text:
In 2005, Lev Grossman of _Time Magazine_ declared that George R. R. Martin was “the American Tolkien.” Since then, you’ll be able to find the phrase splashed on just about every one of Martin’s wonderful novels.

And for good reason, of course. That’s a really awesome blurb. I’d love it on my own novels. Or how about just “the American Pullman”? I would be totally cool with that, Mr. Grossman!

Unfortunately, I think that my series _The Shards of Heaven_—while it follows Philip Pullman’s superb _His Dark Materials_ in ultimately positing a new origin story for the gods—would not be the right fit for the comparison. Pullman’s series is a parallel world fantasy fundamentally in dialogue with John Milton, William Blake, and C. S. Lewis; my series is a historical fantasy set during the time of Antony and Cleopatra that dialogues with history, legend, and myth. He and I are really doing different things. And the same kind of differentiation is true, I think, of Martin and Tolkien. Martin’s _A Song of Ice and Fire_ might exist in the shadow of _The Lord of the Rings_—I’ve written elsewhere about its quasi-“medieval” setting—but they are tremendously different works in tone, scale, and intent. As terrific as his work is (and, seriously, you can put down the pitchforks if you’re a fan of Westeros), George R. R. Martin isn’t the American Tolkien.

Robert Jordan is.

In the most simple terms, that’s what I want to argue in this essay: James Oliver Rigney, Jr., writing as Robert Jordan, created a work of literature—and I certainly don’t use that term lightly—that is best understood through the lens of Tolkien’s own creative project. The Wheel of Time is the most prominent and successful American response to Tolkien’s masterwork.

So let’s begin with the deceptively simple matter of what it was that Tolkien was up to in his creation of Middle-earth. And for that we need to understand, at a root level, what Tolkien did for a living.

[J. R. R. Tolkien]

J. R. R. Tolkien

Tolkien was a philologist by both trade and mindset. Like me, he was a professional academic who taught medieval literature at a university and wrote in his spare time between grading student papers. And I mean this latter point quite literally: Tolkien’s first published book of Middle-earth, _The Hobbit_, was supposedly begun when he was grading exams in his office one hot summer day, exhausted and no doubt exasperated. He turned the page of one of the exams to find that the student had left the next page, as he put it, “blessedly blank.” On that blank page, Tolkien wrote, for reasons he could never explain, the following:

  In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.

Tolkien later claimed that he stopped grading at that point, and he then spent quite a long time staring at the words he’d mindlessly written. And because he was a philologist, he stared in particular at that last word — _hobbit_ — trying to figure out what it meant. He couldn’t recall having ever seen it before. (Or so he claimed; the origin of the word has been recently cast into doubt.) That search for meaning ultimately dovetailed with a history of elves and men that he’d been pondering in the trenches of the First World War, and from their creative combination Middle-earth was born. To understand Tolkien at all—and, as I’m going to argue, the same ought to be said of Jordan—you must understand that he was a philologist at heart, the kind of fellow who would, in the end, construct a world out of a word.

Philology literally means “love of learning,” which is something I’d like to think has been around as long as _homo sapiens_ have had the ability to think. Yet when I say that Tolkien was a philologist I have something more specific in mind, something that could be said to begin in 1786 in Calcutta, then the capital of British India. Sir William Jones had founded the Asiatic Society two years earlier to promote the academic study of India and the East, and on this occasion he gave a lecture—without PowerPoint or Prezi, poor chap—to the Society about some correspondences he’d been noticing between the languages of Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, and Persian.

[Sir William Jones]

Sir William Jones

The languages were similar enough at times that he suggested that they must be “sprung from some common source which, perhaps, no longer exists.”

Numerous scholars poured their minds into the exploration of such linguistic connections, and by the middle of the nineteenth century they had determined many of the laws that govern language change—the reasons, for example, that we don’t pronounce English the same way we did in the year 1000.

As scholars figured out the laws that took us from _Beowulf_ to Chaucer to what we speak today, they were able to run those laws “backwards” from the oldest records—stuff like _Beowulf_—working further and further back in time until what once had been different languages started to coalesce into one.

This idea went over like hotcakes at a maple syrup convention. Everyone wanted a piece. The correspondences Jones had seen in 1786 were, it turned out, right on target: behind Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, and Persian—among other languages—is a single language that no longer survives but almost undoubtedly existed. We call it Proto-Indo-European, and we mark its words with asterisks, because they no longer exist in their original form; they’re only known by the altered remnants they left behind. Here, for example, we can see the similarities between the word for man in several different languages, along with the theoretically constructed Proto-Indo-European originator behind them all (which is marked with an asterisk as it does not survive in any material form):

  Old English: _guma_
  Latin: _humus_
  Greek: _khamai_
  PIE: *_dhghem_

What’s interesting about Tolkien’s personal brand of philology, though, is that for him the history of words was a means to profound cultural insight.

As one example, Modern Hindustani _dudh_, which has the same root as we have in our Modern English word _daughter_, doesn’t mean “daughter,” but “milk.” So _duhitar_, the Hindustani cognate to English daughter, means not “daughter” but “little milker.” From this linguistic connection, we might presume that daughters, in that distant Indo-European culture that gave rise to both Hindustani and English, must have regularly done the milking of the livestock. They were the little milkers. For philologists, the modern remnants of dead languages, like overgrown ruins in an ancient landscape, provide a window into the past that would otherwise be closed to us forever. The words quite literally tell stories.

I’ve gone on about this at some length because, well, I think it’s really cool. But also because it’s exactly what Tolkien was doing in his fiction. Tolkien was always careful to term his mythology as one that is ultimately meant to be associated with our world, fantastic though it might seem at times: “This is a story of long ago,” he writes in the Foreword to _The Hobbit_; not, we should note, “a story of long ago in a galaxy far, far away” or the like. Thus Middle-earth’s legends are connected to our legends, its languages to our languages, and its people to our people—if all at a distance deep in the fictional mists before recorded history. Middle-earth, in other words, is the result of the application of philological principles (finding words behind words, stories behind stories) to mythology. Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey has elsewhere termed the resulting mythology-behind-mythologies an “asterisk-reality,” thus underscoring its philological basis since, as I noted earlier, non-extant words whose existences are rooted out by linguistic laws are typically preceded by asterisks to mark their “invention” as missing links in the evolutionary chain of language.

This is not to say that Tolkien thought that the Battle for Helm’s Deep truly occurred somewhere in, say, Eastern Europe, but that something like Helm’s Deep could have occurred there, and perhaps that something like it ought to have occurred there.

I’ve been talking a lot about Tolkien here, but in point of fact this philological creative process is precisely the mantle that I believe Jordan inherited from Tolkien, albeit on a different scale and by a different procedure. Whereas Tolkien built from the nitty gritty of words and languages both real and invented, Jordan, I think, built from the larger scope of our cultural inheritance. Where Tolkien is often said to have aimed to create a “mythology for England,” I think Jordan aimed for something even more daring and profound: a “mythology for mankind.”

But before we get too far into the literary details of this process, I need you to bear with me a bit longer to understand the deeply personal aspect of Tolkien’s fiction, because here, too, I think we will see commonalities with Jordan.

Tolkien’s _Lord of the Rings_, though published widely only in the 1950s, was a work rooted in his experiences of the First World War. Tolkien was 23 when he left Oxford and his new wife, Edith, on the 22nd of March 1916 to go to France to serve as a signal officer with the Lancashire Fusiliers. His destination: The Battle of the Somme. He lost all but one of his friends at the “meatgrinder,” as he termed it, and he might himself have died in those killing fields, those barren and poisoned no-man lands, if he’d not developed trench fever and been shipped back to England to recuperate.

[A Trench at the Battle of the Somme]

A Trench at the Battle of the Somme

Though he’d toyed with invented languages and stories before the war, it was only in the wake of that horror that he began to construct the mythology of Middle-earth, and indeed we can see the marks of the Somme and its aftermath across his work. As but one more example, I’ve written elsewhere about how Frodo, I believe, is quite literally suffering from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, more commonly termed “shellshock,” a condition first diagnosed among the hollowed faces of men at the Battle of the Somme. Indeed, I suspect writing Frodo was a way for Tolkien to cope with his own psychological difficulties as a result of what he had seen and done in the war. Even so, Frodo is not simply a personal foil for his creator; he also has mythological ties to Enoch and Elijah, Norse religion, and the Christian Everyman.

The major result of these many creative strands, _The Lord of the Rings_, was, as we all know, a really big hit, so it’s no surprise that a great many writers had to react to his work in one way or another, like Roger Zelazny’s _Nine Princes in Amber_, which debuted in the early 1970s.

1977 saw the start of two significant fantasy series that responded even more strongly to Tolkien: Terry Brooks’ _The Sword of Shannara_, which sought to emulate _The Lord of the Rings_ almost point-by-point, and Stephen R. Donaldson’s _Lord Foul’s Bane_, which seemed at times determined to undercut it. But while I myself have enjoyed these books in their time, their foundations do not run as deep as Tolkien’s work.

