text:
 This photo is copyright protected and may not be used in any way without proper permission.

[]

Caption

surprise guest in form of a classic B707 coming in to land a Salzburg on one of those famous 'Ski Charter' spotting Saturday in January.

Photographer

[]

-   __ Add To Album
-   __ Like (4)
-   __ Photog's Choice
-    Cross-Data
-    __ Correction

Explore Other Great Photos

-   By this Photographer
-   Of this Aircraft
-   From this Location

Photo Albums Containing This Photo

Album

Views

Likes

Photos

Updated

These are the best photos on Airliners net-great shots

This is why I love A.net!

For Basti and Alexandra, with all my love

Photo Copyright © Andreas Zeitler - Flying-Wings. All rights reserved. Airliners.net is not affiliated with any entity mentioned or pictured herein.
All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

question: Who is the surprise guest?

answer: It may be implied that the surprise guest is a B707 aircraft.

question: Where is the flight going?

answer: The flight is going to Salzburg.

question: Why was the aircraft coming to Salzburg?

answer: This information can't be found.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: A description of an aircraft coming to Salzburg.


split: train

text:
“Hey, dad.” I said slipping into the barstool next to him. I slapped him on the shoulder and cupped my hand around the beer he had ordered while waiting for me. I took a long sip.

“What's up, dude?”

'dude' it's been my dad's nickname for me for as long as I can remember.

“Not much,” I said and we settled into a chat about work and politics and news. The normal launching off point for us. Syria is screwed; people aren't smart enough to govern themselves; did you hear about this new band; my manager is an ass. It was the normal stuff we talked about. Everything external, everything observational and opinionated. We never really talked much about how we were feeling. Rarely was a word spoken about aspirations or desires. We talked about the absolute instead.

The conversation started to petter off after we covered all of the major news points and new revelations that have happened since the last time we did this. We sat in silence for a little bit, but it was a comfortable silence. One that felt more like being surrounded by complete, utter stillness not some vacuous empty; one that doesn't need or even want words; a clarifying moment of simply being there; not posturing or posing for the other person, but simply settling into a comforting complete sense of being.

My mind started to wander as we sat there. Nowhere far away. My mind simply meandered around the edges of the conversation we just had and studied the connections there between us and my father. Suddenly I was struck with a memory. One from a long time ago when I was probably 10 or so. It was a memory I've had a million times before, one of those floating fragments of life that remind us we were alive before yesterday. I realized it was a memory that I had been having more and in in recent weeks.

“Hey, dad?” I said uncomfortably pushing my glass onto it's edge. Just to the point where the beer threaten to dribble out onto the bar top, but not quite.

“What's up, dude?”

“Do you remember when I was a kid and you bought me a bow and arrow? You know, that one from the indian reservation or where ever it was we always went on school trips?”

He laughed a little, lost in fog. “Of course. You were so excited for that thing. You had me tape a target onto a cardboard box and set it up in the backyard as soon as we got home. You wouldn't take no for an answer. I couldn't stop you even though the sun was about to go down and you weren't going to be able to see shit.”

We both smiled a little; realizing in our own ways just how long we've been friends and reveling in that wonderful realization that between the both of us, by combining our two memories, we were forming a sort of tangible three-dimensional view of that old reverberating thought. It was like that chilly night was happening again. I could smell the honey suckle that grew across the edge of the yard and the chemical smell of chlorine drifting on the breeze from our neighbor Joy's pool.

“Do you remember what happened after you set it up?” I broke eye contact with him and broke our parallax recreation of the far off evening. For some reason I was anxious about what he might say. Or, maybe not anxious, but scared.

He searched through the drawers of his memory for a moment. His eyes flicked upward as he flipped through the card catalogue filled with millions of shards of shared life that we had in the backyard, but, finally conceding, “no,” he said.

“It's weird. I don't know why, but I do. In fact it's been on my mind a lot lately and I can't figure it out.

“You set up the target for me in the back of the house, near that old tan and orange rusty swing-set. You got the box positioned right between the two swings on the ground. You walked up to me, reminded me to be safe and went straight in the house.

“I took a few shots at the target. The arrows whizzed by the box not leaving a mark. I looked around at the darkness that started across the lawn.

The light was turning all purple and orange. That old tree I used to climb, I think it was a japanese maple. You know, the one with the red leaves. They sparkled so bright that time of night. But by this point that wonderous light was starting to fade into a relaxed deep purple. I looked around, but I wasn't watching the sunset, I was looking for you. It had been a few minutes since you went inside. I figured you'd come right back out, but you didn't. You just sat down and had a beer. You sat down with mom, and maybe one of her friends, at the kitchen table and had a beer. I think it was a beer. And even though that is such an inconsequential decision for some reason, me, as a child, was heartbroken by it.

'I walked over to the box and plunged the arrow right into the bullseye. I picked up the box. I walked over to the house. I swung open the kitchen door and I said 'Look! I got a bullseye.'

I thought this would get you out of the house, get you to come outside, convince you to come play with me but it didn't. You congratulated me, patted my head. All the things that can reasonably be expected from a dad. Maybe you made a joke about me being the next Robin hood. Mom and her friend hemmed and hawed. But it wasn't enough.

'I think, after that, I broke down and cried. It all gets fuzzy. All I remember clearly after that is the disappointment, but I think I cried. I don't know if you saw it. I don't even know if it happened. Maybe that's just what I remember now.”

I looked at my dad. He looked deep in thought, like he didn't know what to say. I kept going.

“And what I just realized, right now while I was telling this story, is why i've been thinking about that memory so much lately. That's still what i'm still doing every day. But now it's not a box in the backyard I'm using, it's my whole life. I do it with my career and with my hobbies. I do it with my girlfriends and with my tone of voice. I think it's why I work so hard. I think it's why I've been so successful. And do you know what the bitch of it is? I still don't know if that's a good thing or not.”

title: Bullseye

question: What does the title, "Bullseye" refer to?

answer: The Bullseye represents the adult son trying to get his dad's approval.

question: Who are the main characters of the story?

answer: A father and his grown son.

question: How do the main characters feel about each other?

answer: They seem to have a good relationship, although they don't often talk about their feelings, aspirations, or desires. The son seeks his dad's approval.

question: Does conflict arise in the story? Is it resolved?

answer: The conflict of the story is the grown son's need for his dad to vocalize his approval of his son.

question: Write a ~7 sentence summary.

answer: A grown son and his father meet at a bar for a drink. They have a good relationship, although they don't often talk about their feelings, aspirations, or desires. The son brings up a memory that's been nagging him for some time. The memory is of a time when his dad bought him a bow and arrow for him, set up the target, and then didn't stay to watch. The boy angrily inserted the arrow into the bullseye and then brought it to the dad to show him, thinking it would get his dad to come out and join him. It didn't and he was heartbroken. The son realizes he's still trying to get his dad's approval.


text:
She is beautiful.  She is innocent.  She is amazing.
She is a girl whose beauty I cannot describe.  Her golden hair flows over her shoulders with absolute perfection.  Her eyes can light up the darkest of night.  all I want is for her to be in my arms.  One thing is stopping me: fear. Fear of rejection.  If you're ever reading this, just take the signs in.  This isn't want.  It's need.
I need her.

title: her

question: - Who is she?

answer: - Information cannot be found.

question: - What is her relationship with the narrator?

answer: - Information cannot be found.

question: - Why is the narrator observing her?

answer: - He seems to be obsessed with her.

question: - What makes him say she is innocent?

answer: - Information cannot be found.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: The narrator is observing a beautiful girl they would like to get close to but is afraid of getting rejected.


text:
Toyota is working on an electric car powered by a new type of battery that significantly increases driving range and reduces charging time, aiming to begin sales in 2022, the _Chunichi Shimbun_ daily reported on Tuesday.

Toyota's new electric car, to be built on an all-new platform, will use all-solid-state batteries, allowing it to be recharged in just a few minutes, the newspaper said, without citing sources.

By contrast, current electric vehicles (EVs), which use lithium-ion batteries, need 20-30 minutes to recharge even with fast chargers and typically have a range of just 300-400 kilometres (185-250 miles).

Toyota has decided to sell the new model in Japan as early as 2022, the paper said. A Toyota spokeswoman said the company could not immediately comment on the report.

Japan's biggest automaker is looking to close the gap with EV leaders such as Nissan Motor Co and Tesla Inc as battery-powered cars gain traction around the globe as a viable emission-free alternative to conventional cars.

_Reuters_

question: What is Toyota working on?

answer: Toyota is making an electric car that uses a new type of battery that will improve the driving range of the vehicle as well as speeding up the charging time. They plan to release this on 2022.

question: What is an electric car?

answer: An electric car is a car that uses batteries for energy -more specifically, electricity as fuel.

question: Why are electric cars being developed?

answer: The answer is not directly stated in the article, but it does say that battery-powered cars are being considered as a viable alternative to conventional cars for being emission-free. This heavily implies that there is something very wrong with the emissions of conventional cars and the fuel they use which is why companies such as Toyota, Nissan, and Tesla are developing electric cars.

question: How is the new battery expected to perform?

answer: The new batteries are solid state, allowing it to recharge faster than lithium-ion batteries. Given that lithium-ion batteries take about half an hour to charge and have a range of 300-400 kilometers, the new battery should perform reasonably better than that.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: Toyota will be releasing a new electric car in 2022 that makes use of a new solid state battery that will improve both the charge time and the maximum driving range.


text:
[Jeffrey Epstein brother Mark Epstein]

 Screengrab via YouTube Mark Epstein pictured in 2011.

