text:
[]

Doug Pagitt, a pastor from Minneapolis, and his crew hold a meeting aimed at evangelical Christians, in a church in San Antonio. They are touring the country to talk to evangelicals about the midterm elections. SARAH MCCAMMON/NPR HIDE CAPTION

TOGGLE CAPTION

 Sarah McCammon/NPR

[]

Doug Pagitt, a pastor from Minneapolis, and his crew hold a meeting aimed at evangelical Christians, in a church in San Antonio. They are touring the country to talk to evangelicals about the midterm elections.

 Sarah McCammon/NPR

On a recent evening in Houston, under the heavy branches of live oak trees, Doug Pagitt stood before a couple dozen people gathered on blue folding chairs on the Rice University campus.

"You've heard it said that to be a true Christian, you must vote like a Republican," he said. "But we are here to be reminded that just ain't so."

Pagitt, 52, describes himself as a progressive evangelical. He pastors a church in Minneapolis and has been traveling the country by bus, preaching a message that juxtaposes Trump campaign slogans against quotes from the Bible.

"You have heard it said, 'America First,' but we are here to be reminded to 'seek first the Kingdom of God,' on behalf of all those everywhere in the world," he said, quoting the words of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew.

Pagitt's organization, Vote Common Good, is focusing on evangelicals and other Christian voters who feel out of place in President Trump's Republican Party. It's an uphill battle, given that more than 8 in 10 white evangelical voters supported Trump in 2016.

Pagitt said the group has just under $1 million in private donations. They're touring the country ahead of the midterms, visiting more than 30 congressional districts that were chosen in part based on their religious makeup.

At an event in San Antonio, Tracy Goodrich, 48, said she and her husband quietly left their evangelical church soon after the election.

[]

Pastor Doug Pagitt's organization, Vote Common Good, is focusing on evangelicals and other Christian voters who feel out of place in President Trump's Republican Party. SARAH MCCAMMON/NPR HIDE CAPTION

TOGGLE CAPTION

 Sarah McCammon/NPR

[]

Pastor Doug Pagitt's organization, Vote Common Good, is focusing on evangelicals and other Christian voters who feel out of place in President Trump's Republican Party.

 Sarah McCammon/NPR

"I kind of feel like I'm in this space where I grew up in an evangelical home, and with the last several years just kind of not feeling like I have a home as the things I once felt represented Christ and Christlikeness — completely the opposite things I see have been supported by family and friends and community," Goodrich said.

Goodrich, who is still home schooling two of her four children, said she voted for Republicans until 2016. But she doesn't like the way Trump talks about vulnerable people, she said, like immigrants, women and the poor.

Goodrich said many of her evangelical friends initially opposed Trump until it became clear he would be the Republican nominee.

"Literally all of a sudden, Donald Trump — we couldn't see anything wrong with Donald Trump. It was: Now we're blind to everything. But it was all on the abortion issue," she said.

Goodrich describes herself as "pro-life," but she said other issues, like helping the poor and helping those facing discrimination, should be just as important to Christians.

SEEING THE DEBATE DIFFERENTLY

Singer Meah Pace has been traveling with the group, performing hymns like "Amazing Grace" at parks and churches. Pace grew up in a predominantly black Baptist church.

Unlike their white evangelical counterparts, black Christians overwhelmingly vote for Democrats; Pace said people who've faced a history of disenfranchisement often see the abortion debate differently.

"When you are fighting to keep your family together; when you're fighting to keep your children safe — from criminals and from cops; when you don't know if someone's gonna pick up your résumé because of your name; when you don't know how you're gonna send your kids to college — things like that, because things were set up that way to disenfranchise people," Pace said, "us fighting about an issue like this is something that we feel we can leave in God's hands."

ABORTION IS THE KEY ISSUE

Doug Pagitt said the issue of abortion has come up again and again since the bus began touring in early October. He published an op-ed in _USA Today_ this week, arguing that evangelicals should put more energy into reducing abortions than trying to criminalize them and should vote against politicians who support Trump's agenda.

[]

Singer Meah Pace (left) has been traveling with the Pagitt's group, performing hymns like "Amazing Grace" at parks and churches. SARAH MCCAMMON/NPR HIDE CAPTION

TOGGLE CAPTION

 Sarah McCammon/NPR

[]

Singer Meah Pace (left) has been traveling with the Pagitt's group, performing hymns like "Amazing Grace" at parks and churches.

 Sarah McCammon/NPR

Kristan Hawkins, who runs the anti-abortion-rights group Students for Life, is a former evangelical who converted to Catholicism. She said she has heard this argument before and doesn't think most conservative Christian voters will buy it because of how they view abortion.

"There are certainly a lot of issues that Christians care about when they go to vote," Hawkins said. "But at the end of the day, we know there is a human rights atrocity happening inside of our country — and that atrocity is abortion."

However the issues are framed, pollster Robert Jones of the Public Religion Research Institute said moving white evangelicals away from the GOP will be an uphill battle.

"Once you have several generations that are voting 80 percent Republican, it's less that they're doing that because of one particular issue, and more that it has become, in many ways, a kind of tribal identity that's just inextricably tied to evangelical identity," Jones said. "And I think that is the tie that binds much more than any single issue."

Vote Common Good is trying to push beyond those identities by talking to small groups of Christian voters almost daily in the weeks leading up to the midterms. Organizers say they're planning more events for the 2020 presidential cycle.

Rep. Ted Lieu, the current vice chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, has informally advised the group. He said he hopes they will "help Americans understand that if they want to vote their conscience, there is a place in the Democratic Party for them."

Lieu said Democrats could do a better job of reaching religious voters including Christians.

"Religion and faith is something that's been part of America for over two centuries," Lieu said. "For one party to ignore that aspect of American life is not a good idea."

question: What is Doug Pagitt's motivation for touring the country?

answer: Pagitt is touring the country to focus on evangelicals and other Christian voters who feel out of place in President Trump's Republican Party.

question: What are Pagitt's views on abortion?

answer: Pagitt argues that evangelicals should put more energy into reducing abortions than trying to criminalize them and should vote against politicians who support Trump's agenda.


split: train

text:
“You should put on some long pants,” I advised my brother.

We headed down through a yellow field of tall grasses.  Its slope converged at the center like a valley, here, high among the San Francisco foothills.  The Western sun shone gently upon our earnest escapades.  I wanted our adventures to embody the spirit of this city, a mystical bastion of all freedoms.

The field's ending was demarcated by a sort of incomplete fence, probably put there decades ago by the Spanish or the young American imperialists.  We stumbled to the gate, which hung open perfectly and allowed the cool ocean breeze to pass through like a gust of its own breath.  Matt was waiting on the other side.  He was a year older and wiser, well acquainted with the ways of the city's center.  He'd told us stories about all of the nooks and strange neighborhoods, the nudists and the secret passageways and the unique chill you could feel when you ate ice cream on the beach near the Golden Gate Bridge.

Matt was just the person I wanted to see.  Though I knew it would disappoint my brother, my goal would be aided by this traveler's expertise with the city's heartbeat.  I bid my time as we made our way through the less fertile crags of the hills, full of rocks, mosses, and bird droppings.

We overcame the precipice, and I could see a large numbers of graves in the direction we were heading in.  As we approached, I heard a slight buzz.  Matt groaned and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket.

“I have to get home for dinner, guys.  Sorry.  Maybe tomorrow.”

*Damn*, I thought.  I consoled myself with the knowledge that I couldn't have asked him now, anyway.  I could still enjoy this exploration- what appeared to be an antique cemetery, alone with my similarly-minded brother.  We stepped up, upon the artificially elevated ground of the yard, and looked around.  The rows went on for what seemed like forever.  I noticed a huge chamber near the center, which had to be a tomb for someone important.  As I went along, I observed the dates on the graves.  I was surprised at the age: they were almost exclusively from the mid-to-late 1700s, and the few exceptions were only slightly newer.  One must have been a young boy: his date of death was just before his eighth birthday.  Some had flowery patterns carved into the sides, and there were the customary cherubic angels tending to the invisible gardens growing atop the headstones.

I reached the massive tomb.  The faded brown doors exuded an antiquated feeling, and I could see that the stony sides were cracking.  Looking around and discovering no unwanted observers, I drew closer.  I saw notes and small trinkets scattered upon the small floor in front of the entrance.  Upon further inspection, the door was missing one of its bolts.  This rendered it almost imperceptibly ajar, but the opening was there.  I cautiously took another step forward and heard a crunch under my foot.  Curious, I leaned down and picked up the note.

