text:
ALAN �THE NEEDLE� DERSHOWITZ

By C. Clark Kissinger

In early November controversy irrupted on the internet over Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz�s proposal to legalize torture in the United States to extract information from terrorism suspects. So when Dershowitz appeared on January 27 for a long scheduled lecture on civil liberties at the 92nd Street Y in New York, the entire audience was given leaflets by the activist group Refuse & Resist! that quoted from his remarks. These included his suggested use of truth serum on suspects, and his remark to the _Harvard Political Review_ that �There�s no absolute right not to be tortured.�

That night the Kaufmann Concert Hall was packed with a graying and mostly Jewish Upper Eastside audience of 900. The format was a Charlie Rose-style interview on stage, with Dershowitz undergoing a friendly interrogation by noted civil liberties attorney Floyd Abrams.

Most people would have thought this a good time to moderate his views. But Dershowitz didn�t title one of his books _Chutzpah_ for nothing. Holding the leaflet charging him with being soft on torture in hand, Dershowitz launched into a spirited defense of his position. The fact that a noted �civil libertarian� and critic of the Bush theft of the White House could make a serious pitch to a liberal New York audience for legalized torture -- and not get booed off the stage -- tells us just how close we are to the acceptance of police state methods in the wake of September 11.

Dershowitz warmed up the audience with a few liberal homilies like �it�s bad that people get more upset when a guilty person goes free than when an innocent man is convicted.� Then Floyd Abrams went right to the topic on everyone�s mind -- Deshowitz�s views on torture. And Dershowitz obliged.

Dershowitz states that he is actually opposed to torture and wants to see it reduced to the extent possible. But then he goes on argue for a system of court authorized warrants to administer torture in extraordinary cases. Whether it was shock or acceptance, there wasn�t even a cry of �shame!� from the audience when Dershowitz went on to describe how it might best be done: the insertion of a sterilized needle under the fingernails to produce �excruciating pain.�

Dershowitz made it clear that he was not talking about either lethal torture or torture used to extract confessions. In fact, part of his scheme is for the new �torture warrants� to include a grant of immunity. Anything needled out of a suspect could not be used against him or her in court. Instead the purpose would solely be to extract information to enable authorities to head off up-coming terrorist attacks and thereby save lives.

Floyd Abrams, to his credit, demurred from the Dershowitz scheme, suggesting that it would dirty the judicial system to start authorizing any such thing. But Dershowitz returned time and again to his �ticking bomb� argument: suppose there was a bomb set to go off that would kill hundreds and you had a suspect in custody who knew where it was. Wouldn�t a little torture to get the information be justified? Or as Dershowitz put it, �Pain is not the worst thing in the world. You get over it.�

In the course of the discussion, Dershowitz made three major arguments for the legalization of torture. His first argument was the practical one: it�s going to go on anyhow, so better in an open and democratic society that we know who is doing it to whom and why, and who is accountable. His second argument was a �moral� one: what�s some temporary pain to one individual when stacked against the lives of hundreds? His third argument was a legal one: because of the attached grant of immunity, there would be no conflict with the Fifth Amendment prohibition against coerced self-incrimination.

So what�s wrong with these arguments? The first argument is actually quite an admission that government agents are, in fact, going to beat prisoners to get information, no matter what the fine documents of law say. Also it is essentially the same as the argument for legalizing prostitution: �It�s going to go on no matter what, so better to legalize it and have health inspections.� But there is no limit to this kind of reasoning. Should we next go on to court issued �rape warrants�? If it�s going to go on anyhow, why not have women raped under court supervision in order to ensure that they are not later murdered? What all these arguments have in common is the assumption that there is no alternative to the crimes and exploitation that go on in this society. So in the name of some �greater good,� the crimes are rationalized, institutionalized, and made acceptable.

But while we are on the topic of court-issued �torture warrants,� just what kind of protection would that afford anyhow? When do judges now ever refuse the cops a search warrant, and why would it be any different with �torture warrants�? In fact, one major thrust of the new USA-Patriot Act, rushed through Congress in the aftermath of September 11, is to greatly expand the scope of secret search warrants issued by secret courts whose records are then sealed. Does anyone think that an administration that is into executing people through military tribunals from which there is no appeal is going to shirk from authorizing torture in secret as well? The whole Dershowitz argument that �torture warrants� are somehow going to create accountability (much less restraint) just doesn�t hold up in the real world.

Ironically, Dershowitz spent a part of his talk deriding the U.S. Supreme Court for the theft of presidential election. He even called Justice Sandra Day O�Connor �the biggest liar on the Court.� So these are the people we are suppose to trust with the administration of torture?

As for the �moral argument,� Dershowitz uses the rhetorical trick of creating a hypothetical situation that never arises in the real world in order to elicit assent for a truly horrific practice that exists all too much. It�s not like police or intelligence agencies keep taking mad bombers into custody before the fact, and these individuals tell them �I�ve set a bomb, but I�m not going to tell you where it is. So there.� What DOES happen is that police and intelligence agencies try to track down political opposition (especially where it has been driven underground by repression), and are not beyond applying physical torture to root out the whole support network of such opposition. THIS is where torture becomes a standard. Is this not what happened in the French attempt to suppress the Algerian revolution? Or, more apropos of Dershowitz�s desire to have the same position on torture both here and in Israel, isn�t this what goes on in all too many countries today from Turkey to Latin America?

Dershowitz presents the classical example of �the ends justify the means� ideology. He argues for it, as he did at the 92nd Street Y, by trying to personalize the issue. He asks the audience rhetorically, what if it was YOUR family being held hostage and threatened with death? The point that is obfuscated here is that our means must indeed be consistent with our ends, and that there are principles that must be upheld in society as a whole that transcend the interests of anyone�s particular family. Otherwise, anything can be justified on the scales of narrow self-interest, and we are on a slippery slope from which there may be no recovery. What is to come next, �concentration camp warrants� so that in �an open and democratic society� that we know who is being thrown in the camps and why, and who is accountable?

Finally, Dershowitz�s legal argument is particularly weak. Grants of immunity are the mechanism by which grand juries were transformed from being institutions to protect people from arbitrary prosecution into instruments of secret inquisition by District Attorneys. We have seen a steady erosion of legal rights in the current period. The USA-Patriot Act expressly seeks to extend the extra-legal methods first authorized in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act into the realm of everyday criminal prosecution. In this climate, the task of law professors needs to be that of standing guard at the gate, not opening the doors to inhumane methods.

One point that Dershowitz refused to address is the fact that the U.S. is a signatory to the International Convention Against Torture. This international treaty commits the United States to �take effective legislative, administrative, judicial and other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction.� The treaty goes on to specify: �No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification for torture.�

In an attempt to take the house by storm in his January 27 appearance, Deshowitz suddenly called for the house lights to be brought up and demanded to know if there was anyone present who would justify letting hundreds die rather than apply some torture to a single individual. This writer waved his hand to be called on, but Floyd Abrams adroitly moved to prevent any opposition from being heard. He asked instead for a show of hands on how many supported Mr. Dershowtiz�s proposal. More than two-thirds of the house raised their hands. It took calls from the audience to get a showing of those opposed, and when a hundred or more signified their opposition to legalized torture, Dershowitz was positively outraged: �How could you!?� he cried.

In the rest of the program Dershowitz went on to expound on his call for a national ID card and reminisced some about his more famous cases. But unfortunately Dershowitz has yet to receive the rebuke that he has coming from the legal community. Even Floyd Abrams fumbled in dealing with Detshowitz�s outrageous proposal that evening. While opposing the idea of �torture warrants,� Abrams accepted the inevitability of physical coercion of certain prisoners, but said that he preferred not to know about it. This led Dershowitz, with some justification, to call him a hypocrite -- one who wants to have his torture but still appear in public with clean hands.

I left that evening, keeping my own hands in my pockets, my fingernails a safe distance from Alan Dershowitz.

question: Why was Floyd Abrams reluctant to oppose Dershowitz by not calling on people who disagree with his guest?

answer: Maybe because he secretly agrees with Dershowitz, wanting his ideas to spread.

question: Why does Dershowitz propose the use of injection under the fingernails for torture?

answer: He might psychologically be repulsed by violent and bloody torture, preferring something much cleaner with an appearance of propriety.


split: test

text:
*RESUMES PRESEASON TRAINING WITH CLUB

Super Eagles’ winger, Moses Simon has said he still remains a KAA Gent player, despite interest from the Liverpool prior to the World Cup, AOIFootball.com can authoritatively confirm.

Resuming full training later on Tuesday with Gent, the 22-year-old winger, who missed FIFA World Cup in Russia due to injury, said he is looking forward to a more explosive season regardless of where he plays next season.

“Well, for now, I’m still a player of KAA Gent; obviously, there was interest from Liverpool but nothing is concrete for now.

“I’m currently in Holland with the rest of the squad and we are getting ready for the new season. We have a game against PAOK in two days; hopefully, I might play in that one,” Simon revealed.

According to reports in early June, Liverpool was interested in paying a £10m fee for Simon as he has just one year left on his contract at Gent.

