text:
From its beginnings in 1995, the INTERNET IN MALAYSIA has become the main platform for free discussion in Malaysia's otherwise tightly controlled media environment.[1] As of Q1 2017, Malaysia has broadband penetration rates of 103.6% (per 100 inhabitants) and 81.8% (per 100 households).[2]

History

The year 1995 is considered the beginning of the Internet age in Malaysia. The growth in the number of Internet hosts in Malaysia began around 1996. The country's first search engine and web portal company, Cari Internet, was also founded that year.[3] According to the first Malaysian Internet survey conducted from October to November 1995 by MIMOS and Beta Interactive Services, one out of every thousand Malaysians had access to the Internet (20,000 Internet users out of a population of 20 million).[4] In 1998, this number grew to 2.6% of the population. The total number of computer units sold, which was 467,000 in 1998 and 701,000 in 2000 indicated an increasing growth.[5][6]

In 2005 the National Public Policy Workshop (NPPW) proposed a strategy to increase the uptake of Information and communications technology (ICT) and the Internet. Among the outcomes of the NPPW was the High Speed Broadband initiative launched in 2010. As of July 2012 Internet users in Malaysia reached 25.3 million. Out of that number, there are 5 million broadband users, 2.5 million wireless broadband users and 10 million 3G subscribers.[7]

Speed

As of August 2020, Malaysia's average internet speed for fixed broadband is 87.90 megabits per second (Mbit/s) ranked on 41st ranking. Average speed for mobile connection speed also gone up to 24.69 megabits per second (Mbit/s) ranked on 84th ranking.[8]

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission sets a low threshold for broadband.[9] It defines broadband as:

-   Any service beyond the scope of existing PSTN/ISDN and 2G cellular networks
-   With data rates that exceed the normal voice-related speed (56 kilobits per second (kbit/s) for PSTN and 64 kbit/s for ISDN)

This definition is far below the primary rate interface lower limit defined by the International Telecommunications Union in ITU-R F.1399.[10]

Access technologies

Cellular data

Cellular data and mobile broadband connections are provided by:

  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Internet service provider   Cellular service technology           Frequency (MHz)                                  Internet download speed
  --------------------------- ------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Celcom                      EDGE, HSPA, HSPA+, 4G LTE, 4G LTE-A   2G: 900, 1800 3G: 900, 2100                      Up to 480 Mbit/s, average to 18Mbit/s.

                                                                    4G: 900(B8), 1800(B3), 2100(B1), 2600(B7)

  Digi                        EDGE, HSPA, HSPA+, 4G LTE, 4G LTE-A   2G: 900, 1800 3G: 900, 2100                      Up to 262.5 Mbit/s, average to 12Mbit/s.

                                                                    4G: 900(B8), 1800(B3), 2100(B1), 2600(B7)

  Maxis                       EDGE, HSPA, HSPA+, 4G LTE, 4G LTE-A   2G: 900, 1800 3G: 900, 2100                      Up to 375 Mbit/s, average to 20Mbit/s.

                                                                    4G: 900(B8), 1800(B3), 2100(B1), 2600(B7)

  U Mobile                    EDGE, HSPA, HSPA+, 4G LTE, 4G LTE-A   2G: 900, 1800 3G: 900, 2100                      Up to 262.5 Mbit/s, average to 10Mbit/s.

                                                                    4G: 900(B8), 1800(B3), 2100(B1), 2600(B7)

  Unifi Mobile                HSPA, HSPA+, 4G LTE                   3G: 900/2100 4G: 850(B5), 2300(B40), 2600(B38)   Up to 20 Mbit/s, average to 7Mbit/s. 3G services are provided by Celcom through roaming agreements

  Yes 4G                      4G LTE, 4G LTE-A                      4G: 2300(B40), 2600(B38)                         Up to 20 Mbit/s, average to 10Mbit/s.
  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Digital subscriber line (DSL)

As of June 2012 there were 1,705,000 DSL connections. TM Net, a subsidiary of Telekom Malaysia (TM), is Malaysia's largest Internet service provider. While there are many ISPs in Malaysia, TM's ownership of the nation's last mile connections restricts competition to densely populated areas in major cities. Since there is no local loop unbundling, TM Net enjoys a virtual monopoly of the broadband market.

DSL connections are provided by:

+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| Internet        | DSL service     | Internet        | Internet upload |
| service         | technology      | download speed  | speed           |
| provider        |                 |                 |                 |
+=================+=================+=================+=================+
| Maxis           | VDSL2           | From 30 Mbit/s  | From 30 Mbit/s  |
|                 | (for high-rise  | to 100 Mbit/s   | to 50 Mbit/s    |
|                 | buildings only) |                 |                 |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| Unifi           |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| Unifi Lite      | ADSL,           | 10 Mbit/s       | 512 Kbit/s      |
| (Streamyx)      | ADSL2/ADSL2+    |                 |                 |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+

Fiber optics

Telekom Malaysia Bhd has spent about RM1.9 billion, with the inclusion government funds amounting to RM990 million in the installation of high-speed broadband services throughout Malaysia.[11] The four initial areas that will be covered by high speed broadband services, that is being launched in March 2010 are Shah Alam, Subang Jaya, Taman Tun Dr Ismail and Bangsar.[12]

The benefits announced with the implementation of high speed broadband include smoother e-commerce activities, Internet-based health services, voice over IP (VoIP) communications, web surfing that contains detailed pictures and graphics, as well as faster data downloads. It has been promised that video-streaming will be smoother and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) could take off in Malaysia.

Fiber to the x connections are provided by:

:{| class=“wikitable” |- ! Internet service provider ! Fiber service coverage ! Internet download speed !Internet upload speed |- | Celcom |East and West Malaysia | From 30 Mbit/s to 100 Mbit/s |From 30 Mbit/s to 50 Mbit/s |- | City Broadband |West Malaysia | From 50 Mbit/s to 1Gbit/s |From 50 Mbit/s to 1Gbit/s |- | Digi |East and West Malaysia | From 50 Mbit/s to 1 Gbit/s |From 20 Mbit/s to 200 Mbit/s |- | Maxis |East and West Malaysia | From 30 Mbit/s to 800 Mbit/s |From 30 Mbit/s to 200 Mbit/s |- | TIME |East and West Malaysia | From 100 Mbit/s to 1Gbit/s |From 100 Mbit/s to 500 Mbit/s |- | Unifi |East and West Malaysia | From 30 Mbit/s to 800 Mbit/s |From 10 Mbit/s to 200 Mbit/s |- | ViewQwest | West Malaysia | From 100 Mbit/s to 1 Gbit/s |From 100 Mbit/s to 1 Gbit/s |}

Hotspot

Hotspot connections are provided by:

  Internet service provider   Hotspot quantity count   Internet service registration
  --------------------------- ------------------------ -------------------------------
  Digi                        Over 7,000               Required
  Unifi                       Over 8,000               Not required
  Y5ZONE                      Over 5,500               Required

Internet censorship in Malaysia

On 30 May 2011, the Malaysia government started to ban some websites, mostly file sharing websites;[13][14] this is despite a promise not to censor the Internet, made by the sixth prime minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak.[15]

[1] “Malaysia profile: Media”, _BBC News_, 10 September 2013. Retrieved 27 January 2014.

[2] “Communications and Multimedia : Facts and Figures, 1Q 2017”, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, 2 August 2017, retrieved 12 September 2017

[3]

[4] Beta Interactive Services, 1996

[5] Lee, 2000c

[6] “Drivers and Impediments to E-commerce in Malaysia”, John Paynter and Jackie Lim, _Malaysian Journal of Library & Information Science_, Vol.6, no.2, December 2001: 1-19. Retrieved 28 January 2013.

[7]

[8]

[9] http://www.mcmc.gov.my/what_we_do/spectrum/SRSP/BWA-%20802.16-WiMAX-a.pdf

[10] ABFL Groupe Intellex , World Radiocommunication Conference 2007 (WRC-07) agenda item 1.4 responses, UK Office of Communications (Ofcom), 29 March 2007. Retrieved 27 January 2014.

[11]  Alt URL

[12]

[13] “MCMC wants block of 10 websites that allow illegal movie downloads”, Wong Pek Mei, _Star Online_, 10 June 2011. Retrieved 27 January 2014.

[14] “Malaysian Govt Orders ISPs to Block Pirate Bay, Megaupload” , Jared Moya, ZeroPaid, 10 June 2011. Retrieved 28 January 2014.

[15] “No censorship of the Internet”, Lester Kong and Zulkifli Abd Rahman, _The Star_, 8 August 2009. Retrieved 28 January 2014.

title: Internet in Malaysia

question: Summarize the evolution of internet technology in Malaysia.

answer: Internet, from its inception in 1995, was a technology where free speech reigned supreme in Malaysia. While 1995 was considered the beginning of the internet age in Malaysia, the internet really took off around 1998 when about 467,000 computer unit was sold, the country's first search engine (Cari Internet) was in full swing, and one out of every 1000 Malaysian has access to the internet. Around 2000, the average internet speed was 87MB/s. Things got even better in 2015 when the National Public Policy Workshop (NPPW) proposed to increase internet availability in the country.

question: Why did the internet take off so early in Malaysia?


split: test

text:
(Sorry that the line spacing is off.  It won't format properly.)

Cold.  Freezing.

Jacob was cold.  White snow fell around him and on him.  The snow on the ground next to him was stained a scarlet red.  Jacob’s head turned, painfully, side to side as he gazed at his surroundings.

The sun was setting, its last golden beams vainly trying to penetrate the ever darkening trees.  No one was in sight.  Jacob was too weak to call out loudly for his missing comrades.

His comrades?

