text:
Solutions that drive CUSTOMER VALUE

Ab Infosoft empowers clients to envision and reap significant enterprise benefits that drive real outcomes, solutions and results in business performance. Our proven methodologies and accelerators cover all aspects of defining and executing a comprehensive mobile strategy, including experienced design, development, testing, maintenance and software as a service.

ENTERPRISE MOBILITY
SOLUTIONS

Unchain your business workflows with enterprise mobility solutions

SOLUTIONS FOR STARTUPS

Empowering start-up build products, giving shape & life to ideas.

How we work WITH YOU

We've taken everything we know and designed a process from scratch that focuses on high impact deliverables and speed.

WORKSHOP AND PROTOTYPING

This first step is an essential one, make it count by having a beautifully designed, fully interactive prototype in your hands. For any startup, the prototype phase is vital for justifying valuation and teasing investors. We collaborate with you to produce a flawless model that responds to user feedback. You can confidently pitch using our prototype, with its bespoke visual style and interactivity. By visually aligning the prototype and pitch deck, you proceed with a model that hews closely to your vision and will align with consumer demand.

DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT

Now since you have the perfect prototype, it's time to make your creation a reality. First, we provide you with a complete catalogue of screen designs, transitions and animations to ensure you remain fully informed of how each thread of the process is woven together. Throughout the process, we supply you with fortnightly previews of your app to ensure we’re not only building the best possible product we can, but ensuring it’s the product you envisaged.

LAUNCH AND GROWTH

Your app is now at users’ fingertips - our role is to continuously collect data on their patterns and behaviours. These results will help you in executing data-driven improvements on your app. It’s not enough to launch a seamless app - make sure users know you’re still with them, by accruing feedback to address their thoughts and suggestions. We run a proactive optimisation process that engages with the user, to preempt their own needs and aspirations for the app. This increases user retention and allows you to confidently plan for further growth.

START RELEASING YOUR IDEA

Download Our FREE Resources

Our Free Whitepapers & Case Studies cover cutting edge insights and
best-practices for building a disruptive app startup

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01

WE PLAN

Assessing the requirements & building a comprehensive technology roadmap.

02

WE DEVELOP

Executing on that vision through iterative software design, development & implementation

03

WE MAINTAIN

Maintaining and modifying the platform for continuous future growth.

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  I am pleased to be working closely with Ab Infosoft to build a integrated suite of customer applications that includes an easy to use web based energy dashboard and empower customers with energy data & energy intelligence which will help them save $ on electricity, water & gas in Buildings.

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  Ab Infosoft was a real partner to Stayaway.com during the project. Despite delays caused by other suppliers, they have stepped up and shown commitment and flexibility, maintaining the partnering approach.

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JONAS BORÉN

Founder & CEO

Halsorutan AB

Sweden

  Our Magento project implementation and transition was quite smooth. Ab Infosoft always responded well whenever there was an issue to be sorted out.

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PIA LASSON

Bo in Skåne Stugbokning

Sweden

  We engaged Ab Infosoft on a number of strategic projects. They brought exceptional technical acumen and professionalism in building and deploying complex solutions. My team and I thoroughly enjoyed working with Ab Infosoft and found them always willing to go the extra mile. I trust them implicitly and would engage them again for future projects.

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PANKAJ GIROTI

CEO

Newage Software Solutions

UAE

  I would not hesitate to recommend Ab Infosoft for a technology implementation of any complexity. They have an excellent attitude and enthusiasm for their work teamed with a fantastic pool of resources, they are highly skilled, with a flexible and accommodating approach.

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KAPIL KARAMCHANDANI

Head - Merchandising & Buying

Global Health Care

Saudi Arabia

  Ab Infosoft was able to support us end to end from articulating functional specifications and technical design through application delivery. We value the strong and positive relationship we have built with the Ab Infosoft team.

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VIJETHA IDAGUNJI

CEO

Voilet Energy Nest

India

  There is a general feeling of satisfaction and great security when working with Ab Infosoft. 10/10 with action and not just promises.

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  Excellent work quality and responsiveness, cloud automation capabilities and expertise – as expected for deliverables, ability to accelerate when asked, access to leadership when needed.

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DIWAKAR

Manager TA

TRUGlobal

India

  It is a pleasure to work with each of the team members. Ability to adapt, impeccable. Timing, impeccable. Willingness and commitment, impeccable.

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  We recently approached Ab Infosoft to develop a highly technical, innovative and challenging mobile app….. The talented group of programmers and friendly support staff provided a level of creativity and technological expertise unmatched in the industry.

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  Vivia Executive allows our officers to be truly mobile. We now see how work that used to be restricted to lots of paper work and record maintenance for various departments can move to a quick and easy mobile solution. Not only does this save us time and money, but vastly improves our service.

[photo]

  Ab Infosoft has always been extremely fast, very professional, and they have highly skilled staff that is able to provide the best solution to any problem on AWS.

question: According to this article, which phase is most vital?

answer: the prototype phase

question: How often does Ab Infosoft provide the client with updates?

answer: Every fortnight

question: What service is claimed to improve customer retention?

answer: An "optimization process"

question: Who is the CEO of Ab Infosoft?

answer: Jonas Borén

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: In this advertisement, Ab Infosoft is promoting its website and application services. They offer to build and maintain websites and apps. They also provide a breakdown of how their services interact with each phase of a product's lifespan.


split: train

text:
OPTICAL FIBER, NONCONDUCTIVE, RISER (OFNR) is a type of optical fiber cable. As designated by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), this name is used for interior fiber-optic cables which contain no electrically conductive components, and which are certified for use in riser applications; they are engineered to prevent the spread of fire from floor to floor in a building. Typically they are tested for compliance with ANSI/UL 1666–1997, _Standard Test for Flame Propagation Height of Electrical and Optical-Fiber Cable Installed Vertically in Shafts_. NFPA NEC 2005 Art 770.51(B) FPN.

They are distinct from optical fiber, nonconductive, plenum cable (OFNP), and general-purpose optical cable.

Related abbreviations

Underwriters Laboratories defines the following related abbreviations 1:

-   OFC: Optical fiber, conductive
-   OFN: Optical fiber, nonconductive
-   OFCG: Optical fiber, conductive, general use
-   OFNG: Optical fiber, nonconductive, general use
-   OFCP: Optical fiber, conductive, plenum
-   OFNP: Optical fiber, nonconductive, plenum
-   OFCR: Optical fiber, conductive, riser
-   OFNR: Optical fiber, nonconductive, riser

title: Optical fiber, nonconductive, riser

question: What is the main quality that distinguishes OFNR from other kinds of fiber-optic cables?

answer: The Optical Fiber Non-Conductive Riser (OFNR) is engineered to prevent the spread of fire, hence conducive for indoor use.


text:
* I recently got a job writing short blips up to 350 words. They need to be lighthearted and humorous. Just looking for feedback, as this job does not provide any.

> Owning a dog is comparable to having a toddler for 15 years.  Very recently I dated a girl with a dog, I live downtown and she lives in suburbia to have a nice yard for her "Fuzzy Wuzzy". This wouldn’t be an issue except that every evening had to end at her place so her dog could have a "wee" (side note: it often had a "wee" well before we got there). I’m not saying I’m an alcoholic, but I thoroughly enjoy adult beverages. I like drinking them downtown and then walking home responsibly. However, her dog made this impossible, because every night had to end at her house and her house is not walking distance from the bars. In addition to this, unfettered travel is ruined by dogs. I wanted to go to Vail for a weekend, but again, her dog made this impossible. “What I am supposed to do with my Fuzzy Wuzzy?”  “Fuck.”  Sell the dog and get a cat. Cats shit in box and are perfectly content alone for a weekend with a pile of food and a bowl of water.  Also, you don’t need a yard, and slobber is not an issue, nor is "dog odor".  I feel like all the reasons I hate dogs translates to why I’ll never have kids. I mean, kids are worse. Children stick around a lot longer than 15 years, and people judge you if you leave them home alone while you’re at the bar.

title: On Dogs and Dating [236 words] [Feedback please]

question: Describe the dog of the girl the narrator dated.

answer: It seems that the dog required a lot of attention and would urinate in the girl's house when left alone.

question: Does this story have a conflict?

answer: There isn't a conflict, the narrator is just complaining about dogs and dating.

question: Why does the narrator say "sell the dog and get a cat"?

answer: They say this because they see dogs as far too difficult. They see cats as a more low maintenance house pet.

question: How did the dog make walking home impossible for the narrator?

answer: The narrator likes to walk home responsibly after having alcohol, but this was impossible with the dog living far away from the bars. The narrator had to prioritize the dog instead of their drinking.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: The narrator complains about the disadvantages of having a girlfriend with a dog. They see it as comparable to having a toddler for 15 years.


text:
Time is an unfair concept that we all must abide by.

Two weeks ago they were fighting over the last little bit of coffee in the pot. They were laughing at people walking down the street. Two weeks ago they were crying. Two weeks ago they were laughing. Two weeks ago they were scraping together money to pay the rent. Two weeks ago. Fourteen days. And now, she couldn't even talk, she couldn't make eye contact, and she couldn't move. All I wanted to do was pick her up. All I wanted to do was take her to grocery store. I wanted her shitty spaghetti, which was always overcooked, stringy, and cheap. I wanted to laugh at her lack of knowledge of the things that were real, tangible, physical, and in turn her extensive knowledge of the things she created out of thin air -- the most beautiful delusions you could ever imagine. But they were hers, and she shared them with me. She chose me. She was wild, and she was all mine. Even at this very moment: she was all mine.

She was thinner now. Translucent. Her veins were colorful and intricate and ran up and down her arms, and ran up and down her legs and all wound up into her brain. They looked like a map. They looked like a bad calculation on a graph. None of it made sense to me. They were irrational.

Her hospital gown was paper thin, and it seemed to suit her just fine. Her eyes glazed and off-distance, into the corner of the ceiling, hair matted with sweat and humidity, her face as pale as the lined paper from a notebook. Tubes were feeding her oxygen, drips of saline; a catheter. She never looked lovelier.

