text:
A statue of Christopher Columbus was installed in Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park, in Boston's North End, in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. On June 11, 2020,[1] the statue was removed for an undisclosed period after its head was decapitated by protestors on the evening of June 9, 2020.[2]

Background

The Knights of Columbus, a Catholic organization dominated by Italian Americans, opened Waterfront Park in 1976. In 1979, pro-Vietnam War activist and building contractor Arthur Stivaletta commissioned the statue. The Knights accordingly changed the name of the park to Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park.

The North End was a traditionally Italian neighborhood, and Columbus was a symbolic figure for Italian Americans in Boston as well as throughout the country. As early as 1900, George A. Scigliano had pushed to designate Columbus Day a holiday in Massachusetts.[3] Conversely, other Catholics in Boston apparently did not appreciate the use of Columbus; in 1922, the Irish-American cardinal William Henry O'Connell removed a statue of Columbus from the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.[4]

Description

The statue is made of marble imported from Carrara, an ancient quarry in Tuscany. The pedestal beneath it displays Stivaletta's name and the names of other prominent Italian Americans from the North End. It also names the Knights of Columbus and Order Sons of Italy in America.

History

[The statue was installed in Boston's Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park] The statue was dedicated on Columbus Day 1979, at a ceremony attended by Stivaletta, the Italian American community of Boston, Mayor Kevin White and former governor John Volpe.[5] Shortly afterwards, on November 18, 1979, Stivaletta burned the flag of Iran in front of the statue. He presented to the audience of 200 spectators a man wearing a rubber devil mask, explaining that he was a caricature of the Ayatollah Khomeini.[6] In December 1981, Stivaletta's organization Wake Up America burned the flag of the Soviet Union in front of the statue. Stivaletta remarked, “We stand here before Christopher Columbus, in a country founded by people looking for political and religious freedom … to show support for nations searching for freedom.”[7]

On Columbus Day 1982, the Friends of Christopher Columbus Park held a Catholic mass in front of the statue and laid a wreath on its pedestal.[8] In 1999, the director of the Massachusetts Historical Society published an op-ed in the _Boston Globe_ calling for the statue to be removed, noting that Boston has no historical connection to Christopher Columbus. He suggested restoring the park to commemorate its historical use as a fishing wharf.[9]

Vandalism and removal

In the 2000s, the statue suffered vandalism such as being spray painted with the word “murderer.”[10] In June 2006, the statue was decapitated in an apparent prank; the head was later located elsewhere in the North End.[11] In 2004 and 2006, the statue was covered in red paint. After the latter incident an anti-colonialist manifesto was posted to the Independent Media Center website, taking responsibility for the act.[12] In 2015, the white marble statue was vandalized with red paint and the phrase “Black Lives Matter.”[13][14]

In June 2020, the statue was beheaded and subsequently removed.[15] Mayor Marty Walsh announced that the statue would remain off display and that the city would “take time to assess the historic meaning of the statue.”[16] Its future was deemed uncertain after it was put in storage.[17] An Italian American group in Massachusetts called for the statue to be removed, saying that “Columbus can't represent us as Italian Americans anymore.”[18]

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title: Statue of Christopher Columbus (North End, Boston)

question: Why was the statue of Christopher Columbus removed from Waterfront Park?

answer: It was removed due to the head of the statue being decapitated by protestors.

question: What is the statue made of?

answer: The statue is made of marble imported from Carrara.

question: Who opened the Waterfront Park in 1976?

answer: The Waterfront Park was opened by the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic organization dominated by Italian Americans.

question: What were the results of the protests in which the statue was decapitated?

answer: Mayor Marty Walsh stated that the statue would remain off display and the city would take time to assess the historic meaning of the statue.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: This article describes the reason for the vandalism to the Christopher Columbus statue at Waterfront Park. The history of the park, the statue, its meaning to Italian Americans, the reason for the vandalism to the statue and its effects are all described in the article.


split: test

text:
**I'd very much appreciate feedback on this story**

**Broken Souls**

Sometimes I wake up and I feel like there’s a massive hole in my chest. I feel weighed down and nauseous from the rocking boat of a life that I live, It’s like everything I touch dies. My friends, my family, anybody I’ve ever loved really. I’d love to say that this story is about meeting someone that changes that all, but it’s far from it.
I grew up in London, the financial capital of England where dreams come true and money talks, and all the fuckers who live here are so diseased inside their rotten apple of materialistic consumption that their hearts are probably full of worms. The people I grew around weren’t particularly nice and had a sort of passion for making lives of the 1% a living nightmare, but that’s okay because they’re broken.  See we’re all broken in our own way, every one of us. Even those who think that their life is great with their boyfriends or girlfriends and wives and husbands; they’re all broken.People and love are like lines, the parallel lines have so much in common. They both are heading in the same direction, they both possess the same mathematical properties. But they never meet. Ever. But you know some lines cross each other briefly...but they drift apart forever and they will never meet again. Ever.

Like the parallel lines, thankfully me and the arseholes at my secondary school won’t ever meet again which gives me a slight sense of optimism. So I was onto sixth form, with a clear image of a new change in my my head I was actually looking forward to going to sixth form for the first few months. The people there were nice, the stuff we learnt was interesting, and they’re weren’t too many apes with sagging tracksuits asking if I’m “Dizzy fam”. It was good, and the best part was there was actually a girl in my Biology class who was amazing. She was funny, cute and actually had a good taste in music. I talked to her days in and days out and was most definitely falling in love, how couldn’t I?! She was, in my eyes, absolutely perfect.

But you know, some fairy tales don’t end with a happily ever after.

It was a day I’d never forget, I had planned it thoroughly. We went out for coffee, just me and her, and we talked for hours on end, about her friends, about my friends. And I decided to do it and tell her how I felt. I mean that’s what you do right? If you love someone you tell them you love them, and everything will be fine.
She tore my heart apart.
She didn’t love me.
She had a fucking boyfriend, and decided that she didn’t want to tell me. Hell they’re fucking engaged already. ENGAGED.
That killed me, I went home that day and cut and cried and cut and cried. She meant everything to me, I loved her with every fucking inch of my beaten up fucking heart and she hid the most important fucking thing that could have saved me a shiton of heart ache.

So here I am...I suppose every end needs a reason to end right?
Well here’s mine.
Broken Souls

Sometimes I wake up and I feel like there’s a massive hole in my chest. I feel weighed down and nauseous from the rocking boat of a life that I live, It’s like everything I touch dies. My friends, my family, anybody I’ve ever loved really. I’d love to say that this story is about meeting someone that changes that all, but it’s far from it.
I grew up in London, the financial capital of England where dreams come true and money talks, and all the fuckers who live here are so diseased inside their rotten apple of materialistic consumption that their hearts are probably full of worms. The people I grew around weren’t particularly nice and had a sort of passion for making lives of the 1% a living nightmare, but that’s okay because they’re broken.  See we’re all broken in our own way, every one of us. Even those who think that their life is great with their boyfriends or girlfriends and wives and husbands; they’re all broken.People and love are like lines, the parallel lines have so much in common. They both are heading in the same direction, they both possess the same mathematical properties. But they never meet. Ever. But you know some lines cross each other briefly...but they drift apart forever and they will never meet again. Ever.

Like the parallel lines, thankfully me and the arseholes at my secondary school won’t ever meet again which gives me a slight sense of optimism. So I was onto sixth form, with a clear image of a new change in my my head I was actually looking forward to going to sixth form for the first few months. The people there were nice, the stuff we learnt was interesting, and they’re weren’t too many apes with sagging tracksuits asking if I’m “Dizzy fam”. It was good, and the best part was there was actually a girl in my Biology class who was amazing. She was funny, cute and actually had a good taste in music. I talked to her days in and days out and was most definitely falling in love, how couldn’t I?! She was, in my eyes, absolutely perfect.

But you know, some fairy tales don’t end with a happily ever after.

It was a day I’d never forget, I had planned it thoroughly. We went out for coffee, just me and her, and we talked for hours on end, about her friends, about my friends. And I decided to do it and tell her how I felt. I mean that’s what you do right? If you love someone you tell them you love them, and everything will be fine.
She tore my heart apart.
She didn’t love me.
She had a fucking boyfriend, and decided that she didn’t want to tell me. Hell they’re fucking engaged already. ENGAGED.
That killed me, I went home that day and cut and cried and cut and cried. She meant everything to me, I loved her with every fucking inch of my beaten up fucking heart and she hid the most important fucking thing that could have saved me a shiton of heart ache.

So here I am...I suppose every end needs a reason to end right?
Well here’s mine.

title: Broken Souls

question: Explain how the narrator equates people to parallel lines.

answer: The narrator believes that people and love are like parallel lines. He says that just like the parallel lines, they are moving in the same direction, they possess the same mathematical properties but, they never meet. Sometimes some lines cross each other for a brief moment but drift apart again.

question: Why does the girl never tell the narrator about her boyfriend?

question: How does the narrator feel after the girl breaks his heart?

answer: The narrator feels like there is a massive hole in his heart. He starts feeling nauseous and believes that everything he touches, dies. He feels like his life is like a rocking boat.


text:
Chapter 31
LEX

Lex’s punches flew fast, but the Valkyrie caught each deftly with her shield.  The sheer force of Lex’s blows knocked her adversary back a step.  Lex seized the opening and dove forward into her sparring opponent in a burst of flame.

“Ouch!” exclaimed Brynn, rubbing her cheek.  “What the hell, Lex?”  Hell, eh?  Brynn was clearly an ‘adult,’ according to whatever bullshit definition the jester lady used.  The Valkyrie’s skin was slightly singed, but no serious damage, luckily.  Lex wasn’t supposed to use fire in their training — particularly not against an unsuspecting opponent.

“Uh, sorry,” said Lex.  “I…didn’t mean to.  I just…argh…this – this – this woman!!  What’s her PROBLEM?!”

The Lady of Hyperion raised an eyebrow.

Lex continued.  “Flashfucker, or whatever her name is.”

Lex knew it was Flashfire.  She often said “Flashfire” during her dashes.  Well, those times were clearly over.

