text:
[hallucinogenic drug]

Benny Shanon is currently professor of psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, having received his PhD in experimental psychology from Stanford University. In 2002 he wrote _Antipodes of the Mind_, in which he details the effects of ayahuasca, as well as recounting his several hundred trips with the hallucinogenic brew.

Shanon is perhaps most well known for his ‘Biblical entheogen hypothesis’. This is the idea that Moses, the founder and patriarch of the Jewish religion, was under the influence of a hallucinogenic drug during several key events that would define Judaism. His paper, _Biblical Entheogens: a Speculative Hypothesis _(which can be read here) draws on the similarities between the ayahuasca experience and important moments in Moses’ life.

Shanon also explains that two species of plant; the Acacia tree (which contains DMT) and the bush _Peganum harmala_ (which contains the MAOI to make DMT orally active) were native to the Sinai peninsula and Southern Israel. Shanon argues that the people in that area had access to the same chemicals (DMT + MAOI) which are found in ayahuasca and that they had visionary experiences through combining and ingesting them.

Shanon maintains that there are five episodes in Moses’ life which strike him as indicative of a psychedelic experience. The first is Moses’ encounter with God, in the form of the burning bush. Shanon argues that Moses’ vision of the burning bush, and his interpretation of it as “the Divine”, was a sign that his consciousness was radically altered, most likely by an ayahuasca-like concoction. The second episode was when the rods belonging to Moses’ brother Aaron, and to the Pharaoh’s sorcerers, were transformed into serpents. The third episode was the famous moment at Mount Sinai when God handed down the Ten Commandments to Moses. The fourth episode is found in the book of Exodus when Moses asks to see God, but God covers Moses with his hand so that he can only see his back, not his face – as God says, “for there shall no man see Me and live.” The fifth episode is the shining appearance of Moses’ face when he brings back the Ten Commandments on his second return from Mount Sinai.

Shanon concludes that the subjective experiences of Moses – encountering “the Divine”, altered perception of time, _synesthesia _(‘seeing’ sounds or ‘hearing’ colours), visions of fire, serpents, light perceive as God, and entities whose faces aren’t visible – are all experiences common with the use of ayahuasca. He claims that the three-day “purification” before the Ten Commandments were received has its parallel in the preparation before an ayahuasca session. He also claims that ayahuasca users have a “shining” appearance after their psychedelic journey, just as Moses did. Shanon has the following to say:

  Taken together, the botanical and anthropological data on the one hand, and the biblical descriptions as well as later Jewish hermeneutics on the other, are, I propose, suggestive of a biblical entheogenic connection. Admittedly, the smoking gun is not available to us. However, so many clues present themselves which, like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, seem to cohere into an intriguing unified whole. I leave it to the reader to pass his or her judgment.

While his hypothesis is no doubt interesting and seems to offer an explanation of the strange episodes in the Bible, I do not think that there is enough compelling evidence to support it. His hypothesis also makes many assumptions which are required if the hypothesis is to be taken seriously. The main assumption is that Moses actually existed. The only evidence for Moses’ existence is from the Bible itself, which unfortunately cannot be considered a reliable form of evidence due to its historical inaccuracies, inconsistencies and unrealistic claims. We don’t even know who wrote the Bible or when it was written. The Bible is essentially a collection of stories, allegories and testimonies which have been passed down through word of mouth and then written down by various, unknown authors. The story of Moses’ life, as described in the Bible, does not necessarily point to a real historical figure called ‘Moses’.

I would also say that Shanon is probably guilty of _confirmation bias _in formulating his hypothesis. He is guilty of it because he seems to select all the ‘evidence’ (if it can be called that) to support his hypothesis, but ignores all the evidence which contradicts it. There is no evidence that the people native to the Sinai peninsula or Southern Israel used hallucinogenic brews, even if the plants were available to make it. You would think that if their combination was discovered to produce visionary experiences that someone would have spread the word, or written about it.

In South American indigenous cultures there is an oral tradition surrounding ayahuasca use; in ancient Indian texts a specific visionary substance is mentioned (_Soma _in the Vedic texts), and in the ancient Aztec religion we find mentions of _teonanactal _(“flesh of the gods”), as well as statues and art depicting mushrooms. These are all pieces of evidence which point to the use of hallucinogenic substances; however, in Judaism, there is none of this evidence. Shanon’s hypothesis (which to be fair he admits is speculative) is fascinating, and perhaps may even be vindicated in the future. But I am still not convinced that Moses, or the ancient Jewish people for that matter, were using entheogenic substances such as DMT.

I think it is worth a mention that Shanon is not alone in believing that certain passages in the Bible are indicative of altered states of consciousness. Dr Eric Altschuler, a neuroscientist at the Unversity of California, said that the biblical figure Ezekiel showed all the classic signs of temporal lobe epilepsy. Epilepsy causes temporary changes in the electrical function of the brain, resulting in seizures which affect awareness, movement, or sensation. Altschuler asserts that if Ezekiel had this condition it could explain Ezekiel’s strange “visions” described in the Old Testament. Ezekiel also experienced frequent fainting spells and times when he was unable to speak, which are also signs of epilepsy. In addition, the book of Ezekiel is especially long when compared to the other books of the Bible; a fact which Altschuler says is a sign of _hypergraphia _(the desire to write compulsively which also afflicts many epileptics). Ezekiel was also extremely religious – hyper-religiosity being commonly associated with epileptics.

The problem with this line of reasoning is that, like with Shanon’s hypothesis, Altschuler’s ideas rely on the assumption that Ezekiel existed, and that the Bible is a reliable form of evidence. That said, it is entirely plausible that many of the episodes in the Bible are due to altered states of consciousness (with some authors claiming that the origin of all religions is visionary in nature), but just because this idea is attractive and persuasive, that does not mean it is true.

question: Summarize the key pieces of evidence that Benny Shanon presented in his Biblical entheogen hypothesis.

answer:
Benny Shanon's "Biblical entheogen hypothesis" presented the idea that Moses, the patriarch of the Jewish religion, was under the influence of hallucinogenics when he experienced his encounters with God as recorded in the five books of Moses in the Old Testament.
Shannon explains that two plants (Acacia tree and Peganum harmala both combine to make hallucinogens. He observed that these two plants once grew in the Sinai peninsula during the time of Moses. Given the biblical descriptions of some of Moses' divine experiences and the botanical properties he had access to, Shanon concluded that Moses' experiences are indicative so someone under the influence of hallucinogens.

question: Summarize the reasons given by the writer in rejecting Benny Shanon theory of "Biblical entheogen hypothesis".

answer: The writer believes there is no compelling evidence to support Benny Shanon's theory of "Biblical entheogen hypothesis". Firstly, the writer says Shanon's hypothesis makes many assumptions one of which is that Moses as a person actually existed. The writer also claims that the origin of the bible is debatable, a fact that undermines Shanon's theory. Finally, it seems there is no evidence that the Jewish people living around Sinai in Moses' time took any hallucinogens. The writer pointed to writings from Aztec religion and similar texts where art and theories about hallucinogens are highlighted but cited a lack of such deliberations in the bible.

question: What kind of religion does the writer subscribe to?


split: test

text:
thumb|Erkinger I von Seinsheim ERKINGER I VON SEINSHEIM, BARON OF SCHWARZENBERG[1] (also ERKINGER VI VON SEINSHEIM; born 1362 in Stephansberg (Kleinlangheim); died December 11, 1437; buried in Astheim Charterhouse) was the chief hunter of the Prince-Bishopric of Würzburg. From 1416 he had the title of Imperial Councilor. He was raised to the Freiherr (baron) and banner lordship in 1429. Erkinger is considered the progenitor of the later Franconian-Bohemian Princes of Schwarzenberg.

Life

Erkinger von Seinsheim was born in 1362 as the first and only son of Michael I von Seinsheim. His mother was Margarethe von Rosenberg, whom his father married after the death of his first wife.[2] Michael von Seinsheim was the captain of the Marienberg Fortress. Erkinger grew up at Stephansberg Castle near Haidt.

After his father's death on July 30, 1399, Erkinger took over the possessions. The family was wealthy and the young nobleman was able to increase the family property by buying additional property. In 1399 he bought the village of Astheim by Volkach, in 1406 he became the chief hunter of the Prince-Bishopric of Würzburg. On June 2, 1409, Erkinger and his first wife Anna von Bibra transferred the village of Astheim to the Carthusian order as an endowment. The Astheim Charterhouse became a burial place for the family beginning with Anna.

[An inscription at the Astheim Charterhouse explained the chartering and recharting of the monastery by Erkinger and immediate family]

The proximity to King Sigismund of Luxembourg led to the appointment to the Imperial Council in 1416. A year earlier, in 1415, the village of Scheinfeld was elevated to town by imperial order which must have been in the hand of Erkinger. The nobleman had acquired Schwarzenberg Castle near Scheinfeld from the Lords of Vestenberg, Abenberg and debt holder Würzburg prince-bishopric.

Erkinger moved the family home to the mighty Steigerwald fortress and henceforth called himself “Herr zu (Lord of) Schwarzenberg”. At the same time, the nobleman began to grant loans to the local authorities. For example, the Würzburg prince-bishopric and the burgrave of Nuremberg borrowed money from the lords of Schwarzenberg. In 1417 Erkinger traveled alongside the king to the Council of Constance and met the followers of the Hussite teaching for the first time.[3]

In 1420 and 1429, Erkinger became field captain of the king and went into the field against the Hussites. Erkinger reached the peak of his career in 1429. He was appointed Freiherr (baron) and flag bearer by the king.[4] At the same time, however, Erkinger was still a Ministeriale of the Würzburg Prince Bishop . From this he bought an estate on Marienberg above Würzburg in 1432.

Previously, on February 3, 1430, Seinsheim raided the town of Schwarzach near the Münsterschwarzach Abbey. Seckendorff had handed it over to the bailiff Lamprecht. Seckendorff, however, owed Erkinger money that he hoped to collect through the attack. Seinsheim had brought several citizens of the city to his side, including the mayor Peter Kometer, but was betrayed by a Münsterschwarzach man. The raid failed and two of the Erkinger's horsemen were shot.[5]

In 1432 Erkinger had acquired the Hohenlandsberg Castle and Office and had become an official administrative district. The sons of Erkinger called themselves Lords of Seinsheim, barons of Schwarzenberg, while the grandchildren already abandoned the name Seinsheim and only bore the title Schwarzenberg. Erkinger died on December 11, 1437 and was buried in his Astheim Charterhouse.[6]

Marriages and offspring

Erkinger married twice. First he married Anna von Bibra (daughter of Dietrich von Bibra and his first wife, Engel),[7] who died on March 4, 1418. She was the first to be buried in the Charterhouse. With her he had six children, including his successor Michael II.

