Hi, everyone! Another week has flown by, and in that time , I got a whole bunch of reading done! I actually made my reading goals last week and then some (some being one book, but still 😉 )! Yay!
Well, those are my reading goals for now! And who knows? Maybe I'll surpass them! Here's to hoping! 😀 If you have any thoughts, questions or would like to share what you're reading this week, feel free to leave a comment in the section below. Thanks for reading!
I have to keep this book since it contains one of my weaknesses: pageantry. I love reading books about pageants, so yeah, I'm keeping it!
Even though I've taken a break from Rick Riordan's works, I think I'll come back to this sooner or later!
Well, that's all for now! If you have any thoughts about this week's books, let me know about them in the Comments Section below. Have a nice day, everyone!
Hi again! Today, I'm trying out a meme called "It's Monday! What Are You Reading?". This meme is hosted by Kathryn @ Book Date. I thought I'd give it a whirl since I've seen so many people participate in it and it was always fun to catch up on what people were reading or have read! 😉 Well, here goes nothing!
So that's what I have planned for this week! Hopefully I can read them all (and more)! What are you reading today?
Hello, everyone! Another day, another tag! Thanks again, Donna @ Chocolatenwaffles Blog for tagging me in this! Happy to be a bookaholic with you! 😉 And these questions were pretty fun to answer!
Bookstore or online shopping: which do you prefer?
I really like Mabel's Fables, a bookstore that focuses on children's and YA fiction. The people there are really friendly and will help out with any recommendations you need. Plus it has a lot of swag, and besides being a book nerd, I also have a button obsession!
Do you have a monthly book buying budget?
Book buying bans: are they something for you?
Again, I don't really buy books that often, so I don't have to force myself not to buy them.
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, Something in Between by Melissa de la Cruz, and One Summer with Autumn by Julia Reece!
The idea of it just didn't make sense to me, which is really sad since I loved the Vampire Academy series as well as the Bloodlines series.


For Years, companies are replacing their cell Grandstream Phones lines with VoIP phone support. In its first decades, VoIP picked up its reputation among consumers and skeptics who hailed it as unreliablenonetheless, during its history, this new communication technologies has increased in popularity and abandoned its own mark as a dependable and functional communication solution to companies of all sizes.
Today, Companies utilize VoIP qualities to remain in contact with clients and coworkers, expand their companies seamlessly, track worker performance, and build client loyalty. By harnessing the energy of the VoIP, VoIP also provides a level of simplicity and flexibility that analog users simply can't encounter.
While analog telephone support Keeps communications repaired in 1 place, VoIP lets you create and get your company calls from any device (office, cellular, or gentle phone program ) or forwards them to outside websites and extensions.
Little Companies and entrepreneurs will also be able to utilize VoIP telephone service to produce the image of a bigger firm with features including auto attendant and custom menus that are instantaneous.
VoIP Requires analog audio signals and converts them to digital information that may be transmitted on the net. With less bandwidth necessary to transmit the information, there is less incidence of jitter that induces that dimmed audio and lackluster telephone quality which drives everybody mad.
Telephone Quality, cost savings, and effortless installation are the chief drivers of VoIP's achievement but there are numerous attributes and capacities that put this communication technologies apart.
VoIP phone service can Look like a radical change to your Communications strategy however if you are eager to talk with advisers, you may observe that it is really a easy transition.
Even With much newer, premise-based small business phone systems, setup is cumbersome and costly in contrast to your cloud-based phone program. It takes users to join cables and find out which line pairs with which expansion; many active small business owners typically end up having to employ someone to put in them spend hours on the telephone with their telephone company.
Running is minimal and many VoIP service providers provide support that will assist you each step along the way. Normally, however, it is as simple as plugging in your IP phone and allow it to initialize to your current network.
There Are no wires or wires to be concerned about because your service provider takes care of the majority of the setup until you get your new gear. After you use VoIP telephone support, your preferences come pre-configured to a telephone so all you need to do is link your telephone to the appropriate ports and you are in your way.
Since VoIP is Cloud-based, your supplier can spend the care of gear and servers which help power off your communications your hands by handling their own servers and IT personnel for your advantage.
This means any company can delight in utilizing this technology whatever the size of the place.
Firms See substantial savings when they change from traditional phone service. With elderly PBX systems, you needed to employ an IT staff to keep The gear placed on your workplace, pay for long distance fees, and If you wished to add a line for your own office you had to cover the telephone Business longer for the contact number and setup.


Coupons are an awesome way to actually generate more customers and grow your business. However, the truth is that a lot of businesses just roll them out without necessarily knowing ow to make use of the. Whether stackable coupons or manufacturer coupons, there are certain tips that you need to follow in order to actually make them work for you and to get the desired results. This s what we'll be opening you up to.
It is important that you ensure that whatever the rates of your coupons, your business will be able to bear the financial implications of the discounts they are offering. Discounts make for cheaper purchases and are actually consumed by customers a lot. However, in the case that a lot of customers actually get these coupons, it is important that you ensure that this doesn't affect your business. To make sure of that, get an estimate on how much money you stand to lose in total and before you put them out and ensure that at the end of the day, you won't be biting off more than you can chew.
It is important that you give each coupon you have an expiration date. Also, although there are actually a few practical uses for coupons that have really long expiration days, it is most likely that customers will tuck coupons away for rainy days. The only way to make sure that they use your coupons more often is if the expiration dates are short.
Make sure to leave a clear expiration date. This s because customers who are fond of missing tiny or poorly placed expiration dates and who eventually find that fact out when they decide to make use of them might just as well walk out of your store without you making the sale. When they can see the expiration dates and are conscious of it, they'll have it in mind to come and use these coupons.
In general, your coupons should be of incredibly easy designs. All that is needed is a color make sure not to have too many conflicting color schemes. Also, make sure your coupon as have at least one image.Simplicity is very important when it comes to coupons as it ensures that the coupon catches the eye.
If you're offering a coupon for a service, then you're free to show an image of a happy customer. This is because potential customers are more likely to respond to images of people rather than to generic images.
Take this example; if you've got a cleaning service that caters to homes, then you might want to put in a picture of a family in a clean living room rather than that of a vacuum cleaner.
It is also essential that you don't overdo images on coupons. Remember that text is also equally important. Include important details such as your location, service hours, your contact details, or even a website (if you've got one, that is) so that customers can easily get a hold of you when they need to.
If your company location is hard to find, then you might want to throw in a little map of the area to help with navigation.
Also, make sure to be clear if there are any restrictions on your coupon. Don't try to trick the customer so that they come on days when the coupon will be invalid with the hope that they'll just pay for your service or product in cash instead. The more honesty you show on coupons,the more customers will be able to trust your business.
When choosing the color and size of the text font, always have your market in mind. It is most likely that senior citizen will have issues with sight. Also, most men re color blind, so if you're looking to attract men, be careful about the color of the text font.