Brynn looked slightly amused, but still more pissed than amused.

“What about her?  And can you have a modicum of self-control?”

No, obviously not, thought Lex.  If you want that, Vonn’s in his room.  Brooding.

“She…”  Lex paused.  “She says we can’t go into the back garden anymore.  …and she’s a total bitch!”

“Lex,” said Brynn with a sigh.  “You’re going to need to learn to control your temper.  Not just for me, or the other people here, or even common decency.  If it’s a weakness, your enemies will use it against you.”

It’s a strength, too! thought Lex.  Lex looked angry.  She felt angry.  The fire welled up inside her again, and-

“LEX!”  Brynn’s voice snapped her out of it.  She’d never heard Brynn raise her voice that loud.  Lex felt that burning rush of shame rising from her gut into her cheeks, and she bent her head, subduing herself demurely.

The Valkyrie went on.  “For all we know there could be a WAR coming, and I’ll not have you getting yourself killed, or worse, getting someone else killed, because you can’t keep it together when someone does something you don’t like!”

A war?!  That was news.  With whom?, Lex wanted to ask, but she was busy being lectured and, given the look on Brynn’s face, decided it was prudent to keep her mouth shut.  Hadn’t there just BEEN a war with those shadow people or whatever they were?  Right before she and Vonn were woken up.  Of course she had missed out on the fun.

Brynn paused for a moment, perhaps thinking she’d said too much.  She shrugged.  “Now, Miss FLASHFIRE is a cybersecurity expert that Meridian brought on to secure this facility, and she has suggested REASONABLE precautions.”

If there was any threat of war, it admittedly made a lot more sense.  But why’d that stupid woman have to be such a bitch?

“She wasn’t very nice,” mumbled Lex, after a moment.

“What?” asked Brynn.

Lex prudently changed tack.  “Uh, she said she was in charge,” said Lex.  “Is that true?”

Brynn cocked her head sideways.  “In charge of security, sure.”

Oh.  So Lady Brynn was still in charge of everything else?  Lex felt stupid.

“Um, okay, good,” said Lex, feeling the color rise in her face.  “I…I’m sorry about the fire.  Can I…help?”  What was she going to do, rub aloe on the Valkyrie?  Didn’t make for the worst mental image, admittedly…

Brynn frowned and shook her head.  “Just work on controlling your temper.  It’s very powerful, Lex, but YOU must master IT, and not vice versa.”

Where did Brynn get off sounding so wise?  Maybe Meridian was rubbing off on her?  Or maybe the Valkyrie was a lot smarter than she let on.

Lex bit her lip and nodded.  “Yes, ma’am.”

“Oh, and you have an appointment with Miss Flashfire tomorrow morning to have your cybernetic enhancements examined.  See that you’re on your best behavior.  And after that, there’s a good chance we’ll be heading to Atlas.”

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Chapter 32
VULCAN

It turned out not to be a fire at all, but rather, steam.  Grey and Sebastian arrived to a room clouded with steam (invisible) and smoke (visible) — or perhaps condensation of the steam.  The young man — Othin — was standing on a chair, struggling to disconnect the smoke alarm, and his uncle Watt was standing nearby berating him.  Over in the corner was a strange, almost animal-like machine with claws, seemingly the source of the steam.

“He got scared,” Othin was saying defensively.  “Of course he released some steam.”

“You made it SENTIENT?” shouted Watt.  “Why in GAIA’s name…?!”

“Sorry, Uncle.  Uh, it seemed like a good idea at the time.  Why not give it the extra processing power to be able to do solo missions?”  He lowered his voice.  “Also, Huginn needed a friend.”

Watt looked at a loss for words.  His face was red, and steam seemed to be coming out of his ears, but that was really just steam in the room.
Grey cleared her throat.

“Ah!  Miss Grey.  Um.  Everything is under control.  I’m so sorry about the disturbance,” said Watt.  He followed Grey’s eyes over to the machine.  “Oh, this is that project my nephew and I were working on, the tunneler for the Depths. Apparently, er, my nephew thought it should be a real badger.”

Grey’s poker-faced expression (aided by her visor) betrayed absolutely no reaction, but Sebastian leapt in.

“More animals are always welcome, but someone has to take care of …him?”
Othin nodded at the pronoun.  Watt looked stunned that Sebastian would speak before Miss Grey, but the heiress didn’t seem to mind (though who could tell behind that visor?).  Well, Sebastian was in some ways a PR person for Hawk Aviation so it stood to reason that he had some decision-making authority.  Or was he volunteering?

“You can’t be on missions with Huginn and still look after it…him…” said Watt, looking at his nephew.  The stout man looked over at Sebastian, thinking a moment, then sighed.  “I’ll do it.  My project, after all.  He’ll need a name.”
Grey and Sebastian gave expressions suggesting “don’t look at us.”

“Muninn,” said Othin.  “Then he can be Huginn’s friend.”

“You’re naming it…what’s that translate to…Mind?!”

“Well, he is sentient now.”

The machine stumbled out of the corner and looked up at the four humans.  It was actually adorable, with a badger-like snout and giant digging claws.

“Muninn should be a bird, like Huginn,” said Sebastian.  “This boy’s a digger.  Something earthen, with steam and claws.  A new facet of Hawk Aviation.”

Suddenly, to everyone’s shock, the machine opened its snout and said its first words.  Its voice was deep and gravelly.

“Hello everyone.”

Watt looked like he was about to have a heart attack.

“It can talk?!”

“I maaaaay have done a few more modifications than I mentioned,” said Othin sheepishly.

Watt continued to look completely stunned.  Finally, he regained his composure.

“My talented nephew, everyone.”

No one clapped.

“So — perhaps the creature should name itself?” said Sebastian.

“Him,” corrected Othin.

The creature cleared its throat.  “Her,” it corrected in its deep bass.
Othin looked thunderstruck.  Admittedly, the creature was not anatomically correct, as it were, so it was somewhat free to choose its own gender identity — not that it wouldn’t have been free to do so anyway…just…

“I’m still downloading a lot of information about the world,” said the creature.  “So, I don’t have a sense of what a good name would be.”

“Perhaps we could stick with the mythological theme?” offered Sebastian.  “Hestia, perhaps?”

The creature shook her head.

“Freyja?” asked Othin.

Again, no.  A jet of steam shot out from its nostril.

Watt threw up his hands.  “How about Volcano?”

The creature’s ears perked up.

“Vulcana,” said Othin.

“Vulcan,” said Vulcan.

Grey finally spoke for the first time.  “Sebastian, discuss animal caretaking procedure with Watt, and perhaps remind Othin as well.  I look forward to Vulcan joining us on a mission to the Depths soon.  I think there are some puzzle pieces still to be found down there.”

She was referring, presumably, to her quest to avenge the events that had transpired down there so long ago, and take down Magnus Pretorius.  But of the others in the room, only Sebastian had an inkling of this latter goal.  And — close as he and Grey had become, she had spoken only little of it.  It seemed too painful.  No doubt the poor girl must have PTSD, thought Sebastian.

He escorted Watt and Othin from the room, Vulcan in tow.

They didn’t know it then, but Vulcan’s first “mission,” of sorts, would be of a very different nature.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

question: Who is Lex?

answer: Lex seems to be some sort of warrior. She seems to be strong-headed and fierce. She also seems to be subordinate to Brynn.

question: Who does Othin modify?

answer: Othin modifies a tunneler that takes the form of a badger. The machine is also sentient and can speak.


text:
Teachers, scientists, and members of the public rally after New Mexico officials proposed school science standards that would delete any reference to global temperature rise.

Morgan Lee/AP

A classic trope of books and movies about schoolyard bullies is the comeuppance moment: that climactic chapter or scene when the bullied hero picks herself up, dusts herself off, and exacts her righteous vengeance. The payback can take different forms—a well-placed punch or a well-worded takedown—but it always results in the exposure of the bully, usually in front of the whole school, as nothing more than a blowhard and a coward. The tormentor is publicly shamed; the former victim is bathed in glory; moral order is restored.

America’s K-12 science teachers are having such a moment right now. For years they have withstood the bullying of an organized climate-denier movement that has successfully strong-armed administrators, parents, and school board officials into agreeing to frame climate change as an open question rather than a scientific fact. Its tactics most recently have included a mendacious mailer received last year by tens of thousands of teachers that falsely identified “a vibrant debate … taking place among scientists on how big the human impact on climate is, and whether or not we should be worried about it.” Just a few months earlier, Idaho lawmakers stripped the state’s proposed science standards of any language suggesting that human activity is causing global warming, with one representative complaining that the standards didn’t relay “both sides of the debate.”

When teachers have retaliated against such meddling, nervous administrators have too often asked them to quiet down and “teach the controversy,” lest they appear to be taking sides in a rancorous scientific debate with obvious political overtones. And when state legislatures get involved—as they have been doing, increasingly—the results can be downright dystopian. States like Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, and Idaho have recently been pushing a slew of so-called “academic freedom” bills that are worded to sound like reasonable defenses of fair-mindedness and intellectual dissent. In fact, they exist to provide legal and political cover for a well-funded anti-science movement whose future depends on today’s schoolchildren ignoring the scientific method and growing up confused about what is and isn’t true.

But the time has finally come. America’s science educators are picking themselves up, dusting themselves off, and fighting back.

Last week the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) issued a firm position statement directed to its more than 50,000 members. In part it reads: “Given the solid scientific foundation on which climate change science rests. . . any controversies regarding climate change and human-caused contributions to climate change that are based on social, economic, or political arguments—rather than scientific arguments—should not be part of a science curriculum.”

It’s a tough, spirited document as far as official position statements go, definitely worth reading in its entirety. But one portion of the teachers’ manifesto stands out in particular as a clear warning to deniers to stop trying to infect our science with their cynical politics.

The appeal by some to “teach the controversy,” the statement asserts, is a tawdry rhetorical tactic not based on science. “Scientific explanations must be consistent with existing empirical evidence or stand up to empirical testing. Ideas based on political ideologies or pseudoscience that fail these empirical tests do not constitute science and should not be allowed to compromise the teaching of climate science.”

