#Senior Research Fellow jobs

[unordinary-diary]

Seraphina and Arlo: The Brainwashing of High Tiers

Exposition:

— Remi, Episode 50.

There is a heavy implication that Seraphina and Arlo were raised in much the same way. The pressure on Seraphina comes from her parents, so I’ll extrapolate that the same goes for Arlo. This raises the question: how do the authorities create such a strong societal pressure on such a small percentage of the population? Most high tiers will probably not know any other high tiers besides their parents. Take Wellston Private High School for example: it’s the most prestigious private school around, and canonically has the “highest concentration of high tiers in the region”. There are six high tiers in Wellston. Apply this to god tiers specifically, and there are only three. Not to mention that this current group of students is uniquely strong, even for Wellston. In Rei’s senior year, he was the strongest at 5.8 max.

So much of this brainwashing relies on the parents to do all of the work, and it only takes one or two people to break the cycle. So how are the authorities creating this immense pressure? One tactic could be by isolating high tiers. There is a very widespread concept that one shouldn’t associate with those outside their level range. A caste system like this that affects everyone is much easier to create and maintain than an expectation for a small group, and it also means that high tiers are only being influenced by those who are also high level. This creates an echo chamber. I’ve researched cults and how they brainwash victims, and the first step in the process is isolating them in exactly this way.

But, if there are so few high tiers, how the hell are they supposed be isolated from other groups? The answer is that high tiers are just isolated in general. Take a look at Arlo: his only friend is Remi, and even her, he keeps at an arm’s length. Arlo is only close with Remi in the first place because he was close with Rei, who, at the time of meeting Arlo, was presumably close in level with him. [EDIT: I forgot about Holden, which I think says a lot about his relevance. He is kept at more than an arm’s length and doesn’t seem to have any actual influence on Arlo, let alone a deep relationship. He is also not presented as an equal.] Take a look at Seraphina: before meeting John, she didn’t seem to have any friends other than possibly Arlo. Seraphina and Arlo pre-John seemed to have had more of a professional relationship, and while they were not close in level, Arlo did fit the bill of being a fellow god tier, and strong enough to also be brainwashed.

Now let’s look at Remi. In episode 60, Cecile says to Remi: “And yet here you are... Always hanging around those two monkeys, Blyke and Isen. Letting them treat you as an equal even though you’re in a completely different league.” This struck me as odd because, aside from Cecile herself, the Wellston students closest in level to Remi were Arlo, Blyke, and Isen. And who is she friends with? She actually was doing a pretty good job at following that social convention, unless Cecile wanted to be friends with Remi, which she clearly didn’t. But... her friends were still not close enough to her level. Was she supposed to just not have friends at all? The answer seems to be a resounding yes. Can you think of any genuine friends that Cecile has either?

Friendship simply isn’t considered a necessity for high tiers.

But... why is it that Arlo and Seraphina were brainwashed differently? Creating a societal norm for an isolated group of people is one thing, because those people’s mindsets feed into each other. Putting pressure on individual families to keep them in line, but doing it all in different ways? That would be near impossible. My theory is that Seraphina recieved the typical high tier brainwashing, and that Arlo was raised differently because he was being groomed to work for the authorities. Seraphina didn’t have a set career path planned out for her, but if she’s trying to be “perfect” by the standards of those controlling her, she’s bound to end up going in a direction that pleases them. Arlo on the other hand was specifically planned to become an authority figure. That’s why his brainwashing is so centered on leadership. Also, growing up with direct contact to the authorities makes it more possible for them to customize his brainwashing in this way.

But does all of this apply to high tiers in general, or is it specific to god tiers? Let’s take a look at the high tiers in Wellston. We have Seraphina, John, Arlo, Terrence, Remi, Cecile, and Blyke. John is a unique circumstance because he wasn’t raised by high tiers, so we’ll cross him off the list. Terrence was also unique, so we can cross him off as well. Remi was different from the norm as well. Why is that? Well, Remi actually wasn’t raised by high tiers either. Rei said on screen that both of his parents were elites. We can cross Remi off. Blyke doesn’t fit the bill either, but that’s easy to explain. He was an elite for a large part of the story, and he shot up rather quickly. We don’t know much of his family, but he probably wasn’t expected to be a high tier at all, and was raised as an elite. (All of this also serves to emphasize how much of this brainwashing comes from a person’s parents.) That leaves only Seraphina, Arlo, and Cecile to look at.

Cecile does seem to have high tier brainwashing, but it’s not nearly as intense as with Seraphina and Arlo. She doesn’t seem “obsessive”, and she wasn’t one of the examples Remi mentioned in chapter 50. It’s clear that high tiers are brainwashed in general, but god tiers are kept on a much shorter leash. This makes sense, obviously, because keeping a population in control like that is less necessary the lower the level. However, it’s also a chicken an egg situation: god tiers are both more important to keep in control, and also easier to keep in control. It’s important to note just how many exceptions we had to cross off. People like Remi and Blyke aren’t actually that unusual— a lower leveled high tier is much more likely to have non-high tier parents, or to have not always been a high tier themselves, or just in general, to have way more day-to-day interaction with non-high tiers. The brainwashing gets more and more diffused the lower down the ladder you go.

[mariacallous]

Linda McMahon, a business and wrestling executive and major Republican donor, is likely to lead the Education Department, CNN reported Tuesday evening, citing four people familiar with the matter.

McMahon, a co-chair of President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team who has virtually no experience in education, served as director of the Small Business Administration in Trump’s first term. She left the administration in 2019 and went on to help create the American First Policy Institute, a pro-Trump think tank that’s been closely involved in planning for the second term. The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment about the selection.

McMahon is perhaps most known for her time as CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, which she co-founded with her husband, Vince McMahon. Together, they built the company from a small regional corporation to a multinational public enterprise. She stepped down from the executive role in 2009. In 2010 and 2012, she ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in Connecticut.

Although her experience in education is sparse, McMahon does have some ties. A New Bern, N.C., native, she graduated from East Carolina University in 1969 with a bachelor’s degree in French and certification to teach. She also served a one-year term on the Connecticut State Board of Education after being appointed by Republican governor Jodi Rell in 2009.

She’s a longtime supporter of and board member at Sacred Heart University, a private Roman Catholic institution in Fairfield, Conn. In 2012, Sacred Heart’s student commons was named after McMahon, who gave $5 million to support capital projects at the university, according to The Register Citizen.

Picking McMahon, a wealthy executive with little experience in education, is a move reminiscent of Trump’s first term, when he appointed Betsy DeVos as education secretary. DeVos, a billionaire philanthropist known for her support of school choice, voucher programs and charter schools, was a controversial candidate whose confirmation required then–vice president Mike Pence to cast a tie-breaking vote in her favor.

McMahon will be the second consecutive education secretary with ties to Connecticut—current secretary Miguel Cardona grew up in the state and served as commissioner of the Connecticut State Department of Education from 2019 to 2021.

McMahon’s name was not one of those thrown out as a potential candidate to lead the department, though The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that she was in the running for education secretary or U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom, citing people familiar with the matter. McMahon was up for the position of commerce secretary, CNN reported, though that job went to Howard Lutnick, also a co-chair of the transition.

Candidates whom some lobbyists and experts considered likely to be on the short list included Ryan Walters and Cade Brumley, the state superintendents of Oklahoma and Louisiana, respectively; Tiffany Justice, a co-founder of Moms for Liberty; and Christopher Rufo, a board member at New College of Florida and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.

If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, McMahon will take over a department that Trump has repeatedly said he wants to get rid of. But doing so will require an act of Congress. Some policy analysts have said Trump and his allies are more likely to leverage the department’s power to reshape the higher education system. Trump himself has pledged to fire accreditors in order to reclaim colleges from the “radical left” and proposed creating a free online university funded by taxes on wealthy private colleges.

McMahon penned an op-ed for The Hill in September supporting the Workforce Pell Act introduced by congressional Republicans in 2023, offering a rare glimpse into her potential education policy agenda.

The bill, which would expand eligibility for federal Pell Grants to students enrolled in short-term credential programs, was blocked by Democrats but faces a much easier path to becoming law in the new Congress. Critics worry that in lieu of increases in overall Pell funding, expanding the program would deplete funds for students pursuing four-year degrees.

In the Hill piece, McMahon argued that Pell funding for credentials like coding boot camps would “create high-paying jobs for more Americans.” A report published Monday on a federal short-term Pell pilot program found that it did not lead to higher employment or earnings for participating students.

“Half a century ago … colleges were focused on preparing students for professional roles at the highest levels of government, science, business and the arts,” she wrote. “Today, however, many degree programs have lost sight of their mission … Our educational system must offer clear and viable pathways to the American Dream aside from four-year degrees.”

Career Education Colleges and Universities, a national trade association representing for-profit technical institutions, endorsed Trump’s reported pick in a statement Tuesday evening.

“Linda McMahon has extensive experience that positions her well to address many of the key areas that will be education priorities in the new administration,” CECU said in the statement. “We look forward to working with the new secretary and the team assembled around her. Under her leadership, we are confident that the new Department of Education will take a more reasoned and thoughtful approach in addressing many of the overreaching and punitive regulations put forth by the Biden administration, especially those targeting private career schools.”

[corrodedcoughin]

Modern no upside down AU where Steve becomes a firefighter because it’s self indulgent and I need it. fair warning I have no idea how to become a firefighter

After his senior year of high school, Steve’s parents cut him off. They’d graciously let him live at home still, but since he didn’t get into any of the fancy colleges his father wanted him to study business - he’d have to get a job. Learn some work ethic. Learn humility. Learn this his father provides, and his father can also take away. His mother looks at him sadly, but doesn’t say anything.

Him and his coworker Robin stay late doing inventory and cleaning before they lock up when the mall catches fire. They were supposed to have done it during the day, taking turns manning the counter. But Dustin bursts in with an “emergency” and it successfully distracts Robin and him enough that they have to stay late. If they don’t get it done they’re done. No one knows that they’re there. They were supposed to have cashed up and left hours ago. The only people in the mall should be security and the people at the movie theatre.

And then the building’s on fire and the alarm system isn’t working as it should and someone needs to take charge and get them out and he guesses that it’s him. Steve doesn’t think about it, he just knows it’s an emergency and knows people need to get out. Robin’s trying not to panic and sort of failing, so something in Steve switches and he takes charge. He’s calm. He’s trying so hard to keep his breathing in check.

He saves Robin. He protects Dustin. He makes sure Erica is safe. He gets them all out and uses his lifeguard first aid training to help the wounded. Billy dies. Hopper gets hurt. Bad.

