text:
A Short Story I had the urge to write, This particular story took about 15 minutes

I awaken in a daze, search around the room, it is dark, but a small amount of light is streaking through the window, and I can see enough to make out that it is indeed my room. I slowly stand up and realize i cannot feel my legs, they are completely numb. My head is pounding, and i cannot remember anything. There is a creak at my door, and suddenly it slams open. There is a silhouette of a man standing in the doorway. I ask who he is, yet It continues to stand there breathing heavily. I ask again, who are you. It begins towards me. I don't know what to do so i did the only thing that came to mind, the window. I clumsily leap out of it. A short fall, that was brutally painful. i begin to turn my head and It is standing outside of my window, staring at me. It slowly walks towards me as I turn and clamor for the woodline. I Run slowly and almost trip multiple times. It is walking slow, but still managing to close in on me, and just before he catches me a surge of pain bolts through my leg as i step on something sharp, without time to look to see what it was, i realize i can again feel my legs, the grass and dirt beneath my feet. No time to stop and admire the scenery. I begin to run much faster and dash into the woods. It is very far behind so i turn, hoping to lose It, and I spot a large tree, and since i doubt i can take a single step more, I get behind it, and hope he doesn't find me. I turn to look around the tree, and it is nowhere to be found. With a sigh of relief i turn back. It is standing there, staring at me, with something in its hand. It lifts the object up high above his head. With no time to run I Move my arms above my head, close my eyes, and hold my breath. I have a moment to think, This is the end. An incredible pain rushes through my entire body, but I am still here, I am still alive. A few seconds passed, and no more, I am still alive. I open my eyes and look around. As my eyes adjust to the darkness, I see that I am in my room. It was just a nightmare. I let the embrace of safety grab hold of me, and with a sigh of relief drop back onto my bed, and hear a creak at the door.

title: Eternal Nightmare

question: Who could be the man in the nightmare?

answer: He was just a product of the protagonist's imagination. He could be a symbolism of something that haunts the protagonist, such as an unconscious fear.

question: What could be the cause of the protagonist's nightmare?

answer: Perhaps the protagonist has a wild imagination that works in their sleep, causing the nightmare.

question: What could the creak at the door at the end of the story mean?

answer: It could mean that there was someone standing in the doorway, just like in the nightmare.

question: What might have happened if the protagonist did not run away from the man?

answer: Nobody knows for sure. Perhaps the man would have just faded and disappeared as he was not real.


split: train

text:
The XM214 is an American prototype 5.56 mm rotary-barreled machine gun. It was designed and built by General Electric. Also known as MICROGUN, the XM214 was a scaled-down smaller and lighter version of the M134 minigun, firing M193 5.56×45mm ammunition.

Development

The XM214 was first developed for aircraft applications. Later General Electric developed it into a man-portable weapon system, known as the GE SIX-PAK. The complete Six-Pak system weighed 85 pounds (38.5 kg) with 1,000 rounds of ammunition, comparable in weight to some heavy machine guns. The basic gun in the Six-Pak weighed 27 pounds, or 12.2 kg. The system could be carried by a team of two soldiers and mounted either to an M122 tripod or a vehicle's pintle mount. Length overall is 104.1 cm, gun only is 68.6 cm long. Width (including ammunition case) is 44.4 cm. Sighting was usually by optical telescope.

The Six-Pak consisted of the XM214, the power module, and the ammunition module consisted of two 500-round, factory packed, and disposable cassettes mounted to a holding rack. Linked ammunition was fed through a flexible chute to the gun; when the first cassette was empty, ammunition would then feed from the second cassette, tripping a visible signal that a new cassette needed to be added to the rack.

The power module contained a 24-volt nickel-cadmium battery, a motor, and solid-state electronic controls. Unless the battery was plugged into a vehicle's power supply, the battery's charge would be depleted after 3,000 rounds. The system could be broken down quickly into two portable loads of roughly 42 pounds apiece. This was accomplished by means of a quick-release fitting at that end of the belt chute fastened to the gun.

Electronic controls contained a burst limiter and handled the automatic clearing of the gun after bursts. Using the electronic controls, the weapon's rate of fire could be adjusted from 400 rpm all the way up to 4,000 rpm. Later editions of _Jane's Infantry Weapons_ claimed a theoretical cyclic rate of up to 6,000 rpm. George Chinn, author of _The Machine Gun Volume V_, contended that the XM214 prototype had a rate of fire of up to 10,000 rpm, but the man-portable Six-Pak was limited to 4,000 rpm.

Microgun Pod

An 88 by 10 inch (224 x 25 cm) 5.56MM MICROGUN POD was also developed for external use on light aircraft and helicopters. The unit had an ammunition capacity of 1,500 to 3,500 rounds and a loaded weight of 186 to 300 pounds. The feeding system was linkless via a helical drum and had a nominal rate of fire of 6,000 rpm. Adjustments to 1,000 or 10,000 rpm were possible if desired. Power could be provided by a built-in battery pack or from the aircraft itself.

Promotion and reception

The ability to fire the 5.56 mm round used by the M16 rifle was the major selling point for the Microgun. With a fast-firing gun using standard assault rifle ammunition, the US Army and US Air Force showed interest for use of the XM214 on aircraft, helicopters, and armored vehicles. The smaller and lighter Microgun could replace the Minigun on heavily armed gunship aircraft and attack helicopters, freeing up space for ammo, equipment, and even more guns. Certain small aircraft that could not handle the larger Miniguns could be given the XM214 in a 300-pound pod. General Electric pitched the weapon to the US Navy for use on riverine craft. Company engineers proposed many mounting arrangements including open doors, in an aircraft's wings or nose, putting half a dozen guns in a modified bomb bay, and even in turrets of an automated defense network. However, the Microgun's prominent feature of using 5.56 mm ammunition was also its downfall. For aircraft gunners, accuracy suffered at high speeds, and range, compared to the 7.62 mm Minigun, was limited. General Electric tried to refocus its efforts by making the Microgun an infantry weapon, but the Army showed no interest.[1]

[1]

title: XM214 Microgun

question: What is the overall message of this article?

answer: The overall message of this article is to describe the developlemt and use of the XM214 Microgun.

question: In what circumstance would the use of this microgun be applicable?

answer: The use of this microgun would be applicable in war, or in training for soldiers, or for aircraft applications.

question: Who showed the most interest for this microgun?

answer: The US Army and the US Air Force showed the most interest for this microgun.


text: We were 42 and we were dead. We were promised fame and fortune when we were young, we waited but nothing ever came. But that’s all we did, we waited, waited for fortune and fame to find us. Instead we were 42 and woke up only to realize nothing was there. Nothing ever happened or ever came. Emptiness and nothingness is what we felt. We were 42 and we were dead. We didn’t look to feel great, only to feel good. Cheap trills is what we cared about. Cheap, fast useless trills, which made us feel good for a small amount of time. We didn’t know any better. We didn’t know the things which were truly important, the real things that mattered. We didn’t take our time to find them either. We were to busy enjoying the good times, instead of caring about the great times. So now there we were, 42 and dead. Done nothing with the lives we’ve gotten. Wasted them away as if they were endless. Then realizing that an end would come. It scared us. Knowing that we couldn’t keep doing this forever. Bt what did we do wrong? Why did we feel so left out, so useless and unused, were did we lose touch with ourselves? Were we ever in touch with ourselves? We thought we knew what we wanted but we weren’t so sure anymore. We thought we knew who we were but we weren’t so sure anymore. We didn’t lose anything but we had the feeling we lost everything. And then there were the jobs we lived. The jobs we actually hated but we’ve been doing them for so long we forgot how to do anything else. We wanted to do something else but again we didn’t know how, we wouldn’t have know where to start changing. Maybe we could just quit? No. That scared us. What would we do without a job, without the money to support us? What if we couldn’t find a new one? We would spend our time worrying until a new one came around. Not searching for one but waiting for one. Waiting for it to just come around when we wanted, just like everything else in life we waited for but never came. And then we realized the love was gone, we didn’t love each other anymore but neither of us spoke about it. We just lived our distant lives not caring about how unhappy we really were. We just lived on, staying together for what? Because we didn’t know any better, we couldn’t know any better because we’ve been pushed into this situation without our knowledge. It just happened. Happened because we didn’t think about it, we didn’t even care to think about it. And then there we were. Both in a situation we never wanted. But it wasn’t to late. We wanted the world to change around us. It was ourselves who needed to change.

title: We were 42 and we were dead. First short.

question: What does the author's view on being 42 seem like?

answer: The author deems being 42 as being not what they expected and it came with a lot of disappointment and change.

question: What are the two strong emotions that the author describes when being 42?

answer: Emptiness and nothingness.

question: What is the overall moral that the author concludes upon?

answer: The moral the author concludes upon is that we need to change to make things in life better.

question: How can you describe the author's battle with their age?

answer: It seems like the author is self-reflecting and acknowledges what went wrong in their life and what needs to be done to change it.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: The author reflects on being 42 and being disappointed with where life has taken them. The author realizes that they have to change to make anything better in their life.


text:
He looked up as Dr. Sun walked into the office. He was nervous; his wife hadn’t been the same lately. He could see that something was wrong. At first he thought nothing of it, but once the quakes started happening he knew she needed to be taken in to see the doctor.

“I’m afraid I have negative news to report to you sir. She’s very ill. She appears to have some sort of parasites on her. They are incredibly destructive. At first her body didn’t recognize them, but now that it has, it’s trying too hard to fight them off.  You may have noticed this. I’m sorry Mr. Neptune, she has a very slim chance of living. She is still very contagious. Try to keep yourself and your family protected.”

