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CHAPTER XXV.
Hawkins went straight to the telegraph office and disburdened his conscience. He said to himself, "She's not going to give this galvanized cadaver up, that's plain. Wild horses can't pull her away from him. I've done my share; it's for Sellers to take an innings, now." So he sent this message to New York:
"Come back. Hire special train. She's going to marry the materializee."
Meantime a note came to Rossmore Towers to say that the Earl of Rossmore had just arrived from England, and would do himself the pleasure of calling in the evening. Sally said to herself, "It is a pity he didn't stop in New York; but it's no matter; he can go up to-morrow and see my father. He has come over here to tomahawk papa, very likely--or buy out his claim. This thing would have excited me, a while back; but it has only one interest for me now, and only one value. I can say to--to-- Spine, Spiny, Spinal--I don't like any form of that name!--I can say to him to-morrow, 'Don't try to keep it up any more, or I shall have to tell you whom I have been talking with last night, and then you will be embarrassed.'"
Tracy couldn't know he was to be invited for the morrow, or he might have waited. As it was, he was too miserable to wait any longer; for his last hope--a letter--had failed him. It was fully due to-day; it had not come. Had his father really flung him away? It looked so. It was not like his father, but it surely looked so. His father was a rather tough nut, in truth, but had never been so with his son--still, this implacable silence had a calamitous look. Anyway, Tracy would go to the Towers and --then what? He didn't know; his head was tired out with thinking-- he wouldn't think about what he must do or say--let it all take care of itself. So that he saw Sally once more, he would be satisfied, happen what might; he wouldn't care. | Is he tired of dealing with it? | yes |
Department stores today have sections that sell the following: clothing, furniture, home appliances, toys, cosmetics, gardening, toiletries, sporting goods, do it yourself, paint, and hardware and additionally select other lines of products such as food, books, jewelry, electronics, stationery, photographic equipment, baby products, and products for pets. Customers check out near the front of the store or, alternatively, at sales counters within each department. Some are part of a retail chain of many stores, while others may be independent retailers. In the 1970s, they came under heavy pressure from discounters. Since 2010, they have come under even heavier pressure from online stores such as Amazon.
The origins of the department store lay in the growth of the conspicuous consumer society at the turn of the 19th century. As the Industrial Revolution accelerated economy expansion, the affluent middle-class grew in size and wealth. This urbanized social group, sharing a culture of consumption and changing fashion, was the catalyst for the retail revolution. As rising prosperity and social mobility increased the number of people, especially women (who found they could shop unaccompanied at department stores without damaging their reputation), with disposable income in the late Georgian period, window shopping was transformed into a leisure activity and entrepreneurs, like the potter Josiah Wedgwood, pioneered the use of marketing techniques to influence the prevailing tastes and preferences of society. | Where do customers pay? | near the front of the store |
Tonga ( or ; Tongan: "Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga"), officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is a Polynesian sovereign state and archipelago comprising 169 islands, of which 36 are inhabited. The total surface area is about scattered over of the southern Pacific Ocean. It has a population of 103,000 people, of whom 70% reside on the main island of Tongatapu.
Tonga stretches across approximately in a north-south line. It is surrounded by Fiji and Wallis and Futuna (France) to the northwest, Samoa to the northeast, Niue to the east, Kermadec (part of New Zealand) to the southwest, and New Caledonia (France) and Vanuatu to the farther west.
Tonga became known in the West as the Friendly Islands because of the congenial reception accorded to Captain James Cook on his first visit in 1773. He arrived at the time of the "ʻinasi" festival, the yearly donation of the First Fruits to the Tuʻi Tonga (the islands' paramount chief) and so received an invitation to the festivities. According to the writer William Mariner, the chiefs wanted to kill Cook during the gathering but could not agree on a plan.
From 1900 to 1970, Tonga had British protected state status, with the United Kingdom looking after its foreign affairs under a Treaty of Friendship. The country never relinquished its sovereignty to any foreign power. In 2010, Tonga took a decisive path towards becoming a constitutional monarchy rather than a traditional absolute kingdom, after legislative reforms passed a course for the first partial representative elections. | And? | Niue |
Chapter VII.
MAGGIE IS VERY NAUGHTY.
As soon as the children reached the open air Tom said, "Here, Lucy, you come along with me," and walked off to the place where the toads were, as if there were no Maggie in existence. Lucy was naturally pleased that Cousin Tom was so good to her, and it was very amusing to see him tickling a fat toad with a piece of string, when the toad was safe down the area, with an iron grating over him.
Still Lucy wished Maggie to enjoy the sight also, especially as she would doubtless find a name for the toad, and say what had been his past history; for Lucy loved Maggie's stories about the live things they came upon by accident--how Mrs. Earwig had a wash at home, and one of her children had fallen into the hot copper, for which reason she was running so fast to fetch the doctor. So now the desire to know the history of a very portly toad made her run back to Maggie and say, "Oh, there is such a big, funny toad, Maggie! Do come and see."
Maggie said nothing, but turned away from her with a deep frown. She was actually beginning to think that she should like to make Lucy cry, by slapping or pinching her, especially as it might vex Tom, whom it was of no use to slap, even if she dared, because he didn't mind it. And if Lucy hadn't been there, Maggie was sure he would have made friends with her sooner. | Did Lucy like Maggie's stories? | yes |
CHAPTER XIII.
WAKING UP.
EVERY thing did "go beautifully" for a time; so much so, that Christie began to think she really had "got religion." A delightful peace pervaded her soul, a new interest made the dullest task agreeable, and life grew so inexpressibly sweet that she felt as if she could forgive all her enemies, love her friends more than ever, and do any thing great, good, or glorious.
She had known such moods before, but they had never lasted long, and were not so intense as this; therefore, she was sure some blessed power had come to uphold and cheer her. She sang like a lark as she swept and dusted; thought high and happy thoughts among the pots and kettles, and, when she sat sewing, smiled unconsciously as if some deep satisfaction made sunshine from within. Heart and soul seemed to wake up and rejoice as naturally and beautifully as flowers in the spring. A soft brightness shone in her eyes, a fuller tone sounded in her voice, and her face grew young and blooming with the happiness that transfigures all it touches.
"Christie 's growing handsome," David would say to his mother, as if she was a flower in which he took pride.
"Thee is a good gardener, Davy," the old lady would reply, and when he was busy would watch him with a tender sort of anxiety, as if to discover a like change in him.
But no alteration appeared, except more cheerfulness and less silence; for now there was no need to hide his real self, and all the social virtues in him came out delightfully after their long solitude. | How did she express this? | She sang like a lark |
Olympic torch relay planned route Beijing, April 27--The Beijing 2008 Olympic Torch Relay will cover the greatest area and include the largest number of people. The plans were announced on Thursday night. The planned route would last 130 days and travel 137 000 km. First Nobel Prize winner to donate to Hope School Chinanews, Beijing, May 10--Professor Dannel Chee Tsui, in the USA, signed the agreement to donate 350 000yuan to his home town to build a Hope Primary School in China. Bill Gates receives Tsinghua honorary doctorate Beijing,April 20--Bill Gates, chairman of global IT giant Microsoft, received an honorary doctorate when he visited China's famous Tsinghua University on Thursday. Big Shaolin kung fu center to be built in Russia Chinanews, Beijing, April 27--China and Russia have signed a letter of intent ( )on the building of a Shaolin kung fu center in Russia. It will be the first of its kind in Russia,and also the biggest overseas kung fu center when it is completed. | who signed a letter of intent ? | China and Russia |
Authorities believe two Arizona prison escapees and their alleged accomplice may be in the Yellowstone National Park area of Montana and Wyoming, based on recent information, the U.S. Marshals Service said Sunday.
John Charles McCluskey, 45, and Tracy Province, 42, are described as armed and dangerous. They have been at large since fleeing an Arizona prison on July 30. A third escaped inmate, Daniel Renwick, 35, was arrested the day after the escape in Rifle, Colorado, where he got in a shootout with police.
David Gonzales, the U.S. marshal for Arizona, told CNN that the remaining fugitives are now suspected in the killings of a couple whose bodies were found Wednesday in New Mexico.
"There was evidence that ties them, our suspects, who escaped from prison, directly to their murders," Gonzales told CNN.
Gonzales said the fugitives have frequented truck stops and campgrounds. He said McCluskey and Province have "white supremacist leanings" and could be looking for "people who are sympathetic to their cause."
Yellowstone sits at the northwest corner of Wyoming and extends a short distance into Montana and Idaho, both states where white supremacist groups have attempted to take root. Thomas Henman, a spokesman for the Marshals Service, said Arizona prison officials have said the convicts belong to the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang, but there was no concrete information to tie them to white supremacist groups outside prison.
A team of marshals from Arizona has been working in the Yellowstone area since Sunday morning, along with marshals from Montana and Wyoming and officers from the National Parks Service. He wouldn't divulge the source of the information that has led authorities to Yellowstone, but said it is believed to be very credible. | How many others escaped with them? | one |
CHAPTER XXVIII.
A MEETING.
About a week after the dissolution of the Crooked Creek Company, Harry was riding over from Hetertown, and had nearly reached the creek on his way home, when he met George Purvis.
This was their first meeting since their fight, for George had been away on a visit to some relatives in Richmond.
When Harry saw George riding slowly toward him, he felt very much embarrassed, and very much annoyed because he was embarrassed.
How should he meet George? What should he say; or should he say anything?
He did not want to appear anxious to "make up" with him, nor did he want to seem as if he bore malice toward him. If he only knew how George felt about it!
As it was, he wished he had stopped somewhere on the road. He had thought of stopping at the mill--why had he not? That would just have given George time to pass.
Both boys appeared to be riding as slowly as their horses would consent to go, and yet when they met, Harry had not half made up his mind what he would say, or how he should say it, or whether it would be better or not to say anything.
"Hello, George!" said he, quite unpremeditatedly.
"Hello!" said George, reining in his horse "Where are you going?"
"Going home," said Harry, also stopping in the road.
Thus the quarrel came to an end.
"So you've sold the telegraph?" said George.
"Yes," said Harry. "And I think we made a pretty good bargain. I didn't think we'd do so well when we started." | who did | Harry |
"I wish our bank would be robbed," said George Pickens, the bank clerk, to himself. "If one day a robber holds up me. And if I have to give him a certain amount of money. What is to prevent me keeping all the money left and claiming that the robber had taken it?" Just then a tall and strong man walked in, wearing a mask. "This is a holdup!" the man said. Roughly, taking a gun from his pocket and stepping over to George's cage. "All right, hand it over!"
"Yes, sir," said George. "Would you like it in ten-or twenty-dollar bills?"
"Just hand it over!" said the robber. George took all the bills from the top section close to six thousand dollars. He passed them through the window. The robber snatched them, stuffed them into his pocket, and turned to leave. Then, while everyone was watching the robber, George calmly lifted off the top section of the cashbox and slipped bills from the bottom section into his pockets. The door swung and the robber was gone. George fell down and fainted. When he came to he smiled up at the worried faces looking down at him. "I'm all right," he stated bravely.
"You might just as well go home, George." Mr. Bell, the chief accountant, said.
As soon as he was safely behind his bedroom door, George took the money from his pockets and counted it. Seven thousand dollars!
The next morning when George arrived at the bank, it was not open for business, but everyone was there, helping to check the bank's accounts. George was called into Mr. Burrows' office. The bank president seemed strangely cheerful. "George," he said, "I want you to meet Mr. Charles, who used to be president of our bank."
"Good morning, George," said the former president. "I was extremely sorry to hear you fainted yesterday. Are you all right now?"
"Yes, sir, just fine, thanks."
"I was sorry to give you a hard time yesterday, but with all the banks being robbed these days, I played my little game yesterday, just to keep everybody on his toes."
"I don't understand," said George. "What game?"
The old man laughed and quickly took out a mask. He placed it over his face and said, "All right. Hand it over!" Mr. Burrows laughed but George didn't.
"And the money?" George asked in a faint voice.
"Don't worry," Mr. Charles said. "I put it all back in your cashbox--- all six thousand. We're just finishing up the check-up now." Behind them, the door opened and Mr. Bell put his head into the room. "Mr. Burrows," he said gravely, "may I see you a moment?" | What had he done to keep everyone prepared? | Pretended to rob the bank. |
Vienna is the capital and largest city of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.8 million (2.6 million within the metropolitan area, nearly one third of Austria's population), and its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 7th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union. Until the beginning of the 20th century, it was the largest German-speaking city in the world, and before the splitting of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I, the city had 2 million inhabitants. Today, it has the second largest number of German speakers after Berlin. Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations and OPEC. The city is located in the eastern part of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region. Along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In July 2017 it was moved to the list of World Heritage in Danger.
Apart from being regarded as the "City of Music" because of its musical legacy, Vienna is also said to be "The City of Dreams" because it was home to the world's first psycho-analyst – Sigmund Freud. The city's roots lie in early Celtic and Roman settlements that transformed into a Medieval and Baroque city, and then the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It is well known for having played an essential role as a leading European music centre, from the great age of Viennese Classicism through the early part of the 20th century. The historic centre of Vienna is rich in architectural ensembles, including Baroque castles and gardens, and the late-19th-century Ringstraße lined with grand buildings, monuments and parks. | It's one of how many states there? | Nine. |
A dark intersection. A church van full of parishioners. And tragedy.
That's about all police in Glades County, Florida, had to work with early Monday, hours after a van with 18 people inside ran a stop sign, crossed a four-lane highway and plunged into a shallow water-filled ditch. Eight people died. Ten others, including a 4-year-old child, were injured, according to police.
Investigators don't know why it happened, Florida Highway Patrol spokesman Lt. Greg Bueno told CNN affiliate WPBF. The driver died, and police haven't been able to interview passengers yet.
"Our hearts go out to the families of the victims," Bueno said. "It breaks your heart to see something like this happen."
Some relatives of the crash victims, all of whom were from the Independent Haitian Assembly of God in Fort Pierce, gathered at the rural intersection Monday morning. Others went to the church.
"We've lost a lot of family members, church family," Phillipe Dorce, who said he lost his father, told WPBF. "All we can do is pray (to) God to help us out. Pray for us. It's very sad for us."
Linda Dolce told the news site TCPalm.com that her grandmother died in the crash. She'd arrived from Haiti six years ago.
"She loved singing and helping people," TCPalm.com quoted her as saying. "She was exciting; she was the best lady to us."
Laura Lochard told the site that her uncle died in the crash, leaving behind four children, the youngest of which is 16, whom he brought to the United States from Haiti. He was like a father to her, too, she said. | What about the other family members? | Others went to the church. |
One evening last fall, while Marcos Ugarte did his homework and his father, Eduardo, a teacher, prepared lesson plans, they heard shouting outside. Eduardo, 47, and Marcos, 15, stepped onto the balcony of their two-story home. Immediately, Marcos' s eye was caught by a flame from one of their neighbors' houses. "Dad, the house is on fire!" Marcos cried. Dressed only in shorts, the barefoot teen dashed towards the Mas' home with his dad. Grandmother Yim Ma, mother Suzanne Ma, and son Nathan Ma were gathered on the front grassland shouting for help. When the Ugartes got there, they saw through the open front door that father Alex Ma was falling down the stairs, coughing, his face black with dirt. "Is anyone else in the house?" Eduardo asked. "My son!" Alex managed to say, pointing to the second floor. Eduardo started up the stairs, but thick, black smoke, swirling ash, and extreme heatforced him to his knees. He inched upstairs and down the hall where Alex said he would find Cody, eight, who had locked himself in a bedroom. "I'd never seen smoke like that," says Eduardo. "My glasses immediately turned black from the ash." As the fire spread across the hall, Eduardo banged on the bedroom door and tried to turn the handle. But Cody didn't respond, and Eduardo made his way back downstairs. At the same time, Marcos saw Yim and Suzanne pulling an aluminum ladder out of the garage. "Cody was standing at the window, screaming for help," says Marcos. "I knew I had to do something." He grabbed the ladder, positioned it near the window, and climbed towards the boy. When Marcos reached the window, he pushed the screen into the room and persuaded Cody out. "It's OK," Marcos told him. "I've got you." Holding Cody with one arm, Marcos moved down the ladder. Halfway down, he handed the boy to a neighbor. The day after the fire, Alex visited Marcos. "Thank you for saving my son," Alex said. "You are his hero forever." | Who was still inside? | Alex Ma |
ESPN (originally an acronym for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is a U.S.-based global cable and satellite sports television channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which operates the network) and the Hearst Corporation (which owns a 20% minority share) The company was founded in 1979 by Bill Rasmussen along with his brother Scott and Ed Egan.