[The Eye of the World Robert Jordan Wheel of Time]No, it isn’t until we get to the release, in 1990, of _The Eye of the World_, that I feel we can really begin to see someone taking up Tolkien’s flag with authority. _The Wheel of Time_ series, which James Rigney, writing as Robert Jordan, began in this book, is a true successor, a true heir, to the kind of mythically philological trail of creation that Tolkien had blazed some fifty years earlier. Like Tolkien’s Middle-earth, the world of the Wheel is a myth behind myths. The wondrous Age of Legends, the “far past” of Jordan’s plot-lines in _The Wheel of Time_, is our mythically Atlantean past just as surely as is Tolkien’s story of the fall of Númenor from the _Silmarillion_. Again and again in Jordan’s work we see this same kind of mythological revision that is the hallmark of Tolkien’s work. Just to give you a feel for it:

Jordan’s Artur Pendraeg is like our King Arthur Pendragon; the sa’angreal have clear roots in the stories of the Holy Grail; Shai’tan bears not just an orthological resemblance to Satan; Sammael is no doubt based on the Talmudic angel of death; the final battle of Tarmon Gai’don owes not just a little to biblical Armageddon; Lews Therin is similar in several respects to the Vulgate’s “Light-bearer,” Lucifer; and the Battle of Malden clearly owes most of its letters to the historical Battle of Maldon. The list could go on and on.

And not just in this mythological foundation is Jordan akin to Tolkien. From 1968 to 1970 James Rigney served his country for two tours in Vietnam, in the midst of heavy conflict as an Army helicopter gunner. Decorated heavily for his bravery—he earned a Distinguished Flying Cross with bronze oak leaf cluster, the Bronze Star with “V” and bronze oak leaf cluster, and two Vietnamese Gallantry Crosses with palm—Rigney was a man who, like Tolkien, had experienced the horror of modern warfare first-hand and was undoubtedly shaped by it. In the fullness of time, when a complete biography of Rigney’s is finally available, I feel certain that critics will see Vietnam in his work just as surely as we find the First World War in Tolkien’s.

[The gunner's view of Vietnam.]

The gunner’s view of Vietnam.

For all these similarities, however, Jordan is not simply a Tolkien imitator. I have called him “An American Tolkien,” and that adjective signifies more than just nationality in this case. It points to a significant difference in his creative approach. America is, famously, a melting pot of culture, and I think Jordan subsumed—consciously or not—this same quality in the _Wheel of Time_. Tolkien wanted to construct a myth for England and so confined himself often to a Western cultural heritage, but Jordan, if I’m right, aimed at much bigger things. Everything was fair game for his creation, from Eastern myths to Native American cosmology. There are connections seemingly everywhere.

I say “everything was fair game,” and I want to be clear on this point. Jordan’s grand project involved not just story and myth, but even material culture.

As my students will attest, I rather enjoy a little show-and-tell. I own a handful of medieval weapon replicas, and I take much pleasure in bringing them in to class now and then to help them visualize the history and literature we happen to be studying.

Alas, the internet doesn’t yet support touch and feel displays—much less Smell-O-Vision—so we’re going to have to rely on pictures.

[Robert Jordan's katana.]

Robert Jordan’s katana.

Pictured here is a katana, and an extraordinarily beautiful one at that. The primary weapon for the medieval samurai, the katana is a rightfully famed symbol of both Asian craftsmanship and the codes of honor by which the samurai lived. This particular example of a katana, however, is quite special to me because it comes from Jim Rigney’s personal armory. He was an avid collector of material culture, and weaponry appears to have been high and often on his wishlists. I cannot say that I drooled the first time I saw his collection—I try to be too cool under fire for that—but I was truly astonished at what he literally had at hand while he was writing his books. And it shows.

[Jordan's Heron-marked Sword]

Look, for instance, at the “heron-marked” blade from Jordan’s books. A weapon associated with a true artist’s mastery of the bladed fight, the heron-marked sword bears not just a little resemblance to a katana. Easy to note is the slightly backswept, single-edged blade, which adds velocity to what is primarily a slashing weapon.

Both weapons are light enough to be handled with one hand, but they have hilts long enough for two, much like a medieval European bastard sword, an example of which I also happen to have here.

[]

A hand-and-a-half sword.

This is a hand-and-a-half sword that’s a replica of the fourteenth-century blade of England’s Black Prince. You can see how differently this weapon is designed from its contemporary Japanese counterpart. Where the katana whispers grace and flow, the bastard sword cries havoc and crushing blows.

Look back again, then, at Jordan’s creation: the heron-mark blade. An Eastern edge, but a Western sword’s weight. An Eastern point, but a Western guard. And a hilt that seems to be both at once.

In other words, Jordan has applied philological principles to material culture, something Tolkien never dared in quite the same way. He’s created a sword that unites the finest of both East and West. Physical artifacts like his katana were a driving force to his vision no less than the myths that they represent and recreate. Even setting this aside, though, we can be certain that objects like this spurred Jordan’s creative energy. There’s no doubt that he physically held such weapons in his hands now and again in order to make his vivid writing more real—I can attest that I certainly do the same when I’m writing my own stories—but we also cannot set aside the fact that he always held them in his mind, too, using such material evidence to widen the scope of the _Wheel of Time_ as far and as deep into human culture as he could manage.

But even this isn’t the full story of Jordan’s methods. You might well note that in speaking of his use of myths behind myths I gave myself a lot of wiggle room. Because these aren’t exact equivalences. The Battle of Malden, for instance, is spelled rather like Maldon, but its ground and tactics are far closer to the Battle of Crécy in 1346. And to say that Lews Therin “equals” Lucifer in all his manifestations is to tread on very shaky ground.

Tolkien once railed against the idea that _The Lord of the Rings_ was an allegory, because, in his opinion, proper allegory implies that a reader can swap elements from one story out for another in a one-to-one relationship. As he wrote: “I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence.” It was his distrust of allegory that stands most pointedly between his work and that of his friend C.S. Lewis, who embraced allegory wholeheartedly.

Though I can’t say I know for certain, I think Jordan’s opinion on allegories was far closer that of Tolkien than that of Lewis. In _The Wheel of Time_, pure allegorical equivalence is a rare thing, indeed. His character Mat, for instance, appears to be an amalgamation of the Norse gods Odin, Loki, and Heimdall, along with Native American Coyote, Egyptian Anubis, and Celtic Math (who I suspect to be the origin of his name), as well as some real world folks, such as the Swampfox, Francis Marion. There are pieces of these men and gods scattered here and there throughout Mat, but we cannot necessarily jump to conclusions because of them.

Yes, Mat was hung upon a tree to gain knowledge, just as Odin was. Yes, he carries a spear and wears a wide-brimmed hat, just as Odin does. Yes, both men are associated with ash, and with “Thought,” and “Memory”—the names of Odin’s ravens. And Matrim certainly has a god’s own remarkable luck. Yes, he loses one of his eyes just as Odin does. But while these mythological connections can be fascinating, they are not fully predictive. And they shouldn’t be. Odin dies at Ragnarok, for example, killed by the great wolf-beast Fenrir. Yet (SPOILER ALERT!) Mat was hardly pitching up the daisies after Tarmon Gai’don. In fact, he survives in part due to the sounding of the Horn of Valere by a man named Olver, who in so doing becomes a kind of manifestation of Olivier from _The Song of Roland_—a “perfected” Olivier, who doesn’t let Roland’s last stand kill them all.

And what are we to do with Perrin, that amalgamation of the Slavic deity Perun and Norse Thor? Thor, according to the Eddic materials, dies in fight against the world serpent, Jormangundr, at Ragnarok: after striking his last blow, Thor famously staggers nine steps away from the serpent’s poisonous fangs before falling to his knees. For good reason, then, many of us were wondering if Perrin would make a fatal strike against the Aes Sedai or the White Tower itself. After all, within the world of the Wheel, the Norse world serpent eating its own tail—known from other mythologies as Ouroboros—is the symbol of the Aes Sedai. But we know that Perrin didn’t make such a strike, at least not directly. Again, these connections are fast and permanent. _The Wheel of Time_ is widely and often specifically applicable, but it is not purely allegorical.

And as one more example, the Forsaken named Semirhage is at once the historical man Josef Mengele, the Hindu goddess Kali, the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet, and Enoch’s Shemhaza, among others. Peculiarly, in taking Rand’s hand she also took on the role of the Fenris wolf from Norse mythology—the same wolf that kills Odin at Ragnarok and thus ought to be around to kill Mat in the Last Battle. This was difficult for her to do, of course, given the fact that she’d been subjected to balefire.

Regardless, the point here is to say that Jordan appears to have viewed the whole history of humanity as grist for his creative mill, blending influences from Rome, Greece, India, Egypt, China, America, long ago, and yesterday wherever they fit.

While these might appear at first glance to be random or even sloppy associations, the interference of legend and history, history and legend, seems to be a grounding principle of Jordan’s vision. Time is cyclical—a wheel—and, in its repetitious spin, history repeats itself again and again.

In this understanding of the nature of time, too, we see separation between this American Tolkien and his British forebear. Tolkien, a devout Catholic, followed the example of St. Augustine in viewing the world as subject to a dynamic, uni-directional scheme of time. In chronological philosophy, this is called the “A-theory” of time, where time passes like an arrow, advancing undeviatingly from some beginning to some ending point. In A-theory, only the present time is truly real, as the past is finished and the future is indeterminate and unfixed—except, perhaps, from the point of view of God.

A-theory is the most familiar philosophy of time in human experience, reflected even at such a base level as our language, with its system of tenses past, present, and future. Yet I don’t think that this is the philosophy that governs Jordan’s world. Quite to the contrary, Rigney, a self-described “high-church Episcopalian,” is right in line with current theories of quantum Physics.

