text:
He woke up, the message flashing “End of Reel.” over and over, a hell of a way to start your day. He reached over, slapping at the deck on the bedside table before blindly finding the off button. As the Stimdeck wound down he removed the inputs tossing them on top of the small black deck and placed his bare feet on the cold floor. With his head in his hands he sighed trying to pull together the motivation to stand, to push himself out of bed and face the world. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the fuzzy glow of the deck’s status lights and in it the image of a glowing lotus. He fumbled through the tapes, picking out the one with the holographic blossom on it, he held it in his hands, studying the petals. He had this one specially made, just for him. Just for today.

He’d always been able to take a punch, that’s part of what lead him into the ring, why he’d been one of the biggest names in boxing. There were only two times he’d ever been knocked on his ass, neither of them happened in the ring. The first time was on a blind date, Frank his manager set him up with his niece Molly. Molly, was a creature of infinite grace and the most beautiful woman he’d ever laid
eyes on. She had hair that reminded him of the way light looked if you caught it just right in a bead of honey, her smile was the thing that made him forget that he had three broken ribs and a busted nose. On top of the most stunning woman that he’d ever seen, Molly was brilliant. He never knew what a woman as smart as Molly had ever seen in a meat-head like him, maybe it was the security she felt when she leaned against him, maybe those deep blue eyes of her saw something in him that everyone else missed. He didn’t ask too many questions or think too hard about it, all he knew was that somehow he made her happy and that became all he wanted in the world. The second time was when he woke up beside her in bed to find her cold and lifeless.

It’s been five years, five years since she died. StimCorp covered the funeral, paid him a reasonable sum, if any sum could be called reasonable, and put safety checks in place so another accident didn’t happen. He’d always hated that, referring to it as “the accident”, it wasn’t an it was her, it was Molly. But none of that, the money the safety checks, referring to it as an accident, none of that changed that she was gone. Molly was gone and along with her the bright blue eyes, the golden hair and the reason to get out of bed, the reason to fight for anything.

Molly worked for StimCorp for fifteen years, doing research and development for them. It had paid well and allowed them to play with the newest toys and tech, including the first Stimdeck. She was
so excited when she brought their first deck home. The thing was the size of a full keyboard, maybe a bit bigger. She’d made him sit on the couch in their living room while she went on and on about the possibilities of being able to experience someone else’s memories first hand. Not just what they saw and heard, but what they smelled, tasted and felt. He remembered the way the sun had illuminated her
honey colored hair, the way her hands moved as rapidly as she talked. He remembered having to tell her to slow down as she talked so he could keep up. Molly hadn’t been able to tell him anything about the Stimdeck project for months, and now that she could it was a torrent of information and ideas pouring out of her. She showed him how the deck worked, where the inputs connected to it and how they fit on his temples, being patient with him as his thick fingers worked the inputs clumsily trying to get them in the right spots. Her soft hands gliding over his fingers guiding the inputs to the deck and then to his temples.

 StimCorp hadn’t been able to send any tapes for the deck home with her, but they did provide blanks and everything needed for them to record their own. They started out with small events to test the deck, dinner together one evening, a walk through the city at dusk and an afternoon in Molly’s garden. He sighed heavily remembering Molly’s garden. The smell of her roses, the way the wind from the ocean blew her hair back, even the way she shielded her eyes from the afternoon sun. That tape had always been his favorite, and Molly’s garden seemed a lifetime ago. A dream that the gray rain soaked city outside his high rise window could never imagine, a warmth the city seemed incapable of.

After a week of recording their own tapes and sharing them with each other, Molly brought home their first officially produced tape. It was a night out seen through the eyes of one of StimCorp’s young executives. Dinner at one of the city’s most expensive restaurants, dancing at one of the most exclusive clubs, and barreling down a seaside highway in a car not slated to be released to the public for another two years. This became the standard marketing tactic to show off the deck’s capabilities, “Live the life you want, not the one you have” became StimCorps motto. That night Molly fell asleep with the deck on, the seaside highway racing past her as she drifted off. The doctors said that when she woke up to the static at the end of the reel and it had wiped her mind. Something about the brain’s transition from delta to theta waves, he never was too interested in the details, all he knew was that Molly was gone. The half crooked smile, the gleam in her eyes when she laughed, the blush in her cheeks when she got excited, all of it gone. Just gone, no explanation, no preparation just an empty side of the bed where she should be, a hollow deserted kitchen and a garden turned barren.

When she first passed he’d see her around the house, she’d just turn the corner, he had just missed her but when he caught up there’d be no one there. He kept seeing her car in the drive way expecting her to walk in the front door any second only to remember the funeral. The day had been sunnier than it had any right to be, there was a small grave side service, and he’d even thrown the first handful of dirt on her casket. After the third time he found himself waiting by the door he sold the car. That made it easier to deal with he told himself, at least he didn’t expect her to open the front door anymore.

He spent the first year after everything happened slipping away, there never seemed a point to it anymore. He wasted away to a third of himself, a diet of frozen soy meals and vodka didn’t do much for keeping him filled out. His name still held weight in the ring though, enough to draw a crowd even if some of the crowds were in back alleys and weren’t sanctioned. He’d show up and get beaten. Broken
nose, bruised ribs, the physical pain was a nice distraction but after a while even that wasn’t enough for him to feel anything. After a while he was back to being as hollow as an empty booze bottle. He wanted
to feel something, anything even broken again.

After his last fight he woke up, drunk and nearly drowning in a city gutter as the city spat its cold impersonal rain down on him, another empty man who couldn’t hack it anymore. Desperate to feel anything he stumbled into the storage shed where he kept all of the things from his other life, his happy life. He came across Molly’s deck, not sure why he hadn’t thrown the damned thing away, he fit it on, and for a moment her smile flashed in front of his eyes, he could feel her fingers as they helped him guide the inputs into place. After that first flash of Molly’s smile he slipped into the world that the Stimdeck could offer him, he began to fill the hole in himself with journeys he never actually took, sights he’d never actually seen.

After a while, the joy in the decks wouldn’t last, he’d be left with pain, a pain of memories he never got to have with Molly. The things they never did together or said to each other, but at least the pain was something. The pain wasn’t hollow or empty or lonely. His tastes in tapes quickly spiraled downward as he tried to feel anything. He began looking for tapes on more taboo subjects, a junkie’s high, robberies, gang violence. But none of it seemed to fill the hole in him. He spent most of his money from the settlement and the sale of their house on his tapes trying to find something that would fill his void, something to spark him back to his old self. His apartment was covered in them now, but still nothing among them kept his interest, nothing kept his mind off of Molly, he always returned to dinner with her when he laid down to sleep. But today nothing motivated him as he sat by the side of his bed, barely away of his feet on the cold apartment floor. No junkie’s overdose, no gang shooting, no decadent sex scene, nothing held any appeal as he listened to the rain pour down and wash over the gray scale city. A life without Molly wasn’t something he ever wanted.

After a match one night he caught up with Frank, he asked him about some people who could work on a tape for him. After Molly’s passing StimCorp placed security measures on all of their tapes before they went out now to prevent another accident. Instead of static you got a message stating “End of Reel.” until you shut the deck down. This allowed the user’s brain to transition normally between the different states of sleep without incident. All of the tapes were now safe, the original tapes were recalled and the new safety measures added. That was unless you knew some people willing to fix them for you. Suicide by tape wasn’t uncommon but wasn’t reported on heavily either, it was one of those facts that usually only the desperate knew, and knew how to do. Frank nodded to him, said he knew a guy. Frank said he was sorry to see him go but knew that he just wasn’t the same without Molly and he’d given him the guy’s number.

He picked up the tape with the shimmering lotus on it once again, holding it in his hands feeling its weight, tracing his fingers over the surface, and studying the lotus’ petals. He slid the tape into the deck and lay back on the bed placing the inputs on he reached over and flipped the switch labelled “Play” and breathed the first easy breath he’d drawn in five years. existence around him grayed for a moment as the deck spun up, and then the world exploded into a sunny summer afternoon. The smell of roses and sea breeze washed over him. There she was again smiling at him. She was as beautiful as ever, her honey colored hair blowing in the wind, her smile as vivid as he remembered. The eyes that he fell in love with and woke up to on the best days of his life, once again looking back at him, tasting the salt in the air his heart began to fill, the void within himself shrinking. As Molly reached out to take his hand the world slipped into a state of static and he drifted off to sleep.

title: [SF] Molly's Garden

question: Summarize what StimCorp has to do with Molly's death.

answer: StimCorp, the company where Molly worked for 15 years, is responsible for the accident that led to her death. Their newly released product, the Stimdeck, allows a person to experience someone else’s memories first-hand. Molly excitedly used it at home. However, the static at the end of the reel wiped her mind and instantly killed her.

question: Summarize what StimCorp does after Molly's death.

answer: StimCorp takes the responsibility for the accident. They cover the funeral expenses and pay the narrator some money. The company recalled the original tapes of the Stimdeck, and the new tapes now have safety measures added to prevent the same thing that happened to Molly. Instead of the static at the end of the reel, the user gets a message saying "End of Reel."

question: Summarize what happened to the narrator after Molly's death.

answer: The narrator gets very depressed following Molly's death. The pain of her memories is too much for him to bear. He tries many things to fill the void, but nothing works. He can't get back to his old self. After five years, realizing that life without Molly isn't worth living, he commits suicide in the same manner that Molly died. He uses a tape with his memories of Molly in her garden that has the static at the end of the reel that kills him.

question: What does the text say about how to manage thoughts of suicide?


