#the latter has its merits especially depending on what it is but it sounds like a waste of money for some smaller things | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lucyhblack · 5 years

Text

Encyclopedia Pokesans

This is my ambitious Pokemon x Undertale project, From Pockets to Monsters.

Here, through Prof. Stretch (US! Papyrus) I will try to detail the idea of how my universe works and explain what the Pokesans are and the details about each of them.

Again, thanks to @damnedxfate for inspiring me and allowing me to play with the idea of pokesans.

I hope you like it and please forgive any mistake (English is not my default language)! ^^

Summary: Welcome to the Beginner's Guide for Master Pokesans. I'm Prof. Stretch and I will be your instructor in this fascinating world. Then hold your pokeballs and let's go!

Introduction

* A tall skeleton monster wearing an orange hooded sweatshirt, beige capri pants under an open white coat and slippers appears *

Hey! Welcome to the Beginner's Guide for Master Pokesans, it's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Prof. Stretch a Pocket Monsters scholar specializing in the genre Sans, popularly known as Pokesans, and I'll be your instructor in the fascinating world of these creatures .

You're new here, not you? (obviously, if not, I would not be going through this introduction) No problem, I will guide you so that you can become the master pokesans you have always dreamed of.

So let's start?

What are Pocket Monsters?

(Yes, yes, you probably already know what they are, but I have to follow a script here partner, or they will make me re-record everything ... again)

In our world we have two dominant races, the Monsters and the Pocket monsters, and as long as the Monsters lose their ability to use magic, the Pockets have kept it and have become capable of extraordinary deeds!

Pocket Monters (as the name suggests) are mostly small, some being so tiny that they fit in the palm of the hand, while others can be as big as a house.

They have characteristics more "animalistic" than their Monster counterparts, not only physically but psychologically too.

Both species have developed a symbiotic relationship, with Monsters and Pokémon living in harmony (almost always) and helping each other, either to reach their full potential or to facilitate life on a daily basis.

Some Monsters have pokémons as mascots, others as helpers and even as romantic partners, but more popularly they are used by Monsters to confront each other in battles and competitions.

This may seem strange (even horrible in some ways), but battles are the easiest and most effective way to make pokémons hone and develop their powers, sometimes even evolving.

We classify Pokemon by: Gender, Family, Class, and Type, and Classes may vary depending on the Pokémon Genre.

There are many genres of pokemons such as the little lizard monsters called the Pokealphy or the stuffed animals known as Poketemmies and, of course, those of the genus Skeletons called Pokesans.

As a researcher of the latter I will delve deeper into them going forward.

(After all this is a guide for Pokesans!)

What is a Pokesan?

Pokesans is a Pocket Monster skeleton genre.

Um ... that did not help much, did it? Well then (again) let's go to the long explanation.

Pokesans are small bipedal skeletons (with the exception of the evolution of a Class), with large rounded skulls, wide ocular openings with apparent focal lights (mostly), a large jaw bearing an almost permanent smile and a tail.

These are the basic characteristics of all pokesans, but they also sometimes have other physical characteristics such as claws, horns, fins, wings, etc.

Every pokesan has a great magical ability, this variable being according to his Type.

If it still is not clear what are pokesans (* sigh * Why did I apply for this job anyway? Oh yes, I did not. Thanks, for reminding me Sans) okay, maybe with a comparative be easier to understand.

Monster x Pokesans

To best illustrate I will now list the key features that differentiate the Pokesans from their Monster counterpart.

Body and Magic

As stated earlier, a characteristic that distinguishes pokesans is the presence of a tail. ALL pokesans own a tail, even though it is so short that it does not appear beneath the clothing, or it is "all" a tail, like the lamas pokesans (pokesans snake), or the merskeletons (pokesans mermaids).

At first glance, pokesans may physically even look a lot like Skeleton Monsters, but it's not just the presence of a tail or other "paraphernalia" that sets them apart, it's their magical ability that makes even their biology different.

For example, skeleton monsters have fixed physical bodies, while pokesans have something called ecto-magic that form certain parts of their body (especially "soft" parts), such as flippers in aquatic pokesans, "feathers" and "leather" "In flying pokesans or even tongue and sexual organs.

Because of this the pokesans also do not have a fixed physical gender, being able to summon what best suits their desires.

The parts created by this ecto-magic (the ecto-body) can be summoned or discarded according to the need or will of the pokesans.

Pokescan magic is not only meant to create body parts, pokesans have the ability to use their magic for various things, such as magical attacks (often linked to their Type, like spitting fire, generating electricity, etc.), summoning bones ( which can serve a myriad of purposes other than attack and defense) or "magical servants" (usually in the form of sentient animal skulls that can launch a plethora of magical attacks on their own).

Quite different from us Poor Monsters, whose magic is basically restricted there is physical maintenance and some ability to influence intention (and yet it takes a lot of training to have the ability to use it properly).

Also, due to magic, pokesans are able to evolve.

Evolution is a state generated by the magical development of the pokemon that causes it to change not only physically but sometimes type (change in magic type or implementing it), plus a considerable increase in its magic (and often in its size) in an instant.

I'll go into more detail about this later. Just know that this ability belongs only to pokemons.

Intellect and Behavior

But it's not just the physical and magical differences that set us apart. Pokesans have their own behavioral and social patterns.

Intellectually pokesans are as capable as any monster (even more than some I know), being able to learn advanced notions such as reading and math, as well as full understanding of concepts, rules and laws (now how much the application varies from pokemon to pokemon and from situation to situation).

It has been proven that they can learn to write, but most seem to find it too laborious. They also have the ability to understand any spoken Monster language, almost instantly (we'll get back to communication shortly).

Pokesans possess the knowledge and skill to build, creating rudimentary forms of accommodation, but most prefer to live outdoors, sometimes creating burrows or using caves as shelters. They are also fully capable of creating utensils (carving or magically creating) to facilitate tasks such as cooking, sheltering or hunting and just as most civilized beings use fire to cook their food (although there are those who prefer their raw foods).

While many pokesans form flock and even communities (with leaders and rules) among themselves or among other pokemons, they do not demonstrate interest in creating an "advanced" society of their own. No one has yet been able to understand the reason for this, being they with knowledge, skill and power, to choose to live in the wild to build their own civilization.

Some researchers have already suggested that it is due to the high magical level that makes their instincts stronger and wilder, and what makes the cooperation necessary to create an impossible base society.

While this theory has certain merits (many pokesans have strong territorial behaviors that hinder group conviviality) it seems rather weak when we can see many pokesans working together, whether with their own gender or not, and even leaving their differences aside to achieve objective in common.

The most accepted theory is due to sheer laziness. (I know, unbelievable is not it? And people still say I'm lazy!)

The pokesans seem to be satisfied with the life they have and those who prefer a life with more "stewardship" end up counting on a Monster to provide that to them.

This assumption has more support because not even they (the pokesans) have an appropriate answer to that question (no Sans ... shrugging is not an appropriate response ... it does not matter if I use it often too!) .

I will better detail the behavioral patterns when we come to Families and Classes.

Language and communication

Pokesans do not have a language vocal or writing own (if known).

Pokesans can learn to speak a few words or phrases, with more or less difficulty, in the Monster language (although there are some who have managed to develop the ability to communicate perfectly in Monster language). They are also able to understand any variation Monster language after only some time of exposure to it.

