text:
Driving fast is exhilarating. Not organized racing on a track or competitions with another to win, or attain a goal. I’m talking full fledged, full speed next level driving maneuvers in traffic filled roadways bristling with drivers who are unaware of the thrill that can be attained by narrowly escaping death.

I used to own a C32 AMG, and I’m not mentioning this car to boast that I owned a fancy car, I’m mentioning it because it contained 350 of the most streamlined horsepower I’ve ever had the pleasure of controlling. The car was like an extension of myself, any movement or thought I had would take microseconds to be accurately represented. A balanced, nimble & light 5 second car. The presence of an enormous amount of caffeine coursing through my veins would increase my awareness exponentially; allowing precise control.

There was a point in time where I would make weekly trips to Houston. I was a field technician and fixed useless electronic devices for random organizations. I would have lost my mind making that monotonous trip over and over if it hadn’t been for that car. I would cruise at 90mph listening to pre-recorded versions of Annie Mac’s 2 hour Friday mash up which contained upbeat rhythms that would keep my blood flowing and senses peaked. That and huge amounts of coffee.

Cruising 90 in the fast lane pumped full of caffeine in the most clear headed aware state possible is the perfect position to make split second decisions. Like evading arrest.

The state trooper was on the other side of the center median, and I saw him a mile away... But the little adrenaline seeking devil inside of me grinned wickedly. I knew unless there was a gap in the concrete barrier there was no way he’d get me. As I roared past him, the gap in the concrete was quite apparent. As soon as I saw his lights erupt in my rear view mirror, I decided I wasn’t getting pulled over today.

The C32 AMG has 2 “sweet spots” if you will. 0-60 is lightening quick, but 60-90 is a bit slower, not slow by any means, but not anything impressive. Once you get to 90 however, you can truly feel the power of the car surge up through the pedals. Going from 90 miles an hour to 155 miles an hour is 6 seconds of exhilarating bliss.

The curvature in the road worked to my advantage that day . When I saw the trooper flip his car around and hit his lights, he also dropped out of my line of sight. My foot dropped on the pedal at the same instant. I was 2 miles from the next exit and deep inside the adrenaline slowly seeped into my veins, would I make it I thought? Yes, was the resounding answer in my head. Yes you will. It took seconds to conquer those two miles.

I slammed the breaks and slowed to about 100mph and as I barreled off the freeway the cops lights shone in my rear view at a distance. But he was far enough back that he didn’t see me. The terrain again worked to my advantage. The exit curved downward, running parallel to the freeway but lower, so someone on the freeway wouldn’t be able to see someone on the exit. But then the road curved back skywards. Wide eyed, I checked my mirrors, and looked to the left.

The cop missed the exit.

But then he saw me, and the smoke poured from his tires as his car, brakes floored, slide sideways onto the shoulder, and straight into reverse.

At this point the adrenaline was in full effect. My body was in a heightened state of awareness. I had come this far. I still had the advantage. I was still going 90. He had to reverse off the freeway, and then speed up. I focused on the road in front of me, down shifted and punched it.

I came to a light, took the turn, full, independent wheel traction control on my Michelin pilot’s kept me from flipping over or losing control, and I fast and furious drifted around the corner, only to stare down the longest road in existence. Then I panicked.

There was nowhere to go. The road went on for as far as my eyes could see. A dusty, back country road about 155 miles outside of San Antonio on IH10. There was nothing out there. Trees, dust and asphalt. And I could hear his siren.

But like something straight out of a movie, I saw a beacon of hope. A white church chapel, I roared towards it and the lot was full. This was my ticket. My tires spun in the dirt parking lot and slide safely in between a set of parked cars and killed the engine. I breathed heavily, wide eyed, hands shaking and like a slow motion movie turned my head and saw the trooper roar past in all his glory.

I stepped out of the car and looked down the country road, the trooper disappearing into the distance. The country air in my lungs felt amazing, the adrenaline coursing through my veins pumped hard, and I smiled. I had won.

title: Adrenaline: A True Story

question: What does the story say about the advantage of the speed of the narrator's C32 AMG Mercedes?

answer: The narrator expresses the importance of having fast cars by detailing how his formerly owned Mercedes C32 AMG helped him escape arrest by a state trooper once. As a field technician, the narrator's job was to frequent Houston every week to fix electronics for different organizations. The C32 AMG helped his weekly trips because of its 350 horsepower engine, moving from 0-60mph within seconds. On one journey, he sped at 155mph, which caught the attention of a state trooper, and a chase ensued. Luckily for him, because of how fast he was moving, he was able to avert arrest by hiding within a set of parked cars at a church while the trooper drove past unaware.


split: train

text:
_CESTRUM PARQUI_, commonly known as PALQUI, GREEN CESTRUM or WILLOW-LEAVED JESSAMINE,[1] is a species of flowering plant native to Chile. In Australia the plant is regarded as a noxious invasive weed and a significant hazard to livestock (especially cattle) which may eat it inadvertently or during shortages of other foods, often resulting in death.

In cultivation in the United Kingdom this plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit.[2] (confirmed 2017).[3]

Description

_C. parqui_ is a fast-growing, straggling, woody, deciduous or semi-evergreen shrub with one or more fragile green stems. The alternate, light green leaves have an unpleasant rubber-like smell when crushed. It produces terminal sprays of small, fragrant, tubular yellow-green flowers 2.5 cm long from late spring to autumn, followed by bunches of small, black, egg-shaped berries produced from summer to autumn. All parts of the plant are reported to be highly toxic.[4]

Reproduction

The small, black fruits of _Cestrum parqui_ are highly attractive to birds, which play a major role in seed-dispersal, passing the seeds in their droppings: seedlings are thus often found growing under perching trees, along fencelines, and in creek banks, where it is also dispersed by water.[5]

Uses

Medicinal

The plant contains toxic alkaloids. It has been used in folk medicine to treat tumours and haemorrhoids and possesses sudorific (= perspiration-inducing), laxative and antispasmodic properties. Decoctions or infusions of the plant have also been administered in cases of intermittent fever and an infusion of the inner bark drunk to treat unspecified “stomach ailments”. A poultice prepared from the plant (part unspecified) in combination with _Solanum nigrum_ (part unspecified) and the crushed stems of Vitis vinifera, the grape vine, is believed in folk medicine to have anti-inflammatory properties.[6]

Ritualistic

Branches of _Cestrum parqui_ are used to slap patients during shamanic healing ceremonies utilising the hallucinogenic plant _Latua pubiflora_ held by the indigenous Huilliche people of the Los Lagos Region of southern Chile. This is done in the belief that the foul smell of the _Cestrum_ leaves is abhorrent to the demons believed to be causing the patient's illness and will cause them to leave the patient's body in vomit.[7]

Gallery

File:Cestrum parqui 2.jpg|Specimen flowering in Royal Botanic Garden, Madrid. File:CESTRUMPARQUIFLOR.JPG%7CClose-up of willow-like leaves and greenish flowers.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6] Quattrocchi, Umberto (2012). CRC World dictionary of medicinal and poisonous plants: common names, scientific names, eponyms, synonyms and etymology, pub. CRC Press Taylor and Francis Group. Vol. II C-D, page 201.

[7] Plowman, Timothy, Gyllenhaal, Lars Olof and Lindgren, Jan Erik _Latua pubiflora_ magic plant from southern Chile _Botanical Museum Leaflets Harvard University_ Vol. 23, No. 2, Cambridge, Massachusetts, November 12, 1971.

title: Cestrum parqui

question: Summarize everything relating to the uses for cestrum parqui.

answer: The plant is used in folk medicine to treat tumours and haemorrhoids and also possesses sudorific, laxative, and antispasmodic properties. Decoctions of infusions have been used to treat cases of intermittent fever and an infusion of the inner bark is drunk to treat stomach ailments. A poultice prepared from the plant is believed to have anti-inflammatory properties. The plant's branches are used to slap patients during shamanic healing ceremonies in the belief that the foul smell of its leaves is abhorrent to the demons causing the patient's illness.

question: Summarize the physical properties of the plant.

answer: Cestrum parqui is a flowering plant. It is a semi-evergreen shrub with one or more fragile green stems. Its alternate, light green leaves have an unpleasant rubber-like smell when crushed. It produces fragrant, tubular yellow-green flowers and bunches of small, black, egg-shaped berries. The small black fruits are highly atteactive to birds. It also has branches, which are used during shamanic healing ceremonies.

question: What does the article say about the discovery of C. parqui?


text:
[]

Robots (or spiders, or crawlers) are little computer programs that search engines use to scan and index websites. Robots.txt is a little file placed on webservers to tell search engines what they should and shouldn't index. The Internet Archive isn't a search engine, but has historically obeyed exclusion requests from robots.txt files. But it's changing its mind, because robots.txt is almost always crafted with search engines in mind and rarely reflects the intentions of domain owners when it comes to archiving.

  Over time we have observed that the robots.txt files that are geared toward search engine crawlers do not necessarily serve our archival purposes. Internet Archive's goal is to create complete "snapshots" of web pages, including the duplicate content and the large versions of files. We have also seen an upsurge of the use of robots.txt files to remove entire domains from search engines when they transition from a live web site into a parked domain, which has historically also removed the entire domain from view in the Wayback Machine. In other words, a site goes out of business and then the parked domain is "blocked" from search engines and no one can look at the history of that site in the Wayback Machine anymore. We receive inquiries and complaints on these "disappeared" sites almost daily.

  A few months ago we stopped referring to robots.txt files on U.S. government and military web sites for both crawling and displaying web pages (though we respond to removal requests sent to info@archive.org). As we have moved towards broader access it has not caused problems, which we take as a good sign. We are now looking to do this more broadly.

An excellent decision. To be clear, they're ignoring robots.txt even if you explicitly identify and disallow the Internet Archive. It's a splendid remember that nothing published on the web is ever meaningfully private, and will always go on your permanent record.

