text:
Then, it was Ohio. In each case, Republican governors and Republican-controlled state legislatures had introduced substantially similar bills that sought sweeping changes to each state’s collective bargaining statutes and various school funding provisions.

What was going on? How could elected officials in multiple states suddenly introduce essentially the same legislation?

The answer: The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Its self-described legislative approach to education reads:

Across the country for the past two decades, education reform efforts have popped up in legislatures at different times in different places. As a result, teachers’ unions have been playing something akin to “whack-a-mole”—you know the game—striking down as many education reform efforts as possible. Many times, the unions successfully “whack” the “mole,” i.e., the reform legislation. Sometimes, however, they miss. If all the moles pop up at once, there is no way the person with the mallet can get them all. Introduce comprehensive reform packages. (Ladner, LeFevre, & Lips, 2010, p. 108)

[]

ALEC’s own “whack-a-mole” strategy also reveals the group’s ultimate goal. Every gardener who has ever had to deal with a mole knows that the animals undermine and ultimately destroy a garden. ALEC’s positions on various education issues make it clear that the organization seeks to undermine public education by systematically defunding and ultimately destroying public education as we know it.

What is ALEC?

Technically, ALEC is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. It describes itself as a nonpartisan membership organization for those who share a common belief in “limited government, free markets, federalism, and individual liberty.”

[]

More than 2,000 state lawmakers pay ALEC $100 for a two-year membership. While listed as nonpartisan, ALEC’s members definitely skew to the conservative end of the political spectrum. For example, of the 114 listed members of the group’s Education Task Force, 108 are Republicans, and only six are Democrats.

Corporations, foundations, and “think tanks” can join ALEC, too. They pay up to $25,000 in yearly dues and can spend more to sponsor the council’s meetings. Corporate members can also donate to each state’s scholarship fund, which reimburses legislators who travel to meetings. The scholarships can exceed the amount of a legislator’s dues. Corporate members also can pay from $3,000 to $10,000 for a seat on a task force.

ALEC operates through nine task forces, each cochaired by a corporate member and a legislative member. Task forces are divided by subject and bring together conservative policy makers with corporate leaders to develop model legislation. In order for a proposal to become model legislation, both the public and private sides of the committee must agree—granting considerable power to the corporate side. Elected officials then take the model bills back to their states to introduce them as their own. Only legislators who are members may access the model legislation. It is a very efficient mechanism for corporations to exercise political power—and they have.

ALEC in Tennessee

Recent legislation in Tennessee provides a vivid example. ALEC created and provided members its model Virtual Public Schools Act. Two large for-profit corporate providers of virtual education, Connections Academy and K-12 Inc., had heavy involvement with the model bill’s creation. Mickey Revenaugh, a lobbyist for Connections Academy, was the corporate chair of ALEC’s Education Task Force and Lisa Gillis, with K-12 Inc., chaired its special needs education subcommittee that created the bill. Tennessee’s State Rep. Harry Brooks and State Sen. Dolores Gresham, both ALEC Education Task Force members, introduced the bill to their respective houses nearly verbatim, even using the same title. For example, the following passage forms the preamble of the adopted statute. Underlined portions were taken directly from ALEC’s model.

• WHEREAS, meeting the educational needs of children in our state’s schools is of the greatest importance to the future welfare of Tennessee; and

• WHEREAS, closing the achievement gap between high-performing students, including the gap between minority and nonminority students and between economically disadvantaged students and their more advantaged peers, is a significant and present challenge; and

• WHEREAS, providing a broader range of educational options to parents and utilizing existing resources, along with technology, may help students in our state improve their academic achievement; and

• WHEREAS, many of our school districts currently lack the capacity to provide other public school choices for students whose schools are low performing; now, therefore

• The purpose of this part is to provide an LEA with an alternative choice to offer additional educational resources in an effort to improve academic achievement. (Virtual Public Schools Act, 2011).

The bill passed both houses on a party-line vote on June 16, 2011. Shortly thereafter, K-12 Inc.—one of the creators of the model legislation—won a no-bid contract from Union County School District to create the Tennessee Virtual Academy and will receive about $5,300 per student from the state for the 2011-12 school year (Humphrey, 2011). Connections Academy does not yet offer a virtual school in Tennessee, but its web site reports that it “is actively working with parent groups, education officials, and others to launch a school in this state.”

The _Chattanooga Times Free Press_ reported that about 2,000 students applied for enrollment in the Tennessee Virtual Academy for fall 2011. Recent reports raise concerns that the program’s popularity with home schoolers may “drain taxpayer funds” while enriching the corporation actively and aggressively recruiting students to enroll (Locker, 2011). Locker also reports that “K-12 Inc. compensated its CEO more than $2.6 million last year, its chief financial officer more than $1.7 million, and other top executives several hundred thousand dollars each, according to its latest annual report to shareholders.”

ALEC on Education

ALEC’s success in Tennessee is by no means its only incursion into state education policy. ALEC’s interest in education is ambitious and multifaceted, and includes promoting dozens of model acts to its legislative members (Ladner, LeFevre, & Lips, 2010). Proposed bills seek to influence teacher certification, teacher evaluation, collective bargaining, curriculum, funding, special education, student assessment, and numerous other education and education-related issues. Common throughout the bills are proposals to decrease local control of schools by democratically elected school boards while increasing access to all facets of education by private entities and corporations. ALEC’s outlined agenda is to:

• Introduce market factors into schools, particularly the teaching profession (Ladner, LeFevre, & Lips, 2010, p. 82) to be carried out through model legislation such as Alternative Certification Act, Great Teachers and Leaders Act, National Teacher Certification Fairness Act, Public School Union Release Time Act, School Collective Bargaining Agreement Sunshine Act, and Teacher Choice Compensation Act. There’s also a set of proposals (Public School Financial Transparency Act; School Board Freedom to Contract Act) that encourage school districts to outsource their auxiliary services.

• Privatize education through vouchers, charters, and tax incentives (Ladner, LeFevre, & Lips, 2010, p. 87) to be carried out through model legislation such as Foster Child Scholarship Program Act, Great Schools Tax Credit, Military Family Scholarship Program Act, Parental Choice Scholarship Accountability Act, Parental Choice Scholarship Program Act (means-tested eligibility), Parental Choice Scholarship Program Act (universal eligibility), Parental Choice Scholarship Program Act (universal eligibility, means-tested scholarship amount), Parental Choice Scholarship Tax Credit Accountability Act, Education Enterprise Zone Act, Smart Start Scholarship Program, Special Needs Scholarship Program Act, Family Education Savings Account Act, Parental Rights Act, Resolution Supporting Private Scholarship Tax Credits, Autism Scholarship Program Act, and Family Education Tax Credit Program Act.

• Increase student testing and reporting (Ladner, LeFevre, & Lips, 2010, p. 93) to be carried out through model legislation such as Resolution Supporting the Principles of No Child Left Behind Act, Student Right to Learn Act, Education Accountability Act, Longitudinal Student Growth Act, One to One Reading Improvement Act, and Resolution on Nonverified Science Curriculum Funding.

• Reduce the influence of or eliminate local school districts and school boards (Ladner, LeFevre, & Lips, 2010, p. 96) to be carried out through model legislation such as Charter Schools Act, Innovation Schools and School Districts Act, Open Enrollment Act, Virtual Public Schools Act, and Next Generation Charter Schools Act.

ALEC’s Special Interest in Privatization

While ALEC’s forays into education policy are broad, privatization of public education has been a long-standing ALEC objective. As early as 1985, ALEC’s motivation for privatization was made clear (Barrett, 1985).

In response, ALEC offered model legislation to “foster educational freedom and quality” through privatization (Barrett, 1985, p. 8). Privatization takes multiple forms: vouchers, tax incentives for sending children to private schools, and charter schools operated by for-profit entities.

Today, ALEC calls this approach “choice” and renames vouchers “scholarships,” but its aim is clear: Defund and dismantle public schools. While many other right-wing organizations support this agenda, ALEC is the mechanism for implementing it through its many pieces of model legislation that propose legislative methods for defunding public schools, particularly low-income, urban schools.

The motivation for dismantling the public education system—creating a system where schools do not provide for everyone—is ideological, and it is motivated by profit. The corporate members on ALEC’s education task force include representatives from the Friedman Foundation, Goldwater Institute, Evergreen Education Group, Washington Policy Center, and corporations providing education services such as Sylvan Learning and K-12, Inc. All stand to benefit from public funding sent in their direction.

The first large-scale voucher program, the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, was enacted in 1990. Although the Milwaukee voucher program had the backing of leaders from other philosophic camps, including Howard Fuller, a former superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools and current board member of Black Alliance for Educational Options, the legislation was modeled after the rubric ALEC provided in its 1985 Education Source Book. ALEC’s hand in this program continues. In 2011, one of the ultimately defeated amendments to the Milwaukee program proposed removing all income requirements for participating students, a proposal laid out in ALEC’s Parental Choice Scholarship Program Act (universal eligibility) and a step toward a full-scale state voucher program.

In fact, to help states advance school choice without running afoul of state constitutional limitations, ALEC published School Choice and State Constitutions (Komer & Neily, 2007) to provide a state-by-state analysis and promote programs tailored to foster privatization. Since then, a number of states have adopted the ALEC recommendations. For example:

• Arizona: Vouchers for foster children, special education vouchers, and tax credits;

• Indiana: Means-tested vouchers, special education vouchers, tax deductions for private school tuition and home-schooling expenses, and tax credits;

• Georgia: Special education vouchers and the newer ALEC proposal—tax incentives for contributions to scholarship-granting organizations;

• Louisiana: Tax deductions for private school tuition and home-schooling expenses, means-tested vouchers, special education vouchers; and

• Oklahoma: Tax credits, special education vouchers, and the newer ALEC proposal—the tax incentives for contributions to scholarship-granting organizations.

