text:
Hint: It’s not the price…that’s the least interesting thing about it.

[Gang Green]

Forget the headlines, anything friends / family have told you, forget the voice in your head telling yourself, “I’m not smart enough to figure this out, or investing is not for me.” You _CAN_ __ understand it.

Part of fully understanding a topic is being able to explain simply to anyone.

I’ve taken my months of extensive research and peeled back everything except what you _ACTUALLY_ need to know to, in order to have that satisfying _AHA!!_ moment.

Give this article 10 minutes of your _FULL_ focus and using simple English (no dictionary.com required) and through simple everyday examples you’ll _get_ what makes Bitcoin / CryptoCurrency truly revolutionary and the real reason why you should be excited about it. Spend the 15 minutes, and you will probably also own a bank owner’s yacht in the near future! Seriously.

Pep talk over, let’s dive in!

___________________________________________________________________

[Image for post]

One thing almost all of us actually take part in, or at least can understand is getting paid via direct deposit.

You give your employer your bank account number, and on payday you can login to your banking app and see the money you got paid was added to your previous balance.

Hearing that Bitcoin is “Digital money” might sound scary, but guess what, that whole direct deposit thing, that’s “digital money” too. In fact, if you’re paying for things with a debit / credit card most of the time (like us normal sane humans), those transactions are purely “digital money” as well.

Hardly anyone uses cash anymore, and society is moving towards purely “digital money” _either way!_ Be it through digital Banking or Bitcoin.

So what does that mean? At least to me, it means that my money is simply a number displayed on a screen somewhere, rather than feeling how fat my pocket feels. That number is your balance.

__________________________________________________________________

That makes that number’s accuracy _REALLY DAMN_ important to everyone. If you logged in and saw your balance was $5000.00 today, logged in tomorrow and it said $400.00, but you didn’t spend any money, you’d be pissed.

Who do we currently trust that number’s accuracy with? Bank owned software running on computers owned by a bank.

Bitcoin is the idea that we should place our trust in software and computers owned by everyone (thousands of nerds like me around the world who know how to set it up).

__________________________________________________________________

_GREAT_, but what’s the advantage of that / what does that mean for me?

To answer that, let’s get back to our direct deposit scenario.

Whether it’s a Bank’s software or Bitcoin’s software, at the end of the day, your balance (that number we really care about) is just text and numbers living on a file on a computer somewhere.

Don’t let your eyes glaze over, this is really simple. Chances are you’ve saved a Microsoft Word or Google doc file before. We’ll call this one “AccountBalances.doc”.

The Bank’s “AccountBalances.doc ”file might look like this.

999922334 — — — — — — — — — — $1,000.00 — — — — Jane’s Employer

000123456 — — — — — — — — — — $50.00- — — — — — Jane

Let’s examine how the “AccountBalances.doc” file might look after the Bank’s software updates the file following a direct deposit transaction takes place where Jane’s employer pays Jane $300.

999922334 — — — — — — — — — — $680.00 — — — — Jane’s Employer

000123456 — — — — — — — — — — $350.00 — — — — Jane

Wait, why does Jane’s employer have $680.00 instead of $700.00? The Bank charged a $20.00 fee for updating their digital “AccountBalances.doc ”file on all their computers and _helping_ Jane’s employer pay Jane.

__________________________________________________________________

Let’s look at that same scenario play out in the Bitcoin world.

999922334 — — — — — — — — — — $1,000.00 — — — — Jane’s Employer

000123456 — — — — — — — — — — $50.00- — — — — — Jane

After the direct deposit transaction where Jane got paid $300 by her employer, after the magic Bitcoin software works, the file might look like this.

999922334 — — — — — — — — — — $689.99— — — — — Jane’s Employer

000123456 — — — — — — — — — — $359.99 — — — — — Jane

Jane’s Employer was only charged 2 cents for paying Jane, and $19.98 was saved. Jane’s employer decided to keep $9.99 of the savings they saved for using Bitcoin, and give the other $9.99 to Jane.

___________________________________________________________________

Let’s explore a little more what having Bitcoin software and computers, owned by everyone, updating the “AccountBalances.doc” file means, vs having the Banks software and computers update it.

What it means is that people now have the power to pay one another without the need for a Bank or PayPal or Venmo. Also not have to pay such high fees. That means your paycheck is fatter, or if you’re a business owner your profits are higher. The only person who loses is the bank executives who are on a yacht somewhere bought with the high fees they charged people.

If you’re particularly inquisitive, you might be asking yourself, “But why was there still a .02c fee still and who received it?

Nerds like me who setup their computers to run the Bitcoin software and update “AccountBalances.doc” get the fees. Bitcoin calls those people miners.

Maybe you’ve heard of Bitcoin mining and the article made it sound mysterious, but it’s not, it’s literally nerds double clicking some software on their computers that update the “AccountBalances.doc” file so that when Jane logs in and looks at her balance the right number is displayed.

___________________________________________________________________

Maybe you’re still like, “So, lower fees…that’s what is so revolutionary?” No. It’s that kids born today won’t recognize a bank from today, because Bitcoin will either replace them or so drastically change the way they work. Let’s review and quickly go over again what any of us really cares about.

Money is becoming digital whether you want it to or not. Money is logging in somewhere and looking at a number on a screen. That number on the screen stays accurate by software on computers updating the “AccountBalances.doc ” file.

Therefore, what we really care about is the “AccountBalances.doc” file staying safe. Let’s look at this from a Bitcoin vs Bank security standpoint.

In Today’s world the “AccountBalances.doc” file is stored on probably about 1,000 computers the bank owns, in different physical locations all around the world. The reason it’s on so many computers in so many locations is so that a meteor doesn’t hit one building with the computer in it that holds the “AccountBalances.doc” file and wipe out everyone’s balances.

When the meteor hits the one place, the file is safe because it’s still stored on other computers located in different physical location. Btw, this concept is also what the “cloud” is, you know that thing that keeps your photos / videos safe, the “cloud” is just a bunch of computers in different locations all holding the same files, whether they be “AccountBalances.doc” or an image file.

ANYWAY, back to Bitcoin. Bitcoin’s “AccountBalances.doc” file lives on 12,000 computers owned by individuals all over the world (The world’s biggest, most secure “cloud”).

Let’s say you wanted everyone’s balances to go to 0 by destroying the “AccountBalances.doc” file on all the computers that host the file. Does it seem easier to set bombs off at 10 big buildings owned by the banks at different places in the world, or does it seem easier to destroy 12,000 individuals’ computers holding the “AccountBalances.doc” file in 70 different countries?

You’d probably say blowing up the 10 buildings owned by the bank, and you’d be right. By the time you blew up computer 11,800 in the Bitcoin cloud, 3 more nerds in 3 random countries probably already setup their computer that hosts the “AccountBalances.doc” file on it. The 10 locations with bank owned computers don’t change all that often.

You might also now _get_ the “cloud”, and think that both options are really secure, but pretend North Korea got their act together and built super fast accurate missiles, and had 10 of them. Theoretically they could now target 10 locations with banked owned computers and wipe out all our money if those 10 missiles were to hit their targets. In Bitcoin’s case, they’d have to shoot 12,000 missiles to locations all over the world at once to destroy all money.

___________________________________________________________________

Ok, so paying less fees and the “AccountBalances.doc” digital file being more secure because it’s stored on more computers around the world at once is what makes this revolutionary? I’m still not sold.

I simplified things a little to make this easier to digest, but in the real world, there are thousands of banks in all different countries. So there are actually thousands of the “AccountBalances.doc” files all owned by different banks and on different sets of computers owned by those different banks.

That complicates things. Let’s say you live in the US and visit Japan. Once you’re in japan your bank doesn’t even exist there. Your $50,000 balance in your american bank account is now meaningless there. You now have to convert some of that money into Japan’s money. Doing that means your bank has to communicate with Japan’s bank, and they both have to figure out how to do the conversion math and both update their “AccountBalances.doc” files.

Doing that isn’t easy, and wire transfers between countries can often times take 7 days because of it, and charge outrageous fees. With Bitcoin, there’s only one “AccountBalances.doc” file, and when you login and look at your balance, that amount of money is the same amount of money anywhere around the globe. It’s a truly global currency, and way less complicates things. Paying for things in another country with Bitcoin is also instant, and certainly doesn’t take 7 days.

Saving $19.98 in our direct deposit example isn’t that exciting, but saving $500.00 and having your money available instantly when you travel to another country, is starting to get more exciting.

Maybe you don’t travel, but even when you buy from other countries. You might have noticed a lot of the time that’s pretty expensive. Reducing such high international fees by only having one global “AccountBalances.doc” file means the prices of foreign goods will be much less and the world can trade with each other much more easily.

_________________________________________________________________

Ok, so bigger paychecks, less fees, cheaper foreign products, and an easier way to use money when visiting another country. Getting closer to revolutionary, but I’m still not sold.

