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Washington (CNN) -- A late evening meeting between President Barack Obama and the leaders of the House and Senate failed to reach agreement Wednesday on a spending plan to avert a government shutdown, but all the participants said progress was made and talks would continue. If there is no deal by midnight Friday, when the current spending authorization measure expires, parts of the government will close down. Obama called the 90-minute talks with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, "constructive" and he said they narrowed and clarified the outstanding issues. "I remain confident that if we're serious about getting something done, we should be able to complete a deal and get it passed and avert a shutdown," Obama said in brief remarks to reporters. "But it's going to require a sufficient sense of urgency from all parties involved" to prevent a shutdown that "could have real effects on everyday Americans." Both Reid and Boehner told reporters in their own brief comments that the meeting made progress in narrowing their differences, and that their staffs would work through the night to try to reach further consensus. "I have confidence we can get this done," said Reid, who criticized Boehner and Republicans earlier in the day for intransigence. "We're not there yet." Boehner, standing next to Reid, said "we do have some honest differences," and he emphasized there was no agreement on either a specific figure for spending cuts for the rest of the current fiscal year or on policy issues that the Republicans want included in the measure, such as specifically prohibiting funding for abortions.

gutenberg

CHAPTER X MYSTERIES IN MAYFAIR That night, and for many nights afterwards, Macheson devoted himself to his work in the East End. The fascination of the thing grew upon him; he threw himself into his task with an energy which carried him often out of his own life and made forgetfulness an easy task. Night after night they came, these tired, white-faced women, with a sprinkling of sullen, dejected-looking men; night after night he pleaded and reasoned with them, striving with almost passionate earnestness to show them how to make the best of the poor thing they called life. Gradually his efforts began to tell upon himself. He grew thinner, there were shadows under his eyes, a curious intangible depression seemed to settle upon him. Holderness one night sought him out and insisted upon dinner together. "Look here, Victor," he said, "I have a bone to pick with you. You'd better listen! Don't sit there staring round the place as though you saw ghosts everywhere." Macheson smiled mirthlessly. "But that is just what I do see," he answered. "The conscience of every man who knows must be haunted with them! The ghosts of starving men and unsexed women! What keeps their hands from our throats, Dick?" "Common sense, you idiot," Holderness answered cheerfully. "There's a refuse heap for every one of nature's functions. You may try to rake it out and cleanse it, but there isn't much to be done. Hang that mission work, Victor! It's broken more hearts than anything else on earth! A man can but do what he may."

cnn

(CNN) -- World No.2 Novak Djokovic extended his season's winning streak to 26-0 on Saturday, as he reached the Serbian Open clay court final after his semifinal opponent Janko Tipsarevic withdrew with a thigh injury. Writing on his Facebook page, Djokovic said: "Janko had to pull out from tonight's semi-final match because of a muscle injury. I sincerely hope he will manage to recover for the rest of the clay court season. I will try to get the title back where it belongs and that is Serbia." The 23-year-old will be chasing his fifth title of season on Sunday. Standing in his way is the Spaniard Feliciano Lopez who beat the Italian Filippo Volandri 7-6 (7-3) 6-2 in his semifinal. The reigning Australian Open champion will take an unblemished 3-0 career lead into the clash with the left-handed Lopez, who is currently ranked No.37 in the world. The Spaniard is looking forward to the challenge. "I've already won four matches this week. My confidence is really high at the moment and I feel great to play against Novak. I know it's going to be tough; he's been the best player this year. It will be a great experience," Lopez said, AFP reported. Meanwhile, at the Estoril Open in Portugal, Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro defeated Pablo Cuevas 6-2 7-6 (8-6) in Saturday's semifinal. Del Potro took one hour and 49 minutes to overcome the Uruguayan breaking Cuevas's serve in the first game helping him establish an 4-2 lead when rain intervened.

gutenberg

CHAPTER XXIV Captain Richard Beverley, on his way through the hotel smoking room to the Savoy bar, stopped short. He looked at the girl who had half risen from her seat on the couch with a sudden impulse of half startled recognition. Her little smile of welcome was entirely convincing. "Why, it's Nora Sharey!" he exclaimed. "Nora!" "Well, I am glad you've recognised me at last," she said, laughing. "I tried to make you see me last night in the restaurant, but you wouldn't look." He seemed a little dazed, even after he had saluted mechanically, held her hand for a moment and sank into the place by her side. "Nora Sharey!" he repeated. "Why, it was really you, then, dining last night with that fellow Crawshay?" "Of course it was," she replied, "and I recognised you at once, even in your uniform." "You know that Jocelyn Thew is here? You saw him with us last night?" "Yes, I know." "Stop a moment," Richard Beverley went on. "Let me think, Nora. Jocelyn Thew must have seen you dining with Crawshay. How does that work out?" "He doesn't mind," she replied. "Let that stuff alone for a time. I want to look at you. You're fine, Dick, but what does it all mean?" "I couldn't stick the ranch after the war broke out," he confessed. "I moved up into Canada and took on flying." "You are fighting out there in France?" "Have been for six months. Some sport, I can tell you, Nora. I've got a little machine gun that's a perfect daisy. Gee! I've got to pull up. The hardest work we fellows have sometimes is to remember that we mustn't talk about our job. They used to call me undisciplined. I'm getting it into my bones now, though.--Why, Nora, this is queer! I guess we're going to have a cocktail together, aren't we?"

race

Tom was a college student. He often made excuses not to attend classes. Also he spent much of his free time playing computer games. He never went to the library to study. How time flew! At the end of the term, there was an important thing--the final exam . He was afraid of it. "What should I do?" Tom walked up and down in the room the day before the exam. He was so nervous. Suddenly, he thought of an idea. The next morning, Tom went into the exam room very early. He found a young man and took a seat next to him. "Hey you!" Tom greeted. "What?" The young man asked. "Can you help me?" Tom said politely. "Please let me copy your paper during the exam." When hearing his words, the young man just smiled but said nothing. When the bell rang, the young man stood up and came to the front, saying "It is the time for the final exam. Now I will hand out the papers to all of you and collect them in one hour." Tom sat there with his mouth wide open.

gutenberg

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. IN WHICH SOME DESPERATE ENTERPRISES ARE UNDERTAKEN. At this time the Russians had taken up a strong position in the Balkan mountain range, and entrenched themselves within a short distance of the enemy. After a night and a day of aimless wandering, Jacob Lancey found himself at last in a rocky defile between the hostile lines. How he got there he could not tell, but there he was, in a position of imminent danger, with the sentinels of the belligerent armies on either side of him. Evening was setting in when he made this discovery, and recoiled, happily without having been seen, into a narrow rocky place where the fast-failing light had already deepened into gloom. A cold white fog was slowly creeping up from the valleys and covering the hill-sides. It is in such places and circumstances that men conceive and execute designs, which, according to their nature, are deeds of recklessness or of heroism. Two such ventures were afoot that night. In the Russian camp preparations were being made for a night attack on a village in possession of the Turks, and out of which, with a view to future movements, it was deemed necessary to drive them. In this village there dwelt a youth, an intimate friend of Dobri Petroff. The two had played with each other in childhood, had roamed about the country together in boyhood, and, when they reached man's estate, had become faster friends than ever, being bound by the ties of intellectual as well as physical sympathy. When this friend, Petko Borronow, left Yenilik at the death of his mother, it was to take charge of the little farm in the Balkan mountains,--the desolate home where his sister Giuana, an invalid, and a beautiful girl, was now left in solitude.

mctest

Ginger and Joey were two young dogs. They were happy because it was now the summer and they could play outside more often. Today Ginger and Joey were running around in their big backyard. They had fun barking at many things. They barked at squirrels. They barked at a bus. They barked at the mailman. They barked at a weird bug. They barked so much, they were never quiet! The neighbor was a grumpy old man. His name was Bert. Bert threw a shoe at them because they were barking too much. He couldn't take a nap because they were so loud. Bert got too angry and Bert throws things when he gets too angry. The shoe missed both Ginger and Joey, but they barked a little less. Now they ran even faster. After a very long time, they began to get tired. They sniffed around the edges of the yard and found some old watermelon. That's a good snack for young dogs like Ginger and Joey! Next, they rolled around in the dirt. Then they chased their tails. Finally, their mom came out and told them to come inside. They were so dirty, they needed a bath. Ginger loved baths and jumped right into the tub. Joey was scared and ran away to hide. After a little bit, his mom found him and he got a bath in the end, too.

cnn

New York (CNN) -- A New York graffiti art exhibit that drew visitors throughout the world was painted over early Tuesday morning despite efforts by artists and fans to keep the popular outdoor attraction open. The whitewashing of the renowned graffiti haven known as 5 Pointz, a hulking warehouse in the Long Island City section of Queens, appears to mark the end of legal efforts by supporters to save it and even a last-minute attempt to secure landmark status for the building. A federal judge last week denied an injunction to stop the razing of the building by developers Jerry and David Wolkoff, the warehouse owners, who plan to transform the site into high-end condos. "I've been learning a lot in this whole battle," Jonathan Cohen, aka "Meres One," the 5 Pointz art curator, told CNN affiliate NY1. He added, "I guess I have a little less faith in the system." Jerry Wolkoff told CNN that he decided to paint over the walls now because the building will take several months to tear down, and he didn't want the artists' work to be ruined in the process. "I had tears in my eyes this morning when we painted over it," Wolkoff said. "I have nothing but admiration for the work they've done." Graffiti artists turn abandoned luxury liner into giant canvas Wolkoff said the new buildings will have a "60-foot high wall" for the artists to paint on. He anticipates beginning the demolition in early 2014. The 5 Pointz is a massive canvass where "aerosol artists from around the globe paint colorful pieces on the walls of a 200,000-square-foot factory building," according to its website. The exhibit has been featured in several music videos and documentaries.

wikipedia

The Department of the Treasury is an executive department and the treasury of the United States federal government. It was established by an Act of Congress in 1789 to manage government revenue. The Department is administered by the Secretary of the Treasury, who is a member of the Cabinet. On February 13, 2017, the Senate confirmed Steven Mnuchin as Secretary of the Treasury. The first Secretary of the Treasury was Alexander Hamilton, who was sworn into office on September 11, 1789. Hamilton was asked by President George Washington to serve after first having asked Robert Morris (who declined, recommending Hamilton instead). Hamilton almost single-handedly worked out the nation's early financial system, and for several years was a major presence in Washington's administration as well. His portrait is on the obverse of the U.S. ten-dollar bill while the Treasury Department building is shown on the reverse. Besides the Secretary, one of the best-known Treasury officials is the Treasurer of the United States whose signature, along with the Treasury Secretary's, appears on all Federal Reserve notes. The Treasury prints and mints all paper currency and coins in circulation through the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the United States Mint. The Department also collects all federal taxes through the Internal Revenue Service, and manages U.S. government debt instruments.

gutenberg

CHAPTER XXVIII--CAPITULATION When Sheldon emerged from among the trees he found Joan waiting at the compound gate, and he could not fail to see that she was visibly gladdened at the sight of him. "I can't tell you how glad I am to see you," was her greeting. "What's become of Tudor? That last flutter of the automatic wasn't nice to listen to. Was it you or Tudor?" "So you know all about it," he answered coolly. "Well, it was Tudor, but he was doing it left-handed. He's down with a hole in his shoulder." He looked at her keenly. "Disappointing, isn't it?" he drawled. "How do you mean?" "Why, that I didn't kill him." "But I didn't want him killed just because he kissed me," she cried. "Oh, he did kiss you!" Sheldon retorted, in evident surprise. "I thought you said he hurt your arm." "One could call it a kiss, though it was only on the end of the nose." She laughed at the recollection. "But I paid him back for that myself. I boxed his face for him. And he did hurt my arm. It's black and blue. Look at it." She pulled up the loose sleeve of her blouse, and he saw the bruised imprints of two fingers. Just then a gang of blacks came out from among the trees carrying the wounded man on a rough stretcher. "Romantic, isn't it?" Sheldon sneered, following Joan's startled gaze. "And now I'll have to play surgeon and doctor him up. Funny, this twentieth-century duelling. First you drill a hole in a man, and next you set about plugging the hole up."

cnn

(CNN) -- Five Somali men were convicted of plotting a hijack at sea and sentenced to five years in prison in the Netherlands, in the first trial of pirates in Europe, a prosecution spokesman said Thursday. The court rejected their claim that they were innocent fishermen, said Wim de Bruin, a spokesman for Netherlands National Prosecutor's Office, noting that no fishing gear was found in their boat. The five were captured by the Danish navy in January 2009 in the Gulf of Aden, off Somalia, after a cargo ship with Dutch Antilles flag was attacked. "The ship of the pirates was destroyed by the Danish navy, and the pirates were captured and handed to the Dutch authorities," de Bruin said. The men are Ahmed Yusuf Farah, 25, Jama Mohamed Samatar, 45, Abdirisaq Abdulahi Hirsi, 33, Sayid Ali Garaar, 39, and Osman Musse Farah, 32, he said. They have two weeks to file an appeal, he said, adding that he did not know if they planned to fight their conviction. They had faced a maximum sentence of 9 to 12 years, he added. The trial of the five opened in Rotterdam District Court on May 25. Another suspected Somali pirate is awaiting sentencing in the United States, where he pleaded guilty in May to hijacking and kidnapping. Prosecutors say Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse led an attack on a U.S.-flagged vessel, the Maersk Alabama, off the coast of Africa last year. He pleaded guilty May 19 in a New York federal court to felony counts of hijacking maritime vessels, kidnapping and hostage-taking for his role in the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama in the Indian Ocean on April 8, 2009.

cnn

(CNN) -- India will seek to become the No. 1 team in world cricket's Test rankings with victory in the final match of the series against Sri Lanka starting in Mumbai on Wednesday. Mahendra Singh Dhoni's team will seek to overhaul both current incumbents South Africa and their second-placed visitors and clinch a 2-0 victory in the series. "It will be an added responsibility. Becoming the number one side is not important, we've got to maintain our performance level," the captain told the official International Cricket Council Web site. India will be without opener Gautam Gambhir, who scored centuries in the first two matches but will be absent due to his sister's wedding. The inexperienced Murali Vijay is expected to win his second test cap as his replacement. Sri Lanka, meanwhile, have dropped spinner Ajantha Mendis as they seek to bounce back from the crushing innings defeat in Kanpur and register a first victory on India soil. Seam bowlers Nuwan Kulasekara and Dilhara Fernando are vying to take his place, having missed out as Sri Lanka employed a three-pronged spin attack last time out. The tourists will be hoping for a better showing from veteran world record-holder Muttiah Muralitharan, who has taken just five wickets at a cost of 396 runs in the series. "Murali is a bowler who has done so much for Sri Lanka and can sometimes have an off day. That's the way cricket goes," captain Kumar Sangakkara told the Cricinfo Web site. "That doesn't mean he is any worse a bowler, he is still our best spinner and in my view the best spinner in the world. When you have that quality in the side you have to back that quality and that ability it's no different for tomorrow.

cnn

(CNN)Ursula Ward kept repeating her son's name -- Odin. She steadied herself against the podium in the Fall River, Massachusetts, courtroom and occasionally paused. She was tired after more than two years of pain, punctuated Wednesday when her son's killer, Aaron Hernandez, was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. Odin Lloyd was her first born, her only son. "Odin was the backbone of the family. Odin was the man of the house. Odin was his sisters' keeper," Ward told Judge Susan Garsh, before Garsh sentenced the former pro-football player. Lloyd was 27-years-old and working for a landscaping firm when he was killed in June 2013. He played football for the Boston Bandits, the oldest semi-pro team in Boston and the winner of four championships in the New England Football League, according to the team's website. His mother, sister, uncle and cousin described him as a champion of family, a gifted athlete and a hard worker with a sense of humor. They said he rode his bike several miles to get to work. He went to all of his niece's recitals. "Odin was my first best gift I (will) ever receive," his mother said. "I thank God (for) every second and every day of my son's life that I spent with him. "The day I laid my son Odin to rest," she continued, pausing to maintain her composure, "I think my heart stopped beating for a moment. I felt like I wanted to go into that hole with my son, Odin."

mctest

One upon a time there was a dragon named Jack. He was large and had big scales, but did not have claws or a mean look on his face like other dragons did. He also didn't have wings and couldn't fly. Jack lived near a castle that had a princess trapped in it. This castle looked and was guarded by an evil dragon named Ryan. The castle was old and dirty. It wasn't clean or special like many castles are thought to look. One day Jack thought that he was going to try to save the princess Linda when Ryan was sleeping that night. After sunset, he slowly walked around and climbed over the back wall. After passing many sleeping guards, Jack put his nose near the princess's tower window. She climbed out on to it and they ran off. During their escape, Ryan woke up and started chasing them. However, he was too sleepy to catch them. Jack took the princess to a nearby safe town where she thanked him and said goodbye.