We call this the “B-theory” of time, where past, present, and future are all equally real. According to B-theorists, the future is just as fixed and determined as the past, we just know less about it. Brilliantly, Rigney has welded this concept with the Buddhist Wheel of Time, the Kalachakra.

As an aside, Augustine’s concerns about time—those reflected by Tolkien but I think rejected in Jordan’s work—are the subject of a 1955 essay, “Time and Contingency in St. Augustine,” which was published in the _Review of Metaphysics_ by one Robert Jordan, then a professor at the University of the South. A peculiar coincidence—if coincidence it is—that there should be a connection between this otherwise obscure academic and this particular pen-name of Rigney’s, which he himself said was not from Hemingway’s _For Whom the Bell Tolls_.

At any rate, B-theory generally regards the distinction between past, present, and future to be a matter of semantics, with at least one interpretative strand of it focusing on time as a cyclical construction—a wheel of time, in other words. The future is past, the past is future, now is then and then is now. If you stand on a wheel, after all, it doesn’t matter which way you walk, you’ll get back to the same place.

This basic temporal fact, too often missed by readers, sheds light on a number of—shall we say—anomalies in this fantasy. In chapter 4 of _The Eye of the World_, for instance, we meet Thom Merrilin, the “gleeman” full of stories and mysteries, and oftentimes both at once—who is himself an homage to Merlin the magician.

  “Tell us about Lenn,” one of the characters asks him. “How he flew to the moon in the belly of an eagle made of fire. Tell about his daughter Salya walking among the stars.”

  “Old stories, those,” Thom Merrilin said, and abruptly he was juggling three colored balls with each hand. “Stories from the Age before the Age of Legends, some say. Perhaps even older. … Tales of Mosk the Giant, with his Lance of Fire that could reach around the world, and his wars with Alsbet, the Queen of All. Tales of Materese the Healer, Mother of the Wondrous Ind.”

If you don’t know, those are references to John Glenn, the Apollo Program, Sally Ride, the ICBM threat from Moscow, Queen Elizabeth, and Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

And if that doesn’t make the point, see this description from _The Shadow Rising_ of some of the things a character finds in the Tanchico Museum of the Panarch’s Palace:

  On one side of the room was the skeleton of something that looked like a bear, if a bear had two front teeth as long as her forearm, and opposite it on the other side were the bones of some slender, four-tooted beast with a neck so long the skull was half as high as the ceiling. … A silvery thing in another cabinet, like a three-pointed star inside a circle, was made of no substance she knew; it was softer than metal, scratched and gouged, yet even older than any of the ancient bones. From ten paces she could sense pride and vanity.

That is to say, the skull of a saber-toothed tiger, the skeleton of a giraffe, and a used hood ornament from a Mercedes-Benz.

This last one, by the way, was my favorite example of a seeming anomaly in Jordan’s work—until the first time I spent a few minutes in Jim’s library and office. Standing there in awe, feeling that magical sensation of wonder and familiarity, I turned to see, set high upon one of Jim’s shelves, a saber-toothed tiger skull and realized, with a sudden lurch of bright recognition, that I was myself standing in the Tanchico Museum.

So what does all this mean? How on Earth is this supposed to make any sense?

Well, to begin with, we must admit that, like Tolkien’s Middle-earth, Jordan’s world is Earth.

_Our_ Earth. But unlike Tolkien’s A-theory sub-creation which was meant to be our past, Jordan’s B-theory sub-creation is both our past and our future. The cyclical nature of Jordan’s time means the Age of Legends is Atlantean myth, Golden Age history, and Science Fictional vision. His heron-marked blade is both the asterisk-sword behind Japanese katana and Western bastard swords and the idealized sword-to-come that has been grown from the foundation of those two legendary weapons.

It turns out, then, that—for once—the fateful decision of bookstores and publishers to collapse Fantasy and Science Fiction to the same rows of shelves is perfectly fitting.

When I earlier told you about that scene of the gleeman Thom Merrilin introducing himself as a storyteller, a scene that occurs very early in the first book of Jordan’s long series, what I didn’t tell is the rest of what he said.

  “I have all stories, mind you now, of Ages that were and will be,” Thom says. “Ages when men ruled the heavens and the stars, and Ages when man roamed as brother to the animals. Ages of wonder, and Ages of horror. Ages ended by fire raining from the skies, and Ages doomed by snow and ice covering land and sea. I have all stories, and I will tell all stories.”

I hope we can see now how Thom might well be said to be speaking not just for himself, but for the greater work of literature of which he is a part.

James Rigney’s passing affected his millions of readers very deeply, and much has been made of how he left the final book of the _Wheel of Time_ unfinished. We have seen, however, how hard that Brandon Sanderson worked—with the extraordinary, indefatigable help of Jim’s family and friends—to write those final pages: he understands the fan’s love for these works. But it is important to note that, even as Brandon’s last pages are turned in and the final book has been closed at last, the story will live on. _The Wheel of Time_, Jordan’s lasting legacy, will never be complete. It cannot be. After all, our futures, and indeed one might say the fullness of our pasts, remains for us forever incomplete. In memory, as in hope and dream, there’s always another chapter to be written.

James Rigney was not the first heir to the Tolkien legacy—and by no means will he be the last to follow him—but he might just be the most complete interpreter of that legacy. Rooted in mythology and history, founded in philosophy and spirituality, forged of war and the American experience, his _Wheel of Time_ has easily earned its place alongside the British master fantasist. Even more, given the academic status Tolkien’s work has managed to achieve, the work of Robert Jordan has earned its place on any list of turn-of-the-millennium literature, whether the majority of critics like it or not.

And thus, in the end, we come full circle, which is, I think, exactly how Jim would have liked it.

Michael Livingston is a Professor of Medieval Literature at The Citadel who has written extensively both on medieval history and on modern medievalism. _The Gates of Hell_, the second volume in _The Shards of Heaven_, his historical fantasy series set in Ancient Rome, comes out this fall from Tor Books.

question: Who does Michael Livingston call the American Tolkien?

answer: Robert Jordan, whose real name was James Rigney.

question: What series did Robert Jordan write?

answer: The Wheel of Time.

question: What career did Tolkien follow?

answer: Tolkien was a philologist.

question: What war did James Rigney fight in?

answer: The Vietnam War.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: The author is a writer who has just published a series of fantasy novels set in ancient Rome and sets out to do a comparison between the works of Tolkien with the work of Robert Jordan, who wrote the Wheel of Time Series. He talks about mythology, fantasy and science fiction, and the relationship between academics, especially philology, and mythological literature.


split: train

text:
[tesla-vector-powerpack-5]

Electric utilities in California are moving quickly on battery-powered energy storage systems and while Southern California Edison is in the lead with several large projects recently, including a massive 80 MWh Tesla Powerpack station, Pacific Gas and Electric Co is also working on the deployment of the technology in Northern California.

PG&E just announced that it brought online a new 2 MWh project in Browns Valley – north of Sacramento.

With a current capacity of 0.5 MW/2 MWh from 22 Tesla Powerpacks, it’s nowhere near the side of Tesla’s Kauai project or the Mira Loma Substation with Southern California Edison, but it’s scalable.

PG&E sees energy demand rising in Browns Valley and could scale the energy storage project as needed.

Mike Della Penna, PG&E’s project manager for the Browns Valley installation, told the San Francisco Chronicle:

  “It’s pretty modular — you can scale up and down as you need.”

For now, it will be used to better manage peak demand and reduce the need for costly and polluting peaker plants.

The electric utility is also working with Tesla for higher capacity through distributed energy storage with Powerwalls in the homes of its customers in the Bay Area.

Tesla is about to start shipping its second generation Powerwall soon – more on that later – and the capacity could add up quickly for large utilities like PG&E.

If they can find ways to efficiently combine the capacity of energy storage in homes and compensate their customers appropriately, they will have to deploy less energy storage at their own substations, like this Powerpack project in Browns Valley.

More utilities are likely to offer plans for customers installing energy storage in their homes in the coming months and years. In the meantime, energy storage deployment will be more popular with utility-scale projects and for homeowners with solar installations.

_FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links._ More.

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

Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.

You’re reading Electrek— experts who break news about Tesla, electric vehicles, and green energy, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow Electrek on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our YouTube channel for the latest reviews.

question: What publication does this article appear in?

question: What is the battery-powered energy storage system in Browns Valley used for?

answer: It is used to manage peak demand.

question: What is the capacity of the batter-powered energy storage system in Browns Valley?

answer: 0.5 MW/2 MWh

question: Where is Browns Valley?

answer: in the Bay Area

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: All across California, battery-powered energy storage systems are proliferating. In Northern California, Pacific Gas and Electric Co has just installed such a system in Browns Valley.


text:
I’ve always tried my best.  Unfortunately my best never seems to be  good enough.  Story of my life.  Another job interview, another rejection.  What do they want?   Some kind of superhuman?  Who can do everything better than anyone for half the pay?  Since when does an entry level job involve five years experience?  Fucking ridiculous is what it is!  Taking advantage of the wee man because they know they can get away with it, taking skilled workers down on their luck who need to work but offering them shoddy wages.  “we’re in a recession you know”, they say, and damn happy they are about it too the fuckers.  A prime opportunity to fuck the average worker out of full wages.  Five years experience for an entry level job?  Pah!  Maybe the bankers did it on purpose to keep the little man in his place.

