Babylonian law is a subset of cuneiform law that has received particular study, owing to the singular extent of the associated archaeological material, found for it. So-called "contracts" exist in the thousands, including a great variety of deeds, bonds, receipts and most important of all, actual legal decisions given by the judges in the law courts. Historical inscriptions, royal charters and rescripts, private letters and the general literature afford welcome supplementary information. Grammatical and lexicographical texts contain many extracts or short sentences bearing on law and custom; the so-called "Sumerian Family Laws" are preserved in this way. Other cultures involved with ancient Mesopotamia shared the same common laws and precedents, extending to the form of contacts that Kenneth Kitchen has studied and compared to the form of contracts in the Bible with particular note to the sequence of blessings and curses that bind the deal; the Maxims of Ptahhotep and Sharia Law include certifications for professionals like doctors and skilled craftsmen which prescribe penalties for malpractice similar to the code of Hammurabi.

The discovery of the now-celebrated Code of Hammurabi has made possible a more systematic study than could have resulted from just the classification and interpretation of other material. Fragments of other Ancient codes exist and have been published, but there still remain many points whereof evidence is still lacking. There survive legal texts from the earliest writings through the Hellenistic period, but evidence on a particular point may be full for one period and entirely lacking for another; the Code forms the backbone of most reconstructions. Fragments of it recovered from Assur-bani-pal's library at Nineveh and Babylonian copies show that it was studied, divided into chapters, entitled Ninu ilu sirum from its incipit, recopied for fifteen hundred years or more. Much Babylonian legal precedent remained in force through the Persian and Parthian conquests, which had little effect on private life in Babylonia; the laws and customs that preceded the Code may be called "early". The law of Assyria was derived from the Babylonian, but it conserved early features long after they had disappeared elsewhere.

The early history of Mesopotamia is the story of a struggle for supremacy between the cities. A metropolis demanded tribute and military support from its subject cities but left their local cults and customs unaffected. City rights and usages were respected by conquerors alike; when the ancient Semitic-speaking peoples settled in the cities of Mesopotamia, their tribal customs passed over into city law. As late as the accession of Assur-bani-pal and Shamash-shum-ukin, we find the Babylonians appending to their city laws that groups of aliens to the number of twenty at a time were free to enter the city; the population of Babylonia was multi-ethnic from early times, intercommunication between the cities was incessant. Every city had a large number of resident aliens; this freedom of intercourse must have tended to assimilate custom. It was, reserved for the genius of Hammurabi to make Babylon his metropolis and weld together his vast empire by a uniform system of law. By Hammurabi's time all trace of tribal custom had disappeared from the law of the Code.

It is state law—self-help, blood-feud, marriage by capture, are all absent. The king is a benevolent autocrat accessible to all his subjects, both able and willing to protect the weak against the highest-placed oppressor; the royal power, can only pardon when private resentment is appeased. Judges are supervised, appeal is allowed; the whole land is covered with feudal holdings, masters of the levy, etc. There is a regular postal system; the pax Babylonica is so assured that private individuals do not hesitate to ride in their carriage from Babylon to the coast of the Mediterranean. The position of women is dignified; the Code did not embody contemporary custom or conserve ancient law. It is true that centuries of law-abiding and litigious habitude had accumulated, in the temple archives of each city, vast stores of precedent in ancient deeds and records of judicial decisions and that intercourse had assimilated city custom; the universal habit of writing, perpetual recourse to written contract, further modified primitive custom and ancient precedent.