And then comes the righteous uppercut: “These tactics promote the teaching of non-scientific ideas that _deliberately misinform students and increase confusion_ about climate science.” (Italics mine.)

The punch lands because the bullies on the receiving end no longer have any defense; socially, politically, and intellectually, they’ve become marginalized. As I wrote back in May, Americans who believe in climate change now outnumber deniers 5 to 1, and today there’s overwhelming nationwide support (across all political and regional lines) for teaching kids about global warming: why it’s happening, what it will do to their planet, and how the world can work together to stop it.

One of the most disgusting and insidious aspects of the climate-denial movement is its dependence on miseducation. Deniers know that their cause is doomed if they can’t continue to infiltrate our children’s schools and, in the damning words of the NSTA, “deliberately misinform students and increase confusion.”

But their cause _is_ doomed—because they can’t get away with this anymore. America’s 50,000 K-12 science teachers have spoken as one, and there can be no misinterpreting their message: _Hands off our kids._

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

_onEarth provides reporting and analysis about environmental science, policy, and culture. All opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the policies or positions of NRDC._ _Learn more_ _or follow us on __Facebook__ and __Twitter__._

question: What does the article say about the climate-denier movement?

answer: The climate-denier movement tends to present climate change as an open question rather than a scientific fact. It is very influential. Recently, New Mexico officials proposed school science standards that would delete any reference to global temperature rise.

question: What does the article say about teachers' reactions to the climate denier movement that tend to influence school science standards?

answer: The National Science Teachers Association issued a statement directed to its more than 50,000 members where it demands that controversies regarding climate change that are based on social, economic, or political arguments—rather than scientific arguments—should not be part of a science curriculum. It claims that the climate-denial movement depends on miseducations so deniers deliberately misinform students and increase confusion.

question: What does the article say about CO2 emission statistics?


text:
About This Game

BUILD A NEW HOME FOR HUMANITY WITH AVEN COLONY.

Discover Aven Prime - an alien planet of deserts, tundras, and jungles light years from earth. Aven Colony puts you in charge of humanity's first extrasolar settlement, where you build and expand your small colonies into massive, sprawling cities while dealing with the challenges faced when settling on a new world.

Build your colony's infrastructure, look after the well-being of your citizens, manage your resources, and guide your colony to prosperity against the backdrop of the harsh and often dangerous realities of the exotic world of Aven Prime.

KEY FEATURES:

COLONIZE AN ALIEN WORLD: Build a new home for humanity on a world with a low-oxygen atmosphere, extreme electrical storms, shard storms, dust devils, deadly toxic gas eruptions from geothermal vents, and days so long they have their own seasons. Explore a variety of biomes, from the lush wetlands environment to the much less habitable desert and arctic.

[]

MEET THE LOCALS: Encounter a variety of alien life forms, including giant sandworms, deadly plague spores, and a vicious fungal infection known as “The Creep.”

[]

SUPERVISE YOUR COLONISTS: Settling a new world can be stressful. As a new Colony Governor, you’ll need to work overtime to help your colonists deal with their new environment. Using the 12 distinct "overlay" modes, you can mange your colony's Crops, Citizens, Happiness, Crime, Air, Electricity, Employment, Resources, Commute, Structures, Drones, and Water. Earn the respect of your colonists, and rise in rank from Colony Governor to Expedition President!

[]

DISCOVER THE PAST: The world of Aven Prime holds many secrets. Play through a full single-player campaign and participate in a story that reveals some of the many secrets of this brave new world.

[]

BUILD THE FUTURE: Use construction drones to build dozens of types of structures to house your colonists, establish trading routes, welcome immigrants and much more! Enhance your existing buildings through several upgrade tiers to push your colony to new heights!

[]

EXPEDITION SYSTEM: Deploy your crack team of pioneers to explore alien ruins, recover artifacts, repair crashed vessels and rescue lost explorers. Get ready to take on plague and creep spore nests whilst fending off splinter groups, rebels and Aven Prime's remaining robot guardians which threaten your new civilisation.

[]

PREPARE FOR WINTER: A fully functional day/night and seasonal cycle. During the winter Aven Prime freezes over - farms will not grow food and solar panels will generate far less electricity. Take measures to survive this harsh climate!

[]

Aven Colony. Developed by Mothership Entertainment LLC © 2017. Published by Team17 Digital Ltd. Team17 is a trademarks or registered trademarks of Team17 Digital Limited. All other trademarks, copyrights and logos are property of their respective owners

question: When was the article written?

answer: Likely sometime in 2017

question: What platforms is the game available for?

answer: That information can't be found

question: What kind of game is it? (RTS, 4X, TBS, FPS, etc.)

answer: Implied to be city-building

question: Where can the game be purchased?

answer: That information can't be found

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: Aven Colony is a game in which the player must manage a human colony on an alien world.


text:
"Down in the well, the water dwelled."

-Nope.

"Down in the well, the water sat."

-No, that's not right either. Water is inanimate. It can neither dwell nor sit. What does water do? Rest? Lie?

Perch?

-'Perch'? Are we out of our linguistic mind? Water is not a cat! All those earlier description failures are attempts at personifying a thing. I suppose water CAN course (but only when there is an active current and gravity to push the molecules). In most ordinary instances that we can think of, it appears that water can only 'be' (as far as within the flat, level environment of a deep, lonely well.)

Ok then. let's try again. "Down in the well, the water just was."

-Humm. We can't think of a good rhyme for 'was'. We were going to try 'cause' in the next line but that's a real stretch to rhyme 'was' and 'cause'. Maybe we should actually try to personify the water. That might be interesting.

"Down in the well the water lurked. It was such a ridiculous construct it made us smirk."

-Yeah, 'lurked' and 'smirk' are too silly to use in serious writing and we're still uncomfortable with the idea of personifying a thing.

'Bubbled'? 'Gurgled'? 'Rested'? 'Was corralled'? 'Contained within'? That last one is technically accurate but it's too awkward to 'flow' smoothly into a verse.

-Hummm, flow? Nah. 'Flow' also implies gravitational action that wouldn't be at work inside a well.

'Floated'?

-Well, that's somewhat accurate but really other things float IN water. They work against the collection of hydrogen and oxygen molecules to be buoyant.

Can't something float within itself?

-Nah, too metaphysical. We must keep the poem easy to comprehend.

Poem? Who says this is a POEM? Does it have to be? Dude! Maybe it's a gruesome horror story and there's a dead body floating IN the tepid water!

   "Down in the well, the water contained the bloated body of Randolph Ringhoffer."

Does the name 'Ringhoffer' or having double 'R' initials distract from the story idea? Should we have used a more common name like 'Jones'?

-What does it matter at this point, 'dude'? How can anything distract a reader if we only have one sentence so far? It's silly to worry about such things this early.

   That's not true at all. I happen to already know that Mr. Ringhoffer was intentionally pushed into the well by an angry malcontent. He drowned. He's been floating there five weeks in the stagnant, festering pool. His restless spirit has been getting angrier by the minute until someone extracts revenge on... Butch Cas... er... Carson. The local outlaw, Butch Carson.

-'Outlaw'? Open well? 'Malcontent'? 'Butch'? Is this a 'Wild West' roundup tale or something? Those aren't common terms and situations for modern times.

   As a matter of fact it is, Mr. Negative. It takes place in 1887, in frontier Wyoming. That's where Mr. Ringhoffer's cattle ranch is. What's with all the single quotes, anyway? Is that a manifestation of your contempt for my writing choices?

-Take it easy, 'hoss'. I'm just echoing the subconscious thoughts of your potential readers. That's the sort of thing that would occur to them. You know I'm your inner monologue. It's my job to critique and challenge you creatively. Otherwise you do not grow as a writer and storyteller.

If you are just a part of my creativity, how do you know what others will think about my details? What innate insight do you have? You're just an annoying voice in my head.

 -As a matter of fact, myself and the inner monologues of everyone else in the world gets together for big discussions and conferences. We evaluate things. We discuss YOU and your penchant to over-analyze small details. It's sad really. We feel you could achieve some great things if you'd just let the writing occur naturally. Stop agonizing over minute details.

Ok. Fair enough. I understand 'you' are just trying to help. Could we have a little more 'constructive' and a little less outright 'criticism'?

-Yes. Sure. I don't want you to feel discouraged either. It's a balancing act. I'm digging the story idea so far. I'm anxious to see where you go with it. Just please, for all that is holy, do NOT weave a well-worn cliché about rival wealthy landowners who dam up the river to extract gold from the stream. That would just be 'Unforgiven'.

title: [MF] 'At war with his internal-monologue'

question: What does the story say about how the protagonists write a poem?

answer: The protagonists are trying to write a poem that mentions water but they cannot find an appropriate word to describe what water does. One of them suggests vers, then the other explains why it is not good. Finally, one of them suggests that they do not have to write a poem but can write a horror story about dead body floating in water instead.

question: What does the story say about the protagonists' characters?


text:
I sensed a change in the barometric pressure before it hit. The merciless July heat tapered off as a welcome breeze lightly caressed my cheek. If a person stood in the shade for too long, they might have mistaken it for a perfect spring day. The birds were singing. It felt fantastic to be alive but it was a saccharine moment. An ugly storm was on the horizon.

Prior to that, I’d been sipping cool lemonade on the front porch in my Adirondack chair. I heard a distant thunderclap which threatened to quash the temperate afternoon fantasy. The approaching storm drifted closer and I wondered if it was cause for alarm. Living in ‘tornado alley’, it’s always in the back of my mind. The clouds turned dark purple and then an ugly shade of gray. Only in hindsight did I learn what terror it carried within.

Not wanting to get soaked, I went inside to avoid the upcoming cloud burst. No sooner than I had closed the door, heavy droplets started pinging the rooftop. The melodic tempo was soothing at first but as the intensity increased, its gentle rhythm was lost. Not only did the rain intensify, but the atmospheric theatrics took my breath away. Angry bolts of lightning menaced the sky. I was glad to be inside.