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Last Friday, I was coming home late after spending time with friends and thought I'd go down to the $99 cent pizza place. On the way, I saw a man sitting on the stairs alone there. I'd seen him before every day I run late to work, but this time I had no place to rush off to. There was something about him, a quiet manner, different from many of other homeless people I had seen in New York City. I walked past him, went to the pizza place, and those 10 seconds waiting in line was enough to practice stepping outside of my usual, familiar flow. So with a few slices in hand, I went back to join him. I asked him if he was hungry. He said yes, but not for pizza because it made him uncomfortable. He'd rather have a few bucks for chicken and rice since it was easier on his stomach. It's funny, in that moment, he became more real to me. This man I had seen almost every day was someone with specific conditions, needs, and experiences. We exchanged names and ended up talking for a little over an hour that night as Kevin told me stories from his life, how he had done things when "he was younger and didn't know any better" and how he tried to make amends but too much time had passed. He shared his views on the value for young adults to learn the history of other people. He talked about his one wish being in his 60's before he leaves this earth, which is to share his story with the teenagers and young adults so they could avoid the mistakes he went through. Throughout the conversation, he eventually got his chicken and rice and gifted me a rose he had been carrying. Shortly afterwards, I made my way home, thinking to myself, "I met an amazing homeless person".

wikipedia

KDE () is an international free software community that develops Free and Libre software. Well-known products include the Plasma Desktop, KDE Frameworks and a range of cross-platform applications designed to run on modern Unix-like and Microsoft Windows systems. It further provides tools and documentation for developers that enables them to write software. This supporting role makes KDE a central development hub and home for many popular applications and projects like Calligra Suite, Krita or digiKam. The Plasma Desktop, being one of the most recognized projects of KDE, is the default desktop environment on many Linux distributions, such as openSUSE, Mageia, Chakra, Kubuntu, Manjaro Linux, and PCLinuxOS. It was also the default desktop environment on PC-BSD, but was later replaced with Lumina, a desktop environment which, like KDE, is written in C++ and Qt. The work of the KDE community can be measured in the following figures: K Desktop Environment (KDE) was founded in 1996 by Matthias Ettrich, who was then a student at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen. At the time, he was troubled by certain aspects of the Unix desktop. Among his concerns was that none of the applications looked, felt, or worked alike. He proposed the creation of not merely a set of applications but a desktop environment in which users could expect things to look, feel, and work consistently. He also wanted to make this desktop easy to use; one of his complaints about desktop applications of the time was that it is too complicated for end user. His initial Usenet post spurred a lot of interest, and the KDE project was born.

mctest

Mary was a little girl who loved to sew. She liked to sew dresses, shirts, and skirts but Mary hated to sew quilts. She didn't like anything about sewing quilts and blankets because it took too long. One quilt or blanket took a week to make, when a skirt or shirt took one night! Mary's mother didn't understand why Mary didn't like to sew quilts and blankets because Mary's mother loved to! Mary was a normal little girl even if her friends didn't think so all the time. Mary's friends liked to play games and play outside but all Mary liked was to sew. She woke up and she began to sew. She only stopped to eat and use the bathroom. Mary's father was very worried about Mary. He said that little girls needed to laugh and play, not sew all the time. One day Mary's father took Mary's sewing things and gave them to the poor children. "No more sewing, Mary!" He said. He wanted her to go laugh and play with her friends instead of sew but instead of going outside to play she ran into her room and cried. Mary was very sad that she couldn't sew any more. Soon her friends came over to see why Mary hadn't come over to play like her father said she would. When they saw her crying on her bed they had to think of a way to cheer her up. Billy said that maybe they could let her sew at their houses. Abby thought it was a great idea. So then all Mary's friends bought sewing things with their money so that Mary would be happy again. When Mary's father saw Mary go to one of her friend's house he was very happy. Soon everyone was happy again.

gutenberg

CHAPTER XXVIII A NEW MOVE OF THE ENEMY "Something is up." It was Fred who spoke, only a few minutes after Songbird and the sailor in charge of the rowboat had left the side of the steam yacht. He addressed Hans. "Vot you vos see?" asked the German youth. "Look!" Hans looked and beheld Walt Wingate on the deck, in earnest conversation with the mate. The deck hand was not handcuffed as he had been a short while before, when tramping the forward deck for air, by Captain Barforth's permission. "Carey must haf daken dem handguffs off," said the German youth. "I ton't like dot. Maype dot Vingate make troubles, hey?" The boys watched, and presently saw Bossermann come up and join the pair. Then Bossermann went below to the engine room. Shortly after this the yacht began to get up steam. "We're moving!" cried Dora, as she came to the boys, accompanied by Nellie and Grace. "Oh, what does it mean?" "I don't know," answered Fred. "Can't you find out, Fred?" asked Nellie. "I am sure the captain said nothing about sailing before he went ashore." "I'll find out--if the mate will tell me," answered Fred. He walked over to where the mate stood, close to the wheelhouse, giving directions to the pilot of the _Rainbow_. "Mr. Carey, where are we bound?" he asked, respectfully. "Oh, just going to take a little sail around, to test the engine," was the apparent indifferent answer. "Is the engine out of order?" "Not exactly, but I thought it best to test the shaft. The assistant engineer thinks it is weak."

mctest

James was a nice old man who lived by himself. Every day he would walk down the road by his house and say hello to everyone. It was fun saying hello to everyone but he felt lonely sometimes. He wanted a pet to take care of. One day as he was walking down the road a little brown and spotted puppy came up to him and wanted James to pet him. James reached down and petted the puppy and smiled. James hoped to see the puppy again. Many days later James went for a walk again. He thought to himself, "I guess I won't ever see the brown puppy again. I hoped to see him again." A nice young lady said to James, "Would you like a puppy?" James said, "I would like a puppy that was like the one I petted before." The lady smiled. She was holding the little brown and spotted puppy. She told James that she found the little puppy in the woods. She said that the little puppy did not have a family. James said happily, "I would love to give the puppy a home!" So James grabbed the little brown and spotted puppy and took him home. James and the little brown puppy became great friends. James named him Spotty.

cnn

PARIS, France (CNN) -- Hundreds of French workers, angry about proposed layoffs at a Caterpillar factory, were holding executives of the company hostage Tuesday, a spokesman for the workers said. Caterpillar's French staff say they are angry about a lack of negotiations over layoffs. It is at least the third time this month that French workers threatened with cutbacks have blockaded managers in their offices to demand negotiations. Executives were released unharmed in both previous situations. The latest incident started Tuesday morning at the office of the construction equipment company in the southeastern city of Grenoble. The workers were angry that Caterpillar had proposed cutting more than 700 jobs and would not negotiate, said Nicolas Benoit, a spokesman for the workers' union. They did not want to harm the Caterpillar executives, Benoit told CNN. One hostage was released Tuesday evening leaving workers with four captives inside the Caterpillar building. The released man was a human resources director identified only as Mr. Petit, because he has heart problems, union representative Bernard Patrick told CNN. Petit had a heart attack a few weeks ago, Patrick said. The four others still being held are Nicolas Polutnik, the head of operations; two other executives; and Petit's personal assistant, he said. About 500 employees were also outside the building protesting. A top Caterpillar executive called the hostage-taking unhelpful. "The actions that are taking place today, led by a small minority of individuals, are not helping as we work for a positive resolution of this situation," said Chris Schena, Caterpillar vice president with responsibility for manufacturing operations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, in a statement.

race

A 90-year-old tortoise is going twice its usual speed after being equipped with a set of wheels. The animal, called Mrs T, was facing a terrible future after losing her two front legs in a mouse attack while she was sleeping in winter, but her owners glued the wheels onto her shell . "She's going double the speed she used to," said the owner Jude Ryder, "She uses her back legs to push herself along and seems quite happy." The 58-year-old owner was surprised when she went to check on her loved pet last month and found her front legs had been eaten in the mouse attack. The local animal doctor tried his best to save Mrs T. But he was afraid that the tortoise would not survive without being mobile. After paying PS1,000 for the treatment, Mrs Ryder turned to her son Dale for help. Dale designed the front wheels and used resin to add them to the front of the shell. Mrs Ryder said: "She liked them immediately, but she must learn how to turn and stop. She can get a good speed up, much faster than before. Mrs T is still quite young for a tortoise. She could go on for another 50 years. All she needs is a new set of tyres sometimes." When Mrs T was sixty years old, she was bought as a pet for Dale, an 8-year-old boy. It liked running happily in Mrs Ryder's garden in spring and summer. When winter came, Mrs T slept in the garden shelter. A mouse got in last month and chewed off both her front legs. Mrs Ryder said: "We were afraid she would be sure to die, but her new set of wheels have saved her life. She can run in the garden again and we can always find her because she leaves very strange footprints behind wherever she goes." Mice attacking tortoises is not uncommon around us--in 2013 Britain's oldest tortoise died after a mouse attack. The tortoise called Thomas was 130 when he was bitten at his home in Guernsey. He spent five days on strong antibiotics , but the wound became so infected that his owner had no choice but to have him put to sleep.

wikipedia

In chemistry, the standard state of a material (pure substance, mixture or solution) is a reference point used to calculate its properties under different conditions. In principle, the choice of standard state is arbitrary, although the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) recommends a conventional set of standard states for general use. IUPAC recommends using a standard pressure "p" = 10 Pa. Strictly speaking, temperature is not part of the definition of a standard state. For example, as discussed below, the standard state of a gas is conventionally chosen to be unit pressure (usually in bar) ideal gas, regardless of the temperature. However, most tables of thermodynamic quantities are compiled at specific temperatures, most commonly or, somewhat less commonly, . The standard state should not be confused with standard temperature and pressure (STP) for gases, nor with the standard solutions used in analytical chemistry. For a given material or substance, the standard state is the reference state for the material's thermodynamic state properties such as enthalpy, entropy, Gibbs free energy, and for many other material standards. The standard enthalpy change of formation for an element in its standard state is zero, and this convention allows a wide range of other thermodynamic quantities to be calculated and tabulated. The standard state of a substance does not have to exist in nature: for example, it is possible to calculate values for steam at 298.15 K and 10 Pa, although steam does not exist (as a gas) under these conditions. The advantage of this practice is that tables of thermodynamic properties prepared in this way are self-consistent.

wikipedia

The University of Iowa (also known as the UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a flagship public research university in Iowa City, Iowa. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest university in the state. Iowa is the second largest university in the state of Iowa, behind Iowa State University. University of Iowa is organized into eleven colleges offering more than 200 areas of study and seven professional degrees. Located on an urban 1,700 acre campus on the banks of the Iowa River, the University of Iowa is classified as a Doctoral University with Highest Research Activity by the Carnegie Classifications. The university is best known for its programs in health care, law, and the fine arts, with programs ranking among the top 25 nationally in those areas. The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and the Stead Family Children's Hospital are ranked nationally by U.S. News and World Report in eleven specialties. The university was the original developer of the Master of Fine Arts degree and it operates the world-renowned Iowa Writer's Workshop, which has produced 17 of the university's 46 Pulitzer Prize winners. Iowa is a member of several prestigious research coalitions, including the Association of American Universities, the Universities Research Association, and the Big Ten Academic Alliance.

cnn

(Mental Floss) -- With Mother's Day just around the corner, this week seemed like a great time to give a tip of our caps to stay-at-home moms, including these four who used clever ideas to become business moguls. Gerber: Of course only a mother could found such a successful baby food company! In the late 1920s, Michigan mom Dorothy S. Gerber was hand-straining food for her baby daughter, Sally, when she realized there must be some way to avoid the messy task. She pointed out to her husband, Daniel, that if his family's business, the Fremont Canning Company, could puree a tomato all day long, its equipment could probably make short work of other fruits and veggies, too. Daniel Gerber realized his wife was on to something, and after a year of experimentation -- and an extensive search to find the right drawing for their label's now-iconic "Gerber baby" - the Gerbers introduced their first line of baby foods, a super-yummy menu of strained peas, carrots, prunes, and spinach. Mental Floss: 6 unforgettable movie mothers Baby Einstein: When Alpharetta, Georgia mom Julie Aigner-Clark went looking for educational materials for her newborn daughter in 1996, she found a disappointing hole in the baby market: there weren't really any educational materials to expose babies to music and the arts. Some parents would just accept whatever the market was offering. Not Aigner-Clark. She shot a video for her daughter in her basement then edited it with her husband, Bill, on the family computer. She even doodled a logo for the video at her kitchen table.

gutenberg

Chapter VIII.--LOUDON POUNCES UPON SCHWEIDNITZ ONE NIGHT (LAST OF SEPTEMBER, 1761). It was September 25th, more properly 26th, [Tempelhof, v. 327.] when Friedrich quitted Bunzelwitz; we heard on what errand. Early that morning he marches with all his goods, first to Pilzen (that fine post on the east side of Schweidnitz); and from that, straightway,--southwestward, two marches farther,--to Neisse neighborhood (Gross-Nossen the name of the place); Loudon making little dispute or none. In Neisse are abundant Magazines: living upon these, Friedrich intends to alarm Loudon's rearward country, and draw him towards Bohemia. As must have gradually followed; and would at once,--had Loudon been given to alarms, which he was not. Loudon, very privately, has quite different game afield. Loudon merely detaches this and the other small Corps to look after Friedrich's operations, which probably he believes to be only a feint:--and, before a week passes, Friedrich will have news he little expects! Friedrich, pausing at Gross-Nossen, and perhaps a little surprised to find no Loudon meddling with him, pushes out, first one party and then another,--Dalwig, Bulow, towards Landshut Hill-Country, to threaten Loudon's Bohemian roads;--who, singular to say, do not hear the least word of Loudon thereabouts. A Loudon strangely indifferent to this new Enterprise of ours. On the third day of Gross-Nossen (Friday, October 2d), Friedrich detaches General Lentulus to rearward, or the way we came, for news of Loudon. Rearward too, Lentulus sees nothing whatever of Loudon: but, from the rumor of the country, and from two Prussian garrison-soldiers, whom he found wandering about,--he hears, with horror and amazement, That Loudon, by a sudden panther-spring, the night before last, has got hold of Schweidnitz: now his wholly, since 5 A.M. of yesterday; and a strong Austrian garrison in it by this time! That was the news Lentulus brought home to his King; the sorest Job's-post of all this War.

