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National Security Imperatives In An Era of Environmentally-Induced Conflicts, Population Displacements, and Political Disequilibria
The gradual emergence and incremental intransigence of environmental and global climate change discourses into social sciences in general and studies of international relations, in particular, have in recent years provided a fecund ground for debate and analyses of wide ranging geopolitical ramifications the predicted climatic variations would present for national security and human well being. The 2014 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report predicts that increased occurrence, duration, and intensity of droughts, rising sea levels, and flooding can pose significant challenges to national stability and eventuate in global economic vulnerabilities and political instabilities as well as internal civil and political unrest and "inter-group violence by amplifying well-documented drivers of these conflicts such as poverty and economic shocks."[1] Conflict over basic natural resources, i.e. water, oil and gas, scholars predict, may strain relations between states and engage them militarily.
Internal government reviews, climate and security conferences, and domestic security reports focus increasingly on the strategic challenges posed by changing global climate. It is commonly held that climate-induced crises the next two to three decades will exacerbate already fragile relations between Sub-Saharan African, the Middle Eastern, and South and Southeast Asian states, destabilize regions, topple governments, and issue in mass migrations, widespread pandemics, and food scarcity. A proliferation of studies, chief among them being the 2007 CNA National Security and the Threat of Climate Change report suggest that, "the projected climate change is a threat multiplier in already fragile regions, exacerbating conditions that lead to failed states — the breeding grounds for extremism and terrorism."[2] The University of Toronto's "Project on Environment, Population and Security" predicts that environmental change will significantly stress or reduce the supply of vital natural resources, such as fresh water, cropland, forests and fisheries, leading to environmental scarcity and increased probability of armed conflict.[3] A quantitative study conducted by the State Failure Task Force assembled at the request of US policymakers to identify factors associated with serious internal crises, concluded that massive environmental damage provoked by general patterns of global climate change could directly contribute to political collapse and destabilization.[4] Similarly, studies conducted by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Swiss Peace Institute assessed the potential for environmentally induced conflict to be assisted and exacerbated by proximate causes of social, political, and economic nature. In 2009, the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has launched the Center on Climate Change and National Security with a mandate to oversee "the national security impact of phenomena such as desertification, rising sea levels, population shifts, and heightened competition for natural resources"[5] and provide American policymakers with information and analysis on the effects climate change can have on security. In its 2010 Congress mandated Quadrennial Defense Review, the Pentagon planners included climate change among national security threats. Such developments should be seen in the broader context of the potential for conflagration in the Arctic region, as it undergoes significant climatic transformations. Global governance gaps in this area "threaten to fuel major diplomatic tensions among regional actors over natural resources, navigation rights and fishery management"[6] increasing competing claims to continental shelves and economic trade routes, worsening diplomatic frictions, and resulting in pronounced regional and international instabilities between major powers, the United States, Canada, Norway, Russia, China, and Japan.
In view of the above, the following study aims to closely investigate the security implications resulting from global climate change and explore the geopolitical dimension of the relationship between environmental degradation and armed conflict. In attempting to better understand the impacts, the destabilizing climatic patterns may have on human and national security, the appraisal of available policy and strategic responses by governments, the military, and non-governmental actors will be given due consideration. Based on that, the article will seek to bring together viable policy options that should prove well suited for improving global governance architecture/framework oriented towards abetting/ with regard to environmentally induced conflicts, population displacements, and serious political and diplomatic disequilibria.
Environmental Change and Conflict: An Overview of strategic drivers of the international security consensus
Environmental security, Richard Matthew et al. note in "The Elusive Quest: Linking Environmental Change and Conflict," is a highly contested term which seeks to account for disparate forms of human vulnerability by relating them directly to resource scarcity and its consequents, chief among them, violent conflict. Although, consensus on the directionality of causation is presently lacking, some scholars have underscored the importance of positing climate change in the context of political, social, and economic variables. Advocates of this, most prominently, Thomas Homer-Dixon, believe that environmental factors are necessarily related to intra- and inter-state conflicts and present a viable threat to national and international security.[7] Scarcity of renewable resources caused by patterns of global warming, Homer-Dixon and scholars affiliated with the Toronto School contend, may precipitate in economic decline, social segmentation, and mass population migration, thus putting significant stress on national infrastructures with predictably negative socio-political effects.[8] Gleditsch and de Soysa hold that environmentally induced depletion of resources will reduce agricultural production and create extreme conditions of poverty and food scarcity, which increase the probability of conflict. Societies, challenged by limited knowledge base and constrained by inadequate human, social, and institutional capital as well as confronted by their own domestic "ingenuity-gap", Homer-Dixon argues, will be increasingly unable to quickly and effectively adapt to the shifting and fluctuating conditions on the ground, causing them to fall into social disrepair and violence.
Critics of the above view contend that resource scarcity ought not to serve as a sufficient explanatory variable of social unrest and violent conflagration. Alleging myopic view of the causes underlying conflict, some scholars argue for a more expansive and more convincing explanation of its determinants. Notwithstanding the proliferation of bleak climate change scenarios and their adverse implication, Richard Matthew, Geoffrey Dabelko and Steve Lonergan hold that human proclivity toward innovation and adaptation is much more robust and dynamic than scholars such as Homer-Dixon allow. By countering overt conflict with cooperation, these scholars believe, it is increasingly possible to imagine that future trajectory of development and adaptation will be guided by collective and inter-state problem solving. Such a pronounced plurilateral response to climatic variations will very likely result in greater democratic and trade openness, development of coping and adjustment mechanisms through the introduction of intergovernmental entities and panels for global climate norms regulation and oversight as well as emergence of active and mobile networks of transnational legal regimes and nongovernmental organizations working to abet and eradicate the root causes of resource scarcity and resource competition-induced conflicts.
To counter the scholarly pessimism surrounding the relationship between environmental stress and security concerns, Richard Matthew recommends embracing an expanded mid-temporal range view of the problem. In so doing, questions of mal-adjustment, poverty, and scarcity, which have come to dominate scientific-social research and discourse, will lose their urgently compelling power, revealing instead a potential for learning, innovating and adapting to the effects of the much changed environmental scenario, rather than merely glimpsing with alarm on its fragmented, short-term picture. And, although the possibility for poverty and violent conflagration assisted by weak political institutions is a present and abiding possibility, the view of "societies collapsing into acute violence under additional burden of environmental stress may be mistaken."[9] The claim, however compelling, has failed to persuade. The current trend in political, diplomatic and military circles hints at increased investment in and commitment to drawing up detailed plans for a wide variety of contingencies, including, in addition to threats stemming from nuclear terrorism, deadly pandemics or biological warfare, the exploration of strategic political responses and military initiatives concerning sustainable security by the United States and India, among others.
Climate Change and the United States National Security Imperatives
The United States Department of Defense 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) identified climate change as a serious threat to America's national security. The "irregular, disruptive, traditional, and catastrophic challenges are surfacing as a result of global climate change … with disastrous consequences" requiring blending of "the sustainability tenets of environmental security, ecological economics, and social/environmental equity with the pillars of democratic peace theory" with a purpose of "avoiding the unmanageable and managing the unavoidable."[10] Identifying global climate change as an asymmetric strategic and security challenge, the US Department of Defense, fearful of the potential disruptions to its operational and tactical capabilities, deems the creation of a tangible "roadmap to victory" over its climatic superior, an indispensible tool in the military arsenal. The report recognizes that the 'chaotic climate system' will bring about precipitous surprises and much uncertainty, necessitating conventional and unconventional responses, encouraging "innovation, agility and adaptability, collaboration and partnership"[11] in the interest of protecting the nation's security. Such an endeavor, the US Defense Department recognizes, can yield dividends if agile, dynamic and continuous change and reassessment of strategies will readily inform the building of networks of global communication, cooperation, and intelligence gathering. Ackerman points out that operationalizing the strategy will require, however, a commitment to the mitigation of the effects of global climate change and resilient adaptation to its inhospitable consequences.[12]
By placing climate change on par with other security threats, i.e. terrorism, the US Department of Defense aims to accentuate the severity of its potentially adverse outcomes and consolidate a capacity and capability building efforts necessary for authoritative and successful response and management of eventual crisis situations. It is projected that such an initiative will require the Department to acquire resources for building 'partnership capacity' and 'outsourcing' authority in delegating tasks to other subcontracting entities; install precautionary measures which would ease or eliminate possibility of escalation of conflict or "prevent problems from becoming conflicts and conflicts from becoming problems"[13]; and increase the freedom to act aggressively against threats with all "elements of national power, not just the military."[14]
The report recognizes that for the United States to be successful in its stated mission, it must adjust its initiatives to four main categories of prospective environmental challenges: traditional; irregular; disruptive; and catastrophic. Although, present US interests already call for mobilization of traditional military instruments in conventional activities, environment-driven challenges may necessitate deployment of the military in severe instances of mass flooding, droughts, and heat waves. It is acknowledged that climate change would also extend the duration of deployment and "magnify the scale and intensity"[15] of the problem at hand. Shifts in seasonal snowmelts, increase in droughts, quadrupling frequency of wildfires, extreme precipitation resulting in devastating floods, lengthened cyclone season, and threats of disease outbreaks and large-scale pandemics, can lead to mass population migrations and put significant stress on state infrastructure and administration with significantly destabilization impacts on respective governmental entities. Researchers predict "a sea level rise of one to five meters by 2100 would displace roughly between 130 and 410 million people."[16] Such a scenario, the report concludes, must meet with realistic and urgent military and logistical planning. The loss of the means of subsistence following widespread natural disaster, presents the military with an irregular challenge, that of massive movements of 'environmental refugees.' It is projected that the expansion of arid landmass and deserts in China, Tunisia, Morocco, and Libya, as well as soil erosion in Egypt, Turkey, Louisiana, and Alaska, alone, will intensify the migratory patterns of populations and put significant stress on potential host countries, requiring support and management mechanisms suitable for attenuating prospective outbreak of social, economic, and political frictions and conflict.
Erosion, desertification, deforestation, irregular floods and droughts, and pandemics can also prove disruptive to vital US security interests. It is predicted that climate change-induced famine, water stress, and vector-borne disease will, in the severity of their consequences, exceed those resulting from revolutionary political upheavals or technologies aimed at countering US interests and capabilities. The US Department of Defense recognizes that risk of recurrent pandemics will have "broad and complex ecological, security, and social ramifications for humans"[17] pushing many states to the brink of failure and collapse, thus dispersing further the risk of social and political destabilization across ever wider regions of the globe. State failure contagion induced by environmental stress will present the United States with catastrophic challenges, comparable only, the Defense Department projects, to "WMD-like effects against US interests."[18] Security specialists contend that suboptimal living standards in parts of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, exacerbated by degradation of the environment, collapse of natural ecosystems and its attendant health and social consequences, will significantly upset normal patterns of subsistence, degrade the quality of life, and increase the probability of political instability and state failure. Moreover:
Economic and environmental conditions in already fragile areas will further erode as food production declines, diseases increase, clean water becomes increasingly scarce, and large populations move in search of resources. Weakened and failing governments, with already thin margin for survival, foster the conditions for internal conflicts, extremism, and movement toward increased authoritarianism and radical ideologies.[19]
Climate-induced population movements in the Darfur region of Sudan and across political borders between Bangladesh and India have already significantly contributed to the renewal of tensions, depleting sources of political toleration and increasing the likelihood of violence.
The US Department of Defense's sensitivity to terrorism-breeding conditions compels it to acquire means and technologies for facing grave and unpredictable threats of climate-change in order to strategically respond to and gain control over its inevitable socio-political corollaries. The sustainable security strategy promoted by the Department of Defense aims to marry the sustainability paradigm with democratic peace theory. The historically American acknowledgement of the "innate right of all people to free, equitable, and secure lives"[20] extends to the questions of environmental vulnerability of populations and states, and calls for a development of checks and balances that are better attuned to the promotion of universal justice and fair governance. The United States recognizes that "cooperation and concern for one's neighbor" will require a degree of trust in inter-state intelligence sharing, collective action strategizing, and technology transfers, in addition to economic and scientific research cooperation with an end goal of promoting social and environmental equity, security, and justice. Contributing to the plethora of voices and arguments concerning environmental security, scholars, well-versed in disaster-relief and climate change challenges, propose invasive changes to US legislation in the form of a new National Security Act, which would be configured to "oblige intergovernmental cooperation and support for formal planning"[21] and codify, thus, the goodwill of intra- and inter-governmental agencies into a holistic and legally-binding security policy.
India's Military Strategy and Prospects for Environmental Security
The political and social implications of the anthropogenic climate change and the predicted trajectory of global warming also commands much attention in states laying at the very fault lines of prospective climate-induced conflicts. The 2008 Indian National Interest Policy Brief, in its attempt to assess the subcontinent's vulnerability to extreme weather patterns and security concerns issuing therefrom, points to three key areas of strategic concentration: international cooperation; management of "hot peace"; and, outright military conflict.[22] The cumulative effect of glacial recession on the Tibetan plateau, rising sea levels and extreme weather patterns characterized by increasing intensity of cyclones and floods, are likely to result in the submergence of low lying areas, including river deltas, coastlines and small islands and put the population of Karachi, Mumbai, Dhaka, and Mangalore at a significant existential risk, while at the same time, imperiling the livelihood of the people of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Pakistan.[23]
(Download the PDF for figures)
Figure 1. Impact of climate change on ongoing conflicts in the Indian subcontinent
Source: The 2008 Indian Policy Brief, p. 3.
Due to already strained relations with Pakistan and unresolved inter-state disputes with regional actors, India considers the risk of renewed conflagration with its neighbors to be high, provoking ethnic conflict, social unrest and mass migration. Pakistan's insistence on fair distribution of water in the Jammu and Kashmir region, which is an important factor in Pakistan's strategic calculations, according to Pai, is also a necessary prerequisite for the resolution of conflict between the two countries. In India's assessment, a water deficient Pakistan may be more likely to sabotage water-management infrastructures and renew the possibility of tensions and cross-border skirmishes. Moreover, the risk of natural disasters in India is also more likely to worsen India-China bilateral relations. A characteristic feature of the countries' political cooperation is their mutual commitment to weather and disaster related collaboration and sharing of information. Severe landslides, which affected India in 2004, however, pointed to Chinese reluctance to alert in a timely manner the Indian subcontinent of an impending natural disaster. It is projected that should the Chinese continue to resist living up to the obligations of their bilateral agreements with India, future relations may very likely be characterized by mutual suspicion and distrust. Any overt monopolization of resources, such as China's attempt to take full control of the waters of the Himalayan Rivers by diverting their natural flow, may be perceived as tantamount to "a declaration of water war" on India and Bangladesh.[24]
The Indian government fears that rising sea levels, flash floods, and severe cyclone cycles will inundate the subcontinent with mass migrations from Sri Lanka and Nepal, precipitating in a refugee crisis and putting further stress on the country's already vulnerable infrastructure systems. The Indian Policy Brief points to nine key scenarios which may necessitate the employment and deployment of Indian armed forces, they are: providing support to water-management facilities in Jammu and Kashmir against potential sabotage and system disruption; fighting limited conflicts in Jammu and Kashmir to secure India's control over the dams, irrigation headworks, and hydro-electric power plans; engaging in "reconnaissance and covert action along the India-China frontier to ensure uninterrupted flow of water"; "erecting cordons sanitaire in districts adjoining Bangladesh to manage the refugee crises"; "building, maintaining, and securing … aircraft landing strips, helipads, and staging areas in neighboring countries"; providing humanitarian relief inside Bangladesh and Sri Lanka; intervening in neighboring states for humanitarian relief and peacekeeping purposes; securing "vital installations" against Pakistan in neighboring provinces; and, lastly, cooperating with the United States, NATO, China, Russia, and Japan in humanitarian relief missions in and around the subcontinent and the Indian Ocean region.[25]
Urgent concern for the Indian military, as for its United States counterpart, lies in its urgent personnel and strategy enhancements and significant technology upgrades. Having recognized the necessity of improved inter-state cooperation, India, nevertheless, had stressed the importance of acting, whenever possible, in its own narrowly defined self-interest. The country's strategy of 'hot-peace' characterized by frequent deployment of armed forces to quell aggressive behavior of its more belligerent neighbors, Indian officials believe, will prove a suitable deterrent policy, which will effectively extinguish any prospects for resource-based and environmentally-induced large-scale wars.
Environmental Challenges and International Norms Regimes: A Quest for Consensus
In light of rising concerns over environmental security, the question of the means by which self-interested states will find themselves sufficiently willing and capable of informing the emerging and increasingly important global environmental norms regime for the purposes of addressing environmental scarcity and climate change, remains vital. Recognition of climatic interdependence necessitates a reevaluation of legal coping mechanism and entrenched value systems. Non-governmental panels and organizations can play a key role in initiating a comprehensive environmental legislation, which once enacted within the legal regime of the United Nations, would acquire an jus cogens status, or a non-derogable and universally binding legal-normative standing, operating on a global scale, irrespective of whether governments are willing to accept the theoretical and scientific claims of a direct causal path between environmental degradation, resource scarcity and violent conflict.[26] Such global environmental legislation may be compromised, however, by a lack of scholarly consensus on the proximate relation between climate and the potential for political destabilization. A quantitative cross-national time-series study covering the 1950-2000 period conducted by Henrik Urdal of the Centre for the Study of Civil War, International Peace Research Institute in Oslo (PRIO), does not collaborate the neo-Malthusian perspective advocated by Thomas Homer-Dixon, whose main premise for the inevitable conflict scenario rests in the recognition that population growth will likely exert increased pressures on the earth's renewable resources making societies consequently prone to low-intensity civil war. Urdal's empirical research reveals that post-Cold War age of environmental insecurity, which calls for the introduction of decisive measures aimed at curtailing or controlling population growth and military preparation are, at best, unfounded and, at worst, much too hyperbolized.
Undergirding the concerns expressed in the above cited military and national security reports issued by the United States Department of Defense and India, are three key destabilizing factors which stay loyal to the dominant neo-Malthusian consensus which dominated the post-Cold War discourse, those of: conflicts over resources; environmental (in)security; and population migrations. Henrik Urdal's 2005 large-N study of conflict prone areas, attempted to disabuse scholars and policymakers of the claims that "the world has entered a 'new age of insecurity' after the end of the Cold War, where demographic and environmental factors threaten security and state stability." Urdal claims that treating population pressure on natural renewable resources and resource-scarcity variables as culpable for making "societies more prone to low-intensity civil war" or using them as a "macro rationale for reducing global population growth" urbanization, or refugee migration, seem unwarranted and do not provide sufficiently strong reasons for commanding an expended military and political attention. His research disconfirmed the link between conflict and resource scarcity, while asserting that countries that host large refugee populations are not any more likely to experience domestic armed conflict or ethnic violence than countries that do not.[27]
Others, such as Richard Matthew, vehemently argue for paying increased attention to macro and micro-level mechanisms for adaptation that would delay, mitigate or resolve impending resource-based and climate change-induced conflicts. Contending for adaptation strategies in lieu of military planning, Matthew believes that the very dynamism of 'action-response-reaction' cycle merits more attentive concentration of policymakers and security strategists on technological innovation, environmental regulation, state-capacity building through regional regimes, greater "political openness, economic exchange and value change fostered by the activities of international organizations and other non-state actors."[28] Moreover, by recognizing the value of micro-interventions by farmers experimenting with alternative crops and streamlining relocation of populations may abate the unsettling concerns presently shared by defense ministries and political heads of state. While acknowledging limitations to adaptation in the face of high-impact natural disasters, Matthew advocates expanding the time frame for assessing the success of human adaptive output.
(Download the PDF for figures)
Figure 2. Revised Theoretical Model of the relationship between environmental stress, adaptation and conflict. Source: Matthew (2003), p. 867.
As such, governmental processes and policy prescriptions which are connected to economic restructuring, building of sustainable regional institutions, and democratization of internal mechanisms for more open information sharing and inter-state cooperation will require a significant investment of time and may not amenable to short-term evaluation. Thus, to find effective strategies and policy solutions and "to understand better how environmental stress and conflict are related, one needs to take a longer look at how societies respond to environmental stress."[29] Reliance on 'brief time frames' may compound the severity of a single phenomenon and result in spurious conclusions, which inevitably obfuscate the rationale for and choice of adequate remedial and counteractive measures. And, although, embracing a cornucopian vision advocated by resource-optimists, which insists on humankind's uncanny ability to transform scarcity into opulence via economic discipline and technological innovation, may prove deleterious to fashioning realistic responses to substantial changes in weather patterns, many would likely agree that one should not underestimate the role of civilian adaptive mechanisms in ensuring environmental security.
International Law Mechanisms and Value-based Policy Prescriptions