A wholesome and healthy homemade granola that is crunchy and delicious!
About a year ago, I started experimenting with homemade granola- I couldn't find anything in the shops that was healthy enough- it's amazing how much sugar most granolas contain. I also wanted to create a granola that could be used as my Healthy Extra B for Slimming World. I discovered a brilliant way of creating a lovely, crunchy granola that had no need for sugars and syrups- by whipping up egg whites, and using them to bind your granola ingredients together, once baked you have a lovely crunchy granola that breaks up easily and is super-healthy!
I never got around to publishing my recipe, as I didn't quite get my flavours perfected, so when Lio-Licious got in touch, asking if I'd like to create a recipe using some of their freeze dried ingredients, I knew exactly what they would be perfect for!
Lio-Licious specialise in freeze-dried ingredients, from all sorts of fruits (blackberries, blackcurrants, strawberries, raspberries, cranberries) to even cheese, and olives! For me the real appeal of freeze-dried ingredients is that I can have them in the cupboard ready to use at any point- I'm a very last-minute cook and tend to just make things up depending what I have in the cupboard, and when ingredients like berries only last a couple of days they tend to get eaten by my 8 year old before ending up in a recipe!
Freeze-drying is such a gentle and slow process, that it retains the nutrition of the food, along with the flavour (in fact with the berries I used the flavour is more intense), and it uses no additives or preservatives in order to give the food a fantastic shelf-life!
These freeze-dried ingredients are perfect for granola- they add tons of lovely flavour, with no nasties at all. I made 2 varieties, a blackcurrant and blueberry granola, and a red berry granola (cherry strawberry and raspberry).
I used ingredients that are a healthy extra B on Slimming World (oats, flaked almonds, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds) along with uncooked quinoa which is a fantastic addition as not only is it a free food on Slimming World, it adds a fantastic crunch to granola, and is full of filling protein and nutrients. the amounts have been worked out so that a 40g serving of this granola works as a daily Healthy Extra B.
You can order the Lio-Licious range online by clicking here. The Red Berry blend is £2.50, the whole blackcurrants are £3, and the whole blueberries are £3.50. These bags will make lots of batches of granola, and are also brilliant for cake decorating!
Weigh out and mix together the oats, almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, sweetener and salt.
Fold the granola mix into the egg white gently, mixing everything together. Don't over-stir or do it too vigorously as you want to maintain the fluffiness of the egg.
Line a baking tray with baking paper, spray with low calorie cooking spray, and spoon the mixture onto the tray. Spread it out over the bottom of the tray, flattening with a wooden spoon until it is thinly spread, and covers the bottom of the tray.
Spray the top of the mix with low calorie cooking spray, and then bake for 15 minutes until crispy and golden brown on top.
Allow to cool slightly, and the break up and crumble with your hands into granola. Add in the extra tbsp of freeze-dried berries to add more colour and texture. Store in a sealed jar or tupperware container.
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Marathon des A-M is an annual running event from Nice to Cannes organised by Azur Sport and consists of three races; marathon, 2 x 21.1 km relay, and 6 x 7 km relay.
We've competed in the 2 x 21.1 km the last two years (team name 'Run Dabblers' of course!) and we'll probably be back next year.
For anyone planning on taking part in the future, we've summarised the course and useful race tips below.
The expo is held Thursday – Saturday in a tent pitched on Promenade des Anglais, Nice and is easily accessible from the airport if you head straight there upon arrival (the airport shuttle stops nearby on this promenade).
The expo is small and crammed (especially with your luggage, but still manageable). Get in and out as fast as possible as it's like a sauna in the tent.
Bib (dossard), t-shirt and goody bag pick up is first followed by the usual stalls. Bib collection is separate for each event and relay participants receive an additional bib attached to a clip belt (which contains the chip), which is for passing onto the next runner when handing over during the relay.
Leg 1, the flattest half of the course (ran by Ro), starts at 8 am close to where the Expo is held, opposite Théâtre de Verdure on Promenade des Anglais, Nice.
If arriving from Nice train station you'll probably pass down the main shopping street Avenue Jean Médecin. At the end of this street, before the start area, are the baggage trucks and portaloos (with very long queues).
Runners enter the pen from the side streets off the boulevard. Accessibility is difficult and I've only ever seen one entrance through a gap in the high gates. Here everyone squeezes in. I've also never seen any marshalls here so if you need any help, ask another runner in your broken French.
The atmosphere of the starting area is great with a DJ pumping loud dance tunes and is compered in both English and French. Dano joined me at the race start then headed back to Nice train station to jump a train to Antibes (handover point), 25 minutes away, after I started.
Setting off across the start line it is a scenic 5 km sandwiched between the seaside to your left and the art deco buildings to your right, where spectators step out onto their balconies to watch the race.
I positioned myself on the far left, on the footpath and close to the beachfront. Here you can look out across the water and spot the odd fisherman. If you want to be in plenty of race photos however, move to far right (where all the photographers seem to position themselves).
Veering left at 5 km, immediately after Nice Airport (and close to a garden bed commonly used by runners to relieve themselves), runners move onto Route du Bord de Mer, then onto Prom de la Plage in the small commune of Cagnes sur Mer where the 10 km point is.
At 7 km you will start to see the exit points of the 6 x 7 km relay participants so don't get confused and exit with them. Refreshment stands are every 5 km from the start and sponge stations every 5 km from 7.5 km.
The first deviation from the seaside road starts between 12-13 km, immediately after Hippodrome de la Côte d'Azur on your right. The course takes runners up a residential street then bends around to lead runners back down another parallel street (about 1.5 km total) and back onto the seaside road.
In this residential area people stand at their gate in their pyjamas cheering on runners and one man even gets his ladder/platform on wheels out in his front yard to watch runners from. Look out for him on your right.
At 15-16 km there is a deviation from the seaside road for a second time with a loop then a turn into Marina de Villeneuve-Loubet, passing the marina shops and restaurants then uphill under a small bridge onto Route du Bord de Mer for 4 km. This is the road the 2 x 21.1 relay handover occurs.
This last stretch seems maybe the longest as the road just continues straight for 4 km with an uninhabited beach to your left and the train tracks to your right. Up ahead Antibes' Fort Carre can be seen and then eventually rubber arches come into sight; the first at 19 km and the second at 21 km.
The second half runners line up along the beach in numbered sections according to bib number and a quick hand over of the bib/belt is done.
Just prior to handover with Ro the rain had started to come down and the wind pick up, similar to last year but without the sun.
The handover area again was quite hard work. The pens where runners wait (grouped by race numbers) alongside many others runners trying to be noticed by their relay partner was like a January sales environment. Seeing my pen very busy I decided to stand in another pen closer to the start line.
Stripped and ready to go keeping warm was the main thing on my mind and with the rain falling the sight of Ro in the distance approaching the handover point with bib in air was very welcomed. A quick well done and hug and I was off into the wind and wet.
By now the course was less busy which gave me the opportunity to find my pace and settle in. Deciding to turn my music off I planned on enjoying my race more this time, taking in the scenery and listening to the various entertainment and cheering. My goal was to put in a fast enough time but not over do it, plus the weather conditions were making it increasingly unpleasant.
Several kilometres in and with trainers soaking wet I was back amongst the varying inclines of roads, not stopping at any waters stations – I was on a roll and powering my way through past the ever tiring marathoners. Water/feeding stations were well stocked with a mixture of fruit and power drinks with the 28 km station being the biggest.
Support was decent considering the weather although some of the coastline crowds were sparse. However coming through more residential areas small pockets of crowds cheered alongside various small bands.
With the course hugging the coastline coming into Cannes and seeing the boulevard in the distance, Cannes seemed to arrive quicker than it felt. Feeling strong I knew there was one more incline before the final approach to the finish line.
With the rain, wind and dull clouds hanging over the whole race the sight of palm trees, crowds and the finish line entertainment of Cannes was upon me. Keeping an eye out for Ro and realising my time was not a sub 1:40 as I'd hoped, I slowed down to make sure I saw Ro for a high-five.
The finishing stretch and the blue carpet rolled out is a nice touch and with the crowds at their busiest and closest it really is a motivating final 100 yards or so.
Across the line and diverted to the relay medal collection point, picking up both our medals which again fix together to make one, i was pleased the race was over. Not for the fact I was tired but more to get back to the hotel out of the rain, wind and to warm up. By the time I located Ro at the finishing area I was feeling very cold.
Bar the weather again (it was the sun last year), I did thoroughly enjoy the race this year, maybe because I knew what to expect which in turn eased any fears I had meaning I knew I could go out there, manange the inclines and finish strong.
It is a race I highly recommend and maybe one day I may run the whole marathon but what I do know and can advise is if you are going to do this race, be prepared for very unpredicatable weather. 2013 was hot and extremely windy, 2014 was very wet and windy so take note and enjoy.
A medical certificate is required (letter from the Dr.) to state you are fit to compete (French law). This needs to be uploaded to your race entry prior to race, dated within 12 months prior to race date.
We choose to stay in Antibes, between Nice and Cannes and relay handover location, which is a lovely town with an old town and marina. We can recommend Hotel Josse.
Trains between Nice/Antibes and Antibes/Cannes are approx. 25 minutes. Tickets are required all participants on race day and will be policed tightly. The 6 x 7 relay participants however can travel free with bib number. There is also a shuttle bus option.
The walk between Antibes train station to the relay handover point is about 15 minutes along the beachfront then up a small hill.
Photographers are usually on the right hand side if you want photos.
Baggage trucks take bags at Nice and drop them in Cannes. If the first runner wants any supplies though we'd recommend taking shared supplies in the backpack received at the expo and quickly handing over at the halfway point handover.
The 98 shuttle bus from Nice Airport to Nice takes 25 minutes and tickets can be bought at the bus ticket office on the right as you exit the airport (outside).
Weather can be unpredictable. Come prepared for rain and sun.


