text:
When a team of leading economists led by Stanford's Raj Chetty recently linked the patent records of more than a million inventors with their tax records, they made a startling discovery: The best predictor of whether you're going to become an inventor is your tax bracket. If your parents were in the top 1 percent of income in the United States, you're 10 times more likely to file a patent than someone who comes from an economically disadvantaged background. In a recent paper explaining these findings, the Equality of Opportunity Project described generations of "lost Einsteins." As the gap widens between the haves and have-nots, the ranks of inventors are tapering to an ever more elite minority.

The study also confirmed what teachers have often reported: The remedies most often used to address these inequities-regimented curricula and standardized testing-may actually be making them worse. The more that "teaching to the test" dominates the school day, the more creative learning gets sidelined. Instead, the key element that makes a difference is exposure to innovation. We need to invest in children's imaginations.

But how? Classrooms are often overcrowded, teachers are overextended, and underserved schools are starved for resources. Fortunately, there are remedies that don't necessarily involve more money, just re-allocating time.

The change relies on understanding the nature of creativity. Our inventiveness grows from our ability to absorb the outside world and generate "what if" scenarios, extrapolating the known into the new. Everything that separates our world from that of 10,000 years ago comes from the human brain's everyday, lifelong neural manipulations: We take in the world and energetically refashion it.

Schools offer young minds a wider storehouse of knowledge than they would discover on their own. However, when we only train students to get to the right answer as reliably and efficiently as possible, we're missing a crucial step. Knowledge shouldn't just be a landing point-it should be a springboard. More class time needs to be devoted not just to mastering the material, but launching from it.

In history class, students can show their mastery of facts by constructing alternative histories. In science courses, students can explore science fiction prototyping, in which they imagine a future invention and extrapolate its effects on society. Art and music classes shouldn't stop with imitation of the masters; students need the chance to remodel their inspirations.

Experiential learning isn't enough if it's only about duplicating established results. The telltale sign of a creative classroom is one in which students all start from the source, and yet all arrive at different solutions.

Further, students need to learn how to manage risk and rebound from mistakes. That's where teaching to the test is particularly lacking. In multiple-choice questions, there's no value in a wrong answer. Inventiveness, on the other hand, depends on prolific options and a tolerance for the fact that many of them will fail. "Sandboxing" is one way of encouraging such gambits: Students try out multiple ideas before getting graded, receive feedback, and then pursue one of their options to completion.

For a part of each school day, classrooms need to become studios, workshops, and laboratories. Teachers sometimes express the concern that those kind of open-ended activities invite chaos. To the contrary, the data indicate that creatively engaged students are less distracted and disruptive. A 2013 study from Houston public schools, for instance, found a correlation between high arts involvement and decreased disciplinary and truancy rates-even after the researchers controlled for ethnicity, socioeconomic status, English-language fluency, and special education or gifted and talented designation. And there's a good reason for that: Our brains gradually tune out the predictable, making it a struggle to stay focused in the face of drills and rote learning. Surprise captures our attention.

Creative activities keep the school day filled with the unexpected, spurring focus. Around the country, schools that have added more creativity into the curriculum-whether though the arts or robotics-have seen their dropout rates and disciplinary problems decline.

Creativity is built into the human brain. Compared to other animals, we have more brain cells interposed between sensation and action—making us less reliant on reflex and more capable of flexibility. And our large pre-frontal cortex enables us to simulate possible futures. As a result of our evolutionarily recent brain expansion, every child carries on his or her shoulders the most inventive piece of machinery nature has ever produced. Creativity is a lifelong gift that needs to be rewarded and encouraged from a young age.

We're not only losing future Albert Einsteins, but also Emily Dickinsons, Lin-Manuel Mirandas, and Elon Musks. Over half a century of research has found the same creative abilities across all demographic groups. When cultivating creativity becomes a matter of privilege, society stalls its own engines. Cognitive flexibility is paramount in navigating our fast-changing world, and companies are clamoring for innovators. We can't afford to let another crop of students get marginalized. There's no reason an underserved classroom can't be as creatively vibrant as a well-funded one. Nurturing human ingenuity in every neighborhood will make our society not only fairer, but also more visionary and resilient.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

_Anthony Brandt, a composer, and David Eagleman, a neuroscientist, are the authors of The Runaway Species: How Human Creativity Remakes the World (Catapult, 2017)._

question: What does the article have to say about the effect class structure has had on creativity?

answer: The article claims that inventors have come mostly from people whose parents are in the top 1% of earners in the United States. This has lead to a gap widening between the haves and have-nots in society. Teachers have said that structured curricula can make these gaps worse. Public schools have a advantage as the class sizes are smaller and the teachers are given more freedom, which leads to the gap widening even further.

question: Does the article promote the idea of creative freedom, and if so, how so?

answer: It does. The article makes many suggestions to indicate that the amount of creative freedom that young people have can directly influence their success in a variety of mediums. The article indicates that there have been a number of 'lost Einsteins' because they haven't been given the opportunities to allow their creativity to thrive.

question: How are the examples of prominent artists explained in the article?


split: train

text:
SALEM CREEK may refer to:

-   Salem Creek (Missouri), a stream
-   Salem Creek (Richardson Creek tributary), a stream in Union County, North Carolina
-   Salem Creek (Pennsylvania), a tributary of the Susquehanna River

title: Salem Creek

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: Landing page for the search term 'Salem Creek', asking the viewer to be more specific.


text:
So, sometimes, I wonder if I did the right thing.

The most striking moment was brief. But it was so shocking, so powerful, that it still haunts me. With clarity. One facial expression, omnipresent. The set and slant of the brow, the furrowing in sync with the three quick movements of the pupils darting, processing the news in search of understanding; a quick reality-check to make sure this wasn’t a dream; and, finally, searching for an escape. His mouth attempting three times to find words for the concept, for the emotions that exploded within, for the pain and dread. Words his brain wouldn't provide. And then there it was. Tears formed, and his face became that of an eleven year old boy trying to be a man. A face of silent resignation fighting against a show of weakness and pain.

-

When we had first met, she was in, bad. I inspired her. She quit. We had problems. Bad problems. I don’t think we dealt with them in the ways that normal people do. Sometimes it was less constructive, probably, sometimes more, maybe. She cheated. We reconciled. We were growing up. It started when we were seventeen. In our twenties we left town. I don’t know if things got worse, or if we just wore down the same nerve endings for so long that it seemed worse.

She cheated again. I didn’t know what to do. Where was the line between allowing myself to be used and insulted, and becoming possessive and jealous?

A question seemed to jump out at me from everywhere. In my apartment, which never felt safe and inviting but instead either felt like a prison or a tomb, the question knocked on the door and echoed in the walls at night. From my frustrated and angry family who watched their son and brother drop to dark and painful lows, the question was in arched eyebrows and tight-lipped frowns and the occasional quiet, breathy muttering. It jumped from all the beer bottles of my single friends and from every pretty girl that smiled as she walked past. “Why do you stick around?”

Sometimes I wonder if I did the right thing.

How could I know? How could I trust? How could I be comfortable and happy again? How could I leave when I didn't know for sure? When she cried and begged me to stay? When the difference between knowing and not knowing was a decision between staying in spite of my pain only to be used and depressed or leaving and breaking the heart of a girl struggling against her demons in a genuine attempt to improve herself? How could I stay in spite of the rumors? How could I leave and withdraw my support and love? What would happen to me if I stayed? What would happen to her if I left?

What would happen to Eric?

I stayed because it was the right thing to do. Because somewhere I believed that if I could be better, things would get better. I worked hard to provide. I worked hard to be in good humor. I worked hard to show affection. Don’t yell. Don’t judge. Be supportive. Encourage her to go out with friends. Encourage her to get a job. Nothing changed. She cheated again.

And then it was too much. Her life was her own. I couldn’t be responsible for keeping her afloat anymore. Whatever mistakes she would make would be her own. I couldn't be her self-appointed psychological bodyguard anymore. She would have to face the consequences of her own actions. But what would happen to Eric?

-

By the look on his face you might have guessed that I told him his hamster had died. You might have guessed that a favorite toy had been broken, or a zoo trip had been cancelled. That look of dread and sadness – of anguish – and helplessness, it should never be associated with an eleven year old child. I knew that look, and the most heartbreaking aspect was the fear.

-

After we broke up she was back in our hometown within two days, settled in with her mother. Two days after that her new boyfriend had settled in with her. It hurt, but I wasn't terribly surprised, and besides, this isn’t about me.

She was back in. Bad. I wonder how blind I was. I wonder if she ever really quit. She bounced back and forth between the old town, and the new town. Shipping, probably. She looked worse every time I saw her. I tried to talk to her, to remind her that she could choose to be different. We are who we choose to become. She didn’t care. An addict’s primary function is always addict.

Of course she was arrested. She avoided prison, somehow. She’s in Christian rehab for a year. I tried for nine years. I never locked her in a basement and read her the bible, though, maybe brainwashing will do the trick. In the meantime Eric stays with his grandmother, and me on weekends.

And sometimes, I wonder if I did the right thing.

-

So a couple of weeks ago I had waited around until around nine a.m. I could leave town and do my route and end up in the old town around one, drop him off and be home by two-thirty. I walked into his room and turned on the snake’s light. I shut off the DVD player that had been repeating the Futurama title screen for who knows how long. I shook him gently and said “Eric. Hey Eric, wake up, buddy.”

His eyes opened, he looked miffed for a second, then cocked his head as if to ask me what was going on. Eyes wide, but barely focused.

“My route ends up in the old town, I need to take you with me so I can just drop you off and not use up more gas to drive all the way back again.”

By the look on his face, you might have guessed that I told him his hamster had died. The face of an eleven year old boy bottling up what he couldn't change.  Trying to be a man. It was the look of someone pleading against the universe and enduring an internal struggle against the titan of agony. It was the looked of the condemned.

Just the look on his face scared me. I asked him what was wrong; he said “nothing.” I asked him “you don’t want to go home?” He said “No.”

“Why?”

