Datasets:

stanfordnlp

/

coqa

like 54

Follow

Stanford NLP 15

race

It's summer movie time again. Check out our list of four films. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Release Date: November 4 Story: It's the summer before Harry Potter's third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. A dangerous murderer, Sirius Black, has escaped from the Wizards' Prison. And he was ordered to kill Harry Potter. Around the World in 80 Days Release Date: November 16 Story: This version of the classic novel set in 1872 focuses on Passepartout ( Hong Kong actor Jackie Chan), a Chinese thief who seeks refuge with a strange London adventurer, Phileas Fogg. Passepartout uses his martial art skills to defend Fogg from danger as he travels around the world in 80 days. Spider-Man 2 Release Date: November 30 Story: Peter Parker is still coming to accept his dual identity as the crime superhero Spider-Man. He wants to reveal his secret identity to Mary Jane, meanwhile, his Aunt May is in trouble. This is Dr Otto Octavius who has appeared to bring her a lot of troubles. King Arthur Release Date: November 7 Story: King Arthur is presented as a clever ruler who manages to unite all the knights in Britain. Under the guidance of Merlin and the beautiful, brave Guinevere, Arthur will struggle to realize his dreams.

gutenberg

CHAPTER XVI FRANK KILLS A DEER They plodded through the bush for an hour or two without seeing any living thing except a few pigeons, and Harry began to look doubtful. "If it was early morning, I'd try one of the rock outcrops where nothing grows," he observed. "The deer get up on to those places out of the dew then. As it's afternoon, I don't know which way to head." Frank glanced at his clothes. Keen as he was on hunting, he would not have been sorry to head for home, for his duck trousers were badly torn and one of his boots which had been rather the worse for wear when he started was almost dropping off his foot. They trudged on, however, and accident favored them, as it often does when one is hunting, for at last when they were in very thick bush Harry dropped suddenly behind a patch of withered fern. "Look there!" he said softly. "Right ahead of you yonder." Frank gazed ahead with straining eyes, but he could only see the great trunks stretching back in serried ranks. He had heard somewhat to his astonishment that it is not often that a novice can see a deer in the bush even when it is pointed out to him, but now, it seemed, the thing was true. He could have declared that there was not a deer anywhere within the range of his vision. "Right in front," whispered Harry, impatiently. "About seventy yards off. Oh, look yonder!"

cnn

New York (CNN) -- A federal judge has ordered that an official monitor be put in place to prevent discrimination in the hiring of New York City firefighters. U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis said the city needs "to comprehensively reassess its policies and practices, to analyze the evidence showing the effect of those policies and practices, and to rationally consider how they can be changed to achieve a firefighter hiring process that is -- in actual practice and effect -- fair and open to all." The order requires the city to take remedial steps to fix discriminatory hiring practices and puts the court monitor in place for at least the next 10 years to make sure those steps are taken. Garaufis cited "the clear evidence of disparate impact that Mayor (Michael) Bloomberg and his senior leadership chose to ignore was obvious to anyone else who looked." "Instead of facing hard facts and asking hard questions about the City's abysmal track record of hiring black and Hispanic firefighters, the Bloomberg Administration dug in and fought back," the judge said in his ruling. Mark LaVorgna, a spokesman for the mayor, said the city intends to appeal the decision. Litigation against the city's firefighter hiring practices began in 2007, when the U.S. Department of Justice filed a complaint alleging the Fire Department of New York's hiring exams negatively affected black and Hispanic applicants. "Four years of litigation and two adverse liability rulings later, the City still doesn't get it," Garaufis said. "The City's senior leaders have routinely denied that they are responsible or doing anything to remedy nearly forty years of discrimination."

gutenberg

Chapter 4: An Experiment. Marie Vaillant, after remaining six weeks at the chateau, returned to England; and Philip, with a party of twelve men, escorted her to La Rochelle. Her visit was cut short somewhat, at the end, by the imminence of the outbreak of hostilities, in which case she might have found a difficulty in traversing the country. Moreover, La Rochelle would probably be besieged, soon after the war began; for being both an important town and port, the Catholics would be anxious to obtain possession of it, and so cut off the Huguenots from escape to England, besides rendering it difficult for Elizabeth to send a force to their assistance. "It has been a pleasant time," the countess said, on the morning of her departure; "and your presence has taken me back five-and-twenty years, Marie. I hope that when these troubles are past you will again come over, and spend a happier time with me. I was going to say that I will look well after Philip, but that I cannot do. He has cast his lot in with us, and must share our perils. I am greatly pleased with him, and I am glad that Francois will have him as a companion in arms. Francois is somewhat impulsive, and liable to be carried away by his ardour; and Philip, although the younger, is, it seems to me, the more thoughtful of the two. He is one I feel I can have confidence in. He is grave, yet merry; light hearted in a way, and yet, I think, prudent and cautious. It seems strange, but I shall part with Francois with the more comfort, in the thought that he has Philip with him.

wikipedia

Tampa () is a major city in, and the county seat of, Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. It is on the west coast of Florida on Tampa Bay, near the Gulf of Mexico, and is the largest city in the Tampa Bay Area. The city had a population of 335,709 at the 2010 census, and an estimated population of 377,165 in 2016. Archaeological evidence indicates the shores of Tampa Bay were inhabited by indigenous peoples for thousands of years. The Safety Harbor culture developed in the area around the year 1000 AD, and the descendant Tocobaga and Pohoy chiefdoms were living in or near the current city limits of Tampa when the area was first visited by Spanish explorers in the 16th century. Interactions between native peoples and the Spanish were brief and often violent, and although the newcomers did not stay for long, they introduced European diseases which brought the collapse of native societies across the Florida peninsula over the ensuing decades. Although Spain claimed all of Florida and beyond as part of New Spain, it did not found a colony on the west coast. After the disappearance of the indigenous populations, there were no permanent settlements in the Tampa Bay area until after the United States acquired Florida from Spain in 1821.

gutenberg

CHAPTER XVIII: DOUBLE, DOUBLE TOIL AND TROUBLE 'Truly the tender mercies of the weak, As of the wicked, are but cruel.' And how did Lilias show that she had been truly benefited by her sorrows? Did she fall back into her habits of self-indulgence, or did she run into ill-directed activity, selfish as her indolence, because only gratifying the passion of the moment? Those who lived with her saw but little change; kind-hearted and generous she had ever been, and many had been her good impulses, so that while she daily became more steady in well-doing, and exerting herself on principle, no one remarked it, and no one entered into the struggles which it cost her to tame her impetuosity, or force herself to do what was disagreeable to herself, and might offend Emily. However, Emily could forgive a great deal when she found that Lily was ready to take any part of the business of the household and schoolroom, which she chose to impose upon her, without the least objection, yet to leave her to assume as much of the credit of managing as she chose--to have no will or way of her own, and to help her to keep her wardrobe in order. The schoolroom was just now more of a labour than had ever been the case, at least to one who, like Lilias, if she did a thing at all, would not be satisfied with half doing it. Phyllis was not altered, except that she cried less, and had in a great measure cured herself of dawdling habits and tricks, by her honest efforts to obey well- remembered orders of Eleanor's; but still her slowness and dulness were trying to her teachers, and Lily had often to reproach herself for being angry with her 'when she was doing her best.'

gutenberg

CHAPTER XVI AND THE PUPPETS DANCED And so he went to meet Louisa and Colonel Harris at the Danish Legation, and found them a taxicab and generally saw to their comparative comfort. There was no restraint between the three of them. It was as natural to them all to avoid speaking of important matters on the door step of a neighbour's house, as it was to eat or drink or breathe. So Luke asked if the dinner had been enjoyable and the reception crowded, and Colonel Harris comfortably complained of both. He hated foreign cooking, and society crushes, and had endured both to-night. No doubt the terrible events of this night, as yet mere shadows--hardly admitted to be real--were weighing on the kind old man's usual hearty spirits. But so versed were they all in the art of make believe that each one individually was able to register in the innermost depths of an anxious heart the firm conviction that the other "had not heard." Luke was convinced that the gruesome and sordid news could not have penetrated within the gorgeous mansion where Lou in an exquisite gown had sung modern songs in her pure contralto voice. He felt sure that neither Lou nor Colonel Harris had heard that Philip de Mountford had been murdered in a taxicab and that police officers had thought fit to speak to him--Luke--in tones of contemptuous familiarity. Nay more! now that he himself sat thus opposite good-natured, prosy, sensible Colonel Harris, he began to think that he must have been dreaming, that the whole thing could not have occurred, but that he had imagined it all whilst leaning against the garden-railings trying to strain his ears so that they should hear the soft faint echo of that pure contralto voice.

gutenberg

CHAPTER XXI. Shooting a Grizzly Bear "I wonder if Captain Grady is alone or if he has a number of the gang with him?" observed Paul, as he rode alongside of his younger brother, and just in front of the two men. "Most likely he is expecting trouble and has help at hand," returned Chet. "He knows well enough we won't give up our claim without a fight." "It's possible he thought to frighten us off until Allen got back from San Francisco." "Don't make any difference how much help he has," broke in Jack Blowfen. "He ain't no right to put ye out like a couple o' dogs, an' he knows it." In this manner the talk went on until a little after noon, when the locality known as Demon Hollow was reached. "Do you remember the badger, Paul?" laughed Chet. "The Hollow looks different in the daylight, doesn't it?" "Yes, indeed, but still--what was that?" "Jumpin' June bugs!" cried Jack Blowfen. "Dottery, did ye hear that?" "I did," replied the old ranch owner, and he clutched his gun apprehensively. "I heard something," said Chet. "What was it?" "A bar, boy, sure ez ye are born--a grizzly!" "Oh!" At once the little party came to a halt. To the right of them was a tall overhanging rock, to the left a number of prickly bushes. Ahead and behind was the winding and uneven road along which their animals had come on a walk. "Do ye see old Ephraim?" asked Jack Blowfen, as he, too, got his gun in readiness.

cnn

(CNN) -- Organizers of the 2018 Russia World Cup insist they have nothing to hide ahead of an investigation into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments. Football's world governing body FIFA awarded the 2018 competition to Russia and the 2022 World Cup to Qatar in December 2010, a decision which has been dogged by allegations of corruption and wrongdoing. Michael Garcia, a former New York attorney, is head of the investigative arm of FIFA's ethics committee and will visit all of the countries involved in the bidding process for the two tournaments, beginning in London next week. Garcia has always insisted he is completely independent from FIFA and would not hesitate to take action against president Sepp Blatter or other top FIFA officials if he found evidence that they broke the rules. The head of media for Russia 2018 says the committee will co-operate fully with Garcia's fact-finding investigation. "We can confirm the local organizing committee (LOC) will fully support Mr Garcia's work if he contacts us," read a statement issued to CNN. "The Russia 2018 committee ran a bid campaign in full compliance with FIFA rules and ethics, and we were awarded the right to host the FIFA World Cup because of the unique and compelling proposition we put together. "The LOC continues to conduct itself with exactly the same degree of transparency, commitment to excellence and spirit of fair play." Blog: Can the Qatar World Cup be moved? How and where Garcia's potential meeting with Russia takes place is open to question given in April he was one of 18 people barred from entering the country over what Moscow said were human rights abuses, linked to the lawyer's arrest and charging of Viktor Bout, a Russian, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence in the U.S. for arms trafficking.

cnn

(CNN) -- Joe Simon, the co-creator of star-spangled comic book hero Captain America, has died at 98, his family announced. Simon, a writer, editor and artist, passed away late Wednesday in New York after a short illness. Simon and artist Jack Kirby, who ran a studio, developed the character in the early 1940s and worked outside the box to develop a distinct design. "Together, the team created Captain America as well as long list of characters, including The Newsboy Legion and The Boy Commandos," a statement Thursday from Simon's family said. A Marvel Comics website provides a summary of Captain America and his superhero quest. "In World War II, patriotic soldier Steve Rogers, recipient of the 'Super Soldier Serum,' became the living symbol of freedom, Captain America. Left for dead while frozen in ice, the star-spangled hero with an indestructible shield awoke years later to continue his never-ending battle for liberty." The movie "Captain America: The First Avenger" was released this year. Chris Evans, in the title role, went up against villain Red Skull, played by Hugo Weaving. Kirby and Simon created Captain America for Timely Comics, Marvel's predecessor. The comic was a huge hit during World War II. With Captain America came some of Kirby's comic book innovations, Mark Evanier, author of the book "Kirby: King of Comics," told CNN in 2008. Comic books, which had started as reprints of newspaper comic strips, had adhered to that form's look of repetitious boxes. Kirby and Simon used different-sized panels, varying shapes, even full pages.

gutenberg

CHAPTER XXVII SAMMY JAY WORRIES It isn't often Sammy Jay worries about anybody but himself. Truth to tell, he doesn't worry about himself very often. You see, Sammy is smart, and he knows he is smart. Under that pointed cap of his are some of the cleverest wits in all the Green Forest. Sammy seldom worries about himself because he feels quite able to take care of himself. But Sammy Jay was worrying now. He was worrying about Lightfoot the Deer. Yes, Sir, Sammy Jay was worrying about Lightfoot the Deer. For two days he had been unable to find Lightfoot or any trace of Lightfoot. But he did find plenty of hunters with terrible guns. It seemed to him that they were everywhere in the Green Forest. Sammy began to suspect that one of them must have succeeded in killing Lightfoot the Deer. Sammy knew all of Lightfoot's hiding-places. He visited every one of them. Lightfoot wasn't to be found, and no one whom Sammy met had seen Lightfoot for two days. Sammy felt badly. You see, he was very fond of Lightfoot. You remember it was Sammy who warned Lightfoot of the coming of the hunter on the morning when the dreadful hunting season began. Ever since the hunting season had opened, Sammy had done his best to make trouble for the hunters. Whenever he had found one of them he had screamed at the top of his voice to warn every one within hearing just where that hunter was. Once a hunter had lost his temper and shot at Sammy, but Sammy had suspected that something of the kind might happen, and he had taken care to keep just out of reach.

gutenberg

CHAPTER VIII AN UNUSUAL COMPACT "He'll do it--he is bound to do it!" cried Ben, as he and Phil hurried down to the dining-room. "I think so myself, Ben," answered the shipowner's son. But, for some reason, he did not seem as joyful over the outcome of the interview as might have been expected. "He won't dare let this news become public property," went on the other student. "He is too afraid of public opinion." "Ben, he thinks we got that lawyer to take the case up." "You told him we hadn't." "But he didn't believe it--I could tell that by his manner. And, Ben, do you know, after all, this looks to me as if we had, somehow, bribed him to be easy on us," continued Phil, with added concern. "Oh, don't bother your head about that, Phil. We only asked for what is fair, didn't we?" "Yes, but----" And then the shipowner's son did not finish, because he did not know what to say. In some manner, Phil's conscience troubled him, and he wondered what Dave and Roger would say when they heard of what had occurred. During the meal that followed but little was said by any of the boys. Once or twice our hero looked at Phil, but the latter avoided his gaze. As soon as the repast was over, Phil rushed outside, followed by Ben; and that was the last seen of the pair until it was time to go to bed. "They have been up to something, that is certain," was the comment of the senator's son.