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10754 open access dissertations and theses found for:
if(Invasive trees) » Refine Search
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Causes and consequences of Chinese privet (Ligustrum sinense lour.) invasion in hydrologically altered forested wetlands
by Foard, Meghan, M.S. Arkansas State University. 2014: 171 pages; 1563273.
Genetic determination of phragmites and small mammals use of remnant patches along the Central Platte River, Nebraska
by Frisch, Jennifer Dawn, M.S. University of Nebraska at Kearney. 2015: 81 pages; 1588606.
Drivers, impacts, and feedbacks of global Pinus contorta (lodgepole pine) invasions
by Taylor, Kimberley Terrill, Ph.D. Montana State University. 2016: 252 pages; 10112066.
Ecological assessment of red-bellied squirrels (Sciurus aureogaster) introduced to Elliott Key, Florida
by Palmer, Geoffrey Hamilton, M.S. The University of Arizona. 2012: 84 pages; 1532183.
Predicting invasiveness of woody angiosperms in Mediterranean climates: The use of germination characteristics as predictors and the special case of Chinese tallowtree
by Bower, Michael John, M.S. University of California, Davis. 2009: 101 pages; 1474520.
Interactions of Avian Frugivores and Invasive Trees in French Polynesia
by Spotswood, Erica Noelle, Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley. 2011: 151 pages; 3499078.
The Community Ecology of Ants (Formicidae) in Indonesian Grasslands with Special Focus on the Tropical Fire Ant, Solenopsis geminata
by Sandidge, Rebecca, Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley. 2018: 83 pages; 13420162.
Using patchy plant invasions to understand how diffuse interactions modify facilitation and competition
by Metlen, Kerry L., Ph.D. University of Montana. 2010: 119 pages; 3404425.
Mechanisms of Community Assembly Beneath N-Fixing Trees in a Hawaiian Dry Woodland
by August-Schmidt, Elizabeth Melissa, Ph.D. University of California, Santa Barbara. 2018: 123 pages; 13423031.
Host tree and site characteristics influencing goldspotted oak borer, Agrilus auroguttatus Schaeffer (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), populations in southern California
by Singleton, Lauren, M.S. California State University, Long Beach. 2014: 84 pages; 1527751.
Increased genetic diversity of the trans-Pacific invasive chameleon goby (Tridentiger trigonocephalus) reveals multiple source population admixture in San Francisco Bay and Sydney Harbor
by Radecki, Joy Rae, M.S. California State University, Long Beach. 2011: 93 pages; 1507682.
The Impacts And Spread Of The Argentine Ant (Linepithema humile, Mayr) Invasion In Costal Sclerophyllous Forests Of Chile
by Stacey, Liam M., Ph.D. University of Washington. 2011: 118 pages; 3485595.
Emergence phenology and ecological interactions between the exotic Sirex noctilio, native siricids, and a shared guild of native parasitoids
by Standley, Christopher R., M.S. State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. 2012: 107 pages; 1514410.
Multi-species Interactions in African Ant-Acacias
by Visitacao, Joseph Martins, Ph.D. Harvard University. 2011: 160 pages; 3462163.
Conservation gardening and sustainable landscaping
by Brown, Carole, M.A. Prescott College. 2009: 149 pages; 1465341.
Impacts and Management of the Invasive Russian Olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia L.) in a Hereogenous Riparian Ecosystem
by Tuttle, Graham, Ph.D. Colorado State University. 2017: 105 pages; 10604654.
Response of Pinyon-juniper woodlands to fire, chaining, and hand thinning
by Gentilcore, Dominic M., M.S. University of Nevada, Reno. 2015: 119 pages; 1591350.
Avian Use of Floodplain Forest Communities along the Upper Mississippi River
by Laaker, Dillan J., M.S. Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. 2018: 61 pages; 10808741.
Trends in estuarine water quality and submerged aquatic vegetation invasion
by Hestir, Erin Lee, Ph.D. University of California, Davis. 2010: 145 pages; 3422770.
Plant-soil feedbacks: A potential tool to improve management of invasive knapweeds
by Grant, Thomas A., III, Ph.D. Colorado State University. 2011: 195 pages; 3489872.
A floristic comparison and ecological analysis of bur oak ( Quercus macrocarpa Michx.) savannas in central Nebraska
by Granger, Joshua J., M.S. University of Nebraska at Kearney. 2013: 137 pages; 1535849.
The Application and Exploration of the City Biodiversity Index through a Case Study of the City of Starkville, Mississippi
by Moma, Leslie Rhea, M.L.A. Mississippi State University. 2017: 240 pages; 10642928.
Spatial variability in plant and soil properties on New Zealand seabird islands, and the effects of introduced rats
by Durrett, Melody S., Ph.D. University of Alaska Fairbanks. 2014: 202 pages; 3624440.
Of Pollinators and Forests: A Multispecies Ethnography of the Biopolitical Culture of Pollinators in Hawai'i
by Greeson, Kimberley M., Ph.D. Prescott College. 2017: 221 pages; 10288361.
Vegetation management and restoration species safety with aminocyclopyrachlor
by Getts, Thomas J., M.S. Colorado State University. 2015: 113 pages; 1590574.
Photosynthesis and Growth of Invasive Shrubs Across a Light Gradient
by Schack, Brandon, M.S. Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. 2018: 57 pages; 13420314.
Geometrid Caterpillar Predation in Invasive and Native Plant Habitats
by Murphy, Monica, M.S. Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. 2018: 73 pages; 10844552.
Shade Tolerance and Physiological Response to Light Regime of the Invasive Species Lonicera maackii (Amur honeysuckle)
by Wright, Jessica L., M.S. Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. 2015: 46 pages; 1597639.
Landscapes in Flux
by Gillespie, Sarah E., M.F.A. Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. 2014: 69 pages; 1556913.
Full Text - PDF (169.12 MB)
Drivers of cancer cell invasion and metastasis
by Sharif, Ghada Moh'd Azmi, Ph.D. Georgetown University. 2012: 95 pages; 3549402.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Nico Santos writes about his personal connection to the Superstore season 4 finale
By Nico Santos
May 16, 2019 at 09:00 PM EDT
Credit: Tyler Golden/NBC
Spoiler alert: This post contains plot from the season 4 finale of Superstore.
In Superstore's season 4 finale, ICE showed up at Cloud 9, and despite the staff's best efforts, Mateo was discovered. Star Nico Santos writes about the personal impact of the episode below.
The ICE Agents bore down on me from every angle. I was trapped, and I was truly terrified.
Yes, I knew there were cameras, that we were on a set and playing make-believe. But in that moment, the fear felt very real to me.
What shook me to my core was knowing that I could've very well been Mateo. Had a vacation to Disneyland when I was a young boy turned out differently, I would not have been an actor playing an undocumented person being taken by ICE, but an actual undocumented retail worker being ripped away from his family by a workplace raid.
I was born in the Philippines, just like my character Mateo. In the early '80s, my family vacationed to the United States. I knew I was going to meet Mickey and ride Space Mountain, but what I didn't know was that my parents intended for us to stay permanently. They wanted more for us. They wanted us to dream big and to have every opportunity to achieve those dreams.
We learned in the episode "Olympics" that Mateo was undocumented. Brought to America as a child by his family who, presumably, overstayed their tourist visas, Mateo found his way through school and jobs with a counterfeit green card given to him by his grandmother. It never occurred to him that he wasn't in the country legally.
This could've very well been my story. We could've overstayed our visas. I would've become an undocumented child who grew into an undocumented adult.
But that's not what happened. My family decided to return the Philippines. My brother and I eventually made our way back and I gained my American citizenship in my mid-twenties.
I share this with you to illustrate that the line between being a documented immigrant and an undocumented immigrant is very fine. But the consequences for a person's life are immense.
My brother joined the Army. He served multiple tours in Iraq and now lives in Texas with his family.
And, as my parents wished, I achieved my big dreams. I'm not a doctor, but I think they're proud of how everything worked out.
My brother would be no less courageous, and I no less ambitious had we been undocumented. But our opportunities to contribute our greatest strengths to this country would've been severely diminished.
Before I booked Superstore — my "big break" as they say — I worked in restaurants, a common target of ICE's recent surge in workplace raids. Over the past several months, hundreds of workplaces have been raided and thousands of breadwinners have been torn away from their families. These are hard-working people who contribute to our society in so many important ways.
For three seasons now, Superstore has dealt with the uncertainty of Mateo's undocumented status, but tonight's episode, in which Cloud 9 is raided by ICE, is the first time where we felt the danger in a visceral way.
For me, riding in the back of the Homeland Security van, hands bound by plastic ties, waving goodbye to the people who've become my family, I was overcome with sorrow and panic over the consequences of being deported.
Even though the Philippines is evolving in its attitude toward LGBTQ people, I would not be able to get married there. For my LGBTQ siblings being returned to Central American, South American, or Middle Eastern countries, the consequences would be far more dire. Camila Córdova, a 31-year-old trans woman who was denied her application for asylum, was killed for being trans within months of being deported to El Salvador.
It feels like every day I read a new headline in the war against undocumented immigrants: Workplace raids tear families apart. HUD proposes expelling any families with an undocumented person from public housing, which the New York Times estimates would displace 55,000 children. I see kids in cages. I see the absence of humanity for people seeking a better life, the chance to achieve their dreams.
We all need to call upon our lawmakers to create a path to citizenship for hard-working, law-abiding undocumented people and their families.
But more immediately, we must return compassion to the conversation about immigration. We must work to change in our hearts and minds what it looks like to be undocumented. It is the high schooler dreaming of college who isn't aware of his status. It is the single mother working grueling hours in a warehouse just to provide for her children. It is the family that sits next to you in church. It is your neighbor. It is Mateo. And it could've been me.
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Fresh Off the Boat star Randall Park on humanizing the immigrant experience