Tangible reorientation in the scale and quality of human values and ethical principles concerning the environment may reduce the "quantity and quality of life choices" and put the ethos of "sacrifice" at the forefront of individual action.[30] The derivative benefits to such a compromise may encourage a logic that is increasingly steered by expanded circle of concern for international environmental justice, equity in resource distribution, and sustainable development. Concerns over implosion of states at the brink of environmental disaster are justified as long as evidence exists to collaborate such a condition. India's militant stance regarding Pakistan, for instance, may rest on false premises concerning its environmental intentions and jeopardize political relations already steeped in mutual distrust and persistent enmity. A number of security analysts and scholars point to Pakistan's likely collapse under the demands of environmental stress imposed by deforestation, soil erosion, mudslides, flooding, influx of Afghan refugees, and population growth. Yet, a closer look at Pakistan's initiatives and collaboration with international organizations warrants a much more nuanced conclusion. The country's recognition of the potentially perilous effects of climate change on its infrastructural and administrative capacity prompted Pakistan to integrate and adapt itself to the prescripts of the international environmental norms regimes, and actively seek out the assistance of nongovernmental organizations in coping with resource scarcity and crop insecurity in the agricultural sector. Moreover, environmental NGOs, such as the "International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the Aga Khan Foundation and Sustainable Development Policy Institute are experimenting with reforestation and alternative energy resources such as mini-hydroelectric plants" while encouraging dialogue between landowners, refugees, and government officials.[31] Since Pakistan ranks high on the list of strategic partners in the 'war on terrorism' and is an influential actor on the Middle Eastern and Asian political arena, its incorporation into the international community and cultivation of a 'special relationship' with the United States, guarantees an infusion of monetary support and foreign assistance funds necessary for the implementation of measures indispensible for the achievement of sustainable environmental security.
It is reasonable to assume, however, that countries that do not meet with an exceptional interest of foreign powers nor command the authority in strategic key areas of foreign policy, may meet with internal disintegration and collapse under the taxing effects of environmental degradation, unleashing a wave of civil strife, genocidal tendencies, insurgencies, strikes, riots, or coups.[32] The ongoing crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan is a case in point. Ackerman attributes the conflict's resurgence and duration to increasingly strained natural resource reserves, i.e. water availability, which prompted mass population movements. His research advances the view that "large movements of people in response to climate change will inevitably degrade environmental conditions in areas that receive the refugees."[33] Suboptimal ecosystem services, which have been unable to support the needs of the civilian population, have resulted in sizeable migrations of the desperate and disposed. Uneven migratory patterns and their intensity, in turn, have further taxed and exacerbated the already poor environmental conditions in Sudan and aggravated local residents, who have laid claim to the scarce resource base, fueling and intensifying the violence of conflict itself.[34] Similarly, the rising average winter temperatures in the geographic North are likely to uncover large swaths of arctic territories in Alaska, Canada, and Russia, provoking renewed tensions between states and issuing in a political scramble for land and resource-claims based on migration and settlement. It is not an accident, therefore, that complementary competencies of institutions such as NATO, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Global Environment Facility (GEF) in conjunction with the Arctic Council and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)[35] have been mobilized to ease anxieties over resource extraction and unregulated fishing and address the impending scramble for oil and gas resources and control of Arctic trade routes in the region.
Conclusion: Assessing Impact, Promoting Ethics of Security-bound Environmental Activism
With fundamental national security interests at stake, desire to strengthen sovereignty over vital resource bases and a determination to maintain competitiveness in global markets, countries torn between environmental protection and sustainable development, security and potential for rapid conflagration of climate change-induced conflict in the early decades of the twenty-first century, may do well to engage in what Bjola dubs 'plurilateral diplomacy'. Significant climatic transformations thus warrant creation of a plural governance architecture consisting of an "effective web of contracts involving institutional networks" and agencies that are both quick and flexible.[36] Global governance gaps can be closed and rigid multilateral and bilateral legal mandates can thus be supplemented with pluralist diplomatic initiatives which develop sturdy foundations that allow relevant stakeholders to "reduce transaction costs, share critical resources, exchange know-how, and facilitate the implementation of agreements"[37] in addition to trading crucial intelligence and abiding by the terms and conditions of jus cogens norms of international law and pertinent values of the international community. Likewise, the contributions of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to the development of International Environmental Law have potential for standardizing legal expectations in the arena of contested environmental policymaking, abetting interstate conflict and compensating for trans-boundary injuries in line with well-recognized principles of international law and elementary considerations of humanity. Thus, in holding states liable for failing to live up to the standards of the Charter of the United Nations and auxiliary international conventions and declarations, the ICJ can ably delineate the scope of responsibility for the misappropriation of states' jurisdictional powers and limit recurrent damage to the environment and resulting social and economic harm as well as eliminate the root causes of and prospects for intra- and inter-state conflict.
In addition to the above, it is equally important to underscore human security and wellbeing in the climate change response and adaptation scenarios in order to adjust accordingly the economic, political and diplomatic efforts of states in the mitigation of conflict and protection of the most vulnerable strata of society. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) introduced into an ecological health lexicon a "monetizing" effect in its assessment of the seriousness of environmental impacts on human populations and reinvigorate further commitment their mitigation. In its report on "Integrated Assessment of Potential Vulnerabilities and Impacts" IPCC argues, at length, for:
Integrating the range of potential impacts of climate change [in order] to derive a comprehensive monetary estimate, which adds all impacts expressed in their dollar value. This approach allows for comparison of the seriousness of climate change with other problems, comparison of vulnerabilities to climate change among regions and sectors, and comparison of the impact of climate change with the impact of greenhouse gas emission reduction. Expressing effects on marketed goods and services (e.g., land loss resulting from sea-level rise, energy savings in winter) in monetary terms is relatively straightforward because the price is known. Expressing damage to nonmarketed goods and services (e.g., wetland loss, mortality changes) in monetary terms can be accomplished by examining market transactions where such goods or services are implicitly traded (e.g., landscape beauty) or by interviewing people about their preferences. That is, human preferences are expressed by people's willingness to pay to secure a benefit or their willingness to accept compensation for a loss.[38]
The modeling of impacts along the proposed scale can offer a persuasive argument for action and spur economic innovation necessary for the advancement of counteractive and remedial measures aimed at reduction of environmental security risks. In congruence with the premises of Democratic Peace Theory, the cumulative effect of economic cooperation across states and all technological spectra under an umbrella of a regulatory global climate regime can reduce anxieties over environmental devastation and propel collaborating states toward greater stability and more sustainable peace. The recognition of the financial burden climate change poses to individual economies, can very well issue in what Peter Singer terms, a "community of reciprocity", which "entwined in a common fate, sacrifices and compromises"[39] in the name of distributive justice and mutual well-being. By abandoning thus the zero-sum logic of belligerent realism, states, compelled by the imperatives of their own vulnerabilities to drastic climate changes and strategic insecurities, may come to embrace and encourage, on the economic and entrepreneurial side, the promotion of viable:
- i) Market-based programmes in which customers or manufacturers are provided technical support and/or incentives; ii) increased emphasis of private or public programmes to develop more efficient products" and to encourage technology transfers, and information sharing.[40]
Economic cooperation buttressed by political consensus is all the more essential in the face of probable violent struggles over scarce resources and proliferation of environmental problems that are likely to emerge during coming decades. Therefore, to eliminate the possibility of: "disputes arising directly from local environmental degradation"; "ethnic clashes arising from population migration and deepened social cleavages"; "civil strife caused by environmental scarcity that affects economic productivity and … people's livelihoods," and the ability of groups to meet changing demands; "scarcity-induced interstate war over natural resources; and, North-South conflicts over mitigation of, adaptation to, and compensation for global environmental problems,"[41] it will become increasingly necessary to compound not only the cumulative knowledge base of states, but reassess the critical role that intergovernmental and non-governmental entities can play in the negotiation, regulation, and distribution of counteractive, proactive and reactive measures aimed at promotion of democratic stability and economic prosperity in the context of resource depletion and appreciable threats to human existence and flourishing. Y
[1] The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, "Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability (Summary for Policy makers)," http://ipcc-wg2.gov/AR5/images/uploads/IPCC_WG2AR5_SPM_Approved.pdf, (accessed 23 April 2014).
[2] The CNA Corporation, "National Security and the Threat of Climate Change," https://www.cna.org/sites/default/files/news/FlipBooks/Climate%20Change%20web/flipviewerxpress.html, (accessed 23 April 2014).
[3] The University of Toronto Project on Environment, Population and Security, "Project Description," http://www.homerdixon.com/projects/eps/descrip.htm, (accessed 23 April 2014).
[4] Center for Conflict and International Crisis Management, "State Failure Task Force Report: Phase III Findings", University of Maryland, 2000, http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/publications/papers/SFTF%20Phase%20III%20Report%20Final.pdf, (accessed 23 April 2014).
[5] CIA News and Information, "CIA Opens Center on Climate Change and National Security", Central Intelligence Agency, https://www.cia.gov/news-information/press-releases-statements/center-on-climate-change-and-national-security.html, (accessed 23 April 2014)
[6] Corneliu Bjodi, "Keeping the Arctic 'Cold': The Rise of Plurilateral Democracy?," Global Policy 4, no. 4 (2013): 347.
[7] Thomas Homer-Dixon, and Jessica Blitt (eds.), Ecoviolence: Links among Environment, Population, and Security (New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 1998).
[8] Thomas Homer-Dixon, Ingenuity Gap (New York: Knopf, 2000).
[9] Richard A. Matthew et al., "The Elusive Quest: Linking Environmental Change and Conflict," Canadian Journal of Political Science 36, no. 4 (2003): 864.
[10] John T. Ackerman, "Climate Change, National Security, and the Quadrennial Defense Review," Strategic Studies Quarterly, (Spring 2008): 56.
[11] Ibid., 57.
[12] Ibid., 58.
[13] Ibid., 59.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Ibid., 60.
[16] Robert J. Nicholls et al., "Global Estimates of the Impact of a Collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet," 2006, http://www.mi.uni-hamburg.de/fileadmin/fnu-files/projects/atlantis/annex6.pdf, (accessed 23 April 2014).
[17] Ackerman, "Climate Change, National Security, and the Quadrennial Defense Review," 69.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Ibid., 73.
[20] Ibid., 77.
[21] Douglas V. Johnson, "Global Climate Change: National Security Implications," 2007, www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil, (accessed 23 April 2014).
[22] Nitin Pai, "Climate Change and National Security: Preparing India for New Conflict Scenarios," The Indian National Interest Policy Brief 4, No. 1, (April 2008): 1-9.
[23] Ibid.
[24] Ibid
[25] Ibid
[26] See Thomas Homer-Dixon's Ecoviolence: Links among Environment, Population, and Security (New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 1998).
[27] Henrik Urdal, "People vs. Malthus: Population Pressure, Environmental Degradation, and Armed Conflict Revisited," Journal of Peace Research 42, no. 4 (2005): 426-430.
[28] Matthew et al., "The Elusive Quest: Linking Environmental Change and Conflict," 867-8.
[29] Ibid., 871.
[30] Richard Ullman, "Redefining Security," International Security, (1983): 127.
[31] Matthew et al., "The Elusive Quest: Linking Environmental Change and Conflict," 870.
[32] Thomas F. Hunter-Dixon, Environment, Scarcity, and Violence (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999), 136.
[33] John T. Ackerman, "Climate Change, National Security, and the Quadrennial Defense Review," 65.
[34] Ibid., 65.
[35] Bjordi, "Keeping the Arctic 'Cold': The Rise of Plurilateral Democracy?," 348.
[36] Ibid., 347.
[37] Ibid., 353.
[38] Martin Beniston (ed.), "The Regional Impacts of Global Climate Change," Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2005, http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/sres/regional/119.htm#integrated, (accessed 23 April 2014).
[39] Peter Singer, One World (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), 168.
[40] Robert T. Watson (ed), "Technologies, Policies and Measures for Mitigating Climate Change," Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 1996, http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/technical-papers/paper-I-en.pdf, (accessed 23 April 2014).
[41] Homer-Dixon, Environment, Scarcity, and Violence, 5.
Tags: Displacement, Environment, Security