It is believed that this is due to the unique ability of communication that Pokémon have. This ability is called Pokémon communication (it's not very creative) or "language" Pokémon.

This "language" consists of something like a mental interaction between the Pokémon, which causes them to communicate freely among themselves without emitting any sound.

We believe that this ability to communicate mentally facilitates the absorption of the meaning of spoken words and your understanding of the Monster languages.

Any pokemon genre can communicate with another pokemon using this "language", but between a pokemon and a Monster it is necessary to have a link so that there is this mental understanding. The greater the bond, the greater the understanding between them (so do not worry the pokesans can not "read your mind" ... at least not most).

I know you should be curious about the Master / Pokesans link, but for now we will continue with what sets Pokesans apart from Monsters and we will come back to that subject in the future.

Mating and Breeding

Pokesans have periods of fertility (mating seasons) and these periods trigger a series of symptoms called Heat Cycles.

Heat happens when the monster's body accumulates enough magic to allow the development of a new life. It has as symptoms: increased body temperature, increased libido and release of soul resonance (often perceived as a powerful odor or attraction) that can even affect Monsters (but in a much more gentle way).

These cycles are triggered when a pokesans reaches maturity of reproduction, which is variable according to each Family / Class.

In the Lust class, for example, the pokesans are in a state of permanent Heat (only the symptoms and not the fertility).

Although this period has a high level of success, it is not 100% guarantee of a conception.

Although a relationship between Monster and Pokemon is acceptable, all these differences make us reproductively incompatible. It means that even if a monster and a Pokemon become romantically and sexually involved, they will not be able to generate offspring.

This is due not only to magical level differences, but also to the biological forms of reproduction that both species possess. Pokesans spawn eggs while Monsters spawn their offspring into their bodies.

While there is usually one egg per mating (which may even contain twins), it is not uncommon at times to have more than one egg. This can happen more easily if the pokesans in question have more than one partner.

Pokesans can spawn an egg with other Pokémon Genres, but it is more complicated how much more different is the form of magical conception that Genres possess (so a pokesan is more likely to generate an egg with a pokealphys, which also generate eggs, than with a pokeflowey that generate seeds).

Like many things related to pokemons, everything depends on the intention of the pair (or pairs) involved.

Pokesans can have a permanent link, where the pair (or pairs) stays together all of life or only until the puppy (s) are old enough to be independent (again it depends on pokesans for pokesans).

The puppies of pokesans also differ from children Monsters. While a Baby Monster will be born helpless, babies pokesans are already born with their powers (though little control over them) and they have reached maturity much faster than a child Monster.

Clothing

Another curious factor of the birth of a pokesans is their "clothing". Pokesans are born naked (like most living beings), but in a short time their magic will have covered them with a kind of "uniform" a kind of "body overalls" that follows patterns and characteristics of each Family or Class (even in aquatic pokesans ).

Although this outfit is created by magic, it is not a part of your body (like the magic that forms ecto-body), so it will not do damage to the pokesans if in a battle it is damaged.

If the overalls become too damaged the pokesans can discard it and summon a new one, the old one will disappear in a short time. The overalls can also be discard it and summon a new one by the will of the pokesans. Many creators (especially the Coordinators) like to decorate their pokesans with custom clothing.

The overalls always follow the same pattern, only changing when the pokesans evolves (and then permanently stayed in the new form). The pokesans have no control over their colors or patterns.

Pokesans do not usually use any form of footwear (in the wild at least). Sometimes the overalls themselves will cover their feet (and also the tail in some) giving the impression of shoes (often in a pattern of boots or slippers).

Longevity and health

We believe (we pokemon scholars) that due to their magical ability the pokesans (all pokemons to be exact) can live for many, many years beyond the expectation Monster. While a Monster may be lucky enough to reach 100, there are pokemons documented for hundreds of years, in the case of Legends even millennia (it is speculated that the Legendary are actually immortal, but there is no proof of this).

Due to magic they are also very resistant and immune to most of the diseases of Monsters (although we share some similar symptoms sometimes when ill), but may still contract magical types of diseases, including a so-called "Fall."

The Fall occurs when a pokesan enters into something like a depressive state that causes him to stop eating, protect or move that will weaken him to comatose, almost always fatal state.

It may seem like a psychological rather than a physical illness, but it also affects their magical levels. A "Fallen" pokemon (as it is called a falling pokemon) has fall magic levels (hence part of the name of the disease), to the point that the pokesans can no longer use their magic, ultimately leading to their death .

The "Fall" is a process that can last a long time (depending on the strength of the Pokemon in question) until its end. A Fallen Pokémon can rarely recover and what can lead to a "Fall" is variable, but usually linked to a great emotional loss. Despite this, fallen Pokesans are very rare (Pokesans are very resistant pokemon, both physically and mentally).

Like Monsters, Pokesans have their bodies turned to dust when they die.

#undertale #underswap #us!papyrus #pokesans #pokemon #From Pockets to Monsters #my universe #my fic #I hope it's understandable #more soon #I wait

14 notes · View notes

allianceinternational-blog · 5 years

Text

Logistics Recruitment Agencies - Low Cost Recruitment For Logistic Staff

By : Yogita Yadav

Image Source :

The main reasons employers turn to Skills Provision is their professionalism and large inventory of available manpower. This can cover single operatives or large teams.

youtube

Video Source :

Ultra Global PRT, developer of the Heathrow pod at Terminal 5, talks about transport jobs, their working relationship with Morgan Hunt recruitment agency, Morgan Hunt's recruitment services and more in this client testimonial.

Logistics Consulting Companies - How To Crack The Jobs Industry

Salaries provided to nurses mainly depend around the location of the job. The farther is the location, the higher is salary offered. Shocking of requires you're going to the area and tasks or assignments are also considered when estimating the earning.

The support from buddies and family and colleagues is along with a very important tool to job hunting even whether it is just by a morale boost. Do not discard these folks ,Best Logistics Staffing Agencies. They may be in a situation where these people could network for through their business contacts. Do not cut yourself off. Your friends will be the friends!

The Andhra Bank PO Examination is carried out in two stages - written test and interview. A person qualify in the written test you is entitled to take a seat for an interview. The written test has two sections - objective type questions and descriptive type questions. The marks scored in descriptive test will not be counted for deciding the merit place.

Utmost courtesy would even be extended to the customers. The corporation would be reflected with the agents who would take the calls. Must then exactly how to make clients feel respected and valued.

Further to leaving school, I had the oppertunity of doing further education in hairdressing and good looks. I jumped in the chance. Someone had dropped out belonging to the course in the last minute and I made within the numbers.The college changed my whole the life. It was they who first realised I'd dyslexia and struggled with learning.

Investigate business and its executives. Check the better business bureau, state attorney general's office and Federal Trade Commission internet sites for complaints and pending litigation versus the company. Unpredicted expenses an openly traded company, check out it's stock performance. When you really get serious a few company, its best to invest the little bit it costs to get a D&B, Hoover and other reports on the company.

Of course your appearance is of prime importance, especially on your first time. Be smart - suited and booted important - but glean any additional tips you can, both from your recruitment officer and the organization website, certain you're neither too smart nor too casual. The former, however, is vastly preferable on the latter, especially initially.

At this point, I hear the language of a former MD and multiple millionaire in my head proclaiming that university trains your mind to attain and use knowledge.

