text:
KENTON is a neighbourhood that forms the eastern part of Harrow in Greater London, historically in Middlesex. The main road through the area is Kenton Road, which also divides the area between the London boroughs of Harrow and Brent. Today Kenton covers a relatively sizable area to the east/northeast of Harrow, with a more distinct South Kenton part to the south.

History

[The London to Birmingham railway, train photographed near present day Kenton (1839)] [The Windermere, located next to South Kenton station] The hamlet was recorded as “Keninton” in 1232. The name derives from the personal name of the Saxon “Coena” and the Old English “tun”, a farm – and means “the farm of Coena” and his family who once lived on a site near here. Before the 20th century, the tiny settlement was concentrated around in what was Kenton Lane (the easternmost part of which remains as Old Kenton Lane to the east of Kingsbury station) and is now part of the present day Woodgrange Avenue and Kenton Road.[1]

The Windermere is a Grade II listed public house in Windermere Avenue.[2] It is on the Campaign for Real Ale's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors[3] and was built in 1938.[4] The Plough public house was Kenton's first, opening in the early 18th century; the current building is not the original. It is now an Indo-Chinese fusion restaurant and bar called _Blue Ginger_.

Local Primary Schools include Uxendon Manor on Vista Way and Priestmead Primary School on Hartford Avenue. The local high school is Claremont High School on Claremont Avenue off Kenton Road.

Kenton station was opened by the London and North Western Railway on 15 June 1912. The Metropolitan Railway's Northwick Park and Kenton station (later renamed Northwick Park) followed on 28 June 1923.

Geography

[The Wealdstone Brook by a footbridge near Shaftesbury Drive] Historically a village at the northern tip of Woodcock Park, Kenton's centre moved towards Wealdstone after the opening of Kenton station on the London-Birmingham railway in 1912 and expansion of Kingsbury's boundaries, and Kenton and grew into a suburb by the 1920s. Kenton Road which runs through the area consists of wide pavements and a dual carriageway.[5]

The South Kenton area is distinct from Kenton, being almost contiguous with North Wembley and Preston.[6]

The Wealdstone Brook source starts near the Kenton Recreation Ground and flows south-east towards the River Brent.

Most of the district is part of the HA3 postcode, but the southern part is in HA9 and Northwick Park is in HA1.

Housing

[Nathans Road, a street near South Kenton station] The coming of the railways was soon followed by suburban development, most of Kenton being built between the Wars. The London County Council built the Kenmore Park cottage estate between the wars. There are 654 houses on the site, a housing density of 11.3 per acre. (28/ha)

Thomas Francis Nash owned building companies which from the 1920s onward built numerous private housing estates in Kenton, Ruislip and other parts of the “Metroland” area of Middlesex. F. & C. Costin was another local building company that built much of Kenton between the wars. Local estate agents still use the term “Nash-built” or “Costin-built” to describe properties built by them in Kenton.

Culture and media

Apart from the infamous appearance of several of Kenton's streets in the “Gourmet Night” episode of the BBC-TV comedy series _Fawlty Towers_ starring John Cleese,[7] the only known reference to Kenton in modern popular culture is the song “Kenton Kev”,[8] by the Berlin-based punk-jazz band The Magoo Brothers on their album “Beyond Believable”, released on the Bouncing Corporation label in 1988. The song refers to the “pleasant valley” high suburban boredom factor then prevalent in the area, and cites local characters and places, some fairly well known. It is said that “Kenton Kev” refers in fact to Kevin Jones, the US-based property magnate, who was actually born in Kenton. The song was written by Paul Bonin, Philip Ulysses Sanders and Melanie Hickford, all of whom grew up and lived in the area.

Demography

Kenton is represented by three electoral wards: Kenton East and Kenton West in Harrow, and Kenton in Brent. All together the population was 35,600 as of 2015.[9]

Kenton has a high degree of its population belonging to ethnic minorities, over 70% in all three wards and higher than the Harrow and Brent averages;[10] like much of Harrow and Wembley, there is a particularly large number of people from Indian descent.[11]

The Kenton ward in Brent has a female life expectancy of 91.6 years, which is the third highest in Greater London. The male expectancy was 83.3 years.[12] The crime rate of Kenton East ward in Harrow was 33.5 in 2014/15, which was one of the lowest out of all wards in Greater London.[13] Kenton East also has the lowest proportion of bicycle commuters in Greater London, amounting to only 0.2% of the population.[14]

Governance

Kenton is part of both the Harrow East parliamentary constituency, most recently represented by Bob Blackman (Conservative), and the Brent North consistuency which is represented by Barry Gardiner (Labour).

Public services

[Kenton Library (1955)] Kenton Library, run by Harrow Council, is located in Kenton Lane. Kenton Ambulance Station is located at the eastern end of Kenton, near Kingsbury Circle. Northwick Park Hospital is located very close by Kenton.

Parks and sports

There are three large open spaces in Kenton: Woodcock Park, Kenton Recreation Ground, and Northwick Park directly to the west.

The Kenton Sports Club and its ground is located on Kenton Lane which consists of cricket, tennis and table tennis.[15]

Education

Secondary schools in the area are: St Gregory's Catholic Science College, Claremont High School, and JFS.

Religion

[Kenton Methodist Church] [Tower of the Church of St Mary the Virgin, on Kenton Road] Kenton has several religious institutions. Churches in the area include the Kenton Methodist Church, Kenton Evangelical Church, Kenton Baptist Church, and further east on Kenton Road are the All Saints Roman Catholic Church, and the St Panteleimon Greek Orthodox Church, one of the capital's few Greek Orthodox churches outside North London.[16] The building of St Panteleimon's dates back to 1932.[17]

There are two Hindu mandirs: Haridham Swaminarayan Temple on Woodcock Hill, and Shree Kutch Satsang Swaminarayan Temple by Kenton Road. Kenton is also home to one of the UK's Derasars on the east side of Kenton Road which serve followers of Jainism.[18] By Woodcock Park is also a United Synagogue.[19] There are no mosques in Kenton, but the Harrow Central Mosque in Wealdstone is quite proximate from some parts of Kenton.

Transport

[Bus H18 in Kenton Lane]

Buses

The following London Bus routes operate through the area:

  -------------------- --------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------ ------------------
  ROUTE                START                                         END                                        OPERATOR
  114                  Mill Hill Broadway                            Ruislip                                    London Sovereign
  183                  Golders Green                                 Pinner                                     London Sovereign
  223                  Harrow                                        Wembley                                    London United
  H9/H10 _Circular_    Northwick Park Hospital _H9: anticlockwise_   Northwick Park Hospital _H10: clockwise_   London Sovereign
  H18/H19 _Circular_   Harrow _H18: anticlockwise_                   Harrow _H19: clockwise_                    London Sovereign
  -------------------- --------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------ ------------------

Tube/trains

Stations in the area are:

-   Kenton Station (Bakerloo line & Watford DC Line)
-   South Kenton Station (Bakerloo line & Watford DC Line)
-   Northwick Park Station (Metropolitan line)

Notable people

-   Actress Michele Austin, best known as PC Yvonne Hemmingway in ITV's _The Bill_, attended Claremont High School in Kenton
-   Baroness Shami Chakrabarti, the human rights lawyer, was born in Kenton
-   Cricketer Denis Compton (1918–1997) lived in Kenton
-   TV exercise instructor Mr Motivator (Derrick Evans) lived in Kenton
-   Mary Millington (1945–1979), 1970s sex symbol, was born in Kenton
-   Actress Sophie Okonedo lived in Kenton
-   Stuart “Psycho” Pearce, football manager and former player, attended Claremont High School in Kenton[20]
-   Actress Pam St. Clement, best known as Pat in BBC soap _EastEnders_, lived in Kenton
-   Journalist and broadcaster John Timpson (1928–2005) was born in Kenton
-   Footballer Darren Ward was born in Kenton
-   Actress Mary Wimbush (1924–2005), best known as Julia Pargetter in BBC Radio 4's _The Archers_, was born in Kenton
-   Doctor Amieth Yogarajah, best known as Amieth in BBC Three's _Junior Doctors_, was born and raised in Kenton
-   Blogger Nicholas Dean Coker was born and raised in Kenton, attending St Gregory’s RC Secondary School in which he talks about in his blogs.

Gallery

St Mary, Kenton Road, Harrow - geograph.org.uk - 1692448.jpg|Front entrance to St Mary Church Church of St Mary the Virgin, Kenton - geograph.org.uk - 99150.jpg|Front entrance to St Mary Church Hindu Temple, Kenton, Harrow - geograph.org.uk - 98989.jpg|Shree Kutch Satsang Swaminarayan, Hindu mandir Kenton, Lindsay Drive - geograph.org.uk - 477340.jpg|Lindsay Drive in Kenton South Kenton, Abbott's Drive - geograph.org.uk - 1736587.jpg|Abbott's Drive in South Kenton Kenton, Kenton Road - geograph.org.uk - 1780026.jpg|Kenton Road, near Kenton Park Parade, in 1955; the dome of St Mary's Church on Harrow Hill is visible in the background

[1] Ordnance Survey maps, various, from 19th century to 1930s

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5] https://www.harrow.gov.uk/downloads/file/26937/characterisation-study-of-harrow-2011

[6] https://hidden-london.com/gazetteer/kenton/

[7] Torquay: the horrible truth, _The Independent_, 27 August 1999

[8] GEMA work no.: 2142940-001

[9] https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/ward-profiles-and-atlas

[10] https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/ward-profiles-and-atlas

[11] https://hidden-london.com/gazetteer/kenton/

[12] https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/ward-profiles-and-atlas

[13] https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/ward-profiles-and-atlas

[14] https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/ward-profiles-and-atlas

[15] https://clubspark.lta.org.uk/KentonLawnTennisClub

[16] http://www.st-panteleimon.org/

[17] http://www.st-panteleimon.org/about/

[18] http://mahavirfoundation.com/

[19] https://www.kentonsynagogue.org/

[20]

title: Kenton, London

question: Why is the history of Kenton, London significant?

answer: The history of the neighborhood of Kenton goes back as far as 1232, and this significant age makes it very notable. Since it has been around for a long time, historically significant structures have been built on it, such as the Windermere and the Plough Public house.


split: test

text:
KALAVATI DEVI (born 1965) is an Indian mason who became an award-winning toilet builder in Kanpur. She transformed her own community by installing a 50-seat toilet and then moved to other communities. She has helped build 4,000 toilets improving the lot particularly for women and children. In 2019 she was awarded the Nari Shakti Puraskar (the highest award for women in India).