-   Michael (died on March 19, 1469; = in Astheim Abbey)
-   Matern (died in 1411)
-   Heinrich (died in 1423)
-   Hermann (died on September 15, 1448)
-   Margareta (died on April 11, 1468)
-   Agnes

After the death of his wife, Erkinger married Barbara von Abensberg. With her he fathered eight children. She died on November 2, 1448 and was buried next to her husband in Astheim.

-   Erkinger (died on September 26, 1503 in Astheim), around 1473 canon to Eichstätt[8]
-   Friedrich
-   Ulrich (died in 1456)
-   Jobst
-   Johann (born around 1428; died probably on May 16, 1460 near Giengen an der Brenz )
-   Sigmund (born 1430; died on July 3, 1502)
-   Kunigunde (died on September 2, 1469 in Eger )
-   Magdalene (died after November 14, 1485)[9]

[1] Meyer, Herbert: _Erkinger von Seinsheim und die Kartause Astheim_. Page. 146.

[2] Vgl.: Genealogy.cz: _Stammbaum Schwarzenberg 1_, accessed August 29, 2016.

[3] Meyer, Herbert: _Erkinger von Seinsheim und die Kartause Astheim_. p. 148.

[4] Meyer, Herbert: _Ahnherr und Klostergründer_. p. 73.

[5] Dresch, Hans A.: _Die Schwarzacher Miniaturen in der Würzburger Bischofschronik des Lorenz Fries_. p. 3.

[6] Meyer, Herbert: _Erkinger von Seinsheim und die Kartause Astheim_. p. 146.

[7] WERNER WAGENHÖFER, Die Bibra: Studien und Materialien zur Genealogie und zur Besitzgeschichte einer fränkischen Niederadelsfamilie im Spätmittelalter, Verlag Degener & Co, 1998, 699 pages, . p. 252 and p.323.

[8] Max Döllner: _Entwicklungsgeschichte der Stadt Neustadt an der Aisch bis 1933._ Ph. C. W. Schmidt, Neustadt an der Aisch 1950; Neudruck ebenda 1978, p. 81.

[9] Genealogy.cz: _Stammbaum Schwarzenberg 2_, accessed on August 29, 2016.

title: Erkinger I von Seinsheim, Baron of Schwarzenberg

question: Summarize the achievements of Erkinger von Seinsheim.

answer:
Erkinger von Seinsheim was born in 1362 and was the only son of Michael I von Seisheim. After the death of his father, Erkinger took over the family's wealth and increased it by buying additional assets. He bought the village of Astheim by Volkach and transferred it to the Carthusian order as an endowment. The Astheim Charterhouse became the official burial place for Erkinger's family.
Erkinger moved the family home to the fortress of Steigerwald and named himself the Lord of Schwarzenberg. At the same time, he started granting loans to local authorities. He became the flagbearer of the king around 1429 and bought an estate on Marienberg above Wurzburg in 1432. He also acquired the Hohenlandsberg Castle and became the official administrative district. Erkinger died in 1437 and was buried in his Astheim Charterhouse.

question: What were the financial philosophies of Erkinger I von Seisheim?


text:
She has long, wavy honey-brown hair. Uncertainty in every movement she makes. Her eyes are bright amber yellow but they’re hidden behind the blackness of fear. Every movement is cautious, well planned and, poorly executed. Clumsily staggering through the universe searching for reassurance.

Fear lurks around every dark corner. She hastily walks through the park trails, examining the entire surrounding area with sharp, jerked movements and uncertainty. She begins to breathe out of her mouth, heavily. A stranger walking a dog approaches from a connecting trail. Her heart races, her vision blurs. They pass and she forces a smile and “good-morning!” Shes out of breath. Her mind hates that. A hundred thousand scenarios play out in her mind as her walking speed increases. Soon, she is almost running. She approaches a steep hill, adrenaline coursing through her veins. Every step is shaky and limp but strong and quick. Out of breath at the top, she continues to speed walk. It doesn't end until she’s inside.

Surrounded. Surrounded by potential. In a cruel world not made for mistakes, she makes plenty. In a world aimed at perfection, she stumbles below the average line. Confidence is false, smiles are rare and comfort is a luxury. Music is only enjoyed when it’s loud enough to drown out the inner mind.

On the bus, half of the lights fail to work. She sits under the only illuminated row. The constant noise makes it difficult to focus. Difficult to forget. Both ear buds in, she avoids eye contact while scanning the crowd of seats below her. Some man has been glancing at her since she got on at the terminal. She shifts in discomfort.

*Don’t look at me, don’t make this harder than it has to be. Please.*

The entire duration of her trip on the bus consists of her fumbling to find her keys in her purse before she pulls the wire. He looks over and smiles, letting out a small laugh. She is frantic. Her mind is telling her she has met her end. She calmly removes one ear bud to catch if he speaks. Her stop approaches, she pulls the wire. Shaking and going pale she stands up to reach the front of the bus. Like a winter storm front has hit her skin is cold and shaking, she is covered in a thin layer of sweat. She hastily exits the bus and chokes out a “thank-you” to the driver. The street lights are on and she is approaching her street. Almost running she aims to get inside as soon as possible. Making sure nobody is watching her, making sure nobody knows where she lives. She is vulnerable there.

*Why do I feel so vulnerable? I am strong. I’m alone. I’m weak… I’m afraid.*

title: [RF] I wrote about my anxiety, I'm not much of a writer so any pointers are more than welcome.

question: What sort of "mistakes" is the woman afraid of making?

answer: Probably socially awkward mistakes, as social situations seem to trigger her anxiety.

question: Is the narrator enjoying her music while on the bus?

answer: No, she is not.


text:
Events of 2020 in Turkey.

Incumbents

-   President: Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
-   29th Speaker of the Grand National Assembly: Mustafa Şentop
-   President of the Constitutional Court: Zühtü Arslan[1]
-   Chief of the Turkish General Staff of the Armed Forces: Yaşar Güler
-   Government: 66th government of Turkey
-   Cabinet: Fourth Erdoğan Cabinet

Events

January

-   January 2: Turkey reports a new refugee influx and possible crisis, as 250,000 Syrians flee Syria for Turkey, due to Syrian government attacks on rebel groups around Idlib.[2]
-   January 6: The new building of the National Organization Agency (MİT) opened in Etimesgut, Ankara.[3]
-   January 7: Turkey signs maritime deal with Libya.[4]
-   January 11: A 4.9-magnitude earthquake occurred in Silivri.[5]
-   January 15: Turkey lifts its ban on Wikipedia, due to a ruling by the Turkish High Constitutional Court.[6]
-   January 24: 2020 Elazığ earthquake[7]

February

-   February 4–5: 2020 Van avalanches: two avalanches occurred near Bahçesaray, killing at least 41 people.[8]
-   February 5: Pegasus Airlines Flight 2193 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Izmir to Istanbul. The Boeing 737-800 operating the route skidded off the runway while landing at the Sabiha Gökçen International Airport. Three people were killed, 179 people were injured, and the aircraft was destroyed.[9]
-   February 23: 2020 Iran–Turkey earthquakes: the first one occurred on 23 February, near Khoy in north-west Iran, close to the border with Turkey, killing 9 people in Başkale, Van. It hit at 9:23 a.m. local time (05:53 UTC) with a magnitude of 5.8 . About 10 hours later the same area was hit by another major earthquake of 6.0 .[10]
-   February 27: During the peak of Operation Dawn of Idlib 2, the Syrian Arab Air Force, and possibly the Russian Air Force, conducted two airstrikes against a Turkish Army convoy in Balyun, Idlib. The strikes resulted in the deaths of 34 Turkish soldiers according to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.[11] _(see: 2020 Balyun airstrikes)_

March

-   March 1: Turkey started conducting Operation Spring Shield.[12]
-   March 11: The Ministry of Health confirms the first COVID-19 case in Turkey.[13] _(see: COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey)_
-   March 12: As part of the governmental measures for controlling the pandemic, primary and secondary schools were closed for 1 week from 16 March. Universities were also closed for 3 weeks.[14]
-   March 17: The first death from COVID-19 occurred in Turkey.[15]
-   March 21: A curfew was imposed by the government for people over 65.[16]
-   March 27: All educational programs were suspended until April 30 as a result of governmental measures for controlling the COVID-19 pandemic.[17]

April

-   April 3: A curfew was imposed by the government for people under 20.[18]
-   April 10: As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, a curfew was declared in 31 provinces.[19]
-   April 17: In order to control the spread of COVID-19, a curfew was declared in 31 provinces which was set to last over the weekend.[20]
-   April 20: Another curfew was announced by the government in 30 metropolitan municipalities and Zonguldak, restricting movement across the cities between 23–27 April.[21]
-   April 27: Another curfew was announced by the government in 30 metropolitan municipalities and Zonguldak, restricting movement across the cities between 1–3 May.[22]

June

-   June 1: Prohibitions and measures introduced to combat the COVID-19 pandemic started to be gradually lifted. The normalization process began.[23]
-   June 14: An earthquake of 5.7 hit Bingöl, Karlıova. One person was killed.[24]
-   June 15: Turkey launched an air attack on the areas used as a base by terrorists in Northern Iraq under Operation Claw-Eagle.[25]
-   June 17:
    -   Turkey launched Operation Claw-Tiger in Northern Iraq.[26]
    -   Turkish diplomat Volkan Bozkır is elected President of the 75th United Nations General Assembly. He was the sole candidate.[27]

July

-   July 3: An explosion occurred in the fireworks factory in Hendek. 6 workers died and 114 workers were injured.[28]
-   July 6: 450 hectares of forest were burned in the Ilgardere district of Gelibolu, Çanakkale. Transportation was stopped in the Dardanelles.[29]
-   July 7: The elections for choosing the Speaker of the Grand National Assembly was held. Mustafa Şentop was re-elected.[30]
-   July 10: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan annuls the Hagia Sophia's museum status, converting the site back into a mosque.[31]

August

-   August 21:
    -   Turkey has found 320 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the biggest ever discovery in the Black Sea, and hopes to begin production by 2023. The Turkish drilling ship Fatih, had been carrying out exploration operations in the Tuna-1 sector in the western Black Sea for the past month.[32]
    -   President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan signed the decision to transfer the administration of the Chora Church to the Directorate of Religious Affairs and to open it for worship as a mosque, and the decision was published in the _T.C. Resmî Gazete_.[33]
-   August 23: Flood and landslide disaster occurred in Giresun Province and seven of its districts. 6 people died.[34]
-   August 25: Ahlat Mansion was opened during the 949th anniversary of Manzikert Victory.[35]