Then the hail came. First it was mixed with rain. It would’ve been easy to mistake it for just larger raindrops. Soon however, the ice pellets were the size of golf balls. They savagely pounded the roof. Then I heard my car windshield shatter from the merciless barrage. Even my house windows were not immune. They were under attack as the wind flung the frozen projectiles sideways at them.

A look out of my picture window brought a far worse sight. In the distance was the unmistakable shape of a deadly funnel. It slowly descended to the ground and started destroying everything in its wake. I judged it to be less than two miles away and closing fast. At that distance, I couldn’t outrun it and risked fleeing directly into it’s path, if it changed direction. I had to take cover at home and hope for the best.

The storm grew so ferocious I feared my house would collapse before the tornado even arrived. The walls shook and shuddered. The rising wail of a ‘train whistle’ filled the air. I opened up the windows since they would blow out if the inside wasn’t depressurized. I prepared for the inevitable. Death was on a collision course and nothing could stop it from happening. It slithered toward me as if to wipe away my entire existence. I strongly suspected it might do just that. A thousand bittersweet memories flooded my mind. The roar of the whirling wind drowned out my screams until the maelstrom arrived at my doorstep.

In the eye of the tornado I had a moment of clarity amid the chaos. I watched as debris flew by in a blur. I fully expected to see my roof fly off and the walls shred away. Instead, a pale column of smoke began to seep in through the open window. My fear was already at the limits of human endurance. I was too distracted about the immanent devastation to worry about a strange fog swirling around my home. That is, until it began to separate into distinctively humanoid shapes!

Before my disbelieving eyes, three faceless forms hovered and drifted around the room. The unexplained ‘wraiths’ almost seemed to be assessing the situation. Were they supernatural agents of death? Was the tornado a vehicle for them; or was the storm itself their physical manifestation? Whether they were angels or demons from Hell, I didn’t know. Obviously I tried to avoid drawing any attention to myself. I couldn’t imagine things getting worse than having to deal with a mindless twister but having three spirits officiate it upped the ante.

Regardless of my stealth, they knew I was there; cowering in the corner for a completely new reason. There was a brief hesitation among them as they descended upon me. I could hear shingles being torn from the roof but my sole focus was those three uninvited guests, hovering less than ten feet away. It was positively terrifying. I’ve never been a religious man but it was impossible to deny the supernatural event unfolding in my living room. The irony is that I didn’t expect to survive long enough to share my experience.

My three visitors were stationary for the moment. I felt their somber attention upon me but with no eyes, there was nowhere to focus my view. Their faceless gaze and ashen features chilled me to the bone. I sensed that I was being judged. To what degree or for what reasons, I had no idea. I did my best to project an air of innocence, good will and benevolence. How I came to be faced with not one, but two deadly trials in a single day, I couldn’t imagine.

In perhaps the most expressive form of non-verbal communication I had ever seen, the ethereal ‘judge’ to my left slowly turned a downy shade of virgin white. The full meaning of this gesture escaped me until the middle ‘judge’ also changed its translucent hue. To my great dismay, to that of a blackened lump of coal. Of the three overseers present, it appeared I had one vote for, and one vote against me in this macabre tornado court.

It seemed like an eternity until the final judgment was rendered. Slowly, the third otherworldly spirit took on the same light coloration as the first. The symbolic message I took from the proceeding was that I had been exonerated by a narrow majority vote. The three ‘judges’ drifted back into one unified pillar of smoke and left just as ‘it’ had come.

Outside, the tornado dissipated back to nothingness. The sky above cleared back to normal in a matter of minutes. With the exception of an obvious trail of destruction leading straight to my home, I could hardly believe it even happened. It was like a bad dream. I’m eternally thankful that the three storm judges were favorable to me.

title: [FN] ‘Judgement by three’

question: According to the passage, where did the three alien beings come from?

question: Why was the narrator not surprised at the arrival and magnitude of the storm?

answer: He was not surprised because his location is known for frequent storms, hence the nickname, 'tornado alley'. Also, the rate at which the rain intensified within minutes of when it started confirmed his fears that a terrible storm is on its way.


text:
Technology

‘Sinclair’s style in Washington is Exhibit A of how to squander the most favorable regulatory environment in decades,’ said one industry official.

[A sign for the Sinclair Broadcast Group is pictured. | Getty Images]

Sinclair allowed the government's review process to drag on, giving the broadcast group's many critics time to savage the transaction.

Continue to article content

Sinclair Broadcast Group had everything going for it when it announced its $3.9 billion purchase of Tribune Media in May 2017: close ties to the Trump administration, and a friendly Federal Communications Commission chairman who cleared a path for regulators to approve the megadeal.

Sinclair, known for its “must-run” pro-Trump programming, was already the country’s biggest television broadcaster. The deal would make it even bigger, allowing it to reach nearly three-quarters of U.S. households — further positioning it to take on Fox in the battle for conservative eyeballs.

But 14 months later, Sinclair's deal is headed toward an almost-certain defeat, with that same FCC chairman, Ajit Pai, sending the merger on Monday into an administrative proceeding that is tantamount to a death sentence.

The story of how Sinclair's deal ran into trouble, despite its considerable sway in Republican-led Washington, is a tale of stunning hubris, according to officials inside and outside the FCC who watched the drama unfold. The broadcaster needed to sell stations to stay under federal media ownership limits, but instead it aggressively pushed proposals that would have leftit in effective control of some of those spun-off outlets — raising alarms at an FCC that had already relaxed some ownership rules to the company's benefit.

Pai made clear Monday that the company had pushed the envelope too far, saying the proposed divestitures would "allow Sinclair to control those stations in practice, even if not in name, in violation of the law."

People watching the Tribune purchase called it a striking turnabout.

“Sinclair’s style in Washington is Exhibit A of how to squander the most favorable regulatory environment in decades,” said one broadcast industry official who has monitored the deal's progress.

Pai's trajectory on the Sinclair deal speaks volumes.

Shortly after assuming the FCC's top job, the chairman last year revived a decades-old regulatory loophole — widely viewed as technologically obsolete — that lets broadcasters count only half the reach of some of their TV stations when calculating their compliance with national media ownership rules. The change allowed Sinclair to avoid vastly exceeding the cap, sparking criticism that Pai had delivered a gift to the conservative-leaning broadcaster.

Even with the loophole, though, the Sinclair-Tribune merger still would leave the company with stations reaching more households than the federal limits allow. That meant Sinclair needed to restructure its deal — but it waited months to put forward a plan for doing that. And when it did agree to make concessions, proposing to sell off nearly two dozen stations in some markets, some of the deals left stations in the hands of Sinclair allies or let Sinclair retain a stake in their operations.

In the end, even Pai — a chairman with a pro-industry, anti-regulation reputation — was troubled by Sinclair's deal-making.

“Let’s be honest, if you’re Sinclair and you lose Chairman Pai, you’ve done something wrong,” said a person in the media industry who is opposed to the transaction.

Within hours of Pai's announcement Monday, FCC Commissioners Brendan Carr, a fellow Republican, and Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, indicated they would support the chairman's plan to send the matter to an administrative law judge, a lengthy process that in past transactions has proven to be a deal killer. That represents a majority on the commission needed to advance the measure.

Sinclair, in a statement late Monday, said it was "shocked and disappointed" by the chairman's announcement and said it's "prepared to resolve any perceived issues" in order the finalize the acquisition.

"At no time have we misled the FCC in any manner whatsoever with respect to the relationships or the structure of those relationships proposed as part of the Tribune acquisition," Sinclair said. "Any suggestion to the contrary is unfounded and without factual basis."

Another misstep by Sinclair: It allowed the government's review process to drag on, giving the broadcaster's many critics time to savage the transaction. The result was more time for controversies such as a viral video in April that showed a series of Sinclair anchors reading from the same script on the threat of “fake news" — widely seen as a Trump-style broadside aimed at mainstream press outlets.

The company also didn’t bother building support for its deal with outside organizations, like nonprofits and trade groups, that are typically deployed to make the case for mergers. Sinclair’s in-house lobbyist, Rebecca Hanson, left the company earlier this month.

And in December, when the FCC announced a $13 million fine against Sinclair over an unrelated issue — an allegation that the company violated sponsorship identification rules — Sinclair took the aggressive step of saying it would fight the penalty rather than attempt to settle.

That decision certainly didn’t build goodwill with the agency, but officials said it was Sinclair’s refusal to listen to FCC staff raising concerns about station spinoffs that inflicted what appears to be the mortal wound.

FCC officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to freely discuss the agency's deliberations, said one especially problematic deal was a plan to sell Chicago station WGN to Steven Fader, a Maryland business associate of Sinclair Executive Chairman David Smith who oversees car dealerships. The $60 million deal would see Sinclair handle advertising sales and deliver programming to WGN, with an option for Sinclair to buy back the station.

Also considered troublesome were deals to sell stations in Dallas and Houston to Cunningham Broadcasting, a company with ties to the Smith family. Cunningham's voting stock was owned until January by the estate of Carolyn Smith, David Smith's mother. The nonvoting stock of the company is owned by trusts that benefit Carolyn Smith's grandchildren.

“If the company had really paid attention to FCC precedent and listened to the FCC, they could’ve got this deal done easily,” another media industry official said. “But they refused."

question: What were Sinclair's prospects in May 2017?

answer: Sinclair had great prospects in May 2017. It had close ties to the Trump administration. The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission was also inclined to approve big deals in the industry. It was already the country’s biggest television broadcaster. The deal would make it even bigger, allowing it to reach nearly three-quarters of U.S. households — further positioning it to take on Fox in the battle for conservative eyeballs.

question: How did Sinclair's shoot themselves in the foot when it came to the Tribune Media deal?

answer: Sinclair had to sell stations to stay under federal media ownership limits, but instead, it aggressively pushed proposals that would have left it in effective control of some of those spun-off outlets. The FCC announced a $13 million fine against Sinclair over an unrelated issue. Sinclair took the aggressive step of saying it would fight the penalty rather than attempt to settle. Sinclair’s refusal to listen to FCC staff raised concerns about station spinoffs that inflicted what appears to be the mortal wound. Another misstep by Sinclair: It allowed the government's review process to drag on, giving the broadcaster's many critics time to savage the transaction.


text:
WEVERTON PEREIRA DA SILVA, simply known as WEVERTON (born 13 December 1987), is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Palmeiras and the Brazil national team.