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(CNN) -- Chelsea's sacking of Andre Villas-Boas came under fire Monday with former Blues boss Luis Felipe Scolari warning it will be "hell" for whoever succeeds the Portuguese at Stamford Bridge. Ex-Brazil national team boss Scolari is one of six managers dismissed by Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich and, like himself, does not believe Villas-Boas was given enough time by the Russian billionaire. "England has clubs like Arsenal, where Arsene Wenger has been for several years, yet has won only two or three championships," he told a news conference for his present club Palmeiras. "Chelsea's culture is very different, but this move is strange -- although it's not so strange to me because of what I went through there. Blog: Chelsea right to sack AVB "Villas-Boas was a champion and he will continue to be. He needed to replace at least seven or eight players, even since I was there, but he failed. "It will be hell for whoever succeeds him." Blog: Can English clubs catch Europe's best? But Dutch legend Ruud Gullit, who managed Chelsea before Abramovich took control, told CNN that he disagreed with Scolari. "I do not think it is 'hell' -- I had a great time at Chelsea which I still treasure, for me it was no hell." Gullit hinted that he believed Villas-Boas needed to have made better use of his senior squad members. "The older players need to help the younger players know how to play the game, you can't ignore them by putting them on the bench and not in the team."

gutenberg

CHAPTER XV. A Tempest in the School Teapot "What a splendid day!" said Anne, drawing a long breath. "Isn't it good just to be alive on a day like this? I pity the people who aren't born yet for missing it. They may have good days, of course, but they can never have this one. And it's splendider still to have such a lovely way to go to school by, isn't it?" "It's a lot nicer than going round by the road; that is so dusty and hot," said Diana practically, peeping into her dinner basket and mentally calculating if the three juicy, toothsome, raspberry tarts reposing there were divided among ten girls how many bites each girl would have. The little girls of Avonlea school always pooled their lunches, and to eat three raspberry tarts all alone or even to share them only with one's best chum would have forever and ever branded as "awful mean" the girl who did it. And yet, when the tarts were divided among ten girls you just got enough to tantalize you. The way Anne and Diana went to school WAS a pretty one. Anne thought those walks to and from school with Diana couldn't be improved upon even by imagination. Going around by the main road would have been so unromantic; but to go by Lover's Lane and Willowmere and Violet Vale and the Birch Path was romantic, if ever anything was. Lover's Lane opened out below the orchard at Green Gables and stretched far up into the woods to the end of the Cuthbert farm. It was the way by which the cows were taken to the back pasture and the wood hauled home in winter. Anne had named it Lover's Lane before she had been a month at Green Gables.

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Plutarch (; , "Ploútarkhos", ; c. AD 46 – AD 120), later named, upon becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus, () was a Greek biographer and essayist, known primarily for his "Parallel Lives" and "Moralia". He is classified as a Middle Platonist. Plutarch's surviving works were written in Greek, but intended for both Greek and Roman readers. Plutarch was born to a prominent family in the small town of Chaeronea, about 80 km (50 miles) east of Delphi, in the Greek region of Boeotia. His family was wealthy. The name of Plutarch's father has not been preserved, but based on the common Greek custom of repeating a name in alternate generations, it was probably Nikarchus (). The name of Plutarch's grandfather was Lamprias, as he attested in "Moralia" and in his "Life of Antony". His brothers, Timon and Lamprias, are frequently mentioned in his essays and dialogues, which speak of Timon in particular in the most affectionate terms. Rualdus, in his 1624 work "Life of Plutarchus", recovered the name of Plutarch's wife, Timoxena, from internal evidence afforded by his writings. A letter is still extant, addressed by Plutarch to his wife, bidding her not to grieve too much at the death of their two-year-old daughter, who was named Timoxena after her mother. Interestingly, he hinted at a belief in reincarnation in that letter of consolation.

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Reuters is an international news agency headquartered in London, England. It is a division of Thomson Reuters. Until 2008, the Reuters news agency formed part of an independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data. Since the acquisition of Reuters Group by the Thomson Corporation in 2008, the Reuters news agency has been a part of Thomson Reuters, making up the media division. Reuters transmits news in English, French, Arabic, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Urdu, and Chinese. It was established in 1851. The Reuter agency was established in 1851 by Paul Julius Reuter in Britain at the London Royal Exchange. Paul Reuter worked at a book-publishing firm in Berlin and was involved in distributing radical pamphlets at the beginning of the Revolutions in 1848. These publications brought much attention to Reuter, who in 1850 developed a prototype news service in Aachen using homing pigeons and electric telegraphy from 1851 on in order to transmit messages between Brussels and Aachen. Upon moving to England, he founded Reuter's Telegram Company in 1851. Headquartered in London, the company initially covered commercial news, serving banks, brokerage houses, and business firms. The first newspaper client to subscribe was the London "Morning Advertiser" in 1858. Afterwards more newspapers signed up, with "Britannica Encyclopedia" writing that "the value of Reuters to newspapers lay not only in the financial news it provided but in its ability to be the first to report on stories of international importance." Reuter's agency built a reputation in Europe and the rest of the world as the first to report news scoops from abroad. Reuters was the first to report Abraham Lincoln's assassination in Europe, for instance, in 1865. In 1872, Reuters expanded into the far east, followed by South America in 1874. Both expansions were made possible by advances in overland telegraphs and undersea cables. In 1883, Reuters began transmitting messages electrically to London newspapers.

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Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by Senh Duong and since January 2010 has been owned by Flixster, which was, in turn, acquired in 2011 by Warner Bros. In February 2016, Rotten Tomatoes and its parent site Flixster were sold to Comcast's Fandango. Warner Bros. retained a minority stake in the merged entities, including Fandango. From 2007 to 2017, the website's editor-in-chief was Matt Atchity, who left in July 2017 to join "The Young Turks". The name "Rotten Tomatoes" derives from the practice of audiences throwing rotten tomatoes when disapproving of a poor stage performance. From early 2008 to September 2010, Current Television aired the weekly "The Rotten Tomatoes Show", featuring hosts and material from the website. A shorter segment was incorporated into the weekly show, "InfoMania", which ended in 2011. In September 2013, the website introduced "TV Zone", a section for reviewing scripted TV shows. Rotten Tomatoes was launched on August 12, 1998, as a spare-time project by Senh Duong. His goal in creating Rotten Tomatoes was "to create a site where people can get access to reviews from a variety of critics in the U.S." As a fan of Jackie Chan's, Duong was inspired to create the website after collecting all the reviews of Chan's movies as they were being published in the United States. The first movie whose reviews were featured on Rotten Tomatoes was "Your Friends & Neighbors" (1998). The website was an immediate success, receiving mentions by Netscape, Yahoo!, and "USA Today" within the first week of its launch; it attracted "600–1000 daily unique visitors" as a result.

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Barack Obama has never been shy about comparing himself with Abraham Lincoln. He did so when he announced his presidential election in Illinois, where both he and Lincoln served in the legislature . "The life of a tall, thin, self-made Springfield lawyer tells us that a different future is possible." Obama said. "He tells us that there is power in words and that there is power in hope." Such comparisons have continued on big and small occasions, but the most important similarity, in Obama's mind, is how he plans to govern if elected. Obama says he admires Doris Kearns Goodwin' s wonderful Lincoln biography, Team of Rivals. "He talks about it all the time." says a top assistant. "He is particularly interested in the idea that Lincoln successfully won the hearts of many people who had run against him for President, some of them even disagree with him firmly." "The lesson is that you shouldn't let your hatred get in the way of hiring ly the best people." says Obama. "I think American people are practical and so I have an interest in casting a wide net, seeking out people with a wide range of expert knowledge, including Republicans, for the highest positions in the government." "I don't want to have people who just agree with me." He says. "I want people who are continually pushing me forward and I'd be very interested in having those sorts of Republicans in my government, especially people who can speed up a responsible and logical conclusion to the Iraq war."

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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 [the sunset]' 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.

cnn

(CNN) -- Ronaldinho plundered a hat-trick as AC Milan crushed 10-man Siena 4-0 on Sunday to close the gap on Serie A leaders Inter Milan to just six points and with the Milan derby to come next week. Milan also have a game in hand meaning they could potentially draw level with the four-in-a-row champions if they were to win next weekend's crunch clash. The hosts started in determined mood following Inter's 2-2 draw at Bari on Saturday and Ronaldinho took an Alessandro Nesta cross on his chest on three minutes before sending a spectacular overhead bicycle kick just off target. But on 10 minutes the referee took the decision that essentially ended the game as a contest. Jardim Brandao dithered on the ball in his own box and Marco Borriello dispossessed him before trying to go round goalkeeper Gianluca Curci. There was minimal contact and Borriello crumpled to the ground but the striker's last touch had been too heavy and left him no chance of reaching the ball before a back-tracking defender. Even so, the referee pointed to the spot and showed Curci a straight red card. Substitute goalkeeper Gianluca Pegolo's first task was to pick the ball out of his net. Siena battled on gamely, and on 26 minutes Massimo Maccarone escaped three defenders on the edge of the Milan box to bundle through before firing over on the stretch as Thiago Silva came across to put him under pressure. Two minutes later the lead was doubled as Andrea Pirlo curled a cross into the near post and Borriello hooked a brilliant volley over his shoulder and into the top corner.

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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.

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James shook his money box again. Nothing! He carefully counted the coins that lay on the bed. $24. 17 was all that he had. The bicycle he wanted was at least $90! How was he going to get the end of the money? He knew that his friends all had bicycles. It was hard to hang around with people when you were the only one without wheels. He thought about what he could do. It was no use asking his parents, for he knew they had no money to save. There was only one way to get money, and that was to earn it. He would have to find a job. But who would hire him and what could he do? He decided to ask Mr. Clay for advice, who usually had opinions on most things. "Well, you can start right here," said Mr. Clay. "My windows need cleaning and my car needs washing. " That was the beginning of James' part-time job. For three months he worked every day after finishing his homework. He was amazed by the different kinds of jobs that people found for him to do. He took dogs and babies for walks, cleared out cupboards, and mended books. He lost count of the number of cars he washed and windows he cleaned, but the money increased and he knew that he would soon have enough for the bicycle he was eager to have. The day finally came when James counted his money and found $94. 32. He wasted no time and went down to the shop to pick up the bicycle he wanted. He rode proudly home, looking forward to showing his new bicycle to his friends. It had been hard working for the money, but James knew that he valued his bicycle far more since he had bought it with his own money.

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Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. In 2005, it published 220 new titles. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retirement of William P. Sisler in 2017, George Andreou was appointed as Director; the editor-in-chief is Susan Wallace Boehmer. The press maintains offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Harvard Square, in New York City, and in London, England. The press co-owns the distributor TriLiteral LLC with MIT Press and Yale University Press. Notable authors published by HUP include Eudora Welty, Walter Benjamin, E. O. Wilson, John Rawls, Emily Dickinson, Stephen Jay Gould, Helen Vendler, Carol Gilligan, Amartya Sen, David Blight, Martha Nussbaum, and Thomas Piketty. The Display Room in Harvard Square, dedicated to selling HUP publications, closed on June 17, 2009. HUP owns the Belknap Press imprint, which it inaugurated in May 1954 with the publication of the "Harvard Guide to American History". The John Harvard Library book series is published under the Belknap imprint. Harvard University Press distributes the Loeb Classical Library and is the publisher of the I Tatti Renaissance Library, the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library, and the Murty Classical Library of India.

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Once upon a time there was a man who needed to write story. His name was Mark. He had a bad case of writer's block. After a bit, he wrote a story about writing a story. This may seem a bit odd. Well, it was. The important thing to know is that Mark wanted money. This was so he could show off for his girl, Wendy. Wendy had two living parents named Greg and Gail. The exciting thing about Mark writing these stories, was that he could write whatever he wanted to. He could have written about bears. Or it could have been his best friend Error. There were so many choices for Mark. He was very happy. He was happy because he was almost done writing the story. Wendy, had she known about the writing would have been sad that Mark spent so much time thinking of odd stories.

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Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James Buchanan Duke established The Duke Endowment, at which time the institution changed its name to honor his deceased father, Washington Duke. Duke's campus spans over on three contiguous campuses in Durham as well as a marine lab in Beaufort. The main campus—designed largely by architect Julian Abele—incorporates Gothic architecture with the Duke Chapel at the campus' center and highest point of elevation. The first-year-populated East Campus contains Georgian-style architecture, while the main Gothic-style West Campus away is adjacent to the Medical Center. Duke is the seventh-wealthiest private university in America with $11.4 billion in cash and investments in fiscal year 2014. Duke's research expenditures in the 2015 fiscal year were $1.037 billion, the seventh largest in the nation. In 2014, Thomson Reuters named 32 of Duke's professors to its list of Highly Cited Researchers, making it fourth globally in terms of primary affiliations. Duke also ranks fifth among national universities to have produced Rhodes, Marshall, Truman, Goldwater, and Udall Scholars. Ten Nobel laureates and three Turing Award winners are affiliated with the university. Duke's sports teams compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference and the basketball team is renowned for having won five NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championships, most recently in 2015.

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One of the traditions which is now a necessary part of Christmas is a that of Father Christmas, or Santa Claus. According to the modern legend, he is a magical figure who visits all the children of the world during the night before Christmas Day, leaving presents which they find the next morning. He flies through the night sky in a sledge pulled by reindeer, and enters houses by climbing down chimneys. This strange legend is based on the life of a man called Nicholas, but in fact we know very little about him. Historians think he was a Christian bishop in Turkey in about 285--350 A.D. One of the stories about him is that he helped three poor girls. No one would marry them because they were so poor. To provide them with money for their weddings, Nicholas secretly dropped some gold coins down the chimney of their house. After Nicholas died, he was made a saint by the church.(The name Santa Claus thus comes from St Nicholas.) His feast day was celebrated in December, and parents started giving their children secret presents from St Nicholas. Over the years, this custom became part of our Christmas traditions. Recently, a psychologist has claimed that Father Christmas is "the perfect fantasy" for children. According to Professor Anthony Clare, children love the character of Father Christmas because he is like an ideal father: he loves children and gives them presents, but he never criticizes them, is never angry, and children do not even need to thank him for the presents. Other writers, however, point out that Father Christmas can be a frightening character to some children. Jane Bidder says that some children are terrified of this fat, bearded old man. It can certainly confuse many children. As parents, we warn our children to be careful of strangers and never to let them into the house, and yet we tell children that a strange man will come into their bedroom at night! Some children can become very worried about this idea and fear that he is a kind of burglar. Most children, however, understand from their parents and from the media that Father Christmas is basically a _ character, and look forward to his annual visit with joy and excitement.

