text:
Dr Bobby Smyth, consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist in south Dublin said spiralling levels of cannabis use had now led to a growth in drug debts, ultimately leading to suicide in a small number of cases.

Dr Smyth said the most significant change was the usage of cannabis and the associated change in the way it is sold.

He said it was now not uncommon for people to smoke up to €50 worth of cannabis a day — a spend comparable to someone with a heroin addiction.

However, cannabis dealers are allowing clients to build up debts of hundreds of euro, which they then struggle to pay, often leading to the debt increasing while usage continues.

“They are spending the sort of money on cannabis now that we would associate with heroin four or five years ago.

“It means you can end up with debt of a few hundred [euro] and it can build to a few thousand.”

That brings intimidation and threats of physical violence, which Dr Smyth said can cause “huge distress”.

“Everyone is struggling to know what to do about it. The guards cannot act unless someone names the individual threatening them.

“There have been a number of suicides that have occurred in parts of Dublin I deal with that have been linked back to cannabis,” he said. “I am hearing it anecdotally but I am hearing it anecdotally from different sources and related to different suicides,” he said.

“I am seeing people who are acutely distressed about cannabis and the issues around it.”

He said that in addition to difficulties with drug use, drug debts and the threats associated with that often lead to stress and therefore further usage, as many users have a “limited range of coping skills” and also feel guilty for involving their parents in helping them pay the debts.

“That issue of indebtedness is part of the reason people are coming for treatment.”

He said it was not limited to Dublin and was instead a national problem — a view echoed by the Aislinn Centre in Co Kilkenny which provides treatment programmes for adolescents abusing drugs.

Breda Cahill, general manager at the Aislinn Centre in Ballyragget, said the average age of clients presenting to their service for problematic cannabis use was now 16.

She said: “We would have noticed a lot of families and a lot of parents with a lot of debt to pay.

“Parents are sometimes not aware that the debt is there until it’s far too late.”

Dr Smyth said the weed being smoked was more potent than hitherto and was now the main form of cannabis available.

He also said that some people had gone to social workers over the threats being made regarding drug debts and in some cases families had been relocated.

question: Who is Dr. Bobby Smyth?

answer: a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist in south Dublin

question: What is Dr. Smyth's evidence for linking cannabis and suicide?

answer: personal anecdotes from different areas of Dublin

question: What is the Aislinn Centre?

answer: The Aislinn Center is located in Co Kilkenny and provides treatment programmes for adolescents abusing drugs.

question: What is the average age of Aislinn Centre clients presenting to their service for problematic cannabis use?

answer: 16

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: The article documents increases in cannabis use and drug-related debt in Ireland.


split: train

text:
The San Francisco Police Department’s newest recruit class of 46 — 38 men and eight women — walked through the Mission District on Thursday to meet those they would be policing and serving.

“Fuck the police!” yelled one woman at the 16th Street Bart Station as the large group crossed 16th Street.

“It’s understandable for black Americans to be upset,” said Jaron White, a 29-year-old black recruit who grew up in the Bayview-Hunter’s Point. By joining law enforcement, he says he as a black officer is helping improving the Police Department. All of the new recruits are part of the first class trained with de-escalation tactics, including new body-worn cameras and training meant to emphasize “time and distance” when confronting suspects.

“I understand your struggle, I’ve been through your struggle,” said another black recruit, 28-year-old Mike Hill from the Fillmore. Hill said that “of course” black lives matter, but that he hoped to “bridge the gap” between the police and communities of color by becoming an officer.

“I understand why they say stuff like that,” he said. “At the same time, being upset is one thing, but also wanting to something about it. We’re doing something about it.”

The new class has 20 white recruits, 7 black recruits, 7 Latinos, 9 Asians, and 3 Filipinos, according to the Police Department. In contract, San Francisco as a whole is 41 percent white, 6 percent black, 15 percent Latino, 35 percent Asian, and just 0.5 percent Pacific Islander, according to the Census Bureau.

The group continued its walk toward 24th Street, where recruits were scheduled to meet with children at an after-school program. Along the way, they spoke about their backgrounds, community policing, and how they would act as police officers at a controversial time for the San Francisco Police Department.

Asked about the fatal police shooting of Mario Woods in December 2015, White said it was “always sad” when a life was lost and “hard, every time,” but that “being on this side” of law enforcement, he understood “why it happens sometimes.”

He recalled the death of his friend, Camilo Senchyna, who was working as an EMT when he wasshot and killed outside of Bruno’s bar trying to break up a fight.

“A good friend of mine was killed in the Mission not far, at Bruno’s, two years ago,” he said.

[Photo by Lola M. Chavez]
Photo by Lola M. Chavez

[Photo by Lola M. Chavez]
Photo by Lola M. Chavez

[Photo by Lola M. Chavez]
Photo by Lola M. Chavez

[Photo by Lola M. Chavez]
Nicole Rissetto, one of the 46 police recruits who walked through the Mission District on Thursday, August 25. Photo by Lola M. Chavez

The tour on Thursday — which involved the recruits, police spokespeople, and a squad car constantly following the group around the neighborhood — was one of several taken by the class through San Francisco.

The walkaround, meant to “meet with Mission district residents and business owners,” according to a police statement, involved little interaction with shop owners or passersby other than the occasional greeting.

Instead, recruits started from Mission Station at 17th and Valencia streets and took a quick stroll through Clarion Alley.

“Go ahead, start taking a look at the murals,” said Sergeant Jeffrey Aloise, leading the group between murals reading “Housing is a Human Right” and “Men! All of You: Put Your Guns Down.”

Asked about some of the deadly police shootings in the Mission District — that of Alex Nieto in March 2014, Amilcar Perez Lopez in February 2015, and Luis Gongora Pat this year in April — those spoken to did not know the victims’ names.

Asked what “community policing” looked like in a neighborhood like the Mission District — where witnesses say an immigrant like Perez Lopez did not understood police commands before he was shot, and Gongora Pat had beenevicted and made homeless just two years before his death — recruits stuck to a familiar de-escalation refrain: time and distance.

“The biggest thing is just time,” said Shalane Jackson, a 21-year-old black recruit, repeating what others said about lowering tensions when confronting someone. “Things were just happening too fast.”

“If they’re not coming at you, you have all the time in the world,” said Nicole Rissetto, a 29-year-old white recruit. Rissetto said the class had not yet undergone crisis-intervention training — which is being rolled out to senior officers first, she said — but knew to create “time and distance” when confronting a suspect.

“It seems like that’s the change that we’re going through,” she said of the emphasis on de-escalation.

After a walk down to the 16th Street Bart Station and a walk back down Mission Street towards 24th Street, the recruits went to Mission Education Projects Inc. on the corner with Treat Avenue. There, they played with children for another hour, building Jenga towers and handing out stickers reading “Junior SFPD Officer” before leaving in police vans.

Recruits said the walking tour was the kind of activity the department should emphasize. Lary Cortes, a Latina recruit from Redwood City, said she hoped to be assigned to the Mission District to focus on non-violent solutions to tension.

“What the community wants is less violence, less force,” she said, also saying the force and the Latino community needed more females in positions of power. “I want to be able to know that we are doing things differently.”

[Photo by Lola M. Chavez]
Photo by Lola M. Chavez

[Photo by Lola M. Chavez]
Photo by Lola M. Chavez

[Photo by Lola M. Chavez]
Photo by Lola M. Chavez

[Photo by Lola M. Chavez]
Photo by Lola M. Chavez

[Photo by Lola M. Chavez]
Photo by Lola M. Chavez

[Photo by Lola M. Chavez]
Photo by Lola M. Chavez

[Photo by Lola M. Chavez]
Photo by Lola M. Chavez

[Photo by Lola M. Chavez]
Photo by Lola M. Chavez

question: Why did the new recruits of the San Francisco Police Department walk through the Mission District?

answer: To meet the people in the neighborhood they would be policing and serving, including the children at an after-school program.

question: Why did the woman yell “Fuck the police!” at the group of police doing the walkaround?

answer: She was a black woman, and it is understandable for black Americans to be upset because of some of the deadly police shootings in the Mission District.

question: What are the new de-escalation tactics of the police?

answer: Police wear new body-worn cameras and emphasize “time and distance” when confronting suspects.

question: What is the aim of the police assigned to the Mission District?

answer: They aim to focus on non-violent solutions to tension.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: The new recruits of the San Francisco Police Department walk through the Mission District to meet the people in the neighborhood they would be serving. They aim to use non-violent solutions to tension, giving emphasis on time and distance when confronting suspects.


text:
HYLAND SOFTWARE is the developer of the enterprise content management (ECM) and process management software suite called OnBase. Applications of the suite are used in healthcare, financial institutions, insurance, government, higher education and manufacturing. The firm has its headquarters in Westlake, Ohio,[1] and other offices in Lincoln, Nebraska; Irvine, California; Charlotte, North Carolina; São Paulo, Brazil; London, England; Tokyo, Japan; Andover, Massachusetts; Melbourne, Australia; Kolkata, India; Sydney, Australia; Berlin, Germany; Olathe, Kansas; Bloomington, Minnesota; Salt Lake City, Utah; Phoenix, Arizona; and Tampa, Florida.

On March 31, 2014, the company rebranded itself as OnBase by Hyland.[2]

Corporate History

Founding

Hyland Software was established in 1991 by Packy Hyland Jr. He met with members of The Necedah Bank to discuss its data processing and how electronic information technology could reduce printing costs by storing daily reports directly to optical disk. Packy Hyland created the first version of OnBase for The Necedah Bank, which became Hyland Software's first customer. Because OnBase was originally created for a bank, a majority of Hyland Software's customers were in the banking industry until recently when the healthcare providers found value from ECM technologies.[3]

Acquisition History

September 1, 2006: Matrix Imaging (private enterprise content management company in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan specializing in the higher education sector)[4]

July 1, 2008: Liberty Information Management Systems (IMS) (private Costa Mesa, California-based enterprise content management company)[5]
Hyland acquired the company to gain a larger customer and partner base. The office in California, with a move from Costa Mesa to Irvine, has been maintained.

July 1, 2009: Valco Data Systems (private, Salem, New Hampshire-based healthcare software and software integration company)[6]
Valco's software was noted for being strongly integrated with software from MEDITECH.

March 1, 2010: eWebHealth (private, Reading, Massachusetts-based provider of hosted medical records workflow) [7]
Their specific expertise is in the areas of coding and revenue cycle workflow.