Club career

Born in Rio Branco, Acre, Weverton joined Corinthians' youth setup in 2006, aged 19, after impressing in a match for Juventus. He was promoted to the former's main squad in 2007, but was demoted to fourth-choice after Rafael Santos' promotion. Weverton was subsequently loaned to Remo, Oeste[1] and América (RN).[2] With the latter he appeared regularly in Série B, sharing minutes with the veteran Rodolpho.

Weverton was released by _Timão_ in January 2010 and shortly after moved to Botafogo (SP). After impressing with the side, he signed for Portuguesa on 12 May.[3] Weverton was an undisputed starter at _Lusa_, appearing in all league matches in 2011, as his side were crowned champions.

In May 2012 he joined Atlético Paranaense, after his previous contract expired.[4] On 15 October 2014, after being named captain for the campaign, Wéverton renewed his contract until 2017.[5]

In December 2017, Weverton joined Palmeiras on a five-year deal.[6]

International career

On 31 July 2016, he was called by the Brazilian Olympic team for the 2016 Summer Olympics by manager Rogério Micale to replace Fernando Prass who left the team due to injury.[7] In the gold medal match, Weverton made a key save against Germany's Nils Petersen on the fifth penalty shot, which helped Brazil win their first Olympic football gold.[8]

After winning gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Weverton was called up by coach Tite to qualification matches against Ecuador and Colombia.[9]

Career statistics

Club

  Club                  Season    League    Cup    Continental   State League   Total
  --------------------- --------- --------- ------ ------------- -------------- ------- ------ ------- ------ ------- ---- ---
  Division              Apps      Goals     Apps   Goals         Apps           Goals
  América-RN            2009      Série B   16     0             0              0
  Total                 16        0         0      0             0              0
  Portuguesa            2010      Série B   29     0             —              —
  2011                  38        0         —      —             19             0
  2012                  Série A   1         0      4             0              —
  Total                 68        0         4      0             0              0
  Atlético Paranaense   2012      Série B   33     0             0              0
  2013                  Série A   38        0      13            0              —
  2014                  35        0         2      0             8              0
  2015                  36        0         4      0             6              0
  2016                  30        0         8      0             —              20
  2017                  34        0         4      0             12             0
  Total                 206       0         31     0             26             0
  Palmeiras             2018      Série A   23     0             4              0
  2019                  28        0         3      0             10             0
  Total                 51        0         7      0             16             0
  Career total          319       0         38     0             36             0

International

[10]

  National team   Year   Apps   Goals
  --------------- ------ ------ -------
  Brazil          2017   2      0
  2020            2      0
  Total           4      0

  : Appearances and goals by national team and year

Honours

Club

Portuguesa

-   Campeonato Brasileiro Série B: 2011

Atlético Paranaense

-   Campeonato Paranaense: 2016

Palmeiras

-   Campeonato Brasileiro Série A: 2018

International

Brazil

-   Olympic Gold Medal: 2016

[1] Corinthians promove goleiro da base para emprestar Weverton (Corinthians promotes goalkeeper from the youth setup to loan Weverton); UOL Esporte, 27 December 2012

[2]

[3] Portuguesa tira o goleiro Weverton do Botafogo (Portuguesa takes off Weverton from Botafogo); Estadão, 12 May 2010

[4] Goleiro Weverton, ex-Lusa, é apresentado no Atlético-PR (Goalkeeper Weverton, former _Lusa_ player, is presented at Atlético-PR); Diário Lance!, 30 May 2012

[5] Líder no atual elenco atleticano, Weverton renova até 2017 (Leader in the current _atleticano_ roster, Weverton renews until 2017); Redação Em Campo, 15 October 2014

[6] Palmeiras anuncia a contratação do goleiro Weverton, ex-Atlético-PR (Palmeiras announces the signing of goalkeeper Weverton, former Atlético-PR side); Globoesporte.com, 15 December 2017

[7]

[8]

[9] Tite convoca seleção pela 1ª vez com 7 campeões olímpicos e 3 novidades

[10]

title: Weverton Pereira da Silva

question: What does the text say about learning Portuguese?

question: What does the text say about Weverton?

answer: Weverton Pereira da Silva, simply known as Weverton, was born on December 13, 1987, in Rio Branco, Acre. He is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Palmeiras and the Brazil national team. In 2016, Weverton was called by the Brazilian Olympic team manager Rogério Micale, to suit up for the 2016 Summer Olympics because Fernando Prass left the team due to an injury. Weverton made a key save against Germany's Nils Petersen on the fifth penalty shot, which helped Brazil win their first Olympic football gold. After helping the national team win gold, Weverton was called up by coach Tite to qualification matches against Colombia and Ecuador.

question: What does the text say about Weverton's club career?

answer: Weverton joined the Corinthians youth team in 2006 aged 19 after impressing in a match against Juventus. He was promoted to the main squad in 2007 but was demoted to fourth-choice after Rafael Santos' promotion. He was then loaned to Remo, Oeste and América (RN), where he regularly appeared in Série B, sharing minutes with the veteran Rodolpho. After Timão released him in January 2010, Weverton moved to Botafogo (SP). After impressing with the side, he signed with Portuguesa on May 12th. He was an undisputed starter at Lusa and they became champions in 2011. Weverton moved to Atlético Paranaense in May 2012 after his contract expired. He was named captain in October 2014. Weverton joined Palmeiras on a five-year deal in December 2017.


text:
One of the most popular talking points in the WordPress community is speeding up WordPress and optimizing web pages. I don't think there is a WordPress blog without an "X Tips to Speed Up WordPress" article. Don't get me wrong, it's a good thing. But we need better articles about this topic instead of dull plugin round-ups.

This may look like yet another "tips for speeding up WordPress" tutorial, but in this three-part series, we're going to go through every aspect of optimizing and speeding up your WordPress website.

Let's start with the most popular and probably the easiest thing: caching.

Caching in WordPress

I think it's safe to say that this is the most popular topic when it comes to speeding up WordPress. Granted, this is because of the popular and easy-to-use WordPress caching plugins, but it's also one of the fundamental techniques of reducing database load and speeding up WordPress websites.

We're going to get back to caching plugins, but let's look at the two types of caching: server-side caching and client-side caching.

Client-Side Caching

Client-side caching is the type of caching your visitors' browsers do. That means when visitors come to your website, their browsers will store data of certain parts of your pages. While browsers do cache some data automatically (like caching JavaScript and CSS files), we can do some fine-tuning with the help of .htaccess files.

By fine-tuning the .htaccess file, I mean adding the "Expires" header in it. You might have heard the term "leveraging browser caching" because it's commonly used in "website optimization" tutorials, and it's a high-priority criterion in the Google PageSpeed service.

Luckily, we don't have to come up with these headers ourselves—there's plenty of code ready to be "borrowed" on the web. I like the one in the HTML5 Boilerplate, where the headers are divided by categories of file types:

    # ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    # | Expires headers                                                            |
    # ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    # Serve resources with far-future expires headers.

    # IMPORTANT: If you don't control versioning with filename-based cache
    # busting, consider lowering the cache times to something like one week.

    <IfModule mod_expires.c>

        ExpiresActive on
        ExpiresDefault                                      "access plus 1 month"

      # CSS
        ExpiresByType text/css                              "access plus 1 year"

      # Data interchange
        ExpiresByType application/json                      "access plus 0 seconds"
        ExpiresByType application/ld+json                   "access plus 0 seconds"
        ExpiresByType application/vnd.geo+json              "access plus 0 seconds"
        ExpiresByType application/xml                       "access plus 0 seconds"
        ExpiresByType text/xml                              "access plus 0 seconds"

      # Favicon (cannot be renamed!) and cursor images
        ExpiresByType image/x-icon                          "access plus 1 week"

      # HTML components (HTCs)
        ExpiresByType text/x-component                      "access plus 1 month"

      # HTML
        ExpiresByType text/html                             "access plus 0 seconds"

      # JavaScript
        ExpiresByType application/javascript                "access plus 1 year"

      # Manifest files
        ExpiresByType application/manifest+json             "access plus 1 year"
        ExpiresByType application/x-web-app-manifest+json   "access plus 0 seconds"
        ExpiresByType text/cache-manifest                   "access plus 0 seconds"

      # Media
        ExpiresByType audio/ogg                             "access plus 1 month"
        ExpiresByType image/gif                             "access plus 1 month"
        ExpiresByType image/jpeg                            "access plus 1 month"
        ExpiresByType image/png                             "access plus 1 month"
        ExpiresByType video/mp4                             "access plus 1 month"
        ExpiresByType video/ogg                             "access plus 1 month"
        ExpiresByType video/webm                            "access plus 1 month"

      # Web feeds
        ExpiresByType application/atom+xml                  "access plus 1 hour"
        ExpiresByType application/rss+xml                   "access plus 1 hour"

      # Web fonts
        ExpiresByType application/font-woff                 "access plus 1 month"
        ExpiresByType application/font-woff2                "access plus 1 month"
        ExpiresByType application/vnd.ms-fontobject         "access plus 1 month"
        ExpiresByType application/x-font-ttf                "access plus 1 month"
        ExpiresByType font/opentype                         "access plus 1 month"
        ExpiresByType image/svg+xml                         "access plus 1 month"

    </IfModule>

Place these lines of code in your .htaccess file and you're good to go!