By elevating parental choice over all other values, the ALEC push for privatization supports schools that can be segregated by academic ability and disability, ethnicity, economics, language, and culture. They would be the natural outgrowth of parents’ unfettered choices in a free-market system. Increased racial isolation would likely result, exacerbating current trends toward resegregation (Orfield & Lee, 2007). In addition, as seen in Tennessee, a fully realized ALEC agenda would undoubtedly result in more public education dollars bolstering the balance sheets of for-profit education vendors.

Identifying ALEC’s Influence

Returning to the protests that rocked our state and others, it became clear that ALEC had significant influence on the contested provisions. As Rogers and Dresser (2011) document, proposals in Wisconsin and other states were drawn from several ALEC legislative models, including the “Right to Work Act [that] eliminates employee obligation to pay the costs of collective bargaining; the Public Employee Freedom Act [that] bars almost any action to induce it; the Public Employer Payroll Deduction Act [that] bars automatic dues collection; [and] the Voluntary Contribution Act [that] bars the use of dues for political activity.”

Does ALEC’s Influence Build or Undermine Democracy?

Whether you believe that ALEC has the issues right or wrong, the organization clearly wields considerable power and influence over state education policy. But perhaps by boldly sending so many “moles” to legislative surfaces all at once, ALEC has permitted those concerned with the influence of corporate interests on public education to awaken to its strategy. From now on, champions of public education have a new set of questions to ask whenever legislation is introduced:

• Is the sponsor a member of ALEC?

• Does the bill borrow from ALEC model legislation?

• What corporations had a hand in drafting the legislation?

• What interests would benefit or even profit from its passage?

Ultimately, however, the most important question we must all ask is whether ALEC’s influence builds or undermines democracy.

Certain public institutions—courts, legislatures, fire protection, police departments, and yes, schools—must remain public to serve a democratic society. Through public education we have expressed and expanded our shared public values. As Benjamin Barber (1997) states, “Public schools are not merely schools for the public, but schools of publicness: institutions where we learn what it means to be a public and start down the road toward common national and civic identity” (p. 22).

What happens to our democracy when we return to an educational system where access is defined by corporate interest and divided by class, language, ability, race, and religion? In a push to free-market education, who pays in the end?

References

-   Barber B. (1997). Public schooling: Education for democracy. In Goodlad J.I., McMannon T.J. (Eds.), _The public purpose of education and schooling_ (pp. 21–32). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
-   Barrett N. (1985). _Education source book: The state legislators’ guide for reform_. Washington, DC: American Legislative Exchange Council.
-   Humphrey T. (2011, August 15). TN Virtual Academy builds enrollment controversy. _Humphrey on the Hill_. (Web log post). http://blogs.knoxnews.com/humphrey/2011/08/tn-virtual-academy-builds-enro.html
-   Komer R., Neily C. (2007). _School choice and state constitutions: A guide to designing school choice programs_. Washington, DC: Institute for Justice and American Legislative Exchange Council.
-   Ladner M., LeFevre A., Lips D. (2010). _Report card on American education: Ranking state K-12 performance, progress, and reform_ (16th ed.). Washington, DC: American Legislative Exchange Council.
-   Locker R. (2011, September 24). Virtual school in Tennessee may drain taxpayer funds. _The Commercial Appeal_.
-   _Virtual Public Schools Act, Tennessee House Bill No. 1030_. (2011).
-   Orfield G., Lee C. (2007). _Historic reversals, accelerating resegregation and the need for new integration strategies_. Los Angeles, CA: Civil Rights Project.
-   Rogers J., Dresser L. (2011, July 12). ALEC exposed: Business domination Inc. The Nation. “Virtual school” hits enrollment hiccup. (2011, September 2). _The Chattanooga Times Free Press_.

All articles published in _Phi Delta Kappan_ are protected by copyright. For permission to use or reproduce _Kappan_ articles, please e-mail kappan@pdkintl.org.

question: What is ALEC?

answer: The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, DC that describes itself as a nonpartisan membership organization for those who share a common belief in “limited government, free markets, federalism, and individual liberty.”

question: What does the article's author think of ALEC?

answer: The author thinks ALEC’s positions on various education issues make it clear that the organization seeks to undermine public education by systematically defunding and ultimately destroying public schools, undermining democracy.

question: How do corporations exercise political power through ALEC?

answer: Corporations can join ALEC by paying up to $25,000 in yearly dues, which gives them the option to pay an extra $3,000 to $10,000 to pay for a seat on a task force that is co-chaired by a corporate member and a legislative member.

question: Why does ALEC give out scholarships, vouchers, etc?

answer: ALEC wants to privatize public education.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: The article's author is against the encroachment of ALEC or the American Legislative Exchange Council. because he feels ALEC's agenda is to destroy and defund public schools and to undermine democracy.


split: test

text:
The NRA and the Second Amendment Foundation have filed a lawsuit against the City of Seattle due to the city’s new “safe storage” requirement for gun owners. \n(Dominick Reuter/Getty Images) \n

The City of Seattle’s new “safe storage” gun requirement has prompted the Second Amendment Foundation and NRA to file a lawsuit that claims it violates the state's pre-emption statute, KOMO-TV reported.

Why was it filed?

Alan Gottlieb, SAF founder and executive vice president, said in the report that it appears Seattle is once again trying to pass its own gun laws.

“Seattle seems to think it should be treated differently than any other local government when it comes to firearm regulation,” Gottlieb told the news outlet. "We should not have to repeatedly remind Seattle that they are still part of Washington state and must obey the law.”

Two Seattle residents, both gun owners, are supporting the lawsuit, according to the report.

The lawsuit names Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, the Seattle Police Department and Police Chief Carmen Best.

“While they go to court, kids go to the hospital,” Durkan said. “We can’t prevent every gun death or injury. We can take steps to help prevent tragedies. I am grateful that legal experts who share our commitment to reducing gun violence are standing with us and standing up for safer communities.”

"We will prevail and will continue to push for more protection for our children," Durkan added.

The mayor also wrote on Twitter that the lawsuit will not cause her to be intimidated.

  The @NRA decided to sue me and @carmenbest in addition to @CityofSeattle. If they think we are intimidated, they ar… https://t.co/LK33MAIgH2

  — Mayor Jenny Durkan (@Mayor Jenny Durkan)1532135306.0

The gun storage requirement was passed earlier this year and is set to go into effect in January. It carries fines of up to $10,000 or more if gun owners fail to meet safe storage requirements. The biggest fine is linked to a minor using an unsecured firearm to commit a crime.

What has changed?

The report outlines some of the changes:

  -   A gun owner must file a police report quickly if a firearm is lost, stolen or used improperly by someone else. Failure to report a gun theft, loss or misuse could result in civil penalties.
  -   Gun owners could be fined up to $500 for failing to store a firearm in a locked container or to render it unusable to anyone but the owner.
  -   The fine increases to $1,000 if a minor or prohibited person gets their hands on an unsecured weapon.
  -   The fine increases to up to $10,000 if a minor or prohibited person uses an unsecured firearm to cause injury, death or commit a crime.

The lawsuit maintains that state law bars cities, towns, counties, and other municipalities from approving gun regulations that exceed the state’s authority.

"The state legislature has sole authority to adopt gun laws including, but not limited to, registration, licensing, possession, purchase, sale, acquisition, transfer, discharge and transportation of firearms," the SAF stated in a press release announcing the suit.

Seattle’s ordinance came in response to a University of Washington study that claimed nearly 2-in-3 gun-owning households in the state do not safely store their firearms, according to the report.

One last thing…

Watch TheBlaze live and on demand on any device, anywhere, anytime.

question: Summarize Mayor Jenny Durkan's stance on gun control.

answer: Mayor Jenny Durkan supports the passing of gun laws in Seattle. She believes steps can be taken to reduce gun violence. The lawsuit does not intimidate her.

question: Summarize the opposing sides of The City of Seattle and the Second Amendment Foundation and NRA.

answer:
The City of Seattle has implemented a new "safe storage" requirement for gun owners. They believe that while they can't prevent every gun death or injury, they can take steps to reduce gun violence.

The SAF and NRA oppose these gun restrictions and believe that the City of Seattle does not have the authority to approve gun regulations that exceed the state's authority.

question: Summarize the history of gun violence in Seattle.

question: Summarize the lawsuit being reported on in the article.

answer: The NRA and the Second Amendment have filed a lawsuit against the City of Seattle in response to its new "safe storage" requirement for gun owners. The lawsuit was filed by two Seattle residents and names Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, the Seattle Police Department, and Police Chief Carmen Best. The lawsuit purports that Seattle does not have the authority to approve gun regulations that exceed the state's authority.


text:
"God I hate myself right now" I muttered as I pulled up to the complex and did a quick search of the parking lot. "Seriously, what the fuck Zack? What could you possibly hope to get out of this?" There was no red car, so I pulled out and crept along to the next apartment complex. It was the middle of the day, but this area of the city was surprisingly empty and dilapidated. Still, I was all nerves, worried that someone might see me. There was a sick, twisted energy exuding from my stomach that kept my hands and face shivering. Despite that and despite the sheer stupidity of what I was trying to do, I kept driving. I didn't know what else to do. I wanted something, *anything* from this relationship, even if it was just heart rending jealousy.

"Fuck, this complex is shittier than the last. He's really taking the starving artist ideal to heart, huh?" As I began to circle the lot looking for the red sedan, I started reminiscing about how I'd gotten to this point. I suppose it began seven years ago when I first met her, but that's too far gone. Too many other events and changes stem from that meeting. Instead my mind skipped forward a few years to the first of several painful conversations that we'd have. I guess that's where the jealousy really began.

"So you remember that guy who asked me out last week?" she asked me.