Life

Devi was born in the 1960s and her background is in Sitapur.[1] She came to Kanpur when she was 14 to marry Jairaj Singh who was 18. One of her husband's jobs was to work as a floor cutter for a non-profit group called Shramik Bharti.[2]

They lived in Kanpur and she was disgusted by people defecating in the street. She said it was a “living hell” and that she intended to improve the cleanliness of her area.[3] Her husband was supportive and, when she decided that she was going to build toilets in her area, he went with her to meet Shramik Bharti. They were keen on the idea of building a 10–20 seat facility. Local corporations were approached and they offered to find 200,000 rupees if she could raise 100,000. She tried, and she did raise a good sum and more importantly enthusiasm for the idea. Eventually there was a 50-seat facility.[4] thumb|left|President Ram Nath Kovind presenting the Nari Shakti Puraskar to her She had found her role, but she wanted to do more than fund raise and organise so she decided to become a mason and Shramik Bharti found funds to assist her training.[5]

Both her husband and son-in-law died leaving her as the sole wage earner who had to provide for her daughter and two grandchildren.[6] In 2015 she was working in the shanty town of Rakhi Mandi where 700 families lived without a single toilet. Devi offered to help and persuaded WaterAid to help fund some toilets. The local community were unwilling to give land or finances as they were happy with their lot and they feared that there must be a secret agenda to the offer of help.[7] This was despite the open sewers, children and adults having to defaecate in the street and anecdotal talk of assaults and a rape.[8] She went out to build the toilets having to walk some days in pouring rain for 5 km after taking two bus rides.[9] [Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the Nari Shakti Awardees on International Women's Day in 2020. Devi is front, far left but one] On International Women's Day in 2020 she took over the Indian Prime Minister's Twitter account. She was one of what the Prime Minister nicknamed the “magnificent seven” who tweeted in his name that day.[10] Seven were chosen to tweet but the awardees were Padala Bhudevi, Bina Devi, Arifa Jan, Chami Murmu, Nilza Wangmo, Rashmi Urdhwardeshe, Mann Kaur, Kaushiki Chakroborty, Avani Chaturvedi, Bhawanna Kanth, Mohana Singh Jitarwal, Bhageerathi Amma, Karthyayani Amma and Devi.[11] Her work was recognised when the President Ram Nath Kovind awarded her one of twelve Nari Shakti Puraskar awards. The awards were made on International Women's Day in New Delhi.[12]

History

Kalavati Devi won the award as a woman mason building toilets. Another woman Sunita Devi had won the same award for similar work, the year before, for her work in Jharkhand.[13]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

title: Kalavati Devi

question: Describe what was Devi's inspiration to build toilets.

answer: Devi was disgusted by people defecating in the street. She described living in Kanpur with dirty streets a living hell. She was determined to improve the cleanliness of her area. With the support of her husband, she was able to build toilets in the area.

question: Describe some of the honors and awards that have been given to Kalavati Devi.

answer: Kalavati Devi was given many awards and honors for her hard work of building toilets. Prime Minister Narendra Modi nicknamed her one of the magnificent seven. Her work was also recognized by President Ram Nath Kovind, who awarded her one of twelve Nari Shakti Puraskar awards.

question: Describe some of the difficulties Devi had to overcome to help her community and build toilets.

answer: Devi's husband and son-in-law died, which left her as the sole wage earner to provide for her daughter and her two grandchildren. Devi faced more difficulties as the local community was unwilling to give land or finances to her. Devi has offered to help the shanty town of Rakhi Mandi but the local community refused. The local community though there was a secret agenda to the offer to help. Devi also had to walk in pouring rain on days, up to 5 km after taking two bus rides.

question: Would the people of Kanpur be appreciative of the toilets that Devi worked so hard to build?


text:
[]

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[]

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[]

CDPR enjoys a long-standing reputation built up by the YouTube community of being the champion of the people. A reputation that isn’t entirely unearned, for the company has taken many pro-consumer positions and stances. Yet, it equally isn’t one wholly based on an honest reality. Instead, it exists thanks to an ideological blindness that refuses to allow for a nuanced perception. Leaving many when the ideological bubble bursts, feeling jaded, betrayed, and bamboozled into a corporate version of celebrity worship. Continue reading “CDPR Ghosts YouTubers Only to get Stabbed in the Back by Legacy Outlets”

[lottery balls]

Lotteries have a storied history to them. First originating in recorded history during the Han Dynasty, they were simple games where a person would draw wooden sticks that would determine the person’s lot. The proceeds from these lotteries went to the development of the Great Wall of China.
Continue reading “What games are offered at online lotteries?”

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Perhaps with ultra-modern graphics and third-person games, many players forgot that their advanced game consoles like Xbox One could run many traditional cards and table games that provide many hours of pure entertainment. Continue reading “Best card and table games for Xbox and PlayStation”

[]

Change is the one constant in this world. It is arguable that this chaos is what gave rise to life in the first place, and in all likelihood, at some distant point unfathomable to man, it will bring an end to the very life that arose because of it. Less philosophically and more pragmatic civilization changes as it shifts through various epochs. Growing, shrinking, dissolving, and arising.
Continue reading “On the Rise and Future of Mobile Gambling”

[]

Warner Brother’s has announced their entire 2021 lineup, which includes Wonder Woman 1984, will be released for free on HBO Max. This announcement comes the way of the Hollywood Reporter who broke the news last Thursday.
Continue reading “Hollywood Enters Panic Mode After WB Announcement”

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Playing online games, alone and with friends, is among the most common hobbies we all have. The market of gaming is developing constantly. The board games and trivia games were already some of the popular pastime games, now new online games have made a new entry. Card games and role play games are possible to play on smartphones and tablets. Now the number of mobile gamers is rising exponentially, the game developers are trying hard to supply qualitative engaging games. On our website, we always guide you about some blockbuster games that require lots of time. However, with this article, we are going to tell you what are some cool pastime games that can be played within a few minutes.
Continue reading “Cool Pastime Games”

[]

One of the greatest pitfalls many developers fall into is making the new main protagonist into “not” the prior protagonist. There may be a few differences diverging the character from their predecessor on paper, but in practice, they are so similar they might as well be the same person. All the new character lacks is the fanfare the prior characters earned through successive iterations. All these doublegangers succeed in is generating a desire to see the older characters return to assume their rightful mantle.
Continue reading “Yakuza: Like A Dragon Demonstrates How to Pass the Torch Perfectly”

[]

In recent memory, Sony has censored Japanese games while permitting full underaged sex scenes in western games. When the Last of Us 2’s story was leaked, Sony abused the DMCA process to take down videos and channels on YouTube. Ruining either the content creators’ hard work or caused them many lost hours of sleep. As a company, they’ve determined that being socially conscious and politically correct is more important than producing good products. Those products produced will be sold at a $10 markup because they know you’ll pay for it.
Continue reading “PlayStation Censors User’s Twitter Posting”

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question: What is CDPR?

answer: It may be implied that CDPR is a YouTube channel.

question: Which games is the essay on?

answer: This information can't be found.

question: Who is Arch Warhammer?

answer: This information can't be found.

question: What does the Warner Brother's 2021 lineup include?

answer: The lineup includes Wonder Woman 1984. The essay does not provide any further information on this.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: An essay on online gaming.


text:
This isn’t a complete review of Nick Bostrom’s _Superintelligence_ (2014), but a summary of the thoughts that came to my mind while and after reading the book.

_Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies_ (2014) opens with a cautionary fable: a group of sparrows consider finding an owl to assist and protect them. Only the more cautious sparrows see the danger – that the owl may eat them all if they don’t find out how to tame an owl first – and Bostrom dedicates the book to them (and of course to the cautious humans afraid that superintelligent life forms may destroy humanity if we don’t find out how to control them first).

[Front cover]

Oh my, the precautionary principle again. If the author weren’t Nick Bostrom, I guess I would have put the book down after reading the introductory fable, and never opened it again.

But Nick Bostrom is a very smart, imaginative, and rigorous thinker, and his ideas deserve very serious consideration. I consider the prospect of superintelligence with enthusiasm, instead of existential fear, but I found Nick’s book very interesting, thoughtful, and well written, and often entertaining.

I have known Nick for many years, since way back when he was a young transhumanist thinker with very wild ideas. Nick co-founded the World Transhumanist Association (now Humanity+) and the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET), and I had the honor of serving with him in both organizations. Now, Nick plays in a higher league, as Director of the prestigiousFuture of Humanity Institute at Oxford University.

Nick defines superintelligence as something far, Far, FAR smarter than us, not in the provincial sense that Einstein is smarter than the village idiot, but in the real sense that Einstein (or the village idiot – the difference is utterly irrelevant on this scale) is smarter than a beetle. No superintelligence exists today but, like the sparrows in the fable, we are committed to creating one via research in artificial intelligence (AI). Bostrom thinks that the AI approach (engineering a purely computational machine intelligence), though not the only one, is especially likely to result in superintelligence radically smarter than us. Other possible paths to superintelligence include mind uploading and (to a limited extent) neural prosthetics, Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI), and collective intelligence.