The machine behind us reminded me that she was still alive.

I knelt forward and kissed her forehead. I placed my head on her chest and reassured myself she was still alive.

title: an excerpt from something much larger

question: What is the setting of the story?

answer: The story takes place in a hospital.

question: What is the relationship between the narrator and the other person?

answer: It seems they are in love.

question: What are the emotions of the narrator?

answer: The narrator seems to not believe or understand how she could've gotten this sick so quickly. The narrator also feels relieved that she is still alive.

question: Why does the narrator think that time an unfair concept?

answer: The narrator thinks that time is an unfair concept because the woman in the hospital got so sick, so quickly; fourteen days ago they were laughing.

question: Write a ~5 sentence summary.

answer: The story takes place in a hospital. The narrator's romantic partner is incredibly sick; she can't talk or move, and she doesn't make eye contact. The narrator thinks that time is an unfair concept because they can't understand how she got sick so quickly. The narrator seems to not believe or understand how she could've gotten this sick so quickly. The narrator also feels relieved that she is still alive.


text:
Prompt: A man gifts dreams in a world where people have forgotten how to dream.

When I first heard about him, I thought he was a myth; like Big Foot or the Yeti. I didn’t think it was possible, not anymore anyway.

We, the human race, lost our ability to dream back in the late 2050s when governments began approving the commercialization of “designer babies.” For the first time in human history, parents could choose specific DNA traits that they would want their children to inherit. Children grew up brighter, more athletic, beautiful and eventually more successful than children conceived through traditional insemination. In a world filled with perfect human beings, the poor couldn’t afford to compete and over time the world’s population shrank to a point where everyone had been created in a lab. We now possessed the richest pool of genetic material than ever studied before.

However, by about the second or third generation people began forgetting how to dream. It took years for studies and research to effectively conclude that people were no longer able to dream. Scientists dully explained the connection between the neurons that are active during the REM phase while we were asleep and nucleotides in our DNA, which became repressed and extinct over time. It was similar to the theory behind natural selection. The damage was done; it seemed inconsequential to people back then, they didn’t need as much sleep as the generations before then. Large genetic corporations who essentially customized babies spun it as “evolution.” People had no choice but to move on. Decades flew by. Dreaming was a lost design and Oneirology a forgotten science; our brains could no longer build the framework we needed to dream.The world we grew up in dreaming was a fable, told to little kids to get them to sleep.

My grandfather used to tell me stories when I was a young boy about his grandfather who like all humans at the time, could dream. He spoke of the limitless nature of dreams; of precognition, visions and anything you ever wanted. I was always fascinated by the idea even though I never completely understood it. It was hard for me to imagine what a dream was, but I used to wish that when I fell asleep that I would be magically whisked away into my world of imagination.

As I grew up, desires of dreaming faded away over time when I met the love of my life. All I wanted to do was to be with this gorgeous woman who somehow loved me too. I wanted to spend every moment of life making her smile and watching her laugh. She lit up my life and we were inseparable. I knew early on that she would always be the best thing every happened to me, I guess I won the jackpot early.

You don’t win the lottery twice.. We were so close to getting married when she passed away in car accident. They could barely identify her remains. I’m I could’ve saved her if I was there. There was a giant hole in my heart and I didn’t want to fill it. My life was never going to be the same. Everything I saw was grey; I didn’t want to meet people or work anymore. I only wanted to be with her, at least one last time to say goodbye. I just wanted to see her smile again.

Dreams.. The one place I knew I’d find her. While conducting research on the last known man to have dreamt, I found out that there was a man who was still alive, but barely. Through some persistence I convinced Mr. Takahama’s children to let me interview him. He was a lot older and more frail that I had pictured. The backstory was that he, being one of the earlier generations of designer babies, he retained the ability to dream till he was a teen. Now, at 120 years he was the last of the fortunate. During his interview, he told me that he last dreamt a couple of years ago. I was shocked, but his children brushed it off as a sign of old age. He pulled me closer and whispered, “there is a man who goes by the Dreamer, seek him and you shall find your answers.” I chuckled at the suggestion but Mr. Takahama said this more sternly than anything he had all evening.

I went looking for “the Dreamer” but most my leads were dead ends. I was mocked by my colleagues at the university. I was searching for a ghost, for a man who didn't want to be found. A few people had heard of him but no one knew anything about him for certain. I spent the better part of a year chasing a shadow. I was close to giving up, but I wanted to experience what it felt like to dream. Fortunately, a few days before I was about concede in defeat, the phone rang. The man, one of my leads, spoke hurriedly, “we found him, we found Aserinsky.”

“Who?” I asked.

“Eugene Aserinsky, the Dreamer. We’ve located him Vienna. You better fly out tonight. This is the last chance you’ll ever get."

I was excited but I tried to keep my expectations in check. I had never been so close but every other lead had ended in disappointment. I barely slept a wink on the flight to Vienna, Austria. I had so many questions and thoughts spinning through my head. I prayed that answers awaited me.

I made my way towards the Albertina, a historic museum built in the 17th century, to meet Aserinsky. My contact had told him that I had spent a significant portion of my life studying dreams and managed to convince him to meet me. I wasn’t sure what to expect.

He looked the part; an elderly man worn down by time. His silverish hair resonated wisdom and his light brown eyes gleamed of visions unseen. He spoke with a certain charisma that few developed. It became immediately known to me that he was the one I pursued.

“Do you know why I asked you to meet me here?” He spoke clearly but softly.

“Not really, I know this museum stores some of the rarest paintings from the Renaissance period centuries ago.” I replied, hoping to impress
him.

“Exactly, these painters were considered to be visionaries, romantics, dreamers and philosophers. This time period had a huge impact on human culture; the arts, science and the humanities. I’ve had dreams where I’m lost in this beauty.”

“Dreams.. Do you dream?” I asked nervously.

“Yes, I do dream. A long time ago, I discovered I had a gift for being able to dream and that I could give others the ability to dream. Our brains are no longer as capable of processing REM as decades ago, so the few men who I gave my ability to, eventually killed themselves because they couldn't distinguish a dream from reality. Why do you wish to dream so desperately?”

“I wish to be with the one person who completed me. She was taken away from me and I would do anything to be with her again.”, I reasoned.

“I must warn you that dreams are powerful; they are as real in your minds as life around you. You may die from your brain being unable to process the nerve impulse transmissions.The sad part would be that
your mind wouldn’t know the difference between a dream and death.”

Confidently I replied, “Yes, I understand the risks.”

The next thing I remember is falling asleep in my bed, floating away in a timeless time where my soul escaped into a life that wasn’t my own. I didn’t know if I was dreaming or dead but I saw her. She looked as gorgeous as ever. Even if it was death, I found some solace in knowing that I would finally be with her.

title: The Dreamer

question: What does the story say about the Dreamer?

answer: He's a man who can dream in a world where everyone lost the capability to do so. He can bestow his ability to others. After losing his girlfriend in a car accident, the narrator finds hope in searching for this man so that he can see his love again. When the narrator finds him, the Dreamer warns the narrator: dreams are dangerous. If you can't distinguish dream from reality, you could die. He allows the narrator to dream after he consents to the risks.

question: Summarize the narrator's plotline.

answer: He's born in a high technology society that sees genetic modification as a norm. As a consequence of the modifications, they lost the abilşty to dream. While the narrator is interested in the concept, he falls in love and forgets about it. However, the love of his life dies in a car accident before their marriage, and the narrator gets grief-stricken. In his desperation to see his love again, he starts to research how to dream. His efforts lead him to a man called the Dreamer. He eventually finds him, and the man warns him about dying in dreams. The narrator accepts the risk and falls into a slumber of dreams, reuniting with his loved one.

question: What does the text say about the state of the human race in the story?

answer: The human race normalized genetic modification. This meant that the people who could afford it had extreme advantages in life, and eventually the people who couldn't afford it vanished. The number of people on the planet decreased. An unforeseen consequence means that people lose the ability to dream. People brush it off because they get to sleep less. Other than these details, the state of the human race seems similar to the current times - education, work, etc.

question: What does the text say about utopian societies?


text:
It was late that steamy night, a Thursday or Friday judging by the relaxed crawl of visitors in the open-air restaurant.  I don't entirely remember how I got to Jakarta- I was still jet-lagged, drugged, and operating almost exactly at the opposite of California time.

"I remember that shit from last time," I asserted quickly.  We shuffled up the stairs to meet my travel buddy's Indonesian friend, a cook at the restaurant.

There were tables full of elderly Indonesians, well-dressed for the evening and smoking American cigarettes.  A few old ladies shot us glares as we giggled and gathered behind the counter.  The cook pulled out his fine glass pipe.

"Alright, I need you to pack this.  I'll find a place outside."  He had a good-sized amount of crumbled, brown marijuana on the counter, but as I looked up, I noticed about four or five healthy green plants, sitting on the counter in plain view.

I began to work with his pipe while he and some friends stood out in the hot air of Jakarta's tropical night.  It held a deep and venial fury, something full of a promise that I couldn't even begin to fathom.  I knew it only because of the sickly pace that it stirred up in my virgin heart, a rapid beat that I held onto in the fear that somehow, my foreign odyssey would not give me the thrills I'd been desperate for since my youth in America.

The bowl was about halfway full when an old lady stood up.  She began yelling in Indonesian.  I couldn't understand, but I heard hurried, clumsy footsteps from downstairs.  The cook dashed back to the counter, grabbed the pipe from me and pushed the plants into a compartment underneath.  Tiny, ominous red lasers flashed across the walls.  I ran outside onto the porch, where a few others were still scrambling confusedly.  My travel buddy's eyes locked onto mine, wide with fear.

"Jump!" he yelled, and he flipped off the balcony into the grass below.  I took a deep breath and followed.  Crashing onto the wet grass, I hoped to avoid the few, scattered lights.