________________________________________________________________

Ok fine, how about this? Only about 3 Billion of the 7.5 billion people on earth have access to bank accounts and financial services. With Bitcoin anyone who gets their hands on a Smartphone now has the power to use financial services and transact with anyone else in the world.

Now we’ve added: empowering over half the world to participate in the global economy.

Let’s not stop there though. Bitcoin is also programmable money, meaning money that can do things automagically. What’s programmable money mean?

It means that when a devastating earthquake or hurricane hits an area, money, that people choose to allocate for emergency relief, can automatically leave their account and go to the people hit by the devastation, instantly. That means money wasn’t wasted on advertising campaigns (text 55555 to “HELP” to donate) or charity organizers who help get the money from you to them. MORE money automatically gets to EXACTLY who needs it FASTER.

Also, your 4g enabled car can pay for parking by the second, instead of in 15-minute chunks, all automatically, in Bitcoin. So if you walk to your car a little faster than someone else, and get there 10 seconds faster, you pay less than someone else pays. With such low fees there is no reason to pay for things in large chunks of time, and makes paying by the second feasible.

Now your wheels should be turning. There’s also a million other ways this new programmable money with tiny fees can be used to change the world that no one has even thought of yet. It’s sort of similar to when the only thing you could do on the internet was send emails (and it took 4 days), but people said, “There are going to be a million ways to use the internet we haven’t even thought of in the future.”

That’s why if you have read that Bitcoin is as revolutionary as the internet. It actually is. It’s also similar to the internet because anyone on earth can contribute to it without getting permission from anyone.

What do I mean by that? I mean that no one needs permission in any country to put a website on the internet. They can just do it, and anyone in the world can see the website. With Bitcoin anyone can transact with anyone else in the world, without having to ask permission from banks or customs agents or anything. Just like with putting up a website.

_________________________________________________________________

Hopefully by now your mind is racing with possibilities and you’re super excited to share this with everyone. Also hopefully, I did my job well enough that you think even your mom could understand the article and are pumped to share it with her. Don’t just send her the link. Do her dishes, or walk her dog, or something else that saves he time and tell her that you’re doing it so she has 15 extra minutes and to read this, and to read it seriously. Tell her to treat it like a class assignment and take it seriously. Don’t push her or anyone to invest, let them get excited on their own with the AHA!! moment hits and ask you how to invest.

If you’re confused or not excited, read it again from the top. Repeat until it sinks in and you are excited. Also don’t stop with just your mom, share it with everyone as soon as possible, so that your paychecks are fatter, so that people around the world can have access to banking, and most importantly to change the world.

__________________________________________________________________

What about my Yacht?

If this article did sink in for you, congrats, you now realize this is the future of money and know more than 99% of the people who claim to be “In the know” about Bitcoin. Armed with that knowledge you can now invest the proper way and be rich within 10 years.

A lot of people will hear about Bitcoin, not really understand it at this level, and sell it when their $1,000 turns into $10,000 in 1 or 2 years, but you don’t want $10,000 you want to own a Bank Owners yacht in 10 years.

The proper way to get there is to buy as much Bitcoin as you can afford to right now, without changing your life in any significant way, forgetting about it for 10 years, and educating people about this new technology, to help accelerate mainstream adoption (it’ll happen even if you don't, but _slightly_ more slowly).

Pretend you were there when electricity was first invented, you knew everyone was going to want it. Owning Bitcoin is sort of like owning the power poles and power plants and other infrastructure that s this new awesome product to all these people (electricity).

You are that early. You can still own a piece of the infrastructure and everyone is going to want it in the future, just like they all want electricity now.

If you invest, and you don’t sell it until Bitcoin takes over money in the world, then rich people’s dollars will be worth next to nothing and they will want Bitcoin instead. You know how those people will get your bitcoin from you? By selling you their yachts and private jets.

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If you have questions and enjoyed this article, feel free to follow me on medium. I’ll do new Bitcoin articles from time to time. Maybe go over mining in more detail, maybe go over how to buy Bitcoin, why choose Bitcoin over other CryptoCurrencies, and lots of other things. If you don’t want to wait and are eager to learn more, please watch all the videos on this Youtube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJWCJCWOxBYSi5DhCieLOLQ

Thanks for reading! Please share this everywhere and help change the world!

question: What method of receiving payment is emphasized in this article?

answer: Direct Deposit

question: What two modes of banking are discussed in this article?

answer: Bank Direct Deposit and Bitcoin

question: How do we know the narrator is a credible source?

answer: The narrator states they have done months of extensive research to present the happenings of Bitcoin.

question: How is Bitcoin described?

answer: It is described as an idea that people should place trust in software and computers owned by everyone.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: A very in-depth description of what Bitcoin is, what it holds for the future, and why people should invest in Bitcoin is all discussed.


split: train

text:
[]

November 5, 2012 / 1:43 PM / MoneyWatch

(MoneyWatch) "Tomorrow is election day. If you vote for [Candidate A], the business will suffer. Therefore, everyone should make sure to vote for [Candidate B]."

Would such communications be legal or illegal if coming from your boss? In the run-up to tomorrow's presidential election, there have been reports of companies dictating to employees how they should vote.

It's worth noting that your vote is private. Unless you declare who you intend to vote for, your boss has no way of knowing how you cast your ballot. But employment attorney Donna Ballman, author of"Stand Up For Yourself Without Getting Fired," says that in a private business it is almost always legal for a boss to attempt to influence employees'vote.

-   Keep politics out of business

However, there are restrictions. Some states have laws that limit what managers can say. For instance, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and a handful of other states prohibit businesses from posting notices saying that they will be shut down if a particular candidate is victorious at the ballot box. And if you work for the federal government, of course, it's illegal for your boss to try to influence your vote.

But just because something is legal doesn't make it wise. Employment attorney Jon Hyman, author of "The Employer Bill of Rights," writes that managers are better off not trying to influence how workers vote:

  Legal or illegal, however, you need to ask yourself whether holding captive audience meetings to discuss political issues, threatening employees' jobs or mandating their attendance at political events is a valid business practice. How you answer the question of whether you think it's okay to try to shape or influence your employees' votes helps to define the kind of employer you are. Voting is an intensely personal choice. I don't think it's my business how my family members cast their votes. I certainly don't think it's an employer's business how its employees cast their votes. Voting booths have privacy curtains for a reason. Exercise some discretion by not invading that privacy of your workers.

Business owners may assume that electing a given candidate will spell doom for the company -- and they may be absolutely right. But causing anxiety about a company's prospects and making it clear that you'll be unhappy with employees if they vote a particular way, or even expressing mild disapproval, is unlikely to make for a very happy workforce.

Even if an employee agrees with your political assessment, pushing someone to vote according to your desires will result in that person feeling pressured and under-valued. Worse, pressuring someone with opposing political views can result in your star performer looking for a new job regardless of the election outcome. The last thing your business needs is to lose a quality employee.

If your boss starts pressuring you, or even jokes about making sure you vote for the right candidate, don't start screaming that he or she is violating your rights and freedoms. Ignore what the boss says and vote for the person you think will be best for the job.

_Photo courtesy of Flickr user ©HTO3_

question: Where is it illegal for a boss to try to influence their employees vote?

answer: Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and other states.

question: Why is it bad to try to influence your workers' vote?

answer: It's invading their privacy; you might alienate a star employee.

question: Is it illegal everywhere to try to influence a worker's vote?

answer: No.

question: What should an employee do if their boss tries to influence their vote?

answer: Ignore them.

question: Write a ~5 sentence summary.

answer: It is all too common for employers to try to influence their employees' vote. It should be noted that one's vote is private. There are some states in which there are restrictions on what an employer can say regarding voting, but not all states make it illegal to try to influence the vote. Conveying a voting preference may alienate or poison the workforce. Employers should avoid trying to influence their employees' vote and employees should ignore any efforts to do so.


text:
_BOIGA SCHULTZEI_, commonly known as the SCHULTZE'S BLUNT-HEADED TREE SNAKE, is a species of snake in the family Colubridae. The species is endemic to the Philippines.

Etymology

The specific name, _schultzei_, is in honor of Willie Schultze in whose private collection E.H. Taylor found the specimen which would become the holotype.[1][2]

Geographic range

_B. schultzei_ is found on the island of Palawan, Philippines.[3]

Habitat

The preferred natural habitat of _B. schultzei_ is forest, at altitudes from sea level to .[4]

Description

_B. schultzei_ may attain a snout-to-vent length (SVL) of , plus a tail long.[5]

Diet

_B. schultzei_ preys upon lizards, such as the gecko ''Gehyra mutilata.[6]

Reproduction

_B. schultzei_ is oviparous.[7]

[1] Taylor (1923).

[2]

[3]  www.reptile-database.org.