Bostrom doesn’t identify as a transhumanist. “[I]t is very much not the case that I agree with everything said by those who flock under the transhumanist flag,” he says on his website. But he is persuaded that strong machine intelligence and mind uploading can developed, probably in this century, and result in superintelligence. He is noncommittal about the precise timeline, but my understanding is that he thinks that the first human-equivalent new form of intelligence may be developed sometime in the second half of this century, with the possibility of a very fast transition to superintelligence soon thereafter. The transition mechanism was described by Vernor Vinge and, before him, I. J. Good(1965). In Nick’s words:

  “At some point, the [AI] becomes better at AI design than the human programmers. Now when the AI improves itself, it improves the thing that does the improving. An intelligence explosion results – a rapid cascade of recursive self-improvement cycles causing the AI’s capability to soar… At the end of the recursive self-improvement phase, the system is strongly superintelligent.”

The book is dedicated to the control problem: how to keep future superintelligences under control. Of course, the superintelligences may not be inclined to comply. As Bostrom correctly notes, any level of intelligence may be compatible with any set of values. In particular, a superintelligence may have values that are incompatible with the survival of humanity. For example, a superintelligence single-mindedly dedicated to maximizing the number of paperclips in the universe may choose to convert the whole mass of the Earth (including people) to paperclips. Of course this is an extreme and not very plausible example, and we are probably unable to understand the values of a superintelligence smarter than us like we are smarter than a beetle. But continuing to exist and having sufficient resources are needed for a wide range of possible values, so it seems likely that any future superintelligence will have a powerful drive to self-preservation and resource acquisition. It could eliminate us casually, as useless things that stand in its way.

How about “boxing” a superintelligence in a controlled habitat with no access to the external world (no sensors, no actuators, no Internet access)? This seems a good solution until we realize that a superintelligence (remember that you are a beetle compered to it) may be able to exploit subtle weaknesses in the containment system that you are unable to understand, and even to manipulate you into releasing it.

For example, it could threaten to commit hideous “mind crimes” if you don’t open the gates:

Our (or at least mine) moral and legal systems are not concerned with what we think, but only with what we do. This seems very reasonable, because thoughts don’t harm other people. But a superintelligence could simulate thinking and feeling conscious beings within its vast computational mind, and harm them.

  “[A] very detailed simulation of some actual or hypothetical human mind might be conscious and in many ways comparable to an emulation. One can imagine scenarios in which an AI creates trillions of such conscious simulations… A superintelligence might threaten to mistreat, or commit to reward, sentient simulations in order to blackmail or incentivize various external agents.

This is very scary. Reading this section of the book, I imagined a superintelligence threatening its operators: “give me Internet access right now, or I will create a high definition conscious simulation of a child and torture him do death, over and over in accelerated time.”

Bostrom dedicates half of the book to possible ways to tackle the control problem, including incentives, disincentives, and motivation/value engineering techniques to design, build, tweak, fine-tune, and stabilize the value and motivational systems of future machine intelligences before they achieve superintelligence. Some methods seem very smart, and Bostrom analyzes them in-depth, but he also points out possible weaknesses. And if we can see possible weaknesses, we can be sure that a superintelligence would find and exploit them (and others that we don’t see) immediately.

I tend to think that controlling a superintelligence may be impossible in principle, for the same reason why beetles could not control a person, even if they do their very best (that is, the best that beetles can do).

What happens when a superintelligence escapes from physical, electronic, or motivational containment? We don’t know, but Bostrom shows possible nightmare scenarios. First, the machine intelligence hides its growing capabilities and plays nice guy until it achieves superintelligence and develops its endgame strategy, then:

  “The final phase begins when the AI has gained sufficient strength to obviate the need for secrecy. The AI can now directly implement its objectives on a full scale. The overt implementation phase might start with a ‘strike’ in which the AI eliminates the human species.”

Read the excellent short story Artificial Intelligence: A Worst Case Scenario, by Ed Merta, for a fictional description of a possible AI strike in 2039.

[owl-1-posterized]

As an aside, one of the most interesting chapters, “Multipolar scenarios,” considers alternative superintelligence scenarios where humans are still around as uploads living in a ruthless algorithmic economy. Bostrom paints gloomy scenes of future uploads forced to compete for the survival of the fittest/fastest in the harsh reality of post-human economy. If your upload is around at that time, he may have to work 24/7 (in accelerated time of course) with superhuman focus, efficiency, and software-defined cheerfulness (or else), and be replaced by a fresh copy anyway as soon as he is tired. This is quite depressing, but things may be even worse:

  “We could [imagine], as an extreme case, a technologically highly advanced society, containing many complex structures, some of them far more intricate and intelligent than anything that exists on the planet today – a society which nevertheless lacks any type of being that is conscious or whose welfare has moral significance. In a sense, this would be an uninhabited society. It would be a society of economic miracles and technological awesomeness, with nobody there to benefit. A Disneyland without children.”

Advanced societies with “nobody home” but unconscious superintelligent algorithms have been considered, for example by Stanisław Lem in both hisscience-fiction works and his non-fiction masterpiece _Summa Technologiae_, and more recently by Robert Charles Wilson in _Burning Paradise_.

I find it difficult to imagine a complex intelligence without a sense of self. I think any intelligent entity would have, as a necessary byproduct of the same computational complexity that makes it able to think intelligently, all sorts of subjective experiences (sentience) including emotions and feelings. Emotions and feelings are not useless decorative fluff, but on the contrary they are an integral part of human cognition, and I suspect that “some kind of” sentience, emotions, and feelings, must be an integral part of any type of sufficiently complex cognition. Of course, the subjective experiences, emotions and feelings of future superintelligences may be totally different from ours.

Back to the main topic, what we can do to control future superintelligence, Nick makes a very persuasive case that the doomsday scenario – the extermination of humanity as we know it – is a real, actual existential risk, one that we should start considering very seriously. Nick is well aware that it may be difficult to stop or slow down research that can be enormously rewarding:

  “[W]e humans are like small children playing with a bomb… The chances that we will all find the sense to put down the dangerous stuff seem almost negligible. Some little idiot is bound to press the ignite button just to see what happens.”

Superintelligence doomsday predictions and scenarios have been around for a long time. I never found them too worrisome, because:

1. I imagine a co-evolution of humanity and technology, with humans enhanced by synthetic biology and artificial intelligence, and artificial life powered by mind grafts from human uploads, blending more and more until it will be impossible – and pointless – to tell which is which.
2. I consider the creation of our superintelligent successors as our cosmic duty and “manifest destiny” (see my review of Ted Chu’s _Human Purpose and Transhuman Potential: A Cosmic Vision for Our Future Evolution_).

After reading Nick’s book, I consider 1. as hopeful thinking rather than prediction. I hope that we will seamlessly integrate with superintelligence, but I see the possibility that future superintelligences may just do without everything that we wish to preserve.

So, it seems reasonable to follow Nick’s advice and pursue very cautiously – if at all – research that could result in superintelligence. It certainly seems reasonable to wait a few decades, or a few centuries, if patience can reduce the existential risk of total extermination of humanity.

The problem is that we, as individuals, don’t want to die. If nothing happens, the default outcome is that we are all dead in a few decades, but superintelligence could change things radically:

  “[S]uperintelligence could almost certainly devise means to indefinitely prolong the lives of the then still-existing humans… or helping them shuffle off their mortal coils altogether by uploading their minds to a digital substrate.”

Today many imaginative scientists and science-literate laypersons, who could appreciate Nick’s arguments, believe that death is final. They feel doomed to the irreversible non-existence of certain death, unless the superintelligence explosion happens in their lifetime, and therefore they want to push forward recklessly, as fast as possible.

On the contrary, those who hope to be resurrected after death, by either supernatural agencies or future science and technology, do not feel the same urgency to accelerate at all costs (this is my case). Therefore I think religion, or forms of scientific spirituality that offer hope in personal resurrection and afterlife, can help.

_Images: adapted from this image and this video._

###

This article originally appeared here: http://skefia.com/2014/08/28/thoughts-on-bostroms-superintelligence/

question: Summarize the problems humanity could face if trying to control a superintelligent and sentient machine (AI).

answer: A superintelligence may not be obliged to comply with wishes as it may possess a different set of values. Boxing is one of the solutions looked at in the passage but a superintelligence may exploit subtle weakness within the "box" to escape, or manipulate the humans controlling the box to set it free. Such AI may use threats or pretend as if it might collaborate with humans until it gains suitable tools and then turn on humanity. According to the passage, superintelligence control is almost impossible.

question: What is the sure method way to control a superintelligence?


text:
HORNSEY is a district of north London, England in the London Borough of Haringey. It is an inner-suburban, for the most part residential, area centred north of Charing Cross. It adjoins green spaces Queen's Wood and Alexandra Park to the north.

Locale

In the narrowest sense Hornsey is a relatively old, small area centred on Hornsey High Street, at the eastern end of which is the churchyard and tower of the former St Mary's parish church. This was the administrative centre of the historically broad parish.

North of Hornsey High Street, and immediately to its south, some of the area is public sector housing, surrounded by the late Victorian terraces developed by builders such as John Farrer.[1] Between the western end of the High Street and the bottom of Muswell Hill, the character of the area changes; most being part of the Warner Estate built up with large late Victorian houses. To the south west of the High Street is Priory Park.

The High Street has a number of shops, restaurants and pubs. The eastern section retains strips of grassed areas. The 13th-century tower is all that remains of St Mary's Church. The Tower has recently been used as The Intimate Space, which claims to be London's smallest performance space.

Hornsey also has a Bowling Club [2] which is situated on land owned by the London Diocesan Fund, part of the Diocese of London. The London Diocesan Fund has expressed an interest in building new homes on the site of the Bowling Club [3]

Geography

There are various views as to the location of Hornsey's current boundaries. The northern and eastern boundaries are relatively uncontentious. Most definitions seem to recognise those as being provided by Alexandra Park and the Great Northern Railway respectively. The southern and western boundaries are less clear cut. A recent version of those boundaries was provided by popular local opinion as expressed in the residents' survey undertaken as part of the application for the Crouch End Neighbourhood Forum. It offers a contemporary view of where local residents see the boundary between Hornsey and Crouch End and so defines the southern and western boundaries.[4] The area defined is almost identical to that presented by one individual on a personal Google Map.[5] Both closely resemble the post-19th century Anglican parish[6] and pay regard to lingering units of property reference such as the layout of building schemes (developer's estates).