September 1, 2010: Hershey Systems (private, Santa Fe Springs, California maker of Singularity, a document management system marketed to higher education institutions) [8]

September 24, 2010: Computer Systems Company, Inc. (dba The CSC Group) (private, Strongsville, Ohio-based provider of healthcare software and document conversion services) [9]

August 29, 2012: SIRE Technologies, Inc. (private, Salt Lake City, Utah-based software developer focused on stuff for county and local governments)[10]

December, 2012: Enterprise Consulting Partners (ECP) (private, Reston, VA-based software focused on workflow automation and document management solutions that support business processes such as: invoice automation, billing, contract management, purchase requisitioning and human resources).

February 28, 2013: AnyDoc Software (Tampa, Florida-based software developer focused on automated document, data capture and classification)[11]

June 1, 2014: CAYLX (private, Belrose, Australia-based software company)

October 13, 2015: LawLogix (Phoenix, Arizona-based software company specializing in cloud-based immigration and compliance software.)[12]

May, 2016: AcroSoft ECM (private, Indianapolois, IN- based software company)

July 7, 2017: the Perceptive business unit from Lexmark International, Inc. including the products Perceptive Content (formerly ImageNow), Perceptive Capture (formerly Brainware), Acuo VNA, PACSGEAR, Claron, Nolij, Saperion, Pallas Athena, ISYS and Twistage.

October 22, 2020: Hyland announced the acquisition of Alfresco Software. [13]

Major Industries

- Healthcare
- Government
- Higher Education
- Commercial
- Financial Services
- Insurance
- Manufacturing

Key People

Packy Hyland, Jr. is the founder of Hyland Software and developed the first version of OnBase for The Necedah Bank in Wisconsin in 1991. He served as CEO and President until 2001, when he was succeeded by his brother, A.J. Hyland, who retired in 2013[14] and was succeed after by Bill Priemer, formerly the firm's Chief Operating Officer.[15] Miguel Zubizarreta served as CTO and joined the company in 1992 and has since retired in 2016, and was responsible for the architecture and product development direction of the OnBase product line. Chris Hyland served as CFO and joined the company in 1992 and will retire on 2020.

Product

[OnBase Logo] Hyland Software's OnBase product integrates document management, business process automation and records management. Industry analysts such as Forrester Research focus on the product's foundational ECM functionality, like imaging and archiving capabilities, as its strengths.[16]

The OnBase product also offers integrations with Microsoft,[17] SAP, Oracle Corporation[18] and Lawson to gain more value from existing technologies. OnBase was named 2015 Best in KLAS for Document Management and Imaging.[19]

Services

The OnBase Cloud

Hyland offers a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) application of OnBase software known as the OnBase Cloud.[20] This service is a cloud-based version of Hyland's traditional OnBase product offering; applications are hosted at a data center and accessed over a secure Internet connection.

Recognition

In 2014, 2015, and 2016 the company was ranked as one of Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For list, rising to position 48 in 2016.[21]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

[20]

[21]

title: Hyland Software

question: Summarize the history of Hyland Software.

answer: Hyland Software was established in 1991 by Packy Hyland Jr. Hyland created the first version of OnBase for the Necedah Bank, which became the company's first customer. In the 2000s, they acquired Matrix Imagine, Liberty Information Management Systems, and Valco Data Systems. They continued to make acquisitions in the 2010s, including Hershey Systems, Sire Technologies, and LawLogix.

question: Summarize everything related to the Hyland family.

answer: Hyland Software was established by Packy Hyland Jr. in 1991. Packy Hyland also created the first version of OnBase. He served as CEO and president until 2001, when he was succeeded by his brother, A.J. Hyland. Chris Hyland served as CFO and joined the company in 1992.

question: What does the article say about Hyland Software's competitors?


text:
Jacob Ajit, a Virginia high school student, is also a hacker who discovered a loophole that gave him access to T-Mobile's LTE data network with no plan—completely free.

"One Friday night, I was sitting around pretending to be fine having absolutely nothing to do," he wrote in a Medium post. "I had a TMobile prepaid SIM on a spare phone with no active service, so I came up with a fun challenge: could I somehow get access to the internet without a data plan?"

He could, it turns out. Ajit discovered that T-Mobile allows devices connected to its LTE network access to some websites and servers without an account. That free access extends to Ookla's Speedtest app, which pings a nearby server to test the phone's upload and download speeds. Ookla is owned by Ziff Davis, PCMag's parent company.

By setting up his own proxy server, Ajit was able to spoof T-Mobile into thinking that the data he was accessing came from Speedtest, when in reality his hacked connection had free reign of the Internet.

"Just like that, I now had access to data throughout the TMobile network without maintaining any sort of formal payments or contract," he wrote. "Just my phone's radios talking to the network's radios, free of any artificial shackles."

He noted that it in theory, it would be very easy for T-Mobile to sniff out such a proxy that was attempting to impersonate a whitelisted server. All they'd have to do is limit their access to the servers on Speedtest's public list. There are hundreds of servers, however, and there are likely other sites and apps that T-Mobile might want non-subscribers to have access to, so implementing such a whitelist would be a tedious task.

T-Mobile has not responded to PCMag's request for comment on whether it plans to fix Ajit's loophole, but his publically-available proxy server was no longer working as of Friday afternoon.

Further Reading

-   New TikTok Setting Filters Out Flashing Images That Could Cause Seizures
-   Over 20 Malicious Minecraft Android Apps Found on Google Play
-   Latest Google Maps Updates Are Meant to Ease Holiday Stress
-   Apple Is Reducing Its App Store Tax to 15 Percent for Most Developers
-   More in SecurityWatch
-   More in Mobile Apps

Mobile App Reviews

-   Google Android 11
-   Marvel Unlimited
-   Adobe Illustrator on the iPad
-   Webtoon
-   Duet Display

Mobile App Best Picks

-   The 5 Best Alternatives to FaceTime for Android
-   The Best iPad Apps for 2020
-   The Best iPad Games for 2020
-   The Best Weather Apps for 2020
-   Keep an Eye on the Cops: The Best Police Scanner Apps

question: Who is Jacob Ajit?

answer: Jacob Ajit is a high school student and a computer hacker.

question: What did Jacob do?

answer: He discovered a loophole that gave him access to T-Mobile's LTE data for free.

question: What did T-Mobile have to say regarding the incident?

answer: T-Mobile didn't respond to PCMag's request for comment, but they did close Jacob's loophole.

question: Where did Jacob write about his successful hacking?

answer: He wrote about it in a Medium post.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: Jacob Ajit is a high school student and a computer hacker who discovered a loophole that gave him access to T-Mobile's LTE data for free.


text:
Introduction: Awesome Super Mario Bros. Easter Eggs!!

My son is going through his Super Mario Bros. phase. I don't know that I ever got over mine. Playing Nintendo for countless hours is one of my fondest childhood memories. With Easter right around the corner, I thought I would surprise him with these Awesome Super Mario Nintendo Eggs.

I'm not an artist and I know these aren't perfect, but I think they still came out pretty cool. I used images from my iphone to replicate the  the Nintendo characters. I basically drew the images on with a pencil and then used Acrylic paint to fill them in. I used Sharpie Paint markers to fill in small details like the pupils.

WARNING: These are for fun only. DO NOT EAT eggs that have been painted with Acrylic paint.

Step 1: What You Need:

For this instructable, you will need the following:

ONE DOZEN HARD BOILED EGGS- some might crack during the cooking process. It's good to have extra.

ACRYLIC PAINT:

Cadmium Red

Deep Black

Burnt Sienna

Brilliant Green

Unbleached Titanium Hue

Medium Gray

Permanent Rose

Azo Yellow Medium

Titanium White

SHARPIE POSTER PAINT:

Red

Floursent Green

Floursent Blue

White

TOOLS:

Lead Pencil

Paintbrushes

Bowls with water

Old newspaper

Plate for paint

Paper towels

Wet rag-  in case you get paint on surrounding surfaces:

Black Sharpie

Step 2: Mario & Luigi

ACRYLIC PAINT:

MARIO:

Cadmium Red
Black
Unbleached Titanium Hue

SHARPIE PAINT:

Red
White
Blue

LUIGI:

Brilliant Green
Unbleached Titanium Hue
Black

SHARPIE PAINT:

Green
White

To make Mario & Luigi, paint two hard-boiled with the Unbleached Titanium hue. Repeat process two times. Wait at least 1 hour to dry. Next, using a lead pencil, draw their faces onto the eggs. Use paint accordingly to fill in eyebrows, mustache, etc. Use the white sharpie paint pen for the pupils and the blue paint pen for the blue outline of the eyes.

Step 3: Bullet Bill

BULLET BILL:

ACRYLIC PAINT:

Black
Cadmium Red
White
Medium Gray

Paint one hard boiled egg with the Deep black paint. Repeat process two more times, waiting 15-25 minutes in between each coat. After the last coat, wait at least 1 hour before using a pencil to draw on the eyes and mouth.

Next, outline the eyes and mouth. I painted the mouth white and then went back and filled it in with the red paint Then I used black paint to outline the teeth.

Step 4: Goomba

GOOMBA:

ACRYLIC PAINT:

Burnt Sienna
Black
White

Paint one hard-boiled egg with the Burnt Sienna. You will need to repeat the process three times to achieve the right color. If you don't, the brown color will be to light. Wait 25 minutes in between  each coat. Then wait 1 hour for the last coat to dry. Next, paint an outline of the eyes. Draw a straight black line on the bottom of the egg for the mouth and then two pointy sharp white teeth on top of the mouth.

Step 5: 1-Up Mushroom & Toad

1-UP MUSHROOM & TOAD:

ACRYLIC PAINT:

1 UP MUSHROOM:

Unbleached Hue
Green
White

Sharpie:

Black

TOAD:

Cadmium Red
Unbleached Hue
White

Sharpie:

Black

For the 1 -Up Mushroom, draw the outline for the face with a lead pencil. Paint the top part of the egg green. Repeat process until desired color green is achieved. Let paint dry for at least 1 hour. Paint the outline of the face with the unbleached hue. Repeat process waiting 25 minutes in between each coat.  Next draw the outline of three circles. Two on each side and one on the middle. Fill them in with the white.

Draw on the eyes with a black sharpie and fill in the pupils with the white sharpie paint pen.

TOAD:

Toad is the same process as the 1-Up mushroom, only you want to paint the top part of the egg all white. Then paint three red circles on top of the egg.

Step 6: Old School Nintendo Control

OLD SCHOOL NINTENDO CONTROL:

ACRYLIC PAINT:

Gray
Cadmium Red
Black

SHARPIE PAINT PEN:

White
Red

Black Sharpie

To make the control, paint one hard boiled egg Medium Gray. Repeat process two times, waiting 25 minutes between each coat. Next, using a lead pencil,out line two squares. Fill them in with black paint. Wit 30 minutes to dry. Outline the square on the left with the gray paint, until it resembles the controller.