split: test

text:
The ground was muddy as she tried to run threw the drizzle & mist that surrounded her. Her raven black hair was matted & sticking to her face, from the rain or the tears she had no idea. She was terrified,the tremors rolling off her body were so intense she could barley keep her footing. Thank God for adrenalin with out it she would already have been caught. Her mind raced along side her body. It was as if this whole scenario was playing out next to her as she ran for her life. There she was hair wiping in the wind,wide hazel eyes seeing but glazed with fear, nose bleeding from the blow to the face he had gifted her with, cheeks flushed red,shirt torn bra exposed & nothing on below but white Cotten panties &  her now dirty ankle socks. She reminded herself of a Doe,not understanding anything but being hunted & trying desperately to save herself. she looked away from this mirage & behind her to her pursuer who was gaining speed. Even in the disheveled state of mud,sweat, &rain he cut a disgustingly handsome frame. His ivory skin shown with drops of water that beaded off of him as he ran. His dark hair fell over his forehead in limp spikes,his long face was drawn tight making his high sculpted cheekbones & clenched jaw more pronounced,his nose flared & his blue eyes were  cold bottomless pools of hate,nothing else,not even life seemed to show through,they looked like the eyes of the dead.His stature was of a line backer,his chest wide,muscles taught. He stood over 6ft & his shadow was far ahead of her in the patches of sun light between the trees.  He ran for hrs with out getting winded. She felt her hope slipping away,her chest burned,her body screamed for mercy she just wanted to give up,to stop playing this game,but her mind reminded her it wasn't a game this was real he was bent on killing her.
 Jennifer couldn't go anymore,her feet were sticking in to the mud she wasn't running straight,her mind was reeling,why did he have to do this? Why was he being crazy? Before she could clear her head her foot caught a root & sent her sprawling sidewise  in to the mud. The  leaves clung to her body,mud caked the side of her lip & the tears started to flow her ankle hurt her body felt bruised & busted,it was over. He had won & with a heavy heart she turned over in the wet leaves to see her attacker that she knew was hovering over her even if she couldn't hear his heavy breathing over the ringing in her head from the fall. He licked his lips & smiled. It was sickening to behold  & as if he knew how repulsed she was he brushed his bangs outta his face as if to give her a better view of his pearly whites & blue sneered lips.
  He crouched over her a knee on each side of her legs to pin her in & keep her from moving as he leaned in to her face. With the urge to scream she turned her head to the side & closed her eyes. Anger rushed threw her attacker & he placed a hand on her cheek & with half his strength pushed her face further in to the mud. Jennifer struggled underneath him to no avail he was to strong. Her limp attempts to get away made him giggle & from giggling to full roaring laughter,he was enjoying her discomfort. Jennifer felt him lean in & place his lips near her ear
"you turned me away,like everyone else. You said you loved me & when I needed it the most you ran from me. I guess it doesn't matter now because I win. Don't think of this as the end think of this as you will be living on threw me."
  Shivers of revulsion went threw her body as she tried to twist her head away but found his hand clutching her hair. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him grab the knife on his hip with his free hand & smile.
Scared not wanting to give on she mustered what little energy she. Had left,with this  last ounce of strength  she jerked her head over, opened her mouth & bit him around the fleshy part on the bottom of his palm making him smile & laugh at the pain. His knife fell & Jennifer had hope,maybe just maybe she could run,get some where safe,have this abomination & others like him shot & torched.
Her attacker tried to pull his hand away & when he did she held on tighter with her teeth trying to use his strength to pull herself up enough to maybe crawl away. he roared in anger & slammed the fist of his free hand in to her temple sending her flying back in to the mud with the piece of his palm still clutched between her teeth. Jennifer went still with shock as the sound of ripping flesh played through her mind. her attacker brought his hand to his face where he could see the disfigurement, the gray poc marked mess that was his palm. There was no blood,only a dark green & rusty brown slim oozing down his wrist. He looked at Jennifer who sat wide eyed & wet still clutching the gray meat of his hand in her teeth. The same ooze was at the corner of her mouth,it was splattered over her tongue, across her legs & yet she didn't seem to notice. she just sat there in mud looking far more fearful then she had through this whole ordeal.
  " you stupid bitch" her attacker sighed "look at my hand"
With that he put his palm in her face & her eyes narrowed at the mess then slowly got wider as she realized what she had done,not to him but to herself. Spitting the remainder of his flesh out she crawled to her knees in front of him,tears running down her face she blubbered like a baby
            He angrily shook his head & picked up the knife beside him in the mud.
"it's like leprosy, we have to keep eating to live u dumb bitch! You told me once you loved me,so show me by letting me just have an arm. Maybe a leg?" his laugh was horrible,like a squeaky door & a bunny dying. There was nothing natural about that sound coming from such a huge man
     "don't play coy baby we have known each other forever,it's either you or me & frankly I'm partial to myself."
          The knife in one hand & the battered hand free he reached over & ripped the rest of her shirt away exposing her white bra & taunt stomach. Slowly his eyes moved down her throat lingering on her breasts,swiftly he slashed his knife across the straps of her bra spilling perky full  breasts forward,nipples hard ,skin wet,she smelt like rain & sweet earth. Placing the knife against her throat he leaned in & flicked a nipple with his tongue. Jennifer shivered, she had no idea if from the cold or the feeling of him. He open his mouth & engulfed as much of her breast as would fit,Lord it was soft. Amazing how in this state he could still feel the faint wantings of a man. He suckled for a few minutes before leaning back not because he wanted to but because he wanted to chew the damn thing off.  looking at her greenish face & eyes clenched shut he shrugged & said
"you can keep your eyes closed Jennifer if that makes death easier. But its still going to hurt. I want u alive what will dead flesh do for me? But no worries I will enjoy ur horror & pain since I'm pretty sure you don't want too."
He let his eyes lower again & fall to the Cotten panties splashed with mud drops,so tight & wet they were almost transparent from the rain.
"i wanna taste you one last time" he said licking his bottom lip "well before i truly taste u by chewing ur lips off."
     Jennifer tensed  with dread, his hand drifted to the side of her hip & slowly started tugging her bikini cut panties down when She started screaming. her crys were that of a mad woman, her body was shaking & the tears rolled down her cheeks,
"Kill me! Damnit,stop touching me! quit playing & just kill me!"
He raised his head & backed his body away "either way u go my mouth will be on u but if u want it rough girl I'll have u screaming for real  in a minute tops!"
    He lifted the knife ready to thrust it in to her heaving chest when she used every ounce of strength she had gained from sitting there to kick her leg out & catch him in the knee knocking him down.
   He tumbled backwards arms flaying & grabbing for some thing but all he found was air. The knife fell in the mud, Jennifer made a dash for it just as her attacker was crawling to get up. The panic was etched in his face as he saw her getting closer to the weapon. He jumped through the air & They skidded in the mud together but Jennifer's hand had been closer. There was a chilling look of victory in her eyes. He slowly backed up fear on his face but never reaching his eyes. Grabbing the knife she jumped to her knees & swinging her arm upward she plunged it up her attackers nose in to his brain as he tried to make a last lung for her teeth bared,black slimy tongue hanging to the side. The sound of his cartilage popping & steel on bone was horrible but not enough to make her stop. The black Goo from his face  & brain leaked down the knife on to her hand. With a last shove she pushed him away .slumping he fell back in to the leaves,water dripping off his pale dead cheek like forgotten tears. he looked almost peaceful except for the huge object protruding from the front of his face.
        Jennifer swayed on her feet as she gained her footing trying to stand. With one brow raised she Looked down on her attacker with scorn.
    "what a pathetic piece of shit you were Ryan"Jennifer sneered at the corps "even after death you still couldn't get the best of me."
 The sight was grotesque. Not so much cuz he was dead,undead then dead again but because she had ever let that slimy worm of a boy touch her. How could she have ever been in love with him? First he runs & leaves her to fend for herself then when he is infected he tracks her back here for an easy meal!
 The anger was building,she couldn't contain it. She deserved something for living,he owed her something for the wrongs he had done to her.
Minutes tiked by with her just standing there over his dead body,she was admiring his hair. That mother fucker always had nice hair,no mistaking it's beauty.....then it hit her. She crept as close to the body as she could get picking her foot up she hovered it over Ryan's chest. Using all the rage she had she slammed it down hearing the ribs crack like broken twigs. Once jennifer was sure of her footing she reached for the knife in his face. Wrapping her hand around the handle she tugged as hard as she could. After a couple times trying to pull it out she was able to free the weapon. She held it in front of her face mesmerized by the tool that had saved her life.
 "I'll keep you" Jennifer sadly whispered to the brain covered inanimate object "were now best friends. I love u & I'm going to call you Roxanne. I always wanted a friend named Roxanne....come to think of it I just wanted a friend."
Looking around Jennifer made sure no one was in sight. Once she was positive she was alone she crotched down near Ryan's still inhumanly beautiful head & sat to work scalping him with the help of Roxanne.
  What a sight she must have been running threw the woods trying to find the nearest house,a bloody scalp clutched in her hand & a huge knife between her teeth.
"I bet I look amazing" Jennifer thought as she ran "ugh,to bad there's no one alive to see me. I mean of course I'd be at my sexiest at the end of the world just my damn luck."
 She continued to run,shaking her head in disgust. "gotta find a house,gotta find a house" was all she could think when she came to a small shed outside the town cemetery.
   "good lord" she sighed slowing down to a stop & grabbing the knife in her free hand "of all the places in town I end up in the grave yard."
      Jennifer was leery. She hadn't seen any weirdos or dead while running but one could never be to careful. Slowly looking in all directions she crept up to the shed,seeing no one around she grabbed the door & threw it open while jumping back with the knife out in front of her. There was nothing,nobody was inside,it was clear. Swiftly she ran in the tiny shed & slammed the door shut,bolting it from the inside. Turning her back to the door she leaned against it & let go of all the tension she had used to live. Slowly sliding to the floor she dropped the scalp & the weapon. The tears started to fall & the crying was uncontrollable. She sobbed for her family,for the world,even for that loser ryan. Everything was so messed up she had no idea where to go or what to do. Slowly she started to fall asleep but before she dozed off she had made the choice to trek threw the cemetery to grandma Bonnie's resting site in the
To pay her respects. Then she would kill herself. At least she would be away from the chaos that was now the world. Roxanne would help,she had promised with her gleam of steel "that's what friends are for" Jennifer quietly yawned before letting her head sink in to her chest &     Closing her eyes for a nap. She had to be rested before the big sleep. She was smiling in her delusional state, prepared to face death on her terms.

title: The Taste

question: Why has Jennifer taken Roxanne with her?

answer: Roxanne is the knife that Jennifer used to kill Ryan. She may have wanted the knife for self-defense. Ultimately she plans to kill herself with the knife.

question: Why does Jennifer plan to kill herself?

answer: The world has been infected. There is no one left alive. Yet, undead zombies roam the world looking for people to eat since they need the nutrition.

question: How has the relationship between Ryan and Jennifer changed?

answer: Ryan and Jennifer had been dating. They loved each other. Then, Ryan had become infected so he became a predator. He chases Jennifer with the intention of eating her alive. In the end, Jennifer kills Ryan in Self-defence. She loathes what he has become.


text:
I try to wrap my head around the question.

