddenly and sat on the bed. "Why don't you come sit beside me?" Susan shuffled, her feet, but went did just that, thinking she could get a better look at whatever was on Trish's hand. "So... this is awkward..." Finally something Susan could agree with, without bad feelings. "Yeah." "Okay, so..." Trish hesitated again, and Susan looked up from her still-closed hand and noticed the blush on her face, but didn't think much of it and tried to get a glimpse of the writing again. "Your brother mentioned that... uhm... you know, that you're growing into a woman..." Wait, what? Susan's eyes snapped back up, although Trish was looking away. "And well... he said that you needed another girl, to, you know, show you about masturbating and stuff." Now Trish looked back, although she flinched at the sudden, unexpected eye-contact, just for a moment. "It's totally natural to have this kind of curiosity." Susan now felt her face was just as red as Trish's. "Yeah, well, you shouldn't believe everything my brother tells you." "Of course I should," she says. "He wouldn't lie to me. I completely trust him." "Oh, fuck." It slipped out, but she supposed it didn't really matter. It probably didn't matter how polite or rude she was to this girl anymore, all that mattered was what Keith had told her. "There's no need to be embarrassed, Susan. I wish I had someone to show me things like this when I was your age. I mean, I was more curious about boys than girls, but..." "Wait, did my brother say I was curious about girls?" "He said he thought you might be bisexual and he wanted you to have a chance to explore those fantasies, safely. So, we thought if I showed you how to masturbate, it'd also let you feel what it was like to be touched by a girl, and, you know, if you want to learn how to touch one, too, that's okay. In fact, it if would make you feel better, I can take off my clothes and you can look me over up close, instead of, you know, stealing peeks in the change rooms and everything." Susan squinted. "You'd do that? Just get naked right here?" She smiled. "Of course. Do you want me to?" Susan did, but not because she was attracted to Trish, or any girl... but if Trish was naked, then she'd be able to see what marks her brother had placed on her. Better to know what she was dealing with. "Okay, go ahead, then." Once given permission, there didn't seem to be much sign of shyness except for the faint blush still on Trish's face. She stood and moved in front of Susan, then crossed her hands in front of the bottom of her yellow top and pulled upward over her head in one smooth motion despite how tight it was. Then she immediately bent down and pulled down her white bootcut pants. This left Trish completely naked, at least from the ankles up, which was a surprise, but it made sense once she read the marks on her body, the marks that were now much more visible. She concentrated on these rather than the nudity, of which there wasn't anything that interesting... sure, she took a look, out of curiosity. The breasts she was envious of before seemed even more perfect than they were under clothes... not as large as Mom's maybe but standing out proudly and perky and with nipples that seemed to naturally stand out into points. Her pussy wasn't anything interesting, just a fleshy mound split by wrinkled a triangle of pink at the bottom that concealed the hole that must be there... above that, it was bare, Susan noticed... she shaved, but that didn't seem to be too surprising, since she worked at a pool and probably didn't want anything that might show through a suit. After that cursory glance, Susan focused on her real interest, the words that were scrawled in random places around body. There were not as many as she expected... none on the obvious, to her, places that her brother might choose to show his domination, like right above her pussy or breasts, but there was one on her belly, one on her lower leg, and another on her shoulder that she could see from the front, and of course, the one on her hand still curled up. The belly one, the only one she could clearly read so far, said, "Likes dirty things written on her," which probably explained the rest being there... it also suggested that she could see them, that unlike her parents, Trish knew what was on her. So she read that one aloud. "Yeah," Trish said, seeming to have rediscovered embarrassment. Nudity didn't bother her, but this did... maybe it was because she didn't understand this new fact about herself that didn't fit with anything else she believed about herself. "I guess I do. Your brother convinced me to try it, and it was weirdly fun, you know?" She grinned suddenly, like finding a kindred spirit. "Well, I guess you do. Your brother tells me you write dirty stuff on yourself, too." Not exactly... she hadn't written anything on herself. But contradicting whatever Keith told her didn't seem like it'd do any good... it might make her mad... or worse, him. Let Trish see for herself, and notice that the handwriting that said "Fuck toy" is the same as the one that wrote on her own body. "Let me see," she said, and reached for Trish's arm, tugging her closer, opening it. "In love with Keith" it said, with a little heart drawn beside it. "I bet this was the first one he wrote," she said. "Yeah, how'd you know?" She pulled it away, looked at it, then grinned. "Oh, right, because it's on my hand, of course. I can't believe he knew, though. I guess I was more obvious than I thought... but luckily, he likes me too!" Trish's gushing made bile rush up in Susan's throat. Since she already held her hand, Susan used it to turn her and better look at the one on her shoulder. "Trusts Keith completely," was there, as she expected, and she rolled her eyes. "Turn around?" Trish complied, and there Susan saw far more writing. "I know, we kind of got carried away with it," she said, sounding almost regretful. "It was so much fun, but... I was hoping to try to apply for a junior lifeguard position, but now I'm stuck at the front desk until this goes away. I can't even go swimming with this!" She pointed to her leg, which read, "Bisexual." Susan could almost picture how it went down, that Keith started on the hand, then convinced her to let him write on her shoulder, and then since she trusted him completely, she let him write on a few other places that would be covered by a one-piece swimsuit. Maybe the "Likes dirty things written on her" came next, to make it easier. At some point, he wrote on her lower back, like a tramp stamp, "Hates Wearing Underwear" which, if her own experiences with the marker were any indication, probably led to her getting out of her bra and panties as soon as practical, maybe even while Keith watched. Of course, she wouldn't think anything of doing that... she loved him and trusted him completely, after all, so it didn't matter if he saw her naked. And then he was free to write anywhere he wanted, legs, all over her back, on her butt-cheek. "Wants to eat out younger girls" was on that butt-cheek, and she wondered if Trish even knew what was in store for her. Other marks on her back were, "Cums on command," "Kinky," and, one they had in common, "Super Horny," although Trish had hers higher up on her back. "Great at oral sex" was another, and Susan suppressed a pang of jealousy because she just knew her brother had tried that one already, while she was home alone all horny and helpless. That was supposed to be her cum, she was the addict, not Trish. "So, go ahead, you can touch anything you want," Trish offered, turning around again to show off her front, and maybe because that was where she wanted to be touched now that she was kinky and super horny. Susan didn't particularly want to touch, even though she herself was super-horny, girls just didn't really interest her... maybe Keith would change that, maybe she'd get a matching "Bisexual" mark, and the thought of that weirdly sent more of a pulse of arousal bigger than any that came at the thought of touching Trish. She knew Trish was waiting though, and so she reached out and touched her breast, the only part she was at all curious about... she didn't have boobs of her own, and her friends that did, had never offered the chance to touch, at least not feel, bare, for more than a fleeting second. But then, she'd never asked either... Dana probably would have let her, if she asked, and she was the one who she just poked briefly when they were changing and Susan dared to voice her curiosity. Other than that, the closest she came to feeling boobs were clothed hugs, and she did have a little bit of curiosity of exactly what it would feel like when she had her own, to squeeze and move around. Now she had a demonstration model, why not take advantage of it? They were squishier than she expected, with firmness beneath but bulged around her fingers and without seeming pain. Trish did let out a gasp, but Susan knew it was the same kind of gasp she herself gave when something felt far better than she was ready for... sometimes there was pain involved in situations like that too, like when something entered her ass, but she knew Trish liked the touch. That alone made her withdraw it. "Here, why don't you take off your clothes?" Trish suggested, and then without waiting for her answer, reached down for Susan's shirt and began pulling upwards. "Then I can show you some good ways to touch yourself." Not fighting had been a habit so ingrained in Susan that she didn't even resist, just lifted her arms and let her top be removed. Once it was out of the way, Trish took a step back and stared at the word just above her own nipples. "Fuck toy? Wow, that's a good one. Did you write that because that's how you want to be treated?" I didn't write it at all, you stupid bimbo, she yelled, but only inside her head. Outside, she shrugged, wondering at how stupid the marker made Trish that she didn't recognize it was Keith's hand-writing, or realize that the words would be hard for Susan to write herself, even looking in a mirror. Would Trish still think she wrote it when she saw words in places she couldn't even reach? "There's nothing wrong with dirty fantasies you know. Everyone has them! I mean, I've got some whoppers!" Trish fell to her knees in front of Susan, looking up at her past her naked chest, and with one finger tugged on the strap of her underwear, though not yet pulling it down, just out. "That's the best way to learn to masturbate, you know... just think of something crazy hot and, you know, have fun with it. Here, let me show you." She wanted to say no, but if she did, she knew she might get her own 'bisexual' brand. Maybe even beyond that... she could see her brother adding "Pussy Licker" to "Cock Sucker" and making Susan unable to resist licking another girl if she saw her naked. Cooperation might not be fun but it might at least keep her, her. "Fine. Just get it over with." Trish took that half-hearted permission as though it was all she needed to hear, and pulled down the penguin-print underwear, and lifting Susan's legs off the floor with the last few tugs to remove them completely. Once they were free, Trish tossed them aside and returned to a spot between the legs, only a few nose-lengths away from Susan's own pussy. She stared at it hungrily, then her eyes slid askance and she smirked. It was visible before, but she must have just noticed. "'Cock Sucker,'" she read aloud. "Nice." "Not really," Susan said, almost wanting to add, "It's a pain in the ass when you can't stop it," but she didn't. Spoiling Trish's image of her might be fun... even cluing her in to the fact that the marks couldn't be resisted could be entertaining, but it was fun she knew she'd be paying for. "Okay, now, masturbation is real simple, you just touch yourself in a way that feels good. Like this!" Trish's finger was out, and Susan expected it to be rubbed along the side, or maybe inserted, which meant she wasn't prepared for when Trish's mouth closed the gap and a wiggling wet tongue slithered up along her crack. Chapter Twenty-Four: The unexpected intensity of a tongue inside of her made Susan press her body back into the bed, arching her belly up and practically thrusting her mound into Trish's face. So much for pretending it did nothing for her. After letting out half the breath she'd involuntarily sucked in, she pointed out, "I don't think that's masturbation." Trish's mouth pulled back long enough to say, "Well, you never know, you're pretty flexible." She leaned in again and sent the wiggling wet muscle tunneling into her hole, then came up for air again and added, "You might be able to lick yourself. Worth a try, anyway." With that, she went back to tonguing Susan's preteen pussy, and Susan could practically feel the smile on the older girl's face as she did what the marker told her she wanted to. Maybe she should ask Keith to just write "likes getting her pussy eaten by girls," she thought, only to have to admit to herself, with uncomfortable arousal, that she did like it. It just felt good, even if she wasn't especially into girls, and even if it didn't feel as good as being held down and used as her brother's fuck toy, she could feel her pussy... her hot, wet horny cunt--the term bursting into her consciousness as Trish nibbled on her clit--responding, getting warmer, wetter, hornier, and her butt twitching with anxious energy and probably producing its own lube. She also knew if this kept up, she'd cum soon from lesbian sex... at least if she had permission. Right when Susan started to consider begging for permission, Trish pulled back. "Where's your bathroom?" Susan's breaths were coming out like panting, and so she didn't speak, just pointed in the direction it would be down the hall. Trish stood up and, still naked, went for the door. "I'll be right back. In the meantime, why don't you see if you can lick yourself. I used to be able to but I can't anymore. My boobs get in the way." That was interesting... Keith might have made Trish be kinky, but that had to be something she did before he even wrote on her. Maybe there was a kinky part of everyone. Experimentally, Susan lifted her legs and pulled them as far as she could, using her arms when they were close enough to pull them behind her head and reached her head down, trying her hardest to make contact with her tongue and her pussy, like she'd done before while trying to feed her cum addiction as a dog unable to use her hands, but since letting it drip out on its own wasn't an option, she gave it more of a determined effort. Straining and stretching, she could just make the tip of her tongue touch herself... it couldn't get very deep and it wouldn't be useful for drinking cum out of herself, but... it might be fun to get fucked in this position. She imagined her brother going back and forth between each of her holes in a series of thrusts and where his cum went being a matter of luck. Maybe she'd suggest it sometime, revisit the idea of making her flexible with the marker. Trish reappeared at the doorframe, a sly grin on her face at Susan's pretzel-like pose. "See, there you go, that's pretty good. But if you really want to bring your masturbation game to the next level, you need a little something extra." She lifted her hand, revealing a dark blue and white toothbrush with a handle swollen enough to accommodate batteries. A very familiar toothbrush. "That's my dad's." She seemed viciously amused, and Susan wondered if Keith had told her about the cucumber somehow. "So? He'll never know. And it makes it more fun. Look, I'll show you, this is going to change your whole world." On the one hand, Susan wanted to say, "No, it won't you stupid bitch, I've already got a real vibrator and I'm also my brother's personal fuck toy." On the other hand, she was super-horny and wanted to cum, so she held her tongue and played dumb. She began to move her arms out of the way so her legs could descend back into the same position they were before, but Trish said, "No, stay like that," and she reversed herself and watched from up close as Trish got into position and then flicked it on. The brush came to life with a faint buzz, not even as loud as her vibrator, and Susan looked on, almost bored... at least until Trish did something she never expected. This wasn't the first toothbrush Susan had used for to pleasure herself. However, she used the handle of her non-vibrating toothbrush, usually in her ass. She assumed this would be the same way, a much thicker handle, inserted, and the vibrations would be pleasant but not even very strong as all because most of the vibrating was done with the head. Maybe, she might insert the head itself, or use the back of it like a wand on her sensitive lips. Somehow she never considered applying the brush directly on and around her sensitive aroused clit. A pained gasp broke out of her otherwise impassive facade, but it wasn't all pain, there was a lot of pleasure as well... the pain was almost merely pleasure too intense for her to process. Although the vibration wasn't as powerful as her own toy, the feeling of the bristles was almost like multiple mini vibrators working in concert. Trish didn't leave it pressed against her full force... that probably would have made it more painful than not, it was just short, intense bursts broken up with her sliding it on other areas of her slit, gathering her moisture, liquid that she imagined soaking into the bristles and remaining there when her father brushed his teeth the next morning. First the cucumber, now this... how much did Daddy have to taste of her before he might as well just lick her himself? That thought was probably the worst moment for Trish to add her own tongue to the mix, while the tooth brush bristles played on her clit again, because in Susan's mind it became Daddy's tongue, using his toothbrush on her, and the thought was getting her off... or would be, if she had permission to actually cum instead of just riding close. When was Keith going to show up and put her out of her misery. After a third source of stimulation was added to the mix, Trish's finger, inserting itself into her pussy hole, she couldn't take any more and said in words themselves shaken up by raggedy breaths, "I need to... I need... I need to..." But she couldn't, and so completing the sentence seemed to lose its importance. She twitched as she bounced up against the imaginary wall in her head between her and orgasm but couldn't breach it. At least, not until Trish pulled her tongue off her dribbling slit long enough to say the magic words, "Go ahead, cum you little whore." Just like that, an explosion took down the wall, consumed everything, her soul escaped her body in what felt like a thousand directions, every available exit, and then all came rushing back. When she regained the muscular control to open her eyes and look back between her legs, she saw Trish with one eye partly closed in a half wince and her face dripping wet. "Did I... pee on you?" she asked, her face turning scarlet at the thought. She could vaguely remember, in the moment, feeling a pressure down there that wasn't usually there. "I don't think so..." but the way Trish emphasized 'think' proved how unsure she was. "I never took you for a squirter, though." "It's never happened like that before!" "It's okay," she said. Although her dad's vibrating toothbrush had been turned to the off position sometime during the orgasm, Trish now casually ran the brush head along her pussy like she was gathering up as much liquid as she could with it. "I mean you're not that experienced yet." How much more was there to learn? Susan wondered. Trish lay the toothbrush aside, and began licking again, softly, and avoiding the clit like she knew it was still a little raw right now, but she still wanted to lick underage pussy and one was in front of her. Susan watched, no longer super horny, still enjoying the sensation but also a little jealous that Trish was taking the girlcum that could be used to sate her addiction. For the first time she considered kissing Trish, a big long tongue kiss, not out of any romance, but just to get what she needed. "Are you doing lesbian stuff with my little sister?" Keith was there, suddenly, at the open door. His face was stern, cold. Trish immediately straightened up. "No! I wasn't! I was just doing like we discussed, showing her how to masturbate!" Genuine panic showed on her face, of a girl caught in the act and knowing it, the desolation of someone who just realized they might have pissed off somebody they loved in a way that might not be fixable. Keith's face relaxed. "Too bad. That would have been fucking hot." It took a second, but the anxiety on Trish's face vanished, replaced by a sultry, experienced look marred only by the red blush that hadn't quite had time to fade away. "In that case, I was totally eating out your little slut of a sister." She took another long lick, tongue fully extended as though for show, and flicking even across her clit a few times at the end. "You see all the filthy stuff she's written on herself?" "I saw," Keith said, ignoring Susan's frown at him. He could at least take responsibility, it wasn't like Trish was going to stop loving him! "Maybe if it's what she wants so badly," Trish said, looking up at Susan over her mound. "We should show her what it's like to be treated like one." "I'm game if you are," Keith said, also glancing over to Susan, almost as though he was asking her permission but of course he wasn't. "But lunch is ready... and it's better while it's hot." Lunch was some kind of spicy shrimp with lime on a bed of garlicy noodles. Susan didn't even know they'd bought shrimp. Or lime, for that matter. He'd never gone all out like that before when it was just the two of them, clearly he was trying to impress somebody. It all tasted pretty good, but watching Trish fawning all over her brother's cooking and making googly-eyes at him every other moment almost made Susan want to puke. "This is like really good. You should be like, on Masterchef." "I've thought about trying out for it," Keith said. "I'm sure I could win it." "I know you could. I'm going to have to watch myself around you though, or I might get fat." "I don't think you'll have to worry about that," Susan said with a grumble. She meant because the Marker could make her stay thin forever or have any other body type he desired, but Trish smiled like it was a genuine compliment, with a hint of insincerity because it was from the person she wasn't fishing from. "Thank you, Fucktoy." Trish had started calling her that since they got dressed to come downstairs and each lunch, something Keith insisted on in case somebody came by unexpectedly. He insisted they dress, not that his new girlfriend call Susan 'Fucktoy,' that is. That, she did on her own, although Keith's evident smile the first time she did it probably cemented it as well as an order would. Like every other assault on her dignity, Susan did her best to ignore it... acting upset would only make it worse, with one jerk and one person in love with and desperate to impress the jerk. She was starting to rethink that tactic... so far, it had gotten her brother to do more and more perverted things... which was fun, but now he was spending time with another girl entirely and brought her home and let her do whatever she wanted. Maybe, she started to think, this would be a good time to not be passive, to get angry. She had just about made up her mind to try, to think up a good comeback for the next time Trish called her a fuck toy, when it happened. "Can you put my plate in the sink for me, Fucktoy?" Trish asked sweetly, holding it up and shooting a self-satisfied smirk in Keith's direction. Susan had nothing, no clever reply ready, so she just pressed her lips together quietly and promised herself that next time, she would say something, as she reached for the plate. Only to be surprised when Keith actually defended her. Sort of. "You keep throwing that word around, but you're not much better, are you?" Trish's face fell like she'd been punched in the gut and tears started to well up at the bottom of her eyes. "At least, that's how you'd like me to treat you, isn't it?" She responded with an ashamed nod. "Say it." "I want you to treat me like a worthless fuck toy." If anything Trish seemed less sad at saying it, like she now thought of it as part of a game, a kinky game she was very much into. That should have dimmed the quiet satisfaction Susan got from her brother sticking up for her, but it didn't. It didn't really matter to her that Trish probably enjoyed what was developing now, after that first moment of panic, what mattered was that Keith seemed to sense what was bothering Susan and acted on it... maybe her 'just go along with it' plan was good after all. Still, the words popped out of her mouth, "Maybe you should write it on her." Instantly she regretted it, because Trish perked up. "Yes, go ahead," and Susan remembered that she liked having dirty things written on her. And Susan realized she wanted to be Keith's only fuck toy. The mere fact that Trish was there was making her jealous and annoyed, and she wanted to tell her brother... except for how well not saying anything had worked lately. Maybe if she played along he might sense it bothered her and change in a way he couldn't if she asked, because he was a jerk. "No," Keith said after a moment's thought, giving her hope that her plan was working. "I think she needs to earn being a fuck toy." His eyes slid to hers and suggested, "Tell me what you want me to do to you. Be specific. Make me hard and maybe your wish'll come true." Now Trish was fully into the game. She thought for a moment, a stupid grin on her face, then came up with, "I want you to fuck me without a condom till you squirt while I lick your little sister's baby cunt." Chapter Twenty-Five: Susan was disgusted. That hardly showed any imagination at all! Trish clearly didn't have the mind of a writer, because even with "kinky" written on her body and soul her suggestion was hardly dirty at all. "I want you to fuck me without a condom till you squirt while I lick your little sister's baby cunt," was amateur hour. "Baby cunt" was a nice touch at the end, but if Trish wanted to impress Keith, Susan thought, she should have suggested something like, "I want you to tie me up in the public park and stick your cock in my ass while your sister and I tongue-fuck each other and threaten that if I don't make both of you cum before a minute is up you'll let the mangy stray mutt watching us rape me while you record it on your phone and send it to the whole school and my parents." The thought of that scene, or scenes, made Susan unconsciously squeeze her thighs together a few times and she could feel herself getting wetter, which briefly worried her. It was one thing to get horny from her brother doing stuff to her, but imagining Trish used and publicly humiliated was somehow almost as arousing. Did that make her a jerk too, deep down? Maybe even worse than Keith, because she didn't need to it written on her. The line of thought was cut short by Keith's assessment of Trish's fuck toy application speech, given after an exaggerated show of thinking about it, tilting his head, making expressions like he was a judge weighing a complex legal argument. Finally, he said, "You know... I'm not sure that's enough to earn your place as an official fuck toy... but that doesn't mean we can't give it a try." His eyes cast downward, around the table, plates and crumpled napkins, then up again and smirked at Trish. "Might as well start your training with the soft stuff. Clear the table for us. Get it spic and span and you may get a reward." Trish complied, after a moment of slack-jawed astonishment that she was being told by her new love to do the same kind of chores she probably did at home. But once she accepted it as part of the game, she sprang into action, taking all of their plates and putting them in the sink, then coming back with a wet cloth to wipe away any extra crumbs. Susan wondered if Keith would ask her to wash the dishes too, hoped even, but was disappointed. He slapped, then patted, the top of the now clean table and looked at Susan. "Hop up here." Eager to show herself a more compliant fuck toy than Trish could ever be, she didn't even hesitate, using Trish's vacant chair as a stepping stone and then sliding over. She knew the table could support her, despite Mom yelling at her when she tried it, though she actually rarely used it as a seat (except to disprove Mom's theory that it would tip over). The kitchen counter made a more interesting place to sit when she wasn't using the chairs... at least before. Now that she was a fuck toy, she realized that they would be harder to fuck on, while the table was just the right height for Keith to be able to slide his cock into her. On the slightly-higher counter, he'd probably have to stand on his tiptoes. That made the table now a far superior seat. It also seemed like the only reason to sit on it at all, and she hoped Keith was going to fuck her in front of Trish, make her feel a little of what Susan herself was going through. Excited by that possibility, her hands went to her the pink shorts she now had on and gave Keith a questioning look. "Not yet," he said, then looked to Trish. "See? My little sister's better at being a fuck toy than you. You didn't even offer to get naked to clear the table." That was, Susan decided, probably the reason he had them get dressed for lunch in the first place, because it was fun for him to demand they strip at his command. It was jerky of him, and of Susan to enjoy the panicked desperation in Trish's face when she said, "I'm sorry, I'll do it now." She whipped off her top again so quickly that her breasts jiggled for seconds afterwards, then bent down to undo her pants again, and stayed bent once she was naked, wiggling her butt towards Keith. "Want to show your little sister what real sex looks like?" "What makes you think she doesn't already know?" At that, Trish flashed an uncertain grin, the kind you give something that you're not entirely sure is a joke but are hoping it is, and Susan realized that Trish still hadn't caught on to her being Keith's fuck toy. Maybe it was her love for him and perfect trust, or maybe incest was just a little too weird for her to believe it, even as kinky as Trish was now. Susan really hoped Keith was about to prove her wrong, and smiled smugly in her direction to strike a blow at her confidence. It didn't seem to work, Trish's forehead just crinkled up slightly, like she was trying to figure out whether she believed it or how she should feel about it, but finally she said, "Well, she's never seen you fuck me." "True, true. And I've never seen a live lezzie scene. Well, unless you count Louise and Rachel making out in the cafeteria." One corner of his lips quirked up at the thought or some idea spawned by it, but then he dismissed it. At least he didn't mention whatever you'd call what Susan did with their sleeping Mom at his command, which probably didn't count even if it was much dirtier than a makeout. "So why don't you help my little sister get naked and we'll all learn a little something." Susan started to pull at the bottom of her shirt, but Keith stopped her with a firm look. "No, let her do it." The naked blonde-haired teen stepped between Susan's legs and leaned in, stopping momentarily to shake her ass in Keith's direction and whisper in Susan's ear, "Your brother's going to fuck me so hard," then pulled up on Susan's shirt. Susan grimaced at the words but remained compliant, raising her arms automatically, and when the shirt was gone she looked down at her chest and once again noticed how unfavorably she compared to Trish. No wonder he wants her, she thought. She's got a figure. And he can show her off to his friends. She lifted her butt enough for her shorts to come off under Trish's nimble fingers, but when the girl went for her (once again damp) summer penguin panties, Keith interjected again with another instruction. "No, just use your teeth. It'll be more fun that way." Trish grinned back at him, and then lowered herself between Susan's legs. Her lips tugged at the edge of her waistband like a light kiss, to get an initial grip, then she secured it in her teeth and began pulling down. Susan didn't see what was fun about it... it was just awkward and took way more time, but at least it was time Keith wouldn't be fucking Trish, so she endured it. At least, until the panties were down to just below her mound and Trish's desire to lick underage pussy rose again and Susan felt a wet tongue wiggling up her slit. It was probably as much done as a show to Keith as it was to satisfy the orders of the marker, Susan could see Trish looking back at him in between the moments her tongue sloppily slapped against Susan's labia and clit. "See, now there's a good girl. Make my sister cum and maybe I'll make you a fuck toy like her." Susan frowned, trying to figure out if that counted as permission to cum... she didn't think it did. But as she now knew, Trish could give permission too. Except, she wasn't sure if she wanted Keith to know that. Maybe she should fake cumming? He'd realize it was fake, though which he might think meant she wanted Trish to be a fuck toy too. She certainly didn't want that. Fuck, when did things get so complicated? The tongue felt good even if it was a show for Keith, and she was horny enough that she let out a few shallow whimpers of enjoyment. She leaned back more on her arms and stared up at the ceiling fan as Trish continued licking, so she could think of it just as a tongue and not the person behind it... could be Keith's tongue, or a dog's tongue. Either seemed preferable. She looked back when she heard, felt a girlish squeal against her sensitive pussy, and the whispered words, "Do it." Keith, closer now and with his pants unzipped but not pulled down, was aiming his cock at Trish's body. He thrust forward, and although she couldn't see it enter her, she felt her body lurch forward in a way that shattered any illusions she might have had about it merely being a tease, his cock sliding underneath Trish. No, Keith really was fucking a girl in front of her. Sure, the girl was also eating Susan out at the time, but that hardly seemed important. In truth, it did make it better, just because now Trish wasn't entirely in control of the sensations, Keith slid in and out of her with a steady, though slow, pace, which made sounds of enjoyment burst out of Trish and reverberate against Susan's clit. And sometimes he'd change up the rhythm and Trish's face would mash up against her getting all slimy. She liked that... both the feel and the sensation that she was 'messing up' the prettier girl's face with her wetness. Trish soon found a way to minimize that, though, once he locked her lips on Susan's hole and sent her tongue up inside. Like that, unexpected thrusts only seemed to transfer the energy between them. At most, Trish's nose might bounce up against Susan's clit which was an unexpected delight. Still, more than anything it felt like Keith was somehow fucking her through Trish. Enough that she wondered if she would have a fuck toy orgasm when Keith came, or Trish did, or both... assuming she was allowed to cum. "How you doing, Suze..." Keith said after a while of slow fucking and fast tongue-work that was pushing Susan past the point of super-horny and into painfully needing release. "Think you could cum if I let you?" Susan bit her lip, but nodded hungrily. "You know you're going to be switching places with her soon. Would you rather cum now, or then?" That got a reaction, though not from Susan. Trish made a 'mrph' sound of confusion, clearly not expecting full incest after all, and then pulled her mouth away like she was gathering the breath to speak. Keith let her take the breath, but before anything beyond the start of an 'umm' sound came out, he leaned forward casually and shoved her face back into Susan's pussy, and looked at Susan like he was asking "Well?" She only thought about it for a second. "Then," she said breathlessly. "Both" might have been a better answer, but she got the sense that wasn't allowed, and she wanted the almost magical release that came from a fuck toy who made someone cum. "Okay, you can cum then." Permission granted, even if not right away, Susan smiled, relaxing. Knowing the orgasm would come eventually took the pressure off, and the tongue felt softer, more enjoyable. "Dirty little fuck toy," Keith added in a lightly teasing tone. "Want to cum while eating out Trish here. Are you sure you're not bi?" Susan looked down to the girlish face buried between her legs, then back up to her brother and shrugged while making a wordless sound that approximated "I don't know," and the truth was, she no longer did. She'd cum from Trish licking her pussy once already. She was going to cum while returning the favor. It no longer disgusted her, or bothered her, it was simply a fact. No, that wasn't honest... she certainly enjoyed a girl licking her, and as for licking back? That was actually something she looked forward to, if only a little bit. She always thought she was straight before. Sure, she might have played kissing games with friends, but it was just experimental, a laugh at best, but didn't make her blush or her heart leap. Now, she knew, part of the reason she chose 'Then' was that she wanted Trish to feel, through her mouth and tongue, how good Keith fucked her and that thought did excite her, sexually, in ways that made her wonder if she was straight. Maybe she was bi now, yet another change to her essential nature Keith had caused... even without the marker. Maybe it was something fuck toys did, or maybe it was because she was super-horny, but she had those marks before and thought she was straight, so maybe this really was something that would stick with her long after every other mark faded. One of those indelible things that would just be a part of her from then on. Trish seemed to have adjusted to the coming incest, after that first burst of surprise she returned to licking and enjoying being fucked, like she was desperate to prove her fuck toy credentials. If anything, her tongue seemed even more fierce... she clearly didn't know that until the magic words were said, or they switch places and his already spoken-permission would come into effect, it was a hopeless endeavor. Susan brushed a lock of juice-matted hair out of Trish's face and smiled as they made eye contact. She still resented the girl's presence, but she was doing an okay job at dedicating herself to someone else's pleasure. When she next looked back at Keith, he had stopped thrusting. One hand rested on her butt, and Susan thought he might be cumming except he was quiet, and then she noticed his other hand was trying to get something from his pocket. In a second, it was in his hand and thrust towards Susan. The magic marker. Cap-on, pen-side away from her. An offering. "Go on. You can write something on her if you want." Chapter Twenty-Six: Gingerly, Susan reached for the magic marker, as though expecting he'd be a jerk and yank it away the moment she touched it, but soon it was in her shaking hand and she looked down and tried to figure out what the hell she was going to do. She liked to imagine herself a writer before, but here, now, the words literally could change everything, at least about one person, at least for a short time. And the right words might make a bigger difference. If she wrote 'fuck toy' on Trish's shoulder it would be like telling Keith it was okay to make her one, maybe permanently, if he kept writing on her. Or she could write something embarrassing, disgusting, make Keith not interested in her anymore, or humiliate her. Possibilities whirled through her head, not just of one mark, but several, things she could chain together to make Trish pay... pay for what, she didn't know, she didn't think the older girl actually did anything wrong, she was as much a victim as anyone else, but Susan was angry all the same, and with the marker, that anger could easily turn into a punishment. Anger was wrong, she decided, even if it felt good. She had to think smart, write something that made Susan's life better, or give up and let Keith have another toy. But nothing came to mind. It was hard to think strategically when your brother's girlfriend was trying to make you orgasm with her tongue between your legs, while you're craving a good fucking and some brotherly cum. She could vividly imagine the mean, humiliating things that she might make Trish do, but couldn't even think of one thing that might help, except maybe the word 'slut.' That single word might make Trish fuck anyone who asked, and even Susan knew that could be a lot. She had strangers make lewd come-ons on the street and she was only twelve, imagine what Trish would get with a body like she had. Maybe, if she was a slut, she'd accept every offer and Keith would lose interest in her and stick to his personal fuck toy. The marker dangled from her hand, and she uncapped it and leaned forward, looking for a good spot... on her shoulder, if she wanted to be kind, or on her forehead if she wanted to be sure people would ask her for sex. Her grip faltered. One might be kinder, but either would be mean. It probably wouldn't even make a difference, except to Trish. Guys liked porn stars, didn't they? Maybe Keith wouldn't care if Trish fucked the whole neighborhood. It was almost funny, she had the power to change anything, but she still could think of nothing that would truly help. Unless.... She recapped the marker and flipped her fingers, held it out in a closed fist towards her brother, shaking her head. If she could think of nothing to help, maybe nothing itself was the answer, to refuse the temptation and try and lead by example. He seemed confused by the decision, but only for a moment, then shrugged and took the marker back, sliding it back into his pocket. "Sorry, Trish," he said, although he didn't sound sorry at all. "I guess my little sister will have to show you how to be a good fuck toy. Switch places." He stepped back, pulling his slick, shiny and still hard dick free and back into view, and the tongue inside her also disappeared as Trish sat back on her ankles and looked back at him, wiping her face with the back of one hand. "You're really going to fuck your own sister?" "Somebody's gotta make her cum, since you sure can't." It was unfair, because he was the reason, and, anyway, she already did, in their room. Susan and Trish exchanged a knowing look about that, but neither seemed interesting in correcting Keith. "You got a problem with that?" "No," she said, and using one hand to steady herself on the table, she got to her feet. "It's pretty kinky, but hey, I'm open-minded." More than that, she seemed eager, though she looked from Keith's proud cock to Susan's pussy and added, "You might want to be careful, though, you might hurt her." Even if it was completely naive, Susan did feel momentarily better about not writing on Trish just then. With everything her brother had done to her, and with all the complicated feelings Susan had about her intrusion, she meant well. That didn't mean she didn't look forward to proving her wrong. The first example of that came accidentally, though. She hopped off the table, and Trish got on, and before the older girl had spread her legs, Susan realized that her brother's cock was RIGHT there, and she was a cock-sucker, so she couldn't help but take it into her mouth and begin worshipping it like a porn star. No hesitation, she licked the underside of the shaft on the way up and enclosed it in her mouth, going halfway down like she'd done this every day... which, pretty much, she had, at least since the first time. The only difference was that this time, it tasted like pussy... she'd tasted her own pussy on Keith before, but Trish's seemed to give it a distinctly different flavor, faint, but noticeable, like a tangy citrus flavor, like sweat that had, at some point, had an orange soaking in it. If she didn't know where it was from, she might almost enjoy the additional flavor. If her brother came in her mouth, she'd forget all about it as her craving for cum would be satisfied, but that wasn't in the cards either. Keith shoved her head away, and used her hair to turn her around. It looked rough, but it was kind, in a way... if she didn't see his cock, it was easier to resist the compulsion to suck on it. Looking into Trish's pussy, and then up past her breasts into her superior smile and flushed, excited face wasn't much better, but she knew she was going to have to do what he wanted to anyway... he said she could cum after they switched places, and they hadn't done that yet. Susan wanted to cum, far more than she wanted to not lick pussy. So she decided to get it over with and lunged forward. He'd already made her bisexual, even without writing a word, so Susan decided she might as well try to be good at it. There was more of that citrusy taste, although the sweaty, musky scent seemed stronger around the hole, though that didn't dissuade her, nor did the sudden gasp when her tongue made contact with the swollen pink crack. "You ever have a girl eat you out before? Naughty slumber party or anything like that?" She heard Trish answer saucily. "Oh, yeah. Slumber parties when I was ten were all about this. And at the pool all the girls eat each other out." "No, seriously. Don't make things up, just tell me honestly. Ever have a girl go down on you?" Trish's whole body shook a little along with her head. "I've never had ANYONE go down on me before. Honestly, before you, I'd barely done anything actually kinky. Mostly it was rubbing myself off on my stuffed animals." "Oh yeah?" That seemed to pique Keith's interest. "What are you secretly a furry or something?" Trish didn't answer, and Susan could sense that same indecision she felt, not sure which answer would please Keith, or offend him. Unlike with Susan, Keith had mercy, and just moved on, "So how's my little sister doing, then?" "Good." Her voice did seem to be higher, more strained. "Feels good. But she could do it a little harder." Trish grabbed the back of Susan's head and pushed her forward, and it must have counted as a fuck toy command because Susan's tongue darted up with more naked aggression, tongue-punching around the girl's clit, at least until the action got her tongue so tired that she needed to take a break, and then she switched to light nips along her labia, which to her surprise got Trish squirming and juicy. If she liked that, she must have felt like she couldn't take it anymore, because she whimpered, "Softer," and Susan adjusted, the nips turning into sucks, the tongue once again working in long, slow licks that didn't threaten to make her jaw sore. "Good little fuck toy, isn't she?" Keith said, and she could feel the head pressing against the lips of her pussy, felt her insides seem to mold around him as he pushed his way in. When he grabbed her ass and started thrusting in earnest, he gave Susan a taste of what it felt like to try and eat a girl out while being bounced about... and, she hoped, gave Trish a taste of what it felt like to be jealous. She squeezed back against her brother, intending that he cum inside her before deciding to switch again, both because she wanted the fuck toy orgasm she was now allowed, and because she wanted her brother's cum inside of her, not Trish. "Aren't you worried you might get her pregnant, though?" Trish asked. "Nah, see?" One of his hands slid up her side and to her back, pointing to the word written there. "Infertile." "Yeah, but that's just a word, it..." She broke off, seemingly stunned for a moment as things clicked into place. The fact the word was written on her back, maybe the handwriting being similar to what was now on Trish's body. "You wrote all that stuff on her!" She didn't sound outraged as a normal person might, her voice only carried a smug awareness with a hint of amusement, like she'd caught him doing something that wasn't allowed and was teasing him with it. "Yup. But everything I wrote is true." "So... she really can't get pregnant?" He must have nodded, but Susan couldn't see with her head still between Trish's thighs. "And I guess this isn't your first time treating her as a little fuck toy." "You got a problem with that?" "No... I feel like I should... I mean, it's so wrong, but... somehow it's just so... fucking... hot. Mmmph." She was probably approaching that point anyway, but if she wasn't, she would have been when Keith said, "If it's hot, then you should cum now, Trish." Trish's hands suddenly grabbed Susan's head and pulled tight into her, and an orgasm ripped through her... ripped through both of them. Trish's must have been from the Keith's words automatically pushing her over the top into a climax, while Susan got hers because she was a fuck toy. Later, she would wonder about that... Keith cumming in her mouth didn't trigger an orgasm, but Trish on her tongue made her legs turn to jelly and buckle as her brain caught fire with delight, and would decide that it was because oral didn't really count as sex unless it was lesbian, but just then she was absorbed in the sensation of a sudden, unexpected orgasm and the feeling that she was floating. She wasn't actually floating, but her brother had taken over for her weak legs and was holding her up as he continued to plow into her. Trish might have cum, but he hadn't, and Susan gave a delirious smile as she realized that meant another orgasm was coming. In the meantime, eating Trish out became a lot more enjoyable now that her girlcum fed her addiction. By contrast, Trish seemed like she was done, after her orgasm passed she leaned back, resting casually on her hands, her posture suggesting only mild interest rather than the extreme horniness that Susan still felt. "Wouldn't you rather have sex with me again, though?" Having sucked enough girlcum that her addiction no longer drove her, Susan stopped licking and said, with a confident smugness that she wasn't sure she felt, "No." She hoped it was true, at least. Now that she'd cum, Keith pulling out to finish in Trish wouldn't be a tragedy, but it would be disappointing, and the fact that it was even suggested made Susan decide not to return to pussy-licking unless ordered. If Trish was going to try and steal her second orgasm, she could go without one of her own. "You'll get another turn," Keith said, but his voice was strained, not just from the effort of holding her up by her legs, but from trying to put off his own impending climax. A few more thrusts, and she felt it, the tensing of his body with one last push forward, the cum flooding into her, and the orgasm that inevitably followed his own. Because her mouth wasn't occupied this time, she let out an quavering moan as her hands dug into Trish's thighs... she wanted the girl to know that she and her brother came at the same time. Even if it was just because she was a fuck toy, it seemed somehow romantic and she wanted Trish to feel bad that she could never have this level of closeness with Keith, to cum at the same time. If she made that connection, she gave no sign, and the romance of the moment was undercut by the way Keith casually dropped her off when he was done and went to the fridge for a cola. "You sluts want to watch some TV?" Chapter Twenty-Seven: True to his word, Keith did make sure Trish got another turn, when his erection returned later in the afternoon, midway through a bad sci-fi movie, they played some more, at first on the living room couch, and then moving upstairs into his bedroom before anyone finished. The afternoon passed in a blur of sex acts, both straight and lesbian, humiliating photos that Keith swore he was only taking as reference for art, light bondage, and several orgasms for everyone involved, until Mom called to warn Keith that she and Dad were coming home, and that was Trish's cue to exit. Susan was supposed to be taking a shower to get the stink of threeway sex off her before their parents arrived, but she couldn't resist waiting at the top of the stairs and listening as Keith and Trish had a goodbye. "This is without a doubt, the craziest thing I've ever done," Trish said. "You loved it." It was a smug declaration, not a question. "Yeah, it was intense... just... I mean it was great, like, using your sister like that... it was so fucked up." Susan could hear the huge smile in Trish's face as she said 'fucked up.' "But, next time maybe you could leave her at home and we could just spend the day as... you know, just us? Like, maybe tomorrow?" "Sure, maybe," Keith said, but that might as well have been an 'absolutely' from Susan's perspective. "I'll give you a call later tonight." This was followed by the sickening sound of a kiss, a long one, although she couldn't tell who started it, it made Susan rage nonetheless, particularly with how long it went on, longer than the cum-swapping kiss Keith made her and Trish do. She started down the hall to start her shower before she made herself sick when she heard Trish say, "I love you." Immediately, she began to tiptoe back and try and hear her brother's response, but although she heard a mumble, whatever he said he kept his voice too low for Susan to make out. A few seconds later, they were both out the door to continue their goodbye, and Susan finally got into the shower. Keith didn't bother to shower, figuring Mom already knew what they were up to, and Dad probably wouldn't notice or care if he was smelly. By the time Susan was done, there wasn't much time anyway, both their parents were home, and their life returned to the sham of normalcy that now existed mostly to protect Dad. Susan hung around Keith... she didn't want to tell him how upset she was about Trish, but she wanted him to see her, to not forget she was around, maybe to notice she was bothered. But he didn't, he was his usual self-absorbed jerk self, although he didn't tell Susan to get lost like he sometimes did, just quietly tolerated her presence. While cooking dinner, his phone buzzed. He took it out and grinned a moment, and then, as Susan watched from her seat on the kitchen table, the words just slipped out. "What's that, from Trish?" "No," he said casually, still grinning. "It's from Mom. She sent me a selfie." That made no sense at all. "Mom's in the bathroom." "Yup." He flipped it so the screen faced in her direction, as though aware that she might not believe him. Sure enough, it was a picture of Mom... a weird one, mouth partly open, eyes closed. If the background wasn't in her bathroom, Susan would have assumed Mom was asleep and someone else took it. And if it wasn't dead on her face she would have thought maybe it was an accident. "Why would Mom send you a selfie from the bathroom?" Much less one like that. "I don't know, I guess I'm just her favorite." But he still had that smug grin, like he was in on a secret. "Yeah, I guess you're just Mr. Popular today." He stopped with the chicken breasts he was searing, washed his hands, and looked. "What, didn't you have fun with Trish today?" She shrugged and looked away. "You got a problem with me seeing her?" The way he said it, it sounded like he was baiting her into an admission that he could play with, rub in her face just because she was annoyed. "I don't care what you do with her," she said. "I'm just not interested in being involved." "Hey, I tried to make it fun for you, too. And it sure seemed like you enjoyed yourself." A second later, before she could respond, he asked, "Why didn't you want to write something on her, anyway? Missed out on a golden opportunity... it might not come again." "Yeah, well, maybe I don't want to write anything on people." He stared at her for a moment, then said, "Bullshit." "I don't. Not everyone's like you." "Not everyone, maybe," Keith agreed. "But you are." He flipped the knob to heat the oven. It shouldn't take long, now that "Pre-Heats Quickly" was discreetly written on the side in magic marker. "No I'm not." "I know what it is. You just don't want to get your hands dirty. Tell you what then, tell me what you want to write on her and I'll do it for you. Anything you want." "I don't want to write anything." Keith chuckled darkly. "I don't really believe that. You really need to stop lying to yourself, Susan. Or at least lying to me." A sly smile broke across his face... she knew that look, it was the look of someone who'd just had an idea he liked. He took a few steps to look outside the kitchen to the living room where their father watched TV, oblivious to his children, and then returned right in front of where Susan was sitting and said, "Give me your foot." Knowing what was coming, Susan bit her lip, but extended her left foot. He grabbed it by the ankle and pulled, not hard, but enough to put her off balance in her chair, and then removed the sock. He still had the marker in his pants pocket and within a few seconds it was out, and he was writing. When he was done, he capped the pen, put it back, and leaned up against the counter, watching with a grin as she pulled her leg into her lap and inspected the new change she'd have to live with. "Can't Lie To Keith," it said. "Fuck," she muttered. "What, you don't like it?" "No of course I don't like it," she said, without even thinking, although she couldn't even be sure if she said it because of the mark, or if she would have told the truth anyway. "What about being my fuck toy, do you like that?" She tried experimentally lying, just to see if she could. The word formed in her mind, but her mouth just wouldn't open to say the word, because it wasn't the truth. When it was the truth she wanted to say, the word came out easily. "Yes." Her face flushed with warmth and embarrassment. It was weird, she was pretty sure she'd said as much before, but the fact that he now absolutely knew she was telling the truth, and not just saying it to keep him from being angry, that somehow made it a more intimate confession. "Good to know," he said. "So, back to our little hypothetical question. What would you like me to write on Trish for you?" Just for the hell of it, she tried to say the words "Nothing," but all that would come out was an actual nothing. That was useful information, though... she couldn't lie, but that didn't mean she had to tell the truth. Silence was an option... at least, it was as long as Keith didn't realize it was, and closed the loophole. That meant she had to say something, and it had to be true. "'Flat Chest,'" she said. "Interesting choice," Keith said. "What else?" "Panty Sniffer." It was a weird choice, but it had come to mind when the offer was first made, based on an insult that one of the girls in her class sometimes used. She pictured it working like 'Cock Sucker', being unable to resist whenever she saw panties. "Cunt Licker," she said next. It wasn't humiliating enough to make her like eating underage pussy, she had to have the unstoppable urge to do it for every pussy she saw, even at work. "Nudist." Keith kept looking at her, expecting more, so she added one of the darker thoughts she'd had on the edge of orgasm. "Dog Fucker." His face lit up with interest at that, and that inspired her to add the thought that followed right after. "Can Have Puppies." It would ruin Trish, hopefully in Keith's eyes as well, to get pregnant by a dog. "Wow, little sister. That was dark. I can just picture it." So could she.... she could imagine Trish standing naked in front of her, no chest but a huge swollen belly, complaining about what a dick her brother was, because that was part of the question, part of what made it attractive, that Keith did the writing and not her. And there was one more thing, in her imagination, the picture in her head included, written along one leg, "Writing on skin never fades." That would have to stay in her imagination. Because even though, somewhere deep down, she wanted Keith to write it on Trish, anything she suggested was an idea she was putting in Keith's head he might use elsewhere, and she must never give him that idea. Luckily he hadn't asked if there was anything else, he seemed to think getting Trish pregnant with puppies was the worst of it. "See, I told you you're just like me." "The difference is that I don't think you should do it." That threw him for a moment. "Wait... I asked you and you said you wanted me to!" "Just because part of me wants it doesn't mean it's right, or even a good idea. Think about it. Right now maybe she thinks this is all in her head, but if her boobs go away when you write 'Flat Chest' she's going to know the marker's magic. Other people are going to find out, too. And maybe you can keep me, and Mom and Dad under your control, but Trish? Her parents? You going to write on everyone you meet? And keep writing on them to keep it fresh?" That was interesting... it wasn't quite a lie because she hadn't told him about her idea to make the marks permanent. And maybe that wouldn't even work, maybe the magic didn't have a loophole like that. But it certainly felt like she was pulling one over on him, giving him a problem she'd already thought up a solution for. She couldn't lie to Keith, but she could deceive him. Words mattered. "I don't think you're an idiot but sometimes you act like one. Seriously, I can't lie to you so I must be telling the truth... I don't think you should write all that on Trish." "I never said I would," Keith said with false casualness. "I just wanted to know what was in your head." But he had said he would, Susan remembered, it was practically a promise. That was what made it so hard to tell the truth until he forced it out of her. "Anyway, you're distracting me, I've gotta finish dinner. Why don't you go bother Mom or something?" She slid off her chair and onto the floor to retrieve her sock, then put it on and moved for the door. "Hey, Susan?" She froze. "The other night... were you making a play to take the marker?" Shit. She couldn't lie, and not saying anything was about as good as admitting it. "Yes." "I fucking knew it. You little sneak." Despite the words, he didn't seem especially outraged at it. And what he said next, he seemed a lot more like his old self, uncertain, even a little sad. "You really want the fun we're having to end? Is it that bad?" "I don't know. I like most of it. I just don't want it to get any worse. Things are already so crazy, and I don't know how much more I can take." They were quiet for a few moments, and she thought it was the end of it. "You know I wouldn't let it get too bad, right?" She needed time to come up with an answer the mark would let her say. "I wish I could say I trusted that." And she left without waiting for another question. Chapter Twenty-Eight: Keith and Susan didn't revisit their conversation in the kitchen again that night, and the rest of the evening passed in almost normalcy, given that normal now included her brother fucking her after dinner while their Mom played lookout to make sure their dad wasn't coming upstairs. He did at one point... not into their room but Mom frantically burst in and whispered that they shouldn't move, while Susan sat on her brother's lap in his computer chair with his cock up her ass, for the minute or so it took for Dad to find what he needed and go back downstairs. Afterwards, Mom came in to watch Keith finish, and only had to say, "You really should make her wear a gag every time." Once that was done, Keith and Susan didn't talk much at all... she wasn't in much mood for talking, and he seemed pretty busy in conversations on his phone, even had it in his hand while he fucked her ass. No doubt talking mostly to Trish, although Susan never got to see any of the texts. The only thing he showed her was another weird selfie from Mom a few minutes after she left the room after watching him cum inside her. This one looked like she was biting down on her finger. Then he got wrapped up again in texts from someone else and Susan left for her own bedroom. When Mom and Dad finally went to their new early bedtime to spend a few near-comatose hours, she was almost dreading her brother calling her to bed, not for the sleeping together which she enjoyed, but because she expected he'd try and ask her more uncomfortable questions that she couldn't lie about. To her surprise, he didn't. He called her to bed of course, and made a show of putting the marker in the lock box this time, but he didn't ask her a single thing, and she wondered if maybe he regretted writing that last mark, or the things she said. People always said the truth hurts, and when you know something hurts, you usually try to avoid it. The next morning, Susan woke up alone. Keith must have slipped out early sometime in the early morning while Susan slept in, a pillow over her eyes blocking out enough of the early-morning light so she hadn't roused earlier. And her sleep had been troubled by dreams about writing horrible things on Trish, and half-awake worries that she'd pissed her brother off. A quick check of the clock once she finally sat up revealed that her parents were probably already gone, and she smelled bacon cooking downstairs, which she supposed solved the mystery of where Keith was. So she rolled out of his bed and walked naked back to her own room, where she chose a shirt that just barely covered her butt, and left without putting on panties... she would have gone completely naked, because she was starting to get super-horny again and Keith might be more likely to fuck her if she didn't wear anything, but there was the tiniest chance somebody else was there, so she chose a yellow shirt with a sun on it in white and the word "Shine," and headed downstairs to see if she could get some of the bacon. The bacon was already done when she got there, and Keith was eating a toasted BLT when Susan entered, and looking at his phone. Unlike her, he was fully dressed, even nicely dressed, a clean black sports jersey with the number 69 on it and a pair of shorts in similar colors. She looked again at the number... she could have sworn the number used to be 63. She wondered if maybe he'd done something with the marker, but the line of thought was forgotten when she noticed he was wearing shoes. "Are you going out?" Again, she left unvoiced. Yesterday was bad enough. After swallowing a mouthful of BLT, he said, "Yeah. Going to see Trish." The scowl she felt must have shown on her face, despite her best efforts, because he asked, "Got a problem with that?" "I think it's a bad idea." "Too bad. You may think you know everything, but I do what I want." "Whatever." She walked up to the counter, and to her surprise, there was still bacon on a plate, and even slices of tomato already cut. "Is this for me?" He shrugged. "You can have it, if you want." She got some bread and put it in the toaster, then turned back to her brother. "So what are you going to do with Trish?" "Whatever I want." The smug smile on his face lasted just for a moment before he said, "Don't worry, I'm not going to write the stuff you suggested." That was a small relief, at least until he added, "Not all of it, anyway." "You shouldn't do any of it. You should just stay home today." "Is that what you want me to do?" Susan nodded. There was one good thing about her latest mark, thinking up lies was a waste of time, and sometimes she might as well just tell the truth. "Yeah." "Kinda funny... it wasn't long ago that you wanted me to go after Trish. Now it's almost like you're jealous." The mark didn't save her entirely from needing to think on her feet. "I decided you're not good for each other." Not lying, but not answering his implication at all. "Yeah, but what do you know? Just because you can't lie, doesn't mean you're any smarter than anyone else. Besides... I already told her I'd spend the day with her. I'm picking her up in a couple minutes, so I don't think I'll have time to fuck you this morning, sorry." The day? She hoped that was an exaggeration. If not, who was going to fuck her when she got super-horny? "You could always call her and say you changed your mind at the last minute. That's what a jerk would do." Now he grinned again, and this time it was almost mean. "Oh, now you want me to be a jerk? It's a thought, but nah, we've got some fun stuff planned." "How long are you going to be gone?" "Hard to say. I'm sure I'll be home by three, anyway." "Three?" The word came out almost strangled. "But that's so long!" He shrugged, seemingly unconcerned. "Can I at least have permission to cum while you're gone?" "Oh, no, that would defeat the purpose." "What purpose?" "You didn't think you were going to get off scott-free for trying to steal the marker, did you? I mean, I guess I can't blame you for trying, but... that doesn't mean you should get away with it." "I thought that was what you were doing yesterday!" "No, yesterday was just for fun." Susan closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "So you're going to leave me here super-horny all day." "You're the one who wanted me to be a jerk. And... you know what? It's way more fun being a jerk to you." He got up from the table and walked over to her by the toaster, looking down at her, gently touching the side of her face. "But hey, imagine how good it'll feel when I finally get home." He leaned in, and for a second she thought he was going to kiss her, and she tilted her face up to meet his... and then he was gone, one of her two remaining slices of bacon in his hands. He popped it into his mouth and took a crunchy bite. What a jerk! "I don't know if I can wait that long," she admitted, hoping the truth would make him a little bit nicer. "I'm addicted to cum, remember? And I haven't had any since last night." He took the rest of that slice of bacon with one more bite, and seemed to consider the issue, like maybe leaving her in withdrawal was a little too much punishment. "Okay, I'll make you a deal. I'll let you suck me off right now... if you give me the last slice of bacon." I guess I'm having a BLT hold the bacon, she thought, and got to her knees just as the toast popped. Chapter Twenty-Nine: Susan's cum addiction may have been temporarily satisfied, at the cost of bacon, but within a half hour after her brother left, with the words, "Think of what me and Trish might be doing when you masturbate," the other marks on her body were already starting to drive her crazy... or maybe she'd just gotten addicted to sexual release without the marker. She needed it. One day of this was bad enough... facing a second day in a row seemed like a nightmare. Her super-horniness was already to an uncomfortable level when she sucked her brother off, and it felt like nothing was able to distract her from it for long. Watching TV, getting on the Internet, even digging out one of her old coloring books and trying to lose herself in focused drudge-work always just devolved very quickly with her thinking dirty thoughts, sometimes watching something dirty, with something in her ass or pussy. She did wind up thinking about Keith and Trish while she did it, too, not deliberately taking his advice, the thoughts and images were just intrusive. She didn't want them, they made her sick inside, but at the same time, they didn't make her any less horny even while they made her incredibly jealous... if anything, it was the opposite. She'd rub herself until it was starting to get painful and then look at the clock and find that only a few more minutes had passed. At one point she even checked over her naked body in a mirror just to see if Keith had somehow written something on her while she slept, because it was so much harder to take than last time... but no, she decided, while masturbating to her own reflection, it must just feel worse because she knew what was in store. At least yesterday, she had the hope that he might return at any moment and fuck her brains out. Today, she knew he wasn't planning to be home until three, and... who knew? Maybe he'd be so tired from fucking Trish all day he'd have nothing left for her? Two hours in and she found herself muttering "Gotta cum," to herself, almost like a mantra, and she was pretty sure she was twitching, and not just her holes. She was pacing around the house, her vibrator in her ass and one of Mom's dildos in her pussy just because her body craved activity, or at least she thought that stimulating it until she couldn't anymore was better than just lying there and needing it. On one of her repeated trips through the kitchen, she stopped by the fridge trying to decide if eating might take her mind off it when she noticed the magnets on the door again, "Don't Just Complain About Problems, Find Solutions! Think outside the box." The only obvious solution was to call and try and beg Keith to come home, but she didn't think that would work. So maybe thinking outside of the box was the answer... but could she do that when her needy wet box itself was the problem? She sat at the kitchen table and tried to think up loopholes. She couldn't cum unless she had permission. It didn't have to be Keith's permission. The thought, though obvious, hit her like a lightning bolt, and she raced up the stairs so fast that her vibrator slipped out of her ass. Luckily, it wasn't on, so she just left it there, took out the dildo and threw it on her bed then got on her computer, opened up her word processor and wrote, "YOU HAVE PERMISSION TO CUM, SUSAN." It was a nice thought, but a couple minutes of masturbating convinced her that this was not the loophole she needed. If you could give yourself permission, you never really needed it. She needed someone else. Like when Trish gave her permission. She remembered the vengeful thought she had last time, that if Keith wasn't around, maybe she'd find somebody else to make her cum. Now she knew it was an option, and yet... she wasn't sure she should go that far. Maybe there were still safer options. She looked at her phone sitting on her desk... she hadn't used it much lately, because she'd been so busy with Keith, but now she needed to reach out and touch someone, as her dad sometimes said. She opened up her contact list. There was Mom and Dad first, of course, and she thought about it, calling one of them and asking permission... Mom at least knew what the word meant, though Susan'd have to explain why she called. She'd probably get yelled at for bothering Mom at work. Dad was out of the question. Below that was Keith, but obviously there was no hope there. Below that, friends. Well, what were friends for if not to help you out of a jam, right? She might even be able to do it without them knowing... just like what she imagined Dad saying if she asked if she could cum. "Come where? To work? No, of course not." Except somewhere the answer might be yes. Some of her friends were away on vacation so it would be impossible, but there was at least one where this trick might just work. Just having a plan seemed to help her frustration a little, so she lay on her bed, spread her legs, and bit her lip for a second before pressing to call her friend Dana. Then she hung up and decided to call her with FaceTime instead. Dana liked it better, and there was a chance permission required a voice and a face. After a wait just long enough for Susan to consider trying somebody else, the call was accepted and a round face with glasses appeared. She appeared to be lying down on her back, judging by the way her hair, loose and messy rather than tied back like she usually wore it, hung splayed out behind her. Her hair color looked darker on camera, and Susan hoped that her expression worked the same way, because she did not seem happy. "Yeah, what do you want?" "Hi, Dana." "Hi." The response was unenthusiastic, flat voice and her eyes slid away like the television in her room was more interesting. "So, you're finally talking to me again?" "I like, haven't really heard from you in forever, except like when I message you, and then you, like, barely respond. Figured I must have done something." "No..." she said, drawing out the word and feeling pretty shitty, even shittier that she was using her friend. "I'm really sorry, I've just been... distracted. But I miss talking to you." "Yeah? What, wrapped up in some big new story or something?" "Something like that." It was a kind of truth, if she still planned on writing the true story of her experiences with Keith, then she was absolutely wrapped up in the middle of it. "Really. I'm sorry." Also true. Finally, Dana cracked a smile. That was one of the good things about her, she might be mad at you but she didn't stay that way for long. "I guess you're obviously not working on it right now if you're calling..." She rolled over, or the world on screen did, since she was holding the camera on her face. Her hair fell across her face and now cleavage was visible below her chin. "Did you