Mark Epstein is Jeffrey Epstein’s younger brother. The pair grew up in Sea Gate, Brooklyn, as the only children of Seymour and Pauline Epstein.

At around 6:30 a.m. on August 10, Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his cell in the Metropolitan Correctional Center. Epstein is believed to have killed himself by hanging. At the time of his death, Epstein was not on suicide watch. A few weeks earlier, it was widely reported that Epstein had attempted suicide in his cell.

Epstein was 66 years old. Epstein, a financier, was arrested in July 2019 and accused of sex trafficking minors in Florida and New York. Epstein’s connections to the political and business worlds had led to his case becoming front page news across the world.

Here’s what you need to know:

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

1. Mark Epstein’s Nickname Is ‘Puggie’

[Mark Epstein Michael bloomberg]

Mark Epstein pictured with former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in May 2013.

Jeffrey’s company Maple Inc. was named after the street, Maple Avenue, where the Epstein brothers were raised, according to a July 2019 feature on the family by the Daily Beast. That feature describes Mark as being two years younger than his pedophile brother. Mark’s nickname as a child was Puggie, the article says.

The Daily Beast report goes on to say that Mark offered his Florida home as collateral to help his brother make bail in July 2019. The website says that childhood neighbors “have only good things to say about the Epstein they still call Puggie.” Neighbors told the Daily Beast that Mark once ran a “business silk-screening T-shirts” before going into real estate. His silk-screen business has been described as “one of the most versatile silk screening printing companies in New York.” The Daily Beast piece notes, “Maybe it would be unfair to read anything into him having also incorporated a business called Saint Model and Talent.”

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

2. Mark Epstein Has Worked With Adam Schiff & Debbie Wasserman Schultz in the Past

[Mark Epstein Adam Schiff]

GettyDemocrat Adam Schiff has worked with Mark Epstein in the past.

A different online profile says that Mark was a director at The Humpty Dumpty Institute. In August 2018, the Daily Caller reported that Democratic politicians Maxine Waters, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Adam Schiff sat on the board of the institute. The Humpty Dumpty Institute works with the United Nations in attempts to rebuild developing countries. The group was founded in 1988 by Constance Milstein.

The organization says on its website that Mark is the institute’s vice chairman. In June 2015, Mark hosted a “working dinner” for the Humpty Dumpty Institute’s “48th Congressional Delegation to the United Nations.” Among those in attendance were former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, as well as, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Corrine Brown, Paul Tonko and Mark Takano, all Democratic members of congress.

More recently, in April 2019, Mark led a congressional delegation including Republicans, Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA), Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), Rep. Pete Olson (R-TX), Rep. Garrett Graves (R-LA), as well as Democrats, Rep. Alan Lowenthal and Independent Rep. Gregorio Sablan, to an event being held in Belgium. Mark was also present with a delegation from the institute that went to the United Arab Emirates in March 2019.

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

3. In 2015, Mark Epstein Said That He Had Flown on Jeffrey Epstein’s Plane Along With Donald Trump

[Jeffrey Epstein Donald Trump]

Screengrab via NBC NewsJeffrey Epstein pictured with President Donald Trump in 1992.

Mark testified in a 2015 deposition that he had flown on his brother’s private jet along with President Donald Trump. Mark said his brother and the president were “friends.” When asked why Trump was on that flight, Mark said, “You’ll have to ask Donald. I think he wanted a ride back to New York.”

In response to the Daily Beast’s request for information, Mark cited President Trump saying, “Since the president of the USA won’t divulge his business info, and there are many more compelling reasons for him to do so, and since I have not been accused of wrongdoing by any government agency, I see no reason why I or any other American should either.”

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

4. Mark Epstein Was Accused of Financial Mismanagement During His Time as Chairman of the Board of Cooper Union

Chairman of Cooper Union, Mark Epstein, throws alumni under the bus."A big part of that problem, and I've made this public before, is that we don't have enough alumni support. Traditionally only 20% of our alumni, who have gotten a 100% scholarship, give back to the school on a regular basis. Contrast that with Princeton. Princeton charges now 40 some odd thousand dollars a year…2013-05-16T14:59:59.000Z

Mark also served as the chairman of the board of Cooper Union for a time. Art in America Magazine reported in November 2011 that Mark had been the vice chairman at Cooper Union between 2007 and 2009 and chairman from 2009 until 2013. In 2002, Mark was named as Alumnus of the Year.

Cooper Union and Ivory Tower on the Katie ShowOn the Katie Show with Katie Couric, director of the documentary Ivory Tower (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3263520/), Andrew Rossi, discusses the cost — and value — of higher education in the United States today alongside writer Anya Kamenetz (http://diyubook.com/) and Professor Andrew Deblanco (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Delbanco). Couric also discusses the fight against tuition at Cooper Union with Free Cooper Union…2014-06-05T23:42:04.000Z

The magazine said that during his time in charge, Mark was accused of financial mismanagement. A Reuters column on Mark Epstein referred to the chairman as being “self-aggrandizing.” The piece described him as being “intimately involved in most of Cooper Union’s worst decisions.”

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

5. Mark Has Admitted That His Brother Rented Apartments in a Building Owned by the Younger Epstein

According to Mark’s LinkedIn page, since 1992 he has owned Ossa Properties and Dara Partners. The Daily Beast reports that Ossa Properties is run primarily by one person, Anthony Barrett. According to his LinkedIn page, Barrett has worked for Ossa since 1991. In his bio, Barrett writes that he is a “Kite boarding specialist.”

Prior to that, Mark was the president of the Izmo Family of Companies. Mark graduated from both Stony Brook University and The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 1976. A Cooper Union profile says that Mark is also the co-founder of a company named King Graphic Technologies, Inc., a producer of super large format digital outputting.

Epstein told Crain’s New York in July 2019 that there had been no recent business dealings between Ossa Properties and his brother’s companies.

An online profile, via the Daily Caller, says that Epstein opted to “semi-retire” at the age of 39 in order to devote his time to non-profit and charitable activities. Epstein had begun investing in New York real estate in 1990.

The Caller report says that Mark purchased a group of apartments that have been connected to his brother’s associates, including Maritza Vasquez, a bookkeeper for a modeling agency that Jeffrey had invested $1 million in. While Jeffrey’s attorney, Darren Indyke, used the building, located along East 66th Street in Manhattan, as his primary business address. Mark told Crain’s in July 2019 that his brother had used units in the building.

The building at East 66th Street is the home of Joyce Anderson Photography, a modeling photography video. Joyce Anderson is the mother of Mark Epstein’s two children. The website for Joyce Anderson’s video describes the business as specializing in “children/pre-teen sessions.” Anderson and Mark Epstein split up in 2008, according to the Daily Beast.

Jeffrey Epstein found dead in jail, officials sayJeffrey Epstein was found dead at the federal facility in New York where he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, according to officials. #CNN #News2019-08-10T14:07:42.000Z

In March 2003, Jeffrey told Vanity Fair that his middle-class parents viewed education as “the way out” for them.

READ NEXT: TEENAGE PORN STAR CONTROVERSY ROCKS CALIFORNIA HIGH SCHOOL

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

question: What is the main topic of this post?

answer: The post is about Mark Epstein.

question: Who is Mark Epstein?

answer: Mark Epstein is Jeffrey Epstein's younger brother. Mark's nickname is Puggie.

question: Who is Jeffrey Epstein?

answer: Jeffrey Epstein is a financier who was arrested in 2019 and accused of sex trafficking minors; he committed suicide while in prison.

question: Which news publication is frequently reported in this post?

answer: The Daily Beast.

question: Write a ~4 sentence summary.

answer: The post is about Mark Epstein. Mark Epstein is Jeffrey Epstein's younger brother. Mark's nickname is Puggie. Jeffrey Epstein is a financier who was arrested in 2019 and accused of sex trafficking minors; he committed suicide while in prison.


text:
Published on

Sunday, December 27, 2015

by

Some of the folks watching the Republican presidential debates were struck by the fact that Donald Trump was apparently unfamiliar with the concept of the nuclear triad: that the United States maintains a nuclear force composed of land based missiles, submarine based missiles, and strategic bombers that can deliver nuclear weapons. This is the sort of basic knowledge of the U.S. military that someone hoping to be president should have.

In the same vein, there are aspects of economic policy that all the candidates should know. Unfortunately, when it comes to the Federal Reserve Board and its importance to the economy, most of the candidates seem to be failing as badly as Donald Trump did on his nuclear triad test.

The basic point is that the Fed has enormous power to control the pace of economic growth. It cannot always speed up growth as much as it might like, as we saw during the last recession, but it is quite capable of slowing the economy if it believes that it is growing too fast. It does this by raising interest rates.