"What is the angular momentum of the ball in the above diagram?"

I come up with nothing. What makes it worse is that I actually studied for this test. Granted, it consisted of copying down my best friend's notes during lunch and hoping even a minutia of the notes entered my brain. I glare long and hard at the damn problem. If I fail this test, I may fail the class. If I fail the class, my GPA goes down. If my GPA goes down, I don't get into a good college and I die a homeless drug addict in a dark alleyway. I vigorously shake my head back and forth, turning a few heads as I do it, desperate to shake off such dark thoughts. I probably shouldn't have flushed my anti-depressants down the toilet. I could jump out the window and run for my life. Run from the behemoth that is adulthood and the expectations that come with it. I suddenly realize that for the past ten minutes, I haven't thought one bit about the actual physics problem. I give the problem another look, but to no avail. When does this damn period end? It's 1:20 right now, so it should be another 30 minutes before I have to turn in this test. My eyes dart around the classroom before resting, once again, on my test as my teacher begins to tilt her head in my direction. After a few minutes of aimlessly turning the pages of my test booklet, my eyes wander and I find myself staring into the glistening sunlight penetrating my class's only window. The clouds mingle amongst themselves to form intricate shapes. First a duck. Then a plane. I imagine myself floating out of the window and touching the brightly lit sky. I've had enough of this prison.

I place my calculator in my backpack. Then my pencils. Then my student ID. There's nothing on my desk except a test booklet littered with half-assed equations I had tried to memorize during lunch. My teacher begins walking towards me. I jolt upright and swing my backpack across my shoulder. I drag my lethargic body across the room and calmly place my hand on the door-knob.

"Where are you going mister? Have you already completed your test?"

My classmates are looking at each other as if they've just seen ghost. I simply put on a meek smile and leave the classroom. I make my way to the exit and hastily push the doors open. A howling wind crashes into my face, taking me by surprise. Unfazed, I walk out the doors and inhale deeply, filling my lungs with the fresh air I am deprived of 7 hours a day. I stand for a minute to take in my surroundings. It's all so surreal. I come to the same school every day, it's not like any of my natural surroundings have changed. Yet, everything feels so new. The trees are inviting me to climb them. The birds are inviting me to fly away with them. The crickets are inviting me to sing with them. I slowly tilt my head back to see if a teacher is approaching me. Nobody. Maybe I've already been forgotten. That would be nice. For people to simply forget I exist. I'm not sure it would be any different from the status quo, but I think I would like such an existence nevertheless.

I begin the long, arduous journey home. It had rained the previous day and the sidewalk was caked with mud. I let my sneakers sink into the mud with each, solemn step. The trees sway with the direction of the brazen gale, as if they're dancing to a tune, the rhythm of nature. The sun's brazen heat kisses the side of my neck, offering an almost soothing, warm embrace. A squirrel crosses my path, but not before glaring into my eyes, almost as if its trying to make me feel guilty for bunking school. Thanks mom, but not now.

I'm tempted to tell my parents I'm on my way home but am too lazy fish my phone out of one of the many pockets in my backpack. I decide that I'll let them find out the truth for themselves when they arrive. Hopefully they understand. I finally arrive in front of a towering but drab, grey house. The paint is chipped and the brick step leading to the entrance are woefully uneven. Home, sweet home. I take out my keys from the front of my backpack and let out a sigh of relief as the door clicks open. I enter my room and let out a heavy yawn before attempting to sleep. The sun's rays pierce through my window and I'm forced to put a pillow over my head to simulate the night-time. I dreamed of a long-gone youth. I wish I never woke up.

title: [RF] Youth

question: Why was the narrator having dark thoughts?

answer: Because he was struggling with an exam problem, thinking he would fail the test, fail the class, and die a homeless drug addict.

question: What caused the narrator's classmates to all look at each other as if they've just seen a ghost?

answer: Seeing the narrator pack up his things mid-test and walk out the classroom, ignoring his teacher.

question: Why does the narrator decide to leave his school and go home in the middle of a test?

answer: He's felt imprisoned and makes an attempt to run from the expectations that come with adulthood.

question: Explain what happens when the narrator gets home from school.

answer: His parents aren't home and decides to go to sleep, wishing he never woke up.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: The narrator is taking an exam at school when he begins to have dark thoughts about his future. He has been feeling imprisoned and makes an attempt to run from the expectations that come with adulthood, leaving the school mid-test.


text:
Dawn of Darkness
Dark clouds blocked out the sun. Thunder rolled and boomed, as lightning lit up the skies. Below, the salty waves tossed and tumbled, growing larger as the wind whipped and raged from the north. The rain came down in torrents, pelting the deck of the wooden ship, and soaking the wood. The first mate barked out orders to the crew who busied themselves to carry those orders out. The sails were taken in, so as to not be blown off course. The idea was to wait out the storm, as the waves weren’t so bad that they needed to get out of danger. Near the bow, on top deck, a woman cloaked in a silver robe stood by a man who was robbed in royal purple. Both had crowns fastened to their heads. Soldiers stood by, on edge from the storm, but otherwise relaxed. The man smiled down at his wife and looked to the small bundle of joy she held in her arms. A small child, nearly a year old, rested against her mother’s breast. She had dark, nearly obsidian black hair. Her emerald green eyes were closed now, resting while the storm raged on around them. Her little fingers curled tightly around her mother’s necklace. Their calm was shattered by the sound of lightning as it hit the main mast. The following boom of thunder was loud enough to wake the dead. Deckhands scrambled as they tried to put out the fire that was quickly spreading, but another bolt of lighting struck the ship near the stern, and soon they understood their battle with the flames was a lost cause. The captain readied the life boats, and had the king and queen begin to board. A large wave crashed into the side of the ship and the queen and her child were sent flying over the side. The life boat was lowered down into the unforgiving seas. The queen tried to stay close to the boat, but between holding her child’s head above the waves and the weight of her attire, she was quickly losing strength. She felt something brush up against her. The queen was so tired at this point, her arm holding her child threatened to release her. She saw the life boat coming for her, she knew she would be safe soon. But her child.. Suddenly she felt her child being taken from her arms, as if the water itself was wishing her to drop the child. She screamed up at the skies to whatever god might be listening.

“Save my baby, please! Save my Allene!”

Something came up from the waves, a sleek head, covered in scales, long like a horse’s. two horns upon the top of it’s head that looked like blackened icicles, Nearly glowing blue orbs seemed to bring the queen into a state of shock. This was a water dragon. Feared for their ever-changing moods, and loved for their kindness. The desperate mother, without a thought, handed her child up to the dragon, who took it in it’s maw gently. But as the life boats came closer, the dragon’s eyes became a glare. There was a man raging in the small life boat, he was screaming out of fear, and waved a sword in the air. The dragon gave a deep growl and sunk below the waves.

The queen screamed in horror as she watched her baby disappear beneath the black waves, her strength gave out and she began to sink, hoping to join her child in a watery grave. Large hands pulled at her soaked body before she could embrace the darkness that surrounded her and she was pulled into the chaos of life. She sobbed openly as her king held her, the dread and hatred in his eyes was enough to keep the crew silent while they worked on getting everyone safely to shore. The closest line of safety being Conach Moore, an island that held many mountains. On the eastern side there was a small village that would be able to help them get home to Riochtdome.

Beneath the unforgiving waves, in the calm depths of the ocean, the water dragon still carried the young child in it’s maw, a protective barrier surrounded it so that water did not enter the child’s lungs. The dragon had sensed darkness in the King’s heart and sought to save both the mother and the child, but when she had looked for the mother, the king was already pulling her with him. With a heavy heart she took the child to her home, Farlig Dyre. It was a rather large island, filled with forests, mountains, rivers, and plains. It was a beautiful land where Humans dared not tread, and Dragons lived peacefully. She swam up to the edge of the massive cliff that served as a shoreline, digging her claws into the rough earth as she hauled her long, lithe body up the mountainous wall. Her deep blue scales dripped water and left a wet trail as she climbed over the wall and onto the soft lush grass of the northern forest. She placed the now awake, and yet peaceful child, onto the ground. She held her massive head to the sky and beckoned her elders with a roar. As she waited for the sounds of familiar wings beating against the wind, she gathered a few logs and used her claw to dig a small, shallow hole She placed the logs inside and lit a fire with her maw. Her fire was blue, but unlike most fires, it wasn’t as hot as it should be. It was warm, like a sunny day rather than a bursting inferno. She placed the child near the edge of it so as to keep it warm, spreading one of her small wings over her so as to keep her dry. She curled herself up around the child the mother had called Allene, and looked to the skies, awaiting the judgment of her elders.

title: [FN]Dawn of Darkness: The Beginning

question: Explain the climax of the story.

answer: The climax occurs when the queen's baby disappears underneath the stormy waves, taken by a water dragon. The king attempts to fight the dragon, but fails and it escapes with the baby.

question: What does the story say about the king and queen's relationship?

answer: While it is not explicitly stated in the passage, the dragon senses a darkness in the king's heart and wanted to save the mother and and the child. This insinuates that the queen and king have a negative relationship.


text:
In April of 1969, work began on what would one day be the internet. Back then, it was known as ARPAnet, and it existed for the scientists of the US Government’s Advanced Research Projects Agency. They planned to share scientific papers, commentary, and ideas, across an internet that looked like this:

[The Internet 1977]

_A map of the ENTIRE internet circa 1977._

Yep, that’s the whole thing.

