text:
A sharp pain rose through my spine. Everything turned black.  I heard a beep. It sounded like an announcement beep at an airport. Then the darkness became brighter. It was like a door was slowly opening. The contrast made it too hard to see, at first. I could make out a figure hovering over my head. Lights hung on the ceiling. I tried to move my ligaments but I was paralyzed. My mouth would not move. My eyes adjusted and slowly I could see color. Not just the colors of our world either. There was an array of colors too difficult to describe. It was beautiful.

I could hear the people talking but lips did not move. They were speaking English. This was not what fascinated me, though. It was the sounds of their voices. They ranged from tones deeper than the brown noise to the screeching pitch of a dog whistle. And I could hear it all. Where was I? What happened?
I heard voices soon answering these questions. I was back in reality. I had just “died”, they said. Terrified, I wanted to scream and ask this man above me what is going on. No sound arose from my lips. I heard a voice again telling me to calm down. I am talking to you, it said. The man pointed to himself. Don’t you remember, he said, this is how we communicate in the real world.  I did not remember at all. I did not know this place.

The man, reading my mind again, turned to a woman that had come over to where I was laying. I heard the muffled sounds of their thoughts. It was as though I knew they were communicating, but so that I could not understand a word of what they were saying. Her facial expression said enough, though. There was obviously something not right.

The man then turned to me and asked if I could move. I shook my head. He laughed and I realized how foolish that was. He held my hand and told me to squeeze. The force I exerted was non-existent. He reached over and took up a syringe. He injected me with some sort of liquid and told me to squeeze again. I obviously did not know my strength and could see his face cringe with pain from the pressure. I quickly released and could move my whole body again. I sat up and looked around.

I was in a large room. It was filled with these sort of tanning beds. Most of them were closed, but I could see one or two people getting ready to lie down. Before I could ask where I was, I was jerked to my feet by the man and the woman. They quickly escorted me out of the room into a hallway. This hallway ended with a door which had the word exit written above it. I was then put into the 3rd door on the right. Was I going insane? What drugs did I take? So many questions were unanswered. I could remember my whole past life until the moment right before I awoke. What had happened in that time?

The two put strapped me down into a chair. They attached wires to me and left. I was alone. Suddenly the wires began pulsing some sort of energy through them. What are they doing? The pair came back into the room with very worried looks on their faces. Without communicating with me, they took me again and lead me into another hallway. It was the 2nd left and then the 5th door on the right. I could see some sort of bed and a desk in the room. Even though this world was filled with beautiful colors, this room was painted all white. The two left the room and locked the door.

It seemed like a lifetime that I sat there without a clue what was happening. I must have told myself to wake up at least a hundred times. Oddly enough, hunger was never a problem. Thirst didn’t arouse either. The door finally unlocked and the man came in. He looked afraid of me. He stayed at a distance and then began telling his story. “You have just awoken from what you came to know as life. All it really was, was something you may call a class. It is how we, in this world, teach basic human interaction and morals. I know this seems like it is all fake. I know you do not believe me right now. Soon, though, you will also make these facts your own truths. This is when we will show you the beauties of this world. I guess, from the life your parents had chosen for you to learn, you will think of this as heaven or hell right now. I can assure you though, it is neither. This is true existence. Everything you have seen up to this point was only a simulation, a video game, if you will. We cannot let you run around our world believing it isn’t real which is why we must lock you up until you accept this fact. You will not be able to lie to us since we can read your mind. Just accept this ad we can all move on.”

I believed no word of it. How could I? I was just told that I had “died”. This could in no way be the afterlife. I didn’t even believe in the afterlife. No, this must just be a bad dream. This has to be something in my mind that I have just…made up. The man obviously could hear what I was thinking. He just left the room shaking his head. The door was locked and I was alone. Or so I thought.
After a while, the walls began talking. They were telling me that I had to accept that this is real. The world I had loved so much was all fake. I had been lied to for 87 years. Given, I did not look 87 anymore. I looked more like I was 25 but this could easily be done by my mind. The walls kept talking though. They rebutted everything I thought as though they could hear it. Was this all some government experiment of some new drug? What have I gotten into?

I need to get out. I need to escape. I have to go back to my family. I want to see my granddaughter Lindsey again. She is so beautiful. I wonder if she is thinking of me. Are they currently at my funeral? No, the walls said, they don’t exist. They never did. They were just there to teach you love, compassion, and trust. I grew furious with these walls. I wanted them dead. But they are dead. Aren’t they?
I rammed into them with all my might. They looked hard but were made of some type of rubber. I bounced right off. I could hear the walls laughing at me. They began taunting me.  The door, I thought. I could break it down with the desk. As soon as I thought this, the desk disappeared into the ground. This room heard everything I thought. I needed a way out, quick. I was feeling like I was going mad. Am I mad? “Yes,” the walls replied. They began to chant it together. “Yes, yes, yes.”

An idea came to mind. I knew the room could hear it, but it was there anyways. I would wait until that man came into the room again and then run out of here as fast as I could. I had remembered the way from the moment I was put into that hallway. This could work, I thought. “It will never work. You are a crazy lunatic and will never escape this place,” the walls cheered. I sat down on the ground and waited.

I waited and waited. The walls kept saying words to bring me into madness. I did not listen. I did not think either. I was completely focused on the door handle. Days seemed to pass but I had not moved a muscle. Finally, slight movement of the handle. My hands began trembling. I was filled with more excitement than when my first child appeared in the world. The REAL world. The door was now ajar. I could see a grin on the man's face as his body crept through the door.

The door was halfway open when I decided it was now or never. I jumped up and made a break for it. The man was shocked by the sudden movement. I knocked him to the ground and ran into the hallway. I ran to the right. I passed the 1st door. Then the 2nd. I could see the hallway that would lead to the exit. The doors behind me were opening as people came running after me. I rounded the corner and could see the exit sign. I was almost there. I grabbed the door handle and flung the door open. Without hesitation, I jumped into freedom. Freedom, as it seemed, was a gigantic drop into nothingness. Darkness surrounded me. Rushing air did as well. I felt like I was skydiving into the unknown…

A sharp pain rose through my spine. Everything turned black. There was a beep. It sounded like there was an announcement at an airport. Then the darkness became brighter. It was like a door was slowly opening. The contrast made it too hard to see, at first. I could make out a figure hovering over my head. Not again, I thought. The man looked at me with a smile and I heard, “Yes, Again.”

title: Im-Patients

question: Where does this story take place?

answer: Some alternate existence beyond our known life.

question: What is the narrator's name?

answer: It never says.

question: To whom do the voices in the room taunting her belong?

answer: Unclear, some type of observers watching her.

question: Is the narrator in some type of hospital?

answer: Unclear, it's said she just died and woke up in this higher reality; her life was just a simulation, a training ground for existence on this plane.

question: Write a ~4 sentence summary.

answer: The narrator wakes up dazed and weak, unaware of her location and surroundings. Her perception is thrown way off and she notices those around her can read her mind. They inform her that she has just died and awakened in true reality; her entire life up to this point was just a simulation, a training ground for this higher reality. She tries to escape to no avail.


split: train

text:
[]
The ISIS Mainframe

The ISIS MAINFRAME is a room in ISIS headquarters that houses some of the primary computer records for the office. It's also where the backup battery shutdown is located. This room is the target of Sterling Archer plan to gain access to so he can modify the records of his expense account. The mainframe is password protected, but the password is "guest."

A sign posted on the door states that mainframe access is restricted to section heads only. This is true despite the fact that in later episodes the mainframe door is practically always open.

Security Measures[edit | edit source]

There are three countermeasure systems designed to prevent unauthorized access to the mainframe. They are supposed to make Fort Knox look like a gingerbread house. Though in actuality, it's not that useful.

-   PRESSURE SENSITIVE FLOOR, which might just be a mousetrap
-   SOUND SENSITIVE, anything above a whisper sets it off
-   VOICE ACTIVATED ENTRANCE, this state of the art technology allows only ISIS section heads. This can be tricked with a cell phone recording.

Appearances[edit | edit source]

-   In "Mole Hunt", Archer spends much of the episode attempting to gain access to the mainframe to deal with his operations account.

-   In "Diversity Hire", Conway Stern sleeps with Cheryl Tunt in this room, shortly after Archer and Lana Kane have a conversation in it.

-   In "Skorpio", the staff hang around in the room instead of doing their work, including Dr. Algernop Krieger building Fort Kickass until he burned the room down in response to the company screwing him on life insurance policy.

-   In "A Going Concern", Lana and Barry get trapped in the mainframe's vault to prevent them from interfering with Archer's scheme to stop the ODIN sale.

-   In "Tragical History", Malory Archer, Dr. Algernop Krieger, Lana and Archer fight Spelvin's Pirate Virus in this room, while also attempting to keep the ISIS agent list from being uploaded to an offsite server.
-   In "Sitting", Archer is led at gunpoint into the room by Farooq, who forces him to install spyware into the CIA computer system.

-   Locations
-   ISIS Headquarters
-

Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.

question: What is the ISIS Mainframe?

answer: The ISIS MAINFRAME is a room in ISIS headquarters that houses some of the primary computer records for the office.

question: What were the security measurements within the mainframe?

answer: PRESSURE SENSITIVE FLOOR, which might just be a mousetrap. SOUND SENSITIVE, anything above a whisper sets it off. VOICE-ACTIVATED ENTRANCE, this state-of-the-art technology allows only ISIS section heads. This can be tricked with a cell phone recording.

question: What is "Skorpio"?

answer: The staff hanging around the room.

question: Who forces him to install spyware?

answer: Farooq.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: Archer tries to infiltrate the ISIS mainframe but gets held at gunpoint by Farooq, who forces him to install spyware in the CIA computer system.


text:
I’m so weak.
I need to be fed or else I’ll die. It used to be so easy to be fed, but now it’s getting harder and harder. People are getting wiser and can spot my tricks from a mile off. If I don’t eat soon I’ll die. Wherever I go I’m just ignored. Why will no one feed me? Everywhere I go I just get the same response;
Please do not feed the troll.

title: Feed me (75 words)

question: What has changed? It used to be easy. Why have people stopped feeding him?

answer: He must have done something

question: What tricks is he up to?

answer: Clearly, things that people disapprove of

question: Why is he surprised that people won't feed him when knows that they can spot his tricks?

answer: He's in denial

question: Will the people let him die?

answer: It would appear so

question: Write a ~7 sentence summary.

answer:
I’m so weak.
I need to be fed or I’ll die. It used to be so easy, but now it’s getting harder. People can spot my tricks from a mile off. Wherever I go I’m just ignored. Why will no one feed me? I get the same response wherever I go;
Please do not feed the troll.


text:
The Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee ignited a new battle over President Donald Trump’s claims that he was spied on by the Obama administration, saying that U.S. intelligence agencies intercepted information about people involved in the Trump transition team.