Trump Is Our President-elect: It's Time For Action!
Trump's platform is fear-inducing, especially for those with non-dominant identities in this country (for example, people other than cisgendered, heterosexual white males). A short list includes: undocumented immigrants and Muslims fear being deported, Black people fear the police being more empowered to kill us, victims of sexual assault fear coming forward, women fear a rapidly lowering glass ceiling, disabled people fear they may not be recognized as human and mocked, and let's not even start on Pence's beliefs on conversion therapy and its implications for the LGBTQ+ community. We also recognize that fear maintains the status quo, because being afraid can be paralyzing, and paralysis leads to inaction. We choose action over fear.
We are four friends. Three of us are Black women with a podcast called HellaBlackHellaSeattle, and we use our platform to deliberately create community and highlight people of color who often go unnoticed in a very white city. As the fourth, I am a white woman dedicated to guiding white people in understanding the profoundly oppressive impact of white privilege in people's everyday lives. Our relationships began over twenty years ago, we love each other, and our collective goal is to make this world a better, more inclusive place, even in the face of the impending Trump presidency. Again, we choose action.
We have identified four necessary steps to moving forward and harnessing our individual and collective agency in order to stay on course towards an equitable landscape.
1. Harness your Power and Agency.
People of Color: We are strong. We deserve equality. We need to continue to build ourselves up despite being pushed down.
white people: We are powerful. We have the strongest voice in the nation, and need to use that social and political currency to ignite equality. Hoarding our privilege is a malevolent Gollum move, and who wants to look that bad? He never found happiness.
Collectively: We must unite and bring our best and bravest selves. We can't do this alone in self-segregated groups despite the habit of doing so. We must form a critical mass to make equity relevant.
2. Recognize how you Contributed to This.
People of Color: All you people that thought you didn't have a voice? Hi. Maybe you bought into your vote not counting, or the idea that your voice isn't valued in this country. It is, but not when it's a whisper. If you think that your struggle is individual, you are playing into Trump's game of divide and conquer.
white people: Despite our best liberal intentions, we were socialized in a prejudiced world. This means that much of our actions, however subconscious, are biased against non-white people. This doesn't make us evil, it is not our individual faults that we have learned the falsehood that we are more deserving of humanity than others. That said, our responsibility is to interrupt and recognize when our actions are congruent with Trump's hateful thinking even when we're wearing a safety pin.
Collectively: We need to make some noise together. We can't bunker down in our separate social justice causes anymore. The "I'm looking out for me and mine" outlook has led to the genocide of indigenous people, slavery, the Holocaust, Japanese internment camps, the violent deportation of deserving immigrants, violence against women, mass incarnation, police brutality, and the list goes on. Thanks to Trump, we can see our commonality in the struggle. Black Lives Matter is women's rights― is indigenous rights―is LGBTQ+ rights, you get the idea. Each of our movements deserves respect, physical and psychological safety, access, visibility, and freedom. We need a collective movement.
3. Speak Up. Speak Simply.
Be honest, someone's got to be uncomfortable. If you're uncomfortable as you are championing justice, that's okay, that's better than not speaking up and beating yourself up about it afterwards. Don't hide behind crotchety jargon that confuses others about your beliefs. That's divisive. Speak simply, and speak your truth.
4. Cultivate Conversations and Community.
People of Color: Many of us no longer have communities or spaces to come together to celebrate our culture, connect, and interact with each other. We have instead created a virtual community where we can share our thoughts and views with other POC . That needs to be extended into real life, no longer will we hide behind our virtual personas as we have to begin to have these tough conversations face to face.
white People: It's vital we spend time with other whites to build a community of resistance. White affinity groups are spaces where we can explore the impacts of white privilege on our communities and start to take ownership for our own role in change making. These are spaces where we do not burden POC with our white guilt, but instead, we hold each other accountable. They can be a powerful platform to unpack our power-laden identities, and consider the implications of those identities in the Trump nation, calling for action.
Collectively: We must listen to each other. We must trust each other. We can not one-up each other. We are all in this. It's been said before but it's worth saying again until we fully realize, that we must be the change. Let's spark the flame and continue to feed it. There can be no separate piece to truly find collective peace.