Server-Side Caching

When it comes to server-side caching in WordPress, we can talk about four major kinds of caching: page caching, database caching, object caching, and opcode (operation code) caching. Sourav Kundu explains this in his article at WP Explorer, but let's recap:

1.  PAGE CACHING: In essence, WordPress outputs your pages by querying databases and loading the results. Page caching, however, stores each page as HTML files in the server's local storage (hard disk or RAM), and serves the HTML files corresponding to your pages each time your visitors visit your website.
2.  DATABASE CACHING: While databases are the "brains" of a WordPress website where all data are stored, it's not very effective when WordPress makes the same non-altering query over and over again on each page and for each visitor. Database caching saves and serves the results of these queries, and refreshes the results when an altering query is made.
3.  OBJECT CACHING: This is an internal API of WordPress that allows plugins to store data of expensive queries in the memory. It's a bit irrelevant for our series—maybe we'll go through this in a separate tutorial in the future.
4.  OPCODE CACHING: Just as you add flour, water, eggs, sugar and whatnot every time you bake a cake, the codes in your PHP files are instructions to "compile" and make your requests. Opcode caching is the kind of caching that stores the compiled code, speeding up the process considerably.

WordPress Plugins on Caching

Our main chapters are the _aspects_ of speeding up WordPress, so it might be off‑topic to review plugins. Nevertheless, it's a good idea to talk about a couple of plugins in each chapter. As for caching, I know you already know the two most popular plugins:

1.  WP SUPER CACHE: This is the most popular caching plugin for WordPress, with over 6 million downloads and a 4.2 star rating as I'm writing this article. Simply put, WP Super Cache works by generating static HTML files of your pages and refreshing them with an interval that you set (an hour by default). This works like magic out of the box even in shared hosts, but may not be enough for high-traffic websites.
2.  W3 TOTAL CACHE: Being the second most popular plugin with almost 4 million downloads and a 4.5 star rating, W3 Total Cache is the kind of plugin that's more suitable for high traffic websites running from a VPS or a better hosting environment. With its wide range of settings and support for high-performance caching options, it might be the best solution for you if you know what you're doing. If you're not familiar with the jargon in the settings, however, you might as well use it out of the box and don't change any options, or you may break your front-end.

Optimizing the Database in WordPress

Databases are the "brains" of your website: They store the valuable data that you show on your pages. Static HTML websites store their data inside the pages, but content management systems have to rely on databases (SQL, NoSQL, XML, JSON and such) to store our data. WordPress is no different—it uses MySQL to store the static and dynamic content along with your website information, WordPress settings, user details and so on.

Databases are a powerful standard to keep, serve and alter your data, but if you use them wrong and forget to maintain them, they can get _fat_ and bloated. And like any other software, WordPress needs maintenance, too. WordPress doesn't build up too much bloat in the database, but that doesn't mean it won't slow down your website.

You need to keep an eye on your post revisions, trashes of posts, pages, comments, etc., and any other kind of "stale" data. And every now and then, you must check your "database overhead", which is often compared to hard disk defragmentation or changing the oil of your car.

It's possible to maintain all of these manually: You can empty your trash, disable the "revisions" feature, delete spam comments and optimize the database overhead by logging in to phpMyAdmin, but that's not an optimized technique for database optimization. Instead, you can use a WordPress plugin to do all the work.

There are more than a few plugins that allow you to optimize your database with one click or even automatically. The one I like the most is WP-OPTIMIZE: It automatically cleans up and optimizes your database without any hassle.

WP-Optimize lists its main features as follows:

-   Removal of stale post revisions
-   Removal of stale unapproved and spam comments
-   Removal of trashed comments
-   Removal of Akismet metadata from comments
-   Removal of other stale metadata from comments
-   Mobile device friendly, now you can optimize your site on the go
-   Removal of all trackbacks and pingbacks
-   Cleaning up auto draft posts
-   Removal of transient options
-   Clear out the post trash
-   Automatic cleanup of all the integrated options (also uses retention if enabled)
-   Ability to keep selected number of weeks data when cleaning up
-   Option to add or remove link on wp admin bar.
-   Enable/Disable weekly schedules of optimization
-   Apply native WordPress MySql optimize commands on your database tables without phpMyAdmin or any manual query.
-   Display Database table statistics. Shows how much space can be optimized and how much space has been cleared.
-   Enabled for Administrators only.

Be sure to check out other database optimization plugins, but don't be negligent about maintaining your database.

On to Part 2

In the next part of the series, we'll be looking at the aspects of compression and minification, and using CDNs to make your WordPress website faster.

What do you think about speeding up WordPress? Share your thoughts below in the comments section. And if you liked the article, don't forget to share it.

question: What does the text say about client-side caching in WordPress?

answer: Client-side caching means that when visitors come to a webpage, their browsers will store that page's data and return it from the cache for greater speed. You can further improve the client-side caching by adding an "Expires" header code to your page.


text:
I wrote this a while ago and just dusted it out of my docs. I'm struggling to preface this so I'll try to be as brief as possible.

The idea was that in science fiction - where basically anything is possible - the genre and it's lovers have a very strong tendency to stray from anything religious and I personally don't blame them for this.  I am not religious myself though I was raised around it and had a few years of extensive experience. I don't particularly like it myself when an author has a religious agenda to push. In my experience even most of Card's readers haven't read the Homecoming saga which is basically a retelling of the Book of Mormon unless they are Mormon. (hope I got the right series name it's been awhile)

So what then is the extreme opposite of what is typical in the genre in this regard? Why not start from the assumption that christianity and it's works are a mythos like any other? This is effectively what many many movies about christian mythos already do. (Dogma, the Diablo series of games, any movie about the devil, alone in the dark (oh my god shoot me for referencing AITD).

So why not a Space Opera about the reality of God as it relates to the greater mysteries of the universe and science? With the assumption that everything surrounding this has rules which have already largely been frameworked for you in the Bible (or other religious works! let's not limit ourselves here!) the thing almost writes itself. Just work from the angle that everything - all of it - is absolutely true in the story world. The good and bad of all of it comes pouring out from the cracks.

I haven't written anything else like this - this is just a short concept rough.

Remember: Fact or Fiction it's what we learn from the stories that matters.

My intent is not to offend anyone and I digress (I have no idea how this is going to format and apologize for errors in this rough);

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

"What do you mean, they don't believe in God?"

"Exactly that. Some of them deny him. Remember, this is a yellow star world. They do not enjoy such closeness to the Lord."

"What's not to believe in?" and then, "where did they hear of the Word?"

"God saw fit to give them many Angels. This is the same system where one of the outposts of the forsaken ripped through in the war of Gabriel. He visited this very world. There is more, much more... this might be hard to take."

John was looking at him crossways. "The same?"

"Indeed the same, two gas worlds now remain, and a curious moon."

"Some time ago a savior visited this world." Aaron's face was grave and at this sight Johns face became so, his eyes cold.

"And he was treated as a pariah."

John resisted the urge to spit. "If you say it I shall question it not, as I have know you a long time now, so that we may get on with it!"

"But there are many, many believers..."

"Yes but you wrote in your report, stay and I will find it." John twisted around, reaching into a dusty bin and removing a scrollscreen.

"Ah, yes where was it..." he concentrated harder and the scroll unrolled, displaying the text John desired in the air above it. 'though there are

many believers on this world they know not what they believe. Sin and hate weigh heavily upon their worship and they know the consequences, though

they choose not to accept them, or many delude themselves into believing they are worthy."

"I did say that. There are many who are unworthy, but some few are wonderful souls the likes of which are not found in many such firmaments."

"Yet they know there is an end time. These mechanical worlds crafted from rock and heat cannot go on forever! The faithful here are prepared."

"They will all die, unfulfilled. The impure cannot be allowed to come to reason, no matter the costs. These souls must be pushed into a dark pit, like

we find at the center of this firmament, so conveniently, and never to return."

Aarons voice was very sad. He sighed a little sigh like only one who knows many ages can wheeze. "So be it, then. I cannot help but find irony, however."

"How so? They knew their fate and chose it, in fact it has been far too long on this world since a blue workshift passed through!"

"Because they have such compassion that they knew to kill not their brothers, though many have, this virtue was a blessing and allowed this world to be. This they were taught by the savior. Few worlds advance so in such a short time, as all societies are prone to such self destruction, but this virtue was blessed upon their crowns and with it they have crafted a world of billions."

"I cannot take you at your word any longer. Show me."

Aaron turned away to move toward the chamber. He concentrated and waved his hand at the panel at its entrance and stepped inside.

"This is the one." it was a dusty scene, John shuffled his feet a bit at the thought of a desert world, but remembered that this world had many climates. It reminded him of the worlds built upon stars in other arenas, all colored blue and green as it was. An unshaven man was standing before a rock cave, or perhaps a hut, with others below him looking on. The context was not easily deciphered from the imagery, except that it was so suddenly familiar to them.

"Are you certain? Is this a true time vision or a slow light simulation?"

Aaron inclined his neck slightly and the scene shifted, whirling before him. "It is real."

"I really wish you would stop using that word."

Aaron reached out and as his arm moved, the scene paused. He reached out and plucked a straw from the ground, setting it between his teeth.

"Please be serious!"

"You mean to tell me to be reverent, and I am not irreverent." His tone was purposefully indecipherable, bland.

Aaron concentrated and ribbons of light flowed from his eyes and mouth. Most of these drifted lazily off and faded, but the few which touched the central figure in the worn robes and sandals seemed to fill him with beams of light that pierced through his skin.

"So it is true. We thought the sons all to be dead."

"No. It is true, and we will change many things with this." Johns mouth was open. "Yeshua did not perish in that war with his brothers, but somehow escaped to a soul in this world... so close to the gates. It is entirely possible that his spirit endures."

"You said yourself, this firmament rides through the prime on the point of a dark spike, and there were two world-souls created in the unmaking of the world that housed the portal, this red clod of filth," he gestured toward the stellar map he had called up on the wall of the chamber. "Yeshua lived. You saw the proof. We reached into the past of this reality and took our samples like we knew no better and now that we have opened our minds to the past it changes us. We learned these lessons long ago, still we are not perfect."

Aaron balked slightly and then hardened, turning and almost shouting at first, "So what do we do? Even amongst us are those who do not wish to confront the idea that God would not reveal this story. We have proven it to ourselves, but we would be seen as questioning of God by those above us, before they would indulge in this sort of science to reveal it! No, God has revealed this to us, it is impolite to say that we have uncovered it, but he has revealed it to us alone. Because of who we are we cannot reveal it, and because of who those superior to us are and the because of realities from which they come they cannot hear it." He sat down.