Rep. Devin Nunes (R., Calif.), who is leading a congressional investigation into alleged Russian interference in U.S. elections, shared his information with the media and Mr. Trump before he gave it to other members of his committee. The move drew...

question: Who is the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee?

answer: not answered

question: Who spied on President Donald Trump?

answer: US intelligence agencies under the Obama administration intercepted information about people involved in the Trump transition team.

question: Who intercepted information about the Trump transition team?

answer: The Obama administration allegedly intercepted information about the Trump transition team.

question: Who is Devin Nunes?

answer: He is a Republican representative from California.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: The Republican House Intelligence Committee said that U.S. intelligence agencies under President Obama's administration intercepted information about President Donald Trump's transition team.


text:
HENRI BACHELIN (27 March 1879 – 21 September 1941) was a 20th-century French writer

Biography

After studying at the seminary of Nevers, followed by four years in the army, he practiced the profession of bank clerk, which he abandoned in 1911 to devote himself exclusively to literature. He published about forty books, mostly novels and short stories, but also works of literary criticism and musicology. These are works centered on the painting of provincial life, like _Sous d'humbles toits_, _Juliette la jolie_ or _Le Village_, where he depicts the countryside and villages of the Morvan with great realism. He was also the author of historical novels (_L'Abbaye-Vézelay au XIIe siècle_, _La mort de Bibracte_), novels of manners (_Le Péché de la Vierge_, _La Vénus rustique_) and training novels fed with autobiographical elements (_L'Héritage_, _Le Chant du coq_). He was awarded the prix Femina in 1918 for _Le Serviteur_, in which he pays homage to his father.

His interest in religious music was reflected in a novel (_Les Grandes Orgues_) and by a theoretical reference work (_L'Orgue, ses éléments, son histoire, son esthétique_) written in collaboration with Alexandre Eugène Cellier. In 1925 he was commissioned to prepare the edition of the “Journal” of Jules Renard, of which he had been a friend and a disciple at the beginning. He collaborated with numerous journals such as the _Mercure de France_ and the _NRF_.

Although he went to Paris, where he frequented Charles-Louis Philippe, André Gide and Paul Léautaud, he was still very attached to his small native town. Lormes built a bust in his memory in front of the house where he spent his childhood. He left several unpublished manuscripts. The first volume of his “Journal” (written from 1926 to 1941) was published in 2009.

[Montsauche-les-Settons, _Rue Henri Bachelin_]

Works

Poetry

-   1904: _Horizons et coins du Morvan_, Paris

TALES AND SHORT STORIES

-   1906: _Pas-comme-les-autres_
-   1907: _Les Manigants_
-   1910: _Robes noires_
-   1911: _Les Sports aux champs_
-   1913: _Sous d'humbles toits_
-   1917: _La Guerre sur le hameau_
-   1920: _Sous les marronniers en fleurs_
-   1999: _Vieilles images d'un canton de France_

Novels

-   1910: _La Bancale_
-   1912: _Juliette la jolie_
-   1914: _L'Héritage_
-   1918: _Le Serviteur_, Prix Femina
-   1918: _L'Eclaircie_
-   1919: _Le Village_, Prix Jean Revel
-   1919: _Le Petit_
-   1920: _Le Bélier, la brebis et le mouton_
-   1922: _Les Rustres_
-   1923: _Le Chant du coq_
-   1914: _Le Péché de la Vierge_
-   1925: _Les Grandes Orgues_
-   1925: _La Cornemuse de Saulieu_
-   1926: _La Vénus rustique_
-   1926: _Dondon Juan_
-   1927: _La maison d'Annike_
-   1927: _Le Taureau et les bœufs_
-   1927: _L'Abbaye - Vézelay au XIIe siècle_
-   1928: _L'Eté de la Saint Martin_
-   1929: _L'Orage d'hiver_
-   1930: _La mort de Bibracte_
-   1931: _Le Sergent Valentin_
-   1937: _Monsieur Ildefonse_
-   1938: _Le Sabreur_
-   1981: _Les Parsonniers_

Literary studies

-   1909: _Jules Renard et son œuvre_
-   1909: _Gustave Flaubert_
-   1926: _J.-K. Huysmans. Du naturalisme littéraire au naturalisme mystique_
-   1929: _Charles-Louis Philippe. Son œuvre_
-   1930: _Jules Renard (1864–1910). Son œuvre_
-   1945: _Nos paysans d'après Jules Renard, précédé de Jules Renard en Nivernais_

Musicology

-   1927: _Les noëls français_
-   1930: _Les Maîtrises et la musique de chœur_
-   1933: _L'Orgue. Ses éléments, son histoire, son esthétique_ (in collab. with Alexandre Cellier)

Trivia

-   1941: _P.-J. Proudhon, socialiste national (1809–1865)_
-   1944: _Collines et buttes parisiennes_
-   1994: _Correspondances avec André Gide et Romain Rolland_
-   2009: _Journal - tome I - 1926-1929_ (éditions du Pas de l'Âne, Autun)

Bibliography

-   Jules Bertaut, _Le roman nouveau_ (Paris, Renaissance du Livre, 1920)
-   André Billy, _La terrasse du Luxembourg_ (Paris, Arthème Fayard, 1945)
-   , _Pages choisies d'Henri Bachelin_ (Moulins, Crépin-Leblond, 1948)

-   René Dumesnil, Préface à l'édition définitive du _Serviteur_ (Mercure de France, 1944)
-   , _Henri Bachelin : l’éveil, la réussite, l’isolement_ (Vents du Morvan, n°32, summer 2009)

-   , _Henri Bachelin, poète et romancier du Morvan_ (lecture given in 1943 and published in _L'Horizon de pourpre_, n°18, 2000)

-   André Pasquet, _Deux romanciers morvandiaux : Henri Bachelin - Le marquis de Montmorillon_ (Autun, Impr. Taverne & Chandioux, 1939)
-   , _Henri Bachelin ou le triomphe de l'oubli_ (Académie du Morvan, n°14, 1981)

-   Jean-François Vacquer, _À la découverte d'Henri Bachelin_ (Association H. Bachelin, 1996)
-   Jean-François Vacquer, _Le Morvan vu par Henri Bachelin_ (Académie du Morvan, n° 46-47, 1999)
-   _L'Horizon de pourpre_, bulletin semestriel de l'Association Henri Bachelin (50 issues published from 1991 to 2016).

title: Henri Bachelin

question: When was Henri Bachelin born?

answer: 27 March 1879.

question: What professions did Henri Bachelin practice?

answer: He went to seminary school, was in the army for four years, then was a bank clerk before quitting in 1911 to devote his life to literature.

question: How many books did he publish?

answer: About 40, mostly novels and short stories, but also some works of literary criticism and musicology.

question: When was the first volume of his "Journal" published?

answer: 2009.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: The article is about Henri Bachelin, a French writer who had a storied career. it discusses his life and its history and the works that he published, along with his various interests.


text:
In February, the FCC voted in favor of loosening cable’s grip on set-top boxes. Today, President Obama offered a show of support to the initiative that sought to give consumers greater control of how they access their favorite channels.

The “Unlock the Box” initiative sought to encourage competition and promote innovation by giving consumers choice in what box they’d like to use to access cable television.

Currently, cable companies are pocketing an average of $231 per household in lease fees each year on boxes that are “required” to access cable television service.

Under the new plan, consumers could select from a wide variety of third-party options, such as Roku, AppleTV and others, that could offer additional benefits as well as fueling innovation in the space due to increased competition for customers.

  “This will allow for companies to create new, innovative, higher-quality, lower-cost products,” said chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers Jason Furman.

  “Instead of spending nearly $1,000 over four years to lease a set of behind-the-times boxes, American families will have options to own a device for much less money that will integrate everything they want in one, easier-to-use gadget.”

Obama also issued an executive order today giving federal agencies two months to report on other areas where competition could drive innovation — and it’s not limited to cable TV.

Obama, if you recall was also behind a 2014 law that removed restrictions on carrier swapping for cellphones and he’s been a vocal proponent of net neutrality laws.

_via Engadget_

Thinking Outside the Cable Box: How More Competition Gets You a Better Deal on White House

READ NEXT: Google is forcing developers to be responsible about gathering and using our data on Chrome

question: When was the article written?

answer: Sometime between 2015 and 2016

question: Where was the article published?

answer: Engadget

question: How much does it cost on average for a household to lease a box from a cable company?

answer: $231

question: Why does the author think that the change in FCC rules will benefit consumers?

answer: It will promote competition, which will fuel innovation

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: The FCC has voted to loosen cable's grip on set-top boxes. This will allow consumers to select from more third-party options and may fuel competition and innovation in the field.


text:
Right now, someone is walking out of their apartment wondering where their car went. The black Honda held their work clothes along with their school papers isn’t parked on the street where it had been left. The man pulls his phone from his pocket and dials his work, tells them that his car has been stolen, and then he dials the police.

That black Honda is a city away, under the roof of a large warehouse where it is being cut into pieces along with unnumberable bits other vehicles. The interior has been stripped. Personal items that are either identifiable or worthless to the new owners have been trashed. The engine has already been removed. The tires, springs and doors are being shopped around for buyers while they are in the process of being stripped from the cars frame.

