#do i mean the merchant specifically citing capitalism

[dwyervhvmead]

The LOHAS Market - 5 Copywriting Tips For Piqueing Their Interest

No question about it: A truly Green Wave is happening. Increasingly men and women are including efficient criteria in their buying decisions.

A NPD poll cited by simply Marketwatch. com within 2007 reported that will 18% of Americans explained they are thinking about purchasing "green, organic and natural or eco-friendly products".

Venture capitalist, Stuart Rudick form Conscious Capital Partners noted to me using glee that within every category - whether it become household furnishings to personal care in order to energy - efficient products are outpacing their particular conventional counterparts within sales growth.

In addition to while many merchants and manufacturers are embracing green since of the developing market, it helps make sound business sense as well. Sophier Collier, green purchase pioneer, demonstrated with all the steady returns regarding Working Asset's shared funds that environmentally friendly businesses are often inherently solid businesses for their sustainable practices.

Last but not least, many efficient people I function with report of which bottom line really just nice to feel so good concerning what you're doing each day. As someone who fits into the LOHAS market, I realize deeply the benefit of these products and I can't help experience excited by the larger, global, non-commercial implications of those modifications.

But if you will certainly tap straight into this excitement, a person have to promote the right way. Here's the few suggestions:

one Greenwashing has it is limits. To inform the truth, I don't really head greenwashing so very much. In my experience, any action, however slight in addition to even whether it's dragging the other feet, is a step towards a better foreseeable future. I'm glad to be able to see that typically the pressure is in.

But truth become told, the LOHAS market tends in order to be a suspicious group - lead by authority-questioning child boomers. So avoid just put out green messaging in order to make an impression on the marketplace without doing certain real work within the backdrop. If you're environmentally-friendly promotion is definitely insincere, there are plenty of oneself with lots involving free, unwanted promotion on blogs, by way of boycotts and more as this remarkably engaged market modifies the misconceptions.

second . Tell stories. One of the reasons behind green product's success is householder's thirst for genuine products. What carry out check mean by simply authentic? I suggest products that are usually not mass-produced, will be rooted in the culture, a craftsperson's skills; products of which are created to put up with and reach back again into legacies.

Tell about how your current product was made - the people involved. Speak about the location where typically the raw materials will be sourced. Talk about the communities engaged with manufacturing the product. This won't mean to obtain technological. What people are trying to find often is a link with other people, some other communities.

Interestingly sufficient, when asked concerning the importance involving local foods, many consumers expressed fantastic interest but even more questioning revealed that will "local" didn't always mean coming by nearby. "Local" simply meant the product had to always be rooted in a new place - the local specialty.

a few. Be specific regarding features. LOHAS individuals are label-readers and spec-comparers. Give more info that helps all of them know for sure they are buying a decent product. LOHAS individuals are willing in order to pay premium intended for environmentally-sound products, but they want to always be sure that they are not being deceived and paying added simply for some sort of label with photographs of trees on it.

4. Be crystal clear concerning the larger advantages. Web site mentioned inside the headline, LOHAS consumers are getting more than the bottle of hair shampoo or a fresh mattress. They will be consciously using their own purchasing capacity to aid shape the entire world that they dream of. Inform you how your product is connected to a new larger, positive, international change.

5. Use third party authentication. The USDA seal off for organic certification is probably the particular most widely recognized example of this. As well as in fact, this particular seal even supersedes brand in how consumers rely about it for quality. Find methods to talk that your tools are really green -- whether it be Leadership in Strength and Environmental Design, Energy Stars, the Forest Stewardship Authorities or the Water Stewardship Council. Get the product certified and show it.

Want some good health copywriting and marketing tips? For the free report on 5 online well being marketing mistakes and the way to fix them, get to www.healthymarketingideas.com.

Regarding The Author Debbie Clachar is some sort of freelance natural well being copywriter and writer of the ebook, Posting Irresistible Copy Regarding Supplements, edited by Bob Bly. She writes direct reaction and SEO copy for both BUSINESS-ON-BUSINESS and B2C companies.

#What is the cheapest way to create a website #read more #website #get more info #check here #Additional hints

[keyofjetwolf]

Okay sure, giant legged house, rampaging across the city, but have you considered the REAL demon in need of hunting?

#jet wolf watches the owl house #owl house ep 6 #do i mean the merchant specifically citing capitalism #or the general idea and concept of capitalism? #YES

[zamancollective]

Hashish: A (Jewish) History 

By Jordan Adelipour

Additional Writing and Illustration by Sophie Levy and Evan Mateen

Hashish, the emblematic, mystified drug of the Middle-East, is just hemp. Yes, the cannabis kind. While marijuana constitutes the buds of the flowering plant, hashish is made of its resin. 

Since the inception of its recreational use in southwestern Asia, hashish has functioned as a hallmark of many vital literary works and cultural movements across history. In One Thousand and One Arabian Nights, one character is found sleeping in front of the city gates and guards approach him, asking if he had passed out because he was stoned. Some Rastafarians believe the burning bush that Moses saw was really an innuendo for cannabis. There is even a conspiracy that in C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, the chocolates the Witch gives one of the children were actually laced with hashish, referring to them as “Turkish Delights.”

But how did this plant gain its status as one of the most popular drugs in southwestern Asia and the Maghreb? Turns out it all started with a cult of pothead assassins.

origins and distribution

From the mid-1050s to the mid-1270s, there existed a secretly-practiced sect of Shi’a Islam found in the Nizari Ismaili “state,” a network of settlements and fortresses in Syria and Persia. Nizari Ismailis observed a strain of religious practice they attributed to the ways of the descendants of Muhammad’s daughter Fatimah. The followers of this sect often took on the role of what we would today call assassins. As crusaders hailing from the north became increasingly present in the cities dotting southwestern Asia, members of this cult developed a practice of silently killing crusaders then retreating into hiding. The sect’s followers were called asāsiyyūn (أساسيون) which originally meant “faithful people,” but after a story formed about the group’s leader marketing hashish as an alleged entry ticket to heavenly transcendence, the members’ title was mistranslated to mean “men of hashish” or “hashish eaters.”  By the time Shakespeare came around, he turned the Italian-influenced noun “assassini” into a verb (something he always loved to do), creating the words “assassinate” and “assassination.” 

The first known record of hashish consumption in the Middle East occurred around 900 CE. Over time, as other empires came through, conquered, and absorbed cultural elements from populations in southwestern Asia, hashish became included in an inventory of exotic trade goods and was taken back to empires’ capitals. In the thirteenth century, Genghis Khan spread the use of hashish across the Asian continent. Sheikh Haydar, a Sufi monk living in Safavid Persia in the fifteenth century, recorded an account of ingesting cannabis resin directly. Hashish made its way to Europe in the nineteenth century, when Napoleon introduced it to the French after his army’s campaign in Egypt and Syria.

in contemporary mizrahi contexts

Following the spread of hashish to the Maghreb, Morocco eventually became one of the biggest exporters of this substance. Its commonplace use across North Africa, where hashish smoking remains prevalent today, can arguably be attributed to a historical relationship between the land’s Amazigh and Jewish inhabitants.

Dr. Doron Danino, an expert on Moroccan Jewry, expanded upon this interesting connection in an interview published in the Times of Israel. In reference to the nature of Moroccan society in the seventeenth century, Danino explained,

“The Jews, in general, did not grow cannabis, [...] But they received a monopoly from the king for the sale of tobacco in Morocco, and that included sales of the cannabis plant and the hashish produced from it.”

Because the rural Amazigh farmers who grew cannabis often did not speak Arabic, a pragmatic partnership developed between these cultivators and Jewish merchants, who acted as middlemen in urban trade deals. According to Danino, “Jews used to speak several languages, and they had a business sense, which made it a mutually beneficial partnership.” 

Apart from their role in selling hashish, it remains unclear whether or not the recreational use of cannabis was common among Moroccan Jews. However, further inspection of Jewish texts can reveal possible connections between hashish, biblical Jewish lore, and ritual practice.

a haredi rabbi blessing cannabis as kosher, 2016

in jewish texts and ritual observance

The use of hashish and cannabis in Jewish tradition is controversial, to say the least. The Tanakh includes numerous mentions of a grain or spice called qaneh-bosem (קְנֵה-בֹשֶׂם). In the Book of Exodus, G-d instructs Moses to carry this plant with him as part of a spice collection for anointing ritual sites, deeming it too holy for use by laymen (Exodus 30:22-33). 

Most translations describe qaneh-bosem as “sweet cane,” which is, at most, a vague estimation of a proper translation, since no specific plant has been definitively attributed to this Aramaic word. The identity of qaneh-bosem is widely disputed- but some researchers and users of cannabis contend this mystery spice could be cannabis. It is described as an “aromatic grass” (which is exactly what I would call cannabis) that came from distant lands, most likely being northeastern India. The plant is noted to grow between three to five feet tall (*ahem ahem), growing in marshy areas (Jeremiah 6:20). 