Fast forward to now, and the internet is everywhere and everything. It’s hard to imagine life without it, even if you actually remember life without it. It’s easy to feel that the web we know was created by visionaries who saw the big picture.

In fact, some of the most important parts of the web essentially just happened. Others were created to solve immediate problems, using the tools at hand.

The road to post-Owl Google from the World Wide Web project isn’t straight. But it does have some fascinating insights into how our online world took on its present shape. And if you’ve ever measured visitor behavior, optimized a website, worked with a team, created content or sent a marketing email, a lot of it looks eerily familiar.

[Old School World Wide Web]
_Source_

1. Hyperlinks

Hyperlinks are blue for two reasons, depending on who you believe.

Some people will point you to the earliest web browsers, like Mosaic for Windows:

[NCSA Mosaic MS Windows]

_Source_

Blue looks like a default choice. The background is already gray, the text is already black, and light colors don’t show up well on a black/white color scheme. So the options were red, blue and green.

That’s where the theorizing starts.

Red and green are detected by the same cells in the eye, and one of the most common forms of colorblindness is red-green colorblindness. It affects 7% of men and only 0.4% of women, but that’s still one person in 25 overall. So it made sense to choose a color that everyone could see and not mistake for black.

As Joe Clarke explains, in his book _Building Accessible Websites_ (2002):

  Red and green are the colors most affected by color-vision deficiency.  Almost no one has a blue deficiency. Accordingly, nearly everyone can  see blue, or, more accurately, almost everyone can distinguish blue as a color different from others.

That would make sense: and it is the reason other parts of the web are blue – like Facebook, which is blue because Mark Zuckerberg is red-green colorblind.

So there was a meeting where all the DARPAnet people and the early net pioneers all sat around a table and talked about which color to make links, and they decided on blue because of accessibility issues?

If only.

That’s not the way Tim Berners-Lee remembers it.

More than any single person, Tim Berners-Lee is responsible for inventing the internet. And blue hyperlinks? He doesn’t even remember who chose the color.

‘There is no reason why one should use color, or blue, to signify links: it is just a default,’ Berners-Lee told a Q&A at the World Wide Web Consortium. ‘I think the first WWW client (WorldWideWeb I wrote for the NeXT) used just underline to represent a link, as it was a spare emphasis form which isn’t used much in real documents.’

That jibes with what Ted Nelson, also a net pioneer, remembers. In 1965, he told Mashable’s Lance Ulanoff, ‘links were visible straps between pages,’ nothing more, and there was no question of what color to make them since ‘color screens were not on the horizon.’

In fact, recalls Berners-Lee, ‘blue came in as browsers went color — I don’t remember which was the first to use blue… My guess is that blue is the darkest color and so threatens the legibility least.’

So it’s not even his choice – and if it had been, it would have been his second choice. ‘I used green whenever I could in the early WWW design, for nature and because it is supposed to be relaxing.’

(If you feel the same way Tim does, and prefer your links green or some other color, check out this guide to changing their color.)

2. SPAM

I think spam deserves caps. The average adult now receives nearly 150 emails a day – how many of these are actually real communication, part of a real conversation that you’re actually interested and involved in?

And how many are just someone yelling in your ear about stuff?

[Email Breakdown]
_Source_

Not always coherently either.

The glory days of the weird, spam-detector-dodging subject line (Unl!kel¥ Médiç@7 Pr0c£dure, anyone?) may be behind us. But a whole lot of unsolicited, unwanted communications – a specific form of digital garbage, to all intents and purposes – still washes into the average inbox daily.

So where does spam come from, historically?

There’s now a spam family – neologisms to further differentiate between different types of spam. Spam is an email you didn’t ask for and didn’t want. Famspam is the same stuff, but from your family. Bacn, meanwhile, is spam you did ask for, but don’t want. (Suggestion, courtesy of Buzz Canuck: Prosciutto, for spam you didn’t ask for, but do want.)

Spam is a verb, a noun, an adverb and an adjective: you can spammily spam with spammy spam. (Don’t, though.)

But where did the spam story start?

Spam goes back to the days of ARPAnet. It’s older than the web, older than browsers, older than search engines. The first ever spam email was sent to every address on an ARPAnet mailing list, advertising a sales presentation for a computer:

[Digital product presentation]
_Source_

Sent to around 400 email addresses by Gary Thuerk, a marketer at Digital Equipment Corporation in 1978, the message created effects that seem very familiar. Thuerk didn’t see himself as a spammer: ‘I think of myself as the father of e-marketing. There’s a difference,’ he told Computer World in 2007. ‘E-spam,’ as Thuerk charmingly calls it, is sent to unqualified recipients who don’t want the message or the product it espouses. Thuerk’s message can’t have been spam, he says, because ‘we sold $13 million or $14 million worth’ of DEC computers on the back of it.

But as well as generating sales, Thuerk’s message generated a negative response: complaints began arriving daily from vexed ARPAnetters who didn’t want their inboxes cluttered, especially with materials that weren’t directly related to research for the US Army.

[Arpanet Management Branch]
_Source_

ARPAnet users resented being distracted from crucial research, not from checking Facebook at work or shopping for sneakers on eBay. But apart from that, the more things change…

3. Wikipedia

[Wikipedia]

Scourge of college professors, a boon to people who don’t know something but would like to, and a solid source of link juice for marketers: the web seems unthinkable without Wikipedia. For one thing, the top SERPs would look a lot different.

Founders Jimmy Wales and Larry Sangford started Wikipedia in 2001, under what Sangford thought was ‘a silly name for… a very silly project.’ The name portmanteaus ‘wiki’ with ‘encyclopedia,’ for an encyclopedia written by its readers.

‘The important part of wikis—what makes them different from any other type of website—is collaborative editing by the users,’ explains Zach LeBar.

At traditional encyclopedias, the staff uses the best information from reputable sources, overseen by editors who are subject matter experts with multi-decade careers or advanced degrees in their subjects. Maybe ‘[Encyclopedia] Britannica has long fostered vigorous interaction between its staff and its advisers, contributors, and audience,’ but they’re not talking about the kind of interaction that Rick Kay has with Jimmy Wales.

What makes Wikipedia interesting is that it works even though no-one works there (with the exception of a single software engineer), it’s accurate (generally) even though its staff aren’t officially subject matter experts, it’s well staffed even though it doesn’t have any staff, and its articles are edited so democratically that Wikians don’t simply vote on articles. Instead, there’s a dialogue that seeks a ‘good enough’ consensus according to the Wikipedia rules.

Wikipedia works on a mish-mash of social styles. A majority of voters isn’t enough to change or delete articles. Some users have a louder voice than others, but only so long as they don’t use it. Most importantly, the mix of work and management styles is there to facilitate getting things done: ‘the passion of the community is for the quality of the work, not necessarily for the process that we use to generate it,’ Wales told a TED audience.

4. Linux

Linux is the kind of OS that couldn’t exist without the web. Its creator, Linus Torvalds, an American-Finnish software engineer, wrote the original 10,000 lines of code for the system; it now stands at almost 22 million lines of code, created and added by more than 5,000 individuals representing nearly 500 corporations.

[Company Changes Percent]
_Source_

And unseen, unheard, it’s everywhere. You’re almost certainly using it right now: even if you’re reading this on a Windows or Mac machine (and not an Android or Chrome device running a Linux derivative), you’re probably connecting to a Linux server to see it. It also runs a few other things, like the stock exchange, Google, Facebook, Amazon, ‘and much, much more,’ says Jim Zemlin, the executive director of the Linux Foundation.

Linux is an example of the web building itself, the inspiration for a million overheated conversations about self-assembling systems. But what’s the vision behind it?

There isn’t one.

‘I am not a visionary. I do not have a five-year plan. I’m an engineer.’ Rather than looking at the clouds, says Torvalds, ‘I’m looking at the ground, and I want to fix the pothole that’s right in front of me before I fall in. This is the kind of person I am.’

Linux grew out of the opportunity for thousands of people, all over the world, to work on something that fixed their potholes – and helped others fix theirs at the same time. Amazon, Facebook, eBay and others collaborate to improve Linux, which they then use to compete with each other.

5. Blogs

Blogging is one of the main things the internet is for. Reading and publishing blogs takes up a pretty big chunk of the internet. Check out how the audience for blogs has grown since 2006:

[October 2006 chart]
_Source_

And they’re getting a constant stream of content to read and look at too. These two images, from World of Meters (actually, from their blog) were taken ten seconds apart:

[Blog posts written today]
[Blog posts written today 2]

That’s a lot of blogging. Safe to say, it’s an established thing. Where did it come from?

The first blog to call itself a blog was Robot Wisdom, run by Jorn Barger. Essentially, he shared and curated links – he ‘logged’ the web as he browsed it, which is where the word ‘blog’ comes from. Distinct from a personal website or homepage, it wasn’t an online calling card or a piece of real estate so much as it was a participation in a conversation. That fits with Barger’s past: ex-commune dwelling hippie, by the late 80s Jorn was a Usenet junkie. Picture a barebones, text-only forum. That was Usenet, long before there was broadband or even domain names.

After falling in with Usenet, Barger fell out with some Usenetters. The Kate Bush fan forum was a particular source of friction. (Yes, really.) So he looked for a place where he could write, communicate and comment on his own terms.