 He began to weep, thinking about his family. Together they had six children and a dog, how would he cope without her. He walked into her room and looked at her. Her big beautiful green eyes looked dead, only her salty tears confirmed she was still alive.

title: Mother

question: Who is Mr. Neptune?

answer: Mr. Neptune is the husband of the woman who is dying.

question: Who is the woman who is dying?

answer: The woman who is dying is the wife of Neptune. [Probably planet Earth]

question: What may he have noticed?

answer: That her body is trying to fight off parasites.

question: Why is the woman dying?

answer: She appears to have some sort of parasites on her.

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: Doctor Sun summarizes for Mr. Neptune that his wife [Earth] is dying because she has parasites on her. Mr. Neptune starts crying, and thinks about their six children and a dog [the other planets and Pluto] and how he would cope without her. He looks at his wife one last time.


text:
The UNITED PRECIOUS METALS ASSOCIATION (UPMA) is a Utah-based non-profit dedicated to offering its members gold and/or silver denominated accounts.[1] UPMA was founded shortly after the passage of the Utah Legal Tender Act in 2011. This Act explicitly recognizes the circulation of U.S-minted legal tender gold and silver coins as a non-taxable event.[2] Utah was the first State in the Union to formally adopt such legislation.[3]

Background

[UPMA's headquarters in Alpine, UT] Between 1933 and 1974[4] American citizens could not legally own gold, with some exceptions. It was not until 1985 that the U.S. Treasury began minting Gold and Silver Eagle Coins after the multi-decade moratorium. While the sale of collectors' bullion and “proof” coinage did not altogether cease during this period, there were few convenient (or legal) ways for the average person to acquire or circulate specie in the United States. Article 1 §10 on the United States Constitution mandates that “No state shall...make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts.”[5] This provision, while not explicitly forbidding the use of non-specie tender at the Federal level, at least reserves the States' right to adhere to a Gold Standard, regardless of whatever form the national currency happens to take. However, this would have been especially difficult prior to the passing of the Gold Bullion Coin Act,[6] when neither the Federal Government nor the States were mass-producing coinage intended for circulation. Since the start of modern production, the US Mint has cast over 25 million troy ounces of gold and over 500 million ounces of silver into specie dollars.

Despite this revitalization of traditional gold and silver money, there was little effort made by financial institutions to capitalize on this corner of the market. This all changed in 2011 when Utah became the first State to officially and explicitly recognize precious metal coins as a legitimate form of money.[7]The original proposal was drafted by Lawrence Hilton Esq., an insurance lawyer and Sound Money advocate from Utah County, and championed in the legislature by Rep. Brad Galvez. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Hilton began organizing what would later become the United Precious Metals Association.

Business model

UPMA is distinct among precious metals dealers, as it operates on a 0% Buy-Sell Spread.[8] Basically, if a member buys a volume of gold or silver from UPMA, they can immediately sell it back to the Association at the same price (currently around 5.8% above spot price for gold and 20% above spot for silver). Most coin dealers (like any business) charge a premium on the way in and take a cut on the way out. UPMA's status as a member-owned non-profit allows them to operate with very little overhead and maximum value retention for the buyer/seller.

UPMA is also distinct in their exclusive use of Specie Legal Tender.[9] This niche family of precious metals comprises American Gold/Silver Eagles and Gold Buffalo Coins. Essentially, if a coin is made of gold or silver and has the word “Dollar” on it, you can keep it in a UPMA account. Unlike bullion coins, bars or chips, these coins are considered legal money by the Federal Government, and therefore do not generate a capital gain when used as a medium of exchange. This makes them less financially cumbersome as a monetary asset than other forms of commodity money, cryptocurrency, or any other physical or digital item which may be considered taxable property. [UPMA accounts are denominated exclusively in Specie Legal Tender, like this 1oz Gold Eagle Coin.]

Specie dollar conversion

Since at least 1900, it has been the prerogative of the Secretary of the Treasury to "maintain the parity of all forms of money issued or coined by the United States.[10] This implies that all forms of the US Dollar (paper, gold, digital, etc.) should have the same purchasing power and that this parity of value should be enforced by the government. However, this is not the case, as there are no less than six different “flavors” of the dollar currently in existence: Gold, Silver, Platinum, Palladium, the Federal Reserve Note and its digital equivalent (often treated differently at the merchant level because of processing fees which must be factored into any transaction). Because of the differing face values and fluctuating market prices of each of the Specie Dollar coins, as well as the steadily depreciating value of the paper dollar, the ratios between the “Sound Money” coins and the “Fiat” dollars in the average wallet stand thusly;[11]

_Gold-to-Paper - 26:1 Silver-to-Paper - 18:1 Platinum-to-Paper - 8:1 Palladium-to-Paper - 50:1_

While current US District Court precedent tells us that “a dollar is a dollar”[12] regardless of whatever intrinsic, metallurgic or “melt” value one coin may have over another, this ruling has proven impractical to enforce between consenting, private parties. Put simply, any two individuals or entities can agree between themselves on the value of their money, whether that money is a piece of paper, a precious metal coin, or even a giant disk of stone, and no governing body cannot interfere in that transaction, unless there is a taxable gain of value by one or both parties. Specie Legal Tender is distinct in that, because it is created by the State and branded as money, it is exempt from taxable appreciation, as long as it is being used as the medium (not the commodity) of the transaction. If the Federal Reserve Note tripled in value tomorrow, it would be nonsensical for the IRS to tax every citizen on that “gain.” The same is true in regard to other forms of legal US currency. If one exchanges 1,000 Silver Dollars for a used car, that is not a _trade:_ it is a _purchase._

Notable, the U.S. Mint passively acknowledges this disparity by “selling” Specie Dollars for their melt value,[13] seemingly in contradiction to the notion that there are not, in fact, multiple parallel currencies circulating within the United States.

Gold and silver accounts

UPMA accounts are not only funded entirely with gold and silver coins; they are also denominated in Gold and Silver Dollars. For example, if a member owns an ounce of gold (currently valued around $1300), their gold balance will read “$50,” because a 1-oz gold Eagle coin has a $50 face value. If the member also owns $1300 worth of silver, their silver balance will be “$72,” since one Silver Dollar is worth around $18 in paper. With this in mind, UPMA's fee schedule is roughly as follows;[14] [A 1oz Gold Eagle Coin, compared to the “standard” Fiat coinage used in everyday commerce.]

  Weight               Face Value    USD Value          Cost in Gold   Cost in USD       Percentage
  -------------------- ------------- ------------------ -------------- ----------------- -------------
  Less than 0.02 oz*   $0 - $1       $0 - $26           Free           Free              0%
  0.02 - 2 oz          $1-$100       $26 - $2,600       $0.10          $2.60 flat†       10% - 0.01%
  2 - 40 oz            $100-$2,000   $2,500 - $52,000   $0.02          $0.26 per coin    0.02%
  More than 40 oz      $2,000+       $52,000+           $0.01          $0.12 per coin‡   0.01%

  : Monthly Rates for Gold Accounts

_*Accounts can hold any fractional dollar value, as whole coins are not allocated to any particular member._

_†The flat-rate is charged on top of the per-coin rates for higher-value accounts._

_‡Ounces 2-50 are always billed at the $0.25 per coin rate._

  Weight           Face Value   USD Value   Cost in Silver   Cost in USD      Percentage
  ---------------- ------------ ----------- ---------------- ---------------- ------------
  Less than 1 oz   $0 - $1      $0 - $18    Free             Free             0%
  More than 1 oz   $1+          $18+        $0.05            $0.01 per coin   0.05%

  : Monthly Rates for Silver Accounts

Members can withdraw or liquidate their gold or silver at any time, at no charge. Members can also convert gold to silver, or silver to gold (for a 1% fee) or make transfers between accounts (for a 2% fee). UPMA allows members to fund their accounts with cash, cryptocurrency, gold/silver bullion, or private reserves of Gold/Silver Specie (Dollars). All metals are fully insured against loss, theft or damages, and held on 100% reserve with Quintric Holdings Inc.

Ongoing lobbying efforts

The founders of UPMA have continued pushing for legalization or recognition of precious metals as a monetary substance since the organization's inception. As the business of vaulting and transacting with Specie Legal Tender increases in popularity, more States have begun adopting laws that either relax restrictions on circulation, remove taxes or fully embrace gold and silver as money. The following are examples of States which have new Sound Money legislation on the books;

-   April 2013: South Carolina eliminates sales tax on precious metals[15]
-   May 2013: Florida eliminates sales tax on precious metals[16]
-   2013: Texas eliminates sales tax on precious metals[17]
-   April 2014: Nebraska eliminates sales tax on precious metals[18]
-   April 2014: Oklahoma eliminates sales tax on precious metals[19]
-   May 2016: Ohio eliminates sales tax on investment metals[20]
-   July 2016: Indiana eliminates sales tax on precious metals[21]
-   February 2017: Virginia enacts provisional tax exemption for sales of precious metals[22]
-   May 2017: Arizona eliminates capital gains tax on gold and silver coin[23]
-   May 2017: Minnesota eliminates sales tax on precious metals[24]
-   July 2017: North Carolina eliminates sales tax on investment coins[25]
-   March 2018: Alabama eliminates sales tax on precious metals[26]
-   June 2017: Louisiana eliminates sales tax on precious metals[27]
-   2018: Wyoming eliminates sales tax on gold and silver coin[28]
-   2018: Idaho eliminates sales tax on precious metals[29]
-   June 2018: Texas opens the first State-operated bullion depository[30]
-   March 2019: West Virginia eliminates sales tax on investment metals[31]

Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota and Washington State have laws of a similar nature which predate the modern Sound Money Movement.[32]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]  Kitco|website=www.kitco.com|access-date=2019-05-04}}

[12]  Casetext|website=casetext.com|access-date=2019-05-04}}

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

[20]  The Ohio Legislature|website=www.legislature.ohio.gov|access-date=2019-05-04}}

[21]

[22]

[23]

[24]

[25]  2017-2018 {{!}} Regular Session|website=LegiScan|language=en|access-date=2019-05-04}}

