The most recent, exhaustive studies suggest that there is no relationship between the different lunar phases and birth rates

Does the moon play a role in childbirth? | Health | EL PAÍS English

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Luuna

You can jump to any section of y The National Cislunar Science & Technology Strateg here. Objective 4: Implement Cislunar communications and positioning, navigation, and timing capabilities with scalable and interoperable approaches Communications and PNT are the common information infrastructure for all activities in Cislunar space, including in Lunar orbit and on the Lunar surface. The United States government will use scalable, interoperable, and secure approaches for information infrastructure to enable a cooperative and sustainable ecosystem in Cislunar space. The NASA Artemis program, with its near-term mission to return humans to the Moon, provides the foundational elements for this objective. Through the Artemis program, NASA and its international partners will use innovative technologies to explore more of the Lunar surface than ever before, for the benefit of all.[13] The U.S. government, in collaboration with allies, international partners, and private actors, will work to establish the first long-term presence on the Moon. Lessons learned on and around the Moon will be used to take the next giant leap: sending the first humans to Mars. This objective will ensure that the systems and infrastructure deployed for the Artemis program enable a cooperative and sustainable ecosystem in Cislunar space. U.S. Cislunar communications and PNT capabilities, if implemented with scalable and interoperable approaches, can meet requirements for NASA’s Artemis program, foster new commercial space activities and lower barriers to entry, and provide an early technological foundation for advancing responsible and sustainable activities in Cislunar space. To implement this objective, the potential future needs of all stakeholders planning activities in Cislunar space should be considered. The following sub-objectives support this objective: The U.S. government and private actors are planning new Cislunar activities, but there is insufficient information regarding the capabilities needed to support these activities. Beyond network communications and PNT, capabilities of interest include mapping, in-space and Lunar surface transportation, radio frequency spectrum management, in-situ mobility, Lunar surface power generation and storage, use of Lunar resources, search and rescue, and space situational awareness. The United States government will define the needed capabilities, to include consideration of the cybersecurity, scalability, and interoperability of associated systems. The level of needed capability will inform updates to this strategy and subsequent implementation plans. Establish foundational capabilities in a timely fashion to enable a flexible Cislunar architecture. Architectures deployed for Cislunar operations should be designed to anticipate the emergence of innovative and unexpected future user requirements that cannot be predicted at present. Architectures with this kind of flexibility likely require the use of broadly adopted technical standards. The United States will lead in developing capabilities and technical standards that support maximally interoperable and scalable infrastructure, while ensuring cybersecurity, especially for Cislunar communications and PNT. Standards of particular interest include: those for PNT in Cislunar space, radio and optical communications, a Lunar reference frame tied to the celestial and terrestrial reference frames, spacecraft safety and rescue, and orbit message formats and propagation models in Cislunar space. Infrastructure adaptation should include modernization and expansion of numerous sensing, ranging, and timing technologies and techniques to enable integration of new space-based operations with existing infrastructure. Such standards efforts should leverage bottom-up approaches that build upon existing[14] and emerging standards for space systems, including input from non-government experts. U.S. government agencies will leverage and promote the use of interoperable and scalable commercial services in Cislunar space. Ensure that capabilities for U.S. government Cislunar operations are scalable and interoperable with systems operated by private and international actors. Ongoing space activities like planetary defense, space weather research and monitoring, orbital debris mitigation, and spaceand ground-based astronomy could begin to extend coordination to include consideration of new Cislunar development activities. The NSTC Subcommittee on Cislunar Science & Technology can help facilitate new U.S. government collaboration to advance Cislunar space priorities. Coordinate new Cislunar activities with existing in-space operations. [13] Artemis I will fly an uncrewed flight test that will be the first in a series of increasingly complex missions to the Moon in preparation for human missions to Mars. Artemis II will perform a crewed Lunar flyby mission. Many other robotic missions will be conducted to Lunar orbit and the Lunar surface, including an uncrewed human lander demonstration mission. Subsequent Artemis missions will see the first woman and first person of color land on the Moon. This program will be supported by smaller-scale pathfinder missions, such as the Tipping Point Technology Demonstrations and larger programs such as the Lunar Gateway. These missions will include early tests of the establishment of PNT and communications networks. [14] International Deep Space Interoperability Standards, A partnership between International Space Station Agencies This content was initially published on in November 2022. whitehouse.gov This content has been broken-up into bite sized sections each with unique headlines and AI-generated lead images in line with the provisions of Creative Commons 3.0.