He came up with a webpage that would link out – to other pages on the same site, or to other sites. New entries would appear at the top, so scrolling down meant going backward in time and the freshest content was always served first.

Sound familiar?

[Robot Wisdom Auxilary]
_Source_

But that doesn’t actually look, or work, a whole lot like the blogs we know now.

What took blogs from being a menace serious enough to make Forbes print this:

[Forbes attack of the blogs]
_Source_

…to the situation we have now, where Forbes is one of the millions of business blogs?

The factors that would make blogs the key medium of our time were already in place early on. But the innovation that made the difference was based on information about visitor behavior: long before it became a catchphrase, the adoption of blogging as an approach to web publishing was data driven.

Here’s how it happened. Magazines like _Wired_ had moved online – when you put William Gibson on the cover, you kind of have to react when _Neuromancer_ looks like it’s coming true. _Slate, Urban Desires_ and more were there too. But they’d all stuck with their magazine format. The front page told you what was inside, and the new ‘issue’ was ‘published’ weekly or monthly, all at once.

The editors of _Suck_, a brash satirical magazine site that also pioneered the use of hypertext as emphasis or commentary, analysed the server logs of _Hotwired_, the website of _Wired_ magazine, to see how visitors behaved on the site.What they found was that people only came to the site when there was something new to see. With the restraints of physical publishing gone, reasoned editor-founders Carl Steadman and Joey Anuff, there was no reason not to publish constantly, every weekday.

And after they started doing it, everybody else joined in. The blog as we know it was fully formed.

Conclusion

The Internet we’ve come to recognize has actually been assembled on the fly, often by people who were trying to do something else. There’s no grand plan. Instead, people wanted an operating system that ran light and fast, or more buyers for their computer business, or somewhere to talk about Kate Bush, so they made it happen. And the web itself allowed those things to spread. You can start that conversation about self-assembling systems now, if you like.

-   Author
-   Recent Posts

[]

Richard Bayston creates copy and content at RBCopywriting.com, mostly about tech, digital marketing and content strategy. When he’s not doing that, he’s arguing amicably with his wife and Googling the answers.

[]

question: What does the article say about the 1970s?

answer: The article shares a map of the entire internet in 1977. The first spam mail was sent to around 400 email addresses by Gary Thuerk in 1978.

question: What does the article say about the future of the internet?

question: What does the article say about individuals who made important contributions to the development of internet?

answer: Tim Berners-Lee contributed vastly to the invention of the internet. Ted Nelson is also an internet pioneer. Jimmy Wales and Larry Sangford founded Wikipedia in 2001. Linus Torvalds created the Linux OS.


text:
AVRAHAM (AVI) GOVER (Hebrew: אברהם גובר; born: 6 July 1945) is an Israeli professor of Electrical Engineering in the Physical Electronics Department of the Engineering Faculty at Tel Aviv University, specializing in Quantum Electronics and FEL (free-electron laser) Physics. Gover is also the head of the Israeli Center for Radiation Sources and Applications (FEL Knowledge Center) in Ariel. In 2005, he was awarded the international FEL prize “in recognition for his outstanding contributions to Free Electron Laser science and technology”.[1]

Early life and Education

Avraham Gover was born in Lvov, Poland to holocaust survivor parents – Hella and Aharon Graubart, and emigrated to Israel with his family in 1949. He studied at “Kugel” high school in Holon, and served in the IDF as a communications officer. He received his B.S. in Physics with distinction in 1968, and his M.S. in Solid State Physics with special distinction (1971) from Tel Aviv University.

His Ph.D. degree was received in 1975 from California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Under the supervision of Prof. Amnon Yariv, Gover authored the thesis Wave Interactions in Periodic Structures and Periodic Dielectric Waveguides, laying foundation for the theory of electron beam radiators and Free Electron Lasers (FEL) in the high gain regime.[2][3]

During his M.S. studies, Gover was a consultant at Tadiran Transistors Plant, involved in the first development of Integrated Circuits in Israel. During his Ph.D. studies, Gover was also a consultant at Meret - Electro-Optic Industry and at Heliotech, division of Spectrolab, involved in first development of Vertical Multi-Junction Solar Cells.[4]

Academic Career

In 1976 Gover became a Research Fellow in Caltech, and in 1977 he joined Tel Aviv University as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Physical Electronics of the Engineering faculty of Tel Aviv University. Gover served as the Head of the Kranzberg Institute of Electronic Devices Research, at Tel Aviv University in 1984-1985, and became a full professor in 1991.[5]

In 1988, Gover founded and headed a consortium for the development of the first Israeli FEL facility, including Tel-Aviv University, Weizmann Institute, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and NRC. The consortium was steered by Prof. Yuval Neeman, the Israeli Minister of Science and Technology at the time. First lasing was demonstrated on Weizmann’s Electrostatic Tandem Accelerator in 1998.

In 2003 Gover founded the FEL National Knowledge Center for Radiation Sources and Applications of the Israeli Ministry of Science – a collaboration of Tel Aviv and Ariel Universities - and he heads it since.[6] Gover was holding the Ludwig Jokel Chair of Electronics at Tel-Aviv University during 2006-2010, and in 2011 he retired from Tel Aviv as professor emeritus. Gover has mentored over 40 Master and PhD students and postdocs in the Faculty of Engineering, Physical Electronics Department and the Physics Department at Tel Aviv University. He also co-advised 3 PhD students in UCLA Physics Department, CA, USA.

During his sabbaticals, Gover was a visiting professor at Stanford University, Brookhaven National Lab, N.Y, University of California, Santa Barbara, University of Maryland, College Park, and University of California, L.A. He was also a Cheng Tsang Man Endowed Professor at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.[7]

Research

Gover’s research areas include: Quantum electronics, electromagnetics, plasma physics, electro-optics, lasers, electronic devices, semiconductors and semiconductor devices. His specific research topics are:

-   free-electron quantum optics.
-   Interaction of quantum electron wavefunction with light and matter.
-   Electron beam interaction with electromagnetic waves, free electron lasers, Cerenkov-Smith-Purcell radiation.
-   Superradiance and Stimulated Superradiance of bunched electron beams and shot-noise suppression.
-   Millimeter Waves and THz radiation.
-   Radiative energy transmission in free space.[8]

Gover’s main research activity concentrates presently on fundamental theoretical investigation of the quantum electron wavefunction interactions with light and matter and the transition of free electrons from quantum to classical expression (wave-particle duality). On this subject, and on subjects of laser particle accelerator, ultra-fast electron microscopy and compact free electron radiation sources from THz to X-Ray, he collaborates with front-line research laboratories in the US and Germany.

In 2005 Gover was awarded the International FEL Prize “For outstanding contribution to Free Electron Laser science and technology”. In 2007 he became an IEEE fellow “For contributions to free electron lasers and superradiant bunched e-beam radiators”.[9] In 2008 he became a fellow of the American Physical Society, “For outstanding scientific achievements and leadership in international cooperation in the area of Free Electron Lasers”.[10]

Professional Experience

Gover was consultant at the Naval Research Lab. Plasma Div., Washington, D.C., U.S. in 1978-1984. He was the Principal Investigator on the Strategic Defense Initiative Office (SDIO) contract on Free Electron Lasers in Science Applications International Corporation, Plasma Physics Division in 1987-1988, and the head of the Israeli FEL consortium (TAU, RAFAEL, NRC) in the years 1992-2000.[11] During 1988-1993 Gover served the FEL community in the Executive Committee of the International FEL Conference and in its FEL prize sub-committee. In 2005 he served as a member of the “Soft X-Ray Free Electron Laser Committee” of ESFRI (EU), in charge of preparing a road map of the long term scientific infrastructure development of the European Union Commission.[12]

Gover was one of the founders of the Israeli National Inter-Senate Committee for Academic Independence, and served in it as the representative of Tel-Aviv University 2004-2013.[13]

Publications

Prof. Gover has authored over 250 scientific publications, and six patents.[14]