Walking from that warehouse is a man. Counting five hundred dollars in cash, he figures that he can pay for his half of the rent and he will be able to buy his daughter a small gift for her birthday. He doesn’t get to see his daughter as much as he would like, she lives across town, in a nice area. Her mom refused to let her child grow up in the streets that he could afford to live on.

On her nice streets, his daughter is walking home from school right now. She’s excited about her test, wanting to put it up on the refrigerator. Proud, she wants to display her latest A to the world. When she gets home she has to celebrate alone though, because her mother is still at her office.

At work, her mother, has to get the bosses schedule straight, set up meetings, presentations and lunches to go along with interviews and phone calls. But the hardest part is keeping a smile on her face while he hits on her. The man sits on her desk, smiling, asking if there is anything he could do to make her job more comfortable.

Back at the boss’s home his wife, who didn’t wait for her husband to make the first betrayal, was busy in the bedroom with an old flame, a true love that she had never been able to shake. The woman made the decision to marry into money and live comfortably, but she hasn’t been able to stop making the mistake of seeing the man her heart longs for.

Her love was a man who had never fit well into anything, her family, a nice school or a steady job. He seemed to get rejected from every aspect of life that he put himself into. Now he was trying to keep hold on an art career, waiting for it to take off. Art was the current love of his life.

His fist painting had finally been sold by his agent, a friend of his. It was sold at a much lower price than what his friend had promised. But he had needed to make room in the gallery for items that would actually attract some interest from buyers.

The painting had been picked up by the agent’s son, to be delivered to the buyer’s home this evening before his son went to work tonight. That was when his son realized that it wasn’t just his work things that were in his car, and dials the phone number for his father.

title: Right Now (565 Words)

question: What was in the car?

answer: A painting that the thief's wife's boss's wife's lover made.

question: Who stole the car?

answer: A man who needed to pay rent.

question: Write a ~5 sentence summary.

answer: A car is stolen by a man desperate to buy something for his daughter. His wife is trying to stop her boss from hitting on her. Her boss' wife is having an affair with an artist. The artist has just sold his first painting. The agent was about to ship it to the gallery, but it was in the car that the first man stole.


text:
_THE DEBT_ is a short film directed by Bruno de Almeida. It stars Scott Renderer, Kristen Johnston and Paul Lazar. _The Debt_ won the award for best short at the Cannes Film Festival Critic's Week in 1993 and had a long run playing in 85 film festivals. The film won another eight awards and was subsequently released theatrically ahead of features, and broadcast in several countries.

Cast

-   Scott Renderer as Mr. Kosnick
-   Kristen Johnston as Ms. Kosnick
-   Paul Lazar as the salesman

Awards

-   Canal + award, best short film Cannes Film Festival Critics week, France 1993
-   1st prize - best short film Cinema Jove, Valencia, Spain 1993
-   Silver award Philadelphia International Film Festival, USA 1993
-   Special honor Short Circuit Festival Monte Carlo, Monaco 1993
-   Special mention Cinema Giovani, Torino, Italy 1993
-   Diploma of honor Festival of New Filmmakers, Larissa, Greece 1993
-   Diploma of merit Tampere International Film Festival, Finland 1994
-   Best short film award & Jury prize Algarve Film Festival, Portugal 1995

title: The Debt (1993 film)

question: In how many countries was The Debt broadcast?

answer: It was broadcast in several countries.

question: What character did Scott Renderer portray?

answer: Mr. Kosnick.

question: How many awards did the short film The Debt win?

answer: 8 awards.

question: Why was The Debt released theatrically?

answer: It won 8 awards. played at 85 festivals and was released theatrically ahead of features.

question: When was The Debt released?

answer: It was released in 1993.

question: Which award did The Debt win in 1994?

answer: Diploma of merit Tampere International Film Festival, Finland.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: The Debt was a hugely successful short film that was released in 1993. It won 8 awards and was broadcast ahead of features in several countries.


text:
Editing for formatting.

People here weren't your typical shopping-mall, suburban mom-type pretenders. Here there was grit. Here there was spit, spilled booze, broken glass, cigar-flavored air. Here there was a bar, in the middle of nowhere; a biker stop, really, ducked off down by the old frontage road past the overpass. No neon signs lit up, no teenagers told their friends this place's name, and those who did talk about it referred to it only as "The Stop."

Jukebox rambled on in the background, all full of vibration. War, Edwin Star. Bartender spat in a cup, scratched the beard of his neck. A fly pestered a drunk at the bar. The bartender reached for his swatter, brought it down like a judge's gavel. Drunk just grunted.

*ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, LISTEN TO ME*

The only door swung open slow, only the night seemed to wait beyond it. Only mosquitoes, the faint but constant sound of frogs and crickets. No one seemed to notice the squeak, save for the bartender. The only door. Dust kicked back and the floor boards rattled some as the knob smacked the wall. This, the drunks did notice. Jukebox still blared, but any murmurs died down. They all stared into the night beyond the door, the one door. They all smoked their tobacco and put down their beers.

Night wore a boot, and stuck it through that one door. Alligator skin, old, worn, dirty, still tough and intact. A heavy frame followed; the night birthed a man. A black poncho hung over his belt-line, to his thighs. His cowboy hat hid his eyes, his beard hid his chin, and his toothpick danced on his lips.

Grit.

The Night hung there a moment, the drunks took him in. A few started to murmur again. The bartender stood still. Another fly buzzed by the same grunting patron, he did nothing. The night was here, and it wore boots.

*Many a young man's dreams*

*Made him disabled, beaten and mean*

*Life is much too short and precious*

The Night's steps were heavy, slow, purposeful. The kind of walk a man has when he means to make a point. The one door hung open behind him, dead on its hinges. He sat down at the bar, head hung low and chewing that toothpick. It had to be gum by then.

*To spend it fighting wars these days*

*War can't give life*

The bartender. "Listen, mister, I don't want any-"

*It can only take it away*

Boom. Splatter. Brains on back of bar, bits of skull on cash register. Frightened patrons. Scramble.

*OOOOH, WAR, HUH*

*WHAT IS GOOD FOR*

A revolver smoked in The Night's gloved hand. Arm outstretched, he was frozen in the madness. They were all dead when he walked in, dead anyway. Six shots were all he had, one was gone. Then two more were gone, lost in the heads of drunks cowering in a corner. His head still hung low, his beard still bobbed as he chewed that toothpick.

A fourth bullet sang through the air, struck a pitcher and went through the wall. The fifth had an up-close-and-personal visit with a biker's back (the hole it left tagged the forehead of the skull printed on his kutte).

Then a silence. Brief, welcomed.

A television above and beyond the bar switched on. The Night looked up with red eyes, his hat falling to the bloodstained floorboards. White noise. Black hair. A mess of it, to his back, all grease and tangles.

*SAY IT AGAIN*

*WAR, WHOAH LORD*

*WHAT IS I-*

Jukebox kicked off. No one left inside, no one to hear it cut off as if the power had been pulled, though it hadn't. No one left to wonder why evil came to The Stop in July when it was hot. Footprints left trails to skid marks where trucks peeled out in the parking lot. The dead jukebox, the footprints, the corpses of the Bartender and his patrons, the TV's white noise, that was all. And those red, red eyes.

A face climbed through the static, to smile on the screen. It locked eyes with the Night. One by one, every light bulb in the bar burst. Then the mirrors cracked. After that, the beer bottles exploded. One. By. One. Last was the TV, the static, the noise, the face. It clicked off with that sharp whistle the old ones make.

It clicked off, and The Night was gone in smoke. His bar-stool swung for no one to see. Dead eyes could only perhaps behold spit, spilled booze, broken glass, cigar-flavored air. Blood.

Wherever The Night went, it still had one bullet.

title: The Night (original, new, violent)

question: Why did the Night kill the people in The Stop?

answer: It's not mentioned in the story.

question: Who are the major characters in the story?

answer: The Night is the only major character.

question: What is the central theme of the story?

answer: I'm not sure. The writing just depicts a scene where The Night kills some patrons in a bar.

question: Where does the story take place?

answer: In a bar called The Stop in the middle of nowhere.

question: Write a ~6 sentence summary.

answer: In a bar called The Stop, in the middle of nowhere, The Night kicks the only door open. The bartender raises his hand to say he doesn't want any trouble, War by Edwin Sar playing in the background. The night guns down five people. A face with red eyes appears in the dark, locking eyes with The Night. All the lightbulbs and the TV pop, The Stop in silence. The Night walks off, still one bullet left in his gun.


text:
The 1933 BIG TEN CONFERENCE FOOTBALL SEASON was the 38th season of college football played by the member schools of the Big Ten Conference (also known as the Western Conference) and was a part of the 1933 college football season.

Michigan compiled a 7–0–1 record, extended its unbeaten streak to 22 games, shut out five of eight opponents, gave up an average of 2.3 points per game, outscored opponents 131 to 18, and was the Big Ten champion. In December 1933, Michigan was awarded the Knute K. Rockne Trophy as the No. 1 team in the country under the Dickinson System. Two other Big Ten teams also finished among the top five teams in the post-season Dickinson ratings: Minnesota at No. 3 and Ohio State at No. 5. Center Chuck Bernard and tackle Francis Wistert were consensus first-team picks for the 1933 College Football All-America Team.

Ohio State finished in third place with a 7–1 and its sole loss being against Michigan.

Iowa quarterback/halfback Joe Laws received the Chicago Tribune Silver Football trophy as the most valuable player in the conference.