Down lines are the lifeblood of internet marketing. If you don't sell this system to some of them and they just don't in turn sell other new down lines, will not need make cost. Sounds a lot like sales and purchasers management - because could be.

Ask for your name for the admissions person that handles your geographical area. This is the contact person for future email lens. Try to meet that person, introduce yourself, receive a business card. Might be wicked cool to trade business cards, and so i would acquire one created with only your name, address, email address, and phone number.

I was sent to specialist who could find no physical reason why I was unable to communicate.Then one morning I just simply started talking entirely sentences. Everyone was astounded.However, it became apparent that I found myself not learning anything freely.When I started school it became even more apparent as other children became a measuring stick to what a young girl of how old irrrve become should have the to accomplished.

One of this common attacks on recruitment agencies simple fact that they employ sales consumers to recruit. Well, if you are seeking a sales team member, system not the bad thing is this can?! Sales people know sales representatives. They understand what it takes duplicate in this industry. They will understand your business on must not level because you and they will be better suited match an applicant with fairly goals of the team.

The examiner asked to talk to me afterwards and told me I had the gift of communication, and my partner and i should are a speaker and lecturer. This prompted me to twice daily . course after finishing . Time has switched.

If you're a nurse, will you let go of this chance? Surely, you do not desire to be left behind and will take this rare opportunity of enjoying and earning while working. However, despite these enormous opportunities and advantages, some nurses reject the sale and prefer to work involving hospital. I am wondering why they forget about this chance while we simply ignore the truth everybody desires to travel and experience this particular opportunity. Through some research conducted with nurses possess previous experiences to deemed a travel nurse, studies identified that have got some negative incidents long ago. Problems arose not by way of the places possess visited or people they met however with the agency they had a job with.

Defence.lk was the hot news provider regarding building traffic . battled between Sri Lankan army and LTTE. Over the last battle period defence.lk was ranked as No.2 in Alexa. After end of war there a huge decline in hit-rate. Numerous centuries . defence.lk is really a rich involving information on government headlines.

Once possess to created a subscriber list of all potential employers, you are able to start sending out of CV. Come up with things easier for yourself you generate an online spreadsheet of all the addresses you have sent your CV to, along with the date a person can sent them on. It can be extremely vital that you adhere to the companies application rules absolutely. Some companies require a person can send an appliance cover letter or additional reports. If you don't follow the rules correctly you are immediately giving yourself a disadvantage over level of competition.

Address :B-707 MONDEAL SQUARE

Sarkhej – Gandhinagar Hwy,

Prahlad Nagar,

Ahmedabad,

Gujarat 380015

Mobile no.:-+91 9898434323

For More Information: https://www.allianceinternational.co.in

0 notes

wineanddinosaur · 4 years

Text

The Rise of Instant Coffee (That You’ll Actually Want to Drink)

I grew up in a Mormon household where coffee was banned. My first taste of it was at the age of 21, when I had distanced myself from the religion of my childhood and was desperately trying to catch up on the beverages that everyone else found familiar.

Luckily, a friend’s boyfriend was a barista, and with his guidance, I began to piece together the puzzle of what makes “good” coffee — small producers, more expensive, farmers that are paid a fair price — a sum of parts that was different from the mass-produced stuff. It celebrated the unique flavor of the beans, which changed depending on where they were grown and how they were processed.

At some point, I learned there was also “instant coffee.” Unsure of its merit, I made myself a cup in a hotel room. It was the opposite of everything I had learned, and grown to love, about coffee. It was burnt, harsh, and bitter, and tasted vaguely of gasoline. I was new to coffee, but not new to things that tasted good. I didn’t finish the cup.

But recently, I noticed that my favorite coffee shop had started carrying instant coffee from Tandem, a roaster and café whose terroir-driven coffee I already knew and loved from summer trips to Portland, Me.

Two distinctive instant coffee options were available: There was one from Guji, Ethiopia with notes of kiwi, melon, and fresh flowers. The other was a seasonal blend called “Time and Temperature” with notes of chocolate caramel and red berry.

I had worked so hard to learn about coffee, at least enough to not sound stupid at my local coffee shop — why had no one told me that there was specialty instant coffee?

Turns out, the concept of specialty instant coffee is rather new. Swift Cup Coffee, based in Lancaster, Pa., is an independent instant coffee label that opened in 2016 and found a secondary business as an instant coffee processor for other specialty roasters. Nate Kaiser, founder of Swift Cup Coffee, says even “three years ago, most specialty coffee roasters would turn their nose at instant coffee, and for good reason.” Things have changed quickly, however.

Credit: Swift Cup Coffee

For its processing operations, Swift now counts 75 clients around the world, including Tandem in Maine, Verve in California, Parlor in New York, and Belleville in France. While the coffees are labeled and sold by the individual roasters, Kaiser is proud to note that the companies he chooses to work with share his values of sustainable sourcing and quality. “You get what you pay for, both in terms of flavor and sourcing ethics,” he says, adding, “Our coffees are often 10 times the price of commodity instant coffees, without apology.”

The History of Instant Coffee

The instant coffee concept is centuries old, and has served soldiers more often than coffee snobs. The first record of instant coffee is a patent from the British government for “coffee compound,” awarded to John Dring in 1771 (this is about 200 years after coffee was introduced to England). It took until 1853 for the invention to reach America, when it was marketed as a “coffee cake” and rationed out to Civil War soldiers. It went through several more innovations between then and the First World War, at which point the U.S. military bought large quantities for soldiers.

The latter part of the 20th century saw instant coffee continually improve, at least technically speaking. In 1956, Nestle introduced its freeze-dried instant coffee product Nescafé. In the 1960s, the technique of adding the oil from fresh coffee beans to instant coffee took hold, giving instant coffee the aroma of fresh-ground beans — but only until the powder was mixed with water. By the 1970s, instant coffee gained some popularity as a quick pick-me-up, and around a third of the coffee imported into the U.S. was used for instant coffee production.

Later, the rise of coffee shops in the 1990s such as Starbucks, and the retailers comprising coffee’s “second wave,” brought a decline in instant coffee sales.

Instant Coffee’s Second Wave

In 2009, Starbucks released its powdered Via instant coffee, in packages that look a lot like Crystal Lite (and are prepared similarly — stir into hot water!). Still, it was mostly seen as a last resort, especially for those used to brewing a fresh pot of coffee in the morning.

As the specialty coffee industry grew, some of its major players began to wonder if instant coffee had to stay the burnt, offensive stuff of chain hotel rooms. “Instant coffee has always been taboo in our industry,” says Kaiser, who worked for a decade in the micro coffee business before founding Swift Cup. Kaiser wanted to understand why instant coffee was “bad” and, ultimately, how to improve it. “I sort of became obsessed with the idea,” he says, “digging deep into the chemistry involved, and building a manufacturing plan that would prioritize quality first.”

Credit: Verve Coffee

After about a year of planning his side project, Kaiser had a prototype good enough to share with friends in the industry, one of whom was Will Pratt, co-owner of Tandem. Pratt recounts tasting Kaiser’s prototype while both were on a coffee sourcing trip in Colombia. “It was the best instant coffee I’ve ever tasted,” Pratt says.

A few more of Kaiser’s friends in specialty coffee had the same reaction. Then a few more. Then a few more. “The response was a bit overwhelming,” Kaiser says. “I had roasters blowing me up,” asking, “how can we do this, how can we get this?”

