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drmaqazi · 10 months ago

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POLITICS AT THE BENCH SCALE

The Pakistani Judiciary’s Ambitions and Interventions in so-called Islamic Republic of Pakistan

SUMMARY:

Over the last few decades, Pakistan’s courts have carved themselves a political role in addition to their legal one. As the country’s opposition looks to its next moves, the courts may have a key role to play.

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Politics of Opposition in South Asia

One of the most consequential features of Pakistan’s contemporary political system has been the emergence of the superior judiciary—made up of its provincial high courts, the federal court of Islamic law, and the Supreme Court—as an assertive and active center of power. Historically, Pakistan’s military was the country’s dominant power center, but with elected institutions and political parties pursuing more governing space, inter-institutional conflict has been the norm. In this competitive space, Pakistan’s superior judiciary has played a central role in Pakistan’s political system, arbitrating contestation between political elites and state elites.

Yasser Kureshi

Yasser Kureshi is a postdoctoral research fellow at Trinity College, University of Oxford. His book, Seeking Supremacy: The Pursuit of Judicial Power in Pakistan, is forthcoming with Cambridge University Press (2022).

In the past fifteen years, however, the superior judiciary has moved beyond just arbitrating political disputes to playing a tutelary role of its own within the political system: constraining the authority and vetoing the policies and actions of elected institutions in order to shape politics and policies in line with its own preferences. This newfound initiative has meant the judiciary frequently opposed, constrained, and undermined elected and unelected institutions. Opposition parties and state officials hoping to challenge civilian and military governments have turned to the increasingly assertive courts.

The superior judiciary’s central place and tutelary ambitions in Pakistan, and the challenges the body faces in its relationships with state institutions and society, were most evident in the events surrounding the end of former prime minister Imran Khan’s government this year. The Supreme Court compelled Khan to face a parliamentary no-confidence vote from a coalition of opposition parties by ruling that his efforts to block the vote and call early elections were unconstitutional. The decision polarized public opinion between those who thought the court protected the constitutional order and those who viewed the move as “a judicial coup.”

Understanding this decision and its political impact requires examining how the superior judiciary evolved into and operates as a more independent and assertive actor. Through changes in the judiciary’s structure and culture, the superior judiciary has joined the military as a key, nonelected powerholder. It alternates between confronting, constraining, and collaborating with elected and nonelected centers of power as it seeks to leave its imprint on politics and policymaking, while political and military elites work to co-opt or control judges in order to align the judiciary’s burgeoning authority and ambition with their own interests and ambitions. This interplay shapes the contours of Pakistan’s politics. However, the judiciary’s interventions also raise expectations and generate political discontents, creating a complex blend of power and vulnerability from growing judicial assertion.

INSIDE THE JUDICIARY

Why did the judiciary emerge as an assertive and active center of power in Pakistan’s politics after a history of collaboration with, and deference to, the powerful civil-military bureaucracy?

First, a combination of constitutional articles and judicial innovation empowered the judiciary to intervene in the actions of other branches of government. The 1973 Constitution enhanced the judiciary’s powers of review. The Constitution granted the high courts the jurisdiction to enforce the observance of fundamental rights by state institutions. The Supreme Court could now also make orders on questions it deemed of “public importance” with reference to enforcement of fundamental rights. Public interest litigation began in the late 1980s and advanced significantly after 2006, becoming a tool the court has used to intervene in the domains of the executive and legislature in the name of public interest. The chief justice began taking on cases suo moto (in the absence of a petitioner), often based on newspaper and television reports. The discretion about when to use suo moto powers lay with the chief justice, enabling them to respond to popular sentiments and maximize the court’s visibility and impact.

Second, the judiciary separated itself from the executive, taking control of judicial appointments from the executive. The formal role of executive institutions was first reduced through judicial action in the 1990s and then again through a constitutional amendment in 2010. The Judicial Commission for handling judicial appointments and promotions is composed of multiple stakeholders, but it is dominated by the chief justices of the Supreme Court and high courts.

Third, high court judges are primarily recruited from a legal profession where the legal culture has increasingly eschewed procedural restraint and favored confrontation with executive leadership, whether elected or military. In the democratic decade of the 1990s, where political parties were weakly institutionalized and inter-institutional conflict was the norm, the fragmented political landscape and growing prominence of courts as sites for managing political disputes generated a perception among judges and lawyers regarding the limited legitimacy of the state’s political leadership and the potential for the judiciary to shape national politics and policies.This combination—new jurisdictional discretion, executive separation from the judiciary, judicialization of politics, and a shifting legal culture—helped move the judiciary in a more ambitious, confrontational direction.

With the judiciary impacting and intervening in political processes and outcomes, the role and authority of chief justices has become especially significant. Beyond public interest litigation and judicial appointments, the chief justices of the high courts and Supreme Court also came to decide when cases would be accepted for hearings and how many and which judges heard those cases. Thus, chief justices can set their court’s agenda and indirectly impact case outcomes through bench selection. Given the judiciary’s centralized structure, a pliable chief justice co-opted by the military or a political party can now significantly impact the jurisprudence of a particular court.

However, the judiciary’s close relationship with bar associations complicates the efforts of military and political elites to co-opt and control the judiciary. As judges train and socialize as professional lawyers, the lawyers of the bar are the primary audiences with which judges seek to build their reputations. The bar has become politically engaged and effectively mobilized around political and professional issues. The bar’s propensity for collective action and disruption was most apparent in the Lawyers’ Movement in 2007, and it can act as a counterweight against efforts by political and military leaders to tame the judiciary. Recognizing this, political parties and the military increasingly expend their efforts to pressure and persuade bar leaders to indirectly influence judges. The close, though often antagonistic, ties between the bar and the bench as well as the overlapping legal culture have each played some role in shaping the judiciary’s increasingly confrontational direction.

THE JUDICIARY AND THE TWO EXECUTIVES

How did shifts within the judiciary impact its relationship with executive institutions? Historically, the superior judiciary was seen by democrats as the junior partner of the military, providing the military’s political actions with legal cover. During the 1990s, Pakistan’s national politics were shaped by relationships among three offices that came to be known as the “troika”: the prime minister, the president, and the chief of army staff. The clashes between the elected executive office led by the prime minister and the unelected executive leadership in the presidency and the military regularly resulted in constitutional disputes until the 1999 coup through which General Pervez Musharraf took over the presidency.

From the 1990s onward, for the reasons outlined earlier, the courts gradually began to chart a more independent and interventionist direction, culminating in a confrontation between the superior judiciary and Musharraf’s regime in 2007. An interventionist Supreme Court challenged the regime’s core interests, including Musharraf’s power to remain president while being chief of army staff, prompting the regime to suspend Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and attempt to purge the judiciary. Judges resisted, and lawyers mobilized in support of the superior judiciary, galvanizing a national movement for democracy that led to Musharraf’s downfall. The court’s resistance and impact on Musharraf’s regime solidified the superior judiciary as a power center in its own right.

After Musharraf’s exit and with the return of elected civilian rule, judges began to play a tutelary role of their own in the political system, challenging what they saw as the excesses and corruption of Pakistan’s other power centers. A “new troika” emerged in Pakistan’s democratic politics: the prime minister, the chief of army staff, and the chief justice of Pakistan. Shifting alignments and conflicts between these three officeholders shaped national politics during this decade.The superior judiciary, especially the Supreme Court, adopted the mission of improving governance and combating corruption by intervening in, and frequently overruling, bureaucratic transfers and postings in order to limit the interference of elected politicians in unelected bureaucracies. The courts also formulated policy on socioeconomic issues and went after the political leadership of the ruling parties, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), in corruption cases. The Supreme Court’s focus on political corruption and expansive interpretation of its authority led to the removal of two elected prime ministers, Yousuf Gilani and Nawaz Sharif. While political and administrative corruption were serious issues that needed to be dealt with, repeated judicial interventions in the domain of executive and legislative institutions undermined elected civilian supremacy.In contrast, there were relatively fewer confrontations between the military and judiciary after 2010. The Supreme Court not only enabled the military’s role in internal security as part of the war on terror, but it also gave itself a role in overseeing aspects of these operations. Courts attempted to establish certain redlines against political interference by the military, even charging the now-deposed Musharraf with treason for his past actions, but the courts did not push for the implementation of military-related judgments the way they did in civilian government–related judgments.