"Which one? You can't expect me to honestly keep up with your dating life."

"Derek! The hot one! He's different from all the others. Remember, he tried to show you how to do a karate kick?"

"Ohhhh, that fuckwad. Yeah, what about him?" I was hopelessly in love with this girl, so I couldn't help but let some hostility sink into my words.

"He's not a fuckwad. He's actually really nice. Anyways, I went over to his house last night and we made out for like 4 hours. It was *heaven*."

"Oh god, here we go again. You go through these guys like candy. Just don't let yourself get hurt, okay?" This must have been the 7th fling she'd had since she'd broken up with her fiance. That was a month ago and I could tell she was coping with meaningless sex, but who was I to say anything? I didn't know the first thing about romance or how to heal a broken heart. I just wanted her to be mine.

"I won't get hurt. Derek's different. He's actually happy, unlike everyone else I've dated. And he really likes me. I think this one might last," she chirped.

"You've only known him for four hours! And I doubt you guys said much during that time. Whatever. Do what you feel. Wanna grab some lunch?"

And that was only the beginning of it. Over the next few weeks, she recounted to me in sordid detail every progressing stage of their carnal relationship. I listened with a ravenously morbid curiosity. I'd never had sex, or even kissed anyone. All I knew of love came from Pornhub, so the things she told me I couldn't help but be fascinated by. And that fascination mixed with a growing jealousy that made me sleepless and gaunt. I was missing classes, blowing off my family and friends in a surprisingly futile attempt to deal with new feelings. In retrospect, I'm glad nobody staged an intervention. I probably would have admitted to a heroin addiction rather than the truth.

There! I'd found her car! That meant she was here, with him, right now. I had no idea what to do. I wasn't actually planning on finding her. I figured I would just drive around aimlessly and commiserate over the past until there was nothing else to do. My thoughts were racing like children. They were eager, misguided and stumbling into each other constantly. Should I go up and try to find his apartment? Should I wait by her car? Should I wait till they're done and go in angrily? As I sat there trying to decide on a course of action, my mind flitted to another memory, more recent than the last.

"Will you come to dinner with us? Derek really wants to meet you." read the text I'd just gotten. Derek and her were going to restaurants and movies now. This was the closest I'd even seen her get to one of her fuckbuddies.

"Fuck you. Why would you even ask that?"

...is what I should have written instead of the cordial confirmation I meekly sent back. Regretting my passivity, I began to get ready. If I was going to be forced to hang out with Derek, the least I could do was look better than him. I shaved, did my hair and wore a suit. Looking at my reflection in the mirror actually made me smile in spite of everything. I looked like a cross between a Gap commercial and a 2nd rate celebrity. God damn, but I was handsome. Too bad it never got me what I wanted.

So I drove over to some shitty hookah bar on the other side of town and prepared to mandolin my heart. When I got there, they were sitting next to each other and giggling conspiratorially. I immediately imagined her blowing him on the car ride over.

"Hey! How are you guys?! Sorry I'm late. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to get a prostitute to leave your house." I said as I sat down.

"Haha, what? Since when do you hire prostitutes?" she asked me.

"Oh, I don't. Other people hire them for me. I just inspire excessive gratitude in my friends and unfortunately, many of them don't know how to express it," I replied. Awkward over confidence was my go-to card when I felt uncomfortable. "Oh, I'm sorry. You must be Derek. I'm Zack, with a K. It's nice to finally meet you."

"Hi, it's good to meet you too. I've heard so much about you," he replied. "Is that really true about the prostitutes?"

"Haha, no. I just make up stories sometimes. I find it makes life a little more interesting. Most days are dull, you know? You have to interject something into them."

We then proceeded to spend an entire evening together. After the hookah bar, I took them to a local art gallery and showed off some of my favorite pieces from the Postmodern period. I didn't know the first thing about art, but was great at bullshit like that. They had a good time, I think. I certainly didn't, but I don't think I let it show. I'd gotten pretty good at that over the years. I'd had no other choice if I was determined to keep up my charade.

I'd finally gotten out of the car. I'd been pacing back and forth from my Corolla to the stairs. I didn't even know what room they were in. Did they have the blinds open? Were they watching me right now in confusion? Was I going to have security called on me? I was an utter mess of anger, frustration, and arousal. And I couldn't justify any of it. But like a gear, I was being inexorably forced forward bit by piecemeal bit. I made a quick round of the first floor and saw no one resembling my obsessions. So with a deep and violent shaking, I began to climb to stairs onto the second floor. My mind was filled with nipples, fluids and positions I'd gleaned from other people's ecstasy.

Somehow I made it to the second floor and eagerly began to make my search but as soon as I turned a the next corner, there was no need - I'd found my sickening goal. There was bile in my throat and I dry heaved a couple of times. Despite the balmy weather, I was still shivering as if I'd just been taken off of an analgesic.

They were fucking.

The blinds were open.

I furtively watched till the end.

They were doing it doggy style and facing away from the landing I was on. But even if I had been right next to the window I doubt they could have been bothered from the transcendent ecstasy they were in. I imagined that I could hear their moans from where I was standing and feel the sweat that drenched their bodies in my pits. It was revolting and sensuous. I wanted to record it or run. Part of me was ecstatic at finally seeing her do the things she always talked about. Part of me murderously screamed out of my skin that it should be ***me***.

I wish I could say that something definitive happened next - that they saw me, that I barged in angrily making baseless demands, that I shattered the window and let my violent tendencies carry the day. Anything at all, but the truth would be a fitting end to this lukewarm spill of a tale. But life isn't like that. We don't get endings, beginnings or even events that follow logically. No, life is a senseless miasma of unrelated, unpurposed events that hurtle forward through the threads of our lives ripping apart our notions of tenderness to simply arrive nowhere. There are no categories, there is no connection or distinction between events. It is what it is, and what it is resists explanation.

So I turned around, with the images seared into my mind, and walked down the stairs, away from that fucking complex, and went home.

title: Nausea

question: Summarize Zack's actions and why he's taking them.

answer: Zack is looking for a red sedan, belonging to Derek, the new boyfriend of the girl he's in love with. He's not sure what he wants to do, seemingly just drawn to her. He sees them having sex through the window, watches until the end, and leaves. He's in love without any ability to follow through with his feelings, which is why he's acting in a self-effacing manner.

question: What does the story say about Derek's faithfulness?


text:
The operation was finally complete. As the anesthesia gradually started to wear off, I opened my eyes. My body was tired. My mind was slow. I did not much care for the surroundings.

It didn't even cross my mind that I’d just spent all the money I’d saved since my fifteenth birthday and that people in long and white coats had just implanted a tiny neurotransmitter inside my brain. There was only one thing that I thought about and longed for at that moment. To fade back into the oblivion of sleep one last time.

That night, I sat alone and tired in the library. Even though the library was open 24/7, I was the only student who seemed to take advantage of this. The night before every exam, I preferred to come here and study. I simply had no other choice. It was the only way I could pull an all-nighter for the tests. Back at my room, with the queen size bed next to my study table, I barely ever made it past 2 without dozing off. I would try hard to think and study but no matter what, all my mind would hear was the bed calling out to me. Inviting me to lie in her comfortable and motherly embrace, there was no way I could refuse. In the library, there was no bed to tempt me. I was still haunted by a raging desire to lie down and sleep but there were still times where I could resist. Even with heavy eyes and a fatigued brain, I’d somehow manage to make it through the night without sleeping.

I hated being a slave to my biological urge to sleep. There was so much I wanted to achieve in life. But there never seemed to be enough time. The fact that humans spend a third of their life doing nothing but sleep always irked me. It was such an inefficient use of time. And in my case, more than ten hours a day were spent sleeping. Every night, I would hope to get up early in the morning and work towards my grades and hobbies. But every single time, I was an entirely different person in the morning, prioritizing an hour’s worth of sleep over my future.

And don’t even get me started on that damn snooze button. People laugh when I say this but I truly believe it is the worst invention mankind ever created. A few extra minutes of sleep almost always turn into an hour which inevitably turns into multiple hours. Remove that stupid button from every alarm clock in the world, and you’ll have doubled the world’s productivity overnight.

I sat looking at my watch. As always, my brain was soaked dry and could no longer maintain focus. It wandered off to explore memories and thoughts and when it finally returned, it was well past midnight. I was failing to keep my eyes open. The chemical equations I’d been trying to shove inside my head were unable to get in. The effects of the day’s operation had still not kicked in and before I could realize, sleep found me and I dropped dead onto my books.

An hour or so later, I was abruptly pulled back from the dark void. I looked around. The library seemed much brighter. My lips curled into a smile as I realized that the effects of the procedure had finally kicked in. My senses felt razor sharp. My brain was racing, my heart was pumping blood fast to every corner of my body and I felt ecstatic. I opened the app I’d been told to install after my operation. The app was linked to the neurotransmitter inside my head. It let me have full control of my sleep. I tweaked around the settings ensuring that I would not fall asleep for another six hours.

By seven in the morning, I’d memorized every chemical equation, gone through the chapter multiple times and solved every possible numerical I could find. When I sat for the test, I easily knocked it out of the park. There honestly was no way I would have screwed it up.

When I returned to my room, I was as awake as I’d been the previous six hours. The app dashboard showed me that I’d been awake for sixteen hours and twenty minutes. I lay down on my bed and decided it was finally time to rest even though I wasn't sleepy. I pressed the “Fall asleep” icon in the app. A prompt asked me the number of hours I wanted to sleep for. I adjusted it to nine hours. It was the amount the app recommended after scanning my brain activity. The neurotransmitter inside my head facilitated the release of chemicals which had me fall asleep within moments. I woke up exactly nine hours later, without any of the usual fatigue and tiredness.