ESPN broadcasts primarily from studio facilities located in Bristol, Connecticut. The network also operates offices in Miami, New York City, Seattle, Charlotte, and Los Angeles. John Skipper currently serves as president of ESPN, a position he has held since January 1, 2012. While ESPN is one of the most successful sports networks, there has been much criticism of ESPN, which includes accusations of biased coverage, conflict of interest, and controversies with individual broadcasters and analysts. , ESPN is available to approximately 94,396,000 paid television households (81.1% of households with at least one television set) in the United States. Nielsen has reported a much lower number in 2017, below 90,000,000 subscribers, losing more than 10,000 a day. In addition to the flagship channel and its seven related channels in the United States, ESPN broadcasts in more than 200 countries, operating regional channels in Australia, Brazil, Latin America and the United Kingdom, and owning a 20% interest in The Sports Network (TSN) as well as its five sister networks in Canada. | How many homes can use it? | approximately 94,396,000 |
The rule of law is the legal principle that law should govern a nation, as opposed to being governed by arbitrary decisions of individual government officials. It primarily refers to the influence and authority of law within society, particularly as a constraint upon behaviour, including behaviour of government officials. The phrase can be traced back to 16th century Britain, and in the following century the Scottish theologian Samuel Rutherford used the phrase in his argument against the divine right of kings. The rule of law was further popularized in the 19th century by British jurist A. V. Dicey. The concept, if not the phrase, was familiar to ancient philosophers such as Aristotle, who wrote "Law should govern".
Rule of law implies that every citizen is subject to the law, including law makers themselves. In this sense, it stands in contrast to an autocracy, dictatorship, or oligarchy where the rulers are held above the law. Lack of the rule of law can be found in both democracies and dictatorships, for example because of neglect or ignorance of the law, and the rule of law is more apt to decay if a government has insufficient corrective mechanisms for restoring it. Government based upon the rule of law is called nomocracy. | Why? | Because that is where the rulers are held above the law. |
Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. Omaha is the anchor of the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area, which includes Council Bluffs, Iowa, across the Missouri River from Omaha. According to the 2010 census, Omaha's population was 408,958, making it the nation's 44th-largest city; this had increased to 446,970 as of a 2016 estimate. Including its suburbs, Omaha formed the 60th-largest metropolitan area in the United States in 2013, with an estimated population of 895,151 residing in eight counties. The Omaha-Council Bluffs-Fremont, Nebraska-IA Combined Statistical Area is 931,667, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2013 estimate. Nearly 1.3 million people reside within the Greater Omaha area, comprising a 50-mile (80 km) radius of Downtown Omaha, the city's center.
Omaha's pioneer period began in 1854, when the city was founded by speculators from neighboring Council Bluffs, Iowa. The city was founded along the Missouri River, and a crossing called Lone Tree Ferry earned the city its nickname, the "Gateway to the West". Omaha introduced this new West to the world in 1898, when it played host to the World's Fair, dubbed the Trans-Mississippi Exposition. During the 19th century, Omaha's central location in the United States spurred the city to become an important national transportation hub. Throughout the rest of the 19th century, the transportation and jobbing sectors were important in the city, along with its railroads and breweries. In the 20th century, the Omaha Stockyards, once the world's largest, and its meatpacking plants gained international prominence. | When did this occur? | 1854 |
"The Lord of the Rings", one of the best sellers in the new millennium , was made up of three parts--"The Fellow Ship of the Ring", "Two Towers", and "The Return of the King". Millions upon millions of people have read it in over 25 different languages, but fewer know about the author and the history of the composition of the creative masterwork.
John Ronald Refuel Tolkien was born in South Africa in 1892. His parents died when he was a child. Living in England with his aunt, Tolkien and his cousins made up play languages, a hobby that led to Tolkien's becoming skilled in Welsh, Greek, Gothic, Old Norse and Anglo--Saxon.
After graduating from Oxford, Tolkien served in World War I. In 1917, while recovering from trench fever he began composing the mythology for The Rings. As a professor of Anglo-Saxon in the 1930s at Oxford, Tolkien was part of an informal discussion group called the Inklings, which included several writers. The group was soon 1istening to chapters of Tolkien's imaginative work "The Hobbit".
Hobbit was a name Tolkien created for people that could best be described as half-sized members of the English rural class. Hobbits live in hillside holes. One of them,Bilbo Baggins, looks for treasures with a group of dwarves . On the way, he meets the twisted, pitiful creature Gollum, from whom he sees a golden ring that makes the holder invisible.
One of Tolkien's students persuaded her employer, publisher Allen & Unwind, to look at a draft . The chairman of the firm, Stanley Unwind, thought that the best judge for a Children's book would be his ten-year-old son. The boy earned a shilling for reporting back that the adventure was exciting, and "The Hobbit" was published in 1937.
It sold so well that Unwind asked for a continuation. Over a dozen years later, in 1954, Tolkien produced "The Lord of the Rings", a series of books so creative that they hold readers both new and old -- after their publication. | Where did he go to school? | Oxford |
Vincent Van Gogh was an important painter of the 19thcentury. He was born in Holland, but he lived much of his life inprefix = st1 /France. He was a very emotional man, and there was much suffering in his life. His style of painting was very different from classical art. He painted pictures of sunny, hot regions ofFrance. He looked for interesting shapes and exciting colours. He liked to work freely and quickly.
There is a fast movement in many of his paintings. Sometimes the trees look like fire. The sun, the moon, and stars move rapidly in the sky. He also painted pictures of people.
Like his life, his art was always unusual and very emotional.
Paul Gauguin was another 19-century painter. He was French and a friend of Van Gogh. Before he became an artist, Gauguin had been a businessman for many years. He made a lot of money, and he likes to buy modern paintings.
At the age of 354, Gauguin decided to become a painter himself. Gauguin wanted to discover more important things about man. He went to a different part of Franceto live with the farmers. He painted pictures of French country people there. Two years later he went to live in a small place in the Pacific Ocean, thousands of miles fromFrance. He wanted to learn about the simple life there. His most famous and interesting paintings were painted at that time. | Where was he born? | Holland |
Jack and James were good friends .One day,they were walking through the desert .During the journey they had a big fight,and Jack hit james in the face.James felt hurt,but he didn't say anything.Instead( ),he wrote in the sand:Today my best friend hit me in the face. They kept on walking until they found an oasis .They decided to get some water there .Suddenly James had trouble in the water,he fell into the mire and was in danger.Jack saved him at once.When he felt Ok,he wrote on a stone:Today my best friend saved my life. "After I hurt you ,you wrote in the sand, and now you wrote on the stone.Why?"asked Jack."When someone hurts us,we should write it down in the sand so that the wind of forgiveness can blow it away.But when someone does anything good for us,we must write it down on the stone,so no wind can blow it away." Since then ,the two friends have never fought with each other again. Hatred can bring you nothing but unhappiness .If you don't forgive others,you are making trouble for yourself.Keep a peaceful heart all the time and remember to be always thankful to those who ahve helped you! | What type of heart should you keep? | peaceful |
CHAPTER IX
The opportunity for an explanation between Jacob and his fellow speculators speedily presented itself. Amongst his letters, on the following morning, Jacob found a somewhat pompous little note from Dane Montague, inviting him to lunch at the Milan at half-past one. Littleham, supremely uncomfortable in a new suit of clothes, was the other guest, and champagne was served before the three men had well taken their places.
"A celebration, eh?" Jacob observed, as he bowed to his two hosts.
Mr. Montague cleared his throat.
"Our meeting might almost be considered in that light," he admitted. "Yesterday afternoon we sold the last plot of land on the Cropstone Wood Estate."
"Capital!" Jacob exclaimed. "Full price?"
"Sixpence a yard over."
Jacob nodded approval.
"By the bye," he said, "I see that the Water Company is getting on very well with its connections. They must have several hundred men at work there."
Mr. Montague appeared a little startled.
"Well, well! At any rate we shall be able to keep our word. Electric light and water will be ready for every house as it is built."
"That reminds me of a question I was going to ask you," Jacob went on. "What price are we going to charge for the electric light?"
"What price?" Montague murmured, balancing a knife upon his forefinger and watching it meditatively.
"The Company'll have to fix that amongst themselves," Littleham declared brusquely.
"One or two of the people who've bought plots have made enquiries," Jacob continued, without noticing the last speaker. "I think they've begun to realise that they're pretty well at our mercy--or rather at the mercy of the Company." | What is Montague balancing | a knife |
Do you want to know something about children in Africa? What to they do for fun every day? Find out here: Education School is expensive for many African children. Lots of families can't afford school uniforms or exercise books even though they don't have to pay for school. For those lucky enough to go to school , they have a lot to learn. Some take two language classes: English or French, and their first language. There is also math, science, history, social studies and geography. _ take up much of children's time after school. They have to get water and firewood for the family every day. Also there's cleaning , washing and helping Mum with the meal. Daily fun It's not all work and no play. Sports are very popular. Children can make goals with twigs ( )and their own footballs with plastic and bits of string ( ). They play in the country and the streets of old towns. There're many football teams for teenagers in Africa. Internet It's really expensive to get on the Internet. To surf the net for 20 hours costs over 600yuan. This is more than the average monthly pay per person. Egypt and South Africa are the top two users of the Internet in Africa. All of the capital cities there can get on the Internet. Some schools offer computer lessons but few students can enjoy computer fun at home. | Can they buy what they need? | no |
Tom Hanks ranks as one of Hollywood's most popular actors. Moviegoers eagerly anticipate in the opening of his new pictures. If you're a Hank fan, you don't have to wait much longer. Hank's newest film, Cast Away, opens this winter.
Tom Hanks plays Chunk Noland, a FedEx executive who lives by the clock. He carefully plans every minute of both his professional and personal time. But on his way home for the holidays, the small plane he's in crashes in the Pacific Ocean. Only Noland survives. He ends up alone on a tropical island and begins a battle for survival. In the process, his view of success and life itself change dramatically .
This role may be the most physically-challenging of Hank's career. The actor lost 53 pounds for the part. Director Robert Zemeckis shot the first section of the film with Hanks weighing more than 225 pounds. The filming took a break for a year while Hanks lost weight. To take off the pounds, Hanks ate little and exercised a lot.
The movie may surprise some of Hank's fans. It's not an upbeat comedy like Sleepless in Seattle or You're Got Mail. In fact, Hanks spends a large part of the movie not speaking. After all, who is there to talk to when you're alone on an island? | How much? | 53 pounds |
Liang Xiyan still misses her long black hair, which was cut two weeks ago. Liang became a senior high school student in September. In her new school, the rules say that boys' hairstyles must be cropped and girls' hair cannot fall below their shoulders. Liang's school is not alone: many have similar rules on hairstyles. Teachers think a cool hairstyle is a waste of time and money. It may also _ students from their studies. "Your personality is not shown in how you wear your hair but in your ability," say teachers. It's difficult for students to follow these rules. Teenage students like to look nice but they are asked to wear school uniforms. Liang says the only way in which they can be different lies in how they wear their hair. And they want to copy their favorite stars' hairstyles. They wouldn't be happy in a school with strict rules. "I prefer a school with rules on hairstyles," said Li Man, a Senior 1 student. She said her school's rules on hairstyles are OK but there could be some little changes. "For example, boys should be allowed to have their hair a little longer," Li said. "But students must not dye or curl their hair . This way there will not be so many complaints." | What kind of rules? | hairstyles. |
Pro wrestling legend Hulk Hogan, embroiled in a bitter divorce with his wife, Linda, told Rolling Stone magazine he can "totally understand" O.J. Simpson, the former football great found liable for the deaths of his wife and another man.
Linda and Hulk Hogan enjoy happier times at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards in New York in 2006.
"I could have turned everything into a crime scene like O.J., cutting everybody's throat," Hogan said in the interview for a feature that will run in Friday's edition of the magazine.
"You live half a mile from the 20,000-square-foot home you can't go to anymore, you're driving through downtown Clearwater and see a 19-year-old boy driving your Escalade, and you know that a 19-year-old boy is sleeping in your bed, with your wife ...
"I totally understand O.J. I get it," Hogan said.
A spokeswoman for Rolling Stone magazine confirmed the quote to CNN. Watch report on Hogan's statements »
It has been widely reported that Linda Hogan, 49, is dating a younger man. She filed for divorce in 2007 after nearly 25 years of marriage.
Simpson was found not guilty of murder in the 1994 stabbing deaths of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, but was found liable for their deaths by a civil court jury.
Simpson later was found guilty in a Las Vegas, Nevada, armed robbery case and sentenced in December to up to 33 years in prison.
A spokesman for Linda Hogan said Wednesday that the statement amounts to a death threat and that her attorney is "weighing all options necessary to protect his client." | Did Linda Hogan's attorney take Hulk's words as a threat? | yes |
CHAPTER III THE LIBERTY GIRLS
An hour later six girls met at the home of Alora Jones, who lived with her father in a fine mansion across the street from Colonel Hathaway's residence. These girls were prepared to work, and work diligently, under the leadership of Mary Louise, for they had been planning and discussing this event for several days, patiently awaiting the word to start their campaign.
"Some girls," said Mary Louise, "are knitting, and that's a good thing to do, in a way. Others are making pajamas and pillows for the Red Cross, and that's also an admirable thing to do. But our duty lies on a higher plane, for we're going to get money to enable Uncle Sam to take care of our soldier boys."
"Do--do you think we can make people buy bonds?" asked little Laura Hilton, with a trace of doubt in her voice.
Mary Louise gave her a severe look.
"We not only can, but we _shall_ make people buy," she replied. "We shall ask them very prettily, and they cannot refuse us. We've all been loaded to the brim with arguments, if arguments are necessary, but we haven't time to gossip with folks. A whole lot of money must be raised, and there's a short time to do it in."
"Seems to me," remarked Edna Barlow, earnestly, "we're wasting time just now. Let's get busy."
"Well, get on your costumes, girls," suggested Alora Jones. "They are all here, in this big box, and the banners are standing in the hall. It's after nine, now, and by ten o'clock we must all be at work." | What time do they need to be working? | by ten o'clock |
CHAPTER XIX: Sammy Jay Is Modest
As soon as the angry hunter with the terrible gun had disappeared among the trees of the Green Forest, and Lightfoot was sure that he had gone for good, Lightfoot came out from his hiding-place on top of the ridge and walked down to the pond of Paddy the Beaver for a drink. He knew that it was quite safe to do so, for Sammy Jay had followed the hunter, all the time screaming, "Thief! thief! thief!" Every one within hearing could tell just where that hunter was by Sammy's voice. It kept growing fainter and fainter, and by that Lightfoot knew that the hunter was getting farther and farther away.
Paddy the Beaver swam out from his hiding-place and climbed out on the bank near Lightfoot. There was a twinkle in his eyes. "That blue-coated mischief-maker isn't such a bad fellow at heart, after all, is he?" said he.
Lightfoot lifted his beautiful head and set his ears forward to catch the sound of Sammy's voice in the distance.
"Sammy Jay may be a mischief-maker, as some people say," said he, "but you can always count on him to prove a true friend in time of danger. He brought me warning of the coming of the hunter the other morning. You saw him save Mr. and Mrs. Quack a little while ago, and then he actually drove that hunter away. I suppose Sammy Jay has saved more lives than any one I know of. I wish he would come back here and let me thank him." | Is Sammy Jay arrogant? | No |
CHAPTER II
ABOUT THE PAST
"Did you get any more particulars?" asked Sam, of the college poet.
"No. The newspaper man was busy, so the Doctor said, and didn't have time to go into details," answered Songbird.