[26]  2018 {{!}} Regular Session|website=LegiScan|language=en|access-date=2019-05-04}}

[27]

[28]  2018 {{!}} Budget Session|website=LegiScan|language=en|access-date=2019-05-04}}

[29]

[30]

[31]

[32]

title: United Precious Metals Association

question: What is the United Precious Metals Association (UPMA)?

answer: It is a Utah-based non-profit dedicated to offering its members gold and/or silver denominated accounts. UPMA was founded shortly after the passage of the Utah Legal Tender Act in 2011 that explicitly recognizes the circulation of U.S-minted legal tender gold and silver coins as a non-taxable event.

question: What state was the first to officially and explicitly recognize precious metal coins as a legitimate form of money?

answer: Utah

question: What makes UPMA distinct from other precious metals dealers?

answer: It operates on a 0% Buy-Sell Spread. If a member buys a volume of gold or silver from UPMA, they can immediately sell it back to the Association at the same price, unlike most coin dealers who charge a premium on the way in and take a cut on the way out.

question: List the six different 'flavors' of the dollar currently in existence.

answer: Gold, Silver, Platinum, Palladium, the Federal Reserve Note, and its digital equivalent.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: The United Precious Metals Association (UPMA) is a Utah-based non-profit operating on a 0% Buy-Sell Spread and dedicated to offering its members gold and/or silver-denominated accounts. UPMA was founded shortly after the passage of the Utah Legal Tender Act in 2011 that explicitly recognizes the circulation of U.S-minted legal tender gold and silver coins as a non-taxable event.


text:
A QUARK STAR is a hypothetical type of compact, exotic star, where extremely high core temperature and pressure has forced nuclear particles to form quark matter, a continuous state of matter consisting of free quarks.

Background

Some massive stars collapse to form neutron stars at the end of their life cycle, as has been both observed and explained theoretically. Under the extreme temperatures and pressures inside neutron stars, the neutrons are normally kept apart by a degeneracy pressure, stabilizing the star and hindering further gravitational collapse. However, it is hypothesized that under even more extreme temperature and pressure, the degeneracy pressure of the neutrons is overcome, and the neutrons are forced to merge and dissolve into their constituent quarks, creating an ultra-dense phase of quark matter based on densely packed quarks. In this state, a new equilibrium is supposed to emerge, as a new degeneracy pressure between the quarks, as well as repulsive electromagnetic forces, will occur and hinder gravitational collapse.

If these ideas are correct, quark stars might occur, and be observable, somewhere in the universe. Theoretically, such a scenario is seen as scientifically plausible, but it has been impossible to prove both observationally and experimentally, because the very extreme conditions needed for stabilizing quark matter cannot be created in any laboratory nor observed directly in nature. The stability of quark matter, and hence the existence of quark stars, is for these reasons among the unsolved problems in physics.

If quark stars can form, then the most likely place to find quark star matter would be inside neutron stars that exceed the internal pressure needed for quark degeneracy – the point at which neutrons break down into a form of dense quark matter. They could also form if a massive star collapses at the end of its life, provided that it is possible for a star to be large enough to collapse beyond a neutron star but not large enough to form a black hole.

If they exist, quark stars would resemble and be easily mistaken for neutron stars: they would form in the death of a massive star in a Type II supernova, be extremely dense and small, and possess a very high gravitational field. They would also lack some features of neutron stars, unless they also contained a shell of neutron matter, because free quarks are not expected to have properties matching degenerate neutron matter. For example, they might be radio-silent, or not have typical sizes, electromagnetic fields, or surface temperatures, compared to neutron stars.

History

The analysis about quark stars was first proposed in 1965 by Soviet physicists D. D. Ivanenko and D. F. Kurdgelaidze.[1][2] Their existence has not been confirmed.

The equation of state of quark matter is uncertain, as is the transition point between neutron-degenerate matter and quark matter. Theoretical uncertainties have precluded making predictions from first principles. Experimentally, the behaviour of quark matter is being actively studied with particle colliders, but this can only produce very hot (above 10¹² K) quark–gluon plasma blobs the size of atomic nuclei, which decay immediately after formation. The conditions inside compact stars with extremely high densities and temperatures well below 10¹² K cannot be recreated artificially, as there are no known methods to produce, store or study “cold” quark matter directly as it would be found inside quark stars. The theory predicts quark matter to possess some peculiar characteristics under these conditions.

Formation

It is theorized that when the neutron-degenerate matter, which makes up neutron stars, is put under sufficient pressure from the star's own gravity or the initial supernova creating it, the individual neutrons break down into their constituent quarks (up quarks and down quarks), forming what is known as quark matter. This conversion might be confined to the neutron star's center or it might transform the entire star, depending on the physical circumstances. Such a star is known as a quark star.[3][4]

Stability and strange quark matter

Ordinary quark matter consisting of up and down quarks (also referred to as _u_ and _d_ quarks) has a very high Fermi energy compared to ordinary atomic matter and is stable only under extreme temperatures and/or pressures. This suggests that the only stable quark stars will be neutron stars with a quark matter core, while quark stars consisting entirely of ordinary quark matter will be highly unstable and dissolve spontaneously.[5][6]

It has been shown that the high Fermi energy making ordinary quark matter unstable at low temperatures and pressures can be lowered substantially by the transformation of a sufficient number of up and down quarks into strange quarks, as strange quarks are, relatively speaking, a very heavy type of quark particle.[7] This kind of quark matter is known specifically as strange quark matter and it is speculated and subject to current scientific investigation whether it might in fact be stable under the conditions of interstellar space (i.e. near zero external pressure and temperature). If this is the case (known as the Bodmer–Witten assumption), quark stars made entirely of quark matter would be stable if they quickly transform into strange quark matter.[8]

Strange stars

Quark stars made of strange quark matter are known as strange stars, and they form a subgroup under the quark star category.[9]

Theoretical investigations have revealed that quark stars might not only be produced from neutron stars and powerful supernovas, they could also be created in the early cosmic phase separations following the Big Bang.[10] If these primordial quark stars transform into strange quark matter before the external temperature and pressure conditions of the early Universe makes them unstable, they might turn out stable, if the Bodmer–Witten assumption holds true. Such primordial strange stars could survive to this day.[11]

Characteristics

Quark stars have some special characteristics that separate them from ordinary neutron stars.

Under the physical conditions found inside neutron stars, with extremely high densities but temperatures well below 10¹² K, quark matter is predicted to exhibit some peculiar characteristics. It is expected to behave as a Fermi liquid and enter a so-called color-flavor-locked (CFL) phase of color superconductivity, where “color” refers to the six “charges” exhibited in the strong interaction, instead of the positive and the negative charges in electromagnetism. At slightly lower densities, corresponding to higher layers closer to the surface of the compact star, the quark matter will behave as a non-CFL quark liquid, a phase that is even more mysterious than CFL and might include color conductivity and/or several additional yet undiscovered phases. None of these extreme conditions can currently be recreated in laboratories so nothing can be inferred about these phases from direct experiments.[12]

If the conversion of neutron-degenerate matter to (strange) quark matter is total, a quark star can to some extent be imagined as a single gigantic hadron. But this “hadron” will be bound by gravity, rather than by the strong force that binds ordinary hadrons.

Observed overdense neutron stars

At least under the assumptions mentioned above, the probability of a given neutron star being a quark star is low, so in the Milky Way there would only be a small population of quark stars. If it is correct, however, that overdense neutron stars can turn into quark stars, that makes the possible number of quark stars higher than was originally thought, as observers would be looking for the wrong type of star.

Observations released by the Chandra X-ray Observatory on April 10, 2002 detected two possible quark stars, designated RX J1856.5-3754 and 3C58, which had previously been thought to be neutron stars. Based on the known laws of physics, the former appeared much smaller and the latter much colder than it should be, suggesting that they are composed of material denser than neutron-degenerate matter. However, these observations are met with skepticism by researchers who say the results were not conclusive;[13] and since the late 2000s, the possibility that RX J1856 is a quark star has been excluded.

Another star, XTE J1739-285,[14] has been observed by a team led by Philip Kaaret of the University of Iowa and reported as a possible quark star candidate.

In 2006, You-Ling Yue et al., from Peking University, suggested that PSR B0943+10 may in fact be a low-mass quark star.[15]

It was reported in 2008 that observations of supernovae SN 2006gy, SN 2005gj and SN 2005ap also suggest the existence of quark stars.[16] It has been suggested that the collapsed core of supernova SN 1987A may be a quark star.[17][18]

In 2015, Zi-Gao Dai et al. from Nanjing University suggested that Supernova ASASSN-15lh is a newborn strange quark star.[19]

Other theorized quark formations

Apart from ordinary quark matter and strange quark matter, other types of quark-gluon plasma might theoretically occur or be formed inside neutron stars and quark stars. This includes the following, some of which has been observed and studied in laboratories:

-   Robert L. Jaffe 1977, suggested a four-quark state with strangeness (qs).
-   Robert L. Jaffe 1977 suggested the H dibaryon, a six-quark state with equal numbers of up-, down-, and strange quarks (represented as uuddss or udsuds).
-   Bound multi-quark systems with heavy quarks (QQ).
-   In 1987, a pentaquark state was first proposed with a charm anti-quark (qqqs).
-   Pentaquark state with an antistrange quark and four light quarks consisting of up- and down-quarks only (qqqq).
-   Light pentaquarks are grouped within an antidecuplet, the lightest candidate, Θ+, which can also be described by the diquark model of Robert L. Jaffe and Wilczek (QCD).
-   Θ++ and antiparticle −−.
-   Doubly strange pentaquark (ssdd), member of the light pentaquark antidecuplet.
-   Charmed pentaquark Θc(3100) (uudd) state was detected by the H1 collaboration.[20]
-   Tetraquark particles might form inside neutron stars and under other extreme conditions. In 2008, 2013 and 2014 the tetraquark particle of Z(4430), was discovered and investigated in laboratories on Earth.[21]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]  in

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14] Shiga, David; “Fastest spinning star may have exotic heart”, _New Scientist_, 2007 February 20

[15]

[16] Chadha, Kulvinder Singh; “Second Supernovae Point to Quark Stars”, _Astronomy Now Online_, 2008 June 04

[17]

[18] Parsons, Paul; “Quark star may hold secret to early universe”, _New Scientist_, 2009 February 18

[19]

[20]

[21] /

title: Quark star

question: What is "strangeness" when it comes to quarks?

answer: It seems to mean the matter is heavier.

question: Why might the existence of the Soviet scientists who discovered quarks not be confirmed?

answer: Perhaps records were withheld following the dissolution of the USSR.

question: Give one indication-of many possible that scientists are not completely sure and in agreement about the nature of quarks.

answer: They would closely resemble neutron stars, so it reasons that neutron stars could be mistaken for quarks.

question: What's a condition under which primordial stars could exist in contemporary times?

answer: If they became quarks, they could last that "long".


text:
If you aspire to career growth, you can’t be complacent. Where you are today is a reflection of the education and skills that you brought to your current position. The question is, where do you want to be tomorrow? You won’t get there by coasting on what you already know.

