text:
REGINA LEE HALL (born December 12, 1970) is an American actress. She has appeared in numerous television series, most prominently in a regular role on the comedy series _Ally McBeal_ (2001–2002) and _Black Monday_ (2019–present). Hall became known for starring as Brenda Meeks in the _Scary Movie_ film series (2000–2006), and her other significant film roles include _The Best Man_ (1999) and its sequel _The Best Man Holiday_ (2013), _Malibu's Most Wanted_ (2003), _Think Like a Man_ (2012) and its sequel _Think Like a Man Too_ (2014), _About Last Night_ (2014), _Vacation_ (2015), _Girls Trip_ (2017), _The Hate U Give_ (2018), and _Little_ (2019).

She received critical acclaim for starring as Lisa Conroy in the comedy film _Support the Girls_ (2018), becoming the first African American to win the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress, and received nominations for the Gotham Award and Independent Spirit Award for Best Actress.

Early life

Hall was born the daughter of a contractor and electrician father, Odie Hall, and a teacher mother, Ruby.[1][2] After graduating from Immaculata College High School, Hall enrolled at Fordham University in the Bronx, where she graduated with a bachelor's degree in English in 1992.[3][4] She later enrolled at New York University, where she earned a master's degree in journalism in 1997.[5] Reflecting on college, Hall said: “I loved being a student. I could've gone to school until I was 75 years old as long as somebody would've paid my rent. I would've been a professional student.”[6]

She wanted a career with impact and envisioned a career in writing or journalism, but Hall's first semester of graduate school changed drastically when her father died of a stroke.[7] “It was sudden. And I think when sudden events that are painful happen in your life, you know, they redirect your course,” Hall reflected. “When you’re young, you don’t grasp the gravity of life. But when you lose someone that you spend most of your life with, and you’re young, you do. And so I think that started me thinking about what I really wanted to do in life. And I know my father would have wanted me to finish school. So I did that.”[8] She began a career in the entertainment industry, starting off with a guest appearance on Sadat X's 1996 album _Wild Cowboys_ on the track, “The Interview”.

Career

In 1997, Hall appeared in her first television commercial at the age of 26. Her television career began with a role on the soap opera _Loving_, and guest appearances on the Fox police drama _New York Undercover_. She played Candy in the 1999 film _The Best Man_. She left a lasting impression on viewers with her portrayal of the character Candace “Candy” Sparks. Hall reflected: “It was my very first movie. I met Sanaa Lathan on it, and we did _Love and Basketball_ together, which was my second film. And then, at that point, I was visiting L.A. to stay and it led to a third film and a fourth film. And it was really a big deal because I'd never been on a set before.”[9] It signaled a pivotal point for Hall's career. As a key member of the all-star cast, she welcomed rising-star status in “black-Hollywood”.

Hall gained more recognition with her role in the comedy-horror-spoof _Scary Movie_ (and the sequels _Scary Movie 2_, _Scary Movie 3_, and _Scary Movie 4_) portraying the sex-crazed Brenda Meeks, and the TV movie _Disappearing Acts_. The _Scary Movie_ films would become some of her best known roles.[10] In 2001, Hall landed the role of Coretta Lipp on the prime-time drama _Ally McBeal_, which was originally a recurring role over several episodes but was made a main character in the 5th season of the show. A year later, she starred in the action-drama _Paid in Full_, a film directed by Charles Stone III. Since then, she has appeared in leading roles in films such as _Malibu's Most Wanted_, _King's Ransom_ and _The Honeymooners_.[11]

She appeared in the film _Law Abiding Citizen_ in 2009.[12][13] She had a role in the 2010 Danneel Harris and Arielle Kebbel film _Mardi Gras_. From its fall 2010 debut until a series overhaul in January 2011, Regina Hall portrayed Deputy District Attorney Evelyn Price on _Law & Order: LA_. In addition to being an actress and advocate, Regina Hall announced in November 2010 that she is now writing for ABILITY Magazine.[14]

In 2012, she portrayed Candace Hall in Steve Harvey's movie _Think Like a Man_, a romantic comedy based on his book _Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man_. Hall reprised her role as Candace Sparks in _The Best Man Holiday_ in 2013. She believed the characters had evolved from the first film. Hall felt _The Best Man Holiday_ was different from any sequel she had ever done before since it was not “immediate” and it had been fourteen years since the release of the original. Hall felt the first film had “the joy of the wedding” and in the sequel “they come together for the holidays, but it's deeper than that. This one's definitely different, but we still laughed. There was so much laughter behind the scenes.”[15] Hall joked about how all of the male members of the cast were married while all of the women were not, stating that Morris Chestnut was happily married while walking around “with his shirt off!”[16]

Hall appeared in the 2014 film _About Last Night_, costarring Kevin Hart.[17][18] She and Hart were seen as the film's highlight as they had a “great dynamic together” and the two were credited with having the funniest lines in the film. All of the cast was seen as having a “perfect mix of charisma and likability”.[19] Jessica Herndon of the _Associated Press_ stated “Hart and Hall are the best part of this film. They play the couple you know all too well: fiery, able to press one another's buttons and always caught in the makeup to breakup game.” Negative reviews of the film also praised the pairing of Hall with Kevin Hart. Mick LaSalle of _The San Francisco Chronicle_ expressed that Hart was “well paired for Hall, who matches him for comedy.”[20] At the time of the film's release, both Hall and Hart expressed interest in working on other projects together.[21] _About Last Night_ was her third ensemble film and Hall reflected that she learned from actors she worked with in ensembles.[22]

Hall reprised her role as Candace Hall in _Think Like a Man Too_. She revealed what members of the cast partied the most in the film shortly before the movie's release. “Everyone kind of had their fun, I'm not gonna lie. We went out, we gambled. Kevin [Hart] parties. There were parties, and we all went. It was good fun”.[23] In July 2014, it was announced Hall would star in a Lifetime film, entitled _With This Ring_, with Eve and Jill Scott.[24][25]

In the 2015 film _People Place Things_, Hall had a major role as the love interest of a newly divorced man.

In 2016, Hall was in _Barbershop: The Next Cut_. She played the role of Angie, one of the hair stylists, alongside Ice Cube, Common, and Eve''.

In 2017, Hall co-starred in the comedy film _Girls Trip_, which became a critical and commercial success.

In 2018, Hall was part of the ensemble cast of the drama film _The Hate U Give_, based on the 2017 novel. She also had the lead in _Support the Girls_, a film directed by Andrew Bujalski. For the latter, she received critical praise, and was nominated for several awards, winning the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress. She is the first African-American to win the award.[26] In 2019, Hall hosted the 2019 BET Awards. She signed a deal with Showtime to do a comedy special through the company RH Negative.[27] A mere months later, her company signed a deal with ViacomCBS.[28]

Personal life

Around 2004, Hall's mother was diagnosed with scleroderma, a rare autoimmune disease. When not working in Hollywood, Hall can be found volunteering for the care of senior citizens at a Sherman Oaks, California, convalescent home twice a week as well as raising public awareness for the disease. “When my mom was diagnosed, I didn’t know much about the condition. But Dana Delany, who is an actress and now a friend of mine, put me in touch with Bob Saget. Bob had made a television movie about scleroderma years ago because his sister had died from it. That was back when they didn’t even know what it was. Anyway, Bob had a group called the Scleroderma Research Foundation, so I donated to that and my mother even went to the doctor Bob had suggested, who happened to be over at Johns Hopkins.”[29]

In 2010, when she was 40, Hall unsuccessfully tried to become a nun after a bad break-up, having previously wanted to become a nun at the age of 14. She was refused for being too old, as the cut-off age is 39.[30]

In 2014, she signed as an ambassador for Elizabeth Taylor's White Diamonds. Hall has also voiced her admiration for Taylor. “I love Elizabeth Taylor. The reason I always was such a fan, I read her _The New York Times_ bestseller. She was one of the people who I felt equally possessed the same amount of talent as she did beauty. Her work that she did throughout her entire career–I watched her on _General Hospital_ and what I always loved about her was that she was elegant. Whenever I do red carpet looks one of the things that I like is to always make sure that there’s a sense of elegance and class. And I felt like she always exuded that.”[31]

Filmography

Film

  Year                                     Title                            Role                     Notes
  ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ------------------------ ---------------------------------- ------
  1999                                     __                               Candace “Candy” Sparks
  2000                                     _Love & Basketball_              Lena Wright
  _Disappearing Acts_                      Portia
  _Scary Movie_                            Brenda Meeks
  2001                                     _Scary Movie 2_
  2002                                     __                               Vicki
  _Paid in Full_                           Keisha
  2003                                     _Malibu's Most Wanted_           Shondra
  _Scary Movie 3_                          Brenda Meeks
  2005                                     _King's Ransom_                  Peaches Clarke
  __                                       Trixie Norton
  _Six Months Later_                       Keri
  2006                                     _Scary Movie 4_                  Brenda Meeks
  _Danika_                                 Evelyn
  __                                       Susan
  2008                                     _First Sunday_                   Omunique
  _Superhero Movie_                        Mrs. Xavier
  2009                                     _Law Abiding Citizen_            Kelly Rice
  2010                                     _Death at a Funeral_             Michelle Barnes
  2011                                     _Mardi Gras: Spring Break_       Ann Marie
  2012                                     _Think Like a Man_               Candace Hall
  2013                                     __                               Candace “Candy” Sparks
  2014                                     _About Last Night_               Joan Derrickson
  _Think Like a Man Too_                   Candace Hall
  2015                                     _People Places Things_           Diane
  _Vacation_                               Nancy Peterson
  2016                                     _Barbershop: The Next Cut_       Angie
  _When the Bough Breaks_                  Laura Taylor
  2017                                     _Girls Trip_                     Ryan Pierce
  _Naked_                                  Megan Swope
  2018                                     _Support the Girls_              Lisa Conroy
  __                                       Lisa Carter
  _Tijuana Jackson: Purpose Over Prison_   Cheryl Wagner
  2019                                     _Little_                         Jordan Sanders           Also executive producer
  _Shaft_                                  Maya Babanikos
  2021                                     _Breaking News in Yuba County_   Ramirez                  Post-production
  TBA                                      _Master_                         Gail Bishop              Filming; Also executive producer   [32]