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The Korean War (in South Korean Hangul: 한국전쟁, Hanja: 韓國戰爭, Hanguk Jeonjaeng, "Korean War"; in North Korean Chosungul: 조국해방전쟁, Joguk Haebang Jeonjaeng, "Fatherland Liberation War"; 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953)[a] was started when North Korea invaded South Korea. The United Nations, with United States as the principal force, came to aid of South Korea. China, along with assistance from Soviet Union, came to aid of North Korea. The war arose from the division of Korea at the end of World War II and from the global tensions of the Cold War that developed immediately afterwards. Korea was ruled by Japan from 1910 until the closing days of World War II. In August 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan and—by agreement with the United States—occupied Korea north of the 38th parallel. U.S. forces subsequently occupied the south and Japan surrendered. By 1948, two separate governments had been set up. Both governments claimed to be the legitimate government of Korea, and neither side accepted the border as permanent. The conflict escalated into open warfare when North Korean forces—supported by the Soviet Union and China—invaded South Korea on 25 June 1950. On that day, the United Nations Security Council recognized this North Korean act as invasion and called for an immediate ceasefire. On 27 June, the Security Council adopted S/RES/83: Complaint of aggression upon the Republic of Korea and decided the formation and dispatch of the UN Forces in Korea. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the defense of South Korea, with the United States providing 88% of the UN's military personnel.

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The Eucharist (also called Holy Communion or the Lord's Supper, among other names) is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches and an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instituted by Jesus Christ during his Last Supper; giving his disciples bread and wine during the Passover meal, Jesus commanded his followers to "do this in memory of me" while referring to the bread as "my body" and the wine as "my blood". Through the Eucharistic celebration Christians remember Christ's sacrifice of himself on the cross. The elements of the Eucharist, bread (leavened or unleavened) and wine are consecrated on an altar (or table) and consumed thereafter. Communicants (that is, those who consume the elements) may speak of "receiving the Eucharist", as well as "celebrating the Eucharist". Christians generally recognize a special presence of Christ in this rite, though they differ about exactly how, where, and when Christ is present. While all agree that there is no perceptible change in the elements, Catholics believe that they actually become the body and blood of Christ (transubstantiation). Lutherans believe the true body and blood of Christ are really present "in, with, and under" the forms of the bread and wine (sacramental union). Reformed Christians believe in a real spiritual presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Others, such as the Plymouth Brethren, take the act to be only a symbolic reenactment of the Last Supper.

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"Are you happy?" The simple question usually makes people confused . Even Mo Yan, who won a Nobel Prize, replied to it by saying, "I don't know." When a migrant worker was asked, "Are you happy? (Ni Xing Fu Ma?)" by a CCTV reporter, he looked confused before replying, "My family name is Zeng. (Wo Xing Zeng.)" This has become a joke. But his answer showed migrant workers and TV reporters live in different worlds and they cannot even communicate with each other. Similarly, when asked, "Are you happy?" a 73-year-old man, collecting used plastic bottles in a street in Zhejiang, said, "The bottles can be sold for 0.1 yuan each." Asked again, he said, "The government is good." The reporter went on, "My question is 'Are you happy?'" The old man answered, "My hearing is not good." The reporter probably tried to reach the same answer that the interviewees including the migrant worker and the old man are "happy". In fact, when the question is asked, we should learn about people's true situation and their true wishes and opinions but their "Yes" or "No". Luckily, the government has paid more attention to the importance. Now there are many TV programs giving common people the chance to give their opinions. "Everything we do is aimed at letting people live more happily." At last year's National People's Congress , Wen Jiabao said and agreed that increasing happiness would be a top aim for the 12th five-year plan.

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ISO 128 is an international standard (ISO), about the general principles of presentation in technical drawings, specifically the graphical representation of objects on technical drawings. Since 2003 the ISO 128 standard contains twelve parts, which were initiated between 1996 and 2003. It starts with a summary of the general rules for the execution and structure of technical drawings. Further it describes basic conventions for s, views, cuts and sections, and different types of engineering drawings, such as those for mechanical engineering, architecture, civil engineering, and shipbuilding. It is applicable to both manual and computer-based drawings, but it is not applicable to three-dimensional CAD models. The ISO 128 replaced the previous DIN 6 standard for drawings, projections and views, which was first published in 1922 and updated in 1950 and 1968. ISO 128 itself was first published in 1982, contained 15 pages and "specified the general principles of presentation to be applied to technical drawings following the orthographic projection methods". Several parts of this standard have been updated individually. The last parts and the standard as a whole were withdrawn by the ISO in 2001. A thirteenth part was added in 2013. The 14 parts of the ISO 128 standard are:

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There were many people at the store that day. This was because it was Saturday. It was even more full of people around noon when Mary and her mother went out to go shopping. In the store, Mary wanted her mother to buy her candy but Mary's mother was in a hurry. She did not have time for that. That is because she wanted to get home before it started to rain. Mary crossed her arms when her mother said no. Mary was sad that her mother would not get her any candy. But at home, her mother had a surprise for her. She told Mary to close her eyes. She thought it might be a toy. When she opened them again, she saw that her mother had baked her something. Her mother opened the oven. Inside was a cake. She jumped up in excitement. She didn't need to think how she felt. She was very happy. She did not want the candy now. She immediately took a big slice. She wasn't sure it she would eat it now. Then she ate it before she could make up her mind! Her smile then left her mouth. She quickly she became sad. Her mother had told her it was bedtime.

gutenberg

CHAPTER LXXXI - MR COHENLUPE LEAVES LONDON Dolly Longestaffe had found himself compelled to go to Fetter Lane immediately after that meeting in Bruton Street at which he had consented to wait two days longer for the payment of his money. This was on a Wednesday, the day appointed for the payment being Friday. He had undertaken that, on his part, Squercum should be made to desist from further immediate proceedings, and he could only carry out his word by visiting Squercum. The trouble to him was very great, but he began to feel that he almost liked it. The excitement was nearly as good as that of loo. Of course it was a 'horrid bore,'--this having to go about in cabs under the sweltering sun of a London July day. Of course it was a 'horrid bore,'--this doubt about his money. And it went altogether against the grain with him that he should be engaged in any matter respecting the family property in agreement with his father and Mr Bideawhile. But there was an importance in it that sustained him amidst his troubles. It is said that if you were to take a man of moderate parts and make him Prime Minister out of hand, he might probably do as well as other Prime Ministers, the greatness of the work elevating the man to its own level. In that way Dolly was elevated to the level of a man of business, and felt and enjoyed his own capacity. 'By George!' It depended chiefly upon him whether such a man as Melmotte should or should not be charged before the Lord Mayor. 'Perhaps I oughtn't to have promised,' he said to Squercum, sitting in the lawyer's office on a high-legged stool with a cigar in his mouth. He preferred Squercum to any other lawyer he had met because Squercum's room was untidy and homely, because there was nothing awful about it, and because he could sit in what position he pleased, and smoke all the time.

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The Heian period (平安時代, Heian jidai?) is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. The period is named after the capital city of Heian-kyō, or modern Kyōto. It is the period in Japanese history when Buddhism, Taoism and other Chinese influences were at their height. The Heian period is also considered the peak of the Japanese imperial court and noted for its art, especially poetry and literature. Although the Imperial House of Japan had power on the surface, the real power was in the hands of the Fujiwara clan, a powerful aristocratic family who had intermarried with the imperial family. Many emperors actually had mothers from the Fujiwara family. Heian (平安?) means "peace" in Japanese. The Heian period was preceded by the Nara period and began in 794 A.D after the movement of the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (present day Kyōto京都), by the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu. Kanmu first tried to move the capital to Nagaoka-kyō, but a series of disasters befell the city, prompting the emperor to relocate the capital a second time, to Heian. The Heian Period is considered a high point in Japanese culture that later generations have always admired. The period is also noted for the rise of the samurai class, which would eventually take power and start the feudal period of Japan.

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Munich is the capital and the most populated city in the German state of Bavaria, on the banks of River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps. Munich is also the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg, and the 12th biggest city of the European Union, with a population of around 1.5 million. The Munich Metropolitan Region is home to 6 million people. The city is a major centre of art, advanced technologies, finance, publishing, culture, innovation, education, business, and tourism in Germany and Europe and enjoys a very high standard and quality of living, reaching first in Germany and fourth worldwide according to the 2015 Mercer survey. According to the Globalization and World Rankings Research Institute Munich is considered an alpha-world city, . The name of the city is derived from the Old/Middle High German term "Munichen", meaning "by the monks", which in turn is derived from Mönch (which in the end derives from ancient Greek μοναχός). It derives from the monks of the Benedictine order, who ran a monastery at the place that was later to become the Old Town of Munich; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat of arms. Munich was first mentioned in 1158. From 1255 the city was seat of the Bavarian Dukes. Black and gold – the colours of the Holy Roman Empire – have been the city's official colours since the time of Ludwig the Bavarian, when it was an imperial residence. Following a final reunification of the Wittelsbachian Duchy of Bavaria, previously divided and sub-divided for more than 200 years, the town became the country's sole capital in 1506.

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The following are selected contributors' notes for an essay collection. KATY BUTLER, a 2004 finalist for a National Magazine Award, has written for The New Yorker, the New York Times, Mother Jones, Salon, Tricycle, and other magazines. She was born in South Africa and raised in England, and came to the United States with her family at the age of eight. "Everything Is Holy," her essay about nature worship, Buddhism , and ecology, was selected for Best Buddhist Writing 2006. In 2009 she won a literary award from the Elizabeth George Foundation. "What Broke My Father's Heart" was named a "notable narrative" by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, won a first-place award from the Association of Health Care Journalists, and was named one of the 100 Best Magazine Articles of All Time. Butler has taught narrative nonfiction at Nieman Foundation conferences and memoir writing at Esalen Institute. Her current book project is Knocking on Heaven's Door: A Journey Through Old Age and New Medicine to be published in 2013. VICTOR LAVALLE is the author of a collection of stories, Slapboxing with Jesus, and two novels, The Ecstatic and Big Machine, for which he won the Shirley Jackson Award, the American Book Award, and the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. He is a 2010 Guggenheim Award winner and an assistant professor at Columbia University's School of the Arts. About "Long Distance" he says: "This essay actually came about when I was asked to write about my life after having lost a great deal of weight. And yet, when I sat down to work, all I could do was return to that time when I was much heavier and deeply unhappy. Why? I sure didn't miss those days. And yet, I felt I couldn't write about my present without touching on that past. But, of course, I never reach the true present in the essay. Maybe I still don't know how to talk about a life with greater happiness. " BRIDGET POTTER was born in Brompton-on-Swale, Yorkshire, and came to the United States as a teenager in 1958. She spent the first forty years of her career in television, beginning as a secretary, then as a producer and an executive, including fifteen years as senior vice president of original programming at HBO. In 2007 she earned a BA in cultural anthropology from Columbia University. This year she will complete an MFA in nonfiction, also from Columbia, where she has been an instructor in the University Writing Program. She is currently working on her first book, a memoir / social history of the 1960s, from which her essay "Lucky Girl" is adapted. PATRICIA SMITH is the author of five books of poetry, including Blood Dazzler, chronicling the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, which was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award, and Teahouse of the Almighty, a National Poetry Series selection. Her work has appeared in Poetry, The Paris Review, TriQuarterly, and The Best American Poetry 2011. She is a Pushcart Prize winner and a four-time individual champion of the National Poetry Slam, the most successful poet in the competition's history. RESHMA MEMON YAQUB wouldn't even be fit to write a grocery list were it not for her guardian editors. Her stories owe many glorious plot twists to Zain, eleven, and Zach, seven. Ditto their dad (Amer) and grandparents (Ali, Razia, Muhammad, Nasreen). Costars: Sophie, Sana, Yousef, and Maryam. Miss Yaqub lives in Bethesda, Maryland. Her next project is an investigation into the whereabouts of two missing people: Mr. Right and Ms. Memoir Literary Agent.

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The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a general-purpose, developmental, modeling language in the field of software engineering, that is intended to provide a standard way to visualize the design of a system. UML was originally motivated by the desire to standardize the disparate notational systems and approaches to software design developed by Grady Booch, Ivar Jacobson and James Rumbaugh at Rational Software in 1994–1995, with further development led by them through 1996. In 1997 UML was adopted as a standard by the Object Management Group (OMG), and has been managed by this organization ever since. In 2005 UML was also published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as an approved ISO standard. Since then the standard has been periodically revised to cover the latest revision of UML. UML has been evolving since the second half of the 1990s and has its roots in the object-oriented programming methods developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The timeline (see image) shows the highlights of the history of object-oriented modeling methods and notation. It is originally based on the notations of the Booch method, the object-modeling technique (OMT) and object-oriented software engineering (OOSE), which it has integrated into a single language. Rational Software Corporation hired James Rumbaugh from General Electric in 1994 and after that the company became the source for two of the most popular object-oriented modeling approaches of the day: Rumbaugh's object-modeling technique (OMT) and Grady Booch's method. They were soon assisted in their efforts by Ivar Jacobson, the creator of the object-oriented software engineering (OOSE) method, who joined them at Rational in 1995.

cnn

(CNN) -- Achtung, baby! Sacha Baron Cohen stars as a flamboyant Austrian fashionista in "Bruno." There's a British theory that everything sounds funnier delivered with a Teutonic accent. That's tested to the limit in Sacha Baron Cohen's newest provocation, "Bruno," but it's not what comes out of his mouth that makes the Austrian fashionista such a handful. The man in the tight yellow lederhosen knows that in our visually overstimulated culture, a picture is vorth a thousand vords. More if there's significant skin involved -- and he's happy to show us his wurst. Cohen seems to believe that prudery is the enemy. Certainly, bad taste is his Trojan horse. An early montage of romantic coupling, Bruno-style, is enough to get tongues wagging -- or clucking in disapproval. It's the closest thing to gay porn most heterosexuals will see this side of "300." Either way, Cohen's laughing: Properly managed, outrage is a useful marketing tool, as "Borat" showed. Apparently permanently airbrushed right down to his backside, Bruno looks nothing like his hirsute Kazakh cousin, but the men share an ego; they're equally insensitive to other people and oblivious to notions of social decorum and the politically correct. And they both invest heavily in the American Dream. Bruno hungers after fame as hungrily as Borat lusted for Pamela Anderson. After a brief prologue in Europe -- and the distressing revelation of the vacuity of the fashion scene -- he sets out for Los Angeles, determined to become Austria's "biggest superstar since Hitler." Perhaps inspired by another Cohen creation, Ali G, he sets out to make a celebrity interview show -- but sadly, the only dupes ignorant enough to participate are "American Idol" judges (Paula Abdul chats about her philanthropic pursuits while perched on the back of an immigrant laborer) and presidential candidates (take a bow, Ron Paul).