gutenberg

CHAPTER XVII. Do not fear: Heaven is as near, By water, as by land.--LONGFELLOW. The fifth of May was poor Harry's eighteenth birthday, and, as usual, was a holiday. Etheldred privately thought his memory more likely to be respected, if Blanche and Aubrey were employed, than if they were left in idleness; but Mary would have been wretched had the celebration been omitted, and a leisure day was never unwelcome. Dr. Spencer carried off Blanche and Aubrey for a walk, and Ethel found Mary at her great resort--Harry's cupboard--dusting and arranging his books, and the array of birthday gifts, to which, even to-day, she had not failed to add the marker that had been in hand at Christmas. Ethel entreated her to come down, and Mary promised, and presently appeared, looking so melancholy, that, as a sedative, Ethel set her down to the basket of scraps to find materials for a tippet for some one at Cocksmoor, intending, as soon as Margaret should be dressed, to resign her morning to the others, invite Miss Bracy to the drawing-room, and read aloud. Gertrude was waiting for her walk, till nurse should have dressed Margaret, and was frisking about the lawn, sometimes looking in at the drawing-room window at her sisters, sometimes chattering to Adams at his work, or laughing to herself and the flowers, in that overflow of mirth, that seemed always bubbling up within her. She was standing in rapt contemplation of a pear-tree in full blossom, her hands tightly clasped behind the back, for greater safety from the temptation, when, hearing the shrubbery gate open, she turned, expecting to see her papa, but was frightened at the sight of two strangers, and began to run off at full speed.

gutenberg

CHAPTER II THE ENCOUNTER ON THE RIVER For the instant after the collision occurred none of the Rover boys uttered a word. Tom and Sam stared in amazement at Mumps, while Dick gazed helplessly at the damage done. "Pull her away, quick, Bill!" cried Mumps in a low voice to the old sailor, who at once sprang forward and shoved the two yachts apart with a long boathook. Then the rudder of the _Falcon_ was put hard a port, and she swung, away for a distance of half a dozen yards. "We are sinking!" gasped Tom, who was the first of the three brothers to find his voice. "Mumps, you rascal, what do you mean by this work?" demanded Dick. And then, without waiting for an answer, he turned to Sam. "Steer for the shore and beach her--if you can." "I don't believe we can make it, Dick. But we can try." "We'll have you locked up for this, Mumps," shouted Tom. "I couldn't help it--it was an accident," returned the former sneak of Putnam Hall glibly. "You should have kept out of the way." "We'll see about that later on." "Maybe you want us to help you." "We shan't ask you for the favor," burst out Sam. "I'd rather drown first." But Sam did not exactly mean this. He and his brothers could all swim, and he felt certain that they were in no immediate danger of their lives. "You had better not ask any favors. I wouldn't pick you up for a barrel of money."

wikipedia

The Southwestern United States (also known as the American Southwest) is the informal name for a region of the western United States. Definitions vary a great deal and have never been standardized--and many have been proposed. For example, it might include the stretch from east of Los Angeles to El Paso, and from the Mexican border to south of Denver. The population for that particular definition area is around 11 million people, with over half that in the state of Arizona. The largest metropolitan areas are Phoenix (with a population over 4 million people) and Las Vegas (about 2 million); other significant population centers in the Southwest are Albuquerque, El Paso, and Tucson. Most of the area was part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain in the Spanish Empire before becoming part of Mexico. European settlement was almost non-existent outside New Mexico in 1848, when it became part of the United States through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo; far southern Arizona was added in the later Gadsden Purchase. The geography of the region is mainly made up by four features: the Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan Deserts, and the Colorado Plateau; although there are other geographical features as well, such as a portion of the Great Basin Desert. The deserts dominate the southern and western reaches of the area, while the plateau (which is largely made up of high desert) is the main feature north of the Mogollon Rim. The two major rivers of the region are the Colorado River, running in the northern and western areas, and the Rio Grande, running in the east, north to south.

race

Few of us haven't read Cinderella , the story of a young woman living in poverty who meets the prince of her dreams. Some might not want to admit it, but there is a hidden Cinderella in everyone's heart--we all wish we could achieve recognition or success after a period of obscurity . Mary Santiago has that secret dream, too. Her story is featured in Another Cinderella Story, a film set in a US high school. Mary is shy but loves to dance. Compared with other girls, she is invisible. However, her world changes completely when a famous teenager pop singer, Joey Parker, appears. Joey is everything the rest of the boys in her class are not--kind, handsome and desirable. Mary and Joey's paths cross at a ball. They meet and fall in love with each other. But when Mary has to rush back home, she leaves behind her MP3 player, which becomes the only clue Joey has to find the girl of his dreams. Of course, there is a wicked stepmother, who turns out to be Dominique Blatt and she takes in Mary after her dancer mother dies. Dominique treats Mary like a maid and does everything she can to make sure Mary doesn't get into the top dance school. Her two daughters are equally determined to stop Joey falling for Mary, even if that means embarrassing her. The story, though it mostly follows Cinderella, does add a few modern day twists to the classic fairy tale. Refreshingly, the film, unlike many high school films, does not focus on looks, although the actors are all beautiful. There is also a lot less materialism in Another Cinderella Story than in many similar movies. "The movie takes the Cinderella fairytale as its jumping off point," writes movie critic Amber Wilkinson, "The focus is firmly on following your dream."

wikipedia

The Times is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register and became The Times on 1 January 1788. The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times (founded in 1821) are published by Times Newspapers, since 1981 a subsidiary of News UK, itself wholly owned by the News Corp group headed by Rupert Murdoch. The Times and The Sunday Times do not share editorial staff, were founded independently and have only had common ownership since 1967. The Times is the first newspaper to have borne that name, lending it to numerous other papers around the world, including The Times of India (founded in 1838), The Straits Times (Singapore) (1845), The New York Times (1851), The Irish Times (1859), Le Temps (France) (1861-1942), the Cape Times (South Africa) (1872), the Los Angeles Times (1881), The Seattle Times (1891), The Manila Times (1898), The Daily Times (Malawi) (1900), El Tiempo (Colombia) (1911), The Canberra Times (1926), and The Times (Malta) (1935). In these countries, the newspaper is often referred to as The London Times or The Times of London.

gutenberg

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO. TOUCHES ON LOVE AND ON PILCHARD FISHING. There can be no doubt that "Fortune favours the brave," and Maggot was one of those braves whom, about this time, she took special delight in favouring. Wild and apparently reckless though he was, Maggot had long cherished an ambitious hope, and had for some time past been laying by money for the purpose of accomplishing his object, which was the procuring of a seine-net and boats for the pilchard fishery. The recent successes he had met with in Botallack enabled him to achieve his aim more rapidly than he had anticipated, and on the day following that in which Clearemout received his deserts, he went to Penberth Cove to see that all was in readiness, for pilchards had recently appeared off the coast in small shoals. That same day Oliver Trembath, having spent a night of misery in Penzance, made up his mind to return to St. Just and face his fate like a man; but he found it so difficult to carry this resolve into effect that he diverged from the highroad--as he had done on his first memorable visit to that region--and, without knowing very well why, sauntered in a very unenviable frame of mind towards Penberth Cove. Old Mr Donnithorne possessed a pretty villa near the cove, to which he was wont to migrate when Mrs D felt a desire for change of air, and in which he frequently entertained large parties of friends in the summer season. In his heart poor Mr Donnithorne had condemned this villa "to the hammer," but the improved appearance of things in the mines had induced him to suspend the execution of the sentence. News of the appearance of pilchards, and a desire to give Rose a change after her late adventure, induced Mr Donnithorne to hire a phaeton (he had recently parted with his own) and drive over to Penberth.

gutenberg

CHAPTER XXXIII. THE RIVAL AUCTIONEERS. It may well be imagined that Matt read Ida Bartlett's letter with great interest. The young auctioneer had never received a communication as surprising as was this one. He went over every word carefully several times, then placed the letter in his pocket, and started off to find Andy. Half an hour later he came across his partner on the main street. Andy had just rented a store, one of two vacant ones which were side by side, and was now on his way to drive the wagon around and unload the stock. "Well, did you get a letter, Matt?" "I did." "Good enough. Any special news?" "Yes, indeed. Just read that." And the young auctioneer passed the communication over for his partner's perusal. Andy read the letter as carefully as had Matt. He emitted a long, low whistle. "What do you think of it?" "I hardly know what to think, Matt. Do you know anything about this mining share business?" "I know that Randolph Fenton sold my father some shares, that is all. I never saw the certificates, if that is what they are called." "Did you ever see the papers in connection with the shares?" "No." "Then they must have been in your father's possession when he disappeared." "I don't know about that. Mother might have had them when father was first sent to the asylum for treatment. Although I remember hearing her once say that since father's mind had become affected he would not trust any one with his affairs, but kept all his money and papers hidden away."

cnn

SRINAGAR, Indian-administered Kashmir (CNN) -- Six family members were buried alive after an avalanche crashed into their house in a remote village in Indian-administered Kashmir, officials said Friday. A total of 10 people were killed Friday following five days of continuous snowfall in the mountainous region. An avalanche in the mountainous Peth Hallan village rolled over the family's house Friday morning, engulfing it in snow, Kashmir Divisional Commissioner Mehboob Iqbal told CNN. Indian army and police rescue teams were able to rescue only one of the seven family members in the house, he said. Peth Hallan is about 68 miles (110 kilometers) south of Srinagar. Another avalanche in the village of Nayal, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) from Srinagar, killed three people, including a woman, a senior police official said. And in the village of Gulab Bagh, in north Kashmir, a third avalanche buried a house Friday morning, killing one person and injuring three, he said. "We have so far removed to safety over 300 persons from avalanche-prone villages of Waltengo Nar and Gulab Bagh, and lodged them in makeshift rescue centers," the senior police official said. After nearly a week of snowfall, authorities have sounded a red alert in the area, asking residents not to move out of their homes, citing the high risk of avalanches. They are a common threat in Kashmir during winters, and scores of lives have been claimed by them this season in areas where people live along the Himalayan mountain ranges. E-mail to a friend

cnn

(CNN) -- A year to the day after he killed his girlfriend, South African "blade runner" Oscar Pistorius broke his silence Friday, describing her death as a "devastating accident." The double amputee Olympic star is charged with premeditated murder in the shooting death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, a model and law school graduate. He has never denied killing the woman he calls the love of his life on Valentine's Day last year. But he maintains that he mistook her for a home invader when he shot her in the bathroom of his upscale home in Pretoria. Since being freed on bail, he has remained largely out of the spotlight. He released a statement Friday, the anniversary of her death, saying he will carry the "complete trauma" of the day forever. "No words can adequately capture my feelings about the devastating accident that has caused such heartache for everyone who truly loved -- and continues to love Reeva," he said on his website. "The pain and sadness -- especially for Reeva's parents, family and friends consumes me with sorrow." Pistorius, an Olympic sprinter, also tweeted about her death for the first time since the shooting. "A few words from my heart," the tweet said, linking to the statement on his website. His statement got mixed reviews on social media. "Apparently Oscar Pistorius is 'consumed by sorrow'. All these perpetrators claiming victim status. Again, I want to scream," Marianna Tortell tweeted. Others were more forgiving. "God bless you, Oscar," @Sissi_olcp tweeted. "Such kind and heartfelt words. My thoughts and prayers are with you, your family and Reeva's loved ones."

cnn

(CNN) -- A court in Fulton County, Georgia, has temporarily stopped the scheduled Monday night execution of condemned murderer Warren Hill. Hill was sentenced to death for the 1990 killing of Joseph Handspike, another inmate in a Georgia state prison. He was convicted of beating Handspike to death with a nail-studded board while serving a life sentence in the 1985 killing of his girlfriend, Myra Wright. His lawyers have argued that Hill is mentally retarded. Last minute stay of execution granted in February "Today, the Court found that more time is needed to explore Mr. Hill's complaint, which raises serious concerns about the extreme secrecy surrounding the execution process in Georgia, and the new Lethal Injection Secrecy Act, which took effect one day before Georgia issued a death warrant for Mr. Hill," Brian Kammer, Hill's attorney said in a statement. Monday is not the first time Hill's execution has been halted. He had previously been scheduled to die last July, but the state Supreme Court stopped the execution on procedural grounds. Hill was granted another stay in February. According to Kammer, a briefing on Hill's complaint will take place Thursday. A new execution date is expected to be set for the same day, he said. "Ultimately, we are hopeful that the United States Supreme Court will hear Mr. Hill's pending Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus, and will have the opportunity to consider the important new evidence in this case, that there is unanimous consensus among all the doctors who have examined Mr. Hill, including three who previously testified for the state, that he is a person with mental retardation, and thus ineligible for the death penalty," said Kammer.

wikipedia

Located at a varying distance no closer than 33 million miles from the earth, Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System after Mercury. In English Mars carries a name of the Roman god of war, and is often referred to as the "Red Planet" because the reddish iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance that is distinctive among the astronomical bodies visible to the naked eye. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere, having surface features reminiscent both of the impact craters of the Moon and the valleys, deserts, and polar ice caps of Earth. The rotational period and seasonal cycles of Mars are likewise similar to those of Earth, as is the tilt that produces the seasons. Mars is the site of Olympus Mons, the largest volcano and second-highest known mountain in the Solar System, and of Valles Marineris, one of the largest canyons in the Solar System. The smooth Borealis basin in the northern hemisphere covers 40% of the planet and may be a giant impact feature. Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos, which are small and irregularly shaped. These may be captured asteroids, similar to 5261 Eureka, a Mars trojan.

gutenberg

CHAPTER VII Unfruitful Suggestions "Raymond! Can you spare me a moment before you go into your mother's room?" It was Rosamond who, to his surprise, as he was about to go down- stairs, met him and drew him into her apartment--his mother's own dressing-room, which he had not entered since the accident. "Is anything the matter?" he said, thinking that Julius might have spared him from complaints of Cecil. "Oh no! only one never can speak to you, and Julius told me that you could tell me about Mrs. Poynsett. I can't help thinking she could be moved more than she is." Then, as he was beginning to speak, "Do you know that, the morning of the fire, I carried her with only one of the maids to the couch under the tent-room window? Susan was frightened out of her wits, but she was not a bit the worse for it." "Ah! that was excitement." "But if it did not hurt her then, why should it hurt her again? There's old General M'Kinnon, my father's old friend, who runs about everywhere in a wheeled-chair with a leg-rest; and I can't think why she should not do the same." Raymond smiled kindly on her, but rather sadly; perhaps he was recollecting his morning's talk about the occupancy of the drawing- room. "You know it is her spine," he said. "So it is with him. His horse rolled over him at Sebastopol, and he has never walked since. I wanted to write to Mary M'Kinnon; but Julius said I had better talk to you, because he was only at home for a fortnight, when she was at the worst, and you knew more about it."