“I just. I-“ Tears now flowed from his eyes. His voice cracked and whined. “They just yell at me."

I know their tempers. I know their ways. I know their alcohol intake. It’s no place for a child to grow up, just look at my ex. I raised Eric for nine years to be willful, intelligent, curious and free. I want him to feel safe and happy. I know what its like to feel unsafe, to tread lightly, to fear the reactions of people bigger than me. I know what it feels like to lose hope. I do the best I can when he is here with me, but I don’t have any power to help beyond that.

“It’s ok,” I said. “Just hang out here, play the xbox or watch TV, I’ll be back to get you after my route.”

“No. I’ll go with you," He was shouldering a burden that wasn't his. "I don’t want to cost you money to drive back and forth too much.”

Tears shot to my eyes. I help up a scolding finger and started to talk, but my throat refused. I had to reset myself and swallow the emotion before I could get the words out, “No, that’s – you don’t worry about that. What I make and how much I spend is my concern, you let me worry about it. Money is garbage next to people.”

Now *I* was fighting back tears and trying to be a man, and for a moment maybe Eric and I had the same expression on our faces.  I gave him some money for lunch and went about my work and all day my thoughts raced and scattered and collected and formed visions and memories and near the end, in the middle of a field of tall milo, alone and invisible, I cried. I sobbed into my palms like a child.

I wanted the day to stop. I didn’t want to have to go home and tell him that it was now time to go. I didn’t want to have to deliver him into unworthy and dangerous hands.

I felt like I was being forced to deliver my little boy to the gallows.

And sometimes I wonder if I did the right thing.

title: The Right Thing. I need some honest and, if necessary, brutal feedback.

question: What caused the dissolution of the relationship between the narrator and his ex?

answer: She was a serial cheat.

question: Why was Eric upset about living with his mother and her boyfriend?

answer: Because they always yell at him.

question: Why did the narrator tolerate his ex's behavior?

answer: It appears he loved her and believed she would change her ways because she was struggling with her demons.

question: What was the narrator's ex's addiction?

answer: She was an alcoholic.

question: How did the narrator's ex get arrested, and for what crime?

answer: It is not stated, and it appears it was related to her addiction.

question: "I didn’t want to have to deliver him into unworthy and dangerous hands." What did the narrator mean by this, and whom was he referring to?

answer: The narrator was referring to his ex and her lover because of their drunken behavior.

question: Write a ~6 sentence summary.

answer: The narrator and his ex had a topsy-turvy relationship that ended badly because she constantly cheated on him. Despite dealing with her cheating and alcohol addiction, he always took her back whenever she pleaded with him for forgiveness, but she couldn't help herself and had to move out to stay with her mother in their hometown. Not long afterward, his ex's lover moved in with her. Her addiction got her arrested, and a year in a Christian rehab. Meanwhile, the narrator's eleven-year-old son, Eric, lived with him and had to shuffle between his grandmother's place and his father's. Eric did not like staying with his mother and her boyfriend back at home because they always yelled at him and displayed toxic behaviors, and it upset the narrator very much to have to send his son to a place he felt unsafe.


text:
Hanging from bed sheets that he had fashioned into a noose and tied to his fan, Sid slowly circled his room. He didn’t realize that his noose would flip the switch to turn on the fan.

Well, at least I’ll suffocate.

Slowly a tear begins in his noose. He can't see it, he can't hear it, but it is there and it is spreading further.

Sid’s vision begins to narrow; blackness begins encroaching from all around. The thought of peace finally enters his mind. A smile spreads across his lips, a moment that he has been waiting seemingly forever for is at hand. He feels his tongue begin to tingle, his face gets warm.  And then the tear gains momentum, there’s a ripping and Sid falls to the ground in a noisy heap.

Laying on the floor, in the darkness that almost engulfed him, disappointment rises and replaces the peace that had been in his mind.

Then the sound of a broom handle being pounded from downstairs, into the underside of his floor, and his granddad yelling, “Keep it down up there. That doesn’t sound like homework, is someone up there with you?!”

Sigh

Sid shakes his head, his vision beginning to expand again. There’s a blotch of black in the corner of his eye still, near his closet. He turns to look but only catches is a swoosh of black fabric slip behind his closet doors.

It’s only a few feet away, so while still weak from lack of oxygen he crawls on his hands and knees to the closet doors, sits back onto his legs, and opens them.

Standing there, like a medieval picture, is Death. Scythe in its boney hands, black robe shrouding a skull, glowing red lights in its eye sockets, and what appears to be a smile on its bare teeth.

Sitting there on the floor, looking up at the black robed skeleton, Sid thought maybe he was still hanging from the rope, maybe he really was dying.

Then there came more knocking by the broom to the underside of his room, “I said no body better be up there with you. Otherwise I’ll kick your ass myself!”

Sid looked down at the direction that the voice came from, then back up to the skeleton.

The smile that it had seemed to be wearing had gone, a redness seemed to take its place on its cheek bones, “Sorry about that.” said a deep, sheepish voice.

Sid was confused and speechless. His mouth dropped open and hung there.

“Now if you will please excuse me.” Death’s boney fingers reached to the door in an attempt to close it. “I can't magically disappear when someone is watching, wouldn’t be magic then, now would it.”

Sid found his voice in the tremendous disappointment he felt. “Wait, you aren’t taking me?!”

“Well, um,” Death coughed to clear his throat. “No. It’s not your time.” Death’s hand got a hold of the closet door, but Sid used what remained of his drained strength to keep it from closing in front of him.

“Not my time? I just hung myself and you’re here, apparently it’s my time.” Sid was adamant that he should die right here, right now.

Death let go of the door and pulled out a scroll from inside of his sleeve, looked it over, “What’s your last name again?”

“Swiggett, Sid Sabastian Swiggett. My parents liked S’s” normally he would be ashamed, but now he was just desperate to have it found on that scroll.

“David L. Rush, Ray K. Swabb, Anna E. Sydney, Tab T. Taft….” Death shook his skull as the smoldering red coals. “Who the hell names their kid after a soda? Nope you’re not on here.”

“Then why the hell are you here?” Sid demanded, frustrated.

“Um,” that’s when the sheepish grin, and rosy colour, returned to the skeletal complexion, “must have made a wrong turn on my way to the next stop. So sorry, got to go.” His chalky fingers quickly returned to close the closet door too quickly for Sid to try and stop it again. The door slammed shut, just in time too, because the door to the hallway swung open to an old man.

An old man who was scarier than death himself, held up by a walker, with a broom in his hand, no hair on his head and his thick glasses that made his eyes look enormous. He wore hearing aids and depends, his teeth had fallen out a lifetime ago and were now being impersonated, poorly, by yellowed dentures that clicked together when he he slept—somehow death hadn’t come for him, but his body had given up on waiting.

“Who was it that you were talking to?!” He swung the boom up and down, to emphasize his words. “You know you can't have anyone over here! You need to get your homework done!”

Sid looked away from his closed closet doors, looked at the remnants of sheet swinging in circles from his celling fan, at the chair that he had tipped over underneath it, at the tear stained hand written note on his desk, then finally turned his eyes to the old man standing in his doorway.

“Is it a girl? Is she hiding in the closet?” With agonizing slowness Gramps shuffled the walker to the closet and slid the door open.

Sid was as curious as Gramps was, but nothing notable was in there. It was just piles of comic books, dirty clothes, and the typical mess that is in every teenage boy’s closet.

Sid was still wondering where the Death had magically disappeared to, maybe he was just hallucinating the whole thing, when the handle of the broom came down hard on his head.

CRACK

“That’s for making me walk all the way up here.” Gramps was pissed. “I’m too old and tired. I’ll need a nap after this.” Gramps was always pissed.

As the old man shuffled his walker back out of Sid’s room and headed towards the stairs he grumbled under his breath, something about whippersnappers and ungrateful, typical grandpa things to grumble when old men are upset at young men.

Sid rubbed his head as he got up from the floor. Standing made him dizzy, maybe it was because of the lack of oxygen, maybe from the shot to the head he took from Gramps, or maybe because of the hallucination he had just seen, who knew. He walked over to the door that the old man had walked in and out of, shutting it.

Sid went to his desk and read his note.

Man that was a good one.

He folded it up; he’d use it as a draft for his next attempt. He reset up the chair and stood up on it again, reached up and untied the left overs of his bed sheet from the fan. He would just replace this old worn out sheet with another that was in the closet, from the hoard that Gramps had collected over his lifetime.

Sid got off his chair and pushed it back to where it belonged at his desk. Gramps was right to a point. He might as well get his homework done.

He grabbed his backpack off of his bed and pulled out a binder and some excessively heavy school books, setting the pile on his desk in front of his computer. As he took his seat in his chair he looked back over his shoulder, peered into his closet, and wondered if it was a coincidence that on top of his pile of clothes was a his favorite black hoodie.

title: An Encounter of Another Kind (1275 Words)

question: For whom did Death come?

answer: It seems likely Death came for Grandpa, as he's old and decrepid.

question: What is Sid supposed to be doing?

answer: His homework.

question: Why is Sid not that surprised or upset to see Death?

answer: He had already fashioned a noose from his sheets, so the presumption is he wanted to die.

question: What letter did Sid's parents like?

answer: "S".

question: Write a ~5 sentence summary.

answer: Sid is trying to kill himself by hanging but it isn't working. Just then Death shows up. Sid's old, decrepit grandpa is bothering him from downstairs. Death tells Sid it's not his time and leaves. Grandpa yells at Sid to do his homework, which Sid starts to do.


text:
Dark Castle is a 1986 computer game for the Macintosh published by Silicon Beach Software, later ported to various platforms, where it was published by Three-Sixty Pacific. It was designed and illustrated by Mark Pierce and programmed by Jonathan Gay.

Dark Castle is a platform game where a young hero named Duncan tries to make his way to the evil Black Knight, dodging objects as well as solving occasional puzzles. The game is notable for its use of sampled sounds to great effect. A sequel titled Beyond Dark Castle was released in 1987. A second sequel, Return to Dark Castle, was announced in 2000, though it was not released until March 14, 2008.