The Nigeria international was a standout performer in the Belgian First Division last season and he looks to have caught the eye of Jurgen Klopp.

question: What sport does Moses Simon play?

answer: Football (American soccer)

question: What team does Moses Simon play for?

answer: He plays for KAA Gent.

question: What team(s) are interested in Simon?

answer: Liverpool is interested in him.

question: Who are the Super Eagles?

answer: Super Eagles is another football team in Nigeria. It seems it might be the team where Simon became known.

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: Moses Simon is a football player for the KAA Gent. Liverpool is interested in him after he completes 1 more year he has contracted with Gent. Simon is from Nigeria.


text:
I met Trevor via Tinder during exams. I was really stressed out and needed a break from studying. My friends have told me that Tinder is really fun, addictive, and a good confidence booster. Realistically, it probably was not a good idea to start an addiction during the most important time of the year. Your professor doesn’t care if you were busy messaging 20 guys on tinder and couldn’t finish your assignments. Like that would be the worst excuse ever. But I thought I would be different. You know, only play once in a while for fun. I was wrong. I was getting so many matches hourly. Do guys say yes to every girl they come across on this thing? This is ridiculous! I set the ages 19-30 and the distance to 100km, which is a wide array of guys … maybe too wide. Trevor’s profile was funny, quirky, and most importantly hot. The thing about Tinder is you have only a few photos and a short bio and you have to pick what you say and post very carefully because that’s your first impression. If you’re a girl try to be the perfect combination of sect and cute. Just kidding. That’s stupid. From my experience it’s important to have not only a selfie, but also a body shot and a few group shots so guys know that you don’t just sit at home with your cat and take narcissistic selfies, but that you also have friends and a social life. Tip: maybe don’t post a lot of pics with other dudes where you’re like all over them on a Friday. I’m not slut shaming. You do you and that’s cool. Some guys like to know that you’re liberal because then you’ll probabky have sex with them. But other guys like to know that when he finally gets to hook up with you, another guy’s jizz isn’t all over your belly. If you flinched when you said that then you’re probably not ready for Tinder because if a guy is willing to talk to you or converse in witty banter via a shitty app for a day or two then he’s going to expect a sexual act in response. It’s like if a guy buys a you a drink or four at a bar now you’re all of a sudden obligated to go home with him. To avoid this situation say thank you for the drinks and slip a twenty in his pocket and walk away. Now you’re not in debt to him. He knows you’re not going home with and and you didn’t even have to make up a shitty excuse or fake bathroom escape. Anytime a guy who you don’t know is talking to you in general, he is probably flirting with you. If he makes the effort to reach out, he wants to sleep with you. Men are actually very simple. I’m sure there are the few exceptions. For example, when at the grocery store a man asks you “Do you pronounce this kuinowa or keenwa?” Maybe he’s actually curious and doesn’t want to sound stupid when he comes home to his wife and is like “I got the kuinowa!” Or the most likely answer is that he’s trying to engage you in a conversation where you feel like you have the upper hand because like you totally know how to pronounce that shit. You’re such an intellect and good with language. In reality, he doesn’t care, but he totally wants to fuck you … maybe not tonight, but next week. He’s already got his Thursday opened up because that’s when you’re coming over for wine and sex. Tricky, tricky bastards. Now I’m getting ahead of myself. Okay so Tinder. So I swiped right on a Tuesday. It was an instant match, which means that he already likes me and swiped right too. I was ecstatic because you have to get through a lot of losers and weirdos before you get to someone good. His pictures were high quality. Which is unusual because I’ve come across a lot of profiles with doubles or blurry photos. Like figure it out it’s not rocket science. Trevor’s first photo, and the most important one, was him at a Yankees ball game drinking a beer. Okay so good he’s into sports. I was glad it was a pic of just him and not a group shot so I didn’t have to go searching through the rest of his pics to figure out who he was. Most of the time when guys have only group pics it’s because he’s the ugly or weird looking one in the group. It’s always so disappointing because you hope it’s the hot friend who swiped yes to you but it never is. It is ALWAYS the weirdo creeper. Anyways, Trevor’s other pics were really good so much that I thought jesus is this guy a catfish? I fucking hate catfishing. Don’t do that shit. It’s the lowest of low. If you are reading this now and you’re a catfish or have catfished just know that I would rather sleep with an ex serial rapist in his jail cell than come into contact with you. Okay that’s extreme but seriously. So Trevor had this other pic of him in Indonesia playing with a bunch of poor starving children. Gold star for you Trev. From this you are saying: not only am I worldly and caring, but I love kids also! So I’m totally ready for when you get baby fever! His third pic was him and a girl whom I am assuming is his ex. Now, here’s the double standard. Girls actually like seeing you with other girls in pics because it means that you have experience in a relationship or whatever or are a good kisser. We don’t want to talk to a loser who has never come into contact with the female species. We kind of like the idea of a bad boy who hooks up with a lot of ladies. But not while you’re hooking up with us! This girl was pretty. And this gives us a confidence boost because it means you think I’m as pretty or prettier. Checkmate. His fourth pic was him at what looked like a really cool party. Awesome! He has a social life and wont judge me for my excessive drinking! His fifth picture was him wearing a suit shaking Rob Ford’s hand. He owns a suit. Excellent. This means he’s presentable and probably has a job. Not that you’re going to introduce him to your mom anyways. No one meets their boyfriend on Tinder. Also, it made me curious about the context of this photo. It kind of grosses me out that he was in such close proximity to Ford. Lastly, strong handshakes are such a turn on. If you have a limp wrist then you have a limp dick. His last photo was him posing with a tiger. Sexy. So anyways, within like literally a few minutes after we matched he messaged me. He didn’t use a cheesy pick up line or a “hey there beautiful” or “will you be my tinderella?” What most guys don’t understand, and this is top secret information that I am about to expose, is that the way to get us to respond is to make a witty comment or ask us something about our photos that we so carefully photo shopped and edited. Like do you know how time consuming that shit is? Do you know how many flaws I had to edit out? Say something that’s subtle but suggesting. We know you’re not on here to make friends. Say something like “Oh you’ve been to Greece? That place is beautiful. But not as beautiful as you (winky face)”. If in my bio I say something about how I wish it was spring break, then you say “I went to Daytona last year it was awesome. I bet you would look way better than all those other girls in a bikini.” These are golden tickets I just gave you gentlemen. Use them wisely. In the end, I did meet up with Trevor and we banged. Like seriously hardcore stuff. But not fifty shades style.

We live in a world that is driven by social media and appearance. A lot of girls today create a fake allusion of themselves and hype up Facebook profiles. Our online lives have become way more interesting than our real ones. I think this is because we’re unhappy with the average lives that we all have because we’re always told that average is never good enough. So everyone wants to stand out. But if everyone is standing out then no one would be. We document our lives on Instagram and Twitter so that we can flaunt how cool we are to the world. I do it. And we want feedback for reassurance: I don’t know if I should go with XX Pro or Valencia. I wanna look tan. What should my caption be? I want it to be clever. How about “Livin’ with my bitches, hash tag LIVE”. I only got 10 likes in the last 5 minutes. Do you think I should take it down? Most importantly, why do we as girls always compare ourselves and why are we catty to each other?: Did you think that girl was pretty? How did that girl even get in here? Do you see her? She’s so short and that dress is so tacky! Who wears Cheetah? Honestly, we’re all in this storm together do please don’t bring each other down.

The thing about Tinder is that it is so completely shallow. You say yes or no to someone solely based on their looks, and maybe one bio line, which is usually something stupid anyways that tells you nothing about the person. I have no doubt that Tinder was made by a man because it is an ideal app for men everywhere. Women don’t expect a relationship out of Tinder. We do it for the confidence boost and reassurance. Men go on it to get laid. However, do young millennial women today even expect a relationship anymore? Do we even expect guys to be able to connect emotionally with us? I don’t think we do. So we settle for the one night stands and the hook ups and parties. Because hey we have active libidos too. The sad thing is that we have grown to settle and be okay with the current hook up culture. Is it because guys are so afraid to say that they care about you enough to call you back for anything but hooking up? Is it because they don’t want to hand over any power and be vulnerable to the idea that a woman might hold some influence over them? Would that be so crazy?

title: Our Crazy Hook Up Culture

question: Summarize the narrator's thoughts on Trevor.

answer: Trevor is someone the narrator matched with on Tinder. She thinks his profile was funny, quirky, and hot. His pictures were so good that she assumed he may be a catfish. His first picture shows his interest in sports, his second one shows him holding a malnourished child in Indonesia, and his third is with a woman the narrator assumes is his ex. She thinks all of these choices were good, and that a picture with a woman shows that Trevor has experience with women. The fourth picture shows him at a cool party, and the fifth shows him in a suit shaking hands with Rob Ford. The narrator thinks the party picture shows he won't judge her for binge drinking, and the fifth makes her think he may have a job due to his suit. The narrator ends up having sex with Trevor due to how good his Tinder profile was.

question: What does the text say about Instagram?

answer: The narrator notes that people document their lives on Instagram to show others how cool they are. She believes that those who use Instagram just want feedback for reassurance. She notes how people ask for opinions about what caption to use or what filter to use. People will even stress enough about their appearance on Instagram that they'd take down a post if it didn't get enough likes in a certain amount of time.

question: Summarize the narrator's main point.

answer: The narrator's main point seems to focus on how women use social media for validation. Her friends tell her that Tinder is fun, addictive, and a good confidence booster. The narrator ends up finding Tinder shallow, as you say "yes or no" to someone based off of their looks and one sentence. She feels that women only use Tinder for a confidence boost and reassurance, not due to an expectation of a relationship. She believes women have grown to settle and be okay with hookup culture. She thinks that women seek validation on Instagram and Twitter too. They compare themselves to each other and bring each other down online instead of supporting each other.

question: What does the text say about catfishing?

answer: The narrator notes that Trevor's pictures on Tinder were so good that she thought he was a catfish. She believes that catfishing on social media is the lowest of the low and that no one should do it. The narrator says she would prefer to sleep with an ex serial rapist than with someone who catfishes.

question: Summarize the narrator's second date with Trevor.


text:
1.   Home
2.   Announcements
3.   Notepad++ UWP package in Windows store - almost there

This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.