finish, or you hit writer's block or something?" "I am pretty frustrated." Her fingers slid along her puffy wet pussy lips again... it was safe to do this as long as the camera stayed on her face... even more exciting, to be masturbating and no one else realize it. All she had to do was keep her expression stone-faced. "So, what are you doing right now?" It was a direct question she couldn't wiggle out of, and she almost bit the bullet and said, "Actually, I'm masturbating and it's really difficult right now," then remembered she didn't have to tell the truth to her, just Keith. All that time beating around the bush with technically true answers wasn't even needed... though she supposed it was good practice. But if she could lie when needed, it made it a lot easier. "Nothing, really. Just bored. What are you doing?" "I was going to go over to Stacey's." Susan's breath caught and she slid two fingers inside of her, hoping she'd get the chance she needed, but she let Dana finish. "We're going to play on her trampoline and maybe do some videos and her dad's making us lunch, so..." Dana's mouth made an exaggerated smile, like she often did when she made some kind of joke she expected the other person to notice. This time it was an in-joke that was just common knowledge to her friends... Dana's parents were horrible cooks so she always relished the chance to eat somewhere else... an easy way to get Dana to go somewhere was to provide some kind of food. But that hardly mattered to Susan. Nor did the fact that she really didn't like Stacey all that much. In truth, she was barely listening once she heard that Dana was going out. All that mattered was the answer to one question. "Uh-huh," she said, trying to keep her face still while her fingers dug inside and she ground the heel of her palm against the clit as she prepared to ask it. The sensation made her eyes close hard and then open wide again, but she hoped it would look like an extended blink. "Can I cum?" "I don't know," she said, her eyes directed upward at the ceiling. "I guess I could text her and ask." "Yes, please," Susan whimpered. "I'd really like to cum." Dana got up, picked up her second, older phone that was on her nightstand, and started tapping into it, giving Susan time to just rub herself and hope... she didn't even have to be careful of her expression, since Dana's attention was elsewhere. Mostly, anyway, for after a few seconds of silence Dana pointed out, "I thought you didn't care much for Stacey anyway?" "Uh-huh." She looked directly into the camera and Susan tried to focus on a normal expression, although it was hard to keep track of both what that was and what her face was already doing and the sensations her fingers were providing all at once. She settled for just moving her face as little as possible. "So what's the big deal? We can hang out some other time." "Please, I'm tired of being home alone... I just wanna cum so bad." The whine sounded, to Susan, like a failure of playing innocent and more like something out of one of the porn videos, but as long as Dana didn't notice... "Oh, your brother's not home, huh?" Did Dana know her brother had been helping her cum? No, wait, that was impossible. So she probably didn't notice. She let her fingers go still while she thought up an appropriate answer, which happened to be the truth. "No, he left me to hang out with his new girlfriend." "Wow, Keith got a girlfriend? When did that happen?" "Yesterday, I think." Her fingers started rubbing again. "So? Can I cum?" "Jesus, hold your horses." Susan closed her eyes and briefly imagined horses, although she wasn't entirely sure what their cocks looked like. Big, probably, but were they shaped like human cocks? Something to look up later. "She still hasn't answered yet." A few seconds later, Dana looked at the camera. "You okay? You look kind of flush?" "I'm fine," she said. "Just hot." Were horse cocks hot, or ugly? For some reason it seemed very important to know. "Yeah, it's a warm one today," Dana agreed. "I thought you had air conditioning though?" She shrugged, still imagining horse cocks. "So, have you met her before?" For a split-second she thought Dana was talking about Stacey, not Trish. Then once she realized Dana was talking about her brother's girlfriend, Susan started imagining her getting fucked by a horse. "Yeah." Dana leaned in as though for gossip, and accidentally showing off her cleavage again. People at school often accused her of doing it on purpose, and Susan knew she absolutely did, sometimes, but just as often she did it accidentally because she liked wearing shirts that cut low. "What's she like? Like, I mean, what's she look like?" "You know, pretty. Big boobs." At least, compared to Susan. But compared to Susan, Dana had big boobs too. Trish's would probably swing wildly while getting fucked by a horse. God, she needed to cum so badly. Dana looked back at her other phone as a chime sounded. "Yeah. Okay. She says okay." "Okay?" She pulled her hand out and started to look around for something better than her fingers, as it looked like she might be needing it soon. "Yeah, Stacey's okay with it." Say the damn words, Susan thought, as her free hand began groping for the dildo she'd found nearby. Finally it closed on it and she shoved it inside, picturing her riding her brother's cock while watching the horse fuck Trish. "So I'm allowed to cum?" "Yeah." A pause for a breath, then she said, "Yeah, you can come. I'm on my way in a few minutes. You can get there all right on your own, right? She doesn't live far from you." Susan was barely listening. "Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for saying I can cum." And with the flick of a finger she ended the call without even saying goodbye so she could scream. Except, she didn't, except to yell out "FUCK!" when she realized that she still couldn't cum, as she flung the dildo away in frustration. Cum wasn't the same as come, even if they sounded the same... or maybe permission only counted if they knew what they were giving permission for. She was just going to have to lie here and suffer until her brother got back. After she let her heart rate slow and breathing calm down again, another thought struck her. "Shit," she said out loud. She'd just agreed to go hang out at Stacey's house. Practically begged Dana to allow her to tag along. What would she think if Susan just flaked out? Friendships had been ruined for less. Susan had even once wrote a story where a missed lunch date because of a misunderstanding led best friends in neighboring kingdoms into a feud that escalated to the point where they both hired assassins to kill each other. Dana herself had called it realistic. She couldn't back out of it... at least, not without ticking off one of her best friends. Maybe it might even do some good, though... her horniness was always at its worst when there wasn't anything to distract her. And, there was always that possibility that she could get what she wanted anyway, stir the conversation to something like Truth or Dare. Until this summer, Dana was always wilder than her... sure, Stacey was a bit of a prude compared to both of them, but things changed. Susan dragged herself off her bed and started looking through her closet. She had to find something to wear that would cover all of her marks. And she was going to have to take a very cold shower just before she left. Chapter Thirty: It seemed like forever since Susan was outside. Since becoming a fuck toy (even before, for the week she had smelly feet had almost the same effect) she'd barely left the house, and frequently was away from the windows because she was mostly undressed. She'd almost forgotten there was a whole world outside, in the middle of summer. The colors seemed brighter and more vivid, almost painfully so, but what really hit her was the heat. Dana wasn't kidding, it really was a hot one. Inside they had air conditioning so she hadn't had to even think about the weather. Stepping outside, she was confronted with a humid gust of air that made her regret her decision to go to Stacey's place at all. If the heat wasn't bad enough, it was made worse by what she was wearing. She'd thought about it a lot in the shower, about how to hide everything she needed hidden. That included things like deciding to leave her phone at home, and off, so if Keith asked why she hadn't answered a call on it she could truthfully say she left it off, but the more important issue was hiding the marks on her body from her friends. While the water streamed over her body, she examined them carefully and evaluated what clothing options she had available that would leave them hidden. Sandals were out, because she might have to take them off and the bottom of her feet might be seen, and then someone might want to know why she had "can't cum without permission" on her. So, instead, white socks and her running shoes. Skirts were out of the question as well, and so were any shorts that weren't long enough to cover the "Sucker" on "Cock Sucker." She had some capris of various types that cut off just under or above the knee, but she also had to think of one other thing... although fresh from the cold shower it might not be a problem, but when the horniness kicked in, she didn't want her damp crotch to be obvious. That ruled out the lighter colored options, and in the end, out of excessive fear, she went with some black yoga capris that hugged her body in a way she was half-proud of, half-ashamed of, but soon forgot entirely with the realization of how hot it was with the sun on them. Up top, she had to be sure not only that the shirt was long enough to cover her back, but more importantly, it had to cover her front, from any position. Dana may have loved to use the trick of deliberately wearing something that gave a peek when you bent down too low, on teachers, guys their ages, and even Keith once, and Susan had tried it herself on Dana's suggestion, but most of her shirts didn't work for that. But it was still a problem... in too many of them, even if nobody could see a nipple no matter how far she bent in front of them, they could see the words 'Fuck toy' blazoned across her chest. She had to bend down in front of her mirror to check everything she wore, and of those that passed was a rose-colored blouse that only opened to a tight circle at the base of her neck and with sleeves that had cut-outs for her shoulders. It wasn't as bad as the pants, but she still wished she'd chosen something lighter, looser, maybe even showing off her belly. At least it was only a short walk to Stacey's place, and the heat and humidity wasn't so bad after the first oppressive punch... after a lot of vigorous sex her brother's room sometimes got pretty hot and stuffy too, and at least outside there was an occasional breeze and fresh air. Not to mention people, plenty in cars, a few walking about the streets including their neighbor walking his dog who gave her a smile and a nod and dragged the pooch away by the leash before he could smell her, and Susan blushed reflexively remembering her brother's threat to her and, once they were passed, looked back to see the dog's balls under a happily wagging tail. That got her thinking about cocks, which was probably not the right thing to be doing, she had to hold off her super-horniness as long as she could, but seeing people about she couldn't help but think of what could happen. Maybe she didn't even need to go to Stacey's, she could find some horny teenager (and there seemed to be a few attractive young men, and even older men she wouldn't rule out) and offer him sex in exchange for letting her cum. Maybe she wouldn't have to ask... even at twelve years old, she was no stranger to random men with a lewd come-on. Before that made her blush, but now... well, if some asshole shouted at her from his car window suggesting she suck his cock... she was a cock sucker. Could she really refuse? Or would she walk right up to his car, get in, and start sucking? Her thighs squeezed together and she had to stop herself from sliding her hands into her capris and rubbing herself right there to the thought. Doing that right there on the street might get her what she wanted, in the end, but it could also ruin her reputation forever, and she didn't want that. Still, it was an option... she'd go to Stacey's, and if she hadn't find a way to get relief by the time she went home, maybe she'd get a little bold with some lucky guy. As she cut through a small park to get to Stacey's place, the chance of random pervert assholes in cars vanished and she began looking for other options. There was a teen who she often saw on one of the benches, smoking there because he wasn't allowed to at home, maybe if he was there on the way back he'd want to do something else he probably wasn't allowed. Susan knew that thoughts like these were not the best use of her time and tried to force her mind away. She'd gained some measure of composure from the cold shower and having something to do... not to mention the sheer frustration of being so close and yet unable to cum which sometimes briefly gave her a relief from the horniness, as her body's hormone production seemed to shut down in exhaustion... even her pussy seemed to run out of lubrication for a while. It came at the cost of a queasy anxiousness and a fog-covered unsatisfied brain, but it was still a break of sorts, one that made this whole trip possible. But if she didn't keep perverted sex off her mind it would ruin all that and she'd suffer through the whole visit dripping wet and looking for some way to get off... but it was hard not to think dirty thoughts when you were a super horny fuck toy by nature. Stacey's house was two stories, like Susan's, but the Mancuso family, although Stacey insisted they weren't rich, were a lot closer to it than Susan's family was, with almost twice the square footage and a huge yard where she could see a trampoline in a safety net. Dana had mentioned they might play on that, something Susan had yet to try, but no one was out there when she arrived, so she walked up to the front door and rang the bell. She'd never been officially introduced to Stacey's father before, just her mom, but she'd seen him from a distance in passing and recognized the older man who opened the door as him. He was large, both in height and his overall frame, the type of guy who looked like he was a jock like a football player at one time but had let himself go and now had a bit of a beer belly, though the oversized t-shirt, with a motorcycle company logo on it and stretched sleeves, were a testament to how beefy and muscular his arms still were. Aside from a touch of grey to his dark hair, he looked around the same age as her own dad. Her eyes next went to his crotch, but although he wore long shorts she couldn't get a sense of the size of his cock. She blushed at the realization that it was one of the first things she thought of when she met somebody, but he must have assumed she was just shy, because he said, "Hi. You must be Stacey's friend." His voice was friendly, but it had a booming quality to it, like he was used to speaking in front of an audience and got in the habit of projecting all the time. "I guess," Susan replied. She probably wouldn't have considered Stacey a friend, but that would be kind of rude to say to her dad. "She and her other friend are upstairs in her room," he said, and he stepped back to allow her inside. Without any further words, Susan darted past him and walked upstairs. In such a situation, the old Susan would have been more polite, maybe spent a minute chatting with him, but now she was a little afraid that she might say something inappropriate and so just moved on. Old memories of a birthday party she attended a couple years back guided her up to Stacey's room, but it would have been easy enough to locate it even if she'd never been to the house before. Her name was on the door in pink-painted wooden letters, and she could hear music coming from inside, so she figured that's where Dana and Stacey were. At least she hoped it was Dana and Stacey... Dana never did say that nobody else was coming, and it would be awkward to show up if it was just Stacey and someone else from school Susan didn't know well. At least Dana being there would serve as a buffer. She knocked on the door, the classic shave-and-a-haircut, two-bits pattern. Seconds later, the door opened a crack and a freckle-filled face, her height, stared out at her, then put on a smile that didn't seem to go all the way to her eyes. "Oh, hi, Susan," Stacey said. She opened the door, and to her relief, her friend Dana was the only other person in the room, lying on the bed in shorts and a cropped t-shirt. Stacey was similar in height and body shape to Susan. In fact, since they both had dark hair, of almost exactly the same shade, they were often mistaken for each other from the back. From the front, the splash of freckles on Stacey and her longer, more narrow face with a more square-ended jaw set them apart, but if you didn't look at their faces you might think they were sisters. At school Stacey tended to dress conservatively but fashionably, pastel-colored pants and blouses that didn't dip down too far or come up past her waist, but today, at home, she wore an orange t-shirt, with some kind of tropical scene sketched onto it, but which rode high enough to expose her belly button and loose grey shorts. Dana, on the other hand, used to be roughly the same body type (aside from her hair, which was lighter and usually in a ponytail, immediately distinguishing her from the back), but in the past few months had been hit hard with puberty and gained several inches of gangly height and a chest that, while not as big as Trish, still attracted stares and a lot of comments from the boys in their class. She alternately loved and hated the attention, attention she hadn't got before as her glasses and braces marked her as the class geek even though her academics were only slightly above average. She was lying on the bed, her bare feet curled up in the air above her butt, which was also clad in shorts, only pink with white trim and much smaller and tighter than Stacey's, and a white tank-top, different than the one she was wearing on FaceTime, which covered her shoulders... she must have changed just before running out. That left Susan as the most dressed person in the room, but she didn't think it would be a problem... and it wasn't, at least at first. The girls exchanged greetings, although Dana's was the only one that seemed genuinely happy... Stacey's was at best half-hearted, but at least she didn't seem rude. After a few seconds of mutual staring, Susan asked, "So what are we doing?" At this, Stacey did brighten a little. "We're making music videos." It wasn't what Susan had expected, and she must have looked confused because Stacey explained. "On the Internet. I do it for my fans, usually just solo but they've been suggesting some group ones and that's why I thought it might be useful to have a third person." Susan sensed Stacey's statement suggested, "that's the only reason I let you come along," but without being outright mean about it. Which meant Susan didn't feel she could be mean back, at least not openly. "I didn't realize you could sing." Her eyes narrowed just for a moment as though she herself wasn't sure it was an insult. "Well, I can." "It's mostly just dancing and lip-synching though," Dana said. "Yeah, for the videos, that's all we need, but sometimes I go and add my own vocals later, just because my fans like it better. Maybe not for this one because it's a group." Without being asked, she explained, "See, I started with doing the top hits from when I was born, but, like, since people liked it I started doing requests." I don't really need the back story, Susan thought, but instead asked, "So what song are we doing?" She thought it was best to play along and then maybe find a way to cum later. "'When I Grow Up'? It's by the Pussycat Dolls?" Neither name was particularly familiar, although Stacey wanted to get right down to business and demanded they listen to it a few times and practice lip synching along, and by the time she heard it, she remembered the general tune. By the time she heard it four times in a row, she was pretty sick of it, but not enough that Stacey was satisfied they could lip synch it and just start dancing. That took at least three more repetitions. The only reprieve came briefly when Stacey's dad came in. Susan flinched at first when there was an unexpected voice behind them saying, "Sorry to interrupt...." "Daddy!" Stacey whined. "You should have knocked! What if we were changing or something!" "Sorry, sorry!" Susan's eyes narrowed as she looked at the man, whose, despite his words, let his own gaze roam over all three of them as though inspecting what they were wearing, and she wondered if maybe that was his hope all along. She then looked to Dana to see if she caught it, but wasn't sure... she just seemed to have a warm smile on but couldn't be sure if she didn't think that, or did and just liked the thought. Could Dana be fucking Stacey's dad? She wondered, for a moment, but dismissed the thought. What happened with her brother, and her own super-horniness, had corrupted her, she was seeing sex everywhere. "I was just getting ready to start on making lunch," Stacey's dad continued. "And I wanted to make sure I asked if either of your friends had any special dietary requirements I needed to be aware of before I decide what to make. I mean, I wouldn't want to serve meat to a vegan, you know?" Dana's cheery "I'm good with whatever," was met with a nod and smile, and then he looked to Susan. "She doesn't, Daddy!" Stacey said, which seemed pretty rude to Susan. How would she know? They had barely seen each other since the end of school, and weren't close before that. Maybe Susan had a weird allergy. For that matter, for all Stacey knew, Susan could have gone vegetarian this summer. And recently... She snorted in amusement, drawing curious glances from her friends. It was KIND of a dietary requirement, that she now needed cum. She pictured telling him, straight-faced, "Whatever you make needs to have cum on it please." And underneath that amusement was the hard-edged reminder on her nerves, the jonesing, that she hadn't gotten her fix yet. It was going to be an issue soon. "I'm flexible," she answered anyway, and imagined him testing how flexible, using her pussy or ass while her legs were pulled back behind her head for the best view of herself taking his cock... To attempt to banish the arousing image before her body started responding to it--or responding more to it, for it already had started--she closed her eyes tight and shook her head. Her struggle must have gone unnoticed in the room, because Dana asked, "So what are you making?" "I was thinking of making my world famous steak fajitas, it that's good with everyone..." "World-famous, huh?" Dana grinned, flashing her braces, although his gaze might have been a little lower, on the cleavage displayed by Dana's top and her position lying stomach-down on the bed.. "Well, then I look forward to seeing what all the fuss is about!" "I'll holler for you when it's ready," he said, and ducked back out of the room, leaving the door not quite closed. Stacey got up and closed it, then said, "Okay, back to practicing." At least they soon knew the song well-enough that they could practice dancing along with the lip-synch. Here they weren't trying to match the dances in the video, Stacey said she wanted a more free-form approach, but she still managed to be a control freak about how free-form they were. "Why do you keep grabbing your chest there?" she asked Dana early on. "I don't know, it made sense?" Dana said. "The song says, 'I wanna have boobies.' Why would you do a squat then?'" That answer earned Dana a confused stare, blank incomprehension from Stacey at first, and it even took Susan a second before she realized where Dana made the mistake and burst out laughing. "I think it said, 'I wanna have groupies.'" "...No, it can't be. So, like, this is a lesbian group? Wow, progressive." "No!" Stacey sounded scandalized at the thought. "Of course they're not a lesbian group!" "Groupies are the girls who have sex with rock stars. I don't think there are boy groupies." Normally Susan would take Dana's side in a fight, but here... "I don't see why there couldn't be boy groupies... if they want to f... have sex with the girl rock stars. Or gay boy groupies too for like, Adam what'shisname." "It's not even about sex!" Stacey insisted with a scowl. "Groupies just means fans! They wanted fans!" "Not normal fans. I still think 'boobies' makes more sense," Dana said. "Who wants to grow up and have groupies?" "It's not boobies!" "Can I grab my chest on that line anyway? I mean, it's a good move. Better than the squat." "No. It's crass." Stacey rolled her eyes and went back to her computer. "And obviously we need a refresher on the lyrics." So, that led to them listening to the song again, this time with the lyrics as subtitles. "Huh. So it WAS groupies." Dana agreed grudgingly, but it was the only part anyone had gotten wrong, so thankfully they were back to dancing to the song after that. The dancing was actually helping Susan's own problem. The rhythmic movement helped burn off some of the nervous energy her horniness had built up, and dancing... well, it wasn't sex, it never would be like sex, but there was something sexual about it all the same, she could pretend she was pushing back against a cock... if she squeezed her thighs together right at certain movements, she could almost feel it. Almost. Imagination was still no substitute for the real thing. Even when she snuck a rub of her crotch into the dance, it wasn't nearly what she wanted. Finally, Stacey seemed satisfied enough to do a run actually on video, but two changes came up before they begun. First, Dana wanted to take off her glasses. She couldn't see well without them, but if this was going on YouTube, she wanted to look her best. The other change was Stacey's idea, but Susan's heart started to thump when she saw the girl retrieve a marker. Chapter Thirty-One: Stacey uncapped the marker and explained, "It's a Pussycat Dolls song, so... we should look the part, right?" Dana shrugged. "I only have one set of cat ears," she went on, pausing momentarily to grab a headband with yellow and black cat eats from her closet, then, after placing it on her head, went to the mirror and picked up the marker again, "But the rest of us can do this..." Stacey only drew a dot on her nose and three streaks going across each cheek, to represent a cat's whiskers, and Susan calmed down, feeling silly for her instinctive reaction. It wasn't a magic marker, it was just a normal one. Still... "No, don't," she said when Stacey came at her next with the uncapped marker. "I don't want to wear that all week!" Not because of the embarrassment... but it would be a giveaway to her brother and parents that she left the house. Or at least that she got very bored and silly. Maybe she could convince Keith it meant she wanted to play games with the leash. It turned out her worries and planning for them wasn't even necessary. Stacey shook her head and rolled her eyes, exasperated. "Don't be stupid, it's washable." She dropped some moisturizer on a kleenex from her dresser, then wiped her face, and indeed, one of the streaks disappeared. "See?" "I don't think the Pussycat Dolls actually, like, did cat themed stuff," Dana pointed out. "You might be thinking of that old movie Josie and the Pussycats." Stacey whirled on her with the eyeroll, now letting out an frustrated breath. "It's an inter-pre-ta-tion," she said, and then went to redraw her lost whisker staring at herself in the mirror. "It'll look cute if it's all three of us, come on." Dana and Susan exchanged a look, but finally Susan shrugged, and let Stacey draw on her face. While Dana was getting hers done, Susan looked in the mirror. The marks looked much the same as the hidden ones on her body, like the one that said "Fuck toy." What would happen, she wondered, if it was the magic marker? Would it actually turn her into a cat? Or make her think she was one? Good thing it's washable, she decided. Keith might draw over it just to see. She watched her own eyes widen in the mirror, almost before she was conscious of the idea that thought sparked in her, growing steam. As long as Keith kept refreshing the marks, she was a prisoner of the things he wrote. But... what if he didn't refresh them? What if he thought they didn't need to be, because they still looked dark, because Susan drew over them with a non-magic marker? It wouldn't solve her problems... the 'Jerk' mark was the one causing the most trouble, and that one was on Keith. She couldn't draw over it without him realizing. But... maybe he just wouldn't think of it if every other mark was fresh? At the very least, she might be able to get out of being super horny and addicted to cum... she might still have to pretend, but how hard could that be? It was a plan... she wasn't sure yet if it was a good plan, but it was a plan, one of the first she'd had since all this started that had any chance of helping. "Earth to Susan," she heard, and then looked away from the mirror towards the other two girls with cat-whiskers on their faces. Dana looked amused, Stacey annoyed. "Are you ready to go?" The first attempt was just bad. They weren't very in synch and Dana, thrown by the sudden change in her ability to see, stumbled into both of them at one point or another. Two attempts later (the next attempt ruined because Dana tried to emphasize "boobies" over "groupies" again) it was finally good enough for Stacey... which still didn't mean it was up to any professional standard but it had a certain rough charm. "I'll fix it in editing, use the best of all three," she said, but really there were six, as Stacey not only recorded from her computer but also recorded video from her phone. Even taking the best of all of those, Susan couldn't imagine many people wanted to watch their video, unless her audience consisted solely of perverts masturbating to preteen girls dancing. Still, she breathed a sigh of relief that they were done... she was getting really sick of that song. The relief lasted until she clicked to the lyric search engine and said, "Let's get practicing on the next one." "The next one?" As it slipped out, it sounded awfully lot like a whine, which earned her a glare from Stacey. Fuck it, she thought. "Can't we do something else?" Dana backed her up. "Yeah, at least take a break for a while. I'm pooped." Susan wasn't... she still felt keyed up, energetic even, but dancing wasn't what she wanted to do, wasn't good enough anymore. But Dana wasn't super-horny, and despite her tall thin frame did not have a lot of stamina. She couldn't make girls basketball even with the help of her growth spurt. Stacey took the idea of a break a little better coming from Dana. "Like what?" "We could.... I don't know, do facials maybe?" Dana offered as she put her glasses back on. Susan's ears perked up... since she'd become a fuck toy she now knew that facials also meant when somebody covered your face in their cum, something Keith tried to do sometimes but her cocksucker nature got in the way. At Dana's suggestion, Stacey shook her head with a grimace and for a second Susan wondered if she, too, knew this other meaning, pictured a thick cock squirting off on her face and trying to picture whoever might be behind the cock, but then the girl said, "Amateur facials can make your skin break out even worse. I go to a professional aesthetician." Dana pressed on, undaunted. "Or go on your trampoline for a while?" "I thought you were tired." Her gaze was suddenly suspicious. "It's just bouncing. You don't get tired bouncing." Stacey rolled her eyes, deciding it was ignorance rather than a lie. "Obviously, you've never done it. We do that and you won't ever want to do my other video." I don't now, Susan thought. "Maybe sometime after lunch." This was her chance, Susan decided. "We could play Truth or Dare." She'd had it worked out... she'd choose Dare every time, obviously... Truth could only get her into trouble. And when they asked for Dares, she'd push the game more sexual, get them to masturbate until they cum, hoping they'd turn that dare back on her. If they dared that, it had to count as permission too, right? If not, she could ask while she was rubbing her pussy, if she's allowed to cum and hope they say yes. Or, if all else failed, she could dare them to tell her she could cum. The only worry was if they got her to strip down, saw the marks on her body, but she could just claim that it was from a previous game and... Stacey interrupted her running through the plan one more time with a flat dismissal. "Truth or Dare's a bad game," she said as she leaned back over the computer, evidently deciding that after shooting down three ideas, they were moving on to hers. "It just makes people do things they're uncomfortable with." It looked like Dana's eyes lit up at the suggestion, even if Stacey refused it, so Susan pushed a little. "Sometimes it's good to push your boundaries though. You know, get outside of your comfort zone." Maybe have a friend cum in front of you. "It could be fun." "We're not playing Truth or Dare," she said. "This is my house, and I don't want to." "Besides, Truth or Dare's only really fun when you're playing with boys." Dana had that smug half-smirk that she'd been wearing more and more in recent months, since she started developing and getting a share of the attention that less geeky, more popular girls, the ones with really pretty faces, got. "We can find a way to make it fun," Susan said, but Stacey interrupted her halfway through. "What, you've been playing Truth or Dare with boys lately?" "Wouldn't you like to know?" But Dana couldn't keep a secret. Now that she got attention from boys, she also got a different kind of attention from the less-developed girls, who started to assume that if boys were looking, she knew something they didn't, and she may have loved that attention even more. Even though Stacey had a boyfriend, Dana had her hooked and knew it. Before the marker, Susan probably would have been hooked as well, listening with rapt attention. Now, she was simply curious and watched as Dana shrugged with false modesty. "There may have been a barbecue on my street and I may have played some with a couple boys I know." "Who?" Stacey asked. "Bobby Laird, and Travis... something. I don't know his last name but he's a year ahead of us. And Bobby's older sister. It got a little wild." The word 'little' was stretched out at a higher pitch, teasing with the idea that it may have gotten REALLY wild. Stacey took the bait. "How wild?" "Welll... I got dared to show my boobs pretty early." She used a thumb to tug at her shirt just enough to expose some cleavage, even standing up. "And later I let them feel them. I mean, Bobby and Travis, Bobby's sister didn't want to. Bobby pinched my nipple." She broke into a brief fit of giggles at the memory. Susan watched impassively, knowing Dana, waiting for her to get to the good part, while Stacey's nose was wrinkled up. "I can't believe you let them do that," she said. But of course, it might have just been jealousy... Stacey didn't have anything worth grabbing. Then again, Susan reflected, it still felt pretty good even if there was nothing there. You should try it, she thought. Dana shrugged, not getting put off by her friend's lack of positive reaction. She liked any reaction. "And, Bobby's sister made him and Travis kiss on the lips." "Gross," Stacey said. Dana merely shrugged as if she didn't find it gross at all, but knew tastes varied. "Then I had to hold Travis' dick." Stacey's mouth dropped. The last time they hung out, Susan might have been doing the same thing, but now she just held her reaction, waiting for the big reveal. "And?" When it came, it was disappointing. "It was bigger than I expected," she said. "I know they were going to ask me to suck on it, or on Bobby's, next dare, but... then the burgers were done and we had to stop or someone would have come looking." "You are so lucky the burgers were done in time," Stacey said, still shaking her head in astonishment. "So you didn't have to." "I don't care, I would totally have done it," she said with a casual shrug, and locked eyes with Susan like she was craving the same kind of surprised adoration of her daringness that she might have given before. Instead Susan burst out laughing. That was it?! That was the good part of the story, her daring summer experiment into sexuality? It wasn't even something that tempted Susan to masturbate, and she was super-horny. And she laughed again at that. To think, I used to worry she was going to leave me behind for boys. She's more of a kid than I am, she thought. For as long as she remembered she looked up to Dana. Even though she was considered a geek, Susan wasn't much better, and Dana was always the daring one, the one who wasn't afraid of looking stupid because people already made fun of her. And, in the months since Dana's body began developing, leaving Susan behind, that feeling seemed to growing more intense, even being sometimes outright envious. For months, Susan thought of herself as a kid, while Dana was a woman, or at least a woman-in-progress, who got her period first, who got boobs first, who was now taller than her, and it seemed like she was shifting into being less of a friend and more of a mentor, someone who knew about porn and boys and who seemed to be so much more experienced in everything sexual, someone she could live vicariously through while Susan bucked up her courage to take the same steps. Except she wasn't more experienced, Susan now saw. She wasn't even a woman, despite her body. Dana was still a little girl, just taller and with boobs. And Stacey, who'd intimidated her with her popularity and firm opinions about everything and had an official boyfriend (albeit one she claimed she did no more than hug and who was staying with his dad all summer), she was even worse. They were both practically... innocent. Susan had more experience than both of them put together. She'd already had pretty much every kind of sex, with her own brother no less, done lesbian sex, been in a threesome, had cum inside and on her, wasn't even afraid to use vulgar terms because she'd done things more raunchy than anything she could say. For these girls, her friends, sex was a mystery, an adventure and even when they finally got around to having it, it would probably stay that way for a while. But Susan, she was a fuck toy, sex was just a part of her life, a need, like food and water and air. And even if the markers managed to fade, and she wasn't forced to be a fuck toy, she might be one by choice, just because she enjoyed it... but she'd never go back to listening to whispered confessions and wondering what it'd like to be daring. Her innocence was gone. One more change that was indelible. "Sorry," she said finally, that sobering thought, as well as Dana's perplexed expression helping the laughter subside. "I was just thinking how they probably felt it was totally unlucky to stop then." Dana grinned back, her braces glittering, and she pushed her glasses back up her nose. "Yeah, I'll bet!" A dark part of herself thought about dragging them over the line of innocence herself, use the Truth or Dare game not just to get herself off but to bridge the gulf between her and her friends by pushing them into being fuck toys as well. But that, too, would be indelible. Let them have their innocence. "Well, my boyfriend respects my body. He'd never even think about asking me to do something disgusting like that." "I don't know," Dana said. "I bet he probably thinks about it, he's just too shy to ask. Right?" This was directed as Susan, so she shrugged. "I don't know. You don't always know you want something until you try it." Like being treated like a fuck toy. "And I don't think he's gotten to try it." He did seem too passive and agreeable... the kind who might have gone along with it if someone offered it but would never ask for it himself. That was almost how Eli and Stacey started dating... he hung around with an obvious crush doing everything she asked until she finally asked him to go out. "Maybe he's getting one right now. With someone he met on summer vacation." Dana's speculation was met with a glare that could have instantly boiled water. "Shut. Up." "Relax, I'm just teasing you. We all know he wouldn't." Unless he met a girl who pushed him around like Stacey did and also wanted do to sexual stuff, Susan thought. "Probably not." "I'll tell you what thought if I try it out... with Travis or Bobby, not Eli, I mean... I'll let you guys know how it is, maybe it's not so bad. I mean, it can't be if girls keep doing them right?" It was really hard for Susan not to give her expert opinion, but Stacey saved her again, "Can we talk about something else, please? Like, something not perverted? I'm a Christian, okay?" "So what," Dana said. "So am I. Anyway, Travis has my Snapchat... I don't want to message him, but who knows, if he contacts me, maybe I could have a real boyfriend by the time school starts again. We could double date." Her eyes softened as they fell on Susan again. "We could work on finding someone for you, too." "You really don't have to," she said, and Stacey nodded in satisfaction, like she approved, or maybe the answer had confirmed something she suspected. "Come on, we're wasting valuable video making time here. I've got a new song picked out." And so Stacey took charge again, quashing once again Susan's hopes for a way to cum, but she went along with it trying to plan her next move, thinking maybe of bringing up masturbation as a way to not fall into sex. Even though for Susan it seemed more as a way to get ready for sex, the discussion might lead to a way for her to demonstrate and ask if she could cum. Then Stacey once again said something which threw off her plans. "You should change." "Change your clothes. We should all be wearing shorts. I think I've got something like what Dana's wearing, only in your size. That way you look the same. And you'd be like, my backup singers." Which didn't make a lot of sense, because the song was "Milkshake" by Kelis, which didn't really have other singers. The video had other dancers, sure, but Stacey didn't seem like she cared much about being close to the video. She dove for her closet again, first looking through her shirts, although before she found something for Susan, she found a new shirt for herself, blue with an abstract beach design. She darted towards the door to give it one more shove, more to confirm it was closed than anything else, then stripped her top off and replaced it with the new. Then she looked to Susan again and said, "Right..." and went back to her closet. Soon, she found a white tank top and tossed it towards Susan. Susan caught it, automatically, then exchanged a look with Dana, who shrugged and said, "Come on, it'll be fun matching," but Susan was all-too-aware that they never would. Not just because Dana was taller and with boobs, but because any clothes that were similar enough would also expose the letters on her skin, the fuck toy brand across her chest, or part of Cock Sucker at least. "Here," Stacey said finally, holding up a pair of white shorts with trim that was only slightly darker than Dana's and legs way too short to keep her nature as a cocksucker a secret. "I knew I had shorts like this." A second later, after noticing Susan made no effort to get moving, she added, "Well? Go on, change..." It was one thing to show that off in an effort to finally cum, but quite another to do it just for one of Stacey's stupid videos. So she found her voice and said, "No." "No?" Stacey repeated, sounding like she'd just been personally insulted. "No. I like what I'm wearing. I'm not changing just to be in one of your... videos." Her voice was more acidic than she thought it was going to be, and she almost said "stupid," or something worse, before videos. Maybe being horny so long made you angrier too. "It's my video, it's my artistic vision. You wear what I want you to, or you don't get to be in it." "Fine!" This whole plan seemed to be a bust, Susan decided, maybe being kicked out of Stacey's house was the best thing that could happen. Except it didn't. They stared at each other for a few seconds, then Dana edged over to Stacey's side and whispered something in her ear. Stacey's eyes widened a little, and seemed to look down on Susan's body, but her anger faded and, as she suddenly turned away, Susan thought she saw a blush. "Okay, whatever, then you can sit it out and watch us. You're not that great a dancer anyway, and I can probably make it work with just me and Dana. In fact... I can do it even better!" The crisis seemed to have passed with whatever Dana said and Stacey's excitement in her new idea. Susan thought about leaving anyway, but instead she lay on the bed, watched them practice a bit, and helped them do one 'take' by holding the phone. Stacey's new concept seemed to be making the song a sort of competition between Dana and her, over whose milkshakes brought the boys to the yard, though Stacey wanted the camera on her mostly, because the video was her putting Dana's character 'in her place'. It was boring, but at least while she was watching she could squeeze her thighs together and at least stimulate her pussy which was starting to get slick and aggressively needy again, but when Stacey wanted to do another take, this time with her holding the phone to take selfie-shots, Susan just wanted to leave and find something to shove up there. "I'm hot," she announced. "Can I maybe get something to drink?" "Yeah, sure," Stacey said. "That's a good idea, actually. There's some cokes in the kitchen, bring one up for each of us." As she pushed herself off the bed, she added, "I may be awhile, I also gotta use the bathroom." Maybe someone left a hairbrush in there. Or has a vibrating toothbrush. Or if not, there was always the coke bottle, depending on the size. As she left the room following Stacey's dismissive wave and heard hushed giggles seconds later, she decided if she did that she'd use Stacey's bottle, not her own. She descended to the first floor and found her way to the kitchen, letting the song, that was already worming its way into her head, recede into the distance. The kitchen was not only bigger, but also cleaner and somehow more impersonal than the one in Susan's home. Wooden cabinets and surfaces that appeared to be stone made the room look like something out of a magazine, rather than somewhere someone lived... except for one unwashed glass on the counter by the sink, and a cutting board inside, and the plates where the ingredients for their promised lunch was just recently prepared and waiting for final cooking. That was a plate of chopped peppers, onions, and tomatoes, and a second plate of cut but uncooked slices of steak, a sealed bag of shredded cheese between them, atop another bag of soft tortillas. It looked appetizing but wasn't exactly what she was hungry for. Stacey's dad was nowhere in sight. Susan opened the fridge, pulled out three bottles of cola and tucked them under her arm, then wandered the first floor, not entirely sure what she was looking for, just looking, perhaps for a bathroom, perhaps something else. What she found first was not the bathroom, but rather a small room off to the side of the house, door closed but not completely. She would have passed it by entirely except she heard a particular clicking that she recognized as someone using a mouse. The urge to see what he was doing snuck up on her, but she found herself standing by the door. Too polite to barge in, despite her interest, she called out, "Mr. Mancuso?" Chapter Thirty-Two: A brief soft bang and sounds of things shuffling around took up a few seconds, and a few more clicks of the mouse, before she heard a tremulous "Yes?" from inside the room. Susan pushed open the door. Stacey's father sat in what looked like a home office, behind a desk with a laptop. He looked up at her with an expression that was almost... spooked? But also like he was trying to hide it, pretend everything was normal. "What can I do y... do for you?" The first thing that popped into her mind, at least the first thing that she thought she could say, was, "Stacey wanted me to get some drinks." She used her free hand to indicate the bottles under her arm. "But it's your house so I just wanted to make sure it was okay with you?" He smiled, weakly but genuinely. "That's very considerate of you, but be my guest." "Okay." After a second, she added, "Could you show me the nearest washroom?" He leaned forward as if to stand, but then relaxed back and said, "You'll see it if you go out and take a right." "Thanks." But for some reason she didn't get moving. Instead, she asked, "So what are you doing?" "I was just... watching a funny video a friend sent me." Susan stepped forward, put the bottle in her hand on the desk, then did the same with the others under her arm, and circled around to the back of the desk. "I like funny videos, can I see?" It was like she'd startled him, the way his body tensed up and drew back from her, and his hand jerkily moved the mouse as though to make a last minute change. "Uh, no, it's actually a little inappropriate... adult humor." Susan didn't stop approaching, and soon she was standing beside him and looking at the screen. By then, the web browser had been completely shut off. That seemed like overkill for dirty jokes but not for something else. "You were watching porn." She wondered if it was one of the ones she'd seen. "No!" he insisted, but as she looked down, she noticed a fold in his loose shorts was jutting out in an unnatural way, an erection that hadn't fully gone away. Beneath the shorts was a cock, and Susan that was just what she needed, and so she leaned over him between him and the desk and pulled his waistband down. Porn always seemed so unrealistic, but in one way it was just like one of the ones she watched... he didn't even struggle, just said, "Hey, wait, you can't..." But she could, for he didn't even move... all it would have taken was one of his strong arms pushing her firmly away, or standing up and backing off, but he was willing to let it happen. The only attempt to stop her came verbally, and he didn't even sound very convinced by the words that came out of his mouth, and by the time they were out, the throbbing cock was in her hand, and then she couldn't stop it if she tried. She was a cocksucker. Even if this was the first and only cock she'd sucked other than her brother's. Once she'd made first contact, he finally moved, too late to stop it. His hands hovered over her head, like he couldn't decide whether to try to push her away or guide her. But she didn't need guidance, the thick meat was easy to slide down her mouth again and again, especially when her slobber covered it. It was, she noticed, thicker than Keith's, but not as long. She didn't need to use one of her hands to stroke, but she did anyway, at least when she was sucking back on the head. "God, what are you doing, honey?" he asked, but it should have been obvious. Maybe he'd never had a blowjob before... he had to have had sex, but sex didn't have a tongue that was also working, sliding around the shaft, and so maybe that was what he was asking about. But she couldn't answer. "This is so wrong..." It didn't feel wrong, or at least not much. She felt a little ashamed that it wasn't Keith, a niggling belief that that somehow made it wrong, but the act itself, it was just in her nature, a need, more than anything else. She realized that she'd come looking for him for exactly this reason, it was why she was so interested to see what video he was watching, to be in a situation where she could just... satisfy that need. She just didn't realize it at the time... that was one thing she was still discovering about being horny, sometimes it made you do things without entirely being conscious of why. The need wasn't even fulfilled, although she was closer than ever, and maybe her addiction to cum would be satisfied soon, but she needed more than that. She turned his chair, without taking her lips off his cock, so she could kneel in front of it more comfortably. He didn't resist, just looked down at her head with a mixture of fear, shame, and excitement. While looking up at him into his eyes, she slid one free hand into the stretchy pants and started rubbing the hot wet center of her need, the hungry drooling beast that had been teased all day and was now roused fully aware by the chance to finally be satisfied. "Can I cum?" she asked. Or tried to ask, anyway, for she couldn't stop sucking his cock, and the words were muffled through the thick slab, and he must have heard another question through it. "No, don't stop, it's just... god, you're my daughter's age." His hand finally touched her then, a gentle stroke up the side of her face and hair, but after looking for a second, he looked away. Susan rubbed herself harder, and bounced herself up and down on her shins and heels as her head bobbed enthusiastically, hoping he'd get the point and give her permission, or outright tell her to cum for him. Just as she was about to try again to ask, open her mouth enough that her words might be made out even though she was still sucking, she felt his hands on her head again, but this time far less gentle, instead, he held her in place as he thrust his hips up towards her, forcing his cock in as far as it would go. No words could escape then, just a moan of need and a tumbling series of thumps. That last wasn't from her, she realized, or him, but rather from upstairs. "Oh god," he said, as an unpleasantly bitter taste spread across her tongue, and Dana and Stacey descended the staircase, laughing. "Shit shit shit," Mr. Mancuso said, barely even a whisper, as Susan sucked down more squirts from his spasming cock and swallowed hungrily, despite it not tasting anywhere near as good as Keith's, feeling at least some of the overwhelming tension leave her body as her addiction was fulfilled. She might still be super-horny, but the underlying nausea and panic she'd been holding down had faded. It wasn't her addiction that held her nursing on that cock, rubbing herself in the faint hope he'd say the magic words, even though Dana and Stacey could be heard talking in the kitchen, wondering out loud where Susan went, and quite possibly about to walk down the hall and through the still open door at any moment. It wasn't her horniness either, although she was horny enough that she wouldn't care if they caught her if only it would lead to her orgasm. She was still a cocksucker, with a cock in her mouth... what else could she do? Mr. Mancuso was far more concerned about getting caught, though, and when he was done squirting and it didn't look like Susan was going to let go, he pushed her away, first gently, but then, in rising panic as the voices of his daughter and her other friend grew closer, gave Susan a shove so hard that she fell backwards. While he stuffed his cock back into his shorts, Susan reluctantly removed her hand from her own pants and pulled herself up by the edge of the desk. Stacey's dad stared at her, wide-eyed, with a pleading or terrified look on his face, while Susan merely licked her lips just in case she'd missed any cum, seeming completely unbothered by being about to get caught together... which was an illusion, for her heart pounded and thighs trembled, but they were doing that before and she wasn't sure how much was fear and how much was need. The other two girls appeared a second after Susan stood up, while she was still wobbly, but they didn't seem to notice. "What are you two doing in here?" Stacey asked, but she didn't seem particularly suspicious. She should have been, if for nothing else than by the red flush on her father's face, not to mention his difficulty thinking up a good explanation. "Umm, your friend her was just, ummm, giving me a hand with something here..." "Yes," Susan agreed. Her hand was involved, even if it wasn't doing most of the work. Going with honesty worked for her. "I was helping him with something hard." "So, you girls ready for lunch?" His words rushed out like he was afraid she might get too honest if he didn't change the subject. "I just need to cook up the steak slices but that won't take long." "No, actually," Stacey said. "We were just wondering if you could make us milkshakes?" "Milkshakes?" Dana explained. "Yeah, since we're doing a song about milkshakes, it only makes sense we have one, right?" "Please, Daddy?" "Uh, sure, just give me a minute here and I'll make you milkshakes. Uhm, Sara, why don't you go with them?" It took a second before Susan realized he meant her. "It's Susan." "Oh, right, sorry." He shot her an apologetic look, with that hint of pleading that she'd seen so much of lately, so she circled around the desk, grabbed the cokes and passed them around, then followed her friends out to the kitchen, where they, in lowered voices that were not quite whispers, continued a conversation they were having while she was sucking cock. "Anyway, I'm telling you, he's totally got a crush on you. You should flirt with him a little, see what happens," Dana suggested. "Uh, excuse me?" Stacey said, her voice raising for the question but then falling again. "I'm taken, remember?" "So? It's just flirting. Besides, it's good to make your boyfriend a little jealous. If he doesn't get a little angry, how do you know he cares? And who knows, maybe this guy..." "What guy?" Susan finally asked, her curiosity getting the better of her. "Just this guy who comments on ALL of Stacey's music videos. He really likes her." "He's just a fan," Stacey said dismissively, but the look on her face revealed how flattered she was at the idea that someone liked her enough to comment on all of her videos. "My biggest fan." "More like biggest groupie." "He's NOT a groupie." "Well, he probably wants to be." "He's probably like, some old creep or something," Susan pointed out, knowing it was hypocritical considering she'd just sucked off a guy old enough to be her father. "No, we saw his picture," Dana said. She popped the top off her cola and took a swig. "He's our age. And he's cute." She rolled her eyes. Even without the life experience the last few weeks had given her, she knew that a picture didn't really mean anything. If she was going to suck Stacey's dad off, the least she could do is warn her in case he was a murderer or something... she didn't really care if he was just a pervert, Stacey might benefit from being thoroughly felt, like Susan had been, but how would you know? "You do what you want to do, but... you know, you can't really be sure, I mean, it's easy enough to fake." "What's easy enough to fake?" her dad asked, walking into the room. He seemed calmer, though his eyes followed Susan warily like afraid she might have told them something. "Nothing." She sounded bored, but both Susan and Dana could tell that this was one of those things Stacey didn't want her dad knowing. "Just an idea for the video. But it's not going to happen anyway." This was directed more at Dana than anyone else, firmly shutting down the idea of flirting with her biggest fan. Her father didn't seem interested in pursuing it, turning to the freezer. "So you want milkshakes, is it?" "Yeah. We should still have chocolate left, right?" "Unless you ate some since last night. But are you sure you wouldn't rather have lunch first?" "Actually, I am kinda hungry..." Dana said, looking over the fajita mix. Stacey let out a little sigh but said, "Fine, I guess I am too. We'll eat first and have milkshakes after." Chapter Thirty-Three: Stacey's dad retrieved the chocolate ice cream and put it on the counter so it would soften, then returned to his pre-assembled ingredients. "I'll just quickly cook up this meat, and then you can build your own fajitas with whatever you like on it." "Sounds great," Dana said. All three of them took seats around the kitchen, not talking much because the presence of a parent always made it difficult. You never knew when you might say something to get someone in trouble. But Dana didn't like silences, so she spoke up eventually. "So I hear you're not working anymore, Mr. Mancuso." "For the moment." Stacey piped up to defend him. "It's not like he lost his job or anything." "I know." "His company got bought out. For a lot of money." "I know, Stacey, geez, I wouldn't have brought it up if I thought he got fired. I was just wondering if he's like, going to retire or..." "Oh, no," he said. "I just don't have it in me to retire, I'm still young, you know." The girls exchanged a dubious look at that. He was a parent, by definition old. "I figure I'll take a little time off as a vacation, then maybe try to find something I really enjoy. I still get a percentage off the patents from my company, so I don't need to make as much to stay where I am." "Yeah, Stacey said you invented something that's getting used all over. What was it?" "There are a few things, actually, all industrial uses. The most popular is a type of liquid extruder head." "What's a liqu..." Susan cut her off. "It squirts out goo." Susan and Stacey's dad locked eyes then, for a moment, and she blushed, while he turned suddenly away to stare at the frying pan. "Uh... more or less. But in a patentable way that nobody else can use unless they pay me. See girls, it always pays off to find head work, not muscle work." Mr. Mancuso seemed comfortable again now that he was doing a dad thing, cooking and offering advice. "Or fame work," Stacey said with a snotty self-assurance. "Like me." He looked pained, like he didn't want to step on his daughter's hopes and dreams but secretly thought it was idiotic. "That's a good thing to aspire to," he told his daughter, "And I know you have the talent to be famous, but a lot of luck is involved in fame, and you can't count on luck. You've gotta think beyond that." "Susan's not going to have any trouble getting head work," Dana said, and Mr. Mancuso's head snapped up again. "She's always writing, it's like her brain never stops moving." She felt a rush of pride at her friend's faith in her, and then shame from the realization that she hadn't written very much since her brother turned her into a fuck toy, except a story about that. Her brain lately has only been moving in circles around sexual topics. "Me, I just want to do something with animals." Sex with animals counts as something, Susan's horny brain said. "Speaking of animals, how long till that's ready?" "Not long now. Working with animals is a noble pursuit. Rarely pays well though." Someone would probably pay to see, Susan thought. Dana shrugged. "So I'll make sure to marry rich. Know anyone who might be interested?" She gave her open mouthed grin until he looked towards her, laughed and added, "Kidding. I don't know, I'm sure things will work out somehow. It's a long time before we have to worry about things like that." She took a swig of her drink. "Not as long as you think. You girls grow up so fast, never too early to start thinking ahead." "Right now I can't think past lunch. I'm so f... dang hungry." "Well, it's just about ready if you want to start assembling things." Stacey got up and got the food, then the plates, and took the first tortilla and started to lay on cheese and other toppings. Once she was done with them, the other girls could start theirs, and soon Mr. Mancuso put the meat into a large bowl with a large silicon spoon for easier distribution. Again Stacey took the first scoop to fill her fajita, before passing it over to Dana who was practically bouncing. "Man, that looks so good. I can't wait to get your meat in my mouth, Mr. Mancuso." Susan was the only one looking at him as he nervously put a hand over his face, starting at his nose, and squeezed down towards his chin and remembered her brother's joke at dinner the other day. Was Dana trying the same kind of smutty joke? It didn't seem like it... if she was, she was more subtle than she'd ever been before. But it was sort of fun the way it flustered Stacey's dad anyway. Noticing the large amount of sour cream Dana had put on when she looked down, she got inspired and added, "You're going to get a gooey mess squirting out if you don't wrap it right." She fought back a smirk as she glanced up to see him staring at her again with that near-panic expression. Dana laughed, but not like she got the joke, but instead like she just thought of her own. "That's okay, we've got a liquid extrusion head expert here. I'm sure he could help." The expert didn't seem interested in helping... they must have pushed him too far, since he seemed like he wanted to make a quick exit. "Okay, so, you girls enjoy the meal, I need a few minutes in my study." "But what about our milkshakes, Daddy?" his daughter whined. Halfway out of the room he said, "I'll just be a few minutes, then I'll come back and make them for you." Stacey sighed a little then said to her friends, "He'll probably forget," but then that thought itself was forgotten and she dug into her meal, as did Dana and Susan. It was a good meal, though Susan couldn't help but think about her brother... not because it left a gooey mess in her mouth (she didn't overstuff it), but because it was something that he could easily make now that he was a good cook. Maybe it was even a little too simple. And she felt a little guilty, like she should be eating his cooking instead of someone else's, and then angry for feeling guilty because he wasn't there to cook lunch for her at all, he was out with Trish. Doing things that he should have been doing with her... so why shouldn't she do the same, without feeling guilty? Yet she felt guilty anyway. She ate her fajita slowly, enough time for Dana to go back to make a second one, and spaced out of the conversation the two of them were having, which was something to do with people on a TV show and occasionally dipped back into plans for their video. Stacey's father did return a few minutes later, his shirt flecked with dark spots that looked like he'd just washed his face and was a little sloppy about it, but otherwise seemed normal except for alternating between avoiding looking at Susan at all, even when his gaze might naturally go that way, or taking sudden direct looks at her. The latter type happened mostly when he had an excuse to not be looking at any of them at all, when he was making milkshakes, pouring ice cream and then milk in a blender. Dana attempted to say something through the bite of her second fajita she was chewing. "He can't understand you with your mouth full," Susan said, even though she thought what Dana said was relatively clear. And that was the first time he threw Susan a lingering look for no good reason... or at least, what nobody else would understand was a good reason. Susan assumed he was thinking the same thing she was... that she knew from experience how hard it was for him to understand a girl with a mouth full. The taller girl swallowed, then repeated herself. "Don't use too much milk," she suggested. "I like it nice and thick and creamy." "Don't worry. My Dad knows how to make it creamy." He flinched both at Dana's comment and Stacey's response... Susan was beginning to feel a little sorry for him, but it was funny. While the milkshake was in progress, Dana made another try for what seemed to be one of the reasons she wanted to come. "Maybe if we're going outside to film anyway, we could all play on the trampoline a little. It might even make a good scene for the video. I mean, not while we're actually holding milkshakes, obviously." "No, today's not the right day for it," Stacey decided firmly. "Too humid." "Sometime soon then. Maybe this weekend, it's supposed to be nice. I could bring my bathing suit." Dana wiggled her upper body as though being in a bathing suit was somehow like dancing, and then finished, "and we can do that sprinkler thing you mentioned." "Can't this weekend," Stacey said, though she didn't sound disappointed at all. "We're going out of town to visit my grandmother." Her father's neck jerked up, as he said casually. "Not me though. I'm staying here. I'm going to be all alone all weekend." His voice sounded forlorn, but it was combined with a sudden intense look right at Susan, intense gaze that she felt like was an invitation. The other girls weren't paying attention, and she broke eye contact so whatever moment would pass more quickly. He went on and, as though nothing had happened, passed Stacey her milkshake, then went to get started on the second. "If anyone dropped by looking for Stacey they're going to be disappointed, since it'd just be lonely old me." Another look at Susan, though this time quicker, and she didn't let him lock eyes. This weekend, her brother would be home. Or at least, he had better be. "You're not fooling anyone, Dad," Stacey said, taking a small sip from her milkshake, but just a small one... she obviously wanted to save it for the video and yet couldn't resist trying some. "You're probably going to have the time of your life and have a poker game or something. If you really missed us that much, you could come along. You just hate Grandma." "I don't hate your grandma," he said over the whirr of the blender. "We're just both very strong personalities so it's better if we just stay away from each other." Stacey shrugged, and took another drink, but this time from her nearly empty Coke. "Maybe I could drop by and try the trampoline out this weekend, then, since no one will be using it." Dana said, but after a glare from Stacey, she added, "Relax, I'm just messing with you, like, why would I come here alone? Not like it's any fun bouncing by yourself. Besides, my parents might be taking us to like a water park or something, maybe." The second milkshake, once completed, he passed over to Dana, and Susan could see that she was obviously next, so when he reached for the ice cream again, she said, "None for me, thanks." To tell the truth, she was a little offended... she sucked his cock, and sure, maybe he'd take care of his daughter first but at least she should have gotten offered one before Dana. But that wasn't the real issue. "You sure? It doesn't have to be chocolate, if you don't want." "No, it's okay. I think I'm actually going to go home." "Really?" Stacey asked, rolling her eyes. "You practically beg to come here and you want to go home already?" "I'm not feeling well." If you counted horniness as an illness, it wasn't even a lie. Though the rest of it was. "Maybe it was something I ate." Her eyes darted to Stacey's dad. "Before the fajita, I mean." Dana nudged Stacey and leaned in to whispers something to her, all while wearing a smug look on her face like she had just proved some point, and that filled Susan with a cold anger and the thought, maybe I'll suck your dad off next bubbled up through her head, though only for a second. "Yeah, well, if you're not feeling well I guess there's no point sticking around then," Stacey said, seeming less annoyed, and that made Susan wonder if maybe Dana was defending her somehow. "Especially since you don't want to be in my next video." "Yeah, I know I'm sorry to be missing out on watching you guys, though." She tried not to put much emotion in it one way or the other so Stacey wouldn't be sure if she was being sarcastic or sincere. Sometimes that was better than letting them know. "Hope you feel better," Dana said, though she genuinely did sound sincere, then lowered her voice a little. "You'll probably be back to your old self in a couple days." "Maybe." But probably not. Most of the words wouldn't even be worn off by then. "I, uh, I'll give you a ride... a drive, home," Stacey's dad said, moving to washing his hands of some stray ice cream. "You don't need to do that, Dad." Stacey said. "She doesn't live that far." "No, no, I insist. There are a lot of freaks out there." She wasn't going to say no to a ride, especially since it might help solve another problem. Alone, they'd have a chance to talk, and maybe she could ask him for permission to cum while thinking about the blowjob. Or maybe something else might happen. They all moved towards the door together, Stacey and Dana because they wanted to go out and film some scenes of the video out in the yard that her milkshake supposedly brought all the boys to, and Susan to collect her shoes to follow Mr. Mancuso into the garage. He hung back from the rest of them, nervous, and once again had moved back to not looking at Susan at all, just opened the cherry-red Jeep SUV with his keyring and pointed to the passenger side as he got into the driver's. They continued not to talk until he opened the door and pulled out back, passing Stacey and Dana in the yard. Dana threw her a wave, so Susan waved back. Finally, on the road, he began to speak. First to say, "Where do you live?" After she told him, and he turned the car in that direction, he said, "Listen, about what happened... in my study." Susan shifted in her seat to face him. "Yes?" "I'm not that kind of person, I don't know what..." He squinted, and then said, accusingly, "It was all on you, I never asked you, you just... did that." "Sucked your cock?" "I never asked you," he repeated. "I know, I was there." And remembered his hands on her head at the end... he might not have forced her into it, but he was still happy to take control when he got horny enough and just needed to get off. "I should have stopped you, I was just so... so shocked. But no one would ever believe that... even if they did, it's still unforgiveable." He sounded like he was trying to convince himself, or testing out a story that he might try on others. Finally, he looked aside at her again and interacted with her directly. "Listen, this could destroy my life, destroy my whole family, if you breathe a word of this..." "I'm not going to tell anyone, I promise." She put her hand over her heart and one in the air, to be extra convincing. He let out a long, deep breath. He really had been scared of that. "I didn't mean to freak you out. It just seemed like you might have a nice cock, and I just couldn't resist sucking on it. And I enjoyed it. I thought you'd enjoy it too." "I'm not supposed to... Christ, you're my daughter's age. She doesn't carry on like this, does she? With that boy she likes?" "No, I don't think so. They don't even kiss." Well, maybe pecks on the lips, but real kisses used tongue, Susan now believed. "But she's a good Christian girl. I mean, I'm not saying you're not, but... some girls are more advanced, you know?" She nodded. Boy did she ever know. "And the way you girls talked..." He shook his head. "Did the two of you come up with this before coming here? Without telling Stacey? Or maybe she knew and didn't care?" "Huh?" Two of who? "Girls your age.... my daughter's age... shouldn't act like that." He rubbed his hand down the length of his head, hard enough to pulling at the skin of his face into a weird pucker for a second. "Were both of you girls, like, teasing me or something?" "What? Both of us?" "You and your friend. It was like every other thing you guys said sounded sexual. You had to have been doing it on purpose." "I don't know, some of it from me I guess. But I don't think Dana knew most of what she was saying was dirty. If she did, she would have winked and laughed a lot more. And done this." She opened her mouth in a wide smile, head turned to the side, a parody of Dana's usual expression after cracking some bad pun or dirty joke, sometimes both at once. He rubbed his face again. "Maybe I'm going crazy. I seriously wondered if, like, both of you were in some kind of competition to seduce me or something." "No, no competition. I really don't think Dana would even think about that sort of thing with someone her father's age." She was, for all her boasting, too innocent for that. Not Susan. "I'll let you fuck my ass if you let me cum though." Chapter Thirty-Four: The car screeched to a stop. It was at a red light, but Stacey's dad must have slammed on the brakes instead of slowing to a natural stop. "What?" Geez, did he need everything spelled out? "I'm still super horny and I really need to cum, and if you say it's okay, I'll let you shove your cock up my ass and we can both cum at the same time." He stared at Susan, but even so, she didn't even feel like she was blushing, despite the incredibly dirty thing she said. It was like, now that cock became a need, like food, it wasn't embarrassing to talk about it anymore, at least with someone who might take care of it. But she had to remember that kind of brazenness