The handwriting was scrawled hurriedly, and I could barely make it out on the piece of paper that was shredded at all corners.  After a little scrutiny, I picked out the strange message:

“NOT ME AGAIN”

I dropped it and ran blindly from the tomb.  My eyes scanned the graveyard and I realized that I didn't know where my brother was.  I tripped and fell, and collected myself against General Juan Pablo de la Trinidad's epitaph.  Slowly, I was able to calm myself, and rationalized it by acknowledging the likelihood of bored vandals.

My brother came trudging up from the left.  “A lot of old graves,” he quipped.

I brushed off my jeans, embarrassed at my former fright.   The sun now hung just a nickel's width above the Pacific, and I reminded my brother that we should head back.  I hadn't talked to Matt or seen the cool parts of the city, but I had tomorrow.  I still had to visit Fortunata, and who knew what she might show me?

title: The Old Cemetery

question: Summarize the motivations of the narrator.

answer: The narrator is exploring San Francisco with her brother and a friend, Matt. She wants to ask Matt about something, thinking his traveling expertise will be useful, but Matt leaves early. They explore the ancient cemetery, and she seems interested in the large central tomb. In general, she wants to see the interesting places in the city.

question: What does the story say about Matt?

answer: He's a year older than the narrator, who thinks Matt is an experienced traveler. He seems to know the ins and outs of San Francisco. The narrator has something she wants to ask him, regarding his traveling experience. However, Matt has to leave early because his parents call him up for dinner. The narrator plans to ask him the next day.

question: What does the text say about the narrator's parents?


text:
EMILIO BEHR (born 7 November 1995), better known by his stage name JUSTIN MYLO, is a Dutch musician, DJ and record producer from Amsterdam.[1][2] He gained recognition after working and collaborating with Martin Garrix on the single “Bouncybob”.[3][4][5][6]

Career

As a teenager, he performed at local clubs as a DJ.[7] In 2015, he was featured on Garrix's single “Bouncybob” in production alongside Mesto.[8][9]

Discography

Extended plays

  ----------------------------------------------------------
  Title                      Album Details
  -------------------------- -------------------------------
  _What Am I Looking For?_   -   Released: 18 October 2019
                             -   Label: ON / OFF
                             -   Format: Digital download
  ----------------------------------------------------------

Singles

+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| Title[10]       | Year            | Peak chart      | Album           |
|                 |                 | positions       |                 |
+=================+=================+=================+=================+
| US              |
| Dance           |
| [11]            |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| “Bouncybob”     | 2015            | 28              | rowspan=“13”    |
| (Martin Garrix  |                 |                 |                 |
| featuring       |                 |                 |                 |
| Justin Mylo and |                 |                 |                 |
| Mesto)          |                 |                 |                 |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| “Groovy George” | 2016            | —               |
| (with Mike      |                 |                 |
| Williams)       |                 |                 |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| “Jumping Jack”  | —               |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| “Cheap Motel”   | 2017            | —               |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| “Paradigm”      | —               |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| “Chasing        | 2018            | —               |
| Shadows”        |                 |                 |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| “Live Like      | —               |
| This”           |                 |
| (with Navarra)  |                 |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| “Funky          | —               |
| Freddy”[12]     |                 |
| (with Rich      |                 |
| Edwards)        |                 |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| “Burn Out”[13]  | 26              |
| (with Martin    |                 |
| Garrix          |                 |
| featuring       |                 |
| Dewain          |                 |
| Whitmore)       |                 |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| “Rave           | —               |
| Alert”[14]      |                 |
| (with Swacq)    |                 |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| “Not            | 2019            | —               |
| Afraid”[15]     |                 |                 |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| “Won’t Stop”    | —               |
| (featuring      |                 |
| Shaylen)        |                 |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| “More of Your   | —               |
| Love”[16]       |                 |
| (with Reggio)   |                 |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| “Starlight”     | —               | _What Am I      |
|                 |                 | Looking For?_   |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| “Save My Soul”  | —               |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| “What Am I      | —               |
| Looking For”    |                 |
| (with Navarra)  |                 |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| “I Wanna Fall   | 2020            | —               | rowspan=“3”     |
| in Love”[17]    |                 |                 |                 |
| (featuring      |                 |                 |                 |
| Raphaella)      |                 |                 |                 |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| “Forever”[18]   | —               |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| “Face Up To The | —               |
| Sun”[19]        |                 |
| (with Mike      |                 |
| Williams        |                 |
| featuring Sara  |                 |
| Sangfelt)       |                 |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| “—” denotes an  |
| album that did  |
| not chart or    |
| was not         |
| released.       |
+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+

[1]  Biography & History|last=Simpson|first=Paul|website=AllMusic|publisher=Rovi|access-date=2017-03-11}}

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

title: Justin Mylo

question: When was Justin Mylo born?

answer: 7 November 1995.

question: What is Justin Mylo's real name?

answer: Emilio Behr.

question: Where is Justin Mylo from?

answer: Amsterdam.

question: What single gave him recognition?

answer: Bouncybob.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: This article is about Justin Mylo, a Dutch musician.


text: I walked slowly, admiring the eerie yet stunning beauty of this little paradise I found. The trees were all full of green leaves, so many shades from a bright emerald to a dark shimmering green almost black. The trees also boasted an affinity for life, squirrels, birds, bugs, snakes, all creatures coexisting within the same tree, and there were thousands of these trees around. The ground is covered in soft grass, damp and cool from the shade provided by the multitude of trees, Fungus and mushrooms of strange shades and hues burst through the ground at seeming random intervals, shelf fungus along the trunks of the trees make an almost spiral staircase up to the foliage. Luscious yet bizarre fruits decorate the upper branches and suspend themselves like shining gems, each a different color from the one next to it. The breeze and the sound of a distant river provide a soothing ambience along with the sounds of life in this place. I've been to this place quite often, climbed the trees, tasted the fruits, and talked with the multitudes of life, yet I have not seen the river from which this place must grow. I've walked for hours in all directions, the trees and bear no distinguishing marks, and I choose not to make any for fear of upsetting this place. I can always hear the river, never growing stronger or fading, always a constant, as if seeming for me to know it’s there but not to let me see it. I continue to wander, searching, no longer entrapped by the beauty of the trees or their complex eco system, the fruits have all become bitter, this place senses my frustration and changes accordingly. Sometimes when I first enter this place I can still feel the presence of the outside, I think I can see other people walking, as enraptured as I was when I first came here. I think I see them but, they too disappear as this place envelopes me. I am spending more time here now, constantly searching for the water, I don’t know why, but it’s all I care to find. The trees are growing to a constant shimmering black, and the sound of life has almost ceased. Every now and then there are bright places, with new life, snakes, snails, mice, all moving spasmodically in an area, like flashes of light in the surrounding gloom. I hardly notice them anymore. I must find that river, I spend almost all day here now, and I come back every night. The river still eludes me. I need to find it. The leaves have begun falling off the trees, what I can see of the sky is a flat black, it gives neither the illusion of night, but seems to absorb all the light. I've not seen a sun in this place yet. I choose to write this here now, in order to express the full effect, the need and desire to find this river. I don’t know why, or what makes me feel the need to find it. I'm not sure what will happen when I find it, or if I will, but I have to. Today I’m going to find the river. I found another snake, he had the same grin and vibrant colors of the others, I ignored the pleasant aura, I have to find the river. I opened its mouth to find two sharp teeth. As I carried the snake to a tree it began to grow, longer bigger, he grew cold in my hands. It started to hiss and writhe in my hands, I forced its mouth open and dragged the razor teeth across the dead tree. I must find the river. The snake struggled harder as I pushed its face into the tree harder, scouring deep gouges in the wood. The tree started to wail, a loud high pitched keening, its creamed and caught fire, the dead wood and remaining leaves alighting in azure, liquid fire. The burned down to a pool of aqueous blue fire, the surrounding trees caught flame also. I was surrounded by blue flames, purging this place of life and substance, the sound of the river grew stronger. Then I was there, the river raging relentlessly, flowing with the rage of an angry god. Still covered in the liquid blue fires I stepped into this torrent. I start to feel myself dissolve, as the river was made of the same liquid blue fire that burned me, yet as I felt myself burn away, my thoughts continued, my psyche still intact and active. I stopped the flow of azure fire, feeling it bend and give to my will. I opened my mind’s eye and surveyed my life as it was...... and I let go.

title: The grip and break of sanity.

question: What does the narrator do that they said they wouldn't do?

answer: Leave a mark on the tree.

question: What happens to the narrator at the end of the story?

answer: They burn to death.

question: Would the narrator have ever found the river if they hadn't decided to leave a mark on the trees?

answer: Probably not, since the trees wouldn't have burned down, and the river wouldn't have been formed out of the flames.

question: What does the title imply?

answer: The title implies that the character goes insane at some point during the story.


text:
Declaration of Peace

Mother told that it had been almost seventy years since peace had been declared by the Leaders. The Anniversary was scheduled for the next week and the country prepared in committed silence. Candles sparked to life in windows, streamers hung low over the streets, and the men began to pin their regulation Doves to their marching uniforms. Dad had begun to practice marching with the rest of the men for the annual Reenactment. Mother wouldn’t let him where his Dove in the house though, even if it was regulation.