Season overview

Results and team statistics

  Conf. Rank   Team   Head coach   DS   Overall record   Conf. record   PPG   PAG   MVP |- align=“left” bgcolor=""   1 (tie)   Michigan   Harry Kipke   #1   7–0–1   5–0–1   16.4   2.3   H. Everhardus |- align=“left” bgcolor=""   1 (tie)   Minnesota   Bernie Bierman   #3   4-0-4   2-0-4   8.0   4.0   Pug Lund |- align=“left” bgcolor=""   3   Ohio State   Sam Willaman   #5   7–1   4–1   20.1   3.3   M. Vuchinich |- align=“left” bgcolor=""   4   Purdue   Noble Kizer   #10   6–1–1   3–1–1   13.6   4.6   Fred Hecker |- align=“left” bgcolor=""   5 (tie)   Illinois   Robert Zuppke   NR   5–3   3–2   9.6   4.0   Dave Cook |- align=“left” bgcolor=""   5 (tie)   Iowa   Ossie Solem   NR   5–3   3–2   16.4   7.0   Joe Laws |- align=“left” bgcolor=""   7   Northwestern   Dick Hanley   NR   1–5–2   1–4–1   3.1   5.3   Ed Manske |- align=“left” bgcolor=""   8   Chicago   C. Shaughnessy   NR   3–3–2   0–3–2   14.8   7.0   Jay Berwanger |- align=“left” bgcolor=""   9   Indiana   Earl C. Hayes   NR   1–5–2   0–3–2   3.1   12.0   Bob Jones |- align=“left” bgcolor=""   10   Wisconsin   Clarence Spears   NR   2–5–1   0–5–1   6.8   9.9   Robert Schiller
  ------------ ------ ------------ ---- ---------------- -------------- ----- ----- -------------------------------- --------- ---------- ------------- ---- ------- ------- ------ ----- ------------------------------------------ --------- ----------- ---------------- ---- ------- ------- ----- ----- ------------------------------------- --- ------------ -------------- ---- ----- ----- ------ ----- ----------------------------------------- --- -------- ------------- ----- ------- ------- ------ ----- ---------------------------------------- --------- ---------- --------------- ---- ----- ----- ----- ----- -------------------------------------- --------- ------ ------------- ---- ----- ----- ------ ----- ------------------------------------- --- -------------- ------------- ---- ------- ------- ----- ----- -------------------------------------- --- --------- ---------------- ---- ------- ------- ------ ----- ------------------------------------------ --- --------- --------------- ---- ------- ------- ----- ------ -------------------------------------- ---- ----------- ----------------- ---- ------- ------- ----- ----- -----------------

KEY
DS = Ranking in the Dickinson System, a system used at the time to rank the country's best college football teams and to award the Knute Rockne Trophy to the national champion[1]
PPG = Average of points scored per game[2]
PAG = Average of points allowed per game[3]
MVP = Most valuable player as voted by players on each team as part of the voting process to determine the winner of the Chicago Tribune Silver Football trophy[4]

All-conference players

The following players received first-team honors from either the Associated Press (AP) or United Press (UP) on the 1933 All-Big Ten Conference football team:

-   Ted Petoskey, end, Michigan (AP, UP)
-   Frank Larson, end, Minnesota (AP, UP)
-   Whitey Wistert, tackle, Michigan (AP, UP)
-   Ted Rosequist, tackle, Ohio State (UP)
-   Dutch Fehring, tackle, Purdue (AP)
-   Zud Schammel, guard, Iowa (AP, UP)
-   Joseph T. Gailus, guard, Ohio State (AP, UP)
-   Chuck Bernard, center, Michigan (UP)
-   Jack Beynon, quarterback, Illinois (UP)
-   Joe Laws, quarterback/halfback, Iowa (AP, UP)
-   Pug Lund, halfback, Minnesota (AP, UP)
-   Herman Everhardus, halfback, Michigan (AP)
-   Duane Purvis, fullback, Purdue (AP, UP)

All-Americans

Three Big Ten players were consensus first-team picks on the 1933 College Football All-America Team:[5]

-   Chuck Bernard, center, Michigan (AAB, AP, CO, FWAA, INS, LIB, NANA, NEA, UP, CP, DJW, MP, NYS, WC, WD)
-   Francis Wistert, tackle, Michigan (AAB, CO, FWAA, UP, DJW, NYS, WC)
-   Duane Purvis, fullback, Purdue (AAB, CO, LIB, NANA, UP, WC, WD)

Other Big Ten players receiving first-team All-American honors from at least one selector were:

-   Ted Petoskey, end, Michigan (INS, CP, MP)
-   Frank Larson, end, Minnesota (CO, NEA, NYS)
-   Edgar Manske, end, Northwestern (UP)
-   Zud Schammel, guard, Iowa (AP, LIB, NANA, UP)
-   Joseph Gailus, guard, Ohio State (MP)
-   Pug Lund, halfback, Minnesota (AP, FWAA, INS, CP, DJW, MP)

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

title: 1933 Big Ten Conference football season

question: Which season was the 1933 Big Ten Conference?

answer: The 38th.

question: Which sport is it?

answer: American football.

question: What was another name for the Big Ten Conference?

answer: The Western Conference.

question: What was Joe Laws' position?

answer: Quarterback and halfback.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: The 1933 Big Ten Conference football season was the 38th season of college football played by the member schools of the Big Ten Conference (also known as the Western Conference) and was a part of the 1933 college football season. Michigan was the Big 10 winner that year.


text:
“We are receiving word now that the shooter was in his Mid to Late Twenties, Had Glasses and Tattoos, liked Rock and Dubstep music…” Damon was already sick of hearing about it, even though this was the first time. “Fuck man, will this shit ever stop?”, he wondered as he made his way out of bed. It was a public bus in Reno this time. A 25 year old man who you would assume was going to college and enjoyed mocha frapps took a pistol out of his backpack at a stoplight and went to town. He murdered 15 people and took his own life. Damon made his way to the closet to pick out a suitable outfit for work. “I love you, baby.” his wife sleepily whispered while cuddling the blankets. ” I love you, baby girl” he replied. She noticed he wasn’t as cheerful this morning. “Is something wrong, sug?” she asked. “I’m just getting goddamn tired of hearing about these mass shootings..” He racked his brain looking for a way to express his frustration more clearly, but he did realize it was a bit early for a rant. “Come here baby” she whispered in a low tone. Damon shook his head and smiled a bit as he sat by her on the bed. As he sat she pulled him in close and kissed his neck, and then looked into his eyes. “You stop worrying about things you can’t control. Things like this are gonna happen all the time…” Hearing her say that made him uneasy. What a horrible truth to hear, especially so nonchalantly. “…Besides, you get distracted to easily as it is” she said with a mischievous smile. He shook his head and joked “Yea, especially with you around all the time” and got up. He got dressed and made his way out. “Have a good day, baby” she whispered. “Love you, baby girl” he said with a kiss to her cheek. And then he was gone.

The commute to work was what he expected, which wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Details of the shooting came through the radio, and the media coverage took its usual course of exploitation. Talk of the victims and who they were, setting them up to be martyrs, and everything remotely under the sun blamed for what happened. Maybe he was just a nut, thought Damon. Aren’t people satisfied anymore? He pulled into the parking lot of the school he taught at. It was a lower income school with some of the rougher kids in the county. Still, from what he noticed of richer students at other high schools, at least these kids were down to earth, and realistic. Walking down the hallway he spotted Mr. Epstein, the gym teacher. Older man with a grey, bushy mustache  he had a reputation to make off-color remarks and occasionally downright inappropriate things to female students.  As Damon passed him he waved. “Hey Epstein.” “Hey Williams, bet you’re glad you didn’t take the bus!” he said with a laugh. Damon didn’t acknowledge the joke. People handle tragedy in different ways, but some methods are just plain fucked, he thought.

As he entered the classroom, the class was abuzz with talk of the shooting, as he figured. “Yo, you hear how one of them was an old lady, man? Shiiiit, who does that, shootin up grandmas?” one of the students said.Damon cleared his throat loudly and silenced a good majority of the classroom. Tyrell, the student who was just remarking about the elderly woman, piped up “Damnnn, Williams, sounds like you need a lozenge or sum’in!” The classroom laughed. Damon continued, “Tyrell, when I walked in here, how did you refer to the victims of today’s shooting?” Tyrell stared blankly and answered back with, “Uh, I don’t remember dude” which elicited another laugh. Seeing as how he was a history teacher, Damon thought that he should maybe just go on with regularly scheduled syllabus. But with the way History repeats itself year after year, he figured now would be a good a time as any to speak on how he felt. “When I walked in here just now, I heard you refer to one of the victims as ‘one of them.’ Right?” The room was totally silent now. Tyrell shook his head , almost in a regretful fashion. “That’s what one of the main problems with our society today” he continued.

“We have a knee-jerk reaction to make everything impersonal. And it’s not your guys’ fault, We adults messed up, you know what I mean. Our neighbors aren’t neighbors anymore. Those whose lives are taken to quickly are reduced to poster children used to promote someones viewpoint. And this needs to stop.” The classroom was fully engaged now, they had never seen this side of teacher before. “I won’t carry on about this much longer. In the next few days we will see the usual banter on gun violence and the effect of the media. I’m not saying I am a saint, when I was around your age I listened to NWA and Pulp Fiction is still one of my all time favorite movies. But when you walk around the hallways today, think about how violence has affected you through the years and see if you feel like you’ve had enough. Now, your assignment today is read Chapter 2-1 and 2-2. Also,  today I would like you to read a section about the St. Valentines Massacre..”