The key to your future can be found in an ongoing commitment to learning, also known as professional training and development. By getting better at what you do and expanding the boundaries on what you understand, you become ever-more valuable to your team, customers, and company. In fact, you become a bigger player in your entire industry, which widens your world to new career opportunities as well.

Why is continual learning so important? Because the world is moving so fast now that people who stand still will be passed by. Knowing more than the next person has become a major competitive advantage in every industry. As Joyce A.E. Russell wrote in _The Washington Post_: “With today’s more complex business environment, learning is not just a nice thing to do—it is essential for staying on top of things...None of us can afford to remain stagnant in our knowledge.”

Yet despite these realities, many people feel stuck when it comes to increasing their professional knowledge base. They’re swamped at work, overwhelmed at home, and unclear on how they might manage to squeeze the extra hours needed out of their already full schedules to make time for additional learning.

The secret lies in realizing two things. First, with the easy accessibility of today’s technologies and mobile options, it’s no longer necessary to learn in a classroom—you can bring training tools with you wherever you go. Second, because you don’t need to carve out a big block of time to attend a live class in person anymore, you can approach learning on your own terms and in your own timeframe.

If you don’t have a solid hour to devote to picking up new skills, how about sparing 10 minutes? A couple of shorter stints composed of smaller time units can quickly add up—and mobile technologies make it almost a shame _not_ to learn on the fly or between other activities.

Here are 12 painless ways to train on your own time—picked up from our own customers—that will help grease the wheels for your next big opportunity:

1. Pick Your Poison

No matter what industry you’re in, you can use online learning resources to learn on your own schedule. To get started on your professional development, you simply need to choose a platform and gain access to it. The point of a platform is to provide you with easily accessible training materials that allow you to learn a lot in small chunks of time. An online training library of courses can do this (we have a tech and creative training library at Pluralsight), and so can an online book service. Even popular blogs and podcasts can fulfill this function if they’re targeted at your line of work and you refer to them regularly.

2. Shift Gears on Your Breaks

How would you rather spend your work break: catching up on Facebook again, or doing something just as engaging that can help you land your next promotion? Take advantage of your breaks to watch a training video on your smartphone, iPad, or laptop. Devoting a 30-minute lunch break to learning a few times a week can quickly add up to hours of professional training a month, without needing to change your schedule. Even short breaks in the morning or later afternoon can offer enough time to pick up some new skills and ideas.

3. Hold a Brown-Bag

Since the whole team benefits when everyone knows more, consider organizing a regularly scheduled group brown-bag session with your colleagues. You can share courses from your own training library and watch them together, or let others take the lead on training topics on different days.

4. Capture Your Commute Time

Driving to work presents the perfect setting to absorb a podcast, audiobook, or other training tool that you can listen to while you commute. If you take a bus or train, you can add video to the experience, watching entire courses while you ride. If you travel an hour a day to your job and back, that’s potentially 10 hours a week of focused learning time.

5. Project it on the Big Screen

Why watch trash TV in the evening when you can use the same equipment to learn? Many online training courses can play through Xbox and Apple TV just as well as videogames can. So crack open a soda, turn up the surround sound, and enjoy the show on your big-screen TV as you get smarter all the while.

6. Carve Out Time on Weekends

While you don’t want to spend your whole weekend on work-related activities, finding moments here and there for professional growth can help break up the workweek while providing inspiration for Monday. Can you find an hour to learn a new technology online or listen to a podcast that can help you solve problems at the office?

7. Learn While the Cat’s Away

Weekends can be particularly effective times for learning when others in your household are out and about, and you have a quiet moment. Whether your spouse is traveling or your kids are at soccer practice, it’s the perfect opportunity to pull up your platform and dig into some educational material.

8. Park It

There’s no rule that says professional training must take place indoors—and with today’s technologies, there’s no need for it. Get a breath of fresh air and go to a park with your iPad or smartphone, and watch a course while sitting under a tree. Being out in nature will lift your spirits, and the course content will elevate your mind.

9. Travel Smarter

Travel time presents some of the best stretches to enhance your professional skillset. In addition to time during flights or train travel when you’re free from everyday interruptions, you may also be able to take advantage of evenings in the hotel and lulls between work events, where you can turn lost time into learning.

10. Maximize Parental Leave

While most people expect to fall behind at work during maternity or paternity leave, when approached differently, your leave can push you ahead. One of our customers in Sweden chose to watch dozens of Pluralsight courses relating to her business while recovering during her leave, and came back to work ahead of her peers.

11. Double-Dip During Downtime

Whether you’re home sick, waiting in line, or on the sidelines at a swim meet when your child isn’t swimming, you can recoup lost minutes or hours by pulling up your platform of choice on your mobile device. It’s the ultimate form of multi-tasking.

12. Bone Up at the Gym

Most any workout can lend itself to learning. It’s as easy to listen to the audio of a professional course while you run or bike outdoors as it is to listen to music. If you’re on the treadmill or stationary bike at the gym, you can prop up your iPad and watch a course or read on your Kindle while you exercise. With a waterproof smartphone case, you can even learn while you swim!

Accessibility has made everything possible when it comes to professional development. Learning platforms have evolved toward online options that transform wasted time into valuable opportunities.

If you make the most of mobile technology, you can take 10 minutes several times throughout the day for online learning as opposed to waiting to find the hour you think you need. Tomorrow’s best leaders will use the wide range of opportunities that come up in daily life to move their training, and their individual development, continuously forward.

More From Inc.

-   Become a Master Negotiator in 4 Easy Steps
-   Why Good Leaders Fire People
-   3 Tips From America’s Top Entrepreneurship College

question: According to the article, why should people continue to learn?

answer: Learning is the key to career development. As you learn you make yourself more valuable to the team, the customer and the company. You make yourself more employable in the industry. As the world becomes more complex, lifelong learning is essential to staying on top of things.

question: How should we fit learning into our busy daily schedules?

answer: Mobile technologies offer learning opportunities outside the classroom. This means that people can learn on their own terms whenever it suits them. Shorter stints throughout the day will quickly add up. The author goes on to give 12 ways that people can train in their own time.

question: What subjects should adults consider for their ongoing training?


text:
 I sat cross legged in front of my refrigerator. The refrigerator was placed carefully in the trailer, in which I sat. As I sat there it just as carefully placed my forehead on the refrigerator door. The subtle coolness of the door emanating cautiously onto my skin; into my brain. As my brain cooled after being exposed the harsh Arizona elements my mind bleed out through my skull into the fridge door. After it passed through the cooling firmament of modern convenience it pooled gracefully right next to the re-fried beans and the cheap beer. My body sat there bereft of mind, firmly attached to the door with the point of contact unaffected.

A steady flow of thoughts, consciousness, and old tortilla coursed pleasantly between by emptied skull and the soon to be emptied fridge. Like the fridge, I too contained delicious treats. Instead of a heart I had fresh venison and for a liver I possessed only the choicest USDA grade A beef. I am so yummy I can't even stand it.
The fridge appreciated our camaraderie of snack oriented dispositions. He told me I shouldn't be self conscious about being ever so full of culinary delights. He wasn't. But he has also kind of a slut. He let just about anyone open him up and have their way. Whore. I found the freezer to be a bit more discerning. She had standards. Only the creme de la creme of frozen vegetables, cold deserts and the spiritual enlightened may enter the catacombs of ice trays and frozen turkey. Some accused her a being a frigid bitch, but they were wrong. She cared. She made damn sure your indulgent deserts remained in proper form.

The home appliance mind transferal was well underway. I sprawled myself out on the kitchen floor and tried to remain calm while the oven made snide comments about my poor clothing choice. What a dick. He doesn't even wear clothes. That oven has a fucking temper. A real hot head, just like the microwave. My electric razor peeked out from behind the bathroom door. He looked a little lonely and said something about feeling unappreciated. I tried to tell him it wasn't him, I just wanted to grow my beard out a little bit. Nothing personal.
My consciousness began to expand and the body of house was introduced to the life blood of my witty way with words. It decided I thought too highly of myself and took the reins. The trip became a platform for the house to spout its ideology. Apparently my house is kind of a bigot. It said something nasty about the Mexicans so I stopped paying attention. Who knew a house on the border would be such a racist. What a jerk. And I thought too highly of myself?

title: Home Appliance Mind Transferal

question: What are the different characters described in the story?

answer: A slutty fridge, a caring yet cold freezer, a hot-headed oven and microwave, a lonely electric razor and a bigoted house.

question: Why is the narrator communing with their appliances?

answer: As a form of meditation.

question: Why does the narrator think his house is bigoted?

answer: Because it makes a comment about Mexicans.

question: What conclusion does the narrator come to?

answer: That he thinks too highly of himself and his witty way with words.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: A man sits in his kitchen and meditates in an effort to commune with his various household appliances.


text:
Fifteen days after the collapse, the remaining miners aboveground had given up hope, for themselves and for their trapped compatriots. Operations planetside had ground to a halt as they frantically sought to excavate the miners left five miles below the surface of the planet, but with no minerals coming in -- the combined talent of the prospecting team was stuck below as well, so new shafts could not be dug -- the Jobarsky corporation's outpost on barren Iagma could only sustain their drilling for three more days.