"Did he say who the other prisoners were who got away?" asked Dick.
"Yes, a tramp who was up for robbing a man on the road and a bank clerk who took some money from the bank."
"None of the crowd we are interested in," said Tom.
"I'm glad of it," returned his older brother. "It is bad enough for Crabtree to get away. I hope they keep a strict guard over the others after this."
"Oh, they will, rest assured of that," came from Stanley Browne. "The head jailer will get a raking over the coals for this, mark my words."
"The Stanhopes and the Lanings will be sorry to learn that Crabtree got away," said Sam. "I wonder if they aren't searching for him," mused Sam.
"Oh, they'll search for all of them," put in Songbird. "I think the newspaper man said the sheriff had a posse out."
"Too bad!" said Dick, shaking his head gravely. "And just when we felt sure old Crabtree wouldn't be able to give us any more trouble!"
"It beats the nation, what that man can do!" cried Sam. "Maybe be hypnotized one of the jailers-- just as he hypnotized Mrs. Stanhope years ago.
"He'd be equal to it-- if he got the chance," answered Tom; and then all of the students had to go in to their classes. | According to whom? | Stanley Browne |
Choosing to step down from a top job can be an extraordinary decision, whether the person is a pontiff or a politician. But George Pataki, former governor of New York, says making the switch from public figure to John Q. Public wasn't difficult for him.
"I made up my mind that I was never going to let my public title become my personal identity," he says. He embraced what he calls a sense of normalcy after he left office, going to movies and basketball games.
A year or two after he left office, Pataki went to Madison Square Garden with a group of friends to see the Knicks play. And he wanted to stand in line to get himself a hot dog -- something elected officials tend not to do.
"I loved it," he says. Even though fellow fans recognized him and offered to let him jump the queue, Pataki waited in line for his hot dog with mustard and sauerkraut. "I felt really good about the fact that it was just comfortable for me to be on line with the rest," he says.
Pataki decided in the middle of his third term in office that he would not seek a fourth term. He left office in 2006, after 12 years as governor.
Pope's resignation a new angle to a tough news beat
"I had no doubts that this was the right decision for me, for my family, for the team that had worked so hard with me, and for the state," he says. | When did he leave office? | 2006 |
Elite sprinters Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell tested positive for banned substances on a day of shame for athletics.
Gay, a former world champion from the U.S., said Sunday he was told by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency that an A sample from an out of competition test taken in May came back positive.
Later Sunday, Powell, a former world-record holder from Jamaica, said he was caught for using the banned stimulant oxilofrine that showed up in a test at last month's Jamaican trials.
Jamaica's Sherone Simpson, too, revealed she was caught for doping.
Gay didn't name the substance found in his system and added that he never knowingly took performance-enhancing drugs. He pulled out of next month's world championships in Russia.
"I don't have a sabotage story," Gay was quoted as saying by Reuters. "I basically put my trust in someone and was let down. I made a mistake.
"I know exactly what went on, but I can't discuss it right now."
Gay and Powell, both 30, become the second and third high-profile track stars in a month to be embroiled in a doping scandal.
Two-time Olympic 200-meter champion Veronica Campbell-Brown was provisionally suspended in June after she tested positive for a banned substance.
The Jamaican sprinter reportedly had traces of a banned diuretic, which is used as a masking agent, in a sample she provided to testers at Jamaica's International Invitational World Challenge in May.
British newspaper The Guardian reported the banned diuretic was from a cream she was using in an attempt to recover from a leg injury. | What kind of substance showed up in her test? | Diuretic |
Charlie Bell became chief executive of McDonald's in April. Within a month doctors told him that he had color1ectal cancer. After stock market hours on November 22nd, the fast-food firm said he had resigned; it would need a third boss in under a year. Yet when the market opened, its share price barely dipped then edged higher. After all, McDonald's had, again, shown how to act swiftly and decisively in appointing a new boss.
Mr. Bell himself got the top job when Jim Cantalupo died of a heart attack hours before he was due to address a convention of McDonald's franchisees . Mr. Cantalupo was a McDonald's veteran brought out of retirement in January 2003 to help remodel the firm after sales began falling because of dirty restaurants, indifferent service and growing concern about junk food. He devised a recovery plan, backed by massive marketing, and promoted Mr. Bell to chief operating officer. When Mr. Cantalupo died, a rapidly convened board confirmed Mr. Bell, a 44-year-old Australian already widely seen as his heir apparent, in the top job. The convention got its promised chief executive's address, from the firm's first non-American leader.
Yet within weeks executives had to think about what to do if Mr. Bell became too ill to continue. Perhaps Mr. Bell had the same thing on his mind: he usually introduced Jim Skinner, the 60-year-old vice-chairman, to visitors as the "steady hand at the wheel". Now Mr. Skinner, an expert on the firm's overseas operations, becomes chief executive, and Mike Roberts, head of its American operations, joins the board as chief operating officer.
Is Mr. Roberts now the new heir apparent? Maybe. McDonald's has brought in supposedly healthier choices such as salads and toasted sandwiches worldwide and, instead of relying for most of its growth on opening new restaurants, has turned to upgrading its 31,000 existing ones. America has done best at this; under Mr. Roberts, like-for-like sales there were up by 7. 5% in October on a year earlier.
The new team's task is to keep the revitalization plan on course, especially overseas, where some American brands are said to face political hostility from consumers. This is a big challenge. Is an in-house succession(, ) the best way to tackle it? Mr. Skinner and Mr. Roberts are both company veterans, having joined in the 1970s. Some recent academic studies find that the planned succession of a new boss from within, such as Mr. Bell and now (arguably) Mr. Roberts, produces better results than looking hastily, or outside, for one. McDonald's smooth handling of its serial misfortunes at the top certainly seems to prove the point. Even so, everyone at McDonald's must be hoping that it will be a long time before the firm faces yet another such emergency. | Has the company been doing well under his guidance? | yes |
CHAPTER XX
WOMAN'S WILES
Arnold sprang to his feet. It was significant that, after his first surprise, he spoke to Fenella with his head half turned towards his companion, and an encouraging smile upon his lips.
"I had no idea that we were coming here," he said. "We should not have thought of intruding. It was your chauffeur who would not even allow us to ask a question."
"He obeyed my orders," Fenella replied. "I meant it for a little surprise for you. I thought that it would be pleasant after your drive to have you call here and rest for a short time. You must present me to your friend."
Arnold murmured a word of introduction. Ruth moved a little in her seat. She lifted herself with her left hand, leaning upon her stick. Fenella's expression changed as though by magic. Her cool, good-humored, but almost impertinent scrutiny suddenly vanished. She moved to the side of the motor car and held out both her hands.
"I am so glad to see you here," she declared. "I hope that you will like some tea after your long ride. Perhaps you would prefer Mr. Chetwode to help you out?"
"You are very kind," Ruth murmured. "I am sorry to be such a trouble to everybody."
Arnold lifted her bodily out of the car and placed her on the edge of the lawn. Fenella, a long parasol in her hand, was looking pleasantly down at her guest.
"You will find it quite picturesque here, I think," she said. "It is not really the river itself which comes to the end of the lawn, but a little stream. It is so pretty, though, and so quiet. I thought you would like to have tea down there. But, my poor child," she exclaimed, "your hair is full of dust! You must come to my room. It is on the ground floor here. Mr. Chetwode and I together can help you so far." | What did he murmur | a word of introduction |
American sign language has an interesting history. Although there have always been deaf individuals in America, the history really begins in 1817. Before 1817 deaf people communicated by using "home signs". Gestures were individually created and used within the home for simple communication. There were no schools or formal sign language training for the deaf.
So, why was 1817 an important date? Well, the story begins with Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. Gallaudet met his neighbor's daughter Alice Cogswell. Alice was the young deaf daughter of Dr. Mason Cogswell from Hartford, Connecticut. Gallaudet began teaching Alice to read and write a few simple words. Excited by the success Dr. Cogswell encouraged Gallaudet to establish a school for the deaf. Cogswell raised the money and Gallaudet traveled to Britain to learn the methods used there. However, the schools refused to share their instructional techniques and methods.
While in London, there happened to be a demonstration of the French method of deaf education. Britain was using an oral method of instruction; however, the French method used signs. Gallaudet was fascinated with the method and was able to meet with the instructor, Sicard, and his two deaf pupils, Jean Massieu and Laurent Clerc. Sicard agreed to teach Gallaudet his method and Gallaudet went to Paris to learn French signs. After a while, Gallaudet wished to return home and convinced Clerc to go with him and help him establish the school. The trip home was a 52-day voyage during which Clerc taught Gallaudet French signs and Gallaudet taught Clerc English.
On April 15, 1817, Laurent Clerc and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet established what is currently known as the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut. The opening of the first school for the deaf can be viewed as one of the most important events in current deaf culture. | How long did that take? | 52 days |
The Supreme Court has just agreed to take on the case of Fisher v. University of Texas. Abigail Fisher, a white woman, argues that she has been a victim of the university's race-conscious admission policies; the university contends that its drive for racial and ethnic diversity is educationally enriching -- a benefit to all students.
Will the ugly discourse that generally characterizes debate over racially preferential policies disappear with the wave of a magic Supreme Court wand? It seems unlikely. The issue is a cat with many more than nine lives. It arrived in the early 1970s and, despite many attacks, some of which have taken the form of amendments to state constitutions, it has survived in pretty fine fettle.
The court will have only eight justices to hear the arguments. Elena Kagan, having been involved in the case as solicitor general in the Obama administration, has bowed out of participation. Her absence, however, leaves five justices likely to express at least some degree of skepticism about the racial preferences given to non-Asian minorities in the admissions process.
Has the University of Texas been enriched by academic diversity? Maybe. But equally likely is the possibility that racial double standards reinforce stereotypes about smart whites and even smarter Asians. There are certainly wide gaps in the average SAT scores between blacks and Hispanics, on the one hand, and whites and Asians, on the other hand.
Among freshmen entering the University of Texas in 2009 who did not fall into the top 10% of their high school class (automatic admission at the university), Asians scored at the 93rd percentile of 2009 SAT takers nationwide, whites at the 89th percentile, Hispanics at the 80th percentile and blacks at the 52nd percentile. Startling? No. This picture has been well known for a long time. Heartbreaking, yes, because the numbers mean the underperforming minority students are being woefully ill served by the K-12 school system. Moreover, arriving at institutions of higher education with an academic disadvantage, they do not catch up, as it has become clear. | How many judges will be involved? | eight |
An Ohio judge on Tuesday set a $1 million bond for the man accused of kidnapping and keeping a 13-year-old girl bound and gagged in his basement, authorities say.
Matthew Hoffman, 30, is suspected of having abducted Sarah Maynard, who authorities discovered over the weekend. She disappeared on Wednesday along with her mother, brother and family friend.
Sarah Maynard's mother, Tina Herrmann, 32, remains missing, along with 10-year-old Kody Maynard and Herrmann's friend, 41-year-old Stephanie Sprang.
Hoffman appeared in the Mount Vernon Municipal Court on Tuesday via a video link with the local jail, according to Pam Fuller, a deputy clerk. He is represented by a public defender.
Hoffman sat in a corner and looked straight ahead during much of the proceeding. He wore what looked to be a green vest, which the local sheriff later described as a suicide gown.
Knox County Sheriff David Barber said Hoffman was put in the gown after he gave indications to the jail staff and to investigators he could try to harm himself.
Previously, Barber has said he believes Hoffman could "absolutely" lead police to the three missing people. He is not cooperating with the investigation, officials said.
"The likelihood is, of course, that they are not alive," Barber said about Herrmann, her son and Sprang.
But he added he hopes they are, and that the department's priority remains trying to find them.
Sarah Maynard was released from the hospital Monday. Barber described the girl as doing well under the circumstances.
"There's so many people behind her that definitely that's going to help with her emotional recovery. And she is receiving those kind of services as well," he said. | Where is he going to court? | Mount Vernon |
Once there was a white horse named Bob, who lived in a house with his best friend. His friend was a cat named Shelly who loved to play baseball. The two of them would go to the park and play baseball with Lucy a lamb who lived next door.
It was Friday morning and Bob and Shelly were in the park waiting for Lucy. She was late and when she finally showed up she had forgotten the ball.
"What can we use for a ball?" Bob asked. They looked around. There were rocks but they were too hard. There could get mud out of the pond but that would be too soft and splat when they hit it with the wooden bat. Finally Bob, being the tallest, saw that in a pile of plants that there were melons growing. "Let's use a melon," Bob said. "That's stupid," said Shelly, the practical one. "No hear him out," said Lucy. "It might work. "It'll work," said Bob, and he picked a melon and handed it to Shelly. "You pitch." "This is going to end badly, I'm afraid," Shelly said, throwing the melon at Bob who stood over home plate. "I know what I'm doing," Bob said, swinging the bat as hard as he could. When the bat hit the melon it splatted into a million pieces, raining sticky pieces down on Bob and Shelly and Lucy and a wedding party that had been setting up nearby. "Oops," said Bob. | what is it? | Shelly |
Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Indian state of Gujarat. It is part of the greater Indo-European language family. Gujarati is descended from Old Gujarati ("circa" 1100–1500 AD). In India, it is the official language in the state of Gujarat, as well as an official language in the union territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. Gujarati is the language of the Gujjars, who had ruled Rajputana and Punjab.
According to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 4.5% of the Indian population (1.21 billion according to the 2011 census) speaks Gujarati, which amounts to 46 million speakers in India. There are about 50 million speakers of Gujarati worldwide, making it the 26th-most-spoken native language in the world. Gujarati was the first language of Mahatma Gandhi and Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
Gujarati (also sometimes spelled "Gujerati", "Gujarathi", "Guzratee", "Guujaratee", "Gujarati", "Gujrathi", and "Gujerathi") is a modern IA (Indo-Aryan) language evolved from Sanskrit. The traditional practice is to differentiate the IA languages on the basis of three historical stages: Another view postulates successive family tree splits, in which Gujarati is assumed to have separated from other IA languages in four stages:
The principal changes from Sanskrit are the following:
Gujarati is then customarily divided into the following three historical stages: | What does that stand for? | Central Intelligence Agency |
CHAPTER XXXIV
'Midst furs, and silks, and jewels' sheen, He stood, in simple Lincoln green, The center of the glittering ring; And Snowdon's knight is Scotland's king! --_Lady of the Lake_.
The commencement of the following year was passed, on the part of the Americans, in making great preparations, in conjunction with their allies, to bring the war to a close. In the South, Greene and Rawdon made a bloody campaign, that was highly honorable to the troops of the latter, but which, by terminating entirely to the advantage of the former, proved him to be the better general of the two.
New York was the point that was threatened by the allied armies; and Washington, by exciting a constant apprehension for the safety of that city, prevented such reënforcements from being sent to Cornwallis as would have enabled him to improve his success.
At length, as autumn approached, every indication was given that the final moment had arrived.
The French forces drew near to the royal lines, passing through the neutral ground, and threatened an attack in the direction of King's Bridge, while large bodies of Americans were acting in concert. By hovering around the British posts, and drawing nigh in the Jerseys, they seemed to threaten the royal forces from that quarter also. The preparations partook of the nature of both a siege and a storm. But Sir Henry Clinton, in the possession of intercepted letters from Washington, rested within his lines, and cautiously disregarded the solicitations of Cornwallis for succor. | did they think the time had come? | yes |
A social class (or, simply, class), as in class society, is a set of subjectively defined concepts in the social sciences and political theory centered on models of social stratification in which people are grouped into a set of hierarchical social categories, the most common being the upper, middle, and lower classes.
Class is a subject of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists, and social historians. However, there is not a consensus on a definition of "class", and the term has a wide range of sometimes conflicting meanings. In common parlance, the term "social class" is usually synonymous with "socio-economic class", defined as "people having the same social, economic, cultural, political or educational status", e.g., "the working class"; "an emerging professional class". However, academics distinguish social class and socioeconomic status, with the former referring to one’s relatively stable sociocultural background and the latter referring to one’s current social and economic situation and, consequently, being more changeable over time.
