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3018q3zvoiqh6tkjkzarysii2vlra7 | London police are well known in the world. Today there are policemen everywhere, but in 1700 there was no policeman in London at all. A few old men used to protect the city streets at night, and they were not paid very much. About 300 years ago, London started to get bigger. The city was very dirty and many people were poor. There were so many thieves who stole money in the streets that people had to stay in their homes as much as possible. In 1750, Henry Fielding started to pay a group of people to stop thieves. They were like policemen and were called "Bow Street Runners" because they worked near Bow Street. Fifty years later, there were 120 Bow Street Runners, but London had become very big and needed more policemen. So, in 1829, the first London Police Force was started with 3,000 officers. Most of the men worked on foot, but a few rode horses. There was no policewoman in London until 1920. Today, London police are quite well paid and only a few police officers still ride horses. Perhaps the London Police Force's greatest achievement is to meet changing conditions and provide excellent police service . The two main reasons for the Force's development were the growth of population and the progress of science and technology. |
3ob0cao74hp5dh4j40cdnayjjjmhyj | A rocket began countdown . It was a common sound in the 1960s. But this was not just another countdown. It was the beginning of a historic event. It was the countdown of Apollo 11 -the space fligh that would carry men to the first landing on the moon.
In the spaceship at the top of the rocket were three American astronauts whose names would soon be known around the world: Neil Armstrong. Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins.
Neil Armstrong was the commander of the spaceship. Edwin Aldrin was the pilot of the moon lander. The astronauts gave it the name the Eagle. Michael Collins was the pilot of the command module , Columbia. He would wait in orbit around the moon while Armstrong and Aldrin landed and explored the surface.
On Earth, all activity seemed to stop. President Richard Nixon gave federal government workers the day off to watch the moon landing on television. Around the world, 500 million people watched the television report. Countless millions more listened on their radios.
Armstrong and Aldrin started the lander rocket engine. It slowed the spacecraft and sent it down toward the landing place. It was in an area known as the "Sea of Tranquility ".
The moon lander, controlled by a computer, dropped toward the airless surface of the moon. 140 meters from the surface, the astronauts look control of the lander from the computer. They moved the Eagle forward, away from a very rocky area that might have caused a difficult landing.
It took the astronauts more than three hours to complete the preparations for leaving the lander. It was difficult - in the Eagle's small space - to get into space suits that would protect them on the moon's surface.
Finally, Armstrong and Aldrin were ready. They opened the door. Armstrong went out first and moved slowly down the ladder. At 2:56 on July 20th, 1969, Neil Armstrong put his foot on the moon.
"That's one small step for man,"he said, "one giant leap for mankind." |
30bxrybrp4x1oc9jpzup2dd38lmwhj | Harry is a boy with a learning disability. On his fourth birthday, he was given a pug called Millie. Two weeks after the dog's arrival, he was happier and calmer and said his first words, "dog" and "mummy". Just two months later, thieves stole the dog, and now the heartbroken little boy is back to where he started. He has refused to talk since losing his best friend. His mother was worried and gave him another dog, but he just "pushed it away". Mrs Hainsworth, his mother, says, "My son is very sad. He'll go over to her cage and just beat on the bars. There is no word coming out, but you just know he's screaming 'Where is Millie' inside. Millie was really his best friend. They would play together happily for hours. None of his toys has ever held his attention that long. Now he has just completely turned quiet again. "Harry suffers from a condition which affects his ability to speak and move. But the dog's being with him achieved more in days than months of speech therapy and physiotherapy had. Mrs Hainsworth says, "My son was so happy when he saw Millie. Being with Millie changed him, and within two weeks he had said his first words and was working on saying 'dad'. Just last week, his teachers and I were saying how much Millie had helped him. And now this!" Mrs Hainsworth is considering buying another pug in the hope that her son will accept it. Maureen Hennis of the charity, Pets as Therapy, says she has seen many cases of dogs helping people with speech problems. "People may talk to a dog when they wouldn't like to talk to another human," she says. "A dog doesn't care if words come out wrong." |
3un61f00hwpk0n82p3jaqh2wboo5ry | The German shepherd runs off and noses around in the grass of Kenya's Laikipia Plateau. "OK, Oakley," the dog's handler orders, "Find it!"
Oakley sniffs until he comes to a bush, then stops, sits, and looks up at his handler. She bends to see what he has found: the waste of an endangered African wild dog. "Good dog!" she praises. The handler pulls a tennis ball from her pocket. Oakley jumps for his reward.
"He doesn't actually want the waste," says Aimee Hurt, a founding member of the U.S.-based group Working Dogs for Conservation. Hurt is in Kenya to train both Oakley and his handler. "He finds it so he can play with his ball. We're the ones who want the waste."
Detection dogs are sometimes taught to locate actual animals. Black-footed ferrets have been studied with their help. But more often the dogs learn to locate the waste of creatures such as bears, wolves and mountain lions.
What the dogs find provides scientists with data about a species. Scientists can use the DNA collected from animal waste to identify individuals, sex, and population sizes -- all without ever seeing the animal itself. "It can take years to gather this kind of information if you have to trap animals," Hurt explains.
Waste analysis might make a huge difference when wild species are accused of attacking domestic livestock . Hurt says, "A good detection dog will find the waste so we can see what the animal is actually eating." This may help reduce problems between people and wildlife. |
3e7tuj2egcm900r9as17x8quiin9ds | Jane arrives at Thornfield, having been met at the George Inn. Mrs. Fairfax confuses her a little at first, because _ is so informal and welcoming. But in due course Jane discovers that Mrs. Fairfax is the housekeeper. Jane's pupil, Adele Varens, is the eight-year-old French child under the legal protection of Mr. Edward Rochester, the owner of the house. (We learn later that her mother had claimed she was his illegitimate daughter. Mr. Rochester is not convinced by this claim, but felt he could not leave the little girl poor when her mother died.) Adele is a pleasant little girl, even if she is not a particularly eager student. Life goes on very peacefully for three months, until the return of Mr. Rochester. Jane first meets him on his horse, and her description of him is quite fanciful. He takes a fall and Jane helps him, although she does not know who he is until they are both back at Thornfield. It is obvious to the reader, although not to Jane, that the reason why Mr. Rochester stays at Thornfield much longer than usual is that he finds her company enjoyable. Jane, unknowingly at first, falls in love with him. Their closeness is very apparent. There is something about Thornfield that is mysterious. Jane is encouraged to focus her attention on the servant Grace Poole, who is Mr. Rochester's mad wife Bertha Mason's keeper at Thornfield, and whose drunken carelessness frequently allows Bertha to escape and do something violent. It is clear to the reader, though, that Mr. Rochester's emotional engagement is immense. When his bed is set on fire, Jane rescues him, but does not understand why the matter is not pursued, despite Mr. Rochester assuring her the criminal is Grace. The next morning Grace behaves as though she has done nothing wrong. Eventually, Mr. Rochester leaves, to go to a house party. He brings everyone at the party back with him, transforming the atmosphere in the house, and delighting Adele. One of the guests is Blanche Ingram, whom Mr. Rochester is confidently expected to marry. However, it is clear from the way she is portrayed in the book that she is too proud; our sympathies are not with her. Mr. Rochester is called away from the house, and when he returns he chooses to play the role of a fortune teller. It is clear to the reader that one of his motives is to try to turn Blanche against the idea of marriage to him. While he has clearly bothered her, he is unsuccessful. One afternoon, Jane hears that her cousin John Reed is dead and Mrs. Reed, who is probably on her deathbed, has been asking for her. With strict instructions from Mr. Rochester to return quickly, she sets off to Gateshead. On arrival, she realizes she no longer hates her cousins. However, Mrs. Reed is still bitter towards her, owing to the fact that Jane's mother was Mr Reed's favourite sister and this resulted in him apparently favouring Jane over his own children. A short time later, Mrs. Reed gives Jane a letter from her uncle, John Eyre, that was written three years earlier. It explains how he planned to adopt Jane and allow her to inherit his fortune. Mrs. Reed never handed the letter over because of her bitterness. Jane tries once more to seek reconciliation , but without success; her aunt dies that night. |
3ts1ar6uqqe2k1hcm1yd7c29y0w7fv | CHAPTER XXXVI
Selingman had scarcely left the place when Ernshaw arrived, piloted into the room by Aaron, who had been waiting for him below. Maraton and he gripped hands heartily. During the first few days of the campaign they had been constant companions.
"At least," he declared, as he looked into Maraton's face, "whatever the world may think of the justice of their cause, no one will ever any longer deny the might of the people."
"None but fools ever did deny it," Maraton answered.
"How are they in the north?" Ernshaw asked.
"United and confident," Maraton assured him. "Up there I don't think they realise the position so much as here. In Nottingham and Leicester, people are leading their usual daily lives. It was only as we neared London that one began to understand."
"London is paralysed with fear," Ernshaw asserted, "perhaps with reason. The Government are working the telephones and telegraph to a very small extent. The army engineers are doing the best they can with the East Coast railways."
"What about Dale and his friends?"
Ernshaw's dark, sallow face was lit with triumph.
"They are flustered to death like a lot of rabbits in the middle of a cornfield, with the reapers at work'!" he exclaimed. "Heckled and terrified to' death! Cecil was at them the other night. 'Are you not,' he cried, 'the representatives of the people?' Wilmott was in the House--one of us--treasurer for the Amalgamated Society, and while Dale was hesitating, he sprang up. 'Before God, no!' he answered. 'There isn't a Labour Member in this House who stands for more than the constituency he represents, or is here for more than the salary he draws. The cause of the people is in safer hands.' Then they called for you. There have been questions about your whereabouts every day. They wanted to impeach you for high treason. Through all the storm, Foley is the only man who has kept quiet. He sent for me. I referred him to you." |
3rxpczqmqpbunfy585nmonb8x8p1gf | CHAPTER VI
AN OPPORTUNE ARRIVAL
With his feet to the sea, and his head pillowed by many cushions, Rowan lay in a long invalid chair at the edge of the little strip of shingle which separated the tower of Rakney from the sea. Every limb was at rest, every nerve seemed lulled into quiescence. The sun and wind had left their traces upon his hollow cheeks. It seemed, indeed, as though Death had lifted her hand from his forehead. It was only when one looked closer that one realized his terrible weakness, realized how slender, indeed, the thread was by which he held on to life. There was scarcely a breath of wind stirring. The sun was high in the heavens, and the whole country seemed lulled into a state of almost unnatural repose. The distant trees were motionless, as though, indeed, they were simply painted things against that background of deep blue sky. The smoke from the little cluster of cottages crept upwards, straight as a ruled line. The cattle in the fields seemed all asleep, exhausted by the unexpected heat. The sea was like a lake, unruffled, almost unrippled.
The man dozed, and Winifred sat by his side, with her eyes fixed steadily and yet absently upon the distant horizon. A week, at most, the doctor had given him, and after that--what? She looked backwards to the window,--the window through which she had entered on that wild night earlier in the year. She looked away again uneasily. She was afraid of such moments as these. It was to escape from them that she had protested so vehemently against their accepting Deane's offer of his cottage. |
3nd9uoo81k23a8s9gk9nu56apscwln | Register in person, by phone 264-8833, or by mail. Use form given.
178 IN Winchester St., Chicago
Basic Photography This is an eight-hour course for beginners who want to learn how to use a 35mm camera. The teacher will cover such areas as kinds of film, light and lenses . Bring your own 35mm camera to class. Course charge: $50.Jan. 10,12,17,19, Tues & Thurs. 6:00-8:00 pm. Marianne Adams is a professional photographer whose photographs appear in many magazines.
Understanding Computers This twelve-hour course is for people who do not know much about computers, but need to learn about them. You will learn what computers are, what they can and can't do, and how to use them. Course charge: $75. Equipment charge: $10. Jan.14, 21, 28, Sats. 7:00-10:30pm. Joseph Saimders is Professor of Computer Science at New Urban University. He has over twelve years of experience in the computer field.
Stop Smoking Do you want to stop smoking? Have you already tried to stop and failed? Now it's the time to stop smoking using the latest methods. You can stop smoking, and this twelve-hour course will help you do it. Course charge: $30. Jan. 4, 11, 18, 25, Wedns. 4:00-7:00pm. Dr John Goode is a practicing psychologist who has helped hundreds of people stop smoking.
Typing This course on week-days is for those who want to learn to type, as well as those who want to improve their typing. You are tested in the first class and practice at one of eight different skill levels. This allows you to learn at your own speed. Each program lasts 20 hours. Bring your own paper. Course charge: $125. Material charge: $25. Two hours each evening for two weeks. New classes begin every two weeks. This course is taught by a number of business education teachers who have successfully taught typing courses before.
Oil painting Oil paint is easy to use once you learn the basics. When you enroll at this oil painting course, you will learn to draw and learn to paint using many oil painting techniques under complete guidance and instruction. Together with the teacher's knowledge and your passion-we'll unlock your creativity and develop your potential! Course charge: $35. Jan. 5, 12, 19, 26, Thurs. 2:00-5:00 pm. Ralf Ericssion has taught beginners to masters and he has learned that everything builds on just a few basic concepts that he will show you here.
Singing This course shows you how to deliver an accomplished vocal performance on stage and in the studio. Develop your vocal talents with professional warm-up routines and learn vocal techniques to gain confidence in your performance. You'll learn to perform classic songs before exploring your own songwriting ideas with a tutor. And finally you'll get the chance to record in a professional studio. Singing tuition may be in groups or one-to-one. We have Choral singing, Gospel singing, Folk singing and many other styles of song. All styles are welcome and no previous experience is required. Please read on for course contents and reviews from our students. Course charge: $90. Jan. 10, 12, 17, 19, Tues. & Thurs. 5:30-8:30pm. Peter Syrus is a Grammy award winning tutor. |
3irik4hm3akcdpjxcp3ktsha7h36ce | Pet owners are being encouraged to take their animals to work , a move scientists say can be good for productivity , workplace morale , and the well-being of animals .
A study found that 25% of Australian women would like to keep an office pet . Sue Chaseling of Petcare Information Service said the practice of keeping office pets was good both for the people and the pets . "On the pets' side , they are not left on their own and won't feel lonely and unhappy," she said . A study of major US companies showed that 73% found office pets beneficial , while 27% experienced a drop in absenteeism .
Xarni Riggs has two cats walking around her Global Hair Salon in Paddington . "My customers love them. They are their favorites ," she said . "They are not troublesome . They know when to go and have a sleep in the sun ."
Little black BJ has spent nearly all his two years "working" at Punch Gallery in Balmain . Owner Iain Powell said he had had cats at the gallery for 15 years . "BJ often lies in the shop window and people walking past tap on the glass ," he said .
Ms Chaseling said cats were popular in service industries because they enabled a point of conversation . But she said owners had to make sure both their co-workers and the cats were comfortable . |
3zwfc4w1uu7c2k1rvfwjctt90jvfrm | Jamie Oliver has been invited by Gordon Brown to prepare a banquet at No.10 for President Barack Obama and other leaders of the G20, offering a cut-price menu to reflect times when trade and industry are far from prosperous and the rate of employment is decreasing.
Downing Street sources say Oliver, the well-known chef, will cook using "honest high-street products" and avoid expensive or "fancy" ingredients.
The prime minister is trying to avoid a repeat of the embarrassment last year when he sat down to an 18-course banquet at a Japanese summit to discuss world food shortages.
Obama, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and other leaders will be served by apprentices from Fifteen, the London restaurant Oliver founded to help train young people in poverty in order to make a living by mastering a skill.
Brown wants the dinner to reflect the emphasis of the London summit, which he hopes will lead to an agreement to lift the world out of recession."To be invited to cook for such an important group of people, who are trying to solve some of the world's major problems, is really a privilege," said Oliver.
"I'm hoping the menu I'm working on will show British food and produce is some of the best in the world, but also show we have pioneered a high-quality apprentice scheme at Fifteen London that is giving young people a skill to be proud of."
The chef has not yet finalized me menu, but is expected to draw inspiration from his latest book, Jamie's Ministry of Food, which has budget recipes for beef and ale stew and "impressive" chocolate fudge cake. (
) |
3aajc4i4fgs19d9eomhhdun02apzj2 | Grenada is an island country in the southeastern Caribbean Sea consisting of the island of Grenada and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines island chain. It is located northwest of Trinidad and Tobago, northeast of Venezuela and southwest of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Its size is , and it had an estimated population of in . Its capital is St. George's. Grenada is also known as the "Island of Spice" due to its production of nutmeg and mace crops, of which it is one of the world's largest exporters. The national bird of Grenada is the critically endangered Grenada dove.