[4]

[5]

[6] Greene (1989).

[7]

title: Boiga schultzei

question: What is the BOIGA SCHULTZEI?

answer: A species of tree snake in the Colubridae family.

question: Where is the species found?

answer: It is endemic to the Philippines

question: Where is BOIGA SCHULTZEI's habitat?

answer: The preferred natural habitat is forests.

question: What makes up BOIGA SCHULTZEI's diet?

answer: It preys upon lizards.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: The BOIGA SCHULTZEI is a species of tree snake in the endemic to the Philippines, specifically the forest and preys mostly on lizards.


text:
  ----------------------------------- ------------------
     --------- --- --- --- --- -----
      QUARTER   1   2   3   4   TOT

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

                | DATES

                | CITY

              | STADIUMS

                RESULTS

            | [Gold] Winner

         | [Silver] Runners-Up

         | [Bronze] 3rd Place
  ----------------------------------- ------------------

  : 2017 EUROPEAN JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP

The 2017 EUROPEAN JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP was the 13th European Junior Championship. It was held from July 14 to July 16, 2017 in Paris.[1]

Qualification

A total of eight teams reported to enter for qualification. Therefore, two four-nation tournaments were scheduled, with the winners of these tournaments earning a spot for the final tournament in Paris. Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland were grouped together while the other tournament was planned with Serbia, Italy, Russia and Hungary.[2] As a consequence of the conflict of two organisations, both claiming to be the real IFAF, some weeks before the start of the qualification, a second European Junior Championship was announced to be held in Denmark.[3] Russia and Hungary thus withdrew their participation in the Serbian qualification tournament.[4]

Tournament in Serbia

Russia and Hungary withdrew. Italy qualified by a victory over host Serbia.

  Date   Home team   Result   Away team   Ref
  ------ ----------- -------- ----------- -----
         Serbia      6–7       ITALY      [5]

Tournament in the Netherlands

All matches were played in Almere. Germany won both games with a shutout and thus qualified for the final tournament in Paris.

  Date             Home team     Result   Away team      Ref
  ---------------- ------------- -------- -------------- -----
  2 June 2017      GERMANY       51–0     Switzerland
  2 June 2017      Netherlands   6–14      SPAIN
  3rd place game
  4 June 2017      Netherlands   20–21     SWITZERLAND
  Final
  4 June 2017      GERMANY       43–0     Spain          [6]

Final tournament

Qualified teams

-   (host nation)

-   (defending champion)

-   (tournament in Serbia)

-   (tournament in Netherlands)

Bracket

Matches

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

title: 2017 European Junior Championship of American football

question: List the countries that qualified for the tournament?

answer: Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Serbia, Italy, Russia, Hungary

question: Why did two nations withdraw from the tournament?

answer: A conflict about who was the real IFAF resulted in a second tournament being scheduled in Denmark.

question: Who won the tournament?

answer: Germany

question: By how many points did Germany beat Spain

answer: 43

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: This article details the 2017 European Junior Championship of American Football. It lists the teams that entered and withdrew from the tournament along with the results of the matches.


text:
First post to reddit.  I'm no writer but wrote this for the fun a week ago.  I'd love some feedback.
*************************************

	With a crash and a flash and a bash and a smash: Two young males struggled into the small apartment.  The door slammed open and with a screeching dragged gravel across  the tile floor, before coming to a halt.  The two boys stumbled over the threshold, streetlight streaming in from behind them lighting up the entry in a dulled yellow half light and throwing shadows into the hallway and kitchen.  The boys rolled after these shadows, chasing them inside.

	The sudden crash and flash were alarming and the sudden commotion paralyzed the third guest in the house.  And as the shadows thrown by the streetlight faded, accompanied once more with the screeching tiles, this unwelcome guest slunk as far into the dark as it could.  Attempting to envelope himself in the darkness, but his quivering body had not much room to creep.  Only the meagre shelter allowed beneath the lip of a soup plate, the only refuge offered in this stainless pit, which was quickly becoming a dungeon.

	Stainless steel imbues a feeling of clean and modernity, extravagant kitchens stamped with the big names of interior designers.  This first assumption must be corrected.  For the house the two boys stumbled inside had a different feeling.  It was the house of four-boys, four twenty year old college boys, in an aging brick and plaster building of little portugal.  Furnished comfortably with all the loving care mothers and fathers have when their children grow up and go off to college.  But this current state of disarray is not how those parents left it.  The furniture was haphazardly rearranged, and fallen couch cushions crudely assembled circles around the beer stained dining and coffee tables.  And the impressive collection of empty cans and bottles, lay littered upon every horizontal surface.  Like common nicknacks, making the boys feel right at home.  All that was curious was the out of place modern sink, sticking out like a sore thumb beneath a cupboard hanging limply by its only remaining hinge.

	And it is in this sink, huddled under a soup plate with a rim stained by chilli sauce and beans, backed up onto a cold, empty, dented, metal beer can the third guest was hid.  The brief calm submitted once again to the boys clatter, as the concentration required to balance while removing shoes abated.  Their decisive pounding gait rekindled, and it brought these young giants across the scratched pinewood flooring onto the brown ceramic kitchen tile.  With foresight one wouldn't expect from the boys in their state, one of them stomped purposely towards the sink in search of a large glass of water, to help stave off the worst of tomorrow morning's inevitable ailments.  The second closed in on the kitchen as well and with a click, flicked on the light switch.

	The growing proximity of the broad shouldered boys in their denim dress shirts and scraggly unkempt beard hair had the hidden sink prisoner already on edge.  His silent quest for a midnight morsel had led him down into this hell hole.  And more and more the half nibbled Romano bean an inch from his whisker seemed a meagre prize to take such risks.  Fretting, regretting, and still quivering; the mouse lay still, without a squeak or a peep, cowering ever more tightly to the dented blue can.  But his nerves got the best of him.  And as the sudden blinding incandescent bulbs evaporated the moonlit apartment into the clear resolve of the twentieth century, it drew forth a characteristic squeak from the kitchen's midnight guest.  The boys had heard it, he had no doubt.  And the bright lighting reflecting from all angles exposed him inn his hiding place.  But the mouse did not wimpier and cower, the mouse's resolve for life redoubled, as if his mean squeak was instead a battle cry reverberating off the reflective walls.  His clandestine methods were immediately abandoned and with a scuttle (caused from the poor grip of claws on stainless steel) stormed into the flooded light of the sink basin.

	The squeak and the scuttle coming from the sink procured an uncharacteristic yelp from the boys in the kitchen, as the small noises caused the young men to flinch backwards.  An unlikely response for moments before they had been unfazed by their own cacophonous stomping.  And this frightened call only further pervaded the mouse with a sense of determination and zeal.  The walls were too tall to jump and the smooth steel only scratched as the mouse tried in vain to climb free from this damp pit.  But the mouse was not disheartened, and with a beady eye spotted and plotted his escape.  With the lightning reflex that had so frightened those brave rugged boys, the mouse scrabbled back to his soup plate.  But not into its shadow, triumphantly he climbed, clambering onto the porcelain rim and basking in the full glow of the electric bulbs.  His fervent goal--a wooden stirring spatula leaning upright on the edge of a small metal pot .  Cast into the sink after serving up the chilli, the utensil was now serving as a tool in the mouse's escape.  Serving up justice, for death is too high a price to pay for a nibble of a discarded Romano bean!

	His paws moved deftly over the spoon, hand over hand as he had finally found a proper surface for which to grip his claws.  The edge mere inches away, and past that the cluttered countertop with a neglected hole in the corner baseboard.  Any specialist of mouse facial expressions (a field of study beginning and ending outside of the human species) would've recognized the excitement and elation between our hero's whiskers.  But this did not last long, for while those few inches of sink basin, plate rim, soup pot, and spatula handle were being navigated the boys were reacting.  At first with laughter over his friend's feminine squeal, but then with a new found home owners responsibility.  With malice in his eye the young man closed the gap to the sink, the metallic scratches had given way to subtler noises as the mouse had found his way onto the spatula.

	The mouse ran quickly, but was not fast enough, and with a look of dread watched as the boys bony knuckles barred his freedom, by grasping the end of the spatula.  The boy flicked and shook the it, and it was too much, the spatula was wrenched free from the mouse's desperate grasp, and he was thrown up into the air.

	The specialist in mouse facial expression would've definitively noted this new expression as a look of dread.  Utter terror spanned from his eyes to his whiskers to his tiny mouth, as he fell backwards, once more into his stainless steel prison.  Legs shot out in all directions, while his tail squirmed.  But there was nothing to grasp but thin air, and the sobering realization that he may not make it back to his hole tonight.