-

    Internet Archive turns on Flash emulation, already has 1000 items to check out

    [] Adobe Flash was the language of choice for a generation of game developers, helping kickstart an indie revolution on the still-young web of the 1990s and 2000s. But it withered on the proprietary and insecure vine, and both web browsers and Adobe have now canned it, threatening countless games and interactive presentations with the memory… READ THE REST

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    Earliest known photograph of a tornado

    [] This photo was taken on April 26, 1884 and is the earliest known shot of a tornado (compare to the second-earliest). It appears to be a 3D or stereographic image, too, but my effort at recreating the 3D effect (below, as a two-frame GIF) doesn't seem particularly impressive. Modern meteorologists consider Adam's photograph to indeed… READ THE REST

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    Edwardian home electrical wiring was scary stuff

    [] The advent of electrical lighting and appliances came with a lot of trial and error, meaning a lot of injuries, destruction, and death before things got standardized and safety-tested. In Edwardian times, for instance, each electricity producer chose their own voltage and method of delivery, among other unnerving practices. Take a deep dive into the… READ THE REST

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    Black Friday is dropping by early this year for huge savings on 30 great items

    [] For the Black Friday lovers out there, we understand this year is going to be hard for you. All the old rules about scouting doorbuster deals, camping out, and planning your post-Thanksgiving shopping tactics are no more this year.  But don't worry – just because there's no physical doorbusting going on this year doesn't mean… READ THE REST

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    Save an extra 40% on this software that will help troubleshoot your WiFi issues

    [] The Dead Zone isn't just a great Stephen King novel. It's also that unfortunate area in your house where WiFi signals go to die. Dead zones may be caused by actual physical barriers in your home, like a wall or a refrigerator. It could be that the distance between your router and that particular spot… READ THE REST

-

    This handy adapter ties your Nintendo Switch, smartphone, and Bluetooth headphones' audio together

    [] A kid in tech-savvy 2020 has a lot of plates to keep spinning. That avalanche of technology often requires making some difficult choices, like this one: what happens when you want to listen to music streaming from your phone and play a game on your Nintendo Switch? Since you're obviously going to be wearing headphones,… READ THE REST

question: Define Robots in computing.

answer: Robots, also known as "spiders" or "crawlers," are little computer programs that search engines use to scan and index websites. Robots.txt is a little file placed on webservers to tell search engines what they should and shouldn't index.

question: What is the Internet Archive?

answer: The Internet Archive creates complete "snapshots" of web pages, including duplicate content and the large versions of files. It is not a search engine, but historically obeys exclusion requests from robot.txt files, which results in the use of robots.txt files to remove entire domains from search engines when they transition from a live website into a parked domain, which also removes the entire domain from view in the Wayback Machine.

question: What is the Wayback Machine?

answer: A tool where the entire history of a website can be viewed.

question: What happens when a site goes out of business and the parked domain is blocked from search engines?

answer: No one can look at the history of that particular site in the Wayback Machine anymore.

question: Write a ~4 sentence summary.

answer: The Internet Archive (archive.org) has noticed an upsurge in the use of robots.txt files to remove entire domains from search engines when they transition from a live website into a parked domain, which has historically also removed the entire domain from view in the Wayback Machine. As a result, when a site goes out of business and the parked domain is blocked from search engines, no one can look at the history of that site in the Wayback Machine anymore. After getting a lot of complaints, archive.org has decided to stop referring to robot.txt files on U.S. government and military websites for crawling and displaying web pages. The move hasn't caused major problems.


text:
In any given third-grade classroom, you can find a student who is reading at a level far beyond their age, and another who is still working on letter recognition. How does a traditional classroom teacher with 25-30 kids manage such a wide range of students? As a district leader, how do I support our teachers and ensure that they are challenging students who are at a higher level while providing struggling students with proper support?

These are the tough questions I asked myself when taking over as superintendent of Maury County Schools in Tennessee in August 2015. Within the first few months, we ditched the old literacy model to adopt a project-based focus; deployed instructional coaches (without hiring anyone); and launched a top-down, district-level approach that quickly gained bottom-up buy-in through school and community support. We also implemented a differentiated literacy program and digital library that measures reading with reading—not quiz scores and points.

CREATING THE KEYS TO SUCCESS

In my first days as superintendent, I did what I called a “22in22 Tour” where I traveled to all 22 schools in my district in 22 days. I know from experience that the best leaders are the best listeners, so I made sure to take the time to hear what school leaders and classroom teachers had to say about Maury’s administrative approach. I heard loud and clear that there were issues of trust, lack of resources, switching initiatives on a dime, and a need for truly aligned and supportive professional development. That’s when I knew I had to eliminate the top-down approach that the district had taken in the past (and many districts employ) and go through a process to determine our Keys to Success.

Over 10 weeks, my administrative team and I asked every school board member, administrator, teacher, staff member, and parent to answer one simple question: What should students know before leaving elementary school, middle school, and high school? After making my rounds inside our school community, we asked the same question to a wide variety of community organizations including the Rotary, Kiwanis, City Council, NAACP, retired teachers’ association, the County Commission, and over 20 more groups.

-   All students’ reading proficiency at or above grade level by the end of third grade
-   All students’ math proficiency at or above grade level by the end of the fourth grade
-   All students’ Math and English proficiency at or above grade level by the end of sixth grade
-   All students proficient in Algebra 1 by the end of eighth grade
-   All students scoring at or above ACT college readiness benchmarks by graduation
-   All students financially literate by graduation
-   All students participating in advanced placement, dual-enrollment, industry certification, work-based learning, or military prep by graduation.

By generating common goals as a community, we created a level of transparency that was new to Maury County. The Keys created a common vocabulary across the entire community, so everyone was well aware of our mission as a district. For the first time in a long time, this district shifted its focus from state test scores and data to the kids and what they should be able to do to be truly college and/or career ready—the way it should be.

NEXT PAGE: PUTTING POWER IN THE PRINCIPALS’ HANDS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Chris Marczak, Ed.D., is the Superintendent of the Maury County School District in Tennessee. He started his career as a classroom teacher, and accepted his first administrative role in 2009. Follow Dr. Marczak on Twitter at @cjmarczak or email him at cmarczak@mauryk12.org.

question: What does the text say about the keys to success?

answer: The author believes in what they call the 22in22 Tour where they traveled to all 22 schools in 22 days. They believe that the best leaders are the best listeners. From this, the problems can be eliminated more efficiently.

question: What is the author's opinion on generating common goals as a community?

answer: The keys help create a common vocabulary across the entire community, so everyone was well aware of the authors' mission with the district. For the first time in a long time, the district shifted its focus from state test scores and data to the kids. This should help them be college and/or career-ready.

question: What does the text say about the author?

answer: The author's name is Chris Marczack, Ed.D. He is the Superintendent of the Maury County School District. He started his career as a classroom teacher and accepted his first administrative role in 2009.

question: What does the text say about students and reading levels?

answer: The text questions what it takes to teach advanced reading levels for third-graders. As a district leader, the author wants to help teachers and ensure they are challenging students who are at a higher level while providing struggling students with proper support.


text:
It was a powerful piece of technology created for an important customer. The Medusa system, named after the mythical Greek monster with snakes instead of hair, had one main purpose: to vacuum up vast quantities of internet data at an astonishing speed.

The technology was designed by Endace, a little-known New Zealand company. And the important customer was the British electronic eavesdropping agency, Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ.

Dozens of internal documents and emails from Endace, obtained by The Intercept and reported in cooperation with Television New Zealand, reveal the firm’s key role helping governments across the world harvest vast amounts of information on people’s private emails, online chats, social media conversations, and internet browsing histories.

The leaked files, which were provided by a source through SecureDrop, show that Endace listed a Moroccan security agency implicated in torture as one of its customers. They also indicate that the company sold its surveillance gear to more than half a dozen other government agencies, including in the United States, Israel, Denmark, Australia, Canada, Spain, and India.

Some of Endace’s largest sales in recent years, however, were to the United Kingdom’s GCHQ, which purchased a variety of “data acquisition” systems and “probes” that it used to covertly monitor internet traffic.

Documents from the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, previously disclosed by The Intercept, have shown how GCHQ dramatically expanded its online surveillance between 2009 and 2012. The newly obtained Endace documents add to those revelations, shining light for the first time on the vital role played by the private sector in enabling the spying.

Stuart Wilson, Endace’s CEO, declined to answer questions for this story. Wilson said in a statement that Endace’s technology “generates significant export revenue for New Zealand and builds important technical capability for our country.” He added: “Our commercial technology is used by customers worldwide … who rely on network recording to protect their critical infrastructure and data from cybercriminals, terrorists, and state-sponsored cybersecurity threats.”

[4943588831_1f9d1924d2_o]

Former Endace Director Ian Graham, right, meets New Zealand Prime Minister John Key in 2010.

Photo: NZNationalParty/Flickr

Endace says it manufactures technology that allows its clients to “monitor, intercept and capture 100% of traffic on networks.” The Auckland-based company’s motto is “power to see all” and its logo is an eye.

The company’s origins can be traced back to Waikato University in Hamilton, New Zealand. There, in 1994, a team of professors and researchers began developing network monitoring technology using university resources. A central aim of the project was to find ways to measure different kinds of data on the internet, which was at that time only just beginning to take off. Within a few years, the academics’ efforts proved successful; they had managed to invent pioneering network monitoring tools. By 2001, the group behind the research started commercializing the technology — and Endace was formed.

Today, Endace presents itself publicly as focused on providing technology that helps companies and governments keep their networks secure. But in the past decade, it has quietly entered into a burgeoning global spy industry that is worth in excess of an estimated $5 billion annually.

In 2007, Endace representatives promoted their technology at a huge surveillance technology trade show in Dubai that was attended by dozens of government agencies from across the world. Endace’s advertising brochures from the show, which described the company’s products and promoted the need for greater state surveillance, were published by WikiLeaks in 2013.

One Endace brochure explained how the company’s technology could help clients “monitor all network traffic inexpensively.” It noted that telecommunications networks carry many types of information: Skype calls, videos, emails, and instant message chats. “These networks provide rich intelligence for law enforcement,” the brochure stated, “IF they can be accessed securely and with high precision.”