Before the arrival of Europeans to the Americas, Grenada was inhabited by the indigenous Arawaks and later by the Island Caribs. Christopher Columbus sighted Grenada in 1498 during his third voyage to the Americas. Although it was deemed the property of the King of Spain, there are no records to suggest the Spanish ever landed or settled on the island. Following several unsuccessful attempts by Europeans to colonise the island due to resistance from the Island Caribs, French settlement and colonisation began in 1650 and continued for the next century. On 10 February 1763 Grenada was ceded to the British under the Treaty of Paris. British rule continued, except for a period of French rule between 1779 and 1783, until 1974. From 1958 to 1962 Grenada was part of the Federation of the West Indies, a short-lived federation of British West Indian colonies. On 3 March 1967, Grenada was granted full autonomy over its internal affairs as an Associated State. Herbert Blaize was the first Premier of the Associated State of Grenada from March to August 1967. Eric Gairy served as Premier from August 1967 until February 1974. |
3iaeqb9fmekkcw4h33bzbsy5gr9wdm | CHAPTER IV
"Which of them is it?" asked Longueville of his friend, after they had bidden good-night to the three ladies and to Captain Lovelock, who went off to begin, as he said, the evening. They stood, when they had turned away from the door of Mrs. Vivian's lodgings, in the little, rough-paved German street.
"Which of them is what?" Gordon asked, staring at his companion.
"Oh, come," said Longueville, "you are not going to begin to play at modesty at this hour! Did n't you write to me that you had been making violent love?"
"Violent? No."
"The more shame to you! Has your love-making been feeble?"
His friend looked at him a moment rather soberly.
"I suppose you thought it a queer document--that letter I wrote you."
"I thought it characteristic," said Longueville smiling.
"Is n't that the same thing?"
"Not in the least. I have never thought you a man of oddities." Gordon stood there looking at him with a serious eye, half appealing, half questioning; but at these last words he glanced away. Even a very modest man may wince a little at hearing himself denied the distinction of a few variations from the common type. Longueville made this reflection, and it struck him, also, that his companion was in a graver mood than he had expected; though why, after all, should he have been in a state of exhilaration? "Your letter was a very natural, interesting one," Bernard added.
"Well, you see," said Gordon, facing his companion again, "I have been a good deal preoccupied." |
3kjyx6qcm9bk0t44npsesoa4dw3vjb | My name is Sandra. Let me tell you the story of the best meal I ever had.
I was sitting on the school bench outside Springfield Elementary School, waiting to pick up my granddaughter. She is a real cutie, and I am very proud of her grades. To pass the time, I played my triangle. In my youth, I was a triangle player in a large New York band, the Black Triangles. We all wore full black costumes every time we played.
"What lovely triangle music! You make me think of a friend I had once upon a time."
A strange lady, about my age, was standing next to me, talking! She was holding a trumpet. It turns out the strange lady was my old friend and Black Triangle trumpet player Matilda. We hadn't seen each other since New York. Matilda told me she wanted to keep in touch, but couldn't remember what I looked like! We found out that all we remembered were the black costumes we always wore! It turns out; Matilda was also there to pick someone up from school.
"Well, Sandra, why don't you join me and my grandson for lunch? There is a lovely Thai place right down the road.'
We went there with my granddaughter and her grandson, and had a delicious meal. Our grandchildren got married 15 years later. |
3i02618ya06g9pi2dcnttyux8o5upq | Jack woke up on a Saturday morning. He got out of bed and went to the bathroom, and brushed his teeth. He put on his clothes and walked to the kitchen. Jack had a few choices to pick for breakfast. He could choose between an apple, pear, cereal or eggs. He picked an apple to eat for breakfast. After his breakfast, he turned on the TV to find something to watch. He could watch sports, the news, the weather or a cooking show. He chose to watch the weather. The reporter said fall was coming but that the weather was getting warmer instead of cooler. He turned off the TV and went outside to the backyard. Jack wanted to make some hot dogs for lunch the next day. He went to the store to get hot dogs, mustard, and ketchup. After coming back home from the store, Jack made lunch. After lunch, he found that he needed to do some cleaning. He started cleaning the kitchen and moved on to the living room. |
39k0fnd3ahfq9d7rfreacto8xm7mas | CHAPTER X.
THE BETTER PART OF VALOUR.
For who is he, whose chin is but enriched With one appearing hair, that will not follow These culled and choice-drawn cavaliers 'gainst France? Work, work your thoughts, and therein see a siege. King Henry V.
The next forenoon, Mary met James in the park, wandering in search of his pupil, whom he had not seen since they had finished their morning's work in the study. Some wild freak with Clara was apprehended, but while they were conferring, Mary exclaimed, 'What's that?' as a clatter and clank met her ear.
'Only the men going out to join old Brewster's ridiculous yeomanry,' said Jem.
'Oh, I should like to see them,' cried Mary, running to the top of a bank, whence she could see into the hollow road leading from the stables to the lodge. Four horsemen, the sun glancing on their helmets, were descending the road, and a fifth, at some distance ahead, was nearly out of sight. 'Ah,' she said, 'Louis must have been seeing them off. How disappointed he must be not to go!'
'I wish I was sure--' said James, with a start. 'I declare his folly is capable of anything! Why did I not think of it sooner?'
Clara here rushed upon them with her cameleopard gallop, sending her voice before her, 'Can you see them?'
'Scarcely,' said Mary, making room for her.
'Where's Louis'!' hastily demanded her brother.
'Gone to the yeomanry meeting,' said Clara, looking in their faces in the exultation of producing a sensation. |
3a0ex8zrn8ovm41x482h1zvlofcbya | Nine years after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a seismic event in Lebanese history, the trial of four men accused of his killing opened Thursday in a special United Nations-backed court.
However, the stand at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in The Hague was empty, with the suspects -- alleged associates of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah -- still on the run.
Billionaire statesman Hariri was killed in February 2005 when a bomb struck his motorcade near the Beirut seafront. The blast ripped apart his armored car and destroyed the motorcade, killing 21 other people and wounding more than 200 others.
It was a moment that changed Lebanese history, fueling the sectarian divisions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in the Mediterranean country and leading to the withdrawal of Syrian troops.
The special court investigating the assassination announced in February 2012 that Mustafa Badreddine, Salim Ayyash, Hussein Oneissi and Assad Sabra would be tried in absentia.
They face counts ranging from conspiracy to commit a terrorist act to murder and attempted murder. Hezbollah denies involvement.
Hearing streamed live
Presiding Judge David Re opened the trial, presenting the indictments against the accused. Thursday's hearing also included the prosecution's opening statements, expected to continue until Friday, according to the official Twitter account of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
"This is a historic day for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon as it marks the transition from complex and difficult investigations to the new phase of trial," said Marten Youssef, a spokesman for the tribunal. |
3e47sobeyqws69eyeqc9qv7ff1zic6 | Long ago, Bluebird's feathers were the colour of dust. She did not like her ugly colour. She was attracted by the colour of the lake near her home. It was as blue as the sky after a storm. Bluebird wanted to be the colour of that beautiful lake very much. Flapping her wings one morning, Bluebird flew from her tree to the blue lake. Then she bathed in the water three times. After each bath, she sang, "Blue water. Still water. I went in. I am blue." Bluebird repeated this every morning. On the third day, she came out of the lake with beautiful blue feathers. Now Coyote was a trickster --and hungry too. He stayed behind Bluebird's tree for a long time every day and watched her go to the lake. He pretended to be interested in everything she did. He wanted Bluebird for lunch, but he was afraid of the blue water. On the third morning, Coyote saw Bluebird come out of the lake with beautiful blue feathers. Impressed, he sat next to Bluebird's tree and waited for her. When she returned, he asked, "How did you get blue feathers? I want to be blue like the mountains too." Bluebird didn't believe Coyote, but she taught him how to bathe three times each morning and how to sing her song. Coyote did what she said, and after three days of bathing in the lake, his white fur turned deep blue. Convinced that blue fur was even more beautiful than blue feathers, Coyote forgot all about being hungry. He ran as fast as he could to the top of the hill. Standing on his back legs, he raised his front legs off the ground and howled. But Coyote slipped and rolled down the hill. He couldn't stop himself, and the dust and dirt covered his new blue fur. He rolled and rolled until he hit into Bluebird's tree heavily. No matter how much he tried, foolish Coyote could not shake the dust from his fur. And so the fur of all coyotes had the dull colour of dust to this very day. |
3lwjhtcvccmcqjmri07j73j43qiqf6 | MARIANNA, Florida (CNN) -- Leaning against his cane, Bryant Middleton shuffled toward the makeshift cemetery. Tears welled in his eyes as he leaned down to touch one of the crosses.
Bryant Middleton kneels by a row of white crosses on the grounds of a former reform school he attended.
"This shouldn't be," he said. "This shouldn't be."
Thirty-one crosses made of tubular steel and painted white line up unevenly in the grass and weeds of what used to be the grounds of a reform school in Marianna, Florida. The anonymous crosses are rusting away but their secrets may soon be exposed.
When boys disappeared from the school, administrators explained it away, said former student Roger Kiser.
They'd say, "Well, he ran away and the swamp got him," Kiser recalled. Or, "The gators got him." Or, 'Water moccasins got him."
Kiser and other former students believe authorities will soon find the remains of children and teens sent to the Florida School for Boys half a century ago. Watch Middleton kneel by the crosses »
On the orders of Gov. Charlie Crist, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement last week opened an investigation to determine if anyone is buried here, whether crimes were committed, and if so, who was responsible.
A group of men in their 60s, who once attended the school, have told investigators they believe the bodies are classmates who disappeared after being savagely beaten by administrators and workers.
The FDLE is just beginning its investigation, so there is no way to know if there is any truth to the allegations. The investigation will be challenging. Finding records and witnesses from nearly half a century ago will be difficult if not impossible. Many of the administrators and employees of the reform school are dead. Read more about the investigation |
3kgtpgbs6xlkhihwbechxlm4yinu2m | CHAPTER XVII. THE GHOSTS OF THE TEMPLARS
'Tis said, as through the aisles they passed, They heard strange voices on the blast, And through the cloister galleries small, Which at mid-height thread the chancel wall, Loud sobs and laughter louder ran, And voices unlike the voice of man, As if the fiends kept holiday. Scott, LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL
'Ill news, Martin, I see by your look!' cried Eustacie, starting to her feet from the heap of straw on which she was sitting in his cowhouse, one early April day, about seven weeks since her evasion from the convent.
'Not so, I hope, Madame, but I do not feel at ease. Monsieur has not sent for me, nor told me his plans for the morrow, and I much doubt me whether that bode not a search here. Now I see a plan, provided Madame would trust herself to a Huguenot.'
'They would guard me for my husband's sake.'
'And could Madame walk half a league, as far as the Grange du Temple? There live Matthieu Rotrou and his wife, who have, they say, baffled a hundred times the gendarmes who sought their ministers. No one ever found a pastor, they say, when Rotrou had been of the congregation; and if they can do so much for an old preacher with a long tongue, surely they can for a sweet young lady; and if they could shelter her just for tomorrow, till the suspicion is over, then would I come for Madame with my cart, and carry her into Chollet among the trusses of hay, as we had fixed.' |
31t4r4obosgvhpx2vz8cz6h61le7cq | Within IOC, Samaranch was a man much admired and sometimes loved, the Spanish who made the organization into one that is rich and so powerful. No one doubted Samaranch's ability to make something impossible come true. In 1981 he ensured that Seoul was elected to be the host of the 1988 Olympics. Remember, that was a time when the two Koreas were at war with each other. And because Samaranch helped swing Spanish votes across to London, rather than to Paris, London was made host for the 2012. To China and the Chinese people, Samaranch was considered a great friend. Thanks to his efforts during his last term as IOC president, Beijing and China won the Olympics for the first time. Samaranch led the IOC from 1980 to 2001. Certainly, throughout his IOC presidential term, he had a soft spot for Moscow, for it was there that he was elected president of the IOC in 1980, and it was there that he managed to reach his final wishes as IOC president. Very early on in that 2001 Moscow session he wanted the Belgian surgeon, Jacques Rogge, a newcomer to the Olympic Movement, to replace him as president, for China to host the 2008 Olympic Games and for his son, Juan Antonio Samaranch junior, to become an IOC member. He got all three wishes. Samaranch's death came three months before his 90th birthday on April 21st, 2010. |
31jlpphs2uuepvtijsedhpz7m183ok | In the Roman era, copper was principally mined on Cyprus, the origin of the name of the metal from aes сyprium (metal of Cyprus), later corrupted to сuprum, from which the words copper (English), cuivre (French), Koper (Dutch) and Kupfer (German) are all derived. Its compounds are commonly encountered as copper(II) salts, which often impart blue or green colors to minerals such as azurite, malachite and turquoise and have been widely used historically as pigments. Architectural structures built with copper corrode to give green verdigris (or patina). Decorative art prominently features copper, both by itself and in the form of pigments.
Copper occurs naturally as native copper and was known to some of the oldest civilizations on record. It has a history of use that is at least 10,000 years old, and estimates of its discovery place it at 9000 BC in the Middle East; a copper pendant was found in northern Iraq that dates to 8700 BC. There is evidence that gold and meteoric iron (but not iron smelting) were the only metals used by humans before copper. The history of copper metallurgy is thought to have followed the following sequence: 1) cold working of native copper, 2) annealing, 3) smelting, and 4) the lost wax method. In southeastern Anatolia, all four of these metallurgical techniques appears more or less simultaneously at the beginning of the Neolithic c. 7500 BC. However, just as agriculture was independently invented in several parts of the world, copper smelting was invented locally in several different places. It was probably discovered independently in China before 2800 BC, in Central America perhaps around 600 AD, and in West Africa about the 9th or 10th century AD. Investment casting was invented in 4500–4000 BC in Southeast Asia and carbon dating has established mining at Alderley Edge in Cheshire, UK at 2280 to 1890 BC. Ötzi the Iceman, a male dated from 3300–3200 BC, was found with an axe with a copper head 99.7% pure; high levels of arsenic in his hair suggest his involvement in copper smelting. Experience with copper has assisted the development of other metals; in particular, copper smelting led to the discovery of iron smelting. Production in the Old Copper Complex in Michigan and Wisconsin is dated between 6000 and 3000 BC. Natural bronze, a type of copper made from ores rich in silicon, arsenic, and (rarely) tin, came into general use in the Balkans around 5500 BC.[citation needed] |
3te3o857308s1qpf7khcsazkrka2rj | CHAPTER XX
LARRY BEFORE ADMIRAL TOGO
As soon as the _Columbia_ could make the proper landing, Captain Ponsberry went ashore and reported his arrival to the authorities, and also reported the escape of Shamhaven and Peterson. The authorities had already heard of the capture of the _Columbia_ from the Russians, and said that the schooner would have to remain at Nagasaki until the whole case could be adjusted. The Japanese were inclined to favor both the Richmond Importing Company and the owners of the vessel, so it was not likely that our friends would lose much in the end. In the meantime the _Columbia_ could be put in a dry-dock and given the overhauling that she needed.
"We shall do all we can to locate Shamhaven and Peterson and get back your money," said an official of the secret service department. But his hands were so full with other matters of greater importance that little attention was paid to the disappearance of the two rascals.
"Well, this will tie me up at Nagasaki for some time to come," said Captain Ponsberry to Larry, on the third day after arriving at the Japanese port.
"Which means, I suppose, that I can join the Japanese navy if I wish," returned the young second mate, quickly.
