text:
"It was not difficult to ignore the fact that the addicted man was glaring at him. He noted it, and did not understand because of what the man glared, but he was unconcerned. [He] was prepared to die violently at any time, which rendered him free to choose among emotions."—David Foster Wallace
Travis Kalanick
CEO and Serial Entrepreneur
San Francisco
Dear Mr. Kalanick and Uber Team:
You're not kidding, you need a communications designer, somebody to help you better design your internal communications? In my read of Susan Fowler's adventures through your firm, all that your Human Resources staffer needed to do was to thank her for her courage to come forward and report, separately invite Amit Singhal into her office, listen to his version, explain his actions were unprofessional, violate your personnel policy, and harm the cohesiveness of your team.
Next step that too many mediators or human resources or mental health professionals forget or do not possess the skills to do: schedule a mediation meeting with the two of them together to give him an opportunity to apologize and move forward changing his behavior, or Unplay the Shame and Blame Game. No need to update wordy human resources manuals that no one reads anyway, require awkwardly produced live-action corporate sexual harassment videos that everyone resents the time of watching, or belatedly haul in the visually uneducated lawyers to produce those documents for you, I've got that whole process simplified to four dots to spread around your mediation table while chronological adults learn healthy communications:
First, the current structure of the relationship between you and your personnel, where communications have grown so toxic they're making global headlines. As CEO, you're the big red button at the top:
One example of Unplay in action: from your public display of anger venting your disdain for Uber driver Fawzi Kamel, who, as you reached your destination and prepared to exit his personal vehicle, grabbed the opportunity to explain Marxist theory or how capitalism works great for the powerful few but not so well for underpaid labor upon whom your business model depends:
While it sounds like your subcontracted driver since 2010 is almost more familiar with your business plan than Uber's CEO, explaining he cannot survive on the low wages paid by your competitive fare reduction, you avoid owning that flaw in your spreadsheet logic and finding a better solution by deflecting the conflict to Uber Black, your higher end transportation option, and you and Mr. Kamel go back and forth on that for a bit, summarized here:
Finally, while escaping the close confines of his vehicle, you fling back over your shoulder, blaming Mr. Kamel for your own behavior:
Somewhere in there you rationalize your business plan by telling yourself the martyr narrative of every entrepreneur who neglects to factor in a living wage for labor prior to pitching his reinvention of the wheel to his intended market, as if one CEO cannot pass down to another generation what he has already learned, "We went low-end because we had to because we'd be out of business."
Exactly the effect of your rate reductions on Mr. Kamel's freelance gig, if I understood him correctly, that he bankrupted himself by investing in Black automobiles to better serve your customers, right? So now you have something in common, with your difference that you've attracted both venture capital and venture labor, but have no plans to increase the returns on labor's investment.
Beautiful job with your apology as public as your bad behavior, though. None of that second-rate, passive aggressive, all-too-common, "I'm sorry you feel that way" no-pology nonsense for Uber. Only the best for Uber's investors. We need more examples of healthy apology like yours in the public sphere.
Thanks to Mr. Kamel's video and Ms. Fowler's blogpost, you finally heard yourself. I'd like to emphasize that you could not have heard yourself without being open to criticism:
Instead of playing the martyr or lashing out in anger, this time you reported your feelings of shame:
Next you owned responsibility for not just for that one incident, but your overall behavior affecting the culture within your firm:
Finally, you resolve the core conflict by recognizing your own vulnerabilities and committing to fundamental change and growth:
Or 30 seconds of action, from the passive aggressive volvelle to healthy communications, which you may pause while self-reflecting on any conflict, personal or professional, public or private, foreign or domestic, at your leisure:
Did you structure your apology all by yourself, or was that thanks to Arianna Huffington's influence?
@travisk#BetterDesign report emotions, rather than apologize for them. Behavior is the problem, not feelings. #Unplay https://t.co/bo1C0yFUBh
— jana brubaker (@6other) February 24, 2017
Once we've negotiated my contract, you'll be the healthiest boss for whom I've ever worked. Healthier than research scientists globally renowned for their expertise in the structure of RNA. Healthier than most of my graduate school faculty and all of the institution's administrators. Healthier than the schizophrenic old lady Seattleites elected to their school board and for whom I designed her identity and rebranded on a budget vastly smaller than the corporate-backed incumbent, who blamed me for her refusal to listen to my visually educated expertise and wanted me to jump up and down, shouting and waving my arms in the air before she and her home-schooled junior campaign manager one semester shy of an AA degree would agree to pause in their raging back and forth at each other about the precise wording of a thank you letter six months in the writing, their sole strategy before I came along to venture labor for better designing solutions for problems haunting our nation's schools:
From a few concepts I generated identifying not just the issues in Seattle's local campaign, but the coast-to-coast churn in national education policy, I finally coaxed my client to commit to this identity, a combination of Helvetica, with its visual associations with business, that I redrew by hand to reference the tech business world's disdain for analogue teaching media while profiting from pitching digital product to underfunded schools, on separate layers in Illustrator, for the best of both worlds, print-ready vector graphics and the ease of importing into After Effects for motion-ready screen communications, although my client continued to call me up at all hours, raging that she wanted PURPLE because PURPLE is her favorite color, and her campaign should not identify and communicate her intended goals to her target audience, but should be all about ME, no matter how many times I gently explained that color is a powerful visual element, not to be used lightly, and violet, a challenging and expensive color to produce in dyes and inks, historically communicates royalty, or class privilege, thus the opposite effect if she hoped to align herself with poor and oppressed voters:
My corresponding tagline, also vector-graphic, motion-ready, of course references the lyric of Woodie Guthrie's folk anthem, inspired by Wisconsin activists who brought their capitol sing-a-long to their home state of Washington:
You and your team at Uber sound far healthier than the allegedly drug addicted more senior of her two campaign managers, who finally showed up after missing my first three or four post-primaries design strategy meetings with his hair dyed bright green, prepared to contribute no political campaign expertise beyond a 45-minute oral rendition of his data already available on LinkedIn, as well as bragging about his brother on the Washington state legislature, and describing a daughter enrolled in private school, while whining that professional design takes too long, nowhere near your sophisticated appreciation of the subtle tension between form and counterform.
"Until you came along, I didn't know racism was an issue in this campaign," her home-schooled campaign manager snarled resentfully, after I pointed out the gaping discrepancy in logic seeking votes from poor, disenfranchised voters while chasing after white, upper-middle class voter dollars; how was that any different than the incumbent's strategy?
Two slides from my lengthier design presentation analyzing the problems in education politics as well as how to go about solving them at the local school board level, as I hoped to segue into producing print and web collateral prior to election day, rather than watching a visually illiterate retired math teacher, her petulant and tardy green-haired campaign manager, and his surly under-educated assistant all continue to churn in circles debating design decisions without listening to my visually educated expertise:
First, screenshots of the slate of candidates for Seattle School Board that year, so we could examine her redesign in context of the competition, asking my small audience to choose who they would vote for as if they knew nothing about the candidates other than their web communications. They hemmed and hawed and each chose a different candidate, hesitantly, as if trying to guess the "right" answer on a pop quiz. None of them chose the campaign they had been working on for months, including the candidate herself:
I deliberately placed Michelle Buetow in the top left, as the prettiest of the dismal design selection, because most Americans read top left to right, and Kate Martin, a subsequent candidate for Seattle mayor, in the center as a focal point, hoping to nudge up the visual literacy of my audience to even an -nth degree. As a landscape architect and another designer, Kate's visual literacy translates to graphic design at an ever so slightly more sophisticated level than the rest of the candidates clumped together, all communicating not much more than visual chaos on par with back-of-the-Yellow-Pages visual acuity.
Without having to edit a stitch of code, my next slide made one change in visual vocabulary, not with the element of color to the PURPLE my client wanted but could not afford in corresponding print media, but with the element of value, and the entire room immediately understood the power of speaking about the value of education in black and white:
By the next morning, however, my mentally unstable client was back to raging that she wanted PURPLE, even without the print budget for PURPLE, unwilling or unable to proceed forward with her campaign. Worse, in a group email without asking for my autonomous and visually educated opinion in advance, she volunteered my time to the slate of education activist candidates, ordering me to show up at her house to film all of them so they could add my unpaid labor to their YouTube channels.
I am an artist and a designer, not a videographer. At that time, I owned a professional Italian-designed tripod, light stands, my analogue Pentax for documenting my painting portfolio, a Sony point-and-click tourist digital camera, and an iPhone, useful tools for composing visually literate digital images, as you can see from my Vimeo channel, but by no means professional videography equipment. With zero comprehension about how images are produced, still a retired math teacher thought she would both art direct and tell me how to execute her campaign collateral, incapable of making executive decisions about her campaign goals, fulfilling her contractual obligations, and respecting my visually educated expertise for how to accomplish those goals.
Screenshot of the web collateral of the racist schizophrenic that Seattleites elected to make decisions affecting their children's futures after I realized the education activist/woman/victim would cause every bit as much harm to Seattle schoolchildren as the corporate/man/so-called abuser. I had reached the tenth signpost on designer Milton Glaser's road to hell, recommended a decade of therapy to help my former client recover from a childhood growing up with a domineering, upperclass mother ordering household servants to do her bidding, followed by 17 years of marriage to a man she described as, alternately, both a "sociopath" and the "love of my life," before she would be ready to proceed with any professional communications, and resigned from her campaign:
As you can see, her digital communications revert to the visual chaos of the slate of candidates, with her dueling campaign managers attempting to reconstruct my educated professional labor without my design files. Strangely enough, they ended up with a green chalkboard instead of PURPLE.