Higher interest rates discourage people from buying houses or cars. It also discourages businesses from borrowing to finance new investment. State and local governments will also cutback borrowing for infrastructure and other long-term investments. And, households will not be able to reduce their debt burdens by refinancing their mortgages.

Higher interest rates will also raise the value of the dollar, making U.S. produced goods and services less competitive in the world economy. This will increase our trade deficit. Through these and other channels, when the Fed raises interest rates it slows the economy and the pace of job creation.

This is important in the context of the presidential campaign because we have a large number of candidates for both parties' nominations, who say they want to increase growth and create more jobs. The Republicans mostly plan to boost growth and create jobs with tax cuts, while the Democrats want to spend more on infrastructure, education, and research and development. But regardless of their route for boosting growth, or the coherence of their strategy, no candidate will be able to accomplish their goal unless the Fed is on board.

SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT

WE DEPEND ON OUR READERS TO KEEP US ALIVE AND GROWING.

PLEASE—NO AMOUNT IS TOO LARGE OR TOO SMALL—SELECT A DONATION METHOD AND HELP US TODAY:

[Common Dreams needs you today!]

This is why the reaction, or lack thereof, to the Fed's rate hike was so striking. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders was the only presidential candidate who went on record with a comment on the Fed's action, criticizing the Fed for slowing the economy and preventing people from getting jobs. This raises the obvious question of whether the other candidates understand the importance of the Fed to the economy.

Do the proponents of large tax cuts not realize that if the Fed jacks up interest rates in response to the deficits caused by their tax cuts, it will quickly cut off any boost to growth the tax cuts might otherwise cause? Do the advocates of infrastructure and education not realize that the jobs created by spending in these areas will be offset by jobs lost in other areas as a result of higher interest rates, if the Fed decides this is the appropriate course of action?

If the presidential candidates have not incorporated the Fed's reactions into their economic plans, then they really don't know what they are talking about. They will have no hope of boosting growth if they have a Fed determined to prevent the economy from creating more jobs.

The media should be asking the presidential candidates about their expectations from the Fed. Unfortunately any questions along these lines have been few and far between. Given the media's failure, the public at large will have to try to press the candidates on how they expect the Fed to respond to their economic program and how they might act to ensure that the Fed allows the growth they claim they will produce.

Any candidate who does not recognize the importance of the Fed, and have a clear path for dealing with its response to their proposed agenda, is as serious on economic issues as Donald Trump is on national security issues. Just like global warming, the Fed won't go away because some politicians choose to ignore it.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

This is the world we live in. This is the world we cover.

Because of people like you, another world is possible. There are many battles to be won, but we will battle them together—all of us. COMMON DREAMS IS NOT YOUR NORMAL NEWS SITE. WE DON'T SURVIVE ON CLICKS. WE DON'T WANT ADVERTISING DOLLARS. WE WANT THE WORLD TO BE A BETTER PLACE. But we can't do it alone. It doesn't work that way. We need you. If you can help today—because every gift of every size matters—please do. WITHOUT YOUR SUPPORT WE SIMPLY DON'T EXIST.

PLEASE SELECT A DONATION METHOD:

question: What is the nuclear triad?

answer: The concept that the United States maintains a nuclear force composed of land-based missiles, submarine-based missiles, and strategic bombers that can deliver nuclear weapons.

question: Why is Donald Trump criticized during the Republican presidential debates?

answer: Because he is not familiar with the concept of the nuclear triad and the importance of the Federal Reserve Board to the economy.

question: How does the Federal Reserve Board control the economy?

answer: The Fed slows down the economy by raising the interest rates if it believes that it is growing too fast.

question: What are the implications of an interest rate hike?

answer: The economy slows down, people are discouraged from buying properties and borrowing money to finance new investments, and it becomes more difficult to find jobs.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: It was revealed during the Republican presidential debates that Donald Trump lacks knowledge on the importance of the Federal Reserve Board to the economy. The Fed has the power to raise interest rates to slow down the economy when it is growing too fast.


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

title: Elizabeth (an original story by me)

question: Who does Elizabeth usually hide from in the small grate down the muddy alleyway?

answer: Her father.

question: Why is Elizabeth running?

answer: She had just stabbed and killed her father, and there were people chasing after her.

question: How long does Elizabeth stay hidden behind the grate?

answer: Until the sun rises and streams through the grate.

question: Who does Elizabeth first see when she walks into her house?

answer: Her father, who looks up from the newspaper and greets her.

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: Elizabeth has just stabbed her father and ran off, pursuers in tow. She goes to hide behind a small grate in a muddy alleyway, a place she knows well from other instances of hiding from her father. She awakes in the morning, covered in mud, blood, and straw from the grate space, and walks shamefully back to her house, where she is greeted cheerfully by her father reading the newspaper.


text:
The ALL BURMA STUDENTS' DEMOCRATIC FRONT (; abbreviated ABSDF) is an opposition group in Myanmar (also known as Burma). It was founded on 1 November 1988, after the 8888 protests in Yangon. The group's leadership consists mostly of former student exiles.

The ABSDF operates an armed wing, which has fought alongside other armed opposition groups in Myanmar, such as the Kachin Independence Army and the Karen National Liberation Army.

Objectives

The objective of the group is to free the people of Myanmar from the oppression of the military, to create a democracy with political freedom and respect for human rights, to obtain nationwide peace, and to introduce a federal system in the country.

Leadership

The ABSDF elects its leadership democratically, with leaders of the organisation serving for three-year terms in accordance with the ABSDF constitution. Its first leader was Htun Aung Gyaw, a leader in the December 1974 student protests following the U Thant funeral crisis. The following is the list of the organisation’s current leaders who were elected in ABSDF’s Eleventh Conference convened in September 2018, to serve for a three-year executive term.

-   Than Khe - Chairman
-   Myo Win - Vice-Chairman
-   Sonny Mahinder - General Secretary
-   Myint Hein - Joint-General Secretary
-   Ye Htut @ Hla Htay - Joint-General Secretary
-   Kyaw Ko -Central Leading Committee Member
-   Ma Lay Lone @ Mi Sue Pwint - Central Leading Committee Member
-   Min Zaw - Central Leading Committee Member
-   Saw Maung Oo - Central Leading Committee Member
-   Saw Chit Win - Central Committee Member
-   Thein Lwin - Central Committee Member
-   Kyaw Kyaw Lin - Central Committee Member
-   Ko Thein - Central Committee Member
-   Thura - Central Committee Member
-   Zin Naing- Central Committee Member
-   Salai Yaw Aung - Central Committee Member
-   Moe Kyaw Oo - Central Committee Member
-   Lwan Ne - Central Committee Member
-   Min Htay - Central Committee Member
-   Mya Win - Central Committee Member
-   Soe Htut - Central Committee Member
-   Win Tint Han - Central Committee Member (Reserve)
-   Yaw Shu - Central Committee Member (Reserve)
-   Thant Chein Myint - Central Committee Member (Reserve)
-   Yan Naing Soe - Central Committee Member (Reserve)

History

The political movement and the struggle for democracy has ever been an issue in Myanmar. Students were a mobilising force at the forefront of the struggle for freedom against British colonial rule. This role has continued over the past four decades of military rule in the country. Thus, the student movement is inseparable from the historic struggle for Burma’s independence from both colonial power and dictatorship.

The Burmese military staged a coup d’etat in September 1988, following its crackdown on peaceful demonstrations concerning democracy and human rights. Soon after seizing state power, the State Law and Order Restoration Council, the then-military regime, announced that it would hold a free and fair election. It encouraged the public to register political parties. However, at the same time, regime officials were suppressing political expression and opposition throughout the country.

It was in this atmosphere that serious discussions and debates took place within the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU) to find ways to continue the struggle. Finally, leaders of the ABFSU reached a decision: the struggle would consist of three practical strategies: Maintaining semi-underground networks, forming a political party, and taking up arms.

To pursue this decision, thousands of people, mostly students, youth, and intellectuals, left for the border areas near Thailand, India, China, and Bangladesh. On 1 November 1988, they founded the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front (ABSDF) on the Myanmar-Thailand border. Thus, the formation of the ABSDF and its Student Army followed closely on ABFSU’s decision. In other words, its formation was a strategic decision of the student movement inside Myanmar.

To fulfill its aims and objectives, the ABSDF upholds the strategy of “armed struggle in combination with political activities”. From 2001 to 20 December 2010 ABSDF was on the US terror list.[1]

Name origin

The ABSDF is an organisation representing all students and social classes throughout Myanmar in their struggle to achieve democracy and human rights. The students of Myanmar were recognised as the leading force fighting against the dictatorial military regime, and the Front indiscriminately counts all Burmese ethnic nationalities and classes among their membership. The ABSDF is at the forefront of the popular struggle for democracy and human rights in Myanmar; hence the name “All Burma Students’ Democratic Front”. ABSDF's motto is born out of collective experiences: “Our Heads are Bloody But Unbowed”.