[Germany Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Baltic Sea - undersea cable to Hiddensee island]

Workers lay undersea cables near Hiddensee Island, Germany.

Photo: Ullstein Bild/Getty Images

The United Kingdom’s geographic location — situated between North America, mainland Europe, and the Middle East — made it a good market for Endace.

Many major international undersea data cables cross British territory, and according to top-secret documents from Snowden, as much as 25 percent of all the world’s internet traffic flows through the U.K. The country’s spies have worked to exploit this, with GCHQ tapping into as many of the cables as it can, sifting through huge volumes of emails, instant messages, social media interactions, and web browsing records as they are being transmitted across the internet.

As of 2009, GCHQ’s surveillance of undersea cables was well underway. The agency was measuring the amount of traffic it monitored in tens of gigabits per second (10Gs) — the equivalent in data of about 1 million average-sized emails every minute. The electronic eavesdropping agency was tapping into 87 different 10Gs capacity cables and funneling the collected data into its processing systems for analysis.

By March 2011, GCHQ’s aim was to tap into 415 of the 10Gs cables, and its longer-term goal was to “grow our internet access to 800 10Gs.” The agency wanted to build what it described as the largest covert surveillance apparatus in the world. And in an effort to fulfill that plan, it turned to Endace’s technology.

Leaked documents and emails from Endace, obtained by The Intercept, lay out a series of deals the company made with GCHQ to help it broaden its mass surveillance capabilities. A confidential February 2010 Endace statement of work for GCHQ, for instance, outlined a £245,000 ($299,500) deal to upgrade “monitoring solutions” for the British agency that were designed to intercept large amounts of internet traffic and send it into “memory holes” — repositories used to store the data.

  The agency wanted to build the largest covert surveillance apparatus in the world.

Between November 2010 and March 2011, GCHQ purchased more technology from Endace, including specialized surveillance technology built for “FGA only,” a code name the company often uses in its internal documents to refer to GCHQ; it stands for “friendly government agency.”

A November 2010 company document said that “FGA” had an order of 20 systems scheduled for delivery in March 2011. Each system was equipped with two “data acquisition” cards capable of intercepting 20Gs of internet traffic. The total capacity of the order would enable GCHQ to monitor a massive amount of data — the equivalent of being able to download 3,750 high-definition movies every minute, or 2.5 billion average-sized emails an hour.

Endace added in the document that “a potential for 300-500 systems over the next two to three years is being discussed” and noted that it was soon anticipating another order of “30-40 additional systems.” Indeed, the following month a new $167,940 purchase order for 27 more systems arrived, and the items were swiftly dispatched for delivery to GCHQ’s headquarters in Cheltenham, England.

The records of the Endace sales are confirmed by internal GCHQ documents, provided by Snowden, which describe the company’s data capture devices being used as part of mass surveillance programs. GCHQ documents from 2010 and 2011 repeatedly mention the Endace products while discussing the capture of “internet-derived” data to extract information about people’s usage of services such as Gmail, Hotmail, WhatsApp, and Facebook.

GCHQ declined to comment for this story.

[endance-product]

An Endace diagram depicts a custom data capture system built for GCHQ.

Photo: Endance

Throughout the summer of 2011, at Endace’s offices in Auckland, New Zealand, the orders from GCHQ were continuing to flow in. Meanwhile, the company’s engineers were busy turning their sights to new technology that could vastly increase surveillance capability. Endace was developing a powerful new product for GCHQ called Medusa: interception equipment that could capture internet traffic at up to 100 gigabits per second.

Medusa was first logged in Endace’s sales systems in September 2011. Endace staff produced weekly status reports about their progress and updated GCHQ at biweekly review meetings. By November 18, 2011, the first version of Medusa arrived at GCHQ. “FGA are very pleased with the prototypes we delivered last week,” Endace noted.

Apparently after testing the Medusa prototype, GCHQ requested some refinements. One feature the agency wanted was called “Separate MAC insertion by IP type.” This suggests the British agency may have sought the ability to target individuals by searching internet traffic for the built-in hardware address of their computers, routers, or phones.

Notably, the Medusa status reports reveal that Endace was using taxpayers’ money to develop the new equipment for GCHQ. They state that the Medusa system was being built for “FGA” with funding from the Foundation of Research Science and Technology, the body that handed out New Zealand government research grants.

In 2010, Endace received two grants totaling $11.1 million. A public announcement for the first grant — issued in July 2010 — said the funding was for “50% of the cost of a series of substantial product developments over the next two years,” but did not say what the products were nor who they were for.

A New Zealand government spokesperson told The Intercept that he could not immediately give a “definitive” answer on whether the funding body had known Endace would use the grants to develop surveillance technology for GCHQ, but said it was “highly unlikely Endace would have provided that information, as they were under no obligation to do so.”

Endace has never publicly disclosed any of its work with GCHQ, likely because it is subject to strict confidentiality agreements. In one contract obtained by The Intercept, GCHQ states that Endace staff are bound to the U.K.’s Official Secrets Act, a sweeping law that can be used to prosecute and imprison people who disclose classified information. GCHQ warned Endace that it must not “make any press announcements or publicize the contract or any part thereof in any way.”

[The back of two satellite antennae at GCHQ's surveillance base in Bude, England. (Photo By: Education Images/UIG via Getty Images)]

The back of two satellite antennae at GCHQ’s surveillance base in Bude, England.

Photo: Education Images/UIG/Getty Images

Endace’s leaked client lists show three main categories of customers: governments, telecommunications companies, and finance companies.

The government clients appear to be mostly intelligence agencies. A 2008 Endace customer list included: GCHQ; the Canadian and Australian defense departments (where their electronic spy agencies are located); a U.S. government contractor called Rep-Tron Systems Group, located in Baltimore, Maryland; and Morocco’s domestic surveillance agency, the DGST.

Other Endace customer lists contained in the leaked trove include the U.S. Army and the U.S. Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, called SPAWAR; the Israeli Ministry of Defense (home of its Unit 8200 electronic spy agency); the government of India, the Spanish Ministry of Defense; and Denmark’s Defense Intelligence Service.

Endace’s apparent dealings with the Moroccan agency, the DGST, are particularly controversial. Moroccan authorities have been persistently accused over more than five decades of committing a range of severe human rights abuses.

  In Morocco, digital surveillance is intimately linked with repression of peaceful dissent.

Amnesty International, in a 2015 report, specifically singled out the DGST agency as a key perpetrator of recent abuses, accusing it of detaining people incommunicado and using brutal torture methods that included beatings, electric shocks, sexual violence, simulated drowning, drugging, mock executions, and food and sleep deprivation.

Sirine Rached, Amnesty’s North Africa researcher, told The Intercept that sales of surveillance technology to Morocco raised major concerns.

“In Morocco, digital surveillance is intimately linked with repression of peaceful dissent — people who are peacefully protesting or criticizing the authorities face intimidation, arrest, unfair trials, and sometimes imprisonment,” said Rached. “We fear that the more that these surveillance tools are sold [to Moroccan agencies], the more we will see human rights abuses, especially in relation to freedom of expression and information.”

Endace declined to comment on its dealings with Morocco. Stuart Wilson, Endace’s CEO, claimed in a statement that he had to keep details about the company’s customers confidential in order to help them “battle cyberthreats and breaches.”

[]

An Endace “data acquisition and generation” card, used to monitor networks.

Photo: Endace

Alongside its government clients, Endace has many major corporate customers.

Endace’s sales lists include finance industry giants such as Morgan Stanley, Reuters, and Bank of America. Endace’s website says it provides financial companies with its monitoring technology to help “high-frequency traders to monitor, measure, and analyze critical network environments.”

In addition, Endace sells its equipment to some of the world’s largest telecommunications companies, among them AT&T, AOL, Verizon, Sprint, Cogent Communications, Telstra, Belgacom, Swisscom, Deutsche Telekom, Telena Italy, Vastech South Africa, and France Telecom.

Some of these companies may use the Endace equipment for checking the security of their networks. But a key strand of Endace’s business involves providing technology for telecommunications firms that enables law enforcement and intelligence agencies to intercept the messages and data of phone and internet users.

A company product strategy document from 2010 said that Endace had “seen early success” providing a Lawful Intercept product to the major U.S. telco and internet company Sprint Corporation.

All telcos and internet companies in the U.S., Europe, New Zealand, and a number of other countries are required by law to have “intercept capable” equipment on their networks. When police or spy agencies want private data about a customer (with or without a warrant, depending on the country), it can be extracted easily.

When installed on a network, Endace’s surveillance equipment can be used to perform targeted monitoring of individual people, but it can also be used to enable dragnet spying.

In one of the leaked Endace documents obtained by The Intercept — under a section titled “customer user stories” — the company describes a situation in which a government agency has obtained “the encryption keys for a well-known program.” An Endace surveillance “probe,” the document suggests, could help the government agency “unencrypt all packets sent by this program on a large network in the last 24 hours.”

Once the data has been decrypted, the agency will be able to “look for the text string ‘Domino’s Pizza,’” Endace joked, “as they have information suggesting this is the favorite pizza of international terrorists.”