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    @Francesco-Venuti

    Just wanted to let you know that I’m not really up to date about UWP
    because I stopped using windows operating systems some time ago.
    So I don’t think that I can bring in useful knowledge but if there is, I will certainly do.

    Cheers
    Claudia

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    @donho @Francesco-Venuti

    I have packaged it successfully… more trying to get @donho to successfully package it.

    Any luck at all?

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    https://redd.it/84rxxt

    https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/store/p/npp/9plhc123mqwt

    Just saw this today. Is this official? Should I be worried if it isn’t by the original team?

    Thanks.

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    @Nobel-Harvards

    it is from windows store so … I guess it is safe … somehow,
    but don’t know which version they provide and how often they build new packages
    but if this is irrelevant to you I would think you can go for it.

    Just my two cents.

    Cheers
    Claudia

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    @Claudia-Frank @Nobel-Harvards You might have seen my posts above about how I packaged it. I am NOT the person who put it on the store, however. I have no idea who NightRise is. Just letting you know - even though I posted a lot on how to do it, I am not the same person.

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    Hi folks - that would be me who put it in the store… i really really really really needed it for a not-for-profit I am helping out (thank you Windows 10S).

    Code modifications were required to get Microsoft to approve it… so I did have to fork the code. Modifications, and the packaged application (so folks can verify it) is all located here: https://github.com/NightRi-se/notepad-plus-plus

    Any questions do let me know, also happy to transfer this app to the official “notepad++” team to maintain if they would like it. Until then… I am happy to keep it going on the store.

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    @Claudia-Frank The store version is built of 7.5.5 (calling the store version 7.55.buildnumber.0). Most of the updates I have been posting have been to get settings to save/work correctly in UWP land, get file associations working, and next step is getting the x64 plugin manager in there and working.

    @Nobel-Harvards no not official… it is a clone. If you can think of a better way to make that clear let me know.

    @gjsman sorry if you got a bad wrap for this - also great work above… I didn’t see this announcement before going down this line however. For Windows 10S there is a bunch of policy’s that MS requires you comply by (with a possible fine of $15 per download if you app breaches them). One of those is no run, or ability to get to command. … it took about 4 weeks of going back and forth to get this working, approved, and published (initially it was published hidden/privately… but some friends wanted to use it, so I recently moved it to be public).

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    @jakevis

    Dude, seriously, don’t you think this is a little bit presumptuous? If this “store” thing is to happen, shouldn’t @donho be the one to do it? I mean, at the end of the day, it is _his_ software…he’s the “benevolent dictator” after all…

    Sure, it’s open source, and you can pretty much do with it what you’d like, but, I don’t know, creating an unauthorized distribution channel seems to push the boundaries…

      and next step is getting the x64 plugin manager in there and working

    So it was @donho’s decision to remove the PluginManager from the distribution…and you can just arbitrarily decide to add it back in? Again, seems quite, well…presumptuous…

    So now people will report bugs against _some version_ of Notepad++, but probably no one will be really sure which one. (Will the real Notepad++ please stand up?)

    Now if you’re doing all this with @donho’s approval and blessing, then I retract all of the above…

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    @Scott-Sumner your right, one thing lead to another - and I had a np++ clone in the store and users were finding it, so I just opened it up to the public. No blessings given.

    I am trying to make it as clear as possible that this is a clone - and I will totally pull it when there is an “official” version avalible (or someone can convert this to an official one if they prefer). I cant say I care much either way… other than _I need_ one in the store for the moment.

    Re the plugin manager. I wasn’t aware of this… but interesting thing about an official store is folks provide reviews… and a plugin manager is the number 1 thing folks are complaining about (now the persistent settings issues, and file association issues are corrected), or asking for. Folks seem to be creating issues there in the reviews, or as instructed, against my fork in GitHub. Here is the plugin manager issue: https://github.com/NightRi-se/notepad-plus-plus/issues/10

    Another interesting tidbit… MS failed this app for store certification on one round due to the certifier being unable to load a plugin… [they did try to load a 32bit plugin, and this fork is 64bit only].

    Ill let @donho weigh in as to his thought on all this. yes, boundaries pushed and as per the reddit thread, folks are split if this is a good thing or not. But due to the store requirements, this is a true fork, with code changes to support (that will have to be maintained for the app to stay in the store).

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    For the record, I think it is for the best this way. As long as there are two different things out there calling themselves “Notepad++”…no matter how well-intentioned it is…we’ve got a support nightmare.

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    @donho and for a moment I thought folks were going to be reasonable and awesome ;)

    So as per https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/blob/master/LICENSE I will maintain this as a fork. Folks dont need to use it if they dont want to. The name is being changed to Notepad++ Fork on the 7.5.6 update that is pending now.

    Also just had a search on the TESS database… I cant see a trademark? I also think the word “Notepad” is to generic to trademark. Logo possibly… but then again its included in the codebase and such that is under GPL.

    Totally happy to work with you all, if you would like to transfer this fork to the notepad++ team and organization. Until then I will do my best to mitigate @Scott-Sumner 's support concern issue. If someone does create an issue to do with the packaging of the notepad++ fork in the store, feel free to assign it to myself (and point out its unofficial).

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    @jakevis You’re awesome, keep up the good work!
    I see the good software like Paint .NET appear in the Store (which I bought BTW), and thus as a user I don’t actually care about those “stability” or supporting issues, I just want this software to be in the Store. If @donho can’t do this – you can do this instead.
    Cheers!

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    @jakevis The logo on the MS store front is likely what’s disputed. That particular image seems to have been taken from the website and not from the repository.

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    @AngryGamer mm OK thanks. I do think I took that from a Google image search… On the 10th try to get the size right (so lots of copy right breaches out there I guess ;))

    As soon as this update is through certification I’ll do another to update that as well. New image I am playing with is on github.

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    Just wanted to loop back to this one - now its been about 4 months since release. We are sitting at about 85000 installs, with 3000-5000 new “acquisitions” a week (averaging that since may). There a few hickups in the first set of packages (to do with how config is saved), and some continuing issues with how plugins can not be installed on Win10S machines (unless included and signed in the store package)… but other than that… things seem stable. The build process + packaging overhead is down to less than 10min.

    If folks would like to re-assess the fork to see if it will work as an official release (and move it over) let me know… happy to continue to support that as an official version… or ill continue as it is, as an unofficial fork. LMK.

    Cheers - Jake

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    I can confirm, that it is great to have notepad++ in the store. The updates are applied silently without any problems and all other great notepad++ features are working as they should.

    I would love to see Jakes work applied to the official project.

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    We run a windows server domain the only way we can use notepad++ is by jakevis port to the store. The issue I have is odd I can not use my work or school email to leave you a 5 star review on the store. It wants me to log in with a windows hello account. While I could do that, we do not mix work PC’s with Home Log ins.

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    FYI if your code is on github you can and should expect people to take it and port it to the store if they like what it does if you have not done it. WHY DO YOU THINK MS BOUGHT GIT HUB? To port useful stuff to its store! Approved store apps are one of the only safe ways MS recommends deploying apps to roaming profiles in domains. AND fyi if anyone ports Irfan View to the store I will love you forever. Right now I have to side load it and use admin rights to install.

    BTW I used notepad ++ from the store to save this the 20 minutes while I waited to post it for being a new user…

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question: What does the text say about github?

answer: One of the posters states that if your code is on github you can and should expect people to take it and port it to the store if they like what it does if you have not done it. The purpose of Microsoft buying github was to port useful stuff to its store. Several github links are provided.

question: What does the text say about Windows XP?


text:
Ottawa artist Jonathan Hobin is coming face-to-face with the lawlessness of the web and an international story reviving allegations of sexual misconduct by deceased pop star Michael Jackson.

[]

'American Idol' is one of the images placed in a click-bait article by gossip publication Radar Online. (American Idol, Jonathan Hobin)

An Ottawa artist is coming face-to-face with the lawlessness of the web and an international story reviving allegations of sexual misconduct by deceased pop star Michael Jackson.

Jonathan Hobin has gained artistic notoriety for his photo works depicting children acting out disturbing news events and traumatic situations.