The precise measurements of what determines social class in society has varied over time. Karl Marx thought "class" was defined by one's relationship to the means of production (their relations of production). His simple understanding of classes in modern capitalist society, are the proletariat, those who work but do not own the means of production; and the bourgeoisie, those who invest and live off of the surplus generated by the former. This contrasts with the view of the sociologist Max Weber, who argued "class" is determined by economic position, in contrast to "social status" or ""Stand"" which is determined by social prestige rather than simply just relations of production. | Ad another? | political scientists |
While several high-profile actors and directors have rallied around Roman Polanski, not everyone in Hollywood believes he should be freed and forgiven.
The case surrounding the arrest of director Roman Polanski has both supporters and critics.
In the face of a petition signed by notables such as Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese and John Landis calling for the immediate release of Polanski following his detainment in Switzerland, a backlash is building against such support.
"I can't believe that Hollywood has separated itself so completely from American morality," said Paul Petersen, a former child actor and president of A Minor Consideration, which advocates on behalf of young performers. "It is yet another case of Hollywood being out of sync with most of America."
Polanski pleaded guilty in 1977 to having unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, but fled the United States before he could be sentenced.
In the years since, the director known for "Chinatown" and "Rosemary's Baby" settled in France and avoided authorities until he was arrested Saturday while on his way to the Zurich Film Festival.
In the aftermath of Polanski's arrest last weekend, a number of performers -- including Penelope Cruz, Tilda Swinton and Monica Bellucci -- appear as supporters on a petition which states, "Roman Polanski is a French citizen, a renown and international artist now facing extradition. This extradition, if it takes place, will be heavy in consequences and will take away his freedom."
Polanski's detention has stirred debate over whether he should be returned to the United States to face possible imprisonment. | Where did he Polanski flee to? | France |
Jefferson's metaphor of a wall of separation has been cited repeatedly by the U.S. Supreme Court. In Reynolds v. United States (1879) the Court wrote that Jefferson's comments "may be accepted almost as an authoritative declaration of the scope and effect of the Amendment." In Everson v. Board of Education (1947), Justice Hugo Black wrote: "In the words of Thomas Jefferson, the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect a wall of separation between church and state."
Many early immigrant groups traveled to America to worship freely, particularly after the English Civil War and religious conflict in France and Germany. They included nonconformists like the Puritans, who were Protestant Christians fleeing religious persecution from the Anglican King of England. Despite a common background, the groups' views on religious toleration were mixed. While some such as Roger Williams of Rhode Island and William Penn of Pennsylvania ensured the protection of religious minorities within their colonies, others like the Plymouth Colony and Massachusetts Bay Colony had established churches. The Dutch colony of New Netherland established the Dutch Reformed Church and outlawed all other worship, though enforcement was sparse. Religious conformity was desired partly for financial reasons: the established Church was responsible for poverty relief, putting dissenting churches at a significant disadvantage. | where did they go? | traveled to America |
When I first saw the bookAlice in Lace, I thought I was going to like it. And as it turned out, I love it! I love books about life and being a kid. And Alice in Laceis just that kind. It's a humorous book about being thirteen and the problems kids might face. Alice and her friends get a strange assignment from their totally cool teacher, Mr. Everett. It was like playing the game of "Life," but you had to act it out.
So Pamela is pregnant, Elizabeth buys a car and Alice gets married. Well, of course, Pamela wasn't really pregnant, but she walked around with a pillow under her shirt to get people's reactions. Elizabeth didn't really buy a car, but she went to the car lot and made the sales guy think she was. The whole class got assignments like these! I would love to do something like that for school.
In the book Alice has a lot to think about. "Getting married is hard!" Alice says. She has to plan the ceremony, the honeymoon, find a place to live, pay for furniture and two months' rent and food. Maybe she and her "husband" could work it out -- if they were getting on fine!
Although this book was funny, it really made me think about how problems like these could really mess up your life. Take teenage pregnancy for example. How could you have a baby and stay in school? You couldn't find a babysitter every day to stay with your kid. A child really consumes your life. I understand what the teacher was trying to do. He was trying to discourage the class from getting into these problems by giving them a glimpse of life. As someone about to become a teenager myself, I can say sometimes a story makes you think about what's up ahead.
Overall, I would say this book is wonderful. My favorite part of the book is discovering that if I like it, there are seven other Alice books I can check out at my local library. I love this book, and I hope you will too. | Was the book entertaining? | yes |
Pakistan's all-powerful spy agency could face an unprecedented challenge from the nation's high court after a lawyer representing seven victims urged contempt of court charges Friday.
The Supreme Court had given the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency until midnight Friday to produce the seven men, who according to attorney Tariq Asad, were arrested without due process and injured while in custody.
The ISI has also been ordered to explain the deaths of four other detainees.
Asad said he filed a petition after the Supreme Court adjourned Friday's hearing without the presence of the seven detainees.
A three-judge panel gave the ISI a new Monday deadline to produce the men.
"The court wants the detainees in court today and they're not accepting any excuses," said Asad. "The court has said they have until midnight to produce the detainees, even if it means bringing them to court in a helicopter."
The court did not spell out consequences if the ultimatum is not heeded.
But the case breaks new ground in that the ISI has long been thought untouchable. Legal proceedings could expose the inner workings of the highly secretive agency like never before.
On Thursday, the spy agency's lawyer presented the court with medical certificates for four of the seven detainees to show they were hospitalized, and he asked permission from the court to present confidential letters explaining the whereabouts of the other three men, Asad said.
The ISI blamed the death of detainee Abdul Saboor, 29, on natural causes, but his mother said scars on his body prove the agency tortured and killed her son. | What does she think the ISI did to her son? | tortured |
At a day care center in Taxes, children were playing outside. One of the children was Jessica McClure. She was 18 months old. Jessica's mother, who worked at the day care center, was watching the children. Suddenly Jessica fell and disappeared. Jessica's mother cried and ran to her. A well was in the yard of the center. The well was only eight inches across, and a rock always covered it. But children had moved the rock. When Jessica fell, and she fell right into the well. Jessica's mother reached inside the well, but she couldn't feel Jessica. She ran to the phone and called 911 for help. Men from the fire apartment arrived. They discovered that Jessica was about 20 feet down in the well. For the next hour, the men talked and planned Jessica's rescue . Then they told Jessica's parents their plan. "We can't go into the well. " they said "It's too narrow. So, we're going to drill a hole next to the well. Then we 'll drill a tunnel across Jessica. Then we'll bring her up through the hole. " The man began to drill the hole on a Wednesday morning. "We'll reach Jessica in a few hours ", they thought. The men were wrong. They had to drill through the solid rock. Two days later, on Friday morning, they were still drilling,. And Jessica McClure was still in the well. During her days in the well, Jessica sometimes called her mother. Sometimes she slept, sometimes she cried, and sometimes she sang. All over the world people waited for the news of Jessica. They read about her in the newspapers and watched her rescue on TV. Everyone worried about the little girl in the well. At 8 P. M. on Friday, the men finally reached Jessica and brought her up from the well. Jessica was dirty, hungry, thirsty and tired. Her foot and forehead was badly injured. But Jessica was alive. A doctor at the hospital said, "Jessica was lucky she was young. She's not going to remember this very well. " Maybe Jessica will not remember her days in the well. But her parents, her rescuers, ans many other people around the world will not forget them. After Jessica's rescue, one of the rescuers made a metal cover for the well. On the cover he wrote, "To Jessica, with love from all of us. " | Why did they have to dig? | It was too narrow.for them to go in. |
Florida theater shooting suspect Curtis Reeves is lonely but confident that his self-defense claim will result in his acquittal, according to jailhouse phone calls released by the state attorney's office.
According to CNN affiliate, Bay News 9, the 71-year-old, who is being held without bail on a second-degree murder charge, also tells his daughter he's concerned about the family's finances.
"I'm more worried about you all than I'm worried about me," he says.
"And we're more worried about you than we are worried about us," Jennifer Shaw, his daughter, responds.
"Well, if all the facts come out we all should be in good shape."
"I know, but we just hate that you have to be in there right now."
In January, Reeves and his wife were attending a showing of "Lone Survivor" at a Wesley Chapel movie theater. Reeves left the theater to report to management that the man in front of him, Chad Oulson, was texting during the previews. When he returned the two exchanged words.
Video from the scene appears to show Oulson snatching Reeves' popcorn off his lap and throwing it at him. Reeves responds instantaneously with a single, fatal gunshot. A preliminary hearing suggested the case will come down to whether a jury believe Reeves was intimidated by Oulson and acted in self-defense, or if Reeves overreacted to Oulson texting.
In the jailhouse tapes, Reeves tells his daughter she can sell some of the family's belongings if necessary.
"If we need money, sell the motorcycle, motorcycle trailer, the kayaks, the trailer and --" | Did Reeves do anything back? | yes |
Buenos Aires ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the South American continent's southeastern coast. "Buenos aires" can be translated as "fair winds" or "good airs", but the first one was the meaning intended by the founders in the 16th century, by the use of the original name "Real de Nuestra Señora Santa María del Buen Ayre". The Greater Buenos Aires conurbation, which also includes several Buenos Aires Province districts, constitutes the fourth-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas, with a population of around 17 million.
The city of Buenos Aires is neither part of Buenos Aires Province nor the Province's capital; rather, it is an autonomous district. In 1880, after decades of political infighting, Buenos Aires was federalized and removed from Buenos Aires Province. The city limits were enlarged to include the towns of Belgrano and Flores; both are now neighborhoods of the city. The 1994 constitutional amendment granted the city autonomy, hence its formal name: Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires (Autonomous City of Buenos Aires). Its citizens first elected a chief of government (i.e. mayor) in 1996; previously, the mayor was directly appointed by the President of the Republic. | True or False: "Buenos aires" has only one possible translation. | False |
CHAPTER IX.
CORIOLANUS AND CINCINNATUS.
B.C. 458.
All the time these struggles were going on between the patricians and the plebeians at home, there were wars with the neighboring tribes, the Volscians, the Veians, the Latins, and the Etruscans. Every spring the fighting men went out, attacked their neighbors, drove off their cattle, and tried to take some town; then fought a battle, and went home to reap the harvest, gather the grapes and olives in the autumn, and attend to public business and vote for the magistrates in the winter. They were small wars, but famous men fought in them. In a war against the Volscians, when Cominius was consul, he was besieging a city called Corioli, when news came that the men of Antium were marching against him, and in their first attack on the walls the Romans were beaten off, but a gallant young patrician, descended from the king Ancus Marcius, Caius Marcius by name, rallied them and led them back with such spirit that the place was taken before the hostile army came up; then he fought among the foremost and gained the victory. When he was brought to the consul's tent covered with wounds, Cominius did all he could to show his gratitude--set on the young man's head the crown of victory, gave him the surname of Coriolanus in honor of his exploits, and granted him the tenth part of the spoil of ten prisoners. Of them, however, Coriolanus only accepted one, an old friend of the family, whom he set at liberty at once. Afterwards, when there was a great famine in Rome, Coriolanus led an expedition to Antium, and brought away quantities of corn and cattle, which he distributed freely, keeping none for himself. | What else? | the Veians |
In the UK, most children have their lunches at school, but in some schools, parents can choose what their children eat. The children can have a school dinner-a hot, cooked meal; or they can take a packed lunch with them, which usually includes cold food like sandwiches. Often parents know what their children want. Cath, a mother of three children, told us, "My children have packed lunches because they say they don't like to have school dinners. So I make three packed lunches every morning." However, another mother, Susan, made a different choice. She said, "My daughters have a always had school dinners. I think they probably get healthier food at school than a few sandwiches I make for them." But how healthy are school dinners? Kaz, a father, thought poorly of them. He said, "Fizzy drinks were offered and I think there were a lot of chips." Jamie Oliver spent a year working in a school kitchen. He was worried about the unhealthy food which included burgers, pizzas and chips. So he tried to cook healthy food such as good stews and curries for the children instead. So Jamie improved the school dinners, and trained the dinner ladies to cook healthy food in that school. Then he advised the government to improve school food across the country. And it seems that the changes have begun. Anna, a pupil, told us, "We used to have a fast food window where you got chips and coke, but they stopped that this year. There's a salad restaurant, which is good, so it's healthier than it was." ,. | What temperature is the school food? | hot |
Education is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits. Educational methods include storytelling, discussion, teaching, training, and directed research. Education frequently takes place under the guidance of educators, but learners may also educate themselves. Education can take place in formal or informal settings and any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts may be considered educational. The methodology of teaching is called pedagogy.
After the Fall of Rome, the Catholic Church became the sole preserver of literate scholarship in Western Europe. The church established cathedral schools in the Early Middle Ages as centers of advanced education. Some of these establishments ultimately evolved into medieval universities and forebears of many of Europe's modern universities. During the High Middle Ages, Chartres Cathedral operated the famous and influential Chartres Cathedral School. The medieval universities of Western Christendom were well-integrated across all of Western Europe, encouraged freedom of inquiry, and produced a great variety of fine scholars and natural philosophers, including Thomas Aquinas of the University of Naples, Robert Grosseteste of the University of Oxford, an early expositor of a systematic method of scientific experimentation, and Saint Albert the Great, a pioneer of biological field research. Founded in 1088, the University of Bologne is considered the first, and the oldest continually operating university. | Can education also be self taught? | yes |
An Indonesian court has rejected a bid by two Australian drug smugglers -- members of the "Bali Nine" -- to challenge their planned executions.
Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are awaiting death by firing squad on Indonesia's "execution island" for their role in a failed 2005 heroin smuggling plot.
A panel of three judges in the state administrative court in Jakarta on Monday confirmed an earlier ruling that it lacked the jurisdiction to hear challenges against President Joko Widodo's refusal to grant clemency.
Lawyers for the pair had argued that Widodo had failed to individually consider their cases.
One of the condemned men's lawyers, Leonard Aritonang, said he was disappointed with the rulings but would respect the court's decision.
He said his team would file a further review, asking the Constitutional Court to explain Widodo's obligations regarding granting clemency.
"I'm hoping the government still respects... any ongoing proceedings," he said.
Tony Spontana, a spokesman for the Indonesian attorney general's office, told CNN that the state administrative court's ruling was "a relief."
"We had predicted it will be rejected because clemency is a prerogative right of the President, as head of the government, not an object of a suit at the administrative court," he said in a message.
"With this decision, it's a step closer towards the scheduled execution."
Australia has repeatedly appealed for clemency for the pair and has unsuccessfully proposed a prisoner swap with Indonesia as a way of avoiding their deaths.
Indonesia has long taken a hard line on drug smugglers, and since assuming office in October, Widodo has made it clear he intends to be tough on those found guilty of such crimes. | Which one? | Bali Nine |
The economy of Himachal Pradesh is currently the third-fastest growing economy in India.
After independence, the Chief Commissioner's Province of H.P. came into being on 15 April 1948 as a result of integration of 28 petty princely states (including feudal princes and zaildars) in the promontories of the western Himalaya, known in full as the Simla Hills States and four Punjab southern hill states by issue of the Himachal Pradesh (Administration) Order, 1948 under Sections 3 and 4 of the Extra-Provincial Jurisdiction Act, 1947 (later renamed as the Foreign Jurisdiction Act, 1947 vide A.O. of 1950). The State of Bilaspur was merged in the Himachal Pradesh on 1 April 1954 by the Himachal Pradesh and Bilaspur (New State) Act, 1954. Himachal became a part C state on 26 January 1950 with the implementation of the Constitution of India and the Lt. Governor was appointed. Legislative Assembly was elected in 1952. Himachal Pradesh became a union territory on 1 November 1956. Following area of Punjab State namely Simla, Kangra, Kulu and Lahul and Spiti Districts, Nalagarh tehsil of Ambala District, Lohara, Amb and Una kanungo circles, some area of Santokhgarh kanungo circle and some other specified area of Una tehsil of Hoshiarpur District besides some parts of Dhar Kalan Kanungo circle of Pathankot tehsil of Gurdaspur District; were merged with Himachal Pradesh on 1 November 1966 on enactment of Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966 by the Parliament. On 18 December 1970, the State of Himachal Pradesh Act was passed by Parliament and the new state came into being on 25 January 1971. Thus Himachal emerged as the 18th state of the Indian Union. | When did it become a state? | January 25, 1971 |
As his case meanders through the Bolivian justice system, an American businessman imprisoned there for a year without formal charges is finding support from a leading human rights advocate in the U.S. Congress.
