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X Corp. v. Center for Countering Digital Hate, INC. Court Filing, retrieved on March 25, 2024 is part of . You can jump to any part in this filing . This part is 13 of 19. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series here 3. Amendment The Court must next decide whether to allow X Corp. leave to amend its breach of contract claim. The Court is mindful that “[t]he anti-SLAPP statute was enacted to allow early dismissal of meritless first amendment cases aimed at chilling expression through costly, time-consuming litigation,” Metabolife Int’l, Inc. v. Wornick, 264 F.3d 832, 839 (9th Cir. 2001), but also that “granting a defendant’s anti-SLAPP motion to strike a plaintiff’s initial complaint without granting the plaintiff leave to amend would directly collide with Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(a)’s policy favoring liberal amendment,” Verizon Delaware, Inc. v. Covad Commc’ns Co., 377 F.3d 1081, 1091 (9th Cir. 2004). To be clear, the operative complaint here is not X Corp.’s “initial complaint”—X Corp. initially filed suit on July 31, 2023, see Compl., and amended about a week later, adding ECF as a defendant, see FAC. Nevertheless, the Court agrees with X Corp. that it “is not as if [the defendants] have been dragged through multiple, multiple rounds” of amendments. See Tr. of 2/29/24 Hearing at 34:8–18;[20] but see Gardner v. Martino, 563 F.3d 981, 991 (9th Cir. 2009) (“Appellants had already filed the first amended complaint as a matter of right and Verizon specifically held that a first amended complaint is subject to anti-SLAPP remedies.”) (citing Verizon Del., Inc., 377 F.3d at 1091). The question is whether X Corp. should receive leave to amend under Rule 15. See Mahoney v. Meta Platforms, Inc., No. 22-cv-02873-AMO, 2024 WL 68550, at *5–6 (N.D. Cal. Jan. 6, 2024) (holding that plaintiff failed to state a claim, but because amendment was “not clearly futile,” it was appropriate to defer consideration of defendant’s antiSLAPP motion pending filing of amended complaint). A court should “freely give leave” to amend “when justice so requires.” Fed. R. Civ. Proc. 15(a)(2). It may deny leave to amend due to “undue delay, bad faith or dilatory motive on the part of the movant, repeated failure to cure deficiencies by amendment previously allowed, undue prejudice to the opposing party by virtue of allowance of the amendment, [and] futility of amendment.” Leadsinger, 512 F.3d at 532. The Court believes that amendment would be futile, and that X Corp.’s desire to amend may well be based on a dilatory motive. At the motion hearing, X Corp. argued for the first time that there were damages that it had “not pleaded in the complaint,” but could add upon amendment, “which [are] in direct response to this scraping incident.” Tr. of 2/29/24 Hearing at 8:18–20. X Corp. described these damages as “dozens, if not over a hundred personnel hours across disciplines such as engineering and security that were spent trying to figure out not only what data was gained via access to the Brandwatch systems”—time not relevant to the breach of contract claim—“but what data was scraped, how it was done.” Id. at 8:7–11. It further referenced “anti-scraping measures implemented, again, at great expense from engineering time in tens of thousands, if not over a hundred thousand dollars to deal with this security risk that was identified via this incident.” Id. at 8:21–24; see also id. at 9:3–6 (“I’m sure we had, from what I understand, cost for the servers dealing with the load of just receiving all these requests. So expensive electricity cost at data centers, as well as loss of computing power.”). Damages stemming from X Corp.’s response to CCDH’s alleged scraping—rather than advertisers’ responses to CCDH’s reports—do not present the same constitutional concerns that the current damage allegations do. But they must still have been “within the contemplation of the parties when the contract was entered into or at least reasonably foreseeable by them at that time,” under state contract law. See Erlich, 21 Cal. 4th at 550. The Court is unpersuaded that the proposed allegations clear that hurdle. Fundamentally, neither of the two main reasons that X Corp. asserted for having to spend time and money responding to CCDH’s alleged scraping—(a) “safety and security” and (b) harm to X Corp.—make very much sense. a. Safety and Security First, X Corp. argued that it needed to expend resources responding to CCDH’s alleged breach in order to safeguard its users’ data. Over and over again, X Corp. played up its obligation to “keep [its users’] data safe,” Tr. of 2/29/24 Hearing at 7:13–14, called scraping a “security risk,” id. at 8:23–24, and declared that this case was “about” “the importance of data security,” id. at 12:10–11; see also id. at 14:9–10 (arguing that the CCDH report acknowledging scraping “raised a potential security issue”); id. at 35:13–15 (“we put up anti-scraping measures to stop this kind of thing so that users feel as if their data is safe.”); id. at 39:22–24 (“This is about the security of data and whether or not we’re going to honor ways that people try to keep it safe contractually and otherwise.”). While security and safety are noble concepts, they have nothing to do with this case. The Toxic Twitter report stated that CCDH had used the SNScrape tool, “which utilizes Twitter’s search function,” to “gather tweets from” “ten reinstated accounts,” resulting in a “dataset of 9,615 tweets posted by the accounts.” Toxic Twitter at 17. There is no allegation in the complaint, and X Corp. did not assert that it could add an allegation, that CCDH scraped anything other than public tweets that ten X platform users deliberately broadcast to the world.[21] No private user information was involved—no social security numbers, no account balances, no account numbers, no passwords, not even “gender, relationship status, ad interests etc.” See Meta Platforms, Inc. v. BrandTotal Ltd., 605 F. Supp. 3d 1218, 1273 (2022). When asked why the collecting of public tweets implicates users’ security interests, X Corp. insisted that “this all goes to control over your data,” and that users expect that they will be able to take down their tweets later, or to change them—abilities they are robbed of when the “data” is scraped. See Tr. of 2/29/24 Hearing at 40:17–24. But even assuming that it is “very important” to a user that he be able to amend or remove his proneo-Nazi tweets at some point after he has tweeted them, see id. at 40:24–25, a user can have no expectation that a tweet that he has publicly disseminated will not be seen by the public before that user has a chance to amend or remove it. While scraping is one way to collect a user’s tweets, members of the public could follow that user and view his tweets in their feeds, or use the X platform’s search tool (as SNScrape did) and view his tweets that way. X Corp.’s assertion that the scraping alleged here violates a user’s “safety and security” in his publicly disseminated tweets is therefore a non-starter. CCDH would not, and should not, have foreseen at the time of contracting that X Corp. would need to expend money to address “safety and security” issues following the scraping of ten users’ public tweets. b. Harm to X Corp. Second, X Corp. argued that it was entitled to expend resources responding to CCDH’s scraping because that scraping might have caused harm to X Corp.’s systems. X Corp. maintained that it was entitled to “dive in and understand what was done, how it was done, what data was taken, whether there was any damage,” and to conduct “a large investigation and then remedial action,” Tr. of 2/29/24 Hearing at 9:16–20, adding that “[i]t is well known in this space that if you scrape,” the scrapee will need to investigate and “put up anti-scraping measures,” id. at 35:9–14. X Corp. conceded that it is not able to prevent scraping “100 percent” of the time, but stated that it can make scraping more difficult, and should be compensated for trying to do so. Id. at 35:21–36:7.[22] The problem with this argument is that it is at odds with what X Corp. has alleged. Although social media platforms do not like it, scraping, for various ends, is commonplace. See, e.g., ACLU Br. at 7 (“Researchers and Journalists Use Scraping to Enable Speech in the Public Interest and Hold Power to Account.”); see also id. at 8–9 (collecting sources); Andrew Sellars, “Twenty Years of Web Scraping and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act,” 24 B.U. J. Sci. & Tech. L 372, 375 (2018) (“Web scraping has proliferated beneath the shadow of the [CFAA].”); hiQ 2022 Circuit opinion, 31 F.4th at 1202 (“HiQ points out that data scraping is a common method of gathering information, used by search engines, academic researchers, and many others. According to hiQ, letting established entities that already have accumulated large user data sets decide who can scrape that data from otherwise public websites gives those entities outsized control over how such data may be put to use . . . the public interest favors hiQ’s position.”); see also id. at 1186 (“LinkedIn blocks approximately 95 million automated attempts to scrape data every day”). Some scraping activity can be harmful not only to the users of a website but also to the website itself. See, e.g., hiQ 2022 district opinion, 639 F. Supp. 3d at 954 (scraping can burden servers and inhibit a website’s performance); Ryanair DAC v. Booking Holdings Inc., 636 F. Supp. 3d 490, 503 (D. Del. 2022) (scraping can “greatly increase[] the quantifies of queries” on a website, “impair[] the . . . availability and/or usability” of a website, “and cause [a] website’s response times to deteriorate.”). Scraping can harm a website because a bot “can make many requests automatically and much more rapidly than any human could,” “request[ing] a huge amount of data from the target’s server.” See Compulife Software Inc. v. Newman, 959 F.3d 1288, 1299 (11th Cir. 2020). X Corp. has another case pending in this district, not before this Court, involving allegations of that kind of scraping. See X Corp. v. Bright Data Ltd., No. 23-cv-3698-WHA, First Amended Complaint (dkt. 36) (N.D. Cal. July 26, 2023) ¶ 1 (defendant “scrapes and sells millions of records from X Corp.’s X platform”), ¶ 98 (such actions “have diminished the server capacity that X Corp. can devote to its legitimate users, and thereby injured X Corp. by depriving it of the ability to use its personal property”), ¶ 102 (alleging “damage in the form of impaired condition, quality, and value of its servers, technology infrastructure, services, and reputation”); see also X Corp. v. John Doe 1, No. DC-23-09157, Original Petition (Tex. Dist. Ct., Dallas Co., July 6, 2023) ¶¶ 21–22, 24 (alleging “widespread unlawful scraping,” “flooding Twitter’s sign-up page with automated requests,” “severely tax[ing] X Corp.’s servers,” “impair[ing] the user experience for millions of X Corp.” users). This is not such a case. Here, CCDH is alleged to have used Twitter’s own search tool to collect 9,615 public tweets from ten Twitter users, see FAC ¶ 77; Toxic Twitter at 17, and then to have announced that it did so in a public report, see id. Assuming for present purposes that this conduct amounts to the “scraping” barred by the ToS,[23] the extent of CCDH’s scraping was not a mystery. As CCDH asked at the motion hearing, “What CCDH did and the specific tweets that it gathered, what tool it used, how it used that tool and what the results were are documented explicitly in its public report. So what is it that they’re investigating?” Tr. of 2/29/24 Hearing at 22: 3–7. Nor was this the kind of large-scale, commercial scraping—as in hiQ, as alleged in Bright Data—that could conceivably harm the X platform or overburden its servers. It is not plausible that this small-scale, non-commercial scraping would prompt X Corp. to divert “dozens, if not over a hundred personnel hours across disciplines,” see Tr. of 2/29/24 Hearing at 8:7–11, of resources toward the repair of X Corp.’s systems. Nor would such expenditures have been foreseeable to CCDH in 2019. In 2019, if CCDH had thought about the no-scraping provision in the ToS at all, it would have expected X Corp. to incur damages only in response to breaches of that provision that could actually harm the X platform. It would not have expected X Corp. to incur damages in connection with a technical breach of that provision that involved the use of Twitter’s search tool to look at ten users and 9,615 public tweets. It is clear to the Court that if X Corp. was indeed motived to spend money in response to CCDH’s scraping in 2023, it was not because of the harm such scraping posed to the X platform, but because of the harm it posed to X Corp.’s image. CCDH’s data collection allowed it to claim knowledge of what was occurring on the X platform in a cumulative sense. According to CCDH, its scraping revealed that X Corp. was generating millions of dollars in advertising revenue from previously banned accounts. See FAC ¶ 49; Kaplan Decl. Ex. B. X Corp.’s desire to keep entities like CCDH from drawing such unflattering conclusions about the X platform is entirely reasonable from a business point of view. But that motivation would not have been foreseeable to CCDH in 2019. In 2019, CCDH would not have understood, and should not have understood, that Twitter would wish to prevent scraping in order to keep cumulative information about the platform from the public view.[24] CCDH would certainly not have known that Twitter would change course on some of its content-moderation policies, reinstating what CCDH later described as “tens of thousands of accounts, including neo-Nazis, white supremacists, misogynists and spreaders of dangerous conspiracy theories,” see Toxic Twitter at 3, and then desire to shield the financial ramifications of that policy shift from the public. That is the kind of theoretical, speculative harm that California contract law rejects. See Erlich, 21 Cal. 4th at 550. Neither the “safety and security” rationale, nor the “harm to X Corp.” rationale for X Corp. spending time and money in response to CCDH’s scraping make any sense given the scraping alleged in this case. Such damages simply were not foreseeable when CCDH entered into the ToS in 2019. Accordingly, allowing X Corp. to amend in order to add the proposed new allegations about damages in connection with its response to CCDH’s scraping would be futile. The Court notes, too, that X Corp.’s motivation in bringing this case is evident. X Corp. has brought this case in order to punish CCDH for CCDH publications that criticized X Corp.—and perhaps in order to dissuade others who might wish to engage in such criticism.[25] Although X Corp. accuses CCDH of trying “to censor viewpoints that CCDH disagrees with,” FAC ¶ 20, it is X Corp. that demands “at least tens of millions of dollars” in damages—presumably enough to torpedo the operations of a small nonprofit—because of the views expressed in the nonprofit’s publications, see, e.g., id. ¶¶ 1, 3–4, 5, 12, 17–24, 38, 41, 43–52, 54–60, 62, 65–70, 77–78, 84–85, 92, 96, 98; see also PPP Br. at 1 (“X Corp. . . . seeks to silence critique rather than to counter it.”). If CCDH’s publications were defamatory, that would be one thing, but X Corp. has carefully avoided saying that they are. Given these circumstances, the Court is concerned that X Corp.’s desire to amend its breach of contract claim has a dilatory motive—forcing CCDH to spend more time and money defending itself before it can hope to get out from under this potentially ruinous litigation. See PPP Br. at 2 (“Without early dismissal, the free speech interests that the California legislature sought to protect will vanish in piles of discovery motions.”). As CCDH argued at the motion hearing, the anti-SLAPP “statute recognizes that very often the litigation itself is the punishment.” Tr. of 2/29/24 Hearing at 33:12–34:5. It would be wrong to allow X Corp. to amend again when the damages it now alleges, and the damages it would like to allege, are so problematic, and when X Corp.’s motivation is so clear. Accordingly, the Court STRIKES the breach of contract claim and will not allow X Corp. to add the proposed new allegations as to that claim. Continue Reading . Here [20] At the motion hearing, CCDH responded, not unreasonably, that “[i]t’s not exactly a[n] earth-shattering rule of law that contract damages have to be foreseeable and comport with the Constitution” and that, in “two shots at this,” X Corp. had only pled publication damages. See id. at 20:18–23. [21] While the Court recognizes that technically, who sees a post might “depend[] on the privacy settings,” see Tr. of 2/29/24 Hearing at 40:9–16, that is a red herring here. The whole reason that CCDH wrote about these ten users is that a large audience viewed their tweets. See Toxic Twitter at 3 (“The analysis shows that the ten accounts have already amassed 2.5 billion tweet impressions”). It is not a reasonable inference that these ten users had selected privacy settings that limited their posts to friends and family. [22] At times, it seemed as if X Corp. was suggesting that whenever a user breaches any term within X Corp.’s nineteen-page ToS, X Corp. is entitled to spend money to prevent further breaches of that term, and then to be compensated for that expenditure. That is not the law. If it was, then a plaintiff could state a claim merely by alleging the existence of a contract, its performance, and the defendant’s breach; there would be no separate requirement of proving foreseeable damages. But there is such a requirement. See Oasis W. Realty, 250 P.3d at 1121; Erlich, 21 Cal. 4th at 550. [23] CCDH argues that it does not. See MTD&S at 10–13. [24] CCDH framed this point thusly at the motion hearing: “the notion that CCDH . . . should have foreseen Twitter’s costs in better hiding white supremacist content on the platform is utterly implausible as a matter of law.” Tr. of 2/29/24 Hearing at 36:8–11. [25] “A recent survey of 167 academics and researchers found that over 100 studies about X Corp. have been diverted, stalled, or canceled, with over half of those interviewed citing a fear of being sued by X Corp. over their findings or data.” ACLU Br. at 14 (citing Sheila Dang, “Exclusive: Elon Musk’s X Restructuring Curtails Disinformation Research, Spurs Legal Fears,” Reuters (Nov. 6, 2023), https://www.reuters.com/technology/elon-musks-xrestructuring-curtailsdisinformation-research-spurs-legal-fears-2023-11-06). About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case retrieved on March 25, 2024, 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. storage.courtlistener