For the square on the right side, draw two small squares inside the square and use gray paint to fill them in. Apply two more coats of gray. Wait 30 minutes to dry and using the red paint, paint two small squares, one inside each gray square. Above the gray squares, using your red sharpie paint pen, write the word Nintendo. You can go back over it in red paint if you prefer.

In the middle of the egg, in between each black square, use your white sharpie paint pen and draw five skinny rectangles. Let them dry. Then using a black sharpie, draw in two skinny black rectangles on the fourth with rectangle. On the third rectangle, use your red sharpie and write select and start. My handwriting is two big, but I was able to get a few letters on each word.  Last, with your red sharpie, draw a "B" under the first gray square and an "A" on the second. (I forgot this step)

Step 7: Super Mario Bros. Question Mark

SUPER MARIO BROS. QUESTION MARK:

ACRYLIC PAINT:

Yellow
White

SHARPIE PAINT PEN:

White

To make the Question Mark, paint one hard boiled egg Azo Yellow. Repeat with two more coats, waiting 20 minutes between each coat. Let the egg dry for an hour. Next, using a lead pencil, draw the outline of the question mark. Fill it in with white paint. Let the paint dry and then go over it with the white paint pen.

Step 8: Easter Egg Hunt 8-Bit Style

Remember, these are just for fun. DO NOT EAT THESE EGGS!  Keep them refrigerated for maximum freshness and hide them around the yard for your little ones to find on Easter.

Be the First to Share

Recommendations

question: What would happen if you were to eat one of these eggs?

answer: If you were to eat one of these eggs, you would probably need to call Poison Control and/or make yourself throw up to get rid of the toxins.

question: What could you do if you did not have green paint?

answer: If you did not have green paint, you could instead mix blue and yellow.


text:
The Projector Room

	 If given the opportunity to re-write history at any point he wished, Keaya would  go back and change the statue of that oh-so-familiar Greek God Adonis, so instead it reflects not a muscle-bound oaf with blonde hair—but his wonderful boyfriend of five years, Sabin.

Currently though, Keaya’s gaze was fixated on Sabin’s leaning form against the lavender walls of their bedroom, the latter staring out the window, contemplating. While Keaya found Sabin to be at an admittedly amusing height of five foot-two, compared to his own height of five foot-ten, Sabin was nonetheless an avatar of indulgent perfection, what with his long black hair back in a pony-tail and that little rainbow streak on the left side that—for whatever reason—refuses to stay put. In the warm sunlight that was streaming through the bedroom of their tiny apartment during a general Texas afternoon –that is to say humid enough to fog up windows—this coffee skinned god’s shirtless form was radiating light that would make even Zeus jealous; their room full of deafening, whirring projectors that gave off light of their own.

The projectors had accumulated over the years as Keaya had spent more time with Sabin—right up until a year or so ago. Grainy chat logs from instant messengers stacked precariously six or more inches thick on the cheap matte desk, next to the oaken dresser in a pile that fell over at some point, in the entire three foot space between the windowsill and the far corner opposite the desk but next to the bed—they were everywhere. There were drawings of Sabin and Keaya, too, and in a number that surpassed even the chat logs: Drawings of them relaxing on the couch, out to dinner on that rare occasion they could afford it, posing in a thousand different positions, and even drawings of more serious moments like when Sabin quit smoking for a few months. Sometimes they had been done by Keaya, sometimes by Sabin, or sometimes by both of them. They filled every page of notebooks that were stacked next to and as thick as the chat logs, in loose-leaf form cluttering up the desk, in haphazard piles neck to the notebooks and even on random scraps of paper crammed into folders next to the piles. Keaya would have thrown them all out long ago if he wasn’t so entranced by the damn things.
Impish in all the ways that were socially unacceptable to disclose in public but exceptionally gratifying nonetheless, Sabin’s smile—more specifically the one he was giving Keaya right now—was in turn surpassed by his way-too-sexy British voice, “What’s the matter, love?”

Keaya shuddered; that voice—it drove him up the wall, made him hunger and quake. Made him yearn, beg, and plead. Just a cop or a feel. Just one.  Keaya sighed as if he’d run a mile and sat on the edge of the decrepit office chair at the desk, looking away towards the dresser, seeming all of a sudden to need his undying attention; though it was filled with more projectors— more wearily stacked drawings, a clay sculpture of a lime green paw print, and a worn out purple leash. It was almost disgusting to want someone this bad, almost too cliché, almost too reminiscent of those disgusting-yet-somehow-entrancing romance books Keaya had taken more than a few peeks at in the “Romance” section of the local Borders he had gone to when he was still a teenager.

 “N-nothing.” Came the shaky lie, and again, “Nothing.”  Keaya’s elbows came to rest on his knees, head propping up on his hands for support.

“You always say that. Nothing, nothing, nothing is *ever* on your mind—but you’re *always* lying and you know it.” Sabin’s devious tone matched his grin perfectly, the way his smile curled up just a little at corner of his lips, one eyebrow lifted, head tilted forward a little. Standing up after a minute and striding over to the chair where Keaya sat, Sabin stood mere centimeters away—close enough to reach out and touch as the projectors whirred yet louder.

Turning his attention to the floor and taking a deep breath to steady himself, Keaya’s eyes closed only long enough for him to feel a thumb and forefinger cup his chin, Sabin’s fingers lifting his head up so he could stare into those hypnotic eyes, the color of warm sunlight through amber.

“Be right back, silly. Gotta smoke.” Sabin’s hand dropped to his side as he turned slowly and strode out of the room with that sickening idea obviously in mind. A single stack of chat logs and a large colored-pencil drawing that’d won 2nd place in a contest flickered incessantly as Sabin went into the hallway and out to the tiny balcony, the click of a lighter and puff of a cigarette heard even over the projectors, a relieved sigh shortly following.

Nodding, Keaya let out an exasperated sigh followed by a disgusted scowl, “Alright sweets,” not commenting on the cigarette—Keaya knew he wouldn’t stop—watching him go instead. It wasn’t as if this was the first time he’s seen his boyfriend or anything though— far from it.  After meeting Sabin six years prior on the Internet and after half a year’s worth of eight to nine hour conversations on the phone—albeit actual ‘conversing’ was only about three-quarters of it—Keaya decided to accept Sabin’s offer to actually meet in person. After a few weeks of knowing Sabin in person, the ability to go out on dates to any number of romantic places that hadn’t thrown them out yet, to just cuddle on the couch like they’d talked about for so many months prior, and even the simple act of being in Sabin’s presence caused everything to blend into months and then years. Smatterings of affection that gradually became irrepressible love, communication frequency that bordered on access, a total trust in Keaya, and many, many situations that more often than not resulted in Keaya getting kicked out of his favorite places around town amidst to screams of, “You two had better leave or else we’ll call the cops!”

That last thought to pop into Keaya’s head made him burst forth with a sudden and hearty laugh, his voice calling into the other room as he stood up and strode over to the doorway, leaning on it, “Hey, Sabin! Remember when we got kicked out of that fancy-ass mall near that stupidly-expensive chocolate store?”

There was a silence from the balcony before a jubilant laugh echoed into the bedroom, “Hah! How the hell do you remember that one incident? That sure wasn’t the only time we got kicked out for so-called ‘unacceptable behavior’. That was a year ago, wasn’t it?” The projectors stopped flickering, though not all the way; Sabin’s voice alone not enough to make them run smoothly again.

Keaya paused to think, *‘I met him six years ago on that website…started dating three months later. Four years and nine months after that…no, wait…’* Keaya gripped the sides of his head at the dates. There was a year missing.

Keaya twined his fingers in his hair, tugging at it as his weight shifted and he began sliding slowly down until he was resting on the floor. His knees drew up, arms came to rest on knees, and head got cradled in his arms— protecting it from the intruding memories.
A singsong voice called from the balcony, “Oh Keaayyaaa…Come ‘ere.”

Keaya shuddered as if he’d been punched in the stomach—a sob leaking out, quiet and wracked.

A few white leather cuffs that looked way too pristine to ever have been use for their intended purpose, a distinctly more one-sided stack of chat logs from late August last year that had been exiled to the corner, and a flag from one of the gay pride parades they used to frequent each shut off one by one in their various places throughout the room, each one a projector, whirring to life once more at the sound of Sabin’s voice, the image of Sabin flickering in the doorway to the bedroom.

He walks into the hallway where Keaya now sits, huffing impatiently and resting his hands on his hips, “Well? I’m not going to be here forever, ‘ya know.”

title: Made it into my college's literary magazine! Here's the piece. [1,388 words]

question: Between Sabin and Keaya, as described, who was more good looking?

answer: Sabin was described as more good looking.

question: Why did they have projectors in their room?

answer: That information is not known.

question: For how long had Sabin and Keaya been a couple?

answer: Five years.

question: How did Sabin and Keaya meet?

answer: On the internet.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: Keaya and Sabin were lovers who met via the internet and began dating after knowing each other for three months, and Keaya had a weakness for Sabin's sexy British voice. However, although Keaya loved Sabin very much, he disapproved of his smoking habit.


text:
The street was wet from the rain that lingered throughout the night. The rain fell slowly, curling in the air before making a satisfying tap onto the cement road, creating puddles and a chilling atmosphere around myself.

It was at this time I drifted into thought. The ability to think to one self was perhaps the greatest gift ever given to a conscious being. The free will to imagine, concentrate and dive into an endless pool of anything you could possibly comprehend is the closest escape from reality a human can possible get to.

I stopped at the end of the street, taking a right turn onto the next. It was a noticeable street because it only ever had one light accompanying it, and that light has been broken ever since I can remember.

Walking onto the darkened road is always something I look forward too. It is an old road, about 200 meters long and is surrounded by small patches of trees on both sides. The darkness conceals you from every eye, especially at this time of night. It is to see, without being seen. The rain continued to fall, the sound only interrupted by a car in the far distance making its way to its destination. The car, however was the least important thing on my mind.

As my journey on the road continued, I started noticing more and more on the street itself. I noticed the rain tapping on the topmost branches of the trees, making a louder and sharper sound. I felt the wetness of the road, imagining myself stepping in a puddle as the soft splash creates ripples underneath my feet. I looked up and saw the rain falling, lit by only the moonlight from the top of the tree coverings.

I felt safe, accompanied by a near force that would surely show itself. Quickly spinning to my right is when I saw it, something in the tree line.. A blur created by a large creature blocking the light. I felt drawn to it, it was as if it was pulling on my existence and pressing itself against me. I could hear the beasts breath, hot and wet. I could feel its heartbeat, slow and powerful. But worse yet, is I could *see* the beast...