would only last as long as her horniness, and it didn't feel normal to everyone else. To Mr. Mancuso, it flummoxed him until they heard honking coming from behind them... the light had turned green and he still hadn't moved. She went on quickly, "I mean, not while we're on the road. I don't want to die and you're already pretty distracted." He started driving, slowly, cautiously, as though afraid he might make another mistake, and was quiet for at least thirty seconds before saying, "Really?" That question sounded as positive as an outright yes. She looked down at his crotch, saw it bulging again, alluringly, and her instinct was to look at it, suck it again... but she knew where that would lead, more frustration, so she directed her gaze out the window. "Sure. I love anal stuff, and I won't tell anyone about this, either. If you know a good place to do it." More silence, but Susan knew he was just trying to think of a good place to go, because he turned in the opposite direction they needed to go to get home. She dropped her hands to her crotch, spread her legs, and started to rub herself through the black stretchy fabric, imagining the coming release she'd been craving. And imagining a few other things, too, things that could go wrong. She had to do this carefully. Why was it, she wondered, that guys seemed to have so much trouble thinking of the dangers when they got horny? Her brother kept taking stupid risks, and now Mr. Mancuso, he could barely keep his eyes on the road, he kept watching space where legs met and her hand met both and a growing, hard-to-see wet-spot. Meanwhile, she was actually super horny and rubbing herself and still thought ahead, specifically to how she was going to let him fuck her ass without seeing any of the writing. Was this ability to keep her wits while horny a boy vs. girl thing? Or was she just smarter? She hoped it was the second one, but didn't really believe that anymore. And if they got in an car accident because he was watching her, she supposed she was at least as responsible as him. There were no accidents, but he drove for a few minutes and then into an alley, where he stopped. The front windshield opened up onto a blank wall, and so did the sides, and the black was tinted, so it didn't seem like anyone could see them. He came up with it pretty quick and it was close to home, maybe he'd used it before when he needed time to think, sneak a smoke away from his family or cheat on his wife or something and knew from experience it was safe and private... or maybe he just chose it on the spur of the moment and anyone might walk by, but whatever the case, obviously, this was the place he wanted to fuck. Susan, she wanted to fuck any place, and any time as long as that time was as soon as possible. So she undid her seatbelt, then climbed over the divider to sit in his lap ignoring his 'oof' of surprise. Pleasant surprise, judging by the feel of his hard erection firm against her stretchy pants. Of course it was already there when she started the move, and she desperately wanted it inside of her, but her boldness was for a more practical reason than that... she didn't want to risk him taking it out where she could see it and reminding her she was a cocksucker. If she did all this and he wound up blowing in her mouth without letting her cum she was going to scream. She might scream anyway, but this would be the wrong kind of scream. She clutched the steering wheel to hold herself steady and rubbed herself on him, just to keep him as hard as possible, then pushed back, with her body and back against his front, and started pulling at her pants. A sudden jolt startled her as they both fell backwards, from him adjusting the seat back to give them more room, and then his hands joined hers on her ass, though his were keeping her away so he could pull at his dick. "Jesus, hold on a second," he said. But she couldn't wait. Her waistband was now down below her butt-cheeks, bare ass against him, although there was no room, she hoped, to see any of the writing. Another few seconds and she felt something warm and wet graze her ass cheek, and she knew his cock was out and ready, so she reached down to guide it, sliding it in her crack, rubbing the head against her hot aching pussy and almost deciding to just have him fuck her there, but finally pulling it back and pointing it at her asshole. "Just a second," he said again, breathlessly. "I don't want to hurt you, I need to..." She later thought he might have been worried about going in too dry, but that wasn't a problem... she had a self-lubricating asshole, had pre-stimulated with an outstretched middle finger while they were looking for a space, and one firm push was all that was required before he was inside her. "Yes!" she cried, and sank deeper. "Jesus," was all he said, and let her sink, his hands circling her waist, and she started the motion, bouncing, the ride she wanted all along when she accepted the offer to drive her home... but it wasn't what she really needed. One hand returned to her crotch, slipping in underneath the fabric so she could rub herself more directly and she began to whimper, "Can I cum? Please? Can I?" Frustratingly, he didn't answer, at least he didn't answer the question. "Oh god you're such a little slut, Sta..." he said, stopping mid-word as though scared, but the fucking continued. She knew what he almost said. People often mistook Susan for Stacey, from the back at least, and right now, the only way he could see her face was in the mirror... and a quick look up at it saw him not staring back at her reflected face, but directly at the back and top of her head. He didn't look entirely happy either, but rather like there was a deep struggle within him. Was he imagining fucking his own daughter in the ass, she wondered? Maybe all fathers secretly wanted it and just kept it bottled down. The thought thrilled her somewhere deep inside her, but it was a secondary concern to another question... could this help her cum? He still hadn't given her the permission she needed, after all. "Can I cum?" she asked squeezing down on him. "Please let me cum..." After a second of no response, she added, "Daddy?" hoping it would convince him. "I need to cum, Daddy." She could feel his body freezing on her when she said it, every part but his cock, which twitched, grew, and again the second time she called him that, and he loosened again, surrendering to it. "I know, baby," he whispered, and his hand groped around her front, beneath the black waistband and forcing her hand out of the way, thick fingers sliding through her crack. "I'll help you. God, you're so wet." She didn't need help, she needed him to say it. She was so fucking horny she couldn't think straight, and a part of her imagined it really was her own father fucking her ass, rubbing her pussy trying to get her to cum. It wasn't a perfect match... he was bigger, and his voice gruffer, he had stubbier fingers... she felt like her father's fingers would go further inside of her. And he just didn't quite smell right, like Dad, her Dad. All of that spoiled the fantasy, a little, and her face reddened as she realized that it actually was a full-fledged fantasy now. It wasn't something that popped into her head once while really into it, it was something she was deliberately using to make herself hornier... and it was working, especially the thought that it wasn't because of the marker or anything Keith wrote, it was just that she was just so irresistibly sexy that a father couldn't control himself anymore and he decided to break all the rules and do all the things he secretly wanted to with his own daughter... that thought turned on a little horny light in her brain she didn't know was still unlit. Even if it wasn't really her Daddy fucking her, even if she couldn't actually cum from it until he said the magic words. "Say it," she said, almost a demand more than a pleading, and she was sure she sounded almost like Stacey when she got bossy, which it seemed like she might do even with her own father. "Say I can cum, Daddy." "Okay, baby," he said. "Cum for daddy." She could feel it then, like a dam breaking in her mind, or a video of a building collapsing, in slow motion, a prolonged moment where you absolutely knew it was unstoppable, and yet it still hadn't descended into chaos and you could observe it as though from outside yourself. The cock inside of her, the hand in her most private space, protective, possessive, all started to blend together with her racing heart racing she felt everything shake as she called out, "Oh, daddy..." And in her head at that moment it was her Daddy. She was sure of that, even if she wasn't sure whether she was Stacey or the if cock in her ass belonged to Susan's dad, she was a girl fucking her father... for a few seconds anyway, and then she remembered that she was Susan and it was Stacey's dad who was fucking her ass, and she was no longer as into it. It still felt good... the feeling of something in her butt always felt good, but it was no longer a need, and that felt incredible, but the kind of incredible where you finally get a break from something that had been bothering you forever and can just enjoy peace. The hand of her classmate's father in her crotch, that just felt awkward more than hot, but like a good fuck toy she didn't let him know. She was letting him do all of the work now, almost, he was still bouncing her, and she was still reflexively clenching her ass around him, and she was sure her fuck toy instincts would kick in again and make her more active, but for the moment Susan was more focused on gaining her breath back and deciding what to do about the cum after. Letting Mr. Mancuso think she was a slut might yet another thing she couldn't wash away, but she wasn't sure she wanted him to see her eating sticky white goo out of her own ass like it was some kind of dessert icing. Her addiction was just satisfied recently, so maybe she could keep it inside until she got home. Seconds after that decision, his hands clenched against her and the bouncing became more of a jiggle and then another orgasm overtook her, overtook them both as this was his orgasm, him cumming inside of her and her getting a fuck toy orgasm along with it, apparently granted under his previous permission. She leaned forward to steady herself from the sudden assault, hit the horn on the steering wheel on accident, making a loud sound that felt like her own throat made it and possibly drawing someone to investigate, but she didn't care, and he didn't care either, at least not until several spasms of his cock unloaded. When he was done, Susan noticed how hot it was. Even with the air conditioning on, they were both sweating, and her next to his body was something she didn't want anymore. So she lifted her ass to let him slip out, then pulled her pants back over her ass, and awkwardly slid over towards her side of the car, butt clenched and eyes closed so she didn't get a glimpse of his cock and start sucking him and giving him the idea she wanted to do it again. "Jesus Christ," he said once they were in separate seats again. His hand was on his heard and his face glossy and it looked like he might be having a heart attack. She hoped not. Stacey might annoy her but she didn't want to fuck her dad to death. "I can't believe I... we... just did that." He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. "Thank you, I really needed that," she said, mostly to be polite. She was grateful to get a break from her horniness, but didn't really feel like she owed him... she figured he got paid back by the act itself. "You can take me home now." He needed another half-minute at least to get himself sorted, and then pulled out the vehicle and they rejoined traffic in awkward silence. At least the air conditioner was starting to make it feel comfortable again. On the way, he said, "Listen, about... I mean... I don't want you to think... maybe I let you call me 'Daddy' but.... I never would do really anything with my daughter. All that was just... like make believe." "I know. It's not like I want to have sex with my father for real either," she said, although she knew that was something she couldn't say to Keith anymore, because it wasn't entirely true. At the very least, she was divided on it. "I wondered if maybe you did already..." She glared at him, got ready to remind him that he was the one who almost called her by his daughter's name first. "Okay, you're right, it was just pretend. Pretending's okay, pretending's fun... just so long as we never ever tell anyone about it, right? I mean, Stacey would never forgive you." "Believe me, I'd never tell her." Though she thought about it, thinking about the other girl, right now probably playing in her yard making a stupid music video, maybe badmouthing Susan to a friend behind her back, it felt good to know that, if she wanted to, she could destroy her world, smugly reveal that her milkshake brought Stacey's dad to her yard, that she played the daughter he wanted her to be. "I'd never tell anyone." Or she hoped she didn't have to, anyway. Now that the haze of horniness had cleared from her head, she wondered how she'd ever thought she could get away with this without her brother finding out. She couldn't even lie to him. At best, she might be able to avoid the whole truth. "Good, because if you did... I don't even know what I'd do. But I'd have nothing to lose, you understand?" He looked at her until she nodded, although she wasn't sure she did understand. Was it a threat? Or a plea? They rode in silence and began to get very close to Susan's house. The driveway was empty, so at least Keith hadn't caught her in the act, so she pointed it out and he parked. "Thanks for the ride," she said, and moved to undo her seatbelt. His large hand closed around her wrist and pulled back, not forcefully, but just to get her attention. "Listen, I mentioned I'm going to be home alone all weekend. I was thinking, maybe if you, you know, dropped by, like you came to visit Stacey, we could..." He didn't finish, but then he didn't have to, she knew exactly what he was suggesting. "Thanks. But I don't think I can. Only reason I came out today was my brother was gone." I'm his fuck toy, not yours, she wanted to add. You were just convenient. Instead she said, "I'm supposed to be grounded." He seemed disappointed, let go of her and brushed her arm with his palm apologetically, and she reconsidered... what if he left her again, to go play with his new toy Trish? Maybe she'd just have to live with it, her parents might not let her out, but... it'd be good to have a second option, wouldn't it? Other than suffering, or maybe, maybe asking her real Daddy to help her cum? "But I don't know, maybe things will change and I'll be able to get away." He nodded eagerly. "Well, look, I'll tell you what... if you can drop by... I'll leave the side door unlocked. You won't have to ring the doorbell. That way, if anyone asks, you can pretend you forgot Stacey was gone, and I can pretend I didn't know you were in the house. And when we're alone, maybe, both of us can pretend..." He must want her to play Stacey again, she realized. Wow, he must really want to fuck her bad. No wonder he spoils her. She opened the door to step out, feeling some slime between her buttocks as she transitioned from sitting to standing outside. "Maybe." She hoped not, though but now that she had these marks on her, and a jerk for a brother, sometimes she had do choose between things she didn't want instead of things she did. And maybe it was best to keep her options open. Chapter Thirty-Five: Susan went inside without looking back. She needed to clean herself... a full shower might be nice. Within the safety of her home, after discovering that nobody seemed to be home, knot loosened inside her stomach... not just the respite from horniness, but also the anxiousness she'd been feeling since, that she'd get caught. But it looked like she'd gotten away with it, and it served Keith right. That feeling lasted until the end of her shower when, after she changed her clothes, she came downstairs and found her brother in the kitchen, chugging from a bottle of Pepsi. She hadn't heard him come in, and was relieved that she chose to take a shower right away, otherwise he might have caught her smelling like sweat and sex. Now there was no reason to suspect anything, as long as she acted normal... which meant acting like she had spent all day suffering from super horniness. It was weird that now that she was thinking clearly, Susan wasn't sure how that she'd respond to her brother's sudden appearance after being stuck at home masturbating non-stop. She went with anger. "Finally!" He gave a little smirk, put the bottle down on the counter. "What? Did someone have a rough day? Did you miss me?" She had to think about that for a second to find an answer she'd be able to say. "I wish you hadn't gone." "Too bad, I had some things to do. Got some nice video, too. Want to see?" He held his phone out towards her. "I'm curious, but not really," she said, because apparently "no" felt like too close to a lie. "I want you to make me cum." At least that was true, even if she mostly wanted it so that he wouldn't suspect anything. But she always almost wanted the pleasure, the connection and closeness to her brother, at least a little. "Want, or need?" Uh-oh. Technically, it was 'want' right now, unless 'need' was meant very generally... except, even then, she didn't need him to make her cum, not anymore... today proved she had other options. But if he learned she didn't need it, he might start asking why. "I just took a shower," she said. "That usually helps a little." She didn't lie, just didn't answer the question he asked. "Hmmm. Maybe I'll get you all worked up and only let you cum while watching the video. Before long you'll be begging me to let you fuck a dog too." Too? "You made Trish fuck a dog?" "I didn't MAKE her, she wanted to. She's a kinky girl." "Yeah, but... you made her want to." He gave a smirking half-grin. He knew she was right, but wouldn't even outright admit it. "Maybe I just opened up what was inside her all along. Besides, at least I'm nicer than you... you're the one who wanted her able to have puppies. If I listened to you, with all the dog cum she had inside of her, she'd be carrying a whole litter. See, look." He approached her with the phone and flicked through his pictures. Trish in various spots of undress... a sudden, incongruous photo of Mom up against a tiled wall, mouth wide, eyes closed, and, most unexpected at all, nipples exposed from a blouse and bra pulled down over her chest... but that was swiped away and forgotten as there was Trish petting a dog about half her size, then a video clip which he didn't bother to open, and finally a shot of Trish's splayed open pussy with a clear liquid dripping out. "You know what that is, don't you? She'd be in deep shit if I did what YOU wanted... unless you sucked it out of her maybe. Too bad you weren't there, really, but... you had to learn a lesson." Her face wrinkled up in disgust, then looked away from the phone screen and back up at him. "Is the lesson over?" Keith's head tilted and he stared at her a moment, without saying anything, which was unsettling. But then he said, "I don't know. Maybe I'll throw you a fuck, but as for whether you can cum... you might need to beg for it." "I'll beg," she promised. "You can tie me up, or do me wherever you want, just please say I can cum at the end of it." The plea in her voice wasn't even faking, she really didn't want to be left hanging for another few hours. "No requests?" "Whatever you want is fine." He smiled, though something in his eyes didn't match with it. "That's what I like to hear." He made a gesture, like 'lead the way', which wasn't taking control like he usually did but probably meant he just didn't want to do it in the kitchen, maybe he wanted the living room couch or would direct her upstairs, or somewhere more unusual. She looked back at him as they passed the couch to see what he was thinking, though he was watching her carefully. "Surprised you're not running upstairs," he said, and Susan's heart thudded, but then dropped as he continued. "Frankly, surprised you're not begging to blow me. I mean, by now you must be jonesing pretty hard on your cum addiction, right?" She couldn't answer that like she wanted to, because she wasn't. She couldn't lie to Keith. She was still addicted to cum, of course, she'd drink it down if she got some, but she'd just sucked her fingers in the shower after cleaning some out of her ass. No, the need wasn't that strong, she wasn't jonesing by any means. That was the flaw, she acted horny and annoyed that he left her horny, but she'd forgotten to act cum-starved, and he'd noticed. She prayed he'd let it pass, but the silence dragged on and she had to come up with something. "I'll blow you right now if you want," she said, trying to sound excited about the offer rather than the dread she really felt at his suspicion. It didn't seem to come out as eager as she intended. "Are you jonesing for cum?" he asked, and when she didn't answer, she saw his face fall, confusion, maybe fear, and she knew what was once a suspicion was now a certainty. Susan hung her head and felt her face flush, her racing mind ready to offer to fuck a dog for him if only it would distract him. "When was the last time you had cum?" he asked. Even knowing it wouldn't work, she decided to remain quiet since at least that wasn't a lie. "Susan, answer me." "A few minutes ago," she said. "While I was in the shower." Now she prayed that her brother would believe she'd somehow tasted her own cum, that she'd somehow gotten around the restriction... if only she could lie, she could already imagine an excuse where she tricked somebody into saying she could cum over the phone, which would throw him off the truth. But if she could lie, she wouldn't be in this mess in the first place. Maybe she could find a way to word it so she was simply stating it like a hypothetical, rather than saying she actually did it. Before she could, he asked. "And who's cum was it?" Her mouth tried to fight its way into motion to violate the commandment written on her, but after a few seconds she blurted out, "Stacey's dad's." She was looking back up, watching him and saw his face relax when he said 'Stacey' only to tense again when she finished the truth. She had tried to stop before 'dad' but it just wouldn't work. "He came here?" His voice was cold, calm on the surface but she could see the rage bubbling beneath him and that made it scary. But he'd asked her a question and she couldn't lie. "I went to their house. You weren't here, so..." "So you had sex with him?" There was no sense hiding it anymore, so she didn't even try. "I let him fuck my ass on the way home. And I sucked his cock there." He whipped the plastic bottle he was holding so quickly that she flinched and put her hand up to defend herself, before she realized that it wasn't thrown at her, but rather to the side. It landed against the wall with a crumply thud and rolled noisily until it hit part of a rug. "What the fuck, Susan!? What, you couldn't wait a few fucking hours?" She wanted to shout 'No,' but the words stuck in her throat, unable to be said. It wasn't the truth, not really. The truth was, she felt she could have. If she had to. She just didn't want to stay home suffering anymore. "Probably, but I was horny. You shouldn't have left me alone." "I thought it'd be funny!" said like that was an excuse. "I was just teasing you! I didn't expect you to go all slut on me!" Susan could feel the expression of incredulous confusion on her face. She pulled down her shirt and pointed to the words 'Fuck toy.' "Yeah, but you were supposed to be MY fuck toy!" "Maybe you should have written that then. Then you could be as selfish as you want and you'd never have to worry about what I want." And a part of her wanted that, then she wouldn't have to be tempted, have to think. "Not like you do most of the time anyway." "Oh don't start with that bullshit. You know you like what I do to you... sure I push you sometimes but I only do things I know you're gonna like. Your body doesn't lie. Shit, half the time I fuck you it's because you need it, not me! I guess you've just proved that if I'm not around you'll fuck anybody you can. You said it yourself, you could wait, you just didn't want to. Your were probably out the door first chance you got, didn't even care that I might not want you giving your ass to someone else!" Her brother's wounded, bitter angry rant was starting to turn things around in Susan... making her go from ashamed, guilty, sad, broken inside... to angry. Some of what he said was true, maybe, but there was a load of hypocrisy in there too. "Me? You've got a lot of nerve considering you were out spending time with Trish all day! How do you think that made me feel?" "What? I asked you!" His hands curled up into claws in front of his face like he wanted to tear his hair out but only resisted at the last moment. "I asked you and you said you didn't care about that!" Had she? Maybe... if so, it was when reverse psychology was still a strategy that worked sometimes. "I could lie to you then. You didn't ask me after that. I don't think you wanted to. You know what, Keith? You're a jerk. A selfish jerk. I shouldn't have turned you into one, but I'm starting to think maybe you were before that. You just decided to hide it, then. 'Cause even jerks can have hearts, and sometimes it feels like you don't." That was technically true, but she said it deliberately to wound him, and she didn't want to do that, so she took a breath and said more calmly. "What happened today was your fault too. Seriously, what did you expect me to do? You made me horny, you turned me into a fuck toy, you used me when you wanted, then you left me horny and suffering when you didn't. Of course I was going to find someone else. And you know what? I might fuck him again. Or someone else. Sooner or later I probably will, unless you force me not to. So go ahead. You might as well. You've already ruined me, or who I was." "Ruined you? You can't possibly think..." "Of course I do. I can't lie, remember? I don't know if I'm better or worse..." It was like the shirt that she cut up. It might be better now, and if you asked the shirt, it might like the changes because at least it was being used now. It wasn't going to fit her as it was before... but she still ruined it in a way that couldn't be repaired. "But I do know that I'm not your innocent little sister anymore... you ruined that, forever, decided you'd rather have a fuck toy. You can't change it back... even if you let the marks fade away, you showed me good how sex feels and how easy it is to get. I think I'm doomed to be a slut from now on. I just can't promise I'll be yours." He stared at her, face red, and for a moment, Susan thought he might be ready to cry. Instead, he brushed past her, almost shoving her out of the way. "I'm sorry." He didn't sound sorry, thought, he sounded angry, especially when he continued with, "I didn't think giving you all those orgasms you wanted was a bad thing, but if it's been such an ordeal and you want to fuck other people, then I won't anymore..." Leaving her suffering again. "Keith, I didn't mean..." "No, you made yourself quite clear. I ruined you. So, fine... you know what? I was planning on dumping Trish tomorrow, but if I'm really such a monster to you, maybe I will just use her as my fuck toy from now on so I don't risk 'ruining' you any more." He trudged up the stairs, and she tried to grab his arm, to take back some of the things she said... even if they were true, the opposites were true too, that she loved him using her like she didn't matter, that she never wanted to give it up. But before she could say anything, he pushed her back and said words she didn't realize she was dreading. "We're done. I'll just let your marks wear off and you can be a slut or whatever the hell you were going to be without me." "Keith, please." "No, I'm leaving you alone, do the same for me. You have permission to cum, go take care of yourself." Her heart broke a little. At this point, he reached his door, and turned around. "Or go whore it up with the whole neighborhood. I don't care." He slammed the door to his room in her face. Seconds later, he turned his music up, harsh angry tunes she hadn't heard since summer started. After a few tentative but unanswered knocks, she returned to her room, to her bed, and started crying. This wasn't how she wanted this to day to go at all. Chapter Thirty-Six: A few minutes later, Susan heard her brother Keith come out of his room, and she went to her door too, hoping he'd come to talk to her, to apologize, so she could too, but the moment she opened the door she heard his voice from the stairwell. "Stay in your fucking room until Mom and Dad get home," he snapped, and she closed it right away. She heard him charging back up the stairs a few minutes later, and again his door slammed seconds later. She only figured out what he'd done after their parents got home. She heard them, but didn't feel like coming to greet them, until they shouted for her. She trudged downstairs where they were glaring at her. "Susan," her mom said, after a quick look with her father to confirm that she would be starting this. "Your father and I have trusted you to be responsible, so if there's anything you need to tell us..." She stared blankly. Obviously, mom didn't care that Keith was having sex with her all the time (all the time before today, she reminded herself with a stab of heartache). What else could it be? Did she know that she'd fucked Stacey's dad? She didn't think so, she thought their reactions would be through the roof, but... then, everything's been hard to predict since the marker changed them. Maybe, though, they knew she left the house alone. Mom could have called home, and found nobody. Still, she wasn't stupid enough to volunteer anything, just in case it was wrong. "What?" "Your father and I keep a bottle of scotch in the cabinet here for guests, and it's not here now. Did you take it?" She knew the cabinet was there, knew its contents, but hadn't thought about it in months. It was one of those things that had stood unchanging in her mind so long that it became invisible. "Why would I take it? I don't drink." "You've been engaging in a lot of bizarre behavior lately," her dad said. "And who else would have taken it?" Who else indeed? She knew immediately it was Keith... and also knew there was no point to trying to convince anyone in that room of that. They trusted him completely. But, maybe she could take the heat off herself. "I didn't do it. Look, smell my breath." Mom did, but she still didn't sound convinced, so she thought quickly. Maybe she could convince them they drank it and forgot? Or that Keith took it for a good reason? Then inspiration struck, and a small glow of satisfaction warmed through her foul mood. "You know what, Keith had this girl Trish over here briefly. I wouldn't be surprised if she took it. Without Keith's knowledge, I'm sure." Then she added, "He's too good for her, you know." "Well, who isn't?" her dad said, and Mom nodded, but unlike her father, she still looked like she suspected Susan, probably because she saw her as a hell-bound wild child with no morals. "Come on, you know it wasn't me. I mean, I know how to have a good time without booze, Mom." She gave her a pointed look, daring her to make her say exactly how she has a good time in front of Dad. She got the point. "You're probably right," she said. "I'll go talk to him, though, make sure." While her Mom went upstairs, her Dad shrugged at her and said, "I didn't really think it was you, sweetie, but we had to ask, since there didn't seem to be anyone else who could." Nobody except Keith, but obviously they wouldn't believe that, so she just shrugged back. She couldn't even take pleasure in outsmarting their programming. She just wanted to go back upstairs and cry in her room some more, but she got the sense that until her mother bought the lie, or saw Keith with the booze and came up with some explanation why he needed it, she wasn't allowed to leave the interrogation zone. Mom returned only a couple minutes later. "He's shut himself up in his room," she said. "Playing his 'woe-is-me-angsty-teen' music and doesn't want to talk except to tell me to go away." "Wow, haven't heard the angst-mix since school ended," Dad said, then looked at Susan. "What did you do to him?" He seemed deadly serious for a moment, then broke into a smile, admitted, "I'm just kidding," and looked back at his wife. "Think it was this Trish girl? Got him all tied up in knots?" "Maybe," Mom said, but she too looked directly at Susan like she didn't believe it, and hers wasn't just a joke. "If it is, he'll see through her sooner or later. Anyway, if he's being all mopey I'd better handle dinner tonight." "Damn. I was getting used to actually eating well." She smacked him on the arm and rolled her eyes as she went into the kitchen, but not with any real anger. Dad flashes his usual boyish grin like he expected she would be amused by his jokes, which sometimes she was, but not today. Instead, since the matter of the missing bottle seemed to be forgotten, Susan went to her room. Dinner was a quiet, awkward affair. Her brother refused to come down, claiming he wasn't hungry, and Susan tried the same but her mother wouldn't allow it, so she sat at a table picking at her food and thinking about how it really would be better if Keith had cooked it, even if he'd cum in it, which made her think about how much he needed cum. When they were done, Mom asked her to clear the table and rinse the dishes, and then told Dad that they were running low on milk and that he should go out and get some so he had some for coffee and the kids had some for breakfast the next morning. He grumbled and groaned for a few seconds, but finally got his shoes on. Mom gave him a few other things to pick up on the way. The moment he was out the door, her mother snapped her fingers to get Susan's attention. "I'll finish the dishes. Your father's going to be out for a few minutes," Mom said. "Go try and put a smile on your brother's face, go up there naked and beg him to have sex with you." She put the plate she was rinsing down, stared at the tiles on the floor. "I, uh, don't know if we will be having sex anymore." Even if she could apologize for saying he ruined her, she worried about how he seemed so betrayed that she let Mr. Mancuso fuck her ass... maybe that's all he'd think of from now on, and wouldn't want to touch her. "So maybe you have one less thing to worry about.' Susan was looking down, so she missed the sudden growing anger on her mom's face, at least until she was grabbed by the chin and forced to look each other in the eye, her mother waving a finger at her forcibly puckered lips. "Put that thought out of your mind, missy. If that's why he's all mad at the world up there, then he has every right to be. You're the one who forced yourself on him. You practically begged me to let it keep going on." That wasn't how Susan remembered it, but she was too sad and shocked to argue, so she just let her mother continue. "You're the one who started the incest, you don't get to unilaterally decide when to stop it." She let out an angry sigh and let go of Susan's face. "I warned you. This is your responsibility, Susan, you got him used to having a sexual outlet at home, taking it away is just cruel. This isn't like having a pet. If you expect me to pick up the slack and do all the dirty work just because you got bored once the novelty wore off, you're going to be sorrier than I am." "I'm not the one who doesn't want to," she admitted, tears starting to flow. "I think he doesn't want me anymore. He hates me now." Her mother softened immediately, pulled her close and wrapped her arms around her, spoke to her in soothing motherly tones that Susan felt like she hadn't heard in too long. "Look, I'm sure that's not true. He's just mad. Whatever you did, he'll forgive you eventually. That's what family does. I can't promise he'll always want to have sex with you... I mean, he's not a pervert, obviously your body's too young to really turn him on like a real woman." The voice suddenly sounded less soothing, more smug, and was by extension much less comforting. "But he'll always love you. I still think you should go up there and beg his forgiveness. Maybe offer to let him spank you or submit to something else sexual that you think is disgusting but he likes. And if he doesn't want to talk to you today, try tomorrow, and the next day. Sooner or later, he'll stop being mad." Maybe, she told herself, but she had a point. They've fought before, and it calmed down eventually. It felt like the end of the world, but... it always felt like that when it got really bad. Apologies could still save this. Maybe not right away though. She tried knocking when she went upstairs, only to hear the words "Go away!" The words sounded so full of rage, even angrier than Keith was when he retreated to his room, and she abandoned any hope of spending the night with him, tiptoeing back to her own room where she stayed alone until her parents said good night. She tried once more after they were safely asleep, but there was no answer at all. Spending the night alone was daunting, like her old fears of the dark had somehow returned now that she'd had someone by her side. She even considered slipping into bed with her parents, who were due to be completely unconscious until morning and so obviously wouldn't mind, give her the sensation of someone being near her. She could even satisfy her cum addiction with her father's cock... though if she did that, she might not be able to stop sucking him until he woke up in the morning and forced him off her. Even if she tried to ride his cock as he slept, let him cum inside her, she still might get too close and wind up ruining one more thing. Besides, it wasn't her father she wanted, not really, it was Keith. She missed him, missed sleeping with his arms around her, making her feel safe, as much as the mind-blowing fuck toy orgasms that he could provide, when he was in a generous mood, anyway. The thought that she might have pushed him into giving up on her, at least as a fuck toy, ached like someone had torn a piece of her away. She wished she hadn't said those things... she was angry, and what she said was true, but it wasn't the whole truth. She definitely wished she hadn't gone to visit Stacey or let her dad ass-fuck her, even though those images in her head kicked up her horniness and made her start to masturbate. It was a sad affair, as her mind kept bouncing between the shamefully hot--fucking Mr. Mancuso while forcing Stacey to watch, having sex with a dog, her father getting her pregnant--and the depressing state of her relationship with Keith. She was unfair with what she said to him, Susan knew. Keith might be responsible for her being a fuck toy, but she made enough stupid decisions on her own to share in the blame. As she rubbed her pussy, and gently squeezed her clit between two fingers, she thought about what her mother said, that she should beg Keith's forgiveness... that wouldn't be enough, she knew, nor would offering to fuck a dog for him, probably... not that she wouldn't, if that's what it took, she just didn't think it was enough. But Mom also used the word 'submit' which sounded appealing. Maybe, then, she could offer something, a permanent peace offering. During their fight, she practically dared him to write that she belonged to him, or that she couldn't fuck anybody else. What if she told him again, but this time made it an offer, told him that she wanted him to, which, she thought, would be the truth, or at least partly true. At the very least, she wanted it far more than him leaving her alone... that, she was beginning to understand would be unbearable. In fact, she was willing to go even farther. In some ways this made the perfect excuse, to surrender completely, lay it all on the table, tell him she wanted him to write that, to make it permanent. She didn't know if it'd work, but there was that idea, the idea she'd always kept to herself, that he could write on her body 'marker words are truly indelible' or something like that to make them permanent. It was a super dangerous idea, but maybe the thought of being able to control her for ever might change his mind about abandoning her in favor of Trish. Maybe even tell him the big truth, that she couldn't bear not having him anymore, that she loved him far more than as a sister, but like a fairy tale princess loves her prince. Sure, he was a jerk, but so was the Beast in Beauty and the Beast, and that worked out. Maybe by making the marks permanent, this could be her happily ever after... even if it did mean she would have to watch what she wore the rest of her life, or worse, that she might have to share him with Trish instead of having him outright. She couldn't recall in any fairy tales that ended up in threeways with the prince's fuck toy sister and another girl, of course. Maybe that proved it wasn't the kind of idea that lead to a happily ever after at all, but she loved him enough to take the risk. Chapter Thirty-Seven: Susan came to that daring thought, growing to like it more and more, the complete submission, convincing herself it wasn't a desperate last-ditch effort to get Keith to want her again, but like the next logical step. She licked her girlcum off her fingers and tried to get to sleep, deciding yes, she'd suggest it in the morning. Sleep wasn't as easy as it usually was after a cum. She didn't drift off for a long time, mostly from fears about him refusing, but she managed it eventually, much later than usual... and consequently, woke up later, and not by her own choice, as she felt someone tugging at her arm. She curled up against it automatically with a whine, wanting to get a little more of that hard-won sleep, then heard, "Wakey-wakey, Susan. It's a brand new day." It wasn't one of her parents, it was Keith's voice, and that snapped her fully awake, even though when she looked at him she thought it was a dream. He didn't seem angry anymore. Not even a little bit. He just looked at her placidly, the faintest smile on his lips. He was dressed in a tank top and shorts... and she saw the marker in his hand. "What... what's going on?" Had he forgiven her? She dared to hope, her heart fluttering. "Just going to make a few adjustments," he said. Again, complete calm. It was like their previous fight hadn't happened. "Are you still angry at me?" she asked. He tilted his head, as though considering the question for himself. "Not really. I mean, I probably should be. You really hurt me, Susan. But... I just don't care anymore." That didn't sound good... the words might have... even the tone of voice, but something about it pricked at Susan's heartstrings in warning. Still, she wanted to give her plan a shot. "I had an idea. So that I won't fuck anybody else." "It's not an issue anymore, Susan," he said gently. "I mean, yeah, yesterday I was hurting so bad, but... today? Well, a lot's changed since last night." He twirled the marker around his fingers. That bad feeling inside her just got worse and worse. "What did you do?" she asked. "What did you write?" "I got drunk and played around with a magic marker. Not my best idea in the world, I admit. But it all worked out. I mean, it could have gone a lot worse. I'm better now. You'll benefit too, at least somewhat. Honestly, it's probably a toss-up whether you're going to like what I've got planned, but... it really doesn't matter. It's all for the best, anyway." "What did you write?" she asked again, trembling now. "It's kind of funny, actually considering what you said yesterday. You remember?" He playfully nudged her. "You said you didn't think I had a heart. Which was bullshit, because mine was all torn up by what I'd done to you, and what you'd done to me. So torn up that I had to get trashed just to live with myself. And then I got the idea that fixed everything." He pulled his shirt off and pointed to his upper stomach, where there was a new mark in black. It was small and upside down from her perspective, because Keith wrote it on himself, and it must have been awkward since it looked like it was just above his breastbone, but Susan didn't need long to make it out. It read, "Heartless" and then, underneath, "(metaphorically)." Susan's first thought was, 'at least her remembered to say it was metaphorical,' because he was right, it could have gone a lot worse, she could have lost him forever, and the relief from that blinded her to the consequences for a few seconds until she thought about what it meant, really. She looked from the words, to Keith's face, finally understanding that calm look, how he wasn't mad. Of course, she thought, feeling the color drain from her face. You have to care about someone to be mad at them. And without a heart (a metaphorical one, anyway), you don't care about anyone. "Things are much better now," he said. "For me, anyway. They might be more difficult for you." He shrugged, like it didn't matter to him one bit. And it was quite possible, it didn't. "Or maybe you'll like it. We'll have to see. Take off your panties." "What?" That was almost like the old Keith, and she dared to hope for a second that this was an elaborate prank, that he'd written on himself in regular marker and had just been trying to scare her. "I said take off your panties. I may not have a heart, but I still have a cock, and you're still better than my hand." He dropped his shorts and she saw that he did indeed have an erection. She slid them off and he pulled her to the edge of the bed, rested his cock on her mound, then pushed it in. "Hold still, I'll finish fucking you after this." And he held the marker out, uncapped it, and began to write right over Susan's pussy, the part that Keith had teased about saving for some special marking. He said he hadn't had any ideas, but as she saw the word take shape... S... L... A... V.... E.. He'd just made her a slave, and she wondered if maybe he had that idea already, but just held himself back, because he loved her and didn't really want to hurt her. But he no longer cared about that, she realized, as tears started to stream down her face. Just hours ago she made the decision that she could try living happily ever after as Keith's private fuck toy, even if he was a jerk, as long as he loved her. Being a slave to a heartless jerk, though? She couldn't let that be the end of her story... she had to find a way out... somehow. She had to get a hold of the marker and undo all of this, cross out every word or write something that solved everything. She wasn't sure how, yet, he'd probably be more careful than ever, and there was probably no chance of appealing to his love for her, she couldn't even lie to him to trick him into something. It seemed impossible, but she couldn't give up. He might not love her anymore, but she still loved him, and this was going to ruin them both if she didn't find a way out. Maybe he would be lulled by the new word, drop his guard, and she'd get her chance. All she had to go on was the hope that her brother still hadn't realized how much words mattered. Yes, she was a slave. But slaves sometimes rebelled. It would be easy to correct if he discovered his error, so she'd have to be very careful, obey every command and pick her moment. One slip up, and her future would look as black as the newly inscribed letters on her cunt. End of Book Two Coming Eventually Maybe - Magic Marker, Book Three: Black: Susan's a slave of her brother, and the black magic marker that controls her, body and soul. But she's still got a little bit of free will left, and now she must play a dangerous game, let her brother seem to win, let him force her to do whatever perverted thing crosses his mind, even let him change their parents and the people around them in ways that might never be undone... play along until she gets an opportunity. She just hopes her soul isn't crushed before it comes. This story is free to share and distribute so long as no money is charged. Art: As stated, this story was inspired by a piece by Danaume, and she deserves all of the credit for the basic idea. You can see the picture , (early though) so it serves as something of a teaser or spoiler. She also drew a picture of Trish that I worked into the story as Susan imagining what marks to ask Keith to make on her (link to be added if I find it). These links go to drawn art of underage fictional characters, which may be illegal in your jurisdiction. Click at your own discretion. Pixiv account may be required. And if you liked this story, please provide feedback (through Formspring, which works better than ASSTR but is still a bit buggy - if you see something about a confirmation e-mail try again in a few hours, I won't have seen your message): Something to call you: E-mail (if reply is desired): More Stories by AnonyMPC	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10822
__label__cc	0.69256	0.30744	Sponsors / Advertisers Why playing RPGs give you an indication on how you live your life I love playing RPGs, or Role Playing Games. This ranges from just RPGs on console, like Playstation, Sega Saturn, Sega Genesis, to MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online RPG) online. Where you get to interact with other players and trade with others and stuff. I'll describe what an average RPG or MMORPG is like. RPG typically follows a storyline, the main character forms a team, they level up, gain better equipment to fight a final boss who typically wants to destroy the world, in between the story, the main character will travel across the world to search for items or abilities or friends to help with the conquest. For an MMORPG, there are many similarities as there are differences. Typically, there isn't a final completable storyline. You just play and keep training, gaining gold, items, you usually play as one character only. If you gain friends, they are real life other players who are connected online. You can trade with others, duel with others, called PvP or player vs player. You can travel the world, but there's no storyline behind it so you can travel alone to fight normal monsters or you can team up with your friends to fight bigger boss monsters. I've realized how you play RPG or MMORPGs really give an indication of how you live your life. For example. When I play MMORPGs, I play the game for a short time, level up to an appropriate enough level, where it is efficient to train until. Cos most MMORPGs will let you level up until a certain level easily, then anything further than that will be really tough to level up. So I will reach around this level, then I will move on to trade. So I buy items from other players and resell them at higher rates. And I spend most of my time selling stuff. I hardly even play the game for the purposes of training anymore. Usually, I will trade and earn money til I can buy almost all the best items, and yet I will still be of lower level than my friends. Cos my friends will continue to level up and train like what the game was meant to be. And I'm ok to be of lower level than other people. I'm happy playing the game by trading and yet, trading isn't supposed to be the way the game is meant to be played. You are supposed to go out and kill monsters and level up. I compare that with my real life and I find many similarities. I worked and reached a high enough post where I can earn money efficiently and yet still have a good work life balance and saved up my money. Then I left to try to find something else to do. Unfortunately, the real world doesn't really have an inefficient market like in games for trading of items. And I'm ok to be of lower level than other people. I'm happy doing what I want to be doing, instead of doing what everyone else is doing. Some people may think I'm not living the way life should be cos many people think that life should be about accumulating stuff, and yet when I play the game or live life, who cares right? As long as you're happy playing the game or how you live your life, who is to say what is right or wrong, cos the main objective to play the game or live is to be happy. If you aren't happy, playing game or living, then why are you even bothering to do either? Then there's this thing called grinding or farming. Grinding is something you do repetatively. Like grinding a millstone, so you can grind for levels or you can grind killing monsters hoping that a particular monster will drop something good. Farming is typically killing monsters for their items or gold. Usually an efficient monster where the effort to kill is low and the drop rates are better than average. Many people hate grinding or farming. It's boring. But it's gotta be done to get better. And I think, sometimes, if you understand that grinding to reach a certain level and then moving on is fine. Like if you are saving up for some high powered equipment and you farm for a week killing the same monster, I think that's quite ok, or you want to reach a certain level so you kill the same monsters for 2 weeks to reach whatever level which allows you to fight a bigger monsters. That's probably fine too. But I know some people train for the sake of training. Like they just HAVE to reach the max level. And they grind for days and months just to "complete" the game by reaching the max level. And yet they don't enjoy the grinding. And when they reach max level, they lose interest in the game. So in my mind I'm thinking. Then why are they grinding? They make it a chore, and yet after they finish the chore, they stop playing cos they've nothing more to do after that. It's like playing Pokemon GO. I'm sure many of you played it. I played it too. Well... sorta... I didn't like the idea of playing Pokemon GO. I'm the kinda person who doesn't like it that society has reached a point where people don't interact with the here and now and they spend much of their time on the phones when the people they should be talking to are right in front of them. But I'll probably do another post on that next time. Today is about games. So I "played" Pokemon GO. I didn't like that the game knew where I was, I didn't like the game made people glued to their phones like zombies. So I didn't play it the normal way... you get what I mean? cough I caught them all in like 4 weeks... Even those overseas in Australia, USA, Europe, Japan cough and let me tell you, even if you don't play it the normal way, it's not easy to catch them all. So for folks who said they played it legitly and caught them all within a month, I highly doubt they played normally. So after I caught them all, I lost interest cos there was nothing left to do. Similarly, I had a friend who really played it normally and caught all the Pokemon available in Singapore. He played it religiously like so many other Singaporeans. The way I hated it cos he neglected his children, the people around him, etc. He did it like a chore, and after he caught them all, he lost interest and stopped playing. THEN WHY DID HE PLAY IT FOR IN THE FIRST PLACE? He even spent real money buying virtual stuff!! I see people like this all the time. Rushing through their lives or activities like they were just chores. That things will settle down when they reach... 50, 60, whatever age. Well, life never settles down. There's always something else you want, something else you want to do. You have to settle down your own life. Most people just keep pushing for more. More this, more that, more money, bigger car, etc. And at the end of their life, what is the most important? Health, family, the people around you. I'm not saying they are mutually exclusive. You can have both health AND money. But many people do sacrifice health for money, in terms of stress, sleepless nights, high blood pressure, etc. But it IS possible to win them all. Some people can win them all, some can't and it's important to know where you stand and prioritize which battle you want to win. So life is really like playing a game. Have you lost the fun of the game since you started? Are you farming or grinding and it has become a chore? Sometimes people grind so long in games that after they grind for so long, and they have reached their objective level or gold target, they log in the next day and they don't know what to do next. Cos they are so used to logging in and grinding, that they aren't able to play the game normally and enjoy it for what it is anymore. Has work become like this? That after you reach a certain level of financial security, people just continue working cos they don't know what else is there to do with their lives? Cos it's so easy to wake up and just change and go to work? Look at children. They play, give them more time, they continue to play. Give adults more time and they don't know what to do. So really. Remember what you are living for. Remember why you are playing your game. You play games for fun and enjoy the process. Same as living. If you need money, grind and farm. But remember there's more to life than just grinding and farming. There's many other things to do and you need to do them. Relax and play the game and enjoy it. Else what's the point in playing anyway. <<PREVIOUS POST // NEXT POST>> I realized that choosing the class to join also reflects you in real life. If you choose a priest (tend to be back end), tank (you like to be in the forefront of the action), warlock (middle office?) . I like to play MMORPG because of my friends playing as well. If they are not playing, I don't really feel the kick anymore. I do grind till max level and try to go for raids to explore and see more instances. I guess this is pretty much in tune with my character having worked in 3 countries now. And its true, even after attaining financial security, its easier to just continue. Wow! you wrote a dedicated post about the psychology of gaming :D If i may add, I find it fascinating that the variety of gamers are also very much akin to real life situations. Take power abusers for example ;) halp halp! ERSG link Dont forget the beggers. "Please sir give me some gold. I are noob" WTK link Hi ERSG, Finding the true purpose of one is the way to go in finding the desired path. The purpose may change during the course of the life journey. The main gist is the current purpose to one's liking. This is the link to my first post... how it all started... Mindset changes throughout the years How I make use of my wife Male, born in 1982. Graduated with a degree majoring in Banking & Finance, Financial Adviser for a period of time resulting in in-depth knowledge of insurance products and marketing techniques of the industry. Inspired by MMM and ERE. Decided to embark on a mission to retire early in Singapore, a place where such an idea is considered impossible. As I believe that life has a lot more to offer instead of just a working career. I've decided to start a blog to note down my journey to achieve this mission and help others along the way who are willing to listen and try doing things differently from everyone else. I have decided to remain anonymous until I finally am able to actually retire, reason being that this idea might not gel well with the company which I am working for currently and also to avoid real life flaming from people who say that such ideas are impossible and that an individual is lazy for choosing early retirement instead of contributing to society in the form of labour. More about me. 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__label__cc	0.743511	0.256489	Sincerely, Natalie Reed Critical Thinking On Gender, Sexuality and Other Human Matters Trans 101 Acknowledgments, Thanks Yous, and Goodbyes How Do I Know If I'm Trans? My Traumatic Life Story Homophobia, White-Supremacism and "Disco Sucks!" Privileges and Decoys: Part One Born This Way (Reprise): The New Essentialism Discourse And Intersectionality "Ideal Bodies" Complicity Vs. Cause In Trans-Misogyny And Violence brianpansky on Trans 101 skeptifem on Trans 101 tremault on How Do I Know If I’m Trans? Missy Dee on Trans 101 3basethriller on …F@#king Trans Women… ‘How do I know I’m trans?’ : Link to a thought provoking article. Well worth reading. \| Kate's Gender Dysphoria Blog on How Do I Know If I’m Trans? LIsa K. on “I Always Knew” FinlyErkenwald on Born This Way (Reprise): The New Essentialism Swati on Acknowledgments, Thanks Yous, and Goodbyes Natalie Reed on Free Thoughts #1: Superheroes And Disability More Than Bodies » « Natural Privilege But Seriously, Prostitution Is Not Sex Slavery As I mentioned a couple days ago, Taslima Nasreen has now joined Freethought Blogs, and I (and the rest of us) are well and truly honoured and excited to have her. I really do have an immense amount of respect for her. But yesterday she wrote a post that I find I absolutely can’t leave unexamined. As much as Taslima may be a hero of mine, I can’t allow that to excuse what I consider to be deeply problematic (and potentially destructive) statements. One of the great beauties and strengths of atheism and skepticism is that we have no popes or saints. Our heroes are at all time available to be questioned, and their assertions always available to be critiqued. And sometimes those assertions demand such critiques. This is one of them. The post in question is misleadingly entitled “Sex Slavery Must Be Abolished”. Misleading in that the subject of the post is not really sex slavery, it’s the equation of all forms of sex work with sex slavery. This rhetorical slight of hand puts us in the starting position of outrage, of anger at the obvious immorality of slavery (sexual or otherwise), and through that outrage leads us into far less self-evident claims that deserve considerably more critical thought, and demand considerably more evidence, than the assertion in the title. Evidence Taslima does not provide. What she provides in its stead is an emotional argument, an appeal to a certain specific sexual morality and sexual politics that she assumes us to hold (or simply assumes we are sympathetic enough to to not question her uncited, unsourced, unargued assertions), and positions as a universal fact without considering the immense range of nuance, complexity, and possible alternative iterations, of the subject on which she is imposing this morality and political tilt. Without considering that circumstances in which sex work is an equitable exchange, and a freely made choice, can and do happen. Or at the very least hypothetically can. And no, she doesn’t provide any argument as to why they can’t. She just asserts it. While the presence of money always conditions consent by throwing a level of inequity into the power dynamics, that inequity is not always enough to meaningfully compromise consent. While no sexual consent is possible without the ability for all involved parties to say “no” if they wish, and requires that that “no” not be tied to serious negative consequences (like violence, imprisonment, loss of job, death, death of another), consent is still free consent even if the “yes” is tied to serious positive consequences (like money). After all, it usually is. Tied to pleasure at least. Unless you’re just robotically going through the motions (which I hardly consider the ideal form of sexual intimacy). Taslima just goes ahead and without real argument positions ALL sex work as being necessarily a form of patriarchal oppression, and lacking true consent. While obviously many women end up, in varying degrees, forced or coerced (not necessarily by individuals, but often by circumstances or socio-cultural forces) into sex work, the truth is that this is also often not the case. Of the not insignificant number of sex workers and former sex workers I’ve known, not a one of them ever described themselves to me as having not had a choice. Almost none have expressed regretting the choice. Many described feeling empowered by it. Almost all at some point to described it to me as more or less being like any form of labour (“demeaning” or otherwise) one does with one’s body. And in all cases the negatives and risks were described as exasperated by moralistic attitudes attempting to eliminate the institution of prostitution, or “protect” them from their work, rather than ameliorated. Of course, the sex trade as a whole is much more complex than these isolated occurrences, but that’s all that’s needed as evidence of circumstances that contradict Taslima’s statements of what is inherent to sex work. Just like it only takes one happy atheist to disprove the assertion that misery in inherent to atheism, or one butch lesbian trans woman to disprove the assertions that transition is all about “changing your body to conform to binary gender roles” or that we’re “just really really gay”. If tomorrow I went back down to the Kingsway Stroll and stood on a corner until I was (as usual) solicited, then consented to that exchange for the purposes of proving my point, would that have also been a patriarchal oppression, not really my choice, something I was coerced into doing? Because I could do that. Granted, I don’t think ANY sex workers are doing it to prove an intellectual point on a blogging network, but the simple fact that I could upends Taslima’s sweeping statements about lack of consent and choice being universal to sex work. Greta Christina has already done an excellent job of unpacking the fact that sex work is not universally sex slavery (and Ace of Sevens at Hypothetical Bus Stop also does a great job of working through the “lies” she attributes to those who support decriminalization of sex work), so there’s not much need for me to go any further with making that particular argument. There’s instead something else I’d like to focus on. Early in her post, Taslima makes the rhetorical decision to, instead of referring to sex workers as, well, sex workers -or even prostitutes- she instead refers to them as “prostituted women”. In addition to the less subtle problem of overtly erasing the existence (and implications) of those sex workers who are not women, this act of conceptual framing belies one of the most disturbing and deeply problematic elements of Taslima’s argument. Describing sex workers as “prostituted women” is to conceptually strip them of agency, have this status only positioned as something inflicted upon them, and rendering them definitively and wholly an object in the entire conceptual framework. It imagines that they can’t possibly be an active participant, but must be a blank object upon which prostitution is inscribed. This idea of stripping women of their agency, of imagining that they couldn’t possibly be involved in whatever process you’re describing as informed, active, rational agents is NOT something new to me. I’m very familiar with it. In fact, I wrote a bit about it just yesterday. We see this in the Republican war on women, the idea that no woman would ever really choose to terminate a pregnancy. This conceptual framing helps enable the numerous laws and bills being passed that insist that a woman has no real right to the choices she makes about her body unless she subjects herself to whatever invasion or emotional manipulation those questioning her agency demand as “proof” that she “really” wants to make this choice. We see it in the gatekeeping processes established as a barrier between trans people and treatment, based on the assumption that we can’t possibly be rational and sincere in our choices if this (!!!) is the choice we’ve arrived at. No, we’re certainly just delusional, or deceived, or self-hating, or crazy, or jumping to conclusions, or perverted, or trying to trick guys into sleeping with us, or being “gender rebels”, or trying to get attention, or trying to appropriate womanhood, or whatever stupid thing you’ll pick based on whatever flavour of transphobe you happen to be (HBSer, TERF/WBW, fundagelical, gay/lesbian separatist, alt-medder, MRA, “gender realist”, right-winger, plain-old ignorant, etc.). And so again we must provide “proof” that our choice really is a choice, that we’re really really sure we’re really sure we’re really really really sure. We see it in the story of Alexis Kaminsky, considered by the German courts to have been “brainwashed” into her female self-identification, and therefore deserving of incarceration, torture and endocrine-based disfigurement “for her own good”, because they couldn’t understand her choice to have been her choice, or accept it as such. I’m sorry, but being an advocate of social justice and feminism, defending freedom, defending autonomy, defending self-determination, defending the right for women (and all human beings) to make their own choices about their own bodies, requires defending those choices that we ourselves would not make, and also those choices that we ourselves do not understand. Sometimes people are going to choose to do things that we don’t quite get. But what little we’re able to immediately understand is not the whole of human experience. There will always be bits that are apart from ourselves. Part of human experience is never knowing all of human experience. Accepting that what’s right for you is not necessarily a workable prescription for everyone else’s behaviours, and that sometimes people’s experiences and needs differ from one’s own, is a necessary aspect of empathy, compassion, and understanding as much as we can understand of human experience. Allowing ourselves to believe, or convincing ourselves, that because someone’s choice differs from what we understand, or what we would feel comfortable with, that it therefore isn’t “really” a choice, and to consequently conceptually invalidate their agency, paternalistically casting them in the role of children who “don’t know any better” and need our “guidance”, is an immensely dangerous act. It enables violence, and the stripping of rights, and these almost inevitably follow from it. The first step towards forgiving oneself in robbing someone of their autonomy and rights is in convincing yourself they never had autonomy in the first place, or don’t deserve it, or are harmed by it, or that their autonomy is being misused and they need to be “protected” from their own choices, for their own good. Colonialism. Evangelism. Gatekeeping. Lobotomization. So many atrocities have been committed in the name of “saving” a vulnerable Other “from themselves” or from their supposed inability to act in their own best interest when presented with options. The path forward for feminism in addressing issues of sexual slavery, human trafficking and survival sex work, the circumstances in which sex workers are coerced into the sex trade is NOT through stripping human beings of the choices they’re able to make about their bodies, or through emotionally manipulative rhetoric, or through sweeping and unsubstantiated blanket statements on the nature of sex work, or through condescendingly denying human beings their agency. The path forward is through the expansion of the range of options and choices women have about their bodies. Making alternatives available, addressing the socio-economic conditions that lead to survival sex work, deconstructing misogyny and sexism, taking apart the rape culture, disabling the infrastructure of human trafficking, addressing the misogynistic and paternalistic attitudes towards women (that the narrative of “prostituted women” reinforces) that enables men to believe they can own and control them and deny their right to make their own choices… And opposing, unequivocally, any and all attempts to impose external state control over what a woman (or anyone) does with her own body. We need to be fighting alongside sex workers, supporting them in the struggle for their rights and freedoms, as they define them, not fighting against them for our false sense of entitlement to dictate what their rights and freedoms are “supposed” to look like. (after all, the achievement of sex workers’ rights and freedoms, as they defined them, has often prefigured our own) There is one line that the state must not cross, under any circumstances, for any reason, no matter how strong our moralistic or political fervor, and it is the line that delineates the body. Bodily autonomy is essential. ANY violation of bodily autonomy, however well-intentioned, is an act of tyranny. Any act of denying that a human being possesses agency over their own body, or that we know what’s best for that body better than they do, is a violence, a complaceny in and an enabling of tyranny, a step in the direction of denial of human rights, of women’s rights. These are not our bodies on which to inscribe our morals and politics. They are the bodies of individual women (and men, and others), who have the right to enact their OWN concepts of sexual morality, sexual politics and sexual empowerment through them. Natalie Reed Ethics, Feminism, Social Issues Ramen! If someone wants to pay money to look at my butt, I see no reason why I shouldn’t be allowed to choose to take the money. It’s my choice. You may disapprove if you like, but since it’s my choice, what the hell business is it of yours? Choice, it’s a beautiful ideal! embertine says gets her wallet out Kidding, kidding. 