———
_Documents published with this article:_

-   GCHQ Endace contract terms March 2011
-   Endace-GCHQ statement of work
-   GCHQ purchase order Dec 2010
-   Endace purchased support list
-   Strategic account list
-   Customer purchase list 2010
-   Customer list
-   Customer list 2
-   Upgrade account list
-   Medusa weekly status report
-   Medusa sprint 2 requirements
-   GCHQ ‘important order’
-   Endace financial report Sept 2012
-   Sprint Endace lawful intercept
-   Kraken overview
-   GCHQ probe order
-   Spanish MoD custom
-   Capture cards for FGA only
-   GCHQ and Canada DND engineering change

question: How are the Endace and GCHQ connected?

answer: Endace is a New Zealand company that quickly consumes large amounts of internet data. Government Communication Head Quarters is a British agency that eavesdrops on electronic communications. The British agency is an important customer to Endace.

question: What clandestine work does Endace do?

answer: Endace helps governments across the globe intercept all types of private electronic messaging across various platforms, including email, instant messaging, and social media. They also probe internet browsing histories.

question: How does the Endace enable spying?

answer: The company monitors private electronic messaging and internet browsing and sells the information to governments around the world.

question: How does the CEO of Endace defend the work of his company?

answer: He says that the company brings in important revenue for the country and that it helps to build on the technology in New Zealand. He says that governments around the world use the information provided to prevent cyber-criminals and terrorists from damaging strategic infrastructure.

question: What is the history of Endace?

answer:
Endace was started by a group of academics at the University of Waikato in 1994. They used university resources and their aim was to measure different types of internet data. Within a few years, they had invented pioneering new monitoring tools. In 2001 they formed Endace as their technology was ready for commercialization.

In 2007 at a trade show in Dubai, Endace promoted their surveillance technology. The show was attended by many government agencies. Today the company sells its technology to governments across the globe.

question: How does Edward Snowdon feature in the Endace story?

answer: Snowdon is a whistleblower who previosuly worked for the National Security Agency. Some of the documents that he revealed showed how GCHQ had dramatically increased its surveillance between 2009 and 2012. Endace documents showed how the private sector was enabling spying. The document showed that Endace technology was being used for mass surveillance.

question: What was the objective of the change that GCHQ requested when they first received Medusa?

answer: Though GCHQ was pleased with the product, they asked for some refinements, including “Separate MAC insertion by IP type.” This suggests that they planned to target individuals by searching internet traffic for hardware addresses of computers, routers, and cell phones.

question: Why has Endace never disclosed any information about the work it does for GCHQ?

answer: It is likely that the company operates under strict confidentiality agreements. In fact, leaked documents suggest that Endace employees may have signed the UK's Official Secrets Act which can be used to prosecute and imprison people who disclose classified information.


text:
Sherman Pine wondered why he hated his life. On paper it was perfect. He had more than anyone could ask for, and had built it from nothing. He’d taken the high road, worked hard and perceived through adversity. He had never stooped to the level of those who had stood in his way, it was something he prided himself on, his moral compass. He was a loving father, in a picture perfect marriage. He had the house, the two cars, the loving dog. A stable career, was nearly his own boss, had supportive coworkers. He had his health, his hair, and had never gone to bed hungry a day in his adult life.

He wanted to kill himself.

It was a feeling that had crept upon him year after year. He pushed it aside every morning, focusing on his next step, where he was going; his big plans. He focused on raising his beautiful daughter, being there for every big moment, and most of the little ones. He’d laid out steps to create the best career he could, and had followed them to the T, and it had led to success and security. He’d met his one True Love, and it had been straight from a story book; the fights had been fleeting, they never went to bed angry, and even after nearly 30 years of marriage they still reveled in each other, that passion had never ceased.

He wanted to kill himself.

Nothing was lacking in his life, this was the proverbial American Dream™, surpassing even his own expectations that had formulated in his head at a young age. He’d done it all himself, and had done it the “right” way, no cheats or shortcuts, never stepping on another for his own gain. His moral compass stayed strong. He’d been tempted; one of his first memories was seeing a hundred dollar bill fall out of a stranger’s wallet at the age of ten. He had spoken up, they had picked it up, stuffed it in with all the others. A young boy can do a lot of things with a hundred dollars, but Sherman had never hesitated. It was that memory he went back to time and time again, whenever he was tempted. His moral compass stayed strong.

He wanted to kill himself.

He’d stayed healthy, rarely drank, had never touched any drug. Except those darn coffee beans he would say with a smile, when the subject had come up. His daughter had left for college, and he had told her that this was her time, that he would love her no matter what her choices were, but to please be careful. She’d seen his honesty when he told her with a smile Except those darn coffee beans and she had taken it to heart. He knew she wouldn’t stay as straight and narrow as he had been, he knew it was a different time, he was okay with her trying The Pot, or whatever kids were doing these days. He trusted her, and she loved him for it. She’d been there for two years now, but visited frequently, always bright and cheerful, so beautiful, always smiling.

He wanted to kill himself.

He never said the words aloud. He convinced himself his wife had no idea, but sometimes as they sat in silence watching whatever was on the TV she would look at him with a question in her eyes. “Are you okay?” But she never said the words aloud. If he caught her gaze (he always knew, but would only sometimes turn his head to meet her eyes) she would blink in surprise and then peck him on the cheek. She trusted him, she loved him, if there was pain there he would tell her. And why would he feel any pain? They had everything. Why did he feel like he had nothing?

He wanted to kill himself.

It was becoming his mantra. He tried harder and harder to push it away, but the stronger he pushed, the louder it became.

HE WANTED TO KILL HIMSELF.

He could remember the thought coming when he was younger, but he had replaced it with his work. As he climbed higher it came back, but he replaced it with his first and only Love. As they settled into their life together it came back, but he replaced it with the love for his child. As she grew older it came back, and he could not think of anything to put in its place. He looked to the future and saw nothing but sadness. He looked to the past and could only remember his mistakes. The pain in his heart grew, and he truly believed he had nothing to live for.

He was going to kill himself.

He stood on the bridge at 3am. He looked down at the darkness below. Somewhere down there the river twisted and rolled, as cold as his heart. His mind raced, backwards and forwards. To the things he had left unsaid, to the pain he would cause everyone in his life if he took one step forward. He thought of the world he lived in, that was slowly falling apart. His American Dream™ had kept him alive, but that dream was finished, he had woken in a nightmare. It was a nightmare of isolation and separation, of bigotry and misunderstanding, of looming doom.

He closed his eyes, raised his foot.

The cold breeze caressed his face. It gave him pause, and he opened his eyes. The clouds parted for only a second, but light from the quarter moon cut through them like a knife. The night lit up, both from the sky and the street. His thoughts stopped, his heart raced. In that moment, the world was beautiful. The moon illuminated the waves far below. The street lights reflected in the fog, halos forming around each bulb that hummed softly. The wind danced around him, only made visible by the leaves that slowly circled towards the cold river. The night was beautiful.

His mind was silent.

He felt an almost indescribable feeling in his chest, a tingle that started at the base of his neck and spread quickly throughout his entire body.  He had never felt anything like it; not when he said “I do” – his thoughts on the wedding night to come; not when his baby girl first opened her eyes and smiled at him – his mind concentrating on holding her the right way and the responsibilities to come; not even in the dull glow that comes after he made love to his Love – thinking about their plans for tomorrow as he drifted off to sleep. He had never felt this energy in his being before; he had never had his mind fall silent before.  The night around him was beautiful, but ordinary. It was full of magic, but nothing had changed. He had opened his eyes to a new world that was inseparable from the old. It had always been there; right there, right in front of him, present, but he had always had his eyes elsewhere. Looking to what came next, or what had already happened.  How could he have never realized before? Even if he had nothing – which was far from the truth – he had the most wonderful gift. It was one that everyone had but few acknowledged, a gift that sat in plain sight but was rarely opened. He was here, now. He saw the beauty in the world.

He felt Joy.

title: Sherman Pine (OC, x-post r/fiction, unedited)

question: Why did Sherman Pine want to kill himself?

answer: Because he felt like he was living in a nightmare of isolation and separation, of bigotry and misunderstanding, of looming doom. He had nothing to look forward for and only mistakes to look back at.

question: Will he eventually kill himself?

answer: no

question: Will he run away from his perfect life?

answer: No

question: Did he have a traumatizing childhood?

answer: Information not found.

question: Write a ~7 sentence summary.

answer: Sherman Pine had done everything right in his life. He was living the American Dream, a good job, perfect home, and family. But he constantly had this feeling of wanting to kill himself and constantly replacing it with the next goal. At an old age, after his daughter went to college, he felt like he was living in a nightmare. Nothing to look forward too and only saw his mistakes looking back. When he was on a bridge, trying to kill jump, he realized what was missing in his life. He only needed to live in the present, in the now.


text:
_CYRTOGRAMMOMMA_ is a monotypic genus of South American brushed trapdoor spiders containing the single species, _CYRTOGRAMMOMMA MONTICOLA_. It was first described by Reginald Innes Pocock in 1895,[1] and has only been found in Guyana.[2]

[1]

[2]

title: Cyrtogrammomma

question: What type of spider is Cyrtogrammomma?

answer: It is a brushed trapdoor spider.

question: Name the species contained in Cyrtogrammomma.

answer: Cyrtogrammomma Monticola

question: Who discovered the Cyrtogrammomma?

answer: It was first described by Reginald Innes Pocock in 1895.

question: List the countries where Cyrtogrammomma have been found.

answer: Guyana.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: Cyrtogrammomma Monticola is a brushed trapdoor spiders found in Guyana.


text:
[The Justice Department last year dropped all charges against Xiaoxing Xi, head of Temple University’s physics department; he had been accused of sharing sensitive American-made technology with China.]

Credit...Mark Makela for The New York Times

-   April 26, 2016

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has issued new rules that give prosecutors in Washington greater oversight and control over national security cases after the collapse of several high-profile prosecutions led to allegations that Chinese-Americans were being singled out as spies.

The new rules are intended to prevent such missteps, but without undermining a counterespionage mission that is a top priority for the Obama administration.

In December 2014, the Justice Department dropped charges against two former Eli Lilly scientists, Guoqing Cao and Shuyu Li, who had been accused of leaking proprietary information to a Chinese drugmaker. Three months later, prosecutors dropped a case against Sherry Chen, a government hydrologist in Ohio who had been charged with secretly downloading information about dams.

Then in September, the Justice Department dismissed all charges against a Temple University professor, Xiaoxing Xi, after leading physicists testified that prosecutors had entirely misunderstood the science underpinning their case.

“We cannot tolerate another case of Asian-Americans being wrongfully suspected of espionage,” Representative Judy Chu, Democrat of California, said last fall. “The profiling must end.”