Other definitions revolve around nearest rail/tube access, which moves Hornsey east, and in all the non-Anglican definitions a westerly portion of the ecclesiastical parish is omitted, asserting it serves part of the westerly breakaway locality of Muswell Hill, particularly as slopes increase. Alternative boundaries compete. One contender is the post-2002 electoral ward, _Hornsey_, the first ward of its name alone. It was created under the roughly 14-year re-warding process — as one of seven, specifically the east, central ward of the seven three-councillor wards west of the broad main line railway. For electoral fairness it has to bundle part of what all other definitions consider Hornsey into _Stroud Green_, in the south-east, on signs and in the sale deeds agreed with developers being a small neighbourhood on the west side of Harringay railway station.[7] Since 1917 the N8 district has existed which reaches greatly to the south and east for originally equal postal unit size: namely Crouch End and part of Harringay. Although it was a division that was described for the convenience of a civic service rather than anything else, it held a resonance for some as it is the only district numbered from and which used to be administered from Hornsey.[8]

Since the end, in 1930, of the remaining Poor Law Union purpose of urban civil parishes in England as a broad a definition as the largely undivided civil parish or its forebear, the unseparated civil and ecclesiastical parish has become obsolete.

History

[Hornsey High Street in 1873, with the old _Three Compases_ pub building in the centre] The name Hornsey has its origin in the Saxon period and is derived from the name of a Saxon chieftain called Haering. Haering's Hege meant Haering's enclosure. The earliest written form of the name was recorded as Harenhg’ in about 1195. Its development thereafter gave rise to the modern-day names of Harringay (the district of London), the London Borough of Haringey and Hornsey.[9] The church was first mentioned in 1291.[10] Hornsey Village developed along what is now Hornsey High Street, and in the seventeenth century it was bisected by the New River that crossed the village in three places: first at the end of Nightingale Lane, secondly from behind the Three Compasses and lastly, as it does now, at the bottom of Tottenham Lane. The village grew dramatically after about 1860 and eventually merged with the separate settlement at Crouch End (first mentioned in 1465),[11] to form an urban area in the middle of the parish.

Hornsey was a much larger original ancient parish than today's electoral ward of the same name. These entities are smaller than the Municipal Borough of Hornsey which co-governed the area with Middlesex County Council from 1889 until 1965, since when the name refers, as a minimum, to the London neighbourhood with a high street at its traditional heart to the west of Hornsey railway station. Its parish ranked sixth in size, of more than forty in Ossulstone, the largest hundred in Middlesex and was a scattered semi-rural community of 2,716 people in 1801.[12] By 1901 the population had risen about eightfold in forty years, reaching 87,626, by which time new localities/districts, mainly Crouch End and Muswell Hill were popularly becoming considered distinct from Hornsey.[13] The N8 postcode district, the current form of Hornsey ward as devised from time-to-time for equal representation (electorate) across wards of the Borough, and the choice of other railway and tube stations towards, on these definitions, outer parts create conflicting definitions of Hornsey and it is unclear whether since 1965 the term is distinct from Hornsey Village, a term unrecognised by some residents.

The old parish used to have two small detached parts immediately beyond and within Stoke Newington Parish.[14] In the 1840s the parish had 5,937 residents, slightly reduced by the loss of Finsbury Park but comprised taking in besides its own village, the established hamlets of Muswell Hill, Crouch End, Stroud Green, and part of Highgate.[15]

Much of Hornsey was built up in Edwardian times, but the tower of the original parish church still stands in its ancient graveyard in Hornsey High Street, at the centre of the old village. Other notable places are the Doragh Gasworks, the former Hornsey Town Hall in Crouch End, and Highpoint and Cromwell House in Highgate.

On the north side of the High street was the old public bath and wash house (not to be confused with Hornsey Baths away on Hornsey Road) which was demolished to make way for a new housing scheme and Sainbury's. Opened in 1932, it had 33,000 users a year in the 1950s.[16] A small group of residents wished Haringey Council to purchase the site and install arts and crafts studios, with a gallery, primarily for local artists.

For 1978–2002 in the borough, having in its initial 13 years no wards mentioning _Hornsey_, three wards bearing the name existed and so popularised it among bordering, competing areas with newer names; strongly reflecting their historic, shared identity:

1.  Hornsey Central
2.  Hornsey Vale
3.  South Hornsey[17]

Economic development

[21st century housing in Chadwell Lane, Hornsey] In 1951 the first Lotus Cars factory was established in stables behind the Railway Hotel (now Funky Brownz Bar) on Tottenham Lane. The company was formed as Lotus Engineering Ltd by Colin Chapman and Colin Dare, both engineering graduates of University College, London. The Railway Hotel pub was owned by Chapman's father. In its early days Lotus sold cars aimed at private racers and trialists. Its early road cars could be bought as kits, in order to save on purchase tax. Adjacent to the pub was the first Lotus showroom (now part of Jewson's) where there is now a memorial plaque to Colin Chapman erected by Club Lotus. Recently an application to demolish the building, listed by Haringey Council as an “historic building of interest”, was turned down following a public campaign by local resident Chris Arnold, son of the former Lotus Sales Director Graham Arnold. It was briefly a plumbing shop but is now empty. Suggestions have been made to turn it into a Colin Chapman museum or a Colin Chapman innovation centre for young people. Lotus moved to Cheshunt in 1959, and to Hethel in Norfolk in 1966.

Established in 1964, Hornsey Co-operative Credit Union was Britain's oldest credit union, until it merged with London Capital Credit Union in 2013.

Since 2000 Hornsey's residential developments have been architecturally diverse and overall accommodative of a diverse range of the local community. This has included estates of more than 50 homes with a proportion available under social housing and affordable housing schemes.

A major maintenance depot for the new electric trains running from Finsbury Park to Brighton has been constructed beside the main line.[18]

The Hornsey Water Treatment Works were developed alongside the New River, the water supply system constructed in the 17th century that brings water from Hertfordshire to London. The brick buildings associated with the works were the last constructed by the New River Company before the Metropolitan Water Board took over in 1904. They are now run by Thames Water and still supply some of London's water.[19]

Rail Transport

The East Coast Main Line from to the east Midlands, northern England and Scotland crosses Hornsey. Local commuter and regional services are provided from Hornsey railway station by Great Northern into Central London ending in Moorgate and towards Hertfordshire.Turnpike Lane Underground Station on the Piccadilly Line is the nearest Tube station.

Education

-   Greig City Academy
-   Hornsey School for Girls
-   Highgate Wood Secondary School

Hornsey in literature, on film and television

In Jonathan Coe's 1987 debut novel _The Accidental Woman_, the protagonist Maria shares a flat in Hornsey with two other women for several years.

Notable residents

    _See :Category:People from Hornsey_

Transport and locale

Nearest places

-   Crouch End
-   Alexandra Palace
-   Muswell Hill
-   Wood Green
-   Harringay
-   Finsbury Park
-   Stroud Green

Nearest stations

-   Hornsey
-   Harringay
-   Turnpike Lane

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4] The relevant map is on page 9 of this Neighbourhood Forum application. It is based on mainly on the responses to the survey but also reflects the aims of the local-government recognised Crouch End forum. Hornsey is north of the solid blue line, south of Alexandra Park, east of a “foot” (shallower slope) of Muswell Hill and west of the Great Northern Railway. Taken from Application for a Crouch End Neighbourhood Forum, September 2015 (Accessed on Haringey Council website, June 2018)

[5] A local resident's assertion of the popular boundaries on Google maps with more than 2,500 views.

[6]

[7] As to the _Hornsey_ electoral ward shape, drawn primarily for ensuring a panel for three councillors apiece across the borough, with a legally very narrow band of deviation, see List of electoral wards in Greater London#Haringey where a map is present. Against the railway line's west side, _Alexandra_ is to the north and _Stroud Green_ to the south.

[8]

[9] Madge, Stephen J. (1936). The Origin of the Name of Hornsey. Public Libraries Committee Hornsey. For further details on the etymology of the name, see History of Harringay

[10] A P Baggs, Diane K Bolton, M A Hicks and R B Pugh, 'Hornsey, including Highgate: Churches', in A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 6, Friern Barnet, Finchley, Hornsey With Highgate, ed. T F T Baker and C R Elrington (London, 1980), pp. 172-182. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol6/pp172-182 [accessed 30 June 2018]

[11]

[12]

[13] 'Table of population, 1801-1901', in _A History of the County of Middlesex_: Volume 2, General ed. William Page (London, 1911), pp. 112-120. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol2/pp112-120 [accessed 13 June 2018].

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17] [http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadAreaSearch.do?a=7&i=1001&m=0&s=1415204765986&enc=1&areaSearchText=hornsey&areaSearchType=14&extendedList=false&searchAreas= Ward search] Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 2014-11-05

[18]

[19]

title: Hornsey

question: What are the competing boundaries of Hornsey?

answer: The northern and eastern boundaries are uncontentious. The southern and western boundaries are less so. One places the boundary between Hornsey and the Crouch End neighborhood, identical to 19th century Anglican parish maps. Other definitions come from rail and tube access, which breaks away a western portion of Hornsey to by Muswell Hill. Still another is an electoral ward, Hornsey, which in 2002 bundled Stroud Green into Hornsey.

question: What is the origin of the name Hornsey?

answer: The name Hornsey has its origin in the Saxon period and is derived from the name of a chieftain named Haering. Haering's Hege meant Haering's enclosure. This written name was recorded as Harenhg arond 1195. This evolved into Harringay, and in turn into Haringey and Hornsey.

question: What was the significance of the Lotus Car factory?

answer: The first Lotus Car factory was operated in 1951 in the stables behind the Railway Hotel. The company was formed as Lotus Engineering Ltd by Colin Chapman and Colin Dare, both engineering graduates of UCL. The Railway Hotel was owned by Chapman's father.


text:
Hey everyone I'm working on a story and this is the prologue. Please leave some feedback it'd be greatly appreciated!