"I don't want to force you to leave the ship, lad. But you said----"
"I know, Captain Ponsberry, and I am glad of the chance to get away. Luke and I have talked it over once more, and yesterday we met a gunner named Steve Colton--he served on the _Brooklyn_ at the time Walter did. He is now a gun captain on board of Admiral Togo's flagship, and he is almost certain he can get us good positions. He says gunners and gunners' assistants are just now badly needed." |
3dip6yhapcsee1mz1v6d3ud4ywb8eg | CHAPTER XXVIII
THE GAME IS CALLED
In her notions and schemes regarding the person and estate of Ralph Haverley, the good cook, La Fleur, lacked one great advantage possessed by her rival planner and schemer Miss Panney; for she whose cause was espoused by the latter old woman was herself eager for the fray and desirous of victory, whereas Cicely Drane had not yet thought of marrying anybody, and outside of working hours was devoting herself to getting all the pleasure she could out of life, not regarding much whether it was her mother or Miriam or Mr. Haverley who helped her get it. Moreover, the advantages of co-residence, which La Fleur naturally counted upon, were not so great as might have been expected; for Mrs. Drane, having perceived that Ralph was fond of the society of young ladies to a degree which might easily grow beyond her ideas of decorous companionship between a gentleman of the house and a lady boarder, gently interfered with the dual apple gatherings and recreations of that nature. For this, had she been aware of it, Dora Bannister would have been most grateful.
Ralph had gone twice to see Congo, and to talk to Miss Bannister about him, but he had not taken the dog home. Dora said she would take him to Cobhurst the first time she drove over there to see Miriam. Congo would follow her and the carriage anywhere, and this would be so much pleasanter than to have him forced away like a prisoner. |
3t3iwe1xg6nm9o4sdkc8o7y5vcatqs | Coordinated Universal Time abbreviated to UTC, is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is within about 1 second of mean solar time at 0° longitude; it does not observe daylight saving time. For most purposes, UTC is considered interchangeable with Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), but GMT is no longer precisely defined by the scientific community.
The first Coordinated Universal Time was informally adopted on 1 January 1960, but the official abbreviation of UTC and the official English name of Coordinated Universal Time (along with the French equivalent), was not adopted until 1967.
The system was adjusted several times, including a brief period where time coordination radio signals broadcast both UTC and "Stepped Atomic Time (SAT)" until a new UTC was adopted in 1970 and implemented in 1972. This change also adopted leap seconds to simplify future adjustments. This CCIR Recommendation 460 "stated that (a) carrier frequencies and time intervals should be maintained constant and should correspond to the definition of the SI second; (b) step adjustments, when necessary, should be exactly 1 s to maintain approximate agreement with Universal Time (UT); and (c) standard signals should contain information on the difference between UTC and UT." |
3z2r0dq0jhe3smkalexct301biue21 | (CNN) -- Treasure hunter Christian Hanisch told CNN Thursday that the hunt for Nazi Gold and possibly the legendary Amber Room will end Friday after the two men leading the expedition had a disagreement.
Treasure hunters began drilling again Tuesday to try to locate the lost Nazi gold.
Heinz-Peter Haustein, the other treasure hunter, told Germany's Bild newspaper that geophysicists will now re-evaluate the situation and that digging may resume in two weeks. CNN has so far not been able to reach Haustein for confirmation.
"Haustein told me to get out of here immediately," an angry Hanisch told CNN in a telephone interview.
He said Haustein, who is also the mayor of the village Deutschneudorf, where the digging is taking place, told him he wanted to make the expedition more credible by calling in the scientists. See photos from hunt for lost Nazi gold »
"It can't get any more credible than now," said Hanisch, whose measurements had allegedly pinpointed the treasure.
He said the drilling taking place at the site never focused on the exact coordinates he had provided. "They just always dug around there, but never at the exact location where I wanted them to dig," he said.
The two treasure hunters had said geological surveying had revealed an underground cave holding large amounts of precious metal. They said it could be a holding area dug by the Nazis who used it to stash valuables in World War II.
Haustein said he also believes the legendary Amber Room, an interior made of gold and amber that the Nazis had looted from a palace in St. Petersburg, after Adolf Hitler's forces invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, was also hidden somewhere in the mountains around Deutschneudorf -- and that finding a stash of gold could give clues as to the whereabouts of the Amber Room. |
324g5b4fb38bnx2mjjfs45f5t9570c | Chapter Sixteen: The Sultan Saladin
In the third morning Godwin awoke to see the ray of sunrise streaming through the latticed window.
They fell upon another bed near-by where Wulf still lay sleeping, a bandage on his head that had been hurt in the last charge against the Assassins, and other bandages about his arms and body, which were much bruised in the fight upon the dreadful bridge.
Wondrous was it to Godwin to watch him lying there sleeping healthily, notwithstanding his injuries, and to think of what they had gone through together with so little harm; to think, also, of how they had rescued Rosamund out of the very mouth of that earthly hell of which he could see the peaks through the open window-place--out of the very hands of that fiend, its ruler. Reckoning the tale day by day, he reflected on their adventures since they landed at Beirut, and saw how Heaven had guided their every step.
In face of the warnings that were given them, to visit the Al-je-bal in his stronghold had seemed a madness. Yet there, where none could have thought that she would be, they had found Rosamund. There they had been avenged upon the false knight Sir Hugh Lozelle, who had betrayed her, first to Saladin, then to Sinan, and sent him down to death and judgment; and thence they had rescued Rosamund.
Oh, how wise they had been to obey the dying words of their uncle, Sir Andrew, who doubtless was given foresight at the end! God and His saints had helped them, who could not have helped themselves, and His minister had been Masouda. But for Masouda, Rosamund would by now be lost or dead, and they, if their lives were still left to them, would be wanderers in the great land of Syria, seeking for one who never could be found. |
3vfjci1k4zzigkxm6z21uetl15pgru | (CNN) -- It was tense, nerve-shredding, prime-time viewing.
No, not the new series of "Boardwalk Empire," but a soccer match with 31 penalties.
Tuesday's English League Cup match between Liverpool and second division Middlesbrough was a marathon encounter which finally came to a conclusion at 10:42pm local time -- almost three hours after it had kicked off.
Level at 1-1 after 90 minutes at Liverpool's Anfield stadium and locked together at 2-2 after two hours of play, the two teams began a record-breaking penalty shootout.
After all 11 players on both teams -- including the two goalkeepers -- had taken a spot kick, only two penalties had been missed.
As a result, with the score in the shootout level at 10-10, the first penalty takers had to go again.
The success both teams enjoyed from 12 yards made for a surreal spectacle, with Liverpool striker Mario Balotelli letting a wry smile slip when he converted for the second time in the shootout.
But, as always in these heartbreaking football deciders, there has to be a fall guy.
That was Middlesbrough's Albert Adomah, who sliced his penalty wide of the goal to give Liverpool the win.
The final score in the shootout was 14-13, with both teams having taken 15 penalties each.
When you include the penalty scored by Middlesbrough substitute Patrick Bamford to make the score 2-2 in the dying moments of extratime, there was a grand total of 31 spot kicks in an extraordinary match -- a competition record.
"I don't have words to explain my feelings now," Middlesbrough manager, and former Real Madrid No. 2, Aitor Karanka remarked after the match. |
3z9wi9eozzoatcf20lbme2j8laohkb | Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington (CNN) -- For three weeks, security fears kept U.S. authorities from searching the Afghan village where an American soldier is accused of killing 16 Afghans, an Army investigator testified Wednesday.
Local tempers were so high over the killings that it was too dangerous for the Americans to go, said Matthew Hoffman, a special agent with the Army Criminal Investigation Command. Negotiations with local leaders over the issue took 20 days -- and even then, the investigators were guarded by U.S. and Afghan troops and watched over by two U.S. helicopters, he said.
"We were fully expecting to be attacked at any time," Hoffman said. "We didn't know how much time we had for our investigation."
Hoffman's testimony came during an Article 32 hearing for Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, the soldier charged in the killings. The hearing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, near Tacoma, Washington, will determine whether Bales will face trial for the deaths.
Hoffman was the lead investigator in the case. His team collected blood samples, took photographs and found a number of 9mm shells at the site, but much of the evidence had been collected by Afghan troops the day after the March 11 killings, he said.
The shooting spree near a small U.S. outpost in Afghanistan's Kandahar province last March strained already tense U.S.-Afghan relations and intensified a debate about whether to pull out American troops ahead of their planned 2014 withdrawal.
Stunned friends recall good deeds of killing suspect
Bales is charged with 16 counts of premeditated murder, six counts of attempted murder, seven counts of assault and the illicit use of alcohol and steroids. He could be sentenced to death if convicted. |
3pzdlqmm0tlovo0wpnrh3f0yrf42c2 | (CNN) -- The NBA Finals are now all-square at 2-2 after the Dallas Mavericks defeated the Miami Heat 86-83 in a thrilling Game Four of the best-of-seven-series.
Once again in-form Dirk Nowitzki top scored for the Mavericks, scoring 21 points, with 10 of these coming in the final quarter, as the lead changed hands no fewer than 12 times on Tuesday.
German Nowitzki, who performed to his best despite suffering from a fever, also helped himself to 11 rebounds, while Shawn Marion scored 16 points and Tyson Chandler finished with 13 points and 16 rebounds for the Mavericks.
Wade turns up Heat on Mavericks
Jason Terry and DeShawn Stevenson made significant contributions from the bench, coming on to score 17 and 11 points respectively for the Mavericks in front of a crowd of 20,430 at the American Airlines Center.
However, the game's overall top scorer was Dwyane Wade with 32 points for the Heat, while Chris Bosh helped himself to 24 points.
But LeBron James struggled to find his shooting form, finishing with just eight points in a disappointing display.
Game five is in Dallas on Thursday before the series switches back to Miami for game six on Sunday.
This year's final is a rematch of the 2006 NBA championship series that Miami took in six games for its first title in franchise history. Dallas has never won the NBA title in its 31-year history.
|
3hpzf4ivnmtew9t3i8yccj136z1ycr | CHAPTER XXXVI
"Come on,--I'll show you the real dirt," Brissenden said to him, one evening in January.
They had dined together in San Francisco, and were at the Ferry Building, returning to Oakland, when the whim came to him to show Martin the "real dirt." He turned and fled across the water-front, a meagre shadow in a flapping overcoat, with Martin straining to keep up with him. At a wholesale liquor store he bought two gallon-demijohns of old port, and with one in each hand boarded a Mission Street car, Martin at his heels burdened with several quart-bottles of whiskey.
If Ruth could see me now, was his thought, while he wondered as to what constituted the real dirt.
"Maybe nobody will be there," Brissenden said, when they dismounted and plunged off to the right into the heart of the working-class ghetto, south of Market Street. "In which case you'll miss what you've been looking for so long."
"And what the deuce is that?" Martin asked.
"Men, intelligent men, and not the gibbering nonentities I found you consorting with in that trader's den. You read the books and you found yourself all alone. Well, I'm going to show you to-night some other men who've read the books, so that you won't be lonely any more."
"Not that I bother my head about their everlasting discussions," he said at the end of a block. "I'm not interested in book philosophy. But you'll find these fellows intelligences and not bourgeois swine. But watch out, they'll talk an arm off of you on any subject under the sun." |
30jnvc0or9kw4fdxdqvjaovhkjzhqs | (CNN) -- Ukraine has been wracked with ceaseless demonstrations for weeks as protesters demand constitutional reform and a closer relationship with Europe instead of Russia. A breakthrough finally came Tuesday: Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and his government resigned, and the national parliament voted overwhelmingly to repeal sweeping anti-protest laws passed earlier this month.
Still, activists say that while they're pleased by these developments, their fundamental concerns have yet to be addressed. Amid the protests are accounts of police brutality and government intimidation. The desire for a government shake-up was spurred by the government's decision in November to forgo a planned trade deal with the European Union, which many interpreted as a turn away from Europe and toward Russia instead.
CNN iReport had the opportunity to speak to a native Ukrainian who has spent days on the streets of central Kiev, the power base of the opposition. The 31-year-old, who works as a project manager, has been photographing and standing alongside those who are protesting. He shared his thoughts and photos to provide a firsthand view of the demonstrations and the motivations behind them.
Freddy UA asked to be identified with an alias for his protection because of the current state of his country. The interview below has been edited for clarity and brevity.
CNN: When did you first get interested in the protesting?
UA: The Ukrainian people started protesting in November, after the authorities announced they were not ready to sign an agreement with the European Union. A lot of people, including me, were disappointed by this action. |
3gfk2qrxx9hp8jpooxtgdgad2ynw51 | CHAPTER VIII
KIPPS ENTERS SOCIETY
§1
Submission to Inexorable Fate took Kipps to the Anagram Tea.
At any rate he would meet Helen there in the presence of other people and be able to carry off the worst of the difficulty of explaining his little jaunt to London. He had not seen her since his last portentous visit to New Romney. He was engaged to her, he would have to marry her, and the sooner he faced her again the better. Before wild plans of turning socialist, defying the world and repudiating all calling for ever, his heart on second thoughts sank. He felt Helen would never permit anything of the sort. As for the Anagrams he could do no more than his best and that he was resolved to do. What had happened at the Royal Grand, what had happened at New Romney, he must bury in his memory and begin again at the reconstruction of his social position. Ann, Buggins, Chitterlow, all these, seen in the matter-of-fact light of the Folkestone train, stood just as they stood before; people of an inferior social position who had to be eliminated from his world. It was a bother about Ann, a bother and a pity. His mind rested so for a space on Ann until the memory of these Anagrams drew him away. If he could see Coote that evening he might, he thought, be able to arrange some sort of connivance about the Anagrams, and his mind was chiefly busy sketching proposals for such an arrangement. It would not, of course, be ungentlemanly cheating, but only a little mystification. Coote very probably might drop him a hint of the solution of one or two of the things, not enough to win a prize, but enough to cover his shame. Or failing that he might take a humorous, quizzical line and pretend he was pretending to be very stupid. There were plenty of ways out of it if one kept a sharp lookout.... |
3skemfqbz35h01e9xhhg1pq9iru8kj | A novel is any relatively long, written work of narrative fiction, normally in prose, and typically published as a book.
The genre has been described as having "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years," with its origins in classical Greece and Rome, in medieval and early modern romance, and in the tradition of the novella. The latter, an Italian word for a short story to distinguish it from a novel, has been used in English since the 18th century for a work that falls somewhere in between. Ian Watt, in "The Rise of the Novel", suggested in 1957 that the novel first came into being in the early 18th century.
Miguel de Cervantes, author of "Don Quixote" (the first part of which was published in 1605), is frequently cited as the first significant European novelist of the modern era.
The romance is a closely related long prose narrative. Walter Scott defined it as "a fictitious narrative in prose or verse; the interest of which turns upon marvellous and uncommon incidents", whereas in the novel "the events are accommodated to the ordinary train of human events and the modern state of society". However, many romances, including the historical romances of Scott, Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights" and Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick", are also frequently called novels, and Scott describes romance as a "kindred term". Romance, as defined here, should not be confused with the genre fiction love romance or romance novel. Other European languages do not distinguish between romance and novel: "a novel is "le roman", "der Roman", "il romanzo"." |
3rkntxvs3mya5nil9neeqz78ajoa4y | CHAPTER XVII
DICK'S ACCUSATION
The party in the gun-room were silent while they waited for Jim. Mrs. Halliday glanced at the others curiously and got a sense of strain. Dick, looking disturbed but resolute, leaned against the table opposite Mordaunt, whose face was rather white; Bernard occupied the bench by the wall and his look was inscrutable. All was very quiet except for the snapping of the stove and the occasional rattle of a cinder falling through the bars. It was something of a relief when Jim came in and Bernard turned on the light.
"Sit down, Jim," he said. "Dick has something to tell us that he thinks you ought to hear. He hints that it is important."
"It is important," Dick replied. "The thing has weighed on me for some time. In fact, the load is too heavy and I feel I must get rid of it. I want to hand over my responsibility, and you are the head of the house, sir."
"Very well," said Bernard. "The post has drawbacks. You had better go on."
"Then I'll begin some time since; the night Lance and I met Jim at the telegraph shack. We talked about England and Jim asked if we knew Langrigg. There was an old French romance on a shelf and Lance read a passage. He studied the book when Jim left the shack, and I found out afterwards that Franklin Dearham's name was written across the front page. You see what this implies, sir?"
"You mean Lance knew who Jim was, although you did not. When did you find out?" |
3q5zz9zevofeiit6qudaz07rl3d85g | CHAPTER XI
THAT HERO OTTER
"Help me to secure the gate," said Leonard presently.
In another minute the great iron bar had been dropped into its place, and Leonard withdrew the key and put it in his pocket.
"Why do you secure the door, Baas?" whispered Otter.