In her letter responding to my request for payment, she spins around her passive aggressive volvelle, openly acknowledges using my professional identity and rebranding design labor to get herself successfully elected, while readily confessing her inability to manage her own budget, blaming me for both her failure to uphold the bullet-point terms of our contract as well as her green-haired campaign manager's inability to get out of bed to do his fundraising job, and priding herself on speaking out against racism – just not to her under-educated campaign staff – hypocritical illogic best explained by her synapses failing to fully fire across the gaps in her brain, symptomatic of schizophrenia:
Or the logic of post-truth, four years before that term entered our national vocabulary.
Even on your worst day at Uber, you're still healthier than a broad swath of Seattle's schoolteachers, who refused to identify their audience in advance of meeting in front of Steve Jobs' shop waving signs on sticks in the air raging at anyone who asked critical questions or shared perspectives different from their own, instead of designing their communications plan in advance.
Since global brands in post-Great Recession America had been doubtful of an artist's ability to translate my skills to the digital corporate arena before this volunteer experience, I decided to go one step further than simply making up fake ads to appeal to creative directors, and instead analyzed the brands profiting from the demolition of our education system thanks to bipartisan legislation fairly coincident with 9/11 that left so many of my students arriving at university severely traumatized, unprepared to think critically, with oftentimes fragile egos easily shattered when encountering new ideas:
So I was not at all surprised when, unaccustomed to the responsibilities of her new position of power, the school board director elected to public office by teacher union labor spun around her passive aggressive volvelle, and recommended suing the teachers' union when they went on strike four years later, blaming the teachers for her own executive board management failures.
To hear a Boeing engineer describe her workplace at the Collaborative Breakout Session of Seattle's 2010 Designers Accord, that similar management style cost that global transportation firm an additional $12 billion on their 787 Dreamliner, lost the state of Washington its $8.7 billion investment after executive management transferred many of its educated professional engineering jobs out of state, and still more recently Boeing lost out on an $80 billion federal defense contract, when it turns out that even building and selling war machines requires healthy communication skills.
Enjoyed a good laugh with an appreciative audience for my story of being locked up in 2014 for a month of my life without what is called due process of law, shackled and chained without arrest or access to competent counsel, after my Micron engineering brother-in-law tried to force me to perform household labor for less than a toilet paper budget and an Idaho mental health court judge, trapped in a low-ceilinged, fluorescent-lit courtroom without access to wifi or my digital files, described the reality of my post-Great Recession Athenian job-seeking efforts as "delusions," unable to comprehend the real-world, corporate dollar value of communications, once I returned to relatively democratic Seattle from fascist Idaho and at a holiday party last year met one of Boeing's Communications Leaders. The first thing she said as we exchanged business cards was, "Wait, first I have to scratch out one of these telephone numbers," because their executive management's idea of repairing poor workplace communications is to reduce their budget for communications.
Your worst day at Uber sounds like a walk on the beach to me.
Super-fun for me at that same party watching a Real, Live Architect and an Honest-to-Goodness Aerodynamics Engineer unfold and proudly refold my business card, reminding me of that time in undergrad when I earned a 'D' on an entry-level three-dimensional design paper-folding assignment, another post-Great Recession professional networking experience about which I shall remain mum should I again endure the misfortune of returning to planet Idaho without my own posse protecting my socioeconomically vulnerable back before Governor Otter is able to rustle up a grown up apology for his executive management failures.
With your green light, my goal as COO will be to get the structure of your internal and external communications to look more like this:
Hence my identity for Unplay:
Some psychologists describe our ability to hear and appropriately respond to new ideas or opposing opinions as a process of deny-deny-hear in healthy, ego-invested individuals, with hostile or aggressive individuals ever cycling from denial. From my graduate research in trauma, I would say or until they are able to recover from traumatic experiences, acquire healthier coping skills, and learn to empathize with the perspectives of others. In light of your media attention over the last month and your new self-awareness and commitment to growth, how much would you say it is worth to your business if you could reduce your deny response – as well as, domino effect, the deny responses of all of the individuals within your organization – to just once, or even less?
Now to scroll back up to better resolve your conflict with your drivers. Pace the opinions published at Bloomberg, in my estimation, Mr. Kamel's behavior was worse than yours, albeit less swear-y, shouting over the top of your responses, while you at least asked questions to better pinpoint his objections to your business plan. It takes a tremendous amount of self-discipline to train yourself to pick and choose among emotions rather than shouting or swearing back, but those behavioral skills can be learned, as my vast personal experiences prove. What I heard Mr. Kamel say is that if he was earning a living wage, he could offer better service:
The perspective that Mr. Kamel does not seem to grasp yet, with your joint ventures with Volvo and Daimler for self-driving vehicles, he is just an intermediary cost for your business goals, cab drivers soon to be replaced with automated technology.
I do not use your app, as I am outside your target market as a trafficking survivor as well as personally committed to public and pedestrian transportation for a more sustainable planet, but it sounds like you have already engineered a two-way evaluation system. For that intermediate window of opportunity before self-driving cars become the norm, why not allow your ridership to decide when your drivers deserve merit pay increases?
@APBusiness@Uber@tkrisher@sarahssell Seems like the engineers @travisk cld build tipping into their app if they kept their hands on work.
— jana brubaker (@6other) March 3, 2017
Further, why not recapture the market excluded by low evaluations?
Send them to me. I'll work with Mr. Singhal and his peers. It's just a matter of recovering from trauma and learning healthy communication skills, respecting the boundaries of others instead of forcing your will or abusing your position of power.
Uber's internal communications conflicts wouldn't even require the HR staffer as mediator if 1) your women were more experienced in setting boundaries, and 2) your men better respected those boundaries.
Explaining sexual harassment to men can be as simple as saying if the perpetrator would not like his job on the line if you had texted similar messages to him and he refused to sleep with you, then he should not abuse his position of authority over his subordinates, got it? Poorly educated, predominantly black, homeless men readily understood the sexual harassment policy I instituted – despite the initial resistance of a white, male, self-described diagnosed "sociopath" staffer – and enforced in our community when I explained it that way, accomplishing what higher education administrators across this nation routinely fail to do, but perhaps wealthy, predominantly white engineering geniuses could also follow along?
The incident I describe in my application for a survival job with Seattle Police Department was not one where I placed boundaries on a man's behavior toward me, rather, that was me standing up for a more vulnerable woman. If a man wants to hover while I'm ploughing through unwashed undies in my gym bag searching for a clean pair, I realize he's got issues, but I am so fully grounded, or, as a Holocaust survivor I met at Pike Place Market described me, with such "a presence of quiet authority," wholly centered within my own body, that encounter would not have disturbed my boundaries one bit. But for another woman, more fragile in her personal space, the perpetrator's behavior was not okay. When a woman says no, that means no, and for that I was happy to work with the healthier men in the group to provide support enforcing boundaries on sexual harassment.
Here's how I handled a situation directly comparable to Ms. Fowler's unwanted sexting:
Recognizing me from the lockers, another homeless man disrupted my writing at the market to tell me his trauma monologue on the pretext of striking up a dialogue: an undergraduate degree in psychology, with additional coursework in anthropology and sociology that did not cover the same material as my own, in particular that bit about how males want access to females and females want access to resources, let alone my graduate readings in psychoanalytic theory. A quarter horse ranch in Colorado. An ex-wife who tried to control his life. A daughter unintentionally named after the Roman goddess of wisdom and warfare. A son, now grown, a researcher at the Hutch. A background in commercial real estate. Previous experience with military contracts, and the challenges of negotiating with government agencies. A previous girlfriend he described as bipolar. Unsolicited promises that he wouldn't tell me what to do, a continual refrain woven throughout his monologue, until I wished I could charge him an hourly fee and schedule another appointment for the following week.*
To my surprise, before I could even arrive at my next appointment, he had already sexted, where apparently telling a trauma monologue substitutes as foreplay for some men:
It is not that I was without empathy for his suffering, but any man wanting to seduce me with written words had better write like Calvino or Borges or Coetzee, otherwise best to bone up on his listening skills. Or the unattractive flaw might be the industrial design and user interface of the FCC's Lifeline program; stepping backwards in technology from an iPhone to Samsung's flip phone is comparable to returning from typewriters to chipping away serifs into stone.
"Sex is communication," I did my best to peck back a polite boundary, while remaining open to suggesting design consulting just in case he was able to scrounge up a budget, "What I look for is someone ready for dialogue. Have you considered seeing a psychologist?"
Instead, he shared with me his limited understanding of psychology, a defensiveness that is often referred to as stigma, or the popular fallacy that psychotherapy is for the sick, rather than one possible tool in an empowering box toward self-awareness, and once again his follow-up text offers no indication of dialogue skills, still insisting on his point of view without expressing any curiosity about my likes or attractions, or any interest in me as anything more than an object to absorb his suffering:
Always collecting more data to increase my knowledge of psychosexual relations, while longing for refills for my Waterman and Crane's 100 percent cotton stationery, I pecked back another boundary, "Has this strategy been effective for you in your past relationships?"
Oh, yes, he insisted, many times, not cognizant that just because his strategy worked many times with other women that meant it would work with me, let along considering that maybe boasting of his past successes might further erode his chances with me? Then he shared with me his judgment of his tactic – rather than calling, or better still, getting to know who I am as a person before declaring his passions in person, texting, perhaps the most passive form of communication yet to be devised – as "bold":
Sexually bold, to me, used to mean, for one example, delivering sensual pleasure on an outdoor balcony of a hotel towering over the Las Vegas strip, but I can understand why some men define "bold" differently than I do. This fellow clearly has no idea of the frequency of my "bold" offers from men.