	With a soft thud he landed hard on his back on the cold damp steel.  The once prized Romano bean lay beside him, taunting him.  A sad reward to have forfeited so much for.  After the mouse came the spatula, coming down quickly as the boy swung the blade after his foe.  With a smash and a squelch the end of the spatula came down over the mouse, and the boys paused for a moment.  Curiosity got the best of them and as they both crowded around the sink they peeled back the spatula and peaked underneath.  The boys wrinkled their noses in disgust.  With nothing but contempt they threw the mouse into a plastic bag and then the trash.  With only feelings of disgust and disdain, they laid the mouse to rest.  Upset, because having to clean up the guts of a mouse is too high a price to pay for leaving a few dishes in the sink.

title: Mouse Hunt

question: According to the passage, how did a rat came to be in the kitchen?

answer:
Two boys entered the kitchen and put on the light. The banging of the door and the flash of light startled the mouse in the kitchen into action. It ran across the kitchen and as the boys sped after it. After minutes of chase, the boys finally killed the mouse with a spatula, its guts splattered on the floor.

The kitchen in question used to be neat and tidy. However, with the presence of four boys of college-age and no discernable adult supervision, the kitchen fell into disarray with unwashed utensils and unswept floors, hence attracting vermin.


text:
FINDLINK

Purpose

This popular utility is an Excel add-in which searches a workbook for a specified string (usually representing a link to another workbook) and tells you where in the workbook it occurs, optionally replacing formulas that include the string with their current values.

It can thus be used to find out why you are unexpectedly getting a message like this on opening the workbook
[].
and, by replacing the formulas that contain the links with their values it can prevent the message from appearing in future.

The current version is for Excel 2007 or later. For Excel 2003 or earlier please go here

Installation

-   The current version for Excel 2007 and later is 12.1  Download it here
-   Extract FindLink.xlam from the zip file to a folder on your computer
-   Check that Windows has not marked it as a Blocked file. Using Windows Explorer, in the folder where you extracted Findink.xlam, right-click Findlink.xlam > Properties > General and click the Unblock button if it is present
-   You can choose whether to install FindLink as an add-in so that it is available whenever you are running Excel or whether to just open it when you want to use it.
-   To install as an add-in in Excel 2007
    -   Office Button > Excel Options > Add-Ins > Manage: Excel Add-Ins > Go > Browse to where you saved FindLink.xlam, Select FindLink.xlam and click OK
-   To install as an add-in in Excel 2010 or later
    -   File > Options > Add-Ins > Manage: Excel Add-Ins > Go > Browse to where you saved FindLink.xlam, Select FindLink.xlam and click OK
-   To run it once without installing it as an add-in:
    -   In Excel 2007: Office Button > Open > FindLink.xlam
    -   In other versions, File > Open > FindLink.xlam
    -   If you are warned about the presence of macros in the file, enable the content.
    -   If you are offered the opportunity to trust the publisher (Bill Manville Associates), do so.

Use

-   FindLink adds a "Find Links" command in a BMA group on the Data ribbon
    -   If it does not appear when FindLink is open, check that FindLink.xlam is not marked as blocked (see above)
-   For compatibility with earlier version it also  adds a "Find Links" menu item to the Add-Ins ribbon
    -   If that does not appear, check that the add-ins tab is not disabled in File > Options > Customize RIbbon
-   Click either of these Find Links commands on the ribbon, and FindLink displays a dialog:

         []

-   Usually FindLink is asked to find a particular filename to which there are links in the workbook, or ".xl" to find links to any Excel files
-   It looks through the active workbook for formulas that include a string specified by the user. It looks in defined names, cell formulas and also in any objects which can be linked to data in cells (e.g. chart series, data labels, textboxes, data validation lists, conditional formatting formulas).
-   There are options to make a list in a worksheet of everywhere that the specified string was found, and/or to remove all occurrences of the string (e.g. by replacing formulas with values) or to give a message for each occurrence, allowing the user to decide on an action:

         []

-   NOTE: If you are looking for links to an installed add-in they will not be found unless you either de-install the add-in or launch Excel in Safe mode (hold down Ctrl key while starting Excel) to prevent the add-infrom loading. If you use Safe mode you would then need to open FINDLINK explicitly.

What's new

-   Version 12.1 overcomes an issue with chart series that have more than 32767 points
-   Version 12.0 works on Mac Excel 365 as well as on Windows versions from 2007 to 365.  It also finds links in formulas in empty tables which would only be visible when data was added to the table.
-   Version 11.1 fixes a problem where the only instance of the sought link on a worksheet is in a merged cell
-   Version 11.0 fixes a broken link on the Help button (!)
-   Version 10.9 has some minor user interface improvements
-   Version 10.8 finds some links that were previously missed in conditional formatting and it handles large blocks of formulae more efficiently
-   Version 10.2 works when file names contain ' and also when pivottables are connected to external data sources such as PowerQuery
-   Version 10.0 improves the searching of conditional formatting formulas to include ColorScales, DataBars and IconSets
-   Version 9.9a has an updated email address for support and error reporting
-   Version 9.9 finds links in additional conditional formatting formulas (Excel 2007 and later)
-   Version 9.7 works better on Mac versions of Excel
-   Version 9.6 finds links in cells hidden by filtering
-   Version 9.5 handles axis titles better in Excel 2010

Known deficiencies

Due to limitations in the VBA object model, links will not be found in:

-   Titles of secondary axes in charts
-   Sources of custom error bars in charts
-   Rows hidden by advanced filtering

question: What is the basis of FindLink?

answer: It is an Excel add in that searches a workbook for a specified string and tells you where it is in the workbook. It can help you find out why you're getting an unexpected message and can prevent the message from appearing in the future.

question: Explain what is meant by "it can prevent the message from appearing in future".

answer: FindLink can be used to replace formulas that contain links with their values, and that prevents getting a certain unexpected message.

question: How come links can't be found in titles of secondary axes in charts?

answer: There are certain limitations in the VBA object model.

question: Why does de-installing the add-in or launching Excel in Safe mode affect add-infrom loading?

answer: That information can't be found.


text:
[Note: This article originally appeared in '50 Things You're Not Supposed To Know' by Russ Kick. Copyright © 2003 The Disinformation Company. Reprinted with permission. See disinfo.com for more information.]

When you're talking about scientists who achieved rock-star status in the second half of the twentieth century, the late astronomer and biologist Carl Sagan is right up there with Stephen Hawking. His _Cosmos_ (1980) is one of the most popular science books ever written, planting itself on the _New York Times_ bestseller list for 70 weeks and staying perpetually in print ever since. It was a companion for the PBS television series of the same name, which t along with numerous _Tonight Show_ appearance t introduced Sagan and his emphatically stated phrase "billions and billions" into pop culture. His sole novel, _Contact_, was turned into a love-it-or-hate-it movie starring Jodie Foster as an erstwhile scientist searching for extraterrestrial life, with Matthew McConaughey as a New Age flake who, inevitably, makes his own form of contact with her.

Besides his pop-culture credentials, Sagan was pals with numerous legendary Nobel Prizewinners while still in college, picked up a Pulitzer Prize for his book _Dragons of Eden_, and consulted for NASA, MIT, Cornell and RAND. He designed the human race's postcards to any aliens that might be out there t the plaque onboard the _Pioneer_ space probes and the record on the _Voyager_ probes.

So it might come as a bit of a surprise that Sagan was an avid smoker of marijuana. Some might even call him a pothead.

In his definitive biography of the celebrity scientist, Keay Davidson reveals that Sagan started smoking regularly in the 1960s and that _Dragons of Eden_ -- which won the Pulitzer -- "was obviously written under the inspiration of marijuana." Davidson says of Sagan:

  He believed the drug enhanced his creativity and insights. His closest friend of three decades, Harvard psychiatry professor Dr. Lester Grinspoon, a leading advocate of the decriminalization of marijuana, recalls an incident in the 1980s when one of his California admirers mailed him, unsolicited, some unusually high-quality pot. Grinspoon shared the joints with Sagan and his wife, Anne Druyan. Afterward, Sagan said, "Lester, I know you've only got one left, but could I have it? I've got serious work to do tomorrow and I could really use it."

Perhaps letting Sagan bogart the pot was Grinspoon's way of returning a favor, since Sagan had contributed an essay to _Marihuana Revisited_, Grinspoon's classic 1971 book on the benefits and low risks of reefer. For almost three decades, the author of this ode to Mary Jane was anonymous, but in 1999 Grinspoon revealed that "Mr. X" was Sagan.

In the essay, Sagan wrote that weed increased his appreciation of art, music, food, sex, and childhood memories, and gave him insights into scientific and social matters:

  I can remember one occasion, taking a shower with my wife while high, in which I had an idea on the origins and invalidities of racism in terms of Gaussian distribution curves. It was a point obvious [sic] in a way, but rarely talked about. I drew curves in soap on the shower wall, and went to write the idea down. One idea led to another, and at the end of about an hour of extremely hard work I had found I had written eleven short essays on a wide range of social, political, philosophical, and human biological topics... . I have used them in university commencement addresses, public lectures, and in my books.