Mother moved absentmindedly when the Reenactments approached, she seemed distracted and her eyes turned red. She would mumble things to herself while moving about the house like “The men always come back alright” or “It’s An Honor when they stay.” Most of the women used the same phrases to console each other while the men were gone; seemed like Mother was practicing. For most though the excitement became palpable the closer the Reenactment drew; it was everywhere we went.

The Colours of the year flew in the streets: a regal purple, gold, and white. The newspapers carried the Colours high and low, paperboys screamed out the bulletin. Houses prepped and dressed to look the part and popular fashion followed to compliment. Patriotism rose in the Secondary Schools as it did that time of the year; they bragged about the bonds they would purchase for the celebration. After the schools let out, factories like Dad’s lit up and the Colours were cut into fabric for the uniforms. The men’s Class A emulated power: Purple suit with gold twine and white rank, the men looked kingly that year.

The marching improved daily and I with my young peers helped distribute plastic flowers to the men as they began to leave. The synthetic colours sparkled in the sunlight as the men accepted them and kept strutting.

The night Dad left, he stooped to hug me and say good bye. His eyes crinkled like he was laughing as he assured me that he would come back soon enough; it was only a quick Reenactment. The purple of his collar shadowed his face; he seemed resigned under his thin happiness. Standing he turned to Mother, and opened his hand for her; she gingerly took his Dove and embraced him.

“I have to go.” He said. Mother released and he was gone.  The gold trim on his coat shimmered in the moon as he fell into formation.

“It was An Honor,” Mother said, her moonlit cheek dry in the wind.

title: A mini Dystopia.

question: How long ago was peace declared?

answer: Almost 70 years.

question: What were the colors of the year?

answer: Regal purple, gold, and white.

question: Where did the narrator's dad go?

answer: That information can't be found.

question: Who declared peace?

answer: The Leaders.

question: Write a ~5 sentence summary.

answer: The narrator's family lives in a community where there has been a longstanding peace. Something called the Reenactment is approaching, and there is much patriotism about in anticipation. Thematic colors of purple, white, and gold are flown everywhere, uniforms are churned out of factories, students prepare to buy bonds, and soon the men are leaving town. It is not certain where, perhaps the peace is soon coming to an end, perhaps it has something to do with the Reenactment. The narrator's father hugs him and his mother goodbye.


text:
[]San Francisco and San Mateo counties in the Bay Area have passed a grim milestone reflecting extreme housing costs: The federal government now considers households in the counties which make $100,000 a year to be “low income,” making them eligible for federal housing programs for poor families, most notably Section 8 vouchers that allow more than 2.2 million U.S. families to pay only 30 percent of income toward rent.

The specific income threshold for the two counties is $105,350 – less than the $115,300 median annual household income of those counties. Strikingly, however, the poverty threshold in the two counties is nearly 90 percent higher than the Census Bureau’s most recent estimate of median U.S. household income ($56,516) and more than 60 percent higher than $64,500, the census estimate of median California household income.

The threshold in the adjacent counties of Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa is between $80,000 and $85,000.

While the change makes more San Francisco and San Mateo households eligible for subsidies, it is unlikely to provide much relief to anyone any time soon. Section 8 vouchers are rationed because of limited federal funding and there are long waits – sometimes decades-long – to qualify in counties across America, especially in high-cost urban areas.

A recent San Jose Mercury-News report on the Housing and Urban Development income-threshold change offered it as hard evidence of the housing affordability crisis that threatens to drive in-demand public school teachers away from the Bay Area and Silicon Valley and toward school districts with similar pay but rents that average much less than the $2,500-plus a month seen in such communities as San Jose, Oakland and Pleasanton.

The report outlined the frustration felt by Demetrio Gonzalez, a Richmond educator with a master’s degree in education who works for the West Contra Costa Unified School District. Gonzalez, who makes $48,000 a year, says he has no choice but to share a house with four roommates.

“With this income, I don’t think it is possible to create a future in the place I love and the place I work,” he told a Mercury-News reporter. “When I decide to buy a home — if possible — I’ll have to look elsewhere.”

Housing costs exacerbate Bay Area teacher shortage

Such stories add a new dimension to reports of teacher shortages throughout the Golden State. Three-quarters of California school districts reported struggling to fill vacancies entering the 2016 school year, according to a report from the California School Boards Association and the Learning Policy Institute. This has led to an unparalleled used of technically unqualified teachers in state public schools, especially in math, science and special education.

During the 2015-16 school year, the report said the state authorized 10,200 teachers without the normal baseline credentials to teach various subjects – more than double the number seen in 2012-13.

But the struggle to fill teacher positions appears far more daunting in the Bay Area and Silicon Valley than the rest of the state. The California Teachers Association described San Francisco as “ground zero” for the state’s teacher shortage.

Last year, to improve teacher retention and to entice new teachers, many districts in the region used a private-sector tactic and supplemented pay with one-time bonuses. The most generous was San Jose Unified: All teachers on the payroll on the first day of the 2016-17 school year who met very basic requirements for coming to work got a check equal to 7 percent of their total annual salary.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE:

__TWITTER __GOOGLE+ __LINKEDIN

[Chris Reed]

Chris Reed

 Chris Reed is a regular contributor to Cal Watchdog. Reed is an editorial writer for U-T San Diego. Before joining the U-T in July 2005, he was the opinion-page columns editor and wrote the featured weekly Unspin column for The Orange County Register. Reed was on the national board of the Association of Opinion Page Editors from 2003-2005. From 2000 to 2005, Reed made more than 100 appearances as a featured news analyst on Los Angeles-area National Public Radio affiliate KPCC-FM. From 1990 to 1998, Reed was an editor, metro columnist and film critic at the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin in Ontario. Reed has a political science degree from the University of Hawaii (Hilo campus), where he edited the student newspaper, the Vulcan News, his senior year. He is on Twitter: @chrisreed99.

Related Articles

Proposition 16 Hidden Intent?

Could there be a hidden intent behind the PG&E sponsored Proposition 16? Peter Darbee, chairman and CEO of PG&E, is

question: What is the main point of the text?

answer: That high housing costs drive away public school teachers from the Bay Area.

question: What's the median income to gain and be considered a low-income household in the Bay Area?

answer: Families making less than $100,000 are considered low-income.

question: What are the tactics public schools have used to improve teacher retention?

answer: One of the tactics was giving teachers a check worth 7% of their total annual salary at the start of the year.

question: What's Demetrio Gonzales's experience of living in the Bay Area on a teacher's salary?

answer: He is sharing a home with four other people and is frustrated that he won't be able to build a life in the place that he loves and most probably will have to buy a home elsewhere when he decides doing so.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: The article is about how high housing costs drive away from the Bay Area people with low income, such as public school teachers.


text:
PAID CONTENT is content on the Internet – such as text, graphics, video and downloads – which is paid for. Paid content is usually copyrighted.[1]

Some internet content has always historically been paid for — until recently there has been little discussion about paying for scientific, technical and medical (STM) content as well as certain trade information.[2]

Applications

News media

Printed newspaper circulation has fallen steadily since the advent of the internet[3] – in 2008 in the USA alone newspapers lost $64.5 billion in market value.[4] As newspapers' online readership has increased, the newspaper industry has been forced to re-evaluate their business models in the light of falling advertising revenues. While online editions of newspapers have been extremely popular, advertising rates online are lower than for print media, and revenues from them have not been sufficient to offset the loss of revenue from print.[5]

In 2009, Rupert Murdoch proposed a method of micropayments for online newspaper content.[6] From June 2010, certain News International titles were only available as paid content.[7]

Music

The music industry has had some success in creating new markets of legal downloading where lower costs and accessibility have led to success, and some suggest there are parallels between the major victims of digitalisation – the music industry and the media.[8]

The MP3 file can often be duplicated, passed on and exchanged – without capacity boundaries or losses suffered by an individual. These features of MP3 files as an example of digital content are one of the main reasons for the huge revenue collapses in the music and media industry since the existence of the Internet. Online games, however, as an example of digital services, is only a right to participate when the purchased input is offered and traded. This right can be traded and passed on, but, contrary to MP3 files, the vendor forfeits the benefit of this right at the moment it is passed on.