wikipedia

Togo (), officially the Togolese Republic (), is a country in West Africa bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its capital Lomé is located. Togo covers , making it one of the smallest countries in Africa, with a population of approximately /1e6 round 1 million. From the 11th to the 16th century, various tribes entered the region from all directions. From the 16th century to the 18th century, the coastal region was a major trading center for Europeans to search for slaves, earning Togo and the surrounding region the name "The Slave Coast". In 1884, Germany declared Togoland a protectorate. After World War I, rule over Togo was transferred to France. Togo gained its independence from France in 1960. In 1967, Gnassingbé Eyadéma led a successful military coup d'état after which he became president. At the time of his death in 2005, Gnassingbé was the longest-serving leader in modern African history, after having been president for 38 years. In 2005, his son Faure Gnassingbé was elected president. Togo is a tropical, sub-Saharan nation, whose economy depends highly on agriculture, with a climate that provides good growing seasons. While the official language is French, many other languages are spoken in Togo, particularly those of the Gbe family. The largest religious group in Togo consists of those with indigenous beliefs, and there are significant Christian and Muslim minorities. Togo is a member of the United Nations, African Union, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, South Atlantic Peace and Cooperation Zone, La Francophonie and Economic Community of West African States.

race

Darek Fidyka, a 38-year-old Bulgarian, had been paralyzed from the chest down for four years after a knife attack. Scientists from Britain and Poland took cells from his nose, transplanted them into his back and re-grew his spinal cord . Now he can walk and even drive a car. The doctors were delighted but said it was the first step in a long journey. The breakthrough came after 40 years of research by Professor Geoff Raisman, who found that cells had the possibility to repair damage to nasal nerves, the only part of the nervous system that constantly re-grows. "The idea was to take something from an area where the nervous system can repair itself and put it into an area that doesn't repair itself," Professor Raisman said. Polish doctors injected the nasal cells into Mr Fidyka's spinal cord above the injury and used some nerves from his ankle to form a bridge across the damaged tissue. The nasal cells appear to have caused the spinal nerves to repair themselves. Professor Raisman achieved this with rats in the late 1990's, but this is his greatest success. "I think the moment of discovery for me was Christmas in 1997 when I first saw a rat, which couldn't control its hand, put its hand out to me. That was an exciting moment, because I realized then that my belief that the nervous system could be repaired was true." Doctors chose the easiest case for their first attempt--it might not work for others. But there is a real sense of hope that an idea once thought impossible has been realized. David Nicholls, who helped provide money for the breakthrough, said information about the breakthrough would be made available to researchers across the globe. "What you've got to understand is that for three million paralyzed people in the world today, the world looks a totally brighter place than it did yesterday," he said.

cnn

(CNN) -- A conservative novelist in Saudi Arabia has triggered a firestorm on social media after one his tweets was misunderstood in Western media. The translation snafu hinged on a subtle grammatical fine point, said Abdallah al-Dawood. An article on the Financial Times online reported that he had called for women working as cashiers to be sexually harassed. The story was picked up by several news outlets, including the BBC and the Huffington Post. Even Arab media that reported on him used the erroneous Western translation. Al Arabiya, for example, cited the BBC story. Al-Dawood sought to clarify his stance in interviews with journalists. Speaking with Sabq, a Saudi daily, the hardliner vented his anger over the mistranslation of his message. No one had called or messaged him to confirm its meaning, he said. By then it was too late. It all began with a tweet on Sunday. Women in Saudi Arabia have begun working in shops, triggering vitriol from religious conservatives. Al-Dawood took to Twitter to express in his conservative criticism of women working as receptionists or cashiers to his 98,000 plus followers. He linked to an ultra-conservative academic study to support his view. His tweet: Getting lots of "interaction in the trending of #femalecashiers #harassfemalecashiers This a link to a master's degree thesis that considers the job of the female receptionist and cashier to be human trafficking." The hash tag #harassfemalecashiers raised ire with some who took it as a command to 'harass female cashiers.' But in Arabic the wording can be understood two ways. Al-Dawood was using the phase to say: "They would harass female cashiers," he has said.

wikipedia

Separation of powers is a political doctrine originating in the writings of Montesquieu in The Spirit of the Laws where he urged for a constitutional government with three separate branches of government. Each of the three branches would have defined abilities to check the powers of the other branches. This idea was called separation of powers. This philosophy heavily influenced the writing of the United States Constitution, according to which the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches of the United States government are kept distinct in order to prevent abuse of power. This United States form of separation of powers is associated with a system of checks and balances. During the Age of Enlightenment, philosophers such as John Locke advocated the principle in their writings, whereas others, such as Thomas Hobbes, strongly opposed it. Montesquieu was one of the foremost supporters of separating the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. His writings considerably influenced the opinions of the framers of the United States Constitution.

wikipedia

Circadian rhythms allow organisms to anticipate and prepare for precise and regular environmental changes. They thus enable organisms to best capitalize on environmental resources (e.g. light and food) compared to those that cannot predict such availability. It has therefore been suggested that circadian rhythms put organisms at a selective advantage in evolutionary terms. However, rhythmicity appears to be as important in regulating and coordinating internal metabolic processes, as in coordinating with the environment. This is suggested by the maintenance (heritability) of circadian rhythms in fruit flies after several hundred generations in constant laboratory conditions, as well as in creatures in constant darkness in the wild, and by the experimental elimination of behavioral, but not physiological, circadian rhythms in quail. Norwegian researchers at the University of Tromsø have shown that some Arctic animals (ptarmigan, reindeer) show circadian rhythms only in the parts of the year that have daily sunrises and sunsets. In one study of reindeer, animals at 70 degrees North showed circadian rhythms in the autumn, winter and spring, but not in the summer. Reindeer on Svalbard at 78 degrees North showed such rhythms only in autumn and spring. The researchers suspect that other Arctic animals as well may not show circadian rhythms in the constant light of summer and the constant dark of winter.

race

Robert is eleven years old. He loves to watch TV. But for one full year, he did not watch TV at all. What was the reason? Robert's parents said they would give him $500 if he didn't watch TV for a year. Robert's parents thought he watched too much TV. One day his mother saw a newspaper story about a boy who didn't watch TV for a year. She showed the story to Robert. "It was a joke," his mother said, "I didn't think he would do it." But Robert liked the idea. He turned off the TV right away. He said, "It doesn't matter to me whether to watch TV or not. I just want the money." At first, Robert's parents were very happy. Robert read the newspaper, played outside, played computer games, and played cards with his mother. But after a while, he got bored. Every evening, he asked his parents, "What are we doing tonight?" Sometimes his mother and father wished he would watch TV, just for one evening. Robert always said, "No, it would cost me money!" Finally the year was over. Then Robert started watching his favourite TV shows all day long again. Robert got the money from his parents. What does he plan to do with the $500? "I want to buy myself a TV set!" he said.

race

Corky was a brave young man and he dreamed of becoming the best fighter in the world. To become stronger and get better fighting skills, he went to many schools. One day, he went to the best school in the world. Before entering the gate, he was made to hand in all his weapons . "You won't need those any more. Here you'll get better ones," said the guard. Corky handed his weapons to him. A serious old teacher took Corky to his room. Before he left, he said to Corky, "In a hundred days the training will start." A hundred days! At first Corky thought that was a joke, but he soon realized the old teacher had been serious. Corky felt nervous during the first days and he tried many ways to try to get the teacher to start the training. However, it didn't work. At last Corky waited patiently and enjoyed each day in the school. "You've already learned how to use your main weapon - patience," said the old teacher. Corky could hardly believe it, but he really understood that the teacher was right. Finally, the lesson began. "Now it's time to learn how to win every fight," said the old teacher. That sounded good to Corky until he found himself tied hand and foot. Many villagers tried to hit him because they were told that Corky was a dangerous man. The same thing was repeated for days, and Corky knew he had to do something. He realized that the only way would be to deal with the villagers' anger . In the following days, Corky kept talking to them until he managed to make them believe that he was not an enemy. In the end, the villagers made friends with Corky. Finally, Corky knew what the most powerful weapon was. He said thanks to the teacher and left.

race

Our village carpenter , John Hill, came one day and made a dining table for my wife. He made it just the right size to fill the space between the two windows. When I got home that evening, John was drinking a cup of tea and writing out his bill for the job. My wife said to me quietly, "It's his ninth cup of tea today." But she said in a loud voice, "It is a beautiful table, dear, isn't it?" "I will decide about that when I see the bill, " I read: One dining table, 10 November, 1989. Cost of wood: $17.00 Paint: $1.50 Work: 8 hours ($1 an hour) $8.00 Total: $36.50 When I was looking at the bill, John said, "It's been a fine day, hasn't it? Quite sunny." "Yes," I said, "I'm glad it is only the 10thof November." "Me, too," said John. "You wait. It'll be a lot colder by the end of the month." "Yes, colder.... And more expensive! Dining tables will be $20 more expensive on November 30th, won't they, John?" John looked hard at me for half a minute. Was there a little smile in his two blue eyes? I gave his bill back to him. "If it isn't too much trouble, John," I said, "Please add it up again and you can forget the date." I paid him $26.50and he was happy to get it.

gutenberg

CHAPTER XV. During the remainder of the day on which George had left Granpere, the hours did not fly very pleasantly at the Lion d'Or. Michel Voss had gone to his niece immediately upon his return from his walk, intending to obtain a renewed pledge from her that she would be true to her engagement. But he had been so full of passion, so beside himself with excitement, so disturbed by all that he had heard, that he had hardly waited with Marie long enough to obtain such pledge, or to learn from her that she refused to give it. He had only been able to tell her that if she hesitated about marrying Adrian she should never look upon his face again; and then without staying for a reply he had left her. He had been in such a tremor of passion that he had been unable to demand an answer. After that, when George was gone, he kept away from her during the remainder of the morning. Once or twice he said a few words to his wife, and she counselled him to take no farther outward notice of anything that George had said to him. 'It will all come right if you will only be a little calm with her,' Madame Voss had said. He had tossed his head and declared that he was calm;--the calmest man in all Lorraine. Then he had come to his wife again, and she had again given him some good practical advice. 'Don't put it into her head that there is to be a doubt,' said Madame Voss.

race

I'm Tom. My best friends are John and Ann. We do many things together. John lives near my house and we are in the same class. He's fifteen years old and he's tall and slim. He has blond hair and blue eyes. He's polite and very clever. He's very good at math and he sometimes helps me with my homework. He usually wears jeans and a T-shirt. We also play basketball at a nearby park together and sometimes we play video games at my house after school. Our friend Ann isn't in our school. She's short and slim with straight brown hair and brown eyes. She's a little bit shy. We all have kung fu lesson every Tuesday and Friday afternoon. Ann is really good at kung fu. We call her the "kung fu kid". She sometimes plays basketball with us, too. She often wears a dress, a T-shirt and a baseball cap. The three of us have great fun together.

wikipedia

Telecommuncations in the United Kingdom have evolved from the early days of the telegraph to modern broadband and mobile phone networks with Internet services. National Telephone Company (NTC) was a British telephone company from 1881 until 1911 which brought together smaller local companies in the early years of the telephone. Under the Telephone Transfer Act 1911 it was taken over by the General Post Office (GPO) in 1912. Until 1982, the main civil telecommunications system in the UK was a state monopoly known (since reorganisation in 1969) as Post Office Telecommunications. Broadcasting of radio and television was a duopoly of the BBC and Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA): these two organisations controlled all broadcast services, and directly owned and operated the broadcast transmitter sites. Mobile phone and Internet services did not then exist. The civil telecoms monopoly ended when Mercury Communications arrived in 1983. The Post Office system evolved into British Telecom and was privatised in 1984. Broadcast transmitters, which belonged to the BBC and IBA, were privatised during the 1990s and now belong to Babcock International and Arqiva. British Rail Telecommunications was created in 1992 by British Rail (BR). It was the largest private telecoms network in Britain, consisting of 17,000 route kilometres of fibre optic and copper cable which connected every major city and town in the country and provided links to continental Europe through the Channel Tunnel. BR also operated its own national trunked radio network providing dedicated train-to-shore mobile communications, and in the early 1980s BR helped establish Mercury Communications’, now C&WC, core infrastructure by laying a resilient ‘figure-of-eight’ fibre optic network alongside Britain’s railway lines, spanning London, Bristol, Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester.

gutenberg

CHAPTER XXXIV GUERRILLA WARFARE "There are few pleasures," said Psmith, as he resumed his favourite position against the mantelpiece and surveyed the commandeered study with the pride of a householder, "keener to the reflective mind than sitting under one's own roof-tree. This place would have been wasted on Spiller; he would not have appreciated it properly." Mike was finishing his tea. "You're a jolly useful chap to have by you in a crisis, Smith," he said with approval. "We ought to have known each other before." "The loss was mine," said Psmith courteously. "We will now, with your permission, face the future for awhile. I suppose you realise that we are now to a certain extent up against it. Spiller's hot Spanish blood is not going to sit tight and do nothing under a blow like this." "What can he do? Outwood's given us the study." "What would you have done if somebody had bagged your study?" "Made it jolly hot for them!" "So will Comrade Spiller. I take it that he will collect a gang and make an offensive movement against us directly he can. To all appearances we are in a fairly tight place. It all depends on how big Comrade Spiller's gang will be. I don't like rows, but I'm prepared to take on a reasonable number of bravoes in defence of the home." Mike intimated that he was with him on the point. "The difficulty is, though," he said, "about when we leave this room. I mean, we're all right while we stick here, but we can't stay all night."

race

Among a group of middle-aged men and women,who were discussing bringing about quality education ,was a young man dressed in a white shirt.Within minutes, he was called onto the dais .Twenty-two-year-old Babar Ali was surrounded by educators from across India.He was popularly known as the world's youngest head teacher. The school that Babar started in poor Bhabta village has completely changed.When he was nine years old, he had only eight students in his school.Now the school has 300 students and 10 teachers. The school is called Ananda Siksha Niketan. It is recognized by the West Bengal government. Today Babar is a student in the morning.He is learning English literature at Berhampore Krishanath College.But he comes home in the afternoon to teach his students. Baber was discussing education at the National Summit on Quality in Education(NSQE).The meeting was held in Bangalore,capital of Karnataka State in southern India. "It all started as a game when I used to teach my sister, my first student, in my backyard.Later, some children from the village often came to my classes and that was how the school was born," he said. His biggest achievement is that six of his students have now started teaching in his school after their college hours. In another month, Babar's dream of a school building will soon come true.Many people, a large part of whom are from Karnataka,have helped him realize the dream.They have given his school a lot of money. Although he has received so much attention and recognition ,he is still not _ ."There are people in my village who do not go to schoo1.And there is a long way to go as so many children still need to receive an education,"he says.