Where were they?  A thousand thoughts flashed through his mind as he struggled to remember what had happened.  He looked down at his stomach, which was a painful reminder that jolted him back to the present.  His abdomen was slashed open and he was missing large chunks of flesh.  Somehow, all major arteries had remained un-severed, so he had a little more time to live.

Suddenly, the gory smell became overwhelming and Jacob felt bile rising in his throat.  He turned his head sharply to the left and vomited out the contents of his stomach, which was mainly bloody stomach acid.

Pain flashed through his stomach as he wiped his mouth on his shirt sleeve.  The nasty taste in his mouth receded a bit.  Jacob tried to move away from the vomit, but only succeeded in moving a foot or so.

Memories of a dark shadow flitted through his mind.  Then it all came back to him in a flood of memories.

**TWO HOURS EARLIER**

“Hey, Parham, c’mere!” Corporal Walton shouted.

Jacob turned, the edges of his lips and eyes crinkling in a small grin.

“That’s Sergeant First Class Parham to you,” he replied jokingly as he sauntered over.

“Here, have a cigarette,” the corporal offered.

Jacob declined and sat down on a small stool.  About ten similar stools formed a ring around a small crackling fire.  Jacob counted two seats open and two faces missing.  Those two had just left on patrol.  The remaining men were to wait in base camp until they got back.  Then two more would take their places.  The men were due back in thirty minutes.  The two that had just returned from patrol were chatting with the others about what they had found in the woods of Germany.

“I swear it was a footprint!  A huge one, too!” one of them was protesting as the other men laughed and patted him on the back.  “There’s something out there!”

He turned around to face the sergeant and Jacob realized that it was Kirby.  Kirby was a green private, fresh from boot camp and completely new to the war.  Jacob figured he was probably just overreacting.

“Listen here Private,” Jacob said calmly “It’s okay buddy.  It was probably just a bear out there.  It wouldn’t come near our camp, they don’t like the noise.  No worries.”

“B-but,” Kirby stuttered, “Bears don’t live in Germany…  Right?”

Walton chuckled and shook his head a little.  “Don’t worry about it,” he said as he handed Kirby a cigarette.  Kirby was not really paying attention, but somehow managed to slip it into his mouth as he fumbled in his pockets for a lighter.  Jacob sighed and slipped out his own lighter, but, to his dismay, found it empty and returned it to his pocket.  He felt in his other pocket, but the only thing in it was a grenade.  Just in case.

Kirby’s patrol buddy, Sergeant Phillip Wooden was busy showing off a “treasure” that he claimed to have found on the patrol.

“So we’re hiking through the woods, right?” he said to the others in his New York accent, “And we come across dis place dat could have been a German camp about a year ago.  An’ dere are scattered remains of things all over the place.  A few empty shells here, a button over dere, and maybe a boot half buried in the ground, see?”  He turned to find Jacob staring at him, eyebrows raised.

“Oh, don’t worry about it Sarge, the place’s cleared out, I made sure.  Dey couldn’t have been living dere recently, dere were no signs of recent activity!”  He turned back to continue his story.

“So me an’ Kirby here were scoutin’ around, lookin’ for anything worth something an’ we find dis guy, strike dat, dis skeleton juss’ layin’ on the ground.  Flesh all gone, been eaten off by rats and insects, I s’pose.”

At this point, Kirby put his hands over his ears, seemingly desperate to avoid reliving the grotesque discovery.

“He was wearin’ a tattered German uniform and his skull was a bit cracked on the top,” said Wooden, not paying attention to the private.   “We figgered he had been hit on the head with somethin’ hard.  I found dis helmet on the ground a few feet away.”

To prove his point, Wooden held up a German helmet.  It was a dull shade of green with a faded black swastika on one side.  The straps hung loosely from the sides, ripped and frayed, and there was also the usual dirt smears and smudges.  Wooden grinned and slipped the helmet into his bag while Jacob pretended not to notice.

“Hey!” Walton yelled, “What was that Wooden?”

“Nothing,” Wooden grinned.  “Ooh look, cigarettes” he said as he tossed a pack to Walton.  “Next time, just ask.”

“Thanks buddy, you’re a pal,” Walton replied as he slipped a deathstick between his lips and lit up.

The time went by as the men told jokes, laughed, and played cards.  All of the heads popped up when the two returning men emerged from the woods, guns propped against their shoulders and grins on their faces.  The others rose with shouts of greetings, except for Walton, who was groaning sarcastically about having to go on the next patrol.  Everyone felt great.  And then, something happened.

A dark shadow flashed out from the woods and both men were knocked to the ground.  One was tugged screaming out of sight within seconds.  The other men scrambled for their weapons and the poor fellows screaming suddenly stopped.  Everyone was still and quiet for a second as though a hushed silence had just descended upon them.
Jacob broke this spell by running towards the woods, his rifle loaded and trigger finger itching for action.  The squad spread out through the woods, scanning every inch they could.

Somewhere in the woods, a man screamed.  Jacob grimaced.  The scream had belonged to Walton.  He moved frantically in the direction of the scream.  He could hear only the crunch of the leaves beneath his feet and the snapping of the twigs.  Then he saw it.

It was a standard M-1 rifle.  That was not the problem.  The problem was the still twitching hand holding on to the rifle.  There was a class ring on one of the fingers.  Class of 1939.  Walton’s.  Jacob gulped and turned around as another scream sounded.  Jacob froze.  He looked all around, scanning the trees around him.  Five minutes later, the woods were silent.

Jacob’s palms were sweaty on the gun.  He licked his chapped lips and took off in the direction of the last scream.  He had to find his soldiers.  He just had to!  He followed the trail of snapped branches, trampled undergrowth, and crushed leaves, all dotted with drops of bright red blood.

A bird twittered in a branch above Jacob’s head and he flinched.  A small animal darted through the woods past Jacob and he involuntarily squeezed off a few shots at the poor animal.  The squirrel fell dead in its tracks.  Jacob passed right by it, not even paying attention.  His right eye twitched a bit and his finger became jumpy and shaky on the trigger.

A branch broke and Jacob turned in the direction of the sound.  His gun pointed at a silhouette in the darkening forest.  “W-Walton?” he stuttered, “Who’s there?  Show yourself!”

As the thing moved closer, Jacob’s gun barrel became very shaky and he was hardly able to keep a grip on it.  A few rays of light landed on its face.

It.  A hairy beast.  Seven or eight feet tall.  Jacob gasped nervously, eying the ram’s horns growing out of the beast’s head and its glowing red eyes.  It was chewing on something and a muffled crunch issued from within its mouth.  The matted fur below the mouth and its chest were stained bright red.  But Jacob’s eyes had focused on something else.

A torn piece of camouflage material hung from the creature’s mouth.  Jacob’s mind snapped and he screamed like a homicidal maniac, which, in fact, he was.  Jacob’s finger clenched around the trigger and the gun barrel began spewing bullets right and left.  A few shots hit home, but they didn’t seem to faze the creature.

Click.  Click click click.  No more ammo.  A large hairy fist slammed into Jacob’s stomach and he collided with a tree.  He coughed up blood and the bittersweet taste returned him to his senses.  Painfully, he stood up and began to run.  His mind was completely blank.  He relied on instinct.  And right now, instinct told him to run like hell.  So he did.  Adrenaline surged through his veins and Jacob felt the pain recede.  But he didn’t care.  Nothing really mattered anymore.

The thing was in hot pursuit.  Somehow, Jacob managed to stay ahead.  A clearing soon appeared and Jacob’s heart skipped a beat.  He was running straight towards a flowing river, ten feet across.  Jacob gulped, but he kept on running.  Time seemed to slow down.  Ten feet to the river.  Five feet.  Two feet.  Inches.  “Jump.” Jacob’s mind told him.

Jacob jumped.  He launched himself over the river.  Little minnows and bigger fish alike darted around in the water beneath him.  It was very deep.  Jacob’s feet hit the ground on the edge of the other side of the river and he leaned forward into a roll.  Dizzy, Jacob stood and ran a few more feet before turning to look behind himself.  The monster had paused at the edge of the water.

“Aha ha ha ha!” Jacob laughed.  The beast glared malevolently at him and Jacob suddenly wished he had remained silent.

The beast put its foot in the water and did the same with the other.  It took a step and the water went up to its hairy waist.  Another step and the waters were up to its shoulders.  The thing wasn’t even halfway across when its head disappeared beneath the calmly moving water.

Jacob knelt and began to pray as he had never prayed before.  “Let it have drowned.  Please, please let it have drowned…” The surface of the water was still smooth.  “Oh God, please let it have drowned, please God!”  Jacob’s voice had become shrill.

A head poked through the surface of the water, causing small ripples.  Jacob’s jaw dropped and his heart skipped a few beats.  He slowly got to his feet as the monstrosity emerged from the river, water dripping from the shaggy wet fur.  It looked and him and growled a deep guttural growl.  Jacob yelped and stumbled onto his backside.  He began pushing himself back in a desperate attempt to escape this horrid fate.

But Fate had different plans and the monster lunged at him, seeming to grin.

**PRESENT TIME**

Jacob coughed up blood again.  The cough wracked his entire frame.  He heard heavy steps growing closer.  Jacob fumbled at the chain around his neck.  His numb fingers were unable to undo the clasp.  Growing desperate, he yanked and the chain snapped.  He held it up and opened the small locket, ignoring the dog tags that fell to the ground.  Inside the locket was a picture of himself, his wife, and his son.

Tears glistened around his eyes as he fought the urge to cry.  A sob escaped and he heard the footsteps grow closer.  He kissed the locket and slipped it into his pocket.  Death was knocking at his door.

But Jacob was now ready to welcome Death.  He found himself grinning for some reason.  There was a little lump in his pocket.  His fingers closed around the small metal cylinder.  From out of his pocket, Jacob pulled a grenade.  He giggled.