Damon grew up in the ghetto. He had seen violence. He had gotten into a few scraps himself when he was younger. But what could drive a person to enter a school with an assault rifle or a public bus with a 32. millimeter, he will never truly understand. I love this country, he thought, I do. But he couldn’t grasp what was happening anymore. How a society maintains being so violent would always be a mystery. Damon saw the flashing police lights directly behind him. Aww shit, he thought, pulling over on the side of the road. He sat there and watched two officers exit the car. He figured that they would obviously need to see his registration, so he reached for the glove box so he-

The car lay deadly silent. Bullet holes were scattered along the back of the window, and two lay in Damon’s shoulder and one through his eye. The next few days, the news media would turn the situation into a matter of race regarding Damon’s ethnicity. There would be debate about deadly force and the police. Discussions would come up about teacher salaries due to the fact that he drove an older Subaru. In the end, Damon would wind up a face plastered on the news and in the papers to provide conversation during breakfast or at work about how “fucked up this country is.” And elsewhere, A golden retriever nursed new puppies. A young woman jumped up and down with tears in her eyes after being accepted to the school she wanted. A young man taught his little brother how to skateboard. And over at Damon’s house, his wife received news that she would be expecting her first child. And another american story was set to begin.

title: Another American Story

question: What does the story say about the government's response to gun violence?

question: What does the story say about the mass shooting that happened in Reno?

answer: A man in his mid to late twenties rode a bus in Reno and took a pistol from his backpack at a stoplight. He murdered 15 people before taking his own life. The man was described as wearing glasses, had tattoos, and liked rock and Dubstep music. One of the victims was an old woman.

question: What is the theme of the story?

answer: The story's theme appears to be about the senseless violence that is gripping the United States and the media exploitation storm that follows it. The mainstream media brings on an impassioned and impersonal debate that blames everything under the sun for what happened. The victims are quickly reduced to poster children to promote someone's viewpoint and the real tragedy is lost in the noise.

question: How does the story describe the protagonist?

answer: The protagonist is Damon Williams. He is a history teacher at a lower-income school that had some of the rougher kids in the country. Damon is married and his wife is pregnant, but he doesn't know yet. He grew up in the ghetto and has seen his share of violence. Damon used to listen to NWA and had gotten into a few scraps when he was younger. He is tired of all the senseless violence that is gripping the country. He dies in the story at the hands of two cops who pull him over and shoot him when he was reaching for his license and registration in his glove box.


text:
I know it defiantly needs work. I'm really not even crazy about it. Its my first attempt at some first person perspective work and I gotta say, props to people who write first person, its difficult. I deal well with constructive criticism, just don't be an asshole. Oh ans also its my first reddit post ever. :P Well here it is:

“It was the coldest night of the year. At least it felt like it. Well actually, every night feels like the coldest night of the year when your family can’t afford two blankets in the Yukon Wasteland. In the Yukon its kill or be killed… viciously. The average life expectancy of that shit hole of a habitat is twenty-three. Twenty-fucking-three. Lottery winners say our good ole pals here in the Hearth live up to a hundred years old! But anyways it was a damn cold night, I believe in November of 2308, correct me if I’m wrong Meg!” Meg replied, “I believe in October, Scotty” “Anyways in October of 2308, the senators came rolling through looking for their weekly tribute except this time, turns out they wanted people, and not just any people, children. The damn Hearth was too lazy to work their own fucking wheat fields. Yup me and Meg were two of the lucky bastards to be taken from our homes in the middle of the night without any prior knowledge or warning. My own parents didn’t even know I was taken. You have no idea what it’s like knowing that you will never see your family ever again.  But I think both me and Meg can agree that our lucky little “extended work trip” saved our lives.

title: First Paragraph. Some Feedback Please?

question: What might have happened if Meg and the narrator weren't taken from their homes by the senators on that fateful October night in 2308?

answer: They would probably be dead because the average life expectancy in their Yukon habitat is 23 years old.

question: Why do the people living in the Hearth allow senators to take what they want as tribute?

answer: Because they probably rely too much on the senators for supplies or rations to survive.


text:
_SINGLES COLLECTION +6_ is the first greatest hits album by Japanese pop-rock band Wands.[1] It was released on 16 March 1996 under B-Gram Records label. Album includes all singles released so far,two pick-ups from their studio albums and one new song exclusively for this album. The album reached #1 in its first week and sold 221,000 copies. The album charted for 14 weeks and sold more than 831,000 copies.[2][3] This is the last album where former members with vocalist Show Uesugi released album. Next albums will be released with completely new members of band.

Track listing

[1] Wands Discography(in Japanese) http://beinggiza.com/ci/artist/wands/

[2] Oricon rankings. title=Singles Collection +6 / WANDS | newspaper = Oricon http://www.oricon.co.jp/prof/25861/products/123532/1/

[3] Official track list (in Japanese) http://beinggiza.com/ci/item/JBCJ-1006

title: Singles Collection +6

question: What is "Singles Collection +6?"

answer: The first greatest hits album by Japanese pop-rock band Wands.

question: When and by whom was the album released?

answer: March 16, 1996 under B-Gram Records.

question: What does the album include?

answer: All singles so far, two pick-ups from their studio albums, and one new song.

question: How did the album do?

answer: It reached #1 in its first week and sold 221,000 copies. The album charted for 14 weeks and sold more than 831,000 copies.

question: Write a ~4 sentence summary.

answer: The "Singles Collection +6" was the first greatest hits album by Japanese pop-rock band Wands. It was released on March 16, 1996 under B-Gram Records and includes all singles so far, two pick-ups from their studio album, and one new song. It reached #1 in its first week and ultimately sold more than 831,000 copies. This was the last album with the original band members, the next albums were released with completely new members of the band.


text:
Well it is a long story but because you asked with a smile I will share. My father got wrapped up in some seriously bad shit with the unicorn mafia. They killed him in front of my 8.5 month pregnant mother.

Soon after I was born into a life filled with hatred for their kind and those that associate with them. I went on like that for years.I even got involved in some unicorn poaching. It was on a gig in Malaysia that I saw her. She was just different than all the other unicorn that I had even known.

Her mane was a color that I didn't knew existed, and had an iridescent glow. I knew then that my whole life was a lie. If unicorns could be like this than they couldn't be the diabolical destructive force that I was indoctrinated into believing in. Her name was Emma and against all odds I loved her.

We abandoned our station with the clans that refused to accept our love. We were married to the fine music of the Appalachians. Our fairy-tale life went on for years. She baked the finest confections in the land and I worked with the local miller doing more or less manual labor. People were non too friendly to our type but we had each other. This was not to last however.

It turned out that I was wrong. Emma was a filthy unicorn whore. At the first sign of something shinier than I she left me. She left me for some smelly hippy Douche bag named Brad. I try not to think about those days anymore as that sends me to the bottom of a bottle.

TL:DR- Not a very big fan of unicorns.

title: Always chasing one.

question: What is the reaction that the author is trying to provoke from readers?

answer: This short story appears to be a parody of standard noir / love stories and is probably intended to be humorous, and therefore evoke amusement.


text:
RUTH SHACK (born 24 August 1931 in Brooklyn, New York) is the sponsor of the 1977 Human Rights Ordinance in Miami-Dade County, Florida. She was elected to the Metro-Dade County Commission in 1976, 1978 and 1982. After leaving the commission, she became the president and CEO of the Dade Community Foundation, one of the largest philanthropic organizations in Florida. She retired in 2009.

Education

Shack earned her Bachelor of Arts in Humanities from Barry University in 1970 with a major in English and a minor in Journalism/Communications. In 1975, she received a Master of Arts in Social Science with specialization in Urban Sociology from the University of Colorado. She taught sociology and political science at Florida International University.

Professional career

Shack was elected to her first term as Metro-Dade County Commissioner in 1976, re-elected to a four-year term in 1978, and to a third term in 1982. In her tenure as a commissioner, she made the county and its municipalities reconsider their historic resources, including the Art Deco District on South Beach. In 1981, she sponsored the county's first ordinance for historic preservation.

Human Rights Ordinance

In 1977, Shack as a member of the Metro Dade County Commission sponsored the amendment to the original Dade County anti-discrimination ordinance to add the prohibition of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Later her former friend Anita Bryant led a highly publicized, successful campaign to repeal the ordinance. The campaign was waged based on what was labeled “Christian beliefs regarding the sinfulness of homosexuality and the perceived threat of homosexual recruitment of children and child molestation.”

Reinstatement of Ordinance

In 1998, Dade County repealed Bryant's successful campaign of 20 years earlier, and re-enacted an anti-discrimination ordinance protecting individuals from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation by a 7 to 6 vote. In 2002, a ballot initiative to repeal the 1998 law, called Amendment 14, was voted down by 56% of the voters.

The Florida statute forbidding adoptions by homosexuals was upheld in 2004 by a federal appellate court, but on November 25, 2008, was struck down by Judge Cindy Lederman. She said the 31-year-old law violates equal protection rights for the children and their prospective parents, rejecting the state's arguments that there is “a supposed dark cloud hovering over homes of homosexuals and their children,” and argued that there was no rational basis to prohibit homosexual parents from adopting, particularly since the state allowed them to act as foster parents. The ruling cleared the way for Martin Gill, 47, and his male partner to adopt two brothers, ages 4 and 8. They had been foster parents to the children since December 2004.

Philanthropy

Shack has served as vice chair of the Council on Foundations and chair of its management committee, on the Board of the Community Foundations for Youth and the Board of Funders Concerned about AIDS. She is a member of the Bertelsmann Foundations' Transatlantic Community Foundation Network and was chair of the Communications Network. She was a founder and former chair of the Florida Philanthropic Network and founder-chair of the Alliance for Human Services.

The Miami Foundation

Shack became president of the Dade Community Foundation, now known as The Miami Foundation, in 1985. During her tenure, she spearheaded a campaign to encourage philanthropy and charitable giving by developing a permanent endowment to meet Greater Miami’s emerging charitable needs. Spurred by her leadership, the foundation diversified its board of trustees, its staff and its grantmaking focus. Shack led the charge to focus all grantmaking against the issue of cultural alienation and the need to help people successfully cross ethnic barriers. Empowerment and seed funding for emerging groups, based in the diverse multicultural communities of Miami-Dade, were the hallmarks of the grantmaking program under her leadership.

On January 27, 2009, Shack announced that she would step down from her post as president by the end of the year. The Miami Foundation has established the Ruth and Richard Shack Society. In addition, each year The Miami Foundation and Leave a Legacy present the Ruth Shack Leadership Award to one of Miami’s most promising young leaders.