wikipedia

Turkish people (), or the Turks (), also known as Anatolian Turks (), are a Turkic ethnic group and nation living mainly in Turkey and speaking Turkish, the most widely spoken Turkic language. They are the largest ethnic group in Turkey, as well as by far the largest ethnic group among the speakers of Turkic languages. Ethnic Turkish minorities exist in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire. In addition, a Turkish diaspora has been established with modern migration, particularly in Western Europe. The ethnonym "Turk" may be first discerned in Herodotus' (c. 484–425 BC) reference to Targitas, first king of the Scythians; furthermore, during the first century AD., Pomponius Mela refers to the "Turcae" in the forests north of the Sea of Azov, and Pliny the Elder lists the "Tyrcae" among the people of the same area. The first definite references to the "Turks" come mainly from Chinese sources in the sixth century. In these sources, "Turk" appears as "Tujue" (), which referred to the Göktürks. Although "Turk" refers to Turkish people, it may also sometimes refer to the wider language group of Turkic peoples. In the 19th century, the word "Türk" only referred to Anatolian villagers. The Ottoman ruling class identified themselves as Ottomans, not usually as Turks. In the late 19th century, as the Ottoman upper classes adopted European ideas of nationalism the term "Türk" took on a much more positive connotation. The Turkish-speakers of Anatolia were the most loyal supporters of Ottoman rule.

gutenberg

CHAPTER XIX. VICTOR FROM VANQUISHED ISSUES Now that everything was settled Eric wished to give up teaching and go back to his own place. True, he had "signed papers" to teach the school for a year; but he knew that the trustees would let him off if he procured a suitable substitute. He resolved to teach until the fall vacation, which came in October, and then go. Kilmeny had promised that their marriage should take place in the following spring. Eric had pleaded for an earlier date, but Kilmeny was sweetly resolute, and Thomas and Janet agreed with her. "There are so many things that I must learn yet before I shall be ready to be married," Kilmeny had said. "And I want to get accustomed to seeing people. I feel a little frightened yet whenever I see any one I don't know, although I don't think I show it. I am going to church with Uncle and Aunt after this, and to the Missionary Society meetings. And Uncle Thomas says that he will send me to a boarding school in town this winter if you think it advisable." Eric vetoed this promptly. The idea of Kilmeny in a boarding school was something that could not be thought about without laughter. "I can't see why she can't learn all she needs to learn after she is married to me, just as well as before," he grumbled to her uncle and aunt. "But we want to keep her with us for another winter yet," explained Thomas Gordon patiently. "We are going to miss her terrible when she does go, Master. She has never been away from us for a day--she is all the brightness there is in our lives. It is very kind of you to say that she can come home whenever she likes, but there will be a great difference. She will belong to your world and not to ours. That is for the best--and we wouldn't have it otherwise. But let us keep her as our own for this one winter yet."

cnn

(CNN) -- Michigan authorities are pursuing a new lead in the case of the infamous Oakland County child killer who abducted and murdered at least four boys and girls in the 1970s. "We would be thrilled if this is the one piece of evidence that we are looking for to give closure to the families, but we want to do our due diligence" said Michigan State Police Lt. Michael Shaw. Parts of a blue AMC Gremlin with a white stripe were unearthed at a construction site in Grand Blanc Township on Monday. The car matches the description of a vehicle seen near the scene of one of the kidnappings. New DNA work may offer break in slayings "We received an anonymous tip of car parts recovered in the excavation of a new homes subdivision," Shaw told CNN. "There was that blue colored Gremlin with the white stripe down the side of it. We sent out our crime lab from Bridgeport to investigate and see what the situation was. "Right now we are continuing to excavate the site to see if there is any more evidence we can locate," Shaw said. The Oakland County Child Killer Task Force was also notified, Shaw added. The search for the serial killer has lasted for more than 36 years. Police agencies have pursued some 20,000 tips in the hunt for the perpetrator of the unsolved murders, which took place over a 13-month period between 1976 and 1977. Mark Stebbins was 12 when he was abducted in Ferndale on February 15, 1976. His body was found nearly a year later. Jill Robinson was also 12 when she was kidnapped on December 22, 1976. Her body was found four days later. Kristin Mihelich was 10 when she disappeared in Berkley on January 2, 1977, and her body was found later that month. Timothy King was 11 when he vanished in Birmingham on March 16, 1977. His body was found one week later.

gutenberg

CHAPTER XXI DICK MAKES A BOLD VENTURE Some delicate and important work was being done, and Stuyvesant had had his lunch sent up to the dam. Bethune and Dick joined him afterwards, and sat in the shade of a big traveling crane. Stuyvesant and Dick were hot and dirty, for it was not their custom to be content with giving orders when urgent work was going on. Bethune looked languid and immaculately neat. His speciality was mathematics, and he said he did not see why the man with mental talents should dissipate his energy by using his hands. "It's curious about that French liner," Stuyvesant presently remarked. "I understand her passengers have been waiting since yesterday and she hasn't arrived." "The last boat cut out Santa Brigida without notice," Bethune replied. "My opinion of the French is that they're a pretty casual lot." "On the surface. They smile and shrug where we set our teeth, but when you get down to bed-rock you don't find much difference. I thought as you do, until I went over there and saw a people that run us close for steady, intensive industry. Their small cultivators are simply great. I'd like to put them on our poorer land in the Middle West, where we're content with sixteen bushels of wheat that's most fit for chicken feed to the acre. Then what they don't know about civil engineering isn't worth learning." Bethune made a gesture of agreement. "They're certainly fine engineers and they're putting up a pretty good fight just now, but these Latins puzzle me. Take the Iberian branch of the race, for example. We have Spanish peons here who'll stand for as much work and hardship as any Anglo-Saxon I've met. Then an educated Spaniard's hard to beat for intellectual subtlety. Chess is a game that's suited to my turn of mind, but I've been badly whipped in Santa Brigida. They've brains and application, and yet they don't progress. What's the matter with them, anyway?"

gutenberg

CHAPTER XX PLOTTING AGAINST DICK ROVER "Gabe Werner!" "Where is he?" "Up the street," answered Randy. "Come on after him." "Who's the man you are after?" questioned one of the men who had been interviewing Andy and Fred. "He's a young fellow who once went to a military academy with us. He's a regular bully and did something for which he ought to be locked up," was Fred's reply, and then he rushed down into the street, following his three cousins. "How can Gabe Werner be down here?" questioned Andy. "Why, we left him in New York City!" "I can't help that, Andy. It was Werner just as sure as I am standing here. I just happened to glance out of the window and saw him crossing the roadway. He turned his face straight toward me, and I couldn't help but recognize him." "Where did he go?" "I'll point out the place when we get there." By this time the four Rovers had left the boardwalk and were plowing along on the side of the road through mud that varied from an inch to six inches in depth. They had started to run, but were soon compelled to slow up. "Gee, this is something fierce!" panted Andy. "Oh, you cinder path!" chanted his twin. "Wouldn't you like to do a hundred-yard dash on this road?" "It's not much farther," announced Jack. "I saw him heading for that shack yonder." The place he mentioned was a small building erected of rough boards, with a galvanized roof. They neared the shack to find two men sitting before it on a log smoking their pipes. They appeared somewhat startled.

mctest

One day, Harry bought a pet hamster name Tom. Tom was round and furry and had a funny smell. Harry loved it when Tom would climb up his arm and into his shirt sleeve. Every day before bed Harry would put Tom into his cage and every morning Harry would take Tom out of his cage and carry him around in his front shirt pocket during the day. Harry would carry Tom everywhere he went. Harry's favorite thing to do was to watch Tom run around in his exercise wheel. Then one day Harry woke and to find that Tom was not in his cage. Tom had gone missing! This made Harry very upset. He looked everywhere for Tom, wondering where he could have disappeared to. Harry called his friends John, Rodney, and Bruno to ask if they knew where Tom was. They said that they didn't know. So Tom asked them if they would help him look for Tom. Only John and Bruno said "yes". to help Harry. After looking for Tom for two hours Bruno found Tom inside an old sock behind Harry's desk. No one knew how he got there.

gutenberg

CHAPTER XXXV Mr. Oscar Fischer and his friend, Senator Theodore Hastings, stood side by side, a week later, in the bar of one of the most fashionable of New York hotels. They were passing away the few minutes before Pamela and her aunt would be ready to join them in the dining room above. "Very little news, I fancy," Hastings remarked, glancing at the tape which was passing through his companion's fingers. "Nothing--of any importance," Fischer replied. "Nothing." The older man glanced searchingly at his companion, the change in whose tone was ominous. Fischer was standing with the tape in his hand, his eyes glued upon a certain paragraph. The Senator took out his eyeglasses and looked over his friend's shoulder. "What's this?" he demanded. "Eh?" Fischer was fighting a great battle and fighting it well. "Something wrong, apparently, with Frank Roughton," he observed; "an old college friend of mine. They made him Governor of----only last year." Hastings read the item thoughtfully. Governor Roughton this morning tendered his resignation as Governor of the State of----. We understand that it was at once accepted. Numerous arrests have taken place with reference to the great explosion at the Bembridge powder factory. "Looks rather fishy, that," Hastings observed thoughtfully. "I'm sorry for Roughton," Fischer declared. "He was a perfectly straight man, and I am sure he has done his best." "Great friend of yours?" the other asked curiously. "We were intimately acquainted," was the brief answer. The two men finished their cocktails in silence. On their way upstairs the Senator took his companion's arm.

wikipedia

The (Latin for "British Encyclopaedia"), published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is written by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 contributors, who have included 110 Nobel Prize winners and five American presidents. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, which spans 32 volumes and 32,640 pages, was the last printed edition; digital content and distribution has continued since then. The "Britannica" is the oldest English-language encyclopaedia still in production. It was first published between 1768 and 1771 in the Scottish capital of Edinburgh, as three volumes. The encyclopaedia grew in size: the second edition was 10 volumes, and by its fourth edition (1801–1810) it had expanded to 20 volumes. Its rising stature as a scholarly work helped recruit eminent contributors, and the 9th (1875–1889) and 11th editions (1911) are landmark encyclopaedias for scholarship and literary style. Beginning with the 11th edition and following its acquisition by an American firm, the "Britannica" shortened and simplified articles to broaden its appeal to the North American market. In 1933, the "Britannica" became the first encyclopaedia to adopt "continuous revision", in which the encyclopaedia is continually reprinted, with every article updated on a schedule. In March 2012, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. announced it would no longer publish printed editions, and would focus instead on "Encyclopædia Britannica Online".

gutenberg

CHAPTER XVIII. It was a beautiful July afternoon, the air musical with midsummer hum, the flowers basking in the sunshine, the turf cool and green in the shade, and the breeze redolent of indescribable freshness and sweetness compounded of all fragrant odours, the present legacy of a past day's shower. Like the flowers themselves, Albinia was feeling the delicious repose of refreshed nature, as in her pretty pink muslin, her white drapery folded round her, and her bright hair unbonnetted, she sat reclining in a low garden chair, at the door of the conservatory, a little pale, a little weak, but with a sweet happy languor, a soft tender bloom. There was a step in the conservatory, and before she could turn round, her brother Maurice bent over her, and kissed her. 'Maurice! you have come after all!' 'Yes, the school inspection is put off. How are you?' as he sat down on the grass by her side. 'Oh, quite well! What a delicious afternoon we shall have! Edmund will be at home directly. Mrs. Meadows has absolutely let Gilbert take her to drink tea at the Drurys! Only I am sorry Sophy should miss you, for she was so good about going, because Lucy wanted to do something to her fernery. Of course you are come for Sunday, and the christening?' 'Yes,--that is, to throw myself on Dusautoy's mercy.' 'We will send Mr. Hope to Fairmead,' said Albinia, 'and see whether Winifred can make him speak. We can't spare the Vicar, for he is our godfather, and you must christen the little maiden.'

wikipedia

That median is the value separating the higher half of a data sample, a population, or a probability distribution, from the lower half. For a data set, it may be thought of as the "middle" value. For example, in the data set {1, 3, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9}, the median is 6, the fourth largest, and also the fourth smallest, number in the sample. For a continuous probability distribution, the median is the value such that a number is equally likely to fall above or below it. The median is a commonly used measure of the properties of a data set in statistics and probability theory. The basic advantage of the median in describing data compared to the mean (often simply described as the "average") is that it is not skewed so much by extremely large or small values, and so it may give a better idea of a "typical" value. For example, in understanding statistics like household income or assets which vary greatly, a mean may be skewed by a small number of extremely high or low values. Median income, for example, may be a better way to suggest what a "typical" income is. Because of this, the median is of central importance in robust statistics, as it is the most resistant statistic, having a breakdown point of 50%: so long as no more than half the data are contaminated, the median will not give an arbitrarily large or small result.

cnn

(CNN) -- Bill Gates is putting out a call to inventors, but he's not looking for software, or the latest high-tech gadget. This time he's in search of a better condom. On its Grand Challenges website, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is offering a $100,000 startup grant to the person who designs "the next generation condom that significantly preserves or enhances pleasure" and promotes "regular use." It may sound like the setup for a joke, but the goal is deadly serious. While researchers call condoms one of the best ways to stop the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, getting people to use them is another story. The foundation wants to see something that will lead men and women outside of a committed relationship to stop and think twice before having unprotected sex. The startup grant could lead to $1 million in further funding. "Male condoms are cheap, easy to manufacture, easy to distribute, and available globally, including in resource-poor settings, through numerous well-developed distribution channels," the foundation says. Nevertheless, many people are reluctant to use them because they complain that prophylactics interfere with pleasure and intimacy. This creates "a trade-off that many men find unacceptable," the foundation notes. Contraception, by the numbers In some places and cultures, condom use is often seen as a sign that a man has AIDS, and many women won't sleep with such men. Female condoms are even more difficult to use and women are often afraid to suggest using them. "Any advance or new design that gets people to use condoms would be a big plus," Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and one of the world's leading AIDS researchers, said in an interview with CNN. He says great strides have been made in treating HIV infection in Africa, but for every person who is treated two more become newly infected.

cnn

(CNN) -- Overprotective sister? Underprotective husband? No one knows what was said amongst Solange Knowles, Jay Z and Beyonce in that elevator in the Standard Hotel in Manhattan or even what led up to the video that appears to show Solange kicking and hitting her brother-in-law. But here is what we do know: the Internet is on fire with theories. Earlier this week, an elevator surveillance video surfaced that showed Solange appearing to berate Jay Z before she becomes physical. Her sister, Beyonce, is present and witnesses the attack. The incident has inspired a hashtag, #WhatJaySaidToSolange, countless memes and tons of speculation. Quoting an anonymous source, Us Weekly reported that Solange Knowles had an earlier run-in with designer Rachel Roy. (Roy is the ex-wife of Damon Dash, Jay Z's former friend and business partner.) The New York Daily News, also using an unnamed source, took it one step further. In addition to the alleged argument with Roy, the paper threw in Jay Z's supposed desire to head solo to a party being given by Rihanna. This, according to the Daily News, did not sit well with Beyonce's younger sister. Talk show host Wendy Williams also offered her own observations, including what appears to be the removal of a tattoo on Beyonce's finger of the roman numeral "IV." It was reportedly her wedding ring tattoo, meant to symbolize both her wedding date (April 4) as well as her and Jay Z's birthdays (September 4 and December 4, respectively). So far, some of the principal characters seem to be letting Instagram speak for them. Beyonce has posted happy pictures of her and her sister, while Solange participated in "Throwback Thursday" with a picture of the two siblings as kids.