Specialty vs. Mass-Market

Another player is Los Angeles’s Waka Coffee, started in 2018. Waka Coffee only offers specialty instant coffee, a decision that founder David Kovalevski made out of necessity.

Kovalevski grew up in Israel, where he says instant coffee was in every household. After moving to the U.S., he started seeking out a local brand of instant coffee that was tasty and easy to make. “Not only could I not find any good local instant coffee brands, but I also realized there was a stigma around the whole instant coffee category in America,” Kovalevski says.

Credit: Waka Coffee

The major difference between his and other specialty instant coffees and their postwar forebears, he says, is the quality of the beans. “Because we were taught to think of instant coffee only as a money-saving solution, traditional grocery-store-type instant coffees are made from the cheapest coffee beans using the easiest and cheapest processes,” Kovalevski says. Waka Coffee uses Arabica beans, which are freeze-dried.

Kaiser also believes grocery store brands are “made with the lowest of the low-grade coffees, oftentimes from old crops full of defects. Typically, these coffees are roasted very darkly and then processed into instant, using very aggressive manufacturing techniques that strip the coffee of any remaining nuance,” he says. “What you are left with is a product that by many discerning and even non-discerning palates is something completely undrinkable.”

Niche or New Normal?

At this point, Kovaleski says, instant coffee nets about $2 billion in annual sales in the U.S. alone. That number is expected to grow over the next few years. “The instant coffee category in the U.S. is definitely in the midst of a renaissance,” Kovalevski says. “I am happy to see that instant coffee is now making a comeback, and we are proud to be part of this renaissance.”

“Specialty coffee is a small niche of the coffee world, instant is an even smaller niche,” Kaiser says. However, he compares instant coffee’s growth to cold brew — as more roasters add instant coffee to their offerings, a consumer base will slowly follow.

“Five to eight years ago, just a handful of shops offered cold brew,” Kaiser says. “Now, you can go anywhere and you’d expect that they’d have some sort of cold brew or iced coffee option. It’s become the new normal.”

Whether instant coffee stays a “niche within a niche” or becomes the new normal remains to be seen. “Coffee is a special thing, and I think it’s important that we encourage more people to buy ethically sourced and better- quality coffee,” he says. “Specialty instant coffee certainly makes it a lot easier to do so.”

5 Specialty Instant Coffees to Try

Swift Cup Mainstay Blend ($10 for 6-cup box) Tasting Notes: Red wine, toffee, cashew

Swift Cup Cantillo Family – Gesha ($16.15 for 6-cup box) Tasting Notes: Blackberry, orange blossom, buckwheat honey

Waka Coffee Medium Roast Colombian ($11.99 for 8 single-serve packets) Tasting Notes: Dark chocolate, brown sugar, toasted nuts

Tandem Time and Temperature Blend ($15 for 6 packets) Tasting Notes: Chocolate, caramel, red berry

Verve Street Level Blend ($15 for 6 packets) Tasting Notes: Red apple, marmalade, molasses

The article The Rise of Instant Coffee (That You’ll Actually Want to Drink) appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/best-specialty-instant-coffee/

0 notes

johnboothus · 4 years

Text

The Rise of Instant Coffee (That Youll Actually Want to Drink)

I had worked so hard to learn about coffee, at least enough to not sound stupid at my local coffee shop — why had no one told me that there was specialty instant coffee?

Credit: Swift Cup Coffee

The History of Instant Coffee

Later, the rise of coffee shops in the 1990s such as Starbucks, and the retailers comprising coffee’s “second wave,” brought a decline in instant coffee sales.

Instant Coffee’s Second Wave

Credit: Verve Coffee

Specialty vs. Mass-Market

Another player is Los Angeles’s Waka Coffee, started in 2018. Waka Coffee only offers specialty instant coffee, a decision that founder David Kovalevski made out of necessity.

Credit: Waka Coffee

Niche or New Normal?

5 Specialty Instant Coffees to Try

Swift Cup Mainstay Blend ($10 for 6-cup box) Tasting Notes: Red wine, toffee, cashew

Swift Cup Cantillo Family – Gesha ($16.15 for 6-cup box) Tasting Notes: Blackberry, orange blossom, buckwheat honey

Waka Coffee Medium Roast Colombian ($11.99 for 8 single-serve packets) Tasting Notes: Dark chocolate, brown sugar, toasted nuts

Tandem Time and Temperature Blend ($15 for 6 packets) Tasting Notes: Chocolate, caramel, red berry

Verve Street Level Blend ($15 for 6 packets) Tasting Notes: Red apple, marmalade, molasses

The article The Rise of Instant Coffee (That You’ll Actually Want to Drink) appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/best-specialty-instant-coffee/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/the-rise-of-instant-coffee-that-youll-actually-want-to-drink

0 notes

isaiahrippinus · 4 years

Text

The Rise of Instant Coffee (That You’ll Actually Want to Drink)

I had worked so hard to learn about coffee, at least enough to not sound stupid at my local coffee shop — why had no one told me that there was specialty instant coffee?

Credit: Swift Cup Coffee

The History of Instant Coffee

Later, the rise of coffee shops in the 1990s such as Starbucks, and the retailers comprising coffee’s “second wave,” brought a decline in instant coffee sales.

Instant Coffee’s Second Wave

Credit: Verve Coffee

Specialty vs. Mass-Market

Another player is Los Angeles’s Waka Coffee, started in 2018. Waka Coffee only offers specialty instant coffee, a decision that founder David Kovalevski made out of necessity.

Credit: Waka Coffee

Niche or New Normal?

5 Specialty Instant Coffees to Try

Swift Cup Mainstay Blend ($10 for 6-cup box) Tasting Notes: Red wine, toffee, cashew

Swift Cup Cantillo Family – Gesha ($16.15 for 6-cup box) Tasting Notes: Blackberry, orange blossom, buckwheat honey

Waka Coffee Medium Roast Colombian ($11.99 for 8 single-serve packets) Tasting Notes: Dark chocolate, brown sugar, toasted nuts

Tandem Time and Temperature Blend ($15 for 6 packets) Tasting Notes: Chocolate, caramel, red berry

Verve Street Level Blend ($15 for 6 packets) Tasting Notes: Red apple, marmalade, molasses

The article The Rise of Instant Coffee (That You’ll Actually Want to Drink) appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/best-specialty-instant-coffee/ source https://vinology1.tumblr.com/post/618739573862842368

0 notes

flipfundingstuff · 5 years

Text

7 Stages of Business Growth When You Need an Accountant’s Help

Choosing an accountant is a significant milestone for any small business. Beyond handling your tax returns or bookkeeping, an accountant can be an invaluable resource who can help you make more informed decisions about managing your finances and growing your business.

We spoke to several accountants around the country to get their input on the best times to work with a professional. From its early formation through its sale and closure, here are some key stages when it makes sense to turn to the services of an accountant.

1. When you’re starting up

Most SMBs can benefit from hiring an accountant as early as possible in the entrepreneurial process–even before you open the doors to your business. This stage of your business is all about budgeting and planning, and a good accountant can assist with the financial projections that form part of your business plan, including revenues, profits, and cash flow. An accountant can also help you plan for expenses.