The staunchly atheistic/humanistic Sagan comes perilously close to mysticism in some passages:

  I do not consider myself a religious person in the usual sense, but there is a religious aspect to some highs. The heightened sensitivity in all areas gives me a feeling of communion with my surroundings, both animate and inanimate. Sometimes a kind of existential perception of the absurd comes over me and I see with awful certainty the hypocrisies and posturing of myself and my fellow man. And at other times, there is a different sense of the absurd, a playful and whimsical awareness... .

  I am convinced that there are genuine and valid levels of perception available with cannabis (and probably with other drugs) which are, through the defects of our society and our educational system, unavailable to us without such drugs. Such a remark applies not only to self-awareness and to intellectual pursuits, but also to perceptions of real people, a vastly enhanced sensitivity to facial expression, intonations, and choice of words which sometimes yields a rapport so close it's as if two people are reading each other's minds.

question: Who does the author think is a rockstar scientist on par with Stephen Hawking?

answer: Carl Sagan

question: For which of his books did Sagan win a Pulitzer?

answer: "Dragons of Eden"

question: Under the intense influence of which drug was the book written?

answer: Marijuana

question: How did Sagan claim weed benefited him?

answer: It increased his appreciation of art, food, sex, and childhood memories, and gave him insights into scientific and social matters.

question: Write a ~4 sentence summary.

answer: Scientist, social and cultural commentator, and writer Carl Sagan was an intellectual on par with the likes of Stephen Hawking. It might surprise some to learn he was an avid smoker of marijuana and an advocate for it. He wrote his Pulitzer-prize winning book, "Dragons of Eden", heavily under the influence of weed. According to Sagan, smoking marijuana increased his appreciation of art, food, sex, and childhood memories, and gave him insights into scientific and social matters.


text:
PAUL NEUBAUER (born in Encino, California, in 1962) is an American violist. Neubauer was a student of Paul Doktor, Alan de Veritch and William Primrose. In August 1980, aged 17, he won the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and Workshop on the Isle of Man, which had commissioned Gordon Jacob's Viola Concerto No 2 as a test piece.[1] He gave the first public performance in 1981 as part of his prize.[2] Neubauer attended the Juilliard School, where he received his B.M. in 1982, and his M.M. in 1983. In 1984, at age 21, Neubauer became the principal violist with the New York Philharmonic[3] the youngest principal string player in the Philharmonic's history, a position he held for six years. He became an Artist Member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in 1989.

Neubauer has appeared as soloist with orchestras throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia. He has been featured on _Live from Lincoln Center_, CBS's _Sunday Morning_, _A Prairie Home Companion_, and in _Strad_, _Strings_ and _People_ magazines. He has been heard on _St. Paul Sunday Morning_, _Morning Edition_ and _Performance Today_ and appeared in _Dark Side_, a film starring Edoardo Ballerini and Ali Ahn. In 1989 he became the first violist to receive an Avery Fisher Career Grant. As well as the 1980 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition prize, Neubauer was the first prize winner of the Whitaker and D'Angelo prizes.[4]

A two-time Grammy nominee, he has recorded on numerous record labels including Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, RCA Red Seal and Sony Classical. He has appeared at the Verbier, Ravinia, Stavanger, Hollywood Bowl, Lincoln Center, Mostly Mozart, and Marlboro festivals, and has collaborated with Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, Pinchas Zukerman, Vladimir Spivakov, Gil Shaham, Isaac Stern, Yo-Yo Ma, Steven Isserlis, James Galway, Yefim Bronfman, Emanuel Ax, Alicia de Larrocha, Andre Watts, Evgeny Kissin, Leon Fleisher and Rudolf Firkušný. He performs with SPA, a trio with soprano Susanna Phillips and pianist Anne-Marie McDermott, with a wide range of repertoire including salon style songs.

Neubauer teaches at the Juilliard School, and Mannes School of Music. Among his students are Richard O’Neill, Gilad Karni, Scott Lee and Che-Yen Chen. His students have become members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Miami, Formosa, Ehnes and Calder quartets, the New York Philharmonic, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He has edited works for Boosey & Hawkes, Universal Edition and International Music Company. Neubauer is the Artistic Director of the Mostly Music Series and has been Music Director of the OK Mozart Festival, the Chamber Music Extravaganza in Curaçao and at Bargemusic.

[1] Front Matter. _Musical Times_ No 1641, November 1979, p 888

[2] Gordon Jacob: _Complete Music for Viola and Orchestra_, reviewed by MusicWeb International

[3] Libbey, Theodore; (U.S.), NPR (March 13, 2006). The NPR listener's encyclopedia of classical music. Workman Publishing. pp. 925–. .

[4]

title: Paul Neubauer

question: Summarize Neubauer's experience with the New York Philharmonic in this article.

answer: He became their youngest principal string player ever and played with them for 6 years. Later, Neubauer had students become members of the New York Philharmonic.

question: What is the main idea of paragraph two?

answer: To highlight some of Neubauer's most impressive public appearances and accomplishments.

question: Explain Neubauer's connection to the Juilliard School.

answer: Neubauer attended the Juilliard School, earning his B.M. and M.M., and later went on to teach there.

question: Given Neuabauer's reputation in this article, what is his likely level of mastery over his instrument, the viola?

answer: He is most likely a world-class violist with excellent mastery over his instrument.


text:
Just a short story i wrote, any feedback/comments would be awesome!

I lie suspended here, in my world, alone with my thoughts. I hear muffled noises coming out of the Nothing. They are the Voices, quiet, murmuring, constant.  I know not what they are, nor what their purpose is. This sometimes frustrates me, not knowing, but it is a mere inconvenience, as they have no effect upon me. The Melody however, does. Here it comes now. It makes me tremble; it makes me quiver with anticipation at the thought of what is to come. The worst thing I can ever recall, the only thing I have ever been able to recall. It is like something takes all of my nerves, every last one, and stabs them individually with a red-hot spike. Yet even this description only comes close to what it is actually like. I call it the Paroxysm. An agonizingly violent eruption of pain, that makes my ears feel like they are bleeding, and my eyeballs want to explode out of my body. Then, as quickly as it starts, the Melody fades to silence and I return to my motionless state, slowly losing consciousness, and my sanity.
When I awake, I feel something different. This is not like all the other times the Paroxysm has come. I am unable to determine what has changed, and my imagination runs wild, pouncing at possibilities, roaring at potentials, snarling at probabilities. I curl into a ball, the Change making me want to hide from the Nothing. In a blinding flash of understanding, it dawns on me. The Voices, the constant, indeterminable murmuring which had been present throughout every occurrence of the Paroxysm, are no longer reaching my ears from across the infinite expanse of the Nothing. I feel like a part of me has been removed, a part that was irreplaceable has now been replaced with silence. As I now comprehend the Change, I begin to uncurl from my foetal ball. To my relief, nothing of my surroundings appears to have changed. The absence of the Voices appears to not have had any effect apart from shaking my world to its core, and thereby disproving all my theories, as I am still suspended in the inky-black of the Nothing.
I am startled by a sudden noise, coming out of the Nothing, but terrifyingly close. My addled mind cannot make sense of it at first, but it slowly begins to form recognizable words.
“mmheo….mehllo….Hello? Hello? Hey! Welcome back. We thought we’d lost you there. I’m afraid you’ve been in a very serious accident. Can you flex your fingers for me please?”
I flex my fingers. I somehow sense the new Voice is not pleased with the result of this flexing.
“Ah.” I hear the Voice murmur something which I couldn’t quite catch. It seemed to disappear off into the Nothing.
Now I hear rattling, whirring, beeping, clicking, squeaking. Then silence. Except this silence is different from the silence in the Nothing, there the silence is so deep it screams, while here it is punctuated by a steady drum. Babum-babum.
Here is the Voice again, “I’m terribly sorry sir.”
Somehow, these words bring a flood of images. They pour at me out of the darkness. An old man and woman. A young woman in a white dress. Three small children. A party. A fire. A car. A crash. A burn. Then I collapse once again into the safety of the Nothing. The gentle sound of the Melody washes over me once more, yet somehow I know that the Paroxysm will not come again.

title: The Melody (600-ish words)

question: What is the story's setting?

answer: The story is set in the narrator's mind. He goes in-depth into his thoughts.

question: What does the story say about the narrator?

answer: The narrator is thinking to himself. He hears voices that are murmuring and constant. He fears what he calls "The Melody".

question: What does the narrator mean by "the Melody"?

answer: The Melody is something the narrator hears in his head that he fears. It is like something that takes all of his nerves and stabs them individually with a red-hot spike. As quickly as it starts, Melody fades to silence.

question: What does the story say about "the new Voice"?

answer: When the narrator adjusts to "the Nothing" and flexes his fingers, the new Voice is not pleased with this. It murmurs something and then disappears. The Voice reappears again and apologizes for the accident the narrator just experienced.


text:
The September After
Or,
Starting Point

	I can hear Eliza crying again. She’s started to hide it from us – especially after we tried to get her to see a counselor – but I can still tell from the way her bed rocks in the room above us, and the quiet sniffles echo down the stairs. She’s been this way for a few weeks now, ever since the 28th of August. That is, ever since Jacob died.

