text:
Some of the biggest storylines.

— -- The political news cycle reached a fever pitch in 2017, largely due to the roller coaster ride that was the first year of the Trump administration.

After being sworn in on Jan. 20, 2017, President Donald Trump and his team never strayed far from the headlines.

Countless storylines unfolded--but here are 12 of the biggest:

1. Jan. 27: First iteration of travel ban proposed

The proposal to ban people from certain countries from entering the United States has gone through a number of legal hurdles and multiple versions, but it was originally put in place via executive order Jan. 27.

The original order, named "Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States," took immediate effect to bar admission to the United States of all people with nonimmigrant or immigrant visas from seven countries -- Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen -- for 90 days.

It also barred entry to all refugees from anywhere in the world for 120 days and placed an indefinite ban on refugees from war-torn Syria.

But federal judges blocked the measure and appeals court judges denied an emergency stay. A second executive order was issued, but also challenged in court. The Supreme Court eventually said that it would allow parts of the second executive order to go into effect, including the 120-day ban on refugees from entering the country, and said it would hear arguments on the case in October before canceling that in September.

2. April 7: Putting a justice on the Supreme Court

One of the clearest accomplishments of his term so far has been confirmation of a new Supreme Court justice, Neil Gorsuch, though even that was not without controversy.

In order to get Gorsuch confirmed, the Senate voted to change the longstanding confirmation process and lower the 60-vote threshold to a simple majority vote because Republicans did not have enough votes to confirm Gorsuch on their own. The move, known as "going nuclear," means that from now on only 51 votes are required for such a confirmation.

3. June 1: Trump withdraws from Paris climate agreement

Trump announced he would pull the United States out of the Paris climate agreement.

"The United States will withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord, but begin negotiations to re-enter either the Paris Accord or really an entirely new transaction on terms that are fair to the United States," the president said in the Rose Garden. "So we are getting out, but we are starting to negotiate and we’ll see if we can make a deal that’s fair."

The decision fulfilled a key promise Trump made on the campaign trail and overturned a major accomplishment of his predecessor, Barack Obama.

4. July 21: Major personnel shifts in the White House

A series of key White House staffers left their posts in near-weekly succession beginning in late July and carrying through mid-August.

The first high-profile departure came from press secretary Sean Spicer, who left July 21, and then chief of staff Reince Priebus, who left exactly a week later, July 28.

Anthony Scaramucci left his post as White House communications director July 31, after only 11 days in the role, and Steve Bannon resigned as White House chief strategist Aug. 18.

5. July 28: Republican health care replacement plan fails

Senate Republicans' effort to pass a stripped-down version of an Obamacare repeal measure -- the so-called "skinny repeal" of the Affordable Care Act -- failed during a vote, 49-51, held shortly around 1:30 a.m. after a night of debating.

About an hour after the vote was announced, President Donald Trump, tweeted, "3 Republicans and 48 Democrats let the American people down. As I said from the beginning, let ObamaCare implode, then deal. Watch!"

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was among the Republicans who voted 'no.' There were gasps and applause from the Senate floor when McCain voted. The other Republicans who voted 'no' were Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

6. Aug. 15: Uproar over remarks that there were 'fine people on both sides' at Charlottesville

Trump was criticized for his initial response to violent protests stemming from a planned rally against the removal of a Confederate statue in Charlottesville, Virginia, but his response to the criticism made matters worse.

When asked about his immediate response, Trump blamed “both sides” for the conflict, adding that there were "very fine people" among both the protesters — which included white supremacists and white nationalists — and the counterprotesters.

"I think there is blame on both sides. You look at both sides. I think there is blame on both sides," Trump said.

He later issued a statement condemning white supremacist groups, though his “very fine” comments were widely rejected by both Republicans and Democrats.

7. Sept 1: Companies selected for border wall prototypes

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced that four vendors were selected to design and build prototypes for the proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall.

Each of the selected companies has been tasked with building one wall prototype made of "reinforced concrete" along the border in San Diego. CBP will decide on up to four additional vendors that will be selected to build wall prototypes made of nonconcrete materials.

The promise to "build the wall" became a campaign slogan for Trump and was regularly chanted at his campaign.

8. Sept 19: Trump threatens to 'totally destroy' North Korea at UN

In his first speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Trump used the platform to slam North Korean leader "Rocket Man" Kim Jong Un.

At first, Trump did not name the North Korean leader, using a nickname that Trump had previously coined instead.

"The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea. Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime. The United States is ready, willing and able, but hopefully this will not be necessary," Trump said.

The remarks came after a summer of escalating tensions with North Korea.

9. Oct 24: Infighting in Republican Party

A number of squabbles have cropped up between Trump and members of his own party over the course of the past 12 months, but they appeared to reach a tipping point in late-October with Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn.

Trump and Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, an ally of Trump’s during the election, had been having a war of words for weeks. The back and forth largely took place over Twitter, and Corker took to referring to the White House as an “adult day care center.”

That same day, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., announced he would not seek re-election and gave a speech on the Senate floor slamming the tone of politics in the Trump era.

"I rise today to say, enough," Flake said. "We must dedicate ourselves to making sure that the anomalies never becomes the normal, with respect and humility. I must say that we have fooled ourselves for long enough that a pivot to governing is right around the corner, a return to civility and stability right behind it."

10. Oct. 30: First charges in Russia investigation

The investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election was officially launched in mid-May, but it wasn’t until the end of October that the first criminal charges were handed down.

One former Trump campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, pleaded guilty to making false statements to FBI agents. Additionally, former campaign manager Paul Manafort and Manafort’s longtime associate Rick Gates were indicted on charges including conspiracy against the United States, money laundering and working as unregistered foreign agents. They entered not guilty pleas.

In December, Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia's ambassador, Sergey Kislyak.

In an interview with the the New York Times, Trump said there was “no collusion” between Russia and his campaign 16 times and said he believed Mueller would treat him fairly.

Trump told ABC News earlier in December that he’s not considering firing Mueller despite questioning the integrity of FBI investigators.

11. Dec. 6: Trump announces U.S. embassy move to Jerusalem

In a momentous shift in United States policy in the Middle East, Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and initiated the process of relocating the U.S. Embassy to the city from Tel Aviv.

"My announcement today marks the beginning of a new approach to conflict between Israel and the Palestinians," Trump said from the White House, where he was joined by Vice President Mike Pence. Trump described it as a "long overdue step to advance the peace process."

The United Nations General Assembly showed its overwhelming displeasure with the move, holding a vote on a resolution condemning the move. In spite of U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley's warnings against voting for the resolution, it passed with 128 member states voting in favor of the resolution, nine voting against, and 35 countries abstaining.

12. Dec. 22: Signing a major bill into law

In what was viewed as the biggest legislative victory for the Trump administration during its fi

question: What is the main topic of this post?

answer: The story highlights the 12 biggest stories of 2017.

question: Who/what do the 12 biggest stories focus on?

answer: Trump and the Republican party.

question: What world leader did Trump nickname Rocket Man?

answer: North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un.

question: Who referred to the White House as an "adult day care center"?

answer: Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: Countless stories unfolded in 2017, but this post highlights the 12 biggest stories of 2017. Trump and his party never strayed far from the headlines, grabbing the top 12 stories of the year.


split: train

text:
THE BOOK OF DAVE

     In the beginning, Dave created a bunch of stuff like the earth, water, animals, and humans. He thought "Meh, it's cool I guess...", and then he pretty much sat back and watched everything unfold, chillin' like a villain and taking many forms. Mostly though he liked to be a plastic dove. He saw all his creations screw up the world he created, and it pissed him off pretty badly. He thought for centuries about how he could save the world he put so little effort into creating.

     One day, in the late 1990's he came up with a plan. It was about time too, because the world he created was in pretty pitiful condition by this time. He set out to create 5 strong men who would spread his holy name. One of them appearing to be a heretic, but obviously a believer. One of them a natural born leader to guide the prophets. One of them tall and strong willed and convert others. One of them with great musical talents with which to sing and play instruments in the name of Dave, and the last one. Dave's only son. He arranged so that these men would one day come together and use their own talents to spread the word of Dave.

     These young men grew and realized their talents (except for the son of Dave, who had a hard time because he had not yet recognized his true purpose in life). They misused their talents, however, because they did not know that their destiny was the destiny that Dave set for them. They would know in the future that Dave needed them to rid the world of ignorance and stupidity. It would take time, though, for them to be ready for the task at hand.

     By the time these 5 young men were ready for their destiny, the world was even worse than it was before. There had been terrorist attacks, wars, destruction in massive proportions. They were indeed ready at the last minute. The 5 boys had grown to be good friends, and were like family. One day, fate brought them all together, and set them on a journey that would open their eyes to the truth. Open their eyes to Dave.

    They found themselves in their leader's house, discussing the most important of current events, politics, economics, history, and other things of the like. Then, as fate may have it, they embarked on a journey. They started with a trip to a local general store to purchase liquid refreshment, and to win the heart of a fair maiden. They failed miserably at the winning the heart part, but succeeded in buying refreshments. They also caused the son of Dave to smudge a dipping sauce on his trousers. They then headed to a larger store to buy him a new pair of trousers.

     They failed in their quest to acquire new trousers, but had good hearty laughs and made the son wear clothes meant for girls. However, it was here that they discovered The Great Dave. They found him in his usual form, a plastic bird, perched upon a raised surface. They were drawn to him, and immediately knew that it was to be theirs. They did not know why, but they knew it must be.

     They purchased the plastic bird, took him home, and immediately idolized him. They knew that his name was to be Dave, and that he was of great importance. The boys did not truly understand that Dave was of much more importance until much later. The day after their trip to the store, their land was ice-ridden. The plants outside were enveloped in a solid sheet of ice, and the roads were only traversible by foot, because none of their automobiles were equipped to operate on the ice-covered roads.