Television

  Year                Title                        Role                                        Notes
  ------------------- ---------------------------- ------------------------------------------- ------------------------------- --
  1992                _Loving_                     Unknown                                     Episode: “13 August 1992”
  1997                _New York Undercover_        Tammy                                       Episode: “No Place Like Hell”
  2000                _Disappearing Acts_          Portia                                      Television movie
  _NYPD Blue_         Sharice Warner               Episode: “Little Abner”
  2001–2002           _Ally McBeal_                Corretta Lipp                               25 episodes
  2010–2011           _Law & Order: Los Angeles_   Deputy D.A. Evelyn Price                    7 episodes
  2013                _Second Generation Wayans_   Regina                                      4 episodes
  2014                _Married_                    Roxanne                                     2 episodes
  2015                _With This Ring_             Trista Miller                               Television movie
  _Key & Peele_       Wife #1                      Episode: “Airplane Showdown”
  2016                _Grandfathered_              Catherine Sanders                           Recurring role; 5 episodes
  _Uncle Buck_        Jackie King                  Episode: “Pilot”
  _Lip Sync Battle_   Herself                      Episode: “Lupita Nyong'o vs. Regina Hall”
  2016–2017           _Black-ish_                  Vivian                                      3 episodes
  2017                _Crushed_                    Celia                                       Television movie
  _Insecure_          Ninny                        4 episodes
  2019–present        _Black Monday_               Dawn Darcy                                  Main role
  TBA                 _Nine Perfect Strangers_     Carmel                                      Upcoming miniseries

Awards

  Year                                                                                Work                                                               Award                                                                      Result
  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------
  2003                                                                                _Ally McBeal_                                                      NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
  2005                                                                                _Danika_                                                           Best Actress – San Diego Film Festival[33]
  2018                                                                                _Girls Trip_                                                       NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture
  _Support the Girls_                                                                                African-American Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
  Austin Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
  Black Reel Award for Outstanding Actress
  Boston Online Film Critics Association Award for Best Ensemble
  Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
  Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Cast
  Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Actress
  Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead
  Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress
  National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress
  New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
  San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
  Seattle Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress
  Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress (tied with Melissa McCarthy for Can You Ever Forgive Me? and Olivia Colman for The Favourite)
  Talk Film Society Award for Best Actress
  Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress

[1] Regina Hall Biography (1971—)

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11] Scary Movie 4: An Interview with Regina Hall

[12]

[13]

[14] Regina Hall on the Mo'Nique Show ABILITY Magazine, November 2010

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

[20]

[21]

[22]

[23]

[24]

[25]

[26]

[27]

[28]

[29] Regina Hall Interview “Regina Hall Issue”, ABILITY Magazine, April/May 2010

[30]

[31]

[32]

[33]

title: Regina Hall

question: Why did Regina Hall get in touch with Bob Saget?

answer: When Hall's mother was diagnosed with scleroderma, a rare autoimmune disease, she didn't know much about it, so a friend told her to get in touch with Bob Saget, who made a television movie about scleroderma after his sister died from the disease. Saget also has a group called the Scleroderma Research Foundation and helped Hall get in touch with a doctor at Johns Hopkins.

question: What role is Regina Hall most known for?

answer: Hall is most known for the role that made her famous, a sex-crazed Brenda Meeks in the comedy-horror spoof Scary Movie.

question: Why did Hall want to become a nun at age 40 and why was she denied entry?

answer: Hall had previously wanted to become a nun when she was 14 years old and finally tried after a bad break-up. However, she was 40 years old at the time and was refused for being too old (the cut-off age is 39).


split: train

text:
Vice Admiral JOHN KNOWLES IM THURN, (7 March 1881 – 5 July 1956) was a British Royal Navy officer who was Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff from 1931 to 1933.

Biography

Im Thurn joined the Royal Navy in January 1895, and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant on 15 January 1902.[1] In August that year he was posted to the torpedo boat depot ship , serving with the Mediterranean Fleet.[2] He served in the First World War, mainly with wireless telegraph and signalling duties, and was promoted to the rank of captain on 30 June 1918. After the war he held several staff appointments, as Assistant Director of Electrical Torpedo and Mining until 1920, then Director of the Signal Department until 1921.

He was captain of from 1923 to 1925, during which time the ship participated in a promotional tour of various ports around the world, the World Cruise of the Special Service Squadron.[3]

In March 1931 he was appointed Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff, a senior appointment in the Royal Navy. He served in this position until 1933, when he was appointed commanding officer of the 1st Cruiser Squadron in the Mediterranean Fleet.

He was promoted to vice-admiral in January 1935, and retired from service later the same year.

Family

Im Thurn was married to Margaret Elizabeth Flemming.

[1]

[2]

[3] http://www.hmshood.com/history/empirecruise/index.htm

title: John Knowles Im Thurn

question: Who was John Knowles Im Thurn?

answer: a British Royal Navy officer and Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff from 1931 to 1933

question: When was John Knowles Im Thurn born?

answer: 7 March 1881

question: When did John Knowles Im Thurn die?

answer: 5 July 1956

question: Who did John Knowles Im Thurn marry?

answer: Margaret Elizabeth Flemming

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: John Knowles Im Thurn was a British Royal Navy officer and Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff from 1931 to 1933.


text:
Loon Ratings Results for Minnesota United’s 2-1 Away Win at Atlanta (5/31)

[chart_1 (3)]

It was great to get away from Atlanta with the win, even though Minnesota at times looked very suspect, especially at the back.

Looking at the rankings, I was a bit surprised by the ratings of some of the players.  First, GREG JORDAN, who has been a polarizing player in the past, rated higher than MIGUEL IBARRA.  I guess that’s what happens when you put one in the back of the net.  I think JORDAN might be the first player to score who does not also have an assist.

Second, the two KALLMANS, who were rated at a 7 and 6 respectively were rated much higher than I expected.  BRIAN KALLMAN was actually rated as highly as PITCHKOLAN and IBARRA, who I personally felt had much stronger games.   If anything, the play of BRENT KALLMAN in the centerback role really reinforced to me how good DIAS and CALVANO are in that role.

PLAYER OF THE MATCH

Just like the DARK CLOUDS, the fans picked MITCH HILDEBRANDT as the PLAYER OF THE MATCH, and with good reason.  He picked up his back four on a number of occasions, making fantastic stops and keeping ATLANTA off the scoreboard until MINNESOTA’S offense could catch up and put a couple in.

SUB OF THE MATCH

While not having a stand out game coming off the bench, it was great to see RICHARD GARCIA, the Kookaburra himself, while not the centerback we need, he will be a great addition to our attack with OMAR DALEY likely on the outside of the midfield rotation.

INFLATED RATINGS ARE OK

I feel like the ratings are about a point, possibly two, too high for many of the players, but ultimately, I think that ends up being an argument of semantics than actually about the play of the players.  Relative to each other, the players were rated pretty accurately.

Thanks everyone for filling out the loon rankings this week!  Check all the nitty gritty statistics behind the cut!

  --------------------------------- ---------------- ------ -------- ----- ----- --------------------
  Player Name                       Average (Mean)   Mode   Median   Min   Max   Standard Deviation
  Mitch Hildebrandt                 8.83             9      9        8     10    0.65
  Brian Kallman                     6.92             6      7        5     9     0.97
  Brent Kallman                     6.13             6      6        4     8     1.03
  Pitchkolan                        7.04             7      7        4     9     1.23
  Justin Davis                      7.33             8      7.5      6     9     0.96
  Vicentini                         6.42             7      7        4     8     1.25
  Greg Jordan                       7.67             7      8        5     10    1.27
  Bracallello                       6.17             5      6        3     8     1.40
  D. Mendes                         6.33             6      6        5     9     0.92
  Miguel Ibarra                     7.25             7      7        6     9     1.07
  C. Ramirez                        8.42             8      8        7     10    0.83
  F. Franks                         6.04             6      6        4     9     1.07
  R. Garcia                         6.29             6      6        4     10    1.08
  Overall Team Performance          7.08             7      7        5     8     0.88
  Manny Lago’s Coaching Decisions   7.35             8      8        3     10    1.53
  --------------------------------- ---------------- ------ -------- ----- ----- --------------------

[]

About Bill MK

A writer, an avid consumer of soccer, music, media, books and games, a poorly self-taught handy man, a nom de plume.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

question: Who is the player of the match?

answer: Mitch Hildebrandt is the player of the match.

question: Who won the match?

answer: Minnesota United won the match.

question: Who is the sub of the match?

answer: Richard Garcia is the sub of the match.

question: What position did Brent Kallman play?

answer: Brent Kallman played the centerback position.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: This article details a match between Minnesota United and Atlanta. Minnesota won the game 2-1.


text:
There’s something about festivals that, on the face of it, embody everything that make it great to work behind a bar.

There are a number of perks to working behind the counter in a pub or bar. These tend to be the people you work with, the extravagant characters you get to serve, the free drinks and, if you’re lucky enough to work in a venue, the free live music.

So surely serving alcohol alongside some fellow music lovers at a top class outdoor festival to a bunch of people that are attending the event for the sole purpose of enjoying themselves would be heaven for any bar worker?

With festival season upon us and tickets for some of the summer’s biggest live music events rapidly selling out, it’s no wonder people will turn to the likes of Peppermintand Festivalvolunteer to try and get themselves a weekend working for the chance to see some of the most sought after acts in the country for free.

And with that comes the experience of working alongside some fellow music enthusiasts and making some decent brass along the way.

NELLY WHALEY, who works for Peppermint, said: _“Working behind the bar at a festival is a pretty awesome way to make some extra cash. I have been working on festival bars for the last 3 years whilst studying at university so I’ve spent my summers in random fields across the UK working at various festivals_.

“_The main difference to working at a bar at a festival rather than a pub is the environment, being outside in a random location with live music playing in the background, serving a variety of people and generally being around people with similar interests_.”