My father had once told me that Ambition was the true measure of a man and ambition was something I certainly did not lack. Now that I could ensure that no more than six hours of a day were wasted sleeping, my productivity soared. I aced every test the college threw at me that year and even started to pursue hobbies that I’d always leaned towards. Within a semester, I was part of the university orchestra and some of my paintings were even displayed at local art exhibitions. Along with this, I finally had time to have a social life without hurting my grades. I would party for hours and study while everybody else slept.

As my ambitions grew, I slowly decreased my amount of sleep to four hours per day. I tried to distribute my sleeping hours across the day, often utilizing ideal time on the bus and train.

Sometimes, when I felt that class was getting boring, I would go at the back of the class and go to sleep. I would set the timer to make my sleep last for the duration of the class. The app occasionally sent me warning prompts about the duration of my sleep and eventually, I had to turn off the warnings.

In the last semester of college, our professors encouraged us to publish research papers. I saw it as the perfect platform to get the recognization I deserved. Time was less and for the last week, I decided that I could push my sleep to just three hours a day. I’d balance it out later once my paper was complete. As the week progressed, I worked harder than I ever had.

Two days before my estimated submission date, as I lay on the bed thinking about certain hiccups in my paper, a major breakthrough dawned on me. As I began to get up, my vision suddenly went blank and I collapsed onto the bed. After many attempts, I finally got up. I heard the voice assistant on the app speak,

“User condition critical, deactivating device and contacting nearest hospital”

Consumed by my work, I had failed to notice all the signs my body had been screaming towards me. Without understanding, I’d hugely overworked myself and my body could not take it any longer. It had been going on and on for months without catching a break. The moment the neurotransmitter in mind had turned off, all the piled up exhaustion and fatigue came bouncing back to knock me down. A vaguely familiar feeling of tiredness engulfed my body. I couldn't move and every fiber hurt. When I lost consciousness, the only thing I could think of was

“Goddamn, this is the best feeling in the world”

title: [SF] Beauty Sleep

question: Summarize the feelings of the narrator about work and ambition.

answer: The narrator wants to succeed at anything he does. He spends his entire fortune implanting a neurotransmitter in his brain to regulate his periods of rest. This is because he hates being a slave to sleep. He believes the concept of humans sleeping for a third of their lifespan is an inefficient use of time. The narrator makes sure his sleep does not last more than six hours a day so he can focus on reading and doing other stuff. As the narrator's ambition and his need for recognition grew, he reduces his sleep to four hours. This happened during his last semester of college. The narrator eventually worked himself to exhaustion promoting him to lose consciousness.

question: How much did the neurotransmitter the narrator put in his brain cost?


text:
[Analysis banner]

-   FEDERAL RESERVE OFFICIALS HAVE LONG BEEN BAFFLED BY THE ABSENCE OF WAGE GROWTH FOR MEDIAN US WORKERS DESPITE A LONG-STANDING ECONOMIC RECOVERY THAT HAS SHARPLY LOWERED UNEMPLOYMENT TO 3.9%.
-   A NEW PAPER OFFERS A CONVINCING HYPOTHESIS FOR THE FED'S CONUNDRUM: UNDEREMPLOYMENT AND WEAK BARGAINING POWER FOR WORKERS IS MORE RAMPANT THAN THE OFFICIAL DATA SUGGEST.
-   "THERE’S MORE LABOR SLACK THEN YOU THINK AND THEREFORE IT’S AN ERROR FOR THE FED TO RAISE RATES," DAVID BLANCHFLOWER, A FORMER BANK OF ENGLAND MEMBER AND THE PAPER'S CO-AUTHOR, TOLD BUSINESS INSIDER.

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

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has often expressed surprise at the lack of wage growth for US workers despite a historically low jobless rate below 4%.

"I certainly would have expected wages to react more to the very significant reduction in unemployment that we’ve had," Powell told reporters during his last press conference, held after the Federal Open Market Committee raised interest rates again in June.  "So it’s a bit of a puzzle."

The Fed chairman should take a look at a new paper from David Bell of Stirling University in Scotland and David Blanchflower, former Bank of England member and Dartmouth College professor. There, Powell will find a simple and convincing answer to his puzzle: the job market is really not as hot as the headline unemployment figure makes it look, leaving workers without the requisite bargaining power to ask for raises.

"The explanation the others have is that it’s coming — but it hasn’t. We have an explanation: There’s more labor slack then you think and therefore it’s an error for the Fed to raise rates," Blanchflower told Business Insider.

"In the post-recession period underemployment has replaced unemployment as the main indicator of labor market slack," Bell and Blanchflower write. "Underemployment has not returned to its pre-recession level in many countries, whereas unemployment has."

And the phenomenon extends well beyond the United States to other rich nations in Europe.

"Large numbers of part-time workers around the world, both those who choose to be part-time and those who are there involuntarily and would prefer a full-time job, report they want more hours," write Bell and Blanchflower.

Most workers and job seekers are all too familiar with this pattern. In a post-Great Recession world, not only was there wage disinflation there was also requirement inflation — employers were able to get a lot more qualified workers for a lot less money. And those effects have lingered, in addition to worrisome trends like involuntary part-time work, contract and temp jobs, and job creation centered in low-wage industries.

The official US jobless rate has fallen sharply from a crisis peak of 10% to just 3.9% last month. Underemployment as measured by including "discouraged" workers who are no longer seen as actively looking and those who are "part-time for economic reasons," (as in, not by choice, and measured by U-6) has also fallen steeply.

However, Bell and Blanchflower argue even these measures are inadequate because they fail to capture not only job quality but also workers who might be content with working less than full time but would like more hours than they are currently working. They use US census figures to close that gap and gauge how much more demand for more hours might have gone unreported.

Their findings help explain why annual wage growth remained notably soft at 2.7% in July, the same pace as the prior two months and well below the 4%-or so clip economists would normally associate with a jobless rate this low.

[]

 Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
The already-modest wage gains are also starting to be eroded by a gradually rising inflation rate, which remained stubbornly below the Fed’s 2% target for much of the recovery in another sign of underlying economic weakness.

"Underemployment is pushing down on wages while the unemployment rate contains little or no information on wage pressure at such low levels," the paper says. "Even though the unemployment rate is at historic lows in many countries this still does not suggest that these country's labor markets are anywhere close to full-employment."

Unlike Fed officials, who believe the US economy is at or beyond "full employment," Blanchflower estimates the jobless rate could drop to as low as 2.5% before any substantive wage gains materialize.

The problem is "amplified by weak unions, that have seen their membership decline around the world, which reduces workers’ bargaining power. Underemployment may be partly caused by the weakness of worker bargaining power."

The Fed has raised interest rates several times starting in December 2015 to a range of 1.75% to 2%, and is expected to continue lifting borrowing costs over the coming months and potentially next year. But Blanchflower thinks this is a policy error that could prematurely crimp the recovery.

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[]

question: What are Federal Reserve officials baffled about?

answer: By the absence of wage growth for median US workers, despite low unemployment.

question: What were the expectations by the Fed?

answer: For wages to react more to the very significant reduction in unemployment

question: Who is Jerome Powell?

answer: Chairman of the Federal Reserve reacting to the absence of wage growth.

question: How much of the US jobless rate fallen?

answer: From a peak of 10% to just 3.9%

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer:
Despite low unemployment, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and other officials have often expressed surprise at the lack of wage growth for median US workers.
The phenomenon is described as extending beyond the US to other rich European nations.


text:
In 1706, mathematics teacher William Jones is credited with first using the symbol of π to represent the concept of the ratio between a circle's circumference and diameter. The mathematical formula itself has been recognized as a universal ratio for several thousand years. Pioneers in mathematics like the Sumerians and Greeks believed that no matter how large or small a circle was, the ratio of 3.14159265 was a constant.

They formed whole schools of math philosophy with Pi as it’s foundation and core. Uncovering a universal law that could be applied to all size circles seemed like a secret stolen from the gods. Somewhere along the line, scholars stopped doubting the dependability of the ratio. It was eventually accepted as a universal point of reference. From then on, the principle of Pi passed from theory into accepted fact.

As with many things, a healthy level of skepticism has its uses. It was too easy to think that our predecessors had been flawless in their research. Such a trusting level of romanticism could lead to the dangerous idea that past mathematicians never made mistakes in their calculations. Those who blindly accept any ‘truth’ or theorem, risk boxing themselves into limitations of thought, and making critical errors in conclusions.

One individual was determined to do his own independent research on the sacred laws of Pi; flying in the face of its universal acceptance. His stubborn determination to ignore millions of previous confirmations of its dependability was either pure idealism or exceptional stupidity; depending on how you looked at it. Over the lengthy course of his efforts, he personally measured thousands of circles. Despite them all adhering to the well-documented ratio, he remained resolute in his furious desire to find a meaningful exception. The effort to find base flaws in universal laws of physics is often referred to as ‘chaos theory’. He even considered the theory of a collapsed star as possible evidence of circles or spheres which ignored the laws of Pi.

The young man experimented with sophisticated math algorithms and controversial new research data. He cross-multiplied base integers in intricate ways. He applied square and cubed roots to each part of his equations to see if it might affect the never-changing outcome. Try as he might, the long-forgotten gods who invented quantum physics were determined to foil his efforts to find a flaw in their system. The exception to the rule of Pi remained elusive.

Spurned on by historical examples of those who had refused to accept failure, he carried on where wiser men threw in the towel. Much of his precious youth was exhausted on this questionable endeavor. So much of his formative years had been focused on these myopic goals that it left no time for a personal life.

One day he bemoaned his wasted years chasing chaos theory, to an older peer in experimental physics. The elderly colleague smiled and made a startling statement. “You can bring your life’s work to an end now and start living, my determined friend. There is already a singular exception to the universal reliability of Pi. It’s based on the ‘4 units’ system when inverted with the ‘no complications’ equation.”