We ran to the end of the grassy area that demarcated the restaurant's property.  Ahead, a jungle loomed.  My friend rushed into the forbidding realm.

"Are you kidding?" I choked.  "They have dangerous animals in there!"

"Would you rather get shot?" he replied as he continued ahead.  At a loss, I followed.  We soon came to a wooden bridge, and a small clearing.

I was nearly across the bridge when my friend stopped in his tracks.  About twenty yards in front of him, a large, predatory cat eyed us.  Its eyes flashed green as it paced forward.  My buddy ran, and I too hurtled back towards the bridge.

The cat took chase.  I ran faster than I thought I could, but just after I crossed the bridge, the cat caught up to my buddy and swallowed him whole.  I fell to the ground in horror.

Satisfied, the cat licked its lips and retreated back across the bridge.  I stumbled to my feet and looked around.  After I took a few steps back towards the restaurant, another threat appeared.

A maned lion growled at me from just a few yards away.  My breath caught in my throat, but then I exhaled and spoke up in disbelief.

"Hold on, hold on...there are no lions in Indonesia!  I must be dreaming!"  I ran back to the restaurant as fast as I could, hoping to catch a last glance of that beautifully savage world, but the earth crumbled beneath my feet.  The sky burst, and I awoke to another rainy weekday, late to class.

title: Troubles for a Foreigner?

question: For what purpose is the narrator in Jakarta?

answer: It seems the narrator is in Jakarta because they have longed for a foreign odyssey.

question: Who does the narrator meet in Jakarta?

answer: The narrator and travel buddy meet the travel buddy's Indonesian friend who is a cook at a restaurant.

question: Why does the narrator run into the jungle?

answer: The trio is filling a marijuana pipe when the police show up.

question: How is the narrator feeling about running into the jungle?

answer: The narrator is afraid because there are dangerous animals in the jungle, but they don't want to stay at the restaurant and get shot by the police.

question: Write a ~9 sentence summary.

answer: The narrator and travel buddy arrive jetlagged in Jakarta looking for a foreign odyssey. They meet up with an Indonesian friend who is a cook at a restaurant; the friend has marijuana to share. As they are filling a pipe, the police show up. The narrator and friend jump off a balcony and run into the jungle. The narrator is afraid because there are dangerous animals in the jungle, but they don't want to stay at the restaurant and get shot by the police. They encounter a jungle cat that attacks and eats the travel buddy. The narrator continues to run and encounters a lion. In disbelief, the narrator realizes there aren't lions in Indonesia and they must be dreaming. They wake up.


text:
Click, clack. Click, clack. The sounds of metal against metal reverberated through the entire ship as the captain walked towards the guard rail on the starboard side. Every other step the captains prosthetic leg stuck the ships metal surface and rang out. From just below the knee a metal contraption attached to his leg. Hinges and blots dotted the device and ever few steps a release valve opened and steam hissed out. The device was solid bronze and extremely heavy and as such, it required a lot of strength to take a single step, much less walk across the ship.

He continued his difficult trek until he reached the railing. Leaning against it he looked over to his right and saw one of his passengers staring out across the night sky. She stood there silent, not even noticing the captains presence, completely enthralled by the view in front of her.

“Its beautiful isn’t it?” the captain said, breaking the silence. The female passenger could only manage a nod and did so without breaking eye contact with the view.

The captain gave a small chuckle.

 “I used to be just like you, the first time I saw all of this” he motioned with his arm, swinging it about.

Hundreds of feet below them the giant city spread out in every direction, seemingly never ending. The snow capped mountains that sat in the center of the city shined as the sun just barely peaked over the tip of the highest peak. The setting sun cast enough light to see the city as it feel asleep. And just enough darkness to see the stars coming to life. Their light brightening the night sky.

“When I first saw it I knew that I would never be able to go back. And I haven’t, I have called this ship home ever since.” the captain said after a few moments of silence.

The female passenger pointed down to the ships running through the rivers that cut through the city. and spoke for the first time

“They don’t even know what they are missing.” she said almost in shock.

“And that is the way of things, you never really know what you are missing until you have held it in your hands and you wonder were has it been your entire life.” The captain sighed.

“I have meet so many river boat captains who say that airship travel is impractical and unorthodox and unsafe. They neglected to mention it is beautiful.”

“The airship is a relatively new invention, compared to boats. New is scary, and new is confusing. They say that only the foolish mess with the scary and confusing.” he gave a quick laugh “And as such, I am a fool among fools.”

The passenger looked at the captain and asked him.

“How did you first come to fly on this ship?” she asked.

“Ah.” he sighed “Now there is a story. Have you ever heard of Jeremiah the Mad?” the captain say the lack of recognition on the passengers face and continued. “I assumed as much, he was way before your time. Anyways, Jeremiah was a captain like I am myself on board a very similar vessel such as this one. Only he was not a captain of a passenger vessel, he was a thief and a murder and was greatly feared through out the water district.” the captain paused for a moment and took a deep breath.

“I suppose you can see were this story is going, my family owned a shipping company. The Eastern Trading Company as it was called back then. My family has just commissioned the build of a new line of passenger ships and the first one was ready for its maiden voyage.” the captain stopped once again and leaned against the railing, his mechanic leg hissing.

“My father thought is was a good idea if my family and I were on board the ship for its voyage. The first night of the voyage the ship was attacked and boarded by Jeremiah the Mad and his crew. We fought back and they killed my family. I lost my leg.” He raised his mechanic leg as he said this, then continued his story.

“I was twelve years old.” he said quietly. The passenger next to him stood staring with her eyes wide open.

“Oh my god I am so sorry!” she exclaimed. The captain gave a small smile.

“The past is the past, no use feeling sorry for what already happened” he said. The passenger stood silent, not
saying a word. The captain then turned and started to limp away. Click, clack. Click,  clack. As he walked away the passenger realized he never answered her question.

“wait!” she yelled “you never answered, how did you come to fly on this ship?”

The captain stopped and turned around to face her.

“But I did tell you, you are standing on the ship that used to belong to Jeremiah the Mad.” he said.

“What?” she said in shock. “how did you get his ship?”

“That is a story for another time.” he answered. He turned and continued to walk away, leaving her in absolute shock. As he walked away he spoke over his shoulder.

“Best be getting under shelter, a storm is picking up” he said as he disappeared under the deck.

The passenger just stood in shock watching the captain disappear. She turned and faced the guard rail and ran her hand over it, whipping dust off it. Something caught her eye. Looking down she could faintly see a symbol scathed into the railing. It read.

J

title: The Airship (first story)

question: What was the name of the captain's family's shipping company?

answer: Eastern Trading Company.

question: How did the captain conquer jeremiah the mad?

answer: It is not stated.

question: What's the difference between an airship and a riverboat?

answer: According to the story, an airship is a newer invention than a riverboat.

question: How did the captain lose his leg?

answer: In a war with Jeremiah the Mad and his crew.

question: Who originally owned the passenger ship?

answer: The captain's family.

question: Who was Jeremiah the Mad, and why did he attack the captain's family?

answer: According to the captain, Jeremiah was also a captain but not of passenger ships. He was a thief and a murderer, and he killed the captain's family to seize their ship.

question: Write a ~4 sentence summary.

answer: The captain's family owned a shipping company called Eastern Trading Company. When he was twelve years old, one of their new ships was ready for its first voyage, so his family boarded the ship for its cruise. They encountered Jeremiah the Mad, a so-called captain, and his crew, who hijacked the airship and attacked them during the first night of the trip. In the process, the captain lost his leg and his family, but as it turned out, he succeeded in taking back ownership of his ship from Jeremiah.


text:
LUSKIN is a Jewish surname of Russian origin. It is a habitational name for a person from Luski, a village now in Belarus. Notable people with the surname include:

-   Casey Luskin, American attorney and author who promotes intelligent design
-   Donald Luskin (born 1954), Chief Investment Officer for Trend Macrolytics, LLC
-   Eugene Luskin, CEO and founder of Lagotek
-   Harvey Molotch (born Harvey Luskin), American sociologist
-   Robert Luskin (born 1950), attorney and partner in the law firm of Paul Hastings LLP

Luskin's was a home appliance store in the Baltimore area founded by Jack Luskin.

title: Luskin

question: Where is the village Luski located?

answer: The village Luski is located in Belarus.

question: Who founded the Luskin's home appliance store?

answer: Jack Luskin founded the Luskin's home appliance store.

question: What company did Eugene Luskin found?

answer: Eugene Luskin founded Lagotek.

question: When was Robert Luskin born?

answer: Robert Luskin was born in 1950.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: Luskin is a Jewish surname meaning someone from the village of Luski in Belarus. There have been several notable Luskins in recent history, including attorneys, businessmen and home appliance store owners.


text:
_LAUREN_ is the second extended play (EP) by the American recording artist Keke Palmer. It was released on November 4, 2016, through Island Records.[1]

Background and release

On 4 November 2016, Palmer released a 17-minute short film of the same name, which was premiered on _Billboard_'s website and included an interview describing the recording process and what the EP was about.[2]

Critical reception

_Billboard_ gave a positive review and remarked on the versatility of the tracks, stating, "[she] hones into her musical talents and offers up her vulnerable side on tracks like “Doubtful” and “Pressure.” She also hits the ladies with the partystarter “Got Me F--ked Up” and flaunts her flawlessness as an African queen for “Hands Free.”"[3] _Rap-Up_ also praised the EP, and noted, “over 16 minutes, the multi-faceted star delivers banger after banger through various moods and themes. From the opening scene, in which Keke encourages listeners to believe in themselves, Palmer sets the tone for an artistic journey that includes documentary-style vignettes.”[4]

Commercial performance

On 26 November 2016, “Lauren” debuted at number 18 on the _Billboard_ R&B Albums chart,[5] number 42 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and number 22 on the Heatseekers albums chart.[6][7]

Track listing

Notes

-    signifies a co-producer

Charts

+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| Chart (2016)                      | Peak                              |
|                                   | position                          |
+===================================+===================================+
| US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums         | 42                                |
| (_Billboard_)[8]                  |                                   |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| US Heatseekers Albums             | 22                                |
| (_Billboard_)[9]                  |                                   |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
|  |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+