"To keep the real Pierre out, in case he should come this way. Two Pierres would be one too many at this game. Now we must win or perish."
Then they crept along the embankment till they gained the shelter of the hut or barrack-shed which stood with its back to the dike that separated the Nest from the slave camp. Happily none saw them, and there were no dogs in the place. Dogs make a noise at inconvenient times, therefore slave-dealers do not love them.
The end of the shed behind which they were crouching was situated some eight or ten paces from the drawbridge, that formed the only path of entry to the slave camp.
"Baas," said Otter, "let me go forward and look. My eyes are the eyes of a cat; I can see in the dark. Perhaps the bridge is down."
Without waiting for an answer, he crept forward on his hands and knees so quietly that they could scarcely hear a movement. Notwithstanding his white dress, there was little chance of his being seen, for the shadow of the shed was dense and a fringe of rushes grew along the edge of the dike.
Five minutes passed--ten minutes passed, and Otter did not return. Leonard's anxiety grew very keen. |
3awetudc92s5e2p864wh1t80pxozii | CHAPTER XXXV: A PRIZE FOR HONOUR
'T is brave for Beauty when the best blade wins her.
THE COUNT PALATINE
When Quentin Durward reached Peronne, a council was sitting, in the issue of which he was interested more deeply than he could have apprehended, and which, though held by persons of a rank with whom one of his could scarce be supposed to have community of interest, had nevertheless the most extraordinary influence on his fortunes.
King Louis, who, after the interlude of De la Marck's envoy, had omitted no opportunity to cultivate the returning interest which that circumstance had given him in the Duke's opinion, had been engaged in consulting him, or, it might be almost said, receiving his opinion, upon the number and quality of the troops, by whom, as auxiliary to the Duke of Burgundy, he was to be attended in their joint expedition against Liege. He plainly saw the wish of Charles was to call into his camp such Frenchmen as, from their small number and high quality, might be considered rather as hostages than as auxiliaries; but, observant of Crevecoeur's advice, he assented as readily to whatever the Duke proposed, as if it had arisen from the free impulse of his own mind.
The King failed not, however, to indemnify himself for his complaisance by the indulgence of his vindictive temper against Balue, whose counsels had led him to repose such exuberant trust in the Duke of Burgundy. Tristan, who bore the summons for moving up his auxiliary forces, had the farther commission to carry the Cardinal to the Castle of Loches, and there shut him up in one of those iron cages which he himself is said to have invented. |
3wyp994k17rpgsk28hl9qj9t97q6yu | Jenny was standing on a rock. Suddenly, she had to sneeze. After she sneezed, she walked away. She finally got to the park and saw her daddy. Her daddy gave her some milk. Jenny drank the milk in a big hurry. She loved milk. She walked over and turned a switch. She walked to the lake. Jenny was in a big hurry and went really fast. She got to the lake and sat down. Jenny began thinking. Jenny wanted to go on a trip to Florida. Jenny did not want to go someplace cold. Jenny did not want to go to the moon. Jenny did not want to go to France. Jenny stood up to fold her towel. She never folded her shirts or pants. Jenny would start her art for her aunt in a few hours. She knew she would use a lot of time making that art. Her aunt would love the art. |
3hutx6f6vunp4dxzfs08yfufg032ot | Robert lives in a small town. Five years ago, when he was nineteen, he finished middle school. He didn't like any subjects except playing when he was at school. Of course he learned nothing and the bosses wouldn't use a man like him. He has to stay at home, but doesn't do any housework, only watches TV or lies on bed. It makes his parents angry. They want him to study something, he always think it difficult and doesn't listen to them. One day Robert was walking near a bookshop while some young men were talking about the writers. He heard the publishing house pays the writers a lot. He became interested in it. As soon as he got home, he began to write. But he couldn't write anything. At last he bought a book and copied a story. Then he posted it to the publishing house. He waited for nearly half a year, but didn't get any answers. He had to ask an editor on the telephone, "Have you read my story yet, sir?" "Yes," said the editor, "I had read it before you were born! " |
39lnwe0k4uwos3vy0hx9k1tlmbbiu5 | Molly likes animals. She has a cat. She has a dog. She has a bird. She has a hamster. She has a bunny. Her cat's name is Kitty. Her dog's name is Spike. Her bird's name is Polly. Her hamster's name is Barry. Her bunny's name is Snowball. Kitty plays with yarn. Spike plays with a ball. Polly plays in her cage. Barry runs on his wheel. Snowball eats carrots. |
3u5jl4wy5k9m10qekx6sa7i6ce3x4g | CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
TREATS OF TODGER'S AGAIN; AND OF ANOTHER BLIGHTED PLANT BESIDES THE PLANTS UPON THE LEADS
Early on the day next after that on which she bade adieu to the halls of her youth and the scenes of her childhood, Miss Pecksniff, arriving safely at the coach-office in London, was there received, and conducted to her peaceful home beneath the shadow of the Monument, by Mrs Todgers. M. Todgers looked a little worn by cares of gravy and other such solicitudes arising out of her establishment, but displayed her usual earnestness and warmth of manner.
'And how, my sweet Miss Pecksniff,' said she, 'how is your princely pa?'
Miss Pecksniff signified (in confidence) that he contemplated the introduction of a princely ma; and repeated the sentiment that she wasn't blind, and wasn't quite a fool, and wouldn't bear it.
Mrs Todgers was more shocked by the intelligence than any one could have expected. She was quite bitter. She said there was no truth in man and that the warmer he expressed himself, as a general principle, the falser and more treacherous he was. She foresaw with astonishing clearness that the object of Mr Pecksniff's attachment was designing, worthless, and wicked; and receiving from Charity the fullest confirmation of these views, protested with tears in her eyes that she loved Miss Pecksniff like a sister, and felt her injuries as if they were her own.
'Your real darling sister, I have not seen her more than once since her marriage,' said Mrs Todgers, 'and then I thought her looking poorly. My sweet Miss Pecksniff, I always thought that you was to be the lady?' |
3wleiwsyhohfcwbcbf5ie6xe41u2hk | Paper is a thin material produced by pressing together moist fibres of cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets. It is a versatile material with many uses, including writing, printing, packaging, cleaning, and a number of industrial and construction processes.
The pulp papermaking process is said to have been developed in China during the early 2nd century AD, possibly as early as the year 105 A.D., by the Han court eunuch Cai Lun, although the earliest archaeological fragments of paper derive from the 2nd century BC in China. The modern pulp and paper industry is global, with China leading its production and the United States right behind it.
The oldest known archaeological fragments of the immediate precursor to modern paper, date to the 2nd century BC in China. The pulp papermaking process is ascribed to Cai Lun, a 2nd-century AD Han court eunuch. With paper as an effective substitute for silk in many applications, China could export silk in greater quantity, contributing to a Golden Age. |
3c2nj6jbkah7msxned0vjquapc72nu | Chapter XXXII.
The seniors of the party at Benfield Lodge were all assembled one morning in a parlor, when its master and the baronet were occupied in the perusal of the London papers. Clara had persuaded her sisters to accompany her and Francis in an excursion as far as the village.
Jane yet continued reserved and distant to most of her friends; while Emily's conduct would have escaped unnoticed, did not her blanched cheek and wandering looks at times speak a language not to be misunderstood. With all her relatives she maintained the affectionate intercourse she had always supported; though not even to her aunt did the name of Denbigh pass her lips. But in her most private and humble petitions to God, she never forgot to mingle with her requests for spiritual blessings on herself, fervent prayers for the conversion of the preserver of her life.
Mrs. Wilson, as she sat by the side of her sister at their needles, first discovered an unusual uneasiness in their venerable host, while he turned his paper over and over, as if unwilling or unable to comprehend some part of its contents, until he rang the bell violently, and bid the servant to send Johnson to him without a moment's delay.
"Peter," said Mr. Benfield doubtingly, "read that--your eyes are young, Peter; read that."
Peter took the paper, and after having adjusted his spectacles to his satisfaction, he proceeded to obey his master's injunctions; but the same defect of vision as suddenly seized the steward as it had affected his master. He turned the paper sideways, and appeared to be spelling the matter of the paragraph to himself. Peter would have given his three hundred a year to have had the impatient John Moseley a hand, to relieve him from his task; but the anxiety of Mr. Benfield overcoming his fear of the worst, he inquired in tremulous tone-- |
38jbbyetqoadv0zxpsg0mixzw014e7 | The 2008 Summer Olympics torch relay was run from March 24 until August 8, 2008, prior to the 2008 Summer Olympics, with the theme of "one world, one dream". Plans for the relay were announced on April 26, 2007, in Beijing, China. The relay, also called by the organizers as the "Journey of Harmony", lasted 129 days and carried the torch 137,000 km (85,000 mi) – the longest distance of any Olympic torch relay since the tradition was started ahead of the 1936 Summer Olympics.
After being lit at the birthplace of the Olympic Games in Olympia, Greece on March 24, the torch traveled to the Panathinaiko Stadium in Athens, and then to Beijing, arriving on March 31. From Beijing, the torch was following a route passing through six continents. The torch has visited cities along the Silk Road, symbolizing ancient links between China and the rest of the world. The relay also included an ascent with the flame to the top of Mount Everest on the border of Nepal and Tibet, China from the Chinese side, which was closed specially for the event. |
3h7xdtshkcrnoge85tc7hd12t8jwg4 | Computer security, also known as cybersecurity or IT security, is the protection of information systems from theft or damage to the hardware, the software, and to the information on them, as well as from disruption or misdirection of the services they provide. It includes controlling physical access to the hardware, as well as protecting against harm that may come via network access, data and code injection, and due to malpractice by operators, whether intentional, accidental, or due to them being tricked into deviating from secure procedures.
Denial of service attacks are designed to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users. Attackers can deny service to individual victims, such as by deliberately entering a wrong password enough consecutive times to cause the victim account to be locked, or they may overload the capabilities of a machine or network and block all users at once. While a network attack from a single IP address can be blocked by adding a new firewall rule, many forms of Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are possible, where the attack comes from a large number of points – and defending is much more difficult. Such attacks can originate from the zombie computers of a botnet, but a range of other techniques are possible including reflection and amplification attacks, where innocent systems are fooled into sending traffic to the victim. |
32z9zlut1lktj30hyd3flj0h5h6ohe | CHAPTER XVI
THE RUSE
Cliffe and his daughter were landed at Kingston, and three weeks later Grahame put into a Central-American port. The propeller was not running well, and Macallister, suspecting it was working loose on the shaft, declared that he must put the vessel on a beach where she would dry at low-water. Grahame had a few days to spare, for he could not land his cargo before the time Don Martin had fixed; but as the arms were on board he would have preferred to wait at sea, outside the regular steamers' track.
It happened that there was no repair-shop in the town, but while Macallister thought over the difficulty a tramp steamer dropped anchor, and he went off to her, remarking that he might find a friend on board. In an hour or two the gig came back, and Grahame, hearing _My boat rocks at the pier o' Leith_ sung discordantly, saw that Macallister's expectations had been fulfilled. This did not surprise him, for the Scots engineer is ubiquitous and to have "wrought" at Clydebank or Fairfield is a passport to his affection.
Macallister's face was flushed and his air jaunty, but the tall, gaunt man who accompanied him looked woodenly solemn. He began by emptying a basket of greasy tools on the _Enchantress's_ white deck with the disregard for the navigating officers' feelings which the engine-room mechanic often displays. After this, he went down a rope and sat on the sand under the boat's counter, studying the loose screw while he smoked several pipes of rank tobacco, but without making any remark. Then he got up and slowly stretched his lanky frame. |
3jaoywh7vi4sycf1n9zvglyzr1t9lw | CHAPTER XXXV.
RALPH A PRISONER.
At the appointed time, Ralph called again upon Horace Kelsey, and was given instructions in regard to the work he would be called on to do.
"But you had better not start in until you hear from your mother," said the insurance agent. "She may wish you to pay a visit home before you settle down here."
Ralph thought this good advice, and he resolved to act upon it.
"I ought to get a letter by to-morrow noon or night," he said. "And I will wait that long. If I don't get word, I'll take the trip home anyway, seeing as you say you will be kind enough to wait for me."
Kelsey then asked him what he intended to do while waiting, and learning Ralph had nothing in particular in view, he advised the boy to get a guide-book of the city and walk about, so that he might become familiar with the streets.
"The work I have for you will take you out more or less," he said. "And it is a great help if you understand how to get around."
At a nearby bookseller's Ralph purchased a guide-book for twenty-five cents. He studied it off and on the entire afternoon, walking around in the meantime. Before he retired that night at the hotel, he had taken in the city from Fourteenth street down to the Battery.
"It's awful big and crooked," he thought. "But I guess I'll manage to get around, especially if I keep the guide-book on hand for reference." |
3befod78w6tb7ora6q4jzq285ehm4r | The judge thought Geoffrey Payne killed his wife. Now for the first time Payne wrote to a magazine from the prison about what happened on the night of 13 October 1999. I had to stay late at the hospital that night to do an operation. I finally left at about 11p.m.. I drove home slowly because the wind was blowing and it was raining heavily. I was running into our road when a man suddenly ran in front of my car. I almost hit him but I stopped just in time. I was scared and the man looked scared, too. I got out of the car but he ran away before I could ask if he was all right. It was very strange. When I got home, the lights were on but it was very quiet. I called to my wife but there was no answer. Then I remembered that she was out at a concert. I was still very unhappy about what happened on the road, so I made myself a drink. Then I went upstairs to have a bath. I saw that the window in the bedroom was open. This was strange because my wife always locked the doors and windows before she went out. She was afraid of burglars. When I went to close it, I found Ellen. She was lying on the floor. There was blood everywhere. I rushed over for her pulse but she was dead. I was so scared. I sat on the floor beside her body without knowing what to do. The next thing I knew was that the sky was getting light. I can't remember a thing about that night. In the morning I phoned the police. They arrived half an hour after I phoned them. But it seemed like hours. During that time I tried hard to remember anything I could about the night before. I couldn't stop thinking about the man in the road. What was he doing at that time of night in our quiet neighborhood? |
3q8gyxhfep2guljj76tf1m3aahac5b | CHAPTER VII
The 2d of September
Victor de Gisons was, as usual, waiting near the door when Harry left Louise Moulin's.
"What is the news, Henri? Nothing suspicious, I hope? You are out sooner than usual."
"Yes, for I have something to think of. Here have we been planning in vain for the last fortnight to hit upon some scheme for getting our friends out of prison, and Jeanne has pointed out a way which you and I never thought of."
"What is that, Henri?"
"The simplest thing in the world, namely, that we should seize one of the leaders of these villains and compel him to sign an order for their release."
"That certainly seems possible," Victor said. "I wonder it never occurred to either of us. But how is it to be done?"
"Ah, that is for us to think out! Jeanne has given us the idea, and we should be stupid if we cannot invent the details. In the first place we have got to settle which of them it had better be, and in the next how it is to be managed. It must be some one whose signature the people at the prison would be sure to obey."
"Then," Victor said, "it must be either Danton or Robespierre."
"Or Marat," Harry added; "I think he is as powerful as either of the others."
"He is the worst of them, anyhow," Victor said. "There is something straightforward about Danton. No doubt he is ambitious, but I think his hatred of us all is real. He is a terrible enemy, and will certainly stick at nothing. He is ruthless and pitiless, but I do not think he is double-faced. Robespierre is ambitious too, but I think he is really acting according to his principles, such as they are. He would be pitiless too, but he would murder on principle. |
3xcc1odxdlb9t9r09v7dosxn7jprq9 | There are some topics that readers never grow bored with, and the search for a suitable partner is one of them. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, first published in 1813, tells the story of five young women, all of whom are looking for a husband. In order to fully understand the novel, the readers must know that at the time when Jane Austen was writing, if a family was not rich, the daughters needed to marry well in order to live a comfortable, independent life. That is the reason why Mrs Bennet, the mother of the five girls, is so eager to have her daughters married.
The heroine of the story is Elizabeth Bennet, and as in all good romantic novels, she and Darcy, the man she finally marries, remain separate until the very end of the story. The wealthy Darcy is a proud, unsociable man, and when Elizabeth hears that he has insulted both her and her family, she dislikes him very much. Poor Darcy then falls head over heels in love with Elizabeth, and has to work terribly hard to persuade her to change her mind about him. He succeeds of course, and they live happily ever after.