Video games

Since the popularization of digital distribution platforms, it has become particularly common for games to feature paid content. Said content is often unlockable via online microtransactions. The act of payment may provide access to a previously restricted feature or content in the game, or permission to download additional content.

Content on mobile services

In comparison to content on the traditional internet, content for mobile services has never been free.[9]

Payment models

There is some evidence of opportunity for revenue already – custom publishing is one area proven to be thriving in the online media world.[10] Another is the common payment system implemented in Slovakia and Slovenia by Piano Media. In this model publishers agree to go behind a paywall simultaneously and then start to charge the customer for access to all newspapers and all articles. While not all content is paid, exclusive content is and the model enables publishers who are unable to erect a pay-wall by themselves to start earning revenue outside of advertising from the internet.[11]

The increased accessibility and interactivity of online journalism has also created new opportunity in the guise of crowdsourcing, enabling people to get investigative journalists working on stories that they themselves have suggested and funded.[12]

Some success in new models for paid content is being found in the use of paywalls, especially “soft” paywalls, which blend into freemium models. Newspapers, in particular, have been implementing paywalls in an attempt to increase revenue, which has been diminishing due to a decline in print subscriptions and advertising revenue. The approaches to paywall implementation range. For example, _The New York Times_ experimented with a metered paywall, on which they spent a reported $40 million to code and took 14 months to implement.[13] Other publications have turned to providers to implement a solution for them, such as Weekly World News, which announced in January 2013 that they would be utilizing a pay model.[14]

Use of pay what you want has also proven successful, at least for special promotions.

Pay After Reading (PAR) is a new business model and the principle for paid Internet content. This principle was applied for the first time by Slydoo on their Travel guides generator and means that the end users has access to information available in the database, not public, not free of charge, however, payment for the information occurs only after downloading / reading this information. The main reason for this approach is to overcome the natural block that has any user who should pay for the information / content without the detail knowledge of this information upfront. The author (Radomir Adamek) of this principle assumed that this model will become usual for most applications working with paid content.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5] Kaye & Quinn, p. 9

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

title: Paid content

question: In what countries did Piano Media implement their common payment system?

answer: Slovakia and Slovenia.

question: What are the names of the authors listed in the fifth citation of the article?

answer: Kaye & Quinn.

question: What does PAR stand for in the context of the article?

answer: Pay After Reading.

question: What year did Rupert Murdoch propose micropayments for newspaper articles?

answer: 2009.

question: Who is the author of Pay After Reading?

answer: Radomir Adamek.


text:
The LYTTON MAUSOLEUM is a family mausoleum in Knebworth Park, Hertfordshire, England. It was commissioned by Elizabeth Barbara Lytton and built in 1817.

The mausoleum is set in parkland at a distance from the Church of St Mary and St Thomas, a Grade I listed building which houses earlier monuments to the Lytton family.

Inside are a number of coffins.[1] Among the members of the family buried in the mausoleum is Lady Constance Bulwer-Lytton (1869-1923). She joined the suffragette movement,[2] and, as her epitaph states “sacrificed her health and talents in helping to bring victory to this cause”.[3]

Architecture and conservation

The architect of the octagonal, stone building was John Buonarotti Papworth. His design is neoclassical. The roof supports a sarcophagus with shell acroteria.[4] [5]

The building and the railings which enclose it were Grade II listed in the 1968.[6]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

title: Lytton Mausoleum

question: Where is the Lytton Mausoleum?

answer: Knebworth Park, Hertfordshire, England.

question: Who commissioned the Lytton Mausoleum?

answer: Elizabeth Barbara Lytton

question: When was the Lytton Mausoleum built?

answer: 1817

question: Who is Lady Constance Bulwer-Lytton

answer: a British suffragette

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: The Lytton Mausoleum is a family mausoleum in Knebworth Park, Hertfordshire, England commissioned by Elizabeth Barbara Lytton and built in 1817.


text:
[]

__News Africa

AMONG THE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PATRIOTS THAT POLAND CELEBRATES FOR SERVING IN THE RESISTANCE MOVEMENT IN WORLD WAR TWO THERE IS ONE BLACK, NIGERIA-BORN MAN.

Jazz musician August Agboola Browne was in his forties, and had been in Poland for 17 years, when he joined the struggle against Nazi occupation in 1939 – thought to be the only black person in the country to do so.

Under the code name “Ali”, he fought for his adopted country during the Siege of Warsaw when Germany invaded, and later in the Warsaw Uprising, which ended 76 years ago this month.

Astoundingly, he survived the war in which 94% of the residents of Poland’s capital were either killed or displaced, and continued living in the ravaged city until 1956 when he emigrated with his second wife to Britain.

[Monument in Warsaw]IMAGE COPYRIGHTWOJCIECH ZAŁUSKI

image captionA monument to Browne was erected in Warsaw last year

A small stone monument in Warsaw now commemorates Browne’s life. But the scant details that there are may never have been known were it not for an application he made to join a veterans’ association in 1949.

The document was filed away for six decades, until 2009, when Zbigniew Osinski from the Warsaw Rising Museum came across it.

This form, filled out in beautiful cursive handwriting and with a passport-style photo attached to one corner, is his Rosetta Stone – the documentary fragment that led researchers to interpret isolated facts about his life and locate living descendants.

In the picture, Browne, dressed in a jacket and a snugly fitting jumper, looks lively and youthful with a hint of a smile on his face. All who met Browne described him as a handsome man and a sharp dresser.

[August Browne's passport photo]IMAGE COPYRIGHTOFFICE OF VETERANS AND VICTIMS OF OPPRESSION

By this time he was in his fifties, as the form reveals that he was born on 22 July 1895 to Wallace and Jozefina in Lagos – then part of the British Empire.

He arrived in England aboard a British merchant ship with his longshoreman father. From there, he joined a theatre troupe touring Europe and ended up in Poland via Germany.

‘Sheltered ghetto refugees’

Frustratingly, the form does not say what inspired him to leave Nigeria, or make Poland his destination, so an adventurous spirit seems the likeliest explanation. But by the 1930s, he became a celebrated jazz percussionist playing in Warsaw’s restaurants.

What Browne did write was that in the resistance he distributed underground newspapers, traded electronic equipment and “sheltered refugees from the ghetto”. This was a sealed-off area of the city in which Jews were forced by the Nazis to live and where 91,000 died from starvation, disease and murder. Some 300,000 were transported to their deaths in Nazi concentration camps.

[2px presentational grey line]

Warsaw Uprising

[Polish fighters holding rifles]IMAGE COPYRIGHTUNIVERSAL HISTORY ARCHIVE

-   The Polish underground, known as the Home Army, attacked the German occupying forces on 1 August
-   They swiftly gained control of much of the city
-   Germany sent reinforcements and the nearby Soviet army did not help
-   The Poles surrendered on 2 October after 63 days
-   200,000 civilians and 16,000 Polish fighters died

_Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica and Warsaw Rising Museum_

[2px presentational grey line]

It appears that for Browne, staying in Poland after the war was a choice – as a citizen of the British Empire, he had the opportunity to leave.

When he arrived in Poland, he first settled in Krakow where he married his first wife, Zofia Pykowna, with whom he had two sons, Ryszard and Aleksander.

The marriage failed but at the outbreak of the war, Browne arranged for his children and their mother to seek refuge in England. But – perhaps committed to the Polish struggle – Browne did not go with them.

The incomplete jigsaw of information gives rise to many questions about his life.

‘A quiet, private man’

Tatiana, his daughter from his second, much longer, marriage to Olga Miechowicz, was born and brought up in London and is his only surviving child in Britain. She says he never talked about what had happened to him.

She is now 61 – her father died in 1976 when she was 17. She remembers him as “very quiet, very private, and quite distant” and that he never discussed his background in Poland or his early years in Lagos.