While those cases raised the specter of Chinese espionage, none explicitly charged the scientists as spies. The cases involved routine criminal laws such as wire fraud, so national security prosecutors in Washington did not oversee the cases.

In a letter last month to federal prosecutors nationwide, Deputy Attorney General Sally Q. Yates said that would change. All cases affecting national security, even tangentially, now require coordination and oversight in Washington. That had always been the intention of the rule, but Ms. Yates made it explicit.

“The term ‘national security issue’ is meant to be a broad one,” she wrote.

Ms. Yates told federal prosecutors that consulting with experienced national security prosecutors in Washington would help “ensure prompt, consistent and effective responses” to national security cases.

The letter, which was not made public, was provided to The New York Times by a government official.

John P. Carlin, the Justice Department’s top national security prosecutor, reorganized his staff in Washington in recent years to focus more aggressively on preventing theft of America’s trade secrets. The new rules mean that espionage experts will review cases like Dr. Xi’s. Such cases “shall be instituted and conducted under the supervision” of Mr. Carlin or other top officials, the rules say.

Peter R. Zeidenberg, a lawyer for the firm Arent Fox, who represented Dr. Xi and Ms. Chen, called the new rules “a very positive step.”

Image[Sherry Chen, a government hydrologist in Ohio, was charged with economic espionage in 2014. The case was dropped five months later.]

Credit...Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times

“It’s welcome, and it’s overdue,” he said. “A bad reaction would be ‘We’re not going to do anything. Everything is fine.’ ”

Several of the cases fell apart when defense lawyers confronted prosecutors with new evidence or previewed the arguments they planned to make in court. In traditional white-collar criminal investigations, those conversations between prosecutors and defense lawyers often happen before charges are filed. In cases involving even a whiff of espionage, however, such conversations rarely happen. Authorities worry that suspects, tipped off to the investigation, will run or destroy evidence.

The absence of those conversations makes it important, then, that such cases receive an extra layer of review, defense lawyers said.

Ms. Yates did not mention the botched cases in her letter. But at the Justice Department, they were regarded as unfortunate — and perhaps preventable — black eyes that detracted from a string of successful espionage prosecutions. The United States faces an onslaught of economic espionage and other spying from China. Last year, Chinese hackers stole a trove of government data — including Social Security numbers and fingerprints — on more than 21 million people.

Last month, Su Bin, a Chinese businessman, pleaded guilty to trying to hack into American defense contractors to steal information on the F-22 and F-35 fighter jets and Boeing’s C-17 military cargo plane. In January, a Chinese citizen pleaded guilty to trying to steal corn seeds from American companies and ship them to China to replicate their genetic properties.

In the Obama administration’s most direct confrontation with China, the Justice Department in 2014 charged five membersof the Chinese People’s Liberation Army with hacking into prominent American companies.

Mr. Zeidenberg and others have argued that rushed cases create suspicion and unfairly tarnish reputations. In the case against the Eli Lilly scientists, prosecutors were unsparing in their description.

“If the superseding indictment in this case could be wrapped up in one word, that word would be ‘traitor,’” Cynthia Ridgeway, an assistant United States attorney, told a federal court in Indiana last year, according to the Indianapolis Business Journal.

The Justice Department gave no explanation for later dropping the case, saying only that it was done “in the interests of justice.”

Prosecutors made a similar statement last year when dropping charges against Dr. Xi. The dismissal suggested investigators did not understand and did not do enough to learn the science before they brought charges. Prosecutors had accused Dr. Xi, chairman of Temple’s physics department, with sharing schematics for a piece of American-made laboratory equipment, a pocket heater, with China. After leading scientists — including the inventor of the pocket heater — testified that the schematics showed an entirely different type of heater, the Justice Department dropped the case.

Though prosecutors dropped charges against Ms. Chen, the government has said it intends to fire her. She is fighting that decision.

question: What does the story say about why the term 'national security issue' needs to be broadened?

answer: The Justice Department last year dropped all charges against Xiaoxing Xi who had been accused of sharing sensitive American-made technology with China. Deputy Attorney General Sally Q. Yates says that all cases affecting national security now require coordination and oversight in Washington. According to new rules, espionage experts will review cases like Dr. Xi’s. That is why the term 'national security issue' needs to be broadened.

question: What does the article say about Dr. Xi's case?

answer: Dr. Xi had been accused of sharing sensitive American-made technology with China, but all charges against him were dropped. The dismissal suggests investigators do not understand and did not do enough to learn the science before they brought charges. According to new the Justice Department's rules, espionage experts will review cases like Dr. Xi’s.

question: What does the article say about crime statistics?


text:
Croatia |nationality = Croat |party = Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina |alma_mater = University of North London |awards = Crosses of Military Merit with White Decoration }}

ŽELJANA ZOVKO (born 25 March 1970) is a Bosnian-Herzegovinian Croatian diplomat and politician. Since 2016, she has been serving as a member of the European Parliament for Croatia.She is an international relations expert with a long-term rich experience in foreign affairs and diplomacy. Prior to her election to the European Parliament, she was an ambassador in France, Spain and Italy. During that time, she was also a Permanent Representative to UNESCO, WTO, IFAD, the FAO and the WFP. She received numerous awards for her work, notably for her contribution for inscribing the Old Bridge in Mostar on the World Heritage List. She was also awarded with the Grand Cross of the Order of Military Merit by King Juan Carlos I. Recently, Zovko received the award “Večernjakov pečat“in the category “One of Our Kind” for her active work and contribution to the well-being of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Early life and education

Zovko, a Herzegovian Croat from Mostar with dual citizenship of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, studied French language at the University of North London in the 1990s.[1]

Career

Career in the public sector

Zovko came back to Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1999 to work as associate for public relations and head of office for the Croat member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Ante Jelavić,[2].

In the 2000s, Zovko moved to the diplomatic service: she was named resident ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina to France from 2004 to 2008 (competent also on Algeria, Tunisia, Monaco and Andorra as well as UNESCO), then ambassador to Spain between 2008 and 2011 (competent also on Morocco and the Madrid-based World Tourism Organization).[3]

In 2012 Zovko came back to Bosnian politics, working until 2015 as foreign affairs advisor for the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina Vjekoslav Bevanda.[4]

In apparent conflict of interest (dual allegiances as a career diplomat), in May 2014 Zovko contested the 2014 European Parliament election in Croatia on the list of the “Patriotic coalition” linked to the Croatian Democratic Union. She won 2,392 votes. She was not elected.[5][6][7]

From May 2015 to October 2016 Zovko was appointed as ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Italy.[8]

Member of the European Parliament, 2016–present

In 2016, following the resignation of Andrej Plenkovic and Davor Ivo Stier who went to form a new government in Croatia, and the refusal of Ivan Tepeš to replace Stier, Zovko took up a place in the European Parliament as MEP for Croatia. Her switch of loyalties from the Bosnian diplomatic service to representing Croatian voters in the European Parliament raised some criticisms in the press.[9] During her first term, she served on the Committee on Development (DEVE). Following the 2019 elections, she joined the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

In addition to her committee assignments, Zovko is a member of the parliamentary delegation for relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo (DSEE) [10] She is also a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on Seas, Rivers, Islands and Coastal Areas.[11]

In 2017 October, Zovko was deployed to Nepal as the Chief Observer under European Union Election Observation Mission to Nepal to observe the 2017 Nepalese legislative election.[12]

Zovko is now serving her second mandate at the European Parliament. Zovko is a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and substitute member of the Committee on Culture and Education and Subcommittee on Security and Defence. She is also a member of the Delegation for relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo and substitute member of the Delegation for relations with the United States and the Delegation to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly.

In October 2020., Zovko was elected as co-chair of the MEP Lung Health Group.

Zovko has recently been elected as Vice-chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. [13]

[1] Bio on EPP Group

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7] Results of 2014 elections, Croatia

[8]

[9]

[10] European Parliament

[11] Members 2019-2024 European Parliament Intergroup on Seas, Rivers, Islands and Coastal Areas.

[12]

[13] http://zeljanazovko.eu/en/zeljana-zovko-elected-vice-chair-committee-foreign-affairs

title: Željana Zovko

question: How can you describe the career of Zeljana Zovko?

answer: She has been serving as a member of the European Parliament for Croatia since 2016 and is an international relations expert with long-term rich experience in foreign affairs and diplomacy.

question: What did Zovko study at the University of North London?

answer: She studied French at the University of North London.

question: What did Zovko work as when she came back to Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1999?

answer: She worked as an associate for public relations and head of office for the Croat member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Ante Jelavic.

question: What recent position does Zovko hold?

answer: Recently, Zovko has been elected as Vice-chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: This article describes in detail the political career of Zeljana Zovko, a Bosnian-Herzegovinian Croatian diplomat and politician.


text:
RED CANYON is a canyon in the Caballo Mountains in Sierra County, New Mexico. The canyon has its head on the west slope of the mountains at . It descends westward to its mouth where the canyon emerges from the mountains near where its wash confluence with the Rio Grande at an elevation of 4,232 feet / 1,290 meters.[1]

[1]

title: Red Canyon (Caballo Mountains)

question: What is Red Canyon?

answer: Red Canyon is a canyon in the Caballo Mountains in Sierra County, New Mexico, US.

question: What are the Caballo Mountains?

answer: the article does not answer this question

question: What is Sierra County?

answer: the article does not answer this question

question: What is the Rio Grande?

answer: the article does not answer this question

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: Red Canyon is a canyon in the Caballo Mountains in Sierra County, New Mexico, US.


text:
[]

Last month, TF2 celebrated its landmark tenth birthday.
Valve marked the occasion with the release of a major update: new maps were added to the Casual rotation, the matchmaking system was overhauled, and Pyro was given a jet pack (and Spy mains a Rainy Day Case of the blues).

However, there’s been another significant birthday in the community – our own!

This week, it’s been ten years to the day since ETF2L first began.