text:
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
We enter "That's Got His Own" (see also Ariano) understanding that bad things are going to happen -- just as the people of Baltimore are trapped in systems which resist sweeping change and only allow for tiny nuggets of hope and progress, so too does The Wire seem trapped in a dramaturgical system in which nothing can stop cruel outcomes in the penultimate episode of a season.
I was about to say "cruel fates," but it wasn't fate. Michael had choices, even at the end of this episode when it came to staying by Cutty's side or showing allegiance to his crew. Randy, as Alan details, has had a score of bad things go badly for him, and now it's up to him to decide whether to give up on the system based on how he's been let down, his you gonna look out for me? rant every bit as devastating as Dee's where the fuck is Wallace? in season one. Dukie,with no stable home, and no more Prezbo do to his laundry? It's hard seeing hope for him, and as the assistant principal notes there are many more Dukies in Prezbo's teaching career to come next.
And then there's Namond, raised in the most stable and middle-class of environments, but with the worst values being impressed upon him by his mother. Is it because he grew up more comfortably that he resists the gangster ethic? Is it because of Bunny? Who knows? But the kid has a chance ... for what, I don't know. What happens when he's no longer in Bunny's class?
Other things happened too: Carcetti's shit-eating tour continued in Annapolis; Lester worked the politics so he can now open up the vacants; Herc took his punishment like a man (just as De'Londa said Wee-Bey did); Omar has his most audacious heist yet (love the cameo from The Greek's crew); and Bubbs ... okay, kinda saw that coming. But damn you, Pelecanos.
25 comments:
- isaac_spaceman10:40 AM
This episode was so devastating, and a large part of the reason that this was the best of the five seasons. A total beat-down on all of that optimism and naivete in the season opener, when the four kids (plus Donut) are just hanging around, bullshitting and pulling pranks. And Carver in the car, just losing his shit, was perfect.ReplyDelete
- Watts12:54 PM
When Michael started wailing on the little kid - the look in his eyes was so vacant, so devoid of humanity. When Namond said later, "Mike ain't Mike anymore" I nodded.ReplyDelete
When Namond started crying in Cutty's gym? That poor, poor kid. Although, in a weird way, I kind of admire him for saying out loud that he doesn't want to be in the game, that he can't be like his dad. I mean, I think it's still ambiguous whether he himself views (or will view) that as a failure, but to speak it out loud is a huge step.
And despite what the assistant principal says, I've known enough teachers that, well, yeah, you do have to learn that the kids can't all be your kids. But at the same time a lot of teachers encounter a handful of students over the years that really mean something to them. Either because they're a gifted student, or a sweet kid, or a troubled child with potential. I don't think it's wrong that Prez has taken a special paternal attitude toward Dukie and I hope he doesn't let the AP's talk keep him from doing what he knows in his heart of hearts is right.
And, Randy, poor Randy. All the stuff that's happened with the other kids (Plus poor Bubbles) primed the pump, but Randy's face when he first looked up at Carver? Yeah, I cried. Before he even opened his mouth - just his face killed me.
Which brings me to a rant - I know there's a lot of talk about the Emmy snubs for The Wire, but I want to know what ensemble was deemed by SAG to be better the year this aired? To get such marvelous work out of our four main kids is nothing short of award-worthy achievement. Just in this episode, Michael's face during the beatdown, Namond's face when Michael was giving the beatdown and then later when he was talking with Cutty and Carver, and then Randy in the hospital. Sure, you can get kids to say lines. But to get those kind of fully realized character portrayals out of them? WOW. Wow wow wow.
One other thought - Cutty getting shot in this penultimate episode was semi-ironic to me, since I totally expected him to bite it in last season's penultimate episode.
Last thought and I swear I'll shut up for a while: I haven't been spoiled for the season finale, but I'm really, really nervous that one of these kids is going to commit suicide. Most worried about Dukie (not wanting to face high school, having been evicted, losing Prez) and Namond (fear of not living up to his father, failing his mother, and thinking he's not enough of a "man"). Michael has lost his soul, I don't think he'd bother enough to take his life too. And I think Randy is going to avenge his mother, but I'm not sure if it will be by getting out of the life and going on to be away from game or by getting in on the game in a big way.
- Marsha1:16 PM
Can we really say "damn you, Pelecanos" if the man gave us exactly what we had every reason to expect we'd get? If you don't steel yourself for the Pelecanos episode by now, you deserve every gut punch and every tear stained cheek. Not that I avoided those by being ready for them myself, mind you, but I've stopped blaming him for it.ReplyDelete
Between Watts and Adam (and Alan), most of my thoughts have been expressed already. I do actually have some hope for Namond, because he's still open to being helped, and I doubt his mother is going to get in the way. (She wants him in Baby Booking, after all.) But Michael seems totally lost to us now, as Alan lays out so beautifully, and I fear the door is closing on Randy and Dukie so quickly that he finale may just be more devastation for them. Dukie going to live with Michael is probably not a good sign.
And as much as what happened with Bubbles and Sherrod was predictable, it was still devastating. I really want Bubbles to catch a break. Just one.
I am sort of amazed at the hopefulness that I find in this world these days: it now shows many of the adults as actually caring. At the start of this series, so much seemed to be about a very small number of good police fighting against a humungous broken system. As the show has gone on, the People Who Care contingent has grown, and many of them have ended up in positions of power. We've traded Royce for Carcetti, moved Daniels and Freamon up their chain and Rhonda up hers (and those three have gotten there mostly through good work and sticking their necks out, not though patronage and politics, which is a huge shift). Herc is getting his due and taking it like a man, McNulty is redeemed, Prez has found a place and isn't getting eaten alive, and Carver has turned into good police away from Herc's influence. The world of the adults is sunnier than it was before - the fight for good in the face of broken systems is better than ever before.
But the big picture doesn't end up doing one whit of good for these four kids. And that sucks.
One more thing - not sure what to make of Lester's brief dialogue with Kima. Is he going to pass her by because she's become complacent where she is, or did her response mean something else to him that means he's going to pull her back into Major Crimes?
- Watts1:26 PM
My two favorite Prez moments happened one right after the other:ReplyDelete
When he had to stay turned to the blackboard because he was laughing at "Tickle my nuts."
When he told the kids they could talk about relationships and stuff until he got too embarrassed.
The Prez who was so so so nervous at the beginning of the school year? I would never have thought he'd make it to this point.
- Watts1:36 PM
Oh, and in his lines of the episode section, Sepinwall lists my favorite use of the word "unseemly" EVER.ReplyDelete
- Randy2:08 PM
Season 4 of The Wire aired in fall 2006, which means that Grey's Anatomy won the ensemble award: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13th_Screen_Actors_Guild_Awards.ReplyDelete
I was then, and still am now, a fan of Grey's Anatomy... but yeah. The Wire wasn't even nominated.
- Watts2:24 PM
I'm a Grey's Anatomy fan too, and at least that is a show that really does work well as an ensemble a lot of the times.ReplyDelete
Given how many crappy kid actors there are at any given time, to see these four boys do such an outstanding job all on one show is astounding.
I got curious about what they've been up to since The Wire:
Dukie - Jermaine Crawford - still acting. Was in Damsels in Distress, which I HATED, but that's not his fault.
Namond - Julito McCullum - still acting but not in anything I've seen (or even heard of.
Michael - Tristan Wilds - apparently a regular on the CW's 90210 reboot.
Randy - Maestro Harrell - currently a recurring guest (Malik) on "Suburgatory." He's on Twitter as @maestroharrell and if you say nice things about him he tweets you back.
- Marsha3:55 PM
I laughed out loud at that. For long enough that I had to pause the DVD and rewind.ReplyDelete
The read I get on Lester-Kima is that Lester recognizes she's happier with the more stable, "suit and tie" world of homicide policing.ReplyDelete
You bring up to me what was the most amazing thing about this amazing season of television. They hit 4 home runs with the 4 kids playing these parts. Outstanding casting. It's now my third time through, and it's still great fun to watch this every week.ReplyDelete
- isaac_spaceman5:51 PM
There's really not enough hate here for Herc. Herc is responsible (as much as anybody except Pelecanos and Simon) for two of the things that happened here -- Randy and Bubbles.ReplyDelete
- Marsha6:03 PM
Oh, I hate Herc. Really, really hate Herc. But even he has shown some growth on this show. Of course, some of that growth has caused some our our problems - if he's just stayed the bumbling fool, he'd never have been in a position to do all this damage. But at least they had him not take down others with him in this episode. Of course, I have no idea how much worse it's going to get...ReplyDelete
- isaac_spaceman8:34 PM
The things he did this episode didn't take down others, true. But the things he did in past episodes -- not getting Randy to Bunk (IIRC), blowing off Bubbles -- led directly to Randy getting put back into the system and led indirectly to Sherrod's death, via Bubbles looking for an alternative way to protect himself after Herc's failure to show up escalated the problem. The way that Herc ruins lives and doesn't even let it trouble him is just infuriating.ReplyDelete
- isaac_spaceman9:32 PM
Just realized I screwed up what Herc did -- it wasn't not passing Randy off; it was giving up Randy in the interview of Little KevinReplyDelete
- Tina10:44 PM
I am kind of in awe of anyone who's watching week by week and isn't rushing to the finale. It's my...fourth? fifth? time through, and watching this episode I wanted nothing more than to go on to the next. And I'm glad I marathoned to catch up for today, as otherwise I might have forgotten what exactly happened when and spoiled some of next week.ReplyDelete
The commentaries for this season talk about the kids, and how lucky they got in casting them. What leaps of faith, and how they paid off.
- Tina10:46 PM
I had completely forgotten "unseemly" -- certainly one of my favorite Wire words, ever.ReplyDelete
- Tina10:54 PM
That Michael/Cutty scene at the end rang for me in a way I am not sure it had before. Michael stays because he does care about Cutty and wants to make sure he's okay. Cutty sends Michael away because he cares about his ultimate welfare on the streets. Neither will really be able to reach out to the other after this moment. So so sad.ReplyDelete
And after fearing for Cutty for so long I was happy that his shooting wasn't more serious. So he could survive to kill walkers, you know.
- Tina11:16 PM
Kima likes the easy overtime, we've already seen. And it's a world in which detectives rarely have to draw their weapons; remember she's been shot and almost died not that long ago, so I'll give her that.ReplyDelete
- Adam B.8:40 AM
You're a week early on that Carver scene, as I learned last night. But I don't think it's a spoiler to say "Carver is disappointed in how things turn out for the kids."ReplyDelete
- Watts11:26 AM
Not that I'm trying to defend Herc, but he's so stupid and so not perceptive that he probably doesn't realize either that or how much he has screwed up lives. Which just makes him that much more despicable.ReplyDelete
- isaac_spaceman5:35 AM
I cannot for the life of me find the scene with McNulty after Stringer's death where he goes to Stringer's apartment and says "who was I chasing?" So missing a scene wouldn't be unthinkable.ReplyDelete
- Sue11:49 AM
When I think back on all five seasons of The Wire, a lot of it blends together as one story rather than individual moments. But one of the individual moments that always stands out to me is Randy ranting at Carver. It was heartbreaking, especially in its inevitability and Carver's powerlessness.ReplyDelete
- Marsha5:53 PM
It helps to not have any time to watch until late Tuesday night, and then to be so exhausted at the end of an episode that you absolutely have to go to bed. I've been itching to watch the Season 4 finale since late Tuesday night, and have not found the time to do it. (The fact that I really, really have to pay attention to The Wire and can't multitask has a lot to do with it.)ReplyDelete