Personal life

In 1953, Shack married Richard Shack (1926 - 2012). They have three daughters, five grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

Awards

Shack is the recipient of the Governor's Award for the Arts; American Institute of Architects Community Service Award; Presidential Award from the Cultural Executives Council; Tropical Audubon's Conservation Award; Society of the Arts, Florida South Chapter; Miami Beach Taxpayer's Association, Public Enlightenment; and Dade County's Outstanding Citizens Award.[1]

[1]  Jewish Museum of Florida - FIU|url = http://jmof.fiu.edu%7Cwebsite = jmof.fiu.edu|accessdate = 2015-05-31}}

title: Ruth Shack

question: Summarize Anita Bryant's role in the article.

answer: Anita Bryant was a former friend of Ruth Shack. She led a successful campaign to appeal the amendment to the original Dad County anti-discrimination ordinance, which Shack sponsored. Her campaign was repealed in 1998.

question: Summarize Ruth Shack's contributions to the gay community.

answer: In 1977, Shack sponsored an amendment to Dade County's anti-discrimination ordinance to add the prohibition of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. She also served on the Board of the Funders Concerned about AIDS.

question: Summarize Shack's activities after stepping down from her post as president of the Dade Community Foundation.


text:
HARRISON HIGH SCHOOL (HHS) is a public high school located in Harrison, Westchester County, New York, United States. The school is northeast of New York City. It is the only high school operated by the Harrison Central School District.

Academics

In 2016, Harrison ranked 211 in the nation[1] and 13 in the state[2] in rigor according to _The Washington Post_'s America's Most Challenging High Schools index.

In 2019, Harrison ranked #328 nationally in the _U.S. News & World Report_ Best High Schools Rankings.[3]

Demographics

The demographic breakdown of the 1,087 students enrolled in 2016–17 was:[4]

-   Male - 50.2%
-   Female - 49.8%
-   Native American/Alaskan - 1.0%
-   Asian/Pacific islanders - 10%
-   Black - 2.3%
-   Hispanic - 20.2%
-   White - 71.3%
-   Multiracial- 1.1%
-   Built Different- 100%

23.4% of the students were eligible for free or reduced lunch.

Athletics

Harrison High teams are named “Huskies.” Their colors are maroon and white. One of the oldest traditions is the Harrison Rye Game, a football game between the Harrison Huskies, and the Garnets, the football team from Rye High School, in the neighboring town of Rye, NY.

Building

[The previous Harrison High School in 1941] The current building of the Harrison High School was built in 1973 and 1974, and opened for September 1974. The building was built as a solution to the lack in size of the Harrison Junior Senior High School, serving grades 6 to 12, established in 1957 in the building built to be the Harrison High School in 1939. The building is currently used as the middle school. Harrison High School demonstrates a circular design, like a rotunda, with a hallway spanning one quarter of a circle, and a hallway that is a full circle radially centered inside the primary hallway, connected by two other hallways, the Main Hallway, and the Senior Hallway. The building is two stories tall and has two gyms, a cafeteria, a theater, and 213 classrooms.

The building is home to the Harrison Performing Arts Center, renovated in 2007, by a $1,250,000 grant received from the New York State Education Department in collaboration with the Harrison Educational Foundation (HEF). The Harrison Performing Arts Center (HPAC) features 825 seats, two balconies, a separate Light Booth, an extra high stage bow as well as state-of-the-art lighting systems by Electronic Theatre Controls and audio systems by Allen and Heath. The nicest high school performing arts facility in New York State, the HPAC, is entirely managed by students. The Harrison Technical Crew has been recognized by the Helen Hays Youth Theatre Foundation for Outstanding Achievement in Musicals and Drama. The HPAC and Sirius Black Box Theatre are under the supervision of the Director of Fine and Performing Arts, Ms. Mary Ellis.

The building was originally home to a then-state-of-the-art planetarium complete with 25 ft. diameter dome, and a projector that could recede into a tunnel when not used, as well as built in theater-style seating and offset lighting. Unfortunately, due to the building lacking space, when a dance studio was needed for the school to be able to apply for the International Baccalaureate (IB) program, the planetarium was the space that was decided to be renovated. It is now a dance studio/planetarium, with a movable star projector, mirrors mounted on the walls, a wooden floor and folding seating. In addition to being a dance studio, it is also a black-box theater, named the Sirius Black Box Theater, the word 'Sirius' pertaining to the star, Sirius, because it is a planetarium.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

title: Harrison High School (New York)

question: Summarize what happened before and during the 1970's.

answer: The Harrison High School building was originally built in 1939, this building is currently used as the middle school. The Harrison Junior and Senior High School was later established in 1957 in the original building. The current building of the Harrison High School was built in 1973 and 1974, and opened for September 1974. It was built as a solution to the lack of in size the Harrison Junior Senior High School. One of the oldest traditions is the Harrison Rye Game, a football game between the Harrison Huskies, and the Garnets, the football team from Rye High School, in the neighboring town of Rye, NY.

question: What does the text say about the facilities of Harrison High School?

answer: The current building used by Harrison High School was opened in 1974 and features a circular design two stories tall with two gyms, a cafeteria, a theater and 213 classrooms. The theater, the Harrison Performing Arts Center, was renovated in 2007 with premium equipment. It features 825 seats, two balconies, a separate light booth, state-of-the-art lighting systems and audio systems. The school originally featured a planetarium, but this was renovated into a dance studio while keeping the features of the planetarium with folded seating.

question: What does the text say about sports and arts programs at Harrison High School.

answer: One of the oldest traditions at the school is a football game between the maroon and white Harrison Huskies and the Rye School Garnets. The state of the art Harrison Performing Arts Center (HPAC) is the nicest high school performing arts facility in New York State and is entirely managed by students under the supervision of the Director of Fine and Performing Arts. The dance studio is used as part of school's International Baccalaureate program. The dance studio is also used as a black box theater named Sirius Black Theater.

question: What does the text say about the criteria for determining America's Most Challenging High School?


text:
FREDERICK CHARLES HUSENBETH (born at Bristol, 30 May 1796; died at Costessey, Norfolk, 31 October 1872) was an English Catholic priest and writer.

Life

The son of a Bristol wine-merchant and of a lady of Cornish family, a convert to Catholicism, he was sent at the age of seven to Sedgley Park School in Staffordshire, and at fourteen entered his father's counting-house. Having formed the resolution, three years later, to study for the priesthood, he returned to Sedgley, going afterwards to Oscott College, where he was ordained by John Milner in 1820.

After serving the Stourbridge mission, near Oscott, for a time, he was sent to Cossey Hall, Norfolk, as chaplain to Sir George Stafford Jerningham, who became Baron Stafford in 1825. He took up his residence in a cottage in the village, and continued his ministrations here to the Catholics of the mission until within a few months of his death.

During this long period, extending over more than half a century, he is said to have been absent from his mission only on three Sundays. Seven years after his appointment to Cossey he became grand vicar under Bishop Walsh, successor of Bishop Milner as Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District. In 1841 he opened St. Walstan's Chapel, for which he had collected funds, and in 1850 he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Rome.

Shortly after the restoration of the English hierarchy by Pope Pius IX, Husenbeth was nominated provost of the Chapter, of Northampton, and Vicar-General of the diocese. In the spring of 1872 he resigned his mission, and he died at St. Walstan's Presbytery on the last day of October in the same year.

He had no particular liking for religious institutes, and was quite opposed to the new forms of devotion which had grown up since his student days at Oscott.

Works

In his quiet country presbytery, he found ample leisure time, and between the years 1823 and 1849 forty-nine works written or edited by him appeared in London, Dublin, and Norwich. Many of these were controversial publications, written in refutation of George Stanley Faber and Joseph Blanco White, while others treated of historical, liturgical, or doctrinal matters. Perhaps his most important work is the _Life of Bishop Milner_, published in 1862; defective as biography, it was a contribution to the history of Catholicism on England.

In 1852 he brought out, assisted by John Polding, a new edition, with abridged notes, of George Leo Haydock's illustrated Bible and he published also editions, for the use of the laity, of the Missal and the vesper-book. The “Emblems of Saints” (1850) was one of his best original works, and the style of his pulpit eloquence is well shown by the various sermons which he printed from time to time.

He contributed a large number of uncollected verses to the periodicals of his time. He also published articles on a great variety of subjects in different Catholic journals, and was a lifelong writer in the columns of _Notes and Queries_, in which more than thirteen hundred contributions appeared over his initials. He was a voluminous letter-writer, and maintained a correspondence with various literary celebrities, and with many distinguished converts of his time. Husenbeth's valuable library collection of crucifixes, reliquaries and similar objects and of letters chiefly on religious subjects, were sold at Norwich a few months after his death. Most of the letters passed into the possession of the Bishop of Northampton.

title: Frederick Charles Husenbeth

question: What does the text say about Frederick Charles Husenbeth?

answer: Frederick Charles Husenbeth was an English Catholic priest and writer. He was born in Bristol on May 30, 1976, and died at Costessey, Norfolk, on October 31, 1872.

question: What does the text say about Husenbeth's life?

answer: He returned to Sedgley after studying for the priesthood where he was ordained in 1820. After serving the Stourbridge mission, he was sent to Cossey Hall, Norfolk, as chaplain to Sir George Stafford Jerningham who became Baron Stafford in 1825. Seven years after his appointment to Cossey he became grand vicar under Bishop Walsh. Shortly after the restoration of the English hierarchy by Pope Pius IX, Husenbeth was nominated provost of the Chapter, of Northampton, and Vicar-General for the diocese. In the spring of 1872, he resigned his mission and died at St. Walstan's Presbytery.

question: What does the text say about Husenbeth's family?

answer: Husenbeth was the son of a Bristol wine merchant and the lady of the Cornish family. Their family was converted to Catholicism.

question: What does the text say about Husenbeth's works?

answer: Between the years 1823 and 1849 he made 49 works written or edited in London, Dublin, and Norwich. Many of these were controversial publications. His most important work is the "Life of Bishop Milner" in 1862. He was a voluminous letter-writer and maintained correspondence with various literary celebrities. Most of these letters were passed into the possession of the Bishop of Northampton.


text:
[Buntingford station forecourt in April 2009]

The BUNTINGFORD BRANCH LINE in Hertfordshire, England connected Buntingford to the railway network at St Margarets. It was promoted locally and opened in 1863 after overspending its available capital. The line was completed with the assistance of the neighbouring Great Eastern Railway. Residential travel and goods services became significant at the end of the 19th century. The area served by the line was predominantly agricultural, and after 1948 usage did not keep pace with rising costs. When the Hertford East branch was electrified, Buntingford branch trains were reduced in frequency and quality. The line was recommended for closure in the Beeching Report, and the passenger service was withdrawn in 1964; goods services closed in 1965.