Mark Pierce was based in San Francisco with his own company MacroMind, while Jon Gay and the rest of the Silicon Beach team were in San Diego; so after an initial launch meeting, most of the collaboration between Pierce and Gay was handled remotely. Pierce designed the animations in MacroMind's "VideoWorks" (the direct ancestor of Adobe Director) and then mailed the files on floppies to Gay, who then coded the game in 68000 Assembly Language on an Apple Lisa (a few parts like the high-score system were written in Pascal). The digitized sound was created by Eric Zocher who worked with voice actor Dick Noel.

The game opens with a vista of the castle with storm clouds in the distance. The opening notes of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor play and are followed by thunderclaps. The title along with the programming and development credits are shown on this screen.

Movement within Dark Castle is typical for most platformers. Duncan can run, jump and duck, and can throw a limited supply of rocks at his enemies. More rocks can be found in little bags along the way, as well as bottles of an elixir that provide a one-time antidote to bites of the numerous rats and bats found around the castle.

To defeat the Black Knight, Duncan needs to pull several levers which topple him from his throne. To aid Duncan, a magic shield and the power to hurl fireballs can, fortunately, be found within the Dark Castle. The game begins in the Great Hall, where the player can choose from four doors. The large center door leads to the Black Knight. One other is marked with the shield, and the remaining two mysteriously alternate between the fireball course and a more troubling path. The game can be played at three different skill levels, the hardest "Advanced" level containing more enemies and a few extra surprises.

Computer Gaming World stated that Dark Castle was "the best arcade game I've seen for the Macintosh, and perhaps the best I've seen on any microcomputer, ever". The reviewer praised the sound and graphics, stating that he did not know that the Macintosh was capable of animations of such quality. He concluded that Dark Castle "is filled with lots of little touches that show it's one of the first steps toward what Silicon Beach likes to call 'interactive cartoons'." BYTE compared the game to Lode Runner, writing "There's nothing new about the basic concept, but the execution is impressive". The magazine praised its "slick animation and realistic digitized sound", and concluded that it "is a perfect way to fritter away those long winter evenings when you should be doing something productive". Compute! praised the Amiga version's "brilliant graphics, sound, and atmosphere" but criticized the keyboard/mouse control system and gameplay as too difficult. The reviewer also disliked the disk-based copy protection which caused him to fear damage to the disk drives, crashes when loading the game, and slow level loading.

Jon Gay has credited Dark Castle with helping to establish the reputation of Silicon Beach Software and with paying his way through college.

Game reviewers Hartley and Pattie Lesser complimented the game in their "The Role of Computers" column in Dragon #122 (1987), calling it "the finest arcade/adventure game ever designed for the Macintosh computer — as a matter of fact, for any computer!" and stating, "The graphics and animation are quite literally stunning!". In a subsequent column, the reviewers gave the game 4 out of 5 stars.

DEVELOPED BY
Silicon Beach Software, Inc.
RELEASED
1986
PLATFORMS
Amiga, Apple IIgs, Atari ST, CD-i, Commodore 64, DOS, Genesis, Macintosh
PUBLISHED BY
Silicon Beach Software, Inc.

GAMEPLAY
Platform
GENRE
Action
SETTING
Fantasy

DESCRIPTION

The Black Knight has brought misery to the land, and the end way to end this is to enter his haunted house to slay him. You are the brave adventurer taking on this quest through 14 increasingly-tough zones.

The bulk of the game is side-viewed, involving single screens to pass through, which incorporate ropes, cages and trapdoor. There are enemies walking, flying and hovering through this, and many of them respawn. Unusually your weapon to take them on (rocks) can be thrown through 360 degrees, which aims to make the gameplay more realistic and methodical. The screens were linked by hub screens, which the player passes through simply by clicking on a door.

From Mobygames.com. Original Entry

comment

Reviews
REVIEWER: nataliebardach - favoritefavoritefavorite - April 21, 2020
SUBJECT: Fun but Laggy

"Dark Castle" published by Silicon Beach Software and designed by Jonathan Gay features a player trying to get through a castle while avoiding all kinds of obstacles. The rules make sense, but the major thing I had trouble with is how laggy the reaction times were when I pressed the keys. I also could not figure out how to run, I only knew how to jump, so I died more times than I'm willing to admit. I definitely think the intended user was most likely kids from the kid-like graphics and sounds. Overall, even though I wasn't so successful in playing it myself, I still really enjoyed this game and I think it's really cool to still be able to look back at this.

REVIEWER: alcanadalicious - favoritefavoritefavoritefavorite - December 19, 2017
SUBJECT: Too Laggy for Microsoft

Played this on two different Microsoft computers and two different keyboards, and have confirmed that the controls are just too laggy. Sometimes you won't jump where you want to. And other times the game won't know when you let go of the "run" button--so you keep running.
The game is fun and playable, however, on a Mac. And if you're using Safari.

REVIEWER: n3wb-23 - favoritefavoritefavoritefavorite - October 25, 2017
SUBJECT: Wish this had the original controls

This is a great re-creation. I have wanted to replay this with the awesome mac sounds for a long time. The controls are just too laggy to play. It was a fun and difficult game, this is not really playable - wish you could just put on god mode and run through the levels for fun / nostalgia.

REVIEWER: daveJay - favoritefavoritefavoritefavorite - July 7, 2017
SUBJECT: Great game. Very fun

The gameplay in this game is super hard. You have to be so precise with a lot of elements to get things to go your way, I never beat the game, but I had a ton of fun playing it, even though the guy has a chronic dizziness problem : )

REVIEWER: gruz - favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite - June 11, 2017
SUBJECT: Great game, sketchy emulation

A fantastic action platformer with elements from several arcade games. With it's fast action and excellent "interactive cartoon" like graphics and sound, this game set a high bar for early Macintosh gaming.

After a few tests I determined the trouble with the laggy controls is actually only a problem in the Windows OS. This plays good enough on Mac using Safari, but really is unplayable in Windows.

If you're using Windows I suggest setting up the Mini vMac emulator to play these early Mac games.

REVIEWER: rzero - favorite - April 29, 2017
SUBJECT: bad game or bad emulator?

I can't tell if the emulator is laggy, making my controls unresponsive? Or is this just a terrible game? Maybe a bit of both.

REVIEWER: ERMlizzard - favoritefavorite - April 19, 2017
SUBJECT: So fun, but not playable

It was so much fun to see the graphics and hear the audio again. It brings back so much fun from my childhood, but unfortunately it's not playable. There is too much lag time between the push of a button and the reaction. I couldn't even get out of the dungeon and I used to be a master.

REVIEWER: gurgeous - favoritefavoritefavorite - April 16, 2017
SUBJECT: awesome, but

This is a tremendous effort and I appreciate the time and care that went into making this classic beloved game available for all to play. This is one of my favorites.

Unfortunately the emulator is a bit too slow to allow real play. Though I humbly consider myself a Dark Castle expert, I can't control it well enough to achieve much of anything. The controls are high latency and often unresponsive.

Nonetheless, thanks for putting this out there. Great to show the kids.

REVIEWER: BennettF - - April 16, 2017
SUBJECT: Tips for getting started

Once you enter the castle you need to press 1,2,3 or 4 on the keyboard to enter one of the doors. Generally you'll start with 4, the easiest level, which has an upgrade you'll need at the end of it. Don't attempt door 3 until you have the shield and fireball.

Controls are WASD for movement, mouse for aiming and throwing rocks, space for jump and Q to pick things up or operate levers. E makes you duck. There are three types of jump - normal, running and downward, and you need all of them to beat the game.

question: What is Dark Castle?

answer: Dark Castle is a computer game originally created for Macintosh and later ported to various platforms, programmed by Jonathan Gay.

question: When was Dark Castle first released? The sequel? The second sequel?

answer: It was first released in 1986, the sequel in 1987, and second sequel in 2008.

question: What does Computer Gaming World think about Dark Castle?

answer: It stated, that Dark Castle was "the best arcade game I've seen for the Macintosh, and perhaps the best I've seen on any microcomputer, ever".

question: Who is Duncan?

answer: It seems that Duncan is the character in Dark Castle who defeats the Black Knight.

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: Dark Castle is a computer game originally created for Macintosh and later ported to various platforms, programmed by Jonathan Gay. It was originally released in 1986 with sequels released in 1987 and in 2008. Computer Gaming World stated that Dark Castle was "the best arcade game I've seen for the Macintosh, and perhaps the best I've seen on any microcomputer, ever".


text:
My name is Jake Gillmore. Up until that devastating day that ruined my life, it was just ordinary.

I worked for a frieghter company called Lightspeed. They ship anything, from produce to livestock, from planet to planet. I was one of those stiff's who worked in the loading dock, drivin' a hoverlift; loadin' the pallet's and other cargo into the transport ship's. Not my job of choice, but it paid the bill's.

The only ray's of sunshine in my life were my Wife and our Son... Those are good memories. My wife Lana, a five foot seven, one hundred and five pound knockout. Her hair's long and flowin' red, eye's as blue as ice and her lip's are beautifully full and alive. She was my one true love. Then my son, John was born and suddenly I had two great loves in my life. The last time I saw him he was eleven. Like me, he was not an athlete, but a thinker. A good strong jaw, and developing those ruggedly good look's like his old man. He'll have to beat the girl's off with a stick.

Hopefully he'll take my advice and wait till he's grown up and spent some time for himself travelin' and explorin' before he start's the dating game.

Listen to me. I'm dronin' on and on, sorry. I like to revel in the good memories as much as I can, but if you'll stick around I'm sure my story will entertain you.

What was the tragic twist of fate that ruined my life? It was a year ago, as far as I can tell. One day, down on the loadin' dock, I was finishin' up loadin' a ship with produce. Much to my surprise Lana and John stopped by for a surprise visit. Out of the shadow's of another ship, a Terian stowaway emerge's and hold's my wife up at gun point in full view of me. Big mistake!