During that time, we’ve overseen twenty-eight seasons of sixes, thirteen of Highlander, eleven Nation Cups and myriad tournaments more. We’ve seen thousands of players compete, frag and frenetically call for Medic, across over twenty-five thousand teams. Join us as we look back at ETF2L’s competitive history, from ctf_2fort and cp_well to the competitive game we play today.

IN THE BEGINNING, THERE WAS DUSTBOWL

In November 2007, ETF2L was established to provide a competitive ladder for the incredibly new European  TF2 community.

To begin with, ETF2L let the playerbase decide how the competitive meta would be. Various votes were had and polls proposed. It wasn’t always a given, for example, that there would only be one Medic per team and no random crits, regardless of how inconceivable anything otherwise might seem today!

Overall, the community’s decisions were sound. It was decided that season one would feature a class limit of two for every class other than Medic and turn off random crits, throwing the game’s most fair and balanced mechanic to the wind.

To complement this, the community were also allowed to choose the maps. Unfortunately – though retrospectively amazingly – the calls here lacked the same degree of prescience. Accordingly, the final map rotation for season one featured:

-   cp_granary
-   cp_gravelpit
-   ctf_turbine
-   cp_well
-   ctf_2fort
-   and – of last but not least – cp_dustbowl

Of all the season one maps, only Granary has remained consistently in the rotation. Gravelpit was dropped after season twelve, Well after season seven, and Turbine after season eight, with a few intermittent reappearances in later seasons since. Sadly (if not understandably), Dustbowl and 2fort were left behind at the end of season two.

SEASON ONE

Sixes season one began in  January 2008.

The winning team of Div 1 (the equivalent of Prem) was [European] RELIC (FKA 4 Kings) as [Sweden] KOMPANIET came in second, and [Finland] CLAN UNITED third.

However, at the beginning, few teams enjoyed greater dominance than 4 Kings. The team went on to consecutively win all first six seasons of Div 1, and remained unchallenged until season seven, where they placed third behind winners [European] EPSILON ESPORTS and [European] TCM GAMING.

Three and a half years later, ETF2L pushed the cart into new frontiers, and the Highlander gamemode was born.

The first, second and third seasons were all won by [SouthKorea] SNSD. The team were undefeated for all of their history until the very last second of season four, losing in the Grand Finals to [France] DAROUTOUTOU.

THE TEAMS

It’s not a Team Fortress if there aren’t any teams. In the last ten years, ETF2L players have created over 25,000 of them, ranging from national sides showcasing the continent’s greatest talents to groups of friends running Spies to mid.

Though long gone are the days of stealing the Intel and setting up two Engineers on Dustbowl last, two of the oldest teams in ETF2L history still play competitively today!

[UnitedKingdom] CLANDA trace their history back to Team Fortress Classic, and played the very first matchweek of ETF2L season one. Since then, they’ve amassed an incredible 276 competitive matches and played every game of every season to date.

‘We started on day one’, said b0nes, a founding member who remains with the team today. ‘It was very different. No one had a clue how to play. There were no weapon unlocks yet, so it was totally vanilla’.

‘We all started as  8v8, because that was how TFC was played. All of the people at the top of early TF2 came from TFC. We were the people sitting and waiting for TF2 to come out. However, ‘ETF2L started as 6v6. And the rest is history’.

Comparing TF2 then to TF2 now, nothing made a greater impact than the introduction of the Gunboats, b0nes added. ‘By a mile. Now soldiers don’t have to know how to aim. They just bump about the place’.

Closely following clanda in the appearances rankings are [Germany] HERBSARMY. Another team that came from TFC, they’ve played 222 fixtures, spanning every season of competitive ETF2L but one and five.

_Teams with the most appearances:_

AND THE PLAYERS

Just as several teams have been in the league since the start, there are several players who’ve consistently been at the heart of the action.

The player who’s made more appearances than anyone else is [England] _Hildreth_.

After joining ETF2L in October 2010 as a member of [European] LAGTASTIC GAMING, Hildreth’s played 291 games across both Highlander and sixes, with 109 being at Prem level. Most notably, he’s played with teams [European] HIGHPANDER©and [European] POLITICALLY CORRECT PANDER, with whom he continues to create gimmicks today.

Following Hildreth closely behind are [UnitedKingdom] _b0nes_ (274), [Latvia] _atomic-_ (260), [Denmark] _Dr. Phil_ (259) and [Germany] _stefaaan_ (252).

Whilst Hildreth’s played the most games, he hasn’t played the most in the Prem. That honour goes to another English Demoman – [UnitedKingdom] _kaidus_.

Though Kaidus joined his first team in 2008 (Shut Up and Play), his league experience began in season four with team [European] FAKKELBRIGADE 2. By season eight, he was starring in the Prem with [Netherlands] FAKKELBRIGADE alongside Fisshu, drleånn, Arie, Exfane, and Mirelin.

Kaidus’ success in ETF2L speaks for itself: he’s joint second for the most awards in the league’s history (tying with [Germany] _stefaaan_ at twelve and behind [Wales] _Mike_, who won seventeen). Amongst many other accomplishments, he’s played for [European] SE7EN (FKA Reason Gaming and nerdRage), founded, coached and led [European] SE7EN, and won multiple international LANs. Most recently he’s played in High for [UnitedKingdom] FM-ESPORTS.

_Prem appearances:_

BEHIND THE SCENES

Running a league for ten years requires a fair amount (read: a small mountain’s worth) of organisation, and – over time – a huge number of users have contributed countless hours to making the league the best it can be.

Alongside the sheer hours of ensuring that everything is ticking over, many admins have dealt with literally thousands of user queries:

‘I didn’t immediately follow or join competitive Team Fortress 2’, said former Head Admin CanFo, who currently plays for HerbsArmy. ‘I only played public and found a neat server with pleasant people. With some players from that server, I founded my first team, which I played with for about four years’.

‘Eventually, the team disbanded but I had no desire to stop playing TF2. I was looking for a team with players of the same mentality and with the same goals, which is just to play a few nights a week and have fun’.

CanFo acknowledged that he didn’t have quite the desire to get to the top of the league. However, he realised he could meaningfully participate in a different way. ‘I noticed quickly that I wouldn’t progress that far’, he said, ‘and figured I could put my skills to use as admin’.

It wasn’t just skills that CanFo put to good use; it was time, too. ‘It required a lot of hours.  At times, it was basically like a second job.

However, I enjoyed helping people and felt useful. The community was really important to me and I felt I was making an impact. It gave me purpose.’

The league’s longest serving admin is [Germany] _Sonny Black_. Like CanFo, he began playing competitively with a team of players from a community server.

‘My Counter Strike 1.6 and Battlefield 2 community became a Team Fortress 2 community’, Sonny said. ‘Soon I was hooked and spent countless hours on the community’s public servers.’

‘Eventually, around Season 3, I found out about ETF2L and I started watching matches. Soon after, I recruited players from my community and its public servers for my first team and we started playing in four leagues at the same time. Pretty quickly I wanted to be involved more than just as a player and I applied as admin!’

‘Before too long, I found myself taking every opportunity I could get to form and shape the league, even though I was only a trial. This led to over a year as a league admin and four years as Head Admin. It was very exhausting at times, but it felt good helping the community and trying to make TF2 the E-sport it deserved to be’.

THANK YOU!

For playing your part in ETF2L history. Here’s to the next decade!

Written by [UnitedKingdom] _joe the brave_

[]

question: How did Valve mark TF2's tenth birthday?

answer: By adding new maps to the Casual rotation, an overhaul to the matchmaking system, and Pyro was given a jet pack.

question: What organization was also celebrating its tenth birthday?

answer: The European TF2 community, ETF2L.

question: When was ETF2L established?

answer: November 2007.

question: Of all the season one maps, which one has remained consistently in the rotation?

answer: Granary

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: As Valve celebrated the tenth birthday of TF2 by adding new maps, giving Pyro a jet pack, and overhauling the matchmaking system, the European TF2 community, ETF2L, also celebrated their tenth birthday. The post mentions all the decisions made by the community as sound while detailing events that happened during the first two seasons. The post also mentions the teams, players, and all the people behind the scenes running the league for the last ten years.


text:
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland says it is significant that the United States joined its Arctic Council partners in signing a declaration that supports the Paris accord on climate change.

Canada, the U.S. and its six Arctic Council partners adopted the nine-page "Fairbanks Declaration 2017," which noted that the Arctic is warming at more than twice the rate of the global average.

The document noted the importance of reducing soot and methane emissions and said climate change is the most serious threat to Arctic biodiversity.

Freeland also praised the work of U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at the two days of Alaska meetings, which wrapped up Thursday night, in getting a consensus on recognizing the Paris accord.

Donald Trump pledged to renegotiate the accord during last year's U.S. election campaign, but has wavered on the issue since taking office.

Freeland had no comment on Tillerson's public remarks after Thursday's meeting – the U.S. will not rush to decide its climate change policies.

But she made clear it was important for all Arctic Council countries, including the U.S., to acknowledge the Paris accord and the importance of fighting climate change.

"Canada is very pleased the Paris agreement is in that declaration," Freeland said in a conference call from Fairbanks on Thursday night.

"We know that climate change is having a powerful impact and we believe that only concerted international action is going to do what it takes to fight climate change.

"We got to a very good place on climate change in this agreement."

Earlier, Tillerson said the Trump administration was still reviewing its climate change policies, notwithstanding his signature on the Arctic Council's latest declaration.

"We are appreciative that each of you has an important point of view, and you should know that we are taking the time to understand your concerns," Tillerson said.

"We're not going to rush to make a decision. We're going to work to make the right decision for the United States."

Tillerson's words and actions averted a scenario that many observers feared might emerge from the Arctic Council meeting – the U.S. announcing its withdrawal from Paris.

Protesters greeted Tillerson Wednesday afternoon in Fairbanks with a sign that said, "Welcome to the frontline of climate change."

Freeland said Tillerson played a "strong and positive role in holding the chair in all eight Arctic countries in getting to a public declaration that we were all able to sign, which includes very clear recognition of the Paris agreement" as well as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

"I'm pleased that we got to a good place thanks to the partnership of all the Arctic Council members, very much including the United States, and very much including Secretary Tillerson."