Politics

The ABSDF is a combatant in the civil war in Myanmar, which is a long-running conflict between government forces and opposing various armed factions. People who are struggling against the military dictatorship to overthrow it constitute not a single stratum but a cross-section of all people regardless of social class, gender, ethnic origin, religion, education, and political ideology. Based on that ideology, the ABSDF believes in national politics and applies it as a political strategy.

Membership and camps

The ABSDF holds seven camps on the Myanmar–Thailand border, one camp spread over three separate locations on the Myanmar-India border, and one camp spread over three separate locations on the Myanmar-China border. It also has foreign branches such as in the United States and Australia.

The ABSDF is a member organisation of the National Council of the Union of Burma, an umbrella organisation of the border-based opposition.

The ABSDF is also a member organisation of the Asian Students’ Association, the International Union of Students, and the World Federation of Democratic Youth.

Ceasefire talks

ABSDF had held two formal discussions and three informal gatherings with the government in 2012 and 2013. On 5 August 2013, the Kayin State government and ABSDF signed a state-level ceasefire agreement in Yangon.[2] On 10 August, the Burmese government and ABSDF signed a 13-point preliminary ceasefire agreement. The agreement includes continuation of political dialogues to reach ceasefire agreement, formation of independent monitoring committee for ceasefire, opening of liaison offices, and setting a date to hold union-level political dialogue.[3]

Controversy

In 1991–92, 35 ABSDF members died in custody in Kachin State. Fifteen of them were executed as spies on 12 February 1992, 20 others were tortured to death while undergoing interrogation. Another 80 members were also detained on similar charges. The killings were allegedly motivated by internal power struggles within the organisation. That incident has attracted growing attention in 2012 on social media sites, where former members of the student army and their families claim no one has yet been held accountable. Naing Aung, who was the chairman of the ABSDF Southern Myanmar at the time, has denied the allegations and said that he is ready to co-operate with any inquiry into the incident.[4][5]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

title: All Burma Students' Democratic Front

question: What does the text say about the All Burma Students' Democratic Front?

answer: All Burma Students' Democratic Front is an opposition group in Myanmar. It has fought alongside other armed opposition groups in Myanmar.

question: What does the text say about the group's objective?

answer: The objective of the group is to free the people of Myanmar from the oppression of the military. They seek to create a democracy with political freedom and respect for human rights.

question: What does the text say about the group's leadership?

answer: The ABSDF elects its leadership democratically, with the leaders serving for three-year terms. Its first leader was Htun Aung Gyaw in December 1974. The group's leadership consists of mostly former student exiles.

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

answer: The Burmese military staged a coup d'etat in September 1988. Soon after seizing state power, the military regime announced it would hold a free and fair election but the regime officials were suppressing political expression and opposition throughout the country. It was in this atmosphere that the ABFSU group took matters into their own hands and discussed whether to continue the struggle. To pursue this decision, thousands of students, youth, and intellectuals left for the border areas near Thailand, India, China, and Bangladesh. From 2001 to 2010, the group was on the US terror list.


text:
A broad range of metabolic and inflammatory diseases is associated with alterations in gut microbiota composition and metabolic potential. Until now, sequencing-based gut microbiota research has described such dysbiotic states in terms of proportional shifts in microbiome composition. However, when it comes to the gut bacterial content and how it relates to health, it's not only percentages that matter, but also numbers. That is according to the latest research by Jeroen Raes (VIB-KU Leuven) and his team, published today in _Nature_.

In their manuscript titled "Quantitative microbiome profiling links gut community variation to microbial load," the VIB-KU Leuven scientists demonstrate a novel methodology that allows both fast and accurate determination of the bacterial load in a fecal sample.

Prof. Jeroen Raes (VIB-KU Leuven): "The method we developed is based on parallelization of microbiome sequencing and flow cytometry enumeration of microbial cells in fecal material. The combination of these two workflows enables us to generate true quantitative microbiome profiles expressed as numbers of cells per gram, rather than percentages."

According to the VIB-KU Leuven researchers, Quantitative Microbiome Profiling can really make a difference.

Prof. Jeroen Raes (VIB-KU Leuven): "Until now, proportional approaches have been the standard in microbiome research. However, without quantitative data, percentages cannot tell you whether a particular bacterium is actually becoming more abundant under specific conditions. A proportional increase could just as well imply that this species of interest is just maintaining is initial levels, while all other taxa are declining. This makes it very difficult to link microbiome data to quantitative health parameters and infer disease mechanisms. With Quantitative Microbiome Profiling, we are one step closer to solving this issue."

In 2012, Jeroen Raes and his team launched the Flemish Gut Flora Project, one of the first population-level microbiome monitoring efforts worldwide. VIB-VUB-KU Leuven scientists collected over 3000 fecal samples from healthy volunteers. This collection allowed them to assess microbiome variation in a non-diseased population. The results of the Flemish Gut Flora Project proved to be essential for the interpretation of the lab's quantitative microbiome findings.

Prof. Jeroen Raes (VIB-KU Leuven): "Using the Flemish Gut Flora Project database, we were able to identify a new microbiota community type based on quantitative findings. This enterotype is characterized by a low microbial load. It harbors lower abundances of taxa that might play a role in maintaining a healthy gut ecosystem. While we do observe this enterotype to be present in a minority of healthy volunteers, it is by far the most prevalent microbiota configuration among Crohn's Disease patients."

Prof. Séverine Vermeire, gastroenterologist at UZ Leuven/KU Leuven: "Using Quantitative Microbiome Profiling, we observed that feces from Crohn's Disease patients harbor up to 50 times less bacteria than those of healthy volunteers. This striking decrease in bacterial abundance appears to be a key element of dysbiosis in Crohn's Disease. Next steps will be to find out whether having a low cell count enterotype increases your risk of developing Crohn's Disease—and if so, what can be done to prevent it."

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

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

MORE INFORMATION: Quantitative microbiome profiling links gut community variation to microbial load, _Nature_ (2017). nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nature24460

CITATION: Count your blessings: Quantitative microbiome profiling (2017, November 16) retrieved 7 December 2020 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-11-quantitative-microbiome-profiling.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

question: What is the issue Quantitative Microbiome Profiling is attempting to solve?

answer: The problem it solves is measuring proportions. Without quantitative data percentages cannot tell you whether a particular bacterium is becoming more abundant under specific conditions. There are multiple ways of interpreting the rate of change of proportional data. Quantitative Microbiome Profiling is one step closer to solving this issue.

question: What methods did the researchers use?

answer: The method they developed was the parallelization of microbiome sequencing and flow cytometry enumeration of microbial cells in fecal material. It gave a measure in terms of cells per gram rather than percentages. This allows them to measure the amount directly.

question: What is one potential medical application of the research?

answer: The researchers know that Crohn's Disease patients harbor 50 percent less bacteria than healthy volunteers. Applying the new methods to count which specific bacteria are in the gut may allow researchers to determine which bacterias put one at risk for Crohn's disease. This may help prevent the disease.


text:
  The bomb went off on the street. It went 'BANG!' very loud and then the bomb was dead.

  The moment was brief. It happened near the finish line. People were watching the runners run to the line. Fathers cheered their daughters and sisters cheered their brothers and sons were proud of their moms. Even strangers watched and they were proud of them all. There was sun and Coca-Cola and everyone was clapping because the day was important. The running was important. Old wives stood and cheered, 'Yay!' in ripe honeydew voices. Their husbands clapped strong hands and remembered a time.

 And then it happened. 'BANG!'

  At first there was disbelief and smoke and echo. So many stunned runners just stood and they did not run. Some runners had been knocked down by the force of the blast.  They used tired legs to get back up.

But the spectators were finding themselves disoriented, bleeding.

Slowly, people came to and noticed the way about things.

  A woman picked herself up from the concrete and looked to find her sunglasses. She found them, and they were not broken. Then, looking in the lenses, she saw that she was bleeding from her head.

 A man took his daughter's hand and started walking for the car. He kept hurrying and looking back to the cloud of light-grey smoke. He said, 'A bomb,' when the little girl asked him something and then she asked another question and he said, 'I don't know, baby.'

  A mother was sitting up on the sidewalk to see that she had no legs. The mother saw her no legs and looked for her kids. Then she knew the suffocating pain, but she was scared because she could not see the kids. And she screamed for the kids, which hurt. She wanted to vomit, and she almost did.  She could not hear. She could only feel the pain and the burning pepper in her nose and the cement on her back and the burning of her feet. But she yelled for the kids and then she saw a younger man moving swiftly through time. He emerged from a changing sea of empty changing colors. He moved at her and she noticed his face was round and plain with sweat glistening on his forehead and eyes that were blue and frozen calm. And then she saw nothing but she reached her arms out hoping to feel her kids. She felt his hands but she tried to fight him. Then she saw nothing and moved nothing.

The children saw their mother but the loud noise had been so loud that they could not hear and they could only watch their mother bleeding and yelling like an animal. The children watched as one, then two, then more surrounded their mom who was hurt.

  The people swarmed her, and all the kids saw were backs and the bottoms of shoes. The children saw the blood creeping past shards of glass and little pebbles. It snaked towards their shoes. They treated it like lava. The oldest child was crying and he was scared, but he grabbed the other two and let them cry. They stood there next to the wall and cried big gulping wails. A nice lady came then and asked, 'Is that your mom?'