Wavin' that gun at my family. Terians aren't the brightess bunch in the galaxy. Ugly, worty creatures that look like a frog and fish combined into humanoid form. Three finger's including the thumb, and webbed feet. Every time I think of them I see that one, and I'd gladly kill him again, to protect my family.

That's right. I killed him. When I saw him and his gun, my vision of the world turned to red, and the next thing I know I come back to myself; a lifeless Terian gripped firmly by the throat in my hand's. A bullet wound in my arm, and a life shattered.

The case was open and shut in no time. My sentence a lifetime banishment to the horrible planet known as Torment.

Torment... That's a fitting name for this place. When it's day time the temperature reaches the hundreds, and even though it's constantly bright, there's no visible sun ever! The light permeates everywhere. There's no escaping it. It penetrates even into the caves and through the depth's of the local flora. It's as bright as the sun in all directions. No shadows are cast and no shade is made. Until night, escape from the light is impossible. Then the night is the same extreme. No visible moon or starlight.

Don't ask me how, it just work's that way here. Even with  a flashlight you barely can see what's directly in front of you, up to a foot. The temperature drop's to the negative's and a fire barely bring's comfort what with casting any light and warmth with in a one foot radius.

The planet is sandy, yet abundent with plant and animal life. The tree's grow thin at the bottom and get thicker at the top. The bushes constantly shift and move and all the animal's are vicious and blind. I don't mean that they can't see due to poor eye's. I mean that they have no eye's at all. What they lack in sight they make up for in hearing, though.

The only thing that's helped me to stay sane, is my faith in Jesus and the Lord. They give me the strength to carry on. In a place like Torment, strength is what one need's.

Another blistering day on torment. Today, like any other day I started by leaving my camp, and going to the water hole. The water is red, bubbling and has a hint of vanilla. Oddly the water is as cold as ice, even though it bubbles. Now if I only cared for vanilla, yuck.

The other day I spotted a Leeug. That's a creature about the size of a lion, that look's like a leech in color, smoothness and mouth, but it crawl's like a slug. Even worse it has four tentacle arm's with claw's on each end. It was disturbingly close yesterday, so I'm obviously a little on edge today.

It's a little suspicious to me that I even spotted it, since they have the ability to perfectly blend in with their surroundings. Why would it be out in the open?

Now that I think about it I wonder why, on a planet inhabited with eyeless creatures, would a species be able to blend in with it's surrounding's? Hopefully I never find out.

Anyway I went for a swim and let down my guard as I began to relax. Idiot. When I came out of the water I caught a glimmer of a silhouette, near my clothes. Since I'm a convict I don't have the luxury of a gun. The wood on this planet is fragile so I can't fashion a weapon out of it. So I was left with nothing else but my own two hand's for defense.

I rushed the creature (a Leeug it turned out to be) and in it's shocked state I connected with a right. Then a left. It tried to bite my hand, but I dodged in time. Unfortunately my dodge positioned me for the worst.

Just as I caught my balance, it happened. It's claw's sank into the orbit's of my skull, and with one quick jerk my eye's came out amidst the sounds of the ripping flesh and muscle. I don't have to worry about the light anymore.

I now know that the Leeug has a numbing poison on it's claw's, meant to help it disable it's prey. It was keeping me from feeling my torn out eye's, and if I'd have been sliced any more it would have disabled me completely.

In the absence of pain my body surged out adrenaline and I used it to wrestle one of the Leeug's claws into my hand, and stab it to death with it's own weapon. In my stabbing I ripped the claw free from the creature, and kept going until I had it underneath me, and until I could feel the solid thump of stabbing terrain beneath it.

After my victory I crawled towards the sound of the bubbling water, and washed the gore off of me, and tended to disinfecting my eye's. I turned my shirt into a bandage and wrapped my eye's up to help stop the bleeding.

Feeling slightly dizzy I placed the Leeug claw in my rear pocket, and stumbbled towards my camp. As best as I could figure.

After an hour I began to worry. I had walked from the water hole to my camp at night many times. Half of the time I did it without a flash light, and it didn't take this long. Maybe I went the wrong direction, since I was dizzy from the blood loss. Just as I started to panic, I came to a tree and found the arrow I carved into it to help me along my path at night. I also numbered them, and this one was number three. I was close!

Then I heard it. Several grunt's in different directions. The Leeug's were upon me. I guess they travel in pack's and the one I killed was just the tip of the iceberg.

I drew the claw from my pocket and began slashing in the air wildly in all directions. I knew that my effort's were in vain. I was no doubt doomed!

My name is Lana Gillmore. My husband Jake saved me and our son John over a year ago from a Terian mugger.

In the confusion of the fight the mugger shot himself, and my poor husband collapsed. unable to grasp what had happened, his mind shut his body down and threw him into a state of mental torment.

Even now, viewing him through the window of his room at the Serene Winds Insane Asylum, he lay on his side staring into oblivion, muttering to himself in unintelligible whispers. He wear's a straight-jacket and requires constant care. Maybe somday he'll come to term's with what happened.

Maybe someday.

                                The End.

title: Torment

question: What is this world the story takes place in?

answer: An intergalactic existence with aliens, a future derived directly from Earth's current history.

question: "My husband Jake saved me and our son John over a year ago from a Terian mugger."


text:
Metro Vancouver’s second UNIQLO store will be landing south of the Fraser in the spring of 2018.

The Japanese clothing retailer announced today it will be opening a store at Guildford Town Centre shopping mall in Surrey.

UNIQLO entered the Canadian market with its first store in Toronto approximately a year ago, and it expanded into Metro Vancouver last month with a store opening at Metropolis at Metrotown.

“Vancouver is a welcoming gateway for Asian immigrants, so it’s a perfect destination for us, a perfect market,” said UNIQLO Founder and CEO Tadashi Yanai through a translator during a previous sit-down interview with Daily Hive.

“So, I should have come to Vancouver first and then moved on to Toronto. Sometimes sequences do not follow as we wish. We should have built Vancouver first, or Toronto right after Vancouver.”

Although the region’s second UNIQLO location was expected to be a flagship store in downtown Vancouver, the company still plans to proceed with a prominent undisclosed location in the city centre.

UNIQLO currently has over 1,900 stores across the world, with the largest store being its 89,000-sq-ft flagship at New York City’s Fifth Avenue. The typical store size averages between 15,000 sq. ft. and 20,000 sq. ft., with flagships being larger.

-   UNIQLO CEO confident in Vancouver's gateway market
-   21 photos inside Vancouver's first UNIQLO store
-   MUJI Robson Street store will be over twice the size of the Metrotown location
-   Vancouver's first Uncle Tetsu cheesecake shop is opening in Metrotown
-   UNIQLO CEO says they will be opening Montreal store

question: When was the first UNIQLO store opened in Canada?

answer: Sometime in 2017.

question: Where did UNIQLO originate from?

answer: Japan.

question: Does UNIQLO plan to open another store branch?

answer: It appears the CEO plans to open a store in Montreal.

question: Where is UNIQLO's largest store located?

answer: New York City.

question: Write a ~5 sentence summary.

answer: At the time of this article, the Japanese retail store UNIQLO planned to open a branch in metro Vancouver in 2018. Its first branch in Canada was in Toronto sometime in 2017. Vancouver is a welcome destination for Asian immigrants, so its store will be a perfect market for them. UNIQLO has store branches worldwide and has its largest store in New York City at 89,000-sq-ft. The CEO of UNIQLO planned to open a store in Montreal.


text:
[]
Saturday

Apr 1, 2017 at 9:47 AM Apr 1, 2017 at 10:45 PM

Two people were killed Saturday after two small planes collided midair and then slammed into a wooded area near Edgewater, authorities said.

The two single-engine planes crashed just after 9 a.m. about a half a mile west of Interstate 95 near State Road 442, according to authorities. Witnesses said the planes were flying in formation with several others just before the collision.

"A witness reported seeing two small airplanes collide, separate and fall to the ground," said Edgewater Police Chief David Arcieri.

Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen identified the planes as a Cessna 170 and a Grumman American AA5B, a four-seat light aircraft built in the late 1970s and ’80s.

The two pilots killed were not identified Saturday and authorities did not answer questions about where the planes had taken off from. Investigators said they did not believe there were others on the planes.

Photos, however, showed the Cessna's tail number as N8082A. According to an FAA database, the Cessna is registered to Gary Somerton, of Port Orange. Property records show that Somerton owns a home at the Spruce Creek Fly-In community, which is about 13 miles north of the crash site. The Fly-In is the largest airpark in the United States, and a group there regularly performs formations.

The tail number of the Grumman American AA5B could not be determined.

At the crash scene, National Transportation Safety Board investigators reviewed a green-and-white plane that was in a crumpled heap next to a large tree.

A witness who asked not to be identified said one of the planes started falling out of the sky and then its wing struck the other plane.

"It went into a spin and the other one fell backwards,” he said.

Megan O'Keefe, who was traveling south on I-95, said she and her family saw the crash from their car.

"All of a sudden I looked and one plane just went into a nosedive," she said.

Her family pulled off the highway and tried to find the crash victims.

"We were in the woods, trying to find smoke but it was too far," she said.

What looked to be a red antique biplane circled over the crash site until rescue crews could arrive, O'Keefe said.

"He wouldn't leave until they could get to his buddies," she said. "It was really sad."

The FAA said it was investigating the crash in conjunction with the NTSB, which will determine the official cause.

This is the second deadly plane crash in Volusia County in the last five months. In December, two people were killed when a small experimental plane crashed into the front yard of a home in the Spruce Creek Fly-In community.

The crash Saturday brought the total number of people killed in fatal air crashes to 26 in Volusia and Flagler counties since 2006. The greater Daytona Beach area is a hot spot for general aviation flights, which includes private planes, twin-engine corporate jets, vintage planes and experimental aircraft.

General aviation is riskier than commercial flight. In 2015, there were 229 fatal accidents nationwide, killing 376 people, according to the NTSB.