Selected Articles

-   Gover, Avraham, and Paul Stella. “Vertical multijunction solar-cell one-dimensional analysis.” IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices 21.6 (1974): 351-356.
-   A. Gover, A. Yariv, "Collective and Single Electron Interactions of electron beams with Electromagnetic Waves and Free Electron Lasers” (invited) Appl. Physics 16, 121-138 (1978).
-   A. Gover and P. Sprangle, “A Unified Theory of Magnetic-Bremsstrahlung, Electrostatic Bremsstrahlung, Compton-Raman Scattering and Cerenkov-Smith Purcell Free Electron Lasers”, IEEE J. of Quantum Electronics, QE-17, 1196-1215 (1981).
-   A. Friedman, A. Gover, S. Ruschin, G. Kurizki, A. Yariv “Spontaneous and Stimulated Emission from Quasi-Free Electrons” Reviews of Modern Physics, 60, 471-535 (April 1988).
-   Abramovich, A., M. Canter, A. Gover, J. Sokolowski, Y. M. Yakover, Y. Pinhasi, I. Schnitzer, and J. Shiloh. “High spectral coherence in long-pulse and continuous free-electron laser: Measurements and theoretical limitations.” Physical review letters 82, no. 26 (1999): 5257.
-   A. Gover, “Lasers: Free Electron Lasers” Encyclopedia of Modern Optics, Ed. R. D. Guenther, D. G. Steel and L. Bayvel, Elsevier, Oxford (2005);
-   A. Gover, “Superradiant and stimulated superradiant emission in prebunched electron-beam radiators – part I: Formulation”, Physical Review Special Topics – Accelerators and Beams Vol. 8, issue 3 (030701) (2005).
-   A. Gover, E. Dyunin, “Collective interaction control and reduction of optical frequency shot-noise in charged particle beams”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 154801 (2009).
-   E. Hemsing, P. Musumeci, S. Reiche, R. Tikhoplav, A. Marinelli, J. B. Rosenzweig, A. Gover, “Helical Electron-Beam Microbunching by Harmonic Coupling in a Helical Undulator”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 174801 (2009).
-   A. Nause, E. Dyunin, A. Gover, “Optical frequency Shot- Noise suppression in electron beams: 3-D analysis”, J. of Applied Physics 107, 103101 (2010).
-   Gover, Avraham, Ariel Nause, Egor Dyunin, and Mikhail Fedurin. “Beating the shot-noise limit.” Nature Physics 8, no. 12 (2012): 877.
-   N. Voloch Bloch, Y. Lereah, Y. Lilach, A. Gover, A. Arie, “Generation of electron airy beams”, Nature 494, pp.331-335 (2013).
-   N. Sudar, P. Musumeci, J. Duris, I. Gadjev, M. Polyanskiy, I. Pogorelsky, M. Fedurin, C. Swinson, K. Kusche, M. Babzien, A. Gover “High efficiency energy extraction from a relativistic electron beam in a strongly tapered undulator”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 174801 (2016).
-   E. Curry, S. Fabbri, P. Musumeci, A. Gover, “THz-driven zero-slippage IFEL scheme for phase space manipulation”, New Journal of Physics, 18, 113045, doi:10.1088/1367-2630/18/11/113045 (2016).
-   A. Gover, Y. Pan, “Dimension-Dependent Stimulated Radiative Interaction of a Single Electron Quantum Wavepacket”, Phys. Lett. A 382, pp. 1550-1555 (2018).
-   E. Curry, S. Fabbri, J. Maxson, P. Musumeci, A. Gover, " Meter-Scale Terahertz-Driven acceleration of a relativistic beam", Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 094801 (2018).
-   Gover A, Ianconescu R, Friedman A, Emma C, Sudar N, Musumeci P, Pellegrini C. Superradiant and stimulated-superradiant emission of bunched electron beams. Reviews of Modern Physics. 2019 Aug 19;91(3):035003.
-   Pan, Yiming, Bin Zhang, and Avraham Gover. “Anomalous Photon-induced Near-field Electron Microscopy.” Physical review letters 122.18 (2019): 183204.
-   Pan, Yiming, and Avraham Gover. “Spontaneous and stimulated emissions of a preformed quantum free-electron wave function.” Physical Review A 99.5 (2019): 052107.
-   Gover, Avraham, and Amnon Yariv. “Free-Electron–Bound-Electron Resonant Interaction.” Physical Review Letters 124.6 (2020): 064801.

Personal Life

Gover is married to Joan. They have three children.

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title: Avraham Gover

question: Summarize Gover's early life.

answer: Gover was born in Lvov, Poland to Holocaust survivor parnets Hella and Aharon Graubart. They emigrated to Israel with his family to 1949. He studied at "Kugel" high school in Holon, and served in the IDF as a communications officer. He received his Bachelor of Science in Physics with distinction in 1968, and his M.S. in Solid State Physics with special distinction from Tel Aviv University in 1971.

question: What subject does Gover research?

answer: Gover researches quantum electronics, electromagnetics, plasma physics, electro-optics, lasers, electronic devices, semiconductors devices. Specifically, his topics include free-electron quantum optics, interaction of quantum electron wavefunction with light and matter, and electron beam interaction with electromagnetic waves, free electron lasers, and Cerennkov-Smith-Purcell radiation.

question: How much money has Gover made throughout his career?


text:
GING TEA GARDEN is a census town in the Darjeeling Pulbazar CD block in the Darjeeling Sadar subdivision of the Darjeeling district in the state of West Bengal, India.

Geography

Location

Ging Tea Garden is located at .

Ging Tea Estate is located in the Lebong Valley, around 10 km north-east of Darjeeling.[1]

Area overview

The map alongside shows the northern portion of the Darjeeling Himalayan hill region. Kangchenjunga, which rises with an elevation of is located further north of the area shown.[2]Sandakphu, rising to a height of , on the Singalila Ridge, is the highest point in West Bengal.[3]In Darjeeling Sadar subdivision 61% of the total population lives in the rural areas and 39% of the population lives in the urban areas.[4][5] There are 78 tea gardens/ estates (the figure varies slightly according to different sources), producing and largely exporting Darjeeling tea in the district. It engages a large proportion of the population directly/ indirectly.[6] Some tea gardens were identified in the 2011 census as census towns or villages. [7] Such places are marked in the map as CT (census town) or R (rural/ urban centre). Specific tea estate pages are marked TE.

Note: The map alongside presents some of the notable locations in the subdivision. All places marked in the map are linked in the larger full screen map.

Demographics

According to the 2011 Census of India, Ging Tea Garden had a total population of 4,089 of which 2,037 (50%) were males and 2,037 (50%) were females. There were 345 persons in the age range of 0 to 6 years. The total number of literate people in Ging Tea Garden was 3,086 (75.47% of the population over 6 years).[8]

Infrastructure

According to the _District Census Handbook 2011, Darjiling_, Ging Tea Garden covered an area of 7.4908 km². Among the civic amenities, it had 16 km roads with open drains, the protected water supply involved overhead tank, spring and tap water from untreated sources. It had 879 domestic electric connections. Among the medical facilities it had 1 dispensary/ health centre. Among the educational facilities it had were 6 primary schools, the nearest middle, secondary and senior secondary school at Ging bustee 3 km away. It had 5 non-formal education centres (Sarba Siksha Abhiyan). Among the social, cultural and recreational facilities, it had 1 public library. An important commodity it manufactured was tea.[9]

Ging Tea Estate

Ging Tea Estate, managed by the Chamong Group, produces premium Darjeeling Tea. It is organically certified. The estate is spread over an area of from a height of .[10]

Chamong Group

The Chamong Group is the largest producer of organic Darjeeling tea and Assam tea. It produces 3,000 tonnes annually and employs 10,000 persons (including 7,000 women). It owns 4 tea estates in Assam and 13 in Darjeeling. The tea estates in Darjeeling are: Pussimbing, Chamong, Tumsong, Lingia, Nagri Farm, Bannockburn, Dhajea, Shree Dwarika, Ging, Soom, Phoobsering, Tukdah and Marybong. It exports tea to the US, Europe, Japan and the Middle East.[11]

Tourism

Ging Tea House is a heritage plantation retreat. Originally a British planter's bungalow built in 1864, now restored and renovated.[12][13]

Education

Siksha Sangha High School is a private coeducational higher secondary institution established in 1953 at PO Lebong.[14][15]

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title: Ging Tea Garden

question: What does the text say about tea?

answer: The test talks about Ging Tea Garden, a census town in West Bengal. The town and the district it belongs to (Darjeeling) exports tea, containing 78 tea gardens or estates. The Chamong Group is the largest tea producer in the area, producing 3000 tonnes of tea every year, and employing 10,000 people. Most people in the area work in tea gardens.

question: What does the text say about how to make tea?


text:
HI EVERYBODY, AFTER A STRONG RESULT IN RUSSIA, IT WAS GREAT TO FOLLOW THAT RACE WEEKEND UP WITH ONE OF OUR STRONGEST PERFORMANCES OF OUR SEASON IN JAPAN…

Strong out of the box

Suzuka is one of Formula 1’s historic tracks – and one of my personal favourites. The Japanese fans are among the most passionate in the world and deliver a sensational atmosphere. Thanks to everyone who gave me amazing gifts over the weekend.

On Friday, even though we started on the wrong foot in FP1 having to stop on track straight out of the pits, we very quickly got on the pace. I felt immediately at home in the car, I could push flat-out in all the fast corners, which requires good confidence for a driver, and that is good news around a demanding track like Suzuka.

FP2 was a little different, as everyone was trying to set quick lap times in case qualifying was cancelled because of Typhoon Hagibis and they used the times of that session to decide the grid. We were in the groove and very fast in that session, finishing P7 behind the usual suspects!

[F1 Grand Prix of Japan]

Extracting the maximum in qualifying

With the circuit closed on Saturday, as the typhoon approached, final practice was cancelled and qualifying moved to Sunday. It was a special feeling to pull out of the garage on Sunday morning knowing you had to immediately be on the pace without having had FP3 to get a few laps to warm up the body and the brain.

It was pretty windy, which made conditions challenging and, due to the heavy rain on Saturday, the track was really green so it was difficult to know where the limit of the car would be.

In Q1 I managed to set a lap which was as fast as the time I set in FP2. Straight out of the box I was quicker than some of the cars in the top teams, proving that the confidence was high and I could have a very strong session.

My feeling in the car got better through qualifying and a very strong lap in the last run meant I finished P7 – best of the rest. It wasn’t all smooth, though, as we had a problem with the batteries. The older they are, the less energy they are able to recover from the MGU-K, so the data showed it had cost me a bit of time, around a couple of tenths.

In the race it is not such a big problem but in qualifying, where a tenth can make a great difference, it becomes a bigger challenge. In Japan, I compensated with a very good lap.

Carlos Sainz: 'It's been a perfect day'

The strongest weekend of the year

I got a decent start, not the perfect one, but I chose the right lines for Turn 1 and Turn 2 and that gave me the chance to fight with Lewis into T3. He was in my blind spot and by the time I saw him it was already very tight there. He had better traction and came really fast, so I couldn’t complete the overtake. But from there on, I settled into my pace in P4.

My good pace and the strength of our package became clear when Albon couldn’t pass us on track, he had to do it by strategy. I could have pitted to cover from his undercut but we decided to go long on our first stint with the softs. That meant we could make our one-stop strategy work and have fresher medium tyres to push at the end of the race.

At that point the race was quite lonely, until the team let me know Charles had cleared the traffic and was coming up fast, so I picked up the pace and managed the gap to the Ferrari, forcing him to damage his tyres and eventually pit. It was our third P5 of the season, which is a very strong result.