September

-   September 3: Otoyol 21, connecting Ankara and Tarsus, was put into service.[36]
-   September 17: Turkey's first flying car introduced as Cezeri, took off in Teknofest Gaziantep.[37]
-   September 21: In-person education following the COVID-19 pandemic started gradually, covering first grade and pre-school students.[38]
-   September 24: An earthquake of 4.2 magnitude occurred off Tekirdağ and Marmaraereğlisi.[39]
-   September 27: Erdoğan announced that Turkey would support Azerbaijan during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.[40]

October

-   October 11: Forest fires that started in Belen, Hatay, spread to other districts. 400 hectares of forest burned.[41]
-   October 12: In-person education was enforced for students in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 8th and 12th grades.[42]
-   October 17: Erdoğan announced that 85 billion cubic meters of natural gas was discovered in the Black Sea.[43]
-   October 26: A suicide bombing perpetrated by the PKK occurred on Fener Street in İskenderun,[44] injuring several people and killing the perpetrator.
-   October 30: The 2020 Aegean Sea earthquake with an epicenter close to the Gulf of Kuşadası caused building damages and tsunami on the Turkish west coast. More than 20 people were killed and over 800 were injured.[45]

November

-   November 2: In person education started gradually for students, including 5th and 12th grades.[46]
-   November 5: With the circular issued by the Ministry of Interior, new measures were announced to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.[47]
-   November 9: Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak's request for resignation was accepted by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Lütfi Elvan was appointed as the new Minister of Treasury and Finance.[48][49]
-   November 15: The Turkish Grand Prix was held for the first time after nine years.[50]
-   November 18: With the circular issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, curfews and many new measures were introduced to be enforced on weekends, excluding activities occurring between 10:00 am – 08:00 pm.[51]

Deaths

-   17 January – Rahşan Ecevit, politician (b. 1923)[52]
-   19 January – Kazım Ayvaz, wrestler (b. 1938)[53]
-   25 January – Garbis Zakaryan, boxer (b. 1930)[54]
-   14 February – Hilmi Ok, football referee (b. 1932)[55]
-   17 February – Mustafa Yücedağ, footballer (b. 1966)[56]
-   25 February – Hikmet Köksal, military officer (b. 1932)[57]
-   2 March – Suat Yalaz, comic book artist (b. 1932)[58]
-   15 March – Aytaç Yalman, military officer (b. 1940)[59]
-   20 March –
    -   Cengiz Bektaş, architect (b. 1934)[60]
    -   Muhterem Nur, actress and singer (b. 1932)[61]
-   24 March – Nihat Akbay, footballer (b. 1945)[62]
-   28 March – Fevzi Aksoy, academic and columnist (b. 1930)[63]
-   31 March – Turhan Kaya, actor (b. 1951)[64]
-   2 April – Feriha Öz, pathologist (b. 1933)[65]
-   3 April –
    -   Helin Bölek, singer (b. 1992)[66]
    -   Yusuf Kenan Sönmez, politician (b. 1948)[67]
-   14 April – Haydar Baş, politician (b. 1947)[68]
-   15 April – Ülkü Azrak, academic (b. 1933)[69]
-   27 April – Nur Yerlitaş, fashion designer (b. 1955)[70]
-   3 May – Ömer Döngeloğlu, theologian (b. 1968)[71]
-   9 June – Ayşegül Atik, actress (b. 1948)[72]
-   7 July – Jale Aylanç, actress (b. 1948)[73]
-   14 July – Adalet Ağaoğlu, novelist and playwright (b. 1929)[74]
-   17 July – Seyfi Dursunoğlu, performing artist and comedian (b. 1932)[75]
-   31 August – Haldun Boysan, actor (b. 1958)[76]
-   15 September – Suna Kıraç, businesswoman (b. 1941)[77]
-   16 October – Markar Esayan, author, journalist and politician (b. 1969)[78]
-   18 October – Bekir Coşkun, journalist, author (b. 1945)[79]
-   26 October – Osman Durmuş, physician and former Minister of Health (b. 1947)[80]
-   30 October – Mesut Yılmaz, politician, former prime minister and former leader of the Motherland Party (b. 1947)[81]
-   1 November –
    -   Burhan Kuzu, politician and lawyer (b. 1955)[82]
    -   Yalçın Granit, basketball player, coach and sports journalist (b. 1932)[83]
-   6 November – Timur Selçuk, musician and conductor (b. 1946)[84]
-   7 November – Gli, European Shorthair cat and an Internet celebrity (b. 2004)[85]
-   19 November – Reşit Karabacak, wrestler (b. 1954)[86]

[1] Prof. Dr. Zühtü ARSLAN / President, Constitutional Court official website.

[2] Erdogan says up to 250,000 Syrians flee toward Turkey as crisis worsens. January 2, 2020. Reuters.

[3]

[4] Turkey-Libya Maritime Deal Upsets Mediterranean Energy Plan by Ariel Cohen, forbes.com, January 8, 2020.

[5]

[6] Turkey Lifts More Than 2-Year Block of Wikipedia, By The Associated Press, January 15, 2020

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

[20]

[21]

[22]

[23]

[24]

[25]

[26]

[27]

[28]

[29]

[30]

[31]

[32]

[33]

[34]

[35]

[36]

[37]

[38]

[39]

[40]

[41]

[42]

[43]

[44]

[45]

[46]

[47]

[48]

[49]

[50]

[51]

[52]

[53]

[54]

[55]

[56]

[57]

[58]

[59]

[60]

[61]

[62]

[63]

[64] “Kurtlar Vadisi'nin usta oyuncusu Turhan Kaya corona virüsten hayatını kaybetti” _Posta_ (1 April 2020)

[65]

[66]

[67]

[68]

[69]

[70]

[71]

[72]

[73]

[74]

[75]

[76]

[77]

[78]

[79]

[80]

[81]

[82]

[83]

[84]

[85]

[86]

title: 2020 in Turkey

question: What is the nature of this article?

answer: A synopsis of events that occur in Turkey for each month.

question: What is a common theme of the different events covered?

answer: Terrorist attacks and deaths.


text:
The outcome of the referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union was, of course, very different in Scotland than in England and Wales. North of the border 62% voted to Remain while 38% backed Leave. In the rest of Great Britain, in contrast, only 47% voted to Remain, while 53% supported Leave.

So divergent an outcome inevitably raises the question, ‘why did Scotland vote to Remain when the rest of Britain voted to Leave?’. Did older voters and those with fewer educational qualifications north of the border not share the scepticism that was commonplace amongst such votersin England and Wales? Did voters in Scotland simply take a different view of the economic consequences of Brexit or of its implications for immigration? Or were they swayed to a greater – or lesser – extent by the economic arguments and those about immigration and identity than were their counterparts elsewhere?

Although there have been some clues about the answers to these questions in the opinion polls published since June 23rd, between them they have offered little opportunity to compare the pattern of voting on the two sides of the border systematically. However, the week before last, the academic British Election Study released the latest wave of data from a very large internet panel it has been running since the beginning of February 2014. This wave consists of just over 30,000 interviews conducted shortly after the referendum – including no less than 3,600 in Scotland. With everyone on both sides of the border asked the same questions about the referendum, these data make it possible to undertake the systematic comparison that has hitherto been impossible.

The first key point to emerge (see Table 1) is that the sharp social divisions by age and educational background that were uncovered across the rest of Britain by the referendum are also in evidence north of the border. While 73% of those aged 18-34 backed Remain, only 54% of those aged 55 and over did so.  Whereas 74% of graduates in Scotland voted to Remain, only a minority (41%) of those with no qualifications did so.

[Table 1]

True, the age and education gaps are somewhat smaller north of the border. Whereas in Scotland there is a 19 point difference between younger and older voters in their level of support for Remain, in England and Wales the equivalent figure is 28 points. The 33 point gap between graduates and those without any qualifications in Scotland is also a little less than the 38 point difference south of the border.

But what is more noticeable is that voters in Scotland were more likely to vote to Remain irrespective of their social background. For example, 74% of graduates in Scotland voted to Remain, compared with 64% in England and Wales. At the same time, 54% of the over 55s voted to Remain, compared with only 41% in England and Wales.

So, while the social divisions exposed by the referendum were clearly in evidence north of the border, voters of all ages and of all educational backgrounds in Scotland were more likely than their counterparts elsewhere in Great Britain to want to stay in the EU.

One possible explanation is that voters in Scotland were less enamoured of the possible consequences of leaving the EU. Indeed, there is some evidence to support that claim from the answers that the BES panellists gave when they were asked shortly before the referendum what they thought the effect of leaving would be.

For example, as many as 41% of people in Scotland felt that the ‘general economic situation in the UK’ would be worse if we left the EU, compared with 34% in England and Wales. Further, somewhat fewer (50%) felt that immigration would be lower, than did so in England and Wales (56%). At the same time, whereas 47% of those living south of the border agreed that ‘Being a member of the European Union undermines Britain’s distinctive identity’, only 39% of people in Scotland did so.

These differences of between five and eight points in the distribution of attitudes towards the EU are typical of a wide range of other questions about what would happen if we left the EU that were also included on the BES survey. However, they are less than the 15 point difference in the level of support for Remain that was found in the ballot boxes. It seems that the higher level of support for Remain in Scotland cannot simply be accounted for by the fact that voters in Scotland were less taken with what Brexit might bring.

However, that still leaves open the possibility that voters in Scotland weighed up the issues differently. Perhaps, for example, those in Scotland who thought the economy would be made worse if we left the EU were more likely to vote to Remain than were those of the same view in England. Or, maybe, voters in Scotland who felt that immigration would be lower in the event of Brexit were less likely to regard that as a reason to vote to Leave?

In fact, even in England and Wales almost everyone – 92% –  who felt that the economy would be worse if the UK left the EU voted to Remain. So, it is not surprising that the proportion in Scotland – 94% – is much the same. Meanwhile, on both sides of the border just 10% of those who thought the economy would be better following Brexit nevertheless still voted to Remain (see Table 2).

[Table 2]

Equally, while 78% of those in England and Wales who thought that immigration would not fall following Brexit voted to Remain, so also did 80% of those in Scotland. Equally, the level of support for Remain varies according to people’s views on the implications of being in the EU for Britain’s identity in much the same way on both sides of the border.

That said, however, there are also some important differences. First, those in Scotland who thought that leaving the EU would not make much difference either way to the UK’s economy were more inclined to want to stay in the institution. While just 29% of people in England and Wales who were of that opinion voted to Remain, rather more, 43%, did so in Scotland.

Equally, voters in Scotland who did reckon that immigration would fall if we left in the EU were more likely to vote to Remain than their counterparts elsewhere. As many as 43% did so – compared with just 29% in England and Wales.