Maybe his ex-girlfriend was "bipolar," or maybe she ramped up the volume of communication to "tossing furniture around" when she grew weary of listening to him without his reciprocal listening to her-? Maybe the ex-wife tried to control him, or, even without hearing her perspective, I can logically surmise more likely a tug-o-war between two emotionally immature individuals. What bold looks like to me now are men with the courage to reveal their vulnerabilities, who, in group situations, treat others really well, and who treat me with dignity, reciprocating my respect.
I pecked back one more boundary before we returned to business as usual the next time our paths crossed in person, no harm, no foul, not an interaction I would have even bothered to report to HR had it occurred in a workplace:
Peer-to-peer sexual communication is a bit different than sexual communication between supervisor and subordinate, and again, that is due to their relative positions of power.
You probably even have the engineering skills to code keywords, phrases, or image scans into all of your corporate digital communications, with a pop-up gentle prompt to warn future sexual harassers of the consequences of their actions: are you sure you want to send that sext? That means losing your job. Or maybe you would like to help me build the Unplay app for users worldwide to download to their digital devices as a well-machined tool better designed for conflict resolution than a nuclear weapon?
It is simply a matter of placing and maintaining boundaries on the abuse of power, which means understanding the structure of power in any given relationship, as Design at Twitter suggests:
@lanettecream@Muyserin@6other@sarahsharp HR needs to redefine what "The best thing for the company" means because it should mean building a healthy, sustainable company.
— Matthew Carlson ☕🖊 (@dreamjar) February 21, 2017
Still, you can't blame a guy for trying to acquire access to females; that's swimming upstream from over four billion years of some very successful biology.
On the other hand, it is better for the gene pool if you do not deprive females of our ability to decide which men will provide us with access to the resources we desire.
Otherwise, soon you lose access to all females, as the Head of Cybersecurity at the EFF points out to you:
Hey @travisk, if your 100+ engineering team goes from 25% women to 3%, you shouldn't need Susan Fowler's post to tell you there's a problem.
— Eva (@evacide) February 20, 2017
Is it really fair, however, to exclude your high-performing, overly aggressive males, with your well-publicized history of demonstrating that same behavior from your position of leadership? Are you setting a double standard, or are you trying to pivot, demonstrating your authentic personal growth?
1/ What's described here is abhorrent & against everything we believe in. Anyone who behaves this way or thinks this is OK will be fired. https://t.co/6q29N7AL6E
— travis kalanick (@travisk) February 20, 2017
The other problem, as my experiences working on rebranding and identity for a successful campaign demonstrate, men are not the only ones who abuse their power:
@dreamjar May I add, not limited to tech, and as the HR *woman* showed, women uphold that toxic masculinity just as much as men.
— jana brubaker (@6other) February 20, 2017
Where you may see only members you belatedly decide to exclude from your community, and only after critical mass of viral headlines tell you this behavior is unacceptable, I see potential, nearly bottomless market for my trauma recovery, healthy communications, and conflict resolution services. Then you do not have to lose your highest performers, I finally find an employer healthy enough to respect my educated expertise with a professional wage, and soon Google and Facebook and all of the other tech firms will be coming to you asking: how did you do it?
Bootstrapping to your newly created position as your right-hand COO, I bring my experiences introducing the concept of boundaries between my prosecutor ex-husband and his ex-FBI domineering mother and emotionally unavailable father who provided him with role models bereft of healthy communication. Which is not to say I blame him for our intercommunications, to the contrary, I have openly acknowledged my bad behaviors, retrospectively coming to value our relationship for my time of intense learning and growth. Their federal agency, combined with the conflict resolution skills of legislators from across the Western states, couldn't maintain boundaries on my third cousins' abusive behaviors without spending upwards of $9 million and somebody getting killed, despite their positions of authority and power relative to mine.
From my position of socioeconomic powerlessness within my family, I introduced the concept of basic human dignity and maintained that boundary all the way through Idaho's mental juridical health system staffed with undereducated, technologically incompetent employees, many of whom are every bit as abusive as the most toxic members of your team, worse, they failed to use your Silicon Valley technologies to investigate the reality of child abuse, elder abuse, labor trafficking, rape, and homicide, after my Micron engineer brother-in-law, every bit as toxic as the most dysfunctional members of your team, accused me of being "delusional" and "psychotic" for sharing opinions different from his own, with Idaho's mental health workers every bit as docilely obedient to the abuse of male power as your human resources team members described by Ms. Fowler, giving me ever-expanding opportunities to further prove the unerring accuracy of my 2008 MFA thesis research in critical theories of identity, trauma, and the taboo, practice equanimity, and leaving me still destitute but well-positioned to find a team interested in competing with the very lucrative, morally bankrupt psychopharmacology market.
Seven months after I design directed to competitive success on zero budget with a very challenging all-male team in a very challenging environment, a computer science major on the losing team killed his adoptive mother, a mother-substitute-object, the brother of a former Idaho state legislator, and critically wounded a Seattle civil rights lawyer, for another example of the value of healthy communications in real-world terms, or the harm caused by a department more concerned about requiring redundant analogue data input from their clients than confessing their culpability in triple homicide to the police department tasked with investigating those crimes, how men's violence against women harms men too, how STEMs urgently need to add blooms both in curricula design and on each and every one of your teams in the theoretically grown up workforce, and I learned the nation's mental health "professionals" earn taxpayer-funded paychecks to "teach" drawing or design, despite their visible lack of qualifications in my cross-disciplinary fields, while offering their clients zero conflict resolution skills or psychotherapeutic care, and dispensing drugs causing egregious global harm.
While I deeply respect your consultant Eric Holder's legal expertise and in particular his former position as Attorney General, he nevertheless failed, for whatever complex political or personal reasons, to reinforce boundaries collapsed under the toxic behaviors in the banking industry that led to the 2008 global financial crisis simultaneous with my graduation and your Uber startup. During his tenure, the DOJ invested $3.3 billion in a passive aggressive communications model marketed toward families in conflict, and the last White House administration peddled a victim/bully labeling model rather than teaching healthy conflict resolution to schoolchildren, not recognizing that bullies self-identify as victims. With her Senate confirmation delayed for several months by legislators duking it out over a sex trafficking bill, the team of lawyers reporting to his successor Loretta Lynch only managed to prosecute to an acquittal of my third cousins for their public wrongdoing. Granted, she did not get a chance to hold that position long enough to wade through what must surely be an overwhelming stack of criminal and/or civil rights complaints filed against Universal Health Services CEO Alan Miller. Needless to say, I am not holding my breath waiting for the current regime to recognize sexual harassment, sexual abuse, or trafficking – whether sexual or other forms of labor – as criminal behavior.
Building the ramparts in the war on terror, the CIA contracted with two Spokane-based psychologists whose tactics, by the agency's own admission, produced no reliable intelligence at best; critics point out they likely harmed national security for generations yet unborn, despite $80 million invested in three years of their labor. In less than a year, I obtained time- and date-stamped confessions to elder abuse, Medicaid fraud, and labor trafficking from a senior engineer at Micron while subsisting on nothing more than a SNAP budget in ongoing criminally violent environments. As you can see, I encounter no shortage of men desperate to tell me their deepest, darkest secrets and desires.
Post-carceral, I did not need to prove the reality of my relationship to convicted serial killer Ted Bundy; of my biographical facts that taxpayer-funded, under-educated staffers within Idaho's broken mental juridical health system irrationally decided were delusions, that one I only said would not surprise me. As intimately familiar with my family's psychosexual dynamics as I am, I was not at all surprised after I analyzed multiple data sets to 11 generations to confirm my world class expertise in trauma recovery and human psychology.
From my perspective, it took me nearly 20 years to recognize the communication failures through all the layers of bureaucracy delaying resolution of a sexual assault homicide, expecting grown ups to do their jobs, but only two years, on nothing more than a SNAP budget, to provide psychoanalytic expert witness testimony on the systemic breakdowns in communication leading to a spree shooting, triple homicide event, which means I am growing exponentially. As an artist, I always try to push myself harder, like levels in a video game, so now I am looking for opportunities to prevent the next genocide before it happens.
As Uber's CEO, you readily recognize your business is more than a ride-hailing app. I'm not trying to speak for you, but I'm guessing that when you were young, you did not dream of running aground locally owned and operated cab drivers, am I right? I see you at the cusp of an era between car culture and what comes next. Maybe we have time to wait while your market audience enjoys the James Bond fantasies of prepubescent white boys from suburban Los Angeles:
181 flights to and from Beijing Capital Int'l Airport canceled due to #smog; highways closed as air pollution red alert continues pic.twitter.com/dJ6BGVrBwN
— CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) December 20, 2016
Or maybe you are in a position to drive healthier, more sustainable markets?
From your 21 March 2017 post from your newsroom, I notice you have already begun implementing your promised changes in leadership. Kudos to your new Chief Human Resources Officer Liane Hornsey, and her strategy of first listening to your staff. By repairing Uber's job descriptions of unconscious bias, in her first 11 weeks on the job she has already accomplished more than the United States Navy. And of course the Marine Corps has quite a bit more growing to catch up to even your team.
Congratulations as well to Bernard Coleman on his new position. I look forward to learning from his experiences leading diversity for a candidate with vast global experience, name-brand recognition, operating with a war chest budget, who nevertheless flubbed the #NotMyAbuela question, and showed up on election night wearing a crisp pantsuit accented in regal PURPLE – with her husband in matching tie – presumptively prepared to ascend the throne of the most powerful position in the world, having woefully underestimated the level of white, rednecked male misogynistic rage across this nation.
Sooo, speaking with an authority better educated than my Mexican-born grandmother and Native foremothers, that means Mr. Coleman will find access to interlibrary loan my thesis research and attend our interview prepared to ask two or three smart questions about "diversity" or identity theory? I have 10,000 questions for all of you, which I will try to reduce to a plummy handful not readily answered via 21st century media research.
Will you have room for my staff to join us?
Thank you for all of your hard STEM work attracting funds to afford my expertise, while publicly acknowledging your need for the breadth and depth of my blooms to help you re-envision your company culture.
To be continued…
* details changed to protect anonymity, while still remaining true to his telling