 Sirens were pulsing out in odd rhythms and men were calling over this special music and people were rushing past people rushing past people rushing. The pepper smoke was faint in the air, but it was burned into every nose. There was a dog pulling his own leash through the street.

A man stumbled past a trash can and towards a cluster of people stopped, looking. He was empty and lost because he knew nothing about himself, but he knew he knew what had happened. He looked at the lookers and he said, flailing his arms, 'It just went, 'BANG!' You know?! Just like that. And, just look!' He pointed at the place where the bomb had been, where the lookers had been looking. And he said this over again at the people, 'It just went, 'BANG!' And he wondered if he believed it. 'Just, 'BANG!' Like that!'

One of the lookers came over to him and put her arms around him. She gave him her water. 'It was just like, 'BANG!' he said, and she said softly, 'I know.'

title: TRAGEDY

question: What does the text say about where the bomb went off?

answer: The bomb went off on a street where there was a running event. It went off near the finish line.

question: Summarize in what way were people hurt by the bomb that went off by the running event.

answer: Some of the runners had been knocked down from the blast force. A woman sustained a head injury and was now bleeding. Another woman had lost her legs and her kids temporarily lost their hearing because of the loud blast.

question: What does the story say about who planted the bomb?

question: What does the story say about the kids that had their mother lose her legs?

answer: After the woman saw that she has no legs, she fearfully started screaming for her kids. They temporarily lost their hearing so couldn't hear her screams but they could see her bleeding. She saw their mum being surrounded by people, saw the blood running on the pavement. The younger kids started crying as a woman approached them and asked them if the legless woman was their mom.


text:
The HILL TO HILL BRIDGE is a road crossing of the Lehigh River linking the south and north sides of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Completed in 1924, the bridge carries Pennsylvania Route 378 from Wyandotte Street on the city's south side to a series of ramps and viaducts on the north side. It replaced a two-lane covered bridge and eliminated several grade crossings of three railroads on the two banks of the Lehigh River. The Hill to Hill Bridge is located in the Central Bethlehem Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, with a Boundary Increase in 1988.[1]

History

Prior South Side-North Side crossing

[Old bridge, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania postcard photograph from 1906]Prior to Bethlehem's incorporation as a city in 1917, the north side and the south side were independent municipalities. During the latter part of the 1910s, three bridges crossed between Bethlehem and South Bethlehem: the Minsi Trail bridge, the New Street bridge, and the Main Street covered bridge. The Main Street bridge was narrow and was regularly damaged by floods and ice. It crossed several tracks of the Lehigh Valley Railroad and the Reading Railroad on the south side as it led to Wyandotte Street. The Pacific Hotel stood between the southern portal to the covered bridge; the adjacent image shows the active freight and passenger railroad tracks travelers crossed to reach the bridge. To the right (not visible) was Union Station (or Union Depot), the passenger station of the Lehigh Valley and Reading Railroads with service to Buffalo, Harrisburg, New York (Jersey City), and Philadelphia.[Image taken before 1923. Shows Pacific Hotel and southern entrance to covered bridge crossing Lehigh River. Replaced by Hill to Hill Bridge in 1924.]On the north side, it crossed the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Canal and the tracks of the Central Railroad of New Jersey before continuing up Seminary Hill (named for the Moravian Church's Female Seminary) to the Main Street business district.

Construction 1921-1924

Community leaders found the covered bridge to be a barrier to commerce between “the Bethlehems”. As a result of the consolidation of the two municipalities into a single city, sufficient resources became available to design and construct a new bridge connecting Fountain Hill and Seminary Hill.

By 1921, a commission was in place to design and oversee the construction of the new Lehigh River span. Commission members were the city's first mayor, Archibald Johnston (chairman), J.S. Krause (vice-chairman), G.H. Blakeley, O.L. Henninger (representing Lehigh County), A.A. Woodring (representing Northampton County), A. Geo. Shoffner (secretary), Dallett H. Wilson (counsel) and C.W. Hudson (engineer).[2]

Construction on the Hill to Hill Bridge began on August 1, 1921, after many previous plans. As constructed, the bridge had nine approaches, eleven abutments, forty-eight piers, and fifty-eight spans. It was considered an engineering marvel of its time. By September 1924, the bridge was complete and provided safe, grade-separated connections between the two halves of the city.

Modernization

The structure of the Hill to Hill Bridge was modified significantly during the years after World War II. The first significant change to traffic on the bridge came during the construction of the expressway portion of Route 378 north of the bridge, known locally as the “Spur Route”. Initially, the Second Avenue ramp on the north side was closed in 1967. In 1968, the expressway portion was opened.

Three other ramps were removed as part of safety, structural, and redevelopment efforts. On the north side, The South Main Street ramp leading to Lehigh Street and the industrial area along the Monocacy Creek was removed in 1965. The River Street ramp leading to Sand Island was removed in 1988. On the south side, the Second Street ramp was removed in 1989.[3]

The Hill to Hill Bridge today

The bridge saw extensive repairs in 1990, and was painted in spring of 2009. The painting process had caused two of the four traffic lanes to be closed, and had resulted in major traffic congestion. The painting project was finished in time for the opening of the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem (now Wind Creek Bethlehem).

Bridge structure

The bridge is noted for its many ramps and branches. It was designed by Clarence W. Hudson and its structure makes use of “a combination of steel through truss and concrete closed spandrel deck arch spans”[4] A unique characteristic of the bridge was the design of the two truss spans, needed to provide clearance over the railroads. Because the Second Street ramp intersected the bridge at the point of the southern truss span, the normal diagonal trusses could not be included. Engineer C.W. Hudson designed an alternative truss configuration, now known as the Hudson truss, which allowed an opening in the truss web between its vertical members.[5] This bridge's spans are the only known examples of this truss configuration.

1924 (original) ramps and overcrossings from south to north

[Sketch schematic of Hill-to-Hill Bridge approaches and overcrossings as of opening date in 1924.]

-   Wyandotte Street entrance
-   Third Street ramp
-   Lehigh (now Brighton) Street ramp
-   Second Street ramp
-   (crossing of Lehigh Valley Railroad tracks)
-   (crossing of Lehigh River)
-   River Street ramp
-   (crossing of Lehigh Coal and Navigation Canal)
-   (crossing of Central Railroad of New Jersey tracks)
-   (crossing of Lehigh Avenue)
-   (crossing of Lehigh and New England Railroad)
-   (crossing of Vineyard Street)
-   (crossing of Spring Street)
-   South Main Street ramp
-   West Side ramp
-   Main Street Branch
-   (crossing of Main Street)[6]

Current ramps and overcrossings from south to north

[Hill-to-Hill Bridge, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in December 2014]

-   Wyandotte Street entrance
-   Second Street ramp
-   Brighton Street ramp
-   (crossing of Norfolk Southern Railroad)
-   (crossing of Lehigh River)
-   (crossing of Norfolk Southern Railroad tracks)
-   (crossing of West Lehigh Street)
-   (crossing of Spring Street)
-   Main Street/Bridge Street ramp
-   Pennsylvania Route 378 (“Spur Route”) entrance

Gallery

File:Hill to Hill Bridge, Bethlehem PA 01.JPG|Bridge spans over Lehigh River. File:Hill to Hill Bridge, Bethlehem PA 02.JPG|One of the central spans. File:Hill to Hill Bridge over Lehigh Canal, Bethlehem PA.JPG|Bridge span over Lehigh Canal.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

title: Hill to Hill Bridge

question: When was the bridge built?

answer: 1924

question: When was the bridge listed on the National Register of Historic Places?

answer: 1972

question: Where is the bridge?

answer: Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

question: When was the bridge last extensively repaired?

answer: 1990

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: The Hill to Hill Bridge is a road crossing of the Lehigh River linking the south and north sides of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It was completed in 1924, though it was modified significantly in the 60s and 80s, and extensively repaired in 1990. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.


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: Describe how the narrator felt about their life.

answer: The narrator was pretty upset with how their life was going. The narrator felt as though their parents did not care about them as much as they did their brother. The narrator also was tired of having the same routine of going to work every day, coming home and eating dinner alone, and then having to live the same day over and over again. The narrator was ready to end their life.

question: How much would the narrator's life change if they had support from friends and their parents?

question: What was the main reason as to why the narrator followed the serial killer?

answer: The main reason the narrator follows the serial killer around is to become a hero. The narrator was going to kill themselves but saw the serial killer killing someone, and thought to themselves how they could be integral to identifying the serial killer and they would become a hero. To be a hero meant the narrator would have to follow the serial killer around and and take him out.


text:
When physicists discovered High Amplitude Luminous Orbs surrounding the heads of all human beings, they wondered why some peoples’ HALOs were stronger than others’ and what caused their intensities to change over time. Using a visual filter, the phenomenon could be seen on a spectrum of intensities, from dim grey to bright gold. This allowed social scientists to establish links between HALO intensity and behavior. For instance, field studies found that visiting the elderly, giving to beggars, or attending religious services typically increased the intensity, while frequenting casinos, bars, or brothels (in the Las Vegas area) generally reduced it. After such findings, the brightness of one’s HALO came to be widely regarded as proof of a person’s moral goodness or iniquity.