“Hey you big creep!” he shouted, half moaning.  “Come and get me!  I’m right here you big lump!”

Jacob heard the deep growl behind him and cocked his head towards it.  He was struggling to sit up when a powerful grasp closed around his waist.  The already stabbing pain in his mangled chest intensified.  Jacob shut his eyes and resisted the urge to scream.  He pulled the pin on the grenade and extended it close to the monster’s terrible face.  Jacob’s eyes opened.

“Go to hell,” he said calmly.

The grenade exploded.

(EDIT: Just trying to format)

title: Wrote this as a sophomore in high school (Feedback appreciated!)

question: Explain why Kirby was so nervous before the attack.

answer: Kirby had been a green private who was new to the war and was coming fresh from boot camp. He had seen big footprints out in the woods with his comrades but his bear fears were quickly dismissed. Kirby and his patrol buddy then stumble upon skeletons on the ground with their flesh eaten off.


text:
[The Boardr Events]

About The Boardr

We host and organize skateboarding's top events like Vans Park Series.

The Boardr also owns and operates grassroots series such as The Boardr Am and Grind for Life. These 15 annual events target younger, newer participants and cover the United States.

We want to grow skateboarding and help you also do what we do, so we made this in depth roadmap on how to run your own skateboarding event.

Our software, The Boardr Live™, powers several top events in skateboarding, from payment transactions to live scoring and broadcast data integration.

If you want your event and all the details to be professionally executed by proven experts who live and breate this industry, The Boardr is who you hire.

[The Boardr Services]

Creating and Executing Your Event

CONSULTATION: Format development, skater recruiting and invites, general needs specific to each individual project.

STAFFING: We provide judges, announcers, key event personnel, and all support staff required to run a turnkey operation.

INFRASTRUCTURE: We come with all the equipment needed to run the event including scoring, registration, check-in, and more.

MEDIA: We provide top quality photography and video production in a professional and authentic manner, including personal delivery to top influencers.

[Skateboarding Events Technology]

Our Technology

The Boardr Live™: an instant scoring and event administration system used by the majority of the skateboarding industry.

-   Live and instant scoring to live TV, web, monitors, and jumbotrons
-   Shared skateboarder database among all industry event organizers
-   Accurate and current data exists for every top pro and amateur skateboarder in the world, including social media
-   Simple and easy integration with TV and Web Broadcasting graphics packages

[Private Warehouse Action Sports Facility for Rent]

Our Facility

The Boardr headquarters and offices in Tampa, Florida include a regularly updated private skateboard park and events space. Check out a tour of our facility and events space.

Our private park is not open to the public, but our facility is available for parties or other private events. Check the full details here.

[Skateboarding Data]

Our Data

The Boardr's data on skateboarding and competitions is by far the best information available and strenghtening daily with constant maintenance and content contributions.

-   7,000+ have placed top 20 or higher to earn a ranking in The Boardr Global Rank
-   10,000+ YouTube videos logged to individual skater profiles
-   4,000+ professional quality photos taken by The Boardr Staff Photographers logged to individual skater profiles

[Vans Park Series]

Sample Event: Vans Park Series

This ground breaking and game changing event series for park terrain skateboarding started in 2016. Vans knew to get it right, they needed to partner up with the team at The Boardr to create a top tier event that the industry and skateboarding professionals would support and attend. But work on VPS started long before that. In 2015, we sat down with Vans and hashed out everything from the fine details of seasonal rankings and points, to the long term picture and path to Tokyo for the Olympic Games. At each stop, The Boardr is contracted by Vans to provide full turnkey operational support, including live and instant scoring services via The Boardr Live™.

[Red Bull Hart Lines]

Sample Event: Ryan Sheckler's Red Bull Hart Lines Detroit

When Ryan Sheckler and Red Bull get an idea for one of the biggest new events in skateboarding, they know who to get to work with from the start. Nearly two years in advance, when it was just an idea over lunch, Red Bull and Ryan had already brought in The Boardr to consult, plan, and review everything from potential site visits to developing new and innovative scoring systems that changed the same old rules of skateboarding contests forever. Hart Lines was born out of all this work with a new format factoring in an element of speed. The Boardr has proudly produced three years this leading Red Bull Signature Series event.

[Contact The Boardr]

Let's Work Together

Contact us: help@theboardr.com

[Ryan Clements The Boardr]

Staff: Ryan Clements, Founder

Ryan Clements has breathed skateboarding since first discovering the activity in Tampa, Florida in 1985. A true student of the school of hard work, Ryan owned a lawn care business until 1998, when he traded in his mower for a desk, a PC, and a new role as GM of Skatepark of Tampa. At SPoT he helped grow the brand to worldwide recognition, solidified Tampa Am and Tampa Pro as premiere events, and appeared as a guest character in the Tony Hawk Pro Skater video game franchise. In 2006, Ryan co-founded SPoT Productions, a company whose sole focus was producing skateboarding events on a global scale. Upon his departure from the SPoT businesses in 2013, Ryan's professional focus turned to Excel Management, a company he co-founded in 2010 to help some of the biggest names in skateboarding set up retirement funds, pay taxes, and sustain a living long after their careers are over. More recently Excel has become the go-to agency for contract negotiations and the cultivation of credible skateboarding careers. Ryan then went on to co-found The Boardr in 2013. Since its inception, Ryan has been behind-the-scenes at events ranging from backyard mini-ramp jams and art shows, to full scale live television broadcasts. When he gets time at home, Ryan enjoys skating his "Dream Driveway," and taking his wife and two daughters to Bo's, his neighborhood ice cream shop.

[Rob Meronek The Boardr]

Staff: Rob Meronek, Founder

Rob Meronek is a software engineer, Certified Public Accountant, and photographer with over 25 years invested into skateboarding. He was born in the Philippines, and started skating in upstate New York, where skateboarding went from childhood toy to lifelong dream. After moving to Tampa and graduating from the University of South Florida, Rob got his foot in the door at Skatepark of Tampa by exchanging bookkeeping services for free skating. This eventually led Rob to quit his accounting firm job and join SPoT full-time in 2001. What Rob accomplished in the coming years is impressive. He created the SPoT’s POS system and on-line retail store, one of the first live inventory websites in the industry at the time, as well as co-founded SPoTLight Productions, an extension of SPoT whose sole purpose was organizing and executing skateboarding events around the world. After parting ways with SPoT in 2013, he joined back up with old co-worker Ryan Clements to create The Boardr, a new agency with a new vision and approach to how skateboarding events are organized and run, with its main focus being the relationships between event organizers, sponsors, and most importantly, the skaters. With that came the development of "The Boardr Live,” an innovative scoring app that is now used by event organizers around the world to handle every task necessary in running a proper skateboard contest. Outside of skateboarding, Rob is fascinated by anything tech-related. In his free time, he likes to skate his backyard mini-ramp. Rob also helps his wife Brittany run her greeting card business, “Humdrum Paper,” while raising their two sons, Alvis and Remington.

[Dylan Perry The Boardr]

Staff: Dylan Perry, Project Manager

Dylan Perry has been a part of the skateboard industry almost as long as he has been a skateboarder. A lifelong resident of Tampa, Florida, Dylan skated and worked a regular teenage job at a car wash until 2005. Then he was handed a set of keys to Skatepark of Tampa. He worked hard and skated harder, eventually turning heads and getting noticed at Tampa Am 2006 during Best Trick. Dylan then spent the next 10 years traveling the world as a sponsored am, while keeping Tampa as home base in between trips. In 2015, he started the transition to a role behind-the-scenes in the contest world, taking subcontracting gigs with former employer, Ryan Clements. This led to full-time employment with The Boardr in 2016, where he uses both his creative and organizational skills as a project manager for skateboarding events around the globe. Outside of skateboarding, Dylan enjoys creating art through graphic design, spray paint, and stencils on canvas. He also has a passion for spending time in his kitchen, preparing delicious meals for his friends and family.

[Justin Ryan The Boardr]

Staff: Justin Ryan, HQ Manager

A humble man originally from Gilman, Iowa, Justin Ryan was raised with that Midwest mentality of working hard and keeping your mouth shut. He started skating in 1986, and still vividly remembers that first Lance Mountain deck his uncle bought him. Growing up, Justin found time to skate in between his other passions, wrestling and soccer. After successful years in both sports at the high school level, Justin went on to play soccer at Luther College, then Grand View University. Upon graduating from college, Justin opened Subsect Skateshop in Des Moines, which he operated from 1997-2005, before selling to Heath Kirchart and moving to Tampa. Justin then worked as the buyer for Skatepark of Tampa, ultimately moving on and settling in as the HQ manager for The Boardr. Now his responsibilities include running The Boardr’s brick and mortar shop and online business, as well as managing fulfillment for Omar Salazar’s brand, Doom Sayers. When Justin has free time, he enjoys watching the Manchester United Football Club and WWE, while taking short walks out to his backyard mini-ramp to skate with his wife Holly.