She added: _“Just because you’re working at a festival it doesn’t mean you’re excluded from the festival atmosphere, it actually means you get to experience a whole new festival atmosphere not many people do. Not only do you get to enjoy your free time like any other festival goer, when you are working you get to enjoy the buzz of the festival; people in high spirits, hearing some of your favourite artists play in the background, actually being sober and being able to enjoy the festival._”

Free music, good vibes and better living conditions to that of the other festival-goers; you’d think that working behind the bar would be a walk in the park (literally). But there’s also a lot of hard graft involved.

ELLIOT FRISKIN, 22, who’s been working at festivals for three years now, would go some way to stressing this point, as he assured me that there’s a lot more to it than having a blast with the punters.

He said: “_Festivals are fantastic and everything but it’s tough working behind the bar. You’ve got to be made out of steel to deal with that number of people. I would say that there’s definitely that ‘all-in-this-together-now’ feel of it though and that’s definitely one of the benefits. There’s nothing quite as satisfying as getting off a hectic shift to go and see Bruce Springsteen or whoever with the other guys you’re working with_.”

As with every bar job, the people that you’re serving and dealing with is a key aspect to how enjoyable it is. For this reason you’d probably assume that working at a festival would be perfect for this. But, according to Elliott, it varies quite dramatically.

He said: _“Sometimes it’s great. You get the sort of people that are letting loose and just there to have a good time and are care-free. That’s the sort of people you want to serve and it can make it a lot easier. Alternatively you get people who are already completely wasted and that bad side to them comes out when they see the prices being charged.”_

So it would seem that festivals bring up a range of experiences that are both just like working behind a standard bar yet nothing at all like it. But there was one common factor more than any that seemed to crop up as a key point: the free entry.

Nelly added: _“I think the biggest appeal to young people applying to work at festivals is no doubt the free entry into a festival. In fact – I have only ever worked at a festival in the UK, never actual went as a punter! This is due to the costs of tickets, travel, food etc. The attraction of bar work itself is the ability to be able to soak up the festival atmosphere whilst working. Bar work is an opportunity to engage with the festival goers and your colleagues. It is far from boring.”_

Nelly concluded with:

_“So if you’re looking for a summer job, which isn’t a 9 – 5 that gets you to some of the best festivals in the UK for free, then I can’t see why you wouldn’t give it a go. Most people who I have worked with go back and work at festivals year after year which must show its appeal.”_

Bar work at festivals is a working experience like no other. With the contrasting incredible highs that you get out of the live music and vibrant people and the hard work that comes with it, it’s something you can only describe by doing it, and with festival season bearing down on us, it’s the perfect time to get your place booked.

FANCY WORKING AT A FESTIVAL BAR THIS SUMMER? CHECK OUT OUR ARTICLE ON WAYS TO GET INTO A FESTIVAL FOR FREE, OR TO WORK AT PEPPERMINT’S FESTIVAL BARS, REGISTER AT PEPPERMINT STAFFING OR VOLUNTEER WITH OUR SISTER COMPANY FESTIVAL VOLUNTEER.

Have you got any stories about working behind a bar at a festival?

question: What are the benefits of working in a bar?

answer: Colleagues, interesting characters to meet, free drinks, and sometimes free live music.

question: What are the unique benefits of working in a bar at a festival?

answer: The free entry to the festival is the biggest benefit. The people enjoying the festival can improve the experience a lot.

question: What is difficult about working in a bar at a festival?

answer: The sheer number of people to serve is exhausting. Bad drunks also diminish the experience.

question: Why do people working at festival bars keep going back to it?

answer: The work isn't 9-5, and it's exciting. The job takes people to many places.

question: Write a ~4 sentence summary.

answer: Festivals enhance everything about working in a bar. Fellow workers, interesting characters to meet, free drinks, and free music are all much more intense in a festival. While the sheer number of people to serve can be daunting, the free entry to the festival and experiencing the atmosphere is immensely valuable. Anyone looking for a summer job that isn't 9-5 should consider festival bars.


text:
Panicked, Elizabeth sprints away from her pursuers, panic bubbling in her chest. She doesn’t even have time to process what just happened, all she can do is run and pray she won’t get caught. She runs through the marketplace, dodging startled shoppers and angry glares. She almost knocks over a fruit stand, but the owner and a few bystanders manage to catch it before anything falls. As if through a tunnel she can hear him screaming at her to be careful. She doesn’t stop though; all she can do is run.

She can’t breathe, but she can’t stop. She needs to find a place to hide, but where? Suddenly an idea strikes her; she quickly veers left down a muddy alleyway and splashes her way down to a small grate. She usually hides here after her father- no! Now is not the time to think of that! She needs to escape! She needs a plan! She quickly pries the grate open, slides in, and shuts it behind her. She curls up in her all too familiar corner and finally lets everything sink in.

Shivering with cold and fear she runs over the events leading up to this point. She just murdered her father; she stabbed him with a knife. She felt his blood on her hands and saw the life flicker out of his eyes. Her mother had started screaming and cradling his body, a guard heard and came running. She remembered dropping the knife when she realized what she had just done. The guard asked what happened and her mother just hysterically screeched at Elizabeth. As the guard turned, she took one final fearful look at her mother and bolted. Come to think of it, she didn’t even know if the guard had followed her or not. More than likely he did, but she was just too light and fast for him, even in a dress.

Elizabeth tried to calm herself. She had done what she had to do; no-one could fault her for that… right? The hopeful part of her mind prayed that everyone would understand and all would be forgiven, but the rational part of her knew just how wrong that was. She had to escape. Maybe she could find another town somewhere and build a new life… no. That wouldn’t work… Realizing what a hopeless situation she’s in, a small sob escapes her lips, but she quickly stifles it- she can’t let a guard hear her now. She’ll just stay the night here. Maybe in the morning she’ll be able to think of something to do…
__________________________________________________________

Elizabeth wakes up in a very familiar place, curled up like a dog in a ripped dress covered in blood, mud, and straw. Sun is streaming through the grate, but it didn’t quite reach where she’s hiding. She whimpers and buries her face in the straw, not caring how bad it pricks and itches.

She has to go home. Untangling her bruised and cut limbs she crawls out of her hidey-hole. Standing up, she gathers her tattered and torn dress and starts limping through the marketplace. She receives many disapproving glares from the other townsfolk, but she doesn’t care. She makes this walk of shame almost every morning.

She passes a guard on the outskirts of the town who just grunts at her to pass then stumbles up the winding trail to her house. As she walks in her father looks up from the newspaper, grins like a Cheshire cat, and says, “Morning Pumpkin, how’s my baby this morning?” Elizabeth just flinches and hangs her head. God, how she wants to kill this man.

title: Elizabeth (an original story by me)

question: Who does Elizabeth hide from?

answer: Elizabeth hides from her father and the guards.

question: Where does Elizabeth hide?

answer: Elizabeth hides in a grate down an alleyway.

question: What did Elizabeth do?

answer: Elizabeth stabbed her father.

question: What does Elizabeth find back at her house?

answer: Elizabeth finds her father still alive back at her house.

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: Elizabeth runs through the market and hides in her hidey hole. She is running from the guards after she stabbed her father. She spends the night in hiding, and when she returns to her house she finds her father safe and sound.


text:
Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers have discovered a common genetic variant that greatly impacts normal brain aging, starting at around age 65, and may modify the risk for neurodegenerative diseases. The findings could point toward a novel biomarker for the evaluation of anti-aging interventions and highlight potential new targets for the prevention or treatment of age-associated brain disorders such as Alzheimer's disease.

The study was published online today in the journal _Cell Systems_.

"If you look at a group of seniors, some will look older than their peers and some will look younger," said the study's co-leader Asa Abeliovich, PhD, professor of pathology and neurology in the Taub Institute for Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain at CUMC. "The same differences in aging can be seen in the frontal cortex, the brain region responsible for higher mental processes. Our findings show that many of these differences are tied to variants of a gene called TMEM106B. People who have two 'bad' copies of this gene have a frontal cortex that, by various biological measures, appears 12 years older that those who have two normal copies."

Studies have identified individual genes that increase one's risk for various neurodegenerative disorders, such as apolipoprotein E (APOE) for Alzheimer's disease. "But those genes explain only a small part of these diseases," said study co-leader Herve Rhinn, PhD, assistant professor of pathology and cell biology in the Taub Institute. "By far, the major risk factor for neurodegenerative disease is aging. Something changes in the brain as you age that makes you more susceptible to brain disease. That got us thinking, 'What, on a genetic level, is driving healthy brain aging?'"

In the current study, Drs. Abeliovich and Rhinn analyzed genetic data from autopsied human brain samples taken from 1,904 people without neurodegenerative disease. First, the researchers looked at the subjects' transcriptomes (the initial products of gene expression), compiling an average picture of the brain biology of people at a given age. Next, each person's transcriptome was compared to the average transcriptome of people at the same age, looking specifically at about 100 genes whose expression was found to increase or decrease with aging. From this comparison, the researchers derived a measure that they call differential aging: the difference between an individual's apparent (biological) age and his or her true (chronological) age. "This told us whether an individual's frontal cortex looked older or younger than expected," said Dr. Abeliovich.

The researchers then searched the genome of each individual, looking for genetic variants that were associated with an increase in differential age.

"One variant stood out: TMEM106B," said Dr. Rhinn. "It's very common. About one-third of people have two copies and another third have one copy."

"TMEM106B begins to exert its effect once people reach age 65," said Dr. Abeliovich. "Until then, everybody's in the same boat, and then there's some yet-to-be-defined stress that kicks in. If you have two good copies of the gene, you respond well to that stress. If you have two bad copies, your brain ages quickly."

The researchers found a second variant -- inside the progranulin gene -- that contributes to brain aging, though less so than TMEM106B. Progranulin and TMEM106B are located on different chromosomes but are involved in the same signaling pathway. Both have also been associated with a rare neurodegenerative disease called frontotemporal dementia.

The study did not address what role the two genetic variants might have in neurodegenerative disease. "We were studying healthy individuals, so it is not about disease, per se," said Dr. Abeliovich. "But of course, it's in healthy tissue that you start to get disease. It appears that if you have these genetic variants, brain aging accelerates and that increases vulnerability to brain disease. And vice versa: if you have brain disease, the disease accelerates brain aging. It's a vicious cycle."