HALO viewing devices began selling quickly to the concerned or the curious. Wedding engagements were broken, children got grounded, and the scrupulous checked their HALOs several times a day. Supermarket tabloids published celebrities’ before-and-after photos with captions like, “*What did she do last night,*” while other media had exposés on the darkness of conservative politicians and church leaders. Religious believers, particularly Christians, were statistically shown to have stronger HALOs, however the Supreme Court ruled (5 to 4) that it was not religious discrimination to consider HALO intensity in hiring since agnostics and atheists sometimes had bright HALOs as well. Finally, the Congress, with widespread support, moved to make it a crime “to scan or view others using HALO detecting devices without their consent, or to discriminate against anyone for refusing consent,” condemning such practices as an “invasion of privacy” and the cause of “baseless prejudices based upon unproven technology.” The president signed the bill into law in a closed-door ceremony.

title: The Halo Effect [281 words]

question: What is a HALO?

answer: A High Amplitude Luminous Orb is a ring of light around a person's head that appears to denote their morality.

question: Explain how HALOs are measured in the story.

answer: The HALOs ranged from a dim grey to a bright gold and could be seen through HALO viewing devices.

question: What were the social consequences of the HALO?

answer: New laws were put into place to guard against discrimination for those with weak HALOs, amongst other things.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: A story about the discovery of High Amplitude Luminous Orbs (HALOs) being discovered and how it impacted on society.


text:
[W. Craig Fugate, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, got his start as a volunteer firefighter.]

Credit...Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

-   Nov. 3, 2012
-

WASHINGTON — America may know W. Craig Fugate as the slightly weary-looking guy on CNN explaining the ins and outs of flood insurance. But in the world of emergency management, he is known for his Waffle House matrix.

Mr. Fugate, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, learned in his many years of battling natural disasters that fully operational Waffle Houses mean that a community is doing O.K. But if those same restaurants are serving half menus, it means that power has been lost. And if their doors are closed, it signifies that things are really bad.

“It’s a shorthand for us to get in there and quickly get a snapshot,” Mr. Fugate said Friday in an interview at FEMA headquarters in Washington. “Is the Waffle House open? Everything normal there?”

Mr. Fugate acknowledges that the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy poses a challenge to the Waffle House matrix because the chain, popular in the South, has so few restaurants in the Northeast. In place of Waffle Houses, he said, he has looked to Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts as bellwethers, but he said he did not believe that they had the same philosophies about reopening quickly.

“Waffle House has a very simple operational philosophy: get open. They never close. They run 24 hours a day,” he said. “They have a corporate philosophy that if there is a hurricane or a storm, they try and get their stores open. It don’t matter if they don’t have power, it don’t matter if you don’t have gas. They have procedures that if they can get a generator in there, they’ll get going. They’ll make coffee with bottled water.”

After the agency’s poor handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, FEMA was the Homer Simpson of federal agencies, a symbol of pitiful incompetence. The storm even created a national punch line after President George W. Bush said at a news conference that his FEMA director, Michael D. Brown, was doing a “heck of a job” even as the agency was bungling its response.

While FEMA is still viewed with caution — and in some places in New York City in the last week, with continued scorn — Mr. Fugate has done much to shore up its image. That is in part simply through self-flagellation, as he races around storm-savaged regions, ticks off statistics about water levels and procures baby formula for a mother in need.

Mr. Fugate — or Mr. Emergency Management, as President Obama referred to him last week — is a straightforward, honey-toned former director of Florida emergency operations who judges the post-storm condition of communities by the viability of their local economic activity. His hyper-focus on local preparation long before disasters hit has been the key to his success, according to several people who have worked with him.

“He speaks the language of first responders because he was one of them,” said Alan Rubin, who oversaw Florida’s economic recovery after Hurricane Andrew. “He doesn’t have to be brought up to speed on what FEMA can do and when they can do it.”

In an administration long on Ivy League degrees and Washington pedigrees, Mr. Fugate, who wears cowboy boots, stands out. Both of his parents died before he graduated from high school. He never finished college, started out as a paramedic and spent most of his career in Florida.

“He is very down to earth, and that always helped him out a lot,” said Dwayne Phillips, an information technology expert who worked at FEMA when Mr. Fugate was the director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, a job he held until 2009, when Mr. Obama appointed him to run FEMA. Citing Mr. Fugate’s Waffle House theory, Mr. Phillips said: “He would talk about stuff like that, and had this ‘O.K., that’s a problem, let’s address it and move on forward’ way about him. He doesn’t get caught up in the weeds.”

Video

[Video player loading]

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy and the unprecedented problems with public transportation, some commuters have chosen a different kind of transport: the two-wheeled, human-powered kind.
Mr. Fugate is known for his “lightning bolt” drills, in which he surprises employees midday with a fake disaster and forces them to respond. He peppers each day with a short phrase to keep responders focused. On Friday, he was pushing “People, Power and Pumps.” He is known in the field for positioning equipment ahead of time so that states know immediately how many cots and water bottles are needed when a disaster hits, which proved a huge problem during Hurricane Katrina.

As people in New York and New Jersey on Thursday and Friday remained without power and struggled to find fuel to fill their cars and generators, reports emerged that some were angrily denouncing FEMA as responding too slowly in the aftermath of the hurricane.

“It’s part of how people cope,” Mr. Fugate said of the anger toward FEMA. “I don’t care that they don’t understand FEMA, and I’m not going to defend it and say you shouldn’t be mad at us. It’s a natural part of it. They get frustrated, and they are going to get angry. I need to acknowledge that, but I need to focus on what are their needs and are we taking care of their needs longer term.”

FEMA’s programs, Mr. Fugate said, were really designed to deal with a disaster several days after it occurred and to provide the local authorities and first responders with capabilities and equipment that they did not have. The agency may provide financial aid, water removal specialists and advanced search and rescue teams.

“Because we always talk about FEMA so much,” he said, “I think the general public assumes we are part of the response team that will be there the first couple of days.”

While a vast majority of Obama appointees have drawn sharp criticism from Republicans in Congress, Mr. Fugate has managed to impress members of the committees that oversee FEMA, who say he testifies without notes and worked his way from the ground up in Florida, a state well versed in disasters.

“I would call him apolitical,” said one aide to the House Appropriations Committee who is not permitted to speak to the news media, pointing to an absence of criticism of the agency in Alabama, a deeply conservative state, after tornadoes hit there last year. “He can be very direct, but our members respect him, bottom line.”

Mr. Fugate, 52, got his start in emergency response as a volunteer firefighter and paramedic in Alachua County, Fla., and then made his way through the administrative ranks, becoming the director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management in 2001. He has won several awards in the field and was named to the National Guard Association of Florida Hall of Fame in 2006.

At the end of the Bush administration, he was interviewed to be the head of FEMA — the acting director, R. David Paulison, ended up getting the job — and he said later in an interview that it was a post he would ponder with trepidation. He told a reporter, “A lot of people are looking at what Mike Brown went through” and believed it was “not a good encouragement for people to put their professional careers on the line.”

Mr. Fugate has said several times that he is not satisfied with FEMA’s response in New York and New Jersey and would not be until all residents had power, water and a means of transportation.

But he did allow himself a tad of self-defense last week when Mr. Brown, his predecessor, criticized the administration for predetermining states as disaster areas. “Better to be fast than to be late,” Mr. Fugate told an NPR reporter in an interview.

At a conference for emergency workers, Mr. Fugate said, “If you know me, I don’t sound like many people from Washington,” and emphasized the importance of strong building codes and risk management before disasters strike. “Mitigation of natural disasters took a back seat to the threat of another terrorist attack” in recent years, he said.

question: What business does the FEMA director check after a national emergency?

answer: Waffle House.

question: Who appointed the head of FEMA?

answer: President Obama.

question: What is the name of the FEMA director?

answer: W. Craig Fugate.

question: Why did FEMA gain a bad reputation?

answer: How they handled New Orleans.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: The article is a profile of one of Mr. Obama's appointees to the head of FEMA, W. Craig Fugate. It discusses the reputation of the agency in the past and Fugate's strategy for meeting natural disasters as they come and restoring the agency's reputation.


text: Hey Reddit. I am with a team in London starting a new short story magazine this summer called 'Flick Fiction' that will be available in many London coffee shops by the end of August. The original idea behind it is to bring short stories and recreational reading to the public and have it written by the public, earning up to £500 per story published by us. We are discussing having a website where anybody can submit their work, (stories poetry and prose,) and rate/share content. There is a possibility that we may have a pay scheme for the regular online users who are good at sifting through online content and giving indicating reviews towards their favorite content, based on their activity. We will then Publish daily, those stories which are most popular. What does r/shortstories think?

title: Online Short Story Bank!

question: What is the author proposing?

answer: The author is proposing that they bring short stories and recreational reading to the public and by the public with their new short story magazine "Flick Fiction". They are also proposing a pay scheme for certain contributors/users.

question: Why would people be interested in this magazine's website?

answer: They could be interested due to enjoying reading short stories, writing short stories, or because they could get paid.

question: Why would regular users be paid?

answer: This is because they are good at sifting through online content and giving indicating reviews towards their favorite content.

question: What do you think r/shortstories will think?

answer: They could be excited about this opportunity.


text:
[]

_Listen to Monday's Chad Mendes interview in the player above._

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

Chad Mendes was set to fight Jose Aldo in the main event of the ill-fated UFC 176 pay-per-view on Aug. 2, but the fight and event were subsequently canceled when Aldo withdrew due to a neck injury.