[The Boardr]

The Boardr Year in Review

Each year, we produce a year in review edit of all the things in skateboarding that we were lucky enough to be a part of. Thanks to everyone who works with us and everyone who attends all this stuff we're up to.

question: What does the text say about rollerblading?

question: What does the text say about The Boardr?

answer: The Boardr is a skateboarding agency founded by Ryan Clements and Rob Meronek in 2013, with a new vision and approach to how skateboarding events are organized and run. The main focus of the company is the relationships between event organizers, sponsors, and skaters. It hosts and organizes skateboarding events like the Vans Park Series. The Boardr owns and operates grassroots series like The Boardr Am and Grind for Life. The 15 annual events younger, newer participants and cover the U.S. The Boardr owns "The Boardr Live", an instant scoring and event administration system used by the majority of the skateboarding industry. They offer consultation, staffing, infrastructure, and media to help create and execute skateboarding events. The Boardr headquarters and offices are in Tampa, Florida. The location includes a regularly updated skateboard park and events space. The private park is not open to the public but is open for parties or other private events.

question: What does the text say about Dylan Perry?

answer: Dylan Perry is the Project Manager for The Boardr. He has been a part of the skateboard industry for almost as long as he's been a skateboarder. Perry is a lifelong resident of Tampa, Florida who worked in a car wash as a teenager. He was handed the keys to Skatepark of Tampa and used the opportunity to work hard and skated even harder. Perry turned heads at Tampa Am 2006 during Best Trick and spent the next 10 years traveling the world as a sponsored am. Perry took subcontracting gigs with Ryan Clements in 2015, which led to full-time employment with The Boardr in 2016. He uses his creative and organizational skills as a project manager for skateboarding events around the globe. Outside of skateboarding, Perry creates art through graphic design, spray paint, and stencils on canvas. He's also passionate about cooking.


text:
In March 2005, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had constituted a seven-member High Level Committee headed by former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court Rajinder Sachar to study the social, economic and educational condition of Muslims in India.The committee submitted its report in 2006 and the report was available in public domain in November 30, 2006. The 403-page report had suggestions and solutions for the inclusive development of the Muslims in India.[1]

Background

In 2004, the Congress Party returned to power in India after having been in opposition for eight years, an unprecedented length of time for a party which had ruled the country for fifty-two out of fifty-seven years between 1947 and 2004. It returned to power as head of a coalition, winning 145/543 seats in the Lok Sabha. One of its initiatives was the commissioning of a report on the latest social, economic, and educational conditions of the Muslim community of India

Composition

The committee was composed of seven members. The committee was headed by Rajinder Sachar, former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court. The other members of the committee were Sayyid Hamid, M.A. Basith, Akhtar Majeed, Abu Saleh Shariff, T.K. Oommen and Rakesh Basant. The Prime Minister also appointed Syed Zafar Mahmood to serve as Officer on Special Duty to the Committee. The committee did not include any female members, although it did meet with women's groups and activists.

Report

The committee, which was appointed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, was headed by former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court Rajinder Sachar, as well as six other members.[2][3][4][5][6] The committee prepared a 403-page report and presented it to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian Parliament, on 30 November 2006, 20 months after obtaining the terms of reference from the Prime Minister's Office.[7] This report highlighted issues facing the Muslim community and their representation in Indian public life,[8]

The report made observations on the high birthrate in the Muslim community in comparison to Hindus: the committee estimated that the Muslim proportion will stabilize at between 17% and 21% of the Indian population by 2100.[9]

The Sachar Committee highlighted and presented its suggestions on how to remove impediments those preventing Indian Muslims from fully participating in the economic, political, and social mainstream of Indian life. The report was the first of its kind to reveal the “backwardness” (a term used in Indian academic and legal discourse for historically dispossessed or economically vulnerable communities, not meant to be pejorative) of Indian Muslims. An issue highlighted was that while Muslims constitute 14% of the Indian population, they only comprise 2.5% of the Indian bureaucracy.[10] The Sachar Committee concluded that the conditions facing Indian Muslims was below that of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.[11]

The Sachar Committee Report brought the issue of Muslim Indian inequality to national attention, sparking a discussion that is still ongoing. The Committee recommended setting up an Equal Opportunity Commission to provide a legal mechanism to address discrimination complaints, including in matters such as housing.[12] In response to the Committee's findings, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram proposed an increase to the National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation's (NMDFC) budget, citing new duties and expanded outreach that the institution would take on to implement the Committee's recommendations.[13]

Methodology

The Sachar Committee used 2001 census data to understand the demographic profile, infrastructure availability, and educational achievements of the population. It also used data from the National Sample Surveys (NSSO 55th and 61st Rounds) to analyze issues relating to employment, education, consumption patterns, and levels of poverty. Banking data was received from different sources such as the Reserve Bank of India, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, Small Industries Development Bank of India, National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation, and the National Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation. Corroborative data was also obtained from government commissions and organisations such as the National Commission for Backward Classes, the State Backward Classes Commission, and the National Council of Educational Research and Training. Finally, data from other sources, including ministries, departments, public sector undertakings, universities, and colleges were used in preparing this report.

Criticism

In November 2013, Gujarat government contended before the Supreme Court that the Rajinder Sachar Committee was “unconstitutional,” and that it only sought to help Muslims. It has strongly criticized the manner in which the PMO set up the Sachar Committee in 2005 to survey the socio-economic conditions of Muslims, while “ignoring” other religious minorities. This affidavit was filed in response to the Centre's stand that the scheme was valid and that the Modi Government was to blame for the deteriorating condition of Muslims in Gujarat.[14][15][16]

[1] https://www.gktoday.com/gk/10-years-of-sachar-committee-report/

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7] Clarification On the Work of Justice Rajindar Sachar Committee

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13] More funds for minorities' welfare

[14]

[15]

[16]

title: Sachar Committee

question: What did the committee discover about Muslim inequality?

answer: The committee discovered that Muslims are a vulnerable community not as included in Indian life. While they make up 14% of the population, they comprise only 2.5% of the Indian bureaucracy. The committee concluded that conditions facing Muslims were below that of Scheduled Castes, and Scheduled Tribes.


text:
image copyrightGetty Images

image captionThe two-block long mural reading "Black Lives Matter" was painted overnight outside the White House

THE WASHINGTON DC MAYOR HAS CHANGED THE NAME OF A PLAZA OUTSIDE THE WHITE HOUSE TO "BLACK LIVES MATTER PLAZA" IN A REBUKE TO PRESIDENT TRUMP.

Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, also unveiled a two-block long mural painted onto the street leading up to the White House declaring "Black Lives Matter".

She also demanded that Mr Trump remove federal soldiers from Washington.

The mayor's defiant, but largely symbolic, acts come as more protests are expected in DC at the weekend.

The demonstrations staged over the past week in Washington drew draconian responses from the White House, with Mr Trump ordering thousands of federal troops into the city.

The president was criticised for ordering authorities to forcibly remove peaceful protesters from a square outside the White House so he could cross the street to take a photo in front of a church.

Marking the square in front of St John's Church with the new "Black Lives Matter Plaza" sign on Friday, Ms Bowser said: "As Washingtonians, we simply all want to be here together in peace to demonstrate that in America, you can peacefully assemble, you can bring grievances to your government, and you can demand change".

The mayor also tweeted a video clip of the giant "Black Lives Matter" street mural emblazoned on the road in front of the White House in bright yellow paint.

"There was a dispute this week about whose street this is," the mayor's chief of staff John Falcicchio tweeted as the mural was unveiled.

"Mayor Bowser wanted to make it abundantly clear that this is DC's street and honour demonstrators who were peacefully protesting on Monday evening."

But the move by the mayor was panned by the local chapter of the Black Lives Matter Global Network, which called it "a performative distraction from real policy changes" and a way "to appease white liberals while ignoring our demands".

More black residents live in Washington than white residents, but the city has some of the highest levels of economic disparity between black and white households in the US.

On Twitter, Mr Trump threatened to "bring in a different group of men and women" to DC if Ms Bowser doesn't treat federal National Guard troops "well", though it was unclear to whom he was referring.

What else has the mayor done?

Ms Bowser wrote on Thursday to Mr Trump, asking him to "withdraw all extraordinary federal law enforcement and military presence from Washington DC."

Her letter notes that the curfew in Washington has been lifted as of Friday morning, and that the city police are capable of dealing with the remaining peaceful protests.

"The deployment of federal law enforcement personnel and equipment are inflaming demonstrators and adding to the grievances of those who, by and large, are peacefully protesting for change and for reforms to the racist and broken systems that are killing Black Americans," Ms Bowser wrote.

She also criticised troops for not wearing any identification, allowing them operate outside "established chains of commands," she said.

"This multiplicity of forces can breed dangerous confusion, such as when helicopters are used in a war-like tactic to frighten and disperse peaceful protestors," Ms Bowser wrote.

"My view is that law enforcement should be in place to protect the rights of American citizens, not restrict them."

image copyrightGetty Images

image copyrightGetty Images

image captionSome troops have not worn identifying insignia

Ms Bowser has repeatedly clashed with the White House since peaceful protesters were cleared from Lafayette Square Park - outside the White House - on Monday so Mr Trump could visit a church. She called the decision to use violence on the protesters "shameful".

She also threatened to take legal action against his administration his week after Trump officials floated the idea of taking control of the Washington DC police force.

According to the Washington Post, at least 16 law enforcement and military agencies have sent armed personnel to Washington.

Troops from the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), the Army and National Guard are among those who have faced off with protesters in the past week.

Washington DC is not a state, and the mayor does not have the same power as a state governor who can decide when and how to deploy National Guard troops.

The Washington DC National Guard report directly to the Secretary of the Army.

A mayor lashes out

ANALYSIS BY TARA MCKELVEY, BBC WASHINGTON

Mayor Bowser has taken a strong stance against the president, denouncing his decision to bring National Guard units into Washington.

In a letter to the president, she described federal law-enforcement officers and the National Guard units in the city as "extraordinary" and demanded that they leave. She has also said there is a "legal question" about whether the president can deploy the troops here.

However, it was unclear whether there really is legal backing to her claim. She is a Democratic mayor in a largely Democratic city, and she is popular among her constituents. When she says the troops should not be on Washington streets, she is expressing an opinion held by many of the people who live here.

Washington is a federal city, though, and federal authorities have significant power in this town.