gutenberg

CHAPTER XXIX AN EXCITING TIME ALL AROUND "We've got him! Down with him!" roared Sack Todd, as he leaped over the fallen door and made a grab for Dick. For the instant Dick did not know what to do, then he stepped backward and at the same time attempted to draw his pistol. "No, you don't!" yelled Gasper Pold, and aimed a blow at Dick's head with an iron bar he carried. Had the blow landed as intended, the eldest Rover might have had his skull crushed in. But as the iron bar was descending Dan Baxter made a quick jump to Pold's side, gave him a shove and hurled him flat. "Stop it!" cried the former bully of Putnam Hall. "Do you hear? Do you want to kill somebody?" "So you're against us, eh?" yelled Sack Todd. "Well, we'll fix you!" He tore a pistol from his pocket and started to aim it at Baxter. But the latter was now on the alert and, whirling around, he caught Sack Todd by the coat collar with one hand and with the other raised the pistol up into the air. It went off, but the bullet merely plowed its way into the woodwork of the ship. By this time Hans had managed to scramble from beneath the fallen door. The German youth had not been hurt very much but his "Dutch blood" was up, and throwing prudence to the wind he sailed in vigorously, hitting Pold a blow in the stomach with his fist, and kicking the mate of the _Dogstar_ in the shin with his heavy shoe. Then he caught hold of Pold's iron bar and began to wrestle for its possession.

cnn

(CNN) -- Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney used an event at the USS Wisconsin in Norfolk, Virginia, Saturday to announce Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, as his vice presidential pick. Romney's choice of Ryan is considered by political observers to be a bold, risky move that could potentially change the dynamic of the Oval Office race. CNN Exclusive: How Romney chose his running mate By the numbers, here's a look at Paul Ryan: 28 - Ryan's age when he was first elected to Congress, in 1998. 3 - Children with his wife, Janna - Liza, Charlie and Sam. Polls: Paul Who? 104 - Times Paul Ryan's Wikipedia entry has been updated so far today, since Ryan was announced as Mitt Romney's running mate. Ryan's selection energizes both sides $5 trillion - Proposed spending cuts over the next decade in Ryan's 2013 budget proposal, "The Path to Prosperity," relative to President Obama's budget. Paul Ryan, top GOP voice on fiscal matters 25% - The corporate tax rate under Ryan's budget plan. 2 - Number of proposed federal income tax brackets, 10% and 25%, under Ryan's plan. 6 - Number of current federal income tax brackets. Romney camp prepares Medicare defense after Ryan pick 173,783 - Followers for Ryan's preexisting Twitter account @RepPaulRyan. 57, 744 - Followers for Ryan's new campaign-related Twitter account @PaulRyanVP that was launched today. 153,000 -"Likes" for Ryan's pre-existing Facebook page. 64,000 - "Likes" for Ryan's new campaign-related Facebook page launched today. 6 - Number of days a week you have to work out on the P90X exercise regimen. Ryan is a big fan of the regimen.

wikipedia

Milwaukee is the largest city in the state of Wisconsin and the fifth-largest city in the Midwestern United States. The county seat of Milwaukee County, it is on Lake Michigan's western shore. Ranked by estimated 2014 population, Milwaukee was the 31st largest city in the United States. The city's estimated population in 2015 was 600,155. Milwaukee is the main cultural and economic center of the Milwaukee metropolitan area. It is also part of the larger Milwaukee-Racine-Waukesha combined statistical area, which had an estimated population of 2,026,243 in the 2010 census. The first Europeans to pass through the area were French Catholic missionaries and fur traders. In 1818, the French Canadian explorer Solomon Juneau settled in the area, and in 1846, Juneau's town combined with two neighboring towns to incorporate as the city of Milwaukee. Large numbers of German immigrants helped increase the city's population during the 1840s, with Poles and other immigrants arriving in the following decades. Milwaukee is known for its brewing traditions. The city is experiencing its largest construction boom since the 1960s. Major new additions to the city in the past two decades include the Milwaukee Riverwalk, the Wisconsin Center, Miller Park, an expansion to the Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, and Pier Wisconsin, as well as major renovations to the UW–Milwaukee Panther Arena. The under-construction Wisconsin Entertainment and Sports Center is scheduled to open in 2018.

wikipedia

The Ford Motor Company (commonly referred to simply as "Ford") is an American multinational automaker headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobiles and commercial vehicles under the Ford brand and most luxury cars under the Lincoln brand. Ford also owns Brazilian SUV manufacturer, Troller, and Australian performance car manufacturer FPV. In the past, it has also produced tractors and automotive components. Ford owns an 8% stake in Aston Martin of the United Kingdom, and a 49% stake in Jiangling of China. It also has a number of joint-ventures, one in China (Changan Ford), one in Taiwan (Ford Lio Ho), one in Thailand (AutoAlliance Thailand), one in Turkey (Ford Otosan), and one in Russia (Ford Sollers). It is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and is controlled by the Ford family, although they have minority ownership (but majority of the voting power). Ford introduced methods for large-scale manufacturing of cars and large-scale management of an industrial workforce using elaborately engineered manufacturing sequences typified by moving assembly lines; by 1914, these methods were known around the world as Fordism. Ford's former UK subsidiaries Jaguar and Land Rover, acquired in 1989 and 2000 respectively, were sold to Tata Motors in March 2008. Ford owned the Swedish automaker Volvo from 1999 to 2010. In 2011, Ford discontinued the Mercury brand, under which it had marketed entry-level luxury cars in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Middle East since 1938.

mctest

Jake liked his old sneakers but they were getting too small. He tried on sixteen different pairs of shoes at the mall with his mom. He was looking for green shoes with blue laces. He couldn't find any he liked and left sad. His mom wanted to cheer him up. They stopped for lunch at a restaurant drive-thru. "What do you want to order?" asked Jake's Mom as she got a cheeseburger and a large drink. He ordered a hamburger. While they ate, Jake and his mom talked about different shoes Jake might try on next. He didn't want to go back to the store, but he really wanted green shoes. He ate some of her fries as he thought about it. Suddenly, his mom had a great idea. They would paint a pair of new shoes green! Jake loved that idea. So they went to the Art Store and bought green paint. They went back to the mall and bought new blue shoelaces and white sneakers. Jake was so excited about his shoes that he painted them as soon as he got home. Afterwards, he walked around the house in his new shoes dripping green paint.

cnn

(CNN) -- The one-eyed jihadist commander known as "Mr. Marlboro" is back in action. Moktar Belmoktar, whose group was responsible for the deadly attack on the BP oil facility in southern Algeria last January, appears in a new video released by his group -- the al-Mulathameen Brigade, which translates as the "Signatories in Blood Brigade." More than 30 foreign workers at the In Amenas facility in Algeria were killed during a three-day occupation of the plant. Belmokhtar is an Algerian but was more recently based in northern Mali, where he had combined kidnapping and smuggling (hence the nickname) with audacious terror attacks. He got his nickname for smuggling cigarettes across borders. Thought to be about 40, Belmokhtar was rumored to have been killed or wounded in March during the French military intervention in Mali. But in the new 51-minute video he is shown training fighters and paying tribute to another jihadist commander who was killed earlier this year. Belmoktar shows no sign of having been wounded. The video shows a group of jihadists preparing for two deadly raids in neighboring Niger in May, which targeted a French-owned uranium mine and a Nigerien military academy. "My brothers, all you should do is strive and make efforts with all determination and power to bring down their sites and harm their troops," Belmoktar says before embracing the group. At one point, he appears to be instructing recruits in using a rocket-propelled grenade. The government of Niger sent troops to join the French-led operation in Mali.

wikipedia

West Virginia is a state located in the Appalachian region of the Southern United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the north (and, slightly, east), and Maryland to the northeast. West Virginia is the 10th smallest by area, is ranked 38th in population, and has the second lowest household income of the 50 United States. The capital and largest city is Charleston. West Virginia became a state following the Wheeling Conventions of 1861, after the American Civil War had begun. Delegates from some Unionist counties of northwestern Virginia decided to break away from Virginia, although they included many secessionist counties in the new state. West Virginia was admitted to the Union on June 20, 1863, and was a key border state during the war. West Virginia was the only state to form by separating from a Confederate state, the first to separate from any state since Maine separated from Massachusetts, and was one of two states admitted to the Union during the American Civil War (the other being Nevada). While a portion of its residents held slaves, most of the residents were yeomen farmers, and the delegates provided for gradual abolition of slavery in the new state constitution.

gutenberg

CHAPTER XXII—A WARNING In the luxuriously appointed smoking-room of the hotel Clay leaned forward in the deep leather chair into which he had dropped and looked keenly at Osborne. “Tell me how you are interested in this fellow Farquhar,” he demanded. “I don’t know that I am much interested,” Osborne replied. “He was of some service to us during our voyage from Japan, and seemed a smart young fellow. It merely struck me that I might give him a lift up in return for one or two small favors.” “Let him drop! Didn’t it strike you that your daughter might have her own views about him? The man’s good-looking.” Osborne flung up his head, and his eyes narrowed. “I can’t discuss—” “It has to be discussed,” Clay interrupted. “You can’t have that man at your house: he’s one of the fellows who were working at the wreck.” “Ah! That makes a difference, of course. I suppose you have been on their trail, but you have told me nothing about it yet.” “I had a suspicion that you didn’t want to know. You’re a fastidious fellow, you know, and I suspected that you’d rather leave a mean job of that kind to me.” “You’re right,” Osborne admitted. “I’m sure you would handle it better than I could; but I’m curious to hear what you’ve done.” “I’ve gone as far as seems advisable. Had the fellows fired from several jobs and made it difficult for them to get another; but it wouldn’t pay to have my agents guess what I’m after.” Clay laughed. “Farquhar and his partners are either bolder or smarter than I thought; I found them taking my own money at the Clanch Mill.”

cnn

(CNN) -- In the history of organized athletics, there has never been a person who needs to come back again less than Michael Phelps. Yes, you have read that correctly. I am urging the greatest swimmer in all of sports to keep his word, forget about Rio in 2016 and retire. To go away. To vanish. To ignore his mother and his sisters and Matt Lauer and Mark Spitz and Rowdy Gaines and to once and for all hang up his goggles and Speedos. Go. Scram. Buzz off. Because athletics enthusiasts are a peculiar people (aka: crazy), we always beg our heroes to stick around longer than they should. It's the reason a portly, 40-year-old Ken Griffey Jr. hit .184 in Seattle in 2010 and the reason Bjorn Borg stepped back onto the tennis court in 1991 (wood racket in hand) -- only to win nary a single match. It's the reason our final snapshot of Sugar Ray Leonard is an embarrassing stoppage against Hector Camacho and the reason Jim Palmer arrived at spring training with Baltimore in 1991 throwing big, fat, Little League meatballs. Why, it's even the reason a 41-year-old Spitz, Phelps' predecessor as our own personal Aquaman, jumped back into the pool to qualify for the 1992 Games in Barcelona. He, of course, failed -- by a whopping two seconds. News: Olympic legend Phelps: 'I'm done with swimming' We convince these men and women that they can still do it, that it's worth one more shot, that age is just a number, that legend is a gift of the gods, and to not use it is shameful. (Gaines, the former Olympic swimmer who now works as an NBC commentator, recently said he believes Phelps will likely come back because "he'll be able to walk through airports in a couple years and not be mobbed. He'll miss that." There is a word for this line of thinking: sad.)

race

Since 1989, Dave Thomas, who died at the age of 69, was one of the most recognizable faces on TV. He appeared in more than 800 commercials for the hamburger chain named for his daughter. "As long as it works", he said in 1991, "I'll continue to do those commercials." Even though he was successful, Thomas remained troubled by his childhood. "He still won't let anyone see his feet, which are out of shape because he never had proper fitting shoes," Wendy said in 1993. Born to a single mother, he was adopted as a baby by Rex and Auleva Thomas of Kalamazoo in Michigan. After Auleva died when he was 5, Thomas spent years on the road as Rex traveled around seeking construction work. "He fed me," Thomas said, "and if I got out of line, he'd beat me." Moving out on his own at 15, Thomas worked, first as a waiter, in many restaurants. But he had something much better in mind. "I thought if I owned a restaurant," he said, "I could eat for free." A 1956 meeting with Harland Sanders led Thomas to a career as the manager of a Kentucky Chicken restaurant that made him a millionaire in 1968. In 1969, after breaking with Sanders, Thomas started the first Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers, in Columbus, Ohio, which set itself apart by serving made-to-order burgers. With 6,000 restaurants worldwide, the chain now makes $ 6 billion a year in sales. Although troubled by his own experience with adoption, Thomas, married since 1954 to Lorraine, 66, and with four grown kids besides Wendy, felt it could offer a future for other children. He started the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption in 1992. In 1993, Thomas, who had left school at 15, graduated from Coconut Creek High School in Florida. He even took Lorraine to the graduation dance party. The kids voted him Most Likely to Succeed. "The Dave you saw on TV was the real Dave," says friend Pat Williams. "He wasn't a great actor or a great speaker . _ ."

race

The seasons in Australia are not like ours. When it is winter in China, it is summer there. Australia is a southern country. It is in the south of the world. June, July and August are the winter months; September, October and November are spring; the summer is in December, January and February; and March, April and May are the autumn months. The north of the country is hotter than the south. A very large part of this country has no rain at all. The east coast has rain all year, and there are no dry months. The southeast winds blow the whole year. They bring rain from the sea. There is not much rain on the west side. The southeastern part of Australia has summer rain from the southeast winds. They only blow here in summer. The southwestern part of Australia has winter rain. The west winds blow over the southwest in winter only. In summer, the southwest of the country has no rain. In the north of Australia, there is no rain in winter. The rain comes in summer. The northwest winds bring it.

mctest

John thought about things that he liked to do. Well, for one, he liked baseball. Compared to his friends, he was very good at the sport. He didn't even have to practice that much. He remembered that he once hit the ball so hard that it flew out of the park. Home run! He was also a fan of basketball. He enjoyed watching people on television pull off crazy tricks like slam dunking (but he didn't really like all of the passes). He wasn't quite that good yet, but he was pretty good at making shots from the three point line. He knew that if he kept practicing, he would be really great someday. Finally, he loved football. Unlike baseball and basketball, he didn't play football himself, but he was drawn to the games. He got a kick out of sitting in the stands, cheering on his team and friends. He once cheered so loud that he could barely speak at all for the rest of the day.