Release history

  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Region      Date              Format   Label    Ref
  ----------- ----------------- -------- -------- -----------------------------------------
  Worldwide   4 November 2016            Island   [10]International releases of _Lauren_:

                                                  -   In the UK:
                                                  -   In Australia:
                                                  -   In Canada:
                                                  -   In Spain:
                                                  -   In Germany:
  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

title: Lauren (EP)

question: Who recorded Lauren?

answer: Keke Palmer recorded Lauren.

question: When was Lauren released?

answer: Lauren was released on November 4th, 2016.

question: What record company was Lauren released through?

answer: Lauren was released trough the record company Island Records.

question: Did Billboard give Lauren a positive review?

answer: Yes, Billboard gave Lauren a positive review.

question: What number did Lauren debut at on the Billboard R&B Albums chart?

answer: Lauren debuted at number 18 on the Billboard R&B Albums chart.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: Lauren is an extended play by recording artist Keke Palmer. It released in November 2016 to praise by critics, and was number 18 on Billboard's R&B Albums chart.


text:
    It was perhaps a sad thing to say that Sam was used to his friends dying. He has grown to know people who met unfortunate ends, like the man who seized in two inches of water while running a bath for his kid. He had not had that much to drink, but Sam patiently answered the questions of police officers who asked him how many beers he had drank that day and how long the man had been face down in the tub before he was found.

    “Listen, I just thought he got caught up in the bathroom or something. The water stopped running and he didn’t ask me to get him another beer or say anything for a while,” he said. “And then I see him face down in the tub and thought that I should probably call 911.” He rubs his hand over the smooth surface of his scalp and tries to smile through a grimace as he looks at me. I am younger and he thinks that I have not seen death.

    A year later the man handed the phone to another friend before leaving the scene of another death in the morning. “Listen, I’m not doing this again,” He said to the woman. A blue-lipped man who seemed to be asleep in the recliner in the corner, now absent of his lover, a half-awake woman across the room with shivers.  “I saw him and said, ‘oh, I think he’s dead’ and I left because I just didn’t want to talk to the police again. I just wanted to leave and they made me stay to answer all these questions.”

    His eyes dart in different directions and he finally stands from the squat he was pressing on the floor with his knees. He speaks as if he doesn’t understand how they could have had questions. “I had to wait while they spoke to me and to his mom and then to me again.” He watches me as I rise to meet him and shrugs more words off of his shoulders. His fingers dig into the coarse forest of his beard, which is still ginger despite his age.

    His eyes are bright and endearing. If he had not told us that he’d been in college when we all were born, we would not have thought it. “I did glass blowing but you know the economy—no one wants that anymore.” His clothes are always clean and fashionable; he has a penchant for what is unspoiled. His hands are not ragged despite years of making art. He has no tattoos and he is always impeccably groomed. “I think they’re cool, but they’re just not for me.” He tells me this because I mention that the design on his shirt is almost like the tattoo on my back. His glasses are never smudged and he owns his own bowling shoes. We invite him out with us and he says that he would love to come, especially if each beer is only a dollar like we tell him it is on Wednesday nights.

    In class, he holds a ten-for-a-dollar pen in one hand and a bright yellow highlighter clutched in the other. He leans forward on his elbows every class and we can tell that he wants to know; he sits on the edge of his seat. We tell him that we can help him study if he needs it and we know he does because of the expressions that cross his normally un-lined face when he receives his test grades. He asks if we have started the research paper and we say no. “I haven’t either,” and he sighs. Sam does not ask for help.

    Sam tells me that he shaves his head because after his hair began to grow again it was black and curly and he didn’t feel like himself, but I can see that his arms have grown strong like tree roots from the time between his last chemo treatment and now and I think that it must be nice. It must be nice to watch your body transform into something so strong. We all wonder how often Sam must shave his head because there is never a sprinkling of hair there. “I did the whole cancer thing when I was younger,” he said casually to an entire class full of strangers. We wondered if the reason his head was so smooth was because he was not finished with it yet.

    I tell him later, “I know that’s awful,” when he mentions to me what it was like to be sick all of the time. “It was awful for me and I wasn’t even the one going through chemotherapy.” He looks at me with what I think are knowing eyes and I would like to hold his hand. For just a second. He watches as I read the grotesque book in my hands that speaks about disease and squints every now and then. He watches as I stifle retch after gag. It is just a book.

    “What kind of coffee is that?” He asks during the first week of classes before I know him. I tell him that it is awful coffee, but it is just the regular black shit that is cheap and caffeinated. He nods when I say, “I hear that flavored coffees have a few of the same ingredients as a cigarette, but I smoke anyway, so I guess it doesn’t matter.” He takes the fedora from his head and places it gently on the notebook because then the professor enters the room. When he turns in his seat to look at me beside him, we are eye-level.  When he leans on his elbows, his body inching further from the blank white wall behind him, it is like he is taller. Sometimes on nice days, we expect him to sprout wings into that space and fly into the heavens, past the fluorescent hallway lights and into the unspoiled, cloudless sky.

title: Azrael

question: What was the cause of death of the man who had not had that much to drink?

answer: The man had been running a bath for his kid when he had a seizure. He fell face forward in the bath and drowned. He had switched the tap off and didn't call for another beer so Sam didn't realize that anything was wrong until it was too late.

question: How caused the second man's death

question: Describe Sam.

answer: He has a coarse red beard. He has bright endearing eyes and he looks much younger than he is. His clothes are clean and fashionable. His hands are well maintained. He has no tattoos and he's impeccably groomed. He wears glasses and he is bald.

question: Why is Sam bald?

answer: Sam has had cancer and lost his hair during chemotherapy treatment. He says he keeps shaving his head because the hair on his head grew back black and curly and he didn't feel like himself. His head is smooth that at least some people wonder if he is still undergoing treatment.

question: Why is Sam attending college so late in life?


text: The drums sound, *Thump Thump Thump* three steps, *Thump Thump Thump* another three. You snap back to reality from your day dream and re-adjust your helm. Suddenly a loud roar is heard,*"COMPANY, AT THE FAST TIME, MARCH!"* Reacting instantly you start stepping more quickly, lifting your shield a bit higher so the few weeds not trampled by the march of thousands do not drag on it. You grip your spear a bit harder as you feel you handle on the weapon to be a bit wet, from the heat perhaps. Then again, just a suddenly *"COMPANY, DOUBLE TIME, MARCH!"* You start a light jog now with a ridge about 20 meters in front of you, flowing with weeds, flowers, bushes and other assorted under-brush. You feel a slight anticipation as you start to ascend the ridge, fearing and wanting what lies beyond. Finally after what seems like an eternity to crest the ridge, and gasp as you jog forward at the sight before you, thousands of thousands of men. Then you notice something that seemed like a buzz in the back of your mind for all of this, the sound. You hear screaming, war-cry, and steel to your left, where your line has already charged forward. Then to your right is the steady beat of a multitude of men, all marching in union. Behind you you hear your brothers jog with you, with the rattle of equipment and the scrape of leather. Now the enemy seems so much closer, so much more dangerous, so much more **real**, but you go on, tis your duty. Then as suddenly as the first two you hear, *"COMPANY, PREPARE TO CHARGE!"* You shift your spear forward, your body and all those around you now in the prefect position to sprint forward the last few meters to the enemy, the perfect image of man at his finest and at his worst. Breaking this dam of tension blast a loud long horn. Then screaming with your brother behind your back you charge, running with all your might towards that hated foe in front of you, you spear parallel to the ground ready to impale that piece of flesh that dare get in your way. The enemy is a 10 meters.......5...4...3..2.1, then *SMASH*...............................

title: Advance

question: Where are the men marching?

answer: The men march up the ridge toward the enemy.

question: How many men are marching in union?

answer: Thousands of men

question: What is being heard as the men march forward?

answer: Screaming and war-cries

question: Who is the enemy?

answer: This information is not found

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: Thousands of men march in union and advance toward the enemy. Screaming and war-cries are heard. The marching continues up the ridge until they smash against the enemy.


text:
Paul Krugman wrote an op-ed in the _New York Times_ today called “Sanders Over the Edge.” He’s been doing a lot of shovel work for the Hillary Clinton campaign lately, which is his right of course. The piece eventually devolves into a criticism of the character of Bernie Sanders, but it’s his take on the causes of the ’08 crash that really raises an eyebrow.

By way of making a criticism of the oft-repeated Sanders charge that the big banks need to be broken up, Krugman argues that banks were not “at the heart of the crisis.”

This is Krugman’s assessment of who was responsible:

“Predatory lending was largely carried out by smaller, non-Wall Street institutions like Countrywide Financial; the crisis itself was centered not on big banks but on ‘shadow banks’ like Lehman Brothers that weren’t necessarily that big.”

Forget about the Sanders-Clinton race, because it’s irrelevant to the issue. Krugman is just wrong about this.

The root problem of the ’08 crisis lay in a broad criminal fraud scheme in the mortgage markets. Real-estate agents fanned out into middle- and low-income neighborhoods in huge numbers and coaxed as many people as possible into loans, whether they could afford them or not.

Those loans in turn were bought up by giant financial companies on Wall Street, who chopped them up into a kind of mortgage hamburger. Out of this hamburger, they made securities. These securities were then sold to institutional investors like pension funds, unions, insurance companies and hedge funds.

In the typical scenario, the investors buying these toxic mortgage securities weren’t told how risky the merchandise was. Many thought they were investing in AAA-rated real estate, when in fact they were buying up the flimsy home loans of part-time janitors, manicurists, strawberry pickers, people without ID or immigration status, and so on.

There were two major classes of victims in this scheme: homeowners and investors. About five million people went into foreclosure after the crash, and investor losses globally ran into the trillions. It was an unparalleled event in the annals of white-collar crime.