The judiciary’s stance against the military’s political interventions and its interference in the civilian executive and legislature were the essential pieces of its jurisprudential strategy to carve out a role as the country’s legitimate intervening authority. It adopted the military’s self-serving, anti-corruption rhetoric and used constitutional and popular support to legitimize itself in this role. The courts’ tactics, combined with their softer approach toward the military, left democracy unconsolidated and after 2017 weakened the system of elected government and facilitated the military’s return to political primacy—to the detriment of both democracy and judicial independence.

THE JUDICIARY AND THE SAME-PAGE REGIME

In 2017, the military leadership, several senior judges of the Supreme Court, and the political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)—developed a consensus that different players in the political system needed to be brought onto the same page with institutional stakeholders aligned around a common platform. These stakeholders agreed that the root of Pakistan’s problems was a corrupt political class personified by the leaders of the mainstream political parties (the PML-N and the PPP). The solution was to rescue state institutions from their control and influence, by any means necessary.

From 2017 to 2018, the Supreme Court’s anti-corruption jurisprudence focused on the PPP and PML-N, often hearing petitions brought against them by PTI members. This concentration led to the disqualification of these party’s leaders from political office, including Sharif. Led by Khan, the populist PTI benefited from these disqualifications. The party hitched its wagon to the court’s interventions, using the court’s judgments to validate PTI claims that mainstream political parties were corrupt. Khan’s popular appeal, the Supreme Court’s anti-corruption jurisprudence, and the military’s efforts to engineer the election in the PTI’s favor helped ensure the party’s victory in 2018. With the elected, military, and judicial leadership aligned around key political questions, the new political arrangement was popularly known as the same-page regime. Under the PTI, military authority and influence across state institutions grew substantially, and democratic backsliding took hold with increasing suppression of opposition and dissent. It seemed the new troika in Pakistani politics was the prime minister, the chief of army staff, and the director-general of the Inter-Services Intelligence.

The military was happy to allow the assertion of court powers as long as judges exercised those powers against the elected executive and legislature. While some judges willingly aligned with the military in regulating political branches, judges also came under the growing influence of an increasingly authoritarian executive and its surveillance apparatus. As the public profile of judges grew, they became more vulnerable to threats from executive agencies holding information that could tarnish their reputations and careers. Through a combination of an alignment of interests between judicial and executive elites and executive pressure on judges, a sizeable faction of judges became unwilling to confront military power.

Members of opposition parties, including the PPP and PML-N, spent time in and out of court hearings and prison cells on corruption charges. With many judges under executive influence, the likelihood that a high court would uphold a detention order or reject a bail petition for an opposition member could almost be predicted by the state of relations between the ruling leadership and that opposition party. While the Supreme Court remained relatively restrained toward federal executive institutions during the PTI’s rule, it routinely clashed with the PPP’s provincial government in Sindh Province. The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution enhanced provincial authority and autonomy, but federal political and bureaucratic elites that opposed the PPP found the superior judiciary a useful tool to constrain Sindh’s government. During the pandemic especially, the Supreme Court chastised the PPP’s government and made observations regarding the limits of provincial autonomy. Such communication from the court chipped away at provincial discretion in critical policy areas.

However, some judges were less willing to acquiesce to autocratization. The Islamabad and Peshawar High Courts, led by more independently minded chief justices, became important sites for opposition parties and dissenters to push back against the worst excesses of executive institutions. In the Supreme Court there was growing polarization between judges who were willing to align with the political and military leadership and those who were not. These fissures became most apparent in the case of Justice Qazi Faez Isa. Isa’s willingness to confront military interference in politics made him a target, and a reference was filed with the Supreme Court to have him removed for alleged financial misconduct. During the proceedings, some judges who sided with the executive called for judicial accountability, while others who sided with Isa called this reference an attack on judicial independence. Ultimately, Isa’s supporters on the bench quashed the case against him, but polarization within the judiciary was now evident, as were the judiciary’s and the bar’s growing fatigue with increasing autocratization and the court’s legitimacy crisis caused by its enabling this autocratization.

By 2021, the military leadership’s relationship with Khan frayed, providing an opportunity for opposition parties to push back against the PTI and leading to the parliament’s April 2022 vote of no confidence in Khan. When Khan attempted to block that vote, it was apparent that the military was not siding with the PTI, but there was concern that several judges on the bench who were involved in judgments that helped bring the PTI to power might still rule in the PTI’s favor. Khan’s defense for blocking Parliament’s vote rested on flimsy legal grounds, including foreign conspiracy allegations, restrictions on judicial power to intervene in parliamentary matters, and the necessity of allowing elections in the so-called national interest. But the tutelary court was disinclined to accept limitations on its prerogative to intervene in parliamentary matters. And given that the foreign conspiracy allegation remained unsubstantiated, and that there was a widespread legal consensus that Khan’s actions amounted to an attack on the constitutional order, ruling in Khan’s favor would have further damaged the court’s legitimacy with the legal community. Bar leaders and several judges pushed the chief justice to take notice of Khan’s actions. The court’s reopening at midnight on the night of the vote, on the Supreme Court Bar Association’s advice, was intended as a show of strength by the court to enforce compliance by a recalcitrant PTI. But it convinced PTI supporters of judicial bias.

The judiciary’s tutelary role and associated political interventions helped to both establish and dismantle the same-page hybrid—but they also exposed the judiciary to threats to its authority and legitimacy.

TOWARD ELECTIONS AND BEYOND

Moving forward, the courts may continue to play a critical role in shaping the rocky road to Pakistan’s next elections and beyond. When courts wade into the resolution of major political questions, some stakeholders are likely to be disappointed by their decisions; judges risk damaging their credibility and legitimacy with those constituencies. As Khan’s supporters mobilized around the country after his ouster, Khan questioned the court’s motives, leading PTI supporters to enact a smear campaign against judges. Large segments of the bar saw the court’s actions as an affirmation of constitutionalism in the face of a populist assault on constitutional norms. However, outside the legal community, Pakistan’s broader urban middle classes have long supported Khan’s anti-corruption populism. Thus, judges will have to balance the conflicting expectations of their core constituencies: their professional networks in the legal community and their social networks of urban, middle-class households.

Judicial reputations and legitimacy are being tested by a range of political litigation coming to the courts during this complicated and contested transition. Already, we have seen legal proceedings over the chief ministership and governorship in Punjab, the fate of elected representatives who turn on their party’s leadership, the delimitation process for electoral constituencies, and the treatment of PTI staff, to name a few. As the PTI amplifies its claims of a foreign-instigated conspiracy and demands immediate elections, the PTI is inviting courts to review the judgment on the no-confidence vote, proceed on corruption charges against PML-N leaders, challenge the electoral commission, facilitate prompt new elections, investigate Khan’s allegations of a foreign conspiracy, and ensure Khan can hold protests and sit-ins in the capital city unencumbered. Meanwhile, as the new PML-N-led government seeks to consolidate power, it is looking to pursue charges of corruption and treason against PTI leaders in the courts and wants courts to handle PTI petitions in ways that allow for stability in the political transition.

The PTI has honed a strategy of pressuring judges through social media. As the party files court petitions, its social media activists cast aspersions against judges for not taking up their petitions promptly or not giving them a fair hearing. Pakistan’s unelected judges and generals are less vulnerable to electoral pressures than they are to pressures from their social, professional, and institutional networks. Targeting judicial reputations within pro-PTI social networks has yielded dividends; many of the PTI’s recent petitions were heard promptly. This strategy is similar to one bar associations use: naming and shaming judges when they act against the interests of bar leaders. The current leadership of most high courts’ bar associations is opposed to the PTI (although, as time passes, more bar associations are willing to give Khan’s narrative a hearing). The growing public visibility of judges in electronic and social media has rendered them more vulnerable to reputational pressures from these constituencies.