STORY SOURCE:

Materials provided by COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER. _Note: Content may be edited for style and length._

question: Why does the genetic variant identified impact aging specifically around 65 years of age?

answer: Some yet-to-be-defined stress kicks in once people reach 65 and afterward TMEM 106B begins to exert its effect.

question: What is the relationship between older looking seniors and this study?

answer: In any group of seniors, some look older and some look younger. The same differences in aging can be seen in the frontal cortex of the brain. This is the area of the brain responsible for higher mental processes. These differences are tied to variants of a gene called TMEM 106B.

question: What is the significance of the gene called TMEM 106B?

answer: The differences in aging in the frontal cortex are tied to variants of the gene TMEM 106B. People who have two bad copies of the gene have a frontal cortex that appears 12 years older than those with two normal copies.

question: Who got thinking about what on a genetic level is driving healthy brain aging?

answer: Dr Herve Rhinn, assistant professor of pathology and cell biology at Taub Institute.

question: What vicious cycle is referred to in the article?

answer: If brain aging accelerates, it increases vulnerability to brain diseases. The opposite is also true: If there is brain disease, it accelerates brain aging.

question: Write a ~5 sentence summary.

answer: In any group of seniors, some look older and some look younger. The same differences in aging in the frontal cortex of the brain are tied to variants of a gene called TMEM 106B. People who have two bad copies of the gene have a frontal cortex that appears 12 years older than those with two normal copies. If brain aging accelerates, it increases vulnerability to brain diseases. The opposite is also true: If there is brain disease, it accelerates brain aging.


text: Along these red brick walls of Strangeways I stand facing my own mortality. Inside these walls that swallow up the pieces which society deems unworthy I stare into the abyss knowing, not believing my bereavement. Beside me stand two other inmates that have decided my fate. In a just world these men would become law abiding doctors or lawyers but instead they had to fight and kill in order to survive. These men will never know of a normal life outside these walls. Inside this black hole that swallows you up never to be seen again, this is a normal life in all its glory. This is not justice or a solution but a quick fix so normal people can sleep at night knowing their ethical crimes go unpunished. They say that when you die your life flashes before your eyes. This is your brain looking through all your memories trying to find a way out of the current situation. No memories flashed before my eyes. I knew there was no way out of this when I lost that court case all those years ago. As I looked into the eyes of the men next to me I saw nothing. No morals and no regrets for their wrong doings. Yet even though I was facing down certain death it was looking into those cold empty eyes that truly and utterly scared me.

title: Black Hole

question: Why is the narrator in prison?

answer: Unclear

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: The narrator is in prison. He believes that death is imminent as he stares into the blank eyes of the men beside him.


text:
First post to reddit.  I'm no writer but wrote this for the fun a week ago.  I'd love some feedback.
*************************************

	With a crash and a flash and a bash and a smash: Two young males struggled into the small apartment.  The door slammed open and with a screeching dragged gravel across  the tile floor, before coming to a halt.  The two boys stumbled over the threshold, streetlight streaming in from behind them lighting up the entry in a dulled yellow half light and throwing shadows into the hallway and kitchen.  The boys rolled after these shadows, chasing them inside.

	The sudden crash and flash were alarming and the sudden commotion paralyzed the third guest in the house.  And as the shadows thrown by the streetlight faded, accompanied once more with the screeching tiles, this unwelcome guest slunk as far into the dark as it could.  Attempting to envelope himself in the darkness, but his quivering body had not much room to creep.  Only the meagre shelter allowed beneath the lip of a soup plate, the only refuge offered in this stainless pit, which was quickly becoming a dungeon.

	Stainless steel imbues a feeling of clean and modernity, extravagant kitchens stamped with the big names of interior designers.  This first assumption must be corrected.  For the house the two boys stumbled inside had a different feeling.  It was the house of four-boys, four twenty year old college boys, in an aging brick and plaster building of little portugal.  Furnished comfortably with all the loving care mothers and fathers have when their children grow up and go off to college.  But this current state of disarray is not how those parents left it.  The furniture was haphazardly rearranged, and fallen couch cushions crudely assembled circles around the beer stained dining and coffee tables.  And the impressive collection of empty cans and bottles, lay littered upon every horizontal surface.  Like common nicknacks, making the boys feel right at home.  All that was curious was the out of place modern sink, sticking out like a sore thumb beneath a cupboard hanging limply by its only remaining hinge.

	And it is in this sink, huddled under a soup plate with a rim stained by chilli sauce and beans, backed up onto a cold, empty, dented, metal beer can the third guest was hid.  The brief calm submitted once again to the boys clatter, as the concentration required to balance while removing shoes abated.  Their decisive pounding gait rekindled, and it brought these young giants across the scratched pinewood flooring onto the brown ceramic kitchen tile.  With foresight one wouldn't expect from the boys in their state, one of them stomped purposely towards the sink in search of a large glass of water, to help stave off the worst of tomorrow morning's inevitable ailments.  The second closed in on the kitchen as well and with a click, flicked on the light switch.

	The growing proximity of the broad shouldered boys in their denim dress shirts and scraggly unkempt beard hair had the hidden sink prisoner already on edge.  His silent quest for a midnight morsel had led him down into this hell hole.  And more and more the half nibbled Romano bean an inch from his whisker seemed a meagre prize to take such risks.  Fretting, regretting, and still quivering; the mouse lay still, without a squeak or a peep, cowering ever more tightly to the dented blue can.  But his nerves got the best of him.  And as the sudden blinding incandescent bulbs evaporated the moonlit apartment into the clear resolve of the twentieth century, it drew forth a characteristic squeak from the kitchen's midnight guest.  The boys had heard it, he had no doubt.  And the bright lighting reflecting from all angles exposed him inn his hiding place.  But the mouse did not wimpier and cower, the mouse's resolve for life redoubled, as if his mean squeak was instead a battle cry reverberating off the reflective walls.  His clandestine methods were immediately abandoned and with a scuttle (caused from the poor grip of claws on stainless steel) stormed into the flooded light of the sink basin.

	The squeak and the scuttle coming from the sink procured an uncharacteristic yelp from the boys in the kitchen, as the small noises caused the young men to flinch backwards.  An unlikely response for moments before they had been unfazed by their own cacophonous stomping.  And this frightened call only further pervaded the mouse with a sense of determination and zeal.  The walls were too tall to jump and the smooth steel only scratched as the mouse tried in vain to climb free from this damp pit.  But the mouse was not disheartened, and with a beady eye spotted and plotted his escape.  With the lightning reflex that had so frightened those brave rugged boys, the mouse scrabbled back to his soup plate.  But not into its shadow, triumphantly he climbed, clambering onto the porcelain rim and basking in the full glow of the electric bulbs.  His fervent goal--a wooden stirring spatula leaning upright on the edge of a small metal pot .  Cast into the sink after serving up the chilli, the utensil was now serving as a tool in the mouse's escape.  Serving up justice, for death is too high a price to pay for a nibble of a discarded Romano bean!

	His paws moved deftly over the spoon, hand over hand as he had finally found a proper surface for which to grip his claws.  The edge mere inches away, and past that the cluttered countertop with a neglected hole in the corner baseboard.  Any specialist of mouse facial expressions (a field of study beginning and ending outside of the human species) would've recognized the excitement and elation between our hero's whiskers.  But this did not last long, for while those few inches of sink basin, plate rim, soup pot, and spatula handle were being navigated the boys were reacting.  At first with laughter over his friend's feminine squeal, but then with a new found home owners responsibility.  With malice in his eye the young man closed the gap to the sink, the metallic scratches had given way to subtler noises as the mouse had found his way onto the spatula.

	The mouse ran quickly, but was not fast enough, and with a look of dread watched as the boys bony knuckles barred his freedom, by grasping the end of the spatula.  The boy flicked and shook the it, and it was too much, the spatula was wrenched free from the mouse's desperate grasp, and he was thrown up into the air.

	The specialist in mouse facial expression would've definitively noted this new expression as a look of dread.  Utter terror spanned from his eyes to his whiskers to his tiny mouth, as he fell backwards, once more into his stainless steel prison.  Legs shot out in all directions, while his tail squirmed.  But there was nothing to grasp but thin air, and the sobering realization that he may not make it back to his hole tonight.

	With a soft thud he landed hard on his back on the cold damp steel.  The once prized Romano bean lay beside him, taunting him.  A sad reward to have forfeited so much for.  After the mouse came the spatula, coming down quickly as the boy swung the blade after his foe.  With a smash and a squelch the end of the spatula came down over the mouse, and the boys paused for a moment.  Curiosity got the best of them and as they both crowded around the sink they peeled back the spatula and peaked underneath.  The boys wrinkled their noses in disgust.  With nothing but contempt they threw the mouse into a plastic bag and then the trash.  With only feelings of disgust and disdain, they laid the mouse to rest.  Upset, because having to clean up the guts of a mouse is too high a price to pay for leaving a few dishes in the sink.

title: Mouse Hunt

question: Did the 2 boys break into a home?

answer: No, it was their own home.

question: Did the two boys stop the mouse?

answer: Yes

question: Did the mouse get that Romano bean?

answer: No

question: Were the two boys college students?

answer: Yes

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: Two college students return home and discover a mouse in their sink. They manage to catch him as he was trying to escape and kill him with a spatula.


text:
LADISLAV BUBLÍK (Bzenec 14 May 1924 - Ostrava 12 April 1988) was a Czech writer.[1] He is best known for his novel _Páteř_ (The Spine, 1963).[2]

Fiction

-   _Perpetuum mobile_ (1949)
-   _Rozkaz_ (The Warrant, 1951)
-   _Velká tavba_ (Large smelting, 1949)
-   _Horoucí láska_ (Ardent Love, 1955)
-   _Páteř_ (The Spine, 1963)

[1] http://www.slovnikceskeliteratury.cz/showContent.jsp?docId=256

[2] East Europe - Volume 13 - Page 4 1964 "Works such as Ladislav Mnacko's Belated Reportages, Peter Karvas's The Scar or Ladislav Bublik's novel The Spine do have — independent of their purely literary qualities or shortcomings — a great importance in contemporary literature.

title: Ladislav Bublík

question: Who was Ladislav Bublík?

answer: A Czech writer.

question: Where was Ladislav Bublík born?

answer: He is Czech, so presumably Czech Republic, but the article does not confirm that.

question: What was the title of Ladislav Bublík's 1955 book?

answer: Horoucí láska (Ardent Love)

question: What is Ladislav Bublík best-known for?

answer: Páteř (The Spine).