cnn

(CNN) -- A thin girl with caramel skin and a yellow silk blouse walks alone through a barren landscape of rubble. Nway prepares for her new job, selling vegetables from her aunt's garden. Her legs are marked by cuts. Her face is smeared with white streaks of powder. And her eyes are blank as she sifts through the debris of what used to be her home before Cyclone Nargis slammed into Myanmar one night and swept her parents away. Her name is Nway, and that's how she looked when aid workers found her after Nargis destroyed her isolated village. She refused to talk about the cyclone, pretending it never took place. She became, according to a CNN story, the "girl who refuses to remember." A year later, an aid worker returned to the village to see how Nway was doing. She found Nway living in a tidy, bamboo house flanked by palm trees. The 8-year-old greeted her visitor with a big smile. Then she asked whether she could play with her visitor's hair. Pam Sitko, the aid worker, said Nway -- like thousands of people in Myanmar -- is slowly recovering one year after Nargis demolished their country. "After all of her pain and loss, she really is a spunky girl," said Sitko, who works with World Vision International, a humanitarian group. "She wasn't shy about reaching out to touch my blonde hair." The night everything changed Nway's resilience is shared by many in Myanmar, aid workers say. Last year's cyclone was catastrophic. It killed at least 140,000 people and left at least 2 million people without homes, according to the United Nations World Food Programme.

cnn

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Two of Moammar Gadhafi's sons, who had been reported captured over the weekend, were free early Tuesday as forces loyal to the embattled Libyan leader battled rebels trying to consolidate their hold on Tripoli. Saif al-Islam Gadhafi showed up at the Rixos Hotel, one of the remaining strongholds of pro-Gadhafi forces, in a convoy of armored Land Cruisers. In a brief interview with CNN's Matthew Chance, he said his father and several of his sisters were safe in Tripoli, and that loyal troops had "broken the back" of the rebels who moved into the capital over the weekend. Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, who is wanted on war crimes charges by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, had been reported captured on Sunday along with two of his brothers. Another of those siblings, Mohammed Gadhafi, was reported to have escaped Monday, according to the Libyan ambassador to the United States. There was no immediate explanation from the National Transitional Council, the rebel leadership that had announced their capture Sunday. The younger Gadhafi said news of his arrest had been a trick by the rebels, and that he had been traveling around Tripoli in his armored convoy the entire time. He said that government forces had lured the rebels into a trap in the capital, and that Gadhafi loyalists "have broken the spines of those rats and those gangsters." Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the ICC's chief prosecutor, had said Sunday that he would seek Saif al-Islam Gadhafi's extradition following his capture. Asked about the warrant for his arrest, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi told reporters, "To hell with the ICC."

cnn

(CNN) -- Gen. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, a bespectacled college professor turned soldier in the defense of the Union, often returned to Gettysburg, that legendary battlefield where on a grim and terrible July day in 1863, Chamberlain and his regiment, the 20th Maine, held the extreme left flank of the Union army against an attack by near overwhelming odds, launched by equally gallant troops from Alabama. Chamberlain's regiment held the line. As the years passed, the Medal of Honor recipient would go back to Gettysburg with comrades to contemplate and to pray. He came to call that hallowed ground the "Vision Place of Souls." He wrote that where great deeds were accomplished, a "spirit" of greatness lingered. What would he and his comrades, and those who faced them beneath that hot July sun say to us today? For our "Vision Place of Souls," are now off limits, forbidden lands, "Verboten" to all. What would they say to us? In what is described as a government shutdown, the Beltway around Washington is still jammed with the commuters to federal offices, White House and congressional staffers continue to work, but by a highly selective process, our national memorials to the living and fallen who served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam are closed. Few veterans have the means to travel to remote islands of the Pacific, the beaches of Normandy, the woods of the Hurtgen and Bastogne to visit but one more time their "Vision Place," where with family and comrades they can say, "Here I fought," or say, "Here is where my friend Charlie -- remember my telling you about him? -- here is where he died." For them, the monuments have become their 'Vision Place," their gathering place, the place of remembrance, of pride, and of tears.

mctest

A naughty boy was sitting in math class on Tuesday. There was a broken sink in the back of the room full of water. There was also a kitty on the open window. A loud plane was flying outside and scared the kitty inside. The naughty boy walked up to the kitty and picked it up. What do you think he did next? He threw the kitty into the water in the sink! The kitty didn't last long and ran away from the sink faster than lightning! The other children laughed and laughed, but the teacher didn't think it was funny. She didn't let the naughty boy play on the playground for a week! But the boy didn't care. The class thought he was funny, and so did he. But he would have to get smarter because the sink was fixed soon. The naughty boy thought the teacher was a witch who used a magic kiss to fix it. He had no idea that her husband fixed it the next day.

cnn

(CNN) -- An Arizona couple who wanted to adopt a woman's baby know more than they're saying about the 8-month-old boy's disappearance, police say. Gabriel Johnson hasn't been seen since December 26, police said, and his mother was arrested last week in Miami Beach, Florida, after not reporting for a December 28 child custody hearing in Arizona. "We have some good indications at this point with our investigation that Tammi and Jack Smith do know more information than they have provided to us that could possibly lead us to Gabriel," Sgt. Steve Carbajal, spokesman for the Tempe (Arizona) Police Department, told HLN's Nancy Grace on Thursday. For their part, the Smiths told HLN's Jean Casarez on "Nancy Grace" that they voluntarily took polygraph tests Friday at the Tempe Police Department. "The polygraph test is not like what you see on TV," Jack Smith said. "It's almost like being strapped into the electric chair, so it's very intensive. And we were very happy to do it." The Smiths have said they met Elizabeth Johnson, 23, seven months ago during a long layover at an airport, and later the three discussed a plan to adopt Johnson's child, Gabriel. But the boy's father, Logan McQueary, has legal custody and has said Elizabeth Johnson urged him to sign papers giving the Smiths custody of the boy, but he refused. "She didn't want Logan to have the baby, and we couldn't adopt the baby because Logan wouldn't sign the papers," Tammi Smith said on "Nancy Grace."

gutenberg

CHAPTER XXX THE LANDSLIDE-CONCLUSION "Dick, are you badly hurt?" cried Tom. "No--it's only a scratch. But it was a close call." "To cover!" came from Jack Wumble. "Quick, all of you!" There was no need to call out, for all realized that they were in a dangerous position. It was Arnold Baxter who fired on Dick. Now Tom fired in return, and so true was his aim that the elder Baxter was hit in the left shoulder. As soon as our friends were under cover they held a council of war. "We ought to round 'em up," muttered Jack Wumble. "Don't you think so, Jim?" "I am with ye on it," answered the old trapper. "We air five to three, although one o' the crowd is wounded." "It's not much--only a scratch," said Dick, as he showed the wound. "Yes, let us surround them if we can. Anyway, it will be better if we get on the high ground above them. It's useless to think of staking off the claim while they are in the vicinity. They'll pull up our stakes, and shoot us in the bargain." Their talk was interrupted by a crashing of the bushes, and looking up they saw that their enemies were beginning to roll rocks down toward them. One rock, weighing several tons, tumbled within two yards of them. "All right, we'll try some o' that when we're on top," said Slim Jim. It had threatened rain, and now the drops began to come down, at first scatteringly, and then in a steady downpour. In this rain they moved off through the brush, leading their horses and following the old hunter, who knew more of the old Indian trails than did even Jack Wumble.

race

When Mark first arrived in Thailand, he saw an old man selling something cheap in the street of Chiang Mai. The old man was one of the poor people in Chiang Mai and there was no difference from beggars . Most of them were some lonely old people. Their life had no support. Mark was a kind man, so he gave some changes to him without thinking. The old man told him to pick something he liked. Mark didn't choose anything and left. But the old man followed him closely. AT first, Mark didn't think a lot, just supposing he wanted to go home. But when he went out very far saw the old man still following him, he was a bit tired, thinking the old man must feel he was kind and wanted to beg more money from him. Mark turned back and told him not to follow him because he hadn't much money. But the old man seemed not to understand what he meant, still following him. The bag on his back made him sweat all over. Mark happened to meet his Thai colleague in the street and his colleague heard this. The colleague turned to ask why the old man was following his friend. The old man said out of breath, "My son, you gave me money, but didn't want my things, so I have to give you something. I see you are a foreigner, likely not to familiar with here. I just want to follow you and show you the way. All I can do for you is this." Mark was shocked. He said he didn't know why, when he felt the old man was just like his father.

mctest

One day John and Sally's mother made up her mind to bake a very special cake for her son and daughter, but she didn't have the ingredients. She told John and Sally to go to the grocer's to buy the things she would need. "I'll need some popcorn, a pea, some melon balls, and a cup of yogurt. I'm going to make a very special cake today," she said. "Wow, that sounds horrible," said John. "Yeah, we'd rather watch TV and eat potato chips," said Sally. "Don't talk back, kids. Do what I said and head into town. It's a beautiful day. Go the long way and follow the river until you get there. Don't take the short way through the forest. A lion has escaped from the zoo. He might be hiding in the forest." So John and Sally started the walk into town, but because they were disobedient children, they didn't follow the river like their mother told them. Instead they took the short way through the forest. "I'm not afraid of a lion in the forest," said John. "Besides, I think mom has been eating too many melon balls and is letting her imagination get away from her again. If there were a lion in the forest, we would know about it." So they wandered along the forest path, jumping in mud puddles and throwing sticks at one another. But as soon as John and Sally were in the darkest part of the forest, they heard a terrible roar. It was the lion! Horrified, they ran for their lives out of the forest, all the way back home. "We're sorry!" they both said to their mother. "We'll never be disobedient again!" And from that day forward, whenever their mother told them to do something, they did it right away like they were told.

gutenberg

CHAPTER LII. ANOTHER LOVER. The party at Rudham Park had hardly been a success,--nor was it much improved in wit or gaiety when Mrs. Montacute Jones, Lord Giblet, and Jack de Baron had gone away, and Canon Holdenough and his wife, with Mr. Groschut, had come in their places. This black influx, as Lord Brotherton called it, had all been due to consideration for his Lordship. Mr. De Baron thought that his guest would like to see, at any rate, one of his own family, and Lady Alice Holdenough was the only one whom he could meet. As to Mr. Groschut, he was the Dean's bitterest enemy, and would, therefore, it was thought, be welcome. The Bishop had been asked, as Mr. De Baron was one who found it expedient to make sacrifices to respectability; but, as was well known, the Bishop never went anywhere except to clerical houses. Mr. Groschut, who was a younger man, knew that it behoved him to be all things to all men, and that he could not be efficacious among sinners unless he would allow himself to be seen in their paths. Care was, of course, taken that Lady Alice should find herself alone with her brother. It was probably expected that the Marquis would be regarded as less of an ogre in the country if it were known that he had had communication with one of the family without quarrelling with her. "So you're come here," he said. "I didn't know that people so pious would enter De Baron's doors."

cnn

(CNN) -- Mark your calendars: The midterm elections aren't yet decided, but there's already a date scheduled for a 2016 presidential debate. With slightly more than two years until a new president is chosen, The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation announced Thursday its plans to host a televised debate for Republican primary candidates on Sept. 16, 2015 at the Reagan Library in California. "Ronnie would be so pleased to know that his presidential library continues to attract America's leaders to discuss the future of the country he loved so dearly," former First Lady Nancy Reagan said in a release from the Reagan Foundation, an organization geared toward promoting the GOP icon's national legacy. "I can't think of a better way to honor my husband than to keep the tradition of Reagan Library-hosted debates alive." But don't get too excited for a heated GOP faceoff: New rules from the Republican National Committee plan to limit the number of primary debates in the upcoming presidential contest after a series of contentious debates rattled the party leading up to 2012. In a statement, the RNC's Sean Spicer said the list of sanctioned debates will be announced later in the year. "We are focused on Tuesday's election," he said. Although no Republicans have officially announced a 2016 White House bid, many potential contenders have made themselves known in recent months by stumping for midterm candidates. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, for example, has made four trips to Iowa in recent months to support GOP candidates there. And Republican U.S. Senator Rand Paul recorded robocalls for a Florida Republican in a tight race to maintain his House seat.

gutenberg

CHAPTER VI. The next morning was gloomy and rainy, as Elizabeth informed Anne at about seven o'clock; 'and I am not sorry for it,' said she, 'for I want to have you all to myself at home, so we will turn the incubi over to Kate and Helen, and be comfortable together.' 'Will they submit to such treatment?' said Anne. 'Oh yes, my dear,' said Elizabeth; 'they want us as little as we want them; they only want a little civility, and I will not be so sparing of that useful commodity as I was yesterday evening. And now, Anne, I am going to beg your pardon for being so excessively rude to Harriet, as I was last night. She did not mind it, but you did, and much more than if it had been to yourself.' 'I believe I did,' said Anne; 'other people do not know what you mean when you set up your bristles, and I do. Besides, I was sorry for Lucy, who looks as if she had sensitiveness enough for the whole family.' 'Poor Lucy!' said Elizabeth; "A weary lot is thine, fair maid, A weary lot is thine." Yes, Lucy has very deep feeling; you may see it in the painful flushing of her cheek, and the downcast look of her eye, when her mother and sister expose themselves. I really believe that that poor girl has more to endure than most people.' 'O Lizzie,' said Anne, 'how differently you spoke of her yesterday!' 'Yes,' said Elizabeth, 'but then I was furious with Mrs. Hazleby; and besides, I believe the truth was, that I was very tired and very cross, not exactly the way in which I intended to conclude the Consecration day; and now I am in my senses, I am very sorry I behaved as I did. But, Anne, though I hereby retract all I said in dispraise of Lucy, and confess that I was rude to Harriet, do not imagine that I disavow all I said about society last night, for I assure you that I expressed my deliberate opinion.'

wikipedia

In signal processing, data compression, source coding, or bit-rate reduction involves encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation. Compression can be either lossy or lossless. Lossless compression reduces bits by identifying and eliminating statistical redundancy. No information is lost in lossless compression. Lossy compression reduces bits by identifying unnecessary information and removing it. The process of reducing the size of a data file is referred to as data compression. In the context of data transmission, it is called source coding (encoding done at the source of the data before it is stored or transmitted) in opposition to channel coding. Compression is useful because it helps reduce resource usage, such as data storage space or transmission capacity. Because compressed data must be decompressed to use, this extra processing imposes computational or other costs through decompression; this situation is far from being a free lunch. Data compression is subject to a space–time complexity trade-off. For instance, a compression scheme for video may require expensive hardware for the video to be decompressed fast enough to be viewed as it is being decompressed, and the option to decompress the video in full before watching it may be inconvenient or require additional storage. The design of data compression schemes involves trade-offs among various factors, including the degree of compression, the amount of distortion introduced (when using lossy data compression), and the computational resources required to compress and decompress the data.

race

An inventor seeks to create a new product that serves a specific need and fulfills a role that other products do not. Sometimes an inventor comes up with a wholly new idea, but more often inventions are simply improvements on an older design. With a little imagination and creativity , an old idea can suddenly become something new. However, creating a new invention means much more than having a brilliant idea. A good designer follows the design process: identifying the challenge, researching and brainstorming ideas , designing a solution, testing and evaluating the ideas, and finally building the product. Designers also use science, math, technology, and engineering to design a tool that satisfies the need they identified. Anyone can be an inventor --even kids! For example, Chester Greenwood was just fifteen years old when he invented a product that changed his life. In fact, his idea was so good that his invention supported him for the rest of his life. You may not know his name, but you probably know his invention --earmuffs ! The inspiration for his earmuff design came to Chester when he was ice-skating. His ears were cold, and he decided to find a way to keep them warm. With the help of his grandmother, he made a new product to protect his ears and at the age of eighteen, Chester patented his earmuff design. Many other famous inventors started young as well. Margaret Knight --the inventor of the flat-bottomed brown paper bag --is said to have created a safety device for textile looms when she was just twelve years old. Another example is Thomas Edison, one of the greatest inventors in history, who applied for his first patent when he was just twenty-one years old. Over the course of his life, Thomas Edison patented a total of 1,093 inventions!