The peculiar astronomy of Iagma meant that this part of the planet would go dark shortly afterwards, and stay that way for weeks -- a mere claw of darkness clutching at the life trespassing here. After a respite of four more sunlit days, the long sleek carapace of polar winter, a years-long veil, would come upon the miners in full force, exacting the full sentence for their crime; they were Hypnos and Thanatos, respectively.

An evacuation would come in the days after the first darkness, Hypnos, and take all the miners it could with it. However, the orbital vessel, whose between-voyage life support systems ran on solar energy, could egress its orbit of Iagma no later than the start of Thanatos, or it would not escape the penumbra of Iagma until too late, and the miners would freeze inside their ship.

On the sixteenth day, one of the engineers at the outpost proposed, out of desperation, loading a few of the prospectors from the backup consciousness database, something only done in the case of death to consult the deceased on their wishes -- otherwise, the backup consciousnesses went straight to the renewal labs. The machines could simulate homeostatic conditions on the brain and the interactions of neurons, though in the process, altering the conscious state of the stored persona; when the deceased was restored, the simulated stimulation of their brain would be committed to memory as if it had happened. The experience of almost complete olfactory and tactile sensory deprivation [those two senses required too much computing power to simulate in real time] could prove traumatic to the individual being restored, when recalling the memory. But at a time like this, the risk, though more present than usual, had to be overlooked.

The prospectors were loaded and simulated, and given the data they needed; within the hour, the digging equipment was being redirected to mineral and gas-rich deposits in the rocks of Iagma. One day after that, the outpost had enough fuel to sustain the miners and their life support throughout Hypnos.

Far below the surface of the planet -- five miles below -- the coleopteromorphs work tirelessly to prepare for the long winter. Winter, however, is not so much a measure of whether it is warm or cold, light or dark; it is always warm and always dark. But the blood of the coleopteromorphs remembers a time when fearsome dromaiforms roamed the surface, and every winter, the coleopteromorphs would come to the surface and confront the dromaiforms, biting and pincing and slashing and being kicked and crushed, until chitin and bone laid in great heaps upon the landscape, and the soft insides of both animals seeped into the cool dirt.

Now, the last of the dromaiforms has vanished. Dirt has turned to crumbling clay and rocks, and all that remain are the hard shells and the skeletons, relics of battles fought too long ago. Only the blood remembers, and boils over every winter; coleopteromorphs turn on one another and skirmish, nay, wage war over the meagerest of resources. Workers furiously gather old bone, to be incorporated into the diets of the warriors, so that their shells grow strong.

With the collapse of the tunnels, and the trapping of the workers and their gathered bone on the other side, this colony of coleopteromorphs would be destroyed in the coming winter: no bone, weak shells; weak shells, weak warriors; weak warriors, we are destroyed.

However, some of the aliens were trapped inside our tunnels during the collapse, and upon dissection of one of their dead, we determined that they indeed possess bone. It is, therefore, in our interests to keep them alive and breed them. If this fails, we may need to replicate them by other means. This should not be necessary.

Upon each alien specimen's death, the bones will be collected and incorporated into the warrior diets -- the number of dead we have found in the collapse should suffice for our survival throughout the long winter, and extensive population of our colony with these creatures should serve to create a sustainable form of chitin mineralization. We will resume digging in the summer. There will be no rescue until this time. Repeat: there will be no rescue.

Late day seventeen, a security officer found a tunnel leading downwards into the planet. An investigative team was deployed and found that the tunnel had caved in, similarly to the mineshaft more than a fortnight earlier. More importantly, a great number of the insectoid creatures known to inhabit the depths of the planet were found in this tunnel, some of which were still alive. Two of these creatures were, after a brief scuffle which eventually involved the use of the morphine one of the medical officers on the investigative team was carrying, taken back to the outpost for analysis. No living specimens had been produced before this time.

Early day eighteen, the sun had almost set. The result of the analysis was that these insectoids, incredibly enough, produced hydrocarbons resembling fuel in the presence of excess food. These hydrocarbons could be extracted without killing the creature, so it was in the mining team's best interest to capture these creatures, keep them alive, and breed them. If this had failed, they may have needed to replicate them through genetic sampling and DNA recombination. This was not necessary.

These alien specimens would go on to be used as a renewable fuel source for the Jobarsky mining corporation, deployable on any planet with a thin atmosphere, rocky soil, and cool temperatures. The number of these insectoids they were able to recover was sufficient to provide auxiliary heating and lighting throughout Hypnos. A more extensive population of other planets with these creatures could nearly match the fuel production of a Jobarsky team, which would continue their mining operations in the Iagman summer. There could be and would be no rescue for the trapped miners until this time. Repeat: there would be no rescue.

title: Harvest Interruption

question: What does the text say about the planet Iagma?

answer: Iagma is rich in mineral and gas deposits, which the Jobarsky corporation mine to produce fuel. The planet has a peculiar astronomy such that it enters a dark period which lasts a few weeks, known as Hypnos, then has 4 days of light, and finally goes through a years-long dark period called Thanatos. The planet has two native species: the coleopteromorphs and the dromaiforms. The dromaiforms however went extinct sometime before the story started.

question: What does the text say about the miners' backup consciousness database?

answer: The miners are apparently able to load people's consciousnesses from the backup consciousness database in order to consult with them; this is normally only done to ask about their wishes. Otherwise, the consciousnesses are sent straight to the renewal labs. The machine which loads a consciousness simulates homeostatic conditions for the brain, but it cannot simulate olfactory or tactile sensory information, and recalling that form of sensory deprivation can be traumatic for the person being consulted.

question: What does the text say about the coleopteromorphs?

answer: The coleopteromorphs live below the surface of Iagma. They used to fight each winter with the dromaiforms, but since the dromaiforms have gone extinct, they fight among themselves instead. To prepare for the fighting, they strengthen their chitin shells by consuming bone. To this end, the coleopteromorphs decide to breed humans to consume their bones, which implies the coleopteromorphs are fairly intelligent. In addition, the coleopteromorphs produce hydrocarbons which the human miners realize can be made into fuel.

question: What does the text say about the miners' lives before they came to Iagma?


text:
It was five days before Christmas, and the day my grandmother was arriving from New Jersey. A fresh coat of snow covered the old, and made the world seem brighter than it had been the days before. It was the third day of my winter break, so I enjoyed rising late in the day with the sun. My mother asked me to do a couple of chores to prepare for the imminent arrival of our Holiday guests. I was under a sort of sleepy spell that seems to come pre-packaged with short days and cold weather; I wanted to sit by the fire under a blanket forever. All the same I moved out to the car with a short grocery list in hand, armored by my jacket, hat, and mittens.

It didn’t take me long to get back home. I waited in the car for a moment to get my possessions straight. I needed to carry the groceries, while also being able to lock the car, which meant I would have to take a mitten off and carry that as well. Once I stepped out of the car, I saw a boy, about my age, carrying a shovel. This boy was one of several who were being paid to shovel driveways and sidewalks in the neighborhood. I walked past him as he began shoveling the steps up to my house. I rang the doorbell hopefully, but when no one came to answer, I set down the groceries and opened the door. I walked into the house, and put the groceries in their places. My mother called up to me from the basement, where she was wrapping Christmas presents. “Will, there’s a list of some places I want you to shovel on the kitchen counter.” I looked down at the list with reluctance, but it felt good once I started shoveling. I was working on the back steps when the boy came back and started shoveling the driveway. I thought about saying something to him, but the cold air and sound of moving snow muffled me.

One of the places I was told to shovel was the home-made ice rink in our backyard. My dad used to do it, setting up the tarp and wooden boards, but now we hire some men to come and set it up for us. I shoveled the rink systematically, completing the job as efficiently as possible. I have always enjoyed shoveling snow off of ice. It’s something about the way the ice is slowly revealed, like a grand mystery, which leaves me satisfied.

I walked back into the house and my mom told me we should be going to pick up grandma soon. We were getting ready to walk out the door when she pointed to a prank cockroach on a bench in the mudroom. “Would you go and hide that up in grandma’s room? It’s the one closest to the bathroom on the third floor.” Up I went. This was a game we had played when I was younger. My grandma and I would take turns hiding the cockroach somewhere where the other would be frightened by it. But now, for some reason, it was just a chore.

title: Chores

question: What chores does the narrator do?

answer: Shoveling snow and getting groceries.

question: Who used to shovel the ice rink?

answer: The narrator's Dad used to shovel the ice rink.

question: What is the prank object the narrator puts in his grandmother's room?

answer: A cockroach.

question: How old is the narrator?

answer: He is a teenager.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: The narrator does chores for his mother, including buying groceries and shoveling the sidewalks.


text:
Jordan Brand Announces Comedy TV Campaign: BGCP3TV in HD

October 20, 2014

-   Gallery

[BGCP3TV]

Blake Griffin and Chris Paul on set for BGCP3TV in HD

[NB Directing]

Neal Brennan directing Blake Griffin and Chris Paul

[BG On Set]

Blake Griffin reaction while filming BGCP3TV

[CP Horse]

Chris Paul brings a horse to filming of BGCP3TV

[OHH Bros]

Jordan Brand athletes Chris Paul and Blake Griffin are known for on-court performances that feature lobs, no-look passes and thunderous dunks. This month, they will deliver an entirely different performance, starring in the Jordan Brand’s first-ever sketch comedy-inspired campaign, “BGCP3TV in HD.”