     The young men grew hungry, and weary of being held inside their home, and by the will of Dave, which they still failed to recognize, decided to embark on a long journey to obtain cheap, delicious food. They left their home and started down the road, talking and laughing, unaware of the great events that awaited them. They would soon find out the true purpose of what was happening.

     They noticed a bird that looked exactly like their plastic bird that was perched upon a telephone wire. Then they realized that this, in fact, WAS their bird, but in the form of a living version of it's plastic form, guarding them, and guiding them. They then began to realize that they had a greater purpose in this journey, and that Dave was more than a mere plastic bird.

     They began to have revelations and realizations that Dave placed in their minds. They came to the conclusion that Dave was the true God, and that they were prophets, since they were the only ones who realized this truth. They then realized that the one with no apparent useful talent must have been the son of Dave, because of the hardships he faced and trials and tribulations. They realized that since he had no talent to offer Dave, he didn't require one, because him simply being among the other prophets was enough to please Dave.

     Then came their true sign that they were led by The Great and Powerful Dave. They noticed on the side of the path a beautiful sight. A useless, disappointing, fresh, beautiful sight. They knew in their hearts that Dave put this there for them, that he loved them, and that he wanted them to cleanse the world of the wrongness that had befallen it.

title: The Book of Dave

question: How old do you think these young men are?

answer: These young men are probably anywhere from middle school to college age, so anywhere from ~12 to ~22.

question: How do you think the author came up with the idea for this story?

answer: The author probably based this story of off real adventures with their friends and created this mythos of Dave to go along with it.


text:
P.O.V. of Tyler (Mostly)

Sandra stared across at Tyler through the small fire. Her eyes seemed to glow with a strange menacing essence. The fire roared and flickered in her small green eyes. The tension between the two was clear. However, Tyler couldn’t read Sandra. She was as clear as solid wood. Tyler felt tense. They were surrounded by miles of forest, in the cold night. No one could hear anything except for him and Sandra, and there’s not much to hear when you’re dead. Suddenly; Sandra opened her mouth slowly, as if to say something. She closed it and glanced over at the tent, grinning. Somehow, outside of the fire’s glare, her eyes seemed to grow with a more malevolent light. She turned back to Tyler, this time right in the eyes.  “I have a surprise for you, Ty.” She said, with a cheerful nickname as if they were old friends. Really, they were both escapees, only together for matters of survival. She turned before Tyler could read her expression. She stood and walked to the tent. Tyler heard some clinks and other miscellaneous sounds. Then, when it appeared she had found what she was looking for, she came back, holding something behind her back. She handed him a small box. It wasn’t anything special, just a dirty old Thai food rice container. “Happy birthday,” she whispered, leaning to the fire. “Blow out the candles..” then, she blew with all her might on the fire, sending flames rolling Tyler’s way as they dissipated, the fire extinguishing. He reached out to feel a box-like shape sitting in the ash pit. He picked it up and folded it open, fumbling his hand inside. The only thing on the inside besides a few grains of old sticky rice was what felt like a folded piece of paper, but no light to read. He realized he was alone in the light, with Sandra. Of whom he knew nothing about. Crazy, mysterious Sandra. He gripped the paper, his heart beating wildly out of his chest. He felt something tap his shoulder and he shut his eyes. “I’m so sorry Ty.. But one of us has to eat.”  He heard a soft, recognizable voice whisper. Then, he felt a sharp pain in his back and made no attempt to wail, knowing it was hopeless- who would hear, and why would they care? Blood gargled out of his mouth as everything he knew started to vanish. People say your life flashes before your eyes before you die, but it doesn’t. It disappears, everything you know, to the point of insanity. You forget what’s happening and all that’s going through your head is; ‘I am about to die.’ Managing to struggle to words, he choked out through all the blood, “I’ll never forgive you for this.” Sandra smiles in the dark, and then something wet drips on Tyler’s head. Then he realized; she was crying. “You won’t have time to fret on the past in hell, Ty..” She whispered, as he closed his eyes, just to never open them again.

Candy and Pepper strolled through the woods when a morbid smell wafted through Candy’s nose. “Gosh, what’s that awful smell?” Then, suddenly she realized as they approached it; a body, pieces of skin torn off, blood splattered everywhere, as if someone appeared to attempt to consume it.  The person was obviously a man. Folded in his hand was a small piece of paper. Pepper leaned down and picked it up, unfolding it, softly reading it to himself. 'See you soon, I figure I can’t live off you forever. I’ll never forgive myself, either. In our short time together I grew attached, but my life came before you in my eyes, Ty.

Love, S.'

title: My 12 year old sister wrote this.

question: Whose birthday is it?

answer: It is Tyler's birthday.

question: Does Tyler trust Sandra?

answer: No, Tyler does not trust Sandra.

question: Why does Sandra kill Tyler?

answer: Sandra kills Tyler to eat him.

question: Who finds Tyler's body?

answer: Candy and Pepper find Tyler's body.

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: Tyler and Sandra share a tense moment around a campfire. Eventually, Sandra kills Tyler for food. Later, Candy and Pepper find Tyler's body.


text:
_ANACITHARA PERFECTA_ is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Horaiclavidae.[1]

Description

The length of the dark white, fusiform shell attains 3.5 mm.

Distribution

This marine species occurs off Hawaii

[1] WoRMS (2015). Anacithara perfecta Kay, 1979. In: MolluscaBase (2015). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=432958 on 2016-12-22

title: Anacithara perfecta

question: Where are the Anacithara Perfecta found?

answer: In Hawaii

question: What is its size?

answer: The species' shell is 3.5 mm.

question: What family does it belong to?

answer: It belongs to the Horaiclavidae family.

question: For how long has the species flourished?

answer: This information is not mentioned.

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: The Anacithara Perfecta is a species of sea snail, it belongs to the Horaiclavidae family. Its shell is 3.5 mm in size. The species can mainly be found in Hawaii.


text:
Learning to surf wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. The jellyfish made me nervous, but if I acted as such everyone would think I was afraid. I shouldn't be, really. It's just a small sting - not as bad as a bee or a wasp. Maybe like that of a fire ant's...The jellyfish still made me nervous.

Maybe I seemed afraid because of the time my family visited Florida when I was a child. The jellyfish there were small and invisible. At least these jellyfish were big and purple. Maybe it was the guy who I overheard saying that he was stung on the face. What if I got stung in the eye? Or my mouth? What if I got stung on my dick? He got stung in the face and is still out here, he isn't afraid.

I touched a big purple jellyfish. I hadn't seen it. I jumped. I touched the top where there are no tentacles. It felt like cold, wet human skin. I jumped back as if I were afraid. I can't be afraid, my girlfriend is watching. I should just keep surfing.

title: Jellyfish

question: Did the narrator get stung by the jellyfish?

answer: No--they touched the top of it where there weren't any tentacles, so they weren't stung.

question: What emotion is preventing the narrator from acting afraid?

answer: Pride--he doesn't want to look weak in front of his girlfriend

question: Why is the narrator less afraid of these bigger jellyfish?

answer: Because he can see them, whereas the smaller ones were practically invisible (and thus harder to avoid).


text:
Every now and then during the workweek—usually around three in the afternoon—a familiar ache begins to saturate my forehead and pool in my temples. The glare of my computer screen appears to suddenly intensify. My eyes trace the contour of the same sentence two or three times, yet I fail to extract its meaning. Even if I began the day undaunted, getting through my ever growing list of stories to write and edit, e-mails to send and respond to, and documents to read now seems as futile as scaling a mountain that continuously thrusts new stone skyward. There is so much more to do—so much work I genuinely enjoy—but my brain is telling me to stop. It's full. It needs some downtime.

Freelance writer and meditation teacherMichael Taft has experienced his own version of cerebral congestion. “In a normal working day in modern America, there’s a sense of so much coming at you at once, so much to process that you just can’t deal with it all,” Taft says. In 2011, while finalizing plans to move from Los Angeles to San Francisco, he decided to take an especially long recess from work and the usual frenzy of life. After selling his home and packing all his belongings in storage, he traveled to the small rural community of Barre, Mass., about 100 kilometers west of Boston, where every year people congregate for a three-month-long “meditation marathon.”

Taft had been on similar retreats before, but never one this long. For 92 days he lived at Insight Meditation Society’s Forest Refuge facility, never speaking a word to anyone else. He spent most of his time meditating, practicing yoga and walking through fields and along trails in surrounding farmland and woods, where he encountered rafters of turkeys leaping from branches, and once spotted an otter gamboling in a swamp. Gradually, his mind seemed to sort through a backlog of unprocessed data and to empty itself of accumulated concerns. “When you go on a long retreat like that there’s a kind of base level of mental tension and busyness that totally evaporates,” Taft says. “I call that my ‘mind being not full.’ Currently, the speed of life doesn’t allow enough interstitial time for things to just kind of settle down.”

Many people in the U.S. and other industrialized countries would wholeheartedly agree with Taft’s sentiments, even if they are not as committed to meditation. A 2010 LexisNexis survey of 1,700 white collar workers in the U.S., China, South Africa, the U.K. and Australia revealed that on average employees spend more than half their workdays receiving and managing information rather than using it to do their jobs; half of the surveyed workers also confessed that they were reaching a breaking point after which they would not be able to accommodate the deluge of data. In contrast to the European Union, which mandates 20 days of paid vacation, the U.S. has no federal laws guaranteeing paid time off, sick leave or even breaks for national holidays. In the Netherlands 26 days of vacation in a given year is typical. In America, Canada, Japan and Hong Kong workers average 10 days off each year. Yet a survey by Harris Interactive found that, at the end of 2012, Americans had an average of nine unused vacation days. And in several surveys Americans have admited that they obsessively check and respond to e-mails from their colleagues or feel obliged to get some work done in between kayaking around the coast of Kauai and learning to pronounce humuhumunukunukuapua'a.