So, in some instances voters in Scotland who adopted much the same view about the consequences of leaving the EU as did those in England and Wales were nevertheless more likely to vote to Remain. How might we account for such a pattern?

One of the claims often made about voting in referendums is that voters’ decisions about which way to vote are influenced by the cues that are sent out by the party that they support. In the EU referendum, Labour (and most though not all Labour MPs) campaigned to stay in the EU, while the Conservative party was officially neutral and prominent Conservative politicians were to be found campaigning on both sides of the argument. These stances were reflected in the way in which supporters of those parties voted. According to the BES data (see Table 3) just 34% of those in England & Wales who voted Conservative in 2015 voted for Remain, while in Labour’s case 64% did so.

[Why did Scotland vote to Remain?]

Much the same division is to be found amongst Conservative and Labour voters north of the border. While 68% of Labour voters in Scotland backed Remain, only 47% of Conservative supporters did so (the fact that the latter figure is a little higher than in England and Wales may be a reflection of the fact that the party’s Scottish leader, Ruth Davidson, was a prominent advocate of Remain).

But, of course, it is the SNP that dominates political sympathies north of the border and, in contrast to its stanceon the occasion of Britain’s initial referendum on EU membership in 1975, the party campaigned in favour of Remain. After all, ever since the late 1980s the party’s conception of independence has been of ‘independence in Europe’.

Thus, as we might anticipate, SNP voters were also much more inclined to vote to Remain than to Leave, albeit that they were far from unanimous in doing so. According to the BES panel data 65% of those who voted SNP in the 2015 general election did so. Moreover, SNP supporters were also more likely to vote for Remain irrespective of their views on the consequences of leaving the EU.

For example, amongst those who at the time of the referendum supported the SNP and thought that leaving the EU would not make any difference to the UK economy, no less than 57% voted to Remain. This is higher than the equivalent figure of 43% amongst all voters in Scotland, let alone the 29% figure to be found amongst voters in England and Wales.

Equally, no less than 62% of current SNP supporters who thought that immigration would increase if the UK left the EU voted to Remain nevertheless – again well above the equivalent figure for everyone of that view in Scotland (43%) and in England and Wales (29%).

In short, it seems that many a SNP supporter in particular voted to Remain in the EU even though they were not convinced that leaving would be harmful for the economy and even though they anticipated that immigration would fall if Brexit were to happen. Meanwhile, of course, the fact that rather fewer people in Scotland than in England and Wales thought that leaving the EU would be beneficial in the first place may well itself, in part at least, be the product of the SNP’s support for ‘independence in Europe’.

So, many of the social divisions about Brexit and some of the key arguments about what it might mean helped shape voters’ decisions in Scotland in much the same way as they did in England and Wales. Scotland voted to Remain even though those forces were in play just as they did on the other side of the border. However, in a country where UKIP has little resonance and where a pro-European SNP has come to dominate the political landscape, views that elsewhere disinclined many a voter to back Remain had less impact north of the border. However, in voting to Remain some of those voters at least were seemingly telling us more about what they thought about ‘independence in Europe’ than they were about the merits of the UK’s membership of the European Union. Little wonder, then, that the UK-wide decision in favour of Brexit has served to stimulate afresh the debate about a second independence referendum north of the border.

_A  correction was made to the figures in Table 3 and the associated text on 22 February 2018_

question: What does the text say about the differences between Scots and the rest of Great Britain in how they voted for Brexit?

answer: The Scots voted in favor of remaining rather than leaving the EU a lot more. The Scots voted in higher numbers for remaining than the general UK population irrespective of their background. They tended to believe that the UK economy would worsen (41%) compared to the rest of the UK (34%). They also believed that being in the EU didn't undermine Britain's identity as much as the general populace (47% vs 39%). In Scotland, the people who thought leaving the EU would be neutral were more likely to vote remain (43%) than England/Wales (29%).

question: What does the article say about the similarities between the Scots and the rest of Great Britain in how they voted in the Brexit referendum?

answer: Both in broad Britain and in Scotland, almost everyone who thought leaving would worsen the prospects of the UK voted to remain in the EU (92% and 94%, respectively). Also on both sides, only 10% of the people who thought leaving would better the prospects voted to remain. Similar amounts of people voted to remain in Scotland and the rest of the UK (78% and 80%, respectively) out of those who thought the immigration numbers wouldn't change after leaving. Finally, both populations voted similarly according to how they thought remaining in the EU affects Britain's identity.

question: What are the policy implications for the UK of leaving the EU?


text:
WEST RECORDS is a record label in the Republic of Belarus.[1]

Activity

The company is engaged in production and promotion of the releases of Belarusian bands and performers. Many of the most popular Belarusian records of the 2000s, including the domestic tribute to Depeche Mode, albums of J:морс, Тяни-Толкай, Atlantica, , , , N.R.M., Krambambula, beZ bileta, Hair Peace Salon with Jitters,[2][3] Open Space, and many others, were released on the label. At the same time, the label aims to present the widest possible range of Belarusian music, from ska to opera, in its catalogue.[4][5]

West Records is also a distributor of world-famous labels, such as Sony BMG, Universal,[6] EMI, across the territory of Belarus. The company distributes the licensed products of all major Russian companies, including , , Мегалайнер, , Никитин, and many others. Committed West Records activities in the field of distribution promote the continuous heightening of the share of licensed products on the Belarusian market.

As Belorusskaya Gazeta’s Jeliena Ankudo reported in 2003, the State Control Committee of the Republic of Belarus imposed a fine of more than $600000 on the company for violations in its financial and economic activities[7].

In 2010 the label together with the portal TUT.BY produced the show «» with the participation of Belarusian show business personalities.[8][9]

Recognition

According to the presented results of the editorial awards by the music portal Experty.by, West Records was named the best record label of the year three times in a row (in 2008, 2009 and 2010).[10][11][12]

In 2010 Oleg Klimov, ex-chief editor of Muzykalnaya Gazeta, as a columnist over at naviny.by named the label, in whose catalogue mediocre albums are rare, “outstanding.”[13]

[1]

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title: West Records

question: What is West Records?

answer: West Records is a record label in the Republic of Belarus. It has handled major Belarusian bands including Depeche Mode, N.R.M., Open Space, and others.

question: List the International Labels that West Records is a distributor of.

answer:
Sony BMG
Universal
EMI

question: Why was West Records fined $600,000 in 2003?

answer: State Control Committee found that West Records committed violations in its financial and economic activities.

question: What is the reputation of West Records?

answer: While not directly stated, West Records has won editorial awards and is praised by critics. It is likely that the company is generally well received.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: Belarusian record label West Records, known for releasing Depeche Mode, N.R.M, and others, was once fined by the State Control Committee for violations in financial and economic activities in 2003. This has not caused long term damage to the company's reputation as it continued be well received in the following years.


text:
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Create an investment strategy driven by top-tier research and fundamentals data, then back-test and adjust as needed. When historical performance meets your expectations, invest in the strategy and tracks its performance in your portfolio.

Set up an investment strategy based on research and rankings from top buy-side providers and fundamentals data. Use filters to define the universe of equities that will comprise your strategy and back-test based on up to eight years of historical performance. Work in hypothetical mode to adjust the strategy until the historical performance meets your standards, and with the click of a button let the system create the orders to invest in your strategy. Follow your strategy's performance in your portfolio.

_Advisors Note: Advisors who want to invest must first enable their accounts for Model Portfolios. To do this, log into Client Portal. From the menu select_ SETTINGS _and then select_ Account Settings_. In the Configuration panel on the right side of the page, select the configuration "gear" icon for Model Portfolios to enable._ _Advisors who are not enabled for Model Portfolios can use Portfolio Builder to build and backtest strategies, but will not be able to invest in models._

Using the Tool

Open the Portfolio Builder

-   From Mosaic: Use the New Window dropdown and from the Trade section select PORTFOLIO BUILDER.
-   From Classic: Use the Trading Tools menu and from the Multi-Contract section select PORTFOLIO BUILDER.

Click "Create New Strategy" to open and edit Investment Rules in the sidecar populated with sample data based on the last sorting option you selected. The main Portfolio Builder reflects changes made in the sidecar in real time.

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Step 1: Creating an Investment Strategy

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The two-part window comprises a sidecar with various settings, and a full window that displays the results of your setting decisions as you work. Depending on the layout of the users' TWS, the sidecar may display to the right or to the left of the main Portfolio Builder window. Use the scroll bar on the far right side of the sidecar to use all available settings.

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Investment Amount and Long/Short Leverage

Use a hypothetical investment amount or use your account's Current Available Funds, and then specify what percentage of that amount you want to allocate toward creating long and short positions. Long positions allow up to 500% of the investment amount, and short up to 300%. Define restrictions on all or specific stocks. Select Filter by Industry to display the Industry Filter. Specify industries to include in your hypothetical portfolio, and set limits on how much of each industry to include as long and/or short positions.

Universe

Define the universe of equities for the strategy to invest. Filter by index and a "last price" range to start, and use the Add Additional Filters drop down list to choose from a myriad of other filter criteria including High/Low/Volume/History, Dividends, Fundamentals and Short Selling. Set a Minimum/Maximum range for all filters, and view the filter and min/max range graphically in each filter's histogram chart.

Investment Strategy

Sort all stocks in the universe by

-   MARKET CAPITALIZATION: Sort potential investments by Market Cap.
-   ANALYST RATINGS: Sort potential investments by rankings from 11 top buy side providers.
    -   Non-subscribed providers, indicated by a lock+ icon, require four or more to give you any ranking criteria. (We require four so that users can't see the specific ranking criteria from unsubscribed provider but will still get ranking information) Users can launch the Market Data Subscription manager from the "you have no subscription" message.
    -   Providers showing the yellow triangle icon have limited historical data that will not cover the full backtesting period.
    -   Providers that display no associated icon are subscribed.

Select a provider* and use the slider to set the weighting*.

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*For information on individual providers and how the "Weights" setting affects how stocks are ranked, see the Ranking Logic and Providers sections below.

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*For information on how the position sizing is calculated, see the Ranking Logic section below.

-   OTHER CRITERIA: Sort potential investments by ranking from over 60 additional criteria, several of which we select for you to get you started. Use the slider or Weights field for each selection to determine weighting.

Maintain Positions

Indicate how you would like the strategy to maintain long and short positions ranked by providers. Selectors let you pick "the top" or "the bottom" and define the number of equities from the ranking to maintain.

Position Sizing

Specify whether positions should be established with equal size, or sized proportionally based on weights and rankings.