[]

Ottawa-based artist Jonathan Hobin is photographed with pieces from his exhibit "In The Playroom" at the Ottawa Art Gallery in Ottawa on Friday, April 19, 2013. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang (The Canadian Press)

One image depicts a child resembling Jonbenet Ramsey, the six-year-old girl found murdered in her parents' Boulder, Colorado, home on December 26, 1996.

According to an online article by a celebrity gossip publication called _Radar Online_, Hobin's image was confiscated by the Santa Barbara sheriff's department in a 2003 search of Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch.

"I started to get texts and emails at three in the morning the other day … at first (I was) excited that Michael Jackson was a fan, despite it being part of his (alleged) sex den," Hobin told _All In A Day_ host Alan Neal on Friday.

"In truth I knew right away that actually it debunked the story of the day I guess about Michael Jackson because I knew for a fact that that child potentially was not even born … before the police raid," said Hobin, and that the photo itself was taken in 2008, five years after the raid.

Work 'taken out of context'

Santa Barbara police haven't yet confirmed the claims in the Radar Online article — which was picked up by publications such as _Vanity Fair_ and Britain's _Daily Mail Online_ — and did not immediately return requests for comment by CBC Ottawa.

But a spokesperson for Santa Barbara police is quoted in a _Los Angeles Times_ article saying the _Radar Online_ piece merges aspects of its police report with content from the internet and other sources.

[]

The Twins (Jonathan Hobin)
The whole debacle upsets him, but he isn't surprised, says Hobin, who is creative director for the School of Photographic Arts in Ottawa.

"At first I was just disappointed that the media didn't do their research but then I was also disappointed that my work was taken out of context.

"The whole purpose of the series is to talk about the horrible disturbing things that kids see on a daily basis and then to take it out of context it became one of those images."

Then, there's the association with pornography and child exploitation he finds most egregious.

  People are manipulating the context of art for their own sinister purposes.
  - Artist Jonathan Hobin

"I've had my critics call it that in the past but you have to understand context is everything … If you read it in the context for which it was intended a lot of people consider the work to be powerful and thought provoking."

Wants clarification from police

A lot of the work that they're referencing in the _Radar Online_ report isn't in fact pornography, but images obtained online from art books, according to Hobin.

"People are manipulating the context of art for their own sinister purposes. I think again, it harkens back to poor journalism and the excitement around creating drama that doesn't exist," he said.

[]

A Boo Grave (Jonathan Hobin)

Hobin believes the best way to put an end to the misinformation is for the police department in question to deny the claims.

"(The sheriff's department) could have put out word immediately saying that this is someone's attempt to ... corrupt a previously existing police investigation," he said.

"I'd like them to speak to it sooner rather  than later … everyone from Vanity Fair to Daily Mail to wherever, they're talking about this thing that supposedly exists and to some extent I question if there is some sort of intention of them to allow that discussion to continue when they can put a stop to it right now."

question: Who is Jonathan Hobin?

answer: Jonathan Hobin is an Ottawa-based artist and the creative director the School of Photographic Arts in Ottawa. He was involved with a controversy regarding one of his works being found in a 2003 Santa Barbara's sheriff search of Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch.


text:
Human caused global warming is predicted to have severe effects on birds.

Background

Anthropogenic (human caused) global warming has raised the temperature of the Earth by about 1 °C since the Industrial Revolution. Human actions are predicted to raise the temperature additionally; depending on what mitigation actions are taken estimates range between a goal of .5 °C, to more than 2 °C further warming. Higher temperatures are generally associated with more severe effects, including global drought, changing weather patterns, ocean temperatures, among many others.[1]

Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves, characterized by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight skeleton.

The exact effects that climate change will have on birds is unknown, however, significant work has gone into predicting the effects.[2]

Effects

Phenology

Phenological Mismatch

One of the largest effects could be on the phenology of birds.[3] Phenological mismatch, one of the dangers to birds that global warming presents is the phenomenon where the timing of one aspect of a species yearly cycle ceases to align with another aspect of their cycle where the timing of the two meeting is important to the species ability to access resources and breed. If a bird doesn’t change their migration timing, but the timing of the highest availability of their main food source happens earlier because of warmer weather then they will likely miss the time for resource gathering. This hasn’t been shown to have ramifications on their ability to breed and the survivability of offspring after breeding because reproductive success has been found to decline over the course of the breeding season for birds.[4] Similar trends have been documented in various species of migrating passerines. Phenological mismatch can be curbed by phenotypic plasticity and there is debate as to the amount of impact that climate change has on phenological mismatch. Climate change has led to a shift in the timing of spring migrations over the past 50 years. There was a widespread lengthening of migrations with the earliest individuals migrating earlier and the latest migrating at a similar time or later than before. Different species have shown different changes in migration patterns as what triggers migration can vary between species and for some species there is correlation between temperatures and unexplained variations in migration timing over the short term.[5]

Diet

If a bird has a well timed migration then the peak prey availability will line up with offspring demand leading to a higher offspring survivability rate. British-breeding passerine species that have increased their lay dates and advanced spring migration arrival dates have shown more positive population trends.[6] The pied flycatcher matches its breeding time with a peak in caterpillar populations. If the flycatcher breeds too early then it becomes difficult to provide for its offspring however they have not shown a great decrease in reproductive success.[7]

Prey availability and offspring demand

Long distance migrating birds are more likely to be sensitive to phenological mismatch due to the increasing inability to track changes in the breeding environment the further they migrate and the inability to be phenotypically plastic in when they can gather food and breed. In There is more phenological mismatch occurring during the spring migration, and species that have greater mismatch or phenological asynchrony have more decline in populations than those that do not. Different species have differing sensitivities to the changing climate and need for adjustment to migratory patterns.[8]

Great tits have suffered population declines because the population height of their preferred food, caterpillars, and their preferred breeding time is now mismatched by at least 10 days because of global warming.[9] Fledglings raised earlier in the season when caterpillar populations are at their peak are in better physiological condition than those raised later in the breeding season. There is a greater spread in migratory arrivals suggesting that the birds are adjusting to this change.[10]

Does it matter

While climate change is affecting bird phenology and there is evidence that the phenological shifts may cause decline in populations, however no concrete connections have linked certain phonological events in a birds year to this decline. While birds are currently adjusting their migratory timelines to contend with the stressors that climate change presents, its various and continued threats may keep phenotypic plasticity from being enough to keep phenological mismatch from having threatening migratory birds.[11]

Range

The range of many birds is expected to shift, generally increasing in latitude.[12]

A 2012 study noted that “climate change forces species to move, adapt or die.” That study examined house sparrows, and concluded that young were travelling further from their parents nests in response to warming temperatures. The house sparrow was thus moving its range in response to climate change to escape its effects.[13]

Human actions often compound the effects of climate change. For example the pied crow has seen its range decreased in northern Africa, but increased in southern Africa due to climate change. Climate change favors the development of forests over grasslands in southern Africa, which provides more trees for nesting. However, their increase in range and density in the south has been helped by electrical power lines. Electrical infrastructure provides additional nesting and perching sites, which may have increased the overall prevalence of the species.[14]

Effects of mitigation

Some climate change mitigation strategies may harm bird species. Wind farms have been found to harm species such as white-tailed eagles and whooper swans. This may be a problem of visual acuity, as most birds have poor frontal vision. Wind turbine collisions could potentially be reduced if towers were made more conspicuous to birds, or other methods were used to scare birds away. Tidal power systems may affect wader birds.[15]

Some mitigation strategies may also help birds. Forest management to thin forest fire fuels may increase bird habitat. Some cropping strategies for renewable biomass may increase overall species richness compared to traditional agricultural practices.[16]

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title: Climate change and birds

question: What does the text say about the attributes of birds?

answer: Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates. They are of the class Aves which is characterized by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight skeleton.

question: Summarize the effects on caterpillars and birds due to global warming.

answer: Global warming has had a negative effect for great tits. It's caused their breeding time and preferred food, caterpillars, to be a mismatch by at least 10 days. This leads to their fledglings to be in a worse physiological condition than those who were raised earlier in the season with higher caterpillar populations. The pied flycatcher also matches its breeding time with a peak in caterpillar populations. But unlike great tits, they haven't seen as great a decrease in reproductive success. Whether there is a decrease or not depends on how sensitive the species is to the changing climate and need for adjustment to migratory patterns.

question: Summarize the effects of mitigation.

answer: Mitigation actions could determine how much the temperatures of the earth rise from global warming. Some climate change mitigation strategies may harm bird species. Wind farms have been found to harm species like white-tailed eagles and whooper swans. Tidal power systems may affect wader birds. On the other hand, mitigation strategies like forest management to thin forest fire fuels may increase bird habitat. Renewable biomass may increase overall species richness.

question: What does the text say about birds in Africa?

answer: Human actions often compound the effects of climate change. This can be seen in northern Africa where the pied crow has had its range decreased. In southern Africa this population has been seen to increase due to global warming. This is due to the fact that climate change favors the development of forests over grasslands in southern Africa, which leads to more trees for nesting. Additionally, the birds increase in range in density in the south has been helped by electrical power lines which provide additional nesting and perching sites.

question: What does the text say about the effect of global warming on water sources for birds?


text:
I'm looking for some feedback on my story or constructive criticism. Anything about taking out or adding things or whatever thoughts come your way would be helpful!