Once you’re up and running, an accountant can help you build the right financial infrastructure and organize and manage important finances, such as cash flow. The latter is particularly crucial since many businesses fail in their early years due to a lack of cash flow. He or she can also take time-consuming bookkeeping tasks off your plate.

“Most business owners aren’t experts when it comes to accounting and tax preparation,” says Peter Gurian, a CPA with Dallas, TX, firm Gurian. “By outsourcing this task, you will have more time as a business owner to focus on your expertise–your business.”

2. When you’re deciding on your business’s legal structure

A little over 70% of US small businesses operate as sole proprietors. However, as your business grows, decisions must be made about whether to incorporate the business. In addition to affording limited liability protection from a legal standpoint, incorporation (especially if you also elect S corporation status) is a financial decision with tax implications. An accountant can help you determine which form of business structure makes sense for your business based on your fiscal situation and goals.

3. When you’re seeking financing

When you apply for a business loan or credit, you’ll need to present your lender with solid financials.

An accountant can help you manage and monitor your business’s fiscal health long before you apply for a loan, which can help you understand where your finances need help so you can improve your chances of securing funding when you need it.

He or she can also help you choose which type of funding to go for, whether the terms are favorable, and help prepare the necessary financial statements.

Keep in mind that the accountant you hire depends on the type of funding you’re sourcing. Folasade Ayegbusi, CEO of Suncrest Financials, located in the Washington, DC metro area, explains: “If a company plans to seek funding from a venture capital firm, then they should hire a CPA who is qualified to review each party’s financials thoroughly. But if the SMB plans to use its own funding, then a CPA isn’t always necessary, and a qualified accountant could handle the work. It’s all about evaluating your needs and hiring accordingly.”

4. When you hire employees

Managing payroll taxes is ranked as one of the most burdensome administrative tasks for small business owners (SBOs) according to a survey by the National Small Business Association (NSBA).

“If you have employees…it may be wise to hire a professional to make sure you’re doing everything correctly,” recommends Logan Allec, CPA and owner of Money Done Right, an online resource for helping people make sound financial decisions. “If you’re not sure if you’re running your business correctly from a tax and revenue perspective, you are risking large penalties from state taxing authorities.”

5. When you’re on the brink of a new deal

If your business is on the verge of a significant business deal–whether it’s a new client or a big project–an accountant can help you review the merits and pitfalls of closing the deal. New business often demands investment in your business (new employees, inventory, technology, etc.) and can also have tax consequences, so it’s important that your accountant has a seat at the table.

“Your accountant should be involved in most decisions to be able to tell you any tax implications and to let you know what your numbers actually mean,” says Atiya S. Brown, a CPA and Accounting Director at The Savvy Accountant. “Do you really know if a deal is worth it? What will it generate over time? Your accountant should be able to tell you all of this. So, you want to keep them abreast of most business dealings.”

6. When you buy another business

Accountants also play an essential role if you decide to acquire another business–whether as a gateway into business ownership or as an expansion strategy. This is likely the biggest deal of your life. An accountant can help calculate your business’s worth with an objective valuation and navigate the tax implications of the deal. He or she can also assist with due diligence and help you uncover any red flags in the acquired business’s finances, such as outstanding debt or tax issues.

7. When you sell your business

If you have a succession plan in place that hands the keys of your business over to a family member or you plan to sell to a third party, a healthy and organized set of books to show potential buyers is a must.

With the help of your accountant, you can show visually, using professional charts and graphics, how your business has performed and financial projections for the future. Your accountant can also help with the due diligence aspect of the deal. Finally, he or she can set you on the path to a prosperous post-sale financial future.

There’s a Place for an Accountant at Every Growth Stage

An accountant is an enormous asset to any small business, whatever your growth stage.

As Atiya Brown says, “I often tell SMBs that they should have someone on their team as early as possible. People tend to think that they can leave their finances on the back burner. But you can not wait until the last minute to take care of your financials. They need to be accurate at all times. What if an amazing opportunity is around the corner but they need to know that you are a viable company to be invested in? You do not want to be caught not knowing the financial health of your business.”

Disclaimer: Fundbox and its affiliates do not provide tax, legal or accounting advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal or accounting advice. You should consult your own tax, legal and accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction. Please consult a tax professional for information about tax laws and how they apply to your business.

The post 7 Stages of Business Growth When You Need an Accountant’s Help appeared first on Lendio.

from Blog – Lendio https://ift.tt/2JPScha via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Blog – Lendio

0 notes

bnvupdates · 6 years

Text

American Anti-Intellectualism and Social Inequalities in the Age of Trump

We live in the age of Trump. What this means will vary from individual to individual, but for every person who thinks he represents straightforward business, there is another that believes he represents an affront to American intellectualism.

Perhaps it’s because of comments like this, spoken by Trump at a campaign rally in 2016:

youtube

“You know, I’ve always wanted to say this—I’ve never said this before with all the talking we all do, all of these experts, ‘Oh we need an expert’—the experts are terrible!”

Nicholas Baer, Harper-Schmidt Fellow in the University of Chicago’s Society of Fellows at the rank of Collegiate Assistant Professor in the Humanities, mentions as much in his article, “American Idiot: Rethinking Anti-Intellectualism in the Age of Trump.” He draws heavily upon the work of Tom Nichols, a book titled The Death of Expertise.

“For Nichols, the anti-intellectual strain in the U.S. has transmuted into an arrogant contempt for intellectual authority due to major shifts in education, journalism, and the media and political environments,” writes Baer. “Taken together, he claims, these shifts have driven American democracy to the brink of authoritarian populism.”

According to Nichols, we’re reaching a point in society where everybody’s opinion is treated equally, whether or not professional credentials or educational backgrounds exist to back those opinions up. Baer continues:

“In the absence of these crucial distinctions, Nichols asserts, public discourse has become degraded by unquestioned cognitive biases and a dearth of informed, evidence-based argumentation … (C)ollege has become what Nichols describes as ‘a consumer-oriented experience in which students learn, above all else, that the customer is always right.’”

Interestingly, statistics from the Pew Research Center seem to indicate that this is a partisan issue. The report reads that “a majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (58 percent) now say that colleges and universities have a negative effect on the country, up from 45 percent last year. By contrast, most Democrats and Democratic leaners (72 percent) say colleges and universities have a positive effect, which is little changed from recent years.”

Whatever you make of those statistics, Nichols and others who write about anti-intellectualism in the US, especially when writing critically of colleges and of Trump in kind, don’t sound like complacent Democrats — nor do they sound like critical Republicans. They sound like people who value education for its “utopian” value, and are critical of its current “utilitarian” value.

Utility vs. Utopia

When it comes to criticism of the modern systems of secondary education, there are but two questions you have to ask: how much will it cost, and what will graduates get out of it? To answer the first question: it costs a lot, and it’s getting more expensive every year. Many graduates find themselves laden with debt by the time they’re done with school, as the average median family income is dropping simultaneously.

So what do you get out of it? When you take on the debt of a mortgage, for example, it’s pretty clear that what you’re getting in return is property and a structure that will (hopefully) retain its value. The thing about a college education, however, is that it’s more of an investment, and the return on that investment will vary depending the “version” of college that students attend. Writing for the NY TImes, Kenji Aoki explains the difference between them:

“… (T)wo distinct visions of higher education contend throughout our classrooms and campuses. One vision focuses on how college can be useful — to its graduates, to employers and to a globally competitive America … As college grows more expensive, plenty of people want to know whether they’re getting a good return on their investment.”

