text:
Another day in this bunker, this long, winding prison I call home. The walls are lined with the blood of its former occupants, and the constant dripping sound suggests it’s fresh.

Once again, the sound of dripping blood is blocked out by those things, those monsters. The sound of them walking in these dark metal hallways is unmistakable. And it’s getting closer. The pills can help me though, the pills make everything normal again. Now, where did I last put them? Damn it! I left them in the halls! Outside of this barely stable safe house. Maybe, if I’m quiet they won’t hear me. I enter the hallway, searching for the pills. I can hear them getting closer. And I know I won’t have enough time. Why did I even agree to this sadistic experiment? Money? Fame? Fortune? For gods sake, I can’t even remember what the sun looks like, much less the life I left behind! Those people, those demons that put me in here must be dead, or else they would’ve let me out by now, right? But the blood of former occupants suggests they couldn’t care less.

Wait! I left the pills in the vent. Ah, the vent, the perfect place to hide things. I try to ease the vent out gently, but I can hear them coming closer, I need to just tear it off like an old band-aid I think as I grip the vent tightly. The sound of the vent tearing out is terribly loud and could be heard from miles away. Maybe the terrible sound will scare them off? No, I can hear them coming closer by the second. But now I have the pills! I can stave them off. Oh no! The lights have gone out. They’re about to reach me! I choke the pills down my throat. The effect is immediate, already this terrible fate is escaping me. The lights are turning back on and the monsters are weakened. I feel great. But I only have seconds before reality comes crashing back down on me. I need to run, I need to hide!

Already I can feel the effects wearing off. But I think I hid some more pills around here somewhere. I must’ve, I’m the best! Why else would they choose me? Not enough time! They're too close! They’re on me! I can feel their teeth sinking into my flesh!

A dank, sweaty lab, two scientists, Dr. Fitzgerald, a plump, stocky man, and Dr. Parker, a thinner, taller man, eat cheetos and watch through a screen, the picture of a man who has lost his mind. Subject P4C, he used to be normal. But then they got a hold of him. Twisted him, hooked him up to a machine and changed his mind. At first he resisted, but they gave him pills, and he stopped.

But that experiment is over now. He is free to lead his own life again. Yet all he does is sit in his white, gleaming room, with only a single, solitary camera in it. And play pac-man, always putting more money in, playing again, and again, and again.

title: Subject P4C, a short story I wrote for english

question: Who are watching the main character?

answer: The main character is being watched by two scientists, Dr. Fitzgerald, and Dr. Parker.

question: What is the main character desperately looking for?

answer: He is desperately looking for pills, these pills help him through the pain he feels.

question: What genre would this short story be classified under?

answer: This short story would be classified under fiction or science fiction.

question: Where is this story taking place?

answer: The setting of this story seems to be taking place in a bunker or a room that can be observed by others.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: This short story describes a patient's frantic thoughts while being watched by two scientists for an experiment.


split: train

text:
I had this dream.

I was sitting, nervously waiting in some sort of office room with too many chairs.
I knew that I was outside of a conference room, though.
The room had a fairly simple setup. There was a secretary scribbling something on a notepad, a fake plastic fern in the corner, and a plain black-and-white clock up on the wall.

I was nervously rehearsing my answers for the interview that I knew that I was about to go to. I don’t remember what my answers were. I was just ready to tell the interviewers what they wanted to hear.

I became aware that the clock’s ticking was quite loud.

A pepper-haired man stuck his head out of the conference room door and said
“We’re ready for you now. Come on in.”
He went back into the room but left the door open.

I followed the man into the room and looked around.
Outside the window, off in the distance, I could see the sparkling ocean.
It looked so peaceful.

Someone’s bike reflector flashed in the sun and caused me to blink.

I looked in front of me and saw the pepper-haired man sitting across the table with two men that were sitting to his right and to his left.
To his right, there was a slim, tall man with nice blonde hair and blue eyes. He wore a suit and had a welcoming smile.
To his left, there was a tall, fat man with long greasy hair. He wore glasses, a wrinkled polo shirt, and had a sense of arrogance about him.

I donned a fake smile, shook their hands, and took my seat across from the three men.
My heart was no longer pounding.
I was relaxed and confident.

“So, tell me, why do you want to come to our school?” the blonde man asked.
“Yea, what makes us so special?” the fat man followed up.

This was a typical interview question, but for some reason it made me pause.
This was the point of no-return. My response would change my life forever.

 ...

I thought about my entire life up until this moment:

One time when I was only six years old, I remembered stubbing my toe while opening a door. I looked down at my foot, saw blood, and immediately panicked. I sat down and cried until my mother came to clean it up for me. She told me that there was no reason cry, because I had to be strong. I remembered the sense of duty I had to show no weakness.

No more than a year later, when I was seven, my mother first told me about college. She told me that I could be anything that I wanted to be in life. I was a winner, better than the rest.
However, she told me that I must always be happy.
Live your life for you, and nobody else. Only you have to deal with the decisions you make.

When I was nine, I was first told that I needed glasses. I remember trying on those black plastic frames at the optometrist’s office and wondering if I would look like this for the rest of my life. Later that day, I was inspecting my appearance in the bathroom mirror at home when my mother came in to talk to me. She told me that I could never be a pilot, because of my new glasses.
Maybe this meant that I couldn’t be whatever I wanted to be in life.

I remembered playing “Truth or Dare” when I was twelve at Brittany Winter’s birthday party. I was dared to kiss the most popular girl in school, and I did it. I spent that night lying next to her, being careful not to touch, and worrying the entire night what would happen if my mother found out what I had done.

When I was thirteen, I first stole beer from my friend’s father. As I was throwing up, I remembered wondering what would happen if she saw me then. This was not a part of the path to success.

When I was fifteen, I made my first drug deal. As I sat there waiting with my Ziploc bag in my pocket, constantly looking over my shoulder for the police, I realized that I was more afraid of my mother driving by and asking me what I was doing standing on the street corner by myself.

I remembered deciding at sixteen that there was more money in becoming a doctor. From there, I told myself what I wanted to hear and said that my chief motivation was to “help people.”
From then on, there was nothing stopping me from going to medical school.
After all, I was the best.
I was the smartest, most clever, and physically fit person around.
I was the one for the job.

 ...

It was then that I realized I had been staring at my feet for some while.
I looked up at the men to see all three of their faces unpatiently waiting for a reply.
The pepper-haired man re-iterated their questions:
“So, son, why do you want to come here?”

I thought about this question for a while and wondered how I managed to find myself sitting in that chair.
I realized that I wasn’t happy.
I didn’t know who I was anymore, or what I was doing with my life.
I have never felt so lost.

I finally lifted my head and looked the pepper-haired man right in the eyes.
I slowly stood up and said

“I don’t.”

title: The Interview of a Lifetime

question: What is the narrator interviewing for?

answer: He's interviewing for acceptance into a medical school.

question: Why does the narrator change his mind?

answer: He finds himself unhappy with just saying things people want to hear, chasing money by being a doctor.

question: What jobs did the narrator do before?

answer: He didn't have any proper jobs, but he sold drugs for a little while.

question: Why did the narrator want to become a doctor in the first place?

answer: He thought it would bring him more money than selling drugs on the street.

question: Is the entire story a dream?

answer: That seems to be the case.

question: Write a ~7 sentence summary.

answer: The narrator dreams about being in an interview for medical school. He's being asked why he wants to be there. He reflects on his life, how his mother told him he could be anything until she told him he couldn't be a pilot because of his glasses. He remembers his first drug deal, more afraid of his mother than the cops. He had decided being a doctor would bring more money. The interview panel repeats their question, and he realizes he doesn't want to be there. He says that and leaves.


text:
[Updated DOT guidelines for drug testing clearinghouse]

Yellow, green and red semi-trailer trucks stand side-by-side at a rest area in North America.

[DOT guidelines for drug testing clearinghouse]
Yellow, green and red semi-trailer trucks stand side-by-side at a rest area in North America.

Owner-operators must designate a Consortium/TPA, like WDTC, for reporting

Drivers, employers and agencies each have specific responsibilities for the upcoming CDL Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse, the new national database that will go live on January 4, 2020. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration(FMCSA) continues to update its resources pertaining to DOT guidelines for the drug testing Clearinghouse.

Owner-operators, defined as anyone who employs themselves as a driver, are subject to the requirements pertaining to employers as well as those pertaining to drivers. DOT guidelines for drug testing Clearinghouse state that owner-operators must designate a Consortium/Third Party Administrator (TPA) to comply with the employer portion of Clearinghouse reporting requirements related to their own alcohol and controlled substance use. Wisconsin Drug Testing Consortium (WDTC) is an accredited, Certified Third Party Administrator (C-TPA) that can fulfill this requirement for owner-operators.

Employers with drivers other than themselves will be required to query the Clearinghouse database every year for each driver they employ. State driver licensing agencies also will be required to query the Clearinghouse whenever a CDL is issued, renewed, transferred or upgraded.

WHO WILL BE AUTHORIZED TO ACCESS THE CLEARINGHOUSE?

Users will need to request access from FMCSA by registering for the Clearinghouse. Authorized users will include:

-   Drivers who hold a commercial driver’s license (CDL) or a commercial learner’s permit (CLP)
-   Employers, including motor carriers and other employers with drivers operating commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) that require a CDL or CLP
-   Consortium/Third-Party Administrators
-   Medical Review Officers (MROs)
-   Substance Abuse Professionals (SAPs)
-   State Driver Licensing Agencies (SDLAs)
-   Federal Enforcement personnel

The Clearinghouse will provide FMCSA and employers the information they need to identify drivers who are prohibited from operating a CMV on public roads based on DOT drug and alcohol program violations. The Clearinghouse will contain only violations that occur on or after the rule’s implementation date of January 4, 2020.

Employers and drivers are reminded to not unsubscribe from emails pertaining to CDL Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse, or DOT guidelines for drug testing clearinghouse.