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: Ladislav Bublík was a Czech author, best known for his 1963 novel Páteř (The Spine).


text:
The London Olympics have just begun, but the fans have already selected the hottest female athlete of the Games, with all eyes on Antonija Misura of Croatia.

Misura plays at guard in the Croatian basketball squad.According to the athlete’s profile at the London 2012 official website, she is 24 years old, 181 centimeters tall and she’s an “F”, which means female.But she has a different explanation for this abbreviation, assuming that it stands for “really awesome at basketball.”Misura, who defends the Jolly JBS colors in the Croatian league, names “fashion and shopping” as her interests outside basketball.For now, Antonija’s looks outstrip her sporting achievements, with a bronze medal at the 2009 Mediterranean Games being the highlight of her career.Croatia were outclassed by Team USA 81-56 in their opener at the Olympics on Saturday, with Misura remaining on the bench for the whole match.

Antonija Misura (Image from imgfave.com)

Antonija Misura (Image from scandal.rs)

Antonija Misura playing for Croatia (Image from lapatilla.com)

question: Why is Antonija Misura of Croatia considered the hottest female athlete of the London Olympics?

answer: She's fit and blonde, the type of many individuals.


text:
_WESTERN COMICS_ was a Western comic book series published by DC Comics. DC's longest-running Western title, it published 85 issues from 1948 to 1961.[1] _Western Comics_ was an anthology series, featuring such characters as the wandering cowboy the Wyoming Kid, the Native American lawman Pow Wow Smith, the Cowboy Marshal, Jim Sawyer, showman Rodeo Rick, and Matt Savage, Trail Boss.[2] The masked Vigilante Greg Saunders appeared in the first four issues of the title, but was soon replaced by itinerant fix-it man Nighthawk.

Notable contributors included writers Don Cameron, Gardner Fox, and France Herron; and artists Carmine Infantino, Gil Kane, Howard Sherman, and Leonard Starr.

Publication history

Whitney Ellsworth edited the book for most of its run, assisted by Julius Schwartz, who took over the editorial reins for the last two years. Originally featuring four or more stories per issue, by issue #70 (July/Aug. 1958), _Western Comics_ reduced the number of stories to three.[3] _Western Comics_' infrequently appearing letter column was titled “The Hitching Post.”

Recurring features

-   WYOMING KID: Co-created by Jack Schiff and Howard Sherman, Bill Polk is a cowboy wandering the West looking for his father's murderer. Bill, with his horse Racer, improves his gunfighting skills while working as a ranch hand, rodeo rider, army scout, and so on, finally bringing the murderer to justice.[4] A good-natured hero, the Wyoming Kid appeared in every issue of _Western Comics_, often featured on the cover in early issues. He was so popular in _Western Comics_ that his adventures were also chronicled in _World's Finest Comics_ from 1949 – 1953.
-   POW WOW SMITH: Moving over from _Detective Comics_, the character first appeared in _Western Comics_ issue #43 (Jan./Feb. 1954), at that point becoming a principal figure, often appearing on the cover. He appeared in every issue from #43 to the end of the title's run.
-   NIGHTHAWK: Masked cowboy Hannibal Hawkes appeared in every issue of _Western Comics_ from #5 (Sept./Oct. 1948) – #76 (July/Aug. 1959)
-   RODEO RICK — Co-created by artist Howard Post, Rick and his horse Comet's adventures were later chronicled by writers Gardner Fox and France Herron, and artists Jimmy Thompson, Ramona Fradon, and Tom Cooke. Rick was featured in most issues of _Western Comics_ from #1 – #69 (May/Jun 1958). For a short time in later issues, he wore a disguise and was known as “The Masked Raider.”[5]
-   COWBOY MARSHAL, JIM SAWYER — the Cowboy Marshal was featured in every issue of the title from #1 – #42 (Nov./Dec. 1953).
-   MATT SAVAGE, TRAIL BOSS — created by Gardner Fox, Gil Kane, and Joe Giella, the character was a late addition to _Western Comics_ (taking Nighthawk's slot)[6] in issue #77 (Sept./Oct. 1959), but was the title's cover feature until the end. It was later established that Matt was Scalphunter's father, and was also related to Lt. Steve Savage, the World War I pilot briefly featured in _All-American Men of War_.[7]

[1]

[2]

[3] Markstein, Don. “Rodeo Rick,” Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Accessed Aug. 13, 2011. Archived from the original on March 5, 2015.

[4] Markstein, Don. “The Wyoming Kid,” Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Accessed Aug. 13, 2011. Archived from the original on March 5, 2015.

[5]

[6] Markstein, Don. “Matt Savage, Trail Boss,” Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Accessed Aug. 13, 2011. Archived from the original on March 5, 2015.

[7]

title: Western Comics

question: Summarize everything that's dated in the 1950s.

answer: There were many changes to Western Comics in the 1950s. 1953 was the last year that Wyoming Kid was featured in World's Finest Comics and Cowboy Marshal was featured in Western Comics. Pow Wow Smith first appeared in 1954. In 1958, Rodeo Rick was featured for the last time, and Western Comics reduced the number of their stories from four to three. In 1959, Hannibal Hawkes appeared for the last time, and replaced by Matt Savage.

question: Summarize the publication history.

answer: Whitney Ellsworth and Julius Schwartz edited the comic book, but Schwartz was only an assistant until the last two years of Western Comics. Western Comics published 85 issues from 1948 to 1961. By issue #70 in 1958, the book reduced its stories from for to three per issue. The book also infrequently featured a letter column, "The Hitching Post".

question: What does the text say about Whitney Ellsworth's opinions?

question: What does the text say about cowboys?

answer: Western Comics was a Western comic book, so it featured several cowboys. Wyoming Kid was a cowboy and was featured in every issue of the book. He was a hero. Nighthawk was a masked cowboy who was featured for the majority of the book's run, and Cowboy Marshall was featured from the first issue until #42.


text:
_'Edmund (or EDMOND) Meyrick_' (or MEYRICKE) (1636 – 24 April 1713) was a Welsh cleric and benefactor of Jesus College, Oxford, where scholarships are still awarded in his name. He is a member of the Meyrick family.

Life

Meyrick was born at Garthlwyd, Llandderfel (near Bala, Merionethshire) and christened in Llandderfel on 11 June 1636. He attended four schools, including one year at Ruthin School, before matriculating at Jesus College, Oxford in 1656. He was elected to a scholarship in 1658 and obtained his BA degree in 1659.[1] He was ordained both deacon and priest by Robert Skinner, Bishop of Oxford, on 30 August 1660 in the chapel of New College, Oxford.[2] In 1662, he was elected to a probationary Fellowship of the college, but married in 1663 and became ineligible for a full fellowship. He became vicar of Eynsham on 10 August 1663.[3] He was chaplain to Richard, Earl of Carbery — the Meyricks and the Carberys being related – and this connection led to Meyrick's appointment to a number of lucrative positions in West Wales.[4] Meyrick became vicar of Llangathen in 1665, vicar of Llanegwad and a Canon of St David's Cathedral in 1667, rector of Burton, Pembrokeshire in 1670, treasurer of St David's in 1690 and rector of Penboyr in 1713. He was also a canon of Christ College, Brecon and vicar of Carmarthen; he held many of these positions at the same time. He died in Carmarthen, where he was then living, on 24 April 1713, and was buried in St Peter's Church; a memorial to him was placed on the north wall of the chancel.[5]

Bequests

Meyrick's wife and only child had predeceased him, enabling a more generous disposition of his assets.[6] He had extensive property interests, in both North and South Wales. The family seat was in Ucheldre, Gwyddelwern, Merionethshire and Meyrick also owned several houses in Carmarthen.[7] In 1708, he set up a charity school in Carmarthen but for some reason directed in his will that the school and master should be moved to Bala, where it became the Bala Grammar School.[8] The will provided for an annual payment of £15 to the schoolmaster together with the use of the schoolhouse, and £15 per year for clothing for the students.[9]

His will, dated 25 March 1712, said: He left family property in Denbighshire and Merionethshire, as well as his Carmarthen property after expiration of some life interests, to the college to provide six scholarships of £10 and six exhibitions of £8. The scholarships and exhibitions were to be awarded to Jesus College students from North Wales, until they obtained their Master of Arts degree or were receiving more than £40 per year from a parish appointment. Any surplus was to be used to buy advowsons so that the College might present one of the scholars (or in default of a suitable scholar, a Meyrick exhibitioner or a North Wales fellow of the College) to a parish position.[10] Whilst the estate produced a surplus, only one living was purchased by the trustees, that of the rectory of Llandow in 1735. Further increases in the surplus led to an increase in payments to Bala School and to the scholars and exhibitioners, and to the purchase of other property in Cheltenham and Carmarthen.[11][12] This proved to be a profitable investment since, by 1840, the college had received more than £10,000 through the sale of trust land near Cheltenham for railway purposes. Payments to Bala School ended in 1862, when the annual payments were commuted for a lump-sum payment of £5,333.[13]

Meyrick scholarships and exhibitions are still awarded to students at Jesus College, based on academic merit. Students performing consistently at a first-class standard during the year in the opinion of their tutors may be awarded a Meyrick scholarship, with consistent performance at upper second to first-class standard potentially leading to the award of a Meyrick exhibition.[14] The restriction in Meyrick's bequest that the scholarships were for students from North Wales only was relaxed in 1857 to cover students from all of Wales and Monmouthshire.[15][16] The restrictions have been further relaxed and students who were not born in Wales are also now eligible for a Meyrick scholarship or exhibition if they are the child of a native of Wales, are able to speak Welsh or they were educated for the last three years of secondary school in Wales.[17]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13] Baker, p. 62