Virtually the entire financial industry had a hand in this. The ratings agencies were complicit because they blessed a lot of these mortgage securities with high ratings when they knew they didn’t deserve them. Companies like AIG had a role because they created a kind of pseudo-insurance for these mortgage securities that disguised the risk they posed.

And Krugman is right that companies like Countrywide and First Century, the sleazy “mortgage originators” who sent teams of over-caffeinated real-estate hustlers into neighborhoods offering crooked loans, were primarily responsible for a lot of the street-level predatory lending.

But Krugman neglects to mention the crucial role that big banks played.

The typical arc of this scam went as follows: Giant bank lends money to sleazy mortgage originator, mortgage originator makes lots of dicey home loans, the dicey home loans get sold back to the bank, the bank pools and securitizes the loans, and finally the bank sells the bad merchandise off to an unsuspecting investor.

The criminal scenario that was most common was a gigantic bank buying up huge masses of toxic loans from a Countrywide or some other fly-by-night operation and knowingly selling this crap as a good investment to some investor.

We chronicled an example of this in “The $9 Billion Witness_,” _the story of JP Morgan Chase whistleblower Alayne Fleischmann, who lost her job after trying to stop the bank from selling a parcel of bad mortgages. JP Morgan Chase ended up saddled with a $13 billion settlement after it admitted to making “serious misrepresentations” to mortgage investors.

What’s so baffling about Krugman’s column is that there is a massive amount of documentary evidence outlining this behavior, committed by virtually every major bank in America. There was a $7 billion settlement paid by Citigroup, which incidentally is the company that Bill Clinton originally repealed the Glass-Steagall Act to create. Citi admitted to hawking merchandise that violated their own internal credit guidelines.

Citi also bilked investors out of huge sums, and we know a great deal about its behavior because it too had a whistleblower, named Richard Bowen. Bowen sent the SEC over 1,000 pages documenting “fraud and false representations given to investors.”

There were virtually identical billion-dollar settlements involving Bank of America, Goldman Sachs (which is now a bank holding company, remember) and Morgan Stanley (ditto).

Wells Fargo’s settlement is another blunt repudiation of Krugman’s point, because in the case of Wells, the bank itself was engaging in predatory lending at the street level, not just selling crappy mortgages to investors.

Wells had to pay $175 million to settle charges of overcharging 4,000 minority homeowners in a case that saw evidence come out that the bank specifically targeted black customers (referred to in one office as “mud people”) for “ghetto loans.”

Let’s not forget also that not only were the big banks intimately involved in the signature fraud of the era — the creation and repackaging of toxic mortgage loans — they were also involved in wide-ranging foreclosure abuses.

Companies like Bank of America, Citi, Wells Fargo and Chase ended up being stuck with an additional $25 billion settlement just for the tawdry document-fudging “robosigning” scheme that helped accelerate the foreclosure crisis.

[Demonstrators; Banks]

And did Krugman miss the other headlines from this era? Did he miss HSBC being nailed for laundering hundreds of millions of dollars for Central and South American drug cartels? How about the money-laundering scandals involving Chase, the British Bank Standard Chartered, the German Commerzbank AG and others, in which banks washed cash for crooks and rogue states?

And did he miss the LIBOR rate-rigging scandal that forced the likes of Barclays, UBS, Rabobank, the Royal Bank of Scotland, and Deutsche Bank to pay massive settlements for manipulating interest rates? How about the Forex manipulations that led to still more settlements for the likes of Goldman, BNP Paribas, HSBC and Barclays?

Krugman would likely argue that all those little things like laundering money for narco-terrorists, monkeying with world interest rates, and systematic cheating in the currency markets had nothing to do with the crash.

He would technically be correct in this. But the entire argument for breaking up the banks, which incidentally didn’t originate in the Senate with Bernie Sanders or even Elizabeth Warren but with Ohio’s Sherrod Brown and then-Delaware Sen. Ted Kaufman, was conceived with the idea that leaving over-large banks intact invited not only the potential for future bailouts, but future regulatory problems.

As MIT economist Simon Johnson pointed out in 2010, these institutions have become so big that they can confront and defy the government. Moreover the failure to punish the banks for the great mortgage frauds of the crisis years left all of these companies with the knowledge that the authorities were afraid to aggressively enforce the law, for fear of disrupting a fragile economy.

When UBS and HSBC escaped with slap-on-the-wrist settlements for the LIBOR and money-laundering offenses, respectively, Sherrod Brown redoubled his efforts to break up the banks, insisting that these episodes proved these companies were now too big to be regulated. By 2013, Brown said, it was clear that “these megabanks are out of control.”

The call to break up the banks is not some socialist clarion call to end capitalism. (Well, it might be from Bernie, but not from everyone.)

In fact, it’s just the opposite. The lessons of the crash era are that these megabanks have grown beyond the organic controls of capitalism. They were so big and so systemically important in ’08 that the government could not let them go out of business.

This alone was an argument for breaking them up. The banks emerged from ’08 with the implicit backing of the federal government. They became quasi-state entities, almost immune to failure. Not just Bernie Sanders worried about this. Voices as diverse as Louisiana Republican David Vitter and Krugman’s own _New York Times_ editorial board have argued for hard caps on bank size.

What’s happened in more recent years, with LIBOR and the money-laundering scandals and Forex and the London Whale episode and so on, is that these firms also proved too “systemically important” to regulate and prosecute. They grew too big not only for capitalism, but for criminal law.

When a company is not only too big to fail, but too big to prosecute, it’s too big to exist. Krugman may believe otherwise, but he shouldn’t pretend that others – including his own paper – don’t have legitimate concerns.

question: What columnist is the author of this piece responding to?

answer: Paul Krugman.

question: Who is Paul Krugman critiquing?

answer: Bernie Sanders.

question: What does the author disagree with Krugman about?

answer: The causes of the 2008 financial crisis.

question: Who does the author say caused the crisis?

answer: Financial institutions.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: In this article, the author responds to Paul Krugman's claim that banks were not responsible for the 2008 financial crisis. The author uses facts, figures and copious examples to make their point.


text:
Was bored, wrote this in about an hour. Constructive criticism and general feedback are both appreciated.

---

Lyra stood in the doorway of the dressing room, her hands placed expressively on either hip. She knew that it was time to speak up. She would give the Master one last chance, but she had a feeling that this would be his final show.

“Ah yes, my sweet Lyra. What do you come about for? You've hardly any makeup on yet! Don't you know the show's about to start? Go get...”

“I'm not performing with you tonight.” she said, as firmly as she could.

“Excuse me?” the Master replied, dumbfounded. His mouth hung slightly agape.

“I'm done with the show. I'm not doing it anymore. You're going to have to find a new assistant.”

At this point, she knew there was no retracting her sentiment. She stood in the doorway, grasping the frame with palms of nervous sweat.

“Well, Lyra, I... Frankly I... I don't think you're in any position to make such brash decisions.” His face  glistened with the same sweat of her palms. “You signed the contract, and the contract says...”

“You drugged me, you bastard.” She was beginning to shudder with pent up rage, anger coursing readily through her heated veins. “I couldn't even speak when I signed that thing. You promised me money, fame, love...”

“...But the promises of a madman are as empty as your pretty little head, aren't they darling?” The nervous sweat had vanished from his face, replaced with only the darkest shades of malevolent confidence. The chuckle that followed was far from hearty.

Not once did Lyra move her gaze from his. She knew he would refuse to release her, and now that he had, she cognized the weight that his refusal carried. This brought her some emotional relief. She knew his triumph would be short-lived.

“Now go put on your things, you filthy slut.” He moved his eyes from hers and peered down into his tobacco pipe. A swift light drew out a large plume of smoke, and a few puffs later he returned his stare. “If you're not ready in five, you're in for one hell of a beating.”

She realized that the only viable response was to feign momentary subservience. “Yes master.” she replied, with an eerie calmness to her tone. She had stopped shaking; her anger had subsided. She knew that she had won, but the Master knew not.

As sharp as he was, he found nothing awry with her sudden obedience, and seemed more than pleased that his threats had done their job. “Yes, good girl. Now off with you!” Elements of playfulness pervaded his own tone, underscoring his outright insanity.

Lyra turned on her heel and walked to her dressing room. The door hung slightly open, and she pushed it the rest of the way in with her body. She knew it would be her final visit, so she made a point to gather the few things she truly cared for.

“Hairbrush, mace, lockpicks...” She briefly ran through a mental list of things to keep. When she got to the end, her suitcase was practically overflowing. She paused and thoughtfully gazed at her sandals.

“This is it.” She said to herself. She reached her hand into the hidden compartment of the suitcase and pulled out “the instrument” – a common knife with a single edged blade sharpened to a razor point. The Master seldom allowed her to use utensils when they ate together, but she had managed to garner the knife following the post-meal alcohol daze of his Friday eve meat feast.

The illumination of the red light in the hallway caught her attention as it reflected off of the blade in her hand. The show was starting - it was time to go. Her stature was firm and her goal clear in her mind as she strutted towards the stage, grasping the instrument for dear life.

She heard the roar of the audience as was blinded by the incessant haze of the overhead lights. Everyone had come to see the Master perform his tricks, fooling them as charmingly as he had her on the night that she was signed into servitude.

“And now...” roared his voice, “put your hands together for my lovely assistant... Lyra!”

The audience was familiar with this routine. Every member applauded her entry with great enthusiasm, for the more they expressed, the more bewildering the Masters tricks would be.

As she walked onto the platform, the applause tapered off abruptly, perhaps with the most acute decrescendo of the century. They saw her dressed casually, not as her usual subservient self. Boos began to replace former cheers, and the master felt a fair mix of anger and embarrassment.

He marched over to her while waving at the audience with a 'just a moment' gesture. “What on great mother earth do you fancy you're doing, you little whore? You're ruining the show! I told you to get your act together! And what the bloody hell are you fumbling with!?”

As her arm shot towards his collar, his eyes widened with terror. She plunged the instrument deep into the front of his neck, and it penetrated his adam's apple with ease. To her, it felt as if she were cutting butter.