The pressures from Khan’s effective mobilization since his removal combined with the judiciary’s continuing distrust of mainstream political parties, especially the PPP and PML-N, and an abiding judicial interest in constraining political discretion and holding politicians accountable mean that the new PML-N government cannot expect much relief from the courts. The Supreme Court, addressing Khan’s demands, ordered that there should be no withdrawal of, or government interference in, corruption proceedings against members of the new government. The Supreme Court also ruled that votes from members of a party that contradict their party leader—known as party defection—shall not be counted in a vote of no-confidence, effectively meaning that a prime minister with a party majority can never be voted out. The judges who made this ruling argued that it would deter elected politicians from supposedly trading votes for private benefits, illustrating judges’ continued distrust of politicians’ motives. Parliament has been weakened as the court has circumscribed parliamentary accountability of the political executive and weakened the model of constituency-based parliamentary representation. Military and judicial leadership appear keen on directing the state toward a political dispensation with a reformed institutional structure, perhaps with a new troika that better matches their preferences. Should the current government be replaced by a caretaker government before fresh elections, courts will likely receive petitions regarding the caretaker government’s actions from across the political spectrum, providing judges a further opportunity to maneuver political dynamics in their preferred direction—but at the risk of angering political elites aggrieved by their decisions.

The court may also hear important cases pertaining to the military, particularly regarding Musharraf’s treason conviction and the military’s internment centers and real estate empire. The relationship and divisions between the civilian and military leadership will continue to inform the judiciary’s approach to these cases.

How the judiciary deals with these challenges will also depend upon judges themselves. It is apparent many judges disapprove of traditional political parties and sympathize with Khan’s anti-corruption rhetoric, even as they opposed Khan’s blatantly unconstitutional actions in April. But there are also judges who are focused on ensuring judicial independence rather than participating in further autocratization. To predict which direction courts will take, observers can look to which judges, and their associated normative positions, are elevated to positions of authority. With the current Supreme Court leadership, the trend of constraining PML-N and PPP-led political institutions is likely to continue. But the differently minded Justice Isa is designated to be the next chief justice of Pakistan in 2023. Whoever is chief justice during Pakistan’s next elections will play a critical role in defining the judiciary’s role during the elections. Beyond this transition, some judges are concerned about how enmeshed courts are in politics and policymaking, but for now, the judiciary is unlikely to walk back from this role.

Today, the government and opposition parties court the support of both the military and the superior judiciary. Political elites criticize these institutions for overreach when the institutions intervene against their interests and celebrate the role of these institutions when the institutions act in their interests. Pakistan now has two tutelary institutions: the military and the superior judiciary. Even as the military remains the more powerful one, the interests of these two institutions, their disdain for political elites, and their relationship with each other will shape Pakistan’s political future.

REFERENCES

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pixoplanet · 11 months ago

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🍎 The Amazing Life and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton

Introduction: Unveiling Newton's Remarkable Journey

It's December 25th. To quote the greatest science communicator of our time, Neil deGrasse Tyson, "On this day long ago, a child was born who, by age 30, would transform the world. Happy Birthday, Isaac Newton," who was born this day in 1642 in Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, Lincolnshire, England. According to the Gregorian calendar, which the world uses today, Newton was actually born on January 4th, 1643. However, in Newton’s day, England used the Julian calendar, and according to that calendar, Newton was born on December 25th. Mr. Tyson and I (among others) prefer to celebrate Sir Isaac’s birthday on the Julian calendar date.

And so today we celebrate the birthday of one of the most important human beings who’s ever graced our planet. Isaac Newton was an extraordinary physicist and mathematician and is credited with laying the foundation for classical physics and jumpstarting the scientific revolution. He believed and proved that all of nature is governed by universal laws that can be expressed mathematically. Newton’s list of accomplishments are long and profound and continue to shape our understanding of the world. His influence will be felt forever.

From his early years at Cambridge University to his later role as President of the Royal Society, Newton's impact on scientific thought cannot be overstated. Sir Isaac Newton's contributions to physics, astronomy, and mathematics are unparalleled. His theories and laws revolutionized our understanding of motion, gravity, and light. Through his meticulous observations and rigorous experiments, he laid the foundation for modern science as we know it today.

So let’s celebrate the life and work of this extraordinary man and explore how his insatiable curiosity led him to unravel the mysteries of the universe. Let’s uncover the stories behind some of his most iconic discoveries, such as the laws of motion and universal gravitation and see how his relentless pursuit of knowledge forever changed our perception of reality.

Prepare to be inspired by Sir Isaac Newton's unwavering dedication to unraveling nature's secrets. His legacy continues to inspire generations of scientists and serves as a testament to what can be achieved through relentless pursuit, unwavering determination, and an insatiable thirst for knowledge.

Let’s now embark upon this fascinating journey and unveil the remarkable life and contributions of Sir Isaac Newton – a true pioneer in the annals of scientific history.

🍎 Early Life and Education: The Formative Years

Isaac's father unfortunately died two months before he was born. His mother remarried when he was three. Isaac’s stepfather died when Isaac was 12, and he was immediately pulled out of school to help run the family estate. Isaac seemed to show little promise in school anyway. His teachers described him as idle and inattentive. And Isaac soon showed he had no talent or interest in managing an estate, either.

An uncle persuaded Isaac's mother to let him go back to school. This time he must've shown some promise because after he graduated from primary school, the school's headmaster convinced Isaac's mother to send him to college. Isaac entered Cambridge’s Trinity College in 1661 at the age of 19 and began studying philosophy, science, and mathematics. He returned home in 1665 when Trinity College closed down due to a bubonic plague pandemic. Free to study whatever he wanted to while at home, he gobbled up all the mathematics texts he could lay his hands on. During this time, Isaac developed calculus and different theories on optics.

When Isaac returned to Cambridge in 1667, his newly-developed mathematical prowess was evident to all. His professors marveled at his ability to grasp complex concepts with ease and solve intricate problems effortlessly.

But it wasn't just his exceptional mathematical abilities that now set Isaac apart. His insatiable curiosity drove him to delve into fields of knowledge well beyond the confines of the classroom. He voraciously consumed more books on science, literature, and philosophy, expanding his horizons and developing a well-rounded understanding of the world.

🍎 Universal Laws of Motion: Revolutionizing Physics

The Universal Laws of Motion that Newton formulated have revolutionized the fields of physics and mechanics. These laws provide a fundamental understanding of how objects move and interact with one another.

The First Law of Motion, also known as the Law of Inertia, states that an object at rest will remain at rest, and an object in motion will continue moving at a constant velocity unless acted upon by an external force. This concept has paved the way for our understanding of momentum.

The Second Law of Motion is known as the Law of Acceleration. It introduces the relationship between force, mass, and acceleration. It states that the acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the net force acting upon it and is inversely proportional to its mass. This law enables us to calculate how much force is needed to accelerate or decelerate an object.

Lastly, the Third Law of Motion is known as the Law of Action-Reaction. It states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This principle explains why objects exert forces on each other when they come into contact.

Newton's Universal Laws of Motion have shaped our understanding of physics and have truly revolutionized our comprehension of how objects move in space. And they continue to have practical applications across numerous contemporary scientific disciplines such as engineering, robotics, and space exploration. They serve as a foundation for designing efficient machinery, predicting celestial movements, and even explaining everyday phenomena like walking and throwing a ball.

🍎 Universal Law of Gravitation: Unlocking the Secrets of Celestial Bodies

Newton’s development of the three Universal Laws of Motion led him to formulate his Universal Law of Gravitation — a groundbreaking theory that has revolutionized our understanding of celestial bodies and their interactions. This law describes the gravitational force between any two objects in the universe, enabling us to unlock the secrets of planetary motion and other cosmic phenomena.