😉 Not nice to tease, these textbooks are expensive! Anders says Sylvester Stallone’s mother apparently does butt readings – telling your future by the shape of your butt. And there’s also sternomancy which tells your future by feeling the shape of your boobs. Nice job if you can get it… 🙂 Natalie Reed says “I predict many 36-A padded push-ups in your near future!” We should invent genitalomancy. Timid Atheist says I agree with you and Greta. What boggled me most about Taslima’s post was the bald assertions that all of prostitution is bad. That women who do it are all being taken advantage of. And she erases any men who do sex work by ignoring them completely. And worse, in the comments of her post she equates prostitutes to house slaves, not wanting slavery abolished because they had it better than field slaves. That threw me for a huge loop. I’m not sure she understands that some people really can choose to have sex as a job and be okay with it. This situation makes me sad in a way, I hate to see people not only disagree, but to not be willing to even see the other side’s argument as valid. And while I know you, Natalie, and Greta do agree that slavery and force prostitution are bad, I don’t see Taslima willing to see the other side as valid at all. At least not from the comments she’s made so far. Perhaps things will change and really the best way for that to happen is to have an open dialogue the way you and Greta are doing it. Alteredstory says The “erasure of men” thing is something that bugs me on a lot of issues. There are many of these where it’s worthwhile to talk about without including men if only because men are a minority of the “subjects” – prostitution, rape, media objectification, and so on – but when your argument assumes that women are the ONLY people involved, you start out with a pretty serious flaw, and you commit the same kind of dehumanization you’re advocating AGAINST. It give the impression that it’s only important when it happens to a certain group of people. Walton says I wanted to repost some of the links I left at Greta’s place. I’ve long felt very conflicted about this subject; I’m conversant with the feminist anti-sex-work arguments of scholar-activists like Catherine Mackinnon and Melissa Farley (who generally advocate a Swedish-style approach of criminalizing the buyers and the pimps but not the sex workers theselves), but I’ve also heard serious, evidence-based challenges to that point of view. In particular, I’ve seen evidence that suggests to me that many government policies aimed at banning and eradicating commercial sex work tend to harm, not help, the people who they’re meant to be “liberating”. Aziza Ahmed, for instance, is a feminist scholar and researcher who has written about the problems caused by policies that conflate sex work with sex trafficking and that try to eradicate both: First, anti-sex trafficking activism has an extremely negative impact on HIV programs. Sex workers are highly vulnerable to contracting HIV. A key victory for anti-sex trafficking organizations was the insertion of the anti-prostitution loyalty oath (APLO) into the US Leadership Act for HIV/Aids, TB, and malaria. This provision requires that organizations agree to oppose prostitution and sex trafficking. The APLO has the effect of disempowering sex worker organizations who refuse to sign on, shutting health services for sex workers, and alienating sex workers from public health programs. Further, implementation of the APLO alongside raids and “rescues” disrupts HIV projects that have sex workers as peer-educators and leaders. Attempts to provide necessary health services to sex workers may lead to accusations of aiding in trafficking. Despite these negative outcomes, anti-sex-trafficking organizations, including women’s rights groups, support the US government in their effort to implement the APLO to the detriment of women’s health. Second, when women and girls are “rescued” by the anti-trafficking organizations, they may be taken to state-run rehabilitation homes that have jail-like conditions. Human rights and sex worker organizations have long documented what rehabilitation might mean for a sex worker: overcrowded conditions, a lack of healthcare, and violence at the hands of the police and guards. The rehabilitation activities of some organizations are also often suspect – the staff of a rehabilitation home in Maharashtra, India that I visited last year told me that one of their rehabilitation activities includes getting the rescued women married. Finally, the ongoing attempt to shut down safe places where sex workers can advertise services, like the Village Voice and Craig’s List, drives sex work underground and makes sex workers less capable of screening clients. The cast of characters that feature in Kristof’s blogs and Twitter feed, who call for the closure of “adult advertising”, and who advocate for provisions like the anti-prostitution loyalty oath are often one and the same. Not being able to do business in the open means that sex workers are driven to dark and hidden places to conduct business. This makes sex work unsafe. More detail on Ahmed’s research can be found here at the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender. (She was a guest speaker at a seminar I attended a few months ago, which is how I came across her work.) Also well worth reading is Noy Thrupkaew’s article in The Nation about the problematic consequences of the work of the charity International Justice Mission, supported by Nicholas Kristof, which enlists the aid of local police in developing countries in “rescuing” sex workers from brothels. Unfortunately, in some cases, their “rescue” has led to their being imprisoned, abused by police, and deported as undocumented immigrants. Also, from your post, I think this… We see this in the Republican war on women, the idea that no woman would ever really choose to terminate a pregnancy. …is a really interesting point. It’s worth noting that, along with certain feminists, the Christian Right has been very active in pushing for bans on commercial sex work, and for policies such as the US “anti-prostitution pledge” that organizations receiving federal aid for HIV prevention are required to accept. Of course, this doesn’t in itself show that those policies are wrong; but to me, it makes the prohibitionist approach somewhat suspect. And I think there is a degree of paternalism, and of denial of sex workers’ individual agency, in the prohibitionist approach – although, to be fair, I don’t think its advocates would see it that way. Anyway, sorry for the ramble. I hope it’s at least vaguely relevant. (My last post went into moderation because it contained three links, but hopefully will appear soon.) Yep. And the results are often frightening. I have spoken with female sex workers on the net and they are unanimous – their line of work has become more dangerous since the ban on buying sex came into effect in Sweden in 1998. The pool of customers is more limited, so the sex workers has to take the dangerous customers they could elect not to meet before. Sex workers can’t go to the police if they’re abused because they’ll be evicted if people find out – the anti-pimp laws make it illegal for a landlord to take money if he knows it’s from sex work. But any resistance to the law is framed in terms of giving pedophiles and unscrupulous slave masters free reign. The rhetorical advantage is on the side of a ban for the moment. sigh It’s amazing how much I commit myself to when I set body autonomy as one of my principles. Sex work, the war on drugs, abortion, trans rights… it all comes back to that principle. And if you weaken it in one place there’s a good chance that it weakens in other places as well. Although I have to dock you 1 point for missing a perfect opportunity to say “I love Taslima, but I love the truth more.” TNT says Unfortunately this author again creates the strawfish of ALL. The issue is of course not ALL. But most studies have determined that less than 10% of females work in the sex trades because “they like it”. They are forced into it, by unfair economic duress. Slavery does not require and slave master on the doorstep. typo, fish on my mind, strawman, not strawfish! HumanisticJones says The Strawfish Falacy: Setting up a version of your opponent’s positions that your opponent does not actually hold and that is easily refuted so that you may refute it and thereby claim to have refuted your opponent, but done as a Red Herring. Kels says A strawfish argument doesn’t hold water! What does this mean,exactly? Should we ban sex work because only 10% ‘really’ want to do it? The economic duress argument is also strange. Presumably the women who do sex work have considered alternative means of getting money. If you ban sex work they’ll have to do something they consider less desirable. How is that the right thing to do? @Anders. Again, creating false arguments. We’re absolutely not talking about a complete “ban”. We’re simply asking that the language not state BS like “working in sex trades is fine and represents choice”. If sex trades represented “choice” if would be equally represented by males and females me thinks. It isn’t, because only the very most desperate women get into it, at risk for their life. We speak of how the crab fishing industry is one of the riskiest jobs, but we forget the females killed working in sex trades, for the poorest wages. So do you have a proposal? You don’t want to ban it, but regulate? I can agree with certain regulations – we don’t want children for instance. rather, I suggest making sure it becomes obsolete, by getting to those who profit from it out of business, and making sure the johns get caught. The females need security. But that for here, in Western civilisation. I don’t think such practices are possible in India, the location sore spot for the author. Girls, even pre-pubescent, are sold into sex trades in that country, as in areas with high levels of sex tourism. These countries do not have the public resources to ensure the safety of the females. The problem is when the law outlaws the female, instead of outlawing the perps and profiteers. But no amount of “perks” can ever make sex trades respectable, not for a majority of these people. We did ban slavery based on skin colour Western civilisation. How is this different? Would it be the same if we said black people “choose” to work and dangerous crappy conditions… because they always have? Any ban needs to not be on the act itself but on the money and dishonesty. How is “getting the johns caught” not the Ban-Buying strategy that has been tried and failed in Sweden? How is “getting rid of those who profit from it” not the Anti-Pimp that has been tried and failed in Sweden? Read my first post – you’ll get the consequences of your policies from people who have tried it. Ace of Sevens says If sex trades represented “choice” if would be equally represented by males and females me thinks. That’s BS. For one, there’s a lot more demand for female sex workers than male. I think lots of guys would like to be sex professionals, but there just isn’t enough market for them to make any money at it. Also, dental assistants have about the same female to male ratio as prostitutes. This isn’t a matter of women being forced into community college dental assistant programs. It’s because there’s a cultural idea that dental assistants are women, so fewer men want to do with it, along with discriminatory hiring practices that open up other jobs to men and shut them out of dental assisting. These things are problematic, but they don’t mean that women in dental assisting didn’t choose that career. And you fail to recognise why! Males in our society have power, the power to refuse really crappy underpaid jobs. I’ve known a few dental hygienists, it’s a crap job that they get into out of desperation. The difference is they are not compromising their body integrity to do it. They wear gloves, and body protection, and face shields and goggles, to separate themselves from the disgust of their underpaid job. A prostitute has to internalise her disgust, because she IS the product AND the service. Now maybe if prostitutes were able to dress and protect themselves like dental hygienists, gloves, heavy duty condoms, coveralls, all paid for by the work place, a sanitised well light workplace. Only operating during the safe hours of the day, with a gentle secretary at the front desk, a sterile horizontal platform, from which to work. And guarantee that johns who do not behave properly are never again let into the office and have the police sicked after them. Yes maybe we’re getting somewhere here… oh wait, we’re not. Because the price would be 10x higher, and johns are only interested in cheap power trips! anat says Hey, TNT, my aunt was a career dental assistant until she retired. She thought it was a swell job and tried to encourage her daughter to enter the profession too. (The daughter preferred banking, then various assorted business gigs.) That you don’t like a certain profession and wouldn’t choose it doesn’t mean nobody likes that career path. It is possible though, that the number of people who actually prefer said career is much smaller than the demand. When I went to college I worked reception at the medical department, and dental assistant was one of the more prized programs. It wasn’t full of desperate people training for a miserable job, it was almost all privileged young women from wealthy backgrounds. zooey says It’s not a false argument, it’s simple logic. If the original piece (the one Natalie is commenting on) asserted that no sex work involves agency or choice (therefore making it slavery), then in order to refute that argument, one only needs to provide a single instance to the contrary. How is this a false argument? You yourself admitted that less than 10% of sex workers claimed a desire to be in their line of work. That for me says case closed; any further claim that all sex work is slavery is therefore fallacious (even if the percentage were 0.1%). realizes TNT was smited (smote?…smitten?) by the mighty banhammer James K says I find it amusing (in a deeply tragic way) that people think that the way to help people with very few options is to reduce their options even further. there’s a huge difference between an “option” and a “last desperate resort”. What those with some first hand knowledge in these threads are saying is that there are apparently even worse options than sex work, at least for some. Which makes it at least one-but-last-resort. Taking away that option forces them into the even worse ones out there. leftwingfox says I think that’s James K’s point: It’s a far more effective and humane strategy to ensure there are better choices for the desperate than prostitution, rather than cracking down on prostitution, and ignoring the social issues driving people to it. leftwingfox is correct, the more desperate a person’s circumstances, the more you hurt them by taking away the few options that are left to them. Take the extreme case of a very desperate person whose only choices are prostitution and death. How would stopping them from being a prostitute be of help to them? Yo make people better off by widening their choice set, not by narrowing it. FeministWhore says http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l_9gBhyCWw As anyone can see from the video (uploaded by my bud Divinity33372); edited for brevity, Representative Maggart appears to know very little about what she is asking for in this bill. In fact, her response to every question she is given is to repeat herself ad nauseum. I find it not as surprising as it should be that when she is asked what the current penalty for “promoting prostitution” is she doesn’t know. At 12:40, Rep. Floyd seems to get his information on trafficking in persons from tabloids he reads at the barber shop. But hey, it was four pages long. Who votes for these people and do they know they vote on laws based on such things? I also have to grind my teeth at how sloppy everyone in the U.S. is about their terms. Definitions for trafficking in persons: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/22/7102 (8) Severe forms of trafficking in persons The term “severe forms of trafficking in persons” means— (A) sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age; or (B) the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery. (9) Sex trafficking The term “sex trafficking” means the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act. Watching this video it is easy to see how the conflation of consensual and non-consensual solicitation of sex is easily exploited. Rep. Maggart can’t even seem to answer whether someone would be considered “promoting prostitution” if they are promoting themselves. In fact, “promoting prostitution” is never clearly defined. I also have a HUGE problem putting someone not guilty of any violence on a list of violent sex offenders. Two counts of something do not equal a violent offense. It equals a repeat offense. If only we had legislators with the courage to vote in ways that reflect the misgivings many obviously had in the video. This is yet another example of sloppily worded legislation being passed by those who don’t fully understand the issue of trafficking in persons. Who knows how many will suffer for this. I don’t know what can be done about this but I believe this bill will be going to the TN Senate. You can find a list of TN Senators here if you wish to write them about this. http://www.capitol.tn.gov/senate/members/ Thank you for watching and thank you to alowlyapprentice for his help with this video. Video original here: http://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/BillInfo/default.aspx?BillNumber=HB2853 Ms. Daisy Cutter, Gynofascist in a Spiffy Hugo Boss Uniform says I’ll be honest: I have grown increasingly uncomfortable with what is called “sex-positivity,” because so often what is considered “sex-positive” glibly props up existing ideals of female attractiveness and the “men as buyers, women as sellers” paradigm, and because so much sex-positive rhetoric does actually elide issues of privilege and power. (An example of the latter, pertinent to prostitution: The idea that prostitutes “selling their bodies” is no different from office workers “selling their souls,” or food prep work, although the latter two jobs do not entail risks of disease or violence.) That said, And let me add: Telling them what they may and may not wear would fit into that category as well. John Horstman says An example of the latter, pertinent to prostitution: The idea that prostitutes “selling their bodies” is no different from office workers “selling their souls,” or food prep work, although the latter two jobs do not entail risks of disease or violence. Hmm, okay, how about managing garbage or sewage, which carry increased risks of disease, or coal mining or construction work, which carry seriously increased risks of bodily injury? I think anyone arguing that prostitution in the present cultural context is not inflected by specific risks or dynamics of power or privilege (male sexual privilege, rape culture) is flatly wrong, but I also assert that there is nothing intrinsic to any sex work that makes it necessarily different than, say, working at a fast food restaurant or office work were prostitution to take place in a more functional context (possibly provided by legalized brothels in some areas). These people earn pretty darned good… to great salaries, salaries commensurate with the risk taken, have strong unions, earn employment insurance when not working, and have daily safe working environments, and great healthcare plans that take care of them. Sex trades workers don’t have any of this, because it is not a “respectable” activity, not in the mind of the buyers nor in the minds of the sellers. It seems to only acceptable in the minds of people wishing to perpetuate the enslavement of females. And as far as danger goes… garbage collectors and not dying daily, nor are the miners. Miners do die at catastrophes, catastrophes due to corporate greed, and society supports them fully when this happens. The idea that prostitution isn’t respectable is reason that prostitutes are vulnerable to exploitation. If you want protect prostitutes, work to get them accepted as members of the workforce and get their problems taken serious. Also, work to eliminate the poverty trap that sticks people in all kinds of exploitative jobs. Trying to marginalize prostitutes further doesn’t do anyone any favors except the police state. yes the word respectability is a double edge sword. Some attempts have been made to “regulate” in order to make prostitutes safer, but the fact is that when you selling your body for a few bucks will never be respectable. When Hollywood actors prostitute themselves (metaphorically) it is for millions of dollars and glory. Sex trades will never have that, it would be too expensive for the Johns, who are dishonest, lazy, creeps. I used to be prostitute positive too, but I’ve seen its failures. Humans learn, and we must learn. There is no way of making sex trades “respectable” because it is an oxymoron, when the people performing it are slaves, for all intents and purposes. Crap. There have been several examples of prostitutes being respectably throughout history. The temple prostitutes of the Queen of Heaven in the Middle East and the Geishas of Japan are perhaps the most well known examples. I know that TNT has been banhammered, but can I take this opportunity to say how much I loathe the “selling one’s body” description of prostitution? I sold my time and my skill. Just like any other line of work I’ve ever engaged in. Even though I was having sex for money, my body still remained fully under my own control, thank you very much. “Selling one’s body” isn’t a terrible description just for people who engage in prostitution of their own volition, either. Sex slavery and forced prostitution is just that: slavery. No need to beat around the bush in that case, either. Brett says (I’ll keep this short, posted a big reply already) You don’t need a respectable job for unemployment benefits, you just need a legal one you pay taxes on. (at least in Washington state in the U.S. I just wanted to chip in here on the “dangerous jobs” thing. For me, the last resort was an industrial lab where I got $12 per hour to work with numerous chemicals that supposedly had a negative effect on the human digestive system when breathed, and every safety sheet said “we cannot be responsible for what happens if you mix with other chemicals and/or heat”. One of the guys at the lab had to have surgery to repair his esophagus because it was essentially melting away, and I KNOW he was paid less than I was. And again – that’s just in this country. I know that’s generally what we’re talking about, but I should remind folks, since we’re talking about last resorts that there are still people who work in truly horrific conditions without fair pay all the time, and yes, dying every day, without coming near prostitution. That’s not to discount the problems with prostitution, but the notion that other dangerous professions come with good pay is, quite frankly, absurd. I’ve never had a job I would have been willing to do if I wasn’t getting paid for it, and it nearly every case I needed to be getting paid to afford food and shelter. It’s been generally low pay, low respect jobs so far. You’re absolutely right about one thing though, they were all safer from disease (or other work related injury) and malicious clients than prostitution. Where you seem confused is the idea that you seem to think they are inherently safer jobs. They’re not. They’re safer because they’re legal. I worked in pizza delivery, where I would regularly travel to poorly lit areas that I wasn’t always familiar with carrying cash by myself. We were save because we had the protection of the local police, and none of my coworkers ever told me they feared for their safety. I also worked in a factory that processed frozen fish into imitation crab meat. If we weren’t following state imposed safety procedures and the factory didn’t fear government intervention in the case of negligent injuries, I suspect the rate of serious accidents would have gone up significantly. The same applies to prostitution. It’s a job. It has (and always will have) risks. What people who favor legalization want isn’t for the government to accept the current level of risks, we want them to dramatically lower the risks by offering police protection and safety regulations. If it is a job that is distasteful to you, I encourage you to never take that job. I’ve never had a job I would have been willing to do if I wasn’t getting paid for it, and it nearly every case I needed to be getting paid to afford food and shelter. I did. it was stripping, which is generally considered a form of sex work. It was downright pleasant compared to conducting phone surveys, selling phone service, taking catalog orders and explaining bills to customers who had apparently forgotten all post-elementary math. Cool! I hope I’m lucky enough to get a job I don’t feel is something I have to be paid to do, I’m currently being considered for a few software jobs that are like that. Ironically, I’m also applying for the highest paying jobs I’ve ever tried for. kagerato says (An example of the latter, pertinent to prostitution: The idea that prostitutes “selling their bodies” is no different from office workers “selling their souls,” or food prep work, although the latter two jobs do not entail risks of disease or violence.) Take a tangent from this and ask: Why is sex work so much more dangerous than an office job, or working in a restaurant or a bar, or even working in a mine? What is it, exactly, that causes the danger? Isn’t it unsafe, unregulated practices with no supervision? Isn’t it that sex workers cannot take their claims to the police? Isn’t it a sex negative attitude that treats providing sex as “selling your body”, as though someone else could legitimately own it? Isn’t it overt and severe restrictions on where and how one can operate a business, forcing it to stay out of sight (and out of mind)? So as to not offend anyone? I want to ask, specifically, what job — what business — would be the least bit safe in the state of chaos that surrounds sex work? You know, I’d say that any form of work that requires you to let someone else put a part of their body into yours is going to have inherent risks that legality or decriminalization can minimize but not eliminate, because they don’t originate from legal status. She did start providing sources in the comments, but isn’t taking criticism well. Her source for everything is Melissa Farley and her treatment of some commenters is abusive and frankly misogynistic. I’m working on a follow-up piece. My comment currently in moderation contains an unfinished sentence/paragraph: “That said, I believe that banning sex work would cause more problems than it solves.” More detail on Ahmed’s research can be found here at the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender. …was intended to link to this journal article, which is publicly available in full, and well worth reading. Happiestsadist says This post is absolutely stunning. Once you start treating people like criminals, they will respond by acting like criminals. There is a demand for sex work, and that isn’t going to go away as long as the default state of humans is to want sex. The most reasonable approach to adopt is one of harm minimisation. Now, some interesting edge cases will be raised if sex work is legal. For instance, does a sex worker have the right to refuse service to entire groups of people in ways that would be illegal for anybody else in any other line of business? Have Jobcentres the right to force an unemployed person to become a sex worker or lose their benefit, as they can currently do with almost any other job e.g. burger-flipping, floor-sweeping, shelf-stacking? These are all questions that are going to need asking. You hit the nail on the head with your last paragraph, and made the correct argument. Gainful, respectable employment, needs to respect your physical integrity… as someone said here elsewhere, protect the body at all costs. Sex workers are at the opposite end, and it will never be considered respectable “work”, because selling your body will never be acceptable in a society which seeks respectful work. All regulating this traffic can do is minimise harm. Is that really what we want? for the prostitute murder rate to drop a few notches, for the death by disease rate drop a few notches. Will a few extra percentages points make it all ok? My experience with the law is largely limited to the United States, but you seem to misunderstand how the regulations work. It is illegal for most businesses open to the public to refuse to serve someone on the basis of race and several other categories, but this does not imply that any particular employee has to perform any particular act. Employees can and often do continue to be racist dirt bags. They can go as far as to completely sabotage or refuse service. The customer can make demands, obviously, and the employer could reassign or fire their intransigent employee. However, that’s as far as it goes. Customers cannot sue employees or service workers individually no matter how prejudicial their attitudes or behavior are, with the obvious exception of the commission of a crime. There are loopholes around the non-discrimination clauses of the Civil Rights (and subsequent) acts, by the way. One is that they do not apply to private clubs or organizations which do not accept individuals from the public; or in other words, invitation only. Another is that the law does not require businesses to arbitrarily accept customers. A business may refuse service for a very long list of arbitrary reasons, and it’s up to the customer to prove it was really discrimination against a protected class. This nearly always requires a lawsuit, and without a history or trail of evidence, one that is not likely to be won. In any case, where sex work is wholly legal it is typically also legal to refuse service for any reason — and that reason doesn’t even need to be specified. There are no “civil rights” protections in that context, and they aren’t relevant or necessary. You won’t want to be involved with someone who has discriminated against your race, sex, gender identity, orientation, appearance, or so forth to begin with. Indeed, it might be dangerous to your personal safety to try to force the issue. As to “job centres”, I don’t know what you mean. Employment agencies? Government services like unemployment compensation/insurance? Different countries work differently, and every program has its own rules. As far as I understand it, people are not forced to take jobs burger flipping or lose unemployment benefits in the United States. Benefits run for a fixed period and typically require you to be looking for work. They don’t require you to take any particular job, no matter what it is or what it pays. Indeed, if you actually take a job, it will typically cause you to lose any further payments due to exceeding the minimum income threshold. Some countries work differently, of course, but I wonder which one you are speaking of… There’s also the issue that a bunch of different socioeconomic programs get conflated together even though they’re all independent. In the United States, food stamps, child welfare, childhood health insurance, unemployment insurance, state and federal tax exemptions, and others are all different. They’re not directly linked. The TL;DR is yes to the first question and no to the second. SallyStrange: bottom-feeding, work-shy peasant says With regards to unemployment benefits: if you apply for a job, and are offered it, but refuse it, and you’re qualified for it, you can be denied benefits as a result. But that’s only if you apply for the job in the first place. Is there anyone on this blog who actually has any real-life experience of sex work? Who knows what they talk about? We need Transactivisty dammit. I have some experience escorting. I don’t really feel that I can speak for anyone but myself when it comes to the topic of sex work, though… Ok. Do you think that doing sex work has altered your view on regulations and bans? How? I’m not expecting a sociological essay here, I’m perfectly satisfied with a few random thoughts. Well, I was in favor of decriminalization even before I started doing it, so if anything, my experience with prostitution strengthened that opinion. I worked independently and never had any really bad experiences (none of the rape and battery that Ms. Nasreen suggests all sex workers experience) and for the most part, my clients were very respectful of me. The worst I ever had to deal with were the time wasters and guys looking for free phone sex calling my ad number. However, I was well aware that had I been raped, battered, or robbed, there would be no recourse for me under the law, as I live in a country that criminalizes prostitution. (Never mind the fact that I still wouldn’t feel comfortable going to the cops even after mostly retiring from escorting due to law enforcement’s terrible record when it comes to their interactions with trans women.) Just knowing that I wasn’t protected under the law made me feel extremely vulnerable, and that feeling of vulnerability was one of the things that made me stop advertising as an escort. So I suppose you could say that I stopped advertising (partially) as a result of prostitution being criminalized, but I also had enough income from other work to be able to not depend solely on escorting. For sex workers who don’t have other options, though, I can’t think that that feeling of vulnerability will do much toward getting them out of the trade. Criminalization really doesn’t do much good for anybody other than law enforcement, shady pimps, and the well-to-do people running the rescue industry. It certainly doesn’t help sex workers one bit. Dalillama says Yo. I’ve done only peripheral sex work myself, but my partner was a sex worker for the better part of two years (before he started his hormone therapy). we are both entirely in favor of it being legalized and treated as a profession like any other, and he has been known to bemoan the fact that he can’t go back to that job, due to his current body (There’s not a lot of work out there for trans men prostitutes). People who live out confused body images due to the gender stereotyping of females end up at a high frequency on the streets. I, as a female having briefly touched on the trade, cannot understand that heterosexual males are so desperate to pay to put their penis into something that they’re willing to do it with a fake vagina. Transexual sex trade is an entirely different topic. The sore spot that started this discussion is India, where little girls are sold into sex slavery by their families, as is the case with countries active in sex tourism. Are you a transphobe who didn’t realize what blog you were on or a troll? You seem to be seriously arguing that trans women aren’t real women and no one could actually be attracted to them. I don’t think you have any room to accuse anyone else of not carrying about women. You have GOT to be fucking kidding me. It takes all of my willpower to respond to this post in a civil manner, but I will attempt to do so. First, apologize to all trans people everywhere, and make sure you grovel. After that, Please re read my prior post, and tell me where in that post any trans women were mentioned. When you have failed to do this, stop and examine your assumptions. Please do the latter two of these things elsewhere, though. “Confused body issues” due to “gender stereotypes”? You have to be “desperate” to sleep with a “fake” vagina? Congratulations, you ignorant, bigoted asshole! You’re banned! hall-of-rage says Whew. I’m glad you’re willing to ban people like that. They make me avoid comments sections just because I don’t want to deal with seeing that stuff. What’s the correct term? In most cases it won’t be necessary to differentiate, but if it is? I’ve heard “neovagina” – is that the word? Yes. If you absolutely need to differentiate, neo-vagina is what you go with. Sally Strange says Stop it right there. That’s disgustingly bigoted against trans people and it won’t fly here. Why is it that the bigotry always comes out after they’ve smeared a bunch of nonsense over half a dozen posts? Aargh. Oooooh… I was wondering about the banhammer references farther up the page. Now I understand… I actually tried sex work myself — but only once. Halfway through administering a hand job to a man on whom I had taken pity but who was by now increasingly showing himself up as an old creep with each passing second, I lost my nerve. I told him to close his eyes and wait — then I slipped out the front door, leaving him unfulfilled and me unpaid but nonetheless slightly relieved. The job I had at the time wasn’t good, but I wasn’t quite ready to trade it for that just then. I’ve been out of words lately. Used to have lots of them, but I’ve said them over and over so many times that sometimes they just decide to stay inside. But your words here were wonderful. ♥ In this you and I are in complete and total agreement. All ethics in a Liberal framework come back to bodily autonomy. It is the underpinning of every right: protections from violence, freedom of thought, due process, “pursuit of happiness” all come back to bodily autonomy. It’s also why I support repealing drug laws and sex laws (including prohibition of sex work), guaranteeing people a right to die, and extending full legal rights and protections to trans, intersexed, or otherwise sex/gender-binary-nonconforming persons (even if I frequently disagree with people about the theoretical frameworks that best explain or represent underlying trans ontologies). Prostitution is problematic because of a combination of patriarchy, rape culture, and a market capitalist economic system that fosters widespread poverty that can coerce women (and men, and others) into survival sex work (and even in that context, prohibiting prostitution, if effective at ending the practice, would render the people forced into it for survival unable to survive, which is frankly worse; if ineffective, as it presently is, it further punishes people who have no other recourse for survival). StealthBadger says Very well said, and thank you. I didn’t look at it from a very comprehensive view because I wanted to focus on the idea of yet another one of us “godless” ones who nevertheless feels hooked into a higher trooth that is beyond question. You knocked this one out of the park. Dale says That was extremely well written and the point of respecting self-determination, even when it is not understood, is important. I honestly don’t get why some people do some things with their bodies, like branding, but it is their choice. WilloNyx says I am pleased you approached this from this angle. I have read Greta argue eloquently on the topic of prostitution several times. I had not fully considered the implication of Taslima’s choice of words as a means to strip a person of their agency. I have to say that you and Greta have done a wonderful job challenging the notion that sex work is inherently exploitative and without full accepting consent. People should have the right to do stuff with their bodies. Even if those things are exploitative, or stupid, or silly, or unwise in your eyes. It is a choice that we ought to be able to make as adult men and women alike whether our sexual services are to be given as gifts and/or paid services to other adult men and women who consent to either recieve them as gifts and/or pay for them. Monica Maldonado says What I find stunning about these arguments, is they almost always come from someone who has never done sex work or never been put in a position where they were pressured to do it by socioeconomic circumstance. I never see this as an issue of “sex-negativity” or “sex-positivity” or anything along those lines. I see it as a body autonomy issue. Just as I see the fact that I inject hormones into my body and have for more than a decade as an act of exercising my own autonomy I see the sex work I’ve done in the past as the same. My body, my right. I will make this clear: the only way to end “survival” sex work, and trafficking, (of which trans women are a surprisingly high number of victims [The numbers are really poor since they only recently started collecting data, but it ranges anywhere from 5%-36% of all trafficking victims are trans women worldwide.]) the only way to end these things is to improve the standing and agency of women, including our financial freedom. Obviously this effects women of colour at much greater rates, but ultimately, we need to make it easier for women to find food in any number of ways, and give them the choices and options to DO it. Trans women are often a perfect example of this complex system at work. Trans women are pushed out of the employment and housing pool in many ways. Through denying us access to education, healthcare and agency we are eliminated from the employment pool before we even get to the resume. And thanks to legal hoops, document troubles, cisnormative concepts of appearance, and “normative standards” trans women are often pushed out of employment at the interview. In addition to that but the often astronomically high cost of medicine placed onto trans women places our minimum living wage at much higher than many other women. Many of us are then pressured by ALL of society to make the “easy” choice of sex work. It’s so foreign to most people that they can’t even fathom this realm of “survival” sex work. But I’ll tell you, doing sex work when I did it was a lot less degrading than being probed with personal, sexual, and invasive questions at a job interview on the basis of my sex and still being denied the position out of some feigned concern for their customers well being. It was the only job I could get that could reasonably support me. And it was just that, a job. and the idea of haughtily proclaiming “you can’t call it sex work, because sex isn’t work” is patently absurd and seems a lot putting your fingers in your ear and ignoring the facts. Because the response to “sex isn’t work” will always be, “sometimes it is.” So, that’s it. The solution is to give us the agency to make those choices, but also allow us the agency to NOT make them. Yes this means, shocker, going into the poor neighborhoods and helping the most vulnerable populations BEFORE they “resort” to sex work, and offering resources for current sex workers if they want them. But if you outlawed sex work even more than it already was? You’d be cutting off the only lifeline many women (and men) have. You’d be cutting off our only chance at a happy life. It’s not about exchanging one agency for another, it’s about opening up choice and option so we can make those decisions for ourselves. And no matter what, I’ll always resent someone who has never been in that position telling me what it is/was, and how I should feel about it. And I will always resent someone who tells me that exercising my own autonomy over my self and body in order to find a way to live and survive somehow made me a tool of the patriarchy because, frankly, I’ve had just about ENOUGH of feminists telling me that I’m a tool of the patriarchy… Thank you, Monica. <3 U! Completely secular “Amen!” to this! Absolutely. To summarize a comment I left on Greta’s post, this issue is basically a microcosm which reflects larger issues in society with regards to poverty, job opportunity, and women. Only very significant and coordinated activity to address the economic issues that underlie it will fix this. There are many proposals for ways forward, but some variant of a basic minimum income, guaranteed health insurance, and government job programs seem to cover the most ground. This ideas are typically considered too “radical”, but I think they are only genuinely radical from the perspective of the already rich and powerful. karmakin says This is exactly where I stand. I have sympathy with the concept that due to economic and social conditions that it can be not a real choice, however the solution isn’t to ban it, it’s to change the economic and social conditions to ensure that it IS a real choice. Grimalkin says I’m glad to see you speaking out against this too. I checked out Talisma’s post on sex slavery just to get an impression of her and.. ugh. Very bad first impression, and the way she’s acting in the comments doesn’t help. I hate how it’s being assumed over there that anyone voicing support for legalizing prostitution is just a creepy man that wants to objectify women. I’m voicing my support for it because I support every person’s right to choose what they do with their body, because I’m tired of being TOLD what women really think/choose/want/etc and that they don’t know what they want, because I hate how sex is being treated as dirty/degrading/special/sacred/something only men like/what have you, and because of all of the instances of men and women who do legitimately enjoy prostitution whose bodily autonomy is being hurt by people who want to tell them what they can and can’t do with their own. goddamned. bodies, because they think that they can’t possibly enjoy prostitution. Hell, I could make a list of fetishes and fetishists that specifically, if not exclusively, benefit from legal sex work. Of course, those people probably just aren’t “sane” to her. Brainwashed, or something. …/vent Anyways, on the subject of this post specifically, it really helped me understand specifically why her post annoyed me so much (aside from the rampant sex-negativity). Namely, bodily autonomy. As I read her post I was definitely getting notes of “women don’t know what they want!”, but you likening it to the similar issues that trans* folk and pro-choice people face really cleared up what made it seem so awful. I bet that there are very similar “Lies and Truths” lists out there for transgenderism and abortion, right down to the lack of citations and unsubstantiated “truths”. Dammit, *Taslima. I even tried to make a point to not do that. I’d go farther than that. Her reply to Maggie Mayhem shows a lot more contempt for sex workers than your average john does and does more to dehumanize them. Avicenna says In Taslima’s defence? I would suggest tempering your stance at her by realising that she isn’t from the west. She follows a stance based on her own cultural upbringing and is just as guilty of bias as you are based on your culture. She comes from a fairly conservative muslim background. You are a product of the sexual revolution. So to her she only sees the abuse and cannot see the alternative. It’s a very very common viewpoint in the subcontinent to the sex workers. I also feel her grasp of English may be confusing people, it’s not her first language and god knows I butcher it even though it’s mine, so I fear there may be some loss in translation. She appears to be writing in response to a post in The Hindu (a Newspaper in India) about Prostitution and in that article, Gloria Steinem appears to make similar comments. She may also be discussing prostitution in India (she mentions it at the start of the article). But apart from that you are pretty much spot on. Just keep those things in mind as to why her opinion is being tarnished. Oh and I am unaware of where she is living at this point. If she is like me then she is also living on the sub-continent and therefore on my Crazy O Clock rather than most posters who are american so her approving comments will take some time due to the fact she may be asleep or out doing stuff and the like. (Just thought you should have a heads up. I do like the work!) I think she’s in Indonesia at the moment, due to the fatwa, the prices on her head, her exile from Bangladesh, etc. Amazing post, Natalie. I admire your ability to keep your focus trained (yes, like a laser!) on that central issue of bodily autonomy. carolw says Wow, this is an amazing post, and the comments are illuminating. And you’re down one finger! Natalie, you’re one of my favorite bloggers, and posts like this are why. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Rilian says To stop the enslavement of black people, just make it illegal for them to have jobs, right? …No? Sophia says I think of makeup and high-heels. Overwhelmingly, it is women who learn to wear these uncomfortable shoes and go through the inconvenience of painting their faces. Men rarely touch these things. Why? Because women are judged on their looks more than men are. Makeup is just stuff you put on your face. High-heels are just things you put on your feet. There’s no moral aspect to it. The problem is the patriarchal culture which designates these things as feminine and what that signifies about women’s place in the culture. Would we ever ban the practice of wearing them? No. The problem isn’t the make-up or the individual women who wear it. It’s patriarchy, as usual. Sex work is in that position. Having sex for money has no inherent moral qualities, as long as choices are being made freely and safely by all involved. But, because of the patriarchy, it’s women who are most often forced into these positions for the pleasure of men. Legally, I can’t see any logical reason for banning sex work. The government is in the business of protecting its citizens and their rights. Objectification doesn’t demand government action unless rights are being violated. Only poor woman do it out of desperation? You’re treating a symptom, not a cause. Fight poverty first. If a woman is choosing prostitution to survive, then you’ve cut out her only means of support and left her worse off. Women are forced into prostitution? If young women are kidnapped and forced to do hard manual labor against their will, we don’t make hard manual labor illegal. That’s silly. It’s the kidnapping, coercion, force, etc. that is the issue. Fight those things. Lots of things objectify women. Hell, just about EVERYTHING objectifies women. Yah make a blog dedicated to ranting about it if it bothers you; you don’t pass legislation. It’s only hurting those who you want to protect. Women aren’t babies. They can make choices. The point is to give them freedom to make those choices without the patriarchy pressuring them to do one thing or another, whether through outright violence and blatant misogyny or subtle disapproval. Preach it, sister. echidna says It’s the kidnapping, coercion, force, etc. that is the issue. Fight those things. As someone who was kidnapped by a well-coordinated ring (I was lucky – you could call it a foiled attempt, or an prompt rescue), I couldn’t agree more. The thing is, I was not even ten years old. I know from other incidents at the time that it’s not too hard to convince someone that they have made choices that they need to stick by. Distinguishing coercion from free-choice is not that easy. There’s certainly a grey area, because life is like that. I think we should err on the side of choice rather than coercion but life is messy. So.. do you think that children should be allowed to have jobs? That’s such a broad question… children of what age? 3-year olds? 15-year olds? What kind of jobs? Chimney sweep? Selling ice cream on the beach? It can’t be answered in one go. But I don’t like regulations, no. I think as much as possible should be left up to the individual (in this case the legal guardians). The problem with that tack is that it can and does routinely lead to horrific abuses, both intentional and non. These abuses include of course the child labor issues that existed before the laws were in place, but also the horrific child rearing methods advocated by the Pearls and their ilk homeschoolers mis educating their children with creationism (See Libby Anne’s blog among others for more on those) antivaxxers and christian scientists, etc. , Simply being fertile does not make a person the best arbiter of any child’s welfare. And there should be a mechanism for taking away children from careless or negligent parents. Well of course she gives emotional arguments. She wrote that she’s seen some of the worst of what the sex trade can do. I think if that’s your reality, then it’s hard to talk to someone about decriminalization and dealing with the causes and problems of sex work, unless they make a clear, and more than just passing, acknowledgment of how bad sex work can get. I’ve seen the worst of what drug use can do, but that doesn’t mean I’m unable to think reasonably about the issue and what is and isn’t going to actually help the victims. I think the problem is that she’s seen only the bad sides of sex work. And if you argue from that point, you argue from a pretty skewed view of reality. hall_of_rage says Both good points (you and Natalie). Bia says I’ve lost not one, but two very dear friends to heroin addiction. In both cases I can see the choices they made, and the external / internal pressure that influenced those decisions. As horrible as it is to watch someone you love be so completely devoured by a drug, I still don’t see how criminalizing it is going to help. Note, I’m not equating sex work and drug addiction, there are for certain overlaps, but at the end of the day there are positives that come from drug use, just as there are positives to sex work. Some people can do drugs in moderation, and it never leads to the horrible outcomes you see in films like trainspotting. Some people enjoy sex work and are fortunate enough to pursue that as a means to support themselves without ever being victims of violence or contracting diseases. Long story short, we shouldn’t tell people what they can and can’t do with their bodies. I think it’s simpler than that. The first reaction most people have to something they don’t like is to ban it. It seldom does any good, but there it is. No, it’s even simpler than that. Blatant transphobia is not permitted on my blog. My platform is not going to be used for the promotion of concepts it was constructed to oppose. Are we talking about Taslima or TNT here? I thought we talked about Taslima? I realize it was ambiguous, but I interpreted James K’s comment as referring to the (often misguided) impulse of governments to address actual or perceived social problems by banning them, as with the criminalization of drugs and of the sex industry. I didn’t think he was talking about you banning people from your blog. (Of course I could be wrong.) Yes, I was speaking of Taslima’s desire to ban prostitution, not Natalie’s banning of TNT. Booting a disruptive and irritating person off a blog is a wholly different thing from the government prohibiting something, and as a policy analyst I spend most of my time thinking about the latter, not the former. I left several comments at Taslima Nasreen’s blog which, a day later, are still in moderation. (She linked Nicholas Kristof approvingly, so I provided the links from my post above, illustrating why I find Kristof and International Justice Mission problematic.) moulton says Walton wrote:”I left several comments at Taslima Nasreen’s blog which, a day later, are still in moderation.” Are you sure they are in moderation? The reason I ask is that yesterday evening I posted a comment at Taslima Nasreen’s blog and saw it show up. Then a few hours later it was not there. So I thought perhaps I had made a mistake or there had been a software glitch. So I reposted my comment and on a different computer checked that it had posted and even took a screenshot of it. This morning it was missing again. What is going on? 1) It’s a new blog, so almost everything is going to be held in moderation, as are all comments from first-time moderators. 2) She might still just be trying to get used to the system and figure out how to work it. Yep. I know my posts are in moderation, because, when logged in, I can see them on the thread, with “Your comment is awaiting moderation” next to my name. I also know that they were caught automatically in the moderation filter because I haven’t commented on her blog before, and/or because I posted too many links at once. So there’s certainly nothing deliberate here. I’m just being grouchy about the FTB auto-moderation filter, which I find generally annoying. (I like to include a lot of links to relevant evidence in my posts, in general, and I often get caught in moderation. I’ve noticed that Pharyngula allows more links per post than other blogs do, and am not sure why this is.) Trust me, that filter is there for very, very good reason. You wouldn’t much enjoy an FTB without it. Yeah. I run a far less popular WordPress site and get a couple spams a day. Something with a decent Google rank like FTB would get swarmed. A lot of the bots are pretty sophisticated now and will do this like quote parts of your post in the body, or just say they really liked what you had to say, then include the spam link as their personal website, so their name links to it. The most clever one I saw managed to act like an outraged internet dude, referenced a controversial item that was in the news (Trayvon Martin), and randomly name-checked another commenter from the thread calling him an asshole. But yeah… I get somewhere around 500 a day. Oh, I understand entirely why the spam filter exists (my own poor little blog, with its five or so readers, still gets linkspammed by bots on a daily basis). Apologies… I’m just being grumpy today. (But perhaps you could do what PZ does: restrict commenting to registered users only, but allow more links per post? Though there may be some technical reason why this isn’t possible; or I might be misunderstanding PZ’s policy, which I know only through trial and error.) Thanks for info about the moderation. I guess what confused me was after I put the comment in for the second time in the Taslima blog I went to a totally different computer and went to the blog and saw my comment with all of the other comments; I even took a screen shot of it. And now it has vanished and I am not even getting any “in moderation” message. It seems to me that the Natalie and Greta blogs are the best Freethought blogs for discussing these issues. So Natalie thanks again for the information and thanks for your interesting posts. My comments on her blog are in moderation too, and I don’t think she’d have any reason not to let them through. Let’s assume she is busy with life (quite a life!), and hope that more discussion on her blog will happen soon enough. My comments have appeared now, so the problem seems to be fixed. I expect it was just a technical issue. I should add that I certainly don’t deny that the sex industry is often horribly exploitative and abusive. I just don’t think, based on the evidence, that banning the trade and forcibly “rescuing” sex workers is a good idea; in reality, this approach is harming those it’s meant to help. In the same way that I don’t deny the terrible consequences of hard drug addiction, but I also think, based on the evidence, that the “War on Drugs” has been a disaster and that decriminalizing drugs would be the best way to help addicts (for reasons Natalie has explained in previous posts far more eloquently than I could). I wish that, as a society, we could stop jumping from “X is bad” to “X should be a crime”. Criminalization is generally a very bad means of dealing with social problems; it’s usually ineffective, and it always has harmful consequences. Lou Doench says I’m really appalled at how quickly the “Dear Muslima…” argument has been raised in this debate. I thought we were past that ’round these parts. It’s as if any argument in favor of sex-positivity, the reality of sex-work in the first world, just about anything Greta brings up can be dismissed because the world is a really messed up place and don’t you silly feminists have something better to argue about? an analogy, I partially dislocated my hip the other day. It hurts like hell. The fact that other people may have a completely fractured pelvis may provide perspective, but it doesn’t make it hurt any less. Just some pulled muscles… whew! Chirico says It’s really hard for me to respect Ms.Nasreen’s views when she makes a post like this, then another the next day, completely ignoring all the feedback that her colleagues and readers gave, going right back to arguments from emotion and loaded language. Then she makes a post about the evils of pornography, using similarly emotionally charged language such as linking pornography as a whole to pedophilia and characterizing it as existing “exclusively for men’s pleasure.” This betrays an amazingly dated view of pornography that in no way reflects the current reality. Women watch and enjoy porn, women make porn, completely on their own volition, completely free and for it’s own sake. I think it’s incredibly dishonest of her to try to lump together consenting adults doing perfectly legal activities and the very real problem of child rape and sexual abuse, and frankly it’s quite offensive. I don’t doubt that she has seen and experienced first-hand horrors which I could not even begin to imagine, or that she has contributed much to the empowerment and freedom of women, and I can certainly respect her for those accomplishments, but that doesn’t mean she gets a free pass to be intellectually or emotionally dishonest. It’s really a shame that she’s starting her run on FtB like this. godless says Blog post: Oh but IS prostitution “sex slavery”? “As you can see, the form of trafficking in persons that involves force, fraud, coercion or anything involving a minor is officially defined as “SEVERE sex trafficking”. “Sex trafficking” as defined by the OFFICIAL definitions in the U.S. CODE does not involved any force, fraud or coercion AT ALL! This OFFICIAL definition for “sex trafficking” may seem like a small issue to some. Many may say “oh, but we know what it actually means.” I can not stress this enough to those of you out there wanting to be knowledgeable about this issue. This official conflation between forced and not forced IS the issue! This IS their victory! It’s one think for such conflations to happen in the media and in propaganda but it is quite another for them to become law. This seems to validate the conflations and blanket statements prohibitionists like Nasreen make in many people’s eyes. Unfortunately, many Americans tend not to decide what is right by what is true but rather by what the law says. I explain how this official conflations came to be in the video below. http://agodlessstrumpet.wordpress.com/2012/04/12/oh-but-is-prostitution-sex-slavery/ I think you have an important point there. The official legal definitions are critical; they’re not some mere triviality. When the government assigns a definition in a way that has a clear political or ideological slant, they can then abuse this poor definition in the citation of any official statistics. This has the precursor markings of propaganda. Following your link, certainly it is also the case that this entire debate is a mere subset of vast and growing labor abuses. It is absolutely essential we not overlook attacks on labor rights, the ability to make a living wage, or fundamental standards in the amount and type of work that people are being asked to do. Likewise, there is something very bizarre about any feminist even temporarily allying themselves with figures closely linked to theocrats and authoritarians among the right wing. Those people do not and have never wanted what is best for women. Anything they desire in that context should be seen with suspicion. I know it sounds trite, but an attack on any worker is an attack on all workers. Exploiting the weakest and most vulnerable people in society is always where ideological campaigns begin, but it’s rarely where they end. Yes and TN’s opening quote couldn’t have made it any clearer that she denies or at least minimizes the seriousness of LABOR trafficking: ‘We say that slavery has vanished from European civilization, but this is not true. Slavery still exists, but now it applies only to women and its name is prostitution.’ —VICTOR HUGO, Les Misérables As if people who are trafficked for other forms of labor are not raped. People tend to forget that sex worker rights is largely a LABOR rights movement. An alliance of convenience with the mainstream right is also what keeps them away from the role the U.S. failed immigration policy plays in human trafficking putting many sex worker rights advocates in a position to be immigrants rights advocates as well. This is something I talk about extensively in this video on trafficking & immigration http://youtu.be/RbxMTLBpp2w and supported by this interview I did with a stripper who fell through the cracks of this immigration policy and got trapped in the sex industry. http://youtu.be/GjjcDg-PxLc Quick question asked because, not being massively into two-person sex, I honestly don’t know the answer: Is it possible for a man to be horny specifically for two-person sex, in such a way as he cannot satisfy himself by means of one-person sex alone? (Obviously this sample size will be small, so beware of hasty generalisations …..) If it weren’t, I don’t think any of us would have two-person sex, considering how much trouble it causes. I’m not entirely sure whether you’re specifically referring to multiple partners, one-on-one, masturbation, phone sex, or whatnot. There are notable psychological and social differences between all of them, though, so whichever the answer would still be yes. There is an extreme degree of variation in sexual desire. Chances are, if you can imagine someone wanting that and only that, you can probably also find a real person with that orientation. It’s the same as being hungry for chocolate, or onions, or whatever. Other fare fills but does not satisfy. Luna_the_cat says Slightly off topic, but a woman I knew as an undergraduate worked as an escort to help pay her tuition. Her favourite client was an old guy who paid her to tie him to a chair and throw oranges at his balls from across the room, $10/hit. Go figure. More on topic, thank you for a discussion which hit on a lot of points that had been niggling at the back of my mind but which I had never managed to clarify on my own. You’ve helped me put some of my own thoughts into words, now, and given me a lot more besides to chew over. I would say more, but I’m still chewing. Maude LL says Thank you. I just read your post (late), and I appreciated your eloquent voice in this debate. I was troubled by Talisma’s posts on the sex industry for that very reason of agency; I feel like this infantilization of women who don’t belong to one’s narrative is destructive. Particularly when delivered as self-evident statement, without a shred of empirical evidence (this is freethougth blogs after all). You, Greta and Richard responded with class. The Hypothetical Bus Stop says: […] has been getting a lot of pushback for her article that I wrote about last night. Natalie Reed put up a great piece this morning connecting the ideas of the anti-sex-work movement to all those others that try to […] Taslima Nasrin’s baffling posts on prostitution \| The Uncredible Hallq says: […] Blogs team. The first one equated prostitution with slavery. After criticism by Greta and Natalie (as well as a relevant guest post at Crommunist’s blog), Taslima then posted this response. […] Oh but IS prostitution “sex slavery”? \| AGodlessStrumpet says: […] would like to thank Gretta Christina, Natalie Reed and Crommunist at Freethoughtblogs for holding people accountable for what is being said about sex […] No, a blog should not be like Wikipedia « The Hypothetical Bus Stop says: […] prostitution is hardly a “politically correct” idea. More importantly, look at Natalie and Greta‘s articles. Neither can be summarized as “You can’t say that. It’s […] Sharing the love « The Lady Garden says: […] that we must not erase sex workers own accounts of how they approach their work. Natalie Reed, in But Seriously, Prostitution is not Sex Slavery, talks about autonomy, and being free to make your own choices, no matter how odd those choices […] Taslima Nasreen, are you a skeptic or not? \| AGodlessStrumpet says: […] goodness. Eat it up now Taz because you’re on a site with the likes of Gretta Christina, Natalie Reed and others who take their skepticism seriously. I hope your place on the site is questioned and […] PHMT: Patriarchy Hurts Men Too \| Sally Strange says: […] and that no woman truly consents to either. Other bloggers, particularly Greta Christina and Natalie Reed, have pointed out the weaknesses in Taslima’s arguments. Had she simply included the caveat […] Week Of The Anti-Porn Crazaa, Part 3: Taslima Nasreen Puts The “Taz” In Anti-Sex Work/Anti-Porn Hysteria \| Red Garter Club Blog (Version 3.2) says: […] TN’s hackery and delusionary hyperbole, and offering a much more diverse picture of sex work. Natalie Reed and Richard Carrier have also posted trenchant criticisms of Nasreen in their own network blogs as […] Leave a Reply to Ms. Daisy Cutter, Gynofascist in a Spiffy Hugo Boss Uniform Cancel reply	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10832
__label__wiki	0.716917	0.716917	Print Countering Individual Jihad: Perspectives on Nidal Hasan and Colleen LaRose Countering Individual Jihad: Perspectives on Nidal Hasan and Colleen LaRose By: Dr. Peter K. Forster In December 2011, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told an interviewer that the risk of attacks by so-called "lone wolves," individuals with no apparent ties to known extremist networks or conspiracies, is on the rise, and is an indication that the global terrorist threat has shifted.1 Secretary Napolitano's statement is a sobering assessment of the violent Islamist threat to the United States. While her definition characterizes a particular kind of perpetrator, however, in today's networked world the individual is not as isolated, and is perhaps more dangerous, than previously assumed. To deal with these changes, new counter-measures need to be adopted. The internet has been widely recognized as a multi-faceted tool for terrorist groups for quite some time, but recent digital innovations such as social media networks have improved the virtual connectivity of the individual, not simply to an organization but to the entire terrorism process.2 Exemplified by the Unabomber, the stereotypical "lone wolf " is a person who acts alone without orders or even connections to an organization.3 These independent terrorists are still a danger, but access to the internet has given rise to others who consciously seek motivation and training online, or are systematically identified and cultivated by online facilitators, such as spiritual advisers, recruiters, or "link-men," to pursue violent jihad.4 These individual jihadists are not as isolated as we assume the "lone wolf " to be. Digital forensics show that their online activities, such as email communications, on-line searches for information on potential targets, and even online ideological statements, create "digital exhaust" that erodes the individual jihadist's anonymity.5 The debate regarding the internet's effectiveness in inciting an individual's progression from "indoctrination" to "jihadization," (i.e., violent Islamist extremism) continues.6 This article contributes to this debate by examining the individual jihad, in which the individual embraces a violent Salafist ideology in his or her personal world, but is ultimately incited to actual violence through virtual interactions. It examines this phenomenon's impact through two U.S.-centric cases that provide evidence that on-line "jihadization" can occur when inspired or systematically managed by an online facilitator. The first explores how virtual interactions contributed to Nidal Hasan's decision to attack fellow soldiers at Fort Hood in November 2009. The second shows how internet communications were used to identify, vet, and ultimately impel Colleen LaRose to recruit individuals, solicit funds for a terrorist organization, and plan an attack. A decade after the attacks of September 11, 2001, extreme Islamist terrorism reflects the maturation of al Qaeda's ability to inspire through ideology even as the core organization deteriorates. It is the manifestation of an ideological spread, and an individual be incited to act, without any face-to-face interactions. This process is accomplished through a progressive exploitation of the internet and associated technologies as powerful tools for communication, information sharing, and information analytics. Against this background, the following questions provide a context for examining the individual jihadist who has a global reach and global connections through digital media: How are terrorists using the internet to incite individuals to violence? When does radical belief constitute terrorism and a security issue in an online environment? How might counterterrorist experts combat the individual jihad? This article challenges some of the traditional perspectives on the role of the internet in motivating terrorism. As proposed here, it may be possible to prove intent to commit terrorism without waiting for a physical act of violence, by assessing the "digital exhaust" from online activities. After discussing the two case studies of Hasan and LaRose, the article suggests some potential counter-strategies available through forensic analysis. Technology Extends the Jihad The "multiplicity and interconnectedness of threats and actors," including the fact that small groups have greater access to lethal technologies, is considered by U.S. officials to be the most serious danger to U.S. national security.7 This reality is not lost on the terrorists. Technology has played a role in both al Qaeda's growth and its devolution. Al Qaeda's Afghanistanbased core, responsible for planning and executing terror attacks from 1998 to 2002, embraced technology both as a media platform and a planning tool. The 9/11 Commission Report describes Muhammad Atta emailing flight schools to ask the cost of training, and using the internet to conduct financial transactions and find housing while planning the 9/11 attacks.8 After al Qaeda was driven from its Afghan safe haven in 2002, the internet's importance to jihadists increased. Between 2003 and 2007, al Qaeda's central media group grew its operations from six to 97 annual productions, which were disseminated primarily via the internet.9 Internet jihadists such Younis Tsouli (a.k.a. Irahibi007) and Malika al Aroud used the online environment to recruit, propagandize, train for, and conduct cyber-attacks.10 By 2008, al Qaeda's core recognized that the internet reduced the time and costs of operational communications while increasing the scope of informationsharing among geographically disbursed groups.11 The jihadists had shifted from being consumers of information to "networked participants." This process has continued and will intensify as operational competency migrates to associated movements.12 Osama bin Laden was pre-occupied with attacking the United States, perhaps to the detriment of considering regional targets and other strategies.13 His diminished relevance over the past few years and subsequent death, however, led to a resurrection of the individual jihad. A primary advocate of this strategy is Abu Musab al-Suri, a strategic-minded, innovative, and ideologically grounded al Qaeda leader, who either escaped or was released from a Syrian jail in February 2012. Prior to his capture in November 2005, al-Suri openly disagreed with bin Laden's "America first" strategy in favor of the individual jihad, the foundation of which is found in his treatise, The Global Islamic Resistance Call. His arguments have recently been re-printed in the online magazine Inspire, produced by the group al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). In these articles, al-Suri extolled the value of the individual jihad as a reasonable response to Islam's "humiliation."14 He declared that military success would result from spontaneous operations that confuse local and international intelligence, while such actions would also provide operational security for the larger organization by ensuring that the disruption of one cell does not influence another.15 The individual jihad is, as he described it, geographically independent. As reflected in the 2005 London bombings, which he masterminded, al-Suri encouraged individuals to resist assimilation and participate in jihad where they are.16 He also advocated centering the jihad in Yemen.17 His strategy was further endorsed by Anwar al-Awlaki, the now-deceased American-born imam and AQAP leader, who called upon Muslims in the West to either leave and live among Muslims, or stay behind and follow the violent example of Nidal Hasan, the individual jihad's poster child.18 The online environment is reducing geographic distance, improving security, and accelerating the individual jihad. By leveraging connectivity, the virtual environment globalizes local issues and creates a broad self-selecting echo chamber in which a community forms around shared ideas, indoctrinates itself, and blurs the incremental movement from radicalization to violent jihad. The echo chamber serves the individual jihad well. It allows individuals to bond virtually to the ideology and religious perspectives of extremists, a key part of the training process that usually occurs in the training camps, but it does not create the human bond of direct contact.19 Furthermore, attacks such as Abdulhakim Muhammad's on an Arkansas army recruiting center in 2009, or Mohamed Merah's killing of three school children and three French paratroopers in Toulouse in March 2012, epitomize the individual jihad's effectiveness, particularly when juxtaposed against the failures of centrally planned plots. The internet's anonymity and accessibility also change the operational paradigm by providing opportunities for online vetting, training, and operational direction. Increasingly, Facebook and Twitter serve to re-post material and share content more quickly, thus expanding the capability of the individual jihad.20 The internet keeps the constituency in constant contact with the material and each other, while frustrating attempts by law enforcement and intelligence agencies to disrupt access. Leveraging online networks is accelerating the linkages between the successors of long-established groups with organizational structure (i.e., command and control, and a training apparatus), and a new collection of self-radicalized individuals.21 While both "lone wolves" and individual jihadists can be characterized as self-recruited, leaderless thrill seekers connected via cyberspace,22 the latter participate in an interactive online environment with a facilitator, rather than on their own. The Individual Jihad: Two Cases The individual jihad has many faces and unique operational tendencies. The ability of law enforcement and intelligent analysts to recognize a "lone wolf " is hindered by a lack of information about the perpetrator, his motives, and objectives. As noted by U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman, a "lone wolf 's" available profile typically is limited, attacks are planned without guidance, and the lack of co-conspirators makes it less likely that intelligence analysts and law enforcement will be able to identify a plot or the plotter prior to the attack.23 The cases of Colleen LaRose (a.k.a. Jihad Jane) and Nidal Hasan, by contrast, represent individuals who are connected and recognizable. These cases provide insight into the individual jihad process in the United States, and represent a threat that is contrary to both the conventional wisdom of the "lone wolf " and the assumption that face-to-face contact is needed to incite effective jihadization. Each perpetrator had ongoing interactions with an online facilitator, although the roles of those individuals differed. In the Hasan case, Anwar al-Awlaki's spiritual guidance compelled Hasan to become a jihadi foot soldier. LaRose interacted with a handler who developed her as a "manager."24 While both facilitators sought to channel their charges' desires to participate in violent jihad, the handler in the LaRose case took a more active role in vetting his recruit and then operationalizing a plot. Together these cases illustrate a variety of virtual interactions, and suggest inferences between the online interactions and ultimately violent action. Furthermore, a review of the indictments and court transcripts help define the legal threshold online interactions must cross to establish terrorist intent. Nidal Hasan U.S. Army Major Nidal Hasan opened fire at the Soldier Readiness Center in Fort Hood, Texas on November 5, 2009, killing 13 and wounding 32 before being wounded himself and captured. The following brief synopsis of events leading up to the shooting focuses on the importance of Hasan's online interactions with al-Awlaki as the catalyst to his jihadization. Although Hasan harbored radical ideas prior to renewing communications with al-Awlaki in 2008, the online communications are possibly significant in his decision to take action. Hasan first met al-Awlaki in 2001, while the latter was the imam at the Dar al-Hijrah Mosque in Falls Church, Virginia, where Hasan worshiped.25 The cleric reportedly presided at Hasan's mother's funeral around that time.26 The death of his mother and his connection to al-Awlaki were possible catalysts to Hasan's radicalization.27 Hasan became increasingly vocal in expressing his Islamist beliefs, and his radicalization apparently reached a "crescendo" in 2007-2008, when he is believed to have published a pamphlet entitled "Martyrdom in Islam versus Suicide Bombing;" after that, however, his public displays dissipated.28 In December 2008, after a seven-year hiatus, he renewed e-mail contact with al-Awlaki, and over the next ten months communicated with him eighteen times. At one point, al-Awlaki sent Hasan a copy of "44 Ways of Supporting Jihad," which urges Muslims to defend Islam through violence.29 Hasan responded by asking if he were allowed to kill fellow soldiers.30 While reports indicate that al-Awlaki did not order Hasan to take action, when understood within the context of al-Awlaki's ability to inspire individuals to violent action, his counsel was likely influential.31 Al-Awlaki had inspirational and operational contacts with a range of terrorists, including Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian who tried to blow-up a U.S.