ABOUT WISCONSIN DRUG TESTING CONSORTIUM

Wisconsin Drug Testing Consortium is an accredited, Certified Third Party Administrator (C-TPA), and specializes in consortium management; a variety of drug testing methods, including urine, hair and fingernails; post-accident testing; pre-employment drug tests; criminal background checks; supervisor training programs to keep employees compliant with DOT regulations; pre-employment DOT physicals; and paternity DNA testing. Headquartered in Green Bay, WDTC also has offices in Appleton, Fond du Lac and Madison, Wisconsin. Call 888-784-8842 or visit www.widrugtesting.com for more information.

View original article on CDL Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse here.

Tags: dot clearinghouse login, dot reporting requirements

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question: What does the text say about drug testing taxi drivers?

question: What does the text say about owner-operators?

answer: Owner-operators are defined as anyone who employs themselves as a driver. They are subject to the requirements pertaining to employers as well as drivers. Owner-operators must designate a Consortium or Third Party Administrator (TPA) to comply with the employer portion of Clearinghouse reporting requirements related to their own alcohol and substance abuse, as per DOT guidelines for drug testing Clearinghouse. Employers with drivers other than themselves will be required to query the Clearinghouse database every year for every driver under contract.

question: What does the text say about the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse?

answer: The Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse is the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's (FMCSA) new national database that will go live on January 4, 2020 (at the time of the article). The FMCSA continues to update its resources pertaining to DOT guidelines for the drug testing Clearinghouse. State driver licensing agencies will be required to query the Clearinghouse whenever a commercial driver's license (CDL) is issued, renewed, transferred, or upgraded. The Clearinghouse will also provide FMCSA and employers the information they need to identify drivers who are not allowed to operate a CMV on public roads based on DOT drug and alcohol program violations.

question: What does the text say about the Wisconsin Drug Testing Consortium?

answer: The Wisconsin Drug Testing Consortium (WDTC) is an accredited, Certified Third Party Administrator (C-TPA) that specializes in consortium management. WDTC conducts a variety of drug testing methods, including urine, hair, and fingernails. They offer post-accident testing, pre-employment drug tests, criminal background checks, pre-employment DOT physicals, and paternity DNA testing. WDTC also has supervisor training programs to keep employees compliant with DOT regulations.


text:
*You give your hand to me,*

*And then you say hello*

*And I can hardly speak,*

*My heart is beating so*

“What playlist is this?” she asked, her eyes a deep brown, contrasted by the soft light of the laptop.

“I don’t know, a ‘love’ playlist, I guess.”

She laughed. “Oh, like for having sex to?”

“Well, no,” he said earnestly. “I always figured it was something you could just…. I don’t know. Dance with someone to.”

“Just dance in your apartment?”

“Yeah”

“Who’d you make it for?” she asked playfully as she took his hand.

This he contemplated. He made it years ago. Less in the hopes of dancing with someone to, but more for making his fresh wounds deeper.

*Nothing can be sadder*

*Than a glass of wine alone*

*Loneliness, loneliness,*

*Is such a waste of time*

“I guess I made it for ‘Her’”

“’Her’ who?”

“She didn’t exist then. I made it for someone I hoped to meet, I suppose.”

He reached for her, brushed her hair behind her ear. Kissed her shoulder, breathing her in.

“I think…I think I made it for you,” he said.

“I don’t understand.”

He paused. Thought to himself how he wanted to be honest, wanted to tell her. Tell her what she didn’t want to hear.

“We can’t use the ‘L’ word, can we?”

“No,” she shook her head.

He looked down at the blanket that covered them. Saw how it sagged between them, in the crevasse that lie between their legs.

“Then I don’t know what to tell you.”

title: Playlist

question: What kind of playlist are the characters talking about?

answer: A love playlist.

question: Who did the narrator make the playlist for? Why?

answer: He made the playlist long ago for a woman who didn't yet exist, but hoped to meet.

question: What is the relationship of the two characters?

answer: The narrator cares deeply for the woman, it seems he loves her. She says that they can't use the 'L' word.

question: What are the emotions that narrator is feeling?

answer: The narrator is feeling love for the woman. He wants to be honest and tell her that she is the "someone" he made the love playlist for years ago, but can't.

question: Write a ~5 sentence summary.

answer: A man and woman are listening to songs. The woman asks what kind of playlist it is. The narrator made the playlist long ago for a woman who didn't yet exist, but hoped he'd meet; it's a love playlist. She asks who he made the playlist for. He wants to be honest and tell her that she is the "someone" he made the love playlist for years ago, but can't because she says they can't say the 'L' word.


text:
Fr. Miller noticed that Superman arrived punctually for his appointment and was relieved that his handshake was not too firm. The Man of Steel sat down in the office of this man of God and confided his life’s story. Then he made what would ordinarily be an ordinary request. The priest hesitated, rescheduled, and immediately called his bishop. The bishop was stumped and referred this curious question to Rome: *can Superman be baptized?*

He possessed the necessary desire and had an extensive knowledge of the Faith.  And, despite his seemingly preternatural gifts, he was aware that he had fallen short of the glory of God (in relations with a certain lady.)  However, he was an extraterrestrial, and not a descendant of Adam. Was Christ’s baptism meant for him?

The Vatican responded in the affirmative: “Based upon the philosophical principle that the greater contains the lesser, Superman possesses what it is to be man. Furthermore, Scripture says, *'preach the gospel to all creatures. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved,'* (Mark 16:15-16) and *'You shall not oppress an alien'* (Exodus 23:9)."

title: Truth, Justice, & the Way [180 words]

question: Why did the priest and bishop hesitate to baptize Superman?

answer: Because despite Superman's desire and extensive knowledge of the faith, he was still an extraterrestrial and not a descendant of Adam.

question: Why did the Vatican grant Superman permission to receive baptism?

answer: The Vatican proclaims that Superman possesses what it is to be a man based on the philosophical principle that greater contains the lesser, supported by scripture.


text:
"It's time to begin! This is it..." The lyrics pounded in my head as I stuck my head out the window feeling the wind in my hair. I breathed in smelling the world around me. I feel amazing. Brilliant, infinite, every word in the book. This is where I belong, traveling around, seeing the world. I have grabbed my two best friends, Jr and Katie and have set off for adventure. Don't ask me why, I'm still trying to figure that out myself. Jr seems content with doing this, he's always said that he wanted to see what's outside of this town and Katie...well Katie will take any excuse to get out of her hell of a home. Parents arguing, little sisters being manics, the minute I proposed this idea, she was on bored. This was our time. We were ready. And holy shit, we were scared.
It's four weeks after we have left and we have had some major highs and lows. At of this time, we have brought Katie's cousin, Ty along with us. He said he's coming to "protect us," but I know that he just wants out. He's quite the mystery. We started out in California and we're are still in California. It's talking longer than we thought. We have just entered San Fransisco and I'm in Heaven. I love it here. The smell, the sounds, the sights. I knew that going on this trip wasn't a mistake. We were stopping at every thing that seemed interesting and there was a lot. Pier 39, curvy streets, and spy shops. Yes. Spy shops.  Katie and Ty are having the time of their lives. I've never seem Katie hold a smile for that long and Ty just looks like a new person. This really is changing us
Seven weeks in and we're in Colorado. This is when shit really started going down. Jr got sick and couldn't drive so Ty had to take the wheel and Katie started to bicker with Ty and I had to help Jr not puke. (We're in a trailer home.) We were in some random town that I don't even know the name and everyone was feeling the heat. Katie was laying down and Ty came up and started to scream her down for not telling her.
"I can't fucking believe that you didn't tell me! I had to call your mom! How could you keep this from me? Is that why you were so aggravated with me?"
"Ty. Drop it. It's nothing." She responded, with her voice shaking.
"What's nothing?" I said, fearing the answer.
"Katie is doing drugs-"
"I was doing drugs, dumbass!" Katie interrupted him.
"Oh! And she's having withdraw! Isn't that just fucking great!?" Katie looked ashamed and I was just shocked. Katie was such a innocent girl. Always flinching at the word of anything dirty or illegal but here she is doing drugs.
"Um..Umm.." I was stuttering so bad, "We'll deal with it later. We need to get to New York."
"Okay." They both agreed, Katie seeming relieved while Ty still seemed furious. In the back of the trailer I heard Jr yell, "CAN YOU SOME OF BITCHES SHUT UP?" I wasn't sure if he was being serious or just trying to break the tension
Weeks and weeks past. The times we ran out of gas: Too many to count. Times Jr puked: 7. Times I had to pull Ty and Katie apart before they got into a full brawl: 3. But here it was. New York. Throughout all four of our lives, we have wanted to see this city and we were...amazed. Everyone seemed so busy, so important. We seemed so small compared to the skyscrapers. I started to have this anxious feeling in my stomach and I couldn't help but marvel at the crowds of people. It was all so huge. We rolled in and we blasted the music, we pulled our windows down and started to blast, "We are Young" by Fun. We felt amazing. We felt alive. We felt infinite. This was our time and we would fucking make it.

title: Hiya c: Here's a story. I like stories :D

question: What is the story about?

answer: Three girls that go on a road-trip.

question: What city do the girls try to go to?

answer: New York.

question: What is the climax of the story?

answer: When it comes out that Katie was going through withdrawal for drugs.

question: What city does the narrator love in California?

answer: San Francisco.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: This is a story about three girls who go on a road trip from California to New York.


text:
Business

Posted January 18, 2016

Updated January 18, 2016

increase font size [Resize Font]

U.S. benchmark oil prices have collapsed more than 70 percent in 18 months.

HOUSTON — Oil is so plentiful and cheap in the United States that at least one buyer says it would need to be paid to take a certain type of low-quality crude.

Flint Hills Resources LLC, the refining arm of billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch’s industrial empire, said it would pay -$0.50 a barrel Friday for North Dakota Sour, a high-sulfur grade of crude, according to a list price posted on its website. That’s down from $13.50 a barrel a year ago and $47.60 in January 2014.

While the negative price is because of the lack of pipeline capacity for a particular variety of ultra low-quality crude, it underscores how dire things are in the U.S. oil patch. U.S. benchmark oil prices have collapsed more than 70 percent in the past 18 months.

“Telling producers that they have to pay you to take away their oil certainly gives the producers a whole bunch of incentive to shut in their wells,” said Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates LLC in Houston.