Through its elegant simplicity and yet immense explanatory power, the Universal Law of Gravitation transformed our perception of gravity and its influence on celestial bodies. Newton theorized that a smaller object doesn't actually orbit around a larger object, but that the two bodies orbit around their common center of gravity. With this realization and ever-more precise measurements of the sun and planets, his model of the solar system has continued to become more and more accurate over the years.

One of the most famous anecdotes associated with Newton is, of course, the story of him watching an apple fall from a tree as he was gazing at the moon. It’s said that this event sparked Newton's curiosity about why objects fall towards the Earth, leading him to develop the Universal Law of Gravitation. This simple observation paved the way for a profound understanding of how gravity not only governs our everyday lives, but also shapes the movements and behavior of every object in the universe. It serves as a testament to human curiosity and ingenuity in uncovering nature's secrets while reminding us that even seemingly ordinary occurrences can lead to extraordinary discoveries.

Newton’s Universal Law of Gravitation continues to be a cornerstone in astrophysics and cosmology, guiding our exploration and expanding our knowledge of the cosmos. By comprehending and applying this law of nature, scientists through the years have been able to unravel mysteries surrounding planetary orbits, predict astronomical events with precision, and even explore outer space.

🍎 Optics: Shedding Light on the Nature of Color

Newton's groundbreaking experiments with light have played a pivotal role in unraveling the mysteries of optics and color. At the time, scholars hotly debated the subject of whether or not color was an intrinsic property of light. Newton settled the debate in 1665 when he invented the prism and discovered that white light is composed of a spectrum of colors. By passing a beam of sunlight through a prism, Newton observed how it refracted into its constituent colors, creating a beautiful display which we now call the color spectrum.

This experiment revolutionized our understanding of light and demonstrated that different wavelengths correspond to different colors. It not only shed light on the nature of color but also paved the way for further exploration in the field of optics. His own continued experimentation led Newton to construct the world's first practical reflecting telescope in 1668.

The discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton about the nature of light have been instrumental in expanding and enriching our scientific knowledge. They continue to shape scientific advancements and inspire scientists and researchers to delve deeper into the intricacies of optics and its applications.

Our understanding of how light interacts with various materials has led to the development of innovative technologies like lasers and fiber optics. These inventions have had a profound impact on numerous fields such as communication, photography, lighting design, and even art. By comprehending how light behaves and how colors are perceived by our eyes, we’ve gained valuable insights into how we can manipulate these elements for practical purposes and creative expression in various aspects of our daily lives.

🍎 Mathematics: Pioneering Concepts Still Used Today

Sir Isaac Newton’s contributions to the field of mathematics are nothing short of remarkable. His groundbreaking work in calculus has had a lasting impact on the field and continues to be used today.

Newton's development of calculus revolutionized mathematical thinking and provided a powerful tool for solving complex problems. His concepts, such as differentiation and integration, laid the foundation for modern mathematical analysis.

These pioneering mathematical concepts are still widely in use in various fields from physics to economics. They allow us to understand and model intricate systems, make predictions, and solve real-world problems. His contributions continue to shape our understanding of the world around us and serve as a testament to the power and beauty of mathematics. When sending a probe to the outskirts of the solar system, NASA scientists don't rely on Einstein's relativity to work out the math – they use Newtonian physics equations.

🍎 Legacy and Impact: How the Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton Shaped Modern Science as We Know It

Sir Isaac Newton has unquestionably secured his place in history. He's widely regarded as one of the most important people who's ever lived. His contributions to science have left an indelible mark on our understanding of the natural world. His groundbreaking work in physics and mathematics continues to shape modern science as we know it, as many of his ideas still hold true and his equations are still in use today.

One of the most significant aspects of Newton’s legacy is his influence on future scientists and thinkers. His Universal Laws of Motion and Gravitation, along with his invention of calculus revolutionized the fields of physics and mathematics, providing a solid foundation for subsequent scientific discoveries. Newton's rigorous approach to experimentation and mathematical reasoning set new standards for scientific inquiry, inspiring generations of researchers to follow in his footsteps.

Furthermore, Newtonian physics has had a profound impact on technology advancements. From the Industrial Revolution to space exploration, his work has provided the framework for engineering marvels that have transformed society. Scientists and engineers continue to apply the principles derived from Newton's work as they make further advancements in various modern fields such as aerospace engineering, robotics, and telecommunications.

Newton was revered during his own lifetime as the culminating figure of the Scientific Revolution and has since gone on to inspire and influence many scientists who have stood upon his shoulders to see even farther — Edmund Halley, James Clerk Maxwell, Ernst Mach, Albert Einstein, Edwin Hubble, Richard Feynman, Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and on and on.

It’s truly remarkable how Sir Isaac Newton's ideas continue to shape our present and future. His intellectual prowess and dedication to scientific pursuit have paved the way for countless breakthroughs that have propelled humanity forward. We owe an enormous debt of gratitude to this brilliant man whose legacy will forever be intertwined with modern science and technology. ☮️ Peace… Jamiese

📚 Sources:

#isaac newton #sir isaac newton #isaac newton quote #isaac newton telescope #happy birthday isaac newton

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gcdresmethods · 1 year ago

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The end of Astronauts, Robotic Space Missions and Our Future on Earth & Beyond

By Martin Rees

This book is about how robots are the best option for space exploration -Mars-, asteroid mining or research. There are several reasons such as cost: sending humans is very expensive as they would need 200-day provisions and spend extra money on making launching more secure.

It talks about robots that had been sent to space, like Perseverance which had enough AI to diverse if there’s a rock in its path, the robot before that couldn’t do it, would have to send information to earth to receive instructions on how to move.

It also talks about there is no planet B. Even if life in Mars can be achievable by the end of the century it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t care about problems on earth which are more difficult to deal with than sending people to Mars.

Tax money shouldn’t be use for sending humans, either if its asteroid mining, exploration, moon or pure research. And being private it doesn’t need consensus. Maybe some rules need to be settled. In the early stages when numbers are small there’s no need to think much about this (rules). If there’s life in Mars maybe laws to protect it like in Antarctica but not otherwise, at least for now.

Questions addressed.

The questions were very focused and straight forward so that the author could explain the content of his book and directed him into specific themes and follow up so that the interview had a good flow of information.

What is your take on private space exploration?

What is the process in developing better and smarter robots for space exploration?

What is your view on space exploration and making human being safe from extinction?

How should we prioritize space exploration?

What do we need to do (baby steps) to achieve sending pioneers in Mars by the end of the century?

You think we will need new laws? Ethical, political or social frameworks?

About the author.

Martin Rees is an English cosmologist and astrophysicist. He became one of the world’s leading authorities on the big-bang theory and on the related topics of black holes, quasars, galaxy formation, etc. Rees holds several studies in Trinity College, Cambridge Princeton and Harvard. He directed the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge and then became Royal Society Research Professor at Cambridge. He was awarded the Crafoord Prize and Templeton Prize. (Kellner, 2023)

Why I chose this book.

Space and Astronomy related themes have been always of interest to me. Thinking about what is out there and how we have -as humanity- explored a minimum part yet get to know so many other aspects by observation and research will always be fascinating to me. Listening to the knowledge that someone like Dr. Martin Rees has to share through a very clear and thorough interview was very enjoyable and entertaining.

Bibliography

“The End of Astronauts, Robotic Space Missions and Our Future on Earth & Beyond with Prof Martin Rees” (2019). Bridging the Gaps: A Portal for Curious Minds. [Podcast] Available at: https://on.soundcloud.com/tLwh42hxWBN66QBJ7

Kellner, Peter. "Martin Rees". Encyclopedia Britannica, 19 Jun. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Martin-Rees. Accessed 5 October 2023.