Lunar Linkages: U.S. Aims to Forge Interoperable Space Communications

You can jump to any section of y The National Cislunar Science & Technology Strateg here. Objective 2: Expand international S&T cooperation in Cislunar space Achieving a peaceful, sustainable Cislunar ecosystem will require international cooperation. New Cislunar space operations and capabilities should invite expanded international engagement. For example, the Artemis Accords reinforce a practical set of principles to guide space exploration beyond Earth's orbit. A number of international partners are actively contributing enduring Lunar infrastructure to NASA missions, while multiple nations have their own Lunar exploration plans. Existing standards and organizational bodies, including those in the United Nations system of committees and specialized agencies, already impact the use of Cislunar space. The U.S. government will continue to work through these bodies, maintaining and promoting with international partners the availability of resources in Cislunar space for the full range of scientific activities. To advance Lunar science and provide a basis for cooperative growth in Cislunar space, the United States will pursue specific areas in new S&T engagement with other nations, including: Develop and lead on a proposal for an International Lunar Year Science is an international enterprise, and scientists have long demonstrated the ability to work across boundaries for the common good. A United States-led initiative to establish an International Lunar Year (ILY) can build upon the historical examples of past International Polar Years (IPY), the International Geophysical Year (IGY), and the International Space Year (ISY). The ILY can amplify U.S. objectives being achieved with the Artemis Accords by fostering developments such as the coordinated use of Lunar data centers, coordinated Moon-based research (such as Lunar geophysical networks, solar science, and far side radio astronomy), and similar joint “leave behind” capabilities. The ILY can also demonstrate how these activities can be carried out responsibly for the benefit and in the interests of all nations, including developing countries, while enhancing transparency and building confidence and cooperation among Moon-faring entities. Develop technical foundations of best practices for safe Cislunar spaceflight operations With rapidly increasing spaceflight activities in Cislunar space, the U.S. government will lead the development of best practices for safe and predictable operations in Cislunar space and Lunar orbit. In coordination with standard developing organizations, the U.S. government will support the development of best practices related to debris mitigation, minimizing the hazard of Lunar landing ejecta, end-of-life operations, mishap reporting, collision avoidance, astronaut search and rescue, radio frequency interference, and other events associated with the safety of flight. The U.S. government will also ensure Cislunar activities are supported by existing and future communication capabilities that manage spaceflight safety issues or emergencies. The U.S. government’s role in the development and use of standards will be guided by the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act, OMB Circular A-119, and other Federal laws, regulations, and international agreements. This content was initially published on in November 2022. whitehouse.gov This content has been broken-up into bite sized sections each with unique headlines and AI-generated lead images in line with the provisions of Creative Commons 3.0.

U.S. Proposes International Lunar Year Initiative to Foster Global Cislunar Collaboration

SEC v. Terraform Court Filing, retrieved on February 16, 2023, is part of . You can jump to any part in this filing . This is part 13 of 38. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series here B. “Wrapped“ LUNA 59. Some crypto assets, like UST, LUNA, and the MIR tokens on the Terraform blockchain, are issued and transferred on a particular blockchain - meaning that they are represented on that blockchain. Generally speaking, different blockchains are not interoperable with one another. In other words, crypto assets on one blockchain cannot be automatically transferred to another blockchain. 60. To address this limitation, "cross-chain" and "bridge" protocols were created to allow investors to move value across blockchains. One example is the "wrapped" LUNA token (or "wLUNA"). These wLUNA tokens are generally created, or "bridged," from the Terraform blockchain to another blockchain by depositing LUNA in a particular wallet address on the Terraform blockchain, and then having an associated smart contract on different blockchains, such as the Ethereum blockchain, to create wLUNA. 61. Similarly, wLUNA could be bridged back to the Terra blockchain by having wLUNA destroyed, or "burned," by the smart contract on the non-Terraform blockchains and receiving LUNA from the address or smart contract on the Terraform blockchain. In essence, this mechanism created a pool of LUNA on the Terraform blockchain, through which wLUNA owners could convert their holdings back into LUNA. Continue Reading . Here About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case 1:23-cv-01346 retrieved on September 12, 2023, from is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. sec.gov