Flint Hills spokesman Jake Reint didn’t respond to a phone call and email outside of work hours Sunday to comment on the bulletin. The prices posted by Flint Hills Resources and rivals such as Plains All American Pipeline LP are used as benchmarks, setting reference prices for dozens of different crudes produced in the United States.

Plains All American quoted two other varieties of American low-quality crude at very low prices: South Texas Sour at $13.25 a barrel and Oklahoma Sour at $13.50 a barrel.

High-sulfur crude in North Dakota is a small portion of the state’s production, with less than 15,000 barrels a day coming out of the ground, said John Auers, executive vice president at Turner Mason & Co. in Dallas. The output has been dwarfed by low-sulfur crude from the Bakken shale formation in the western part of the state, which has grown to 1.1 million barrels a day in the past 10 years.

Different grades of oil are priced based on their quality and transport costs to refineries. High-sulfur crudes are generally priced lower because they can only be processed at plants that have specific equipment to remove sulfur. Producers and refiners often mix grades to achieve specific blends, and prices for each component can rise or fall to reflect current economics.

Enbridge Inc. stopped allowing high-sulfur crudes on its pipeline out of North Dakota in 2011, forcing North Dakota Sour producers to rely on more expensive transport such as trucks and trains, Auers said.

Producers outside the United States are also feeling pain. The price for Canadian bitumen – the thick, sticky substance at the center of the heated debate over TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL pipeline – fell to $8.35 last week, down from as much as $80 less than two years ago.

Negative energy prices are rare but not unprecedented. Propane traded at a negative value in Edmonton, a key pipeline hub in oil-rich Alberta province, for about three months last year. Oil refineries sometimes pay people to take away low-demand products such as sulfur or petroleum coke to free up space. However, those are both processing byproducts, while oil is a raw material.

“You don’t produce stuff that’s a negative number,” Auers said. “You shut in the well.”

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question: When is the article from?

answer: January 18, 2016

question: What is the main topic of the article?

answer: The article provides information about US benchmark oil prices collapsing more than 70% in 18 months.

question: What is North Dakota Sour?

answer: It's a high-sulfur grade of crude oil.

question: What is the crisis in the US oil industry?

answer: Prices have dropped 70% in the past 18 months (in 2018), sometimes into negative numbers (meaning producers need to pay to take away their oil).

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: The article from January 2018, provides information about US benchmark oil prices collapsing more than 70% in 18 months.


text:
The 2017 TOULON TOURNAMENT (officially ) was the 45th edition of the Toulon Tournament. The tournament was named after MAURICE REVELLO,[1] who started the tournament in 1967 and died in 2016.[2] It was held in the department of Bouches-du-Rhône from 29 May to 10 June 2017.[3] The 2017 edition was the first to feature 12 teams.

The tournament was won by the defending champions England, who claimed their sixth title, beating Ivory Coast 5–3 in a penalty shootout after the game ended 1–1.[4][5]

Participants

Twelve participating teams were announced on April 12, 2017.[6]

AFC

-   (1st participation)

-   (1st participation)

-   (12th participation)

CAF

-   (3rd participation)

-   (9th participation)

CONCACAF

-   (1st participation)

CONMEBOL

-   (16th participation)

UEFA

-   (5th participation)

-   TH (19th participation)

-   (40th participation)

-   (8th participation)

-   (1st participation)

Squads

The twelve national teams involved in the tournament were required to register a squad of 20 Under-20 players.[7]

Venues

A total of four cities hosted the tournament.

  -------------------------------- ------------------------
  Aubagne
  Stade de Lattre-de-Tassigny
  Capacity: 1,000
  Salon-de-Provence
  Stade d'Honneur Marcel Roustan
  Capacity: 4,000
  -------------------------------- ------------------------

Match officials

The referees were:[8] Hélder Martins de Carvalho and António Muachihuissa Caxala

    Assistants: Estanislau Guedes Prata

Pavel Orel

    Assistants: Jakub Hrabovský and Tomáš Mokrusch

Karim Abed

    Assistants: Mehdi Rahmouni and Benjamin Pagès

Anastasios Papapetrou

    Assistants: Ioannis Toumpakaris and Tryfon Petropoulos

Yusuke Araki

    Assistants: Toshiyuki Tanaka and Jun Mihara

Alan Mario Sant

    Assistants: Luke Portelli and Christopher Lawrence Francalanza

Radu Petrescu

    Assistants: Vasile Marinescu and Radu-Adrian-Ştefan Ghinguleac

Don Robertson

    Assistants: Jordan Stokoe and Dougie Potter

Matches rules

Every match consisted of two periods of 40 minutes each. In a match, every team had nine named substitutes and the maximum number of substitutions permitted was four.
In the knockout stage, if a game tied at the end of regulation time, extra time would not be played and the penalty shoot-out would be used to determine the winner.

Group stage

The draw was held on 15 April 2017. The twelve teams were drawn into three groups of four. The group winners and the best second-placed team qualified for the semi-finals.[9] The Group stage was played from 29 May to 6 June 2017.

Group A

{{#invoke:Sports table|main|style=WDL |section=Group A |update=complete |source=Standings

|team1=ENG |team2=ANG |team3=JPN |team4=CUB |result1=KO

|win_ANG=1 |draw_ANG=1 |loss_ANG=1 |gf_ANG=6 |ga_ANG=3 |win_CUB=0 |draw_CUB=1 |loss_CUB=2 |gf_CUB=3 |ga_CUB=13 |win_ENG=3 |draw_ENG=0 |loss_ENG=0 |gf_ENG=10|ga_ENG=2 |win_JPN=0 |draw_JPN=2 |loss_JPN=1 |gf_JPN=3 |ga_JPN=4

|name_ANG= |name_ENG= |name_CUB= |name_JPN=

|res_col_header=Q |col_KO=green1 |text_KO=Advance to knockout stage }}

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

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

Group B

{{#invoke:Sports table|main|style=WDL |section=Group B |update=complete |source=Standings

|team1=CIV |team2=WAL |team3=FRA |team4=BHR |result1=KO

|win_BHR=0 |draw_BHR=0 |loss_BHR=3 |gf_BHR=1 |ga_BHR=8 |win_CIV=2 |draw_CIV=1 |loss_CIV=0 |gf_CIV=5 |ga_CIV=3 |win_FRA=1 |draw_FRA=1 |loss_FRA=1 |gf_FRA=7 |ga_FRA=3 |status_FRA=H |win_WAL=1 |draw_WAL=2 |loss_WAL=0 |gf_WAL=3 |ga_WAL=2

|name_BHR= |name_CIV= |name_FRA= |name_WAL=

|res_col_header=Q |col_KO=green1 |text_KO=Advance to knockout stage }}

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

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

Group C

{{#invoke:Sports table|main|style=WDL |section=Group C |update=complete |source=Standings

|team1=CZE |team2=SCO |team3=BRA |team4=IDN |result1=KO |result2=KO

|win_BRA=1 |draw_BRA=1 |loss_BRA=1 |gf_BRA=1 |ga_BRA=1 |win_CZE=2 |draw_CZE=1 |loss_CZE=0 |gf_CZE=5 |ga_CZE=2 |win_IDN=0 |draw_IDN=0 |loss_IDN=3 |gf_IDN=1 |ga_IDN=5 |win_SCO=2 |draw_SCO=0 |loss_SCO=1 |gf_SCO=5 |ga_SCO=4

|name_BRA= |name_CZE= |name_IDN= |name_SCO=

|res_col_header=Q |col_KO=green1 |text_KO=Advance to knockout stage }}

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

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

Knockout stage

The knockout stage was played on 8 and 10 June 2017.[10]

Semi-finals

Third place playoff

Final

Goalscorers

61 goals were scored in 22 matches, for an average of {{#expr: 61/22 round 2}} goals per match.

4 goals

-   Chico Banza

-   Harvey Barnes

-   George Hirst

3 goals

-   Ryan Hardie

2 goals

-   Ondřej Šašinka

-   David Brooks

-   Martell Taylor-Crossdale

-   Bilal Boutobba

-   Jean-Philippe Krasso

-   Jean Thierry Lazare

-   Oliver Burke

-   George Thomas

1 goal

-   Rui

-   Vá

-   Abdulaziz Khalid

-   Gabriel Novaes

-   Rolando Oviedo

-   Eduardo Puga

-   Lázaro Tuero

-   Ondřej Chvěja

-   Martin Graiciar

-   Roman Kašiar

-   Ondřej Novotný

-   Elliot Embleton

-   Iké Ugbo

-   Yanis Barka

-   Vincent Marcel

-   Jean-Philippe Mateta

-   Arnaud Nordin

-   Derick Osei

-   Hanis Saghara Putra

-   Wilfried Gnoukouri

-   Aké Arnaud Loba

-   Christ Tiéhi

-   Kader Touré Yaya

-   Mizuki Ando

-   Hiroki Ito

-   Takumi Sasaki

-   Greg Taylor

-   Craig Wighton

-   Daniel James

Own goal

-   Denis Granečný (playing against Scotland)

[11]

Awards

Individual awards

After the final, the following players were rewarded for their performances during the competition.[12]

-   BEST PLAYER: David Brooks
-   SECOND BEST PLAYER: Joe Worrall
-   THIRD BEST PLAYER: Jean Thierry Lazare
-   FOURTH BEST PLAYER: Greg Taylor
-   BREAKTHROUGH PLAYER: Egy Maulana
-   BEST GOALKEEPER: Luke Pilling
-   YOUNGER PLAYER OF THE FINAL: Reece James
-   BEST GOAL OF THE TOURNAMENT: Hiroki Ito (playing against Cuba)
-   FAIR-PLAY:

Best XI

The best XI team was a squad consisting of the eleven most impressive players at the tournament.[13]

  Pos.                                      Player
  ----------------------------------------- ---------------------
  style=“text-align:center;” rowspan=| GK   Luke Pilling
  style=“text-align:center;” rowspan=| DF   Reece James
  style=“text-align:center;” rowspan=| DF   Joe Worrall
  style=“text-align:center;” rowspan=| DF   Souleymane Diaby
  style=“text-align:center;” rowspan=| DF   Greg Taylor
  style=“text-align:center;” rowspan=| MF   Michal Sadílek
  style=“text-align:center;” rowspan=| MF   Harvey Barnes
  style=“text-align:center;” rowspan=| MF   David Brooks
  style=“text-align:center;” rowspan=| FW   George Thomas
  style=“text-align:center;” rowspan=| FW   George Hirst
  style=“text-align:center;” rowspan=| FW   Jean Thierry Lazare

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

title: 2017 Toulon Tournament

question: Who was the 2017 Toulon Tournament won by?

answer: The tournament was won by the UK.

question: Who was in the finals of the 2017 Toulon Tournament?

answer: The UK and Ivory Coast were in the finals.

question: How many national teams were involved in the tournament?

answer: Twelve teams were involved in the tournament.

question: How many cities hosted the tournament?

answer: Four cities hosted the tournament.