Tatiana is not certain why neither of her parents told her much about their past. She suspects it was to bury the trauma they endured and atrocities they witnessed.

[Polish fighters being led away]IMAGE COPYRIGHTKEYSTONE

image captionPolish soldiers surrendered after 63 days of fighting and were taken as prisoners of war

Thinking back, she recalls watching a documentary about the war with her parents and her mother saying: “I remember seeing people being hanged in the streets; I know that’s true because I saw it with my own eyes.”

But there was no discussion and now she wishes they had told her more.

Browne, though, never turned his back on the Polish culture that he had lived in for almost 35 years, and Tatiana says that Polish was the only language spoken in their London home.

He was remembered by an acquaintance in Poland for speaking “the purest Polish language, even with a Warsaw accent”. He was fluent in several languages.

“Dad taught me how to read and write in English,” Tatiana says.

‘Quick wit and real charm’

How the musician, who as a black person would have been so conspicuous, was able to survive in Nazi-occupied Poland remains a mystery.

Two other African men, Jozef Diak from Sudan, and Sam Sandi, whose exact place of origin on the continent is unclear, had served in the Polish army during the Polish-Bolshevik War (1919-1921) and remained in Warsaw afterwards, but both died before World War Two began.

Discounting them and Browne, experts say there may have been two other black Warsaw residents in the interwar years, professional entertainers whose traces disappear during the occupation.

But Tatiana’s recollection of her father’s charismatic personality may give a clue to his own endurance.

“Dad had a real quick wit and a real charm about him,” Tatiana says.

“When we used to go to church on a Sunday, I used to see him interact with other people. He had a real warmth that drew you in so you automatically liked him.

“When he was in company with other people, there was just this [energy]. People were drawn to him.”

[Map of his life]

[1px transparent line]

Browne’s story emerged in 2009 at a time of heightened patriotism and xenophobia in Poland.

It drew immediate interest from across the political spectrum and there were calls to memorialise him as a national hero.

At that time, then-President Lech Kaczynski, co-founder of the conservative Law and Justice party, wanted to “honour him on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising”, said Krzysztof Karpinski, a jazz historian who served as vice-president of the Polish Jazz Association, which was contacted by Kaczynski’s office for more information about Browne.

But Kaczynski died in a plane crash in 2010 and the plan apparently went with him.

It was not until last year that a small monument to the Nigerian-Polish resistance fighter was finally unveiled. That was funded by a non-profit organisation, the Freedom and Peace Movement Foundation. His war service is honoured by conservatives and progressives alike to symbolise the Poland of today.

[Gravestone]

image captionBrowne was buried in a cemetery in north London

Browne led a modest existence in England for the last two decades of his life. He continued working as a musician, at first doing session work. When he got older, “we had a piano at home so he used to give piano lessons,” Tatiana says.

They were a “lovely family,” Dr Michael Modell, who treated Browne for cancer, remembers.

He died at the age of 81 in 1976 and is buried under a plain headstone in a north London cemetery.

There is no sign of the traumatic and tumultuous events that he had been part of, which reflects the way he apparently lived his life in London.

“To me, it was just me growing up at home with a mum and dad. Whatever our life was, it was my normal,” Tatiana says.

_Nicholas Boston, PhD, is Associate Professor of Media Studies at the City University of New York, Lehman College. He was assisted by Wojciech Załuski in Poland._

__

Check Also

[]

UN removes cannabis from list of world’s most dangerous drugs

The United Nations’ Commission for Narcotic Drugs voted Wednesday to remove cannabis from the most …

[]

Born without arms, Mércia Viriato Lica became the youngest MP in Mozambique at 23

December 3 marks the annual observance of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. According …

question: What was special about August Agboola Browne's struggle against the Nazi occupation in Poland?

answer: He was a jazz musician in his forties and thought to be the only black person in the country to join the struggle. He survived the war, which killed or displaced 94% of the population of Poland's capital.

question: How was his struggle discovered?

answer: His story was only uncovered after an employee at the Warsaw Rising Museum came stumbled upon Browne's application to join a veteran's association in 1949. The beautiful penmanship and attached photo allowed researchers to uncover the whole of his life and living descendants. There is now a stone monument in Warsaw commemorating Browne's life.

question: How did Browne arrive in Poland?

answer: While there is no officially discovered reason for his journey, it is known that he was born in Lagos, and made the trip with his father on a British merchant ship headed to England. He then joined a theatre troupe which toured Europe and made it to Poland through Germany.

question: What does Browne's written record reflect?

answer: He wrote of his role in the resistance, which included distribution of underground newspapers, trading of electronic equipment, and "sheltering refugees from the ghetto".

question: Write a ~5 sentence summary.

answer: August Aboola Browne was a Nigerian born man who migrated to Poland and is thought to be the only black man to join in the struggle against the Nazi occupation, and on top of that he survived a war which decimated and displaced 94% of Poland's capital city population. His story was only discovered when an employee at the Warsaw Rising Museum discovered Browne's application to join a veteran's association with an attached photo. Researchers were able to piece together his whole life story and even locate living descendants. While the reasoning behind the move is uncertain, it is known that he came to Poland from Nigeria originally on a British merchant ship which brought him to England, eventually ending up in Poland with a touring theatre troupe. In his own written record, his role in the resistance included distribution of underground newspapers, trading of electronic equipment, and "sheltering refugees from the ghetto".


text:
[Jens P. Meyer 2018] JENS P. MEYER (born 3 February 1971 in Bielefeld) is a German politician. He has been a member of the Hamburg Parliament since 2015.[1]

Biography

Jens Meyer grew up in East Westphalia, Germany. He attended Pelizaeus-Gymnasium Paderborn, graduating in 1990.[2] Following graduation, he served in the German army at NATO headquarters BALTAP for two years.

From 1992 till 1996 he studied architecture at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts at Lübeck. He also attended the University of Fine Arts, Hamburg. Following graduation he began work as an architect. Since 2000 he has worked as a freelance architect.

In 2004 Meyer became a member of the Free Democratic Party. From 2008 till 2014 he was a member of the district's assembly of Eimsbüttel in Hamburg as well as the deputy chairman of his party's faction. The main focuses of his political agenda are urban planning and cultural heritage management.

Since the 2015 Hamburg state election Meyer has been a member of the Hamburg Parliament,[3] where he is a member of the Constitutional Affairs Committee, the District Committee, the Urban Development Committee and the Culture Committee.[4] Since 2015, he has also been a member of the local party executive committee in the District Eimsbüttel.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

title: Jens Meyer

question: Who is Jen Meyers?

answer: Jen Meyers is a German politician.

question: What did Meyers do after his graduation?

answer: Meyers served in the German army at NATO headquarters BALTAP for two years after his graduation.

question: What are the main focuses of Meyer's political agenda?

answer: The main focuses of Meyer's political agenda are urban planning and cultural heritage management.

question: How would you describe Meyers's political career?

answer: Meyers had a pretty successful political career and had lots of different experiences with all the positions he held and the committees he was a member of.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: This article describes the political career of Jen Meyers, a German politician.


text:
No sound, and even though Jack’s eyes are closed he knows wherever he is its very bright. And forcing his eye-lids open with more energy than he had ever used before to do such a task. He brought up an arm to shield himself from a light that most surely wasn’t artificial but was at the same time. As if the light was coming from all around him but nowhere at the same time.

He tried to speak but found that no words escaped him. And he slowly sat up and looked around to get his bearings. Wherever he was, he’d never seen anything like it before. There appeared to be an expansive stretch of nothingness before him. A long and vast whiteness, He was sure this was a dream, that this feeling of unrelenting sadness gripping him, deep down in the pit of his stomach was just a nightmare that had yet to reveal the punch-line.

'Where am I?' He thought as he stood up. It took a lot of energy to accomplish this task, his bones and joints were sluggish and clumsy. Once he managed to get to his feet he became dizzy, to the point where he had to put his hands on his knees and bend over for a minute to let it subside.

Squinting through half closed eyes he tried to look around again and though the light was still very bright it had abated slightly and he could finally stand up straight again. He rubbed a hand over his eyes. He tried to call out again but the words still wouldn’t come. He knew he was speaking but he couldn’t hear anything coming out.

“There is no use trying to speak.” A woman’s voice came from behind him, seemingly out of the nothingness; A very familiar voice.

He slowly turned around and was sure that this was a dream. The sight of her made his heart drop, stop and melt all at the same time. He couldn’t remember her name but he knew that he had known this girl very well, knowing every inch of her body and most of her personality.