text:
Official Press Release
One of the first female comic book creators, Ramona Fradon, finally gets her own art book, the "dynamic" way.
Long time fans of Metamorpho, Aquaman , Aqualad, Plastic Man, The Fantastic Four and Super Friends are quite familiar with the work of legendary artist, Ramona Fradon, but not until now will they know the whole story of Ramona's incredible career in comics, as Dynamic Forces is pleased to announce the upcoming Ramona Fradon Retrospective.
For the first time ever the DEFINITIVE retrospective of Ramona Fradon's 45 year career will be presented in The Ramona Fradon Storyteller Book. The Ramona Fradon Storyteller Book will be a hardcover book with over 200 full-color pages to highlight the magnificent career of artistic legend, plus never-before-seen sketches and character designs.
Written by Ramona's comic book industry colleagues, Howard Chaykin and Walter Simonson (yes, THE Chaykin and THE Simonson!) this comprehensive collection of articles and interviews will celebrate Fradon's artistic career, accomplishments and creations from her the early days at DC in the 1950's to her later work on Marvel's The Cat and Fantastic Four and DC's Plastic Man, Freedom Fighters, Super Friends and more. The Ramona Fradon Storyteller Book will also take an extensive look at the characters that Fradon co-created such as Aqualad and Metamorpho, plus her acclaimed work outside the super hero genre, including Brenda Starr, a comic strip about a glamorous, adventurous reporter. Fradon was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006.
"We are honored to have this opportunity to present the career of one of the most celebrated artists in comics," stated Nick Barrucci. "Ramona Fradon co-created some the greatest icons of the comic book worlds and her style is timeless. She is an inspiration, and when speaking with Howard (Chaykin) and Walter (Simonson), the passion that they showed convinced me that this is a great project to work on. Fans who know Ramona's work will love this retrospective piece and new fans will be astonished by what Ramona has accomplished. And to top it all off, having legends Howard Chaykin and Walter Simonson put this book together makes the project something truly special."
The Ramona Fradon Storyteller Book is scheduled for a late 2009 release.
For more information on Dynamic Forces specialty merchandise, product art, exclusive creator interviews and upcoming releases, please visit the Dynamic Forces website at www.dynamicforces.com.