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Sally was walking through the park. The bluebirds were singing and the weather was nice. She waved at her neighbor Jerry, who was taking his kitten out. Then she heard a loud noise. The noise was coming from a nearby tree. She walked over to the tree to take a look and found a puppy curled up by the roots. It was making a loud, sad noise. Sally bent down and picked up the puppy. It quickly quieted down, and licked her face. Sally laughed. The puppy was brown with white paws, and she thought it was the cutest puppy she ever saw. She couldn't find a tag on him, so she took him home. When she got home, she fed the puppy some meat that she had in her fridge. The puppy seemed to like it. She also gave him a bowl of water and he lapped it all up. Then the puppy yawned. Sally picked him up and brought him to her bed and put him on her pillow. Sally looked at him with a smile. "I'm going to call you...Jackson." Jackson wagged his tail a little, and fell asleep.

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Randy was a boy who loved to eat spaghetti. One day he met a girl named Hilda. People said that Hilda made the best spaghetti in the world. So Randy wanted to try some of Hilda's spaghetti. He asked Hilda, "Hilda, would you make me some spaghetti please?" Hilda said, "Sure! Just come to my house tomorrow!" So the next day Randy went to Hilda's house, sat down in the dining room, and waited. Then Hilda came out with a big plate of spaghetti with spinach soup. The only problem was that the spaghetti was bright blue. Randy said, "This spaghetti is blue! The soup is blue also! I hate the color blue and I won't eat any blue food!" This made Hilda sad, and she started to cry. This made Randy feel bad so he said, "It's okay, Hilda. Don't cry. I'll let you try again." So Hilda made a new plate of spaghetti for Randy. This time it wasn't blue and came with a salad with cheese. Randy said, "That's much better!" Then he started to eat. Suddenly Randy spit out all the spaghetti because there was a big nasty bug in it. This made Randy very angry and he threw all the spaghetti on the floor. Hilda said, "I'm so sorry, I don't know how that got there!" Randy calmed down and said, "I'm sorry too. Let's forget the spaghetti. I can eat the salad instead." When Randy finished the salad, Hilda asked if Randy wanted dessert. Randy said "no" because he was too full.

cnn

The longest-serving lawmaker in U.S. congressional history, a legendary Motown artist, and the matriarch of a renowned political family will be among this year's recipients of the nation's highest civilian honor, the White House announced Monday. Rep. John Dingell, Stevie Wonder and Ethel Kennedy are three of the nineteen Americans who Obama will bestow the Presidential Medal of Freedom upon later this month. Dingell has served nearly 60 years in Congress representing a district outside Detroit. He'll retire at the end of this session. Wonder has won 25 Grammys and an Oscar for his fusion of soul, rhythm and blues and jazz. And Kennedy, who is the widow of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, became an activist for human rights and the environment after her husband's death. Other honorees this year include Meryl Streep, the prolific actress known for holding the most Oscar nominations of any actor in history. She stars this winter in "Into the Woods," the musical composed by Stephen Sondheim, to whom Obama will also award the Medal of Freedom on November 24. Tom Brokaw, the former "NBC Nightly News" anchor, will be honored as well, alongside actress Marlo Thomas, golfer Charles Sifford and author Isabel Allende. The other medalists are scientist Mildred Dresselhaus; Native American activist Suzan Harjo; former Reps. Abner Mikva of Illinois and Patsy Takemoto Mink of Hawaii; and economist Robert Solow. Five awards will be delivered posthumously: to "Freedom Summer" civil rights activists James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner; to the well-known choreographer Alvin Ailey, who founded the namesake dance company; and to Rep. Edward Roybal, the founder of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

cnn

Having not seen or heard from her daughter in two weeks, Alexis Murphy's mother said in a CNN interview she is keeping strong with support from family and friends. "A mother would know if her daughter is really gone, but I still have hope," Laura Murphy said. Alexis Murphy was last seen at a gas station earlier this month. Police have arrested a suspect in her abduction, but the suspect's attorney told a CNN affiliate his client split ways with the 17-year-old after a drug deal. Murphy's disappearance set off a search that extended 30 miles outside of Lovingston, Virginia, and involved helicopters, search parties with canine units, the Nelson County Sheriff's Office, Virginia State Police and FBI. Where is Alexis Murphy? Alexis left her Shipman, Virginia, home to visit Lynchburg on August 3, and police have surveillance video showing her at a Lovingston gas station, according to affiliate WVIR-TV in Charlottesville. Randy Taylor, 48, was seen on the video and was arrested in her abduction Sunday, police told CNN affiliate WRC-TV, but Taylor's attorney, Michael Hallahan, told WVIR that Taylor was arrested because they found one of Alexis' hairs in his camper. The attorney also told WVIR his client wasn't the last person to see Alexis and that police need to be looking for a "black male, mid- to late-20s, cornrows and a 20-year-old burgundy Caprice with 22-inch wheels." Taylor saw the girl the night she disappeared, the lawyer said. They were both parked at the gas pumps, and Alexis made a reference to smoking marijuana, Hallahan said. Taylor told her he'd like some marijuana, the attorney said.

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Rob Kalin learned the secret to success while he was still in his baby bed. At age one, the Boston-bom teacher's son dragged around a stuffed rabbit that had been lovingly sewn by one of his mother's students. True, one of the ears was sewn on backward, but that just added to its magic. "It was always special to me," Kalin remembers of his first handmade craft . Kalin's appreciation for the simple and the simply eccentric inspired him to create etsy. com, an online craft fair, probably the largest market for handmade goods in the world. Last year, 350,000 woodworkers and other craftsmen sold their one-of-a-kind crafts on the four-year-old site. They sell everything from hand-knit sleeves for Macbooks ($32) to myrtle-wood electric guitars ($3,200). And in an age of chain stores, it seems there's still a big market. More than three million consumers in 150 countries purchased about $87.5 million worth of crafts on Etsy last year. Emily Worden, founder of Elemental Threads, a custom handbag and jewelry company, signed up with Etsy when she started her company two years ago. She pays Etsy a 20-cent standard fee for each item she lists on the site, plus a 3.5 percent commission on everything sold. Etsy allows her to track the number of times customers click on a particular item to view it. "We can see that our necklaces are a popularly viewed item and which color1s and sizes get the most views," she says. "That is a guide to evolving our product lines." Today, Etsy's staff has ballooned to 70 employees, and the company reportedly earns more than $12 million a year. Kalin's father was a carpenter and taught him early on how to use his hands. Indeed, in high school, he put his skills to work -- developing the photos of his classmates and handcrafting a graduate ID to attend design classes. Eventually, he was admitted to New York University, studying classics and working as a carpenter. Kalin has also started sewing some of his own clothes. "I have to make something physical at least once a month," says Kalin, "or I go crazy."

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Chinese President Hu Jintao, on his way to talks with President George W. Bush in prefix = st1 /Washington, on Tuesday met with Bill Gates. After the meeting with Gates, the world's richest man, at Microsoft's headquarters, Hu restated that China would move against software pirates all the time. At Microsoft Corp.'s campus, Hu said on Tuesday he admired what Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates had achieved. He also sought to reassure Gates that China is serious about protecting intellectual property rights . "Because you, Mr. Bill Gates, are a friend of China, I'm a friend of Microsoft," Hu said. "Also, I am dealing with the operating system produced by Microsoft every day," he added, to laughter. Gates responded: "Thank you, it's a fantastic relationship," and then said: "And if you ever need advice on how to use Windows, I'll be glad to help." "Chinais focused on and has already accomplished much in creating and enforcing laws to protect intellectual property." he said. "We take our promises very seriously." Hu also said he would certainly welcome a further increase in Microsoft's investment in China. "I'd also like to take this opportunity to assure you, Bill Gates, that we will certainly honor our words in protecting intellectual property rights," Hu said. In his brief visit to the Microsoft campus, Hu, accompanied by Gates and company CEO Steve Ballmer, saw some business technology demonstrations and toured Microsoft's Home of the Future, which features experimental technology that might someday be used in people's living spaces. Following the visit at Microsoft, about 100 guests, including former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former Gov. Gary Locke, the first Chinese-American governor, were invited to Gates' $100 million lakeside house on Lake Washington for a dinner. China has recently begun requiring Chinese computer makers to load legal software on their machines. In Seattle's Chinatown, many stores hung Chinese and U.S.flags to welcome Hu, and many in the crowd outside the stately Fairmont Hotel on Monday night where Hu was staying were there to support the Chinese president.

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Since the 19th century, the built-up area of Paris has grown far beyond its administrative borders; together with its suburbs, the whole agglomeration has a population of 10,550,350 (Jan. 2012 census). Paris' metropolitan area spans most of the Paris region and has a population of 12,341,418 (Jan. 2012 census), or one-fifth of the population of France. The administrative region covers 12,012 km² (4,638 mi²), with approximately 12 million inhabitants as of 2014, and has its own regional council and president. Paris is the home of the most visited art museum in the world, the Louvre, as well as the Musée d'Orsay, noted for its collection of French Impressionist art, and the Musée National d'Art Moderne, a museum of modern and contemporary art. The notable architectural landmarks of Paris include Notre Dame Cathedral (12th century); the Sainte-Chapelle (13th century); the Eiffel Tower (1889); and the Basilica of Sacré-Cœur on Montmartre (1914). In 2014 Paris received 22.4 million visitors, making it one of the world's top tourist destinations. Paris is also known for its fashion, particularly the twice-yearly Paris Fashion Week, and for its haute cuisine, and three-star restaurants. Most of France's major universities and grandes écoles are located in Paris, as are France's major newspapers, including Le Monde, Le Figaro, and Libération.

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CHAPTER VI EXAMINATION DAY It was plain that Fred and Charley had spread the news of their descent into the Pit, and of their battle with the Simpson clan and the Fishes. He heard the nine-o'clock bell with feelings of relief, and passed into the school, a mark for admiring glances from all the boys. The girls, too, looked at him in a timid and fearful way--as they might have looked at Daniel when he came out of the lions' den, Joe thought, or at David after his battle with Goliath. It made him uncomfortable and painfully self-conscious, this hero-worshiping, and he wished heartily that they would look in some other direction for a change. Soon they did look in another direction. While big sheets of foolscap were being distributed to every desk, Miss Wilson, the teacher (an austere-looking young woman who went through the world as though it were a refrigerator, and who, even on the warmest days in the classroom, was to be found with a shawl or cape about her shoulders), arose, and on the blackboard where all could see wrote the Roman numeral "I." Every eye, and there were fifty pairs of them, hung with expectancy upon her hand, and in the pause that followed the room was quiet as the grave. Underneath the Roman numeral "I" she wrote: "_(a) What were the laws of Draco? (b) Why did an Athenian orator say that they were written 'not in ink, but in blood'?_" Forty-nine heads bent down and forty-nine pens scratched lustily across as many sheets of foolscap. Joe's head alone remained up, and he regarded the blackboard with so blank a stare that Miss Wilson, glancing over her shoulder after having written "II," stopped to look at him. Then she wrote:

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A cowboy named Steve wanted to take a vacation from his farm that was named Raindrop. He could not make up his mind where to go, so he saddled his horse and rode east. The sun was setting in the west and it was orange. A cold wind was blowing from north to south. Steve rode through a forest of pear trees next to his farm. The first place he came to was a small town full of quiet people and its name was Silence. No one would talk to Steve. He kept riding. The town was next to a forest of maple trees. The second town he came to was very cold and its name was Ice. Steve was afraid his horse would freeze if he stayed there. Everyone in the town was wearing large coats and mittens. The second town was next to a forest of pine trees. The third town he came to was warm and it was named Sunny. There were palm trees on the beach. Steve and his horse went to the beach and played in the ocean. Steve took off his boots. Steve's hat got wet in the water. He had to leave it on the beach to dry. Eventually Steve and his horse got hot. They rode east again. Eventually Steve arrived back at his farm. This confused him because he thought he had been riding in a different direction. Steve learned that there really was no place like home. He put his horse in the barn and went back into his house.

gutenberg

CHAPTER 25 OZMA OF OZ "It's funny," said Toto, standing before his friend the Lion and wagging his tail, "but I've found my growl at last! I am positive now that it was the cruel magician who stole it." "Let's hear your growl," requested the Lion. "G-r-r-r-r-r!" said Toto. "That is fine," declared the big beast. "It isn't as loud or as deep as the growl of the big Lavender Bear, but it is a very respectable growl for a small dog. Where did you find it, Toto?" "I was smelling in the corner yonder," said Toto, "when suddenly a mouse ran out--and I growled." The others were all busy congratulating Ozma, who was very happy at being released from the confinement of the golden peach pit, where the magician had placed her with the notion that she never could be found or liberated. "And only to think," cried Dorothy, "that Button-Bright has been carrying you in his pocket all this time, and we never knew it!" "The little Pink Bear told you," said the Bear King, "but you wouldn't believe him." "Never mind, my dears," said Ozma graciously, "all is well that ends well, and you couldn't be expected to know I was inside the peach pit. Indeed, I feared I would remain a captive much longer than I did, for Ugu is a bold and clever magician, and he had hidden me very securely." "You were in a fine peach," said Button-Bright, "the best I ever ate." "The magician was foolish to make the peach so tempting," remarked the Wizard, "but Ozma would lend beauty to any transformation."

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There were four brothers that lived together in a small house on the east side of town. The brothers' names were Bob, Billy, Bryan and Baker. Each brother was one year in age. The oldest brother Bob was nine, the second eight, the third seven and the youngest was only six. Each boy also had something that they were good at that no one else could do. Baker, the youngest boy was good at magic tricks. Bob was the basketball star, Billy was great at football and Bryan was good at baseball. Each boy liked to watch the others show off their skills. One afternoon Baker put on a magic show. For this trick he would need three things. First, he needed four cups each a different color. The cups colors were green, yellow, blue, and white. He would need one white ball and two helpers which the parents happily volunteered for. He started by showing his brothers the inside of each cup as well as the normal white ball. He then placed the white ball inside the white cups and moved them around really fast. Next his parents covered the four cups with a magic blanket. Baker said some magic words and then his helpers removed the blanket. To his brothers amazement there were only the three colored cups left. Each brother got to look under a cup. After flipping up each cup they saw that there was no white ball. Just a single green ball inside the green cup! How did you do that they yelled! A magician never gives up his secrets.

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In the very early 1800's, a young boy about 14 years old named John lived in a orphanage in Old England along with several other children. Orphan meant unwanted and unloved. Christmas was the one day of the year when the children didn't work and received a gift, an orange. Usually they tried to taste and keep it for so long that it often went bad before they ever peeled it to enjoy the sweet juice. Many thoughts were expressed as Christmas time drew near. The children would say, "I will keep mine the longest." John usually slept with his next to his pillow. This year John was overjoyed by the Christmas season. He was becoming a man and stronger and soon he would be old enough to leave. He would save his orange until his birthday in July. Christmas day finally came. The children were so excited as they entered the big dinning hall. Immediately the master shouted, "John, leave the hall and there will be no orange for you this year." John's heart broke violently wide open. He turned and went quickly back to the cold room. Then he heard the door open and each of the children entered. Little Elizabeth with her hair falling over her shoulders, a smile on her face, and tears in her eyes held out a piece of rag to John. "Here John," she said, "this is for you." As he lifted back the edges of the rag he saw a big juicy orange all peeled and quartered and then he realized what they had done. John never forgot the sharing, love and personal sacrifice his friends had shown him that Christmas day. In memory of that day every year he would send oranges all over the world to children everywhere.