To summarize, Americans and their brains are preoccupied with work much of the time. Throughout history people have intuited that such puritanical devotion to perpetual busyness does not in fact translate to greater productivity and is not particularly healthy. What if the brain requires substantial downtime to remain industrious and generate its most innovative ideas? "Idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice; it is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body, and deprived of it we suffer a mental affliction as disfiguring as rickets," essayist Tim Kreider wrote in _The New York Times_. "The space and quiet that idleness provides is a necessary condition for standing back from life and seeing it whole, for making unexpected connections and waiting for the wild summer lightning strikes of inspiration—it is, paradoxically, necessary to getting any work done."

In making an argument for the necessity of mental downtime, we can now add an overwhelming amount of empirical evidence to intuition and anecdote. Why giving our brains a break now and then is so important has become increasingly clear in a diverse collection of new studies investigating: the habits of office workers and the daily routines of extraordinary musicians and athletes; the benefits of vacation, meditation and time spent in parks, gardens and other peaceful outdoor spaces; and how napping, unwinding while awake and perhaps the mere act of blinking can sharpen the mind. What research to date also clarifies, however, is that even when we are relaxing or daydreaming, the brain does not really slow down or stop working. Rather—just as a dazzling array of molecular, genetic and physiological processes occur primarily or even exclusively when we sleep at night—many important mental processes seem to require what we call downtime and other forms of rest during the day. Downtime replenishes the brain’s stores of attention and motivation, encourages productivity and creativity, and is essential to both achieve our highest levels of performance and simply form stable memories in everyday life. A wandering mind unsticks us in time so that we can learn from the past and plan for the future. Moments of respite may even be necessary to keep one’s moral compass in working order and maintain a sense of self.

THE REST IS HISTORY
For much of the 20th century many scientists regarded the idea that the brain might be productive during downtime as ludicrous. German neurologist Hans Berger disagreed. In 1929, after extensive studies using an electroencephalogram—a device he invented to record electrical impulses in the brain by placing a net of electrodes on the scalp—he proposed that the brain is always in “a state of considerable activity,” even when people were sleeping or relaxing. Although his peers acknowledged that some parts of the the brain and spinal cord must work nonstop to regulate the lungs and heart, they assumed that when someone was not focusing on a specific mental task, the brain was largely offline; any activity picked up by an electroencephalogram or other device during rest was mostly random noise. At first, the advent of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in the early 1990s only strengthened this view of the brain as an exquisitely frugal organ switching on and off its many parts as needed. By tracing blood flow through the brain, fMRI clearly showed that different neural circuits became especially active during different mental tasks, summoning extra blood full of oxygen and glucose to use as energy.

By the mid 1990s, however, Marcus Raichle of Washington University in Saint Louis and his colleagues had demonstrated that the human brain is in fact a glutton, constantly demanding 20 percent of all the energy the body produces and requiring only 5 to 10 percent more energy than usual when someone solves calculus problems or reads a book. Raichle also noticed that a particular set of scattered brain regions consistently became less active when someone concentrated on a mental challenge, but began to fire in synchrony when someone was simply lying supine in an fMRI scanner, letting their thoughts wander. Likewise, Bharat Biswal, now at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, documented the same kind of coordinated communication between disparate brain regions in people who were resting. Many researchers were dubious, but further studies by other scientists confirmed that the findings were not a fluke. Eventually this mysterious and complex circuit that stirred to life when people were daydreaming became known as the default mode network (DMN). In the last five years researchers discovered that the DMN is but one of at least five different resting-state networks—circuits for vision, hearing, movement, attention and memory. But the DMN remains the best studied and perhaps the most important among them.

In a recent thought-provoking review of research on the default mode network, Mary Helen Immordino-Yang of the University of Southern California and her co-authors argue that when we are resting the brain is anything but idle and that, far from being purposeless or unproductive, downtime is in fact essential to mental processes that affirm our identities, develop our understanding of human behavior and instill an internal code of ethics—processes that depend on the DMN. Downtime is an opportunity for the brain to make sense of what it has recently learned, to surface fundamental unresolved tensions in our lives and to swivel its powers of reflection away from the external world toward itself. While mind-wandering we replay conversations we had earlier that day, rewriting our verbal blunders as a way of learning to avoid them in the future. We craft fictional dialogue to practice standing up to someone who intimidates us or to reap the satisfaction of an imaginary harangue against someone who wronged us. We shuffle through all those neglected mental post-it notes listing half-finished projects and we mull over the aspects of our lives with which we are most dissatisfied, searching for solutions. We sink into scenes from childhood and catapult ourselves into different hypothetical futures. And we subject ourselves to a kind of moral performance review, questioning how we have treated others lately. These moments of introspection are also one way we form a sense of self, which is essentially a story we continually tell ourselves. When it has a moment to itself, the mind dips its quill into our memories, sensory experiences, disappointments and desires so that it may continue writing this ongoing first-person narrative of life.

Related research suggests that the default mode network is more active than is typical in especially creative people, and some studies have demonstrated that the mind obliquely solves tough problems while daydreaming—an experience many people have had while taking a shower. Epiphanies may seem to come out of nowhere, but they are often the product of unconscious mental activity during downtime. In a 2006 study, Ap Dijksterhuis and his colleagues asked 80 University of Amsterdam students to pick the best car from a set of four that—unbeknownst to the students—the researchers had previously ranked based on size, mileage, maneuverability and other features. Half the participants got four minutes to deliberate after reviewing the specs; the researchers prevented the other 40 from pondering their choices by distracting them with anagrams. Yet the latter group made far better decisions. Solutions emerge from the subconscious in this way only when the distracting task is relatively simple, such as solving an anagram or engaging in a routine activity that does not necessitate much deliberate concentration, like brushing one's teeth or washing dishes. With the right kind of distraction the default mode network may be able to integrate more information from a wide range of brain regions in more complex ways than when the brain is consciously working through a problem.

During downtime, the brain also concerns itself with more mundane but equally important duties. For decades scientists have suspected that when an animal or person is not actively learning something new, the brain consolidates recently accumulated data, memorizing the most salient information, and essentially rehearses recently learned skills, etching them into its tissue. Most of us have observed how, after a good night’s sleep, the vocab words we struggled to remember the previous day suddenly leap into our minds or that technically challenging piano song is much easier to play. Dozens of studies have confirmed that memory depends on sleep.

More recently, scientists have documented what may well be physical evidence of such memory consolidation in animals that are awake but resting. When exploring a new environment—say, a maze—a rat’s brain crackles with a particular pattern of electrical activity. A little while later, when that rat is sitting around, its brain sometimes re-creates a nearly identical pattern of electrical impulses zipping between the same set of neurons. The more those neurons communicate with one another, the stronger their connections become; meanwhile neglected and irrelevant neural pathways wither. Many studies indicate that in such moments—known as sharp-wave ripples—the rat is forming a memory.

In a 2009 study Gabrielle Girardeau, now at New York University, and her colleagues trained rats to find Cocoa Krispies consistently placed in the same branches of an eight-armed octo-maze. Following training sessions, while the rats were either sleeping or awake and resting, the researchers mildly zapped the brains of one group of rodents in a way that disrupted any sharp-wave ripples. Another group of rats received small electric shocks that did not interfere with ripples. The former group had a much harder time remembering where to find the food.

Several studies suggest that something similar happens in the human brain. In order to control their seizures, people with epilepsy sometimes undergo surgery that involves drilling through the skull and implanting electrodes in the brain. In such cases, some patients agree to let scientists record electrical activity picked up by those electrodes—a unique situation that avoids endangering people solely for the sake of neuroscience. In a 2008 study Nikolai Axmacher of the University of Bonn and his colleagues showed epilepsy patients a series of photos of houses and landscapes and tested their memories of those pictures following one-hour naps. During the naps, the researchers recorded electrical activity in a region of the brain known as the rhinal cortex, which is crucial for certain kinds of memory. As expected, the more sharp-wave ripples pulsed through the rhinal cortex, the better patients remembered the pictures. And such ripples occurred most frequently not when the patients were napping, but rather when they were lying awake in bed in the dark shortly before or after falling asleep.

A 2009 study by Chris Miall of the University of Birmingham and his colleagues complements this research. Twenty-four volunteers scooted inside an fMRI scanner and attempted to move a cursor in the center of a computer screen toward various pixelated targets by twiddling a joystick. Half the volunteers worked with a straightforward setup: when they moved the joystick left, the cursor moved left. The other half was stuck with a frustratingly fickle contraption: imagine trying to get the hang of a computer mouse that continuously rotates clockwise—suddenly right is up and left is down. All the participants rested inside the scanner before and after focusing on their assigned task.

Activity in resting state networks of the former group did not change much from one break to the next. But in the brains of volunteers who had previously struggled with the trick joystick, activity in two resting state networks was much more in sync than usual. This coordination likely reflects strengthened connections between those two circuits, Miall suspects, which in turn indicates that during rest the brain was likely ingraining what it had learned about working a strange and confusing tool. In contrast, the brains of volunteers that operated the conventional joystick had not learned anything new. In a yet-to–be-published follow-up experiment in which volunteers learned to press buttons in a particular sequence—and another study in which people studied a new language—Miall and his teammates reached similar conclusions about the importance of brain activity during rest for learning.

A tantalizing piece of evidence suggests that the brain may take advantage of every momentary lapse in attention to let resting state networks take over. In a study published last year, Tamami Nakano of Osaka University recorded electrical impulses in people's brains as they watched clips of British comedian Mr. Bean. The results revealed that the brain can fire up the DMN in the blink of an eye—literally. Every time we blink, circuits we use to consciously direct attention go quiet and the DMN briefly wakes up. Exactly what the DMN accomplishes in these interludes remains unclear, but it could very well be a form of memory consolidation or a moment for attention-directing neurons to catch their breath.