- bound flight from Amsterdam on December 25, 2009, and Faisal Shahzad, who tried to set off a homemade car bomb in New York's Times Square in May 2010. Furthermore, al-Awlaki proudly claimed Hasan as "one of his students." 32 Finally, a February 2011 report by U.S. Senators Joseph Lieberman and Susan Collins clearly indicates that failure by the FBI and the Defense Criminal Investigation Service to flag Hasan's numerous communications with al-Awlaki, through which one plausibly could infer the radicalizing nature of the relationship, was instrumental in their inability to recognize him as a threat.33 At a minimum, Hasan's interactions with al-Awlaki were an accelerant to jihadization, but how this fact is addressed at trial illustrates a significant obstacle to successfully countering the individual jihad. In the Hasan case, the FBI focused on the occurrence (or previous non-occurrence) of a terrorist act, rather than the individual's apparent intent to commit violence, and thereby neglected the counterterrorism process of inferring capability and intent.34 The prosecution might use the virtual connections with al-Awlaki to demonstrate intent to commit terrorism, but these probably will be considered secondary to the murder evidence. Thus, the commission of a clearly prosecutable crime is the basis of the Hasan case. His online interactions, however, provide evidence that he posed a security risk prior to the attack. Colleen LaRose On February 1, 2011, Colleeen LaRose, a Pennsylvania woman, pleaded guilty to 34 accounts of material support to terrorism. Often dismissed for its amateurism and lack of operational security, the LaRose case has received less scrutiny than Hasan's. Her case demonstrates that Islamist extremists are using the internet to identify and develop potential recruits in the United States. Furthermore, it increases our understanding of the internet's role in the individual jihadist movement, from inciting an individual to go from aspirational to operational activities, to enabling a handler to vet prospective recruits online and evaluate with some assurance whether they will take action. Counterterrorism experts are using data from the case to establish different criteria for how online interactions pose a prosecutable security threat. A self-proclaimed fan of Anwar al-Awlaki, LaRose, using the pseudonym Jihad Jane, posted a YouTube video in June 2008 expressing her "desperate" desire to help suffering Muslims.35 This was sufficient information for Islamist extremists, trawling the internet for potential recruits, to initiate an online evaluation of her. For eleven months beginning in December 2008, LaRose communicated online with a variety of people who vetted her, supported her operationally, and ultimately directed her avowed commitment to jihad toward violent action. In December 2008, LaRose received a response to her June post from a male in South Asia (co-conspirator #1 according to court records) who engaged her in an online conversation about their shared desire to wage jihad, and proposed that she consider becoming a shaheed, or Islamic martyr.36 In January 2009, a Western European resident (co-conspirator #2) emailed LaRose that he desired to become a martyr and although unsuccessful, he would continue to try. LaRose responded that she also desired martyrdom. In a February 2009 communication, LaRose confided to CC#1 that her physical appearance allowed her "to blend in with many people," a factor that could help her online contact achieve his jihadi goal. The revelation about her physical appearance created sufficient interest to warrant additional attention from her correspondents, and in March a third individual (co-conspirator #3) interjected himself into the conversation. He assumed the role of handling LaRose by developing an incremental process in which he would be responsible for evaluating the recruit's commitment to acting, and for operationalizing an attack. Information revealed later in the indictment indicates those initial communications between LaRose and the first two men were apparently random exchanges between "like-minded" individuals; CC#3, however, asks LaRose to tell him about CC#2, evidence of how terrorists seek to exploit social networks to identify other potential recruits. CC#3 initially established minimal bona fides for himself by telling LaRose that he was familiar with explosives. Concurrently, he suggested LaRose use the internet to "invite" another unidentified male fighter to join CC#3 for training in "the South Asian country."37 He then reiterated that LaRose's nationality allowed her freedom of movement, and asked LaRose to marry him so he could travel to Europe. LaRose agreed to marry him and made inquiries of the Swedish embassy about obtaining residency. At this point, CC#3 played a bit of a psychological game and allowed two weeks to pass after the marriage agreement before he contacted her again. This allowed her time to conduct the residency inquiries, but it is quite plausible that it also was a test of her reliability, to see whether she would go to the police or had a true psychological commitment to the cause. On March 22, 2009, CC#3 directed LaRose to go to Sweden to kill the cartoonist Lars Vilks.38 LaRose agreed immediately. Upon accepting the mission, LaRose assumed an operational role as a fundraiser and global recruiter. She posted online solicitations for funds to support terrorism, and electronically distributed a carefully worded questionnaire that aimed to determine whether other Western women harbored an interest in jihad.39 Between December 2008 and March 2009, LaRose also had online discussions with Ali Damache, an Algerian man residing in Ireland who had expressed interest in martyrdom.40 Damache helped develop the questionnaire that LaRose distributed. In August 2009, LaRose started an online dialogue with Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, a Colorado woman, ultimately convincing her to travel Ireland to participate in jihad.41 When she reached Ireland with her young son, Paulin-Ramirez married Damache, a man she had never before met face-to-face. Simultaneously, LaRose gathered intelligence on Vilks, including joining his online community. She ultimately told her handler that it was "an honor and great pleasure to die or kill" for him.42 Nevertheless, there is no evidence that she ever travelled further than Ireland, where she was supposed to marry "co-conspirator #3."43 She was arrested upon her return, unmarried, from Ireland in October 2009. The Significance of the Online Jihadist The effectiveness of online recruitment and the process of engagement in these two cases are chilling. LaRose's public pronouncements made her easily identifiable as a potential shaheed recruit, but the potential usefulness of her physical appearance changed the dynamics. LaRose underwent a virtual vetting process, in which she performed a series of tasks to prove her commitment and willingness to act. As she completed each task, the handler became more confident in her. This process resembles a traditional face-to-face vetting process that focuses on psychological processes to determine commitment and aid indoctrination.44 Furthermore, the process was completed relatively quickly. Within nine months from the initial contact, LaRose was travelling to Europe to execute the operation. The case of "Jihad Jane" portrays the individual jihadists as part of a virtual network of participants with global reach and global connections. LaRose was incited to jihadization through online engagements and without any face-to-face contact. It was her poor personal and operational security, particularly a number of provocative online comments, that apparently alerted a private group known as Youtube Smackdown to track her posts and eventually tip off the FBI.45 The public nature of her discussions permitted extensive internet tracking that adds to our understanding of the online world's role in the individual jihad. According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams, the electronic evidence gathered from LaRose's online interactions with co-conspirators would be sufficient to prove she traveled to Europe to locate Vilks, and that she attempted to raise funds for terrorists and recruit trainees in Europe and Asia.46 While conspiracy to kill in a foreign country and travelling to Ireland in support of violent jihad may have been the catalysts for authorities to arrest her, the majority of the 34 "overt acts" noted in her indictment dealt with her online recruiting and fund solicitation activities.47 The differences between Hasan and LaRose contribute to our understanding of the breadth of individual jihadi strategies and tactics. Both reflect the desire by jihadist groups to recruit Americans, and the importance of the internet in this process. While al-Awlaki's message prompted LaRose to become more vocal in her radicalization, the imam's direct contact with Hasan inspired Hasan to self-directed action. Rather than relying on LaRose to take action on her own, her handler vetted her and provided specific direction towards supporting the jihad. Another lesson is found in the range of potential goals of online recruitment and action. Judging from the post-attack statements regarding Hasan, the execution of the attack was the culmination of his service to the individual jihad. He was meant to be a shaheed, a foot-soldier in the struggle. LaRose's recruitment of others who could travel in the West without detection, her solicitation of funds, and her broadening social network suggest her handler's goal was to develop a virtual cell leader. LaRose's lack of anonymity eroded her value to the jihadi network, but the lessons learned from her case will not be lost on her handler and others. Future recruitment and vetting can be expected to target less public individuals, who can assume the management roles of a network node facilitator, and perhaps cell leader, without creating as much digital exhaust. In sum, the online environment will continue to be a recruitment venue for the individual jihad; recruitment objectives will vary; and through an online vetting process, various decisions will be made regarding the individual's role in jihad. These cases indicate how the online environment is evolving, and will continue to influence and accelerate the radicalization and jihadization processes. Virtual networks, the internet, and associated media allow information to be shared quickly and permit active participation that enhances learning, cooperation, and innovation, thus enabling small groups and even individuals to accomplish big things. A recent White House meeting with local law enforcement identified three homegrown-terrorist warning signs: joining a group that advocates violence, receiving support from a network that plans violence, and seeking out a charismatic leader.48 Today, these connections may occur entirely in the virtual environment, reducing the isolation associated with the "lone wolf." Counter-strategies Identifying and implementing effective counter-strategies against the individual jihad is a complex problem that requires cooperation, patience, and perhaps some luck. Innovative thinking, using technology as an investigative tool, and combating networks with networks are the strategies advocated by FBI Director Robert Mueller.49 While the terrorists continue to exploit internet technologies to perform many tasks, the same technologies offer new avenues for law enforcement and intelligence services to track and identify terrorists. The virtual environment provides opportunities for collecting data, identifying linkages, tracking activities, and recognizing patterns. For example, by analyzing Colleen LaRose's online linkages, local law enforcement rolled up Ireland's first known jihad cell and arrested a co-conspirator in Maryland in May 2012.50 Facebook and Twitter are repositories of voluntary information that may be collected and sorted to yield a searchable database from which less apparent linkages and warnings may be derived.51 Existing open-source tools in the hands of individuals with a modicum of Excel skills and situational awareness of an event can extract commonalities and patterns from Twitter posts. Crowdsourcing, the evaluation of voluntary public information from groups, and participatory sensing, directed information collection or an informant 2.0 of sorts, also are valuable forensic methods. Increasingly, analytic techniques are making better sense from real-time online information and categorizing behavioral patterns through the analysis of digital exhaust. Still, it remains difficult to build a criminal case around intent derived from internet communications. The U.S. PATRIOT Act, passed in the wake of 9/11, expanded geographic authorization for FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) warrants, and the U.S. attorney general's office has provided some legal guidelines for their use. Confronting the individual jihad requires a comprehensive counterterrorism strategy that includes legal reforms, partnerships that facilitate intelligence gathering and sharing, community outreach, and education. Efforts at legal reforms that would criminalize the intent to do bad things through the analysis of online communications raise ethical and legal issues, and have had varying results. Mexico brought charges of terrorism against two individuals who used Twitter and Facebook to spread rumors about a school attack in Veracruz that resulted in real chaos.52 Although the state prosecutors argued that the perpetrators' virtual statements were equivalent to real ones, the case was dismissed. During riots in the United Kingdom in 2011, a number of people were arrested by British police and charged with inciting others to riot through Facebook and on Blackberries.53 In the aftermath of the riots, British Prime Minister David Cameron advocated a law that would allow the government to shut down internet access to people the government considered a threat. While the legal threshold of intent seemed to shift with the successful prosecution of some of those arrested, their convictions still required the prosecution to link physical actions to their online activities. These verdicts reflect a likely result in the Hasan case, in which his physical actions, not his online activities, will be the basis of conviction. The LaRose case, however, reflects a further evolution in the legal approach to online activity. The case against her was based in large part on 34 counts of providing material support to terrorists, primarily related to her online behavior.54 As previously cited, U.S. Attorney Williams charged that her online fundraising and recruiting for a terrorist organization were prosecutable actions under the "material support" statue, equal to her intent to attack Vilks.55 Her guilty plea, however, left it unclear whether a jury would have convicted her on all, or any, of those counts. The fact that the case was heard on the basis of the digital evidence seems to indicate that judges will have greater latitude in the United States to try terrorism cases based on online intent. The results of two other cases, one involving Tarek Mahanna, who was convicted of providing material support to terrorists include "translating and distributing" materials meant to inspire others to participate in jihad, and the other involving Jesse Curtis Morton, the leader of Revolution Muslim, convicted of using the internet to solicit murder and encourage violent extremism, also are evidence of a shifting paradigm.56 Along with the broadening of the definition of cyber-terrorism, these cases establish a firmer precedent for prosecution based on establishing intent by examining online statements and activities. These cases, as well as the LaRose case, also contribute to the debate surrounding First Amendment protection of freedom of speech, in light of an emerging perspective that words and information that promote terrorism are dangerous. Both France and the United Kingdom have criminalized "advocacy" and "glorification" of terrorism.57 In the United States, some have advocated lowering the threshold for prosecution by implementing a "clear and present danger" standard originally recommended in 1919.58 Another approach is to amend the "material support" statute to encompass advocacy as a punishable offense. While such approaches would offer new legal tools for combating the individual jihad, they pose serious constitutional questions, particularly regarding the First Amendment. For example, when is advocacy of an opposing point of view something other than part of a legitimate democratic process guaranteed by law? As Sahar Aziz noted, the First Amendment is owned by everyone and is not discriminatory.59 Echoing Aziz, First Amendment supporters in the United Kingdom and United States warn that forays into this area risk starting down a slippery slope that could jeopardize civil rights, and embrace government censorship of the internet and eavesdropping on personal communications. In its 2011 "National Strategy for Counterterrorism," the White House stated, "The United States alone cannot eliminate every terrorist or terrorist organization … Therefore, we must join with key partners and allies to share the burdens of common security."60 Inter-government, intra-government, and public-private partnerships are indispensible to countering terrorism, as both the Hasan and LaRose cases illustrate. Greater access to Hasan's earlier communications with al-Awlaki might have allowed the FBI to better understand his virtual relationship with al-Awlaki and understand the threat he posed. LaRose's extremist tendencies were initially recognized by a participant in the Middle East Performing Arts online forum. Having information and being able to effectively prosecute an individual based on that information, however, are two different things. Eli Pariser warned, "A world constructed from the familiar is a world in which there's nothing to learn."61 The internet is globalizing local issues and expanding the multi-ethnic composition of groups and causes. The online jihadi echo chamber is creating a fertile ground for indoctrination into extreme ideologies and operationalization of extremist plots. The cases of Nidal Hasan and Colleen LaRose demonstrate that individuals radicalized via the internet in their personal space can be incited to violent action through the same medium. While Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano's concern about the rising risk of "lone wolf " terrorism is well placed, it is also important to recall Sun Tzu's famous admonishment, "Know your enemy and know yourself, and you need not fear the result of a hundred battles."62 While not disregarding the "lone wolf " phenomenon, it also is important to recognize that a presumed "lone wolf " may actually be linked to recruiters, inspirationalists, and planners in a virtual environment—in essence, creating virtual terrorist cells. When compared to the isolation of the solely self-directed person, individuals who have maintained continuous internet interactions establish influential relationships, and can become willing to take violent action. While the effectiveness of online recruitment and indoctrination is understood, the debate continues over whether advocating extremism or participating in activities online constitute illicit actions. There is an emerging threshold, however, across which online interactions and activities are being considered a sufficient security risk to catalyze intervention. A basis from which to pursue legal prosecution of an individual based upon intent rather than strictly action is gradually emerging. The cases of Nidal Hasan and Colleen LaRose provide evidence of this changing paradigm. About the Author(s): Dr. Peter K. Forster is a senior lecturer, member of the graduate faculty, and the executive director of Online Education in the College of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State University. His primary areas of interest are terrorism/counterterrorism, risk and crisis management, international relations, and national security. He is a member of the NATO/ OSCE Partnership for Peace Consortium Combating Terrorism Working Group, and has been involved with Penn State's Homeland Security program since its inception. He is the co-author of books on NATO's military burdensharing and intervention, including most recently, with Stephen J. Cimbala, Multinational Military Intervention (Ashgate, 2010). 1. Janet Napolitano, "Napolitano: Lone Wolf Terror Threat," CBS News, December 2, 2011: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57336080/napolitano-lone-wolfterror- threat-growing; accessed January 31, 2012. 2. Gabriel Weimann, Terror on the Internet: The New Arena, the New Challenges (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Institute of Peace Press, 2006), 109. 3. Edwin Bakker and Beatrice de Graaf, "Preventing Lone Wolf Terrorism: Some CT Approaches Addressed," Perspectives on Terrorism vol. 5 (2011): 43: http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot; accessed March 13, 2012. The Unabomber, eventually identified as Ted Kaczynski, evaded capture for years while carrying out a terror campaign against people he held responsible for environmental damage. He lived as a recluse in the state of Montana, from where he sent out mail bombs that killed three and injured 23. 4. Mitchell D. Silber, The Al Qaeda Factor: Plots Against the West (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012), 4. See also Maura Conway, "From al- Zarqawi to al-Awlaki:The Emergence and Development of an Online Radical Milieu," in this issue. 5. "Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World," NIC 2008-003, National Intelligence Council, Washington D.C., November 2008: http://www.aicpa.org/research/cpahorizons2025/globalforces/downloadabledocuments/globaltrends.pdf; accessed on 5 September 2012; and, "Where Tomorrow Will Take Us: The New Environment for Intelligence," Center for the Study of Intelligence, Washington D.C. 2009. 6. Mitchell D. Silber and Arvin Bhatt, "Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat," New York City Police Department, 2007: http://www.nypdshield.org/public/SiteFiles/documents/NYPD_Report-Radicalization_in_the_West.pdf; accessed March 13, 2012. 7. James R. Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, "Statement for the Record on the Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence," House of Representatives, Washington, D.C., February 10, 2011, 2. 8. "Al Qaeda Aims at the American Homeland," National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, 2004, 162-190: http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Ch5.htm; accessed September 5, 2012. 9. Bill Braniff and Assaf Moghadom, "Towards Global Jihadism: Al-Qaeda's Strategic, Ideological, and Structural Adaptations since 9/11," Perspectives on Terrorism vol. 5, no. 2 (2011): http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/braniff-towardsglobal-jihadism/html; accessed March 1, 2012. 10. "Al Qaeda's Top Cyber Terrorist," Defensetech (January 26, 2008): http://defensetech.org/2008/01/26/al-qaedastop-cyber-terrorist/; accessed February 4, 2012. 11. Weimann, Terror on the Internet, 115–116. 12. Mark Stout, Jessica M. Huckabey, John R. Schindler, and Jim Lacey, The Terrorist Perspectives Project: Strategic and Operational Views of Al Qaida and Associated Movement (Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2008). 13. Greg Miller, "Bin Laden Document Trove Reveals Strain on al-Qaeda," The Washington Post, July 1, 2011: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/national-security; accessed March 1, 2012. 14. Abu Musab Al-Suri, "The Jihad Experiences: The Open Fronts and Individual Initiative," Inspire (Fall 2010): 17-19; http://www.ahashare.com/torrents-details.php?id=100525; accessed on October 18, 2012. 15 Ibid., 17. 17. Author interview with U.S. Department of Defense personnel, who asked to remain anonymous, Washington, D.C., April 2012. 18. "Al-Awlaki in Previously Unreleased Video Message to Muslims in the West: ‘You Have Two Choices… Leave and Live Among Muslims, or …Stay Behind and Follow the Example of Nidal Hassan and Others,'" MEMRI, December 20, 2011: http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/5932.htm; accessed December 20, 2011. 1 19. Adam Lankford, Human Killing Machines: Systematic Indoctrination in Iran, Nazi Germany, Al Qaeda, and Abu Ghraib (Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2009), 69. 20. "The invasion of Facebook: Al Qaeda calls for a ‘cyberjihad' to plan attacks on the West," Mail Online, July 13, 2011: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2014194/The-invasion-Facebook-Al-Qaeda-calls-cyber-jihad-bidattack-West.html; accessed December 20, 2011. 21. "Global Trends 2025." 22. Marc Sageman, "The Next Generation of Terrorism," Foreign Policy (February 19, 2008): http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2008/02/19/the_next_generation_of_terror; accessed on December 20, 2011. 23. Joseph Lieberman and Susan Collins, "A Ticking Time Bomb: Counterterrorism Lessons from the U.S. Government's Failure to Prevent the Fort Hood Attack," Special Report for the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, Washington, D.C., February 2011, 19: http://www.scribd.com/doc/48113252/A-Ticking-Time-Bomb-Counterterrorism-Lessons-From-The-U-S-Government-s-Failure-To-Prevent-The-Fort-Hood-Attack; accessed December 20, 2011. 24. Lankford, Human Killing Machines, 74–75. 25. "Profile Anwar al-Awlaki," ADL ( November 2011): http://www.adl.org/main_Terrorism/anwar_alawlaki. htm; accessed December 20, 2011. 26. Richard Esposito, Rehab El-Buri, and Brian Ross, "From Yemen, Anwar Awlaki Helped Inspire Fort Dix, Toronto Plots," ABC News, Nov. 11, 2009: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/anwar-awlakis-terrror-ties/story?id=9055322#. UEZuC2ii8zE; accessed September 4, 2012. 27. Clint Watts, "Major Nidal Hasan and the Fort Hood Tragedy: Implications for the U.S. Armed Forces," Foreign Policy Research Institute (June 2011): http://www.fpri.org/enotes/201106.watts. forthood.html#ref1; accessed February 4, 2012. 28. Lieberman and Collins, "A Ticking Time Bomb," 35. 29. Ibid. 30. ADL, "Profile Anwar al-Awlaki." 31. David Johnston, and Scott Shane, "U.S. Knew of Suspect's Ties to Radical Cleric," The New York Times, November 9, 2009: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/us/10inquire.html; accessed December 21, 2011; and Catherine Herridge, "American cleric used more than 60 e-mail accounts to contact followers including Hasan," Fox News, June 15, 2012: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/06/14/al-awlaki-used-dozens-email-accountsto-reach-followers-including-hasan/; accessed June 16, 2012. 32. "Awlaki's latest rant," Investigative Project on Terrorism, May 24, 2010: http://www.investigativeproject.org/1971/awlakis-latest-rant; accessed February 4, 2012. 33. Lieberman, and Collins, A Ticking Time Bomb, 38–39. 35. "United States of America v. Colleen R. LaRose," U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, March 4, 2010, 3: http://www.scribd.com/doc/28104790/Indictment-1; accessed September 5, 2012. 36. The information in this paragraph comes from ibid., 3–5, 8. 37. Ibid. 4. 38. Vilks was targeted for death by extremists because of some cartoons he had drawn in 2007 depicting the prophet Mohammed as a dog. 39. "United States of America v. Colleen R. LaRose," 5–6. 41. "United States of America v. Colleen R. LaRose, Jamie Paulin Ramirez," Case 2:10-cr-00123-PBT Doc. 31, Superseding Indictment, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, April 1, 2010, 6–7. 42. "United States of America v. Colleen R. LaRose," 8 (see note 35 above). 43. Dale Maryclaire, "MD teenager pleads guilty in terror case in Pa." Associated Press, May 4, 2012: http://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2012/05/04/md-teenager-pleads-guilty-in-terror-case-in-pa?s_ cid=related-links:TOP; accessed June 1, 2012. 44. Lankford, Human Killing Machines, 69. 45. "I turned in Colleen ‘Jihad Jane' LaRose to the FBI," The Jawa Report, March 11, 2010: http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/201487.php; accessed September 9, 2012. 46. Peter Hall, "‘Jihad Jane' pleads guilty in terrorism case," The Morning Call, February 1, 2011: http://articles.mcall.com/2011-02-01/news/mc-jihad-janeguilty- plea-20110201_1_jihad-jane-jamie-paulinramirez-guilty-plea; accessed September 11, 2012. 47. See "United States of America v. Colleen R. LaRose, Jamie Paulin Ramirez," (see note 41 above). 48. "Police chiefs meet at White House to discuss fight against homegrown terror," Associated Press, January 18, 2012: http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2012/01/police_chiefs_ meet_at_white_ho.html; accessed September 5, 2012. 49. Robert S. Mueller III, speech given at the RSA Cyber Security Conference, San Francisco, California, March 1, 2012: http://www.FBI.gov/news/speeches/combatingthreats-in-the-cyber-world-outsmarting-terroristshackers-and-spies: accessed September 10, 2012. 50. Maryclaire "Md. teenager pleads guilty." 51. See "Artisanal Intelligence and Information Triage," by Aaron Weisburd, and "Mining Twitter Data from the Arab Spring," by Rob Schroeder, Sean Everton, and Russell Shepherd in this issue, for more about the uses of voluntary information derived from social media. 52. "Mexico: Death by Social Media," ISN ETH Zurich (September 28, 2011) http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Security-Watch/Articles/Detail/?lng=en&id=133074; accessed on October 19, 2012. 53. Josh Halliday, "David Cameron considers banning suspected rioters from social media," The Guardian, August 11, 2011: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/aug/11/davidcameron-rioters-social-media?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487; accessed February 4, 2012. 55. Hall, " ‘Jihad Jane' pleads guilty." 56. "United States of America v. Tarek Mehanna," Cr. No.09- 10017-GAO, Government's Proffer and Memorandum in Support of Detention, U.S. District Court Massachusetts, November 5, 2009, 10; and "Leader of Revolution Muslim Sentenced to 138 Months for Using Internet to Solicit Murder, Encourage Violent Extremism," FBI Press Release, Washington, D.C., June 22, 2012: http://22.FBI/gov/washingtondc/press-release/2012/ Leader of Revolution Muslim Sentenced to 138 months for Using Internet to Solicit Murder, Encourage Violent Extremism/; accessed June 22, 2012. 57. Gary Schmitt, "Terrorism and the First Amendment," The Weekly Standard, January 23, 2012: http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/terrorism-and-firstamendment_616735.html; accessed on September 11, 2012. 58. This was the case of Schenck v. United States; see ibid. 59. Sahar F. Aziz, "Homegrown Terrorism" The American Muslim, June 12, 2012: http://theamericanmuslim. org/tam.php/features/articles/speech-at-dukeuniversity; accessed September 11, 2012. 60. "National Strategy for Counter-terrorism," The White House, Washington, D.C., June 28, 2011: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/counterterrorism_strategy.pdf; accessed September 5, 2012. 61. "Invisible sieve: Hidden, specially for you," The Economist, June 30, 2011: http://www.economist.com/node/18894910; accessed September 5, 2012. 62 Sun Tzu, The Art of War, trans. Lionel Giles (New York: Barnes & Noble: 2003), 17. Vol. 2, No. 4 \| CTX 39	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10835
__label__cc	0.543629	0.456371	Past President Spotlight: Dale Kirkham Feb13 by GoBrangus Dale Kirkham President 2009-2010 It was not until 1989 this past president first started registering Brangus cattle and became a member of the International Brangus Breeders Association (IBBA). But once he had the opportunity, Dale Kirkham, who served as the 2009-2010 IBBA President, was eager to learn more about the breed and quickly became involved in the industry. A Kansas native growing up on a diversified crop and livestock farm, Kirkham had little exposure to purebred cattle during his childhood. He worked in a sale barn and helped the neighbors with their cattle during his college days. However, it was not until 1984 that Kirkham gained familiarity with Brangus cattle. Kirkham attended college at Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kans., and after obtaining graduate degrees at the University of Wyoming and University of Missouri, he taught at small colleges in Indiana and southwest Missouri. After six years of teaching, Kirkham made a big decision to change careers and moved back to Kansas to begin working for the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). After working at three other locations, he moved to Eureka in 1983. A year later, an operation called Brinks Brangus started leasing the ranch where Kirkham was living at the time. With the help of other Brangus breeders, Kirkham launched his own Brangus operation. “I wanted to get into the cattle business, and I bought my first cows in 1985 at a sale in Manhattan with the intention of running a commercial operation,” Kirkham said. “Fellow Brangus breeders Ray Thompson and Ken Hughes encouraged me to get started with Brangus and helped me implement AI techniques.” Beginning in 1990, Vern Suhn, former manager of Brinks Brangus, assisted Kirkham with genetic breeding decisions and offered advice on purchasing cattle. Kirkham said he used AI techniques and heifer synchronization to manage his small herd and implemented intensive grazing management practices. “It’s important to maintain cattle on forages that are already available instead of relying on supplemental feeds and feedstuffs,” Kirkham said. “There are too many cattle that are pampered and can’t hold their own when they go out to the commercial man.” After Kirkham started his own operation, he joined his dad and brother in stocker and feeder cattle operations for several years from 1985 to the early 2000’s. He said this gave him a different perspective on other segments of the beef industry, allowing him to better understand his customers’ needs. In order to gain more knowledge about the breed, Kirkham said everyone should have diverse experiences and seek out opportunities beyond their own surroundings. Kirkham suggests visiting with other breeders about what they are doing on their operations to gain inspiration, new ideas, and more insight of the beef industry. The IBBA hosts the largest gathering of Brangus producers and IBBA members in February at the Annual Convention and Global Brangus Roundup, in which Kirkham is a frequent participant. Kirkham said the convention provides breeders the opportunity to have an active role in the association and allows for better communication among members. “Convention gives you a perspective of how the association operates,” Kirkham said. “I never walked away without gaining more enthusiasm about what I was doing on my own operation. Everybody out there, breeders both large and small, has different ideas, and you never know what idea will be the one that moves the breed and association forward.” Kirkham said the biggest thing he learned from serving on the Board of Directors was the versatility of the IBBA membership because members came from all over the country with different needs and desires. He advises leaders to look at the big picture and see how decisions affect everyone. “What the guy from Georgia wants is different from what the guy from Kansas wants,” Kirkham said. “It’s a challenge to make sure everybody is communicating and keeping everyone informed about what’s going on. Firsthand participation in open discussions is a good path to effective communication. The convention provides a great way to communicate with others in the breed and with the staff. I think we underestimate the value of face-to-face communication.” Kirkham currently serves on the IBBA’s commercial marketing committee and is actively involved in both the Oklahoma Brangus Breeders Association and the Heart of America Brangus Breeders Association. You can find Kirkham at the upcoming IBBA Convention in February. Note: It’s not too late to register for the 2013 IBBA Annual Convention. Visit GoBrangus.com to download a registration form and a schedule of events. This entry was posted in Stories and tagged brangus, convention, events, Kansas, Past President, success. ← Kodi the Cowdog- Happy New Year, Y’all Latest Brangus Show Results → One comment on “Past President Spotlight: Dale Kirkham” Brangus Association Members Pass Bylaw Change « Beef Tips says: […] compared to the traditional process starting with Angus and Brahman as the first cross,” said Dale Kirkham, a member of the IBBA’s Breed Improvement Committee, in the December 2012 issue of the Brangus […]	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10837
__label__wiki	0.670833	0.670833	Religious Observance in the Court of Protection The Mental Capacity Act 2005 established the Court of Protection, enabling the High Court to settle disputes in relation to an individual’s care and welfare. The Act sets out a two-stage test in determining capacity, that is: Whether the individual has an impairment, or a disturbance in the functioning of, their mind of brain, whether as a result of a condition, illness, or external factors such as alcohol or drug use; Does that impairment or disturbance mean the individual is unable to make a decision when they need to. Capacity can fluctuate over time, and indeed an individual can be deemed to have capacity to make some decisions and not others. If found to lack capacity to make a decision the Mental Capacity Act states the decision in question must be made in an individual’s best interests. In the most extreme cases it may be that an individual is no longer able to remain in their current home, ‘deprivation of liberty’ pursuant to s4A should only be used if it is the least restrictive way of keeping them safe or ensuring they receive the right medical treatment. The decision in IH (Observance of Muslim Practice) [2017] EWCOP 9 demonstrates types of disputes the Court will settle once an individual is found to lack capacity. The facts of the case involved a 39 year old Muslim man suffering from autism and severe learning difficulties, functioning intellectually to that of a 1-3 year old. IH spent the first 35 years of his life being cared for and living with his parents. He was subsequently moved to a supported living environment provided by the Local Authority. Two issues were brought before the court: An application made by the Official Solicitor for a declaration that it was not in IH’s best interests to fast during the month of Ramadan An application by IH’s father that it was in IH’s best interests for his axillary and pubic hair to be trimmed in accordance with Islamic practice in so far as it was safe to do so To be able to make these decisions IH would need capacity, and as per s3(1)(a) of the Mental Capacity Act, IH was not unable to understand the ‘information relevant to the decision’. Relevant information involved what fasting is, the length of the fast, the health-associated reasons, the religious reasons and the effect of fasting on the body. The first matter was agreed by parties; indeed Islam does not require the disabled, terminally ill and minors to observe Ramadan. The Court was satisfied in making the declaration. The second decision posed more difficulties. IH’s father had been shaving IH’s public and axillary hair whilst IH lived in his care and a year thereafter also. It was IH’s father’s case that he wanted his son to adhere to the tenets of the Islamic faith insofar as possible without whilst placing as little burden on IH as possible. The Official Solicitor accepted the religious significance of hair-trimming, however disputed that IH should observe this due to his lack of capacity. Further that, if IH was given assistance or it was carried out for him, his carer may be harmed in the process. In making its decision the Court had before it evidence from Dr Peter Carpenter, honorary Consultant Psychiatrist in Learning Disabilities. Dr Carpenter concluded that given IH’s condition he would not be able to understand which parts of the hair are being removed, any such religious purposes and the consequences of it, therefore lacking capacity to make the decision for himself. The Court also had evidence from by Dr Mansur Ali, lecturer in Arabic and Islamic Studies at Cardiff University. Dr Ali’s report set out that there was no obligation on a Muslim without capacity to trim or shave his pubic and axillary hair, or for another individual to step in and do this for him. Dr Ali advised trimming or shaving of pubic and axillary hair was deemed to be a normal human ‘right’ in Islam, the removal was not obligatory but would be viewed as a minor sin of unattended, as IH did not have capacity it was not recommended practice of him to carry out and his carers not doing so were not violating his religious rights. Furthermore that avoidance of harm took priority, in that Islam does not permit a situation to be created where the observance of religious custom would be likely to cause harm to IH or his carers. Evidence was also given by IH’s key social worker, who felt Islam was a key characteristic of IH’s identity and that observance of religious practices should be supported where possible. Further that his culture and his background were something that IH should be proud of. Justice Cobb accepted that IH should be supported in his religious practices, but that IH had no capacity to understand the concept of Islam or to be able to actively feel proud of it. Justice Cobb accepted that there was no religious obligation on IH to shave or trim his axillary or pubic hair and that given his understanding he would derive no religious ‘benefit’ from having the procedure undertaken. It was further concluded that whilst Health and Social Care bodies who care for adults without capacity had a duty so far as is reasonably practicable to create a care environment which would help facilitate IH’s religious observance, consistent with Article 9 rights under the ECHR to religious freedom. The Mental Capacity Act required a somewhat artificial assessment of IH’s beliefs and values that would be likely to influence his decision under s4(6)(b) if he had capacity, but on what basis could the court really make the conclusions that this provision requires given that IH’s condition had been lifelong. In any event, Justice Cobb was prudent to make reference to Briggs v Briggs [2016[ EWCOP 53 and distinguish it on the basis that the considered case did have some actual evidence of what the wishes and feelings would be. The judgment given in IH (Observance of Muslim Practice) [2017] EWCOP 9 was not an attack on a person’s right to practice their religious beliefs and cultures and should not be misconstrued in this way. The decision makes clear that had IH been able to appreciate the religious significance of being in a state of cleanliness and derive any religious benefit the outcome would have been different. Nasbin Begum CategoryCourt of Protection News, Family Law News, General News, Private Law News, Public Law News Advice on how to spend your first Christmas as divorced parents The most wonderful time of the year can also be the most trying for newly… Posted in: Divorce News, Family Law News	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10840
__label__wiki	0.623508	0.623508	Update: Micky Dolenz Issues Heartbroken Statement On Peter Tork’s Death (L) Micky Dolenz / Facebook, (R) The REAL Peter Tork (Official) / Facebook Tork’s Former Bandmate Takes To Twitter As tributes to Peter Tork of The Monkees begin to roll in after his death today at the age of 77, we’re beginning to hear from people who were close to him. Namely, former bandmate Micky Dolenz, who took to social media a short time ago to issue a brief, albeit heartbroken statement regarding the death of his friend. Dolenz, who worked alongside Tork as part of the made-for-tv band The Monkees throughout the 1960s, wrote: There are no words right now…heart broken over the loss of my Monkee brother, Peter Tork. #petertork #themonkees @TorkTweet pic.twitter.com/C8SwoA8pEV — Micky Dolenz (@TheMickyDolenz1) February 21, 2019 “There are no words right now…heartbroken over the loss of my Monkee brother, Peter Tork. #petertork #themonkees @TorkTweet”. He also shared a simple black and white photo of Tork, taken during his later years. The Monkees’ official Twitter account was updated with a brief statement as well, where they expressed their love and grief at the loss of their friend, and asked fans to share their favorite memories of Peter throughout the years. .@TorkTweet has passed peacefully at the age of 77. We'll be remembering him throughout the day. Share your favorite memories of Peter below. pic.twitter.com/Je57hhlXUx — The Monkees (@TheMonkees) February 21, 2019 “@TorkTweet has passed away peacefully at the age of 77. We’ll be remembering him throughout the day. Share your favorite memories of Peter below,” reads the tweet. As we reported earlier, Peter Tork, the delightfully offbeat bassist and singer for The Monkees, has died at the age of 77 from unknown causes. The news was confirmed by Tork’s sister, Anne Thorkelson, to the Washington Post just a short time ago; she did not reveal any details as to the circumstances surrounding her brother’s death. Monkees Singer and Bassist Peter Tork Dead at 77 https://t.co/zLYKpVI4ZG via @RollingStone — The Monkees (@themonkeestour) February 21, 2019 Not long after, Mr. Tork’s social media accounts lit up with confirmation of the tragic news. In a statement shared to both Facebook and Twitter, Mr. Tork’s social media team wrote: “It is with beyond-heavy and broken hearts that we share the devastating news that our friend, mentor, teacher, and amazing soul, Peter Tork, has passed from this world. As we have mentioned in the past, the PTFB team is made up of Peter’s friends, family and colleagues – we ask for your kindness and understanding in allowing us to grieve this huge loss privately. This page will remain open for your use in sharing your thoughts with your fellow fans and hopefully helping you through your own grieving journey, however the team will not be available for some time as we start to mend our own hearts and calm our minds. We want to thank each and every one of you for your love, dedication and support of our “boss.” Having you in our world has meant so very much to all of us. Please know that Peter was extremely appreciative of you, his Torkees, and one of his deepest joys was to be out in front of you, playing his music, and seeing you enjoy what he had to share. We send blessings and thoughts of comfort to you all, with much gratitude.” The team, comprised of Mr. Tork’s friends, family, and colleagues, signed off with a heartbroken “ptfb team”. It is with beyond-heavy and broken hearts that we share the devastating news that our friend, mentor, teacher, and… Posted by The REAL Peter Tork (Official) on Thursday, February 21, 2019 Born Peter Halsten Thorkelson just one day shy of Valentine’s Day in 1942, Tork rose to fame as the deliciously offbeat, affable bass player and keyboard player for 60s rock icons The Monkees. While his character on the hit television show was admittedly a little scatterbrained and the self-professed “dummy” of the made-for-tv group, it couldn’t be further from the truth; Tork was one of the most musically gifted members of The Monkees, a fiercely capable songwriter and performer who played on several key recordings and wrote several songs for the band, including “Can You Dig It?” and “For Pete’s Sake.” Again, while an official cause of death has not been given for Mr. Tork, it’s worth noting that he was diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma, a rare cancer affecting his tongue, in 2009. He was given a clean bill of health as of 2012 and celebrated by hitting the road with bandmates Micky Dolenz and Michael Nesmith, gigging with them through 2016 and releasing 2016’s Good Times! as well as last year’s Christmas Party, both of which featured posthumous contributions from bandmate Davy Jones, who died in 2012. In addition to a glowing legacy as both a musician and a teacher, Peter Tork is survived by his wife Pam and children Hailie, Ivan, and Erica. He will absolutely be missed, and our hearts go out to his Monkee brothers Micky Dolenz and Michael Nesmith as they mourn the loss of one of their own once more.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10844
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__label__wiki	0.865591	0.865591	Exploring the Relationship of Electromagnetism, Physics, Medicine and Music in the pioneering work of Nikola Tesla Research in the collections of the Bakken Library and Museum has contributed toward establishing a historic framework for my film Pictures of Infinity. Development began in the fall of 2005 with a visit to the Nikola Tesla archives at Columbia University in New York and continued with a trip to Serbia in 2006 to conduct in-depth research at the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, including filming interviews with a philosopher and several engineers and inventors. This prepared me for the final stage of research for the film. During a two-week residency at the Bakken I was able to take further my study of Nikola Tesla’s contribution to medicine, of medical instruments based on one of his inventions known as a ‘Tesla coil’ and of historic writings of 18th and 19th century physicists and natural philosophers. Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) was an electrical engineer and physicist whose inventions such as alternating current (AC) electricity and ‘wireless transmission’ (which became radio) form the basis of our modern technological civilization. In the last part of his life he was conducting experiments to further investigate alternating currents of very high frequency, believing they would reveal new properties. My film project is based on the results of this investigation – Tesla’s discovery of a way to tap into what he believed was a new form of energy which he called ‘the aether’, or ‘the wheelwork of nature’. Tesla had a unique musical understanding of physics and his application of acoustic principles of resonance, vibration and harmonics produced outstanding results in experiments. He imagined the world in musical terms, describing the cosmos as a ‘symphony of alternating currents’ that works on principles of vibration and resonance, with its ‘harmonies being played on a scale of electrical vibrations across a vast range in octaves.’ He wanted to explore these vibrations by experimenting with the full range of frequencies between the 60 Hz. frequency of alternating current and the very high frequencies of visible light. In my research for the film I was looking for the underlying principles that were informing Tesla’s thought, with the intent first to understand their historical context, and then to interpret them through music, sound and image as an integral part of the film. From a philosopher in Belgrade I learned that Tesla had rejected most of the physics of the 20th century and instead looked to the past for inspiration. Beginning with the mathematics of the ancient Greeks and informed by the ideas of 18th and 19th century physicists and natural philosophers such as Galvani and Volta, he created his original theory of the world on the basis of the acoustic resonators developed by Helmholtz and a modified version of Lord Kelvin’s theory of the aether. The ‘aether’ has been acknowledged and understood since antiquity as a philosophic and scientific concept that reveals the existence of a field of energy underlying all of physical reality. It has been described in ancient Greek mythology, in the writings of Pythagoras and Plato, as Aristotle’s ‘quintessence’ or ‘fifth element’, Spinoza’s one substance, Descartes’ vortical occupation of space, to ki, prana, pneuma, life energy, vital energy and ‘orgone’. Now a version of it may also have come back into physics as ‘zero point energy’, ‘dark energy’, or ‘space energy’. I began research in the collections of the Bakken library by focusing first on the works of Helmholtz, Lord Kelvin, Dominique Arago, Michael Faraday, Luigi Galvani and Allesandro Volta, followed by articles on Nikola Tesla’s experiments and his contributions to medicine, and historical documentation of theories of the aether. Later I also studied several artifacts from the museum’s collections, including the Lakhovsky Multiwave Oscillator (MWO) and some of the violet ray devices. The principle of acoustic resonators developed by Helmholtz forms the basis of musical instrument design, in which the body of an instrument amplifies sound by producing natural resonance, or ‘standing waves’. Helmholtz showed how different forces could set the aether in motion, based on these same principles of resonance. Lord Kelvin developed an aether vortex model of the electron in an effort to explain some of the properties of electricity. His intuition was that everything in the universe was made up of oscillating electron vortices of aether . Dominique Arago contributed to Tesla’s knowledge with his discoveries of the way rotating bodies create magnetism. Tesla was also influenced by the historic notion of ‘vitalism’ – the predominant concept of life since prehistoric times throughout the world – and the Bakken has a wealth of material related to its role in the history of the life sciences and of medicine. From my reading in the collections I learned that Galvani said the vital spirit was electricity flowing through the nerves, and he proved by experiment it was a detectable, measurable entity. Volta proved that Galvani had discovered a new kind of electricity – a steady current rather than sparks. I also learned that Tesla had experimented on himself with high-frequency currents and discovered they could pass through his body without harm, and that such currents may be of medical use. Further reading of articles in the collections revealed that Tesla was very interested in the electrical component of life energy, and in both the healthful and harmful effects of electricity on the body. Articles and writings about a medical instrument known as the Lakhovsky Multiwave Oscillator revealed that it is an antenna attached to a Tesla coil which operates on principles of resonance. The antenna emits electromagnetic waves across the whole frequency spectrum, which then combine with secondary waves from the resonator to produce harmonics, or standing waves. Out of this field of frequencies, each cell in the body finds the wavelength it needs and resonates, like an instrument in tune with certain sounds. Readings of the work of 18th and 19th century physicists and natural philosophers revealed historic precedents for an understanding of aetheric energy based on principles of acoustics. Michael Faraday worked on a theory of sound and developed the principle of acoustic induction, or resonance. He discovered that the interference of two or more lines of force could result in standing waves. From the writings of John Tyndall I learned that he developed principles of vibration and resonance from his study of the movement of sound waves through the air, which he then transposed to describe the movement of light waves through the aether. So too, research in the collections helped me further understand the year Tesla spent in Colorado Springs (1899) conducting experiments with the wireless transmission of energy through the aether, based on acoustic principles of resonance and vibration. For this purpose he built a huge Tesla coil, known as a magnifying transmitter, capable of sending out millions of volts of electricity. First he discovered the resonant frequency of the earth and then he demonstrated that at the right frequency, the earth would respond resonantly to the transmitter’s vibrations, with outgoing and returning currents clashing and forming standing waves between the earth and the ionosphere, like harmonics on an open vibrating string. This is the discovery of Nikola Tesla’s that convinced him it would be possible to tap into this resonant movement of the aether as a nontoxic and renewable source of energy. It is this musical understanding of energy which connects electromagnetism, physics, medicine and music – knowledge which forms the basis of Pictures of Infinity. As a result of the support of the Bakken Library, Museum, and staff, I was able to conduct invaluable research into a wide range of topics for my film, which will enable the next phase of film production to begin. Access to historic materials and resources have allowed me to clarify themes that will be used in the work and to also gain further understanding of how the people themselves related to this unique understanding of energy, and to each other’s discoveries. My work seeks to honour those involved in this pursuit and the institutional support I received to this end has been critical. Thank you. ( Summary of research conducted at the Bakken Library and Museum of Electricity in Life, Minneapolis USA in September 2007. The support of the Bakken Library is gratefully acknowledged.)	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10846
__label__wiki	0.737724	0.737724	Jan 14, 2019 by Alyssa Duvall Catholic Actor Opens Up About Being Fired For Refusing To Do Sex Scenes On ABC Show In an interview with Closer Weekly, Neal McDonough, a Catholic actor known for his performances in “Band of Brothers,” “Minority Report,” and “Desperate Housewives,” opened up about an incident in which his Christian convictions lost him his job on the short-lived ABC’s “Scoundrels” series in 2010. “It was a horrible situation for me,” McDonough said of his dismissal for refusing to kiss co-star Virginia Madsen or shoot explicit scenes with her. “After that, I couldn’t get a job because everybody thought I was this religious zealot." "I am very religious. I put God and family first, and me second," McDonough continued. "That’s what I live by. It was hard for a few years.” Most of McDonough's 30-year career in Hollywood has been governed by his convictions without issue. Even during his time on the racy hit show “Desperate Housewives,” McDonough refused to compromise “because these lips are meant for one woman.” “When Marc Cherry signed me, I said, ‘I’m sure you know, but I won’t kiss anybody,’” he recalled telling the “Desperate Housewives” creator. “He was like, ‘But this is ‘Desperate Housewives!’’ I said, ‘I know.’ He paused for about five seconds and said, ‘All right, I’m just going to have to write better.’ And we had a great time.’” McDonough's unwavering faithfulness to his wife, South African model Ruvé Robertson, has certainly paid off. The couple has five children together ranging from ages 4 to 13, and McDonough says his career “has been phenomenal ever since.” “Almost 20 years, five kids and just one heck of an awesome life later, to have her as my partner in everything, I’m just the most blessed guy I know,” the 57-year-old said. “That’s why I go to church every day and say ‘thank you’ to God for everything He’s given me. And most importantly, thank you for giving me Ruvé, because, without her, I most certainly would not be talking with you right now.” Pastors Praying And Laying Hands On Donald Trump In The Oval Office	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10848
__label__wiki	0.669036	0.669036	Does the Mandate for Novel Research Explain the Absence of Conservatives? Chris Martin is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a co-founder of Heterodox Academy. He has a PhD in sociology from Emory University and a MA in Human-Computer Interaction from Georgia Tech. David Linker has a new column on the absence of conservatives in academia, and has a couple of new ideas about why universities might not attract as many conservatives as liberals. Both of his ideas stem from the origins of universities. First, he notes that the modern university has inherited its purpose from the medieval university–been to expand the boundaries of knowledge rather than to preserve traditions: The deepest source of the liberal arts is the medieval university, which was divided into distinct disciplines (or departments) of learning: theology, law, and medicine. This model was expanded into the rudiments of the modern university in the early 19th century by the Prussian philosopher Wilhelm von Humboldt, who championed academic freedom for scholars to conduct specialized research in a wide range of discrete fields. The aim of this research was both to expand the boundaries of knowledge and to disseminate it among the citizenry to create well-rounded, autonomous individuals. Second, he brings up the influence of the Enlightenment on academic research: [As] the university developed, it also absorbed ideas from more radical streams of the French Enlightenment, which defined the pursuit of knowledge in terms of a sharp break from the prejudices of the present and past. In Linker’s view, these two traditions have intertwined in modern American universities to create a campus where you are expected to produce research and publish ideas that challenge conventional wisdom or expand the breadth of conventional knowledge. Even when the object of your research is old, your ideas are expected to be new. The result is that academics usually end up pursuing scholarly agendas that are the furthest thing from anything that could be described as “conservative.” The imperative to advance knowledge demands that research contributes something new. Meanwhile, the tendency to relegate all received truth claims to the category of prejudice leads to suspicion even of the established findings of the previous generation of scholars. Linker’s ideas remind me of the points that Larry McEnerney makes in his course on academic writing. One of these points is that academic works aren’t published for a general audience. To the contrary, they’re published for a specific set of academic readers, and your work will only garner their interest if you understand what that community of readers cares about. If, as Linker suggests, certain academic communities only care about challenges to convention, people who try to preserve conventional wisdom are unlikely to succeed there.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10857
__label__cc	0.708197	0.291803	richard.essary.3@us.af.mil AF researching advanced manufacturing techniques Posted on August 11, 2016 By BRYAN RIPPLE, 88th Air Base Wing Public Affairs Category: News WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio — The Air Force Research Laboratory has awarded a $10 million research project for refining the efficiency of Air Force aircraft part replacements to the America Makes: National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute in Youngstown, Ohio. This will be the first project under a new five-year cooperative agreement between AFRL and America Makes, which was created to help advance the U.S. 3-D printing industry, also known as additive manufacturing. “The goal of this Directed Project Opportunity is to improve the efficiency of Air Force air logistics complexes in rapidly replacing parts for legacy and other military aircraft by developing, demonstrating and guiding the transition to the use of additive manufacturing and other types of related advanced manufacturing technology,” said Dr. Dennis Butcher, the America Makes program manager. The University of Dayton Research Institute will be the principal research leader on the project, while Youngstown State University will be the co-leader of the technical efforts. In addition to both universities, more than half of the 25 team partners, comprised of representatives of academia, industry and the Air Force, are located in northeast Ohio. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center here and Air Force Reserve Command’s 910th Airlift Wing, located at Youngstown Air Reserve Station will also play roles in the project. America Makes has awarded $8 million in AFRL-managed funds through the cooperative agreement from the Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Manufacturing and Industrial Base Technology Division, the institute said in a news release. An additional $2.87 million in matching costs has been contributed by the award project team for a total of $10.87 million in funding for the research project. Both universities are sharing the funding equally throughout the project. In addition to Air Force officials from three air logistics complexes at Robins AFB, Georgia; Hill AFB, Utah; and Tinker AFB, Oklahoma; the team will also work with several other Air Force and Defense Department bases and depots. For example, the 910th AW is home to DOD’s only full-time fixed-wing aerial spray mission. “Since depot-level maintenance for their unique aerial spray mission systems is performed at the Youngstown base, the 910th (AW) is a good candidate for the application of additive manufacturing and other advanced manufacturing techniques to support sustainment activities,” said Dr. Mary Kinsella, the additive manufacturing product team leader. In order to deal with challenges related to the sustainment of its fleet of aircraft, aircraft support vehicles and machinery, this project will focus on additive manufacturing and related advanced manufacturing techniques such as reverse engineering tools, 3-D scanners, computer-aided design software and non-destructive evaluation systems. The America Makes public-private partnership model provides unique opportunities to leverage current member investments and to better align the internal research and development activities of industrial, academic and government partners to a national additive technology road map. “The challenge lies in finding replacement parts for an aging fleet, whose planes are flying well beyond their planned service lives,” Brian Rice, the head of UDRI’s multi-scale composites and polymers division stated in a UDRI news release. “One of the biggest hurdles to maintaining legacy aircraft is securing out-of-production spare parts. In some cases, suppliers have gone out of business, or they will no longer support the production of spare parts for older aircraft. It’s just not profitable for them.” The answer lies in additive manufacturing – commonly known as 3-D printing – which uses a computer-driven printer to deposit successive layers of polymer, metal or other media – from the bottom up – to create simple or complicated and intricate objects, as dictated by a 3-D, digital design file of the object, Rice said. Additive manufacturing can be used to print actual spare parts as needed, or it can be used to create very large tooling and molds to be used in traditional forms of manufacturing. Tag: OhioResearching manufacturing techniquesWRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE Previous post Previous post: Repair Network Integration builds capability Next post Next post: An AF first for aircraft research, development Hill remembers fallen AFOSI agent Aerospace Sustainment Directorate receives the L-A-M-P trophy ‘AMMO’ Airmen run with Gold Star mother to honor veterans Base employees gather for inaugural car show Independence Day: Commander’s message to Airmen American, Norwegian F-35 maintainers push program with first ‘cross-servicing’ Airmen fly in three-nation F-35 exercise Around the Hill Getting to know the new AFMC commander In The Know (272) Lifetimes (748) News Briefs (2) Team Hill (1) All content copyright Standard-Examiner and respective parties Forgot Password? × Want to Login? ×	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10858
__label__wiki	0.692035	0.692035	A big election win for South Africa’s ANC, but results suggest future challenges This piece was originally published on The Conversation at https://theconversation.com/a-big-election-win-for-south-africas-anc-but-results-suggest-future-challenges-26418 On the surface, 2014 appears to represent “business as usual” for the landscape of South Africa’s electoral politics. The African National Congress (ANC) has secured a fifth straight victory in the latest national election. The ANC polled 62.1% of the total valid votes cast. This represents only a slight fall of 3.8% from its overall performance in the previous poll in 2009. Despite the good result for President Jacob Zuma’s ruling party, deeper analysis, combined with some interesting developments in recent months, suggests that in fact the ANC faces a number of future challenges. Internal dissent The ANC’s most recent victory has been achieved despite the deepening crisis of poverty, unemployment and inequality. Its election campaign, summed up in the slogan, “we have a good story to tell”, focused on its credentials as the party that overcame apartheid. There is an increasing tendency for the ANC to focus on past achievements to secure its contemporary legitimacy. Nevertheless, a few significant figures within the ANC, including stalwart of the liberation struggle and former government minister Ronnie Kasrils, launched a “Vote No” campaign in the run-up to the election. Their dissatisfaction with the performance of the ANC in government led them to urge South Africans to either vote for one of the smaller parties or spoil their ballot paper by writing the message “no” on it. The precise impact of this campaign is hard to measure. Only 1.4% of votes were spoilt (intentionally or otherwise) and the majority of smaller parties failed to secure even a single representative in the National Assembly. However, it is symptomatic of a rising tide of criticism of the ANC, reflected in both popular protest and discontent within parts of the labour movement. Voter registration and turnout Turnout of the electorate is one area that demonstrates the more partial nature of support for the ruling party. The official figure this year was 73.4%, down from 77.3% in 2009. However, this only represents the proportion of the 25.4 million South Africans who registered to vote in the first place. Based on recent population data for mid-2013 it is estimated that the current voting age population is approximately 32.6 million. The 11.4 million votes for the ANC in the national ballot therefore only represents 35% of the voting age population. Moreover, registration levels are particularly low amongst younger voters. Only 60% of 20-somethings were registered, according to the Electoral Commission, compared to 90% of those over the age of 30. This disengagement from the electoral process may become even more of a challenge in the future. Opposition parties are making inroads The ANC’s support also varies on a regional basis. In 2009, its share of the vote fell in every single province except KwaZulu-Natal, Zuma’s home province. This time the main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), achieved a stronger showing nationally and has repeated its 2009 success as the leading party in the Western Cape. The DA has also made progress in Gauteng (South Africa’s most populous province), where the ANC’s share fell significantly from 64% in 2009 to 55% in 2014. One noticeable result in 2014 has been the relatively strong showing (6.4% of the national vote) of the recently formed Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). Led by former ANC Youth League leader, Julius Malema, their populist brand of black African nationalism, couched in left-wing rhetoric, has benefited from the continued absence of a more genuine left-wing alternative to the ANC. The EFF’s focus on the nationalisation of strategic sectors of the economy and land redistribution without compensation clearly has some resonance with sections of the poor black majority. 2009: room for a party of the left? The ANC and DA are both committed to the broadly neoliberal, National Development Plan, as the solution to the deepening socio-economic crisis in the country. What are the prospects for a viable political alternative? During recent months, tensions within South Africa’s largest trade union confederation, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), have reached breaking point. As a result, it is becoming clear that the potential formation of a left-wing political movement is on the horizon. COSATU’s largest affiliated trade union, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), withdrew its electoral support for the ANC in December 2013. Since then it has begun the process of building a new political movement. The intention is to develop links beyond the organised working class by engaging with a number of the “new social movements” that have emerged since the late 1990s. Resistance in South Africa in the form of political protest has been on the rise and the very real challenge for NUMSA and others will be how to co-ordinate these actions, which at present remain localised and largely unconnected. Predictions of the ANC’s imminent electoral decline made prior to the 2014 elections have proven to be wide of the mark. There are a number of reasons, however, to suggest that things may look very different when South Africa holds its next national poll in 2019. Tags: ANC, elections, Jacob Zuma, South Africa, the left Categories South Africa	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10864
__label__wiki	0.714329	0.714329	Archive for the ‘Baptist’ Tag Filed under: Australia, Books, Life, Religion, Sydney \| Tags: 30 Days in Sydney, Arthur Stace, Australia, Baptist, Botany Bay, Chritianity, Cream, Darlinghurst, Disraeli Gears, Eternity, graffiti, Haymarket, Kings Cross, Martin Sharp, New South Wales, New York, Oscar and Lucinda, Parramatta, Peter Carey, Polynesian, Pyrmont, Sydney, Sydney Harbour Bridge, Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney Town Hall, True History of the Kelly Gang, Uniting Church, Wheels of Fire 1. What Happened to My Eternity T-Shirt After six years, the lettering on my Eternity T-shirt has for some reason started to bleed and smear. It’s a shame, and it’s messy too; but it’s also kind of cool, because it now looks even more like Arthur Stace’s original chalk graffiti. 