Jacob Ostreicher, a 53-year-old flooring contractor from Brooklyn, New York, has been held at the notorious Palmasola prison in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, since June 2011 on suspicions of money laundering.
Ostreicher and his family have claimed from the beginning that he is innocent, and presented a judge what they say is evidence that all of the money invested in a rice growing operation came from legal sources. But repeated delays have kept him imprisoned.
The case is now getting more attention in Washington, as U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican, has become a vocal advocate for him.
Smith traveled to Bolivia this week to meet with Ostreicher in prison and to accompany him to a hearing Monday.
At that hearing, the judge transferred the case to a higher court, a move likely to create further delays.
"Justice delayed is justice denied," Smith said in a statement. "Jacob has been cooperative, patient to the extreme. There is no evidence offered against him. The rule of law must prevail in Bolivia. Innocent people must have a path to justice. He must be released."
Ostreicher is nearly two months into a hunger strike to protest his imprisonment.
Smith reported that Ostreicher appeared "frail and anguished."
The lawmaker's trip follows a hearing last week before the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health and Human Rights, which Smith chairs. | Why? | Money laundering. |
Harry is a boy with a learning disability. On his fourth birthday, he was given a pug called Millie. Two weeks after the dog's arrival, he was happier and calmer and said his first words, "dog" and "mummy". Just two months later, thieves stole the dog, and now the heartbroken little boy is back to where he started. He has refused to talk since losing his best friend. His mother was worried and gave him another dog, but he just "pushed it away". Mrs Hainsworth, his mother, says, "My son is very sad. He'll go over to her cage and just beat on the bars. There is no word coming out, but you just know he's screaming 'Where is Millie' inside. Millie was really his best friend. They would play together happily for hours. None of his toys has ever held his attention that long. Now he has just completely turned quiet again. "Harry suffers from a condition which affects his ability to speak and move. But the dog's being with him achieved more in days than months of speech therapy and physiotherapy had. Mrs Hainsworth says, "My son was so happy when he saw Millie. Being with Millie changed him, and within two weeks he had said his first words and was working on saying 'dad'. Just last week, his teachers and I were saying how much Millie had helped him. And now this!" Mrs Hainsworth is considering buying another pug in the hope that her son will accept it. Maureen Hennis of the charity, Pets as Therapy, says she has seen many cases of dogs helping people with speech problems. "People may talk to a dog when they wouldn't like to talk to another human," she says. "A dog doesn't care if words come out wrong." | who was the boy's best friend? | a pug |
Kelly Christopher, a student at Lutheran High School in California, US, loves oranges. One day last week, she used a pole to pick oranges off trees and collect them in baskets. It's the first time in her 15 years she's picked fruit from trees. "This is quite different from buying oranges in the supermarket," said Christopher. "Every time I eat an orange, I'll remember this experience." Christopher was one of the 30 student volunteers at Soil Born Farms. She volunteered as part of a project which was set up in 2009 to help homeowners in South Land Park pick oranges and other fruits out of their backyards. Before, the fruit would rot on the ground or get eaten by animals. Now the fruit is donated to those who need it. "It is good for many people", said Randy Stannard, who works for the project. "The homeowner gets fruit picked and more people can have healthy food." "Two harvests ( ) were organized in 2009 and volunteers picked 3,000 pounds (1,360kg) of fruit", Stannard said. In 2010, the number was 20,000. This year, Soil Born Farms hopes to get 40,000 pounds. They will harvest every weekend from January to April. Shannon Galloway, Christopher's science teacher, brought her students into the project this year. "You're making use of a _ that might be wasted," she said. "I think it's meaningful to everyone." Donato Frazier, 15, always climbs up a ladder and gets on the top of the tree. "Standing on the treetop is pretty cool," Frazier said. "I can see clearly that many baskets are filled up, and even see that many people are eating healthy fruit because of our volunteer work." | How many pounds are they thinking of? | 40,000 pounds. |
World number one Serena Williams put her recent controversies to one side as she cruised past Mandy Minella of Luxembourg 6-1 6-3 in the first round at Wimbledon.
Worryingly for her opponents, the defending champion -- who won every point on her serve in the first set -- said she wasn't at the top of her game despite winning her 32nd consecutive match.
The run is the best since 2008, when Belgium's Justine Henin achieved a similar number of straight wins.
Serena is now just three wins away from the women's record, which is something of a family affair after elder sister Venus recorded her 35th unbeaten game in 2000.
The world No. 1 will break that record if she reaches the quarterfinals at a venue where she also won Olympic gold last year.
"I feel like I was a little rusty for some reason today," Serena, who is bidding for a sixth Wimbledon title, told reporters after a victory that took just 57 minutes.
"I don't feel like I played my best tennis. I felt really upset when I lost my serve at the beginning in the second set - that said, I think Mandy played really well."
"To be honest, I'm a little excited I was able to play a tough match and get through it."
The past week certainly hasn't been as smooth as Serena would have liked after becoming embroiled in a row with Maria Sharapova and having to defend comments made in an article that appeared in Rolling Stone magazine. | Who did she get stuck in a fight with? | Maria Sharapova |
Jose Mourinho likes to keep them guessing.
Three days after the Real Madrid manager hinted he was on his way back to England and Chelsea, the self-proclaimed "Special One" insisted his future was still undecided.
Mourinho signed a contract extension until 2016 with Real Madrid last May after ending Barcelona's three-year stranglehold on La Liga, but his relationship with the Spanish press soured and he has clashed with Madrid and Spain's much-loved keeper, Iker Casillas.
"When I decide on my future, my wife and kids will be the first to know, then the president and general director," Mourinho told reporters ahead of Real Madrid's game against Real Valladolid. "I haven't decided to leave. If I go, I will not give explanations."
Despite Mourinho's pronouncement Friday, England's Sun newspaper claimed that he has already agreed to return to Chelsea but that an official announcement was unlikely until July 1.
On Tuesday following Real Madrid's exit in the Champions League semifinals for a third straight season under Mourinho, this time to Borussia Dortmund, the 50-year-old, not for the first time, spoke of his deep fondness for England.
"I know in England I am loved," Mourinho said. "I know. I know I am loved by the fans. I am loved by the media that treats me in a fair way, criticizing me when they have to, but giving me credit when I deserve it. I know I am loved by some clubs, especially one."
Tottenham boss Andre Villas-Boas, who worked under his fellow Portuguese and formerly managed Chelsea, said Mourinho resurfacing in the Premier League would be "spectacular." With Mourinho at the helm, Chelsea ended a 50-year title drought and won back-to-back Premier League titles. | Did Mourinho change that? | yes |
A public company, publicly traded company, publicly held company, publicly listed company, or public corporation is a corporation whose ownership is dispersed among the general public in many shares of stock which are freely traded on a stock exchange or in over the counter markets. In some jurisdictions, public companies over a certain size must be listed on an exchange. A public company can be listed (listed company) or unlisted (unlisted public company).
In the early modern period, the Dutch developed several financial instruments and helped lay the foundations of modern financial system. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) became the first company in history to issue bonds and shares of stock to the general public. In other words, the VOC was officially the first publicly traded company, because it was the first company to be ever actually listed on an official stock exchange. While the Italian city-states produced the first transferable government bonds, they did not develop the other ingredient necessary to produce a fully fledged capital market: corporate shareholders. As Edward Stringham (2015) notes, "companies with transferable shares date back to classical Rome, but these were usually not enduring endeavors and no considerable secondary market existed (Neal, 1997, p. 61)." | What about a company that is not listed? | unlisted public company |
Science has a lot of uses. It can uncover laws of nature, cure diseases, make bombs, and help bridges to stand up. Indeed science is so good at what it does that there's always a temptation to drag it into problems where it may not be helpful. David Brooks, author of The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement, appears to be the latest in a long line of writers who have failed to go against the temptation.
Brooks gained fame for several books. His latest book The Social Animal, however, is more ambitious and serious than his earlier books. It is an attempt to deal with a set of weighty topics. The book focuses on big questions: What has science uncovered about human nature? What are the sources of character? And why are some people happy and successful while others aren't?
To answer these questions, Brooks studies a wide range of disciplines . Considering this, you might expect the book to be a simple description of facts. But Brooks has formed his book in an unusual, and perhaps unfortunate way. Instead of introducing scientific theories, he tells a story, within which he tries to make his points, perhaps in order to keep the reader's attention. So as Harold and Erica, the hero and heroine in his story, live through childhood, we hear about the science of child development and as they begin to date we hear about the theory of sexual attraction. Brooks carries this through to the death of one of his characters.
On the whole, Brooks' story is acceptable if uninspired. As one would expect, his writing is mostly clear and, to be fair, some chapters stand out above the rest. I enjoyed, for instance, the chapter in which Harold discovers how to think on his own. While Harold and Erica are certainly not strong or memorable characters, the more serious problems with The Social Animal lie elsewhere. These problems partly involve Brooks' attempt to translate his tale into science. | what types of uses are there for science? | It can uncover laws of nature, cure diseases, make bombs, and help bridges to stand up |
Ben lived in the same house as I did, on the same floor, his door facing mine; we often saw each other, and I knew how he lived when he was at home. And at home it was the same story: dressing-gown, nightcap, closed windows, locked doors, and -'Oh, I hope nothing bad will happen!' Vegetarian food is not good for him, yet he could not eat meat, so he ate freshwater fish with butter--not a vegetarian dish, yet one could not say that it was meat. He did not keep a female servant for fear people might think evil of him, but had as cook an old man of sixty, called Alan, who had once been an officer's servant and could cook after a fashion. This Alan was usually standing at the door with his arms folded; with a deep sigh, he would _ always the same thing: "there are plenty of them about nowadays!" | How old was Alan? | sixty |
CHAPTER XX
A LESSON IN PICQUET
Lord Dreever, meanwhile, having left the waterside, lighted a cigarette, and proceeded to make a reflective tour of the grounds. He felt aggrieved with the world. Molly's desertion in the canoe with Jimmy did not trouble him: he had other sorrows. One is never at one's best and sunniest when one has been forced by a ruthless uncle into abandoning the girl one loves and becoming engaged to another, to whom one is indifferent. Something of a jaundiced tinge stains one's outlook on life in such circumstances. Moreover, Lord Dreever was not by nature an introspective young man, but, examining his position as he walked along, he found himself wondering whether it was not a little unheroic. He came to the conclusion that perhaps it was. Of course, Uncle Thomas could make it deucedly unpleasant for him if he kicked. That was the trouble. If only he had even--say, a couple of thousands a year of his own--he might make a fight for it. But, dash it, Uncle Tom could cut off supplies to such a frightful extent, if there was trouble, that he would have to go on living at Dreever indefinitely, without so much as a fearful quid to call his own.
Imagination boggled at the prospect. In the summer and autumn, when there was shooting, his lordship was not indisposed to a stay at the home of his fathers. But all the year round! Better a broken heart inside the radius than a sound one in the country in the winter. | was there another season of shooting? | YEs. |
When Brody Roybal was a baby, he didn't have legs. But that didn't make him feel sad or stop him from trying sports. He tried different kinds of sports. When he tried sled hockey at the age of 7, he loved it. " That was it," says Roybal. He is now 15 and a student in a high school in Chicago. " It's all I wanted to do." Roybal joined a sled hockey team. At the age of 12, he started playing in an adult team. It was much harder for him, but he still worked hard. Now Roybal is a player of the sled hockey team in his country. O' Connor, manager of the team, says Roybal is very good. " Everybody dreams of going to the Olympic Games and winning the game," O' Connor says. " That's something that I couldn't do, but Roybal can. He is lucky and he can go to the next Olympics." It's true that when God closes a door, he opens a window for you. | How old is he now? | 15 |
Alexander Reyes' boyhood dream of a military career ended when he was hit by an improvised explosive device during a patrol two years ago in Baghdad.
"Laying in that hospital bed ... sometimes I felt I'd rather died," Reyes said. "My life came to a complete halt."
Reyes sustained severe blast injuries that led to his medical discharge; he's on 100 percent medical disability. Like many soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, Reyes, now 24, found the transition to civilian life difficult.
But he and a handful of other injured veterans are getting help from what may seem an unlikely source: a custom home builder in Houston, Texas.
Dan Wallrath recently presented Reyes and his wife with an unexpected gift: a home built especially for them, mortgage-free.
"Thank you. That's all I can say," Elizabeth Reyes said, sobbing and clutching her stunned husband's arm as Wallrath surprised them with the house.
For Wallrath, giving wounded veterans a place to call home is his way of saying thanks. Since 2005, his organization has built four houses. Five more are under construction, and he's expanding his idea into a national campaign called Operation Finally Home.
Do you know a hero? Nominations are open for 2010 CNN Heroes
Wallrath spent 30 years making upscale clients' dream houses a reality. But he found a new mission in 2005 when he met with Steve Schulz about a very different type of project.
Schulz's 20-year old son, a U.S. Marine, had been gravely injured in Iraq. Schulz desperately needed to remodel his house to accommodate his son's wheelchair. | how long has he been doing that? | Since 2005 |
The man behind the Apple empire died at 56 last year. He was one of the people who made Silicon Valley the capital of technological invention. Author and business consultant Jim Collins once called Jobs the "Beethoven of business". When asked what Steve Jobs will be best remembered for, many of us would name a particular product:the iPod, the iPhone or the iPad, for example. But in the eyes of Eric Jackson, a reporter with Forbes magazine, Jobs brought the world much more than these popular devices . Here are some of the lessons he taught us:
1. The most lasting inventions mix art and science. Jobs pointed out that the team members working with Apple were trained in anthropology , art, history, and poetry. He believed this was important in making Apple's products stand out.
2. Never fear failure. Jobs was fired by the successor he himself chose. It was one of the most public embarrassments of the last 30 years in business. However, Jobs didn't hide away or try to get a new job. He _ and got back to work.
3. You can't look forward to connecting the dots--you can only look backward. This means that, however much we try to plan things ahead of time, life is always full of unexpected things. What seems like bitter pain and defeat could turn out to sow the seeds of unimaginable success in years to come. You can't connect the dots looking forward. But you have to trust that all the dots will be connected in the future.
4. Listen to that voice in tile back of your head that tells you if you're on the right track or not. Most of us simply decide that we're going to work in finance or become a doctor because it's what our parents tell us to do. Whatever your voice is telling you, it is smart to listen to it--like Jobs did.
Just as Caroline and Amy from his empire put it, "Steve was one of the most inspiring yet toughest boss ever--but who else could have built Apple? What Steve left is sure to inspire generations of creative thinkers to think differently. His influence will be felt throughout the world." | Anything else? | the iPhone or the iPad |
Vincent Van Gogh was an important painter of the 19thcentury. He was born in Holland, but he lived much of his life inprefix = st1 /France. He was a very emotional man, and there was much suffering in his life. His style of painting was very different from classical art. He painted pictures of sunny, hot regions ofFrance. He looked for interesting shapes and exciting colours. He liked to work freely and quickly.
There is a fast movement in many of his paintings. Sometimes the trees look like fire. The sun, the moon, and stars move rapidly in the sky. He also painted pictures of people.
Like his life, his art was always unusual and very emotional.
Paul Gauguin was another 19-century painter. He was French and a friend of Van Gogh. Before he became an artist, Gauguin had been a businessman for many years. He made a lot of money, and he likes to buy modern paintings.