ALL IN A DAY’S WORK
That learning and memory depend on both sleep and waking rest may partially explain why some of the most exceptional artists and athletes among us fall into a daily routine of intense practice punctuated by breaks and followed by a lengthy period of recuperation. Psychologist K. Anders Ericsson of The Florida State University has spent more than 30 years studying how people achieve the highest levels of expertise. Based on his own work and a thorough review of the relevant research, Ericsson has concluded that most people can engage in deliberate practice—which means pushing oneself beyond current limits—for only an hour without rest; that extremely talented people in many different disciplines—music, sports, writing—rarely practice more than four hours each day on average; and that many experts prefer to begin training early in the morning when mental and physical energy is readily available. “Unless the daily levels of practice are restricted, such that subsequent rest and nighttime sleep allow the individuals to restore their equilibrium,” Ericsson wrote, “individuals often encounter overtraining injuries and, eventually, incapacitating ‘burnout.’”

These principles are derived from the rituals of the exceptional, but they are useful for just about anyone in any profession, including typical nine-to-fivers. Corporate America may never sanction working only four hours a day, but research suggests that to maximize productivity we should reform the current model of consecutive 40-hour workweeks separated only by two-day weekends and sometimes interrupted by short vacations.

Psychologists have established that vacations have real benefits. Vacations likely revitalize the body and mind by distancing people from job-related stress; by immersing people in new places, cuisines and social circles, which in turn may lead to original ideas and insights; and by giving people the opportunity to get a good night’s sleep and to let their minds drift from one experience to the next, rather than forcing their brains to concentrate on a single task for hours at a time. But a recent comprehensive meta-analysis by Jessica de Bloom, now at the University of Tampere in Finland, demonstrates that these benefits generally fade within two to four weeks. In one of de Bloom’s own studies 96 Dutch workers reported feeling more energetic, happier, less tense and more satisfied with their lives than usual during a winter sports vacation between seven and nine days long. Within one week of returning to work, however, all the feelings of renewal dissipated. A second experiment on four and five days of respite came to essentially the same conclusion. A short vacation is like a cool shower on an oppressively muggy summer day—a refreshing yet fleeting escape.

Instead of limiting people to a single weeklong vacation each year or a few three-day vacations here and there, companies should also allow their employees to take a day or two off during the workweek and encourage workers to banish all work-related tasks from their evenings. In a four-year study, Leslie Perlow of the Harvard Business School and her colleagues tracked the work habits of employees at the Boston Consulting Group. Each year they insisted that employees take regular time off, even when they did not think they should be away from the office. In one experiment each of five consultants on a team took a break from work one day a week. In a second experiment every member of a team scheduled one weekly night of uninterrupted personal time, even though they were accustomed to working from home in the evenings.

Everyone resisted at first, fearing they would only be postponing work. But over time the consultants learned to love their scheduled time off because it consistently replenished their willingness and ability to work, which made them more productive overall. After five months employees experimenting with deliberate periodic rest were more satisfied with their jobs, more likely to envision a long-term future at the company, more content with their work–life balance and prouder of their accomplishments.

Tony Schwartz, a journalist and CEO of The Energy Project, has made a career out of teaching people to be more productive by changing the way they think about downtime. His strategy relies in part on the idea that anyone can learn to regularly renew their reservoirs of physical and mental energy. "People are working so many hours that not only in most cases do they not have more hours they could work, but there's also strong evidence that when they work for too long they get diminishing returns in terms of health costs and emotional costs," Schwartz says. "If time is no longer an available resource, what is? The answer is energy."

Schwartz and his colleagues encourage workers to get seven to eight hours of sleep every night, to use all their vacation days, take power naps and many small breaks during the day, practice meditation, and tackle the most challenging task first thing in the morning so they can give it their full attention. "Many things we are suggesting are in some ways very simple and on some level are things people already knew, but they are moving at such extraordinary speed that they have convinced themselves they are not capable of those behaviors," Schwartz says.

The Energy Project’s approach was a tough sell at first—because it contradicts the prevailing ethos that busier is better—but the organization has so far successfully partnered with Google, Apple, Facebook, Coca-Cola, Green Mountain Coffee, Ford, Genentech and a wide range of Fortune 500 companies. To gauge how employees improve over time, Schwartz measures their level of engagement—that is, how much they like their jobs and are willing to go above and beyond their basic duties—a trait that many studies have correlated with performance. Admittedly, this is not the most precise or direct measurement, but Schwartz says that time and again his strategies have pushed workers' overall engagement well above the average level and that Google has been satisfied enough to keep up the partnership for more than five years.

PUT YOUR MIND AT REST
Many recent studies have corroborated the idea that our mental resources are continuously depleted throughout the day and that various kinds of rest and downtime can both replenish those reserves and increase their volume. Consider, for instance, how even an incredibly brief midday nap enlivens the mind.

By adulthood, most of us have adopted the habit of sleeping through the night and staying awake for most or all of the day—but this may not be ideal for our mental health and is certainly not the only way people have slept throughout history. In somewhat the same way that hobbits in Tolkien's Middle Earth enjoy a first and second breakfast, people living without electricity in preindustrial Europe looked forward to a first and second sleep divided by about an hour of crepuscular activity. During that hour, they would pray, relieve themselves, smoke tobacco, have sex and even visit neighbors. Some researchers have proposed that people are also physiologically inclined to snooze during a 2 P.M. to 4 P.M. “nap zone”—or what some might call the afternoon slump—because the brain prefers to toggle between sleep and wake more than once a day. As far back as the first century B.C. the Romans regularly took midafternoon breaks, which they called _meridiari_ from the Latin for midday. Under the influence of Roman Catholicism, noon became known as _sexta_ (the sixth hour, according to their clocks), a time for rest and prayer. Eventually _sexta_ morphed into siesta.

Plenty of studies have established that naps sharpen concentration and improve the performance of both the sleep-deprived and the fully rested on all kinds of tasks, from driving to medical care. A 2004 study, for example, analyzed four years of data on highway car accidents involving Italian policemen and concluded that the practice of napping before night shifts reduced the prospective number of collisions by 48 percent. In a 2002 study by Rebecca Smith-Coggins of Stanford University and her colleagues, 26 physicians and nurses working three consecutive 12-hour night shifts napped for 40 minutes at 3 A.M. while 23 of their colleagues worked continuously without sleeping. Although doctors and nurses that had napped scored lower than their peers on a memory test at 4 A.M., at 7:30 A.M. they outperformed the no-nap group on a test of attention, more efficiently inserted a catheter in a virtual simulation and were more alert during an interactive simulation of driving a car home.

Long naps work great when people have enough time to recover from “sleep inertia”—post-nap grogginess that, in some cases, can take more than two hours to fade. In other situations micronaps may be a smarter strategy. An intensive 2006 study by Amber Brooks and Leon Lack of Flinders University in Australia and their colleagues pitted naps of five, 10, 20 and 30 minutes against one another to find out which was most restorative. Over a span of three years 24 college students periodically slept for only five hours on designated nights. The day after each of those nights they visited the lab to nap and take tests of attention that required them to respond quickly to images on a screen, complete a word search and accurately copy sequences of arcane symbols.

A five-minute nap barely increased alertness, but naps of 10, 20 and 30 minutes all improved the students’ scores. But volunteers that napped 20 or 30 minutes had to wait half an hour or more for their sleep inertia to wear off before regaining full alertness, whereas 10-minute naps immediately enhanced performance just as much as the longer naps without any grogginess. An explanation for this finding, Brooks and Lack speculate, may involve the brain’s so-called “sleep switch.” Essentially, one cluster of neurons is especially important for keeping us awake, whereas another distinct circuit induces sleepiness. When neurons in one region fire rapidly they directly inhibit the firing of neurons in the other region, thereby operating as a sleep/wake switch. Neurons in the wake circuit likely become fatigued and slow down after many hours of firing during the day, which allows the neurons in the sleep circuit to speed up and initiate the flip to a sleep state. Once someone begins to doze, however, a mere seven to 10 minutes of sleep may be enough to restore the wake-circuit neurons to their former excitability.

Although some start-ups and progressive companies provide their employees with spaces to nap at the office, most workers in the U.S. do not have that option. An equally restorative and likely far more manageable solution to mental fatigue is spending more time outdoors—in the evenings, on the weekends and even during lunch breaks by walking to a nearby park, riverfront or anywhere not dominated by skyscrapers and city streets. Marc Berman, a psychologist at the University of South Carolina and a pioneer of a relatively new field called ecopsychology, argues that whereas the hustle and bustle of a typical city taxes our attention, natural environments restore it. Contrast the experience of walking through Times Square in New York City—where the brain is ping-ponged between neon lights, honking taxies and throngs of tourists—with a day hike in a nature reserve, where the mind is free to leisurely shift its focus from the calls of songbirds to the gurgling and gushing of rivers to sunlight falling through every gap in the tree branches and puddling on the forest floor.

In one of the few controlled ecopsychology experiments, Berman asked 38 University of Michigan students to study lists of random numbers and recite them from memory in reverse order before completing another attention-draining task in which they memorized the locations of certain words arranged in a grid. Half the students subsequently strolled along a predefined path in an arboretum for about an hour whereas the other half walked the same distance through highly trafficked streets of downtown Ann Arbor for the same period of time. Back at the lab the students memorized and recited digits once again. On average, volunteers that had ambled among trees recalled 1.5 more digits than the first time they took the test; those who had walked through the city improved by only 0.5 digits—a small but statistically significant difference between the two groups.

Beyond renewing one's powers of concentration, downtime can in fact bulk up the muscle of attention—something that scientists have observed repeatedly in studies on meditation. There are almost as many varieties and definitions of meditation as there are people who practice it. Although meditation is not equivalent to zoning out or daydreaming, many styles challenge people to sit in a quiet space, close their eyes and turn their attention away from the outside world toward their own minds. Mindfulness meditation, for example, generally refers to a sustained focus on one’s thoughts, emotions and sensations in the present moment. For many people, mindfulness is about paying close attention to whatever the mind does on its own, as opposed to directing one’s mind to accomplish this or that.