	I still remember how she took the news. The doctors came out of the operating room and we were all so hopeful, after all 80% sounds like such a good chance when they tell you it’s potentially life-saving. What you never think of is the 20%, the chance that things don’t go so well and that your eight-year old son will be rolled out on a gurney, the doctor softly whispering the declaration of death to the orderly behind you as you stare at his face. None of us were expecting that 20%, Eliza the least since she was only eleven. I still remember her screaming as she ripped herself from my arm and went to grab Jacob’s hand, lifting the pale little thing up to her face and crying. We were both in shock – her mother and I, that is – as we watched our little girl, raised seeing House and his crew always succeeding, always curing forever the patient, cry into her brother’s lukewarm palm. We stood there for at least ten minutes before I made a move towards her, putting my hand on her shoulder and wiping the smooth scalp of my son. It had been such a hard two years on him, and it showed. He was as thin as a bone, and barely had any energy thanks to the therapy. I can only remember him smiling a handful of times, our little baby boy becoming more and more melancholy until the chemicals made him unable to even be depressed. On the cart, though, he was smiling. I guess he was finally at peace.

	None of us could keep from crying when we returned home. Eliza took a week off school, my boss gave me a week off from work when he heard the news. My wife had to return to her job after three days. She still wasn’t ready, not at all, but she kept it together at her factory and only fell apart when she came back home, sometimes staying up all hours of the night crying. She was fired four days later, falling asleep on her machine. We tried to not let Eliza find out, but we knew that she understood. I found her passed out over a drawing of her mother’s boss being stabbed by the Devil. I knew that was a bad sign, but honestly, I just put it away and laughed.

	Dinners were silent for some time, with Eliza pushing food around her plate with a fork, rolling beans back and forth with a fork while her mother and I attempted conversation. We stopped paying attention to what we made and what we ate, switching meals from cans with the homemade dinners we had been carefully making to exact specifications. Instead of the lively debate we had had in the past our meals were marked by the low-hanging depression and spirits of the topics we skirted around during the rare occasions we did speak.

	Eliza’s birthday was the Tuesday after her mother had been let go, the event normally marked by her jubilation but instead was a quiet, somber affair. We had balloons and cake, the usual decorations looked over and ignored by our daughter quickly before she went back to her room. It was about then that we tried to get her help; of course we weren’t expecting her to be over the death of her brother, but she showed no signs of rehabilitation either. It had been two weeks, and while her mother and I had begun to recover, she still cried every time she saw someone who reminded her of her brother, be it another child with a similar appearance or her art teacher who was notably bald, who’s class she had to be moved from because of her inability to control herself when she saw him. She refused to speak with any of the therapists we brought her to, curling up with her knees against her face when asked any question. No one could help us since she couldn’t speak to them, so we stopped sending her to doctors after a hard week.

	She has started to recover now, I can see. She’s able, at least, to control herself for long enough so that she can hide her crying from us. She can force a smile when she needs to, and can make herself speak to us while we eat, over our recent attempts at home-cooking again. But then she still cries in her room daily, and whenever someone hears this they ask me how I can think that she’s getting any better. I always tell them that I know she’s not getting over her brother. I know she’s depressed and I know she needs help. However, I know that she’s beginning to open up to us helping her again. As they say, you have to start somewhere.

title: The September After

question: What illness led to Jacob's death?

answer: The exact illness wasn't mentioned, but the descriptions of the boy (bald, chemicals) all point to some form of cancer.

question: What's wrong with Eliza?

answer: She's depressed and can't get over the death of her brother, Jacob.

question: What location is this all taking place?

answer: That information can’t be found.

question: Why was Eliza's mom let go from work?

answer: She fell asleep on her machine at the factory.

question: Write a ~5 sentence summary.

answer: When 11-year-old Eliza's younger brother, Jacob, succumbs to illness, she becomes depressed and refuses medical help to get over her loss. Eliza cries every night and every time she sees someone that resembles Jacob. Her parents try everything to make her feel better, but since they are all mourning, nothing really helps. Eliza starts to recover after a time, controlling herself long enough to hide her crying and force a smile when she needs to. She's even talking to her parents now over dinner, which is a good sign.


text:
BY TAYLOR KATE BROWN
BBC News, Washington DC

media captionHanford residents say they are committed to the clean-up and will pass that commitment on to their children

HANFORD, WASHINGTON, HAS LONG BEEN THE MOST CONTAMINATED NUCLEAR WASTE SITE IN THE US. BUT CRITICS SAY POOR MANAGEMENT HAS PUT THE SITE IN FURTHER DANGER.

When Susan Leckband moved to eastern Washington state to take a job 30 years ago, radioactive contamination was not on her mind.

"I loved my job," she says.

But it was only a handful of years before the place she worked, Hanford, turned from a plutonium production complex to a massive environmental clean-up site.

For Leckband, the question is not about the past, but the progress made on cleaning contaminated buildings and soil.

"It's important to the entire Pacific North-West... the food crops, the salmon, the Indian tribes - it's a huge, huge obligation," she says.

Situated on a plain along the Columbia River, the Hanford site is where the US produced plutonium used in the Manhattan Project, for the bomb that destroyed Nagasaki, and for a Cold War stockpile.

image copyrightDepartment of Energy

image captionA groundwater treatment plan removes chromium and other pollutants from the area near the Columbia River

Despite being a professional place of destruction, Hanford was teeming with life by the end of World War Two.

In her book Plutopia, historian Kate Brown describes how Richland, the largest town near the site, was one of the first "nuclear" communities, a structured suburb for Hanford workers with high security clearances.

Working at Hanford, even when many didn't know the full extent of what was being produced, was considered patriotic.

Sixty years later, Hanford is in the midst of America's largest nuclear waste clean-up operation, which has already cost $40bn (£24bn) and is expected to continue for decades.

And despite some progress, the site's most complicated and potentially dangerous waste issue - 56 million gallons (255 million litres) of high-level radioactive waste sitting inside tanks at the centre of the site - is facing more problems.

In the mid-1980s, activists and reporters began to unwind Hanford's history, detailing safety lapses and environmental hazards across the site.

"They made the plutonium, but they did it in a very dirty manner," says Tom Carpenter, director of watchdog organisation Hanford Challenge.

By 1989, Hanford was no longer a bomb factory, but a site in need of serious clean-up.

Twenty-five years later, the region around Hanford is once again booming. Clean-up has taken the place of the business of plutonium production.

The US Department of Energy (DOE), which manages the clean-up effort as part of an agreement with Washington state and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), counts among its accomplishments at Hanford seven reactors cocooned for future dismantling, nine billion gallons of treated groundwater, and hundreds of cleaned or demolished buildings.

"It's staggering how much material we've moved," says Dennis Faulk, a Hanford project manager with the Environmental Protection Agency.

But critics of the way Hanford has been managed are worried that contamination could become worse.

image copyrightDepartment of Energy

image captionWhite Bluffs, a small town near the Columbia River that was taken over by the government in the 1940s to build Hanford: residents had anywhere from a few weeks to a few months to leave their homes

In February, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden accused the DOE of a "never-ending pattern of failing to disclose what it actually knows about conditions at Hanford".

Wyden is most recently concerned about the tanks holding by-products of plutonium production, buried just below the surface at the centre of the site.

The original containers, single-shell tanks built in the 1940s and 1950s, had already leaked at least 1 million gallons of liquid waste into the ground. Hanford officials built double-shell tanks in the 1970s and 1980s and began transferring the radioactive waste into the newer vessels.

But in October 2012, the energy department announced one of the double-shell tanks was leaking into the space between the two shells. Waste in that tank has not entered the environment.

Wyden released an engineering review that said six other double-shells had similar construction flaws. He accused the agency of hiding what they knew, as the report had been made months after the initial leak announcement, but no other warnings from the DOE had followed.

Meanwhile, Hanford officials have recently submitted a plan to start emptying the leaking tank in two years.

Then, in late March, two dozen workers fell ill because of chemical vapours near the tanks. Workers again noticed vapours around the tanks in May.