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Rebalance

Specify a time interval when you want the system to review how rankings have changed, compare these changes to your current investments, and suggest changes that would bring your investment strategy back into sync with your specified ranking and position maintenance settings.

Portfolio Builder will create orders designed to bring these two elements back into sync, but you must manually transmit the orders.

Backtest Settings

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Set the time period over which back testing results are displayed and the index against which performance is charted. Elect to optimize the weight of positions based on highest return, lowest variance or highest Sharpe ratio, and the weight of ranking providers.

Each time you make changes to the investment rules they are automatically saved. These strategies are labeled with a large "H."

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Once you invest, your strategy will be marked with a large green "I" and these designations will be very clear in the "Library" of investment strategies shown in the sidecar when you first open the tool.

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Step 2: Invest in your Portfolio

Once the strategy is in place and investment rules are complete, click INVEST to start the investment wizard.

Enter Investment Amount

Enter an Investment Amount. Remember this is no longer hypothetical. If you're editing your investment rules, your current capital invested in the strategy will be displayed in the Current Capital field.

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Apply Rounding Rules

Optionally elect to round mixed and round lots. Note that applying rounding rules may impact the final investment amount. You will receive a message if the applied rounding rules result in an investment amount that is significantly higher than your original amount. For example, an odd lot of 16 shares rounded up to the nearest hundred would cost significantly more than the amount originally allotted.

Select Order Type

Next select the order type using the Create Orders using drop down selector. Note that you will not be able to modify the order type or price before submitting orders except on this section of the wizard.

-   Market on Open — submits orders to fill at or close to the next day's opening price.
-   Market on Close — submits orders to fill at or close to today's closing price.
-   VWAP — achieves the volume weighted average price (as calculated by Bloomberg).

-   Limit @ Bid/Ask (marketable) — buy order placed at the ask, sell placed at the bid
-   Limit @ Bid/Ask (non-marketable) — buy order placed at the bid, sell placed at the ask
-   Market — uses market orders

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Review Order Summary

Orders to implement your portfolio strategy appear in the ORDERS sidecar. To make changes go back up to the appropriate section of the wizard.

To submit all orders as they appear, click "INVEST NOW."

Working orders will display in the ORDERS sidecar and in the Orders tab of the Activity panel.

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Once the orders are complete you are invested in the strategy. Depending on the Rebalance setting you defined in your strategy, you will be prompted to rebalance the portfolio to re-sync it with your investment plan every interval, and every time you update the Investment Strategy.

Ranking Logic

For each analyst the user selects, an analyst score is given to each stock in the set that remains after all applied filters have been satisfied, including index membership, industry, closing price range etc. The score is a basic sort, according to the analyst's rating category (i.e. 1 star 5 star) and market cap (largest market caps sorted higher for buy-rated stocks, lower for sell-rated stocks) which is nested within the category rating. These are then spread across an arbitrary interval of 0 20000 and ranked according to each stock's average analyst scores. The ranking is repeated at the close of each rebalance period (which is defined by the user).

Let's look at an example using Morningstar and TheStreet as ranking providers. Let's assume that five stocks remain after filtering. To calculate the final ranking, first we take the ratings of those stocks and assign a value on an arbitrary interval of 0 to 20,000:

           Morningstar Rating   TheStreet Rating
  -------- -------------------- ------------------
  Stock1   5 Star (20000)       A+ (20000)
  Stock2   2 Star ( 5000)       C- ( 0)
  Stock3   1 Star ( 0)          B (10000)
  Stock4   3 Star (10000)       B+ (15000)
  Stock5   4 Star (15000)       C ( 5000)

Let's use the sliders to weight Morningstar at 100% and TheStreet at 40%. In this case, the weighted averages of these stocks would be:

           Ranking Calculation                           Outcome
  -------- --------------------------------------------- ---------
  Stock1   (100*20000 + 40*20000) / (100 + 40) = 20000   1
  Stock2   (100* 5000 + 40* 0) / (100 + 40) = 3571       4
  Stock3   (100* 0 + 40*10000) / (100 + 40) = 2857       5
  Stock4   (100*10000 + 40*15000) / (100 + 40) = 11428   3
  Stock5   (100*15000 + 40* 5000) / (100 + 40) = 12142   2

Notice that by using the slide to weight Morningstar at 100% and TheStreet at 40%, stock 2 comes out with a higher rank than stock 3 even though TheSteet had ranked stock 3 two steps above stock 2.

In the above example, if you buy the highest ranked two stocks and sell the lowest two ranked stocks, you'll be buying stocks 1 and 5 and selling stocks 2 and 3. But how do we know much of each we will buy and sell?

If we select equal sizing, we will purchase the same dollar amount of stock 5 as of stock 1 and sell the same dollar amounts each of stocks 2 and 3. (say buy $100k of stock 1, buy $100k of stock5, sell $100k of stock 2, sell $100k of stock3).

If we select proportional sizing, we'll buy more of stock 1 than stock 5 since it was ranked higher, and sell more of stock 3 than stock 2 since it was ranked lower. The exact amount we would buy or sell is proportional to the score and is calculated as:

STOCK 1: Ranking value / (ranking value stock 1 + ranking value stock 5)

STOCK 5: Ranking value/ ((ranking value stock 1 + ranking value stock 5)

OR:

LONG
Stock 1 20000 / (20000+12142) = 62%
Stock 5 12142 / (20000+12142) = 38%

SHORT
Stock 2 16429 / (16429+17143) = -49%
Stock 3 -17143 / (16429+17143) = -51%

With the shorts, we use the numbers subtracted from the max score 20000 (e.g., 20000-3571=16439) since that makes it the mirror image of the long calculations. Notice that this is "proportional" since ratios are preserved, e.g., 20000 is to 12142 as 62% of your money in one stock vs 38% in the other. A bigger difference in scores will yield a bigger difference in allocation. For the above shorts on stocks 2 and 3 in the table above, 2857 and 3571 aren't that far apart, and so we'll be investing about the same amount: 49% compared with 51%.

question: What are the different ways one can sort stocks?

answer: One can sort stocks by market capitalization, analyst rantings, as well as 60 other criteria.

question: What are the different types of orders one can make?

answer: One can purchase stocks when the market opens or closes. One can also buy when a stock reaches a certain asking point.

question: What is the minimum purchase quantity?

question: What are the eligibility requirements for using the product?


text:
On July 12-21, 1784, a Western coalition battle fleet “unleashed hell” on the city of Algiers, the heart of a tenacious Islamic emirate. Led by a Spanish fleet (and financed by the Papacy), the expedition included squadrons from the kingdoms of Portugal, Naples and the Order of Malta.

After 20,000 bombs and cannon shot, much of Algiers and its forts lay ruined, with the Barbary fleet destroyed. The DEY signed a treaty with Spain that held off piracy for a generation.

Bombardment is theater

As soon as princes had big enough cannon (by the mid-15th century), they started orchestrating them in great shows of smoke and fire.

For 500 years, since the Mehmet’s cannonade of Constantinople in 1453, these grand operas have been staged with the same hopes that Spain’s coalition attack brought to Algiers. Bombardments from the sea matured in the 18th century, when cannon could be massed on sailing battleships.

But today such shows are exclusively American theater. To understand why the world shivers a little when they are performed, and why this theater still works, requires revisiting earlier historical venues.

The key question is this: When America bombards, how is that different from other celebrated cannonades in other times and places?

The Ottoman Sultans Mehmet II made cannonade theater and Suleiman amplified the opera at Rhodes (1480, 1522) and Malta (1565) and Heraklion (or Candia, 1667-1669). But it was the Sun King himself, France Louis XIV, who made bombardment the god’s theater of war, by making sieges of fortified cities the centerpiece of national strategy.

Each siege was a grand orchestration designed for onlookers as much as enemy. It was also a grand occasion for the French court and its foreign guests. Each and every one of Louis’ military gambits was a glorious happening as much as a combat operation.

By the 19th century, bombardment moved to the margins of world events, but it took center stage again as European imperialism gathered steam (literally and figuratively).

Victorian sea power was not much about naval battles as it was about naval cannonade – and that means the bombardment of cities. Even 200 years ago, as at Algiers, the ships-of-the-line could present from 30 to 60 cannon on broadside for firing at one time, as massed smoothbore cannon, which could intimidate great cities and whole populations — that is, if they were in-range of battleship guns.

Hence, the shelling of Algiers (1784, 1816), St. Jean d’Acre (1840), the Taku forts (1859-60), Veracruz (1838, 1847, 1863), Shimonoseki (1864) and Alexandria (1882). They were all core intimidations of vulnerable places — vulnerable that is, in their undeveloped state, to European imperialism.

These bombardments always had fig leaf cover — to stop Mediterranean piracy, stop Muhammad Ali from toppling the Ottoman Empire, make Mexico pay its debts, or just defend “national interests.” But at their core, they were highly opportunistic events and calculatedly instrumental.

These bombardments were all initiated either to extend European influence and control or, falling short of that, to open a wedge for invasion and occupation. In other words, this was “realism” in its purest form — in this case, serving European interests.

A nation of realists?

But here is the catch: Unlike the Europe of yesteryear, today’s America is not a land of realists. I realize this assertion must disappoint many in Washington, that Imperial City.

But even sober-minded and anti-imperial journalists like HENRY ALLEN write in the Washington Post that Americans “fight for virtue.” Hence, it is passion, not reason, that rules.

The new American virtue is more about righteous punishment — in short, retributive justice.

Hence, America’s opera of bombardment is not only different from the raison d’état of Mehmet II or Louis XIV: It represents a different species.

Old monarchs orchestrated the grand theater of pyrotechnic transcendence to ratify their imperial authority, while Victorian parliamentary potentates, from Prime Minister to Monsieur le Président, their parliamentary dominance.

When they sent big gun squadrons out to bombard a seaside city, it was all about extracting concessions or forcing submission. America, cloaked in righteousness but with the same intentions, sends air weapons out to bring about real and media mayhem — to punish.

Moreover, America is the doyen and sole proprietor now of the bombardment-of-nations franchise: Both as world-theater and its own testament to justice.

Still, in our collective minds, we Americans still have a sense of fulfilling God’s charge. We say we are still his chosen agent to redeem humanity. Even President Obama, who has done much to cut America down to size, cannot escape the beckoning halo of this rhetoric.

As he reminds, punishment delivers a virtuous message: “What message will we send if a dictator can gas hundreds of children to death in plain sight and pay no price?”  Those were the words he used in his September 10, 2013 address to the nation on the Syria issue.

It was not always so for us Americans. Retributive justice as an official component of America’s divine agency did not even exist until the Civil War. It was at that time when the federal cause against the Secessionist states was in desperate need of enthusiasm. And so a powerful paradigm of punishment for Confederate evil was framed.