&#x200B;

I Have A Friend

&#x200B;

So, I have this friend. For some reason I feel sad before I even start to talk about her. She went to a Christian school growing up and made sure everyone knew it was her grandparents that sent her here, not her parents. She mentioned that she grew up with the Christian religion bashed into her by her grandparents and I’m pretty sure at this point she looked sick of it. Her Mom wasn’t as religious, so at least she got away from it occasionally. This girl just didn’t fit in with anyone at her little Christian Academy. This friend and I always thought Christians could sense someone who didn’t belong.

You could tell she didn’t know who she was by the way she flip-flopped between the shy, quiet kids and the loud popular kids. I don’t think she ever stuck with one group. It was a small school with even smaller classes, so it was hard not to notice everything about everyone. The teachers didn’t seem to care about her one way or another and the other kids were always a little bit more interested in someone else. She always seemed to be the second or third choice.

My friend did at one point find another friend named Audrey who she absolutely clicked with and we all became best friends, girl power and all that blah blah blah. Audrey brought out our crazy sides, gave us a reason to get up every day and was just someone to share things with. Neither of us had ever had a friend like her. We were jealous of Audrey a little bit but not enough to hate her, just enough to admire her. Our new best friend Audrey played the guitar, had a great family that loved their kids and all their kids’ friends as well. We were accepted in her house.

Audrey was a year older than us and went to high school first. We stayed best friends, but Audrey was finding new friends of her own. We got jealous but knew we were still her best friend. We were still in youth group together and making a lot of new friends. All was going well until we had to go to a different high school than Audrey. We drifted apart. All of us did after that.

I saw my friend go from this radiant, funny girl who had a sense of belonging back to her old self. I feel like she looked like she did when I first started to recognize her in middle school. Just a shell with nowhere to turn and not a clue where to start. So, this friend of mine seemed to be worse than when she started, in an even bigger pool of people but not knowing any of them.

All these new people my friend met were very different and clearly light years ahead of her. It was sadly clear that what my friend did to fit in was a drastic move on her part. We fell even further apart. It tore me apart to watch her start doing whatever everyone else did and say just to lose all hope of having her own personality. I saw this personality form in her when we were with Audrey but now its like the personality she developed drained away completely. She became a master of adapting to all the new situations that got thrown her way.

I barely knew her now. It was sad to see her everyday and not be able to do anything about it. Sometimes I would shout at her to get her attention but usually she’d brush me off and shove me away. I saw her throw her whole self into anyone who showed her some sort of attention or what she thought was love. This made it even harder when those people would continuously let her down, but she would move on and do it again.

It was like she was a detective interrogating all these different people for the answers, but they just weren’t giving her any. She was searching and searching with no results. I don’t think she knew she was looking for something, but I could clearly see it and looking back its clear that she was desperate. Neither of us really knew what she wanted or needed but I just wanted her to let me help. I could only be so persistent when she just continued to push me away.

I could go on and on about how this friend of mine continued to search for answers throughout high school, but it would be a never-ending story and to tell the truth it very well could still be happening today. I saw something happen to her though.

I was watching when it happened. She was with a boy she had met not long ago, and it was obvious she was infatuated with him; would do anything he said no matter what. He told her about something he had been doing behind her back and she looked pissed. But I know her better than anyone and I could tell she wasn’t mad about what he had been doing but that he had been doing it without her. Yet again she threw herself into everything whole-heartedly and if this was a part of this boy she thought she loved then she wanted in.

I can’t believe it happened. Well, I can’t believe that either of these things really went down. Before it all happened and before he gave her that shot in the arm that would take her away from me for a very long time she looked in the mirror. For the first time in years I looked back at her through that same mirror, she really saw me, and I really saw her. That connection happened, and we knew what we were doing. We knew what path we were taking. She seemed to be saying good bye for now but not forever. There was an awareness that she was making the decision to leave me behind. I don’t think she knew before she was leaving me, but now she was actively doing it.

I got to see myself clearly that day and through the rough years I occasionally got to look through the mirror when she let me, and we even had a few screaming matches. In the present I now know I made that choice for a reason and I knew it would be a very long time until I’d see myself again. But It did happen. Although my relationship with my friend is different now than when we were young, at least I get to see her every day.

title: [MF] Short Story on addiction(help!)

question: Summarize the feelings the narrator has toward her friend.

answer: The narrator is worried about her friend. The narrator feels more aloof from her friend than ever and seems to ping pong between being annoyed with her to being upset at her. The narrator also was jealous of her friend at one point. The narrator felt very sad to see her friend everyday and feel like she barely knew her.

question: Describe how the narrator's friend felt about her boyfriend.

answer: The narrator's friend was obsessed with her boyfriend. She would do anything for him and wanted to do everything with him. The narrator's friend knew that this boy would take her away, because he was the one who gave her her first shot of drugs.

question: How good of a friend is the narrator to her friend?


text:
GRACE KODINDO (born 1960) is a Chadian obstetrician who has championed improvements to reproductive healthcare, not only in Chad but in poor countries throughout the world.[1][2] She has been profiled in two BBC documentaries: _Dead Mums Don't Cry_ (2005), charting her efforts to reduce the mortality rate of pregnant and childbearing women, and _Grace Under Fire_ (2009), reporting on her involvement in a reproductive healthcare programme in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Early life and education

Grace Kodindo was born in Doba, in the south of Chad, in 1960. She is the daughter of Jean Kodindo Demba, a government official. Like her four brothers and sisters by the same parents and her other siblings, she was sent to school. After completing her secondary school education at the Lycée Félix Éboué in N'Djamena, she received a grant from the Canadian government enabling her to study at the Université de Montréal where she attended medical school.[3]

Career

On her return to Chad, she married Amos Réoulengar who became a member of the Hissene Habre government in 1982. They had two sons together but separated in the late 1990s. In the mid-1980s, Kodindo spent four years in Sudan where she trained as a gynaecologist. In 1990, thanks to a grant from the French government, she set out to reduce the infant mortality rate in Chad which was the highest in the world with 800 deaths per 100,000 births. Even after the grant ran out, she continued to work in hospitals with few resources. Her selfless efforts in the 1990s were recognized by professionals in Europe and North America.[4]

In addition to her medical agenda, Kodindo also taught medical students at the University of N'Djamena. She fought against female genital mutilation, raising awareness of the risk of medical complications. As a result of her efforts, in 1997 she was awarded the Chad Medal of Honour and in 2000 she received the FIGO/Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health Distinguished Community Service Award for Emergency Obstetric Care. [5] She established an increasingly closer relationship with Columbia University, eventually teaching at the Mailman School of Public Health.[6]

In 2005, the BBC presented _Dead Mums Don't Cry_, a documentary on Kodindo's efforts to reduce the number of women in Africa who die during pregnancy or childbirth.[7] At the time pregnant and childbearing women in Chad had a 9% chance of dying.[8] The film was widely screened, forming part of a presentation by Kodindo at New York University in October 2007.[9] The publicity led to the founding of a nonprofit organization “Hope for Grace Kodindo” for funding health programmes for women in poor African countries. As a result of the funding, in May 2008 Kodindo was able to report to the European Parliament that death during childbirth in Chad's largest maternity hospital had been reduced from 14% to 2.3% while death during pregnancy had gone down from 23% to 7.3%.[10] Thanks to widening interest in her work, Kodindo was invited to participate in the RAISE initiative launched by Columbia University and Marie Stopes International.[11]

In 2009, her involvement in a reproductive healthcare programme in the Democratic Republic of Congo led to a second BBC documentary titled _Grace Under Fire_. It presented the difficulties of childbirth for women living in a war zone. Kodindo commented: “By far the biggest casualties of this conflict are civilians – not the fighters. And the women and children suffer the most – their need is greatest.”[12][13] That year she was awarded the Millennium Development Goal Torch by the Danish Government for striving to provide reproductive healthcare for women throughout the world.[14]

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title: Grace Kodindo

question: Summarize Kodindo's early life.

answer: Kodindo was born in 1960, in Doba, in the south of Chad. She has four brothers and sisters. After completing her secondary school education at the Lycée Félix Éboué in N'Djamena, she received a grant from the Canadian government enabling her to study at the Université de Montréal where she attended medical school.

question: Summarize Kodindo's career in the 1990s.

answer:
After obtaining a grant from the French government, Kodindo set out to reduce the infant mortality rate in Chad, which was the highest in the world at the time with 800 deaths per 100000 births. Even after the grant ran out, she continued to work with hospitals with few resources.

In 1997, she was awarded the Chad Medal of Honor for her work fighting against female genital mutilation.

question: What are Kodindo's major achievements?

answer: She has championed improvements to reproductive healthcare in poor countries throughout the world. She also worked to fight against female genital mutilation.


text:
November 16, 2010

I saw the whole thing and I’m the only one who knows what happened. I followed those two inside that house, saw the ungodly thing first hand and ran out screaming like a bat outta hell. I haven’t written in here in a while but I need to get this out and write it down before I go crazy. Something like this needs to be communicated whether it be through word of mouth or written in a personal diary like this. I’m afraid that what I saw last week may haunt me for the rest of my life.