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Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by "Billboard" magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sales and streaming. The current number-one song, as of the chart dated for October 7, 2017, is "Body Like a Back Road" by Sam Hunt. "Billboard" began compiling the popularity of country songs with its January 8, 1944 issue. Only the genre's most popular jukebox selections were tabulated, with the chart titled "Most Played Juke Box Folk Records". The chart length was not standardized; a given week had anywhere from two to eight positions. For approximately ten years, from 1948 to 1958, "Billboard" used three charts to measure the popularity of a given song. In addition to the jukebox chart, these charts included: The names of each chart changed slightly during each chart's life. The "jukebox" chart – which by 1956 was known as "Most Played C&W in Juke Boxes" – ended on June 17, 1957. The "best sellers" and "jockeys" charts continued until October 13, 1958. Starting with the October 20, 1958 issue, "Billboard" began combining sales and radio airplay in figuring a song's overall popularity, counting them in one single chart called "Hot C&W Sides". The chart began with a standard length of 30 positions each week. The name of the chart, and the number of positions varied through the years: Its name was switched to "Hot Country Singles" on November 3, 1962; it was expanded to 50 slots on January 11, 1964; then 75 on October 15, 1966; and finally 100 beginning July 14, 1973.

wikipedia

Entomology (from Greek , "entomon" "insect"; and , "") is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was more vague, and historically the definition of entomology included the study of terrestrial animals in other arthropod groups or other phyla, such as arachnids, myriapods, earthworms, land snails, and slugs. This wider meaning may still be encountered in informal use. Like several of the other fields that are categorized within zoology, entomology is a taxon-based category; any form of scientific study in which there is a focus on insect-related inquiries is, by definition, entomology. Entomology therefore overlaps with a cross-section of topics as diverse as molecular genetics, behavior, biomechanics, biochemistry, systematics, physiology, developmental biology, ecology, morphology, and paleontology. At some 1.3 million described species, insects account for more than two-thirds of all known organisms, date back some 400 million years, and have many kinds of interactions with humans and other forms of life on earth. Entomology is rooted in nearly all human cultures from prehistoric times, primarily in the context of agriculture (especially biological control and beekeeping), but scientific study began only as recently as the 16th century. William Kirby is widely considered as the father of Entomology. In collaboration with William Spence, he published a definitive entomological encyclopedia, "Introduction to Entomology", regarded as the subject's foundational text. He also helped to found the Royal Entomological Society in London in 1833, one of the earliest such societies in the world; earlier antecedents, such as the Aurelian society date back to the 1740s.

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When elephants retire, many head for the Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tenn. They arrive one by one, but they tend to live out their lives two-by-two. "Every elephant that comes here searches out someone that she then spends most all of her time with," says sanctuary co-founder Carol Buckley. It's likely having a best girlfriend, Buckley says - "Somebody they can relate to, they have something in common with." Debbie has Ronnie. Misty can't live without Dulary. _ But perhaps the closest friends of all are Tarra and Bella. Tarra, an 8,700 pound Asian elephant; Bella, a stray dog, are closest friends. Bella is one of more than a dozen stray dogs that have found a home at the sanctuary. Most want nothing to do with the elephants and vice versa. But not this odd couple. "Bella knows she's not an elephant. Tarra knows she's not a dog," Buckley adds. "But that's not a problem for them." "When it's time to eat they both eat together. They drink together. They sleep together. They play together," Buckley says. Tarra and Bella have been close for years -- but no one really knew how close they were until recently. A few months ago Bella suffered a spinal cord injury. She couldn't move her legs, couldn't even wag her tail. For three weeks the dog lay motionless up in the sanctuary office. And for three weeks the elephant held vigil: 2,700 acres to roam free, and Tarra just stood in the corner, beside a gate, right outside that sanctuary office. "She just stood outside the balcony - just stood there and waited," says Buckley. "She was concerned about her friend." Then one day, sanctuary co-founder Scott Blais carried Bella onto the balcony so she and Tarra could at least see each other. "Bella's tail started wagging. And we had no choice but to bring Bella down to see Tarra," Blais says. They visited like that every day until Bella could walk. Today, their love -- and trust -- is stronger than ever. Bella even lets Tarra pet her tummy - with the bottom of her enormous foot. They harbor no fears, no secrets, no prejudices. Just two living creatures who somehow managed to look past their immense differences. Take a good look at this couple, human beings. Take a good look at the world. If they can do it -- what's our excuse?

gutenberg

CHAPTER XIX GOOD MONEY FOR BAD At luncheon Josie appeared at the table, fresh as ever, and Mary Louise began to relate to her and to her grandfather the occurrences of the morning. When she came to tell how Sol Jerrems had declared the money counterfeit, Josie suddenly sprang up and swung her napkin around her head, shouting gleefully: "Glory hallelujah! I've got him. I've trapped Old Swallowtail at last." They looked at her in amazement. "What do you mean?" asked Mary Louise. Josie sobered instantly. "Forgive me," she said; "I'm ashamed of myself. Go on with the story. What became of that counterfeit bill?" "Mr. Jerrems has it yet. He is keeping it to show to a commercial traveler, who is to visit his store to-morrow. If the man declares the money is good, then Ingua may buy her things." "We won't bother the commercial traveler," said Josie, in a tone of relief. "I'm going straight down to the store to redeem that bill. I want it in my possession." Colonel Hathaway regarded her gravely. "I think our female detective, having said so much and having exhibited such remarkable elation, must now explain her discoveries to us more fully," said he. "I'd rather not, just yet," protested Josie. "But what have I said in my madness, and what did my words imply?" "From the little I know of this case," replied the Colonel, "I must judge that you believe Mr. Cragg to be a counterfeiter, and that his mysterious business is--to counterfeit. In this out-of-the-way place," he continued, thoughtfully, "such a venture might be carried on for a long time without detection. Yet there is one thing that to me forbids this theory."

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(Renee-a beautiful princess; Broo-a blue bear; Nahloo-a magical place) When the Princess Renee heard about Broo, she came down from her castle. She found Broo while he was busy eating honey. "Mr. Bear," the Princess said, "you are welcome in Nahloo. Here we share with each other. We don't take things from each other." Broo thought about it for a moment and realized that he had made a mistake. "Well," he said, "maybe drinking all that milk wasn't the best idea." The Princess continued, "Mr. Bear, you can drink and eat, but you won't feel good because you have never made any contribution to anyone else. I think you'll find that it is better to be full in your heart, not just in your stomach." After saying this, the Princess went back to the castle, leaving Broo alone. One day, Broo was going to take lots of cookies from the rabbits, then he remembered what the Princess said to him. So Broo decided not to eat the cookies. The rabbits were surprised and said, "Thank you for your kindness, Mr. Bear. Now these cookies will taste sweeter because they are given by you, my friend. If you like, come back tomorrow and we can have the cookies together." Broo was filled with joy and went through the land. He gave back everything he had taken. In return, he received a promise from everyone to share their food with him. Broo was so delighted that he started dancing in the moonlight with the Princess as his partner.

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Morocco, officially known as the Kingdom of Morocco (, lit. "The Western Kingdom"; ), is a sovereign country located in the Maghreb region of North Africa. Geographically, Morocco is characterised by a rugged mountainous interior, large tracts of desert and a lengthy coastline along the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Morocco has a population of over 33.8 million and an area of . Its capital is Rabat, and the largest city is Casablanca. Other major cities include Marrakesh, Tangier, Salé, Fes, and Meknes. A historically prominent regional power, Morocco has a history of independence not shared by its neighbours. Since the foundation of the first Moroccan state by Idris I in 789, the country has been ruled by a series of independent dynasties, reaching its zenith under the Almoravid and Almohad dynasty, spanning parts of Iberia and Northwestern Africa. Marinid and Saadi dynasties continued the struggle against foreign domination, and Morocco remained the only North African country to avoid Ottoman occupation. The Alaouite dynasty, the current ruling dynasty, seized power in 1666. In 1912 Morocco was divided into French and Spanish protectorates, with an international zone in Tangier, and regained its independence in 1956. Moroccan culture is a blend of Arab, indigenous Berber, Sub-Saharan African, and European influences.

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CHAPTER IV. THE QUARREL ON THE BRIDGE. The boy on the shore was Percy Paget, the squire's only son. He was a year older than Ralph, and somewhat taller and heavier. His ways were arrogant to the last degree, and in the village he had but few friends, and these only because he generally had pocket money to spend. On several occasions Ralph had had sharp words with Percy because the latter wished to do as he pleased on the bridge, against the printed rules that were posted up. Because his parent was squire, Percy imagined he could do almost anything and it would be all right. "I say, are you counting your fortune?" repeated Percy, throwing as much of a sneer into his tones as possible. "Unfortunately, I haven't any fortune to count, Percy," returned the young bridge tender, good-naturedly. "Humph! I suppose you mean that for a pun, don't you?" growled the son of the squire. "If you do, let me tell you it's a mighty poor one." "I hadn't intended to pun, Percy." "I didn't think so, for you haven't the brains. Didn't I see you counting some money just now?" "I was looking at a bank bill." "That you got on the bridge, I suppose?" "No; it was a bill of my own." "Oh, I thought you had to use all the money you made here." "I have to use the most of it. My pay isn't any too large, as you know." "Yes, but I guess you make enough besides," returned Percy, suggestively.

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Woody Guthrie left California for New York in 1940. There he met Alan Lomax, an expert on America's traditional music. He collected and recorded traditional American folk music, which had few fans at that time. When he heard Woody sing, Lomax knew he had found a true singer of American folk music. Lomax recorded many of Woody's songs for the Library of Congress. Three years later, Woody published a book called Bound for Glory. It was about his early life and travels. From this book people came to learn how Woody had spent his unhappy youth. His mother, Nora Guthrie, died of Huntington's Disease in 1929 when he was only seventeen years old. There was no treatment for the disease. About twenty years later, the disease also began to attack the son. Woody's health got worse and worse, and finally he entered a hospital. While Woody seemed to be forgotten, his music was not. By the late 1950s, folk music became popular in America. More Americans began listening and playing the songs of Woody Guthrie. Young folk singers came to New York to visit Woody in the hospital. Among them was Bob Dylan, one of America's greatest popular songwriters. He called Woody his hero. Dylan and others copied the way Woody sang and played the guitar. And like Woody, they wrote songs that called for social and political justice . Woody Guthrie stayed in the hospital until he died in 1967. In the last years of his life, Woody could hardly speak. But his family and friends knew he still believed in the causes he had sung and written about all his life. They knew this because when they sang his songs, Woody's eyes would become brighter and his defiant spirit would shine through.

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Insects (from Latin insectum, a calque of Greek ἔντομον [éntomon], "cut into sections") are a class of invertebrates within the arthropod phylum that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes and one pair of antennae. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet, including more than a million described species and representing more than half of all known living organisms. The number of extant species is estimated at between six and ten million, and potentially represent over 90% of the differing animal life forms on Earth. Insects may be found in nearly all environments, although only a small number of species reside in the oceans, a habitat dominated by another arthropod group, crustaceans. The life cycles of insects vary but most hatch from eggs. Insect growth is constrained by the inelastic exoskeleton and development involves a series of molts. The immature stages can differ from the adults in structure, habit and habitat, and can include a passive pupal stage in those groups that undergo 4-stage metamorphosis (see holometabolism). Insects that undergo 3-stage metamorphosis lack a pupal stage and adults develop through a series of nymphal stages. The higher level relationship of the Hexapoda is unclear. Fossilized insects of enormous size have been found from the Paleozoic Era, including giant dragonflies with wingspans of 55 to 70 cm (22–28 in). The most diverse insect groups appear to have coevolved with flowering plants.

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Mesopotamia (, "[land] between rivers"; "bilād ar-rāfidayn"; ; "miyān rudān"; "Beth Nahrain" "land of rivers") was a historic region situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in modern days roughly corresponding to most of Iraq plus Kuwait, the eastern parts of Syria, Southeastern Turkey, and regions along the Turkish-Syrian and Iran–Iraq borders. The Sumerians and Akkadians (including Assyrians and Babylonians) dominated Mesopotamia from the beginning of written history (c. 3100 BC) to the fall of Babylon in 539 BC, when it was conquered by the Achaemenid Empire. It fell to Alexander the Great in 332 BC, and after his death, it became part of the Greek Seleucid Empire. Around 150 BC, Mesopotamia was under the control of the Parthian Empire. Mesopotamia became a battleground between the Romans and Parthians, with western parts of Mesopotamia coming under ephemeral Roman control. In AD 226, eastern part of it fell to the Sassanid Persians. Division of Mesopotamia between Roman (Byzantine from AD 395) and Sassanid Empires lasted until the 7th century Muslim conquest of Persia of the Sasanian Empire and Muslim conquest of the Levant from Byzantines. A number of primarily neo-Assyrian and Christian native Mesopotamian states existed between the 1st century BC and 3rd century AD, including Adiabene, Osroene, and Hatra.

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CHAPTER 4 "What a pity it is, Elinor," said Marianne, "that Edward should have no taste for drawing." "No taste for drawing!" replied Elinor, "why should you think so? He does not draw himself, indeed, but he has great pleasure in seeing the performances of other people, and I assure you he is by no means deficient in natural taste, though he has not had opportunities of improving it. Had he ever been in the way of learning, I think he would have drawn very well. He distrusts his own judgment in such matters so much, that he is always unwilling to give his opinion on any picture; but he has an innate propriety and simplicity of taste, which in general direct him perfectly right." Marianne was afraid of offending, and said no more on the subject; but the kind of approbation which Elinor described as excited in him by the drawings of other people, was very far from that rapturous delight, which, in her opinion, could alone be called taste. Yet, though smiling within herself at the mistake, she honoured her sister for that blind partiality to Edward which produced it. "I hope, Marianne," continued Elinor, "you do not consider him as deficient in general taste. Indeed, I think I may say that you cannot, for your behaviour to him is perfectly cordial, and if THAT were your opinion, I am sure you could never be civil to him." Marianne hardly knew what to say. She would not wound the feelings of her sister on any account, and yet to say what she did not believe was impossible. At length she replied:

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Harry had a very small farm. He only had one cow but dreamed about having a large farm. He once asked his father Bill, "I'd like to have that land over there. How can I get it?" His father encouraged him to go and talk to the landowner to see how they could get the land. Harry said. "But we don't have enough money." His father said, "Don't worry. Go and talk to him." Several years passed. Harry had not only the land, but also several hundred cows. He had a happy life with his wife. Later, Harry's wife, Sarah, had a dream. "I want to build the biggest farm in the world." She said. They called their friend Manuel about this task. Three days later Manuel had a plan for the whole project. Then they asked, "How much will it cost?" Manuel said they needed a lot of money. "Nobody will lend us so much money to build a farm," they thought. But the manager of the bank _ them and their dream. A few months later, La manuel, the biggest farm in the world, was opened.