Mindfulness training has become more popular than ever in the last decade as a strategy to relieve stress, anxiety and depression. Many researchers acknowledge that studies on the benefits of mindfulness often lack scientific rigor, use too few participants and rely too heavily on people’s subjective reports, but at this point they have gathered enough evidence to conclude that meditation can indeed improve mental health, hone one’s ability to concentrate and strengthen memory. Studies comparing long-time expert meditators with novices or people who do not meditate often find that the former outperform the latter on tests of mental acuity.

In a2009 study, for example, Sara van Leeuwen of Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Germany and her colleagues tested the visual attention of three groups of volunteers: 17 adults around 50 years old with up to 29 years of meditation practice; 17 people of the same age and gender who were not longtime meditators; and another 17 young adults who had never meditated before. In the test, a series of random letters flashed on a computer screen, concealing two digits in their midst. Volunteers had to identify both numerals and to guess if they did not glimpse one in time; recognizing the second number is often difficult because earlier images mask it. Performance on such tests usually declines with age, but the expert meditators outscored both their peers and the younger participants.

Heleen Slagter of Leiden University in Amsterdam and her colleagues used the same type of attention test in a 2007 study to compare 17 people who had just completed a three-month meditation retreat in Barre, Mass., with 23 mindfulness-curious volunteers who were meditating around 20 minutes a day. Both groups were evenly matched before their training, but when the retreat was over the meditation marathoners trumped the novices. Judging by recordings from an electroencephalogram, 90 days of meditation likely made the brain more efficient, so that it used up less available attention to successfully complete the test.

Rather profound changes to the brain's structure and behavior likely underlie many of these improvements. Numerous studies have shown that meditation strengthens connections between regions of the default mode network, for example, and can help people learn to more effectively shift between the DMN and circuits that are most active when we are consciously fixated on a task. Over time expert meditators may also develop a more intricately wrinkled cortex—the brain’s outer layer, which is necessary for many of our most sophisticated mental abilities, like abstract thought and introspection. Meditation appears to increase the volume and density of the hippocampus, a seahorse-shaped area of the brain that is absolutely crucial for memory; it thickens regions of the frontal cortex that we rely on to rein in our emotions; and it stymies the typical wilting of brain areas responsible for sustaining attention as we get older.

Just how quickly meditation can noticeably change the brain and mind is not yet clear. But a handful of experiments suggest that a couple weeks of meditation or a mere 10 to 20 minutes of mindfulness a day can whet the mind—if people stick with it. Likewise, a few studies indicate that meditating daily is ultimately more important than the total hours of meditation over one’s lifetime.

In a 2007 study by Richard Chambers of the University of Melbourne, 40 people between the ages of 21 and 63 took various tests of attention and working memory, a collection of mental talents that allow someone to temporarily store and manipulate information. Half the volunteers completed the tests immediately before participating in an intensive 10-day meditation course—something they had never done before—and took the same tests again seven to 10 days after the course ended. The other half also took the tests on two occasions 21 days apart but did not practice any meditation. Whereas people who meditated performed quite a bit better on the tests the second time around, those who did not meditate showed no meaningful improvement. Similarly, in a 2007 study, 40 Chinese college students scored higher on attention tests after a mere 20 minutes of mindfulness-related meditation a day for five days, whereas 40 of their peers who did not meditate did not improve. And as little as 12 minutes of mindfulness meditation a day helped prevent the stress of military service from deteriorating the working memory of 34 U.S. marines in a 2011 study conducted by Amishi Jha, now at the University of Miami, and her colleagues.

_Editor's Note: This article originally stated that researchers sometimes implant electrodes in the brains of epilepsy patients undergoing surgery. In fact, doctors implant these electrodes as part of the surgery and researchers record from them. The text has been edited to reflect this distinction._

question: What assails the author during their work week?

answer: A headache.

question: What is this known as?

answer: Cerebral congestion.

question: According to writer and meditation teacher Michael Taft, why does this occur?

answer: So much is coming at you at once in a normal corporate working day in America and it's too difficult to process and anticipate.

question: In the US, China, South Africa, and the UK, what did a study reveal workers use half their time doing?

answer: Receiving and managing information rather than using it to do their jobs (application of the information).

question: Write a ~6 sentence summary.

answer: Workers across different continents have reported getting a specific kind of forehead-centric headache around the middle of their workday. Most work with computer and information. This particular sort of pain is known as "cerebral congestion" and is common in situations in which workers have a ton of information thrown at them incessantly, according to freelance writer and meditation teacher Michael Taft. There have been countless studies to support the idea that cerebral congestion is real and is prevalent in different societies. It has been shown that participants have little change between a resting or break state and a work state when their physical setting and tasks remain the same, whether or not said task is necessarily designated as "work". Mindful practices such as meditation seem to alleviate some of the cerebral congestion, with some places of work chooses to even incorporate these mindfulness practices into the working day.


text:
A former police officer misrepresented an old image as having been taken during the floods in Kerala, and used it to accuse Prime Minister Narendra Modi of "viscerally" hating the state.

[Kerala floods: Former IPS officer uses fake picture to target PM Modi] __

Sanjiv Bhatt used an old image (R) to accuse Modi of "viscerally" hating Kerala. (Photos: Reuters and Twitter/Sanjiv Bhatt)

HIGHLIGHTS

-   Sanjiv Bhatt uses picture to accuse Modi of hating Kerala
-   Malayalam newspaper used it in October 2016 story
-   That story was about a Kerala electricity board project

Sanjiv Bhatt, a former police officer, misrepresented an old image as having been taken during the floods in Kerala, and used it to accuse Prime Minister Narendra Modi of "viscerally" hating the state.

The picture shows men repairing wires on electricity poles. "Kerala State Electricity Board workers trying to restore power even while facing heavy rains. This photograph was taken 5 days ago. Now you know why Modi and his Sanghi Thugs viscerally hate Kerala," Bhatt said in a tweet.

[]

India Today's Viral Test team did a Google search for the image -- and it turns out that Mathrubhumi, a Malayalam newspaper, used it in an article published in October 2016.

That story was about Urjadyut, a Kerala electricity board project. In fact, the image has also been used in other articles related to the board.

As well, our Kerala correspondent told us the picture has been around for some time.

READ | India declines foreign aid for Kerala flood relief

Kerala has been devastated by monsoon floods; over 350 people have died, and the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) says the potential damage is worth Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 crore.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's Office has said the state police have been asked to take strict action against people spreading fake news on social media.

WATCH | HOW KERALA HAS LOST TO FLOODS: HUMAN TRAGEDY BEING USED FOR POLITICS?

question: What are the three highlights of this excerpt?

answer: The three highlights are: Sanjiv Bhatt uses picture to accuse Modi of hating Kerla, Malayalam newspaper used it in an October 2016 story, and that story was about a Kerala electricity board project.

question: Who is Sanjiv Bhatt?

answer: He is a former police officer.

question: What did Sanjiv Bhatt do?

answer: He misrepresented an old image as having been taken during the floods in Kerala and used it to accuse Prime Minister Modi of viscerally hating the state.

question: Who did a Google search for the image Sanjiv Bhatt presented?

answer: India Today's Viral Test Team

question: How many people have died in the Kerala floods?

answer: Over 350 people have died

question: What is the monetary damage that the flood has done?

answer: The flood has created damage of 15,000 to 20,000 crore rupees.

question: What did Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's office state?

answer: The office stated that they have asked state police to take strict action against people who spread fake news on social media.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: This article describes a former police officer, Sanjiv Bhatt, who misrepresented an image to accuse the Prime Minister of India of hating the state. The image was found to be false and resulted in bad consequences when India denied providing flood relief in Kerala.


text:
The CORRECTIONAL CUSTODY UNIT (CCU or _Remotivation Platoon_) is a disciplinary program in the United States Marine Corps under which “salvageable” offenders are provided “re-education, refocusing and re-greening”. The intent of the program is to resolve disciplinary issues without more serious recourse like confinement to the brig or a court martial.[1]

In 2002, it was reported that three Marine bases had a CCU: Camp Hansen (Okinawa), Camp Lejeune (North Carolina), and Camp Pendleton (California).[2]

[1]

[2]

title: Correctional Custody Unit

question: What is the CCU?

answer: The Correctional Custody Unit or Remotivation Platoon

question: What is it's purpose?

answer: It is a disciplinary program in the Marines under which "salvageable" offenders are provided "re-education, refocusing, and re-greening."

question: What is the intent of the program?

answer: To resolve disciplinary issues without more serious recourse like confinement to the brig or court martial.

question: What is the brig and court martial?

answer: Military jail and being kicked out of the military.

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: The Correctional Custody Unit, CCU or Remotivation Platoon, is a disciplinary program in the Marines under which "salvageable" offenders are provided "re-education, refocusing, and re-greening." It's intent is to resolve disciplinary issues without more serious recourse like confinement to the brig or court martial. In 2002, three Marine bases had a CCU: Camps Hansen, Lejeune, and Pendleton.


text:
_MINANAPIS_ is a genus of araneomorph spiders in the family Anapidae, first described by Norman I. Platnick & Raymond Robert Forster in 1989.[1]

Species

it contains five species:[2]

-   _Minanapis casablanca_ Platnick & Forster, 1989 – Chile
-   _Minanapis floris_ Platnick & Forster, 1989 – Chile
-   _Minanapis menglunensis_ Lin & Li, 2012 – China
-   _Minanapis palena_ Platnick & Forster, 1989 – Chile, Argentina
-   _Minanapis talinay_ Platnick & Forster, 1989 – Chile

[1]

[2]

title: Minanapis

question: What are Minanapis?

answer: They are a genus of araneomorph spiders.

question: Who first described these spiders?

answer: Norman I. Platnick and Raymond Robert Forster described these spiders.

question: How many species are found in the family of spiders?

answer: There are five species found, according to the article.

question: Where are most of the species of spiders located?

answer: They are located in Chile or Argentina.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: A family of spiders, Minanapis, is described in this article.


text:
Music producer and DJ Avicii has been found dead in Oman at the age of 28, his publicist has said.