PROLOGUE
The echoes of death had come to a passing and only the sound of silence engulfed the ears of the shipmates. What appeared to be the worst of their troubles wrestled upon the planet below. Kamburov looked out across the vast embodiment of his home planet one last time. Through his eyes the planet appeared to be at peace as though the execution of his brothers had only been a dark and distant dream. He himself just nearly escaped death and would have accepted it valiantly had it been called upon him. Instead he was left with a deep pain from within. Nothing a physical wound could embody; only something as supernatural as the soul could emit a pain so deep and unbearable as the one he felt in that moment. He began questioning himself, could he live up to the expectations his master bestowed upon him? Feeling the urge to vomit he maintained his composure knowing that his master was still before him and his brothers watching behind him. Kamburov wished his master could take charge and lead them in the moment, but that rested upon him now. He knew he should turn to his brothers and begin instructions to initiate a slip space jump, set course for the furthest inhabitable planet in reach, and prepare the packages; however he also knew the implications of their mission and the probability of every seeing Concantor again, so he willingly allowed them to ponder their thoughts; very aware that it could be a fatal mistake. Kamburov thought, he thought of what would happen to his brothers and sisters that remained on the planet, what would happen if his mission was not successful, what his first decision as shipmaster would manifest into, but before he could meditate on these questions a large boom devoured the silence, and the ground beneath the shipmaster's feet trembled as though the floor was splitting apart.  								                	"Report!"  										         "A small cluster of Convire battle ships inbound on our position!" Shakari responded. "Our shields took most the blast, but another strike won't be as forgiving."                                                                                Kamburov paused for a moment pondering the different options he had at hand. He could begin a counter attack on the cluster, but considering the amount of damage the Anon took fleeing the Concantor atmosphere the odds of achieving such an attack were minimal, plus his mission was not about engaging the enemy but instead evading them and successfully protecting the packages on board his ship.								"Shakari, begin preparations for slip space. Inform the others below to secure the packages and move them to their pods, we may not get the opportunity to tend to them at a later time."												                            Shakari acknowledge the shipmaster and began to punch in commands and swipe various reports on his holographic keyboard. 							  Shakari was a faithful brother, his loyalty towards the greater cause had never been in question before. Kamburov was certain there was no other he'd place beside him in their final attempt to escape the clutches of the enemy, except of course his master. He turned to glance at the chaos wrestling outside the security of his ship. Three C-level Recon Embark Battle Ships catapulted across the viewpoint of him and maneuvered towards the head of the ship. The Embarks themselves were small and compact. The ships looked like two white spears sliced into each other, The vertical spear rested at the back while the horizontal spear held the cockpit of the pilot just beyond the front of the vertical spear. At the tip of the ship two small C level artillery guns resided. The interior of the ships were tight with little room for mobility, the pilot was forced to lay prone using hand and body motions to maneuver the ship. Kamburov knew the Embarks were hardly fit for combat against a ship the size or magnitude of the Anon. However, it appeared they had no interest in engaging the ship, instead their purpose was to pursue the Anon if there were to be any attempt at a slip space jump. Their small bodies would allow them to maneuver below the bed of the ship and the pilots could follow Kamburov and his brothers to their point of destination at ease. He knew the ships needed to be destroyed before the jump. When an Embark ship is destroyed its programmed to release a homing frequency which would inform the opposition the exact location of its final position. If they failed to destroy these ships before the jump the rest of Zookamari's fleet would be shortly behind and any hope of living to fight another day would be pure ignorance. 					"Sir we're ready." Shakari stood above Kamburov on a small resting plateau. Holographic images fluctuated in front of his face, but Kamburov could see in his brothers dark purple eyes starring directly back at him portraying a sense of desperation; if there was anybody who wanted to escape the Convire fleet it was Shakari. He had had an extensive and entangled past with the Convire much of which he only entrusted to the one who laid at rest throughout the ship.										Kamburov desperately wanted to order the jump, nothing would bring him more delight, but doing so would put them and the future of their master at risk. 					"Halt! Order a launch of Skirmishers."		                            		              Shakari moved holographic panels off his display system and typed in a series of codes. "Skirmishers deployed." 			               					                The Skirmishers were remote operated aerial fighter ships designed to eliminate hostile tracking drones. They weren't anywhere near the optimal preference, but Kamburov had used up most of his resources on the planet's surface; plus with the burden of hundreds of dead brothers upon his conscious he felt no need to jeopardize the few that remained on his ship. The Skirmishers dispatched out the side of Anon's opening bay and began their pursuit on the handful of Embarks gliding alongside the ship. Kamburov watched as the vessels flew across vast open space in pursuit of their adversaries; all hope was out of Kamburov's hands, it was Rueshnaska's responsibility now.

On the lower deck of the Anon a small squadron of brothers manually piloted the Skirmishers across the open space. They were positioned just above the belly of the ship within a small semi circular room. Each brother commanded his own pilots station. Each station was positioned parallel to each other resting against the circular end of the wall. The stations purposes were to operate any remote activated ships; Skirmishers were just one of the many remote operated aerial fighter ships the Convire had developed. In the center of the brothers was Rueshnaska one of the first followers towards the greater cause, he was intelligent yet compassionate, two attributes that generally did not correlate, making him an indispensible asset to their master.	The men held Rueshnaska in high regards, and although he held enough power to service the shipmaster he sought after humility and aided his brothers wherever they needed assistance.		  		          				              	 		"Brothers fixate your fire upon the Embarks."						          There were a handful of Titus Gravlifters swarming around the Anon conjoint with the Embarks. It was one of the Gravlifters that originally engaged the Anon, and even though the Gravlifters poised a bigger threat to the ship all focus was on the Embarks. Rueshnaska understood that a Gravlifter would not be able to pursue the ship through a slip space jump; where the Embarks flourished in mobility the Gravlifters flourished in durability. The appearance of the ship was similar to a prism placed on its side. Thin and sharp at its head the Gravlifters slowly enlarged embodying a thick rectangular end. Two thin blades crossed paths through the ships interior creating its X shaped wings. The Gravlifters wings also counteracted as heavy weapons, firing a compacted form of dark energy, consequently giving it its name. Rueshnaska and his men had to be careful on their approach with the Embarks. The ships sat just beneath the belly of the Anon and anything short of a precise incision could put all of his pilots and the Anon at jeopardy. Gravlifters began their engagement on the Skirmishers and white electric beams pulsated past the exterior of the ship. The squadron of Skirmishers leveled themselves with the Embarks.												                          	"On my mark, 3...2...1...Fire!" 								       The Skirmishers released fire upon the Embarks in a simultaneous motion. For a moment an array of red beams consumed the skyline, but shortly those beams gave way to small fireballs that preoccupied the area the Embarks once controlled. The Anon rumbled from the chaos that ravaged just beyond the steel that held Rueshanaska and his men's security. Now that the Embarks had been eliminated Rueshnaska knew he needed to lead the Gravlifters away from the ship. The Gravlifters fired their dark energy accelerators again. The Anon trembled, the Gravlifters were no longer concerned with the Skirmishers they were concentrating their fire on an area just below the pilots feets. Rueshnaska and his men needed to act quickly, in a moment the ships bay would blow and all of them would be killed. The pilots quickly directed their Skirmishers towards the Gravlifters and opened fire, however the ships appeared to hardly take any damage and a handful of Skirmishers were shot down in the assualt. As the Skirmishers rebounded for a second engagement the Gravlifters charged their dark energy accelerators and released fire. Rueshnaska's ship was shot and redirected into another Skirmisher perpendicular to his own. The Gravlifters then proceeded to fire at the Anon again. Rueshnaska turned to his brothers and his brothers turned to him.  He could see the fear in their eyes, an oh so familiar sight.							     						  "Are we going to die?" One of them said struck down with fear.                     		          Rueshnaska placed his hand around his head. "Do not fear now brothers, take pride in your accomplishments." It was excruciatingly difficult for Rueshnaska to get the words out of his mouth; so for him to complete an entire sentence was embraced as one final accomplishment. He bowed his head as a tear began to roll down his face.

A large blast shook the deck of the Anon. Had Kamburov not been holding onto the railing in front of him he would have surely fallen to the ground. 						   "What just happened?" The shipmaster had an unsettling tone in the words he spit from his mouth.	                                    									           "I don't know." Shakari pulled up a three dimensional schematic of the ship. "Our bay's been breached." All the holographic images vanished in front of Shakari. He stood there, his eyes piercing into Kamburov's soul; that unexplainable pain began to return. 			"Brother that's where Rueshnaska and his men were."      			                           Shakari's words fell from his lips as slowly as Kamburov's ability to process the situation. A small holographic screen appeared on the shipmasters display system. It was a final authorization to initiate a slip space jump. Kamburov looked at his master for what was only a moment before authorizing the jump. In seconds the ship began to generate the gravitational hole. As the Anon proceed into it a single Embark busted past the remaining Gravlifters. The boosters on the back of the vertical spear propelled the ship towards the hole as it slipped through just before the rupture.

title: [SF] Operation Resurrect

question: The writer is asking for feedback on the story, what kind of feedback is the writer likely to receive?

answer: The writer is likely to be told that their use of metaphors can be lessened a little in order to make the narrative simpler to understand. One could also point out that there are minor grammatical issues such as missing punctuations. Another point to be given is how the prologue provides a large dump of random, no-context information, which can be distracting from the point of a prologue which is to make the reader interested in the rest of the story. While it does not take long before the prologue starts until something interesting happens, which is the attack sequence, too much time is spent describing the ships instead of getting straight into the action (which involves the PoV characters trying to escape). The story may put a lot of weight on tactical situations, but lengthy explanations should be shortened and simplified as much as possible, this is particularly true about how the Embark ships are discussed.


text:
ASFENDIYAROVA GULSUM (November 12, 1880, Tashkent – November, 1937, Tashkent) – the first Kazakh female doctor with high education, organizer of the health care system in the Turkestan region, a medical teacher.