I knew Alex and Julius from our ninth grade Algebra class we had together last year. They used to cheat off of each other during the weekly quizzes. They both lived a couple blocks away from me in our neighborhood, Willow Springs. Now and again I would see them riding their bikes down the street as they always did. One time they even invited me to play with them when they needed more people for their impromptu soccer game. It was then that I realized that they were really good friends.

I had just parked my car in front of my house and was getting ready to get out of it and head inside when I saw the two of them biking down the street on Friday night. They were wearing all black outfits. I thought that perhaps they were headed to the park or to the 7-11 to get a snack. But then I saw them stop just feet away from my car and get off their bikes. They then hid their bikes in the bushes in the lawn of the big house across the street from mine. They didn’t realize I was watching them from my car window as they then began to walk up towards the house.

The house that they were walking towards used to belong to a family that was made up of Mr. and Mrs. McKinley and their two children. The McKinley’s had lived there until the mother, who was a beautiful lady, committed suicide inside the home. I had to look at my diary entry from three years ago to remember the details of that day.

<Diary entry for October 5, 2008>
I was outside playing basketball in the driveway when Mr. McKinley had just come home from work around 6:00p.m. He tried to open the garage door from the remote in his car as he always did but the garage door was stuck and would not open. He got out of his car and slowly pulled up the handle on the garage door. This grabbed my attention because I remember that as he pulled up the garage door, I heard large clacking noises as if the garage door gears were grinding against something. As I watched Mr McKinley slowly pull up the door, I noticed there were two things dangling from above that were moving towards the back of the garage. Mr. McKinley continued to lift the door and it wasn’t until I saw the waste line of the woman that I realized it was a body hanging from the garage track on the ceiling. I wasn’t sure if her feet were moving because the suicide had just happened and she was still alive or if the opening of the garage was pushing her noose on the track towards the back of the garage. When the Garage was about three quarters of the way up, Mr. McKinley realized there was a hanging body in the garage and ran inside it and started screaming. I ran over to the bottom of their driveway. I saw the face of the lady and realized that it was Mrs. McKinley’s.
<End diary entry>

A couple of weeks after the suicide happened, my neighbor Jim Odessa was walking past my house while I was getting the mail for my mom. Jim was a good friend of Mr and Mrs. McKinley. We began to talk about the suicide and he told me that Mrs. McKinley had gone crazy living in that house. She was a stay at home mom that had a lot of time on her hands as her kids got older. She started to hear voices coming from inside the home. She had gone through therapy but it didn’t seem to help. Jim said that he thought it was the voices that told her to kill herself. A few weeks later, the rest of the McKinley family had packed up and moved a few towns away to get a fresh start. The home had been vacant ever since the suicide and I had only seen one person go inside, a realtor about a year ago. I had been very curious about what it was like inside that home since the suicide had happened.

The first thing that Alex and Julius did was go up to the door leading into the garage. I thought that perhaps they were aware of what Mrs. McKinley did in there and wanted to get in to see where it had happened first hand. It appeared that they were fiddling with the lock and trying to open the door when they heard a bird and jumped behind a couple of bushes. They then wandered back behind the home with the moonlight guiding their way. That’s when I decided to follow them to see what they were doing.

I waited about five minutes in my car and figured that they had made it inside when I didn’t see them come back for their bikes. I got out of my car and ran back behind the big house just as they had moments earlier. I jumped the fence leading to the back yard and landed in some weeds that were about as tall as me. That and the darkness made it nearly impossible to figure out where I was going. I slowly walked along the back of the home looking for a back door entrance. I had arrived at the door. At first I didn’t notice anything weird but after a closer inspection, I realized that the screen door had been cut open and the back door lock must have been picked because the door was ajar.

At that moment I had to stop and think if this was really something that I wanted to go through with. If I turned around right then and there and pretended that nothing had happened, I could just go home, watch TV and enjoy my night. But something inside me told me to continue to go inside that house. I did.

Once I stepped inside the house, it became pitch black with just the light from the door behind me shining in. I took a deep breath and inhaled a smell of must. I took about two steps forward and instantly felt a pain in my right thigh. I put my hand down to feel what I had run into. It was a table with some chairs surrounding it. I realized that I must have been in the kitchen but then I thought that it was strange that there would be furniture in the home. When the McKinley’s had moved, I remembered that they hired a moving company that spent an entire day moving furniture and big boxes into a large truck. Then I heard a noise that sounded like it came from upstairs. It sounded like a leaf blower or some sort of lawn equipment. The noise lasted about twenty seconds and then I heard silence again. I figured it was Alex and Julius and wanted to go investigate further. I pulled out a little flashlight attached to my keychain from my pocket and turned it on. I located a hallway that would perhaps thought lead towards the stairs and proceeded to walk forward.

When I reached the bottom of the stairwell, it felt like I had stepped in something wet and slippery. I shined my flashlight lower, towards the ground, and noticed it was what looked to be a puddle of blood. I screamed so loud that anyone inside of that house would have heard me and if Alex and Julius were just upstairs, they would have heard it for sure. I paused and just stood completely still, listening for movement. It had only been about a minute but it felt like an eternity. Then I heard the blower noise start again coming from upstairs so I started to go up them.

The first few steps didn’t make any noise but around the fifth or sixth step, there was a creaking sound coming from the stairs underneath my feet as I climbed them. I continued up towards what I thought was the top. Stair twelve, stair thirteen, stair fourteen, I counted as I heard every creek, taking into account the first few steps that didn’t make any noise. I made it up to about stair twenty and thought that by then I should have definitely made it to the next floor. I shined my weakly dimmed flashlight up towards the top and saw about five more stairs and then a sea of darkness. Five stairs was about as far as my flashlight would shine. As I continued up about twenty more stairs, there was that odd blower noise again. It was louder this time and felt more like it was coming from around me and not above me. This made me think that the top of the stairs were getting close now. There were about ten more stairs I climbed before I had reached the top. There was a hallway going left and right.

At this point I was very frightened but didn’t want to turn around. I whispered Alex’s and Julius’ name but didn’t hear anything so I turned left towards what looked to be a bedroom. I looked around and saw a bed and dresser. The dresser had a pile of clothes on it as if someone had been living there. I turned back out of the bedroom and walked down the hallway, passing the long staircase on the right. Walking down the hallway I heard what sounded like whispers. I couldn’t make out what they were saying but they were coming from above me. I shined my flashlight up and saw an attic door on the ceiling. I decided to continue forward and the hallway split again and I had the option to go either straight or right.

I went right and heard the blower noise again. This time it was louder than ever. It was coming from behind a closed door at the end of the hallway. I could tell that there was a light on in the room because I saw it coming through the crack below the door. I got close to the door and put my ear up against it. There was really not much to hear until the blower noise started yet again. I slowly put my hand on the cold doorknob and began to turn it. I was doing a great job of not making any noise as I turned the knob. My heart was beating like a drum. As I slowly pushed open the door, the light from inside the room began to light up the entire hallway.

I could tell from the size of the room that this was the master bedroom. The door was now open all the way. I walked in and looked to the left and saw a person wearing what looked to be a wig sitting down at a desk beside the bed. They were wearing an old red night gown and had black gloves on, covering their hands. They were holding a hair dryer in one hand and brushing their wig on their head with the other. I moved a little closer to see who they were. They hadn’t yet heard me because they were still brushing their hair as they looked into a mirror sitting on the desk in front of them. I was nervously shaking and felt a bead sweat drip down my forehead and onto my arm. As I continued to walk towards them, I began to get a glimpse of their wig in the mirror. Then I saw part of their forehead. Only it wasn’t really a forehead at all but what looked to be more like bone. I continued further when then realized that it was a human skull with a wig on it. My eyes made contact with the skulls eye sockets in the mirror. The person with the skull face flung around in the swivel chair and was staring right at me. The person flung up real quick and their nightgown flung open to reveal a complete skeleton. They opened their mouth and made a loud, slow groaning noise.

That was all I needed to hear before I ran out of the door and down the hallway as fast as I could. I turned left and started down the stairs. I remembered how many stairs there were going up but now there seemed like there were even more, maybe 100 or so. I never once turned around but continued down as fast as I could. When I finally made it to the bottom of the stairs, I heard my feet splash in the puddle of blood. Using the dim flashlight, I turned left and went through a room that I hadn’t been in before. I was too discombobulated to remember the way I came into the house at the time and I needed to get out of there as quickly as possible. There was a door straight ahead and I opened it. It had a window in it and it looked like a laundry room. I ran through that and opened the next door that was locked from the inside.

The moonlight was a little bit brighter in this next room. I then realized from the line of horizontal windows that I wasn’t in a room at all, but a garage. Quickly, I felt the wall for the garage door opener, found it, and slapped it as hard as I could. Instantly the garage light came on and that’s when I saw Alex and Julius. They were hanging from the track on the ceiling of the garage in the same spot Mrs. McKinley was two years earlier. They were hanging there lifeless, with nooses around their necks.

I heard that same grinding noise that I had heard when Mr. McKinley had just got home to discover his wife. The garage wouldn’t open. The loud groaning noise could be heard from behind me and I felt warm air run down my back. I ran towards the garage door, pulled it open just enough for me to slide underneath and ran down the driveway as fast as I could. I then ran and into my house and locked the door behind me.