The first five-minute episode of Jordan Brand content will premiere during commercial time on the Adult Swim network at 12:12 a.m. local time in the U.S. on Friday, Oct. 24. A second episode will premiere at the same time a week later, on Friday, Oct. 31. Those that miss the broadcasts can tune in to the Jordan Brand YouTube page to watch the episodes and find additional videos, outtakes and more.

A NEW APPROACH TO THE HOLIDAY CAMPAIGN

Paul and Griffin — the faces of the Jordan CP3.VIII and Jordan Super.Fly 3, respectively — who are traditionally the front men for their own, separate campaigns, jumped at the opportunity to work together on the project. Always pushing to bring their best on the court, both stars felt some of the same motivation when the bright lights and cameras came on, a chance to show off an entirely new set of skills.

  “On the bus, after practice or getting lunch, it seems like there’s always a competition to make each other laugh,” said Paul. “It’s fun to come out here and give it a shot on our own comedy show.”

[BGCPTV in HD]

Blake Griffin and Chris Paul on set at BGCPTV in HD

Traditionally, basketball shoe campaigns feature on-court action, high-flying dunks and shots of the shoe in action. This year, the Jordan Brand took a different approach, putting two of the game’s biggest superstars at the center of the campaign. Bringing them together for a collaborative effort was a natural outgrowth of the players’ relationship.

  “The funny thing is it doesn’t really feel like acting,” said Griffin. “This is pretty much just us being us, but in some pretty crazy situations that Neal Brennan came up with.”

To bring the idea to life, Jordan Brand partnered with comedian Neal Brennan, co-creator of “Chappelle’s Show,” to co-create and co-write the show.

  “There are a lot of funny athletes out there, but it’s rare that you see a guy like Blake — I can honestly say he’s an actor who just happens to be an amazing basketball player,” said Brennan. “But don’t sleep on CP, either. Watching him, you see right away that he’s got plenty of talent and the situational awareness needed to pull off the jokes.”

The Jordan Super.Fly 3, the latest shoe in the successful Super.Fly line, returns for the season equipped with FlightPlate and paired with a sonic boom-inspired synthetic upper. Combined with the Flight Web fit system, the Super.Fly 3 delivers the bounce and energy return of FlightPlate with a lockdown, supportive fit to help the game’s highest fliers — such as Griffin — experience the Power of Flight.

Inspired by Paul’s Speed of Flight, the Jordan CP3.VIII brings a sleek, minimalist aesthetic to a shoe designed to deliver maximum performance, speed and responsiveness on the court. Combining performance features such as forefoot Nike Zoom units, a TPU chassis and Flight Web fit system, the CP3.VIII offers a low-profile shoe designed to stay with one of the quickest players in the game as he cuts, slashes, drives and shoots from all areas of the court.

The Super.Fly 3 is available now at Jordan.com for $140. The CP3.VIII launches Nov. 5 for a suggested retail price of $130. To learn more about the shoes and for more details about the BGCP3TV in HD episodes, stay tuned to Jordan.com, YouTube.com/Jumpman23 and @Jumpman23.

question: What kind of show are Jordan Brand athletes, Chris Paul and Blake Griffin known for?

answer: They are known for on-court performance that features lobs, no-look passes, and dunks.

question: On what network are the performance-athletes featuring their new show?

answer: On the Adult Swim network.

question: Which direction is the performance-athletes duo taking their show?

answer: They are looking to make their first-ever sketch comedy-inspired campaign.

question: Have Paul and Griffin always worked together in showbiz?

answer: No. They both had their own shows (Jordan CP3 and Jordan Super Fly 3 respectively). However, they both accepted the chance to work together on recent projects.

question: Write a ~5 sentence summary.

answer:
Blake Griffin and Chris Paul are performance-athletes, doing on-court performances that feature lobs, no-look passes, and aggressive dunks on TV. However, they recently decided to branch out, trying another form of entertainment - a comedy-sketch show.

The two men haven't always worked together. They each are stars in their own right, performing as frontman for different shows. However, when the opportunity came to work together, they both jumped at it.


text:
JAMES CRAIGIE (7 September 1851 – 17 August 1935) was Member of Parliament for the electorate in the South Island of New Zealand and a member of the New Zealand Legislative Council. He was also Chairman of the South Canterbury Health Board, Chairman of the Timaru Harbour Board, a Timaru Borough Councillor and Mayor of Timaru.

Early life

Craigie was born in Coupar Angus, Perthshire, Scotland, on 7 September 1851.[1]

He came to New Zealand in 1867 with his parents, James and Agnes Craigie (née McFarlane).

Craigie and his family landed in Dunedin, where he remained for several years after completing an apprenticeship as a painter and decorator.

Move to Timaru

Craigie moved to Timaru in 1873 where he started a glass and house decoration business. He also opened a large home decoration shop in Cains Terrace, Timaru. He subsequently merged his business with a Dunedin firm and it became known as Smith & Craigie. The merged business would ultimately become part of Smith & Smith, a company which continues to operate throughout New Zealand.

As his business success grew, Craigie purchased a large farm in Kingsdown, about 5 km south of Timaru, where he built a substantial house, Craigielea. Craigielea was subsequently destroyed by fire.

Craigie served on the South Canterbury Health Board for nine years, serving the last several years as Chairman.

He also served as Chairman of the Timaru Harbour Board for four years during which time significant progress was made in the development of the Port of Timaru.

Election to the Timaru Borough Council

Craigie was elected to the Timaru Borough Council in 1901.

Mayor of Timaru

Craigie was Mayor of Timaru for ten years from 1902 to 1913.

Member of Parliament

James Craigie represented the electorate in the New Zealand House of Representatives for 14 years from to 1922.

Independent Liberal

In the 1919 election, Craigie broke from the Liberal Party and stood as an Independent Liberal or Progressive Liberal.

On 1 June 1923, Craigie was appointed to the Legislative Council. He served for one term until 31 May 1930 and was not re-appointed.

In 1935, Craigie was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal.[2]

Admirer of Robert Burns

Craigie was an enthusiastic admirer of Robert Burns and was at one-time regarded as New Zealand's leading authority on Burns.

Craigie was an Overseas Vice President of the Robert Burns World Federation.

In 1931, Craigie delivered a lecture to the Wellington Burns Club entitled “The Humanity of Robert Burns”.

Craigie provided funds for the erection in the Timaru Botanic Gardens of a statute of Robert Burns.

Death

James Craigie died at his home in Kingsdown on 17 August 1935. He is buried in the Craigie Family Plot in Timaru Cemetery.

Legacy

Craigie was a generous benefactor to his adopted hometown of Timaru.

He provided the chimes for the Timaru Town Clock in 1913. This was initially hung in the Chief Post Office but in 1933 it was moved to the Timaru Council Building, which had been constructed during Craigie's tenure as Mayor.

Craigie provided the money for the oak trees planted in (what was to become known as) Craigie Avenue, Timaru now part of New Zealand State Highway 1.

Upon his death, Craigie donated a C.F. Goldie painting entitled “Memories” to the people of Timaru. The painting can now be seen at the Aigantighe Art Gallery in Wai-iti Road, Timaru.

His descendants planted a tree in his honour in Craigie Avenue at Easter, 1994.

Notes

[1]

[2]

title: James Craigie

question: What does the text say about James Craigie?

answer: James Craigie was a member of parliament for he electorate in the South Island of New Zealand and a member of the New Zealand Legislative Council. He was born on September 7, 1851 and died on August 17, 1935. He also took on multiple political positions in Timaru before eventually becoming its Mayor.

question: What does the text say about Craigie's move to Timaru?

answer: Craigie moved to Timaru in 1873. He originally started a glass and house decoration business. This eventually began operating throughout New Zealand. From there, he worked his way up to being the Mayor of Timaru.

question: What does the text say about Craigie's career history?

answer: When Craigie first moved to Timaru, he started a glass and house decoration business. This eventually began operating throughout New Zealand. As his business grew, he served on the South Canterbury Health Board for nine years and served the last several years as Chairman. He also served as the Chairman of the Timaru Harbour Board and was also a Timaru Borough Councillor before eventually becoming Mayor.

question: What does the text say about the challenges of being a mayor?


text:
__March 8, 2013March 8, 2013__4__35

[LIBERTY]NEWT GINGRICH appeared on SEAN HANNITY‘s show Thursday to praise Senator RAND PAUL‘s 13 hour long filibuster during the nomination of JOHN BRENNAN to the position of head of the CIA. Senator Paul took a principled stand during the nomination process as a way to protest President BARACK OBAMA‘s drone program and the indiscriminate extrajudicial killings of American citizens. The President is responsible for the deaths of ANWAR AL-AWLAKI and his 16 year old son, both killed by drone strikes in separate incidents.NEWT GINGRICH appeared on SEAN HANNITY‘s show Thursday to discuss Senator RAND PAUL‘s filibuster during the nomination of JOHN BRENNAN to the position of head of the CIA.

Former presidential candidate Gingrich hailed the leadership of Senator Rand Paul as the beginning of a restoration of a constitutional republic. Gingrich and Hannity celebrated the rise of Republicans such as Paul, TED CRUZ and MARCO RUBIO while castigating Senator JOHN MCCAIN. McCain had vocally opposed Paul’s filibuster against the president, snubbing him in public on the Senate floor on Thursday.

Hannity and Gingrich described what felt like a “seismic shift” towards the politics of people like Senator Paul and away from establishment ways of thinking. Is this the beginning of a new libertarian era in modern American politics?