He managed to let out a few exasperated gurgles before she slid the knife further up the sides of his neck. As it severed his carotid artery, blood spurted from the resulting wounds in a manner that seemed almost cartoonish. It was an unsettling sight, but she relished in the moment like none other, watching his life slowly drain away, his hatred and cruelty being replaced by emptiness and his consciousness slipping deeper into the void of oblivion.

Most of the members of the audience had left in a panicked frenzy. However, one particular man, deluded as he was, came up onto the stage and began to charge at Lyra, thinking her to be some sort of murderer who needed to be brought to proper justice.

She had very little time to finish her task. She looked the Master in his near-vacant eyes one last time as he lay on the polished hardwood floor of the stage, his brain cells rapidly atrophying. “It's all in your eyes, Master.” she whispered. “It's all in your eyes.”

With that, a swift kick to the head did him in. She hastily recovered the Nekraf from his front suit pocket, a device that could teleport the user to any destination of their choosing. Just before the enraged man grabbed the bottom portion of her blouse, she closed her eyes, pressed the prime button, felt a sharp jolt, and vanished into thin air. He stood around confused for a few more moments, looking up, down and every which way, but ultimately concluded that she truly was gone. In a minutes time, no one was left in the house save for the corpse of the accursed Master himself.

His show was no more, his tricks no longer existent. His mind control was nullified, and most of the audience members had recovered their full wits and were flabbergasted as to what they'd just experienced. Many speculated, but none remembered for sure. The Master was a forgotten man, his show a sullen piece, and his evils finally lain to a well-deserved rest.

Lyra awoke on a sunny beach of crystal blue waters, palm trees surrounding her sunken form. She stood up and looked into the distance, eyes set upon a singular tropical cabana.

“Home.” she said to herself, in near disbelief. “I'm finally home.”

She walked on.

title: The Instrument - 1280 words

question: What is Lyra's role in the show?

answer: Lyra is the Master magician's assistant.

question: What is the show about?

answer: Hypnosis magic.

question: Has Lyra tried to escape the Master's grasp?

answer: Yes, she murders him by the end.

question: Where did Lyra get the knife?

answer: From dinner with the Master, the night he was drunk.

question: Write a ~0 sentence summary.


text:
I could begin this story with connotative diction to ensue the readers attention into the greater purpose of this story; which I will, or I could digress back to the basics, where it all started......

Lucid thoughts plague my brain. Yet opaque vision has blanketed my eyes.  Where am I? All i can perceive is the bright lights all around. My mind is a cloud floating with no destination. My body is a rock; solid with no ability to move itself. I am stuck; but where? My memory is faded by the spinning motion in my brain. For a slight instance; i feel underwater. My body is detached, yet instantaneously  my senses are heightened. I begin to feel every lone action of energy touch my skin. As if I Im a voodoo doll being pricked. I wake up.

title: Where Am I? Short Story

question: Summarize all the information relating to this person's mind.

answer: The person experiences lucid thoughts that causes the person distress. The person's mind is a cloud floating with no destination. The person's memory is faded by the spinning motion in the person's brain. The person's senses are heightened and feels every lone action energy touch the person's skin.

question: Summarize all the information relating to this person's body.

answer: The person has opaque vision and perceived only bright lights. The person's body is a rock, solid with no ability to move itself. This person is stuck. The person feels as though they are underwater and detached.

question: Explain what the text means by voodoo doll being pricked.

answer: Voodooism is a religion where a doll is used to affect someone negatively. The author feels like an external force is acting on this person's body.

question: Who is the narrator?

answer: Someone who is dreaming and has an out-of-body experience.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: A person goes through different feelings and emotions before waking up.


text:
	"I'm feeling it again," Kiasha gasped to her husband in a panicked voice. "I'm tellin' you, this don't feel like no kicking, Deandré."
"Bullshit!" Deandré spat at his pregnant, teary-eyed wife, who was now backing up into a corner of their living room in fear of getting beaten by her husband. Domestic violence was a casualty in this household.
'"If only you believed me! If only you could fell what I feel!" Kiasha whispered.
"Woman, I don't give two shits what you feel! We gettin' a divorce and that's my final word on the matter! Ain't nothin' you can say to change my mind on it!" Deandré shouted back at his wife, sweat pouring from his forehead.
"This is your child, Deandré! That don't mean *nothin'* to you?" Kiasha asked, her urban voice now cracking from the overwhelming sense of betrayal she felt.
"Not when I got some crazy-ass bitch tellin' me she feel my son break-dancin' in her damn uterus!" Deandré roared back at his wife, his words like daggers into her womb.
Kiasha collapsed onto her knees with her face in her hands and began to sob. She couldn't take this any longer, she needed him to trust her that their son would become a break-dancing prodigy. If he only had the same hope for the future as she did, he would want to continue on with their marriage and take part in parenting their child.

title: A Tyler Perry-themed story that I began to write one night

question: Why does Deandré want a divorce?

answer: He seems to be an awful person, and he's angry about Kiasha's insistence that their child will become a break-dance prodigy because the baby's kicking feels weird.

question: Why does Kiasha want to continue her marriage despite the awful personality of her husband?

answer: There's no reason mentioned in the story.

question: Why does Kiasha think her child will become a break-dance prodigy?

answer: The baby's kicks in her womb feel like a break-dance to her.

question: Why is Kiasha angry at Deandré?

answer: Because he doesn't believe their son will become a break-dance prodigy and wants a divorce.

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: Kiasha is in a corner, afraid of another instance of domestic violence. Her husband, Deandré, shouts at him about wanting to divorce her. She needs him to believe her that the baby in her womb isn't just kicking and will become a break-dance prodigy.


text:
The DRUID THEATRE COMPANY (referred to as Druid) is a major Irish theatre company, based in Galway, Ireland. In 1975, the Company was founded by Garry Hynes, Marie Mullen and Mick Lally - all of whom first met and worked together as members of University College Galway dramatic society, commonly known as NUIG Dramasoc. It was the first Irish professional theatre company to be established outside Dublin.[1]

Since 1979, Druid has owned a theatre building in Galway City Centre. The former tea storehouse was originally owned by the McDonaghs, one of Galway’s famous merchant families. In the late 1970s, the company negotiated a peppercorn rent with the owners which enabled the company to renovate and install its own venue and rehearsal space - which the McDonagh family later generously donated to Druid. In 2011, following extensive refurbishment, what was originally known as the Druid Theatre was renamed The Mick Lally Theatre in memory of Druid co-founder, the late Mick Lally. The theatre serves not only as a dedicated workspace for the company but it has also established itself as a landmark cultural facility for the promotion and the development of the arts in Galway. Throughout the years, the lane on which the theatre is situated has gone by numerous names; including Red Earls’ Lane, Chapel Lane, Courthouse Lane, and since 1996, Druid Lane, when Galway City Council renamed it in celebration of the company’s 21st birthday.[2]

For over forty four years, Druid has presented groundbreaking work and aims to create electrifying theatre. As well as touring extensively across Ireland, the company’s productions have played internationally to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the USA. Druid has garnered an international reputation for classical and new Irish writing, and is one of the most well-known and respected companies in the English-speaking theatre world. It has been a pioneer in the development of Irish theatre and is generally credited (alongside Macnas and the Galway Arts Festival) with making Galway one of the primary cultural centres in Ireland.[3]

In 1996, Druid premiered Martin McDonagh’s debut play _The Beauty Queen of Leenane_', in a co-production with the Royal Court Theatre, London. Following a strong opening in Galway, the production played across Ireland, in London, Sydney, and New York. During its Broadway run, the production won four Tony Awards, including Best Director for Garry Hynes - the first woman to win an award for directing in the history of the awards ceremony. In 2005, the company presented DruidSynge, an production of all six plays of John Millington Synge as a day-long theatrical event, at the Galway Arts Festival to critical acclaim.[4] Several years later, Druid revived a trilogy of Tom Murphy’s plays (_Conversations on a Homecoming_, _A Whistle in the Dark_ and _Famine_) entitled DruidMurphy; this production later dominated the Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards in 2014. Druid continued to present ambitious large-scale ensemble productions in 2015 with DruidShakespeare - William Shakespeare’s _Richard II_, _Henry IV, Part 1_, _Henry IV, Part 2_ and _Henry V_ in a new adaptation by Mark O'Rowe - which toured Ireland, the UK and the prestigious Lincoln Center Festival.

As of 2013, a permanent Druid Ensemble exists to work alongside artistic director Garry Hynes to further the artistic programme of the company and share a commitment to “investigate new creative possibilities.”[5] This ensemble is composed of seven actors who have performed in numerous Druid productions over the last thirty years. Alongside founding member Marie Mullen, the Druid ensemble are, Marty Rea, Rory Nolan, Aaron Monaghan, Aisling O’Sullivan, Garrett Lombard and Derbhle Crotty.