The Swedish star, whose real name was Tim Bergling, scored two UK number one singles and had collaborated with artists including Madonna and Coldplay.

His publicist Diana Baron said: "It is with profound sorrow that we announce the loss of Tim Bergling, also known as Avicii.

"The family is devastated and we ask everyone to please respect their need for privacy in this difficult time."

Avicii, best known for his singles Wake Me Up, Hey Brother and Levels, was found dead in Muscat, Oman.

He was considered a pioneer of contemporary electronic dance music and a rare DJ capable of a worldwide arena tour.

[Avicii performing in San Francisco in 2016]

Image: Avicii quit touring in 2016

He won two MTV Music Awards, one Billboard Music Award and earned two Grammy nominations.

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His death comes just days after he was nominated for a Billboard Music Award for top dance/electronic album for his EP Avicii (01).

The DJ had suffered with acute pancreatitis, which was partly blamed on excessive drinking.

After having his gallbladder and appendix removed in 2014, he cancelled a series of shows in an attempt to recover.

He quit touring for health reasons in 2016 but continued making music in the studio.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Wake Me Up DJ dies at the age of 28

Tributes poured in from the world of music following news of Avicii's death.

DJ Calvin Harris tweeted: "Devastating news about Avicii, a beautiful soul, passionate and extremely talented with so much more to do. My heart goes out to his family. God bless you Tim x."

Dance music pioneer Pete Tong hailed Avicii as a "major influence in opening up mainstream USA to electronic dance music", while producer and Chic star Nile Rodgers said he was in tears after hearing the news about his "little bro".

[Avicii was named best electronic dance music artist at the American Music Awards in 2013]

Image: Avicii winning an American Music Awards in 2013

Rita Ora, who collaborated with Avicii on the single Lonely Together last year, said: "I have no words. I remember how amazing it was to make Lonely Together and it felt like just yesterday we were talking.

"Condolences to Avicii's family, friends, and the fans who supported him. May he rest in peace. Gone too soon. I'm devastated. Heartbroken."

  #RIPAVICII Dear Tim your family have my most heartfelt condolences. You were my little bro. Love always.

  — Nile Rodgers (@nilerodgers) April 20, 2018

Avicii hit the top of the UK singles charts twice in 2013 with Wake Me Up and I Could Be The One.

He worked with Madonna on the track Girl Gone Wild in 2012 and co-wrote Coldplay's 2014 song A Sky Full Of Stars.

In a note announcing his retirement from touring in 2016, Avicii said: "I know I am blessed to be able to travel all around the world and perform, but I have too little left for the life of a real person behind the artist.

"I will however never let go of music - I will continue to speak to my fans through it, but I've decided this 2016 run will be my last tour and last shows."

[Avicii performing in Gothenburg in 2015]

Image: Avicii performing in Gothenburg in 2015

The musician later revealed he had made the decision for health reasons.

"The scene was not for me," he told Billboard magazine.

"It was not the shows and not the music. It was always the other stuff surrounding it that never came naturally to me.

"I'm more of an introverted person in general. It was always very hard for me. I took on board too much negative energy, I think."

Avicii released his debut studio album, True, in 2013 and followed it up with Stories in 2015.

question: Where is Oman?

answer: It is a Middle Eastern country.

question: How did Avicii die?

answer: That information can't be found in the document.

question: What is Avicii's publicist's statement?

answer: "It is with profound sorrow that we announce the loss of Tim Bergling, also known as Avicii. The family is devastated and we ask everyone to please respect their need for privacy in this difficult time."

question: What celebrities expressed their condolences towards Avicii?

answer: Calvin Harris, Rita Ora, Peter Tong, Nile Rodgers,

question: What was Avicii's last album?

answer: That information can't be found, but days before his death he was nominated for a Billboard Music Award for his EP Avicii (01).

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: At the time of this document, music producer and DJ Avicii's death was announced. The document discusses Avicii and those who offered their condolences.


text:
[]
Georgians always hope for the best...and never get it

 [georgia-elections_banner]

…by  Henry Kamens,    … with New Eastern Outlook,  Moscow

[Georgia continues to seek a Western Santa Claus]
Georgia continues to seek a Western Santa Claus
[ EDITOR’S NOTE: We revisit Georgia through the watchful eyes of Henry Kamens once again — a man who has had his fingertips on the pulse of not only Georgian internal politics, but the US regime-change march to the Russian border, as part of its neo-Cold War destabilization strategy.

These economically stressed countries are chosen targets, due to their history of rough and tough politics and the inherent corruption, as it’s being seen as the only path to upward mobility.

Add to that the long US history of preferring to work with tyrants and criminals, as their motivations are more predictable and their actions consistent. They are always with you, as long as they are getting their money.

We see the US using the Israeli model of subversion extensively now. By that I mean that, whoever works with them, no matter what happens, or how bad the effort blows up, they will never abandon you. They will get you rehabbed, sent to the gym, and made over and put you back to work once again.

_SAAKASHVILI IS A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF THIS — HAVING LEFT HIS COUNTRY IN POLITICAL DISGRACE AS A LACKEY OF THE US, TO A SOFT LANDING AT A PRESTIGIOUS UNIVERSITY SO PEOPLE COULD FORGET ABOUT HIM. THEN WITH THE UKRAINE COUP, AND WITH THE FORMER AMERICAN AMBASSADOR TO GEORGIA MOVING TO MOSCOW, THE US HAS PROMOTED MISHA’S REEMERGENCE ON THE WORLD SCENE AS ONE OF THE FOREIGN POLITICAL MERCENARIES BEING WOVEN INTO THE POST KIEV COUP GOVERNMENT, WITH OTHERS HAVING PROVEN CAREERS AS CONTROLLED ASSETS._

The US geopolitical schemers correctly expected that the American public could not care less what happens in Georgia, similar to how no one ever expected WWI to be triggered in the Balkans.

[Bismark, the European political giant of the late 1800's]
Bismarck, the European political giant of the late 1800’s
BUT ONE WISE STATESMAN at the time did, a political giant in European history, Count Otto von Bismarck, Chancellor of Germany, who was quoted as saying, “If there is ever another war in Europe, it will come out of some damned silly thing in the Balkans.”

Henry lays out the clear signs that, while Saakashvili is getting his hands dirty in Kiev, he is doing double duty still serving his American State Department and NeoCon masters by trying to overthrow the current Georgian government.

To make it even worse, the declining economic situation in Georgia is a direct result of its foreign exploitation by the West, where US AID resources were stolen from real aid projects to support political candidates.

Funds were also diverted to the growing network of US terrorist training bases in the Pansiki Gorge — the Chechen ones — for long term use in the region.

The American public and virtually all of their civic organizations are asleep at the wheel as to the magnitude of the foreign aggression our country is involved in. America deploys long-term planning that survives executive office party changes, as Obama proves now that he is basically following in Bush-43’s footsteps in some of these regime-change operations.

_THE NEOCONS IN CONGRESS CANNOT BE TOO UNHAPPY WITH OBAMA’S WORK HERE, ALTHOUGH THEY PRETEND HE IS NOT AGGRESSIVE ENOUGH. BUT WE ARE SEEING A MULTITUDE OF TRIP WIRES BEING SET UP FOR A NUMBER OF FUTURE CONFLICTS, WHERE CAUSE AND EFFECT CAN BE DISGUISED IN NUMEROUS WAYS._

What I see here is classic Israeli Chaos Theory at work. They have openly claimed to be the best at it, and their fingerprints are everywhere, even while they operate as Rent-an-Overthrow contractor, which they are only too happy to do in order to keep their finger in a lot of pies.

Their penetration of our State Dept. is an open secret in the US Intel community, and it gives Israel the needed diplomatic cover and access to State’s Intel networks, which are substantial. The people of Georgia have storm clouds on the horizon… JIM W. DEAN ]

_________________________

 –  First published … March 21, 2015  –

[Kamens]I STARTED OUT TO WRITE A TYPICAL STORY ABOUT NATO AND GEORGIA, BUT SOON REALISED THAT, IN THE PRESENT CLIMATE, I WOULD HAVE TO DO MORE THAN SIMPLY RESEARCH THE USUAL SORT OF ARTICLE AND THEN PUT A SPIN ON IT FOR NEO’S DISCRIMINATING AUDIENCE.

One thing you soon realise as a journalist, especially a muckraking one, is never to believe in coincidence, and too many things have been happening lately which are a bit too obviously timed to coincide with each other.

Samantha Power recently visited Brussels and told everyone to give more of their GDP to NATO. This happened because members, such as Turkey, are distancing themselves from any increase in contributions, as they are beginning to understand, at least publicly, that NATO has evolved into an instrument of one sided US foreign policy.

NO LONGER IS NATO A MEANS OF PROTECTING THE WEST FROM ANY ENEMY. THE MEMBERS THEMSELVES KNOW THIS, AND BEING AN NATO ALLY HAS AS MUCH TO DO WITH CHOICE OF ARMS SUPPLIERS AS THE DEFENCE NEEDS OF INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS. THE LACK OF TRUST WITHIN THE ORGANISATION IS OBVIOUS – IT IS MERELY A QUESTION OF WHO WILL BREAK RANKS FIRST, AND WHO WILL HAVE THE NERVE TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT.