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question: What is the incident reported on in this article?

answer: Two small planes flying in formation crashed midair, causing them to slam into a wooded area near Edgewater and killing two people.

question: What is the identity of one of the people killed?

answer: The plane is registered to Gary Somerton; he is believed to have been flying the plane.

question: Who is quoted saying, "We were in the woods, trying to find smoke but it was too far,"?

answer: Megan O'Keefe, a witness.

question: What two organizations are investigating the crash?

answer: NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) and FAA (Federal Aviation Administration)

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) and FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) are investigating a crash involving two small planes that crashed midair. The planes were flying in formation with other planes when the crash occurred. The planes slammed into a wooded area near Edgewater, killing the two pilots.


text:
On the final night of our initiation, my fellow Messengers and I were transported to an abandoned warehouse to carry out one final task. When we arrived at our destination the Leaders brought out twelve men. Each one of them had their face covered with a thick black cloth. The Leaders placed one of the men in front of each Messenger. The Leaders then came around and gave each of us a pistol; it was our present for passing all of the initiation tests. Mine was a small black revolver that was oddly heavy for its size.

After my fellow Messengers and I had received our guns, the Leaders began to give instructions. They told us where to shoot our victims, and they even specified the angle at which we should make the shot. I knew why they gave us these specific instructions; they wanted it to look like suicide. They think we are naive just because they raised us away from their society.

I looked at the man in front of me, the man I was about to kill, and something in my gut was telling me this wasn’t right. I've never had that feeling before a kill. Usually it felt right even when it shouldn't have. Why was this man having such an effect on me? I couldn’t even see his face. I held my gun parallel to the floor and placed it directly against the right side of his head, above his eye. I then tilted the gun slightly as per the instructions I had been given. Once it was my turn I took one last deep breath. I had my finger rested on the trigger but it felt like there was a hundred pounds of resistance stopping me from pulling it. What was happening, why was it so hard to kill this man? I took one last deep breath, and slowly squeezed the trigger until I heard a loud bang from the gun followed by a soft thud when the body hit the floor. Blood began to pool around the body and it began to circle my feet.

After a little while all of us had killed our target. The Leaders told us afterwards that if we wanted we could take the cloth away from our victims and see who we had killed. I was never interested in my victims before; it could have been an elderly woman or a child and it wouldn't have phased me. However, this was different because this was by far the hardest kill I've ever had to perform and I couldn't even see the man's face or the look of terror in his eyes. I needed to see his face; I needed to know why this kill was so hard. Slowly I approached the body, making my way through what felt like a sea of blood on the ground. I grabbed the cloth and began to take it off of the man's head. Looking into the man's eyes I quickly realized that they were my eyes; this man was me. I backed away suddenly and looked around and saw that all of my Fellow Messengers were having the same reaction as me. Also, I know we were all thinking the same thing: "Who the hell are we?"

title: The Initiation

question: What are Messengers?

answer: They are people who the Leaders have raised away from their society

question: Who is the narrator?

answer: A Messenger

question: Where is the story set?

answer: An abandoned warehouse on the final night of the Messengers' initiation

question: Who are the Leaders?

answer: The people who give the Messengers instructions

question: Write a ~5 sentence summary.

answer: The Leaders bring the Messengers to an abandoned warehouse for the final night of their initiation. A man with a bag over their head is placed in front of each Messenger, and the Messengers are given guns and instructed to kill the man in front of them in such a way that it looks like a suicide. Each Messenger kills their respective target. The narrator removes the bag from the man he has just killed and sees that the man looks just like him. The Messengers wonder who they themselves are.


text:
The MEDAL FOR MERIT IN WAR () was a military decoration of the Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen, established during World War I on 7 March 1915 by Bernhard III, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. For officers, there was the Cross for Merit in War, while the Medal was for enlisted personnel.

Criteria

The medal was awarded to enlisted personnel and some officers for acts of military merit (both combatants and non-combatants), to all members of the Imperial German Army, but especially to those serving in the regiments affiliated with Saxe-Meiningen. Those included the 32nd and 95th Infantry Regiments.[1]

Description

On the front side, the medal had an oak leaf wreath on the edge, bound in each quarter by two crossed ribbons. At the center was a curved cross with a round center sign with the letter “B” in the center. Between the cross arms there were three leaves sticking out of the center. On the back side, there was a shield in the center, with Saxe coat of arms is stylized with cross strips and an oblique diamond ridge. Between the cross-arms, there were three leaves sticking out. Between the middle and the border was the circulatory script: _FUR VERDIENST IM KREIGE 1914/15_.[2]

The medal manufacturer was AWES coin (A. Werner & Söhne) in Berlin. Lauer from Nuremberg took over production of the war metal.[3]

Sources

[1] Medaille für Verdienst im Kriege 1915 in Bronze. Ehrenzeichen-Orden. Accessed 23 December 2016.

[2]

[3]

title: Medal for Merit in War

question: Who conceived this award?

answer: Bernhard III, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen

question: Did officers and enlisted personnel receive the same award?

answer: No; for officers, there was the Cross for Merit in War, while the Medal was for enlisted personnel.

question: When does the 'B' on the award stand for?

answer: There is not sufficient information to answer the question

question: How many medals were awarded?

answer: There is not sufficient information to answer the question

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: This article discusses an award given to German soldiers during the First World War. It provides a description of the award and the criteria for its being awarded.


text:
[]

 ThisNext
LinkedIn may have more than doubled revenue last year to $522 million but it actually rendered itself less profitable by nearly tripling its sales and marketing costs.

It earned net income of just $26 million. The company could have been a lot more profitable if it hadn't increased its sales and marketing staff to 844 people (up from 313 in 2010), a runup of 270 percent.

-   SEE INSIDE LinkedIn's Empire State Building office.

The increase had a similar effect on the S&M budget line, which went from $59 million in 2010 to $165 million last year.

The company said it is sacrificing profitability for brand awareness and customer account growth:

"We plan to continue to invest heavily in sales and marketing to expand our global footprint, grow our current customer accounts and continue building brand awareness. In the near term and consistent with our investment philosophy for 2011, we expect sales and marketing expenses to increase on an absolute basis and as a percentage of revenue and to be our largest expense on an absolute basis and as a percentage of revenue."

This chart, from page 53 of LinkedIn's annual report, shows how sales and marketing is growing much faster than LinkedIn's underlying business. Note the increase in "percentage of net revenue":

[]

LinkedIn's other operating expenses—product development and administrative costs—were all kept in line with revenues:

[]

The result is that although LinkedIn has a healthy, growing business, its remains only anemically profitable:

[]

_SEE ALSO: Q&A with LinkedIn's ad sales chief, Jonathan Lister._

question: How did LinkedIn render itself less profitable despite more than doubling its revenue to $522 million.

answer: The company tripled its sales and marketing costs.

question: How much net income did LinkedIn make in the process?

answer: $26 million.

question: What is the company's explanation for the losses?

answer: The company said it is sacrificing profitability for brand awareness and customer account growth by investing heavily in sales and marketing to expand its global footprint.

question: Aside from sales and marketing costs, what are LinkedIn's other expenses?

answer: Product development and administrative costs.

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: LinkedIn's annual report reveals that the company rendered itself less profitable in 2010 despite more than doubling its revenue to $522 million but only earning a net income of $26 million. The reason for the loss in revenue is due to increased sales and marketing expenses. The company said it is sacrificing profitability for brand awareness and customer growth.


text:
Well, this is probably horrible. I wrote two or three starts to novellas a year ago but never finished. I had a free night so I just sat down and wrote the first thing that came to mind. Hope its bearable.

------------------

Joshua trees lined one side of a desert path, on the other sat a large sandstone mountain which the path curved around its sheer face. On this path stood still an  old man of ordinary but tattered clothing, whose mind began to wander. It wandered in a haphazard sort of way at first, reaching carefully into the pathways of his memory to try to gain some bearing. When it could find none, his mind began to paw and then claw more desperately into its deeper recesses, yet nothing was to be found. Wilder and more frantic his mind searched, knocking over the emptiness which it contained as his consciousness shot at light speed down the dark empty tunnels of his mind.

If he had no memories, did he know language? He seemed to be thinking in language internally but wanted to be certain of it. Aloud he said the first word that came to  mind. Meekly he cried for "Help". It did little to still him. As the comfort that naturally comes with certainty fell away, in its place was filling with panic. He  was able to ward it off at first, boarding up his mind with reassurance. Yet the panic slipped in through the cracks of his self affirmations, slowly at first, but as the fear gripped him his resolve weakened and his ability to reason went with it. Total fear encompassed him causing his strength fail. Reaching out on instinct, he put his hand and weight onto the mountain. Crudely carved into the face of the mountain, quite deeply, was written "This time remember to be", abruptly ending mid sentence. His legs only became weaker, and he knew he would faint. Looking straight up he saw an otherworldly sun. Red and an order of several magnitudes too large it covered a third of the sky. His body spun and fell backwards into the mountain, and his mind fell into a gray void.

He awoke in a shadow of a Joshua tree, of which the sun on the horizon was now hidden behind, apparently back to reasonable size. As the gray lifted from his mind and sight, a vague notion entered his thoughts. "Walk. Continue walking and you will remember." He was tired. Perhaps more tired than any old man had ever been. So he thought to weigh his options, and upon realizing there was no option but one he pulled himself up and began to walk.

As he walked the sun finally set, the edge of the mountain changed shape, and the Joshua Trees ended. Darkness fell and he continued to walk using only the touch of his hand on the mountain to guide him. After some time a beautiful dim blue light gradually crept over the mountain, so slowly in fact that he hardly noticed until he took his hand off the rock as he could now see clearly. The desert sand shimmered blue from he to the horizon. He looked up, to an otherworldly moon. It did not frighten him though, as the sun had. In fact it was the single most beautiful thing he had ever seen, though he did not know it.