Video below is 8:48

[]

Austin Petersen

Austin Petersen is a homegrown Missourian with a lifelong passion for liberty. He grew up on a horse farm in Peculiar, Missouri and went on to attend Missouri State University, graduating with a degree in the Fine Arts. After developing a career in media in both New York City and Washington, D.C., he returned to Kansas City, MO, the city he now calls home. In 2016, Petersen appeared on the national stage as a candidate for president of the United States. He took second place in the crowded Libertarian primary behind Governor Gary Johnson and ahead of cyber security maverick John McAfee. During his campaign, Petersen earned many high-profile conservative endorsements, including Mary Matalin, Erick Erickson and Leon Wolf of RedState.com. Petersen also brings decades of professional experience in a wide variety of fields, from content production and media to business and political activism. He is the owner and chief executive of Stonegait LLC, a consulting firm specializing in photo and video services. He was also the director of production at FreedomWorks and an associate producer for Judge Andrew Napolitano’s show “Freedom Watch” on the Fox Business Network. Additionally, Petersen has a national following as a commentator and professional pundit. He is the founder of The Libertarian Republic, a powerful online news source for the public that receives an average of 1 million unique visits monthly and whose podcast, The Freedom Report, receives an average of one million monthly downloads. He is also a frequent contributor on television, appearing on Fox News, Fox Business, CNN, MSNBC and on dozens of local radio shows.

question: Who appeared on Sean Hannity's shwow?

answer: Newt Gingrich.

question: What was he doing there?

answer: Celebrating Senator Rand Paul's 13-hour-long filibuster.

question: What was Senator Rand protesting?

answer: President Barack Obama‘s drone program.

question: Where did Austin Petersen grow up?

answer: Peculiar, Missouri.

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer:
Senator Rand Paul held a thirteen-hour-long filibuster to protest President Obama's drone program, which he contends has been responsible for the deaths of Americans.

Austin Petersen grew up on a horse farm in Peculiar, Missouri. Following an extensive higher education, he became a politician and pundit.


text:
Dear Jacob,

	I understand you aren’t expecting a letter from me. You probably aren’t expecting a letter from anyone. Who sends letters these days anyway? I don’t mean to disturb your beautiful life in anyway, there’s just some things I should tell you.
	Before I tell you anything else, I want to tell you that I’m sorry. You don’t know it yet, but I’ve let you down. I’ve failed you. All those things you wanted for me, they all fell through. All those dreams, all those ambitions. All I can say is that I’m sorry. I’m sorry Jacob. I sound like a broken record but I just don’t know what else I can say.
	I loved you Jacob. Your outlook on life, your endless positivity, your enthusiasm. I can’t speak on behalf of anyone else, but you were the perfect man in my eyes: flawless, god-like, invincible. You worked hard, you took care of your body, you were sensitive. It makes me smile to think about it - you knew that you were God’s gift to women.
	I loved you, but that love died. My respect for you has been on a steady decline over the last couple of years. Bit by bit, you began to stop caring. Slowly, you stopped putting in that extra bit of effort that made you so wonderful. You wasted your time, you pushed away those who were close to you, you abused your body. Why did you have sink to such bitter levels of misogyny, gluttony and cruelty? What have you become? It pains me to say it, but I think I hate you now. I hope, more than anything else, that you can consider what I am saying to you and think about your actions.
	You’re still so young. You still have that twinkle in your eye where the real you looks out at the world. All is not lost.

Yours,

Jacob

title: The Letter

question: Who is writing the letter?

answer: Jacob is writing the letter.

question: Who is Jacob?

answer: Jacob is the narrator, and also the person that the letter is addressed to.

question: Why is the narrator apologizing?

answer: Jacob is apologizing for failing on all the goals and ambitions he set for himself, and for succumbing to misogyny, gluttony, and cruelty.

question: Why does the narrator hate Jacob?

answer: Jacob, writing to himself, is upset that he abused his body, gave up on his dreams, and failed to accomplish any of the goals he set for himself.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: Jacob writes a letter to himself, ashamed of his failures and downfalls as a person. However, he still believes that all is not lost, as he still has some youth left in him.


text:
     I slowly drift off into space, blackness, nothing. The sweet embrace of nothingness, it hugs me ever so gently, caresses my skin ever so softly. The comfort of the feeling is unmatched by anything, more passionate than a lovers embrace, but yet more gentle than a mother holding her new born baby. I am clear; it is an escape from the hustle and bustle of the everyday, the ups and downs, ins and outs, the busy that we all deal with every day. I am floating on a cloud of joy.
     White and fluffy, I float through the sky with the greatest of ease. It dances and prances through the endless blue, no destination in sight no nothing around.  The soft cotton form of the cloud brushes me lulling me into a state of relaxation, the feeling of a warm towel on a cold winter’s day. The dew drops drip down draining away all my daily dilemmas as I slip from consciousness to the world of the unknown where anything is possible and everything is alright.
      Still I am on my cloud, floating free through the sky. But I begin to sink towards the earth away from the warmth of the sun. As I descend the dew drops that dripped away my problems grow cold. The warm towel is gone and along with it the relaxation has disappeared. I am cold. As the cloud deepens in its descent the dew drops drip more and more and they turn into rain. The cloud I am on is no longer alone. Grey ominous clouds surround me on all sides, up, down, left, right, front, back all around.  There is no seeing where I am going. What lies ahead? My soft white cloud begins to shrink and fade into the background of the grey storm clouds. It grows smaller and smaller and I am no longer caressed by its beauty, but frightened by its disappearance as I continue to fall into the grey abyss.
      My cloud is gone, but I am not falling. I am standing. It’s solid ground.  Green grass grows around my bare feet. It is unkempt, filled with weeds and gravel that scratch the bare bottoms of my feet. I am compelled to walk; up a gently sloping hill and with no destination in sight. The storm clouds that surround me open up and the heavens rain down. Still I continue up this hill as my tattered clothes become saturated.  The grass is dying, dying, dead.  Only the weeds remain, through the mud and the gravel that cut my now bloody feet. I continue up the hill as my feet bleed and are rubbed raw.
     All around me are tombstones and I continue up the hill.  First one, two, three, four, five. I loose count. They are all around me on this hill, tombstones for no one. No names, no faces, dates, empty.  They belong to the masses, the nondescript, unoriginal people, who have all died their own individually common horrible death. And I continue on my march.
      I fall to my hands and knees and they both begin to bleed as the gravel rubs them to a state of ground beef, but still I march. My destination is close, although I still do not know what it is. The tombstones grow, what was once small headstones no higher than my knee grow to tower over me like skyscrapers. They look down upon me with their blank nameless faces. Watching me struggle up the hill as my clothes become more tattered and my shirt soaks with blood and rain. Death is watching.
     I find him, my father near the top of the hill, but not quite at the peak. He is not an old man, but not young either. He is how I know him to be, of good health and middle aged. The sides of his hair are white, but on top there remain some black remnants of his youth. He is laying down holding his stomach. Grasping, clutching, pulling at his stomach. I want to run to him, but can’t.  I continue slowly up the hill. Falling, scraping my forearms, then my elbows and up my arms until I finally fall on my face only to arise a bloody mess at my father’s side.
       I see now what he is holding. He looks worse than I. His hands, feet, knees, face, everything is filthy; covered in a combination of both mud and blood. The filth washes down his body until it reaches his hands. His mangled hands that have seen the work of a thousand men. Bent, shaking, cold.  His hands hold, grasp, clutch at his stomach. His black shirt torn open below the navel. His hands cover something and I move closer to see. He is not holding his stomach, but holding it in.  Where am cut with tiny scratches that bleed with the rain he has one stretching from side to side and through pour his entrails. Green, purple, orange, red with blood they pour out as he tries to hold them in. I cradle my father. His head in my right arm as my left hand works with his to keep his intestines inside, but they pour out. And I see my hand it is just as mangled as his. Cut, twisted warped into all shapes; broken one thousand times over; it shivers too much to hold anything and they slip out through our mangled fingers.
     Slowly and painfully through the hands of my father and I they slip out. Pouring onto the filth that now surrounds us they slip out. My father does not make a sound. He is staring straight into my eyes, looking up at me, his only son, holding him as he approaches death in this graveyard of nameless men. There are no words, only the sound of my father taking his last dying breath.
      And I wake up, just like every night, crying, alone in the dark.

title: The first story I've written

question: What does the story say about the protagonist's dream about his father?

answer: The protagonist is a cloud and his father comes in his dreams every night. His father is not too old and he looks healthy, just how the protagonist knows him to be. The father is laying down and holding his stomach. He does not make a sound. The protagonist hears his father taking his last dying breath. Then the protagonist wakes up crying.


text:
The sound of a door creaking open tore through the calm summer air as a tall man strode stiffly out of the house on the corner of Stallion Drive. Stiff grass crunched under his feet and as he reached the car parked underneath the streetlight at the end of the drive his face was thrown into relief.

The man’s beard was overgrown and his hair fell messily in his pale face. He wore a dirty flannel shirt under a military jacket and his slim fit jeans were tucked into his scuffed leather boots. This man was rather dull looking other than his eyes, which flashed deep blue from beneath his thick-framed glasses, and although his eyes were definitely his most defining feature his underfed and pallid appearance were a close second.

The man reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the key to his beat up red convertible.  He unlocked and opened the passenger side and reached for a pill bottle that rested on the seats torn upholstery. Suddenly the man dropped the pill bottle and jumped as though he had heard something and quickly turned around.

“Who’s there?” He murmured quietly into the darkness, but there was no answer.  The man turned back to his car and began searching for the bottle he had dropped. Just as he located the bottle, which had fallen underneath the glove box, he heard a soft voice come from directly behind him. Startled the man sat bolt upright, hitting his head on the glove box as he came up.

“Hi Jamie.” The voice, which belonged to a beautiful young woman, whispered. Her dark hair fell around her shoulders highlighting her thin pretty face and her prominent collarbones. She wore a flowing white dress with a black polka dot print and boots similar to that of the man she was addressing.

“Hello Lana” he muttered venomously “don’t call me that.”

“Then what do you want me to call you?” Lana said impatiently.