Set at the turn of the 19th century, the novel is still attractive to modern readers. It has become one of the most popular novels and receives great attention from literary scholars .Modern interest in the book has resulted in a number of dramas and a lot of novels and stories modeling after Austen's memorable characters or themes. To date, the book has sold some 20 million copies worldwide.
Jane Austen is rightly famous for her style. Her sentences have a wonderful rhythm , and she makes such clever, true comments about people. It is not surprising that Pride and Prejudice has lasted. |
3vben272mkzuhzxzlo26koyhmukgs3 | CHAPTER XV.
BERT COMES BACK.
One raw March evening, when the wind was roaring among the gray branches of the maples like a lion in wrath, some one knocked on the door.
"Come in!" shouted Anson, who was giving baby her regular ride on his boots.
"Come in!" added Flaxen.
Gearheart walked in slowly, closed the door behind his back, and stood devouring the cheerful scene. He was poorly dressed and wore a wide, limp hat; they did not know him till he bared his head.
"Bert!" yelled Anson, tossing the baby to his shoulder and leaping toward his chum, tramping and shaking and clapping like a madman, scaring the child.
"My gosh-all-hemlock! I'm glad to see ye! Gimme that paw again. Come to the fire. This is Flaxie" (as though he had not had his eyes on her face all the time). "Be'n sick?"
Bert's hollow cough prompted this question.
"Yes. Had some kind of a fever down in Arizony. Oh, I'm all right now," he added in reply to an anxious look from Flaxen.
"An' this is----"
"Baby--Elsie," she replied, putting a finishing touch to the little one's dress, mother-like.
"Where's he?" he asked a little later.
Anson replied with a little gesture, which silenced Bert at the same time that it explained. And when Flaxen was busy a few moments later, Anson said:
"Gone up the spout."
At the table they grew quite gay, talking over old times, and Bert's pale face grew rosier, catching a reflection of the happy faces opposite. |
3dhe4r9ocwb1c0g1r9n0t6ldp43g2r | Jonny Jones was a nice and popular boy, who everyone loved.He was so much fun, so good and so kind to everyone that they treated him wonderfully. But as everything he needed was given to him without asking, Jonny became a _ . He was so spoiled by everyone that he couldn't stand any hardship.
One day Johnny heard a mother saying to her son "Come on, my boy, get up and stop crying. You are behaving like Johnny Jones." That made Johnny feel very ashamed. But he was sure that he would prefer to be known as a good boy rather than a fool. Worried, he spoke to his father about all this, though he was afraid that maybe he would be laughed at for having such worries. His father, far from laughing at Johnny, told him that a teacher had taught him a secret trick to turn him into the toughest boy off all. "Eat a candy less, study a minute more, and count to five before crying." Johnny asked, "Just that? " "Yes, just that," said his father, "It's very simple, but I warn you that it won't be easy."
Johnny was happy like a bird, ready to follow the advice. He went to see his mother, and she noticed how happy he was when she offered him candies. "One candy less", thought Johnny, so he only took one. That afternoon he had another chance to put it into practice by studying one minute more. The result was that he missed the first minute of his favorite program! But having achieved this gave him a great feeling of satisfaction. The same happened when he ran up against the corner of the kitchen table. He only managed to count to four before crying, but that was left deeply in his mother's memory.
Over the following days Johnny kept using the motto in his life as his father told him. And the more he put this into practice ,the easier it got. Before long he realized that he could also do things that would seem impossible before. |
39o5d9o87tsdg6wftn5mmp5qxwuc3j | Kingston upon Hull, usually abbreviated to Hull, is a city and unitary authority in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber estuary, 25 miles (40 km) inland from the North Sea, with a population of ().
The town of Hull was founded late in the 12th century. The monks of Meaux Abbey needed a port where the wool from their estates could be exported. They chose a place at the confluence of the rivers Hull and Humber to build a quay.
The exact year the town was founded is not known but it was first mentioned in 1193. Renamed "Kings-town upon Hull" by King Edward I in 1299, Hull has been a market town, military supply port, trading hub, fishing and whaling centre and industrial metropolis.
Hull was an early theatre of battle in the English Civil Wars. Its 18th century Member of Parliament, William Wilberforce, took a prominent part in the abolition of the slave trade in Britain.
The city is unique in the UK in having had a municipally owned telephone system from 1902, sporting cream, not red, telephone boxes.
After suffering heavy damage in the Second World War (the 'Hull Blitz'), Hull weathered a period of post-industrial decline, gaining unfavourable results on measures of social deprivation, education and policing. In the early 21st century spending boom before the late 2000s recession the city saw large amounts of new retail, commercial, housing and public service construction spending. |
3jnqlm5ft4mhysu220kg6yqllukl2f | East Timor () or Timor-Leste (; Tetum: "Timór Lorosa'e"), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a sovereign state in Maritime Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island surrounded by Indonesian West Timor. The country's size is about 15,410 km (5,400 sq mi).
East Timor was colonised by Portugal in the 16th century, and was known as Portuguese Timor until 28 November 1975, when the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (Fretilin) declared the territory's independence. Nine days later, it was invaded and occupied by Indonesia and was declared Indonesia's 27th province the following year. The Indonesian occupation of East Timor was characterised by a highly violent decades-long conflict between separatist groups (especially Fretilin) and the Indonesian military.
In 1999, following the United Nations-sponsored act of self-determination, Indonesia relinquished control of the territory. East Timor became the first new sovereign state of the 21st century on 20 May 2002 and joined the United Nations and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries. In 2011, East Timor announced its intention to gain membership status in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) by applying to become its eleventh member. It is one of only two predominantly Christian nations in Southeast Asia, the other being the Philippines. |
3eo896nrawv5n10fiuszr6mjhe0tjd | Forbes () is an American business magazine. Published bi-weekly, it features original articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. "Forbes" also reports on related subjects such as technology, communications, science, politics, and law. Its headquarters is located in Jersey City, New Jersey. Primary competitors in the national business magazine category include "Fortune" and "Bloomberg Businessweek". The magazine is well known for its lists and rankings, including its lists of the richest Americans (the Forbes 400) and rankings of world's top companies (the Forbes Global 2000). Another well-known list by the magazine is The World's Billionaires list.
The motto of "Forbes" magazine is ""The Capitalist Tool"". Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes, and its CEO is Mike Perlis. It was announced on July 18, 2014 that a majority stake in the publisher had been sold to a group of investors based in Hong Kong through their vehicle Integrated Whale Media Investments.
B. C. Forbes, a financial columnist for the Hearst papers, and his partner Walter Drey, the general manager of the "Magazine of Wall Street", founded "Forbes" magazine on September 15, 1917. Forbes provided the money and the name and Drey provided the publishing expertise. The original name of the magazine was "Forbes: Devoted to Doers and Doings". Drey became vice-president of the B.C. Forbes Publishing Company, while B.C. Forbes became editor-in-chief, a post he held until his death in 1954. B.C. Forbes was assisted in his later years by his two eldest sons, Bruce Charles Forbes (1916–1964) and Malcolm Stevenson Forbes (1917–1990). |
3snvl38ci4sjc44metxl3bms8c1ck3 | Sure. you know their names, possibly better than you know the name of the street you live on.
When the need comes, these names roll off our tongues like they were our own brothers. I am writing about the famous Webster s Dictionary and Roget s Thesaurus.
Webster s Dictionary. Many people can respond immediately: Noah Webster. We are aware that he is the father of the dictionary. But who was he? What did he do for a living? When did he live?
Noah was born in 1758, graduated from Yale University in 1778. and later graduated from law school He produced the first American dictionary in 1806 and published his influential work An American Dictionary of the English Language in l828. His interests led him to be a lexicographer . textbook editor, author, Bible translator and spelling reformer. He also produced a large number of writings in medicine, mythology , and the relationship of European and Asian languages. In addition, he .founded the first New York daily newspaper in 1793. He died in 1843.
Roget's Thesaurus. And it gives us The chance to learn about Roget, the man-Peter Mark Roget, And who? What? When?
Englishman Peter Roget, MD, was born in 1779. He studied medicine and mathematics at the University of Edinburgh. He is considered as the creator of the first-ever thesaurus . It has been called one of the three most important books ever printed. along with the Bible and Webster s Dictionary. He began his work Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases in I 805 but did not publish it until 1852-47 years later. In his lifetime. he became a noted lecturer and writer on anatomy( ). geology .bees,and more . When Roget died in 1869 at age 90. his son, John . took over the Thesaurus arid he gradually expanded it.
So now you know the two famous books. Not enough information? As well-known humourist James Thurber suggested in the title of his 1941 magazine short story about baseball, You Could Look It Up! |
37qw5d2zrgmfokrh2qqisbhjy8k8sm | Long ago, there was a rich man who had two sons. The older brother, who was called Nolbu, was greedy and lazy. However, his younger brother Hungbu was hard-working and kind-hearted. When their father died, Nolbu inherited his house and land, but Hungbu received nothing. One day when Hungbu was working in the fields, he found a bird which had broken its leg. He took the bird home and looked after it carefully. The bird gradually became stronger, and when summer came, it flew away to a warm place. A year later the bird flew back and gave Hungbu a seed . Hungbu sowed the seed and it soon grew into a plant which produced many gourds . When Hungbu opened one of the gourds, he was amazed to see that it was full of treasure. He wanted to use the treasure to do something useful. The next day he bought a big house and moved there with his family. When Nolbu heard about his brother's good luck, he was very jealous and decided to do the same as his brother. He also found a bird, but he broke its leg and looked after it until it became strong. The bird also gave him a seed, which produced several gourds. However, when Nolbu opened one of the gourds, goblins ( ) quickly came out of it and stole all his money. After that Nolbu went to his brother to ask for help. Hungbu was sorry for him and so he invited him to share his house. Both brothers and their families lived happily ever after. |
34s6n1k2zvjldixkllnnt2wn9xxhlr | We humans can play the piano . of course we play the piano with our ten fingers . But Teotronica can play with its 19 fingers . Teotronica is not a human . It is a robot . It is a special robot which can play the piano like humans . Nattei Suzzi is the inventor of Teotronica . Matteo Suzzi comes from Italy and he is more than thirty years old . He was interested in science when he was young . He always likes to use his head to create amazing things . He spent four years making the musical robot . He made the piano-playing robot at a cost of about 4,700 dollars . Teotronica is a special and great robot . It has more fingers than humans . It plays the piano faster than a human . Teotronica can sing as well when it plays the piano . It is the first robot to do so and many people feel excited to see it ,. Teotronica can even use its eyes to interact with humans because there are cameras in its eyes .Teotronica is amazing , isn't it ? |
37u1utwh9vm3n5r4n1qd21cndjs8rg | Washington (CNN) -- With his budget approved by the House, Paul Ryan is turning his attention to Iowa to headline a high-profile Republican event that will only fuel speculation he's laying the groundwork for a potential presidential run in 2016.
Lawmakers approved the Wisconsin Republican's 2015 spending plan on Thursday. But there were notable conservative defections, making his appearance at Friday's Lincoln Dinner in Cedar Rapids more interesting.
The question that confronts Ryan is whether his budget, dubbed the "path to prosperity," will help pave a path for him to compete in the early contest state in two years. Or will it prove a political liability when Republicans choose their next White House nominee?
Ryan's role as the chief fiscal expert in the GOP is the main reason he was tapped as Mitt Romney's running mate in 2012, and remains his main calling card in a potential national campaign.
Since Republicans took control of the House in 2010, top GOP leaders have deferred to the Budget Committee chairman to construct the party's blueprint to address the growing national debt.
He has shepherded four budgets through the House and brokered a deal with Democrats last fall to avoid another government shutdown and possible default on the nation's credit limit.
Ryan budget details
Some say not aggressive enough
But that resume has not won over some tea party groups who believe Ryan isn't' being aggressive enough about slashing the size of the federal government.
The group of fiscal conservatives in the House introduced an alternative budget that balances the federal budget in four years, instead of the 10 years in Ryan's plan. |
3l6l49wxw0xdzh64ernxiormibl45w | There was once an alligator who liked to wear orange sweaters. He liked that is was orange instead of a boring color like white or black. All of the other alligators would laugh and point at him and say mean things about him. They would say it was silly for an alligator to wear a sweater. One night it got very cold and the ground was very hard. The alligator rested well with his sweater to keep his tummy warm and protected from the cold ground. After that night all of the alligators wore different colored sweaters (red, blue, green, and yellow) and were safe and warm from the cold weather. They thanked him and apologized for laughing before. The point of this story is that sometimes silly ideas turn out to be the best ideas and we shouldn't make fun of others. |
3xm0hyn6nkzzktlgnc8opg8un7jper | MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- The police chief in Cancún has been relieved of his duties and placed under house arrest while he is investigated in the killing of a retired Mexican general who had been the area's anti-drug chief for less than 24 hours, Mexican media are reporting.
A Mexican soldier guards the entrance at a Cancún police station where the military is investigating a murder.
Francisco Velasco Delgado was detained by military officials early Monday and flown to Mexico City, where he was placed under 45 days of house arrest, according to the media reports.
With Delgado's removal, the military has taken over the Cancún police force, several newspapers reported.
Cancún Mayor Gregorio Sanchez Martinez said the move was made "to facilitate all types of investigations into the triple murder that happened last week," the Diario de Yucatan newspaper said.
Salvador Rocha Vargas, the secretary for public security for the state of Quintana Roo, will lead the police force. He said he will take all the pertinent measures "to clean up the Cancún police," the Excelsior newspaper reported Tuesday.
Retired Gen. Mauro Enrique Tello Quinonez's bullet-riddled body was found a week ago on a road outside Cancún. Authorities said he had been tortured before being shot 11 times.
His aide and a driver also were tortured and killed.
Quintana Roo state prosecutor Bello Melchor Rodriguez y Carrillo said last week there was no doubt Tello and the others were victims of organized crime.
"The general was the most mistreated," Rodriguez y Carrillo said at a news conference. "He had burns on his skin and bones in his hands and wrists were broken." |
3wjeqkoxa82tdol2m5vcs105zdha1h | CHAPTER III. SWEDENBORG AND THE SIBYL.
MY narrative may move on again from the point at which it paused in the first chapter.
Mary and I (as you may remember) had left the bailiff alone at the decoy, and had set forth on our way together to Dermody's cottage.
As we approached the garden gate, I saw a servant from the house waiting there. He carried a message from my mother--a message for me.
"My mistress wishes you to go home, Master George, as soon as you can. A letter has come by the coach. My master means to take a post-chaise from London, and sends word that we may expect him in the course of the day."
Mary's attentive face saddened when she heard those words.
"Must you really go away, George," she whispered, "before you see what I have got waiting for you at home?"
I remembered Mary's promised "surprise," the secret of which was only to be revealed to me when we got to the cottage. How could I disappoint her? My poor little lady-love looked ready to cry at the bare prospect of it.
I dismissed the servant with a message of the temporizing sort. My love to my mother--and I would be back at the house in half an hour.
We entered the cottage.
Dame Dermody was sitting in the light of the window, as usual, with one of the mystic books of Emanuel Swedenborg open on her lap. She solemnly lifted her hand on our appearance, signing to us to occupy our customary corner without speaking to her. It was an act of domestic high treason to interrupt the Sibyl at her books. We crept quietly into our places. Mary waited until she saw her grandmother's gray head bend down, and her grandmother's bushy eyebrows contract attentively, over her reading. Then, and then only, the discreet child rose on tiptoe, disappeared noiselessly in the direction of her bedchamber, and came back to me carrying something carefully wrapped up in her best cambric handkerchief. |
3vd82fohkqo22vp1clpeas31smcoca | English law is the common law legal system governing England and Wales, comprising criminal law and civil law.
English law has no formal codification: the essence of English common law is that it is made by judges sitting in courts applying statute, and legal precedent ("stare decisis") from previous cases. A decision of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, the highest civil appeal court of the United Kingdom, is binding on every other court.
Some rulings are derived from legislation; others, known as common law, are based on rulings of previous courts. For example, murder is a common law crime rather than one established by an Act of Parliament. Common law can be amended or repealed by Parliament; murder, for example, now carries a mandatory life sentence rather than the death penalty.