After looking into the moon for what seemed to him an age, he began to walk again, still remembering nothing. Until he saw a star that  burned through the black without warning. It was the brightest star, the North star. He looked into it and remembered her. He saw her crying and bleeding on a bathroom floor, and for the first time that he could remember he saw how much she truly loved him. He averted his eyes and the memory quickly faded as if it never happened. He walked along the path for some time more, refusing to look up, unsure of what he was afraid to see. Looking down his eyes traced the path's sand, following its strange rhythmic pattern. It had some order to it, though he couldn't immediately discern what that pattern was. He knelt down for a better inspection and saw that this particular spot had a slight change in the pattern, as if someone had run their finger through the sand. He placed his finger into the anomaly and traced along it. It weaved and curved around the borders of the shapes imprinted into the earth, until it led back to his sandal. As his finger touched his sandal he continued to trace. He realized they were merely footprints, but there were so many overlapping one another, perhaps tens or hundreds of thousands, it created a beautiful mosaic. He moved his sandal into another partial footprint, and it fit perfectly. Another and another, they all fit.

Unsure what to think of this he looked up and began down the path again. What he saw startled him. The sky shone with a million stars now, inside each their own memory. He looked into one and saw his younger brother, Jeffrey, doing chores for their mother around the house all summer to earn enough money to buy a toy for him for Christmas. He not only saw him, but he could feel as he felt. He felt how proud Jeffery was as he swept the floors and dusted the knick knacks all with a silly grin, and how he imagined seeing his older brother's face when he gave him his present. Next to that star was another star with its own memory of that year's Christmas, and how when he opened his little brother's gift he told him he hated it. He felt not only his brother's sadness, but also his mother's anger. He looked away in shame to another, another and  thousands more. In one he saw himself in his college dorm room, on top of a young blonde girl who was his best friend's love. She was more drunk than he, and he thrust into her mechanically and selfishly. Though his friend never knew, the old man was shown the domino effect this caused in their relationship, and felt all the same sadness his friend had known. The old man had never felt this sadness before and began to wonder why until he was distracted by a breathtaking constellation.

In each star of this constellation was a memory of his wife Paige, from when he met her at age twenty-six at a car wash until the day she was crying and bleeding on the bathroom floor, he in the doorway yelling. He felt the selfless love she had felt for him finally extinguish and fade away. With it his eyes refocused and the stars around began to fade as well, with them the memories. Behind him the sun began to rise unusually fast. He ran along the curve of the mountain from it, forcing himself to remember who he was. Hanging on to the memories with all of his strength, the stars came back in full force and shone through the gaining brightness of day. He ran further, looking down he saw the mosaic changed slightly, as if the other footprints ran through here as well. Curious, he contemplated why the others had run here too, but the stars began to fade from this distraction, and he thought no more of it.

He ran until the sun was above him and he could run no more. In fact he could hardly think. He felt his memories fading quickly. Reaching into his pocket he looked desperately for a pen, finding nothing he frantically scanned the area. Joshua trees lined the left side of the path, and on the other sat a small sandstone mountain which the path curved around its sheer face, next to it in the sand were several rocks. He grabbed one and without thought quickly began to write so he wouldn't forget this time. In his haste he hadn't noticed he had been tracing over words that were already on the mountain until the fifth word. He backed away and unable to focus from the shock of the words he read, the stars faded from the sky. He stood in the center of the path for some time, with a peculiar and lost look on his face. Eventually he pathetically said "Help" aloud. Soon after his face contorted in growing fear, as if some terror had struck him.

He fell into the mountain,  into a void where he made all of the same mistakes again, and awoke in the shadow of a Joshua tree.

title: The Joshua Tree and The Mountain (literally the first short story I've ever finished)

question: Who is the narrator?

answer: He's an old man who has no memory.

question: Where does the story take place?

answer: A desert path lined with Joshua Trees near a sandstone mountain with a path curving around its sheer face.

question: Who wrote, "This time remember to be"?

answer: The old man did, but he can't remember.

question: What did the narrator see in the stars?

answer: His lost memories, both good and bad, and the emotions associated with one.

question: Write a ~4 sentence summary.

answer: An old man wakes in the shadow of a Joshua tree. He has no memories and is destined to fall into a mountain, into a void where he repeats all the same mistakes. He always starts his journey on the tree-lined path and ends up on the mountain's sheer face, writing the same words "This time remember to be" after seeing his good and bad memories inside stars unfolding before his eyes. He always falls into the void after writing the last word, only to wake up and do it all over again.


text:
VOEYKOV AXIS (or VOEIKOV AXIS) is the axial portion (ridge) of a high atmospheric pressure band stretching across Eurasia roughly along the 50th parallel. It was named in honor of Alexander Voeykov, a climatologist, who studied this phenomenon.[1]

[Voeykov axis on the map]

The formation if the Voeykov axis is due to the continental climate in the hinterland of Eurasia. In winter, the territory of Mongolia and Siberia experience strong cooling. This leads to the formation of stable high atmospheric pressure, known as the Siberian anticyclone. The huge size of the continent, and also the relief of the earth's surface contributes to the ride formation. In Tuva, Mongolia and to the north are vast basins and valleys, surrounded by high mountain ranges. In winter, they cool air and stagnation occurs, that favors the growth of atmospheric pressure.

On the territory of Mongolia and southern Siberia the high-pressure region diverges in two spurs in two directions - to the north and west. To the north, extends the East Siberian anticyclone. It involves a clear, quiet and extreme freezing weather, which is set in the winter in the vast eastern Siberia. West departs Voeykov axis, which can be traced on the territory of Kazakhstan and in the south of the East European Plain. It extends approximately along the line Kyzyl - Uralsk - Saratov - Kharkiv - Chisinau. To the west of Moldova, it continues, gradually weakening, down to the South of France, where there is already an action of another center of high pressure - Azores anticyclone.

During winter in Eurasia the Voeykov axis plays an important climate role as a major winds separator. In winter, the north of the axis is dominated by western and south-westerly winds. In the north of the East European Plain effect Voeykov axis emphasizes the Icelandic Low. Their proximity enhances here westerly transport carrying wet and relatively warm air masses. To the south of the axis Voeykov blow northeasterly and easterly winds. They are cold and dry continental air of temperate latitudes of the Siberian High.

In summer, high pressure over the maximum Mongolia disappears. This Voeнkov axis is stored in a weakened state, but loses its wind separating value. During this period it is no longer supported by the Siberian anticyclone, and the Azores anticyclone, from which the east moving anticyclones.

[1] Салахова Р.Х. Климатологические труды А.И. Воейкова: их значение и акутальность // Природа Симбирского Поволжья: Сборник научных трудов XIV межрегиональной научно-практической конференции «Естественнонаучные исследования в Симбирском–Ульяновском крае». Вып. 13. – Ульяновск: Издательство «Корпорация технологий продвижения», 2012. - С. 10-15.

title: Voeykov axis

question: What is the Voeykov axis?

answer: The axial portion of a high atmospheric pressure band stretching across Eurasia roughly along the 50th parallel.

question: Where is the Voeykov axis located?

answer: Eurasia, running along the 50th parallel.

question: How was the Voeykov axis formed?

answer: It is formed due to the continental climate in the Eurasian hinterland. Strong cooling in Mongolia and Siberia leads to the formation of stable high atmospheric pressure. This high-pressure region diverges into two spurs, one of which is the Voeykov axis.

question: Describe the climate role the Voeykov axis plays in the winter.

answer: In the winter, the Voekyov axis emphasizes the Icelandic Low.

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: The Voekyov axis is the axial portion of a high atmospheric pressure band stretching across Eurasia roughly along the 50th parallel. It is formed due to the continental climate in the hinterland of Eurasia, which creates stable high atmospheric pressure. It also affects the climate in Eurasia in the winter.


text:
Davis Bertans has suddenly become one of the NBA's most dangerous shooters, drastically altering the trajectory of his career in the process. | Credit: Patrick Smith/Getty Images/AFP

-   Davis Bertans is the best shooter you’ve never heard of.
-   The fourth-year pro has drastically altered the trajectory of his career in the season’s early going.
-   An increasingly frequent subject of trade rumors and a free agent this summer, Bertans will be bombing threes for years to come.

Davis Bertans had already made six three-pointers when he caught the ball several feet behind the arc with Devonte’ Graham right in his chest. Despite a defender pressuring him hard and 20 seconds remaining on the shot clock, the Washington Wizards’ marksman let fly anyway.

Splash.

What would qualify as a heat check for most any other player was actually anything but for Bertans. On his way to becoming one of basketball’s most imminently dangerous three-point shooters, the 6-foot-10 red head has routinely rendered that type of aggressive defense moot in the season’s early going.

And he’s doing it on a nightly basis, too.

Coming Out of Nowhere

Anyone telling you they saw Bertans’ long-range onslaught coming this season is lying.

A fourth-year pro who only came to the NBA in 2016 after being drafted a half decade earlier, he was a largely forgettable role player throughout his tenure with the San Antonio Spurs. Bertans made subtle strides as a long-range shooter between each of his seasons in the Alamo City, development that crested in 2018-19 when he shot an elite 42.9 percent on 4.4 three-point attempts per game.

Those are fantastic numbers but still not the type that made him a truly game-changing shooter. Bertans’ triples with the Spurs were mostly limited to weak-side spot-up attempts and set plays. Gregg Popovich certainly gave him the green light, but Bertans rarely deviated from San Antonio’s offense to launch.

With the Wizards, though, he doesn’t need to worry about the prospect of hijacking possessions by taking triples outside the flow of the offense. Coach Scott Brooks is leaning hard into a free-flowing, all-offense approach with his non-contending team, an ethos no player has benefited from more than Bertans.

He’s already shot 198 triples this season, seventh-most in the league and an average of 8.6 tries per game – nearly double his career-high. Bertans hasn’t sacrificed accuracy for frequency, either, shooting a scorching 46.5 percent from deep, the second-best mark in the NBA among high-usage shooters.

[]

This isn’t some example of sample size telling a story that otherwise wouldn’t exist, either. Bertans is taking some of the most difficult three-point attempts in the league, and making them look easy.