If the parties themselves could agree to the terms, the Code as a rule left them free to make contracts. Their deed of agreement was drawn up in the temple by a notary public and confirmed with an oath "by god and the king." It was publicly sealed and witnessed by professional witnesses, as well as by collaterally interested parties. The manner in which it was executed may have been sufficient guarantee that its stipulations were not impious or illegal. Custom or public opinion doubtlessly ensured that the parties would not agree to "wrong". If a dispute arose, the judges dealt first with the contract, they might not sustain it. The judges' decision might, however, be appealed. Many contracts contain the proviso that in case of future dispute, the parties would abide by "the decision of the king." The Code made known, in

Newlight Technologies is a company based in Irvine, California known for carbon sequestration into plastics. As of January 2019, Newlight Technologies has one facility, located in California, it is R&D, Operations and Manufacturing facility. As of January 2014, Newlight has two facilities in California. Newlight captures methane from a dairy farm in California; the methane is transported to a bioreactor. From there, the methane is mixed with air and interacts with enzymes to form a polymer trademarked as AirCarbon. According to Popular Science, the plastic performs to most oil-based plastics but costs less to produce. AirCarbon has been contracted for use in desk chairs, computer packaging, smart phone cases. In 2013, AirCarbon was named the bio-material of the year by the International Conference on Bio-based Plastics and Composites. In 2014, AirCarbon was named Popular Science's Innovation of the Year. Carol Lin. Renewable Resources for Biorefineries. Royal Society of Chemistry. P. 5. ISBN 978-1-84973-898-9.

Nazim Muradov. Liberating Energy from Carbon: Introduction to Decarbonization. Springer Science & Business Media. P. 338. ISBN 978-1-4939-0545-4

The 1991 Newsweek Champions Cup and the Virginia Slims of Palm Springs were tennis tournaments played on outdoor hard courts. It was the 18th edition of the tournament, was part of the ATP Super 9 of the 1991 ATP Tour, of the Tier II Series of the 1991 WTA Tour, it was held from March 2 through March 16, 1991. In the men's tournament, Jim Courier won both the singles and doubles tournaments, partnering Javier Sánchez in the latter; this is the last time that a male player achieved both titles at the same year. Jim Courier def. Guy Forget, 4–6, 6–3, 4–6, 6–3, 7–6 It was Jim Courier's 1st title of the year and his 2nd overall, it was his 1st Masters title. Martina Navratilova def. Monica Seles 6–2, 7–6 It was Martina Navratilova's 2nd title of the year and her 154th overall. Jim Courier / Javier Sánchez def. Guy Forget / Henri Leconte 7–6, 3–6, 6–3 The women's doubles final was not played due to rain. Official website Association of Tennis Professionals tournament profile

Ceremony is a novel by Native American writer Leslie Marmon Silko, first published by Penguin in March 1977. The title Ceremony is based upon the oral traditions and ceremonial practices of the Navajo and Pueblo people; the main plot line of Ceremony follows the trials of a half-Pueblo, half-white Laguna Pueblo man named Tayo upon returning from World War II. His white doctors say he is suffering from "battle fatigue," or what would today be called post-traumatic stress disorder. However, the novel interweaves several different timelines around Tayo, from both before and after the war, as well as a spiritual timeline where the Thought Woman, Corn Woman and Reed Woman, the three main Pueblo spiritual entities, create the world and Hummingbird and Green Bottle Fly must go down to the Fourth World to retrieve Reed Woman to stop a drought. In this spiritual timeline is the introduction of the "witchery" and the "destroyers," who are like anti-medicine men, sowing evil and destruction, which the medicine men work to fight against through Ceremony.

By the end of the novel, all of these timelines converge in the ceremony of Tayo. The Tayo we find at the beginning of the novel is struggling with the death of his cousin, whom he saw die during the Bataan Death March of 1942, the death of his uncle Josiah, whom he believes he saw in the face of a Japanese soldier killed by firing squad during the war. While Josiah did die during the war, his death occurred back on the Pueblo, not in the jungles of the Pacific. Rather, Tayo's hallucination and guilt come from two promises he made to Josiah—the first, before he signed up for the war, was to help him wrangle the spotted cattle that Josiah had purchased before the war; the second, made after signing up for the war, was. He believes that he let down Josiah, that's why he died. Tayo has spent several years at a mental health facility and has gotten no better, but is being released by his doctors. After vomiting from the light at the train station, he returns home to the pueblo to stay with his Auntie and Robert, where he can move or get out of bed, any hint of light makes him vomit.