God as a bomber

Once embedded in our collective American ethos, however, this paradigm easily resurfaced in World War II – through the doctrine of strategic bombardment.

Initially, U.S. airpower doctrine carefully focused on the precision bombing of enemy industry, energy and strategic transport (aka railroads).

But by the end of World War II, the original restraints tying our hands had all been severed, freeing us to go after the whole of the enemy people. That we did later, in Germany – and most zealously against Japan, with undisguised ardor.

Punishment of enemy society became anointed mission thereafter, whether there was international sanction (Korea) or not (Vietnam).

And this was a bipartisan venture: Democrats do it as often as Republicans. Hence, a Democrat president will initiate a Syrian bombardment-opera that mirrors his predecessor Democrat’s air campaign, not so many years ago, against Serbia.

Bombardment of nations has become America’s modus operandi — its signature international enterprise and wholly owned world franchise.

More critically, it has replaced original, more compassionate framings of American virtue. Bombing nations has in some cases (especially after 9-11) actually come to stand in our minds for liberation itself. It is intended not only as the punishment of evil, but also as its very purification.

This scheme emerged powerfully at the end of World War II, where newsreel images of leveled German cities became our testament of Nazi evil expunged from the face of the earth.

Crucially, however, the most powerful appeal of retributive justice is in its seductive tie to America’s divine agency. If we are the righteous arm of God, then ultimately we must not depend on the courage and moral fortitude of others — because evil is at last, our business.

As U.S. Secretary of State Kerry declared: “Assad has now joined Hitler and Hussein.” We cannot stand by as evil stalks the earth.

Many on the left will moan over this exceptional exercise of the bombardment-franchise — but then, that is exactly the point, according to the underlying script.

We are Americans, and Americans are by definition, exceptional, because we are chosen. No one else: Not ancien monarchs and sultans, not Victorian prime ministers and les présidents, can go forth among humanity today and lay waste to the wicked. Only we Americans are entitled to do so, declaring all the while the unimpeachable righteousness of what we do.

Ironically, it is in this context of dispensation that the much talked about “realist” vision comes into play. Think about it: The very exercise of such strength, unopposed, is in itself absolute and unquestionable ratification of American primacy.

Thus, a realist might argue that strategic bombardment is the essence of “world leadership” or “hegemony” or stainless “credibility:” A living testament that we are not in fact in decline — as you can see with your own eyes.

Hence, there is a supremely practical and self-interested side to virtuous, strategic bombardment.

The trick, of course, is pulling it off. Remember Operation El Dorado Canyon, the air raid on Libya in 1986, or Operation Desert Fox, the bombardment of Iraq in 1998, or the cruise missile strike on the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical plant (also in 1998)?

Strikes for retributive justice usually have more elusive metrics of achievement than antique bombardments to stop piracy.

Even those racked up a spotty historical record. That Spanish-coalition bombardment of Algiers, that succeeded so well in 1784? It was preceded the year before by a botched Spanish cannonade that failed utterly, like so many strikes against the Barbary emirs — and so many of our own.

Is the lure of virtuous retribution so seductive to Americans that we cannot resist its call?

question: Explain why bombardments were so widespread in the last 500 years.

answer: Bombardments, at one point, were considered theater. When princes had big enough cannons, they started orchestrating them in big shows of smoke and fire. In the 15-17th centuries, national strategies were the sieges of fortified cities. Meanwhile European imperialism gained momentum around the world, bombarding cities to extend their influence. Over time, bombardments "shows" became exclusively American theater.


text:
-   1 Introduction
-   2 The Story So Far
-   3 Gameplay
-   4 Contact Me

Introduction

I owned an Xbox One, so that means I have the option to buy a monthly payment of EA Access, granting me access to a trial of Dragon Age: Inquisition. Lucky me! So I started a broadcast of it on Twitch, with my older brother watching me play. And to top it off, I decided to play it on the highest difficulty: Nightmare. Unfortunately, I forgot to make sure that my channel store it for later, so I can't share it with you. Thankfully, I have a good enough memory to describe the gist of it, so onward to glory!

Spoilers for the Inquisition and previous games in the below section. Read at your own risk!

The Story So Far

Conspiracies from all over Thedas, a civil war brewing in Orlais, and a demonic invasion from beyond the Veil, intending to wreck the world in more ways than one. In the center of it all was me, the Inquisitor. I am Neeshka, a female Qunari rogue who was a mercenary of the Valo-kas company, well-known in the Free Marshes. If you want to be technical, you could say that I'm a Tal-Vashoth, one who abandoned the Qun. I was supposed to make sure the peace conference at the Temple of the Sacred Ashes, that one at Haven, go smoothly. As you can tell, it went horribly wrong.

The first thing I did after waking up (and customizing my appearance), I looked around, lost in the vast void. I looked up, finding a woman beckoning to me. So I went to her, through the thick, green fog. As I walked up the hill, strange spiders, a whole bunch of them, chased me. As far as I know, I did _not_ sign up for this! Just before I reached her grasp as I crawled on the ground, I found myself whisked back into the physical world of Thedas and lost consciousness. Two, maybe three guards had found me like this.

I woke up in a dungeon. A strange, green glow appeared on my left hand, bringing me great pain. The door swung open, bringing in Cassandra Pentaghast and Leliana. Cassandra interrogated me, accusing me of causing of whatever mess I don't really recall. Leliana asked me nicely, but I still don't remember what happen. Leliana left to the forward base while Cassandra brought me outside and cut me free from my bindings. She showed me a giant, green glow in the sky. She and many others called it the Breach, where demons travel from the Fade to here, wreaking havoc on the world. A tremble happened, causing me great pain as the mark spread. Unless I do something about that breach, I would die. I guess I had no other choice but to help.

Cassandra and I went on to find a rift, so we could find a way to close the Breach. On the way, we were crossing over a bridge, but it fell apart because the debris from the Breach struck it down. As we landed on the frozen lake, we were ambushed by a pack of demons. As Cassandra was holding them off, I found a pair of identical daggers conveniently placed by a fallen crate. Naturally, as an adventurer myself, I grabbed them and slew the shade that attacked me. After the fight was over, Cassandra wasn't happy I had a weapon in my hands. Hey, what I was supposed to do, lie down and let that thing kill me? Thankfully, Cassandra saw reason and we continued on. At nearby ruins, we stumbled upon Solas and Varric fighting some demons. At the center was a rift. It was smaller than the one at the Temple. After we fought and killed the demons, Solas brought my marked hand up to the rift and it sealed off. After being amazed by the effect and introducing ourselves, we continued on, with Solas and Varric joining up.

We make it to a fort and, after resupplying our potions, met Leliana and Chancellor Roderick, who was less than helpful. He told us that we need to get out of here, stat, and demanded that I should be put on trial. In case you haven't noticed, idiot: if we leave, the Rift will spread and it will kill me. But there was another problem. Our scouts were lost in the mountains and we were losing our soldiers by the minute. We have two options: save the soldiers or take a shortcut to save the scouts. I chose to take the short, indirect route, using our soldiers as a distraction, to save the scouts.

We went to Ground Zero, grabbing Leliana on the way. All around us, we could see bodies burnt to a crisp. At the center, we found the Breach. We heard voices and a vision of a grand cleric, presumably Justina, held hostage by a giant, dark figure. Cassandra pressed me what happened and, no, I still don't remember. How many times do I have to tell her that? But we got another problem on our hands. A Pride demon appeared as we prepared to close the rift. It was a tough battle, but as it was close to its death, I sealed the rift and I blacked out again.

Some time had passed and I woke up in a shack. An elven servant found me there and apologized, informing me that Cassandra wanted to see me as soon as possible. The Breach was stabilized for now, but the sky was still torn apart. I went there and met up with Roderick, Cassandra, and Leliana. He was less than pleased to see me and left angrily. With the formalities and with little choice I had in the matter, we formed the Inquisition.

I wandered around Haven, doing some work for some of my cohorts to help with our army. I talked to Varric, Cassandra, Solas, Cullen, Josephine, and Leliana, along with the rest of my cohorts. Leliana was bitter about what happened at the Temple, saying it was the Maker, playing it as a game. I told her otherwise. Cullen left the Templar and Cassandra left the Seekers after they cut off from the Chantry. Varric told me what happened to Hawke's companions. Carver went on Grey Warden business, Merril left to help the elven refugees at Kirkwall, Isabella became an admiral of a pirate fleet, and Fenris was hunting down Tevinter slavers, and Aveline continued to be the captain of the guard. Strangely enough, he hasn't mentioned Hawke at all. As for Solas, he was a Fade Walker; he can connect there at many ancient places, dreaming of lost battles, both forgotten and remembered. He seemed pleased that I expressed curiosity.

Inside the fort, I found Josephine arguing with an Orlesian noble who claimed he owned the land. Josephine pointed out he needed to confer to the Ferelden courts for that matter. With that, the noble left, leaving me with her and a mage who specialized in studying monsters and creatures. I can't remember the mage's name, sorry. Josephine came from Antiva and wounded up helping the Inquisition because she was a friend of Leliana and wanted to help bring order back to Thedas.

I went to my war room and my advisers talked about what we should do next. Leliana said there was a cleric attending to the wounded from the fight between the mages and templars at the Hinterlands. I sent a scout there and, after tying up loose ends and prepared my equipment, traveled there.

One of my scouts, Harding, told me of the situation with the cleric. She told me the cleric can't leave unless I could find a way to help the refugees. But first, I have other tasks to attend to. It wasn't like she was going anywhere anytime soon. And to end it all, I roamed around the lands with Varric, Cassandra, and Solas, doing a few tasks to gather agents and resources for my army, setting up camps around the area, sealed a few rifts, and some menial tasks here and there. Oh, and I got a horse, so that was nice!

Gameplay

There's a steep difficulty curve, especially within the first hour, but I got used to the controls real quick. As you know, there were no healing spells, save for the Knight Enchanter's Focus Ability, Resurgence, where all party members, even if they're unconscious, were fully healed and a glyph was placed, healing all party members within it every second for ten seconds. More focus can increase the amount healed by the glyph.