Key Productions

This is extensive list of the key productions which have been produced and performed by the Druid Theatre Company over the span of forty four years. However, some productions have been omitted. All information can be found at the Druid website Archive.[6]

-   _Conversations on a Homecoming_, by Tom Murphy. World premiere, directed by Garry Hynes and starring Paul Brennan, Jane Brennan and Marie Mullan. (1985).
-   _Bailegangaire_, by Tom Murphy. World premiere, directed by Garry Hynes and starring Siobhán McKenna, Marie Mullan, Mary McEvoy (1985).
-   _At the Black Pig's Dyke_, by Vincent Woods. World premiere (1992).
-   The Beauty Queen of Leenane, by Martin McDonagh. World premiere, directed by Garry Hynes and starring Anna Manahan, Marie Mullen, Tom Murphy and Brian F. O'Byrne (1996).
-   _The Lonesome West_, by Martin McDonagh. World premiere, directed by Garry Hynes and starring Brian F. O'Byrne, Dawn Bradfield (1997).
-   _A Skull in Connemara_, by Martin McDonagh. World premiere, directed by Garry Hynes and starring Mick Lally, Anna Manahan, Brian F. O'Byrne (1997).
-   ''On Raftery’s Hill'', by Marina Carr. World premiere (2000).
-   _Sive_, by John B. Keane. Directed by Garry Hynes and starring Anna Manahan, Derbhle Crotty, Ruth Bradley, Eamon Morrissey (2002).
-   _The Playboy of the Western World_, by John Millington Synge. Directed by Garry Hynes and starring Cillian Murphy, Anne-Marie Duff, Aisling O'Sullivan, Eamon Morrissey (2004).
-   DruidSynge, plays by John Millington Synge. Directed by Garry Hynes and starring Aaron Monaghan, Marie Mullen, Catherine Walsh, Eamon Morrissey (2005).
-   _The Walworth Farce_, by Enda Walsh. World premiere, directed by Mikel Murfi and starring Aaron Monaghan, Garrett Lombard, Denis Conway (2007).
-   _My Brilliant Divorce_, by Geraldine Aron. World premiere, directed by Garry Hynes and starring Deirdre O’Kane (2007).
-   _The Cripple of Innismaan_, by Martin McDonagh. Directed by Garry Hynes and starring Aaron Monaghan and Marie Mullen (2008).
-   _The Gigli Concert_, by Tom Murphy. Directed by Garry Hynes and starring Denis Conway, Eileen Walsh (2009).
-   _The New Electric Ballroom_, by Enda Walsh. World premiere, directed by Garry Hynes and starring Rosaleen Linehan, Catherine Walsh, Mikel Murfi (2009).
-   _Penelope_, by Enda Walsh. World premiere, directed by Mikel Murfi and starring Aaron Monaghan, Denis Conway, Karl Shiels, Niall Buggy (2010).
-   _The Silver Tassie_, by Sean O'Casey. Directed by Garry Hynes and starring Aaron Monaghan, Derbhle Crotty, John Olohan, Eamon Morrissey (2010).
-   _Big Maggie_, by John B. Keane. Directed by Garry Hynes and starring Aisling O'Sullivan, Keith Duffy, John Olohan, Charlie Murphy, Sarah Greene. (2011).
-   DruidMurphy: Conversations on a Homecoming, A Whistle in the Dark, Famine; by Tom Murphy. Directed by Garry Hynes and starring Aaron Monaghan, Marty Rea, Marie Mullen, Garrett Lombard, Rory Nolan, John Olohan, Eileen Walsh, Niall Buggy, Sarah Greene, Gavin Drea (2012).
-   _The Colleen Bawn_, by Dion Boucicault. Directed by Garry Hynes and starring Aaron Monaghan, Marie Mullen, Marty Rea, Aisling O'Sullivan, Rory Nolan (2013).
-   Be Infants in Evil, by Brian Martin. World premiere presented as part of a double bill with Bailegangaire, directed by Garry Hynes and starring Marty Rea (2014).
-   _Brigit_, by Tom Murphy. World premiere, directed by Garry Hynes and starring Marie Mullen, Catherine Walsh, Aisling O'Sullivan, Marty rea, Jane Brennan, (2014).
-   _DruidShakespeare_: _Richard II_, _Henry IV Part 1_, _Henry IV Part 2_, _Henry V_, by William Shakespeare, adapted by Mark O'Rowe (2015). Directed by Garry Hynes and starring Marty Rea, Marie Mullen, Aisling O'Sullivan, Derbhle Crotty, Aaron Monaghan, Rory Nolan, Garrett Lombard, John Olohan, Gavin Drea.
-   _Helen and I_, by Meadhbh McHugh. World premiere, directed by Annabelle Comyn and starring Cathy Belton and Rebecca O'Mara.
-   _The Beauty Queen of Leenane_, by Martin McDonagh. Twentieth anniversary revival, directed by Garry Hynes and starring Marie Mullen, Aisling O'Sullivan, Marty Rea, Aaron Monaghan (2016)
-   _Waiting for Godot_, by Samuel Beckett, directed by Garry Hynes and starring Marty Rea, Aaron Monaghan, Rory Nolan and Garrett Lombard.
-   _Crestfall_, by Mark O'Rowe. Directed by Annabelle Comyn and starring Siobhán Cullen, Kate Stanley Brennan and Amy McElhatton (2017).
-   King of the Castle, by Eugene McCabe. Directed by Garry Hynes and starring Marty Rea, John Olohan, Seán McGinley (2017).
-   _Sive_, by John B. Keane. Directed by Garry Hynes and starring Marie Mullen, Tommy Tiernan (2018).
-   _Furniture_, by Sonya Kelly. World premiere, directed by Cathal Cleary and starring Aisling O'Sullivan, Rebecca O'Mara, Garrett Lombard, Niall Buggy (2018).
-   _Shelter_, by Cristín Kehoe. World premiere, directed by Oonagh Murphy and starring Aaron Monaghan, Rory Nolan (2018).
-   _DruidShakespeare: Richard III_, by William Shakespeare. Directed by Garry Hynes and starring Marty Rea, Aaron Monaghan, Garrett Lombard, Jane Brennan, Rory Nolan (2018).

The Beauty Queen of Leenane

Garry Hynes returned to the Druid Theatre Company as its artistic director in 1995, after stepping down from the Abbey Theatre (Artistic Director, 1991-1994). It was during this time that Hynes and her colleague Anne Butler read _The Beauty Queen of Leenane_ - a script submitted by an unknown writer named Martin McDonagh. Several months later, on 1 February 1996, McDonagh's play received its world premiere at the newly refurbished Town Hall Theatre, Galway, in a co-production between Druid and the Royal Court Theatre, London. Directed by Hynes, the cast consisted of four actors: Druid founding member Marie Mullen as Maureen Foley; Anna Manahan as her elderly mother Mag; Brian F. O'Byrne as Ray Dooley; and Tom Murphy as Pato Dooley. The response, from both audiences and critics alike, was immediate and overwhelmingly positive. As noted in the Sunday Times on 10 March 1996, _The Beauty Queen of Leenane_ was “one of the most exhilarating debuts in years”.[7]

The production then toured Ireland before transferring to the Royal Court Theatre, London, on 24 Feb 1996. Following this critically acclaimed run, the production moved to Ireland where it embarked on an extensive national tour before returning again to London's West End where it played at the Duke of York's Theatre for several months, beginning on 29 November 1996. It was later nominated at the 1996 Olivier Awards for Play of the Year. In February 1998, the production received its American Off-Broadway premiere at the Linda Gross Theater, in a co-production with the Atlantic Theater Company, before it transferred to Broadway's Walter Kerr Theatre on 23 April 1998.[8]

Later that year, _The Beauty Queen of Leenane_ received six nominations at the 52nd Tony Awards - Best Play, Best Direction of a Play, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, as well as two nominations for Best Supporting Actor. At the ceremony on 7 June, the production won four awards: Best Actress (Marie Mullen); Best Supporting Actress (Anna Manahan); Best Supporting Actor (Tom Murphy); and Best Director for Garry Hynes - a historical win as Hynes became the first female recipient of a Tony Award for Direction.

In addition, the original Druid Theatre production received the 1998 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play; the Drama League Award for Best Play; the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Broadway Play; and the Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Play and Outstanding Director.[9] _The Beauty Queen of Leenane_ has since gone on to be staged across the world in several languages, but Druid's original version remains, for many, the definitive production.[10]

In 2016, to mark the 20th anniversary of the iconic production, Druid revived _The Beauty Queen of Leenane_ with Marie Mullen. Having originated the role of Maureen, Mullen now played the role of Mag. The production also starred Druid ensemble members Aisling O'Sullivan (Maureen), Marty Rea and Aaron Monaghan. At that year's Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards, Hynes won the Award for Best Director while both Mullen and O'Sullivan received separate nominations for Best Actress.[11]

DruidSynge

In the summer of 2005, Druid presented the first ever staging of John Millington Synge's entire theatrical canon - _Riders to the Sea_; _The Tinker's Wedding_; _The Well of the Saints_'; _In the Shadow of the Glen_; _The Playboy of the Western World_; and _Deirdre of the Sorrows_ which was unfinished at the time of Synge's death.

Described by the Irish Times as “one of the greatest achievements in the history of Irish theatre”,[12] this ambitious collective presentation of all six plays fulfilled a long-term artistic commitment by Garry Hynes to re-evaluate and re-engage with one of Ireland's dramatic giants. The repertoire was performed as a series of double bills over two or three days. Alternatively, on selected dates, it was possible to attend all six plays as a day-long cycle which lasted over eight hours. On day-cycles, some performers of the ensemble changed roles up to five times As Felicity O'Brien, the show's producer, commented: “They really have to pace themselves and be careful, but at the same time, it's an amazing challenge for any actor.”[13]

DruidSynge premiered at the 2005 Galway Arts Festival, opening at the Town Hall Theatre on Saturday 16 July, followed by performances in Dublin's Olympia Theatre and the Edinburgh International Festival before concluding its 2005 run with a week of stunning performances on the Aran Island of Inis Meain in a range of locations including a unique open-air setting at Dun Chonchur (a large circular walled fortress). DruidSynge involved a company of nineteen actors performing across the repertoire. It was met with great acclaim on the world stage, playing at the Guthrie Centre, Minneapolis, and the Lincoln Center in New York City where it was acclaimed by Charles Isherwood of The New York Times as “the highlight not just of my theatregoing year but of my theatregoing life.”[14]

DruidMurphy

Since 1890, there existed a strong working relationship between Druid and the Irish playwright Tom Murphy. In 1985, Druid presented the world premieres of _Conversations on a Homecoming_ and _Bailegangaire_ - considered to be two of Murphy’s greatest plays.[15]