As a result of his mental health struggles, Tayo turns to alcohol as a way of self-remedying. A fellow WWII veteran on the reservation, comes to find him, they ride a burro and a blind mule for miles in the hot sun over the dry earth; the pueblo is in a deep drought that began when, just after Rocky's death all the way back in Japan, Tayo cursed the green bottle fly and the rain because they wouldn't leave him alone, on the journey to the bar Tayo nearly passes out from heat stroke. But Harley keeps on dragging him to the bar and they make it, they meet up with some other WWII veterans from the pueblo there—Leroy and Emo. Tayo and Emo, have a history. Once, when they were all drinking together at a bar, Tayo stabbed Emo with a broken bottle after Emo brought out his war trophy—the teeth of a Japanese officer that he'd killed, but despite the tension, they share stories about the times they slept with white women, about how they got nothing for fighting in the white man's war. Looking to help Tayo, his grandmother brings a medicine man named Ku'oosh.

He takes Tayo through a ceremony, but is ineffective against Tayo's battle fatigue because Ku'oosh can't understand modern warfare: "Even if he could have taken the old man to see the target areas if he could have led him through the fallen jungle trees and muddy craters of torn earth to show him the dead, the old man would not have believed anything so monstrous." Tayo is sent to another medicine man named Betonie, a different type of medicine man, because he incorporates elements of the modern world into his ceremonies. He tells Tayo about the witchery, people who are bent on destabilizing the world, the Destroyers, who will stop at nothing to destroy the world and its inhabitants. Betonie tells Tayo that he must complete the ceremony, that the need to complete the ceremony is far bigger than he is. In fact, the fate of the Pueblo people themselves depends upon him. In order to complete the ceremony that Betonie has appointed him, Tayo sets out to get back Josiah's spotted cattle that were stolen when Tayo left.

Tayo remembers that the cattle were heading south, so he begins by riding that way. Along the way, he meets a woman named Ts'eh, whom he sleeps with and who gives him a warm place to sleep and a hot meal during a trying time of his journey, he finds where the cattle must be, caged in by a giant fence on the property of a wealthy white rancher. Tayo is leading the cattle out when he is found by some of the man's employees. In the chase, he is knocked unconscious; when Tayo awakens, he's been picked up by the white men, who ask him where he was "going so goddamn fast?" However, the tracks of a huge cougar distract them, Tayo is let go. He soon meets a hunter carrying a large buck across his back, they leave the ranch together and return to the house of Ts'eh, who has trapped Tayo's cattle in the arroyo using a couple of branches and calmed his horse before they arrived. The next day, Tayo departs with the cattle. Early the next year, Tayo decides that he has to go back to the ranch to tend the cattle, but he wants to go back to see Ts'eh.

They spend lots of time together picking flowers and herbs, until she tells him that there will be people coming after him. And shortly thereafter and Leroy show up and ask him to go drink with them again, they go out drinking, but the next morning Tayo comes to his senses, abandoning them with the truck and tearing out the truck's wiring so they can't come

The Castle of Kars is a former fortification located in Kars, Turkey. It is known under the name Iç Kale, it was built in 1153 by Vizier Firuz Akay commissioned by Saltuk Sultan Malik Izzeddin Saltuk II. The outer walls surrounding the city were built in the 12th century; the castle, destroyed by Timur in 1386, was rebuilt again in 1579 by Lala Mustafa Pasha, who came to Kars ordered by the Ottoman Sultan Murat III. It is said in the Ottoman sources that the castle was rebuilt with the help of one hundred thousand soldiers and workers. In 1606, the castle was destroyed by the Iranian Shah Abbas I, in 1616 and in 1636 it was restored twice and new elements were added to it; the castle was hugely damaged after the occupation of the Russians after the Ottoman-Russian War of 1877-1878, changed after 40 years of occupation. The walls of the Castle of Kars were made of basalt masonry; the castle consisted of the internal and the external castles. The external walls were made of five layers. In addition, there were deep trenches made in front of it.