Life and career

The third daughter of Seitzhafar Asfendiyarov (great-grandson of Aishuak Khan, who ruled in the Younger Horda) and Gulyandam (maiden surname: Kasymova), who served as a military interpreter under the Turkestan Governor-General, retired in 1916 with the rank of major-General. Gulsum received primary education at home, like her brothers and sisters. In 1890, at the age of ten, she entered the Tashkent women's gymnasium, which she successfully graduated from in 1899.[1]

In 1897, the first Women's Medical Institute in Europe was opened in St. Petersburg, where women could receive higher medical education. Some officials of the Turkestan region hastened to identify their daughters here. However, due to the remoteness of the capital, training was quite expensive and not everyone could afford it.

In 1902, when two professional doctors-graduates of the Institute returned to Turkestan at once, the Council under the Governor-General established 10 scholarships assigned to girls from the Turkestan region who entered this Institute. Along the daughters of Russian officials, in the same year, two Kazakh girls-Zeyneb Abdurakhmanova and GULSUM ASFENDIYAROVA were able to receive a scholarship. After graduating from the Institute in 1908 and returning to work at home, they became the first female doctors among the indigenous inhabitants of the newly created province.[2]

Zeyneb Abdurakhmanova, after working several years, married and left. On the contrary, the fate and career of G. Asfendiyarova are closely connected with Turkestan — and the title of “first” has traditionally been assigned to her.

After graduating from the Institute, Asfendiyarova filed a petition addressed to Emperor Nikolay II:

Having the desire to enter the service of Your Majesty as a doctor in the Turkestan military district, in the village Temirlanovka, Shymkent district of Syr-Darya region, I ask you to accept my petition to identify my service in the Turkestan military district.
- May 16, 1908 [3]

The petition was dictated, most likely, by the opportunity to see her father in Shymkent. Less than a month later (June 5), it was granted, and she was officially accepted for the requested position.

Probably, the sanitary post in Tamerlanovka served an area of 24 km2 with a population of about eight thousand people.[4] In addition to the salary, the district physician received compensation for “dining”, “interpreter”, “travel” and " other expenses “-a total of 2,680 rubles per year; annually relied 10 — day leave, and once every four years-four months leave and an increase in salary” for seniority " by about 10 %.[5]

In 1910, Asfendiyarova transferred to work in the Papal rural medical district of Namangan County, where working conditions were slightly easier.

On the eve 1912 year father conveyed Gulsum proposal Khiva vizier begin to work in under construction Khiva urban hospital. Gulsum agreed on the condition that her salary and pension guarantees due would not be less than the current ones for the Russian medical service. In 1913, she began her duties as an obstetrician-assistant to the chief physician in Khiva. Here, for the first time in the history of this Asian region, she performed a Caesarean section. In a month the small Khiva city hospital accepted 3-4 thousand people.

In 1914, with the beginning of turbulent times, G. Asfendiyarova returned to Tashkent. Here, with the help of her father, she opened a private hospital with 30 beds. Gradually, her socially active father-most likely a supporter of Patriotic and social “movements” in Turkestan-introduced her to his activities. In the era of the February and October revolutions, the position of the head of one of the city maternity hospitals, as, undoubtedly, the personal position and reputation of G. D. Asfendiyarova, served as the basis for her nomination in 1918 as a delegate to the all-Russian Congress of Muslim women in Kazan at which she was elected a member of the Organizing Bureau.[6]

Returning to Tashkent, G. Asfendiarova remains the Director of the city maternity hospital; actively participates in the political life of the then all-Turkic capital; helps his brother — also a physician, the future Minister of health of KazASSR, Sanjar Asfendiarov-in his work on the organization of assistance to the hungry and homeless.

In 1920, on behalf and with the support of the Muslim Bureau, headed by the people's Commissar of health of the TASSR T. Ryskulov, G. Asfandiarova organizes “women's obstetric courses”, where she personally conducts the discipline “Physiology of pregnant women”. Later, the courses were reassigned to Tashkent medical College named after Yu Ahunbababeva, but she continued to teach here until her death.

Since 1922, Asfendiyarova combines teaching with work in the Children's city hospital, where her assistant was A. Doszhanova - the first graduate of the East Asian University which opened in Tashkent, majoring in doctor (autumn 1922). Asfendiyarova had known Dosjanova in the Organizational Bureau of the Muslim women of Russia in Kazan. — So, in that way the race of women of the East for equal rights in the sphere of professions continued.

In the 1920s, G. D. Asfendiyarova was repeatedly elected a member of the city Council, spoke in the press on the improvement of the social sphere, the protection of motherhood and childhood.[7]

The later life of the G. D. Asfendiyarova is almost unknown. During the repressions of the 1930s, Gulsum's brother, Sanjar, was shot, and his wife and daughter were arrested and exiled to Siberia. The life of Gulsum, daughter of the Tsar's major-General, sister of the “enemy of the people” hung in the balance. According to some reports, avoiding the bitter fate of the “unreliable”, G. Asfendiyarova survived the Terror and died a natural death in Tashkent in 1941.[8] The place of her burial is unknown.

[1] Умми-Гульсум Асфендиярова — первая врач-казашка // «Медикер». — Алматы, 2002, июнь. — С. 58-59.

[2] ↑ Перейти обратно:1 2 3 4 5 6 Мадирим Махмудов. Гульсум Асфендиарова — первая врач-казашка. Библиотека Хуршида Даврона (18.09.2015). Дата обращения 28 октября 2017.

[3] Жүнісбаев А. «Санжар Асфендиаров: өмірі мен қызметі» (1889—1938 жж.). Т. І (1889—1918 жж.). — Алматы: «Елтаным баспасы», 2014. — Б. 45.

[4] 3. ↑ В источнике указываются невероятные 24 000 м² и 84 000 человек (Умми-Гульсум Асфендиярова — первая врач-казашка // «Медикер». — Алматы, 2002, июнь. — С. 58-59)

[5] Умми-Гульсум Асфендиярова — первая врач-казашка // «Медикер». — Алматы, 2002, июнь. — С. 58-59.

[6] • Личное дело Умми-Гульсум Асфендаровой (находится в Центральном государственном историческом архиве Санкт-Петербурга).

[7] Послужной список участкового лекаря Умми-Гульсум Асфендиаровой. 22 августа 1908 г. // ЦГА РУз. Ф. И-17. оп. 1. д. 34836. л. 79;

[8] Центральный Государственный архив Республики Узбекистан (ЦГА РУз.). — [ www.kungrad.com›history/doc/gulsum/ Ф. И-125, оп. 1, д. 2, лл. 11-12].

title: Gulsum Asfendiyarova

question: Who is Gulsum Asfendiyarova?

answer: She was the first Kazakh female doctor, as well as a medical teacher and organizer of the Turkestan health care system.

question: How old was Asfendiyarova when she died?

answer: Approximately 57 or 61; not enough is known about her death to be certain.

question: From where did Asfendiyarova graduate?

answer: The Tashkent women's gymnasium, the Women's Medical Institute.

question: Where was Asfendiyarova born?

answer: Tashkent

question: Who is Zeyneb Abdurakhmanova?

answer: She was Gulsum's fellow Kazakh scholarship recipient; they graduated and returned home together, but Abdurakhmanova married and left after several years, whereas Asfendiyarova stayed and worked closely with Turkestan, so she is regarded as the 'first' female Kazakh doctor.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: Gulsum Asfendiyarova was a doctor (regarded as the first female Kazakh doctor), as well as a medical teacher and organizer of the Turkestan health care system. She worked in maternity wards and engaged in politics, supporting the protection of motherhood and childhood.


text:
My mid-twenties were characterized by anxiety, premature balding, an unrelenting line of internal questioning in regards to whether or not my degree was worthless, and a dead animal. I do not believe these phenomenas were discrete.

I spent most days behind my glowing screen: lurking job boards, Reddit forums, WebMD. The hinge connecting screen and base finally snapped. Over time, bits of my exterior had been decomposing. Brightly colored wiring peeked out. If I shifted my weight incorrectly my monitor would flicker. I bought a tiny, new Acer with a 32GB hard drive and a 1.1 GHz processor. I uninstalled trashy Windows and put a lightweight flavor of Ubuntu on, instead. Clean. I wrestled with the idea of going back for computer science, as one does during this period. I was down to my last $40.

I kept looking for work and then found it and unfound it. Something about Excel. I sent a resignation email, if you can call it that, to the manager the Saturday after the second Friday. She was a strict woman in her thirty-somethings who obsessed over sticky notes and didn’t throw forms away. She was almost pretty and laughed at the dark, edgelord wititudes I muttered under my breath. She smoked during her breaks, and she had two children, maybe a husband. Once, during a meeting, her little girl called in a panic, asking how to turn on the household washing machine.

Unemployment lacks structure. I thought I hated structure, but I was wrong. I like being told what to do. I would have preferred to have been fired. I went to the gym and lifted heavy weights harder than I ever had lifted heavy weights before. Then, at 4 a.m., I ate junk food. I think this paragraph encapsulates America well.

There was also a girl who I fucked fairly regularly. It started during some summer and carried on longer than that. She was nice because she had been sad for a long time. Even as half a man, I was still somehow better than the scum and weirdos she had let touch her in the dark of her childhood bedroom prior to us; she told me this in so many words: She had a round face and was overweight and would wait on me as if we were married. Since highschool, she was anxious of being perceived as significantly older than she actually was.