Tom Fletcher, assistant manager of Hanford's tank farms, told the BBC in February that what Senator Wyden released was "one data point" and that visual inspections on the six tanks conducted after that report showed no abnormalities.

image copyrightGetty Images

image captionThe construction of the waste treatment plant (seen here in 2005) has been repeatedly delayed and a 2019 deadline is in question

The composition of the waste in the leaking tank makes it more likely to corrode, Fletcher says. No other double-shell tank holds such a mixture and full inspections on the tanks will now be done more frequently,

But in general, the double-shells must do their job for several more decades until a waste treatment plant - currently under construction - immobilises in glass all 56 million gallons of waste in the tanks.

The treatment plant was scheduled to become operational by 2019, but construction has been slowed or entirely halted on two key parts of the plant for additional testing.

Once the treatment plant goes into operation, parts of it must be run entirely by robotics because of the high radioactivity of the waste. Regulators call it a "black-box" system.

Hanford Challenge represents two whistleblowers, Walt Tamosaitis and Donna Busche, who say they have been punished for expressing concerns about the treatment plant's design.

Carpenter says the whistleblowers are speaking up now because once the plant begins operations, there will be no chance to fix potentially dangerous errors.

Both Tamosaitis and Busche have been fired by URS, one of the contractors at Hanford.

The energy department says it has asked its inspector general to "review the circumstances surrounding the termination of Ms Busche", a safety manager who alleged continuing harassment since she first brought up concerns in 2011.

Meanwhile the waste remains in the aging tanks.

Tom Fletcher said when the time comes to start retrieving the waste for the treatment plant, Hanford will be ready.

image copyrightGetty Images

image captionSome of Hanford's waste will be shipped to an isolation plant in New Mexico

"We have those technologies now," he says, explaining that the leaking double-shell tank would be treated much the same way the single-shell tanks currently are.

Hanford and its contractors are also facing pressure from a source closer to home.

In March Washington Governor Jay Inslee threatened legal action if the energy department did not accept a new state proposal on cleaning up the waste tanks or develop a new one with "sufficient detail".

Inslee wants to create a series of deadlines to solve the technical problems at the waste plant, making sure it begins working by 2028. And the Washington governor also wants Hanford to build new double-shell tanks, a proposal that energy officials have heard before, but not adopted.

Now retired, Susan Leckband continues to serve on Hanford Communities, an advisory board for the clean-up effort, but she is frustrated by the slow pace.

What's been done already, she says, is low-hanging fruit.

"Can we do a better job?" she says.

More on this story

-   -   -

question: What does the article say about the build-up of nuclear waste at Hanford?

answer: The nuclear waste started to accumulate during the Manhattan Project when plutonium was refined for the nuclear bomb. The process used to create the enriched uranium was "dirty" and so the waste is plenty. The waste was put into barrels - a total of 255 million liters. The build-up continued until 1989. The cleaning operation, which is still ongoing, has already cost $40bn and is expected to cost more.

question: Summarize the clean-up operation at Hanford.

answer: The clean-up started in 1989 and has cost $40bn so far. The nuclear waste, stored in barrels, was first moved into double-shelled barrels for better protection against leaking. However, several double-shelled barrels were found to be leaking into their inner chambers. The material in the barrels is likely to corrode the shells, so a longer-term solution is needed. A waste treatment plant is under construction. It was slated to open in 2019, but two parts of the plant needed revisions. Two whistleblowers came up with concerns about the plant's design, noting that the issues will be impossible to mitigate once the plant is operational.

question: What does the article say about how to enrich plutonium?


text:
[HuffPost] [HuffPost]

The Iran Deal Ruined Rosh Hashanah, Senate Republicans Argue

WASHINGTON ― There are countless reasons that Republicans oppose the nuclear deal negotiated between world powers and Iran. The inspections aren’t strict enough; the sanctions relief is too generous; the deal phases out too quickly; it doesn’t address regional terrorism; and so on.

To this list, the National Republican Senatorial Committee is adding one more. The deal has spoiled Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year. From the committee’s Monday release:

  Last night marked the start of Rosh Hashanah ― a holiday during which the Jewish people gather across the country and around the world to celebrate the new year.

  Unfortunately, what should be a time for tremendous joy has become a time for tremendous concern. Just last week, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei expressed his hope that Israel will not exist in 25 years[...]

It’s true (OK, this is anecdotal) that the Iran deal introduced a new tension to the traditional pre-Rosh Hashanah meal. The uncle who opposes it stewed in the corner, stuffing apples and honey in his face, before going off on the rest of the family about their incredible naiveté and unbending Obama worship. And yes, the next day, the rabbi vaguely addressed the topic in his sermon, referencing the dangerous habit of Diaspora Jews to trust the motives of others. The couple next to you, sitting quietly with their song sheet in hand, whispered to each other, “When can we leave and not feel guilty?” And, fine, as you walked over to the Tashlikh ceremony, maybe a debate erupted about the state of U.S.-Israel relations, and maybe you ended up agreeing to send your firstborn child on a Birthright trip to affirm your Zionist cred.

And then as you settled down to eat following the long day, you probably did worry about what $100 billion in Iran sanctions relief would mean if filtered down to Hamas or Hezbollah. These aren’t small stakes. But it was more likely than not that you then went to bed and slept semi-decently, because, by a slim margin, more American Jews support the Iran deal than oppose it.

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question: What new complaint do Senate Republicans have against the Iran Nuclear Deal?

answer: Senate Republicans claim that the Iran Nuclear Deal has spoiled Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year.

question: Do a majority of American Jews support the Iran Nuclear Deal?

answer: Yes, more American Jews support the deal than oppose it.

question: Who is Iran's Supreme Leader?

answer: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is Iran's Supreme Leader.

question: What previous complaints did Senate Republicans have about the deal?

answer: Senate Republicans previously claimed that inspections were not strict enough, the deal phases out too quickly, amongst other complaints.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: Senate Republicans claim that the Iran Nuclear Deal has spoiled Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year. The author goes off on an anecdote about hypothetical situations that may arise, and states that more American Jews supported the deal than opposed it.


text:
THE CRITERION COLLECTION and HULU have extended their deal to keep the video platform as the exclusive streaming home of Criterion’s vast library of art house films.  Hulu Plus houses more than 800 movies in Criterion’s singular collection.  Criterion is known for its lavish DVD and Blu-ray packages, many of which feature restorations of older films.

The most recent streaming addition is the Italian film by Paolo Sorrentino ’THE GREAT BEAUTY’ (La Grande Bellezza 2013), synonymous to the works of Federico Fellini, Roberto Rossellini and other Italian classics.  The film won Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards, the Golden Globes and the BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts).

“For real cinephiles who want to dig in and see lots of different kinds of films, I don’t think there’s ever been a better time.” said Peter Becker, president of the Criterion Collection.  - AP (New York)

THE 50 BEST CRITERION COLLECTION RELEASES

1.  CLOSE UP by Abbas Kiarostami (1990)
2.  MISHIMA: A LIFE IN FOUR CHAPTERS by Paul Schrader (1985)
3.  THE RED SHOES by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (1948)
4.  LA JETEE / SANS SOLEIL by Chris Marker (1963 / 1983)
5.  TOKYO STORY by Yasujiro Ozu (1953)
6.  THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (1943)
7.  THE RULES OF THE GAME by Jean Renoir (1939)
8.  IKIRU by Akira Kurosawa (1952)
9.  MODERN TIMES by Charlie Chaplin (1935)
10. JULES AND JIM by Francois Truffaut (1962)
11. F FOR FAKE by Orson Welles (1975)
12. BREATHLESS by Jean-Luc Godard (1960)
13. PLAYTIME by Jacques Tati (1967)
14. JEANNE DIELMAN, 23, QUAI DU COMMERCE, 1080 BRUXELLES by Chantal Akerman (1975)
15. SEVEN SAMURAI by Akira Kurosawa (1954)
16. FANNY AND ALEXANDER by Ingmar Bergman (1982)
17. JOHN CASSAVETES: FIVE FILMS by John Cassavetes (1959 - 1977)
18. THE ADVENTURES OF ANTOINE DOINEL by Francois Truffaut (1959 - 1979)
19. SALO, OR THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM by Pier Paolo Pasolini (1975)
20. AU HASARD BALTHAZAR by Robert Bresson (1966)
21. YI YI by Edward Yang (2001)
22. ARMY OF SHADOWS by Jean-Pierre Melville (1969)
23. THREE COLORS by Krzysztof Kieslowski (1993 - 1994)
24. IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES by Nagisa Oshima (1976)
25. L'AVVENTURA by Michelangelo Antonioni (1960)
26. Complete list with synopsis via FILM.COM

***FLICKCHART compiled an extensive list of the best 100 Criterion Collection films on streaming Hulu

question: Summarize the deal described in the article.

answer: Streaming platform Hulu and the Criterion Collection, a hub of classic cinema, have agreed to extend their deal, which gives Hulu Plus exclusive rights to stream films from the Criterion Collection. Over 800 movies are available to stream from the collection.

question: What does the text say about copyright laws?

question: What does the text say about cinephiles?

answer: The text regards the news of the deal as positive for cinephiles. Such an extensive collection of classic and definitive films as Criterion on Hulu can provide a single place to access a large amount of content. The list of 'best releases' includes a wide variety of films from different countries and eras.

question: Summarize the plot of Playtime (1967).


text:
PYQUANTE is an open-source (BSD) suite of programs for developing quantum chemistry methods using Gaussian type orbital (GTO) basis sets. The program is written in the Python programming language, but has “rate-determining” modules written in C for speed, and also uses and requires the NumPy linear algebra extensions to Python. The resulting code, though not as fast as other quantum chemistry programs, is much easier to understand and modify. The goal of this software is not necessarily to provide a working quantum chemistry program but rather to provide a set of tools so that scientists can construct their own quantum chemistry programs without going through the tedium of having to write every low-level routine.