text:
Religion and Gender Journal: Call for Manuscripts for Special Issue on Religion, Gender and Violence
by Sarah-Jane Page	on November 23, 2019
Autoethnography: The Voice of a Sexually Abused Body
by Sophie Witherstone	on May 24, 2019
Grant for Research with Ugandan LGBT Refugees
by Shiloh Project	on March 8, 2019
Fuzzy, messy, icky: The edges of consent in biblical rape narratives and rape culture (video)
by Rhiannon Graybill	on October 15, 2018
Research as Resistance: Survival strategies for researching violence
by Rachel Starr	on September 4, 2018
Religion and Gender Journal
Call for Manuscripts for Special Issue on Religion, Gender and Violence
The journal Religion and Gender invites article proposals for a special issue on Religion, Gender and Violence. The relationship between religion and violence is highly contested and has come under considerable scrutiny by scholars of religion. Less understood is the relationship between gender, religion and violence and this special issue aims to contribute to understandings of the ways in which religion intersects with institutional, familial and public gendered violence as explored through current research via an interdisciplinary lens.
With the current roll out of public inquiries into institutional child sexual abuse across Ireland, England and Wales, Scotland, Europe, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, it is clear that at a global level, it is religious organizations that have had the most widespread and highest levels of abuse against children with characteristically poor institutional responses to victims and their families. Public inquires have clearly established that religious organizations made strategic decisions to limit reputational damage at the cost of child safety and the implications of this for religious institutions is yet to be fully understood.
Violence against women and children in domestic settings where religion is a significant factor has also been the subject of ongoing and recent research indicating that there are specific issues at play for women and children in experiencing and reporting abuse and how it is managed by faith traditions. In important public debates on the status of gender diversity and difference, for example the marriage equality issue, there have been forceful responses to vulnerable cohorts from religious leaders, in social media and religious publications.
At the same time, there has been an important counter discourse articulated by religious groups around building religious and social capital that contributes to a pluralist understanding of the value of multi-religious societies and gender diversity. These discourses, most often articulated by more liberal religious groups but also increasingly by mainstream faith traditions, utilize the language of social justice and theological interpretation to construct narratives of gender inclusion and equity. This brings faith traditions into conflict within themselves over the framing of gender relations for the new century.
For this special issue, we invite manuscripts that address this convergence from a variety of perspectives on the function and meaning of gender, religion and violence and its counter-discourses.
The editors are particularly interested in receiving manuscripts that showcase empirical research that address, but are not limited to, the following areas and/or questions:
o What role does gendered violence play in mainstream religious groups re maintenance of the faith tradition?
o How are the impacts and experiences of gendered violence managed by religious organisations with regard to pastoral care and processes of remediation?
o Who are the victims of gendered violence in religious organisations?
o In what ways can feminist theory and theology contribute to and expand understandings of religion, gender and violence?
o What role does non-religion and/or secularity play in relation to responding to and managing the disclosure of violence in religious organisations.
o How well do public inquiries address gendered religious violence and what are the impacts on religious organisations with respect to particular case studies?
Submissions should be between 5000 and 8000 words in length (including abstract, footnotes and references). See Brill's page for further information on submitting an article https://brill.com/view/journals/rag/rag-overview.xml Affiliation and email address should be supplied in the first submission. In order to guarantee a blind review process, all submissions should be anonymized with the name of and references to the author removed from the text. We are happy to receive inquiries about prospective submissions.
Please send all queries to the special issues editors:
Kathleen McPhillips, University of Newcastle, Australia
Email: Kathleen.mcphillips@newcastle.edu.au
Sarah-Jane Page, Aston University, Birmingham, UK
Email: s.page1@aston.ac.uk
SUBMISSION DATES
15 January 2020: Abstract Submission
15 August 2020: Full manuscript submission
Sophie Witherstone is a PhD student at the University of Chester. She is currently researching the utility of Ignatian Spirituality for female survivors of sexual abuse, focusing on embodied aspects, and the ways that this tradition reconnects sexually abused women with their own bodies and with God.
Autoethnography, or self-narrative, is a qualitative research method that delves into the personal experiences and stories of the researcher themselves. The researcher's personal and meaningful experiences are used as a source of a data, which can speak into academic research in ground-breaking ways. This method fosters the liberation of vulnerable and silenced voices, such as the voices of abused bodies (Olson, 2004; Fletcher, 2018; Crisp, 2004). Using the privileged platform of academia in order to present their own unique voice in such a creative way allows the researcher to reach out to those other abused bodies that remain silenced and hidden.
Autoethnography also gives the researcher license to portray their experiences in whatever way they choose, giving them authority and ownership over the effect their voice can have on others. It has been described as a "therapeutic" method for vulnerable voices, such as the voices of those who have experienced sexual abuse, offering a means of healing through writing (Ellis et al, 2011).
Thad Zajdowicz, Nude (on Flickr)
My own autoethnographic research is situated in feminist theology, where the silenced voices of sexually abused bodies are rarely heard (Morton, 1985). Abuse and trauma theologies (Rambo, 2010; Brock & Parker, 2001; Manlowe, 1998) have represented the sexually abused body, but there has been a lack of visibility in terms of the self-representation and self-expression of such bodies. In particular, the female sexually abused body has not been taken seriously enough. Certainly, some feminist theologians have tackled the issue of women's silencing and abuse within the androcentric traditions of Christianity considering the ways that such silencing adds to women's experiences of abuse. For example, abuse theologian Marie Fortune engages with women's consequential experiences of God (and of religion as an institution) as survivors of sexual abuse, particularly where members of the clergy are the perpetrators (Fortune, 1983; 1998, 350-356; see also Sands, 2003). Building on the work of feminist theologians such as Fortune, methodologies such as autoethnography can further bring the voices and experiences of violated women to the surface.
In my research, I engage with the method of autoethnography because I am interested in the real, lived experiences of concrete bodies – of bodies that demand to be taken more seriously in academic reflection. My own body is no exception to this demand, and that is why autoethnography is particularly liberating for me – it does not discount my experiences from my research and does not perpetuate the silencing caused by my abuse.
Within autoethnography, the researcher delves into painful experiences, yet as Ellis (2004, 110-111) proposes, the pain need not take over. The ethnographic research process is purposeful and meaningful in evoking emotion, but this does not need to be negative emotion despite the depth of pain within experiences of abuse. The freeing of the vulnerable voice through autoethnography can begin to remove the hold that the abuse has had on survivors. According to Ettore, there is often a redemptive power in the use of self-narrative (2017, 357) – it has the potential to be emotionally transformative for the researcher themselves, and for their readers and academic peers. As a result, women may become reassured and encouraged that all women's experiences can be heard, are valuable, and are unique – deserving to be expressed in their own ways. Indeed, authethnography can be a powerful platform for the voices of allabused and violated bodies, whatever their gender. The vulnerable self-exposure of revealing one's own narrative of abuse opens a door to readers' participation in one's stories and thus, as Chang (2008, 145) puts it, a "mutual vulnerability" may unfold. For me, this "mutual vulnerability" represents a coming together of abusedvoices; uniting and forming a stronghold that encourages more silenced voices to speak out and be heard.
Frédéric Glorieux, BWR (black white red) naked #4
Sexual Storytelling: Engaging with the 'Messy' Bodies
Sexual storytelling is a lens that we can apply to autoethnographic research, as demonstrated by feminist liberation theologian Marcella Althaus-Reid (1997) and sociologist Ken Plummer (1995). Sexual storytelling involves the inclusion of any experience related to the sexual, such as stories of sexual abuse, sexual behaviour, and sexual desires(Plummer, 1995, 4). Althaus-Reid uses sexual storytelling within theological reflection, describing it as a method of writing authentically and honestly, without leaving God outside our bedroom doors (2000; 2003). For Althaus-Reid, this radical notion is an attempt to "queer" theological hermeneutics, contrasting with more "normative" Christian frameworks that have only restricted and suffocated the freedom to embrace who we are before God (2003).
Within my research, the use of "sexual storytelling" is particularly meaningful as it allows women (and allbodies) to extract fragments of meaning and hope from their narratives of sexual abuse. In the revelation of these vulnerable stories, women may finally feel a sense of control and authority over the narratives of oppression and violence imposed upon them by the restrictions of the Christian tradition that have consumed their lives. The freedom in writing one's own experiences of sex, particularly of abusive sex, can provide a sense of literary agency and control, which may be liberating for the abused body who lost control during their abuse and in their lives after the abuse. Sexual storytelling allows the freeing of the self from the androcentric bonds of Christianity. And, while some abused bodies feel that their only option is to walk away from their faith community (a place where they feel misrepresented or marginalized), for me, autoethnography offers another alternative solution to tackle this experience.
Although the concept of sexual storytelling can be freeing and allows God to be included in the sexual experiences of sexually abused bodies, this image and way of doing theology may be too overwhelming and invasive for those who are vulnerable. I am aware of the dangers of suggesting that God is in our bedrooms. For a sexually abused body like myself, sex is a fearful space, and (despite it not being the case for me) sex can be a space that has no hope of healing potential. It is therefore important to acknowledge some of the issues that need to be taken seriously when engaging with this method of sexual storytelling.
Working with abuse theologies, Susan Shooter (2012, 14) considers how the shattered boundaries experienced by survivors can cause difficulty in their intimate relationships; picturing ourselves intimately before God may be an uncomfortable task. All sexually abused women ought to be taken seriously, and granted patience in our journey towards rediscovering and re-entering sexual spaces. It is not easy to let ourselves back into the sexual realm, let alone for us to allow God to walk with us once again into this traumatic space. However, the method of sexual storytelling within theology works to reassure other sexually abused women that the fearful thought of God existing in our bedrooms can be the meeting point that saves us – where we conquer and rebel against the abuse. Locating God where the abuse happened is an act of revolt that may put a stop to the suffocation of spirit, setting God's presence free into all the spaces in our lives.
Gustave Klimt, Danae (1907-1908)
Therefore, as Althaus-Reid argues, sexual stories exist within indecent theological reflection in which there are no pages cut from the books of our sexual experiences (2000, 146). Althaus-Reid's imagery here is significant for sexually abused bodies, as it reassures these bodies that they do not have to censor their trauma, restricting themselves to only the "appropriate" experiences that will not upset those who listen to them. Althaus-Reid wants to eliminate this censorship, especially within Christian theology, as she argues that theology has thus far limited its engagements with sexuality to neat, tidy, and unrealistic boundaries (2003, 61).
As researchers who engage with self-narrative approaches, we should not have to eliminate the sexual, dirty, dark, or messy experiences from our stories. In doing feminist theology, we ought not to begin with those bodies considered "normative," but should dare to do theology from a sexually abused body, as Grovijahn demands in her theological reflection on embodiment (1998, 29). As my own narrative consists of stories of sexual abuse, it is important for me that all stories – including those considered "obscene" (Goss, 2003) – are voiced and not silenced.