Court Decision on Amendment Request in Elon Musk's X Breach of Contract Lawsuit 

The United States v Meta Platforms Court Filing October 24, 2023 is part of . You can jump to any part in this filing . This is part 99 of 100. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series here COUNT LIV: DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRACTICES BY META IN VIOLATION OF WISCONSIN’S DECEPTIVE TRADE PRACTICES ACT, WIS. STAT. § 100.18(1) 1169. Wisconsin realleges and incorporates herein by reference each of the allegations contained in the preceding paragraphs 1 through 850 as though fully alleged in this cause of action. 1170. In numerous instances, with the intent to sell, distribute, or increase the consumption of its products and/or services, Meta directly or indirectly made, published, or placed before the public, representations that were untrue, deceptive, or misleading, including but not limited to the following representations by Meta: a. that Meta’s Social Media Platforms are not psychologically or physically harmful for young users and are not designed to induce young users’ compulsive and extended use, when they are in fact so designed; b. that Meta’s Social Media Platforms are less addictive and/or less likely to result in psychological and physical harm for young users than its Social Media Platforms are in reality; c. representing, through the publication of CSER reports, and through other communications, that the incidence or prevalence of negative or harmful user experiences on Meta’s Social Media Platforms was lower than it actually was; d. that Meta prioritized young users’ health and safety over maximizing profits, when in fact Meta subordinated young user health and safety to its goal of maximizing profits by prolonging young users’ time spent on its Social Media Platforms; e. that under-13 users are effectively excluded by Meta from using Instagram and/or Facebook when in fact Meta was aware that its policies and practices were insufficient to exclude all under-13 users from the Platforms; and f. that Meta’s collection of user data was not for the purpose of causing those users to become addicted to the Social Media Platforms, when in reality that was one of the purposes for which Meta collected user data. 1171. Each deceptive act or practice alleged herein, constitutes a separate violation of the Wisconsin Deceptive Trade Practices Act. By engaging in the acts and practices alleged herein, Meta engaged in deceptive acts or practices declared unlawful under Wis. Stat. § 100.18(1). 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 4:23-cv-05448 retrieved on October 25, 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. Washingtonpost.com

Wisconsin Targets Meta Under Trade Practices Act

The United States v Meta Platforms Court Filing October 24, 2023 is part of . You can jump to any part in this filing . This is part 71 of 100. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series here COUNT XXVI: DECEPTIVE TRADE PRACTICES MINN. STAT. § 325D.43 et seq. 1008. The State of Minnesota, by its Attorney General, Keith Ellison, re-alleges and incorporates herein by reference each of the allegations contained in paragraphs 1 through 850 above as though fully alleged in this cause of action. 1009. Minnesota Statutes section 325D.44, subdivision 1 provides in part: A person engages in a deceptive trade practice when, in the course of business, vocation, or occupation, the person: (5) represents that goods or services have sponsorship, approval, characteristics, ingredients, uses, benefits, or quantities that they do not have or that a person has a sponsorship, approval, status, affiliation, or connection that the person does not have; (7) represents that goods or services are of a particular standard, quality, or grade, or that goods are of a particular style or model, if they are of another; and (14) engages in any other conduct which similarly creates a likelihood of confusion or of misunderstanding.[40] 1010. Meta and each Defendant are “persons” within the meaning of Minnesota Statutes section 325D.44. 1011. Meta’s Social Media Platforms are a “good” or “service” within the meaning of Minnesota Statutes section 325D.44. 1012. In numerous instances in the course of business, vocation, or occupation, Meta violated Minnesota Statutes section 325D.44, subdivision 1(5), 1(7), and 1(14) by representing that goods or services have sponsorship, approval, characteristics, ingredients, uses, benefits, or quantities that they do not have, representing that goods or services are of a particular standard, quality, or grade, or that goods are of a particular style or model, if they are of another, and engaging in deceptive acts, practices, and omissions that caused a likelihood of confusion or of misunderstanding among Minnesota consumers in connection with its advertising, marketing, promotion, and other representations regarding its goods or services. Those acts, practices, and omissions include, but are not limited to: a. Misrepresenting, directly or indirectly, expressly or by implication, that Meta’s Social Media Platforms are not psychologically or physically harmful for young users and are not designed to induce young users’ compulsive and extended use, when they are in fact so designed; b. Misrepresenting, directly or indirectly, expressly or by implication, that Meta’s Social Media Platforms are less addictive and/or less likely to result in psychological and physical harm for young users than its Social Media Platforms are in reality; c. Misrepresenting, directly or indirectly, expressly or by implication, through the publication of CSER reports [Redacted], and through other communications, that the incidence or prevalence of negative or harmful user experiences on Meta’s Social Media Platforms was lower than it actually was; d. Misrepresenting, directly or indirectly, expressly or by implication, that Meta prioritized young users’ health and safety over maximizing profits, when in fact Meta subordinated young user health and safety to its goal of maximizing profits by prolonging young users’ time spent on its Social Media Platforms; e. Misrepresenting, directly or indirectly, expressly or by implication, that Meta prevents under-13 from using Instagram and/or Facebook when in fact Meta was aware that it does not prevent under-13 users from using Instagram and Facebook; f. Misrepresenting, directly or indirectly, expressly or by implication, that Meta’s collection of user data was not for the purpose of causing those users to become addicted to the Social Media Platforms, when in reality that was one of the purposes for which Meta collected user data; and g. Making other false and deceptive representations set forth in this Complaint. 1013. Due to Meta’s deceptive acts, practices, and omissions described in this Complaint, consumers are suffering, have suffered, and will continue to suffer substantial injury. 1014. Meta’s acts, practices, and omissions described in this Complaint constitute multiple separate violations of Minnesota Statutes section 325D.44, subdivision 1. [40] Pursuant to 2023 Minn. Laws ch. 57, art. 4, section 6, Minn. Stat. § 325D.44, subd. 1(13) is to be re-codified as Minn. Stat. § 325D.44, subd. 1(14). For simplicity, the State of Minnesota refers to this provision as Minn. Stat. § 325D.44, subd. 1(14), though this provision has been in effect for the full relevant time period and continues through the present. 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 4:23-cv-05448 retrieved on October 25, 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. Washingtonpost.com Lead image by on Unsplash Muhammad Asyfaul

Trouble for Meta in Minnesota as Attorney General Sues for Deceptive Trade Practices