At the age of 354, Gauguin decided to become a painter himself. Gauguin wanted to discover more important things about man. He went to a different part of Franceto live with the farmers. He painted pictures of French country people there. Two years later he went to live in a small place in the Pacific Ocean, thousands of miles fromFrance. He wanted to learn about the simple life there. His most famous and interesting paintings were painted at that time. | What country did he paint? | France. |
This is the story of a young girl and her dog. The young girl and her dog set out a trip into the woods one day. Upon entering the woods the girl and her dog found that the woods were dark and cold. The girl was a little scared and was thinking of turning back, but yet they went on. The girl's dog was acting very interested in what was in the bushes up ahead. To both the girl and the dog's surprise, there was a small brown bear resting in the bushes. The bear was not surprised and did not seem at all interested in the girl and her dog. The bear looked up at the girl and it was almost as if he was smiling at her. He then rested his head on his bear paws and went back to sleep. The girl and the dog kept walking and finally made it out of the woods. To this day the girl does not know why the bear was so friendly and to this day she has never told anyone about the meeting with the bear in the woods. | did she? | no |
One of the world's most powerful Muslim preachers lives behind a gated compound in the small, leafy town of Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania.
The reclusive Turkish cleric's name is Fethullah Gulen.
If you believe the Turkish government, supporters of this cleric in Pennsylvania are spearheading a coup attempt in Turkey that is destabilizing one of America's most important allies in the Middle East.
In recent weeks, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a religious conservative, has compared Gulen and his supporters to a virus and a medieval cult of assassins.
Meanwhile, in an interview with CNN, a top official from Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, called the Gulen movement a "fifth column" that had infiltrated the Turkish police force and judiciary.
"We are confronted by a structure that doesn't take orders from within the chain of command of the state," parliament member and deputy AKP chairman Mahir Unal told CNN. "Rather, it takes orders from outside the state."
Who is this mysterious man in Pennsylvania?
The 72-year old imam went into self-imposed exile when he moved from Turkey to the United States in 1999.
He rarely speaks to journalists and has turned down interview requests from CNN for more than two years. But in a rare e-mail interview published in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Gulen denied any involvement in a political conspiracy.
"We will never be a part of any plot against those who are governing our country," he wrote, according to The Wall Street Journal. | Who does he feel the Gulen Movement takes orders from? | From outside the state. |
It's hard to believe it's been five years since Mumbai was rocked by terror attacks. Life goes on, the city continues its chaotic beat. The next news story replaces the last one, the cycle of life goes on.
The date 26/11 is now a somber anniversary the city marks. But for many, it's something much more personal. The newspapers here today are full of pictures of smiling couples and entire families who lost their lives during the attacks. They accompany messages of remembrance in ads placed their by surviving family members who miss them and grieve for them.
Ten Pakistani men associated with the terror group Lashkar-e-Tayyiba stormed buildings and killed 164 people. Nine of the gunmen were killed during the attacks, one survived. Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving gunman, was executed in India last year
One of the pictures I saw in a newspaper today that froze me was of a broken blue wall inside Chabad House, the building where Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka were killed. Their baby son, Moshe survived.
My colleague, Sanjiv Talreja and I were the first journalists allowed inside Chabad House a few weeks after the carnage. It was the hardest assignment I have ever had. The place hadn't been cleaned. Walls and windows were blown out, only half of the floors and ceilings remained. Blood stains splashed across the wall, grenade shells and bullets littered the crumbling floor.
One thing that stopped me in my tracks though was a broken blue wall. It was in the room that baby Moshe occupied. His mother Rivka had marked his height on the wall, with the enthusiasm of any young mother watching her baby grow. Several little pencil lines marked every inch or two this young boy grew. | What location is the article talking about? | Mumbai |
CHAPTER VIII.
THE CART RIDE.
A week after this, Caleb had his whip to mend. He had broken off the lash, by whipping in sticks and little pieces of drift-wood to the mole. David and Dwight worked a little every day upon the mole, and had carried it out pretty far into the stream, and had almost finished the lower branches of the Y. So, one morning, after the boys had gone to school, and Caleb had had his reading lesson, he sat down upon the steps of the door, behind the house, and began to tie on his lash with a piece of twine which Mary Anna had given him.
Behind the house where Caleb's grandmother lived, there was a lane which led to the pasture. At the head of the lane, where you entered it from the yard, were a pair of bars. While Caleb was mending his whip, he accidentally looked up, and noticed that the bars were down.
"There, Mr. Raymond," said Caleb, talking to himself, as he went on winding his twine round and round the whip-handle; "for once in your life, you have been careless. You have left your bars down. Now we shall have the cattle all let out, unless I go and stop the mischief."
Caleb thought he would go and put the bars up again, as soon as he had tied the ends of his twine; but before he got quite ready, he heard a noise, as of something coming in the lane. He could not see down the lane far, from the place where he sat, for the barn was in the way. But he wondered what could be coming, and he looked towards the bars, and sat waiting for it to appear. | Where was the noise coming from? | the lane |
The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis, Missouri. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Busch Stadium has been their home ballpark since 2006. With origins as one of the early professional baseball clubs in St. Louis, entrepreneur Chris von der Ahe purchased a barnstorming club in 1881, then known as the Brown Stockings, and established them as charter members of the American Association (AA) the following season. Upon the discontinuation of the AA, St. Louis joined the NL in 1892; at that time, they were called the Browns and the Perfectos before they were officially renamed as the Cardinals in 1900.
One of the most successful franchises in baseball history, the Cardinals have won 11 World Series championships, the second-most in Major League Baseball and most in the National League. Their 19 National League pennants rank third in NL history. In addition, St. Louis has won 13 division titles in the East and Central divisions. While still in the AA, St. Louis won four league championships, qualifying them to play in a forerunner of the World Series. They tied in 1885 and won outright in 1886, both times against Chicago, in the first meetings of the Cardinals–Cubs rivalry that continues to this day. | what is the name of their stadium? | Busch Stadium |
In the predawn darkness the agents switch the federal plates on their vehicles to local Wyoming tags and check they have no other signs showing they are from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Edward Eugene Harper is believed to have lived a nomadic lifestyle since fleeing Mississippi.
They want to give the impression that they are fish and wildlife officers, certainly not what they really are -- an elite squad in search of one of the FBI's 10 most-wanted fugitives.
Their target lives eight miles up a dirt road in the Big Horn mountains of Washakie County -- and he is also not what he seems.
For the past few years Edward Eugene Harper has been tending a flock of sheep in the semi-wilderness of the region. But 15 years ago he failed to turn up for a court appearance in Mississippi on charges he had molested two girls, aged 3 and 8. He'd been on the lam ever since.
Recently the FBI had received a tip on his whereabouts. Watch how FBI planned hunt for fugitive »
Snipers spent the night watching the truck with a camper top where Harper, 63, has been sleeping for the past few weeks.
Michael Rankin, assistant special agent in charge at the FBI's Denver, Colorado, field office and leader of the operation to capture Harper, said he wanted to use a ruse to get close to Harper.
"We don't want to alert him or anybody who might be a supporter of his, and we want to get as close to him without somehow raising his antenna that we may be law enforcement and we may be wanting to take him into custody," Rankin said. | Who kept an eye on him overnight? | Sniper |
Goa is a state in India within the coastal region known as the Konkan in India. It is bounded by Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the east and south, with the Arabian Sea forming its Western coast. It is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Goa has the highest GDP per capita among all Indian states, that is two and a half times that of the country. It was ranked the best placed state by the "Eleventh Finance Commission" for its infrastructure and ranked on top for the best quality of life in India by the National Commission on Population based on the 12 Indicators.
Panaji is the state's capital, while Vasco da Gama is its largest city. The historic city of Margao still exhibits the cultural influence of the Portuguese, who first landed in the early 16th century as merchants and conquered it soon thereafter. Goa is a former Portuguese province; the Portuguese overseas territory of Portuguese India existed for about 450 years until it was annexed by India in 1961.
Goa is visited by large numbers of international and domestic tourists each year for its beaches, places of worship and world heritage architecture. It has rich flora and fauna, owing to its location on the Western Ghats range, a biodiversity hotspot. | How about flora and fauna? | that too |
One day, a boy named Sam went to the doctor because he fell and hurt his knee. He was riding his green tricycle in the yard when it happened. He played with yellow and red blocks in the waiting room before his visit with the doctor. His mother was sitting in a chair, reading a magazine and talking to other mothers sitting around her. The friendly nurse called Sam from the waiting room to finally visit the doctor. The nurse weighed Sam, measured his height, and asked him questions about the foods he had eaten that day. The nurse also took his temperature to make sure that he did not have a fever. After the nurse left the room, the doctor came in and asked Sam about his knee. Sam told the doctor all about his fall off the tricycle and the doctor wrote a lot of notes down. Doctors write a lot of notes so they can tell people like Sam more about their accidents. The doctor said, "Wow Sam! It sounds like you had quite a fall." The doctor put a bandage on his knee and gave him some medicine to take once he got home. On the way out of the doctor's office, Sam took a purple lollipop to eat on the car ride home. Sam's mom drove him back home, telling him to be careful for the next time that he plays outside. Sam's mom really cared about him and didn't like to see him get hurt. | What was she doing? | reading a magazine |
The German equivalent was used with the founding of the North German Confederation whose constitution granted legislative power over the protection of intellectual property (Schutz des geistigen Eigentums) to the confederation. When the administrative secretariats established by the Paris Convention (1883) and the Berne Convention (1886) merged in 1893, they located in Berne, and also adopted the term intellectual property in their new combined title, the United International Bureaux for the Protection of Intellectual Property.
The term can be found used in an October 1845 Massachusetts Circuit Court ruling in the patent case Davoll et al. v. Brown., in which Justice Charles L. Woodbury wrote that "only in this way can we protect intellectual property, the labors of the mind, productions and interests are as much a man's own...as the wheat he cultivates, or the flocks he rears." The statement that "discoveries are...property" goes back earlier. Section 1 of the French law of 1791 stated, "All new discoveries are the property of the author; to assure the inventor the property and temporary enjoyment of his discovery, there shall be delivered to him a patent for five, ten or fifteen years." In Europe, French author A. Nion mentioned propriété intellectuelle in his Droits civils des auteurs, artistes et inventeurs, published in 1846. | was anything adopted during these conventions? | yes |
CHAPTER IX.
SIR SIDNEY SMITH.
The first intimation that Napoleon received that the Sultan had declared war with France, was the news that an army from Syria had advanced and established itself at a fort in the desert half-way between the frontier of that country and Egypt. He had, in the interval, endeavoured to make himself familiar with the country. Forts had been erected all round Cairo on heights dominating the town, so that a comparatively small force could overawe the population. He himself paid two visits to Suez. Desaix had pushed the Mamelukes still farther into Upper Egypt; a division had established the French authority at Damietta and Rosetta, and every arrangement was made by which the main body of the army could move away with a fair hope that Egypt would remain quiet during its absence.
It was now the beginning of December. During the journey down to the coast Edgar had thought seriously of his position. It seemed to him that, although finally the French would have to evacuate Egypt, a long time might elapse before this took place, and he finally came to the resolution to attempt to escape. He was doing neither himself nor his father any good by remaining. He had already witnessed a great battle by land, and one by sea, and he thought, by returning home and rejoining his father, he would be better employed in acquiring commercial knowledge in a business in London than in remaining in Egypt. Accordingly, on the day after his arrival at the oasis he mounted and rode into Alexandria, and entered his father's place of business for the first time since the French had landed. Muller did not recognize him as he entered, owing to his Arab dress and coloured skin. There were two native clerks present, and Edgar went up to him, and said in a low voice: | What time of year was it? | beginning of December. |
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (; ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Francophone Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of the 18th century. His political philosophy influenced the Enlightenment in France and across Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolution and the overall development of modern political and educational thought.
Rousseau's novel "Emile, or On Education" is a treatise on the education of the whole person for citizenship. His sentimental novel "Julie, or the New Heloise" was of importance to the development of pre-romanticism and romanticism in fiction. Rousseau's autobiographical writings—his "Confessions", which initiated the modern autobiography, and his "Reveries of a Solitary Walker"—exemplified the late 18th-century movement known as the "Age of Sensibility", and featured an increased focus on subjectivity and introspection that later characterized modern writing. His "Discourse on Inequality" and "The Social Contract" are cornerstones in modern political and social thought.
During the period of the French Revolution, Rousseau was the most popular of the philosophes among members of the Jacobin Club. He was interred as a national hero in the Panthéon in Paris, in 1794, 16 years after his death.
Rousseau was born in Geneva, which was at the time a city-state and a Protestant associate of the Swiss Confederacy. Since 1536, Geneva had been a Huguenot republic and the seat of Calvinism. Five generations before Rousseau, his ancestor Didier, a bookseller who may have published Protestant tracts, had escaped persecution from French Catholics by fleeing to Geneva in 1549, where he became a wine merchant. | in what country? | France |
CHAPTER THE THIRTEENTH.
BLANCHE.
MRS. INCHBARE was the first person who acted in the emergency. She called for lights; and sternly rebuked the house-maid, who brought them, for not having closed the house door. "Ye feckless ne'er-do-weel!" cried the landlady; "the wind's blawn the candles oot."
The woman declared (with perfect truth) that the door had been closed. An awkward dispute might have ensued if Blanche had not diverted Mrs. Inchbare's attention to herself. The appearance of the lights disclosed her, wet through with her arms round Anne's neck. Mrs. Inchbare digressed at once to the pressing question of changing the young lady's clothes, and gave Anne the opportunity of looking round her, unobserved. Arnold had made his escape before the candles had been brought in.
In the mean time Blanche's attention was absorbed in her own dripping skirts.
"Good gracious! I'm absolutely distilling rain from every part of me. And I'm making you, Anne, as wet as I am! Lend me some dry things. You can't? Mrs. Inchbare, what does your experience suggest? Which had I better do? Go to bed while my clothes are being dried? or borrow from your wardrobe--though you _are_ a head and shoulders taller than I am?"
Mrs. Inchbare instantly bustled out to fetch the choicest garments that her wardrobe could produce. The moment the door had closed on her Blanche looked round the room in her turn.
The rights of affection having been already asserted, the claims of curiosity naturally pressed for satisfaction next. | What did Mrs. Inchbare want to handle? | The issue of the lady's clothes. |
With an estimated population of 1,381,069 as of July 1, 2014, San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest in California. It is part of the San Diego–Tijuana conurbation, the second-largest transborder agglomeration between the US and a bordering country after Detroit–Windsor, with a population of 4,922,723 people. San Diego is the birthplace of California and is known for its mild year-round climate, natural deep-water harbor, extensive beaches, long association with the United States Navy and recent emergence as a healthcare and biotechnology development center.
Historically home to the Kumeyaay people, San Diego was the first site visited by Europeans on what is now the West Coast of the United States. Upon landing in San Diego Bay in 1542, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo claimed the entire area for Spain, forming the basis for the settlement of Alta California 200 years later. The Presidio and Mission San Diego de Alcalá, founded in 1769, formed the first European settlement in what is now California. In 1821, San Diego became part of the newly-independent Mexico, which reformed as the First Mexican Republic two years later. In 1850, it became part of the United States following the Mexican–American War and the admission of California to the union. | What military branch is based there? | United States Navy |
A nurse under mandatory quarantine in New Jersey after caring for Ebola patients in Sierra Leone has blasted stringent new state policies for dealing with health care workers returning from West Africa, saying the change could lead to medical professionals being treated like "criminals and prisoners."
In a first-person account in The Dallas Morning News, Kaci Hickox wrote that she was ordered placed in quarantine at a hospital, where she has now tested negative in two tests for Ebola. Still, hospital officials told her she must remain under quarantine for 21 days.
"This is not a situation I would wish on anyone, and I am scared for those who will follow me," she wrote.
Dr. Seema Yasmin, a friend of Hickox who has been in contact with her during her quarantine, told CNN's Elizabeth Cohen that Hickox is feeling physically fine and showing no symptoms.
That contradicts what New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said in a press conference Saturday, when he said Hickox was "obviously ill."
Yasmin has been texting with Hickox and told CNN the nurse is "very sad" and "exhuasted." Yasmin also told CNN she is worried about the conditions Hickox is being held in -- the nurse told Yasmin she is in an unheated room and was given only paper scrubs to wear.