Althaus-Reid challenges the disembodied theological method of writing abuse, and asks, "why is the tortured male body of Christ less offensive than a woman's tortured body?" (2000, 111). With this shocking image being laid before us, Althaus-Reid demands that abused women's bodies be taken seriously and not ignored or brushed aside. For, such brushing aside only continues to distort and suppress the confidence and dignity of the abused female body. The work of theologians such as Althaus-Reid creates a revolt against the stigma surrounding "non-normative" bodies – it allows for an inclusion of all types of bodies that have not been taken as seriously as those defined as "ordinary" (Althaus-Reid, 2003). Althaus-Reid suggests that this can become a reality when we defamiliarize ourselves with the heteronormative God, and look instead to a stranger-God who may, like so many non-normative bodies, be left outside the gates of traditional theology (2003, 59).
id-iom, The Virtue of Venus (on Flickr)
Grovijahn (1998, 29) likewise argues that we ought to begin our theology from a place of authenticity, where we can be ourselves – daring to do theology from a sexually abused body. Similarly, Greenough (2018, 30) proposes that writing the sexually abused self into theological research can "enable individuals to move from sexual shame to embracing themselves." Using sexual storytelling within queer theology, Greenough offers an "undoing" methodology in which honesty and vulnerability liberate the researcher to be reflexive on a deeper level. Greenough looks to "undo" the "diluted" (9), "normative theology" or "vanilla theology" (13) that engages with sex and the body, and to work towards a theology that uses sexual stories as a central framework that will "disrupt sexual ideology in Christianity" (23). It is a theology that is firmly grounded in the messiness of life (32) – finding God in our everyday experiences of sex and the body.
When researching the sexually abused body, feminist theology begins with the locus of the female body. It asks: how and where do women experience God? This question has led feminist theologians to begin their theology in the bodies of women of all shapes and sizes (see e.g. Isherwood, 2007who engages with "fat" female bodies). For Carter Heyward, "God is immersed in our bodyselves – in all our particularities" (1989, 103). In these particularities, Heyward refers to sensuality and the erotic, arguing that if we use the Bible as our primary authority, and we live in "denial of our bodyselves" (94), we will be pulled apart from the embodied God, each other, and ourselves (95). Heyward proposes that Christianity has developed a fear of the erotic ("erotophobia") and has thus separated God from the realm of the sexual (1989, 5). She suggests that this is why distorted relational acts, such as sexual abuse, occur. Fear creates a divide from self, others, and God. She laments, "We have been stripped of our capacities to delight in ourselves, one another, and [God]" (1989, 4). Until we take our bodies more seriously and treat our bodies as authoritative, she warns, we will remain "untouched and untouching" (Heyward 1982, xviii). "Our bodyselves know better," she suggests, "They speak the truth" (1989, 106).
Our bodies tell us so much about God and our personal relationships with this embodied God. We will come to understand that the bodies of women – their sexual acts, their sensory experiences – are the real presence of the divine (Isherwood, 2010, 78). We can learn a great deal about God in all our experiences, even in the surprising places such as the journey of healing and recovery from sexual violence.
Althaus-Reid, M. (1997). Sexual Strategies in Practical Theology: Indecent Theology and the Plotting of Desire with some Degree of Success. Theology and Sexuality, 1997(7), 45-52.
Althaus-Reid, M. (2000).Indecent Theology: Theological Perversions in Sex, Gender and Politics.London: Routledge.
Althaus-Reid, M. (2003).The Queer God. London: Routledge.
Althaus-Reid, M. (2004). "Pussy, Queen of Pirates": Acker, Isherwood and the Debate on the Body in Feminist Theology. Feminist Theology,12(2), 157-167.
Althaus-Reid, M., & Isherwood, L. (2008). Controversies in Body Theology. London: SCM Press.
Brock, R. N., & Parker, R. A. (2001). Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for what saves us. Boston, MA: Beacon Press
Chang, H. (2008). Autoethnography as Method.Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast.
Crisp, B. R. (2004). Spiritual Direction and Survivors of Sexual Abuse. The Way, 43/2, 7-17.
Ellis, C. (2004). The Ethnographic I: A Methodological Novel about Autoethnography. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press.
Ellis, C., Adams, T. E., & Bochner, A. P. (2011). Autoethnography: An overview. Qualitative Social Research, 12/1.
Ettore, E. (2017). Autoethnography as Feminist Method: Sensitizing the Feminist 'I'. Oxon: Routledge.
Fletcher, M. A. (2018). We to Me: An Autoethnographic Discovery of Self, in and out of Domestic Abuse. Women's Studies in Communication, 41/1, 42-59.
Fortune, M. (1983). Sexual Violence: The Unmentionable Sin. New York, NY: The Pilgrim Press.
Fortune, M. (1998). Is Nothing Sacred? The Betrayal of the Ministerial or Teaching Relationship. In, C. J. Adams & M. Fortune (ed.). Violence against Women and Children: A Christian Theological Sourcebook. New York, NY: Continuum, 351-360.
Goss R. (2003). Marcella Althaus-Reid's 'Obscenity No. 1: Bi/Christ': Expanding Christ's Wardrobe of Dresses. Feminist Theology,11/2, 157-166.
Greenough, C. (2018). Undoing Theology: Life Stories from Non-Normative Christians. London: SCM Press.
Grovijahn, J. M. (1998). Theology as an Irruption into Embodiment: Our Need for God. Theology and Sexuality, 1998/9, 29-35.
Heyward, I. C. (1982). The Redemption of God: A Theology of Mutual Relation.Maryland, MD: University Press of America.
Heyward, I. C. (1989). Touching Our Strength: The Erotic as Power and the Love of God.San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row.
Isherwood, L. (2000). The Good News of the Body: Sexual Theology and Feminism. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.
Isherwood, L. (2004). The Embodiment of Feminist Liberation Theology: The Spiralling of Incarnation. Feminist Theology, 12/2, 140-156.
Isherwood, L. (2007). The Fat Jesus: Feminist Explorations in Boundaries and Transgressions. London: Darton Longman & Todd.
Manlowe, J. L. (1998). Seduced by Faith: Sexual Traumas and their Embodied Effects. In, C. J. Adams & M. Fortune (Ed.). Violence against Women and Children: A Christian Theological Sourcebook. New York, NY: Continuum, 328-338.
Morton, N. (1985). The Journey is Home. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Olson, L. N. (2004). The Role of Voice in the (re)construction of a Battered Woman's Identity: An Autoethnography of One Woman's Experiences of Abuse. Women's Studies in Communication,27/1, 1-33.
Plummer, K. (1995). Telling Sexual Stories: Power, Change and Social Worlds.London: Routledge.
Rambo, S. (2010). Spirit and Trauma: A Theology of Remaining (1st Ed.). Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox.
Sands, K. M. (2003). Speaking Out: Clergy Sexual Abuse: Where are the Women? Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, 19/2, 79-83.
Shooter, S. (2012). How Survivors of Abuse Relate to God: The Authentic Spirituality of the Annihilated Soul.Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate.
Feature image courtesy of Jon Nagl (Flickr, https://flic.kr/p/8Yvbs4)
Congratulations to Adriaan van Klinken and Shiloh Project co-director Johanna Stiebert (University of Leeds) on their latest grant success!
Adriaan van Klinken and Johanna Stiebert (University of Leeds) have secured a research grant from the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust, for a project entitled "Tales of Sexuality and Faith: The Ugandan LGBT Refugees Life Story Project". The project uses community-based participatory research methodology to undertake life story research among Ugandan LGBT refugees in Kenya.
The project engages established methodologies in feminist, queer, and postcolonial studies that emphasise the political and epistemological importance of autobiographical storytelling in research with marginalised groups. Expanding this existing scholarship, the project develops an innovative approach that explores the potential of biblical stories to signify the queer lives of the Ugandan refugees. Foregrounding the popularity of the Bible in contemporary Africa, and conceptualising biblical appropriation as a decolonising and queer process, the project reclaims the Bible as part of African queer archives.
We're looking forward to hearing more about the project later this year!
This paper was the closing keynote address for The Religion and Rape Culture Conference.
Abstract: This paper explores the fuzzy, messy, and icky boundaries of "consent" in biblical rape narratives and in rape culture.. More specifically, I want to bring feminist literature problematizing the notion of consent to bear on biblical stories of sexual violence and rape, as well as the ways in which we as feminists read and respond to those stories.. Consent, including such formulations as "affirmative consent," "enthusiastic consent," and "consent at every stage," has played – and continues to play – an important role in attempts to respond to sexual violence.. However, the emphasis on consent has also engendered feminist and queer critiques. Notions of consent assume a fully self-present, self-controlled, and able subject: the very sort of subject that feminist and other postmodern critique has aptly criticized.. Discourses of consent ignore the ways in which, in Sara Ahmed's words, "A feminist account of gender as a social relation might need to include analysis of how women willingly agree to situations in which their safety and well-being are compromised" (Willful Subjects) or in Wendy Brown's formulation, "Consent …functions as a sign of legitimate subordination" (States of Injury). Such feminist critiques of consent vie uneasily with feminist readings of biblical rape texts, which often seek to recover women's voices, or at least to commemorate their stories (Phyllis Trible famously punctuated her Texts of Terror with gravestones for four of patriarchy's victims: Hagar, Jephthah's daughter, Tamar, and the Levite's concubine; all but one the victims of sexual violence).. But if we take this critique seriously, what happens to a feminist biblical hermeneutic of sexual violence? I will explore this question via a wandering itinerary through the biblical rape texts, beginning with Tamar, Dinah, and the Levite's concubine, and then moving to consider what I will call border cases.. My central concerns are (1) how can a feminist hermeneutic of sexual violence respond to feminist and queer critiques of consent discourse, (2) what might we learn from observing not simply the paradigmatic "rape plots"(Susanne Scholz) or "rape narratives" (Frank Yamada) but also what I will call the "icky, messy, and fuzzy edges" of both rape stories and consent discourses? (Of course, this icky, messy, and fuzzy space is also the space named by rape culture, at least in one formulation of the term.) Thus I will turn from the rape plots to the icky, messy, and fuzzy narratives found elsewhere. Finally, I am interested in (3) what postures feminists might adopt toward these texts beyond the position of mourning or of recovering.
This talk was delivered at the 2018 Religion and Rape Culture Conference. Click here to see more videos.
Dr Rhiannon Graybill received her MA and PhD from Berkley, University of California and is currently Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Program Director of Gender and Sexuality Studies at Rhodes College, Memphis. Dr Graybill is a scholar of the Hebrew Bible whose work brings together biblical texts and contemporary critical and cultural theory. Her research interests, on which she has written prolifically, include prophecy, gender and sexuality, horror theory, and psychoanalysis and ancient Near Eastern literature.
Some of Dr Graybill's current teaching includes modules on The Bible and Social Justice; The Bible, Sex and The Body; and LGBTQ Biblical Interpretation. She is the author of Are We Not Men? Unstable Masculinity in the Hebrew Prophets (published by Oxford University Press, 2016). Dr Graybill's upcoming monographs include "The Cannibal Bible" and "Eve Take The Wheel: Queer Feminist Readings of Biblical Women", they are also working on a commentary to the book of Jonah with Steven L. McKenzie and John Kaltner. Dr Graybill is currently on the editorial boards for both the Review of Biblical Literature and Biblical Interpretation.
Header image: Slime [via pixabay]
Abstract: Feminist research into violence, within sacred texts, traditions and contemporary contexts, tends to be motivated by a desire to confront and challenge violence. This is certainly true of my own research into how dominant theologies of marriage function as risk factors in contexts of domestic violence.
This paper explores how being 'research active' can be understood as a form of active resistance. It suggests that this resistance begins with paying attention to forms of violence that have been normalised or ignored. Biblical scholar Gina Hens-Piazza argues that readers must be willing to name every occurrence of violence within a text; to fail to do so is to risk failing to name and resist violence encountered in everyday living. Secondly resistance requires commitment to a range of voices and methods of investigation, rather than reliance on tried and tested methods. In so doing, such resistance is creative, in reimagining both problems and solutions.
Rachel Starr is Director of Studies (UG programmes) at the Queen's Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education, Birmingham, UK. She completed her doctorate at Instituto Superior Evangélico de Estudios Teológicos (Protestant Institute for Advanced Theological Studies) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her book, Reimagining Theologies of Marriage in Contexts of Domestic Violence: When Salvation is Survival is published by Routledge in April 2018.
Header image: Ni una Menos (Not One Woman Less) march in Santa Fe, Argentina. 2018. Photograph by Agustina Girardo [via WikiCommons]