mctest

Annie's sister, Julia, was having a birthday party in the afternoon. Annie's mother was going to bake the cake for the party. Mother asked Annie to help her bake the cake. They chose to make a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. Annie got the bowls and the ingredients they would need for the cake. She helped measure the flour, the sugar and the cocoa. Once her mother added the rest of the ingredients, Annie was allowed to stir the ingredients in the bowl. She helped to pour the cake mix into two pans and then put them in the oven. The smell of the cake made Annie hungry. While the cake was baking, Annie helped her mother make the chocolate frosting. Her mother let her lick the spoon when they were done mixing the frosting. Once the cake was done, Annie and her mother took the cake out of the oven and let it cool, and then they frosted it. They ate the chocolate cake at Julia's party with scoops of vanilla ice cream and fresh strawberries. Annie gave their dog, Sunny, a little piece of cake too!

cnn

(CNN) -- The stars of tennis took time out from their French Open preparations Sunday to honor the man who helped them become some of the highest-paid athletes in the world. Brad Drewett passed away Friday, aged 54, succumbing to the motor neurone disease that had forced him to step down as head of the men's ATP World Tour. Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and Serena Williams led a minute's silence ahead of the start of the Madrid Masters, while similar tributes were held at tournaments in Portugal and Germany. "Brad wasn't just the president of the ATP but was a player himself, a board member," Federer said on the ATP website. "He's given so much time and effort to the ATP, and I think this is really what we will try to honor in a small way today." Drewett reached a career-high 34 in the world rankings, but his efforts in administration had far bigger impact on the game, from his time on the players' council to running the ATP's Middle East, Asia and Pacific operations before becoming president in early 2012. The Australian took the end-of-season championship to China as part of tennis' global spread in the early 2000s, and then brought it to London where it has become a lucrative moneyspinner and showpiece for the ATP. He has also been credited with getting the players a larger share of prize money from the four grand slam tournaments since he took over the top role a year and half ago.

wikipedia

The White House is the official residence and workplace of the President of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. The term "White House" is often used as a metonym for the president and his advisers, as in "The White House announced that...". The residence was designed by Irish-born architect James Hoban in the Neoclassical style. Construction took place between 1792 and 1800 using Aquia Creek sandstone painted white. When Thomas Jefferson moved into the house in 1801, he (with architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe) added low colonnades on each wing that concealed stables and storage. In 1814, during the War of 1812, the mansion was set ablaze by the British Army in the Burning of Washington, destroying the interior and charring much of the exterior. Reconstruction began almost immediately, and President James Monroe moved into the partially reconstructed Executive Residence in October 1817. Exterior construction continued with the addition of the semi-circular South portico in 1824 and the North portico in 1829. Because of crowding within the executive mansion itself, President Theodore Roosevelt had all work offices relocated to the newly constructed West Wing in 1901. Eight years later in 1909, President William Howard Taft expanded the West Wing and created the first Oval Office, which was eventually moved as the section was expanded. In the main mansion, the third-floor attic was converted to living quarters in 1927 by augmenting the existing hip roof with long shed dormers. A newly constructed East Wing was used as a reception area for social events; Jefferson's colonnades connected the new wings. East Wing alterations were completed in 1946, creating additional office space. By 1948, the house's load-bearing exterior walls and internal wood beams were found to be close to failure. Under Harry S. Truman, the interior rooms were completely dismantled and a new internal load-bearing steel frame constructed inside the walls. Once this work was completed, the interior rooms were rebuilt.

gutenberg

CHAPTER XX. FLIGHT AND PURSUIT. Lieutenant Radbury's party had come up to the ravine at a point opposite to the cave, about half an hour before Dan attempted to make his escape. "I see nothing of the Mexicans here," he remarked to Poke Stover, as he swept the ravine from one end to the other with his well-trained eye. "No more do I see anything," answered the old frontiersman. "But they may be behind yonder rocks, leftenant. If ye say the word, I'll climb down and scout around a bit." "There is a cave among yonder rocks," put in another of the Texans. "It is called Haunted Rock by the Indians. The Comanches used to use it as a meeting-place when they were out for plunder. I've often heard old Si Bilkens tell about it." "I have heard of such a cave," answered Amos Radbury. "If the Mexicans knew of it, they might think it just the right sort of a hiding-place. Yes, Poke, you can scout around. But be careful. They may be watching for a shot." The frontiersman nodded, to show that he understood, and went off immediately on foot, it being impossible to go down the ravine's side on mustang-back, no matter how sure-footed the animal might be. The descent into the ravine took time, and Poke Stover was still some distance from the cave's entrance when he heard a commotion among the bushes and rocks. "A mustang a-comin' this way," he muttered to himself. "And somebody ridin', too. It must be one of them dirty greasers trying to git away. I'll cut him short."

cnn

(CNN) -- Police in Jackson, Mississippi, have prepared an arrest warrant for former television host Gary Collins for leaving the scene of an accident, police spokesman Colendula Green told CNN. Officers were called to the scene Monday afternoon but when police arrived, only one of the parties involved was there. The victim "had been stopped at a red light and was rear-ended by a white Jeep, driven by Gary Collins," Green said. Collins' lawyer, Tom Royals, said his client had gotten out of his vehicle, examined the accident, and exchanged information with the driver of the other car. After calling the police, Collins left because he had been waiting for some time and he thought he had done all that was required, Royals said. "The other party knew his information," Royals said. "And in fact Collins knew someone in the car. They talked a while and then he left." Green agreed that the ex-actor had provided his contact information but said Jackson Police have cited Collins for leaving the scene of an accident, a misdemeanor. Police are waiting to execute the arrest warrant once a judge signs off on it. The other driver is pressing charges, Green said. "It was not a serious accident," Royals said. "It was really just a minor fender-bender." Collins is known for being a TV and radio personality, and is married to former Miss America Mary Anne Mobley. As an actor, he is known his role in the television series "The Sixth Sense," and "The Wackiest Ship in the Army."

gutenberg

CHAPTER TWENTY. NEW PLANS--OUR TRAVELLERS JOIN THE FUR-TRADERS, AND SEE MANY STRANGE THINGS--A CURIOUS FIGHT--A NARROW ESCAPE, AND A PRISONER TAKEN. Not long after the events related in the last chapter, our four friends, Dick, and Joe, and Henri, and Crusoe, agreed to become for a time members of Walter Cameron's band of trappers. Joe joined because one of the objects which the traders had in view was similar to his own mission, namely, the promoting of peace among the various Indian tribes of the mountains and plains to the west. Joe, therefore, thought it a good opportunity of travelling with a band of men who could secure him a favourable hearing from the Indian tribes they might chance to meet with in the course of their wanderings. Besides, as the traders carried about a large supply of goods with them, he could easily replenish his own nearly exhausted pack by hunting wild animals and exchanging their skins for such articles as he might require. Dick joined because it afforded him an opportunity of seeing the wild, majestic scenery of the Rocky Mountains, and shooting the big-horned sheep which abounded there, and the grizzly "bars," as Joe named them, or "Caleb," as they were more frequently styled by Henri and the other men. Henri joined because it was agreeable to the inclination of his own rollicking, blundering, floundering, crashing disposition, and because he would have joined anything that had been joined by the other two. Crusoe's reason for joining was single, simple, easy to be expressed, easy to be understood, and commendable. _He_ joined--because Dick did.

wikipedia

The French colonial empire constituted the overseas colonies, protectorates and mandate territories that came under French rule from the 16th century onward. A distinction is generally made between the "first colonial empire", that existed until 1814, by which time most of it had been lost, and the "second colonial empire", which began with the conquest of Algiers in 1830. The second empire came to an end after the loss of bitter wars in Vietnam (1955) and Algeria (1962), and peaceful decolonization elsewhere after 1960. Competing with Spain, Portugal, the United Provinces, and later England, France began to establish colonies in North America, the Caribbean, and India in the 17th century. A series of wars with Great Britain and other European major powers during the 18th century and early 19th century resulted in France losing nearly all of its conquests. France rebuilt a new empire mostly after 1850, concentrating chiefly in Africa, as well as Indochina and the South Pacific. Republicans, at first hostile to empire, only became supportive when Germany started to build her own colonial empire. As it developed, the new empire took on roles of trade with France, especially supplying raw materials and purchasing manufactured items, as well as lending prestige to the motherland and spreading French civilization and language, and the Catholic religion. It also provided manpower in the World Wars.

cnn

Belfast, Northern Ireland (CNN) -- Ireland's top Roman Catholic cleric, Cardinal Sean Brady, was under mounting pressure to resign Friday amid renewed allegations about his role in dealing with the sexual abuse of children by priests. A British television documentary repeated claims made in 2010 that Brady was told of attacks by pedophile priest Father Brendan Smyth in 1975 but did not inform police or the parents of the victims. The documentary also claimed that Brady, then a priest, had a greater role in the church investigation of the Smyth allegations than he has admitted. New details and documents also were produced. Responding to the BBC program, Brady repeated his defense that he had done his job by passing details of all allegations to his superiors. He told CNN that he felt "betrayed" when he discovered that church officials had taken no action against Smyth, who continued to abuse children for years throughout Ireland and in the United States. Smyth was eventually imprisoned and has since died. Brady has accepted that during the 1970s, he was "part of an unhelpful culture of deference and silence in society and the church," but he has insisted he does not intend to resign. The Catholic Church in Ireland said Friday that a previous request from Brady for Pope Benedict XVI to send a bishop to help him with his work would be "reactivated." Calls continued from abuse victims and lawmakers in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland for Brady to step down. Abuse survivor Jon McCourt told CNN that further inquiries should be made into Brady's role.

race

Autumn means different things to different people. "It all depends on your personality," said British naturalist Richard Mabey. "Personality shapes your view of the season," he said. "You may see it as a fading-away,a packing-up ,or as a time of packing in another sense--the exciting gathering of resources before a long journey." If this is true,perhaps it tells us a little about,for instance,Thomas Hood,the 19th Century English poet. About November,he wrote: No warmth,no cheerfulness,no healthful ease No shade,no shine,no butterflies,no bees November! On the other hand,another English poet John Keats,already sensing he was seriously ill,was inspired by a late September day to pen one of the most famous poems in the English language,To Autumn. He wrote to a friend afterwards that there was something comforting and healing about it. According to Richard Mabey,Keats has the biological evidence on his side. Autumn is not a time of slowing down,but a time of new beginnings and great movements of creatures. For example,just at the moment that Keats's "gathering swallows" ( in To Autumn)are departing for Africa,millions of creatures are fleeing from the frozen north like Iceland,Greenland and Russia to winter along the east and south coasts of Britain. According to scientists,before falling,the leaves transfer their chlorophyll and carbohydrates into the woody parts of the tree for safe keeping over winter. What remains is the natural antioxidants in the leaves: the yellow and orange carotenoids ,and another protective chemical specially produced for autumn,the bright-red anthocyanin .High colour is not a signal of deterioration and decline,but of detox ability and good health. A century after Keats,the American poet Loren Eiseley wrote in his journal: "Suppose we saw ourselves burning-like maples in a golden autumn. And that we could break up like autumn leaves...dropping their substance like chlorophyll. Wouldn't our attitude towards death be different?"

wikipedia

The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (often referred to as The University of Minnesota, Minnesota, the U of M, UMN, or simply the U) is a public research university in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Minneapolis and St. Paul campuses are approximately apart, and the Saint Paul campus is actually in neighboring Falcon Heights. It is the oldest and largest campus within the University of Minnesota system and has the sixth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 51,147 students in 2013–14. The university is the flagship institution of the University of Minnesota system, and is organized into 19 colleges and schools, with sister campuses in Crookston, Duluth, Morris, and Rochester. The University of Minnesota is one of America's Public Ivy universities, which refers to top public universities in the United States capable of providing a collegiate experience comparable with the Ivy League. Founded in 1851, The University of Minnesota is categorized as an R1 Doctoral University with the highest research activity in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Minnesota is a member of the Association of American Universities and is ranked 14th in research activity with $881 million in research and development expenditures in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2015.

mctest

My mother and I were in the kitchen fixing dinner. I was setting the table as she was cooking when we heard my father. We went into the living room to see what he needed. He could not find the keys to his truck. We all started looking all over the place and could not seem to find them. My father needed to go to work so he took the keys for my mom's van and left for work. We kept looking for them and when we were about to give up my little brother came walking out of the garage with them in his hands. He was in the garage playing with his bike. My mother called my father at work to tell him the great news. He was happy and we then ate our dinner.

mctest

There was once a land named Catatonia where cats ran things. Cats walked and talked much as you do except they walked on four legs. There were cat policemen, cat firemen, cat teachers, and even a cat bus driver. Most of the cats were very busy. The King of Catatonia was a small cat named Diggs. He had two brothers named Pouncer and Flash who helped him rule in Catatonia. Pouncer was head of the Milk, Cheese and Cream center and Flash's job was to blow things up. Together the three of them made sure all the cats were happy, had plenty to drink and got to enjoy bright fireworks shows in the distance. One day Pouncer's wife brought the kittens to see Pouncer at his office. There were white kittens and lots of black and white spotted kittens walking around in the Milk, Cheese and Cream center. Well that is all the time we have for now. I hope this short story of the Cats of Catatonia made at least one person in the room smile.

cnn

(CNN) -- Fernando Alonso ended his 2011 Formula One commitments wearing a Santa Claus outfit and the robes of a Magi, and the Spanish driver hopes next year will bring a return of the old Ferrari spirit. The legendary Italian marque has won 31 world titles overall, but none since clinching a 16th constructors' crown in 2008. Alonso was fourth in the drivers' standings this year, 135 points behind Red Bull's all-conquering Sebastian Vettel after winning just one race, while teammate Felipe Massa was a massive 274 points off the pace in sixth. After being Father Christmas for Ferrari employees at the team's Maranello headquarters, and then one of the Three Wise Men at a sponsors' party, Alonso turned his attentions towards his bid to add a third world title to his 2005 and 2006 successes at Renault. Argentina's new F1 project "This is the time when one is always optimistic, but then we must wait for the start of the season to see where we really are. It's true that in the past few days, there was a good feeling at Maranello and there's an air of confidence about it," the 30-year-old told Ferrari's website. "We want to reacquaint ourselves with the taste of winning that has eluded us for a while. Last spring, we made important changes to the structure of the technical part of the team and now we have adopted a new approach, a less conservative one, in the design of the new car. "The philosophy behind the 2012 car is very different to that of 2011, especially in some key areas like suspension and aerodynamics."