One of the firefighters asks him if he has any training. He says just first aid. They tell him he has a real knack for this. Has he ever thought about being a first responder? So he goes through EMT Training, and the fire academy and then he’s a firefighter. Working in a big station in Indianapolis, living in an apartment with Robin while she continues to study and research and write and do whatever she wants to do.

Eddie grew up in Indy. Moved there with his Uncle Wayne after all that shit with his dad went down. He dealt, he got into trouble, he tried to help Wayne as much as he could. Eventually he got a real job, working in a hole in the wall music store, performing with his band whenever he can. Moved into a shitty apartment with Gareth, Jeff, and the unnamed band member; where they blast metal and eat pizza and stay up late playing xbox and playing DnD.

They know he’s gay, so for Christmas one year Gareth gets him their local fire station’s sexy firemen calendar. 12 full months of local hot firemen posing shirtless with puppies and kittens from a nearby shelter. Gareth jokes about how Eddie’s so single, maybe this can help give him a helping hand. Eddie glares at him as Gareth laughs his ass off. Eddie threatens to put the calendar up in their kitchen. It takes a couple of drinks before he admits that Mr July is Exactly his type. Hot as fucking hell.

Styled and swoopy brown hair, strong jaw, plump lips, thick chest hair; and holding a tiny black kitten. He doesn’t know whether he wants to hold him down and lick his chest, or let Mr July pin him to the side of the fire truck and kiss him senseless. Or both. Definitely both.

Steve’s fellow fire-fighters wolf whistle at him when they find he made July. Everyone knows the hottest people get the hottest months. He buys Robin a copy for Christmas who fake gags but supports him endlessly (and he decidedly does not mention the sexy photoshoot and calendar to Dustin and his Nerd Squad, who promptly find out anyway.) They request a copy so they can make fun of him (and support the station, I guess.). Dustin says its weird seeing his Brother all sexy and shit. Max, and El look at each other and giggle. Will gets all shy.

Time passes, and months later the Sexy Fireman Calendar is in fact up in Corroded Coffin’s kitchen. It’s slowly become their main calendar for keeping track of shows, DnD games, vacations and other random apartment shit. One evening they’re fucking around at home doing not much at all. Jeff is plucking out tunes on his bass. Gareth and the other one are playing the laziest game of Go Fish on a ratty deck of cards. And Eddie is scrolling through Tinder. Fucking sue him.

He falls off the couch when he sees who pops up. Thrusting his phone in the guys faces because fuckiNG LOOK HOLY SHIT. And it’s Mr July himself. Steve. They all hunch over Eddie’s phone to look at his profile together. There’s a photo of him outside in some garden, sunglasses on his head, wearing a summery button up in a pastel pink colour. It has tiny ice cream cones on it (Robin bought it for him). His eyes shine when he smiles and there’s a perfect swoop of hair falling into his face. A photo of him and some teen with curly hair, him wearing a soft yellow sweater as they smile into the camera. A photo of him wearing a worn grey tshirt that has the Indianapolis Fire Department’s logo over one pec. He’s posing next to the fire truck itself.

Eddie swipes right and it’s a fucking match.

MOMO!!! COME BACK!!! I actually got really sad when I got to the end of this. I really was so completely absorbed and was ready for a full on story. Regardless of if you want to continue this, I absolutely adore it. I’m posting instead of if answering privately becuase I NEED other people to see this and fall in love with it too

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Lee Cowan

Published: Nov 12, 2023

At the University of Vermont not long ago, it was move-in day for the class of 2027.  About a thousand incoming freshman were meeting their roommates, finding their dorm rooms, and getting settled on campus. At first glance one might have thought this was an all-women's college – 62% of this year's class are women, a gender gap that has earned Burlington, Vt., a nickname: Girlington. 

"You see six or seven women for every three or four men," said UVM's vice provost for enrollment Jay Jacobs. His job is all about student diversity, and these days the male/female divide is now part of that equation. "Sure, I thought about racial and ethnic diversity," Jacobs said. "Sure, at a public flagship in the state of Vermont, I've thought about geographic diversity. Never gender diversity like that. That's where we are."

UVM is hardly an outlier. Nationwide, women make up almost 60% of college undergraduates.

In 1972, when Title IX was passed to help improve gender equality on campus, men were 13% more likely to get an undergraduate degree than women; today, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, it's women who are 15% more likely to get a degree than men.

"We have a bigger gender gap today than we did when we passed laws to help women and girls; it's just flipped," said Richard Reeves, a former Brookings Institution senior fellow. He says, no one really has been able to explain why so many men are so absent in higher education. What is known is the gender disparity starts as early as kindergarten, where girls are just generally the stronger sex in academics.

Reeves said, "If you look at high school GPA, and those who are getting the best grades in high school, two-thirds of them are girls. Those with the lowest grades, two-thirds of them are boys."

It's been theorized girls and women today are just fulfilling their destiny – that once the limitations on their achievements were lifted, they soared. Reeves, who's just launched the American Institute for Boys and Men, fears that things have changed so quickly, it's left many boys and men struggling to catch up, not just in the classroom, but at work and at home, too.

"What does it mean to be a successful man today? That was a question that was pretty easy to answer a generation or two ago," said Reeves. "But actually, what is the answer today? A lot of these guys just don't know."

In short, he says millions of boys and men don't understand how or where they fit anymore, and their reaction is to generally disconnect. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, men's participation in the labor market has dropped more than 7% in the last 50 years. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 21% of men report binge drinking (almost double the rate of women), and men account for nearly 80% of suicide deaths (four times the rate for women).

Reeves said, "The two most commonly-used words by suicidal men to describe themselves were useless and worthless."

But even to suggest there's some kind of male crisis is perilous these days, said Reeves: "Merely raising it will cause people to eye roll, and say, 'Really? Ten thousand years of patriarchy, and now you're worried?'"

After all, women still earn only about 80 cents for every dollar earned by a man (according to Pew Research Center). Only a fraction (10.4%) of Fortune 500 CEOs are women. And women make up just a quarter (28%) of the members in Congress, and (so far) zero U.S. presidents.

Those numbers leave UVM students Sarah Wood and Maxine Flordeliza pretty skeptical that men are barely treading water. "I think it's very interesting that there is kind of a big fuss about – not a fuss, but it's a conversation that people are having," said Wood. "But I don't think it's necessarily a problem?"

"I think that just the fact that the playing field has been a bit more evened out, shouldn't be the reason as to why men don't really know where they fit," Flordeliza said.

"Sure, do we need to do more to encourage more women into politics and into board rooms? Yes," Reeves said. "But meanwhile, can I not see that one group is struggling here, and another group is struggling there? And if I can't do that, we're in really deep trouble."

And those in the most trouble, he says, are working class and African American boys and men.

Von Washington Jr., executive director of community relations with The Kalamazoo Promise in Michigan, said, "Before it used to be, you graduated high school, 'Goodbye, you're on your own.' A lot of people said, 'Hey, you're outta my house.' Or 'It's time for you to go.' But we're understanding now those supports need to continue."

The Kalamazoo Promise program offers high school graduates in Kalamazoo scholarships covering up to the entire cost of in-state college tuition. The impact?  The number of Kalamazoo women getting a college degree has increased by about 45%. But the number of Kalamazoo men getting college degrees didn't budge.

"We're working with them, we're talking with them," said Washington. "We're trying to find out what is it that, even with this opportunity, you have some of the same challenges as someone in another community that doesn't have this opportunity."

One solution that seems to be working is making sure those men who are struggling have a place to freely admit they're struggling. Staffers with The Promise are tracking down those men still eligible for the scholarship, finding out why they never used it, and helping them get what they need to finally do it – like Daniel Jaffari. "I just started wandering around in life and doing random jobs, getting tired of doing random jobs," said Jaffari. "And now I'm here!"

He joined with dozens of other men at what the Promise was calling their Males of Promise event. Another participant was Denis Martin, who graduated high school six years ago. He said, had the Promise not tracked him down, he might not have realized he was ready for something more. "I feel like now I have the discipline to be in a five-year program or a four-year program," he said. "As a kid I feel like I was still bouncing off the walls, and my mind didn't know what exactly was out there."

Back at UVM, administrators have changed their marketing and communication strategies to reach out to men, especially those who might not think they want to go to college at all. The college is also hiring a diversity coordinator to focus specifically on helping men.

Jacobs said to Cowan, "The world is built for people like you and me to succeed, so why do we need to help men succeed here on our campus even more? But I think once people start to understand the nuances and challenges that we're talking about here today, people understand that all students need support."

UVM junior Lucas Roemer doesn't see it as a sort of affirmative action – putting the finger on the scale for men. He sees it as a way to help anyone who's been hanging on and feeling left out.  "I think there's ways to promote both femininity and masculinity on campus equally well," he said. "I think there's definitely a path forward that could be beneficial to everybody."

The coordinator of the Men and Masculinities Program will be housed in the Women & Gender Equities Center – ironic to some. But it's also a recognition that men's problems can co-exist with those of women. "You lift the edges up, the center will be lifted up as well," said Jacobs. "And here, the edges include men."

It's the kind of reaction to the very real problems of boys and men that Richard Reeves says needs to be the rule, and not the exception: "This is not a made-up crisis of masculinity. This is an actual hard fact. There is real suffering here, and if we don't address real suffering, then what are we here for?"

==

Let's address a couple of throat-clearing, hand-wringing statements the author inserted - or perhaps, was obliged to insert - to apologize for the rest of the article:

After all, women still earn only about 80 cents for every dollar earned by a man (according to Pew Research Center).

The key word is "earn." No serious economist takes the gap seriously, as it's accounted for by hours worked, maternity leave, choice in occupation, changes to occupation, length of tenure, tendency for overwork, and dozens of other variables. Not the "goddidit" of "tEh PaTrIaRcHy." The Equal Pay Act was introduced 60 years ago in the US, and any legit complaints of unfair pay are actionable.

Only a fraction (10.4%) of Fortune 500 CEOs are women. And women make up just a quarter (28%) of the members in Congress, and (so far) zero U.S. presidents.

This is called the Apex Fallacy, or more formally, the Ecological Fallacy.

Ecological Fallacy (also known as: ecological inference fallacy) Description: The interpretation of statistical data where inferences about the nature of individuals are deduced from inference for the group to which those individuals belong.

For starters, male variability is greater than female variability in a number of ways. You'll find far more men at both the higher and lower ends - 80% of homeless are men, 80% of suicides are men, majority of unemployed are men - than for women. If you want to talk about the president, be prepared to also talk about the homeless, unemployed and suicides.