Wrapped Luna (or wLUNA): Everything You Need to Know About the Crypto Token

SEC v. Terraform Court Filing, retrieved on February 16, 2023, is part of . You can jump to any part in this filing . This is part 12 of 38. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series here A. LUNA 3. Reasonable Expectation of Profits From Defendants' Managerial Efforts. 49. Investors in LUNA reasonably expected to profit from Defendants' efforts to develop and support the Terraform ecosystem. 50. Defendants publicly pitched LUNA as an investment that would increase in value with increased usage of the Terraform blockchain that could result from Defendants' continued development and maintenance. Defendants publicly stated that as the Terraform ecosystem grew based on Defendants' efforts, the value of LUNA would go up as well. As Kwon explained in an April 7, 2021 thread on Twitter (referring to LUNA as "moon"): 51. In the same April 7, 2021 thread, Kwon explicitly touted that the value of LUNA could grow as the Terraform "ecosystem" grows, specifically tying that potential growth to his own efforts (which he promised would be successful by touting that he would "kick ass") while investors remained passive (or "s[a]t back") in the enterprise. 52. As one Terraform employee put it in Terraform's publicly-available Telegram messaging application, the "[v]alue of Luna grows as Terra [ecosystem] gets adopted and used." Another Terraform employee noted in an online Ask-Me-Anything interview on Reddit: “[i]n the long-run... Terra's transaction volume will be the main determinant of Luna's value."[3] 53. In marketing materials distributed to potential investors in January 2019, Terraform described purchases of LUNA as "investments" and LUNA buyers as "investors." The same materials noted that "top global exchanges and funds" already had "invested in" Terraform (referring to their purchase of LUNA), and that Terraform had raised $32 million in July 2018 from an "elite group of VCs" referring to venture capital firms. 54. Some of Terraform's offers and sales of LUNA were governed by purchase agreements between Terraform and LUNA investors. These agreements generally entitled buyers to acquire LUNA at a discount to market prices. By selling at a discount to market prices, Defendants incentivized buyers to seek to sell their LUNA into public markets in order to realize a profit. Moreover, for some buyers who purchased LUNA prior to the public launch of the token, Defendants provided in some of the agreements for a gradated token distribution schedule that would control for the flow of LUNA tokens being sold into the market, such that early investors would receive their LUNA continuously over a period of 12-18 months. These provisions controlled the release of LUNA over a longer period of time in smaller quantities, to control for potential negative effects on LUNA's price that could occur with large distributions of LUNA into the market. These provisions reflected the expectations of both Defendants and investors that that these LUNA investors would seek to sell their LUNA into public markets for a profit and sought to protect LUNA's trading price by limiting amounts that could be resold during any given time period. 55. Defendants also engaged in efforts to develop, support, and grow the Terraform ecosystem. Defendants publicly touted these efforts through a variety of forums, including widely accessible online social media platforms, such as accounts with Twitter and Medium, messaging applications with public channels like Telegram, and YouTube. Terraform's stated efforts to grow the Terraform ecosystem included four substantial version upgrades of the Terraform blockchain, adding myriad back-end technical features and front-end user applications, entering into partnerships with collaborators to develop ecosystem features, and otherwise extensively and publicly promoting the Terraform ecosystem. 56. As Defendants engaged in and touted these efforts, the market price of LUNA increased from under a dollar in early 2021 to a high of around $119.18 in April 2022, before it crashed to under a penny in May 2022, as represented by the graph below: 57. Defendants also provided monthly "Community Updates" on publicly available Medium blog posts, which discussed Defendants' coding and development the Terraform ecosystem. Similarly, Terraform employees and Kwon touted their efforts to develop and support the Terraform ecosystem in monthly investor emails that they distributed called "Terraform Labs Investor Update" (later renamed to "Terraform Labs Ecosystem Update"). The recipients of these "Updates" had email addresses that included, for example, an email group investment@terra.money. These emails highlighted Terraform's engineering, coding, and integration of applications to the Terraform ecosystem, among other things. These emails also announced new Terraform hiring for positions "key" to the ecosystem's development. 58. Terraform and Kwon also engaged in other efforts to create LUNA resale opportunities by applying to crypto asset trading platforms to make LUNA available for trading, including submitting questionnaires that provided information about LUNA and Terraform, and then furthered LUNA investors' reasonable expectations of profits by publicly announcing new trading platform listings. [3] Another Terraform employee agreed in an internal communication: "Luna receives value from Terra [stablecoin] as Terra [stablecoin] is transacted. In a way, investing in Luna is a bet that Terra's economy will grow larger over time. Investors buy into Luna, not Terra." Continue Reading . Here About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case 1:23-cv-01346 retrieved on September 13, 2023, from is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. sec.gov