The United States v Meta Platforms Court Filing October 24, 2023 is part of . You can jump to any part in this filing . This is part 62 of 100. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series here COUNT XVII: CONDUCT VIOLATIVE OF THE ILLINOIS UNIFORM DECEPTIVE TRADE PRACTICES ACT BY META, IN VIOLATION OF THE ILLINOIS CONSUMER FRAUD AND DECEPTIVE BUSINESS PRACTICES ACT, 815 ILCS 505/1 et seq. 957. The People of the State of Illinois reallege and incorporate herein by reference each of the allegations contained in paragraphs 1-850 above as though fully alleged in this cause of action. 958. Section 2 of the Illinois Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act provides, in relevant part, that a person engages in a deceptive trade practice when, in the course of his or her business, vocation, or occupation, the person: a. represents that goods or services have sponsorship, approval, characteristics, ingredients, uses, benefits, or quantities that they do not have or that a person has a sponsorship, approval, status, affiliation, or connection that he or she does not have (815 ILCS 510/2(a)(5)); b. represents that goods or services are of a particular standard, quality, or grade or that goods are a particular style or model, if they are of another (815 ILCS 510/2(a)(7)); and c. engages in any other conduct which similarly create a likelihood of confusion or misunderstanding (815 ILCS 510/2(a)(12)). 959. Specifically, Meta, in the course of trade or commerce, engaged in conduct described in Sections 2(a)(5), (7), and (12) of the Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act, 815 ILCS 510.2(a)(5), (7), & (12) by: a. Representing that Meta’s Social Media Platforms are not psychologically or physically harmful for young users and are not designed to induce young users’ compulsive and extended use, when they are in fact so designed; b. Representing that Meta’s Social Media Platforms are less addictive and/or less likely to result in psychological and physical harm for young users than its Social Media Platforms are in reality; c. Representing, through the publication of CSER reports [Redacted], and through other communications, that the incidence or prevalence of negative or harmful user experiences on Meta’s Social Media Platforms was lower than it actually was; d. Representing that Meta prioritized young users’ health and safety over maximizing profits, when in fact Meta subordinated young user health and safety to its goal of maximizing profits by prolonging young users’ time spent on its Social Media Platforms; e. Representing that Meta prevents under-13 users from using Instagram and/or Facebook when in fact Meta was aware that it does not prevent under-13 users from using Instagram and Facebook; f. Representing that Meta’s collection of user data was not for the purpose of causing those users to become addicted to the Social Media Platforms, when in reality that was one of the purposes for which Meta collected user data; and g. Making other false and deceptive representations, as set forth in the allegations in paragraphs 53-835 above. 960. By engaging in the acts and practices alleged herein, Meta engaged in unfair or deceptive acts or practices declared unlawful under Section 2 of the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act (Illinois Consumer Fraud Act), 815 ILCS 505/2, which states in relevant part: Unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices, including but not limited to the use or employment of any deception fraud, false pretense, false promise, misrepresentation or the concealment, suppression or omission of any material fact, with intent that others rely upon the concealment, suppression or omission of such material fact, or the use or employment of any practice described in Section 2 of the “Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act”, approved August 5, 1965, in the conduct of any trade or commerce are hereby declared unlawful whether any person has in fact been misled, deceived or damaged thereby. (emphasis added). 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 4:23-cv-05448 retrieved on October 25, 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. Washingtonpost.com

Illinois Pursues Legal Action Over Meta's Alleged Deceptive Trade Practices

The United States v Meta Platforms Court Filing October 24, 2023 is part of . You can jump to any part in this filing . This is part 60 of 100. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series here COUNT XV: DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRACTICES BY META IN VIOLATION OF THE ILLINOIS CONSUMER FRAUD AND DECEPTIVE BUSINESS PRACTICES ACT, 815 ILCS 505/1 et seq. 946. The People of the State of Illinois reallege and incorporate herein by reference each of the allegations contained in paragraphs 1-850 above as though fully alleged in this cause of action. 947. In numerous instances in the course of trade or commerce, including through the means described in the allegations in paragraphs 53-835 above, Meta engaged in the following deceptive acts, practices, and omissions, with the intent that consumers rely on the deceptive acts, practices, and omissions: a. Misrepresenting, directly or indirectly, expressly or by implication, that Meta’s Social Media Platforms are not psychologically or physically harmful for young users and are not designed to induce young users’ compulsive and extended use, when they are in fact so designed; b. Misrepresenting, directly or indirectly, expressly or by implication, that Meta’s Social Media Platforms are less addictive and/or less likely to result in psychological and physical harm for young users than its Social Media Platforms are in reality; c. Misrepresenting, directly or indirectly, expressly or by implication, through the publication of CSER reports [Redacted], and through other communications, that the incidence or prevalence of negative or harmful user experiences on Meta’s Social Media Platforms was lower than it actually was; d. Misrepresenting, directly or indirectly, expressly or by implication, that Meta prioritized young users’ health and safety over maximizing profits, when in fact Meta subordinated young user health and safety to its goal of maximizing profits by prolonging young users’ time spent on its Social Media Platforms; e. Misrepresenting, directly or indirectly, expressly or by implication, that Meta prevents under-13 users from using Instagram and/or Facebook when in fact Meta was aware that it does not prevent under-13 users from using Instagram and Facebook; f. Misrepresenting, directly or indirectly, expressly or by implication, that Meta’s collection of user data was not for the purpose of causing those users to become addicted to the Social Media Platforms, when in reality that was one of the purposes for which Meta collected user data; and g. Making other false and deceptive representations, as set forth in the allegations in paragraphs 53-835 above. 948. By engaging in the acts and practices alleged herein, Meta engaged in unfair and deceptive acts or practices declared unlawful under Section 2 of the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act (Illinois Consumer Fraud Act), 815 ILCS 505/2, which states in relevant part: Unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices, including but not limited to the use or employment of any deception fraud, false pretense, false promise, misrepresentation or the concealment, suppression or omission of any material fact, with intent that others rely upon the concealment, suppression or omission of such material fact, or the use or employment of any practice described in Section 2 of the “Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act”, approved August 5, 1965, in the conduct of any trade or commerce are hereby declared unlawful whether any person has in fact been misled, deceived or damaged thereby. 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 4:23-cv-05448 retrieved on October 25, 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. Washingtonpost.com

Consumer Fraud Act Violations: Meta in Hot Water as Illinois Pursues Legal Action

The United States v Meta Platforms Court Filing October 24, 2023 is part of . You can jump to any part in this filing . This is part 44 of 100. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series here XI. SUMMARY OF META’S DECEPTIVE AND UNFAIR OR UNCONSCIONABLE ACTS AND PRACTICES A. Deceptive Acts and Practices 846. Meta engaged in the following deceptive acts and practices, with the intent that consumers rely on the deceptive acts and practices: a. Meta misrepresented, directly or indirectly, expressly or by implication, that its Social Media Platforms are not psychologically or physically harmful for young users and are not designed to induce young users’ compulsive and extended use, when they are in fact so designed; b. Meta misrepresented, directly or indirectly, expressly or by implication, that its Social Media Platforms are less addictive and/or less likely to result in psychological and physical harm for young users than its Social Media Platforms are in reality; c. Meta misrepresented, directly or indirectly, expressly or by implication, through the publication of CSER reports and [Redacted], and through other communications, that the incidence or prevalence of negative or harmful user experiences on Meta’s Social Media Platforms was lower than it actually was; d. Meta misrepresented, directly or indirectly, expressly or by implication that it prioritized young users’ health and safety over maximizing profits, when in fact Meta subordinated young user health and safety to its goal of maximizing profits by prolonging young users’ time spent on its Social Media Platforms; e. Meta misrepresented, directly or indirectly, expressly or by implication that Meta prevents under-13 users from using Instagram and/or Facebook when in fact Meta was aware that it does not prevent under-13 users from using Instagram and Facebook; f. Meta misrepresented, directly or indirectly, expressly or by implication that Meta’s collection of user data was not for the purpose of causing those users to become addicted to the Social Media Platforms, when in reality that was one of the purposes for which Meta collected user data; g. Meta has made other false and deceptive representations, including as set forth in paragraphs 1 through 835. 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 4:23-cv-05448 retrieved on October 25, 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. Washingtonpost.com