She just smiled sadly and took a step forward she moved with a grace and sadness that brought a breaking dread to Jack and he squinted as he watched her move about as if she were gliding along the floor that wasn’t there. 'This is a dream?' He thought to himself and he wasn’t very surprised to hear her speak again. “In a way it is. In a way it is not.” He frowned and looked around again. 'Where are we?'

“We are everywhere, and nowhere at the same time. We are together again, but apart forever.” She smiled and stepped closer. He suddenly didn’t want her to come any closer and he felt tears forming in his eyes. 'What do you mean?'  She merely smiled. “Is it too bright here? Your eyes haven’t adjusted yet. It will take some time.” She glanced around and as she did the air around him seemed to shift and change.

And now he was standing in the middle of an old bar. Four pool tables off to the right, and a bar in the middle. The girl was now behind the bar. “Do you remember this place?”  Jack looked around the room. It was empty aside from them. He nodded slowly. 'It’s where we met. But I can’t remember your name. After all these years, I’ve known you. I’m sorry.'

She just smiled sadly again. “That is not important. My name is no longer a part of your memory.” She moved around the bar and poured a double of whiskey. “This was your favorite wasn’t it?”

Jack instantly felt something churn in his stomach and he shut his eyes for an instant he heard a sort of siren blaring and then he opened them again, the room had changed once more. They were in his apartment lying in bed. Her head on his chest, her short hair brushed away from her upturned face. “This is where we spent our first night together.” She smiled. And he felt like crying even more. 'I remember you saying that we had to do this or we’d never know if it was worth it.' He thought.

“Was it worth it?” She asked and kissed his collar bone lightly. An icy chill ran up his spine. He shuddered. 'Every single second of it.'

"Every second.” She sighed and he felt her cool hand intertwine with his. “I need to tell you something Jack.” 'I know, This isn’t a dream…'  He felt the tears now, they had been escaping the corners of his eyes for who knew how long. 'What happened? Where are we?'

He shut his eyes and the blaring siren slipped back in for a moment And the voices of people shouting in the distance.

“You are dying. People say that your life flashes before your eyes before you die…” Her voice was getting distant. Further away and Jack squeezed his arms around her holding her close. The body he held tightly. 'Don’t leave me. Please Don’t leave me!' The sirens were stronger now piercing the walls of his subconscious.

“You have to make a choice.” She said. Her voice was distant and muddled now. “I Hate to give you such a cliché ultimatum but you have a choice to make.” Jack nodded his head, the room around him swam and rippled seeming to meld the moldy ceiling of his apartment with a starry night sky. “Stay here with me. Or go back.” Her voice was coming in a little stronger now. 'What happened? Where’s back, why aren’t you there?'

 “Do I really have to say it?” She sat up on her elbow and looked down at him. And he knew there from the sadness in her eyes and the way she smiled soothingly down at him. He reached a hand up and ran a thumb along her jaw-line. “All you have to do is choose. There is still time. Go back.”

And with that he knew what he had to do. He brought both hands up to hold her face gently in his hands and he pulled her down close to him so that their noses were touching. And he was able to find his voice. “There is no life for me, without you.” And he smiled.

She frowned for a moment and scrunched her nose up. “Are you sure?” She asked. And he smiled.

“From the moment I saw you, Ash...”

The ambulance rumbled along the lonely stretch of Arizona highway, and the coroner’s van behind it. “Jimmy, turn off the siren… We’ve lost him.” The paramedic paused checking his watch. Sat up and removed his rubber gloves. “CPR is unsuccessful. We can’t work him back up.”

title: "Ash" By FallenMonument

question: Where is Jack?

answer: His physical body is in an ambulance, but he is in the afterlife. He's on the brink of death.

question: Who is the other important character?

answer: His girlfriend, Ash...

question: What happens between Jack and the woman?

answer: It seems they were in a car accident on an Arizona highway. Ash must've died instantly, but the paramedics are working to revive Jack. In the afterlife, Ash shows Jack memories of them together and then tells him that he must choose to stay or to go back.

question: Is there a conflict? Is it resolved?

answer: Jack needs to decide to stay with her, or go back to living. He chooses to stay with her because he says that there's no life for him without her.

question: Write a ~5 sentence summary.

answer: It seems that Jack and his girlfriend (Ash) were in a car accident on an Arizona highway. Ash must've died instantly, but the paramedics are working to revive Jack. In the afterlife, Ash shows Jack memories of them together and then tells him that he must choose to stay or to go back. Jack needs to decide to stay with her, or go back to living. He chooses to stay with her because he says that there's no life for him without her.


text:
1.

The soldier slowly awoke to the sound of rain tapping out Morse code on his windowpane. Amid the murmuring drumming he lay already defeated, simply staring above into the white paint swirls of the high attic ceiling. The room itself was enormous, in the far corner away from the bed a few ladder rungs poked up from the moist floorboards, whilst the soldier’s bed and a few old boxes scattered throughout the room provided the only real decoration.

The doctors had urged sunlight, yet ever since they hauled his bed upstairs and dragged it beside the enormous bay window; it simply had not stopped raining. Jenny though had seen the bright side of the dismal days, arguing as they ate their meals together in the attic that the rain could help him relax. That in a certain respect he should think of himself lucky with such a sea view, that he should feel sheltered and secure near the window rather than the imprisonment he oft complained of. To the soldier it was all white wet noise, unrelenting and monotonous. With great effort he shifted on his shoulder to see the clock just tick to six, his hand reached for the bell beside the bed but he knew it was far too early to wake Jenny. Just as the young man was about to fall back into sleep, a brief cry escaped down below from the beach outside.

The sea view from the back of the house had been the main reason they had bought the place, and even in the gums of winter the mixture of crashing ocean and bone white beach exuded a consummate calm. From the back porch of the house, a small sandy garden that begun at the bottom of the patio steps gave way to the pale beach that rolled out before the lapping waves.

2.

When the two of them had climbed the ladder to the attic with a few other newlyweds all those years ago, he had gripped Jenny’s hand in excitement upon spying the open space before the vast bay window. They hadn’t even asked a price yet and already he was eager, seeing in his head a thick wooden desk before the perfect view, with rows upon rows of bookcases encircling the high white walls. Now his books collected in various corners, falling out of cardboard boxes that flaked from the moisture of the mostly empty room. The window itself was enormous with a cross work of black mesh on the pane shaping the various frames within it. It took up much of the attic wall, almost doing justice in its size to the sea that unfurled out before it. Though he was physically fine to write after the assault in France, the desk was never bought, all his previous passion for Literature seemingly seeping away upon his return to Jenny and the house.

As soon as the soldier found the source of the yelp, he questioned if what he was seeing down below through the window was some form of hangover from the relentless medication. Propping himself up, both elbows clearly defined through his skin against the windowsill he spied two boys, one fairly young standing beside what seemed to be merely the head of the other submerged in the sand. The children appeared to be chatting amiably, though the boom of the surging surf behind them smothered anything said. The soldier soon smiled however as he noticed it was merely the angle of the window lattice from where he was looking out that had suggested a severed head on account of the boy. It seemed the child was just standing in a dug hole, one that looked surprisingly deep and wide as the tall child climbed out unaided with much effort amid the moistening sand.

The downpour was growing heavier now and the boys appeared to the soldier from above, to hasten as they began to dig even further into the now clay-like ground. Shovels lay flat beside the pit but for whatever reason they were now clawing with their palms, tossing sand in every direction, stopping every now and then for a breath of two. It took a few minutes of surveillance but the soldier realized that he had seen them a few times around the town, two brothers. Before his view of the siblings, thick droplets were now amassing quickly on the pane. Rarely was the rain this insistent or obscuring.

They were always together in his mind; an image in particular of them sharing a single ice cream before one of the town square storefronts struck him as oddly memorable. Most vividly however he recalled their rowdiness at the parade for the departing soldiers that had been held almost a year before. Amongst the bulging crowd they charged and darted with no concern but that the other not get ahead, seemingly reveling in the chance of an audience. A few of the crowd disputed, attempting to grab them in an effort of respect, but they were too liquid. This was before the rain came and the small square was unfittingly beautiful that day. Near everyone in the town crowded all around as convoys of men waved uncertain goodbyes to people they had only really considered background. After the last truck disappeared beyond the beachhead, Jenny had helped him walk away from the crowd and argued that the boys were too young to understand the prescience of what was happening, that they meant no disrespect. The soldier snapped back quickly however that a Second World War was something to be respected universally, regardless of age.