The main castle looks to the east. The planning of the walls of the external castle is not quite quadrangle; the length of the castle's perimeter makes 3,500 m, it was supported with 22 watchtowers, of which only seven remained intact until today. The length of the internal castle makes 250 m in the east-west direction, about 90 m in the north-south direction; the castle has four gates. The "Su Kapısı" or "Çeribaşı Kapısı" is situated in the west, "Kagizman Kapısı" orta "Orta Kapı" in the south and "Behram Kapı" in the east; the main gate located in the north opens up to a chasm in front of the castle. The castle's watchtower can be accessed by climbing the stairs or along the stone paved road. Just inside the main entrance is a shrine containing the tomb of Jelal Baba who died during the Mongolian invasion in 1239. Within the castle are military lodgings, an ammunition depot, a small mosque, rebuilt in the 1990s. Today, the castle is administered by the Ministry of Tourism. In 2005, the castle hosted a music concert by Turkish pop singer Sezen Aksu attended by around 25,000 people.

During the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan in 2011, a Mevlevi Sama ceremony was held for the first time at the castle. Lonelyplanet.com Kars Castel Photographic survey of the Castle at Kars 60+ pictures of the citadel Kars Castle Trip

Philip Ian Mounstephen is a British Anglican bishop and missionary. From 2012, he was the executive leader of the Church Mission Society. Mounstephen was born on 13 July 1959 in Crookham Village, England, he was educated at St Edward's School, Oxford, an independent boarding school in Oxford, Oxfordshire. He studied English Literature at the University of Southampton, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1980, he underwent teacher training at Magdalen College, completing his Postgraduate Certificate in Education in 1981. In 1985, Mounstephen entered Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, an Evangelical Anglican theological college, to train for ordained ministry. During this time, he studied theology at Magdalen College, he graduated with a further BA in 1987: as per tradition, his BA was promoted to a Master of Arts degree, he completed a Certificate in Theology in 1988. Mounstephen was ordained in the Church of England: made a deacon at Petertide 1988 at St Mary's Church and ordained a priest the following Petertide at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford — both times by Simon Burrows, Bishop of Buckingham.

From 1988 to 1992, he served his curacy at St James Church, Gerrards Cross with St James' Church, Fulmer in the Diocese of Oxford. From 1992 to 1998, he was Vicar of West Streatham in the Diocese of Southwark. In 1998, Mounstephen served in a number of roles, he was head of Pathfinders from 1998 to 2002. In January 2007, Mounstephen returned to parish ministry as chaplain of Paris. During his time in Paris, he served as a member of the Diocesan Synod of the Diocese in Europe, he was a made a minor canon of the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Gibraltar in August 2012, he was collated as a "canon without stall" during a service at St Matthew's Church, Westminster in October 2017. On 1 July 2012, it was announced that Mounstephen would be the next Executive Leader of the Church Mission Society in succession to Tim Dakin, he took up the post on 13 October 2012 during a commissioning service at Oxford. On 30 August 2018, it was announced that Mounstephen would be the next Bishop of Truro, the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Truro.

He became Bishop upon the confirmation — on 20 November 2018 at St-Mary-le-Bow — of his election. In 1984, Mounstephen married Ruth Weston. Together they have one daughter. Mounstephen, Philip. Body beautiful?: recapturing a vision for all-age church. Cambridge: Grove Books. ISBN 978-1851745739. Mounstephen, Philip. "Teapots and DNA: The Foundations of CMS". Intermission. 22. Berry, Mark; the Forgotten Factor: Placing Community at the Heart of Mission. Cambridge: Grove Books. ISBN 978-1788270021