Do Kwon and Terraform Gave Investors A Reasonable Expectation of Profits: How They Talked LUNA Up

Investors Tendered Fiat Currency in Exchange for LUNA 

The environment was filled with sadness and frustration; everyone had tears rolling down from their eyes. The team of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) scientists had failed to make a successful soft 's surface in 2019. The then ISRO chief K Sivaan was seen breaking to tears in a video after the mission failed. landing on the moon India launched its second lunar mission , which consisted of an orbiter named Vikram lander and a rover named Pragyan. The goal of the mission was to study the soil and surface composition of the moon and to discover water in the form of ice (The temperature at the moon drops to -173 degrees Celsius, so water can be usually found in the form of ice) in the south pole region of the moon. Chandrayaan 2 The spacecraft carrying the rover and the orbiter was launched from the second launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in the state of Andhra Pradesh of India on 22nd July 2019. ISRO was able to put the orbiter in orbit of the moon, but when attempting to make a soft landing on the moon's surface, the Vikram lander crashed on the surface of the moon. According to a failure analysis report by ISRO, it was found that the lander deviated from its intended trajectory and crashed onto the lunar surface while attempting to make a soft land on 6th September 2019. The reason for its deviation was a software glitch mentioned in the report. The mission failed but it was not able to affect the determination and hopes of ISRO's scientists. Though they were sad, they were determined to reach the moon. After the Chandrayaan-2, many countries tried to make a soft landing on the moon including  Japan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Israel. Unfortunately, all these countries failed. The reason for their failure was the unpredictable and harsh conditions the space offers. For ISRO, it was a lot of learning as it can analyze the data from these failed missions and learn by analyzing it. It took the Indian Space Organisation just four years to develop another lander and rover for the Chandrayaan-3. ISRO launched its third lunar mission, Chandrayaan-3 on 14th July, 2023, at 14:35 Hrs. IST from the Second Launch Pad, SDSC-SHAR, Sriharikota. It consisted of the same Vikram lander and Pragyan rover as Chandryaan-2 did. The main objective of the Chandrayaan-3 mission is to land safely on the moon's south pole surface, learn about the moon's topography, soil composition, and craters, and most importantly to discover water on the moon. It was expected that the mission would take around five weeks to land on the moon's surface on 23rd August 2023. The whole months of July and August were tense for ISRO scientists and the workforce. It had been just around three weeks from launch and a new player had arrived to compete with the Indian mission. It was Russia's Luna-25. Russia launched its moon mission on 10th August 2023 at 23:10 UTC from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia's far eastern Amur Region. Chandrayaan-3 Russia had never launched a mission to the moon in the last fifty years. Some people started to think they had launched it to try to defeat India to become the first country to land on the moon's south pole.  Some even criticized the Russian Federation for its decision to launch a space mission at a time when it was engaged in a war with Ukraine which had been going on for a year and a half now. The environment at ISRO's headquarters in the Indian city of Bengaluru was filled with stress and nervousness. The sudden announcement of Russia's Luna-25 launch did not help but increased it. Now, there was a competition between two great nations, two space superpowers, and more importantly two friends. The friendship between India and Russia is such that even if one of the countries fails, it will be happy that its friend was able to complete the mission and it will bring prosperity to humanity. Russia's met an unexpected misfortune. Russian space agency Roscosmos announced that the lander crashed on the moon's surface on 19th August due to a technical glitch. Luna-25 If the Russian lander would not have been crashed, it would have become the first country to reach the moon's surface. Russia has powerful rockets which take much less time to reach the lunar orbit than it does for India. The people of both countries were sad because of Russia's failure. Indians gave their condolences to the Russian citizens and scientists on social media. On the other part of the world, the West was enjoying Russia's defeat and could not get tired of trolling it and making memes. Westerners do not seem to understand that Russia's failure was a failure of humanity. The Russian rover had planned to explore the moon's surface for a year, collecting various kinds of data that would be helpful in the future for establishing bases on the moon. The ISRO was now more careful as the world had hoped for its success. Only four days had left until the day when the Indian space agency would make a landing attempt on the moon's surface. The scientists were dedicated, they worked late at night to make sure every calculation was correctly done and there was not a single chance of a mistake. The day came. It was 23rd August 2023, the day on which the lander would attempt to make a soft land on the southern region of the lunar surface. The lander has found a spot to make soft land. It fired its four engines at the altitude of thirty kilometres putting brakes to the enormous speed it had gained while orbitting the moon. The lander tried to stabilize itself when it reached the altitude of 10 kilometers and in the next few minutes, it landed SUCCESSFULLY on the moon's surface. India became the first country to reach the darker side of the moon. Cheers filled the ISRO headquarters. PM Modi was taking live updates from his assistants and his smile was like none other when his country made history. The scientists who were once sad and crying just four years back now could not control their happiness. The ISRO's Chandrayaan-3 was the perfect ending to the story which ended with sadness in 2019 with the failure of Chandrayaan-2. The future which lies ahead is bright both for India and humanity. Also published here