3.

Turning his head for but a second to check the time again he found the children down below had disappeared from view. The void in the sand remained but even that was vanishing before his eyes as giant dewdrops splattered onto the window, distorting the outlook from the attic. The two quickly returned however through the view of indistinct condensation, with the small boy becoming magnified suddenly through an odd angle of refraction through glass and rain. The shower itself was growing relentless now, practically smothering the window into a thick fog. The soldier could make out little but it seemed the boys had returned carrying a small body between them. Two clearly defined legs lifelessly dangled between the young carriers.

The soldier simply didn’t think in that moment. Didn’t dwell upon what they might be being buried, or why and indeed how they felt the beach behind he and his wife’s house was the apt place. He simply acted like his sergeant before had taught him to. Pounding the window once before him with a rare burst of energy, he cleared the view before him of condensation and muddying droplets. He had hoped to have the sound of the slam swallowed by the sea, but the boys clearly heard something and scurried away with their secret. The soldier waited, starting for a few seconds at the open grave and the waves behind gesturing forward.

It seemed that the rain on the window however had led to misinterpretation; it was a dog they were carrying between them. Its tongue hung lifeless from its mouth; from high up he found it difficult to determine exactly what was wrong with it, but it was clearly dead. The two quickly returned kneeling down beside the hole and slowly lowered the animal into the beach. Rain had kicked up once more. The soldier suddenly felt angry and was about to ring for Jenny regardless of the hour. He stopped with the bell in his hand however when he noticed that they were saluting at the graveside. Their silhouettes cut out against the surf. The taller boy who he had at first believed to be but a head was clearly much disturbed by the whole event, staring straight down, gaze never from the void. The smaller child turned around and looked directly at the soldier for a few seconds without even realizing, the rain so driving now that he squinted when looking away.

Dogs had grown rare around the town since the departing parade, most mothers preferring to keep the animals inside as surrogates for their departed sons than to allow them free to roam. With this in mind the soldier struggled to place the animal, perhaps it was the brother’s own rather than that they had killed it, or maybe they had merely discovered it in this condition and wished better for it than to merely be slumped in some passageway. The answers he would never really know, and oddly felt no real need to as he watched them fill the grave slowly with the shovels in hand.

With the grave filled the two walked slowly towards the sea, just stopping as the waves lapped at their shoes. The rain was growing strong again, and the soldier lacked the energy to clear his view once more. Straining out past the precipitations he spotted the older brother placing his arm around the younger one until finally the rain obscured them indefinable from the crashing waves and the sodden beach.

title: 'Bury'

question: Where did the soldier wake up in?

answer: The hospital after being injured.

question: What was he remembering as they were rushing him to the emergency room?

answer: He was replaying memories of Jenny, his wife, and their children.

question: What happened to the soldier?

answer: The passage implies he does not survive his injury.


text:
_BLANK GENERATION_ is the debut studio album by American punk rock band Richard Hell and the Voidoids. It was produced by Richard Gottehrer and released in September 1977 on Sire Records.

Background

Kentucky-born Richard Meyers moved to New York City after dropping out of high school in 1966 aspiring to become a poet. He and his best friend from high school, Tom Miller, founded the rock band the Neon Boys, which became Television in 1973.

The pair adopted stage names after French poets they admired: Miller became Tom Verlaine, after the Symbolist Paul Verlaine, and Meyers became Richard Hell, inspired by _A Season in Hell_ (1873) a poem written by Verlaine's idol Arthur Rimbaud. The group was the first rock band to play the club CBGB, which soon became a breeding ground for the early punk rock scene in New York. Hell had an energetic stage presence and wore torn clothing held together with safety pins and spiked his hair, which was to become punk fashion—in 1975, after a failed management deal with the New York Dolls, impresario Malcolm McLaren brought Hell's and the Dolls' ideas back with him to England and eventually incorporated them into the Sex Pistols' image.

Disputes with Verlaine led to Hell's departure from Television in April 1975, and he co-founded the Heartbreakers with New York Dolls guitarist Johnny Thunders and drummer Jerry Nolan. Hell lasted less than a year with this band, and began recruiting members for a new one in early 1976. For guitarists, Hell found Robert Quine and Ivan Julian—Quine had worked in a bookstore with Hell, and Julian responded to an advertisement in _The Village Voice_. They lifted drummer Marc Bell from Wayne County. The band was named the Voidoids after a novel Hell had been writing.

Hell drew musical inspiration from acts such as Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, the Stooges and fellow New Yorkers the Velvet Underground, a group with a reputation for heroin-fueled rock and roll with poetic lyrics. Hell also drew from—and covered—garage rock bands such as the Seeds and the Count Five, both found on the 1972 _Nuggets_ compilation.

Hell had written the song “Blank Generation” while still in Television; he had played it regularly with the band since at least 1974, and later with the Heartbreakers. The Voidoids released a 7" _Blank Generation_ EP in November 1976 on Ork Records containing “Blank Generation”, “Another World” and “You Gotta Lose”. The cover featured a black-and-white photo by Hell's former girlfriend and unofficial CBGB photographer Roberta Bayley, depicting a bare-chested Hell with an open jeans zipper. It was an underground hit, and the band signed to Sire Records for its album debut. Bell eventually left and became a member of the Ramones in 1978, adopting the stage name Marky Ramone.

Recording

The album was co-produced by Richard Gottehrer, a songwriter associated with the Brill Building who co-penned his first hit in 1963 with “My Boyfriend's Back” and who performed in the group the Strangeloves, known for hits such as “I Want Candy”.

According to Hell, they recorded and mixed the entire album at Electric Lady Studios in New York City across three weeks beginning on March 14, 1977. Two months later, they were informed that the album release would be delayed until September because their label, Sire Records, was changing distributors. “In the meantime, I had noticed a lot of things about the record that I thought we could have done better,” recalls Hell. He asked their label if they could re-record the album, and after getting their approval, they booked three weeks in late June and early July at Plaza Sound Studio, located on the eighth floor of Radio City Music Hall. The final LP would use the Plaza Sound recordings for every song except “Liars Beware,” “New Pleasure” and “Another World,” while the Electric Lady recordings were retained for those three songs. Their rendition of John and Tom Fogerty's “Walking on the Water” was also added to the LP during the Plaza Sound sessions; the song had been added to their repertoire after it debuted during a CBGB performance on April 14, 1977.[1]

Final mixing began at Plaza Sound on July 13, but their work was interrupted a little after 9:00 p.m. by the New York City blackout of 1977. Electricity would not be restored until the next day, and mixing wouldn't resume until July 18 when all remaining studio work was completed on the same day.[2]

Both Quine and Julian played Fender Stratocasters through Fender Champ amplifiers. Quine is usually panned to the right and Julian to the left in the mix, but their positions are reversed on “New Pleasure” and “Down at the Rock and Roll Club.” On “Liars Beware” Julian plays through both channels as he played his rhythm part twice, with slightly heavier playing on the left. Quine plays all the solos except for “Liars” and “Another World,” which Julian does. Julian does all of the soloing on “Another World” except during the outro, where both Julian and Quine play at the same time.[3] Mixed in the center were Bell's drums and Hell's bass and vocals.

Analysis

Julian opens “Blank Generation” with a riff loosely inspired by the Who's 1970 song “The Seeker”. The rest of the band joins one by one until Quine's short lead ends in feedback. The main section of the song features lyrics reflecting the hopelessness of his generation against a descending chord progression patterned after “The Beat Generation”, a 1959 novelty song by Bob McFadden and poet Rod McKuen, the descent matched with falsetto “ooh-ooh” backing vocals. Quine takes two guitar solos—the first eight bars, the second 16—exhibiting his peculiar atonal mix of 1950s rock and roll with 1960s free jazz. The song closes with a falsetto, doo-wop-like “Whee-ooh!” which had been suggested by Johnny Thunders.[4]

Cover design

[French poet Arthur Rimbaud inspired both Hell's lyrics and haircut.] The original album sleeve features a front cover photo by Bayley of a shirtless Hell in black jeans, opening a frayed jacket to reveal the phrase “YOU MAKE ME _______” written across his chest. The back cover featured a posed photo of Hell and the Voidoids taken by Kate Simon. Hell's hair was spiked, a look he attributed to Rimbaud.