subset: commoncrawl


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Michael Gove has spoken out in support of restricting the live export of animals during a speech at the Conservative Party Conference.
The statement comes after a string of protests organised by animal activists in Ramsgate where live animal exports are shipped from to other parts of the world.
The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said in his speech: "Leaving the European Union gives us the chance to secure a special prize - a Green Brexit.
"Now, of course, there have been environmental rules which we helped develop while in the EU which are important and which we must keep - indeed - where possible - strengthen.
"And we will want to secure an ambitious free trade deal with the EU - alongside other new trade deals - so our great farmers can sell more of their wonderful produce.
"But now we are leaving - and taking back control - there are so many ways in which we can enhance our environment."
Further through his speech he states that once Britain is outside the European Union, "we can improve animal welfare, supporting more humane methods of farming and restricting the live export of animals."
Many have begun pressuring the MP to ban live animal exports from the UK in their entirety.
RSPCA head of public affairs David Bowles commented: "After more than 20 years of campaigning the RSPCA is encouraged to hear Michael Gove's comments stating his intention to restrict the cruel and unnecessary long journey times of animals going to slaughter from the UK.
"The campaign to end the live export of animals for slaughter or further fattening purposes is one of the RSPCA's longest running campaigns, and should be consigned to the past.
"We have worked with other animal welfare organisations, not to mention the relentless campaigning from the public who have been responsible for hundreds of thousands of petition signatures and letters to MPs, to call for an end to the live export of animals for slaughter or further fattening purposes. Brexit gives us this opportunity.
"Along with the toughening of sentences for those convicted of animal cruelty, which was also announced today in the Environment Secretary's speech, Mr Gove gave his commitment to taking steps to restrict the export of live farm animals for slaughter as we leave the EU.
"However, until a complete end to this trade is brought about, our inspectors will continue to attend the sailings from the Port of Ramsgate where live exports take place in order to monitor any animals that are involved with this trade."


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This blog post started out going to be a blog about cross-curricular connections and how my students, myself, and our awesome gym teacher worked together to connect gym and math. It all began with me thinking that it would neat if we could integrate some of our measurement outcomes from our math into the gym outcomes. Our gym teacher was all for it so I shared the outcomes that I thought he could do something with in gym and it led to the start of our cross-curricular learning. Gym class has become a place to reinforce and practice what we've talked about in math class. The students are enjoying it and can't wait for more. A few of them were even disappointed that they will have to wait awhile to finish an activity because they earned a free time play in gym.
The switch in the focus on this blog post happened when I decided to have my students reflect on what they liked and didn't like about Part 1 of our activities of measuring the gym using non-standard units of measurement. Without me asking they brought up the word choice. They liked that they could pick what to do and who to do it with once they had come up with the guidelines for the activity. My students were happy that their gym teacher let them come up with and share what non-standard units of measurement they would use to measure the gym. We talked about how this was what is know as student voice-where students have a voice in their learning or how they show their learning. Also, they loved that they could practice their math learning in gym. Almost all of the students enjoyed this activity but I asked for feedback on what they didn't like and it had nothing to do with the activity or the math. It was the fact that they didn't have their own sheet. They found that the sign up and recording sheet being one sheet wasn't ideal as some students were pushing them others of the way. We talked about how that really isn't something against the lesson but was students not showing sportsmanship which is tied into the gym teacher's awesome classroom management system. We then discussed how we could solve these "cons" of the activity. They decided that if they asked the other student to stop and they didn't they could tell their gym teacher-Mr. Elmore. I passed on this information to Mr. Elmore who informed me that he had already decided that for the next activity they would record their results on their own paper and created one. At the start of their next gym class he took the time to talk to them about how he loved their feedback as well as the fact that they liked having a voice. Then he explained how they would get voice as well as their own personal recording sheet in their next math based gym activity.
I am glad that I took the initiative to reach out to our gym teacher as it ended up being an awesome cross-curricular experience which led to a valuable discovery of student choice, voice, and feedback with an amazing gym teacher. Mr. Elmore took the time to show them that he cared about their feelings and their voice. As their classroom teacher, this really made me happy as it showed me that he valued them as students as well as learners and was making sure he had positive relationships with them. What an amazing quality to see in this new teacher. I can't wait to explore further cross-curricular connections between math and gym as our students are truly enjoying it.


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Beaumont High's staff managed to stage last Friday's (June 1) graduation smoothly in its new athletic stadium even though it was not completely finished.
[media-credit name="RODRIGO PENA" align="aligncenter" width="300″][/media-credit]
It was the first, and so far only, event at the $21 million athletic complex that is among the finest in the region. The stunning facility has an atmosphere that is very much like a college stadium. The stadium feel is created by the surrounding tall home grandstands, entrance buildings and high embankments. The school's campus is on a hill above the field. The complex is comparable to the deluxe stadium in a canyon above Tahquitz High in Hemet.
Bogh Engineering, builder of the complex, released control of the construction site for graduation day. It was returned to the company after the graduation to resume its status as a construction site, according Wael Elatar, assistant superintendent of business services. He said the field lights are not yet operational and the final stages of improvements to Brookside Avenue, the street leading to the stadium, are not quite complete.
[media-credit name="RODRIGO PENA" align="aligncenter" width="300″][/media-credit]The ceremony was moved up from its traditional 7 p.m. starting time. Because it was held in daylight, from 5 p.m. to a right-on-time 7 p.m. finish, the lights were not needed. The new Brookside Bridge was completed and could be used, but just for the ceremony. The road surface was close enough to being finished to enable it to be opened for the day. It was closed following the ceremony for the last stages of paving.
The grandstands, the beautiful field rimmed with a deluxe track and entrance buildings were finished, so the school was able to hold the graduation. Elatar said that, besides the stadium lighting, Bough Engineering will finish small items like landscaping and completing details in four physical education classrooms at the north end of the field, which probably will take about two months. Teams can begin practicing on the artificial turf once the school district takes control of the field when the work is complete.
He said the first phase of the project, which involved grading, began in 2010 and was finished in 2011. The second phase, construction of the facilities, began last June. The complex was financed with funds from the $125 million Measure Z bonds approved by voters for school facilities throughout the district.
Elatar said organization by the high school staff was the key factor in successfully staging the graduation in a facility used for the first time. Help from the Beaumont police, fire and public works departments was well coordinated. Drew Sherrer, a Beaumont High assistant principal, spearheaded what was very much a community effort to hold the graduation.
Elatar said he wasn't nervous about potential problems with the graduation because of the thorough planning.
Fortunately the district did not have to use its backup plan that was ready if construction lagged far behind.
Elatar said the contingency plan was to hold the graduation at its old site, San Gorgonio Middle School, if the field was not ready for the event. "Not much rain definitely helped," he said.
Contact Bob Pratte at 951-763-3452, firstname.lastname@example.com or 3400 Wentworth Drive, Hemet CA 92545. Find Bob's blog at blog.pe.com/bob-pratte, and follow him on Facebook at facebook.com/PE.BobPratte and Twitter: @bpratte