It was a *dragon*. 10 feet tall and slowly pacing towards me. I stood in disbelief, my emotions carrying me to places I have never been. I felt something push into my mind and connect inside of me. My own thoughts were spinning with endless possibilities of what could be happening. The connection between us suddenly tugged and information started to flow between us. I could hear indistinguishable voices like whispers. This was impossible, this doesn't happen.

*"But dragons don't exist"*

And that was when the connection between us was lost, and the dragon was no longer there. The rain had stopped, the street was dry and the wind was no longer cold. The street was bright, looking up in disbelief I saw what I had never expected to see. The light was on, bright orange and glowing. The once dark street was illuminated once more. The light flickered a few times, right before buzzing and
completely shutting off.

*The street was dark again, and I was concealed once more.*

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

title: A section from my WIP, tell me what you think!

question: Who are the major characters?

answer: The narrator and the dragon, both unnamed.

question: What is the story's genre?

answer: Fantasy.

question: How does the narrator react to the dragon?

answer: The narrator stands staring in disbelief, feeling the connection until rationality takes over and they remember dragons aren't supposed to exist.

question: Why does the dragon appear?

answer: This is not clear.

question: What encounters do the characters have?

answer: The narrator and the dragon encounter each other in a dark street.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: The narrator encounters a dragon on a dark street at night, only for the dragon to disappear once the narrator remembers that dragons don't exist.


text:
ANTÓNIO MANUEL BENSABAT RENDAS, GCIP (born April 19, 1949) is a Portuguese professor of Medicine, and a researcher in the field of respiratory diseases.[1] He served as Rector of NOVA University of Lisbon from 2007[2] to 2017, when he was succeeded by João Sáàgua.[3] He was President of the Council of Rectors of Portuguese Universities (Conselho de Reitores das Universidades Portuguesas, CRUP) between 2010 and 2014.[4] He is currently Academic Holder of the National Academy of Medicine of Portugal, Member of the Steering Committee of UNICA (Network of Universities from the Capitals of Europe),[5] and member of the Board of Trustees of The Aga Khan University.[6]

Background

António Rendas, born in Lisbon, has a degree from the Faculty of Medicine of Lisbon (1972) and a PhD in the field of Experimental Pathology from the Cardiothoracic Institute, University of London (1977).[7] He was a research fellow at Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation between 1974 and 1976, in the Department of Experimental Pathology of the Brompton Hospital, at the Cardiothoracic Institute, University of London.[8] Later in 1990, António Rendas was a member of the Advisory Council on Scholarships of the Education and Scholarship Services of Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.[9]

In 1977-78, he was an Associate Pathology Researcher at the Department of Pathology at the Children's Hospital Medical Center at Harvard Medical School.

António Rendas managed the Portuguese Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, IHMT) of NOVA University of Lisbon between 1982 and 1986.[10] He was also Director of NOVA Medical School (Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, FCM) from 1996 to 2006, where he has been Professor of Pathophysiology since 1982.[11]

Between 1992 and 1994, António Rendas was Project Coordinator responsible for introducing the method of problem-based learning in medical education in Portugal, in collaboration with the Department of Medical Education of Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, with the support of Luso-American Development Foundation.[12] Between 1995 and 1997, he also held the position of Vice President of the Portuguese Society of Pulmonology. Between 2005 and 2008, he was Coordinator of the National Council of Teaching and Medical Education of the Portuguese Order of Physicians,[13] a position he held when he was elected Rector of NOVA University of Lisbon in 2007. In this institution, António Rendas has seen his mandate as Rector renewed in 2013 by the General Council.[14]

International career

António Rendas took the first steps in his international career in 1977, when he finished his PhD in the Cardiothoracic Institute, University of London. In the same year, he was an associate researcher at the Harvard Medical School in Boston, United States,[15] and remained in this institution until 1978.

Among the international institutions that he belonged to, the World Health Organization stands out, where he collaborated as a consultant for the areas of medical training and specialized training between 1984 and 1986.[16] He also participated in a project of the same organization for development of materials for health in Mozambique.[17]

Between 1998 and 2006, António Rendas was an elected member of the Council of the International Society for Pathophysiology and Coordinator of the Teaching Commission. And from 2002 to 2006, he was a member of the Executive Council of the Association of Medical Schools in Europe (AMSE). António Rendas was involved in the adaptation of the Bologna Process to the Medicine course in 2004, as a member of the respective Working Group, within the scope of the Higher Council of Science, Technology and Innovation.[18] From 2010 to 2014, he was also a member of the Council of the European University Association.

He is currently member of the Steering Committee of UNICA (Network of Universities from the Capitals of Europe), elected in 2015 to hold the second term.[19]

Research areas

-   Respiratory pathology.
-   Biomedical evaluation of aging.
-   Physiology and physiopathology of breathing.
-   Medical education.
-   Problem-based learning and conceptual maps.
-   University administration and management indicators.[20]

Published works

António Rendas is the author and/or co-author of 138 communications and 76 national and international scientific articles. He is also the author of 2 books and 10 chapters of books.[21] Some highlights are:

-   “Adaptações funcionais do organismo humano”, Leituras do Homem (pp. 55–68), Almerindo Lessa (ed.). Editora Internacional, Lisbon, 1998.
-   “Síndromes dispneizantes infralaríngeas”, Manual de Otorrinolaringologia (pp. 104–108), with Mota Carmo M. Bárbara C., Samuel Ruah and Carlos Ruah (ed.), 1999.
-   “Adaptações normais e patológicas do organismo humano durante o envelhecimento – ‘Idade Biológica’ versus ‘Idade Cronológica’”, Envelhecer Vivendo (pp. 49-55), coordination of A. Mota Pinto, Quarteto, 2001.
-   “No âmbito da avaliação das faculdades de medicina”, Ensino da Medicina - realidade ibérica (pp 191–197), Bissaya Barreto Foudantion, 2002.
-   “Sistema de Indicadores de Gestão 2000 - 2002 – um meio de diagnóstico e intervenção na Faculdade de Ciências Médicas”, with Névoa L., NOVA Medical School, 2004.
-   “O futuro da saúde em Portugal”, Coordination: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (pp. 25–32), Companhia das Ideias, 2006.

Distinctions and awards

-   Thomé Villar/Boehringer Ingelheim Award[22] of the Portuguese Society of Pulmonology (1995, 1999, 2000, 2001).[23]
-   Knight of the National Order of Merit of the French Republic (1987).[24]
-   D. Afonso Henriques Medal (1st Class) of the Portuguese Army (2011).[25]
-   Gold Medal for distinguished Services from the Portuguese Ministry of Health (2014).[26]
-   Personality of the Year award by the Portuguese Lung Foundation (2017).[27]
-   Great Cross of the Order of Public Instruction by the President of the Portuguese Republic.[28]

[1] “Gilead GÉNESE Program - Advisory Committee: Prof. Doutor António Rendas” (in Portuguese). Gilead GÉNESE Program Official Website.

[2] “António Rendas chairs CRUP” (in Portuguese). Correio da Manhã. 9 February 2010.

[3] “João Sáàgua takes office as Rector of Nova this Thursday” (in Portuguese). Dinheiro Vivo. 13 September 2017.

[4] “António Rendas denies conflict with the government to leave CRUP” (in Portuguese). RTP. 14 October 2014.

[5] “Network of Universities from the Capitals of Europe - Board and General Secretariat”. Network of Universities from the Capitals of Europe Official Website.

[6] “The Aga Khan University - Board of Trustees”. Network of Universities from the Capitals of Europe Official Website.

[7] “Diplomatic Relations from A to Z: António Rendas” (in Portuguese). Diplomatic Institute of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Official Website.

[8] “António Rendas - EC 2013”. Estoril Conferences Official Website.

[9] “Gilead GÉNESE Program - Advisory Committee: Prof. Doutor António Rendas” (in Portuguese). Gilead GÉNESE Program Official Website.

[10] “António Rendas - EC 2013”. Estoril Conferences Official Website.

[11] “Recognition Division - Mobility and International Cooperation: António Rendas” (in Portuguese). Directorate General of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education and Science Official Website.

[12] Rendas, António B.; Pinto, Patrícia Rosado; et al. (1997). “Application of problem-based learning method to Medical Education” (in Portuguese). Medical Education.

[13] “Prof. Doutor António Rendas Curriculum Vitae” (in Portuguese). NOVA Official Website. July 2013.

[14] “António Rendas re-elected Rector of NOVA University of Lisbon” (in Portuguese). Notícias ao Minuto. 27 July 2013.

[15] “António Rendas leaves the presidency of the Council of Rectors” (in Portuguese). RTP. 24 September 2014.

[16] “Mergers in High Education have to move forward next year” (in Portuguese). Negócios. 10 May 2012.

[17] “Mergers in High Education have to move forward next year” (in Portuguese). Negócios. 10 May 2012.

[18] “Prof. Doutor António Rendas Curriculum Vitae” (in Portuguese). NOVA Official Website. July 2013.

[19] “Network of Universities from the Capitals of Europe - Board and General Secretariat”. Network of Universities from the Capitals of Europe Official Website.

[20] “Gilead GÉNESE Program - Advisory Committee: Prof. Doutor António Rendas” (in Portuguese). Gilead GÉNESE Program Official Website.

[21] “Prof. Doutor António Rendas Curriculum Vitae” (in Portuguese). NOVA Official Website. July 2013.

[22] “Awards and Prizes: Thomé Villar/Boehringer Ingelheim Award” (in Portuguese). Portuguese Society of Pulmonology Official Website.

[23] “Prof. Doutor António Rendas Curriculum Vitae” (in Portuguese). NOVA Official Website. July 2013.

[24] “Prof. Doutor António Rendas Curriculum Vitae” (in Portuguese). NOVA Official Website. July 2013.

[25] “Prof. Doutor António Rendas Curriculum Vitae” (in Portuguese). NOVA Official Website. July 2013.

[26] “António Rendas honoured with Gold Medal on World Health Day” (in Portuguese). NOVA Official Website.

[27] “Prof. Doutor António Bensabat Rendas homenageado pela Fundação Portuguesa do Pulmão” (in Portuguese). myPNEUMOLOGIA.