"So we are to die with it, then. I cannot help but feel that there is another purpose here. The spirit prompts me so."

"We shall reveal heaven unto them. Those who know the teachings will revel in the truth. Those who do not will take their own lives thinking that heaven lies beyond, because they do not have the spirit to guide them through such an ordeal as beholding the truth of God with nothing better than a mind of meat."

"You are mad! We cannot do such a thing."

"Do you question me? Do not forget yourself, I remind you as your friend that I am your superior in this hall and I believe you may have forgotten yourself, as sometimes all beings will."

"I ask for forgiveness and your will be done, though I remind you as a friend and engineer that the power you are preparing to wield on these people might be considered by some to be unforgivable."

"Nonsense. As we are his hands and create these worlds, so shall we destroy them as we must. These impure have no escape from this firmament, with that crushing vortex at its middle. Let those who would not hear the spirit die without it! We shall give God unto the soul of this world, as is our calling, and the people upon it must choose!"

"Indeed. This world was marked for baptism long ago. Let it finally be done and enough talk!"

And with that they both stormed from the room, with many busy days to come.

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

Was that interesting to anyone?

title: [SF] Concept short - modern religion sci-fi?

question: What does the text say about science fiction and religion?

answer: The text says that science fiction as a genre generally stays away from anything religious but. The text proposes a Christian mythos Space Opera where the world rules are the ones described in the Bible.

question: What does the text say about the inhabitants of the yellow star world?

answer: The inhabitants of the yellow star world do not believe in God, even though they know the consequences of sin and hate they choose not to accept them. The reason why their world still exists is because they haven't killed one another. At one point God sent an Angel on the planet but he was treated like a pariah. There are some believers but they don't know exactly what they believe in.


text:
Two years ago, when Donald Trump was running for president, he proudly declared that he employed no undocumented immigrants in the construction of his grand Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.

That doesn't appear to be true for some of his other properties.

When Victorina Morales went to work in 2013 as a housekeeper at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, "I told them that I don't have papers, I don't speak English and that I was an immigrant," she told NBC News on Thursday in an interview.

"They said, 'No, it doesn't matter,'" she said.

Morales left Guatemala and illegally crossed the U.S. border in 1999, according to The New York Times, which she and a second woman who used to work at the golf club, Sandra Diaz, approached to tell their story in an article published earlier Thursday.

Morales, who still works at the golf club, told NBC News that she knows she could be fired or deported for having come forward.

"But I feel good, because I came out of obscurity, and I'm afloat," she said "Because you get tired of so many humiliations. You get tired of getting treated like a stupid mule in a place where you're serving, trying hard.

"It's difficult, because I have felt humiliated in many ways," she said.

[]

Diaz, who is from Costa Rica and is now a legal resident of the United States, worked at the golf club from 2010 to 2013. She said she was coming forward "because it's time to do so."

"It's no longer a time to stay quiet. It's time to stop hiding, for me especially," she said.

"Everyone who comes to this country loves this country, and I love this country," Diaz said, but "the situation for immigrants right now is very difficult."

Diaz said that in the time since she and Morales spoke out, she had heard from some of her former colleagues at the golf club — one of whom told her that "there will be a lot of people fired, that they're going to have meetings tomorrow."

"I know good things will come out of this," she said. "It is no longer the time to stay silent."

The Trump Organization LLC, the primary holding company for the president's hundreds of businesses, referred NBC News to the White House, which didn't directly address the Times report. It said in a statement:

"We have tens of thousands of employees across our properties and have very strict hiring practices. If any employee submitted false documentation in an attempt to circumvent the law, they will be terminated immediately."

NBC News reported in 2016 that Trump Tower in New York, the 58-story crown jewel of Trump's real estate empire, was built using the labor of undocumented Polish immigrants almost 40 years ago.

Trump said during the 2016 campaign that he hadn't known about the workers' legal statuses, and he made illegal immigration the centerpiece of his campaign, promising to build a wall along the southern U.S. border to keep undocumented immigrants out and to carry out mass deportations of those already in the country.

At various times, he has characterized immigrants from Central and South America as "barbaric," as rapists and even as killers of children.

Morales told NBC News that she liked working for Trump, who sometimes gave her unexpected tips.

Once, she said, "I was jumping and jumping so I could reach and clean" a particularly high spot — and "he got out of the cart, and he took the cloth, and he started cleaning."

Trump asked for her name and where she was from, she said. "And so he goes and puts his hand in his pocket and takes out $50 and gave it to me."

But when Trump began running for president, she found his rhetoric about people like her distressing.

"When I saw how he talked about us when he started his presidency, I felt humiliated," she said. "Not just that, but before he was president, I would go to his house to clean, and when he became president, they told me, 'Victoria, you cannot come here anymore.'"

CORRECTION (Dec. 7, 2018, 8:23 a.m ET): An earlier version of this article misstated when Trump Tower in New York was built. It was 40 years ago, not 40 decades.

question: Why has Morales come out into the open about her immigration status?

answer: Morales had previously met Trump and found him quite approachable but when Trump began running for president, she found his rhetoric about people like her distressing. She was also told that she could no longer go to his house to clean. She found his rhetoric humiliating.

question: What does the article say about the friendship between Morales and Diaz?


text:
“Whiskey. Just a pinch,” Kyle asks, gesturing the amount with thumb and index finger.

The bartender obliged and  poured two fingers in a glass; Kyle hands him a five and two singles and waves off the change when he divvies up the remainder.

Thank the gods that day is over, Kyle thinks. It was a long, hard day at the store and of course, as most days when it is expected to be busy, the manager calls in 'sick'.

“Fucking cunt,” he says aloud; louder then he had expected and a woman sitting on a stool next to him overhears.

“Excuse me?” she says, her tone: annoyed.

“Sorry,” Kyle replies, “long day at work. Sort of ranting in my head about my boss. Guess some words slipped out.”

“Oh. I'm sorry then,” she slides back in her regular spot: facing the array of bottles on the various shelves behind the bar.

A few minutes pass and Kyle remains on the stool, whiskey still untouched. He swirls his glass in a circular motion until the golden colored liquid begins to spiral. Watching the whiskey spin about in the small crystal glass, he is reminded – for some reason – of the opening scene of Doctor Who; the moment when the Tardis is flying through space and time, through a vortex with an unknown destination. He takes a sip and the drink tells him to take another, then another, and then finally, the glass is empty and he finds himself waving the bartender back to pour another.

By the time he is on his third drink, the effects of the whiskey are coming alive inside him, leaving a warm sensation growing in his stomach and spreading up through his cheeks. A myriad of ways to get back at his boss brew in his whiskey-treading mind. The first and most relevant would be to call in sick this Friday; the last Friday before Christmas. His boss had told him that he had a family event to go to and he might not be able to make it in. Fuck you and your family, Kyle thinks and gulps another drink down and waves for another.

Halfway through his next drink, the woman comes back over, and by this time, he finds himself to be quite drunk and far too drunk to be able to conceal the audaciousness of it.

“I'm Clara by the way. Clara Oswald,” she says smiling and offering her hand.

“I'm Kyle Barnaby. Nice to meet you.” he extends his hand and shakes hers. As his hand is entangled in hers, he looks into her eyes and senses a strange familiarity in them; his mind and memory tells him he has seen them before; somewhere for sure but the time and place seem to be missing. Jesus I'm not that drink am I? He thinks and then says: “I'm sorry, but have we met before. I get the strangest feeling that I know you from somewhere. And that accent. British?”

“I don't believe we have met but I think we may have a mutual friend. And yes, I'm British,” she says as a hand runs through her hair to conceal the reddening of her cheeks and a faint smile.

“Who might this friend be? I'm sure I'd remember you if we've ever crossed paths. Your eyes are bright and beautiful and unlikely to slip my mind.” He takes another sip of the whiskey and decides beer will be the next drink.

“I don't know his name. He only goes by the Doctor.”

Okay that's odd, Kyle thinks and nearly spits the whiskey in the girls face.

“Something the matter?” She asks.

“No no. Course not. I'm fine. I'm sorry, did you say your name was Clara Oswald?”

“Yes,” she replies.

Then it had come back to him; she was from the show: Doctor Who.

I'm dreaming, he thinks – I have to be –  either that I'm losing my mind. Maybe shes just fucking with me, a look-a-like fucking around with a drunk. “Okay, say I do know the Doctor …  What do you – and him apparently – want with me?”

“I don't want anything with you. It's him. He's outside now – well, in the Tardis I mean – waiting for you. C'mon lets go,” she says hopping off the stool.

Kyle, confused as ever, downs his drink and hops off  his stool as well and turns towards Clara – or at least, the woman whom claimed to be her; a character from a T.V show. Fuck it, he thinks, what's the worst that could happen? She's just a tiny girl and even if I am losing my mind – or if she is – at least there's a chance I could get laid if nothing else.

“So which way are we heading?”

“Outside you bloke. Through the front door. The Tardis is next to a phone booth. Not like anyone is going to recognize it. A big plain old police telephone booth next to a regular one.”

“Unless they've seen the show,” Kyle mumbles.

“What show? Is there a show about big blue telephone boxes? Aha that sounds kind of silly. What kind of show are they going to think of next? One with sparkling vampires and werewolves with abs? Haha”

“Your telling me,” Kyle says, thinking about grabbing another drink – a shot maybe – before plundering into the abyss of what would either turn out to be the thrill of his life or a journey that would land him in a place his grandmother used to call the 'looney bin'. Before he had time to order the shot, Clara snatched the sleeve of his left arm and began hauling him toward the exit. Here we go, he thinks dubiously, time travel or a padded room.

Clara walking ahead of him, still gripping his sleeve, pushes the door open with her free hand; a cluster of bells hanging above the door begin to chime as the door collides into them – then, the peal of the bells stop abruptly as if there was more to be sang; the entire world freezes, all is still, and now Clara – who had once been dragging him outside – stood perfectly still halfway through the door with her hand still outstretched, gripping Kyle's sleeve.