This, he explains, is “Utility U.” We see this utilitarian movement manifesting itself in schools frequently via heightened interest in STEM initiatives, which, Jennifer L.M. Gunn with Concordia-University Portland writes, teaches students to apply math, science, and engineering skills — quantifiable “hard skills,” that is — to diverse projects. Additionally, she notes that STEM jobs tend to pay double the median income of the average U.S. worker, but also that the most recent United States PISA rankings placed the U.S. 38th out of 71 countries in math and 24th in science.

“In some schools … STEM education [has] led to a rapid expansion and segmentation of rigorous math and science courses, taught in largely the same way they’ve always been taught,” writes Gunn. “The result? Saturating students with STEM classes without accounting for engagement or interest has led to some stagnant gains in recent years.”

The other vision of college that Aoki presents is aimed simply at preparing students for life as free men and women in modern society. “Here, college is about building your soul as much as your skills,” writes Aoki. “Students want to think critically about the values that guide them, and they will inevitably want to test out their ideas and ideals in the campus community … College, in this view, is where you hone the tools for the foundational American project, the pursuit of happiness.”

This is “Utopia U,” where the purpose of an education isn’t to garner any one individual material wealth, but rather to enrich society as a whole by bestowing upon students immaterial wealth.

Unfortunately, immaterial wealth doesn’t pay the material bill, which is why that first question (how much does it cost?) is so important. So instead of opting for an in-depth education in humanities or knowledge of the classical arts, students are now finding themselves going to college for the sake of “degree validation” — not because they want to, but because they feel they have to as a prerequisite for job acquisition. What’s worse, many graduates are finding that these jobs aren’t guaranteed, leaving them with an expensive degree in a field they often have no interest in.

In either case, Utopia or Utility, our schools are failing. The relentless pursuit of Utility has left Utopia by the wayside, underfunded, and undervalued.

“It is … the very principle of ideas having value on their own merit, regardless of whether they can be assessed or turned into profits or draw fat grants into the neoliberal academy, that impels us to turn to the language of ‘crisis’ to evaluate our position,” writes Aaron S. Lecklider, an associate professor of American studies at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. “Administrators rattle our cages, asking us to pursue ‘excellence’ and hawk our majors like used-car salespeople, even as politicians and pundits question whether taxpayer dollars should be apportioned to departments more concerned with dismantling gender categories than assisting students in their quest to develop the next killer app.”

This stranglehold on educational value isn’t partisan, it’s socio-economic. The fact is that modern school costs more and deliver less than they ever have — no matter what side of the aisle you’re on.

Anti-Intellectualism Is a Symptom, Not the Problem

It’s easy to say that America in the age of Trump is staunchly anti-intellectual because President Trump is so boldly anti-intellectual himself. As a presidential nominee and as president proper, Trump has told bold-faced lies, banking on the ignorance of uneducated voters to keep his core supporters enthralled.

Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former foreign policy adviser to the presidential campaigns of John McCain, Mitt Romney and Marco Rubio, argues that far-right populists within the Republican Party feed off of Trump’s anti-intellectualism. To them it’s the elite intellectuals who are to blame for their problems to begin with.

“That is the core constituency that Trump is appealing to,” he says. “He’s not just ignorant, he’s proudly ignorant — he brags about how he doesn’t read books. For him, this is a point of pride, and unfortunately it is for a lot of his followers as well.”

Still, even though President Trump seems to revel in the drama and misinformation surrounding “Fake News,” statistics show that parents consider it to be a substantial problem in regards to their children’s safety, rivalling, if not just as bad as, the risk of internet pornography. Panda Security’s exclusive analysis of U.S. parents revealed that:

More than twice as many parents consider right-wing website Breitbart more unsafe for children than CNN.

20 percent of parents think CNN is not safe for their kids.

9 percent of parents think Breitbart is unsafe for children.

1 percent of parents consider both Breitbart and CNN unsafe.

9 percent of parents think anonymous sharing is a danger to kids.

What this indicates is that people are concerned with truth, even if they aren’t sure where to turn to find it. With America’s foremost executive telling them one thing that aligns with their beliefs and experiences, and a slough of qualified, perhaps even stuffy, experts telling them another, is it really so hard to believe that uneducated voters tend to believe the former over the latter? Does belief in authority in conjunction with a lack of education truly constitute anti-intellectualism?

Aaron S. Lecklider, in his book, Inventing the Egghead: The Battle over Brainpower in American Culture, believes that the idea of America as an anti-intellectual is historically unfounded. “Inasmuch as America’s supposed anti-intellectualism makes good headlines today, it can hardly be taken as a true portrait of American history,” he writes. “Far from celebrating the ignorant, Americans have often been drawn to brainpower, genius, and have demonstrated fascination with the curious habits of ivy-educated elites.”

Lecklider believes that modern arguments about anti-intellectualism may actually reflect growing social inequalities — which is precisely what Trump latched on to with the working class white voter.

“Today, working-class frustrations over income inequality can, at times, be articulated as distaste for the use of scholarly language to diagnose everyday problems,” continues Lecklider. “And when ordinary women and men describe working-class perspectives as ‘common sense,’ they can be met with contempt from those who think this is a mask for various prejudices.”

This divide is what politicians like Trump have exploited to pit one class of voter against another. As Lecklider notes, “it seems quite unlikely that Americans have really become more anti-intellectual over the past half century – and more likely that we are seeing splits due to sharply rising inequalities of wealth, income, and access to affordable college opportunities.”

Lastly, Lecklider mentions that while attacks on intellectuals may be on the rise in the U.S. today, we need to be aware that this is a recent phenomenon, and likely the symptom of a problem, but not the cause itself.

The good news is that anti-intellectualism isn’t in America’s DNA, ruining our institutions inherently from the inside out. The bad news is that something is causing this recent spate of anti-intellectualism to flourish. Whether it’s income inequality, partisan politics, or something else, we likely won’t cure the symptoms of anti-intellectualism in society until we discover the real root of the problem.

______

Author Bio: Andy Heikkila is a health, tech, and futurism enthusiast from the outskirts of the lush, Pacific Northwest. When he’s not writing, you can find him working on his latest audio mix, going on a run, or rolling d20s with friends. Follow him on Twitter @AndyO_TheHammer.

from http://ift.tt/2pyIYMr

0 notes

literateape · 7 years

Text

The Ease of Accusation and Biased Belief

By Don Hall

We want to believe both the best in ourselves and the worst of everyone else. We want to believe that someone claiming to be robbed or beaten or assaulted, by the simple proximity of our own possibility of being robbed, beaten or assaulted. We want to believe that when someone declares they have been harmed that they have been, indeed, harmed because we want others to believe us when we make the same claim.

It is the reductive, simplistic painting of the pathological male and his abhorrent treatment of the innocent female that smacks of either much needed over-correction or ugly propaganda depending on who you are and what your personal experiences entail. We want to believe the narrow hype that something explosive reveals, but belief without the weight of proof is the cause of so much ill in this society, from the unproven damage of Her Emails to the almost endless parade of false confessions that have led to wrongful convictions, that taking a step back before lighting things on fire has merit.