2. How I First Heard About Eternity If you’re not from Australia you may not know about Arthur Stace. A true Aussie folk hero, Stace was a reformed alcoholic and born-again Christian who spread the gospel by writing chalk graffiti all over Sydney for decades in the mid-20th century. His one-word message was ETERNITY, written in a beautiful copperplate script despite the fact that Stace was otherwise illiterate. He’s estimated to have written the word 500,000 times over his career. As a longtime friend and graffiti aficionado/perpetrator says, “Dude got up.” I first read about Stace in Peter Carey’s 30 Days in Sydney, one of a series of travel books written by famous authors. The Booker Prize-winning Carey is probably Australia’s most highly regarded living novelist. I read 30 Days in Sydney in 2005 while still living in New York, shortly after my first trip to Sydney, after I had already started dreaming of migrating here. (As it happens, Carey lives in New York.) Subtitled A Wildly Distorted Account, it’s a feverishly brilliant, sometimes hallucinatory meditation on Carey’s hometown that reads like a work of fiction; it’s one of my favorite books. In many ways I think it’s the best thing he’s written, though it’s probably considered a footnote to his career compared to bestselling novels like Oscar and Lucinda and True History of the Kelley Gang. Reading all of these books was an important part of my preparations for migrating – among other things, they gave me valuable glimpses of the dark side of life here. In 30 Days, Carey interrupts his drunken, sometimes nightmarish misadventures while on holiday here in Sydney to muse on the enduring local appeal of this legendary figure and his ministry. I had been at home in New York on the eve of the millennium celebrations and at seven forty-five on that Friday morning, while my wife and sons were still sleeping, I ran quietly down the stairs to witness my other home enter the year 2000… I turned to NBC, where I saw the opera house, the habour bridge. Then Sydney passed into the next century and the bridge suddenly exploded. Few cities in the turning globe would equal that display at millennium’s end, and yet I, the sentimental expatriate, was less than enchanted and my emotion suddenly cooled. I’d seen this trick before. These fireworks were very similar to that display at our bicentenary in 1988. Then too the bridge grew green and fiery hair. OH WHAT A PARTY the Sydney Morning Herald had written then, and it had been true, the whole town was pissed. We had a classic Sydney rort and we disgraced ourselves with our total forgetfulness of what exactly it was that had occurred in this sandstone basin just two centuries before. In the heat of our bicentennial celebration, the 50,000 years that had preceded the arrival of the First Fleet somehow slipped our minds. All right, it’s a white-settler culture. It’s what you might have expected, but that does not explain why we forgot the white people too, or most of them. In 1988 we commemorated the soldiers, but the men and women beneath the decks just somehow were overlooked in all the excitement. The twin forces of our history, those two cruel vectors which shape us to this very day, had been forgotten and what we celebrated instead was some imperial and bureaucratic past towards which we felt neither affection nor connection. Twelve years later I stared balefully at the fiery bridge but as the smoke cleared I spotted an unexpected sign. Just a little to the left of the northern pylon… a three-foot high word was written in illuminated copperplate. Seeing this, all my spleen was completely washed away, and I was smiling, insanely proud and happy at this secret message from my home, happier still because no one in New York, no one but a Sydneysider, could hope to crack this code, now beamed through space like a message from Tralfamador. What fucked-up Irish things it finally meant to me, I will struggle with later, but I cannot even begin to imagine what it might mean to a New Yorker. An Aussie brandname? Something to do with time? Something, perhaps, to do with those 50,000 years of culture that this city is built on top of? But although 50,000 years is a very long time, it is not an eternity, and it is not why the people of Sydney love this word, or why the artist Martin Sharp has spent a lifetime painting it and repainting it… The secret of Eternity does not belong to Martin but he has been one of its custodians and I was determined to talk to him about it… The man who designed Cream’s album covers for “Wheels of Fire” and “Disraeli Gears” looked all of sixty when I saw him, hungover, with his handsome face unshaved, and creased with a classic smoker’s skin. But I am of an age myself, and if I noticed the creases, I also noted with envy that his hair, though greying, was thick and strong. I first saw Eternity when I was a kid, he told me as he rolled his second cigarette. I came out of my house and discovered this chalk calligraphy on the footpath. No one ever wrote anything on the streets in those days. I thought, what’s that? I didn’t think about what it meant. I didn’t analyse it. It was just beautiful and mysterious. For years and years no one knew who wrote this word, said Martin. It would just spring up overnight. We now know the writer’s name was Arthur Stace. We know he was a very little bloke, just five foot three inches tall, with wispy white hair and he went off to the First World War as a stretcher-bearer. Later he was a ‘cockatoo’, a look-out for his sisters who ran a brothel. Then he became an alcoholic. By the 1930s, when he walked into a church in Pyrmont, he was drinking methylated spirits. The church had a sign offering rock cakes and tea for the down and out. Well, Arthur went in for the cakes but he found himself kneeling down and joining in the prayers. That is how he gave up the grog and got ‘saved’ but the God-given task of his life would be granted to him at another church, the Baptist Tabernacle on Burton Street in Darlinghurst. On the day Arthur came into the Tabernacle the Reverend John Ridley had chosen Isaiah 57:15 as his text. For thus sayeth the high and lofty One who inhabiteth Eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Eternity, the preacher said. I would like to shout the word Eternity to through the streets of Sydney. And that was it, said Martin. Arthur’s brain just went BANG. He staggered out of the church in tears. In the street he reached in his pocket and there he found a piece of chalk. Who knows how it got there? He knelt, and wrote Eternity on the footpath. According to the story, he could hardly write his own name until this moment, but now he found his hand forming this perfect copperplate. That was sign enough. And from then on he would go wherever he felt God call him. He wrote his message as much as fifty times a day; in Martin Place, in Parramatta, all over Sydney people would come out onto their street and there it would be: Eternity. Arthur didn’t like concrete footpaths because the chalk did not show up so well. His favourite place was Kings Cross where the pavements were black. Actually, God did not always send Arthur to write on the footpaths. Once, for instance, He instructed him to write Eternity inside the bell at the GPO although, Martin Sharp told me, the dark forces may have tried to rub it out since then. Of course he didn’t have permission. Arthur always felt he had permission ‘from a higher force’. I didn’t have anything directly to do with that word appearing on the bridge, said Martin, but I have kept it alive; I suppose you could say that I have continued Arthur’s work. The paintings you know, but I have also just finished a tapestry of Eternity for the library in Sydney. I’m pleased Arthur’s work is finally in a library. He was our greatest writer. He said it all, in just one word. Of course he would be amazed to find himself in a library. And imagine, Peter, imagine what he would have felt, on that first day in Darlinghurst, to think that this copperplate he was miraculously forming on the footpath would not only be famous in the streets of Sydney but beamed out into space and sent all around the world. I stayed with Martin talking for a long time, but we said no more about Arthur Stace. So it was not until much later that [sleepless] night… that I attempted to pin down the appeal of his message, not to Martin whose fascination seems both spiritual and hermetic, but to the less mystical more utilitarian people of Sydney. You might think this is no great puzzle. But it is a puzzle – we generally do not like religion in this town, are hostile to ‘God-botherers’ and ‘wowsers’ and ‘bible-bashers‘. We could not like Arthur because he was ‘saved’, hell no! We like him because he was a cockatoo outside the brothel, because he was drunk, a ratbag, an outcast. He was his own man, a slave to no one on this earth. Thus, quietly reflecting on what might be the idiosyncratic, very local nature of our feelings for Eternity, I began to follow the vein back to its source until, like someone who dreams the same bad dream each night, 200 years just vanished like sand between my fingers and I was seeing Arthur Stace as one more poor wretch transported to Botany Bay. 3. Why I Think Peter Carey Is Kind of Wrong About That Last Bit Carey says the appeal of Eternity to Sydneysiders is “a puzzle” because “we generally do not like religion in this town.” Maybe. But which town is he referring to? The one he is familiar with, one populated with artists and writers? Sydney is a big place, made up of all kinds of people. Just recently I heard an elderly lady speak about the founding of the Uniting Church in Australia in 1977. It was a momentous occasion, the uniting of the Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregational churches into one entity with a decidedly progressive agenda – the church’s founding statement called for peace, human rights, the eradication of racism, justice for the poor and protection of the environment, streets ahead of its time compared to the Aussie mainstream. This lady proudly spoke of being there at the commemorate service at Town Hall 35 years ago. Perhaps Carey and his artist mates weren’t paying attention, but it was a big deal all the same. Just to name one more example, Sydney also has a huge community of Polynesians, many of whom are churchgoers. A lot of them are into hip hop, and might therefore appreciate Arthur Stace as a graf legend as well as a man of faith. See what I mean? Which town are you talking about? What if someone said “We generally do not like art in this town.” It would be a pretty rude and dismissive thing to say, and someone who had devoted their life to it might object, but it might also be true. I recently read the autobiography of Robert Hughes, art critic and author of The Fatal Shore, the essential history of Australia’s convict experience; he had some very bitter things to say about his countrymen and their lack of taste. (Like Carey, he too lives in New York.) So it’s all about perspective. “We could not like Arthur because he was ‘saved’, hell no! We like him because he was a cockatoo outside the brothel, because he was drunk, a ratbag, an outcast.” I get it, you’re suspicous of religion; and it’s true, there was something a little crazy about him. (There’s something a little crazy about all Christians, or there should be. Christians, and graffiti artists.) But I don’t think it’s fair to Stace to give all the credit to only the first half of his story. And anyway, who are you calling a ratbag, mate? It’s absolutely true he’s an easy figure to love because of his humble, even miserable origins. And Carey’s spot-on in connecting Arthur’s story to the injustices of the convict past. But the crucial thing is that he was, as Stace himself would have put it, born again. If he had just stayed a drunk, none of this would have happened. He was inspired, and driven, by the tremendous feeling he got from being saved, and he did it in the most elegant and unintrusive (and yes, humble) way – while still getting that mystical, beautiful-yet-terrifying word out to everyone in the city for decades. That feeling is tangible when you look at that word; it speaks for itself. Can you imagine the same impact with a different word – a more pedestrian or “utilitiarian” word? UTILITY! Not really. That, I think, is the reason he’s a legend. Carey seems to have made a puzzle out of something self-evident simply because the faith thing jams his radar. Which I understand; I’m not trying to say you have to have faith to ponder eternity – not at all. I’m just addressing one lapse in his emotional logic. If you think I’m biased feel free to ignore me, but I think this case shows that even people who don’t partake can appreciate the power of faith if it’s genuine and comes from a place of love. Not to nitpick Carey too much – his tripped-out perspective on Australian life and history constantly informs my own since migrating here, and I’m eternally grateful to him for teaching me the secret of Eternity. It’s something I’ve always taken as a sign that I came to the right place.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10869
__label__wiki	0.652808	0.652808	Postdoctoral Research Scholar National Institute of Aerospace National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) has immediate openings for a postdoctoral Research Scholar. Postdoctoral Research Scholar - Unsteady Simulations with Adaptive Space-Time Unstructured Grids National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) has an immediate opening for a postdoctoral Research Scholar to work in collaboration with multiple government agencies to conduct research on the topic of unsteady simulations with adaptive space-time unstructured grids. This position requires creative individuals who are willing to continually learn and challenge the status-quo. The successful candidate will develop and implement a non-standard numerical algorithm in NASA’s FUN3D code for unsteady simulations on adaptive grids and perform algorithm development, implementation, and extensive verification and validation studies in a teamwork environment at NASA Langley Research Center. Progress will be published in journal articles and presented at relevant technical meetings. The successful candidate will work as part of team located in the Computational Aerosciences Branch at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton Virginia, and will be expected to collaborate across branches, disciplines and government agencies in performance of the work. Implement/verify/validate a new solver (space-time, implicit gradient, hyperbolic viscous, zero-volume, low-dissipation) with FUN3D code. Integrate the solver with an existing grid-adaptation module. Develop new algorithms as necessary to successfully construct the new solver and demonstrate it for two-dimensional unsteady simulations on three-dimensional adaptive tetrahedral grids. PhD in engineering, computer science, mathematics, physics, or equivalent. Knowledge in discretization and solution algorithms for unstructured-grid CFD. Advanced programming skills in modern Fortran and/or C++. Demonstrated work in cross functional team environment. Experience with Linux and Git environment. Mathematical skills to analyze numerical algorithms. Postdoctoral Research Scholar - Numerical Analysis National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) is seeking candidates for a postdoctoral Research Scholar to conduct projects in the area of Numerical Analysis and High-Performance Computing (HPC). The focus of this research is on analysis of current computational paradigms used in practical computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations on leadership-class computing platforms and their interactions with other disciplines for applications across the speed range, including both aeronautics and space missions. Successful candidate is expected to develop and demonstrate new approaches to improve accuracy, efficiency, robustness, scalability, and automation of nonlinear and linear iterative solvers used in such computations and publish papers based on results. The successful candidate will work as part of team located in the Computational Aerosciences Branch at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton Virginia, and will be expected to collaborate across branches and in performance of the work. Analyze performance of practical CFD solvers on leadership-class computing platforms Develop, implement, and demonstrate new approaches to improve accuracy, efficiency, robustness, scalability, and automation of nonlinear and linear iterative solvers Develop and implement new models in a practical large-scale CFD code PhD in engineering, applied mathematics, computer science, physics, or equivalent. Ability to quickly learn, analyze, and implement new CFD concepts. Strong CFD background with demonstrated large-scale code development experience Familiarity with HPC requirements Creativity and analytical skills Work in a team environment. Due to export restrictions on the software involved in this research, US Citizenship or Permanent Residency is a bona fide requirement for both positions. Interested candidates should apply via NIA’s career opportunities site located at www.nianet.org under the ‘About NIA’ tab. Please include a letter of introduction, resume, and the names and contact information of three current references. NIA, located near NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton Virginia, is a non-profit research and graduate education institute created to perform aerospace and atmospheric research, develop new technologies for the nation, and help inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers. NIA ranked #3 in the 2019 Top 50 Best Nonprofits to work for in the U.S.! NIA is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and does not discriminate against any applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic prohibited under Federal, State or local laws. About National Institute of Aerospace National Institute of Aerospace, located near NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, is a rapidly-growing, non-profit research and education institute created to perform leading edge aerospace and atmospheric research, develop new technologies for the nation, and help inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers. Additional information about NIA and its education and research programs is available via www.nianet.org. Postdoctoral research position in genetic epidemiology Nashville, Tennessee VUMC 3 Days Ago Postdoctoral Scholar/ Research Associate in Retinal Tissue Engineering Kansas City, Missouri University of Missouri-Kansas City 2 Weeks Ago Head, Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering West Lafayette, Indiana Purdue University 3 Weeks Ago	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10871
__label__wiki	0.891785	0.891785	Over the past five years, Healthcare has been leading the way in terms of sheer amount of IPOs brought to market, the reasons for which we’ve discussed previously. Financials is doing well in 2014, and even fast-casual eateries like Shake Shack have made splashes. But nothing piques the public’s interest like a debut from the Tech sector. Blame it on Steve Jobs, Al Gore, or even Skynet, but people love a good gadget or hot new pieces of technology. The stock market is no different. Unfortunately, 2015 has thus far been a little lacking in the Tech department. Recently, though, we’ve seen some signs of life. Three Technology IPOs landed this past week, which immediately accounted for 38% of the sector’s issuances (8) so far this year. While those eight debuts (for a combined $1.65 billion) are good enough for Tech to be the third most prolific sector of 2015 (behind Healthcare’s 28 and Financials’ 12), it’s a sharp decline from what has been seen in the first half of the previous four years, which have averaged 18 IPOs (raising $6.4 billion) over January to May. Still, the names do inspire excitement. Even Alibaba, the biggest debut of all time, has a bit of an overlap into the technology sector, the “e” in “e-commerce” helping the Consumer Goods company intersect with the Technology sector. Speaking of Alibaba, Chinese e-commerce solutions provider Baozun – whose business is heavily tied to Jack Ma’s behemoth – priced its NASDAQ IPO to the tune of $110 million. Unfortunately for Baozun, investors seemed to give the company a lukewarm reception, as the stock crept up a mere 4.4% in its opening session and it priced below its filed range (at $10 per share). By comparison, similarly-sized Chinese e-commerce issuer Leju Holdings popped 18.6% in its $100 million debut over a year ago, while mammoth Alibaba jumped 38.1%. On the other end of the spectrum and the globe is Shopify, a Canadian Tech company that helps businesses design and run e-commerce websites and marks the first-ever Canadian e-commerce company to go public on U.S. exchanges. Unlike Baozun, investors were eager to welcome Shopify to public markets, as the stock priced at $17 per share, the top end of its filed range. What’s more, it then rose 51.1% in its opening session, good for the seventh-highest first day pop all year, and the second-largest by a 2015 Tech IPO. As of now, there currently sit five Tech IPOs in the six-month backlog. None of them have a household name like Facebook or Twitter, but the public will surely be watching anyway. April IPO Recap May IPO Recap	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10872
__label__wiki	0.599261	0.599261	Türkçe tr Mawaaqeet (points from which pilgrims enter ihraam) The one who passes the miqaat and forgets to enter ihram has to go back to his miqaat Someone went for ‘Umrah by plane and the captain of the plane announced that they would be in line with the miqaat after twenty minutes, but he fell asleep and did not wake up until he reached the airport. Then he went to as-Sayl and entered ihram from there, and he did his ‘Umrah. Does he have to do anything or not?. If this man was one of the people of Riyadh and he went to as-Sayl and entered ihram from there, he does not have to do anything because he entered ihram from his miqaat. But if he came from Madinah, he should have gone to the miqaat of the people of Madinah and entered ihram from there, and if he entered ihram from as-Sayl, then he has to offer a ransom (fidyah), because when the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) defined the miqaats, he said: “They are for them and for anyone who comes to them who is not of their people.” Passing the miqaat of the people of Madinah, for one who passes by it who is not one of them, is like the people of Najd passing the miqaat of the people of Najd when they did not enter ihram. End quote.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10874
__label__wiki	0.619329	0.619329	Home > Trout Unlimited Partners with Dominion to Restore Potomac River Headwater StreamsNew director hired to oversee collaborative initiative Trout Unlimited Partners with Dominion to Restore Potomac River Headwater StreamsNew director hired to oversee collaborative initiative Contact: Bryan Moore, TU Project Director, (304) 641-2658, bmoore@tu.org or Bob Fulton, Dominion, (304) 627-3200, Robert_E._Fulton@dom.com Trout Unlimited Partners with Dominion to Restore Potomac River Headwater Streams New director hired to oversee collaborative initiative WASHINGTON -- The national conservation organization Trout Unlimited (TU) today announced a new watershed restoration initiative in the headwaters of the Potomac River in West Virginia. This project is the newest addition to the Home Rivers Initiative, a community-based model of watershed restoration that TU has used successfully throughout the country. The initiative is made possible by lead $100,000 grants each from the Dominion Foundation and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The Potomac Headwaters Home Rivers Initiative will initially focus on the headwaters of the South Branch of the Potomac in Hardy, Pendleton, and Grant Counties, West Virginia. The initiative will work closely with local communities, landowners, and state and federal agencies to improve fish habitat and water quality through a combination of voluntary measures, including on-the-ground restoration projects. An important emphasis of the project will be expanding habitat for brook trout, the only trout native to the region. Water quality in the upper Potomac has suffered from a number of factors, including loss of riparian habitat, increased erosion, and increased nutrient pollution. The primary goal of the Potomac Headwaters Initiative is to restore the areas of degraded habitat and connect them with the higher quality habitat upstream. Over the long term, TU hopes to make a measurable impact on the quality of water and trout fishing in the Potomac’s headwaters, and to create a model for community-based watershed restoration in the Appalachian Mountains. “We are thrilled to have Dominion as an active partner in this project,” said Chris Wood, TU Vice President for Conservation Programs. “Their funding helped get the project off the ground and leverage federal funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Just as importantly, we are looking forward to working with all the Dominion facilities and employees in the watershed.” Dominion employs more than 300 people in the watershed region at Mt. Storm Power Station, located in the rugged Allegheny Mountains of northeastern West Virginia and at North Branch Power Station, near Bayard, West Virginia. “We recognize that clean rivers will result from partnerships that include companies, communities, and individuals,” said Eva Hardy, senior vice president-External Affairs & Corporate Communications, Dominion. “The Home Rivers Initiative is a tried and tested program that will lead to a cleaner and safer Potomac River.” Bryan Moore, a long-time TU volunteer with strong ties to the watershed, has been hired as the project director. “I am excited to be part of this project and am looking forward to working with local landowners and communities,” said Moore. “It is going to take a lot of hard work on the ground to really improve fishing and water quality, and we need to find solutions that work for local communities and landowners as well as the fish.” Dominion and TU have engaged in a series of projects over the last several years, including several stream restoration projects in Virginia and West Virginia; construction of an access dock for disabled anglers on Lake Sherando in Augusta County, Virginia; and production of an educational video on the effects of acid rain on Virginia’s mountains. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Monongahela National Forest, the W.V. Department of Natural Resources, the W.V. Department of Environmental Protection, and others will all be active partners in the initiative. Trout Unlimited is North America’s leading coldwater fisheries conservation organization, with more than 140,000 members dedicated to the protection and restoration of trout and salmon fisheries and their watersheds. The Dominion Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Dominion, one of the nation's largest producers of energy, with an energy portfolio of about 28,100 megawatts of generation. Dominion also serves retail energy customers in nine states. For more information about Dominion, visit the company's Web site at www.dom.com.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10878
__label__wiki	0.71363	0.71363	Chris Rock, review: a blistering tour de force American comedian Chris Rock is touring the UK for the first time in a decade. Photo: Paul Bergen/AFP/Getty Louise Rhind-Tutt 2 years Friday January 12th 2018 ‘Game of Thrones is prog rock. Britannia is punk’ Who is on Celebrity Gogglebox 2019? When is the Love Island 2019 final? Why did Sherif Lanre leave Love Island 2019? As rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine faces life for murder - here's his plea deal Here's who is appearing in Who Do You Think You Are 2019 Chris Rock: Total Blackout Manchester Arena In the decade since Chris Rock’s last UK tour he has starred in a dozen Hollywood movies and a Broadway show, produced a hit television series, written and directed a screenplay, and hosted the Oscars for a second time. The comedian has also been busy “raising kids,” and the breakdown of his 16-year marriage and the ensuing divorce and custody battle gives a more intimate (though no less confident) perspective to a blisteringly funny opening night for his Total Blackout tour in Manchester. Rock owns the stage, exhibiting a ferocious wit and relentless energy across a range of topics including American politics, police, race relations, gun crime, religion, airport security, modern technology and bullying. Read more: The biggest comedy shows to book now for 2018 – from Flight of the Conchords to The League of Gentlemen “You’d think cops would occasionally shoot a white kid just to make it look good,” he says, noting that the phrase “a few bad apples” is “a lovely term for a murderer.” Some jobs can’t have any bad apples, he wryly observes. “American Airlines can’t be like, ‘most of our pilots like to land, but we’ve got a few bad apples that like to crash into mountains’”. Rock believes schools shouldn’t lie to children, as telling them they’re special and can be anything they want to be doesn’t prepare them for life. “The truth is, you can be anything you’re good at. If they’re hiring. And even then, it helps if you know someone.” We need bullies, he says, as they do half the work of a school – the half you use when you leave. “Who’s gonna cure cancer, or poverty? Some kid who’s getting his ass kicked. Nerds rule the world. You think kids were nice to Bill Gates at school?” From life lessons to sex education, as Rock relishes dishing out expletive-laden advice on how to sustain successful relationships to a squirming crowd. There is no equality in a relationship, he concludes. “You’re in a band. Sometimes you’re lead singer, sometimes you’re on tambourine.” Mobile phones have changed the nature of modern relationships, he believes. You can’t miss someone in 2018 because they’re in your pocket. “I know everything you did today, and how everyone felt about it.” New couple alert. Love me some Amy. Total blackout tour. Ny night 2. @amyschumer A post shared by Chris Rock (@chrisrock) on Dec 7, 2017 at 10:27pm PST You don’t want to get divorced, he says repeatedly. “If you have somebody to love, hold tight.” But he is never sanctimonious about his marriage breakdown. “My divorce was my fault. I wasn’t a good husband. I didn’t listen.” He also cheated with three women and became addicted to pornography – which he irreverently observes made him “15 minutes late, everywhere.” It also made him “sexually autistic”, he claims. “Fellas – get off porn and take care of your woman, or she will leave you. Physically or mentally.” Now Rock has learned from his mistakes, and he assures fans those wayward days are behind him. These days he is enjoying dating, and says his friends are surprised to learn he uses Tinder under his own name. His closing line, revealing his profile picture of him is him naked apart from a microphone and a tambourine, receives a standing ovation and rapturous applause. The dating app will surely see a few more sign-ups following this rip-roaring performance. Chris Rock: Total Blackout tours the UK until 28 January	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10880
__label__wiki	0.525028	0.525028	Free PDFs of Doronzo and Jesuit BAC Manuals!!! New Book: John of St. Thomas, The Gifts of the Hol... New Downloadable PDF Collection (External Links) Below are some links for you to download free ITOPL files of tremendously valuable manuals of dogmatic theology published in the 1940s and 50s. These works (among others) represent the most advanced state of Catholic theology so far... i.e., the pinnacle of organic, traditional theological development before most theologians in the West lost their grip and decided to turn their focus elsewhere. The Spanish Jesuit manual, published by the Madrid-based Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos (B.A.C.) is an impressive work done by different authors from the generation before Vatican II, each an expert in his field; it represents the peak of Jesuit theology before the order drank the cool-aid. Doronzo was a professor of Dogma at Catholic University of America (Washington, D.C.), and his massive dogmatic work on the Sacraments remains unsurpassed. I must say that although I tend to prefer Dominican Thomists (such as Garrigou-Lagrange, Hugon, Ramírez, etc.), true greatness must be recognized where it is really present. By the way, the B.A.C. manual was translated into English a few years ago by Fr. Kenneth Baker, S.J. and is available from Amazon. The set is not cheap (8 vols., $35 USD apiece), but it is truly worth its weight in gold. If anyone were to give it to me for my birthday or for Christmas, I totally wouldn't mind. Also, the Mercaba website, a Catholic resource supersite based off of Spain, has both the philosophy and theology manuals of the Spanish Jesuits (both published by B.A.C.) available in html in Spanish translation. But of course, if we want to do serious theology, we should rather be reading the original Latin. So here it is below, for free! Enjoy!!! (For future convenience, I'm providing permanent links to these and lots more on the "Downloadable PDFs" tab above, so when you need them you can just visit us and download from here.) -Patres S.J. in Hispania. Sacrae Theologiae Summa (BAC), v. 1: Theologia Fundamentalis. -Patres S.J. in Hispania. Sacrae Theologiae Summa (BAC), v. 2: De Deo Uno, Trino, Creante, Elevante; De peccatis. -Patres S.J. in Hispania. Sacrae Theologiae Summa (BAC), v. 3: De Incarnatione; Mariologia; De gratia; De virtutibus. -Patres S.J. in Hispania. Sacrae Theologiae Summa (BAC), v. 4: De Sacramentis; De novissimis. -Emmanuel Doronzo, O.M.I. The Science of Sacred Theology for Teachers, Bk. 1: Introduction to Theology. -Emmanuel Doronzo, O.M.I. The Science of Sacred Theology for Teachers, Bk. 2: Revelation. -Emmanuel Doronzo, O.M.I. The Science of Sacred Theology for Teachers, Bk. 3: Channels of Revelation. -Emmanuel Doronzo, O.M.I. The Science of Sacred Theology for Teachers, Bk. 4: The Church. -Emmanuel Doronzo, O.M.I. Theologia Dogmatica, v. 1: De Revelatione, De Locis Theologicis, De Deo Uno. -Emmanuel Doronzo, O.M.I. Theologia Dogmatica, v. 2: De Deo Trino, De Deo Creante et Elevante, De Gratia. -Emmanuel Doronzo, O.M.I. Tractatus dogmaticus de Sacramentis in genere. -Emmanuel Doronzo, O.M.I. Tractatus dogmaticus de Baptismo et Confirmatione. -Emmanuel Doronzo, O.M.I. Tractatus dogmaticus de Eucharistia, t. 1,. -Emmanuel Doronzo, O.M.I. Tractatus dogmaticus de Eucharistia, t. 2. -Emmanuel Doronzo, O.M.I. Tractatus dogmaticus de Poenitentia, t. 1. -Emmanuel Doronzo, O.M.I. Tractatus dogmaticus de Ordine, t. 1. -Emmanuel Doronzo, O.M.I. Tractatus dogmaticus de Extremaunctione, t. 1. Posted by Unknown at March 28, 2017 0 comments Labels: BAC, De sacramentis, dogma, Doronzo, ITOPL, ITOPL Offers, Manuals, Scholastic Thomists, Thomism New Book: John of St. Thomas, The Gifts of the Holy Spirit (Cluny Media, 2016) John of St. Thomas, O.P., The Gifts of the Holy Spirit, with an introduction by Cajetan Cuddy, O.P. (Tacoma, WA: Cluny Media, 2016), xiv + 403pp. To my joy and amazement, Cluny Media just recently reprinted a translation of a section of John of St. Thomas' Cursus Theologicus, dedicated to the Gifts of the Holy Ghost. The translation by Dominic Hughes, O.P., was originally published in 1951 by Sheed & Ward under the title, The Gifts of the Holy Ghost. But it had been long out of print and hard to find. It is now available from the Cluny Media website for the affordable price of $24.95. I have been working on a review of this book to submit it for publication in a scholarly journal. Before I do so I would like to share with you some of my thoughts in draft form. John of St. Thomas (1589-1644) is not only an exceptionally faithful commentator of St. Thomas' Summa; his Cursus Theologicus is also historically monumental insofar as it is in itself an original Thomistic synthesis, a theological masterpiece in its own right that goes beyond merely commenting on the text of St. Thomas. For example, whereas St. Thomas treats of the Gifts in many different questions spread throughout the Secunda Pars (Ia-IIae, qq. 68-70; IIa-IIae, qq. 8-9, 19, 45, 52, 121, and 139), John of St. Thomas gathers together the entire discussion of the Gifts into a single Disputatio. In a sense, the Cursus is the first of the theological manuals, that is, the predecessor to the many Thomistic treatises ad mentem Sancti Thomae of later centuries. It is historically a turning point between the earlier commentatorial tradition and the later manualist tradition. Hughes’ English translation does tone down a bit the scholastic format of the Latin original. 'Articles' are translated into 'chapters', and the questions that John asks in each are rendered as statements or headings. Thus the original scholastic sense of a quest for an answer to a question is lost a bit in translation. Also lost in translation is John’s constant and explicit reference to the logical structure of the arguments to which he is replying: expressions such as ad primam, major probatur, minor constat, contra est, are either missing, or glossed over in such a way that their logical precision is lost; for instance, ad minorem is paraphrased as "in response to the latter part of this argument." But these tendencies seem to be almost inescapable among mid-20th century English translations of scholastic works; compare, for example, Garrigou-Lagrange's Beatitude, translated by Patrick Cummins, O.S.B., with Garrigou's original De beatitudine. For a purist such as myself, this toning-down of the scholastic method is obviously a drawback. But the relatively free-flowing English text of these translations is designed to appeal to a non-expert audience, and thus opens up a masterpiece from the heart of the Thomistic tradition to a wider readership. This is surely something positive in its own way (perhaps a mixed blessing of sorts) and, realistically, it is necessitated by the financial imperative of selling more books. If you want to be a strict 'purist', read the Latin text itself. For, as the Italians say: "traduttore, traditore." That said, Hughes' translation includes, over and above the original, very helpful outlines at the beginning of each of his chapters (articles), which are a great aid to the careful student of John’s text. One minor aspect in the reprint that I do find entirely unnecessary and in a way regrettable is the change in title, and together with it the "minor editorial revisions to the original text, including the changing of ‘Holy Ghost’ to ‘Holy Spirit’ throughout." Not that it is theologically erroneous to say 'Holy Spirit' instead of 'Holy Ghost'. Rather, I just think that the deliberate suppression of traditional Catholic expressions such as this one tends to promote a disconnect with tradition in subsequent generations of Catholics. This suppression furthers yet a little more the linguistic distance between us and our ancestors in the faith. It is not so much an issue of preserving a tiny feature of our Catholic language; rather what is at stake is promoting continuity between generations of Catholics. English-speaking Catholics need to become more familiar with the faith, writings, and modes of expression of their forefathers, not less. That said, the consistent replacement of the expression ‘Holy Ghost’ throughout the book was to me personally at most only a bit distracting, and did not detract from the sheer joy of holding and reading John of St. Thomas’s commentary on St. Thomas in translation. The reprint also includes a brand new introduction by Fr. Cajetan Cuddy, O.P., which aims to show to the average reader the relevance of John of St. Thomas’ work on the Holy Ghost. Fr. Cuddy here offers a brief apologia of the Thomistic Commentatorial Tradition. He argues that "truth did not die with Saint Thomas Aquinas in 1274" (p. v), and that this tradition is "a living tradition" because the men who represent it received the "essential first principles of doctrinal purity and cultural engagement from Saint Thomas" and then went on "expeditions through the cultural and intellectual jungles of their own periods" (pp. v-vi). And John of St. Thomas, whom his contemporaries called ‘another Thomas’, excels among Thomists in that he had a "unique ability to adjudicate difficult questions amidst great confusion without deviating from the truth. Speculative complexity did not deter or suffocate this Iberian priest" (p. vii). The translator's introduction to the 1951 edition, also contained in the reprint, includes a rather valuable "historical introduction" to John of St. Thomas, which will prove very helpful to readers seeking to deepen their understanding of the life, work, and times of this great Thomist. All in all, Fr. Cajetan Cuddy and Cluny Media have done a great service to English-speaking readers of Thomism and Theology in general by making available again this gem of the Thomistic tradition in translation. The volume is a great joy to have and to study. I sure hope to see more volumes of this kind in years to come. Be sure to look also at Cluny Media's other Thomistic titles, such as Brennan's Thomistic Psychology, as well as several other volumes published in their Thomistic Institute Series. Labels: aquinas, John of St. Thomas, Moral Theology, Scholastic Thomists, Scholasticism, Summa, Thomism As of late, I have been searching the internet for downloadable PDFs of works relevant to Thomism and to pretty much anything else related to traditional Catholic thought. Below is what I've found so far. Highlights include much of St. Thomas' Leonine Edition and lots and lots of works by Fr. Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. and Santiago Ramírez, O.P. in various languages. And I'm just getting started; there's lots more out there. Many of the files I've found were originally scanned by us at Ite ad Thomam, and form part of the Ite ad Thomam Out-of-Print Library (ITOPL). Most of the volumes were scanned between 2001 and 2009 from the libraries of FSSP's Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary, near Lincoln, Nebraska, and of Mount Angel Abbey and Seminary in Oregon. They have been shared and shared and by now made public on the internet. As I find more of our files across the internet I will provide links to them. Just remember you got them first from us! I will keep a list of links handy here on the Ite ad Thomam Institute website. Look for the 'tab' above labelled "Downloadable PDFs"; there, I will be adding links as I find them. PHILOSOPHIA (PHILOSOPHY): -Sertillanges, O.P. La philosophie morale de Saint Thomas d'Aquin. -Sertillanges, O.P. Saint Thomas d'Aquin, v. 1. -H. D. Gardeil, O.P. Introduction to the Philosophy of St. Thomas. Vol. 2: Cosmology. -Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. God: His Existence and His Nature, vol. 1. -Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. Dieu: Son existence et sa nature. -Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. Dios: Su Existencia. -Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. Dios: Su Naturaleza. -Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. Le Réalisme du principe finalité. -Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. El realismo del principio de finalidad. -Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. "Natural Object of the Intellect and First Object Understood". -Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. "Non potest esse genuina sensatio sine sensato". -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. "Saint Thomas Commentateur d'Aristote" -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. Les XXIV theses thomistes. -Santiago Ramírez, O.P. De analogia, vol. 1. -Santiago Ramírez, O.P. De ipsa philosophia in universum, vol. 1. -Santiago Ramírez, O.P. De ordine. -Hirschberger. History of Philosophy -Copleston. A History of Philosophy, Vol. 1 (Ancient) -Copleston. A History of Philosophy, Vol. 2 (Medieval) -Copleston. A History of Philosophy, Vol. 7 (Modern) -Phillips. Modern Thomistic Philosophy. SACRA SCRIPTURA (SACRED SCRIPTURE): -Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner edition). PATRISTICA (WORKS ON PATRISTICS): -De Journel. Enchiridion Patristicum. SCRIPTORES ECCLESIASTICI (ECCLESIASTICAL WRITERS): -Isidore of Seville. Etymologies. SANCTUS THOMAS ET COMMENTATORES (ST THOMAS AND COMMENTATORS): -S. Thomae Opera ed. Leonina, t. 1: In Aristotelis libros Peri hermeneias et Posteriorum analyticorum, Ed. 1a. -S. Thomae Opera ed. Leonina, t. 2: In Aristotelis libros Physicorum. -S. Thomae Opera ed. Leonina, t. 3: In Aristotelis libros De caelo, De generatione et Meteorologicorum. -S. Thomae Opera ed. Leonina, t. 4: Summa Theologiae I.1-49 (cum Cajetani commentario). -S. Thomae Opera ed. Leonina, t. 5: Summa Theologiae I.50-119 (cum Cajetani commentario). -S. Thomae Opera ed. Leonina, t. 6: Summa Theologiae I-II.1-70 (cum Cajetani commentario). -S. Thomae Opera ed. Leonina, t. 7: Summa Theologiae I-II.71-114 (cum Cajetani commentario). -S. Thomae Opera ed. Leonina, t. 8: Summa Theologiae II-II.1-56 (cum Cajetani commentario). -S. Thomae Opera ed. Leonina, t. 9: Summa Theologiae II-II.57-122 (cum Cajetani commentario). -S. Thomae Opera ed. Leonina, t. 10: Summa Theologiae II-II.123-189 (cum Cajetani commentario). -S. Thomae Opera ed. Leonina, t. 11: Summa Theologiae III.1-59 (cum Cajetani commentario). -S. Thomae Opera ed. Leonina, t. 12: Summa Theologiae III.60-90 (cum Cajetani commentario). -S. Thomae Opera ed. Leonina, t. 13: Summa Contra Gentiles 1 et 2 (cum Ferrarensis commentario). -S. Thomae Opera ed. Leonina, t. 14: Summa Contra Gentiles 3 (cum Ferrarensis commentario). -S. Thomae Opera ed. Leonina, t. 16: Summa Theologiae et Summa Contra Gentiles, Indices. -S. Thomae Opera ed. Leonina, t. 22.1: De veritate 1-7. -S. Thomae Opera ed. Leonina, t. 22.2: De veritate 8-12. -S. Thomae Opera ed. Leonina, t. 22.3: De veritate, 13-20. -S. Thomae Opera ed. Leonina, t. 22.3: De veritate, indices. -S. Thomae Opera ed. Leonina, t. 23: De malo. -S. Thomae Opera ed. Leonina, t. 24.1: Quaestiones disputatae de anima. -S. Thomae Opera ed. Leonina, t. 26: Super Job. -S. Thomae Opera ed. Leonina, t. 28: Super Isaiam. -S. Thomae Opera ed. Leonina, t. 40a: Contra errores graecorum. -S. Thomae Opera ed. Leonina, t. 40de, De substantiis separatis, Super Decretales. -S. Thomae Opera ed. Leonina, t. 41bc: De perfectione, Contra retrahentium. -S. Thomae Opera ed. Leonina, t. 42: Opuscula varia. -S. Thomae Opera ed. Leonina, t. 43, Opuscula varia. -S. Thomae Opera ed. Leonina, t. 45-1, Sentencia libri De anima. -S. Thomae Opera ed. Leonina, t. 45-1, Sentencia libri De sensu et De memoria. -S. Thomae Opera ed. Leonina, t. 47.1: Sententia libri Ethicorum, 1-3. -S. Thomae Opera ed. Leonina, t. 47.2: Sententia libri Ethicorum, 4-10. -S. Thomas Aquinas, Literal Commentary on the Book of Job. -S. Thomas Aquinas, The Academic Sermons. -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. De methodo S. Thomae. -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. De Deo Uno. -Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. De Deo Trino et Creatore. -Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. The Trinity and God the Creator. -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. De beatitudine. -Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. Beatitude. -Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. De gratia. -Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. Grace. -Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. De virtutibus theologicis. -Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. De Christo Salvatore. -Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. Christ the Saviour (Word format). -Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. De Eucharistia et Poenitentia. -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. La síntesis tomista. -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. The Essence and Topicality of Thomism. -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. Essenza e attualita del tomismo. -Santiago Ramírez, O.P. De hominis beatitudine, vol. 1. -Santiago Ramírez, O.P. De passionibus animae. -Santiago Ramírez, O.P. De habitibus in communi, vol. 1. -Santiago Ramírez, O.P. De gratia Dei, vol. 1. -Santiago Ramírez, O.P. ¿Qué es un tomista? -Santiago Ramírez, O.P. Introducción a Tomás de Aquino. -Santiago Ramírez, O.P. De Auctoritate Doctrinali S. Thomae Aquinatis. -Santiago Ramírez, O.P. The Authority of St. Thomas Aquinas. -Peddicord, O.P. The Sacred Monster of Thomism, Ch. 8: The Spirituality of Garrigou-Lagrange -DeFerrari. A Lexicon of St. Thomas Aquinas. -Meng & Crean, O.P. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P.: Teacher of Thomism -Zorcolo, O.P. Bibliografía del P. Garrigou-Lagrange. -Emery, O.P. The Trinitarian Theology of St. Thomas Aquinas. -Torrell, O.P. Saint Thomas Aquinas, Vol. 2: Spiritual Master THEOLOGIA FUNDAMENTALIS ET DOGMATICA: -Ambroise Gardeil, O.P. Le donné révelé et la théologie. -Walshe. The Principles of Catholic Apologetics. (Summary of Garrigou-Lagrange's De Revelatione.) -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. De Revelatione per Ecclesiam Catholicam Proposita, v. 1. -Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. Articles on the Nouvelle Théologie (Angelicum). -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. "La nouvelle théologie: Ou va-t-elle?" -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. "La notion pragmatiste de la vérité et ses conséquences en théologie" -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. "On the Principle of Idealism ‘Whatever is Outside of the Mind is Unknowable’" -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. "Where is the New Theology Leading Us -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. "The structure of the encyclical Humani Generis" -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. "La struttura dell'Enciclica Humani generis" -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. Le sens commun: La philosophie de l’être et formules -dogmatiques. -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. El sentido común. -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. "Prémotion Physique" -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. "Providence selon la théologie" -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. Le sens du mystere et le Clair-Obscur Intellectuel- Nature et Surnature. -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. El sentido del misterio. -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. Predestination (English). -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. La predestination de los santos y la gracia. -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. “La Royauté universelle de Notre-Seigneur Jésus-Christ" -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. Life Everlasting. -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. La vida eterna y la profundidad del alma. -Pesch, S.J. Praelectiones dogmaticae, t. 1: Institutiones propedeuticae. -Pesch, S.J. Praelectiones dogmaticae, t. 2: De Deo Uno et Trino. -Pesch, S.J. Praelectiones dogmaticae, t. 3: De Deo Creante et Fine Ultimo. -Pesch, S.J. Praelectiones dogmaticae, t. 4: De Verbo Incarnato; De Sanctis. -Pesch, S.J. Praelectiones dogmaticae, t. 5: De gratia; De lege. -Pesch, S.J. Praelectiones dogmaticae, t. 6: De Sacramentis I. -Pesch, S.J. Praelectiones dogmaticae, t. 7: De Sacramentis II. -Pesch, S.J. Praelectiones dogmaticae, t. 8: De virtutibus theologicis. -Pesch, S.J. Praelectiones dogmaticae, t. 9: De virtutibus moralibus; De novissimis. -Hervé. Manuale Theologiae Dogmaticae, v. 1: De revelatione, De Ecclesia, De fontibus. -Gibbons. The Faith of Our Fathers. THEOLOGIA MORALIS, ASCETICA ET MYSTICA (MORAL, ASCETICAL AND MYSTICAL THEOLOGY): -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. Mother of the Saviour. -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. La Madre del Salvador y nuestra vida interior. -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. Providence (Word format). -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. La providencia y la confianza en Dios. -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. Christian Perfection and Contemplation. -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. Our Saviour and His Love for Us. -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. El Salvador y su amor por nosotros. -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. The Love of God and the Cross of Jesus, vol. 1. -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. Priest in Union with Christ. -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. La unión del sacerdote con Cristo sacerdote y víctima. -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. Priesthood and Perfection. -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. La santificación del sacerdote. -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. Le virtù eroiche nei bambini. -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. Three Ages of the Interior Life, vol. 1. -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. Las tres edades de la vida interior. -Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. The Last Writings. -Royo Marín, O.P. Teología de la perfección cristiana. HISTORIA (HISTORY): -Fortescue. The Mass: A Study of the Roman Liturgy. Labels: aquinas, FSSP, Garrigou-Lagrange, ITOPL, Manuals, Scholastic Thomists, Scholasticism, Summa	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10881
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__label__wiki	0.924126	0.924126	Yet it does fly From The New Criterion. December 31, 2018. Front page headlines in both The Washington Post and The New York Times on the Sunday before the mid-term elections (at least for those of us who still vote at the polls in the old-fashioned way) loudly proclaimed that the coming contest was to be a referendum on President Trump. Ah, said I to myself, they must be pretty confident that the Democrats are going to do well or they wouldn’t be saying that. A Republican success, or even Republicans doing less badly than expected, would have had the economy or local issues to thank, in their view, and certainly not Mr Trump whose popularity is axiomatically limited to his fanatical, deplorable "base," long since written off by the media as "irredeemable" — at least to the extent that it is unavailable to Democrats in search of votes. The Times even added a second piece by Jeremy W. Peters headed: "G.O.P. Sees Trump’s Playbook as Best Hope in Some Tight Races," which I doubt that it would have done if it were not confident that such a "hope" on the GOP’s part could be added to the long list of GOP mistakes it has been compiling for the last two years to its own reassurance. Mr Peters’s focus was on the First Congressional district of Minnesota, where the Republican candidate, Jim Hagedorn, ended up (barely) winning his seat from the Democrats, an event anticipated by the reporter, who proleptically explained it by writing that The First District, which is 90 percent white, fits the demographic profile of many of the places where Mr. Trump has been confined to campaigning by Republicans who do not want him in more diverse districts. Given Mr. Trump’s self-described "nationalist" views, some Republicans believe their path to staying in power in the Trump era is increasingly narrow and heavily dependent on the parts of the country that are the most white and rural. . . .Many Republicans privately worry that in terms of the future health of their party, the outreach and agenda they are pursuing feels a lot like the president’s travel footprint: provincial and small. This kind of thinking is by way of being a truism to media-folk, endlessly repeated as one among many axioms by which they continue to prove long after his election that Mr Trump cannot possibly be elected. The Republican need for greater "diversity" is one of the facts of life, in their view, Mr Trump’s denial of which — as when, in his post-election news conference, he attributed the defeat of Republican Congresswoman Barbara Comstock of Virginia to her refusal of his "embrace" — contributes to the media narrative of his mental inadequacy, either through stupidity or insanity, for the high office he occupies. Ex-Representative Comstock And it does seem that the pollsters’ and the demographers’ logic is impeccable. According to all their highly developed arts a President Trump is impossible, just as (so it is said) the science of aerodynamics proves that it is impossible for a bumblebee to fly. Yet it does fly. And Mr Trump is president. All the same, no election analyst writing for the mainstream media ever seems to think the theory might be wrong, for they all continue to say, along with Mr Peters, that any Republican whose election depends on even one vote beyond what he calls "his homogeneous base" would be mad to embrace him. Barbara Comstock didn’t, but her successful Democratic opponent nevertheless ran endless ads (I live in an adjacent congressional district which is in the same media market) tying her to the hated one anyway, calling her Barbara Trumpstock and claiming that she had voted with the president 98 per cent of the time. Surely, poor Ms Comstock could be forgiven if she regards as crazy the President’s account of her defeat as a result of her standoffishness towards him. And yet there were Republican candidates who submitted to his embraces and who won — most notably, perhaps, Ron DeSantis, the new governor of Florida (assuming that the obvious electoral malpractice in Broward County gets sorted out in his favor) who was widely written off in the media in the weeks prior to the election for having made the mistake of associating himself with Donald Trump, though there, of course the media were also infatuated with his attractive left-wing opponent, the mayor of Tallahassee, Andrew Gillum. More significant, perhaps, were the cases of Ted Cruz in Texas, Marsha Blackburn in Tennessee, Mike Braun in Indiana, Josh Hawley in Missouri and Kevin Cramer in North Dakota, all of whom welcomed Mr Trump’s assistance and were subsequently elected to the Senate. "Without him, I don’t think we would have had the night we had," Senator Lindsey Graham remarked. If, in other words the election were a referendum on President Trump, it is far from easy to tell what its verdict was. Given that the party of the president routinely loses seats in off-year elections, the fact that Republican losses in the House were no worse than they were, and that they strengthened their majority in the Senate, could be said (and were said by the President himself) to constitute victory. At the very least, you would think that the media’s bijou analysts would want to go back to the drawing board and engage in some original thinking in response to the new information provided by the voters. Yet, so far as I could see, the media "narrative" about Mr Trump’s electoral impact remained unchanged. In The Washington Post, post-election analysis of "How Democrats won the House" by Michael Scherer and Josh Dawsey began with a 1000 word exordium rehearsing all the anti-Trump topoi of the media for the last two and a half years in order to suggest that the triumphal narrative of Democratic victory which followed was on account of Trump-hatred equivalent to the media’s own. Most of the article could have been written before any results were known, so certain were Messrs Scherer and Dawsey of the effects of Mr Trump’s well-known (and long known) bêtises on the voters at least of the enlightened parts of the country. The authors are not trying to understand events; they are trying, as the media have been trying since 2016, to shape events to their liking. Now speechwriters were telling the man who encouraged fistfights at his 2016 campaign rallies (they write) to call for "all sides to come together in peace and harmony." They wanted the real estate promoter who dubbed his Democratic opponent "crooked" to demand an end to "treating political opponents as being morally defective." The midterm elections were always going to come down to a moment like this: President Trump, isolated and imperious, deciding the fate of his Republican Party’s electoral hopes. In three short years, he had become an omnipotent force in American life, overturning the customs of the White House, the values of the Republican Party and the rules of public debate. His opponents had reacted fiercely, with the largest street protests since the 1960s and the greatest wave of political engagement — as measured by money and volunteer energy — that had ever been seen in an off-year election. They were united, as rarely before, against him. But that was just how he liked it, always at the center of attention, going with his gut, selling his defiance as a foundational attribute. He believed in the reactions of his own enormous crowds. They would allow him to defy the prognosticators and polls, show up his media critics, and once again rewrite the rules of American politics. The great deluded fool! And so on and so forth. The Post clearly knows what its remaining readers want to hear — and never seem to tire of hearing. Tell us again, they say to the obliging reporters and editorialists, about that dreadful Mr Trump, and then about how our boys and girls are so successfully thwarting him. And so of course they tell them again. No useful information exchanges hands at any point in the transaction, and very little that is news, but the old songs are sung once again and everyone involved is happy. True, it is occasionally necessary to impart unpleasant news, as when Sean Sullivan reports not only that "Republicans retain control of Senate" but that they do so "with candidates who embraced Trump." How can that be? Wasn’t the narrative about how the election was a referendum on the Trump presidency predicated on the assumption that it would be a rejection of it and him? "Democrats tried to defeat candidates who marched in lockstep with Trump by running on preserving health-care protections and other so-called ‘kitchen table’ issues," wrote Mr Sullivan. "In key races, they fell short." Oh yes? Any idea why that might be? None is ventured by Mr Sullivan, though on the bright side he notes that the Senate Democratic caucus will now shift leftwards and therefore, presumably, oppose the hated Trump all the more vociferously. The difference in tone between these two articles is no less remarkable for being entirely predictable, the one all unctuous enthusiasm for the new Democratic intake, the other a grim and sharply bitten off catalogue of Democratic losses interspersed, where possible, with the occasional bright spot of a Democratic seat retained or even, in the case of Senator Dean Heller of Nevada, won from a Republican. There is no mention here of the election as a referendum on the President, but the dominant narrative was not forgotten elsewhere at the Post. Veteran Trump-hater and blogger Jennifer Rubin was unfazed by any doubt that "Voters [gave] Trump a big thumbs down" — even insisting that the long-predicted but invisible to the naked eye "blue wave" had indeed materialized to "wipe out the GOP House majority." This could only be "an emphatic rejection of Trump and of his placid Republican enablers in the House." Few of these "placid enablers," formerly known as members of the President’s political party, saw themselves in that light when they were elected — Senator Graham, perhaps, the chief among them. But constant media bombardment from the likes of Ms Rubin merely for voting with the President on matters both agree on, like tax reform (which, according to her, "voters dislike") has made its own contribution to increasing Republicans’ identification of themselves with Mr Trump and he with them. The flip side of the left’s contemptuous dismissal of Republicans as being, now, the party of Trump is that he has become, now and at last, much more like a normal Republican, as William McGurn pointed out in The Wall Street Journal on election day:. Long before he was president, Donald Trump was a celebrity, a walking, talking jumble of political incorrectness who rode his billionaire populism all the way to the Oval Office. But a funny thing happened to Mr. Trump once he became president. At some point he understood that if he was not to fizzle out like so many populists before him — think pro wrestler turned governor Jesse "The Body" Ventura in Minnesota or Arnold "The Terminator" Schwarzenegger in California — he would need to tether his populism to the Republican policy agenda. And, mostly, he has. Not, of course, that that is any recommendation to the likes of Ms Rubin or Mr Peters, who notes with some satisfaction that "Americans who identify as Republicans are the smallest part of the electorate, currently below 30 percent, public opinion surveys from Gallup, the Pew Research Center and others show." But it does remind us of how many of those now citing the unique evil represented by Mr Trump would say, and have said, the same about any Republican who stands in the way of their own candidates for office. Thus, too, a transparently good and decent man like Brett Kavanaugh can be instantly transformed into a moral monster and "serial rapist" if such transformation promises a chance, however remote, of keeping him off the Supreme Court and interfering with its late penchant for making up new laws instead of interpreting old ones.. The fact that several of the defeated Democratic Senators against whom Mr Trump campaigned voted not to confirm Justice Kavanaugh — and that Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, the lone Democrat who voted to confirm, was not defeated — may be taken to show that people understand this, and that therefore the scorching anti-Trumpism of a Jennifer Rubin and those blue-state Democrats who take her as their model may already have become counterproductive. It has certainly done its bit to unite the Republican party, small though it be, and it may also have indicated to a lot of non-Republicans the direction from which the "divisiveness" routinely attributed to Mr Trump is really coming. That would seem to some at least as persuasive a way of looking at the result as "a big thumbs down." Much will depend on the extent to which the new Democratic House of Representatives chooses to try to find common ground with Mr Trump or else to oppose him reflexively, root and branch. There are indications, as I write, of both possibilities. Jennifer Wexton, the Democratic vanquisher of Barbara "Trumpstock", made it one of her first orders of business as Congresswoman-elect to announce that "I would love to able to work with President Trump. I think that there are areas that we should be able to work together." On the other hand Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York was overheard on an Acela train by Mollie Hemingway the day after the election plotting the re-investigation and hopeful impeachment of Brett Kavanaugh when he becomes chairman of the House Judiciary Committee in January. He and Jennifer Rubin are as one in supposing that a plurality of Americans must want Mr Kavanaugh off the high court — not because of the dubious poll results cited by the latter but because both assume that most people hate the man who appointed him as much as they do. Most people that they know may hate him, but, leaving aside the irredeemable minority who love him, there are a great many more people who can look upon both the haters and him they hate with enough detachment to wonder what that is all about and what it has to do with the things they care about when stepping into the voting booth. These are the electors that the successful candidates in this and in future elections have had, and will have, to win over. Now you only need to ask yourself whether such people are more likely to gravitate towards Congressman Nadler and his obsessive investigations or Jennifer Wexton’s cheerfully hypocritical willingness to seek common ground with the President. I’m rather a passionate partisan myself, but I think I know which kind of politician the vast and only vaguely partisan middle of the country will turn to for leadership in 2020.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10883