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: The 2017 Toulon Tournament, the 45th edition of the Toulon Tournament, started in 1967 by Maurice Ravello. Twelve teams were involved in the tournament. The UK and Ivory Coast were in the finals of the tournament, and the UK won.


text:
[HuffPost] [HuffPost]

Sen. Pat Toomey On Lagging Health Care Reform: 'I Didn’t Expect Donald Trump To Win'

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) offered an explanation on Wednesday night as to why congressional Republicans haven’t been able to pass health care reform since President Donald Trump took office in January, despite promising for years that repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act was a top priority.

“I didn’t expect Donald Trump to win,” Toomey said during a town hall hosted by the ABC27 News station in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. “I think most of my colleagues didn’t. So we didn’t expect to be in this situation.”

Toomey was one of the 13 Republican senators working to draft a health care bill after House Republicans passed their version of an Obamacare replacement in May.

Senate Republicans unveiled their health care bill last month, which would significantly gut Medicaid and result in 22 million more uninsured people over the next 10 years. Toomey has defended the bill against critics and cast doubt on the Congressional Budget Office’s assessment of the legislation.

His position sparked proteststhis week, as dozens of people gathered outside Toomey’s town hall event at ABC27 News studios to demand he withdraw his support of the bill.

RELATED COVERAGE

-   GOP Health Care Bill Disinvests In Women's Health
-   Senate Republicans May Be Down On Health Care, But They’re Not Out
-   If You Love High Deductibles, Then You'll Love The Senate Health Bill
-   These Trumpcare Supporters Don't Know A Lot About Trumpcare

Calling all HuffPost superfans!

Sign up for membership to become a founding member and help shape HuffPost's next chapter

[HuffPost]

BEFORE YOU GO

PHOTO GALLERY

Health Care Reform Efforts In U.S. History

question: What is the main topic of the article?

answer: Sen. Pat Toomey explains why congressional Republicans haven't been able to pass health care reform.

question: What bill are the 13 Republican senators working on?

answer: They are working on a health care bill to replace the ACA.

question: What reason does Toomey give for lagging on the bill?

answer: He states that he, and his colleagues, didn't expect Trump to win, so they didn't expect they'd be in this situation needing to come up with a solution.

question: What did the proposed health care bill from Senate Republicans offer?

answer: The bill will gut Medicaid and result in 22 million more uninsured people over the next 10 years.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: Sen. Pat Toomey explains why congressional Republicans haven't been able to pass health care reform. He states that he, and his colleagues, didn't expect Trump to win, so they didn't expect they'd be in this situation needing to come up with a solution.


text:
NIK KOZUB is a Canadian musician. Formerly a bass guitarist for the band Veal,[1] he is now associated with the electronic music group Shout Out Out Out Out.[2]

Kozub also writes and records his own solo electronic music and remixes material for other artists under the name THE PARONOMASIAC, DJs under the name NIK 7, and is a recording engineer and producer who has worked on material for a variety of artists including Cadence Weapon,[3] Humans,[4] and The Wet Secrets.[5]

Nik is the co-founder, along with Shout Out Out Out Out member Jason Troock, of Edmonton-based record label Normals Welcome Records, established in 2005.[6]

He is the son of Wilfred Kozub, a rock musician in Edmonton.[7]

[1] “No keeping track”. _FFWD_, January 6, 2005.

[2] “Odd Men Out Out Out Out”. _See_, February 26, 2009.

[3] [http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070329/SOOOO_junos_070329/20070329?s_name=junos2007&no_ads= Shout Out Out Out Out are always having fun fun fun fun!"]. CTV News, March 29, 2007.

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7] “Tearing up the dance floor”. _Metro_, March 6, 2009.

title: Nik Kozub

question: What genre of music does Nik Kozub play?

answer: He makes electronic music with the group Shout Out Out Out Out, although it is not stated what genre of music Veal made.

question: List two different music groups Nik Kozub has been a member of.

answer: Veal and Shout Out Out Out Out

question: Describe Nik Kozub's solo music ventures.

answer: He releases his own electronic music and remixes under the name The Paranomasiac. He also DJs under the name Nik 7.

question: What is Normals Welcome Records?

answer: A record label based in Edmonton that was founded in 2005 by Nik and Shout Out Out Out Out member Jason Troock.

question: Write a ~4 sentence summary.

answer: Nik Kozub is a Canadian musician. He is a former member of Veal and is currently associated with the electronic group Shout Out Out Out Out. He also released his own electronic music and remixes under the name The Paranomasiac. He is a cofounder of the Edmonton-based label Normals Welcome Records.


text:
[AFI ALUMNI]
AFI ALUMNI
The AFI Backlot is a platform exclusive to the AFI community — a network designed to support alumni networking and professional development. Through the AFI Backlot, alumni have access to: Connections: Get to know other alumni or become reacquainted with old friends and kendra lust. Search for your peers by location, company, experience, etc. Join a group based on your class year or discipline, or create your own group within the AFI community.

Resources: Access aggregated resources and relevant filmmaking articles. Share useful tools with fellow alumni. Events: Be up-to-date on everything happening at AFI, and add your own events, film screenings and crowdfunding campaigns. Jobs: Access thousands of job listings, including those that arrive straight to the AFI offices and available exclusively on the Backlot. Need to hire AFI interns or alumni for a project? Upload jobs directly to the database.

Mentorships: Become a mentor to xvideo a current Fellow and help guide someone’s unique experience at AFI. Or further utilize the network to find a mentor for yourself, no matter where you are on your career path.
ALUMNI PROGRAMS Alumni of the AFI Conservatory belong to an elite and special family – they are the storytellers that entertain, educate and inspire audiences around the world.

Their talents and accomplishments are the reason the AFI Conservatory is consistently named one of the top film schools in the world. AFI invites alumni to stay connected with their artistic family and to preserve the legacy they have helped to create. AFI ALUMNI BENEFITS AFI continues to be a resource for alumni after graduation through the following benefits and privileges:

Alumni receive the AFI Alumni Connection, the official monthly AFI alumni e-newsletter, special offers, invitations to exclusive alumni events and are given opportunities to join and free sex participate in seminars and groups. Alumni receive access to the AFI Backlot, an online resource for personal and professional networking and an easy way to stay connected.
Alumni receive advance notice for tickets to screenings and galas for AFI FEST presented by Audi, as well as discounts on festival passes and packages. Alumni receive application fee waivers when submitting a film for consideration to AFI FEST and AFI DOCS. Alumni receive discounted rates for the Ted Ashley and Mark Goodson Screening Rooms on the AFI Campus. Alumni are extended borrowing privileges from the Louis B. Mayer Library. Be sure we have your current contact information on file to receive these benefits, updates and invitations. For more information

*Alumni benefits are subject to change without advance notice.

ALUMNI NETWORK
In addition to official AFI events, there are other ways to connect with fellow alumni to network, find and post jobs, reconnect and meet friends:

The AFI Backlot is an online platform exclusive to the AFI community. Sign up at AFI.com/Backlot and put your AFI network to work for you!
Be a part of the AFI Alumni Facebook community at facebook.com/AFIalumni Update your contact information and set your sharing preferences through the AFI Alumni Directory at support.AFI.com/AlumniDirectory. Join or form a Writers Group at bit.ly/AFIWritersGroups. AFI Alumni Google Group is an email listserve moderated by alumni. To join, contact  Reel Grit is a weekly genre movie screening on the AFI Campus. Hosted on Sunday nights, the event is open to alumni and special guests. To be added to the mailing list, contactLEND A HELPING HAND Do you want a deeper connection to AFI and have some time and resources to commit? Consider involvement in the following programs:

ALUMNI MENTOR PROGRAM: CONNECT
Created by alumni, the program matches Fellows with alumni to gain the benefit of advice — professional and personal — as they look toward graduation and beyond. If you are interested in becoming a mentor or receiving information regarding the Alumni Mentor Program, please contact alumni@AFI.com.

INTERNSHIPS: PROMOTE
AFI Conservatory Fellows look for internships during fall, spring and summer terms. As alumni, you know first-hand the drive and work ethic of AFI Fellows. If you or someone in your company or production office can use the creative support of talented Fellows, please contact alumni@AFI.com with your internship opportunities.

PROGRAM INITIATIVES: VOLUNTEER
Alumni volunteers serve as leaders in effecting the continued growth and development of AFI programs and initiatives. Volunteer opportunities include participation in applicant outreach and recruitment, script reading and evaluation, workshops, regional networks, committees and special campaigns.

SUPPORT THE ALUMNI FUND: GIVE BACK
A nonprofit organization, AFI relies on financial contributions from its alumni to support the ongoing work of the Conservatory. Gifts to the Alumni Fund provide financial aid, support faculty positions, renovate facilities and upgrade equipment. All gifts count toward participation, an important expression of alumni commitment to today’s Fellows.

[ALUMNI EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS]
ALUMNI EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
The Franklin J. Schaffner Alumni Medal is awarded annually to an alumnus of either the AFI Conservatory or the AFI Conservatory Directing Workshop for Women, who best embodies the qualities of the late director: talent, taste, dedication and commitment to quality filmmaking. Established by Schaffner’s widow, Jean, in 1991, the Alumni Medal celebrates the recipient’s extraordinary creative porno talents and artistic achievements.

Official transcripts and verifications are provided by the Registrar’s Office, and are released only on written authorization by the alumnus/a whose record is requested. There is no charge for transcripts or verifications. The American Film Institute reserves the right to deny official transcript and verification services for indebtedness to the Institute. Transcripts and verifications are processed within five working days after they are requested.