This time though, the interview was doomed from the start.  From the moment I walked in I knew it.  There were three of them.  All sat behind a desk in raised chairs and immaculate suits, I swear I could smell the smarminess oozing off of them.  You know the type, the sense of entitlement, the little private smiles as they look down on you in the purposely chosen shitty chair to automatically deny you any psychological edge.  They want you down there, looking up at them pleading for a job, it helps their egos to know that they have this power over you, the power to give you a leg up.  A way back in.  Part of the team buddy.

I hate them.

Like I said, there was three of them sat there, with the big boss in the middle.  He hasn’t even looked up as I’ve came in and sat in the only chair, I’m kept waiting, looking like a douche as I wait because I don’t want to stop smiling until I’ve at least made eye contact.  Finally, he looks up, still not saying anything as he examines me like a side a beef in a butcher shop.
Boss:  “Mr Carrick, I’ll cut to the chase.  I’ve pretty much made up my mind who I want for this job but figure I have to go through with the rest of this charade now it’s started.  So, you have 2 minutes to convince me why I should disregard my choice and choose you.”

What the fuck?

I mean, what the actual fuck?  This isn’t how it works.  He’s meant to ask me standard but mundane questions about my background, give me scenarios and ask what I’d do if put in a certain situation where I can answer with the same bullshit as everyone else and add buzz words like team player, responsible, enthusiastic and all that shite.  This isn’t how it works.

All this goes through my head in a split second as I try not to get all flustered.  I’m fucked.  I haven’t prepared for this scenario and in realising this I can’t help but see the genius in it.  Whether he’s telling the truth or not doesn’t matter, this is a test, a proper test to see how I react under pressure.  Touché old man, touché.
Me:  “I must admit, I definitely was not prepared for that.  I appreciate the honesty and with that in mind rather than tell you why you should disregard your choice for me, I’ll tell you why you shouldn’t.
Now, I’m unemployed at the moment and need to get back to work.  I’ve been for many interviews and after today will go for many more.  I have no particular desire to work for you and your company, no burning passion or shared vision or all that other crap people will have been telling you all day.  I just need a job and you have a vacancy in a field in which I’m capable, not only am I capable, I’m damn fucking good.  I like what I do and I do it well.  I lost my previous job due to “downsizing” and since then have met lots of people in the same position.  If I want to go back to work I have to take a major pay cut for doing more work just for the privilege of working.

I am willing to take that hit.

A job for me is something which helps sustain my lifestyle, my job is not my lifestyle.  I enjoy it but that’s not the point I’m making.  To be perfectly frank, and I’m sorry if I offend you but, I am sick and tired of this whole charade.  Interview after interview, being judged on whether I’m the right sort, the right fit for the company.  I’m already at a disadvantage, there are three of you and one of me, you are behind a desk and on raised chairs to give the impression of seniority.  What chance do I have when you have all the power?  You tell me you’ve made your choice, that’s great, why the hell am I here then?  All you’ll have is somebody who can excel in this environment better, maybe a better CV or better experience but I can guarantee that they are the same as me.  Somebody who just needs the work.  Now I could never promise that I’d be the best damn appointment you ever make but I can tell you that if you do go with me, and are fair with me, then I will do the job to the best of my ability.  I will work to deadlines and go that extra mile if I feel it’s warranted but what I won’t do is give up my life for you, become a slave to the wage so you can make a profit.  Be fair with me and treat me like a real person and I will do whatever is asked, treat me like an autobot and you can shove the job up your arse.

Been great talking at you, I’ll see myself out.”

So, that’s another potential employer I can score off the list.  Fuck sake, it’s getting quite desperate.  Maybe have to bite the bullet and take a bar job or, god forbid, a call centre job.  Fuck.  Four years out of university and already been made redundant, after purposely getting a sensible degree in computing.  “computers are the future” they said, “always be work in that industry”.  Just a pity everybody else had the same idea.  Maybe should have fucked off abroad after getting laid off, blown it all on cocktails and exotic girls.

Fuck it, time to get drunk.

title: Time to get drunk.

question: What sorts of things does this passage reveal about its author on a deeper level?

answer: The author is obviously exhausted, but one could deduce that maybe their fatigue comes from other factors in their life as well. They seem to have a distrust of authority and the system, which may come from personal run-ins, or could come from a lifetime of lacking privilege. The author has clearly fought a lot throughout their life, which makes one think they never had it easy.

question: What might the interviewee, Mr Carrick, have done in the situation with the boss to sway him?

answer: It's easy to say what one might have done when you are not the one exasperated and worn down, but there are a couple approaches that Mr Carrick might have taken if he took a step back. He could have made a joke about it, though that is not a guarantee that he would secure the job. It might have made things more pleasant. Mr Carrick also could have been confident in stating his qualifications and the assets he would bring to the company. Mostly, if Mr Carrick had wanted the job, he should not have said he was applying out of desperation.


text:
“The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door...”

Those two sentences have always haunted me, ever since I first heard the heard the short story they belonged to for the first time as a small boy. I don’t remember what happens after that, nor do I care. I would have nightmares, waking up screaming in the middle of the night without knowing why, just hearing those words echoing throughout my mind. By the time I was seven, I’d been to four different psychiatrists. None of them helped. I never had any friends, because no one wants to be friends with a pale, twitchy, wide-eyed boy who was known for flipping out in the middle of class, screaming incomprehensibly and sobbing. I didn’t care. I still don’t now. They just didn’t understand. They didn’t then and they don’t now. Let them laugh. Let them mock me. I knew the truth, even back then as a kid. I knew the truth, even though I didn’t know I knew it. I wasn’t crazy, and I’m not now. Sometimes, sometimes I felt like I really was the only person there. All the hate, war, greed, fear. Why? Why was it there? Why was it considered normal? I didn’t know. I couldn’t understand why. Of course, I do now. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The truth.

I finally realized what I had known my whole life two days ago. I was at my job. I worked in a small store. We had food, toys, clothes. I was a gofer. Stacked boxes, took inventory, cleaned, whatever was needed of me. It was glamorous, but it paid the rent on my apartment with enough left over for bills and food. On this day, two days ago, a teenage boy, maybe 15 or 16, came into the store. His young, clear face was ugly with smug self-importance. He ignored the cashier’s polite greeting, making a beeline for the candy aisle where I was stacking Twix bars beside the rest of the chocolates. He shouldered his way past me with a contemptuous smirk, knocking a handful of chocolate bars from my grasp. I didn’t say a word. Why bother? I just bent down and picked them up and put them on the shelf. Then I noticed the kid again. He was stuffing his jacket pockets with gum and candy. He saw me looking and sneered, strolling past me again. I grabbed his shoulder, trying to get him to put them back, since he obviously had no intention of paying. In a single movement he whipped his arm up and hit me across the face. I saw stars for a second, losing my grip on him. I stared at him, the blow to my head finally revealing what had been hidden. The malevolent glitter in his eyes, masking the inhuman evil within. He wasn’t human. He was some kind of creature here for the sole purpose of causing pain and suffering. He stepped towards me, his mouth opening and releasing a challenge. I took a step back, shaking. I knew now. We weren’t alone. There were Others. He…no, IT laughed, an awful sound that grated my ears. It turned to walk out, and in that instance I realized what I had to do. I couldn’t let this evil creature continue its cruelty. I grabbed the closest thing, a small electric razor that we had been using for a demonstration. I leapt forward and slammed the thick metal end into the back of its skull. It let out a primal shriek of pain, collapsing to the floor. The cashier, his name was Danny, yelled something, obviously shocked by the creatures inhumanity.  I dropped onto its back, my knees digging into its spine. I flicked the razor on, the low buzzing barely audible over the creatures shrieking yells. I’m not a hunter, I don’t know how to kill something quickly. I shoved the head of the buzzing razor into the back of its neck. The skin broke quickly, blood flowing and coating my hands. I pressed harder, hearing wet ripping sounds as the razor shredded skin and muscle. I tossed it aside after it died, clogged by the creature’s flesh. Yet it still lived, screaming and thrashing under me. I stood and kicked it onto its back, blood puddling from its ravaged neck. It stared up at me with terrified, watering eyes, realizing its reign of evil was over. I brought my foot down into its face, over and over and over. Bone crunched and snapped under my shoe, blood and gore spurting across the floor and my legs. I smashed its head into a misshapen pulp, its brains smeared under it. Panting slightly, I turned to Danny, ready to share a celebratory moment with him. Instead, I saw him on the phone, babbling to the police. Then my second revelation came. He was one too. This time, there was no hesitation. I jumped over the counter and smashed the phone into the floor, then grabbed the second creature by the hair and neck and slammed it into the window. It shattered upon impact, and when I yanked it back, it had shards of glass embedded in its face. One had punctured his eyeball, the bloody ruin dripping fluid. There was one huge, jagged piece lodged in its throat, which it clawed at desperately, no doubt to use against me. I tore it out, then used it to slash again and again at the monstrosity’s face, heedless of the cuts I sustained to my own hand. Finally, it too was dead, if it was ever alive to begin with. Then I ran. Who knew how many more were in the area, if they could communicate telepathically. Even as this horrific thought occurred to me, I realized that I was surrounded by the creatures as soon as I stepped outside. Every person who walked by was a creature. I was the only one as far as I could see. I ran, shoving them away, ignoring their grasping, outstretched hands and stares of horror at the blood of their unholy kin drenched into my skin and clothes. There was a gun store close by. I needed to arm myself, prepare for the immanent retaliatory strike for the destruction of their brethren. But even the owner of the store was one. It garbled some unholy phrase as he pointed at me in shock, surprised that someone had realized the truth. It reached for something under the counter, but I was on top of it before it could, pulling a pistol off the wall as I did, caving its head in with the butt of the gun. Once it, too, had been exterminated, I loaded up on guns and ammunition. I had to be ready. I had to prepare. They knew that I knew. They were coming for me. I made it back to my apartment without any more problems, all of the other creatures, for I saw no more humans, just more and more of these imposters, fled as they saw the arsenal I carried.