New Present, New Future

It should come as no surprise that Bertans has been one of Washington’s most impactful players this season. His 115.5 offensive rating is best on the team by far, as is his off-court offensive rating of 104.9. Other than Bradley Beal, no player on the roster has been more instrumental to the Wizards’ fifth-ranked offense than Bertans.

His name has been increasingly floated in trade scenarios of late, and it’s not hard to see why. Every team in the league could use the services of a dead-eye shooter, especially one who stands nearly seven-feet tall. Bertans will be the subject of trade rumors until they ultimately come to fruition or the trade deadline comes and goes on Feb. 6.

[]

Regardless, the 27-year-old has drastically altered the trajectory of his career over the first two months of 2019-20. He’s a free agent this summer and is due a major pay increase on his $7 million salary whether he finishes this season in the nation’s capital or elsewhere.

It’s time to familiarize yourself with Bertans, basketball fans. After serving as an anonymous afterthought for most of his career, he’ll be a fixture of NBA highlight reels for many years to come.

question: What does the article say about three-point shooters in the NBA?

answer: Reliable three-point shooters are called game-changing. The article is about a new such player, Bertans. An average of 8.6 attempts made by him is mentioned to be relatively high. Additionally, an accuracy of a bit less than 50% is called elite-tier. Players who can accomplish that kind of feat are highly desired in the NBA.

question: What does the article say about two versus three-point shoots?


text:
The latest Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is shaping up to be the most dangerous and difficult test of the world’s ability to contain the disease since the catastrophic West African outbreak in 2014 and 2015.

Like an outbreak earlier this year, in the western part of the country, cases have been reported across multiple locations, disease transmission is taking place in cities where hundreds of thousands of people live, and there’s the potential for the virus to spread across several international borders.

But this outbreak is occurring in a part of the Congo that has long been a conflict zone, with over 1 million displaced people, scores of armed combatant groups, and “red zones” where outsiders hoping to contain a deadly disease may not be able to travel.

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The possibility that the virus could spread unchecked in one of these areas raises prospects of an outbreak that could make this year’s earlier brush with Ebola seem like a training exercise.

“That’s really the worst-case scenario: That we can’t get in quickly enough to an alert [of possible cases] or we just have a blind spot because of security. And then an outbreak really begins to take hold in those blind spots and becomes a multicountry regional outbreak,’’ Dr. Peter Salama, the World Health Organization’s deputy director-general of emergency preparedness and response, told STAT.

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“That’s what keeps me up at night.”

The outbreak was declared in North Kivu on Aug. 1, a week after the previous epidemic was deemed contained. Genetic analysis of viruses from the two show that while they are caused by the same species of ebolaviruses, Ebola Zaire, they are not linked.

Two weeks into this outbreak, the toll has already surpassed that of the earlier epidemic, which was centered around Bikoro, near DRC’s western border. There were 54 cases and 33 deaths over roughly four months in the Bikoro outbreak. As of Tuesday, there were 73 confirmed and probable cases and 43 deaths in North Kivu, and the case count is rising steadily.

North Kivu is in northeastern Congo, near the border with Uganda and Rwanda. It’s the country’s most populous province, with 8 million people. It is also its most dangerous.

Under a scoring system used by the U.N. to determine the level of risk for its personnel in conflict zones, North Kivu is at level 4. Level 5 means the U.N. must evacuate; it is simply too perilous to be present.

The security concerns mean that the WHO insists responders have armed escorts as they move about — a requirement the medical aid group Doctors Without Borders always refuses on the ground that it undermines the group’s ability to claim neutrality.

The operational strictures they face mean Ebola responders will need to be “very flexible” and “pragmatic,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said this week in Geneva.

Already that has led to trimming of ambitions. Whereas in the Bikoro outbreak the WHO hoped to run trials of five experimental Ebola therapies, this time there is no immediate thought of trying to generate data on whether the treatments are effective and which are the most potent.

Dr. David Heymann, a former WHO assistant director-general, and now a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, is on an expert committee that advises Salama’s emergency response center.

“The committee recommended that there be no research until outbreak containment was underway — and well underway,” Heymann said Wednesday. Unlicensed drugs can only be used in studies, or in a “compassionate use” setting; the latter will be the approach here.

Likewise, the protocol that would normally be used to determine who should be offered Merck’s experimental Ebola vaccine may have to be modified in some locations. Until the vaccine is fully licensed, the WHO has been advised to use it employing a system known as ring vaccination — find out who has been in contact with a confirmed Ebola case and vaccinate them and all their contacts.

In the current outbreak, vaccination teams may not have the time to conduct the interviews that would be needed to trace all contacts and the contacts of contacts, Salama said.

“If, for example, we find that we can only visit a small village that’s in a red zone area, and it has 200 people, and we can only go once and we’ve only got a couple of hours because of security, then my instruction to the team will be: Go in and vaccine the 200 people because we don’t have the time, security wise, to do detailed contact tracing of that small village,” he said.

Dr. Daniel Bausch is a longtime Ebola responder who is director of the U.K. Public Health Rapid Support Team, a partnership between Public Health England and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Bausch recalled taking part in the response to a Marburg virus outbreak — Marburg is from the same family of viruses as Ebola — in northeastern Congo in the late 1990s, when the WHO had to negotiate with armed groups to operate.

It wasn’t easy, but it was successful, Bausch said, while acknowledging this time will be tougher.

“It’s not the first one that has happened in an area of insecurity, but it’s potentially at least more disseminated an area of insecurity. And a very, very complex area,” Bausch said, pointing to the refugee population. “I do think it is a little bit of uncharted waters.”

Bausch’s team has sent one person to take part in a WHO-led rapid assessment group that is in North Kivu now. From the outset the WHO has said it will have to limit the number of responders it deploys, because of the strain it will place on the U.N. peacekeepers to safeguard their security.

And rather than setting up multiple response outposts, the workers will likely have to cluster in the town of Beni, where they can safely function, using it to make “in and out’’ forays to other, less secure places.

“We don’t want to have people based anywhere to the east, not far to the north, and not beyond 30 kilometers” — roughly 19 miles — “really to the south,” Salama said. “And you’ve got a kind of circle of a 20- to 30-kilometer radius to the west and north which is reasonably secure. And you’ve got very little room to move on the east, in terms of secure zones.”

question: Why does neutrality matter to Doctors Without Borders?

answer: Because they work in different parts of the world and do not want to be associated with any faction, tribe, organization, or country.


text:
CUPID'S INSPIRATION are a British pop group, active with various line up changes since 1968 when they had two hit singles. The band are currently on the road with original drummer Roger Gray re-joining the veteran line up of Paul Shanahan and Bob Poole with Paul Thomas on vocals.

Career

Originally from Stamford, Lincolnshire, the band were at first called The Ends[1] (no relation to The End).

The group scored two Top 40 hits on the UK Singles Chart in 1968. “Yesterday Has Gone”, originally a hit for Little Anthony and The Imperials,[2] reached No. 4 in July of that year, and “My World” went to No. 33 in October.[3] In 1970, lead singer Terry Rice-Milton the vocalist on the hit singles left, replaced by John Lynch and then Martin Cure, who added several musicians from Leamington to the line-up so none of the hit making band remained after these changes.

Rice-Milton had his third hit with “You're my World” in 1970 (a song that had previously been a hit for Cilla Black),[4] while bass player Gordon Haskell later joined King Crimson.[5]

By 1978, the band began writing and recording heavier rock songs. These were performed under a different name, initially '4 Wheel Drive', which they soon changed to 'Chevy', to avoid alienating Cupid's Inspiration fans. They recruited Steve Walwyn, later of Dr. Feelgood to give a “twin guitar” sound. As 'Chevy' they toured supporting bands such as Alvin Lee, Hawkwind and Gillan.<[6] Chevy recorded two BBC In Concert Programmes, issued three singles: “Too Much Loving” / “See the Light”, “The Taker” / “Life on the Run” and “Just Another Day” / “Rock On” and one album _The Taker_, released in September 1980.[7]

In the 1990s and early 2000s, some of the original group played reunion shows with other bands from the era.

In 2010, Bob Poole returned from 18 years in Germany and together with Paul Shanahan, ex Peppermint Circus vocalist Paul Thomas, and ex Ben E King and Barbara Dickinson drummer Rick Medlock reformed Cupid's Inspiration later replacing Rick Medlock with Roger Gray, the original band drummer who played on all the records who had left in 1972.

In September 2012, founder members Terry Rice-Milton and Laughton James, together with Bernie Lee, who was a member during 1968/69, and drummer Tony Peck from The Ends played a reunion concert in their home town of Stamford, which they are hoping to repeat in 2014.

The band's hit single, featuring Terry-Rice Milton, “Yesterday Has Gone” (written by Teddy Randazzo[8] and Victoria Pike) has featured on many compilation albums, including _Sixties Power Ballads - The Greatest Driving Anthems in the World... Ever!_ (2007) as well as their original album _Yesterday Has Gone_ (1969).

Members

-   Terry Rice-Milton (born Terence Bull, 5 June 1946, Stamford, Lincolnshire - lead vocals (to 1970)
-   Laughton James (born James Laughton, 21 December 1946, Stamford, Lincolnshire) - bass guitarist (to October 1968)
-   Garfield Tonkin (born John Sharpe, 28 September 1946, Stamford, Lincolnshire) - keyboards (to 1969)
-   Wyndham George (born Geoffrey Wyndham Hart, 20 February 1947, Stamford, Lincolnshire) - guitar (to October 1968)
-   Bernie Lee (born July 1943, North Wales) - lead guitar (October 1968 to 1970) (ex-Umbrella)
-   Gordon Haskell (born Gordon Hionides, 27 April 1946, Verwood, Dorset, England) - bass (October 1968 to 1969)
-   Roger Gray (born 29 April 1947, Stamford) - drums (to 1972 and 2014)
-   David Morris (London) - electronic organ (1969 onwards)
-   Derek Needham (born 10 October 1945, London) - bass (1969–71)
-   Martin Cure - lead vocals (1970 to 2008)
-   Paul Shanahan - lead guitar/vocals (1970 to 1985 and 2010 to 2014)
-   Jim Batty - guitar (1985 to 2008)
-   Bob Poole - bass guitar/vocals (1970 to 1985 and 2010 to 2014)
-   Andy Chaplin - drums (1970 to 1981)
-   Eamonn Carr - guitar/vocals (1972)
-   Paul Brooke - drums (1981 to 2008)
-   Keith Hancock - bass (1987 to 2008)
-   Ted Duggan - drums (1987 to 2008)
-   Paul Thomas - vocals (2010 to 2014)
-   Kevan Towning (2017 to present)
-   barry Scott (2017 to present)
-   Rick Medlock - drums (2010 to 2013)

[1] Larkin C 'Virgin Encyclopedia of Sixties Music' (Muze UK Ltd, 1997) p137

[2]

[3] Search for “Cupid's Inspiration” performed at Everyhit.com database on 24 April 2008.

