text:
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Have you ever seen the spread offense? I mean really seen the spread offense? <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&searchterm=marijuana&search_group=#id=103355123&src=3dtANcdCu5xGYxndkHZpfw-3-16">Elena Ioachim </a>/Shutterstock

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On Thursday, _Sports Illustrated_ published the latest in its five-part investigation into the Oklahoma State University football program, whose rise in the national rankings has tracked closely—the story alleges—with a culture of academic cheating and allegations of cash payments to athletes. (Paying players is forbidden by the NCAA, the sport’s governing body, even though many of the players who allegedly received cash were broke and incapable of holding down a paying job because they spend most of their free time providing unpaid labor for a multi-billion dollar cartel.)

The report also uncovered a disturbing trend at Oklahoma State: some college students smoke pot:

  As the Cowboys have risen from Big 12 cellar-dweller to one of the nation’s elite teams, widespread marijuana use by players and even some drug dealing has gone largely unexamined, unchecked and untreated.

  “Drugs were everywhere,” says Donnell Williams, a linebacker on the 2006 team who says he didn’t use drugs but observed other players who did. Other players echoed that, saying it was common for some players to smoke weed before games. “[Against] teams we knew we were going to roll, a couple of guys would get high,” says Calvin Mickens, a cornerback from 2005 to ’07. “Some of the guys [it] didn’t matter what game it was, they were going to get high.” In the weeks leading up to the 2012 Fiesta Bowl, running back Herschel Sims says that so many of his teammates were smoking marijuana regularly that if the school had suspended those who had the drug in their system, “we probably would have lost about 15-20 people who actually played.” (According to the school, 18 of the team’s more than 100 players were randomly tested by the NCAA before the game; one tested positive and was suspended.)

In other words, college student-athletes at Oklahoma State are a lot like unathletic college students at Oklahoma State, except that they’re forced to undergo drug tests on a regular basis and have their recreational pursuits scrutinized. The fact that widespread marijuana use seems to have such little effect on the football team’s performance would seem like an angle worth pursuing, given the story’s premise that marijuana use is a malignant problem facing the Cowboys program. But that goes unexplored. Nor is there any attempt to explain why, exactly, recreational marijuana use is a problem worthy of lengthy investigation from a major national magazine. And it’s not the first time either.

Previously in “OMG college athletes smoke pot”: _ESPN_‘s 2012 examination of the “cloud of pot busts” that threaten to tarnish the sport’s image.

  College football players smoking marijuana is nothing new. Coaches and administrators have been battling the problem and disciplining players who do so for decades. Still, “I believe it’s becoming more and more frequent on campuses,” says Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon. One Football Bowl Subdivision coach says that athletes of today seem to treat marijuana as players from previous generations treated alcohol and that many of his players prefer smoking pot to drinking because weed leaves no hangover.

  NCAA statistics show a bump in the number of stoned athletes.

Back in the world of peer-reviewed studies and public polling, marijuana is increasingly accepted and increasingly legal. And unlike, say, football, no one who uses it is going to die as a result. You’d never know it from reading the sports pages.

question: What problem is the Oklahoma State University's football team facing?

answer: Oklahoma State University's football team is facing a widespread use of marijuana.

question: What position did Donnell Williams play?

answer: Donnell Williams was a linebacker on the 2006 team.

question: How many people were tested before the 2012 Fiesta Bowl?

answer: 18 players were tested before the Fiesta Bowl.

question: Why is the ESPN worried about pot use?

answer: ESPN is worried that pot use will tarnish the sport's image.

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: Oklahoma State University's football team has seen a recent spike in pot use among its players. From player interviews, large amounts of the team smoke before games and recreationally. Some people are worried it will tarnish the sport's reputation, while others seem to care less.


split: train

text:
The National Institute of Standards and Technology succeeded the National Bureau of Standards in 1988. Following is a list of the directors of both agencies.[1]

  Name                   Dates                       Notes
  ---------------------- --------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Samuel W. Stratton     1901–1922                   The Samuel Wesley Stratton Award was created in 1962.
  George K. Burgess      1923–1932
  Lyman J. Briggs        1932–1945
  Edward U. Condon       1945–1951
  Allen V. Astin         1951–1969                   Forced to resign over AD-X2 battery additive fraud that he stood up against - reinstated after 5 months after public and scientific uproar.
  Lewis M. Branscomb     1969–1972
  Richard W. Roberts     1973–1975
  Ernest Ambler          1975–1989                   Ambler served as acting director from 1975 to 1977. He was first appointed as director of NBS and continued as director of NIST following the agency's reorganization in 1988.
  John W. Lyons          1990–1993
  Arati Prabhakar        1993–1997
  Raymond G. Kammer      1997–2000
  Karen Brown            2000–2001                   acting director
  Arden L. Bement Jr.    2001–2004
  Hratch Semerjian       2004–2005                   acting director
  William A. Jeffrey     2005–2007
  James M. Turner        2007–2008                   acting director
  Patrick D. Gallagher   2008–2014                   Gallagher served as acting director from September 2008 to November 2009.
  Willie E. May          2014–2017                   Resignation effective January 3, 2017 at the end of the Obama administration
  Kent Rochford          2017                        Permanent Assistant Director for Laboratory Programs, Acting NIST Director
  Walter Copan           confirmed October 5, 2017

[1]

title: List of directors of the National Institute of Standards and Technology

question: Which institution succeeded the National Bureau of Standards in 1988?

answer: The National Institute of Standards and Technology.

question: Who was the director in 1933?

answer: Lyman J. Briggs.

question: Who was the director in 2006?

answer: William A.Jeffrey.

question: Who was director in 2018?

answer: Not on this list.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: The National Institute of Standards and Technology succeeded the National Bureau of Standards in 1988. This is a list of directors over the years 1901-2017.


text:
The rain is cold on my naked skin. The sky is dark and there is a steady torrent bashing my body down. I slowly walk forwards to wherever my bare feet can take me; there are only street lights to guide me as I follow each glowing ball of light towards nothingness. My shirt, like a rag, merely hangs down my shoulders, no longer even resembling the nice white button-down dress shirt it once was, all the buttons are missing and it has been shredded on one half. A brand name tie is draped around my neck, hanging down to my waist as it slowly slips off with every step I take and I don’t even notice it. My black dress pants are the only article of clothing left intact, although they are completely soaked, they still resemble the original pants before the blackout.

I like that it is raining. I hate that it is cold and I hate that it is wet, but I like that it is raining. Before the rain, there was blood everywhere. Half of my white shirt was completely red; I had to tear off half of it as I stumbled away from that place. My shoes were drenched, every step I took produced a squish reminding me of the puddle of blood I was stepping in and so I had to discard them. My pants were also soaked in that filth, but I am a decent man and I was not about to walk around town completely naked. I don’t know how this happened, but I promise you, I am not a bad person.

The worst part of the blackout is the blood that was under my fingernails. All my fingers were stained red with it, and my fingernails were all broken, cracked, and worn, no matter how hard I tried to scrub them, they were stained red. But the rain, the rain was able to wash away the blood. My face was also smeared with blood, particularly around my mouth, and no matter how hard I tried; I could not get the taste of blood out of my mouth. Even now, as I walk aimlessly towards nowhere, I can still taste blood under my tongue. The strangest things it that I’m not bleeding anywhere, I dare not think of what could have happened.

There is only one thing in my mind and it is a picture, a mental snapshot I took of myself that I fear I will never forget. It was when I looked at myself in the mirror, my face plastered with blood still dripping off my chin, fresh blood seeping out of my fingernails into tiny droplets that eventually run down the length of my finger, and my eyes. I have never seen my eyes like that, filled with such horror, dread, and excitement. I was smiling at myself in the mirror, at the time, I was ecstatic.

I swear I’m not a bad person, please believe me.

I stagger my way forward. There is a strange sense of calm around me. No longer is there the perpetual sense of urgency that I had living in New York City. No longer am I worrying about the next big promotion, or where I was on the economic food chain. My mind is blank, a black slate in a background of black lost in a deep void of nothingness. There are no worries in life, nothing but the drive to keep moving forward for no reason but to move forward. I just keep walking towards the next orb of light.

I no longer even mind the rain. I don’t care that I’m freezing, that my bare feet have become cut from walking on the jagged cement, or that my new expensive tie had fallen off a few blocks back, I just walk through the stormy night air going from one ball of light to the next. There is a strange feeling of warmth within me, but I know that my skin is ice cold right now. My mouth involuntarily stretches into a smile. I feel guilty feeling this good, after what I did, this should not be the proper reaction, but I feel great, beyond great, I am euphoric.

To my left, balls of light whiz past me at incredible speeds, creating what seemed to me like shooting stars. I look at them for a second amazed and astonished before slowly making my way towards them, trying to captivate the wonderment of the lights. I am captivated by the promise of those lights, a world of wonder and fascination, one that is within my grasp. I make my way onto the road before two shooting stars fly by me followed by a wave of water and the receding sound of an engine. I don’t even have the reflexes to track these shooting stars, for some reason, I no longer seem to react anymore.

I slowly turn my head slowly to watch a pair of red lights slowly disappearing over the horizon. I keep walking onto the road, hoping to catch the next pair of shooting stars. Suddenly there is a violent blaring of a horn and a screeching sound, I feel myself getting hit by behind, my legs crumble and my knees violently scrape the pavement. I can feel my flesh tear and my kneecaps bash against the ground, but I am not in pain. There is only a strange sense of calm.

“Oh my god!” A woman screams. “Why were you in the middle of the road?”

I become perplexed by her question, why am I even here? I try to explain to her about the shooting stars, about the promise of a world of fascination and wonderment, but all I can manage is a low grunt. I look down in surprise, what is going on? One of knees has become shredded, there is only bone and blood, but surprisingly, I can still move my legs. Shakily, I force myself up.