[14]

[15]

[16] Hardy, p. 197

[17]

title: Edmund Meyrick

question: Describe Meyrick's relationship to Wales.

answer: Meyrick was Welsh. He was born at Garthlwyrd, Llandderfel. He was a vicar in a number of positions in West Wales. He had extensive property interests in North and South Wales. The family seat was in Ucheldre, Gwyddelwern. He left scholarships for Jesus College for students from the North of Wales, which have since been extended to include students who speak Welsh or have Welsh parentage.

question: When did Meyrick live?

answer: Meyrick lived in the 17th and early 18th centuries. He had a long life. Born in 1636, he matriculated at Jesus College in 1656. He later married in 1663, the same year he began a long career in the priesthood. He was rector of Penboyr in 1713, when he died, fifty years later.


text:
The LGM-118 PEACEKEEPER, originally known as the MX for “Missile, Experimental”, was a MIRV-capable intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) produced and deployed by the United States from 1985 to 2005. The missile could carry up to 12 Mk.21 reentry vehicles, although treaty-limited to 10, each armed with a 300-kiloton W87 warhead. Initially, 100 MX ICBMs were planned to be built and deployed, but budgetary concerns eliminated the final procurement and only 50 entered service. Disarmament treaties signed after the Peacekeeper's development concluded in its eventual withdrawal from service in 2005.

Studies on the underlying concept started in the 1960s. The idea was to allow the US to absorb a sneak attack by the USSR with enough warheads surviving to attack the remaining Soviet missile fleet. To do so, the missiles had to be highly accurate, be based in such a way that enough would survive to launch a counterstrike, carry a large number of warheads so the survivors would still inflict massive damage, and be able to rapidly re-target so they could be aimed at only those missiles the Soviets had not yet fired. Ultimately the only problem that was never completely solved was the issue of basing, over its development through the 1970s, MX emerged as a highly accurate, rapid-firing, and quickly retargeted system.

Initial development began in 1971, with full-scale development starting in 1974. President Jimmy Carter ordered initial production in 1979 but was overturned by Congress. After considerable debate about the system, in October 1982, President Ronald Reagan announced that 50 of the newly named Peacekeepers would be put into service in existing LGM-30 Minuteman silos, a temporary solution until a final basing solution was decided. The first flight test took place in 1983, which included the successful launch of six inert re-entry vehicles, each hitting pre-planned targets. It was the first US ICBM to use a cold launch system, reaching initial operational capability in 1986.

During the same period, the United States and the Soviet Union were involved in negotiations on the START II treaty, under which ICBMs were allowed to carry only a single warhead each. Because the Minuteman could carry a single warhead for far less money, the United States agreed to remove the Peacekeeper from their nuclear force in this treaty. Despite the US withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the subsequent Russian withdrawal from the START II on 14 June 2002, the last Peacekeeper missile was deactivated on 19 September 2005. Their advanced W87 warheads were moved to the Minuteman III.

The private launch firm Orbital Sciences Corporation has developed the Minotaur IV, a four-stage civilian expendable launch system using old Peacekeeper components.

Development and deployment

[Mk21 re-entry vehicles on a Peacekeeper MIRV bus. Each carries a 300-kT W87 warhead with about 20 times the power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima during World War II.[1]]

Minuteman

Deployment of the Minuteman ICBM began in 1962, during the Cold War, and proceeded rapidly. Limited accuracy with a circular error probable (CEP) of about 0.6 to 0.8 nautical miles and a small warhead of less than 1 megaton meant the system was unable to attack hardened targets like missile silos. This limited these early models to attacks on strategic targets like cities and ports, and the system had little or no capability as a counterforce weapon. The Air Force relied on its manned bombers as the primary weapon for attacking hardened targets and saw the ICBM as a survivable deterrent that would guard against an attack on its bomber fleet.

As the Kennedy administration took power, the new Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, was given the seemingly impossible task of making the US military the most powerful in the world while at the same time reducing its expenditures. He ultimately solved this problem by greatly reducing reliance on the bomber and passing the role to the Minuteman. Over time, improvements to the Soviet missiles, real or imagined, led to US officials proposing a worrying scenario; a Soviet first strike with a limited number of warheads aimed at the Minuteman control bunkers could cripple the US ICBM fleet. At the time the Soviets were only capable of mounting a limited attack. With the limited accuracy of Soviet missiles, only an attack with a small number of missiles carrying very large warheads (multi-megaton range) was feasible. They had just enough of these to make a damaging, but not decisive, attack on the US ICBM fleet. By April 1964 the US had more ICBMs on active alert than strategic bombers, which exacerbated this concern.

The US ICBM fleet was primarily targeted against cities, and retargeting them took considerable time. In the event of a Soviet missile launch, the US faced the difficult decision of whether to fire their own missiles immediately or wait to determine the targets of the Soviet missiles. Firing early might mean striking civilian targets (countervalue) when the Soviets had only targeted military installations, something US politicians considered to be a serious problem (part of the flexible response doctrine). Conversely, waiting to fire might mean the loss of the ICBM fleet. However, as the US Navy was quick to point out, their Polaris fleet's stealth and mobility would maintain a countervalue force.

This scenario was of deep concern to the United States Air Force. If the role of the nuclear missile was to ride out a first strike and ensure a counterstrike, then the Navy might be handed the mission outright. Looking for a new role, the Air Force began to turn their attention away from the deterrent role towards counterforce. Continued work on the Minuteman led to the Minuteman II specification, set in 1962. The new version included two key improvements. One was the new NS-17 inertial navigation system, which improved the CEP to 0.34 nautical miles, enough to allow it to attack hardened targets. Just as important, the guidance system allowed for the inclusion of eight pre-selected targets. This allowed the force to ride out a Soviet first strike, select the appropriate enemy targets, military or civilian, and launch. Against a limited attack, it offered the US a major strategic advantage. Of course, the Soviets could also improve their own system's CEP and turn all of their missiles into counterforce weapons as well. With the ICBM force now critical to the strategic mission, the Air Force became increasingly interested in new ways to keep the missiles safe from such an attack.

Golden Arrow

The Air Force had depended on engineering support from TRW during the early days of the development of their ICBM force. In 1960 a number of TRW and other engineers involved in the ICBM program formed The Aerospace Corporation, initially working on the Mercury spacecraft, X-20 Dynasoar and various ICBM projects. In 1964, the Air Force contracted them to consider a wide variety of survivable ICBM solutions, under the name “Golden Arrow”.

The project considered road, rail, submarine and air-launched weapons. One of these suggested an air-launched ballistic missile. The proposal called for an enormous (for the day) turboprop-powered aircraft with two-day endurance carrying up to eight missiles that would be dropped out the back, parachuted to the vertical, and then launched. As part of the same study, Aerospace also considered a missile and wheeled launcher combination that was small enough that they could be carried in existing C-141 Starlifter aircraft. During periods of heightened tensions, they would be flown to practically any airport and set up. The Soviets would have to target thousands of airports, runways and even dirt strips and long stretches of highway in order to attack the fleet.

Finally, they also considered conventional missiles in “super hard” silos, buried under the southern side of mountains. As the enemy warheads would approach at a fairly shallow angle from the north, they would strike the north side of the mountains before they could hit the silos themselves. Properly positioned, this would keep the explosions at least 5,000 feet away from the silos; it was believed that silos able to withstand multi-megaton explosions at one mile could be built, although this was an area of some uncertainty. This system had the advantage that the basing would be immune to changes in accuracy or speed of the attack, only enormous increases in yield could overcome this physical barrier.

They proposed 100 missiles in three bases of thirty missiles each. They expected that at least one base would be able to survive even an all-out attack. However, if such a force of approximately 30 missiles was going to be a reasonable deterrent, each missile would need to carry 20 or more warheads. To launch them, the study introduced the “ICBM-X”, a massive new diameter design, well over twice the diameter of the existing LGM-30 Minuteman, and larger even than the Titan II “heavy” design at .

Any of the “Golden Arrow” concepts would be extremely expensive, and in the era of Robert McNamara's US Department of Defense, cost was as important as any other consideration. As Alain Enthoven put it, “Our gross national product, though large, is limited. If we attempted to develop and procure a dozen or more distinct different nuclear delivery systems… we doubtless would end up squandering our resources and not doing a good job on any of them.” Golden Arrow, along with many similar proposals from other firms, proceeded no further, in favor of the Minuteman II.

WS-120A

In 1966 and 67, the Department of Defense ran the STRAT-X study to consider many of these issues. As part of this program, they proposed a smaller version of ICBM-X with 10 to 20 warheads. Known initially as WS-120A and later as BGM-75 AICBM, the missile was small enough to fit in existing large silos, like those for the Titan II, but was otherwise similar in concept to the ICBM-X, with a circular error probable (CEP) of about 0.1 miles, and especially the ability to be quickly re-programmed to attack any targets needed. In comparison, the Minuteman II had a selection of eight targets, any one of which could be quickly selected for attack, but otherwise selecting a target outside this pre-computed list was not something that could be done “on the fly”. WS-120A's preferred basing mode was a super hardened shelter, but dispersed mobile options were also considered.

However, like Golden Arrow before it, WS-120A's advantages found themselves being diluted by the new Minuteman III. The Minuteman III used the new NS-20 inertial navigation system (INS) with a CEP of 0.12 nautical miles, three warheads and an expanded collection of radar countermeasures that would ensure the warheads would survive an anti-ballistic missile attack. Although the system did not include the ability to be rapidly retargeted, this capability was under development and started deployment in 1972, before the planned 1975 introduction date of WS-120A. When it was fully deployed in 1978, the entire ICBM fleet could be entirely reprogrammed in 10 hours.