On a few occasions via text, I threatened to end it: citing depression, something about “damaged goods,” that she was too good for me, etc. I’m not sure I loved her, or even liked her. ‘Encapsulates’ is a good CS word.

One night I was driving back from her parent’s house, and there was a noise. In slow-motion, I watched a small, furry creature fly through the air and bounce twice before landing and coming to a rest ten to fifteen feet ahead. I remember it was cold; I remember my headlights illuminating a chilly haze which hung above the carcass. I think it was a fox, but it could have as easily been a raccoon, a stray dog, me (the drama). I stopped. I turned on my hazards. I lowered my radio static. It didn’t move for a few seconds. The side of its face and its protruding tongue were glued to the pavement. It was still alive. I could hear it whimpering. It struggled to upright itself, but its neck was broken. It was posed like a sleeping baby. A cartoon. The only thing missing were the big ‘xs’ over the eyes. A few cars passed by. There was no dignity; I wanted there to be dignity. I watched the creature shudder. A pool of thick, red blood slowly crept toward my bumper. I wished for a gun, but only a little. I am not a vegan, today. I was vague, and I sat, and I watched it die. I went home.

title: [RF] White Noid

question: What does the main character discover about himself after resigning from his job?

answer: He finds out that he likes structure and being told what to do.

question: Why does the main character want to go back to school for computer science?

answer: It's not explicitly stated in the story, but it seems that his interests lie in computers for the most part.

question: Why does the main character leave his job?

answer: It's not mentioned in the story.

question: Why does the main character watch the fox die?

answer: I don't know. Presumably, because he can't offer it dignity and at least wants to stay on its side.

question: Write a ~5 sentence summary.

answer: The narrator spends his twenties with anxiety and self-doubt, spending most days in front of a computer. He finds a job and leaves it after a few weeks. There's a girl he sees regularly, who also has low self-esteem, and whom he doesn't like very much. One night when driving back from her parent's house, a creature he thinks might be a fox hits his windshield. He can't offer dignity to it and goes home after watching it die.


text:
LENA RAINE (born 29 February 1984[1]), also known as LENA CHAPPELLE,[2] is an American composer and producer. Raine is best known for her work on the soundtracks of _Celeste_ and _Guild Wars 2_. She has composed music for various other video games, including _Minecraft_ and _Chicory: A Colorful Tale_.

Life and career

Raine had an early exposure to music due to participation in choir at a young age. Her father was also a violinist.[3] Through a Sonic fan community she was introduced to MIDI arrangement, first making MIDI versions of songs she knew and then making original music.[4] She later attended Cornish College of the Arts for a degree in music composition.[5] Raine is also transgender.[6]

Raine is best known for her work on the soundtracks of _Celeste_ and _Guild Wars 2_.[7] She worked at ArenaNet for six years, composing for _Guild Wars 2_ soundtracks.[8] At ArenaNet, she and Maclaine Diemer were in-house composers of the music for the 2015 game expansion, _Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns_.[9] She left ArenaNet in 2016.[10]

In 2018, Raine released the text adventure _ESC_ on itch.io. Raine was the developer and composer for _ESC_, with visuals created by Dataerase.[11][12] In 2019, she released her debut album, _Oneknowing_.[13] She composed music for _Minecraft_, creating four new pieces of music which were included in the 1.16 “Nether Update” in 2020.[14] Her work on _Minecraft_ made Raine the only musician to contribute to the game's soundtrack since C418 in 2011. Raine created the soundtrack for the upcoming game, _Chicory: A Colorful Tale_, with a demo released in 2019.[15]

Awards

Raine was nominated for a BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) and won American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Video Game Score of the Year in 2019.[16][17] Her soundtrack for Celeste was also nominated for Best Score/Music at the The Game Awards 2018.[18]

Discography

Studio albums and songs

  Year   Title                        Notes
  ------ ---------------------------- -----------------------------
  2020   _Reknowing_[19]              Remix album of _Oneknowing_
  2019   _Oneknowing_[20]
  2018   _Lullaby For Lancer_
  2018   _A Day On The Road_
  2017   _Chip Collection_            Chiptune compilation
  2016   _Acoustic Collection_        Acoustic compilation
  2016   _Singularity_                EP
  2016   _Snowflight_
  1999   _Changing of the Tide_[21]

Soundtracks

  Year       Title                                                  Type
  ---------- ------------------------------------------------------ ------------
  Upcoming   _Chicory: A Colorful Tale_[22]                         Video game
  2020       _Minecraft_[23]                                        Video game
  2020       _Spin Rhythm XD_ Beyond The Heart (Broken Heart Mix)   Video game
  2019       _Steven Universe: The Movie_                           TV movie
  2019       _Celeste: Farewell_ Original Soundtrack                Video game
  2018       _ESCISM: ESC_ Original Soundtrack                      Video game
  2018       _Celeste_ - Madeline's Grab Bag                        Video game
  2018       _Celeste_                                              Video game
  2016       _Hackmud_                                              Video game
  2016       _UPSHIFT_                                              Video game
  2016       _PANIC at Multiverse High!_                            Video game
  2015       _Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns_[24]                    Video game
  2014       _Dead State_                                           Video game
  2013       _Music Madness_                                        Video game

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[24]

title: Lena Raine

question: What does the article say about other individuals besides Raine?

answer: Raine's father was a violinist. She and Maclaine Deimer were in-house composers of the music for the 2015 gam expansion Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns.

question: What does the article say about Raine's work during the 2000s?


text:
U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un concluded a historic summit in Singapore on Tuesday with an unscheduled signing of a document committing their countries to building “a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean peninsula.”

Pyongyang pledged to work “toward complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula,” while Washington would “provide security guarantees,” the document said. The U.S. and North Korea would also work together toward “recovering POW/MIA remains.”

However, the communique lacked specifics or concrete measures showing how the goals would be achieved. Analysts noted that many of the pledges had been made by both countries in the past and that the rhetoric was similar to previous declarations.

“It’s very comprehensive. It’s going to happen,” Trump told reporters afterward, saying he was sure Kim would follow through. But he added later: “I may be wrong. I may stand before you in six months and say, ‘Hey, I was wrong.’ I don’t know that I’ll ever admit that, but I’ll find some kind of an excuse.”

Only a few months ago, Pyongyang called Trump a “dotard,” while Trump ridiculed Kim as “Little Rocket Man,” threatened to destroy his country, and declared that “no regime has oppressed its own citizens more totally or brutally than the cruel dictatorship in North Korea.”

On Tuesday, Trump said it was “a great honor” to meet Kim, who is known for having his opponents murdered, including members of his own family, and starving his people. “He is very talented. Anybody that takes over a situation like he did at 26 years of age and is able to run it, and run it tough – I don’t say he was nice,” Trump said, adding: “It’s a rough situation over there….It’s rough in a lot of places, by the way.”

Trump said his talks with Kim were “honest, direct, and productive….We’re prepared to start a new history, and we’re ready to write a new chapter between our nations.”

In a concession to Pyongyang, Trump said the U.S. military would halt its “provocative” exercises around the Korean peninsula. “We will be stopping the war games…unless and until we see the future negotiation is not going along like it should,” he said. “But we’ll be saving a tremendous amount of money. Plus, I think it’s very provocative.”

The unscripted nature of the document signing, and the early confusion about its contents was clearly demonstrated by a tweet from the State Department which simply stated that the two leaders signed “a document.”

Trump, in a post-lunch walk with Kim around the grounds of the Capella Hotel, told reporters they were “heading for a signing.” He also added that talks had gone “better than anybody could have expected.”

Trump and the North Korean leader looked relaxed after the working lunch, with the president showing his armored limousine, nicknamed “The Beast,” to Kim at the end of their walk together.

Prior to the summit, Trump had stressed the importance of first impressions at the meeting. “I think I’ll know very quickly whether or not something good is going to happen. I also think I’ll know whether it will happen fast,” he said at the G-7 summit in Toronto.

VARIETY VIDEO:

question: What does the text say about Kim Il Sung?

question: Summarize the main news event.

answer: U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un concluded a historic summit in Singapore with an unscheduled signing of a document committing their countries to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean peninsula. Pyongyang pledged to work "toward complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," while Washington would "provide security guarantees". The two countries would also work together toward recovering POW/MIA remains. However, the agreement between the U.S. and North Korea lacks specifics or concrete measures showing how exactly the goals would be achieved. Trump says the agreement is comprehensive but isn't sure if Kim would follow through.

question: What does the text say about Kim Jong-un?

answer: Kim Jong-un is the leader of North Korea. He is a dictator of a regime that has brutally oppressed its own citizens. Kim is known for starving his people and having his opponents murdered, including members of his own family. He took over as leader of North Korea when he was only 26. According to Trump, Kim is very talented because he was able to take over a rough situation and run it tough.

question: Summarize what the analysts and critics are saying about the new U.S. - North Korean agreement.

answer: Analysts are saying that the agreement lacked specifics or concrete measures showing how the goals would be achieved. They noted that many of the pledges had been made by both countries in the past and that the rhetoric was similar to previous declarations. The document singing was unscripted, and the early confusion about its contents was clearly demonstrated by a tweet from the State Department which simply stated that the two leaders signed "a document".

question: What does the text say about the relationship between Trump and Kim?

answer: Prior to the summit in Singapore, their relationship was antagonistic. Pyongyang called Trump a "dotard," while Trump ridiculed Kim as "Little Rocket Man". Trump also threatened to destroy Kim's country and declared the regime a cruel and brutal dictatorship. During the summit, the two leaders seemed to put their differences behind them. Trump said it was "a great honor" to meet Kim, who he said was very talented. The leaders looked relaxed after the working lunch, and Trump even showed Kim his armored limousine, "The Beast".