And secondly only 45 people have ever been the US President. This includes no atheists, no Muslims, no Hindus, no openly gay, no Asians, no Hispanics, no trans. No electricians, no plumbers, no mobile app developers, no chefs, no janitors have ever been the president. And only one nominally black (half and half) president. It omits that 51% of voters are women. If women wanted a president based on her being a woman, they would easily vote one in. They have not. So perhaps ask women how they decide who to vote for. If that feels like a stupid question to ask them, then it's a stupid argument to make.

As well as the fact the 2016 runner-up and the current second-in-line to an 80 year old president are both women, both beating out men and women for those positions. Being unsuccessful is also a part of equality, and something hundreds of unsuccessful male candidates have had to accept.

And those in the most trouble, he says, are working class and African American boys and men.

It's disturbing that people can't care about half of the population without framing it as, well, if you help men and boys out, then you'll help black men and boys. Which is like saying "you have to take the good with the bad." You should want to help people who need help because they need help.

This topic really causes the sociopaths to come out of the woodwork and into the light.

[stellarred]

Q Continuum Annual Member Evaluation

*This is a tad lengthy, but please enjoy* 🙂

Senior Q: "Hi, Q. How's it going? Have a seat."

Q: "Thank you."

Senior Q: "As you know, the Continuum is doing its annual member evaluation, including some psych and other stuff. The Q High Council just wants to make sure all QC members are happy and doing their jobs, ok?"

Q: "Got it."

Senior Q: "So, first question. How do you think you're doing as the Expert in Humanity?"

Q: "No one knows Jean-Luc better than I."

Senior Q: " You said Jean-Luc. What about the rest of Humanity?"

Q: "What about it?"

Senior Q: (shakes his head) "Your research sample is quite limited."

Q: "Hmph. Limited research, you say. It's a focused study. VERY focused. (stares intently)

Senior Q: (groans and taps his pencil) "I see. Focused on this one human. Anything else?"

Q (feeling quite proud) " Yes! I am getting closer to a relationship breakthrough. "

Senior Q: " You mean a *research* breakthrough, right?"

Q: "Whatever you say."

Senior Q: " How would you describe your energy levels and feelings after work?"

Q: "Oh, energy levels are somewhat low. Feelings include frustrated, irritated, and yet hopeful. Sad sometimes. "

Senior Q: "Oh? That's concerning. I'll make a note of this. The QC cares about its members' job satisfaction. Higher satisfaction leads to greater productivity, you know? We'll see what we can do."

Q: "Oh, but it's fine. Jean-Luc keeps resisting me, you see. He yells at me when I work hard to teach him lessons that will help him improve his dismal life, and when he stubbornly refuses my expressions of eternal love for him...well, that frustrates and wounds me. It's tragic, I tell you."

Senior Q just blinks.

Q: "However, I always have confidence that mon capitaine will someday get it. I love Jean-Luc, I mean...my research. Yes. My research. "

Senior Q: "Let's move on. How do you unwind after work?"

Q: "I process the events of the day, assess what did and didn't go well with Jean-Luc, and what I can do differently to win him over next time."

Senior Q: " I'm kinda sensing a pattern here, Q. What about afterwards? How do you relax? Do you have any hobbies?"

Q: "Of course. I observe Jean-Luc from afar. I also visit other various alien species and humans and show them how they can improve. "

Senior Q: "Oh? Well, branching out is good. At least you're interacting with other humans."

Q: "Well, I help them by pointing out just how much they fall short of what Jean-Luc can do. But, it's so unfortunate to know that they'll never be as evolved and worthy as him."

Senior Q: "Okay, Q. Let's *please* move on. Now tell me what comes to your mind when you see this. There is no right or wrong answer."

Q: "Jean-Luc... in the shower."

Senior Q: "I see. That's...interesting. Creepy, but interesting." (rolls his eyes) "Here's another one."

Q: "Jean-Luc and I kissing passionately on the sandy shores of Vargas 7."

Senior Q: " Okay, brother. I'm a bit worried here. Please take this seriously. I have one more."

Q: "Jean-Luc and I getting hot and heavy in the--"

Senior Q: "Ok, just stop! You are hopelessly obsessed! Why? Why am I even talking to you?! Get some HELP!!"

Q: (bats his eyes) "Oh, the Continuum already knows, my good fellow. I have their complete support in my endeavors I assure you."

Senior Q (muttering to himself): "They probably support you just to keep you from being so annoying all the time."

Q: "You can inform the Continuum that I shall continue to strive for sex--I mean EXcellence as the Expert in Humanity."

Q: (leans in): "I take it you're new here?"

[female-malice]

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Shortly after the New Year, I was fired from Oak Ridge National Laboratory after urging fellow scientists to take action on climate change. At the American Geophysical Union meeting in December, just before speakers took the stage for a plenary session, my fellow climate scientist Peter Kalmus and I unfurled a banner that read “Out of the lab & into the streets.” In the few seconds before the banner was ripped from our hands, we implored our colleagues to use their leverage as scientists to wake the public up to the dying planet.

Soon after this brief action, the A.G.U., an organization with 60,000 members in the earth and space sciences, expelled us from the conference and withdrew the research that we had presented that week from the program. Eventually, it began a professional misconduct inquiry (it’s ongoing).

Then, on Jan. 3, Oak Ridge, the laboratory outside Knoxville where I had worked as an associate scientist for one year, terminated my employment. I am the first earth scientist I know of to be fired for climate activism. I fear I will not be the last.

Oak Ridge said it was forced to fire me because I misused government resources by engaging in a personal activity on a work trip and because I did not adhere to its Code of Business Ethics and Conduct. The code has points on scientific integrity, maintaining the institution’s reputation and using government resources “only as authorized and appropriate and with integrity, responsibility, and care.”

When Dr. Kalmus and I decided to make our statement during the lunch plenary session, I knew that we risked being asked to leave the stage or the conference. But I did not expect that our research would be removed from the program or that I would lose my job. When I began participating in climate actions with other scientists in 2022, senior managers at Oak Ridge asked that I make it clear to the public and the media that I spoke and acted on my own behalf. I followed these guidelines to the best of my ability, including at A.G.U., where Dr. Kalmus, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and I did not mention our institutions in our statements.

The retaliation I faced from the A.G.U. and Oak Ridge ultimately highlights a disappointing reality: that established scientific institutions will not even support scientists interrupting a meeting for the climate. I’m all for decorum, but not when it will cost us the Earth.

I used to be a well-behaved scientist. I stood quietly on melting permafrost in Utqiagvik, Alaska, and measured how much greenhouse gas was released into the atmosphere. I filled spreadsheets and ran simulations about how warming temperatures would increase the carbon emissions from soil.

To do my job, I dissociated the data I was working with from the terrifying future it represented. But in the field, smelling the dense rot of New England hemlock trees that were being eaten by a pest that now survives the warming winters, I felt loss and dread. Only my peers read my articles, which didn’t seem to have any tangible effects. Though I saw firsthand the oncoming catastrophe of climate change, I felt powerless to help.

I did, however, believe that if scientists told the truth about the climate emergency, our scientific institutions would get out the message to policymakers, government officials, the media and the public. But they didn’t — at least not sufficiently — even as carbon emissions continued to rise and the climate continued to warm.

A few years ago, Scientist Rebellion, an international network of scientists concerned about climate change, began a series of strategic acts of nonviolent civil disobedience. After years of waiting in vain for meaningful public action to address climate change, I decided to join them.

For my first action, I chained myself to a White House gate to demand that the Biden administration declare a climate emergency. Since I locked that first chain around my waist, I have been arrested three times in nonviolent actions. My superiors at Oak Ridge warned me to be careful but did not discipline me.

But I was motivated to continue because these scientist-led political campaigns have attracted positive media attention and contributed to major policy wins. At the end of last year, a group of us protested the impact of luxury travel at more than a dozen private airport terminals in 13 countries; within a month of our actions, the Podemos party of Spain submitted a request to the European Commission to take measures to reduce the use of private planes. When scientists take action, people listen.

The scientific community has tried writing dutiful reports for decades, with no reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels to show for it. It is time to try something new. We must work to change the culture of our institutions, be honest about our values, advocate for climate justice and experiment. Great experiments push at the boundaries of knowledge and propriety. They are risky, volatile, blasphemous. But when they work, the world changes.

Scientific institutions should support activism and advocacy, especially by experts. The A.G.U. should do more to publicly support policies informed by its members’ science, such as declaring a climate emergency and ending fossil fuel extraction and subsidies.

I did not make the decision to become an activist lightly; I recognized that my actions would have consequences, and I knew that I could face retaliation. But inaction during this critical time will have far greater consequences.

–

Rose Abramoff is an earth scientist who studies the effect of climate change on natural and managed ecosystems. She is also a climate activist, working with Scientist Rebellion and other groups.

[ausetkmt]

Get Ready for Fort Liberty: The Pentagon Begins Changing Confederate Base Names | Military.com

The Pentagon has started the process of renaming Fort Bragg and other bases, as well as ships and hundreds of signs and roads, as it plans to scrub ties to the Confederacy from all installations by the start of 2024.

William LaPlante, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, directed all Department of Defense organizations to implement this week the recommendations handed down by the Naming Commission, an independent panel created by Congress and charged with reviewing and replacing the names, according to a press release.

It's a heavy undertaking that includes new names for nine Army bases -- Bragg will become Fort Liberty -- two Navy ships and upward of 1,000 other items located on America's military installations. But Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon's press secretary, told reporters Wednesday he was optimistic it could all be done within the year.

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"I think we are confident, you know, each of the services has clear instructions in terms of what it is that they need to focus on, and where the secretary is confident that the services are and will continue to take that seriously," he said.

Ryder did not have an updated figure on what it would cost to take on all of the recommendations from the Naming Commission. The latest estimate from the group, released this past September, was a total of $62.5 million.

Katherine Kuzminski, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security think tank who researches military culture, told Military.com on Friday that the DoD has dealt with renaming operations in the past.

In 2018, then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis announced that the U.S. Pacific Command would become the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, a shift that required changes ranging from signs to stationery.

Kuzminski said that was accomplished in a relatively short period of time. She added that senior leaders in the military can also start referring to those Army bases by their new names right now to help make them commonplace.

"You do have to think about all of the details such as who owns what signage or when exits on interstates will be changed," Kuzminski said. "But we can start referring to these installations like Fort Liberty by these new names and it can get at what the Naming Commission was doing, which was changing the culture."

Kuzminski said it's possible cost estimates could go up as the Pentagon starts to unravel how involved the renaming and replacing process is.