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Jane was running late. Jane, 25, had a lot to do at work, plus visitors on the way: her parents were coming in for Thanksgiving from her hometown. But as she hurried down the subway stairs, she started to feel uncomfortably warm. By the time she got to the platform, Jane felt weak and tired---maybe it hadn't been a good idea to give blood the night before, she thought. She rested herself against a post close to the tracks. Several yards away, Tom, 43, and his girlfriend, Jennifer, found a spot close to where the front of the train would stop. They were deep in discussion about a house they were thinking of buying. But when he heard the scream, followed by someone yelling, "Oh, my God, she fell in!" Tom didn't hesitate. He jumped down to the tracks and ran some 40 feet toward the body lying on the rails. "No! Not you!" his girlfriend screamed after him. She was right to be alarmed. By the time Tom reached Jane, he could feel the tracks shaking and see the light coming. The train was about 20 seconds from the station. It was hard to lift her. She was just out. But he managed to raise her the four feet to the platform so that bystanders could hold her by the grins and drag her away from the edge. That was where Jane briefly regained consciousness, felt herself being pulled along the ground, and saw someone else holding her purse. Jane thought she'd been robbed. A woman held her hand and a man gave his shirt to help stop the blood pouring from her head. And she tried to talk but she couldn't, and that was when she realized how much pain she was in. Police and fire officials soon arrived, and Tom told the story to an officer. Jennifer said her boyfriend was calm on their 40-minute train ride downtown-just as he had been seconds after the rescue, which made her think about her reaction at the time. "I saw the train coming and I was thinking he was going to die," she explained.

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At no more than 200 kilometres (120 mi) north to south and 130 kilometres (81 mi) east to west, Swaziland is one of the smallest countries in Africa. Despite its size, however, its climate and topography is diverse, ranging from a cool and mountainous highveld to a hot and dry lowveld. The population is primarily ethnic Swazis whose language is siSwati. They established their kingdom in the mid-18th century under the leadership of Ngwane III; the present boundaries were drawn up in 1881. After the Anglo-Boer War, Swaziland was a British protectorate from 1903 until 1967. It regained its independence on 6 September 1968. Swaziland is a developing country with a small economy. Its GDP per capita of $9,714 means it is classified as a country with a lower-middle income. As a member of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), its main local trading partner is South Africa. Swaziland's currency, the lilangeni, is pegged to the South African rand. Swaziland's major overseas trading partners are the United States and the European Union. The majority of the country's employment is provided by its agricultural and manufacturing sectors. Swaziland is a member of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union, the Commonwealth of Nations and the United Nations.

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"How many common English words were invented by Shakespeare?" How long did it take people to find the answer to this question 15 years ago? And now! you can google it and find the answer immediately! Google is the most popular Internet search engine in the world. It was invented by two students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. They met in 1993, when they were studying computer science at Stanford University, USA. They dreamed of producing something that could also answer any question in seconds. Internet search engines at that time were slow and gave many websites that weren't useful. In January 1996, Page and Brin decided to make a better and faster search engine. They thought the results should be based on the most popular websites. Nobody would give them money for their project, so they used their own money. They also borrowed money from family and friends. Then, in 1998, they were given a _ for $100,000, and they started their own company. Their first office was in a friend's garage. The company's name is Google, a word which comes from mathematics. A "google" is a very high number---- 1 followed by a hundred zeros. The google search engine was soon used by thousands of people worldwide because it was fast, easy and correct. By 2002 it was the biggest search engine on the Internet. Now, more questions have been answered by Google than any other Internet service, from sport to science, and from music to medicine. Google hopes that in the future all the world's information will be put on the Internet, so that everybody can find everything.

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CHICAGO ---Call it a reward, or just "bribery ". Whichever it is, many parents today readily admit to buying off their children, who getgoodies for anything from behaving in a restaurant to sleeping all night in their own beds. That's what worries parenting experts. "I think that reward systems have a time and a place and work really well in certain situations," says Marcy Safyer, director of the Adelphi University Institute for Parenting. "But what often gets lost for people is being able to figure out how to communicate to their kids that doing the thing is rewarding enough," Safyer says. Parents and experts alike agree that thedynamic is partly a reflection of the world we live in. It's unrealistic to think a parent wouldn't reward their children with material things sometimes, says Robin Lanzi, a clinical psychologist and mother of four who's the research director at the Center on Health and Education at Georgetown University. "But you want to make sure that they match the behavior, so it's not something huge for something small," Lanzi says. She recalls hearing about a father who offered his child a Nintendo Wii game system for scoring a couple goals in a soccer game. Elizabeth Powell, a mother of two young daughters in Austin, Texas, knows what she means. "You want to raise them in a way that they're respectful and appreciate things," Powell says of her children. "But sometimes, you wonder now if kids appreciate even a new pair of shoes. "

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Cantonese, or Standard Cantonese, is a variety of the Chinese language spoken around Canton (Guangzhou) and its vicinity in southeastern China. It is the traditional prestige variety of Yue, one of the major subdivisions of Chinese. In mainland China, it is the "lingua franca" of the province of Guangdong and neighbouring areas such as Guangxi, being the majority language of the Pearl River Delta. It is the dominant and official language of Hong Kong and Macau. Cantonese is also widely spoken amongst overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia (most notably in Vietnam and Malaysia, as well as in Singapore and Cambodia to a lesser extent) and throughout the Western world. While the term "Cantonese" refers narrowly to the prestige variety, it is often used in a broader sense for the entire Yue subdivision of Chinese, including related but largely mutually unintelligible languages such as Taishanese. When Cantonese and the closely related Yuehai dialects are classified together, there are about 80 million total speakers. Cantonese is viewed as vital part of the cultural identity for its native speakers across large swathes of southeastern China, Hong Kong and Macau. Although Cantonese shares some vocabulary with Mandarin, the two varieties are mutually unintelligible because of differences in pronunciation, grammar and lexicon. Sentence structure, in particular the placement of verbs, sometimes differs between the two varieties. A notable difference between Cantonese and Mandarin is how the spoken word is written; both can be recorded verbatim but very few Cantonese speakers are knowledgeable in the full Cantonese written vocabulary, so a non-verbatim formalised written form is adopted which is more akin to the Mandarin written form. This results in the situation in which a Cantonese and a Mandarin text may look similar, but are pronounced differently.

wikipedia

In August 1836, two real estate entrepreneurs—Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen—from New York, purchased 6,642 acres (26.88 km2) of land along Buffalo Bayou with the intent of founding a city. The Allen brothers decided to name the city after Sam Houston, the popular general at the Battle of San Jacinto, who was elected President of Texas in September 1836. The great majority of slaves in Texas came with their owners from the older slave states. Sizable numbers, however, came through the domestic slave trade. New Orleans was the center of this trade in the Deep South, but there were slave dealers in Houston. Thousands of enslaved African-Americans lived near the city before the Civil War. Many of them near the city worked on sugar and cotton plantations, while most of those in the city limits had domestic and artisan jobs. In 1860 forty-nine percent of the city's population was enslaved. A few slaves, perhaps as many as 2,000 between 1835 and 1865, came through the illegal African trade. Post-war Texas grew rapidly as migrants poured into the cotton lands of the state. They also brought or purchased enslaved African Americans, whose numbers nearly tripled in the state from 1850 to 1860, from 58,000 to 182,566.

gutenberg

CHAPTER XXIX. A DINNER-PARTY SUB ROSA. In less than a week's time I was master of the state of affairs at Borden Tower. Dr. Randall, with the best possible intentions, was the worst possible man that could have been chosen for the guardianship of two such pupils as Lord Silchester and Leonard de Cartienne. He was a scholar and a pedant, utterly unsuspicious and ignorant of the ways of the world, himself so truthful and honourable that he could scarcely have imagined deceit possible in others, and certainly not in his own wards. Of the servants, James and his wife were the only ones in authority, and they were the tools of de Cartienne. The latter I could not quite understand. The only thing about him perfectly clear was that he was just the worst companion possible for Silchester. For the rest, he was so clever that his presence here at all as a pupil seemed unnecessary. He appeared to be rich and he took a deep interest of some sort in Cecil. Seemingly it was a friendly interest, but of that I did not feel assured. At any rate, it was an injurious association for Cecil, and I determined to do everything in my power to counteract it. To strike at once, to attempt to show him the folly of the courses into which he was being led, I saw would be futile. I must have time and opportunity. Any violent measures in such a case would be worse than useless. My only course, obnoxious though it was, was to join them in their pursuits and try to gain some sort of influence over Cecil, while I kept him as far as possible from falling into further mischief.

gutenberg

CHAPTER LII ON THE TRAIL AGAIN The most massive minds are apt to forget things at times. The most adroit plotters make their little mistakes. Psmith was no exception to the rule. He made the mistake of not telling Mike of the afternoon's happenings. It was not altogether forgetfulness. Psmith was one of those people who like to carry through their operations entirely by themselves. Where there is only one in a secret the secret is more liable to remain unrevealed. There was nothing, he thought, to be gained from telling Mike. He forgot what the consequences might be if he did not. So Psmith kept his own counsel, with the result that Mike went over to school on the Monday morning in pumps. Edmund, summoned from the hinterland of the house to give his opinion why only one of Mike's boots was to be found, had no views on the subject. He seemed to look on it as one of those things which no fellow can understand. "'Ere's one of 'em, Mr. Jackson," he said, as if he hoped that Mike might be satisfied with a compromise. "One? What's the good of that, Edmund, you chump? I can't go over to school in one boot." Edmund turned this over in his mind, and then said, "No, sir," as much as to say, "I may have lost a boot, but, thank goodness, I can still understand sound reasoning." "Well, what am I to do? Where is the other boot?" "Don't know, Mr. Jackson," replied Edmund to both questions.

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BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online news coverage. The service maintains 50 foreign news bureaux with more than 250 correspondents around the world. James Harding has been Director of News and Current Affairs since April 2013. The department's annual budget is in excess of £350 million; it has 3,500 staff, 2,000 of whom are journalists. BBC News' domestic, global and online news divisions are housed within the largest live newsroom in Europe, in Broadcasting House in central London. Parliamentary coverage is produced and broadcast from studios in Millbank in London. Through the BBC English Regions, the BBC also has regional centres across England, as well as national news centres in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. All nations and English regions produce their own local news programmes and other current affairs and sport programmes. The BBC is a quasi-autonomous corporation authorised by Royal Charter, making it operationally independent of the government, who have no power to appoint or dismiss its director-general, and required to report impartially. As with all major media outlets, though, it has been accused of political bias from across the political spectrum, both within the UK and abroad.

mctest

It was movie night at Tom's house. He was looking forward to watching a movie. He wondered what sort of movie it would be. Would it be a cartoon? Would there be knights? He really likes to watch movies about spaceships. His sister likes to watch movies about animals. Tonight they would watch his father's favorite type of movie. His mother came home and put it on the table. After dinner Tom cleared away the plates from the table. It was his sister's turn to wash the dishes. His father went to read the newspaper. His mother began to make popcorn. She made a big bowl of popcorn. There was plenty for everyone. She put lots of butter on it. Tom was excited he went to sit on the striped rug in front of the television. His sister came and sat next to him. His parents sat on the couch. The dog climbed on to the blue chair. The movie was about cars. Tom had a great movie night.

gutenberg

CHAPTER XIX--HOW NORMAN LESLIE RODE AGAIN TO THE WARS Tidings of these parleys, and marches, and surrenders of cities came to us at Tours, the King sending letters to his good towns by messengers. One of these, the very Thomas Scott of whom I have before spoken, a man out of Rankelburn, in Ettrick Forest, brought a letter for me, which was from Randal Rutherford. "Mess-John Urquhart writes for me, that am no clerk," said Randal, "and, to spare his pains, as he writes for the most of us, I say no more than this: come now, or come never, for the Maid will ride to see Paris in three days, or four, let the King follow or not as he will." There was no more but a cross marked opposite the name of Randal Rutherford, and the date of place and day, August the nineteenth, at Compiegne. My face fired, for I felt it, when I had read this, and I made no more ado, but, covenanting with Thomas Scott to be with him when he rode forth at dawn, I went home, put my harness in order, and hired a horse from him that kept the hostelry of the "Hanging Sword," whither also I sent my harness, for that I would sleep there. This was all done in the late evening, secretly, and, after supper, I broke the matter to my master and Elliot. Her face changed to a dead white, and she sat silent, while my master took the word, saying, in our country speech, that "he who will to Cupar, maun to Cupar," and therewith he turned, and walked out and about in the garden.

cnn

(CNN) -- This was not how it was supposed to end. The past week had been a procession -- the next few days were supposed to end in a coronation. With the future King of England in the Royal Box, the man who wore the Wimbledon crown so proudly allowed it to slip on Centre Court. Andy Murray, the first British man to win the tournament in 77 years, was not just thrown out of his court, he was brushed aside by a man threatening mutiny at the top of the men's game. Grigor Dimitrov has hinted at performances like this before -- but this was the announcement his potential had always promised to deliver. The Bulgarian, 23, for so long hailed as the heir apparent to 17-time grand slam winner Roger Federer, is ready to finally erase the tag which has haunted him since he first came to prominence -- that of "Baby Fed". Ranked 13 in the world, Dimitrov gave a performance which left nobody in doubt that he is a serious challenger for the title following a 6-1 7-6 6-2 win over the defending champion. Never before has Dimitrov gone further than the second round at the All England Club -- now he is just one victory away from a grand slam final. But the signs had been there. Dimitrov, who won the Queens Club title - a warm-up tournament before Wimbledon - has been improving with each and every match. He will now play his first ever grand slam semifinal against Novak Djokovic -- the 2011 champion and the tournament's top seed.

cnn

(CNN)He's a blue chip college basketball recruit. She's a high school freshman with Down syndrome. At first glance Trey Moses and Ellie Meredith couldn't be more different. But all that changed Thursday when Trey asked Ellie to be his prom date. Trey -- a star on Eastern High School's basketball team in Louisville, Kentucky, who's headed to play college ball next year at Ball State -- was originally going to take his girlfriend to Eastern's prom. So why is he taking Ellie instead? "She's great... she listens and she's easy to talk to" he said. Trey made the prom-posal (yes, that's what they are calling invites to prom these days) in the gym during Ellie's P.E. class. Trina Helson, a teacher at Eastern, alerted the school's newspaper staff to the prom-posal and posted photos of Trey and Ellie on Twitter that have gone viral. She wasn't surpristed by Trey's actions. "That's the kind of person Trey is," she said. To help make sure she said yes, Trey entered the gym armed with flowers and a poster that read "Let's Party Like it's 1989," a reference to the latest album by Taylor Swift, Ellie's favorite singer. Trey also got the OK from Ellie's parents the night before via text. They were thrilled. "You just feel numb to those moments raising a special needs child," said Darla Meredith, Ellie's mom. "You first feel the need to protect and then to overprotect." Darla Meredith said Ellie has struggled with friendships since elementary school, but a special program at Eastern called Best Buddies had made things easier for her.

wikipedia

Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. Developed in conjunction with the Universal Coded Character Set (UCS) standard and published as The Unicode Standard, the latest version of Unicode contains a repertoire of more than 120,000 characters covering 129 modern and historic scripts, as well as multiple symbol sets. The standard consists of a set of code charts for visual reference, an encoding method and set of standard character encodings, a set of reference data files, and a number of related items, such as character properties, rules for normalization, decomposition, collation, rendering, and bidirectional display order (for the correct display of text containing both right-to-left scripts, such as Arabic and Hebrew, and left-to-right scripts). As of June 2015[update], the most recent version is Unicode 8.0. The standard is maintained by the Unicode Consortium. Unicode can be implemented by different character encodings. The most commonly used encodings are UTF-8, UTF-16 and the now-obsolete UCS-2. UTF-8 uses one byte for any ASCII character, all of which have the same code values in both UTF-8 and ASCII encoding, and up to four bytes for other characters. UCS-2 uses a 16-bit code unit (two 8-bit bytes) for each character but cannot encode every character in the current Unicode standard. UTF-16 extends UCS-2, using one 16-bit unit for the characters that were representable in UCS-2 and two 16-bit units (4 × 8 bits) to handle each of the additional characters.