The line was informally known as _The Bunt_ by the workers on the line.[1]

Proposals

[The Buntingford branch line] Buntingford is located on Ermine Street, the road from London to Cambridge and the north, and had a prime position as a trading town before the advent of railways.[2] The town was by-passed by the main line of the Eastern Counties Railway from London to Cambridge via Bishop's Stortford, which opened in stages between 1840 and 1845. The Ware and Hertford branch from Broxbourne was opened by the Northern and Eastern Railway in 1843.[3][4]

In 1845 during Railway Mania, a grandiose scheme to build a _Great Western, Southern and Eastern Counties Railway_ was proposed to run from Southampton to Ipswich via Bishops Stortford and Hadham. Its cost was clearly unrealistic and it did not proceed. In 1847 George Hudson promoted a Parliamentary Bill for an alternative route to Cambridge, leaving the Hertford branch at Ware and running via Buntingford and Royston to Shelford which failed to gain approval.[5]

Authorisation

On 1 August 1856, a meeting of 150 landowners was held at the George and Dragon Hotel in Buntingford, to discuss promoting a branch line to Buntingford. A local promoter, George Mickley, estimated £70,000 to construct ten miles of single track railway and £30,000 for land and stations, making a total of £100,000. Annual receipts were forecast to be £10,083, and a 5% profit was expected. A second meeting was held on 28 August, and it was reported that there was no opposition locally when people were circulated by letter. It was decided to proceed. A Parliamentary Bill was submitted in November 1857. The Bill passed through Parliament and the Royal Assent was granted for the _Ware, Hadham and Buntingford Railway_ on 12 July 1858 with authorised share capital of £50,000.[6][7][8]

A tender of £44,000 to build the line was accepted from W S Simpson of Ely; the engineer was Henry Palfrey Stephenson and the first sod was cut at a ceremony on 20 July 1859.[9][10]

While land was being acquired, opposition was encountered from a landowner near Ware, and the decision was taken to alter the route to join the Hertford branch at St Margaret's instead of Ware. Many other difficulties were encountered in acquiring land. A deviation Bill was submitted in 1860 to improve the gradients and shorten the line which gained the Royal Assent on 22 July 1861. The line needed an unusual number of bridges increasing the cost per mile of construction.[11][12][13]

There was a shortfall in subscribed capital and the borrowing powers in the company's Act of Incorporation were conditional on a proportion of the capital having been raised. The directors considered mortgaging the line, but it proved impossible to find a financial house willing to take debenture shares and the company lacked funds.

The line, when completed, was a branch from the Eastern Counties Railway. The Great Northern Railway had a branch line to Hertford from Welwyn and it was possible that the Buntingford line might be sold to the GNR. The ECR agreed to provide financial assistance to the extent of £22,000. Two ECR board members joined the WH&BR board, and the ECR agreed to work the line for 50% of receipts. In 1862 the ECR and other railway companies in East Anglia amalgamated to form the Great Eastern Railway.[14]

By 1863 the line was ready, and a special train was arranged for shareholders to attend the Shareholders' Meeting in Buntingford. On 10 February 1863 a special train ran from London to Buntingford, taking 45 minutes for the journey.[15][16]

An inspection by the Board of Trade was necessary before passenger operation could start, and Captain J H Rich visited the line on 18 April 1863. He was critical, the permanent way was below the required standard and the underbridges were badly constructed, one at Bog Ford Bridge, was reported to have sunk three inches under the inspection train, there were no facing point indicators, no turntable at St Margaret's, and several stations had no distant signals. There was inadequate fencing, and overbridges were not properly fenced on the road approach wing walls.

This was a serious blow to the company, which had assumed that early opening was within its grasp. Bog Ford Bridge was reconstructed, a 91-feet depth of piling was required to get a proper foundation. The work committed the company to considerable unforeseen expenditure and a further Act of 22 June 1863 obtained authorisation to take an additional £40,000 share capital.[17]

Opening

[St Margaret's station, with Buntingford branch train] Rectification was put in hand, and on 30 June 1863 Col Yolland inspected the line. He was not entirely satisfied, but he reluctantly gave approval. The first trains ran on 3 July 1863. There were four trains each way daily and two in Sundays. The journey time of 50 minutes was reduced to 40 minutes from 1 August 1863.[18] There were minimal goods facilities at the beginning. Income for the first quarter year (to 30 September 1863) was £1,221, of which £359 was from goods traffic.[19][20][21]

Goods trains caused congestion on the single line, and the board decided that a passing loop at Hadham was required; expenditure of £220 was authorised 24 May 1865; the work was to be done by the GER at the Buntingford company's expense. Braughing followed as a crossing point in 1892.[22]

[Buntingford station] The line was expensive to build and only completed with finance from the Eastern Counties Railway and its successor company (from 1862), the Great Eastern Railway. The capital subscribed including GER subscription was £106,871 and there were outstanding liabilities of £50,000 and a debenture debt of £29,403. This state of affairs could hardly continue long, and the company wrote to the GER on 21 June 1865, asking them to take over the line. The board admitted that they were “not yet in a state to pay a dividend”.[23]

Walter Bentinck had debenture bonds due on 10 February 1866. The company was unable to pay, and Bentinck took them to the Court of Chancery where he obtained judgment in his favour for £3,039, “payable in land if not in cash”. The company had no cash and no spare land, so the matter escalated, and in the end the GER paid Bentinck in order to settle the matter in November 1866. On 7 March 1867, the GER, realising that the initiative rested with it, wrote to the company suggesting absorption. Its motivation was that the Great Northern Railway might get control of the Buntingford company and use it to gain entry into GER territory.[24]

Shareholders of the Buntingford Company met on 26 March 1867 and voted in favour of selling to the GER; the deed of transfer was ratified on 30 July 1868, effective on 1 September 1868.[25][26]

Due to poor usage, Widford station was closed after 31 Dec 1868 but a petition was raised locally and it reopened on 1 April 1869.

Change in the late-19th century

Safety improvements were demanded by the Board of Trade, and the block telegraph system was installed between St Margaret's and Mardock, operational from June 1888. it was extended to the end of the line between 1892 and 1893 at a cost of £15,277.[27]

From this period the revenue increased as commuting became an important business; in addition goods usage on the line was brisk.[28] By 1900, seven trains operated each way daily, with two on Sundays; the journey time was 35 minutes, and there were three goods trains each way daily. From July 1915 the passenger service reached its peak, with eleven trains in each direction.[29]

A local bus operator started passenger services from 1920, but the London residential traffic was gaining strength; from 1922 there was a homeward through train from London, although the counterpart London-direction through train did not start until 1939.[30]

From 1923

[Braughing railway station] In 1953 a film, including location shots was made at Braughing. The film was set in an Irish village called Rathbarney, and Braughing station was made to resemble the fictitious station. The film had the working title _O'Leary Night_, but was released in 1954 as _Happy Ever After_; it also had the title _Tonight's The night_.[31][32]

Sunday services were withdrawn from the passenger timetable after 18 September 1955.[33][34]

[Buntingford former railway station] From 15 June 1959, diesel multiple units were introduced on the passenger services; for some time they were unreliable. Through trains to London from the branch were withdrawn at this time.[35][36] In 1960 the Hertford East branch was electrified effective from 21 November 1960 and the Buntingford branch timetable was altered to suit connections with the electric trains in the morning and evening peaks, except on Saturdays.[37][38]

In 1961 another film was shot on the branch: West Mill station was used to film _Postman's Knock_. Spike Milligan played a naive country postman who unwittingly foils an attempted train robbery.[39][40]

Closure

By the 1960s, the area served by the branch had not developed as a residential area for commuters, and when the Beeching Report was published, the branch was recommended for closure. The passenger service was withdrawn from 14 November 1964, and the final goods train ran on 17 September 1965.[41][42]

Topography

-   St Margaret's; opened 31 October 1843; relocated west of level crossing 3 July 1863; still open;
-   Mardock; opened 3 July 1863; closed 16 November 1964; alternatively known as Mardocks in early years;
-   Widford; opened 3 July 1863; closed 16 November 1964;
-   Hadham; opened 3 July 1863; closed 16 November 1964;
-   Standon; opened 3 July 1863; closed 16 November 1964;
-   Braughing; opened 3 July 1863; closed 16 November 1964;
-   West Mill; opened 3 July 1863; closed 16 November 1964;
-   Buntingford; opened 3 July 1863; closed 16 November 1964.[43][44]

There were passing loops at Braughing and Hadham.

The route was in length.

The line was steeply graded, rising at gradients of up to 1 in 63 as far as the summit of the line about three-quarters of a mile beyond Hadham. After that the line falls at 1 in 56, with more moderate gradients from there to the terminus.