I’ve been in my apartment since then, sitting in a chair in the kitchen, my weapons on the table before me, loaded and ready to destroy any and all of the creatures. A few have knocked, but I wont let them in. A few have even called out, mimicking the voices of my neighbors. They’ve been growing increasingly urgent. They fear me. Good. My fear is over. I understand.

I understand.
I finally understand why that phrase has taunted me.
It was as though it was written for me.

I sit alone in my apartment, the last man on Earth. I can hear them, more than ever. They yell, banging on the door. Claim to be police. Obviously they want to kill me. I won’t let them. I’m the only one left. Or was I the only one there ever was? They’re knocking. Go away. Go away! I won’t let them in!

I won’t let them in.
I won’t let them in.
I won’t let them in I won’t let them in I won’t let them in i wont let them iniwontlettheminwontwontwontwontwontwont

Won’t

title: Knock: my first short story.

question: Is the narrator really the last man on Earth?

answer: Most likely the narrator is not the last man on Earth and has gone crazy.

question: Why did Danny call the police?

answer: Danny called the police because he just saw the narrator murder a customer.


text:
Okay, before you starting reading, please note that this is the first time I have ever wrote a creative writing piece. The reason behind this are my horrible English language skills. I'm not a native speaker, and a horrible non-native one. Please note that my sorry excuse of a story is incomplete and I'm posting it simply to get feedback on my grammar and my story-telling skills.
___
___
Adam leapt over the shrub, a few white-out roses caught in his folded jeans cuffs, but he wasn't paying attention to details--it wasn't the time to pay attention. He managed to land awkwardly on his feet, almost crumpling. The impact was more than he could manage under normal circumstances, only that they weren't normal--he had been shot squarely through his left thigh, and his arms were trembling, enfolded under her back.

"Don't leave me now," he glanced over her face--expressionless--and looked back up, surveying the land before him; looking for a place to hide and take shelter before those arseholes could do any more damage. Luck hadn't left them after all, as he had otherwise thought. A deep, misty forest lay ahead of them, glimmering with greenish light, the colour of poison. Without thinking, he ran for it, losing himself in the grove of trees.

The sky roared with chillingly profound thunder--it had started to drizzle. He could make out her face from the lightening flickering across the sky, filtering through the leaves. She was perfectly immobile, her eyes close shut, her brows relaxed.

title: My first [incomplete] creative writing piece.

question: What might have happened if he couldn't find shelter?

answer: They probably would not have survived.


text:
“THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED” is the fifth episode in the fourth season of the re-imagined _Battlestar Galactica_. It first aired on television on May 2, 2008. The survivor count shown in the title sequence is 39,676. It is the only episode of the entire series in which Bill Adama does not appear, and the first of two episodes not to feature Laura Roslin. It is also the final episode in which Number Six is absent.

Plot

The episode begins aboard _Demetrius,_ now 58 days into the mission to find Earth. Helo reports to Captain Starbuck and reminds her that the time is near to rendezvous back with the fleet. Starbuck concentrates intently on a star chart of a sector Helo states they have explored twice already. She tells him that she has a feeling that the “third time's a charm” and that she will scout the sector herself.

On _Galactica_, Gaius Baltar continues to preach his monotheistic beliefs. He hears a woman's story of the loss of her family during the Cylon sneak attack and her anger that the Gods stood by and let it happen. Baltar tells her that the Gods didn't aid them because they do not exist and humanity has been pandering to their own ignorance. Meanwhile, in his quarters, Galen Tyrol listens to Baltar's rhetoric over a radio while he exercises.

In space, Starbuck and her wingman Hot Dog head out to explore the sector. Soon, DRADIS picks up an incoming Cylon Heavy Raider. Starbuck intercepts the craft which is heavily damaged and spinning out of control. Suddenly, she hears the voice of Leoben Conoy over the communications channel who tells Starbuck that he has found her and it is time to complete her journey. Leoben is brought aboard _Demetrius_ where he tells Starbuck that she needs the help of his fellow Cylons and that she needs to go to the Hybrid; it will give her the answers she seeks. Instead of locking him up, Starbuck has him taken to her quarters.

On _Galactica_, Tory finds Tyrol standing in the Viper launch tube obsessing about Cally's “accident”. Tory tells him that she was emotionally disturbed, but Tyrol says she would have never left their son Nicholas behind. Tory suggests Cally sensed Tyrol was a Cylon, and was afraid of him. She says whatever the reason, it was part of God's divine plan and speaks of Baltar's preachings. Vexed, Tyrol states she has been spending too much time with Baltar.

On _Demetrius_, Anders returns from a recon flight and finds Leoben with Starbuck, guiding her hand in painting her mural - his other hand on her hip. Anders furiously rips Leoben away from her and Starbuck protests the intrusion. As the guards take Leoben away, Helo steps in and reminds Starbuck of the months of mind-games that Leoben played on her back on New Caprica, but she argues that Leoben can help find Earth.

Meanwhile, Anders roughs up Leoben and demands to know what he wants from Starbuck. Leoben says he just wants her to understand her destiny, just as Anders himself is looking for his own moment of clarity. Anders pulls a gun but Leoben says if he dies, Starbuck's dream dies with him and explains there won't be a resurrection this time. Leoben informs him of the war among the Cylons, between those who embrace their nature and those who fear it. He proposes an alliance between his faction and the fleet. The hybrid can lead Starbuck to righteousness and together they can find the promised land. Anders scoffs at the notion and leaves.

Afterward, Anders tells the others of Leoben's proposal which causes more animosity amongst the crew who want to return to the fleet. Everyone, including Athena, believes Starbuck is being brainwashed by the Cylon and he will only lead them into a trap. Helo tries to silence any talk of mutiny, but the antagonism grows more intense. Starbuck appears, apparently overhearing the others, and tells Helo to retrieve the navigation computer from Leoben's Raider.

Back on _Galactica_, Baltar discusses with Tory the effects his movement is having on President Roslin and the Quorum. Although he is attracting more followers, the leaders consider them of little consequence.

Tyrol attends Baltar's next sermon where Colonel Tigh arrives and pulls him aside. Tigh strongly suggests that Tyrol get over Cally and return to duty, but Tyrol takes offense saying it's not as easy for him to bury his dead wife as Tigh had buried Ellen. He also brings up Tigh's continual visits to Caprica Six. Tigh tells him that he is not ashamed of anything he has done. He can live with all of his choices, but Tyrol says he himself can't.

On _Demetrius_, Sergeant Erin Mathias goes out in a space suit to check for tracking devices on the docked Raider, but the ship suddenly explodes and Mathias is flung into space.

On _Galactica_, Tyrol attends another sermon by Baltar; as he leaves, Baltar calls out to him – to set their differences aside and take his hand for Cally. Tyrol tells Baltar that Cally may have forgiven him but there are some sins that even God won't forgive. Instead of taking Baltar's hand, Tyrol violently chokes him. Baltar's followers pull Tyrol away while he furiously shouts that Baltar didn't know Cally. Tyrol then enters his quarters and furiously trashes the room. He pulls out a gun and points it at his head shouting in despair. He then tearfully breaks down.

On _Demetrius_, Starbuck accuses Leoben of blowing up his raider and strikes him bloody. He swears it was a malfunction but then tells Starbuck to finish him off promising he won't be resurrected this time. Starbuck relents and asks what happened the two months she was missing – the visions of her mother she had, what does it all mean? Leoben says she has to make peace with the ghosts of her past as they are obstacles that are keeping her from realizing her destiny. He tells her that he sees her as an angel blazing with God's glory and waiting to lead her people on.

Starbuck meets with her crew to honor Mathias. She blames herself for the loss, but they have to complete the mission. She orders Helo to set course to rendezvous with Leoben's Basestar. When she leaves, Lieutenant Pike refuses to follow Starbuck any further and demands Helo take charge of the situation. Pike refuses to stand down, and Helo knocks him to the deck.

On _Galactica_, against the warnings of his followers, Baltar pays a visit to Tyrol's quarters. He finds Tyrol lying awake in his bunk with the gun on his hip. Baltar nervously apologizes for his intrusion and says he is truly sorry for Cally's loss. He admits to having done unconscionable crimes but he seems to have been given another chance for redemption and begs Tyrol for forgiveness. As Baltar leaves, Tyrol holds out his hand in friendship and Baltar eagerly accepts it.