In November 2011, Garry Hynes announced the company’s next large-scale ensemble project would be entitled _DruidMurphy_ - three plays by Tom Murphy presented as a trilogy. This theatrical event was co-produced by Druid, NUI Galway, the Galway Arts Festival, Lincoln Center Festival in New York City and the Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut where the world’s largest collection of art, artifacts and printed materials relating to the Great Irish Famine resides. Although Murphy did not expressly write the plays _Conversations on a Homecoming_ (1985), _A Whistle in the Dark_ (1961) and _Famine_ (1968) as a trilogy, Druid’s presentation of the three plays sought to connect them thematically in order to provide an illuminating and “unflinching look at the impact of emigration on the Irish psyche over a hundred year period”.[16] As Garry Hynes noted: “Murphy writes an inner history of Ireland, a nation that has now - under the pressure of a debt crisis that has become an identity crisis - come to re-examine the materials and rhetorical strategies out of which it makes itself.”[17]

_DruidMurphy_ received its premiere at the Galway Arts Festival 2012. Following the festival, the trilogy conducted an extensive national tour of Ireland - playing in Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Tuam, Dublin, Inis Mor and Inis Meain of the Aran Islands, before transferring to the Oxford Playhouse, followed by the Hampstead Theatre in London, the Lincoln Center Festival in New York City, and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C.[18] All three plays were directed by Garry Hynes with a repertoire cast consisting of sixteen actors including recurring Druid performers Marie Mullen, Aaron Monaghan, Garrett Lombard, Rory Nolan, Marty Rea, Gavin Drea, Eileen Walsh and John Olohan. Depending on the venue, the trilogy could be viewed individually over three consecutive evenings or experienced as a day-long cycle which lasted over nine hours.[19]

The theatrical event won Best Production at the 2012 Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards and received widespread critical acclaim, being hailed by The New York Times as “epic theatre making”.[20] _DruidMurphy_ dominated the acting categories with a further six nominations. Marty Rea, Gavin Drea and Eileen Walsh were nominated for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Actress respectively for their performances in A Whistle in the Dark. Garrett Lombard, Aaron Monaghan and Marie Mullen received nominations for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress respectively.[21]

DruidShakespeare

In 2014, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Druid Theatre Company’s founding, Garry Hynes announced her intention direct four of William Shakespeare’s history plays, often referred to collectively as The Henriad: _Richard II_; _Henry IV, Part 1_; _Henry IV, Part 2_; and _Henry V_. To adapt these history plays, Hynes approached the Irish writer Mark O'Rowe whom she had previously worked with when directing the world premiere of his play _Crestfall_ at the Gate Theatre in 2003.

At the March 2015 press launch for _DruidShakespeare_, Hynes voiced her opinion that “acting is, first and foremost, an act of imagination. That imagination transcends nationality, character, geography, background; and we see no reason why it shouldn’t transcend gender either.” With Druid’s decision to utilise gender-blind casting, the roles of King Richard II, King Henry IV and Hal/King Henry V were performed by one male actor and two female actors: Druid Ensemble members Marty Rea, Derbhle Crotty and Aisling O’Sullivan respectively.[22]

_DruidShakespeare_ premiered at Druid’s own Mick Lally Theatre, rather than Galway’s Town Hall Theatre - a first for Druid’s major productions. Described as an “enthralling marathon production”[23] by The New York Times, the production ran for over six hours and was viewed as either a day-long presentation or divided into two halves across consecutive evenings, with an ensemble of thirteen actors - consisting of primarily Druid recurring performers - playing more than fifty characters across the four plays. It later toured across Ireland before transferring to the Gerald W. Lynch Theatre in New York City, after which it returned to Ireland where it played as the closing production for the Kilkenny Arts Festival 2015.

The production was critically acclaimed, with Peter Crawley of The Irish Times stating that “[t[here is nothing quite as beautiful, or as torturous, as the crown of England we see in Druid’s remarkable staging”.[24] _DruidShakespeare_ dominated the Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards 2015 where it won Best Production, Best Director, Best Actress (Derbhle Crotty), Best Actor (Marty Rea), Best Costume Design while also acquiring nominations for Best Actress (Aisling O’Sullivan), Best Supporting Actor (Rory Nolan), Best Set Design, Best Sound Design, and a Judge’s Special Award nomination for the way in which the company had assembled and enabled a group of actors to work as a true ensemble, “the pinnacle of this rare achievement being _DruidShakespeare_.”[25]

Druid presented _DruidShakespeare: Richard III_ in 2018, a follow-up to their Henriad Cycle which was co-produced with the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. It premiered on 22 September at the Town Hall Theatre, Galway before moving to the Abbey Theatre where it ran from 3–27 October.[26] In January 2019, the Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards shortlist announced that the Druid production of Richard III had been recognised for Best Production, Best Director (Garry Hynes), Best Actor (Aaron Monaghan), Best Set Design, and Best Costume Design. The winners will be announced on 31 March.[27]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4] http://www.druidtheatre.com/press.php?id=42 (retrieved 20 August 2006)

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8] The Beauty Queen of Leenane

[9] Infoplease. Sandbox Networks, Inc. Retrieved 10 May 2006.

[10] As quoted in Garry Hynes' preface in The Beauty Queen of Leenane 2016 production's theatre programme, p.2-3.

[11]

[12]

[13] quoted in “MightyTalk: A Journey with DruidSynge” which is viewable on the DruidSynge, the plays of John Millington Synge, DVD collection released by Druid in 2007

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

[20]

[21]

[22]

[23]

[24]

[25]

[26]

[27]

title: Druid Theatre Company

question: What is one of the main factors that made The Druid Theatre Company so successful?

answer: The ability to be open to new ideas, wherever it comes from.


text:
The centerpiece of the Republican tax cut was a big reduction in the corporate tax rate, lowering it from 35 percent to 21 percent. While critics argued this was just a handout to shareholders, who are overwhelmingly wealthy, the counter was the tax cut would lead to a surge in growth, which would benefit everyone.

The logic is that a lower tax rate provides more incentive to invest. With new investment in plant, equipment, and intellectual products, productivity will rise. Higher productivity will mean higher wages, which is good news for the bulk of the population that works for a living.

We got the first test of the jump in investment story today when the Commerce Department released data on capital goods orders for December. It is not good for the Republican position. New orders actually fell for the month, dropping by a modest 0.1 percent from the November level. Excluding aircraft orders, which are highly volatile, orders fell 0.3 percent.

These are not huge declines and this series is always erratic, so no one should make a big deal about the reported fall in December. But it certainly is hard to make the case here for some huge tax-induced jump.

If folks think it’s too early to make any assessment, let’s take the Republican argument at face value. They claim that the tax rate makes a huge difference in the investment decisions of firms. While the bill was just signed into law at the end of last month, it was pretty much a sure deal by the 20th. Furthermore, the basic outline was on the table at the start of September.

If the tax rate is really a big deal for investment decisions, then corporate America should have been putting together its list of likely projects as soon as a big tax cut became a clear possibility back in September. By December, forward-looking firms should have been ready to jump as soon as they knew the tax cut would be a reality.

This means that we should have seen at least some of these orders being registered before the end of the year. The fact that there is zero evidence of any uptick suggests that investment decisions are not as sensitive to tax rates as claimed.

It is, of course, early — maybe the January data will tell a different story. But so far, it doesn’t look like the Republicans have much of a case. The tax cuts definitely made the rich richer, at this point we don’t have much evidence they will help anyone else.

_This column originally appeared on CEPR._

_DEAN BAKER is the senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC. _

question: Who wrote this article?

answer: Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC

question: What is the Center for Economic and Policy Research?

answer: an economic policy think-tank

question: What impact do Republicans expect from corporate tax cuts?

answer: a boost in investments

question: Does the author think corporate tax cuts boost investment?

answer: no

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: The article highlights the decrease in investment following a cut in corporate taxes, using data from the Commerce department on capital goods orders.


text:
Welcome to 365 Days of Motoring

An Everyday Journey Through Motoring History, Facts & Trivia

Belt up and enjoy this 365-day ride as you cruise past the most momentous motoring events in history. Packed with fascinating facts about races, motorists and the history of the mighty engine, this is a must-visit web site for any car enthusiast.

[] []

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Thursday 25th October 1917

103 years ago

Dodge began full-scale truck production. The first civilian Dodge Brothers' Commercial was the famous Screenside introduced in 1917 as a 1918 model. The Screenside was built on a beefed up 114-inch wheelbase automobile chassis. It was rated for a maximum payload of 1,000 lbs. (half-ton) and used the auto's 212 cubic inch, 35 horsepower, four cylinder engine and the auto's three speed transmission. Approximately six months after launching the Screenside the half-ton was added to the commercial car line. Think of the panel as an enclosed screenside with double rear cargo doors. These two models were the only trucks the original Dodge Brothers Company built between 1918 and 1928. They were upgraded to a 3/4-ton payload rating (1,500 lbs.) in 1923 and their wheelbases were lengthened to 116-inches in 1924.

[The first civilian Dodge Brothers' Commercial was the famous Screenside introduced in 1917 as a 1918 model]

The first civilian Dodge Brothers' Commercial was the famous Screenside introduced in 1917 as a 1918 model

Back

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question: When did Dodge begin full-scale truck production?

answer: October 25, 1917

question: What was the first civilian Dodge Brothers truck?

answer: The Dodge Screenside

question: What was the Screenside truck's maximum payload?

answer: 1,000 lbs. (half-ton)

question: What engine did the Screenside truck have?

answer: It had a 212 cubic inch, 35 horsepower, four-cylinder engine mated to a three-speed transmission.

question: Write a ~7 sentence summary.

answer: On October 25, 1917, the Dodge Brothers launched their first truck, the Screenside. The Screenside was built on a beefed-up 114-inch wheelbase automobile chassis rated for a maximum payload of 1,000 lbs. or half a ton. To pull all this weight, Dodge put a 212 cubic inch, 35 horsepower, four-cylinder engine and mated it to a three-speed transmission. Six months after the first Screenside was launched, Dodge added it to their commercial car line. In 1923, Dodge upgraded the trucks to carry more (1,500 lbs) and lengthened the wheelbase to 116-inches. The Screenside was the only truck in the original Dodge Brothers Company built between 1918 and 1928.