Department of Defense officials began to reckon with the military's long history of honoring namesakes tied to the rebel army that fought in the Civil War following George Floyd's murder at the hands of police, which subsequently sparked nationwide anti-racism protests.

The Naming Commission was established in the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act and began submitting its first report cataloging those Confederate-linked names on military bases in May 2022. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin accepted the commission's recommendations this last September.

The group identified nine Army bases, including Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and Fort Benning, Georgia, which are both named for Confederate officers.

They recommended Benning be renamed Fort Moore, after Lt. Gen. Hal Moore, who led men during the Vietnam War, and his wife Julia. The cost of renaming all of those bases will come to around $21 million, by the Naming Commission's estimates.

Additionally, the Navy identified the USS Chancellorsville, named after a Civil War battle with a Confederate victory, and the USNS Maury, named after Matthew Fontaine Maury, who left the Navy to sail for the Confederacy, according to the Pentagon. The commission did not provide new name recommendations for those vessels.

The commission also identified Confederate officers recognized on campus at West Point and the U.S. Naval Academy, which will cost an estimated $450,000 to replace.

The largest amount of assets would be various roads, signs, buildings and street names throughout the Pentagon's portfolio, which would account for nearly $41 million of the cost.

Editor’s note: The Pentagon said in a Jan. 5 press release that The Confederate Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery was being disassembled. A spokesman for Arlington National Cemetery contacted Military.com after publication to say that the information provided by the Department of Defense was incorrect. A paragraph reporting that detail has been removed from the story. A plan for the removal of the monument is still being developed, the spokesman said.

[qqueenofhades]

What were some of your first jobs back when you were a history undergrad and grad student?

As an undergrad, I worked summers in grocery stores and coffee shops to save a little money for term time. As a senior in college, I worked the early-morning shift at the fitness center and scanned people's ID cards in to use the gym. It was very quiet and I could do homework, though I had to get up at the ass-crack of dawn. It made just enough money to buy food and cover my credit-card bill.

As a master's student, I worked part-time in the university library as a front-desk clerk and shelving assistant. As a PhD student, I taught at the university in the School of History, and also served as an Education Outreach Fellow, traveling around the UK to put on research-skills and program-specific workshops for secondary school students. I also scraped out part-time freelance tutoring and editorial gigs and that sort of thing. Both times I had to live at least partly on student loans and the kindness of others, so yes. The broke academic thing has been basically the last 10 years of my life, and I know it Well.

[owedfavors]

ON UNA’S DAY-TO-DAY RESPONSIBILITIES ; ** also known as 'where to find commander evers.'

contrary to impressions given by the show, una spends relatively little of her day on the bridge. instead, her time is occupied with behind-the-scenes work. her responsibility is to ensure that ship and crew run smoothly ( at least, when not derailed by external situations over which she has no control ). she spends her days conducting meetings with senior staff in the various departments operating on the ship, organizing duty rosters and schedules for repairs and use of labs and various equipment shared between departments, handling crew disputes and concerns, reviewing reports and collating them for submission to starfleet command, among other things.

her domain is the ship. she rarely joins away missions, she is only infrequently in the midst of the action, she will avoid diplomatic engagements with every excuse she can identify. all of this, she leaves all of this to captain pike. instead, she works to keep everything off of his desk that does not absolutely have to be on his desk, to handle situations before they become a problem, and in general to ensure that enterprise runs smoothly and that the captain can focus on the more important parts of his job.

because she reads every report, because she has her ears constantly to the ground, because she spends her days everywhere on the ship, there is almost nothing that transpires on enterprise that she does not know of. she does not need close personal connections with the crew to know the subject of the newest betting pools, the emergent gossip, the latest addition to enterprise bingo. these reach her ears in other ways.

at any given time, una generally also has about five projects she is working on beyond her usual duties. these range from updates to the ship’s programming, be it the main computer, the replicators, etc.; tweaking equipment whose standard specifications she considers insufficient ( or inefficient ); analyzing data from scientific phenomenon recently investigated; or researching the newest developments in dozen scientific and technological fields.

her base of operations is ostensibly her office, which compared to many of the spaces on enterprise she selected for its small size. to some, it feels cramped. to her, it feels comfortable. and, if the ‘cramped’ conditions discourage her fellow officers from lingering, so much the better. however, she generally goes to others for meetings, rather than bringing them to her, and so she spends most of her official on-duty hours on the move throughout the ship.

so when is una actually on the bridge? first, whenever she has a shift at the helm. prior to the battle with control, this was frequent. her primary responsibilities were as helmsman and first officer, and she spent half her shifts on the bridge. once enterprise returns to service after her repairs, una leaves the helm primarily to lieutenant ortegas on the alpha shift and to her colleagues. enterprise’s chief of operations was reassigned during the ship’s time in space dock, and una has subsumed their former responsibilities into her own daily routine. however, she does miss the helm, and will take the occasional shift here and there, whether to offer relief in the usual duty roster or to indulge her own fondness for the post.

she will also be on the bridge during any emergent situations. at the onset of any red alert, or should captain pike call her to the bridge, she is swift to drop whatever she is in the middle of and make her way there. however, she very rarely takes a post on the bridge; unless she is at the helm, she is more likely to float between stations to allow her to oversee the situation as needed, be it monitoring sensor readings or communications or collaborating with her colleagues.

the exception is if the captain leaves the ship to join an away mission, leaving her in command. in this case, she is likely to be on the bridge barring some emergency elsewhere on the ship that requires her attention.

[totallyjazzed]

(Left: Fayinn’s original look. Right: Fayinn after being compleated)

Fayinn the Unsupervised, Acting Guildmaster of the Izzet League

"The problem with Instant Coffee is that it's not, well, instant."

This once planebound Vedalken pyromancer always takes her job very seriously, despite a casual and frequently abrasive demeanour. She also frequently considers herself to be the smartest person in the room, and irritatingly she is often correct.

She fled to the Izzet from the Simic Combine when she was young and has since been an active member of the guild since, working her way up to the rank of Senior Researcher. She is best known within the League for her volatile "Instant Coffee Machine", as well as being the only person known on record to master the art of transferring a planeswalker spark into a different person, a skill she used to grant herself one during the War of the Spark. She considers herself and her companions Enka of the Gruul Clans, Uzax of the Simic Combine, Eborea of the Boros Legion, and Isaza of the Golgari Swarm to have been instrumental in Bolas’ defeat, though nobody else does.

After the Phyrexian threat was accidentally introduced to Ravnica by Uzax, Fayinn, now Acting Guildmaster since Ral Zarek's departure, developed a strong dislike for planeswalkers and their reluctance to visit Ravnica and offer help, warn other planes, or even just witness the chaos for themselves. Eventually, she tore out her own spark and sealed it away before giving herself to the Phyrexians on Ravnica in exchange for the League being left alone. Her arrangement was betrayed following her compleation, and the proposed ceasefire did not take place, but she was able to restore her spark and mostly break free of Phyrexian influence, a plan she herself had set in motion before having it wiped from her mind by an associate from House Dimir.

She has since resumed her duties as Guildmaster, while running her own experiments on extraplanar technology, compleated Ravnicans, and the eternally strange properties of glistening oil. She holds no loyalty to her fellow Phyrexians nor to her fellow Planeswalkers, only to the members of the Izzet League and the few people she sees as friends.

[mariacallous]

"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights," according to Article 1 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The job of the UN Human Rights Council is to monitor countries' compliance with this fundamental tenet, ensuring that people can live free from persecution, torture and discrimination. 

Several of the countries currently serving as the guardians of global human rights, however, have a poor track record at home — chief among them China, the United Arab Emirates and Eritrea.

In recent years, human rights violations such as reeducation camps, torture and arbitrary arrests, as well as forced labor and suppression of the opposition, have been documented in these countries.

As the number of authoritarian regimes has grown globally, their presence on the Human Rights Council has increased. China, in particular, has exploited this by leaning on allies to vote — or abstain from voting — in favor of its national interests.

Council members becoming less democratic 

In 2023, only 30% of the countries on the Human Rights Council were classified as "free" by the US think tank Freedom House. For its annual Freedom in the World report, the organization examines whether governments provide free elections and meet certain minimum standards for political rights and civil liberties, such as freedom of assembly. A total of 70% of the current council members were classified as "partly free" (such as India) and "not free" (Sudan and other countries). 

Each year, the Human Rights Council elects one-third of its 47 members to three-year terms according to fixed geographic quotas based on the number of UN countries per region: The Asia-Pacific and Africa groups have 13 members each, the Western Europe and North America group has seven, Eastern Europe has six, and the Latin America and Caribbean group has eight. 

Elections for terms running from 2024 through 2026 are anticipated in October. The candidates include Cuba, Kuwait and Russia, which was removed from the council in 2022 following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Researchers from organizations such as Freedom House, V-Dem and Democracy Matrix attempt to quantify members' adherence to minimum international humanitarian standards such as guarantees for civil liberties and compliance with prohibitions on torture. 

The human rights score of the countries that have been sent to the council since its inception in 2006 has declined considerably. In 2023, it is only just above the historic low of 2022.

"This unwelcome development is not only evident in the council but worldwide," said Silke Voss-Kyeck, a research fellow at the German Institute for Human Rights. "Many members are governed in an authoritarian and dictatorial manner." Compliance with human rights obligations seldom plays a role in the election of council members, she said.

'China has Africa in its pocket'

One consequence of the rise of autocratic regimes is that Human Rights Council votes often pit blocs against each other, said Yaqiu Wang, senior researcher on China at Human Rights Watch. Unlike the Cold War, however, the driving factor here is not a shared ideology, she said. 

"It's more interest-based," said Wang. Pakistan, for example, often votes with China because economic ties are strong and Pakistan sees China as an ally against an adversarial India. "It's like a trade: 'If you vote with me, I will go with you.'" 

In addition to Asian countries, Wang said, China has especially relied on African governments for support on the Human Rights Council. "I don't think any particular country has stood up to China — except Somalia, which recently rejected demands," Wang said, referring to the Horn of Africa country's vote for a 2022 resolution that addressed human rights abuses in reeducation camps in Xinjiang. "China has Africa in its pocket."

A unifying element, Wang said, is a rejection of Western dominance. "There's a history of Chinese-African solidarity," Wang said, "an alliance against the Western imperialism." China is building on that — and on economic interdependencies. 

Cultivating unlikely alliances 

China has had less success bringing Latin American governments under its sway. Countries such as Costa Rica are economically more self-sufficient than many African nations. Moreover, South American governments are more democratic, according to the Freedom House Global Freedom Score, and therefore less susceptible to China's influence.