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President Obama's Portuguese water dogs, "Bo" and "Sunny," are just the latest "first pets" to live at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
In fact, n early every commander in chief has kept a pet during their term.
America's first families have shared their quarters with an impressive menagerie of animals, from snakes to ponies to sheep.
In honor of Bo, who celebrated his seventh birthday earlier this month, here is a list of the presidents' "first pets."
Pets are in chronological order of each presidents' term, beginning with President Theodore Roosevelt in 1901.


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Dr. Brian Horn D.O.
Dr. Brian Horn graduated from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, School of Osteopathic Medicine in 1997. He completed his residency program through the John F. Kennedy Memorial Health system in Stratford NJ and Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center in Camden NJ in 2000. Upon competion of the program he joined Dr. Andrew Willet at Southside Family Practice in Dover where he has continued to pratice. Dr Horn is board certified in family practice and treats patients of all ages at both the Dover and Smyrna offices. He currently lives in Smyrna and has two children.
Dr. Andrew Willet M.D.
Dr. Andrew Willet is one of the founders of SouthSide Family Practice in 1995. He went to Franklin and Marshall College, then Jefferson Medical College. After a family practice residency in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, he worked in a community health center near Waynesburg, PA. He moved to Dover in 1989, and was chairman of the department of family medicine, as well as president of the medical staff at Kent General Hospital. He is married and has one son.
Allison Ford PA-C
Allison Ford graduated from Clemson University in 2005 with a bachelors in Biological Sciences. She then attended Arcadia University where she earned her masters in Medical Sciences in 2007 and became certified to practice as a Physician Assistant. Soon after graduating she joined Southside Family Practice where she has continued to practice. Allison treats patients of all ages and is currently accepting new patients. Since joining Southside, Allison has gotten married and gave birth to a beautiful daughter, Makenzie.
Kate Olson PA-C
Kate Olson graduated from University of Delaware with a bachelors in Athletic training in 2002 and a masters in Health Promotion in 2004. After graduation she worked as an assistant athletic trainer at Wilmington University from 2004 - 2009. Kate later attended Arcadia University where she earned a masters in Medical Sciences in 2011 and became certified to practice as a Physican Assistant. Kate worked as a PA in orthopedic surgery prior to joining Southside Family Practice in 2012.


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"All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward," as Ellen Glasgow once said. This quote is an excellent yardstick to measure progress. Will change cause Spokane to grow and prosper? Only if it is deliberate, managed, on-going, and continually evaluated. These are the issues that I will prioritize for Spokane.
Streets & Parks
In November 2014 the voters approved the 64.3 million Parks and Street Bond with a 20 year payoff. It was approved by a 68.58% vote.
- I approve this plan to rehabilitate Riverfront Park and refinancing street repairs.
- I believe that the voters need to be kept up-to-date on both planning and progress to understand the impact on Spokane
Police & Fire
I recognize the realities of our community and its challenges and will deploy our resources adequately and appropriately.
I support the Spokane Police Department in their efforts to:
- Actively pursue and reduce property crime
- Rebuild trust with the citizens of Spokane
- Collaborate with the Sheriff's office and other law enforcement agencies where appropriate
- Establish a new police ombudsman to bring greater transparency about police actions to our citizens.
I also support the Spokane Fire Department's current efforts to:
- Contract more ambulances and other vehicles to save costs and reduce wear and tear on our fire trucks.
- Build an additional fire department to serveQualchan and Eagle Ridge neighborhoods
It is my desire to work with our public safety community in all the above facets to ensure the health and safety of all Spokane residents.
Jobs & Economy
Spokane must live within a budget based on available revenue from current utility and property and sales taxes. My priorities for city budget are Police and Fire, Streets, Utilities (Sewer/Water/Garbage), Parks, and Libraries. As a City Councilor I intend to:
- Develop the local economy through job growth
- Balance environmental sustainability responsibilities with smart industrial development
- Set wage increase codes that reflect what current economic conditions will allow


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Welcome to the Darke County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency web site. Our mission is "to provide a comprehensive Emergency Management Program which coordinates people and resources to protect lives, property and the environment within Darke County by using an all hazards approach of mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery for disaster and emergencies."
We sincerely hope that you will take the time to browse through the information on our site. Being prepared for emergencies or disasters is your responsibility and should not be taken lightly. Tips on how you can prepare yourself are offered throughout our site.
We at the Darke County EMA hope that this information will be used to protect you, your family and your property from any disaster, whether it be natural or man-made. Feel free to contact us at any time.
Please note that throughout our web site, we will use EMA to indicate the Darke County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency.
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We've all seen brightly coloured fruits and vegetable such as peppers, mangos, tomatoes and carrots. While they look great, the organic pigments that create these vibrant colours are also high in anti oxidant properties. Have you ever heard the saying that if you eat too many carrots you'll turn orange? This isn't far from the truth; a high intake of such powerful carotenoids can alter your skin colour! proto-col Bronze uses this to its advantage in a specialised way and blends 5 key types of carotenoids into its self-tanning products which helps create a natural looking tan for your skin.
What is proto-col Bronze?
Self-tanning products like these are a natural food supplement, designed to give your skin a darker sun kissed look. proto-col Bronze contains 5 natural carotenoids alongside skin benefiting vitamins, to help produce a healthy looking glow for your skin. The health boosting properties also integrated in proto-col Bronze self-tanning products, such as vitamin E, may help boost skin resilience as well as offer one of the safest ways to gain a tan.
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Using these self-tanning products could provide you with a whole host of benefits for your health and appearance. Before buying check out some popular reasons why many people may have chosen to take proto-col Bronze:
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- Enjoy having a natural sun kissed appearance
If you can relate to one ore more of the above, taking self-tanning products could be your answer to a happy, healthy and glowing look.
How does proto-col Bronze work?
proto-col Bronze consists of powerful anti-oxidant Vitamin E, this has been used in the cosmetic industry for years now and holds many hydrating and moisturising properties. Such properties can help you achieve a more even, natural and glowing tan. Scientifically tested skin darkening substance Beta-Carotene is integrated into these self-tanning products.
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Burlesque On Ice!
The show will be at Bush Hall, Shepherds Bush from the 4th - 8th February 2014, with two shows a night.
Featuring top show skaters including Hollie Deller: who was, among other accolades, Scottish Solo Ice Dance Champion, Primary British Pairs Champion, and a member of 'Holiday On Ice' for three years; and hosted by Scarlet Sparkle and the inimitable Joe Morose alongside the creme de la creme of the UK Burlesque industry, including Vicky Butterfly, Gwendoline Lamour and Ruby Deshabille!
Hollie Deller
Scarlet Sparkle and Joe Morose
Gwendoline Lamour ** Vicky Butterfly
Ruby Deshabille
Since the auditions in June, everyone has been hard at work - skating at least three times a week, juggling work, shows, rehearsals, filming, travel, childcare and life to attend lessons with our producer Sam Jenkins, and our coach and choreographer Sarah Christou.
Sarah Christou by Zebrowski Photography
In January the cast goes in to intensive rehearsals, in preparation for show week; learning and blocking choreography, both solo and group numbers, rehearsing acts for the stage and the ice, and finalising the script and show run. It's going to be insane and exciting and stressful, but ultimately worth it as we take over the beautiful Bush Hall for a week in February and combine, for the first time, the glamour and seduction of Burlesque with the breathtaking skill of Figure Skating, and mashing it all together with comedy, song, dance, drag, magic, and lots and lots of swarovski crystals!
Not my skates, unfortunately, but a girl can dream!
We have also been lucky enough to work with incredible companies including Frou Frou Feathers and What Katie Did
So - as an homage to the last six months of rehearsals, I present my picture (and video) montage of the cast of Burlesque On Ice!
Glorian Gray and I off to auditions in June!
Queens Ice Rink - my second home for the last six months.
Shiny new skates, ready to hit the ice!
Showgirls on Ice! With Jasz Vegas and Felixy Splits!
Playing with fans on ice: with Felixy, Hollie, Bonnie Fleur and Ruby!
Promo shoot with Tigz Rice Studios
Learning how to put moves together...
Branding galore! Stealth advertising!
First public performance at Westfield London!
On Ice, Backstage and After-Show at Westfield London
Burlesque On Ice teaser video released!
Filming for Magic FM
Christmas Jumper Fundraiser with Arlene Phillips
Saucy Christmas Jumper!
We were (briefly) on the news...
And been in Burlesque Bible...
And the London Evening Standard!
It's been an exhausting, emotional, exciting journey so far; I'm looking forward to what the next six weeks brings as the culmination of all of our hard work and dedication will show its rewards.
I've found it incredibly challenging on so many levels: learning a completely new skill that is so alien to anything I've ever done has been exceptionally difficult, and for the longest time I didn't feel as though I'd ever get the hang of it. Sometimes even staying upright was a toughie!I've had to contend with old injuries and issues from my dance training days flaring up again, and learn to use my body in a different way. I've dragged myself out of bed to get to the rink at 7a.m. some mornings to get extra practise in before daytime commitments (and I am not a morning person!), or for promotional work for TV and media.
And I've had to re-learn how to work as part of a cast rather than a solo performer once again, putting what I want behind what is best for the end result, and keeping the bigger picture in mind rather than any individual wants.
There have been bumps and bruises on bottoms and egos; arguments, giggles, cuddles and wine; we have ended up in a cast pile-on more times than I can count; there have been face-plants, spectacular fails and wonderful moments of achievement; we have progressed, as a cast, from barely being able to go forwards without wobbling to jumping, spinning, and putting on a massive show. I've made some amazing new friends and built up friendships with some I only knew as acquaintances.
I love it. It's something I never even imagined I'd get the chance to do and I'm so excited for what I know will be the most brilliantly bonkers show I've ever been part of, and the most fabulous show of 2014!
BRING. IT. ON... ICE!xx