The chaos-seeking physicist looked at his older friend with exasperated surprise. “What do you mean? I’ve tried every variable and formula known to humanity to shake up those damned numbers! I’ve never even heard of a ‘no complications equation’ or a ‘4 units’ system. For heaven’s sake. Please tell me! How does it work?”

“When you think of the rewards of a fulfilling life as being similar to a desert metaphor, you must place the ‘no complications’ equation in the very forefront. To bookend this theorem you add the four units to the end of the formula for balance. Properly sequenced, it reads: ‘No more Pi 4u’. Given a few minutes to absorb this simple formula, I hope you can soon see the wisdom in it.”

title: [MF] Refuting the Pi principle

question: What does the text say about the protagonist's obsession?

answer: He's completely taken by what he calls "chaos theory", which is the effort to find flaws in the universal physical laws. He wants to find a circle that doesn't produce pi as the ratio of its circumference to the diameter. He tries all kinds of mathematical tricks and physical experiments to no avail. Eventually, an older peer tells him of a unique exception based on the "4 units" system inverted with the "no complications" equation, leaving him baffled.

question: What does the text say about general relativity?


text:
Player 1 plays first move as White

  ----------------------
  _Player 1__Player 2_
  ----------------------

+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| ↙                                 | ↘                                 |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| PLAYER 2 LETS MOVE STAND          | PLAYER 2 SWITCHES PLACES          |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
|                                   |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| _Player 1__Player 2_              | _Player 1__Player 2_              |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
|                                   |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| Player 2 to play                  | Player 1 to play again,           |
| as Black, as before               | now as Black                      |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+

A chess game using the pie rule, Player 2's options in BOLD

The PIE RULE, sometimes referred to as the SWAP RULE, is a rule used to balance abstract strategy games where a first-move advantage has been demonstrated. After the first move is made in a game that uses the pie rule, the second player must select one of two options:

1.  _Letting the move stand._ The second player remains the second player and moves immediately.
2.  _Switching places._ The second player becomes the first-moving player, and the “new” second player then makes their “first” move. (I.e., the game proceeds from the opening move already made, with roles reversed.)

Depending on the game, there may be two ways to implement Switching places.

1.  _Switching colors_ means the players exchange pieces. The player who made the first move becomes the second player, and makes the second move on the board. This is demonstrated in the chess diagrams shown here.
2.  _Switching the first piece_ can occur in games where the board starts empty and the first move consists of placing one piece. Suppose the colors are white versus black, and black places the first piece. This piece is replaced by a white piece IN THE CORRESPONDING LOCATION FOR WHITE, and the black piece is returned to black's supply. In a game such as Hex or Twixt, the corresponding location is at a cell “reflected” across the nearest (or either) diagonal. In games such as The Game of Y, where the board is not directional, the white stone replaces the black stone in the same cell. Players keep their respective color pieces, and play continues with black making the next move. This is effectively the same as switching colors.

The use of pie rule was first reported in 1909 for a game in the Mancala family.[1] Among modern games, Hex uses this rule.[2] Twixt in tournament play uses a swap rule.[3] The rule can be applied to other games which are otherwise solved for one player, such as Tablut.[4]

The rule gets its name from the divide and choose method of ensuring fairness in when dividing a pie between two people: one person cuts the pie in half, then the other person chooses which half to eat. The person cutting the pie, knowing the other person will choose the larger piece, will make as equal a division as possible.

This rule acts as a normalization factor in games where there may be a first-move advantage. In games that cannot end in a draw, such as Hex, the pie rule theoretically gives the second player a win (since one of the players must have a winning strategy after the first move, and the second player can choose to be this player), but the practical result is that the first player will choose a move neither too strong nor too weak, and the second player will have to decide whether switching places is worth the first-move advantage.

Use for determining komi in Go

In Go, one player can choose the amount of komi and the other player decides whether to accept that or switch colors with the other player. This leads players to choose fair komi amounts because if they choose a komi that is too advantageous, the other player can just choose to play White and take advantage of that high komi.

[1]

[2] Browne, Cameron. _Hex Strategy: Making the Right Connections_.

[3] Mind Sports Olympiad Twixt page http://www.boardability.com/game.php?id=twixt

[4]

title: Pie rule

question: What does the article say about what is Pie rule?

answer: Pie rule is used to balance abstract strategy games where a first-move advantage has been demonstrated. After the first move is made in a game that uses the pie rule, the second player must select one of two options: Letting the move stand - the second player remains the second player and moves immediately. Or the second player can choose to switch places - the second player becomes the first-moving player, and the “new” second player then makes their “first” move. This rule acts as a normalization factor in games where there may be a first-move advantage. The practical result of the rule is that the first player will choose a move neither too strong nor too weak, and the second player will have to decide whether switching places is worth the first-move advantage.

question: What does the article say about the particular chess players who use the Pie rule?


text:
The Google Eye is the nightmare of my life. I cant stop thinking about it. Everyone expects me to be used to it by now but I just can't. I can't shake off that feeling that next week I might not be here. They just discovered apparently that when you die, pass away or bite the dust that your soul sorta resets itself and you are re-born into another body.  Science has really turned into its own hell.

When I was younger I remember science being amazing, I could bring out my “tablet” ( I know i'm old, right?!) and Google anything I could think of, and just fill my brain with as much information as I could ingest. Now, we are beginning to find out things that we would probably as a society be better off not knowing.

Before science found out what really happened to us when we died, we were dreamers and religion followers. We dreamed of a place formerly known as Heaven, a beautiful utopia of anything your mind can think of. There was no sin in heaven and no hurt. But we soon found out that we were wrong, and science was right.

So now, with science we discovered how to give ourselves everything we have ever wanted. We can transport through time, we no longer die. Well, we almost got that last part right.
I dont think we realized that we were meant to die because now we are overpopulated and ran out of places to store the people. Everything is cluttered and small and the air is dense of fog, that is no longer toxic because people no longer get sick.

We live in a world where everyone is healthy but everyone keeps reproducing. And now the government has decided that something must be done.
I am what they call an “elder.”  I have been alive longer than most of them, almost 255 years and have officially done everything there is to do in life. I have been a mom over and over again, I have over 40 grandchildren and only one young daughter, Riley, living with my husband and I. She is going to be 2 in September, and will be living a long long life of unhappiness if this keeps up.
I was 45 when they discovered how to stall growing old. Why couldn't they do that when I was younger? My body was a bit more spry back then.
So earth age stays at 45, any my mind keeps growing. Everyone else gets to plug in (stall aging) at 20.

My second husband plugged in at 20. My first, Mark, passed away just before they discovered it. I was stubborn in finding a new mate, but our children insisted I couldn't be alone forever so I began to date and found M35.
M35 and I have 27 children, all of them are grown up except 1.
Unfortunately, Riley will be plugged in at 19 months forever. They discovered that now women are giving birth to children who are now biologically programmed not to age, but the chances of that happening are slim but we got “lucky”.
Shes a beautiful baby girl , really intelligent. She speaks in full distinct sentences, which normal 19 month old kids are only putting two words together at that time.
Her earth-age is 4.
Once plugging-in was discovered, they had to figure out how to deal with overpopulation. We have 2 Google Stations hovering outside Earth, but they had to cease all women from getting pregnant. They don't even shuttle family back and forth from the stations anymore due to fear of pregnancy.

And its not right how they stop that anyway. They just inject the water with an oral contraceptive, sort of like fluoride in water to prevent tooth decay. The government didn’t warn anybody, and all of a sudden pregnancies were cut short and moms were giving birth prematurely. The  Stations hospitals became so flooded that week that mothers were giving birth on the streets while waiting in line. The more water they drank that week the sooner they were having contractions.

5 children died which was the most we have had in a century and when our country found out, everyone grieves. Most of them never understood what death was and when they caught word of this incident, they went through a horrible depression. The streets were dark and the laughter was scarce.

The Belt 2.3 project began.
The Google Eye is this giant chrome object hovering high in the sky, it has one really long pole with cameras and a project protective system. The cameras have been there for a while but they recently added the protective system which we think consist of some sort of rail gun or something destructive. We dont have any violence here so we thought why do we need a protective system?

The cameras knows where everyone all the time. It has face detection and follows your person around. If your children get lost, the Google Eye knows where he/she is.
Soon enough we found out what the protective system really was, something along the lines of a laser nuclear bomb, and thus began the “Life Lottery”.
The Life Lottery is the government's solution for overpopulation. Each year, 10 random social security numbers are drawn and the Google Eye demolishes that person, along with a 100 mile radius of land around that person. They don't tell anyone who is chosen, we just wait for the day to come and look up at the Google eye where you see a light change from Green to Yellow to Red, and each light has a beep that turns into a solid beeeeep for a brief second before the Protective laser streams from the Eye.

Last year was absolutely horrible. I woke up in my apartment around nine am and went into Riley's room and pulled her out of the crib to change her diaper. It was beautiful outside, the fog was at a low and the rain had stopped. We got dressed and went to the park where Riley played on the playground. I called Harry and asked him how he was, he said everything at work was going well, and then he reminded me that today was Lottery Day. “Ugh again? but I was having such a great day.”
Later that evening when Harry was home, the Lottery was going to begin right after dinner. We were sitting in our living room, in our 6th floor apartment watching the news. Outside our big front window we have a good view of the Eye and we sat there enjoying our time together, but also stressed and worried as to what might happen.
I put Riley in her room and put the baby gate up so she could play and left the monitor on so I could see her okay. My sister called me and we talked about how we were both worried and especially me because I have the little one in the house.
It finally began, the tv switched over to the Government channel and they began to explain the same bull crap they do every year, about how this is for the better of our own population and about how we were meant to die eventually. And finally, how when we do die, if we are chosen, that it will be quick and painless and we will reincarnate into a new form, a new journey. Not so bad right? I still felt queasy.