The first schedule of the Interpretation Act 1978, defines the following terms: "British Islands", "England", and "United Kingdom". The use of the term "British Isles" is virtually obsolete in statutes and, when it does appear, it is taken to be synonymous with "British Islands". For interpretation purposes, England includes a number of specified elements:
"Great Britain" means England, Wales, Scotland, their adjacent territorial waters and the islands of Orkney and Shetland, the Hebrides and, by virtue of the Island of Rockall Act 1972, Rockall. "United Kingdom" means Great Britain and Northern Ireland and their adjacent territorial waters, but not the Isle of Man, nor the Channel Islands, whose independent status was discussed in "Rover International Ltd. v Canon Film Sales Ltd." (1987) 1 WLR 1597 and "Chloride Industrial Batteries Ltd. v F. & W. Freight Ltd." (1989) 1 WLR 823. "British Islands"but not "British Isles"means the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. |
3bqu611vfpkxxaesycw5bc74r3r996 | CHAPTER TWENTY.
HAROLD APPEARS IN A NEW CHARACTER, AND TWO OLD CHARACTERS REAPPEAR TO HAROLD.
The mind of Yambo was a strange compound--a curious mixture of gravity and rollicking joviality; at one time displaying a phase of intense solemnity; at another exhibiting quiet pleasantry and humour, but earnestness was the prevailing trait of his character. Whether indulging his passionate fondness for the jumping-jack, or engaged in guiding the deliberations of his counsellors, the earnest chief was equally devoted to the work in hand. Being a savage--and, consequently, led entirely by feeling, which is perhaps the chief characteristic of savage, as distinguished from civilised, man,--he hated his enemies with exceeding bitterness, and loved his friends with all his heart.
Yambo was very tender to Harold during his illness, and the latter felt corresponding gratitude, so that there sprang up between the two a closer friendship than one could have supposed to be possible, considering that they were so different from each other, mentally, physically, and socially, and that their only mode of exchanging ideas was through the medium of a very incompetent interpreter.
Among other things Harold discovered that his friend the chief was extremely fond of anecdotes and stories. He, therefore, while in a convalescent state and unable for much physical exercise, amused himself, and spent much of his time, in narrating to him the adventures of Robinson Crusoe. Yambo's appetite for mental food increased, and when Crusoe's tale was finished he eagerly demanded more. Some of his warriors also came to hear, and at last the hut was unable to contain the audiences that wished to enter. Harold, therefore, removed to an open space under a banyan-tree, and there daily, for several hours, related all the tales and narratives with which he was acquainted, to the hundreds of open-eyed and open-mouthed negroes who squatted around him. |
3z7vu45ipyhuewtayxbb9ure8we1zv | CHAPTER XVIII
I
THOUGH he saw them twice daily, though he knew and amply discussed every detail of their expenditures, yet for weeks together Babbitt was no more conscious of his children than of the buttons on his coat-sleeves.
The admiration of Kenneth Escott made him aware of Verona.
She had become secretary to Mr. Gruensberg of the Gruensberg Leather Company; she did her work with the thoroughness of a mind which reveres details and never quite understands them; but she was one of the people who give an agitating impression of being on the point of doing something desperate--of leaving a job or a husband--without ever doing it. Babbitt was so hopeful about Escott's hesitant ardors that he became the playful parent. When he returned from the Elks he peered coyly into the living-room and gurgled, "Has our Kenny been here to-night?" He never credited Verona's protest, "Why, Ken and I are just good friends, and we only talk about Ideas. I won't have all this sentimental nonsense, that would spoil everything."
It was Ted who most worried Babbitt.
With conditions in Latin and English but with a triumphant record in manual training, basket-ball, and the organization of dances, Ted was struggling through his Senior year in the East Side High School. At home he was interested only when he was asked to trace some subtle ill in the ignition system of the car. He repeated to his tut-tutting father that he did not wish to go to college or law-school, and Babbitt was equally disturbed by this "shiftlessness" and by Ted's relations with Eunice Littlefield, next door. |
3jwh6j9i9sd1a5xjx6t6kjxekp0nbc | (CNN) -- Ecuador international Christian Benitez, the top scorer in the Mexican league last season, has died suddenly at the age of 27.
The striker popularly known as 'Chucho' passed away in the Qatari capital Doha, one day after playing his first game for new side El Jaish.
Having played at the 2006 World Cup as a youngster, Benitez had developed into an important component of an Ecuadorian side bidding to reach next year's finals in Brazil.
His 24 international goals make him the third highest scorer overall for Ecuador's national team.
Jose Chamorro, the player's agent, told an Ecuadorian television station that Benitez had suffered a heart attack and died in hospital, where he had been taken after complaining of abdominal pains.
Manchester United star Antonio Valencia, an international colleague of Benitez who played with the striker at leading Ecuadorian side El Nacional a decade ago, was among those struggling to come to terms with the loss.
"This pain (is) very strong my brother but we love you," the winger wrote on Twitter, where he also posted several pictures of the diminutive forward.
Despite being a footballer who failed to hit the heights in Europe, news of Benitez's death trended on Twitter.
Ecuador's interior minister Jose Serrano was among those who took to the micro-blogging site to comment, writing: "Dear Chucho, thank you for your goals and your happiness."
Sunderland's Craig Gardner, who played with Benitez at Birmingham City between 2009 and 2010, was also moved to comment.
"Can't believe Christian Benitez has died," Gardner wrote. "I had the pleasure to play with him. He was a top bloke. My thoughts go out to his family." |
3i7dhkzygn0nxx3ty8jg9sod85df5n | The West Indies or Caribbean Basin is a region of the North Atlantic Ocean in the Caribbean that includes the island countries and surrounding waters of three major archipelagoes: the Greater Antilles, the Lesser Antilles and the Lucayan Archipelago.
The region is known as the area running from Florida westward along the Gulf Coast, and then south along the Mexican coast through Central America and then eastward across the northern coast of South America.
Bermuda is also included within the region even though it is in the west-central Atlantic, due to its common cultural history created by European colonization of the region, and in most of the region by the presence of a significant group of African descent.
Indigenous peoples were the first inhabitants of the West Indies. In 1492, Christopher Columbus became the first European to arrive at the islands, where he is believed by historians to have first stepped foot in the Bahamas. After the first of the voyages of Christopher Columbus to the Americas, Europeans began to use the term "West Indies" to distinguish the region from the East Indies of South Asia and Southeast Asia.
In the late sixteenth century, French, English and Dutch merchants and privateers began their operations in the Caribbean Sea, attacking Spanish and Portuguese shipping and coastal areas. They often took refuge and refitted their ships in the areas the Spanish could not conquer, including the islands of the Lesser Antilles, the northern coast of South America including the mouth of the Orinoco, and the Atlantic Coast of Central America. In the Lesser Antilles they managed to establish a foothold following the colonization of St Kitts in 1624 and Barbados in 1626, and when the Sugar Revolution took off in the mid-seventeenth century, they brought in thousands of Africans to work the fields and mills as slave laborers. These Africans wrought a demographic revolution, replacing or joining with either the indigenous Caribs or the European settlers who were there as indentured servants. |
3vj40nv2qinjocrcy7k4z235g8cott | Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and is coterminous with the U.S. Census Bureau-census-designated place of Arlington, which is the second-largest principal city of the Washington metropolitan area. As a result, the county is often referred to in the region simply as "Arlington" or "Arlington, Virginia". In 2016, the county's population was estimated at 230,050, making it the sixth-largest county in Virginia, or the fourth-largest city if it were incorporated as such. It is the highest-income county in the United States by median family income, and has the highest concentration of singles in the region. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from Washington, D.C., of which it was briefly a part. With a land area of , Arlington is the geographically smallest self-governing county in the United States, and by reason of state law regarding population density, has no incorporated towns within its borders. Due to the county's proximity to downtown Washington, D.C., Arlington is home to many important installations for the capital region and US government, including the Pentagon, Reagan National Airport, and Arlington National Cemetery. Many schools and universities have campuses in Arlington, most prominently the Antonin Scalia Law School of George Mason University. |
3137onmdkg5t7gshkti1v7u2l5bge6 | There was a big race in town. Stephanie and Sarah were friends. Stephanie was faster than Sarah. On the day of the race, they wished each other good luck. Sarah tripped on a rock during the race. She cried but another one of her friends, Matt, helped her stand up. Stephanie cheered for her to finish after she crossed the line.
On the next day Sarah came into school with a bruise on her knee. Jane thought she looked silly. They were in the same class. Jane did not make fun of Sarah. She gave her a bandage instead. It had a cat on it to match Sarah's shirt.
Sarah was still unhappy. She would not eat her lunch or play at recess. When Stephanie tried to talk to her she frowned. Then Stephanie gave Sarah a bunny toy that she liked. Sarah smiled. She gave Stephanie a hug. |
3570y55xzpjrdl98kuuv2ami3mvygs | On a hot summer day, Brian was walking home from the park. While walking, Brian passed his favorite toy store, and saw that they had a new baseball glove in the window. Brian's baseball glove was very old and was ripped in a few places. Brian really wanted the new glove because he wanted to show off his glove to his friends tomorrow. The cost of the new glove was fifteen dollars, but when Brian checked his pockets for money, he only had six dollars and fifty cents. Brian ran home and went to look around his house for money. He checked under his bed and found fifty cents under some toys. He then checked all of his pockets of his pants and shorts, and found another two dollars. Brian then went to look between the cushions on all of the couches in his house, and he found another three dollars. After finally looking around his whole house, Brian knew that he still did not have enough money to buy the new glove. Brian went outside and saw his dad doing yard work. He told his dad that he would finish all the yard work for him, if he could have the money he needed for the new glove. His dad said yes, so Brian spent the rest of the afternoon raking the yard, and bagging leaves. Brian's dad was very proud that his son was working hard for money. When Brian was finally done, Brian knew that he was too late, and the toy store was closed. Just as Brian was walking inside, he saw his dad walk up to home holding the new glove that he wanted. Brian was so happy, and he and his dad spent the rest of the afternoon having a catch. |
3h8dhmccw9bthwa0epswnh4as88dkq | CHAPTER XVII
"Well!"
Reist unfastened his sword. The State uniform of the Thetian Guards was cumbersome, and the day was hot.
"Let Basil bring me wine," he ordered. "The cathedral was a furnace. Everywhere the air seems hot with the shouting of the people."
"Up here," Marie said, "the clamour of voices has seemed incessant. I have never heard anything like it."
He walked up and down moodily. He was not sure whether the day had gone according to his liking. All the time her eyes questioned him.
"One thing," he declared, "is certain. Never again will a republic exist in Theos. Two generations of _roués_ and madmen have not sickened this people of the House of Tyrnaus. Their loyalty is amazing."
"This man," she said, "is neither _roué_ nor madman."
"It is true," he admitted.
He drank his wine, and as he set the glass down he felt her watching him. He understood the unspoken question in her deep, blue eyes.
"Of his betrothal," Reist said, slowly, "there was no word."
She drew herself up haughtily, a slim, stately figure in her magnificent white dress, caught up with jewels, and the curious bejewelled head-dress which in Theos was the symbol of her rank. Yet Nicholas, who watched her closely, caught the gleam of something in her eyes which surprised him. It was more like relief than anger.
"Was our ancient usage explained to him?" she asked.
"Yes! I told him that an unmarried king was contrary to the time-sanctioned custom of our country. I told him that the announcement of his betrothal should be made at the moment of his coronation. The people expected it, and it would add immensely to his popularity." |
3hrmw88u16qu8099nphhnncvotgm08 | Einstein's connection with the politics of the nuclear bomb is well known: He signed the letter to President Franklin Roosevelt that persuaded the United States to take the idea seriously, and he engaged in postwar efforts to prevent nuclear war. But these were not just the isolated actions of a scientist dragged into the world of politics. Einstein's life was, in fact, "divided between politics and equations ."
Sickened by what he saw as the waste of human lives during the First World War, he became involved in antiwar demonstrations. His support of civil disobedience did little to endear him to his colleagues. Then, following the war, he directed his efforts toward reconciliation and improving international relations. And soon his politics were making it difficult for him to visit the United States, even to give lectures.
Einstein's second great cause was Zionism . Although he was Jewish, Einstein rejected the idea of God. However, a growing awareness of anti-Semitism , both before and during the War, led him gradually to identify with the Jewish community, and later to become an outspoken supporter of Zionism.
His theories came under attack. One man was accused of motivating others to murder Einstein and fined a mere six dollars. When a book was published entitled 100 Authors Against Einstein, he retorted, "If I were wrong, then one would have been enough!" When Hitler came to power, Einstein then in America declared he would not return to Germany. While Nazi attacked his house and confiscated his bank account, a Berlin newspaper displayed the headline "Good News from Einstein--He's Not Coming Back."
Fearing that German scientists would build a nuclear bomb, Einstein proposed that the United States should develop its own. But he was publicly warning of the dangers of nuclear war and proposing international control of nuclear weaponry. Throughout his life, Einstein's efforts toward peace probably achieved little and won him few friends. His support of the Zionist cause, however, was recognized in 1952, when he was offered the presidency of Israel. He declined, saying he was too naive in politics. But perhaps his real reason was different:" Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity." |
34s9dkfk73pxndqu7y7qsuvf4o1nyp | Michael and Derek are good friends, but they like to pull each other's leg sometimes. One day during the holidays they decided to go to London together. They went to the station and bought their tickets. When the train came in, Michael broaden in first and without knowing it, dropped his ticket in the platform as he got into the carriage . Derek, who was close behind saw the ticket fall and quickly picked it up. Without a word to his friend, he put it in his pocket. After they had been in the train a little while, they heard the ticket inspector coming down the corridor, shouting, "tickets, please!" Michael looked for his and of course couldn't find it. "Oh, dear, I can't find my ticket, Derek," he said. "Have another look, Michael, it must be somewhere," said Derek. "No, I can't find it anywhere. What shall I do?" "Perhaps you had better hide under the seat, then the inspector won't know you are here." So Michael crawled under the seat as fast as he could and lay perfectly still. Presently the door opened and in came the inspector, "Tickers please!" he said. Derek handed him two tickets and said, "This is mine. The other belongs to my friend, who prefers to travel under the seat." |
3x4mxao0bgoed6nml46jghf9ugkrwi | The company originated in 1911 as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) through the consolidation of The Tabulating Machine Company, the International Time Recording Company, the Computing Scale Company and the Bundy Manufacturing Company. CTR was renamed "International Business Machines" in 1924, a name which Thomas J. Watson first used for a CTR Canadian subsidiary. The initialism IBM followed. Securities analysts nicknamed the company Big Blue for its size and common use of the color in products, packaging and its logo.
In 2012, Fortune ranked IBM the second largest U.S. firm in terms of number of employees (435,000 worldwide), the fourth largest in terms of market capitalization, the ninth most profitable, and the nineteenth largest firm in terms of revenue. Globally, the company was ranked the 31st largest in terms of revenue by Forbes for 2011. Other rankings for 2011/2012 include №1 company for leaders (Fortune), №1 green company in the United States (Newsweek), №2 best global brand (Interbrand), №2 most respected company (Barron's), №5 most admired company (Fortune), and №18 most innovative company (Fast Company). |
3x4mxao0bgoed6nml46jghf9ul3wrg | Charlie woke up from his nap. He had finished eating all the delicious food on the table that Samantha had made for him and he was tired. With a laugh, Charlie looked at the green balloon that his daughter Samantha had put over his head to float. Bobo the dog walked into the room where Charlie was sitting and made a noise. Bobo barked. \tabCharlie looked at Bobo and smiled, and then grabbed his brown hat from the table. Next to his hat there was a picture of a rainbow that Samantha had drawn for Charlie. It was a pretty rainbow. Chelsea the cat walked in on Bobo with his barking and Charlie with his hat in hand and then meowed. Chelsea and Bobo looked at each other. Charlie, seeing the two looking at each other, made the choice that enough was enough and opened the door to walk outside. Samantha was standing outside the house on the lawn, and with a yell, she surprised Charlie! With a wave of her hand, she showed him the duck that she was watching. Samantha gave the duck the name Wilfred, and Charlie was pleased. He and Samantha watched Wilfred walk away and they saw a real rainbow in the distance. It was a beautiful start to the day. Bluebird the blue bird was flying high in the sky, and Charlie smiled. In the distance, he saw a white airplane. |
3r2pkq87nw85fvqprf6ntrcr9f4imp | Jay Kohl, an American student, posted an online advertisement two weeks ago searching for a Chinese family to stay with so that he can learn the language and culture. "I'm a clean, non-smoking, and warm-hearted American man looking for a homestay in the Wudaokou area to improve my Chinese language skills," he wrote. "I'm willing to offer help with English tutoring and even can help you with applying for foreign universities." He still hasn't found a suitable home. "Most of the families that contacted me seem to be interested in doing business instead of cultural exchange," he said. "I think I might have to rent an apartment in the end." Kohl isn't the only foreigner finding it difficult to find a homestay in Beijing. Michael Benson, who wants to come to Beijing in September, has also faced the same problem. Why is finding a homestay family so difficult? Beijing Today _ a Chinese teacher, Jessie Xi, who has been teaching foreign students at the University of International Business and Economics for more than six years. Xi has accepted many homestays, and from her own experience and what she's been told, she said there were four major problems visitors may meet when applying for homestays. Problem 1:Having too high expectation for language improvement. Problem 2: Considering oneself as a guest instead of a family member. Problem 3: Not making clear what a family's rules are beforehand. Problem 4; Overly high demands for the living environment. |
3ranct1zvfhe5vhsu75syep8sssubo | CHAPTER III
JERNYNGHAM MAKES A DECISION
Prescott's guests had spent a week at his homestead with content when Colston and his wife sat talking one morning.