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8] [ Discography - songs], AllMusic

title: Cupid's Inspiration

question: Describe what makes Cupid's Inspiration's top hits significant.

answer: The group had two top 40 hits on the UK singles chart in 1968, 'Yesterday Has Gone' and 'My World'. In 1970 they had a further hit with 'You're My World'. The significant thing about these songs is that they were covers, previously hits for other artists.

question: What does the article say about the various name changes of 'Cupid's Inspiration'?

answer: When the style of the bands music entered into a more heavy rock style they changed the name to '4 Wheel Drive', however in order not to alienate their 'Cupid's Inspiration' fans, they chose to change their name to 'Chevy'. In the 2010's te band reformed under its original name.

question: What does the article say were the reasons for the constant change in band members?


text:
_OUR ENEMY, THE STATE_ is the best-known book by libertarian author Albert Jay Nock, serving as a fundamental influence for the modern libertarian and American conservatism movements. Initially presented as a series of lectures at Bard College, it was published in 1935, and attempts to analyze the origins of American freedom, as well as questioning the nature and legitimacy of authoritarian government. Nock differentiates between that, which he refers to as “the State” (as described by Franz Oppenheimer in his book The State) and legitimate government, including governing oneself or consensual delegation of decision-making to leaders one selects.

The Text

Nock is not attacking government, per se, but “The State”, authority that violates society itself, claiming to rule in the people's name but taking power away from the community.[1][2]

In his opening paragraphs, he states that the expansion of the state comes at the expense of social power, shrinking the role of community. Denying that the two are the same, he points out the historic origin of authoritarian government through conquering warlords and robber barons. This reflects the influence of Franz Oppenheimer on Nock, a key proponent of the conquest theory of the state.[3]

Nock argues, further, that the Articles of Confederation that preceded the US Constitution were actually superior to it,[4] that the reasons given for its replacement were excuses by land speculators and creditors looking to enrich themselves.[5]

While he did laud the Founders for establishing a legitimate government, as opposed to state, that was intended to protect natural rights.[6]

The state, according to Nock, “turns every contingency into a resource for accumulating power in itself, always at the expense of social power”. People become conditioned to accept their lost freedom and social power as normal, in each subsequent generation, and so the State continues to expand, and society to shrink.[7] He cites Thomas Paine as pointing out that the state “even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one”.

He goes on to quote Sigmund Freud as noting that government does not actually show any tendency to suppress crime, but only to protect its own monopoly over it. Along with Paine and Freud, Nock talks about the usurpation of power and resources by The State in the context of Benjamin Franklin, Henry George, and others.[8] In fact, he argues that this seizure is comparable to the gathering of land by the Crown in 1066 England, be it in the Federalization of land in Western states or elsewhere as “needed” for control over the populace.

There are two methods, according to Nock, by which a mans needs and desires can be satisfied.[9]

One is the production and exchange of wealth, which he sees as natural, honest, and healthy. The other is by the initiation of force to rob others of it, whether by conquest, confiscation, slavery, or other coercive means. The former he sees as freedom, the latter as the inevitable function of the state.

Like Lysander Spooner in No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority, Nock disputes both the legitimacy of an inherited constitution and the other arguments used to justify claiming it legitimately binds its subjects. He attacks the motivations and legitimacy of the Founding Fathers directly, not simply their ability to impose a contract on subsequent generations. The protection of Natural Rights found in the Declaration of Independence, and advocated by Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine was abandoned by the largest body of the Founders as the American Revolution ended.

Nock sees The State as expanding radically under FDR, the New Deal merely being a pretext for Federal government to increase its control over society. He was dismayed that the president had gathered unprecedented power in his own hands and called this development an out-and-out coup d'état.[10] Nock criticized those who believed that the new regimentation of the economy was temporary, arguing that it would prove a permanent shift. He believed that the inflationary monetary policy of the Republican administrations of the 1920s was responsible for the onset of the Great Depression and that the New Deal was responsible for perpetuating it.[11]

Legacy

The book has been cited as an influence by a wide range of thinkers and political figures, including Murray Rothbard, Ayn Rand,[12] Barry Goldwater, H.L. Mencken, and L. Neil Smith.[13] It is seen as a key foundation for the modern American conservatism movement that grew out of reaction to the expanding State of the New Deal.[14][15] Considering the expansion of The State in the years since, _Our Enemy, the State_ has been cited as increasingly apt over time, among Conservatives.[16]

Nock had argued in the book that something like the modern conservative movement should be formed of what he described as The Remnant, those remaining people who recognized The State as a destructive burden on society.[17]

In arguing that John F. Kennedy was actually Conservative, Ira Stoll cited his ownership of _Our Enemy, the State_ as well as The Man Versus the State, by 19th century leader of the individualist movement, Herbert Spencer.[18]

[1] Monica Perez — Our Enemy the State

[2] Do You Hate the State? — Murray Rothbard — The Mises Institute

[3] Franz Oppenheimer on the origin of the state in conquest and subjection by one group over another (1907)

[4] >Stylish Elegance: A Biography of Albert Jay Nock
He developed the lecture texts into his great radical prolemic, Our Enemy, the State. He drew from ideas of German sociologist Franz Oppenheimer who had written about the violent origins of the state. Nock championed the natural rights vision of Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson, the case for equal freedom articulated by Herbert Spencer. Nock ignored a taboo and spoke kindly of the American Articles of Confederation (1781-1789), the association of states without a central government.

[5] Our Enemy, the State — Ludwig von Mises Institute

[6] The State faces humiliation and bankruptcy, and that’s the good news
But until the New Deal, while virtually everyone would have recognized that the United States had a government, whether it had a “state” would have been a much more complicated question. For Nock, the government is the machinery created by the Founders to protect our individual rights, our shores from foreign enemies, and, well, that’s about it.

[7] The Counsel of Despair? Albert J. Nock on Self-Government

[8] Albert Jay Nock and Alternative History

[9]

[10] The Death of Conservatism

[11] https://lfb.org/products/our-enemy-the-state-2/ Our Enemy, the State — Laissez-Faire Books]

[12] Ayn Rand and the World She Made
Rand is channeling the ideas of Albert Jay Nock, who argued that members of a society can be grouped in one or the other of two opposing camps: either they are “economic man,” those who produce what they need to survive, or “political man,” those who use charm or coercion to live off the productivity of others. Rand's fascinating contribution to this formulation is her depiction of the psychology. Nock's political man is her second-hander; his economic man is her individualist hero, reliant on his own ego as the fountainhead of productivity and value. In Roark's self-defense at trial, he says, “The creator's concern is the conquest of nature. The parasite's concern is the conquest of men.”

[13] The Wisdom of Albert Jay Nock: A Collection of Quotations

[14] Debating the American Conservative Movement: 1945 to the Present
In 1935, journalist Albert Jay Nock wrote a book widely circulated by conservatives in the post-SecondWorldWar years, _Our Enemy, the State_. In the book, he outlined the conservative complaint against centralized government as a parasite that drained the productive forces from society. The State usurped individual rights in the name of the amorphous collective. For postwar conservatives such as Nock, the New Deal welfare state embodied the worst aspects of the growth of leviathan government in America...

[15] The Right Talk: How Conservatives Transformed The Great Society into the Economic Society
Although his _Our Enemy, the State_ achieved only limited acclaim at the time of its initial release, its lasting influence was confirmed by its being republished on two occasions. Postwar intellectuals such as William F. Buckley, Jr., and John Chamberlain paid homage to Nock for informing their views.

[16] OUR ENEMY THE STATE, Illinois Review

[17] The Conservative Ascendancy: how the GOP right made political history

[18] JKK, Conservative

title: Our Enemy, the State

question: What is "Our Enemy, The State"?

answer: It is the best-known book by libertarian author Albert Jay Nock that served as a fundamental influence for the modern libertarian and American conservatism movements.

question: What were Nock's opening paragraphs?

answer: He states that the expansion of the state comes at the expense of social power, shrinking the role of the community. Denying that the two are the same, he points out the historic origin of authoritarian government through conquering warlords and robber barons.

question: Name the two methods by which a man's needs and desires can be satisfied according to Nock.

answer: One is the production and exchange of wealth, which he sees as natural, honest, and healthy. The other is by the initiation of force to rob others of it, whether by conquest, confiscation, slavery, or other coercive means. The former he sees as freedom, the latter as the inevitable function of the state.

question: Define the "state" according to Nock.

answer: According to Nock, the state “turns every contingency into a resource for accumulating power in itself, always at the expense of social power”. People become conditioned to accept their lost freedom and social power as normal, in each subsequent generation, and so the state continues to expand, and society to shrink

question: Write a ~4 sentence summary.

answer: "Our Enemy, The State" is the best-known book by libertarian author Albert Jay Nock that served as a fundamental influence for the modern libertarian and American conservatism movements. According to Nock, as the state expands and accumulates power society shrinks because it is at the expense of social power. The book has been cited as an influence by a wide range of thinkers and political figures, including Murray Rothbard, Ayn Rand, Barry Goldwater, H.L. Mencken, and L. Neil Smith.