Juggling Acts and Smoke Signals: Meta Accused of Deceptive and Unfair Practices  

Debian GNU/Linux: Guide to Installation and Usage" by John Goerzen and Ossama Othman is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . More on Files here 7. More on Files In section 5.2 on page [*], we covered moving and renaming files with mv, copying them with cp, removing them with rm, removing directories with rmdir, and creating directories with mkdir. This chapter will cover some more aspects of working with files. Permissions GNU and Unix systems are set up to allow many people to use the same computer, while keeping certain files private or keeping certain people from modifying certain files. You can verify this for yourself. Log in as yourself, i.e. as root. NOT whoami This verifies that you are not root. Then enter the following command: rm /etc/resolv.conf You should be told Permission denied. /etc/resolv.conf is an essential system configuration file; you aren’t allowed to change or remove it unless you’re root. This keeps you from accidentally messing up the system, and if the computer is a public one (such as at an office or school), it keeps users from messing up the system on purpose. Now type ls -l /etc/resolv.conf. This will give you output that looks something like this: -rw-r-r- 1 root root 119 Feb 23 1997 /etc/resolv.conf The -l option to ls requests all that additional information. The info on the right is easy: The size of the file is 119 bytes; the date the file was last changed is February 23, 1997; and the file’s name is /etc/resolv.conf. On the left side of the screen, things are a little more complicated. First, the brief, technical explanation: The -rw-r-r- is the of the file, the 1 is the number of hard links to this file (or the number of files in a directory), and the two roots are the user and group owning the file, respectively. mode So that was cryptic. Let’s go through it slowly. 7.1.1 File Ownership Every file has two owners: a user and a group. The above case is a little confusing because there’s a group called root in addition to the root user. Groups are just collections of users who are collectively permitted access to some part of the system. A good example is a games group. Just to be mean, you might create a group called games on your computer and then set up your system so that only people in a games group are allowed to play games. Here’s a more practical example. Consider a case in which you’re setting up a computer for a school. You might want certain files to be accessible only to teachers, not students, so you put all the teachers in a single group. Then you can tell the system that certain files belong to members of the group teachers, and that no one else can access those files. Let’s explore groups on the system. First, you can use the groups command at the shell prompt. This will show you a list of the groups to which you belong. Here’s an example: $ groups system-wide configuration!permissions!file ownershipusername dialout cdrom floppy audio It’s likely that you’re a member of only one group, which is identical to your username. However, root can add you to other groups. The above example shows a person that is a member of five groups. less /etc/group This file lists the groups that exist on your system. Notice the root group (the only member of this group is the root user), and the group that corresponds to your username. There are also groups like dialout (users who are allowed to dial out on the modem) and floppy (users who can use the floppy drive). However, your system is probably not configured to make use of these groups. It’s likely that only root can use the floppy or the modem right now. For details about this file, try reading man group. ls -l /home This command shows you that every user’s directory is owned by that user and that user’s personal group. Tip: If you just installed Debian, you may be the only user. You can use the adduser command to add more users to the system. 7.1.2 Mode In addition to being owned by one user and one group, every file and directory also has a mode, which determines who’s allowed to read, write, and execute the file (and run it, if it’s a program). There are a few other things also determined by the mode, but they’re advanced topics so we’ll skip them for now. The mode looks like this in the ls output: -rw-r-r-. For now, we’ll consider nine of these parts: those that control , and permissions for the owning the file, the owning the file, and (everyone on the system, sometimes called ). read, write execute user group others world In the mode line, the first “element” gives the file type. The - in this case means it’s a regular file. If it was d, we’d be looking at a directory. There are also other possibilities too complex to go into here; for details, see section 13.2.2 on page [*]. The remaining nine elements are used to display the file’s mode. The basic 9 bits (read, write, and execute for user, group, and other) are displayed as three blocks of rwx. So if all permissions are turned on and this is a regular file, the mode will look like this: -rwxrwxrwx. If it was a directory with all permissions turned off for others and full permissions for user and group, it would be drwxrwx--. Table 7.1: Permissions in Linux
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Code |  Name   | Allows for Files         | Allows for Directories           |
|------+---------+--------------------------+----------------------------------|
|  r   |  read   | Examine contents of file | List contents of directory       |
|------+---------+--------------------------+----------------------------------|
|  w   |  write  | Modify file              | Add or remove files in directory |
|------+---------+--------------------------+----------------------------------|
|  x   | execute | Run as a command         | Access files in directory        |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Table 7.1 describes the meaning of the read, write, and execute permissions for both files and directories. Directory modes can be a little confusing, so here are some examples of the effects of various combinations: r- The user, group, or other with these permissions may list the contents of the directory, but can do nothing else. The files in the directory can’t be read, changed, deleted, or manipulated in any way. The only permitted action is reading the directory itself, that is, seeing what files it contains. rw- Write permission has no effect in the absence of execute permission, so this mode behaves just like the above mode. r-x This mode permits the files in a directory to be listed and permits access to those files. However, files can’t be created or deleted. Access means that you can view, change, or execute the files as permitted by the files’ own permissions. -x Files in this directory can be accessed, but the contents of the directory can’t be listed, so you have to know what filename you’re looking for in advance (unless you’re exceptionally good at guessing). Files can’t be created or deleted. rwx You can do anything you want with the files in this directory, as long as it’s permitted by the permissions on the files themselves. Directory write permission determines whether you can delete files in a directory. A read-only file can be deleted if you have permission to write to the directory containing it. You can’t delete a file from a read-only directory even if you’re allowed to make changes to the file. This also means that if you own a directory you can always delete files from it, even if those files belong to root. Directory execute permission determines whether you have access to files - and thus whether file permissions come into play. If you have execute permissions to a directory, file permissions for that directory become relevant. Otherwise, file permissions just don’t matter; you can’t access the files anyway. 7.1.3 Permissions in Practice This section goes through a short example session to demonstrate how permissions are used. To change permissions, we’ll use the chmod command. cd; touch myfile There are a couple of new tricks here. First, you can use ; to put two commands on one line. You can type the above as: $ cd $ touch myfile or as: $ cd; touch myfile Either way the same thing will end up happening. Recall that cd by itself returns you to your home directory. touch is normally used to change the modification time of the file to the current time. But it has another interesting feature: If the file doesn’t exist, touch creates the file. So you’re using it to create a file to practice with. Use ls -l to confirm that the file has been created and notice the permissions mode: $ ls -l -rw-r-r- 1 user user 0 Nov 18 22:04 myfile Obviously the time and user/group names will be different when you try it. The size of the file is 0, because touch creates an empty file. -rw-r-r- is the default permissions mode on Debian. chmod u+x myfile This command means to add (+) execute (x) permissions for the user (u) who owns the file. Use ls -l to see the effects. chmod go-r myfile Here you’ve subtracted (-) read permission (r) from the group (g) owning the file and from everyone else (others, o). Again, use ls -l to verify the effects. chmod ugo=rx myfile Here you’ve set (=) user, group, and other permissions to read and execute. This sets permissions to what you’ve specified and unsets any other permissions. So all rx should be set, and all w should be unset. Now, no one can write to the file. exactly chmod a-x myfile a is a shortcut for ugo, or “all.” So all the x permissions should now be unset. rm myfile With this command, you’re removing the file, but without write permissions. rm will ask if you’re sure by displaying the following message: rm: remove ‘myfile’, overriding mode 0444? You should respond by typing y and pressing Enter. This is a feature of rm, not a fact of permissions. Permission to delete a file comes from the directory permissions, and you have write permission in the directory. However, rm tries to be helpful, figuring that if you didn’t want to change the file (and thus remove write permission), you don’t want to delete it either, so it asks you. What was that 0444 business in the question from rm? The permissions mode is a twelve-digit binary number, like this: 000100100100. 0444 is this binary number represented as an octal (base 8) number, which is the conventional way to write a mode. So you can type chmod 444 myfile instead of chmod ugo=r myfile. 7.2 Files Present and Their Locations Now that you can navigate the directory tree, let’s take a guided tour of the files and directories you created when you installed Debian. If you’re curious, cd to each directory and type ls to see its contents. If the listing doesn’t fit on the screen, try ls | less, where | is the “pipe” character, generally found on the same key with backslash. / As already mentioned, this is the root directory, which contains every other directory. / But don’t get /confused with /root! /root is the home directory of the root user, or superuser. It’s a directory called /root, but it isn’t root directory /. root the / This is where all normal users—that is, all users except root—have their home directories. Each home directory is named after the user who owns it, for example, /home/jane. If you’re using a large system at a school or business, your system administrator may create additional directories to contain home directories: /home1 and /home2 for example. On some other systems, you’ll see an additional level of subdirectories: /home/students/username, /home/staff/username, etc. home Your home directory is where you put all your personal work, e-mail and other documents, and personal configuration preferences. It’s your home on the system. / This directory contains “binaries,” executable files that are essential to the operation of the system. Examples are the shell (bash) and file commands such as cp. bin / This directory contains “system binaries,” utilities that the root user or system administrator might want to use, but that you probably won’t want to use in your day-to-day activities. sbin / /usr contains most of the files you’ll be interested in. It has many subdirectories. /usr/bin and /usr/sbin are pretty much like /bin and /sbin, except that the directories in /usr are not considered “essential to the operation of the system.” usr While not essential to getting the computer working, /usr does contain the applications you’ll use to get real work done. Also in /usr, you’ll find the /usr/man, /usr/info, and /usr/doc directories. These contain manual pages, info pages, and other documentation, respectively. And don’t forget /usr/games! / / The Debian system doesn’t install anything in this directory. You should use it if you want to install software that you compile yourself or any software not contained in a Debian package. You can also install software in your home directory if you’ll be the only one using it. usr local / /etc contains all the system-wide configuration files. Whenever you want to change something that affects all users of your computer—such as how you connect to the Internet or what kind of video card you have—you’ll probably have to log on as root and change a file in /etc. etc / Here you’ll find temporary files, most of them created by the system. This directory is generally erased on a regular basis or every time you reboot the system. You can create files here if you want, just be aware that they might get deleted automatically. tmp / /var contains “variable” files that the system changes automatically. For example, incoming mail is stored here. The system keeps a log of its actions here. There are a number of other automatically generated files here as well. You’ll mostly be interested in the contents of /var/log, where you can find error messages that can help you figure out what you’re system’s up to if something goes wrong. var Clearly there are many more directories on the system—far too many to describe every one. For changing things, you’ll usually want to confine yourself to your home directory and /etc. On a Debian system, there’s rarely an occasion to change anything else, because everything else is automatically installed for you. /etc is used to configure the as a whole. You’ll use your own home directory, a subdirectory of /home, for configuring your own preferences and storing your personal data. The idea is that on a day-to-day basis, you confine yourself to /home/ , so there’s no way you can break anything. Occasionally you log in as root to change something in a system-wide directory, but only when it’s absolutely necessary. Of course, if you’re using Debian at a school or business and someone else is the system administrator, you won’t have root access and will be able to change only your home directory and any other directory that you own. This limits what you can do with the system. system yourname 7.3 File Compression with gzip Often it would be nice to make a file smaller—say, to download it faster, or so it takes up less space on your disk. The program to do this is called gzip (GNU zip). Here’s how it works: $ cd; cp /etc/profile ./mysamplefile This switches to your home directory and copies an arbitrarily chosen file (/etc/profile) to your current directory, in the process renaming it mysamplefile. This gives you a file to play with when using gzip. $ ls -l Lists the contents of the current directory. Note the size of mysamplefile. $ gzip mysamplefile Compresses mysamplefile. $ ls -l Observe the results of this command: mysamplefile is now called mysamplefile.gz . It’s also a good bit smaller. $ gunzip mysamplefile.gz; ls -l This uncompresses the file. Observe that mysamplefile has returned to its original state. Notice that to uncompress, one uses gunzip, not gzip. $ rm mysamplefile Use this command to remove the file, since it was just to practice with. 7.4 Finding Files There are two different facilities for finding files: find and locate. find searches the actual files in their present state. locate searches an index generated by the system every morning at 6:42 a.m. (this is a cron job, explained elsewhere in this book). locate won’t find any files that were created after the index was generated. However, because locate searches an index, it’s much faster—like using the index of a book rather than looking through the whole thing. To compare the two ways of finding files, pretend you can’t remember where the X configuration file XF86Config resides. $ locate XF86Config This should be pretty fast. You’ll get a list of filenames that contain XF86Config, something like this: /etc/X11/XF86Config /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XF86Config /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XF86Config.eg /usr/X11R6/man/man5/XF86Config.5x.gz Now try the find command: $ find / -name XF86Config You will hear a lot of disk activity, and this will take a lot longer. Results will look something like this: /etc/X11/XF86Config /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XF86Config find: /var/spool/cron/atjobs: Permission denied find: /var/spool/cron/atspool: Permission denied find: /var/lib/xdm/authdir: Permission denied Notice that find found only files that were named XF86Config, rather than any files containing that string of letters. Also, find actually tried to look in every directory on the system—including some where you didn’t have read permissions. That’s why you got the Permission denied messages. exactly The syntax is different as well. With find, you had to specify what directory to search in, whereas locate automatically chose the root directory. And you had to specify a search by name using the -name option. You could also have searched for files using many other criteria, such as modification date or owner. To have find search for files whose names match XF86Config, you’d have to use a wildcard: $ find / -name ’*XF86Config*’ Like most of the command line tools, find accepts wildcards as arguments. In general, find is a more powerful utility, and locate is faster for everyday quick searches. The full range of possible searches would take a long time to explain; for more details , type info find, which will bring up the very thorough info pages on find and locate. 7.5 Determining a File’s Contents Debian comes with a utility that can guess at the contents of a file for you. Although it is not 100% accurate, you can use the following command to explore your system: $ file /bin/cp You should see something like this: /bin/cp: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 386, version 1 Skipping the technical parts, this is an executable file for Intel machines. $ file /etc/init.d/boot The preceding command gives this response: /etc/init.d/boot: Bourne shell script text meaning that this is a text file containing a Bourne shell script. 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. John Goerzen and Ossama Othman (2004). Debian GNU/Linux : Guide to Installation and Usage. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/6527/pg6527-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 , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

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THE MOURNER.

THE INDIA OFFICE

PHINEAS AGAIN IN LONDON.