_– With files from the Associated Press_

question: When was the article written?

answer: 2017

question: For which country is Chrystia Freeland the Foreign Affairs Minister?

answer: Canada

question: Who is the U.S. Secretary of State?

answer: Rex Tillerson

question: What countries are part of the Arctic Council?

answer: The U.S., Canada, and six other unnamed countries

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister, Chrystia Freeland, has praised the U.S. for joining its Arctic Council partners in signing a declaration which supports the Paris accord on climate change.


text:
 Under the Rug
New neighbor moved in a few weeks ago downstairs. I don’t like him. I never even met him. The only thing I know is that he’s a chemist, calls himself an inventor. All he knows to invent are new ways to make me mad. He’s the kind of person that likes to take his work home with him. He works with Helium, a precious gas that will hopefully be wiped off the Earth. Though I never spoke to him, I know what he does. I feel it through the floor. He made a solid thing that floats. I heard thumping on my floor. The thump grew louder. There was a loud crash. The mad man broke my floor. I did not know that at the time, the object was contained in my rug. I panicked, so I grabbed my chair and threw it at the “bump” the object left. Ripping my rug, my chair landed on the floor below. He got the message, without a doubt. I lay awake during the next few nights waiting for his next attack. There was nothing other than the usual thumping that would drive me mad. One week passed, nothing; the thumping even stopped. That was the most soothing, peaceful week of my life. On the second week, he sent the helium object up again, breaking my newly fixed floor. Out of panic, I threw my chair again, breaking my rug again. To his surprise, my reaction was just and civil. I invited him to talk about how he will repay me. He made a promise to pay for any repairs necessary. Using my advanced persuasive skills, I made him tell me just when he would leave his apartment. I had a plan to sneak into his apartment and take some of that stuff that he calls “work.” I was going to let him taste his success, quite literally. The very next day I picked his lock, rummaged through his apartment only to find a gallon container filled with the stuff. It gave off a retched odor. I took a handful, put it in my pocket, locked his door and walked upstairs, knowing he would be back exactly three minutes past two. That was only twenty minutes away. As I entered my apartment, my mind raced with ideas. The only one that stood out, that was simple, yet clever, was to boil it and put it in tea. Yes, that would be perfect. I do my laundry and wash my hands; I set up several candles and spray air fresheners to steer away from the smell. Inviting him over was simple. Getting him to drink was the difficult task. He gladly sat down at the table while I brought over drinks. He rejected it. I then began using my persuasive skills to get him to drink. He then gave me a look as if he was sick of me. That’s how I know it worked. He took a sip and I smiled. I told him to drink up, and he did. He said he felt weak. I told him to lie down as he fell unconscious. By now, the tea got to his blood stream and in his heart. It must have started to clog his heart. He got weaker and weaker until I heard his last words “What is happening to me?” As he lay there, dead at 3.a.m. in my apartment, I grabbed a garbage bag and slipped him the hole through that he created. Knowing the evidence was not hidden, my plan started to turn into Swiss cheese. The body bag hit the floor with a thump. My heart started racing. I thought that the noise would be alarming and a neighbor would barge in while I stand peering over a dead body in a trash bag. I dashed downstairs. Opening the bag, I started to smell his dead body. I lift this man, who was surprisingly heavy, and lifted him on the couch. I moved his gallon of solid helium next to him. Later, I rummaged through his kitchen and made some tea. I spilled some in the sink and set it on the coffee table next to him. Going back upstairs, I entered my apartment. I took my helium covered jacket and burned it.

title: First short story I ever wrote for school, not quite finished, this is my first draft, feedback would be appreciated.

question: Why did the narrator throw the last of the tea into the sink and leave the mug on the inventor's table?

answer: He wants the police to think that the inventor killed himself

question: How can the body stink so soon after the murder?

answer: Either some time has passed since the narrator killed the inventor or the inventor doesn't bath

question: If the chemical smelled so retched, how was the narrator able to convince the inventor to drink it?

answer: I am not sure anyone could have such persuasive skills as to convince someone to drink it voluntarily so perhaps the persuasive skills were physical.

question: Why would the narrator feel that he must burn the helium covered jacket?

answer: He is hiding evidence.

question: Write a ~12 sentence summary.

answer:
A chemist/inventor moves into the flat downstairs from the narrator. The new neighbour works with helium. The narrator feels the heavy things that float up to the ceiling and knock on his floor. One day the load breaks through the floor and the narrator throws a chair at it. It lands in the flat downstairs. It happens again. The narrator speaks to the inventor who agrees to pay for repairs.

The narrator finds out when the inventor will be out, breaks into his flat and steals some chemical. He makes some tea with the chemical and when the chemist returns, convinces him to drink it. The inventor dies. The narrator tosses him through the hole in the floor. Then takes the tea downstairs and leaves traces of it in the sink.


text:
Golden stalks of grain danced in the wind as we sped past them. The field around me undulated in the wind like a tumultuous sea. The setting sun bathed the world in red and orange, glaring harshly through my back seat window. Dust from the road coated the glass, masking the outside world in a hazy gauze.
Lost in a world of my own, I imagined the oncoming truck to be a majestic galleon, flying the royal colors of the evil king.
“Helmsman! Bring er’ round to broadside!” I shouted to my mother in the front seat. She jumped, swerving our car out of the lane onto the shoulder of the road. The car behind us honked ferociously as it sped around us.
“What did I say? Stop your stupid games, sit down, and shut up!” She spat.
“Aye, captain,” I murmured quietly, so she wouldn’t hear. I returned to my window, defeated.
I tried to make out the murky shapes in the distance. Was that a sea serpent peeking its head above the waves? Had some monster of the deep braved the airy world to satisfy its curiosity of the land dwellers?  I turned to my mother, desperate to question her about the “lock-less” monster the older kids at school had warned me about. But Mother didn’t appreciate questions. I looked back to the window, watching for more monsters.
I tried to give up my musing to watch the lines of the road zip by. The tiny reflectors picked up our car headlights and gleamed brilliantly. I couldn’t help but imagine a group of sea creatures flaunting their fluorescent bodies. Our vessel glided over the glassy waters they danced together in, oblivious of the magic below it.
Every summer we made this trip. We spent hours on empty highways in silence, save for the occasional static filled radio channel or empty conversation. We were headed to my father’s house, or in my mind, home.
I treasured the few precious holidays I spent with him. Normally, he would have met us halfway to liberate me, but he had been called to an important meeting. I imagined how I would have rejoiced in my freedom, shouting orders to my father.
“Veer slightly right, Captain!” I would have commanded.
“Nay, landluver! Tis starboard ye’ be wantin!” He would have replied in his best seafaring accent.
I groaned in frustration.
I hated how boring it was with her. My choice of literature quickly became contraband. “Magic and fantasy,” she would say, “are inappropriate for a young Christian boy.” Video games and secular music were often subjects of debate as well, and she usually confiscated anything she could lay her hands on.
Imagination was my only refuge when my mother came home howling and sobbing again. It became my best friend when she would announce year after successive year that we would be moving, so she could find a new job or meet a new man. I often wondered where “home” would be when I returned from my visits.
So, instead of reading my copy of Harry Potter tucked neatly away in a corner pocket of my backpack, or playing on the GameBoy I’d smuggled in my jacket, I watched the road speed by.
My imagination became the adventure I longed for. There I could be the handsome airship pilot, standing behind a polished wooden helm, studying the clouds drift lazily below me. Sometimes I was an edgey detective, tailing a suspicious broad in a rainy, monochrome street. Other days, I was a wizened and greying wizard standing in my tower above the city, creating a spectacle of light for the people below to marvel at. When it rained I was a dark and mysterious ranger, inching my way through a forest and searching for my prey. Most days I was the captain of a sea vessel, strong and courageous, barking orders to my crew.
The sun had set and the moon stood vigil over the land. The ever silent sentinel cast light over the sea of grain. I wondered what kind of crew would be bunking on my ship at this time of night. Would my ship be manned by the most dastardly dogs of the rough seas? Would I pirate and loot the great, rich, pompous cities of the world and spread my wealth to the poor? Or would I be a member of the most dashing and refined men to ever set sail, treading new waters for kings? I liked to imagine I would be the former.
“Son,” my mother interrupted my thoughts, “Look, I know I’m hard on you sometimes, and moving to and fro all the time isn’t easy for you,” She turned to me, her face stern and beautiful as always, “And I’m sorry. But I love you very much, and I only want what’s best for the both of us.” Her face softened as she turned back to the road. “It’s hard for me too.”
I sat silently, my imagination stilled.
“I know sometimes you think of moving to your father’s house like you other siblings did, but I need someone to be the man of the house, son,” she said. “Please don’t leave me, okay? Will you promise to stay and be my captain?”
She was right, I wanted to escape sometimes, but I couldn’t stand the thought of leaving her alone. Besides, she could take away my books and games, but my imagination was my own.
“Aye” I promised her.
And that seemed to make everything okay.

(Posted from my phone,  so please excuse the formatting! I submitted this in my schools' writing competition and won first prize, but it's a pretty small school, so I'd like to get this out there and get some criticism from a broader audience. Thanks in advance you beautiful people!)

title: [RF] A Captain's Oath (Feedback wanted!)

question: What does the story say about the type of relationship the narrator has with his mother?

answer: The narrator's mother shouts at him for for playing his "stupid games" while driving and distracting her. The narrator hates how boring it is with his mother. She confiscates his video games, fantasy novels, and his secular music. Toward the end of the story, his mother pleads with him not to abandon her. He can't stand the thought of leaving her alone and agrees to stay.

question: Summarize everything relating to imagination.

answer: The narrator imagines an oncoming truck is a galleon, flying the colors of an evil king. His mother scolds him and tells him to stop playing his stupid games. He imagines the murky shapes in the distance are sea serpants. Imagination is the narrator's refuge when his mother comes home sobbing and during their frequent moves. He imagines himself as an airship pilot, an edgy detetive, a wizened wizard, and a mysterious ranger. He knows that no matter how many of this things his mother takes away, he will always have his imagination.

question: What does the story say about the narrator's father?

answer: The narrator considers his father's house his true home. He treasures the holidays he spends with his father. This time, his father has been called to an important meeting. His father also participates in the narrator's make-believe. The narrator sometimes thinks of moving to his father's house like his other siblings did.

question: Summarize the narrator's career as a captain.


text:
To Hatch From a Broken Egg

I was sitting in the living room with my arms crossed when Grandpa gathered the family around the dining room table. Grandpa was a giant of a man, with thighs like redwoods and hands like plains. I was the last to stand up when I began to walk over to the circle that had formed around the table. “I would like to see,” Grandpa began, with big pauses between each phrase, “someone attempt to balance this egg upright, without using any tools to hold it up.”