The lady comes on to the tv and prepares us for the first lottery and I begin to wonder, what if it isn’t a fair lottery? I mean what if this lady on the TV is chosen? Then how would they broadcast the rest of the lottery? Its been this same lady for over 15 years on this same channel on this same tv. I begin explaining this to Harry and before I know it I hear that high pitched “BEEEP. “
We look out the window and see the green light is lit up.
“Beeep” It switches to yellow, and I grab Harry's hand and squeeze while also closing my eyes.
“Beeeeeeeeeeeeep” and a blinding flash of light which happens to be the thing that I open my eyes to.
We feel a slight rumble in the foundation of our apartment, and look at each other and embrace like we haven't seen each other in a month.
The lady on the tv begins to explain that the person chosen was named “ Ben H35” and lives in Parkside, N-42 Pennsylvania. My phone rings and its my sister.
“Phew, you answered” she said
“Aren’t you watching the news? It was in Pennsylvania, thats no where near us”
“No, im too busy cooking dinner.”
“Your cooking dinner at a time like this?”
“Listen, my family is hungry regardless and if we are ‘winning the lottery’ they are going to have full tummies”
“Hahha Okay Michelle.”

The lady comes back after a really long commercial break. This is the most watched program all year so the cable company makes so much profit on these Lottery Day Commercials. They even have stores, and car companies that use “Lottery Day” as times to have “50 percent off” sales.
She begins the countdown to the next Lottery drawing. Then we hear “Beep” and see the green light on the Eye switch on.
“Beep” Yellow light”
“BEEEEEEEEP” The room gets filled with a large flash of blinding white light. I hear a large crashing sound and feel my lungs get sucked into my neck. I grab my chest, its really tight I can't breath in. I feel around for the couch and my coffee table and fall to the carpet floor. I begin to crawl to the hallway, I am sucking for breath and getting nothing, my heartbeat is in my eyeballs and my body is throbbing with each movement I make. My vision is blinded with with and I hear nothing but a high pitch screeching.
I feel the wood flooring in the hallway with my hands and continue to crawl to Rileys room. I bump into her gate , still not breathing , and fumble around with the latch. I quickly realize that the latch would take too long and fumbled clumsily over the gate, falling over hard onto the carpet floor of her room. I reach out as I begin to see things around me. I see dark outlines of her crib, her dresser and her bookshelf.
I panic as the seconds feel like hours searching for her, and finally I feel her small foot.
That moment my vision, my hearing and my breathing all snapped back at once and I grab my chest and gasp hard for breath. I realize where I am in an instant and grab Riley, who was laying on the floor, into my arms. Her body is limp. I scream as my eyes swell up with red.
Warm liquid trickles down my cheeks, my neck, I wipe my cheek thinking it was a bug and realize its blood. I take Rileys rag doll body and flip it over so shes laying across my thigh and I begin to press her back with my palms in a rhythmic strong but gentle motion.
I hear her gasp for breath and I pick her up with both my hands and hold her face in front of mine. As she begins to blink her eyes I pull her body towards mine and squeeze her.
Harry runs in from the living room.
“Sarah, are you alright , is Riley alright? I think I just passed out.” he says as he runs over to us and wraps his arm around us.
“ I love you sweetie, im okay.“
“Beep” we hear again, this time I flinch at the sound.
“Beep” I placed my head on Harry's chest and hold Riley close.
“Beeee......

title: [SP] Life Lottery

question: What does the story say about The Google Eye?

answer: The narrator says that The Google Eye is the nightmare of her life. The Google Eye is a giant chrome object hovering high in the sky. It has a long pole with cameras and a project protective system. The protective system we think consists of some sort of rail gun or something destructive. The cameras know where everyone is all the time. It has face detection and follows you around. The protective system is something along the lines of a laser nuclear bomb and it is made for “Life Lottery”. That is the government's solution for overpopulation. Each year, 10 random social security numbers are drawn and the Google Eye demolishes that person, along with a 100-mile radius of land around that person.

question: What does the story say about the narrator's family?

answer:
The narrator is years old. Her first husband died, and she and her second husband, Harry,
have 27 children and over 40 grandchildren. One of their daughters, Riley, will be plugged in at 19 months forever. She's a beautiful, intelligent baby girl. She speaks in full distinct sentences, and her earth-age is 4. One day, during 'the life lottery', their room gets filled with a large flash of blinding white light. The narrator hears a large crashing sound and starts crawling to Riley's room. She finds and grabs Kiley's limp body and flips it over begins to press her back with her palms. Kiley gasps for breath and begins to blink her eyes. Then Harry enters the room and asks if they are alright.

question: What does the story say about life after death?

answer: The scientists discovered apparently that when you die, your soul resets itself and you are re-born into another body. When we die, we will reincarnate into a new form.

question: What does the story say about angels?


text:
In a fascinating 180-degree turn, Donald Trump is suddenly concerned with due process and the presumption of innocence.

“Peoples lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation,” the president tweeted on Saturday. “Some are true and some are false. Some are old and some are new. There is no recovery for someone falsely accused – life and career are gone. Is there no such thing any longer as Due Process?”

This distress over lives impeded by allegations of wrongdoing is particularly fascinating coming from a man who campaigned on the promise of imprisoning his political opponent and chants of “lock her up”, despite multiple investigations of Hillary Clinton yielding no criminal charges; Trump is also notorious for taking out full-page ads in New York newspapers demanding the death penalty for five young men accused of raping a woman in Central Park.

The ads were published before a jury of the boys’ peers had found them guilty, and Trump has refused to apologize even years after they were acquitted following their wrongful conviction. Those men’s lives _were_ actually ruined by a failure of due process and a bloodthirsty public, and Trump had a hand in it, but they have merited nary a tweet.

The fifth amendment to the United States constitution promises that “no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law”. This, and the presumption of innocence, are crucial norms in the American criminal justice system.

But they don’t mean that women can’t speak about their experiences outside of a court of law, or that employers can’t make their own findings of wrongdoing and levy appropriate consequences. And indeed, no prominent publicly accused men have been killed, imprisoned or had their property confiscated by the state without civil or criminal trials.

This is crucial: “Due process” does not mean freedom from consequences absent a criminal conviction. It is a limit on state action, not private employers or the press, and it means that an accused person has a right to a fair process, and a right to defend themselves in a court of law.

'We wish him well': Trump defends official accused of domestic abuse – video
None of that was compromised when Rob Porter’s ex-wives spoke to the FBI about his alleged abuse, the allegations of which Porter has denied. Nor was due process compromised when journalists reported their well-documented accusations; nor is due process compromised when an employer launches their own investigation and determines that an employee’s bad behavior warrants dismissal.

In fact, employees who are terminated can themselves bring civil actions against their employers if they believe the termination was wrongful. Doing so, though, would open them up to discovery related to the underlying claim – lawyers would be able to dig into the veracity and the details surrounding the cause for their firing.

The same is true for making false accusations; in some cases that’s a crime, and in others, the falsely accused can sue for damages. But those suits, too, involve digging into the claim itself, and lots of airing of dirty laundry.

Men like Porter (who, for the record, resigned) seem to not want to open themselves up to that kind of full investigation. Certainly that’s their right, and we shouldn’t impute guilt based on an individual’s hesitance to bring a lawsuit, but it is a count against the claim that, as Trump put it: “There is no recovery for someone falsely accused.” There are very clear channels for recovery for someone who is falsely accused.

Nor is it the case that men’s lives are being ruined by accusations of sexual harassment, assault, or domestic violence. Donald Trump should know: he is sitting in the White House despite being accused of all three.

Two dozen women have accused him of assault. In their divorce proceedings, his ex-wife Ivana detailed a brutal attack wherein Trump allegedly tore out clumps of her hair because his own scalp surgery left him in pain and then raped her (she has since walked back the rape claim).

Trump isn’t the only high-profile man whose career has thrived despite accusations of harming women. Steve Bannon was hired into the Trump administration despite being charged with domestic violence (the charges were later dropped due to witness unavailability), and his departure had nothing to do with those claims.

Rob Porter, whose resignation seemed to spur Trump’s tweet, was also hired into the Trump White House despite the allegations of abuse and his difficulty in getting a permanent security clearance. That he’s only paying a professional penalty now, in the face of multiple women leveling accusations (one armed with a photo of her blackened eye, the other with a protective order), hardly suggests that his career and life was been ruined by unfounded allegations. In fact, leaders in the Mormon church discouraged Porter’s wives from coming forward, lest they hurt his career prospects.

What these stories tell us is the degree to which men can hurt women and suffer virtually no penalties, and certainly not criminal ones. Look at the long list of men recently accused not just of harassment, but of assault and intimate partner violence, from Rob Porter to Harvey Weinstein: how many spent a day in jail? How many were instead actively protected by their friends, colleagues, lawyers and churches?

That doesn’t mean that we should compromise legal due process norms, or that due process shouldn’t also be a social concept – that is, any media outlet reporting on accusations of harassment, assault or violence should of course do their best to verify and substantiate those claims; employers have an obligation to thoroughly investigate before taking action against an accused employee.

It’s fascinating, though, to observe that the concept of “innocent until proven guilty” only matters to men like Trump when the accused are his white male friends alleged to have abused women; and that to men like Trump, due process is less a legal concept than a promise that he and men like him should be fully insulated from criticism and professional consequences.

To be fair, for Trump’s entire life, he has been largely insulated from consequences, and has been free to behave as badly as he pleases and still improbably fail up to the highest office in the land. If he’s concerned about rank injustice in the United States, he could probably start there.