Critical reception

In a contemporary review of _Blank Generation_, Robert Christgau of _The Village Voice_ wrote that the Voidoids “make unique music from a reputedly immutable formula, with jagged, shifting rhythms accentuated by Hell's indifference to vocal amenities like key and timbre”, and that he intended “to save this record for those very special occasions when I feel like turning into a nervous wreck.”[5]

In the first edition (1979) of _The Rolling Stone Record Guide_, Dave Marsh rated it 2 stars out of 5 and described it as “bull-oney”, writing “In the first place, Jack Kerouac said everything here first, and far better. In the second place, Hell is about as whining as Verlaine is pretentious.” However, in a radical and uncharacteristic re-evaluation, the second edition (1983) replaced Marsh's review with one from Lester Bangs, who upped the rating to a full 5 stars, labeling it “seminal” and “essential to any modern music collection”, and describing the music as “shattering assaults by a band that prophesied the later No Wave punk-jazz fusion”.

Ira Robbins of _Trouser Press_ wrote that “the album combines manic William Burroughs-influenced poetry and raw-edged music for the best rock presentation of nihilism and existential angst ever. Hell’s voice, fluctuating from groan to shriek, is more impassioned and expressive than a legion of Top 40 singers.”[6]

Mark Deming of AllMusic called _Blank Generation_ “one of the most powerful [albums] to come from punk's first wave” and “groundbreaking punk rock that followed no one's template, and today it sounds just as fresh—and nearly as abrasive—as it did when it first hit the racks.”[7] Sid Smith of BBC Music, in a 2007 retrospective review, called it “a thrilling and improbably poignant listening experience”.[8]

1990 reissue

The 1990 compact disc reissue of _Blank Generation_ differed in several respects from the original vinyl album. It sported a different cover, and included two bonus tracks: a version of the pop standard “All the Way” and an original, “I'm Your Man”. Both were outtakes from the original album sessions. Also, the version of “Down at the Rock & Roll Club” was a noticeably different recording from that which appeared on the original album.

2017 reissue

In October 2017, it was announced that a 40th anniversary limited edition of the album would be released on CD and vinyl on November 24 for Record Store Day's Black Friday sale. The reissue, mastered by original engineer Greg Calbi, included a second disc of previously unreleased alternate takes, singles-only tracks and rare bootleg live tracks recorded at the band's first CBGB performance in 1976, as well as a booklet featuring an essay from Hell, an interview with Ivan Julian conducted by Hell, previously unpublished photos by Bayley, and snapshots of Hell's notebooks and private papers. [9]

Legacy

Rock critics have held _Blank Generation_ in high regard. It has been highly influential, reflecting the kinds of themes that soon became commonplace in punk. Along with such groups as Television, Suicide, the Ramones, the Patti Smith Group, and the Heartbreakers, the Voidoids helped define the early New York punk scene.

Upon the album's release, critics such as Velvet Lanier called it “one of the greatest records ever cut”; Jimi LaLumia at _The Village Gate_ called the title track “a classic, a unifying lifeline” for the punk scene;[10] and _Record World_ called it “the Future of American rock”. To Joe Ferbacher at _Creem_, “Blank Generation” was evidence that punk was essentially American, and was more authentic than the more commercially successful but less intellectual or philosophical British punk scene.

Punk became a phenomenon in England, with the quick rise and fall of the Sex Pistols and with longer lasting bands such as the Clash. Glen Matlock was inspired to write “Pretty Vacant” in 1976 after seeing a handbill containing the names of Hell's songs, including “(I Belong To The) Blank Generation”, that Malcolm McLaren had brought back to England with him from the United States. Matlock, nor any of the other Pistols, had actually heard Hell's song, as it wasn't released on an album until September 1977. By then, “Pretty Vacant” had already recorded and released as a single two months earlier. Hell was at first offended at how much McLaren had taken from him—musically, lyrically, and visually—but came to accept it, as he believed “ideas are free property”, and praised the band's vocalist Johnny Rotten for taking his nihilist persona further than he felt himself able to do. The Voidoids toured England with the Clash in 1977, and during one show, Rotten appeared on stage and goaded the audience into demanding an encore from Hell and his band. The nihilism of “Blank Generation” was echoed in other songs in the early British punk scene such as the Sex Pistols' “Anarchy in the U.K.”, the Clash's “London's Burning” and Generation X's “Your Generation”.

Hell became mired in heroin addiction, and the group did not release another album until 1982's _Destiny Street_, by which time punk had passed from headlines in favor of new wave. The album had a weak reception, and Hell turned focus on non-music projects.

Meanwhile, British punk had swept the US and was to largely define its public perception. American bands influenced by British punk proliferated, and the music evolved into genres such as hardcore punk and alternative rock. Many of these bands delved into punk history and paid tribute to the Voidoids and other New York bands, in particular New York-based noise rockers Sonic Youth, whose frontman Thurston Moore had seen the Voidoids live in the 1970s. The Voidoids were a key influence on the Minutemen, whose D. Boon name-dropped Hell in “History Lesson – Part II”.

Track listing

Bonus disc (2017 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)

1.  “Love Comes In Spurts” (alternate version from Electric Lady Studios) – 2:01
2.  “Blank Generation” (alternate version from Electric Lady Studios) – 2:54
3.  “You Gotta Lose” (alternate version from Electric Lady Studios) – 3:42
4.  “Who Says?” (alternate version from Plaza Sound Studios) – 2:11
5.  “Love Comes In Spurts” (live at CBGB, November 19, 1976 - the Voidoids' first public performance) – 2:11
6.  “Blank Generation” (live at CBGB, November 19, 1976) – 2:41
7.  “Liars Beware” (live at CBGB, April 14, 1977) – 2:58
8.  “New Pleasure” (live at CBGB, April 14, 1977) – 2:36
9.  “Walking On The Water” (live at CBGB, April 14, 1977 - song's live debut for the Voidoids) – 2:11
10. “Another World” (original Ork Records EP version) – 6:09
11. “Oh” (original 2000 release commissioned by MusicBlitz - final Voidoids recording) – 4:17
12. “1977 Sire Records Radio Commercial” – 1:03

-   All live CBGB recordings were taken from audience cassette recordings. The “Blank Generation” recording from November 19 cut in halfway through the song's intro. This was repaired by splicing in an intro from another audience cassette recording of “Blank Generation” that was performed the following night. (It happens at 00:19.)

Personnel

The Voidoids

-   Richard Hell – vocals, bass guitar
-   Robert Quine – guitar, backing vocals
-   Ivan Julian – guitar, backing vocals
-   Marc Bell – drums

Technical personnel

-   Richard Gottehrer – producer
-   Richard Hell – producer
-   Don Hünerberg, Jerry Solomon, Rob Freeman – engineer
-   John Gillespie, Richard Hell – art direction, design
-   Roberta Bayley – cover photography

Notes

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10] https://americanstudies.nd.edu/assets/91769/finney_thesis.pdf

title: Blank Generation (album)

question: What is the motive of this article?

answer: The motive of this article is to educate the reader on the Blank Generation.

question: What could have led to a dispute between Verlaine and Hell?

answer: This information can't be found.

question: Why did they use the names of French poets as their stage names?

answer: They used the names of French poets because they idolized them.

question: Why did Hell choose to wear torn clothes during the performance?

answer: It may be implied that Hell chose to do so to stand out from others. It should be noted that he was successful in doing so considering that this soon became the punk fashion.


text:
_ROTUNDARIA SUCCISSA_ is a species of bivalve in the family Unionidae.

It is native to the United States, where it is endemic to the Apalachicolan Region of Alabama and Florida. Here, it is found in the Choctawhatchee, Escambia, and Yellow River systems. It is considered to be a somewhat “hardy” mussel in terms of tolerating poor water quality, and its populations appear to be stable.[1]

It was formerly classified under _Quadrula_, but in 2012 it was moved to _Rotundaria_ based on genetic evidence.[2]

[1] _Quadrula succissa_ NatureServe

[2]

title: Rotundaria succissa

question: What is a bivalve?

answer: Presumably a type of mussel, though the article does not define the term.

question: Where can the Rotundaria succissa be found?

answer: In the Apalachicolan Region of Alabama and Florida.

question: Describe the Rotundaria succissa.

answer: It is a "hardy" mussel, able to tolerate poor water quality. It has a stable population.

question: How did the Rotundaria succissa's classification change in 2012?

answer: It changed from being classified under Quadrula to Rotundaria.

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: The Rotundaria succissa is a species of bivalve native to the United States. It can be found in the Apalachicolan Region of Alabama and Florida. It is a "hardy" mussel, able to tolerate poor water quality.