subset: commoncrawl


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MOSCOW | Russia pulled out of an anti-crime accord with the United States on Wednesday, the latest sign of rising tensions between Moscow and Washington.
MOSCOW | Russia pulled out of an anti-crime accord with the United States on Wednesday, the latest sign of rising tensions between Moscow and Washington.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed an order to scrap the 10-year-old agreement "because it was no longer relevant," his office said.
The agreement covered fighting terrorism, corruption and cross-border crimes such as drug smuggling and human trafficking.
Alexei Pushkov, head of Russia's parliamentary foreign affairs committee, said the decision reflected Russia's ability to manage its affairs without outside help.
"Russia is changing the format of its relations with the U.S.," he tweeted. "We are ending our dependence on 'the country No. 1.'"
The Foreign Ministry expressed gratitude to the U.S. for providing $12 million in aid for crime-fighting projects under the accord, but said Moscow no longer needs such assistance.
"From a recipient of Western aid for anti-crime projects, Russia has turned into a donor for such programs in Central Asian nations and Afghanistan," it said in a statement, adding that Moscow was ready to continue cooperation with the U.S. in fighting crime, including drug-trafficking.
A U.S. embassy spokesman was not immediately available for comment.
The agreement is just one of several bilateral cooperation deals that Moscow has decided to abandon. Last year, Russia expelled the U.S. International Development Agency and also warned it wouldn't extend the Nunn-Lugar program helping it dismantle nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons stockpiles.
On Friday, the U.S. withdrew from a joint civil society group.
President Barack Obama's efforts to "reset" relations with Russia have met a markedly colder wind from the Kremlin since Vladimir Putin returned to the presidency in May. Faced with unprecedented street protests against his 12-year rule, Putin accused the U.S. State Department of staging the protests in order to weaken Russia.
After Putin's inauguration, the Kremlin-controlled parliament then quickly rubber-stamped a series of laws imposing new restrictions in an apparent bid to curb American influence in Russia. Non-governmental organizations funded from abroad were required to register as "foreign agents," a term intended to ruin their credibility among Russians for whom the term sounds synonymous to spies. The Russian definition of treason was also expanded to include potentially any contact with a foreign organization.
Two U.S.-based NGOs have closed their Russian offices in response to the new laws. The business daily Kommersant reported Wednesday that the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute, which ran programs championing democratic rights, moved their staff to Lithuania after Russian security officials threatened to prosecute them under the new treason law.
Amnesty International Russia's director, Sergei Nikitin, wrote on his blog Wednesday that the closures "show the stability of the general trend: the pressure on civil society in Russia continues."
After Congress passed a law introducing sanctions against Russian officials involved in human rights abuses, Russia responded by banning all adoptions of Russian orphans by Americans. The country's top investigative agency is also investigating a sexual abuse case against American parents already convicted in the U.S. of abusing their adopted Russian child but given suspended sentences.
Lawmakers in the Kremlin-controlled lower house have also rushed to propose such measures as banning English phrases from Russian and limiting marriages between Russian officials and foreigners.
Outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told NPR on Wednesday that the Russian adoption ban was "tragic" and the decision to expel the USAID "really hurts the Russian people."