On _Demetrius_ Starbuck enters the bridge and issues an order to Helo to prepare for a jump to the coordinates of the Basestar. All eyes fall on Helo as he swallows hard and tells Starbuck he cannot put the crew at risk. Starbuck relieves him and appoints Mr. Gaeta as the new XO, but he also refuses to follow her command. Starbuck narrows her eyes as Helo asserts his authority to relieve her of command.

title: The Road Less Traveled (Battlestar Galactica)

question: Summarize the context around this episode of Battlestar Galactica.

answer: The fifth episode in the fourth season of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica does not feature Bill Adama or Laura Roslin and is the last episode without Number Six. The survivor count is almost 40 000 at the start of this episode. Previously, Leoben Conoy spent months playing mind games with Captain Starbuck. In this episode it is shown that Starbuck is still partly under his influence and that she can't remember much of those two months. Also, Cally died and left her son behind. Her husband, Tyrol, still has major questions regarding this and blames himself.

question: Summarize Captain Starbuck's relationship with Leoben Conoy.

answer: Captain Starbuck finds Leoben Conoy while triple checking a sector. Conoy convinces her that he can help her find Earth, Starbuck trusts him and spends intimate time with him. She is confronted by Anders that reminds Starbuck of the months of mind games that Conoy played on her, Starbuck confronts Conoy about this time. Conoy says that the hybrid will lead her to her destiny. This leads to mutiny when Starbuck orders Helo to travel to Conoy's Basestar.

question: Summarize the primary source of tension on Galactica.

answer: In this episode Tyrol's grief at Cally's death is explored. Tyrol wants to assign blame to Baltar and confronts him after being encouraged to let it go by Tory and Colonel Tigh. Tyrol violently chokes Baltar and his followers pull him away, Tyrol considers committing suicide. Later Baltar visits Tyrol and admits to having done unconscionable crimes. He begs Tyrol for forgiveness and, as he was about to leave, Tyrol holds out his hand in friendship. Baltar accepts.

question: What does the text say about the original Battlestar Galactica series?


text:
I don't believe in heaven. It doesn't make sense. There is no reason for it to exist.

People are so blissfully ignorant of their own sins. They walk around all day, thinking only about themselves--and who can blame them? It's not like anyone else's life has any worth either.

You wouldn't believe the things I've experienced. The fat, sloppy pigs who can't help but bastardize their own body by filling it with grease as if they were hooked up to a pump. They desecrate their bodies--they desecrate temples of God.

Don't even get me started on the lust, the greed, the desire to hoard everything good and right in this world for themselves so they can slowly consume it and let its unholy after-shell rot away. It makes me sick to my stomach. Violence is within all of these godforsaken people, though some are vile enough to hide it away under a fake, nearly moronic smile as they speak. They never even had a chance, not one. God can never let these corrupt sacks of flesh into his holy kingdom. No, never. They're all destined for Hell where they'll get what they deserve.

The pathetic slime across the screen is almost done talking now. Something about masturbation, doubting God, and losing his temper. Degenerate. I tell him the same thing I tell the others: "Just say the Lord's Prayer and exclaim your regrets to God and you will be forgiven. Go in peace." He probably has the jolliest expression on his face right now.

Disgusting.

title: Don't bother praying (266 wordS)

question: Is the narrator a priest?

answer: Seems to be but it doesn't explicitly say

question: Why is the narrator involved in the church if he doesn't believe in heaven?

answer: Unclear

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: As yet another person confesses their sins to the narrator, he thinks about how the idea of heaven doesn't make sense and how humanity is greedy and therefore destined for hell.


text:
XYMON EZEKIEL NULOS PINEDA (born October 1, 2010), popularly known as ONYOK PINEDA or simply ONYOK, is a Filipino child actor. He came to prominence in 2014 when he joined a segment in the variety show _It's Showtime_. His acting career started when he played Onyok in the action drama television series _Ang Probinsyano_ (2015–2017). Pineda made his film debut in a supporting role in the action-comedy _The Super Parental Guardians_ (2016). His other film appearances are in the romantic comedy _Loving in Tandem_ (2017), and _Ang Panday_ (2017).

Life and career

Xymon Ezekiel Nulos Pineda was born on October 1, 2010, in Bacoor, Cavite.[1]

Pineda came to fame when he joined a segment called “Mini-Me” in the variety show _It's Showtime_ and made a young impersonation of the Filipino singer Bamboo.[2] Pineda started his acting career in _Ang Probinsyano_ as Onyok the adoptive son of Cardo. Pineda is one of the cast in _The Super Parental Guardians_ as Ernie Gaspar, a brother of Megan Gaspar role of Awra Briguela.[3]

Filmography

Film

  Title                            Year   Role
  -------------------------------- ------ ------------------------ -----
  _The Super Parental Guardians_   2016   Ernesto “Ernie” Nabati   [4]
  _Loving in Tandem_               2017   Macmac                   [5]
  _Ang Panday_                     2017   Dwendol                  [6]

Television

  Title                              Year           Role                     Notes
  ---------------------------------- -------------- ------------------------ ------------------------------ ------
  _It's Showtime_                    2014           Mini version of Bamboo                                  [7]
  _Ang Probinsyano_                  2015–2017      Honorio “Onyok” Amaba                                   [8]
  _Wansapanataym_                    2017           Onyok                    Episode: Amazing Ving; cameo   [9]
  _Your Face Sounds Familiar Kids_   2018           Himself                  Contestant                     [10]
  _The Kid's Choice_                 2018           Himself                                                 [11]
  _Maalaala Mo Kaya_                 2019           Young Rene               Episode: “Family Portrait”     [12]
  2019                               Mario          Episode: “Balsa”
  2019                               Young Yamyam   Episode: “Bukid”         [13]

Awards and nominations

  Award                              Year                Recipient(s) and nominee(s)         Category                       Result
  ---------------------------------- ------------------- ----------------------------------- ------------------------------ -------- ------
  Box Office Entertainment Awards    2016                _Ang Probinsyano_                   Most Popular Child Performer            [14]
  2017                               _Ang Probinsyano_   Most Popular Male Child Performer                                  [15]
  Comguild Academe's Choice Awards   2017                Onyok Pineda                        Most Admired Child Endorser             [16]
  LionhearTV RAWR Awards             2017                Onyok Pineda                        Bibo Award                              [17]
  PMPC Star Awards for Movies        2017                _The Super Parental Guardians_      New Movie Actor of the Year             [18]
  Child Performer of the Year
  PMPC Star Awards for Television    2016                _Ang Probinsyano_                   Best New Male TV Personality            [19]
  Best Child Performer

[1]

[2]

[3]  Star Cinema |url=https://starcinema.abs-cbn.com/movies/the-super-parental-guardians-(1) |website=starcinema.abs-cbn.com |accessdate=July 18, 2020}}

[4]

[5]  Star Cinema |url=https://starcinema.abs-cbn.com/2017/9/5/news/loving-in-tandem-official-poster-revealed-29497 |accessdate=July 18, 2020 |work=starcinema.abs-cbn.com |date=September 5, 2017}}

[6]  PUSH.COM.PH: Your ultimate showbiz hub! |url=https://push.abs-cbn.com/2017/10/12/fresh-scoops/onyok-pineda-turns-7-happy-to-be-part-of-ang-pan-169763 |accessdate=July 18, 2020 |work=push.abs-cbn.com |date=October 12, 2017}}

[7]

[8]

[9]  ABS-CBN Entertainment |url=https://ent.abs-cbn.com/thekidschoice/videos/104082818-kapamilya-spotlight-onyok-television-journey-170706 |website=ent.abs-cbn.com |accessdate=July 18, 2020 |date=August 29, 2018}}

[10]  ABS-CBN Entertainment |url=https://ent.abs-cbn.com/yourfacesoundsfamiliarkids2/articles-news/76081718-onyok-pineda-and-his-adorable-performances-in-your-face-sounds-familiar-kids-2-12204 |website=ent.abs-cbn.com |accessdate=July 18, 2020 |date=August 17, 2018}}

[11]

[12]  ABS-CBN Entertainment |url=https://ent.abs-cbn.com/maalaalamokaya/articles-news/19020519-review-mmk-family-portrait-showcases-a-fathers-struggles-accomplishments-through-late-edgardo-angaras-story-7567 |website=ent.abs-cbn.com |accessdate=July 18, 2020 |date=February 5, 2019}}

[13]  ABS-CBN Entertainment |url=https://ent.abs-cbn.com/maalaalamokaya/videos/mmk-bukid-recap-the-life-story-of-william-yamyam-gucong-247343 |website=ent.abs-cbn.com |accessdate=July 18, 2020 |date=October 23, 2019}}

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

title: Onyok Pineda

question: Who is Onyok Pineda?

answer: He is a Filipino child actor born in 2010.

question: When was Pineda's film debut?

answer: It was in 2016 for the movie The Super Parental Guardians.

question: Name all of the films Pineda has been in.

answer: The Super Parental Guardians, Loving in Tandem, Ang Panday

question: How did Pineda come to fame?

answer: He joined a segment called "Mini -Me" in the variety show It's Showtime, making a young impersonation of the Filipino singer Bamboo.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: This article discusses the life, career, filmography, and accolades of Filipino child actor Onyok Pineda. He was born in 2010, and made his film debut in the 2016 film The Super Parental Guardians.


text:
[Liebermann, lithograph after a portrait, from Joseph Guerber, _Biographie Liebermanns_, 1880] BRUNO FRANZ LEOPOLD LIEBERMANN (b. at Molsheim in Alsace, 12 October 1759; d. at Strasbourg, 11 November 1844) was a German Catholic theologian.

Life

Having finished his humanities in the college at Molsheim, he studied theology from 1776 to 1780 in the seminary at Strasburg, after which, as he was too young for ordination, he was as subdeacon appointed teacher in the college at Molsheim. He became a deacon and a licentiate of theology in 1782, and was ordained priest on 14 June 1783.