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CHAPTER VI. _The Duke Visits Hauteville_ PARLIAMENT assembled, the town filled, and every moment in the day of the Duke of St. James was occupied. Sir Carte and his tribe filled up the morning. Then there were endless visits to endless visitors; dressing; riding, chiefly with Lady Caroline; luncheons, and the bow window at White's. Then came the evening with all its crash and glare; the banquet, the opera, and the ball. The Duke of St. James took the oaths and his seat. He was introduced by Lord Fitz-pompey. He heard a debate. We laugh at such a thing, especially in the Upper House; but, on the whole, the affair is imposing, particularly if we take part in it. Lord Ex-Chamberlain thought the nation going on wrong, and he made a speech full of currency and constitution. Baron Deprivyseal seconded him with great effect, brief but bitter, satirical and sore. The Earl of Quarterday answered these, full of confidence in the nation and in himself. When the debate was getting heavy, Lord Snap jumped up to give them something light. The Lords do not encourage wit, and so are obliged to put up with pertness. But Viscount Memoir was very statesmanlike, and spouted a sort of universal history. Then there was Lord Ego, who vindicated his character, when nobody knew he had one, and explained his motives, because his auditors could not understand his acts. Then there was a maiden speech, so inaudible that it was doubted whether, after all, the young orator really did lose his virginity. In the end, up started the Premier, who, having nothing to say, was manly, and candid, and liberal; gave credit to his adversaries and took credit to himself, and then the motion was withdrawn.

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CHAPTER I MABEL PONDERS It was four o'clock in the afternoon and Marston sat by a window in an English country house. His pose was limp and his face was thin, for the fever had shaken him, but he felt his strength coming back. Outside, bare trees shook their branches in a fresh west wind, and a white belt of surf crept across the shining sands in the broad estuary. On the other side, the Welsh hills rose against the sunset in a smooth black line. Marston felt pleasantly languid and altogether satisfied. Mabel had put a cushion under his head and given him a footstool. It was soothing to be taken care of by one whom one loved, and after the glare of the Caribbean and the gloom of the swamps, the soft colors and changing lights of the English landscape rested his eyes. For all that, they did not wander long from Mabel, who sat close by, quietly pondering. With her yellow hair and delicate pink skin she looked very English, and all that was English had an extra charm for Marston. He liked her thoughtful calm. Mabel was normal; she, so to speak, walked in the light, and the extravagant imaginings he had indulged at the lagoon vanished when she was about. Yet he had been forced to remember much, for Chisholm and Flora had come to hear his story, and he had felt he must make them understand in order to do his comrade justice. Flora's grateful glance and the sparkle in Chisholm's eyes hinted that he had not altogether failed.

wikipedia

Estonia (i/ɛˈstoʊniə/; Estonian: Eesti [ˈeːsti]), officially the Republic of Estonia (Estonian: Eesti Vabariik), is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia (343 km), and to the east by Lake Peipus and Russia (338.6 km). Across the Baltic Sea lies Sweden in the west and Finland in the north. The territory of Estonia consists of a mainland and 2,222 islands and islets in the Baltic Sea, covering 45,339 km2 (17,505 sq mi) of land, and is influenced by a humid continental climate. After centuries of Danish, Swedish and German rule the native Estonians started to yearn for independence during the period of national awakening while being governed by the Russian Empire. Established on 24 February 1918, the Republic of Estonia came into existence towards the end of World War I. During World War II, Estonia was then occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940, then Nazi Germany a year later and again in 1944 establishing the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1988, during the Singing Revolution, the Estonian SSR issued the Estonian Sovereignty Declaration to defy against the illegal Soviet rule. Estonia then restored its independence during the 1991 coup by the Soviets on the night of 20 August 1991.

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CHAPTER I "NEREI REPANDIROSTRUM INCURVICERVICUM PECUS." A Dingy, swashy, splashy afternoon in October; a school-yard filled with a mob of riotous boys. A lot of us standing outside. Suddenly came a dull, crashing sound from the schoolroom. At the ominous interruption I shuddered involuntarily, and called to Smithsye,-- "What's up, Smithums?" "Guy's cleaning out the fourth form," he replied. At the same moment George de Coverly passed me, holding his nose, from whence the bright Norman blood streamed redly. To him the plebeian Smithsye laughingly,-- "Cully! how's his nibs?" I pushed the door of the schoolroom open. There are some spectacles which a man never forgets. The burning of Troy probably seemed a large-sized conflagration to the pious Aeneas, and made an impression on him which he carried away with the feeble Anchises. In the centre of the room, lightly brandishing the piston-rod of a steam-engine, stood Guy Heavystone alone. I say alone, for the pile of small boys on the floor in the corner could hardly be called company. I will try and sketch him for the reader. Guy Heavystone was then only fifteen. His broad, deep chest, his sinewy and quivering flank, his straight pastern, showed him to be a thoroughbred. Perhaps he was a trifle heavy in the fetlock, but he held his head haughtily erect. His eyes were glittering but pitiless. There was a sternness about the lower part of his face,--the old Heavystone look,--a sternness heightened, perhaps, by the snaffle-bit which, in one of his strange freaks, he wore in his mouth to curb his occasional ferocity. His dress was well adapted to his square-set and herculean frame. A striped knit undershirt, close-fitting striped tights, and a few spangles set off his figure; a neat Glengarry cap adorned his head. On it was displayed the Heavystone crest, a cock _regardant_ on a dunghill _or_, and the motto, "Devil a better!"

wikipedia

Oklahoma i/ˌoʊkləˈhoʊmə/ (Cherokee: Asgaya gigageyi / ᎠᏍᎦᏯ ᎩᎦᎨᏱ; or translated ᎣᎦᎳᎰᎹ (òɡàlàhoma), Pawnee: Uukuhuúwa, Cayuga: Gahnawiyoˀgeh) is a state located in the South Central United States. Oklahoma is the 20th most extensive and the 28th most populous of the 50 United States. The state's name is derived from the Choctaw words okla and humma, meaning "red people". It is also known informally by its nickname, The Sooner State, in reference to the non-Native settlers who staked their claims on the choicest pieces of land before the official opening date, and the Indian Appropriations Act of 1889, which opened the door for white settlement in America's Indian Territory. The name was settled upon statehood, Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory were merged and Indian was dropped from the name. On November 16, 1907, Oklahoma became the 46th state to enter the union. Its residents are known as Oklahomans, or informally "Okies", and its capital and largest city is Oklahoma City.

race

What's your favorite cartoon? It may be difficult for you to decide. But for pianist Lang Lang, Tom and Jerry is the best one. When Lang was two years old, he saw Tom play the piano. This was his first time to enjoy western music and this experience encouraged him to learn to play the piano. His talent at the keyboard has taken him from Shenyang to the world. Lang became a good piano student at three. Ever since, the boy has been doing better and better. In 1997, the 15-year-old boy studied at a famous American music college. Lang's performances are energetic. He is well-known for making facial expressions and moving around while playing the piano. The road to success has never been easy. Lang's father stopped his job to look after him, while his mother stayed in Shenyang to make money. But Lang thinks himself lucky and believes he should give something back. He has helped the children in poor areas a lot.

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CHAPTER TWENTY ONE. TELLS OF A SERIES OF TERRIBLE SURPRISES. "Well, what did you think of that, old girl?" asked Peter Pax of Tottie, on issuing from the Literary Message-Boys' Hall, after having performed his duties there. "It was wonderful. I 'ad no idear that the Post-Office was so old or so grand a' institootion--But please don't forget father," said Tottie, with an anxious look at the battered clock. "I don't forget 'im, Tot. I've been thinkin' about 'im the whole time, an' I've made up my mind what to do. The only thing I ain't sure of is whether I shouldn't take my friend Phil Maylands into partnership." "Oh, please, don't," pleaded Tottie; "I shouldn't like 'im to know about father." "Well, the less he knows about 'im the better. P'r'aps you're right. I'll do it alone, so you cut away home. I'll go to have my personal appearance improved, and then off to Charing Cross. Lots of time, Tottie. Don't be anxious. Try if you can trust me. I'm small, no doubt, but I'm tough.--Good-night." When Abel Bones seated himself that night in a third-class carriage at Charing Cross, and placed a neat little black hand-bag, in which he carried his housebreaking tools, on the floor between his feet, a small negro boy entered the carriage behind him, and, sitting down directly opposite, stared at him as if lost in unutterable amazement. Mr Bones took no notice of the boy at first, but became annoyed at last by the pertinacity of his attention.

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CHAPTER TWENTY NINE. THE FISHERY DISASTERS. One fine day, when summer had merged into autumn, and things in Red River appeared to be advancing favourably, and Dan Davidson had recovered his strength, and Little Bill was fairly well, it occurred to Okematan that he would like to go to Lake Winnipeg, and see how the settlers who had gone to the fishery there, were getting on. You see, the Cree chief was an observant savage, and, before returning to his tribe, had made up his mind to see all the phases in the life of the new Palefaces who had thus come to take possession of the land. He was a remarkably independent fellow, and as he served the Davidsons for nothing except his food--which he did not count, as he could easily have supplied himself with victuals by means of his line, bow, and gun-- he did not deem it necessary to ask leave of absence. He merely went to the house one morning, and announced his intention of going to Lake Winnipeg to fish. "I will go with you," said Dan, to whom the announcement was made. "An' so will I," said Fred Jenkins, who chanced to be conversing with Dan at the time--"that is, if they can spare me just now." "The canoe of Okematan," said the chief, "holds no more than three. He wishes to take with him Arch-ee and Leetil Bill." "Very well," returned Dan, "there's no objection to that, for there is not much doing on the farm at this moment, and Archie has worked hard all the summer, so he deserves a holiday. We will just make up the same party that started last time, only that Fergus and I will take a somewhat bigger canoe so as to accommodate you, Jenkins."

mctest

One day, my dog woke up early and wouldn't go back to sleep. Why did the dog wake up early? I tried really hard to find out. "Are you sick, dog?" I asked. He didn't say anything, so I took his temperature. It said he wasn't sick! "Are you hungry, dog?" He didn't say anything, so I feed him some dog food. He didn't eat it! "Are you thirsty, dog?" He didn't say anything, so I gave him some water. He didn't drink it! "What's wrong, dog?" He wagged and wagged his tail, and then went over to a bag of balloons that I had. He poked them with his nose. "Oh!" I said. I went over to the balloons and took one out of the bag. I blew it up. He wagged his tail harder. "Is it your birthday, dog?" He wagged and wagged. It must be his birthday! I baked him a bright yellow cake and blew up more balloons. I played his favorite music. We had a party. It was so much fun!

cnn

(CNN) -- He may not have started from the top of the mountain but it was still a dream downhill for Patrick Kueng as he skied to victory at the World Cup event in Wengen. The course at the Swiss Alpine resort is renowned as the longest downhill course on the World Cup calendar at 4.4 kilometers (2.12 miles) long but high winds Saturday meant the skiers had to start their runs lower down the slope. Victory still tasted sweet for Switzerland's Kueng, who beat Austrian Hannes Reichelt and Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal with a time of one minute 32.66 seconds. "Since I was a kid, I've been watching this race," the 30-year-old told reporters. "My first dream was to race it and my second dream was to win it. "In 2006 I had a terrible accident in which I broke one leg and broke the ankle in my other leg. I ended up in a wheelchair and my thoughts did turn to quitting. "It was a very tough time, but when I decided to continue, it was nothing but 100 per cent. Eventually I got a World Cup spot and now I'm here!" Keung has never represented Switzerland at a Winter Olympics and is hoping that two World Cup victories this season will be enough to book his place on the plane to the Sochi Games next month. American Ted Ligety, a 2006 Olympic gold medallist in the combined, tuned up for his next tilt at the Games with a decisive victory in the super-combined in Wengen Friday.

race

Travelling around the world is a dream for many people, but a young couple from China has made his dream come true. They drove along the ancient Silk Road, from China to the UK. Luo Chang and Ding Jie, a young couple from China's Guizhou Province, spent two months drving from their home in Shanghai all the way to London. The journey covered about 20,000 kilometer, and they crossed 14 countries and regions . Ding Jie said, " People were excited to see two travelers driving a foreign license car, appearing on their streets. We were stopped many times to take photos with them. Sometimes, when we couldn't understand each other's language, they would express their ideas with gestures . During their driving trip, they also spent many nights in local people's homes. Luo Chang said, "This is an amazing experience. We were driving on a highway or a country road to someone's home. Someone you've never met but was already preparing dinner for you. We feelwe have friends all over the world. During the trip, Luo and Ding took nearly 10,000 photos and kept diaries to record the beautiful scenery , the friendly people and the different customs on the way. ,.

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CHAPTER X: BESET During the winter Hannibal made every preparation to ensure the tranquillity of Spain while he was absent. In order to lessen the number of possible enemies there he raised a body of twelve hundred horse and fourteen thousand infantry from among the most turbulent tribes, and sent them across to Africa to serve as garrisons in Carthage and other points, while an equal number of African troops were brought over to garrison Spain, of which Hasdrubal, Hannibal's brother, was to have the government during his absence. Hanno, an able general, was to command the force which was to be left in southern Gaul to keep open the communications between the Pyrenees and the Alps, while the youngest brother, Mago, a youth of about the same age as Malchus, was to accompany him to Italy. Hannibal's wife and a child which had been born in the preceding spring, were sent by ship to Carthage. In the early spring the march commenced, the army following the coast line until it reached the mouth of the Ebro. The mountainous and broken country lying between this river and the Pyrenees, and now known as Catalonia, was inhabited by fierce tribes unconquered as yet by Roman or Carthaginian. Its conquest presented enormous difficulties. There was no coherence between its people; but each valley and mountain was a stronghold to be defended desperately until the last. The inhabitants, accustomed to the mountains, were hardy, active, and, vigourous, ready to oppose a desperate resistance so long as resistance was possible, and then to flee across their hills at a speed which defied the fleetest of their pursuers.