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diaryquoteschannel · 1 year ago

Link

Isaac Newton - Inspirational Quotes and Short Biography

#quotes #inspiration #motivational #biography #isaac newton

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sunshineandlyrics · 1 year ago

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Link to their website x

tcdlawsoc WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME 💘💘

LawSoc is backkkkk.

We know you're all buzzing to see what events are coming this year!

Here's a quick preview of a few events we have on the books!

We have a jam packed year ahead, full of speakers, competitions and some of the best nights out on campus 🕺

LawSoc has something for everyone, so be sure to keep an eye on our socials for all our fantastic Freshers events and much much more…

We can’t wait to welcome you all back to campus along with all our new Freshers!

You can sign-up to be a member for the 23/24 college year through the link in our bio. 🦋

Live, laugh lawve,

90 x

[Louis will be a guest at a Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland) Law Soc event this coming year! Posted to Instagram 12.9.2023]

#this sounds really interesting #I would love to hear Louis talk about any subject formally like this #Louis Tomlinson #trinity college #Dublin law society #12 September 2023 #speaker series #plus #mine

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dailytomlinson · 11 months ago

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Louis with members of The DU Law Society of Trinity College and his Praeses Elit Awards in Dublin - post 11.01

#louis tomlinson #trinity college

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shadowspellchecker · 1 year ago

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Two “established” or tax-supported churches were conspicuous in 1775: the Anglican church and the Congregational church. A considerable segment of the population did not worship in any church; and in those colonies that maintained an “established” religion, only a minority of the people belonged to it.

The Church of England, whose members were commonly called Anglicans, became the official faith in Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and a part of New York. Established also in England, it served in America as a major prop of kingly authority; British officials naturally made vigorous attempts to impose it on additional colonies (ran into wall of opposition). In America the Anglican Church fell distressingly short of its promise; secure and self-satisfied, like its parent in England, it clung to a faith that was less fierce and more worldly than the religion of Puritanical New England (sermons were shorter; hell less scorching; and amusements, like hunting, were less scorned). So dismal was the reputation of the Anglican clergy in seventeenth-century Virginia that the College of William and Mary was founded in 1693 to train a better class of clerics for the church

The influential Congregational Church, which had grown out of the Puritan Church, was formally established in all the New England colonies, except independent-minded Rhode Island. At first Massachusetts taxed residents to support Congregationalism but later relented and exempted members of other denominations. Presbyterianism, though closely associated, was never made official. Ministers of the gospel, from the Bible to world, grappled burning political issues; as the start revolution against the British crown could be heard, sedition flowed free from pulpits; Presbyterianism, Congregationalism, and rebellion became a neo-trinity.

Many leading Anglican clergymen, aware of which side their tax-provided bread was buttered on, naturally supported their king. Anglicans in the New World were seriously handicapped by not having a resident bishop, whose presence would be convenient for the ordination of young ministers (had to travel to England to be ordained). On the eve of the Revolution there was serious talk of creating an American bishopric, but the scheme was violently opposed by many non-Anglicans, who feared a tightening of the royal reins

Religious toleration had indeed made enormous strides in America. Roman Catholics were still generally discriminated against, as in England, even in office-holding; but there were fewer Catholics in America, and hence the anti-papist laws were less severe. The anti-papist laws were also less strictly enforced; and in general, people could worship, or not worship, as they pleased

In all the colonial churches, religion was less fervid in the early eighteenth century than it had been a century earlier, in the beginning. The Puritan churches in particular sagged under the weight of two burdens: their elaborate theological doctrines and their compromising efforts to liberalize membership requirements. Churchgoers increasingly complained about the “dead dogs” who droned out tedious, overerudite sermons from Puritan pulpits. Some ministers, on the other hand, worried that many of their parishioners had gone soft and that their souls were no longer kindled by the hellfire of orthodox Calvinism; liberal ideas began to challenge the old-time religious beliefs of churchgoers. Some worshipers now proclaimed that human beings were not necessarily predestined to damnation and might save themselves by good works; even more threatening were the doctrines of the Arminians, follows of Dutch theologian Jacobus Arminius, who preached that individual free will determined a person’s eternal fate. Pressured by these “heresies,” a few churches grudgingly conceded that spiritual conversion was not necessary for church membership; together these twin trends toward clerical intellectualism and lay liberalism were sapping the spiritual vitality from denominations.

The stage was thus set for a rousing religious revival. Known as the Great Awakening, it exploded in the 1730s and 1740s and swept through the colonies like a fire through prairie grass. The Awakening was first ignited in Northampton, Massachusetts by an intellectual pastor, Jonathan Edwards; perhaps the deepest theological mind in America, Edwards proclaimed with burning righteousness the folly of believing in salvation through good works and affirmed need for complete dependence on God’s grace. Warming to his subject, he painted in lurid detail the landscape of hell and the eternal torments of the damned—“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” was the title of one of his most famous sermons. Edwards’s preaching style was learned and closely reasoned, but his stark doctrines sparked a warmly sympathetic reaction among his parishioners in 1734; four years later English parson George Whitefield loosed a different style of preaching on America and touched off a conflagration of religious ardor that revolutionized spiritual life. A former alehouse attendant, Whitefield was an orator of rare gifts. His magnificent voice boomed sonorously over thousands of enthralled listeners in an open field (many were envious of him). Triumphantly touring the colonies, Whitefield trumpeted his message of human helplessness of divine omnipotence; during those roaring revival meetings, many sinners professed conversion. Whitefield soon inspired American imitators (style of preaching). Orthodox clergymen, known as “old lights,” were deeply skeptical of the emotionalism and the theatrical antics of the revivalists; “new light” ministers, defended the Awakening for its role in revitalizing religion. Congregationalists and Presbyterians split over this issue, and many of the believers in religious conversion went over to the Baptists and other sects more prepared to make room for emotion in religion

6. The Awakening left many lasting effects; its emphasis on direct, emotive spirituality seriously undermined the older clergy, whose authority had derived from their education and erudition

a. The schisms it set off in many denominations greatly increased the numbers and the competitiveness of American churches

b. It encouraged a fresh wave of missionary work among the Indians and even among black slaves, many of whom had to attend revivals

c. It led to the founding of “new light” centers of higher learning such as Princeton, Brown, Rutgers, and Dartmouth

d. Perhaps most significant, the Great Awakening was the first spontaneous mass movement of the American people; it tended to break down sectional boundaries as well as denominational lines and contributed to the growing sense that Americans had of themselves as a single people, united by a common history

I. Schools and Colleges

1. A time-honored English idea regarded education as a blessing reserved for the aristocratic few, not for the unwashed many; education should be for leadership, not citizenship, and primarily for males; only slowly and painfully did the colonists break the chains of these restrictions

2. Puritan New England, largely for religious reasons, was more zealously interested in education than any other section of the colonies

a. Dominated by the Congregational Church, it stressed the need for Bible reading by the individual worshiper; the primary goal of the clergy was to make good Christians rather than good citizens

b. Education, principally for boys, flourished almost from the outset in New England; this densely populated region boasted an impressive number of graduates from the English universities, especially Cambridge, the intellectual center of England’s Puritanism

c. New Englanders, relatively early, established primary and secondary schools, which varied widely in the quality of instruction and in the length of time that their doors remained open each year

d. Back-straining farm labor drained much of youths’ time and energy

3. Fairly adequate elementary schools were also hammering knowledge into the heads of reluctant “scholars” in the middle colonies and South

a. Some of these institutions were tax-supported; others were privately operated; the South, with its white and black population diffused over wide areas, was severely handicapped logically in attempting to establish an effective school system (wealth families had tutors)

b. The general atmosphere in the colonial schools and colleges continued grim and gloomy; most emphasis was placed on religion and on the classical languages, Latin and Greek

c. The focus was not on experiment and reason, but on doctrine and dogma; the age of one of orthodoxy, and independence of thinking was discouraged—discipline was quite severe (whipping occurred)