“Are you okay?” The woman asks.

I just stand there, a beam of light warming my back up. I look at the darkness beyond barely illuminated by her headlights, the sight is so beautiful. In my previous life, I would have never appreciated such beauty. But now, strangely enough, this beauty is all that matters.

“Excuse me sir!” The woman approaches me to inspect me. She pauses and lets out a short breath, “Holy shit. Sir! Your leg! I’m so sorry.” She rapidly walks towards me. “You need to sit down.”

I don’t hear a word she says, in fact, everything she has been saying seems like a foreign language. I don’t know why I can’t comprehend her words; she is speaking English after all. She puts her arm around me to slowly lower me to the ground, but I don’t move at all. I turn my head to look at her, her eyes widen in surprise. I realize now that my breath smells rancid.

“Can’t you see how beautiful this is?” I want to tell her, but all I do is grunt. She twitches away from me, but my arm hooks onto her back preventing her from going anymore. She looks at me bewildered, too scared to move. I cock my head, who is this creature in front of me? Why can’t she see what I see?

She struggles to back away, but I pull her closer to me. Then, I lean forward and bite her. This happens on instinct, it just seemed like the natural next step to me. My teeth sink into her flesh filling my mouth with warm blood. Is it morally wrong for me to do this? It can’t be because it just feels so right. Morality has no qualms with me, it can’t, or else this wouldn’t feel so natural. I was made to do this.

The woman screams and pushes me away, I fall down hard. Why did she do that to me? In the background I can hear the squeal of tires as she drives away and two more shooting stars shoot past me. After a while contemplating why she would do that to me I finally get up and start walking again. I walk along the dark road illuminated only by street lamps to the darkness in front of me.

Then, out of nowhere, I see the most fascinating sight in the world. In the distance is an array of lights and noise, a design of illumination so beautiful that I can’t help but stop to appreciate it. I start walking towards it without thinking, it is many miles away, but I know that I’ll reach it eventually. It almost feels like I’m walking back to where I’ve always belonged, my home. It seems to be welcoming me back with open arms, showing me the warm embrace of lights, the unmatched beauty of its design and the promise of a world of wonderment.

I am going back home.

title: What am I?

question: What concept from the popular culture fits the narrator's behavior?

answer: He seems to be a zombie.

question: What is the unique aspect of this piece of writing?

answer: Unlike many zombie stories, this one is written from the perspective of a zombie, not someone fighting or summoning them.

question: What are the "shooting stars" the narrator talks about?

answer: They speed past, splashing water on a road. Therefore, they must be cars.

question: How can the narrator still move after a speeding car breaks his leg?

answer: He's a zombie; it's quite normal for such creatures to be extremely durable.

question: Write a ~11 sentence summary.

answer: The narrator wonders why his shirt is shredded, his fingernails cracked and filled with blood underneath, the taste of blood filling his senses despite not bleeding anywhere. He shudders to think what could have happened, thinking that he's a good man, a decent man. He sees cars speeding past on a road like shooting stars, splashing rainwater on him. The view is so beautiful, he becomes mesmerized. A car hits him, breaking his leg, but there's no pain. The driver, a woman, tries talking to him to make sure he's ok. He tries to respond, but only a grunt comes out of his mouth. The lights are so beautiful, he tries telling her. He pulls the horrified woman and bites into her neck. It must be a good thing to do; it wouldn't feel so natural otherwise. He sees lights in the far distance and starts walking toward the beautiful scene.


text:
The MAQUIS DU LIMOUSIN was one of the largest Maquis groups of French resistance fighters.

The region of Limousin was an active area of resistance beginning in 1940. [Geographic organization of the French Resistance, showing the Limousin region in R5.] Edmond Michelet distributed tracts calling for continued fighting in all of Brive-la-Gaillarde's mailboxes on June 17, 1940. It is considered to be the first act of resistance of World War II in France. But the Limousin was south of the line of demarcation and the resistance was mainly a passive one against Vichy France. The Maquis du Limousin, the first in France, was formed in 1942. Its first act of sabotage was the dynamiting of a power plant near Ussel in June 1942. Marshal Philippe Pétain's visit to Corrèze in July was seen as a provocation by the population and strengthened popular support for the maquis.

The maquis increased fast, reinforced by many young men trying to escape the German troops who invaded in November 1942 and instituted the STO in early 1943. Maquis operations changed from sabotages in 1943 to massive attacks against occupation troops in 1944. At its peak, the Limousine maquis is estimated to have reached between 8,000 and 12,000 fighters. However, it was troubled by continuing antagonisms between the Armée secrète and the Francs-Tireurs et Partisans concerning operational methods (particularly at Tulle and Guéret), how local powers should be distributed after the liberation, as well as the degree to which “cleansing” of collaborators from the political system should take place.

The Limousine population paid a heavy toll for its resistance. Numerous maquisards were killed, executed, tortured or deported. Following the Normandy landings, the 2nd SS Division Das Reich, stationed in Montauban, was ordered to make its way across the country to help stop the Allied advance. Along their way into Corrèze and Haute-Vienne, the Germans came under continuous attacks from the maquisards. In reprisal, they slaughtered hundreds of civilians in Tulle on June 9 and at Oradour-sur-Glane on June 10, 1944. Limousin and France were profoundly affected by these massacres.

The region was entirely freed by the Résistance by the end of the summer of 1944. German troops, mostly made up of veterans from the Eastern Front, underwent so many attacks and sabotages that they called the Limousin “Little Russia”. Brive-la-Gaillarde was the first city in France to be freed by maquisards on August 15, 1944, ten days before Paris.

Led by Georges Guingouin for the military operations and Gontran Royer for the Mouvements unis de la Résistance, the best known figures in the Maquis du Limousin were Edmond Michelet and André Malraux —who later both became ministers of Charles de Gaulle—, Roger Lescure, Louis Lemoigne, René Vaujour and Marius Guedin. Jacques Renouvin, André Delon, Martial Brigouleix, Raymond Farro and Florentin Gourmelen, also prominent maquisards in Limousin, were killed during the war.

The Maquis du Limousin was led from Brive-la-Gaillarde and Limoges. The maquis was split into several main sectors:

-   Maquis Armée secrète de Basse-Corrèze (at Brive-la-Gaillarde), Moyenne-Corrèze (at Tulle) and Haute-Corrèze (at Neuvic-Ussel)
-   Maquis Francs-tireurs et partisans between Corrèze and Dordogne
-   Maquis Armée secrète Creusois (at Guéret)
-   Maquis Francs-tireurs et partisans Limousin (at Saint-Gilles-les-Forêts)

Sources (French)

-   Beau (Georges), Gaubusseau (Léopold), _Les SS en Limousin, Quercy et Périgord, Paris, Presses de la Cité_, 1966.
-   _Maquis de Corrèze_, ouvrage collectif, 5e édition, Naves, Imprimerie du Corrézien, 1995, 797 p.
-   Plas (Pascal, dir.), _Genèse et développement de la Résistance en R5, 1940-1943_, Actes des colloques de Brive-la-Gaillarde (September 1998) et de Soudaine-Lavinadière (September 2001), Treignac, éditions Les Monédières; Brive-la-Gaillarde, Centre Edmond Michelet, 2003, 339 p.

Museum

-   Centre national d'études de la Résistance et de la Déportation Edmond Michelet, 4 rue Champanatier 19100 Brive-la-Gaillarde

Category:French Maquis Category:Limousin

title: Maquis du Limousin

question: What does the text say about the Limousin region?

answer: The region of Limousin was an active area of resistance beginning in 1940. The Maquis du Limousin was formed in 1942. It was the first Maquis group in France, and grew to become one of the largest groups of French resistance fighters, peaking between 8000 and 12000 fighters. The population of Limousine faced brutal reprisals by the Germans in response to their resistance. The region was completely freed by the Resistance by the end of the summer of 1944.

question: What does the text say about well-known maquisards?

answer: The best known figures in the Maquis du Limousin were Edmond Michelet and Andre Malraux, who both later became ministers of Charles de Gaulle. They were led by Georges Guingouin and Gontran Royer. Other prominent maquisards were Rodger Lescure, Louis Lemoigne, Rene Vaujour, and Marius Guedin. In addition, Jacques Renouvin, Andre Delon, Martial Brigouleix, Raymond Farro, and Florentin Gourmelen were killed during the war.


text:
Primitive  emotions of magnified  rage and betrayal eradicate reason and logic as the infinite universe seems to burden my shoulders. The algorithmic mentality that seemed to link my bones like flexible cartilage snapped and spiraled towards distortion, only to kindle into a maddening adrenaline rush. The comforts of idealization became dead weight, and I could hear the faint whispers of a familiar tone climb back into my ears; “Run…” it spoke with a raspy yet forceful tone, “and never look back.”

For a brief moment I allowed oxygen to flow smoothly through my lungs, blinking rapidly to accommodate my anticipative twitch. Without a second thought, I leap from the park bench and abandon the illumination of lamp posts for the engulfing darkness of forest. My legs and arms pump with a new endurance and my mind flexes with an enhanced dexterity as I maneuver through draught inflicted woods; no destination, no emotion, just pure execution. After what felt like hours of running, the coal to my manic machine began to dwindle. Just as the labyrinth of bark seemed to be my resting place for the night, I break through density into an open field of tall grass with a sickly lit moon illuminating a crystal clear pond at it’s center.

The scenic serenity combined with the pond’s apparent misplacement dazzles me; “how could such tranquility be found amongst decay and static?” Cooling autumn air sweeps in with a pressing surge, urging my now fabric like shell towards the center of the field; like rustling golden red leaves, I could not resist. Approaching the water, I collapse by it’s edge from exhaustion as my raspy guardian angel’s voice calls back to me: “drink… quench your anxiety and replenish your tenacity.” Without a moments hesitation I submerge my head under the frigid oasis and drank until my constricting throat began to choke. Coming back up for air, I stare at my reflection in the pool in utter bewilderment.