The Story of Indian Lunar Missions

The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . Chapter VI Chapter VI Two days have passed since that day of lunacy. What a noise and a fuss and a chattering and an uproar there was! And what a welter of unseemliness and disorder and stupidity and bad manners! And I the cause of it all! Yet part of the scene was also ridiculous—at all events to myself it was so. I am not quite sure what was the matter with me—whether I was merely stupefied or whether I purposely broke loose and ran amok. At times my mind seems all confused; while at other times I seem almost to be back in my childhood, at the school desk, and to have done the deed simply out of mischief. It all came of Polina—yes, of Polina. But for her, there might never have been a fracas. Or perhaps I did the deed in a fit of despair (though it may be foolish of me to think so)? What there is so attractive about her I cannot think. Yet there is something attractive about her—something passing fair, it would seem. Others besides myself she has driven to distraction. She is tall and straight, and very slim. Her body looks as though it could be tied into a knot, or bent double, like a cord. The imprint of her foot is long and narrow. It is, a maddening imprint—yes, simply a maddening one! And her hair has a reddish tint about it, and her eyes are like cat’s eyes—though able also to glance with proud, disdainful mien. On the evening of my first arrival, four months ago, I remember that she was sitting and holding an animated conversation with De Griers in the salon. And the way in which she looked at him was such that later, when I retired to my own room upstairs, I kept fancying that she had smitten him in the face—that she had smitten him right on the cheek, so peculiar had been her look as she stood confronting him. Ever since that evening I have loved her. But to my tale. I stepped from the path into the carriage-way, and took my stand in the middle of it. There I awaited the Baron and the Baroness. When they were but a few paces distant from me I took off my hat, and bowed. I remember that the Baroness was clad in a voluminous silk dress, pale grey in colour, and adorned with flounces and a crinoline and train. Also, she was short and inordinately stout, while her gross, flabby chin completely concealed her neck. Her face was purple, and the little eyes in it had an impudent, malicious expression. Yet she walked as though she were conferring a favour upon everybody by so doing. As for the Baron, he was tall, wizened, bony-faced after the German fashion, spectacled, and, apparently, about forty-five years of age. Also, he had legs which seemed to begin almost at his chest—or, rather, at his chin! Yet, for all his air of peacock-like conceit, his clothes sagged a little, and his face wore a sheepish air which might have passed for profundity. These details I noted within a space of a few seconds. At first my bow and the fact that I had my hat in my hand barely caught their attention. The Baron only scowled a little, and the Baroness swept straight on. “Madame la Baronne,” said I, loudly and distinctly—embroidering each word, as it were—“j’ai l’honneur d’être votre esclave.” Then I bowed again, put on my hat, and walked past the Baron with a rude smile on my face. Polina had ordered me merely to take off my hat: the bow and the general effrontery were of my own invention. God knows what instigated me to perpetrate the outrage! In my frenzy I felt as though I were walking on air. “Hein!” ejaculated—or, rather, growled—the Baron as he turned towards me in angry surprise. I too turned round, and stood waiting in pseudo-courteous expectation. Yet still I wore on my face an impudent smile as I gazed at him. He seemed to hesitate, and his brows contracted to their utmost limits. Every moment his visage was growing darker. The Baroness also turned in my direction, and gazed at me in wrathful perplexity, while some of the passers-by also began to stare at us, and others of them halted outright. “Hein!” the Baron vociferated again, with a redoubled growl and a note of growing wrath in his voice. “Ja wohl!” I replied, still looking him in the eyes. “Sind Sie rasend?” he exclaimed, brandishing his stick, and, apparently, beginning to feel nervous. Perhaps it was my costume which intimidated him, for I was well and fashionably dressed, after the manner of a man who belongs to indisputably good society. “Ja wo-o-ohl!” cried I again with all my might with a longdrawn rolling