For that reason, she does not have much legal recourse. In truth, she has little power and most likely she will have to stand by and watch the president's plans unfold - like the others who live here.

question: Summarize the views of opposing sides in this article.

answer: Democrats tend to support the painting of Black Lives Matter on grounds outside of but visible to and around the White House. At the time of this article, President Trump, a Republican with a particularly socially conservative fan base, was in office. The Mayor of DC also unveiled a two-blocks long mural leading up to the White House with the same message. She has also called for federal troops to be removed from Washington. Mr Trump and his voting base disagree with her condoning the mural as well as her request that they not take control of the Washington DC police force.

question: Summarize the context for Black Lives Matter-both the group and the mural.


text:
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*Rock-a-bye baby, on the treetop,*

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*When the wind blows, the cradle will rock,*

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall,*

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*And down will come baby, cradle and all.*

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Things aren’t always as they seem; one move can shatter all you’ve built, yet all you’ve built isn’t always deliberate. My brain is muddled with the mistakes I have made, will make and am making. I’ve always had so much, I still do—but the more I have the less wholesome it feels. My eyes used to be filled with light, colour, and significance—now I am shadowed by the constant euphoria.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Euphoria:- a feeling or state of intense excitement and happiness.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Euphoria used to mean that—good things—but now it consumes me. It grew steadily; started as a slight nagging and grew to a beast, taking bites out of me with every inhalation. I still remember the day that it all started, the day that I broke the last straw, lost the last emotion; the day I made the mistake of walking home after my graveyard shift.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;“Trust me, lady,” the shady man from the alley said as he grabbed my arm—it wasn’t hard but it was far from gentle—whispering with heavy breaths, “I can see it in your eyes.”

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;“I need to go,” I shuddered in response; I was so scared, so unfamiliar.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;“You's sad, I can see it, I know what you need, lady, trust me,” he went on, shoving a bag in my face, “*this* is the stuff you need.” I started to become frustrated, I mean, there was a smelly, shady young man whispering in my ear about some drug; little did I know, he would become my saviour.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;“I don’t think *hallucinations*, are going to help me put my life back together,” I spat. Oh, the irony! I thought I had hit rock bottom back then, I didn’t know of the trenches lying ahead of me.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;“No, lady, heroin isn’t like that. You won’t hallucinate like MDMA or LSD; it’s a nice friendly drug.” he explained, “this shit doesn’t get you high, or screw you up, everything thing is just mellow, and happy—the world is beautiful.” That was the point where I was starting to become convinced, “you could smoke it at home, smoke it at work; heroin doesn’t create, it *erases.*” Sold, at the drop of a hat. That man—whom I now know as Trey, or in situations I’ve tried to repress, *babe*—knew how to use his words to manipulate me into doing whatever he pleased, a skill that proved useful to him later on. I revisited that alleyway 47 times after the fact, but I met Trey himself 164 times—our relationship evolved from simply the purchase and sale of heroin. At the time, it wasn’t manipulation, it was rescue: I was lonely, depressed, and barely managing to maintain a dead-end waitressing job; Trey showed me the drug that dissolved all my negativity, and his own presence dispersed my loneliness. What I now realize was the exploitation of resources seemed at the time to be real, maybe my rationality was altered by the heroin, but I felt the most sane I’ve ever been. Nine times out of ten, I would go somewhere with Trey and smoke the stash I’d bought *with* him, when I could only afford less but what I needed was more, he would even share some of his. I was so young and so stupid; I thought that’s what love was, *sharing your heroin.* God, I was so stupid.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;It didn’t take long for me to fall in what I thought was love, but could you blame me? I was being provided with powdered happiness, the only thing I was really living for. I never realized that I had never spent a night with him sober; I made him priority, my moments with him were the only moments that mattered. To him, I was simply a customer, and then a sex toy—I was never a human being. Yet night after night I texted him over and over, smoked with him, made love to him—the cycle continued for months, and I loved it, but every thing must come to an end. A rude awakening, clichéd and yet the most unexpected thing to ever happen: I was pregnant; I missed my period the last month. At first, I brushed it off as a side effect of the alien substance running through my veins, but in a burst of rationality I got myself tested. I kept smoking—but I started to get careful, only smoking once a week, then once every two, however, I could never bring myself to really stop, why didn’t I stop? About 3 months in, I told Trey—well, I didn’t tell him, he noticed my hesitance and then my stomach, and with my lack of comprehensible response, he caught on.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;“You’re goddamn pregnant,” he mumbled one day, obviously numbed by the drugs, “you can’t smoke my shit anymore.” I saw it as an act of care, a muted ‘I love you,’ but to him it was just a lost customer, lost money. In a stroke of epiphany my saviour and my enemy all at once developed another business idea. “If you smoke it, the baby gets all the drugs,” he spoke confidently, making me believe he had some medical knowledge—although, I would have believed anything from him at that point, “but if you inject it just stays in *your* blood.” Brilliant, absolutely brilliant; take my pregnancy and turn it into an investment, sell me more expensive drugs, take me even further down the rabbit hole. I never stopped doing heroin throughout my pregnancy. Trey left a few months later, as soon as he found out there wasn’t going to be an abortion, as soon as found out this was as much his responsibility as it was mine. He may have moved across the country or across the street, I didn’t know, but he blocked my calls and I gave up. I found another dealer, and I gave up. That’s how I know it wasn’t love on my part either, at least not love for the man, but for his produce.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;I was dedicated to that drug, so dedicated that I never thought more ahead than the next morning, I never thought about what I was doing to myself. I took 20 hits of heroin a day in my last trimester; I needed that much to handle the side effects of pregnancy. I half-expected the baby to die before I had to care for it—but it was stronger than I. April 26th—8 months and 23 days of pregnancy—I went into labour. The pain covered my entire body to such an extent that not even the heroin could make it stop; I felt almost helpless, I had no *human* friends to guide me. I knew only one thing coming into this—and its implications:

1.  I have no money
	* I cannot afford to go to the hospital
	* I cannot afford to raise this baby

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Despite my long-term patronage to heroin, there remained sparse drops of sanity within me, and through those I determined that my only option was to keep the child. It was through those drops that I also realized the health of the baby would not be substantial, in fact, it is miraculous that the foetus remained to grow throughout the entire gestation period; the baby will be severely messed up if it survives birth. I had gotten myself into a situation that had no upside, but due to the influence I was under, I was so goddamn calm. I hadn’t a clue what I was to do, yet I hadn’t a crap to give—or perhaps a better way to explain was that I hadn’t the ability to feel, everything had a silver lining, even if it didn’t.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;I birthed the baby on my living room floor; I chose to do so because the carpeting was a deep maroon, therefore any stains would not be overly detrimental. He came out blue and silent, but he wasn’t dead—he was also not normal. He was ugly, it was so ugly. I knew for a fact such aesthetic could only stem from deformity, there was a muddled order of the features on its face, features that were not mine. This is not a child I felt the want or need to keep in my home, nor did I have the means of doing so. In what I thought was an excellent plan, I took the baby to the cool darkness outside of my home, and settled him gently on the floor. Using the materials around me I fashioned an intricate cradle of sticks and leaves—sturdier than concrete—and gently hung it upon the branch of a tree, low enough that I could just reach it. Gently, I placed the baby in its new cradle; I had the urge to kiss the baby goodbye, to feel any compassion, but the feeling was too easy to dismiss. In that moment, I had justified my own decision; if I didn’t love the baby, nobody would. I would visit it in the morning to feed and comfort it, I would keep the baby alive so not to be deemed a murderer; everything made so much sense.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;I woke up the next morning, exceedingly sober. The implications of my actions slowly trickled into the back of my mind, like a drop of blood down my scalp. *I gave birth last night, while high, and I left the baby in a forest.* Glancing at the clock I noticed it had only been a few hours, I hoped to salvage the situation. That was the first morning in a very long time in which my primary thought had not been heroin. Running outside, it hit me that it was much too late; there was no possibility of a happy ending. By the trees I noticed what I though was a cradle and now realized is nothing but a pile of sticks and junk on the floor, stained slightly browner than its surroundings. The overwhelming smell of loss encompassed me as I lifted the ‘cradle’ away, revealing what was underneath. The foetus was covered in blood, skull cracked open, unmistakably dead. In my delusion, I did not witness myself hang a baby to a tree with some sticks, I did not realize how far my life had crashed downwards, how much I had ruined myself, I did not know that down would come baby, *‘cradle’ and all.*

title: [MF] Rock-a-Bye Baby

question: Summarize Trey's description of heroin.

answer: Not hallucinatory like MDMA or LSD but friendly. Trey claims it 'erases' rather than 'creates'. He says it can be smoked anywhere because it doesn't get you high, it just mellows you out.

question: What does the story say about the baby's name?


text:
STAND TOGETHER is an American philanthropic organization that was first established in 2003 and was often referred to informally as the Koch Network. It is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit organization based in Arlington, Virginia and was founded by Charles Koch to assist philanthropic activities across the United States. Formerly known as The Seminar Network, its renaming as Stand Together was announced on May 20, 2019. The founding CEO is Brian Hooks.[1][2]

Founding and history

In 2003, Charles Koch began hosting annual meetings of business leaders and philanthropists to support various education and policy initiatives. From these seminars grew a philanthropic community of organizations working to address issues such as poverty, addiction, recidivism, gang violence and homelessness. In 2019, this advocacy organization became the Stand Together Foundation.[3][4]

As it exists today, Stand Together seeks to identify and mentor organizations addressing society’s biggest challenges. A key part of the organization’s strategy is to work through what it refers to as “key institutions of society” — education, business, communities, and government — to discover innovative ways to “remove barriers so every person can rise.”[5]

In a speech in January 2019 in Palm Springs, Charles Koch signaled he would shift away from partisan politics and focus on goals that cut across ideologies. Stand Together is considered a manifestation of those stated intentions. Charles Koch is considered less political than his brother, David Koch.[6]

Brian Hooks is the current Chairman and CEO. He previously served as executive director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and is also president of the Charles Koch Foundation. Other leadership members include Evan Feinberg, Amy Pelletier, and Kevin Lavelle.[7][8]

Operations

Hooks has explained the goal of Stand Together is to seek non-partisan, bottom-up solutions to societal issues, rather than focusing on partisan, top-down approaches. Founder Charles Koch has admitted that a political approach his organizations had taken in prior years proved unsuccessful and divisive. Despite this aim, some organization within the Stand Together community engage in policy and politics. In recent years, leaders of affiliated organizations have stated an intention to endorse policies and candidates regardless of political party.[9][10]

Stand Together works on a broad portfolio of issues, including education, poverty, criminal justice, immigration, free expression, trade, foreign policy, economic opportunity, technology and business as a force for good. Stand Together engages on these issues by partnering with organizations and individuals best equipped to have the greatest impact on these issues.