Calm yet precise eyes stare back at me, draining the helium and poison from me like a burning zeppelin. Influential psyche infiltrates my tired mind and wipes away augmented fear, replacing it with a taboo confidence and encyclopedic intellect. Looking back towards the ludicrous world I find a series of unorthodox yet efficient plans worth setting in place; the strife for personal glory has been bestowed. Looking down at the lake I glance back into the eyes still resting on me in the reflection, and I hear the reflection whisper in that raspy voice “There is no better army than me, myself, and I.”

title: Damned Amongst the Invisible (429 words)

question: Where does the story take place?

answer: The story begins on a park bench, and then the narrator runs into the woods, finally emerging into an open field with a pond at its centre.

question: Who is the narrator?

answer: That information can't be found.

question: Why is the narrator running?

answer: They are running because the voice in their head told them to.

question: Explain the voice that whispers to the narrator.

answer: The true nature of the voice is unclear.

question: Write a ~4 sentence summary.

answer: The narrator is sitting on a park bench when a voice in their head instructs them to run. They dash through the woods and then emerge into an open field with a pond at its center. They collapse by the edge of the pond, and the voice tells them to drink. As they stare at their reflection, the voice declares that there is no better army than "me, myself, and I."


text:
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte clashed with his main rival anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders on Monday, as they laid out starkly opposing visions of their country's future in an election campaign now consumed by a diplomatic row withTurkey.

Two days before Wednesday's crucial general election, The Netherlands is mired in a war of words with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which has provided fodder for Wilders and his uncompromising anti-immigration stance.

'You are being taken hostage by Erdogan. Close the Dutch borders,' Wilders told Rutte, as tempers flared in the 30-minute head-to-head televised debate.

Right-wing Dutch politician Geert Wilders (pictured) made the most of a fiery TV debate against Prime Minister Mark Rutte to sound off against Islam and the escalating tit-for-tat row with Turkey

'That's a totally fake solution,' Rutte shot back, 'you want Nexit, you want The Netherlands out of Europe. You know what it will cost ... don't do it.'

Wilders, who says he is on a mission against the 'Islamisation' of the country, has promised to shut Dutch borders to Muslim immigrants, close mosques and ban sales of the Koran.

He also wants to follow the British and pull the country out of the European Union which it helped found.

Polls suggest Wednesday's results could be close, with Rutte's Liberal VVD returning as the largest party in the 150-seat parliament by a whisker.

The elections are being closely watched as a signal of the possible rise of far-right and populist parties in Europe, with key elections also planned this year in France and Germany.

'I want The Netherlands to be the first country which stops this trend of the wrong sort of populism,' Rutte told reporters, just hours before the debate.

Monday's debate, plus Tuesday's vote-eve round-table with eight political party leaders, could yet sway the poll, with one analyst estimating some 60 percent of Dutch voters remain undecided.

Wilders has delighted in the chaos which erupted over the weekend when riot police moved in to disperse hundreds of protesters waving Turkish flags in Rotterdam, angered by a Dutch government ban on their ministers.

'You are being taken hostage by Erdogan. Close the Dutch borders,' Wilders told Rutte during the heated debate. Discussing the tit-for-tat row with Turkey, he added: 'We must answer back. We must expel the Turkish ambassador and his staff.'

Rutte appealed for calm, but he has rejected Turkey's calls to apologise for expelling one of its ministers who tried to attend the pro-Ankara rally in Rotterdam.

In one tense exchange, Rutte said it was time to de-escalate the crisis, but Wilders retorted: 'We must answer back. We must expel the Turkish ambassador and his staff.'

'There's the difference between tweeting from the sofa and running a country. If you are in charge of a country you need to take sensible measures,' Rutte replied, to loud applause, in a jab at the Dutch MP known for his love of Twitter.

The VVD is predicted to return as the largest party in the 150-seat parliament with between 23 to 27 seats, according to the latest aggregated polls.

Rutte (left) appealed for calm and called to de-escalate the feud with Turkish leaders who were barred from speaking at rallys in Holland this week following fears of heightened tensions

That is well down from the 40 VVD MPs in the outgoing lower chamber however, and would leave Rutte scrambling to cobble together a viable coalition which may have to include four or five parties to reach the 76-seat majority.

After weeks of flirting at the top of the polls, Wilders has seen his ratings slip and may now come second with between 19 and 23 seats, polls suggest.

But that would still leave him a difficult voice to ignore.

Rutte repeated his vow never to work with Wilders again, accusing him of causing problems for the country after the peroxide-haired MP triggered the collapse of an earlier coalition in 2012.

Rutte's liberal VVD party is predicted to return as the largest party in the 150-seat parliament with between 23 to 27 seats, according to the latest aggregated polls - however, despite a ratings slip - Wilder's is still expected to return with a strong hand of between 19 and 23 seats

Telling Wilders he had become 'radicalised' and was making 'extreme statements' about Moroccan-Dutch citizens, Rutte insisted: 'I will not cooperate with such a party. No, never, no.'

But Wilders retorted that he was standing up against 'the liars and the legislators' and urged Dutch voters 'if you want to take the Netherlands back for ourselves, then chase this man away and put me in the prime minister's office.'

There are 28 parties seeking to woo the 12.9 million eligible voters, and observers have warned that forming a coalition will likely take months and demand tough compromises.

Wilders' 'ideology might be negative, it's anti-Muslims, it's anti-EU, it's anti-immigration, it's anti-refugees. But it is a clear ideology that addresses concerns of a substantial group of the Dutch. So it is there to stay,' Monika Sie Dhian Ho, director of the Clingendael Institute said.

question: What is the stance of the Dutch Prime Minister regarding Turkey?

answer: His stance is keep the borders open and to not block out Muslims from Turkey. He also wants to establish dialogue in order to resolve issues properly.

question: What kind of personality does MP Geert Wilder have?

answer: As a politician, Wilder vocally believes in keeping the Netherlands separate from outside influence. It also appears that he is not hesitant to escalate conflict, by calling for the removal of the Turkish ambassador. He is described as somewhat xenophobic by the director of the Clingendael Institute. It can also be said that he makes decisions without looking at the bigger picture but rather for the sake of public approval. As a leader, it appears that his actions and views can be highly divisive.

question: Describe the current political climate in Netherlands

answer: A political election calls the people's attention to the leaders in power as the Netherlands faces external issues brought by their shared border with Turkey -bringing with it concerns about immigrants and refugees, and also their pro-Ankara stance. At the same time, the Netherlands is at crucial point in determining whether or not to stay in the EU, which they helped found. In a poetic twist, the current Prime Minister represents one side of the issue, while his most staunch and vocal political rival, an MP, represents the other side of the balance.

question: What is the stand of the citizens of the Netherlands regarding the issues of their country?

answer: Basing off the polls, with support for either electoral being a gauge of what the people want for their country, it appears that the citizens are divided between both sides of the argument. While there are those who support the current Prime Minister's more even approach, MP Wilder's aggressive mentality and words are certainly resounding with other citizens who probably think it best to take action.


text:
HPG (People's Defense Forces) Press Office released a statement providing information about the recent action carried out by guerrillas of the HPG and YJA-Star (Free Women's Troops).

EIGHT SOLDIERS KILLED IN DOĞUBEYAZIT

HPG reported that the Turkish army initiated an operation in the Glidağ area of the Dogubeyazit district of Ağrı in the morning of March 14, and this operation was extended to the villages of Qulê, Inegê, Mışka, Xalhesen and the Kırê Halacê area. The Turkish army has also airdropped soldiers with Sikorsky helicopters on the Kire Inegê and Kırê Demirkapi areas.

According to the statement, guerrillas carried out an ambush action against the operation forces as they retreated at 5 pm the same day.

Eight of the soldiers who were shot in an effective manner were killed while two soldiers were wounded as result of the action which was carried out as a revenge action against the massacre in the village of Xerabê Bava (Kuruköy) and in memory of fallen guerrillas who were martyred in Garzan.

TWO SOLDIERS KILLED IN ÇUKURCA

HPG statement continued, reporting that between 15.00 and 18.30 hours on March 14, two Sikorsky-type helicopters of the the Turkish army supported by Cobra-type helicopters airdropped soldiers on the Havan hill located at the border of Çukurca district in Hakkari. Guerrillas hit the soldiers as they were airdropped into the area, which left one of them dead.

During the same hours, guerrillas carried out a sabotage action against the soldiers conducting surveillance activities on the hill, as result of which one soldier was killed.

TARGETED ACTIONS IN YÜKSEKOVA

At 13:00 on March 13, guerrillas carried out targeted actions against the soldiers positioned on the Elişêr hill in Hakkari's Yüksekova (Gever) district. Two soldiers were killed in these actions.

TWO GUERRILLAS MARTYRED

HPG announced the martyrdom of two guerrillas with whom contact had been lost during clashes with Turkish army border units, gangs and counter forces that attempted to carry out an operation on the border of the Haftanin area of Medya Defense Zones on March 10, to which guerrillas had responded instantly.