I have a few tips for this game:

-   You can't heal after combat, so you have to rely on your health potions. Use them sparingly; you start out with eight and can upgrade to 12 later on with an Inquisitor perk. You get a perk by leveling up your Influence.
-   Get a horse as soon as possible. You can get a horse as part of a side quest.
-   Grab some regenerative potions. They're great to be used as backup and it can be used individually, unlike the regular health potions. The downside is that you can't replenish it by resting. You have to use elfroots at a camp.
-   Watch your step. You can take fall damage. What doesn't help is that you don't regenerate out of combat.
-   On higher difficulties, use the Tactical view. It can help you set up strategies to take out enemies more easily and quickly.
-   If you're playing as a ranged character or companion, elevation and range are your friend. If you're on high ground, the enemy's AI will have to go to you while you whittle down their health bar.
-   Bring a mage. They can have the ability to set up a barrier, negating damage for a period of time. The warrior can do that with the Shieldwall ability, setting up defenses to nearby allies. They can also set up their own guards via War Cry. The more enemies it goes, the more guard the warrior gets.
-   Be wary of high-level enemies. They can thoroughly kick your ass.
-   Save early, save often.
-   So far, I seemingly can't increase my attributes this time. I can do that by setting up my equipment or picking passive abilities.

Contact Me

If you want to see more of the game, check out my channel. I'll be doing more of Dragon Age: Inquisition on the Xbox One. If you want to contact me, here is the available information:

My Xbox Gamertag: Nord Ronnoc

Twitter: @NordRonnoc

Email: NordRonnoc@gmail.com

If you have any questions or such, let me know. But please be courteous and excellent to each other. Do not discriminate based on gender, sexuality, race, etc. Thank you.

question: Summarize the plot of Dragon Age: Inquisition.

answer: The protagonist wakes up in a void, feeling lost. They can't remember anything, but a woman beckons, and they go to her - collapsing just before reaching her. The protagonist wakes up in a dungeon, where Cassandra and Leliana ask questions about the demonic rift that opened, but the protagonist doesn't remember anything. The protagonist has the ability to close the rifts, and they start their adventures to find a way to stop these rifts once and for all. They close many smaller rifts and gather an army, forming the Inquisition. The protagonist, and the Inquisition, continue to close the rifts they find and amassing forces. The article doesn't mention what happens after that.

question: What does the article say about the game's difficulty?

answer: The author plays at the highest difficulty setting, Nightmare. The difficulty curve is steep. They caution against taking too much damage as there's no way to regenerate health besides potions and a single ability that heals during combat. The player needs to be careful about not falling as there's fall damage. Using the tactical view helps set up strategies. Finally, the author recommends saving early and often.

question: What does the article say about dragons?


text:
The sign said 80 but it felt like 60. If it wasn’t absolutely bucketing it down there might have been some room for error, but the thing was obviously faulty because it couldn’t recognize the rain drops or their cold pitter-patter on its top.

So 80 it would remain.

I headed to Alley Cat at 11 p.m. for no reason other than to get out of my flat. I appreciate the place, don’t get me wrong. I especially appreciate the rent. It helps to maintain a lifestyle where I must cut corners to save pennies and dimes, which I put into a jar in the kitchen to pay for a twice-a-week visit to the hookah lounge, so that I might find some relaxation in the smoke.

I don’t appreciate the heat that gathers there like flies to a piece of meat. It says 60 on the temperature gauge but it feels like 80… or higher. It is a yellowed thing and probably was born in the 70s, as evidenced by its total lack of design or aesthetic. The flat always seems messy too. It takes up to two hours every morning just to make the place look a bit nicer, in case anybody stops by. After all, I can’t have the UPS man getting suspicions about my drug habits. And a clean room turns away all suspicion.

That, in addition to the six articles waiting on my whiteboard for their deadline, forced me to leave after I had already gone to bed decidedly fed up.

So I biked.

I started in second and went immediately to fourth, to fifth, and finally to sixth as I approached a red light. I’ve never really had a need to go lower than second gear on a bike. To an outsider, or a pedestrian, the pedals begin to look like a hamster wheel – turning incredibly fast and going nowhere. I suppose that’s always been the chief difference between hamsters and humans… we have a direction, a purpose, that isn’t simply to escape the cage.

The red light shot to green and I took off. Shields St. was in dire need of repair, as I could feel each individual rock and warped piece of concrete beneath my front wheel. I forgot to switch back to second as I took off, and it took me longer than I care to admit until I realized.

But by that time I was already careening through the CSU campus at about 30 or 35, so I didn’t really have time to dwell. I thought, what with all the rain and wet, that if I downshifted then something fucked up would happen. I don’t wear helmets so if anything happened to that chain, something would happen to my head. Something would go all over the pavement. Like a busted watermelon thrown against the ground from the back of a sprinting horse. It would be just as wet, just as red, and just as much of a waste.

I took my hands off the handlebars and outstretched them. I had balance, but not comfort, as If I had melted with the rain and become a very human-shaped puddle. I kept my arms like that for a while. Every now and again I would close my eyes for a brief few seconds. It was easy. The darkness surrounded me but I had my very own darkness behind my eyelids to stare at on that trip.

I didn’t notice if any cars were coming or passing. It was late in the summer on a college campus. I would have been surprised to see a single soul.

I focused on the wind as it rushed over me. Each raindrop hit harder than the last, and going down a steep hill I began to worry “Why the fuck is it hailing! Am I gonna make it?” There were puddles to my left, to my right, in front, and then behind as I ran them over and sprayed gallons of rain to the side. The puddles didn’t make me wet though. Just the sky.

I opened my eyes as I got to the transit center. The pavement stopped me from going further, or rather tried to. My bike was decent enough to deal with a few vertical inches of pavement.

A few meters ahead of me uphill, I didn’t know it yet, there was a raccoon to the left, frantically trying to find a way across the empty bike path. I approached, and it darted out. I braked and skidded, my bike flipping over its side as I rolled to the grass. It was a clay pigeon out of its bunker. And I didn’t have my rifle to react with. It hopped, glancing side to side, up a tree and into its black branches. I only caught a glimpse of it after that. Its yellowed eyes oddly fit the black mask surrounding them. It had the look of a bandit, but none of the confidence or threat.

We shared a single thought – it’s pouring, and I need shelter. The raccoon had fur, and layers of it, to protect it from the skies. I had my flannel and a washed-out-grey shirt I grabbed from my dresser. And I had loose jeans. Jeans get awfully tight when they’re soaked. And these jeans were a deranged snake suffocating my thighs.

I scraped as much dirt as I could off of me and checked my clothes for tears. Clean. Good. Won’t have to shell out $20 again this week for something I suddenly needed. My bike lay about 20 feet away, and it looked like the chain had fallen off and, like a parakeet, flown off somewhere. I walked over and it was closer to the wreck than I expected. The handlebar was a bent in the wrong direction, and after picking up the thing and shoving the front wheel between my legs, I managed to temporarily sort it out. I strung the chain back onto the spokes and, hands now covered in grease and oil, grabbed the handlebar and took off again, only this time more slowly and with my front light on.

Having come back to the main road, I kept my eyes open. There were actually cars driving here, and I couldn’t be a busted watermelon with work to finish and deadlines to meet. I don’t want to think about whether that the only thing that keeps me going. At the time the only thing that kept me going were my feet, pedaling at more than 100 or 120 rpm. My heartbeat was only a little higher. So I stopped pedaling. I was nearing the café anyway. I had enough speed to keep myself going and got there without any more effort.

The Alley Cat is a 24 hour café with a ton of tables but not enough room. When I walked up the stairs to get inside, I could only see two spots open – one next to the register, and one by a window. I sat by the window, because, like my flat, it was altogether too hot inside. It turned out to be a mistake, as the rain came down harder than before.

I wrote with a red pen because of the way it stood out from the white page, but when drops sprayed onto the page, the ink bled through and I lost half an hour’s work.

A few guys came by and managed to get the stubborn window shut, which didn’t help because I had already shifted into a drier seat nearby that had just lost an occupant. Honestly I preferred that the window stay open at this point… it reminded me that there was an outside world and that I was trapped here for the better part of an hour or two. Depending on how long the downpour lasted, it could have been even longer. The rain’s music was much more inspiring than whatever yoga crap the new-agers in the corner were playing at full volume. I glanced around to see if anybody was as pissed off as I was about them but my interest was greeted with silence, with stares at computers and smart phones and papers and novels.

Nobody gave a shit. Nobody cared. They figured, “they’ll be gone soon enough, then I can really get to work!”

I got back to my own writing, with headphones in this time. I could still faintly hear their songs through mine, but at that point I was too tired, too stressed to give it another thought. The pen shook in my hand as I wrote, jittery almost, but it gave my words a personal touch. As if the reader (me) could get a better sense of what was going through my head and hands at the time.

I ended up being there for about two and a half hours, and wrote three, maybe four pages total. I had three tall glasses of water to keep me going in that time. The rain stopped at some point while I was there, but I didn’t quite get the exact time. I think it was around 2 a.m. that I picked up and left. As I looked back, heading out the door, I saw that every table was full, and every person sitting was doing something. Something out loud, something personal, something with a group, and everyone was active. And on the floor, poured from their boots, shit and wood shavings collected into tiles and images that I could lay on and roll around in, if I wanted to. The FDA said I could eat here, drink coffee here, even with all this filth just laying around. Who would pick it all up? Certainly not the staff. They were too busy making drinks for tired and anxious students who thought the solution to their problems would be a stiff double espresso and chai latte in the early hours of the morning.

Maybe hamsters and humans aren’t so different after all.

title: [RF] The sign said 80 but it felt like 60.

question: What does the story say about Alley Cat?

answer: It's a 24-hour cafe that's always full. When the narrator goes there, it's crowded as always, and there is a group playing music loudly. Most others seem unconcerned. The narrator assumes that they think they'll be able to focus on their tasks once the group leaves, which should be soon. The place is decidedly not clean, the floor covered with whatever the patrons brought under their boots. The narrator waits out the heavy rain and ends up staying for about two and a half hours while working.

question: What does the story say about the tranquility of rain?


text:
RUTH SEBATINDIRA is a Ugandan corporate and tax lawyer who, effective January 2020, is the Administrator of Uganda Telecom Limited,[1] a government-owned telecommunications company, under court administration since April 2017.[2]

Background and education

Sebatindira was born in Kampala Uganda in 1973. She holds a Bachelor of Laws degree, obtained from Makerere University, Uganda's oldest and largest public university. She also holds a postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice, awarded by he Law Development Centre, in Kampala, Uganda's capital city. Her Master of Laws degree was obtained from the University of Manchester, in the United Kingdom.[3][4]

Career

Sebatindira was called to the bar in 1997, and started her career as an associate at Kalenge, Bwanika, Kimuli & Company, Advocates in Kampala where she worked for five years. She then worked at Deloitte Uganda as Senior Tax Advisor until 2003, when she founded Ligomarc Advocates. She is the partner in charge of tax and infrastructure at Ligomarc Advocates.[5][6]

In 2003, Sebatindira founded Ligomarc Advocates, a Kampala-based law firm, as a solo practice. Later others joined the practice, and as of January 2020, the firm has four partners, 18 lawyers and a total staff of 45.[7]