[28] “Marcelo insiste em pacto na saúde e condecora ex-reitor António Rendas” (in Portuguese). Diário de Notícias.

title: António Rendas

question: When was António Rendas born?

answer: April 19, 1949.

question: What nationality is Antonia Rendas?

answer: Portuguese.

question: What does António Rendas teach?

answer: Medicine.

question: When was António Rendas rector of the University of Lisbon?

answer: Between 2010 and 2014.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: This article is about António Rendas, a Portuguese professor of Medicine.


text:
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here is a very  nice Ludwig bass drum, its a 22 by 14  ,from the badge number ,345892 it should have been made in 1966, the wrap is very nice ,tight  to the drum ,with maybe two light scratches ,the wrap is  lifting at  the seems  just a little ,at the bottom of the drum where the wrap meets together ,.  the 2 hoops are original  to the drum ,one hoop is missing the inlay ,and one hoop has 80 percent of the inlay ,the legs are the bigger thicker legs ,the …

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question: Why did the bass drum have two light scratches?

answer: It is assumed that the drum is pre-owned.


text:
A solitary light flickered above the door in the otherwise pitch black darkness of the camp as the rain poured down. The door burst open, and Seo-yun emerged into the night with a rifle in one hand and a fist full of hair in the other. The boy remain silent as Seo-yun dragged him across the yard and threw his face down into a large, muddy pool that had collected. As he started to get up, Seo-yun placed a large black boot at the nape of his neck and stepped down hard. “You filthy cockroach” Seo-yun sneered, “You disgust me. You think you can steal food?”

Seo-yun wasn’t sure what it was about this boy in particular that displeased him. Something about him seemed sneaky, or maybe it was just the boy’s face. Whatever it was, it was enough for Seo-yun to pay special attention to this one.

“You know, I think I’m through with your attitude you sniveling little shit.” Seo-yun swung his rifle around at the boy who looked up but did not react, not even in the slightest. It was this attitude that angered Seo-yun; this indifference to pain and death. “Get up.” He said. Slowly the boy stood, his eyes looking straight at Seo-yun’s. There was no fear or anger there, just a blank stare, as if to prove that nothing Seo-yun did mattered to him. “We shall see,” thought Seo-yun.

He motioned down the path with the tip of his rifle. The air was silent except for the hush of rain as they headed down the walkway to a large metal tube at the bottom of the hill. It was about four and a half feet tall, too short to stand up in, but also to narrow to sit down. Seo-yun motioned to the handle. The boy grasped it, swung the face of the tube open, stepped inside, and look out at Seo-yun. His face was a stone.

Seo-yun looked back at him, standing there in the tube. “What a pathetic creature,” though Seo-yun. The boy was desperately skinny, more so than most of the prisoners. The bones in his arms and face protruded unnaturally. His thin, oily hair dripped rain down across his sunken, lifeless eyes. Those eyes; that was what Seo-yun hated the most. He slammed the door shut saw the boy staring back through the little slot in the face of the door. Leaning forward, Seo-yun stared right back, and laughing, slid the slot closed.

It was a long wet walk up to the barracks at the top of the hill. As he entered through the gate Seo-yun strolled silently past the scribe he was supposed to inform of the prisoner he’d put in the box. “Screw it,” he though, “let that little rat rot in there for an extra day, that nasty little thief.” He headed down the hallway to a small neat room about halfway down. As soon as his head hit the pillow Seo-yun was drifting off without a single though of the boy passing through his mind.

He was standing. It was completely dark, the kind of dark that makes you close and open your eyes to see if you can tell the difference. He couldn’t. There was something else too. It was cold and very quiet. Seo-yun couldn’t make out a single sound, except…his breathing was echoing around him. He went to raise his hand, but to his surprise his knuckles struck something. Startled, he leaned back, and the tube made a low metallic note as the back of his head struck it. Realization dawning on him, Seo-yun panicked and began thrashing, but the prison was so small every movement was punished immediately with the pain of striking that cold, unforgiving metal surface.

He was dreaming, had to be. How else would he have ended up in here? Seo-yun had no memory of being moved after he had fallen asleep. It sure didn’t feel like a dream though. It felt real, very real, and scary as fuck. Maybe one of the prisoners had knocked him over the head while he was asleep, or drugged him somehow. “And dragged you down out of the barracks past ten guards?” Though Seo-yun. No, that didn’t make any sense, and if the barracks had somehow been overtaken he surely would have woken. “Hey!” yelled Seo-yun, “HEEEEEEYYYY!” The sound echoed deafeningly all around him inside the tiny metal cage.

Hours passed, then days. At least, that was what Seo-yun guessed. He couldn’t be sure. Normally the sun would strike the tube and turn it into a furnace, cooking the prisoners, but there had been no heat or light. Then again, Seo-yun couldn’t be sure what was real anymore. The sensory deprivation was taking its toll on Seo-yun’s mind and he knew it. Brief flashes of thing he done at the prison flashed before his eyes; the pool of blood from the senile old man he had struck across the head for moving too slowly in the wash room, the look in the eyes of the young girl he had forced to perform oral sex. These scenes were bursting across his vision like camera flashes, swirling around him. Moaning, Seo-yun rest his forehead against the metal tube. He couldn’t take anymore. His body was in agony from the constant standing. Thirst burned mercilessly down his throat, and his mind was tearing itself apart. Then, without warning, the slot in front of his eyes opened.

Before him lay more darkness, but not the kind that had surrounded him in the tube. It was night outside, and he could see the silhouette of the figure that stood before him, perfectly still, not making a sound. Seo-yun studied the outline, and slowly recognition dawned on him. The boy! Seo-yuns burst out screaming, trying to cram in so many obscenities and threats that they melded into nonsensical babbling.

The boy remained silent and totally still, not reacting in the least to Seo-yuns outburst. Then, slowly, he leaned forward. Seo-yun, caught off guard by this, suddenly fell silent and peered back at the boy out of the tiny slot. The boy’s face approached, and the eyes, caught by a glint of moonlight, shined back at Seo-yun, who felt a sudden horror rising within him. Within those sunken eyes Seo-yun could see the pupils were not round, but long and rectangular, like they eyes of a goat.

The slot closed.

title: Justice

question: Summarize the main theme of this story.

answer: The main theme is revenge-although this is not made evident to the reader until the end. Seo-yun is harassing a boy who supposedly stole food in the beginning, before putting the boy in a box as punishment. Then he returns to his bunk and passes out promptly. A dream-or so he thinks-lands him upright in pitch black darkness, confused. At this juncture in the story, the reader learns of Seo-yun's various crimes against humanity. At the end the boy seems to show up and reveal he is something otherworldly, and imprisons Seo-yun in a tube-like structure enabling almost complete sensory deprivation.

question: Explain if and how Seo-yun could have done something differently to avoid this nightmare.

question: Summarize the historical and/or geographical context for this story.

answer: This might take place in North Korea, any time from the 1950s to present day. The name "Seo-yun" is Korean, the setting is a rather dystopian camp or gulag, and the tactics the main character employ seem to be the kind favored under totalitarianism and authoritarianism. The boy is clearly hungry, as he steals food. There is, however, a chance all of this is fictionalized-including the setting.

question: Summarize Seo-yun's role in the story.

answer: Seo-yun is clearly there to watch over prisoners, so he is functioning as some manner of guard. He has a weapon, which means he is authorized to use violence as a threat as well as a means of maintaining order by harming or killing other humans. He does not show much remorse as he does retrace the horrific deeds he's done. Within the framework of this story, Seo-yun seems to exist as a reason for revenge to be exacted, as he is imprisoned in isolation and then perhaps killed at the end.


text:
I'm done with this shit. I'm sick of wandering, always looking for water. My father used to tell me before it all happened this used to be a nice place. A place where a man could walk outside without the fear of getting shot, a place where anyone could get whatever they wanted and never worry about rape, murder or starvation. Seems like a fairy tale to me. But the world must of been an enjoyable place at least once, right?
My name is Daniel. Most of the people I run into in my travels just call me "Dan" for short. I don't mind, whatever makes them happy. They don't live too long anyways. I was born on December 4th, 2024. Or at least that's what my phone says. I used to travel with my brother, but he died years ago. Before he died, he gave me 3 things: An old Iphone with a cracked screen, a portable charger I can charge the phone with using sunlight, and his closest possession, Lucy. Lucy is this wicked looking gun that he got when he was little. It only has 7 more bullets, my brother shot a man one time. I remember his face, the shocked, disgusting look on his face. yet it held a strange look of fascination. He was thrilled yet disgusted at the same time. I know the rush, Living in the wastes will do that to anyone. Eventually you'll have to decide if a man will live or die. The hard part is staying in the position to do so.
My mother died in childbirth, and my dad died scavenging for me and my brother. I was 5 when he passed away. my brother was 14. My older brother... John! John was his name. Jesus it's been such a long time. I have to search for his name now. But yes, John. John looked over me until I was 12. He gave me love, told me stories, and even told me how the world went to hell. Just thinking about those days makes me feel like a little kid inside all over again. I used to remember his story of how the world went from a paradise to hell, he told me how beautiful the ground I walked on once was, How it grew grass and trees. Huh, Trees. Hard to think that these black lumps in the ground could at any point be beautiful. I sometimes cry to myself. Not because of the burden that my life is, but because I carry a brain full of half-remembered memory's.

title: A small science fiction story I wrote while waiting. It's a diary entry about a man living in post-apocalyptic America.

question: Who is the narrator?

answer: The narrator is named Daniel.

question: What was the place like before?

answer: The world before the apocalypse was a nice place to live, with no worry of rape, murder, or starvation. Nobody would walk outside in the fear of getting shot.

question: Is Daniel's father alive?

answer: No, Daniel's father died scavenging for him and his brother.

question: Why did Dan's brother kill the man?

answer: This information can't be found.

question: Write a ~6 sentence summary.

answer: Daniel ponders over his life so far and how the world had changed post the apocalypse. Everyone from his family was dead. His brother had given him an iPhone, a charger, and his gun. The gun was loaded with 7 bullets. His older brother used to tell him stories of what the world used to be like. Daniel found it hard to believe that the land could grow trees and grass.


text:
MARIANUS is a male name, formerly an Ancient Roman family name, derived from Marius.[1] Marianus may refer to:

-   Marianus of Auxerre (died 462 or 473), French monk and saint
-   Marianus Scotus of Mainz (1028–1082 or -83), otherwise Máel Brigte (Devotee of St. Brigid), Irish monk and chronicler
-   Marianus Scotus of Regensburg (died circa 1088), Irish monk, abbot of St. Peter's at Regensburg
-   Marianus II of Cagliari (died 1130), also known as Torchitorio II, Judge of Cagliari from c. 1102 to his death
-   Marianus of Florence (died 1523), Friar Minor, historian, and chronicler of the Franciscan Order
-   Marianus Brockie, D.D. (1687–1755), Benedictine monk
-   Jozef Marianus Punt (born 1946), Roman Catholic bishop of Haarlem-Amsterdam in the Netherlands

Marianus of Arborea:

-   Marianus I of Arborea (died 1070), the Judge of Arborea from 1060 to his death
-   Marianus II of Arborea (died 1297), the Judge of Arborea from 1241 to his death
-   Marianus III of Arborea (died 1321), the sole Judge of Arborea from 1308 to his death
-   Marianus IV of Arborea (1329–1376), called the Great, the Judge of Arborea from 1347 to his death
-   Marianus V of Arborea (1378–1407), the Judge of Arborea from 1387 until his death

Marianus of Torres:

-   Marianus I of Torres (died 1082), the Judge of Logudoro from 1073 until c. 1082
-   Marianus II of Torres (died 1233), the Judge of Logudoro from 1218 until his death

[1]

title: Marianus

question: How long was Marianus of Arborea III the sole judge of Arborea?

answer: From 1308 until his death in 1321, that is 13 years.

question: Is Marianus II of Torres male or female?

answer: Marianus is a male name, Marianus II of Torres must be a male.

question: How old was Marianus Brockie when he passed away?

answer: 68 years old.

question: Where did Jozef Marianus Punt live?

answer: He was a Roman Catholic bishop of Haarlem-Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: This post details the name Marianus and the different people that had that name.


text:
STORY: VIN DIESEL STAYS CONFUSINGLY CRYPTIC ON MARVEL'S 'INTERESTING' PLANS

"What can I say about Groot? I can say something about Marvel," he tells _The Hollywood Reporter._ "I take my hat off to them for being so creative and thinking outside of the box."