The circumstances of the general election of 18

And now the important day of the election had arrived

A Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . THE EIDER-DOWN HUNTER—OFF AT LAST here CHAPTER VIII - THE EIDER-DOWN HUNTER—OFF AT LAST That evening I took a brief walk on the shore near Reykjavik, after which I returned to an early sleep on my bed of coarse planks, where I slept the sleep of the just. When I awoke I heard my uncle speaking loudly in the next room. I rose hastily and joined him. He was talking in Danish with a man of tall stature, and of perfectly Herculean build. This man appeared to be possessed of very great strength. His eyes, which started rather prominently from a very large head, the face belonging to which was simple and naive, appeared very quick and intelligent. Very long hair, which even in England would have been accounted exceedingly red, fell over his athletic shoulders. This native of Iceland was active and supple in appearance, though he scarcely moved his arms, being in fact one of those men who despise the habit of gesticulation common to southern people. Everything in this man's manner revealed a calm and phlegmatic temperament. There was nothing indolent about him, but his appearance spoke of tranquillity. He was one of those who never seemed to expect anything from anybody, who liked to work when he thought proper, and whose philosophy nothing could astonish or trouble. I began to comprehend his character, simply from the way in which he listened to the wild and impassioned verbiage of my worthy uncle. While the excellent Professor spoke sentence after sentence, he stood with folded arms, utterly still, motionless to all my uncle's gesticulations. When he wanted to say No he moved his head from left to right; when he acquiesced he nodded, so slightly that you could scarcely see the undulation of his head. This economy of motion was carried to the length of avarice. Judging from his appearance I should have been a long time before I had suspected him to be what he was, a mighty hunter. Certainly his manner was not likely to frighten the game. How, then, did he contrive to get at his prey? My surprise was slightly modified when I knew that this tranquil and solemn personage was only a hunter of the eider duck, the down of which is, after all, the greatest source of the Icelanders' wealth. In the early days of summer, the female of the eider, a pretty sort of duck, builds its nest amid the rocks of the fjords—the name given to all narrow gulfs in Scandinavian countries—with which every part of the island is indented. No sooner has the eider duck made her nest than she lines the inside of it with the softest down from her breast. Then comes the hunter or trader, taking away the nest, the poor bereaved female begins her task over again, and this continues as long as any eider down is to be found. When she can find no more the male bird sets to work to see what he can do. As, however, his down is not so soft, and has therefore no commercial value, the hunter does not take the trouble to rob him of his nest lining. The nest is accordingly finished, the eggs are laid, the little ones are born, and next year the harvest of eider down is again collected. Now, as the eider duck never selects steep rocks or aspects to build its nest, but rather sloping and low cliffs near to the sea, the Icelandic hunter can carry on his trade operations without much difficulty. He is like a farmer who has neither to plow, to sow, nor to harrow, only to collect his harvest. This grave, sententious, silent person, as phlegmatic as an Englishman on the French stage, was named Hans Bjelke. He had called upon us in consequence of the recommendation of M. Fridriksson. He was, in fact, our future guide. It struck me that had I sought the world over, I could not have found a greater contradiction to my impulsive uncle. They, however, readily understood one another. Neither of them had any thought about money; one was ready to take all that was offered him, the other ready to offer anything that was asked. It may readily be conceived, then, that an understanding was soon come to between them. Now, the understanding was, that he was to take us to the village of Stapi, situated on the southern slope of the peninsula of Sneffels, at the very foot of the volcano. Hans, the guide, told us the distance was about twenty-two miles, a journey which my uncle supposed would take about two days. But when my uncle came to understand that they were Danish miles, of eight thousand yards each, he was obliged to be more moderate in his ideas, and, considering the horrible roads we had to follow, to allow eight or ten days for the journey. Four horses were prepared for us, two to carry the baggage, and two to bear the important weight of myself and uncle. Hans declared that nothing ever would make him climb on the back of any animal. He knew every inch of that part of the coast, and promised to take us the very shortest way. His engagement with my uncle was by no means to cease with our arrival at Stapi; he was further to remain in his service during the whole time required for the completion of his scientific investigations, at the fixed salary of three rix-dollars a week, being exactly fourteen shillings and twopence, minus one farthing, English currency. One stipulation, however, was made by the guide—the money was to be paid to him every Saturday night, failing which, his engagement was at an end. The day of our departure was fixed. My uncle wished to hand the eider-down hunter an advance, but he refused in one emphatic word— "Efter." Which being translated from Icelandic into plain English means—"After." The treaty concluded, our worthy guide retired without another word. "A splendid fellow," said my uncle; "only he little suspects the marvelous part he is about to play in the history of the world." "You mean, then," I cried in amazement, "that he should accompany us?" "To the interior of the earth, yes," replied my uncle. "Why not?" There were yet forty-eight hours to elapse before we made our final start. To my great regret, our whole time was taken up in making preparations for our journey. All our industry and ability were devoted to packing every object in the most advantageous manner—the instruments on one side, the arms on the other, the tools here and the provisions there. There were, in fact, four distinct groups. The instruments were of course of the best manufacture: A centigrade thermometer of Eigel, counting up to 150 degrees, which to me did not appear half enough—or too much. Too hot by half, if the degree of heat was to ascend so high—in which case we should certainly be cooked—not enough, if we wanted to ascertain the exact temperature of springs or metal in a state of fusion. A manometer worked by compressed air, an instrument used to ascertain the upper atmospheric pressure on the level of the ocean. Perhaps a common barometer would not have done as well, the atmospheric pressure being likely to increase in proportion as we descended below the surface of the earth. A first-class chronometer made by Boissonnas, of Geneva, set at the meridian of Hamburg, from which Germans calculate, as the English do from Greenwich, and the French from Paris. Two compasses, one for horizontal guidance, the other to ascertain the dip. A night glass. Two Ruhmkorff coils, which, by means of a current of electricity, would ensure us a very excellent, easily carried, and certain means of obtaining light. A voltaic battery on the newest principle.[1] [1]Thermometer (thermos, and metron, measure); an instrument for measuring the temperature of the air.—Manometer (manos,and metron, measure); an instrument to show the density or rarity of gases.—Chronometer (chronos. time, and metros, measure) a time measurer, or superior watch—Ruhmkorff's coil, an instrument for producing currents of induced electricity of great intensity. It consists of a coil of copper wire, insulated by being covered with silk, surrounded by another coil of fine wire, also insulated, in which a momentary current is induced when a current is passed through the inner coil from a voltaic battery. When the apparatus is in action, the gas becomes luminous, and produces a white and continued light. The battery and wire are carried in a leather bag, which the traveler fastens by a strap to his shoulders. The lantern is in front, and enables the benighted wanderer to see in the most profound obscurity. He may venture without fear of explosion into the midst of the most inflammable gases, and the lantern will burn beneath the deepest waters. H. D. Ruhmkorff, an able and learned chemist, discovered the induction coil. In 1864 he won the quinquennial French prize of £2,000 for this ingenious application of electricity—A voltaic battery, so called from Volta, its designer, is an apparatus consisting of a series of metal plates arranged in pairs and subjected to the action of saline solutions for producing currents of electricity. Our arms consisted of two rifles, with two revolving six-shooters. Why these arms were provided it was impossible for me to say. I had every reason to believe that we had neither wild beasts nor savage natives to fear. My uncle, on the other hand, was quite as devoted to his arsenal as to his collection of instruments, and above all was very careful with his provision of fulminating or gun cotton, warranted to keep in any climate, and of which the expansive force was known to be greater than that of ordinary gunpowder. Our tools consisted of two pickaxes, two crowbars, a silken ladder, three iron-shod Alpine poles, a hatchet, a hammer, a dozen wedges, some pointed pieces of iron, and a quantity of strong rope. You may conceive that the whole made a tolerable parcel, especially when I mention that the ladder itself was three hundred feet long! Then there came the important question of provisions. The hamper was not very large but tolerably satisfactory, for I knew that in concentrated essence of meat and biscuit there was enough to last six months. The only liquid provided by my uncle was Schiedam. Of water, not a drop. We had, however, an ample supply of gourds, and my uncle counted on finding water, and enough to fill them, as soon as we commenced our downward journey. My remarks as to the temperature, the quality, and even as to the possibility of none being found, remained wholly without effect. To make up the exact list of our traveling gear—for the guidance of future travelers—add, that we carried a medicine and surgical chest with all apparatus necessary for wounds, fractures and blows; lint, scissors, lancets—in fact, a perfect collection of horrible looking instruments; a number of vials containing ammonia, alcohol, ether, Goulard water, aromatic vinegar, in fact, every possible and impossible drug—finally, all the materials for working the Ruhmkorff coil! My uncle had also been careful to lay in a goodly supply of tobacco, several flasks of very fine gunpowder, boxes of tinder, besides a large belt crammed full of notes and gold. Good boots rendered watertight were to be found to the number of six in the tool box. "My boy, with such clothing, with such boots, and such general equipment," said my uncle, in a state of rapturous delight, "we may hope to travel far." It took a whole day to put all these matters in order. In the evening we dined with Baron Trampe, in company with the Mayor of Reykjavik, and Doctor Hyaltalin, the great medical man of Iceland. M. Fridriksson was not present, and I was afterwards sorry to hear that he and the governor did not agree on some matters connected with the administration of the island. Unfortunately, the consequence was, that I did not understand a word that was said at dinner—a kind of semiofficial reception. One thing I can say, my uncle never left off speaking. The next day our labor came to an end. Our worthy host delighted my uncle, Professor Hardwigg, by giving him a good map of Iceland, a most important and precious document for a mineralogist. Our last evening was spent in a long conversation with M. Fridriksson, whom I liked very much—the more that I never expected to see him or anyone else again. After this agreeable way of spending an hour or so, I tried to sleep. In vain; with the exception of a few dozes, my night was miserable. At five o'clock in the morning I was awakened from the only real half hour's sleep of the night by the loud neighing of horses under my window. I hastily dressed myself and went down into the street. Hans was engaged in putting the finishing stroke to our baggage, which he did in a silent, quiet way that won my admiration, and yet he did it admirably well. My uncle wasted a great deal of breath in giving him directions, but worthy Hans took not the slightest notice of his words. At six o'clock all our preparations were completed, and M. Fridriksson shook hands heartily with us. My uncle thanked him warmly, in the Icelandic language, for his kind hospitality, speaking truly from the heart. As for myself I put together a few of my best Latin phrases and paid him the highest compliments I could. This fraternal and friendly duty performed, we sallied forth and mounted our horses. As soon as we were quite ready, M. Fridriksson advanced, and by way of farewell, called after me in the words of Virgil—words which appeared to have been made for us, travelers starting for an uncertain destination: "Et quacunque viam dederit fortuna sequamur." ("And whichsoever way thou goest, may fortune follow!") 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. Jules Verne (2006). A Journey to the Center of the Earth. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/files/18857/18857-h/18857-h.htm 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 , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