“Sir?” A voice echoes from somewhere – everywhere. “Sir?” It says again.
Glancing around at his surroundings to find the source of the sound, he begins to feel a strange rubbing sensation on his right shoulder resembling a light massage.

“Sir? Hello? Wake up,” a cute waitress says standing next to Kyle, her hand rests on his shoulder. “Sir you fell asleep and my manager asked if I could wake you. I'm sorry.”

“No. no. It's fine. I'm the one who's sorry,” he replies looking at the waitress’s eyes and then glancing down to her name-tag which read: Clara.

“Do you want me to call you a cab?”

“No it's fine. I will. I need to go out for a smoke anyways. Thank you though.”

title: [OC] Whiskey Who

question: Summarize how Kyle feels about his day at work.

answer: Kyle had a long, hard day at work, so much so that he goes to a bar afterwards to wind down. His manager had called in "sick" again on a day that is usually busy. Additionally, Kyle seems to dislike his boss. His day at work even makes him think of way to get back at his boss.

question: Summarize what happens by the time Kyle is on his third drink.

answer: On his third drink, Kyle starts to feel the effects of the whiskey kicking in. It makes him have a warm sensation in his stomach that spreads up to his cheeks. The effects also seem to make him think of several ways to get back at his boss for always calling out of work. He thinks about calling in sick on the Friday before Christmas so his boss can't go to a family event.

question: What does the text say about Clara and Doctor Who?

answer: When Kyle is introduced to Clara Oswald, he feels familiarity when looking into her eyes. He also notes her British accent. Clara suggests that they may have a possible mutual friend, the Doctor. This makes Kyle realize that Clara is from the show Doctor Who. Clara isn't aware of this show. She ends up taking Kyle to the Tardis where the Doctor is waiting for Kyle.

question: Summarize the ending's plot twist.

answer: At the end of the story Kyle is just about to be led by Clara to meet Doctor Who at the Tardis. When she's halfway out the door, the world freezes and Kyle hears a voice say "Sir?". It becomes clear that he'd only dreamt the Doctor Who scenario. The waitress at the bar had to wake him up at her manager's request. Kyle notices the waitress' name is Clara.

question: Summarize what happens when Kyle meets Doctor Who.


text:
Foreword: I used to consider writing a novel, but I always got distracted wanting to write about side-quests and secondary characters, and couldn't keep myself to just the one path I wanted to focus on. So I thought, instead, I would try this. I will be (hopefully) writing a series of short stories, such as this one, about several people, whose lives will intertwine. The story will be about these select individuals developing extroadinary abilities, super powers, and how they come to terms with them. The story will revolve around them discovering their abilities, and trying to learn how to use them, where they come from, and what to do with them. I hope that by being able to make several short stories, all linked together, I will be able to write a story I've been trying to write in novel form, because now I can explore all those side quests. Please, give me any and all feedback you may have. This is a first for me, and I hope that some of you enjoy it.

Nate, Part 1

It was hot. Far to hot to be stuck outside on the bleachers, watching the stupid football team strutting around. However, Nate was left with no other choice than to sit in the stands and cheer for his school team, just like everyone else. School spirit was mandatory, even if they had to force it from him. So there he sat, wishing he could be at home, playing video games, or reading a good book, or really anything outside of this damned heat.

Suddenly the stands around him erupted in cheers. Nate forced himself to check back into reality, to see what was going on. His guess was his team had just scored a base, or a basket, or a touchdown, or whatever the goal of football was. He thought about trying to sneak out, but being caught ditching out on a game was worse then ditching a class.

"God, what a stupid school" he thought to himself. "They care more about the football team than they do about the students grades. I can't wait to get out of this stupid school, and this stupid town."

Nate had been born and raised in this small rural town of Chesterville, in the prairie's of Alberta, Canada. In his eighteen years, he had never left. He dreamed of the day he could graduate from the High School, and go off to College in the big city. Somewhere were football wasn't the only thing the town cared about. He started mentally checking off everything he had to do that night.

"Ok, the English paper is due tomorrow, but I'm almost done that" he thought. "I'll just give it one more quick re-read before I hand it in. The science homework won't take too long, so I'll have time to study for that math test tomorrow. Ah, crap, I almost forgot. I have to work tonight. Well, I guess it'll be another long night then".

As the crowds erupted in cheers around him again, he didn't even bother to try and zone back. He just stared blindly forward, lost in his own world.

* * *

A few hours later, he had just gotten home. He looked at the clock, trying to see if he'd have time for a fast shower before work. He felt gross and sweaty from sitting in the heat all day, but there was nothing to be done about it. He grabbed his uniform and ran back out the door.

Without a car, he had to peddle his bike back through the heat all the way across town to the Wendy's. By the time he finally got to work, he was panting, and sweat was pouring down his back. He went straight to the employee bathroom and did what he could to wipe himself down with a wad of cool, wet paper towel. Putting his uniform on, he entered the always sweltering hot kitchen and swiped into work.

He hated his job, every minute he was there. It was hot, it was uncomfortable, it was boring and routine. Every night he worked he went home stinking of grease and hamburger. The shirts were made of some terrible plasticy feeling material that just felt awful whenever it touched your sweaty skin. But, if he wanted any hope of ever leaving this god-forsaken town, he had no choice. He was saving every penny he could for a college fund. His parent's weren't able to help much, being barely able to make ends meet as it was. At least he knew that graduation wasn't very far away now, and then one last summer of working in this dump to save up the money and he could move. Move far away. He could go to college and make something of himself. He was already accepted to a first year Engineering degree, and he had big plans for his life. Get a good job. Make a lot of money. Buy a big house. Find a wife, kids, picket fence. Be able to afford a vacation. Travel. Be able to give his kids a vehicle when they turned 16, and not have them need to worry about every cent for any chance to go to college.

He went through his shift on auto pilot, dreaming of the future. They were short staffed, again, as some of his fellow schoolmates hadn't bothered showing up for their shifts. Undoubtedly off celebrating their football win. Didn't even have the respect to phone in ahead of time. He was ran off his feet until almost closing time, trying to do the work of three people, with an overbearing, overweight, power-tripping asshole of a manager breathing down his neck the entire night.

As ten o'clock rolled around, Nate got ready to lock the doors. Once they were locked up and the dinning room was cleaned, he could go home. If he got out by ten thirty, he could be home for eleven, which would give him a few hours to study if he was ok with only five hours sleep. He locked the first door, but then heard the second entrance open up. He turned around to face a group of at least twenty to twenty-five of his fellow classmates. All cheering and high fiving each other, being very loud and obnoxious.

"Hey guys, sorry, you're too late" he told the teenagers. "We're closed up for the night."

"Well, it doesn't seem that way to me," said one of the group, whom Nate recognized as Mike, the quarterback of the football team. "See, the door was open."

"Well, I was just on my way to lock it. If you wanted anything, you should have come sooner" Nate replied, trying not to show his irritation.

"Well, we're here know, and we're hungry, so how about you hop back behind that counter and flip some burgers" Mike said, with a grin on his face. Even at the distance, Nate could smell the scent of alcohol coming from the group.

Just then, the manager came out of his office. Nate was sure he was going to throw them out, but when he saw the group, he ordered Nate to get back behind the counter and serve them.

"But I need to go home!" Nate cried out indignantly. "I have homework, and studying, and I'm only scheduled to 10 as it is!"

"Well, I don't care. We have customers, and you have a job to do, Nate. That is, if you want a job."

Nate couldn't believe the unfairness of the situation. After all, a few of the guys in the crowd were the same as the ones who didn't show up for work, and yet he was the one whose job was being threatened. However, he couldn't afford to lose his job, so he returned to the counter.

"Welcome to Wendy's, can I take your order please"

 * * *

It was almost half past eleven before the crowd had finally left the restaurant. Nate barely wiped down each table, didn't bother sweeping at all, and took off for home. He was pissed off. He wouldn't get the time to study, after all, and could only hope to bullshit his way through enough of the test to maintain his A average.

He was peddling down the sidewalk, trying to rush home as quick as possible. Down the road, a single pair of headlights was growing larger. Even at a couple blocks away, he could hear the loud music, and the cheering voices that let him know it was more of his asshole classmates, still out celebrating. They obviously didn't care about homework, or studying. Whatever, that was their problem. They would grow up to be good for nothing losers, looking for any scraps, like most of the lowlifes who lived here. He tried to put them out of his mind.

As he continued down the street, the headlights before him getting brighter and brighter, he noticed they were swerving slightly across both lanes of the road. Now they were even driving drunk, on top of everything. Nate seriously hopes they would get pulled over. That would serve them right. If he had owned a cell phone, he would have called the police right then, and made sure these idiots got what was coming for them.

He was so preoccupied by picturing them getting in trouble, he never thought to pay attention to the vehicle. When the vehicle was just a few feet from him, it swerved, hit the curb, and bounced right up onto the sidewalk. Nate had no time to react. He saw the bright headlights rushing straight for him. He could hear the squealing of the tires as someone inside the vehicle tried to stop, but reacted far too late. All he could see was those bright headlights, rushing up to meet him. As the vehicle rushed towards him, his entire body went stiff, rigid, clenched up solid as metal. The last thing he sensed was a loud metallic clang, and those bright lights, before everything went dark.

* * *

title: Nate, Part 1

question: What does the story say about Nate's finances?

answer: Nate's family doesn't have extra money and has difficulty making ends meet. Nate works a job he hates in order to save enough money to move and go to college. He can't afford to lose his job, nor can he afford a cell phone. Nate has plans to make a lot of money and buy a house, be able to vacation, be able to pay for his future kid's cars and college education.

question: What does the story say about transportation?

answer: Nate, the narrator, rides a bike as his means of personal transportation. He does not have a car. Another car with bright headlights approaches him as he rides his bike home at night. The vehicle swerves toward him, trying to stop.

question: What does the story say about Nate's grades in middle school?

question: What does the story say about heat?

answer: It is hot in Nate's hometown. Nate hates the heat. The heat makes him feel gross and makes him sweaty. Nate has to ride his bike to school and to work in the heat. The kitchen where Nate works is hot.