-   _Jill Filipovic is the author of the The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness_

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question: What does the article say about how Trump denies one's presumption of innocence?

answer: Trump asked Hilary Clinton to be locked up despite multiple investigations of her yielding no criminal charges. Trump demanded the death penalty for five young men accused of raping a woman in Central Park. The article says that presumption of innocence only matters to men like Trump when the accused are his white male friends alleged to have abused women; and that to men like Trump.

question: What does the article say about Bill Clinton?


text:
It seems almost futile to point it out these days, but there used to be "norms" around presidential behavior. For instance, it was expected that the president wouldn't spend the lion's share of his time watching television, dumping infotainment sludge into his skull rather than reading intelligence briefings. Also, it used to be a genuine scandal for the president to comment on any ongoing Justice Department investigation, because while the department is part of the Executive Branch the president oversees, it is meant to be entirely independent of political considerations in order to maintain the rule of laws, not men.

Obviously, that's one of many norms that have been curbstomped by Donald Trump, American president. The White House's current occupant does not just continually comment on ongoing investigations and prosecutions; he continually rails against investigations into himself and his associates in public. He attacks senior officials running the Justice Department and the Russia probe, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions. But the latest instance of this, which arrived via The Tweet Machine Friday morning, almost defied belief:

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First of all, this one violates another Presidential Norm: that the nation's chief executive will not unleash an avalanche of randomly capitalized sentence fragments detailing various unhinged, barely scrutable conspiracy theories and Fox News synthetic scandals.

But then there's the fact that he quotes Sessions' statement Thursday pushing back on Trump's public interference in the Justice Department: "Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations." Again, he doesn't quite nail the grammar. But then he immediately launches into...an attempt to politically influence the Justice Department.

[President Donald J. Trump]

The Washington PostGetty Images

Does the president think that when he demands an investigation into his political opponent—something he promised from the presidential debate stage, too—it's not a form of political influence? Does he just not care? Or does he know his supporters won't care, and will just latch onto this murderer's row of conspiratorial nonsense and be distracted, for another day, from the corruption and scandal engulfing his presidency?

Beyond that, another bizarre element was his addressing the Attorney General of the United States as "Jeff." That was a theme for the morning:

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(Here he's referencing the sentencing of Reality Winner, an NSA contractor who leaked a top-secret government report to journalists. Winner received five years in prison, "the longest ever imposed in federal court for an unauthorized release of government information to the media," according to the _New York Times_. Many have suggested the sentence was unduly harsh, though it's unclear whether the president agrees or he merely thinks it's unfair Hillary Clinton has not also been jailed. Regardless, it's worth pointing out the report Winner leaked was an investigation into Russian attempts to hack local election officials and voter registration databases during the 2016 campaign. The president has repeatedly denied Russian interference, then admitted they interfered, then returned to denials.)

[US-POLITICS-SCHOOL-SAFETY]

SAUL LOEBGetty Images

Maybe the wackiest part of this First Name Feud is that Donald and Jeff had a meeting Thursday, not long after Trump trashed Sessions on _Fox & Friends_ and the attorney general fired back with a precisely worded statement. _Axios_ reports that they "didn't say a word about their confrontation."

  Per a second source with knowledge of the Oval Office meeting, attended by Jared Kushner, Kellyanne Conway, Sessions, Trump and Mercedes Schlapp: “No acknowledgment, not even a passing mention” of the morning’s events. “To the point where I don’t even know if he [Trump] was aware of his [Sessions’] statement."

But you know Trump was aware. This is just the latest example of his well-documented aversion to in-person confrontation. Yes, the _"You're Fired!"_ Guy is afraid to face up to people. Instead, he has resorted to cyberbullying his attorney general. Presumably he missed the memo on the First Lady's "Be Best" initiative. All this is just another dimension of the almighty scam the American republic bought into in 2016. Unfortunately, the growing scam now threatens to engulf the idea you can't crowbar your way out of legal trouble using the powers of your office.

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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question: What are the primary complaints expressed by the writer of this article?

answer: The White House's current occupant does not just continually comment on ongoing investigations and prosecutions; he continually rails against investigations into himself and his associates in public. He attacks senior officials running the Justice Department and the Russia probe, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions. But the latest instance of this, which arrived via The Tweet Machine Friday morning, almost defied belief:


text:
[Bust of Marc Isambard Brunel, Science Museum, London] SIR MARC ISAMBARD BRUNEL (, ; 25 April 1769 – 12 December 1849) was a French-born British engineer. He is best known for the construction of the Thames Tunnel and as the father of Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Born in France, Brunel fled to the United States during the French Revolution. In 1796, he was appointed Chief Engineer of New York City. He moved to London in 1799, where he married Sophia Kingdom. In addition to the construction of the Thames Tunnel, his work as a mechanical engineer included the design of machinery to automate the production of pulley blocks for the Royal Navy.

Brunel preferred the given name Isambard, but is generally known to history as Marc to avoid confusion with his more famous son.

Early life in France

Brunel was the second son of Jean Charles Brunel and Marie-Victoire Lefebvre. Jean Charles was a prosperous farmer in Hacqueville, Normandy, and Marc was born on the family farm. It was customary for the first son to inherit the farm and the second son to enter the priesthood. His father therefore started Marc on a classical education, but he showed no liking for Greek or Latin and instead showed himself proficient in drawing and mathematics. He was also very musical from an early age.

At the age of eleven he was sent to a seminary in Rouen. The superior of the seminary allowed him to learn carpentry, and he soon achieved the standards of a cabinetmaker. He also sketched ships in the local harbour. As he showed no desire to become a priest, his father sent him to stay with relatives in Rouen, where a family friend tutored him on naval matters. In 1786, as a result of this tuition, Marc became a naval cadet on a French frigate and during his service visited the West Indies several times. He made an octant for himself from brass and ivory, and used it during his service.

In 1789, during Brunel's service abroad, the French Revolution began. In January 1792 Brunel's frigate paid off its crew, and Brunel returned to live with his relatives in Rouen. He was a Royalist sympathiser, as were most of the inhabitants of Normandy. In January 1793, whilst visiting Paris during the trial of Louis XVI, Brunel unwisely publicly predicted the demise of Robespierre, one of the leaders of the Revolution. He was lucky to get out of Paris with his life, and returned to Rouen. However, it was evident that he would have to leave France. During his stay in Rouen, Brunel had met Sophia Kingdom, a young English woman who was an orphan and was working as a governess. He was forced to leave her behind when he fled to Le Havre and boarded the American ship _Liberty_, bound for New York.

United States

Brunel arrived in New York on 6 September 1793, and he subsequently travelled to Philadelphia and Albany. He got involved in a scheme to link the Hudson River by canal with Lake Champlain, and also submitted a design for the new Capitol building to be built in Washington. The judges were very impressed with the design, but it was not selected.

In 1796, after taking American citizenship, Brunel was appointed Chief Engineer of the city of New York. He designed various houses, docks, commercial buildings, an arsenal, and a cannon factory. No official records exist of the projects that he carried out in New York, as it seems likely that the documents were destroyed in the New York Draft Riots of 1863.

In 1798, during a dinner conversation, Brunel learnt of the difficulties that the Royal Navy had in obtaining the 100,000 pulley blocks that it needed each year. Each of these was made by hand. Brunel quickly produced an outline design of a set of machines that would automate their production. He decided to sail to England and put his invention before the Admiralty. He sailed for England on 7 February 1799 with a letter of introduction to the Navy Minister, and on 7 March his ship, _Halifax_, landed at Falmouth.

Britain

Whilst Brunel had been in the United States, Sophia Kingdom had remained in Rouen and during the Reign of Terror, she was arrested as an English spy and daily expected to be executed. She was only saved by the fall of Robespierre in June 1794. In April 1795 Kingdom was able to leave France and travel to London.

When Brunel arrived from the United States, he immediately travelled to London and made contact with Kingdom. They were married on 1 November 1799 at St Andrew, Holborn. In 1801 she gave birth to their first child, a daughter, Sophia[1]; in 1804 their second daughter Emma; and in 1806 their son Isambard Kingdom, who became a great engineer. Isambard Kingdom grew up in Lindsey House in Chelsea, London. [A pulley block for rigging on a sailing ship] During the summer of 1799 Brunel was introduced to Henry Maudslay, a talented engineer who had worked for Joseph Bramah, and had recently started his own business. Maudslay made working models of the machines for making pulley blocks, and Brunel approached Samuel Bentham, the Inspector General of Naval Works. In April 1802 Bentham recommended the installation of Brunel's block-making machinery at Portsmouth Block Mills. Brunel's machine could be operated by unskilled workers, at ten times the previous rate of production. Altogether 45 machines were installed at Portsmouth, and by 1808 the plant was producing 130,000 blocks per year. Unfortunately for Brunel, the Admiralty vacillated over payment, despite the fact that Brunel had spent more than £2,000 of his own money on the project. In August 1808 they agreed to pay £1,000 on account, and two years later they consented to a payment of just over £17,000.

Brunel was a talented mechanical engineer, and did much to develop sawmill machinery, undertaking contracts for the British Government at Chatham and Woolwich dockyards, building on his experience at the Portsmouth Block Mills. He built a sawmill at Battersea, London (burnt down in 1814 and rebuilt by 1816), which was designed to produce veneers, and he also designed sawmills for entrepreneurs. He also developed machinery for mass-producing soldiers' boots, but before this could reach full production, demand ceased due to the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Brunel was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1814. In 1828, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Brunel was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1834. In 1845 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Debtor's prison

Brunel several times became involved in unprofitable projects. As a consequence, by the beginning of 1821 he was deep in debt, and in May of that year he was tried and committed to the King's Bench Prison, a debtors prison in Southwark. Prisoners in a debtors prison were allowed to have their family with them, and Sophia accompanied him. Brunel spent 88 days incarcerated. As time passed with no prospect of gaining release, Brunel began to correspond with Alexander I of Russia about the possibility of moving with his family to St Petersburg to work for the Tsar. As soon as it was learnt that Britain was likely to lose such an eminent engineer as Brunel, influential figures, such as the Duke of Wellington, began to press for government intervention. The government granted £5,000 to clear Brunel's debts on condition that he abandon any plans to go to Russia. As a result, Brunel was released from prison in August.