race

Do you want to know something about children in Africa? What to they do for fun every day? Find out here: Education School is expensive for many African children. Lots of families can't afford school uniforms or exercise books even though they don't have to pay for school. For those lucky enough to go to school , they have a lot to learn. Some take two language classes: English or French, and their first language. There is also math, science, history, social studies and geography. _ take up much of children's time after school. They have to get water and firewood for the family every day. Also there's cleaning , washing and helping Mum with the meal. Daily fun It's not all work and no play. Sports are very popular. Children can make goals with twigs ( )and their own footballs with plastic and bits of string ( ). They play in the country and the streets of old towns. There're many football teams for teenagers in Africa. Internet It's really expensive to get on the Internet. To surf the net for 20 hours costs over 600yuan. This is more than the average monthly pay per person. Egypt and South Africa are the top two users of the Internet in Africa. All of the capital cities there can get on the Internet. Some schools offer computer lessons but few students can enjoy computer fun at home.

race

McDonald's is the world single biggest food provider with annual sales of around $12.4bn. And the company's symbol Ronald McDonald is now (or so the company claims) the word's most recognized person after Santa Claus. The first McDonald's restaurant was opened in San Bernardino, California, in 1948 by brothers Mac and Richard "Dick" McDonald. Mac ran the restaurant side; Dick was the marketing genius. He had already invented the drive-in laundry and had been the first person to use neon lights in advertising. Now he spotted the gap in the post-war, baby-boom market for cheap, family-orientated restaurants with simple menus, standardized food and efficient service. After a slow start, business began to boom. By 1954, the brothers were joined by another entrepreneur, a kitchen equipment salesman called Ray A Kroc who owned the franchise to the Multimixer, milk shake maker used throughout the McDonald's chain. A year later, Kroc had bought the McDonald brothers' chain of 25 franchises for the equivalent of around $70m(PS44m). Dick remained with the company until the Seventies, when he and Kroc fell out over Kroc's claim that the chain was his creation. Today, an almost Stalinist cult of personality surrounds Kroc (who died in 1984) at McDonald's, while the brothers who gave the company its name have all but been written out of its history. But though Kroc did not found McDonald's, he was certainly responsible for the empire-building philosophy which led to its world domination. He ushered in such essential contributions to international cuisine as the Big Mac (1968) and the Egg McMuffin (1973); and helped launch Ronald McDonald ---- "in any language he means fun" ---- on to television in 1963. Every three hours, a new McDonald's franchise opens somewhere in the world; it can be found in more than 100 countries including India (vegetarian-only to avoid offending the non-beef-eating populace) and Israel (non kosher, despite fierce local objection). McDonald's chain embodied the thrusting, can-do spirit of Fifties America with staff mottoes such as "If you've got time to lean, you've go time to clean."

cnn

BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- "Easy money, fast and effective." Investors protest outside the headquarters of DMG, one of many companies accused of defrauding the public. That was the name of one of the businesses in which millions of Colombians deposited their life savings after being promised short-term returns of as much as 150 percent. But government officials say the businesses were pyramid schemes that raked in at least $200 million from 3 million people. The government has said it knows who most of those responsible are, but they have escaped. The government is tracking them down. Sergio Munoz is among those who lost their savings. "That was for my children," he said. "Now, it comes to light that they have robbed us. It was with complicity of the authorities who permit this -- knowing that it is illegal for it to be permitted." The government says the businesses defrauded the public by offering false promises of a sure investment. Wilson Rodriguez handed over the equivalent of $80,000 to a money man who offered him what he thought were assets in hotels and property in exchange. Now, he doesn't know whom to approach. "I don't even have enough to care for my family," he said. "I lent money and what I make from my salary goes to pay off debts. I have nothing. I lost everything." Infuriated investors have demonstrated outside the headquarters of several companies in question across the nation. Worried that the situation has already led to physical altercations and riots, President Alvaro Uribe asked that authorities act immediately to bring those responsible to justice.

cnn

In a telephone call Monday between Russia's Defense Minister General Sergei Shoigu and the U.S. Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel, Shoigu described the activity of U.S. and NATO troops near Russia's border as "unprecedented." According to the official Russian version of the call, his American counterpart assured him the alliance did not have "provocative or expansionist" intentions -- and that Russia should know this. But it hardly seems to matter how often NATO makes these assurances. The Kremlin will never trust them. Fear of the Western military alliance's steady march east is deep-rooted. It strikes at the very heart of Russia's national sense of security, a relic of Cold War enmity which has seeped down to post-Soviet generations. Ilya Saraev is a 15-year-old pupil at the First Moscow cadet school in Moscow. He thinks long and hard when I ask him about NATO. "I think NATO might be a friend to Russia but there's one point I don't understand: Why it needs to approach the border with Russia more and more," he says. Cadet school is an education in patriotism, like something from a bygone era. Besides the regular classes, there are lessons in ballroom dancing. Teenage cadets proudly leading local beauties through the waltz while outside their classmates rehearse the goosestep. After the takeover of Crimea, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry accused Russia of behaving in a 19th century fashion in the 21st century. In some ways it's an epithet that seems to ring true here. The children are immaculately mannered and thoughtful. They write to their fellow cadets in Crimea. They say they feel sad there's this tension between brother nations -- Russia and Ukraine.

mctest

Once upon a time a young boy and young girl set out on a trip to the beach. They packed a few towels, an umbrella, a few beach chairs and a lunch cooler. They drove to the crowded beach parking lot and spent almost an hour trying to find a parking spot. Once they found a spot they parked and began walking to the beach area. They found a nice spot with a good view of the water and set up their belongings. Once they sat down they began to enjoy a nice lunch on the beach. They watched the boats go by and people playing in the water. It was a wonderful day and one they would always remember. Once they arrived home they suddenly found out that they both had a pretty good sunburn. They both said that next time they would use sun screen.

wikipedia

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB). Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections do not have symptoms, known as latent tuberculosis. About 10% of latent infections progress to active disease which, if left untreated, kills about half of those infected. The classic symptoms of active TB are a chronic cough with blood-containing sputum, fever, night sweats, and weight loss. The historical term "consumption" came about due to the weight loss. Infection of other organs can cause a wide range of symptoms. One-third of the world's population is thought to be infected with TB. New infections occur in about 1% of the population each year. In 2014, there were 9.6 million cases of active TB which resulted in 1.5 million deaths. More than 95% of deaths occurred in developing countries. The number of new cases each year has decreased since 2000. About 80% of people in many Asian and African countries test positive while 5–10% of people in the United States population tests positive by the tuberculin test. Tuberculosis has been present in humans since ancient times.

gutenberg

CHAPTER V For a number of days Michael saw only Steward and Kwaque. This was because he was confined to the steward's stateroom. Nobody else knew that he was on board, and Dag Daughtry, thoroughly aware that he had stolen a white man's dog, hoped to keep his presence secret and smuggle him ashore when the _Makambo_ docked in Sydney. Quickly the steward learned Michael's pre-eminent teachableness. In the course of his careful feeding of him, he gave him an occasional chicken bone. Two lessons, which would scarcely be called lessons, since both of them occurred within five minutes and each was not over half a minute in duration, sufficed to teach Michael that only on the floor of the room in the corner nearest the door could he chew chicken bones. Thereafter, without prompting, as a matter of course when handed a bone, he carried it to the corner. And why not? He had the wit to grasp what Steward desired of him; he had the heart that made it a happiness for him to serve. Steward was a god who was kind, who loved him with voice and lip, who loved him with touch of hand, rub of nose, or enfolding arm. As all service flourishes in the soil of love, so with Michael. Had Steward commanded him to forego the chicken bone after it was in the corner, he would have served him by foregoing. Which is the way of the dog, the only animal that will cheerfully and gladly, with leaping body of joy, leave its food uneaten in order to accompany or to serve its human master.

wikipedia

While there is some international commonality in the way political parties are recognized, and in how they operate, there are often many differences, and some are significant. Many political parties have an ideological core, but some do not, and many represent very different ideologies than they did when first founded. In democracies, political parties are elected by the electorate to run a government. Many countries have numerous powerful political parties, such as Germany and India and some nations have one-party systems, such as China. The United States is a two-party system, with its two most powerful parties being the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. The first political factions, cohering around a basic, if fluid, set of principles emerged from the Exclusion Crisis and Glorious Revolution in late-17th-century England. The Whigs supported Protestant constitutional monarchy against absolute rule and the Tories, originating in the Royalist (or "Cavalier") faction of the English Civil War, were conservative royalist supporters of a strong monarchy as a counterbalance to the republican tendencies of Whigs, who were the dominant political faction for most of the first half of the 18th century; they supported the Hanoverian succession of 1715 against the Jacobite supporters of the deposed Roman Catholic Stuart dynasty and were able to purge Tory politicians from important government positions after the failed Jacobite rising of 1715. The leader of the Whigs was Robert Walpole, who maintained control of the government in the period 1721–1742; his protégé was Henry Pelham (1743–1754).

gutenberg

CHAPTER LXXX - RUBY PREPARES FOR SERVICE Our poor old honest friend John Crumb was taken away to durance vile after his performance in the street with Sir Felix, and was locked up for the remainder of the night. This indignity did not sit so heavily on his spirits as it might have done on those of a quicker nature. He was aware that he had not killed the baronet, and that he had therefore enjoyed his revenge without the necessity of 'swinging for it at Bury.' That in itself was a comfort to him. Then it was a great satisfaction to think that he had 'served the young man out' in the actual presence of his Ruby. He was not prone to give himself undue credit for his capability and willingness to knock his enemies about; but he did think that Ruby must have observed on this occasion that he was the better man of the two. And, to John, a night in the station-house was no great personal inconvenience. Though he was very proud of his four-post bed at home, he did not care very much for such luxuries as far as he himself was concerned. Nor did he feel any disgrace from being locked up for the night. He was very good-humoured with the policeman, who seemed perfectly to understand his nature, and was as meek as a child when the lock was turned upon him. As he lay down on the hard bench, he comforted himself with thinking that Ruby would surely never care any more for the 'baronite' since she had seen him go down like a cur without striking a blow. He thought a good deal about Ruby, but never attributed any blame to her for her share in the evils that had befallen him.

wikipedia

Solomon Islands is a sovereign country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania lying to the east of Papua New Guinea and northwest of Vanuatu and covering a land area of . The country's capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal. The country takes its name from the Solomon Islands archipelago, which is a collection of Melanesian islands that also includes the North Solomon Islands (part of Papua New Guinea), but excludes outlying islands, such as Rennell and Bellona, and the Santa Cruz Islands. The islands have been inhabited for thousands of years. In 1568, the Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña was the first European to visit them, naming them the "Islas Salomón". Britain defined its area of interest in the Solomon Islands archipelago in June 1893, when Captain Gibson R.N., of , declared the southern Solomon Islands a British protectorate. During World War II, the Solomon Islands campaign (1942–1945) saw fierce fighting between the United States and the Empire of Japan, such as in the Battle of Guadalcanal. The official name of the then British overseas territory was changed from "the British Solomon Islands Protectorate" to "Solomon Islands" in 1975. Self-government was achieved in 1976; independence was obtained two years later. Today, Solomon Islands is a constitutional monarchy with the Queen of Solomon Islands, currently Queen Elizabeth II, as its head of state. Manasseh Sogavare is the current prime minister.

wikipedia

Cuba (), officially the Republic of Cuba (), is a country comprising the island of Cuba as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located in the northern Caribbean where the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic Ocean meet. It is south of both the U.S. state of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Haiti, and north of Jamaica. Havana is the largest city and capital; other major cities include Santiago de Cuba and Camagüey. Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean, with an area of , and the second-most populous after Hispaniola, with over 11 million inhabitants. Prior to Spanish colonization in the late 15th century, Cuba was inhabited by Amerindian tribes. It remained a colony of Spain until the Spanish–American War of 1898, which led to nominal independence as a "de facto" United States protectorate in 1902. As a fragile republic, Cuba attempted to strengthen its democratic system, but mounting political radicalization and social strife culminated in the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1952. Further unrest and instability led to Batista's ousting in January 1959 by the July 26 Movement, which afterwards established a dictatorship under the leadership of Fidel Castro. Since 1965, the state has been governed by the Communist Party of Cuba. A point of contention during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, a nuclear war nearly broke out during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Cuba is one of the few remaining Marxist–Leninist socialist states, where the role of the vanguard Communist Party is enshrined in the Constitution. Independent observers have accused the Cuban government of numerous human rights abuses, including arbitrary imprisonment.

gutenberg

CHAPTER II MABEL'S PEARLS Four months after Marston reached England, Wyndham came home. He had got thin and, when he was quiet, looked worn, but he had returned in triumph and soon persuaded Marston that his efforts had earned a rich reward. Things had gone better than his letters indicated. On the evening of his arrival, he waited in Flora's drawing-room for Chisholm, who had not yet got back from his office at the port. Electric lights burned above the mantel and Wyndham sat by the cheerful fire, with Flora in a low chair opposite. For a time she had listened while he talked, and now her eyes rested on him with keen but tranquil satisfaction. Harry had come back, as she had known he would come, like a conqueror. She was proud that he had justified her trust, and although it had been hard to let him go, this did not matter. She was ashamed of her hesitation when he first declared himself her lover, but the suspicion that she was rash had not lasted long. Flora was loyal and when she had accepted him looked steadily forward. It was not her habit to doubt and look back. One thing rather disturbed her; Harry was obviously tired. Before he went away his talk and laugh were marked by a curious sparkle that Flora thought like the sparkle of wine. This had gone, but, in a way, she liked him better, although his sober mood was new. By-and-by he glanced about the room, which was rather plainly furnished, but with a hint of artistic taste. Chisholm was not rich and the taste was Flora's. Then he moved his chair and leaned forward to the fire with a languid smile.

gutenberg

CHAPTER XXXIX Doctor Crofts Is Turned Out "Have you heard the news, my dear, from the Small House?" said Mrs Boyce to her husband, some two or three days after Mrs Dale's visit to the squire. It was one o'clock, and the parish pastor had come in from his ministrations to dine with his wife and children. "What news?" said Mr Boyce, for he had heard none. "Mrs Dale and the girls are going to leave the Small House; they're going into Guestwick to live." "Mrs Dale going away; nonsense!" said the vicar. "What on earth should take her into Guestwick? She doesn't pay a shilling of rent where she is." "I can assure you it's true, my dear. I was with Mrs Hearn just now, and she had it direct from Mrs Dale's own lips. Mrs Hearn said she'd never been taken so much aback in her whole life. There's been some quarrel, you may be sure of that." Mr Boyce sat silent, pulling off his dirty shoes preparatory to his dinner. Tidings so important, as touching the social life of his parish, had not come to him for many a day, and he could hardly bring himself to credit them at so short a notice. "Mrs Hearn says that Mrs Dale spoke ever so firmly about it, as though determined that nothing should change her." "And did she say why?" "Well, not exactly. But Mrs Hearn said she could understand there had been words between her and the squire. It couldn't be anything else, you know. Probably it had something to do with that man, Crosbie."