[1] Buntingford Railway and Local History Society, at 1

[2] B D J Walsh, _The Ware, Hadfield and Buntingford Railway_, in the Railway Magazine, July 1963

[3] Peter Paye, _The Buntingford Branch_, John Masters (publisher), Bishops Stortford, 1980 and 1996,

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8] E F Carter, _An Historical Geography of the Railways of the British Isles_, Cassell, London, 1959

[9]

[10]

[11] Julian Holland, _Dr Beeching's Axe 50 years On: Illustrated Memories of Britain's Lost Railways_, David & Charles, 2013,

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

[20]

[21] D I Gordon, _A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: volume 5: the Eastern Counties_, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1977,

[22]

[23]

[24]

[25]

[26]

[27]

[28]

[29]

[30]

[31] Filming locations in _Tonight's the Night_ at the Internet Movie Database, 2

[32]

[33]

[34]

[35]

[36]

[37]

[38]

[39] Summary of _Postman's Knock_ at the Internet Movie Database, at 3

[40]

[41]

[42]

[43]

[44] M E Quick, _Railway Passenger Stations in England Scotland and Wales—A Chronology_, The Railway and Canal Historical Society, 2002

title: Buntingford branch line

question: What is the Buntingford branch line?

answer: A train line.

question: Where is it located?

answer: England.

question: What was its function?

answer: It connected Buntingford to the railway network at St Margarets.

question: Why was the line ultimately closed?

answer: A decline in ridership was incommensurate with the cost of maintaining the line.

question: Write a ~4 sentence summary.

answer: The Buntingford branch line was built in 1863 in Hertfordshire, England to connect its namesake town to the railway network at St Margarets. It opened in 1863. The area served by the line was mostly agricultural, and ultimately, a decline in ridership was incommensurate with the cost of maintaining the line. The line shuttered in 1965.


text:
Rohith Vemula, the Dalit scholar from Hyderabad Central University who took his own life on January 17, wanted to write about the stars. His mind was a "glorious thing made of stardust", whose proof he left in his last letter to the world. In life, his education – a chunk of it financed by his mother’s earnings as a tailor – was an act of rebellion. In death, he blazed a trail on Dalit rights, whose brightness refuses to be ignored. By the media, by the bureaucracy, by the Internet and by me.

I was born in a Dalit family in Ajmer, Rajasthan. And I grew up learning to hide it. My convent school education, a non-Dalit sounding last name, and a skin color that was "dusky but still not dirty" eased my passing as a non-Dalit. “Beta, what caste are you from?” “Aunty, Brahmin.” A lie I spoke so often and with such conviction, that I not only fooled my friends’ mothers but even myself. But I couldn’t fool the shame that spread my face each time someone mentioned "caste", "reservation", "bhangi" – the common slur, which loosely translates to a human scavenger and the name of my exact caste.

"This time, they’ll find out," I had thought when the undergraduate college I attended tucked my name under the SC/ST quota or when I submitted my birth certificate for my first job at an ad agency. Some did find out, some didn’t. Most didn’t care. The ones who did (a friend, who along with her parents witnessed my first public admission of being ‘"ow-caste" at 15) stopped being in touch. But I always cared. I cared enough to lie about my caste and to create elaborate backstories to protect that lie. I conveniently forgot the last name my grandfather dropped to allow him to pass, almost 60 years ago – Nidaniya.

Until today when I visited Rohith Vemula’s posthumous Facebook page. And realised that he had sent me a Facebook request ten days ago, which I had promptly ignored. Maybe he saw some Dalit right groups I had liked and wanted to reach out.

And reach out he did. He made me "come out" to the people I grew up hiding from, wanting to fit in with. He made me recognise that my history is one of oppression and not shame. He made me acknowledge that my great grandfather learned to write by scrawling a stick in the mud because the higher caste schoolteacher forbade him from holding a slate. And he made me proud.

I know I am not alone to feel this. There are many of us whose experiences of growing up Dalit and navigating a society that forces us to feel shame, need to be told and heard. That’s why I am starting Documents of Dalit Discrimination. A safe space for conversation about caste that needs to go beyond ‘reservation’ and ‘merit’ and voices that echo the hurt so many of us suffer silently. Let us hear stories of pride, of history and ownership against the emotional, personal, physical and mental toll of the caste system. Let it be known that Rohith’s birth was no ‘fatal accident’.

_This article was first published on dalitdiscrimination.tumblr.com_

question: Who is Rohith Vermula?

answer: A Dalit scholar from Hyderabad Central University, who died by suicide.

question: Who is the narrator?

answer: Information can't be found.

question: What is an "ow-caste"?

answer: A social class that seems to be shameful.

question: What is a caste?

answer: Information can't be found.

question: What was on Rohith Vermula's Facebook page that triggered the author?

answer: Information can't be found.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: The author talks about Rahith Vermula, a Dalit scholar who took his life because of the pressures of his social class. In honor of his memory, the author has started a group dedicated to the "Documents of Dalit Discrimination" where those from the ow-caste social class can share their stories  of oppression.


text:
_Postscript_ _is Cameron Kunzelman's weekly column about endings, apocalypses, deaths, bosses, and all sorts of other finalities._

You can feel it when you're about to lose a game of _Kingdom: New Lands_. The onslaught of the seasons pushes your farms into bare subsistence, the hordes of monsters that spawn from the portals start knocking down your walls, and your citizens lose their livelihoods. Some of the farmers start throwing their tools into the river. The fail state is rarely sudden. Instead, you plod toward it, marching toward the moment when a creature takes your last coin and swipes the golden crown off your head. A dynasty, broken, after twenty or thirty minutes of slow decay. It's glorious.

I was slow on the uptake for _Kingdom_. If you haven't played it, the game is simple. You're a crowned ruler on a horse, and you want to build a settlement. Unlike _Crusader Kings_ or _Civilization_, it's not a god's eye view of looking down at a map. Instead, it's a side-scroller where the action rises and falls over seasons instead of seconds. The result is a much tighter, focused affair like a role-playing game or a roguelike. Even _more_ unique is that the game takes place entirely on an X-axis, meaning that the player—a queen riding her horse—can only travel left and right along the banks of a forested river.

Building your kingdom is _traveling_ here. There is only one button to interact with the game world, and you simply hold it down to spend the money in your bag of gold. This is how you fund your walls, your mead hall, or lure peasants to live in tents near your exercise in statecraft. At night, the monsters come, and you hope that the peasants that you armed with bows and arrows can fully embrace the transition from free agent to disciplined soldier.

Header and all Kingdom: New Lands screens courtesy of Raw Fury

The simplicity of building structures and recruiting citizens makes _Kingdom_ feel really hopeful. After all, you begin the game with a scant few coins, two citizens, and a campfire. In just a few in-game days, you can have a dozen walls fortified by a dozen archers who are being watched over by defensive towers. You can have farmers farming, hunters hunting, and your builder units beefing up your already sizable holdings.

Then it all goes to hell. The seasons change, a blood moon rises, and a single wall falls. Everything spins into disarray, but it doesn't collapse all at once. You just start making less money each day, and you can't quite recruit enough new archers to replace the ones you lost, and you don't have enough builders to recreate your walls before the night and its dangers comes for your people.

In those big top-down simulation games like the Civilization series, it's common to see the end approaching in a slow way. You start a bad war, and it goes in the wrong direction for too long; you push your luck with science, but you know that you're way behind in the space race. Those games are about modeling big, bulky systems with lots of different actors affecting each other, and the "long game" of failure is a part of that.

In roguelike games like _Dungeons of Dredmor_, the end is much more sudden. You can be smashing your way through layer after layer of a dungeon only to kick open a door and be met by thirty new and different monsters who can all obliterate you in a timely fashion. Unlike the big picture strategy game, you've spent all this time with a character, and in the blink of an eye they're eliminated by some kind of skeleton king with a bad attitude.

The great thing about the coming of the end in a game of _Kingdom_ is that the game melds those two types of gameplay, and in doing so it morphs together those forms of ending. On one hand, you can watch the creep of death and it rounds third base and knocks you over as it comes screeching in for the home run. On the other, you want to see it out until that end point because you did all of that work, all of that horse riding from one end of a river to the other, just to make sure that your damn town could have the biggest population that it could. You had to _keep_ going back to that one wall to make sure it was repaired each morning because it was always the last rampart between your farmers and the portal beings that wanted to kill them.

It's easy for me to turn a strategy game off when I know that I'm in a spiral that's leading me to a death that I do not want. _Oh well_, I think, and then I'm off on the next iteration of global rule. I might stick around a little longer in a roguelike; there is, after all, always the chance that I could pull it off. But with _Kingdom_, I stick around through the death spiral. I tough it out until the bad end.

I think I feel guilt if I don't. It isn't just that I've sunk so much time and effort into my little duchy. Instead, it's that I believe that there's the smallest sliver of hope that I could make it. In a roguelike, I can at least have some faith in a good dice roll that can bring me out of the worst conditions, but there's nothing like that in _Kingdom_. Ice chunks begin to form in the river, and snowflakes begin to fall. Eventually there is a thin layer of snow over everything. Things tend downward.

It's a beautiful signal from the game. It's telling me that there's no hope for me, and the difference between what I want and what the game is going to give me is heartwrenching. There _isn't_ a single bit of hope, and yet I can still cling to the people I've recruited in this kingdom I have made. I can ride my horse back and forth from frontier to frontier. I can monitor the portal that releases the monsters. I can watch them build, night after night, but if I've made it this far without winning then there isn't any real chance that I can. The game lets me wander around wanting something other than what I have been given, but it's all out of reach.

I watch the winter take my kingdom and my crown, and I think that it'll be better the next time.

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question: Who is the narrator?

answer: Cameron Kunzelman, weekly Vice writer for games.

question: What type of game is Kingdom?

answer: A strategic role-playing game, or roguelike.

question: What two types of gameplay does Kingdom meld in it's end game?

answer: Big top-down simulation games like the Civilization series and roguelike games like Dungeons of Dredmor.

question: What about Kingdom hooks the writer into playing more?

answer: The great slow ending that makes you want to see it out until the end, the small sliver of hope.

question: Write a ~5 sentence summary.

answer: Vice games writer Cameron Kunzelman enjoyed Kingdom: New Lands. The onslaught of seasons, horde monsters, and the slow ending all draw him in. Everything doesn't collapse at once, instead, it's a steady march to failure. The end game of Kingdom is similar to big top-down simulation games like Civilization, and roguelike games like Dungeons of Dredmor. It's the single most interesting thing about the game that keeps him hooked until the very end.