To receive a copy of a transcript or to obtain a letter of graduation verification, please mail, fax, e-mail or bring in a signed written request to the xnxx Registrar’s Office (WB 214). MARCH 14 | AFI WRITERS’ ROOM READY RECEPTION You are invited to join us in celebration of the four AFI Class of 2015 Screenwriters chosen for Writers’ Room Ready, a new program that pairs select writers from the year’s graduating Screenwriting class with accomplished AFI alumni mentors working in the industry. The AFI Class of 2015 recipients and their mentors are: Brennan Peters and Raelle Tucker (AFI DWW, Class of 2003), Tegan Shohet and Mikkel Bondesen (AFI Class of 1998), Andy Siara and Alex Herschlag (AFI TVW, Class of 1989), and Christina Strain and Norberto Barba (AFI Class of 1990).

MARCH 15 | AFI CONSERVATORY THESIS SHOWCASE
You are invited to the AFI Conservatory Thesis Showcase, where we will present a compilation reel of all thesis films by the Class of 2015 along with xhamster screenings of three jury-selected films. A reception with the entire class of thesis filmmakers will follow immediately after. (more…)

[ALUMNI PROGRAMS]
ALUMNI PROGRAMS
 Alumni of the AFI Conservatory belong to an elite and special family – they are the storytellers that entertain, educate and inspire audiences around the world. Their talents and accomplishments are the reason the AFI Conservatory is consistently named one of the top film schools in the world.

AFI invites alumni to stay connected with their artistic family and to preserve the legacy they have helped to create. AFI ALUMNI BENEFITS

AFI continues to be a resource for alumni after graduation through the following benefits and privileges: Alumni receive the AFI Alumni Connection, the official monthly AFI alumni e-newsletter, special offers, invitations to exclusive alumni events and are given opportunities to join and participate in seminars and groups.

Alumni receive access to the AFI Backlot, an online resource for personal and professional networking and an easy way to stay connected.
Alumni receive advance notice for tickets to screenings and galas for AFI FEST presented by Audi, as well as discounts on festival passes and packages. Alumni receive application fee waivers when submitting a film for consideration to AFI FEST and AFI DOCS. Alumni receive discounted rates for the Ted Ashley and Mark Goodson Screening Rooms on the AFI Campus. Alumni are extended borrowing privileges from the Louis B. Mayer Library. Be sure we have your current contact information on file to receive these benefits, updates and invitations. For more information, *Alumni benefits are subject to change without advance notice.

ALUMNI NETWORK
In addition to official AFI events, there are other ways to connect with fellow alumni to network, find and post jobs, reconnect and meet friends:

The AFI Backlot is an online platform exclusive to the AFI community. Sign up at AFI.com/Backlot and put your AFI network to work for you!
Be a part of the AFI Alumni Facebook community at facebook.com/AFIalumni Update your contact information and set your sharing preferences through the AFI Alumni Directory at support.AFI.com/AlumniDirectory. Join or form a Writers Group at bit.ly/AFIWritersGroups. AFI Alumni Google Group is an email listserve moderated by alumni. To join, contact  Reel Grit is a weekly genre movie screening on the AFI Campus. Hosted on Sunday nights, the event is open to alumni and special guests. To be added to the mailing list, contact

LEND A HELPING HAND
Do you want a deeper connection to AFI and have some time and resources to commit? Consider involvement in the following programs:

ALUMNI MENTOR PROGRAM: CONNECT
Created by alumni, the program matches Fellows with alumni to gain the benefit of advice — professional and personal — as they look toward graduation and beyond. If you are interested in becoming a mentor or receiving information regarding the Alumni Mentor Program, please contact

INTERNSHIPS: PROMOTE
AFI Conservatory Fellows look for internships during fall, spring and summer terms. As alumni, you know first-hand the drive and work ethic of AFI Fellows. If you or someone in your company or production office can use the creative support of talented Fellows, please contact with your internship opportunities.

PROGRAM INITIATIVES: VOLUNTEER
Alumni volunteers serve as leaders in effecting the continued growth and development of AFI programs and initiatives. Volunteer opportunities include participation in applicant outreach and recruitment, script reading and evaluation, workshops, regional networks, committees and special campaigns.

SUPPORT THE ALUMNI FUND: GIVE BACK
A nonprofit organization, AFI relies on financial contributions from its alumni to support the ongoing work of the Conservatory. Gifts to the Alumni Fund provide financial aid, support faculty positions, renovate facilities and upgrade equipment. All gifts count toward participation, an important expression of alumni commitment to today’s Fellows. Educating Tomorrow’s Storytellers…Today

The filmmakers at the world-renowned AFI Conservatory learn by doing. Here, tomorrow’s storytellers are placed in a hands-on, production-based environment and are trained by a group of dedicated working professionals from the film and television communities.

Located in the heart of the entertainment community in Hollywood, the AFI Conservatory places a strong emphasis on narrative visual storytelling and personal expression. This film program instills the tools that help filmmakers practice their craft and become better storytellers. Classes are broken up into teams that mirror a real production environment. Those teams collaborate on and produce more films than any other graduate-level film school. Upon graduation, about 81% of our graduates report that they are working. The AFI Conservatory Directing Workshop for Women (DWW) is a hands-on training program committed to increasing the number of women working professionally in screen directing.

DWW offers participants intensive training in narrative filmmaking in an innovative workshop. Each participant is required to complete a short film or series by the end of the program. DWW is open to women with three years or more of professional experience in the arts. The program is tuition-free though participants are responsible for raising the funds for their projects. Visit the Program section for details. You can play your part in American film and support this tuition-free program with a donation here.

question: What is the AFI Backlot?

answer: The AFI Backlot is a platform exclusive to the AFI community that features a network designed to support alumni networking and professional development.

question: What do AFI alumni gain access to via the AFI Backlot?

answer: AFI alumni have access to Connections, Resources, Events, Jobs, and Mentorships.

question: Which car company is presenting the AFI FEST?

answer: Audi

question: How are members of the AFI Conservatory described in the press release?

answer: The AFI Conservatory belongs to an elite and special family who are the storytellers that entertain, educate, and inspire audiences around the world.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: The AFI Backlot is an exclusive platform allowing AIF alumni to network with peers and mentors to further their professional development. The platform grants alumni access to AFI aggregated resources, relevant filmmaking articles, job listings, and an up-to-date schedule of events happening at AFI including film screenings and crowdfunding campaigns.


text:
Imagine being legally parked at a parking meter in Grand Rapids only to return to your vehicle and discover you've been issued a parking ticket.

It's happening to users of the new Motu parking app in Grand Rapids.

I have first-hand experience.

On Tuesday, August 7, I was parked on East Park Place next to Veteran's Memorial Park in downtown Grand Rapids. I activated Meter 2215 using Grand Rapids' new Motu app at 2:49 p.m. About 15 minutes later, I returned to my vehicle to find a lovely, fluorescent City of Grand Rapids parking violations envelope on my windshield holding a parking citation. It would cost $20.00, $40.00 if not paid within 10 days.

The ticket was issued at 2:56 p.m. for a violation at Meter 2215. I checked my Motu app. Yes, it was still going and I was paying for the meter.

Could it be I was too far from the curb? Too far from the parking meter?

No and no.

I did an exceptional job of parking this day, but I had no time to admire my work. Instead, I quickly looked around trying to find whoever was inspecting meters and writing tickets. I was looking someone with an evil laugh who might be slowly tapping their fingers together while displaying a sinister look. Someone who loves taking money. A real-life Montgomery Burns. But he or she was nowhere to be found.

Next, I went online to figure out how to fight the ticket. There's a form you need to fill out, but once you start the process of clicking through menusthere's a number to call if your dispute is due to a mobile app. That's the first clue that maybe this isn't an isolated incident.

I called the City of Grand Rapids Parking Services as directed. I quickly got through. Once I mentioned Motu they knew exactly what was going on before I could even finish my explanation.

Grand Rapids Parking Services explained to me that there is a delay between the time you start the Motu app on your phone and the time the meter actually becomes activated. They have informed Motu developers of the issue, but have not heard back on when to expect the problem to be solved.

I reached out to the Motu developers' marketing and communications team on Wednesday morning and received the following response the next morning:

  It is important that we remedy this matter quickly and efficiently with the City of Grand Rapids in the best interest of the community. We are actively working to resolve this issue and expect it to be resolved by the end of this week. In addition to resolving this matter, we have improved the Motu app by allowing users to pay in one-minute increments, utilize the stop a parking session feature and we provide a 10-minute expiration notification.

The City of Grand Rapids' hands may be tied to an extent, but it's disappointing that they would let a known issue continue without notifying those who use the service.

The good news is that if you get a ticket at an active meter it is easy to get the ticket cancelled, but it's a problem people parking in Grand Rapids shouldn't have to deal with in the first place.

_UPDATE: Motu developers told us on Friday afternoon, August 10, that the updating issue has been fixed. _

question: Why did the author receive a parking violation ticket?

answer: Because a bug in the Motu app causes it to start the parking meter too late.

question: How did the author resolve the wrongful ticket?

answer: By contacting the City of Grand Rapids Parking Services, who canceled the ticket.

question: Why does the City of Grand Rapids issue parking violations for Motu users despite a known bug?

answer: No reason is given in the article.

question: How did the developers of the Motu app resolve the issue?

answer: They fixed the bug within the week and made sure the new version allows users to pay in one-minute increments.

question: Write a ~4 sentence summary.

answer: The author receives a wrongful parking violation ticket after using the Motu app to activate a parking meter. Not finding anyone inspecting the meters, the author contacts the City of Grand Rapids Parking Services, who immediately understand the issue once the author mentions Motu. A bug in the app causes the meters to be activated late. He contacts the developers, who say they will fix the issue within the week, and they do.


text:
ANTOINE CHARLES CAZENOVE (8 April 1775 – 16 October 1852) (born ANTOINE CHARLES DE CAZENOVE) was a Swiss-American businessman and diplomat.