Unlike in many African countries with authoritarian governments, for example, it's not enough to "ensnare" the elites, Wang said. That's because in democracies elites are often replaced through elections.

Unlike the UN Security Council, which is unable to act on the war in Ukraine because Russia has exercised its veto power on votes to address the conflict, the Human Rights Council is not blocked.

Resolutions reprimanding specific countries for human rights violations have increased since the council's founding in 2006. Country-specific resolutions are intended to pressure the respective governments to address the issues or face additional loss of reputation, sparking heated debates among members of the Human Rights Council.

The countries most often mentioned in resolutions brought before the Human Rights Council are Syria, Congo, Israel, Mali, Myanmar, Sudan and Yemen. Despite its own well-documented human rights abuses, China has not been on the losing end of a country-specific resolution. So far, there has only been one such effort: A resolution to condemn the UN-documented reeducation camps for Uyghur Muslims in China's western Xinjiang region failed in 2022, with 17 votes for, 11 abstentions and 19 votes against — including by Indonesia, Pakistan, Namibia and China itself.

'China goes ballistic after the vote'

Wang said China used not-so-subtle coercion to maintain support in the Human Rights Council. "It is intimidating," she said. "It threatens veiled. Before a vote, it's like a Chinese diplomat in another country, let's say Chile, just to give an example, he tells Chile: 'You know, you have to vote this way. Otherwise, you don't want to undermine the economic ties between Chile and China, right?'" Should a country not comply with such demands, Wang said, "China goes ballistic after the vote."

Voss-Kyeck confirmed that China's government uses pressure to get what it wants. "High Commission staff and diplomats are being threatened — personally, but also politically," she said. "It's all well-documented. People are getting evening phone calls to private numbers." No country, she said, is as aggressive as China in attempting to avoid criticism.

The efforts of China and its allies to prevent critical resolutions are evidence of their desire to avoid censure by the council. Only Russia has given up on trying to evade condemnation. "They've become such an outsider," Voss-Kyeck said. "They don't care about the council."

Though countries such as China are able to use alliances to diminish the Human Rights Council's oversight efforts, the work of the UN body is important, Voss-Kyeck said, and its "impact is great." One example is its importance to domestic civil society movements and Indigenous groups.

"That doesn't exist in any UN body: that Indigenous people are allowed in the room, that they have the right to speak, to make statements," said Voss-Kyeck. "That's a thorn in the side of many states."

Limited options for reforming Human Rights Council

Despite the stated purpose of the council, the body's current structure prevents it from being effective in the fight against human rights violations. Too often, countries are both the defendants and judges in the cases of their own violations — and they have little interest in judging themselves.

Though critics of the council agree that changes are needed to restore the body to its intended purpose, many have long been skeptical about specific proposals— such as limiting membership to countries that have ratified certain human rights treaties. "Of course, you can make a court only by the good guys, who then judge the bad guys," said Voss-Kyeck. "But the question is: What effect does that then still have on the 'bad guys'? And who decides who are the bad guys, who are the good guys?" 

Wang also worries that making changes to the structure of the Human Rights Council could ultimately weaken the body. "Reforming the HRC can be risky," she said, "given we do not know the outcome of putting it all back on the negotiation table." 

[maryamjoyce]

full name: maryam joyce date of birth: 11 april 1990 gender & pronouns: cis woman, she/her

sexuality: bisexual & biromantic occupation: university lecturer time in london: the last four years + between the ages of 18 and 22 height: 5′10′’ hair colour & style: dark brown, wavy, a bit past her shoulders eye colour: dark brown

click here for maryam’s pinterest!

trigger warning for mentions of religion

maryam was born and raised in the town of stroud, gloucestershire, around ten miles from gloucester. hers was a happy, almost idyllic childhood spent playing in the sprawling gardens of the family home with her older sister and two younger brothers. while maryam’s sister is technically a half-sister - she’s from her mother’s previous relationship - they never made that distinction. 

her parents had a bit of a whirlwind romance that resulted in thirty-four years of marriage and counting. her muslim father is originally from saudi arabia and arrived to the uk for his physics phd. he ended up really hitting it off with the woman working at the university’s reception on his very first day. maryam’s mother was from a family of anglican churchgoer and a recently divorced single mum. the two married just a year after they first met and welcomed little baby maryam ten months after the wedding.

while the household didn’t necessarily seem all that outwardly pious to outsiders. religion was always a big part of the family dynamic and something that was discussed often and in great length. maryam was a curious child and loved getting involved in these conversations, even when the concepts seemed far too complicated for her. she loved lingering in doorways when her parents had friends over, keen on sharing her opinions and the facts she had so meticulously taught herself.

she was a bright student and went on to attend an all-girls grammar school. she didn’t necessarily love it and despite doing well academically, often struggled with the social aspect of high school. she was kind of an awkward, gangly teen who spoke too little or far too much and couldn’t really figure out what her crowd was for quite a while. she eventually befriended a group of girls, some of whom she’s still in contact with to this day.

maryam moved to london at the age of 18 to attend the university of roehampton. she went on to receiver her bachelor’s degree in philosophy, religion and ethics before completing her master’s in theology and religious studies. while in london, she shared a flat with a fellow uni student. their friendship blossomed into a romance of sorts even though they never officially dated. the situation was fairly messy, but maryam has a lot of fond memories of this time as the relationship taught her a great deal. they’re still friendly with each other and meet up from time to time to laugh at their past shenanigans.  

after graduating, she moved back to gloucestershire and worked as a substitute teacher for a bit before heading to bangor, wales for her phd in philosophy and religion. her thesis on the philosophy of religiously unaffiliated spirituality garnered praise and solidified her decision to pursue a career in academia. 

she moved to notting hill and started working as a lecturer at king’s college london around four years ago. she mainly teaches and researches sociology of religion, including the intersectionality of religion and identity. hopes to land the job of a senior lecturer in the near future, and can’t really imagine doing anything else. 

she shares a small two-bedroom home with a flatmate and her two beloved cats. london is obviously ridiculously expensive, but maryam also genuinely likes sharing her space. she knows she wouldn’t like living all by herself all that much. in fact, she has never actually lived alone as she has always either lived with her family or a flatmate. 

maryam is bilingual and grew up speaking arabic with her father. she’s also fluent in french and studied hebrew, ancient greek and latin during her studies. her streak on duolingo is over two years long, but she doesn’t take it all that seriously. she just really likes mobile games and this one just happens to teach her languages, making it a little more productive than candy crush.

an avid collector of all sorts of trinkets, maryam does not vibe with the minimalist aesthetic. her bedroom is full of knickknacks and keepsakes. she also collects books and dreams of being the sort of person who actually reads the books she buys. to be fair, she does read a lot, but it’s mostly stuff related to her research or the lectures she’s planning. all the new, exciting fiction books have gone unread for years. this fact has not slowed down her buying habits, though.

she’s a bit of a chaos academic. she’s genuinely passionate about her work and believes she’s doing something important and meaningful, but that absolutely does not mean she does it gracefully or without intense procrastination and sleepless nights. 

and here are some super basic connection ideas for anyone interested!

childhood friends! they could be from stroud as well, but maryam also spent most of her childhood summers in cornwall. a friendship where they met every summer for years could be super cute, especially if they fell out of touch and just reconnected!

she has loads of cousins from her mum’s side, so those are always welcome. 

along the same line, a childhood pen pal! since maryam had trouble making friends as a teenager, she poured out her heart to her pen pal. i would imagine they stopped writing at some point but remained facebook friends or something like that. 

people she met during university, either in london or in bangor. could be fellow uni students or just folks who happened to live in either of the cities. 

maryam’s certainly not looking for the one or anything like that, but she does like going on dates and meeting new people. could be of any gender. 

[atplblog]

Price: [price_with_discount] (as of [price_update_date] - Details) [ad_1] “SOA Design Patterns is an important contribution to the literature and practice of building and delivering quality software-intensive systems.” - Grady Booch, IBM Fellow “With the continued explosion of services and the increased rate of adoption of SOA through the market, there is a critical need for comprehensive, actionable guidance that provides the fastest possible time to results. Microsoft is honored to contribute to the SOA Design Patterns book, and to continue working with the community to realize the value of Real World SOA.” - Steven Martin, Senior Director, Developer Platform Product Management, Microsoft “SOA Design Patterns provides the proper guidance with the right level of abstraction to be adapted to each organization’s needs, and Oracle is pleased to have contributed to the patterns contained in this book.” - Dr. Mohamad Afshar, Director of Product Management, Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle “Red Hat is pleased to be involved in the SOA Design Patterns book and contribute important SOA design patterns to the community that we and our customers have used within our own SOA platforms. I am sure this will be a great resource for future SOA practitioners.” - Pierre Fricke Director, Product Line Management, JBoss SOA Platform, Red Hat “A wealth of proven, reusable SOA design patterns, clearly explained and illustrated with examples. An invaluable resource for all those involved in the design of service-oriented solutions.” - Phil Thomas, Consulting IT Specialist, IBM Software Group “This obligatory almanac of SOA design patterns will become the foundation on which many organizations will build their successful SOA solutions. It will allow organizations to build their own focused SOA design patterns catalog in an expedited fashion knowing that it contains the wealth and expertise of proven SOA best practices.” - Stephen Bennett, Director, Technology Business Unit, Oracle Corporation “The technical differences between service orientation and object orientation are subtle enough to confuse even the most advanced developers. Thomas Erl’s book provides a great service by clearly articulating SOA design patterns and differentiating them from similar OO design patterns.” - Anne Thomas Manes, VP & Research Director, Burton Group “SOA Design Patterns does an excellent job of laying out and discussing the areas of SOA design that a competent SOA practitioner should understand and employ.” - Robert Laird, SOA Architect, IBM “As always, Thomas delivers again. In a well-structured and easy-to-understand way, this book provides a wonderful collection of patterns each addressing a typical set of SOA design problems with well articulated solutions. The plain language and hundreds of diagrams included in the book help make the complicated subjects of SOA design comprehensible even to those who are new to the SOA design world. It’s a must-have reference book for all SOA practitioners, especially for enterprise architects, solution architects, developers, managers, and business process experts.” - Canyang Kevin Liu, Solution Architecture Manager, SAP “The concept of service oriented architecture has long promised visions of agile organizations being able to swap out interfaces and applications as business needs change. SOA also promises incredible developer and IT productivity, with the idea that key services would be candidates for cross-enterprise sharing or reuse. But many organizations’ efforts to move to SOA have been mired–by organizational issues, by conflicting vendor messages, and by architectures that may amount to little more than Just a Bunch of Web Services.