HPG gave the following ID information of the fallen guerrillas:

Code Name: Gelhat Gabar

Name Surname: Kerem Dayan

Place of Birth: Siirt

Mother - Father Name: Leyla - Emin

Date and Place of Martyrdom : 10 March 2017 / Haftanin

***

Code Name: Mazlum Zerdeşt

Name Surname: Abdulmenaf Gezer

Place of Birth: Amed

Mother - Father Name: Adile - Tevfik

Date and Place of Martyrdom: 10 March 2017 / Haftanin

question: What is HPG?

answer: HPG is People's Defense Forces

question: What does this released statement include?

answer: It provides information about the recent action carried out by guerrillas of the HPG and YJA-Star.

question: What is the YJA-Star?

answer: Free Women's Troops

question: How many guerrillas were martyred?

answer: two

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: It provides information about the recent action carried out by guerrillas of the HPG and YJA-Star.


text:
_LIGHT IN MY DARKNESS_ is a book, originally published in 1927 as _MY RELIGION_, written by Helen Keller when she was 47 years old. The book was written as a tribute to Emanuel Swedenborg whom Helen regarded as “one of the noblest champions true Christianity has ever known”. This book is regarded as Keller's spiritual autobiography in which she openly told that “the teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg have been my light, and a staff in my hand and by his vision splendid I am attended on my way”.

The original publication was loosely put together and hastily printed by Doubleday, Page & Company. Nevertheless, it sold well in 1927 and has remained in print ever since. In 1994, Ray Silverman, a Swedenborgian minister and literary scholar, thoroughly revised and edited _My Religion,_ organizing the eight unwieldy sections of the first edition into twelve distinct chapters with subheadings to clarify their contents. Furthermore, important materials not present in the first edition were added to elucidate and expand the original text. Other revisions included modernization of several words and phrases, substitution of inclusive language where appropriate, correction of spelling and typographical errors, alteration of punctuation to conform to modern standards, and emendation of a few historical inaccuracies. Extra paragraph breaks were added and a very few passages that distracted from the main messages were delicately pruned.

In 2000 a second edition of _Light in My Darkness_ was published which included an article that was originally published in _Guideposts_ magazine in 1956, when Keller was 76 years old. The article, which was reprinted by Guideposts in 1995, is significant in that it establishes the fact that Keller was indeed a lifelong Swedenborgian. It is in this article that she writes,

Also included in the 2000 edition is a quote from Keller's last published book, _Teacher_ (1955). In it she speaks of her undimmed enthusiasm for Swedenborg's teachings. She does this by first quoting the American poet, Walt Whitman who wrote: “O Spirit, as a runner strips/ Upon a windy afternoon/ Be unencumbered of what troubles you--/ Arise with grace / And greatly go, with the wind upon your face.”

Keller then adds, “In that state of exhilaration I had accepted the teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg, had drunk in his interpretation of the Bible, fearless, reverent, yet as unconfined as the sun, the clouds, the sea.”

The change in title from _My Religion_ to _Light in My Darkness_ is significant. The new title is taken from one of Keller's poetic statements in which she declares, “I know that life is given us so that we may grow in love. And I believe that God is in me as the sun is in the color and fragrance of the flower, the Light in my darkness, the Voice in my silence.”

Reception

Readers were divided by those impressed by her faith and those disappointed that the famous deafblind activist advocated Swedenborgianism rather than a more “mainstream” religion.

Category:1927 non-fiction books Category:Alabama culture Category:American autobiographies Category:Doubleday, Page & Company books Category:Religious autobiographies Category:Swedenborgianism

title: Light in My Darkness

question: Why did Keller write the book "Light in My Darkness"?

answer: Keller wrote the book as a tribute to Emanuel Swedenborg.

question: Why were readers divided on "Light in My Darkness"?

answer: Those who weren't impressed with Keller's book questioned why she advocated Swedenborgianism rather than a more “mainstream” religion.


text:
“There are times, as an educator, when you can look into a student’s eyes and see their energy, their passion for learning, and you glow - knowing that you have helped foster their love of knowledge and understanding of the world around them. This was not one of those times,” Alex began softly, his eyes vacant as he tried to count the number of dots in the fiberboard ceiling tiles.

“In fact, as I lowered my gaze across the sprawling red-oak conference table I found my eyes resting upon a slack-jawed tenth grader who has developed a habit of making his instructors cry – precisely the last problem I needed to deal with this Friday,” he paused for effect, but Dean Fisher would deny him the satisfaction of acknowledgement while he scribbled in his notes.

“We sat in silence for what seemed like hours before I could reconcile what had to be done. Alex Decker would have to be put to death-“

“Thank you, Mr. Decker, but I have my own inner monologue to narrate, and it does not need any coercion into murdering a student of Williamson High School.”

The room was still. Dean Fisher was not a man who physically commanded respect, but he had a gift for declaring things with authority. The room remained still until Dean Fisher removed his reading glasses and put down his crossword puzzle.

Alex raised an eyebrow.

“Mr. Decker,” Dean Fisher let the name roll off his tongue as if he were trying it out for the first time, “Why are you making my employees cry?”

Alex resumed counting fiberboard dots.

“Mrs. Clemens won’t actually tell me what you said or did to her...”

Twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-one…

“…this makes it hard for me to administer discipline.”

Thirty-one…wait, shit.

“But of course you know that. But what you didn’t know is that Daphne Clemens took her own life thirty minutes ago at her home in Clarksville.”

Alex felt the words hit him at once, sending his stomach plummeting to the center of the universe.

“She…what?” His lips were numb as he formed the words.

“She offed herself! No note, no nothing. Nobody knows what to make of it.”

“I…I don’t even know what to-“

“Okay, I’m fucking with you, Alex.  But for the love of god you have to stop calling your instructors fat.”

The relief rolled over Alex’s body in waves and he sunk into the leather armchair feeling both emancipated and savagely exploited.

“I didn’t call her fat; I didn’t call her anything.”

“You replaced her birthday cake in the faculty lounge with a replica that read “Congratulations on your thirty-five year pregnancy.”

“I want my lawyer.”

“You’re fifteen.”

“Touche,” Alex shrugged and sunk back into the armchair.

Dean Fisher studied the boy carefully.

“Dean Fisher studied the boy carefully. He definitely had to be assassinated-“

“Get out of my office, Alex.”

Alex stood, gathering his books and slinging his book bag over one shoulder lazily. At the door he spun on his heels, nonchalantly tossing a polished, delicious red apple towards his administrator.

It nonchalantly collided with Dean Fisher’s left eye with a sickening thwap. The swelling began immediately.

title: Alex Decker to the Front Office [~500 words]

question: Summarize Alex's relationship with Dean Fisher.

answer: Alex's relationship with Dean Fisher is not the best. Alex really gets on Dean Fisher's nerves and can over-dominate him. Dean Fisher is also stated to not be a man who commands physical respect. Dean Fisher gets to Alex by making a snide comment and Alex ends up throwing an apple at his eye.

question: How much trouble would Alex get into for throwing the apple at Dean Fisher?


text:
NINTOKU SEAMOUNT or NINTOKU GUYOT is a seamount (underwater volcano) and guyot (flat top) in the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain. It is a large, irregularly shaped volcano that last erupted 66 million years ago. Three lava flows have been sampled at Nintoku Seamount; the flows are almost all alkalic (subaerial) lava.[1] It is 56.2 million years old.[2]

Nintoku is positioned a roughly 41 degrees north latitude, approximately two-thirds the way southward along the north-northeast-south-southeast Emperor seamounts extending from Meiji Seamount (about 53°N) in the north to Kammu Seamount (about 32°N) at the chain's southern terminus. Nintoku Seamount was named after the 16th emperor of Japan, Emperor Nintoku, by geologist Robert Dietz in 1954.[3]

The seamount occupies a central position in the Emperor Seamount chain and is thus an important point in the paleolatitude history of the Hawaiian hotspot, instrumental to proving the scientific hunch that the Hawaii hotspot was a mobile entity.[4] The structure of the seamount is elongate, aligned north-northwest along the Emperor trend, with two prominent ridges trending southwest and south-southwest as far as from the main crater. Nintoku Seamount is a plexus of coalesced volcanoes, much like many of the larger seamounts in this chain. The Nintoku system is, however, clearly isolated from Yomei Seamount, about to the north, and Jingu Seamount, about to south, by abyssal depths.[5]

Geology and characteristics

In seismic profile, the main body of the seamount rises steeply over in predominantly unsedimented volcanic slope to the thinly sedimented ( to ), from an Emperor point of view, gently domed summit region between to high peak profile, which covers about 3400 square kilometers of area.[6]

From analysis of seismic reflection survey data and core material recovered by drillings at Site 432, the shipboard party of Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) Leg 55 proposed that Nintoku Seamount was in an intermediate atoll stage (no lagoon but fringing reefs and banks and extensive carbonate bank interiors) before subsidence removed the island below the wave base. It was further thought that a few small remnant volcanic peaks and domes still pierce the sedimentary deposits.[7]

Nintoku Seamount apparently remained at or above sea level long enough to be almost completely devastated by subaerial erosion and wave action. Reefs were not indicated in the seismic studies, but fragmented pieces of coral were recovered and documented, showing a shallow-water sediment-rich condition. The rock records indicate deposition in waters cooler than the present tropical condition. Shallow-water sedimentary deposition ceased in Paleogene times.[8]

The seamount was first drilled by Site 432, located on the northwestern edge of the summit region of Nintoku Seamount, in a gently sloping area mapped as terrace deposits. Although the sediment cover was estimated, based on other seamount covers, to be thick, bedrock was hit after only . Poorly recovered and preserved sedimentary deposits indicated a shallow-reef bed typical of terraced flanking reefs and banks, as well as volcanic sand. Drilling at Site 432 penetrated of volcanic rock ( total) before terminating because of hole caving and damage to the drill assembly.[9]

The site was drilled as part of Leg 197 by the Ocean Drilling Program, at site number 1205.[10] A short bathymetric acoustic survey was conducted to find the best site for the location and structure of a core sampling. The locale chosen was about southwest of Site 432, the location of a previous drilling by the ODP.