4. College education was regarded—at least at first in New England—as more important that instruction in the ABCs; churches would wither if a new crop of ministers was not trained to lead the spiritual flocks

5. Many well-to-do families, especially in the South, sent their boys abroad to English institutions in order to receive a college education

6. For purposes of convenience and economy, nine local colleges were established during the colonial era—Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, Princeton, Pennsylvania, Columbia, Brown, Rutgers, and Dartmouth

a. Student enrollments were small, numbering about 200 boys; at one time, a few lads as young as eleven were admitted to Harvard

b. Instruction was poor by present-day standards and the curriculum was still heavily loaded with theology and the “dead” languages

c. A significant contribution was made by Benjamin Franklin, who played a major role in launching what became the University of Pennsylvania, the first college free from denominational control

J. A Provincial Culture

1. When it came to art and culture, colonial Americans were still in thrall to European tastes, especially British; the simplicity of pioneering life had not yet bred many homespun patrons of the arts

a. Like so many of his talented artistic contemporaries, Trumbull was forced to travel to London to pursue his ambitions

b. Charles Willson Peale best known for his portraits of George Washington, ran a museum, stuffed birds, and practiced dentistry

c. Gifted Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley succeeded in their ambition to become famous painters, but like Trumbull they had to go to England to complete their training

d. Only abroad could they find subjects who had the leisure to sit for their portraits and the money to pay handsomely for them

e. Copley was regarded as a Loyalist during the Revolutionary War, and West, a close friend of George II and official court painter, was buried in London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral following his death

2. Architecture was largely imported from the Old World and modified to meet the peculiar climatic and religious conditions of the New World

a. Even the lowly log cabin was apparently borrowed from Sweden

b. The red-bricked Georgian style, so common in the pre-Revolutionary decades, was introduced about 1720 and is best exemplified by the beauty of now-restored Williamsburg, Virginia

3. Colonial literature, like art, was generally undistinguished, and for much the same reasons; one noteworthy exception was the poet Phillis Wheatley, a slave girl in Boston at eight and never formally educated

a. Taken to England when she was twenty, she published a verse book and subsequently wrote polished poems that revealed the influence of Alexander Pope; her verse were one of the best of the period

b. The remarkable fact is that she could overcome her severely disadvantaged background and write poetry at all

4. Versatile Benjamin Franklin, often called “the first civilized American,” also shone as a literary light among other things

a. Although his autobiography is a classic, he was best known to his contemporaries for Poor Richard’s Almanack (edited 1732 to 1758)

b. This publication, containing many pithy sayings culled from the thinkers of the ages, emphasized such virtues as thrift, industry, morality, and common sense—Honesty is the best policy, plough deep while sluggards sleep, and fish and visitors stink in three days

c. Poor Richard’s was well known in Europe and was more widely read in America than anything except the Bible (teacher of old and young, Franklin had influence in shaping the American character)

5. Science, rising above the shackles of superstition, was making some progress, though lagging behind the Old World’s progress

a. A few botanists, mathematicians, and astronomers had won some repute, but Benjamin Franklin was perhaps the only first-rank scientists produced in the American colonies

b. Franklin’s spectacular but dangerous experiments, including the famous kite-flying episode proving that lightning was a form of electricity, won him numerous honors in Europe

c. But his mind also had a practical turn, and among his numerous inventions were bifocal spectacles and the highly efficient stove

d. His lightning rod, not surprisingly was condemned by some stodgy clergymen who felt it was “presuming on God” by attempting to control the “artillery of the heavens” (the lightning)

K. Pioneer Presses

1. Americans were generally too poor to buy quantities of books and too busy to read them; however a few private libraries of fair size could be found, especially among the clergy and rich families in the colonies

a. The Byrd family of Virginia enjoyed perhaps the largest collection in the colonies, consisting of about four thousand volumes

b. Bustling Benjamin Franklin established in Philadelphia the first privately supported circulating library in America; and by 1776 there were about fifty public libraries and collections available

2. Hand-operated printing presses cranked out pamphlets, leaflets, and journals; on the eve of the Revolution, there were about forty colonial newspapers, chiefly weeklies that consisted of a single large sheet

a. Columns ran heavily to somber essays, frequently signed with pseudonyms and the “news” often lagged many weekends behind the event especially in the case of oversea happenings

b. Newspapers proved to be a powerful agency for airing colonial grievances an rallying oppositions to the British crown’s control

3. A celebrated legal case, in 1734-1735, involved John Peter Zenger, a newspaper printer; significantly, the case arose in New York, reflecting the tumultuous give-and-take of politics in the middle colonies

a. Zenger’s newspaper had assailed the corrupt royal governor; charged with seditious libel, the accused was hauled to court where he was defended by a former indentured servant, Andrew Hamilton

b. Zenger argued that he had printed the truth but the royal chief justice instructed the jury not to consider the truth or falsity; the fact of printing, irrespective of the truth, was enough to convict

c. Hamilton countered that “the very liberty of both exposing and opposing arbitrary power” was at stake; swayed by his eloquence, the jurors defied the judges and returned a verdict of not guilty

4. The Zenger decision was a banner achievement for freedom of the press and for the health of democracy; it pointed the way to the kind of open public discussion required by the diverse society that colonial New York already was and that all America was to become

5. Although contrary to existing law and not immediately accepted by other judges and juries, in time it helped establish the doctrine that true statements about public officials could not be prosecuted as libel

6. Newspapers were thus eventually free to print responsible criticism of powerful officials though full freedom of press was unknown for a time

L. The Great Game of Politics

1. American colonists were making noteworthy contributions to politics

a. The thirteen colonial governments took a variety of forms; by 1775, eight colonies had royal governors, who were appointed by the king

b. Three—Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware—were under proprietors who themselves chose the governors; two, Connecticut and Rhode Island, elected their governors under self-governing rule

2. Practically every colony utilized a two-house legislative body

a. The upper house, or council, was normally appointed by the crown in the royal colonies and by the proprietor in the proprietary colonies; it was chosen by the voters in the self-governing colonies

b. The lowerhouse, as the popular branch, was elected by the people—or rather by those who owned enough property to qualify as voters

c. In several of the colonies, the backcountry elements were seriously underrepresented, and they hated the ruling colonial group

d. Legislatures, in which the people enjoyed direct representation, voted such taxes as they chose for the necessary expenses of colonial government—self-taxation through representation was a precious privilege that Americans had come to cherish above others

3. Governors appointed by the king were generally able men, sometimes outstanding figures; some, unfortunately, were incompetent or corrupt—broken-down politicians badly in need of jobs

a. The worst of the group was probably impoverished Lord Cornbury, first cousin of Queen Anne, who was made governor of New York and New Jersey in 1702—he was a drunkard, a spendthrift, a grafter, an embezzler, a religious bigot, and a vain fool

b. Even the best appointees had trouble with the colonial legislatures, basically because the royal governor embodied a bothersome transatlantic authority some three thousand miles away

4. The colonial assemblies found various ways to assert their authority and independence; some of them employed the trick of withholding the governor’s salary unless he yielded to their wishes (he was normally in need of money so the power of the purse usually forced him to terms)

5. The London government, in leaving the colonial governor to the tender mercies of the legislature, was guilty of poor administration

a. In the interests of simple efficiency, the British authorities should have arranged to pay him from independent sources; as events turned out, control over the purse by the colonial legislatures led to prolonged bickering, which proved to be one of the irritants that generated a spirit of revolt (Parliament’s Townshend taxes of 1767)

b. Administration at the local level was varied; county government remained the rule of the plantation South; townmeeting government predominated in New England; and a modification of the two developed in the middle colonies—in the town meetings, with its open discussion and opening voting, direct democracy functioned