There’s been a lot of confusion in the SOA marketplace about exactly what SOA is, what it’s supposed to accomplish, and how an enterprise goes about in making it work. SOA Design Patterns is a definitive work that offers clarity on the purpose and functioning of service oriented architecture. SOA Design Patterns not only helps the IT practitioner lay the groundwork for a well-functioning SOA effort across the enterprise, but also connects the dots between SOA and the business requirements in a very concrete way. Plus, this book is completely technology agnostic―SOA Design Patterns rightly focuses on infrastructure and architecture, and it doesn’t matter whether you’re using components of one kind or another, or Java, or .NET, or Web services, or REST-style interfaces. While no two SOA implementations are alike, Thomas Erl and his team of contributors have effectively identified the similarities in composition services need to have at a sub-atomic level in order to interact with each other as we hope they will. The book identifies 85 SOA design patterns which have been developed and thoroughly vetted to ensure that a service-oriented architecture does achieve the flexibility and loose coupling promised. The book is also compelling in that it is a living document, if you will, inviting participation in an open process to identify and formulate new patterns to this growing body of knowledge.” - Joe McKendrick, Independent Analyst, Author of ZDNet’s SOA Blog “If you want to truly educate yourself on SOA, read this book.” - Sona Srinivasan, Global Client Services & Operations, CISCO “An impressive decomposition of the process and architectural elements that support serviceoriented analysis, design, and delivery. Right-sized and terminologically consistent. Overall, the book represents a patient separation of concerns in respect of the process and architectural parts that underpin any serious SOA undertaking. Two things stand out. First, the pattern relationship diagrams provide rich views into the systemic relationships that structure a service-oriented architecture: these patterns are not discrete, isolated templates to be applied mechanically to the problem space; rather, they form a network of forces and constraints that guide the practitioner to consider the task at hand in the context of its inter-dependencies. Second, the pattern sequence diagrams and accompanying notes provide a useful framework for planning and executing the many activities that comprise an SOA engagement.” - Ian Robinson, Principal Technology Consultant, ThoughtWorks “Successful implementation of SOA principles requires a shift in focus from software system means, or the way capabilities are developed, to the desired end results, or real-world effects required to satisfy organizational business processes. In SOA Design Patterns, Thomas Erl provides service architects with a broad palette of reusable service patterns that describe service capabilities that can cut across many SOA applications. Service architects taking advantage of these patterns will save a great deal of time describing and assembling services to deliver the real world effects they need to meet their organization’s specific business objectives.” - Chuck Georgo, Public Safety and National Security Architect “In IT, we have increasingly come to see the value of having catalogs of good solution patterns in programming and systems design. With this book, Thomas Erl brings a comprehensive set of patterns to bear on the world of SOA. These patterns enable easily communicated, reusable, and effective solutions, allowing us to more rapidly design and build out the large, complicated and interoperable enterprise SOAs into which our IT environments are evolving.” - Al Gough, Business Systems Solutions CTO, CACI International Inc.

“This book provides a comprehensive and pragmatic review of design issues in service-centric design, development, and evolution. The Web site related to this book [SOAPatterns.org] is a wonderful platform and gives the opportunity for the software community to maintain this catalogue….” - Veronica Gacitua Decar, Dublin City University “Erl’s SOA Design Patterns is for the IT decision maker determined to make smart architecture design choices, smart investments, and long term enterprise impact. For those IT professionals committed to service-orientation as a value-added design and implementation option, Patterns offers a credible, repeatable approach to engineering an adaptable business enterprise. This is a must read for all IT architect professionals.” - Larry Gloss, VP and General Manager, Information Manufacturing, LLC “These SOA patterns define, encompass, and comprise a complete repertoire of best practices for developing a world-class IT SOA portfolio for the enterprise and its organizational units through to service and schema analysis and design. After many years as an architect on many SOA projects, I strongly recommend this book be on the shelf of every analyst and technical member of any SOA effort, right next to the SOA standards and guidelines it outlines and elucidates the need for. Our SOA governance standards draw heavily from this work and others from this series.” - Robert John Hathaway III, Enterprise Software Architect, SOA Object Systems “A wise man once told me that wisdom isn’t all about knowledge and intelligence, it is just as much about asking questions. Asking questions is the true mark of wisdom and during the writing of the SOA Design Patterns book Thomas Erl has shown his real qualities. The community effort behind this book is huge meaning that Thomas has had access to the knowledge and experience of a large group of accomplished practitioners. The result speaks for itself. This book is packed with proven solutions to recurring problems, and the documented pros and cons of each solution have been verified by persons with true experience. This book could give SOA initiatives of any scale a real boost.” - Herbjörn Wilhelmsen, Architect and Senior Consultant, Objectware “This book is an absolute milestone in SOA literature. For the first time we are provided with a practical guide on how the principle centric description of service orientation from a vendor-agnostic viewpoint is actually made to work in a language based on patterns. This book makes you talk SOA! There are very few who understand SOA like Thomas Erl does, he actually put’s it all together!” - Brian Lokhorst, Solution Architect, Dutch Tax Office “Service oriented architecture is all about best practices we have learned since IT’s existence. This book takes all those best practices and bundles them into a nice pattern catalogue. [It provides] a really excellent approach as patterns are not just documented but are provided with application scenarios through case studies [which] fills the gap between theory and practice.” - Shakti Sharma, Senior Enterprise Architect, Sysco Corp “An excellent and important book on solving problems in SOA [with a] solid structure. Has the potential of being among the major influential books.” - Peter Chang, Lawrence Technical University “SOA Design Patterns presents a vast amount of knowledge about how to successfully implement SOA within an organization. The information is clear, concise, and most importantly, legitimate.” - Peter B. Woodhull, President and Principal Architect, Modus21 “SOA Design Patterns offers real insights into everyday problems that one will encounter when investing in services oriented architecture. [It] provides a number of problem descriptions and offers strategies for dealing with these problems.

SOA design patterns highlights more than just the technical problems and solutions. Common organizational issues that can hinder progress towards achieving SOA migration are explained along with potential approaches for dealing with these real world challenges. Once again Thomas Erl provides in-depth coverage of SOA terminology and helps the reader better understand and appreciate the complexities of migrating to an SOA environment.” - David Michalowicz, Air and Space Operations Center Modernization Team Lead, MITRE Corporation “This is a long overdue, serious, comprehensive, and well-presented catalog of SOA design patterns. This will be required reading and reference for all our SOA engineers and architects. The best of the series so far! [The book] works in two ways: as a primer in SOA design and architecture it can easily be read front-to-back to get an overview of most of the key design issues you will encounter, and as a reference catalog of design techniques that can be referred to again and again…” - Wendell Ocasio, Architecture Consultant, DoD Military Health Systems, Agilex Technologies “Thomas has once again provided the SOA practitioner with a phenomenal collection of knowledge. This is a reference that I will come back to time and time again as I move forward in SOA design efforts. What I liked most about this book is its vendor agnostic approach to SOA design patterns. This approach really presents the reader with an understanding of why or why not to implement a pattern, group patterns, or use compound patterns rather than giving them a marketing spiel on why one implementation of a pattern is better than another (for example, why one ESB is better than another). I think as SOA adoption continues to advance, the ability for architects to understand when and why to apply specific patterns will be a driving factor in the overall success and evolution of SOA. Additionally, I believe that this book provides the consumer with the understanding required to chose which vendor’s SOA products are right for their specific needs.” - Bryan Brew, SOA Consultant, Booz Allen Hamilton “A must have for every SOA practitioner.” - Richard Van Schelven, Principal Engineer, Ericsson “This book is a long-expected successor to the books on object-oriented design patterns and integration patterns. It is a great reference book that clearly and thoroughly describes design patterns for SOA. A great read for architects who are facing the challenge of transforming their enterprise into a service-oriented enterprise.” - Linda Terlouw, Solution Architect, Ordina “The maturation of Service-Orientation has given the industry time to absorb the best practices of service development. Thomas Erl has amassed this collective wisdom in SOA Design Patterns, an absolutely indispensible addition to any Service Oriented bookshelf.” - Kevin P. Davis, Ph.D “The problem with most texts on SOA is one of specificity. Architects responsible for SOA implementation in most organizations have little time for abstract theories on the subject, but are hungry for concrete details that they can relate to the real problems they face in their environment. SOA Design Patterns is critical reading for anyone with service design responsibilities. Not only does the text provide the normal pattern templates, but each pattern is applied in detail against a background case study to provide exceptionally meaningful context to the information. The graphic visualizations of the problems and pattern solutions are excellent supplementary companions to the explanatory text. This book will greatly stretch the knowledge of the reader as much for raising and addressing issues that may have never occurred to the reader as it does in treating those problems that are in more common occurrence.

The real beauty of this book is in its plain English prose. Unlike so many technical reference books, one does not find themselves re-reading sections multiple times trying to discern the intent of the author. This is also not a reference that will sit gathering dust on a shelf after one or two perusings. Practitioners will find themselves returning over and over to utilize the knowledge in their projects. This is as close as you’ll come to having a service design expert sitting over your shoulder.” - James Kinneavy, Principal Software Architect, University of California “As the industry converges on SOA patterns, Erl provides an outstanding reference guide to composition and integration–and yet another distinctive contribution to the SOA practice.” - Steve Birkel, Chief IT Technical Architect, Intel Corp. “With SOA Design Patterns, Thomas Erl adds an indispensable SOA reference volume to the technologist’s library. Replete with to-the-point examples, it will be a helpful aid to any IT organization.” - Ed Dodds, Strategist, Systems Architect, Conmergence “Again, Thomas Erl has written an indispensable guide to SOA. Building on his prior successes, his patterns go into even more detail. Therefore, this book is not only helpful to the SOA beginner, but also provides new insight and ideas to professionals.” - Philipp Offermann, Research Scientist, Technische Universität Berlin, Germany “SOA Design Patterns is an extraordinary contribution to SOA best practices! Once again, Thomas has created an indispensable resource for any person or organization interested in or actively engaged in the practice of Service Oriented Architecture. Using case studies based on three very different business models, Thomas guides the reader through the process of selecting appropriate implementation patterns to ensure a flexible, well-performing, and secure SOA ecosystem.” - Victor Brown, Managing Partner and Principal Consultant, Cypress Management Group Corporation In cooperation with experts and practitioners throughout the SOA community, best-selling author Thomas Erl brings together the de facto catalog of design patterns for SOA and service-orientation. More than three years in development and subjected to numerous industry reviews, the 85 patterns in this full-color book provide the most successful and proven design techniques to overcoming the most common and critical problems to achieving modern-day SOA. Through numerous examples, individually documented pattern profiles, and over 400 color illustrations, this book provides in-depth coverage of: • Patterns for the design, implementation, and governance of service inventories–collections of services representing individual service portfolios that can be independently modeled, designed, and evolved. • Patterns specific to service-level architecture which pertain to a wide range of design areas, including contract design, security, legacy encapsulation, reliability, scalability, and a variety of implementation and governance issues. • Service composition patterns that address the many aspects associated with combining services into aggregate distributed solutions, including topics such as runtime messaging and message design, inter-service security controls, and transformation. • Compound patterns (such as Enterprise Service Bus and Orchestration) and recommended pattern application sequences that establish foundational processes. The book begins by establishing SOA types that are referenced throughout the patterns and then form the basis of a final chapter that discusses the architectural impact of service-oriented computing in general. These chapters bookend the pattern catalog to provide a clear link between SOA design patterns, the strategic goals of service-oriented computing, different SOA types, and the service-orientation design paradigm.