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What would Christmas be without the glitz and glitter of tinsel, ornaments, and a tree?
I'm not one for going all out in my Christmas decorating, but every year I wish I had something new to add to the heirlooms.
I've been scouring my Christmas books and have found some decorating ideas I like, and I think you'll like them too. I found a 40+ year old Christmas guide in my mom's stash that had some surprisingly hip ideas. Time to dig out the glitter!


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The much-hyped Batman V Superman has finally hit theaters, so naturally its stars are on a lengthy PR circuit to promote the film and get fans out to theaters. Since critics aren't too fond of it, the talk show appearances are doubly important, which is probably why Ben Affleck, a.k.a. Batman/Bruce Wayne, employed the assistance of almost offensively cute puppies to promote the film while on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon.
As Affleck and Fallon went head to head in a "Pup Quiz" trivia game, they were awarded a puppy for correct answers and forfeited a puppy to their opponent for wrong answers. Each one was dressed up as a different superhero from the DC universe — there was a Superman, a Batman, and a Wonder Woman, among others.
When it came to direct promotion of the film, Affleck was quick to steer away from the reviews. "Don't scare people into thinking this is a critical film," he said. "This is an audience movie. People actually like this movie."
If his words aren't enough to sway you, watch the dude interact with puppies and just fork over the money for a ticket already. The dogs seem to like it well enough. Why wouldn't you?
Watch the "Pup Quiz" in full below:
Cover image: The Tonight Show via YouTube.


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Tips into the Shoals Area Crime Stoppers tip line has Florence Police searching for a man, wanted for robbery.
Detectives are looking for Xavier Cole in connection to a brutal purse snatching caught on surveillance cameras.
According to investigators, Cole jumped out and grabbed the victim's purse.
Police say the woman got dragged behind the car as she held on to her property. Cole faces charged for robbery and breaking and entering a motor vehicle.
In this week's Shoals Area Most Wanted, Tuscumbia Police need your help finding Darius Fuqua.
According to police, Fuqua is wanted for resisting arrest and criminal trespass.
Next James Ronny Matthews is behind bars in Russellville tonight.
Matthews was featured on Crime Stoppers last week, and within a day Russellville Police served warrants for his arrest.
If you know where Cole or Fuqua may be leave an anonymous tip on the Shoals Area Crime Stoppers tipline at 256-386-8685.
If these people are arrested as a result of your call, it could be worth a cash reward.


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Posted by Mahmoud Abunie on February 24, 2016 in Blog
The Middle East is the birthplace of the three Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The three faiths have lived, struggled and overcome many issues throughout history and continue to work through similarities and differences. The fabric of the three faiths are a mosaic of the cultural and ethnic composition that make up the beauty of the Middle East.
Everyone in the Middle East is suffering due to ISIL and their savage attempt to rule through violence and oppression. Christian communities in particular are being particularly targeted by ISIL's barbarism. The communities suffering most acutely, Maronite, Assyrian, Yazidi, and Shia to name a few, are are fleeing from Iraq and Syria while others are being systematically killed, enslaved, and/or forcibly converted. As many of these communities flee, the religious communities and ethnic minorities shrink. For example, Mosul, a diverse city in Iraq, used to be inhabited by over 100,000 Christians in 2005, but now that number is just over 200 Christians. The out-migration of religious communities disintegrates the historic religious plurality in the Middle East. All people - Jews, Christians, and Muslims - bear the effects of ISIL's murderous campaign.
Christian leaders and interfaith advocates have started a campaign to bring attention to the suffering of religious communities in the Middle East and urge the United States to act. You can learn about their campaign at StopTheChristianGenocide.org