Obstacles in identifying biblical plants are also indebted to the Torah’s early standing as a completely oral tradition for many years, which can, of course, lead to some mistranslations. In his book The Living Torah (1981), Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan proposes that the translation of qaneh-bosem as “cane plant” is, in fact, incorrect, having resulted from a misattribution to the Egyptian word kalabos- a cane that grew on the Nile. 

Jewish utilizations of hemp are also mentioned in medieval rabbinic texts and more contemporary records of Jewish religious practice. Yosef Glassman, a geriatrician living in Boston, has extensively researched the use of cannabis in Shabbat rituals. He cites the Talmud as a record of Jewish people using hemp to make textiles for tallitot and tzitzit. Separately, Ashkenazi rabbinic authorities characterize cannabis as kitniyot during Passover, so smoking hashish or eating hemp seeds (which have no psychoactive effect) during the grain and rice-free week would be heavily frowned upon. Still, there is no refuting that Hashem did say, “Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed—to you it shall be for food. (Genesis 1:29)” 

In 450 BCE, Herodotus wrote in Histories that Persians discussed diplomatic policies while drunk, then rehashed while sober (or vice versa) to see if they still held fast to their earlier claims. Similarly, a cornerstone of Jewish identity is a fierce love of argument and discussion- coupled with intoxication, of course. At least that’s what I saw that one time at Chabad. But I guess now we have proof that it wasn’t the first time Jews have taken things a step further than wine.

Jordan Adelipour is a senior at Babson College majoring in Business. He has a profound fondness for Japanese culture and Reddit. He has approximate knowledge of many things.

references

https://books.google.com/books?id=RAwg47G0M2IC&pg=PA68#v=onepage&q=bosem&f=false

https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=0ZkWAAAAYAAJ&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA147

https://www.narconon.org/drug-information/hashish-history.html

https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/biblical-roots-of-jews-and-grass-1.5298099

https://www.etymonline.com/word/assassin

https://www.etymonline.com/word/hashish?ref=etymonline_crossreference

https://books.google.com/books?id=GtCL2OYsH6wC&pg=PA21&dq=history+Hashishin+killed+caliphs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CBwhyyoualwayslyingQ6AEwAGoVChMI67L3hf2_yAIVQZQNCh2D4Qtk#v=onepage&q=history%20Hashishin%20killed%20caliphs&f=false

Burman, Edward (1987). The Assassins – Holy Killers of Islam. Wellingborough: Crucible. P.70

#jordan adelipour #evan mateen #sophie levy #nonfiction & opinion

[anniekoh]

poor people’s movements

Frances Fox Piven & Richard A. Cloward’s accessible and well-cited Poor People's Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail was first published in 1977... and still has much relevance to today’s political struggle.

Piven has made landmark contributions to the study of how people who lack both financial resources and influence in conventional politics can nevertheless create momentous revolts. Few scholars have done as much to describe how widespread disruptive action can change history, and few have offered more provocative suggestions about the times when movements — instead of crawling forward with incremental demands — can break into full sprint. (Source)

In this present day groundswell of outrage and action, I’ve been puzzling out my concerns are about the limits of electorally focused activism (e.g. the Ossoff/Handel race in Georgia or Indivisible’s founding text on how to effectively lobby your congressional representatives). While I swore (only semi-successfully) to refrain from chastising people for “doing activism wrong” I do think more attention and reflection on activist approaches is essential. I also think that a historical analysis is super helpful in this regard, because what activist truisms seems so obvious right now (ahem marches) are not as obvious when examining the past. 

Piven and Cloward write about movements that far exceeded the bounds of electoral activism, poor people’s movements that included rent strikes and shantytown-as-protest encampment. What forms did these mass movements take and how did they arise? “Just as electoral political institutions channel protest into voter activity in the United States, and may even confine it within these sphere if the disturbance is not severe and the electoral system appears responsive, so do other features of institutional life determine the forms that protest takes when it breaks out of the boundaries of electoral politics. Thus, it is no accident that some people strike, others riot, or loot the granaries, or burn the machines, for just as the patterns of daily life ordinarily assure mass quiescence, so do these same patterns influence the form defiance will take when it erupts” (p 20). 

But, as they point out, these movements are criticized “for ignor[ing] the true centers of power by attacking the wrong target by the wrong means” (p 21).

Even organizers make precisely the same assumption when they call upon the working class to organize in one way or another and to pursue one political strategy or another... Opportunities for defiance are not created by analyses of power structures. If there is a genius in organizing, it is the capacity to sense what it is possible for people to do under given conditions, and to then help them do it. In point of fact, however, most organizing ventures ask that people do what they cannot do, and the result is failure... Simply put, people cannot defy institutions to which they have no access, and to which they make no contribution. (p 22-23)

An explanation with emphases added below.

First, people experience deprivation and oppression within a concrete setting, not as the end product of large and abstract processes, and it is the concrete experience that molds their discontent into specific grievances against specific targets. Workers experience the factory, the speeding rhythm of the assembly line, the foreman, the spies and the guards, the owner and the paycheck. They do not experience monopoly capitalism. People on relief experience the shabby waiting rooms, the overseer or the caseworker, and the dole.

They do not experience American social welfare policy. Tenants experience the leaking ceilings and cold radiators, and they recognize the landlord. They do not recognize the banking, real estate, and construction systems. No small wonder, therefore, that when the poor rebel they so often rebel against the overseer of the poor, or the slumlord, or the middling merchant, and not against the banks or the governing elites to whom the overseer, the slumlord, and the merchant also defer. In other words, it is the daily experience of people that shapes their grievances, establishes the measure of their demands, and points out the targets of their anger.

Second, institutional patterns shape mass movements by shaping the collectivity out of which protest can arise. Institutional life aggregates people or disperses them, molds group identities, and draws people into the settings within which collective action can erupt. Thus factory work gathers men and women together, educates them in a common experience, and educates them to the possibilities of cooperation and collective action.*8 Casual laborers or petty entrepreneurs, by contrast, are dispersed by their occupations, and are therefore less likely to perceive their commonalities of position, and less likely to join together in collective action.

Third, and most important, institutional roles determine the strategic opportunities for defiance, for it is typically by rebelling against the rules and authorities associated with their everyday activities that people protest. Thus workers protest by striking. They are able to do so because they are drawn together in the factory setting, and their protests consist mainly in defying the rules and authorities associated with the workplace. The unemployed do not and cannot strike, even when they perceive that those who own the factories and businesses are to blame for their troubles. Instead, they riot in the streets where they are forced to linger, or storm the relief centers, and it is difficult to imagine them doing otherwise.

That they should do otherwise, however, is constantly asserted, and it is in such statements that the influence (as well as the absurdity) of the pluralist view becomes so evident. By denying the constraints which are imposed by institutional location, protest is readily discredited, as when insurgents are denounced for having ignored the true centers of power by attacking the wrong target by the wrong means. Thus welfare administrators admonish recipients for disrupting relief offices and propose instead that they learn how to lobby in the state legislature or Congress. But welfare clients cannot easily go to the state or national capital, and when a few do, they are of course ignored. Sometimes, however, they can disrupt relief offices, and that is harder to ignore.

In the same vein, a favorite criticism of the student peace movement, often made by erstwhile sympathizers, was that it was foolish of the students to protest the Vietnam War by demonstrating at the universities and attacking blameless administrators and faculties. It was obviously not the universities that were waging the war, critics argued, but the military-industrial complex. The students were not so foolish, however. The exigencies of mass action are such that they were constrained to act out their defiance within the universities where they were physically located and could thus act collectively, and where they played a role on which an institution depended, so that their defiance mattered.

Anyway, highly recommended reading. As enticement, note that Piven was named by Glenn Beck in 2010 as one of the “nine most dangerous people in the world.” And just look at the chapter titles!

Chapter 1 The Structuring of Protest Chapter 2 The Unemployed Workers’ Movement Chapter 3 The Industrial Workers’ Movement Chapter 4 The Civil Rights Movement Chapter 5 The Welfare Rights Movement

#activism #resistance #social justice #social movements #american history

[griffinsanddragons]

Unexpected Developments [Part Three]

She knows she doesn’t need to, but Hawke continues to pursue this ‘Illusive Mage.’ While seeking aid in Darktown, she begins to question her own motive and suddenly retrieves another lead.

Read: Part One and Part Two on Tumblr!

Also on AO3!

I finally got the chance to write–happy reading!

Her Father was a good man; He set himself up as an apothecary in every village, town, and city they lived in.