He shortly afterwards became professor in the Strasburg seminary, in 1784 preacher at Strasburg Cathedral, and in 1787 pastor at Ernolsheim near Molsheim. During the French Revolution he was obliged to take refuge across the Rhine (1792), and the Bishop of Strasburg, Cardinal Rohan, appointed him rector of the seminary which had been transferred for the time to the All Saints' Abbey, in the Black Forest.

Here he taught dogmatic theology and canon law, and wrote his unpublished “Institutiones iuris canonici universalis.” In 1795 he secretly returned to his parish at Ernolsheim, where he laboured in secret and in great danger for the cure of souls until 1801, holding at the same time the office of extraordinary episcopal commissary for this division of the diocese. In 1801 he was called to Strasburg as preacher at the cathedral and secretary of the diocese, but returned once more to Ernolsheim in 1802. On 12 March 1804 he was there unexpectedly arrested, and, on the groundless suspicion that he was in secret communication with the royal family, was held a prisoner in Paris for eight months.

When, through the intercession of Bishop Colmar of Mainz with Napoleon, he regained his freedom, he was called by this bishop to Mainz in 1805 as rector of the newly founded seminary there and in 1806 became also a member of the cathedral chapter. In the seminary he lectured on canon law, church history, pastoral theology, and, after 1812, also on dogmatic theology.

Personally and through the clergy trained by him, Liebermann exerted influence in Mainz and the adjoining dioceses. Among his pupils were the future bishops Andreas Räss, Nicolaus von Weis, Johannes von Geissel, and such other distinguished men as Klee, Lüft, Adam Franz Lennig, Franz Xaver Remling, and Nickel. After he had declined in 1823 the appointment to the See of Metz, Bishop Tharin summoned him as his vicar-general to Strasburg. Under Tharin's successor, Bishop Johann Franz Lepape von Trevern, he withdrew more from public life. His last years were spent in retirement in the mother-house of the Sisters of Charity.

Works

His “Institutiones theologicæ” were first published in five volumes (Mainz, 1819–27; 6th ed., 1844) and later in two (10th ed., Mainz, 1870). This work was used as a textbook for years in many theological seminaries in Germany, France, Belgium, and America.

During the time of the Revolution, Liebermann published several anonymous pamphlets in defence of the rights of the Church and against the required oath of the civil constitution of the clergy. Of his sermons several have been published separately, e.g. “Lob- und Trauerrede bei Gelegenheit des Hintrittes des hochwürdigsten Herrn Joseph Ludwig Colmar, Bischof zu Mainz” (Mainz, 1818). After his death appeared:- “Liebermann's Predigten, herausgegeben von Freunden und Verehrern des Verewigten” (3 vols., Mainz, 1851-3). From 1825 to 1826 he was editor of the “Der Katholik”.

title: Bruno Franz Leopold Liebermann

question: What does the article say about Bruno Franz Leopold Liebermann's teaching career?

answer: Liebermann was a subdeacon appointed teacher in the college at Molsheim. Soon he became a professor in the Strasburg seminary. Then he was appointed rector of the seminary in the All Saints' Abbey, in the Black Forest, where he taught dogmatic theology and canon law. Then he became a rector of the newly founded seminary there Mainz. Among his pupils were numerous future bishops.

question: What does the story say about Liebermann's activities during the French Revolution?

answer: Liebermann took refuge across the Rhine. He was appointed rector of the seminary at the All Saints' Abbey, in the Black Forest. During the French Revolution published several anonymous pamphlets in defense of the rights of the Church and against the required oath of the civil constitution of the clergy.

question: What does the article say about translations of Liebermann's work?


text:
I've previously posted reading recommendations from Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Elon Musk, all of whom are legendary high tech entrepreneurs. Warren Buffett is a different sort of icon: a true pioneer of investment philosophy.

Not surprisingly, Buffett's recommendations are almost entirely about investing. Read between the lines, though, and you can sense the avuncular, knowing smile hiding behind his wry choices.

Unlike the "how to get rich" tomes typical of the investment genre, Buffett's must-reads are subversively critical of Wall Street and its culture. He advises the would-be millionaire to become, when investing, an entrepreneur rather than a mere customer.

1. _Business Adventures_

[]

Subtitle: _Twelve Classic Tales From the World of Wall Street_

Summary: The _New Yorker_'s coverage of business has always gone far beyond reportage and raised business writing to the level of fine art. Of the many talented authors who've written for the magazine over the decades, John Brooks stands out asa master of the well-told tale that both informs and entertains. These are some of his best stories, told with insight and a sharp understanding of human foibles.

Best Quote: "The stock market -- the daytime adventure serial of the well-to-do --would not be the stock market if it did not have its ups and downs. Any boardroom sitter with a taste for Wall Street lore has heard the retort that J.P. Morgan the Elder is supposed to have made to a naive acquaintance who had ventured to ask the great man what the market was going to do. 'It will fluctuate,' replied Morgan dryly. And it has many other distinctive characteristics. Apart from the economic advantages and disadvantages of stock exchanges -- the advantage that they provide a free flow of capital to finance industrial expansion, for instance, and the disadvantage that they provide an all too convenient way for the unlucky, the imprudent, and the gullible to lose their money -- their development has created a whole pattern of social behavior, complete with customs, language, and predictable responses to given events."

2. _Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits_

[]

Author: Philip A. Fisher

Summary: The classic guide to picking stocks based upon informed research. More than any other, this book seems to encapsulate Buffett's overall investment philosophy. It's also one of the few books written before the invention of the internet that actually has become more relevant since.

Best Quote: "Most people, particularly if they feel sure there is no danger of their being quoted, like to talk about the field of work in which they are engaged and will talk rather freely about their competitors. Go to five companies in an industry, ask each of them intelligent questions about the points of strength and weakness of the other four, and nine times out of ten a surprisingly detailed and accurate picture of all five will emerge. However, competitors are only one and not necessarily the best source of informed opinion. It is equally astounding how much can be learned from both vendors and customers about the real nature of the people with whom they deal."

3. _Dream Big_

[]

Author: Cristiane Correa

Summary: In the United States there are about dozen business icons -- Jobs, Welch, Gates, and so forth -- whose personal stories continue to inspire entrepreneurs. The rest of the world, however, looks to other mythmakers and inspirations. In South America there are no entrepreneurs more iconic than Jorge Paulo Lemann, Marcel Telles, and Beto Sicupira. Together they built the biggest business empire in Brazilian history, making themselves into billionaires while making at least a thousand of their employees into millionaires.

Best Quote: "In less than two decades, they had transformed a regional brewer with a strong name and feeble results, Brahma, into the biggest company in the sector at a global level. All this had been achieved by repeating ad nausea the mantras of the corporate culture Lemann had adopted at the beginning and then spread to all the company in which they invested: meritocracy, relentless cost control, hard work, and a lot of pressure that not everyone could endure. There were no perks or status symbols. However, for the best -- people like Brito, Thompson, and Dutra -- the opportunities gave them the chance to become business partners."

4. _The Little Book of Common Sense Investing_

[]

Subtitle: _The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Return_

Author: Jack Bogle

Summary: Essentially a detailed argument for diversification, especially in the form of index funds, hopefully with low management fees.

Best Quote: "[There is] a profound conflict of interest between those who work in the investment business and those who invest in stocks and bonds. The way to wealth for those in the business is to persuade their clients, _'Don't just stand there. Do something.'_ But the way to wealth for their clients in the aggregate is to follow the opposite maxim: _'Don't do something. Just stand there.'_ For that is the only way to avoid playing the loser's game of trying to beat the market."

5. _The Most Important Thing_

[]

Subtitle: _Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor_

Author: Howard Marks

Summary: This book is the counterargument to the "common sense" theory of investing. Rather than trying to simplify investing, the author successfully does the opposite, showing how high-level investing requires the balancing of many complex factors. Fortunately, the author lays out these complexities in a methodical manner, thereby making them as easy to understand as possible.

Best Quote: "What, exactly, is 'the most important thing'? In July 2003, I wrote a memo with that title that pulled together the elements I felt were essential for investment success. Here's how it began: 'The most important thing is X.' And then ten minutes later it's 'The most important thing is Y.' And then Z, and so on. All told, the memo ended up discussing eighteen 'most important things.' Since that original memo, I've made a few adjustments in the things I consider 'the most important,' but the fundamental notion is unchanged: they're _all_ important. Successful investing requires thoughtful attention to many separate aspects, all at the same time. Omit any one and the result is likely to be less than satisfactory."

6. _The Intelligent Investor_

[]

Author: Benjamin Graham

Summary: Attentive readers have no doubt noticed that _The Little Book of Common Sense Investing_ and _The Most Important Thing_ espouse diametrically opposed investment philosophies. If you imagine those two books as the two sides of an archway, _The Intelligent Investor_ is the keystone that holds them both aloft. This book explains that while effort is necessary to get better results than one could from an index fund, the subject is not so arcane that only experts need attempt it.

Best Quote: "The art of investment has one characteristic that is not generally appreciated. A creditable, if unspectacular, result can be achieved by the lay investor with a minimum of effort and capability; but to improve this easily attainable standard requires much application and more than a trace of wisdom. If you merely try to bring _just a little_ extra knowledge and cleverness to bear upon your investment program, instead of realizing a little better than normal results, you may well find that you have done worse."

7. _The Outsiders_

[]

Author: William Thorndike Jr.