Thames Tunnel

[Inside the Thames Tunnel during construction, 1830]

In 1805 the Thames Archway Company was formed with the intention of driving a tunnel beneath the Thames between Rotherhithe and Limehouse. Richard Trevithick was engaged by the company to construct the tunnel. He used Cornish miners to work on the tunnel. In 1807 the tunnel encountered quicksand and conditions became difficult and dangerous. Eventually the tunnel was abandoned after more than 1,000 feet had been completed, and expert opinion, led by William Jessop, was that such a tunnel was impracticable.

Brunel had already drawn up plans for a tunnel under the River Neva in Russia, but this scheme never came to fruition. In 1818 Brunel had patented a tunnelling shield. This was a reinforced shield of cast iron in which miners would work in separate compartments, digging at the tunnel-face. Periodically the shield would be driven forward by large jacks, and the tunnel surface behind it would be lined with brick. It is claimed that Brunel found the inspiration for his tunnelling shield from the shipworm, _Teredo navalis_, which has its head protected by a hard shell whilst it bores through ships' timbers. Brunel's invention provided the basis for subsequent tunnelling shields used to build the London Underground system and many other tunnels. Brunel was so convinced that he could use such a tunnelling shield to dig a tunnel under the Thames, that he wrote to every person of influence who might be interested. At last in February 1824 a meeting was held and 2,128 shares at £50 each were subscribed for. In June 1824 the Thames Tunnel Company was incorporated by royal assent. The tunnel was intended for horse-drawn traffic. [Diagram of the tunnelling shield used to construct the Thames Tunnel]

Work began in February 1825, by sinking a diameter vertical shaft on the Rotherhithe bank. This was done by constructing a diameter metal ring, upon which a circular brick tower was built. As the tower rose in height, its weight forced the ring into the ground, and at the same time workmen excavated the earth in the centre of the ring. This vertical shaft was completed in November 1825, and the tunnelling shield, which had been manufactured at Lambeth by Henry Maudslay's company, was then assembled at the bottom. Maudslay also supplied the steam powered pumps for the project. The shield was rectangular in cross section, and consisted of twelve frames, side by side, each of which could be moved forward independently of the others. Each frame contained three compartments, one above the other, each big enough for one man to excavate the tunnel face, and the whole frame accommodated 36 miners. When enough material had been removed from the tunnel face, the frame was moved forward by large jacks. As the shield moved forward, bricklayers followed, lining the walls. The tunnel required over 7,500,000 bricks.

Problems

Brunel was assisted in his work by his son, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, now 18 years old. Brunel had planned the tunnel to pass no more than fourteen feet below the riverbed at its lowest point. This caused problems later. Another problem that hindered Brunel was that William Smith, the chairman of the company, thought that the tunnelling shield was an unnecessary luxury, and that the tunnel could be made more cheaply by traditional methods. He wanted Brunel replaced as Chief Engineer and constantly tried to undermine his position. Fortunately the shield quickly proved its worth. During the tunnelling both Brunel and his assistant engineer suffered ill health and for a while Isambard had to bear the whole burden of the work.

There were several instances of flooding at the tunnel face due to its nearness to the bed of the river, and in May 1827 it was necessary to plug an enormous hole that appeared on the riverbed. Finally the resources of the Thames Tunnel Company were consumed, and despite efforts to raise more money, the tunnel was sealed up in August 1828. Brunel resigned from his position, frustrated by the continued opposition from the chairman. He undertook various civil engineering projects, including helping his son, Isambard, with his design of the Clifton Suspension Bridge.

In March 1832 William Smith was deposed as chairman of the Thames Tunnel Company. He had been a thorn in Brunel's side throughout the project. In 1834 the government agreed a loan of £246,000 to the Thames Tunnel Company. The old 80-ton tunnelling shield was removed and replaced by a new improved 140-ton shield consisting of 9,000 parts that had to be fitted together underground. Tunnelling was resumed but there were still instances of flooding in which the pumps were overwhelmed. Miners were affected by the constant influx of polluted water, and many fell ill. As the tunnel approached the Wapping shore, work began on sinking a vertical shaft similar to the Rotherhithe one. This began in 1840 and took thirteen months to complete.

On 24 March 1841 Brunel was knighted by the young Queen Victoria. This was at the suggestion of Prince Albert who had shown keen interest in the progress of the tunnel. The tunnel opened on the Wapping side of the river on 1 August 1842. On 7 November 1842 Brunel suffered a stroke that paralysed his right side for a time. The Thames Tunnel finally officially opened on 25 March 1843 and Brunel, despite ill health, took part in the opening ceremony. Within 15 weeks of opening, 1,000,000 people visited the tunnel. On 26 July 1843 Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited. Although intended for horse-drawn traffic, the tunnel remained pedestrian only.

Later developments

In 1865 the East London Railway Company purchased the Thames Tunnel for £200,000 and four years later the first trains passed through it. Subsequently, the tunnel became part of the London Underground system, and remains in use today, as part of the East London Line of London Overground.

The engine house in Rotherhithe was taken over by a charitable trust in 1975 and transformed into the Brunel Museum in 2006.

Subsequent life

[Brunel family grave in Kensal Green Cemetery.] After the completion of the Thames Tunnel, his greatest achievement, Brunel was in poor health. He never again accepted major commissions, although he did help his son, Isambard, on various projects. He was proud of his son's achievements, and was present at the launch of the _SS Great Britain_ in Bristol on 19 July 1843. In 1845 Brunel suffered another, more severe stroke and was almost totally paralysed on his right side. On 12 December 1849, Brunel died at the age of 80, and his remains were interred in Kensal Green Cemetery in London. His wife, Sophia, was subsequently interred in the same plot, followed by their son, Isambard, just 10 years later.

[1] Baptism Register accounts as baptism 27.1.01

title: Marc Isambard Brunel

question: How did Brunel's political persuasions affect his early life

answer: Brunel was a Royalist. While in Paris, he publicly predicted the demise of Robespierre. He had to flee Paris and it was soon clear that he would have to leave France.

question: Why was Brunel released from debtors' jail?

answer: Brunel spent 88 days in debtors' prison. He contacted Alexander I of Russia to discuss a move to St Petersburg where he would do engineering work for the Tsar. when certain influential characters learned that Brunel planned to emigrate, they pushed the government to intervene. The government granted £5,000 to clear Brunel's debts on condition that he abandon any plans to go to Russia. As a result, Brunel was released from prison in August.

question: What problems did the internal politics at the Thames Tunnel Company cause for Brunel?

answer: William Smith, the chairman of the company, thought that the tunnelling shield was an unnecessary luxury and that the tunnel could be made more cheaply by traditional methods. He wanted Brunel replaced as Chief Engineer and constantly tried to undermine his position. Fortunately, the shield quickly proved its worth.


text:
-   Do you see Donald Trump clapping politely at Joe Biden's Inauguration Day?
-   Me neither.
-   My bet is that after Biden wins and the GOP turns his back on him, Trump will ghost us.
-   He can't face losing, so he'll probably go to Mar-a-Lago for Christmas and never come back.
-   This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.
-   Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

President Donald Trump has lostPennsylvania and thus the presidency (according to Insider and our data partner Decision Desk HQ), and the GOP has already started to back away from him (or at least the saner wing of the party has). So despite his reported unwillingness to face reality so far, Trump will eventually have to accept that he has lost his bid for reelection.

After that, I think he'll ghost us.

I think Trump wasn't really kidding when he told crowds at his rallies that if he lost, people would "never see" him again. He is not a man who can stomach losing. He has weaseled his way out of debt, ghosted contractors, failed to pay massive bills, and walked away from bankruptcy over and over again. He has been caught in lies, and he has reportedly gotten away with massive tax-avoidance schemes. I cannot imagine him clapping politely at the inauguration while Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th president of the United States of America.

Maybe there will be some legal battles ahead, and there may very well be protests and violence. I'm not saying this is going to be pretty. Trump has never gone anywhere quietly in his life.

What I'm saying is that if democracy is respected and other elected officials uphold their obligation to our country, Trump will have to leave the White House. I do not think he is capable of doing so with any grace. Instead, I think he will go to Mar-a-Lago (maybe for Christmas, maybe just for the weekend) and just won't go back to Washington. He will ghost us.

It's not as if he feels he has pressing matters at the White House — he had an incredibly light schedule for a president anyway — and he never cared much for passing legislation. The work of the presidency has never interested him, just the power.

And if the power is fading, then what's the appeal? Do you think Donald Trump will enjoy being referred to as a "lame-duck president"?

Hell no. Watch him ghost us.

This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author(s).

question: What's GOP's reaction to presidential election results?

answer: The GOP has started to back away from President Donald Trump as he has lost the presidency.

question: Is the author surprised that Trump does not clap at Biden's inauguration Day?

answer: No. The author says that he cannot imagine Trump clapping because Trump can't face losing.

question: Does the author think that Trump was a good president?

answer: No, the author thinks that Trump was interested just in power, not in the work of the presidency. For example, he never cared much for passing legislation.

question: What does the author think that Trump will do now when he lost the presidency?

answer: The author thinks that Trump will probably go to Mar-a-Lago and never come back.

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: The author thinks that now when Donald Trump has lost the presidency, he will probably go to Mar-a-Lago and never come back. Trump can't face losing - he did not clap at Biden's inauguration Day. The author thinks that Trump was interested just in power, not in the work of the presidency.