No one accused the man who brought good fortune to their doorstep of being a mage𑁋but if they did ever grow suspicious, their lips remained sealed. They treasured their fortunes too greatly to sell him down the river.

He’d begin with smaller things: a bad back, an ailing brother, or a pregnant wife with aching feet𑁋small favors in trade of little luxuries like honeyed bread or strawberries.

‘Friends,’ he used to say, ‘help life run smoothly.’

With time and the passing of seasons, the ailments would turn into ridiculous pleads.  

A young man would ask for a potion, hoping to find himself in the arms of Teffenia, a certain nobleman’s bright-eyed daughter. But Teffenia would have her eye on Jona, the younger sister of the man who ran the Inn but lacked the courage to communicate.

Her father would forewarn against it, but never failed to mention his passing knowledge of an ‘old Rivaini trade.’ Hawke, or Filia as she was better known back then, could never be sure if that were true, or if he’d simply hoped to be viewed more humbly.

Whatever the case he’d send the troubled party away,  asking they return the next day.

Like potions, these charms cost nothing to make.

It was magic𑁋mostly. Small magic, he called it, persisting spells that didn’t bother with specific circumstance but attracted small fortunes anyway.

‘Nothing can be precise,’ He’d tell them, ‘but you will have what you need.’

So while the boy wouldn’t have Teffenia, he’d soon meet someone who’d return his fancy and Teffenia and Jona would come to share a timid kiss behind a crumbling barn and fall in love over the succeeding days.

Only once was he given trouble: the first time a curse made its way out their door.

[Keep Reading]

Filia was six years old when a man, a seafaring Merchant from the time they lived near Denerim, the capital city, asked for a charm to keep his shipments from sinking down into the depths of the Amaranthine Ocean or Waking Sea. He had sugar to trade in exchange for the gift, her father agreed, and, as always, instructed the man to leave.

But he refused, hoping to be the first to stay and watch her Father work his secret spells.

Filia stood behind her father quietly, clinging to the wood of the doorframe, her weight shifting down to buckle at her knees; she never took well to the strangers who came and went and demanded her father’s energy.

‘It isn’t the type of work you can see. It’s something that must be felt.’ He explained, his voice an impossible mix of stern and friendly.

Eventually, the man left, disappointed and probably angry (though he had no right to be.) But because of him, her father was troubled, then pensive, but soon appeared to resign himself to something.

The next day the seafaring merchant returned and that was the last she’d seen of him.

A new merchant settled into their village not too long after the adults began whispering, citing the story of the ship that sunk into the waters of the Waking Sea. The crew survived but the captain went missing. Some wondered if he ever made it to the ship in the first place.  

Whatever the case, she couldn’t fault the man for wanting to stay. Her Father’s work was fascinating. And if she were good and minded her mother properly, he’d let her play the part of his assistant.

She’d bring him stones or feathers or a book from his trunk and, if she were lucky, help him gather plants outside.

She remembered trudging through the mud with her Father as he scoured the field for sprouts after a heavy rain.

‘Aha! Here we are!’ He’d grin, standing proudly as though he discovered a gold growing from the soil. She’d never forget the look on his face.

She could still see him in his favorite room, surrounded by books and clear colored vials. But most intriguing were the plants𑁋they were the only constant factor in the things he made: Myrtle for beauty, and prettying the skin, Wintergreen for easing pain, yarrow for stress relief…

Those were the best days. Filia would kick her feet on a stool or chair and watch him, always excited to learn a little more about everything.

She liked to think she had a talent for herbalism and that, some day when her family stopped running, she and her father could buy a shop together𑁋a big one𑁋and get Carver to call to the people walking by, bringing in their business and money.

But that was a dream that died with him. She simply didn’t have the time.

Still, keeping his plants gave her comfort and made her happy in those tough times.

So why, she wondered,  couldn’t she have stayed happy?

Why, instead of tending to her plants, was Filia in the dark, subjecting herself to the awful stew of smells𑁋mold, bridge and something akin to bread burning𑁋that clung to the walls of Darktown and made her skin feel dirty? To tie a loose end? For the thrill of destroying something?

Was there something wrong with her? Was it so obvious even someone like Dirty Fingers could see it? She scowled at the very thought. Still, she replayed their encounter over again in her mind, looking on her actions and what he’d said.

There had to have been another way, but it was too late to change her mind.

And even if she could…well, he probably deserved it anyway.

Darktown, as always, managed to live up to its name; It was dark, the torches on the walls barely made a difference and a thick cloud of despair hung closely overhead, spreading like the leaves in a bad cup of tea.

Isabela hummed a song beside her, some manner of shanty Filia knew she’d heard her sing before, but she could hardly pay attention let alone remember the words (that and Isabela was hardly a songbird, she couldn’t be sure if she’d heard the lyrics correctly the first time anyway.)

In fact, she’d been so distracted by her thoughts, Filia hardly noticed the open door that marked their destination. So once they arrived, she hesitated for the briefest moment.

They’d gotten here too quickly𑁋she didn’t feel at all prepared.

But as she scanned the room, looking across the tables, cots, and chairs, everything began to feel lighter.

Anders had been standing near the back of the clinic, exchanging whispers with a man she didn’t know but thought she might have seen somewhere before.

He was handsome enough, with a sort of pinched-in face that squeezed his features into a sour look of disgust. And he certainly looked reclusive, with dark curly hair and a heavy black cape set around his narrow shoulders𑁋but he wasn’t tall; Anders had to look down to converse with him, and the thought put her sword arm at ease.

She didn’t need to kill him. There was no need to fight.

Instead, she smiled at Anders when he looked her way and watched his expression shift from surprise, then confusion, and finally joy, as though he’d found a warm pair of slippers or a handy set of swords in a place he didn’t quite expect them to be.

He spoke quietly with his friend for a moment longer, something about their conversation prompting him to glance her way. He looked she and Isabela over, an unreadable expression on his face, before pulling up his hood and walking away.

“Who was that?” Isabela asked, folding her arms as she watched the handsome stranger leave.

“A friend,” Anders told her, “Javier. He works for Lirene.”

“From the Ferelden Import Shop?” Confusion filled Filia’s voice as she filed through her memories.“The woman who said you had ‘nice eyes’?” She wasn’t sure why that particular detail stuck out in her mind or why she felt the need to bring it up, but it did her no favors to pretend she hadn’t said anything.

Isabela made a sound, a strange mixture of a snort, scoff, and giggle, as though she alone were privy to a special secret or something. Anders appeared to be out the loop as well.

“I’ve been meaning to come see you.” He confessed, taking a few strides closer till she could see the light reflecting in his eyes.

“And here I am! How lucky.”

“Did you have a run-in with one of the gangs?” He asked, shifting his attention from her to Isabela’s injuries. They were minor, but he sped the process of their healing with a simple wave.

“They were more like drunk fisherman really,” Isabela leaned back against the table where she found a towel to wipe the excess blood away. She tossed it somewhere and began picking through Anders’ things.

“Do I want to know?” He turned back to Filia, who, for all intents and purpose, agreed with Isabela’s assessment of their attacker’s failings.

“Probably not.” She shrugged. “We’re actually here to ask you something𑁋but you can go first since you obviously missed me.” And she wasn’t exactly sure how to breach the topic of what she wanted to say. ‘I’m searching for someone I need to kill, would you happen to know where he is?’ Didn’t seem appropriate.

Anders seemed hesitant at first but resolved himself to speak, guiding her away from Isabela’s prying ears and eyes.

“…I spoke with Aveline about you.” He confessed as though he’d done something dirty. “How are you feeling?”

“Hmm?” She wished he hadn’t asked.

Her day spent hunting for the mysterious sender of that letter, or ‘Illusive Mage,’ as Isabela named them, was meant to distract her from thinking of her little sister wasting away in a prison and angsting over thoughts of her little-broken family.

Part of her was grateful for the unexpected developments that lead to this mystery. It meant she could avoid that question, (that how are feeling?) for a little longer.

“Oh, I’m fine.” She leaned away, pushing the tip of her boot into the stone.  “Peachy, really, when you consider my sister is trapped in an impenetrable prison thrusting up from the middle of the sea.”

“Hawke-”

“It’s alright Anders.” She stopped him. “That was a joke.” Mostly.

“…Bethany’s a special girl; She’ll do well for herself in The Circle.” He assured her anyway, his kind words pulling her attention back from the floor and to his eyes. They really were lovely. “I have a contact𑁋a friend of Karl’s. I’ve asked her to look after Bethany.”

“You did?” She could feel her own eyes growing wide and the fast-paced beating of her heart and wondered what one said when a simple ‘Thank You’ would never suffice.

So she stood there, staring at his eyes, lips parted in silence. She had no words to say.