Site 1205 ()[11] was located in water, where previous drilling had reached volcanic rock beneath Paleocene deposits. It was elected to return to the site for a number of reasons. First, drilling at the nearby site 432 had hit reasonably unaltered and unchanged basalt with good remnant magnetic properties, key to finding the latitude of origin; but insufficient sampling caused a lack of data, and determining the age accurately was not possible. Hence, deeper drilling was promised to achieve that goal, providing a time-averaged (as the seamount is in the center of the chain) movement ratio.[12] Second, a survey of the region showed a rock structure suitable for deep drilling, and nearby sites met low levels of sedimentary cover. Thirdly, the composition of previously drilled volcanic rock seemed to match the volcano's “average” type, erupted during the post-shield stage of it life. This helped another project goal, to recover a suitable and datable chunk of tholeiitic lava, which appeared to be rare on the seamount.[13]

The hole was drilled in what appeared to be a large, broad sedimentary cover (estimated in thickness) covering a swath of the ancient volcano's main slope.[14] The coring encountered volcanic rock at below the sea floor, and continued to a final depth of below the sea floor. The sedimentary cover, an element commonly found on many of the Emperor seamounts, was found to be largely a stack interlaced lava flows (about 95%). The drilling penetrated into the seamount's volcanic rock, and recovered at least 25 different hardened lava flows.[15]

It was established that Nintoku Seamount's sedimentary cap consists of sandstone and siltstone containing well-rounded to subrounded basalt blocks, volcanic ash, fossil fragments of mollusks, benthic foraminifers, bryozoans, and coralline red algae. These observations indicate a shallow-water, high-rate depositional setting. Little variation was found in the density, grain size, or porosity of the volcanic rock, and it was stable in composition, except for the volcanic-sedimentary cover. It is believed that this is the underlying cause of aucousically recorded layering of the upper - of rock, after which the effect of soil layering fades away.[16]

The age of the youngest volcanic rocks was constrained by nano-fossils in the sediment to be older than 53.6–54.7 million years, an age that is just younger than the radiometric age of 56.2 ± 0.6 million obtained for the basalt drilled from nearby Hole 432A.[17] The thickness and vesicularity of the lava flows, as well as the presence of oxidized flow tops and soil horizons and a lack of pillow lava, indicate that all of the obtained samples erupted subaerially. The volcanic rock ranges from aphyric to highly plagioclase and olivine-phyric basalt. At 230 to 255 meters below ground, two flows of tholeiitic basalt were found interlaced with the alkalic basalt flows. Above these flows the degree of alkalinity skyrockets.[18] There is evidence suggesting that the eruption rates must have been lower at the period during which the two flows were deposited, which is consistent with the model of Hawaiian volcanic growth, which increases in activity slowly over time before ceasing altogether. Internal lava flows have also created course-grained rocks.[19] Lavas from Nintoku Seamount have similar composition to lava erupted during the post-shield stage of Hawaiian volcanoes such as Mauna Kea. Slight differences in trace element composition between lavas from Nintoku Seamount and active Hawaiian volcanoes probably result from differences in source composition or variations in the degree of melting.[20]

All of the recovered lava flows had been altered very little by erosion or other lava flows, except for thin flow tops. Sparse veining indicates that there is only small-scale fluid circulation within the rocks, in contrast with some of the data collected from Detroit Seamount.[21]

Rock magnetic data obtained suggest that the lava flows from Site 1205 carry a remnant magnetization suitable for scientific analysis. Although some of the rocks needed a more complex and thorough analysis, most samples yielded data suitable to make a preliminary determination of magnetic inclinations. Twenty-two independent magnetic group were identified, yielding a mean inclination of -45.7° (+10.5°/-6.3°). The mean inclination suggests a latitude of formation on an early Eocene Nintoku Seamount at 27.1° (+5.5°/-7.7°).[22] This value, together with paleo-latitudes from analyses of rocks at Site 433 (1980), Site 884 (1997), and Sites 1203 and 1204 (Leg 197; Detroit Seamount), form a consistent data set indicating southward motion of the Hawaiian hotspot from Late Cretaceous to early Tertiary time, a hunch that many scientists had harbored for a long time.[23]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

[20]

[21]

[22]

[23]

title: Nintoku Seamount

question: How old is the Nintoku Seamount?

answer: It is 56.2 million years old.

question: When did the Nintoku Seamount last errupt?

answer: It last erupted 66 million years ago.

question: What materials are in the seamount's sedimentary cap?

answer: It consists of sandstone and siltstone containing well-rounded to subrounded basalt blocks, volcanic ash, fossil fragments of mollusks, benthic foraminifers, bryozoans, and coralline red algae.

question: What is the lava from the seamount made of?

answer: The lava is almost all alkalic, or subaerial lava.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: The Nintoku Seamount is a seamount that is part of the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain. It is 56.2 million years old.


text:
[First edition] _KADDISH AND OTHER POEMS 1958-1960_ (1961) is a book of poems by Allen Ginsberg published by City Lights Bookstore.

Background

The lead poem “Kaddish” also known as “Kaddish for Naomi Ginsberg (1894-1956)”, was written in two parts written by Beat writer Allen Ginsberg, was first published in _Kaddish and Other Poems 1958-1960_. The book was part of the Pocket Poet Series published by City Lights Books. In the table of contents, the poem is titled “Kaddish: Proem, narrative, hymmnn, lament, litany, & fugue”. Along with Ginsberg's “Howl”, Kaddish is said to be one of his greatest masterpieces.

Ginsberg wrote the poem about his mother Naomi after her death in 1956, who struggled with mental problems throughout her life. Naomi suffered many psychotic episodes both before Allen was born and while he was growing up. She went in and out of mental hospitals and was treated with medication, insulin shock therapy, and electroshock therapy. She died in an asylum in 1956.

Kaddish in Judaism

The title “Kaddish” refers to the mourning prayer or blessing in Judaism. This long poem was Ginsberg's attempt to mourn his mother, Naomi, but also reflects his sense of loss at his estrangement from his born religion. The traditional Kaddish contains no references to death, whereas Ginsberg's poem is riddled with thoughts and questionings of death.

After her death, a rabbi would not allow the traditional Kaddish to be read with Ginsberg's Christian and Atheist friends, so he rebelled and wrote a Kaddish of his own. Ginsberg began writing the poem in the Beat Hotel in Paris in December 1957 and completed it in New York in 1959.

Proposed film version

Ginsberg wrote a screenplay based on the poem. Robert Frank was to direct it, but money could not be raised for the project.

Stage version

In 1972, Robert Kalfin adapted the screenplay for the stage and produced it at the Chelsea Theater Center at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The play explored Naomi Ginsberg's schizophrenic collapse and made use of innovative video for flashback scenes.

There is a detailed description of this production and of behind-the-scenes incidents surrounding it in Davi Napoleon's chronicle of the Chelsea in _Chelsea on the Edge: The Adventures of an American Theater_ (1991). The stage version was also staged at the Habima Theater in Israel, translated by Nathan Zach and starring Yoram Khatav as Allen and Gila Almagor as Naomi.

Overview

On Naomi Ginsberg

Kaddish is not a linear story. Rather, it is told through a series of thoughts and memories about the character’s lives. Part I opens with Ginsberg reflecting on the passing of his mother. He writes: “Strange now to think of you, gone without corsets & eyes, while I walk on the sunny pavement of Greenwich Village,”.[1] The poem highlights Naomi’s young life, watching Charlie Chaplin films and going to the Metropolitan Opera House. It tells of her being an immigrant from Russia, going to candy stores, eating ice cream and drinking soda. The poem also touches on her communist beliefs and general paranoid nature (“All the accumulations of life, that wear us out-clocks, bodies, consciousness, shoe, breasts-begotten sons-your Communism-‘Paranoia’ into hospitals.”).

In Part II, Ginsberg tells of the nature of Naomi’s sickness and what it meant for him to witness as a young person. The poem suggests that she often looked to him for protection because of her paranoid fantasies and often confided in him. Naomi’s paranoia consisted of her belief that someone or something was out to get her and that medical professionals wanted to kill her. There were also times when most sounds and any light terrified her. In Part II the reader also learns that Naomi’s first nervous breakdown was in 1919 and caused her to stay in a dark room for three weeks. Ginsberg does not only write about the bad times, but also the good times. The times when Naomi was doing well are explained at length and reflect the love and hope he had for his mother.

A Broader Meaning

The poem, in addition to being about Naomi Ginsberg’s life, is Allen Ginsberg’s reflection on the meaning of life and death. At many points throughout the poem, Ginsberg comments on the approach of his own death. He also talks about other members of his family and events that surrounded his life with his mother, such as the Great Depression. He relates his experiences and his mother’s sickness with the struggles of people as a whole. The poem also touches on religion and Ginsberg’s confusion and disconnect from his own religion of Judaism. It questions the importance of religious authority and authority in general.

Structure/Poetic Devices

This poem is similar to _Howl_ (1955) in that it has the same structure. Each line is quite long, and Ginsberg has said these long lines are meant to be read in a single breath. In this and many of Ginsberg’s poems, there is a sense of urgency and hyperactivity. It is as if the poem is just a collection of his memories spilled onto the page. There is no uniform structure to the poem. Some lines are indented, some are not. Ginsberg uses hyphens as punctuation often, and the sentences are often run-ons, brimming with different ideas and images.

One interesting device Ginsberg uses in this poem is capitalization. Several words like “Death”, “Day”, “Mercy” and “Oblivion”, are capitalized even though they don’t necessarily have to be. The capitalization of the words denotes their heightened importance in the poem. “Oblivion” in this poem is not just an abstraction; it is meant to describe a very real place, thus it is capitalized.