__label__cc	0.534395	0.465605	Ohio Inspector General Resists Investigating Massive Rigging of Workers’ Compensation Premium Rates A two-part series in the Sept. and Oct. 2014 issues of The Columbus Free Press reported on the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) setting employers’ insurance premiums illegally and unfairly for many years. The violations were revealed in the class-action lawsuit of San Allen v. Buehrer, in which Ohio’s 8th District Court of Appeals in May 2014 affirmed BWC’s liability to Ohio employers. In Nov. 2014, the trial judge in the case, Richard McMonagle of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, approved a $420 million settlement agreed to by BWC and the plaintiffs’ attorneys. McMonagle had ruled in 2012 that BWC knowingly violated state law and acted unfairly in setting hundreds of thousands of Ohio employers’ workers’ compensation premium rates. The illegal rates were imposed on employers for over 15 years, until the lawsuit forced the agency to stop in 2009. BWC’s records submitted at trial indicated its conduct caused many thousands of employers to close due to shockingly high – and completely illegal – premium increases. The appeals court said the illegal and inequitable premiums were caused by a “cabal” of BWC bureaucrats and lobbyists who had “rigged” the rates. As shown in The Free Press’ previous articles, this wrongdoing enabled special interests in the workers’ compensation field to make obscene profits on the backs of the devastated and destroyed Ohio employers. After The Free Press’ articles came out, the nonpartisan good-government group Common Cause Ohio asked Ohio Inspector General Randall Meyer to investigate the misconduct revealed by San Allen. Samuel Gresham Jr., the group’s chair, pointed out in a Nov. 3, 2014 letter that Ohio law requires the inspector general to investigate “wrongful acts and omissions” in state government and to ensure that corrective action is taken and responsible parties are held accountable. Even though wrongful acts and omissions were indisputably exposed by San Allen, the Inspector General’s Office declined to investigate. In a Nov. 12, 2014 letter sent to Common Cause Ohio on behalf of the office, investigative attorney Joshua Beasley indicated the transgressions described in San Allen were adequately addressed in an investigation report issued on August 21, 2007, by then-Inspector General Thomas Charles. But the 2007 report examined allegations that BWC had wrongly lowered the premiums of certain favored employers based on political considerations. In contrast, San Allen said BWC had colluded with lobbyists to intentionally set all employers’ premium rates illegally and unfairly. This was entirely different behavior from what was examined in 2007. Moreover, after the 2007 report concluded that BWC had not illegally adjusted individual employers’ premiums, the Cleveland-based employers’ group We’ve Had Enough.Net, which was formed to advocate for workers’ compensation reform in Ohio, received complaints that the report had covered up an immense amount of BWC wrongdoing. Based on a review of the investigation documents obtained from a public records request, the group sent state officials a 21-page letter, dated Feb. 5, 2009, protesting numerous failings of the report. Four of the biggest problems found were: (1) The report blamed all the premium adjustments on one obscure bureaucrat who had since left BWC. But the investigation documents revealed involvement of other state officials, including agency heads appointed by governors Bob Taft and George Voinovich. (2) The report claimed that the investigation found nothing to contradict the claims of some BWC officials that the premium changes were made solely to keep Ohio employers from going out of business. On the contrary, the investigation materials revealed that many changes were made for other reasons, including employers complaining to legislators or threatening to go to the media about their high premium bills. (3) The report ignored that in granting favorable premium changes for some employers, BWC violated laws requiring all similarly situated employers to be treated equally. (4) The report failed to address the legality of premium relief given to businesses owned by some state officials. Although this list is just a small part of the 21 pages of problems that We’ve Had Enough.Net identified, it is a further reason the report is an unacceptable response to the intentional BWC lawbreaking and collusion with lobbyists revealed by San Allen. Besides not addressing the wrongdoing exposed by the recent case, the report failed miserably at addressing the separate BWC misconduct examined in 2007. Essentially the same points were made in a Nov. 25, 2014 follow-up letter sent to Inspector General Meyer by Gresham on behalf of Common Cause Ohio. In view of the 2007 report’s many deficiencies and its irrelevance to what was revealed in San Allen, the group again asked for an investigation of the breaches of the public trust described in the case. They are still waiting for a response. Unless it reverses course, the Inspector General’s Office will have used the 2007 report not only to cover up a huge amount of corruption back then, but also to provide an absurd excuse for refusing to investigate and hold state officials accountable for the massive additional corruption recently revealed by San Allen. Ohioans can expect similar whitewashes in the coming years. In early 2015, Gov. John Kasich reappointed Meyer to another four-year term as inspector general. Kasich’s response to the cover-ups by Meyer and Charles has been to reward them both with further tenure in high offices in Ohio’s state government. PreviousRigged Premium Rates in Ohio’s Workers’ Compensation System Were Illegally Covered Up for Years NextCensorship Was the Real Reason Columbus City Officials Ended Public Access TV	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10886
__label__wiki	0.622908	0.622908	Unseen Malady Thomas Clark was hungry. A lot of people think they’ve been hungry because they skipped lunch one afternoon, but that’s not hunger. Hunger is not remembering when you last ate, and not knowing when you’re going to eat again. True hunger is like an animal, clawing and barking and snapping, demanding to be fed. The beast makes you weak. It can soften minds and shatter spirits. People will do nearly anything to keep it at bay, like a desperate man fleeing from an angry mob. People have eaten shoe leather, bark, grass, and even dirt, when they got desperate enough. Thomas Clark wasn’t there yet, but it wouldn’t take too much longer. He had been running through the backwoods of Huntington County, Indiana for about three days. He wore a nice suit; his Sunday best. After wading through creeks and slogging through muddy fields, it wasn’t anymore. His hands and his left leg ached, and they were getting worse. He needed help, but no one in the county wanted to give him that. Instead, they chased him where ever he went, and a lot of places he hadn’t been yet. Thomas had to be careful, but the hunger and the pain were driving him to desperation. With so many people looking for him, his first instinct was probably to run. Flee and get away from everyone as fast as he could. But in his condition, Thomas couldn’t. He needed a place to hide, to heal. But there weren’t many that were going to do that for him, not even family. A short time before, he had tried to get to his brother’s house. Surely his own brother would help him, at least let him sleep in the barn and give him something to eat. While his brother might have, his nephew was a different matter. When the young man saw his uncle coming toward the house, he got a shotgun. Thomas was no fool and immediately hid behind a nearby tree. The nephew, afraid of what grim business Thomas might be on, fired a blast into the air to rouse the attention of his father. Thomas could take a hint, and ran away. He’d find no shelter there. Thomas Clark. Courtesy of the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette Now, here he was, walking down a lonely stretch of road, hungry and tired. He had been on the run before, and knew what to expect. Only that time, he hadn’t been hurt. The whole thing had gone better. Thomas had survived and even thrived, escaping his pursuers with relative ease. That time, he had ample motivation not to be caught. He didn’t want to go back to … that place, that awful, awful place. They had had treated him so badly there. He wouldn’t ever go back there again, not if he could help it. Of course, this time he had good reason to run, too. This time, there wouldn’t be a cell; this time there’d be a rope. As Thomas walked, a truck made its way steadily down the road. He didn’t really pay much mind to it, until it pulled up alongside of him. The man behind the wheel was Cecil Jackson, a storekeeper from the nearby town of Jackson Center, and riding with him was a younger man named Jesse Bevens. The last thing in the world Thomas wanted was to be recognized, and, unfortunately, he had known Jackson for years. The three men talked for a bit, and Jackson offered him a ride. Thomas politely refused, and asked them not to tell anyone else that they had seen him. Jackson and Bevens agreed, and they parted company. But Jackson and Bevens had no intention of letting Thomas go. They drove to the next farmhouse, where Jackson asked the farmer living there if he could borrow a shotgun. After explaining why, the farmer was only too happy to comply and handed it over. In the last three days, there had been almost 150 men out looking for Thomas Clark, but with absolutely no luck. Now they had him. After what he had done, they weren’t about to just let him go. Quickly, they drove back down the road where they had last seen him. Sure enough, he was still there, making his way steadily forward. Bevens and Jackson drove past him, making their way to the next farm along the road. They got out, secreted the shotgun, and started to pretend that they were brokering a deal for produce. Soon enough, they saw Clark shuffling toward them. When he got close enough, Jackson took out the shotgun and held it on him, telling him not to move. Clark could have protested. He could have fought. But he was just too damn tired. With hardly a word, he surrendered. A three-day manhunt for the most wanted man in Huntington County had just come to an end. Three days before, Clark had been fighting with his wife, Lillie. They lived on a farm near Huntington, Indiana, with three of their sons – Herbert, Dale, and Homer. Although they had been married for over 20 years, for some of that time, Clark had been a patient at the Eastern Indiana Hospital for the Insane, or, as it was better known, Easthaven. Why Thomas was originally sent there has been lost to history. In the early 20th Century, there were several reasons why a person could be sent to a psychiatric hospital. At that time, there was still much that wasn’t known or understood, which led to many people being sent to asylums for illnesses that might be easily, or at least be better, treated in the modern world. Standard treatments of the age could include electroshock therapy, lobotomies, and ice water baths. It was these latter that Thomas would come to revile and fear the most. Thomas hated being an inmate at Easthaven. It wasn’t so much that he was a patient there; he seemed to be okay with that. Rather, it was the ill treatment that he received at their hands. He claimed that they choked and kicked him. The worst part were the baths, where they would plunge him into a near-boiling tub of water, immerse him, and then sling him out and directly into another tub full of ice-water. After several sessions of this, he pled with the head doctor there to stop, essentially asking the man, “What would your mother think?” The doctor, apparently moved, stopped the sessions. Still, life at Easthaven was intolerable for Thomas and he escaped in the early 1920’s. On the run, he lived off the land, stealing food here and there and evading capture by staying off the main roads and sticking to the back country. For months he was able to evade capture, eventually fleeing the region and going to another state. But, in 1922, he came back. Sometime in late Summer or early Fall of that year, Thomas Clark returned. He knew that if he was caught, he’d be sent back to the asylum, and he had no desire to return there. Instead, he approached his wife, who he asked to intercede with the authorities on his behalf. She did, and Thomas was declared cured. He happily returned home to his family and life on the farm. However, things had changed. His wife, Lillie, had become known in Huntington. Although the area newspapers politely referred to her as being “known” about the town, the insinuation of her behavior between the lines did not make it seem like anything wholesome. She came into Huntington frequently, and was often seen in the company of an unsavory woman who was known only by her nickname. Although no details were ever given, the attitude toward the two implies that they weren’t doing anything that would be considered PG-13. Not to throw any shade on anyone’s character here, the truth is that the exact nature of what they were doing may never be known. Perhaps they liked to dance the Charleston and wear flapper dresses, and the people writing for the papers were completely against that. Or, they may have actually been drinking copious amounts of bootleg whiskey and sleeping with anything that moved. Whatever they were doing, people were talking, and it eventually reached the ears of Thomas Clark. Needless to say, Thomas didn’t like his wife going to Huntington. He accused her of having affairs, not only to her face but to several other people, as well. He was convinced that she was sleeping around, and he wasn’t happy. Lillie had concerns of her own about Thomas as well. She wasn’t worried so much about him sleeping around, as she was about his mental health. Lillie approached a local doctor about his condition, and to see if it wouldn’t be a good idea to recommit him to Easthaven. Apparently, whatever had caused his initial commitment had resurfaced, if it had ever really gone away at all. It was only a matter of time before something gave between the two. Finally, on November 16, it did. That morning, Lillie asked Thomas to go and clean the basement. Their teenage sons, Herbert and Dale, were in the field working, while Homer was at school. Thomas dutifully cleaned the basement, but Lillie told him that the furnace room also needed to be cleaned. He disagreed, which made her angry. The two began to argue, and all of the pain and rage that had been festering inside the two came out in a rush. Lillie told him to stop telling people that she had been having affairs, and that if he didn’t, she’d kill him. During another part of the argument, she told him that he should kill all of the children so that they wouldn’t suffer from the same mental illness that he did. At the height of it, Lillie grabbed a pitchfork and hit Thomas with it. That was enough. Taking a piece of firewood, Thomas swung it viciously at his wife. It hit home, knocking her to the floor. He followed her down, striking her again and again and again. Lillie Clark was dead, beaten to death by her husband. As their mother lie in a spreading pool of blood in the basement, Thomas Clark made his sons breakfast and also made their lunches. This was usually done by Lillie, so while it seemed a little off, it wasn’t enough to worry them. The Clark Home. Thomas Clark murdered his wife here in the basement furnace room in 1922. Courtesy of the Star Press. The day passed, and Thomas waited. While Herbert and Dale were in the fields, Homer made his way into the house from school. Thomas and his youngest were alone in the house. Taking him down in the basement, Thomas Clark used a hammer to crush the boy’s skull, all because his wife had told him to do it. Although he had planned to kill all of his children, Thomas instantly felt bad after killing Homer and decided against it. Instead, he made preparations to burn Lillie’s body. When he was asked about it later, Clark claimed that he hadn’t intended to hide his crimes, but he did it because a mysterious and unnamed “someone” had told him to. At first, Thomas tried to carry the body out of the house, but Lillie’s corpse was too heavy to manage. Instead, he took some wire and wrapped it around her ankle, using it to drag her up the stairs and out the door. Thomas took her into an old house on the property that they used for a chicken coup. Leaving her on the main floor, he returned to the other house and retrieved Homer’s body, taking it to the second floor of the chicken coup. He threw some boards and railroad ties on Lillie’s body, then soaked the whole pile in gasoline. As he did, some of the liquid splashed on Thomas’ pants. Once finished, he struck a match and threw it on. All at once, the pile erupted into a ball of orange flame, catching his hands and pants on fire where the gas had spilled earlier. Thomas quickly put himself out, but he had already received some nasty burns. That was okay, though. He knew the old house would burn and consume the bodies of his wife and son, while he would go to Missouri. He went inside and changed into his best Sunday outfit, then went upstairs to wake up his son Dale. Thomas told him to get out of bed and drive him to his uncle’s house. He further explained to his son that Lillie had left, and that Dale was to answer the phone and talk to anyone calling the house. Thomas asked for the car key, but Dale explained to him that the vehicle had next to no gas in it, and that they wouldn’t make it far. Apparently, Thomas didn’t care, because he grabbed Dale and started to pull him out of bed. The young man got up and started to get ready. As he did, he noticed that the chicken coup was on fire as he passed a nearby window. The old house on the Clark farm that they used as a chicken coup. The burnt remains of Lillie Clark were found on the main floor, while the body of 8-year-old Homer Clark were found on the second story. Courtesy of the Star Press. Yelling to his father that there was a fire, Dale rushed over and woke up Herbert, then went outside. Grabbing a bucket, he filled it with water and ran inside, throwing it on the flame. He and Herbert repeated this several times, running into the house and through the billowing smoke to save the structure. As the fire died down and the smoke began to clear, they noticed that there were a pair of woman’s shoes jutting from underneath the pile of old timber. As they looked closer, they realized that it was their mother. Herbert began to vomit. Dale, in shock, gently grabbed his brother and guided him out of the house. Meanwhile, Thomas had fled on foot. Three days later, Thomas was actually a little happy to have been captured. It had rained, which, when combined with the fall temperatures, had often left him feeling cold and damp. Now he was finally warm and, more importantly, had a full stomach. He told his side of the story openly, not holding anything back. While he seemed a little confused on the details of some of the events, Thomas didn’t really seem to mind talking about it. Clark’s family were all afraid of him, especially Herbert and Dale. They were worried that Thomas was going to come back and kill them all, no matter what he said. An investigation of the crime scene had been conducted while Thomas was on the run, and all of the relevant witnesses had been interviewed. The county prosecutor was convinced that Clark had premeditated the whole thing, and was determined that justice was going to be done. Thomas stopped talking about the murders, stating that he couldn’t remember what had happened. This was thought to be a strategy being used by his defense attorneys, who were thought to be trying for an insanity defense. The prosecutor, for his part, didn’t believe it for a moment. Thomas Clark was indicted for two counts of murder, but, before the trial could begin, it had to be proven that he was sane enough to stand trial. In February 1923, Clark was examined by doctors in Huntington. At the conclusion of their interview and tests, it was found that Thomas Clark was unfit to stand trial by reason of insanity. He was remanded to the custody of the Indiana Hospital for Insane Criminals in Michigan City, Indiana, where he spent the rest of his life. Thomas Clark was consumed by mental illness. While he could function mostly normally and seemed alright to most people he came into contact with, he had issues that no one could see. He had tried to get help, but instead found abuse at the hands of those who were supposed to help him. Escaping, he eventually went to the place that we all want to go: home. But home had changed so much. Without the help that he so desperately needed, Thomas’ illness began to consume those around him, as well, leading him to murder his wife and innocent son. When he was in jail, authorities stated that he was a model prisoner. He didn’t cause any commotion, and became a trusted and valuable individual. Thomas even showed a gift for dealing with his fellow mentally ill prisoners, even the most violent ones. He was gentle, and it might have been hard to believe that he, like those he dealt with, was criminally insane. But he was. Thomas was legitimately sick, suffering from an unseen malady that had cost the lives of two of his loved ones. Perhaps, in a new, controlled environment, Thomas Clark received the help that he so desperately needed. You can also ‘subscribe’ to my blog and have these tales sent directly to your favorite inbox, or you can click the ‘Like’ button on the Kitchen Table Historian Facebook page and receive them in your news feed. You can also find me on Instagram, Twitter, and Linked-In. Please tell a friend or four about us here at the table, because it helps more people to find us. If you like these stories, then chances are someone else will, too. Posse Chasing Huntington Murderer. The Huntington Herald, 11/16/1922 Huntington County Posse Hunts For Murderer. The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, 11/16/1922 Mother and Son Slain and Posse Seek For Father. The Star Press, 11/16/1922 Posses Look For Alleged Slayer. The Indianapolis News, 11/16/1922 Woman and Child Murdered. The Huntington Press, 11/16/1922 Murder Victim’s Funeral Today. The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, 11/17/1922 Clark Leads His Pursuers on Wild Chase Through Bottom Lands and Along Wabash. Palladium-Item, 11/17/1922 Bury Victims Of Double Murderer. The South Bend Tribune, 11/17/1922 Murderer Remains at Large. The Huntington Press, 11/17/1922 Manhunt is Shifted to Grant County. The Huntington Herald, 11/17/1922 Search For Alleged Slayer is Continued. The Indianapolis News, 11/17/1922 Clark is Caught at Hartford City. The Fort Wayne Sentinel,11/18/1922 Clark Seen Near Anderson. The Huntington Press, 11/18/1922 Thomas Clark Caught Near Roll, Ind. The Huntington Herald, 11/18/1922 ‘She Struck Me First,’ Clark ‘He Is Sane,’ Haller Infers. The Huntington Press, 11/19/1922 Thomas Clark, Wife Murderer, Gives Self Up. The Star Press, 11/19/1922 Indictment of Clark, Insane Slayer, Will Be Asked of Jury. Palladium-Item, 11/20/1922 Grand Jury To Probe Murder. The Fort Wayne Sentinel, 11/20/1922 Slayer is Suffering From Burns. The Huntington Herald, 11/20/1922 Clark is Still In Grave Condition. The Fort Wayne Sentinel, 11/21/1922 Clark Has Chance of Recovering. The Huntington Herald, 11/21/1922 Indictment is Expected Today. The Fort Wayne Sentinel, 11/22/1922 Confessed Slayer Adopts New Pose. The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, 11/23/1922 Wife Murderer Now in New Role. The Star Press, 11/23/1922 Serves Warrant on Clark Today. The Fort Wayne Sentinel, 11/24/1922 Mind is Blank as to Murder. The Fort Wayne Sentinel, 11/29/1922 “Irresponsible,” Pleads Murderer. The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, 11/28/1922 Clark Declares Whiskey Cause of Murders. The Huntington Herald, 12/14/1922 Examine Thomas Clark As to His Sanity. The Huntington Herald, 2/20/1923 To Examine Clark Again Thursday. The Huntington Herald, 2/21/1923 Clark Sent to Criminal Insane Hospital. The Huntington Herald, 2/23/1923 Court Declares Thomas Clark Insane. The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, 2/24/1923 United States Census Records Indiana, Death Certificates, 1899-2011 www.asylumprojects.org Bad History, Indiana, Murder, Uncategorized Easthaven, hungry, Huntington, Huntington County, Indiana, insanity, mental illness, Murder, posse, Thomas Clark Episode 9: Unseen Malady Episode 10: Stolen Lives	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10901
__label__cc	0.538455	0.461545	During the Exhibition, the Studio Will Be Close During the Exhibition, the Studio Will Be Close is the second episode of a recurrent commitment made by WIELS that relates the artists formerly involved in the residency programme to its exhibition programme. The proximity of the studios to the exhibition spaces prompts increased attention to the following questions: what is the exhibition space, and what is there behind a show? The studio, research but, above all, time. When the public visits the exhibitions at WIELS, there are, in the same building, artists who are at that moment creating, researching and elaborating new projects. The exhibition space becomes the studio’s alter ego, or, conversely, finds itself in a situation of proximity that is not purely symbolic. The importance of the relation between studio and exhibition space is delineated in a process that multiplies the individual moment of the studio and displaces it into a collective dimension. In this sense, every work made in one’s individual and intimate studio is a prospective projection towards the exhibition spaces. The artist’s studio is a place of perennial reflection on the state of art, a place to elaborate and transform what happens in the exhibition space, which, for its part, wants to fix a particular state of art by showing the contents of the artist’s studio. This dynamics is evident at WIELS, which, in a way, affects also the identity of the institution, in which research becomes the common denominator between these two spaces. With: Melissa Gordon (US/UK), Lina Viste Grønli (NO), Rob Johannesma (NL), Aukje Koks (NL), G. Küng (CH/US), Cathérine Lommée (BE), Emmanuelle Quertain (BE), Grace Schwindt (DE/UK) Curator: Lorenzo Benedetti (b. 1972 in Rome) lives en works in Amsterdam and Paris. Benedetti was director of De Vleeshal in Middelburg since 2008, and has recently been appointed as the new director of De Appel arts centre in Amsterdam.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10903
__label__cc	0.610477	0.389523	A study on socio- economic condition of Tharu tribes in Bahraich district of Uttar Pradesh in India Jyoti Kumari Department of Food, Nutrition and Public Health, Ethelind College of Home Science, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, Allahabad-211007 (U.P.), India Ritu Dubey Dipak Kumar Bose Department of Agricultural Extension and Communication, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, Allahabad-211007 (U. P.), India Vandana Gupta Department of Food, Nutrition and Public Health, Ethelind College of Home Science, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, Allahabad-211007(U.P.), India As per the census of 2011 the tribal population consists of 8.6% while it was 8.2% according to the census of 2001 in India. This paper addresses the socio-economic status of Tharu tribes in Bahraich district of Uttar Pradesh. The socio economic status is an important determinant of health, nutritional status, mortality and morbidity of an individual. Socio Economic Status also influences the accessibility, affordability, acceptability and actual utilization of available health facilities. To classify the socio-economic status of the respondents, Uday Pareek and Trivedi scale has been adopted with subject to preliminary test and slight modification as per the need of the study. Measuring the socio-economic conditions of Tharu tribes from Uday Pareek and Trivedi scale, it can be concluded that all the Tharu tribes belong to four categories viz: Upper Middle Class, Middle Class, Lower Middle Class and Lower Class. 0.28% respondent belonged to upper middle class, 5.33% were middle class, 75.56% belonged to lower middle class and 18.83% to lower class. The findings can be beneficial for implementing projects that can help in improving their situation of backwardness. Education, Income, Occupation schedule tribes, Socio economic scale Agarwal, O.P., Bhasin, S.K., Sharm,. A.K., Chhabra, P., Agarwal, K., Rajoura, O.P. (2005). A new instrument (scale) for measuring the socioeconomic status of a family: Preliminary study.Â Indian J Community Med, 30, 111â€“114. Akash Raj, D.P., and Mahesh, T.M. (2016). Socio-economic status of students tribes in mysuru district-Karnataka. International journal of development research 6(12), 10893-10896. Debjani, R. (2012). Socioeconomic Status of schedule Tribes in Jharkhand. Indian Journal of Spatial Science, 3 (2), 26-34. Ghoshal, S.L.(1986). Tribal Jhabua in transition: some factors, Kurukshetra. Ind.J.Rur. Devt. XXXIV, 4-27 Indian Government. T 00-005: total population, population of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and their proportion to the total poulation. (online). Available: http://www.censusindia.net/t_00_005. Jajuo, komuha (2014). A study the socio-economic condition of Mao naga farmers in senapati district of Manipur. (Doctoral dissertation). Assam university, Assam Jelliff, B.D., and Jelliff, E.F.P.(1989). Direct assessment of nutritional status: Community nutritional assessment with special reference to less technically developed countries. Oxford University Press, 64-91, Oxford New York, Tokyo. Ovwigho, B.O. ( 2011). Construction of a Socio-economic Status scale for Heads of Rural Farm Families in the North Agricultural Zone of Delta State, Nigeria. J Hum Ecol, 33(2), 113-118. Pattanaik, D. ( 2007). Liquor culture among tribals and Government excise policy: an analytical study, M.Sc Thesis, Council of Analytical Tribal Studies (COATS), Koraput, Orissa (India). Pulla., Rao, (2013).Socioeconomic Status of Scheduled Tribes. MERC Globalâ€™s International Journal of Management, 1(1):35-50. Rajkumar, p., Pulla Rao., D., Jayanand Kumar., p. (2013). Analysis os socio economic status of schedule tribes in Andhra Pradesh. International journal of development research, 3(11):136-140. Rao., D. Pulla. (2014). Socio â€“ economic status of scheduled tribes in vishakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh. Journal of social welfare and management,6 (4). Sethia, S., and Joshi, P. ( 1990). Microlevel planning tribal areas. Yojana, 34 (9):24-25. Sharma, J.C. ( 1995). Nutritional status, health, growth and development of a central Indian tribe with special reference to environment and genetic risk factors. In; anthropology of tribal health and medicine in forest environment by viswanathan Nair, N. KIRTADS, 55-60. Sujith., Kumar., S. Dondapati.,and Keerthinmayee., Karimaddela. (2016). Socio-demographic and health profile of schedule tribes of Velugodu, Andhra Pradesh, India. Int J Community Med Public Health. 3 (9):2615-2620 Uday Pareek Scale for Rural Areas., 2012, Retrieved from htt://publichealth-india.blogspot.in//02/uday-pareek-scale-for-rural-areas.html. Kumari, J., Dubey, R., Bose, D. K., & Gupta, V. (2018). A study on socio- economic condition of Tharu tribes in Bahraich district of Uttar Pradesh in India. Journal of Applied and Natural Science, 10(3), 939-944. https://doi.org/10.31018/jans.v10i3.1785	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10905
__label__cc	0.527282	0.472718	NFL Brand Needs More Tebows 2011 draft is just around the corner After last year’s National Football League draft, Boston radio talk show host Fred Toettcher commented on former Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow’s draft party. “It looked like some kind of Nazi rally,” he said. Toettcher reportedly objected to the fact that all of the party guests were “lily-white.” This comment, of course, says more about Toettcher than it does Tebow. By all accounts, Tim Tebow is the kind of young man you’d want your daughter to date. The same can’t be said for many of the other draftees of 2010. After a year in the NFL, here’s how a few of the non-Nazis turned out. Dez Bryant was the 24th pick of the Dallas Cowboys. According to reports, the former Oklahoma State wide receiver was sued for $846,000. It seems he signed a contract with jeweler Eleow Hunt while still in college. According to court affadavits, Hunt allegedly contracted to supply Bryant with gold, diamonds, and other custom jewelry. Once he signed an NFL contract, Bryant was supposed to pay Hunt for the items. He never did, resulting in the lawsuit. Other brushes that Bryant has had with the legal system makes one wonder if he will ever reach his potential on the football field. Whatever the outcome of his legal troubles, it’s safe to say that Dez Bryant is no Tim Tebow. Just before the season began, second-round draft pick Sergio Kindle (Texas) fell down some stairs and suffered a concussion. He was unable to perform on the field, but his performance off the field netted him a DUI charge. On December 26, 2010, the Baltimore Ravens linebacker’s blood tested twice the legal limit for alcohol, according to police reports. He had a previous conviction for driving while intoxicated when he was in college. On December 9, 2010, Perrish Cox, 137th pick of the Denver Broncos, was arrested for felonious sexual assault. Documents released by the court indicate that the alleged victim was “incapacitated” when the attack occurred. If convicted, Cox could get two years to life in prison. As with many other 2010 draft picks, this wasn't Cox’s first brush with the legal system. Derrick Morgan, 16th pick of the Tennessee Titans, was arrested for speeding and driving with a suspended license. Adding a little humor to an otherwise sordid group of draftees, Seattle rookie Golden Tate and a friend were accused of breaking into the Top Pot Doughnut Shop at about 3:00 a.m. one morning. They allegedly stole a set of car keys and pastries. The two weren’t arrested, although a witness told police they were drunk. So what did Nazi Tebow do during the season? He used a portion of his signing money to start the Tim Tebow Foundation. The organization provides educational support for at-risk youth in Colorado, helps fund an orphanage in the Phillipines, and supports trips and events that give hope and inspiration to disadvantaged youth and their families. For many years, Tebow has worked with underprivileged children. He often visits hospitals and prisons to comfort those in need. The NFL draft begins on Thursday. Here's hoping there are a lot more Tebows and a lot less self-absorbed thugs ambling up to the podium to shake hands with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Is It Wrong To Judge People By Their Looks? Would you trust this guy? Perceptions and Biases to Crime and Criminals by Tara Forten If you were reading a crime fiction novel and if the author had not described the criminal in too much detail, what image would form in your mind as you read the book? You may think you’re not biased at all, but the truth is, most of us think of stereotypes of criminals that have been formed over the years, thanks to television and the movies – roughnecks who are unkempt and look and smell dirty, thugs with massive muscles and visible tattoos, African Americans with dreadlocks or a shaven head, and so on. This is exactly the same reason as to why we also shy away from sinister looking strangers on the street and warn our children to beware of them. Are we actually wrong to let biases and stereotypes dictate the way we perceive the criminal intent of people, or is this just a survival instinct telling us to be careful and protect ourselves? If so, then we are leaving ourselves vulnerable to the criminal kinds that look and act normal – they are just your average people next door and you tend to trust them “instinctively” because your bias and perception of the criminal stereotype tells you that they are safe. A recent survey found that we change our perception of crime based on the television shows we watch – with the proliferation of crime shows on TV, it’s hard to find people who’ve not seen one or the other at some point of time. Researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have found that if you prefer to watch non-fictional crime shows, you’re more likely to be more fearful of becoming a victim of crime and show less confidence in the criminal justice system. If crime fiction is your cup of tea, it really doesn’t affect your perception of falling victim to a crime or your confidence in the justice system. And if you watch the local news crime coverage, you’re more likely to believe that the local crime rate is shooting up by the day. The reality today is that crime has reached proportions that are hard to even imagine, and no matter how safe our location and how cocooned an environment we live in, it’s best to err on the side of caution and take every precaution to safeguard your home and your family. Teach your children a few basic safety rules – never give out their address, phone number, social security number, credit card number, or any other personal information to anyone; don’t walk the streets alone, especially when it’s dark; inform an adult of your whereabouts at all times; seek out a law enforcement officer in case you think you’re being followed or harassed – and ensure that your home is well protected with alarms and deadbolts. Also, don’t trust strangers too fast and restrict access to your home for people you hardly know. It pays to be smart and avoid becoming a victim of crime, so start protecting yourself today by taking the simple yet effective measures that have proven to work time and again. This guest post was contributed by Tara Forten, who writes on the topic of forensic science technician online . Tara can be reached at her email id: tara.forte12_AT_gmail_dot_com Help the FBI Solve a Murder Victim's Encrypted Notes Could Break Cold Case [This story is taken directly from the FBI's website.] On June 30, 1999, sheriff’s officers in St. Louis, Missouri discovered the body of 41-year-old Ricky McCormick. He had been murdered and dumped in a field. The only clues regarding the homicide were two encrypted notes found in the victim’s pants pockets. Despite extensive work by FBI's Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit (CRRU), as well as help from the American Cryptogram Association, the meanings of those two coded notes remain a mystery to this day, and Ricky McCormick’s murderer has yet to face justice. “We are really good at what we do,” said CRRU chief Dan Olson, “but we could use some help with this one.” The more than 30 lines of coded material use a maddening variety of letters, numbers, dashes, and parentheses. McCormick was a high school dropout, but he was able to read and write and was said to be “street smart.” According to members of his family, McCormick had used such encrypted notes since he was a boy, but apparently no one in his family knows how to decipher the codes, and it’s unknown whether anyone besides McCormick could translate his secret language. Investigators believe the notes in McCormick’s pockets were written up to three days before his death. Over the years, a number of CRRU’s examiners—who are experts at breaking codes—have puzzled over the McCormick notes and applied a variety of analytical techniques to tease out an answer. “Standard routes of cryptanalysis seem to have hit brick walls,” Olson noted. Our cryptanalysts have several plausible theories about the notes, but so far, there has been no solution. To move the case forward, examiners need another sample of McCormick’s coded system—or a similar one—that might offer context to the mystery notes or allow valuable comparisons to be made. Or, short of new evidence, Olson said, “Maybe someone with a fresh set of eyes might come up with a brilliant new idea.” That’s where the public comes in. The FBI has always relied on tips and other assistance from the public to solve crimes, and although breaking a code may represent a special circumstance, your help could aid the investigation. Take a look at McCormick’s two notes. If you have an idea how to break the code, have seen similar codes, or have any information about the Ricky McCormick case, send them to FBI online at http://forms.fbi.gov/code write to CRRU at the following address: FBI Laboratory Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit 2501 Investigation Parkway Attn: Ricky McCormick Case There is no reward being offered, just a challenge—and the satisfaction of knowing that your brain power might help bring a killer to justice. “Even if we found out that he was writing a grocery list or a love letter,” Olson said, “we would still want to see how the code is solved. This is a cipher system we know nothing about.” In fact, Ricky McCormick’s encrypted notes are one of CRRU’s top unsolved cases. “Breaking the code,” said Olson, “could reveal the victim’s whereabouts before his death and could lead to the solution of a homicide. Not every cipher we get arrives at our door under those circumstances.” Posted by Robert A. Waters at 12:24 AM 3 comments: Crystal Gail Mangum Arrested Yet Again Falsely accused Duke lacrosse players The meta-narrative was rife with error, but still the media persisted: three privileged white athletes attending Duke University had brutally raped a poor black girl who just wanted to make a better life for her child. The few who protested this rush to judgment were branded racists, which seems to be about the worst thing you can be in this day and age. Crystal Gail Mangum was the black girl. The fact that she was a stripper who had already run afoul of the law and had already falsely accused a man of rape was ignored. Reade Seligman, Colin Finnerty, and David Evans were the white lacrosse players. Their anguished protestations of innocence were laughed away. Newsweek, Time, The New York Times, newspapers large and small, the administrators and professors of Duke University itself, the national true crime talk shows—everyone assigned guilt to the players because the case confirmed what they already believed. The white world is racist, so the meta-narrative reads, and black people are almost always victims of hate-filled whites. On March 13, 2006, members of the Duke lacrosse team hired two strippers to dance for them at the off-campus university-owned home rented by several players. Mangum and Kim Roberts, another black dancer, arrived at about 11:30 p.m. Several players were drunk, as was Mangum. The dance didn’t go well, and the two hired girls left at around 1:00 a.m. (There had been name-calling between a couple of the drunken players and the dancers.) As they left, Kim Roberts, who’d had enough of Mangum’s drunken outbursts, stopped at Kroger’s Grocery Store and attempted to get her partner to get out of her car. Someone called police at 1:22 a.m. “"There's a lady in someone else's car,” the caller said, “and she will not get out.... She's like, intoxicated, drunk or something." When officers arrived, Mangum accused twenty lacrosse players of raping her. The responding officer didn’t believe her, and Roberts was incredulous. She claimed she’d been with Mangum the whole time, except maybe five minutes, and there was no rape. Enter a prosecutor running a tight re-election campaign. Mike Nifong needed the black vote to win, and suddenly it seemed that a case had dropped in his lap that would seal the deal. He began making pronouncements to the media about the case, even going so far as to label the players "hooligans." His unethical and illegal statements to reporters convinced many that the players were unquestionably guilty of sexual assault, kidnapping, and rape. Few in the media expressed any skepticism about Nifong’s accusations. Fewer still bothered to check the background of the accuser. And while she remained anonymous in news stories about the case, the photos and names of the three players were plastered all over every newspaper and television show in America. Eventually Nifong charged Seligman, Finnerty, and Evans--if convicted, each player could have received up to thirty years in prison. Even though it was obvious that two of the players (Seligman and Finnerty) were not even at the party when the alleged rape occurred. While their rich white-boy status brought heaps of fire on their heads, it at least allowed them to hire a group of experienced, high-quality attorneys. Those lawyers were eventually able to rip the lid off the case and shine the light of truth onto a corrupt investigation. Even as Nifong’s carefully orchestrated case broke apart, the media continued to attack the lacrosse players like slobbering wolves. Nothing seemed to be able to overcome the meta-narrative. Police fudged reports and timelines, Nifong hid DNA tests that exonerated the players, and the defense attorneys weren’t given evidence that proved the players were innocent. By this time, most Americans could smell the stink emanating from the case, but the media slogged along as if there were no question about the players’ guilt. (It’s hard to admit you’re wrong, and most never did.) Finally, the charges were dismissed. The State Attorney, who had taken over the investigation, informed the press that not only were they "not guilty," the three players were totally innocent. Many law enforcement officers, Duke administrators, and members of the media had their reputations shredded. Mike Nifong resigned and was disbarred, and lawsuits have been filed against many of the participants in the witch hunt. Crystal Gail Mangum went about her life in the same manner she did before she gained infamy. After a fight with her live-in boyfriend, she was arrested in 2010 for arson, attempted murder, assault and battery, and several other charges. She eventually was convicted of child abuse, resisting an officer, and damage to public property. On April 2, 2011, Mangum was arrested yet again. This time she was charged with stabbing another live-in boyfriend. The victim, Reginald Daye, died two weeks later and Mangum has now been charged with murder. Let’s hope that those who rushed to judgment in the Duke case will let the courts sort out the case. Posted by Robert A. Waters at 3:32 PM 2 comments:	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10908
__label__cc	0.541794	0.458206	Wharton, University of Pennsylvania The K@W Network: KWHS Knowledge @ Wharton Global Focus K@W Radio Sponsor Collaborations Is There a Tax Cut in Your Future? Subscribe on iTunes! mic Listen to the podcast: Kimberly Burham of the Penn Wharton Budget Model explains why tax reform proposals look likely to spike the deficit. http://media.blubrry.com/kw/p/d1c25a6gwz7q5e.cloudfront.net/audio/20171101-KW-Burham.mp3 A promise for the most far-reaching tax reform in 30 years by President Trump and Congressional Republicans is creating more questions than answers. Early proposals have put forth mostly broad ideas of principle that lack enough of the nitty-gritty details needed to calculate true bottom-line effects, particularly given the many political trade-offs among competing groups still to come. Still, it is possible to glean at least one key conclusion, says Kimberly Burham, managing director of legislation and special projects for the Penn Wharton Budget Model [PWBM]: The tax cuts as initially envisioned will not pay for themselves through increased economic growth, and over 10 years will likely add more than the promised $1.5 trillion to federal debt. Burham discussed this and other implications of the tax bill as it is understood thus far in this Knowledge@Wharton podcast. [Here is the PWBM’s latest report on the tax bill]. An edited transcript of the conversation follows. Knowledge@Wharton: I’d like to welcome Kimberly Burham to Knowledge@Wharton. She is the managing director of legislation and special projects for the Penn Wharton Budget Model, a highly detailed economic simulator that can be used interactively online for free to change any tax policies and figure out how those changes would affect not just the federal budget, but GDP and more. We’re here to talk about the new tax legislation or reforms that have been put forth by the Trump administration and the Republican leadership. They are perhaps the most sweeping changes in 30 years. There’s a lot of detail left out of the broad plan so far, so a lot will be left to legislators to determine. Nevertheless, we’d like to get an idea of what effects the proposals would have on things like the budget, the middle class, GDP and labor and income. Burham: We took a look at three different options. And there really is a lot of room for policymakers within this new proposal to make decisions. And those decisions are going to have big impacts on the deficit and GDP and wages. So for instance, within this proposal, among the three options, one option would increase the deficit by more than $10 trillion in 2040. But another option would only increase it by $2 trillion. So there’s a huge amount of room here for policymakers to make decisions that are going to matter…. For instance, in our sort of most rosy option, Option C, in the static sense, it would increase the deficit in 10 years by $1.5 trillion, but once we account for these feedback effects, which is allowing people to adjust how they consume, how they save, how they work, then it only increases the deficit by $1 trillion. Knowledge@Wharton: Is there a way to characterize one of the big questions, which is how it might affect the middle class? “These particular sets of tax cuts are not fully paying for themselves…. [They are] increasing the deficit, both in the short and long run.” Burham: We do know that all of our options do lead to a small amount of increase in labor income and GDP. And we do model increasing the Child Tax Credit, both by introducing a new $500 credit for non-child dependents and, in some of our scenarios, by increasing the value of the credit to $1,500 and increasing the number of people that can reach. That’s a policy that can really reach a broad swath of the American public, and that could help a lot of people. Knowledge@Wharton: It sounds like, in the end, what you’re saying is that the devil’s in the details, and it’s difficult right now to say what the exact effects will be, because we don’t have enough detail. Burham: I think that’s true. There’s just a large swath of outcomes that are possible. It’s going to be really hard to tell, at this point, who is going to be helped and who is maybe going to be hurt by tax reform. Knowledge@Wharton: But as these details are revealed and get plugged into the model, the model will be very robust in determining the effects? Burham: Yes. We’ll be introducing some distributional analysis soon, as well as taking a look at any bill that comes out of the Senate or the House. Knowledge@Wharton High School Knowledge@Wharton: But in a broad sense, can you talk about effects on GDP, for example? Burham: Right. That also has a broad swath of capabilities. Say, for GDP in 2027: Under Option A — which is sort of the more expensive option — it assumes that a lot of the base broadening or tax expenditures do not get repealed in the bill. That would increase [total] GDP of 2027 by 1.4%. And then on the other hand, if you assume that those do [get repealed], then GDP would increase by 1.3% — which sounds like not a lot of difference, but when we’re talking GDP, you’re talking big, huge numbers, trillions of dollars. So that does make a difference…. This isn’t growth rates, this is just on [an increase in the] base…. And the effects differ in the long run…. So in between when you look at 2040, then in between Option A, which again assumes that we don’t get rid of a lot of the tax deductions, et cetera, then GDP would be 1% higher than under current policy. On the other hand, if we can get rid of a lot of those tax expenditures and deductions, then GDP would actually be 2.3% higher than current policy. That would be a huge amount of growth, if that happens. Knowledge@Wharton: What does the model have to say at this point about changes in corporate taxation? Because there are a lot of proposals there. Burham: We assumed that the corporate tax rate will go down to 20% with no corporate alternative minimum tax. And then we also assumed that the pass-through rate will drop down to 25%, and that people will be able to make appropriate decisions. So we take into account, as far as the pass-through tax rate, income shifting and conversion in between different types of businesses and corporations, as well as in between individual and business income. Knowledge@Wharton: Can you explain the pass-through rate for our listeners? Burham: Sure. Right now, there are these businesses called pass-through businesses, because the income passes through them and is then taxed at the individual rate. Knowledge@Wharton: So this is like the S Corporations and it affects mostly small and medium-sized businesses, largely? Burham: Right. S Corps, partnerships, sole proprietorships — those types of businesses, for which in our model [the tax rate] would be 20%…. In the new proposal, the pass-through rate, because it is currently passed through onto individual income taxes, would face a top rate of 25%. And so it’s possible for people there, because many of those are self-employed businesses, to characterize their income as either individual or as business. And so we take into account the ability of people to characterize their income differently, and for businesses to decide if they want to be a C Corporation or a pass-through business. “Under this unified framework, they’re doubling the standard deduction. And that could really help a lot of Americans. On the other hand, they’re getting rid of personal exemptions.” Knowledge@Wharton: Is there a way to say that, based on the broad strokes that we know now … how does that compare with what you’re finding? Burham: One of the things that we’re seeing is, when people talk about tax cuts paying for themselves — and our model does account for that by allowing people to change how they save and consume and how they work in response to the policy change — what we’re seeing is that these particular sets of tax cuts are not fully paying for themselves. And you can tell that because [they are] increasing the deficit, both in the short and long run. Knowledge@Wharton: That’s a major point. And as far as the distribution among different income brackets, you’re saying that you don’t really have enough detail right now [based on the preliminary proposals] to make a judgment on how that matches up against claims and counter-claims. Burham: Right. And I think the devil will be in the details in that case. So for instance, under this unified framework, they’re doubling the standard deduction. And that could really help a lot of Americans. On the other hand, they’re getting rid of personal exemptions. And for some people that have a lot of dependents, large families, that pairing of those two, they could wind up hurt by that proposal. Knowledge@Wharton: So you can run the simulation and say what it means right now. But in the end, there’s going to be a lot of haggling. And if one or two things which happen to have a big effect are left out or kept in, it can really change the numbers. Burham: Right. Like, in our Option C, what our goal there was, in the budgets that were passed in the House and the Senate, they’re allowed to increase the deficit on a ten-year basis by $1.5 trillion. And in order to achieve that, we actually had to increase the corporate business rates a little bit. For instance, instead of modeling a 20% corporate rate, we modeled a 25% rate. And instead of modeling a 25% pass through-rate, we modeled a 28% pass-through rate, just to get them within that $1.5 trillion deficit increase. Knowledge@Wharton: To hold the deficit down. Burham: Right. Knowledge@Wharton: It sounds like as more details are released, it might be interesting for some of our listeners to go online and plug in some numbers themselves and give this thing a test drive. Burham: We have simulators, and you can take a look both at what the unified framework would be, and then you can change and adjust that and see how you would try to balance the budget. You can learn more about the Penn Wharton Budget Model and simulate the effects of various tax policies at budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu. Citing Knowledge@Wharton For Personal use: Please use the following citations to quote for personal use: "Is There a Tax Cut in Your Future?." Knowledge@Wharton. The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 02 November, 2017. Web. 18 July, 2019 <https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/tax-reform-penn-wharton-budget-model/> Is There a Tax Cut in Your Future?. Knowledge@Wharton (2017, November 02). Retrieved from https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/tax-reform-penn-wharton-budget-model/ "Is There a Tax Cut in Your Future?" Knowledge@Wharton, November 02, 2017, accessed July 18, 2019. https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/tax-reform-penn-wharton-budget-model/ For Educational/Business use: Please contact us for repurposing articles, podcasts, or videos using our content licensing contact form. Dysfunctional Justice: What’s Wrong with the U.S. Legal System Litigator-turned-venture capitalist Bruce Cannon Gibney is sharply critical of the American legal system and explains in his new book why the concept of “justice for all” falls far short. Uncovering Bias: Can a New Way to Study Hiring Help? New Wharton research develops a novel method for studying the hiring process, finding that race and gender biases likely impact who gets hired at some of the world’s top firms. Building Business Value by Optimizing Digital Experience Using a Platform-as-a-service Approach Platform vendors are increasingly offering resources to enhance the digital experience (DX) for users, resulting in a greater ability of businesses and other organizations to enhance productivity and profitability, roll out new products and services faster across more markets as[…] Knowledge@Wharton Partners Partner Collaborations Become a Content Partner The Wharton School is committed to sharing its intellectual capital through the school’s online business journal, Knowledge@Wharton. Hear what CEOs, Wharton faculty, and other commentators have to say about the latest business trends, breaking news and market research in their own words. Listen Now Get Knowledge@Wharton delivered to your inbox every week. 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__label__wiki	0.599184	0.599184	#India – For the love of justice #Chhattisgarh #Salwajudum by kracktivist in Advocacy, Announcements, Human Rights, Justice, Kractivism, Law, Minority Rights, Political Prisoners, Prison Tags: Ashok Desai, Chhattisgarh, Kartam Joga, Maoist, Salwa Judum, Supreme Court, Supreme Court of the United States, Tadmetla Nandini Sundar July 04, 2013 On July 5 2011, a Bench of Justice B Sudershan Reddy and Justice SS Nijjar of the Supreme Court delivered what is widely regarded as a landmark judgement, banning Salwa Judum by any name, and disbanding and disarming special police officers (SPOs) who had been responsible, along with security forces, for many human rights violations. The only activity that the erstwhile SPOs would be permitted was traffic and disaster management, and that too, only if they were innocent of any crimes. The court ordered that criminal investigations and prosecutions be initiated in Chhattisgarh. Earlier that year, they had also directed that the security forces vacate all schools and ashrams, with the aim of restarting schools in the villages. The Bench asked the CBI to investigate the March 2011 rapes, murder and arson in Tadmetla and neighbouring villages and subsequent events in which Swami Agnivesh was attacked while trying to deliver relief. As Justice Reddy (now retired) said in a recent interview, had the Supreme Court’s orders been implemented, perhaps the May 25 attack could have been avoided. However, far from obeying the court, the governments in Chhattisgarh and the Centre have done everything possible to flout the order. The Union of India attempted to have the order overturned through a review petition, but succeeded only in having it limited to Chhattisgarh. The government of Chhattisgarh responded by renaming all the SPOs, ‘armed auxiliary forces’ with effect from the date of the judgement, and giving them automatic weapons and higher salaries. Schools are still occupied, no prosecutions have taken place, no victims of the violence perpetrated by Salwa Judum have received any compensation, and the CBI enquiry is still incomplete. The CBI first visited Tadmetla in January 2012. In February, the Maoists killed one of the former SPOs, Kartam Surya, who had been accused of rape, and whom the state had been staunchly defending inside and outside court. The SPOs then physically attacked the CBI team. They have now decided to conduct their enquiry out of Jagdalpur. In May this year, the villagers travelled 400 km to depose, including old men and breastfeeding mothers, leaving aside their annual tendu patta earnings. The state government continues to stall all mention of a joint monitoring committee led by eminent independent persons, which alone can ensure that FIRs are registered, compensation given and some degree of normalcy restored. In March 2012, the petitioners filed a contempt petition. There have been 13 listings since, but not one hearing. On six occasions, we sat in court but the matter was not heard because other cases before it took up all the time. The matter was adjourned four times because despite asking and being given a ‘non-miscellaneous day’ by the court, the listing branch of the Supreme Court assigned it to a miscellaneous day. (Tuesdays to Thursdays are non-miscellaneous days, where matters can be heard properly while Mondays and Fridays are frenzied because a large number of fresh matters are considered for admission). On three occasions, when everything was right — it was a non-miscellaneous day and our turn had come — Chhattisgarh’s counsel bought time on technicalities. The only people to have benefitted from the Supreme Court litigation so far are the SPOs and the lawyers for the Chhattisgarh government, who have made lakhs in fees for delaying justice to starving adivasis. Chhattisgarh’s litigation strategy is also to keep filing affidavits with the same data, but under different annexure numbers, in order to mislead the court. On the other hand, the lawyers for the petitioners, Ashok Desai and Nitya Ramakrishnan and their juniors, have put in years of pro-bono work (seven years already and still counting), at considerable personal cost. Sumita Hazarika as the advocate on record (AOR) has gracefully filed endless affidavits. Our co-petitioner Kartam Joga suffered two-and-a-half years in jail on false charges, before being acquitted earlier this year. My years of court observation have instilled an enormous respect for the judges whose daily workload involves reading voluminous briefs and listening to a series of complicated matters. There has to be a system which is less cruel to them, as well as to PIL lawyers and ordinary litigants, such as more reliance on written documents and limited time for arguments, as is the case in other countries. No litigant from outside Delhi can afford to keep coming for hearings. And no adivasis on their own could afford to fight such battles in the Supreme Court. The security forces killed 25 innocent villagers, including several children, in two separate attacks — Sarkeguda in June 2012 and Edesmetta in May. The Maoists kidnapped Alex Menon, the district collector of Sukma, in March 2012, and killed 27 Congress leaders and workers in May. Unless there is a breakthrough of some kind, there is no prospect of peace. Implementing court orders will not resolve everything but justice goes much further than anything else. What is surprising is not that adivasis support the Maoists against the police. What is inspiring is how adivasis continue to believe in justice, to send letters to the court, to attend CBI hearings. Hope is the hardest thing to extinguish in the human heart, and justice is the gossamer thread that binds people to the State. Nandini Sundar is a litigant in the Salwa Judum case The views expressed by the author are personal #India – Salwa Judum’s record: 99 allegations of rape, not a single FIR (kractivist.wordpress.com) Salwa Judum rape accused acquitted as victims turn hostile #Vaw (kractivist.wordpress.com) Press Release- AID Condemns the Violent Attack in Chhattisgarh (kractivist.wordpress.com) The continuing tragedy of the adivasis (kractivist.wordpress.com) Press Release : NAPM on Maoist Ambush in Chattisgarh (kractivist.wordpress.com) India’s Maoist Insurgency Grinds On (kractivist.wordpress.com) Dr Binayak Sen denied permission to UN Rapporteur’s seminar #WTFnews by kracktivist in Advocacy, Announcements, Censorship, Human Rights, Justice, Kractivism, Law, Minority Rights, Political Prisoners, Prison Tags: Anand Grover, Binayak, Chhattisgarh, India, KATHMANDU, Nepal, United Nations, United Nations Human Rights Council Kractivism in Actionp- Free Binayak Sen Campaign Suvojit Bagchi, The Hindu His visit will compromise the internal security of the state, says court Rights activist Binayak Sen has been denied permission to participate in an international seminar on health care in Kathmandu by a Raipur court. Dr. Sen sought permission to visit Kathmandu after confirming his participation to the seminar organisers and hence “the application is not bona fide” the court order said. The court has also considered a reply by Chhattisgarh police that said Dr. Sen’s visit to Nepal “will compromise internal security of the state.” Dr. Sen was invited by the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health to speak in an international two-day seminar on providing health care in conflict areas. Anand Grover, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, told The Hindu that he is “surprised and shocked” by the court’s order. He said the report of the meeting would be presented to the United Nations Human Rights Council. Hours before his departure on Friday, a court order restricted Dr. Sen from visiting Kathmandu. “It is evident from the application that the applicant has agreed to take part in the programme without the permission of this court. He sought permission on June 28 and accepted the proposal (to visit Kathmandu) on June 21,” Additional Sessions Court judge Alok Kumar Upadhyay said in his order. “Dr. Sen agreed to attend the meeting (before June 21) before he sought a permission, so that the organisers could send him the accommodation and flight details and he could furnish those in turn (to court) with his application,” said Dr. Sen’s lawyer, S.K. Farhan. The details of accommodation and a copy of the air tickets to and from Kathmandu were attached with the application. Earlier, the court sought a reply from the police about Dr. Sen’s application, to which Additional SP, Raipur, Lal Umed Singh replied that Dr. Sen’s visit is detrimental to the country’s security. “Such foreign visits of Dr. Sen consolidate Naxal and Maoist networks. India’s internal security is also compromised,” Mr. Singh stated. “In view of increased Maoist violence, killing of security personnel and prominent political leaders, objection is raised against Dr. Sen’s foreign visit,” Mr. Singh told the court. Dr. Sen was invited to speak on healthcare delivery and accessibility to people in remote conflict areas, especially focussing Chhattisgarh. His topic was broadly described in the draft agenda as ‘availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of health facilities, goods and services — duties and responsibilities toward affected populations, obligations of non-discrimination and medical independence, Treatment of parties to the conflict cf. civilians.’ He was supposed to speak on the first day of the seminar alongside health care and human rights activists from Burma, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Jamshid Gaziyev, Special Procedures Branch, Katherine Footer of John Hopkins School of Public Health and International Committee of the Red Cross will be attending the seminar, according to the draft agenda. In April 2011, a Chhattisgarh Court directed Dr. Sen to surrender his passport as a bail condition in line with the Supreme Court order. While it is not mandatory to have a passport to travel to Nepal, Dr. Sen needs permission from court for any overseas travel. Earlier, he was allowed to travel abroad twice — to South Korea in 2011 and United Kingdom in 2012 — and on both occasions the Chhattisgarh court approved the travel. Keywords: Binayak Sen, rights activist, health care seminar #India -Chhattisgarh lawyer, client charged with #sedition walk free #goodnews (kractivist.wordpress.com) #India: Stop Misuse of Counterterrorism Laws #KKM (kabirkalamanch.wordpress.com) Chhattisgarh- Mahendra Karma and his cynical form of vigilantism #Maoists (kractivist.wordpress.com) PRESS RELEASE- Fact Finding Report on Unlawful Police Activities in North Bastar (kractivist.wordpress.com) Why Chetan Bhagat shouldn’t speak for Indian Muslims by kracktivist in Advocacy, Announcements, Human Rights, Justice, Kractivism, Law, Minority Rights, Political Prisoners, Prison Tags: Ahmed, Bhagat, Chetan Bhagat, India, Islam, Islam in India, Mirza, Muslim Though written in the voice of an Indian Muslim, the author’s take is in fact the standard response of the textbook majoritarian Prayaag Akbar First Published: Mon, Jul 01 2013.T Jama Masjid during Ramzaan. Chetan Bhagat postitions himself as a young Indian Muslim angry at his exclusion from the mainstream capitalist, neoliberal project. Photo: Pradeep Gaur/Mint Updated: Mon, Jul 01 2013. 04 28 PM IST Chetan Bhagat, ever the well-meaning bull in a china shop, wrote this weekend about the Indian Muslim. In his regular Times of Indiacolumn (in a piece headlined “Letter from an Indian Muslim Youth”), Bhagat appropriates the voice of—he doesn’t specify this, but it is easily surmised from the tone and content of the letter—a young Indian Muslim angry at his exclusion from the mainstream capitalist, neoliberal project. The piece is predictably disappointing in its understanding of the Muslim experience in India, but let us put that aside for the moment and discuss first this assumption of voice. In India, we are perhaps overly protective of identity groupings. If a debate arises over the actions of a religious or caste group, or over the legacy of a historical figure, fear of giving offence sometimes leads to submission to loud voices instead of the safeguarding of freedom of information and thought. It is precisely this kind of criticism that Bhagat seeks to preempt when he writes, with splendid crudity, “I don’t have a name like Ahmed or Saeed or Mirza, anything that will clearly establish me as a Muslim.” Bhagat is saying, I am not a Muslim, so what? But what he is doing is actually pretty sneaky: His disclaimer is in fact a way of positioning himself, to the great majority of his audience, as someone qualified to write on this subject. The understanding he hopes to transmit to his reader through his mea culpa is that he should still be allowed to speak for the entirety of the Muslim population in India. There are two problems with this. First, while anyone should be encouraged to produce scholarship and analysis about communities or historical figures, Bhagat’s casual ownership of the voice of 150 million people is patently not that. Second: It is precisely because I am an Indian and a Muslim that I would never dare to speak for all of us. I see the great variance in outlook, experience and especially opportunity that exists even within my own family. I compare my own privilege with the rest of Muslim India. I can understand why my views on the publication of The Satanic Verses might differ from a man or woman with a greater love for religious scripture. I cannot claim to speak for the lot of us. Bhagat does not suffer such inadequacies. He drops, somewhat confusingly, the Indian Muslim voice for a moment to explain that he is an author of fiction, which means he might well be making fabrications—he leaves that to you, dear reader, to decide. This is another artless pretence, as if fiction writers are regularly permitted to write abject nonsense in op-eds—they are not, and certainly should not be allowed to in the future, millions of adoring readers or not. Bhagat has a canny perceptiveness that sometimes serves him well. He has identified a major problem with the political experience of Indian Muslims, which is the capture of a great deal of the community’s vote by political parties who play the “secular card” without offering much else, especially quantifiable economic and political benefit. This is a point that has been made numerous times. Where most differ is in the solution to this problem. Bhagat’s solution, though written in the voice of an Indian Muslim, is in fact the standard response of the textbook majoritarian, steeped in its favourite imagery (maulvis make an appearance in the first paragraph, skullcaps in the fourth) and couched in its favoured paternalist idiom. What Bhagat is doing here is talking not as the Indian Muslim but to the Indian Muslim. His argument is basically a well-tuned representation of the argument Hindu nationalism has with Indian Muslims. As he points out first: “There is no shortage of Muslim achievers. There are Muslim stars in almost every field.” I imagine he means Shah Rukh Khan and Zaheer Khan and A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and others like them. The implication here is that the success of some from the community is indication that any Muslim “with a modern outlook and a desire to come up [sic] in life” should be able to achieve identical success. What seems like a neurotic celebration of Muslim achievement is in fact a stick that is used to beat the rest of the community with: Look what those people have managed to do in India. Why can’t you do the same? Bhagat fails to see, or perhaps understand, the forms religious discrimination can take; there is scant acknowledgment that it even exists in India. His cloying condescension is hard to take: “We don’t need it as a handout. We are willing to work hard for it.” Again, his implication adheres to that hoary Hindutva chestnut: that the experience of Muslims in India has been of the “secular” state apportioning handouts and freebies that the community has unthinkingly grasped at. Someone should perhaps explain to Bhagat that Muslims have worked as hard as any other community before and since independence; that, as the Sachar Committee Report showed, it is the state that has, in fact, failed to provide service and opportunity for such a substantial number of its people. What Bhagat will not admit is that this piece is the latest in his sporadic series in support of Gujarat’s chief minister Narendra Modi and the bring-BJP-to-power-2014 effort. His argument is with the “secular” parties, the Congress and regional parties that garner Muslim votes, like the Samajwadi Party or Trinamool Congress. There is merit in this argument, as these parties’ abysmal record with Muslim communities, and their pandering to the most regressive elements within these communities, has proved. But—and this is only my suspicion—I wonder if his desire is the uplift of the long-marginalized Muslim community, or if this piece is a roundabout expression of his vexation with a religious group that he believes might well keep his favoured party and candidate out. Years ago, I went to Madhya Pradesh to report on the last assembly elections there, a battle between the Congress and the incumbent BJP. I was fresh out of college and very indignant about the nature of minority politics in India. I was sitting, on one of my first days there, in a Muslim neighbourhood in Bhopal, talking to a group of young men. I asked them what the BJP had done for them. I asked what the Congress had done for them. I became excited. “Don’t you see,” I said, “why there is no difference between them? Neither of them do anything for you. Why should you think one is better than the other?” One of the men, a taxi driver, said there was a difference. “It’s a personal thing. You know when the BJP is in power, these gangs, they can come to our mohalla, they can start a fight, break or burn something. We can’t respond. We go to the police, they won’t file a case. I suppose it’s a question of safety.” I hadn’t used that exchange in my journalism until I wrote this response today. It was this man’s belief, and visceral as it was, it was unfair to the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government, which had a good record in these matters. But that man opened my eyes about two things. That I, from the elite, had a substantively different experience of my country than any disprivileged Indian, Hindu or Muslim. And that I should never presume to lecture people about the political choices they make. For the poor especially, the vote is their one connection with their political environment, with the factors and decisions that will shape their lives. They do not make that choice without thought. Prayaag Akbar is the associate editor, The Sunday Guardian. URGENT: A Letter from Indian Muslim Youth to #ChetanBhagat (kractivist.wordpress.com) #RIP – Tribute to Hassam , Friend and Human Rights Activist from Pakistan by kracktivist in Advocacy, Announcements, Human Rights, Justice, Kractivism, Law, Minority Rights, Political Prisoners, Prison Tags: Amitabh Bachchan, Facebook, Human Rights, India, London, Marc Zuber, Mumbai, Pakistan, Sambhal, Tehzeeb Life partner of my first friend from Pakistan is no more As I opened the Facebook page of Aisha Gazdar to share Neela Bhagwat’ s classical rendition of Faiz poem, “Bol” As her page slowly opened, I wondered why She had removed her Profile Pic I felt a bolt from blue , I was numb, with a blank stare The news stared at me Rights activist Hassam Qadir no more amongst us, He was just 44 My Eyes closed, fervently wishing this to be a bad dream. I went to a Flashback My friendship with Pakistan began with Aisha in 2000 My Myths about Pakistan started crumbling , thanks to our friendship , which happened as we met at a neutral ground in London We both were Chevening Scholars studying Human Rights Our friendship beyond borders ripened She came to India to make a film on women rights and CEDAW I was her coordinator in India and loved every bit of it Hassam also came with her in 2005, My first reaction was WOW This is a Marc Zuber look- alike from Pakistan Kumbh ke bichade bhai ke samaan His first morning in Mumbai, This is what we see He is standing in the Kitchen making his own Tea Broad shoulders and a broader smile Behind the Robust Masculine exterior Lay a Gender Sensitive Man,within A human rights activist and Lawyer Hassam was a Passionate Fighter Aisha , the most soft spoken person I have evermet is a carnation of ‘ Tameez and Tehzeeb.” Hassam was a True Punjabi from Lahore in every sense of word His jokes and crackling laughter, still echoes He forgot his Black Sandals Every time I talked with Aisha and him We laughed and said ‘Tuhade chittar taan aithe hi reg gaye, ki kariye “ ( Your sandals are still here, what to do ? ) He once jokingly said- Sambhal ke rakhna Amitabh Bachchan na lae jaye !! ( Please take care Amitabh Bachchan does not take them !!) Left behind Memories , Jokes, Vaccum and yes A pair of large sandals sitting in a drawer with hopeless anticipation …… befitting a towering personality Remains…………………………………………………………waiting forever URGENT: A Letter from Indian Muslim Youth to #ChetanBhagat by kracktivist in Advocacy, Announcements, Human Rights, Justice, Kractivism, Law, Minority Rights, Poetry, Political Prisoners, Prison Tags: 2002 Gujarat violence, Chetan Bhagat, Gujarat, India, Islam in India, Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Narendra Modi, Ummah If you agree with the following Text and wish to be one of the signatories of this letter, please send your signature (Name, Profession , City/State) at activist.journalist@gmail.com by 12 PM tomorrow (2nd July 13). Dear Mr. Bhagat, At the very outset, let us make it clear that we are not fans of your regressive fiction. Therefore, we write to you not as crazy fans but as Indian Muslim youth, who felt utterly patronized, insulted and hurt after reading your article, ‘Letter from an Indian Muslim Youth’ . You might have not realized this, but in pretending to render “a strong modern Indian Muslim voice’’ to the youth and the Muslim community at large, you have ripped them of their agency. You have reaffirmed stereotypes that many in the community have been fighting against. Heard of the Muslim god and his flock? Sir, one does not need a name like Ahmed or Saeed or Mirza, or even be a Muslim to show one’s genuine concern for the community. One just needs to see beyond one’s own prejudice and biases. Believe us, this disgusting piece of your writing made us more nauseous than any of your (or Madhu Kishwar’s) love-verses to Modi. Your article is nothing but an extension of the thought process that anything Muslim is backward and regressive. Since you have assigned to yourself the task of bearing the moral burden of the community, would you care to explain what a ‘Muslim cap’ is? We agree with you when you say political leaders make promises that go empty post elections. And that there are Muslims who have achieved much without any ‘’cap-wearing politician’’ helping them. But who is this leader that you are suggesting; one who would understand ‘’the desire’’ of the Muslim youth ‘’to come up in life’’ and ‘’inspire us to do better’’? Is it by any chance the mass murderer, Narendra Modi? You know what hurts? That people pretend to care for you when they don’t. When in fact they use you to grind their own axe. How cleverly you turn everything that the Muslim youth face today – “being frisked with greater attentiveness, denied renting an apartment” – into a product of the community’s inherent backwardness, as if it bears no relation to the increasing communalization of our polity and society. What makes you think that the ‘cap’ wallahs exercise a great deal of influence within the community? Interestingly, one particular party has been lately seeking a lot of photo-ops with precisely these kinds of community leaders. Make no mistake Mr. Writer. They don’t. “Because of you”, you write castigating an imagined Muslim leadership, “people feel we vote in a herd.” Now, isn’t that really clever, Mr. Bhagat. People feel we vote in a herd because certain parties never tire of screaming hoarse about ‘minority appeasement’ and ‘vote banks’, even though, any psephologist or political scientist, or even an ordinary Muslim youth at Chai dukaan will tell you that Muslims vote just like any other community does: according to a mix of factors: local, national but above all, keeping in mind who will preserve their interests best. And their interests do tend to include the safety of life and livelihood. We are sorry, Mr. Bhagat, but the ‘’democratic republic’’ you talk of is not so democratic. If it were so, Afzal Guru wouldn’t have been executed to ‘’satisfy the collective conscience of the nation’’. Muslim youth would not have fallen prey to minority witch-hunting, and their killers not decorated with gallantry awards. Adivasis in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa would not have been ripped of their fundamental rights to live with dignity. Dalit poets would not have been falsely charged under sedition laws. Loving one’s nation is well and good, but being blinded by patriotism is not. Why do Indian Muslims always have to prove their allegiance to India? Why can’t they also be critical of their country? The party whose path you are treading has had Indian Muslims pass through too many Sita-like ordeals of fire, Agni Pariksha. You may have the privilege to turn a blind eye to the post-Babri Masjid Demolition violence, the Gujarat pogrom, but many others don’t. How then do you think a leader who doesn’t even have the integrity to apologize for his complicity in the Gujarat pogrom represent Muslim youth’s aspirations for ‘’scientific way of thinking, entrepreneurship, empowerment, progress’’ and above all, ‘’personal freedoms’’? And just by the way, have you heard of the word, ‘Justice’? Sd/- Name Profession City (State) 1. Rafiul Alom Rahman, Student, Delhi University, Delhi 2. Mahtab Alam, Civil Rights Activist and Journalist, Delhi 3. Javid Parsa, Student, Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad 4. Zulaikha Jabeen, Researcher and Activist, Raipur, Chhattisgarh 5. Shahnawaz