Biography

Antoine Charles Cazenove was born on 8 April 1775 to Paul Cazenove and Jeanne-Elisabeth Martin. His ancestry traced to a Huguenot family of Nîmes, France which upon the declaration of the Edict of Nantes was forced to flee to Geneva, Switzerland. Cazenove attended military school in Colmar but, unsatisfied with soldier livelihood, convinced his father to let him drop out one year before completing his education and join banking relatives in London (his classmates who graduated later served as Louis XVI's guards during the 10 August Revolution in France). After three years of work he returned to Geneva to visit his parents. However, conflict spilled over from the French Revolution the city was briefly seized by Jacobins. Cazenove, his father, and his older brother were imprisoned with other local aristocrats in a granary. The brothers were brought to trial but were acquitted of any wrongdoing and released.

Following the release of his father, Cazenove and his family traveled through Germany to Hamburg, where they took a ship to Britain, and then to Philadelphia, the United States, arriving in November 1794. Cazenove's family later went back to France. He married a woman he met in Philadelphia, Ann Hogan, and eventually had two sons and a daughter with her in America. Originally planning to return to Geneva, Cazenove arranged for all of his children to have citizenship of the city. He partnered with Albert Gallatin in establishing a glassworks plant in Uniontown, Pennsylvania (the first in the United States) and later erected several mills west of the Allegheny Mountains. John Jacob Astor offered him a job assisting in his burgeoning fur trade business, but he declined.

In 1799 Cazenove moved to Alexandria, Virginia. The following year he was hired as an agent by the E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company and purchased several warehouses in the area on its behalf. He later founded A.C. Cazenove & Company and served as director of the Bank of Alexandria. By 1822, Cazenove had established himself as a successful wine and tobacco merchant in the city. In July, he was appointed by the Swiss Federal Diet to be one of the two first Swiss consuls in the United States. He performed his consular duties alongside his regular business activities in an honorary capacity until 1852, with his later service containing more formal diplomatic functions. He also performed diplomatic duties for some of the smaller states of the German Confederation, such as the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg.

Citations

title: Antoine Charles Cazenove

question: When was Cazenove born?

answer: April 8, 1775

question: When did Cazenove die?

answer: October 16, 1852

question: Where did Cazenove attend military school?

answer: Colmar

question: Where did Cazenove's family flee after the declaration of the Edict of Nantes?

answer: Geneva, Switzerland

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: Antoine Charles Cazenove was a Swiss-American businessman and diplomat. He was born in 1775, moved to the US, and he died in 1852.


text:
Hey everybody! I wrote this piece for a final project where I am supposed to present my work to people and have it critiqued. I thought, what better place to do that than r/shortstories. This is the first time posting and also the first creative writing class that i've taken so any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated as I am sure there are a bunch of things that I could change. Thanks in advance!

It was a cold winter night. The snow had just started to fall, and nights were getting longer and longer. It was only 4:30 p.m. when the sun decided to set. Of course, night time was the only thing that I looked forward to throughout the day. I look forward to it because it is when HE decides to come out. By “HE” I mean the man that had been murdering unsuspecting people every day. Why do I look forward to this man coming out and brutally murdering innocent people you ask? Because I follow him. That’s right, I know who he is and where he lives. Pretty stereotypical serial killer if you ask me, I’m surprised they haven’t caught him yet. I follow him every night, and watch him seek out his victim. I have been doing it for so long now that I am actually starting to feel some kind of weird connection to the guy. It’s like I can read his mind and tell ahead of time who he is going to kill tonight. By now you’re probably wondering why I don’t just turn him in. Well, around when all this started I had hit a low point in my life. I was working a dead-end job, I had no friends, and my parents didn’t even care about me. They were too busy showering my old brother with praise while I struggled to make ends meet. After months of waking up, going to work, coming home, eating dinner alone and then getting ready to do it all over again, I finally decided that I had had enough. I was going to end it. Kill myself, that is. What’s the point? I’m living this miserable life that’s going nowhere. If I don’t end it now then what? Go through this for the next 50-60 years of my life? Fuck that. Why waste time, I figured I’d just get it over with. I had it all planned out. I was going to make a big spectacle of myself. My plan was to head over to the nearby park and hang myself from one of the trees. Then leave a suicide note, of course, because how could I forget that? What would a suicide even be without a suicide note? So I brought all my “supplies” to the park and prepared to do the deed. I had climbed a nice tall tree in the center of the park to make sure that I would not go unnoticed. As I sat atop the tree branch, trying to tie the god damn noose correctly, I heard a scream. I stopped what I was doing and scanned the park for the source. It was dark out and the lights around the park were not doing a very good job, but as I stared out into the distance I noticed two figures that looked to be struggling with one another. Great…someone’s getting murdered on the night that I’m going to kill myself. Who the hell is going to care about me when this shit is all over the news? Well not on my watch. I am not going to sit by and let these two people steal my spotlight. I climbed down from the tree and ran over two the two people with the intention of stopping the murder. As I got closer the screens became muffled. I quickened my pace but was apparently not quick enough. As I came upon where the figures were I heard only silence. I remained out of sight from the person that was standing up; I was close enough now that I could make out every little detail of him. I looked down and saw the woman’s neck had been sliced open. God dammit…well I can’t kill myself now! Frustrated I began to hatch a new plan. This woman’s murder is going to be all over the news, and I have seen the killer! I bet I could give them a pretty accurate description that would lead to his arrest. But that still wouldn’t solve my problems. I needed to do something better than that. I needed to stop this man myself and be seen as a hero. Yeah, then my parents would talk about me instead of my brother and I would probably be able to find a better job as well. That night, I followed that man home, and have been following him ever since, learning everything about him, and perfecting how I was going to take him out.

title: Short Story for a Final Project: Suicide Spotlight

question: What does the story say about why the narrator was so desperate for attention?

answer: The narrator had lived a drab life. He hated his job, he didn't have any friends, and to make matters worse, his parents showered his brother with more attention and affection; they scarcely paid him any attention. As a result, he was moved to the point of suicide and decided that would be the best way to end his misery. Because the narrator wanted attention, he decided to become the town's hero by presenting a killer to the police after witnessing a murder.

question: What does the story say about what led the narrator to start stalking the murderer?

answer: The narrator was tired of his parents giving his brother too much attention. He was barely even noticed by anyone at his job, neither did he have any friends. His life was uneventful, and he wanted a change. However, on the fateful day he planned to end his life, he witnessed a murder in a not too distant location from where he was. Although he failed to prevent the murder from happening, he saw the killer. The narrator was then motivated to learn about the killer's movements, his M.O, and even where he lived for when he decides to turn him in to the police and be labeled a hero.

question: What does the story say about what made the narrator's brother more special than him?


text:
Foxconn Technology chairman Terry Gou on Friday reiterated a pledge that the world’s biggest assembler of iPhones has made many times: that in a matter of years, human workers will be in a minority at the company.

Gou was speaking in Taiwan at the annual general meeting of the Hon Hai Precision Industry, as Foxconn is formally known. One of the world’s largest employers, Foxconn has spoken ambitiously about automation for years—but it appears to be going more slowly than the group would like.

In 2011, Foxconn said it planned to produce 1 million robots (link in Chinese) within three years to automate its manufacturing, according to Reuters. At the time the company employed an estimated 1 million workers in mainland China, and had been under fire after reports of numbers of worker suicides (link in Chinese) at its plants.

At the end of 2012, the company had 30,000 robots, far below the 300,000 bots it would need to build per year to meet its goal. In 2013, the company admitted the automation plans were proving difficult (link in Chinese). The robotic arms replacing human workers at Foxconn’s factories are known as “Foxbots.”

In 2015, Gou said at that year’s general meeting Foxconn would automate 30% of its facilities by 2020. The following year it said it had cut 60,000 jobs at one factory through automation.

It’s unclear exactly how many workers or robots it currently has—or how many jobs it has replaced with them. The company wasn’t immediately available to respond to Quartz’s queries.

It’s probably just as well the automation plans are going slower than hoped for. A company report listed the number of employees as of December 2016 at 837,000 (pdf, p. 3). Assuming 80% of those jobs are replaced, it would mean upwards of 500,000 people losing their jobs.

Still there are some signs that the market, at least, is confident of the company’s automation abilities. Earlier this month Foxconn Industrial Internet, a subsidiary that makes cloud services equipment and industrial robots used for electronics assembly, had an extremely successful listing on Shanghai’s stock exchange. In the first day of trading, it reached a market capitalization of $61 billion, making it the highest-valued tech company to be listed on the mainland.

question: What does Foxconn Technology do?

answer: Foxconn is the world's biggest assembler of iPhones.

question: Why did Foxconn want to produce the robots?

answer: To automate its manufacturing process.

question: Why was the company not able to reach its manufacturing goal?

answer: This information can't be found.

question: How many robots are currently working in the process?

answer: This information can't be found.

question: Write a ~5 sentence summary.

answer:
Terry Gou, Chairman of Foxconn Technology, reiterated his pledge of making human workers a minority in the company.

In 2011, the company decided to manufacture 1 million robots in three years to automate its manufacturing. Five years later the company said they had cut 60,000 jobs at one factory through automation.

The automation plans are going slower than hoped. But the market seems confident of the company's automation abilities.


text:
It wasn't beautiful. It was impressive, efficient and immense. But not beautiful. I looked out at the array of spaceships, moving in predetermined flight plans, weaving in and out of the buildings. I saw the careful positioning on the buildings to maximize the view and spoil others. Self lit brightly coloured advertisements littered the skies, diving in front of ships to garner any attention. The whole city was astronomical in size and miniscule in precision, an organism which has spread with cancerous intentions.
I have been unable to sleep recently. I stay up most nights watching the city. It is in a constant state of flux, but somehow staying the exact same.
I've stopped watching the news, I just take the averages now. A princess has died somewhere in Scandinavia or one has died, it’s almost the same story with no consequences either way. Religion has become stagnant, absolute tolerance has been the downfall of extremism and almost all protests are taken into account and given equal weight. All bullshit of course, the machines are running the show now. The nun can pray all she likes for the food she receives but it was grown in a lab beneath the city months ago as a result of progress, not Jesus.