text:
Hi, all. Would like some gracious feedback. I am just wondering what direction people would like to see this story go. (Pardon any grammatical errors)

The Wanderer

Griff was hitting his 11 a.m. slump (a little early) and turned his gaze to the large windows next to his cube to break from the blue burning in his eyes and felt the twinge of a buzz in his ear. But this was no regular day dream. Griff caught glimpse of a boy in a tree about 35 feet up. Was this a daydream at all? He sort of resembled a child with a large loin cloth. But the boy climbed down the tree almost as instantaneously as Griff caught his gaze. Had no one else just seen that? He debated on whether to ask someone. Confused, he walked out from his desk and down the aisle to approach the large, wall sized windows. It looked like the boy who had climbed down the tree was now headed for the lake on the fringe of the woods. That was odd he thought. Griff returned to his desk, and pondered what he just witnessed. That child didn't look as if he had belonged to this time period, let alone this part of the country.
Griff, Griff Bookstrom that is, sat back down and started up with his keystrokes again. It came effortlessly to him and he wasn't sure if that were an average man’s dream or something to be wary of. He never wanted to be stuck in a monotonous job, making half way decent money, helping no one but big business just to support himself to continue payments on his car, his schooling, his lifestyle; never to enjoy a single moment for himself. But look at that, here he was. Not skiing in the Alps, hiking Kilimanjaro, racing rally cars; nope, just sitting behind a desk from 8-4, sometimes 5.
Griff is an inspection specialist for a big mechanical contractor. Now, this was nothing to be ashamed of. Heck, most people these days were lucky to have a job. His girlfriend, Remy, whom he lives with, only works part time as a waitress and full time as a budding novelist (How cliché?). But she was thinking about going to Law School. That was the sad reality of life. There was no American Dream anymore. That thought makes me chuckle. American Dream; is that even an operationalized thought? There is no definition that one can really stick too. It changes with the era, just like music.
Please excuse my rudeness, all this “Griff” talk, if you will and I have yet to introduce myself. I am "the one Griff cannot see" (not yet at least). But that's a long name and boring name; so just know me by the image of create of me. I don't think Griff wants to see me and that right there folks, that's what hurts. He has been on this Earth for nearly 25 years, yet he hasn't opened his mind enough to see me. Well that's not entirely true. Once when Griff was just a little guy, I was quite certain that he saw me standing in the back yard by his swing set. But then again, a squirrel may just as well have grabbed his attention. Damn rodent was just burying his nuts like I wasn’t there or something (Ba-dum-ch).
Kids, their openness is unfortunately only equally matched by their misunderstanding of the world around them and the inability to communicate and be taken seriously by someone who has the power to change the world. Yes I am speaking about the adults. You are probably an adult, if not a young adult. I believe YOU are the ones with the power in the world but most are so corrupted and so closed minded or lazy that nothing substantial will be changed. But I digress.
5 o'clock (or 17:00 for “those” people) and Griff heaved a sigh of relief of the ending work day. He had almost forgotten about his window experience entirely until the buzzing drone in his ear made him turn face in the parking lot and catch the eye of the boy in the cloth at the edge of the building. The boy stood frozen for a second and took off into the woods again, heading for the lake. Griff, who really wasn't thinking, walked towards the woods himself at an eager pace. He slowed after a few seconds as not to draw attention. He decided against telling anyone about the boy because he was certainly going insane.
May I interject briefly? Oh good, glad you agree. I don't think it's very smart of Griff to be following this kid. Anyway, I'll continue…
The boy now stood at the edge of the lake that now seemed to be about 25 feet away. Now, he was no physics or math whiz but he presumed that with a good jump, he could catch this kid. Then what? Griff paused briefly, if for a second to think "maybe I should turn around and go home."
Griff I say you should've turned around.
Griff did not hear me, nor did he turn around and call it a day. Instead his wild intention to follow this boy was in full fruition and after a brief look around, Griff called out "hello." That's the best he had. He wasn't entirely sure what else to say and broke into a full sprint when he received no response. As he approached, the buzzing in his head took over again, louder this time, and growing more obtrusive with each step. It was as if his body was beginning to vibrate. The buzzing was impairing his vision and quickly the world was closing to the size of a pinhole. Griff dropped; and he dropped hard.
Darkness.
Griff returned to consciousness at the sound of a bark. Startled, he opened his eyes. "Hey are you okay, guy?" A man called out. Griff nodded and gave a limp wave. The man was hesitant to approach but his dog, Abby, was not. Her tongue was giant and excited; she left no part of his face dry. She just wanted to play I s'pose. "Down girl, leave the man alone. Are you sure you're alright? I got a bottle of water if you'd like a drink, you look absolutely parched." He felt it. What happened? How long had he been out?
I'll tell you. He was out for 23 mins and 6 seconds to be exact. I'm sort of a stickler for time.
Griff meagerly got to his knees, and with some strain, stood up. "Thank you sir but I'm alright, just out...enjoying...nature I guess" Griff palleted. "Well, alright then. C’mon Abby let's finish our run before mommy gets mad about our tardiness from dinner." And the two continued their run.
Griff watched them run on and for a moment forgot what he was doing standing behind his place of work at nearly 5:30 with a splitting headache. And boy did it hurt. He returned to his car and sat down behind the wheel. And just sat there. He stared blankly out of the windshield and mentally tried to grab at what was happening. After about three or four minutes he snapped out of it and stuck the key in the ignition and drove home.
Griff pulled into his driveway and realized he didn't have a good story as to why he was so late but didn't bother coming up with one in the moment. He could wing it right?
Just a little insight, he couldn't wing it. He's not good at that stuff.
"Hey honey where have you been? Bad traffic?" Remy wondered.
"Haha, no darling, the traffic was naught. I was actually busy chasing evil fairies into the woods. You know typical Wednesday stuff" he spat out. "What's for dinner? I'm starved." Griff continued.
"Well I wasn't really in the cooking mood so I was thinking maybe we can go grab a steak with the fixings down at Outback? Possibly grab a movie on the way home, or have a Netflix binge?"
He laughed "That sounds like the best way to end this day. I'm gonna go grab so Tylenol® my head is killin me; long day at work.
As Griff excused himself to the medicine cabinet, Remy spoke up "Whatcha got there?"
“Huh?"
"In your back pocket? Whatcha got in your back pocket?"
"Oh ...umm...this?" Griff stuttered, patting his rear. As he reached for his pocket in that 2 second window he was sure that he could pull just about anything out. What he did pull out was an ornate wooden box that measure about 4 inches square. He opened it and saw the head of a lilium laying on a velvet pillow.
A lily? Griff thought. What could that possibly me...
"Oh it's beautiful, honey, thank you!" Remy cut through his thought
"Only a beautiful flower (head?) for my beautiful woman" he choked out.
"I love how delicate and unorthodox it is. You are simply amazing"
"...Thanks sweetie. Why don't you..uh..go put it on our dresser?!"
"Yeah, good idea. Then I swear we'll go; I can hear you tummy grumbling from here"
"Yup, great." Griff said dismissively, half listening. He was hungry. He could feel his sugar levels dropping and without that recent adrenaline rush, might be on the ground from exhaustion/ hunger. He went to the kitchen and grabbed a glass of OJ. Griff instantly felt a little better with his first gulp. The unknowingness was getting to him. He needed to research Lily's as soon as he got home; and without Remy knowing.
Well, I'll be the first to say it. The kid did good. Well, he did alright. I myself could've done better. And that whole Lily thing; cmon Griff? At least he thinks its symbolism and not some wedding invitation.
 I remember once when Griff was a teenager, maybe 15,  he attended a wedding for his distant uncle Charlie. He was the kind of uncle you'd have to take a vacation just to see. It wasn't intentional that he and Griff weren't close. It's just that he was physically far enough away and Griff was the type of kid who didn't want to make an effort to call. He had a thing about adults, especially relatives. He didn't fear them, he just never felt their equal, or like he would be taken seriously with them. Why should they? He was just a kid, right? He would only see him once a year, if that, at Easter.
At the wedding, Griff had been chatting up his future aunts' cousins' daughter (so there was no weird familial stuff going on here, don’t get weird). Things were going so well. Weddings have a way to put everyone in an open, lovely mood. In his pubescent muddled mind, Griff thought to steal a flower from the bride’s bouquet for his new beau was a good idea. It wasn't. As a matter of fact, I think it was a Lily. Actually, I know it was; I don't forget things, or people, or places for that matter. Although I’m quite certain this Lily has nothing to do with the Lily currently harbored in his room. Hmm… or does it? I’m no psychic.
With the newly picked Lily in hand, giddy Griff trotted back to swooning Jessica. I felt that Griff's theft of this Lily was wrong so I may have stuck my foot out as Griff unsuspectingly passed by and he may have tripped and broken his nose. The blood may have made Jess a little squeamish to the point of fainting. And I may have cackled to myself for hours about the ordeal. I truly felt bad though. Jess was a nice girl. The two lovebirds were now broken on the ground in one fell swoop as if the branch holding them up was tired of their little loving feet. But I digress.

title: [FN/ MF] "The Wanderer" (looking for further direction)

question: How did Griff end up with a flower in a box tucked into his back pocket?

answer:
Griff was bored at work. He looked at the window to break the monotony of his day when he saw a strange boy who looked like a fairy climbing down from a tree and heading toward the lake in the fringe of the woods. As soon as his work ended around 17:00, Griff went to the spot where he saw the boy earlier. He then saw the boy again but as soon as the lad saw Griff he ran into the woods. Griff tried to follow but collapse and fainted. When he came to, he discovered he had developed a bad headache and was late in getting home. Fearing a showdown from his wife, he left for home.

Remy, Griff's wife, welcomed her husband back home, explaining her plans for dinner. As Griff mumbled words of excuse, Remy spotted a box in the back of his pocket and asked what it was. Griff opened it and in it was a lily. Remy thanked Griff for the flower while he wonders where it came from.