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MULTAN: Seven death row prisoners were executed in Punjab jails early on Wednesday morning.
Three convicted prisoners were sent to gallows in Attock jail while each in Kasur, Multan, Gujrat and Sargodha.
In Attock double murder convict Muhammad Safdar and condemned prisoners Aftab and his father were executed.
Aftab and his father had killed Ahmed Khan and Pervaiz Khan.
Convicted prisoner Tufail was hanged in Kasur district jail. He had killed father and son over testimony in 2001.
Separately, Nawaz was executed in Sargodha district jail for killing his relative over land dispute 13 years back.
In Multan district jail, death row prisoner Nayyar Abbas was hanged for killing a man in 1996.
The seventh condemned prisoner, Gulfam was sent to gallows at Gujrat district jail. He was convicted for killing a man in 2001.


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Prints & Pricing
"The mountains are calling and I must go." - John Muir
My love for adventure, exploration, and nature started when I was young. There was always something about the photos and images I saw in magazines, print, and newspapers that excited me to get outside. I longed to see with my own eyes and to explore every square mile of the wild that I could. My personal goal: Visit all of those places and capture the light, color, texture, and beauty using my creative skills as an artist in order to share with others. My photographic journey began in the fall of 2002. Broke and hard up to find a job using the undergraduate degree I had just earned, my father and I took a spur of the moment road trip to Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree, Sequoia, and Yosemite National Parks. I couldn't see enough or shoot enough film in my little point-n-shoot camera. There was no going back from that point; my love for the beauty of the wild places here in America caught fire. What started as a love of what the National Park system had to offer grew into journeying to places outside of the NPS. I began exploring national forests, state parks, wilderness areas, cityscapes, and even seeing the beauty often passed by that surrounds us day to day. Anywhere I could hike or walk and put down my tent and tripod, I was happy. As I mentioned above, I started taking images with a simple advantix point-n-shoot camera, and over the past 10+ years that's morphed into digital photography advancing in gear and knowledge. Amazingly all of my photography skills have been self-taught through reading, experimenting, and the most important aspect: getting out in the field and shooting. What began as a passion for the outdoors has grown into a personal focus on the peace that comes with spending time in wild places, the importance of remember that life is an adventure, and the importance of conservation and leave no trace principles. I appreciate you taking the time to read a little piece of my story. I hope that you find an image that inspires you, brings back a memory, or challenges you to create new ones.
Please feel free to contact me with any comments or questions may you have.


text:
Product Description
Chopper motorcycle goggles protect your eyes from wind, rain and dust. Frames fit with silver mirror lenses to act as the perfect sunglasses when riding a motorcycle or other sport activities. Can be worn with an open faced or closed helmet.
Goggle Features:
- UV400 Filter For Maximum UV Protection
- Durable polycarbonate scratch and shatter proof lenses
- Grooved, soft padded foam inside the frames to fit comfortably against the face (Perfect for those long journeys!)
- Chopper branded, high quality motorcycle glasses
- Stylish black finish frames
Additional Information
Additional Information
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Return Information
If you're unhappy with your purchase, please let us know. Unless faulty, we'd like this to be within 29 days of purchase.
How do I return an item?
Please send the item back to our company address:
Returns Department
Unit 6 Caxton Hill
United Kingdom
Please leave your invoice inside the returning package.
Don't have an invoice? Please leave a note inside the returning package with your name/ address, this will be a reference so we can find and refund your order on our system.
Still unsure? Contact us: Offices are open from 8am-5pm Monday-Friday Call us on: 00 44 (0)1992 537546.
Email: email@example.com


text:
How to Plaster a Brick Wall with Cement
To plaster a brick wall with cement is very necessary for decoration of your home. Without plaster, your brick wall will not shine. But due to increasing labor cost, it has become costly. So, better is to learn its steps and then practice. After good practice, you can start to plaster brick walls as your profession. With this, you can earn money.
1. Wet the Brick Wall
Before doing plaster on the brick wall with cement, wet the brick wall. More you will wet with water, more possibility of better paste of plaster.
2. Produce the Mixture for Plaster
For making mixture, you need three things. One is cement, second is sand and third is water. Take one bag cement. Take four bag of sand. Mix them. Use water for a paste like mixture.
3. Create First Layer of Mixture
With the help of trowel, you have thrown the mixture on the wet wall. This coat should be paste on some portion of wall which you can easily manage.
5. Plain the Layer
Now take the stick and plan the layer coat.
6. Rotate Square Towel
You should rotate the square towel three or four times for give the quality and stability to the plaster on the brick wall.
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Buttons are an everyday element in interactive design. Despite its ordinary characteristics, they are vital in creating a smooth conversation flow and an amazing user experience to webs and apps. One example of buttons found in web pages are the navigation buttons. They are a set of buttons or graphic images you usually see along the left-hand side or along the top of a web page that is typically in a row or column. They provide links to related pages and major topic sections on the website.
There are a hundred ways to create buttons nowadays, and there are even a lot of designs to choose from. As a designer, you need to keep up with trends to keep visitors coming to your website. To do this, update your website with stylish buttons such as our collection of amazing Navigation Buttons that you can download and use in your web design projects. Also, do not forget to check out our compilation of other UI Button Designs for more ideas!
Having a website that is easy to navigate ensures visitor retention and enhances engagement. Although there are different kinds of sites present in the web, they all have a general navigation pattern that works in all of them.
For more button ideas and inspiration, take a look at our collection of Multimedia Buttons.
Although we have provided you with best grunge buttons to use, you should still not forget the basic principles and best practices of designing buttons to ensure a successful web design.
Don't forget to check out our compilation of Fabric Buttons as well while you're here!


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Time Alone with Fathers Boosts Teens' Self Esteem
Dads, men, male mentors, uncles, grandfathers are so important in the lives of children. Increasingly, research confirms what most of us already thought: men who spend focused time with their children make a valuable contribution to their kids' happiness and psychological health. And the father effect is important for teenagers too...this research showed that teens who spent more one on one time with their fathers had higher levels of general self-worth, and higher levels of social competence. Read full article
My Judgemental Mind - Two Dads in the Supermarket
Last night I went shopping for groceries at 7.30 p.m. Not my favourite way to spend a Friday night. I felt a little guilty because that meant my husband had to cook the dinner for everyone at 7 pm when he got home and I knew Mr 8 would be starving too. On the other hand - why should I feel guilty? I had worked all day and driven children to activities and was now shopping for a dinner party on Saturday night - guilt trip over... But then I saw a dad - I'll call him Mr Cool. Read full article
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Beverage Wholesaler and Distributor Refused to Promote Black Employees to Route Sales Positions, Federal Agency Charges
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Birmingham Beverage Co. Inc., dba AlaBev, a Delaware corporation headquartered in Birmingham that operates as a wholesale distributor and importer of beer, cider, alcohol-free drinks and specialty foods, violated federal law when it failed to promote or consider Ronnie Johnson and other African-American employees for a vacant route sales position, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed yesterday.
According to the EEOC's lawsuit, Johnson, a driver supervisor for Birmingham Beverage, applied for a vacant route sales position. Despite six years of exemplary job performance with the company and previous route sales experience, Birmingham Beverage didn't grant him an interview. Instead, the company promoted a white delivery driver with only nine months' experience on the job, whom Johnson supervised. When Johnson asked why he was not promoted or interviewed, the company claimed it forgot to interview him.
The EEOC charges that Birmingham Beverage repeatedly discriminated employees when promoting and hiring for lucrative route sales positions. According to the EEOC, during the past four years, the company has hired or promoted at least 11 white applicants or employees to route sales positions, and no black applicants or employees, to service its 22 routes. The company's two black route salesmen are assigned routes that service predominantly black neighborhoods, while the majority white neighborhoods are assigned to white route salesmen.
The EEOC also alleges that Birmingham Beverage fails to keep announcements of job openings and applications for vacant route sales positions as required by federal law.
Such alleged conduct violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employers from using race as a factor in making employment decisions. The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama (EEOC v. Birmingham Beverage Co., Inc d/b/a AlaBev, Case No. 2:17-cv-01651-JEO) after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process. The EEOC's lawsuit seeks monetary damages, including back pay, compensatory and punitive damages, and injunctive relief.
"Employees should be considered for advancement based on their experience and qualifications, not race" said EEOC District Director Delner Franklin-Thomas. "When the EEOC determines that race has played a role in employment decisions, we will not hesitate to step in and correct unlawful practices."
EEOC Regional Attorney Marsha Rucker added, "It is unfortunate in this day and age there are employers who choose to limit their employees' advancement prospects based on race."
According to company information, Birmingham Beverage has been in operation since 1907 and employs approximately 160 workers.
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I am reading....
Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off
By: Cara North
From The Back Cover...
Take a shot of tequila, add one sexy cowboy, and end up with more than one night of passion.
Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off is a fun contemporary erotic romace about two people needing each other for different reasons and finding out that together they are one insatiable force.
Bethany Dodson is running from her past and her fiance. She needs a new last name and to get lost fast!
Jack Johnson needs to marry a woman to get his inheritance so he can stop working on other ranches and rebuild the one he shares with his two older brothers and younger sister.
When he meets Bethany, his goal is basically to get some action then get on searching for a wife. But Bethany kills two birds with one stone and the next thing he knows he's the one being drug down the aisle!
What they discover is more then just surface need....
*My thoughts*
I Won Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off from a blog contest. It's not the usual contemporary erotic I pick up in the store or purchase online, I usually buy something on the fanged or furry side. This book is actually turning out to be a good read, the pages are on fire! I can't wait to finish it, so I can review it. I will however have to put up a content warning when I do publish my review, if I decide to do a in-depth review. I will definitely be getting back to y'all on that.
Tease Publishing LLC
Copyright 2007 Cara North
Cover Artist: Stella Price
Interior text design: Stacee Sierra
Editor: Heather Spence
Quiet in Her Bones
1 day ago