Founder Charles Koch and CEO Brian Hooks cite these partnerships as the key to their effectiveness. For example, to tackle an issue like drug addiction, the Stand Together community has invested in and helped scale an organization called The Phoenix. Its founder, Scott Strode, struggled with addiction before creating this recovery program that has a success rate twice as good as many clinical programs. When Stand Together met the Phoenix, they were in seven cities. Now, they are in nearly 50 and have expansion plans that would make them one of the most significant efforts in the country at a time when addiction is at an all-time high.

Similarly, on issues of policy, Stand Together led a broad bipartisan coalition on criminal justice reform — which saw leaders like Van Jones and organizations like the ACLU coming together with Senate Republicans and The Heritage Foundation – to pass the historic First Step Act in 2018. Stand Together has cited this approach as a key to its effectiveness and continues to bridge divides on this issue and many others like foreign policy and immigration.[11][12][13][14]

[1]

[2] Joanie Greve; Mariana Alfaro; The Daily 202: The Koch network is reorganizing under a new name and with new priorities; The Washington Post; 1

[3]

[4] Joanie Greve; Mariana Alfaro; The Daily 202: The Koch network is reorganizing under a new name and with new priorities; The Washington Post; 2

[5] Fredreka Schouten; Koch brothers' new group will take on poverty, educational quality; USA Today; 3

[6]

[7] Joanie Greve; Mariana Alfaro; The Daily 202: The Koch network is reorganizing under a new name and with new priorities; The Washington Post; 4

[8] Thomas, Lauren; Stitch Fix’s head of men’s clothing is leaving to become CEO of online retailer Mizzen+Main; CNBC; 5

[9] An American approach to the coronavirus crisis: Find innovative ways to contribute; USA Today; 6

[10] Schwartz, Brian; Koch network opens its doors to Democrats as it expands political engagement; CNBC; 7

[11] Koch-Backed Criminal Justice Reform Bill To Reach Senate; NPR; 8

[12] Greve, Joanie; The Koch donor network retreat turns touchy-feely; Washington Post; 9

[13] Steinhauer, Jennifer; Two Veterans Groups, Left and Right, Join Forces Against the Forever Wars; New York Times; 10

[14] Johnson, Alice; Holden, Mark; Johnson and Holden: First Step Act working – now here are the next steps in criminal justice reform; Fox News; 11

title: Stand Together

question: What is the difference between Stand Together pre-2019 and post-2019?

answer: Though one of the founders, Charles Koch, promised to stay away from partisan politics, there are still organizations with Stand Together that are engaging with politics and policy.


text:
QUICK LINKS: ADVANCE! ANALYSIS | PRELIMINARY CELEBRITY ANALYSIS | FREEWINDS ANALYSIS | SOURCE ANALYSIS

The Church of Scientology typically trumpets "stats through the roof" and "unprecedented growth" at Scientology events. However, a careful look at Scientology's own statistics shows that Scientology's growth is slow ... and some numbers (such as the number of new Clear attests each year) indicate that Scientology is shrinking.

Scientologists learn to look at statistics to gauge an individual's success. What do these numbers say about the Church of Scientology, and about its ability to tell its members the truth about the state of affairs?

To get a more accurate picture of Scientology's health, I am collecting stats, based on the completions lists published in Scientology magazines, and bit by bit, I am graphing them.

The primary sources for these statistics are Scientology's main US magazines:

-   Advance!
-   Advance! ANZO
-   Advance! Europe
-   Advance! UK
-   Auditor
-   Auditor UK
-   Celebrity (CC Int)
-   Freewinds
-   Impact
-   Prosperity
-   Source

I also have a collection of org magazines from individual Scientology orgs, including Ability, Achievement, Cognition, Enhancement, Gateway, New Era, Purpose, Survive, Success Gazette, and Understand. (Since I live in San Francisco, I am especially interested in Gateway.)

If you have suggestions for this site or would like to contribute information that could be used here - especially additional statistics - please contact the site owner, Kristi Wachter, at info@truthaboutscientology.com.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Completions

Completions lists from Scientology magazines have been posted to the alt.religion.scientology newsgroup (also on Google), providing something that's often lacking when discussing Scientology's expansion (or lack thereof) - real data.

I am working on compiling these statistics and analyzing them, with the invaluable help of others who are interested in these statistics. I'm also creating an index to the newsgroup messages, making it easier for people to view the raw data and do their own analysis.

If you have any data from old Scientology magazines (or new ones!), your contribution to the data collection would be greatly appreciated. I posted to alt.religion.scientology and alt.clearing.technology requesting any information people have.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Advance! Magazine

From the completions lists posted from Advance! Magazine, we can see that little real expansion has taken place in the last three years. A boom in OT Eligibility completions in the middle of 2001 has fizzled out.

As of this writing (July 2002), Advance! 159 has not appeared yet, even though Advance! 158 came out in April 2002 and that issue covered three months (rather than two), since issue 157 appeared in January.

For numbers and graphs, please see the Advance! Stats page.

An excellent post to alt.religion.scientology by Cerridwen shows that the statistics can be misleading, since the issues do not come out on a regular basis. Source 138, the June 2002 issue, included four months of completions, while issue 137 had only covered two months. While four months of Clear attests may seem higher than two months, once you average the numbers over the reporting period, the picture can change.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Additional Completions Data

I have a motley assortment of Scientology magazines that people have sent me, and I've culled as much information as I could find from completions lists posted on the alt.religion.scientology newsgroup.

I've summarized that completions info on a quick-and-dirty "this is my first attempt" page. As I collect more data, I'll begin creating pages for various subsets of data. The Advance page listed above is one; I'll try to do a page for Freewinds, Source, and Auditor as well - along with some of the org magazines I've gotten. I may also try to do other types of subsets, such as number of Clear attests or number of Purifs.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

You Can Help

You can help make this project more useful by

-   suggesting additional ways to organize and present the data
-   providing data

You're welcome to send me an e-mail with suggestions or information. You can also send me your Scientology mail.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of Churches and Missions, Number of Staff, Number of Members

"Scientology's Statistics" from _Scientology With(out) An End_ by Tom Voltz uses Scientology's own published statistics from _What Is Scientology?_ It shows that

  Over a 15 year period, the number of churches grew, on average, at the rate of barely 4.8 percent per year. The missions did a little worse. For them the average growth was only 2.6 percent per year.

and

  If we take the number of staff on July 31, 1977 as a base, and compare it with that of 1990, which is 10,224, then the number of staff, from the middle of 1977 to 1992 grew at a rate of 3.8 percent.

Number of New Clears Each Year

Cornelius Krasel's Growth of Scientology page cites total numbers of Clears from various Scientology publications between 1966 and 1996.

I have created my own chart, based on his numbers; where there was no specific number available (for example, 1967-1973), I approximated an average number of new Clears based on the next year for which I DID have data (so, for 1967-1973, I estimated an average of 500 new Clears a year). Those years are marked below with an asterisk in the last column.

As you can see, at no time in the history of Scientology has the organization been producing so few new Clears a year.

The latest issues of Scientology publications list just a few new Clears:

-   Advance 156 lists 12 (Nov 2001)
-   Advance 154 lists 7 (July 2001)
-   Advance 151 lists 3

+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| Year            | Total Clears    | New Clears      | Data            |
|                 |                 |                 | Approximated    |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 1966            | 1               | 1               |                 |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 1967            | 500             | 499             | *               |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 1968            | 1000            | 500             | *               |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 1969            | 1500            | 500             | *               |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 1970            | 2000            | 500             | *               |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 1971            | 2500            | 500             | *               |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 1972            | 3000            | 500             | *               |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 1973            | 3500            | 500             | *               |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 1974            | 4000            | 500             |                 |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 1975            | 4648            | 648             | *               |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 1976            | 5296            | 648             | *               |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 1977            | 5943            | 647             |                 |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 1978            | 8300            | 2357            |                 |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 1979            | 21300           | 13000           |                 |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 1980            | 24050           | 2750            | *               |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 1981            | 26800           | 2750            | *               |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 1982            | 29550           | 2750            | *               |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 1983            | 32311           | 2761            |                 |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 1984            | 38000           | 5689            |                 |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 1985            | 41550           | 3550            | *               |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 1986            | 45100           | 3550            | *               |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 1987            | 48650           | 3550            | *               |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 1988            | 52200           | 3550            | *               |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 1989            | 55750           | 3550            | *               |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 1990            | 59316           | 3566            |                 |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 1991            | 55591           | -3725           |                 |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 1992            | 51866           | -3725           | *               |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 1993            | 48133           | -3733           |                 |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 1994            | 48000           | -133            |                 |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 1995            | 49656           | 1656            |                 |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| 1996            | 49880           | 224             |                 |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+

NUMBER OF NEW CLEARS EACH YEAR, 1966-1996

[]

question: What signs of slowing growth for Scientology does the text discuss?

answer: The main sign is the number of Clears per year and Completions. The number of Completions is in decline as well as the number of Clears. The recent years mark the lowest amount of Clears per year for Scientology since its inception.

question: What does the article say about the truthfulness of Scientology?


text:
The Abenaki people are an indigenous peoples of the Americas located in the Northeastern Woodlands region. Religious ceremonies are led by medicine keepers, called _Medeoulin_ or _Mdawinno_.