At the same time some members of the EU are calling for a European Army. This also is not by happenstance. As Russian Insider has asked: Is EU Army Intended to Reduce US Influence in Europe?

The ostensible reason for such an army is the so-called Russian threat, but that is too superficial. A NATO force including both US and EU components would be a more effective deterrent and operational force than an EU army alone, even if the latter could agree on a command structure. This is why Germany, increasingly critical of US actions, has reacted enthusiastically to this proposal.

GETTING YOUR RETALIATION IN FIRST

[Georgian lari - currency]
Georgian lari – currency has been suffering
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS SUCH AS THESE are generally the province of political scientists. They do not generally impact on people’s daily lives until a real crisis has developed. This is why alarm bells started ringing when a casual contact in Tbilisi received a strange letter from the international school his son attends.

The gist of it was that it was revising their security arrangements because of “THE DETERIORATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL SITUATION”.

  _“TUESDAY 10TH MARCH 2015  _

  _DEAR PARENTS / GUARDIANS,_

  _SECURITY POLICY AT NEW SCHOOL_

  _WE BELIEVE THAT THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT OF SCHOOL IS THAT OF THE CHILDREN’S SAFETY. DUE TO THE DETERIORATING STABILITY OF THE INTERNATIONAL SITUATION, WE WISH TO MAKE THE SCHOOL AS SECURE AS POSSIBLE. WE ARE FOLLOWING RECOMMENDATIONS BY THE USA EMBASSY IN TBILISI IN ORDER TO DETER OR PREVENT ANY INCIDENT AT OUR SCHOOL.”_

My contact asked me what was meant by this and I said “World War III, of course”. I wasn’t being serious, but later I realised that I might as well have been. If the US Embassy is even suggesting to schools that they take special measures because some incident may occur, there is either a greater real threat of one than it is prepared to say, or it wants us to think that such a threat exists.

This is not any school – it costs more than most parents can afford. Other parents received the same letter. The implication is that these particular students, not ordinary Georgians, are at risk of being targeted. The letter does not say by whom, but the implication is all too clear when we bear in mind what we already know is going to happen in Georgia.

WHIMPER TO BANG

[He was Bush 43's golden boy for a while.]
He was Bush-43’s golden boy for a while.
MIKHEIL SAAKASHVILI’S UNITED NATIONAL MOVEMENT (UNM) Party is intending to hold a protest rally on March 21st, demanding that the government resign over the state of the economy.

The UNM is doing everything it can to destroy the Georgian economy from within, and has a number of levers for doing so as a former UNM Prime Minister runs the Bank of Georgia, but of course this will not be said.

The UNM also argues that the new government is not interested in joining the EU, as the UNM and most Georgians want. This again ignores the fact that the present government signed an Association Agreement with the EU and the UNM was never allowed to. This in spite of the fact that France and Germany will see Georgia in NATO when hell freezes over, no matter who is in charge.

SAAKASHVILI HAS TRIED TO BRING GEORGIA OUT INTO THE STREETS BEFORE, BUT FEW PEOPLE LISTEN TO HIM NOW. WHATEVER ELSE THE PRESENT GEORGIAN GOVERNMENT IS, IT DOESN’T USE THE STATE APPARATUS TO TERRORISE THE POPULATION AS SAAKASHVILI DID, AND THE PEOPLE CAN SEE THE DIFFERENCE.

Nevertheless, he has been running a lot of adverts on local radio and subjecting people to all sorts of propaganda via the traditional UNM mouthpiece, Rustavi2.

So Misha is confident of achieving something this time even though he has got nowhere thus far. Why? Because he is being used as the US response to this proclaimed “deteriorating international situation”.

The US has to make people believe that civilization is under threat in order to extend its own leverage at the expense of the EU. What better way than to bring its poster boy back on the pretext that the democrats have ruined the country—and only this man can restore order?

We often use the term “The West” to signify the US/EU/NATO bloc. But the deterioration of relations between the US and EU, which is largely driven by disputes about and within NATO, is making the casual use of this term increasingly suspect.

THE GEORGIAN GOVERNMENT IS PRO-EU AND PRO-NATO, BUT NOT AS PRO-US AS THE UNM REGIME. IT IS TRYING TO PREVENT, OR AT LEAST SCALE DOWN, THE LITANY OF ILLEGAL ACTIONS THE US HAS LONG COMMITTED ON GEORGIAN TERRITORY, AND THE US DOESN’T LIKE IT.

[Georgians always hope for the best...and never get it]
Georgians always hope for the best… and never get it
FOR PUBLIC CONSUMPTION AT LEAST, the present Georgian government has removed the bio weapons lab near Tbilisi International Airport from US Defense Department control, and it is trying to reinvestigate the death of Zurab Zhvania, and a number of terrorist acts and defence deals, and the role the CIA has played in covering up the truth about these.

It is doing this in the name of European democracy, not friendship with the US. Now there is a distinction between these two concepts, such actions become too serious to ignore.

The US-EU dispute is being fought out by proxy in Georgia, like so many other proxy conflicts from Cold War times and previously. The US wants us all to believe that everything is so bad in Europe we all need to be more American. This is the “deteriorating international situation” we are supposed to be scared of, but in reality the US is scared of nothing but itself.

TOO MUCH TO IGNORE

A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO a Georgian opposition MP (from a different party to the UNM) claimed that plans were afoot to poison one of the high ranking former members of Saakashvili’s team who are currently behind bars – and that this was intended to be a false flag ordered by Saakashvili himself, with the blame to be pinned on the current government.

Rather alarmingly we now have a further claim by a former Georgian General Tristan Tsitelashvili that snipers have started arriving in Georgia from Ukraine, the same ones who ensured bloody revolution took place in Kyiv. He says that there is a list of persons the UNM intends to liquidate on March 21st, and these snipers have been tasked with this. It is known the UNM drew up such lists when it was in power, so such claims cannot be disregarded.

[Saakasvilli cannot operate without foreign security]
Saakashvili’s mafia cannot operate without foreign  sponsors
IT IS WIDELY KNOWN THAT GEORGIAN FIGHTERS have been fighting with Poroshenko’s forces in Ukraine, approximately 600 and at least 10 killed. This is all part of the latest US regional regime control project, and with carious irregular groups, and that two trouble-making NGOs which Saakashvili set up to do his dirty work in Georgia, Free Zone and Fair Generation, have already begun picketing the old Parliament Building in Tbilisi, demanding the resignation of the government.

In the Black Sea port of Batumi, a city of vital strategic importance in any attempt to seize the country by force, posters depicting Mikheil Saakashvili and images of inmates being tortured have appeared. They read, “No tolerance, everyone behind bars. He fulfilled this promise by imprisoning 300,000 people.”

According to the UNM the posters were given to regional governors after a meeting with the Prime Minister for the purpose of discrediting their party. As it discredited enough, such an action is far more likely to be inspired by the UNM itself, which does, after all, have all the figures relating to its own actions.

A lot of planning has clearly gone into what may be a last ditch UNM attempt to regain power at any cost. The outcome may rest on how low it is prepared to go and how low the government will be prepared to go to stop it.

UNFORTUNATELY, THIS GIVES THE UNM a distinct advantage. It stopped at nothing when in power and has stopped at nothing since. The present government was elected to be the antidote to the UNM, so it will ultimately have to rely on goodwill, which has never counted for much in the political realities of Georgia.

TIED HANDS AND BROOMSTICKS

[UNM supporters scuffle with Georgian Dream Party supporters (File photo)]
UNM supporters scuffle with Georgian Dream Party supporters (File photo)
THE UNM SAYS IT HAS BEEN “FORCED” into taking whatever action it will take because the government has refused its demand to hold a special parliamentary session on the depreciation of the Georgian Lari (GEL). It argues that as the economy is collapsing, only the UNM can save the country from crashing and burning.

Since it made that statement the Lari, previously dropping like a stone, has recovered somewhat. The National Bank has been forced to investigate and report and now it says that there is nothing to worry about.

This may or may not be true, and consumer confidence is always a more practical measure of the state of an economy. But the UNM has used this economic argument before, no one has believed it yet and they are unlikely to start now the spectre of further political violence has been hung over them.

The US will never declare war on Europe. It will simply keep it in what it thinks is its place. The US is backing an impending coup, or threat thereof, in Georgia to stop the EU acting with increasing independence, as if that is any business of Georgia’s.

GEORGIANS WON’T ACCEPT IT, but are weary of what seems endless struggle. We can only hope that someone, somewhere, is prepared to intervene here before everyone’s life is defined by how useful to US foreign policy it is.

___

_HENRY KAMENS, COLUMNIST, EXPERT ON CENTRAL ASIA AND CAUCASUS, EXCLUSIVELY FOR THE ONLINE MAGAZINE “NEW EASTERN OUTLOOK”.
_

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question: Who is the writer of this article?

answer: The writer is Henry Kamens, writing from a new Eastern Outlook, in Moscow.

question: How does the editor describe Kamens?

answer: He is a man who has knowledge of Georgian internal politics and the US regime-change

question: Write a ~0 sentence summary.


text:
This week, _Moyers & Company_ reports on the most influential corporate-funded political force most of America has never heard of — ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. A national consortium of state politicians and powerful corporations, ALEC presents itself as a “nonpartisan public-private partnership”. But behind that mantra lies a vast network of corporate lobbying and political action aimed to increase corporate profits at public expense without public knowledge.

“All of us here are very familiar with ALEC and the influence that ALEC has with many of the [legislative] members,” says Arizona State Senator Steve Farley. “Corporations have the right to present their arguments, but they don’t have the right to do it secretly.”

[]

Click the map to let us know if your state legislator is an ALEC member.

In state houses around the country, hundreds of pieces of boilerplate ALEC legislation are proposed or enacted that would, among other things, dilute collective bargaining rights, make it harder for some Americans to vote, and limit corporate liability for harm caused to consumers — each accomplished without the public ever knowing who’s behind it. Using interviews, documents, and field reporting, the episode explores ALEC’s self-serving machine at work, acting in a way one Wisconsin politician describes as “a corporate dating service for lonely legislators and corporate special interests.”