It was probably the strongest weekend of the season for McLaren as a team in terms of pace and for me in terms of execution. I’m really pleased. It’s not easy to finish best of the rest consistently as the midfield is tighter than it looks. The only downside was that Lando couldn’t finish in the points due to an unlucky situation. The team definitely deserved a double point finish in Japan!

Carlos Sainz's Diary - Bowling in Japan

A strange day off on Saturday

With Saturday’s running cancelled, Friday night was more relaxed than usual. Normally you go to bed very early and try to focus on qualifying. But as we didn’t have to go in on Saturday, we went bowling that night. As you can see from the video, in our costumes, Pin Norris and Mario Sainz had some good fun!

As you all saw on social media, on Saturday we mostly played FIFA. It was a rare relaxed day chilling with a few of us drivers in the hotel as we were advised not to leave because of the conditions. Checo and I dominated the team championship, which was two against two. In the individual competition, I have to admit Max and Checo are a step ahead of me so I probably need to play a bit more! But it was good fun!

Carlos Sainz's Diary - Sushi night

Local cuisine

I love how good the food is in Japan. I went for Sushi on Wednesday with our engineers. Thanks to Hiroshi, our chief engineer, we went to this very special and authentic restaurant where we ate the best sushi I have ever eaten.

There were some interesting pieces, like guts of fish. It was not as bad as I thought, but it had a very strong flavour of sea salt. It was a very weird taste, which was nice, but a bit overpowering!

On Sunday night we went to Matoba, one of my favourite restaurants ever, with Lando and his team and my team. We go to visit this place every year. They do an incredible Japanese and Korean beef with a special sauce on the grill. We always have fun trying to speak Japanese with them. It’s such a fun experience and they are super friendly. Food in Japan is the best of the season!

Carlos Sainz's Diary - Meat dinner

Less practice would be good

There was a lot of talk about Super Sunday, with qualifying and the race taking place on the same day. Amid discussions about the race weekend format for the future, a consequence of the typhoon meant F1 was able to experiment with a different weekend format and see how it impacts the spectacle.

I fully support having shorter grand prix weekends. We have too much practice and the Formula 1 weekend is a bit too long, especially with this many races.

However, I don’t agree with putting qualifying on Sunday as it takes away from the spectacle. By doing qualifying in the morning and then the race a few hours later, there isn’t really time to digest how good and intense a qualifying session is.

Normally on Saturday night, there is a lot of talk about qualifying and a lot of hype for the race. Then on Sunday, as you don’t get in car till 2pm, there’s a lot of build-up and tension. I believe we need to keep this.

I’m in favour of reducing the amount of free practice. I enjoyed doing qualifying without having done FP3 just a few hours before. It was fun having to experiment and go flat out in Q1 without really knowing what the car was going to do. I think it benefits the show and a shorter weekend would bring down a bit the huge amount of work that is done by the team crews, especially mechanics.

And that’s it for this week. Thanks for reading, I appreciate your support. As ever, stay in touch with me via @CarlosSainz55. I can’t wait for the Mexico-United States double header. I’ll speak to you when I’m back!

[sains-sig.png]

question: Discuss the writer's culinary adventures in Japan.

answer: The writer dined with their engineers at a Japanese eatery. Their head engineer, Hiroshi, introduced them to a fantastic and authentic restaurant where they had the best sushi the writer had ever had. Also, they ate fish guts for the first time, which they found to be more enjoyable than imagined. After that, the writer and his team went to Matoba restaurant on a Sunday with Lando and his team. This eatery delivers some of the best grilled Japanese and Korean meat ever. Every year, the writer and his crew go to this eatery.

question: What were some of the challenges the racer experienced on the track?

answer: In FP1, the racer's team had to stop straight from the pits, but they swiftly caught up. Then, the circuit closed due to the approaching storm, and qualifying was moved to Sunday. Weather conditions were poor due to wind and heavy rain, making it impossible to discern where the car's limit was. The racer's experience in the car improved during qualifying, and a great lap in the final run helped them finish first. However, they had a battery issue, so it wasn't completely smooth. The MGU-K can recover less energy as they age. The data showed it cost the driver a few tenths of a second. It's not a huge issue in the race, but it becomes a greater issue in qualifying, where a tenth may mean a lot.


text:
Barbara, a 52-year-old woman, appears one morning at a Baltimore hospital emergency room complaining of a sore foot. After the EMS physicians examine her, they diagnose dry gangrene of the toe and admit her to a general ward for monitoring.

On the third day, Barbara shows signs of what looks like pneumonia. They inspect her and prescribe the usual treatment, a course of antibiotics. However, three days later, Barbara’s heart rate suddenly rises, and in the afternoon, she starts breathing faster. (Barbara is not her real name.)

[hospital monitor]
A patient's vital signs being monitored in the hospital.
During the following twelve hours, her condition deteriorates rapidly until she enters septic shock—a severe condition with mortality rates as high 50%. Barbara’s doctors hurriedly prepare her for transfer to the intensive care unit.

But, unfortunately for Barbara, it is already too late. Despite receiving every possible treatment during her next three weeks in the ICU, the woman grows steadily worse until her kidneys then lungs finally fail, and on the 22 nd day of her hospitalization, she dies.

Barbara’s mild foot infection had escalated into fatal septic shock nearly entirely undetected.

Barbara’s story is far from unusual. Every year, about 250,000 people in the U.S. die from sepsis, which occurs when the body exhibits an extreme reaction to an infection. Diagnosis is particularly difficult because sepsis often shows no obvious signs until organ dysfunction has already begun, says Suchi Saria, a machine learning researcher at Johns Hopkins University whose current focus is precision health care. “Early interventions such as antibiotics have been shown to improve outcomes,” Saria says, “but the disease often goes undetected for too long.”

Driven by the nation’s aging population, the rise of drug-resistant bacteria, and the growth of medical interventions, sepsis has become one of the most common reasons for hospitalization in the U.S. More than 1.5 million domestic sepsis cases now occur annually, which accounts for more than $20 billion a year in health-care spending, stemming mainly from the need for more intensive care and longer hospital stays.

Worse, sepsis now contributes to up to half of all deaths of hospitalized patients, “making it the eleventh biggest cause of death in the U.S., killing more people than breast cancer, prostate cancer, and AIDS combined,” Saria says.

[National Lab Week]
Tech. Sgt. Elizabeth Ehrnschwender unloads blood cultures being monitored for the presence or absence of microorganisms in blood.
She says she tells Barbara’s story because it helps cut through the scary statistics to personalize the ongoing tragedy of sepsis in America. But it’s also because she and her team at the Hopkins’ Machine Augmented Decision Making Lab think that Barbara is just the kind of patient that their new computer system should be able to help save, perhaps soon.

“The signs that help pinpoint the diagnosis may already be in your data, but the data in electronic medical records are really messy,” Saria says. “We’re designing computer algorithms based on statistical and computational techniques that were recently developed to allow clinical experts to identify sepsis faster.”

When Delay Means Death

Researchers have shown that every hour a sepsis victim goes untreated adds about 8% to their mortality rate, says Dr. Peter J. Pronovost, who directs Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality and is collaborating with Saria on this work. “So, every second’s delay in recognizing it is critical—literally a matter of life or death.”

“The key with sepsis is early diagnosis,” says Dr. Emanuel Rivers, a professor of critical care medicine at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and a pioneer in the development of the procedures widely used today to detect and treat the condition. “You need to closely monitor high-risk patients, to recognize any signs of sepsis as soon as possible, and then have something to do about it that works.”

Since Rivers and his colleagues published that sepsis work in 2001, “what had been ignored has become a hot area,” he says. “A whole group of scientists have focused on early diagnosis, bringing to bear different expertise, different technologies and approaches.”

“The key with sepsis is early diagnosis.”

To improve sepsis care, Rivers continues, many health research organizations have begun to implement various screening tools that can send an alert or alarm to a clinician or nurse when a patient meets certain criteria that classify them as high risk. He says that at least five healthcare companies are planning to introduce commercial sepsis-alert products soon, noting that they resemble existing monitoring/alert products for cardiology patients. “A computer algorithm analyzes all the health signals, such as vital signs and metabolic levels, from the patients’ electronic records to tell which have the greatest likelihood of getting sepsis.”

“The trick is to monitor all the variables that really mean something,” Rivers says, “and to, as they say, ‘get rid of the noise in the data’ that could lead to system hiccups where the monitoring data somehow gets translated into some unwanted action.”

Crying Wolf

“One key issue with these screening systems is false alarms,” Pronovost says. “You can’t have the alarm system crying wolf or it will be ignored.” So-called alarm fatigue results when people learn to ignore computerized flags, alerts, and notifications because too many turn out to be false.

In 2015, Saria and her team first showed that a computer algorithm they developed could sift through patients’ records and predict septic shock—the deadliest version of sepsis—in 85% of cases, usually more than a day before onset. Two-thirds of the time the system predicted sepsis before it inflicted any damage. That’s 60% better detection performance compared to current screening tests without raising the rate of false alerts.

Saria believes that reducing the rate of false alerts further is crucial for practical adoption. “Doctors are busy people, and their every moment is valuable.”

The Bayesian Way

Medical data is challenging to work with because of widespread omissions, inputs from various types of instrumentation with different measurement practices, and other dissimilarities that had always made such computer analysis seemingly intractable. The team’s tool, Targeted Real-time Early Warning System, or TREWS, aims to deploy these machine-learning methods inside hospitals to help save lives.

The researchers realized early on that AI algorithms that leverage so-called Bayesian techniques in probability and statistics might do the trick because “they are fundamentally suited to dealing with uncertainty,” Saria says.

Bayesian machine learning allows researchers to encode in models their prior beliefs about what those models should look like and how they should behave. Then, as additional information comes in, they can update those beliefs. To get a feel for how Bayesian inference works, consider the example of a physician who sees a patient complaining of chest pain. The doctor will have a very different expectation of whether the diagnosis is heart disease if the patient is a 65-year-old man versus a 12-year-old boy. As she receives new evidence such as electrocardiogram (ECG) test results, the doctor will update her beliefs to incorporate the new information. Bayesian algorithms can similarly adjust to new information, but at the same time are able to operate in domains where data is patchy and sometimes inaccurate.