Doctors Without Borders said in a written statement that it is "very concerned about the conditions," saying Hickox is in an unheated tent adjacent to the hospital. The group's statement also said it is working to get information from hospital officials. | How many times? | two |
Honolulu is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii. It is an unincorporated part of and the county seat of the City and County of Honolulu on the island of Oahu. The city is the main gateway to Hawaii and a major portal into the United States. The city is also a major hub for international business, military defense, as well as famously being host to a diverse variety of east-west and Pacific culture, cuisine, and traditions.
Honolulu is the most remote city of its size in the world and is the westernmost major U.S. city. For statistical purposes, the U.S. Census Bureau recognizes the approximate area commonly referred to as "City of Honolulu" (not to be confused with the "City and County") as a census county division (CCD). Honolulu is a major financial center of the islands and of the Pacific Ocean. The population of the city of Honolulu was 337,256 as of the 2010 census, while the Honolulu CCD was 390,738 and the population of the consolidated city and county was 953,207.
"Honolulu" means "sheltered harbor" or "calm port". The old name is said to be Kou, a district roughly encompassing the area from Nuuanu Avenue to Alakea Street and from Hotel Street to Queen Street which is the heart of the present downtown district. The city has been the capital of the Hawaiian Islands since 1845 and gained historical recognition following the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan near the city on December 7, 1941. | What was its old name? | Kou |
The 5-year-old son of country music singer Mindy McCready has been recovered and is in good health in the custody of officials in Arkansas, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Children and Families told CNN Friday.
"We're working with local law enforcement and the Arkansas (Division of Children and Family Services) and we're going to bring him home to Florida to his legal guardian as soon as possible," Terri Durdaller said about the boy, Zander.
Mindy McCready's assistant said the singer turned Zander over to the Arkansas authorities and that he would be returned to her on Monday. "She's looking forward to having her case heard in front of an unbiased courtroom," the assistant said. "She has a 99% chance of her child leaving with her on Monday morning."
She described Zander as "very OK."
But Mindy McCready's mother and stepfather, Gayle and Michael Inge, have legal custody of the boy and the singer has only visitation rights.
"We're relieved," they told CNN. "We feel sorrow for Zander because he's traumatized, and for Mindy. We just hope she does the right thing from here on out and that this is a wake-up call for her."
The boy was located hours after Gayle Inge made a public plea for her daughter to obey a court order to return her son to the care of the Inges.
The imbroglio started when McCready, who has fought a public battle against drug addiction, took her son from her father's Florida home.
This week, a Florida judge ordered McCready to return the boy to authorities. When she did not comply, another judge issued an emergency "pickup order," authorizing officers to pick up the boy. The singer was ordered to produce Zander and failed to do so. | is he traumatized ? | yes |
Four months after a criminal investigation began into the disappearance of an Oregon boy, officials continue to ask the public for leads and tips.
Thursday marks Kyron Horman's 8th birthday. Desiree Young, Kyron's biological mother, said she will celebrate the birthday by releasing red balloons outside a church in Medford, Oregon.
His stepmother, Terri Horman, said she dropped him off at Skyline Elementary School on the morning of June 4. She has been the subject of intense scrutiny for several months.
In divorce filings, her ex-husband, Kaine Horman, said he believes that Terri Horman "is involved" in the boy's disappearance.
Court documents also allege Terri Horman attempted to hire a man to kill her husband.
Meanwhile, Skyline Elementary began its first day of classes for the year on Tuesday with additional security measures to protect the children and staff.
In a letter to parents, Principal Ben Keefer said video cameras will be installed this weekend at Skyline.
"These cameras will show external views of the building as well as the main hallway," he wrote.
Also, security procedures will be reviewed to ensure they are effective, he added.
Tributes, messages, posters and cards that adorned a "Wall of Hope" for Kyron were moved from school property to a fence outside a nearby fire station, said the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office.
"We're happy that the fire district can provide this service to the community," said Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue Communications Officer Brian Barker. "Our hearts go out to Kyron's family and we all hope for a positive resolution to this case." | What was placed for him at the school? | "Wall of Hope" |
Utah ( or ) is a state in the western United States. It became the 45th state admitted to the U.S. on January 4, 1896. Utah is the 13th-largest by area, 31st-most-populous, and 10th-least-densely populated of the 50 United States. Utah has a population of more than 3 million (Census estimate for July 1, 2016), approximately 80% of whom live along the Wasatch Front, centering on the state capital Salt Lake City. Utah is bordered by Colorado to the east, Wyoming to the northeast, Idaho to the north, Arizona to the south, and Nevada to the west. It also touches a corner of New Mexico in the southeast.
Approximately 62% of Utahns are reported to be members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or LDS (Mormons), which greatly influences Utahn culture and daily life. The LDS Church's world headquarters is located in Salt Lake City. Utah is the only state with a majority population belonging to a single church.
The state is a center of transportation, education, information technology and research, government services, mining, and a major tourist destination for outdoor recreation. In 2013, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that Utah had the second fastest-growing population of any state. St. George was the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the United States from 2000 to 2005. Utah also has the 14th highest median average income and the least income inequality of any U.S. state. A 2012 Gallup national survey found Utah overall to be the "best state to live in" based on 13 forward-looking measurements including various economic, lifestyle, and health-related outlook metrics. | How many people live there? | more than 3 million |
It seems that politicians around the world are thinking about the health of their countries. While in China, Chen Zhu has announced his plans for a universal health service and reform across health services. Gordon Brown, the UK Prime Minister, has also announced he is planning to make some changes in our health service.
The crux of Mr. Brown's proposals are related to giving the NHS (National Health Service) a greater focus on prevention, rather than just curing patients.
He is planning to introduce increased screening for common diseases such as heart disease, strokes, and cancer, for example, breast cancer. In Britain there are 200,000 deaths a year from heart attacks and strokes, many of which might have been avoided if the condition had been known about.
Initially, the diagnostic tests will be available for those who are vulnerable, or most likely to have the disease. One example is a plan to offer all men over 65 an ultrasound test to check for problems with the main artery , a condition which kills 3,000 men a year.
The opposition have criticized Mr. Brown's proposals, saying that they are just a trick, and claiming that there is no proper timetable for the changes. They also say that Mr. Brown is reducing the money available for the treatment of certain conditions while putting more money towards testing for them.
The NHS was founded in 1948, and is paid for by taxation. The idea is that the rich pay more towards the health service than the poor. However in recent years there has been a great increase in the use of private healthcare, because it's much quicker. NHS waiting lists for operations can be very long, so many people who can afford it choose to pay for medical care themselves. | How many men a year are killed from problems with their main blood vessels? | unknown |
Jack was a carpenter . He was living in a village. His mother died a long time ago. His aged father, Ken, lived with him. Ken could not even walk well. He was so weak. It was because Jack did not give him enough food. He only gave his father a small bowl made from earth. Even a little rice in the bowl appeared to be much. Jack had a son. His name is Mike. He was a very good boy. He loved his grandfather. He had great respect for the old man. He did not like his father's _ to his grandfather. One day Ken was eating his food out of the earthen bowl. The bowl fell down and broke into pieces. The food also fell on the floor. Jack saw the broken bowl. He was very angry with his father. The old man felt bad about what happened. He was sorry for his mistake. Mike saw this. He did not like what his father did, but he was afraid to speak against his father. The next day, Mike took some of his father's tools and a piece of wood. He worked with the tools to make a wooden bowl. His father saw him working. "What are you making, Mike?"he asked. "I am making a wooden bowl! "replied Mike. "I am making it for you, father. When you grow old, like my grandfather, you will need a bowl for food. A bowl made from earth may break very easily. So I want to give you a wooden bowl" After hearing this, Jack felt sorry and regretted having treated his father badly. | for who? | His father |
Two former presidents reflected on their greatest regrets in office Monday, each looking back to issues that continue to plague the nation years later.
Former presidents and political rivals Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush now share philanthropic efforts.
Former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton appeared together at a question-and-answer forum before the National Automobile Dealers Association in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Asked his biggest regret after leaving office, Bush said he now wonders whether he should have tried to get Saddam Hussein to leave office at the end of the first Gulf War in 1991.
He told the gathering, "I've thought a lot about it, but at the end of Desert Storm, the question was should we have kind of kept going on that road to death and all this slaughter until Saddam Hussein showed up and laid his sword on the table, surrendered. And the common wisdom was he wouldn't do that."
But he said a conversation with an FBI agent who interrogated Saddam after he was captured has made him reconsider.
Bush recalled their talk, "I said, 'What if we just say he has to come to surrender, would he have done it?' And this guy said, 'I'm absolutely convinced he would have.' My experts tell me he wouldn't have."
Bush said, "We ended it the way we said we would" as a military success, but noted a cleaner ending "would have been perfect."
He added, "If we had tried to get Saddam Hussein to come and literally surrender and put his sword on the table, I think it might have been avoided some of the problems that we did have in the future from him." | Who? | Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush |
Famous centenarians still active in arts, science are in no mood to retire. "Those who stand still, die," is one of Oliveira's favorite phrases. He knows from experience what it means, as the Portuguese film director has reached the age of 102 and is still active in his profession. Every year, Oliveira shoots a film and is currently working on his next project. "You have to work, work, work in order to forget that death is not far away," he said. When asked about his age, Oliveira said with some humility: "It's down to mother nature. It gave to me what it took from others."
Being both mentally and physically fit in old age is partly a matter of luck, but it also has something to do with character. Not every white-haired person is wise and social skills, openness and the ability to train the brain are essential for senior citizens.
Along with the architect Oscar Niemeyer (103), Nobel laureate Montalcini (101) and director Kurt Maetzig (100), Oliveira is one of those people of whom it would be very wrong to think as members of a listless elderly generation.
Another master in his profession is the architect Oscar Niemeyer. The 103-year-old Brazilian is best known for his futuristic-looking buildings in Brasilia, but he also speaks out on behalf of the poor. "The role of the architect is to struggle for a better world where we can develop a form of architecture that serves everyone and not just a privileged few," said Niemeyer recently. He spends almost every day working in his office in Copacabana, and even when he falls ill he keeps working on ideas: After a gallbladder operation he composed a samba tune in the clinic.
Another man who could sing a song about age is 107-year-old Heesters. The Dutch-born opera singer spent most of his life performing in Germany, where he still works. Recently Heesters said: "I want to be at least 108-years-old." He also plans to keep performing. " _ " Heesters has not given up trying to add to his tally of awards and is looking for a "good stage role".
Italian scientist Rita Levi-Montalcini, who is 101-year-old and is still active in medical science, has described the force that keeps driving her on: "Progress is created through imperfection." In 1986 she and her lab colleague were awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for their work on nerve growth factor. She's convinced that humans grow on challenges.
With so many brilliant examples given, we can see clearly that age is no barrier to some high achievers. | Did she win any awards? | yes |
Spain coach Vicente del Bosque has included three uncapped players in his final 23-man squad for the World Cup in South Africa.
Winger Pedro Rodriguez, 22, was named along with his Barcelona teammate Victor Valdes, who edged out 19-year-old David De Gea and Villarreal's Diego Lopez for the third goalkeeping place.
De Gea's 21-year-old clubmate Javi Martinez was handed a midfield berth, having impressed as Atletico Madrid won the UEFA Europa League this season and reached the final of the Spanish Cup.
"They have had a good season, they are coming to strengthen the squad as substitutes for other players," Del Bosque told reporters.
Martinez's fellow under-21 international, Osasuna defender Cesar Azpilicueta, missed out along with midfielders Santi Cazorla and Marcos Senna, who both featured when Spain won Euro 2008.
Sevilla striker Alvaro Negredo was also chopped, as was another member of the triumphant 2008 squad, Dani Guiza.
Del Bosque is giving England-based stars Fernando Torres and Cesc Fabregas every chance to be fit, retaining the duo as they recover from injuries.
Midfielder Andres Iniesta is also expected to be ready, having returned from a calf problem in the last game of the Spanish league season as Barcelona claimed the title.
Barcelona's 19-year-old Bojan Krkic, who missed Spain's Euro 2008 success at his own request due to fatigue, did not even make the initial 30-man squad named earlier this month.
England coach Fabio Capello was forced to go back on his previously iron-clad rules in selecting his preliminary squad for the World Cup. | Which is for the World Cup where? | In South Africa. |
A Prontor-Compur connection (also known as a PC connector, PC terminal, or PC socket) is a standard 3.5 mm (1/8") electrical connector (as defined in ISO 519) used in photography to synchronize the shutter to the flash.
""Prontor"" has its origins in the Italian word "pronto", meaning "ready" (and was a leaf shutter made by ). ""Compur"" is derived from the word "compound" (the """" was a long-lived series of leaf shutters made by ).
The term is derived from brands of widely marketed photographic leaf shutters manufactured from the early 1950s by two distinct, but now defunct German companies. (which made the "Prontor-S" and "Prontor SV" models, amongst others) and (the "Synchro-Compur" model, successor to the "Compound" model).
Both companies' brands, "Prontor" (from 1953) and "Compur" (from 1951), shared a common 1/8"-inch coaxial connector for shutter/flash synchronization. This convergence of design is not as coincidental as it might first appear, owing to the fact that the Zeiss organisation held a significant shareholding in both of these companies prior to the introduction of the shared connector. By the 1950s, Gauthier were manufacturing up to 10,000 "Prontor" shutters daily.
The Gauthier company's essence lives on as , which is a wholly owned subsidiary of . The Deckel company went bankrupt in 1994. | What is also known as a protector? | A Prontor-Compur connection |
CHAPTER XVII.
But see! through the fast-flashing lightnings of war, What steed to the desert flies frantic and far? Campbell.
During the severe skirmish of which we have given the details, Morton, together with Cuddie and his mother, and the Reverend Gabriel Kettledrummle, remained on the brow of the hill, near to the small cairn, or barrow, beside which Claverhouse had held his preliminary council of war, so that they had a commanding view of the action which took place in the bottom. They were guarded by Corporal Inglis and four soldiers, who, as may readily be supposed, were much more intent on watching the fluctuating fortunes of the battle, than in attending to what passed among their prisoners.
"If you lads stand to their tackle," said Cuddie, "we'll hae some chance o' getting our necks out o' the brecham again; but I misdoubt them--they hae little skeel o' arms."
"Much is not necessary, Cuddie," answered Morton; "they have a strong position, and weapons in their hands, and are more than three times the number of their assailants. If they cannot fight for their freedom now, they and theirs deserve to lose it for ever."
"O, sirs," exclaimed Mause, "here's a goodly spectacle indeed! My spirit is like that of the blessed Elihu, it burns within me--my bowels are as wine which lacketh vent--they are ready to burst like new bottles. O, that He may look after His ain people in this day of judgment and deliverance!--And now, what ailest thou, precious Mr Gabriel Kettledrummle? I say, what ailest thou, that wert a Nazarite purer than snow, whiter than milk, more ruddy than sulphur," (meaning, perhaps, sapphires,)--"I say, what ails thee now, that thou art blacker than a coal, that thy beauty is departed, and thy loveliness withered like a dry potsherd? Surely it is time to be up and be doing, to cry loudly and to spare not, and to wrestle for the puir lads that are yonder testifying with their ain blude and that of their enemies." | What is the Reverend's name? | Kettledrummle |
A German taxi-driver, Franz Bussman, recently found his brother who was thought to have been killed twenty years ago.
While on a walking tour with his wife, he stopped to talk to a workman. After they had gone on, Mrs. Bussman said that the workman was closely like her husband and even suggested that he might be his brother. Franz laughed at the idea, pointing out that his brother had been killed in action during the war. Though Mrs. Busman knew this story quite well, she thought there was a chance in a million that she might be right.
A few days later, she sent a boy to the workman to ask him if his name was Hans Bussman. Needless to say, the man's name was Hans Bussman. And he really was Franz's long-lost brother.
When the brothers were reunited, Hans explained how it was that he was still alive.