Summary: In this coming-of-age classic, the teenaged Ponyboy learns the true meaning of friendship when... Whoops! Wrong "Outsiders." Rewind. In this getting-of-wealth classic, the middle-aged William learns the true meaning of leadership by studying eight CEOs who succeeded despite flouting conventional wisdom.

Best Quote: "CEOs, like professional athletes, compete in a highly quantitative field, and yet there is no single, accepted metric for measuring their performance, no equivalent or ERA for baseball pitchers, or complication rate for surgeons, or goals against average for hockey goalies. The business press doesn't attempt to identify the top performers in any rigorous way. Instead, they generally focus on the largest, best-known companies, the _Fortune_ 100, which is why the executives of those companies are so often found on the covers of the top business magazines. The metric that the press usually focuses on is growth in revenues and profits. It's the increase in a company's per share value, however, not growth in sales or earning or employees, that offers the ultimate barometer of a CEO's greatness. It's as if _Sports Illustrated_ only put the tallest pitchers and widest goalies on its cover."

8. _Where Are the Customers' Yachts?_

[]

Author: Fred Schwed

Summary: The title of this vastly entertaining exposé refers to a visitor to a Wall Street firm who, after seeing photos of the brokers' various yachts, asked "Where are the customer's yachts?" The point being, of course, that stock brokerages are set up to make brokers rich, often at the expense of their customers. What's fascinating, and also unsettling, is that this book was originally published six decades ago, thereby making it a perfect illustration of the adage "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public."

Best Quote: "Customers have an unfortunate habit of asking about the financial future. Now, if you do someone the single honor of asking him a difficult question, you may be assured that you will get a detailed answer. Rarely will it be the most difficult of all answers -- 'I don't know.'"

question: Which audience does this article target?

answer: High-tech entrepreneurs and investors.

question: What are some of the themes of the articles listed?

answer: Investing and the stock market.

question: What would happen if there were an accepted metric for measuring the performance of CEOs?

answer: There would not be as much of a focus on magazine standards like the Fortune 100, which measure a company's growth in revenues and profits.

question: What would have likely happened to the company Brahma if the corporate culture did not encourage meritocracy, relentless cost control, hard work, and a lot of pressure?

answer: They likely would not have become the biggest company in their sector at the global level.


text:
ST. GREGORY THE GREAT CHURCH is a church in Rome, in the Magliana district, in Piazza Certaldo.

Description

It was built in the twentieth century by the architect Aldo Aloysi. The church is located in an elevated position with respect to the square outside, and is accessed by a ladder on the left side. exposed totally built of reinforced concrete, the church is flanked by a high bell tower, which features a statue of Christ with outstretched arms.

The church is the home of the parish, established December 14, 1963 by decree of the Cardinal Vicar Clemente Micara “Neminem sane latet”. The church is linked to the titular church of “St. Gregory the Great at Magliana Nuova”, instituted by Pope John Paul II February 21, 2001.

On April 6, 2014 he received the visit of Pope Francis.

List of Cardinal Protectors

-   Geraldo Majella Agnelo 21 February 2001 - present

title: San Gregorio Magno alla Magliana Nuova

question: Where is the St. Gregory the Great Church located?

answer: The church is located in Rome, in the Magliana district in Piazza Certaldo.

question: When and by who was the church built by?

answer: The church was built by the architect, Aldo Aloysi, in the twentieth century.

question: When did the church become the home of the parish?

answer: The church became the home of the parish in December 14, 1963.

question: What part of the church is the biggest visual attraction?

answer: The church is described as having a high bell tower flanked to it which features a statue of Christ with outstretched arms.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: A description of the building and history of establishment of the St. Gregory the Great Church in Rome is provided in this article.


text:
HOW TO COIL A ROPE IN THREE EASY STEPS WITH THE FIREMAN'S COIL KNOT. The Fireman's Coil is a knot for keeping coiled rope under control. There are several good knots for coiling a rope but one benefit of the Fireman's Coil is that it can be released by a simple pull of a rope end. Many folks are stymied when coiling a rope and needing to finish it off with a knot to keep it under control. The Fireman's Coil is one of the the easiest methods to accomplish this task. The completed knot also creates a rope hook for hanging. Other good coil knots include: THE ALPINE COIL, THE QUICKIE COIL and THE SAILOR'S COIL

Scroll to see ANIMATED FIREMAN'S COIL KNOT below the illustration and tying instructions.

[ How to coil a rope with the Fireman's Coil]

Fireman's Coil Knot Tying Instructions

-   Make a coil with your rope by looping it in circles. Use one hand to make the circles and the other to hold them in place.
-   Take the working end of rope (the end after the last coil is made) and make a loop mid rope at the top of the coils.Take hold of the working end just below the loop and bring to back side of coil and run it up through the loop. That essentially makes a loop going through a loop.
-   Tighten down the first loop onto the second loop. This loop can be used for a hanging hook. Pull on the end of the rope to release.

Swiffy Output

question: What is one benefit of the Fireman's coil?

answer: It can be released by a simple pull of a rope end

question: What is the knot called?

answer: Fireman's Coil Knot

question: What is the first step in the Fireman's Coil Knot Tying instructions?

answer: "Make a coil with your rope by looping it in circles."

question: What are the other good coil knots?

answer: The Alpine Coil, The Quickie Coil, and the Sailor's Coil

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: The Fireman's Coil Knot is described. How to tie the knot instructions are included as well as the benefits of the knot.


text:
Sunday, The Gateway Pundit’s Lucian Wintrich took the stage with Big League Politics’ Cassandra Fairbanks at the “Rally Against Political Violence” in Washington, D.C.

The whole focus of Lucian’s speech was to disavow some of the violent tactics used by people on the right in getting Trump elected and the violent tactics employed by right-wing supporters since Trump’s election . . . Wintrich brought Fairbanks along as his official fact-checker since the MSM frequently calls out the Gateway Pundit for lack of adequate fact-checking.

Wintrich brought up a number of instances wherein the right acted in disgusting, aggressive ways. Who can forget this instance Wintrich brought up?

  “Okay, the Jewish man who went on the news – he woke up, he just woke up, Jewish guy waking up in the morning and there are swastikas that are, for whatever reason, spray painted on his property – that was awful of us to do.”

Fairbanks jumped in to promptly correct Lucian, seeing as she was there as his fact-checker:

TRENDING: Crowd Erupts in Cheers as Giuliani Tells AZ State Lawmakers: "Your Political Career is Worth Losing if You Can Save the Right to Vote in America" (VIDEO)

  “He did it himself and we’re not even sure if he’s actually Jewish . . .”

After the speech, Wintrich commented:

  “I came to the rally today to disavow some of the political violence those of us on the right have committed and I think I was successful in pointing out who the real perpetrators are.”

You can watch Lucian’s speech below along with a few other highlights from today’s rally:

question: What role does Cassandra Fairbanks have?

answer: She participates as a fact-checker for Lucian Wintrich.

question: Which example does the article outline?

answer: The article mentions Wintrich saying it was awful that a Jewish guy woke up with his house covered in spray-painted swastikas. Fairbanks interjects to point out that the guy did it himself, and they aren't sure whether he's actually Jewish.

question: What is Wintrich's message?

answer: He wants to disavow the political violence perpetrated by his colleagues.

question: Why was political violence first used?

answer: To make sure Trump got elected.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: The article mentions Lucian Wintrich's disavowment of political violence in his speech. It also talks about his personal fact-checker Cassandra Fairbanks interjecting to correct a statement about a guy who may or may not be Jewish that painted his own house with swastikas when Wintrich thought the guy was being bullied.


text:
_PARAPISTOCALAMUS_ is a genus of venomous snake in the family Elapidae.

Species

The genus _Parapistocalamus_ contains the sole species _PARAPISTOCALAMUS HEDIGERI_, commonly known as HEDIGER'S CORAL SNAKE.[1]

Etymology

The specific name, _hedigeri_, is in honor of Swiss biologist Heini Hediger.[2]

Geographic range

_P. hedigeri_ is found in Papua New Guinea.[3]

Description

_P. hedigeri_ is a small slender snake. The average total length (including tail) is , and the maximum recorded total length is . The head is only slightly wider than the neck. The eye is small, and the pupil is round. The smooth dorsal scales are arranged in 15 rows at midbody. Dorsally, it is uniform brown, and ventrally it is yellowish. It may have a lighter collar.[4]

Habitat

The preferred habitat of _P. hedigeri_ is forest.[5]

Behavior

_P. hedigeri_ is crepuscular or nocturnal. It burrows in leaf litter and rotten logs.[6]

Reproduction

_P. hediger_ is probably oviparous.[7]

[1]

[2] Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). _The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles_. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (_Parapistocalamus hedigeri_, p. 119).

[3]

[4] O'Shea, Mark (1996). _A Guide to the Snakes of Papua New Guinea_. Port Moresby: Independent Publishing. xii + 239 pp. . (_Parapistocalamus hedigeri_, pp. 146-147 + Map 22).

[5]

[6]

[7]

title: Parapistocalamus

question: What is Parapistocalamus?

answer: a genus of venomous snake in the family Elapidae

question: How many species are in the genus Parapistocalamus?

answer: one

question: What is the name of the species in the genus Parapistocalamus?

answer: hedigeri

question: What does P. hedigeri look like?

answer: P. hedigeri is a small slender snake with a head only slightly wider than its neck.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: Parapistocalamus is a genus of venomous snake containing only one species: P. hedigeri.