[e-coli-ndm-1-cropped]
This flexibility is critical for models that are used in healthcare because “medical data comprise hundreds of different signals each with its own significance and effect—or not,” Saria says. In fact, it’s a moving haystack, hiding a few, potentially fake needles. While there are many signals, not all of them are relevant to forecasting for a specific patient, plus many readings are missing at various points, and data errors are often frequent. The probabilistic foundations for Bayesian machine-learning techniques make it well equipped for characterizing the uncertainties that accompany flawed data sets, allowing better, cleaner evaluation of the quality of the modeling results.

“It’s a question of signal-to-noise, of competently estimating and always propagating the uncertainties associated with the entire system and each part,” Saria says. Essentially, each data point is always linked with a certain uncertainty, or error bar, that serves as a gauge of the signal’s trustworthiness. That uncertainty can be incorporated into the future modeling analyses, ensuring that it’s not lost along the way. Knowing the uncertainties associated with each data point ultimately makes the final result that much more valuable.

Embracing Uncertainties

TREWS uses Bayesian inference methods to propagate the uncertainties of each medical data point throughout the analysis. For example, this approach is able to start out by asking—and then accommodating—something as basic as, how accurate and reliable are all those blood pressure measurements in the first place? It automatically weights more accurate or trustworthy variables more heavily in the output, and it reduces the weight given to less reliable measures—exactly the sort of strategy that well-trained humans use.

This machine learning approach differs from the more familiar AI technique of deep-learning, which are interconnected stacks of mathematical optimization functions that can operate in parallel and “learn” by tackling similar tasks or problems over and over again. The latter have shown tremendous success in diverse imaging-based, pattern-recognition, gaming, and other applications.

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“But in medicine, where reliability is paramount,” Saria says, “we need techniques that are well-adapted to solving time-based prediction tasks with messy, limited data.” In joint work with Hossein Soleimani, a postdoctoral fellow in Saria’s lab, they show that their newer Bayesian way boosts “true positive” rates of detection by 200% to 300% over alternate state-of-the-art approaches, she says.

“What is also novel about this system that is that it could recommend the best personalized course of treatment for each sepsis patient,” Pronovost says. When the system recognizes that the patient is at risk, it gives care providers the option to tailor their therapy based upon the type of infection they have.

Rivers, the sepsis expert, thinks that improved, TREWS-type analysis of patient monitoring could in time “turn up some new clues about sepsis” that lead to more effective therapies. He suspects, for instance, that close monitoring of patients’ biorhythms could provide useful clues that would justify triggering alarms at certain points.

Real-World Trials

Introducing a new predictive tool into the complex, often-interrupted and high-stakes environment of a hospital is challenging, something that the TREWS team is now focusing on as it prepares for real-world trials at Howard County General Hospital in Columbia, Maryland. These trials will determine whether the interactive system actually works in the field. The prototype algorithm is being embedded into the hospital’s electronic medical records system.

There’s still lots to be worked out, from physician and nurse workflows, general usability tweaks, data validation, and training. They all have to be addressed beforehand if the implementation is to be successful. Ultimately, Saria says, TREWS is designed to seamlessly integrate into doctors’ routines, saving them time in sifting through the information they need to make decisions.

[Enterobacteriaceae]
“We need the systems to produce answers that can be relied upon,” she says. “We designed the system to operate in real-time and be highly interactive. But to start, we conducted a pilot trial in the background that allows us to measure physicians’ behavior and how the system could affect their practice.”

“Right now we’re digging into where it should live within the clinician’s workflow,” says Dr. Anirudh Sridharan, a hospitalist and geriatrician at Howard County General Hospital who is working with Saria’s team. According Sridharan, the researchers are currently homing in on the best way to notify clinicians of potential sepsis cases and develop effective protocols for responding.

“We’re addressing things as basic as ensuring we’re alerting the right person on the team,” Sridharan says. “Asking questions like: Should the alerts be active? Passive? Do you want a text notification on your phone? It’s all part of deploying the tool to best effect.”

“We’re deploying a tool that can potentially deliver orders of magnitude of better care by surfacing the affected patients earlier so we can help them before it’s too late,” he adds. “And from what I’ve seen, we’re going to see a lot more AI in hospitals and health care.”

Making Use of Electronic Medical Records

It’s been a long wait for electronic medical data technology to truly pay off, Sridharan points out. “The old care model basically has been to replicate what was on paper records, and it certainly brought advantages such as better, updatable, trackable records that, for example, eliminated mistakes from chicken-scratch scripts and so forth,” he says. “But what everyone’s been waiting for is for everybody to stop just entering digital data, and somebody to finally take all this digital information and turn it into a real aid in making medical decisions.” Earlier systems provided “answers that were so simplistic as to be useless,” he adds.

“Electronic medical records are the single greatest, most disagreeable, disappointment of modern practice,” says Dr. Michael Gropper, chairman of critical care medicine at the University of California, San Francisco’s School of Medicine. “We haven’t been smart about how we created the electronic records, and now we’re paying the price.”

Meanwhile, the practice of medicine has changed, Gropper says. “Medicine used to be based on the hero model with the physician in the role of single, all-knowing decision-maker. That’s all changed; medicine is a team effort now.”

“Improved outcomes rely on leveraging all the members as well as all the technology to deliver the very best care. But when we’ve introduced these kinds of screening tools into our ICU, we’ve found that the transition is usually not straightforward,” he warns.

Changing the System

Dr. Jonathan H. Chen, an expert at medical informatics at Stanford University, agrees. “Trying to unlock the power of electronic medical data sources to improve clinical care outcomes is a great goal, but I believe implementation will be harder than some may expect,” he says. “First, the high accuracy measures that researchers report may just be predicting things the doctors already know or are false alarms that are only distracting them, leading to alert fatigue.” Second, “just because an accurate prediction is made, doesn’t mean we have an intervention to change the outcomes.”

“For example, the TREWS model was trained on data from patients already in the ICU receiving the highest level of monitoring,” Chen points out. “But having an ‘early warning system’ doesn’t make much sense at this point.” In addition, TREWS appears to be predicting sepsis in cases where doctors had already recognized the signs and were intervening. “The number you care about is positive predictive value,” he says. “Given that the alarm goes off, what is the chance the patient will end up having septic shock?” After a look at the TREWS papers, he calculates that roughly two out of three times the algorithm would be giving doctors a false alarm.

“Of course, it’s easy to point out these technical issues,” Chen says, “because I commend Professor Saria’s team for continuing to push through and actually get systems implemented and evaluated in real clinical settings. This takes an enormous amount of work, resources, and political will to accomplish, far more than the relatively sterile steps of data analytics to produce the prediction model.”

Just how Saria’s AI agent has gotten good enough to even try to wade through mountains of heterogeneous hospital data to sniff out something as subterranean as sepsis has a lot do to with her frustration with the so-far failed promise of electronic record-keeping. Like the other researchers, she longs for progress. “For seven or eight years now, we’ve had the digitized medical record data, but not much has happened yet to really exploit it,” she says. “I want to change that.”

Photo credits: Yann/Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA) , U.S. Air Force, Nathan Reading/Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA) , CDC

question: Summarize the effects of sepsis on the human body when the disease is not treated.

answer: The part where the sepsis starts feels sore and by day three, the respiratory system is affected and symptoms like pneumonia appear. On day six, heart rate and breathing are affected. The condition of the afflicted will worsen until it turns into septic shock. Before the 21st day, kidneys and lungs will fail. By day 22, the body will die.

question: Why is sepsis a notable issue?

answer: Sepsis is not easily detected or diagnosed easily, and when it is not found in time, it leads to fatalities. The number of incidents where sepsis has caused death has already surpassed AIDS and some forms of cancer. The issue is further compounded by drug-resistant bacteria and an increase in the aging population. The inability to accurately and consistently find sepsis is a factor why it kills so many -doctors and healthcare personnel suffer from alarm fatigue and are thus unable to find the actual correct diagnosis when there are many false positives. The fact that makes sepsis stand out is that the only issue is with a proper and early diagnosis. The article implies that if detected on time, dealing with sepsis would be significantly easier.


text:
_EUCALYPTUS_ × _NOWRAENSIS_ is a species of tree with smooth bark and lance-shaped leaves that are the same shade of green on both sides, long and wide. The flower buds are smooth and arranged in groups of three or seven with a conical to hemispherical operculum. The fruit is urn-shaped, long and wide on a thick peduncle long. It was first described in 1924 by Joseph Maiden who gave it the name _Eucalyptus nowraensis_ from specimens collected near Nowra by “Mr. Alexander Joseph Gallagher”. The description was published Maiden's book, _A Critical Revision of the Genus Eucalyptus_.[1][2]

In 1988, George Chippendale listed _E. nowraensis_ as a “reputed hybrid between _E. gummifera_ and _E. maculata_” (now known as _Corymbia gummifera_ and _C. maculata_ respectively) in Volume 19 of _Flora of Australia_.[3][4]

The name _Eucalyptus × nowraensis_ is accepted by the Australian Plant Census.[5]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

title: Eucalyptus × nowraensis

question: What is Eucalyptus nowraensis?

answer: a species of tree with smooth bark and lance-shaped leaves that are long, wide, and the same shade of green on both sides

question: When was Eucalyptus nowraensis first described?

answer: 1924

question: Who first described Eucalyptus nowraensis?

answer: Joseph Maiden

question: Where were the first specimens of Eucalyptus nowraensis collected?

answer: near Nowra

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: Eucalyptus nowraensis is a species of tree with smooth bark and lance-shaped leaves that are long, wide, and the same shade of green on both sides. It is native to Australia.