The whiteness of the egg stood out in Grandpa’s wrinkled and purple spotted hands. It seemed so small. I studied the egg while my family began to buzz. My older cousin smirked and whispered something in my Dad’s ears that made him laugh. Uncle Joe was doing one of his James Cagney impressions to my brother and cousin. Aunt Anna had walked in the room from cooking and chuckled when she saw my grandpa holding the egg.

I was the only one paying attention, focusing on how you could possibly make a small oval stand. No one else was going to complete this challenge but me. When my Mom put her arms around my chest, and gave me a kiss on the cheek I pushed her away and said, “I can do it!”

My grandpa’s heavy eyes shifted to me and his lips peeled into a grin, revealing yellow stained crooked teeth. His hands, like a giant compared to mine, handed me the egg. I began working right away.

I made quick glances to Grandpa as I tried to balance it, hoping his gray eyes would light up at a correct attempt or that his white eyebrows would raise at a sign of progress, but he remained unemotional and still. I tried to ignore the commentary of my family at first.  Dad said, “oh so close,” several times with a laugh while Uncle David commentated like a sports announcer, “Jake Lacey. Balancing the egg. Can he do it? Ah, keeps missing.”

After several minutes my older cousin said, “Come on, Jake. Give it back to Grandpa.” I ignored him but when my Mom stepped in saying, “Hun, you can try later, it’s fine,” the doubt became harder to ignore.

“Let me just try!” I said, trying not to sound upset.

Eventually my Uncle Joe stopped impersonating James Cagney. My father raised his eye brows and stood up from the table and my brother began to attack me. “Jake you can’t do it.”

“Don’t worry, Jakey. It’s impossible,” someone else said.

I wanted to shut my family up and make them see that I could do it. I wanted them to know that just I could complete a task that was impossible for most. And I did.

I finally stood the egg up right. It wasn’t balancing against anything; it was just standing up on its own. All because of me. I looked up in amazement, hoping to see my family enthusiastic with my accomplishment, but instead, half of them were gone and the other half had already moved on to new conversations. Only my cousin Rachel said, “Wow! Look guys! Jake did it!”

As Rachel began to get my family’s attention I looked to Grandpa who was not grinning but seemed thrown by the egg standing up. As I waited for a response from Grandpa, the whole family began to circle back around the table.

Before they could all see what I had done, Grandpa snagged the egg off the table, smashed it lightly against a plate, leaving the egg’s bottom flat surfaced with a crack, placed the it on the table, and forced a chuckle as everyone watched the egg stand up on its own. He said, “That is how you make an egg stand.”

I quickly looked at my Grandpa, who avoided eye contact with me and laughed deliberately with the older cousins. My head spun to my parents, who had acknowledged Grandpa’s quaint gag but not my success and then it spun back to my Grandpa who was still ignoring me.

I darted out of living room and up to my room. I dove into my bed, grabbed my Teddy and belted a long hard cry into my pillow. No one came up to check on me until after they had lit the candles.

title: Flash Fiction Piece, notes please?

question: What was most devastating for the boy?

answer: The boy succeeds in his grandfather's challenge to balance the egg. However, before the rest of the family notices, the grandfather takes it and smashes it. Then he makes the joke he had prepared. Apparently, his grandfather had never expected him to balance the egg.

question: Summarize all the attempts to balance the egg.

answer: Jake attempts to balance the egg for ages. At first his family stands around him giving commentary. However, when he continues after a long time, everyone tells him to give up. He proceeds and eventually does balance the egg.


text:
Jerry Schatzberg first discovered Bob Dylan after his friend, Andy Warhol superstar and Velvet Underground singer Nico, insisted the sought-after photographer should check out “the voice of a generation.”

He had no idea at the time how much his life would change just for taking her advice.

[Nico]

Nico (Jerry Schatzberg)

“I was friendly with a lot of musicians,” he told Fox News. “But I hadn’t gotten into Dylan. Nico kept saying, ‘Oh, you gotta listen to Dylan!’ I was photographing her for a book and she knew him. She kept saying I had to listen to Bob Dylan. I kept telling her I would. And then finally I did. And I was hooked. Hooked to the music and listening to the poetry.”

Back then he had only heard of Dylan. But once he truly explored Dylan's tunes, he became an instant fan and was eager to photograph him. As it happens, Schatzberg would go on to photograph Dylan during one of the singer’s most pivotal moments of his life, when he had shocked his fans by going electric.

[]

(Jerry Schatzberg)

Schatzberg, now 91 year old, recently released a book titled “Dylan by Schatzberg,” which chronicles their relationship over the years in photos and memories.

The freewheeling adventure started in 1964.

“I was photographing some musicians,” he recalled. “I said half-jokingly, ‘If you ever see Dylan, tell him I’d like to photograph him.' And the next day I got a call from his wife Sara [Lownds]. … She said, ‘Bobby hears you want to photograph him.’ … She gave me an address where he was recording ‘Highway 61 Revisited.’ She said, ‘He knows you’re coming.’”

The next day, Schatzberg headed to Dylan’s studio. It was six days after the Newport Folk Festival set where Dylan went electric and was collectively booed. Schatzberg didn’t know what to expect of the singer, who was famously wary of the press and notoriously private.

[]

(Jerry Schatzberg)

Instead, he received a surprising welcome.

“He was just as open as any one of my friends,” said Schatzberg. “He kept saying, ‘Oh you gotta listen to this.’ He loved to have people listen to what he was recording. He played something for me and I was just so impressed. … That’s how it started.”

Schatzberg quickly impressed Dylan with his photographs and the pair found themselves quickly becoming friends. When Schatzberg wasn’t photographing Dylan or listening to a track in progress, the duo would bond over dinner or visit discoteques that the cameraman believed were “fashionable.”

“I was inhibited by the whole situation because by then, everybody knew who Bob Dylan was,” admitted Schatzberg. “I fell in love with his music, as everybody else did. And it just evolved. And we got along personally. … He’s not very open and cordial to the press. He doesn’t like being asked questions and they’re always asking the same ones. It’s just not him. But he knew that he had to put up with it for a while. I’m sure he still does.”

[Edie Sedgwick]

Edie Sedgwick (Jerry Schatzberg)

In 1966, Dylan even asked Schatzberg to photograph his friend, Warhol muse and Vogue It-girl Edie Sedgwick.

“His manager was going to represent her,” said Schatzberg. “When I asked him what they were going to do with her, he said, ‘I don’t know. I just think there’s something there.’ And he was right. Because of all the photographs I sell, other than Dylan, she’s one of the most requested.”

However, it was Schatzberg’s session with Dylan for his 1966 album “Blonde on Blonde” that became one of the most iconic images in music.

“I was asked if I would do the cover,” Schatzberg explained. “… I’m sure to Dylan, the [title] meant something. But I really couldn’t find out. I just took it for what it was. … I shot him in the studio, but I wasn’t really satisfied. Something was just not coming across… Then I asked him if he would mind going out on the streets with me.

[]

(Jerry Schatzberg)

“I remember as a kid, my parents would take me to the Meatpacking District [in New York City] for wonderful steak and potatoes. I was always impressed with how it looked like down there. So we got into a car, looked around, found a location and began photographing. Dylan was famous, but I don’t think it affected people who were walking by.”

It was a wintry February day and both men wore barely-there jackets. Schatzberg snapped away as he shivered in the cold. The blurred image may have been a mistake, but it was the one Dylan chose for his album cover.

“If I didn’t show them to him, I would have taken those images out,” admitted Schatzberg. “The record company would have never published them. They were blurred. But he looked at them and he picked that one out. And what Dylan wants, Dylan gets. … It really does stand out.”

Many have long speculated the hazy aesthetic meant Dylan was on drugs. Schatzberg scoffed at the rumors that have persisted for decades.

[]

(Jerry Schatzberg)

“That’s why I tell the story,” he said. “[Drugs] had nothing to do with it. … We were cold, we were shivering. … But thank goodness. It’s a wonderful image.”

The famous location where the cover was shot is still there — if you look closely enough.

“The actual spot where I shot Dylan has been totally redone,” he said. “That once small little building is now modern. But if you step back, you can see in the background the buildings are the same buildings that were in the background when I photographed him.”

Schatzberg, who was already well-established by the time he met Dylan, continued to thrive as an in-demand photographer. Some of his subjects over the years included Aretha Franklin, Frank Zappa, Jimi Hendrix and even Fidel Castro, just to name a few.

[]

(Jerry Schatzberg)

Earlier this year, Schatzberg was in talks with Dylan’s manager about upcoming projects and what the future holds for the pair.

“In my way of thinking, and maybe I met too many people in my life, I don’t find him so inaccessible,” said Schatzberg. “He wasn’t inaccessible to me. Sure, I was intimidated at first… But he’s just a real person with an extraordinary talent.”

[]

(Jerry Schatzberg)

question: Approximately when was the article written?

answer: That information can't be found

question: How old is Jerry Schatzberg?

answer: 91 years old

question: Who is Jerry Schatzberg?

answer: A professional photographer

question: When did Schatzberg first photograph Dylan?

answer: 1964

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: Jerry Schatzberg, a professional photographer, recounts how he met Bob Dylan and shares a few stories of their friendship over the years.