of the “ohl” sound after the fashion of the Berliners (who constantly use the phrase “Ja wohl!” in conversation, and more or less prolong the syllable “ohl” according as they desire to express different shades of meaning or of mood). At this the Baron and the Baroness faced sharply about, and almost fled in their alarm. Some of the bystanders gave vent to excited exclamations, and others remained staring at me in astonishment. But I do not remember the details very well. Wheeling quietly about, I returned in the direction of Polina Alexandrovna. But, when I had got within a hundred paces of her seat, I saw her rise and set out with the children towards the hotel. At the portico I caught up to her. “I have perpetrated the—the piece of idiocy,” I said as I came level with her. “Have you? Then you can take the consequences,” she replied without so much as looking at me. Then she moved towards the staircase. I spent the rest of the evening walking in the park. Thence I passed into the forest, and walked on until I found myself in a neighbouring principality. At a wayside restaurant I partook of an omelette and some wine, and was charged for the idyllic repast a thaler and a half. Not until eleven o’clock did I return home—to find a summons awaiting me from the General. Our party occupied two suites in the hotel; each of which contained two rooms. The first (the larger suite) comprised a salon and a smoking-room, with, adjoining the latter, the General’s study. It was here that he was awaiting me as he stood posed in a majestic attitude beside his writing-table. Lolling on a divan close by was De Griers. “My good sir,” the General began, “may I ask you what this is that you have gone and done?” “I should be glad,” I replied, “if we could come straight to the point. Probably you are referring to my encounter of today with a German?” “With a German? Why, the German was the Baron Burmergelm—a most important personage! I hear that you have been rude both to him and to the Baroness?” “No, I have not.” “But I understand that you simply terrified them, my good sir?” shouted the General. “Not in the least,” I replied. “You must know that when I was in Berlin I frequently used to hear the Berliners repeat, and repellently prolong, a certain phrase—namely, ‘Ja wohl!’; and, happening to meet this couple in the carriage-drive, I found, for some reason or another, that this phrase suddenly recurred to my memory, and exercised a rousing effect upon my spirits. Moreover, on the three previous occasions that I have met the Baroness she has walked towards me as though I were a worm which could easily be crushed with the foot. Not unnaturally, I too possess a measure of self-respect; wherefore, on this occasion I took off my hat, and said politely (yes, I assure you it was said politely): ‘Madame, j’ai l’honneur d’être votre esclave.’ Then the Baron turned round, and said ‘Hein!’; whereupon I felt moved to ejaculate in answer ‘Ja wohl!’ Twice I shouted it at him—the first time in an ordinary tone, and the second time with the greatest prolonging of the words of which I was capable. That is all.” I must confess that this puerile explanation gave me great pleasure. I felt a strong desire to overlay the incident with an even added measure of grossness; so, the further I proceeded, the more did the gusto of my proceeding increase. “You are only making fun of me!” vociferated the General as, turning to the Frenchman, he declared that my bringing about of the incident had been gratuitous. De Griers smiled contemptuously, and shrugged his shoulders. “Do not think that,” I put in. “It was not so at all. I grant you that my behaviour was bad—I fully confess that it was so, and make no secret of the fact. I would even go so far as to grant you that my behaviour might well be called stupid and indecent tomfoolery; but, more than that it was not. Also, let me tell you that I am very sorry for my conduct. Yet there is one circumstance which, in my eyes, almost absolves me from regret in the matter. Of late—that is to say, for the last two or three weeks—I have been feeling not at all well. That is to say, I have been in a sick, nervous, irritable, fanciful condition, so that I have periodically lost control over myself. For instance, on more than one occasion I have tried to pick a quarrel even with Monsieur le Marquise here; and, under the circumstances, he had no choice but to answer me. In short, I have recently been showing signs of ill-health. Whether the Baroness Burmergelm will take this circumstance into consideration when I come to beg her pardon (for I do intend to make her amends) I do not know; but I doubt if she will, and the less so since, so far as I know, the circumstance is one which, of late, has begun to be abused in the legal world, in that advocates in criminal cases have taken to justifying their clients on the ground that, at the moment of the crime, they (the clients) were unconscious of what they were doing—that, in short, they were out of health. ‘My client committed the murder—that is true; but he has no recollection of having committed it.’ And doctors actually support these advocates by affirming that there really is such a malady—that there really can arise temporary delusions which make a man remember nothing of a given deed, or only a half or a quarter of it! But the Baron and Baroness are members of an older generation, as well as Prussian Junkers and landowners. To them such a process in the medico-judicial world will be unknown, and therefore, they are the more unlikely to accept any such explanation. What is your opinion about it, General?” “Enough, sir!” he thundered with barely restrained fury. “Enough, I say! Once and for all I must endeavour to rid myself of you and your impertinence. To justify yourself in the eyes of the Baron and Baroness will be impossible. Any intercourse with you, even though it be confined to a begging of their pardons, they would look upon as a degradation. I may tell you that, on learning that you formed part of my household, the Baron approached me in the Casino, and demanded of me additional satisfaction. Do you understand, then, what it is that you have entailed upon me—upon me, my good sir? You have entailed upon me the fact of my being forced to sue humbly to the Baron, and to give him my word of honour that this very day you shall cease to belong to my establishment!” “Excuse me, General,” I interrupted, “but did he make an express point of it that I should ‘cease to belong to your establishment,’ as you call it?” “No; I, of my own initiative, thought that I ought to afford him that satisfaction; and, with it he was satisfied. So we must part, good sir. It is my duty to hand over to you forty gülden, three florins, as per the accompanying statement. Here is the money, and here the account, which you are at liberty to verify. Farewell. From henceforth we are strangers. From you I have never had anything but trouble and unpleasantness. I am about to call the landlord, and explain to him that from tomorrow onwards I shall no longer be responsible for your hotel expenses. Also I have the honour to remain your obedient servant.” I took the money and the account (which was indicted in pencil), and, bowing low to the General, said to him very gravely: “The matter cannot end here. I regret very much that you should have been put to unpleasantness at the Baron’s hands; but, the fault (pardon me) is your own. How came you to answer for me to the Baron? And what did you mean by saying that I formed part of your household? I am merely your family tutor—not a son of yours, nor yet your ward, nor a person of any kind for whose acts you need be responsible. I am a judicially competent person, a man of twenty-five years of age, a university graduate, a gentleman, and, until I met yourself, a complete stranger to you. Only my boundless respect for your merits restrains me from demanding satisfaction at your hands, as well as a further explanation as to the reasons which have led you to take it upon yourself to answer for my conduct.” So struck was he with my words that, spreading out his hands, he turned to the Frenchman, and interpreted to him that I had challenged himself (the General) to a duel. The Frenchman laughed aloud. “Nor do I intend to let the Baron off,” I continued calmly, but with not a little discomfiture at De Griers’ merriment. “And since you, General, have today been so good as to listen to the Baron’s complaints, and to enter into his concerns—since you have made yourself a participator in the affair—I have the honour to inform you that, tomorrow morning at the latest, I shall, in my own name, demand of the said Baron a formal explanation as to the reasons which have led him to disregard the fact that the matter lies between him and myself alone, and to put a slight upon me by referring it to another person, as though I were unworthy to answer for my own conduct.” Then there happened what I had foreseen. The General on hearing of this further intended outrage, showed