[1] Ginsberg, 1961, p. 7

title: Kaddish and Other Poems

question: Why did Ginsberg write Kaddish?

answer: A rabbi refused to practice the traditional Kaddish for Ginsberg and his Christian and Atheist friends. As such, Ginsberg wrote his own. It is different from a traditional Kaddish in that it discusses death, which a traditional one would never do.

question: Describe Ginsberg's relationship with his mother.

answer: His mother confided many things in him. She struggled with mental illness and paranoia. Due to that she often had a belief people were trying to kill her. The poem also describes the good times when Naomi was doing well and explains at length the love and hope he had for his mother.

question: What is the structure of the poem?

answer: The poem is similar to Howl. The long lines are meant to be read in a single breath. The style is "stream-of-consciousness". Ginsberg capitalizes words like Death, Day and Oblivion in order to personify them as concrete places rather than abstractions.

question: What elements of Naomi's personality come through in the poem?

answer: The poem discusses Naomi's young life, watching Charlie Chaplin films and going to the Metropolitan Opera House. It tells of her being an immigrant from Russia. It discusses going to candy stores, eating ice cream, and also Naomi's belief in communism and her paranoid nature. All things, high and low, good and bad, Ginsberg struggles to include.


text:
Source: S&P Dow Jones Indices

When Republicans were pitching a massive tax cut for corporations and wealthy families last year, they promised voters many benefits: increased investment, higher wages and a tax cut that pays for itself. The tax plan, congressional leaders said, would turbocharge the American economy and provide a much-needed helping hand to working-class families.

“Most people, half the people in this country, live paycheck to paycheck, so there’s a lot of economic anxiety,” the House speaker, Paul Ryan, told The Times in November. “And I think just one of the key solutions is faster economic growth, more jobs. And I think the best thing we could do to deliver that is tax reform.”

So, more than six months since President Trump signed the tax cut into law, is it delivering on the promises Mr. Ryan and other leaders made?

Buybacks Reach New Heights

The most notable outcome of the tax law is one that few Republicans talked about: Companies are buying back their own stock — a lot of it. Stock buybacks are expected to reach a record $1 trillion this year. After Congress reduced the top federal corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, businesses are flush with cash. Lawmakers also let companies repatriate foreign earnings that they have been amassing at a rate of 15.5 percent for cash and 8 percent for other assets.

By spending a big chunk of their tax windfall on buying back shares, businesses are boosting demand for and, thus, the price of their stock. It is no wonder then that the S&P 500 stock index is trading near its high.

By far, Apple conducted the largest buybacks, totalling nearly $45 billion in the first six months of the year.

Note: Second quarter buybacks are as of close on Aug. 9, 2018. Source: S&P Dow Jones Indices

Share buybacks have an understandable appeal to executives, many of whom are compensated with stock themselves, and to investors. But buybacks do little for workers, most of whom own little or no stock. It is not even clear that it is in the best long-term interest of companies when they could be using that money to expand or invest in technology that would make them more productive and profitable in the future.

These buybacks amount to a huge wasted opportunity. They also weren’t unexpected. In 2004, Republicans temporarily cut the tax rate on foreign corporate profits, promising that would spur economic growth and increase wages. Instead, many corporations bought record amounts of their own shares.

Investments Have Flatlined

Note: Second quarter 2018 capital expenditures as of close on Aug. 9, 2018. Source: S&P Dow Jones Indices

With so much of firms’ focus on buying back stock, a key Republican prediction — that tax cuts would encourage spending on equipment and factories — has not come to fruition. There has been a modest increase in investment this year compared to recent quarters. Companies in the S&P 500 had spent around $147 billion through the end of March. A recent modest uptick began in early 2017, long before the tax cut.

Investment as a percentage of economic output climbed in the first quarter but fell to 17.5 percent in the second, far below the nearly 20 percent it reached in 2006 before the recession. Growth in productivity — which ought to accelerate when businesses invest — was just 0.4 percent in the first quarter.

Real Wages Have Declined

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

And what happened to that promise of a big raise for workers? No sign of it yet.

The typical family would earn $3,000 to $7,000 more a year, the White House Council of Economic Advisers said. In fact, real wages are down, largely thanks to the rising price of oil, which has more than offset any modest increase in income.

Even ignoring inflation, wages are up only 2.7 percent over the last 12 months. Even with the unemployment rate at a low 3.9 percent, businesses are not offering higher pay yet.

The idea that the tax cuts were going to line workers’ pockets was always a mirage. Most people will enjoy only a modest and temporary tax cut — families earning $25,000 or less will save on average just $60 on their federal tax this year, and those making between $48,600 and $86,100 will save $930, according to the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. Families in the top 1 percent, on the other hand, will save an average of $51,140.

Tax Cuts Don’t Pay for Themselves

Source: Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (projections); Congressional Budget Office (historical deficit).

“Not only will this tax plan pay for itself, but it will pay down debt,” Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, said. This statement was absurd when Mr. Mnuchin made it, but it looks even more ridiculous now. The deficit and the federal debt are growing — and at a stunning pace. In the current fiscal year, the federal government will spend $912 billion more than it collects in revenue, an increase of 39 percent from the 2017 fiscal year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Thanks to the tax cut, the government will take in about 1 percent less in the 2018 fiscal year than it did the year before. Corporate tax revenue is plummeting — the C.B.O. predicts a drop of 27 percent this year. At the same time, the federal government will spend nearly 5 percent more, due, in large part, to Mr. Trump’s insistence on more defense spending.

Over the coming decades, the federal debt could nearly triple as a share of the gross domestic product if Congress makes the Trump tax cut and spending increase permanent, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Lawmakers have talked about extending the cuts in last year’s law beyond the next 10 years — something they did with some of the cuts passed during the George W. Bush administration. “I don’t know why we wouldn’t want to do that,” the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, said in April.

Today, many Republicans seem to realize that the tax cut has become a political liability, which is why they aren’t talking about it ahead of the November election. Even they realize that it doesn’t do any of what they promised.

__Follow The New York Times Opinion section on_ Facebook _and_ Twitter (@NYTOpinion)_, and sign up for the_ Opinion Today newsletter_.__

question: What were the benefits offered to voters?

answer: The benefits offered to the voters were: increased investments, higher wages, and a tax cut that pays for itself.

question: What is the outcome of tax laws?

answer: The outcome of tax laws is that companies are now buying back their own stock.

question: By how much was the tax reduced?

answer: The corporate tax is reduced from 35 percent to 21 percent.

question: How much was the largest buyback of shares for?

answer: The largest buyback of shares was by Apple. They bought nearly $45 billion in the first half of the year.

question: Write a ~7 sentence summary.

answer:
The Republicans are pitching massive tax cuts for wealthy families and corporations. Since the law has been passed, most companies have been buying back their shares. Corporate tax has been reduced by 11 percent. Apple bought back the maximum shares worth nearly $45 billion.

But along with these, the promises made to workers haven't been fulfilled yet. The real wages have been declining. Along with this, the idea that tax cuts would encourage equipment investments hasn't held true, the investments have flatlined.


text:
Phillip couldn't remember what he had done before he passed out. In fact he didn't even remember waking up, really, or even where he was.  It was a dark cold night... or at least it seemed like it was cold, Phillip noticed a light snow forming on the grassy ground, yet he felt nothing. He had no time to ruminate over this strange lack of sensation as a horribly tremendous hunger unlike any he had ever experienced wrecked his entire body. He began to remember all the foods he loved... but strangely, none of them seemed appetizing. His stomach felt like an empty cave, yet he could not bring himself to even imagine eating a hamburger or a hotdog. He shook off the strange thought and continued limping towards the only source of light he could see in the distance. Limping? He had not noticed he had been limping too, he still felt no pain anywhere in his body. As he continued to strain his eyes toward the light, a silhouette of a man appeared before his eyes. Finally a savior... But something was not right, the hunger in his stomach ignited with the sight of this mysterious person. He could feel saliva forming in his mouth. He needed to stop walking for a second , to try to piece things together, but in horror he realized he couldn't. He was not in control of his body, and whatever was wanted to devour this man before him. “Please” he thought. “Please don't do this”. His jaws flew open as he inched closer to the man, mere feet  away from his-

A loud bang rang out through the formerly quiet graveyard as the bullet pierced the skull of the walking corpse, sending skull fragments and tiny pieces of brain matter spewing everywhere. The corpse slumped to the ground, dead once more. The Watcher lowered his pistol and tried to wipe the blood that had formed on his jacket.

“Christ”, He whispered to himself, looking at the grave from which the thing had emerged , “ that's the fifth one today.”

title: The Watcher

question: Why can't Phillip remember what he was doing when he passed out?

answer: The text does not say.

question: Is Phillip a vampire?

answer: It seems possible, as he is terribly hungry but a burger won't sate him.

question: What happens to Phillip?

answer: A watcher shoots him.

question: Whence did Phillip emerge?

answer: A grave.

question: Write a ~5 sentence summary.

answer: Phillip wakes up very hungry but not for anything in particular-he only knows he does not want, for example, a hamburger. He feels strange and doesn't recall how he passed out, or what he'd been doing up until that point. He makes out the silhouette of a man in the light and realizes he can't control his compulsion to attack the man. As he nears, saliva drips. Then The Watcher shoots Phillip, and looks back at the grave from which Phillip had emerged, remarking it's the fifth one today.


text:
Patterns in conflict:
Civilians are now the target

_Civilian fatalities in wartime have climbed from 5 per cent at the turn of the century ... to more than 90 per cent in the wars of the 1990s._

New weapons and patterns of conflict that include deliberate attacks against civilians are increasingly turning children into primary targets of war.

"Armed conflict kills and maims more children than soldiers," notes a new United Nations report by Graça Machel, the UN Secretary-General's Expert on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children.

"It is a basic need of children to be protected when conflicts threaten, and such protection requires the fulfillment of their rights through the implementation of international human rights and humanitarian law," the report states.

Modern warfare is often less a matter of confrontation between professional armies than one of grinding struggles between military and civilians in the same country, or between hostile groups of armed civilians. More and more wars are essentially low-intensity internal conflicts, and they are lasting longer. The days of set-piece battles between professional soldiers facing off in a field far from town are long gone. Today, wars are fought from apartment windows and in the lanes of villages and suburbs, where distinctions between combatant and non-combatant quickly melt away.