During a Monday appearance on the Sherdog Radio Network’s ”Beatdown” show, “Money” weighed in on what he really thought caused the fight to be postponed. MMA has had issues of late with fighters testing positive for performance enhancing drugs, and Mendes believes Aldo is no exception.

“I feel like this happens to me a lot, like I have a curse or something. It sucks,” Mendes said. “I definitely do [think Aldo’s using PEDs]. This is something that's been ongoing, but for him to all of a sudden just drop out -- I mean he drops out of a lot of fights -- but I think it’s pretty coincidental.”

Mendes supports recent efforts by the UFC and athletic commissions to implement random drug tests. The method obviously works, but the issue remains rampant, with high profile cases involving Chael Sonnen, Wanderlei Silva and Ali Bagautinov serving as examples.

“I’d probably say at least 80 percent of fighters are probably taking something,” Mendes said. “You know, there’s guys that are coming back from injury trying to take it. Whether it’s them trying to survive, pay their mortgage, pay rent or whatever -- or guys just trying to get that full advantage to be at the top. So yeah, I think there’s a lot of people taking performance enhancing drugs.”

With time the system will be refined, but the Team Alpha Male product worries about how such rules will apply to international fighters like Aldo.

“I like it [random drug testing]. The only thing I question about the system is what do we do about guys that are out of the country? Guys in Brazil, guys in Japan, can we trust those random drug tests?” Mendes said. “I was thinking about this the other day: If someone were to knock on Aldo’s door in Brazil and say, ‘We need to give you a random drug test,’ and he says ‘Here’s $1,000, go away,’ it’s done. I feel like something like that could happen very easily. I just want to know what the system would be -- how could we trust that it’s going to be fair everywhere?”

Following the news that their rematch would be postponed, the featherweight champion accused Mendes of using “supplements” to avoid injuries. Mendes seemed pleased on Monday that he is affecting Aldo as much as he is.

“The first time I saw that, for me, this is huge in my mind. He’s reaching big time. We have never seen Aldo lash out like this; we’ve never seen him lose his temper. I am in his head. I own him right now,” he said.

“This is huge for me. This is huge for me getting in there and taking that belt from him. I’ve never seen him talk like this about anybody. He’s being very disrespectful,” Mendes continued. “I’ve never been caught red-handed or anything. It’s funny to me that as soon as the whole random drug testing started popping up, the next day he is injured and out of the fight. If anything, I could throw that in his face, but whatever.”

So where will the fight ultimately end up taking place? Both sides obviously want the bout to go down on home soil, but according to Mendes, Aldo’s push for the fight to be in Brazil – like their first encounter at UFC 142 -- stems from something else.

“So this is the thing: We’ve got all this random drug testing, all this stuff that’s going on, testing for EPO, HGH, all this stuff now -- they can get away with that stuff over in Brazil. This is why he wants me to be in Brazil and fighting in Brazil, [because] they can do all that kind of stuff there. For me, I want this to be a fair fight. I went there first; I fought him in his backyard. I think it’s only fair he comes here and fights me in my backyard. Let’s make it one and one and see what happens,” Mendes said. “We are still working on it. I talked to [UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby] a little bit. It’s a 50/50 percent chance it could end up in Brazil. We are trying obviously to get it pushed here. We don’t know for sure.”

Only time will tell.

question: What does the text say about Brazil?

answer: The UFC does random drug testing for fair fights and fighters from the U.S. wonder if the testing in Brazil is up to the same standard. In particular, U.S. fighter Chad Mendes suspects Brazilian fighters might be able to bribe their way out of drug testing. Mendes' upcoming fight with Aldo has a 50/50 chance of being held in Brazil.

question: What does the text say about the weight in pounds of middleweight fighters?

question: What does the text say about performance enhancing drugs?

answer: The specific performance enhancers mentioned include EPO and HGH. These PEDs are used by many UFC and MMA fighters to try and achieve top performance and sometimes to come back after an injury. PEDs are not permitted by the UFC, which does random drug testing for them. Fighters Aldo and Mendes both believe each other may be using them.

question: What does the text say about the relationship between Mendes and Aldo?

answer: They compete against each other in UFC fights. Mendes thinks Aldo uses performance enhancing drugs and suggests that is why Aldo recently canceled a fight with him. Mendes thinks Aldo might be able to bribe his way out of testing in Brazil. Aldo has also lashed out at Mendes, implying that he thinks Mendez is using PEDs to prevent injuries. Mendes seems to find Aldo's accusation against him of PED use ironic, and thinks that Aldo's apparent irritation with him will work to his advantage in their upcoming fight.


text:
KEN MARTIN (July 17, 1973) is an American political figure from Minnesota. He is currently Chairman of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party, President of the Association of State Democratic Committees, and a Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee.[1]

Personal life

Martin lives in Eagan, Minnesota with his wife Jennifer O’Rourke and two sons, Samuel and James. He is active in youth sports in Eagan where he has served on the Eagan Athletic Association Board of Directors and as the President of the Eagan Basketball Association.

Early Life and Education

Martin was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on July 17, 1973. He attended Eden Prairie High School and graduated from the University of Kansas in 1996 with Bachelors of Arts Degrees in Political Science and History. [2] Martin's deep involvement in student government and campus life led to Chancellor Robert Hemenway presenting him with the Donald K. Alderson Memorial Award, which recognizes a graduating senior whose campus involvement as a student benefits fellow students and the greater good.

Career

Martin started his political work in 1990 as an intern for Minnesota U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone's campaign and later interned in his official office. In 1992, Martin organized college campuses throughout the South for the Clinton/Gore Campaign. After college he worked in Kansas politics helping with the Kansas Democratic Coordinated Campaign as Field Director for the Kansas Democratic Party.

In 1998, Martin moved back to his home state of Minnesota and served as the Political & Field  Director for the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party. He served as the Deputy Minnesota State Director for the Gore campaign in 2000, and in 2002 was the campaign manager for Secretary of State candidate Buck Humphrey. In 2004 Martin helped manage John Kerry's Presidential campaign in Minnesota.[3]

From 2001 to 2005, Martin served as the Policy Aide for Ramsey County Commissioner Susan Haigh. In 2005, he served as the Executive Assistant to Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch and then went on to help run his campaign for Governor in 2006.[4]

Working with the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters, Martin led an effort on behalf of the Building Trades to pass prevailing wage ordinances with local governments throughout Minnesota.

In 2008 Martin led the campaign that successfully passed the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment (Legacy Amendment) to the Minnesota Constitution which to this day is still one of the largest conservation finance measures to pass in our nation's history as well as one of the highest vote-getters on a Minnesota ballot.[5]

Martin later served as the Executive Director of WIN Minnesota, a Minnesota-based donor collaborative which helped develop, fund and direct independent expenditures during the 2010 election cycle. Immediately after the election, Governor Mark Dayton tapped Martin to direct Dayton's successful recount effort[6] ushering in Minnesota's first Democratic Governor in 24 years.

Following the successful 2010 campaign, Governor Mark Dayton asked Martin to serve as the Chairman of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party where he was elected unanimously in February 2011. In 2017, Martin was elected by his peers throughout the nation as the President of Association of State Democratic Committees and became a Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee.

Minnesota DFL Party Chair

[Martin in 2016] Martin is currently serving his fifth term as chairman of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL), the Minnesota branch of the Democratic Party. He has held this post since 2011—making him the longest-serving chairman in the 75-year history of the DFL.[7]

When Martin was elected DFL Party Chair in 2011 he Inherited a state party deeply in debt [8] following significant election losses including losing the majority in the State Senate for the first time in 40 years, the majority in the House of Representatives, and one of the longest held Democratic seats in Congress in MN-08 with the defeat of Congressman Jim Oberstar.

Martin was able to quickly raise significant resources to rebuild the party and began making the DFL party the center of gravity of driving political strategy on behalf of its stakeholders – activists and party leaders, candidates and elected officials, and progressive organizations and community partners.

This coalition of campaign efforts and partners enabled progressive movements to align strategy and increase efficiency, and positioned the Party for big wins in 2012, including taking back majorities in both the state House and state Senate, becoming the first state in the nation to defeat a Constitutional Amendment to ban same sex marriage,[9] beating back a Voter ID Amendment, reclaiming the MN-08 Congressional seat with the election of Congressman Rick Nolan, and keeping Minnesota in the blue column for President Obama.