Diesel says that he had originally met with Marvel to launch a fresh IP (intellectual property).

"That was the focus of our conversation — a fresh IP that would come out in 2016 or 2017, and potentially launch the third phase," he tells _THR_.

But then he went to Comic-Con to promote _Riddick_. At the annual convention in San Diego in July, he realized that fans didn't want to wait that long to see Diesel as part of the Marvel universe.

STORY: BRADLEY COOPER IN TALKS TO VOICE ROCKET RACCOON IN MARVEL'S 'GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY'

"With my schedule, it was almost impossible to imagine I could do anything immediate," says Diesel who will star in the upcoming seventh installment of the _Fast & Furious_ franchise and has several other films in various stages of production.

"I guess after they watched _Iron Giant,_ or whatever, they came up with this idea of taking the strangest Marvel character -- or the strangest Marvel character that's ever hit film -- and thought what I could do with that with motion capture and with my voice," he said.

Groot is an alien living tree that appeared various Marvel comics. A teaser shown at Comic-Con and Disney's D23 Expo showed that Groot will appear in JAMES GUNN's upcoming pic. In the short teaser, Groot did not speak.

Adds Diesel: "Now it's just up to my reps to allow that to happen."

_Guardians of the Galaxy,_ starring CHRIS PRATT and ZOE SALDANA, is slated for release on Aug. 1, 2014.

_Riddick_ opens in theaters on Sept. 6.

_E-mail: Rebecca.Ford@thr.com
Twitter:@Beccamford_

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question: Which character Diesel may voiceover?

answer: Groot.

question: Which film did Diesel promote at Comic-Con?

answer: Riddick.

question: Who is Groot?

answer: Groot is an alien living tree that appears in various Marvel comics.

question: Why had Diesel first met Marvel for?

answer: To launch a fresh Intellectual Property.

question: Write a ~4 sentence summary.

answer: Vin Diesel had originally met Marvel to launch a fresh Intellectual Property. But at the annual convention in San Diego, Diesel realizes that fans do not want to wait too long to see him as a part of the Marvel Universe. Diesel may appear as Groot. He adds that it is up to his "reps" now to make it happen.


text:
 K Tokunaga et al. Hum Immunol. 2001 Sep.

Abstract

We have been studying polymorphisms of HLA class I and II genes in East Asians including Buryat in Siberia, Mongolian, Han Chinese, Man Chinese, Korean Chinese, South Korean, and Taiwan indigenous populations in collaboration with many Asian scientists. Regional populations in Japan, Hondo-Japanese, Ryukyuan, and Ainu, were also studied. HLA-A, -B, and -DRB1 gene frequencies were subjected to the correspondence analysis and calculation of DA distances. The correspondence analysis demonstrated several major clusters of human populations in the world. "Mongoloid" populations were highly diversified, in which several clusters such as Northeast Asians, Southeast Asians, Oceanians, and Native Americans were observed. Interestingly, an indigenous population in North Japan, Ainu, was placed relatively close to Native Americans in the correspondence analysis. Distribution of particular HLA-A, -B, -DRB1 alleles and haplotypes was also analyzed in relation to migration and dispersal routes of ancestral populations. A number of alleles and haplotypes showed characteristic patterns of regional distribution. For example, B39-HR5-DQ7 (B*3901-DRB1*1406-DQB1*0301) was shared by Ainu and Native Americans. A24-Cw8-B48 was commonly observed in Taiwan indigenous populations, Maori in New Zealand, Orochon in Northeast China, Inuit, and Tlingit. These findings further support the genetic link between East Asians and Native Americans. We have proposed that various ancestral populations in East Asia, marked by different HLA haplotypes, had migrated and dispersed through multiple routes. Moreover, relatively small genetic distances and the sharing of several HLA haplotypes between Ainu and Native Americans suggest that these populations are descendants of some Upper Paleolithic populations of East Asia.

Similar articles

-   Analysis of HLA genes and haplotypes in Ainu (from Hokkaido, northern Japan) supports the premise that they descent from Upper Paleolithic populations of East Asia.

    Bannai M, Ohashi J, Harihara S, Takahashi Y, Juji T, Omoto K, Tokunaga K. Bannai M, et al. Tissue Antigens. 2000 Feb;55(2):128-39. doi: 10.1034/j.1399-0039.2000.550204.x. Tissue Antigens. 2000. PMID: 10746784

-   Heterogeneity of Taiwan's indigenous population: possible relation to prehistoric Mongoloid dispersals.

    Lin M, Chu CC, Lee HL, Chang SL, Ohashi J, Tokunaga K, Akaza T, Juji T. Lin M, et al. Tissue Antigens. 2000 Jan;55(1):1-9. doi: 10.1034/j.1399-0039.2000.550101.x. Tissue Antigens. 2000. PMID: 10703601

-   HLA class II alleles in Ainu living in Hidaka District, Hokkaido, northern Japan.

    Bannai M, Tokunaga K, Imanishi T, Harihara S, Fujisawa K, Juji T, Omoto K. Bannai M, et al. Am J Phys Anthropol. 1996 Sep;101(1):1-9. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1096-8644(199609)101:1<1::AID-AJPA1>3.0.CO;2-Z. Am J Phys Anthropol. 1996. PMID: 8876810

-   -   Hypoalphalipoproteinemia in populations of Native American ancestry: an opportunity to assess the interaction of genes and the environment.

    Aguilar-Salinas CA, Canizales-Quinteros S, Rojas-Martínez R, Mehta R, Villarreal-Molina MT, Arellano-Campos O, Riba L, Gómez-Pérez FJ, Tusié-Luna MT. Aguilar-Salinas CA, et al. Curr Opin Lipidol. 2009 Apr;20(2):92-7. doi: 10.1097/mol.0b013e3283295e96. Curr Opin Lipidol. 2009. PMID: 19280764 Review.

Cited by _17_ _articles_

-   Absence of the tag polymorphism for the risk haplotype HLA-DR2 for multiple sclerosis in Wixárika subjects from Mexico.

    González-Enríquez GV, Torres-Mendoza BM, Márquez-Pedroza J, Macías-Islas MA, Ortiz GG, Cruz-Ramos JA. González-Enríquez GV, et al. Immunogenetics. 2018 Aug;70(8):547-551. doi: 10.1007/s00251-018-1052-8. Epub 2018 Feb 3. Immunogenetics. 2018. PMID: 29397401

-   MS in self-identified Hispanic/Latino individuals living in the US.

    Amezcua L, Oksenberg JR, McCauley JL. Amezcua L, et al. Mult Scler J Exp Transl Clin. 2017 Sep 25;3(3):2055217317725103. doi: 10.1177/2055217317725103. eCollection 2017 Jul-Sep. Mult Scler J Exp Transl Clin. 2017. PMID: 28979795 Free PMC article. Review.

-   Multiple Sclerosis in Latin Americans: Genetic Aspects.

    Rivera VM. Rivera VM. Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep. 2017 Aug;17(8):57. doi: 10.1007/s11910-017-0768-4. Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep. 2017. PMID: 28639238 Review.

-   Genetic association meta-analysis: a new classification to assess ethnicity using the association of MCP-1 -2518 polymorphism and tuberculosis susceptibility as a model.

    Vásquez-Loarte T, Trubnykova M, Guio H. Vásquez-Loarte T, et al. BMC Genet. 2015 Oct 30;16:128. doi: 10.1186/s12863-015-0280-2. BMC Genet. 2015. PMID: 26518714 Free PMC article.

-   Deep History of East Asian Populations Revealed Through Genetic Analysis of the Ainu.

    Jeong C, Nakagome S, Di Rienzo A. Jeong C, et al. Genetics. 2016 Jan;202(1):261-72. doi: 10.1534/genetics.115.178673. Epub 2015 Oct 23. Genetics. 2016. PMID: 26500257 Free PMC article.

LinkOut - more resources

-   Full Text Sources

    -   Elsevier Science

-   Research Materials

    -   NCI CPTC Antibody Characterization Program

question: What is being studied in the article?

answer: Polymorphisms of HLA class I and II genes in East Asians

question: Which populations are being studied?

answer: Buryat in Siberia, Mongolian, Han Chinese, Man Chinese, Korean Chinese, South Korean and Taiwan indigenous population

question: What do the findings support?

answer: The genetic link between East Asians and Native Americans

question: What does the study propose about various ancestral populations in East Asia?

answer: They had migrated and dispersed through multiple routes.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: In an article, a study is being conducted on polymorphisms of HLA class I and II genes in East Asians. The findings support the genetic link between East Asians and Native Americans.


text:
21ST FFCC AWARDS

December 23, 2016

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

Best Picture:
_THE LOBSTER_

The 21ST FLORIDA FILM CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS nominations were announced on December 21, 2016, with the winners announced on December 23, 2016.[1]

Winners

These are the nominees for the 21st Florida Film Critics Circle Awards. Winners will be listed at the top of each list.