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Exceptional service at Ex-Scan
A BUSINESS that offers a specialised medical service has been at the USN Bolton Arena for 11 years and has established a strong reputation regionally and nationally.
Ex-Scan UK offers diagnostic and research open MRI scanning services. It was started by renowned knee and hip surgeon Mr Aslam Mohammed, who is based at Wrightington Hospital in Wigan, to ensure the swift availability of MRI scanning for his patients.
It has grown steadily over the years to cater for various consultants and GPs. His wife, Judith Rhind a trained nurse, runs the service and medical director is well-known clinical radiologist at Wrightington, Dr David Temperley.
The huge open MRI scanner is one of only eight of its type in the UK and is especially useful for anyone suffering from claustrophobia, for anyone obese and for children who might be afraid of the usual tube scanner.
It's popular with consultants and physiotherapists keen to get patients scanned quickly, and sees individuals from around the country as well as from Ireland and Europe.
The scanner is used for a variety of musculo-skeletal problems, often linked to sports injuries, and so is a natural fit with the Arena.
Ex-Scan's patients are largely from the private medical field although it does some NHS work. Scans usually cost £550 each but there is a discount price to physios of £225 and ad hoc discounting available to the general public.
"As a base, the Arena works well for us," explained Judith Rhind. "There is plenty of free parking and we have always found the atmosphere here pleasant and friendly."


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In our previous article, we had a good overview of SDN as a technology, why it's needed, and how IT industry is adopting it. Now, let's get a layer deeper, and understand SDN's architecture and the role of the Openflow protocol in the implementation of the technology.
SDN broadly consists of three layers:
- Application layer
- Control layer
- Infrastructure layer
Let us try and understand these layers in bottom-to-up approach.
Infrastructure layer is composed of various networking equipment which forms underlying network to forward network traffic. It could be a set of network switches and routers in the data centre. This layer would be the physical one over which network virtualization would be laid down through the control layer (where SDN controllers would sit and manage underlying physical network).
Read more at HowtoForge


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Professional Development Opportunities for Mathematics and Science Educators
East Tennessee State University's Center of Excellence in Mathematics and Science Education is a premier provider of professional development for math and science teachers in the region's schools. The Center offers a variety of on-site, tailored professional development workshops as well as state and regional conferences, all of which are recognized as the highest quality, most comprehensive PD opportunities available to math and science educators.
Reaching for Excellence in Middle and High School Science Partnership: This project seeks to address the changing and more challenging state science standards by deepening teacher content knowledge, increasing student achievement, aligning the curriculum with state standards, increasing the number of teachers participating in standards-based professional development and providing training on standards-based resources and materials.
Eastman Scholars Mathletes Project: The ESMP is a long-term effort to improve mathematics education in the region's schools. Supporting by the Eastman Chemical Company, the project seeks to deepening teacher content knowledge in mathematics (grades 3-8), close the mathematics achievement gap, increase the number of teachers participating in mathematics professional development, align the math curriculum with the state math standards and provide training in standards-based resources and materials.
Reaching for Excellence in Mathematics Education: Supported by the Niswonger Foundation, the REME pedagogical knowledge, align math curriculum with Tennessee math standards, and explore standards-based resource materials.
Unicoi Math Project: This project seeks to improve mathematics teaching and learning (grades K-8) in the Unicoi School District.
GEAR-UP High School Mathematics Project: This project seeks to improve high school mathematics teaching and learning in the following school districts: Campbell County, Carter County, Cocke County, and Union County.
Talent Expansion in Quantitative Biology
The TEQB project is a joint offering between the Departments of Mathematics and Biological Sciences and in conjunction with the Center of Excellence in Mathematics and Science Education. The project seeks to graduate 60 majors in high-demand non-traditional concentration, namely quantitative and computational biological/biomedical science. It gains it strengths from a new curriculum that aggressively discards many traditionally required courses, while placing research squarely into the center stage of all activities.
Grades K-12 Graduate Fellowship: Science First!
This project provides funding for graduate students in biology, chemistry, and mathematics disciplines to acquire additional skills that will broadly prepare them for professional and scientific careers in the twenty-first century.
Symbiosis: An Integrated First Year Mathematics and Biology Program
Funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the HHMI Symbiosis program at ETSU is an inquiry-based, active-learning curriculum in which math and biology are integrated into a coordinated, mutually beneficial relationship, beginning at the earliest stages of a student's career.


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Rev Alan says goodbye after more than 20 years volunteering with cadets
PUBLISHED: 08:28 02 September 2014 | UPDATED: 08:28 02 September 2014
A Cambridgeshire Army Cadet Force volunteer from Sutton has retired after 23 years.
Revd Alan Jesson joined the cadet force in 1991 as a civilian specialist instructor before his ordination as a priest in July 1992 in Ely Cathedral.
He was commissioned as a chaplain in 1992 and has served with Cambridgeshire cadets since then, not only as a chaplain but also as a St John's qualified first aider. He was appointed senior chaplain in 1996, but stepped down from the role last year.
Away from the cadets, Alan was a chartered librarian and formerly worked at Cambridge University Library until 2000, when he became the full-time rector of Upwell St Peter and St Clement's, in Outwell.
He retired from the full-time ministry in 2012 and moved to Sutton.
Before ordination he served in the Royal Corps of Transport TA where he gained the Territorial Decoration and rose to the rank of major.
He said: "It has been a very rewarding ministry, and I have met some superb people. "The cadet motto is 'To inspire to achieve', and to see so many of our youngsters achieve something through the cadets, whether it be a Duke of Edinburgh award, a first aid certificate, a BTEC, sporting achievement, or simply how to be a better citizen is a wonderful thing."
Anyone interested in joining the cadets should visit www.cambs acf.com or call 01223 862949.
If you value what this story gives you, please consider supporting the Ely Standard. Click the link in the yellow box below for details.


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Character animation for a London-based animation studio, producing children's television.
Fashion Design Consultancy
Tea&Toast Design has been running for 10 years. They have been working with brands such as Marks + Spencers, Bobby Abley, Farah, Money Clothing, Okun.
Social media communications, website management, and campaign design and management.
They primarily are working for one NGO with long term rolling annual contract, and take on extra work with local arts festivals when asked to by friends.
Specialising in Brand Strategy & Identity design whilst offering graphic design services.
We've worked with a wide range of clients including start-ups, multinationals, Ad & PR agencies, charities, individuals and companies from both public and private sectors.
Visit http://www.thatcleverghost.com
Research exclusively with non-profits, including brand research, brand and message testing, creative testing and development of message and propositions for charities and non-profits.
Story Telling Events & Workshops
Originally specialising in children's book illustration, but now also enjoys adult illustration, factual illustration, creating her own greetings cards range, prints and original artwork.
Visit http://www.gemmaoneill.co.uk
Editorial Executive, Clare Hogg.
Element Pictures is an Irish film and television drama production company and an independent film distribution company. Element Pictures has produced or co-produced and distributed more than 30 films. as well as a number of television shows.
Wilson Creative are a Belfast based Creative Digital Agency specialising in print, graphic design, web design, digital marketing and multi-media duplication.
Wilson Creative as a full service digital media print and design agency offer clients high quality design as well as affordable paper print and multimedia production. Our experience and expertise enables us to provide a fresh and innovative approach to technology and design in response to an ever-changing environment across all mediums.
The First 47 is the studio of Irish graphic designer and artist Alex Synge. The studio specialises in design for print, web and visual identity for a wide range of clients in the cultural, commercial and academic fields. As an artist, he has exhibited work in Dublin, London, Glasgow, Milan, New York, Chicago and LA. His work has been featured in publications such as Semi-Permanent and Faesthetic, as well as online on Booooooom, It's Nice That and The Fox is Black. He also proudly runs collaborative illustration project Keep Sketch and is a founding member of the 100 Archive.
Award winning Wolfhound Media is a Film, Television and Media Production Company based in the busy hub of Belfast's Cathedral Quarter.
Specialising in television advertisements, short films, corporate film and music videos, Wolfhound Media's experience of creating network drama ensures all projects are rooted in story and driven by great characters.
Developing drama and comedy for television and film, Wolfhound Media oversee the entire film making creative process from scripting and shooting, right through to post production and distribution.
A writer and editor with a broad range of skills and interests, Cormac specialises in explaining complicated subjects in straightforward language. His experience in the field began in 2001 with subediting shifts for the Irish edition of the Daily Mirror. Later, he spent five years as an editor and lexicographer at HarperCollins Publishers, where he was latterly head of content for English dictionaries, and five years as a financial copywriter at Martin Currie in Edinburgh. Since going freelance in 2014, Cormac has continued to focus on the financial-services sector but equally welcomes the opportunity to produce clear, engaging copy for clients in other industries.
Alleycats is a Derry based multi award winning TV and film production company, with offices in London and Belfast. We make a range of programming for the likes of the BBC, C4, and RTE, as well as selling internationally. We've just finished Helluva Tour, the biggest Advertiser Funded Project that C4 have ever undertaken, and are currently in production on a number of films, including Documentary Feature Project Children.
Joe Laverty is a Belfast based architectural photographer, who's understanding of the built environment and ability to capture the essence of space and place has seen him photograph Architecture & Interiors for a number of leading architects across the UK & Ireland.
A portrait photographer as well, Joe is a regular contributor to Freckle Magazine and The Thin Air and has portrait work published in the national press.
Joe also runs the portrait series 'Humans of the Camino'.
Magnetised is an internet design and technology company focussed on delivering beautiful solutions to difficult problems.
Anthony Morgan is a Software Engineer, Serial Entrepreneur and Imperial College / Y-Combinator Alumni. Anthony is a polyglot programmer with a preference for working in Python, Go, Javascript and Haskell. He has worked extensively as a CTO-for-hire and is comfortable in a full stack or specialist back-end role. He's currently working on multiple projects, but is always looking for exciting collaborations and interesting work.
Film director and writer
Hurson is a typographic lead, branding agency whose studio is based in Belfast but thanks to Apple and Google, works remotely, wherever. Hurson specialize in generating and applying marks for Private Commercial Enterprises, Public Sector Bodies and Charitable Organisations.
If you are interested in workspace, virtual services, room hire or coming to any of our events or any general enquiries get in touch.Get in Touch