The 2014 cycle brought additional success as the Minnesota DFL under Martin's leadership reelected, by large margins, two office holders in Governor Mark Dayton and U.S. Senator Al Franken who each won their first elections by less than 1% of the vote.[10]

During the 2016 elections, Minnesota was one of only two Midwestern states to vote for the Democratic presidential nominee.  In addition, despite significant losses of rural congressional seats throughout the country, the Minnesota DFL was able to win all three of its rural congressional races by reelecting Congressman Tim Walz (MN-01), Congressman Collin Petersen (MN-07), and Congressman Rick Nolan (MN-08). [11]

In 2018 the DFL had the most successful year at the ballot box in party history.  The Minnesota DFL elected Tim Walz as Governor, marking the first time the DFL has had three consecutive terms in the Governors office. In addition, the DFL won every constitutional office, decisively won back the majority in the State House of Representatives, flipped two congressional seats from red-to-blue, one of those seats being represented by the Republicans by over forty years, and elected two women to the U.S. Senate, Senator Amy Klobuchar and Senator Tina Smith, becoming only the fifth state in the union to be represented by two women in the U.S. Senate simultaneously. [12]

During Martin's tenure the DFL made a priority of bringing in more voices and pathways to leadership, resulting in the most diverse staff, leadership, and party officers in DFL history.[13]

In addition, the Minnesota DFL is home to the first Muslim Attorney General in the nation Keith Ellison,[14] to the first lesbian mom to serve in Congress Angie Craig,[15] to the first Somali-American to serve in Congress Ilhan Omar,[16] and to the highest ranking native American woman to ever serve in an Executive Office in our nation, Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan.[17]

DNC Vice Chair

In 2017, Martin was elected by his peers throughout the country as the President of the Association of State Democratic Chairs (ASDC),[18] and by virtue of that election became a Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).[19]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]  MPR News|website=www.mprnews.org|access-date=2019-07-31}}

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

title: Ken Martin (politician)

question: What attracted Ken Martin to politics?

question: What is one of the main strengths of Ken Martin as a politician?

answer: The ability to work and collaborate with others policy movers.

question: Summarize Martin's political achievements from  1998 to 2008?

answer: He served as the Political & Field  Director for the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party. He was the Deputy Minnesota State Director for the Gore campaign. He hep manage John Kerry's Presidential campaign in Minnesota and led the campaign that successfully passed the Clean Water, Land, and Legacy Amendment (Legacy Amendment).

question: Summarise Martin's achievements as the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) Party Chair in Minnesota?

answer: Martin ensured the state's party debt is paid. Under his leadership, the state's two officers holders were re-elected by large margins. In 2016, the Minnesota DFL won all its three seats. Also, Minnesota is the first state to have the first Muslim Attorney General in the country.


text:
John didn’t feel like a homeless guy, because he had been a lot of other things before he was a homeless guy. Apartment tenant. Middle-manager. Depressed. Broke. Couch surfer. Scavenger. Survivor. Now, homeless. Really, though, he was a man without a safety net. That was all it was, and maybe that wasn’t so bad.
John didn’t have to worry about paying his credit card bill on time.
John didn’t give a shit whether he missed the first five minutes of his sitcom or he couldn’t get the copier to print double-sided at the office or his amazon.com order came three days later than he expected it to.
He was comforted by the fact that these comforts of modern life didn’t bother him anymore.
By moving backward on society’s scale, John had moved forward.

This isn’t to say that John was enlightened by his homelessness.
At least not in the way that the crazy men who yelled about Jesus on the street corners were enlightened, and certainly not in the way that that jackass Saul who lived next door to John’s old apartment was enlightened by his herbal teas and sunrise yoga and smooth-flowing chakras or whatever the Grand Master Swami High Priest Chief Guru told him to meditate about that week.
John was simply at peace with the way he lived in a way that all those society-bound hivemind slaves tried to forget that they weren’t.
Organizing the weekly soccer carpool and using the same color pen on the grocery list because it looks nicer that way is not anyone’s natural lifeblood, yet it gets people going because it is the closest they can get to being in control of their lives while staying firmly put in their minivans and ergonomic rolling desk chairs, and the closer they can get to control is the closer they can get to feeling alive.
And it never works.
Soccer moms still sneak cigarettes after their kids get on the bus, and Saul still jerks off furiously into recycled hemp fiber tissues with his eyes squeezed shut in shame until it’s over because nobody is satisfied.
It’s against the natural order of life to live like this, but we tell ourselves it’s better.
We’re better than nature.
We’re more advanced than that.
And we still rot in the earth like any other animal after we die, and people wonder why society has an uncomfortable time talking about death.
John wasn’t satisfied by life either, but he was closer to a natural outlet for his frustration than Saul and the millions of other drones who didn’t even consciously process advertising anymore because it was everywhere.
John didn’t spray paint his name on the sides of bridges, seeking the rush of rebellion but allowing his indistinct thoughts to lead him blindly into adding another layer of grime to the filthy buildup of the human impact on the world.
John didn’t live within the boundaries of the capitalist system and bring his money, so valued and coveted yet useless in practicality’s eyes, his worthless scraps of paper, to the convenience store to trade for a bottle of purple hair dye to show his rebellion against the man.
John didn’t use humane, PETA-approved traps on the rats that came into his section of living space under the bridge.
He killed them.
Because that is how nature works.
John wasn’t appointed his living space by a signed slip of paper issued in standardized form by a group of self-appointed leaders who follow each other in circles until they slow down and get replaced by newer, identical pieces.
He lived there because the space was there, and his body was in that space, and just by doing that he physically overcame the theoretical importance of every tax document that was ever filed away for later reference.
John cut through some of the bullshit of human society by living a taboo.
His priorities were in a much more natural order than those of the businessmen who owned three different kinds of aftershave and spent his limited waking moments on matching his cufflinks to his tie each morning, and so John was living backwards.
SOCIETY IS SICK OF ITSELF
And every hypocritical, dissatisfied, angry young idealist was jealous of John, and every business-suit wearing lump of coal whose spark had been doused by the dirty dishwater of society’s ideas of goals and propriety comforted the raw confusion that John made him feel by telling himself that John was sad that he didn’t have the stupid luxuries that his life had, when really it was all he could do to keep talking to drown out the primal screams of his inner human being as it tried to hang itself with the tangled USB cord of his Blackberry phone.
SET ME FREE
And of course John was not jealous, and he was crushed in the bottom of his throat by his pity for those who carried their self-imposed burdens in their Starbucks cups and laptop cases and plugged up the flow of their natural desires and human impulses with clumps of advertising and white picket-fence posts and the hundreds of pages of their financially-responsible retirement plans that they would never even enjoy because they would be DEAD.
And everyone dies as atoms and molecules and matter and clay and filth and dust and hair and teeth and every brain is a tangible thing
And when people die, their repressed, crushed-up, malnourished souls try to uncurl themselves and fly away to live in the natural world with the trees and the animals and the other shit that makes things live, and they FAIL because they’re too beaten down and they were never allowed to hope, and their willpower is weak so they give up just like their bodies and their brains and their hearts did, and they die too inside the cage of bones that used to keep them safe and so they return to the earth but not in the way that they were meant to
And John’s soul will fly away when he dies, because he saw that he was gripping it too tightly and flattening it under his piles of tax-report forms and so he let it go and he nursed it back to life with real food that he grew in the earth and songs that he sang because he felt them inside himself and he wanted to sing them and not because anyone else cared if he did or not and he drank and he smoked and he fucked for pleasure and not for rebellion or pride or shame and every person he had ever met asked him why he was ruining his life and he told them no, he was living it and so they turned around and plugged their ears and turned up the TV because they felt what he said in their hearts and it pulled on them more than they were used to and they wanted it but they were scared and so they didn’t let themselves think about it and another layer of cotton grew around their hearts so it would be even harder for something to get in next time it tried.

WHAT DO YOU WANT?
WHY DO YOU WANT
DO YOU WANT
CAN YOU WANT
I WANT TO NEED
And all I know is want
And I’m torn and it makes me just as bad as everyone else
Worse
And what is stopping me-
And I’m a bystander in my own life-
And what am I waiting for-
And I am the biggest hypocrite of all---

FUCK YOU—
NO ONE IS CONTENT-
Shave your head and say what you want to people and mean what you say to people and never feel embarrassed and fuck society and fuck in society and don’t be careful at all because you are alive and you need to feel it and things can happen to you and you shouldn’t die with wasted potential and energy that you didn’t use and you can feel everything so let yourself feel everything and do it RIGHT NOW
Destroy yourself because you can and you need to do everything you can do and you can do bad and good and you can feel bad and good so do both and feel both and that way you will live

title: Started as a story, became a rant of my feelings

question: How did John become homeless?

answer: This information is missing.

question: What is the relationship between the narrator and John?

answer: It is implied that the narrator made up John.

question: Did John manage to get out of homelessness?

answer: No.

question: Did John die?

answer: No.

question: What's the point of the text?

answer: Being homeless is more natural than being part of a capitalist society.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: The text starts as a story about John, a man who once had a home and a job but is now homeless. The narrator uses this story to make a point about how John's homeless life was more honest and more natural than living by the norms of a capitalist society.