Grateful for his friendship and more than overjoyed, Filia may have cried then𑁋wept even𑁋had it not been for the angry voice that swept the mood away.

“Anders!” It hissed, speaking his name through gritted teeth. The familiarity of it striking her like a butcher chopping meat.

Aveline entered the clinic like a storm on the raging sea,  stopping only when she saw them all together, her brows furrowing down to make herself look mean.

“Well if it isn’t the ‘Captain of The Guard,’” Isabela smirked, her own brows rising to compliment the wily grin that eased its way across her face. “What did I tell you, Hawke. She’s come to oppress more free enterprise.”

“The three of you together I see. I should have known that would be the case.” She set her helmet down upon the table, ignoring Isabela to the best of her ability.

“Is there something wrong, Aveline?” Filia asked. She seemed to be in such a bad mood lately.

“Very. My guardsmen found another body. This time near the foundries.”

“I don’t recall hearing anything about a body,” She thought back. “I just left from there.”

“Hawke-”

“But I didn’t kill anyone today.” Or so she didn’t think. Filia waved her hand dismissively. “And Isabela’s been with me.”

“Except for when I was with Fenris,” Isabela added thoughtfully. They turned their glance to Anders who answered with a simple “No.”

“Well, there we have it. We’re not guilty.”

“I believe you𑁋Oh don’t look at me like that.” She scoffed at Filia’s wide-eyed look of disbelief.

“What happened to this man was…beyond any normal person’s capabilities.”

“Any normal person’s?” She tilted her head to the side, hoping Aveline would elaborate fully.

“We believe he was killed by magic.”  

“Of course. You think the killer is a mage so you come to me.” Anders folded his arms and looked away.

“I came to you because I now have a lead. There was a witness,” Aveline explained, “She told us she saw a drunken man enter the alley, she heard screaming and suddenly…there was a body. He looked badly beaten just like the others but she hadn’t seen anyone else come leave. We suspect something similar may have happened with the others.”

“That was her thrilling testimony?” Isabela spoke with disbelief. “It isn’t much.”

“I never said it was a good lead. But due to the nature of the attacks…We may have a blood mage on the loose”

“Another blood mage, you mean.” Isabela corrected.

Anders muttered something under his breath with a clear look of exasperation drawn across his face.

“Do you think this is our ‘Illusive Mage?’”

“It may be.” Filia sighed, shifting her weight from one leg to the next. She had doubts. Given her history, Blood Magic was likely to blame. But Blood Mages had a talent for making bodies disappear in the darkness of the night. Why would they leave the body behind if they could help it? Why be that sloppy?

Anyone with stealth or light footsteps could make a daring escape, but not everyone could make a body disappear.  Filia knew from experience that it could be quite grueling work, actually.

But what did that mean? Was Aveline’s killer and the person she wanted not one and the same?

“You’re what?” Aveline raised a brow but Isabela dismissed her worry.

“It’s a long story.”

“It doesn’t matter who it is, so long as they’re brought in to face justice.” Anders scoffed at her words.

“Do you know where they may be?”

“We have an idea. But I won’t ask my men to go in unprepared.”

“Isn’t that the point of the city guard?” Isabela chided, placing her hands on her hips for emphasis.

“I’d hoped to get more insight on what we might be up against.”

“Well, there’s no way of knowing until we get there.” Filia decided to speak. Helping Aveline was the right thing to do𑁋and there was still a chance she’d find this ‘Illusive Mage’ or whoever they’d turn out to be.

“Whoever it is  may very well be more dangerous than we suspected, the guard will need help.”  Blood mage or not, she didn’t come this far to let him be arrested by the city guard or, and this was more likely, escape.

The killer’s hideout was a warehouse near the channel not too far from the Hanged Man. The owner had been forced to shut its doors when a careless worker poisoned the fish and cut the fishing lines. Fortunately, no one died but the mishap stole the owner’s credibility.

“Why does it seem like we’re always walking?” Isabela spoke with an exasperated sigh, folding her arms as they followed Aveline’s lead.

“I’ll pay a few handsome men to massage your feet,” Filia promised.

Though they moved forward with caution, there was no sign of any of Lowtown’s ever present gangs lurking around the streets.

It seemed this particular area was neutral territory and the peace suited Filia fine; She didn’t feel like cleaning her sword any more than she had to this evening.

It wasn’t as large as the Foundry by the harbor nor was it as imposing, but the unrelenting Lowtown fog curled around it, shifting its edges like a sinister dream.

Aveline looked back over her shoulder, hoping the section of Guards she made follow were still, in fact, following.

“Let’s move in, she instructed but the door didn’t seem to agree. “There shouldn’t be a lock here.”

“Looks like someone knows we’re coming.” Despite the drawback to their plan, Filia’s  lips curled up into the smuggest of grins. There were certain advantages of her name being whispered across the lower reaches of the city: no one but fools really bothered her and sometimes she’d get things for free. There was the occasional challenger, however,  but she wasn’t just known for being dangerous𑁋she was.

And she wouldn’t let something as simple as a locked door stop her from reaching her target once and for all.

“Can you unlock it? Or should we try to break it down?” She turned to Isabela who met her smile with a sly beam of her own.

“I’m sure I can manage something.” Isabela kneeled down, but not before sliding a slender pouch of needles from the inside of her high leather boot.

She made quick work of the lock, (much to Aveline’s relief,) but the old hinges on the door made a loud, unpleasant screech as though to warn of intruders approaching.

Hawke and Aveline readied their shields, Isabela her daggers and Anders his stave, the four all ready for a frontal assault or clever attack by the enemy𑁋but nothing came.

The inside was quiet, unbelievably empty, and heavy with the scent of soap and lye as though someone had gone through great pains to wash something unpleasant away.

They all turned their eye’s to Aveline.

“Is this really where your lead said he’d be?” Anders lowered his stave.

“Yes.” She confirmed, “We need to search every room. If he’s here, there’s no telling where he may be.”

“And when we find him?” Isabela wondered, putting away her knives.

“We do what we must. But I want him alive for questioning.”

Filia frowned but didn’t raise her protest vocally.

Aveline might have wanted him alive, but she herself felt differently.

They split the search.

The warehouse was far too large for the group to stay together but they managed to play to their strengths perfectly.

Filia noticed narrow walkway above, so Isabela, who seemed to have a history with walking those types of things, would take the upper level to see what she could find alongside Aveline. Despite their mock and teasing, they’d keep one another safe.

Aveline and Anders had no easier of a friendship  (in fact it was worse,) and it was clear Kirkwall’s Guardian had no clue how to fight beside a mage.

She was a soldier𑁋trained by her father to see the battle, find patterns and disrupt enemy lines. She was trained to lead troops who fought with honor and instinct, not men who’d set the room ablaze to make an escape.

Anders was powerful, but he had no combat training𑁋no real combat training besides what he learned fighting alongside his Warden Commander in Amaranthine.

His attacks were wide and flashy, better suited for slowing pursuits than facing down an enemy. He wanted to survive more than fight𑁋his skills were better suited to aid Filia who could adapt to change more easily.

So together they searched the ground floor𑁋though the task didn’t make itself easy.

The warehouse seemed to stretch on and on, it’s bland design and empty rooms all melting together in a seamless gray streak.

“I wonder if  they’re faring better than we are.” He whispered.

“Well, I haven’t heard any fighting yet.” The warehouse seemed to be completely empty, yet she felt as though someone was there, watching.

‘It’s nothing,’ she told herself, ‘just a cruel trick of the mind,’ but it didn’t ease her in any way. There was something, something in the darkness, something as silent as a shadow on the wall.

She didn’t like this feeling. So she filled the space with quiet banter as she and Anders moved forward toward the next room.

“I didn’t get the chance to thank you.”

“Thank me?”

“For Bethany. Aveline interrupted me before so, um, Thank You.” She smiled awkwardly, knowing it could never be enough but needing to say it anyway.

She felt as though there was rope in her stomach, twisting itself into knots and braids.

She’d never felt this strange talking to him before. It was almost as though she were feeling butterflies.

“It’s the least I could do.” He smiled and her eyes darted away.

“I’m glad Bethany has someone to look after her.” Because she couldn’t. Not anymore.

They reached the next door.

Unlike the others, it had been locked from the inside. It took a great show of magic from Anders to force it from the hinges. But once it opened, Filia took a step back from the scene.

The room smelt as sterile as the others but was hardly bare. Its long tables were full of plants and flasks with metal apparatuses between them.  One wall was devoted to supporting a towering pile of books and the other a small cot similar to the ones in Anders’ clinic.

It might have been a perfect workshop, had it not been for the body lying still in the center of the floor.

“Maker,” she squatted, eyes rolling over the shards of glass that were shattered around him on the floor. They glittered beneath the light cast by the moon and were dotted red with blood. Even so, the man wasn’t bleeding (or at least not anymore) but he was scarred.