Three ages

The history of the Abenaki people is divided into three time periods. In the first, the Ancient Age, humanity and animal-life are undifferentiated. In the second, the Golden Age, humans are still animals, but quantitatively different. In the third, the Present Age, animals and humanity are totally differentiated.

Beings of the Ancient Age

-   Atosis - a medeoulin who is a reptilian humanoid, forces people to find a stick so that he can cook them with it, was blinded by Moosbas
-   Azeban - “Raccoon”, a raccoon or wolverine trickster spirit
-   Kee-wakw - a gigantic, forest-dwelling cannibal
-   Kisosen - “Sun-Bringer”, the solar deity, an eagle whose wings opened to create the day, and closed to cause the nighttime
-   Kita-skog “Big Snake” or _Pita-skog_ “Grand Snake” - a Horned Serpent who fights the Pa-don-gi-ak
-   Kchi-awasos - “Big Bear”, the bowl stars of the Big Dipper are the Great Bear, who is chased every night by three hunters; he is killed every fall and his blood drips to earth turning the leaves brown while the constellation turns upside down; it is righted, and he is reborn, every spring
-   Mateguas (also _Mat-gwas_) - a rabbit spirit, first (one of magic) the rabbit, the first _medeoulin_, legendary founder of the _Midewiwin_.
-   Metee-kolen-ol - a race of evil wizards with hearts of ice
-   Nanom-keea-po-da - subterranean spirit who causes earthquakes
-   Niben - “Summer”, a woman whose stunning beauty forces Pe-ben to retreat to the north; she represents summer
-   Pamola - a bird and night spirit who takes prisoners to Alomkik, near Mt. Katahdin and causes cold weather
-   Psônen “Snow-Bringer” - an eagle-spirit that makes snow by opening his wings
-   Padôgiyik “Thunders” - seven white-skinned, golden-haired brothers, half-human and half-bird, former inhabitants of Lake Champlain, war-like, thunder and lightning spirits.
-   Pebon “Winter” - a powerful sorcerer who puts his audience to sleep when he tells stories, spirit of winter
-   Siguan “Spring” - a young male who loved the season of summer, and brought her to the north every spring
-   Tabaldak “Owner” - the androgynous creator of existence
-   Wa-won-dee-a-megw “Snail” - a snail spirit that can live in trees, on land or in the water, as well as change size and appearance to look like a huge snake, alligator or scaly man; has horns which can be ground into a magical powder
-   Wad-zoo-sen - the eagle that flaps his wings to create wind. Gluskab tries to stop his wind in order to hunt by tying his wings and moving him, but realizes that without the wind, the earth and water will suffer and releases him enough to allow some wind.
-   Wassan-mon-ganeehla-ak - a race of people who play games with a ball of light, causing the Aurora Borealis

Beings of the Golden Age

-   Oodzee-hozo (_Odzihózo_) also known as Gluskab/Gluskabe (Gloos Ka Be)[1] - (“the man who created himself”) a man who lived before the invention of legs. He dragged his body around, creating mountains, valleys and rivers (in this early form, he is referred to as Bemee-geedzin-pobi-zeed), as well as Lake Champlain, which is holy to the Abenaki. Odzihozo turned himself into a rock in the lake (Rock Dunder, roughly west of Burlington, Vermont), which he is said to inhabit.
-   Tool-ba (Tôlba) - foolish turtle spirit, uncle of Gluskab
-   Pla-ween-noo - turtle spirit, mother of Gluskab, patron spirit of the Sokwakis
-   AGASKW (also Nokemis) - (“woodchuck”, also known as _NOKEMIS_, “my grandmother”) is a very wise woodchuck-spirit of the Abenaki. She is the grandmother of Gluskab.
-   Moos-bas - mink spirit, adopted son on Gluskab, powerful fletcher, sometimes fulfills wishes
-   Mool-sem - one of Gluskab's dogs, the white one, could shrink or enlarge himself
-   M-da-weelh-ak - a loon spirit in the form of a dog, Gluskab's messenger, one of his dogs, the black one, could shrink or enlarge himself
-   A-senee-ki-wakw - a race of stone giants, the first people Gluskab created but then destroyed because they crushed other animals and injured the earth with their great size

Gluskab and Malsumis

Tabaldak, the creator god, made humans and then Gluskab (several variants of whom were associated with different branches of the Abenaki, including Glooscap, Glooskap, Gluskabe Klooskomba) and Malsumis sprang from the dust on his hand. Gluskab and Malsumis both had the power to create a good world, but only Gluskab did so. Malsumis still seeks evil to this day.

Gluskab founded the Golden Age of the Earth by rendering the evil spirits of the Ancient Age smaller and safer, as well as teaching humanity how to hunt and fish, build shelter and all of the Abenaki's knowledge of art, invention and science. Gluskab's departure ended the Golden Age, though he is prophesied to return and renew it again.

Me-koom-wee-soo was Gluskab's assistant and wields an ivory bow. He has a fierce temper and gains weight as he gets more angry; eventually, it is said, he sinks into stone. Gluskab and Me-koom-wee-soo had an archery contest once; Me-koom-wee-soo fired an arrow into the top of Mt. Washington, creating a pond, while Gluskab's arrow created a hole in the sky that was then called msatawa (the Evening Star).

Gluskab realized the strain hunters can cause on an ecosystem. He asked a woodchuck spirit for help, and she gave him all the hairs off her belly, woven into a magical sac; which is why woodchucks have bald bellies. Gluskab then went to a mountain, where Tabaldak had placed a huge eagle (P-mol-a) that made bad weather by flapping its wings. After binding it, Gluskab realized some wind was necessary and loosened them slightly. Gluskab saved the world from a frog monster that swallowed all the planet's water. When Gluskab cut open the monster's belly, some animals jumped into the water and became fish. Some modern Wabanaki believe that Gluskab is angry at white people for not obeying his rules.

Beings of the Present Age

-   Alom-bag-winno-sis or ALOM-BEGWI-NO-SIS - a mischievous, dwarfish race of men upsets canoes, that can increase or decrease body size at will; they also own a pot which can transform a few kernels of maize into a huge quantity; seeing one supposedly foretells a death by drowning
-   Ask-wee-da-eed - a fire-elemental, identified as a will o' the wisp, that brings bad luck and death, also connected with comets and meteors
-   Atsolowas - a trickster.
-   Awa-hon-do z - insect spirits that bite humans
-   Awes-kon-wa - a small, flying sprite, associated with the Mohawk tribe
-   Batsolowanagwes - a benign trickster
-   Bedig-wajo (western Abenaki) or Ktaden (eastern Abenaki) - a culture hero
-   Chibaiskweda - marsh gas, supposedly caused by the ghost of an improperly buried corpse
-   Do-gakw-ho-wad - small men who prop the jaws of animals open with sticks in order to avoid being eaten
-   Dzee-dzee-bon-da - a monster, so ugly that even he is terrified of his own appearance
-   Ko-gok - another monster
-   Lo-lol - a frightening monster
-   M-ska-gwe-demoos - a swamp-dwelling woman, dressed in moss with moss for hair; she cries alone in the forest and is potentially dangerous
-   Maski-mon-gwe-zo-os - a toad creature, seduces men and children and kills them, appears either as a partridge or a woman dressed in moss, with a belt made of arborvitae bark
-   Meek-moos-ak - a pair of short twins who seduce women, who are then cursed to never desire marriage, kills hunters during the winter, possibly a personification of the Mi'kmaq tribe
-   N-dam-keno-wet - a half-fish, half-human creature with a small face and long hair, molests bathing women
-   P-skig-demo-os - a female creature, slays men and children
-   Pak-zin-skwa - an ugly, old woman
-   Pim-skwa-wagen-owad - small, aquatic, pinching creatures
-   Pok-wejee-men - small creatures, created from the bark of the ash tree
-   Tsa-tsamolee-as - the noisy, clownish fool
-   Tsi-noo - a person whose heart is made of ice and has no soul; he eats the souls of others for sustenance and strength
-   Wana-games-ak - river-dwelling creatures with faces so narrow, they are essentially two-dimensional, friendly creatures that warned the Abenaki of coming attacks

[1] Afable, Patricia O. and Madison S. Beekes (1996). “Place Names” in _Handbook of North American Indians_, vol. 17 (Ives Goddard, ed.). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, p. 193

title: Abenaki mythology

question: Summarize what is meant by "three ages".

answer: The three ages represents the three time periods of the Abenaki people. The first age is the Ancient age, where humanity and animal-life are undifferentiated. The next is the Golden Age. Humans are still animals, but quantitatively different. In the third, the Present Age, animals and humanity are totally differentiated.

question: What does the text say about Malsumis?

answer: Tabaldak, the creator god, made humans and then Gluskab and Malsumis sprang from the dust on his hands. Both Gluskab and Malsumis had the power to create a good world, but only Gluskab did. Malsumis still seeks evil to this day.

question: What does the text say about woodchucks?

answer: In Abenaki mythology, Agaskw (also Nokemis) is a wise woodchuck spirit of the Abenaki. She is the grandmother of Gluskab. When Gluskab realized the strain hunters can cause on an ecosystem, he asked a woodchuck spirit for help. The woodchuck spirit gave him all the hairs off her belly, which were woven into a magical sac. This explains why woodchucks have bald bellies.

question: Summarize everything relating to rain.