Civilian fatalities in wartime climbed from 5 per cent at the turn of the century, to 15 per cent during World War I, to 65 per cent by the end of World War II, to more than 90 per cent in the wars of the 1990s.

Children are not spared. It is estimated that 500,000 under-five-year-olds died as a result of armed conflicts in 1992 alone. In Chechnya, between February and May 1995, children made up an appalling 40 per cent of all civilian casualties; Red Cross workers found that children's bodies bore marks of having been systematically executed with a bullet through the temple. In Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina, almost one child in four has been wounded.

"Any and all tactics are employed, from systematic rape, to scorched earth tactics that destroy crops and poison wells, to ethnic cleansing and genocide," the report says.

In war, children usually have little choice but to share the same horrors as their parents. As wars take on an ethnic, tribal or fratricidal cast, civilians and their children may find themselves the objects of genocidal violence. As one political commentator cynically expressed it in a 1994 radio broadcast before violence erupted in Rwanda, "To kill the big rats, you have to kill the little rats."

"Not only are large numbers of children killed and injured, but countless others grow up deprived of their material and emotional needs, including the structures that give meaning to social and cultural life," the report says. "The entire fabric of their societies their homes, schools, health systems and religious institutions are torn to pieces."

Even humanitarian activities that were once safe from attack are now treated as legitimate military objectives'. Relief convoys, health clinics and feeding centres have all become targets. And when food supplies run short or water is contaminated during wartime, it is usually children who suffer most. In Somalia, half or more of all children under age five who were alive on 1 January 1992 were dead by the end of the year. In Mozambique, wartime damage to schools has left two thirds of 2 million primary school-age children with no access to education.

Sexual abuse is also appearing more often as a systematic policy of war, deployed to terrorize civilian communities. In some raids during the carnage in Rwanda in 1994, virtually every adolescent girl who survived militia attack was later raped. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the rape of teenage girls was systematized into a deliberate policy. It has been estimated that more than 20,000 women have been raped since the Balkan war began in 1992.

The technology of war has also changed in ever more deadly ways. Inexpensive new lightweight weapons have made it tragically easy to use children as the cannon-fodder of modern warfare. In Uganda, an AK-47 which is simple enough for a child of 10 to strip and reassemble can be bought for the same price as a chicken, and in Mozambique for a bag of maize. Thanks to such innovations, by the late 1980s adults had put guns in the hands of as many as 200,000 children under the age of 16 in 25 countries. As soldiers, children are often considered the most expendable: during the Iran-Iraq war, child soldiers were sent out ahead in waves over minefields.

What are the causes underlying modern armed conflict with its emphasis on victimizing children and other civilians? "The sense of dislocation and chaos that characterizes contemporary armed conflicts can be attributed to many different factors," says the report.

"Some observers point to cataclysmic political upheavals and struggles for control over resources in the face of widespread poverty and economic disarray. Others see the callousness of modern warfare as a natural outcome of the social revolutions that have torn traditional societies apart. The latter analysts point as proof to many African societies that have always had strong martial cultures. While fierce in battle, the rules and customs of those societies, only a few generations ago, made it taboo to attack women and children," the report continues.

Even as wars become deadlier for innocent civilians, it is possible to mitigate their effects on children. In El Salvador, for example, beginning in 1985, government and rebel forces agreed to three days of tranquillity', during which 250,000 small children were immunized against polio, measles, diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough. This vaccine truce was repeated annually for six years until the end of the civil war. Similarly, the 1996 Atlanta Olympics inspired UNICEF-brokered truces between warring factions in Afghanistan (3 million children were vaccinated) and in Kurdish areas of northern Iraq (66,000 vaccinated) a gold medal success for all sides.

Changing patterns of conflict: Key statistics

-   Increasingly, wars are fought in precisely those countries that can least afford them. Of more than 150 major conflicts since the Second World War, 130 have been fought in the developing world. The per capita gross national product (GNP) of war-torn countries in 1994 included: Afghanistan (US$280), Angola ($700), Cambodia ($200), Georgia ($580), Liberia ($450), Mozambique ($80), Somalia ($120), Sri Lanka ($640), the Sudan ($480).
-   Since the 1950s, more wars have started than have stopped. By the end of 1995, wars had been running in Afghanistan for 17 years, Angola, 30; Liberia, 6; Somalia, 7; Sri Lanka, 11; Sudan, 12.
-   The global case-load of refugees and displaced persons is growing at alarming speed. The number of refugees from armed conflicts worldwide increased from 2.4 million in 1974 to more than 27.4 million today, the report notes, with another 30 million people displaced within their own countries. Children and women make up an estimated 80 per cent of displaced populations.

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question: How far did civilian casualties as a proportion of war deaths climbed during the 20th century?

answer: From 5% to more than 90%.

question: What group is most affected by this transformation?

answer: Children.

question: What does the author attribute the shift to?

answer: The author notes that in traditional societies it is taboo to attack women and children, but cultural shifts have upended traditional societies.

question: What is a basic need of children?

answer: To be protected during times of conflict.

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: The author notes that there was a cultural shift during the 20th century. It used to be that civilians were never targeted during wars and now they seem to be the target. The author attributes this to the decline of traditional values associated with war not targeting women and children in communities around the world globally.


text:
[Our-Pact-super-sponsor]

I just got a flyer in the mail from one of those big online photo companies offering me 40 percent off if I order my holiday cards now. Once upon a time, this would have set off a feeling that I was behind the curve for sending those cards in the mail, but no longer. This isn’t because I’ve become so organized that I had already ordered them by the first day of Fall, nor is it because I’ve become so curmudgeonly that I’m skipping the whole holiday season. No, it’s that over the years, I’ve come to realize that one holiday is about as good as another for connecting with old friends.

To be clear, I’m not at all grumpy about Christmas cards; I’m far from it. I like getting them, I like seeing how old friends’ kids are growing up and what part of their lives they choose to highlight. I’m amused by the range of effort: there are those who clearly get a professional photo shoot every year and those who grab the one snapshot off their phones where everyone’s eyes were open. I even really like the letters that some people send out that seem equal parts about updating their friends, and embarrassing their children.

I have one friend whose card is always like magic. She gets out scrapbooking tools and die-cutters and different colored paper and makes each and every person a gorgeous card with a personal note. One year, she sent a perfect little paper coffee cup, and my daughter pretended it was hot chocolate for the next six months. Every time I get one, I’m totally touched.

So please don’t drop me from your list just because I didn’t get around to sending you a card within the traditional winter holiday time period. Instead, join my holiday card revolution.

A few years ago, by the time I finally got around to placing my card order on December 26th, I realized it was silly to order Christmas-themed cards, so I went with a New Year’s one instead. This was a revelation.

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[]Listen to Moose O’Donnell read his post _Cards For All Seasons_ on STITCHER , iTunes or simply click here:

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Okay, as thoughts go, maybe it doesn’t sound so brilliant, but mull it over. The weeks before the holidays are busy. There’s work, there’s school, there are parties and dinners, and trees to trim. It’s not like that giant box of peppermint bark is just going to eat itself. Seriously, the last thing I have time to do is wrestle my address list. Suddenly understanding that these old-fashioned paper connections could happen at any time of the year means they can happen on my terms when the timing makes sense.

This revelation was so freeing that the next year I blew all the way through January before getting around to thinking about cards. That year I sent Valentine’s Day cards to all and sundry. That felt a little weird, actually. I send cards to a lot of people I really care about, but more in the “I love you, man, you’re the best” sense rather than the champagne-and-canoodle-by-the-fire interpretation usually associated with Valentine’s Day. So Valentine’s Day sort of works, but isn’t necessarily my favorite.

The following year was better. I realized, why not choose a silly holiday that would pop up in people’s mailboxes like a shot out of the blue. That year it was late January, just in time for Groundhog Day on February 2nd!

The only real challenge with this idea comes from the fact that the card printing companies don’t have great options for non-standard holidays. There are any number of choices for Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanza and many others. But Groundhog Day? Not so much. Embracing the notion that any holiday can be your card muse may require a bit of creativity with the more generic themes on offer at the card stores.

Last year presented an especially amazing card opportunity.  It was 2015, and that meant that March 14th wrote out as 31415. Oh, be still my geeky heart: that’s Pi Day to more decimal places than it will be for another century! (for those of you without geeky hearts, Pi – or Π if your browser is up to the task – is a mathematical constant, the first digits of which are 3.1415926. Geeks get really excited about it, and take it as an excuse to eat pie on March 14).

But don’t despair, you haven’t missed the fun. Pi is generally rounded to 3.1416, so 2016 is another great Pi Day card year. And after that? Next year, it might be St. Patrick’s Day before I get around to it. But keep those cards coming; I promise I’ll return the favor eventually.

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READ THIS NEXT:

-   20 Apps You Can Play with Your Kids
-   Invisible Lines
-   Remembering Loved Ones Through Food
-   The Key to Managing Meltdowns

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Read more from the CONNECT posts

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ABOUT MOOSE:  In addition to getting creative with holiday card timing, Moose O’Donnell likes to get creative in the kitchen, often by mixing electronics and power tools. His kids usually think this is hilarious (his wife sometimes agrees, depending on the resulting mess). He dabbles in marine biology and medical innovation, both of which benefit from electronics and power tools. He thinks Pi day is about as good as a holiday gets. Check out his projects on Moosecraft.

Follow Moose on  Twitter | LinkedIn

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[One holiday is about as good as another for connecting with old friends. Join the holiday card revolution and send cards for your favorite holiday instead of Christmas.]