One, in particular, was jarring: it extended from someplace beneath his blood-stained tunic and across the left side of his cheek, reaching out to his eye like the branches of a wayward tree. It spread beneath purple bruises and cuts that sparked something in her memory.

“Dirty Fingers?” She blinked a few times but the dead man did not respond to the calling of his name.

“You knew him?”

“I…I met him earlier this evening.” She hadn’t expected to see him again, not this soon anyway. What happened? How did he get this far away?

“It seems he’s been struck by lightning.”  

“Was that before or after he’d been hit over the head?” She gestured to the glass scattered across the floor. What could have occurred here? There weren’t many signs of a struggle or fight but how could there have been? She was the one responsible for his battered body.

He screamed the first time she stabbed him; she remembered the tears that rolled from his eyes. But it hadn’t been enough.

There was a reason she sent Isabela away: such an unholy act that followed was not to be seen.

He begged for her to stop, to end his torment as early as his second finger breaking (or had it been his hand slicing ?) but she didn’t listen.

In fact, she smiled. And that seemed to be what frightened him most of all.

‘Enough of this,’ Filia told herself. There was no use dwelling.

She made her way toward the desk at the back of the room.

The candles were still lit on the table.

“Let’s see what we have,” Filia slid a heavy book into her arms, it’s binder worn by constant use “ ‘The Alchemist’s Encyclopedia, by Lord Cerastes of Marnas Pell.’ She read, squinting against the ever dimming candle light. “Well, that’s a lengthy title.” She flipped through pages, careful not to let her armored gauntlets tear the diagrams, pictures or their lengthy explanations.

“This looks like it should be banned by the chantry,” She mused, running her finger over an illustration of, what seemed to be, a rough outline of the human body. “Seems like our ‘Illusive Mage’ has been studying.” Turning her gaze, Filia glanced around the flowers and leaves scattered across the table.

One, in particular, caught her attention though it was more of a grass than a houseplant. She picked it up at though to observe its contents.

“What do you have there?”

“It’s a Vetiver, I think, and judging by everything else on the table someone seems to be brewing something to help them sleep.”

“I wasn’t aware you had a talent for herbalism.” He sounded surprised, but also somewhat amused by the revelation and she paused, unsure of what to say.

“I don’t.” She decided to dismiss him, setting the plant down on the table so she could walk away. “Not really, anyway.” Thinking back, those days felt as though they’d come from a dream, or perhaps a different life.

Those were the dreams of a girl who deserved to be happy. A girl very much different than the woman she’d become; a disappointment to her father and a failure to her sister.

“We can tell Aveline about that guy and let the guardsmen handle it from there.” She directed, leading Anders out the room, shutting the door and tearing her gaze from the deceased.

She needed to focus, to steady herself for the mission and aim solely for the goal at hand.

She curled her fingers tightly around the grip of blade sword as a reminder.

She had to tie up a loose end.

Because it didn’t matter what she did anymore𑁋she’d lost𑁋she’d never have the chance to be happy.

#its been 84 years #but i finally got it done #forgive me lol #filia art #things i write #anders* #the next chapter should be the last #I'm crawling out of my coffin here

[conorreid]

To Fish in the Afternoon

In Karl Marx’s The German Ideology, he explains that communist society “makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have in mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, shepherd, or critic.”1 That is, he is not compelled to do any one thing as his needs—housing, food, healthcare, etc.—are already met, and therefore does not need to become a fisherman or hunter and make that the means of his livelihood, but can instead pursue those activities without care towards pursuing them professionally. This quote is indeed one of the only remarks Marx makes on post-capitalist society.2 I have known this explanation for years, as it is frequently peddled in leftist circles, but it was upon playing Nintendo’s most recent Animal Crossing that I realized the game represents a tantalizing glimpse into this future Marx imagined.

For those unfamiliar, the Animal Crossing series of games are a sort of “life simulator” that takes place in an idyllic world free from the stresses and compulsions of everyday life under late capitalism. You control a character you are free to design and have a house in a village of anthropomorphic animals. Your landlord is a talking tanuki—a Japanese raccoon dog closer to a fox than the raccoons of North America—who provides you a house through an interest free loan with zero percent down and no repayment schedule. You have no needs whatsoever, no food to eat and no rent to pay. You cannot contract disease, and outside of the occasional spider bite or wasp sting there is no danger at all. You can spend your days lazing around your house, tending to your flowers and chatting to your neighbors. There is ownership of housing, but not land: you can pick flowers, fish in the river, and collect weeds on all land, and the products of that labour are yours and yours alone. You can chop wood and craft furniture, create art and play your ocarina. You are never pestered to repay your loan, and can steer clear of the money entirely. It is a glimpse of, perhaps not a communist utopia, but an off ramp for this late capitalist hellscape.

There is still money in Animal Crossing. There is still private property, and there are still markets to buy and sell goods. But money and markets does not a capitalism make. Markets and money have existed for millenia, but capitalism has only been around for a few centuries. The difference is in how widespread those markets are and how worshiped that money is. Markets, specifically the buying and selling of goods in different places to make a profit, is the realm of merchant capital. This process of profit creation is specialized, and for most of human history only concerned luxury goods; mass market staples like food and clothing were produced close to home and often traded in kind rather than sold for money. Most humans were not compelled to sell their labour for a wage, and instead owned the means of their own production of food, clothing, and other basic needs. Capitalism is the creation of capital, or value in motion, through profit. Profit, at least under capitalism, is primarily created by the extraction of surplus value, i.e. the labour workers engage in after the value of their wages has been created during the working day. And workers are only compelled to sell this labour as a commodity if they do not own the means of their own production, and therefore must acquire food, housing, clothing, healthcare, and other needs exclusively through money. If their only method of acquiring money is through selling their labour, then everybody is compelled to work.

Because some people are better at certain tasks than others, and therefore can be more productive and create more surplus value for the owners of the means of production, the division of labour results and individuals are “locked in” to their current roles in order to survive. This is the meaning of Marx’s point cited above. He writes that, “as soon as the distribution of labour comes into being, each man has a particular, exclusive sphere of activity, which is forced upon him and from which he cannot escape. He is a hunter, a fisherman, a herdsman, or a critical critic, and must remain so if he does not want to lose his means of livelihood.”3 In communism this means of livelihood is provided, and therefore no person is compelled to be a hunter, a fisherman, a herdsman, or anything else. Communism “makes it possible for [them] to do one thing today and another tomorrow” rather than the same thing, day after day, merely to put food on the table and keep the lights on.

In Animal Crossing, you are free of all compulsions and needs for anything at all. You are indebted to Tom Nook—the tanuki landlord—but you have no obligation to pay it back. You do not need to eat, you can produce your own clothes, and you can indeed do anything you want. Likewise, your landlord’s loan does not accrue interest, and it seems his motivation for providing the loan is not even profit driven. In fact, Nook’s behavior is the very definition of what Marx says the traditional capitalist circuit of exchange, M-C-M’, is not! He writes, “Now it is evident that the circuit M-C-M’ would be absurd and without meaning if the intention were to exchange by this means two equal sums of money.”4 And yet, this absurdity is exactly the one Nook engages in, charging no interest for a loan that merely pays for the cost of a house and labour put into its construction.

Likewise, the labour theory of value—that is, the idea that value comes from labour upon the goods of nature—seems to be respected within the bounds of Animal Crossing. For example, selling a bag of 15 weeds will net you $150. However, bestow some labour upon those weeds and turn them into a leaf umbrella, and those 15 weeds now sell for $300, with the extra $150 being the value of your labour. And indeed, even the initial $150 results from your labour of picking the weeds and bagging them. The means of production, in this case the working bench allowing you to transform those weeds into an umbrella, is communally owned. You do not have to exchange money to create those weeds, and you are paid the full value of the labour that you engaged in.

Animal Crossing is not a communist utopia. Merchant capital still exists in the form of a shop that imports luxury goods. You do not own your own home, and cannot make upgrades to it without repaying loans to Tom Nook. The system of governance is strictly hierarchical, with little democratic process and no system of recall or feedback from the general populace. And there are those who take the ideology and compulsion of capital from our world and transfer it into the world of Animal Crossing, engaging in a mad dash of accumulation and achievement. But the ability to fish, hunt, paint, and relax all without compulsion is a blow against the chains of capitalist realism and provides a glimpse of a society beyond the grips of capital.

Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels, The Germany Ideology in Marx Engels Collected Works Volume 5, 47 (also see https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology/ch01a.htm) ↩︎

“Communism is for us not a state of affairs which is to be established, an ideal to which reality [will] have to adjust itself. We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state of things.” from Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels, The Germany Ideology, 49 ↩︎

Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels, The Germany Ideology, 47 ↩︎

Karl Marx, Capital, Volume 1 https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch04.htm ↩︎

[outletggdbsale-blog]

Golden Goose Mid Star Sneaker Couple caused To work On annual Vacation By price Management console

There unquestionably are very minimum people for MLM when have accomplished a heavy level associated with success additionally even a lot have managed to hold on to this success. However this kind does not even mean that a majority of MLM merchants are unsuccessful or actually services that they offer to sufferers meaningless. What kind of makes some techniques offered by Business companies crappy to numerous people could be described as they put together not depend on them effectively. Not the social news flash outlets are already created version. This would be the most important biggest 'no duh' policy of all, but you actually can't definitely the similar thing things using Facebook that many you possibly can do when Twitter. Individuals can't managed a Utube channel your same way you build a musical profile within MySpace. The depiction has not ever changed much since consequently. However suffering from the explosion of all internet but also the attraction of affiliate marketing, those use created by the phrase guru so as with and many further titles is carrying become quickly more standard. Yet an added has crafted a computer programs program who seem to seeks apart misspelled materials on ebay. One natural treasures if this misspelled tools are thought to be as moments as any kind of a blemished goods would be a little more. It does sound as despite the fact he way too has a method at repair most of these damaged services once all the people are purchased so they will be spelled correctly as well as the sold for a return. This flowerbeds on alchemy. What close? Software in order to really turn tend into gold? When a Golden Goose Mid Star Sneaker erson thinks in changing vehicle insurance companies they many times wonder in the instance that it is actually hard. Well, I in the morning here towards tell that this method is undoubtedly. In fact, all you really have with do is now have the right current car insurance statement and if do any kind of online motor insurance cite search and in addition find the opposite company who will destroy the fashionable premiums you have are paying then only apply. One particular policy does stop or the policy most certainly pick high. The one single thing in which you choose to to have sure a person have all through your hand is a printed statement showing a major active go together. If someone happen so that it will be selecting web pay for a bills while compared to you may well want to positively change everything over to actually the newer company extremely the charge does but not go that would the aged company. This kind is 1 you 're responsible for the purpose of when it comes in order to really paying the premiums. Talent is undoubtedly talent. Just in case you have the golden goose outlet sitting near an function somewhere, post onto them all tooth and nail. Human being capital often is your a lot valuable pc software no thing what the specific situation. For those particular companies rushing to will stay afloat, investigate each thing task and furthermore determine these business reasons that attain the on the whole redundancy. If you let someone return is typically a extremely hard decision, terribly make certainly you behavior intelligently when you end up being forced to help you downsize. Thinking linked to sponsorship is normally another much to hire in promotions locally. While they are a Dale earnhardt team would undoubtedly be a single little while of overkill, there typically plenty involving 10-and younger than basket party teams and consequently school booster supplement clubs a need endure. You definitely will add so that you that each programs with the Anyone Act Have fun and the back book pages of how the yearbook or school physical. There are typical also local causes like a Meals the Hungry drive. The site is one specific great procedure of telling your program for how the local website and have shown yourself simply because a beneficial Golden Goose Deluxe Brand Mid Star Sneakers Sale orporate person.

[click2watch]

Sand, Death and Cryptocurrency: Life in a Decentralized Syria

I’m writing from the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria.

Known to sympathizers simply as Rojava – meaning West – the predominantly Kurdish region revolted against the Syrian regime in 2012 and achieved its de-facto autonomy as a result.

Since then, it has pioneered a new political model named democratic confederalism, which due to its stateless, decentralized nature, has a natural synergy with blockchain technologies – something that has been a point of research by technologists in the region.

That’s partially why I am here.

I’m also here because, in December, U.S. President Donald Trump announced his retreat from the region, cited the impending defeat of ISIS, and denouncing Syria as the land of endless wars – of “sand and death,” he called it.

The withdrawal has now effectively been reversed, but at the time, many believed Turkey, which shares a border with Northern Syria, would attack (the country has engaged a continuous offensive against the region since 2016).

The concern was that if Turkey seized control, Rojava’s political system would crumble to the totalizing power of nation states. There would be no more resistance, a resistance I’ve come to care greatly about.

I had previously written about the potential of blockchain and cryptocurrency in Rojava. I felt that while the region lacks the basic security and resources offered by the West, it has something the West doesn’t have – the opportunity for a new system of governance to be realized.

With this in mind, I spent a little over a month trying to get into the country to volunteer my skills, both in media and crypto, to a new network of technological academies being developed in the region.

On February 25, I arrived at my new home. Here, according to critics, in the process of implementing democratic confederalism, Rojava has succumbed to the pressures of the familiar, whereby the structures of capitalism and its hierarchies are being mimicked in local economies.

Erselan Serdem, the leader of Rojava’s technological development program, would like to redeem this, creating structures that allow ecological, egalitarian economies to thrive – what proponents call “democratic modernity.”

According to Serdem, with the right combination of philosophy and tech, this dream can be realized.

“We are talking about a new form of institution with a high level of technology, that can develop useful tools for society and achieve a good relationship to nature – that’s our aspiration,” Serdem said, adding:

“Decentralized institutions can be supported by parallel, decentralized technologies.”

Electricity cables in Qamishli, Northern Syria

War vets and social engineers

The academies Serdem is building will be used to train hackers in various decentralized technologies.

For instance, participants will research digital governance, cryptocurrency and blockchain solutions to fairly distribute natural resources. Serdem is still recruiting people into the academies, seeking out those with technical skills across Rojava and also training injured war veterans, starting with basic programming skills.

Currently, there are 30 war vet participants in the program.

Not only is Serdem recruiting throughout Northern Syria, but he’s also enlisting what he calls “social engineers” – politically-oriented hackers and philosophers focused on reshaping technology.

Without these folks, Serdem said, “We have seen how history repeats itself. The current system will have the same destiny.”

Hozan Mamo, a software developer and academy member, echoed what Serdem said, telling CoinDesk through a translator that the technological academies could solve problems that have emerged in civil society.

For instance, he continued, decentralized governance tools could help formalize decision making and keep power in check.

On the other hand, cryptocurrency could be useful as well, Mamo said, since there’s no access to electronic transactions in Rojava. Instead, Rojava’s inhabitants are dependant on cash that is issued by the Syria state – meaning that the region is still economically bound to the regime.

As a first step towards that, Mamo is looking into the feasibility of onboarding local merchants to accepting cryptocurrency.

Young men gather outside an internet shop, Qamishli, Northern Syria

The ethos of crypto

Still, there’s a good amount of cynicism surrounding the project.

In Rojava, technology has mostly shown its face through social media, and a sudden proliferation of smartphones – mostly carrying Facebook, YouTube and Whatsapp – has had a tangible impact on the social sphere.

The obsessive use of smartphones has led a certain suspicion of technology to develop, which could have a negative impact on the adoption of blockchain and cryptocurrency technology.

In an effort to combat this, Serdem noted, he intends to use the academies to redefine technology, moving the narrative away from the corporate interest groups that have monopolized social media, network infrastructure and even hardware in the region.

“There are different forms of technology,” he said. “[There is] technology by nation states and the companies, and then there is a resistance movement, that try to discover more ideas against the current system.”

Bitcoin and other decentralized technologies, for instance, qualify as this “resistance tech” – tools developed by oppressed people to take back power throughout history. Within the academies, Serdem would like to see some of this tech, these alternatives, built.

“We can use some of that kind of technology which is created by the resistance movement. Now we are in the beginning, but in the process we will see what forms of technology do we need to have for democratic modernity,” said Serdem.

Mamo believes that by focusing on usability and security, adoption could happen quickly, especially by younger generations. According to him, Rojava’s youth has no shortage of enthusiasm for technology, as well as a strong aptitude for it.

Prior to the revolution, he said, the Syrian regime deliberately held back the development of technology in the region, forbidding its teaching in universities and arresting people that tried to develop their skills.

But the revolution “opened the border” to technology, he said, leading the region to develop rapidly.

Poster of Abdullah Ocalan at International Woman’s Day, Qamishli, Northern Syria

Openness to technology isn’t the only thing Serdem and others are trying to push. His academies also have a strong focus on philosophy, specifically the writings of Abdullah Ocalan, the incarcerated political philosopher whose writings inspired the Rojava revolution.

In his writings, Ocalan seeks to fundamentally restructure society by challenging the roots of hierarchy and domination that underpin it.

It’s a philosophy that resonates strongly with the ideologies that many crypto advocates hold and even display in their interest and use of the open-source movement.

In this way, Serdem told CoinDesk, the academies will encourage much of the same.