This book series is further supported by a series of resources sites, including soabooks.com, soaspecs.com, soapatterns.org, soamag.com, and soaposters.com. Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pearson Education India; First Edition (31 December 2008) Language ‏ : ‎ English Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 864 pages ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0136135161 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0136135166 Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 kg 720 g Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 18.42 x 4.45 x 23.5 cm Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ India [ad_2]

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Valparaiso cop: ‘It was too much’

Officer says she left Indiana task force because of on-the-job sexual harassment

A Valparaiso, Indiana, police officer who received $160,000 in settlements over sexual harassment speaks Aug. 5 about her

experience.

Whatever the Valparaiso police officer expected when she walked into a room for an interview with the Porter County Multi-Enforcement Group, it wasn’t what she got.

The officers conducting the interview, representing police departments from throughout the northwest Indiana county, asked her whom she would kill;

have sexual relations with, though her interviewers used an expletive; and marry if given the choice between the sheriff and the Valparaiso and Portage police chiefs.

They asked her whether she had ever filed a sexual harassment lawsuit and what type of porn she watched.

She said in an interview with the Post-Tribune that she was told not to tell anyone about the interview questions and she complied at the time, figuring they were all part of the process to test her mettle while working undercover, to see whether she could keep the information confidential and not react to unsettling questions.

The woman, 37, a veteran police officer whom the Post-Tribune is not identifying because she is a victim of sexual harassment, qualified for the enforcement group, which according to the woman has an expected commitment for officers of five years. Her interview took place in November 2021 and she served on PCMEG from January through August of the following year.

PCMEG conducts undercover drug investigations in Porter County and sometimes with other agencies.

At the time, the Valparaiso woman was one of two on PCMEG and is one of six female officers with the Valparaiso Police Department.

The officer, who remains on the Valparaiso Police force, resigned from the task force in less than nine months after enduring pressure to drink with fellow officers and being bullied when she refused;

group texts that included a picture of another officer’s genitals; and racist jokes from her peers on PCMEG, according to an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint her attorney filed on her behalf.

Four officers assigned to PCMEG, including another woman, were disciplined by their respective departments for how they treated the officer.

The woman’s experience, experts said, is not unique, and more agencies need to recognize what harassment means for recruitment and retention of a diverse police force.

‘It’s disheartening’

Frustrated by what she saw as a lack of action following her complaints by her supervisors, the woman filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on April 20, 2023, against the Porter County Sheriff’s Department, PCMEG and the Valparaiso Police Department claiming discrimination based on her sex and retaliation.

The woman chose to share her experience with the Post-Tribune because, she said, she didn’t want what happened to her to get buried.

“It’s disheartening,” the woman said in an interview, that she had to take her case as far as she did and the officers involved in the actions against her are still with their respective police forces.

“How does it help to hide it?”

After mediation on her EEOC complaint, she received a $130,000 settlement from the county and a $30,000 settlement from the city; both were signed and dated in December 2023.

Neither municipality admitted wrongdoing, according to the settlement agreements.

The city and county released the settlement agreements after an Access to Public Records Act request by the Post-Tribune.

“The extent of sexual harassment in the marketplace in general, it’s very common in the workplace and outside the workplace as well.

And police officers are not immune to that,” said Bruce Taylor, a senior fellow and corresponding author with the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.

Taylor co-authored a national study on sexual harassment and assault within law enforcement two years ago in which the abstract notes, “Our combined measure of non-physical sexual harassment and sexual assault of female officers (71%) was in the range found in prior research and our 41% rate for male officers is also not trivial and requires attention from law enforcement leaders.”

The U.S. Department of Defense started to tackle its problems surrounding similar behavior with the Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault in the Military, or IRC-SAM, because the culture was affecting recruitment and retention, Taylor said.

“I haven’t seen a whole lot of effort by police departments,” he said, adding later, “There’s nowhere in the civilian world where this level of attention is addressing the problem.”

Three sheriff’s deputies and a Portage Police officer received letters of reprimand and/or were disciplined by their departments for their actions against the woman during her time with PCMEG, which were detailed in an internal investigation report ordered by Sheriff Jeffrey Balon in the days after he took office in January 2023.

Balon had been Valparaiso’s police chief before he was elected as sheriff. Early in his term, after the internal investigation of PCMEG was complete, Balon restructured PCMEG and set new standards for training on bullying and harassment within the sheriff’s department.

County Attorney Scott McClure declined to release the internal investigation report of PCMEG because, according to an email from him citing Indiana Code, it was an internal department document;

it involved personnel files of public employees; and the report was investigatory in nature.

A source provided that and other documents to the Post-Tribune.

The woman’s Indianapolis attorney, Daniel Bowman, confirmed the authenticity of the internal PCMEG report, dated Jan. 23, 2023, and conducted by Porter County Sheriff’s Capt. Erik Wiseman, along with the woman’s EEOC complaint, and screenshots of texts between the woman and other members of PCMEG.

Included in the material is a group text sent by a Portage officer on PCMEG to its six other members which is a picture of him holding his genitals.

‘Absolutely shocking’

Multiple officers confirmed most of the woman’s allegations, according to the internal investigation report.

She, too, admitted in an interview to anonymously sending a glitter bomb and male genital-shaped chocolate to the officer who sent out the crotch shot.

She thought maybe the harassment would stop if she turned the tables, she said.

“(The woman’s) was one of the most egregious sets of facts I’ve ever been told about,” Bowman said in an interview.

“My first thought is, I have to see some proof. These are some serious allegations. And she had it, and it was shocking. Absolutely shocking.”

After Bowman filed the complaint with the EEOC on behalf of the woman, Porter County and the city of Valparaiso had the opportunity to file a response.

A private mediator later negotiated the settlements on behalf of the woman.

The woman said Bowman told her the case could take years to go to trial and Bowman had to “talk me into it a bit as being the better option,” but she said she didn’t want to continue the high level of stress she was under from taking action against her employer.

When informed about the questions allegedly asked of the woman during her job interview for PCMEG, Taylor, with the National Opinion Research Center, had this to say: “Most places, that would be grounds for termination, you would think.”

Tanya Meisenholder, director of gender equity for the 30×30 Initiative, which is focused on advancing women in policing so that 30% of recruits will be women by 2030, said she had heard stories similar to that of the Valparaiso officer.

She spent almost two decades in law enforcement with the New York Police Department before joining 30×30.

“As unfortunate as it is, it doesn’t surprise me,” she said. As of 2021, women made up only 12% of sworn officers and 3% of police leadership in the U.S., according to 30×30. Law enforcement agencies in Indiana that have joined the 30×30 Initiative include those in Bloomington, Carmel, Evansville, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis and Noblesville, according to the nonprofit’s website. There are no participating agencies from Northwest Indiana.

Cases are “very difficult” to discipline in law enforcement, Meisenholder said, and additionally, data about harassment cases isn’t transparent so the public doesn’t know about them.

One of the challenges comes in reporting the harassment because allegations can be difficult to keep private, particularly with smaller police agencies.

“In my experience, once people found out you made an allegation, it creates a stigmatizing effect,” which could lead to the person reporting the harassment being reassigned or facing other retaliation, Meisenholder said.

‘In hindsight, you’re uncomfortable’

During interviews at a cafe in downtown Valparaiso and the kitchen table of her rural Porter County home, the officer said she started in law enforcement in 2008. She worked at Indiana University Northwest in Gary, for the Michigan City Police Department starting in 2013, and then moved on to Valparaiso.

While she was at IUN, the woman’s National Guard unit was deployed to Iraq. She also served on Michigan City’s SWAT unit.

In her varied law enforcement career, the woman said she’d never seen anything from other officers like she did when she was a member of PCMEG and never believed that it wouldn’t be taken seriously.

“All these things, in hindsight, you’re uncomfortable but think maybe it’s OK,” she said.

Toward the end of her tenure with PCMEG, the woman received a written reprimand for not wearing a bulletproof vest to a felony warrant call; the reprimand did not include disciplinary action. She also, according to the internal investigation, tangled verbally with other members of the task force, sometimes being told to shut up by her fellow officers and storming out of group meetings where she felt she was being disrespected.

On May 31, 2022, according to the EEOC complaint filed by the woman’s attorney, the woman told PCMEG’s commander “that the other investigators had crossed the line with their treatment of her as well as their persistent pressure to consume alcohol and party with them.”

The commander, David Murray, according to the EEOC complaint, allegedly “replied that refusing to drink outside of work with the other officers would negatively affect her relationship with the team.

He further said that he would address any instance where an officer’s behavior crossed the line; however, he failed to take any action against the other investigators, and his promise was meaningless anyways as he was present for most of the harassment that had occurred over the preceding months.”

Murray, according to the internal investigation report, “did step in when the guys were making fun of (the woman) but it was shown that he did not address it in a timely fashion and knowingly or unknowingly continued to allow it to happen to where it reached a point that she resigned….

I also advised Det. Murray that part of his job as the MEG Unit boss was to make his employees feel safe at work.”

As the harassment and bullying continued, the officer said she confided in Balon, then the Valparaiso Police chief and the Republican candidate for Porter County Sheriff.

The sheriff then, David Reynolds, was winding down his second consecutive term and couldn’t seek another term per state statute. His son, David Reynolds II, was running against Balon.

Reynolds, who as sheriff oversaw PCMEG, did not return multiple requests for comment about the woman’s settlement or the actions of the officers as reported in the internal investigation.

‘Culture Change Initiative’

In a written statement prepared for the Post-Tribune, Balon confirmed that the woman approached him with allegations of sexual harassment while she was a member of PCMEG but he was not in charge of the unit at the time.

As a result of the internal investigation of PCMEG, Balon disciplined three Porter County officers and a fourth was disciplined by the Portage Police Department.