  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Best Picture                                                Best Director
  ----------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------------
  -   _THE LOBSTER_                                           -   DAMIEN CHAZELLE – _LA LA LAND_
      -   Runner-up: _LA LA LAND_                                 -   Runner-up: YORGOS LANTHIMOS – _THE LOBSTER_
  -   _Hell or High Water_                                    -   Barry Jenkins – _Moonlight_
  -   _Manchester by the Sea_                                 -   Kenneth Lonergan – _Manchester by the Sea_
  -   _Moonlight_

  Best Actor                                                  Best Actress

  -   CASEY AFFLECK – _MANCHESTER BY THE SEA_                 -   ISABELLE HUPPERT – _ELLE_
      -   Runner-up: JOEL EDGERTON – _LOVING_                     -   Runner-up: EMMA STONE – _LA LA LAND_
  -   Ryan Gosling – _La La Land_                             -   Annette Bening – _20th Century Women_
  -   Viggo Mortensen – _Captain Fantastic_                   -   Ruth Negga – _Loving_
  -   Denzel Washington – _Fences_                            -   Natalie Portman – _Jackie_

  Best Supporting Actor                                       Best Supporting Actress

  -   JEFF BRIDGES – _HELL OR HIGH WATER_                     -   MICHELLE WILLIAMS – _MANCHESTER BY THE SEA_
      -   Runner-up: RALPH FIENNES – _A BIGGER SPLASH_            -   Runner-up: VIOLA DAVIS – _FENCES_
  -   Mahershala Ali – _Moonlight_                            -   Greta Gerwig – _20th Century Women_
  -   André Holland – _Moonlight_                             -   Lily Gladstone – _Certain Women_
  -   Michael Shannon – _Nocturnal Animals_                   -   Naomie Harris – _Moonlight_
                                                              -   Octavia Spencer – _Hidden Figures_

  Best Screenplay – Adapted                                   Best Screenplay – Original

  -   _LOVE & FRIENDSHIP_                                     -   _THE LOBSTER_
      -   Runner-up: _MOONLIGHT_                                  -   Runner-up: _MANCHESTER BY THE SEA_
  -   _Arrival_                                               -   _20th Century Women_
  -   _Fences_                                                -   _Hell or High Water_
  -   _Nocturnal Animals_                                     -   _La La Land_

  Best Animated Film                                          Best Foreign Language Film

  -   _KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS_                              -   _ELLE_
      -   Runner-up: _ZOOTOPIA_                                   -   Runner-up: _THE HANDMAIDEN_
  -   _Moana_                                                 -   _Embrace of the Serpent_
  -   _Sausage Party_                                         -   _The Salesman_
                                                              -   _Toni Erdmann_

  Best Ensemble                                               Best Art Direction and Production Design

  -   _AMERICAN HONEY_                                        -   _LA LA LAND_
      -   Runner-up: _MOONLIGHT_                                  -   Runner-up: _JACKIE_
  -   _20th Century Women_                                    -   _Arrival_
  -   _Hidden Figures_                                        -   _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_
  -   _Manchester by the Sea_                                 -   _Love & Friendship_

  Best Cinematography                                         Best Visual Effects

  -   _LA LA LAND_                                            -   _ARRIVAL_
      -   Runner-up: _THE HANDMAIDEN_                             -   Runner-up: _DOCTOR STRANGE_
  -   _Arrival_                                               -   _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_
  -   _Jackie_                                                -   _The Jungle Book_
  -   _Moonlight_                                             -   _Rogue One: A Star Wars Story_

  Best Score                                                  Best Documentary

  -   _LA LA LAND_                                            -   _CAMERAPERSON_
      -   Runner-up: _JACKIE_                                     -   Runner-up: _O.J.: MADE IN AMERICA_
  -   _Arrival_                                               -   _I Am Not Your Negro_
  -   _Moonlight_                                             -   _Life, Animated_
                                                              -   _Weiner_

  FCC Breakout Award

  -   BARRY JENKINS – _MOONLIGHT_
      -   Runner-up: LUCAS HEDGES – _MANCHESTER BY THE SEA_
  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1]

title: Florida Film Critics Circle Awards 2016

question: What is the topic of this post?

answer: This post lists Florida Film Critics Circle Awards in 2016.

question: Which film won the Best Picture Award?

answer: The Lobster

question: Which actors were awarded the Best Actor and Best Actress?

answer: Casey Affleck won Best Actor, and Isabelle Huppert won Best Actress.

question: Which actors were awarded the Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress?

answer: Jeff Bridges won Best Supporting Actor, and Michelle Williams won Best Supporting Actress.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: This post lists Florida Film Critics Circle Awards in 2016. The Best Picture Award went to the film Lobster.


text:
*This is an older story of mine. Would love to see it as a comic. inbox me if you're interested! Any feedback would be most appreciated*

Tonight is my last night in Ex Machina.

The air is thick with steam and rotting. Gas fumes and sewage halo the street lights as they flicker in the dusk. The night is awakening with the rats.

I hear the cart's wheels long before I see it turn the bend. Over the culverts and under the flickering lamps that hang on the street corners. She rasps like a half-dead A/C unit as a counterpoint to the squeaking wheel. Rasp-squeek.

Meradith. Rasp-squeek. She limps into view. Rasp-squeek. She looks exactly as she sounds. Broken down. Another exile in the City of Ex Machina. The village of the unplugged. Rasp-squeek.

I stare down on her from my window. A tin box beneath, above and beside a dozen other tin boxes. Corrugated metal walls and not a line in. No lines at all. We are disconnected from the grid. Power flows, but no data. And the radio waves pass unreceived. We're here for that reason. We are escape artists.

We seek to be free of the flow of information. Or are rejected. Overloaded; we find refuge away for the chimes, the rings and the glare of screens. Breathe it in. The silence of a digital fast. My mind is clear again.

Meridith's cart stops in the street and she bangs the ladle against the canteen. "WATER!" she yells. Doles it out in ladlefuls into the gulping buckets and leaking bags of those who can afford it.

Not far from here, though well out of range of the cellphone towers, lies the City. Snaking lines of power and data flowing in and out of every building, home and head. Information. Information pouring out of every orifice of the metropolis. Like heat seeping from a furnace, it bleeds outward into the night. The still air filled with the static of a thousand minds in chorus of unrelenting progress. Manacled to the beast. The machine mind linking them to one another; suckling at an endless supply of data.

Ex Machina is in the shadow of the machine. Its towers spread like mountains across the horizon. And I have not slept a night without its pulsing light waking me. To sleep. This is all I sought in Ex Machina.

Every moment in the City is like a waking dream. I have been away for a year and still it echos in my head. Tonight maybe I will dream. Tonight, maybe I will find what it is those files showed me.

It was my 24th year in the machine when they came to me unmarked. No EXIF tags to trace. Only raw data in the deeper parts of the flow. I had gone searching for something quieter. Down to The Dark. And there it lay. Unregistered and uncensored.

A dream. A real dream.

Nothing simulated. No advertisements. No celebrity appearances. Nothing but the unadulterated stream of an unplugged mind. A child's dream of the night sky. Stars wheeling overhead and leaves in the night air. The smell of grass and earth. And dew. Cold on my skin. Stone on my feet. And wind against my naked skin.

I'd never felt anything like it. Pure like a drug. The machine can simulate anything you like for you, but this was different. More than sensory. With more detail and imagination than could ever be simulated by Ones and Zeroes.

It had a soul.

It's easier to walk away than anyone ever thought. Not that many think of it. Take out the plugs. Remove the contact lenses and take your first steps. Like a baby out of the womb. My legs shook and my head spun. Static filled my ears and I walked out of the city into XM.

Meridith moves on into the night and the sun continues to fade. I watch her pass: squeek-rasp, squeek-rasp. Nothing for me tonight. She 'rounds the bend and I listen for another minute before the glare of static from the city takes up its chorus again in the still night air. Nothing for me tonight.

I close the door to my tin cell and walk. The city to my back and darkness in front. I will walk into the night. Find the hard stone grass of that dream. I will lose myself in the night.

And maybe I'll see stars.

Tonight is my last night in Ex Machina.

title: [SF] In The Shadow of Ex Machina

question: What does the story say about how to keep one's integrity?

question: What does the story say about Meradith?

answer: Meradith is a resident of Ex Machina, an exile from the City. It is unknown if she came to the disconnected town of Ex Machina by desire or by necessity. She has a limp and a rasp to her breathing. She pulls a cart along the street, selling water by the ladleful to fellow residents who can afford it.

question: What does the story say about why people leave the City?

answer: People leave the City to escape the ever-present digital hum and personal invasion of the 'grid'. They want to be free of the flow of information and constant glare of screens, or are rejected by it. It can be overwhelming to have no stillness, even in the air, which is filled with static and radio waves transmitting data constantly. People are connected to each other via a machine, which can feel like a prison. The narrator finds their mind clear only once they are away from it.

question: What does the story say about data privacy laws?

question: What does the story say about local government?


text:
_Editor’s note: typically when I write a Take Down piece for this website, it will revolve around a largely unknown, but laughably mendacious neoliberal Twitter user in the middle of some deplorably disingenuous meltdown or tirade of some kind; the highest profile “honoree” to show up in these take downs was author and noted Twitter meltdown artist Sady Doyle – and even then, only because she spent a half hour trying to harass me before publicly denying she’d been using bigoted attacks._

_Today however, we’re going to make an exception on behalf of recently-enshrined but long-reviled Wall of Shamer, Joy-Ann Reid; who spent the better part of Friday, September 9th unsuccessfully trying to pass off the plot of a rejected Tom Clancy novel as factual news on her Twitter feed. As a result of Reid’s high profile role in the American news media and the disturbing propagation of what can only be called cold war era scaremongering in the modern, neoliberal media – this piece is really as much an examination of false media narratives as it is a savage indictment of Reid’s blatant dishonesty and arrogance._

_First, we’ll talk a little bit about Reid’s meltdown, then we’ll take a look at how it fits into the larger, anti-Russian media narrative being sold to the American people on the regular these days._

_As always please be reminded that although you should have no trouble understanding what I’m saying without clicking on the links I’ve provided throughout the article; your comprehension and enjoyment of the piece will almost certainly be improved by at least skimming the source material I’ve linked to. Please don’t yell at me about “sources” on social media if you can’t be bothered to click the links. _

HOT TO TROT-SKY: REID’S MCCARTHY REDUX MOMENT

Now, before we get started I would like to take a moment to point out that Joy-Ann Reid is a rising star in the world of political television media who also happens to be a vocal, successful and highly-educated (more on this later) African American woman. This, undeniably makes her a lightning-rod of ignorant, bigoted criticism from the disturbingly large segment of “white America” that believes ending slavery was a bad thing; as _well as_ men (and Anne Coulter) who feel awarding women the right to vote has directly lead to the decline of the American family.

Please allow me to assure you that I’m not here to discuss anything “those people” would find interesting. I’m not going to tell you that Joy-Ann is too loud, too female, too black or too aggressive to be on network television and if the truth be told; I really _want_ to like Reid in my heart because the person she pretends to be when she’s not shoveling corporatist, pro-Democratic Party bullshit _would_ be an important voice in our media.