6. Yet the ballot was by no means a birthright; religious or property qualifications for voting, even stiffer qualifications for office holding, existed in all the colonies at the time in the late 18th century

a. The privileged upper classes, fearful of democratic excesses, were unwilling to grant the ballot to every person in the colony

b. Perhaps half of the adults whites males were thus disfranchised but because of the ease of acquiring land and thus satisfying property requirements, the right to vote was not beyond the reach of most

c. Yet somewhat surprisingly, eligible voters did not exercise this precious privilege and frequently acquiesced in the leadership of their betters who ran colonial affairs (able to vote people out office)

7. By 1775 America was not yet a true democracy—socially, economically, or politically; but it was far more democratic than England and the European continent; colonial institutions were giving freer rein to the democratic ideals of tolerance, educational advantages, equality of economic opportunity, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and representative government

M. Colonial Folkways

1. Everyday life in the colonies was drab and tedious; for most people the labor was heavy and constant—from “can see” to “can’t see”

2. Food was plentiful, though the diet could be coarse and monotonous; Americans probably ate more bountifully, especially of meat, than any people in the Old World—Lazy/sickly was the person that was hungry

3. Basic comforts now taken for granted were lacking; churches were not heated at all; drafty homes were poorly heated, chiefly by fireplaces

a. There was no running water in the houses, no plumbing, and probably not a single bathtub in all colonial America

b. Candles and whale-oil lamps provided faint and flickering illumination; garbage disposal was so primitive that hogs ranged the streets and buzzards, protected by law, flapped over waste

4. Amusement was eagerly pursued where time and custom permitted

a. The militia assembled periodically for “musters”, which consisted of several days of drilling, liberally interspersed with merry-making

b. On the frontier, pleasure was often combined with work at house-raising, quilting bees, husking bees, and apple parings

c. Funerals and weddings everywhere afforded opportunities for social gathering, which customarily involved the swilling of much liquor

5. Winter sports were common in the North, whereas in the South card playing, horse racing, cockfighting, dancing and fox hunting

6. Over diversions beckoned; lotteries were universally approved, even by the clergy, and were used to raise money for churches and colleges

7. Stage plays became popular in the South but were frowned upon in Quaker and Puritan colonies and in some places forbidden by law; many of the New England clergy saw playacting as time-consuming and immoral—they preferred religious lectures (spiritual satisfaction)

8. Holidays were everywhere celebrated in the American colonies, but Christmas was frowned upon in New England as an offensive reminder

9. Thanksgiving Day came to be American festival for it combined thanks to God with an opportunity for jollification, gorging, and guzzling

10. By the mid-eighteenth century, Britain’s several North American colonies, despite their differences, revealed some striking similarities

a. All were basically English in language and customs, and Protestant in religion, while the widespread presence of other peoples and faiths compelled every colony to cede at least some degree of ethnic and religious toleration (as compared to contemporary Europe)

b. They all afforded to enterprising individuals unusual opportunities for social mobility; they all possessed some measure of self-government, though by no means complete democracy

c. Communication and transportation among the colonies were improving; British North America by 1775 looked like a patchwork quilt—each part slightly different, but stitched together by common origins, common ways of life, and common beliefs in toleration, economic development and above all, were somewhat self-ruled

d. Fatefully, all the colonies were also separated from the seat of imperial authority by a vast ocean some three thousand miles wide; these simple facts of shared history, culture, and geography set the stage for the colonists’ struggle to unite as an independent people

#dark shadows (1966)#historical context

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softersinned-arc · 2 years ago

Text

verses

main verses. new interactions will be put in one of these verses unless otherwise plotted.

MODERN A childhood spent in constant motion gives way to an adolescence consumed by a need for family and stability. As a teenager in London, far from her mother (who doesn’t particularly want her) in Stockholm and her grandfather (grieving the loss of his wife) in Venice, Astoria turns to her godparents in the hopes that she’ll find adults who’ll keep her. What she finds instead is adults willing to use a child as a shield. After years of abuse, Astoria takes matters into her own hands and kills them, calling on a friend to help her rebuild her life. She manages to piece together a future in the aftermath, leaning on her best friend as she does, and attends Trinity College. For a time everything seems normal: she attends university in Dublin, even meets her father, and marries her best friend, and when she returns to London it’s with a hard-earned optimism and enthusiasm for her life. As her husband’s publicist she knows best how to present the family to the world; as a member of a dangerous family she knows where the bodies are buried, in some cases literally, and her loyalty is unshakable. When her father-in-law dies and her husband becomes CEO in his wake, she only holds tighter to her determination never to be vulnerable again. Location subject to change based on the needs of the thread & blot. Extended notes here.

Shipping: Closed. Exclusive with Baldwin de Clermont.

SOLITARY WITCH In the aftermath of a tragic "accident" that leaves her godparents and temporary guardians missing, Astoria leaves to attend university in Dublin, where she meets her father for the first time. Astoria is banished from her coven after her exploration of death magic is discovered, and she begins solitary practice, buying land in upstate New York where she can focus on her experiments, and opening a small occult shop, collecting and selling magical artifacts from across Europe, many of which she’s liberated from previous owners. Operating under numerous aliases, Astoria becomes well-known for her willingness to take dangerous jobs and her excellent results. Her primary drive remains unlocking true immortality; in the meantime, she works to learn how to heal her body from the damage done by aging. Location subject to change based on the needs of the thread & plot. Extended notes here.

Shipping: Closed. Exclusive with Arthur Pruitt.

VAMPIRE Born in 1518 to an Italian noblewoman and her unnamed lover, Astoria Grim comes to represent everything her family has always valued: magic, power, and ambition. After the death of her grandmother, Astoria steps in as de facto matriarch for the family, helping her grandfather run the household until he encourages her to go to England and seek her own fortune. She is punished for revealing a treasonous faction reporting to the French king, held captive and tortured before she is made a vampire against her will. Over the centuries Astoria, under the tutelage of Baldwin Montclair, works to ensure that she can have her revenge, and that she can thrive despite all she’s lost. In the twenty-first century she appears to the world to be an antiques dealer and art collector, though in reality she is a ruthless assassin and a subtle spy, wife to the head of the de Clermont family and heavily entangled in the Congregation’s affairs. Location subject to change based on the needs of the thread & plot. Extended notes here.

Shipping: Closed. Exclusive with Baldwin Montclair.

crossovers.

THE ATLAS SIX At nineteen, Astoria Grim—a medeian with little formal training—is approached by Atlas Blakely to join a class of prospective members of the Alexandrian Society. While her magical skill is what draws the Society's attention, it's her skill in manipulation that keeps her safe. (Everyone likes to play the hero, and so she gave them the perfect damsel in distress.) Now, a decade later, she has a degree, a position teaching, and plenty of reason to visit the archives as another class is inducted.

Shipping: Open.

DC As a teenager, Astoria calls on one of her grandfather’s clients—Roman Sionis, a young entrepreneur she imagines is a friend—when she finds herself in serious trouble after her godfather dies at her hands, but her godmother survives. Roman helps hide the body with the expectation that Astoria will owe him in the future, and after college, Astoria returns to Gotham to work at Janus Corp, where her “friendship” with Roman helps her rise quickly to his head of public relations. As Roman grooms her to become a partner in his criminal enterprise, Astoria develops a plan of her own, one which ends with Roman and her godmother both dead. Mixed comics and television canon; does not incorporate any Batman or Superman content from the DCEU. Extended notes here.

Shipping: Open.

DRAGON AGE The daughter of an Avvar woman and a minor nobleman, Astoria leaves her Hold as a teenager in the hopes of seeking peace and healing after a tragedy. After spending years with her father’s family in Amaranthine, she finds herself caught in the troubles in Redcliffe, where she becomes a companion to the Warden. Years later, she attends the Conclave as her father’s representative and survives the explosion, and she reluctantly becomes the Inquisitor. Verse information, statistics, and choices found here.

Shipping: Open. Default with Ellis Cousland.