"I'm frankly puzzled," said Colston, opening his cigar case; "I can't make Cyril out. He's frugal, remarkably industrious--I think the description's warranted--and, from all that one can gather, as steady as a rock. This, of course, is gratifying, but it's by no means what I expected."
"He certainly doesn't fit in with the picture his sister Gertrude drew me, though she conveyed the impression that she was softening things down. There can be no doubt that he was wild. That might, perhaps, be forgiven, but one or two of the stories I've heard about him filled me with disgust."
Her husband looked thoughtful. He had not noticed that Muriel was sitting just outside the open window, though Mrs. Colston, being in a different position, had done so. She thought their voices would reach the girl, and if anything strongly in Cyril's disfavor cropped up during the conversation it might be as well that she should hear it. Mrs. Colston was willing that he should be reconciled to his relatives, but a reformed rake was not the kind of man to whom she wished her sister to be attracted. One could not tell whether the reformation would prove permanent.
"After all, I never heard any really serious offense proved against him," Colston rejoined. "It's sometimes easy to acquire a reputation without doing anything in particular to deserve it. People are apt to jump at conclusions." |
34pgfrqonobxfi49dzxaeqtilb5jwm | Eurasia is a combined continental landmass of Europe and Asia. The term is a portmanteau of its constituent continents (Europe & Asia). Located primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Pacific Ocean to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and by Africa, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Indian Ocean to the south. The division between Europe and Asia as two different continents is a historical social construct, with no clear physical separation between them; thus, in some parts of the world, Eurasia is recognized as the largest of five or six continents. In geology, Eurasia is often considered as a single rigid megablock. However, the rigidity of Eurasia is debated based on the paleomagnet data.
Eurasia covers around , or around 36.2% of the Earth's total land area. The landmass contains around 5.0 billion people, equating to approximately 70% of the human population. Humans first settled in Eurasia between 60,000 and 125,000 years ago. Some major islands, including Great Britain, Iceland, and Ireland, and those of Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia, are often included under the popular definition of Eurasia, in spite of being separate from the massive landmass. |
33fbrbdw6ozzh32l540id6d1dis8cd | POTTSVILLE, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- A fomer Pennsylvania high school football player was acquitted of murder Friday in the beating death of a Mexican immigrant last summer.
Luis Ramirez died of blunt force injuries after a confrontation with a group of Pennsylania teens.
However, a Schuylkill County jury found Brandon Piekarsky and Derrick Donchak guilty of simple assault stemming from the death of Luis Ramirez, who died of blunt force injuries to the head after a fight with the defendants and their friends.
Donchak, 19, was also found guilty of providing alcohol to the group of teens that encountered Ramirez the night of July 12 on a residential street in the rural mining town of Shenandoah.
Both teens were acquitted of ethnic intimidation charges.
Prosecutors alleged the teens baited the undocumented Mexican immigrant into a fight with racial epithets, provoking an exchange of punches and kicks that ended with Ramirez convulsing in the street, foaming from the mouth.
He died two days later in a hospital in Danville.
Piekarsky, 17, had faced a charge of third-degree murder for allegedly delivering a fatal kick to Ramirez's head after he was knocked to the ground. He also was found not guilty of ethnic intimidation, aggravated assault and attempting to solicit a cover-up.
An all-white jury of six men and six women heard from several prosecution witnesses, including a juvenile co-defendant and another teen who pleaded guilty in federal court for his role in the fight.
While the jury heard conflicting accounts about who initiated the encounter or delivered the final kick to Ramirez's head, defense lawyers attempted to place the blame on another co-defendant, who is facing charges in juvenile court, and Colin Walsh, who has pleaded guilty to violating Ramirez's civil rights. |
39gaf6dqwr0d5co0x0m8ooeiknk1vb | An American called Simon goes to London to see his friend, Rick. Rick tells him that his flat is on the first floor. When he gets there, Simon goes straight to the first floor of the building. But people there tells him that there is no Rick on that floor. Do you know why? In fact, English people call the first floor of a building the ground floor. The floor above the ground floor is the first floor, but Americans call it the second floor. The story shows that there are a few culture differences between English and America, though they both speak English. English people usually hide their feelings. They seldom start a dialogue with strangers . For example, on the train they often spend their time reading newspapers or books. But Americans are quite different. They're more active and easier to talk with. English people and Americans use different _ for many things. English people usually use football, eraser and mail, but Americans use soccer, rubber and post. |
35gmh2sv3ehhzt9f8cv90g34cmboe0 | When Brody Roybal was a baby, he didn't have legs. But that didn't make him feel sad or stop him from trying sports. He tried different kinds of sports. When he tried sled hockey at the age of 7, he loved it. " That was it," says Roybal. He is now 15 and a student in a high school in Chicago. " It's all I wanted to do." Roybal joined a sled hockey team. At the age of 12, he started playing in an adult team. It was much harder for him, but he still worked hard. Now Roybal is a player of the sled hockey team in his country. O' Connor, manager of the team, says Roybal is very good. " Everybody dreams of going to the Olympic Games and winning the game," O' Connor says. " That's something that I couldn't do, but Roybal can. He is lucky and he can go to the next Olympics." It's true that when God closes a door, he opens a window for you. |
3nlzy2d53ppyqbwn4bah2goo1xlqlf | In mathematics, a plane is a flat, two-dimensional surface that extends infinitely far. A plane is the two-dimensional analogue of a point (zero dimensions), a line (one dimension) and three-dimensional space. Planes can arise as subspaces of some higher-dimensional space, as with a room's walls extended infinitely far, or they may enjoy an independent existence in their own right, as in the setting of Euclidean geometry.
When working exclusively in two-dimensional Euclidean space, the definite article is used, so, "the" plane refers to the whole space. Many fundamental tasks in mathematics, geometry, trigonometry, graph theory, and graphing are performed in a two-dimensional space, or, in other words, in the plane.
Euclid set forth the first great landmark of mathematical thought, an axiomatic treatment of geometry. He selected a small core of undefined terms (called "common notions") and postulates (or axioms) which he then used to prove various geometrical statements. Although the plane in its modern sense is not directly given a definition anywhere in the "Elements", it may be thought of as part of the common notions. Euclid never used numbers to measure length, angle, or area. In this way the Euclidean plane is not quite the same as the Cartesian plane. |
3jrjswsmqhlsd4gtpebhcd5ti3ue3r | In 1883. John Roebling was inspired by an idea to build a spectacular bridge connecting New York with the Long Island. However, bridge building experts throughout the world thought this was an impossible feat and told Roebling to forget the idea, but Roebling could not ignore the vision he had in his mind of this bridge. After much discussion and persuasion he managed to convince his son Washington, an up and coming engineer, that the bridge in fact could be built.
The project started well, but when it was only a few months underway a tragic accident on the site took the life of John Roebling. Washington was injured and left with a certain amount of brain damage, which resulted in him not being able to walk or talk or even move.
"We told them so." "Crazy men and their crazy dreams.'' "It's foolish to chase wild visions." Evcryone had a negative comment to make and felt that the project should be scrapped since the Roeblings were the only ones who knew how the bridge could be built. In spite of his handicap, Washington was never discouraged.
One day he was lying on his bed in hospital, seeing the sky and the tops of the trees outside for just a moment with the sunlight streaming through the windows, and a gentle breeze bowing the flimsy white curtains apart when an idea hit him. He decided to make the best use of the only finger he could move. Thus, he slowly developed a code of communication with his wife.
He touched his wife's arm with that finger, indicating to her that he wanted her to call the engineers again. Then he used the same method of tapping her arm to tell the engineers what to do. It seemed foolish but the project was under way again.
For 13 years Washington tapped out his instructions with his finger on his wife's arm until the bridge was finally completed. |
35ldd5557a4wlqgdrirz67r41lekmr | (CNN) -- Cristiano Ronaldo provided the perfect riposte to FIFA president Sepp Blatter after scoring a hat-trick as Real Madrid beat Sevilla 7-3 on a night when Gareth Bale grabbed his first goals at the Bernabeu.
Days after Blatter had made a bizarre impersonation of the Portuguese while saying the star spent "a lot of money at the hairdressers", the 28-year-old scored his third career hat-trick against Sevilla to go top of the scoring charts in Spain with 11 goals.
He celebrated his first goal from the penalty spot with a military salute in a mocking response to Blatter's description of him as a "commander" last week.
The absorbing victory also allowed Real to put Saturday's defeat by Barcelona behind them, not just because of the three points but also because Bale, the most expensive footballer in history, began to repay some of his fee.
Making his first start as a home player at the legendary Bernabeu, the Welshman scored twice, made another two and also managed to complete his first 90 minutes in his seventh appearance for Madrid.
Despite Bale's largely anonymous display at Camp Nou, which was blamed on a lack of match practice, Real coach Carlo Ancelotti was wholly vindicated by his decision to keep faith in the 24-year-old, who curled home a fine opener before a free-kick was deflected in as he handed Real a 2-0 lead.
On a satisfying night for the hosts, for whom substitute Xabi Alonso made his first appearance of the season after injury, Karim Benzema also grabbed a brace as Real moved up to third in the table, six points behind Barca. |
3ejjqnku9r5wggsxq5kjfe5mfszhr0 | CHAPTER XXX
A WAY TO FORGET
The faces of the group, as Uncle John finished reading, were worth studying. Arthur Weldon was white with anger, and his eyes blazed. Silas Watson stared blankly at his old friend, wondering if it was because he was growing old that he had been so easily hoodwinked by this saucy child. Beth was biting her lip to keep back the tears of humiliation that longed to trickle down her cheeks. Louise frowned because she remembered the hard things Tato had said of her. Patsy was softly crying at the loss of her friend.
Then Kenneth laughed, and the sound sent a nervous shiver through the group.
"Tato's a brick!" announced the boy, audaciously. "Can't you see, you stupids, that the thing is a good joke on us all? Or are you too thin skinned to laugh at your own expense?"
"Oh, we can laugh," responded Uncle John, gravely. "But if Tato's a brick it's because she is hard and insensible. The loss of the money doesn't hurt me, but to think the wicked little lass made me love her when she didn't deserve it is the hardest blow I have ever received."
That made Patsy sob outright, while Louise ejaculated, with scorn: "The little wretch!"
"It serves us right for having confidence in a child reared to crime and murder from the cradle," said Arthur, rather savagely. "I don't know how much money I am worth, but I'd gladly spend another thirty thousand to bring this wretched creature to justice." |
3hmvi3qicjsu96j52b9svnic1qwy1y | CHAPTER I
ON THE HOUSEBOAT
"Say, Tom, what's that big thing coming down the river?"
"I'm sure I don't know, Sam. It's big enough to be a house." replied Tom Rover.
"Maybe it is a house," came from Dick Rover, who was standing beside his brothers on the rear deck of the houseboat which was taking them down the Mississippi River.
"A house?" broke in a distinctly German voice. "Did you mean to said dere vos a house floating der rifer town, Dick Rofer?"
"Why not, Hansy, my boy?" replied fun-loving Tom Rover, before his big brother could answer. "Hasn't a house got a right to take a float if it wants to? Perhaps it's out for its health."
"Ach, you vos choking, Tom!" cried Hans Mueller. "Of a house been der rifer on, dere peen somedings wrong mit him alretty."
"It's a lumber raft, Hans," said Dick. "And a whopping big one, too," he added, as he took another look at the object that was approaching the houseboat.
"Hope it doesn't give us such a close shave as that raft we met two days ago," said Sam anxiously. "I was almost certain they were going to run into us."
"They have got no business to run so close to this houseboat," grumbled Tom. "They know well enough that we can't turn out of our course very well. I think some of those lumbermen are the toughest kind of citizens."
"If they get too close, I'll shout a warning through the megaphone," went on Dick, after a brief pause. "It certainly does look as if they intended to crowd us," he continued anxiously. |
3018q3zvoiqh6tkjkzarysii37narh | The incumbent is the current holder of a political office. This term is usually used in reference to elections, in which races can often be defined as being between an incumbent and non-incumbent(s). For example, in the 2012 United States presidential election, Barack Obama was the incumbent, because he had been the president in the previous term while the election sought to determine the president for the current term. A race without an incumbent is referred to as an open seat.
The word "incumbent" is derived from the Latin verb "incumbere", literally meaning "to lean or lay upon" with the present participle stem "incumbent-", "leaning a variant of "encumber," while encumber is derived from the root "cumber", most appropriately defined: "To occupy obstructively or inconveniently; to block fill up with what hinders freedom of motion or action; to burden, load."
In general, incumbents have structural advantages over challengers during elections. The timing of elections may be determined by the incumbent instead of a set schedule. For most political offices, the incumbent often has more name recognition due to their previous work in the office. Incumbents also have easier access to campaign finance, as well as government resources (such as the franking privilege) that can be indirectly used to boost a campaign. An election (especially for a legislature) in which no incumbent is running is often called an "open seat"; because of the lack of incumbency advantage, these are often amongst the most hotly contested races in any election. |
339ansotr52ap7qm63t7eeknlpfikl | CHAPTER XLV
Law Business in London
On the Monday morning at six o'clock, Mr Oriel and Frank started together; but early as it was, Beatrice was up to give them a cup of coffee, Mr Oriel having slept that night in the house. Whether Frank would have received his coffee from his sister's fair hands had not Mr Oriel been there, may be doubted. He, however, loudly asserted that he should not have done so, when she laid claim to great merit for rising in his behalf.
Mr Oriel had been specially instigated by Lady Arabella to use the opportunity of their joint journey, for pointing out to Frank the iniquity as well as madness of the course he was pursuing; and he had promised to obey her ladyship's behests. But Mr Oriel was perhaps not an enterprising man, and was certainly not a presumptuous one. He did intend to do as he was bid; but when he began, with the object of leading up to the subject of Frank's engagement, he always softened down into some much easier enthusiasm in the matter of his own engagement with Beatrice. He had not that perspicuous, but not over-sensitive strength of mind which had enabled Harry Baker to express his opinion out at once; and boldly as he did it, yet to do so without offence.
Four times before the train arrived in London, he made some little attempt; but four times he failed. As the subject was matrimony, it was his easiest course to begin about himself; but he never could get any further. |
32n49tqg3gi9z010tjf1zp7ln2ivaq | A senior Palestinian Authority official died Wednesday after a confrontation with Israeli troops, prompting President Mahmoud Abbas to halt security coordination with Israel, according to Palestinian officials.
Ziyad Abu Ein died after clashes with Israeli soldiers midday Wednesday in the Palestinian village of Turmusaya, which is northeast of the West Bank city of Ramallah, longtime chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said in a statement. Abu Ein -- a minister in Abbas' Fatah party and head of the Committee to Resist the Wall and Settlements -- was there participating in nonviolent demonstrations to mark international Human Rights Day, according to Erakat's statement.
There were varying reports of exactly how Abu Ein died, including what role -- if any -- Israeli authorities played in it.