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]brand new to the forum so apologies if this is formatted incorrectly or in the wrong section and so on ....
Picked up my first Mk4 smiley about a week ago now. Tested and good to go with low miles for a tranny (178k), paperwork and history on a straight swap for a focus i bought for 150 quid ! - all in all quite pleased !!
previous owner has put a bed in the back and some shelving (shelves have now been smacked out). Full 240v electrics in the back, 110v socket on the outside, large leisure battery under the front seat.
This week i have had the inlet manifold, air intake and EGR off for a much needed de-gunk
Plans are to make this into my daily work van (im a mobile mechanic) - full toolboxes, storage etc etc in the back and company logos on the side. Get rid of the Effing stickers on the side and give her a full coat of matt black all round, bull bars, LED rails on front and work spots on the rear with beacons and possibly even change the exhaust to a side stack - want her to stand out and grab as much attention as possible (whilst also being cool as a penguins ball sack)
Any input/ideas/advice/criticism welcomed !!


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Until a few weeks ago, Mark only had a mild case of the famous "terrible twos". Sure, he threw the occasional tantrum and he was saying "no" a lot. But eh, who doesn't feel frustrated once in a while?
I didn't mind Mark's protests so much. I chalked them up to necessary "productive interactions" where precious snowflake was "developing his personality". When I was truly annoyed, I kept on reminding myself that it was better to know why he was crying (i.e. I said it was time to go home, I didn't let him jump from the bench, etc.) than having to guess what the problem was, like when he was an infant.
But now, Mark somehow morphed into Keith Richards at the high of his drug-fueled years.
It's not fun.
The key words are "I want it!". Unfortunately, Mark doesn't just want toys at the store or an ice cream, like normal kids. Mark wants:
1) To go to the beach at 10 p.m. Unfortunately, there are no beaches in Ottawa and it's bedtime.
2) To go to the moon. Even though I'm often tempted to send him there myself (just for a few revolutions, time to take a break, clean the house and watch the new Mad Max), I lack connections at Cap Canaveral.
3) To go on the roof. The roofers working next door declined Mark's help, not my fault on that one.
Mark also wants to walk barefoot in the street, ride shotgun in mommy's seat, eat hot sauce (he keeps on trying it and complains it burns. Duh.), watch TV all night, jump from the coffee table to the couch and wear my jewellery.
Then, there is a long list of things he doesn't want. He doesn't want to put his shoes on, doesn't want to wash his hands, doesn't want to go to bed, doesn't want this t-shirt, doesn't want mommy to do whatever, doesn't want to eat at the table, doesn't want to STOP FUCKING ANNOYING US!
Can anything be simple, easy and quick?
Mark's shopping list of demands is a way for him to test limits—ours and his. I know that. Parenting 101. However, it's not a fun job to be in control. I don't have a passion for order and I don't like being an authority figure. Yet, most evenings, I feel like shouting orders like a drill instructor: "Room, now! Strip down, shower and sleep!"
I have yet to hear Mark reply "Mam, yes mam!" and obey.
I used to be able to predict Mark's reactions, but now, drama can start anywhere, anytime and over anything. The other day, I washed two of his stuffed animals. "Let's check how they are doing in the basement," I said. "I think they are dry. They smell good now! You can take them back to the room. Oh, let me help. You're going to fall in the stairs if you carry them both."
So I grabbed dog and rabbit, climbed the ten steps from the basement to the living room and put them on the couch.
Mark collapsed on the stairs and started screaming "no no, I do it, I do it!"
Just because… I don't even know. I sighed and let him cry for a bit. There is no reasoning with him. See, if I give him back his toys and let him climb the stairs with them, he is going to find another reason to rebel five minutes later. It's a no-win situation.
It's very hard to stay calm after the fourth or fifth tantrum of the hour. We are both exhausted because there is no "sleep time truce". If Mark decides he doesn't want to sleep, he makes life at home miserable. Short of patience, Feng and I start arguing and it goes downhill from here.
In parenting, there is theory and reality. In theory, I'd keep my cool, be firm and consistent.
In reality, I rarely engage in shouting matches with Mark (I usually step out, I'm a French coward, remember?). But he wears me down pretty quickly and I'm split between "fine, whatever, I don't care, I'm ignoring you" and grabbing him, putting him in his room and closing the door, perfectly aware that I didn't solve the problem but at least, I can breathe for a minute.
For everything else, there is Feng, of course. We have different triggers. For instance, I can't stand Mark "taking advantage" of us:
"I want bread, I want bread!"
"Sure. What do you want on it, jam or butter and cheese?"
"There you go."
"I don't like it."
"Mark, you asked for it, you eat it."
"I want jam. No, chocolate. Candies. CANDIES! I WANT CANDIES!"
See, this drives me nuts. Bonus if if plays with the food and makes a huge mess.
I'm not quite sure what makes Feng mad—other than Mark not sleeping—but we are discovering it little by little because yes…
"Moooommy! Daddy mad."
"Oh yeah? What did you do?"
"Daddy mad. Mommy hug."
"Uh uh, buddy, you solve your problems with daddy. I ain't taking your side."
One blessing, though, is that for now, drama mostly happens at home. Mark is usually fairly quiet and non-disruptive outside.
And this is why we spent the last two weekends at the movie theater. At least, it keeps him entertained… for a bit.
"So, should we take him to the park? Or to a movie?" "I don't…" "Mark go movie. I want it." #TheMomentYouRealizeKidsDoListen
— Juliette Giannesini (@Xiaozhuli) June 8, 2015
The 3D movie experience #sanandreasmovie pic.twitter.com/6zXxodT2Kh
— Juliette Giannesini (@Xiaozhuli) May 31, 2015


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Despite a hugely differing range of opinions regarding Watch_Dogs, it was a huge selling title. The game is now the best-selling new IP at launch across the entire video game industry, with more than 4 million copies sold in the first week. It should come as no surprise then that Ubisoft are laying the groundwork for the inevitable sequel.
A survey has been sent out to various registered member with the title "Help us improve the next Watch_Dogs game!", asking questions about their feelings for the first game, for example asking what they thought of the rendition of Chicago, the hacking gameplay and, a subject scorn for many, the driving mechanics. Also included is a section where you're asked to rate the characters met through the game, such the sociopathic Jordy, gangster boss Lucky Quinn, and Aiden Pearce himself.
There's also a large section regarding the multiplayer aspect, asking whether or not you're still playing it and then asking you to expand upon your original answer. The range of modes is also touched upon.
Moving onto the questions about a sequel, we see the key questions of the survey, asking whether or not we want to see the return of Aiden Pearce, would we want a new location, and what other features would we like to see return, such as the digital trips and gang hideout missions.
For those who played Watch_Dogs, what would you want to see in the sequel?
Tags: aiden pearce, hacking, Ubisoft, watchdogs


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Welcome to Arras!
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The National Education MovementPosted on December 16, 2010 | 17 CommentsDid you know that prominent psychologist/educator Benjamin Bloom said this? Do you know what the motives are of prominent national educators? "…a student attains 'higher order thinking' when he no […]
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Alpine School District – The Good, Bad and UglyPosted on July 21, 2010 | 8 CommentsWhat's right about Alpine School District? We have some awesome teachers who are doing the best they can in spite of a district administration that has at times threatened their contracts and […]


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Both goals came from Stoke players with a Shawcross own goal before Kenwyne Jones equalised. Everton's Fellani headbutted Shawcross and will get a ban once the video is reviewed. The ref didn't spot this and Everton were lucky to still have eleven men on the pitch. Another useful point and Spurs away next.
Still Shawcross hasn't signed his new contract and Pulis hinted he may weigh in to get it signed.


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Twin Cities Autism Foundation is made possible by the generous support of individuals and organizations throughout the Twin Cities. We are a registered 501(c)3 organization, and all donations are tax deductible. We take our responsibility to serve the autism community very seriously.
We are proud to be an approved Non-Profit organization in the Every Swipe Goes to Charity program of Pay it Forward Processing. If you are a business which uses credit card processing or know a friend with a business who does the same, please ask us about this amazing organization and how you can get a quote.
In an industry known for saying one thing and doing another, it's beyond refreshing to meet a company who has amazing rates, is committed to outstanding service and allows their clients to name a charity that receives part of what would otherwise be their profit. It's a wonderful group of people and business model.
If you have questions about how our funds are generated or used, please contact us right away. We value transparency and would love to share how we transform a relatively small budget into a powerful difference-maker for families across the Twin Cities and beyond.