text:
Xakhovskaia - Шаховская  és un possiólok de la província de Moscou, a Rússia. El 2020 tenia 10.499 habitants. És a 154 km a l'oest de Moscou.

Història
El poble fou fundat el 1901 durant la construcció del ferrocarril Moscou-Vindava. Es convertí en centre administratiu el 4 d'agost de 1929, quan es fundà la província de Moscou. Adquirí l'estatus de possiólok el 1958.

Referències

Possiolki de Rússia
Municipis de la província de Moscou

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


I wake up to the strident, yet tranquil ring that I've grown accustomed to over the past year. The very same sound that has brought me, many a mornings, from the dark depths of sleep to the hazy frontier between darkness and consciousness – and from there on, to consciousness itself.
I open my sleep embittered eyes to strenuously take a peek at the blinding light of the LCD screen of my PDA. I push a button to make it stop the noise that has brought me back into the real world. For a moment I forget the fact that a pocket device running Windows was lying there at my bedside the whole night just to wake me up. Yes, a Microsoft device was the first thing I hear and see in the beginning of each day.
I praise my God for giving me the chance to see yet another sunrise. Wearily I get up and get ready for another day at work. I come back to my PDA and it sorted out everything that I'm supposed to do for the day – my appointments, my tasks, anniversaries, birthdays, what I should be doing, and even what I should be thinking about today. It's all listed out neatly in a page called the "Today page".
I quickly boot up my laptop running Windows XP and check my personal mail using Outlook; not even thinking once that the server too is running Windows.
I drive to work, I get a call on my trusted Microsoft-powered device regarding a task I will be doing that day. I reach the office and very soon I'm within the range of my corporate wireless network – that invisible space that defines my network – my data is in the air, but I can't feel it anywhere.
My device picks up the wireless ambience surrounding it quickly recognizes that it's on "home ground". The Microsoft Exchange e-mail server immediately synchronizes all my latest appointments, tasks, phone numbers, email addresses and email with my Windows-powered handheld device. I watch the LCD screen as it all happens in a matter of seconds.
I sit down at my Windows workstation and unlock it. I read my corporate mail on Microsoft Outlook. One of my clients has reported an error with his Microsoft ISA firewall. A sales guy has asked for a proposal for deploying new infrastructure using Microsoft Server technologies. I prioritize and enter the new tasks in my Outlook and immediately, the server syncs the info with my Windows mobile device. I hurriedly leave the office to the client who reported the problem.
While I'm driving to the client's office, he calls me up twice – once to make sure that I'm coming and again to find out what he can do while I'm on my way. Upon reaching, I am welcomed with a sense of relief and anxiety and quickly ushered to their data center.
I work on the Microsoft-powered server and check the logs and diagnostics. I spend several minutes trying to make the Microsoft product work the way I want it to, the way my client wants it to, the way my clients business would benefit from it, the way my employers business would in turn be benefited, and the way that would keep my daily bread coming on my table.
I find a resolution on Microsoft website and this involved contacting Microsoft Product Support for a hotfix. I immediately call the Microsoft Support Center, and ask for the hotfix. They send it to me on my corporate email.
Once again I log into my corporate email using Microsoft Outlook Web Access. Now I can access my office mail over the web, sitting at my client's office. I quickly download the fix and apply it on the server and restart it. All is well and the server returns to normal operation. I take a sign-off from the client and take leave.
On the way back, I plug in my Windows Media synchronized portable music device into my car stereo and listen to the tunes.
I reach the office, my Windows Mobile device, which was unreasonably silent for a few hours suddenly recites the call for the Duhr prayer. Its time for my second prayer for the day. I take time out and complete my duties with the Lord.
It's soon time for lunch, I lock my workstation, and leave for lunch. After lunch, I spend more hours in the office, sifting through the logs that I have collected from the Microsoft servers at an airport to check if the servers are running in good shape. I need to give monthly reports to the client based on my analysis of his server logs.
The Windows Mobile device would alert me whenever someone tried to call me, whenever sent me an SMS, to remind me of my tasks, and meetings, or if it was time for my prayer.
Finally its quitting time, I synchronize my device again "over the air" to make sure it has got the latest of what would be my schedule for the next day. I hibernate Windows on my laptop and pack up to go home.
I reach home, and have dinner and relax for a while. Then I go online and chat with my friends on Windows Live Messenger.
And then I go to sleep, taking care not to be too far from the Windows Mobile device which would wake me to yet another day of excitement!
why does it happens that mails sent from my rediffmail, reaches junkmail/bulk of the receiver instead of inbox. what should i do so that mails directly reach the inbox of the receiver.
It's because your email message might contain words/phrases that are usually used by spammers :). Try sending exactly the same mail message from another email address, if you succeed in reaching the inbox then its a problem with rediffmail's spam reputation (likelihood of rediffmail being abused by spammers).