I was contemplating calling the police but thought that if I did, they would think that I was somehow involved with their death. I also knew that no one would believe me if I told them what I had seen. I spent the entire night in my room with the light on thinking about the skeleton and poor Alex and Julius. I peeked out of the window every few minutes at the big house across the street but the lights were all turned off.

The next morning, when dawn broke, I went downstairs and looked across the street. I could see into the garage through the horizontal windows. There were no bodies hanging from the ceiling in the garage and all the house window curtains were pulled shut as they had been for the past couple of years. A day later, on Sunday, Alex and Julius were reported missing. I am going to keep the secret of what I saw inside that home forever. I’m afraid that what I saw last week may haunt me for the rest of my life.

title: After reading Stephen King, I was inspired to write this short story called "Arlo's Diary"

question: Did Alex and Julius commit suicide?

answer: No. It is implied in the story that the skeleton that makes the groaning noise killed them.

question: What happened to Mrs. McKinley?

answer: It was originally stated that she committed suicide, and that this is the official story. The narrator's experiences imply that she might have been either driven to death by the house and that she now haunts it as a skeleton, killing anyone who comes in the same way she died, or it is possible that the skeleton is a different character and it is the skeleton that killed her.

question: How is the real estate economy in the story?

answer: Judging from how a house in a suburban neighborhood stayed empty for three years can be considered as a sign that the turnaround time for real estate is rather slow. On the other hand, it is possible that the realtor is having a very hard time selling a house with a murderous skeleton haunting it.


text:
VICTORY FOR THE SOUTH – A southern platoon with an Abraham tank is transported back in time to the Gettysburg battle.  The platoon leader wants to change the battles outcome, but the black privates are afraid winning the battle may affect the Civil War’s outcome and the abolishment of slavery so everyone can be free.

The restoration building for the Hunley Submarine resides in the old Charleston Navy Yard. The Hunley sits in a 90,000 gallon conservation tank, among several artifacts in displays excavated from inside the submarine.  One of these artifacts is the gold coin Lt. George Dixon carried with him when the H.L. Hunley sank 138 years ago.

The Hunley submarine was found in Charleston’s harbor, South Carolina.  According to legend, Lt. George E. Dixon, who commanded the Hunley on its historic mission, had a sweetheart named Queenie Bennett from Mobile, Alabama. When he went off to war, she gave Dixon a 20 dollar gold coin, as a good luck charm.  It is rumored she also had voodoo practitioner Marie Catherine Laveau from New Orleans bless it with a voodoo spell of protection.  The coin saved Dixon’s life in the battle of Shiloh and he kept the coin when he commandeered the Hunley.

KRIS BROOKS (age 20s) sister to Lieutenant CHUCK BROOKS of the 13th South Carolina ARMORED DIVISION, steals this coin and gives it to her younger brother who is destined for Iraq later in the year.  When she tries to renew the coin’s original spell, she accidently sends her brother’s platoon back into time, days before the Gettysburg battle.

Lieutenant Brooks and his men are 100 percent southern and believes what the South fought for in the Civil War.  He realizes that he can change history and he does not care if it’s cheating – he believes he was sent back for a purpose. The platoon lays low and out of sight at a farm 10 miles outside Gettysburg.  The platoon had to take the farm’s family by force, no one was hurt.  Lidia, a freed slave, falls for the black private Benjamin and he falls for her.

Lieutenant Brooks decides they will attack the Union before the start of Pickets Charge. The more he realizes he can change history, the more he is determined to do it.  A Union patrol stops near the house and discovers Lieutenant Brooks, who then has all of the 30 men killed after his platoon had surrounded them.

The two black privates do not know how to stop lieutenant Brooks. That night they slip away from the farm with their weapons, including an anti-tank missile launcher, to warn General Meade of the impending attack by their platoon.  They hide their weapons, including the anti-tank missile launcher, before being captured by Union pickets, and brought before General Meade.  He does not believe they are from the future and has the two black privates jailed.

The freed black slave Lidia is able to find her way into the jail and give Benjamin a loaded revolver; they escape the night before Pickets Charge. Lidia is friends with the white person who runs the Underground Railroad, and he brings the black soldiers to General Meade, who is led to where the black soldiers stashed their weapons.  A demonstration of their weapons convinces General Mead they may be telling the truth. While they are examining their weapons, Benjamin accidently fires the anti-tank missile launcher, the only missile they had to stop Lieutenant Brooks.  General Meade is convinced by the black privates he has to dig anti-tank ditches around the center of the front line where they feel Lieutenant Brooks will send his platoon.

Lieutenant Brooks drives his tank and the platoon into General Lee’s camp about 5:00 AM.  The confederates are completely startled with the picket guards firing at them.  Brooks raises a white flag and asks to see General Lee where he convinces him they are from the future when he shows him a few apps on his iPhone. At 2:00 PM Lieutenant Brooks is in front of General Picket’s troops waiting for the signal to charge.

Jump to the future…..

The teacher (Android) is teaching other androids in class explaining the North American map and how it became divided into two different countries – the United States of America and the Confederate States of America (CSA).   The instructor begins explaining how androids enslaved humans.  It seems that when Lieutenant Brooks and his platoon went back into time, the modern weapons he brought resulted in a technological revolution before it’s time.  The technology was exploited by a few capitalists in the CSA who lost control of the technology allowing machines to become rulers on earth.

title: [SF] VICTORY FOR THE SOUTH

question: What coin does Kris steal?

answer: The gold coin Lt. George Dixon carried with him when the H.L. Hunley sank 138 years ago.

question: The men are from the South of what country?

answer: It is implied that they are from the South of the United States.

question: Will the two black privates escape from prison?

answer: Yes

question: Will General Meade change his mind regarding if the two black privates are from the future?

answer: Yes, he ends up believing they are from the future.

question: Write a ~9 sentence summary.

answer: Kris Brooks steals a coin for good luck for his brother. When she tried to renew the coin's protection spell, she sends his brother and his platoon back in time, during the American Civil War. Her brother wants to attack the Union. Two of the black privates in Brooks's platoon are afraid that, with the attack, Brooks will change the future and the black slaves will never be freed. They run away and convince General Meade that they are from the future. The General tried to prepare the Union for Brooks's platoon attack. While they are waiting for the signal to charge, Brooks convinces General Lee that they are from the future. Because Brooks's platoon got involved in the American Civil War the future has changed. Some corporations got their hand on the new technology causing a technological revolution before its time and in the end, androids became the rulers on earth.


text:
Preface;  I have always wanted to be a writer, but I struggle to focus after a few pages or so, so I have taken to writing short stories under 10 pages. Most of them are tragedies, or intensely emotional at the very least.  I went for a new writing style for this, one that is more emotive.

Feedback is appreciated, and thanks for reading.

"Sometimes I believe my life is a tragic novel, written for the amusement of the narcissistic people who don't have to live it.  Maybe when the pen that writes my fate is laid to rest, I will be too.  It's not though.  No writer could be as cruel as the gods that force me to continue breathing.  I don't care.  Pain itself can be comforting when it's all you've known.  It becomes the echo that's left when your voice goes quiet.  And my voice is quiet all the time now.

It's Saturday.  Another Saturday, just like the last, and the next most likely.  Its cold, winter is nearly here.  My blankets smell of flowers and mildew.  Maybe I will wash them today.  I don't remember the last time I did.  I don't remember a lot of things.  Like yesterday.  I don't know what happened yesterday.  Just the sleep that followed.  I think I was dreaming of lying in the snow, becoming still until I could hear my own heart, beating slowly and quivering.  Maybe it was a memory, I don't know.  They are both the same, aren't they?  Both are gone forever.  It's Saturday though, no alarm to wake me.  I still wake up at the same time.  I wish I could sleep longer.  Hibernate like the bears in a nature documentary.  Forget the winter and it's gray sorrow, and wake up when the wet grass sparkles like emeralds and song birds pray for endless summer.  I don't think I will see summer again.  Sometimes I look in the mirror and I don't see myself.  There is a face there, and a body, but not mine.

I changed my mind about the covers.  Another day won't hurt them.  Think I said that last time.  That must have been months ago.  Time is so strange, I don't really notice it's passage anymore.  Just the light and dark, over and over.  It's all the same.  I need some water.  Water to wash my little blue pills down.  They are supposed to make me feel better.  They don't.  I don't think there is a better, just shades of nothing bound by each tick of time.  I take two and pretend they help.

Toast for breakfast.  Only I didn't toast it.  I didn't feel like it.  I don't feel like getting jam either.  Taste seems pointless.  I don't enjoy having to keep myself alive.  Eating shows I have some control.  It makes me wonder why I don't just stop and drift away.  Not yet.  It's not that I want to live.  I just don't feel like dying.  There are still a few days of Autumn left.  Autumn's not so bad.  There are colors and warmth remaining in the world.  It will be gone soon enough.  Like me.

I used to watch TV on Saturday.  I don't remember when, I was much younger.  I still turn the TV on, and I still sit in front of it.  But it's the clock I am watching.  Waiting for night to come, another night and another day.  Another day closer to goodbye.