Pictures from various news agencies depict an Israeli soldier with his hands to Abu Ein's neck, followed by another showing him on the ground. The official Palestinian news agency WAFA, meanwhile, reported that the Palestinian official lost consciousness after he inhaled tear gas and an Israeli soldier hit him in the chest.
"The Israeli soldiers called Abu Ein by name and seemed to be focused on him," witness Kamal Abu Safaka told CNN. "There was a lot of pushing, kicking and punching by the soldiers. ... When Abu Ein tried to intercede, they hit him on the chest with a rifle butt and grabbed him by the throat and pushed him back and then threw a large amount of tear gas and stun grenades."
Dr. Ahmed Bitawi, the director of the Ramallah hospital that inspected Abu Ein's body, said he died from asphyxiation after choking on vomit brought on by tear gas inhalation. |
3jnqlm5ft4mhysu220kg6yqllry2l4 | CHAPTER 41
A stranger's roof to hold thy head, A stranger's foot thy grave to tread; Desert and rock, and Alp and sea, Spreading between thy home and thee. --SEWELL
Mary Ross was eager for the first report from Hollywell the next morning, and had some difficulty in keeping her attention fixed on her class at school. Laura and Charlotte came in together in due time, and satisfied her so far as to tell her that Amy was very well.
'Is Captain Morville come?' thought Mary. 'No, I cannot guess by Laura's impressive face. Never mind, Charles will tell me all between services.'
The first thing she saw on coming out of school was the pony carriage, with Charles and Captain Morville himself. Charlotte, who was all excitement, had time to say, while her sister was out of hearing,--
'It is all made up now, Mary, and I really am very sorry for Philip.'
It was fortunate that Mary understood the amiable meaning this speech was intended to convey, and she began to enter into its grounds in the short conference after church, when she saw the alteration in the whole expression of countenance.
'Yes,' said Charles, who as usual remained at the vicarage during the two services, and who perceived what passed in her mind, 'if it is any satisfaction to you to have a good opinion of your fellow-sponsor, I assure you that I am converted to Amy's opinion. I do believe the black dog is off his back for good and all.' |
3m23y66po27sk68t9btk8xlstsjs64 | The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak , is a passenger railroad service that provides medium- and long-distance intercity service in the contiguous United States. Founded in 1971 to take over most of the remaining U.S. passenger rail services, it is partially government funded yet operated and managed as a for-profit corporation.
Amtrak serves more than 500 destinations in 46 states and three Canadian provinces, operating more than 300 trains each day over of track. Some track sections allow trains to run as fast as .
In fiscal year 2015, Amtrak served 30.8 million passengers and had $2.185 billion in revenue, while employing more than 20,000 people. Nearly two-thirds of passengers come from the 10 largest metropolitan areas; 83% of passengers travel on routes shorter than . Its headquarters is at Union Station in Washington, D.C.
The name "Amtrak" is a portmanteau of the words "America" and "trak", the latter itself a sensational spelling of "track".
In 1916 98% of all commercial intercity travelers in the United States moved by rail; the remaining 2% moved by inland waterways. Passenger traffic on the railroads totaled 42 billion passenger-miles. Passenger trains were owned and operated by the same privately owned companies that operated freight trains. Thereafter patronage declined in the face of competition from buses, air travel, and the automobile. New streamlined diesel-powered trains such as the "Pioneer Zephyr" were popular with the traveling public but could not reverse the trend. By 1940 railroads held just 67 percent of commercial passenger-miles in the United States. In real terms, passenger-miles had fallen by 40% since 1916, from 42 billion to 25 billion. |
3ijxv6uz1xjwcb3hwn24fq61favirl | When reindeer are done with the holiday season, people often wonder what they do during their time off. Well, reindeer are pretty good at taking a vacation during down time. Reindeer of any age are always in a hurry for their own holidays!
Rudolph is the most famous reindeer, and he has been known to ride foam noodles in the pool. He loves to get wet and splash around! Comet has a more quiet time during his vacation. You'll often see him looking in the fridge for his favorite cooking ingredient, cheese. He is a great cook and likes to make cheese pizza. Cupid is pretty good at reindeer games, and he is always on the winning team during vacation time. He is always signing up for games all summer long. Donner loves to fly and ride the wind, even in his off time. He is always practicing. That's why he is the best at flying.
So, that's what some of the reindeer do in their time off. If you happen to see any reindeer doing funny things, they are on vacation! |
39owyr0epkrlzldd9aodkpm637ofy4 | (CNN)It was in a New York cab. That's when Grammy Award-winning signer Angelique Kidjo realized the extent that "fear-bola" had spread.
"The driver just asked, 'where are you from?' Of course I have an accent, and I'm not going to hide the fact that I'm from West Africa. Then he said, 'Ebola', and I said, 'do I LOOK like I have Ebola?'"
Later, when announcing her recently wrapped up Carnegie Hall tribute to South African singer Miriam Makeba, aka, Mama Africa, the trolls came out again.
"It should be Mama Ebola," one wrote, and "I wonder if she is bringing any Ebloa (sic) with her?" chimed in another.
"Until that point, I felt the hysteria of it, but I kept saying to myself, 'it's just the media.' Then it comes to you direct."
Overall, she's not been impressed with how the Western media has covered the epidemic. In her opinion, the current coverage represents a tragically lost opportunity.
"I thought Ebola would bring greater journalism, that they'd write about the need for great nurses and great doctors, or how every human being on this planet has the right to a good healthcare system," she confesses. Clearly, she's been disappointed.
"I hoped they'd show the beauty of the people. But it's much more dramatic and more entertaining to show us dying."
In typical Kidjo fashion, she channeled her outrage into advocacy, and penned a New York Times op-ed. That is how the Benin-born singer-songwriter operates. When something makes her angry, she speaks out. |
38f71oa9gtwl54ozq702quzzuv7mfe | Children's Storybooks and Tales: This site is dedicated to Children's Story Books and how to tell Children's Stories. If you enjoy a child's story or have kids of your own then please browse this site to find some great stories and how to read them.
The Cat in the Hat---Dr. Seuss
In the first book featuring the character (The Cat in the Hat, 1957), the Cat brings chaos to a household of two young children on one rainy day while their mother is out. Bringing with him two creatures appropriately named Thing One and Thing Two, the Cat performs all sorts of tricks to amuse the children, with mixed results. The Cat's tricks are vainly opposed by the family pet, who is a conscious goldfish. The children (Sally and her older brother) finally prove good ones, capturing the Things and bringing the Cat under control. He cleans up the house on his way out, disappearing seconds before the mother comes back.
The Famous Fire---Enid Blyton
The Famous Fire is Enid Blyton's most popular and celebrated series of children's books. The sequence began life in 1942, when the first book, Fire on a Treasure Island was published and it has won great praise from both fans and critics. The series has gone on to become amongst the best-loved stories ever to have been written for children.
Tom and Pippo in the Garden---Helen Oxenbury
In 1988 Helen Oxenbury created a series of books featuring Tom, a naughty young boy, and his beloved stuffed monkey, Pippo. Ms. Oxenbury remarked that Tom was very much like her son "when he was a little boy". Like Tom, her son would often blame his misdeeds on his trusted buddy, the friendly family dog.
The BFG---Roald Dahl
The story is about an orphan girl named Sophie. One night when Sophie cannot sleep during the "witching hour" and sees a giant blowing something into bedroom windows down the street. The giant sees her, and although she tries to hide in the bed, he reaches through the window and carries her away to his home. |
3y9n9ss8lybnly2ttj0x6vn8i0ud3g | When Christie Andrews was born, she weighed less that half of one kilogram. Her heart was the size of a large coin. Her mother said Christie was so small that she could hold her in the palm of one hand. Christie couldn't breathe without a machine to give her oxygen. If she had been born 20 years earlier, she would probably have died at once. She needed two operations, but she survived without serious damage. Twenty years ago , 90% of all premature babies died. Today, doctors manage to save four out of every five, because they have better machines for breathing and better ways to feed the babies. But saving Christie's life cost more than $ 400,000. In some cases, doctors spend 1 million dollars saving a single child. The parents usually don't have enough money to pay. The government, an insurance company or the hospital picks up the bill. Even after a baby goes home from the hospital, it may require medical care. Some people think it makes more sense to spend money saving 10 adults who have cancer or other diseases than saving one small baby. But nobody wants to be the doctor who has to tell parents to their faces, "Sorry, I won't save your new child." |
3m81gab8a0jmd2abdylnodsjpxtqb2 | Since I was a child, I called my father my Kong, after King Kong. I believed that he was just as strong as the giant ape . As he faced death, _ .
Two months after he passed away, my sister called to ask if I would like to go see Lisa Williams, a well-known witch . I was familiar with Lisa from her show on Lifetime, and since I was eager to get a sign from my father, I agreed to go.
I took my father's gold watch and listened as Lisa helped audience members communicate with their loved ones. "I have a grandfather-like figure with me and he is speaking about his granddaughter Jilly," she announced. The audience was quiet; no one raised a hand. I nudged my sister and whispered to her that this was Dad ,for my third child and my father had a deep bond(,) and he called her Jilly.
Although I sensed his presence, I wasn't confident enough to raise my hand. I needed something a bit more concrete, something undoubted.
"This man is letting me know he had cancer," she continued. I nudged my sister harder and assured her this was our father. Lisa went on to say that this person died in June (my father had died June 8th). There was swelling of the legs.
"Important information," she called out. My heart beat fast . I jumped up when she asked, "Who is holding his watch?" I waved the watch in the air.
"He wishes you congratulations." My fourth child was born three weeks after my father died. I was in shock and could not believe I was getting a chance to hear from him, yet I knew our bond was strong enough that he could come to the world. She banged on her chest like an ape and apologized, saying, "I don't know why but he wants me to do this like Tarzan." It didn't resonate with me until my sister called out "King Kong!" I was convinced. No way could this woman have ever known a detail unless Dad was communicating through her.
Each bit of information she gave us was just as meaningful. She ended our session by informing us that he would send us coins. The very next day I found six coins in various places; they seemed to have come out of nowhere. Even in death he is my Kong, and he remains important in my life. |
3os4rqucr9fpmdk2ziatceo5hwffbt | When Graham was a little boy, he really like giraffes. They were his favorite animal to see at the zoo. He liked giraffes more than elephants, pandas, tigers or lions. He dreamed of going to Africa to see giraffes in the wild. He told his family how much he liked them and they made sure he had plenty of books about giraffes. At school, he often wrote his reports about giraffes. He even painted his room with spots to look like a giraffe. When he got older, he went to school to study giraffes and other animals. Finally, during his final year of school, he went to Africa to study giraffes in their home.
While there he met many people who also liked giraffes. He liked seeing how tall the giraffes were. He found that their homes were being destroyed by people using the land. Graham started an organization which raised money to help buy land for the giraffes to live on. Graham used everything he knew about giraffes to teach other people. He gave speeches, wrote books, made signs and sent letters telling people about the giraffes' home being destroyed. |
34bbwhlwhab1k7k3vhca2pei8xsiwn | (CNN) -- He was the soccer referee known as "golden whistle" who officiated in high-profile events such as the World Cup and the Olympics.
But a Chinese court has called fulltime on Lun Ju's career by jailing him for match fixing.
China's state news agency Xinhua reported on Thursday that Lu has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison by a court in Liaoning Province after accepting $128,000 to fix seven matches in China's national league.
Three other officials -- Huang Junjie, Wan Daxue and Zhou Weixin -- were also jailed for seven, six, and three and a half years respectively.
The cases were brought after a government crackdown on persistent allegations of gambling, match fixing and corruption in China's football leagues was launched in 2009.
But it is the fall of Lu that has grabbed the most headlines around the world. He was the first Chinese official to referee at a World Cup, when South Korea and Japan hosted the showpiece event in 2002.
Prior to that he had taken charge of matches at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and was twice voted referee of the year by the Asian Football Confederation.
But the court in the city of Dandong, near the border with North Korea, found that Lu had altered the outcome of seven games that involved four clubs including Shanghai Shenhua, who have just signed former France striker Nicolas Anelka from English club Chelsea.
Huang was convicted of accepting $247,975 from seven separate cases while $31,760 of his personal assets were also confiscated. |
3jcg6dtrv3q9h8c0wgidj2niashqqq | (CNN) -- Three people have been charged in last year's theft of the famous "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign at the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, a prosecutor said Friday.
The prosecutor, Robert Parys, said he could not immediately confirm details about those charged, but Poland's official PAP news agency reported the main suspect is a Swedish man, Anders Hoegstroem.
Prosecutors say Hoegstroem incited two Poles to steal the sign, which sat atop the entrance to the camp, PAP reported. He pleaded not guilty, and would face a sentence of 10 years in prison if convicted, the news agency reported.
Hoegstroem was arrested in February in Stockholm, Sweden, and the Swedish court allowed him to be transferred to Poland in April, PAP said.
The sign reading "Arbeit Macht Frei" -- German for "Work Sets You Free" -- was emblematic of the Nazi camps of World War II. It was stolen in December of last year, prompting outrage around the world.
The sign was found 70 hours later in a village near Torun, roughly 210 miles (340 kilometers) to the north, and had been chopped into three parts, PAP reported.
The men managed to remove the heavy iron sign by unscrewing it from one side and pulling off on the other, police spokeswoman Agnieszka Szczygiel said at the time.
More than 1 million people died in gas chambers or were starved to death in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp complex; about 90 percent of the victims were Jews.
|
3md9plukkiexs30z3k99614hbvanzc | (CNN) -- Newcastle's 16-year stay in the English Premier League has come to an end as a Damien Duff own goal saw them lose 1-0 at Aston Villa.
Newcastle players react after Damien Duff's own goal sees them relegated from the Premier League.
Duff deflected a 38th-minute shot from Gareth Barry past his own keeper Steve Harper to seal Newcastle's fate.
Newcastle's misery was complete when defender David Edgar was sent off for a late challenge on England winger Ashley Young.
The result meant Magpies legend Alan Shearer failed to work the miracle he was brought in to try and achieve with eight games remaining.
Newcastle will be joined in the Championship by Middlesbrough, who were beaten 2-1 at West Ham and West Bromwich Albion, whose relegation was already confirmed prior to Sunday's final matches.
Both Hull and Sunderland survived the drop, despite both also losing their final matches.
Hull were beaten 1-0 at home by a second-string Manchester United side, while Sunderland lost 3-2 at home to Chelsea in Guus Hiddink's final game in charge of the London side.
Despite escaping relegation, Sunderland manager Ricky Sbragia -- who had only been in charge for five months after Roy Keane's relegation -- announced his decision to resign at the end of their match.
Meanwhile, Newcastle have paid the price for a season of instability ever since Kevin Keegan decided to quit as manager in early September and owner Mike Ashley decided to put the club up for sale.
Joe Kinnear was brought in to try and rescue the situation until his heart problems terminated his involvement and led to former England and Newcastle striker Shearer getting the call. |
3napmvf0zwfij750y6j6nt8kq4d72e | (CNN) -- The family of deceased Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi will file a war crimes complaint against NATO with the International Criminal Court, a lawyer representing the family said Thursday.
Members of the family believe NATO's actions led to Gadhafi's death last week, said Marcel Ceccaldi.
"All of the events that have taken place since February 2011 and the murder of Gadhafi, all of this means we are totally in our right to call upon the International Criminal Court," Ceccaldi, a French attorney, said.
NATO responded that it "conducts its operation in strict conformity with the relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions." In a statement Thursday, a NATO official said, "At no time during Operation Unified Protector has NATO targeted specific individuals."
The ICC had previously issued a warrant for Gadhafi's arrest, accusing him of crimes against humanity.
The ICC still has warrants for the arrest of Gadhafi's son, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, and his brother-in-law Abdullah al-Sanussi.
Questions surround the death of Moammar Gadhafi, who eluded forces loyal to the National Transitional Council for months. Video shows Gadhafi was alive when captured by the opposition.
He died from a shot in the head, officials said, but the circumstances surrounding the shot remain unclear.
The United States said it supports an independent investigation, as called for by the United Nations and by Libya's new leadership.
Ceccaldi said the Gadhafi family's complaint will be filed in the coming days.
"Now we will wait and see if the ICC is a judicial system which is independent and impartial," he added. |
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