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Lady Astoria of Grimhold intended to remain as the court mage serving under her uncle, her second sight and her devoted service to the Raven Queen helpful in securing her power. An unexpected attack in the dead of night took everything from her: her magic, her connection to her patron, and even her life. When she awoke a vampire hours later it was to silence. Now, nearly a century later, she is known best as Astoria Grim, cursebreaker and academic, as she tries to find a way to repurpose the curses she untangles to get access to magic again. Currently based primarily in The Legend of Vox Machina. Extended notes found here.

Shipping: Open.

GRISHAVERSE A Fjerdan Tidemaker with an unexpected skill in manipulating the body as well, Astoria flees Djerholm at nineteen, when she’s betrayed to the drüskelle. She crosses the border to Ravka, leaving dead drüskelle in her wake. From here, Astoria can be placed in one of three verses: as a member of the Volkvolny’s crew, as a loyalist to the Darkling in the Second Army, or as a member of the Dregs in Ketterdam. Extended notes here.

Shipping: Open.

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON After the tumultuous years spent in King’s Landing under the guardianship of her godparents, claiming to try to find her a good husband and instead using her for their own political gain, Astoria returns home to Greyshield. With her mother gone and her siblings married, she steps forward to help her father handle the house’s affairs—including his alliance with the Velaryons, and growing allegiance to Daemon Targaryen. Extended notes here.

Shipping: Open. Default with Daemon Targaryen.

MARVEL The world is perpetually going to shit, which means it gets harder and harder to keep a bit of magic hidden away. Astoria walks the line between two worlds: in one she's a perfectly respectable, if eccentric, member of Trysor Inc, working with their mysterious (but legitimate) collections of artifacts. In another she's a thief, a liar, and a cheat, compounding magic and alien technology as part of independent research and to fuel her own curiosity. She doesn't like to align herself with anyone, but she is (rightfully, she insists) suspicious of any and all vigilantes.

Shipping: Open.

SHADOWHUNTERS One of Maryse Lightwood’s political proteges, Astoria is assigned to join Lydia Branwell in assessing—and, eventually, taking control of—the Brooklyn Institute. Despite orders, Astoria is determined to help the Lightwoods however she can, and remains in Brooklyn indefinitely, first to help defend the city against Valentine, and later as she grows attached to the members of the Institute.

Shipping: Open.

STAR TREK Youngest daughter of the Seventh House of Betazed, Astoria Grim joins Star Fleet in the hopes of becoming a diplomat. She quickly discovers a talent for espionage, however, thriving in cultures where lying is possible and skilled at even the most simple forms of manipulation. Emboldened by the presence of humans, Astoria instead becomes an intelligence officer, rising to the rank of Lieutenant quickly and often masquerading as entirely harmless—and, occasionally, entirely human. Based on TOS, TNG, and the reboots. Can be set in any timeline. Voyager, DS9, DIS, and Picard influence will be added as I continue watching.

Shipping: Open.

SUPERNATURAL As an amateur historian, and an ambitious and hardworking woman determined to rely on only herself, Astoria runs a small new age shop in upstate New York. As a psychic from a long family history of witchcraft and with a penchant for thievery, Astoria travels throughout the country, sometimes under the pseudonym Elizabeth Vane, obtaining and selling magical artifacts for a select clientele of hunters and collectors. While she will occasionally work with the local diocese on cases of suspected exorcism, or help clear out a haunting at a client’s request, Astoria prefers to leave the dirty work to the professionals. (It’s rumored that she has more magic than she lets on, that she can do more than access the future or manipulate perceptions, but if that’s true, she’s not telling.)

Shipping: Open.

TVDU Recruited by Klaus Mikaelson in the late nineteenth century, Astoria becomes a valued ally. However, Astoria’s loyalties become divided when she falls in love with Marcel Gerard, and she hides the truth of his survival for nearly a century. When she’s called back to New Orleans, she and Marcel are careful not to tip their hand. Years later, a girl comes to her door, calling herself Klaus’ daughter. Despite the curious gap in her memory, Astoria agrees to help her, and finds herself drawn back to the Mikaelsons again.

Shipping: Closed. Exclusive with Marcel Gerard.

THE WITCHER. Once a princess born into the ruling family of the small city-state of Grimhold, Astoria has been its court sorceress for more than a century now, returning to her home after a thorough education at Aretuza. Suspicious of any attempts to remove her from Grimhold, Astoria has remained largely apolitical, often refusing to return to Aretuza for anything. Currently under heavy construction as I continue reading the books. Primarily book-based, with some show influence as necessary.

Shipping: Open.

alternate universes.

CRIME Pain is a teacher. At fifteen Astoria witnesses her first murder, carried out at her godfather's hands, and two years later she commits her own. Knowing that she'll be at their mercy as long as Evander and Elyssa are alive, and that everything she's been forced to take part in could come back to haunt her, she plays the part of the perfect victim and frames Elyssa for Evander's murder, and an attempt on Astoria's life. Twelve years later, Astoria—successful in her own right, and seeming to all the world to be a shrewd businesswoman with a wild streak appropriate to her wealth—has used what she learned as a teenager to make sure her hands appear clean despite her thrill-seeking and the company she keeps, while the looming specter of her godmother reappearing prevents her from feeling safe, and keeps her on the move. Location and other minor details subject to change based on the needs of the thread & plot. Compatible with most verses surrounding crime or politics.

Shipping: Open.

POLITICIAN After completing a master’s degree in political science, Astoria moves to New York, where she begins working with a prominent senator, Leo Avano. Her quick thinking, silver tongue, and ruthless ambition catch his attention; she soon proves herself an invaluable member of his team for her willingness to tackle problems without a clear solution and her ability to spin anything in her favor. As Senator Avano prepares for a run for president, he purges most of his staff, only keeping on the people he trusts most — including Astoria as his campaign manager. Preferring to stay in the background, where she can have the greatest influence, Astoria is eventually made his chief of staff.

Shipping: Open. Default with Ben Callahan.

REGENCY The undisputed favorite of her grandfather, a wealthy barrister and amateur philosopher, Astoria Grim is marked by the scandalous illegitimacy of her birth, and the unknown identity of her father. Despite a lack of formal education, she is trained in all useful subjects by her grandfather. Well aware that her illegitimacy will be a serious obstacle to a good marriage, she is largely unafraid of scandal, and becomes an actress. Traveling to England to take the stage there, she hopes to locate her father and meet his family. Compatible with Austen and Bridgerton, as well as other works set in this period.

Shipping: Open.

WRITER Astoria pursues an MFA in creative writing at Columbia shortly after finishing her undergraduate work. Working briefly as an assistant to a literary agent, Astoria soon shifted her focus to her own writing. Though Astoria dabbles in and blends several genres, including science fiction, historical fiction, and mystery, she is primarily known for her romances, especially her paranormal romances. She publishes exclusively under a pen name. Her paranormal romance series becomes especially popular, earning a vocal and thriving fan community, and she becomes a fixture at literary conventions internationally, and pursues a PhD in literature at Columbia University. Location subject to change based on the needs of the thread & plot. Extended notes here.

Shipping: Open.

closed verses.

HALLMARK Luca is indulging my love for Hallmark movies. Under construction!

Shipping: Closed. Exclusive with Arthur Pruitt.

HUNTED—VAMPIRE After five hundred years of hedonism and bloody revenge, Astoria Grim is targeted by the youngest son of an old family of vampire hunters. Under construction.

Shipping: Closed. Exclusive with Ellis Cousland.

HUNTER—WITCH What starts as a matter of business and pride becomes much more personal. Under construction.

Shipping: Closed. Exclusive with Kakashi Hatake.

NIGHTBOUND A vacation in New Orleans becomes a fight for her life when Astoria is targeted by a blood wraith, saved only by the quick thinking of a vampire with an unknown patron who wants her protected. The only thing Astoria thinks she has to worry about is her survival. She ends up worried about something that comes to matter much, much more as she falls in love with Rosalie, her bodyguard.

Shipping: Closed. Exclusive with Rosalie Hale.

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