There are things you can take to sleep now but I’ve been avoiding them thus far. Its not that I don't trust them, I do, its that it breeds complacency. That’s the future for humans, being complacent. My work is supervision of robots as is everyone’s. My salary is immaterial. All apartments are government owned as with any merchandise. Work now is just vanity, nothing is left to chance and any decisions are based on the past. Everything is tolerated but at the same time nothing is. There are thousands of groups you can join and hundreds of forums (government run) where you can post any opinion you want. But where is the true value of free speech when there is no contention? The joy of sleep comes from the reality of tiredness. Which is where I am. The reality. I want to die, but there is a 89% chance i'll be caught before I can commit it. Then you get put on suicide watch and its almost impossible to die if they are watching you. Its not recognised to have privacy complaints against machines. They are contextually aware but not sentient and as such, privacy and shame are entirely foriegn concepts to them. They have no sense of self and are neither happy nor sad. They don't lust, covet or panic either. Cold, silver and uninteresting.
My despondency has risen my heart rate and face recognition has noted my demeanour, my bracelet alerts me to this by briefly flashing a cool blue. Two flashes in quick succession and I am automatically brought in for evaluation. I have to remain calm. It is entirely up to you if you go in, however you won't be allowed into any contact with others unless you are deemed mentally fit. It’s a security system which has ensured no one has died from a killing or suicide since the system has been in place. Natural deaths still occur of course, but they keep you alive for so long it is often indistinguishable from life when you finally die.
The bracelet flashes again. I don't have much time.
I slowly walk over to the kitchen, and take a knife from the drawer. Automatic prompts are asking me if I want food. I ignore them and plunge the knife into my leg, slicing the femoral artery and creating an injury that will cause swift death. I immediately collapse and blood pumps freely through the gash, covering the pristine surfaces in wet, warm blood. Alarms are squealing overhead, but I am captivated by the disorder. The machines seem at the loss, they try vainly to clean, help or make noise but it’s too late. They are covered in my blood and seem to take on a trait which is distinctly human, panic. For all the pain and loss I am glad this is how I will die.
The gesture is foolish, unplanned and insignificant. But dying on my terms seems beautiful.

title: Very short story(700) (sci-fi ish), would love any feedback!

question: Why does the narrator want to die?

answer: Because he or she does not derive any meaning from a world run by machines. There seems to be nothing for him or her to live for.

question: Why did the machines establish a world where there is no contention; where most people agree with one another?

answer: Probably to stamp out dissension and riots.


text:
The CALANSHIO SAND SEA (SARĪR KALANSHIYŪ AR RAMLĪ AL KABĪR[1]) is a sand desert region located in the Libyan Desert, of the Kufra District in Cyrenaica, eastern Libya. It has a surface of approximately 62,000 km².[2][3] The erg extends from Jaghbub and Jalo in the north to Kufra in the south, a distance of 500km.

The erg lies parallel to the Egyptian Sand Sea and is contiguous with it at their northern ends. They contain dunes up to 110m in height: these lie in a roughly north-south direction and were created by the wind.

The Calanshio Sand Sea is the site of the missing World War II B-24 Liberator _Lady Be Good_. The wreck was discovered north of Kufra 15 years after it was reported missing in 1943. The crew bailed out believing they were over the sea, when their plane ran out of fuel, and they became lost. When they landed in the Libyan Desert they could feel a northwesterly breeze. Thinking they were near the Mediterranean, they headed into the wind hoping it would lead them to safety. However, they were more than inland from the Mediterranean, and slowly died from dehydration after covering with minimal water in a place so dry even the desert Bedouins refuse to enter.

[1] , National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)

[2] Desert Geomorphology, p. 403

[3] BoksburgHistorical.com: _African Relics_ (Calanshio Sand Sea and “Lady Be Good”)

title: Calanshio Sand Sea

question: How did the dunes in the Calanshio Sand Sea reach 110m in height?

answer: The dunes reached that height due to the consistent winds blowing in a north-south direction.

question: What is The Calanshio Sand Sea known for?

answer: It is known for being the site of the missing World War II B-24 Liberator "Lady Be Good", which was located 15 years after it was reported missing in 1943.

question: Why did the downed crew of "Lady Be Good" head further into the desert instead of trying to reach the coast?

answer: The crew felt a northwesterly breeze and thought they were near the Mediterranean, so they headed into the wind hoping it would lead them to safety.


text:
_ANACITHARA MINUTISTRIATA_ is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Horaiclavidae.[1]

Description

The length of the ovate, dirty white, semitransparent shell attains 10.5 mm, its diameter 3½ mm. It contains 7½ whorls. The aperture is ovate. The outer lip is thickened close to the lowest rib and is hardly sinuate..The columella has a slight callus. The wide siphonal canal is very short.[2]

Distribution

[1] WoRMS (2015). Anacithara minutistriata (E. A. Smith, 1882). In: MolluscaBase (2015). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=432953 on 2016-12-21

[2] Smith, E.A. (1882) Diagnoses of new species of Pleurotomidae in the British Museum. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, series 5, 10, 206–218

title: Anacithara minutistriata

question: What is Anacithata Minutistriata?

answer: A species of sea snail in the family Horaiclavidae.

question: Where can the Anacithata Minutistriata be found?

answer: That information can't be found.

question: What does the Anacithata Minutistriata eat?

answer: That information can't be found.

question: Describe the physical appearance of the Anacithata Minutistriata.

answer: It has an ovate, dirty white, semitransparent shell with seven and a half whorls. The outer lip is thickened close to the lowest rib and is hardly sinuate. The columella has a slight callus. The wide siphonal canal is very short

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: This article is about the Anacithata Minutistriata, a species of sea snail. The Anacithata Minutistriata has an ovate, dirty white, semitransparent shell with seven and a half whorls. It is a member of the family Horaiclavidae.


text:
Basehunters Chasing will be out tonight and tomorrow morning live streaming the nor’easter in Massachusetts. Although the storm does not look to set any records, it will still be significant across portions of eastern and southeastern MA. A band of 8-12in of snow appears likely to set up along a narrow corridor between the Cape Cod Canal and Burlington, MA. If I had to refine this further, I would go with model consensus and would bet on this band setting up southeast of a line from Quincy, MA to PVD. Though run-to-run trends have been slowly shifting this heavier band northwestward. Therefore can’t rule out a very messy morning commute for Boston.

Timing:

The heaviest snowfall rates will occur between 5am and 8am EDT on Mon/21st. There is even the potential for an isolated instance of thundersnow and/or thundersleet during this period, as shown by the Lightning Threat 2 parameter on the NSSL WRF image below. Most likely significant travel impacts will occur on I-95 between PVD and MA-128, as well as much of MA-24 and MA-3.

[NSSL-WRF image]

Lightning potential increases with proximity to the rain/snow line, and appears to be primairly driven by slantwise convection. Can’t rule out some upright convection with elevated instability / MUCAPE AOA 100 J/kg / maximized in a narrow band of mostly sleet. The sounding below more or less depicts this potential. I’m trying to get excited about this storm, so I’d be lying if I said that there wasn’t an element of “wishcasting” going on here… but, hey, appears that there is a non-zero chance for thundersnow:

[]

The “long-range” HRRRX forecast highlights this potential:

[]

[]

[]

Snowfall Totals:

This forecast has been a headache for many a meteorologist across the northeast. The long-range models and their ensembles (GFS, GEFS, ECMWF, GEM, JMA, CFS, etc.) have shown this nor’easter for about 8 days, but moved from an inland New England track to an offshore track, then creeped northwestward to what we’re seeing now. The most frustrating thing is that the operational models sort of did this in tandem, eliminating any hope for a forecaster to try to isolate one that was more consistent. Indeed, up until 48-60 hours ago, it was only a GEFS outlier or two that showed a significant snowstorm for eastern MA and RI.

So I’ll just throw a bunch of data here to illustrate the fact that the forecast has come together significantly, but as always, many uncertainties remain.[]

GEFS plumes (above) for Boston show that the city will remain all-snow during this nor’easter. A safe forecast is 5-10in of snow for the city, with most of it falling during the early morning hours of Mon/21st. There is an outside chance that the city receives about a foot of snow.

[Capture]

SREF total snowfall plumes (above) for Boston… ignoring the outliers… show a nice cluster between 5″ and 9″ of snow. The mean is about 6″ of snow.

[]

The 20/00z 4km NAM shows the highest-impact scenario with the heaviest band setting up directly along a line from PVD to BOS, with 12″ of snow falling. Snowfall rates of 2″-3″ per hour are not out of the question in this band. All of this snow falls before 8am Monday, with most of it falling between 5am and 8am.

[]

The 20/00z GFS had the heaviest snow falling in SE MA from New Bedford to Plymouth…

[]

But the 20/06z GFS creeped NW with the band.

[]

And the 20/06z 4km NAM takes it a little easier with snowfall totals.

[Capture]

The 20/00z ECMWF confines to heavy band to Cape Cod, with the heaviest accumulations… around 8″ occurring near the Cape Cod Canal.

Subsequent model runs today will help pinpoint the exact location of the heavy snowband, especially when the HRRR comes fully into range.

[Capture]

One of my favorite tools during the 2015 snow blitz was the SSEO. Here’s probabilities for >6″ of snow falling by 8am Monday. Looks like the mesoscale models favor the heavy band setting up closer Providence and Boston.

That’s all for now.

-Isaac Pato

question: Summarize everything relating to Isaac's personal feelings.

answer: Isaac is trying to get excited about the upcoming storm, and feels there's an element of "wishcasting" to his forecast. He finds it frustrating that the operational forecast eliminated any hope for a forecaster to islate a snowstorm.

question: What does the article say about the trajectory of the storm?

answer: A band of 8-12-inches of snow will set up along a narrow corridor between the Cape Cod Canal and Burlington, MA. More specificaqlly it will set up southeast of a line from Quincy, MA to PVD. The long-range models have shown the nor'easter moving from an inland New England track to an offshore track and then creeping northwestward.

question: What does the article say about staying safe during the storm?


text:
It was the one argument I was glad we had. It wasn't the first time we pissed each off to the point we decided 'to hell with this' and walked away, but it was the most significant, meaningful, and most important thing that ever happened to us.

You told me you went to stay with your mother in Lansing. You said you needed time to think and breath and be free.