Updated coverage includes new examples of corporate influence on state legislation and lawmakers, the growing public protest against ALEC’s big business-serving agenda, and internal tactics ALEC is instituting to further shroud its actions and intentions.

Executive Producer Tom Casciato says people who saw the first report “might be surprised to learn that, despite more than 40 companies having dropped out of ALEC, the organization is still going very strong… ALEC doesn’t publish a list of its members, so covering will always be hard.”

Casciato adds:

  “In a democracy it’s a good idea for people to know where their laws originate. If your local legislator introduces a bill as his or her own, and it turns out the bill actually came from a national organization in which corporations have already voted as to whether or not they approve of it, and it also turns out that those corporations stand to profit by its passage, you ought to know that. It’ll never stop being important for journalists to cover the lawmaking process as it’s practiced not only in broad daylight but also behind closed doors.”

Watch the full show.

  _“United States of ALEC” is a collaboration between Okapi Productions LLC (filmmakers Tom Casciato and Kathleen Hughes) and the Schumann Media Center, headed by Bill Moyers, which supports independent journalism and public watchdogs including the Center for Media and Democracy, and Common Cause, whose investigators are featured in the report._

question: What is the purpose of the article?

answer: To pique interest learning about ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, to promote the film "United States of ALEC."

question: Why is covering ALEC particularly difficult?

answer: ALEC doesn't publish a list of its members.

question: What is ALEC's most influential tool?

answer: Relationships with lawmakers such that they write legislation and the lawmakers present it as their own.

question: What effects do ALEC legislation have?

answer: Among other things, dilution of collective bargaining rights, making it harder for Americans to vote, limit corporate liability, etc.

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, is an organization of member companies that leverages influence on legislative members to increase corporate profits at public expense and without public knowledge. "United States of ALEC" is a film collaboration between Okapi Productions and the Schumann Media Center supporting independent journalism and public watchdogs. It delves into the issue more deeply.


text:
thumb|upright=1.2|1984-1991 Ferrari Testarossa mid-mounted engine

A FLAT-TWELVE ENGINE, also known as a HORIZONTALLY OPPOSED-TWELVE, is a twelve-cylinder piston engine with six cylinders on each side of a central crankshaft.

Flat-twelve engines are less common than V12 engines, however they have been used in various racing cars during the 1960s and 1970s, and in mid-engined Ferrari road cars from 1973-1996.

Design

Unlike most flat-twin, flat-four and flat-six engines, flat-twelve engines typically use the crankshaft configuration of a 180° V engine instead of a boxer engine. Therefore most flat-twelve engines have each pair of pistons sharing a crankpin, instead of the boxer design of each piston having its own crankpin.

Compared with a V12 engine, a flat-twelve has a lower center of gravity, however a flat-twelve is wider therefore it is rarely used in front-engined cars.

Racing cars

Formula One

The first known flat-twelve engine was built by Porsche in 1947 for the abandoned Cisitalia Grand Prix racing car. The engine, known as the Porsche Typ 360, was supercharged and had a displacement of .[1] One engine was built and the car conducted top speed testing, however it never competed in any races.[2]

In 1964-65, the Ferrari 512 F1 competed in several Formula One races.[3] The 512 F1 was powered by a flat-twelve engine and raced alongside the V8-engined Ferrari 158 upon which it was based. Ferrari returned to using flat-twelve engines in 1970, when the Ferrari 312B switched from the V12 engine used by its predecessor. The successor to the 312B, the Ferrari 312T was introduced in 1975 and won the Formula One constructors championships from 1975-1979.[4][5] The success of the Ferrari 312T led other Formula One teams to build flat-twelve engines, such as the 1979 Alfa Romeo 177.

In 1990, the Subaru 1235 flat-twelve engine was built for Subaru's unsuccessful attempt to compete in Formula One as an engine manufacturer.

Sports car racing

In 1969, the Porsche 917 sports prototype racing car introduced an air-cooled flat-twelve engine. This flat-twelve engine was based on the previous flat-eight engine, however it used a V12 crankshaft configuration instead of the boxer configuration used by the flat-eight. The domination of the Porsche 917 probably influenced Ferrari, because they switched from V12 engines to flat-twelve engines (using a boxer configuration) for the Ferrari 312 PB, which competed from 1971-1973. Alfa Romeo also used flat-twelve engines in the 1973-1976 Alfa Romeo 33TT12 and Alfa Romeo 33SC12 sports prototype racing cars.

For the 1991 sports-prototype racing category, Mercedes-Benz switched from a twin-turbo V8 engine to a naturally-aspirated flat-twelve engine for in the Mercedes-Benz C291 racing car. This engine employed a cylinder-head design with exhaust ports where the intake ports would normally be (on top of the engine, pointing upwards). The intake ports are between the intake and exhaust camshafts, just above the spark-plugs, pointing at an outward angle from the vertical. This was done to allow the engine to be installed lower in the chassis. The C291 was unsuccessful and Mercedes withdrew from sports-prototype racing after the 1991 season.

Production cars

From 1973-1996, Ferrari used flat-twelve engines in various production models: the 1973-1976 Ferrari 365 GT/4 BB, the 1976-1981 Ferrari BB 512, the 1981-1984 Ferrari BB 512i, the 1984-1991 Ferrari Testarossa, the 1991-1994 Ferrari 512 TR and the 1994-1996 Ferrrari F512 M.

Other uses

During World War II, the British Covenanter and Churchill tanks were powered by flat-twelve engines. Another military vehicle usage was the Panhard EBR armored cars during the 1950s.[6]

During the 1940s, the Franklin Engine Company in the United States produced a flat-twelve aircraft engine called the O-805-2.[7]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

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[7]

title: Flat-twelve engine

question: Why did companies like Porsche and Ferrari make the Flat-twelve engine?

answer: They were trying to gain a competitive advantage over their peers in prototype racing.


text:
CHARLES REED (1885 – after 1910) was an English footballer who played as a left back in the Football League for Barnsley and Clapton Orient and in non-league football for Sunderland West End, Darlington and Sunderland Rovers.

Life and career

Reed was born in Sunderland in 1885.[1] He played football for Sunderland West End before signing for Second Division club Barnsley ahead of the 1905–06 Football League season.[2] He made 11 appearances in the 1905–06 Football League season before returning to his former club.[3] Barnsley re-signed him for 1907–08,[4] during which season he made 16 League appearances.[5] Reed spent the 1908–09 season with North-Eastern League club Darlington, and then returned to the Football League with Clapton Orient. He played twice in their 1909–10 Second Division campaign, but would not re-sign for 1910–11 because Orient would not pay him over the summer.[6] He returned to Sunderland where he resumed his North-Eastern League career in October 1910 with Sunderland Rovers.[7]

Notes

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[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

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[7]

title: Charles Reed (footballer)

question: Who was Charles Reed?

answer: an English footballer

question: What position did Charles Reed play?

answer: left back

question: When was Charles Reed born?

answer: 1885

question: Where was Charles Reed born?

answer: Sunderland

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: Charles Reed was an English footballer who played as a left back between 1905 and 1910.


text:
_DIANTHUS LIBANOTIS_, the MOUNT LIBANUS PINK or LEBANON PINK, is a herbaceous perennial plant of the family Caryophyllaceae.[1][2][3][4]

Description

It is a 25–60 cm high perennial subshrub with spiny leaves. Its white petals are dotted with crimson and pink. Its hermaphrodite fragrant flowers end in filiform tassels that bloom from June to August.[5][6]

Distribution and habitat

_Dianthus libanotis_ is endemic to parts of western Asia, it grows on rocky outcrops in Lebanon, Syria and northern Israel and Armenia.[7][8]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]  Flora of Israel Online|website=Flora of Israel Online|access-date=2016-12-23}}

[6]

[7]

[8]

title: Dianthus libanotis

question: What family does Dianthus libanotis belong to?

answer: Caryophyllaceae

question: Where does Dianthus libanotis grow?

answer: Parts of western Asia, rocky outcrops in Lebanon, Syria, and norther Israel and Armenia.

question: Describe the physical appearance of Dianthus libanotis.

answer: It has spiny leaves, white petals dotted with crimson and pink, and grows to 25-60 centimeters high. It has flowers that end in filiform tassels.

question: What are the uses of Dianthus libanotis?

answer: No uses are described.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: Dianthus libanotis is a herbaceous perennial subshrub that grows in parts of Western Asia, Lebanon, Syria, and norther Israel and Armenia.


text:
CALDWELL FARM, also known as THE CALDWELL PLACE, is a historic home and farm located near Washington, Franklin County, Missouri. The farmhouse was built about 1882, and is a two-story, central passage plan, red brick I-house. A rear ell was added about 1900 and extended about 1945. It sits on a rubble stone foundation and has a gable roof. It features a two-story porch. Also on the property are the contributing large barn (1897), two concrete silos, a poultry house, corn crib, feed-mixing shed, an old storage shed, garage and granary.[1]

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.[2]

[1]  (includes 8 photographs from 1980)

[2]

title: Caldwell Farm

question: When was Caldwell Farm built?

answer: Sometime around 1882

question: How does Caldwell Farm get its name?

answer: That information can't be found.

question: Describe the farmhouse.

answer: It is a two-story, central passage plan, red brick l-house. It sits on a rubble stone foundation and has a gable roof as well as a two-story porch.

question: Aside from the farmhouse, what other buildings are on the property?

answer: A large barn, two concrete silos, a poultry house, a corn crib, a feed-mixing shed, an old storage shed, a garage, and a granary.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: Caldwell Farm is a historic home and farm built around 1882 in Washington, Franklin County, Missouri. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.