THE EIDER-DOWN HUNTER—OFF AT LAST

Micro-Star International (MSI) is a computer hardware company based in Taiwan. The company prides itself on producing heavy-duty laptops for tech enthusiasts and gamers. By tech enthusiasts, I mean those who use their PC to drive heavy tech development or modification software. However, MSI gaming laptops are some of the reliable and loveable portable gaming PCs that you can find in the market, even in 2023 and beyond. Some current gaming laptops that will impress you are the Titan GT Series, Cyborg Series, Katana Series, and Raider GE Series. In this article, I’ll review the laptops below and give you my verdict of each. MSI Gaming Laptops to Consider in 2023 MSI Titan GT77 Review MSI Cyborg 15 Review MSI Katana 17 The MSI Raider GE78HX Smart Touchpad MSI Titan GT77 Review The Titan GT77 (2023), also loosely referred to as the MSI GT77 or Titan GT77, is a member of . MSI called this one the ultimate powerhouse. It boasts interesting specs that make for stellar performance. MSI MSI’s gamers' choice series The display is impressionable — a 17-inch, 4K display, with a 144Hz refresh rate. The total weight is 3.3kg. Specs: 13th Gen Core i9-13980 HX processor NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 GPU (16 GB) 2 TB of SSD internal storage that enables it to drive heavy games at the utmost settings 5.5 GHz performance core and 16 efficiency cores 64GB DDR5 RAM and 4 memory slots, which are upgradeable to a total expansion of 428 gigs No HDR support Dual 2-terabyte NVME SSD slots. The scored over 21,000 graphics at 185 frames per second (fps) and 1440p, and the stress test was over 99%. What more can you ask for? Time Spy Test The basic price is around $4,299 and can increase based on your required modifications. Price: MSI Titan GT77 Gaming Laptop Design: It has RGB lighting for the keyboard display and the base panel. The Cherry mechanical keyboard sits pretty in a shallow compartment, with moderately spaced keys. So, it offers a very good typing experience, especially if you derive pleasure from keyboard sounds. The light is always on display at the back, beaming in its glorious rainbow pride. The MSI badge on the lid also flashes elegantly. The entire back has cooling vents from side to side, all the way. Although the keyboard seems to be forced to accommodate the numbers on the right side. It offers two Thunderbolt ports. In addition, there’s a mini-display port connection, an SD card slot, a 3.5mm headphone jack, three Type A USB 3.2 connections, and an Ethernet action port. Ports: Cons: What you may not enjoy about it is that the fan screams even under normal use, and goes even higher when used to drive heavy applications. Despite the super performance qualities, it still has a 720p webcam. I would have expected more from a computer at that price point. At 15.6 by 12.9 inches, you can expect the weight to be heavy. But hey, what high-performance gaming laptop isn't heavy? There are different versions of the Titan GT77, especially by year. MSI Titan GT77 2023 is the latest, as of this review. Note: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkw8yS04Ryw&embedable=true The Verdict Quality design. Rugged. Smart and recent tech, mostly. The camera's display isn't the best. Some other laptops offer at least the 1080p video option. The microphone isn't the best. Does not even come close to a dynamic mic sound. But it's audible enough if that's what you're looking forward to. It offers a webcam shield. If you take Snowden seriously, that's great for you. And automatically disable the webcam. A typical web browsing session and other runs like typing will max out the battery at about 2 and a half hours. So, you can expect less if you are gaming on battery power. But who games on battery power anyway? MSI Cyborg 15 Review The MSI Cyborg 15 is for those looking for a . It sits pretty well on your table at only 4.3 lbs (1.59kg) and is even easy to carry on your back. It's not the best design when it comes to appearance, but it’s just there. The chassis seems to be a remake of the . It's super thin, too. Overview: budget gaming laptop MSI Stealth 15 MSI Cyborg 15 Design: This one is super light and sleek. Not much design paparazzi. It has a single fan, which means you cannot drive it to the limit that you can push most gaming laptops to. But hey, at an approximately $1000 USD price point, that's not so much of a killjoy. Specs: Intel Core i7 13620H (or 12650H, depending on your option) processor. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 GPU 8 GB of VRAM (or 6), 16GB DDR5-4800 RAM. Samsung 1024GB, with only 867GB accessible memory. Extendable SSD slot. 15.6-inch screen,144HZ refresh rate, 4 P-cores, 4 E-cores, and a total of 16 total threads. So the performance is lower in comparison to most of the 2022 and above game machines, whether from the company or other companies. The RAM will make it lag when it runs AAA games; so, it best serves mid power-consuming games, but it will definitely serve video editors. USB C port with DP, HDMI 2.0, 2USB-A.3.2, an Ethernet connection port, and a 720p WebCam. Ports: You can’t expect much from a 53.4Wh battery. And that is a disappointment for a portable gaming PC. Even non-gaming devices have 68WH, and even 97Wh battery capacity. But that may be MSI's way of telling you, “hey, your price does not deserve a better power option”. Power: Although, when it comes to the runtime, it does fairly well, in comparison to some other laptops like the MSI Katana 15, the , or even the . It is definitely one of the best MSI low-power consumption laptops in the market. At maximum load and brightness, you can expect a run time of about 2 hours and 15 minutes. But there is a limit to your expectations because this is a budget gaming PC. Aorus 15 XES 90 Wh ASUS TUF Gaming A16 The backlit keyboard does not offer much; there is no RGB, just a light blue backlight. The keyboard spacing is not the best, but it isn't too bad, too. It has pretty decent arrow keys, but the number pads are just meh —squeezed in. Keyboard: Cons: No Thunderbolt port There is only a single fan You have no SD card slot The color accuracy is questionable, almost like a blurry version of most color schemes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1NrdAKAHdc&embedable=true The Verdict At an entry price of approximately $1000, this is a decent machine, but not worth being named a "cyborg". Honestly, with such mid-range performance and an unmotivating screen quality, this is not a professional gaming laptop. It's like what you'd gift your 10-year-old who is just getting into the world of gaming, but you don't want them addicted. MSI Katana 17 Gaming Laptop Review **Overview:**The MSI Katana 17 is one of MSI's GeForce RTX40 series laptops optimized for memorable gaming performance. To be honest, the company tries to impress itself by being dedicated to heavy-duty laptops, which is mostly great, but sometimes exaggerated. The design is quite smooth; in fact, it is too sleek for a gaming laptop. The base is also thin (not ultra-thin) in comparison to most others. Underneath is the heating vent, which proves effective both as a design and as a heat dissipation system. On the side of this 2.795kg (6.08 lbs) machine, there is a Type C port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, one HDMI port that supports up to 4k at 120Hz output, a USB 2.0 port, and USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, that will accommodate more recent hardware such as keyboards or a mouse. Ports: Specs: 13th Gen Intel 8 Core i7-13700H processor 1TB SSD NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 and 16 DDR5 RAM, extendable up to 64GB 2 ultra-high-speed NVME SSDs Has Bluetooth 5.1 720p HD WebCam The Katana 17 price is €2000 (currently only available in Germany). Price: The keyboard backlight gives RGB lighting that can make your dark game room glow, giving the Jedi sword aura. It gives Alienware vibes but is not as strong as some of the company's other devices. The WASD keys and the ARROW keys are translucent, with obvious indicators that they serve gaming purposes. Number pads are available, but like the other ones reviewed here, they barely have enough room to sit on the laptop. By visiting the MSI performance center, as a user, you can select your unique keyboard (backlit) color. Keyboard and Lights: White LED lights indicate that the laptop is using the integrated GPU, and when it is orange, that's the discrete GPU. Design: With MSI Katana 17, allows its customers to create their unique gaming laptop. So, you should check out the MSI Center for possible things you can customize, such as the LED lights, the light color patterns, and programmable keys. Micro-Star International With this series, MSI introduces the Cooler Boost 5 with dedicated thermal solutions with up to six heat pipes for a double fan system. That is more impressive than the Cyborg 15. This laptop has an extended heat pipe diameter and thermal grease for enhanced performance. You have the option to trigger a turbo cooling mode by pressing the function and the arrow up keys. That way, your fans' speed will increase. Pressing both keys again will return the speed to normal. The laptop has an accommodating trackpad, but there are no click buttons, which, to me, is not great enough for a gaming PC. You’d have to question the "3-cell" battery that the MSI Katana series claims when the total wattage is 53.5Wh. When powering up for the first time, you have to plug in the power adapter before you press the power button. The company protected it from turning in case of accidental handling by putting it in shipping mode. So, if you wonder, "Why doesn't my new laptop come on when I press the power button?" then you have to have it plugged in to disable shipping mode. Hold the power button to sleep. Power: It offers five performance modes that support whatever working condition you want it to have as a user. However, you can customize each of the modes at the MSI Center. Cons Dull Camera Some versions come with 512 SSD The Verdict The PC is just an ‘average Joe’. There is a version that has a 512 SSD —what’s that for?. So, in performance, this is lower than the Titan G77, even though it is one of the company's recent releases. The power plug port is on the upper left side of the laptop. You have a screen refresh rate of 144Hz full HD. The WebCam of the MSI Katana 17 lacks sharpness and color integrity. There is only 1 display option; you can’t toggle between multiple displays. You would be lucky to have your unit equipped with an HDMI cable. The MSI Raider GE78HX Smart Touchpad Review This PC makes the list because, according to MSI, it is " ". Well, to begin with, you have a very sleek design with a workstation. The RGB light is really cool and welcoming, although it may be more exaggerated in pictures than in real life. The casing is solid plastic, mostly black, with some red and gold lining on some parts. The power comes on, bringing the vibrancy of the PC to glorious life on the icon, the keyboard, and the touch panel. Overview: tailored for gaming enthusiasts The entire laptop weighs in at about 3.1kg and has dimensions of 380 x 298 x 23 mm. For the most part, this is a smart PC, AI-powered, and that seems to be what MSI focused on with the Raider GE78HX Smart Touchpad PC. The backlit RGB keyboard is sleek. The designs on the arrow keys and the WASD stand out among others, they are more transparent and even with matching colors. You can modify the mystic lights, however, in the MSI center. The power button and function are similar to those of the Katana. A smart design puts out the keyboard lights once they are inactive, and they come back on as the touch panel senses hand movement. Keyboard: The touchpad is the most obvious component of the PC. The touch panel is elongated, and the entire mouse trackpad and screen functions. It covers about 3/4 of the hand rest. So, that means it is very difficult to do anything on this PC that requires typing, as you would have no palm rest area. While you can toggle off the touch functions of the shortcut keys on the touch panel, there are others that you cannot turn off, e.g., brightness, speaker volume, etc. It is a mixed reaction for me because, how many gamers care about a highly sensitive pad, especially when it can interfere with the gameplay? Touchpad: The touchpad was intended to foster easy access to special functions, and it has six programmable hotkeys that users can customize to any function you desire. A user can toggle among the three touchpad functions: eco mode, smart mode, and touchpad mode (On/Off). In my opinion, MSI should have allowed the users to max out all of the touchpad modes; sadly, you have to choose each one. And although the mouse has no right and left click buttons, the embedded click buttons beneath the trackpad are still annoyingly noisy. Specs: 24 cores total. 13th-Gen Intel ABT/TVB Core i9-13980 HX processor. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 GPU, GPU is a 140W dynamic boost 2.0, and the CPU is 75W, bringing it all to a total of 215W. Gen 5 SSD storage AI-enabled touchpad 16GB DDR5 RAM (some with 8GB GB DDR6 RAM) that is extendable up to 64GB. Supports Thunderbolt 4. Design: Overall, the design is impressive. The PC has a nice venting system that is quite effective, running from one side through the back and to the other side of the PC. Underneath are also vents. The machine drives a double fan with the Cooler Boost 5 system, with 6 heat pipes connecting to both the CPU and GPU. While you can expect this to keep the heat down, you can still, unfortunately, expect MSI's trademark fan noise. However, that shouldn’t be a worry for a gaming laptop. The PC has a long, thin rubber grip on the front and back for a firm grip onto a table surface. The MSI logo is also on the underbelly of the PC. Despite a good design generally, the hinges are a source of concern. They seem weak and can easily damage, as they hold the screen up only on the very far end of either side and are also small in size. The ports are distributed on the sides and the back of the laptop. You have 3 USB 3.2 GenT Type-A ports, and 2 Gen2 Type-C ports. You have HDMI 2.1 (8K @ 60Hz and up to 4K @ 120 Hz). You have the RJ45 port, too. You have a headphone/audio combo jack spot and an SD card slot with a Thunderbolt 4 opening. On the back side is a DC port. Ports: MSI loads this machine with 6 speakers on the sides and front. I think that may be an unnecessary burden since most gamers use headphones or monitors anyway. Speaker: Display: 17.3-inch screen with a 16:10 aspect ratio, a QHD IPS resolution, and an impressive 240Hz refresh rate. The refresh rate even trumps the recent Titan GT77. This time around, MSI stopped hoarding the top WebCam capability by releasing a 1080p camera, and you can expect better quality for on-screen display images during games or even virtual meetings. There is a WebCam shield button that can cover the camera when not in use or to protect it from scratches. While the display promises to be better than most of MSI's products, what you see in pictures, especially on MSI's website, is more exaggerated than the real color hue. So, beware. It has a 99.9Wh battery capacity, which is fair compared to most of the company's products. Well, although claimed to be 4 cells, the thought is not 'awe-some' enough that the best power a 4 cell could offer is 88Wh. Power: **Price:**The preorder entry point price is a whopping $4,271 But prices may advance based on specifications and location. Cons: Unnecessary speaker burdens Noisy fan Too pricey Cannot access all touchpad modes at once The Verdict If you are going for this, you have made a reasonable choice, considering the technology, AI functionality of the touchpad, too. The MUX discrete graphics mode of this PC allows a user to stretch the PC further than most of its colleagues. If you need loud and plenty of speakers, this is okay. The WebCam is great, too. But the price may be too much for what this product has to offer in comparison to other brands’ offers. Final Thoughts on the Best MSI Laptops of 2023 MSI is a respected PC creator with many product successes. They boast of recent technology in hardware composition that will impress their customers. The AI advancement of the Raider GE 78HX is something to look forward to in other PCs. While The Titan GT77 and Raider GE78HX are powerful devices suitable for driving heavy games, the Cyborg 15 and Katana are just mid-range performance PCs that would best serve content creators and non-gaming enthusiasts or beginners.