I stumbled down the hallway to our apartment. That shit-hole on Kepler down the block from the Safeway. I still had the bloody lip from where your engagement ring hit me, and though I was trying, Lord was I trying to stay vertical at that point... regardless I tipped sideways for a bit and dragged my face along the taupe colored wall leaving a watercolor paint trail behind as I shuffled one foot over cheap hotel-quality carpet after another.

I still had the black eye from where the doorknob tried to mug me when you called back down to “talk.”

It still strikes me as odd that your version of talking mostly ends in me crying with a raging headache, a few days disappearing off my calendar, and the milk in our fridge going bad.

Yeah. It was one of those fights.

You said you found someone else. The wedding was off. Again. You sold my ring to by tickets to someplace 'nice'. Again. Some stupid dirt covered island where they put umbrellas in the drinks with the same frequency frat boys put GHB. You wanted to be 'free', but other than that one time when you asked me to, I don't ever recall tying you down.

You put me in 'that' mood again. The one where I grow stones the size of Mount Rushmore, pick a fight in a dive bar, spend the night in jail, and only get to hear about it in stories from people I am embarrassed to call friends. I could make a necklace out of the fragments of my teeth scraped up in dingy dust pans around the booze halls. Oh how I lament losing you! Again. Oh, the promises I spew:

I will never let you hurt me like this. Again.
I will never hurt you like this. Again.
I will never let you leave me. Again.
I will always curse your name. Again.
I will always wish you a fiery death. Again.
I will always track down your much cuter roommate from that time you lived on Declark. Again.
I will never take you back. Again.
I will always cry myself to sleep. Again.
I will never feel feelings. Again.
I will drool as I scratch myself inappropriately in our flat. Again.
I will never go ring shopping. Again.
I will always remember your ring size. Again.
I will never buy a ring that expensive. Again.
I will always remember the criticisms about the last ring I bought you, the day after I gave it to you. All over again.
I will never love you. Again.
I will always love you. Again.

First, I forgot what day it was.
Second, I forgot what week it was.
Third, I forgot your name.
Forth, I remembered how stupid I was.
Fifth, I pleaded in the darkness of our apartment, in the direction of your side of the twin bed with the uncomfortable hospital sheets.
Seventh, I forgot how to count.
Twelfth, I remembered how. And I remembered that I loved you. Too much for it to be any good to either of us.

It was the fight to end all fights, all over again. I mean it was all over, yet again.

Oh God why was it all over again? Why me? Why now? Why not me? Why not now? Fuck you and your white robes and bullshit halos. If you want a piece of me come down out of your damn cloud castle, say fee fie foe fum, and beat me with your hand that can make mountains high and valleys low. You created the world in six days, and on the seventh you planned out how to fuck my life over and over again every chance you got. But you can fucking touch me now, can you? You are just as scared to come down to her level as I was you feckless sack of worms.

And moments away from my worst, when I could feel the blood in my mouth starting to congeal and leave that dry sponge feeling on my tongue, with that copper after-taste, she showed up at my door. She picked the pieces of glass out of my arm and feet. She mopped up all the blood, took me to the hospital and admitted me (or to me) that she was my wife-to-be all over again and that she had very important news to tell me.

Six days later I got out of the hospital.

This time, she said, was going to be different. This time. Not like last time when she said 'this time', but this time, when she said 'this time', it was going to all be different.

This was the one argument I was glad we had. Forget that one that ended in tears over that stupid fucking waffle. This was the one mistake she made that made her fallible, but oh God what am I saying. This was not a mistake. This was the single most significant part of my life. From the ashes arose a phoenix wreathed in majestic flame, that took, no. Still takes my breath away.

From this moment, born from the intense jealousy, malevolence, contempt, seething rage and passion of everything we did wrong, came something right.

This was the one argument I was glad we had.

This was how I lost my wife-to-be for a few months I don't really remember; but how I gained my daughter that I would never dream of forgetting.

Paternity test? Fuck you.

She is my daughter. She is my salvation. She is my soul. She is, no matter what happens in my life, whatever else I accomplish, what ever else I amount to, the most important thing that has ever, and will ever happen to me.

She is my daughter.

She is my Lillian.

title: Lillian Christina Harinn

question: Who is the narrator?

answer: He's a guy who had a major fight with his girlfriend or future wife.

question: Who is he talking to?

answer: He's talking to his girlfriend or future wife.

question: Where does the story take place?

answer: An apartment on Kepler down the block from the Safeway.

question: Who is the narrator's salvation?

answer: His daughter, Lillian.

question: Write a ~4 sentence summary.

answer: A man has a major argument with his girlfriend or future wife about something and his life spirals out of control, leading to jail time for fighting in dive bars. These fights have always been happening and they have always gotten back together. During one of the lowest days of his life, his girlfriend or future wife goes to their apartment and takes him to the hospital for medical attention. Here, it is revealed that she's pregnant and they have a daughter, Lillian, who the man views as his salvation.


text:
Since it was first introduced five years ago, Instagram has overtaken Twitter to become the social media’s rising star for businesses. The platforms base is growing at speed passing the 600 million follower mark in December 2016. Contrary to popular belief, Instagram can work just as well for smaller brands as it does for big brands. So how can you use this platform to your advantage as a small business?

[woman with laptop]

woman with laptop

ENGAGE AND BE ACTIVE

It is no use creating engaging visual images if no one knows you have an Instagram account. The first step to utilising Instagram is to let your customers know that you have a social presence. Put a link to your Instagram account on your website and advertise it on any other social accounts you have and include it in email signatures.

The key to a successful Instagram account is consistency. If you are going to post images, you should do so regularly; the more active the company is on the platform the more you’ll get in return. Try and post on the at the optimum times each week and stick to this routine. Tools such as Social Insights and Iconosquare both have features showing best times to post for maximum engagement and interaction, as well as a host of other analytical tools that can feed into your Instagram activities.

HAVE A TARGET AUDIENCE FOR YOUR CONTENT

Once you have an account set up, it is time to decide what type of content you are going to create to engage your audience. Know who to target with content. Start with your current customer base and from here you can define your target audience in three key demographics; age, gender and location. From this point, your business will not only be able to tailor the content to that audience, but also know the existing channels and hashtags that can be leveraged, putting the company in front of potential and existing customers.

Utilising hashtags these can widen your audience significantly. There are top hashtags that are used specifically for gaining followers on Instagram and you can use these to put your content in front of the audience open for new material.

Above all, keep it relevant and have a theme to your content related to your business. Sons of Sawdust – a woodworking business based in Athens, Ga – operate in a studio space to rework reclaimed wood to create new products. Simply by taking pictures of their work process and posting on Instagram, the company have a natural place for showcasing behind the scenes DIY and woodwork.

[sons-of-sawdust-instagram]

KEEP THE CONTENT CONSISTENT

Over time your followers will form certain expectations of the content you provide and it is advisable to be consistent in order to keep them coming back and engaging with posts. Knowing your target audience and who you want to put your brand in front of will influence the theme to focus on with content.

One simple way to build and develop a theme is to concentrate on one key colour when posting content. As you can see here, Oreo have kept consistency across their posts with a continuous colour scheme and a house style that has been applied to each post.

UTILISE EXISTING MATERIAL FROM THE COMPANY – WHAT’S YOUR USP?

In order to create an engaging Instagram account, it is essential to stand out from the crowd. So where do you start in terms of generating unique content? Your business likely offers a product, service, or experience that is sold to customers through having a unique selling point and you can use this to attract followers.

The London Helicopter has unique access to bird’s eye views of the London skyline every day. The company’s USP lies in offering an experience that people want to see something that very few people have. As a visually led platform, Instagram is the perfect place for the company to showcase these unique views of London and share them with their followers.

[the-london-heli-instagram]

SOCIAL MEDIA DOESN’T HAVE TO BE ABOUT CUSTOMER GENERATION

Social media channels are not simply a quick way to present your latest products to your customer base and boost sales, it is also a great way to excel at customer service and improve customer loyalty.

Instagram has introduced a number of features that makes it easier then ever for customers to communicate with the brands that they follow on Instagram and users can now contact a company directly from the Instagram profile page.

More customers are choosing social media for service requests. According to recent research by J.D Power, 67% of customers turn to social media for enquires and complaints. Here are a few ways brands can benefit from this:

-   TO BOOST PROFITS—Businesses that provide excellent customer service via their social media accounts will see higher profits than brands that neglect this area. Recent research by Aberdeen Group states that brands who excel at customer service benefit from an annual financial gain of 7.5 percent while brands that don’t provide good customer service only see a 2.9 percent rise.
-   BRAND ADVOCACY—A social media presence has the power to turn potential customers into shoppers and shoppers into brand advocates. Customers who have a good experience with a brand on social media are three times as likely to recommend them to a friend and word of mouth is a powerful marketing tool.
-   BUILD A POSITIVE BRAND IMAGE—Social media channels are a great opportunity to show your customer base that you care. Many brands create separate accounts that are dedicated to customer service and with 74 percent of shoppers naming social communities as their main influence when making a purchase.

Social media gives your customers a voice, though that voice won’t always be saying positive things about your brand. How you deal with negative comments on social media can put your brand in the spotlight for all the right reasons and how you acknowledge complaints quickly and efficiently can speak volumes. Responding to complaints in a timely manor can boost customer advocacy by up to 25 percent.

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_Currently working as a content and business strategist for a number of small businesses that operate on a local and national level, in the past Matt has worked with major global brands' online content & digital PR. He writes about marketing, PR, SEO, and digital strategies for business.…_ _View full profile ›_

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question: What is the objective of this blog?

answer: The writer aims to convince small business owners to make better use of Instagram for promoting their businesses. He offers advice on how to make the most of social media and he explains some of the benefits of using social media channels for the business. He also gives examples of companies making good use of Instagram.

question: How should a business owner go about deciding what content to use?

answer: Only relevant content will draw viewers to an account. The content must answer needs and the only way that you will know your target market's need is by defining the target. Start with the current customer base and define it under the key demographics age, gender and location. Armed with this information you can tailor your content to the likes of the audience.

question: What other social media platforms should the business target?

question: What advice does the writer give about publishing content?

answer: It is important to keep the content consistent, to have a theme because followers form expectations. The content must be relevant and related to your business. The best way to do this is to identify the unique selling point of your products and design your content around this.