Additionally, according to Balon’s written statement, he instituted anti-bullying and anti-sexual harassment training for all sheriff’s department employees — something he found out wasn’t taking place through the internal investigation — and employees receive refresher training every three years.

He said he also created a policy that forbids bullying and sexual harassment in the workplace and appointed a member of his command staff as the commander of the PCMEG to oversee the unit’s daily operations and communicate regularly about the status of the PCMEG. Balon calls the measure the “Culture Change Initiative.”

“In addition to the mandated training and a new updated policy, I have created a culture of inclusion and openness which does not tolerate any form of sexual harassment in the workplace,” Balon said in his statement, adding he also ensured that supervisors receive proper training and understand that any form of harassment is to be taken serious and to be reported to division commanders immediately.

Balon said in his statement that he also appointed a formal internal affairs investigator to his command staff who reports directly to him and specifically investigates such complaints or other major allegations.

“The type of behavior that took place in the PCMEG is not acceptable nor will it be tolerated at the Porter County Sheriff’s Office,” Balon said in his statement.

Though the woman initially approached Balon, she said she asked that he keep her allegations to himself. She hoped to stay on PCMEG and also hoped that, if Balon were elected sheriff, she could stick things out until he made changes to the task force since he would be overseeing it as sheriff.

Between what was going on with the task force and other personal matters, the woman decided she couldn’t remain on the task force any longer and submitted her resignation to Balon.

“It was too much,” she said. “It was so hard for me to give up this position that I had wanted for so long.”

The woman is still with the Valparaiso Police Department working as a patrol officer, as she was before her brief tenure with PCMEG. She has applied twice for promotion to detective and so far has been unsuccessful but remains committed to her career.

“People who do the right thing should stay in the profession, not the people who do the wrong thing,” she said. “I shouldn’t have to quit because people have a bias against me. They don’t deserve to win on that.”

Meisenholder, with the 30×30 Initiative, said some harassment victims leave departments because of how they’re treated while others, like the Valparaiso officer, stay because they love their careers and face giving up pensions and seniority if they move on.

Other women in policing also may go along with their male counterparts’ harassment of other women on the force rather than stepping up to prevent it, she said.

While the 30×30 Initiative’s ultimate goal is to increase the representation of women in law enforcement, the organization doesn’t want to see women brought into positions that aren’t a good fit.

“We’re well aware that increasing representation is not going to solve all the problems in police departments,” Meisenholder said, but perhaps if more women have jobs in law enforcement, they will be more likely to speak out when they are the victims of harassment.

One of the keys to combating harassment, she said, is making sure departments have policies in place against it, and for leaders in those departments to listen to the women who work there.

“Maybe from this situation, some actual change will take place,” Meisenholder said.

Four officers disciplined

Following are descriptions from the internal investigation report of the roles of the four officers in harassing the Valparaiso officer while she was on PCMEG, and the disciplinary action they faced from their respective departments.

All of them declined the opportunity to comment.

According to the report, Bryan Slatton, a master patrol officer with the Portage Police Department, admitted that he had sent a picture of his genitals in a group text to PCMEG’s seven members, and also admitted to making racist jokes, as well as “joking around” with the woman despite her discomfort.

Slatton was also asked about “why he gave her so much grief and (if that) was his way of getting her to quit and he advised it was.”

Slatton, according to the response to a public records request to Edward Graham, the Portage city attorney, agreed to remove his name from the promotional list through Jan. 1, 2024; agreed to attend a minimum of three employee assistance program sessions performed by a representative from a healthcare system; attend diversity and sensitivity training “and any other topics the instructor deems necessary;” and to be temporarily removed from the SWAT unit until he completed his EAP and sensitivity training.

Per Portage Police Chief Michael Candiano, Slatton could not respond to a request for comment from the Post-Tribune because of internal department policy regarding the media.

The report identified Murray as a sheriff’s sergeant and commander of PCMEG at the time of the woman’s allegations. In the report, he admitted he asked the woman the questions during her job interview.

“Det. Murray attempted to justify the questioning by advising they ask them to see how that potential candidate would fit in the group,” the investigation noted.

He also, per the investigation, “advised that everyone would make jokes toward (the woman) due to her being socially awkward” and that Slatton was not the only one.

“Det. Murray was asked about (the woman’s) complaint about harassment and the constant jokes and he advised he did notice it and addressed the group a few times. Det. Murray advised that after addressing the group he felt as though the group heeded his orders.”

Murray, according to a public records request response from McClure, the county attorney, was reassigned to the patrol division and removed as commander of the PCMEG “due to his lack of leadership and action due to this investigation. He was later reassigned as a result of disciplinary actions due to a separate incident, but as progressive discipline in part because of this investigation.”

Murray, who was demoted to a first-class patrolman in the disciplinary action taken against him by the sheriff’s department, also received a letter of reprimand and had to undergo sexual harassment training, according to McClure.

Sheriff’s Cpl. Joshua Crayne was given a letter of reprimand, removed from PCMEG and reassigned to the patrol division, and ordered to partake in sexual harassment training as a result of the investigation, according to the information provided by McClure.

Crayne, according to the report, also participated in joking with the woman, among other allegations.

“(An investigator) asked Crayne about making comments about her underwear and he admitted to making the comment. I asked him if he remembered making any comments about her skinny jeans and he advised he may have made the comment about her skinny jeans but doesn’t remember,” the report stated.

Porter County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Meredith Brockman also was named in the internal investigation as a member of PCMEG. She was voluntarily reassigned on July 1 to a new traffic unit and was given a letter of reprimand and ordered to participate in sexual harassment training as part of the disciplinary action taken against her, according to McClure.

“Det. Brockman advised that she could tell that (the woman) was not all that happy and could tell the jokes weren’t welcome,” the report notes of the officers’ actions during an Indiana Drug Enforcement Agency conference in Indianapolis in February 2022. “Det. Brockman advised she made no attempt to stop Slatton or Crayne from continuing their behavior towards (the woman). Det. Brockman stated she was laughing at most of the jokes.”

The three Porter County officers declined to respond publicly to a request for comment about their actions and the subsequent investigation, according to an email from Balon.

None of the officers contested the disciplinary actions taken against them, according to McClure.

[readwithmiaa]

Author Interview - Theresa Van Spankeren

Exclusive Q/A session with the Author of my favorite fantasy series, Theresa Van Spankeren

Hello and Welcome everyone! 

Today, we have the honor of hosting my favorite author interview with Theresa Van Spankeren. Thank you for joining us, and let's dive into this enriching author interview together!

1) Tell me about yourself. 

My name is Theresa Van Spankeren and I live in the suburbs of Chicago with my husband. My day job is at an IT helpdesk for fast food restaurants. I have had an unusual career path which includes working for a tool store and grading standardized tests. I enjoy getting out in nature, but am a bit of a homebody.

2) When did you start writing books? Who inspired you?

I have been writing since I was little, but I completed my first actual book when I was a senior in high school. It’s hard to say who exactly inspired me - I can attribute a love of reading to my parents and grandparents on both sides. However, when it comes to writing - maybe my mom’s short stories were some inspiration? I just remember starting to write a few years after learning to read. Maybe it was the authors themselves that were the inspiration.

3) How many books did you published so far?

I have 5 books published so far in the series: Lost Soul, Pursuit into Darkness, Between Darkness & Light, Fallen Soul, and Soul Redeemed.

4) Do you have a favourite character in your stories? 

I can’t say I have a single favorite. There’s a few who have become favorites in the years I have been writing them. Julia and Samuel are favorites for sure - and I can’t count out Matthew. Lane is a unique and fun character to write about - a new favorite, for sure!

5) What makes you write about a book filled with vampires? 

I have been fascinated by vampire lore since I read Christopher Pike’s “The Last Vampire/Thirst” series, and my dad introduced me to Fred Saberhagen’s Dracula series. Since then I have read a large variety of vampire stories, each with their own unique worldbuilding and types of vampires. I find vampires to be an interesting metaphor or parallel for the troubles and transformations that occur in real life. It’s a way to explore good and evil - and sometimes that big murky gray area in a different way.

6) As a reader and as a research student I always chose to indulge myself in books that worth my time. I completed five of your books in a short span of time as I can envision the story in my mind as a movie. How did you create such a story? How do you handle writer’s block?

Parts of the first book were based off of X-Files fanfiction I started in high school and a dream. Ideas and plot points come to me, but I don’t put fingers to keyboard (or still at times, a pen to paper) until I can envision certain parts in my head - much like a movie. I allow my characters to lead the way and I try to capture their thoughts and emotions as realistically as possible - even if they are not the narrator of the story.

As for writers block . . . I have a few techniques for this. One is to listen to music - often instrumental - to capture the mood of the scene. Sometimes this can jumpstart ideas or development. I also turn to fellow writers and/or friends familiar with the story to bounce ideas off of. I use them as a sounding board. Occasionally, I just have to relax and let my mind wander. I have solved writer’s block by swimming or just taking a hike.

7) What do you like to do when you aren’t writing?

I enjoy swimming and hiking. I also love playing The Legend of Zelda and have probably dedicated more hours than I should to playing! Reading is something I’ve always enjoyed. My husband enjoys hiking as well, and we also like to investigate reported local haunted spots.

8) What's the hardest thing about writing for you?

There’s times where I am unsure where exactly the plot is going and I find myself stuck at times. One of my weaknesses that I’ve gotten better at is describing the surroundings better. Otherwise, the hardest part about writing isn’t the writing. It is the marketing - getting the word out to readers.

9) Are you working on anything new? What would you like to tell your readers?

Yes, I am about to release a side story of the War of Destiny series called “An Ember of Hope” that is from Matthew’s POV. It takes place between books 2 & 3 of the main series and chronicles much of his adventures with the Medici family. It brings insight into the later books as well. It is on pre-order now for 99 cents and is set to release on Aug 9th. The normal price will be $1.99 after the release.

I have also started writing Book 6 of the main series. We are headed towards the final books of the series. The main story will be wrapping up at book 7 or 8 depending on length. There’s a few more side book ideas that I plan to explore, but I don’t have full details yet.

10) What themes or messages do you hope readers take away from your work?

I know my books are darker in nature, but I hope that readers take away the theme that there’s always hope, even in the darkest of situations when there seems to be no way out. I hope they see a little of themselves in the various characters they can identify with - characters that are courageous, that don’t see their own worth, ones that are proud of who they are (most of the time), who are witty. None of my characters are perfect, and they struggle and make mistakes despite their immortal status, and yet they still strive for what they believe is right. I believe people can relate to that.