Unfortunately, this is impossible because Joy-Ann Reid is a lying, embarrassingly partisan, centrist propagandist who is also either mindbogglingly fucking stupid or, more likely, believes that you are. Please take a moment to examine the Twitter screenshots I’ve compiled bellow and as you do so; keep in mind that all of these tweets come from a single, twenty-four hour period on Reid’s Twitter feed. As always I have not edited these tweets in any way, although they may appear slightly out of order for the purposes of proper presentation – I left the time stamps on most of them so you can easily reconstruct the chronological order of Joy-Ann’s tweets on your own if that matters to you for some reason:

[joyann-mccarthy-2-png-final]

Holy sweet mother of god! There are so _many_ completely fucking wrong things about this ridiculously inaccurate at best (and openly, even brazenly deceitful at worst) screed, that I honestly haven’t the first damn clue where to start; Joy-Ann’s staggering fucking mendacity has seriously rendered me almost goddamn speechless here. I suppose it behooves us to start here:

Russia Is Not A Communist Country & Hasn’t Been Since 1991

No, really; officially Russia is a democracy backed by elections of questionable integrity; just as we are “officially” a democracy, backed by elections of questionable integrity. The reality is that since the fall of communism, Russia’s complex political system has drifted between oligarchy and more recently, something described by political scientist Karen Dawisha as “kleptocratic authoritarianism.” This is not to say that the Russian political system is identical to a model western capitalist democracy (but then again, neither is ours) – there are flavor differences, freedoms are far more easily suppressed in Russia and Putin’s strong, authoritarian powers allow him to get away with literal murder; but they are certainly fucking _not_ and have _not been_ communist in a very, very long time.

Now folks, please understand that Joy-Ann Reid is a goddamn Harvard graduate and there is literally no fucking way on earth she actually fucking believes Russia is still communist; for all of her many, many faults, Joy-Ann isn’t ignorant – she clearly just thinks _you_, the viewing audience are drooling, sub-human morons that will respond with the appropriate level of hate/fear when she says the words “communist Russia.”

Of course, this isn’t the only problem with Reid’s meltdown; Joy-Ann also manages to passionately decry “the media’s” refusal to keep covering Trump’s fired campaign manager and his ties to Russia through the Ukraine, claim that Trump might have major debts to Russian banks with absolutely no fucking proof whatsoever and help propagate the ludicrous goddamn idea that appearing on the Larry King Show is sinister in some undefined way because it’s broadcast on RT America – a Russian state-sponsored television station.

Unsurprisingly, Reid is far less interested in the fact Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager (who hasn’t been fired) also has ties to Russia through the Ukraine , or that multiple nations allied to the United States have state-sponsored television networks that are presumably free to interview any US political candidate without criticism, or even the _numerous_ other Americans who have appeared on Larry King’s show without accusations of being fucking communist spies.

Personally, I’m getting a little goddamn tired of having to remind people in every single article that I do in fact, hate Donald Trump as much as the next person but for the sake of discussion, I’ll repeat it again here today; Trump is a fatuous, flatulent goddamn bigot with autocratic/fascist tendencies who is simply incapable of telling the truth and has made whatever (vastly overstated) wealth he has through nepotism, fraud and self-promotion – while abusing bankruptcy laws and bribing political officials to avoid the consequences of his illegal actions.

Despite these things however, that in no way justifies the kind of deceptive message crafting and outright fucking lying Reid is objectively engaging in on her social media feed and in her programing in general; never mind her patently absurd shout-out to Ronald fucking Reagan. Reid is most certainly _not_ the mutherfucking arbiter of when it’s okay to lie to “dumb Americans” for their own good and as I’ve proven quite succinctly above; she doesn’t have to spew fucking bullshit like this to attack Donald Trump because he’s been hot flaming fucking garbage for over forty years now!

This brings me to my final point of serious criticism in regards to Reid’s unhinged, demonstrably false tirade against a communist Russia that doesn’t exist and it’s numerous, supposedly loyal supporters in American politics; as well as our transition away from a shit-peddling weasel like Joy-Ann and towards a larger, more important discussion about the improbable, yet highly disturbing rise of a new McCarthyism in modern American politics.

In particular I’d like to draw attention to one, notably odious tweet where she accuses Jill Stein of “taking the socialist Green Party full Putinite” before decrying the “Putin-tilting Snowdenistas” in a sentence that contains so many fantastical fucking words you won’t find in any goddamn dictionary, that I sincerely question if it qualifies as bloody English. Unfortunately, Reid’s utter disregard for using words that actually mean something as opposed to high-loaded and utterly fabricated words that are far more useful for propaganda purposes isn’t the only thing wrong with this tweet – it’s also, objectively fucking wrong:

-   Jill Stein has not “lead the Green Party” to embrace Putin; this is a coordinated smear originating in the pro-Clinton media and quite frankly the entire fucking case for Stein being an “agent of Russia” is that she attended an RT press dinner and met Vladimir Putin – of course she also gave an interview in which she spoke out against militarization and criticized Russian military spending; but don’t expect the likes of Joy-Ann Reid to tell you _that_ little detail.

-   Despite being forced to seek asylum in Russia to escape indisputably draconian punishment by the hypocritical US government for valiantly blowing the whistle on domestic NSA spying, Edward Snowden isn’t pro-Putin or Russia either; he’s actually refused to cooperate with the Russian government in regards to the NSA-driven rights violations he’s helped expose in the United States and has spoken out against Putin and human rights violations in Russia on numerous occasions.

-   Furthermore, Snowden is neither a politician nor a cult-leader and the word Snowdenista represents a political movement that exists pretty much _entirely_ in Joy-Ann Reid’s twisted political fantasies; while millions of Americans truly (and rightfully) regard Edward Snowden as a hero, there is simply no group of people (activists or otherwise) unironically running around calling themselves “Snowdenistas” and I will virtually fucking guarantee you it’s not a bloody accident this made-up word, used to describe a threatening (but also fictional) political movement sounds a whole lot like the “Sandinistas” – the leftists, “terrorist” bogeymen the Reagan administration used to justify arming and supporting right wing fucking death squads in Nicaragua.

In short (and as one astute Twitter commentator succinctly demonstrated) Joy-Ann Reid is comfortable openly fucking lying on social media to paint literally bloody anyone (regardless of political beliefs) who opposes Hillary Clinton in any way as direct instruments of an authoritarian, “hostile” foreign politician; despite this activity flying in the face of all reasonable sense of journalistic ethics and while providing no evidence whatsoever to back up her dangerously incendiary fabrications. At this point, Reid is basically a mutherfucking list of 205 government employees and a senate hearing away from textbook McCarthyism and all the horrors that dark chapter in American history calls forward.

Frankly I’m trying to be fucking polite but it’s literally impossible to avoid the truth in this situation; there’s little goddamn difference between what Reid just did here and Hanoi Hannah broadcasts targeted at US GIs during the Vietnam war – this is pure, unadulterated propaganda in an extremely fucking literal sense and it absolutely _should_ enrage you.

MODERN MCCARTHYISM & THE COMING NEW-OLD, COLD WAR

Terrifyingly enough however, Reid’s lapse into post-modern neoconservative fantasy land is hardly a unique phenomenon in the mainstream, ostensibly “liberal” (but truthfully quite corporate) media these days; Joy-Ann’s ridiculous hyperbole merely represents one of the more laughable attempts to ratchet up feelings of fear and hostility towards Russia in the American public consciousness by various members of the US political class.

In the 2016 Presidential Election run-up alone, we’ve already seen the Democratic Party (and it’s loyal media lapdogs) enthusiastically embrace a bizarre, CIA-driven narrative that Trump is some kind of “unwitting” Manchurian Candidate running on behalf of the evil super-villain, Vladimir Putin; despite there being _very_ little fucking evidence whatsoever that any of this is true.

The fun hasn’t stopped there however as the supposedly liberal media and political structure have also used trumped-up fears of mysterious “Russian hackers” to attempt to deflect damning evidence of fraud, potential pay for play scandals and open attempts to rig the Democratic Primary in Hillary Clinton’s favor; going so far as to suggest that whistle-blower Julian Assange and his organization Wikileaks are also “inadvertently” working for Russia and Vladimir Putin.

If you guessed that once again these allegations are not backed up by any sort of reasonable goddamn proof, you win a “no prize” but perhaps the truest example of the Democratic political machine’s mind-blowing mendacity can be found in the fact that they have repeatedly and preemptively warned that upcoming leaked documents would probably be altered by these same, all-powerful Russian hackers to help Donald Trump win the election – again, despite the fact that none of the documents released so far have been tampered with by anyone, nobody can actually prove the leaks had anything to do with Russia and the simple truth that in ten years of existence, Wikileaks has _never_ released a single goddamn misattributed document of any kind; indeed, nobody has _actually_ been able to deny the veracity of any of the documents released so far.

To be perfectly fucking honest with you, there may well be no _end_ to the benefits of blaming Russia for the pro-Clinton, political machine – this list is by _no_ means exhaustive and recently the almost-certain to be next President of the United States was asked by a reporter from Bloomberg media if she thought the bombing attacks in New York and New Jersey were orchestrated by “the Russians” to “drive votes to Donald Trump” for fuck’s sake!

Which of course, leaves only the puzzling question of “why?” Why risk damaging personal credibility and political relationships with a fellow nuclear state when virtually all evidence proves you’re openly lying and that Russia represents a political rival, but not really an active threat to the United States of America? Is Hillary Clinton truly so arrogant that she’d be willing to risk World War III to smear her political opponents or is there more to this?

Perhaps the answer to this cryptic query lies instead in the ongoing chess battle between the United States and Russia over the seemingly endless “civil war” in Syria?

An informed observer of world affairs and American foreign policy might suggest that the pro-Clinton State Department’s ongoing plan to violently depose Bashar Assad may not sit particularly well with Syrian-ally Russia – and that all of this very public saber rattling is in fact laying the groundwork for what will be portrayed as an “inevitable” conflict with Vladimir Putin; whether directly or by proxy in places like Syria or even Iran.

Of course, as a pasty-white, racist, communist, Putinite, Snowdenista who hates Hillary Clinton because she’s a woman; I _would_ say that, wouldn’t I?

Vive la révolution and destroy the running-dog, capitalist swine my Komrades – or something.

-   Nina Illingworth

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question: Who does the author call a "noted Twitter meltdown artist"?

answer: Sady Doyle.

question: Which country is no longer Communist?

answer: Russia.

question: Whom does the author argue is not influencing American politics?

answer: Russia.

question: What is one person the author claims has been smeared by the pro-Clinton camp?

answer: Jill Stein.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: The author summarizes Twitter debates regarding Russian interference in US politics. The article approaches the situation from the left-wing, but claims that ideas of interference in American politics is absurd.