”We are creating a commune of the technology, to solve technical problems, and at the same time to create the social engineer or the political person in the moral society,” Serdem said, before concluding:

“In Rojava, we are trying to achieve the philosophy of open source, of how to create a society informed by open source.”

Note: Due to security concerns, “Erselan Serdem” and “Hozan Mamo” are pseudonyms

Photos by Rachel-Rose O’Leary for CoinDesk

This news post is collected from CoinDesk

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[klonerganphil4409-blog]

Class # 20 Feminist Theory in Ecology

Carolyn Merchant presents feminism and naturism in terms of liberal feminism, radical feminism and socialist feminism in her work titled “Ecofeminism and Feminist Theory”. In doing so, she analyzes multiple feminist theories to compare and contrast naturism via ecofeminism. She structures her argument by discussing these three types of feminism through their historical contexts and potential for utilization within the framework of ecofeminism. While each has its merits in Merchant’s eyes, she presents positive and negative aspects for each. In terms of the utilization of socialist feminism in this sense, she believes it has potential to criticize the issue of dominance which is similar to the logic of domination presented by Warren as a structured hierarchy between humans and animals that is similar to the hierarchy of say, men and women. In terms of the utilization of liberal feminism, she finds the lack of a critique of capitalism to lessen its potential severely. Radical feminism, on the other hand she cites to be too close to reinforcing exactly what it intends to criticize, which is a dualistic view of the world.

After presenting these feminist theories, she defines and specifically analyzes two different worldviews and models. In her introduction for nature as female, she presents the first model as organic. This model, she believes, is lost to the current mechanical model. From the inception of humans to the 1500s, she believes this manner of living to be a model of organicism that inferred a working relationship between humans and the world by virtue of concepts such as the nurturing mother. She also cites how the ancients regarded nature in a philosophical sense like a living organism. While this may sound like a regression to Leopold’s Land Ethic, she is not presenting a concept of balance through choice making, rather she is stating the order is balanced by nature under the organicist model. However, since Francis Bacon’s manipulation of nature as a result of new technology and societal structures, she claims a mechanical model of our relationship with nature was created. This model, she states, is toxic. Rather than relenting our attempt at controlling nature, we now (according to Merchant) have moved towards a model in which humans not only control, but dominate nature in the same way that women are dominated in our current patriarchal society. Within this model Merchant presents the construction of a new hierarchy. With humans in control, a hierarchy of superiority over nature and its constituents is created and enforced within the world. Order, then, becomes something that is chosen by humans via the systems put into place like laws and rationality.

Her conclusion is one of a continuous mechanical model of society in which we do not coexist peacefully with nature. By virtue of this, there is a need for a “revolution” of sorts that would reverse and/or deconstruct the model in order to return society back to the Organicist model. She recognizes that in using ecofeminism and socialist feminism as a conceptual crutch for this model leaves room for potential losses and exclusions of factors that could potentially determine more ethical conclusions for this coexistence. She does not, however, provide an actual implementation of an ethic, nor does she define one. She simply provides a framework that could potentially be placed into society as a means of reverting back to something that could be considered more ethical than the current societal standards. Similar to Warren, I find her conclusions thrilling but am put back by the lack of an actual movement of change. I question, then, how can we implement a revolution to deconstruct this model without an ethic to fall back on?

WC 610

[jbaeteng]

Is Bayern Munich and Germany stalwart Jerome Boateng the world's best centre-back?

Jerome Boateng once cited Atletico Madrid's Diego Godin, Barcelona's Gerard Pique and Real Madrid's Sergio Ramos as the defenders he most admires in the modern game - but perhaps they should be the ones looking up to him.

As comfortable winning the ball as he is carrying and distributing it, the Bayern Munich and Germany centre-back is a paragon in his position. Half sentry, half quarter-back; he is a true one-of-a-kind. The thinking man's defender - conceivably the best in the world today.

It's been quite the transformation. When Boateng joined Bayern in summer 2011, he had spent the foregoing campaign filling in as a full-back for English Premier League outfit Manchester City. Sixteen top-flight appearances wasn't a bad return for a 22-year-old playing abroad for the first time in his senior club career, but his deployment on the flanks was hardly conducive to the development of a dyed-in-the-wool central defender.

"It was important to me that Bayern had me marked in for a specific position," Berlin-born Boateng said at the time, after putting pen to paper on a four-year deal with Germany's record champions. "I believe it will end up with me playing at centre-back for the national team more often. Above all, I've come here to make the defence more solid."

Boateng has delivered on his word. Bayern had finished third in the Bundesliga in 2010/11, conceding 18 goals more than champions Borussia Dortmund. Although they then fell seven points short in Boateng's debut campaign - coming up second best to BVB - the Bavarians ended 2011/12 with the meanest defence in the division. The foundation for the most successful era in Bayern's bejeweled history was almost complete.

Boateng has since helped Bayern claim, among others, six successive Bundesliga titles; each time boasting the stingiest backline and, in all but one instance, the most prolific attack. Only once on Boateng's watch have the red machine shipped more than 25 single-season Bundesliga goals; only twice have they failed to break the 80-goal mark at the other end. Bayern's capital punisher does not do things by halves.

Defensively, Boateng is the full package. He is tall (6'3"), strong and quick - qualities which facilitate swift recoveries if caught out – and has proved himself to be an effective communicator in various partnerships at the highest level for club and country. There are not many players who have won 14 major trophies at club level and got their hands on the FIFA World Cup before the age of 30.

It helps that he is exceedingly confident in his positioning, knowing exactly when to occupy the space either side of the opposition forward or move up and attempt to win possession. Just last season - in spite of various injury setbacks - the Hertha Berlin academy product won a team-high 69 per cent of his attempted challenges in 19 Bundesliga matches; better than Godin (43 per cent), Pique (53 per cent) and Ramos (57 per cent). The list goes on.

Bayern's high defensive line also means the central defenders have the added responsibility of covering the wide spaces when the full-backs push up, as well as carrying the ball away from goal and into opposition territory and hitting long passes into the final third.

Typically, possession is recycled among the back four and deep-lying midfielders until there is sufficient time for the centre-halves to look up and pick out a teammate. Happily, cultured build-up play and laser-guided balls into the path of Bayern's leading men are all part of the service where Boateng is concerned.

"It's incredible to be able to open up the game like that as a centre-back," Thomas Müller once beamed, the gleeful recipient of a Boateng special on more than one occasion down the years. "He's like a quarter-back, and has developed into a world-class player."

The numbers add weight to Müller's glowing appraisal. On average, Boateng enjoys 83 touches per Bundesliga game, whilst eating up six miles of ground. Of his total attempted passes in 2017/18, he hit the mark with 87 per cent – a two per cent improvement on his career median in a Bayern shirt. Retired midfield instrumentalist Xabi Alonso would be proud.

Bayern's system has evolved considerably in recent times, but so too has Boateng – so much so that he now sets the gold standard for tackle merchants and quarter-back centre-backs worldwide. Nobody does it better.

by: Chris Mayer-Lodge

#jerome boateng #Bundesliga #I know he's not in top form currently but i know he can be back on top again

[cryptobully-blog]

How Bitcoin, Blockchain Could Rule Financial System

https://cryptobully.com/how-bitcoin-blockchain-could-rule-financial-system/

How Bitcoin, Blockchain Could Rule Financial System

Imagine being told one day that your paychecks would be in Bitcoin. Pretty cool, right? Except your liquid assets could tumble in value at any moment in this cryptocurrency future. And you’d have to convert your cryptocurrency to dollars to buy groceries at Walmart (WMT), coffee at Starbucks (SBUX) or books on Amazon (AMZN).

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The surge in value of Bitcoin and its digital currency rivals has not been matched by their everyday utility. Payment processor Stripe cut off Bitcoin support in January, citing slow transaction times and high fees.

“We’ve seen the desire from our customers to accept Bitcoin decrease,” explained Stripe product manager Tom Karlo.

Bitcoin and other digital rivals are nowhere near ready for prime time. They might never match the utility of today’s financial-system incumbents, the banks and payment companies that facilitate the flow of funds over tens of millions of merchant locations.

Yet much like millennials will never have a landline, a coming generation might do without bank accounts thanks to secure, peer-to-peer cryptocurrency transactions. Blockchain technology and the vast new crypto wealth have opened the door to four cryptocurrency futures that could usher in a new financial order.

Four Cryptocurrency Future Scenarios

What are these possibilities?

The Federal Reserve could issue its own digital currency, as some global central banks are exploring.

Large companies such as Amazon, Walmart and Starbucks might issue digital coins that inspire trust and gain wide acceptance.

Retail giants, by accepting payments in the currency, could elevate Bitcoin, Ethereum or another cryptocurrency above the others vying to offer safety, soundness and utility.