PyQuante features

-   Hartree–Fock: restricted closed-shell and unrestricted open-shell implementations;
-   Density functional theory: LDA (SVWN, Xalpha) and GGA (BLYP) functionals;
-   Optimized-effective potential method for orbital-dependent density functional approximations;
-   Two electron integrals computed using Huzinaga, Rys, or Head-Gordon/Pople techniques; C and Python interfaces to these programs;
-   MINDO/3 semiempirical energies and forces;
-   CI-singles excited states;
-   DIIS convergence acceleration;
-   Second-order Møller–Plesset perturbation theory (MP2).

title: PyQuante

question: What is Pyquante?

answer: an open-source suite of programs for developing quantum chemistry methods using Gaussian type orbital basis sets

question: How is Gaussian type orbital initialized?

answer: GTO

question: What Python extensions does Pyquante require?

answer: NumPy

question: What is the goal of Pyquante?

answer: to provide a set of tools so that scientists can construct their own quantum chemistry programs without going through the tedium of having to write every low-level routine

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: Pyquante is an open-source suite of programs for developing quantum chemistry methods using Gaussian type orbital basis sets.


text:
We were enjoying the cool night air. I lit a cigarette and took a quick harsh drag. My friend sat next me, quiet. He wouldn’t admit his thoughts, but I could see them on his face. I sat with the cigarette between fingers, slowly burning down, quickly giving me a buzz, relieving my stress. He was waiting for a text. I was waiting for anything. That night I wore shorts and a sweater: comfortably chilled. I can’t remember, but it is possible that we had been drinking.

From the vantage point of my friend’s porch we could see them approach her building and stand just outside her door. She was anxious. He, as always, was calm and cool.

I turned to my friend, “Do you see this?” I took a drag, eager for what happened next.

They stood there. Talking. His jeans loose, hems on the concrete, striped hoody, and backwards flat-billed baseball cap, all synonymous with his profile. She wore a skirt, netted leggings underneath, large boots coming half way up her calf, a low cut shirt and a half buttoned up purple cardigan sweater, her sunset red hair kept neat under a black beret. These two friends stood talking in the dark of night; thinking that they were alone in this moment. That for a few minutes the world was theirs. I watched on, ignorant to my friend’s presence and text chimes. In my mind I saw and heard their conversation. She was thanking him for being a good guy to walk her home. He said it was nothing and that he was happy to do it; “No problem.” One of them checked their phone, probably he did. He motioned to go. She asked him to wait. She stepped in for a hug and embraced him. He wasn’t reluctant, he didn’t stop to think about the implications, and he did not consider his girlfriend hundreds of miles away. He didn’t think about how much his girlfriend meant to him, and he didn’t consider how much this girl holding him right now wanted to be more than friends. He held her tight in his arms. And he released first. She held a second longer, understanding that now, given the circumstances, and his obligations, that he could not be with her. She turned to unlock her door; she pulled it open and stood there, holding it. One hand on the door, the other hanging at her side. They said goodbye, he turned and walked away. But she didn’t turn in. She stood there.

I was fixated on her. I wanted to walk over to her and tell her I’m sorry it wouldn’t work out with him. I wanted to run after him and tell him what he’s doing to her. But I couldn’t. I watched her. This image is cast in my mind like stone. The yellow lights on the wall above her emitting their soft enveloping glow. The way she held most of her weight on one foot. Her head cocked slightly to one side and inclined towards his fleeting presence. And my friend reclined on next to me. Cigarette smoke drifting before my face in the breeze.

To me this moment only lasted about fifteen seconds. She watched after him. I saw in her body language how she registered the ramifications of their conversation and interactions. Her body slouched. Her hand fell off the door letting it swing in, stopping against her shoulder. She loosened her firm stance and stepped one foot back to turn, but she couldn’t yet. She had to watch him a few seconds longer; she had to hope that he’d changed; that maybe he did feel the same way for her. Hoped that maybe he’d turn back for her. I could only imagine how long this felt for her, the emotions she felt as he went farther away, without looking back: the impact of his words tonight, the realizations within that hug, the disappointment and despondency of that brief moment. She finally turned in—sad, lonely, defeated. I felt sorry for her. I felt guilty that I had intruded on this moment; that I watched something that was supposed to be private and within only her world.

I finished my cigarette, crushed the butt, and threw it away.

title: A Goodbye (ws please)

question: What did the female friend's body language try to convey to the male friend?

answer: That she wanted to be more than friends.


text:
Out of all of the forms of love magic that existed in the Greco-Roman world, the two most common were eros and philia. Unlike eros, which was more commonly used by men, philia magic was utilized by women and others who were considered to be social inferiors.

Since there was an emphasis on service to the state in Greco-Roman culture, these social inferiors felt like they were doing their country a service. If a woman was capable of repairing her broken marriage and improving her husband's interaction with the neighbors through magic, society was benefiting as a whole. Despite this protective purpose seen by women, philia spells were looked down on by men. They were a great source of anxiety because men saw them as tools used by the social inferiors to hijack power from the male-dominated hierarchy.[1]

The use of spells

Through the use of spells, women were hoping to bring out the pleasant personal qualities of their significant others and make them increasingly submissive in order to strengthen their bond. The spells consisted of many objects found in the everyday life of a woman including narcotics, amulets, rings, knotted cords, and facial ointments.[2] Although the violent and passionate images typically depicted in eros were not found in philia, it is important to remember that like eros, the ultimate purpose of philia magic was to take control of the victim.

Wine

Wine was considered to be the most basic love potion by the Greeks and had to be handled with as much care as any other spell. This was because the conjurer had to gauge the effectiveness of the serving sizes. The right amount of wine would lead to sexual arousal; too much would lead to impotence. Herbal aphrodisiacs and mood enhancers such as oleander, cyclamen, and mandrake were also used in combination with wine for enhancements.[3]

Narcotics/Potions

The narcotics used in potions were designed to sedate men in progressive stages beginning with cheerfulness/ sexual arousal, progressing to the weakening of vitality, and finally ending with sleep. Potions were placed in one of two categories: irritants and those used to increase relaxation and affection. As with all narcotics, there was always a risk of severe harm or death being caused by accidental overdoses. The effects of the two potion categories were difficult to distinguish in small doses, but not in large amounts. Substantial doses of irritants caused cramping, pain, and insomnia while relaxants led to drowsiness and eventually a loss of consciousness.[4]

Rings/Gemstones

In the _Cyranides_, a Greek manual focusing on magical properties, there are descriptions of different gemstones that were thought to possess certain powers.
• Dendrites= lead to the love of the gods and success in the world.
• Sapphire= will result in a victory in every lawsuit brought against you.
• Aerizon= effective around leaders when placed within a gold ring.

There were many cases in Greek and Neo-Assyrian cultures where social inferiors would stand before their superiors armed only with a magical stone set in a ring. They were hoping that the rings would increase their goodwill and help them build favorable relationships with the hierarchy.

  "A little ring for success and for charm (charis) and for victory… The world has nothing better than this. For when you have it with you, you will always get whatever you ask from anybody. Besides, it calms the angers (orgai) of kings and master. Wearing it, whatever you may say to anyone, you will be believed, and you will be pleasing to everybody”.[5]

Notes

Category:Ancient Greek religion Category:Magic (supernatural)

[1] Faraone, Christopher. Ancient Greek Love Magic. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1999.

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

title: Philia (Greco-Roman magic)

question: What does the article say about the reasons people used philia?

answer: People deployed philia for various reasons, mostly about pacifying someone to enact positive moods. Women usually used it to improve their relationships with their husbands and bring out pleasant characteristics. Rings with gems were used by social inferiors in hopes of receiving goodwill from their superiors. The ultimate goal, usually, was to have control over the targets.

question: What does the article say about the items used for philia?

answer: The most common love potion was wine, but a lot of other enhancements were used as well. Narcotics and potions were used for similar purposes. Potions came in two varieties, pacifiers and irritants. Rings and gemstones were other staples of the magic of influence.

question: What does the article say about ritual magic?