It's growing dark.  Nearly time for sleep.  Another day gone, another day I won't have to live again.  Sleep is not really respite.  I still dream, or remember.  Yet my nightmares are not of monsters but of waking.  Another two pills and I am waiting to drift away.  And sleep comes, slowly and secretly.  Prowling up behind me and then it pounces and I am no more, for a few short hours.  I was thinking about something, but I don't remember now.

I think today is Tuesday.  I don't know why I think that, it just feels like Tuesday.  The bus is outside.  I may just miss it.  I say that every day, and every day I get on anyway.  Last night I dreamed I was stabbed to death.  At least it wasn't a nightmare.  Sometimes I am afraid, but I am not sure why.  I dress in whatever is closest to me.  That happens to be a pile of clothes beside my bed.  I don't care about clothes.  Before I walk out, I look at the picture frame turned against the wall.  I don't know who's picture it is, or why it's turned away.  I was going to look once, but I like the mystery not knowing.

Someone said it's going to snow.  I don't notice who, I never look at their faces.  I don't see people, just costume masks painted on cold flesh.  They act excited at the prospect of getting to miss school.  I hope it doesn't.  I wish I could fly away from the snow, like the last of the geese flying South.  I can't fly though.  Not yet.  It's night again.  Did a whole day go by?

I hate snow.  It's not just the cold wetness sloping against my face.  It's the color, white and maybe blue in the evening.  I hate white.  And I hate snow.  And now it's snowing.  Again.  I swear I will move somewhere it never snows.  Maybe Florida.  Does it ever snow in Florida?

It's still dark. And snowing.  I can tell by the subtle brushing noise outside my window.  The alarm is yelling at me again.  Morning always comes at the worst time.  Maybe it will stop snowing today.  It won't though, it never does.

School is where the adults make us go so they don't have to look at us.  I am sure of it.  I wouldn't feed my dog this soup.  I wish I had a dog, really.  Maybe I will ask Jak for one.  I never get tired of being told no.  Another alarm, screaming at me because I am not where I should be.  I hate alarms.  Almost as much as I hate snow.

My teacher gave me a note.  I can't look at it, the paper is too white.  I will get sick if I do.  I know exactly how many steps it takes to get to the shrinks office.  Shrinky shrinkster.  49 steps, and 11 stairs.  The top one is higher, so I jump a little.  No one else is here, though I have never seen anyone here.  He smiles.  I wish he wouldn't.  I am fine.  Yes everything is fine at home.  No I don't talk much.  Yes I took my little pills today.  And yesterday too.  I cut myself when I slipped in the shower.  Yes, both arms.  I am fine, really.  Oh look, the bus is waiting.  Maybe I will be alone tonight.  It's getting colder.  And snowing.  God damn.

Not alone.  Not tonight.  There is a car in the drive way.  Jak's car.  He's my father but not really.  I wish he would have stayed over at work.  Sometimes I don't see him, he just sleeps in bed.  I hear the car come and go, and I hide under the covers.  Not that it matters.  If I have to go I go.  It's better that way.  I don't get as many questions at school.  I don't like questions, or brused lips.  When I am in Florida everything will be okay.  Or maybe Mexico. I don't think it snows in Mexico either.  Jak is waiting.

I think I had a mother once.  If I did, this used to be her room too.  Now it's not.  Now it's just empty and cold and white.  Like snow.  Jak doesn't say anything.  He doesn't need to.  Hasn't for a long time.  I slip my jacket and shoes off.  Then my shirt.  It's green, my favorite color.  It seems so long since I have seen grass that green.  Jak looks at my arms.  I lied to Shrinky.  I didnt slip.  I collect scars like other girls collect ribbons.  I think.  Do girls collect ribbons?  I don't have any.

I don't think Jak is bad.  I don't think Jak is anything.  A cold white sheet pulled over a wire frame.  Moving by unseen strings.  It doesn't take long.  It doesn't usually.  14 steps to the shower.  I count them, I don't know why.  The water is warm, warm like summer.  And white.  The tub is white too.  I wash slowly, it makes it better that way.  Knowing what's next, but waiting.  I reach under a flap of caulking.  The razer blade almost bites my finger, but I know exactly where it is.  Slip it carefully from its hiding place.  It's like writing music.  My body the page with the score in blood.  The little red drips in the water, my music.  More and more dripping away.  I have created a symphony of red.  My head hurts.  I try standing up, but I can't.  I flop out of the tub, and drag my body behind me.  14 steps down, and a few more.  I open the door, and just stare at the white.  I will be white soon.

Someone is standing over me.  A women in hideous white.  It's so bright.  She's blinding me with a flashlight.  My head feels like it's been split open.  And something is stuck in my arm.  It's a hospital.  I have been here before, I think.  Maybe.  People are talking in the corner.  I can't really see them.  The nurse says something, I nod.  One of the talking figures walk over.  It's a police officer.  I don't like questions and he asks a lot of them.  He doesn't seem to believe me, either.  At least he doesn't smile like my shrink.  I ask for some water.  I feel sick."

title: [RF]

question: Summarize the list of things the narrator finds distasteful or does not enjoy doing as much as they used to.

answer:
The narrator does not enjoy washing. His blanket hasn't been washed for a while now - he cannot remember when he last washed it. He also does not feel like putting more effort into preparing his food For example, he does not feel like toasting his bread and would prefer to eat it just like that.

The narrator does not like watching Saturday TV anymore. He likes just sitting there and watching the clock. The narrator is hoping it does not snow yet. He hates snow, especially its color. He also dislikes the soup served at school


text:
Tesla Inc. is seeking a Social Support Specialist to work on one of the most progressive vehicle brands in the world. We are looking for highly motivated & self-driven individuals that excel in working with both customers in escalated situations as well as internal stakeholders to improve the customer experience for Tesla long-term.

The Social team was built to bring peace of mind to both our internal and external customers, meeting our customers where they frequently interact, and surprising and delighting them behind the scenes to resolve their vehicle, ownership or service concerns, while driving positive business change through our delivery of insights and partnerships with teams across Tesla. As our vehicle, ownership or service concerns expressed through social media are usually following a bad experience, our focus is primarily on repairing and developing relationships with customers and internal departments to achieve the highest level of service now and for the future. This role could evolve into proactive posting via customer education / customer engagement, but not at present.

Experienced persons may have a background in dedicated case management, customer retention type roles, and if possible, social media experience. Candidates’ communication skills must be proficient in both public platforms as well as across teams internally, including the executive level up to CEO, and across the globe with our partners in other regions. Candidates’ core values should revolve around the obsession to deliver a world class experience, with a passion to do whatever it takes to do so, and done in a tactful and professional manner.

Given the current landscape within the business, candidates must be able to thrive in a high energy, high speed & ever-changing team environment managing multiple events at once, and often times with a high-degree of ambiguity. Candidates must be adaptable and willing to adjust course on-the-fly as needs of the business change and evolve. Candidates must be self-motivated and able to perform and excel with minimal guidance; not be afraid to raise their hand when success is in jeopardy.

Responsibilities

-   Monitor variety of social media channels, including but not limited to Twitter, Facebook, Tesla Forums, TMC, Model 3 Ownership Club and Reddit
-   Direct engagement with owner advocates in the social space where possible
-   Provide the highest level of written, and sometimes verbal, customer support
-   Coordinate services in urgent and non-urgent situations
-   Evaluate the needs of customers- proactively, and often times creatively, resolve issues with customers and their products
-   Effectively communicate to owners concerns across sales, service, delivery, engineering, our Executive stakeholders where needed, and enabling teams such as business resolutions, legal, and communications
-   Where needed, partner closely with both Social Communication team and Customer Experience teams to alert them of issues trending and escalating on social media
-   Accurately record concerns and data into CRM systems such as Salesforce, WARP, and Service Center Application
-   Track and measure insight opportunities presented through each concern that comes to our team
-   Work with internal teams in partnership with team manager to improve processes/systems across the business preventing us from delivering world class experiences to our customers

Requirements

-   Minimum 2 years of relevant work experience
-   Experience using Customer Management Systems
-   Proficiency with MS Office Suite
-   Excellent written and oral communications skills
-   Exemplary customer service skills
-   Flexible schedule to accommodate our customers’ needs
-   Understanding of basic automotive techniques and related service of vehicle systems
-   Ability to follow oral and written instructions with attention to detail
-   Willingness to learn new and innovative automotive technologies
-   Willingness to adjust course on-the-fly based on business need
-   Establish and maintain positive, cooperative, working relationships
-   Effectively handle multiple priorities, prioritize critical issues above others, organize workload, and meet deadlines
-   Ability to consume large amounts of data through social sentiment and concisely pull the salient points out for Executive level review
-   Good judgment/common sense on what’s appropriate to potentially be shared publicly
-   Ability to work within a broad range of tools while managing multiple customer complaints concurrently
-   Organizational savviness with ability to network and navigate the organization given heavy reliance on internal teams for quick resolution
-   Work in a team-based environment and achieve common goals

Apply

Tesla participates in the E-Verify Program

question: What is the role of the social support specialist and its importance?

answer: The social support specialist is expected to alleviate customer concerns and handle the often negative experiences shared over social media in a pleasant way for the customers. Furthermore, they are expected to have good communication skills within the company and handle uncertainties that crop up in a fast-moving environment well.

question: What does the article say about Elon Musk?