The 4 Best MSI Gaming Laptop Reviewed: For Gamers On the Go

The Return of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . The Passing of the Ape-Man The Passing of the Ape-Man The next morning they set out upon the short journey to Tarzan’s cabin. Four Waziri bore the body of the dead Englishman. It had been the ape-man’s suggestion that Clayton be buried beside the former Lord Greystoke near the edge of the jungle against the cabin that the older man had built. Jane Porter was glad that it was to be so, and in her heart of hearts she wondered at the marvelous fineness of character of this wondrous man, who, though raised by brutes and among brutes, had the true chivalry and tenderness which only associates with the refinements of the highest civilization. They had proceeded some three miles of the five that had separated them from Tarzan’s own beach when the Waziri who were ahead stopped suddenly, pointing in amazement at a strange figure approaching them along the beach. It was a man with a shiny silk hat, who walked slowly with bent head, and hands clasped behind him underneath the tails of his long, black coat. At sight of him Jane Porter uttered a little cry of surprise and joy, and ran quickly ahead to meet him. At the sound of her voice the old man looked up, and when he saw who it was confronting him he, too, cried out in relief and happiness. As Professor Archimedes Q. Porter folded his daughter in his arms tears streamed down his seamed old face, and it was several minutes before he could control himself sufficiently to speak. When a moment later he recognized Tarzan it was with difficulty that they could convince him that his sorrow had not unbalanced his mind, for with the other members of the party he had been so thoroughly convinced that the ape-man was dead it was a problem to reconcile the conviction with the very lifelike appearance of Jane’s “forest god.” The old man was deeply touched at the news of Clayton’s death. “I cannot understand it,” he said. “Monsieur Thuran assured us that Clayton passed away many days ago.” “Thuran is with you?” asked Tarzan. “Yes; he but recently found us and led us to your cabin. We were camped but a short distance north of it. Bless me, but he will be delighted to see you both.” “And surprised,” commented Tarzan. A short time later the strange party came to the clearing in which stood the ape-man’s cabin. It was filled with people coming and going, and almost the first whom Tarzan saw was D’Arnot. “Paul!” he cried. “In the name of sanity what are you doing here? Or are we all insane?” It was quickly explained, however, as were many other seemingly strange things. D’Arnot’s ship had been cruising along the coast, on patrol duty, when at the lieutenant’s suggestion they had anchored off the little landlocked harbor to have another look at the cabin and the jungle in which many of the officers and men had taken part in exciting adventures two years before. On landing they had found Lord Tennington’s party, and arrangements were being made to take them all on board the following morning, and carry them back to civilization. Hazel Strong and her mother, Esmeralda, and Mr. Samuel T. Philander were almost overcome by happiness at Jane Porter’s safe return. Her escape seemed to them little short of miraculous, and it was the consensus of opinion that it could have been achieved by no other man than Tarzan of the Apes. They loaded the uncomfortable ape-man with eulogies and attentions until he wished himself back in the amphitheater of the apes. All were interested in his savage Waziri, and many were the gifts the black men received from these friends of their king, but when they learned that he might sail away from them upon the great canoe that lay at anchor a mile off shore they became very sad. As yet the newcomers had seen nothing of Lord Tennington and Monsieur Thuran. They had gone out for fresh meat early in the day, and had not yet returned. “How surprised this man, whose name you say is Rokoff, will be to see you,” said Jane Porter to Tarzan. “His surprise will be short-lived,” replied the ape-man grimly, and there was that in his tone that made her look up into his face in alarm. What she read there evidently confirmed her fears, for she put her hand upon his arm, and pleaded with him to leave the Russian to the laws of France. “In the heart of the jungle, dear,” she said, “with no other form of right or justice to appeal to other than your own mighty muscles, you would be warranted in executing upon this man the sentence he deserves; but with the strong arm of a civilized government at your disposal it would be murder to kill him now. Even your friends would have to submit to your arrest, or if you resisted it would plunge us all into misery and unhappiness again. I cannot bear to lose you again, my Tarzan. Promise me that you will but turn him over to Captain Dufranne, and let the law take its course—the beast is not worth risking our happiness for.” He saw the wisdom of her appeal, and promised. A half hour later Rokoff and Tennington emerged from the jungle. They were walking side by side. Tennington was the first to note the presence of strangers in the camp. He saw the black warriors palavering with the sailors from the cruiser, and then he saw a lithe, brown giant talking with Lieutenant D’Arnot and Captain Dufranne. “Who is that, I wonder,” said Tennington to Rokoff, and as the Russian raised his eyes and met those of the ape-man full upon him, he staggered and went white. “Sapristi!” he cried, and before Tennington realized what he intended he had thrown his gun to his shoulder, and aiming point-blank at Tarzan pulled the trigger. But the Englishman was close to him—so close that his hand reached the leveled barrel a fraction of a second before the hammer fell upon the cartridge, and the bullet that was intended for Tarzan’s heart whirred harmlessly above his head. Before the Russian could fire again the ape-man was upon him and had wrested the firearm from his grasp. Captain Dufranne, Lieutenant D’Arnot, and a dozen sailors had rushed up at the sound of the shot, and now Tarzan turned the Russian over to them without a word. He had explained the matter to the French commander before Rokoff arrived, and the officer gave immediate orders to place the Russian in irons and confine him on board the cruiser. Just before the guard escorted the prisoner into the small boat that was to transport him to his temporary prison Tarzan asked permission to search him, and to his delight found the stolen papers concealed upon his person. The shot had brought Jane Porter and the others from the cabin, and a moment after the excitement had died down she greeted the surprised Lord Tennington. Tarzan joined them after he had taken the papers from Rokoff, and, as he approached, Jane Porter introduced him to Tennington. “John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, my lord,” she said. The Englishman looked his astonishment in spite of his most herculean efforts to appear courteous, and it required many repetitions of the strange story of the ape-man as told by himself, Jane Porter, and Lieutenant D’Arnot to convince Lord Tennington that they were not all quite mad. At sunset they buried William Cecil Clayton beside the jungle graves of his uncle and his aunt, the former Lord and Lady Greystoke. And it was at Tarzan’s request that three volleys were fired over the last resting place of “a brave man, who met his death bravely.” Professor Porter, who in his younger days had been ordained a minister, conducted the simple services for the dead. About the grave, with bowed heads, stood as strange a company of mourners as the sun ever looked down upon. There were French officers and sailors, two English lords, Americans, and a score of savage African braves. Following the funeral Tarzan asked Captain Dufranne to delay the sailing of the cruiser a couple of days while he went inland a few miles to fetch his “belongings,” and the officer gladly granted the favor. Late the next afternoon Tarzan and his Waziri returned with the first load of “belongings,” and when the party saw the ancient ingots of virgin gold they swarmed upon the ape-man with a thousand questions; but he was smilingly obdurate to their appeals—he declined to give them the slightest clew as to the source of his immense treasure. “There are a thousand that I left behind,” he explained, “for every one that I brought away, and when these are spent I may wish to return for more.” The next day he returned to camp with the balance of his ingots, and when they were stored on board the cruiser Captain Dufranne said he felt like the commander of an old-time Spanish galleon returning from the treasure cities of the Aztecs. “I don’t know what minute my crew will cut my throat, and take over the ship,” he added. The next morning, as they were preparing to embark upon the cruiser, Tarzan ventured a suggestion to Jane Porter. “Wild beasts are supposed to be devoid of sentiment,” he said, “but nevertheless I should like to be married in the cabin where I was born, beside the graves of my mother and my father, and surrounded by the savage jungle that always has been my home.” “Would it be quite regular, dear?” she asked. “For if it would I know of no other place in which I should rather be married to my forest god than beneath the shade of his primeval forest.” And when they spoke of it to the others they were assured that it would be quite regular, and a most splendid termination of a remarkable romance. So the entire party assembled within the little cabin and about the door to witness the second ceremony that Professor Porter was to solemnize within three days. D’Arnot was to be best man, and Hazel Strong bridesmaid, until Tennington upset all the arrangements by another of his marvelous “ideas.” “If Mrs. Strong is agreeable,” he said, taking the bridesmaid’s hand in his, “Hazel and I think it would be ripping to make it a double wedding.” The next day they sailed, and as the cruiser steamed slowly out to sea a tall man, immaculate in white flannel, and a graceful girl leaned against her rail to watch the receding shore line upon which danced twenty naked, black warriors of the Waziri, waving their war spears above their savage heads, and shouting farewells to their departing king. “I should hate to think that I am looking upon the jungle for the last time, dear,” he said, “were it not that I know that I am going to a new world of happiness with you forever,” and, bending down, Tarzan of the Apes kissed his mate upon her lips. 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. Edgar Rice Burroughs (1993). The Return of Tarzan. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/81/pg81-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 .