the white feather. “What?” he cried. “Do you intend to go on with this damned nonsense? Do you not realise the harm that it is doing me? I beg of you not to laugh at me, sir—not to laugh at me, for we have police authorities here who, out of respect for my rank, and for that of the Baron... In short, sir, I swear to you that I will have you arrested, and marched out of the place, to prevent any further brawling on your part. Do you understand what I say?” He was almost breathless with anger, as well as in a terrible fright. “General,” I replied with that calmness which he never could abide, “one cannot arrest a man for brawling until he has brawled. I have not so much as begun my explanations to the Baron, and you are altogether ignorant as to the form and time which my intended procedure is likely to assume. I wish but to disabuse the Baron of what is, to me, a shameful supposition—namely, that I am under the guardianship of a person who is qualified to exercise control over my free will. It is vain for you to disturb and alarm yourself.” “For God’s sake, Alexis Ivanovitch, do put an end to this senseless scheme of yours!” he muttered, but with a sudden change from a truculent tone to one of entreaty as he caught me by the hand. “Do you know what is likely to come of it? Merely further unpleasantness. You will agree with me, I am sure, that at present I ought to move with especial care—yes, with very especial care. You cannot be fully aware of how I am situated. When we leave this place I shall be ready to receive you back into my household; but, for the time being I— Well, I cannot tell you all my reasons.” With that he wound up in a despairing voice: “O Alexis Ivanovitch, Alexis Ivanovitch!” I moved towards the door—begging him to be calm, and promising that everything should be done decently and in order; whereafter I departed. Russians, when abroad, are over-apt to play the poltroon, to watch all their words, and to wonder what people are thinking of their conduct, or whether such and such a thing is comme il faut. In short, they are over-apt to cosset themselves, and to lay claim to great importance. Always they prefer the form of behaviour which has once and for all become accepted and established. This they will follow slavishly whether in hotels, on promenades, at meetings, or when on a journey. But the General had avowed to me that, over and above such considerations as these, there were circumstances which compelled him to “move with especial care at present”, and that the fact had actually made him poor-spirited and a coward—it had made him altogether change his tone towards me. This fact I took into my calculations, and duly noted it, for, of course, he might apply to the authorities tomorrow, and it behoved me to go carefully. Yet it was not the General but Polina that I wanted to anger. She had treated me with such cruelty, and had got me into such a hole, that I felt a longing to force her to beseech me to stop. Of course, my tomfoolery might compromise her; yet certain other feelings and desires had begun to form themselves in my brain. If I was never to rank in her eyes as anything but a nonentity, it would not greatly matter if I figured as a draggle-tailed cockerel, and the Baron were to give me a good thrashing; but, the fact was that I desired to have the laugh of them all, and to come out myself unscathed. Let people see what they would see. Let Polina, for once, have a good fright, and be forced to whistle me to heel again. But, however much she might whistle, she should see that I was at least no draggle-tailed cockerel! I have just received a surprising piece of news. I have just met our chambermaid on the stairs, and been informed by her that Maria Philipovna departed today, by the night train, to stay with a cousin at Carlsbad. What can that mean? The maid declares that Madame packed her trunks early in the day. Yet how is it that no one else seems to have been aware of the circumstance? Or is it that I have been the only person to be unaware of it? Also, the maid has just told me that, three days ago, Maria Philipovna had some high words with the General. I understand, then! Probably the words were concerning Mlle. Blanche. Certainly something decisive is approaching. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Fyodor Dostoyevsky (2000). The Gambler. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2197/pg2197-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

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