After having been wondered towards the end of the war, he had been sent to hospital and was separated from his unit . The hospital had been bombed and Hans had made his way back into Western Germany on foot. Meanwhile, his unit was lost and all records of him had been destroyed. Hans returned to his home, but the house had been bombed up. Guessing that his family had all been killed during an air-raid , Hans settled down in a village fifty miles away where he had remained ever since. | Why didn't Franz stay in touch? | He assumed Hans was dead. |
Pesticides are substances meant for attracting, seducing, and then destroying any pest. They are a class of biocide. The most common use of pesticides is as plant protection products (also known as crop protection products), which in general protect plants from damaging influences such as weeds, fungi, or insects. This use of pesticides is so common that the term pesticide is often treated as synonymous with plant protection product, although it is in fact a broader term, as pesticides are also used for non-agricultural purposes. The term pesticide includes all of the following: herbicide, insecticide, insect growth regulator, nematicide, termiticide, molluscicide, piscicide, avicide, rodenticide, predacide, bactericide, insect repellent, animal repellent, antimicrobial, fungicide, disinfectant (antimicrobial), and sanitizer.
In general, a pesticide is a chemical or biological agent (such as a virus, bacterium, antimicrobial, or disinfectant) that deters, incapacitates, kills, or otherwise discourages pests. Target pests can include insects, plant pathogens, weeds, mollusks, birds, mammals, fish, nematodes (roundworms), and microbes that destroy property, cause nuisance, or spread disease, or are disease vectors. Although pesticides have benefits, some also have drawbacks, such as potential toxicity to humans and other species. According to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, 9 of the 12 most dangerous and persistent organic chemicals are organochlorine pesticides. | what else does it do? | deters, incapacitates, kills, or otherwise discourages pests |
CHAPTER II.
CAUGHT BY THE TIDE.
JACK ran home.
"I thought you would have been in by two o'clock, Jack," his mother said reproachfully, "so as to see Lily before she went off to school again."
"So I should have done, mother, but I had to stick at the work until we had finished up to the water-line. Uncle Ben thought it was not worth while knocking off."
Jack's meal of bread and bacon was soon finished, then he waited a little until Lily had returned from school.
"Come on, Lil," he said, "I have been waiting to take you out with me."
"Be in by six," Mrs. Robson said.
"All right, mother! We are only just going down to the shore."
Near the little coast-guard station they came upon Bill Corbett.
"Can you come to-morrow, Jack?"
"Yes; uncle has agreed to do without me. What time are you going to start?"
"We will go out as late as we can, Jack. We can get down the creek till three anyhow, so at three o'clock you be ready down here."
"Joe is going, I suppose?"
"Oh, yes, he does to carry the cockles to the boat while we scrape them out. That is a nice bawley, that new one there; she only came in this tide. That is the boat Tom Parker has had built at Brightlingsea. He expects she is going to beat the fleet. She will want to be a rare good one if she does, and I don't think Tom is the man to get the most out of her anyhow." | Who did they meet? | Bill Corbett. |
Chapter XXXV
The Hidden Dread
IT was a busy time for Adam--the time between the beginning of November and the beginning of February, and he could see little of Hetty, except on Sundays. But a happy time, nevertheless, for it was taking him nearer and nearer to March, when they were to be married, and all the little preparations for their new housekeeping marked the progress towards the longed-for day. Two new rooms had been "run up" to the old house, for his mother and Seth were to live with them after all. Lisbeth had cried so piteously at the thought of leaving Adam that he had gone to Hetty and asked her if, for the love of him, she would put up with his mother's ways and consent to live with her. To his great delight, Hetty said, "Yes; I'd as soon she lived with us as not." Hetty's mind was oppressed at that moment with a worse difficulty than poor Lisbeth's ways; she could not care about them. So Adam was consoled for the disappointment he had felt when Seth had come back from his visit to Snowfield and said "it was no use--Dinah's heart wasna turned towards marrying." For when he told his mother that Hetty was willing they should all live together and there was no more need of them to think of parting, she said, in a more contented tone than he had heard her speak in since it had been settled that he was to be married, "Eh, my lad, I'll be as still as th' ould tabby, an' ne'er want to do aught but th' offal work, as she wonna like t' do. An' then we needna part the platters an' things, as ha' stood on the shelf together sin' afore thee wast born." | What had been added to the house? | Two new rooms |
The United States have named former Germany captain Jurgen Klinsmann as their new national coach, just a day after sacking Bob Bradley.
Bradley, who took over as coach in January 2007, was relieved of his duties on Thursday, and U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati confirmed in a statement on Friday that his replacement has already been appointed.
"Jurgen is a highly accomplished player and coach with the experience and knowledge to advance the program," said Gulati.
Bradley sacked as United States national coach
"He has had success in many different areas of the game and we look forward to the leadership he will provide on and off the field."
The 46-year-old Klinsmann, who will be formally introduced to the media on Monday, expressed his delight at his appointment.
"I'm excited about the challenge ahead. I am looking forward to bringing the team together for our upcoming match against Mexico on August 10th and starting on the road towards qualifying for the 2014 FIFA World Cup."
Klinsmann, who led Germany to third place in the 2006 World Cup finals, already lives in California and has been linked with the position for some time.
However, his reputation dipped slightly after taking over as Bayern Munich coach in 2008, losing his job after just a year in charge of the Bavarian giants.
During his playing career, Klinsmann was respected as one of the greatest strikers of his era.
He scored 232 goals in 516 games during a 17-year club career that took in spells with Bayern, Italian side Inter Milan and English club Tottenham Hotspur. | Where? | Germany |
Zheng He was an amazing man. He was born in 1371. Eleven years later, he was caught by the army of a rich young man called Zhu Di and made to work for him. Over time the rich man saw that Zheng He was very clever and strong and they became close friends. In 1403 Zhu Di was made the King of China and he asked Zheng He to join his government. The King wanted to learn more about the world and show other countries his power. He ordered many new ships to be built and made Zheng He their leader. between 1405 and 1433, Zheng He led seven sea trips to different parts of the world. He certainly travelled to India, Africa and the Middle East. A few people think his ships have even reached South America and Australia. Each trip lasted between two and four years and it is believed he sailed more than 50,000 kms during the years of his travels.Zheng He led a fleet with 28,000 men and over 300 ships, such as boats for food, water and even soldiers' horses. On these trips he brought with him many Chinese goods like silk and medicine to give to foreign kings or to sell for local goods. He returned from each trip with boats filled with expensive things such as gold and treasures, foreign guests and strange animals like a giraffe. It is a pity that we may never learn everything about Zheng He' s travels. The Columbus of the east, Zheng He, died in 1433. After that, the new king, had these trips stopped and he burned almost all the books about Zheng He's travels, because he believed the trips were unlucky and too expensive. It is only in the last 50 years that historians have begun to carefully study the adventures of great Zheng He. | did he bring live things back with him? | gold, treasures, foreign guests and strange animals |
Kanye Omari West (/ˈkɑːnjeɪ/; born June 8, 1977) is an American hip hop recording artist, record producer, rapper, fashion designer, and entrepreneur. He is among the most acclaimed musicians of the 21st century, attracting both praise and controversy for his work and his outspoken public persona.
Raised in Chicago, West briefly attended art school before becoming known as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the early 2000s, producing hit singles for artists such as Jay-Z and Alicia Keys. Intent on pursuing a solo career as a rapper, West released his debut album The College Dropout in 2004 to widespread commercial and critical success, and founded record label GOOD Music. He went on to explore a variety of different musical styles on subsequent albums that included the baroque-inflected Late Registration (2005), the arena-inspired Graduation (2007), and the starkly polarizing 808s & Heartbreak (2008). In 2010, he released his critically acclaimed fifth album, the maximalist My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and the following year he collaborated with Jay-Z on the joint LP Watch the Throne (2011). West released his abrasive sixth album, Yeezus, to further critical praise in 2013. Following a series of recording delays and work on non-musical projects, West's seventh album, The Life of Pablo, was released in 2016. | how many albums does he have? | West's seventh album. Seven. |
World number one Serena Williams put her recent controversies to one side as she cruised past Mandy Minella of Luxembourg 6-1 6-3 in the first round at Wimbledon.
Worryingly for her opponents, the defending champion -- who won every point on her serve in the first set -- said she wasn't at the top of her game despite winning her 32nd consecutive match.
The run is the best since 2008, when Belgium's Justine Henin achieved a similar number of straight wins.
Serena is now just three wins away from the women's record, which is something of a family affair after elder sister Venus recorded her 35th unbeaten game in 2000.
The world No. 1 will break that record if she reaches the quarterfinals at a venue where she also won Olympic gold last year.
"I feel like I was a little rusty for some reason today," Serena, who is bidding for a sixth Wimbledon title, told reporters after a victory that took just 57 minutes.
"I don't feel like I played my best tennis. I felt really upset when I lost my serve at the beginning in the second set - that said, I think Mandy played really well."
"To be honest, I'm a little excited I was able to play a tough match and get through it."
The past week certainly hasn't been as smooth as Serena would have liked after becoming embroiled in a row with Maria Sharapova and having to defend comments made in an article that appeared in Rolling Stone magazine. | Did she call it an easy match? | no |
The War of 1812 (18121815) was a conflict fought between the United States, the United Kingdom, and their respective allies. Historians in Britain often see it as a minor theater of the Napoleonic Wars; in the United States and Canada, it is seen as a war in its own right.
Since the outbreak of war with Napoleonic France, Britain had enforced a naval blockade to choke off neutral trade to France, which the United States contested as illegal under international law. To man the blockade, Britain impressed American merchant sailors into the Royal Navy. Incidents such as the "Chesapeake–Leopard" Affair inflamed anti-British sentiment. In 1811, the British were in turn outraged by the "Little Belt" Affair, in which 11 British sailors died. British political support for a Native American buffer state, which conducted raids on American settlers on the frontier, hindered American expansion. On June 18, 1812, President James Madison, after receiving heavy pressure from the War Hawks in Congress, signed the American declaration of war into law. Senior figures such as Lord Liverpool and Lord Castlereagh believed it to have been an opportunistic ploy to annex Canada while Britain was fighting a war with France. The view was shared in much of New England. | What specific declaration was it? | American declaration of war |
The Board Meeting had come to an end. Bob started to stand up and knocked into the table, spilling his coffee over his notes. "How embarrassing! I am getting so clumsy in my old age."
Everyone had a good laugh, and soon we were all telling stories of our most embarrassing moments. It came around to Frank, who sat quietly listening to the others. Someone said, "Come on, Frank. Tell us your most embarrassing moment."
Frank laughed and began to tell us of his childhood. "I grew up in San Pedro. My Dad was a fisherman, and he loved the sea. He had his own boat, but it was hard making a living on the sea. He worked hard and would stay out until he caught enough to feed the family. Not just enough for our family, but also for his Mom and Dad and the other kids that were still at home."
He looked at us and said, "I wish you could have met my Dad. He was a big man, and he was strong from pulling the nets and fighting the seas for his catch. When you got close to him, he smelled like the ocean. He would wear his old canvas, foul-weather coat and his bibbed overalls. His rain hat would be pulled down over his brow. No matter how much my mother washed them, they would still smell of the sea and of fish."
Frank's voice dropped a bit. "When the weather was bad he would drive me to school. He had this old truck that he used in his fishing business. That truck was older than he was. It would wheeze and rattle down the road. You could hear it coming for blocks. As he would drive toward the school, I would shrink down into the seat hoping to disappear. Half the time, he would slam to a stop and the old truck would belch a cloud of smoke. He would pull right up in front, and it seemed like everybody would be standing around and watching. Then he would lean over and give me a big kiss on the cheek and tell me to be a good boy. It was so embarrassing for me. Here, I was twelve years old, and my Dad would lean over and kiss me goodbye!"
He paused and then went on, "I remember the day I decided I was too old for a goodbye kiss. When we got to the school and came to a stop, he had his usual big smile. He started to lean toward me, but I put my hand up and said, "No, Dad." It was the first time I had ever talked to him that way, and he had this surprised look on his face. I said, "Dad, I'm too old for a goodbye kiss. I'm too old for any kind of kiss." My Dad looked at me for the longest time, and his eyes started to tear up. Then he turned and looked out of the windshield . "You're right," he said. " You are a big boy....a man. I won't kiss you anymore."
Frank got a funny look on his face, and the tears began to well up in his eyes, as he spoke. "It wasn't long after that when my Dad went to sea and never came back. It was a day when most of the fleet stayed in, but not Dad. He had a big family to feed. They found his boat adrift with its nets half in and half out. He must have gotten into a strong wind and was trying to save the nets and the floats."
I looked at Frank and saw that tears were running down his cheeks. Frank spoke again. "Guys, you don't know what I would give to have my Dad give me just one more kiss on the cheek...to feel his rough old face... to smell the ocean on him... to feel his arm around my neck. _ . If I had been a man, I would never have told my Dad I was too old for a goodbye kiss." | What did the car emit when it came to a sudden stop? | A cloud of smoke |
New Guinea (; ; ; or, historically, "") is a large island in Oceania. It is the world's second-largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of , and the largest wholly or partly within the Southern Hemisphere and Oceania (if excluding Australia as an island).
The island is divided between two countries: Papua New Guinea to the east, and Indonesia to the west.
The island has been known by various names:
The name "Papua" was used to refer to parts of the island before contact with the West. Its etymology is unclear; one theory states that it is from Tidore, the language used by the Sultanate of Tidore, which controlled parts of the island's coastal region. The name came from "papo" (to unite) and "ua" (negation), which means "not united" or, "territory that geographically is far away (and thus not united)".
Ploeg reports that the word "papua" is often said to derive from the Malay word "papua" or "pua-pua", meaning "frizzly-haired", referring to the highly curly hair of the inhabitants of these areas. Another possibility, put forward by Sollewijn Gelpke in 1993, is that it comes from the Biak phrase "sup i papwa" which means 'the land below ' and refers to the islands west of the Bird's Head, as far as Halmahera. Whatever its origin, the name "Papua" came to be associated with this area, and more especially with Halmahera, which was known to the Portuguese by this name during the era of their colonization in this part of the world. | What country is it in? | Papua New Guinea and Indonesia |
As Mitt Romney prepares to make the case for a first term, give a thought to what we can expect from a Barack Obama second term.
It's probably going to look a lot like the second terms of George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, and Richard Nixon -- driven not by his own agenda, but by events beyond his control. Bush's second term was defined by the after-effects of the Iraq decision he made in his first term; Clinton's by impeachment and the Internet boom; Reagan's by deficits and Gorbachev; Nixon's by Watergate.
And what will define Obama's?
1) Republicans will hold at least one House of Congress, maybe two.
2) The U.S. economy will continue to mend, as the financial crisis recedes into the past.
3) Unless forcibly prevented, Iran will enrich enough uranium for multiple nuclear weapons sometime before 2017.
4) Natural gas production will continue to surge.
Prediction 1 implies that there will be no bold Obama legislative agenda in a second term. The votes just won't be there. The second-term Obama agenda will have to be executed through agency action and executive order. And he'll have lots of opportunities via the big laws passed in his first term: the Affordable Care Act, Dodd-Frank, and so on.
Critics often talk about how long these laws are. Yet however long the enactment, the text of a complex modern statute is only the very roughest guide to its future operation. The crucial operating decisions are made by presidential appointees, supervised by the courts. Congress drafts, but the administrators fill in the details - and the details, as the saying goes, are where the devil lurks. | Reagan's? | deficits and Gorbachev |
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, also known as UNC, or simply Carolina, is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. It is one of the 17 campuses of the University of North Carolina system. After being chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolling students in 1795, which also allows it to be one of three schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States.
The first public institution of higher education in North Carolina, the school opened its doors to students on February 12, 1795. The university offers degrees in over 70 courses of study through fourteen colleges and the College of Arts and Sciences. All undergraduates receive a liberal arts education and have the option to pursue a major within the professional schools of the university or within the College of Arts and Sciences from the time they obtain junior status. Under the leadership of President Kemp Plummer Battle, in 1877 North Carolina became coeducational and began the process of desegregation in 1951 when African-American graduate students were admitted under Chancellor Robert Burton House. In 1952, North Carolina opened its own hospital, UNC Health Care, for research and treatment, and has since specialized in cancer care. The school's students, alumni, and sports teams are known as "Tar Heels". | was it the first public instition | It was the first institution of higher education in North Carolina. |