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Sign the petition to S. Korean Head of Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans & Fisheries Committee MP Hwang Ju-hong demanding an end to the dog meat trade!
Filled with fake, stuffed dogs to resemble the real trucks used to transport dogs from farms to slaughterhouses — LCA and ALW's "Stop the Villain Truck" is raising awareness for the barbaric slaughter of dogs in S. Korea's dog meat trade.
The campaign is also urging S. Korean MPs to review and pass MP Pyo Chang-won's proposed amendment to the Animal Protection Act to ban the slaughter of dogs and cats for meat during the National Assembly's 2019 session — which commenced on March 7.
To garner support for MP Pyo's proposed amendment, the "villain truck" gathered S. Korean citizens' messages in Hongdae Station demanding its passage. LCA and ALW hand-delivered the messages to the National Assembly's Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans & Fisheries Committee.
LCA and S. Korean sister organization, Animal Liberation Wave (ALW), held three demonstrations simultaneously on July 17, 2018, in Los Angeles, California, Washington D.C., and Seoul, South Korea to protest the S. Korean dog meat trade.
The protests were held on Bok Nal, the first of 3 nonconsecutive days, known as the hottest days of the Korean summer.
Dog meat consumption rises exponentially this time of year in S. Korea as dog meat soup, known as "Boshintang", is the food of choice to combat the extreme heat and humidity.
All three protests were solemn and respectful with thousands of participants worldwide. In L.A., the protest was held at the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea, and in Washington D.C., the protest was at the Embassy of South Korea. The Seoul protest was held in Gwanghwamun Plaza and included a traditional funeral march to The Blue House (the executive office and official residence of the S. Korean head of state). In Seoul and Los Angeles, activists held the bodies of deceased dogs to symbolize the victims of the dog meat trade.
LCA has formed a sister organization in S. Korea, Animal Liberation Wave (ALW), with one mission in mind – to end the dog meat trade. Rescuing dogs, one-at-a-time, is not the answer and will not put an end this horrific industry. This can only be accomplished with S. Korean citizens demanding change at the government level. With "boots-on-the-ground" in Korea, LCA and ALW are in a position to affect real change. With a series of strategic events planned, LCA and ALW aim to mobilize S. Koreans in their own country to call for the end of the dog meat trade.
Currently, one out of five S. Koreans (2 million – one-fifth of a ten million population) have dogs as companion animals. Old attitudes are changing; dogs are increasingly being considered as part of the family.
There is a legal contradiction that allows the S. Korean dog meat industry to exist:
Dogs are legally categorized as "companion animals" and must not be killed in a brutal way. Despite this act, a million dogs a year suffer torture and brutally die in the dog meat trade.
Dogs are not to be consumed as "food". Regardless of this act, there are 3,000 farms that systematically breed, raise and kill a million dogs a year for meat that is sold to markets and restaurants nationwide.
This outdated act still recognizes dogs as "livestock" and is the ROOT CAUSE OF THE LEGAL CONTRADICTION. Because of this act, dogs are bred and raised on dog farms. These dogs live and are killed under horrific conditions.
Consequently, dogs are considered as both "companion" and "livestock" by Korean law; hence the current legal loophole. The government's negligence is at the core of the dog meat problem.
Demands need to be made of the Korean government to address this long-neglected issue, instead of turning a blind eye to the barbaric dog meat trade.
The goal of 200,000 signatures was reached!
- 1. Ban the slaughter of dogs for meat under South Korea's Animal Protection Act
- 2. Remove dogs from South Korea's Livestock Industry Act
Proposed on June 20, 2018, by S. Korean Member of Parliament Pyo Chang-won, this bill will make it fundamentally illegal to slaughter dogs for meat under S. Korea's Animal Protection Act. Although dogs are not labeled as food under the Sanitary Control of Livestock Products Act, a million are slaughtered for meat every year. The Animal Protection Act has been largely unsuccessful in protecting dogs since it only prohibits and punishes killing animals "brutally" or "under unjustified reasons". If passed, MP Pyo's bill, that prohibits ANY killing of animals unless otherwise stated in other relevant legislation such as Sanitary Control of Livestock Products Act (in which dogs are not included), will be a severe blow to the country's dog meat trade.
https://www1.president.go.kr/petitions/281200 PETITION CLOSED 7/24/18 — 212,424 signatures
Proposed on May 15, 2018, by S. Korean Member of Parliament Lee Sang-don, this bill seeks to remove dogs from the livestock list. Currently, dogs in S. Korea are considered companion animals, yet they are also defined as livestock according to the Livestock Industry Act. MP Lee's important bill would eliminate the only present legal basis of dog farms and would unite the legal status of dogs as companion animals. While the bill would not outlaw raising dogs on dog farms, it is a significant step in the right direction, in that it would resolve the contradictory status of dogs in S. Korea as both companion animals (under the Animal Protection Act) and livestock (under the Livestock Industry Act).
https://www1.president.go.kr/petitions/272632 PETITION CLOSED 7/17/2018 — 214,634 SIGNATURES
Petition – Ban the Brutal Slaughter of Dogs and Cats for Meat!
Head of Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans & Fisheries Committee Hwang Ju-hong
1, Uisadang-daero, Yeongdeungpo-gu
Seoul, Republic of Korea 07233
I respectfully urge the Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans & Fisheries Committee of the S. Korean National Assembly to listen to its dedicated citizens' and activists' calls to pass MP Pyo Chang-won's proposed amendment to the Animal Protection Act, which would prohibit the slaughter of dogs and cats for meat.
This year, two surveys (commissioned by LCA and ALW) have shown an 81.2% reduction in dog meat consumption among S. Koreans – with 46% of S. Koreans stating they disagree with dog meat consumption. Furthermore, 44.2% of S. Koreans agree with legally banning the slaughter of dogs and cats for meat.
The growing shift in the public's perception of the dog meat trade in S. Korea is clearly apparent. Please pass MP Chang-won's proposed amendment to the Animal Protection Act, tabled in the National Assembly on November 19, 2018, which will legally end the country's outdated and brutal practice and save the lives of millions of dogs and cats.
Conflicting Legal Status: Are dogs companion animals or food?
Dogs are companion animals under the Animal Protection Act – Article 1 (Purpose): To protect the life, safety, and welfare of animals by stipulating the necessary conditions for proper protection and management of animals, thus preventing abuse. Article 1 further states its purpose is to cultivate respect for the lives of animals. Article 32 (1) (Enforcement Rule) states, in addition to dogs and cats – rabbits, ferrets, guinea pigs, and hamsters are also protected under this Act as they are reared in homes for companionship.
The Sanitary Control of Livestock Products Act does not govern dogs as food – Article 2 (Definitions) does not include dogs under "livestock" as animals intended for consumption. Yet, the Livestock Industry Act is still recognizing dogs as "livestock" Article 2 Enforcement Rule (Kinds of Livestock): The term "animals prescribed by the Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Ordinance" in Article 2, Paragraph 1 of the Act shall mean any of the following: 1. mules, donkeys, rabbits, and dogs.
It is through this legal loophole of recognizing dogs as livestock, that dog meat is being produced and distributed.
Industrialized: One and only, S. Korea's dog meat farms
Dogs, not governed by the Sanitary Control of Livestock Products Act as food, are slaughtered anywhere, hidden from public view. The slaughter process is vicious. Dogs are electrocuted, hung and beaten with metal rods, and sometimes even boiled alive, all in front of the eyes of the other caged dogs. Since there is no law governing how dogs are slaughtered for food, none of the above acts are considered criminal and cannot be prosecuted by law.
Abusive: Dog farms are a living hell
Public Safety: Environmental and health risks
Disposal of feces and dead animals on dog farms are not handled and treated properly, which poses a threat to public safety and health. Rotting feces most often flow to nearby rivers or underground.
New virus attack
More than 70% of recent major infectious diseases are animal-induced. H3N2 Dog Influenza, which is transmitted easily through the air and direct contact, was first found and identified on a dog farm. Dogs on farms that haven't been vaccinated are likely to become carriers for new types of viruses after eating food waste or carcasses of dead animals. *Oh, Jinsik (2008). Influenza and Dog. The Journal of Korean Veterinary Medical Association. 44(9) 835-841 Transmission of Avian Influenza Virus to Dogs
Heavy usage of antibiotics
Consuming livestock products high in antibiotics causes humans to become resistant to it, inhibiting effective treatment of diseases when needed. According to the World Health Organization, 1 out of 6 people die because of antibiotic resistance. Dog meat, which is not governed by the Sanitary Control of Livestock Products Act, has been discovered to contain antibiotics and germs, considerably higher than what is normally allowed.


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