“James, my name is James Lana.” James tucked the pill bottle he had clutched in his hand into the pocket of his jacket. “Why are you here” he asked as he slammed the passenger door closed, although it was clear that he didn’t care to know the answer.

“Jamie… James, I’m so sorry for everything.” Lana’s voice trembled as she spoke and her knees shook in unison. James said nothing to this apology. “I never meant to hurt you” she continued awkwardly “I really did love you.”

“Bullshit” James spat. “You never loved me” his voice was raising in volume now “you’re a heartless bitch, and you’re not sorry.” Lana stood shaking a single tear fell from the corner of her eye unnoticed by James. “Now,” James said with a regained composure, “why are you here?”

“I… I’m worried about you Jamie…” she whispered sadly.

“Don’t. Fucking. Call me that!” James roared at her, and Lana flinched. James scratched at his beard and rubbed his eyes wearily. When he finally looked back up at Lana his blue eyes were even more vivid as they stood out against bloodshot red.

“Everyone’s been worried about you James… Dallon and Tyler said that they haven’t seen you in weeks, they’re worried about you and…” Lana paused as though she was worried about what she needed to say next.

“They said you’ve been abusing your prescriptions.” As she said this she walked closer to James’ car as if she was trying to peek inside, but James held out his arm to stop her.

“I’m not abusing the pills Lana.” James said firmly. “I need these, if I didn’t take them then I wouldn’t be able to functi-”

“What about the alcohol?” Lana interjected hysterically. “You’re mixing the pills with alcohol…” Lana’s eyes were now flooded with tears. “From the smell of it, I can only assume that you’re drinking a lot!”

“I drink what I need to feel good, and I can’t give up the medicine unless I want to be in unbearable pain.” James muttered remorsefully.

“Don’t worry about me Lana.” James’ voice was now steady and any hint of remorse was now gone. “I’ll be absolutely fine.”
Without another word James walked around to the other side of his car, got into the drivers seat, started up the engine and sped away. Lana stood silently shaking in James’ front lawn and just as James turned the corner she let out a furious scream.

“I HATE YOU!” Lana yelled through her uncontrollable sobbing. Lana collapsed onto the lawn sobbing even harder than before. She lay there for almost half an hour before she finally got up and walked slowly back to her house. Her white dress was covered in dust from the dry ground and her makeup was smeared across her still beautiful face, her hair was tangled in the back and as she walked she would succumb to violent shaking fits.

Back at her home Lana collapsed on the couch sobbing quietly into a pillow as the television flickered before her. A clock began to ring and Lana looked over to the mantle to see that it was 2 o’clock, it had been one hour since James had driven away and Lana still shook with unease.

Before she knew it Lana was sitting bolt upright on the couch a phone on the table next to her was blaring next to her ear, she glanced at the clock and saw that it was 4 AM. Lana quickly grabbed the phone off the hook.

“James?” she said urgently.

“Hello, am I speaking to a miss… Lana Studebaker?” the voice on the other side of the phone was cold and uncaring.

“Yes, who is this?” A sinking feeling was setting into the pit of Lana’s stomach.

“This is the Eastburn County Police department,” tears began to stream down Lana’s face “We’re calling to inform you about a fatal car crash that occurred this morning at 2:45 Am.”

“Yes?” Lana whispered as tears slowly rolled down her cheek.

title: *67

question: Summarize the conflict between James and Lana.

answer: James and Lana were once in a romantic relationship, but the breakup has left James bitter and Lana sorry. Lana goes to talk to James about his recent problem with pain pills and alcohol, saying she and their other friends are worried about him. James angrily denies the problem and insists he'll be fine before driving away, leaving her sobbing on his lawn.

question: Summarize the story of Lana's injury.

question: What does the story say about Dallon and Tyler?

answer: Dallon and Tyler are implied to be friends of both James and Lana. They haven't seen James in weeks and worry he's been abusing his prescriptions. It seems Lana came to see James at least partly at their behest.

question: What does the text say about heroism?


text:
PRINCE ALEXIS KARAGEORGEVITCH, or KARAĐORĐEVIĆ ( / _Aleksa Karađorđević_; 10 June 1859 – 15 February 1920), was the head of the senior branch of the House of Karageorgevitch and a claimant to the Serbian throne.[1] He served in the First Balkan War of 1912 as a soldier and after as president of the Red Cross until Serbian army's retreat through Albania (World War I).

Early life and family

Prince Alexis was born five months after his great uncle Alexander Karageorgevitch had been forced to abdicate as prince of Serbia. His parents were Prince George Karageorgevitch (1827–1884) and Sarka Anastasijević (died 1931). He had one brother the author Prince Bojidar Karageorgevitch. Prince Alexis' paternal grandfather and namesake, Prince Alexis Karageorgevitch (1801–1830) was the eldest son of Karađorđe Petrović and the older brother of Alexander Karageorgevitch. His maternal grandfather was Miša Anastasijević.

Prince Alexis grew up living in exile in Paris.

Serbian claimant

With the death of his father in 1884 Prince Alexis became head of the senior branch of the House of Karageorgevitch and a claimant to the Serbian throne. He was not the only Karageorgevitch to claim the throne as Prince Peter the son of Prince Alexander Karageorgvitch also advanced a claim. In 1895 Prince Alexis said _“Not only do I intend not to abandon my legitimate rights, but I am ready to make them prevail.”_ A couple of years later his brother Prince Bojidar made a secret visit to Serbia to gather support for the House of Karageorgevitch.[2]

In late 1898 Prince Alexis met Mabelle Swift, niece of American businessman Gustavus Franklin Swift, in Paris. Prince Alexis proposed marriage with Swift agreeing on condition that her parents consented to the match.[3] In June 1899 Prince Alexis set off for America to seek the approval of her father E.C. Swift. After spending time with her family at their villa in Beverly, Chicago they refused to give their consent to the marriage.[4] One of the reasons speculated on was that her family were concerned that their daughter would merely be a morganatic wife in the event Prince Alexis ascended the Serbian throne.[5]

In January 1902 there was reports in Serbia that King Alexander I from the rival House of Obrenovic was prepared to abdicate in favour of Prince Alexis or at the least he would be named Alexander's heir.[6] However, nothing came of this because the following year King Alexander was assassinated. With the throne now vacant Prince Alexis was overlooked in favour of the head of the younger branch of the family, Prince Peter Karageorgevitch who was elected King Peter I of Serbia. As a result, Prince Alexis announced in an interview that he had abandoned his claim to the throne.[7]

Later years and marriage

[Prince Alexis Karageorgevitch] With the Karageorgevitch family back on the throne in 1909 King Peter introduced a new statute for the members of the royal house. However the statute made no mention of the members of the senior non reigning branch of the family. In the reigning junior branch the descendants of King Peter were entitled to the style _Royal Highness_ while those of his younger brother Prince Arsen were entitled to that of _Highness_. Prince Alexis was also completely excluded from the succession which in the event of the extinction of the male lines of King Peter and Prince Arsen would pass to Princess Helen of Serbia.[8]

Although in 1903 Prince Alexis announced that he was abandoning his claim to the throne he remained in Paris even after his cousin had ascended the throne, and in later years he would still claim that he should be king of Serbia saying in 1913 _“I have no criticism to make of King Peter, except that I ought to be King of Serbia, as I am an eldest son.”_[9] It was not until the outbreak of the First Balkan War that Prince Alexis came to Serbia. Determined to serve he received King Peter's permission and trimming his moustache to disguise his features enlisted into the Serbian Army as a private soldier.[10] During the war he took part in the fighting at the Battle of Monastir[11] and the Battle of Kumanovo.[12]

On 11 June 1913, a month after the First Balkan War had come to an end, Prince Alexis returned to Paris and married Myra Abigail Pratt (_née_ Pankhurst; daughter of John F. Pankhurst, vice-president of Globe Iron Works and co-owner of American Shipbuilding Company of Cleveland; _divorcée_ of Herbert Wright in 1900; and widow of Thomas Huger Pratt) in the Russian Church. She was received in the Eastern Orthodox faith under the Slavic name of Daria. The US Ambassador to France Myron T. Herrick served as one of the bride's witnesses while Prince Arsen Karageorgevitch and the _Comte_ Ferdinand Baston de la Riboisière served as witnesses for Prince Alexis.[13] Prince Alexis and his new wife honeymooned in the South of France before heading to his wife's home city of New York. This was his first trip to the U.S. in 14 years.

During the First World War Prince Alexis and his new wife returned to Serbia to support the war effort with Prince Alexis serving as President of the Serbian Red Cross.[14] After the fall of the wartime capital Niš to the Central Powers Prince Alexis and his wife had to take part in the mass retreat from Serbia through the treacherous mountains of Montenegro and Albania in the winter of 1915–1916. The couple arrived in Rome on Christmas Eve 1915.[15]

With the death of Prince Alexis in 1920, the male line of the senior branch of the Karageorgevitch dynasty became extinct. The prince died in St.Moritz in Switzerland and his grave can be found in the Saint-Georges cemetery in Geneva.

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title: Prince Alexis Karageorgevich

question: Describe Prince Alexis' claim to the Serbian Throne.

answer: Initially he competed with one other claimant. He attempted to get a marriage with Mabelle Swift, niece of an American businessman, however, her family were worried about the match and did not condone it. King Alexander eventually abdicated, but the throne went to the younger Prince Peter rather than Prince Alexis.

question: Who did Prince Alexis marry?

answer: While his first marriage to Mabelle Swift did not work out, he eventually married Myra Abigail Pratt, daughter of John F Pankhurst, owner of a prominent American shipbuilding company. The two lived in New York for a time, before returning to Serbia to help in the war.

question: How did Prince Alexis feel about being passed over for the throne?

answer: He took it in good spirits. He did not criticize King Peter. However, he said that as the eldest son the kingship should have passed to him. He did not go to Serbia until the first Balkan War, when he was determined to serve in the army.