INS advances

Since the late 1950s, engineers at the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory had been working on a new type of inertial platform that replaced the mechanical gimbals with a sphere floating in a thin layer of fluorocarbon fluid. The so-called “flimbal” (apparently for “FLoated Measurement BAL”)[2] would offer unprecedented accuracy and would be free from “gimbal lock”, a problem that caused conventional platforms to “tumble” and lose their accuracy. Like the ICBM-X, there was little development as there appeared to be no need for a platform with the sort of accuracy the flimbal provided, and the expense of developing the system would be extremely high.

In spite of a lack of official interest, during the late 1960s Kenneth Fertig managed to arrange some funding through the Air Force for the “SABRE” INS project, short for “Self-Aligning Boost and RE-entry”. The name referred to the concept that the system would be so accurate and free from the effects of mechanical shocks and jarring that it would not require any other form of “fixing” in flight. This was in contrast to the stellar-inertial systems under development by the Navy and others. It would retain its accuracy even through the rough conditions during re-entry, allowing the creation of maneuvering reentry vehicles.

Counterforce considerations

During the late 1970s, the Soviet Union fielded a large number of increasingly accurate MIRVed Heavy ICBMs like the SS-18. These missiles carried as many as 10 warheads along with up to 40 penetration aids, meaning that a small number of launches could present a threat to the Air Force's ICBM fleet while retaining a large force in reserve. If the Soviet Union launched a first strike and the US did not respond immediately, the majority of their missiles and strategic bombers might be caught on the ground. A credible deterrent force would remain, but such a force might not have enough warheads left to attack _both_ the remaining Soviet fleet and cities and other military targets.

In such a situation, the US would be left with two uncomfortable options. If they chose to respond in kind and attack the remaining Soviet missile fleet, there would be little to respond with if the Soviets immediately launched against US cities. The other option would require the US to be the first country to launch an attack on civilian targets, an attack that was both morally reprehensible as well as against stated policy. This worrying scenario led to the effort to develop a new ICBM with the accuracy needed to be an excellent counterforce weapon, the survivability needed to absorb a Soviet first strike, and the MIRV capabilities needed to ensure even a small number of survivors would be able to attack the remaining Soviet missile fleet. The Minuteman III simply did not have this combination of features.

Whether or not this problem actually existed is open to debate. The Minuteman had a relatively fast launch time, and early warning satellites meant that commanders would have almost instant warning of a Soviet launch, with ample time to plan a response. However, it would not be until much later in the sequence of events that land-based radars would be able to track the incoming individual warheads and determine the targets. In the case of a limited counterforce attack, it would be desirable to wait until the individual targeted silos were determined, determine which Soviet missiles had not been launched, and then launch only the targeted missiles against their unlaunched Soviet counterparts. This would require extremely tight timing.

The development of practical SLBM systems upset the nuclear equation dramatically. These weapons were essentially invulnerable when at sea, and offered a credible countervalue force (against civilian targets) although early models like the UGM-27 Polaris and UGM-73 Poseidon did not have the accuracy to attack Soviet silos and thus offered little counterforce capability. In some ways this helped the Air Force, as it meant they could concentrate on the counterforce scenarios, knowing that a countervalue attack would always be available from the Navy. However, improvements in SLBM accuracy might allow them to handle counterforce as well, and render the entire land-based ICBM fleet superfluous. The Air Force was not interested in handing the strategic role to the Navy. A survivable ICBM would address this issue.

MX

[Advanced Inertial Reference Sphere]

In 1971, the Air Force started a requirements development process combining the ICBM-X and SABRE concepts into a single platform, “Missile, Experimental”, or MX. The new missile would have enough accuracy and warhead payload that even a few survivors would be able to destroy enormous numbers of any remaining Soviet force. The specifications for MX were fixed in February 1972, the program office at the Space and Missile Systems Organization (SAMSO) formed on 4 April, and the advanced development program started in late 1973.

To address the survivability issue, a huge series of concepts and studies followed. In 1973, Strategic Air Command rejected mobile basing due to high costs and slow reaction times due to the need to set up the launcher. On 24 October 1974 the airmobile concept was tested by SAMSO by dropping a Minuteman I from a C-5A cargo aircraft. In November, the Secretary of Defense pushed the initial operational date back from 1983 to 1985 and opened a study on the possibility of developing a single missile for both ICBM and SLBM use.

For MX, the Draper Laboratory developed SABRE into the “Advanced Inertial Reference Sphere” (AIRS). AIRS would have a drift rate of only 1.5 x 10−5 degrees per hour, allowing it to be periodically referenced to an external point, like the silo wall, and then left for extended periods of time. Over the period of the flight the drift would be so low that any inaccuracies in the platform would account for a maximum of 1% of the warhead's final accuracy–the rest would be due to issues like the timing of the firing of the rocket engines, minor differences in warhead construction, and unavoidable randomness in the atmosphere.[3] The Air Force also contracted with Autonetics for a backup design using mechanical gimbals, the “Advanced Stable Platform” (ASP). In May 1975 the first hand-built AIRS was transferred from Draper's laboratory to Northrop for further development.

Basing options

[Time exposure shot of testing of the Peacekeeper re-entry vehicles at the Kwajalein Atoll, all eight fired from one missile.]

In July 1976, Congress refused to fund MX using a silo-based system on grounds of vulnerability, and the project was halted. Several new proposals were made for alternate basing arrangements, including mobile basing in railway cars that would be sent out into the nation's rail network during times of heightened threat levels, and more complex systems of deeply buried silos under mesas that would include systems to quickly dig themselves out after an attack.

Eventually, the program was reinstated on 12 June 1979 by President Carter. On 7 September 1979 he announced that 200 MX missiles would be deployed throughout eastern Nevada and western Utah. The deployment would occur in a system of multiple protective shelters linked by underground or aboveground roads, the so-called “Racetrack” proposal. Local opposition in Nevada was intense, and the concept gained a powerful enemy in the form of Senator Paul Laxalt. Initially support was high in Utah, especially in the Beaver County area; although opposition increased dramatically following a statement of disapproval by the leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.[4][5]

When Ronald Reagan took office, Laxalt's close ties with Reagan proved useful. Reagan canceled the new shelter system in 1981, calling it “a Rube Goldberg scheme”. On 2 October 1981 he proposed deploying an initial force of missiles in the approximately 60 existing Titan II silos, removing those now outdated missiles from service. The silos would be modified for much greater strength, and a number of Minuteman III silos similarly adapted over time to bring the force to a total of 100 missiles. Additionally, he suggested funding development of three additional concepts, airborne drops from cargo aircraft, an “active defense” using short-range anti-ballistic missile, or basing new silos deep underground or on the south side of mesas (“reverse-inclination basing”).[6] The latter two quickly proved unacceptable for various reasons, while testing of the air-drop concept was pursued.

On 22 November 1982, Reagan announced that the system would be deployed in new silos in what was then known as “Closely Spaced Basing”, but later better known as “dense pack”. During this speech, he made the first mention of the name Peacekeeper. The dense pack idea involved building super-hardened silos that would withstand more than 10,000 psi (70 MPa) of overpressure, compared to 2,000 of the existing silos, or 5,000 psi for the upgraded versions originally proposed.

This extra hardness can be offset by minor increases in warhead accuracy. The key to dense pack concept was to space the silos close together, about 1,800 feet (550 m). This was far enough apart that a single warhead could not destroy more than one silo, no conceivable warhead was powerful enough to destroy the silos from the point between them, from either silo. To attack the dense pack, separate warheads would have to be aimed at each silo. When one of the attacking warheads exploded, the blast wave and dirt thrown into the air would destroy any nearby warheads.

This “fratricide theory” was highly criticized due to the expected relative ease with which the Soviets could modify their warheads and circumvent this design. All that was required was that several warheads arrive and be detonated within a few milliseconds of each other, so the blast waves did not reach each other before completing destruction of the silo. Such timing could be easily achieved by launching all of the warheads from a single missile. Congress again rejected the system.[7]

Scowcroft Commission

Reagan responded to this setback by appointing Lieutenant General Brent Scowcroft to lead a Commission on Strategic Forces, better known as the Scowcroft Commission.

In overall terms, the most important conclusion of the Scowcroft Commission was that the “window of vulnerability” in regard to the Soviet capability to attack US ICBMs never existed in the first place.[8] The report examined a wide array of potential attack scenarios, and demonstrated that none allowed the Soviets to significantly blunt a US response, nor seriously limit its options in the flexible response policy.

Delivered 6 April 1983, the report suggested deploying 100 MX in existing Minuteman silos as a “demonstration national will”, but in other ways basically suggested eliminating both MX and Minuteman and replacing them with a small single-warhead mobile ICBM. On 10 August, the Secretary of Defense ordered 100 Peacekeepers be deployed at Warren AFB in Wyoming and began development of what became the MGM-134 Midgetman.[9]

SLBMs come of age

By this time both the US and USSR were beginning to field third-generation SLBMs with greatly improved accuracy. These now arguably had all of the capability of the land-based ICBMs, and were equally able to carry out the counterforce mission.[10] Additionally, the submarines could maneuver much closer to their targets, greatly reducing the warning time, potentially to the point that the command structure would not have time to launch their ICBMs and bombers before the warheads were reaching them.

The development of the Trident II, which was described as “effective against most of the hardened military targets, including missile silos and launch control centers”,[11] reopened the debate about MX. If Trident was capable of carrying out the mission originally intended for MX, and do so from a completely protected and mobile plaform, what capabilities did MX add?

A compromise was eventually developed in mid-1983. Under this scheme, 100 missiles would be deployed in existing Minuteman silos to “show national will”. The plan also called for the removal of the old and accident-prone liquid fueled Titan II from use. However, this did not address the problem the MX was originally intended to solve, providing high survivability. This would later be addressed through the re-introduction of the “rail garrison” concept, with twenty-five trains each carrying two missiles. This system was expected to be operational in 1992. The supposed counterforce gap, then being widely talked about on television, also resulted in the schedule for silo deployment being moved up, dropping the production time from 44 months to 29.

Additionally, the plan also called for the development of an entirely new missile, which would emerge as the MGM-134 Midgetman. The Midgetman deliberately carried only one warhead and was highly mobile. Countering a single Midgetman would require the Soviets to blanket an area around its last known position with warheads. Even if this was successful, they would destroy only a single warhead. Faced with this choice, it was expected the Soviets would instead expend their warheads on easier targets.