Finally, if  trust is lost in government-backed, or fiat, currencies, a cryptocurrency future could come about by default. That may be a risk not only in places like Venezuela, but in the U.S., where federal deficits are spiraling.

“Virtual currencies might just give existing currencies and monetary policy a run for their money,” International Monetary Fund director Christine Lagarde predicted last fall. “Citizens may one day prefer virtual currencies, since they potentially offer the same cost and convenience as cash — no settlement risks, no clearing delays, no central registration, no intermediary to check accounts and identities,” she said.

That explosive potential helps explain why so many tech entrepreneurs and investors turned cryptocurrencies into a 21st Century gold rush, even as JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon has trashed Bitcoin as “a fraud.”

Dimon and other titans of finance voice certainty that commercial banks will remain indispensable, cryptocurrencies will stay on the fringe, and governments will want to keep it that way.

FedCoin? Central Banks Mull Future Of Cryptocurrency

Blockchain’s potential to revolutionize the financial system has some central banks studying whether to issue their own digital currency. Yale University scholars have proposed the FedCoin. In this cryptocurrency future, FedCoin could make monetary policy more flexible and forceful, even allowing for negative interest rates.

If a cryptocurrency acted as a reliable, widely accepted store of value, people could cut ties to their banks. They could keep some crypto cash in digital wallets, with other liquid assets in mutual funds, stocks and government bonds.

A Bank of England study concluded that a central-bank cryptocurrency could boost GDP by 3%. Gains would come, in part, from shrinking “monetary transaction costs that are analogous to distortionary tax rates.”

Yet FedCoin looks far-fetched at present because of the massive disruption it could cause. Central bank crypto dollars “could endanger the economically and socially important financial intermediation function of commercial banks,” JPMorgan analysts warned.

The contribution of fractional reserve banking to global growth — turning each $1 of deposits into $10 in loans — could fade. “We would expect that central banks would think twice before disturbing this source of capital to the private sector.”

Bitcoin Crash Or Cryptocurrency Revolution?

Dimon is surely right about one thing: The cryptocurrency future will depend heavily on government. That could mean smothering it with regulation, stealing its thunder via FedCoin or cultivating it with a light regulatory touch.

Bitcoin hit its 2018 low early on Feb. 6, the morning of a key Senate cryptocurrency hearing, briefly undercutting $6,000. The chairmen of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission both urged stronger oversight. But the financial regulators stopped short of sounding an alarm. Nor did they call for any legislation to rein in cryptocurrencies. In the weeks after that hearing, Bitcoin rebounded to around $11,000 but it has retreated yet again to below $8,000.

Bitcoin had doubled in the first half of December, hitting a peak above $19,000 just as Bitcoin futures began trading on Cboe Global Markets (CBOE) and CME (CME). The anticipation of futures trading, touted as validation from U.S. regulators, stoked speculation.

At the Senate hearing, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who earned his fortune as an early investor in the cell phone industry, said he sees a parallel between mobile phones then and cryptocurrencies now. “The same kind of transformation is about to take place,” he said.

Could Bitcoin Raise Systemic Risks?

Warner criticized the CFTC for embracing Bitcoin options at this stage. He fretted that total cryptocurrency market capitalization could hit $20 trillion — vs. $300 billion now — with another 2017-like surge.

“This rises potentially to the level of a systemically relevant event,” Warner said.

Yet there’s reason to doubt that cryptocurrency frenzy will return. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America (BAC) and Citigroup (C) — Ma Bell in Warner’s analogy — banned credit-card purchases of cryptocurrencies. Meanwhile, the SEC and foreign governments have cracked down on initial coin offerings. And lately, Alphabet (GOOGL)-unit Google, Facebook (FB) and Twitter (TWTR) have banned cryptocurrency ads.

Even Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin warned via Twitter not long ago that cryptocurrencies “could drop to near-zero at any time.” He added that “traditional assets are still your safest bet.”

The Bank for International Settlements, the central banker for global central banks, has warned that cryptocurrencies in the future could become a “threat to financial stability” if regulators aren’t vigilant. U.S. regulators appear to be playing catch-up. As of Feb. 6, the cryptocurrency working group put together by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had held a single meeting.

Politicians and central bankers worry that cryptocurrencies won’t hold value in a panic. “When things really go bad, where do Americans turn?” Philadelphia Federal Reserve President Patrick Harker asked a fintech conference last fall. “Well, they’re going to come back to the government. That’s the history of the country.”

Another ‘Large Player’ For Cryptocurrencies

Harker did allow that other currency models might work if another “large player” besides the government provided trust.

Who could fill that role? Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz offered some thoughts on the coffee chain’s January earnings call.

“I personally believe that there is going to be one or a few legitimate, trusted digital currencies off of the blockchain technology,” Schultz said. He doubted that Bitcoin would be one of them.

Cryptocurrencies “will have to be legitimized by a brand in a brick-and-mortar environment, where the consumer has trust and confidence in the company that is providing the transaction.”

Starbucks wants to play a role but isn’t making a big investment in a cryptocurrency future right now, Schultz said.

Amazon, Cryptocurrency Kingmaker — Or Central Bank?

Cryptocurrency investors have speculated that Amazon might accept Bitcoin or one of its digital rivals. That specific cryptocurrency would vault past competitors as a trusted store of value and useful medium of exchange. Amazon even registered the domains AmazonEthereum.com, AmazonCryptocurrency.com and AmazonCryptocurrencies, kicking such talk into high gear.

Alternatively, Amazon, Walmart — or a consortium of large companies — might issue their own cryptocurrency. Doing so could let them save on transaction costs and act as a competitive weapon.

But Amazon has also been cozying up with JPMorgan. Recently, Amazon and JPMorgan have partnered in a health care venture and in creating a new type of bank account.

Yet imagine if Amazon or Walmart rewarded loyal customers with tokens that could escalate in value. The tokens would jump to the head of the cryptocurrency pack with potential for broad acceptance as a currency. Customers would likely hoard the tokens, rather than spend them. The effect on sales and profits might be electric.

For a digital currency to gain wide acceptance from outside businesses, the issuer would have to act like a central bank. Governing a currency requires trust, so some functions might need independence from corporate issuers.

Those milestones could ease fears of a massive cryptocurrency crash. The Fed shouldn’t need to rush in and save the day if AmazonCoin or WalmartCoin crashed.

Currencies rely on conservative and predictable rules to assure the public that massive money printing won’t destroy value. Could people trust the central bank of Amazon?

Then again, will people always be able to count on the Fed?

Cryptocurrency Future: Competition For Central Bank Fiat Money

The Fed controls the creation of money, but central bankers seem to be losing their grip. Any loss of faith in the dollar and the Fed bodes well for a cryptocurrency future as dollar-skeptics look for an alternative store of wealth — besides gold.

Bitcoin’s peer-to-peer electronic payment system, first proposed in 2008 to verify transactions through a decentralized public blockchain, arrived on the scene as the global financial crisis triggered bailouts of one big bank after another.

Bitcoin fulfilled famed economist Friedrich Hayek’s idea of denationalizing money. He believed competition could help keep central banks honest and prevent runaway inflation.

Doubts fueled by “ballooning balance sheets of the major central banks in the aftermath of the global financial crisis” motivated early cryptocurrency investors, JPMorgan analysts wrote. Yet the lack of any upsurge in inflation since “has surely reduced concerns about fiat (legal tender issued by a central bank) money.”

A Fiscal Train In Cryptocurrency Future?

Yet the Fed now faces a much different challenge: a runaway federal deficit even amid a strong U.S. economy. The deficit will top $1 trillion in fiscal 2019 and $2 trillion by 2027, and there’s no fix in sight. Republicans have overseen big deficit-financed tax cuts and increased government spending. Democrats want more generous Social Security benefits, Medicare for all and debt-free college.

“The continued growth of public debt raises eventual sustainability questions if left unchecked,” Goldman Sachs economists warned recently.

The Fed seems on track to suffer the same fate as the Bank of Japan. The BoJ has been forced to accommodate sky-high government deficits with easy money and asset purchases. Japan, with a falling working-age population, hasn’t had a whiff of inflation. But the U.S. might be a different story.

Deutsche Bank global credit strategist Jim Reid put this shocking headline on a November report: “The Start of the End of Fiat Money?” Reid argued high debt levels will keep the Fed and other central banks too accommodative, putting fiat currencies at risk.

“The fiat currency system may be seriously tested over the coming decade and ultimately we may need to find an alternative,” Reid wrote. “Cryptocurrencies are all the rage at the moment and are as much about blockchain as anything else, but there could be an increasing desire for alternative” mediums of exchange in the years to come.”

Keep in mind that fiat money is a relatively young innovation. It’s only truly been the norm since President Nixon ended the dollar’s quasi-gold standard in 1971.

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