Malik, Journalist, Delhi 6. Abdullah A Rahman, Student, TISS Tuljapur 7. Abu Zafar, Journalist, Delhi 8. Mahtab Azad, Development Consultant, Araria (Bihar) 9. Ali Amir, Student, TISS Mumbai 10. Gauhar Iqbal, Eauntropneur, Delhi Press Release – #India – 5 activists accused by Tata Steel in fabricated cases acquitted #goodnews by kracktivist in Advocacy, Announcements, Disability, Health Care, Human Rights, Justice, Kractivism, Law, Minority Rights, Political Prisoners, Press Release, Prison Tags: Business, Human Rights, India, Jharkhand, Jindal Steel & Power Ltd, Noamundi, Saranda, Saranda Forest, Steel, TATA STEEL from Ieft are: Mosa Mundi, Rajaram Das, Xd, Indu Iaguri, John Barjo — atOut side Chaibasa District Court Singhbhum Jharkhand India Xavier Dias The Noamundi five have been acquittedon 29th June 2013 by the Chaibasa Court In 1991 eighteen of us were accused by TATA ST EEL in multiple fabricated criminal cases this particular case the Company got the Railways to fiIe an additional criminal case for damage to railway property too for which in NOvember Iast year 6 of us went to jaiI The sixth Basu Deogam died in May from malnutrition and TB, I wish to remember the children and widows of the 13 of our comrades aII of who died early from curable diseases aII before the age of 45, yes we are now acquitted after 22 yrs of one of the countries biggest mining companies TATA STEEL failed strategy to harass Intimidate and defeat the resistance movement, The struggle and resistance against Mining in the Saranda forest within which TATA STEEL and Noamundi comes continues and is now Ied by some of the children of our former comrades On 22 June a Pubic Hearing for a new mine could not be held as over 500 women men and children under the Leadership of Omon MahiIIIa Sanghatan drove them away This picture was taken out of the Court , #India – More mines, fewer schools in former Maoist stronghold (kractivist.wordpress.com) #India – Whistle Blowers and the Public Interest by kracktivist in Advocacy, Announcements, Human Rights, Justice, Kractivism, Law, Minority Rights, Political Prisoners Tags: Gujarat, Kakrapar Atomic Power Station, KAPS, NPCIL, Nuclear Power Corporation of India, Supreme Court, Ukai Dam, United States by M. V. Ramana The bulk of development policies, justified in the ‘national interest’, actually diminish poor people’s ability to control and gainfully use natural resources. Every ‘national’ project is presented as beneficial for the masses even though it requires some poor people to surrender their land or their livelihood. While the ‘greater good of the nation’appears to be a laudable cause, it must appear suspicious to the rural poor who are consistently chosen, time and time again, to make all the sacrifices, while those more powerful reap the benefits. – Amita Baviskar, In the Belly of the River There is a common message emanating from the centers of power in Washington, D.C. and New Delhi: Whistle blowing, or truth telling as the act may be more accurately described, is not a welcome activity. As I write this, officials in the United States are searching all over Hong Kong for Edward Snowden, the high school dropout, who revealed the U.S. National Security Agency’s surveillance programme. Proving its status as a loyal ally of the United States, the United Kingdom warned airlines not to fly Snowden to Britain. In the meanwhile, the trial of Bradley Manning, the most famous truth teller in the United States, started in Maryland, USA. A much less celebrated truth teller was also in the Courts recently in New Delhi. Once upon a time, Manoj Mishrawas employed by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) at its Kakrapar Atomic Power Station (KAPS) in Gujarat and was the president of Kakrapar Unit Kendriya Sachivalaya Hindi Parishad. Before describing why this person was at the Supreme Court, a little bit of geography and history might be in order. Kakrapar was originally considered as a potential site for a nuclear power plant in the 1960s but then rejected. The reason given then was that there was a large population within the exclusion area and the site was close to a major source of water used for drinking and cultivation (For more on the criteria used for reactor siting, see pp. 44-46 of The Power of Promise). In addition to the population, another problem with the Kakrapar site was that it was in a low-lying area, prone to flooding. This was of particular concern because the site was close to the Ukai Dam and it was conceivable that the whole reactor might get flooded. In 1980, however, the Atomic Energy Commission announced that Kakrapar was to become the fifth nuclear power station and the two reactors there started commercial operations in 1993 and 1995. Of course, neither of the problems originally cited had changed. If anything, the population in the area had only increased, both naturally and because of various construction activities.Though some amount ofearth-fillingwas done to avoid flooding, things didn’t turn out so well. The outlet from the turbine building of KAPS leads to an artificial lake called Moticher, which has gates to control the flow of water. On 15 and 16 June 1994, there were heavy rains in South Gujarat andthe water level of the lake began to rise. The ducts thatwere meant to let out water ended up becoming conduits for water to come in. And since there were no arrangements either for sealing cable trenches and valve pits, they too allowed water to enter. Water began entering the complex on the night of 15 June and by the next morning, there was water in the turbine building as well as other parts of the reactor complex. The workers inthe morning shift had to swim in chest-high water, and the control room was reportedly inaccessible for some time. Finally, a site emergency was declared and workers were evacuated. By this time, another problem had become apparent. The gates that could control the flow of water into Moticher had not been well maintained, and so, mud had collected around them and they could not be opened. The KAPS management requested help from the district and state authorities, but that evidently didn’t help either. Fortunately, villagers from the area, who were worried about the security of their own homes, made a breach in the embankment of the lake that allowed the water to drain out. Finally, on 18 June, a large pump was brought to Kakrapar from Tarapur, and the work of removing the water from the turbine building began. In the meanwhile, much of the equipment in the turbine building was submerged, including the water pumps used to cool the reactor core. Electrical power from the grid failed, and diesel generators had to be used. Fortunately, the reactor had been shutdown following the major fire at the Narora for inspection of turbine blades. The floodwater carried away canisters of radioactive waste, and it is not clear if they were ever recovered or if any of them released its contents into the waters. This is where Manoj Mishra comes in. NPCIL officials evidently did not bother to inform members of the public about what happened. The way the public got to know anything about the damage at KAPS was because Mishra wrote a letter to Gujarat Samachar about what happened. For this revelation, Mishra was suspended and, after an internal inquiry, removed from service in March 1996. Since then, Mishra has been fighting the nuclear establishment in courts—and losing. This process of fighting in the courts took him to the Gujarat High Court, which, in 2007, dismissed his case. Mishra then appealed to the Supreme Court, and in April of this year, the SC dismissed his appeal. Itsobservations are worth quoting at some length: “it will be apposite to notice the growing acceptance of the phenomenon of whistleblower.A whistleblower is a person who raises a concern about the wrongdoing occurring in an organisation or body of people. Usually this person would be from that same organisation. The revealed misconduct may beclassified in many ways; for example, a violation of a law, rule, regulation and/or a direct threat to public interest, such as fraud, health/safety violations and corruption. Whistleblowers may make their allegations internally (for example, to other people within the accused organisation) or externally (to regulators, law enforcement agencies, to the media or to groups concerned with the issues)… “In our view, a person like the respondent can appropriately be described as a whistleblower for the system who has tried to highlight the malfunctioning of an important institution established for dealing with cases involving revenue of the State and there is no reason to silence such a person by invoking Articles 129 or 215 of the Constitution or the provisions of the Act… “In our opinion, the aforesaid observations are of no avail to the appellant…the appellant is educated only upto 12th standard. He is neither an engineer, nor an expert on the functioning of the Atomic Energy Plants. Apart from being an insider, the appellant did not fulfill the criteria for being granted the status of a whistle blower. One of the basic requirements of a person being accepted as awhistle blower is that his primary motive for the activity should be in furtherance of public good. In other words, the activity has to be undertaken in public interest, exposing illegal activities of a public organization or authority. The conduct of the appellant, in our opinion, does not fall within the high moral and ethical standard that would be required of a bona fide whistle blower.” There are many questions that we should ask. First, in what way is the education level of Manoj Mishra relevant to deciding if he was a whistle blower, and why should any whistle blower be an expert on whatever it is that he or she is revealing the truth about? If someone reveals that a pharmaceutical company is producing contaminated drugs meant to treat cardiac problems (Such things do happen, see for example), does that person have to be an expert on how pharmaceutical plants operate? Or should he or she be a doctor with many years of experience in treating heart disease? Second, what might have happened if Mishra had actually been an expert in the operation of atomic power plants? Well, we can only speculate. But remember that for Mishra to become an expert, he would necessarily have to have spent several years at the DAE’s training school, during the course of which he would likely not just have learnt about nuclear reactor physics and engineering, but also become indoctrinated to trust authority and support the NPCIL and DAE policies of secrecy unquestioningly. This is a potential reason for the paucity of truth tellers from the upper echelons of the DAE or NPCIL. Or most other hierarchical organizations, for that matter. Third, what exactly is the public interest in this case? It is clear what the interest of NPCIL and DAE would have been—to hide the news that its design and its maintenance were inadequate to protect against even moderately severe floods. But, for the public, it would be just the opposite: to hear about what happened within KAPS during the floods, so they know what risks they faced. Why then did the Court argue otherwise? Of course, we cannot know for sure. But some clues can be had from the other recent Supreme Court judgment. This decision dismissed a plea seeking to halt the commissioning of the Koodankulam nuclear reactors, under construction in Tamil Nadu, till the implementation of key additional safety measures recommended after the Fukushima accidents of 2011. As is well known, the massive release of radioactive materials from the reactors at Fukushima Daiichi, which has resulted in the contamination of a large swath of area and is now estimated to lead in the long run to something on the order of a thousand cancers, also added to the already strong opposition among people living around Koodankulam. What the Supreme Court decided, in essence, was that these people will now have to put up with such “minor inconveniences”, “minor radiological detriments” and “minor environmental detriments”. The Court’s opinion is replete with references to the public interest. “While setting up a project of this nature, we have to have an overall view of larger public interest rather than smaller violation of right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution”. Elsewhere, “Larger public interest of the community should give way to individual apprehension of violation of human rights and right to life guaranteed under Article 21”. It went on further to say, “Nuclear power plant is being established not to negate right to life but to protect the right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution…it will only protect the right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution for achieving a larger public interest and will also achieve the object and purpose of Atomic Energy Act”. And so on, and so forth. What’s important about this decision is that the Judges’ idea of public interest seems to be based largely, if not completely, on testimony offered by various arms of the nuclear establishment. The decision,in essence, neglects the numerous pieces of expert testimony submitted by the petitioners questioning various aspects of the government’s wisdom in building nuclear reactors in general, including at Koodankulam. For this reason, if the Supreme Court decision was meant to help settle the contentious debate over Koodankulam, it has not, and cannot, succeed in this aim. The reliance on expert testimony from within the nuclear establishment demonstrates myopia on a very basic issue – the lack of public trust regarding thenuclear establishment. But back to the basic point: arguments made by powerful institutions about the public interest often hide a more divisive reality: it is hard, if not impossible, to come up with a clearly defined and widely accepted notion of public interest that can apply to a large range of areas. [See Robert Jensen’s arguments on a related theme, the national interest, albeit in a different context]. More important, even if there might besome common public interest (“clean air”, for example), trying to actually reach that common interest usually involves having those goals be negotiated through power struggles, and the imposition of hardship to one disadvantaged group or the other. The Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek once wrote: “It is indeed true that we live in a society of risky choices, but it is one in which only some do the choosing, while others do the risking.” To this one may add, those who have the power to choose often make choices that are beneficial to them but have become adept at passing off those choices as being in the public interest. Whistle blowers seem to care more for those suffering the consequences, real or potential, than the interests of the powerful elite. We, at least those of us who do not belong to these exclusive elite enclaves of power, owe these whistle blowers a huge debt of gratitude. [M. V. Ramana is with the Program on Science and Global Security at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University and the author of The Power of Promise: Examining Nuclear Energy in India (Penguin 2012)] #India – Nuclear utility grabs land #WTFnews (kractivist.wordpress.com) #India – Who Is Qualified To Be A Whistleblower ? (kractivist.wordpress.com) #India – Flaws in Koodankulam Nuclear Power plant (kractivist.wordpress.com) #India – Sites scouted for biggest nuclear fuel fabrication plant #WTFnews (kractivist.wordpress.com) An Open Letter to the Media houses in India! (kractivist.wordpress.com) The Supreme Quash Court of India (kractivist.wordpress.com) PRESS RELEASE- Supreme Court Verdict on Koodankulam: A Travesty of Justice (kractivist.wordpress.com) Nelson Mandela would have made a fine peace journalist #Sundayreading by kracktivist in Advocacy, Announcements, Human Rights, Justice, Kractivism, Law, Minority Rights, Political Prisoners, Prison Tags: Barack Obama, Jacob Zuma, Mandela, Nelson Mandela, Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, Peace, South Africa, United States By Steven Youngblood Director, Center for Global Peace Journalism, Park University At a fundamental level, Mandela and peace journalists share an understanding of the importance of language. One key tenant of peace journalism is that the words we as journalists use matter—that they can either soothe or inflame passions. Mandela might have gone one step further, noting not only journalists’ responsibility to choose their words carefully, but also their duty to use language in a way that bridges divides and brings people together. Mandela said, “Without language, we cannot talk to people and understand them. One cannot share their hopes and aspirations, learn their history, appreciate their poetry and savor their songs. I again realize that we are not different people with separate language; we are one people with different tongues.” (http://africa.waccglobal.org/what%20is%20peace%20journalism_.pdf ) Another value peace journalists share with Mandela is a commitment to ongoing dialogue, like the kind begun under Mandela’s post-apartheid Peace and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. The Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory is continuing that work today, offering “a non-partisan platform for public discourse on important social issues…that contribute to policy decision-making.” (nelsonmandela.org) Peace journalists, of course, can provide this platform, but not just to those in power. We seek to give a voice to all parties, with a special emphasis on giving voice to the voiceless. I hope Mr. Mandela would be proud of the work that one group of peace reporters just concluded in Lebanon. These reporters told the stories of Syrian refugees living in Beirut in a way that demystified the stereotypes about these individuals while fostering a dialogue within Lebanese society about how to accommodate and protect 440,000 refugees. Many of Mandela’s principles not only align with peace journalism, but also lay out a blueprint for successful peace journalists. This blueprint for peace journalists can be found, succinctly, in the UN’s written declaration of July 18th as Nelson Mandela International Day. The UN declaration “recognizes Nelson Mandela’s values and his dedication to the service of humanity, in the fields of conflict resolution, race relations, the promotion and protection of human rights, reconciliation, gender equality and the rights of children and other vulnerable groups, as well as the uplifting of poor and underdeveloped communities. It acknowledges his contribution to the struggle for democracy internationally and the promotion of a culture of peace throughout the world.” (masterpeace.org). This statement is not only Mandela’s legacy, it is his charge to all of us, but especially to those of us who subscribe to the notion that we as journalists have a higher responsibility. This means that we must study and understand conflict resolution, and apply that knowledge to balanced reporting that gives proportionate voice to those who seek peace rather than exclusively to those who rattle the sabers of violence. Mandela’s legacy charges peace journalists with facilitating meaningful dialogues on race, and empowering those in our society who are marginalized (women, children, and the poor). This means that along with peace journalism, we should practice development journalism, using our platforms to focus attention on societal problems and solutions. Most of all, this legacy charges journalists with putting the spotlight on the Nelson Mandelas in each society—those who seek peace and reconciliation. Mandela’s statement during his 1964 trial is a testimony to the positive power of language, and to journalism’s responsibility to give voice to those who seek a peaceful path. Mandela told the court, “I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.” (transcend.org) REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: Scene from outside Mandela’s hospital- Obama meets Mandela’s family in South Africa trip (foxnews.com) Capital Punishment: Dying Out but Still Killing #deathpenalty by kracktivist in Advocacy, Announcements, Human Rights, Justice, Kractivism, Law, Minority Rights, Political Prisoners, Prison, Violence against Women, Women Rights Tags: Capital punishment, China, Lethal injection, Nigeria, Rick Perry, Texas, Vietnam, World War II Posted: 28/06/2013 , huffingtonpost It’s a loose comparison, but sometimes I think that people who get executed these days are like those killed right at the end of a war. Another day, another month … and they might survived. I say this because when you look at the figures for capital punishment around the world, you can see there’s a strong trend toward abolition. It’s happening year by year. Fifty years ago only nine countries in the world had abolished the death penalty; by 1977 it was 16; now 140 countries have abolished judicial killing in law or stopped it in practice. Even in “pro-death penalty” countries, the number of sentences and executions is generally falling or the scope for imposing executions being reduced. For example, in China the number of crimes which might lead to a lethal injection or death by firing squad has beenreduced from a reported 68 to 55 (still a staggeringly high number). Meanwhile, in the USA – another major user of capital punishment – individual states are peeling away from the majority on the issue, with six states scrapping the death penalty in the past six years – New Jersey and New York state (2007), New Mexico (2009), Illinois (2010), Connecticut (2012) and Maryland just last month. Anyway, though in the last year or so there have been what Amnesty says is an “alarming” spike in executions in Iraq and a resumptions after considerable gaps in the use of the death penalty in Japan, Gambia, Pakistan and India, the underlying global trend is still clear and apparently fixed: state-sanctioned judicial killing is slowly dying out. So to me there’s a particular tragedy to the late nature of executions in this context. Last night’s execution of Kimberly McCarthy in Texas was regrettable for many reasons (especially the apparent role of racial prejudice in her trial), but in five – ten, 20? – years’ time there’s a distinct possibility that we won’t have people in Texas being strapped down to a lethal injection gurney and killed by technicians in a disgraceful pseudo-medical “procedure”. I know of course that of all US states Texas is a “hard case”, one that may not go the way of national and international abolition in the immediate future. It’s just reached the miserable milestone of 500 executions in 31 years, nearly five times higher than any other US state. The Lone Star State indeed. See Amnesty USA’s Brian Evans on Texas’ fatal addiction to the death penalty. However, with support for capital punishment in the USA falling, and controversy over lethal injection drugs and unfair trials growing, I think abolition even in Texas will come …. But still, the machinery of death clanks on. Just this week, in addition to McCarthy’s execution we’ve had four men hanged in Nigeria (and another facing death by firing squad imminently) and alarming reports that 117 people in Vietnam may face execution soon because of a recent law change (we’re talking – in some cases – about death by lethal injection, using specially-produced drugs to execute prisoners for non-violent drugs offences). There’s an urgent text campaign on Vietnam being run by Amnesty – see here. So no, if you take an abolitionist view on the death penalty, there’s no cause for complacency. According to Wikipedia, the last person to die (from the British Empire side at least) during World War One was a 25-year-old Canadian man called George Lawrence Price. He was shot by a German sniper in the Belgian town of Ville-sur-Haine at 10.58 on the morning of 11 November 1918. The Armistice came into force at 11am. A needless death then, just like everyone killed by the state in the cold-blooded and thoroughly repugnant business of administering capital punishment. Neil Durkin ,Press Officer at Amnesty International UK A history of capital punishment in Texas (news.yahoo.com) What Is Striking In India Is The Indifference Of The Privileged- #Noamchomsky by kracktivist in Advocacy, Announcements, Human Rights, Justice, Kractivism, Law, Minority Rights, Political Prisoners, Prison Tags: Boston, Boston Globe, Gangnam Style, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Noam Chomsky, United States, Vietnam War At 84, Noam Chomsky remains the sharpest, most acute, most unrelenting critic of power, particularly American power. He speaks to Priyanka Borpujari about the evolution of protest; the disconnect between the misery he sees on the streets of Delhi and our elites’ chest-thumping pride; the narrow concerns of mainstream media; and his starring role in a Gangnam Style parody. PRIYANKA BORPUJARI 2013-07-06 , Issue 27 Volume 10 Noam Chomsky, 84, Linguist & Activist, Photo: AP You have been protesting wars, from Vietnam to Iraq. And then, there has been the Occupy Wall Street movement. What have been the similarities and differences in protest movements over the years? People do not know this, but it was very tough to oppose the Vietnam war. In the early ’60s, if I was giving a talk, it would be in somebody’s living room or a church with very few people. Right here in Boston, a liberal city, we could not have an outdoor demonstration in the Boston Common until about 1967. Any demonstration would be broken up by force. In March 1966, when we tried to have an indoor demonstration at a church downtown — since we could not have a public one — the church was attacked.The Boston Globe, which was supposed to be a liberal newspaper, denounced the demonstrators. The Harvard University faculty would not even hear about it; nobody would sign a petition. It was a few years of hard slogging. Finally by 1967-68, there were two or three years of intense activism, before it declined. The ’60s were very significant but it was very condensed. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was a very conservative campus until about 1968 and then it became very radical, perhaps the most radical in the country. Since the late ’60s, activism has expanded but with less visibility, and it is a part of a general consciousness about all kinds of things. In the 1980s, there was a huge anti-nuclear movement. But the most significant phenomenon in the ’80s — although it did not leave much of an impact in history because it did not involve the elites very much — were the solidarity movements with central America. This solidarity was coming mostly from rural United States, like rural Kansas, and the Evangelicals, with tens of thousands of people going down to central America just to be with the victims, to help and defend them. This had never happened before, that people from the imperial state went there not just to protest, but to live with the people and participate with them. And a lot of these people stayed on. So it had a great effect over rural United States. Towards the end of the last millennium, solidarity was visible on a new kind of global justice movement, on particular issues, like Israel-Palestine. There has been a massive shift in that. I used to have police protection on this (MIT) campus, right until the 1990s, when I talked about it. But now it is the most lively issue on the campus. I am asked to give talks about it all the time. So it’s not militant activism, but there’s a culture of independence and opposition, which I think is pretty bright. So, who is listening to dissidents like you? Well, anybody who is willing to talk has people listening. There aren’t too many people who are willing to go around and give talks all the time. The few of us who are willing, are deluged. Every night, I turn down a dozen invitations. When I do give talks, there is a real hunger for something different, but there is very little supply. You can almost count on the fingers of your hands the number of people who are willing to spend their lives going around and giving talks. But on the other hand, you are in Cambridge, so you get to hear a little about India. In the United States almost nobody knows anything about the outside world — people don’t know where France is. India would be some word that they might have heard in school in passing. It is a very insular society. What about India baffles you the most? I have followed India carefully, and have been there a number of times. It is an exciting country in many ways with its rich culture. But what is really striking to me about India, much more than most other countries I have been to, is the indifference of privileged sectors to the misery of others. You walk through Delhi and cannot miss it, but people just don’t seem to see it. Everyone is talking about ‘Shining India’ and yet people are starving. I had an interesting experience with this once. I was in a car in Delhi and with me was (activist) Aruna Roy, and we were driving towards a demonstration. And I noticed that she wasn’t looking outside the window of the car. I asked her why. She said, “If you live in India, you just can’t look outside the window. Because if you do, you’d rather commit suicide. It’s too horrible. So you just don’t look.” So people don’t look, they put themselves in a bubble and then don’t see it. And those words are from somebody who has devoted her life to the lives of the poor, and you can see why she said that — the misery and the oppression are so striking, much worse than in any country I have ever seen. And it is so dramatic. There is a lot of talk about how India is slated to be a major power, and I can’t believe it, with all its internal problems; China too for that matter, but less so. When my wife and I went to India a couple of years ago, my friend Iqbal Ahmed had told me that I would discover that the press in Pakistan is much more open and free than the press in India. I did not believe him first but when I looked into it, he explained, “The English language press in Pakistan is for you and your friends, and the government just lets them say whatever they want, because there are so few of them to cater to, just a couple of hundred thousand people.” You have hailed the Mexican newspaper La Jornada as “maybe the only real independent newspaper in the hemisphere”. Do you think something similar can be founded in India? It could. The interesting thing about La Jornada is that the business world hates it. They don’t give it any ads. It is the second largest newspaper in the country with a very high level of journalistic acumen and very smart people, and they are all over the country. You see people reading this newspaper on the streets. Actually, I noticed that in Kerala, the only part of India where you can see people reading on the streets. In the recent past, India witnessed a scam that exposed the deep nexus between journalists and businessmen, but nothing happened… That is a bit different here (in the United States). One good thing about this country is that there is very little state repression, no censorship, so they can speak out what they can. On the other hand, the internalisation of doctrine here is just overwhelming, that is, with the intellectual community in the universities. And it is partly a reflection of the freedom, I think. You get an impression that everything is free and open because there are debates that are visible: the Democrats are debating the Republicans, and the press does its share of condemning. But what people don’t see — and the seeming openness of the debate conceals it — is that it is all within a very narrow framework. And you can’t go even a millimetre outside that framework. In fact, it is even taught in journalism schools here as the concept of ‘objectivity’ — that means describing honestly what’s going on inside that framework and if there is something outside, then no, that is subjective. You see that all the time and that is a big domestic problem. Life outside the bubble The misery and oppression in India are striking, says Chomsky, Photo: Ishan Tankha For example, domestically, for the population, the big problem is jobs. They don’t care about the deficit. For the banks, the problem is deficits. So the only thing discussed (in the media) is deficits. You do have an occasional different viewpoint, but it doesn’t show up at all in the media coverage of the deficit. During the 2012 presidential elections, the two countries that were mentioned way more than anyone else in all debates were Israel and Iran. And Iran was described as the greatest threat to world peace. And that’s what’s repeated in the media all the time. There is an obvious question that no journalist would ask: who thinks so? They don’t think so in India; they don’t think so in the Arab world, they don’t think so in South America. The only countries to think so are the United States and England. But that you can’t report. And then comes the question: is there anything you can do about it? This is quite spectacular when you talk about the media because it does not say this. There is something very obvious one could do about it — move to establishing nuclear-free zones. There is an overwhelming support for that all over the world. In fact, in December 2012, there was supposed to be an international conference in Finland to carry it forward under UN auspices. But in early November 2012, Iran announced that they would participate. Within days, Obama called off the conference. Not one word about that in the newspapers. Literally, not one word. The same in England. I don’t know about India; probably not there too. On a less serious note, how did you come to feature in mit’s Gangnam Stylevideo? I didn’t know what they were talking about. They were just a bunch of kids who seemed to be having some fun. Did you have fun? I was just saying what they wanted me to say. letters@tehelka.com (Published in Tehelka Magazine, Volume 10 Issue 27, Dated 6 July 2013) Noam Chomsky’s Call to the World about the Taksim Gezi Park Resistance (solidaritypark.wordpress.com) FOCUS \| Noam Chomsky: NSA Surveillance Is an Attack on American Citizens (readersupportednews.org) “Snowden a patriot. Obama biggest terrorist ever” Noam Chomsky (thefreeonline.wordpress.com)	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10912
__label__wiki	0.510429	0.510429	The “You” of YouTube and Others January 16, 2018 at 11:35 pm \| Posted in facebook, google, Kristin Bell, money, YouTube \| Leave a comment YouTube cares about the “You” in YouTube less and less every year. Long story, but when YouTube started there were a bunch of random people on there doing a bunch of random things. It was more of a community back then. There were some more famous YouTubers, but no one was getting paid or anything. Then I can’t remember exactly when, I think it was after Google bought YouTube they started advertising on videos and they installed the Partner Program where YouTubers would get paid a tiny amount for each video ad impression. The requirements to be a Partner were small, but not completely insignificant. Still, small fries could be Partners. They have been scaling back the Partner Program for a while now. They keep eliminating videos and saying they aren’t “advertiser friendly” but they still play ads on them, but the Partner can no longer monetize them. They are proud of their big earners who earn six figures from ad revenue. Now they just increased the requirements for YouTube Partners again, and this basically kills off all of the small YouTube channels from ever earning revenue—channels that YouTube can still profit off of mind you. I’ve been on YouTube since about 2006, and I’ve made a tiny bit of money (which is not insignificant to me), and I’ve made a number of random videos about my life. The best part is that I’ve met a lot of really great people through YouTube. I can still do most of it if I want to…until YouTube kicks us out all together. I won’t be making any money from it any more, but it was nice to feel like I was a part of something. Now it feels like I’m not even a part of it anymore. I know YouTube doesn’t care about all of us “nothing” channels. They never really did, but it still hurts. It hurts in the way that all things seem to be overtaken by capitalist pigs who don’t care about anything but making money. It hurts in the way that a lot of the people YouTube considers “valuable” and “worthy Partners” are assholes who engage in click-bait behavior and other stupid stuff just to get views. It hurts in the way that you try to be a part of something, and what you are able to do is NOT ENOUGH to be considered valuable—EVER! I was never making much money from YouTube—maybe $100 every year or two, but this…this is another kick in the face. I think YouTube has been a valuable platform, but not for the stupid YouTubers who make shock videos that get 2 million views per day. One day we will look back and remember fondly the democratization of the internet when YouTube didn’t have ads, when Facebook wasn’t interrupted by advertising every second, when Twitter wasn’t a platform for propaganda, and even when MySpace made us feel connected. It is sad that what WE built (because where would any of those startups be without consumers…people?) is just destined for monetization and for some blip on a CEO’s chart. I suppose that’s what it all is about it and that is what it has always been about. It is just sad. I think at the end of the day all of us want to be a part of something outside of our own brains. That’s why we come to Facebook and YouTube and Instagram and Twitter and Pinterest and I know I’m forgetting at least 5000 other platforms. Humans are social creatures, and people have banked on it and will continue to do so. But there gets to be a tipping point when these platforms no longer think about what their users want and they only think about what their stockholders and CEOs want. We can see it and we can feel it. And we are watching it all unfold. Whether or not we can arrest the process and wrestle control back from extreme capitalism remains to be seen. What I do think will happen someday, maybe not in my lifetime but who knows, is that extreme capitalism and greed will collapse. It can’t go on forever, because we can’t go on forever with it—not humans, not the planet, not anything. I’m not a Luddite by any means, but if there is no balance then there will be collapse. Extreme capitalists don’t think there will ever be an end to their reign, but someday it will come, and it might be the end of us all. We are living in special times. We have the world at our fingertips, but…I’ll just leave it at that.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10913
__label__wiki	0.834318	0.834318	Colonel Badd: out-takes from our short, showing at Cannes The director of Colonel Badd, the 15-minute short I co-wrote centring on an interview with a retired supervillain, has just put some out-takes on Vimeo. I’m in the poker scene (of course!), with an American accent and a hook for a hand. Do please help yourself to a slice of my ham (click the image above). I always enjoyed acting. My Toad of Toad Hall was a hit when I was 12; and at 16 my Chrysale in Moliere’s Les Femmes Savantes went down well with those who could follow the French, even if the blond leg hairs sticking through my black tights made me resemble a geriatric hedgehog. Hugh Grant was at my Oxford college, two years above me. But whereas he got to star in a student-made feature film called Privileged overseen by John Schlesinger – I recall Hugh stripped to the waist, carrying a deer on his shoulders across the Cherwell river – all the drama productions I successfully auditioned for collapsed before I could act in them. And so expired my thespian dreams along with, presumably, a 13-year marriage to Liz Hurley ending ignominiously in a parked car with prostitute Divine Brown. Yesterday was also the cast & crew screening of the final cut of Colonel Badd. It was wonderful to see the featurette edited down, with music, and extra reverb for the succession of villainous laughs Colonel Badd tries out to “get in character”, as Tarantino would put it. Next stop, Cannes – where both Colonel Badd and Filth, which Tony Errico also directed, have been accepted into the Short Film Corner. If anyone who reads this is heading to the festival, message me for a cocktail on the Croisette! My Cannes 2013 reports start here. My diary extracts from the amazing 1997 Cannes Film Festival start here. Tags: Cannes, Cannes Film Festival, Colonel Badd, Court Metrage, Divine Brown, Dominic Wells, film-making, Filth, Hugh Grant, Oxford, Privileged, screenwriting, Short Film Corner, Tiger Dreams, Tony Errico History men: in memoriam Eric Hobsbawm (and my own father) This post hasn’t, I confess, much to do with film; though you can imagine an elderly remake of The Big Chill (1983), Lawrence Kasdan’s warm and witty film about a group of friends who reunite after a funeral, if you will. I simply wanted to do my small bit in remembrance of a giant of letters, the unapologetically Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm, who died in October aged 95 and whose memorial service was held yesterday in London University’s Senate House (used as a location in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight Rises, if you want another film reference). His family and mine stayed, for a few halcyon summers in my youth, in adjoining houses in Snowdonia. I studied History at A-Level and at Oxford, so I had read a couple of Eric’s many works, but I was more over-awed by the fact that Mick Jagger had once sat around the campfire here; besides, my father was also a distinguished historian. Eric was a sweet man, ravenously intellectually curious, who also loved the countryside and had a peculiar habit, affectionately mocked by the younger generation I am ashamed to say, of expressing his greeting twice – “Hello, hi!” – as though the first utterance was not emphasis enough for the splendour of the day. I have kept in touch with his son and daughter and niece ever since. The memorial service was a parade of the great and the good. The President of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano, sent a video tribute praising his “great courage, consistency and sense of resolve”. The author and journalist Claire Tomalin recalls asking Eric how living in a comfortable house in Hampstead squared with his socialist ideals. The wry response: “If you’ve living in a ship that’s going down, you might as well travel first class.” His views on the rottenness of the capitalist system certainly seem more prescient and urgent than ever. Professor Donald Sassoon, on a panel with the journalist and writer Neil Ascherson, recalled Eric making some sweeping generalisation about some supposedly universal truth which Sassoon was about to dismiss as hot air, until Eric capped it with the devastating codicil, “Except of course in Tasmania.” The clear implication was that the state of affairs had indeed been considered in every country of the world, and found wanting only in one. The device is to be recommended to anyone wishing to add weight to an argument. The BBC’s favourite historian Simon Schama was a verbal Catherine Wheel; almost to a fault. He recalled his first encounter, “bug-eyed with illumination”, with one of Eric’s works as a student; and how, when he years later got to discuss matters historical with the great man in the BBC canteen, he found himself outclassed by the breadth and specificity of his learning; he likened Eric to “a truffle-hunter digging delicious pungent nuggets of analytical [something] from the undergrowth”, and suggested “his mind was in itself an enacted dialectic”. But just when you started to feel the speech was more about Schama’s own gift for words than Eric’s, he began to break down. The final lines were almost lost for tears. Eric was “someone who could not get enough of the exhilarating peculiarity of the human condition”, he managed to say, counselling his fellow professors at the memorial event, which had been organised by Birkbeck College along with Eric’s family, to “tell your students to read Hobsbawm if you want to know what history can do – what a great historian is.” Eric’s widow Marlene and daughter Julia also gave touching tributes, though you might be even better served by reading Julia’s wonderful encomium in the Financial Times, here. Overall the strong sense was not merely that Eric’s work had touched a chord with the distinguished company here assembled, as well as generations of students all round the world, but that Eric the man had, as well. It is never easy to lose a father, but easier when you know that they have lived well and long, and that the ripples from their life will continue to spread long after the stone has sunk to the bottom. My own father (right), the Ancient Historian Professor Colin M Wells, received a page obituary in The Times, which I dearly wish that, impossibly, he could have lived to see, and a library in his name at Wolfson College. I also exorcised the extraordinary pain (to us, I’m not sure he was aware of it) of his final five days in a coma by writing a radio play inspired by the subject – which was cathartic though I have not submitted it anywhere and perhaps never will. Three years on, the sucking, surprisingly brutal grief has dissipated, and my father’s visits to me in the dreamworld are less frequent and more genial. I heartily wish Andy and Julia the same. Tags: Andy Hobsbawm, Birkbeck College, Claire Tomalin, Colin Wells, Donald Sassoon, Eric Hobsbawm, In memoriam, Interesting Times, Julia Hobsbawm, Neil Ascherson, Professor Colin M Wells, RIP, Simon Schama Wish you were here: interview with Storm Thorgerson Led Zeppelin: Houses of the Holy Muse: Absolution Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here The Cranberries: Wake Up and Smell The Coffee Storm Thorgerson, the visionary behind some of the most striking album covers in rock, died yesterday. He originally wanted to be a film director, and in a way, his images all feel like found scenes from a wider movie. I conducted a fascinating interview with him in 2007, in the arts supplement I edited at the Saturday Times. This was the story: If the future of music lies in downloads, one man will suffer more than most. After 39 years as Britain’s foremost designer of album covers, during which his canvas has already shrunk from 12 inches of vinyl to 5 inches of CD, Storm Thorgerson will be out of a job. Storm who? Though more joints have been rolled on his artwork than George Michael could smoke in ten lifetimes, few know Thorgerson by name. That’s about to change with the publication of Taken by Storm, an extraordinary collection of his works, profusely annotated with barmy yarns about their genesis. The Dark Side of the Moon prism? That was his. The burning businessman on the sleeve of Wish You Were Here? His too. The naked children scaling the Giants Causeway on Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy; the tearful housewife on 10cc’s How Dare You; even, moving on to the present day, the four men playing cards in the desert on Muse’s Black Holes and Revelations. All his. Before we meet in a café in Belsize Park, North London, I get the tour of Thorgerson’s next-door flat-cum-studio which he has owned since the 1970s. It’s as random as the man: bits of paper pinned up on the wall, with sketches of ideas and works-in-progress. Here are two gunfighters, one flinging fruit, the other with a coat made of balls – tennis balls, billiard balls, all kinds of balls. Turns out it’s for a project with Bob Dylan. It’s Thorgerson’s young colleague, Dan Abbott, who shows me around. Abbott is the draughtsman who fleshes out Thorgerson’s ideas, before a photographer shoots them. Similarly, many of the most striking covers of the early 1970s owe a considerable debt to the graphic designer George Hardie, among other contributors. Thorgerson himself mainly provides the concepts, and the drive to see them realised. “That’s why I prefer to describe these shoots as ‘performances’,” Thorgerson explains airily, squeezing himself into the café bench and parking his walking stick. “I’m more like a choreographer; and the choreographer needs the dancer, doesn’t he?” He fell into designing sleeves quite by accident. Pink Floyd, whom he knew anyway from school, asked Thorgerson’s flatmate to do a record cover. When he declined, Thorgerson stuck up his hand. “I had no idea what I was doing! But we did make the most of it. Me and Po [Aubrey Powell, with whom he founded the design company Hipgnosis] worked bloody hard.” He had previously intended to be a film director, inspired by seeing Fellini’s 8½ and Antonioni’s L’Avventura, and he studied cinema at the Royal College of Art. But if there is a director he most resembles, it’s Werner Herzog, pulling a real steamboat over a real mountain in the Peruvian jungle for his famously gruelling and epically insane film Fitzcarraldo. Thorgerson insists on doing almost all his shoots for real, long after digital trickery should have made most of his surreal, dream-like images simple to create. It’s an admirable folly that may or may not produce better results, as he claims, but which certainly makes for an entertaining anecdote. One cover concept called for a row of 20ft telegraph poles stretching into the distance, each topped with a seated hermit. The ground was muddy and the huge poles kept slipping; Thorgerson had to climb up one himself to show his volunteers they would be safe. The cover for Pink Floyd’s A Momentary Lapse of Reason showed 700 heavy iron hospital beds arrayed on the beach, something that took four tractors and 30 helpers six hours to accomplish. England being England, it rained, so they had to take them all away again . . . and repeat this lapse of reason in its entirety two weeks later. Thorgerson’s upbringing, you won’t be surprised to hear, was unconventional. If you think his name is unusual (it comes from his uncle, and is not uncommon in Norway), consider that his mother called him Geraldine for his first nine months – in what he calls, unable to resist verbal as well as visual puns, the “dark side of the womb”. He was packed off to boarding school at just 4½ – “If you want to know why I’m mad, there you are” – and because of its progressive views about not forcing education, he didn’t learn to read until he was 9. It was at grammar school in Cambridge that he met Roger Waters and Syd Barrett, who later would form Pink Floyd. “I was friends with Roger indirectly because our mothers were friends, and still are, at 88 and 94 respectively. “It was a very interesting place, Cambridge; student towns can be great fun, even if you’re not studying there. There’s a lot of culture . . . and a lot of girls. Most of whom actually seemed to end up with Syd. I still know all these guys; I would have known Syd still, too, till he died, if he hadn’t gone off the rails.” But didn’t he once say that he had not spoken to Waters in 30 years? “Twenty-five,” Thorgerson corrects. “But he’s friendly now. Roger had a particular way of dealing with things, which requires him to be more definite than he needs. He was very rigid about who was what in the Pink Floyd hierarchy, and I got put into a box, and he’s only opened the lid recently.” In fact, during our meeting, he receives a cryptic message by mobile: “Roger has no objection.” This turns out to concern Thorgerson and Abbott’s suggestion of a 40th anniversary rerelease of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, and the publication of a book of Syd Barrett’s sketches, in tribute to that crazy diamond. And is Barrett still missed? Did Thorgerson see him again before he died? He shakes his head. “His death was more or less so sad there’s nothing one can think to say. The band have always felt very strongly about Syd, so tabs were kept, as it were, money was paid; as best they could, they looked after him.” It’s a rare moment of vulnerability from a self-confessed egomaniac, a man with the chutzpah to persuade a doubtful record company to release Wish You Were Here wrapped in black plastic (to symbolise absence, professor), or to release Led Zeppelin’s In Through the Out Door with six alternative sleeve designs – and then cover it in a brown paper bag. “Pictures of a band, like the Beatles, or Take That, what do they tell you? They tell you what they look like, but nothing about what’s in their hearts, or in their music. If you were trying to present an emotion, or a feeling, or an idea, or a theme, or an obsession, or a perversion, or a preoccupation, when would it have four guys in it? In the huge world of things to choose to represent it, why choose four guys?” Particularly when, as with Thorgerson’s early run of covers for Pink Floyd, you can have a cow, then an ear under water, then a prism, then a man on fire, then a giant inflatable pig (Roger Waters’s idea) which infamously escaped from its moorings, floated to 18,000 ft and nearly gave the jet pilot who radioed in the sighting a heart attack. Music downloads may be the future, but they will never be this much fun. Tags: album cover, Animals, Aubrey Powell, Dan Abott, design, died, Fitzcarraldo, Hipgnosis, In Through The Out Door A Momentary Lapse of Reason, Muse, Pink Floyd, pink pig, RIP, Roger Waters, Storm Thorgerson, Syd Barrett, Taken by Storm Yes we Cannes! Colonel Badd posters up for film festival Exciting news – x2! First, we now have some great-looking character posters for Colonel Badd, the short film I wrote about here. I loved Avengers Assemble, so it’s cool to be part of a terrifying team-up of scarifying supervillains. Every good story needs a strong hook, and in this one, I’m it (top left)! [Photography by Giulia Pizzi.] Secondly, Colonel Badd has been accepted into the Short Film Corner at Cannes, and director Tony Errico (lower left) has been good enough to put me down for one of the precious Accreditations. So it looks all of a sudden like I’ll be going! If anyone knows anyone with a room/floor/couch available cheapish during the Festival, please email me. I’m a good cook, fun to have around, and fully house-trained. Last time I went, I slept on Jon Ronson’s floor as he wrote gags for carrot-topped TV terror Dennis Pennis (aka Paul Kaye), partied on a yacht with the cream of young Brit talent such as Anna Friel and David Thewlis, danced in a beach marquee with James Woods, and lunched with Alan Parker and Barry Norman. Then, I was Editor of Time Out. Now, I’m the lowest of the low on the film pecking order: the humble writer. Co-writer, even. But it will be fascinating to experience the other side of the festival – not the acme of international cinematic art, but the world’s biggest commercial movie fair. Click on the ‘Follow’ button so as not to miss my blogs from Cannes next month! Tags: Alan parker, Anna Friel, Avengers Assemble, Barry Norman, Cannes, Cannes Court Metrage, Cannes Film Festival, Colonel Badd, David Thewlis, Dennis Pennis, Dominic Wells, Festival de Cannes, Giulia Pizzi, James Woods, Jon Ronson, Paul Kaye, screenwriting, Short Film Corner, supervillain, Time Out, Tony Errico David Bowie Is at the V&A: it really is the freakiest show I’ve just returned from what is, in my thoroughly unobjective opinion as a Bowiefreak, the best exhibition ever mounted. The V&A’s David Bowie Is deserves the hype. But since tickets have been selling out quicker than a rock star clutching a can of Pepsi, and you’re unlikely to get to go for a while yet, let me guide you through it in song… Ch-ch-ch-changes. Bowie, the exhibition makes clear, changed the image of every band he joined, even before he started his solo career. The ever-circling skeletal family. The headset commentary offers snatches of song and interview, and amazingly it “knows” where you are, switching back and forth depending on which exhibit you are standing in front of. It’s like being inside a living documentary. Cracked Actor. As well as selling over 140 million albums, Bowie has acted in over a dozen feature films including Nic Roeg’s The Man Who Fell To Earth (right). There’s a separate screening space for clips from the likes of Labyrinth and Basquiat, as well as the loin cloth he wore while playing the Elephant Man, to no small acclaim, on stage in New York. The hand that wrote this letter. In addition to the cut-up lyrics for Blackout (left) there are loads of handwritten song lyrics, most of which, sadly, are pristine, with none of the crossings-out and rewriting that usually make handwritten songs and poems so fascinating. Did they spring fully formed like Athena from the head of Zeus? Or, more likely, are these just write-ups of the final versions? There are a couple of kooks, however. Most striking is a deleted verse from Fashion: “Hell up ahead – burn a play – start a fight/If you’re covered in blood, you’re doing it right.” There’s also a glimpse into how Heroes could have been very much worse: “And we kissed/And you felt called” is crossed out and replaced with “And we kissed/As though nothing could fall.” Hang him on my wa-wa-wa-wall. Bowie’s interest in art goes back to his teens: a school sketchbook is here, along with sketches for album covers (such as his self-portrait for Heroes, right), costumes, stage sets, and characters and backdrops for a projected film set in Hunger City. He’s no draughtsman, but he has the vision for others to follow. Most poignant are two canvases from his Berlin period (including a bug-eyed Iggy Pop), with a bit of an Egon Schiele vibe. He has said that painting helped him to kick his drug addictions. Return of the (Very) Thin White Duke. As well as loads of stage costumes, his measurements are written out in detail. His waist size in the early ‘70s is given as 26.5in!! Space Oddity. The V&A show is vast, full of nooks and corners and booths. At the end is a cavernous space dominated by a vast screen pumping out supersized videos, and costumed mannequins stacked up in see-through boxes four storeys high. Five years. The V&A has collaborated with the BBC on a documentary entitled Five Years, covering 1971, 1975, 1977, 1980 and 1983. It will be broadcast sometime next month. He’s a star, man. I went round the exhibition with a Bowie neophyte, who previously had no interest in him or his songs. Afterwards she spent hours watching past videos and interviews on YouTube. Click here for my blog on David Bowie’s Where Are We Now? Click here for my 1995 interview with Bowie and Eno Tags: BBC, Blackout, David Bowie, David Bowie Is, documentary, Fashion, Five Years, Heroes, Hunger City, Space Oddity, The Man Who Fell To Earth, The Next Day, V&A Oblivion: where Tom Cruise’s career is heading I wouldn’t go quite as far as the heckler at the Brixton Ritzy – “Shit!” was his pithy summary as the closing credits rolled, to a ripple of laughter that sounded very much like agreement – but to give Oblivion three stars out of five would feel generous. How can a $120 million sci-fi mind-bender starring Tom Cruise and set on a post-apocalyptic Earth contrive to be such a crashing bore? The set-up is intriguing: the Moon has been blown up by alien “Scavs”, producing catastrophic earthquakes and tidal waves, so that most of New York is silted up. Only the tip of the Empire State Building pokes up through the soil. From their minimalist white platform above the clouds (an ivory tower, see?), dashing Tom Cruise and his English rose Andrea Riseborough collaborate on the clean-up of wasteland Earth, like Mr and Mrs Wall-E, while the rest of humanity have fled to one of Saturn’s moons. He dashes about in a nifty space-ship-cum-copter thingy fighting off the last remaining Scavs, while she stays at home managing the communications. (Evidently sexual politics will not have progressed much by the end of the 21st century.) But as their memories were wiped clean five years previously, not all is as it seems… to say more would spoil some of the more enjoyable surprises in the film. For there is an original idea or two struggling to emerge from this good-looking but derivative hotch-potch of sci-fi classics. Sadly they never quite make it. Even at just two hours the film feels wildly overlong. If it’s aiming for Solaris-style philosophical heft, Cruise’s limited range puts paid to that – he only has his Cheeky Action Face, his Cheeky Sexy Face, and his furrowed-brow I Worry After Rock Of Ages And Jack Reacher That If This Film Tanks Too I’m Finished face. And Morgan Freeman is criminally wasted in a hackneyed and underwritten role. At least the makers of Oblivion got one thing right: the title. It’s what this movie seems destined for… Tags: Andrea Riseborough, film, Jack Reacher, Morgan Freeman, Oblivion, review, Rock of Ages, Tom Cruise, Wall-E Thatcher dead = Wizard of Oz or The Iron Lady? Ding dong the witch is dead. Thatcher, left; Britain, right The Wizard of Oz has had yet another revival today, as people across the UK sing “Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead”. The rule is not to speak ill of the dead, especially the recently departed, but the usual niceties will clearly be waived in the case of Margaret Thatcher. We’ve already had one such moment: November 22, 1990 was, to my generation, as the shooting of JFK was to my parents’. That was the day Thatcher was dumped by her own party and exited Downing Street in tears; the Iron Lady melted down for scrap. I was on the Tube at the time, and the platform indicators were wiped clean of train arrival information to carry the news to all passengers – the first and only time I have seen them do that. Three men high-fived each other. A young woman broke into song: yes, it was “Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead”. It was the happiest Tube carriage I’ve seen since I chanced upon a party on the Circle Line. Only a couple of old dears sat in near silence, tutting and scowling at the revellers, clearly Thatcher fans but not wanting to speak up about it too loudly. My teenaged son has been studying Thatcher in History (!), and it’s hard for him to comprehend the sheer venom that so many have for the frail elder stateswoman. Especially after seeing the recent biopic, The Iron Lady. That employed, quite deliberately, the tactic of framing the historical action with present-day scenes of her as a dotty old dear in her lonely dotage. An unsympathetic lead character is the kiss of death for a film, and that was the only way they could think of to get the audience on side. The film also tried to present her as some sort of feminist heroine. If she was, it was only by default, by the virtue merely of smashing the glass ceiling. She actually got on by being more macho than the men: lowering her voice an octave, leading the country into war, pronouncing “This Lady’s not for turning”, drinking whiskey, sleeping only four hours a night. As the film Made in Dagenham showed, Secretary of State for Employment Barbara Castle did far more for women’s rights when she ushered in the Equal Pay Act of 1970. Altogether, The Iron Lady was heavy on relationship drama, and light on politics. So what should Thatcher’s legacy be? It’s more complex than her detractors will admit. Yes, she abolished the GLC in a magisterial fit of political pique at seeing Red Ken grinning across the Thames at her from his leftie enclave at County Hall, and that’s hard to forgive. Then again, look east as you cross Waterloo Bridge, and her legacy is clear to see (memorably enshrined in the peerless gangster pic The Long Good Friday). As a jobbing journalist, I can only lament the NUJ’s toothlessness when it comes to implementing minimum pay scales for freelancers. (Many of the places I write for, when I’m lucky enough to write at all, now pay half what they used to. The others pay nothing at all.) Then again, I worked in Wapping for six years, and it’s striking when you read the history of The Times to find how utterly paralysed the paper once was by the print unions, who would halt production pretty much on a whim. They were also a notorious closed shop, passing jobs on from father to son (rarely was it from father to daughter). And yes, Thatcher led the country into war. But at least it was a war with some justification (in a referendum this March, 99.8% of Falkland Islanders voted to remain British), and far less damaging than the ‘phoney war’ recently perpetrated by a Labour Prime Minister. And yet. I lived through that corrosive, divided era of miners’ strikes and Poll Tax riots and “there is no such thing as Society”. I was Editor of Time Out on that wild wild night when Tony Blair finally ended 18 years of Conservative rule, and we all watched it on the big telly on Time Out’s eighth floor with artist Tracey Emin, and cheered when Michael Portillo lost his seat, and dared for a short while to believe, as the campaign song had it, that things could only get better. If I hear anyone singing “Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead”, don’t blame me if I hum along. Tags: Barbara Castle, Baroness Thatcher, Ding Dong The Witch is Dead, Equal Pay Act, Falklands referendum, Lady Thatcher, Made in Dagenham, Margaret Thatcher, Michael Portillo, The Iron Lady, The Long Good Friday, The Times, The Wizard of Oz, Time Out, Tracey Emin	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10926
__label__cc	0.683567	0.316433	By Richard Friend Architecture, Library, News The End of the Library By now, many of you already know that the Stanley Memorial Library has always been a very special place for me. It was the first library I can remember ever going into as a child, and I still vividly recall my amazement at learning that there was no limit to how many books I could check out at any given time—and that it was all completely free. What madness! “How do they stay in business?!” I asked my mom. Fast-forward a few years; and as a not-quite-fifteen-year-old kid in 1987, I got my work permit and was given my very first part-time job: manning the desk at the “Computer Connection“—the library’s small public computer lab. I scheduled reservations for people I can still picture to this day, including Mr. Anderson, the budding fiction writer who plugged away at the Apple IIe at least twice a month. Other, more utilitarian types booked time on the IBM PC; and surprisingly, hardly anyone ever used the Macintosh. Librarian Carl Keehn, who’d hired me, was the first to encourage me to take advantage of any downtime by learning all I could—particularly on that Macintosh. (As a graphic designer today, that’s my primary tool). As I recently learned from Carl, I almost didn’t get that job. Not because I wasn’t qualified, but because I was still underage. The law didn’t allow me to work past 8:30, and the job required me to stay until 8:45. The library actually ended up applying for a waiver, and the rest was history. The Computer Connection gig only lasted a couple of years, though, as the first of many county cutbacks began to loom. Nonetheless, while the computers were going bye-bye for the 1990s, I was glad to learn that my job wasn’t. In fact, it was really just beginning. I was reassigned as a clerical aide, or page—where I got to re-shelve books and locate back issue periodicals for patrons. Well, I’m not going to bore you with my whole employment story again. Suffice it to say that I grew up in that library. Not only was it my first job, I ended up working there all throughout high school and college. I can’t begin to count how many good memories that place holds for me. Even the very first date I ever went on—the library is where I met and nervously asked out that first girl I really liked, right there in the parking lot. Even after starting my first full-time graphic design job in 1997, I clung to the library; I continued to work part-time on the weekends, not because I needed to, but because I guess I really just didn’t want to let it go. And that feeling that crept back again, nearly 20 years later—with the announcement of a new Laurel Library branch now due to be built on the site by 2017. Yes, even in spite of the 1993 expansion which nearly tripled the size of the original building, the old library had far outgrown the space. But to imagine those old walls, the sight of which conjure so many fond memories, being torn down—it was a tough pill to swallow. The demolition was originally scheduled for last fall, I believe; but for one reason or another, there were delays. The library’s last day of operation in this building had been March 8, 2014. Shortly thereafter, a temporary (and much smaller) facility was established behind City Hall at 8101 Sandy Spring Road. But the old building sat empty and untouched for over a year, until finally, the familiar signs of pending destruction began to emerge: construction crew trailers were installed in the parking lot, and a chain link fence went up around the perimeter. Each weekend, I’d make the drive from Centreville, VA to Laurel, hoping to catch the first moments of it on film, but dreading it at the same time. Worse, I feared that one day soon, I’d approach that familiar corner of Seventh Street and Talbott Avenue, and the old library would be nothing more than a pile of rubble. Finally, I got word that NARDI Construction, Inc. was ready to start. On May 6th, 2015, I drove to the site and met foreman Chuck McNulty, who regrettably told me that the excavators they were expecting that morning hadn’t showed up after all—it looked like they wouldn’t start tearing the building down in earnest until the next day. But it was hardly a wasted trip, as Chuck asked if I’d be interested in taking a few mementos his team had salvaged. Little did I imagine these would include the original, complete set of blueprints from 1965—blueprints I remember hanging in the basement office of the late Tom Acra, the library’s beloved maintenance man. Chuck told me they should be good to go the following day, so on May 7th, I made the trip back. The smaller Bobcats were hard at work inside, doing some final interior gutting before they’d start knocking down the walls. While I was taking photos on the corner, Chuck appeared in what had previously been one of the windows—it was now more like an open bay door. I’ll never forget what he asked next: “Wanna come in and see the inside one last time?” He told me it was okay to film and photograph anything I wanted (with the exception of the workers themselves, some of whom may not want their pictures taken). I grabbed both my video camera and the still camera, stepped over the caution-taped hard hat area, and into the vacant shell of the Stanley Memorial Library one last time. It didn’t occur to me until I’d gone home and started sorting through my photos that the demolition came on the anniversary of the library’s official dedication. While the building had opened in 1965, the dedication didn’t actually happen until May 7, 1967. Forty-eight years ago to the day, future U.S. Congresswoman Gladys Noon Spellman, Laurel Mayor Merrill Harrison, and other local officials had assembled behind the original circulation desk and delivered the dedication. And now, there I was at the same spot, moments before the building would finally meet its end. For 50 years, this library had stood here; countless patrons milling about its shelves for bestsellers and all sorts of media… (I’ve even heard stories of an actual art collection being loaned out in the ’70s—you could borrow a new painting for your living room wall every couple of weeks!) And of course, my thoughts went to the many people who worked here, both before and after my time as a staff member. That’s when it dawned on me that of all those people, I suddenly found myself being the last one who’d ever walk through it again. It was about a half hour later that the first of the walls started coming down—the vestibule roof that had originally covered the Seventh Street entrance, the original circulation workroom, and most recently, the quiet study room—crashed to the ground in a cloud of beige dust. After that settled, I got to witness the center wall that was the heart of the 1965 building fall: Chuck said that they wouldn’t likely get to the other major sections that day, but I’d seen enough. I’m not sure I wanted to see the expansion side come down—the section that was brand new in 1993, which seems like just the blink of an eye ago. The construction crew took a brief break over the weekend (the Main Street Festival proved a welcome distraction to any other nostalgic library types like me) and was back at it on Monday, May 11th. By the end of this week, if not sooner, the rest of the library will be leveled. You can peruse my full set of photos on Flickr, which includes several days leading up to and during the demolition. I’ll be adding to it in the weeks to come. Many thanks again to Chuck McNulty and NARDI Construction for going above and beyond in providing me access to document the building’s demise, and for saving some one-of-a-kind historical mementos. The cornerstone and dedication plate will be preserved in the Laurel Museum. He also set aside several bricks for me, and even helped load them into my truck—bricks that I’ll be distributing to former library colleagues as one last little piece of this place we loved. Tagged 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, demolition, gladys noon spellman, laurel library, Stanley Memorial Library 8 thoughts on “The End of the Library” Liz Caulkins says: thanks for the posting! Does Laurel not have a library now? Richard Friend says: Liz, a temporary library was created at 8101 Sandy Spring Road for use until the new building opens in about 18 months. Do you have any pics/info on the library that preceded the Stanley Memorial Library? I am almost certain it was on main street. That is the one I remember growing up. I was about 7. I remember I wanted to read “War of the Worlds” in the worst way. I didn’t understand that the library just did not have a copy of the book. I was a kid. They were a library and they had ALL the books. I was so persistent that they eventually bought a copy and the librarian made a big deal of me being the very first person to check it out. Jim, there was indeed a library on Main Street prior to 1965. It was located in what is now the Woman’s Club of Laurel, at 384 Main. You’ll have to scroll through the photo album on the Lost Laurel Facebook page, but I’m sure I’ve posted photos of it at some point. Vickie Stengel says: So happy for Laurel to get a new Library finally, but sad to see the old one go. Didn’t spend AS MUCH time there as you, but I have a mix of fond memories and being forced to do many hours of research there when it was much more work than it is now! John Young says: I enjoyed your pictures and story about the library. It also offered me my first job as a Page (shelving books and, occasionally, checking out books) in 1967. I worked there for about two years too until I attended UMCP as a pre-med major. I have many fond memories there. I lived away from Laurel after the early 70’s until I finally returned to the library for the first time in over 40 years earlier this year and discovered that it was scheduled for demolition. I feel like that I was there in its infancy and now near its end. It is indeed a special place for me too. I remember going to Laurel Library as a kid with my dad and friends. I loved going to the nonfiction section about dogs and other animals (and seeing a blue and yellow book nearby named Milk, Butter, and Cheese that always turned my stomach). And of course, I would go to the kids’ section to check out Choose Your Own Adventure series, the Magic Treehouse books, and a really great book named Scruffy about a dog who was trying to find his place in the world, one of the few books I actually finished, LOL. I remember in those days I loved Pembroke Welsh Corgis and I wanted one so bad, that I would grab this AKC video on dogs and rewind the three and a half minute segment on dogs over and over and over again (I now have a corgi). I remember one day one of the librarians took me in the basement and showed me the brand new Dog Fancy magazines they had, which was a big deal to me back in the day. You had another post about the librarians in the branch, and I remember at least some of them. I guess with the internet and all, I had gotten away from checking out books at the library and also went to the Maryland City branch. But when you showed the inside of the library, it definitely brought back some memories. Sorry to see it go, but thanks for this great reminder. The Laurel Library was my first job. I grew up there. My mother worked in circulation. I have so many memories of that place. Thanks for sharing this!	cc/2019-30/en_head_0021.json.gz/line10927

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