_This post was written by Moose O’Donnell exclusively for BonBon Break Media, LLC_

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question: Summarize the different Christmas cards the author receives.

answer: They receive cards that use a professional photoshoot and ones that just grab a snapshot off the someone's phone. One of their friends uses scrapbooking tools and die-cutters to make elaborate cards.

question: Summarize the author's shifting timeline for sending holiday cards.

answer: At first, they send cards on New Year's instead of Christmas. The following year, they send Valentine's Day cards instead. The year after that, they waited until Groundhog Day. The next year, they sent cards on Pi day. They are considering sending cards on St. Patrick's Day in the future.

question: What does the article say about the best way to write Christmas cards?

question: Summarize the author's feelings about Christmas cards.

answer: The author likes getting Christmas cards. They find the range of effort amusing. They are deeply touched by the personal cards they get from one particular friend. But they also believe that these cards can be sent at any time and do not necessarily need to be sent on Christmas.


text:
MADHU KAMBIKAR is an Indian performing folk art artist, theatre actor and film and TV personality,[1] who belongs to the state of Maharashtra.[2][3][4][5][6]

Personal life

She was born in Malegaon, a village in Beed district, 28 July 1953 in the Kolhati community.[7] She dropped out of school and used to follow her father himself a performing artist to shows. She herself became a performer at a very young age. She is the aunt of the late Kishor Shantabai Kale.[8]

On 27 November 2016, she collapsed on stage during a lavani-tamasha performance at Yashwant Natya Mandir, Matunga and became unconscicous, she has been hospitalised and her condition was reported to be serious but that she was responding to treatment.[9]

Folk and contemporary theatre

She acted in about a dozen folk plays, notable amongst them being;[10][11][12]

-   Dadu Indurikar's “_Gadhavacha lagna_”
-   Shankar Patil's “_Bhangadishivay pudhari nah_i”
-   Ashok Paranjape's “_Ude ga Ambe ude_”
-   Vasant Sabnis' “_Viccha mazi puri kara_”
-   Atmaram Sawant's “_Mujra ghya sarkar_”
-   Ashok Patole/ Suyog's “_Kashi me rahu tashich_”
-   Her own “_Sakhi mazi lavani_” directed by Upendra Limaye

She has acted in 22–25 contemporary plays, amongst them are:[13][14]

-   _Tumcha amcha sem asta_
-   _Vastraharan_
-   Putrakameshti
-   Paying guest
-   _Ajab nyaya vartulacha_

Selected filmography

She has acted in over a hundred films, amongst them are:[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]

-   _Shapit_
-   _Mukta_
-   _Doghi_
-   _Sangharsh jeevanacha_
-   _Dombari_
-   _Ek hota vidushak_
-   Zapatlela
-   Zapatlela 2
-   _Debu_
-   _Yeu ka gharat_
-   _Mala gheun chala_
-   _Satichi punyayi_
-   _Laxmi_
-   _Raghu maina_
-   _Chal re Lakshya Mumbai la_
-   _Rikshavali_
-   _Mazi chakuli_
-   _Raosaheb_
-   _Mumbaicha dabewala_
-   _Balagandharva_
-   Bin kamacha navara
-   Aaj zale mukta me

Accolades

-   Hansa Wadkar Special Award for Best Actress[25]
-   Natvarya Keshavrao Date Puraskar[26]
-   Chairperson of the 2013 Mahila Lokakala Sammelan, Nagpur[27]
-   Lokashahir Patthe Bapurao Puraskar[28]
-   Maharshi Shankarrao Mohite-Patil Lavani Kalavant Puraskar 2007
-   Zee Chitra Gaurav Life Time Achievement Award 2018

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title: Madhu Kambikar

question: Why did Madhu Kambikar collapse on stage?

answer: The reason isn't mentioned in the article.

question: How old was she when she started to perform on stage?

answer: It's not specified except to say she was very young.

question: Summarize Madhu Kambikar's career achievements.

answer: She acted in a dozen folk plays, about 25 contemporary plays, and over 100 films. She received several awards during her career.

question: Did she recover after collapsing on the stage?

answer: She must have. She collapsed in 2016 but won the Zee Chitra Gaurav Life Time Achievement Award in 2018.

question: Write a ~5 sentence summary.

answer: Madhu Kambikar is an Indian folk artist, theatre and film actor, and TV personality. She was born in 1953, and she used to follow her father, who was also an artist, to shows instead of going to school. She started to perform at a very young age. She acted in a dozen folk plays, about 25 contemporary plays, and over 100 films. She received several awards during her career.


text:
[]
 Journeyman
Back in August, programmer Patrick McConlogue offered Leo Grand a choice: $100, or 16 coding lessons. Grand -- homeless since 2011 after losing his job at insurance provider MetLife and being priced out of his home when a high-rise apartment block was built nearby -- didn't have to think for long. Coding lessons it was.

[]
After furnishing Grand with a refurbished Chromebook and three books on coding, McConlogue met with him every weekday morning for an hour-long lesson. Now, Grand has released his very first app: Trees for Cars, available for iOS and Android.

The idea behind the app, Grand said, is to decrease the number of cars on the roads with a eye toward reducing CO2 emissions. Users sign up and specify whether they want to catch a ride or offer one, and the app will connect them with like-minded carpoolers nearby. The app will then track how much CO2 was saved by all the passengers.

Grand wrote every line of code, and all proceeds from the AU$0.99 app sales will go directly to him.

You can check out the course McConlogue taught Grand here, read the story of this remarkable journey here, and pick up the app for 99 cents on iTunes and Google Play.

[]

 Now playing: Watch this: Test out your programming chops with Robolink's coding...

 1:50

_(Source: CNET Australia)_

question: What did Grant choose between $100 or 16 coding lessons?

answer: He chose the lessons.

question: Who gave him the coding lessons?

answer: Patrick McConlogue.

question: When were they having the lessons?

answer: Every weekday morning.

question: What's the app that Grant released called?

answer: Trees for Cars.

question: What does the app do?

answer: The app brings together carpoolers and tracks how much CO2 was saved by carpooling.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: Grant was offered a choice between 100$ or 16 coding lessons when he was homeless. He chose the lessons and ended up releasing an app.


text:
PAUL GRAFER (born August 7, 1974) is a retired American soccer goalkeeper who spent six seasons in Major League Soccer with the Colorado Rapids and MetroStars. He was the goalkeeper coach for the United States U-17 men's national soccer team between 2007 and 2012. He has been a FIFA Instructor and assistant coach with Chivas USA of Major League Soccer. He has also been professionally affiliated with Athletes Helping Athletes and SAFE, organizations that provide lifeskills development and training to student athletes. Paul's current professional role is Technical Director for Major League Soccer.

Youth

Grafer graduated from St. Mary's High School in 1992 where he was a Parade All-American. He then attended The College of William & Mary where he played soccer from 1993 to 1995. He was an All-American his senior year and gained his degree in kinesiology in 1997.[1] In 2007, William and Mary inducted Grafer into the school's Athletic Hall of Fame.[2]

Professional

In February 1996, the Colorado Rapids selected Grafer in the 2nd round (19th overall) of the 1996 MLS College Draft.[3] The Rapids sent him on loan to the Long Island Rough Riders of the USISL for the 1996 season. In 1997, made Rapids first team, playing thirteen games, gaining only one win, in 1997 and 1998. On September 30, 1998, he broke his left wrist in practice. The Rapids waived him on October 30, 1998.[4] He signed with the Charleston Battery on January 28, 1999, but suffered a major neck injury during the pre-season and lost the entire year.[5] Instead, he spent the entire year coaching with the Williamsburg Soccer Club. In 2000, he signed with the Long Island Rough Riders, having an excellent season.[6] That resulted in him being called up to the MetroStars in 2000 after starter Mike Ammann was injured and backup Tim Howard was playing in the Olympics.[7] In one of the odder moments in MLS history, the league held a draft consisting of only one player, Paul Grafer, after he signed late with the league.[8] The San Jose Earthquakes selected Grafer, then traded him back to the MetroStars for Ramiro Corrales on February 23, 2001.[9] He retired following the 2003 season. In 2005, he returned with the RoughRiders.[10] He played nineteen games and was named second team All League.[11][12]

MetroStars folklore

Throughout his career with the MetroStars, he became known for his long, black pants, leading to the chant, “They’re long, they’re black, they’re halfway up his crack – they're Grafer's pants – they're Grafer's pants!”[13][14]

Post playing career

He earned an MBA and taught at Adelphi University while working as a Program Coordinator for Athletes Helping Athletes, a New York-based non-profit that uses the power and appeal of sport to address social issues.[15] In 2007, he became the goalkeeper coach for the U.S. U-17 national team.[16] He left USSF in 2012 and became a FIFA Instructor for their Goalkeeping Programme, while helping develop SAFE LLC., a financial literacy and career development company for college student-athletes. In 2014, he joined Chivas USA of Major League Soccer as an assistant coach. In 2015, he joined MLS' League Office in the Competition Department.

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[16] Four Assistant Coaches Set for U.S. U-17 MNT

title: Paul Grafer

question: Who is Paul Grafer?

answer: Grafer is a retired American soccer goalkeeper who played Major League Soccer (MLS) for Colorado Rapids and MetroStars.

question: What is Paul Grafer's present role?

answer: He is currently the Technical Director for the Major League Soccer.

question: Where did Grafer first played soccer?

answer: He first played when he was attending The College of William & Mary.

question: What wasGrafer's signature look when he was playing soccer with the MetroStars?

answer: He was known for wearing long, black pants.

question: Write a ~4 sentence summary.

answer:
Paul Grafer is a retired American soccer goalkeeper who played for six seasons in Major League Soccer (MLS) with Colorado Rapids and MetroStars. Grafer is presently the Technical Director for the MLS.

Grafer first played soccer while attending The College of William & Mary where he played soccer from 1993 to 1995.

Grafer is known for wearing long, black pants during his time with MetroStars.