It was my first full-time teaching gig. I was in a new middle school just a few blocks from the Chicago Public School headquarters on Pershing Road. It was a brand new school so I was its first music teacher and I was the youngest teacher there. I had a desk in the corner of the gymnasium on the third floor—the gym also had a stage on the east side of the room, so it served as the auditorium when we had the whole student body in for assemblies.

This first year, I found myself teaching to the approved curriculum—students learning to read music, play recorders and simple percussion, and lots of singing. I quickly discovered how much like babysitting it was, how little like teaching it became. I was a prep period for the home room teachers and that was about it.

It was, however, a job and I did my best to teach when I could. I decided to see if there was interest in an after school choir program. There was in spades. In fact, there were far more kids interested in staying for two hours after school three times a week to sing than I could reasonably handle so I had to hold auditions. I figured 80 singers was pretty much my limit. I still had no experience or management tools at the time and that seemed—seemed—reasonable.

Christine was a 13-year-old with no singing ability, crippling self-esteem issues and an intense desire to be a part of something. She knew she wasn't a great singer but she begged me to let her be the Choir Helper. I decided we'd call her the Choir Manager (because titles matter at that age) and put her to work collating the music, setting up the chairs before choir and putting music on all of them, taking roll. She was a really good kid and I recognized her need for inclusion in something—those three days a week were an oasis for her where she could be of use and feel appreciated.

Russiagate Is More Fiction Than Fact

"There are claims by U.S. intelligence officials that the Russian government hacked e-mails and used social media to help elect Donald Trump, but there has yet to be any corroboration. Although the oft-cited January intelligence report “uses the strongest language and offers the most detailed assessment yet,” The Atlantic observed that “it does not or cannot provide evidence for its assertions.” Noting the “absence of any proof” and “hard evidence to back up the agencies’ claims that the Russian government engineered the election attack,” The New York Times concluded that the intelligence community’s message “essentially amounts to ‘trust us.’” That remains the case today."

After choir each day, Christine and I would put everything away—80 chairs that don't fold but stack take a bit of time to put away along with all the music because we sang a lot of different songs just to keep the choir's interest—and she would take the opportunity to ask me questions. About life, about jobs, about driving—whatever she could think of. I'd answer as candidly as I could and I felt like I was teaching, although not the subject matter I was employed to teach.

One winter day, another, more experienced teacher who had taken me under her wing that school year, asked me to come see her after school. She was concerned about Christine's attachment to me, had heard her talking about me to other students and decided she needed to caution me—a young, popular male teacher—from encouraging anything more than scholastic stuff. I was caught off guard. I didn't see this attachment, this "heavy crush" as my mentor called it. I asked her what I should do given I had never been in the situation before. She told me to gently but firmly stop having Christine stay after school and help with choir.

I decide the best way to go about it was to suggest that Choir Manager was an important enough duty that we need to have the choir elect someone—along with a Choir President, Vice President, and Secretary. I further suggested that, since Christine had been the Choir Manager since the beginning of the year, it would be a good thing for her to let someone else take over and she could just be a part of the choir. I also explained to her that I was no longer allowed to have any students stay after to help out after choir because of "new rules." It was the best I could come up with at the time and my mentoring teacher thought I was handling it well.

Christine did not handle it well. She cried, she begged, she yelled. She was inconsolable. She missed the next couple of days of school and then, three days after I broke the news to her, I came into school and my classes had been given to a substitute and I was told to report to the office immediately.

False Allegations of Sexual Harassment: Misunderstandings and Realities

Over the years, labour arbitrators have cautioned against using subjective impressions to decide the merit of workplace grievances of harassment. They have emphasized that objective standards, not solely the subjective impressions of the alleged victim or alleged harasser, must be applied in determining whether harassment or abuse has occurred. A famous photograph illustrates this; conduct occurred, but does it constitute sexual harassment?

American Girl in Italy by Ruth Orkin is one of the best-known street photographs. Taken in 1951 in Florence, Italy, the photo shows a woman walking along a sidewalk while men look at her. My description is carefully worded. I could have said “young woman” or “girl,” a “gauntlet of gawking men” (as some have said), or “ogled by 15 men,” or “hassled” or “harassed.” I could describe the body language of the woman, the look on her face, or that of the men, especially the man sitting on a motorcycle and another man with pursed lips who has his hand near (on?) his crotch. The latter has been described by some as “grabbing his junk” or “that not-so-innocent-looking gesture with his hand.” Some describe the men as “leering and lascivious,” the woman representing “either stoic independence or sheer vulnerability.”

In interviews this year, on the 60th anniversary exhibition of this iconic photograph and other works by Orkin, Nina Craig, who is the subject of American Girl in Italy, says, “Some people want to use it [the photo] as a symbol of harassment of women, but that’s what we’ve been fighting all these years. It’s not a symbol of harassment. It’s a symbol of a woman having an absolutely wonderful time!” Craig describes the street behaviour of the men (in the photo, in Italy, and elsewhere in Europe) as making her feel “appreciated.” And what of the gesture by the man in the photo? Craig explains her experience and interpretation of his behaviour and of the other men this way: “That young man is not whistling, by the way; he’s making a happy, yelping sound, and where you see him touching the family jewels, or indicating them, with his hand—well, for a long time that was considered an image people should not look at. That part was airbrushed out for years… But none of those men crossed the line at all.” Were the men harassing her? “I can tell you that it wasn’t the intent of any man there to harass me.”

It was the first time I met a Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) rep. She was pretty cold and all business. Apparently I had done something serious. After a few cursory questions from her, she informed me that Christine had accused me of touching her inappropriately after school one day. More specifically, she accused me of telling her I loved her and tried to have sex with her after choir. To the point, the union rep explained, I was fucked. Christine's guardian, her grandmother, was in the principal's office at that moment and it looked like my principal was going through the motions of hanging me out to dry.

I was 24 years old and had no idea of what proper protocol was in that situation. I knew the accusation was ridiculous and untrue. I knew I had done nothing but be encouraging and supportive to this student and now she was trying to destroy me. So, instead of freezing up and staying seated, I got up and went into the principal's office to talk to Grandma.

She looked at me with a withering stare that, if eyeballs were able to kill upon sight, I'd have burst into flames. Mr. Laz, the principal, got up and demanded I leave. I told him to sit down—he obviously was not there to help me so he needed to get out of the way. I sat down across from Christine's furious grandmother and explained that I had never done these things I was accused of, that I had only been supportive and professional with her granddaughter and that, if she would only ask Christine for the truth, this whole mess could be cleared up.

Christine was in another office. I left and went home, scared out of my mind that I was going to be fired, pilloried as a sex offender, left out to hang. Frankly, despite knowing I was innocent of the accusations, I was terrified. I sat in my apartment and plainly freaked out.

‘Sometimes There’s Nothing There’

Speaking to The Village Voice while promoting her upcoming New York tour, [Jen] Kirkman took the opportunity to clarify her comments. “I thought people would understand the nuance of what I was saying, and they didn’t,” she said. “There are rumors out there that Louis takes his dick out at women. He has never done that to me. I never said he did, I never implied that he did. What I said was, when you hear rumors about someone, and they ask you to go on the road with them, this is what being a woman in comedy is like.”

The author notes that Kirkman and C.K. have been close for many years, and she counts him as a mentor.