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: Who is the protagonist of the story?

answer: An unnamed woman

question: How does the woman feel throughout the story?

answer: She feels anxious

question: What is making the woman anxious?

answer: Everything around her is making her anxious

question: Who is the woman talking to?

answer: She talks to herself. She also thanks the bus driver

question: Write a ~5 sentence summary.

answer: A woman walks through a park, feeling extremely anxious. She is scared of interacting with anyone, and starts to run. She gets on a bus, and is nervous when a man tries to interact with her. She gets to her house, paranoid that someone may be watching. She questions why she feels the way that she does.


text:
Matt D'Amico
Mr. Cusick
Creative Writing
25 Feburary 2013

The year is 2175, forty years after the Great War. The war that shaped the New World into what it is now, a emotionless, unimaginative nation where its inhabitants only goal is for “the betterment of the country and for our great ruler President Samuel Hudson”. The people are brainwashed into working, not for pay, but for the privilege of life. And when they go home they sit, mindlessly, in front of their television taking in the only channel that has been running for the past forty years, preaching to them and their kids about how perfect their life is. The government has stripped its people of all emotion, because with emotion comes ambition, and with ambition comes the want for a better life. It has filled the void of emotion with the “feeling” of national pride.

For the entire twenty-two years of his life George Huxley lived his life every other human being does, like a robot. He wakes up and puts on his gray jumpsuit, with the little name tag that read Mr. G. Huxley, that he got when he joined the workforce at the age of eighteen. Steps outside of his one bedroom apartment, and goes downstairs into the basement of his complex. This is where he works. All jobs are located in the same building as the apartment complexes as to prevent as much human interaction as possible. George’s job is manufacturing Infantile Joy Modules which are virtual reality helmets that are put on babies to silence their crying and allow the assigned caretakers to enjoy their television in peace. He is told by his supervisor how lucky he is to be working and living in this great country. This never sits well with George, but he doesn’t know why. After work he walks up the stairs to the lobby to get dinner. He eats at the same “restaurant” every day, President Samuel Hudson’s Food and Drink. He gets the same bland meal every day then proceeds back to his home. Back in his room, he pushes the power button of his television, but the T.V. doesn’t turn on. “Hmmm, that’s odd” he thinks to himself. He would go get a home supervisor to get it fixed but he is too tired and decides to sit down on the metal folding chair that he calls furniture. Sitting in the silence George is able to think to himself, something he hasn’t done for a very long time. He begins conjuring up images of his childhood days where he would be able to play with the other children. He finally goes to sleep with a feeling he has never felt before. A feeling that he and his fellow countrymen have been numb to for their entire existence. This feeling is happiness.

The next day at work when his supervisor says  how lucky he is to be working and living in this great country, he is very disturbed, but he doesn’t know why. After work he decides to skip dinner and goes straight home so he can be by himself in that wonderful silence. George begins longing for that silence every waking hour he is at work. He sees his co-workers blank stare and wants so badly to tell them what they are missing. That he has felt happiness, but he knows that they won’t understand because they haven’t felt anything for too long and more importantly he did not want to risk getting caught. He had heard stories of people that went crazy and started thinking for themselves. He heard about what the government did to those evil freethinkers, and knew that getting caught with these emotions wasn’t an option.

It has been a month since George’s television has broke, he is aware of the world around him and realizes what he must do. After work he stops at President Samuel Hudson’s Food and Drink. He sees that their is a new cashier. “Hello mam, I haven’t seen you working here before, are you new?” he asks. “Yes sir, this is my first day. I am so excited to be working for my terrific country.” She responds with a childlike excitement. “Very good” George replies. He reads her name tag Ms. Mary King. He gets the same tasteless meal then goes up to look for Ms. Mary Kings room. Because she is new he knows that her room will be somewhere on the bottom floor (the order of the floors go from the most experienced at the top to the neophytes at lower floors.) He finds the door that reads M. King and is able to walk straight into her room because crime is hardly an issue where one’s only occupation is work and television. Once in her room he is greeted by that sweet, freeing silence. He takes her T.V. and dismantles it rendering it useless, feeling something he has never felt before, accomplishment. After his task is complete he goes back down to the lobby There he sees Mary, with that same childlike wonder. He waits there until her shift is over then followers her to her room. Once he sees the door close he begins to walk down her hallway. He puts his ear on her door and hears her struggling to put her television on. “Hello, sir are you my floor’s supervisor?” she asks with a palpable frustration. “Yes, yes I am, what can I do for you?” he confidently responds. “My T.V. seems to be broken”. “Alright, let me take a look” and they both walk into the room. “I’m pressing the button but it won’t turn on” she says. “Mary... I am not the floor supervisor. My name is George Huxley.” George says not knowing how she will react. “Okay, George, but why did you say you were the supervisor?” she aks. “Listen Mary, I need to warn you about something, something unimaginable, something that humans haven’t been able to experience for a long, long time.” he preaches to her. Mary sees the genuine look of concern and something seen hasn’t seen in many people’s face. “I need to tell you of this before this country brainwashes you and your just another numb robot walking around with no drive or purpose.” he pleads. “Brainwash? Drive? Purpose?” she asks with a flurry of thoughts racing through her head. “Listen, I know this may all sound strange to you, I know you think that you live in a perfect world, but this world is far from perfect Mary. I need you to trust me. Do you trust me?” As he says this he reaches for her hand and when their hands touch she says, “I, I guess, what are we going to do though?” His eyes light up “I want you to sit and think, no television, and just think?” “Think? About what?” she asks, she has never heard of such a strange activity. “About anything, about how great your life was when you were a child, no cares, no worries, just you and your friends.” He gets up and walks towards the door, turns around and says “and remember, just because you are told to do something, and you see everyone else mindlessly following what they are told to do doesn’t mean they are right. The most important thing in this life is not the beloved country or the great ruler, it’s you.” He opens the door and walks out into the hallway. There are two colossal police officers, with blank stares waiting for him.

title: Just started writing, this is my first work. What do you think?

question: Summarize the nature of employment in George Huxley's world.

answer: It is the year 2175, forty years after the Grear War. People have become emotionless and brainwashed into working, not for pay but for the privilege of life. George, like any other adult, wakes up and goes to the job assigned to him by the government. The jobs are structured in a way that limits human interactions. And the work supervisors are accustomed to greeting their workers by telling them how lucky they are to be working and living in this great country.

question: What role does the TV play in the country where George Huxley lives?

answer: Every adult comes back from work to enjoy television without any other sort of entertainment or engagement. Because the TV is always on, there is no incentive to think or consider their situation, most adults seem to exist in a perpetual state of hypnosis. Few that have managed to come out of that spell are rounded up by the government and are never seen again.

question: What caused the Great War?


text:
KWEKU ETREW AMUA-SEKYI was a retired Ghanaian Supreme Court Judge. He served on the bench of the Supreme Court of the Gambia and the Supreme Court of Ghana. He was the chairman for the National Reconciliation Commission that was set up through the Parliament of Ghana in 2002.[1]

Early life and education

Amua-Sekyi was born on 5 July 1933 at Sekondi in the Western Region of Ghana.[2][3] He begun his primary education at Achimota Primary School from 1938 to 1945. He later proceeded to Osei Tutu Secondary School in Kumasi for his secondary education.[4] He later left for the United Kingdom to continue his secondary education at Forest School at Snaresbrook, London.[5][6] After obtaining his Ordinary level ('O'-Level) certificate, he enrolled at Dulwich College in 1953 for his Advanced level ('A'-Level) certificate.[7][8] He entered the London School of Economics, University of London where he obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Economics[9] and International Relations, and enrolled at the University of Poitiers, France in 1957 to acquire a diploma on French studies.[10] In 1958, he returned to Ghana to work with the Ghana Foreign Service and after about four years of serving the Ghana Foreign Service he returned to London to read law at the Middle Temple, completing his studies in 1964.[11] He was called to the English bar in 1965, that same year, he was also called to the Ghana Bar upon his return to Ghana.[12][13]

Career

Amua-Sekyi begun private legal practice in 1965.[14] In 1968, he established his law firm, Ekuadaa Chambers in Takoradi, Western Region.[15] He remained in private legal practice for twelve (12 years) until his appointement as justice of the High Court by the then head of state; Ignatius Kutu Acheampong in 1977.[16] Nine years later he was elevated to the Appeals Court bench by the then head of state Jerry John Rawlings.[17] A year later he was appointed, Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana but retired on 22 December 1987. He was a member of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) Administrative Tribunal in Addis Ababa and also chaired the Disciplinary Committee of the General Legal Council.[18] He chaired the Legal Aid Committee in 1988 and in 1994 he was appointed chairman of the Council for Law reporting. As a Justice of the Supreme Court of the Gambia, he retired in 2001.[19] In October 2002, following the establishment of the National Reconciliation Commission, he was appointed Chairman of the commission that remained from 2002 until his task was completed in 2004.[20]

Personal life

Amua-Sekyi married Georgina Amua-Sekyi (_née_ Hackman) (formerly a tutor at Wesley Girls' High School in Cape Coast) in 1967.[21] Together, they had three children. He died on 17 May 2007 at the age of 73.[22]

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title: Kweku Etrew Amua-Sekyi

question: What does the article say about the 1960s?

answer: Amua-Sekyi returned to London to read law at the Middle Temple and completed his studies in 1964. In 1965, he was called to the English bar and to the Ghana Bar upon his return to Ghana. He began private legal practice in 1965. In 1969, he established his law firm, Ekuadaa Chambers in Takoradi, Western Region. He married Georgina Amua-Sekyi in 1967.

question: What does the article say about the 2010s?