Her work over the past 23 years has included corporate insolvency, shareholder disputes, lender enforcement actions, tax advisory services, intellectual property and commercial projects negotiations and contracts. As of January 2020, she is actively involved in advising clients on tax implications in financing agreements, oil agreements, energy transactions and infrastructure development.[8]

On 2 January 2020, Justice Lydia Mugambe of the Civil Division of the High Court of Uganda appointed Sebatindira as the Administrator of Uganda Telecom Limited, a parastatal company in court-appointed receivership since April 2017.[9] Sebatindira took over the administration of UTL from Bemanya Twebaze on 6 January 2020.[10]

Memberships and affiliations

Sebatindira is a member of the Uganda Law Society, the East Africa Law Society, the International Bar Association, the International Fiscal Association, and the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators.[11]

Other considerations

She served as the president of the Uganda Law Society from 2013 until 2016.[12] She served as founding chairperson of the Women Lawyers Committee at the Uganda Law Society in 2011.[13] She is a Commissioner at the Judicial Service Commission, which advises the President of Uganda on the appointment of judges.[14]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

title: Ruth Sebatindira

question: How can you describe the status of Ruth Sebatindira?

answer: The status of Ruth Sebatindira must be quite high as she is a very accomplished female, who has established quite a career path.

question: What types of clients would seek out Sebatindira?

answer: Clients who needed advise on financing agreements, oil agreements, energy transactions and infrastructure development would seek out Sebatindira.


text:
PENDER COUNTY is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2010 census, the population was 52,217.[1] Its county seat is Burgaw.[2]

Pender County is part of the Wilmington, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area.

History

The county was formed in 1875 from New Hanover County. It was named for William Dorsey Pender of Edgecombe County, a Confederate general mortally wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg.[3] It is in the southeastern section of the state and is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean and New Hanover, Brunswick, Columbus, Bladen, Sampson, Duplin, and Onslow Counties. The present land area is and the 2010 population was 52,196, which has nearly doubled since 1990. The estimated county population in 2019 has increased to 63,060. [4] The county commissioners were ordered to hold their first meeting at Rocky Point. The act provided for the establishment of the town of Cowan as the county seat. In 1877, an act was passed repealing that section of the law relative to the town, and another law was enacted whereby the qualified voters were to vote on the question of moving the county seat to South Washington or any other place which the majority of the voters designated. Whatever place was selected, the town should be called Stanford. In 1879, Stanford was changed to Burgaw, which was by that law incorporated. It is the county seat. The stretch of I-40 through the county is a notorious speed trap.[5]

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (6.8%) is water.[6] It is the fifth-largest county in North Carolina by land area.

Adjacent counties

-   Duplin County — north
-   Onslow County — northeast
-   New Hanover County — south
-   Brunswick County — south
-   Columbus County — southwest
-   Bladen County — west
-   Sampson County — northwest

Protected areas

-   Holly Shelter Game Land
-   Lea-Hutaff Island
-   Moores Creek National Battlefield

Major highways

-   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -

Demographics

As of the census[7] of 2000, there were 41,082 people, 16,054 households, and 11,719 families residing in the county. The population density was 47 people per square mile (18/km²). There were 20,798 housing units at an average density of 24 per square mile (9/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 72.74% White, 23.58% Black or African American, 0.49% Native American, 0.18% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 2.03% from other races, and 0.94% from two or more races. 3.64% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 16,054 households, out of which 29.40% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.90% were married couples living together, 11.20% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.00% were non-families. 22.90% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.50% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.49 and the average family size was 2.90.

In the county, the population was spread out, with 23.20% under the age of 18, 7.40% from 18 to 24, 29.50% from 25 to 44, 25.80% from 45 to 64, and 14.10% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females there were 101.20 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 99.50 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $35,902, and the median income for a family was $41,633. Males had a median income of $31,424 versus $21,623 for females. The per capita income for the county was $17,882. About 9.50% of families and 13.60% of the population were below the poverty line, including 18.60% of those under age 18 and 14.40% of those age 65 or over.

Law and government

Pender County is a member of the regional Cape Fear Council of Governments. The government is run by a board of commissioners with a county manager.

Presidential Voting History

Pender County is a strong Republican county, it has voted with the party since 1996. In the 1992 U.S presidential election, Democratic nominee Bill Clinton won the county. In the 2016 U.S presidential election, Republican nominee Donald Trump won the county with 63.3% of the vote, over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's 33.5%.

  Year                               REPUBLICAN                                   DEMOCRATIC                                   THIRD PARTIES
  ---------------------------------- -------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------- ----------------------------
  style=“text-align:center;” |2020   style=“text-align:center;” |64.3% _21,956_   style=“text-align:center;” |34.3% _11,723_   1.4% _490_
  style=“text-align:center;” |2016   style=“text-align:center;” |63.3% _17,639_   style=“text-align:center;” |33.5% _9,354_    3.2% _892_
  style=“text-align:center;” |2012   style=“text-align:center;” |59.6% _14,617_   style=“text-align:center;” |39.3% _9,632_    1.1% _278_
  style=“text-align:center;” |2008   style=“text-align:center;” |57.3% _13,618_   style=“text-align:center;” |41.7% _9,907_    0.9% _224_
  style=“text-align:center;” |2004   style=“text-align:center;” |58.8% _10,037_   style=“text-align:center;” |41.0% _6,999_    0.3% _49_
  style=“text-align:center;” |2000   style=“text-align:center;” |54.1% _7,661_    style=“text-align:center;” |45.3% _6,415_    0.6% _78_
  style=“text-align:center;” |1996   style=“text-align:center;” |46.4% _5,538_    style=“text-align:center;” |45.3% _5,409_    8.3% _993_
  style=“text-align:center;” |1992   style=“text-align:center;” |39.1% _4,857_    style=“text-align:center;” |46.9% _5,825_    14.1% _1,748_
  style=“text-align:center;” |1988   style=“text-align:center;” |52.8% _4,926_    style=“text-align:center;” |47.0% _4,377_    0.2% _20_
  style=“text-align:center;” |1984   style=“text-align:center;” |53.7% _5,079_    style=“text-align:center;” |46.1% _4,354_    0.2% _20_
  style=“text-align:center;” |1980   style=“text-align:center;” |40.1% _3,018_    style=“text-align:center;” |58.2% _4,382_    1.8% _136_
  style=“text-align:center;” |1976   style=“text-align:center;” |31.6% _2,063_    style=“text-align:center;” |67.7% _4,422_    0.8% _52_
  style=“text-align:center;” |1972   style=“text-align:center;” |68.9% _3,327_    style=“text-align:center;” |29.3% _1,415_    1.8% _87_
  style=“text-align:center;” |1968   style=“text-align:center;” |17.8% _1,007_    style=“text-align:center;” |34.3% _1,942_    48.0% _2,720_
  style=“text-align:center;” |1964   style=“text-align:center;” |38.0% _1,961_    style=“text-align:center;” |62.0% _3,205_    style="text-align:center;|
  style=“text-align:center;” |1960   style=“text-align:center;” |31.7% _1,274_    style=“text-align:center;” |68.3% _2,744_    style="text-align:center;|
  style=“text-align:center;” |1956   style=“text-align:center;” |31.5% _1,009_    style=“text-align:center;” |68.5% _2,196_    style="text-align:center;|
  style=“text-align:center;” |1952   style=“text-align:center;” |36.2% _1,152_    style=“text-align:center;” |63.8% _2,029_    style="text-align:center;|
  style=“text-align:center;” |1948   style=“text-align:center;” |14.2% _304_      style=“text-align:center;” |62.4% _1,334_    23.4% _500_
  style=“text-align:center;” |1944   style=“text-align:center;” |20.3% _441_      style=“text-align:center;” |79.7% _1,732_    style="text-align:center;|
  style=“text-align:center;” |1940   style=“text-align:center;” |11.9% _305_      style=“text-align:center;” |88.1% _2,249_    style="text-align:center;|
  style=“text-align:center;” |1936   style=“text-align:center;” |12.3% _333_      style=“text-align:center;” |87.7% _2,379_    style="text-align:center;|
  style=“text-align:center;” |1932   style=“text-align:center;” |11.9% _270_      style=“text-align:center;” |87.6% _1,993_    0.5% _11_
  style=“text-align:center;” |1928   style=“text-align:center;” |56.6% _1,300_    style=“text-align:center;” |43.4% _998_      style="text-align:center;|
  style=“text-align:center;” |1924   style=“text-align:center;” |17.5% _253_      style=“text-align:center;” |81.3% _1,175_    1.2% _17_
  style=“text-align:center;” |1920   style=“text-align:center;” |30.7% _699_      style=“text-align:center;” |69.3% _1,580_    style="text-align:center;|
  style=“text-align:center;” |1916   style=“text-align:center;” |29.2% _400_      style=“text-align:center;” |70.8% _970_      style="text-align:center;|
  style=“text-align:center;” |1912   style=“text-align:center;” |1.5% _19_        style=“text-align:center;” |77.1% _967_      21.4% _268_

  : PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS RESULTS[8]

Communities

[Map of Pender County, North Carolina With Municipal and Township Labels]

Towns

-   Atkinson
-   Burgaw
-   Surf City
-   Topsail Beach
-   Wallace
-   Watha

Village

-   St. Helena

Census-designated places

-   Hampstead
-   Rocky Point

Unincorporated communities

-   Charity
-   Currie
-   Montague
-   Register
-   Sloop Point
-   Willard
-   Yamacraw

Townships

-   Burgaw
-   Canetuck
-   Caswell
-   Columbia
-   Grady
-   Holly
-   Long Creek
-   Rocky Point
-   Topsail
-   Union

Notable people

-   John Baptista Ashe, born in Rocky Point township, delegate to the Continental Congress[9]
-   John Baptista Ashe, born in Rocky Point township, nephew of the above, United States Congressman from North Carolina[10]
-   William Shepperd Ashe, born in Rocky Point township, United States Congressman from North Carolina[11]

[1]

[2]

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[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

title: Pender County, North Carolina

question: Summarize the history of Pender County.

answer: The county was formed in 1875, named for William Dorsey Pender, a Confederate general mortally wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg. The town of Cowan was originally the county seat, but this was reversed by subsequent law changes and the location of the county seat was put to a vote. Whatever place was selected, the town should be called Stanford. In 1879, Stanford was changed to Burgaw, which remains the county seat.

question: Summarize references to battles.

answer: Moores Creek National Battlefield is a protected area in the county. The county itself is named for a general who died from wounds sustained at the Battle of Gettysburg.

question: What does the text say about civil litigation?