The Passing of the Ape-Man

The Return of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . Ships That Pass Ships That Pass Let us go back a few months to the little, windswept platform of a railway station in northern Wisconsin. The smoke of forest fires hangs low over the surrounding landscape, its acrid fumes smarting the eyes of a little party of six who stand waiting the coming of the train that is to bear them away toward the south. Professor Archimedes Q. Porter, his hands clasped beneath the tails of his long coat, paces back and forth under the ever-watchful eye of his faithful secretary, Mr. Samuel T. Philander. Twice within the past few minutes he has started absent-mindedly across the tracks in the direction of a near-by swamp, only to be rescued and dragged back by the tireless Mr. Philander. Jane Porter, the professor’s daughter, is in strained and lifeless conversation with William Cecil Clayton and Tarzan of the Apes. Within the little waiting room, but a bare moment before, a confession of love and a renunciation had taken place that had blighted the lives and happiness of two of the party, but William Cecil Clayton, Lord Greystoke, was not one of them. Behind Miss Porter hovered the motherly Esmeralda. She, too, was happy, for was she not returning to her beloved Maryland? Already she could see dimly through the fog of smoke the murky headlight of the oncoming engine. The men began to gather up the hand baggage. Suddenly Clayton exclaimed. “By Jove! I’ve left my ulster in the waiting-room,” and hastened off to fetch it. “Good-bye, Jane,” said Tarzan, extending his hand. “God bless you!” “Good-bye,” replied the girl faintly. “Try to forget me—no, not that—I could not bear to think that you had forgotten me.” “There is no danger of that, dear,” he answered. “I wish to Heaven that I might forget. It would be so much easier than to go through life always remembering what might have been. You will be happy, though; I am sure you shall—you must be. You may tell the others of my decision to drive my car on to New York—I don’t feel equal to bidding Clayton good-bye. I want always to remember him kindly, but I fear that I am too much of a wild beast yet to be trusted too long with the man who stands between me and the one person in all the world I want.” As Clayton stooped to pick up his coat in the waiting room his eyes fell on a telegraph blank lying face down upon the floor. He stooped to pick it up, thinking it might be a message of importance which some one had dropped. He glanced at it hastily, and then suddenly he forgot his coat, the approaching train—everything but that terrible little piece of yellow paper in his hand. He read it twice before he could fully grasp the terrific weight of meaning that it bore to him. When he had picked it up he had been an English nobleman, the proud and wealthy possessor of vast estates—a moment later he had read it, and he knew that he was an untitled and penniless beggar. It was D’Arnot’s cablegram to Tarzan, and it read: Finger prints prove you Greystoke. Congratulations. D’ARNOT. He staggered as though he had received a mortal blow. Just then he heard the others calling to him to hurry—the train was coming to a stop at the little platform. Like a man dazed he gathered up his ulster. He would tell them about the cablegram when they were all on board the train. Then he ran out upon the platform just as the engine whistled twice in the final warning that precedes the first rumbling jerk of coupling pins. The others were on board, leaning out from the platform of a Pullman, crying to him to hurry. Quite five minutes elapsed before they were settled in their seats, nor was it until then that Clayton discovered that Tarzan was not with them. “Where is Tarzan?” he asked Jane Porter. “In another car?” “No,” she replied; “at the last minute he determined to drive his machine back to New York. He is anxious to see more of America than is possible from a car window. He is returning to France, you know.” Clayton did not reply. He was trying to find the right words to explain to Jane Porter the calamity that had befallen him—and her. He wondered just what the effect of his knowledge would be on her. Would she still wish to marry him—to be plain Mrs. Clayton? Suddenly the awful sacrifice which one of them must make loomed large before his imagination. Then came the question: Will Tarzan claim his own? The ape-man had known the contents of the message before he calmly denied knowledge of his parentage! He had admitted that Kala, the ape, was his mother! Could it have been for love of Jane Porter? There was no other explanation which seemed reasonable. Then, having ignored the evidence of the message, was it not reasonable to assume that he meant never to claim his birthright? If this were so, what right had he, William Cecil Clayton, to thwart the wishes, to balk the self-sacrifice of this strange man? If Tarzan of the Apes could do this thing to save Jane Porter from unhappiness, why should he, to whose care she was intrusting her whole future, do aught to jeopardize her interests? And so he reasoned until the first generous impulse to proclaim the truth and relinquish his titles and his estates to their rightful owner was forgotten beneath the mass of sophistries which self-interest had advanced. But during the balance of the trip, and for many days thereafter, he was moody and distraught. Occasionally the thought obtruded itself that possibly at some later day Tarzan would regret his magnanimity, and claim his rights. Several days after they reached Baltimore Clayton broached the subject of an early marriage to Jane. “What do you mean by early?” she asked. “Within the next few days. I must return to England at once—I want you to return with me, dear.” “I can’t get ready so soon as that,” replied Jane. “It will take a whole month, at least.” She was glad, for she hoped that whatever called him to England might still further delay the wedding. She had made a bad bargain, but she intended carrying her part loyally to the bitter end—if she could manage to secure a temporary reprieve, though, she felt that she was warranted in doing so. His reply disconcerted her. “Very well, Jane,” he said. “I am disappointed, but I shall let my trip to England wait a month; then we can go back together.” But when the month was drawing to a close she found still another excuse upon which to hang a postponement, until at last, discouraged and doubting, Clayton was forced to go back to England alone. The several letters that passed between them brought Clayton no nearer to a consummation of his hopes than he had been before, and so it was that he wrote directly to Professor Porter, and enlisted his services. The old man had always favored the match. He liked Clayton, and, being of an old southern family, he put rather an exaggerated value on the advantages of a title, which meant little or nothing to his daughter. Clayton urged that the professor accept his invitation to be his guest in London, an invitation which included the professor’s entire little family—Mr. Philander, Esmeralda, and all. The Englishman argued that once Jane was there, and home ties had been broken, she would not so dread the step which she had so long hesitated to take. So the evening that he received Clayton’s letter Professor Porter announced that they would leave for London the following week. But once in London Jane Porter was no more tractable than she had been in Baltimore. She found one excuse after another, and when, finally, Lord Tennington invited the party to cruise around Africa in his yacht, she expressed the greatest delight in the idea, but absolutely refused to be married until they had returned to London. As the cruise was to consume a year at least, for they were to stop for indefinite periods at various points of interest, Clayton mentally anathematized Tennington for ever suggesting such a ridiculous trip. It was Lord Tennington’s plan to cruise through the Mediterranean, and the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean, and thus down the East Coast, putting in at every port that was worth the seeing. And so it happened that on a certain day two vessels passed in the Strait of Gibraltar. The smaller, a trim white yacht, was speeding toward the east, and on her deck sat a young woman who gazed with sad eyes upon a diamond-studded locket which she idly fingered. Her thoughts were far away, in the dim, leafy fastness of a tropical jungle—and her heart was with her thoughts. She wondered if the man who had given her the beautiful bauble, that had meant so much more to him than the intrinsic value which he had not even known could ever have meant to him, was back in his savage forest. And upon the deck of the larger vessel, a passenger steamer passing toward the east, the man sat with another young woman, and the two idly speculated upon the identity of the dainty craft gliding so gracefully through the gentle swell of the lazy sea. When the yacht had passed the man resumed the conversation that her appearance had broken off. “Yes,” he said, “I like America very much, and that means, of course, that I like Americans, for a country is only what its people make it. I met some very delightful people while I was there. I recall one family from your own city, Miss Strong, whom I liked particularly—Professor Porter and his daughter.” “Jane Porter!” exclaimed the girl. “Do you mean to tell me that you know Jane Porter? Why, she is the very best friend I have in the world. We were little children together—we have known each other for ages.” “Indeed!” he answered, smiling. “You would have difficulty in persuading any one of the fact who had seen either of you.” “I’ll qualify the statement, then,” she answered, with a laugh. “We have known each other for two ages—hers and mine. But seriously we are as dear to each other as sisters, and now that I am going to lose her I am almost heartbroken.” “Going to lose her?” exclaimed Tarzan. “Why, what do you mean? Oh, yes, I understand. You mean that now that she is married and living in England, you will seldom if ever see her.” “Yes,” replied she; “and the saddest part of it all is that she is not marrying the man she loves. Oh, it is terrible. Marrying from a sense of duty! I think it is perfectly wicked, and I told her so. I have felt so strongly on the subject that although I was the only person outside of blood relations who was to have been asked to the wedding I would not let her invite me, for I should not have gone to witness the terrible mockery. But Jane Porter is peculiarly positive. She has convinced herself that she is doing the only honorable thing that she can do, and nothing in the world will ever prevent her from marrying Lord Greystoke except Greystoke himself, or death.” “I am sorry for her,” said Tarzan. “And I am sorry for the man she loves,” said the girl, “for he loves her. I never met him, but from what Jane tells me he must be a very wonderful person. It seems that he was born in an African jungle, and brought up by fierce, anthropoid apes. He had never seen a white man or woman until Professor Porter and his party were marooned on the coast right at the threshold of his tiny cabin. He saved them from all manner of terrible beasts, and accomplished the most wonderful feats imaginable, and then to cap the climax he fell in love with Jane and she with him, though she never really knew it for sure until she had promised herself to Lord Greystoke.” “Most remarkable,” murmured Tarzan, cudgeling his brain for some pretext upon which to turn the subject. He delighted in hearing Hazel Strong talk of Jane, but when he was the subject of the conversation he was bored and embarrassed. But he was soon given a respite, for the girl’s mother joined them, and the talk became general. The next few days passed uneventfully. The sea was quiet. The sky was clear. The steamer plowed steadily on toward the south without pause. Tarzan spent quite a little time with Miss Strong and her mother. They whiled away their hours on deck reading, talking, or taking pictures with Miss Strong’s camera. When the sun had set they walked. One day Tarzan found Miss Strong in conversation with a stranger, a man he had not seen on board before. As he approached the couple the man bowed to the girl and turned to walk away. “Wait, Monsieur Thuran,” said Miss Strong; “you must meet Mr. Caldwell. We are all fellow passengers, and should be acquainted.” The two men shook hands. As Tarzan looked into the eyes of Monsieur Thuran he was struck by the strange familiarity of their expression. “I have had the honor of monsieur’s acquaintance in the past, I am sure,” said Tarzan, “though I cannot recall the circumstances.” Monsieur Thuran appeared ill at ease. “I cannot say, monsieur,” he replied. “It may be so. I have had that identical sensation myself when meeting a stranger.” “Monsieur Thuran has been explaining some of the mysteries of navigation to me,” explained the girl. Tarzan paid little heed to the conversation that ensued—he was attempting to recall where he had met Monsieur Thuran before. That it had been under peculiar circumstances he was positive. Presently the sun reached them, and the girl asked Monsieur Thuran to move her chair farther back into the shade. Tarzan happened to be watching the man at the time, and noticed the awkward manner in which he handled the chair—his left wrist was stiff. That clew was sufficient—a sudden train of associated ideas did the rest. Monsieur Thuran had been trying to find an excuse to make a graceful departure. The lull in the conversation following the moving of their position gave him an opportunity to make his excuses. Bowing low to Miss Strong, and inclining his head to Tarzan, he turned to leave them. “Just a moment,” said Tarzan. “If Miss Strong will pardon me I will accompany you. I shall return in a moment, Miss Strong.” Monsieur Thuran looked uncomfortable. When the two men had passed out of the girl’s sight, Tarzan stopped, laying a heavy hand on the other’s shoulder. “What is your game now, Rokoff?” he asked. “I am leaving France as I promised you,” replied the other, in a surly voice. “I see you are,” said Tarzan; “but I know you so well that I can scarcely believe that your being on the same boat with me is purely a coincidence. If I could believe it the fact that you are in disguise would immediately disabuse my mind of any such idea.” “Well,” growled Rokoff, with a shrug, “I cannot see what you are going to do about it. This vessel flies the English flag. I have as much right on board her as you, and from the fact that you are booked under an assumed name I imagine that I have more right.” “We will not discuss it, Rokoff. All I wanted to say to you is that you must keep away from Miss Strong—she is a decent woman.” Rokoff turned scarlet. “If you don’t I shall pitch you overboard,” continued Tarzan. “Do not forget that I am just waiting for some excuse.” Then he turned on his heel, and left Rokoff standing there trembling with suppressed rage. He did not see the man again for days, but Rokoff was not idle. In his stateroom with Paulvitch he fumed and swore, threatening the most terrible of revenges. “I would throw him overboard tonight,” he cried, “were I sure that those papers were not on his person. I cannot chance pitching them into the ocean with him. If you were not such a stupid coward, Alexis, you would find a way to enter his stateroom and search for the documents.” Paulvitch smiled. “You are supposed to be the brains of this partnership, my dear Nikolas,” he replied. “Why do you not find the means to search Monsieur Caldwell’s stateroom—eh?” Two hours later fate was kind to them, for Paulvitch, who was ever on the watch, saw Tarzan leave his room without locking the door. Five minutes later Rokoff was stationed where he could give the alarm in case Tarzan returned, and Paulvitch was deftly searching the contents of the ape-man’s luggage. He was about to give up in despair when he saw a coat which Tarzan had just removed. A moment later he grasped an official envelope in his hand. A quick glance at its contents brought a broad smile to the Russian’s face. When he left the stateroom Tarzan himself could not have told that an article in it had been touched since he left it—Paulvitch was a past master in his chosen field. When he handed the packet to Rokoff in the seclusion of their stateroom the larger man rang for a steward, and ordered a pint of champagne. “We must celebrate, my dear Alexis,” he said. “It was luck, Nikolas,” explained Paulvitch. “It is evident that he carries these papers always upon his person—just by chance he neglected to transfer them when he changed coats a few minutes since. But there will be the deuce to pay when he discovers his loss. I am afraid that he will immediately connect you with it. Now that he knows that you are on board he will suspect you at once.” “It will make no difference whom he suspects—after to-night,” said Rokoff, with a nasty grin. After Miss Strong had gone below that night Tarzan stood leaning over the rail looking far out to sea. Every night he had done this since he had come on board—sometimes he stood thus for an hour. And the eyes that had been watching his every movement since he had boarded the ship at Algiers knew that this was his habit. Even as he stood there this night those eyes were on him. Presently the last straggler had left the deck. It was a clear night, but there was no moon—objects on deck were barely discernible. From the shadows of the cabin two figures crept stealthily upon the ape-man from behind. The lapping of the waves against the ship’s sides, the whirring of the propeller, the throbbing of the engines, drowned the almost soundless approach of the two. They were quite close to him now, and crouching low, like tacklers on a gridiron. One of them raised his hand and lowered it, as though counting off seconds—one—two—three! As one man the two leaped for their victim. Each grasped a leg, and before Tarzan of the Apes, lightning though he was, could turn to save himself he had been pitched over the low rail and was falling into the Atlantic. Hazel Strong was looking from her darkened port across the dark sea. Suddenly a body shot past her eyes from the deck above. It dropped so quickly into the dark waters below that she could not be sure of what it was—it might have been a man, she could not say. She listened for some outcry from above—for the always-fearsome call, “Man overboard!” but it did not come. All was silence on the ship above—all was silence in the sea below. The girl decided that she had but seen a bundle of refuse thrown overboard by one of the ship’s crew, and a moment later sought her berth. 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. Edgar Rice Burroughs (1993). The Return of Tarzan. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/81/pg81-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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