Peacekeeper Rail Garrison

[Retired Peacekeeper Rail Garrison Car prototype at the National Museum of the USAF.]

The PEACEKEEPER RAIL GARRISON is a mobile missile system that was developed by the United States Air Force during the 1980s as part of a plan to place fifty MGM-118A Peacekeeper[12] intercontinental ballistic missiles on the rail network of the United States. The railcars were intended, in case of increased threat of nuclear war, to be deployed onto the nation's rail network to avoid being destroyed by a first strike counterforce attack by the Soviet Union. However the plan was cancelled as part of defense cutbacks following the end of the Cold War, and the Peacekeeper missiles were installed in silo launchers as LGM-118s instead.

Deployment

The new ICBM was originally planned to be called “Peacemaker”, but at the last minute was officially designated the LGM-118A Peacekeeper. It was first test fired on 17 June 1983, by the Air Force Systems Command Ballistic Missile Office (Norton AFB, CA), 6595th Missile Test Group (Vandenberg AFB, CA Strategic Air Command), and Martin Marietta, from Vandenberg AFB, California Test Pad-01, traveling to strike successfully in the Kwajalein Test Range in the Pacific. The first eight test flights were launched from an above ground canister on TP-01, with the remaining test and operational Strategic Air Command flights from silos (LF-02, −05, & -08) all located on North Vandenberg AFB. A total of 50 flight tests were accomplished.

The operational missile was first manufactured in February 1984 and was deployed in December 1986 to the Strategic Air Command, 90th Strategic Missile Wing at the Francis E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming in re-fitted Minuteman silos. However, the AIRS was not yet ready and the missiles were deployed with non-operational guidance units. AIRS had 19,000 parts and some of these required as many as 11,000 testing steps. Bogged down in paperwork due to government procurement policies, managers started bypassing official channels and buying replacement parts wherever they could be found, including claims that some of the parts were sourced at Radio Shack. In other cases, managers had created false shell companies to order needed test equipment.

When these allegations were released by _60 Minutes_ and the _Los Angeles Times_, the fallout was immediate. Northrop was slapped with a $130 million fine for late delivery, and when they reacted against employees they were countersued in whistleblower suits. The Air Force also admitted that 11 of the 29 missiles deployed were not operational. A Congressional report stated that “Northrop was behind schedule before it even started” and noted that the Air Force knew as early as 1985 that there were “serious system deficiencies as well as a lack of effective progress”. They complained that the Air Force should have come clean and simply pushed back the deployment date, but instead, in order to foster the illusion of progress, the missiles were deployed in a non-operational state.

The first prototype AIRS, by then known more generically as the Inertial Measurement Unit, or IMU, was delivered in May 1986, 203 days late. It was not until July 1987 that the first production AIRS were ready to ship, and the complete supply for the first 50 missiles was not complete until December 1988. Given these delays, and increased performance of the UGM-133 Trident II, Congress had already cancelled the 100-missile option in July 1985. In that decision, Congress limited the deployment of Peacekeeper ICBMs to 50 missiles until a more “survivable” basing plan could be developed.

Development of the rail garrison system was carried out in parallel. However, budgetary constraints and the dissolution of the Soviet Union led to its being scrapped. The National Museum of the United States Air Force has a rail garrison box car on display, and developmental remnants of the program can still be found at Vandenberg Air Force Base.

The project had already cost around $20 billion up to 1998 and produced 114 missiles, at $400 million for each operational missile. The “flyaway” cost of each warhead was estimated at 20 to 70 million dollars.[13]

Retirement and deactivation

The missiles were gradually retired, with 17 withdrawn during 2003, leaving 29 missiles on alert at the beginning of 2004, and only 10 by the beginning of 2005. The last Peacekeeper was removed from alert on 19 September 2005 during the final deactivation ceremony when the 400th Missile Squadron was inactivated as well. During the ceremony an Under-Secretary of the Air Force credited the Peacekeeper with helping to end the Cold War.[14]

The Peacekeeper rockets are being converted to the satellite launcher role by Orbital Sciences, as the Minotaur IV (OSP-2), while their warheads will be deployed on the existing Minuteman III missiles. Parts of the missile Roll Control System (RoCS) were reused during the Ares I-X test for the Constellation program.

Operator

-   The United States Air Force was the only operator of the Peacekeeper.

        400th Strategic Missile (later Missile) Squadron, Francis E. Warren AFB, Wyoming (1987–2005). Airborne Missileers operating the Common Airborne Launch Control System onboard Airborne Launch Control Center aircraft provided a survivable capability to remotely control and launch the Peacekeeper ICBM in the event the underground Launch Control Centers were unable to do so.[15]

-   Orbital Sciences: Will use the Minotaur IV civilian launch platform version.

[1]

[2] “Non-linear servo drive for a flimbal”, MIT, 1959

[3] “Advanced Inertial Reference Sphere”, _FAS_, 22 October 1997

[4]

[5]

[6] Jonathan Medalia, “The MX Basing Debate”, US Congress, 11 February 1981 (PDF)

[7] “Congress Rejects MX Dense Pack Deployment”, Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, 1983

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12] Parsch 2006

[13]

[14]  Arms Control Association|website=www.armscontrol.org|access-date=28 August 2016}}

[15]

title: LGM-118 Peacekeeper

question: What was the intent in making the LGM-118 Peacekeeper?

answer: The idea was to allow the United States to absorb a sneak attack by the USSR with enough warheads surviving so that they could attack remaining Soviet missile fleet.

question: Why was Carter's request for initial production overturned by Congress?

answer: It's possible it was overturned because there were still kinks in the system which made it not yet ready for production.

question: Why was the project halted in July 1976?

answer: MX was halted because Congress refused to fund the project if it used a silo-based system as its basing arrangement. This was on the grounds of vulnerability.

question: What is the context surrounding "this scenario was of deep concern to the United States Air Force"?

answer: The scenario is that waiting to fire the missile could mean the loss of the ICBM fleet. In response, the Navy said their Polaris fleet's stealth and mobility would maintain a countervalue force. If the role of the nuclear missile was to ride out a first strike and ensure a counter strike, the Navy could be handed the mission outrifht.

question: Why might the LGM-118 Peacekeeper be objected on moral grounds?

answer: It could be objected on moral grounds because it is a missile that is used to destroy enemy targets, military or civilian. The idea of harming civilians is of particular moral issue because they are people who didn't sign up to participate in a war.

question: What are the issues with Golden Arrow?

answer: The survivable ICBM concepts of Golden Arrow were expensive and could squander resources.


text:
> A short story I wrote 5 years ago. Don't know why I thought of it while driving around town and not sure why I'm posting it either. Enjoy.

He pondered the very definition of sanity as he walked down the nearly-abandoned midnight sidewalk, his footsteps creating crunching noises in the snow. The eerie orange glow of the street lamps combined with the light of the full moon lay contrasting shadows on the ground below. He took another deep puff from his cigarette and held it before exhaling. What's more likely, he thought to himself. That I'm the last sane person on Earth, or I'm just insane. He had been following this line of thought for some time now and the most recent of events led him to this lonely sidewalk in downtown.

Just a few hours before, he was at a bar with some of his co-workers. He felt like he fit right in, that after a troubled childhood of being the consistent social outcast, he was finally a part of a group. They joked, hollered at the female bar patrons, and did the generally accepted bar routine---get drunk, laugh loud, and try to get laid. He actually felt like a part of them, and was in a euphoric high from the social acceptance and group mentality. Then it happened, as it always does eventually. He saw himself from outside of his body and didn't recognize his behavior. This isn't me, he thought to himself. This is who they want me to be. So, as always, he made up some excuse for leaving prematurely.

"Sorry guys, I forgot I gotta be home before ten when the misses arrives.", he said.

"You aren't married man, why the hell do you have a curfew?", asked James.

"I know---but..." At least they bought it, he thought to himself. There's nobody waiting for me.

"Sound's like someone's pussy-whipped!", Mike said while making a whip gesture.

"Fuck off, Mike. At least I'm getting some.", he replied. "Seriously though, I gotta bounce."

"Alright man, you straight to drive?"

"I'm going to just walk home, I'm only a few blocks down.", he said, and paid his tab. "I'll catch you guys tomorrow."

"Later man."

"Peace."

And he left the bar for his empty apartment.

As soon as he walked out of the bar, he knew something wasn't right---not wrong either, but not right. Nothing looked out of place, nobody was out there waiting for him, but he could just feel it. And by now in his life, he had learned to trust his intuition. Weary, but determined not to let an odd feeling slow him down, he lit a cigarette and walked down the lonely sidewalk. Why am I such an outcast? he thought to himself. Why do I always get nervous around new people? He didn't follow this train of thought for long though, because he had done it many times before and got nowhere. Deep in thought, he didn't even see her until he was nearly on top of her. In the split second before the collision, he caught just a glimpse of her talking on a cell phone. She was beautiful, enough to make him trip over the sidewalk, right in to her.

"Jesus man! Watch where you're going!", she exclaimed.

"I'm sorry, I was just... I don't know."

"Well, pay more attention next time." she said, and stormed off, engaging in the cell conversation once again.

"Jeez..." he said, more to himself than to her, and took another puff off of his cigarette.

title: Snowfall

question: Summarize how the man feels about himself after he left the bar towards his empty apartment.

answer: The man felt as something wasn't right when he left the bar towards his empty apartment. He had learned to trust his intuition and continued walking. He kept thinking to himself about why he was such an outcast and why he always got nervous around new people. His walk home was deep of introspection, when he accidently collided with a beautiful girl.

question: Summarize how the narrator felt when he was at the bar with his co-workers.

answer: When the narrator was at the bar with his co-workers, he felt as he fit right in and was a part of the group. He had fun with them, joked around, hollered at the female bar patrons, and did all the things that was part of the generally accepted bar routine. He was in a very good mood until suddenly he saw himself outside of his body and made an excuse to leave early.

question: Would the women who the narrator collided with help him overcome his social anxiety?