“Sometimes there’s nothing there. I think this might be a case of there’s nothing there,” Kirkman said. “If I’m wrong, I’m wrong, and if any women want to come forward and say what he’s done, I’ll totally back them, because I believe women. But I just don’t know any.”

I got a phone call that afternoon from the union rep. Christine had come back into the office, the union rep insisting that she be present. The grandmother had spoken to her slowly and patiently and Christine had burst into tears and recanted her lies. She claimed that she made up the story because it wasn't fair that I had taken away her title and that she was just angry at me and wanted to get back at me. Plainly, her accusations were revenge for my hurting her feelings. As a shout out to unions in general and the CTU specifically, I'm pretty certain if my rep had not been in the room and witness to the recanting, things might've turned out differently for me.

Her grandmother transferred her to another public school and, while I had the truth on my side, Mr. Laz never quite got over the experience. Oddly enough, in spite of the facts, there were a few teachers and he who still believed I had done something inappropriate. That I had done something wrong because, if I hadn't, why would she accuse me of it? In that environment, when the vice principal, Sharon Hayes, announced she was leaving at the end of the year to open a progressive new middle school on the West side of Chicago and asked me if I would I be her music teacher, I jumped at the chance.

None of this is an attempt to debunk the countless accusations that are true. The adage is that if someone says they are hurt, believe them. There was no question Christine was hurt. The cause of that hurt was not the substance of her accusation and that's where simple adult calm needs to be employed rather than the hysteria of an overly developed sense of self-righteous indignation. Without the basic skepticism of an enraged grandmother who knows that teenagers lie as often as they tell the truth, my life would have unfolded in a very different way.

This is likewise not to indicate innocence of predatory behaviors or to suggest that we should not give accusations of sexual misconduct and criminal behavior a full hearing. For most of recorded history, women and those in the minority of society have been systematically disbelieved for no other reason than to protect a false hierarchy and thus demonize those accusers. Disbelief for reasons outside of the facts is just as erroneous and damaging as belief for the same reasons. Making the mistake of over-correction is still making the same mistake.

Accusations are easy to make. Proving them is the work. The easy road for an awful lot of people is to determine innocence or guilt based upon bias. Bias can blind even the most neutral parties and shift the balance from accusation to condemnation with little or no regard for reality or the authenticity of the charge. It is one of the traps of the digital age of immediate information, the rush to judgment based upon nothing more than a false narrative—it's why we have Snopes.com and The Onion. We believe what we already wish to see whether what we wish to see is the truth or not.

It is the photographer who shoots pictures of his children in the nude being accused of pedophilia. It is the in-the-closet gay teacher being accused of propositioning a female student. It is an ex-wife accusing a previously blameless ex-husband of uncharacteristically abusing their child or the black man accused of attacking the white supremicist and beating him up. Proof or it didn't happen and, in the Age of Everything Is Caught on a Camera, there is no longer any excuse for not getting evidence of the crime.

Laura Kipnis’s Endless Trial by Title IX

The U.S. Supreme Court has remarked, in Oncale v. Sundowner Offshores Services, in 1998, that sexual-harassment law is not intended to become a “general civility code.” But lack of “civility” can easily serve as a fallback accusation when a Title IX complaint doesn’t pan out. And Title IX can be deployed to make life difficult for a person one despises, for whatever reasons—good or bad. Two professors I spoke to said that they have experienced this phenomenon firsthand.

Nicholas Wolfinger, a professor of family and consumer studies, said that he was on the receiving end of this dynamic at the University of Utah, where he has been at odds with his colleagues for years. He told me it is because he has been openly contemptuous of colleagues who are “dead wood” and do not produce scholarship. Wolfinger was accused last year, under the school’s Title IX policy, of “being aggressive, rude, or dismissive of female faculty members” and “making unwelcome/unwanted sexual jokes or comments to other faculty members in the department” over the previous twelve-year period. Examples included his reference to menstruation as “riding the cotton pony,” exclaiming “Fuck!” at a faculty meeting, and recounting stories of proposing to his wife at a strip club.

The university’s investigation found him not responsible for Title IX sexual harassment and gender discrimination, but his dean still decided to impose an administrative reprimand and suspension for “unprofessional behavior,” specifically with reference to his use of profanity and the “constant stream of insults that you direct at others, particularly those berating and belittling your colleagues.”

It all reminds me a bit of a moment in the movie Our Brand is Crisis where one candidate is linked to a Nazi war criminal. When asked why she would leak such a ridiculously untrue allegation, Sandra Bullock says "I know he isn't linked to him. I just want to hear him deny it on record. That confirms that it has merit."

It is more effort to look past the narratives presented by the accuser and ask questions about the accusations. More effort than many folks are interested in making but as more and more people find reward in embracing victimhood, as more and more people find retribution in the quick hits of a Trump style campaign, the more vigilant we each need to be to truly and skeptically view each charge and look for truth.

As I told my wife my thoughts on all of this, she asked the simple question, “If proof is required, do you have any suggestions or just criticism of the noise?”

As usual, she’s right.

Is proof required? I think we should initially believe anyone who claims to have been sexually assaulted (or criminally violated in any way) with no bias or regard for who we may think that person is in his or her life. But belief without investigation is a recipe for serious injustice almost every time.

There is no question in my mind that men, all men, are predatory in their approach to women. This patriarchal bullshit has been going on for thousands and thousands of years, and to assume otherwise is as full of folly as assuming that electing a black president made us post-racial. What is different today is that every phone is a recording device. In this polarized and, I believe, pragmatically corrective moment in history when forcing the sexism and racism out into the light to burn off like so much black mold in the sun is painful but necessary, it is this tool that can help. Not a surveillance state but one where women can casually insist on recording any behind closed doors meetings.

Imagine for a moment how different the code of silence exposed by Scott Rosenberg recently would’ve been if each time Weinstein invited a woman up to his room she had insisted on recording the meeting. First, if he refused, she would know without much doubt that he was up to no good. Second, if he consented to being recorded, the number of potted plant incidents would have dwindled to a fat zero.

While so many men get away with this behavior, it is the recording of what the kids are calling "receipts" that is nothing more than the collecting of proof that can assist us. Accountability is key in a society where so much is intentionally hidden. We can type “I believe you” until our fingers cramp but women should not accept that at face value.

More importantly, rather than lay this responsibility upon women, perhaps it is to the ultimate good that men, especially men in power, make it their responsibility to request that women record private meetings. It certainly would make sure things were on the up and up.

#rumors aren't fact #no evidence #false accusation #Ruth Orkinb #teaching #American Girl in Italy #story #Nina Craig #Russiagate #Louis C.K.#Jenn Kirkman

0 notes

theliterateape · 7 years

Text

The Ease of Accusation and Biased Belief

By Don Hall

Russiagate Is More Fiction Than Fact

False Allegations of Sexual Harassment: Misunderstandings and Realities

‘Sometimes There’s Nothing There’

The author notes that Kirkman and C.K. have been close for many years, and she counts him as a mentor.

Laura Kipnis’s Endless Trial by Title IX

As I told my wife my thoughts on all of this, she asked the simple question, “If proof is required, do you have any suggestions or just criticism of the noise?”

As usual, she’s right.

#rumors aren't fact #no evidence #false accusation #Ruth Orkinb #teaching #American Girl in Italy #story #Nina Craig #Russiagate #Louis C.K.#Jenn Kirkman

0 notes