More than 20,000 sticks of cardava bananas were grilled over 658 grills or (gang-gangan) which stretched for a kilometer of the circumferential road in Kapalong, Davao del Norte as they celebrated the first Musa Banana Festival lastAugust 1.
It was the first time that I ever laid eyes on so much grilled bananas. At the ceremonial go-signal from mayor Dominador Cruda, participants from the town's 14 barangays lit up their fires, undeterred by the drizzle as they bent to showdown the main product of the place.It was a free-for-all grilled banana feast as the parpticipants handed grilled bananas to all passers-by.
Bananas were everywhere: on motorcycles, trisikads, stores and houses, at the gymnasium, on the streets, trampled under people's feet and literally everywhere! People from all walks of life went to join the feast.My companions tried to outdo each other on how many sticks of ginanggang they had eaten but I kept silent because I was unable to eat any. I was too emersed shooting photos of banana eaters with the heavy camera I was carrying that I forgot to eat.
Highlighting the celebration was the unveiling of the biggest-ever three-meter long Cavendish banana cake covered with green and yellow icing. Stuffed with 4,000 banana cupcakes, the gigantic cake was set on steel stilts on top of the three-by-five meters base cake made of 377 loaves of banana cake.The whole cake consumed 1,000 eggs, one sack refined sugar, flour and 30 boxes of bananas supplied by Dole Stanfilco.
Kapalong municipal information officer Edna Parcon said it took them two weeks to set up the frame of the cake, three local bakeries to bake the banana loaves, another baked the cupcakes and another bakery owner volunteered to coat the cake with icing which took them nine hours to finish.Keeping hands off from the cake, especially kids' hands, was the hardest part while the program was going on.
Expectedly, when pandomenium broke loose and a confusing tangle of banana loaves, cupcakes, white, yellow and green icing, kids and adults swooped all over the cake to have a taste.A sticky war of icing followed (yucks!), hitting anybody even those far away from the cake. At the end of the celebration, everybody went home banana-satisfied and happy.


text:
А — пассажирские паровозы типа 3-2-0, построенные Александровским заводом в — годы в количестве двух штук для Николаевской железной дороги.

Эксплуатация

Данные локомотивы предназначались для вождения царских поездов («особой важности») на линии Санкт-Петербург — Москва и изначально имели тип 2-2-0; однако высокий вес привёл к необходимости снизить осевую нагрузку путём добавления ещё одной бегунковой оси, тем самым сменив тип на 3-2-0. После их появления поезда «особой важности» водились только этими двумя паровозами: один вёл поезд на участке Санкт-Петербург—Бологое, второй — на участке Бологое—Москва. Обозначение серии «А» появилось в 1860-е годы, до этого паровозы имели лишь номера 165 и 166, сквозные для всех локомотивов дороги.

В 1880-е годы оба экземпляра перевели на Вишерский участок тяги для ведения курьерских поездов на Веребьинском подъёме. Примерно тогда же их переделали, установив будки, а тендеры были переделаны с четырёх- на трёхосные.

Как и остальные локомотивы типа 2-2-0, они проработали на данной дороге около 30—40 лет, и были списаны около 1900 года.

Конструкция
Паровозы имели диаметр движущих колёс 1980 мм (78 дюймов), а полную колёсную базу — 7128 мм. Паровой котёл имел диаметр 1319 мм (52 дюйма), а внутри него располагались 157 дымогарных труб длиной 4280 мм и наружным диаметром 57 мм; общая испаряющая поверхность нагрева составляла 138,8 м², при площади колосниковой решётки 1,85 м² и рабочем давлении пара 8 кг/см². Паровая машина была простая двухцилиндровая с диаметром цилиндров 558,5 мм и ходом поршня 558 мм; парораспределительный механизм был системы Аллана и имел внутрирамное расположение кулисы.

Литература

Ссылки
 https://trainandbrain.ru/history/vip-locomotives

Паровозы типа 2-2-0
Паровозы типа 3-2-0
Паровозы Пролетарского завода
Локомотивы, появившиеся в 1858 году
Паровозы Николаевской железной дороги


text:
Trachylepis acutilabris är en ödleart som beskrevs av  Peters 1862. Trachylepis acutilabris ingår i släktet Trachylepis och familjen skinkar. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

Skinkar
acutilabris


The Nikon D800 I owned turned out to be a perfect lesson about learning to be happy with what you have. The D800 is the camera I should have kept.
I decided to make the leap to full-frame DSLRs with the Nikon D800. I'd been shooting with the Nikon D7000, an APS-C sensor body (Nikon calls them "DX format") which I used extensively, but never really warmed up to much. The D800 offered amazing specs for the day: a 36mpixel sensor in a professional body resembling the Nikon D300 I'd owned and loved. I bought my D800 in February, 2012.
I used a range of lenses on the D800, including the venerable 24-70 f/2.8, 24-120 f/4, the 85mm f/1.4, and the 70-200 f/2.8 VR. The 24-120mm f/4 came later, when I wanted a walking around lens; the 24-70 f/2.8 plus D800 combination weighed nearly four pounds. The 24-120 f/4 shaved nearly a half-pound off the weight, and gave me a little more reach. I D800 proved to be an outstanding, all-around camera. I had great fun experimenting with the massive sensor, as well as nifty depth-of-field effects.
For example, 36 megapixels lets you take an piece of an image that seems to small to be useful. When you crop it, though, you find out you still have a pretty usable photo, such as this pelican shot at a 62mm focal length on the fly.
This shot was original about 1730 pixels wide.
The image shown here has been reduced, but the original size was a bit over 1700 pixels wide, out of a total 7360 x 4912 pixels. I've included a screengrab from Photoshop of the original image, so you can get a sense of the scale.
This is a screengrab of the original pelican image for scale.
The D800 also turned out to be a moderately decent camera for shooting indoor action. Overall performance in low light proved to be a little better than the D7000 I'd been using, with an adequate, if not great, 5fps frame rate. I shot several Winter Guard performances, all of which took place indoors under pretty terrible high school gym lighting.
The D800 was fine for indoor action, if you took a little care.
I had a lot of fun with D800 just wandering around and shooting stuff, as one is wont to do with a high performance tool. With the right lens, it's a phenomenal portrait tool, though my portrait shooting skills are definitely not my strong suit.
Emily Case, after her post-high-school haircut.
Of course, not all portraits need be about people. Here's an off-the-cuff shot of our miniature Dachshund, Jania. All those pixels come in useful when you want to resolve a ton of detail, like Jania's double-dapple coloring.
I also fooled around with Photoshop, playing around with HDR. I shot the following photo using the D800's built-in bracketing, then combined them for an HDR image. This is at Sea-Tac International Airport, using a Nikkor 16-35mm f/4 wide angle zoom.
HDR gives this image an almost painterly quality.
I wanted a full-frame DSLR so I could play around a bit with depth-of-field. As it turned out, I rarely took advantage of DoF effects, but sometimes managed to pull one off almost accidentally, as with this orchid shot.
Depth-of-field and bokeh, oh, my!
In the end, I owned the D800 for less than a year. The weight and bulk of the camera seemed a bit much, particularly with big glass, such as the Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8. I sold it and bought what proved to be my worst camera purchase in recent history, in the end making me wonder if I should have hung onto the D800.
But that's a story for another time. Meanwhile, I'll leave you with this nice, if slightly faded, yellow rose.
Im betting it was the D500?
No, the D500 is an awesome camera. I'm liking my D500 quite a bit, except I try to destroy it :-/). The "awful" camera I alluded to was the D600 I owned for about a year. It suffered from the shutter mech throwing oils onto the sensor. Nikon eventually fixed it, but the whole affair left a sour taste in my mouth.
I'm glad you're enjoying your D750.


text:
Q: Magento set stock while importing I'm importing some products into my shop but the stockdata doesn't get set.
$simpleProduct->setStockData(array(
    'use_config_manage_stock' => 0,
    'manage_stock'=>1,
    'min_sale_qty'=>1,
    'is_in_stock' => 1,
    'qty' => 999
    )
);

$stockItem = Mage::getModel('cataloginventory/stock_item');
$stockItem->assignProduct($Simpleproduct);
$stockItem->setData('is_in_stock', 1);
$stockItem->setData('qty', 999);
$simpleProduct->setStockItem($stockItem);

Both code snippets don't work and set manage stock to no and no availible qty.

A: Try if this works:
$productID = ID //Your product ID
$stockItem = Mage::getModel('cataloginventory/stock_item')->loadByProduct($productID);
 /* Product stock doesn't exist? create a new one */
if (empty($stockItem->getProductId())) {
    $stockItem->setData('manage_stock', 1);
    $stockItem->setData('use_config_manage_stock', 0);
    $stockItem->setData('stock_id', 1);
    $stockItem->setData('product_id', $productID);
    $stockItem->save();
}

 /* Initialize the stock object to get the full object */
$stockItem = Mage::getModel('cataloginventory/stock_item')->loadByProduct($productID);

 /* Set the quantity */
$stockItem->setData('qty', 999);
$stockItem->setData('is_in_stock', 1);
$stockItem->save();

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